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Comment Re:BTW, this proves piracy is irrelevant for artis (Score 1) 610

True, U2 have more money in their pockets than most. However, if you do get around to read the Salon.com article I recommended (and I really think it's a great +5 insightful read), you'll be able to learn about what happens BEFORE someone has the chance to become big as U2. You'll see that the revenue share that privileged U2 and Radiohead opted out from was NEVER good for a starting band in any case.

Comment BTW, this proves piracy is irrelevant for artists (Score 4, Insightful) 610

I thought this album release was quite significant actually. Many years ago Courtney Love wrote on Salon.com ("Courtney Love does the math") that she was not bothered with P2P distribution of her music, as in fact CD sales were not a source of income for artists. Every now and again the publishers associations whine about how artists will perish due to P2P, and on /. there is disagreement with no proper evidence to support it. Now we see a well established band and Apple showing that revenue sharing with a publisher for printing CDs that may or may not be bought is not the best deal they could have.

Opt-in and UI preferences aside, this album was a major release.

Comment Re:Baking Soda May Help! (Score 3, Insightful) 140

I have two objections on the "big pharma fighting the truth about cancer" point of view... maybe you can give this some thought and comment on them:

1) how can the pharma have a PERFECT bureaucracy that wins EVERY time a new alternative cure comes along? A lot of people say that big pharma has a big cover up operation in place and no cure will ever be publicised or made viable unless it suits big pharma. However, when articles about alternative cures come along, they are always revolutionary and obviously simple. If that's the case, why don't we see something as simple as gathering 100 or 1000 cancer patients, treat them, document the success and only then release the findings on Youtube/P2P/whatever?

2) Consider the annual sales and profits of Big Pharma. Then the same for Big Food. IF there's a simple cure using natural food and basic ingredients that big pharma cannot patent, what's Coca Cola, Pepsico and other similarly large companies waiting for to steal big pharma's lunch?

Comment Re:The war that no one wanted (Score 1) 471

I don't know about that... I wrote mud before because a swatch and a "traditional" watch for sports use can just be put under the tap for a good wash. That's "water-proof" in my book, not "water-resistance".

The sauna case is not just because Suunto and Polar are originally from Finland, but because I've had Swatches die (nearly) after I used them in the swimming pool, then sauna, then back to day to day life. I believe it was the battery that could not cope with the change in temperature. A few years of resting in the drawer and that Swatch came back to life with a new battery. I look forward to seeing the tech specs on smartwatches to understand what are their operating parameters. Until then, I assume they are closer to electronics than to the jewellery world.

Comment The war that no one wanted (Score 3, Insightful) 471

I could see dropping 100 bucks, maybe, on something that tracks health telemetry, but honestly? It'd probably have to be a gift before I got it.

One thing I haven't read thus far about the smartwatch situation is that Motorola, Apple, Samsung, etc. are new entrants to an area where Polar, Suunto, Garmin and a few others have already been building this sort of equipment for a long time. These guys have build watches with heart rate and other sensors with varying degrees of ruggedness, specifically for the purpose of surviving sports use. Spending ã100-ã300 for a device that needs daily charging, in a shell that can't go into the sauna, sea and mud just for the sake of having 1000 apps (at ã0.99 each) instead of 10 functions built-in is not that compelling until SPECTACULAR apps turn up.

This article comes at a great time, because heart rate and GPS as apps aren't that convincing IMHO. Maybe a fart-rate app is what the world needs.

Comment Re:oh well (Score 1) 385

not being able to get a copy of a firmware update for someone's out of warranty system, server or not because I'm not "HP certified support" or whatever

If I read TFS correctly, your customer can access the required resources as long as they have a valid support agreement in place with HP.

It looks to me that HP is saying that hardware buyers are only entitled to a license for software patches if they pay some sort of annual rent. Some will pay, some will shop elsewhere.

Comment Re:Relation to Debt Crisis? (Score 1) 196

If we consider that the questions on the survey were:
"do you feel that corruption is widespread in your country?"
and
"do you feel that corruption affects you personally?"

then it's an unsurprising result. If people are told their country is corrupt and bankrupt when it is obviously going through a serious crisis, it is easy to believe in that story and perpetuate that perception of a broken country.

Comment Re:Disappointed (Score 1) 55

breathlessly waiting for the announcement confirming life on another planet because they believe that will be the final triumph of science over God.

nah. the gods won't care and the scientists are probably going to tire quickly of any conversation of science vs gods.

What will be interesting is the impact of that kind of discovery on day to day religious life. Things like "God shaped man in his image and likeness" (Gen. 2.7) will look out of place if weird looking aliens are found. More so if the aliens hold a similar belief about alien-shaped gods.

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