True. I personally think falling CD sales are mostly due to changing technologies, bad marketing (resistance to lowering prices and lack of retail space), and poor quality of product.
The RIAA's real enemy of its monopoly is Apple but it's far easier to attack downloaders.
Re: Response to: fb39ca4 on Sep 16th, 2011 @ 9:02pm
No, it's OK. The person that should apologize is the ass-hat at the record label who ordered overloading of the rigging with equipment to get more profit and then blames falling CD sales (always file sharing to an RIAA member) as the cause. It's like the Flip Wilson character Geraldine: "The devil made me do it!"
The obvious snubbing of Ron Paul by the media and the Republicans makes an interesting study of both subtle and overt manipulation of the voting process. Hopefully this will wake up the public and create a more open system but I think that the average person is too concerned with the mostly manufactured crises of jobs and house prices to worry which corporate lackey becomes the new front man.
I do not agree with all of Paul's policies and I'm not certain if I would vote for him. However, he is the only candidate that ever makes clear and plain sense and doesn't spew partisan rhetoric.
It seems to me that if I want to do criminal activity on the internet and provide myself a alibi running a TOR exit node would be a good cover.
I have only used TOR so that I could watch TV shows using a static exit node located in the USA. This ended when TOR cut off streaming through TOR. For what other purposes is TOR utilized?
According to the site (https://www.torproject.org/)even the military uses TOR to ensure anonymity and secure communications. What does the average person use it for?
The search warrant declaration is funnier (and more disturbing), in my mind, than the video. It also causes hugely more defamation and embarrassment than the videos and so is far closer to actual harassment. Either all of these officials are remarkably obtuse or one (or more) of them is not and she/he has created a plan for the most brilliant revelation of a dysfunctional public service that I have ever seen - the people hushing it up actually make public what was hushed. I think several top Renton officials have just incriminated themselves (or were incriminated) in breach of public trust charges or at least demotion or dismissal. If the latter (a scheme rather than a Marx Brothers comedy - "Duck Soup" come to mind), the designer(s) of this scheme should have worked for the CIA in covert operations and counter terrorism; The cold war would have ended in 1960 and 9/11/2001 wold not have happened.
I saw this on local news this morning and I'm sure it will go federal. It's good timing - the public is generally upset at dysfunctional government and the media is tuned in to this issue at he moment with the budget mishandling.
Never let the guilty free, make the system so the innocent can't be wrongly convicted. If RLC systems catch innocent drivers so often why have I not been? I see arguments like these a lot but never any evidence to prove the statement.
Bad reporting started long before my birth, this doesn't mean we should tolerate it. I have never read an article in a major newspaper that had content I had first hand knowledge of that was accurate. We should complain and hold reporters to high expectations of accuracy and objectiveness.
It's amazing how the topic of poor scientific reporting is being ignored in the comments while most are rampaging about the incidental red light camera article. However, I see that the same emotional, opinionated, un-thought out, factually inaccurate BS is used in the responses as, presumably, in the article. Oh the irony.
I can not tell if red light cameras increase or decrease accidents at those intersections with them. The access to the raw data, analysis of survey sampling, and studies of factors like holiday and weather are not available to me. The studies Mike cites are not studies, they are reports from politically canted newspapers and car enthusiast sites that should be suspected of bias or should be taken as anecdotal or hearsay at best. You complain about Scientific American not being scientific and use even shoddier evidence to support an opinion presented as fact. Shame on you!
One fact is obvious: If you are caught by a red light camera
you ran a red light. You are a bad driver and deserve the fine. My town has cameras on every major intersection (and many minor ones) and I have not had a ticket in over twenty years. I suspect most of the boys and girls complaining about RLC tickets here are simply self indulgent, undisciplined, douche bags who are so pathetic they break traffic laws as whiny passive-aggressive acts of rebellion and hate that there are mechanisms created to catch them. Just wait twenty years to when, after ignoring the third HUD display warning that you are exceeding the posted speed limit, the car's on board management ECU reads your implanted RFID chip and reports your speeding to a roadside enforcement WiFi hotspot. The ticket will be in your email in basket when you get home. Orwell would laugh his guts out.
Corporate America seems to have reached a point of insanity derived from having too much power for too long.
Obama was recently repeating his mandate to strengthen patent laws in order to protect US industry. This is, most likely, simply acquiescing to corporate interests that support him politically rather than a strategy for the American economy put forward by advisers.
The strategy of patent and sue is sure to weaken the economy in the long run with money and effort spent on litigation rather than research, development and innovation.
I believe that patents should be granted for genuinely innovative inventions with rules that the inventor is paid a reasonable sum for the effort. However, I also believe that if a patent is granted this means that anyone can use the invention in any way they wish when they pay a standardized royalty for for-profit use. This would eliminate the worst enemy of economic recovery - patent trolls.
If a company wants to keep an invention to themselves they should simply keep it a secret and if anyone else comes out with the same idea - tough.
It's really what is done with an invention that gives a company competitive advantage. As an example: I've tried the touch gesture on several tablets and, at least back when they first came out, the Apple iPad was the best and this is part of why the iPad commands a premium price and is so popular.
The lawyers are running the show and reaping the profits of mindless litigation to the detriment of all of us.
The "gaming" concept is already upon us. Credit card and retail companies provide points for use and making particular purchases. In Canada monthly or yearly bus pass fees are totally deductible from taxable income to encourage mass transit use.
It's human nature, generally, to not suffer short term pain for long term gain. Using a game based strategy to provide immediate incentive in order to gain future benefits could be a viable social engineering methodology. So far prison, going to hell, the death penalty, excommunication, and warnings of future disease/environmental disaster/water shortage/food shortage/economic collapse don't seem to sway behavior to any great extent.
The past (and still existing) banking system that almost brought down the entire World's economy (and still might) is due to only looking for short term gains over any far off benefits. If the system only rewarded adherence to regulatory rules and policies the problems may be solved.
My Experience - Yes, do not bet on a single platform - ever!
I agree with the article. I worked on a financial reporting package that interfaced directly with Lotus 1-2-3 (yes, I am that old). Every time Lotus changed 1-2-3 we had to scramble to get a new version of the add-in and we ended up having to support several versions. This resulted in huge develpment and support costs. Then when 1-2-3 for Windows came out they added a development interface that was fantastic. All of it in a well coded and documented C library. Then, because of a promise to the original 1-2-3 developer that he could write his own computer language at Lotus's cost, they came up with LotusScript. LotusScript made all of our 1-2-3 development useless. We also had an Excel interface (you can say a lot of negative things about MS, but the Excel development interface was and is terrific), and tried to build a Quattro addin (a development interface that was not so terrific).
With all of the trouble with 1-2-3 I suggested we develop are own spreadsheet starting with a basic design using open source code that was available and incrementally improving it over time or purchasing an existing spreadsheet like Quattro from the-starting-to-lose-market-share Borland.
The product and, probably, the company would have failed if we only had developed a 1-2-3 interface and not the alternative Excel interface.
I guess I should feel good about myself. Except for the n-word reference I have no idea what any of the others are.
I do agree that the casual use of the word "bitch" is denigrating but at the same time the context has it in no way referring to women and no one has offered a better substitute.
I was worried that I would not be felt up by an under paid, under trained, humiliated TSA employee wearing dirty rubber gloves when I fly out of Houston next month. Something to look forward to!
I remember the first time I heard the title "Patriot Act". My first thought was: "Oh boy! They're going to strip every civil liberty won in the past 200 years in one day in the name of patriotism." And they did. It's the most un-American thing a US government ever did.
Osama may have gotten himself executed but he did destroy an important part of America and so he did get a partial victory. I can only hope that since the US government is not willing to give up the total power they stole from the US people in order to make the defeat of Bin Laden complete the death of America's boogie man will result in new found courage to make the politicians rescind an act that had no real effect on terrorism but a profound effect on Americanism.
It's the overall figure that is significant. My interpretation of the chart is that digital distribution is proportionally increasing as recorded media declines.
I believe mobile devices meaning downloads via services like iTunes into protable MP3 players.
The recording industry often cites Canada (specifically Quebec) as the worst (next to China) source of piracy and piracy as the main reason for music industry declines thus requiring more further greater copyright laws. It's nice to see facts being reported as proving otherwise.
The other fact often ignored by recording types is that even though it is true China and Quebec have a larger amount of illegal downloading than over political regions it is not due to the lack of copyright laws or enforcement measures. It is due to cultural content laws. The Quebec and Chinese people download content because it is the only available delivery channel. The usual retail channels for any foreign content are highly restricted.
On the post: Insurers Suggest Podium & Stage Collapse Tragedies Are The Inevitable Result Of File Sharing?
Re: Re: Re: Insurance
The RIAA's real enemy of its monopoly is Apple but it's far easier to attack downloaders.
On the post: Insurers Suggest Podium & Stage Collapse Tragedies Are The Inevitable Result Of File Sharing?
Re: Response to: fb39ca4 on Sep 16th, 2011 @ 9:02pm
On the post: According To MSNBC, If Online Voters Support Ron Paul, Their Votes Count Less
Ron Paul is Ignored by the Media
I do not agree with all of Paul's policies and I'm not certain if I would vote for him. However, he is the only candidate that ever makes clear and plain sense and doesn't spew partisan rhetoric.
On the post: ICE Screws Up, Seizes Tor Exit Node; Vows Not to Learn From Its Mistake
It seems to me
I have only used TOR so that I could watch TV shows using a static exit node located in the USA. This ended when TOR cut off streaming through TOR. For what other purposes is TOR utilized?
According to the site (https://www.torproject.org/)even the military uses TOR to ensure anonymity and secure communications. What does the average person use it for?
On the post: Police, City Use Ridiculous 'Cyberstalking' Claim To Try To Identify & Jail Creator Of Mocking Videos
Nice Job
I saw this on local news this morning and I'm sure it will go federal. It's good timing - the public is generally upset at dysfunctional government and the media is tuned in to this issue at he moment with the budget mishandling.
On the post: Misleading Scientific American Report On Traffic Cameras
Re: Re: Re: Re: Un-Scientific American
On the post: Misleading Scientific American Report On Traffic Cameras
Re: Re: Re: Re: Un-Scientific American
On the post: Misleading Scientific American Report On Traffic Cameras
Re: Re: Un-Scientific American
On the post: Misleading Scientific American Report On Traffic Cameras
Re: Re: Un-Scientific American
Bad reporting started long before my birth, this doesn't mean we should tolerate it. I have never read an article in a major newspaper that had content I had first hand knowledge of that was accurate. We should complain and hold reporters to high expectations of accuracy and objectiveness.
On the post: Misleading Scientific American Report On Traffic Cameras
Un-Scientific American
I can not tell if red light cameras increase or decrease accidents at those intersections with them. The access to the raw data, analysis of survey sampling, and studies of factors like holiday and weather are not available to me. The studies Mike cites are not studies, they are reports from politically canted newspapers and car enthusiast sites that should be suspected of bias or should be taken as anecdotal or hearsay at best. You complain about Scientific American not being scientific and use even shoddier evidence to support an opinion presented as fact. Shame on you!
One fact is obvious: If you are caught by a red light camera
you ran a red light. You are a bad driver and deserve the fine. My town has cameras on every major intersection (and many minor ones) and I have not had a ticket in over twenty years. I suspect most of the boys and girls complaining about RLC tickets here are simply self indulgent, undisciplined, douche bags who are so pathetic they break traffic laws as whiny passive-aggressive acts of rebellion and hate that there are mechanisms created to catch them. Just wait twenty years to when, after ignoring the third HUD display warning that you are exceeding the posted speed limit, the car's on board management ECU reads your implanted RFID chip and reports your speeding to a roadside enforcement WiFi hotspot. The ticket will be in your email in basket when you get home. Orwell would laugh his guts out.
On the post: Acacia Buys Up More Smartphone Apps Patents: Watch The Patent Thicket Get Worse
Things are getting wierd
Obama was recently repeating his mandate to strengthen patent laws in order to protect US industry. This is, most likely, simply acquiescing to corporate interests that support him politically rather than a strategy for the American economy put forward by advisers.
The strategy of patent and sue is sure to weaken the economy in the long run with money and effort spent on litigation rather than research, development and innovation.
I believe that patents should be granted for genuinely innovative inventions with rules that the inventor is paid a reasonable sum for the effort. However, I also believe that if a patent is granted this means that anyone can use the invention in any way they wish when they pay a standardized royalty for for-profit use. This would eliminate the worst enemy of economic recovery - patent trolls.
If a company wants to keep an invention to themselves they should simply keep it a secret and if anyone else comes out with the same idea - tough.
It's really what is done with an invention that gives a company competitive advantage. As an example: I've tried the touch gesture on several tablets and, at least back when they first came out, the Apple iPad was the best and this is part of why the iPad commands a premium price and is so popular.
The lawyers are running the show and reaping the profits of mindless litigation to the detriment of all of us.
On the post: Using Gaming To Drive Desired Behavior: Privacy Policy As A Game
It's Already Here
It's human nature, generally, to not suffer short term pain for long term gain. Using a game based strategy to provide immediate incentive in order to gain future benefits could be a viable social engineering methodology. So far prison, going to hell, the death penalty, excommunication, and warnings of future disease/environmental disaster/water shortage/food shortage/economic collapse don't seem to sway behavior to any great extent.
The past (and still existing) banking system that almost brought down the entire World's economy (and still might) is due to only looking for short term gains over any far off benefits. If the system only rewarded adherence to regulatory rules and policies the problems may be solved.
On the post: Author Of 'Go The F**k To Sleep' Says Piracy Helped Him... But He Doesn't Support It
Re:
On the post: Being Someone Else's Bitch, Being Your Own Bitch... Or Making Others Your Bitch
My Experience - Yes, do not bet on a single platform - ever!
With all of the trouble with 1-2-3 I suggested we develop are own spreadsheet starting with a basic design using open source code that was available and incrementally improving it over time or purchasing an existing spreadsheet like Quattro from the-starting-to-lose-market-share Borland.
The product and, probably, the company would have failed if we only had developed a 1-2-3 interface and not the alternative Excel interface.
On the post: Being Someone Else's Bitch, Being Your Own Bitch... Or Making Others Your Bitch
Re: Bitch all over the place....
I do agree that the casual use of the word "bitch" is denigrating but at the same time the context has it in no way referring to women and no one has offered a better substitute.
I suggest do not be a "prisoner" to a platform.
On the post: Texas Politicians Back Off Anti-TSA Bill After Being Warned Of Potential Flight Loss
What a Relief
On the post: The Only Eight Senators Who Think Extending The Patriot Act Deserves More Discussion
Re: Misnaming to mislead...
Osama may have gotten himself executed but he did destroy an important part of America and so he did get a partial victory. I can only hope that since the US government is not willing to give up the total power they stole from the US people in order to make the defeat of Bin Laden complete the death of America's boogie man will result in new found courage to make the politicians rescind an act that had no real effect on terrorism but a profound effect on Americanism.
On the post: Oh Look, The Overall Music Industry In Canada Has Been Growing As Well...
Re: Re: Re: I'd like to see actual 2010 concert revenue
On the post: Oh Look, The Overall Music Industry In Canada Has Been Growing As Well...
Re: I'd like to see actual 2010 concert revenue
I believe mobile devices meaning downloads via services like iTunes into protable MP3 players.
On the post: Oh Look, The Overall Music Industry In Canada Has Been Growing As Well...
Ironic
The other fact often ignored by recording types is that even though it is true China and Quebec have a larger amount of illegal downloading than over political regions it is not due to the lack of copyright laws or enforcement measures. It is due to cultural content laws. The Quebec and Chinese people download content because it is the only available delivery channel. The usual retail channels for any foreign content are highly restricted.
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