But there's no legally-binding contract between buyer and seller when I buy an HD DVD and the DRM is enforced by law through the DMCA. In addition, DRM is a blatant violation of the intention of copyright, which was merely to support the creator before the material entered the public domain... material with effective DRM will _NEVER_ enter the public domain.
Although it does not seem like it at the moment, the long-term effect of material not eventually entering the public domain will have a chilling effect on the creation of new material. Although it might seem silly, imagine a situation where, suddenly, there are no more new books, movies, and so on. The reason: Every possible story idea has been locked down by copyright by someone and anything new will be too similar to something that already exists.
This could be a reason in the increase in the number of sequels and remakes have come out, and also a reason that comic books have as a major story source have become more common in recent years. Simply put, it could be that the only way a person can put out a story is with the approval of someone who has a story that already exists that is similar to the story he/she wants to write.
Although it is particularly dumb in the case of music where in most cases unprotected CDs are available (because CD DRM has been such a trainwreck) so that anybody who owns the CD can produce an unprotected MP3, yet you're not allowed to buy one.
Another reason for choosing unprotected CDs over any compressed format: you can choose both your compressed audio format and the sound quality. A problem with converting from one lossy format to another is that you lose sound quality (although the difference might be minor in some cases).
One of the problems with on-line music is that you limited to a single format and a single bit rate. If on-line music goes to non-DRMed formats, I hope that different bit rates and formats are offered (with different prices based on bit rates). I'd be willing to pay more for a higher bit rate files (I encode my own music at 192kbs).
By the way, folks- it's best to encourage people to use almost anything but IE, and not just ONE other browser, to encourage standards compliance. Already, site designers seem to only care/brag about making sites work in IE or Firefox- and said site breaks in Safari, Opera, etc. That's not how the web is supposed to work.
I agree that all websites should follow established internet standards, that way it would be easier for individuals who design web browsers, and those who actually write websites. It seems like a great deal of effort is expended just to deal with non-compliance issues.
What I hope will happen in the future is that the web will migrate to XHTML because my understanding is that, unlike HTML, a website written in XHTML must be written 100% in compliance with standard. Make a single error in coding a website and that website will fail.
With XHTML you cannot use the tricks used in HTML to get certain effects. This would force everyone to follow established standards and would also force web browsers to do the same. Also, because of the rigid nature of XHTML it would be much easier to locate and correct errors in the code.
A while ago (at the time of WordPerfect 5.1) the makers of WordPerfect addressed this by coming out with a simpler version of their word processor called "LetterPerfect."... much less expensive that a full copy of WordPerfect... all of the features that I needed at home... this is something that is needed with MS Office
What you're suggesting already exists in the delightfully oxymoronic Microsoft Works
I thought about mentioning Microsoft Works, but I remember that a while ago there were issues with it not being compatible with MS Word (although the above link indicates that it is now compatible with parts of MS Office), and that is why I didn't mention it. I used the version that came pre-installed with my computer with Windows XP, and its search and replace (one of the best features of MS Word) didn't work as well as MS Word's.
Since it appears that it is compatible with MS Office, then it could be a good option for people who don't want to buy a full copy of MS Office. Plus, Works Suite does feature a copy of MS Word.
Personally, I think clippy represents what is wrong with office more than anything else. For most users Office is far too complicated, and has far too much functionality, so it "needed" a way to inform average users how to use some of the features.
Personally, I see three classes of Office users and there seems to be a reasonable argument that there should be three seperate classes of Word/Office for these people; the classes are students/home use who want something which they can write a paper or resume on, office workers who want a little more control over their presentation, and professionals who want complete control over their presentation.
I agree that MS Office needs versions that are suitable for different types of users, while the files themselves remain compatible between the versions.
A while ago (at the time of WordPerfect 5.1) the makers of WordPerfect addressed this by coming out with a simpler version of their word processor called "LetterPerfect." It was:
Completely compatible with WordPerfect with the same interface.
Featured only the features that home users actually needed and that worked the same way they did in WordPerfect
Was much less expensive that a full copy of WordPerfect (less than 1/5 of the cost).
I used it for a while and it had all of the features that I needed at home, and it was virtually identical to WordPerfect during use.
As the previous poster mentioned, this is something that is needed with MS Office. Its unfortunate that it could not start with a basic install that preloads a standard set of features for all users, then add new features as needed by the individual users.
As for calling the Mac Mini a dumb terminal...it's as full a computer as you get...local HD, Local OS, Full featured productivity apps, user access to install more.
Based on my understanding of what a dumb terminal is, a Mac Mini does not fall into that category because it can used without any type of outside data connection (please correct me if I'm wrong). Of the currently available computers, the only recent one I can think of that would quality as a dumb terminal is an on-line box like WebTV.
I also saw an Open University late night/early morning show where some scientist in brown tweed drilled a hole through a CD and then proceeded to play it without any detriment. So it never fails to amuse me when the minutest scratch causes my CDs to either take up residence in Skipsville or just outright refuse to co-operate on the playing front. And by amuse, I of course mean enrage.
Whether damage causes a CD to skip depends on many factors, including: (1) the size of the damage, (2) where the damage occurs, and (3) the shape of the damage.
The close to the center the damage is, the more likely it is to skip. CDs play from the inner edge to the outer edge and a hole near the outer edge of the CD might be in an area that has no data. In that case it won't skip because there is no data there.
With scratches, the least damaging are ones that go from the center to edge in a straight line and damage little consecutive data. Anti-skip mechanisms in the CD player and redundant data on the CD itself are designed to deal with that kind of damage. The ones the player will have the most trouble dealing with are scratches that are in a spiral, damaging consecutive data on the disc.
I've been fortunate to have had little problem with skipping (other than during active use), even with used discs. I've followed a guide of always returning the disc to its case when not in use and that keeps scratches to a minimum. One possible factor in the increase of skipping is that players are not made a robustly as they have been in the past.
It's also important to note that RIAA is a trade association of major music producers, not a single producer. If the major labels (heaven forbid!) were to get together and, say, fix prices then market forces would also not apply. Not that they would do such a thing; RIAA is here to help us. I'm just talking hypotherically, you see.
There is one market force that would counter this: a majority of the public decides not to buy any music at that price. Another market factor is that music does not exist in a vacuum, there is competition from other media, including DVDs (you can buy many new movies for less than $25), books, and video games. This would leave them with the choice of lowering the price or selling much less music. To put it in terms of math (the percentage number was chosen just to illustrate the point):
(5 percent of $15 (gross cost of a CD)) X (1,000,000 CDs sold) = $750,000 versus
(5 percent of $30 (gross cost of a CD)) X (1,000 CDs sold) = $1,500
I have reduced my CD buying greatly for the two main reasons: (1) the price, and (2) there is less music that I'm interesting in buying. As far as price goes, any single-disc CD I find that costs more than $20 stays on the shelf no matter how good it is, and any single-disc CD that costs more than $15 has to be really good for me to buy. I would not be surprised if many people have reduce their CD buying for similar reasons.
OpenOffice and KWord import and export from Microsoft Office format.
Imperfectly. Microsoft have a better track record (though not perfect) with writing software that can understand Word documents.
One of the problems with trying to write a program that can accurately read and write MS Word files is the way that information is stored in an MS Word file. The article "In Depth With StarOffice Filters" by Brian Proffitt http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/385 7/1/ lists the difficulties in creating a filter for MS Word files.
It's completely locked down by DRM. The ONLY books it'll read have to be bought from them.
This has been the thing that has sunk most e-book readers. One of the things that I require before purchasing an e-book reader is that I can put my own content on it, not just purchased content from a specific publisher.
I don't have a problem with an e-book reader having its own format, as long as it supports other open formats too. For example, in my experience HTML works well as a basic e-book format.
One of the reasons that Palm has had some success as an e-book reader is that you can easily make your own e-books. They have went to the point of providing programs (one free and the other modestly priced) that allow you to easily make your own e-books.
Death of the creator. Also, they shouldn't be transferable, either in a sale, contract, or by inheritance. There are, however, good arguments for allowing works created near the end of a person's life to remain in copyright for some time afterwards to protect them from gratuitous commercial exploitation, but the copyright shouldn't pass to someone else. Instead, it should be held and protected by the state until expiry.
Copyright isn't at all like farmland. It makes no sense that an heir should be able to derive income from their parents' works indefinitely.
I'd support a simple rule of the copyright expiring 100 years from the date the work was created. Once the copyright expires it automatically goes into the public domain. The reason for 100 years is by that time everyone who had a direct hand in the creation of the work would have died. Also, by that time the work has become part of the national consciousness where people just know it.
An example of this is the character of Superman. Although there are probably many people who have not actually read a Superman comic, he is a character that people know to the point where it would be difficult to find someone who doesn't know the basics of Superman. In the same way, there are many other characters who everyone is just aware of.
Even other microsoft products will fail badly...
The mac versions of word have many compatibility problems with the windows versions, and just try loading/saving word documents with ms publisher (publisher even comes bundled with the more expensive versions of office)
Maybe the solution is to move away from the entire WYSIWYG-while-editing method of document preparation, to an instruction-based system like LaTeX where the document will print on paper exactly as instructed regardless of the computer system. That, combined with an extremely accurate page preview function, might be a way to deal with this problem.
if they just implemented the iPod as a USB mass storage device
You can't update your library, but an iPod is a mass storage device. Microsoft rewrote the MSC driver for Vista and now the power-management doesn't work if you safely remove MSC devices. That's also a problem for other companies. Vista users should "eject" the drive first to get the old "Windows suspends your USB device" behavior. I think Apple waited for Microsoft to document (or fix) this "feature".
I may be in the minority on this, but I don't see the iPod not being compatible with Vista as much of an issue right now. Vista has been out less than a week and I doubt that many people who were using Windows XP had to update to Vista immediately. By waiting until Vista has been released, various software/hardware companies can see what it actually is instead of what it's supposed to be, and update their software correctly. What would the reaction be if an update, based on what was supposed to be in Vista, ends up being wrong because of necessary last-minute changes in Vista?
Just like another OS change it will take time to fully transition to the new version, and some things will not be ready immediately. The key now is to release updated versions soon.
The problem is that OO will screw the formatting for anything that's a little more complex. If whenever you open something, everything is out of place, or you can't be sure that somebody will be able to open the document how you saved it, it's best just to use MS Office.
The problem is, this is not even viable in a pure MS Word environment. An often-heard complaint is that MS Word documents will look different on different computers, even if both users are using MS Word. I personally had to deal with the problem and ended up requiring people to FAX us a printed document to ensure that we saw precisely what the creator had. We tried to do it electronically, but what we received often did not match what the originator sent (we were both using the same version of MS Word).
What's worse is comic books (for those that are into that thing). A single 30 page comic (containing 6 pages of advertisements!) costs > 2 US $. Go to a comic book.torrent site and you can download every comic published this month in less than half an hour.
I think it will be a while before this viable. Once there is a cheap device with a full-color screen the size of a comic book that that is capable of being carried around like a regular comic book then this might be viable.
For those who do want comics electronically, I was at a computer store recently and they had a CD-ROM that contained every issue of "X-Men" from the beginning to near the present for about $45.00. I've noticed a number of releases like this (including one that featured 100s of issues of Mad Magazine).
The comic book industry will implode when.torrents become mainstream. The resale value of a single issue went downhill about a decade ago and will never go back up.
I think the main reason that the resale value of single issues has dropped in recent years is the relatively recent glut of trade paperbacks (several issues of a comic collected and released as a single volume). Another factor is the number of people who went into collecting comics to make money vs reading them for enjoyment.
I started collecting comic books in 1975. At that time if you missed a single issue you were out of luck unless you happened to find someone who had the issue and would sell the issue to you at an affordable price. Otherwise you might never see the issue. That made you more willing to pay a higher price for an issue.
Now if you miss an issue it is often available in trade paperback form soon after its release in single-issue form, and the cost of the trade paperback is often lower than the total cost of the single issues. An example is "Infinite Crisis," a very important seven-issue miniseries from DC Comics.
Less than a year after the series ended it was collected and released as a hardback and it is now available in softback. Both version contain additional information (such as creator's notes) not with the original version. Sometimes I purchase a trade paperback of issues I already have just for the convenience of having the issues in a single collection, and to avoid damaging my original issues.
Simply put, the reason the value of back issues have dropped is because the stories that are in them are not as rare as they used to be.
In a way, I think it is the same reason that movie ticket sales have dropped. Going back to the '70s If you didn't see a movie at the theater you basically had to wait until it was on TV (where I was living at that time there was no cable until the late-'80s), usually in a heavily edited form. This gave you a push to see the movie at the theater.
Now, unless a movie is really good, I don't really worry about missing it at the theater since I know that will soon be on home video. I just don't feel the same push to see it at the theater.
An excellent book about the attempt to bring an e-book device to market is "Cyberbooks," a comedy/sci-fi/romance novel by Ben Bova. It shows the forces that work against the introduction of an e-book reader (some that might be a surprise). BTW, the book shows the device and it looks very like a Palm PDA.
Once the innovative game gets popular, it's cloned and bang! - it's ubiquitous. No innovative games anymore...
This is not just in video games. In the fall after the movie "Animal House" was released, each of the three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) debuted an "Animal House" type show (ABC's version was a continuation of the movie). Nutshell of it: Success breeds imitation.
Originality and creativeness in video game design should still be rewarded by the consumer.
I still remember my first time picking up SimCity, or Dune 2 or Wolf3D. Hell, even The Sims was original in its time, not that it was something I personally enjoyed
The problem is nobody seems to want creativity or originality anymore. The gaming market seems to want nothing but FPS's or WoW addons anymore. And quite frankly, its a damn shame.
I don't think its a matter of not wanting originality, its that it is difficult to move away from something familiar.
I have "Midway Arcade Treasures" for the PS2 and one of the games on it is "Joust," which became a big hit. Per an interview with one of the creators, there was trouble marketing the game because it didn't have a fire button, and they had to get people used to the concept of a "flap" button (if I remember correctly, the only which had something similar at the time was an olympic-sports-type game where you quickly pushed buttons to simulate running). I think there is room for originality in games, but it might have to be done in small steps.
I think another factor is the cost of games. One of the factors that made "Katamari Damacy" a hit was its relatively low price (about $20 at a time when games were running $30 to $40). If a game is modestly priced it is more likely that someone will take a risk on it. Now that games are crossing the $50 mark, it is less likely that someone will take a risk on an unfamiliar game. This causes games to stay with the tried and true.
Only one standard? The Standard? I see no problem in having a few formats to choose from as long as they are all open. A bit of diversity is good.
I agree. I think a problem with trying to have a single format that does everything is that it will result in unnecessary file complexity and larger files sizes. For word processing, I could see a need for a format for text-only files (which can keep file size down), and another format that allows for pictures, tables, and much more complex formatting. As long as the text can be passed from one format to another, having both standards in use at the same time shouldn't be a problem.
To use already available formats, you could compare plain text, RTF, HTML, and OpenDocument. Each allows a different level of formatting that is appropriate for different uses. For example, if I was preparing a document that will viewed on various type of displays (PDA, computer monitor, cell phone) that won't be printed, HTML might be a good choice.
I think perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Vista will not be a complete flop, but it will sell well under what Microsoft expects.
Legal copies of Vista will be bundled with most new computers, and this alone will make it a best seller. Also, many corporations will upgrade just for the sake of upgrading.
I believe Microsoft has a very good idea of what's going to happen. They understand the business and marketing aspects of selling software better than anyone else.
I agree that as far as sheer sales go Vista will probably be a best seller because of bundling. But this could also result in lower sales for the home market due to the upgrade issue.
My reasoning is that many home users have computers that are fine for running Windows XP, but are not capable of running Vista without a significant upgrade. Since it is likely that the cost of an upgrade would be expensive, this could result in many home users given both Mac and Linux a serious look.
If my understanding is correct, my current system will require, at minimum, a 300% increase in memory and an upgrade of the video card before I can even consider trying to run Vista. Due to this, it has led me to look at both Mac and Linux as an upgrade option since they are both likely to be less expensive than purchasing a new Vista-capable system, a new monitor (I'm currently using a 14" CRT), and new software applications to replace the ones that will not work with Vista.
maybe consumers should start lobbying or just stop buying.
That's like telling a drug addict not to buy drugs. Consumers can't stop buying movies. Even if they say "I could if I wanted to." they are wrong. Electronic entertainment is as addictive as crack cocaine.
I think a better way to put it, if the addiction model is used, is that people are addicted to watching movies, not necessarily buying them. In that case, there are so many movies that a consumer can legally obtain for viewing via rental and television that, combined with a DVR, he/she has access to a large number of movies at all times. This would take the edge off the need to purchase movies.
Huh, the activation hotline is open 24/7, I've called them in all hours of the day and night to activate windows. It took like 30 seconds.
I don't see why this is such a major gripe of people.
It has been said in various forms by others, but I think one of the reasons it is a major gripe of people is that fact that if your system shuts down (for whatever reason) and must be reactivated you must go to Microsoft itself (and only Microsoft) to get your system running again. You cannot get it running again by yourself, or with help from any other source. If you are not able to get a reactivation key, your system is basically rendered unusable.
A concern I've had is about what happens when support for XP is dropped. I know there was a bit of an uproar when Microsoft was no longer going to support some of its past OSes.
I thought nobody under 30 read comics anymore, especially in the US. And that the only way comics got a wide recognition these days were through movie and television adaption.
I'm one of the individuals over 30 who still reads comics (I've been reading them since 1975). One of my reasons is that I find the stories are often better than what I find at the movies or on television.
One of the factors that is increasing the readership base is the expansion of genres: comics are now more than just superheroes. As an example, one series I read is "Y - The Last Man." Its set in a world where every mammal with a Y chromosome suddenly died, except for one man and a monkey he was training.
Returning to the topic of the article, while I think that while software piracy was a factor in the adoption of MS Office as the standard, another factor was the introduction of Windows itself. It seems like many programs had difficulty making the transition from DOS to Windows. For example, I tried to use Wordperfect for Windows 5.1, and disliked it so much that I ended up returning to the DOS version.
I don't understand the fixation that people have with Open Office. It's slow. It looks bad. It retains all the things you hated about MS Office. The only things that it has going for it is that it has the most faithful.doc import of any open source office tool, and that it has the best ODT support at the moment. But the day that OO.o dies will be a happy day in my book.
I think the reason for the obsession with OpenOffice is that it is basically looked at as the open-source movement's only head-on competitor to Microsoft Office. Because of that, it is a leading choice of people who want the power of MS Office without using MS Office itself.
I think another reason that OpenOffice is so much a focus is related to the above: The impression that people that have you must use MS Office or something like it regardless of your individual situation. For many people, like home users, something other than MS Office or OpenOffice might be more suitable.
I have StarOffice 8, but most of the time I use a lightweight word processor because I like its speed and ease of use. That is a choice that works for me. In the same way, I save my documents in a format that does not lock me into a single word processor, I have a number of word processors that I can use.
Besides Bluetooth, another possibility that is already in use with Palm handhelds is transfer via infrared. The only problem I could see is if the data transfer limits make this impractical.
Slashdot Mirror
0123456 wrote as part of a post:
Although it does not seem like it at the moment, the long-term effect of material not eventually entering the public domain will have a chilling effect on the creation of new material. Although it might seem silly, imagine a situation where, suddenly, there are no more new books, movies, and so on. The reason: Every possible story idea has been locked down by copyright by someone and anything new will be too similar to something that already exists.
This could be a reason in the increase in the number of sequels and remakes have come out, and also a reason that comic books have as a major story source have become more common in recent years. Simply put, it could be that the only way a person can put out a story is with the approval of someone who has a story that already exists that is similar to the story he/she wants to write.
nanojath wrote as part of a post:
Another reason for choosing unprotected CDs over any compressed format: you can choose both your compressed audio format and the sound quality. A problem with converting from one lossy format to another is that you lose sound quality (although the difference might be minor in some cases).
One of the problems with on-line music is that you limited to a single format and a single bit rate. If on-line music goes to non-DRMed formats, I hope that different bit rates and formats are offered (with different prices based on bit rates). I'd be willing to pay more for a higher bit rate files (I encode my own music at 192kbs).
SuperBanana wrote as part of a post:
I agree that all websites should follow established internet standards, that way it would be easier for individuals who design web browsers, and those who actually write websites. It seems like a great deal of effort is expended just to deal with non-compliance issues.
What I hope will happen in the future is that the web will migrate to XHTML because my understanding is that, unlike HTML, a website written in XHTML must be written 100% in compliance with standard. Make a single error in coding a website and that website will fail.
With XHTML you cannot use the tricks used in HTML to get certain effects. This would force everyone to follow established standards and would also force web browsers to do the same. Also, because of the rigid nature of XHTML it would be much easier to locate and correct errors in the code.
SEMW wrote:
I thought about mentioning Microsoft Works, but I remember that a while ago there were issues with it not being compatible with MS Word (although the above link indicates that it is now compatible with parts of MS Office), and that is why I didn't mention it. I used the version that came pre-installed with my computer with Windows XP, and its search and replace (one of the best features of MS Word) didn't work as well as MS Word's.
Since it appears that it is compatible with MS Office, then it could be a good option for people who don't want to buy a full copy of MS Office. Plus, Works Suite does feature a copy of MS Word.
HappySqurriel wrote:
I agree that MS Office needs versions that are suitable for different types of users, while the files themselves remain compatible between the versions.
A while ago (at the time of WordPerfect 5.1) the makers of WordPerfect addressed this by coming out with a simpler version of their word processor called "LetterPerfect." It was:
I used it for a while and it had all of the features that I needed at home, and it was virtually identical to WordPerfect during use.
As the previous poster mentioned, this is something that is needed with MS Office. Its unfortunate that it could not start with a basic install that preloads a standard set of features for all users, then add new features as needed by the individual users.
natd wrote as part of a post:
Based on my understanding of what a dumb terminal is, a Mac Mini does not fall into that category because it can used without any type of outside data connection (please correct me if I'm wrong). Of the currently available computers, the only recent one I can think of that would quality as a dumb terminal is an on-line box like WebTV.
delinear wrote:
Whether damage causes a CD to skip depends on many factors, including: (1) the size of the damage, (2) where the damage occurs, and (3) the shape of the damage.
The close to the center the damage is, the more likely it is to skip. CDs play from the inner edge to the outer edge and a hole near the outer edge of the CD might be in an area that has no data. In that case it won't skip because there is no data there.
With scratches, the least damaging are ones that go from the center to edge in a straight line and damage little consecutive data. Anti-skip mechanisms in the CD player and redundant data on the CD itself are designed to deal with that kind of damage. The ones the player will have the most trouble dealing with are scratches that are in a spiral, damaging consecutive data on the disc.
I've been fortunate to have had little problem with skipping (other than during active use), even with used discs. I've followed a guide of always returning the disc to its case when not in use and that keeps scratches to a minimum. One possible factor in the increase of skipping is that players are not made a robustly as they have been in the past.
dubl-u wrote as part of a post:
There is one market force that would counter this: a majority of the public decides not to buy any music at that price. Another market factor is that music does not exist in a vacuum, there is competition from other media, including DVDs (you can buy many new movies for less than $25), books, and video games. This would leave them with the choice of lowering the price or selling much less music. To put it in terms of math (the percentage number was chosen just to illustrate the point):
versus
I have reduced my CD buying greatly for the two main reasons: (1) the price, and (2) there is less music that I'm interesting in buying. As far as price goes, any single-disc CD I find that costs more than $20 stays on the shelf no matter how good it is, and any single-disc CD that costs more than $15 has to be really good for me to buy. I would not be surprised if many people have reduce their CD buying for similar reasons.
Anonymous Coward wrote and included with a post:
One of the problems with trying to write a program that can accurately read and write MS Word files is the way that information is stored in an MS Word file. The article "In Depth With StarOffice Filters" by Brian Proffitt http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reviews/385 7/1/ lists the difficulties in creating a filter for MS Word files.
Aladrin wrote as part of a post:
This has been the thing that has sunk most e-book readers. One of the things that I require before purchasing an e-book reader is that I can put my own content on it, not just purchased content from a specific publisher.
I don't have a problem with an e-book reader having its own format, as long as it supports other open formats too. For example, in my experience HTML works well as a basic e-book format.
One of the reasons that Palm has had some success as an e-book reader is that you can easily make your own e-books. They have went to the point of providing programs (one free and the other modestly priced) that allow you to easily make your own e-books.
fucksl4shd0t wrote:
I'd support a simple rule of the copyright expiring 100 years from the date the work was created. Once the copyright expires it automatically goes into the public domain. The reason for 100 years is by that time everyone who had a direct hand in the creation of the work would have died. Also, by that time the work has become part of the national consciousness where people just know it.
An example of this is the character of Superman. Although there are probably many people who have not actually read a Superman comic, he is a character that people know to the point where it would be difficult to find someone who doesn't know the basics of Superman. In the same way, there are many other characters who everyone is just aware of.
Bert64 wrote:
Maybe the solution is to move away from the entire WYSIWYG-while-editing method of document preparation, to an instruction-based system like LaTeX where the document will print on paper exactly as instructed regardless of the computer system. That, combined with an extremely accurate page preview function, might be a way to deal with this problem.
Illume wrote and included with a post:
I may be in the minority on this, but I don't see the iPod not being compatible with Vista as much of an issue right now. Vista has been out less than a week and I doubt that many people who were using Windows XP had to update to Vista immediately. By waiting until Vista has been released, various software/hardware companies can see what it actually is instead of what it's supposed to be, and update their software correctly. What would the reaction be if an update, based on what was supposed to be in Vista, ends up being wrong because of necessary last-minute changes in Vista?
Just like another OS change it will take time to fully transition to the new version, and some things will not be ready immediately. The key now is to release updated versions soon.
LordVader717 wrote as part of a post:
The problem is, this is not even viable in a pure MS Word environment. An often-heard complaint is that MS Word documents will look different on different computers, even if both users are using MS Word. I personally had to deal with the problem and ended up requiring people to FAX us a printed document to ensure that we saw precisely what the creator had. We tried to do it electronically, but what we received often did not match what the originator sent (we were both using the same version of MS Word).
MMC Monster wrote as part of a post:
I think it will be a while before this viable. Once there is a cheap device with a full-color screen the size of a comic book that that is capable of being carried around like a regular comic book then this might be viable.
For those who do want comics electronically, I was at a computer store recently and they had a CD-ROM that contained every issue of "X-Men" from the beginning to near the present for about $45.00. I've noticed a number of releases like this (including one that featured 100s of issues of Mad Magazine).
I think the main reason that the resale value of single issues has dropped in recent years is the relatively recent glut of trade paperbacks (several issues of a comic collected and released as a single volume). Another factor is the number of people who went into collecting comics to make money vs reading them for enjoyment.
I started collecting comic books in 1975. At that time if you missed a single issue you were out of luck unless you happened to find someone who had the issue and would sell the issue to you at an affordable price. Otherwise you might never see the issue. That made you more willing to pay a higher price for an issue.
Now if you miss an issue it is often available in trade paperback form soon after its release in single-issue form, and the cost of the trade paperback is often lower than the total cost of the single issues. An example is "Infinite Crisis," a very important seven-issue miniseries from DC Comics.
Less than a year after the series ended it was collected and released as a hardback and it is now available in softback. Both version contain additional information (such as creator's notes) not with the original version. Sometimes I purchase a trade paperback of issues I already have just for the convenience of having the issues in a single collection, and to avoid damaging my original issues.
Simply put, the reason the value of back issues have dropped is because the stories that are in them are not as rare as they used to be.
In a way, I think it is the same reason that movie ticket sales have dropped. Going back to the '70s If you didn't see a movie at the theater you basically had to wait until it was on TV (where I was living at that time there was no cable until the late-'80s), usually in a heavily edited form. This gave you a push to see the movie at the theater.
Now, unless a movie is really good, I don't really worry about missing it at the theater since I know that will soon be on home video. I just don't feel the same push to see it at the theater.
An excellent book about the attempt to bring an e-book device to market is "Cyberbooks," a comedy/sci-fi/romance novel by Ben Bova. It shows the forces that work against the introduction of an e-book reader (some that might be a surprise). BTW, the book shows the device and it looks very like a Palm PDA.
yoprst wrote:
This is not just in video games. In the fall after the movie "Animal House" was released, each of the three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) debuted an "Animal House" type show (ABC's version was a continuation of the movie). Nutshell of it: Success breeds imitation.
Samalie wrote as part of a post:
I don't think its a matter of not wanting originality, its that it is difficult to move away from something familiar.
I have "Midway Arcade Treasures" for the PS2 and one of the games on it is "Joust," which became a big hit. Per an interview with one of the creators, there was trouble marketing the game because it didn't have a fire button, and they had to get people used to the concept of a "flap" button (if I remember correctly, the only which had something similar at the time was an olympic-sports-type game where you quickly pushed buttons to simulate running). I think there is room for originality in games, but it might have to be done in small steps.
I think another factor is the cost of games. One of the factors that made "Katamari Damacy" a hit was its relatively low price (about $20 at a time when games were running $30 to $40). If a game is modestly priced it is more likely that someone will take a risk on it. Now that games are crossing the $50 mark, it is less likely that someone will take a risk on an unfamiliar game. This causes games to stay with the tried and true.
norpan wrote as part of a post:
I agree. I think a problem with trying to have a single format that does everything is that it will result in unnecessary file complexity and larger files sizes. For word processing, I could see a need for a format for text-only files (which can keep file size down), and another format that allows for pictures, tables, and much more complex formatting. As long as the text can be passed from one format to another, having both standards in use at the same time shouldn't be a problem.
To use already available formats, you could compare plain text, RTF, HTML, and OpenDocument. Each allows a different level of formatting that is appropriate for different uses. For example, if I was preparing a document that will viewed on various type of displays (PDA, computer monitor, cell phone) that won't be printed, HTML might be a good choice.
Flavio wrote and included with a post:
I agree that as far as sheer sales go Vista will probably be a best seller because of bundling. But this could also result in lower sales for the home market due to the upgrade issue.
My reasoning is that many home users have computers that are fine for running Windows XP, but are not capable of running Vista without a significant upgrade. Since it is likely that the cost of an upgrade would be expensive, this could result in many home users given both Mac and Linux a serious look.
If my understanding is correct, my current system will require, at minimum, a 300% increase in memory and an upgrade of the video card before I can even consider trying to run Vista. Due to this, it has led me to look at both Mac and Linux as an upgrade option since they are both likely to be less expensive than purchasing a new Vista-capable system, a new monitor (I'm currently using a 14" CRT), and new software applications to replace the ones that will not work with Vista.
ChrisA90278 wrote and included with a post:
I think a better way to put it, if the addiction model is used, is that people are addicted to watching movies, not necessarily buying them. In that case, there are so many movies that a consumer can legally obtain for viewing via rental and television that, combined with a DVR, he/she has access to a large number of movies at all times. This would take the edge off the need to purchase movies.
shawngarringer wrote:
It has been said in various forms by others, but I think one of the reasons it is a major gripe of people is that fact that if your system shuts down (for whatever reason) and must be reactivated you must go to Microsoft itself (and only Microsoft) to get your system running again. You cannot get it running again by yourself, or with help from any other source. If you are not able to get a reactivation key, your system is basically rendered unusable.
A concern I've had is about what happens when support for XP is dropped. I know there was a bit of an uproar when Microsoft was no longer going to support some of its past OSes.
Per Abrahamsen wrote:
I'm one of the individuals over 30 who still reads comics (I've been reading them since 1975). One of my reasons is that I find the stories are often better than what I find at the movies or on television.
One of the factors that is increasing the readership base is the expansion of genres: comics are now more than just superheroes. As an example, one series I read is "Y - The Last Man." Its set in a world where every mammal with a Y chromosome suddenly died, except for one man and a monkey he was training.
Returning to the topic of the article, while I think that while software piracy was a factor in the adoption of MS Office as the standard, another factor was the introduction of Windows itself. It seems like many programs had difficulty making the transition from DOS to Windows. For example, I tried to use Wordperfect for Windows 5.1, and disliked it so much that I ended up returning to the DOS version.
eklitzke wrote as part of a post:
I think the reason for the obsession with OpenOffice is that it is basically looked at as the open-source movement's only head-on competitor to Microsoft Office. Because of that, it is a leading choice of people who want the power of MS Office without using MS Office itself.
I think another reason that OpenOffice is so much a focus is related to the above: The impression that people that have you must use MS Office or something like it regardless of your individual situation. For many people, like home users, something other than MS Office or OpenOffice might be more suitable.
I have StarOffice 8, but most of the time I use a lightweight word processor because I like its speed and ease of use. That is a choice that works for me. In the same way, I save my documents in a format that does not lock me into a single word processor, I have a number of word processors that I can use.
Besides Bluetooth, another possibility that is already in use with Palm handhelds is transfer via infrared. The only problem I could see is if the data transfer limits make this impractical.