I should clarify that I didn't mean nobody had ever thought of that model before. Just that these early web services in 1999 were the direct precursors of today's "cloud" version of that -- in that, this was a time when we had the web and websites, and we had web servers that geeks could buy to put files on if they understood the tech and the protocols, but then someone came along and launched a website saying "sign up here and we'll give you an online hard drive with a web-based file manager".
It's one of the rare 1999 posts where the original article is still reachable (Wired is really good about that, bless 'em) and, notably, it uses the term "file storage lockers" for what might very well be one of the first times. It lists a few competitors in the space, of which some are still around -- Freedrive looks a little sketchy like it may have evolved primarily into a pirate filesharing tool, i-drive (which seems to have also bought Driveway) is still around as some sort of Dropbox competitor, and @backup is now Norton Online Backup (actually I'm not sure if it's the same company -- that's just what lies at backup.com now).
Re: Re: Re: Why Is English The Only Language In The World With Separate Words For Animals Versus Food?
Yeah, good call. Sort of mixed up my points there. In a broader sense, everyone along the northern coast of Europe picked up trappings of language and culture from Vikings. But the Normans were just straight up Viking immigrants.
Re: Why Is English The Only Language In The World With Separate Words For Animals Versus Food?
Indeed -- that's one great example of the impact of the Norman invasion. I also like the fact that, if you take all the English words with Scandinavian roots, you'd think we picked them all up into Anglo-Saxon, from invading Vikings over the pre-Norman centuries. But in fact it turns out only a tiny handful of them came to us directly that way -- most of our Norse words came via the Normans, who had been dealing with their own with viking raiders for hundreds of years. But, there are both -- so we have both first-generation and second-generation Norse words in our language.
One correction, though: it's not true that no other language makes the distinction at all. French has "vache" for cow and "cochon" for pig, for example. It's just that ours is the only language where there is such a clear etymological divide between the two sides -- we use all the Latin words for the foods, and all the Anglo-Saxon words for the animals.
You don't need all that. A live gig, by itself, cannot be pirated -- there are zero people in the world who would say that watching a recording of a concert is a replacement for attending a concert.
Watching recordings of concerts might still be enjoyable, and record labels will surely continue freaking out about unauthorized videos cutting into their DVD and live album sales, or just generally defying their sense of entitlement. But the actual experience of going to see live music -- something people have enjoyed and sought out for centuries -- is a naturally scarce, rivalrous product that can't be freely replicated, and thus the perfect place to be making money.
I have to wonder aloud, why did the accused infringer have to copy someone else's 2 seconds of music instead of creating his own 2 seconds worth to loop on? Wouldn't it have been...well...more "creative" to actually create? Or was he merely trying to co-opt someone else's fame?
Everything is created out of something else, and you can always find a way every artist could have been "more" creative. Wouldn't the guitarist have been more creative if he'd built his own guitar, carefully tuning and tweaking it sound to his own artistic vision, or was he merely trying to co-opt the beautiful sounds of Fender or Gibson? Wouldn't the painter have been more creative to go foraging in the woods for pigments, crafting his very own colours and hues? Wouldn't the photographer have been more creative to design and build his own brand new cityscape, instead of photographing New York at night, or was he merely trying to co-opt the fame of the architects and the advertisers? Wouldn't the writer have been more creative to invent a brand new language with his own custom vocabulary and idioms, instead of riding on the back of English?
Wouldn't all art be more creative if it existed only in the imaginations of newborn infants, built entirely from the raw aether of consciousness without relying on the symbols, ideas and identities that we develop by absorbing things from the world around us?
I can't quite recall the microtransaction one... but on the flipside, they did an excellent one against SOPA/PIPA and one for net neutrality, and their recent episode on how to properly implement F2P mechanics in a non-exploitive way is very good too. I think they get a lot of topics exactly right. Generally, though, on the video game side, it's the design topics I find most interesting -- not so much the more controversial political/business topics.
Because you didn't like one particular (and very personal, off-regular-format) video out of the 250+ videos they've made, you're going to write off everything they've ever said or ever will say?
We've certainly mentioned IndieGogo lots of times! I'm not sure what "reason" you are suspecting based on its location -- half the companies we write about here are in SF.
As for why Indiegogo items don't show up as often in Awesome Stuff, for my part the reason is simple: Kickstarter has Kicktraq, which makes browsing through lots of projects really easy.
In my case, if the name was something normal, I'd have bought one, because it's exactly the kind of bag I've been looking for, and it appears to be quite well-designed and made. But I've got no particular interest in making a simplistic and somewhat confusing statement about branding everywhere I go.
Ultimately I think it all adds up to the simple fact that in show business, letting your career go backwards even briefly is seen as the mark that it's over.
After he'd sat in as host of the Daily Show (a nearly 20-year-old institution at this point), and not just for one night but for an extended stretch, he simply couldn't go back to being a floating guest star. On top of everything else, it'd be seen as an indication that nobody thought he did a good job in the guest host spot.
Hmm... that might be true if the point I was trying to make was "no music is ever forgotten, and all music that is free from copyright remains popular forever!"
Thankfully, nobody here is stupid enough to think that's my point.
Also, another good video on this subject by the same people, comparing games to other storytelling media and discussing the role of the player in creating the story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XlfeXpiSuQ
On the post: This Week In Techdirt History: October 26th - November 1st
Re: “Cloud” Is An Old Idea
It's one of the rare 1999 posts where the original article is still reachable (Wired is really good about that, bless 'em) and, notably, it uses the term "file storage lockers" for what might very well be one of the first times. It lists a few competitors in the space, of which some are still around -- Freedrive looks a little sketchy like it may have evolved primarily into a pirate filesharing tool, i-drive (which seems to have also bought Driveway) is still around as some sort of Dropbox competitor, and @backup is now Norton Online Backup (actually I'm not sure if it's the same company -- that's just what lies at backup.com now).
On the post: Appeals Court Very Concerned About Gag Orders On National Security Letters
Re: typo
On the post: This Week In Techdirt History: September 28th - October 5th
Re: Re: Re: Why Is English The Only Language In The World With Separate Words For Animals Versus Food?
On the post: This Week In Techdirt History: September 28th - October 5th
Re: Why Is English The Only Language In The World With Separate Words For Animals Versus Food?
One correction, though: it's not true that no other language makes the distinction at all. French has "vache" for cow and "cochon" for pig, for example. It's just that ours is the only language where there is such a clear etymological divide between the two sides -- we use all the Latin words for the foods, and all the Anglo-Saxon words for the animals.
On the post: U2 Claims It's Working With Apple On A New Music Format That 'Can't Be Pirated'
Re:
Watching recordings of concerts might still be enjoyable, and record labels will surely continue freaking out about unauthorized videos cutting into their DVD and live album sales, or just generally defying their sense of entitlement. But the actual experience of going to see live music -- something people have enjoyed and sought out for centuries -- is a naturally scarce, rivalrous product that can't be freely replicated, and thus the perfect place to be making money.
On the post: Jay Z Steps Up To The Plate To Argue That Tiny Music Samples Are Unprotected By Copyright
Re: @ PaulT
Everything is created out of something else, and you can always find a way every artist could have been "more" creative. Wouldn't the guitarist have been more creative if he'd built his own guitar, carefully tuning and tweaking it sound to his own artistic vision, or was he merely trying to co-opt the beautiful sounds of Fender or Gibson? Wouldn't the painter have been more creative to go foraging in the woods for pigments, crafting his very own colours and hues? Wouldn't the photographer have been more creative to design and build his own brand new cityscape, instead of photographing New York at night, or was he merely trying to co-opt the fame of the architects and the advertisers? Wouldn't the writer have been more creative to invent a brand new language with his own custom vocabulary and idioms, instead of riding on the back of English?
Wouldn't all art be more creative if it existed only in the imaginations of newborn infants, built entirely from the raw aether of consciousness without relying on the symbols, ideas and identities that we develop by absorbing things from the world around us?
On the post: Awesome Stuff: History Lessons
Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Awesome Stuff: History Lessons
Re: Re:
On the post: Awesome Stuff: History Lessons
Re:
On the post: Awesome Stuff: History Lessons
Re: Kickstarter vs Indiegogo
As for why Indiegogo items don't show up as often in Awesome Stuff, for my part the reason is simple: Kickstarter has Kicktraq, which makes browsing through lots of projects really easy.
On the post: Awesome Stuff: Lock It Up
Re: Re: Stale cache somewhere?
Sorry for the confusion!
On the post: This Week In Techdirt History
Re: Missing post?
On the post: Awesome Stuff: Getting Creative With Bags
Re: LOL
On the post: This Week In Techdirt History
Re:
I assure you we have.
On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: In Other News ...
After he'd sat in as host of the Daily Show (a nearly 20-year-old institution at this point), and not just for one night but for an extended stretch, he simply couldn't go back to being a floating guest star. On top of everything else, it'd be seen as an indication that nobody thought he did a good job in the guest host spot.
On the post: This Week In Techdirt History
Re: Re: Re: humor
On the post: This Week In Techdirt History
Re: humor
Thankfully, nobody here is stupid enough to think that's my point.
On the post: Home Stretch For Supporting Our Net Neutrality Reporting
Re: Paywall
No!
or am I wrong is this going to give normal visitors like me more content every day I visit without paying
Yes!
No paywalls on Techdirt, don't worry about that :)
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On the post: An Actual D&D Effect: Inspiring Kids To Become Writers
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