Wednesday, October 6, 2010

about internet marketing

There is an on-going battle between Web users and the amount of access advertisers have to their information. A new program is going to be implemented to help protect people’s Internet privacy by allowing them the opportunity to opt-out of being tracked by companies for user specific advertising. Some 5,000 companies will be affected by the program, which will include a blue lower case “i” that turns into an incomplete triangle that will appear near ads. User need only click on the symbol and choose to not being tracked.


Being charged with the enforcing of the programs is the Better Business Bureaus group and the Direct Marketing Association. Marketers can start using the icon by visiting AboutAds.info and will also have the ability to attend Webinars (Web seminars, that is) to learn more about the new programs. Donated ad space will be used to advertise the program to consumers so that they will be aware of their choice to not be tracked. This programs is believed to be a step in the right direction for the protection of user privacy on the web, however self-regulation on the part of advertisers isn’t seen to be the answer that some were looking for in this matter.


Executive director of nonprofit group, World Privacy Forum had this to say on the matter, “This is just the latest version in a long series of failed self-regulatory efforts. We need the government to step in and set rules for industry.”




Comments


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  1. BFD there is already two better, Non Beta, browsers, for XP, Firefox and Chrome... Don't see any reason to use IE9, which of course is still beta,, By the time MS "releases" it for real both FF and chrome will have gone through several releases and upgrades,, MS is just so slow to develop, release and update it is embarrassing ... (posted from My FF browser running on XP)



     Posted by: Tom Brander |
    September 16, 2010 8:45 AM




















  2. Argh. So we will end up in the same situation as we are in with IE6.



    Posted by: Ben |
    September 16, 2010 9:00 AM




















  3. @Tom Brander



    Wow, you have no idea what you're talking about. Chrome's next release and Firefox 4 are on track to match IE9's feature set...maybe just barely pass it. I use Chrome and Firefox almost exclusively, but your ignorant and blind comments about IE9 are just ...well misinformed.



    As for leaving out Windows XP -- good. Here is an idea people, move the hell on. You're hurting everyone else by hanging on to your 10 year old OS. Microsoft needs to do this more often in the future -- start forcing people to finally update their damn OS to get the cool new applications. It's time people -- buy a new computer if you have to ...it'll be 10x faster than the slow POS you're using today anyway.



     Posted by: Justin Paine |
    September 16, 2010 9:01 AM




















  4. @Justin - Funny thing is, they're still *selling* computers with Windows XP. I bought my netbook 8 months ago and it had WinXP pre-installed...and it wasn't an old model. And the other thing is, WinXP has been far better than any other version of Windows that they've released in that past 10 years...I mean, Windows Vista certainly wasn't a valid replacement...



    So, it's not that everyone is "hanging on to 10 year old OS" like they have had all these other options all along. Other than *going to linux*, WinXP has been the only real Windows choice for a long time now...(outside of Windows 2000, which was also solid).



     Posted by: Mike Melanson |
    September 16, 2010 9:10 AM




















  5. "For now, this means that more than half - around 55%% of computers, according to StatCounter - will be unable to run Microsoft's latest browser."



    I think this is a big deal. That more than half of Windows-based computers won't be able to run MS's new browser is shocking if you take a step back and look at it in context.



    How many people got the shaft with Vista and decided to stick with XP (or worse, like me, went out and bought XP after taking Vista out and shooting it) and decided that they're happy with XP (and really not that happy with MS)? Now MS has the idea of forcing people to upgrade to Windows 7 for the privilege of using their new browser? Yeah right.



    Tom Brander is right too in a sense: BFD, Firefox, Chrome, not to mention Safari, Opera, and the last versions of IE are all out there, and will (or are already as good) be better than IE9 by the time MS gets done beta testing it.



    Still, it doesn't make any sense to me. It's not as if XP was made by Apple or Google or anyone else and MS decided to try and make a statement to company X. Moreover, Apple doesn't force someone to use Snow Leopard or a Mac to use Safari, perhaps because they want more people using Safari than, say, IE.



    If the new IE was that much better or had some sort of head-and-shoulders advantage over other browsers on the market today, that'd be one thing. But nothing that I've seen so far from others' reviews (I'm running XP, so I don't know) tells me that that's the case.



     Posted by: GradeAWebsites |
    September 16, 2010 9:15 AM




















  6. How about those people who got shafted with Vista and had to go out and buy (or re-buy) XP? How many are going to say to themselves: golly, I gotta run IE9, guess I should go spend some more money with MS to surf the net? I won't. XP is solid, and every other browser out there will be (or already is) as good as IE9 by the time MS gets done testing everybody's computers/patience. I think this is a big win for the Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and even Opera.



     Posted by: GradeAWebsites |
    September 16, 2010 9:21 AM




















  7. Sorry for the double (now triple post). Got a comment error in between.



     Posted by: GradeAWebsites |
    September 16, 2010 9:22 AM




















  8. Makes perfect sense. It's been almost a decade, and W7 is better in almost every way.



    The IE9 beta looks pretty sleek, and I like pinning websites to the task bar. I still think it's got some kinks that it has to fix before I can set it as my default, but it is a beta, after all.



     Posted by: Eddy Morales |
    September 16, 2010 9:27 AM




















  9. @Mike Melanson



    Windows 7 is a better operating system then Windows XP, hands down. As for OEMs still selling Windows WP -- well I agree, that's idiotic, and it's something Microsoft desperately needs to crack down own immediately. Everyone needs to move forward -- ditch Windows XP/2000, skip the cesspool that is Vista, and get on Windows 7 immediately.



     Posted by: Justin Paine |
    September 16, 2010 9:31 AM




















  10. One other thing to point out:



    Yes, IE9 doesn't work on XP. Question: Does Safari 5 work on Mac Os X 10.4? No, it doesn't.



     Posted by: Justin Paine |
    September 16, 2010 9:34 AM




















  11. >Show of hands - anyone still running Vista?



    I switched to the cheapest 7, and wrote the local Microsoft-Mafia to request a refund due to my default Vista on my funny laptop*, but didn't get it.



    Well, I tried.



    *Why is my laptop funny? Because Lenovo managed to let the typed characters end all over the screen, if typed quickly. Suddenly you are typing in another line. That's funny. It may explain many of the editorials I read in newspapers.



    Posted by: Henrik |
    September 16, 2010 9:58 AM




















  12. There's a nice Vista 64 machine under my television, but that's all I use it for.



    Windows XP on everything else. With dual-core 64 bit cpu's, 1GB PCIe and 2GB RAM, I'm having no problems.



    I want to apologize to Justin though, about the pain I've been causing him... I didn't mean to hurt anyone by using an operating system that is still supported by its manufacturer.



    IE9? Meh. I'm in the Firefox/Chrome camp. We have a nice fire going and everyone is welcome to join us.



    Posted by: Jon |
    September 16, 2010 11:41 AM




















  13. If MS wants to send me a free upgrade to Win7 from XP, I'll do it, 'til then I've got no reason what so ever to move from XP. If I can't run IE9, that's their loss, not mine.



    Posted by: Jason W. |
    September 16, 2010 12:39 PM




















  14. If win xp users are not able to use IE 9 its their loss not ours.. Chrome is still the best for xp users.



    Posted by: Divyansh |
    September 16, 2010 12:52 PM




















  15. Some of the comments seem to ignore the reality that only people who feel the need to show off with the latest and greatest fix what isn't broken. Certainly nothing in IE 9 warrants the cost of an upgrade when what you have is working fine.



    Whether you're a home user or you have 1,000 PC datacentre, upgrading your OS means spending time and money that could be put to much better use. The fact that a decade later the majority of computers are still running Windows XP is proof that people are satisfied that it's more than sufficient for the applications they're running. I've even done tech support and found computers running custom software on Windows 3.1 for that matter.



    Now Windows 7 may be slightly more stable but it also can't remember icon locations on the desktop without a workaround and that's not something anyone wants to explain to 2500 employees on top of the downtime, and there's still the issue of the initial cost you'd need to sell upper management on.



    Here at home I have a PC with Windows 7, one with XP, and two with 98. Windows 7 won't run on the two 98 machines and even if it could I wouldn't waste the money so long as all my computers continue to work -- I certainly have better ways to spend leisure time.



    Until there is genuine incentive to upgrade to Windows 7 that outweighs the expense involved, all Microsoft will be doing is handing over more marketshare to Firefox and Chrome.



     Posted by: Kevin Carter |
    September 16, 2010 3:48 PM




















  16. @Mike Melanson



    Windows 7 is the best release of Windows hands down last 10 years or not. And no offense but Vista was OK too. I ran it since the betas and it was fine. Not perfect but good...and got better with service pack 1. Vista had the most out-of-the-box hardware compatibility of any version of Windows. The only people that seemed to complain about that were the people trying to use ancient hardware with it.



    Just as people don't need to upgrade if they don't feel the need Microsoft shouldn't feel the need to stay in the dark ages with their OS because some people don't want to upgrade hardware to run it. I run Win7 on a now-ancient Athlon64-based system and it's very good.



    @Kevin Carter: Windows 7 is a *lot* more stable...not just a little bit. I've yet to have had a BSOD on Vista or Win 7. I've had quite a few on my XP laptop at work which is less than a year old.



    I always find these types of conversations amusing...the ones where people crow about how solid and great XP is always forgetting how truly awful it was when it first came out.



    Posted by: Jason Kratz |
    September 16, 2010 6:18 PM




















  17. @justin, not sure why this denegrated into an operating system pissing contest, but if that is what strokes you, fine, I have a old ex windows xp laptop that I was about to junk,, Put Fedora Linux on it, It smokes my dual core win 7 laptop that has twice the memory (&4+times the processor performance),, of course I do run Chrome on it... Microsoft's clear attitude to it's installed base is just how much pain can we inflict before they go elsewhere,, and they are finding out as more and more flee to Chrome, Firefox, Gmail (vs exchange) and Gdocs or open office. The shameless trumpeting of what apprears to be an ok browsewr, that can only run on brand new systems leaves me sort of cold, particularly since most if not all the important performance features are already avaialable in NON-Beta form via Chrome and Firefox, which as mentioned will have major upgrades out (on all platforms I might add)



     Posted by: Tom Brander |
    September 17, 2010 8:28 AM




















  18. Just downloaded it and now using it. Its speed is good and it is working perfectly alright.

    http://noxedgereviews.org/



    Posted by: sharicepas |
    September 17, 2010 11:48 PM




















  19. No more new IE on XP? Who cares?!?!?

    I still use XP on my old PC and IE is disappered from there years ago. Now i use firefox 4 beta version 6 and is very fast and very nice. And is still beta.

    Microsoft makes a favor to me for this time. Thank you!



    Posted by: Dns |
    September 18, 2010 1:26 AM




















  20. Well, I am 62 year old female who has a "10 year old computer bought in 2000 with windows XP". It still works great, I use it everyday and just keep it clean and up to date. I had one crash in 10 years and that is because I let a tech support person on it for a bug. He bombed it out! Refixed it and all was well.

    Now for the statement of the fellow above about moving on and buying a new computer, whatever the reason may be...I for one live on $694 per month and am disabled. If I could possibly afford a new computer I would love one. Maybe he would buy one for me out of the "kindness" of his heart so I could move on. LOL

    I also have a 10 year old laptop that also works with xp and good. Hardly use it though as I don't like the mouse on the laptop with finger thing.

    Anyways, just stating that moving on is not just a matter of grabbing a checkbook and getting another computer for many elderly and disabled in this world, plus probably many others.



    Posted by: Jody |
    September 18, 2010 11:22 AM




















  21. I would like to see a show of hands who uses IE to do any kind of online transactions.



    I have Vista and Windows 7 dual booting on 2 different machines.I loaded xp pro first so I could recover if something went wrong. Try using Norton Partition magic with Vista or Windows 7 You have to use Gnome to make another partition



    I still think XP Pro sp3 is a great OS. I use Firefox for my main browser and Chrome 2nd.



    I had purchased a legal cop of Windows 7. When I put the key in it said it was an invalid key. 1 hour on the phone with a nice guy in the middle east saying I had a pirated version. He finally gave me another key.



    New OS's are fun to play with but not if you need a stable and safe OS to do business.



    Posted by: mossy |
    September 19, 2010 12:52 PM




















  22. Hello I just bought a PC with windows 7 , 3 months ago it is a piece of crap.the new PC has 4 GB of ram with it runs slow as crap even and unstable for games and so forth if i turn off all the start up in msconfig. So i took it to a pro in town that took the 7 off of it and put xp professional sp3 on it and the computer is more stable and 2 times faster .Microsoft sucks .i hope they put a explore version 9 for us please.thank you for reading my story thanks



     Posted by: Jeremiah |
    September 20, 2010 8:45 PM




















  23. ie9? Should Microsoft just consider the browser and let Firefox and Chrome run the show, since they are doing much better job?



    Posted by: txp50vt20b |
    September 21, 2010 6:17 AM




















  24. What's all the fuss about?



    Just use Linux and Firefox/Chrome!



     Posted by: Barista Uno |
    September 25, 2010 8:13 PM




















  25. A few years ago I changed my web browser from ie6 to fire fox and found out it was a great.

    This year I've found out chrome is even better (from Fire Fox 3) and now if MC wants to get serious about here web browser they should consider making the browser work on XP because no one will change their OS for a new WB (which is not far greater than chrome today).

    And of course windows 7 is much faster and smoother than XP but still yet not worth the price.



    Posted by: Jonathan |
    October 4, 2010 4:24 PM




















  26. For those who are thinking of upgrading to vista or win7 to get this ie9. To be honest your not grains anything different. the only thing you gain is a sidebar which you can have you clock so you can see the time, and the gauge to show your cpu and ram usage, and a photo slideshow. you dont need that crap. because all of that take up space and use ram and anyway so your not really helping yourself. Really when you got the clock on the wall in the room your in which you change the battery in like once or twice a year, and you can go to your local store and buy a photo slideshow for about £20+ to show all you photos, so to go out and pay the odds to upgrade there is no different. If you want something better then IE 8/9 - Go for firefox 4.0 or Google Chrome. If you badly want your computer to look like vista or win7, check out the website for transformation packs.



    Posted by: Rob |
    October 4, 2010 5:48 PM























  27. robert shumake

    ABC <b>News</b> and Facebook team up for election coverage - Lost Remote

    ABC News is also partnering with Yahoo! News to do election polling, with results posted on both sites. In addition, the network will be doing daily 15-minute webcasts beginning October 25th at 6:45 am, the idea being that the webcast ...

    Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Sponsoring ABC <b>News</b> Health Coverage

    NEW YORK — ABC News is announcing a yearlong project to focus attention on the diseases and health conditions that afflict the world's poorest people. The series, "Be the Change: Save a Life," will begin in December and continue through ...

    Photo of the Week: iPad in Colorado | iLounge <b>News</b>

    iLounge news discussing the Photo of the Week: iPad in Colorado. Find more Site News news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.


    robert shumake

    ABC <b>News</b> and Facebook team up for election coverage - Lost Remote

    ABC News is also partnering with Yahoo! News to do election polling, with results posted on both sites. In addition, the network will be doing daily 15-minute webcasts beginning October 25th at 6:45 am, the idea being that the webcast ...

    Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Sponsoring ABC <b>News</b> Health Coverage

    NEW YORK — ABC News is announcing a yearlong project to focus attention on the diseases and health conditions that afflict the world's poorest people. The series, "Be the Change: Save a Life," will begin in December and continue through ...

    Photo of the Week: iPad in Colorado | iLounge <b>News</b>

    iLounge news discussing the Photo of the Week: iPad in Colorado. Find more Site News news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.



    secure-res-internet-marketing-company-caption by www.secure-res.com


    robert shumake

    There is an on-going battle between Web users and the amount of access advertisers have to their information. A new program is going to be implemented to help protect people’s Internet privacy by allowing them the opportunity to opt-out of being tracked by companies for user specific advertising. Some 5,000 companies will be affected by the program, which will include a blue lower case “i” that turns into an incomplete triangle that will appear near ads. User need only click on the symbol and choose to not being tracked.


    Being charged with the enforcing of the programs is the Better Business Bureaus group and the Direct Marketing Association. Marketers can start using the icon by visiting AboutAds.info and will also have the ability to attend Webinars (Web seminars, that is) to learn more about the new programs. Donated ad space will be used to advertise the program to consumers so that they will be aware of their choice to not be tracked. This programs is believed to be a step in the right direction for the protection of user privacy on the web, however self-regulation on the part of advertisers isn’t seen to be the answer that some were looking for in this matter.


    Executive director of nonprofit group, World Privacy Forum had this to say on the matter, “This is just the latest version in a long series of failed self-regulatory efforts. We need the government to step in and set rules for industry.”




    Comments


    Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts










    1. BFD there is already two better, Non Beta, browsers, for XP, Firefox and Chrome... Don't see any reason to use IE9, which of course is still beta,, By the time MS "releases" it for real both FF and chrome will have gone through several releases and upgrades,, MS is just so slow to develop, release and update it is embarrassing ... (posted from My FF browser running on XP)



       Posted by: Tom Brander |
      September 16, 2010 8:45 AM




















    2. Argh. So we will end up in the same situation as we are in with IE6.



      Posted by: Ben |
      September 16, 2010 9:00 AM




















    3. @Tom Brander



      Wow, you have no idea what you're talking about. Chrome's next release and Firefox 4 are on track to match IE9's feature set...maybe just barely pass it. I use Chrome and Firefox almost exclusively, but your ignorant and blind comments about IE9 are just ...well misinformed.



      As for leaving out Windows XP -- good. Here is an idea people, move the hell on. You're hurting everyone else by hanging on to your 10 year old OS. Microsoft needs to do this more often in the future -- start forcing people to finally update their damn OS to get the cool new applications. It's time people -- buy a new computer if you have to ...it'll be 10x faster than the slow POS you're using today anyway.



       Posted by: Justin Paine |
      September 16, 2010 9:01 AM




















    4. @Justin - Funny thing is, they're still *selling* computers with Windows XP. I bought my netbook 8 months ago and it had WinXP pre-installed...and it wasn't an old model. And the other thing is, WinXP has been far better than any other version of Windows that they've released in that past 10 years...I mean, Windows Vista certainly wasn't a valid replacement...



      So, it's not that everyone is "hanging on to 10 year old OS" like they have had all these other options all along. Other than *going to linux*, WinXP has been the only real Windows choice for a long time now...(outside of Windows 2000, which was also solid).



       Posted by: Mike Melanson |
      September 16, 2010 9:10 AM




















    5. "For now, this means that more than half - around 55%% of computers, according to StatCounter - will be unable to run Microsoft's latest browser."



      I think this is a big deal. That more than half of Windows-based computers won't be able to run MS's new browser is shocking if you take a step back and look at it in context.



      How many people got the shaft with Vista and decided to stick with XP (or worse, like me, went out and bought XP after taking Vista out and shooting it) and decided that they're happy with XP (and really not that happy with MS)? Now MS has the idea of forcing people to upgrade to Windows 7 for the privilege of using their new browser? Yeah right.



      Tom Brander is right too in a sense: BFD, Firefox, Chrome, not to mention Safari, Opera, and the last versions of IE are all out there, and will (or are already as good) be better than IE9 by the time MS gets done beta testing it.



      Still, it doesn't make any sense to me. It's not as if XP was made by Apple or Google or anyone else and MS decided to try and make a statement to company X. Moreover, Apple doesn't force someone to use Snow Leopard or a Mac to use Safari, perhaps because they want more people using Safari than, say, IE.



      If the new IE was that much better or had some sort of head-and-shoulders advantage over other browsers on the market today, that'd be one thing. But nothing that I've seen so far from others' reviews (I'm running XP, so I don't know) tells me that that's the case.



       Posted by: GradeAWebsites |
      September 16, 2010 9:15 AM




















    6. How about those people who got shafted with Vista and had to go out and buy (or re-buy) XP? How many are going to say to themselves: golly, I gotta run IE9, guess I should go spend some more money with MS to surf the net? I won't. XP is solid, and every other browser out there will be (or already is) as good as IE9 by the time MS gets done testing everybody's computers/patience. I think this is a big win for the Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and even Opera.



       Posted by: GradeAWebsites |
      September 16, 2010 9:21 AM




















    7. Sorry for the double (now triple post). Got a comment error in between.



       Posted by: GradeAWebsites |
      September 16, 2010 9:22 AM




















    8. Makes perfect sense. It's been almost a decade, and W7 is better in almost every way.



      The IE9 beta looks pretty sleek, and I like pinning websites to the task bar. I still think it's got some kinks that it has to fix before I can set it as my default, but it is a beta, after all.



       Posted by: Eddy Morales |
      September 16, 2010 9:27 AM




















    9. @Mike Melanson



      Windows 7 is a better operating system then Windows XP, hands down. As for OEMs still selling Windows WP -- well I agree, that's idiotic, and it's something Microsoft desperately needs to crack down own immediately. Everyone needs to move forward -- ditch Windows XP/2000, skip the cesspool that is Vista, and get on Windows 7 immediately.



       Posted by: Justin Paine |
      September 16, 2010 9:31 AM




















    10. One other thing to point out:



      Yes, IE9 doesn't work on XP. Question: Does Safari 5 work on Mac Os X 10.4? No, it doesn't.



       Posted by: Justin Paine |
      September 16, 2010 9:34 AM




















    11. >Show of hands - anyone still running Vista?



      I switched to the cheapest 7, and wrote the local Microsoft-Mafia to request a refund due to my default Vista on my funny laptop*, but didn't get it.



      Well, I tried.



      *Why is my laptop funny? Because Lenovo managed to let the typed characters end all over the screen, if typed quickly. Suddenly you are typing in another line. That's funny. It may explain many of the editorials I read in newspapers.



      Posted by: Henrik |
      September 16, 2010 9:58 AM




















    12. There's a nice Vista 64 machine under my television, but that's all I use it for.



      Windows XP on everything else. With dual-core 64 bit cpu's, 1GB PCIe and 2GB RAM, I'm having no problems.



      I want to apologize to Justin though, about the pain I've been causing him... I didn't mean to hurt anyone by using an operating system that is still supported by its manufacturer.



      IE9? Meh. I'm in the Firefox/Chrome camp. We have a nice fire going and everyone is welcome to join us.



      Posted by: Jon |
      September 16, 2010 11:41 AM




















    13. If MS wants to send me a free upgrade to Win7 from XP, I'll do it, 'til then I've got no reason what so ever to move from XP. If I can't run IE9, that's their loss, not mine.



      Posted by: Jason W. |
      September 16, 2010 12:39 PM




















    14. If win xp users are not able to use IE 9 its their loss not ours.. Chrome is still the best for xp users.



      Posted by: Divyansh |
      September 16, 2010 12:52 PM




















    15. Some of the comments seem to ignore the reality that only people who feel the need to show off with the latest and greatest fix what isn't broken. Certainly nothing in IE 9 warrants the cost of an upgrade when what you have is working fine.



      Whether you're a home user or you have 1,000 PC datacentre, upgrading your OS means spending time and money that could be put to much better use. The fact that a decade later the majority of computers are still running Windows XP is proof that people are satisfied that it's more than sufficient for the applications they're running. I've even done tech support and found computers running custom software on Windows 3.1 for that matter.



      Now Windows 7 may be slightly more stable but it also can't remember icon locations on the desktop without a workaround and that's not something anyone wants to explain to 2500 employees on top of the downtime, and there's still the issue of the initial cost you'd need to sell upper management on.



      Here at home I have a PC with Windows 7, one with XP, and two with 98. Windows 7 won't run on the two 98 machines and even if it could I wouldn't waste the money so long as all my computers continue to work -- I certainly have better ways to spend leisure time.



      Until there is genuine incentive to upgrade to Windows 7 that outweighs the expense involved, all Microsoft will be doing is handing over more marketshare to Firefox and Chrome.



       Posted by: Kevin Carter |
      September 16, 2010 3:48 PM




















    16. @Mike Melanson



      Windows 7 is the best release of Windows hands down last 10 years or not. And no offense but Vista was OK too. I ran it since the betas and it was fine. Not perfect but good...and got better with service pack 1. Vista had the most out-of-the-box hardware compatibility of any version of Windows. The only people that seemed to complain about that were the people trying to use ancient hardware with it.



      Just as people don't need to upgrade if they don't feel the need Microsoft shouldn't feel the need to stay in the dark ages with their OS because some people don't want to upgrade hardware to run it. I run Win7 on a now-ancient Athlon64-based system and it's very good.



      @Kevin Carter: Windows 7 is a *lot* more stable...not just a little bit. I've yet to have had a BSOD on Vista or Win 7. I've had quite a few on my XP laptop at work which is less than a year old.



      I always find these types of conversations amusing...the ones where people crow about how solid and great XP is always forgetting how truly awful it was when it first came out.



      Posted by: Jason Kratz |
      September 16, 2010 6:18 PM




















    17. @justin, not sure why this denegrated into an operating system pissing contest, but if that is what strokes you, fine, I have a old ex windows xp laptop that I was about to junk,, Put Fedora Linux on it, It smokes my dual core win 7 laptop that has twice the memory (&4+times the processor performance),, of course I do run Chrome on it... Microsoft's clear attitude to it's installed base is just how much pain can we inflict before they go elsewhere,, and they are finding out as more and more flee to Chrome, Firefox, Gmail (vs exchange) and Gdocs or open office. The shameless trumpeting of what apprears to be an ok browsewr, that can only run on brand new systems leaves me sort of cold, particularly since most if not all the important performance features are already avaialable in NON-Beta form via Chrome and Firefox, which as mentioned will have major upgrades out (on all platforms I might add)



       Posted by: Tom Brander |
      September 17, 2010 8:28 AM




















    18. Just downloaded it and now using it. Its speed is good and it is working perfectly alright.

      http://noxedgereviews.org/



      Posted by: sharicepas |
      September 17, 2010 11:48 PM




















    19. No more new IE on XP? Who cares?!?!?

      I still use XP on my old PC and IE is disappered from there years ago. Now i use firefox 4 beta version 6 and is very fast and very nice. And is still beta.

      Microsoft makes a favor to me for this time. Thank you!



      Posted by: Dns |
      September 18, 2010 1:26 AM




















    20. Well, I am 62 year old female who has a "10 year old computer bought in 2000 with windows XP". It still works great, I use it everyday and just keep it clean and up to date. I had one crash in 10 years and that is because I let a tech support person on it for a bug. He bombed it out! Refixed it and all was well.

      Now for the statement of the fellow above about moving on and buying a new computer, whatever the reason may be...I for one live on $694 per month and am disabled. If I could possibly afford a new computer I would love one. Maybe he would buy one for me out of the "kindness" of his heart so I could move on. LOL

      I also have a 10 year old laptop that also works with xp and good. Hardly use it though as I don't like the mouse on the laptop with finger thing.

      Anyways, just stating that moving on is not just a matter of grabbing a checkbook and getting another computer for many elderly and disabled in this world, plus probably many others.



      Posted by: Jody |
      September 18, 2010 11:22 AM




















    21. I would like to see a show of hands who uses IE to do any kind of online transactions.



      I have Vista and Windows 7 dual booting on 2 different machines.I loaded xp pro first so I could recover if something went wrong. Try using Norton Partition magic with Vista or Windows 7 You have to use Gnome to make another partition



      I still think XP Pro sp3 is a great OS. I use Firefox for my main browser and Chrome 2nd.



      I had purchased a legal cop of Windows 7. When I put the key in it said it was an invalid key. 1 hour on the phone with a nice guy in the middle east saying I had a pirated version. He finally gave me another key.



      New OS's are fun to play with but not if you need a stable and safe OS to do business.



      Posted by: mossy |
      September 19, 2010 12:52 PM




















    22. Hello I just bought a PC with windows 7 , 3 months ago it is a piece of crap.the new PC has 4 GB of ram with it runs slow as crap even and unstable for games and so forth if i turn off all the start up in msconfig. So i took it to a pro in town that took the 7 off of it and put xp professional sp3 on it and the computer is more stable and 2 times faster .Microsoft sucks .i hope they put a explore version 9 for us please.thank you for reading my story thanks



       Posted by: Jeremiah |
      September 20, 2010 8:45 PM




















    23. ie9? Should Microsoft just consider the browser and let Firefox and Chrome run the show, since they are doing much better job?



      Posted by: txp50vt20b |
      September 21, 2010 6:17 AM




















    24. What's all the fuss about?



      Just use Linux and Firefox/Chrome!



       Posted by: Barista Uno |
      September 25, 2010 8:13 PM




















    25. A few years ago I changed my web browser from ie6 to fire fox and found out it was a great.

      This year I've found out chrome is even better (from Fire Fox 3) and now if MC wants to get serious about here web browser they should consider making the browser work on XP because no one will change their OS for a new WB (which is not far greater than chrome today).

      And of course windows 7 is much faster and smoother than XP but still yet not worth the price.



      Posted by: Jonathan |
      October 4, 2010 4:24 PM




















    26. For those who are thinking of upgrading to vista or win7 to get this ie9. To be honest your not grains anything different. the only thing you gain is a sidebar which you can have you clock so you can see the time, and the gauge to show your cpu and ram usage, and a photo slideshow. you dont need that crap. because all of that take up space and use ram and anyway so your not really helping yourself. Really when you got the clock on the wall in the room your in which you change the battery in like once or twice a year, and you can go to your local store and buy a photo slideshow for about £20+ to show all you photos, so to go out and pay the odds to upgrade there is no different. If you want something better then IE 8/9 - Go for firefox 4.0 or Google Chrome. If you badly want your computer to look like vista or win7, check out the website for transformation packs.



      Posted by: Rob |
      October 4, 2010 5:48 PM























    27. robert shumake

      ABC <b>News</b> and Facebook team up for election coverage - Lost Remote

      ABC News is also partnering with Yahoo! News to do election polling, with results posted on both sites. In addition, the network will be doing daily 15-minute webcasts beginning October 25th at 6:45 am, the idea being that the webcast ...

      Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Sponsoring ABC <b>News</b> Health Coverage

      NEW YORK — ABC News is announcing a yearlong project to focus attention on the diseases and health conditions that afflict the world's poorest people. The series, "Be the Change: Save a Life," will begin in December and continue through ...

      Photo of the Week: iPad in Colorado | iLounge <b>News</b>

      iLounge news discussing the Photo of the Week: iPad in Colorado. Find more Site News news from leading independent iPod, iPhone, and iPad site.






















































Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Making Money Now


You would think that Californians had learned their lesson by now.



Remember Darrell Issa? Issa, who ran against Barbara Boxer in 1998, but lost his party's nomination to Matt Fong, the California Treasurer. In that race, Issa spent $12 million of his own money and, after losing, went on to get elected to the House in 2000. Issa actually stands to become the head of the House Government Operations Committee if Republicans take control of the Congress in he next election.



Issa, you may recall, gave Californians Arnold Schwarzenegger as their governor. Issa contributed $1.6 million toward the recall of Gray Davis and presumed he would be his party's nominee to replace Davis. Then, following the recall of Davis, the party tapped Issa on the shoulder and said, "Your work is done." Schwarzenegger became governor. And California, like the rest of the country, sank into even worse economic shape than when Davis was in office.



Now, California Republicans want you to refocus. The man who had no governmental experience whatsoever, yet who went on to become the chief executive, was really a highly successful movie actor with little aptitude for the job. That may not have been the best idea. What California needs now is a businessman. Or businesswoman. Enter Meg Whitman.



Beyond being another figure in a business success story who now believes that power is her next entitlement and governing is the next challenging hobby, Whitman, like Schwarzenegger, has no government experience. That is problematic for two reasons. One is that California is a remarkably diverse state. Its near hemispheric political divide between its northern and southern constituencies makes politics in the state capitol very complicated. In these economic times, to send another candidate to Sacramento who simply mouths that "Government needs to be run like a business" would be disastrous.



The second issue is Whitman's opponent. In my opinion, Jerry Brown is one of the most visionary and dedicated public servants I have ever encountered during my life time. Smart, tough, experienced, committed, Brown wasn't making a fortune for himself these past four decades. He was serving the people of California. The attack ad that Whitman shows of Bill Clinton laying into Brown is unfair, inaccurate and repugnant. Primary races can be bloodier than the general election and Brown versus Clinton exemplifies that. But Clinton is guilty of a bit of hyperbole when he states that Brown spent down California's surplus while in office. The most casual examination of the record shows that, in classic California fashion, a loss of property tax revenues forced Brown to spend a good deal of the state's surplus, but not all of it. Californians, with their preposterous property tax laws, never seem to recognize that a loss of revenue to the counties and/or cities usually spells undue pressure on the state to find that money elsewhere. Even Schwarzenegger, the fitness role model, was reduced to selling state park land to make up for huge gaps in his budget. Clinton in full attack mode is a sight to behold, but not one Californians should base this race on.



In their websites and in their official statements, both Whitman and Brown say the usual things about jobs, taxes and education. But it is in the area of jobs from clean energy technologies and in pension reform that Brown holds the clearest edge. California has, through necessity, been a leader in environmental policy-making. Spend any time in California and see how many hybrid cars are on the road. How many wind turbines are in operation. How much photo-voltaic equipment is already in place. Brown knows that this is just the beginning. Where Whitman and other business types believe that markets themselves will lead us where we need to go, Brown knows that government must lead. The push to bring as much of the American power grid into the renewable market must come from government. The money we spent on Iraq alone might well have begun to solve this problem once and for all.



Whitman the businesswoman lacks the political skill to bring the pension issue into the 21st century. Unions and pensioners must be brought to the table for talks that recognize them as entitled on one hand yet partners with taxpayers on the other. Brown will do that. And he must before the pension problem in California crushes the government into insolvency.



All governments need to be run in a more business-like manner and now more than ever. But government should never literally be run like a business. Business is about cold numbers, strict adherence to bottom lines and the ascent of those with the greatest skills and advantages. Governing requires a humanism that we find largely absent in the business world of today. It calls for skills that the business world often overlooks or shuns. Governing requires the ability not to follow spreadsheets and marketing advice but to weigh all of the relevant information and decide what is best for all of California in both the long and short term.



There is no one better for that job than Jerry Brown.



------

A post script regarding the New York governor's race. Voter dissatisfaction is real and valid. But Palladino versus Cuomo is a nearly impossible distortion of that reality. The difference between Carl Palladino and Andrew Cuomo, in terms of effectiveness, talent and experience, is the between a water pistol and a fire hose. A pea shooter and a cannon. When Eliot Spitzer was elected, a great man became governor. That man faltered and was replaced by an interim governor who has struggled. Now, New Yorkers can return another brilliant, hard-working public servant to the governor's office by electing Andrew Cuomo.











What makes a man want to amass more money than God, and once he has, keep going? For each hedge-fund manager the answers are a little bit different, and a little bit the same. From today's Bloomberg Markets we believe we have identified the four primary things that motivated Harbinger Capital founder Philip Falcone (or as readers of this blog may know him, Mr. Lisa Falcone), whose fund made $11 billion betting against subprime, to become who he is today.



We begin with a sepia-tinted moment when Falcone first leaves his Minnesota hometown, all gawky of limb and Lionel Richie of hair, to seek his fortune in the big city.





Neil Sheehy, from nearby International Falls, had offered Falcone a ride to Harvard University, which had recruited both of them to play hockey for the Crimson. The car stalled in front of Falcone’s house, and Sheehy had to restart it on a hill while Falcone’s mother and one of his sisters sobbed their goodbyes.



“It’ll be all right, Mrs. Falcone; it’ll be all right,” Sheehy recalls telling Caroline Falcone as the car chugged to life and headed east.



Falcone was one of nine, and his mother still cared that he was leaving home! This is meaningful and leads us to Motivation 1: Phil can never let his mama down.



[To wit, later: "Galloway says he once set up a meeting for Falcone with a billionaire investor who was interested in Harbinger. Falcone said he couldn’t make the meeting because he had to go see his mother."]

Immediately after leaving home, life decided to punk young Philip by showing him that even when you think that things are tough, they can always get worse.





Falcone rode to Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his feet on the dashboard because Sheehy had packed a skate-sharpening machine on the floor of the front seat... Halfway there, the roof liner came loose and showered the young men with fiberglass insulation that stuck to them as they sweated in the late.



Motivation 2: The fuck he's going to go through something like that again. He is going to kick life's ass!



Then, he did not quite fit in at school.





Falcone was wide-eyed when he arrived at Harvard in 1980, says hockey teammate Greg Olson, who’s now a dentist in Minnetonka, Minnesota. “He was a deer in the headlights,” Olson says. After recovering from the initial shock, Falcone made himself something of a campus don. Hockey teammates called him “Fashion Phil” because he cared so much about his clothes, Olson says. He had a blue, three-piece suit that he wore often, and he always wore stylish shoes.



Motivation 3: Show those jerkoffs who called him a hick and a fag who the man is.



But after graduation, he was more confident.





[Wife Lisa] was working as a model when she met Phil Falcone through mutual friends at a Manhattan restaurant in the late 1980s.



Motivation 4: GIRLS!



Of course, a hot wife and incredible financial success doesn't keep the critics at bay. If anything, it just makes them worse.





“Just because a manager got the subprime trade right, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a skilled manager,” says Brad Balter, managing partner of Balter Capital Management LLC, a Boston-based firm that invests in hedge funds for clients. “There have been several funds that benefited from that bet in 2007 whose performance was mediocre before and continues to be mediocre today.”



Motivation 5: Show those jerkoffs who suggest he is a one-hit wonder who the man is. Then show them again. And again. Until he dies.



Falcone Losing Touch Borrowing From Funds While His Investors Denied Cash





robert shumake

Why diversity turns into conformity in online <b>news</b>: An interview <b>...</b>

If you talk to any of the number of young academics who occasionally contribute to the Lab, it's likely the name Pablo Boczkowski will come up sooner rather.

Fox <b>News</b> Poll: GOPer Raese Leads By Five Points In WV-SEN | TPMDC

The new Fox News poll of the West Virginia Senate race is giving Republican businessman John Raese a solid lead against Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin, in the race to succeed the late Dem Sen. Robert Byrd.

Fox <b>News</b> poll: Angle by three in Nevada, Raese by five in West <b>...</b>

A new Fox News battleground state poll on the race for the seat held by the late Sen. Robert Byrd for 51 years shows Republican businessman John Raese with a 5-point lead over Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin among likely voters — 48 percent ...


robert shumake

Why diversity turns into conformity in online <b>news</b>: An interview <b>...</b>

If you talk to any of the number of young academics who occasionally contribute to the Lab, it's likely the name Pablo Boczkowski will come up sooner rather.

Fox <b>News</b> Poll: GOPer Raese Leads By Five Points In WV-SEN | TPMDC

The new Fox News poll of the West Virginia Senate race is giving Republican businessman John Raese a solid lead against Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin, in the race to succeed the late Dem Sen. Robert Byrd.

Fox <b>News</b> poll: Angle by three in Nevada, Raese by five in West <b>...</b>

A new Fox News battleground state poll on the race for the seat held by the late Sen. Robert Byrd for 51 years shows Republican businessman John Raese with a 5-point lead over Democratic Gov. Joe Manchin among likely voters — 48 percent ...



Money and Banking Midterm- Just Got It Back by Obreahny


robert shumake


















You would think that Californians had learned their lesson by now.



Remember Darrell Issa? Issa, who ran against Barbara Boxer in 1998, but lost his party's nomination to Matt Fong, the California Treasurer. In that race, Issa spent $12 million of his own money and, after losing, went on to get elected to the House in 2000. Issa actually stands to become the head of the House Government Operations Committee if Republicans take control of the Congress in he next election.



Issa, you may recall, gave Californians Arnold Schwarzenegger as their governor. Issa contributed $1.6 million toward the recall of Gray Davis and presumed he would be his party's nominee to replace Davis. Then, following the recall of Davis, the party tapped Issa on the shoulder and said, "Your work is done." Schwarzenegger became governor. And California, like the rest of the country, sank into even worse economic shape than when Davis was in office.



Now, California Republicans want you to refocus. The man who had no governmental experience whatsoever, yet who went on to become the chief executive, was really a highly successful movie actor with little aptitude for the job. That may not have been the best idea. What California needs now is a businessman. Or businesswoman. Enter Meg Whitman.



Beyond being another figure in a business success story who now believes that power is her next entitlement and governing is the next challenging hobby, Whitman, like Schwarzenegger, has no government experience. That is problematic for two reasons. One is that California is a remarkably diverse state. Its near hemispheric political divide between its northern and southern constituencies makes politics in the state capitol very complicated. In these economic times, to send another candidate to Sacramento who simply mouths that "Government needs to be run like a business" would be disastrous.



The second issue is Whitman's opponent. In my opinion, Jerry Brown is one of the most visionary and dedicated public servants I have ever encountered during my life time. Smart, tough, experienced, committed, Brown wasn't making a fortune for himself these past four decades. He was serving the people of California. The attack ad that Whitman shows of Bill Clinton laying into Brown is unfair, inaccurate and repugnant. Primary races can be bloodier than the general election and Brown versus Clinton exemplifies that. But Clinton is guilty of a bit of hyperbole when he states that Brown spent down California's surplus while in office. The most casual examination of the record shows that, in classic California fashion, a loss of property tax revenues forced Brown to spend a good deal of the state's surplus, but not all of it. Californians, with their preposterous property tax laws, never seem to recognize that a loss of revenue to the counties and/or cities usually spells undue pressure on the state to find that money elsewhere. Even Schwarzenegger, the fitness role model, was reduced to selling state park land to make up for huge gaps in his budget. Clinton in full attack mode is a sight to behold, but not one Californians should base this race on.



In their websites and in their official statements, both Whitman and Brown say the usual things about jobs, taxes and education. But it is in the area of jobs from clean energy technologies and in pension reform that Brown holds the clearest edge. California has, through necessity, been a leader in environmental policy-making. Spend any time in California and see how many hybrid cars are on the road. How many wind turbines are in operation. How much photo-voltaic equipment is already in place. Brown knows that this is just the beginning. Where Whitman and other business types believe that markets themselves will lead us where we need to go, Brown knows that government must lead. The push to bring as much of the American power grid into the renewable market must come from government. The money we spent on Iraq alone might well have begun to solve this problem once and for all.



Whitman the businesswoman lacks the political skill to bring the pension issue into the 21st century. Unions and pensioners must be brought to the table for talks that recognize them as entitled on one hand yet partners with taxpayers on the other. Brown will do that. And he must before the pension problem in California crushes the government into insolvency.



All governments need to be run in a more business-like manner and now more than ever. But government should never literally be run like a business. Business is about cold numbers, strict adherence to bottom lines and the ascent of those with the greatest skills and advantages. Governing requires a humanism that we find largely absent in the business world of today. It calls for skills that the business world often overlooks or shuns. Governing requires the ability not to follow spreadsheets and marketing advice but to weigh all of the relevant information and decide what is best for all of California in both the long and short term.



There is no one better for that job than Jerry Brown.



------

A post script regarding the New York governor's race. Voter dissatisfaction is real and valid. But Palladino versus Cuomo is a nearly impossible distortion of that reality. The difference between Carl Palladino and Andrew Cuomo, in terms of effectiveness, talent and experience, is the between a water pistol and a fire hose. A pea shooter and a cannon. When Eliot Spitzer was elected, a great man became governor. That man faltered and was replaced by an interim governor who has struggled. Now, New Yorkers can return another brilliant, hard-working public servant to the governor's office by electing Andrew Cuomo.











What makes a man want to amass more money than God, and once he has, keep going? For each hedge-fund manager the answers are a little bit different, and a little bit the same. From today's Bloomberg Markets we believe we have identified the four primary things that motivated Harbinger Capital founder Philip Falcone (or as readers of this blog may know him, Mr. Lisa Falcone), whose fund made $11 billion betting against subprime, to become who he is today.



We begin with a sepia-tinted moment when Falcone first leaves his Minnesota hometown, all gawky of limb and Lionel Richie of hair, to seek his fortune in the big city.





Neil Sheehy, from nearby International Falls, had offered Falcone a ride to Harvard University, which had recruited both of them to play hockey for the Crimson. The car stalled in front of Falcone’s house, and Sheehy had to restart it on a hill while Falcone’s mother and one of his sisters sobbed their goodbyes.



“It’ll be all right, Mrs. Falcone; it’ll be all right,” Sheehy recalls telling Caroline Falcone as the car chugged to life and headed east.



Falcone was one of nine, and his mother still cared that he was leaving home! This is meaningful and leads us to Motivation 1: Phil can never let his mama down.



[To wit, later: "Galloway says he once set up a meeting for Falcone with a billionaire investor who was interested in Harbinger. Falcone said he couldn’t make the meeting because he had to go see his mother."]

Immediately after leaving home, life decided to punk young Philip by showing him that even when you think that things are tough, they can always get worse.





Falcone rode to Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his feet on the dashboard because Sheehy had packed a skate-sharpening machine on the floor of the front seat... Halfway there, the roof liner came loose and showered the young men with fiberglass insulation that stuck to them as they sweated in the late.



Motivation 2: The fuck he's going to go through something like that again. He is going to kick life's ass!



Then, he did not quite fit in at school.





Falcone was wide-eyed when he arrived at Harvard in 1980, says hockey teammate Greg Olson, who’s now a dentist in Minnetonka, Minnesota. “He was a deer in the headlights,” Olson says. After recovering from the initial shock, Falcone made himself something of a campus don. Hockey teammates called him “Fashion Phil” because he cared so much about his clothes, Olson says. He had a blue, three-piece suit that he wore often, and he always wore stylish shoes.



Motivation 3: Show those jerkoffs who called him a hick and a fag who the man is.



But after graduation, he was more confident.





[Wife Lisa] was working as a model when she met Phil Falcone through mutual friends at a Manhattan restaurant in the late 1980s.



Motivation 4: GIRLS!



Of course, a hot wife and incredible financial success doesn't keep the critics at bay. If anything, it just makes them worse.





“Just because a manager got the subprime trade right, it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a skilled manager,” says Brad Balter, managing partner of Balter Capital Management LLC, a Boston-based firm that invests in hedge funds for clients. “There have been several funds that benefited from that bet in 2007 whose performance was mediocre before and continues to be mediocre today.”



Motivation 5: Show those jerkoffs who suggest he is a one-hit wonder who the man is. Then show them again. And again. Until he dies.



Falcone Losing Touch Borrowing From Funds While His Investors Denied Cash








Monday, October 4, 2010

Money Making

languagehat, this is a giant derail, so I it's going to be my last post in this thread. Your "trying to appear cool" remark was to me so off the wall that I actually had trouble even understanding what you were getting at - now that you've elaborated, at least I think I now understand what you were getting at (it's not the reading of history per se that's trying to "appear cool", but your belief that expressing a lack of surprise in this case is something of a pose because being unsurprised is somehow cool(?!) - I'm still not 100% sure I'm getting it right, it's so bizarre).



On the substance - being grief-stricken is not the same thing as being surprised, at least in my book (of course, my book may not be cool). If I heard my friend/spouse etc. was killed, I'd be grief-stricken. And I'd be *shocked*, but in the same way as any sudden dramatic news is shocking - it's akin to being startled. Yet, being startled is not the same thing as being surprised. I'm startled by a noise, I'm not surprised by it. I'm startle to hear my friend was killed in an auto-accident, I'm not surprised that he died. If he was abducted by aliens, I'd be surprised. If he was killed by a car, while meditating in a remote monastery (the car dropped from a cargo airplane hit the monastery). But killed in traffic? Shock, grief, but no surprise. Do you understand the difference? I say this in good faith, illustrating the differences. Of course, if all you are interested in is exploring how I must be motivated by trying to appear "cool", then I guess we'll part ways.



Same here. I'm not surprised in the least - anti-establishment movements are deeply penetrated by intelligence services. That's not surprising. A high ranking member is compromised - it's not surprising. These organizations are targeted relentlessly. The FBI had a multi-year operation to penetrate a knitting circle (I think that actually happened with the Los Angeles police intelligence unit investigating some anti-war person or another) - color me surprised.



Anyhow, at the risk of appearing cool - or is it uncool - I'm now signing off from this thread, with my surprised face.
posted by VikingSword at 1:05 PM on September 14

Yet Another Study Shows Musicians Making More Money

from the well,-look-at-that dept

We've made the argument repeatedly that saying unauthorized file sharing is hurting the music business lacks evidence. Instead, what we've seen, over and over again, is that more money is pouring into the music business, more music is being produced and (most importantly) that more musicians who embrace this new world are doing better than they would have otherwise. Now, we've pointed to research in the UK, Sweden and the US that have all shown aggregate growth for the music business, with some of the numbers suggesting more money going directly to musicians, rather than gatekeepers.



The latest study, highlighted by TorrentFreak takes a similar look at the Norwegian music market to show very similar findings and (of course) that musicians are, indeed, benefiting:



Like the UK and Swedish studies, this study, covering Norway, found that the aggregate amount going to the industry is up slightly (4% in real terms), mostly thanks to live shows more than making up for the decline in music sales (it's important to note that these researchers appear to have modeled their research on both the UK and Swedish studies, and made only slight changes, which they explain (and justify) in the report. The key finding is that musicians appear to be making significantly more these days than in the past:


Total artist revenues have gone from NOK 208 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, which is an increase of about 162%. Excluding state subsidization, the income from 1999 to 2009 has increased with NOK 229 million, or 147%....



According to this, Norwegian artists have seen an increase in all four of their income sources during the past eleven years. This goes contrary to the common belief that artists have seen a decline in income because of the digitalization of the industry.



The loss of record sales because of consequences of the digitalization of the industry has not affected the Norwegian artists in the same brutal way as it has the record companies. Artists earn in general 20% or less from record sales, and a decrease in record sales would most likely be compensated by an increase in one or more of the other three income sources.




Now, it's worth pointing out -- as I learned when I attended Nordic Music Week last year -- that the Norwegian music industry is heavily subsidized by the government, which is one of the four revenue streams discussed above. However, that only represents about 30% of artist revenue in 2009. The largest single component -- again similar to what we've seen elsewhere -- is live revenue, which continues to grow. Even if you exclude state subsidies, the report found that Norwegian artists doubled their income in the past 11 years:

Adjusted for inflation, total artist revenue has gone from NOK 255 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, an increase of about NOK 290 million or 114%. Excluding state subsidizations, the increase has changed from NOK 192 million to NOK 386 million, which is an increase of NOK 194 million or 101% This goes to show that the artists themselves, as a group, have seen tremendous more growth than the industry as a whole.

And, yes, there are more musicians out there to split the pie, but the growth rate in the industry has increased more quickly than the growth in musicians.

Since the total number of artists in 1999 and 2009 are available to the authors, it is possible to calculate an average income from music for artists in Norway. With 3200 artists in 1999 the average income from music would be about NOK 65 000. With 4100 artists in 2009 the average income from music is about NOK 133 000, creating an increase of NOK 68 000 or 105%. Adjusted for inflation the income has increased with from about NOK 80 000 to NOK 133 000, an increase of NOK 53 000, an increase of 66%.

Overall, the results, like those in Sweden and the UK, seem to clearly debunk the repeated claims from recording industry folks (and some musicians) that artists are somehow suffering under this new setup. Now, there may absolutely be cases where artists who fail to adapt are struggling, and there's no doubt that some labels that failed to adapt are struggling -- but there's increasingly little evidence that the overall music industry or artists as a whole are suffering. All of the evidence seems to suggest that it's not file sharing that's a problem at all. More money is going into the music business. The only problems are from those in the industry too stubborn or too clueless to adapt to capture the money that's flowing in.



27 Comments | Leave a Comment..



CBS <b>News</b> Reporter Arrested for Growing Pot | PopEater.com

Police arrested CBS News correspondent Howard Arenstein and his wife, along with reporter Orly Azoulay, Saturday for drug possession with intent to di.

This Week&#39;s Health Industry <b>News</b> - NYTimes.com

Decisions on several major drug treatments are expected.

Monday&#39;s <b>news</b>: Saturday&#39;s opener can&#39;t get here soon enough! - On <b>...</b>

At long last, we've got some honest-to-goodness competitive NHL hockey to look forward to this week as the 2010-11 season opens Thursday evening.


eric seiger eric seiger
languagehat, this is a giant derail, so I it's going to be my last post in this thread. Your "trying to appear cool" remark was to me so off the wall that I actually had trouble even understanding what you were getting at - now that you've elaborated, at least I think I now understand what you were getting at (it's not the reading of history per se that's trying to "appear cool", but your belief that expressing a lack of surprise in this case is something of a pose because being unsurprised is somehow cool(?!) - I'm still not 100% sure I'm getting it right, it's so bizarre).



On the substance - being grief-stricken is not the same thing as being surprised, at least in my book (of course, my book may not be cool). If I heard my friend/spouse etc. was killed, I'd be grief-stricken. And I'd be *shocked*, but in the same way as any sudden dramatic news is shocking - it's akin to being startled. Yet, being startled is not the same thing as being surprised. I'm startled by a noise, I'm not surprised by it. I'm startle to hear my friend was killed in an auto-accident, I'm not surprised that he died. If he was abducted by aliens, I'd be surprised. If he was killed by a car, while meditating in a remote monastery (the car dropped from a cargo airplane hit the monastery). But killed in traffic? Shock, grief, but no surprise. Do you understand the difference? I say this in good faith, illustrating the differences. Of course, if all you are interested in is exploring how I must be motivated by trying to appear "cool", then I guess we'll part ways.



Same here. I'm not surprised in the least - anti-establishment movements are deeply penetrated by intelligence services. That's not surprising. A high ranking member is compromised - it's not surprising. These organizations are targeted relentlessly. The FBI had a multi-year operation to penetrate a knitting circle (I think that actually happened with the Los Angeles police intelligence unit investigating some anti-war person or another) - color me surprised.



Anyhow, at the risk of appearing cool - or is it uncool - I'm now signing off from this thread, with my surprised face.
posted by VikingSword at 1:05 PM on September 14

Yet Another Study Shows Musicians Making More Money

from the well,-look-at-that dept

We've made the argument repeatedly that saying unauthorized file sharing is hurting the music business lacks evidence. Instead, what we've seen, over and over again, is that more money is pouring into the music business, more music is being produced and (most importantly) that more musicians who embrace this new world are doing better than they would have otherwise. Now, we've pointed to research in the UK, Sweden and the US that have all shown aggregate growth for the music business, with some of the numbers suggesting more money going directly to musicians, rather than gatekeepers.



The latest study, highlighted by TorrentFreak takes a similar look at the Norwegian music market to show very similar findings and (of course) that musicians are, indeed, benefiting:



Like the UK and Swedish studies, this study, covering Norway, found that the aggregate amount going to the industry is up slightly (4% in real terms), mostly thanks to live shows more than making up for the decline in music sales (it's important to note that these researchers appear to have modeled their research on both the UK and Swedish studies, and made only slight changes, which they explain (and justify) in the report. The key finding is that musicians appear to be making significantly more these days than in the past:


Total artist revenues have gone from NOK 208 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, which is an increase of about 162%. Excluding state subsidization, the income from 1999 to 2009 has increased with NOK 229 million, or 147%....



According to this, Norwegian artists have seen an increase in all four of their income sources during the past eleven years. This goes contrary to the common belief that artists have seen a decline in income because of the digitalization of the industry.



The loss of record sales because of consequences of the digitalization of the industry has not affected the Norwegian artists in the same brutal way as it has the record companies. Artists earn in general 20% or less from record sales, and a decrease in record sales would most likely be compensated by an increase in one or more of the other three income sources.




Now, it's worth pointing out -- as I learned when I attended Nordic Music Week last year -- that the Norwegian music industry is heavily subsidized by the government, which is one of the four revenue streams discussed above. However, that only represents about 30% of artist revenue in 2009. The largest single component -- again similar to what we've seen elsewhere -- is live revenue, which continues to grow. Even if you exclude state subsidies, the report found that Norwegian artists doubled their income in the past 11 years:

Adjusted for inflation, total artist revenue has gone from NOK 255 million in 1999 to NOK 545 million in 2009, an increase of about NOK 290 million or 114%. Excluding state subsidizations, the increase has changed from NOK 192 million to NOK 386 million, which is an increase of NOK 194 million or 101% This goes to show that the artists themselves, as a group, have seen tremendous more growth than the industry as a whole.

And, yes, there are more musicians out there to split the pie, but the growth rate in the industry has increased more quickly than the growth in musicians.

Since the total number of artists in 1999 and 2009 are available to the authors, it is possible to calculate an average income from music for artists in Norway. With 3200 artists in 1999 the average income from music would be about NOK 65 000. With 4100 artists in 2009 the average income from music is about NOK 133 000, creating an increase of NOK 68 000 or 105%. Adjusted for inflation the income has increased with from about NOK 80 000 to NOK 133 000, an increase of NOK 53 000, an increase of 66%.

Overall, the results, like those in Sweden and the UK, seem to clearly debunk the repeated claims from recording industry folks (and some musicians) that artists are somehow suffering under this new setup. Now, there may absolutely be cases where artists who fail to adapt are struggling, and there's no doubt that some labels that failed to adapt are struggling -- but there's increasingly little evidence that the overall music industry or artists as a whole are suffering. All of the evidence seems to suggest that it's not file sharing that's a problem at all. More money is going into the music business. The only problems are from those in the industry too stubborn or too clueless to adapt to capture the money that's flowing in.



27 Comments | Leave a Comment..



CBS <b>News</b> Reporter Arrested for Growing Pot | PopEater.com

Police arrested CBS News correspondent Howard Arenstein and his wife, along with reporter Orly Azoulay, Saturday for drug possession with intent to di.

This Week&#39;s Health Industry <b>News</b> - NYTimes.com

Decisions on several major drug treatments are expected.

Monday&#39;s <b>news</b>: Saturday&#39;s opener can&#39;t get here soon enough! - On <b>...</b>

At long last, we've got some honest-to-goodness competitive NHL hockey to look forward to this week as the 2010-11 season opens Thursday evening.


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Saturday, October 2, 2010

Im Making Money



After the coffee. Before wondering why I never realized how similar Ben Affleck's and Adam Sandler's voices are.


Plenty of new shows on TV. Next week, the new television season officially starts (although some new shows have already premiered) and USA Today warns of new show gridlock. Not only are there 23 series premiering on the broadcast networks, cable, which usually showcases their wares in the summer or winter off seasons, is also gunning for fall. HBO has "Boardwalk Empire" debuting this Sunday and last week FX launched "Terriers." It will really be a manic Monday this season with Fox launching "Lone Star," NBC with "The Event" and CBS' reboot of "Hawaii Five-0. Then there are those other nagging headaches such as dealing with digital, fixing Fridays and, most importantly, making some quality shows and getting advertisers to pay more for them. 


And I thought it was real. Casey Affleck, director of "I'm Still Here," the movie that chronicles the bizarre behavior of actor Joaquin Phoenix over the last few years is, as many expected, not exactly for real. Affleck confirmed to the New York Times that Phoenix is giving "the performance of his career." Affleck did say that the David Letterman, the CBS late night talk show host on whose show Phoenix seemed to be melting down, was not in on the joke. However, that seems to contradict a Letterman writer who claims the host was in on it in an interview last year with Nuvo, an Indianapolis-based alternative paper. 


Box-office battle. There's something for everyone this weekend at the box office. Want to hang out with teenagers? Go see "Easy A," a high school comedy starring Emma Stone and Amanda Bynes. Want some grit? There's Ben Affleck's Beantown bank heist "The Town," which I saw and can recommend, although there are some holes in the plot. If you want arty, there's "Never Let Me Go," and if you want weird, there's "Catfish." Anyway, box-office projections from the Los Angeles Times and Variety.


Motor City madness. With its big tax incentives and need for money, Detroit (my birthplace) has rolled out the red carpet to Hollywood. Besides TV shows set in Detroit such as ABC's "Detroit 187" and HBO's "Hung," more movies are shooting there and often the films are set somewhere else (take for instance the upcoming Hillary Swank flick "Conviction," which takes place in New England). More on what locals hope will spark a second coming of Detroit from the Wall Street Journal. All I'll say is remember it's called pop, not soda there, and if you want to use my childhood home, it's on Fairfield between Six and Seven Mile Road.


Don't come running to us. Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker said media should not get any financial aid from the government no matter how dire their health. In the last year, some media advocates have suggested that the government help bail out the struggling newspaper industry, although such talk has never gained serious ground on Capitol Hill. "Without true independence from government, the press could not serve its proud role as a check on governmental authority, the commissioner said at a conference, adding, "Direct government funding of journalism would also erode the public’s attitude toward media, an attitude already characterized by more skepticism than trust." More on her remarks from The Hill.


Inside the Los Angeles Times: Robert Lloyd likes, but doesn't love, HBO's "Boardwalk Empire." Is that allowed? Betsy Sharkey on the darkness on the edge of the Toronto Film Festival. Warner Bros. chief Barry Meyer is no fan of Apple's TV rental plan.


-- Joe Flint


Follow me on Twitter because it will get your weekend off to a good start. Twitter.com/JBFlint



The lady at the town hall last week spoke eloquently for everyone when wondered if she was returning to the days of beans and weenies. "Is this our new reality?" She asked President Obama to answer this most of all, and of course, he did not. Obama rambled diffusely about having two kids to put through college and how the government would make it easier for her and others to borrow money to achieve this goal. The problem in this answer is twofold: borrowing money and getting student loan grants for the government is yet another overreaching program spending money out of our very own thinning pockets. Secondly, this lady didn't stand up and ask President Obama for a handout. She wanted to know how she would be able to have control over her own destiny -- pocketbook -- again.

The WORCESTER PARK Blog, Surrey ¦: Sky <b>News</b>

"I came out of my front door this morning to see a VERY low flying BA jet passing over Trent Way - just seen on the news that it had to make an emergency landing after just 10 minutes. Never seen one that low even though we're used to ...

<b>News</b> Corp. Donates $1 Million to U.S. Chamber of Commerce <b>...</b>

The donation is the News Corporation's second known contribution to a group that is advertising heavily to support Republicans this year.

Tony Hawk: Shred dated <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Activision's launched an interactive website "that gives players a head start on honing their over-the-top skate and snowboarding skills as they explore new game content, the latest news and much, much more!" Check it out here. ...


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top then ideas to make money in our sleep by jimmydan


The WORCESTER PARK Blog, Surrey ¦: Sky <b>News</b>

"I came out of my front door this morning to see a VERY low flying BA jet passing over Trent Way - just seen on the news that it had to make an emergency landing after just 10 minutes. Never seen one that low even though we're used to ...

<b>News</b> Corp. Donates $1 Million to U.S. Chamber of Commerce <b>...</b>

The donation is the News Corporation's second known contribution to a group that is advertising heavily to support Republicans this year.

Tony Hawk: Shred dated <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Activision's launched an interactive website "that gives players a head start on honing their over-the-top skate and snowboarding skills as they explore new game content, the latest news and much, much more!" Check it out here. ...


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After the coffee. Before wondering why I never realized how similar Ben Affleck's and Adam Sandler's voices are.


Plenty of new shows on TV. Next week, the new television season officially starts (although some new shows have already premiered) and USA Today warns of new show gridlock. Not only are there 23 series premiering on the broadcast networks, cable, which usually showcases their wares in the summer or winter off seasons, is also gunning for fall. HBO has "Boardwalk Empire" debuting this Sunday and last week FX launched "Terriers." It will really be a manic Monday this season with Fox launching "Lone Star," NBC with "The Event" and CBS' reboot of "Hawaii Five-0. Then there are those other nagging headaches such as dealing with digital, fixing Fridays and, most importantly, making some quality shows and getting advertisers to pay more for them. 


And I thought it was real. Casey Affleck, director of "I'm Still Here," the movie that chronicles the bizarre behavior of actor Joaquin Phoenix over the last few years is, as many expected, not exactly for real. Affleck confirmed to the New York Times that Phoenix is giving "the performance of his career." Affleck did say that the David Letterman, the CBS late night talk show host on whose show Phoenix seemed to be melting down, was not in on the joke. However, that seems to contradict a Letterman writer who claims the host was in on it in an interview last year with Nuvo, an Indianapolis-based alternative paper. 


Box-office battle. There's something for everyone this weekend at the box office. Want to hang out with teenagers? Go see "Easy A," a high school comedy starring Emma Stone and Amanda Bynes. Want some grit? There's Ben Affleck's Beantown bank heist "The Town," which I saw and can recommend, although there are some holes in the plot. If you want arty, there's "Never Let Me Go," and if you want weird, there's "Catfish." Anyway, box-office projections from the Los Angeles Times and Variety.


Motor City madness. With its big tax incentives and need for money, Detroit (my birthplace) has rolled out the red carpet to Hollywood. Besides TV shows set in Detroit such as ABC's "Detroit 187" and HBO's "Hung," more movies are shooting there and often the films are set somewhere else (take for instance the upcoming Hillary Swank flick "Conviction," which takes place in New England). More on what locals hope will spark a second coming of Detroit from the Wall Street Journal. All I'll say is remember it's called pop, not soda there, and if you want to use my childhood home, it's on Fairfield between Six and Seven Mile Road.


Don't come running to us. Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker said media should not get any financial aid from the government no matter how dire their health. In the last year, some media advocates have suggested that the government help bail out the struggling newspaper industry, although such talk has never gained serious ground on Capitol Hill. "Without true independence from government, the press could not serve its proud role as a check on governmental authority, the commissioner said at a conference, adding, "Direct government funding of journalism would also erode the public’s attitude toward media, an attitude already characterized by more skepticism than trust." More on her remarks from The Hill.


Inside the Los Angeles Times: Robert Lloyd likes, but doesn't love, HBO's "Boardwalk Empire." Is that allowed? Betsy Sharkey on the darkness on the edge of the Toronto Film Festival. Warner Bros. chief Barry Meyer is no fan of Apple's TV rental plan.


-- Joe Flint


Follow me on Twitter because it will get your weekend off to a good start. Twitter.com/JBFlint



The lady at the town hall last week spoke eloquently for everyone when wondered if she was returning to the days of beans and weenies. "Is this our new reality?" She asked President Obama to answer this most of all, and of course, he did not. Obama rambled diffusely about having two kids to put through college and how the government would make it easier for her and others to borrow money to achieve this goal. The problem in this answer is twofold: borrowing money and getting student loan grants for the government is yet another overreaching program spending money out of our very own thinning pockets. Secondly, this lady didn't stand up and ask President Obama for a handout. She wanted to know how she would be able to have control over her own destiny -- pocketbook -- again.
bench craft company rip off

The WORCESTER PARK Blog, Surrey ¦: Sky <b>News</b>

"I came out of my front door this morning to see a VERY low flying BA jet passing over Trent Way - just seen on the news that it had to make an emergency landing after just 10 minutes. Never seen one that low even though we're used to ...

<b>News</b> Corp. Donates $1 Million to U.S. Chamber of Commerce <b>...</b>

The donation is the News Corporation's second known contribution to a group that is advertising heavily to support Republicans this year.

Tony Hawk: Shred dated <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Activision's launched an interactive website "that gives players a head start on honing their over-the-top skate and snowboarding skills as they explore new game content, the latest news and much, much more!" Check it out here. ...


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The WORCESTER PARK Blog, Surrey ¦: Sky <b>News</b>

"I came out of my front door this morning to see a VERY low flying BA jet passing over Trent Way - just seen on the news that it had to make an emergency landing after just 10 minutes. Never seen one that low even though we're used to ...

<b>News</b> Corp. Donates $1 Million to U.S. Chamber of Commerce <b>...</b>

The donation is the News Corporation's second known contribution to a group that is advertising heavily to support Republicans this year.

Tony Hawk: Shred dated <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Activision's launched an interactive website "that gives players a head start on honing their over-the-top skate and snowboarding skills as they explore new game content, the latest news and much, much more!" Check it out here. ...


bench craft company rip off bench craft company rip off

The WORCESTER PARK Blog, Surrey ¦: Sky <b>News</b>

"I came out of my front door this morning to see a VERY low flying BA jet passing over Trent Way - just seen on the news that it had to make an emergency landing after just 10 minutes. Never seen one that low even though we're used to ...

<b>News</b> Corp. Donates $1 Million to U.S. Chamber of Commerce <b>...</b>

The donation is the News Corporation's second known contribution to a group that is advertising heavily to support Republicans this year.

Tony Hawk: Shred dated <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Activision's launched an interactive website "that gives players a head start on honing their over-the-top skate and snowboarding skills as they explore new game content, the latest news and much, much more!" Check it out here. ...


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Friday, October 1, 2010

How to Making Money


Comments


Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts










  1. I have been following the emergence and ultimate convergence of Internet and TV. The real crux will be content ownership and some sites made deals a year ago to produce shows for them. The ultimate switch will be similar to when the traditional networks lost eyes to cable channels. One misconception IMHO is this over 30 under 30 idea. Using age to demonstrate adaption trends is short sighted and frankly offensive. It puts into the social consciousness a sort of age bias that those over "40" already struggle with. It reminds me of an earlier decade belief in not trusting someone over 30. Not good relationship management.



    Posted by: Judith Copeland |
    September 29, 2010 9:02 PM




















  2. the problem with clicker is everyone already knows where to get the legal main content. Theres not too many places you can get ABC , FOX, NBC .. etc. They aren't solving a real problem. The real problem is finding all the places that I can find it outside of those channels if you know what I mean.



    Posted by: guest |
    September 29, 2010 9:55 PM




















  3. Google TV has the opportunity to be a transformative milestone in the realization of TV convergence. Google’s Android platform in every user’s home will be open to developers, including Clicker, to run apps that will be able to engage viewers in unprecedented manners. Leaned-back couch potatoes will be offered opportunities to lean-forward and curate their converged media, share, learn take actions.



    Closed captioning of both broadcast & online video will be a significant basis for converged TV experiences. Congress has passed, and the President will soon sign, directives to the FCC to have U.S. commercial broadcasters include these time-coded transcripts in all broadcast video content offered online. These metadata can be used by semantic engines to derive highly granular dynamic understanding of the content and better present viewers with powerful recommendations.



     Posted by: R Macdonald |
    September 29, 2010 9:59 PM




















  4. Well if Google starts working on it, there's a little chance for other companies unless they can come up with a real innovation and withstand the temptation of selling it out to google. As for online TV, I really hope that they find a smart compromise between producers protecting their content and users wanting it all for free.



    Posted by: essay_writing |
    September 30, 2010 1:45 AM




















  5. The switch from TV over the internet was always going to happen. It will be interesting to see how many peple embrace this change!



     Posted by: Dom |
    September 30, 2010 2:01 AM




















  6. It is expected of Free TV channels to set up their own channel over the internet as others are well gearing up for this. Me for one will use Internet TV if that will be free (for Free Channels) but won’t even pay a dime for Pay Channels since I do have it on cable. Kill the cable first before expecting users to pay for Internet TV.



    Posted by: Steve Jobs |
    September 30, 2010 8:46 AM




















  7. If there is a labeled group that I must fall into then I would be a 'Cable cutter/never'. oh well, like politics two groups do not define the nation's opinion.

    I have been cable free for years. Lost the privilege one year and the spell was broken. I watched what I could get/receive from the roof antenna. Then the internet was suddenly quite a resource as I discovered people uploaded their season long DVR recordings and shared to many public sites. These hard to find sites called for registration or a number of uploads to contribute.

    Further research found major television companies sharing episodes and highlight reels. Then I heard about a young Hulu.com from a programmer friend who built a major tv site's app and then the Hulu.com app. Nice. This was free with registration and you could setup subscriptions and just scan your queue for what's new.

    Another great value is in sites like CastTv.com where we have a resource of shows found all over the web and they simply link you to the sites with the episodes. No fee. They even monitor when a program reaches the end of a season and goes to DVD or the producer earmarks an episode(Ex: Star Wars The Clone Wars to a paid format only).

    The tv community is on the move to the web and more will follow as Cable tries to compensate with fees and threatens stations with new contracts. Then we have companies supporting the community with $150 Blue Ray players and $99 Apple Tv that are pushing those internet shows to the front room television directly from your computer. We can get it all in HD quality on youtube, International tv stations, netflix, news shows and old tv series (VHS recordings salvaged and uploaded) that have been forgotten. All of this uploaded and available for the international viewing audience.



     Posted by: Eric |
    September 30, 2010 12:43 PM























  8. As thousands of demonstrators marched in European capitals on Wednesday to protest recent austerity measures, officials in Brussels proposed stiffening sanctions for governments that fail to cut their budget deficits and debt swiftly enough. ("Workers In Europe Protest Austerity Measures", New York Times, 9/30/2010)



    Oh, do the super-rich hate the sound of "class struggle." Dare to utter the words and they'll reach for their red-baiting paint guns and spray you silly with invective. It's un-American. It's socialistic. It's an insult to democracy and freedom.



    But try as they might, they can't paint over the reality, which the new Fortune 400 listings make so clear: Wall Street billionaires have more money than they'll ever be able to use--at a time when more than 29 million of us don't have that most basic necessity, a full-time job. A hidden class war got us to this point. It's not hidden anymore.



    Once upon a time there was a tangible connection between the plutocrats and the rest of us. Carnegie, Mellon and Rockefeller built sprawling enterprises that employed tens of thousands of workers (even if they did treat them brutally). But today's billionaire financiers, about 100 of whom are on the Fortune 400 list, have a tough time explaining how their money-making schemes produce any jobs at all. Very few of us have a clue about how they even make their money.



    But we are clued in to the way our society is splitting apart. What's good for the Wall Street tycoons is not good for America. The wealthy may loathe hearing about "class struggle," but we're in the middle of one -- and it's a doozy.



    Back in the 1800s (and onward), "class struggle" meant the economic conflict between the interests of working people and those who owned "the means of production." But that construct proved too rigid to describe a complex modern economy. Companies are often run by managers who aren't owners. Most middle managers and supervisors also are workers, not owners, though they may identify with upper management. In glamor industries like Hollywood and sports, some workers are far richer and more powerful than the managers and owners. And many workers are "owners" through stock purchases made individually and through their pension funds.



    "Class struggle" also doesn't capture the symbiotic relationship between workers, managers and owners. Yes, we fight over everything from plant shutdowns to job safety and health care benefits. But we also have common interests - workers want to keep their jobs, and for that they are dependent upon "owners." Instead of class struggle, we often see workers lobbying alongside owners for policies that might keep their industry afloat. This worker-boss connection is often much stronger than any sense of broad class solidarity among workers across the country. Most of us define ourselves as middle class, not working class, and we don't see ourselves at war with the business owners.



    Until now. The financial crisis is squaring up a new class struggle: The handful of financial elites versus the rest of us. Where's our common interest? What's good for them (a $10 trillion bailout) costs us jobs and public services, and deepens the public debt. Financial elites have effectively hijacked our economy and there will be hell to pay to get it back.



    Beginning in the mid-1970s the twin policies of financial deregulation and tax cuts for the super-rich laid the groundwork for the rise of financial industry billionaires. We were told these policies would fuel an enormous investment boom that would cause all boats to rise. Not quite. Income certainly gushed to the top fraction of one percent. But then we entered the financial industry Twilight Zone: The super-rich accumulated so much money that they literally ran out of investments in normal industries that produced real goods and services. Wall Street, now a deregulated Wild West, rode to the rescue by creating all manner of new paper investment opportunities. Instead of buying a piece of a factory or company through stocks and bonds, you bought derivatives. Or you gave your money to hedge funds where you could "earn" outsized returns with little risk -- just what the super-rich craved. Unfortunately, the entire enterprise was built upon layer after layer of leverage. The result was an unstable upside-down pyramid of "structured finance" balancing on a very narrow base of real tangible assets.



    All of this worked just fine until it didn't. You know the rest of the story. When housing prices stopped rising, these paper assets - the CDOs and all the rest - went up in smoke, incinerating the rest of the economy in the process. (Please see The Looting of America for an easy-to-read account.)



    On their long way up, financial industry billionaires grabbed our economy by the cojones-- and they're not letting go. Here are a few of the indicators:



    1. Financial sector profits dramatically increased in the past several decades, peaking at over 40 percent of all corporate profits just before the economic collapse. Now the industry's profits are chugging back up again.

    2. After the inevitable crash, the financial sector and its investors had all the political clout they needed to ensure their swift rescue by the government. Instead of paying a hefty price for wrecking the economy with their bad bets as dictated by free market principles, they got bailed out at taxpayer expense.

    3. The 2010 financial reform bill did not break up financial institutions that were too big to fail or too interconnected to fail. It also didn't rebuild the Glass-Steagall Act's wall between investment banks and depository banks. The six largest banks are now bigger than ever.

    4. Congress rejected our calls for a windfall profits tax or financial transaction tax to help pay for the financial sector's catastrophic damage to our economy. Instead Wall Street elites are again reaping enormous profits, leaving 29 million unemployed and underemployed people in the dust.

    5. To pay for our rising public debt we're being told to tighten our belts so that they don't have to tighten theirs.


    Economists assure us that the financial sector's role is to prudently move excess savings into investment. But that's not how Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, the largest private equity funds and the largest hedge funds are raking in their billions. Their real cash cow is their secretive daily practice of "proprietary trading" -- the equivalent of gambling in a rigged casino. This has nothing to do with investing in industries that might put our people to work. So our paltry economic growth is generating financial industry booty, not jobs.



    Our billionaires might want us to think of them as great statesmen working to help our nation prosper and grow. But in reality, they're busily siphoning off our nation's wealth -- and blocking all efforts to regulate or tax their destructive behavior.



    Wall Street's class warfare doesn't just target workers. While many top multinational corporate CEOs are in league with the big financiers, most of the medium and small business owners now struggling to find the capital to stay alive have few friends on Wall Street. Workers, supervisors and middle managers alike now live in fear that they'll lose their jobs -- and it's all because of the financial shenanigans on Wall Street. You don't have to be a Marxist to know that we bailed out the very people who wrecked our economy. You'll find precious few defenders of Wall Street anywhere in America.



    This new class struggle will soon begin playing out on some new battlefields. The weight of the U.S.'s massive debt (created by the financial crisis and our failure to tax the super-rich the way we used to) will be put on our backs. The financial elites, along with their richly funded think tanks and compliant political hacks, will tell us to privatize Social Security, reduce its benefits and extend the retirement age. We'll be told we must cut funding for schools and health care services. We'll have to live with a crumbling infrastructure and a deteriorating environment -- because, well, the money just isn't there.



    But if we call for raising taxes on the super-rich to prevent these dire developments, they'll bring out their paint guns and scream "socialism!" -- and threaten us with more economic catastrophe. Of course, they can fly their private jets over our collapsing infrastructure and send their kids to private schools. And they have no worries about jobs, health care or retirement, since they and their families have more money than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes. Talk about a class struggle!



    The Wall Street billionaires utterly refuse to accept any blame for our economic woes. They simply can't believe that their billions came from fatal flaws in our system rather than from their own genius. They'll fight to the end to convince us and themselves that they are indeed God's gift to our economy. (Wouldn't you if you had a billion dollars?)



    It's time to make them pay their fair share for the damage they've done. That will help finance the massive jobs programs we need to put our people back to work. Of course, the super-wealthy can afford to pay. Only their pride will suffer.



    In truth most of us would prefer to duck this fight. We just want to find a job, or keep the one we have, be with our families and cope with what life throws at us while enjoying as much of it as we can. We don't want to go to war with the richest people in the world, even though we greatly outnumber them. But we can't avoid this battle--it's coming to our doorsteps. The Dow may hit 12,000 but unemployment will haunt us for a decade to come. We can't afford the brutal cuts to retiree benefits, healthcare or education that they're pushing on us.



    It will take a lot of time and effort to figure out how to fight back and win. But don't despair. As the old union song suggests, the toughest question always is "Which side are you on?" In the new class struggle, that decision has already been made for us.



    Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance destroyed our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity, and What We Can Do About It Chelsea Green Publishing, June 2009.








    Gears of War 3 delayed Xbox 360 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

    Read our Xbox 360 news of Gears of War 3 delayed. ... Gears of War 3 gameplay from E3 16 June, 2010. Gears of War 3 - Ashes To Ashes 13 April, 2010. Latest News. Molyneux to keynote Eurogamer Expo, Gears of War 3 playable! ...

    Haley Barbour Defends <b>News</b> Corp&#39;s Donations To RGA, Chamber Of <b>...</b>

    The reports that News Corp., the parent company of Fox News, has given two separate million-dollar donations to conservative entities has sparked another wave of criticism over the cable company's editorial leanings.

    Catherine Herridge - Fox <b>News</b> | Gender Discrimination | Age | Mediaite

    The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a complaint yesterday against Fox News for a gender and age discrimination case dating back to 2007. The FNC correspondent, Catherine Herridge, is still an employee with the company, ...


    eric seiger eric seiger dermatologist

    Comments


    Subscribe to comments for this post OR Subscribe to comments for all ReadWriteWeb posts










    1. I have been following the emergence and ultimate convergence of Internet and TV. The real crux will be content ownership and some sites made deals a year ago to produce shows for them. The ultimate switch will be similar to when the traditional networks lost eyes to cable channels. One misconception IMHO is this over 30 under 30 idea. Using age to demonstrate adaption trends is short sighted and frankly offensive. It puts into the social consciousness a sort of age bias that those over "40" already struggle with. It reminds me of an earlier decade belief in not trusting someone over 30. Not good relationship management.



      Posted by: Judith Copeland |
      September 29, 2010 9:02 PM




















    2. the problem with clicker is everyone already knows where to get the legal main content. Theres not too many places you can get ABC , FOX, NBC .. etc. They aren't solving a real problem. The real problem is finding all the places that I can find it outside of those channels if you know what I mean.



      Posted by: guest |
      September 29, 2010 9:55 PM




















    3. Google TV has the opportunity to be a transformative milestone in the realization of TV convergence. Google’s Android platform in every user’s home will be open to developers, including Clicker, to run apps that will be able to engage viewers in unprecedented manners. Leaned-back couch potatoes will be offered opportunities to lean-forward and curate their converged media, share, learn take actions.



      Closed captioning of both broadcast & online video will be a significant basis for converged TV experiences. Congress has passed, and the President will soon sign, directives to the FCC to have U.S. commercial broadcasters include these time-coded transcripts in all broadcast video content offered online. These metadata can be used by semantic engines to derive highly granular dynamic understanding of the content and better present viewers with powerful recommendations.



       Posted by: R Macdonald |
      September 29, 2010 9:59 PM




















    4. Well if Google starts working on it, there's a little chance for other companies unless they can come up with a real innovation and withstand the temptation of selling it out to google. As for online TV, I really hope that they find a smart compromise between producers protecting their content and users wanting it all for free.



      Posted by: essay_writing |
      September 30, 2010 1:45 AM




















    5. The switch from TV over the internet was always going to happen. It will be interesting to see how many peple embrace this change!



       Posted by: Dom |
      September 30, 2010 2:01 AM




















    6. It is expected of Free TV channels to set up their own channel over the internet as others are well gearing up for this. Me for one will use Internet TV if that will be free (for Free Channels) but won’t even pay a dime for Pay Channels since I do have it on cable. Kill the cable first before expecting users to pay for Internet TV.



      Posted by: Steve Jobs |
      September 30, 2010 8:46 AM




















    7. If there is a labeled group that I must fall into then I would be a 'Cable cutter/never'. oh well, like politics two groups do not define the nation's opinion.

      I have been cable free for years. Lost the privilege one year and the spell was broken. I watched what I could get/receive from the roof antenna. Then the internet was suddenly quite a resource as I discovered people uploaded their season long DVR recordings and shared to many public sites. These hard to find sites called for registration or a number of uploads to contribute.

      Further research found major television companies sharing episodes and highlight reels. Then I heard about a young Hulu.com from a programmer friend who built a major tv site's app and then the Hulu.com app. Nice. This was free with registration and you could setup subscriptions and just scan your queue for what's new.

      Another great value is in sites like CastTv.com where we have a resource of shows found all over the web and they simply link you to the sites with the episodes. No fee. They even monitor when a program reaches the end of a season and goes to DVD or the producer earmarks an episode(Ex: Star Wars The Clone Wars to a paid format only).

      The tv community is on the move to the web and more will follow as Cable tries to compensate with fees and threatens stations with new contracts. Then we have companies supporting the community with $150 Blue Ray players and $99 Apple Tv that are pushing those internet shows to the front room television directly from your computer. We can get it all in HD quality on youtube, International tv stations, netflix, news shows and old tv series (VHS recordings salvaged and uploaded) that have been forgotten. All of this uploaded and available for the international viewing audience.



       Posted by: Eric |
      September 30, 2010 12:43 PM























    8. As thousands of demonstrators marched in European capitals on Wednesday to protest recent austerity measures, officials in Brussels proposed stiffening sanctions for governments that fail to cut their budget deficits and debt swiftly enough. ("Workers In Europe Protest Austerity Measures", New York Times, 9/30/2010)



      Oh, do the super-rich hate the sound of "class struggle." Dare to utter the words and they'll reach for their red-baiting paint guns and spray you silly with invective. It's un-American. It's socialistic. It's an insult to democracy and freedom.



      But try as they might, they can't paint over the reality, which the new Fortune 400 listings make so clear: Wall Street billionaires have more money than they'll ever be able to use--at a time when more than 29 million of us don't have that most basic necessity, a full-time job. A hidden class war got us to this point. It's not hidden anymore.



      Once upon a time there was a tangible connection between the plutocrats and the rest of us. Carnegie, Mellon and Rockefeller built sprawling enterprises that employed tens of thousands of workers (even if they did treat them brutally). But today's billionaire financiers, about 100 of whom are on the Fortune 400 list, have a tough time explaining how their money-making schemes produce any jobs at all. Very few of us have a clue about how they even make their money.



      But we are clued in to the way our society is splitting apart. What's good for the Wall Street tycoons is not good for America. The wealthy may loathe hearing about "class struggle," but we're in the middle of one -- and it's a doozy.



      Back in the 1800s (and onward), "class struggle" meant the economic conflict between the interests of working people and those who owned "the means of production." But that construct proved too rigid to describe a complex modern economy. Companies are often run by managers who aren't owners. Most middle managers and supervisors also are workers, not owners, though they may identify with upper management. In glamor industries like Hollywood and sports, some workers are far richer and more powerful than the managers and owners. And many workers are "owners" through stock purchases made individually and through their pension funds.



      "Class struggle" also doesn't capture the symbiotic relationship between workers, managers and owners. Yes, we fight over everything from plant shutdowns to job safety and health care benefits. But we also have common interests - workers want to keep their jobs, and for that they are dependent upon "owners." Instead of class struggle, we often see workers lobbying alongside owners for policies that might keep their industry afloat. This worker-boss connection is often much stronger than any sense of broad class solidarity among workers across the country. Most of us define ourselves as middle class, not working class, and we don't see ourselves at war with the business owners.



      Until now. The financial crisis is squaring up a new class struggle: The handful of financial elites versus the rest of us. Where's our common interest? What's good for them (a $10 trillion bailout) costs us jobs and public services, and deepens the public debt. Financial elites have effectively hijacked our economy and there will be hell to pay to get it back.



      Beginning in the mid-1970s the twin policies of financial deregulation and tax cuts for the super-rich laid the groundwork for the rise of financial industry billionaires. We were told these policies would fuel an enormous investment boom that would cause all boats to rise. Not quite. Income certainly gushed to the top fraction of one percent. But then we entered the financial industry Twilight Zone: The super-rich accumulated so much money that they literally ran out of investments in normal industries that produced real goods and services. Wall Street, now a deregulated Wild West, rode to the rescue by creating all manner of new paper investment opportunities. Instead of buying a piece of a factory or company through stocks and bonds, you bought derivatives. Or you gave your money to hedge funds where you could "earn" outsized returns with little risk -- just what the super-rich craved. Unfortunately, the entire enterprise was built upon layer after layer of leverage. The result was an unstable upside-down pyramid of "structured finance" balancing on a very narrow base of real tangible assets.



      All of this worked just fine until it didn't. You know the rest of the story. When housing prices stopped rising, these paper assets - the CDOs and all the rest - went up in smoke, incinerating the rest of the economy in the process. (Please see The Looting of America for an easy-to-read account.)



      On their long way up, financial industry billionaires grabbed our economy by the cojones-- and they're not letting go. Here are a few of the indicators:



      1. Financial sector profits dramatically increased in the past several decades, peaking at over 40 percent of all corporate profits just before the economic collapse. Now the industry's profits are chugging back up again.

      2. After the inevitable crash, the financial sector and its investors had all the political clout they needed to ensure their swift rescue by the government. Instead of paying a hefty price for wrecking the economy with their bad bets as dictated by free market principles, they got bailed out at taxpayer expense.

      3. The 2010 financial reform bill did not break up financial institutions that were too big to fail or too interconnected to fail. It also didn't rebuild the Glass-Steagall Act's wall between investment banks and depository banks. The six largest banks are now bigger than ever.

      4. Congress rejected our calls for a windfall profits tax or financial transaction tax to help pay for the financial sector's catastrophic damage to our economy. Instead Wall Street elites are again reaping enormous profits, leaving 29 million unemployed and underemployed people in the dust.

      5. To pay for our rising public debt we're being told to tighten our belts so that they don't have to tighten theirs.


      Economists assure us that the financial sector's role is to prudently move excess savings into investment. But that's not how Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, the largest private equity funds and the largest hedge funds are raking in their billions. Their real cash cow is their secretive daily practice of "proprietary trading" -- the equivalent of gambling in a rigged casino. This has nothing to do with investing in industries that might put our people to work. So our paltry economic growth is generating financial industry booty, not jobs.



      Our billionaires might want us to think of them as great statesmen working to help our nation prosper and grow. But in reality, they're busily siphoning off our nation's wealth -- and blocking all efforts to regulate or tax their destructive behavior.



      Wall Street's class warfare doesn't just target workers. While many top multinational corporate CEOs are in league with the big financiers, most of the medium and small business owners now struggling to find the capital to stay alive have few friends on Wall Street. Workers, supervisors and middle managers alike now live in fear that they'll lose their jobs -- and it's all because of the financial shenanigans on Wall Street. You don't have to be a Marxist to know that we bailed out the very people who wrecked our economy. You'll find precious few defenders of Wall Street anywhere in America.



      This new class struggle will soon begin playing out on some new battlefields. The weight of the U.S.'s massive debt (created by the financial crisis and our failure to tax the super-rich the way we used to) will be put on our backs. The financial elites, along with their richly funded think tanks and compliant political hacks, will tell us to privatize Social Security, reduce its benefits and extend the retirement age. We'll be told we must cut funding for schools and health care services. We'll have to live with a crumbling infrastructure and a deteriorating environment -- because, well, the money just isn't there.



      But if we call for raising taxes on the super-rich to prevent these dire developments, they'll bring out their paint guns and scream "socialism!" -- and threaten us with more economic catastrophe. Of course, they can fly their private jets over our collapsing infrastructure and send their kids to private schools. And they have no worries about jobs, health care or retirement, since they and their families have more money than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes. Talk about a class struggle!



      The Wall Street billionaires utterly refuse to accept any blame for our economic woes. They simply can't believe that their billions came from fatal flaws in our system rather than from their own genius. They'll fight to the end to convince us and themselves that they are indeed God's gift to our economy. (Wouldn't you if you had a billion dollars?)



      It's time to make them pay their fair share for the damage they've done. That will help finance the massive jobs programs we need to put our people back to work. Of course, the super-wealthy can afford to pay. Only their pride will suffer.



      In truth most of us would prefer to duck this fight. We just want to find a job, or keep the one we have, be with our families and cope with what life throws at us while enjoying as much of it as we can. We don't want to go to war with the richest people in the world, even though we greatly outnumber them. But we can't avoid this battle--it's coming to our doorsteps. The Dow may hit 12,000 but unemployment will haunt us for a decade to come. We can't afford the brutal cuts to retiree benefits, healthcare or education that they're pushing on us.



      It will take a lot of time and effort to figure out how to fight back and win. But don't despair. As the old union song suggests, the toughest question always is "Which side are you on?" In the new class struggle, that decision has already been made for us.



      Les Leopold is the author of The Looting of America: How Wall Street's Game of Fantasy Finance destroyed our Jobs, Pensions and Prosperity, and What We Can Do About It Chelsea Green Publishing, June 2009.








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