I'm working on a project now that I believe may solve the E-book problem. It will solve a few other similar problems as well, such as the download of video game ROMs. As much as I believe in openness, I applied for a patent on the business method and system because I don't believe anyone else will do it "right".
The 'E-Book problem' isn't about openness, it's about the fact that people still like to have dead-tree versions in their hot little hands. Having read a few ebooks in my time, looking at a screen (whether desktop or handheld) is just not as immersive as being able to curl up with a book and losing yourself for a few hours.
I suspect that this probably wouldn't have happened in the first place if people in that area had bothered to participate in their local elections before being humiliated on an international scale.
That's a problem when most people are scientifically illiterate. In this age of 2 second sound bites, saying 'goddidit' is easier than learning the facts.
The author sounds like he's got attention span issues. If an RPG only took 10 hours to play, I'd feel ripped off. For games in general, I usually deem one hour per dollar spent a 'break-even' point in terms of ROI. 10 hours would be a total loss, unless it was a bargain bin game. Some of my favorites (Guild Wars, Half-Life 2, etc.) are well past the one hour per dollar level.
It just means that, in a few years, all of the malware will be significantly harder to kill. All of the weaker 'species' will have been driven to extinction (via changes in coding). It had to happen eventually. We may even see 'anti-viral resistant' strains.
They attempted to improve their security and GUI. Any additional features were already available as third party add ons or with different OS's. Were we really expecting anything else? Time will tell if their attempts were successful. I for one have no interest in Vista other than possibly having to use it at work.
I guess they're also trying to sell high-end graphics cards and CPUs, too.
It's no wonder they're having trouble staying in business then, if math is such a problem. Seriously, though, I can see his point. There are so few independent games stores around these days, I can imagine that competing against EBGames/GameStop or Walmart must be difficult, at best.
How about a team of pro bono attorneys who are willing to defend (fight?) cases like this in which a researcher simply wants to share his/her findings? Sort of like a non-profit organization.
We can watch as MS' legal team steps on them like a bug. Not that MS would be in the right, only they would have the most might.
AFAIK, you don't have to pay to publish in nature. You have to pay to get yourself a number of nature (and every university library in the world does just that).
Scientific journal subscriptions tend to follow two paths. One, getting a subscription tends to cost a lot of money, but they're cheap to publish in. The other is the reverse: cheap to get a subscription, but it costs quite a bit to publish in. A subset of the second group (like Nature, and Science) also use ads to defray the costs. Which is why if you pick up a copy of Nature or Science, a large percentage of the pages are ads for equipment and chemicals.
The publishers are worried that the free exchange of scientific information may be bad for the bottom line, as it might cause the money from subscriptions to their journals to dry up.
There is already 'free exchange' of scientific information. The publishers already contribute to it. What they're really worried about is that people will publish in other media, especially where they don't have to pay (or not as much). They're just looking out for themselves. Publishers have to pay the bills and put their kids through college, too.
One of the biggest reasons why I won't be picking up a Wii any time soon is Nintendo's reliance on Mario/Wario spinoff titles. I realize that they made their fortune on Mario's back, but it's been a long time. Hell, I remember when Mario brothers was just another game in the arcade. I humbly suggest that a new mascot is needed, to get Nintendo's creative juices flowing again.
The first thing that popped into my mind upon hearing this was "when they call MS Support, they'll get the Blue Automated Message of Death". Then I realized that the fastest way to get users to dump Linux would be to have them sent to MS' real tech support.
In November, MySpace, for the first time, surpassed even Yahoo in the number of Web pages visited by U.S. Internet users, according to comScore Media Metrix, which recorded 38.7 billion page views for MySpace as opposed to 38.05 billion for Yahoo.
The bad news is that MySpace reached this point so fast, just three years after its official launch in November 2003, that it has been forced to address problems of extreme scalability that only a few other organizations have had to tackle.
I agree. Keeping up with all of the pedophiles is something that most businesses rarely have to deal with.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly. You don't see terrorist bombings in Norway, because Norway isn't sticking their collective noses in other peoples' business.
I'm working on a project now that I believe may solve the E-book problem. It will solve a few other similar problems as well, such as the download of video game ROMs. As much as I believe in openness, I applied for a patent on the business method and system because I don't believe anyone else will do it "right".
The 'E-Book problem' isn't about openness, it's about the fact that people still like to have dead-tree versions in their hot little hands. Having read a few ebooks in my time, looking at a screen (whether desktop or handheld) is just not as immersive as being able to curl up with a book and losing yourself for a few hours.
I suspect that this probably wouldn't have happened in the first place if people in that area had bothered to participate in their local elections before being humiliated on an international scale.
That's a problem when most people are scientifically illiterate. In this age of 2 second sound bites, saying 'goddidit' is easier than learning the facts.
The author sounds like he's got attention span issues. If an RPG only took 10 hours to play, I'd feel ripped off. For games in general, I usually deem one hour per dollar spent a 'break-even' point in terms of ROI. 10 hours would be a total loss, unless it was a bargain bin game. Some of my favorites (Guild Wars, Half-Life 2, etc.) are well past the one hour per dollar level.
Maybe he should check his math processor :P
Wouldn't that be 3.1699999999999999999 then?
It just means that, in a few years, all of the malware will be significantly harder to kill. All of the weaker 'species' will have been driven to extinction (via changes in coding). It had to happen eventually. We may even see 'anti-viral resistant' strains.
So, if someone tries to break the security, does Heimtdallr come out and kick their butts?
shock...
I guess this means we shouldn't urinate on the third screw then, eh?
No, in the land of chocolate, banks and watches.
:D
Japan?
They attempted to improve their security and GUI. Any additional features were already available as third party add ons or with different OS's. Were we really expecting anything else? Time will tell if their attempts were successful. I for one have no interest in Vista other than possibly having to use it at work.
I guess they're also trying to sell high-end graphics cards and CPUs, too.
Surely. .01% would be 4cents.
It's no wonder they're having trouble staying in business then, if math is such a problem. Seriously, though, I can see his point. There are so few independent games stores around these days, I can imagine that competing against EBGames/GameStop or Walmart must be difficult, at best.
How about a team of pro bono attorneys who are willing to defend (fight?) cases like this in which a researcher simply wants to share his/her findings? Sort of like a non-profit organization.
We can watch as MS' legal team steps on them like a bug. Not that MS would be in the right, only they would have the most might.
.... are former Windows users running to the Apple Store to buy a Mac.
All three of them? I wouldn't have thought that three people makes a stampede, no matter how fast they run.
Just wait until they merge and become Skynet. Then we'll really be in trouble.
said it best: "A sucker is born every minute".
AFAIK, you don't have to pay to publish in nature. You have to pay to get yourself a number of nature (and every university library in the world does just that).
Scientific journal subscriptions tend to follow two paths. One, getting a subscription tends to cost a lot of money, but they're cheap to publish in. The other is the reverse: cheap to get a subscription, but it costs quite a bit to publish in. A subset of the second group (like Nature, and Science) also use ads to defray the costs. Which is why if you pick up a copy of Nature or Science, a large percentage of the pages are ads for equipment and chemicals.
There is already 'free exchange' of scientific information. The publishers already contribute to it. What they're really worried about is that people will publish in other media, especially where they don't have to pay (or not as much). They're just looking out for themselves. Publishers have to pay the bills and put their kids through college, too.
One of the biggest reasons why I won't be picking up a Wii any time soon is Nintendo's reliance on Mario/Wario spinoff titles. I realize that they made their fortune on Mario's back, but it's been a long time. Hell, I remember when Mario brothers was just another game in the arcade. I humbly suggest that a new mascot is needed, to get Nintendo's creative juices flowing again.
42.
Did anyone honestly think that the answer would be different?
The first thing that popped into my mind upon hearing this was "when they call MS Support, they'll get the Blue Automated Message of Death". Then I realized that the fastest way to get users to dump Linux would be to have them sent to MS' real tech support.
Extension cords are well and good, but what we really need is a neural power strip. You can never have too many of those.
How is this a science article? I would think it would be a political article, or 'your rights online', or some such.
What with all the exploding robots exploring them, of course they're going to be a bit hazardous.
I would hate to be one of the engineers testing these.
I agree. Keeping up with all of the pedophiles is something that most businesses rarely have to deal with.