First the argument was that the Internet would break down boundaries and make us all all-singing, all-dancing folk holding hands and getting along in general. Then Yahoo found out the hard way that national laws still apply to the Internet.
Then the argument was that the free sharing of files would obliterate the music and film industries. As we've seen, legislation and court decisions have shown that Big Media has big, sharp teeth. They can't cut off filesharing, but it's certainly impossible to build a Napster or Grokster style business around it. The Pirate Bay saga shows that you have to have massive tungsten-carbide balls to take on Big Media.
As others have noted, the mimeograph, the recordable cassette tape, the VCR, and other technologies have all at one time or another heralded the beginning of the end for copyright, yet it and the business conglomerates built atop it remain quite resilient.
Implicit in that statement is the silly idea that the government and the corporations are separate entities.
Implicit in that statement is gross oversimplification of the complex relationship between corporations and government. It makes for an easy slogan, but isn't helpful beyond that.
Dude, it's painful to me that you used Journey as an example. In my darker moments I still have flashbacks to the feathered Steve Perry hair and horrible lyrics like, "The smell of wine and cheap perfume...." Now I feel a bit ill.
It was cool. So was Knowledge Navigator. But vapor is vapor, and products people can actually buy are the only tangible indicator of what's important at a company. The fate of Courier shows that advocates of a radical, post-Windows approach lost a big internal fight. Microsoft continues to clearly demonstrate that Windows is their anchor.
Anchors keep you from getting blown away when a storm comes. They also keep you from moving forward.
This kind of panic has happened before. I don't understand why so many people freak out any time Apple gets serious about distribution.
Apple's decision to open its own retail stores nearly a decade ago was attacked as a move that would destroy Apple's retail presence and piss off consumers. One clever analyst told MacWorld: "It's another case of Apple being Jobs driven and not consumer driven." Guys like him got it completely backwards. Customers didn't actually enjoy having to look all over the place to find Apple products. Apple customers benefited from the stores. Developers benefited. Apple benefited.
A few years later, Apple created the App Store. It was widely derided as being overly restrictive for developers. There were a lot of statements about how it would strangle the platform. We all know how that turned out.
As for Winer, I think he'd rather Apple stick with the Mac as the future of the company. That ain't gonna happen. Consumers have voted with their wallets. They want an easier experience all the way 'round, from finding apps to purchasing and using them, and Apple is providing that. The company has become a global powerhouse over the last few years by giving people what they want; developers can either get on board with that and find ways to profit, or they can develop on other platforms.
There's a fair amount of snarkiness in the tech community about all those fools in the business world, about all the dinosaurs who can't keep up with the times, but when it comes right down to it, we're often just as attached to the status quo, and just as slow to react.
The fact of the matter is, Iran, when they get nukes, will not use them unless they are attacked, and even then that's an iffy proposition. Both (or more) of the countries involved know what will happen when the nuclear genie is used. And it ain't pretty.
I think you're right about Iran. The nuke program is more about prestige and internal politics than about an actual desire to use 'em. But we're certainly well into the realm of speculation about matters of human motivation and judgement, and pretty far afield from facts.
It's highly unlikely that a national government would expend the military and technical resources necessary to shoot down a satellite, not to mention draw international ire, merely for the sake of placating the copyright lobby. They're big players, but there are limits to even Disney's power.
It's far more likely that a pirate satellite would encourage the copyright cartel to push to expand existing laws to make them more iron-clad regardless of jurisdiction. The Pirate Bay would gain a temporary advantage, but it would likely backfire over the long haul.
... the Carriers Of Milk In Cities (COMIC) today lashed out at refrigerator manufacturers and cardboard container manufacturers for "killing the milk industry".
Ferb Nordquist, the head of COMIC said in a statement that was hand carried to every major news outlet, "We, the milk carriers, bring milk to the masses. Without us, there would be no milk. The refrigerator and cardboard manufacturers are putting a stake in the heart of the milk industry. This is really the beginning of the end for milk."
In other words: If you don't like something, please shut your mouth and don't say anything, particularly in, you know, a website explicitly designed for discussion. Have I got it right?
The mainstream media has screwed this one up for years, but it's embarrassing to see hacker and cracker treated as equivalent terms in this, the last bastion of geekdom.
The actual article goes into some detail about the tradeoffs, one of which is that moving to the boonies doesn't convey as many cost advantages as some workers expect. I think it's great that more IT folks will be able to work outside the urban centers, but it's certainly no panacea. If you like living in a smaller town, you hate commuting, and you're comfortable being a bit outside the professional mainstream, go for it.
I've noticed that an awful lot of Slashdot posts about the results of scientific studies get marked "obvious". It seems we're all either pretty goddamned smart (so smart that we don't need science to test our suppositions) or pretty goddamned arrogant (so arrogant that we don't need science to test our suppositions).
Look to the underlying protocols
on
Apple vs. Google TVs
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
More importantly, what is this "broadcast" technology I keep hearing about? I say Westinghouse will OWN with this new tech.
Good point. It could also be said that a large, well established industry churns out more of the kind of ideas that lead to patents and trademarked entities in particular. The infrastructure of investment, money for legal fees, and so on is in place in an established industry.
Given that copyright protection attaches without legal filing, I'm not sure there's such a powerful relationship in the world of copyright.
Africa has been weathering the global downturn surprisingly well, and democracy is on the move across the continent. Ten years ago The Economist called Africa "The Hopeless Continent", but in a June, 2010 article they talk about the rise of entrepreneurs and better overall governance. If anything, this century may see Africa finally climbing out of the hole it's been in for so long.
The first time around, it was the United States that started as a stealer of inventions from other countries, then over time became far more interested in protecting intellectual rights. When your own industry isn't generating the ideas, you figure anyone's ideas are fair game; when your industry is coming up with new ideas, you want to protect your position.
People socialize to maintain relationships, to know what's going on in each other's lives, and provide support, encouragement, and a laugh or two. This works online and offline. It's not really complicated.
Slashdot Mirror
First the argument was that the Internet would break down boundaries and make us all all-singing, all-dancing folk holding hands and getting along in general. Then Yahoo found out the hard way that national laws still apply to the Internet.
Then the argument was that the free sharing of files would obliterate the music and film industries. As we've seen, legislation and court decisions have shown that Big Media has big, sharp teeth. They can't cut off filesharing, but it's certainly impossible to build a Napster or Grokster style business around it. The Pirate Bay saga shows that you have to have massive tungsten-carbide balls to take on Big Media.
As others have noted, the mimeograph, the recordable cassette tape, the VCR, and other technologies have all at one time or another heralded the beginning of the end for copyright, yet it and the business conglomerates built atop it remain quite resilient.
I think it's more like, "Company of any size is evil." The publisher in this case isn't exactly Murdochian in scale.
Implicit in that statement is the silly idea that the government and the corporations are separate entities.
Implicit in that statement is gross oversimplification of the complex relationship between corporations and government. It makes for an easy slogan, but isn't helpful beyond that.
How do we get to the nearest planet inhabited by Orion women?
That is all.
Dude, it's painful to me that you used Journey as an example. In my darker moments I still have flashbacks to the feathered Steve Perry hair and horrible lyrics like, "The smell of wine and cheap perfume... ." Now I feel a bit ill.
Facebook is doing quite well in Europe.
It was cool. So was Knowledge Navigator. But vapor is vapor, and products people can actually buy are the only tangible indicator of what's important at a company. The fate of Courier shows that advocates of a radical, post-Windows approach lost a big internal fight. Microsoft continues to clearly demonstrate that Windows is their anchor.
Anchors keep you from getting blown away when a storm comes. They also keep you from moving forward.
... that science and religion are compatible.
This kind of panic has happened before. I don't understand why so many people freak out any time Apple gets serious about distribution.
Apple's decision to open its own retail stores nearly a decade ago was attacked as a move that would destroy Apple's retail presence and piss off consumers. One clever analyst told MacWorld: "It's another case of Apple being Jobs driven and not consumer driven." Guys like him got it completely backwards. Customers didn't actually enjoy having to look all over the place to find Apple products. Apple customers benefited from the stores. Developers benefited. Apple benefited.
A few years later, Apple created the App Store. It was widely derided as being overly restrictive for developers. There were a lot of statements about how it would strangle the platform. We all know how that turned out.
As for Winer, I think he'd rather Apple stick with the Mac as the future of the company. That ain't gonna happen. Consumers have voted with their wallets. They want an easier experience all the way 'round, from finding apps to purchasing and using them, and Apple is providing that. The company has become a global powerhouse over the last few years by giving people what they want; developers can either get on board with that and find ways to profit, or they can develop on other platforms.
There's a fair amount of snarkiness in the tech community about all those fools in the business world, about all the dinosaurs who can't keep up with the times, but when it comes right down to it, we're often just as attached to the status quo, and just as slow to react.
The fact of the matter is, Iran, when they get nukes, will not use them unless they are attacked, and even then that's an iffy proposition. Both (or more) of the countries involved know what will happen when the nuclear genie is used. And it ain't pretty.
I think you're right about Iran. The nuke program is more about prestige and internal politics than about an actual desire to use 'em. But we're certainly well into the realm of speculation about matters of human motivation and judgement, and pretty far afield from facts.
There are rules in space.
It's highly unlikely that a national government would expend the military and technical resources necessary to shoot down a satellite, not to mention draw international ire, merely for the sake of placating the copyright lobby. They're big players, but there are limits to even Disney's power.
It's far more likely that a pirate satellite would encourage the copyright cartel to push to expand existing laws to make them more iron-clad regardless of jurisdiction. The Pirate Bay would gain a temporary advantage, but it would likely backfire over the long haul.
I wasn't aware that the US had a binary choice, in which it could either:
Remember last November, and the discussions in May?
... but coverage of this topic in Slashdot has been consistent across election cycles. Check out these examples from the 2008 campaign:
Fact checking isn't difficult. Here's a list of Slashdot articles about Diebold, if you don't believe me.
... the Carriers Of Milk In Cities (COMIC) today lashed out at refrigerator manufacturers and cardboard container manufacturers for "killing the milk industry".
Ferb Nordquist, the head of COMIC said in a statement that was hand carried to every major news outlet, "We, the milk carriers, bring milk to the masses. Without us, there would be no milk. The refrigerator and cardboard manufacturers are putting a stake in the heart of the milk industry. This is really the beginning of the end for milk."
No cows were available for comment.
In other words: If you don't like something, please shut your mouth and don't say anything, particularly in, you know, a website explicitly designed for discussion. Have I got it right?
They're going to be so screwed when the service goes down for an entire day every four years. Ah, but then they'll introduce Office365+.
The mainstream media has screwed this one up for years, but it's embarrassing to see hacker and cracker treated as equivalent terms in this, the last bastion of geekdom.
The actual article goes into some detail about the tradeoffs, one of which is that moving to the boonies doesn't convey as many cost advantages as some workers expect. I think it's great that more IT folks will be able to work outside the urban centers, but it's certainly no panacea. If you like living in a smaller town, you hate commuting, and you're comfortable being a bit outside the professional mainstream, go for it.
I've noticed that an awful lot of Slashdot posts about the results of scientific studies get marked "obvious". It seems we're all either pretty goddamned smart (so smart that we don't need science to test our suppositions) or pretty goddamned arrogant (so arrogant that we don't need science to test our suppositions).
More importantly, what is this "broadcast" technology I keep hearing about? I say Westinghouse will OWN with this new tech.
Good point. It could also be said that a large, well established industry churns out more of the kind of ideas that lead to patents and trademarked entities in particular. The infrastructure of investment, money for legal fees, and so on is in place in an established industry.
Given that copyright protection attaches without legal filing, I'm not sure there's such a powerful relationship in the world of copyright.
Africa has been weathering the global downturn surprisingly well, and democracy is on the move across the continent. Ten years ago The Economist called Africa "The Hopeless Continent", but in a June, 2010 article they talk about the rise of entrepreneurs and better overall governance. If anything, this century may see Africa finally climbing out of the hole it's been in for so long.
The first time around, it was the United States that started as a stealer of inventions from other countries, then over time became far more interested in protecting intellectual rights. When your own industry isn't generating the ideas, you figure anyone's ideas are fair game; when your industry is coming up with new ideas, you want to protect your position.
People socialize to maintain relationships, to know what's going on in each other's lives, and provide support, encouragement, and a laugh or two. This works online and offline. It's not really complicated.