Agreed, screw the powerglove, roll on Coneheads/Demolition Man style mind-fuckery.
Slashdotters may actually find themselves in the forefront of a sexual revolution, imagine-
The hot chick from the flat above asking if you can come round and fix her BSOD'd Love Helm (tm). Torrents of the outputs from said Helms floating around on The Pirate Bay. Spurned ex-boyfriends of Hollywood starlets leaking recordings of the signals, rather than plain old homebrew porno.
Oh, the possibilities. Gotta go - ah - lie down...
I don't know what players will be required to 'do' when using this device, but if it's different to normal gaming, normal rules will not apply.
Regardless, I wasn't necessarily saying that the headset will cause any problems, but that parents may well attempt to blame any problems that do occur on that scary/frankensteiny/mind-reading helmet.
Some people distrust scientists you know. Yet others, in their grief, try to blame anything that might possibly have caused their problems. In the UK, parents of autistic kids have been very shrill on the supposed link between inoculations and their children's condition, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It was enough to reduce 'herd immunity' to diseases such as measles to the extent that localized epidemics, unheard of in decades, have occurred (causing much more damage than the jabs themselves). Many others claim to be debilitated by wifi, whilst being unable to identify when wifi systems are switched on (these unfortunate dears are cruelly forced to, er, chill at home on full sick pay).
If such things can happen to such obviously positive inventions as inoculations, I think that helmets that measure and encourage the manipulation of kiddies' brain waves could plausibly become targets too.
This tech sounds like a lot of fun, but I am imagining that the parents of the first kid to blow a gasket trying the brain-wave equivalent of button-mashing are going to be able to bring some interesting court action.
A weak, unhelpful definition in any context- I operate my computer remotely via a keyboard. If that was the only criterion, the concept of 'robot' as opposed to any 'machine', would be diluted to the point of uselessness.
It was something ridiculously simple to do with printing at the required scale- I wasn't saying that Mac OS didn't have a great way of doing it, but that my GF, almost blinded by her knowledge of how to do the same task in XP, couldn't figure out how to get the result she wanted.
(When she asked for my help, there was 5 minutes left, and I just saved her document as a pdf and printed that. Next time, I'm sure she'll leave more time and learn the required actions.)
Though no Urophage, I love my Wii. When I play with my kids (or even drunken buddies), I think back to my C64 roots and lo, I am thankful.
I am not convinced that a PC analog could have replicated, in the given timescale, the user experience there.
I do think that the PC, once fully integrated into everyday entertainment, will compete in this regard, but the console is/has been a vital stepping stone to what is clearly a fun PC-based future.
The main benefit of consoles is supposed to be ease of development. From what I understand, PC game developers are rather hamstrung by the need to factor in the thousands of potential hardware configurations their products might encounter.
I see all of these problems as a consequence of the immaturity of the field, a short-term hassle to be stomached until the way ahead (open, common standards) is clear and obvious to all the major players.
For me, the most insightful part of the first article is where he points out that Warcraft has a new paradigm in DRM- The community. If you construct a game wherein the community is a key aspect of gameplay (and why not? I'd rather frag real people, whose pride will sting with every death, than some dumb bot), you can't then steal the game. Clever.
Fair enough. I think both Gnome and KDE have their share of good and bad points, and I can see why different types of user would better suit either one. Though I go for Gnome, I envy the slick default looks of KDE 4, and distrust the new-found motives of Gnome founder Anakin de Icaza.
But the beauty of Linux is that I, and a bunch of like-minded fellows can compile or even write my own version, with none of the perceived compromises.
Sure, there will be some people who, coming from a different timezone and so freed from the need to be civil, start acting all shouty- that's why we have moderation. But I appreciate this as a record of one man's experience, and as an opportunity to talk about why one interface works for some, and others for others.
I have Ubuntu (my main workstation), Mac OS Tiger (for my photographer girlfriend), and Win XP (for when I have no other option) machines at home.
Each has their good points, and maybe discussing them will somehow show us where we need to be headed next, regardless of our preferences.
I find especially insightful the suggestion that 'we like what we know', though for me, I made the switch from XP to Linux 2+ years ago because 'Familiarity breeds contempt'. There are some things I miss, but I usually - eventually - find that there's a way to do what I want, and that my initial frustration was borne of my lifetime's worth of Windows expertise.
My GF finds her MacBook Pro to be a massively capable machine, but hell hath no fury like a woman who, in the face of an impending deadline, can't figure out how to do something simple, something that would have taken 5 seconds on XP. Her first reaction is always 'what a stupid fucking way to do that'. The next time, she just does it, and is happy to acknowledge that it's not so much a 'stupid fucking way', but a different way to that which she is used.
SentientBrendan. Please excuse me if I don't rise to all the personal abuse, and instead confine myself to countering your argument, such as it is.
Yes, but the *reason* you weren't going to pay for them is that you could pirate them. Therefor, piracy *has* cost lost revenue.
Whilst I spend a significant proportion of my (not insignificant) income on music each month, that amount is necessarily fixed, coming as it does behind behind more pressing financial concerns. Additionally, the music I like is rarely played on radio/tv.
If that 5% that I mentioned is even to stand a chance of seeing my hard-earned, I must first be exposed to it, and I have not yet found a more efficient mechanism for parting me with my cash than the speculative downloading of potential winners.
I recognize that what I am doing is illegal, but I care enough about music and the people who make it to ignore the anachronistic legal shackles in which they find themselves bound, and to go ahead and try their music, safe in the knowledge that if their output tickles my fancy, they'll have themselves a new, paying fan.
I spend a lot more on music now than in the pre-bittorrent days.
This is one privacy issue that a little electrical tape can cure easily.
Using the electrical tape will be classed as theft, as you are preventing the business from optimizing, and thus maximizing the revenue derived from, the advertising. Puts me, albeit tenuously, in mind of a quote I saw recently-
In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy.
However, I don't think that this division you bring up is that simple.
It never is. You are absolutely correct in that there is a spectrum, rather than two mutually exclusive subsets, of music fans. But it helps, initially, to simplify, plus it was hard (at about 5am) to formulate a punchy comment that would encapsulate the true, infinitely more nuanced, situation....
Very true. I believe that at some point, the big record labels realised that they serve 2 main demographics- Music lovers, and those who see music as another consumable fashion item.
The first require artistry, which is fickle and hard to control. The second require 'product', upon which it is much easier to project future revenues, and all the other businessy things.
Perhaps all we are seeing is the de-coupling of these, into two broadly separate industries.
Parent is not only correct, but behind the curve- MSFT have been ignoring piracy in developing markets for years, specifically because they know it's free advertising.
I've discovered loads of the bands I like through 'Piracy', and have thrown a lot of money at those artists as a consequence.
Sure, The ones I like only account for c.5% of the music I've downloaded, but I was never going to pay for that stuff anyway. The other 95% have lost no revenue.
Also, I have a friend who was a furniture designer/maker, on a low level. As he had been talking about it, I grabbed him something like Autocad (can't remember now) as a favour. He now runs a business where I figure they have half a dozen licensed versions. He'd still be in his shed knocking up one chair at a time if it wasn't for 'Piracy'.
Slashdot Mirror
All your fighter jets are belong to Clint Eastwood.
Agreed, screw the powerglove, roll on Coneheads/Demolition Man style mind-fuckery.
Slashdotters may actually find themselves in the forefront of a sexual revolution, imagine-
The hot chick from the flat above asking if you can come round and fix her BSOD'd Love Helm (tm).
Torrents of the outputs from said Helms floating around on The Pirate Bay.
Spurned ex-boyfriends of Hollywood starlets leaking recordings of the signals, rather than plain old homebrew porno.
Oh, the possibilities. Gotta go - ah - lie down...
Have you seen Scanners? (Joke)
I don't know what players will be required to 'do' when using this device, but if it's different to normal gaming, normal rules will not apply.
Regardless, I wasn't necessarily saying that the headset will cause any problems, but that parents may well attempt to blame any problems that do occur on that scary/frankensteiny/mind-reading helmet.
Some people distrust scientists you know. Yet others, in their grief, try to blame anything that might possibly have caused their problems. In the UK, parents of autistic kids have been very shrill on the supposed link between inoculations and their children's condition, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. It was enough to reduce 'herd immunity' to diseases such as measles to the extent that localized epidemics, unheard of in decades, have occurred (causing much more damage than the jabs themselves). Many others claim to be debilitated by wifi, whilst being unable to identify when wifi systems are switched on (these unfortunate dears are cruelly forced to, er, chill at home on full sick pay).
If such things can happen to such obviously positive inventions as inoculations, I think that helmets that measure and encourage the manipulation of kiddies' brain waves could plausibly become targets too.
This tech sounds like a lot of fun, but I am imagining that the parents of the first kid to blow a gasket trying the brain-wave equivalent of button-mashing are going to be able to bring some interesting court action.
Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads...
Well, I deserved it. I've been stung by fanboy mods in the last few days, and was needlessly prissy. I laughed....
Maybe you could get some insightfuls, and we could carry on like this forever.
A weak, unhelpful definition in any context- I operate my computer remotely via a keyboard. If that was the only criterion, the concept of 'robot' as opposed to any 'machine', would be diluted to the point of uselessness.
But you linked, and so are informative.
It was something ridiculously simple to do with printing at the required scale- I wasn't saying that Mac OS didn't have a great way of doing it, but that my GF, almost blinded by her knowledge of how to do the same task in XP, couldn't figure out how to get the result she wanted.
(When she asked for my help, there was 5 minutes left, and I just saved her document as a pdf and printed that. Next time, I'm sure she'll leave more time and learn the required actions.)
Robots have at least some degree of autonomy. This is a bad-ass RC vehicle.
Our future overlords are increasingly unimpressed with us taking their name in vain.
Volcanoes.
Though no Urophage, I love my Wii. When I play with my kids (or even drunken buddies), I think back to my C64 roots and lo, I am thankful.
I am not convinced that a PC analog could have replicated, in the given timescale, the user experience there.
I do think that the PC, once fully integrated into everyday entertainment, will compete in this regard, but the console is/has been a vital stepping stone to what is clearly a fun PC-based future.
The main benefit of consoles is supposed to be ease of development. From what I understand, PC game developers are rather hamstrung by the need to factor in the thousands of potential hardware configurations their products might encounter.
I see all of these problems as a consequence of the immaturity of the field, a short-term hassle to be stomached until the way ahead (open, common standards) is clear and obvious to all the major players.
His mind is clearly a-buzz with hormones, let's not be too cruel.
Fair enough. I think both Gnome and KDE have their share of good and bad points, and I can see why different types of user would better suit either one. Though I go for Gnome, I envy the slick default looks of KDE 4, and distrust the new-found motives of Gnome founder Anakin de Icaza.
But the beauty of Linux is that I, and a bunch of like-minded fellows can compile or even write my own version, with none of the perceived compromises.
Sure, there will be some people who, coming from a different timezone and so freed from the need to be civil, start acting all shouty- that's why we have moderation. But I appreciate this as a record of one man's experience, and as an opportunity to talk about why one interface works for some, and others for others.
I have Ubuntu (my main workstation), Mac OS Tiger (for my photographer girlfriend), and Win XP (for when I have no other option) machines at home.
Each has their good points, and maybe discussing them will somehow show us where we need to be headed next, regardless of our preferences.
I find especially insightful the suggestion that 'we like what we know', though for me, I made the switch from XP to Linux 2+ years ago because 'Familiarity breeds contempt'. There are some things I miss, but I usually - eventually - find that there's a way to do what I want, and that my initial frustration was borne of my lifetime's worth of Windows expertise.
My GF finds her MacBook Pro to be a massively capable machine, but hell hath no fury like a woman who, in the face of an impending deadline, can't figure out how to do something simple, something that would have taken 5 seconds on XP. Her first reaction is always 'what a stupid fucking way to do that'. The next time, she just does it, and is happy to acknowledge that it's not so much a 'stupid fucking way', but a different way to that which she is used.
Whilst I spend a significant proportion of my (not insignificant) income on music each month, that amount is necessarily fixed, coming as it does behind behind more pressing financial concerns. Additionally, the music I like is rarely played on radio/tv.
If that 5% that I mentioned is even to stand a chance of seeing my hard-earned, I must first be exposed to it, and I have not yet found a more efficient mechanism for parting me with my cash than the speculative downloading of potential winners.
I recognize that what I am doing is illegal, but I care enough about music and the people who make it to ignore the anachronistic legal shackles in which they find themselves bound, and to go ahead and try their music, safe in the knowledge that if their output tickles my fancy, they'll have themselves a new, paying fan.
I spend a lot more on music now than in the pre-bittorrent days.
In the 1980s capitalism triumphed over communism. In the 1990s it triumphed over democracy.
If I read correctly, a GRB of this magnitude occurring 2700 light years away would be as bright as the sun. Ouch.
Very true. I believe that at some point, the big record labels realised that they serve 2 main demographics- Music lovers, and those who see music as another consumable fashion item.
The first require artistry, which is fickle and hard to control. The second require 'product', upon which it is much easier to project future revenues, and all the other businessy things.
Perhaps all we are seeing is the de-coupling of these, into two broadly separate industries.
Parent is not only correct, but behind the curve- MSFT have been ignoring piracy in developing markets for years, specifically because they know it's free advertising.
I've discovered loads of the bands I like through 'Piracy', and have thrown a lot of money at those artists as a consequence.
Sure, The ones I like only account for c.5% of the music I've downloaded, but I was never going to pay for that stuff anyway. The other 95% have lost no revenue.
Also, I have a friend who was a furniture designer/maker, on a low level. As he had been talking about it, I grabbed him something like Autocad (can't remember now) as a favour. He now runs a business where I figure they have half a dozen licensed versions. He'd still be in his shed knocking up one chair at a time if it wasn't for 'Piracy'.
And an Update: Sequoia's intimidation has worked , the state won't be sending Felten a machine.