I think some people are missing the point. Dell isn't going to include floppy drives as a "standard" features. I say, so what. If you really want a floppy drive, and some people do, then have it installed extra. If you use a floppy boot disc on occasion, keep an extra floppy drive around to use for those rare times. But in my experience (and I am sure in most peoples) I haven't used a floppy drive in about ten years.
I think you need to give the news media some credit: they know their audience. My first thought was terrorism. But I quickly realized that space travel is inherently dangerous. I think most peoples first thoughts were terrorism. The wounds from 9/11 are not that old. There was an Israeli aboard the shuttle. Terrorism was not completely out of the question. The news media has a responsiblity to ask the question of terrorism and quickly explain it away.
I know a few people in the console industry and, believe me, failures are widespread. I know of three companies in the local area that are out of business. A couple of others have been bought out by bigger companies and they are not much more successful now. Companies do not like to admit how many games are started and then cancelled due to budget constraints, poor game design, or too high of expectations.
A lot of people here are afraid that over seas marketers will get hold of this list and use it to call people. Why get a list of sure-fire no sells and try to market to them? It might happen, but I don't see it becoming widespread. It makes no sense.
I guess I should put a smiley face at the end of my comment.
But it doesn't surprise me that you understand the US judicial system more than the average US citizen. From my experience as a US citizen, I have known several Canadians (and South Africans, Aussies, and Brits) and they almost invariably understand the US political system, as a whole, better than the Joe (six-pack) Longneck. Maybe having a sighly variant system to compare to is helpful. After all, I learned more about the English language studying Spanish. Go figure.
Of course the Slashdot editors need some ribbing for dupe stories, but why don't we tease the submitter of the story as well? It is so blatant that this was a dupe story since it has only been about a week since the original story, so why did someone submit the story again. There is more than enough Slashdot love to go around.
"The "piracy" argument is overplayed at best - just like everything else the RIAA pumps out - and at worst it's a red herring."
It may be overplayed to those in the know, but using the article as an example, the masses are buying into it. Even the media is reporting it as truth. That is what is truly scarey.
Why do we live under the pretense that artists get to live on the proceeds of their works for the rest of their lives? Other jobs are not like that. If a manager organizes a company or division in a way that makes more money, he is only compensated as long as he continues to work for the company. Or a conservator restores a book or painting so that the public can appreciate it more; she doesn't get rewarded monetarily her whole life. Or a sofware engineer...
I agree copyrights are useful, but they are not natural rights. They are arbitrary and granted rights that are regulated by the government (ie. the people). In essence the government, by granting copyrights beyond beyond a reasonable length of time, has decided that artists are more important than the common man.
You are not alone. I work with ten other people in a non-tech job. We got into a discussion about DVDs the other night. None of them had even heard of region encoding. I think those of us that are technically literate sometimes take what we know for granted.
This is dumping like piracy (ie. copyright infringement) is theft. We are talking about a codec here, not a physical, limited supply property. Though it cost money to develope, the MPEG-4 codec is virtually limitless. Lowering the cost will not hurt MPEG-LA much in the long run.
And this doesn't compare to the Netscape situation yet. Microsoft is still charging (as far as I know) for use of Windows Media. When they start giving the codec away, then you can make comparisons to IE vs. Netscape.
If I had a mod point I would mod this up because this was my first response when I read the article (the slashdot article not the real one; I am a slashdot reader after all and don't read the real thing.) Since I don't I will respond.
I totally agree that the DMCA was written as a piece of anti-competitive legislation. It is one arrow in the entertainment industries quiver to protect their industry. They also have copyright extension laws. But someday (hopefully) copyrights will expire. The DMCA is the industries ace in the hole for when that happens. And like the ace in the hole, it is a way to cheat and get around copyrights.
This is too bad. I have AT&T cable broadband. The other day I got a message from them that I would have to fork-up an extra ten dollars a month to get basic cable. I don't want cable since I have the Dish Network. No matter. I thought screw them, I am going to get DSL. For my dl/ul needs DirectTV was the only option for me. Now it looks like I am out of luck.
This news is bad from a competition standpoint. If this is the future of broadband, it looks like either like the consumer is going to be squeezed for every dollar they can give or else broadband is going to grow at a snails pace. Either way, bad for the consumer.
And they can give you a free pass to the movie because if you bought the extended version you are more likely to see the movie several times already. They are not losing too much money.
Besides, I don't know anyone that bought the extended version that didn't buy the theatrical release as well.
Amen to that. I am of the opinion that if I know some plot point of a story and the movie is ruined because of that, the movie was not worth watching in the first place. Movies should have a some value on their the second viewing.
Besides, O'Hehir makes a good point about spoiler-phobia hampering open discussion. I hate reading reviews/critiques of movies and only getting some apology about not being able to say what the reviewer really thought about the movie. You end up getting some vague, touchy-feely review. Give some real substance, please.
I am one that liked DS9. The ratings problem with DS9 was programming. It didn't have a regular time slot in most areas and had a hard time getting a regular audience. But, I agree there was much to like about DS9.
What are you smoking and how did this rated so high?
First, Star Trek in its latest three incarnations either didn't do well in the ratings(DS9), or were reviled by most of the ST fans (Voyager and Enterprise).
Second, what think are the target markets are questionable. Goths for Buffy? Buffy's target audience, if anything, is women 18-30 (whether they are goths or not, which incidently is too small a demographic.) And, while Xena had a cult lesbian following, its main audience was 14+ boys/men (hey how can you resist the cleavage?)
Third, I don't agree that sci-fi viewers are that fragmented. Get good sci-fi shows to watch, put them in a good time slot, don't put them against sci-fi shows on competing networks (Alias vs. Angel), and have reasonable expectations for the show and they will make a network some money.
Slashdot Mirror
I think some people are missing the point. Dell isn't going to include floppy drives as a "standard" features. I say, so what. If you really want a floppy drive, and some people do, then have it installed extra. If you use a floppy boot disc on occasion, keep an extra floppy drive around to use for those rare times. But in my experience (and I am sure in most peoples) I haven't used a floppy drive in about ten years.
I think you need to give the news media some credit: they know their audience. My first thought was terrorism. But I quickly realized that space travel is inherently dangerous. I think most peoples first thoughts were terrorism. The wounds from 9/11 are not that old. There was an Israeli aboard the shuttle. Terrorism was not completely out of the question. The news media has a responsiblity to ask the question of terrorism and quickly explain it away.
I know a few people in the console industry and, believe me, failures are widespread. I know of three companies in the local area that are out of business. A couple of others have been bought out by bigger companies and they are not much more successful now. Companies do not like to admit how many games are started and then cancelled due to budget constraints, poor game design, or too high of expectations.
Slashdot must be the Louis Lamour of the web because some of the stories sound vaguely like other stories posted.
A lot of people here are afraid that over seas marketers will get hold of this list and use it to call people. Why get a list of sure-fire no sells and try to market to them? It might happen, but I don't see it becoming widespread. It makes no sense.
So why aren't door locks considered an infringement on free speech? I lock the door when the Jehovah Witnesses are in the neighborhood.
I guess I should put a smiley face at the end of my comment.
But it doesn't surprise me that you understand the US judicial system more than the average US citizen. From my experience as a US citizen, I have known several Canadians (and South Africans, Aussies, and Brits) and they almost invariably understand the US political system, as a whole, better than the Joe (six-pack) Longneck. Maybe having a sighly variant system to compare to is helpful. After all, I learned more about the English language studying Spanish. Go figure.
"You're a loon."
So are you saying that because he is canadian he cannot understand the US judicial system?
Of course the Slashdot editors need some ribbing for dupe stories, but why don't we tease the submitter of the story as well? It is so blatant that this was a dupe story since it has only been about a week since the original story, so why did someone submit the story again. There is more than enough Slashdot love to go around.
"The "piracy" argument is overplayed at best - just like everything else the RIAA pumps out - and at worst it's a red herring."
It may be overplayed to those in the know, but using the article as an example, the masses are buying into it. Even the media is reporting it as truth. That is what is truly scarey.
Why do we live under the pretense that artists get to live on the proceeds of their works for the rest of their lives? Other jobs are not like that. If a manager organizes a company or division in a way that makes more money, he is only compensated as long as he continues to work for the company. Or a conservator restores a book or painting so that the public can appreciate it more; she doesn't get rewarded monetarily her whole life. Or a sofware engineer...
I agree copyrights are useful, but they are not natural rights. They are arbitrary and granted rights that are regulated by the government (ie. the people). In essence the government, by granting copyrights beyond beyond a reasonable length of time, has decided that artists are more important than the common man.
I believe you meant to post this response in the Slashdot poll.
How can it be the same file size as the original? Different bitrates will be different sizes. Or do they assume everyone uses 128kbps?
So basically, you want to know from slashdot readers if slashdot posts are accurate. I think we all know the answer to that one.
The reason Fox released the pan-n-scan is because that is the only version they have the rights to sell.
You are not alone. I work with ten other people in a non-tech job. We got into a discussion about DVDs the other night. None of them had even heard of region encoding. I think those of us that are technically literate sometimes take what we know for granted.
This is dumping like piracy (ie. copyright infringement) is theft. We are talking about a codec here, not a physical, limited supply property. Though it cost money to develope, the MPEG-4 codec is virtually limitless. Lowering the cost will not hurt MPEG-LA much in the long run.
And this doesn't compare to the Netscape situation yet. Microsoft is still charging (as far as I know) for use of Windows Media. When they start giving the codec away, then you can make comparisons to IE vs. Netscape.
If I had a mod point I would mod this up because this was my first response when I read the article (the slashdot article not the real one; I am a slashdot reader after all and don't read the real thing.) Since I don't I will respond.
I totally agree that the DMCA was written as a piece of anti-competitive legislation. It is one arrow in the entertainment industries quiver to protect their industry. They also have copyright extension laws. But someday (hopefully) copyrights will expire. The DMCA is the industries ace in the hole for when that happens. And like the ace in the hole, it is a way to cheat and get around copyrights.
This is too bad. I have AT&T cable broadband. The other day I got a message from them that I would have to fork-up an extra ten dollars a month to get basic cable. I don't want cable since I have the Dish Network. No matter. I thought screw them, I am going to get DSL. For my dl/ul needs DirectTV was the only option for me. Now it looks like I am out of luck.
This news is bad from a competition standpoint. If this is the future of broadband, it looks like either like the consumer is going to be squeezed for every dollar they can give or else broadband is going to grow at a snails pace. Either way, bad for the consumer.
I wonder if Humongous Games holds the patent on this. If this idea was stolen from Pajama Sam , I hope the hammer comes down on Polifka.
"Apparently the script has been in the works for 3 years and is highly polished"
I have read childrens books to my four year old that have had more words than the first three movies combined. What can there be to polish?
And they can give you a free pass to the movie because if you bought the extended version you are more likely to see the movie several times already. They are not losing too much money.
Besides, I don't know anyone that bought the extended version that didn't buy the theatrical release as well.
Amen to that. I am of the opinion that if I know some plot point of a story and the movie is ruined because of that, the movie was not worth watching in the first place. Movies should have a some value on their the second viewing.
Besides, O'Hehir makes a good point about spoiler-phobia hampering open discussion. I hate reading reviews/critiques of movies and only getting some apology about not being able to say what the reviewer really thought about the movie. You end up getting some vague, touchy-feely review. Give some real substance, please.
I am one that liked DS9. The ratings problem with DS9 was programming. It didn't have a regular time slot in most areas and had a hard time getting a regular audience. But, I agree there was much to like about DS9.
What are you smoking and how did this rated so high?
First, Star Trek in its latest three incarnations either didn't do well in the ratings(DS9), or were reviled by most of the ST fans (Voyager and Enterprise).
Second, what think are the target markets are questionable. Goths for Buffy? Buffy's target audience, if anything, is women 18-30 (whether they are goths or not, which incidently is too small a demographic.) And, while Xena had a cult lesbian following, its main audience was 14+ boys/men (hey how can you resist the cleavage?)
Third, I don't agree that sci-fi viewers are that fragmented. Get good sci-fi shows to watch, put them in a good time slot, don't put them against sci-fi shows on competing networks (Alias vs. Angel), and have reasonable expectations for the show and they will make a network some money.