See, and here's where I think the point is. WE WANT TO GO INTO SPACE!
Here's an idea: Give every American a choice where they put 100 of the dollars taken by their loving leaders, and choose where it goes. Let's see how well NASA does then.
But I bet if one was to compare the amount of new tech gained from the defense industry VS the amount gained from NASA the defense industry would win hands down.
DARPA has more money than NASA. Of course they're going to be able to fund more development. Let's try funding NASA. Really funding them. Giving them a piece of the pie that's even close to what we give to defense. Let's see what they can do then.
I don't think the Major Record Lables provide as much as you're assuming. Yes, they provide promotion, but their ability is somewhat limited, as they tend to fall back on the systems they know and understand, and are hesitant to embrace the new ways of communicating. Worse, they tend to market only the music that fits their specific mold. If you're somewhat of a niche artist, they'll have no idea what to do with you.
An Artist with technology saavy will be able to put together a much larger footprint on the internet than the record lables could ever hope for. Using Twitter, a blog, youtube, an active website, myspace (shudder), and now Amazon, it's actually much easier for them to get their music directly to the fans, no major label needed.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. NewEgg lost my business when an order I placed got cancelled without notification, and when I complained I was told they couldn't even talk to me about it because my order had been cancelled.
Not that I shop at TD. Mwave's my store of choice.:)
After reading the StarDock comments, I actually want to go and buy Demigod off Impulse. Not to play - my PC barely meets recommended system requirements nor do I like GPG games - but probably as a way to support them both in their aspiration.
You'll probably have pretty good frame rates. To quote Stardock's Gamers' Bill of Rights:
5) Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
Simply for engaging the candidate in a discussion, he was investigated by the media. That they found some weirdnesses does not make it OK.
I could be wrong, but wasn't it the fact that John McCain brought him up over and over again in the debate, and attempted to use him as a model of the "average American" that caused him to be investigated so heavily? It was less that he asked the candidate a difficult question, and more that McCain's camp was so eager to use him for their own ends.
--Jimmy
Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit Will Travel". I first read that when I was nine, and it was the first "real" sci-fi I read (L'Engle's stuff doesn't really count as sci-fi). It's not dark, it's not cynical, it's nicely anti-authoritarian and tons of fun.
I would gleefully second Heinlein's 'Have Space Suit Will Travel'. I read that a bunch as a kid.
Also, 'Puppet Masters' is pretty tame, as are his short story collections.
After that I read the Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison (in Jr. High), and transitioned from there to Zelazny.
Maybe we read a different press release. In the release, it says that the product was sold for $29 for most of 2007 (and that google asked they sell it for $19). They even promoted it.
Then, in December, Google announced they would give a free copy away of a similar program to a select group. The complaint the company has is that the product seems very much like their program... almost too much like it.
I'm not saying Google is in the right (though I'm a bit suspicious of the allegations), but that your analogy is completely wrong.
Most Windows users are going to think it's kind of cool to get a browser choice from a trusted source. Hey! I'm one of those windows users you're talking about. I had this message appear a few days ago, and was confused to see that Apple wanted to update Safari. I don't have Safari, and I don't want Safari. I opted out for the time being, but I wouldn't be surprised if the next time Apple updates something, I get that same prompt.
Regardless of who is doing it, it is absolutely wrong to push something in this fashion. It's not offering it as a bonus program, but as an update. It's lying. Simple as pie. To broadly claim that "Most" of any group would welcome this kind of deception is horribly judgmental, and factually questionable.
You bought your house in the wrong place. Next time look for bus stops when you buy.
If bus stops were guaranteed to stick around for the 15 years it'd take to pay off a house, I'd accept your point as valid, but they're not. Bus stops are changed constantly, shifting as the people who run the bus refine the system or try something new. Recently in SLC, they shifted everything around to better streamline with the TRAX. In the process, they cancelled a dozen routes, and removed every second stop from the ones that were left.
Not saying it's wrong of them to do it, but you can't blame the home-owner for something that's entirely out of his control.
Remember those cool lighting kits you could get for your gameboy advances, I believe the original name of the product was called Portable Monopoly until the makers of Monopoly had something to say about it. That whole thing wasn't even about a game (or even a game clone!), just some hardware to make your gameboy cooler.
I heard they sued Microsoft for the same reason.:D
While I can kinda agree with your point, I'd hesitate to ever say "the employer is right." Because the employer, usually, comes in the form of a manager, and that manager, while acting as the sole voice of the company, is usually just a guy. He can make mistakes and he can be incredibly petty.
When you say that the employer has all the rights, you're actually saying that midlevel manager has all the power, and the minute you get on his bad side, you'll find you've got literally no defense against him. Suddenly, the fact that you took an extra 20 seconds to get to the bathroom, or spent an extra five minutes while using it, or checked your personal email once, or (in the case of the cab drivers) your cab was parked for 33 minutes on your break instead of 30, or whatever... is going to become something you can be fired over. Not because any of these things are wrong, but because the manager has decided to fire you.
My point is that, while a good company takes steps to take care of its employees, and won't give out lots of power to be abused by its managers, some companies are definitely not all that wholesome. These companies will take the attitude that the workers need work more than the company needs workers. And frankly, in most cases they're right, in that people are more interested in working than starving. They're absolutely wrong, however, in thinking that it's an okay thing to do.
There needs to be a balance, and the employees need to fight for it.
And I don't know what city they're living in, but in my city (in the poorer parts of town) there are people who COLLECT rusty dying cars in their yard and try to sell them for whatever they can get. I know of houses that burned down, but were left there cause the owners didn't have the money/will to replace them, and during the winter, the city put up little heat-generating pits for the homeless to use specifically so they wouldn't burn their trash.
Frankly, humans are crappy polluters. At least in the country, there's fewer of them to pollute.
Tivo is controlling its hardware, not its software, and without such controls, it can't actually function as a business. More to the point, it's not insisting that all other bits of hardware follow the same function (it'll happily work with your tv, for example). It's really only saying "in this one instance, on this one machine, this is how it's gonna work". GPL3, by its nature, is much more broad.
This really seems like responding to a shark-attack with a nuclear bomb.
Careful you don't mistake the outcry of a collection of individuals vs. the instituted silence of a government. The Dixie Chicks had full right to say what they said. The people who objected has just as much right to object. That's the way freedom works. It kinda cuts both ways.
I wasn't aware of any electric car that could get me from Salt Lake to L.A. in one day. Their efficiency never seemed to amount to more than 50-100 miles tops, and then it'd need to recharge. The recharge would take hours, so the real efficiency was about half that if you didn't want to get stranded.
Nobody is forcing you to believe everything you read on the internet, after all:) Nobody is forcing you to believe in anything, ever.
Does that mean suddenly nothing should be true, honest, and forthright? That we should just end our expectations that people will act with honor and decency?
Of course it should get pointed out in public what these bloggers (and M$) are doing. No, they're not going to be killed for doing it, but we should definitely have the knowledge that these kinds of tactics are being used. We should have the right to publicly question their ethics.
Knowing a child with fragile-x my gut reaction was to say, "but... but... but..."
And I'm not the parent, just a friend.
There is some fear in the concept that they could suddenly change... what if they stopped being that awesome cute person that they are?
Which is not to say I'd deny anyone the treatment, ever. It's more saying that I do love them, and I love them exactly as they are.
At least with Microsoft, you have tangible (software) products that they do pretty well. Yes, they're jerks, but they're jerks who do something sorta-kinda-maybe useful.
What has the RIAA offered that justifies their existence?
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I was under the impression that Google has refused to provide any functions other than search in China. They don't host their gmail servers or any of their info that contains user info. They don't want the government using them to track its users, and that's the same here as it is in China.
Or has something changed that I hadn't heard about?
--Jimmy
Simple math. With 19 cents per listener / song, you'd need for the listener (each and every one) to be clicking on enough ads to generate that revenue. Most ads run on Google's Adwords earn somewhere between 5 and 50 cents/click. Assuming it's the 50 cents, that means that each and every listener needs to click an ad every 3 songs.
The current conversion rate of displayed images vs. clicks is a little under 1%.
So in other words, to break even, you'd need to have that 1 person in one hundred clicking on 19$ worth of ads PER SONG.
If you know the guy who likes to do that, let me know.
Otherwise, NetRadio's kinda dead.
Slashdot Mirror
See, and here's where I think the point is. WE WANT TO GO INTO SPACE! Here's an idea: Give every American a choice where they put 100 of the dollars taken by their loving leaders, and choose where it goes. Let's see how well NASA does then.
But I bet if one was to compare the amount of new tech gained from the defense industry VS the amount gained from NASA the defense industry would win hands down.
DARPA has more money than NASA. Of course they're going to be able to fund more development. Let's try funding NASA. Really funding them. Giving them a piece of the pie that's even close to what we give to defense. Let's see what they can do then.
A $150k plane, at a guess, would be a two-seater (I was wrong, you can get a 4 seater.). Something like a Cessna. Here, lemmie actually check...
/.) lists a Cessna 182 @ 150k
:P
The best answer to this Yahoo Question (not really a great source, I know, but good enough for
This wouldn't be able to carry as much as a pick-up. It would probably match up to your average sedan, though.
--Jimmy
I don't think the Major Record Lables provide as much as you're assuming. Yes, they provide promotion, but their ability is somewhat limited, as they tend to fall back on the systems they know and understand, and are hesitant to embrace the new ways of communicating. Worse, they tend to market only the music that fits their specific mold. If you're somewhat of a niche artist, they'll have no idea what to do with you.
:)
An Artist with technology saavy will be able to put together a much larger footprint on the internet than the record lables could ever hope for. Using Twitter, a blog, youtube, an active website, myspace (shudder), and now Amazon, it's actually much easier for them to get their music directly to the fans, no major label needed.
A prime example of this is Amanda Palmer. She maintains a very healthy presence online, and is actively seeking to break with her major record label, as they're entirely unable to market her, and make money off of her.
We may be seeing the beginning of the end for the record labels. I can't say that bothers me much.
--Jimmy
I've said it before, and I'll say it again. NewEgg lost my business when an order I placed got cancelled without notification, and when I complained I was told they couldn't even talk to me about it because my order had been cancelled.
Not that I shop at TD. Mwave's my store of choice. :)
After reading the StarDock comments, I actually want to go and buy Demigod off Impulse. Not to play - my PC barely meets recommended system requirements nor do I like GPG games - but probably as a way to support them both in their aspiration.
You'll probably have pretty good frame rates. To quote Stardock's Gamers' Bill of Rights:
5) Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
I imagine they'll follow that. :)
Simply for engaging the candidate in a discussion, he was investigated by the media. That they found some weirdnesses does not make it OK.
I could be wrong, but wasn't it the fact that John McCain brought him up over and over again in the debate, and attempted to use him as a model of the "average American" that caused him to be investigated so heavily? It was less that he asked the candidate a difficult question, and more that McCain's camp was so eager to use him for their own ends. --Jimmy
Not everyone of us who wishes to protect our guns also sides with the "conservative" government who wishes to illegally spy on us.
Please stop grouping us all together.
--Jimmy
Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit Will Travel". I first read that when I was nine, and it was the first "real" sci-fi I read (L'Engle's stuff doesn't really count as sci-fi). It's not dark, it's not cynical, it's nicely anti-authoritarian and tons of fun.
I would gleefully second Heinlein's 'Have Space Suit Will Travel'. I read that a bunch as a kid. Also, 'Puppet Masters' is pretty tame, as are his short story collections.
After that I read the Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison (in Jr. High), and transitioned from there to Zelazny.
--Jimmy
Maybe we read a different press release. In the release, it says that the product was sold for $29 for most of 2007 (and that google asked they sell it for $19). They even promoted it.
Then, in December, Google announced they would give a free copy away of a similar program to a select group. The complaint the company has is that the product seems very much like their program... almost too much like it.
I'm not saying Google is in the right (though I'm a bit suspicious of the allegations), but that your analogy is completely wrong.
--Jimmy
Regardless of who is doing it, it is absolutely wrong to push something in this fashion. It's not offering it as a bonus program, but as an update. It's lying. Simple as pie. To broadly claim that "Most" of any group would welcome this kind of deception is horribly judgmental, and factually questionable.
--Jimmy
If bus stops were guaranteed to stick around for the 15 years it'd take to pay off a house, I'd accept your point as valid, but they're not. Bus stops are changed constantly, shifting as the people who run the bus refine the system or try something new. Recently in SLC, they shifted everything around to better streamline with the TRAX. In the process, they cancelled a dozen routes, and removed every second stop from the ones that were left.
Not saying it's wrong of them to do it, but you can't blame the home-owner for something that's entirely out of his control.
--Jimmy
I heard they sued Microsoft for the same reason.
Which works right up until they start fining people for obeying the letter of the law and not the spirit, and if you want to get into that mess...
well
let's not get into that mess...
While I can kinda agree with your point, I'd hesitate to ever say "the employer is right." Because the employer, usually, comes in the form of a manager, and that manager, while acting as the sole voice of the company, is usually just a guy. He can make mistakes and he can be incredibly petty.
:P
When you say that the employer has all the rights, you're actually saying that midlevel manager has all the power, and the minute you get on his bad side, you'll find you've got literally no defense against him. Suddenly, the fact that you took an extra 20 seconds to get to the bathroom, or spent an extra five minutes while using it, or checked your personal email once, or (in the case of the cab drivers) your cab was parked for 33 minutes on your break instead of 30, or whatever... is going to become something you can be fired over. Not because any of these things are wrong, but because the manager has decided to fire you.
My point is that, while a good company takes steps to take care of its employees, and won't give out lots of power to be abused by its managers, some companies are definitely not all that wholesome. These companies will take the attitude that the workers need work more than the company needs workers. And frankly, in most cases they're right, in that people are more interested in working than starving. They're absolutely wrong, however, in thinking that it's an okay thing to do.
There needs to be a balance, and the employees need to fight for it.
--Jimmy
And I don't know what city they're living in, but in my city (in the poorer parts of town) there are people who COLLECT rusty dying cars in their yard and try to sell them for whatever they can get. I know of houses that burned down, but were left there cause the owners didn't have the money/will to replace them, and during the winter, the city put up little heat-generating pits for the homeless to use specifically so they wouldn't burn their trash.
Frankly, humans are crappy polluters. At least in the country, there's fewer of them to pollute.
--Jimmy
What???
Tivo is controlling its hardware, not its software, and without such controls, it can't actually function as a business. More to the point, it's not insisting that all other bits of hardware follow the same function (it'll happily work with your tv, for example). It's really only saying "in this one instance, on this one machine, this is how it's gonna work". GPL3, by its nature, is much more broad.
This really seems like responding to a shark-attack with a nuclear bomb.
--Jimmy
The Dixie Chicks got locked up?
Careful you don't mistake the outcry of a collection of individuals vs. the instituted silence of a government. The Dixie Chicks had full right to say what they said. The people who objected has just as much right to object. That's the way freedom works. It kinda cuts both ways.
--Jimmy.
I wasn't aware of any electric car that could get me from Salt Lake to L.A. in one day. Their efficiency never seemed to amount to more than 50-100 miles tops, and then it'd need to recharge. The recharge would take hours, so the real efficiency was about half that if you didn't want to get stranded.
Is there something more I never heard about?
--Jimmy
Does that mean suddenly nothing should be true, honest, and forthright? That we should just end our expectations that people will act with honor and decency?
Of course it should get pointed out in public what these bloggers (and M$) are doing. No, they're not going to be killed for doing it, but we should definitely have the knowledge that these kinds of tactics are being used. We should have the right to publicly question their ethics.
--Jimmy
So...you're saying I need a bigger wifi transmitter?
BRILLIANT!
--Jimmy
Knowing a child with fragile-x my gut reaction was to say, "but... but... but..."
And I'm not the parent, just a friend.
There is some fear in the concept that they could suddenly change... what if they stopped being that awesome cute person that they are?
Which is not to say I'd deny anyone the treatment, ever. It's more saying that I do love them, and I love them exactly as they are.
--Jimmy
The RIAA as a whole, is a troll organization.
At least with Microsoft, you have tangible (software) products that they do pretty well. Yes, they're jerks, but they're jerks who do something sorta-kinda-maybe useful.
What has the RIAA offered that justifies their existence?
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I was under the impression that Google has refused to provide any functions other than search in China. They don't host their gmail servers or any of their info that contains user info. They don't want the government using them to track its users, and that's the same here as it is in China.
Or has something changed that I hadn't heard about?
--Jimmy
Simple math. With 19 cents per listener / song, you'd need for the listener (each and every one) to be clicking on enough ads to generate that revenue. Most ads run on Google's Adwords earn somewhere between 5 and 50 cents /click. Assuming it's the 50 cents, that means that each and every listener needs to click an ad every 3 songs.
The current conversion rate of displayed images vs. clicks is a little under 1%.
So in other words, to break even, you'd need to have that 1 person in one hundred clicking on 19$ worth of ads PER SONG.
If you know the guy who likes to do that, let me know.
Otherwise, NetRadio's kinda dead.