Posts by Daggersedge 79 publicly visible posts • joined 26 Mar 2010
Philae landed, yes, but the harpons weren't deployed. It's just sitting on the surface of the comet; it isn't anchored there. They might be able to try to deploy the harpons again, but the position is a bit precarious at the moment.
Still, well done for landing the thing in the first place. Whatever happens, it is a first in history. It is a proud moment for Europe.
Oh just go away you feminist idiot! I'm a woman and I know you're speaking utter nonsense.
Although you don't say it, your whole rant is aimed at white men. Otherwise, you would say something, wouldn't you about all the violent lyrics of blacks. You know, the ones advocating rape and murder. Otherwise, you would say something about Muslim men in the UK gang-raping 11-year olds in Rotherham. Real stuff, in other words, not the non-problems that you are trying to use to explain why more women aren't programmers.
But no, you reserve your rants for white men who might look at you funny, if they ever have. Who might have said something a bit off-colour in your hearing. Wow! It's so very odd, isn't it that you can be so traumatised given that you feminists say that women are so very strong. One might think you were living in Victorian times or something.
As for why more women aren't programmers, it's simple. They've found that they can make more money writing articles whining about how more women aren't programmers. The industry of victimhood is such a lucrative one, isn't it?
Why shouldn't a tax on the terminally stupid be allowed? It's not as if banning it is going to make them any less stupid, is it?
At least someone is making money off the stupid this way and that's something considering how much the stupid cost the taxpayer. There's all the benefits they end up getting, especially if they get their stupidity classified as some sort of disability. There's all the consequences of their stupid actions. Their stupidity doesn't end with payday loans, you know; it affects every part of their lives. They drive stupidly, for instance. If they ever manage to get a job, they do stupid things that harm the business.
Oh, I know, you feel sorry for them. They are 'vulnerable' people who need the rest of us to watch out for them so that their stupidity isn't 'stigmatised'. The truth is, if you help stupid people, all you get is more stupid people.
Stupid people should be taxed. They should be left to face the consequences of their own stupid actions.
The video shows someone British answering the call, but the article says support will come from a call centre in the Philippines. Will some low-wage, probably poorly-trained worker in the Philippines really be able to help a blind person in England? Given the cultural differences - perhaps the call centre worker just won't know what he is looking at - and given the sort of scripts these workers often use, I really doubt it.
Plus, pay by the minute? Looking at the Eyebridge website, the cheapest plan starts at £19.95 a month. Do the blind really have all that much money going spare?
Have a look at this story from Sweden:
http://www.thelocal.se/20100112/24330
Basically, it turned out that feminists didn't like it when men entered female-dominated fields such as veterinary medicine, dentistry, medicine, and psychology. At the same time, very few women applied to enter male-dominated fields.
In other words, for feminists, equality is: 'What is his is mine and what is mine remains all mine'.
Those who run Google are hitting at the very people who built the company - white men - in order to assuage their own liberal guilt. What they are saying is that the people who built their company are worthless because they aren't black or women or Hispanics. They wish to humilate their own work force in order to demonstrate their politically-correct purity.
They know very well that blacks, women and hispanics didn't build their company because they couldn't. Most women aren't interested in computing. With an average IQ of 85, blacks aren't smart enough to have done it. The type of Hispanics that immigrate, often illegally, to the US usually have low IQs.
They know this very well. They know that average white IQ is 100 and that the average Asian IQ (far-east Asian, that is) is a bit higher than this. They know that they were the only people who could build the company. All that means nothing to their liberal friends who circle like vultures round the company. They want hand-outs. They want jobs with nice titles so they can go on talk shows and talk about being a 'black woman' (or whatever) working for Google. They want to stamp on the faces of white men.
The only aim of these groups of women, blacks and Hispanics is to assert their own power. In their eyes, it's all about them and everyone must agree. Anyone who doesn't is racist and sexist. Any non-elite (and sometimes, elite) white man who has a job is racist and sexist by this definition. These groups have no shame and no honour. They want jobs that they know they can't do. They want credit for things that they know they haven't done.
When will this end? When white men say 'enough' and do something about it. Will that ever happen?
One thing is for certain, though, and that is that you can safely assume that any black, woman or Hispanic working for Google has been hired because of race or sex. You can assume that anyone that falls into one of these categories cannot do his job. You can assume that he is simply a parasite because that is what he is.
Excuse me, people who have to go out and work manage to live on being paid monthly. It's called responsibility. It's called only spending what you can afford to spend.
Benefit récipients are *adults* and they can damn well be expected to act like it. Why should they be babied? Why should they have it better than the people who *pay* for their benefits?
The ones who should be monitored are the ones who let Britain become a hellhole of diversity. The ones who should be monitored are those who let the 'religion of peace' flourish in Britain. It's the ones who provided benefits upon which Islamic fanatics could live while they preached their hatred of all things Western who should be watched. Yes, the ones who branded as 'hate criminals' and 'racist' anyone who spoke against all this should have their lives ripped apart.
No, wait, they shouldn't be monitored. Why waste the time and the money? Just take them out and shoot them.
But nothing will happen and in a month or so, the mainstream media will cease to speak of this barbaric murder. Islamic fanatics will continue to preach hate and will continue to take over parts of Britain. I'm glad I left Britain. France is, by no means perfect on this point, but at least it banned the burkha.
A quick search found the girl's race: she's black. No surprise. What does that have to do with anything, you ask?
Well, in many places in the States, due to the meddling of do-gooders, minority students, that is blacks and hispanics, mainly, cannot simply be sent to dentention or have some other, similar in-school discipline taken against them. This is because the do-gooders decided that minority students were being disciplined more than white students, so there are limits to how many minority students can be disciplined by the school over a period of time. What, then, is the school to do when a minority student misbehaves after that quota has been met? There's only one thing it can do, and that's to call the police. So, instead of just being in trouble with the school, this so-called oppressed minority student now gets a criminal record.
The do-gooders don't care that they have actually made the situation worse. At any rate, they can use the 'disproportionate rate of minority arrests' to further bolster their cause, which, as anyone sane knows, is to make money for themselves. The race industry makes some people very rich.
Oh, and the other thing her race has to do with it: the protest. Her 'community' needs to flex its muscles a bit in order to get more special favours, money, etc. Do you think this story would have even made the local press if the student had been a boy and white?
So someone made some 'sexually suggestive' comments to her and she rushed off to court. I'm glad she has been left with huge costs because maybe it will make other women think twice before they bleat about their 'emotional injuries' or sexism or whatever other nonsense comes out of their mouths.
I'm a woman and one of the reasons I wouldn't hire a woman is because some of them find everything to be sexist. They should grow up or stay out of the work place. They should also learn that if they want to have a baby, they should do it on their own time and not expect anyone else to pay them or hold a job open for them.
Yes, indeed I do and I am fighting for Britain in my own way by doing so. You see, the British government now no longer gets a penny of my money. And that means neither does the diversity or lefties like you.
Nearly 5 million other Brits have done the same thing. We have money and skills and we have taken them elsewhere. Britain has replaced us with Third World types who have neither money nor skills; they just take, take, take.
The more you and your type 'celebrate diversity', the more honest, hard-working Brits will leave until the welfare state collapses. That's the plan. Maybe the diversity will take over first, though. I won't be facing the sharp end of their swords, though, but you and your type will. Enjoy.
Who is going to defend you when the diversity enact their laws that mean that you are, at best, a second-class citizen? Do you really think that they will respect your left-wing causes? And really, you don't even respect your own culture and traditions, so why should they?
What are you going to do when they tell you that you must convert to their religion or pay a special tax? When they accuse you of blasphemy in order to take your property? What are you going to do when they ban alcohol and everything associated with it, including pubs and clubs? What are you going to do when they tell you what you can't eat?
The list goes on and on. Not one of the items on the list of the diversity includes any of the things on your left-wing lists. But after you have driven out, imprisoned or otherwised destroyed anyone who even mildly criticised the diversity, who will defend you? Who will fight for Britain?
First of all, it might be the case that he thinks that doctors have misdiagnosed his heart problems. Perhaps, for several years, they told him he was suffering from one thing and then, suddenly, said he was suffering from another thing. Perhaps he wants to take the old scan to an expert to see what he actually is suffering from and whether whatever it is could be spotted way back when.
It might also be the case that doctors have been moving goalposts, as they have done with blood pressure. Perhaps there is nothing much wrong with him, but doctors thought there was and have been treating him accordingly, but now the doctors say that things are worse. He is wondering about this and wants the old scan so that it can be compared with recent scans to see whether his condition has indeed deteriorated or whether the doctors are simply moving the goalposts in their quest to 'perfect' his body.
These are just two reasons why the scan could be of use. Of course, it would be very convenient for the NHS to just lose old scans and other information so that no-one could ever prove that doctors had got it wrong. It would be very convenient if no-one had access to their old records in case the NHS came out looking something less than the paragon of perfection that it portrays itself as. He who controls the past, you know, controls the future, and that includes those who can 'disappear' the past as well as those who re-write it.
No, predators are NOT everywhere. If you believe the scare stories put out by the tabloid press and the child abuse industry, then you are part of the problem.
Why do you think this collection of data exists in the first place? Because too many people believe that 'predators are everywhere', that's why. They call for something to be done. If only data had been collected and the right people had looked at it then (name the latest scare story) could have been prevented.
The solution is not to collect more data. The solution is not to prevent the data, once collected, from falling into the hands of commercial interests, nor to prevent it from being held centrally. The solution is to STOP collecting data.
The solution, as well, is to stop funding dysfunctional families, because that's where most abuse takes place. Stop giving benefits to 'single' mothers.
Stop seeding distrust between adults and children. Most adults wouldn't dream of doing anything to a child, but everyone in Britain is now treated as if they were paedophiles unless they are cleared by some check. Stop all checks like this. They are a useless bit of security theatre; they prevent nothing.
Stop trawling the past for people who want to 'come forward' about 'abuse' that happened, twenty, thirty, fifty, a hundred years ago that has left them 'traumatised for life'. There should be a statute of limitations. No-one ever should be put in the situation where he has to defend himself against charges of things that happened years in the past, where it is just one person's word against another. Before anyone says it, what, you are going to disbelieve the victims? I'll point out here that they are not 'victims', but accusers and that is all they are. They should have no more rights than any other accuser. It should be for the prosecution to prove that anything happened, not for some stupid attention-seeking idiot to open his, or more likely, her mouth and scream 'abuse'. This isn't justice. This isn't the rule of law.
As well, stop redefining 'paedophilia'. A paedophile is someone attracted to pre-pubescent children, that is, NOT to someone attracted to those who have passed through puberty. It is NOT someone who may, even by accident, looked at a picture that someone else deems to be 'sexual' of something, even a cartoon, that may look to be below the age of 18. It Is NOT someone who may have a camera and have pointed it vaguely in the direction of a place where children might be. It is NOT whatever the latest scare story wants it to be.
Above all, kill off the tabloid press. It wouldn't be that hard: hit them where it hurts, that is, hit their advertising. Refuse to do business with companies that advertise in these rags. If the government had any backbone, it would refuse to give out contracts to any company that has advertised, say, in the last 6 months in these rags, and make it part of the contract that they keep their advertising money away from them.
All these are things that Britain, as a society should do. It won't happen, though. The clowns that pass leaders are too much in thrall to the tabloid press. They are too afraid of the headlines. They are too stupid to see that viewing all adults and potential paedophiles DECREASES, not increases, the protection of children. The people of Britain, as well, are too stupid to stand up against it. They would rather believe scare stories than use their brains. Bah. Britain gets the databases - and their misuse - that it deserves.
I agree with you completely about GW2. The game is boring, boring, boring.
I was in on the beta tests and, at first, I thought the boredom was caused by the fact that I had to keep creating a character for the tests. Sadly, that wasn't it. As soon as it was launched, I dived right in and found myself glad to walk away from it about a month later.
The combat is ridiculous. It's all about having large numbers against the foes: no tactics, no finesse, nothing. Because of the severe level capping, you can never level up and kill a monster with fewer players. Some of the powers of the foes are just ridiculous; the bandit boss in the cave near Divinity's reach can kill anyone in 2 hits, no matter what elite skills that player might have. Not to mention that idiotic troll...
Pardon the pun, but the lack of heaing is a killer. I had a feeling this would happen when they said that there would be no dedicated healing class, but I had hoped that I would be proved wrong. The reason I had had this feeling is that I used to play Runequest - old-fashioned pencil and paper role-playing, that - and it spread the healing around. What happened is that no-one felt responsible for healing anyone else, and the self-healing was not often no sufficient to prevent characters from being killed. That is exactly what happens in GW2. The healing, I have heard it say, is just supposed to help out if a character doesn't manage to dodge a hit, but this is ridiculous because dodging has a long cooldown period. You will get hit. You will not have sufficient healing. No-one will heal you. Engineers, if any are about, might have a healing turret out, but this will be insufficient. You will die if other players don't take out the foe or if there are insufficient players to take out the foe.
The GW2 team likes to brag about its events that take the place of quests, but this sort of thing already happened in GW1. For those of you who played it, remember the farmer in pre-searing Ascalon, the one with the pigs that would escape? Sometimes you could get money for rounding up some of them, and sometimes you couldn't. Some foes roamed and were only sometimes a danger depending upon where they were. I'm thinking about the level 19 corsair that sometimes lurked a little too close to the entrance of of the not-too high level areas in Nightfall.
The crafting system is nice, but the materials are just too hard to find in any number. This is just part of the reason that the economy is all messed up. Cost burdens on characters are too high and gold and other items are too hard to get. The GW2 team does this to prevent farming, but, in reality, all it does is play into the hands of the gold farmers. They just set their bots up and let them run; if it takes a few more hours, so be it. Ordinary, innocent players, though, with perhaps only the time to play a few hours a day lose out big time. This just drives people into the arms of the goldsellers if it doesn't drive them away from the game itself.
The personal story that the GW2 team crows about is nothing at all. It is a bit of over-hyped hack writing and it quickly collapses into the same story. As well, the 'talking head' cinematics are boring. I loved the cinematics in GW1, especially the one where you first see the Eye of the North. They really were full of emotion; you felt you were an important part of the story. In GW2, you are just a pawn and you know it.
Then there are those stupid jumping games. I hate jumping games which is why I don't buy platform jumpers. One minute, you are a noble or whatever and the next you are Mario. It does nothing for the role playing aspect of the game which is already lacking.
Oh yes, not to forget the complete lack of guild-versus-guild PVP action. I wasn't into that in GW1, but many people are and they can't understand why it isn't there. WvW is just another numbers game. Worse, the WvW servers are clogged with PvE players who don't want to be there but find they must in order to completely explore the map.
Oh yes, the graphics are beautiful and I have never seen towns as well done as they are in GW2, but it isn't enough, not enough by far.
You are right about the mods on the GW2 forums, too. They stop all discussion. Any criticism, no matter how mild or constructive, is stomped on, but the fanbois are free to call anyone who doesn't bow down before GW2's altar a 'hater'. That's another thing that drove me away from the game.
Oh, and I don't play WoW either and never have.
This has nothing to do with the current argument about metric/imperial measurments. The calendar to which you refer hasn't been used in a very long time in France and no-one is calling for its return.
Having said that, if it makes your day, there are apps that will give you the current date in that calendar: aujourd'hui, nous sommes 24 vendémiaire.
'Why not give us an immediately recognisable yet unobtrusive logo instead of a block of ugly, redundant text?'
Because RM doesn't want you to use these stickers, that's why. This is part of the 'nudge' process. RM wants to make it difficult and inconvenient to use the stickers so that it forces people to do it the way that the company wants them to. In the future, you can be certain, many posties will manage to 'not see' the sticker.
When I lived in the UK, there would have been no way that I would have wanted any package delivered to the curtain twitcher with her nose in everyone's business next door. Instead of this stupid 'leave the package with the neighbour' system, why didn't RM work with shops and the like to set up a system of intermediaries (relais as they call them here in France)? If they were held at the local convenience shop or something, people could pick up their packages without too much trouble.
Might I remind you that °working° people - you know, the people who are forced to pay for your benefits - usually get paid monthly, and they manage to live.
As for one member of the family getting paid these benefits, well so what? Working people in families sometimes have it so that only one person in the family is in a job, thus, there is only one income and yet they manage to live.
I'm tired of people taking money from taxpayers and whining all the time about how hard they supposedly have it. You don't have to work for your money. You don't have to lift a finger for it so you don't have any right to say how it should be paid or even if it should be paid.
'With that said, while in the West comic books and cartoons are often (unfortunately) seen as works that should be made primarily for children, in Japan that is not the case.'
It's not the case in all of the West, either. Here in France there is a big BD (bande dessinée, that is, graphic novels) culture. You can find BD everywhere - hypermarchés, bookshops, newsagents, etc. There is also a big manga culture here, too. If you wish, you can even get American comic books (in French, of course). The art form is definitely NOT considered just for children. There's even a television station for geeks and otakus.
The first time la loi Hadopi was passed, le Conseil constitutionnel threw it out as against the constitution. The reasons were that the penalty was seen to be disproportionate, IP address was seen to be a weak proof, and justice was deemed *NOT* to be served by an administrative procedure. The law was then amended so that one had to go before a judge before internet access was cut.
It's likely, therefore, that automatic fines won't fly with the court. Certainly, of the reasons given above - which may not be all of the reasons - the IP address still remains weak proof and justice is still not served by an administrative procedure. I don't know whether the court would look upon a fine as being disproportionate, though. I live in France and speak French but I'm not all that well acquainted with the French legal system. It should be noted, though, if I recall correctly, that it was the PS, the party now in charge of the government, who challenged the original version of the law.
Well, if you want a book in the original language, then buy it in that language. I don't see what the problem is here.
As for DVDs, it can be a problem, though. One thing I hate is subtitles that are 'wired' into the film in some way. I have had to buy again some French films I had already bought in the UK because there was no way to make the English subtitles go away. Very annoying when you actually do speak French.
Both things could be true. It can be too expensive and problematic to enforce a law, yet, at the same time, the law's very existence can frighten enough people that they avoid breaking it. Indeed, that may have been the whole point of passing the law. At the time, they were well aware of the problems of enforcing it. I know this because I live in France and speak French and I remember some of the debates that went on at the time.
This is really going to stop a kid who is using the Amazon account of his parents from buying a game that the age rating system says he's not supposed to have. Not to mention those kids who just might buy something in another country while on holiday there with their parents...
'You've never been to France, have you?
Usually you are better of finding an italian or a german, or at least an alsacian, restaurant'
You don't know what you are talking about. I live in France. The food is very good here, and that includes traditional French food.
I don't live in Paris, but I do visit there from time to time. The last time I had a meal in a proper restaurant in Paris (as opposed to picking up a quick sandwich at the Japan Expo), it was at a place a short distance away from la tour Eiffel. In the UK, the food in such a place would have been ghastly and one would have eaten there only out of desperation. But this is France and the steak was well-marbled and cooked just the way I like it. The rest of the meal was delicious as well. The service was prompt and friendly, as is always the case in France.
If you had been talking about the food in UK restaurants, however, I would have agreed with you.
'The moral panic was never really about obesity in the first place. That was all just a convenient excuse.
It's about making people feel guilty by convincing them that they have made bad choices, so that they will be less reluctant to give up the freedom to make those choices.
The Government want to be able to tell you what to eat (actually, they want to be able to tell you what to think, but telling you what to eat is just one small part of that).'
Yes, it is a convenient excuse, but not because the government wants to tell you what to think. It's a convenient excuse for putting more taxes on things such as 'fatty' foods and sugary soft drinks. The government is using the moral panic to make it look as if it is helping people by whacking these taxes on various foods and drinks.
Whenever a government anywhere declares something to be bad, but doesn't ban that something, then you can bet it's a tax-raising exercise.
Yes, that's right, it's man-made global warming that's the cause. Each and every time every one of us turns on a light, our carbon footprint grows and grows and grows like the nose on Pinocchio and now it has grown so big that it has begun to affect a star 450 light years away!
We must do something! Now! Now! Now! We must throw away all our technology. More than that, we must kill - ethically, of course, and in the name of science - 95% of the earth's population. The survivors must then lead lives of neolithic gatherers (hunting, of course, will not be allowed as it entails killing furry little creatures who look ever so cute in television documentaries). These gatherers will be ruled by eco-friendly druids, who, of course, will have to keep some technology for themselves - air conditioners, central heating, electricity, etc - just to keep control until they are certain that everyone is completely enlightened.
Each case having to be fought individually actually favours RBS group. This is because taking a case to court, even the small claims track, can be a very tiring process. RBS group, as the defendant, can do all manner of things to slow down the process so that claimants get tired of the whole thing and settle for some small amount of money.
What can the bank do? If the registered office is in Scotland, it might be able to say that all claims have to be made in Scotland. If I recall correctly, the Scottish small claims track has a much lower limit than the one in England. That would mean that many cases would have to be heard at a more expensive level, if, that is, they were heard at all, because many people in England just wouldn't be able to afford to bring a case in Scotland.
But let's say that RBS has a registered office in England. That doesn't mean that everything will work well for the claimants, not at all. First of all, if a claim is filed using Money Claim on-line, it can have the claim struck out for inadequate particulars. This is because there is a limit of how many characters one can use to describe the claim. This is an old trick, but, as far as I know, the courts are still accepting it. OK, move on to claiming the old-fashioned way at the local court. RBS' legal types will then apply to have the claim moved to wherever the registered office is in England and, as the defendant, it has that right, although the court can show discretion here. Even if the claimant manages to get the claim heard in his area, or is determined enough to go to wherever RBS has registered its office, RBS can then slow down the procedure by asking for the case to be delayed because of lack of staff. That will kick the case three to six months into the future. Meanwhile, RBS will make the claimant a small offer of compensation 'Without prejudice'); by this time, many people will take it just to be done with the matter. There are other tricks, but you get the picture... oh, some cases will be heard, but most people will be put off. They will also be on their own as far as costs are concerned. Costs have to be paid up front. Even if a claimant wins, he will still have to collect the money. RBS can also make that difficult. In the end, most people will be worn down, you can bet.
I know for a fact how difficult it can be to sue someone in the UK as I successfully did so, but was a very wearing process and, if a not-so-bright person like the person I was claiming against can game the system so easily, just think what highly-paid lawyers can do.
This job advert supports that:
http://jobsearch.naukri.com/job-listings-Batch-Analyst-RBS-India-Development-Centre-P-Ltd--Chennai-Delhi-NCR-5-to-10-years-160112001195
However they try to wriggle out of it, though, RBS sacked experienced people in the UK and gave the work to cheap labourers in India.
Interesting article, but there are some points that have gone unaddressed.
The fact that this won't break RBS is worse than if that were possible. With it's hand firmly in the pockets of taxpayers, RBS has no incentive to clean up its act. It can just treat this as a 'little glitch', shrug its shoulders and move on. If that is what happens, and I think it likely given the lack of government response to the situation, then the current disaster can - and probably will - happen again. Will bank 'outages' become the new norm? It's possible. After all, people have been told they will have to put up with standpipes, higher energy bills, higher petrol costs, and lower wages. More to the point, people *have* put up with these things. They have also put up with all the security theatre at airports, the increasingly potholed roads, appalling train service, political correctness, and MPs writing their own expense rules. Certainly, from time to time, they may make a bit of noise, but nothing has been done. Things continue to grow worse and nothing is done. The same could happen with the banks.
The problem with the banks might not be solved, but people will come up with a workaround if these 'outages' keep happening, or, at least, if people think them likely to happen. People will start stuffing their mattresses with money. A few will buy gold, but, mostly, people will start to keep their money out of the banks. That will make them feel safe. They won't be safe, but that's beside the point.
Will the government just stand by while people try to live as much as possible without banks? I don't think so. Most likely it will make the government work harder to institute a cashless society. The government in the UK, after all, thinks cash is evil. If one is using cash, one must be a terrorist or a drug dealer, or, even worse, one must be attempting to evade taxes. Can't have the little people doing that, can we?
Will people put up with a cashless society? Possibly, if they can find a workaround. If the euro still exists, they might import them from the Continent, for example, and create their own shadow economy. They might form barter networks. Whatever workaround is chosen, it will work until it doesn't. Then that's when chaos starts to *really* happen. Technology can allow you to build right up to the 1 year flood mark, and for a time, everything is fine, but when it really floods, when it gets past the barriers, the damage will be much greater than if normal safety procedures were in place, that is procedures in place before the enabling technology existed.
So, while in the short term, thinks might not go badly for RBS, or too badly for the UK, all that is it is doing is storing up problems for the future. Après moi, le déluge and all that.
"They are also in the dock for cramming PCs with crapware and selling you the machine they want you to have instead of the PC you deserve." So what sort of PC do I deserve? I've been racking my brains to answer that question.
Oh, there are things that I want PCs to do, of course, but mostly they are science fiction things that no-one can deliver. I mean, who wouldn't want a PC that is able to command robot armies, while at the same time, teaches you to be a martial arts master, cooks a meal and even make you a cup of tea when you're feeling down? Hey, I even want things that no science fiction computer can do, such as a having a PC that can figure out that I didn't mean to do whatever it is I did and, instead do whatever it was that I really wanted to do.
None of that tells me what qualities a PC would have if it was the PC I deserved. Is this 'deserve' based on moral qualities? I must admit that I've been a good girl; I pay my taxes, I haven't committed any crimes, and I eat everything on my plate. Of course, maybe it means the PC the writer thinks I deserve? In that case, I hope he thinks well of people he's never met and knows nothing about.
Hmmm...it's all become too complicated, this 'deserve'. I think I'll just stick to looking at what products are out there and not buying the ones that don't my more mundane requirements and budget. In that way, perhaps, while I might not get what I want, I'll get something that at least approaches what I need.
Perhaps that's what the writer really meant with his phrase lifted from advertising speak. And perhaps, sometimes, he receives not the comments he wants, but the comments he deserves.
Oh give the feminism a rest, will you? I'm a woman and I'm not offended by this at all. Who cares about what some minority pressure group - which is all feminism is - thinks?
Attack on 'strong women'? What nonsense! It's a story, ok? The personal is not political. People just want to enjoy a gritty story now and again. I'm not a big Laura Croft fan, but a story like that wouldn't bother me if I was.
Frankly, I find your post to be extremely offensive and sexist. You imply that all men playing the game are inadequate geeks who masterbate to it. Gosh, isn't it wonderful how you feel free to stereotype anyone you don't like, but if someone should even looks at a woman in a way you don't like, you scream 'sexism'.
There are problems with this so-called grim picture.
First of all, I don't see why richer artists should subsidise mid-range artists, or, to put it another way, I don't see why more popular artists should be forced to subsidise people who might well be striving to compete with them.
Second, his look at the industry is very US-biased. It's not the same in every place in the world. This matters. He mentioned labour costs in the article, in particular the cost of setting up microphones, etc, before making a recording. I wonder how much the high cost of this labour is down to union rules in the US. The reason I wonder is in the director's commentary of the film Beyond the Sea, Kevin Spacey says that the biggest difference between filming in the US and in Europe was the attitude of the crews. In the US, everyone had a job and that's what every person did - no less, but certainly no more. In Europe, however, the entire crew was willing to help out with anything that needed to be done on the set. This made his film cheaper to make. If something like this operates in the music industry, then it may well be that the cost of labour is artificially high in the US, adding to the costs that small bands or their record labels have to bear.
Third, making a TV series is at least as expensive if not more so than cutting an album, I should think. However, it can and is done with great regularity here in France where I live. These series appear on both the web and on TV for free. That's right, one does not have to pay to see them. Yet, not only have the same groups been able to produce them, but they have been able to do it for some years now. They make their money by selling T-shirts, mugs, soundtracks, novels, other music and bandes dessinées (graphic novels). They also sell DVDs of the series. Yes, DVDs : there are plenty of people, you see, who will buy something for the convenience factor, even though they can get the content for free. The series of which I am speaking, by the way, should you wish to check out my information are: Noob, Flander's Company, and Le Visiteur du Futur, Nerdz, and Karate Boy. One of the series, France Five, even has a following in Japan. The groups producing these have also put out other series, mainly one-season stories (they ended after a season as was intended). They appear on the French channel for Geeks and Otaku: Nolife. Nolife itself runs on a shoestring; it is dependent upon subscriptions to its on-line content, but one can see it on TV for free.
Living in a world where one provides some content for free and some things around that content for money, is possible. It is more work, of course, than just getting signed by some company who then subsidises you from other people's money.
The picture isn't grim at all. Take the big money out of the picture for artists and you might just see the passion for the art return.
Good point.
It can also be said that there is less money for the totality of an artist's works. It used to be that you ended up buying a whole album so that you could hear the one or maybe two songs that you liked; the rest ended up, no matter what their quality was, as just being fillers. These 'fillers' were, in effect, subsidised by the few songs on an album that people actually wanted.
Now, with iTunes and the like, people can just buy the songs they want to hear. That means that an artist will see his album 'sliced up' into individual songs, some of which will sell and some of which will not. No matter how many people buy the 'good' songs, there will be a feeling with some artists, that they are losing out.
Another reason why there is less money out there is that really, quality has gone down. This started in the 80s and it hasn't got any better, I'm afraid. If it weren't for the likes of iTunes, I wouldn't have bought *any* music at all over the last year. As it is, I was able to find certain classics that my collection lacked and the soundtracks for some of my favourite animés. Too many bands, though, sound just like each other. Too little creativity and too much striving for the success another band has had.
'Incidentally, there is and was no strategy that the music industry could have implemented that would have prevented the situation they are now in' : this is NOT true. There is a way to make money from music, films, and books and still offer it for free. It's called providing value-added services on top of the free offerings.
This is NOT a theory. I live in France and here we have a station that provides for free (as long as you pay your broadband access subscription to your provider - not the station) web series such as Noob (http://noob-tv.com/accueil_prod.html) and Flander's Company (http://www.info-graphik.com/flanders/). You can also find these series on the web and watch them for free. Absolutely free. Yet the groups who produce these series make money. How? They sell DVDs of the series - yes, people buy them and I certainly do. They sell bandes dessinées (graphic novels), mugs, t-shirts, and, in the case of Noob, a compilation of music used in the series and novels. They have made enough money to keep going for some years now: Flander's Company is working on producing season 5 and Noob is in the middle of showing season 4.
In addition, the station that shows these series, Nolife (http://www.nolife-tv.com/), finances itself from subscriptions. That's right: although people can get it without having to subscribe to it itself (just their service provider), they still pay to keep it going. It has been going for some years now.
As well, some web comics also use this model. I am thinking specifically of Dave Kellett's comic, Sheldon (http://www.sheldoncomics.com/). Access to the comic is free, but that doesn't stop people from buying his collection book, t-shirts, and posters.
The big corporations whether they are in the music, film, or publishing industry, are just lazy. They don't want to do the extra work it would take to make money while providing free access. They are so lazy, in fact, that they want to use force to prop up their business model. This is pure, outright thuggish behaviour. Copyright should be severely limited. If companies want our money, they should have to work for it. If individual authors want our money, they should have to work as well.
You mean Nolife? Yes, it's a great channel. It's the only channel I watch, in fact.
The Japan Expo is a blast. I go every year to the one in Paris. With Paris only being an hour away by TGV, there probably won't be one held in Lille where I live, more's the pity. But don't forget that the Japan Expo has come to Belgium as well. You could say that the Japan expo is a francophone phenomenon, not just a French one.
I agree entirely. Take my case. I am a British ex-pat living in France and I have acquired a taste for certain French web series such as Noob and Flander's Company. I can watch these for free, or at least for the price I pay for getting broadband. The makers of both series not only put them on their sites for free, but I can also watch them on television for the price I pay for getting broadband, as the television service comes included for no extra charge.
Since I can watch them for free, you would think, therefore, that I would have no interest in paying for legitimate - put out by the producers of the series - DVDs. Far from it. Every time they put out a DVD, I buy it. Every year at the Japan Expo, I make certain to buy anything I might have missed. Why? Because I like them and I want to reward the makers. I also want the convenience of being able to play them if, say, my Internet connection went down.
And more, not only do I buy the DVDs, I buy their T-shirts, music CDs, novels, graphic novels, mugs, etc. I definitely want the makers of these series to feel appreciated.
The makers of these series are tiny, tiny groups of people making them on tattered shoestring budgets, so if they can afford this model, so can the big players. All they have to do is put out something that people want and the people will come and they bring their money.
Runes of Magic isn't a perfect game, but at least it doesn't have any cinematics. I don't like games that consist of cinematic after cinematic. . A few months back I saw an interview with one of the developers and it is clear that he wanted the game experience to be like being in a film; if I want to watch a film, I'll pop a DVD into the player, thank you very much.
And the subscription price! I could subscribe to Dofus for an entire year for the price of the game alone. For such a mediocre sounding game, I can't imagine how Bioware justifies the price. I suppose someone has to take Star Wars fans for all they can.
Why do taxpayers have to pay a subscription fee? After all, taxpayers have already been supporting the British Library and its newspaper archive for years.
I wonder whether this is just a scheme to enrich Brightsolid (or, rather, its owner, DC Thomson). The subscription price is high, but many people seem to think it reasonable. In a few years, though, it might rocket. What happens is DC Thomson is taken over by a foreign company? What if it sells Brightsolid to some foreign company?
I also wonder what will happen to the physical archive. Will some bean counter decided that all the parts that have been digitised no longer need maintaining? Out of sight in Boston Spa and out of mind.
Will all the articles be digitised - even the politically-incorrect ones? Perhaps some future regime, company, etc will decide to 'disappear' the politically-incorrect articles. It might even be happening now.
It's called 'Sleep Cycle' and it's on the iPhone. It works without an armband, I might add. I don't care what the lady in the video says, I would find an armband uncomfortable.
Did monitoring my sleep patterns help me to find out why I don't sleep well? No, I had already guessed the reasons, but it does help me to predict how tired - or awake - I will be during the day. It's a mildly useful app, but nothing to write home about.
OK, d'accord, let Britain import all its energy from France. Let the NIMBY types win. That will be so much easier for everyone than having to take responsibility and make hard political decisions.
Of course, one day, some regime in France is going to say 'non' to something to which the British say 'yes'. That regime will then simply point to the switch that can turn off Britain's power. It will be winter. It will be cold. And Britain will then find itself saying 'non' with the French. End of line.
Oh, and before anyone starts on about French-bashing, I live in France. I like France, its nuclear policy, its people, its culture and its language. I certainly like the fact that electricity is much cheaper here. I'm simply being realistic about what happens when you let someone else take over your infrastructure.
'Disaffected London yoof': how politically correct. They are thugs, criminals, thieves, and arsonists. The UK government should bring in the army and shoot the lot. It's time for martial law.
Oh, and RIM said it would co-operate fully with any request made under RIPA; the company is not just handing over data, so get real. What do you bleeding hearts want? For no-one to be able to do anything about the thugs looting and burning London and other places?
Just one more step on the road to Britain turning into Somalia.
It might even be that Lulzsec works for the Mexican government. You know, Mexico, the country that has produced the world's richest man, yes that Mexico and the Mexico that, instead of investing in it's own economy, instead of taking care of its own people, instead, encourages its poor to illegally enter the US.
That brings us to the bleeding hearts in the US who enable the cheap labour types to make massive profits while impoverishing US citizens. Every cheap Mexican worker is one less US worker. All those jobs that Americans used to have went to Mexicans and other cheap workers, not because Americans didn't want to do them, but because companies didn't want to pay them a living wage. Every cheap Mexican worker is also a drain on the US economy because most of them get benefits in some form or the other: free school meals, affirmative action scholarships, etc. So the US citizens who do have jobs end up supporting the cheap labour that is destroying the US.
This, of course, plays right into the hands of the elites with money. The bankers, the big property owners, the multi-national corporations all benefit from illegal Mexican labour. They can buy another yacht, another island, another politician with all this money. Not that they need any more than they already have, but you have to keep score some way, don't you?
So when Arizona tries to fight back, when Arizona tries to stick up for its citizens, you know, the little guys who won't be able to get a job and eat or have any sort of future at all because cheap labour Mexicans keep taking their jobs, then Arizona comes under attack. All the usual 'civil liberties' groups pop out of the woodwork screaming 'racism'. To them, only non-whites have rights. Then the US federal government attacks. Never mind the rights of states. Never mind the rights of US citizens. No, those come second, if they come at all, to the rights of non-US citizens because cheap labour trumps all.
And now Lulzsec gets involved. Lulzsec pretends that it is something special. The group fancies itself to be filled with rebels. Far from it. Now I know, absolutely know, that the hackers that form that group are the same old politically-correct fools that fill up the middle classes, that fill up the local councils in the UK (and the equivalent in the US), and that make up the majority of politicians in any Western government you happen to name these days.
In a way, I don't really care. The US isn't my country and, given how it interferes so much in the business of other countries, it won't bother me to see it fall. Still, though, one should be honest about these things instead of the hypocrites and fools that the bleeding hearts types are - instead of the hypocrites and fools that make up Lulzsec.
You know, the types who see "This family buys pork products so let's suspect them of being racist and anti-muslim.'
Or maybe not, because any member of the politically-correct 'protected' groups can, without so much glancing at a database, just point a finger these days and scream 'racist' to destroy someone's life.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
