Punmaster 's BestNetTech Comments

Latest Comments (43) comment rss

  • On the post: It Took The NY Times 14 Months And $40 Million Dollars To Build The World's Stupidest Paywall?

    Punmaster ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2011 @ 12:24pm

    Re:

    "Of course, until that Utopia is born, the journalists and publishers of NYT have decided it would be nice to get compensated for their work."

    They were getting compensated. By the ad sales. That were valuable because of all the users that read the stories. Just like the paper version was.

    Now, they'll have less users reading.

    So the ads will be worth less.

    I'm thinking that this experiment is going to be another dismal failure.

  • On the post: And I Thought Rupert Murdoch Thought Copying Stories From Other Publications Was 'Stealing'

    Punmaster ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2011 @ 08:21am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    "...This is more than enough evidence for the Murdoch to..."

    I like that - "The Murdoch".

    I'm going to refer to him as "The Murdoch" from now on... makes me want to come up with Monster Manual stats for him.

  • On the post: Why Are Canadian Regulators Telling Music TV Channels How Many Videos They Can Play?

    Punmaster ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2011 @ 11:06am

    Re: Re: Re: Why Are Canadian Regulators Telling Music TV...

    I'm sorry, but I disagree - the number of good musical acts from the time BEFORE the CRTC imposed Canadian Content Regulations (1971) is much smaller.

    All of the bands named benefit DIRECTLY from CanCon regulations, because they get airplay from it. Yes, they're good bands, but so were a whole bunch of bands relegated to obscurity pre-1971.

    Like I said in my original comment - it was WAY cheaper and easier to play American content back then - and because the big US recording companies were marketing the hell out of their records, also more of a sure bet.

    Read the wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_content for some background on it.

  • On the post: Why Are Canadian Regulators Telling Music TV Channels How Many Videos They Can Play?

    Punmaster ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2011 @ 07:19am

    Re: Why Are Canadian Regulators Telling Music TV...

    Actually, I think the regulating of lyrics (Dire Straits' Money for Nohting) was done by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, not the CRTC. In fact, the CRTC sent a letter to the CBSC telling them to review that decision.

    As to the Canadian Content regulations, I'm old enough to remember when there wasn't much of a Canadian music industry. It's just way cheaper and simpler to let American music and entertainment do the heavy lifting, but it doesn't promote Canadian culture.

    Canada sits next to the loudest, most prolific provider of entertainment in the world. Without putting these regulations in place, there would be no Canadian stories being told.

    Of course, there also wouldn't have been Corner Gas, so it's a mixed blessing.

    I do think that the CRTC needs to be revised substantially, and given a mandate to protect consumers from the Bell/Rogers duopoly, but not everything they do is bad.

  • On the post: Metered Bandwidth Isn't About Stopping The Bandwidth Hogs; It's About Preserving Old Media Business Models

    Punmaster ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2011 @ 11:50am

    It's only happening because ...

    there IS no effective competition in Canada. There are five big ISPs in Canada. Between them, they have 96% market share. Who's going to push them to innovate/provide new services at good prices if the government doesn't?

    This situation isn't going to get better till there are more ISPs in Canada.

  • On the post: Will Hollywood Kill The Golden Goose By Squeezing Netflix Dry?

    Punmaster ( profile ), 20 Jan, 2011 @ 09:18am

    Re: 'sOK

    Yeah, but they're working on that....

  • On the post: Indoctrinating Children To Hate Freedom Of The Press?

    Punmaster ( profile ), 18 Jan, 2011 @ 11:28am

    Re:

    "Oh, heaven forbid we actually teach our kids to believe in something, Lobo."

    I'd rather have them taught to think and verify than simply believe. They'll be better citizens that way. :)

  • On the post: Movie Studios Purposely Crippling Rental DVDs In Misguided Effort To Get People To Buy

    Punmaster ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2010 @ 10:13am

    Re: Re:

    re: "Mike typically suggests that you add value, whereas what the movie studios are doing here is removing value. "

    Well, true - you could say that they're removing it. That's a function of them "getting" the concept of RtB:CwF a little late in the game. If, from day one of DVD rentals, they had offered DVDs with no special features to BB, and sold ones with Special Features through retail, this would be totally a RtB implemenation. It's just that they're coming at it late.

    The Special Features are the major reason why I buy movie DVDs though - if I just want to watch the flick, there's a number of different venues to see it much cheaper. But if I'm willing to pony up $15 or $20 for a DVD, there had *better* be something other than the movie on it.

    Case in point - the Iron Man 2 DVD that I recently purchased, pre-viewed from BB, had NO special features at all. I was, to put it mildly, disappointed, and will be purchasing fewer DVDs from BB if this trend continues. I'll probably still buy DVDs, but I'll more carefully examine the boxes to see if it's worth spending the greater amount.

  • On the post: Movie Studios Purposely Crippling Rental DVDs In Misguided Effort To Get People To Buy

    Punmaster ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2010 @ 09:06am

    I dunno, Mike. I am a huge movie fan, and as far as I can see - this *is* what you keep talking about, albeit done poorly. I came to the conclusion that I was not going to buy any more pre-viewed DVDs at my local BlockBuster precisely because they don't tend to include the special features. I *like* the special features, the "Making Of..."s and the deleted scenes. I have no problem if they sell limited versions to BB - it seems in line with your "offer more than the free version", so what's the problem?

    Admittedly, it was uncool of them to have the same menu, and tease the viewers, but the idea of selling limited versions to the rental companies isn't all bad. IMHO

  • On the post: Wikileaks Payment Company Plans To Sue Visa & Mastercard Over Cutoff

    Punmaster ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2010 @ 07:40am

    Defensive announcement?

    The cynic in me asks "Is it possible that they've announced this to protect themselves against a possible Anonymous DDOS?"

    The optimist in me asks "Is it possible that they've announced this because they think that what Mastercard and Visa did was wrong?"

  • On the post: Imagine If The NY Times Had Ignored Wikileaks Cables

    Punmaster ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2010 @ 06:43am

    Re:

    He already has been - he's in the Senate. :)

  • On the post: Canadian Telco Claims Netflix & Google TV Should Be Regulated As Broadcasters

    Punmaster ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2010 @ 07:04am

    Re: Re:

    ummm - no, it's not the same - broadcast is going out and is available to *everyone* whether anyone is watching or not. Streaming is an on-demand service - one to one.

    Nit-picky, I know - but they ARE different.

  • On the post: What If We Gave Toddlers An 'F' In Walking?

    Punmaster ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2010 @ 08:11am

    Re: Coddle the weak

    Stephen Hawking?

  • On the post: TSA Likely To Face Multiple Sexual Assault Charges For New Searches

    Punmaster ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2010 @ 10:26am

    Re: Re:

    >> "Public safety is one area where free market capitalism fails."

    >> Citation needed.

    BP - the public safety aspect of offshore drilling is difficult, sure, but it didn't look like they cared much about PREVENTING the blowout.

    Ford Pinto - it was cheaper to pay the damages than to retool the production of the car to prevent the damage caused during a crash.

  • On the post: Time Magazine Says TSA Groping Not A Problem & It's All Blown Out Of Proportion By The Internet

    Punmaster ( profile ), 19 Nov, 2010 @ 10:17am

    Re: Re: Re: Please don't fly

    You said "The primary goal of the TSA is to protect us from someone that would use transportation including planes as a missile or save the lives of passengers. "

    I would disagree - from where I sit, the primary goal of the TSA is to make it LOOK like the government is trying to protect people from terrorists. It certainly seems to be ineffective, and bureaucratic, and authoritarian.

    The best things that happened to improve security on planes was the addition of a secure cockpit door, and the willingness of passengers to fight back against those that would attempt to take over a flight.

  • On the post: Doctor Sues Patients Over Bad Yelp Reviews

    Punmaster ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2010 @ 07:57am

    Re: Yelp and free speach

    'Isn't Yelp just a bigger and louder "word of mouth"?

    When did word of mouth become illegal?'

    It's not illegal, but now it's both widespread and persistent - which means that's it's not "word of mouth" any more, it's publishing. Traditional "word of mouth" is ephemeral - it fades, and it's localized. If someone screwed up badly, they could move, and leave it behind them. With Yelp, and other services, and the self-publishing options available to everyone, it's harder for someone to leave their mistakes and incompetence behind.

    This can be very bad for them - but good for the rest of us.

    Of course, the surgeon can easily avoid this by doing good work. And setting expectations low enough that he can exceed them. And by charging reasonable rates. You know - basic customer service best practices. :-)

  • On the post: UK Politician Tossed Out Of Parliament For Lying About Opponent During Election

    Punmaster ( profile ), 17 Nov, 2010 @ 08:53am

    Re: Re:

    Oh - there's got to be lots of dumb people - of voting age - out there. Statistically, half of the people out there have IQ's below 100 after all...

    And someone has to be watching all that reality TV.

    But I agree with Hulser's comment - we really REALLY need to improve education, and encourage our children to think critically if we want our society to improve.

  • On the post: Cooks Source Editor Gives First Interview; Says She'll Probably Shut Down The Magazine

    Punmaster ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2010 @ 09:22am

    Sympathy? I don't think so.

    Internet Mob Justice is not always just. It can be mistaken, and it can be devastating. But in this case, I think it's deserved.

    She didn't get run out of business because mean people said nasty things about her because of one mistake. That would be unjust, and I would stand up and say "Hey - she made a mistake, and people make mistakes."

    She regularly misappropriated other peoples' writing. She showed no contrition, and refused to make the minimal restitution requested by the injured party. She even went so far as to mock them, referring to her decades of experience in the editing field. Her business, it seems, regularly used other peoples' work without requesting permission, paying, or even, in some cases, attributing them correctly.

    That's not cool. That's not one mistake. That's a pattern of dishonesty. The advertisers were hurt by her actions.

    We're in an age of transparency now. Dishonest behaviour WILL come back to haunt you. People WILL find out the scummy things that you did, and they WILL see how you deal with being confronted with your mistakes. Had she been contrite, and made restitution, she'd have been able to continue to work.

    Eventually, someone would have found other misappropriated works. Someone would have sued her for copyright infringement. She was playing Internet Russian Roulette, and it was only a matter of time before somebody did a search found an infringement, and brought it to the attention of one of the big media companies. It was inevitable because the internet never forgets. It's going to be interesting to see how business behaviour changes, as their past never quite goes away.

    I am sorry to see that she's going to shut down the magazine, but only because that will make it harder for the ripped off authors to get any restitution.

    I'm sorry that her actions harmed her advertisers.

    But I'm not sorry that "the mob" was all over her.

  • On the post: 30,000 Musical Acts Are Making A Living… But Is That Good Or Bad?

    Punmaster ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2010 @ 07:33am

    Re: Re: Professional musicians, legacy players, and "piracy"

    You said:
    "Music workers, those that create or assist creators, have been destroyed in the past 10 years. Half as much money is being spent on music now as opposed to 10 years ago.

    Piracy is responsible for that."

    You don't think that the advances in technology, like home studios removing some of the need for professional studios, digital distribution of music removing the need for CD Pressing, or even Myspace and Facebook reducing the need for professional marketing for small, startup bands has had any effect on the need for those folks that "assist creators"?

  • On the post: Challenge To Graham Henderson: Please Point Out Who Believes Music Should Just Be A Hobby

    Punmaster ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2010 @ 01:06pm

    Re: Em...something wrong here

    Unfortunately, it seems that the new copyright laws in Canada are being drafted, proposed, and driven by the US Trade Rep here - there has been overwhelming public rejection of the proposed bill (C-32), but the (spineless) Minister of Culture is saying that the because US is demanding it, we have no choice but to implement it. So, yes, lobbying in Washington IS the right place to get things changed in Canada.

    sigh.

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