foxwizard - Slashdot User

Comment Re:it's a request (Score 1) 240

by foxwizard on Thursday October 14, 2010 @02:05PM (#33897816) Attached to: Government Admits Spying Via Facebook

When an agent of the government (who has the power to destroy you) gains information under false pretenses, it's wrong and should be illegal. What I share online is innocuous and I don't care who uses it; but if a fed decided to friend me and then started to report my political beliefs to his superiors, it's over the line. The very act of asking for information without identifying one's self as a government investigator is questionable.

Comment Re:Does it also cover (Score 1) 2

by foxwizard on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @02:42PM (#33439156) Attached to: Microsoft Patents OS Shutdown

Perhaps Microsoft will require you to pay royalties for doing so?

Ray Kurzweil Responds To PZ Myers 238

Posted by Soulskill on Friday August 20, 2010 @11:27AM from the dem's-fightin'-woids dept.

On Tuesday we discussed a scathing critique of Ray Kurzweil's understanding of the brain written by PZ Myers. Reader Amara notes that Kurzweil has now responded on his blog. Quoting: "Myers, who apparently based his second-hand comments on erroneous press reports (he wasn't at my talk), [claims] that my thesis is that we will reverse-engineer the brain from the genome. This is not at all what I said in my presentation to the Singularity Summit. I explicitly said that our quest to understand the principles of operation of the brain is based on many types of studies — from detailed molecular studies of individual neurons, to scans of neural connection patterns, to studies of the function of neural clusters, and many other approaches. I did not present studying the genome as even part of the strategy for reverse-engineering the brain."

Russian Scholar Warns Of US Climate Change Weapon 415

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday August 18, 2010 @11:11AM from the hurricane-cannon dept.

According to Russian political scientist, and conspiracy aficionado Andrei Areshev the high heat, and poor crop yields of Russia, and other Central Asian countries may be the result of a climate weapon created by the US military. From the article: "... Areshev voiced suspicions about the High-Frequency Active Aural Research Program (HAARP), funded by the US Defense Department and the University of Alaska. HAARP, which has long been the target of conspiracy theorists, analyzes the ionosphere and seeks to develop technologies to improve radio communications, surveillance, and missile detection. Areshev writes, however, that its true aim is to create new weapons of mass destruction 'in order to destabilize environmental and agricultural systems in local countries.'"

Endangered Species Condoms 61

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday April 01, 2010 @12:11PM from the make-it-growl dept.

The Center for Biological Diversity wants to help put a polar bear in your pants with their endangered species condom campaign. They hope that giving away 100,000 free Endangered Species Condoms across the country will highlight how unsustainable human population growth is driving species to extinction, and instill the sexual prowess of the coquí guajón rock frog, nature's most passionate lover, in the condom users. From the article: "To help people understand the impact of overpopulation on other species, and to give them a chance to take action in their own lives, the Center is distributing free packets of Endangered Species Condoms depicting six separate species: the polar bear, snail darter, spotted owl, American burying beetle, jaguar, and coquí guajón rock frog."

Comment Re:The music bubble has burst. (Score 1) 634

by foxwizard on Thursday January 24, 2008 @03:09PM (#22171204) Attached to: DRM-Free Music Spells Trouble?

Not to mention that there were indeed a series of four or so bubbles that made the music industry:
- The first being the birth of Rock and the emergence of adolescent baby boomers to buy it;
- The second being the next phase of rock coinciding with the social movements of the 1960's;
- The third being the baby boom echo of the 1980's and the large marekt of adolescents it brought;
- And, finally, the arrival of Compact Disc technology, which pushed everyone who wasn't buying NEW music to re-buy their OLD music on CD.

Each bubble ended in its time, and the end of the last bubble just happened to coincide with the emergence of the internet, but the music company woes really came from a confluence of the collapse of the CD bubble, a serious decline in the quality of the music they were making available, overpriceing of their product, and the fragmentation of the market place as a smaller group of buyers splintered into fans of different genres. It was this last, the collapse of the monolithic youth market hooked on one kind of music, that has the most lasting effect.

So, while the number of music companies has dwindled from dozens down to just three or four, and their sales have fallen due to all the above, those companies get to blame the internet and file sharing for declines in revenue that are a natural result of other market forces.

I hate DRM, but I really think it would be unnecessary if the price was right for the product. And the music companies are just going to have to adjust their expectations downward to match the real market.

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