Posts by Vladimir Plouzhnikov
1974 posts • joined Thursday 5th July 2007 09:47 GMT
Page:
Re: Hang on...
"It means a) enforcement should be targeted at the wealthy few who do most of it and b) since they're generally wealthy, services should think about nice premium services."
I think your solution sounds very much like an extortion racket - find out who's got some cash, make them an offer of "premium services" which they cannot refuse, otherwise "enforce" it on them.
Anyway, regardless of the relative merits of turnips v brains, your numbers do show that if you eradicate 88% of piracy you will, at best, gain 3.2% of customers. That would be before you find out if any of the 3.2% will chose to remain your customers after being subjected to "eradication" and will not just find something else to entertain themselves.
Re: Concert spending
Wait a second, Andrew!
""Copyfighting" is really creationism's twin brother."
In that case copyright must be the equivalent of Darwinism, right? Darwinism relies on natural selection and competition. Copyright is by definition anti-competitive. Problem? ;-)
Re: Concert spending
"but the overall effect is negative."
Oh, says who?
Re: They missed "Impatient Bastard"
"but the hardware and software required to produce your own more permanent media is all but ubiquitous"
But what about the time I will have to spend on doing it? When somebody else has already pressed the CD, put it in the box and is willing to mail it directly to me?
As you said, that's apart from pressed CD's being of better quality/longevity and the cost of equipment amortisation and consumables...
@Lamont Cranston
No-o-o! How can that be?!
Corruption only ever happens in Russia or in Nigeria - I know that for sure, because that's what they always say in the news...
Re: I thought Germans were efficient?
Inefficient? How?
You see a small budget surplus your department stands to lose, as it has underspent slightly this quarter. You see a bunch of new computers which can be replaced for roughly the same amount. You arrange them become "accidentally" infected with the most fashionable virus/worm/trojan of the day. You write them off, arrange your nephew to "remove" them, which he does for a small fee. He then spends a month cleaning them up in the evenings, using free tools available on the internets, sells them for, say, 100k, you split the money half and half, your department buys the replacement machines, the budget is secure, everyone's happy.
Very efficient!
Re: Buy new harddisks. Install Eadon, I mean Linux....
The really interesting question is who got the machines after they've been written off? I bet he was even paid for "disposal"... Also quite sure he is a relative of some senior bureaucrat from the department in question.
Re: Once again...
Yes, how dare we criticise MSFT for forcing an interface designed to work only for colour-blind people on everyone?
Ramon
Ram on, give your heart to somebody
Soo-o-o-o-n right away, right away...
Re: Just ignore Eadon
:-) If you find Eadon's posts so inflammatory and disturbing, you yourselves are as bigoted as how you think Eadon is. You twothree need to calm down and take it easy. Look outside the window(s), for a change... The spring has arrived, finally!
Nukular material
"you’ll need some kind of official say-so to go gallivanting around with nuclear material in your pocket."
But... but... you can freely buy a Traser watch full of beta-active tritium! Must be a Government conspiracy...
Re: Accounting for the specific impacts of climate change on women
It's simple - the climate will be warmer, more women will be walking around in bikinis, which will make more US senators more horny so they'll solicit more "transactional" sex - see?
A punt
Here is a developer who hoped that an unorthodox marketing move will boost sales (by "going viral") of an otherwise unremarkable casual game, knowing that it will never break even if he marketed it in the traditional way.
It didn't work out, so he is cross with the whole world now... Cry me a river.
Re: gamers and pirates
"EA used this angle with a couple of their Sims 3 Expansion Packs. You can't access certain in-game features without logging in to their servers."
LOL! And they can't access the contents of my wallet as I will never buy any cr*p that tries to pull things like that on me.
Here, count those real lost sales!
Peas v pancakes?
Not the way I would have split the budget but once you've already gone for eggs and milk - maybe you should consider trading your chickpeas for some flour - you can make decent pancakes with eggs, flour and milk and do the stew (or soup) using just rice and meat.
I'm still concerned with the lack of fresh/canned vegetables - one week is fine, but if you live long enough on such diet you will face a real possibility of scurvy...
@Steven Roper RE: "Music" is the problem
That's an impressive collection, by all counts. But one question though - no prog?
@Triggerfish "Music" is the problem
What you are saying would have been true were we talking about different genres of music. We are not. Not really.
Some modern music is just primitive low quality crap. Just like with any other thing produced by humans you can usually tell if something is crap or not. But some people like crap, because they have a primitive taste. You can walk into any souvenir shop anywhere in the world and see what I mean.
But then there is a whole different paradigm. I maintain that house, rap, dumb step etc are actually NOT music at all. They are more akin to African tribal drums, they are meant to affect totally different circuits in the brain than music. They consist of just one composition, endlessly rehashed with minute variations. They all have highly formulaic structure based on monotone repetitive rythm pattern with a "bass drop" in the middle, followed by more of the same repetitive rythm pattern. If you express it mathematically you will probably find that all of these "songs" are 99.999% identical. And it is the rythm pattern that is purpose of listening to these audio styles. They are just painless substitutes to knocking one's head against the wall as a way to induce a mild trance.
Music serves totally different purpose.
Re: Vladimir Plouzhnikov Silver badge The real immorality
I agree with you and I have no illusions about the galmour factor of the profession in question. But keeping it illegal only makes things worse for the women involved. And your comparison with fast food is totally appropriate - just as the fast food worker rarely consider their work a long term career proposition, so would the fast nookie workers, but at least they will be afforded the same legal protection.
Also, legalisation will destroy the economic base for prostitution-running gangs. Oh, wait, maybe that's why it isn't happening?
Re: @Vladimir Plouzhnikov
Thanks! With such peer recommendations I may take up a career in hip hop studies! Cheers! :-)
Re: Vladimir Plouzhnikov Silver badge The real immorality
I don't really care what Facepuke wants or doesn't want. Also, Facepuke clearly ignored what was going on, T&Cs be damned... The article is not so much about Facepuke removing Madam's page but about virtuous Vietnamese cops using it to track and shut her down. But again, I don't care much about that either. For me, the article just highlighted the glaring immorality of outlawing prostitution...
@Sabroni Re: "Music" is the problem
"music I don't listen to or understand."
Understand?
Bm-tsk-bm-tsk-bm-tsk-ehehehehehehehe-Bm-tsk-bm-tsk-bm-tsk-___-Bm-tsk-bm-tsk-bm-tsk
Mathafakabitchcrapfarkinhobitchmathafaka
Bm-tsk-bm-tsk-bm-tsk-ehehehehehehehe-Bm-tsk-bm-tsk-bm-tsk.....
Enjoy! :-)
"Music" is the problem
The term "audio quality" just isn't applicable to rap, house, techno, bieber, schmieber and similar. That cr*p would sound the same coming out of Aerial Acoustics driven by a Krell, as out of an arse.
The deteriorating tastes in music and devaluing of music itself is the problem.
The real immorality
So, these girls-"associates" had a more or less secure way of finding and screening clients, high level of fees, more or less defined minimum work place standards.
Now, they have been "saved" from all that, so that they are faced with working on the streets for peanuts, in unsafe environment and will risk rape and murder - and that if they won't just simply be jailed....
So much for the "saving".
Re: Soup.
Yes, make soup, have some rice, tomatoes and maybe some dried fish - should enable you to survive more or less indefinitely. Buy only the ingredients - i.e. no pre-processed products (other than dried fish).
Are you allowed to catch a pigeon or two? They'd be a free supplement...
Re: 'and also we presume in penance for his part in cinematic outrage Pearl Harbor'
He should have gone to Equadorian Embassy here...
Re: Summator
Well, still better than not to fire at all, IMHO...
Re: Summator
Any number of old Russian wind-up toy cars or trains - just oil them up with high-altitude lube. As far as I remember, they even had stopper mechanisms which you can tie tethers too.
But I think something like this would be particularly appropriate for LOHAN :-)
And they don't need to be resettable - that's the whole point. If it can run for, say 20-30 secs in total, it can absorb 20-30 1-second upsets before triggering anything...
Re: Streaming does suit my needs....
Streaming does NOT suit my needs.
Re: Summator
No electronics. Just a clockwork from a toy (they still make clockwork toys, do they?) which can be pre-"baked" to remove moisture before putting in a lightweight plastic case...
Summator
To minimize the chance of accidental launch due to turbulence - replace the switch with a clockwork set to close contacts in, say 15 sec, when the line is slack. This way, a momentary slackness due to turbulence will not immediately trigger ignition...
Can still use "remove before flight" band and a removable pin for safety and added coolness.
The other way round
I see the parachute as the problem. It may not fully open or get tangled and not have enough force to pull the safety pin out.
Make it the other way round. Make the contacts spring-loaded to close but to be held open by the tension between the balloon and payload module, with the spring forcing the contacts to close when the tension disappears (i.e. when the balloon bursts).
Safe it with a pin *before* launch (use one of those "remove before flight" red streamers). As the balloon picks up the tension in the shrouds (and the fail-safe line) pull the pin out just before releasing LOHAN into the air.
Re: Don't want DRM?
I knew that would come up :-)
Since with all the high talk of protecting creativity they have managed to outlaw competition in the IP business, the only way to get a product competitively is on a black market - aka "illegal downloads".
The way copyright currently works would be highly illegal in itself in most other industries (price fixing, cartels, market manipulations). So, them claiming illegality against the only market competition there is is a bit rich.
Re: Don't want DRM?
That's a sensible advice. The trouble is that when someone tries to do just that - not to buy DRMed content, but to, say, download a DRM-free version, the big evil corporations are spitting blood -"pirates!" etc.
So, it doesn't work.
Re: "But we have to have DRM."
He thinks he does? Good for him. He can still f*ck right off.
No DRM, no content? I'll settle for no content then. No big loss.
"But we have to have DRM."
No, you don't. Now f*ck right off.
Comparisons with electricity are inappropriate
When you turn on the lights you don't send the generating company a request for permission to turn the lights on. You pay the utility's bill, after that you and only you control the use.
With "always on" games you control nothing. You only beg the games publisher (which is not even the "utility" providing your connection) to please, kindly let you play the game. They make the decision what you are allowed or not to do in your home.
This is not acceptable.
Also, the participants' positions look a bit misaligned for the presumed process....
Re: Manchester Style
*Temperance* Road, eh? Hmmm....
Re: I don't get it
"The thing being accelerated gets up to 30 km/s (if I got it right). So, this is your maximum speed"
No, no, it doesn't work like that!
There are many ways of looking at this but it you consider the conservation of momentum, your spaceship is a system with momentum of mass times velocity. If you throw some amount of fuel mass at some exit velocity, that fuel will have negative momentum (because the velocity of fuel is negative comparing to the velocity of the ship). Therefore, the ship must compensate by increasing its momentum by the same amount. Because the mass of the ship is only going smaller (as the fuel exits) it is the velocity that must be getting higher.
Consequently, as long as you continue to throw fuel (reaction mass) out the back of the ship it will continue to accelerate, regardless of the maximum speed at which the reaction mass can fly away. If you have enough fuel, your ship will eventually approach the speed of light (when it will hit the relativistic limits).
Re: I don't get it
"Well could you not run the engine for 6-7 days to go even faster and get there in half the time?"
I believe you could but at twice the expense in fuel.
I think it converts potential energy of the fuel nucleons into kinetic energy of the fusion products in the resulting plasma. The electrical energy is only used for triggering the reaction and for containment and is not added to the balance but is actually subtracted. Or so it seems to me...
P.S. Or both added and subtracted, to be precise, so its total contribution is 0
Re: Also
We are not the only ones - bonobos do it all the time.
Re: "Human penis are bigger than the great apes."
"The popular science writer Richard Dawkins ...speculated in 2006 that the loss of the bone in humans, when it is present in our nearest related species the chimpanzee, is a result of sexual selection by females looking for honest signals of good health in prospective mates."
That's rubbish. It just wouldn't fit in the trousers, that's all.
V1 in Space!
I want it, go NASA, build one now!
Also if you add a couple of extra magnetic lenses further down the exhaust you'll get a plasma cannon!
Re: RE: @Vlad
"If one accepts Spinozas idea of God and Nature being one in the same substance then theology/religion has no reason for being. The word God is reduced to a synonym."
Not quite. Spinoza's Nature is more like a subset or a particular manifestation of God.
"No one can sit at the bedside of a dying child and still believe in God"
That's not a philosophical but emotional statement. Anyway, if one follows Spinoza's idea then the child would not have existed in the first place if there were no God.
It's all getting rather too philosophical.
Re: RE: @Vlad
"Do you honestly believe that your faith would exist if you had never been handed a bible, torah, koran."
Or the "Manifesto of the Communist Party"...
"Your imagination is fuelled by mere words from a book."
But what book! Complete collection of Lenin's works, no less.
"God exists only because you want him to and because others want you to think that way."
But others may want me to think that way because God influenced them to do so. ;-)
If you talk about god in the primitive sense of him being a bearded old man on a cloud, micromanaging the evolution of species - it is easy to dismiss the idea and enjoy the feeling of "knowing better".
However, if you ever consider God in a deeper philosophical context of, say, for example, ideas expressed by Spinoza, it's getting much more complicated and much more difficult to simply dismiss as nonsense.
Re: RE: Atheism isn't a faith @AC 09:58 GMT
"I do not believe there is no god. I do not believe there is a god."
OK, so you are agnostic. To me it's not the same as atheist or theist.
"I require the same amount of faith to not believe that god exists as I do to not believe that Santa exists."
So, you are also agnostic about Santa? That a bit more extreme - I always thought that those NORAD games of Santa tracking on the Christmas eve were a bit cruel towards the more naive amongst us. I see I was right...
Re: Techology and Faith @Bailey86
A much simpler explanation for the placebo effect is that human organism may mobilise its resources better against an ailment if the brain concludes that it has received help from an external intervention.
Re: RE: Atheism isn't a faith @Vlad
"I don't believe there is a God, because there is NO proof that there is", "If someone proves to me there is a God, I'll quite happily believe in him/her/it".
That sounds more like agnosticism to me. My understanding of the term atheism is that it states "I believe that there is no God even though there is no specific evidence that there isn't".
Re: Newtonian Atheism
"Remember - your Newtonian/Atheist world view is a faith itself"
LOL. Last I checked Sir Isaac Newton was a devout Christian... But his laws are holding up quite well for certain input parameters, so there is nothing requiring faith in Newtonian mechanics.
