Comment Re:That depends...... (Score 1) 409
You may want to take a look at the pulse2 link from a little earlier in the thread.
At Atlantic Records, Digital Sales Surpass CDs 273
The NYTimes reports that Atlantic is the first major label to report getting a majority of its revenue from digital sales, not CDs. Analysts say that Atlantic is out in front — the industry as a whole isn't expected to hit the 50% mark until 2011. By 2013, music industry revenues will be 37% down from their 1999 levels (when Napster arrived on the scene), according to Forrester. "'It's not at all clear that digital economics can make up for the drop in physical,' said John Rose, a former executive at EMI ... Instead, the music industry is now hoping to find growth from a variety of other revenue streams it has not always had access to, like concert ticket sales and merchandise from artist tours. ... In virtually all... corners of the media world, executives are fighting to hold onto as much of their old business as possible while transitioning to digital — a difficult process that NBC Universal's chief executive ... has described as 'trading analog dollars for digital pennies.'"
Comment Re:Poor arguments against it (Score 2, Insightful) 459
If you want sex offenders to serve more time, increase the time sex offenders serve. Sentencing "enhancements" are legislative tricks to make it look like a politician is tough on crime. Every law that gives police an excuse to pull over your car fall in this same category. Want an argument against it? It is lazy, it is intellectually dishonest, and it is political showboating to pass a law that you don't think can or should be enforced properly just because it may come in handy as an excuse to increase jail time or authorize a search warrant, etc.
Why should using a gun increase the amount of time someone serves for a felony? If there is a problem with felons not serving enough time pass a law that allows sentences to be longer. Anything else will lead to inconsistent enforcement and sentencing for "equal" crimes. I don't care if someone killed a mother of 3 with a fork or an AK-47 and neither should you, the crime speaks for itself.
Dell To Sell Its Computer Factories 249
Anti-Globalism sends us to a Wall Street Journal for a report that Dell plans to sell its factories in an effort to revamp its production model. Quoting:
"Dell's plants are still regarded as efficient at churning out desktop PCs. But within the industry, company-owned factories aren't considered the least expensive way to produce laptops, which have been the main driver of growth lately and are complex and labor-intensive to assemble. Rivals such as Hewlett-Packard Co. years ago shifted to contract manufacturers -- companies that provide production services to others -- to build their portable computers. H-P builds "less than half" of its PCs in facilities it owns, wrote Tony Prophet, H-P's senior vice president for PC supply chain, in an e-mail. Contract manufacturers can generally produce computers more cheaply because their entire operations are narrowly focused on finding efficiencies in manufacturing, as opposed to large firms like Dell, which must also balance marketing and other considerations."
Submission + - Desktop environment for proprietary applications 2
nushoin writes: Gnome and KDE are the two major desktop environments used on Linux today. However, Gnome is growing more and more affiliated with Microsoft's proprietary technologies (Mono, OOXML). Targeting the Gnome desktop environment could prove dangerous in the long run, assuming that one would like it's applications to run on distributions other than SuSE. On the other hand TrollTech is being bought by Nokia, whose commitment to the desktop world still remains to be proven. Assuming that one would like to develop a desktop application (either free or closed source), which desktop environment would you target, and what widget tool kit would you use?
Submission + - Linux Foundation calls for 'respect for Microsoft' (vnunet.com)
pete314 writes: "Linux needs to recognize Microsoft's leadership in some areas to better itself Jim Zemlin executive director for the Linux Foundation told delegates at the Linuxworld tradeshow in San Fransisco. That includes marketing and competing as well as ending the flame wars.
Anybody who now has an urge to flame Zemlin might not have got his message"
Anybody who now has an urge to flame Zemlin might not have got his message"
Fair Use for YouTube & MySpace Users 100
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "A few years back, documentary filmmakers didn't know what copyrighted clips they could safely include in their films as a 'fair use'. Now there's a well-accepted set of 'best practices' that establishes rational, predictable rules. The same folks who brought rationality to the world of documentary filmmaking are about to work their magic in the user-generated online content space, including user-created videos on YouTube and user-created music on My Space. They said: 'Nonprofessional, online video now accounts for a sizeable portion of all broadband traffic, with much of the work weaving in copyrighted material ... A new culture is emerging — remix culture, an unpredictable mix of the witty, the vulgar, the politically and culturally critical, and the just plain improbable ... What's fair in online-video use of copyrighted material? The healthy growth of this new mode of expression is at risk of becoming a casualty of the efforts of copyright owners to limit wholesale redistribution of their content on sites like YouTube, and of videomakers' own uncertainties about the law.'"
Submission + - The GPL "viral clause" makes it business f (tuxdeluxe.org)
An anonymous reader writes: Paradoxically, the viral clause, the part of the GPL licensing framework that so many people objected to because it wasn't business friendly, made the license business friendly — in the future, a license that liberates business from the drug of DRM and the prison of software patents may turn out to have been equally prescient and business friendly...
Chimps Found Making Own Weapons to Hunt for Food 410
Pojut writes "The Washington Post has an article involving chimps and weapons. Apparently, there have been direct observations of chimps in the west African savannah modifying sticks to create spears. They then use these spears to kill small mammals and eat them. It is the first time that an animal other than a human has been directly observed in crafting a weapon for the purpose of hunting or killing."
Submission + - Fantasy novel serialized on web
Jon Lundy writes: Lawrence Watt Evans has been serializing novels using a donation strategy. His traditional publishers found weren't interested in the series, but his fans were. His second novel is almost done at http://www.ethshar.com/thevondishambassador0.html.
This seems to be an interesting alternative to the current publishing mechanisms, where the readers and writer can use the internet directly to get a book published, that the traditional publishing house wasn't interested in.
This seems to be an interesting alternative to the current publishing mechanisms, where the readers and writer can use the internet directly to get a book published, that the traditional publishing house wasn't interested in.
Submission + - HP voids warrenty if linux is installed
ShadowHywind writes: Having Hardware failures, I decided to call the HP tech support for help. They asked If i Had any other operating System installed, other then Windows. Because I duel boot, I said yes, I have linux and windows installed. He then quickly stated that If you install another operating system other then Windows, It will void your warranty. I quickly hung up the phone hoping that he wouldn't create a file sense i am working on month 4 of 3 years of my warranty. Is it right for a company to void a warranty just because you decide to install something other then windows?
Submission + - The Greatest and Latest XForms Tips
IdaAshley writes: At times it is crucial to programmatically control the writability of data in your XForms. This tip shows how you can change the read-only property of controls programmatically. As data changes in your XForms form it can be essential to know and do something with the new data right away. This second tip shows you how to hook such events right into JavaScript methods to then use the data in many different ways.
Submission + - Wengo releases a Flash softphone for webpages
bolsh writes: "Wengo, a company specialising in VoIP and instant messaging, and patron of the OpenWengo project (previously featured in Free Software magazine and here on Slashdot, has just released WengoVisio — a flash softphone that you can download and embed in your web page, to allow readers to call you when you're available through their browser, without downloading any software (disclaimer: I work for Wengo, on the OpenWengo project).
It's pretty cool — it's functionally cut down from the full Wengophone, but it's enough to be able to make a phone call in a web page for the first time."
EU Throws out Microsoft's Vista Font Trademark 82
vitaly.friedman writes "Microsoft has lost another round at the EU though this time it has nothing to do with the antitrust case. This time the dispute is over fonts; specifically Segoe, one of the typefaces Microsoft wants to use in Vista. Microsoft filed its "registered community design" for the font back in January of 2004, paid the required fee, and everything was great until December." A copy of the decision is also available.
