Online Porn - The Technology Testbed? 392
DaveAtFraud writes "USA Today is running a only slightly tongue-in-cheek article pointing out that the on-line porn industry has become the technology testbed for innovative content delivery. On-line delivery of 'adult' content has been wrestling with issues such as digital rights management, video on-demand billing, wireless services, and geo-location software since long before these became issues for 'mainstream' content providers. Maybe having an adult content provider listed on your geek resume isn't so bad after all."
Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:5, Funny)
Ahh.. downloading pr0n at 2400bps. Those were the days... Wait a minute... those days sucked.
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:5, Funny)
TW
Guttenberg too... (Score:3, Insightful)
You don't think Guttenberg only printed bibles, do you?
Re:Guttenberg too... (Score:5, Funny)
"Watson, tell me what you're wearing."
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:2)
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:5, Insightful)
Face it: sex is the driving force behind our [and every] species, so its no surprise that almost all of our cultural structures seem to largely depend on it somehow.
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:5, Funny)
Amazingly, 99.9% of Slashdot community will have no dependancy upon it, whatsoever.
Rocks in your bed. (Score:3, Funny)
you've had more computers than girl friends.
Re:Correction (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd argue that sex itself has nothing to do with it - it's the incredible preoccupation and obsession with it that comprises this "driving force."
I'm still trying to figure out what's 'adult' about most 'adult' content, since much of it depicts a complete absence of restraint, common sense, and reality in general - all the things we're told a
Re:Correction (Score:4, Interesting)
Slashdot must not ever have editing of posts for one simple reason, that it would remove accountability (and be psychotic if it allowed mod'ed posts to be edited). Imagine trying to understand a nested message board like this, with comments about parent posts, etc., when people repeatedly edited their posts? It would become impossible to understand what was going on...
Worse, what if your post was modded to 5, then you edited it to be innappropriate? The entire point of moderation - to bring good ideas to the forfront - would be ruined.
Re:Correction (Score:3, Interesting)
There should be 3 things that make a post uneditable:
- Someone responds to the post
- Someone moderates the post
- A hard time limit passes
A time limit alone isn't good enough. Once someone responds or moderates, a post should be set in stone.Re:Correction (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:3, Insightful)
UTMS is a failure in Europe, despite early announcements of porn content.
It's true that the porn industry has been more open to technology changes than the rest of the content industry. But I believe that thanks to P2P, there's a measurable fraction of Internet traffic which isn't either DNS or porn. (Yes, you can share porn over P2P networks, too -- but let's be honest, porn is not everyone's favorite content. 8-)
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:2)
No way! Tradewars [tradewars.org] was the bread and butter of BBS systems, you filthy heretic!
Porn built the internet AND DVD (Score:5, Insightful)
Think that's BS?
How many movies have multiple angles that DON'T involve storyboards?
How many PORN movies have multiple angles? (not that I personally know or anything...)
Yeah, thought so.
Re:Porn built the internet AND DVD (Score:3, Funny)
Nah. The "multiple angels" fantasy predates DVD by quite a bit. It's been the #1 male fantasy since porn was invented.
Re:Porn built the internet AND DVD (Score:5, Funny)
>
> Nah. The "multiple angels" fantasy predates DVD by quite a bit. It's been the #1 male fantasy since porn was invented.
God: "So, Number Two, what would you do if you had a million bucks?"
Lucifer: "Two angels at once."
Re:Porn built the internet AND DVD (Score:4, Funny)
So THAT's what they look like from the side when they bounce......
wbs.
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:5, Funny)
Are you sure???
"Hey, Bill? I have this great picture of a naked chick. Wanna see?"
"Sure, Al. But it had better not be Tipper again."
Re:pr0n poll (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:pr0n poll (Score:5, Interesting)
No. I don't invest very much actual time on downloads. I wrote some scripts to grab content from various places on the web. I look at a few "favorite" sites daily, but that's not a large investment in time. Maybe 15 minutes. I usually find new sites serendipitously, and they if they appear to update content with any frequency, I add 'em to the script.
It's pretty typical for me to pick up 300MB of stuff in a night from scripts. Sometimes I'll subscribe to a pay site and grab the whole thing.
I'm a general-purpose media collector. I own maybe 3200 CDs (all classical music), about 1000 (video, non-adult) DVDs and collections of paperback novels, magazines, sheet music and comic books. I have a complete-except-for-three-issues collection of Playboy magazines, for example.
I got interested in video capture hardware seven or eight years ago, when my Pentium Pro machine was a fantastic powerhouse, just to see what I could do with it. I started doing my home movies, then tried commercial tapes... which didn't work, because of macrovision. But a porn tape did, so I started duping the oldest tapes my local video store had (the ones I liked best). Not long after I picked up an affordable CD-R drive and I started making VCDs that I sold on ebay. From there I started getting requests, and then the hunt was on for stuff I couldn't get locally and... wham. I had a collection.
So I'm a media geek of some kind. I re-wired my whole house for media access about three weeks after I bought it. I can watch my DVDs or listen to my music in any room. If I have some kind of OCD, it's probably deeper than just downloading/collecting porno. I *do* take 200mg of Zoloft a day, which I know is used to treat OCD among other things (severe depression in my case).
For the other thing: there's this [slashdot.org]. She didn't mind playboy stuff, and she actually _liked_ dirty movies, although ironically she had me pre-screen to make sure there WASN'T g/g activity... which itself led to a great deal of knowledge about the movies and the people in them (for example, a movie with Tera Patrick is a good bet for straight M/F sex. I haven't seen her with a girl yet).
Anyway, she was more annoyed with the amount of space my collections took up than anything else. At the end of our time living together, she asked me for specific things to take and share with her girlfriend (in case you were wondering why I need the Zoloft).
I can't judge how other people react. I'm not good at that sort of thing. But it's not like I'd talk about it in front of other real-life people. But here I can be at least be honest about such things.
Re:pr0n poll (Score:3, Informative)
My tastes actually run to softcore photos rather than out-and-out porn.
Here's a decent set of recommendations. [slashdot.org]
In the movie department there are a lot of variables. I'll restrain myself to movies you might find on the shelf at your local shop.
Movies from Private usually have unenhanced girls doing nasty things with guys who don't look like they just got out of prison. Quality is generally very high there but no single movie stands out.
Wicked's films usually have som
Re:Porn built the internet(not Al Gore) (Score:3, Funny)
(The lameness filter is lame. Ignore this parenthetical remark.)
Online Porn (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Online Porn (Score:5, Funny)
Online Porn is lending a hand to the rest of the industry...
Yes. Yours.
Re:Online Porn (Score:2, Funny)
Maybe it's because of their audience (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Maybe it's because of their audience (Score:5, Informative)
And it pays well too, so it should be a career option for all techies out there, seeing the current techjobmarket.
Re:Maybe it's because of their audience (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree, to an extent. I'm an adult webmaster, and it is an interesting line of work. It's a fairly close-nit community and it does have it's downsides.
When I started out, getting ANYONE to do business with us was next to impossible. Banks wouldn't allow us to open accounts, online merchants wouldn't accept us, etc etc.
It has gotten more "friendly" over the past few years, but it certainly isn't a market I recommend to just anyone. Building user contacts and networking is always hard, but in the adult industry people seem more guarded.
And honestly? The web visitors are always pompous, condescending assholes if you don't provide them with what they want, when they want it. I must get 50 emails a day with complaints about various miniscule bullshit.
I still wouldn't trade it for the world though. :)
Re:Maybe it's because of their audience (Score:5, Informative)
Ok, I'll try to answer this...
To become an adult webmaster, don't do it for the money. It has to be something you're interested in (ha ha, joke's on me! Who isn't interested in porn?). Honestly though, you need to be passionate about the subject, otherwise it WILL get boring. There are thousands of TGPs & MGPs out there, so try to come up with something "different" to build hits.
Photo shoots are "interesting" to say the least. I have only been on one, and basically, it went like this:
Me: "Hi, glad you could show up. This is the photographer. Do you mind if we stick around for the shoot, to provide input?" (I was ABSOLUTELY lying through my teeth. I just wanted to see her naked.)
Her: "No."
"Ok, have fun!" At that point I had to leave the room. Stock images are great for original content, but they can be expensive. Photo sets range from $20 to $50+ per set, and buying new content on a daily basis is immensely expensive. If your sponsor/advertiser revenue can support it, no problem. I usually hit usenet for image sets, as I can get untagged images for free.
Strippers are seriously one of your best points of contact. They have no problem taking off their clothes, and usually aren't afraid to pose in front of a camera. Usual billing rates are $100 to $300+ per hour, depending on the "talent".
No webmaster wants to talk about revenue, but IF (and that's a HUGE if) I filled all my advertising slots, I would clear in excess of 22k per month. I have NEVER come close to filling my advertising slots, so for now, the point is moot.
No, there are no "fringe benefits" that I know of. Other webmasters may operate differently from myself though. I'm married, and the very thought of John Wayne Bobbit brings up horrific images. You do the math on that one.
Advice to aspiring porn god. (Score:5, Interesting)
There are a couple of ways to do it. The first method involves having a very willing girlfriend that has a lot of friends who aren't afraid to take their clothes off. If you date a stripper or a wanna-be porn starlet, you're set.
The second method is more difficult now, but basically, find a niche and fill it. Unfortunately, most of the common fetishes (big breasts, asians, lesbian, blonds, etc.) are already represented by some very well-established sites, so what you're left with is catering to the Fat Asian Foot-Fetishists out there. Not very enjoyable work, and hard-as-hell to get content.
Personally, I worked with a photographer for a few years, and we did a number of shoots for strippers who wanted to become models. The problem is, most strippers simply don't have the right looks or height to be a model. But we would shoot them regardless, since they paid our bills.
We decided to offer free publicity shots (since we kept the publishing rights), and word got around. Mind you, Joe Photo won't be able to pull this off. The key to being a successful photographer is looking like a successful photographer: plenty of strobes, lots of tripods hanging on the walls, a proper studio, tearsheets casually tossed about, etc.. The photog I worked with probably had a hundred grand invested in equipment.
The nice thing about strippers is that they tend to be a bit crazy to begin with, and if you're reasonably cool they won't have a problem doing crazy shit in front of a camera. In their minds, it beats having to ass-grind some fat slob at a club any day of the week.
This can get expensive, however, depending on location. Which is the next point: go where the talent is. We worked on the East Coast, and there's just not a lot of girls going into porn over here. And the strippers? Well, your standards tend to drop when you have a real-flesh-and-blood girl dancing for you, but for an online audience the bar is raised considerably. Your girls either better be extremely attractive, have enormous breasts, or be willing to do some pretty extreme stuff if you're going to keep up with the competition.
So, if you really want to be a PornGod, here's my advice. First, move to L.A. -- there's a lot more "talent" (ha!) to be had for a lot less dough. Learn some basic studio photography, then shell out a couple grand for a prosumer digital camera and some strobes. Rent a studio someplace that's easy to get to by public transportation (bus, train, whatever). Or, make friends with a photographer that's already established and shares your enthusiasm for naked chicks and doesn't mind ruining his professional career (i.e., his day job). That's not to say that your name will get dragged through the mud if you go into porn, but it's a risk.
Once you've got that, set up a website with a host that won't boot you for hosting porn. Set up your site, plan what kind of market you're aiming at, and start filling it with stuff you find on USENET. Yes, it's not really legal, but if there's no (c) on the picture, and you're still small-time, you can consider it fair game. Now comes the fun part...
Head down to your local strip club. You're not going for a lap dance, so try and be professional and curteous. Really look at the girls -- don't just oggle their nakedness. If you don't see anyone that catches your eye, move on to the next place. Try to remain as objective as you can (it gets easier the more you do it). If you find a couple of girls you like, approach them after a routine when they're walking around the club. Tell them your name, what you would like to use them for, and hand them a business card. Look at her eyes, not her tits, and you're more likely to be taken seriously. Tell them how much you're paying for a shoot, and ask them to pass along the information to anyone they think might be interested.
Don't engage them in a long conversation, since they're technically on the clock and y
It's always been that way (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It's always been that way (Score:3, Informative)
With the invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johann Gutenburg (Kapr 1996), publishing and distribution written erotic works became much simpler. Adrian Johnswrites of the early printing houses, "Learned scholars andgentlemen alike had to commit their tomes to be printed in themidst of almanacs, pamphlets, and (in the case ofNewton's Principia) pornography."
Re:It's always been that way (Score:3, Insightful)
Naughty Woodsman stories have always been the staple of
Google (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Google (Score:5, Funny)
Boring image search results (Score:4, Interesting)
Tongue in what? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Tongue in what? (Score:2)
Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.
Katharina: In his tongue.
Petruchio: Whose tongue?
Katharina: Yours, if you talk of tails: and so farewell.
Petruchio: What, with my tongue in your tail? nay, come again, Good Kate; I am a gentleman.
I am a huge nerd.
Who pays for Porn? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Who pays for Porn? (Score:5, Funny)
You pay for internet porn...
Always
Never
Sometimes
I think of CowboyNeal when I masturbate(ewwwwww)
Re:Who pays for Porn? (Score:5, Funny)
Where's the -1, Seriously Disturbing Imagery mod option when you need it??
Re:Who pays for Porn? (Score:2)
Re:Who pays for Porn? (Score:5, Insightful)
Let say that 10 million people come to see your free stuff. From past studies, you can approximate that 0.1% of viewers will take the "3 day trial membership", and 25% of these will forget to cancel in time there membership.
You end up having 10 000 people paying for a 3-day trial, and 2500 paying the full monthly charge. Now how much does it cost to produce the material?
These numbers are just from the top of my head, but you can guess that just bringing a lot of people to a site, even a free one, can be quite profitable.
Re:Who pays for Porn? (Score:5, Informative)
I'd guess fetish sites are the winner in all this, just general 'naked chicks' for little hanky panky is very easy to find by almost anybody, but spesific videos or picture sets are not that easy to find just when you 'need'..
also there's lots of dumb fucks who waste their hard earned cash on some payphone dreams, so there must be 'few' willing to do the same thing online(camwhores).
Re:Who pays for Porn? (Score:5, Informative)
No, I don't subscribe, but if I ever wanted to pay for porn they would be the first to get the cash.
Goblin
Re:Who pays for Porn? (Score:3, Interesting)
google images is hardly a comparision to a proper site(sure they're great for general boob pics or whatever like that, and probably for pics of jenna jameson and other stars of that caliber, for fetish pics forget about it). also a lot of the easily
Re:Who pays for Porn? (Score:5, Informative)
A) Broadcast porn (i.e. "stuff on the television") because 1. It's of a higher visual quality than the standard net stuff; 2. I don't have to hunt around for it; 3. Unless I'm traveling, I like watching porn on my TV more than I like watching it on my computer. Yes, I could use either my PS2 or my XBOX to stream porn from my desktop, but when I want porn, I don't want to have to go and boot up one of these systems.
B) Truly excellent or unusual online porn. I have no problem using my money to encourage people out there who do good work and who cater to my (shamefully, these days, pretty vanilla) tastes. I pay for Red vs. Blue even though I could get it for free -- why not porn?
Lastly, to be honest, I've found porn downloads via, say, Kazaa to be fraught with disappointment. For one thing, there's the horrendously slow speeds often times; also, the unclear (or outright deceptive) descriptions can be a bitch. I still do it every once in a while, but for visual porn, my TV's a primary source these days. One exception to this is written porn -- www.asstr.org is your friend, and I use them pretty much exclusively for my written porn.
Re:Who pays for Porn? (Score:4, Informative)
1. Decently priced;
2. Priced a-la-carte;
3. Allows for me to archive and re-present it however I wish with minimal limitations.
Ever heard of iTMS?
Oh, and the shower? Get off of it. We keep making jokes about porn, and you know the vast majority of us actually look at porn, but as soon as someone says, soberly and reasonably, "yes, I pay for porn and this is why" you flip?
Re:Who pays for Porn? (Score:5, Funny)
One day I was walking into a Fry's (think circuit city but 10x as large and somehow more evil) and a guy was waiting in line to buy two 120gb drives (this was a couple years ago when that was HUGE). I walked up to him and said, "OHHHHHHHH those would hold ALLLOT of porn wouldn't they!?" The dude just turned bright red and didn't say a word :)
This author is a GENIUS! (Score:5, Funny)
Damn...I wish I was a writer...
Also ahead on the spam/marketing trends. (Score:5, Insightful)
Pop-ups? They did it first. Pop-unders? Did it first. The messenger exploit? Guess who.
God knows what else is brewing in the labs as we speak..
Porn pulls more traffic than god (Score:5, Insightful)
It only makes sense, considering how rooted in sex we human beings really are. I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of, and if as a race we could be more open with our sexuality, it wouldn't cause so many other problems.
Porn and technology (Score:5, Interesting)
Just think, if it weren't for our baser instincts, we'd never have advanced as far technologically as we have. Who knows what the future holds...
I had a professor... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I had a professor... (Score:4, Interesting)
Too bad porno movies soundtracks are so bad, otherwise the porno industry would probably have the online music distribution down pat in a short time
While searching for books on tape in numerous truck stops across the continent, a friend of my pointed out that most truck stop carry erotic material on audio cassette. There is little demand for audio-only porno, but where the demand exists, they were there to satisfy.
Re:So THAT'S why Beta lost... (Score:5, Funny)
Oh come on, you laughed...
Re:So THAT'S why Beta lost... (Score:5, Insightful)
Test bed... (Score:5, Funny)
I wish all industries were so dedicated to testing.
The *internet experience* lends well to porn... (Score:5, Insightful)
- percieved anonymity
- convienence...content delivered on demand
- privacy of enjoying content in own home
I wonder how many people would pay a porn site to download content, but will not be willing to go to an "adult bookstore" to buy the same content?
Will people still visit porn sites if their employers knew what sites they visit?
Pioneering porn (Score:3, Insightful)
ISPs also love hosting porn sites due to the highbandwidth, expensive accounts that these sites get. It's quite at how successful porn business is as compared to "decent" business models.
A known consensus eons ago (Score:5, Interesting)
They've gone after the broadband crowd long before everyone else relied on it, and in a sense, continue to push the whole Internet-based "entertainment" stuff. Yeah, they innovate, can't deny that. They've always been in the fringe -- and everyone else just kinda looks on to see what does and doesn't work.
Hmmm, maybe they're the "military" of the Internet -- the technology gets designed for their purposes first, then once it's tested, goes on to find applications for the general public.
Innovation Driver: Porn vs. Military (Score:5, Interesting)
Although the military will always be the driver for some technologies, commerical enterprise, with its much faster innovation cycle time, seems to be taking over as the key driver for innovation.
Re:Innovation Driver: Porn vs. Military (Score:3, Insightful)
I think it would be more accurate to say that the military is still the leader in DEVELOPING such technology, while the porn industry is the leader of finding innovative uses for such technology. The porn industry didn't invent the VCR or the net, they just figured out some awesome ways to use it.
Re:Innovation Driver: Military lost it in 1990s (Score:3, Interesting)
You raise some very good points. I think the change-over from military applications being the leader to being the follower occured on the last 10-15 years. In the mid-80s the DoD adopted a COTS (Commmercial Off The Shelf) strategy to help reduce systems costs. Bad press about $600 toilet seats and $2000 screwdrivers made them shift from custom-designing and building e
It's not just online porn and technology (Score:2)
Best Job Ever. (Score:4, Funny)
The only thing better than surfing the internet for pr0n is getting paid to put it there.
Interesting...Porn isn't a "resume stain" anymore? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Interesting...Porn isn't a "resume stain" anymo (Score:5, Insightful)
I can get it for you wholesale.
Full Steam Advertisement (Score:2, Insightful)
The advertising industry nowadays wants/tries to do something more than just plain banner ads on the website, but have they found a way to do a full streaming efficiently?
IS PORN TECH THE ANSWER?
Old News (Score:5, Insightful)
I doubt I'd find it if I tried but I remember reading an article about a year or more ago from a big porn site operator taking about the advantages of using J2EE technologies in their high traffic sites. There were also comments about companies using them to fine tune their frameworks because of the real world load they had. I found this article when I wanted to find out more about competing technologies. I specifically wanted to find what the porn industry was using for their websites knowing how much traffic they get. So I stuck with jsp/servlet programming. If it's good enough for half naked women with fake boobs, it's good enough for me!
Unfortunately, people might not go to well for the slogan "Java & J2EE, we help you get sticky."
Porn has helped innovate many industries. It's a shame there's too much of a stigma associated with it and they don't get the recognition they deserve.
Porn driving technology (Score:3, Funny)
Very true (Score:5, Informative)
My last two gigs were Universal and Sony (I'm in LA) and both were tiny Internet environments compared to this.
Our SAN has 7TB of content so far & we're adding 1/2 a TB a month...
Re:Very true (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Very true (Score:5, Funny)
>
> My last two gigs were Universal and Sony (I'm in LA) and both were tiny Internet environments compared to this.
>
> Our SAN has 7TB of content so far & we're adding 1/2 a TB a month...
So, umm... got, uh... any pics of the server room? Webcam in the colo so's we can watchen das blinkenlights at night? Man, I love the sight a nice rack.
It's a cliche, but true... (Score:4, Insightful)
It is a great market for testing many things because it is such a commoditized and competitive market. The material is all the same boring stuff, so they need to explore new ways to market it. Is there a porn version of Netflix yet? Who is going to be the first in wireless porn?
--------
Create a WAP server [chiralsoftware.net]
Power to the pornsters... (Score:5, Interesting)
Something the article fails to mention is the money behind porn. The porn industry is the *only* industry that has never suffered financially. There have never been layoffs. And while mostly privately held (after all, who wants their investment portfolio filled with smut companies), its one of the best funded industries out there. The porn industry has the $$$ to make things work, but they don't always share their technologies. The majority also use some form of *nix in their infrastructure... very little M$ found in the porn industry. And from a dot-bomb perspective, I made a killing as a 21-year-old making over $150K a year in the dot-com era. When I finally got laid off, I went to Vivid Video. While all my other over $100K a year friends and co-workers are now averaging $80K to $90K, I'm now making over $200K. There's something to be said for working in an industry with money. And, no, I'm not an actor, but I do get to watch whatever I want... and occasionally some of the girls need a little relief.
The only thing necessary for Micro$oft to triumph is for a few good programmers to do nothing". North County Computers [nccomp.com]
Re:Power to the pornsters... (Score:4, Interesting)
Little trivia note: ever see the movie Anti-Trust? If you get beyond the drama and look at the goal of the software company goals, it was about content delivery. I know from personal experience that the writers of the movie spent about 2 months talking to porn industry people before writing this portion of the script. They did so because they knew that porn companies were using technology that the mainstream wasn't and therefore could offer it as *new ideas* in the movie, but not ideas that were too far fetched to believe. In fact, everyone at my studio got a free advance screening.
The only thing necessary for Micro$oft to triumph is for a few good programmers to do nothing". North County Computers [nccomp.com]
Re:Power to the pornsters... (Score:3, Insightful)
Apply the "porn rule" to your business plan (Score:5, Interesting)
Okay, I'm also being touch-and-cheek but I think the Rule of Porn mostly works. Can you use Google for porn? Yep, must be a good technology. Can you use faster Internet access for porn? Yep... and so on.
The elusive step 2? (Score:4, Insightful)
2. Apply to porn industry
3. Profit!
Porn Experts? (Score:3, Insightful)
Soooooo original (Score:3, Funny)
Diamong Water Paradox (Score:5, Insightful)
Consider - there is enough technical info on the internet to perform nuclear fusion, harness solar energy to power your homes, run your car on biofuel from corn instead of gasoline, create immense wealth from freely available portfolio management techniques, crack the genetic code, break RSA crypto, find the next largest Mersenne prime, or maybe just find a new home, repair your microwave, hawk your old CDs.....or even build yourself an H-bomb & blow up this planet to bits.
Yet, what is the most sought after commodity on the net ? Porn !
Why is that ?
In "The Wealth of Nations", Adam Smith explains the "Diamond-Water paradox". The most useful, valuable, life-sustaining entity on the planet is water - yet, it has practically no price, since supply is free ( it rains ! ). The least useful frivilous commodity is the diamond, but it has enormous, immense value in the eyes of man.
So, Smith says, an economist must never attempt to tie value with price, since they don't have much of a relationship. Porn on the net is much more valuable than all the useful techie manuals & MIT courseware put together, because Porn is the ultimate diamond.
Re:Diamong Water Paradox (Score:4, Interesting)
(Yes, I understand that much of the money made on the internet by the 'fringe' segments of the sex market, namely the fettish sections.)
In essence, there would be no need to buy a diamond, because you could simply just pick one up off the ground.
PoultryCam vs. PussyCam (Score:5, Interesting)
We were developing (back in the dot-com days, a moment of silence please) a desktop collaboration software (think NetMeeting, WebEx, etc.) but we had a way-supeior codec and way of doing things.
Along came a company, that wanted to use our server technology to stream video. Interestingly not a porn company, but none other than those fine friers of chicken, KFC. They wanted to wire up all their stores and stream their security monitoring cameras back to HQ security. We called the project ChickenCam...
Coincidentally, a few weeks later we were approached by a company out of the LA area (where else) who wanted a surprisingly similar implementation. They were a little sketchy about the details in their first call, but eventually they let on that they wanted various video channels to stream to their users. It was then that we decided to rename the ChickenCam project to PoultryCam to match this PussyCam project. We didn't think CatCam and ChickenCam was nearly as much fun.
In the end, the PussyCam ended up going operational, but the thick client install and configuration made it less than successful (as I had originally predicted). We did sell the PoultryCam, but they only ever implemented it in one store and then gave up on the whole idea.
Those were the days...
--D
p.s. Any porn companies currently hiring?
Ah yes, my porn days.... (Score:4, Interesting)
This is Slashdot so (Score:3, Funny)
Pr0n Leads the way (Score:5, Interesting)
Originally posted at http://george.hotelling.net/90percent/linkage/pr0n _leads_the_way.php [hotelling.net]:
I found a pretty insightful rant [livejournal.com] (safe for work) copied from the business guy at the altporn site Suicide Girls [suicidegirls.com]. I wish the RIAA would start tracking how people hear about the albums that they buy, so that they could stop freaking out.
Porn has a long history of figuring out how to use new media to their advantage. Perhaps because porn is driven by our basest instinct we understand it on far deeper levels than widget building, and can apply that understanding to things that we don't fully comprehend intellectually. Maybe it's just because there's such intense competition in the industry that forces companies to innovate. I'm sure there's a "free hand of the market" joke in there, but I'll be damned if I can find it.
The VCR was largely decried by the MPAA because they saw it as cutting into their profits. When the VCR was still new, MPAA president Jack Valenti said the VCR is [to the movie industry]...as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone. (which of course means that he wasn't opposed to the VCR [hpronline.org]). A driver of early VCR purchases was being able to watch porn movies without having to go to theaters filled with creepier people than you. Fast forward 20 years and that Boston strangler makes up a huge portion of movie studio profits.
While I'm skeptical that porn can drive any technology [pmn.co.uk] - who really needs porn on their cellphone at blazing speeds - the porn industry typically ahead of the curve. Let's hope the RIAA realizes this [itreviews.co.uk] and stops suing 12 year old girls [theregister.com].
USENIX knew this years ago (Score:3, Funny)
... All 20 of them.
Future porn technologies (Score:3, Insightful)
-Androids
-True virtual reality
-Smell-o-vision/Taste-o-vision
-Small, cheap personal video players
-Stain proof clothing
-Genetics
Re:Future porn technologies (Score:4, Insightful)
First of all, porn isn't meant to be as realistic as possible. We watch porn being fully aware that this stuff isn't real. It's a way to experience fantasies... it kind of ends there. Porn does not replace real sex all together - it complements it.
Let's look at your points:
1. Androids - We already have Real Dolls. A reporter actually had sex with a real doll and documented his feelings in nerve.com. No, I won't post the link - go look it up there if you're interested. Bottom line - it's weird and freaky. If it moves and talks, it's going to be outright scary.
2. "True" Virtual Reality - Maybe, but it's not going to replace 2D porn in a hurry. I'd keep an eye on this one though.
3. Smell / Taste - I don't think so. Is there anyone else who finds the concept of smelling / tasting another unknown person (although a celebrity) gross? FYI, flavor and beauty may not be correlated.
4. Personal Video Players - We already have this stuff. What we don't have is a good quality, consumer grade "personal display", i.e. stuff like the Xybernaut (TV screen in your sunglasses). I believe that personal displays will bring about a revolution but porn would have little to do with it.
5. Stain proof clothing / Genetics - WTF?!
Looking at your point 1, 2 and 3 it appears that you're trying to get replace sex completely. That is not the main concept here. I think that the development in porn industry is going to be not technological. It'd more towards the "subject" of the content. Examples:
a. Customized porn: Some sites offer this. It's like you choose the theme, setting, models, dialogues, name of characters and the story. They act this out for you. Right now it's quite expensive and is only offered by sites that has really weird content (fetish / bondage). I guess this will pick up.
b. Similar to a, but more "community" oriented. Maybe some sort of an moderation style system where the best user-submitted story gets acted out. Or, photo shoot for models / themes with top votes from users. Scoop / Slashcode anyone?
c. Porn for couples: Eventually people get laid. Till date, porn is mostly a guy thing. Now what happens when you feel like watching porn with your S/O? You're not going to watch "4 on 1 DD sluts" with your girlfriend, right? It think the next trend is going to be porn for couples.
d. End of stereotyped porn as we know it. Girls won't keep their high heels on, all acts won't have oral sex, guys won't look like zombies grown in vats, and the movie won't end with money shots. There's too much content in this theme and nobody would be willing to pay for this anymore.
To get sex (Score:4, Funny)
Cars. Drive off somewhere to get sex, or have sex in a private portable room.
Phones. Call people, arrange to meet them. Have sex.
TVs. Watch people having sex. Boobs, too.
VCRs. See TVs.
Internet. Watch people having sex. Contact people around the world in order to meet and have sex with them. Also, look at porn.
DVDs. See VCRs, only with multiple camera angles for Matrix-style camerawork during porn scenes.
Re:Online Porn at its best (Score:2)
Re:Duh. (Score:5, Funny)
People don't develop better video codecs so they can email their moms home movies.
Depends on where you grew up and how freaky your mom is.
Re:porn is like information .. it wants to be free (Score:5, Funny)
To this day, his stance is that the two things in life you don't pay for are porn and fire extinguishers*.
*Long story