★ wanayoo — archive 1999 http://slashdot.org/articles/00/06/18/157237.shtmlNouvelle recherche | Portail wanayoo

Welcome to Slashdot Department of Justice News PalmPilot The Internet Apple
 faq
 code
 awards
 privacy
 slashNET
 older stuff
 rob's page
 preferences
 andover.net
 submit story
 advertising
 supporters
 past polls
 topics
 about
 jobs
 hof

Sections
8/15
apache
8/17 (11)
askslashdot
1/27
awards
8/8
books
8/17 (3)
bsd
8/17
features
8/17
interviews
6/22
radio
8/16 (5)
science
8/17 (3)
yro
OSDN
Freshmeat
Linux.com
SourceForge
ThinkGeek
Question
 Exchange

Idea Exchange Environment
The Internet Posted by CmdrTaco on Sunday June 18, @12:06PM
from the thats-an-interesting-idea-in-and-of-itself dept.
mebreathing writes: "ShouldExist.org is an idea exchange environment, where users post good ideas and then talk about them. One such idea is about the possibility of extending mp3 or id3 to contain tracks, so whole albums could be encoded into a single mp3, making them easier to find and eliminating skips between tracks. Another idea involves the new DivX codec, and making clickable mpegs that link to URLs of affiliate programs, so movie companies can release movies for free and then make their money by taking a percentage of the profits from all the consumption they induce." This shouldn't feel abnormal to anyone who has ever participated in an open source project, but its kinda nifty. I wonder if anything will come of it.

Recombinant DNA For The Home Hobbyist | The Digital Revolution - Living up to the Hype?  >

 

 
Slashdot Login
Nickname:

Password:

Don't have an account yet? Go Create One. A user account will allow you to customize all these nutty little boxes, tailor the stories you see, as well as remember your comment viewing preferences.

Related Links
  • ShouldExist.org
  • DivX codec
  • More on The Internet
  • Also by CmdrTaco
  • This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
    please no!!! (Score:1)
    by titus-g on Sunday June 18, @12:10PM EDT (#1)
    (User Info)
    and making clickable mpegs that link to URLs of affiliate programs

    I'd think after a couple of years you wouldn't be able to tell when the ad breaks started and the programs finished. . .

    Re:please no!!! (Score:2)
    by drinkypoo on Sunday June 18, @12:20PM EDT (#9)
    (User Info) http://down.on.fascination.st/~drink/

    Of course, if you're downloading the movie for free, how much room will you have to bitch? Especially since it can be counted upon to be of a higher quality than a VCD.

    In practice, the way we see this used in quicktime (or even in current windowsmedia formats) is to have a border at the top and/or bottom with clickable links. This really isn't a bad idea. If Digital Rights Management ends up working pretty well (IE, "secure enough") then this might become a pretty attractive solution for some people, but I think that leaves out the divx codec.

    By the way, I tried using the divx codec to encode an AVI stream, and it worked pretty well and was faster than I expected (on a p3-500, even), so if they ever had a version that was tied to DRM, I think it could be a fairly winning proposition where you'd have a nice high-speed decompressor that studios didn't have to pay for. I doubt that it will, though, since that sort of seems to go against the purpose, so I think we're going to end up seeing that sort of click-to-remove-advertisements release eventually, but I don't think it'll use the divx ;) codec.


    You are what you do when you count --Steakley
    Re:please no!!! (Score:1)
    by dtr21 (slashdot@NOSPAM.rowles.cx) on Sunday June 18, @10:39PM EDT (#47)
    (User Info)

    I think it's even worse than that...

    How about when Movie companies start demanding the ability to stop you watching a film as well as knowing when you're watching it. Kind of like pay per view. Only you buy a disc, and they use a serial number on the movie to "allow" you to watch it when you pay them.

    More to the point, the movie industry would know *everyone's* viewing habits. They would know exactly what type of films any individual liked to watch. Aside from the sheer volume of "targeted advertising" that this would generate (read: junk mail), and the (horrifying) telemarketing potential, would you really feel comfortable letting these corporations know so much about you? They've already demonstrated that the can't be trusted to act intelligently due to the whole DeCSS mess. I certainly don't want to give them details of my private life

    Just my 2 pence worth


    It was my idea first (Score:1)
    by alanjstr (iamknotheer@yahoo.com) on Sunday June 18, @12:15PM EDT (#5)
    (User Info)
    Of course people can now argue over who should take credit for these ideas. Just because you post it first doesn't mean you thought of it first. This could also lead to flame wars over "you're so stupid."
    I like it (Score:1, Insightful)
    by tomk (tomk@dev.null) on Sunday June 18, @12:20PM EDT (#8)
    (User Info) http://www.citrix.com
    This is a great idea. One of the common complaints about the Open Source world is that there is "less innovation" and that the popular projects are playing catch-up to Microsoft and Windows software. (Funny, though.. I can't think of anything MS invented other than "Bob"..)

    This site should be able to spark people's imaginations and hopefully will result in some real innovation!

    One other benefit: in the commercial world, I'm sure many people without the background / expertise to program come up with some great ideas that never see the light of day. Maybe this can help to change that.

    -TomK
    Just Like Open Source (Score:1)
    by kaisyain on Sunday June 18, @12:21PM EDT (#11)
    (User Info)
    I imagine it will be just like Open Source. If they're lucky one, maybe two, things will become wildly popular. Another five or so will be vaguely popular. And the other two million ideas will be hugely popular band wagon events for a few weeks until Attention Deficit Disorder kicks in and the 0.2 release announcement sits on freshmeat for 2 years.
    idea exchange environment = sustainable? (Score:4, Interesting)
    by Submarine (monniaux@millet.ens.fr) on Sunday June 18, @12:23PM EDT (#13)
    (User Info) http://www.di.ens.fr/~monniaux

    The question is: what is a "good idea" and how can an "idea exchange environment for good ideas" not degenerate into an endless stream of flame-wars?

    This problem is as old as the Usenet newsgroups. Sometimes, people get pretty opinionated about stuff, turning any technical or social question into a religious issue. Add some incompetency, some hot heads, and you get the usual stream of sneering, insults and anger that's so prevalent in Slashdot or the newsgroup.

    The real question is: how to keep it from getting out of hand? Some sites, including Slashdot, have chosen moderation. Moderation has basic technical problems: moderators can get overwhelmed by the traffic. Moderated newsgroups or mailing-lists are often late in transmitting messages because the moderator has to exhaust a backlog; in systems where moderation happens after the message has been posted, such as Slashdot, idiots can post messages faster than the moderators can bring them down. Furthermore, moderation tends to promote established ideologies on the detriment of minority opinion. The notion of what is irrelevant rant tends to be belief-dependent. Think of this: a libertarian will tend to moderate down communist speech as irrelevant, stupid flamebait; a Linux advocate will moderate down Windows advocacy as irrelevant flamebait etc.. etc..

    The question remains: how to keep public Internet forums readable? Think of this: in the old days, researchers would read scientific newsgroups. Nowadays, few do, since many scientific newsgroups are filled with spam, crackpots claiming they solved , teenagers asking people to solve their homework, and American politics.


    Re:idea exchange environment = sustainable? (Score:1)
    by Project_2501 on Sunday June 18, @11:53PM EDT (#48)
    (User Info)
    Hai hai!! I agree with what you say about moderation in that it "tends to promote established ideologies on the detriment of minority opinion" I am a big Microsoft advocate, and am also a visionary... but people on slashdot are more Linux ppl and of course more left-brained thinkers.. heheh i guess that's why im on the wrong side of the tracks here in slashdot.. I feel so hated!! ;_; I got a rating of -1 on my last post.. but the ironic thing the issue that I took up prognosticated the future.. i basically said microsoft's strategy with Judge Jackson was to piss him off enough that he would make some stupid comments and hence illegitimize his ruling or at least have others find it as distastefull as his emotional descision making. I got moderated down to -1 and I was called a Trolll snarf snarf.... but the thing is the next day MS denounced Judge Jackson's descision precisely for those reason stated above..heheh see i really do think like Bill *.*

    U evil /.rs who did this to me shall pay...mwa.. mwahaa mhwahhahahahahahaha.. I am Femto goddamit, your all are gonna pay... *POP* ohh heheh sorry I was momentarily possessed by an anime character.. ehem.. Anyway you get my point. Moderation don't work... it keeps genius locked out... >_ -=Griffis=-

    Tru64 version? (Score:3, Insightful)
    by Cliffton Watermore (cliff.watermore@hushmail.com) on Sunday June 18, @12:36PM EDT (#18)
    (User Info) http://www.advancetech.com

    There doesn't appear to be a Tru64 version of the DivX codec installer. This renders it almost useless to me, at work. My workstation is a Tru64 machine.

    When will we see a Tru64 version?


    "A few atoms won't even light a match" - Dr Jones, 1933
    Re:Tru64 version? (Score:1)
    by joekool (joe@NoSPAMtypeStuffschmoe.virtualave.net) on Sunday June 18, @09:06PM EDT (#45)
    (User Info) http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=joekool&threshold=-1
    please, just stop bragging about all the wonderful machines you are using, and how everything should exist for them--it is really annoying---besides why are you watching movies at work
    (admitidly, I am too, but hey, I have a fake job)
    I am not complaining that there is no installer for the vax, now am I?

    I know all, I see all--guess which is the fun part!?
    Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit fishy? (Score:3, Interesting)
    by ignatiusst (pcadams@cetlink.net) on Sunday June 18, @12:41PM EDT (#20)
    (User Info) http://web.cetlink.net/~pcadams/home.html
    Maybe I'm cynical (paranoid?), but how do we know that this site wasn't set up (or monitored) by someone wanting a free think-tank that might produce a market-viable idea?
    Re:Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit fish (Score:1)
    by KjetilK (kjetikj@astro.uio.no.spam) on Sunday June 18, @02:25PM EDT (#29)
    (User Info) http://www.astro.uio.no/~kjetikj/
    I must admit I didn't think about it before I submitted something.

    Anyway, according to Whois, it's Tucows that registered it.

    The advantage of culture is that it enables you to talk nonsense with distinction. - W. Somerset Maugham

    Dunno, but it *was* submitted by the site creator (Score:1, Informative)
    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 18, @02:27PM EDT (#30)
    Self-promotion at its finest.

    And while I'm at it, for all those other people whining about IP complications, it should be obvious that anyone who actually posts an 'idea' on the WWW is effectively putting it into the public domain, and should not be surprised at all if someone else grabs it and runs with it.
    Re:Am I the only one who thinks this is a bit fish (Score:2)
    by Kris_J (news1@krisjohn.net) on Sunday June 18, @08:03PM EDT (#44)
    (User Info) http://www.krisjohn.net
    a free think-tank that might produce a market-viable idea
    Umm, I think that's the idea. I think the site hopes its being monitored by someone for just such a thing.

    This place isn't going to pay you for your "insights" - you're giving thoughts away because you believe something should exist. If you think you should make something out of your ideas then come to a private arrangement with some VCs.

    [I hereby grant full permission for any and all to retransmit, archive, republish and broadcast all of my postings to Slashdot, past, present and future]

    Prior art repository (Score:1)
    by acidrain on Sunday June 18, @01:11PM EDT (#24)
    (User Info)
    This can cut down on the number of silly internet patents. If the site logs all these good ideas, they can be used to defeat silly patents on forward thinking but semi-obvious ideas.
    If you like shouldexist, check out halfbakery! (Score:4, Insightful)
    by egnor (egnor-slashdot@ofb.net) on Sunday June 18, @01:22PM EDT (#25)
    (User Info) http://ofb.net/~egnor/

    Halfbakery.com is similar to shouldexist, but less full of itself, more active (but that will probably change) and with a somewhat different structure. There are a lot more interesting ideas on halfbakery right now; it's worth checking out. Specifically, the proprietors of shouldexist will need to watch out for some of the problems popularity has brought to halfbakery. (Stupid people posting lots of stupid ideas; flamewars; discussions that go off-topic; duplication; difficulty sorting and categorizing the ideas...)

    Ideas are fun to banter around, but people shouldn't kid themselves that a good idea is really worth something. A good idea (vision) and lots and lots of effort implementing it is worth something. "99% perspiration" and all that.

    Venture capitalists, for example, must constantly educate people that they don't fund ideas, they fund companies -- and there's a lot more to a company than an idea. Ideas, I'm sad to say, are a dime a dozen; people willing, able, and committed to carrying them out are much more rare.

    I imagine sites like halfbakery and shouldexist are more useful not as "think tanks" but as ways for people interested in new ideas to meet each other.


    Re:If you like shouldexist, check out halfbakery! (Score:2)
    by Kris_J (news1@krisjohn.net) on Monday June 19, @12:08AM EDT (#49)
    (User Info) http://www.krisjohn.net
    I've checked out Halfbakery and Decision Markets and for whatever reason I don't find them even nearly as easy to follow as ShouldExist.org and I've found them all to be very quiet - so much so that they can appear to be a waste of time (as in, who is paying attention to these sites such that it's worth my time posting to them?)

    In addition, I've had a rummage around ShouldExist.org and I've found quite a large number of posts for things that Do Exist (.org?). Perhaps there should be a site called "DoesThisExist.org" - otherwise most posts will start off on the wrong foot (or rather, most replies will start off with "already exists").

    [I hereby grant full permission for any and all to retransmit, archive, republish and broadcast all of my postings to Slashdot, past, present and future]

    IP issues (Score:3, Informative)
    by Signal 11 (signal11@mediaone.net?Subject=Slashdot comment) on Sunday June 18, @01:24PM EDT (#26)
    (User Info) http://www.malign.net/~bojay/
    I'd like to remind you that even if you first had an idea.. up until 8 months from now, if I go and impliment it and patent it, there isn't a damn thing you can do. Think twice before giving someone an idea of yours.

    -o Disclaimer: My employer doesn't even agree with me about C indentation style. o-

    Re:IP issues (Score:1)
    by MaximumBob on Sunday June 18, @03:48PM EDT (#37)
    (User Info)
    My, my, that's cutthroat. Occasionally, people share ideas because they just want to see something happen, not because they have any monetary interest in it happening.
    Re:IP issues (Score:2)
    by Chris Johnson (chrisj@airwindows.com) on Sunday June 18, @06:18PM EDT (#42)
    (User Info) http://www.mp3.com/ChrisJ
    Screw that. I'll give whatever ideas I please. If someone does that _they_ are being intellectual muggers, and if the legal system is set up to support them doing it the legal system is wrong. I refuse to stop sharing ideas just because of that. If somebody does that to me I'll just have another idea, fuck 'em. The whole idea of selfcensoring and cutting off all sharing and interaction of ideas due to this threat just offends the hell out of me, and I simply can't accept making any concessions at all in that direction. You only live once, and when you die your money means nothing anymore but your ideas may live on.
    songs instrumental music
    Re:IP issues (Score:1)
    by jjsaul on Monday June 19, @08:52AM EDT (#57)
    (User Info)
    So when did you change the patent laws without telling the rest of us? So now the US has abandoned priority of invention as a requirement for patent, to match the "race to the patent office" laws of the EU?
    Not a bad idea (Score:1)
    by TheTick21 (Forest@spam.me.not) on Sunday June 18, @01:52PM EDT (#27)
    (User Info) http://www.apartment6.org
    Since this isn't a bad idea I think I'll start such a place myself. Now everyone submit a whole bunch of great ideas to me. Then we can discuss them and stuff.


    note that by submitting your ideas to me you relinquish all rights to them patent, trademark or otherwise...also by submitting them you agree to not disclose any part of the screwin^H^H^H^H^H^H^H discussion process to anyone


    My Home: Apartment6
    DecisionMarkets.com does this better (Score:1)
    by bluninja on Sunday June 18, @02:18PM EDT (#28)
    (User Info) http://www.xcf.berkeley.edu/~genehkan
    DecisionMarkets actually establishes an idea market, while ShouldExist is basically just unrated commentary. For all the reasons it doesn't work well on hotly contested issues on Slashdot, ShouldExist will not work well.
    clickable mpegs.. hm. (Score:1)
    by mcc (mcc@drowned.cx) on Sunday June 18, @02:44PM EDT (#31)
    (User Info) http://drowned.cx/
    "clickable mpegs that link to URLs of affiliate programs, so movie companies can release movies for free and then make their money by taking a percentage of the profits from all the consumption they induce"

    "Extend this file format to support something similar to HTML image maps. Then take product placement in movies to the next level: Everything in the movie is clickable. If you're watching a movie and you see a shirt you think is totally fly, you click right on the shirt, and it opens a browser and links to a website that sells that very shirt."

    Quicktime has structures capable of doing this very thing already. This may mean you can do it in MPEG-4.

    I'm not sure of the technical details. I think quicktime does it using its sprite system, and i don't think the sprite system is in MPEG-4. But MPEG-4 has at the least quicktime's track system right..? So it would be relatively easy to reimplement whatever apple uses to handle links in quicktime movies into MPEG-4 as an extention, right? Or you could just actually use quicktime [you could even make the video compressor in the quicktime movie be MPEG if that's important to you], but i realize that isn't an option for most of you.

    please excuse any ignorance in this post.
    anyway, this whole shouldexist.org thing looks unbelievably cool. i've been wishing someone would make something like this for a long time.
    That id3 thing already possible (Score:1)
    by dysprosium (dysprosium@netscape.net) on Sunday June 18, @02:50PM EDT (#33)
    (User Info)
    Are you familiar with id3v2? It allows you to embed anything at all into the id3 tag. Pictures of the artist, lyrics, other mp3s, whatever. And it comes at the beginning of the file, not the end like current id3 tags, so you can use it even when streaming files. See id3v2.org for more info and a list of programs that support it.
    Eliminate skips between tracks? (Score:1)
    by unilynx (segmentation.fault@core.dumped.org) on Sunday June 18, @03:01PM EDT (#34)
    (User Info)
    You can already do that with mpg123. Just be sure to make the buffersize large enough, and then it will already start decoding the next track while it is decoding the previous track, with an (almost) unnoticable skip during playback. Works perfectly for Pink Floyd CDs at least.
    Re:Eliminate skips between tracks? (Score:1)
    by Tord (tord@bredband.net) on Sunday June 18, @03:15PM EDT (#35)
    (User Info) http://www.advogato.org/person/TordJ/
    "You can already do that with mpg123. Just be sure to make the buffersize large enough, and then it will already start decoding the next track while it is decoding the previous track, with an (almost) unnoticable skip during playback. Works perfectly for Pink Floyd CDs at least."

    (shamless plug comming up)

    And that "(almost) unnoticable skip" is truly gone if you use the latest unstable version of BladeEnc with the recently implemented -nogap switch.

    Believe me, that "all tracks in the same mp3" idea isn't such a good idea as it sounds. It's better to make sure that the ripper takes care of pre- and postgaps (paranoia can do this), the encoder doesn't add any gaps (bladeenc with -nogap) and that the player plays multiple mp3s as one stream (mpg123). That way we have the best of both worlds.

    Tord Jansson
    BladeEnc Maintainer

    Idea philanthropy law needed: Public Idea Registr? (Score:1)
    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 18, @03:22PM EDT (#36)
    There should be a formal way to write up and register ideas to give them GPL-like protection against commercial hoarding, when a person wants to set his best idea free.

    It should be an open declarative mechanism like copyright (before DMCA), so that anyone in the world can make a contribution to the idea-commons by taking the trouble to write it up properly and registering it in an indexed database. International treaty should recognize published declarations as binding protection of the ideas for the common good. In some respects, this would work like a free patent pool. It would be a good way to publish prospective standards.

    Implementation competition would then be about performing instead of hobbling others' performance. For format, I like the few RFCs I've read much better than the few patents I've read, but perhaps that's a reaction to the attitude showing between the lines.

    I must admit my stupidity. . . (Score:1)
    by deddill on Sunday June 18, @07:17PM EDT (#43)
    (User Info)
    . . .but I think the idea exchange here @ /. is excellent. I would welcome other sites that could generate as much interest and discussion. The more, the merrier - or the 21st century version: the more the harder to censor.
    thoughts (Score:1)
    by aint (philip@theRemoveMEprojects.org) on Monday June 19, @01:00AM EDT (#50)
    (User Info) http://www.theprojects.org/
    i don't see a problem with discussing ideas. the aim of the site looks to be a place to discuss ideas, however crazy or absurd or brilliant. most people have great ideas but will do nothing with them. most people have great ideas that were scribbled down and lost, why not share with others? if your idea is so good, wouldn't you want it implemented? who cares if you get no credit or no cash as it's either the idea is to be implemented (which will benefit YOU and everyone else) or the idea won't be implemented (benefit nobody) so the question is simple, either get off your ass and work on the idea or present it to the world.

    ideally a better system will exist that will allow people to get credit and ideally companies/people that take an idea and run with it will in fact give some credit where it's due but really, one shouldn't care all that much. shouldexist might want to be more like sourceforge.net with ideas being the medium vs software but really ...

    if i have an idea to make the world a better place, i don't much care who implements it.


    -- .sig --
    did i overlook something?
    Shucks *AND* Golly! (Score:1)
    by ShaniaTwain on Monday June 19, @02:22AM EDT (#51)
    (User Info)
    I _LOVE_ this site... I'm just having trouble finding details about how to live the title tag: "Quit your 9-5 and start living the REVOLUTION." Any tips? How can *I* become the next dot millionare?


    -
    -Mmm Mmm! Sure do love them Geneto Fudes!
    Comercial Idea Exchange (Score:2)
    by webmaven (webmavenSPAMLESS@lvcm.com) on Monday June 19, @11:10AM EDT (#58)
    (User Info) http://www.fiawol.com
    I found an interesting site today:

    equityengine.com is a sort of peer review idea factory/incubator that grants people equity in the companies resulting from their ideas, as well as equity in exchange for work done to implement those ideas.

    If they pull this off, this would be a great way to capture the output of people who have great ideas but poor implementation skills, or lack of follow-through.
    --
    FIAWOL, because Fandom Is A Way Of Life.
      Lie, n.: A very poor substitute for the truth, but the only one discovered to date.
    All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2000 Andover.Net.

    [ home | awards | supporters | rob's homepage | contribute story | older articles | Andover.Net | advertising | past polls | about | faq ]