Here in BC we are reputed to have the lowest prices for legal CDs in the WORLD. Even so I wince at having to pay $20Cdn a pop for a mainstream album. And generally the less popular items (singles, small release solo projects etc.)don't get the great deals as far as I see.
Wacom tablets aren't flying off the shelves because they're still marketed as a niche product: You can't *find* the things! It's also only recently that they've made the things affordable with their Graphire. But it's not intended to be a keyboard replacement, rather it's a mouse replacement. And a damn good one, too.
I have a Graphire, and while driver installation caused me to upgrade to Win2k in a moment (2h actually) of temporary insanity that I am still suffering for, the pen is great once you get it running. I don't even use my mouse anymore. And my hand no longer aches after long work sessions, to boot. I don't think they have a Linux driver...
Nonetheless, I can't imagine using it for data entry type purposes unless forced to. I don't want to get writer's cramp on my computer. The missplet-url people would love them though:)
A lot of people seems to think this kind of law will kill arcades. I'm thinking it just might create an upswing in the popularity of dance pad games and photo-card/sticker/tag booths. Try Richmond, BC: most of the arcades there that I know of hardly have any "real" games at all: they're just not as profitable.
OTOH, the "Playdium" arcades are also taking over the business for arcade games here in Canada: They're huge megaplex-style places. Being in large malls I wonder what kind of local political leverage they could have against this kind of legislation. Those places are dead on school days...
First off, I can't get over how many parents in the articles are complaining for a "better" rating system when the game has a clearly visible ESRB icon right on the front, and that system is far more detailed and easier to get information about that the cryptic movie ratings systems (Just try to get a pamphlet on that at the video store). Ok, they may not agree with the ratings - who's to say they'll agree with whatever the BC gov't comes up with?
It's not like kids young enough to be affected by those games can afford to buy the games themselves, and PC games are rarely available for rent (I know of only 1 store that handles them). So maybe the complaining parent in question should look at the box before they submit to their child and/or ask for government protection for their own reluctance to check the screen caps on the back.
Also, what's the system here? Video game stores are not used to carding for games. Some of the reports I've read imply that the manufacturer is held responsible, which is clearly unworkable.
After the whole naked-dancer "No, she's supposed to artistically convey simplicity, really" ad campaign Palm started last year, I'm not surprised they're hiring a supermodel to sell their widgets. I know they're trying to tap into the female half of the market, but that was ostensibly why they did the nude woman ads.
p>You're assuming that the "digital divide" is strictly an economic issue, for starters. What about your grandma? What about high school dropouts who have never used a computer? What about people who can't read? What about people working two jobs and raising kids who just don't have the time to learn? They don't deserve to wait longer for necessary government services than us well-educated computer literate types. Nobody does, regardless of how politically unsavoury anyone may find them.
Hey, what if your computer completely breaks down and you need to get your license renewed today? Too bad, we cut service to the walk-in DMV 'cause we want people filling in the forms on-line. Your nearest office is 50 miles away and is only open from 11 to 2 Tuesday through Thursday...
Even up here in Canada there are government documents that used to be available for free or close to it from a walk-in office, which are now only available as electronic documents for ludicrous fees that only corporations can afford (e.g. detailed topographical maps of B.C., Statistics Canada surveys) But hey, you don't have to wait in line for them anymore!
TV's are nowhere near as difficult to learn to operate as a computer, and they're on the order of ten times cheaper, too.
Besides, just because you managed to work your way out of childhood poverty (walking uphill both ways in a snowstorm every day etc. etc.) doesn't mean that anyone who hasn't managed to is an unworthy slack-ass. Besides, there may even be people poorer than you neighbors. Maybe they are those $50k/yr Silly Vally homeless we heard about earlier:)
The LunaCorp page seems to be touting "wide-open interactivity," i.e. letting Joe Q. Public drive the thing (after proving his skills on a simulator). Presumably they would set up a promotional mall event tour of some kind, e.g. $35 to drive a lunar lander for five minutes (or free with purchase of a playstation2), one day only at BurbGrove Village Mall, brought to you by Radio Shack! But that raises two questions for me:
It won't take any "unsafe actions," does that mean control of the device is going to be pretty much limited to "go/stop" with close supervision?
Can the transmissions be cracked? I can hear the script kiddies drooling already.
I can't believe they aren't selling blue ones. Or yellow ones! I managed to dodge the whole pink-legos-for-girls thing but I thought the blue ones were the best. I still remember making my blue spaceships and cars...mmm.
Maybe this is a way of getting rid of excess green stock. After all, I can't imagine there being a lot of demand for dark green legos. I figure most kids prefer the bright colors.
He speculated that a piece of technology was attached by the pirate to a movie theatre's projector and the film was simply copied.
"A piece of technology?" Is that like a piece of pie? Or did they forget the word for, umm, you know, those boxy things with the screens, you sometime see people on planes with little ones, oh... damn... what are they called again?
If the overseas popularity of IC is so irrelevant to Fuji TV, then
a) foreign-language sites would not be a concern (just like English language sites for anime tend to fall under the radar); and
b) why would they have sent the production overseas for the New York Battle a couple months back?
I just hope this is the actions of some overzealous US lawyers. I'm amazed that these c&d attacks continue to be so popular since they are *universally* reviled by audiences, and the original sites do nothing to damage the intellectual property or profit of the franchise in question. All the company gets for their trouble is bad PR; why waste the postage and lawyers fees? Why would the lawyers want to be seen doing something pointless which damages their clients' popularity?
Without Ironchef.com I would never have seen the crazy CGI opening with the stained glass cathedral windows and giant Kaga statue!
I saw fiberoptic "wired" houses on one of those "Street of dreams" type multi-million-$ house exhibitions a few years back (96 maybe?). Of course, there was no cable modem or faster home internet service locally until several years afterwards, and I got the feeling it was all proprietary standard stuff that might not be compatible with anything. So by the time you could find out if it worked, you were SOL, especially if the fly-by-night company who had engineered and installed had vaporized.
Of course, they also had exquisite computer desks built into the walls. Beautiful woodwork, rolltops, and specially designed space for every peripheral and accessory and CD-ROM your little heart could desire... except for the actual computer (You know, ma'am, the big box you load the CD-ROM into?) I still crack up at that one. And I still don't trust "wired homes" unless I can see it work with my own eyes.
Well, if they presume that Napster use was heaviest at the Universities where it was banned, and if the study as done soon enough after the banning, then sales might not yet have recovered. That's pretty weak though.
I'd like to see a 100-level university stats class study the same thing and do it right >:)
I'm still not sure how anyone can get a patent on a specific set of genes. My understanding of patents would allow a breeder or researcher to patent a particular new hybrid, or at least the process for generating that hybrid, but specific genes are things that already exist in nature, and should be unpatentable.
AFAIK, they don't patent the gene as it exists in the cell, they patent the extracted gene as it exists in the test tube, spliced and diced out of the genome using common gene lab methods. That way, they're not patenting something that demonstrably existed before (thus skirting the "millions of years of prior art" issue), but they make it illegal for anyone else to manipulate the gene in a laboratory setting.
Re:A cautionary tale of Web design
on
Boo No More
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· Score: 1
Part of the pitch was that now you could buy overpriced sportswear in East Armpit, Ala. as easily as in New York.
Last August or so IIRC the fashion magazines were filled with editors singing the praises of Boo.com. They'd all bought Prada shoes there, it was new, it was hip, it was high-tech, all the "in" people were shopping there etc. The only problem was, even as the magazines were on the stands (never mind at the copy deadline), the website was not yet up. Must have been real tough ordering those Pradas, huh, Ms. Editrix?
Once it did go up, months later, the few from alt.fashion who returned after that debacle warned the rest of us of browser crashes a-go-go. Goes to show that word-of-mouth can work against you, too.
I agree, conservatives probably do use censorware more, and that would likely lead to more lefty sites being left out. But c'mon... the Democratic party is kinda large and hard to miss. I can't believe that among all those people, there wouldn't be one Democrat type who'd submit the URL.
Not more time but higher standards...
on
Faster
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· Score: 1
One of the main reasons why we develop technology is to save time and effort. Unfortunately there's not a lot of evidence that that's what happens. It used to be, for example, that if you were writing a report for your boss it had to come typed. Now it has to come word processed and custom formatted with 3-d color charts and a matching Powerpoint presentation.
I recall hearing from one of my professors about a study in which the time spent on housework in the 1970s(?) was compared to similar figures from the 1920s. You'd figure the vacuum, washing machine, dishwasher, etc. would have made life easier, right? Actually, they spent more time doing housework because the standards were higher: doing laundry everyday, vacuuming shaggy installed carpeting, that kind of thing. No wonder we have no time: we strive to make our lives look better, rather than be better.
My examples are going to be from anime/manga, that's what I know...
Not all companies out there take a dim view of fanfiction. How many of you out there are familiar with doujinshi (sp?), the fanfic comic zines put out by comics/animation fans in Japan? They're considered free promotion and a breeding ground for new talent (e.g. CLAMP, who since created X, Rayearth, and CardCaptor Sakura - coming soon to a TV set near you! - etc.). They're left alone by the lawyers there, and if anything are considered an art form of themselves and a natural part of the scene. The mags that cover the comics industry devote pages to doujinshi, and even allow advertising for them. I wish the North American entertainment industry was that far-sighted. I have no doubt that the popularity of Sailor Moon here, or many other anime series, has far more to do with fanfiction and fan websites than any promotional efforts on the part of the show's producers.
Meanwhile, if North American companies had any idea what kind of shenanigans happened in some of those fan comics with characters from Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, etc. they'd have a coronary. But the companies can't launch a lawsuit on someone here who makes or distributes such naughty stuff without acknowledging publically that, yes, Pokémon porn does exist (*shudder*).
There's also the issue that many of the writers are minors, and the stuff they write is an extension of outgrown make-believe play, crossed with adolescent fantasies. (The Sailor Moon cast has assembled a frightening number of Sailor Suns, Sailor Earths, and magical boyfriends of American extraction) Isn't this what they want kids to do - to get caught up in the characters and make their own stories? Didn't we all write Transformers or She-ra or such stories when we were 7?
Yes, the companies own the characters. But while they have every right to tightly control the characters' images in merchandise and in canon, I think that trying to restrict people's imaginations to non-distributed media is pretty self-damaging, and practically impossible to boot.
I count myself extremely lucky that I go to a Canadian university where student reviews of teachers are not only tolerated, they're required.
Near the end of the semester, in every class, we fill out a Scantron-style sheet to grade the profs and TAs, with room for comments at the bottom. Everything's anonymous and usually quite carefully monitored for tampering. The results of those surveys directly results faculty assignment, pay and even the granting of tenure. And the profs are given the final results to see for themselves, with all comments retyped verbatim. I've been so used to it that - silly me - I figured that such a system would certainly be in place at private US colleges where competition for good students and tuition money is so much fiercer. It's sure not sounding like it.
On top of this, many departmental student unions have student-run "anticalendars" which allow students to air their opinions where other students can see them. Some profs even hand out their own feedback sheets. And, funnily enough, when they give the students a place to be heard and respected, there's remarkably little abusive language.
My university has a clause in its' (rather draconian) Student Code of Conduct, which states that nobody can enter a lecture hall without the express permission of the instructor. Yes, even if they've paid their tuition. Granted, it's never been enforced to my knowledge - can you imagine handing out 400 permission slips for one of the big first-year classes?
But a similar rule to this could probably be used to knock out versity.com's notetakers. I prefer the other strategy, which is that the profs post their notes on the web themselves, so that the students can actually listen and participate, instead of madly scribbling notes in class.
You discover that a window was either opened or broken at 3:00 AM the night before and are presented with the option of emailing your local police station to go check it out.
Isn't this what current home security systems are for? Why go the extra step of waiting for you to check in to call the cops? Granted, most current systems can't tell a housecat from a burglar and don't record times. But really, if it can do those things, then I want the security system to call the cops and me, not the other way around.
Or even better, I want it to lock the bastard in the bathroom. With an intercom. "Hi buddy! I'm in Cabo! Do you want the cops to come rescue you, or do you want to live on tap water and shampoo until I get back in a week? Your choice!"
Doesn't it seem odd that all the innovations they mention are clearly flawed concepts from the start?
People have been working on "smart homes" for 20 years now and there are always glaring blind spots in theor ideas. These "smart home" technologies are consistently designed as if the engineers had never maintained a household in their lives. They solve problems that nobody has, and don't address the common household drudgeries we all want rid of. No wonder "smart homes" haven't taken off.
F'rinstance, why would you want to turn your fridge surface into an electronic screen as an "improvement" over paper and magnets? You wouldn't be able to post the kids' drawings and good schoolwork unless you scanned them. And you couldn't grab the grocery list and stuff it manually into your pocket on your way out the door. Do you want to forfeit control over your food expenses to your household appliances?
Why would you want recipes from the internet via your microwave? You usually have to shop for ingredients before trying a new recipe. And besides, how are you supposed to see what the finished product looks like (without turning the micro into another, less versatile, web browser)? I'll stick to cookbooks, thanks.
And forget Aibo, why hasn't anyone come up with a robotic vacuum with AI so it figures out not to suck up Legos, pocket change or notes with phone numbers on them?
I don't want something that "checks" my laundry (i.e. hassles me to take my clothes out of the dryer) or makes my coffee for me (doesn't that mean I have to grind the beans and put in the filters the previous night?) or tells me that I've eaten too many Christmas cookies and need to lose weight (don't even get me started there...).
I don't want something that helps you or me be a good housewife, I want it to BE the housewife.
I wouldn't call this "geek food." It's more like workaholic yuppie food. Think about it: it's very intentionally healthy, it's trendy (the whole "wraps" thing) and it's fast.
Actually, it's probably something overworked supermoms are going to cram in their kids' faces before they rush them off to soccer practice. I think most people associate food with cartoon characters on it with kiddie stuff. I think that'll happen here too, even if the kids don't find Dilbert all that funny.
I live in Canada though, so it'll probably be a while before those things pop up on the local grocery shelves here. What if it is a success then? What else will we see? Dilbergers? Wally-Os? Alice's Fist-Of-Death hot sauce? I know I've seen Dilbert mints already...
Slashdot Mirror
Here in BC we are reputed to have the lowest prices for legal CDs in the WORLD. Even so I wince at having to pay $20Cdn a pop for a mainstream album. And generally the less popular items (singles, small release solo projects etc.)don't get the great deals as far as I see.
I have a Graphire, and while driver installation caused me to upgrade to Win2k in a moment (2h actually) of temporary insanity that I am still suffering for, the pen is great once you get it running. I don't even use my mouse anymore. And my hand no longer aches after long work sessions, to boot. I don't think they have a Linux driver...
Nonetheless, I can't imagine using it for data entry type purposes unless forced to. I don't want to get writer's cramp on my computer. The missplet-url people would love them though :)
OTOH, the "Playdium" arcades are also taking over the business for arcade games here in Canada: They're huge megaplex-style places. Being in large malls I wonder what kind of local political leverage they could have against this kind of legislation. Those places are dead on school days...
It's not like kids young enough to be affected by those games can afford to buy the games themselves, and PC games are rarely available for rent (I know of only 1 store that handles them). So maybe the complaining parent in question should look at the box before they submit to their child and/or ask for government protection for their own reluctance to check the screen caps on the back.
Also, what's the system here? Video game stores are not used to carding for games. Some of the reports I've read imply that the manufacturer is held responsible, which is clearly unworkable.
BNL has also made the ads edit-resistant: how? They're funny. They're cracking jokes. And by and large, everyone's keeping them in.
And boy, was that ever a goofy headband. Yikes.
Hey, what if your computer completely breaks down and you need to get your license renewed today? Too bad, we cut service to the walk-in DMV 'cause we want people filling in the forms on-line. Your nearest office is 50 miles away and is only open from 11 to 2 Tuesday through Thursday...
Even up here in Canada there are government documents that used to be available for free or close to it from a walk-in office, which are now only available as electronic documents for ludicrous fees that only corporations can afford (e.g. detailed topographical maps of B.C., Statistics Canada surveys) But hey, you don't have to wait in line for them anymore!
TV's are nowhere near as difficult to learn to operate as a computer, and they're on the order of ten times cheaper, too.
Besides, just because you managed to work your way out of childhood poverty (walking uphill both ways in a snowstorm every day etc. etc.) doesn't mean that anyone who hasn't managed to is an unworthy slack-ass. Besides, there may even be people poorer than you neighbors. Maybe they are those $50k/yr Silly Vally homeless we heard about earlier :)
Look for it along the bottom of the New Bangkok colony.
Maybe this is a way of getting rid of excess green stock. After all, I can't imagine there being a lot of demand for dark green legos. I figure most kids prefer the bright colors.
a) foreign-language sites would not be a concern (just like English language sites for anime tend to fall under the radar); and
b) why would they have sent the production overseas for the New York Battle a couple months back?
I just hope this is the actions of some overzealous US lawyers. I'm amazed that these c&d attacks continue to be so popular since they are *universally* reviled by audiences, and the original sites do nothing to damage the intellectual property or profit of the franchise in question. All the company gets for their trouble is bad PR; why waste the postage and lawyers fees? Why would the lawyers want to be seen doing something pointless which damages their clients' popularity?
Without Ironchef.com I would never have seen the crazy CGI opening with the stained glass cathedral windows and giant Kaga statue!
Of course, they also had exquisite computer desks built into the walls. Beautiful woodwork, rolltops, and specially designed space for every peripheral and accessory and CD-ROM your little heart could desire... except for the actual computer (You know, ma'am, the big box you load the CD-ROM into?) I still crack up at that one. And I still don't trust "wired homes" unless I can see it work with my own eyes.
Well, if they presume that Napster use was heaviest at the Universities where it was banned, and if the study as done soon enough after the banning, then sales might not yet have recovered. That's pretty weak though.
I'd like to see a 100-level university stats class study the same thing and do it right >:)
Part of the pitch was that now you could buy overpriced sportswear in East Armpit, Ala. as easily as in New York.
Can't imagine why that didn't fly...
Last August or so IIRC the fashion magazines were filled with editors singing the praises of Boo.com. They'd all bought Prada shoes there, it was new, it was hip, it was high-tech, all the "in" people were shopping there etc. The only problem was, even as the magazines were on the stands (never mind at the copy deadline), the website was not yet up. Must have been real tough ordering those Pradas, huh, Ms. Editrix?
Once it did go up, months later, the few from alt.fashion who returned after that debacle warned the rest of us of browser crashes a-go-go. Goes to show that word-of-mouth can work against you, too.
I agree, conservatives probably do use censorware more, and that would likely lead to more lefty sites being left out. But c'mon... the Democratic party is kinda large and hard to miss. I can't believe that among all those people, there wouldn't be one Democrat type who'd submit the URL.
One of the main reasons why we develop technology is to save time and effort. Unfortunately there's not a lot of evidence that that's what happens. It used to be, for example, that if you were writing a report for your boss it had to come typed. Now it has to come word processed and custom formatted with 3-d color charts and a matching Powerpoint presentation.
I recall hearing from one of my professors about a study in which the time spent on housework in the 1970s(?) was compared to similar figures from the 1920s. You'd figure the vacuum, washing machine, dishwasher, etc. would have made life easier, right? Actually, they spent more time doing housework because the standards were higher: doing laundry everyday, vacuuming shaggy installed carpeting, that kind of thing. No wonder we have no time: we strive to make our lives look better, rather than be better.
My examples are going to be from anime/manga, that's what I know...
Not all companies out there take a dim view of fanfiction. How many of you out there are familiar with doujinshi (sp?), the fanfic comic zines put out by comics/animation fans in Japan? They're considered free promotion and a breeding ground for new talent (e.g. CLAMP, who since created X, Rayearth, and CardCaptor Sakura - coming soon to a TV set near you! - etc.). They're left alone by the lawyers there, and if anything are considered an art form of themselves and a natural part of the scene. The mags that cover the comics industry devote pages to doujinshi, and even allow advertising for them. I wish the North American entertainment industry was that far-sighted. I have no doubt that the popularity of Sailor Moon here, or many other anime series, has far more to do with fanfiction and fan websites than any promotional efforts on the part of the show's producers.
Meanwhile, if North American companies had any idea what kind of shenanigans happened in some of those fan comics with characters from Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball, etc. they'd have a coronary. But the companies can't launch a lawsuit on someone here who makes or distributes such naughty stuff without acknowledging publically that, yes, Pokémon porn does exist (*shudder*).
There's also the issue that many of the writers are minors, and the stuff they write is an extension of outgrown make-believe play, crossed with adolescent fantasies. (The Sailor Moon cast has assembled a frightening number of Sailor Suns, Sailor Earths, and magical boyfriends of American extraction) Isn't this what they want kids to do - to get caught up in the characters and make their own stories? Didn't we all write Transformers or She-ra or such stories when we were 7?
Yes, the companies own the characters. But while they have every right to tightly control the characters' images in merchandise and in canon, I think that trying to restrict people's imaginations to non-distributed media is pretty self-damaging, and practically impossible to boot.
I count myself extremely lucky that I go to a Canadian university where student reviews of teachers are not only tolerated, they're required.
Near the end of the semester, in every class, we fill out a Scantron-style sheet to grade the profs and TAs, with room for comments at the bottom. Everything's anonymous and usually quite carefully monitored for tampering. The results of those surveys directly results faculty assignment, pay and even the granting of tenure. And the profs are given the final results to see for themselves, with all comments retyped verbatim. I've been so used to it that - silly me - I figured that such a system would certainly be in place at private US colleges where competition for good students and tuition money is so much fiercer. It's sure not sounding like it.
On top of this, many departmental student unions have student-run "anticalendars" which allow students to air their opinions where other students can see them. Some profs even hand out their own feedback sheets. And, funnily enough, when they give the students a place to be heard and respected, there's remarkably little abusive language.
My university has a clause in its' (rather draconian) Student Code of Conduct, which states that nobody can enter a lecture hall without the express permission of the instructor. Yes, even if they've paid their tuition. Granted, it's never been enforced to my knowledge - can you imagine handing out 400 permission slips for one of the big first-year classes?
But a similar rule to this could probably be used to knock out versity.com's notetakers. I prefer the other strategy, which is that the profs post their notes on the web themselves, so that the students can actually listen and participate, instead of madly scribbling notes in class.
Isn't this what current home security systems are for? Why go the extra step of waiting for you to check in to call the cops? Granted, most current systems can't tell a housecat from a burglar and don't record times. But really, if it can do those things, then I want the security system to call the cops and me, not the other way around.
Or even better, I want it to lock the bastard in the bathroom. With an intercom. "Hi buddy! I'm in Cabo! Do you want the cops to come rescue you, or do you want to live on tap water and shampoo until I get back in a week? Your choice!"
Doesn't it seem odd that all the innovations they mention are clearly flawed concepts from the start?
People have been working on "smart homes" for 20 years now and there are always glaring blind spots in theor ideas. These "smart home" technologies are consistently designed as if the engineers had never maintained a household in their lives. They solve problems that nobody has, and don't address the common household drudgeries we all want rid of. No wonder "smart homes" haven't taken off.
F'rinstance, why would you want to turn your fridge surface into an electronic screen as an "improvement" over paper and magnets? You wouldn't be able to post the kids' drawings and good schoolwork unless you scanned them. And you couldn't grab the grocery list and stuff it manually into your pocket on your way out the door. Do you want to forfeit control over your food expenses to your household appliances?
Why would you want recipes from the internet via your microwave? You usually have to shop for ingredients before trying a new recipe. And besides, how are you supposed to see what the finished product looks like (without turning the micro into another, less versatile, web browser)? I'll stick to cookbooks, thanks.
And forget Aibo, why hasn't anyone come up with a robotic vacuum with AI so it figures out not to suck up Legos, pocket change or notes with phone numbers on them?
I don't want something that "checks" my laundry (i.e. hassles me to take my clothes out of the dryer) or makes my coffee for me (doesn't that mean I have to grind the beans and put in the filters the previous night?) or tells me that I've eaten too many Christmas cookies and need to lose weight (don't even get me started there...).
I don't want something that helps you or me be a good housewife, I want it to BE the housewife.
I wouldn't call this "geek food." It's more like workaholic yuppie food. Think about it: it's very intentionally healthy, it's trendy (the whole "wraps" thing) and it's fast.
Actually, it's probably something overworked supermoms are going to cram in their kids' faces before they rush them off to soccer practice. I think most people associate food with cartoon characters on it with kiddie stuff. I think that'll happen here too, even if the kids don't find Dilbert all that funny.
I live in Canada though, so it'll probably be a while before those things pop up on the local grocery shelves here. What if it is a success then? What else will we see? Dilbergers? Wally-Os? Alice's Fist-Of-Death hot sauce? I know I've seen Dilbert mints already...