Sadly it's a problem across the entire industry...
See: The absolute insanity of the Linux desktop in the last five years, where long-standing paradigms for user interfaces are thrown away and replaced because of... reasons...
There was a really key scene in the original V for Vendetta book, where Evey goes to unmask V, and imagines what she'll find. For a moment she expects to see her father's face. However, the face she finally decides she should see is her own.
The point was that who was under the Guy Fawkes mask didn't matter: V was everyone. V was an idea. "And ideas are bulletproof."
Banning the importation of these masks is the ultimate in shortsighted stupidity. It only draws more attention to the idea under the mask, and will just make things worse...
Besides, if you're going to be a good police state, let them be imported and track the purchases. Then disappear whoever buys them. Yeesh. Way to fail at being an evil, oppressive regime, Bahrain.
Oh don't worry, they'll just point out it's a documentary, might as well be some film student's art house flick. It's not a real movie. Real movies have to lose the studio MILLIONS of dollars to be taken seriously!
No kidding. Like I was saying the other day, importing smart/motivated individuals only creates opportunities. The student visa laws need to be completely rethought, along with the stupid "indentured servitude" H1B visa program...
I think a big part of the problem is any time you try to do ANYTHING to fix problems like this, the usual suspects start dragging in the illegal alien issue, start trying to turn it into "comprehensive immigration reform", and then it devolves into a shouting match.
I really think a lot more positive change would happen if Congress concentrated on breaking things up into small, easy to understand problems and tackling them one at a time, instead of trying to write omnibus legislation that solves everything at once.
Yes, there's a danger that a series of small changes may lose sight of the big picture, but I'd rather take that chance and get SOME problems solved than our current situation where NOTHING gets accomplished...
Unfortunately it's also "standard practice" that there is no other carrier he can take his iPhone to, really, since we have no competition in the wireless market.
Though Straight Talk is an AT&T pre-paid MVNO, which means you *should* get the same coverage as an actual AT&T customer by going with them.
This is, sadly, one of the few areas where Europe really kicks our ass in the US...
Despite absolutely hostile owners trying at every turn to sink it, Hulu has managed to put together a service millions of people find useful and grew its revenues by 65% last year.
You (and I, to a lesser extent), may not like advertising on something you pay for, but many people are willing to put up with it. Especially if the service offers convenience.
The CEO has worked a miracle considering all the obstacles he had to overcome, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what his next project is.
Two rows over from my desk is a network attached scanner that I rather regularly use to e-mail documents that I've signed and such. I actually want to turn the owner of said scanner in, in hopes the patent troll will attempt to sue them for $1k per employee.
Of course, the owner of said scanner is the Federal Government of the United States of America. I'd really be amused to see what happened when they tried to collect $1k per employee of the US Government.
Disney had their own streaming service. No one used it, though, probably because no one ever heard of it.
I recently observed to my wife that our daughter was probably going to be the first kid in two or three generations of our families that didn't grow up actually watching Disney films, since we don't buy DVDs and don't have cable... Guess that's about to change!
Wish it wasn't an exclusive deal, though. Those are inherently anti-consumer... But it's still an improvement, nonetheless. And being a geek with kids, having Disney films on NetFlix does significantly increase the odds of me keeping a subscription permanently.
If I understand the article correctly, it's not that B&N isn't selling a book Amazon is selling, it's that B&N isn't selling a book Amazon is PUBLISHING.
B&N is one of the largest publishers in the US. Last I checked, Amazon didn't sell any of their books. Why aren't people complaining about that?
When Amazon announced they were going to go into physical book publishing, they approached B&N to see if they would carry their books. B&N offered them a deal: Let Kindle load Nook Books and they'd carry Amazon physical books. Amazon for some reason wasn't interested in this arrangement...
Full Disclosure: I have a little inside info (and bias) as a close family member works for B&N...
Except that there have been several reports, as the parent said, of voting machines doing the same thing. It is possible that this was a case of fraud, but (speaking as a software developer and as a realist) it's infinitely more likely this is just an example of incompetence, ie: a software error.
If someone wanted to commit fraud on an e-voting machine, they wouldn't make it display a different candidate than the one you selected. They would just change the ballot when it was stored to disk and not tell you!
Think about it. Romney has pissed off 47% of the American people. That, coupled with the other groups that don't like him should give Obama a landslide. If it does not, something smells and smells really bad...
Except that 47% of the American people doesn't represent a landslide by any sane definition of the world. Except that of those 47% he supposedly pissed off with his comment, the majority of them never even heard the comment, or care about it, and over half of them won't even vote. So, no. There are plenty of things that smell bad about this entire election, but a Romney win is not such an impossibility as to immediately assume something nefarious is going on. Or at least anything nefarious and out of the ordinary.
I didn't even know who Carly Rae Jepsen is until this article. And until two weeks ago when I was riding in a coworker's car to lunch, I'd never even heard the song. I'd see the memes, of course, and I knew they were riffing on the lyrics of a pop song... But that's it.
Maybe the new album isn't doing well because she's just not particularly memorable as an artist? I learned who Jonathan Coulton was because someone shared a video of him playing Re: Your Brains with an audience at PAX, and the reason I was so taken in by his music was BOTH the fact the music was good and his incredible talent at connecting with his audience, as I was plainly able to see in the video.
CRJ may have come up with a cute, catchy pop ditty... But what did she do to build on that? What did she do to connect with the fans who were making her into a meme? Or did she just rush out a new album figuring that she had people's attention? If you want people to focus on you as an artist as opposed to just focusing on one of your songs, you need to give them a reason to do that!
PSY reposts people photoshopping Gangnam Style onto Malaysian McShaker bags via his official twitter account for cripes' sake! He fully embraced the memeing (is that a word?) and ran with it.
Never mind Gangnam Style is a better song than Call Me, Maybe in my never to be humble opinion...
On the post: Microsoft: Just Kidding, You Can Transfer Licenses For Your Retail Versions Of Office
Re:
See: The absolute insanity of the Linux desktop in the last five years, where long-standing paradigms for user interfaces are thrown away and replaced because of... reasons...
On the post: Bahrain Bans The Import Of Guy Fawkes Masks
The point was that who was under the Guy Fawkes mask didn't matter: V was everyone. V was an idea. "And ideas are bulletproof."
Banning the importation of these masks is the ultimate in shortsighted stupidity. It only draws more attention to the idea under the mask, and will just make things worse...
Besides, if you're going to be a good police state, let them be imported and track the purchases. Then disappear whoever buys them. Yeesh. Way to fail at being an evil, oppressive regime, Bahrain.
On the post: NJ Gubenatorial Candidate Speaks Out Against Six Strikes: ISP Shouldn't Decide What You Can Download
Re: Re:
Carl Bergmanson wrote the linked-to article quoting Candidate Bergmanson coming out against six-strikes.
On the post: Kickstarter-Funded Movie Wins Oscar For Best Documentary
On the post: NJ Gubenatorial Candidate Speaks Out Against Six Strikes: ISP Shouldn't Decide What You Can Download
Happy to see the statement being made, but Christie is pretty darn popular right now in New Jersey, so I don't see this guy making much headway...
On the post: Yet Another Example Of Our Bad Immigrations Laws Hurting Innovation And Jobs
Re:
On the post: Yet Another Example Of Our Bad Immigrations Laws Hurting Innovation And Jobs
I really think a lot more positive change would happen if Congress concentrated on breaking things up into small, easy to understand problems and tackling them one at a time, instead of trying to write omnibus legislation that solves everything at once.
Yes, there's a danger that a series of small changes may lose sight of the big picture, but I'd rather take that chance and get SOME problems solved than our current situation where NOTHING gets accomplished...
On the post: AT&T Can Foist Its Data Plans On You, Whether You Use It Or Not
Standard Practice
Though Straight Talk is an AT&T pre-paid MVNO, which means you *should* get the same coverage as an actual AT&T customer by going with them.
This is, sadly, one of the few areas where Europe really kicks our ass in the US...
On the post: Hulu Continues To Wobble Along That Fine Line Between Success And Failure As CEO Bails
Hulu Isn't Dead, Isn't a Failure
You (and I, to a lesser extent), may not like advertising on something you pay for, but many people are willing to put up with it. Especially if the service offers convenience.
The CEO has worked a miracle considering all the obstacles he had to overcome, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what his next project is.
On the post: Patent Troll Shell Companies Shake Down Small Businesses For $1k Per Employee For Using Network Scanner
Of course, the owner of said scanner is the Federal Government of the United States of America. I'd really be amused to see what happened when they tried to collect $1k per employee of the US Government.
On the post: Judge Rules Woman Is Allowed To Flip Off Neighbors With Xmas Lights For Now
Missing Option
On the post: Judge Rules Woman Is Allowed To Flip Off Neighbors With Xmas Lights For Now
Unfortunately, small-town cops back home tended to be power-mad pricks... Making up obscenity statutes seems about par for the course.
On the post: Disney Chooses Netflix As Its Exclusive Distributor Beginning In 2016
2016 is a long way off...
This makes the recent announcement of the shutdown of Disney Movies Online suddenly make a lot more sense.
What's Disney Movies Online you ask?
http://disneymoviesonline.go.com/
Disney had their own streaming service. No one used it, though, probably because no one ever heard of it.
I recently observed to my wife that our daughter was probably going to be the first kid in two or three generations of our families that didn't grow up actually watching Disney films, since we don't buy DVDs and don't have cable... Guess that's about to change!
Wish it wasn't an exclusive deal, though. Those are inherently anti-consumer... But it's still an improvement, nonetheless. And being a geek with kids, having Disney films on NetFlix does significantly increase the odds of me keeping a subscription permanently.
On the post: BitTorrent Book Promotion Drives 40% Of Downloaders To Book's Amazon Page
B&N didn't carry the book before BitTorrent entered the picture
BitTorrent has nothing to do with either of those things.
On the post: BitTorrent Book Promotion Drives 40% Of Downloaders To Book's Amazon Page
Amazon is guilty of this as well
B&N is one of the largest publishers in the US. Last I checked, Amazon didn't sell any of their books. Why aren't people complaining about that?
When Amazon announced they were going to go into physical book publishing, they approached B&N to see if they would carry their books. B&N offered them a deal: Let Kindle load Nook Books and they'd carry Amazon physical books. Amazon for some reason wasn't interested in this arrangement...
Full Disclosure: I have a little inside info (and bias) as a close family member works for B&N...
On the post: Rep. Lofgren Looks To Reddit To Help Crowdsource Anti-SOPA
Luckily someone has already done the work for him!
On the post: Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel On City's Illegal Recordings Of Conversations With Journalists: 'Much Ado About Nothing'
SOP in Chicago
There was a relatively notorious case of an alderman pulling a gun on some of her constituents during a shouting match. She wasn't charged, either.
There has always been a double standard in Chicago regarding criminal laws and government officials.
On the post: Cause For Concern: 'Experimental' Patches Applied To Ohio Voting Machines Without Certification
Error
On the post: Cause For Concern: 'Experimental' Patches Applied To Ohio Voting Machines Without Certification
Re: Re:
Except that there have been several reports, as the parent said, of voting machines doing the same thing. It is possible that this was a case of fraud, but (speaking as a software developer and as a realist) it's infinitely more likely this is just an example of incompetence, ie: a software error.
If someone wanted to commit fraud on an e-voting machine, they wouldn't make it display a different candidate than the one you selected. They would just change the ballot when it was stored to disk and not tell you!
Except that 47% of the American people doesn't represent a landslide by any sane definition of the world. Except that of those 47% he supposedly pissed off with his comment, the majority of them never even heard the comment, or care about it, and over half of them won't even vote. So, no. There are plenty of things that smell bad about this entire election, but a Romney win is not such an impossibility as to immediately assume something nefarious is going on. Or at least anything nefarious and out of the ordinary.
On the post: The Internet Didn't 'Kill' Carly Rae Jepsen's Career
You know what's funny?
Maybe the new album isn't doing well because she's just not particularly memorable as an artist? I learned who Jonathan Coulton was because someone shared a video of him playing Re: Your Brains with an audience at PAX, and the reason I was so taken in by his music was BOTH the fact the music was good and his incredible talent at connecting with his audience, as I was plainly able to see in the video.
CRJ may have come up with a cute, catchy pop ditty... But what did she do to build on that? What did she do to connect with the fans who were making her into a meme? Or did she just rush out a new album figuring that she had people's attention? If you want people to focus on you as an artist as opposed to just focusing on one of your songs, you need to give them a reason to do that!
PSY reposts people photoshopping Gangnam Style onto Malaysian McShaker bags via his official twitter account for cripes' sake! He fully embraced the memeing (is that a word?) and ran with it.
Never mind Gangnam Style is a better song than Call Me, Maybe in my never to be humble opinion...
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