Thats a damn good point -- and directors know it. The star wars flick that came out (I guess it was star wars 4?) recently... Didja notice how the good guys were always killing ROBOTS ? Why you ask? Cuz you don't get an R rating for killing robots... how many robots did they kill in that movie? easily 50? If the good guys had killed 50 *PEOPLE* it would have been a gory gory movie...
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that the internet has alot of "information" but MOST of it is worthless... what you CAN'T find on the internet is anything thats insightfull or informative.
I point to websites such as http://www.shannons-world.com/ as proof.
Its a sad day in a country when a EULA has legal standing...
these are the reasons I think EULA's are not legal:
They're not avaliable prior to purchase.
No retailer allows the return of software if you don't like the license.
If a retailer *DID* allow the return, MS should bare the cost of that return (restocking fees, shipping etc), but they don't.
A contract is an agreement between two parties... usually both parties recieve some benifit from the contract... in the EULA, theres no agreement its "take it or leave it." And the Eula provides no benifit (IE waranty, fitness of purpose) and seeks only to benifit the software company.
Last but not least, a legally enforcable contract has to have a minimum of 3 signatures, the notary and the two parties... The notary serves several purposes -- she authenticates both parties, can be called upon in a legal dispute, and establishes that both parties are aware of the contents of the contract, which I believe is called [IANAL] "communication." It is my belief that "press f8 to continue" [NT4 installer] is not a sufficent "notary". Can you prove I read and understood the entire agreement then pressed f8 ?
What if I gave someone 5 bucks to install a MS os on my machine... would I be then bound by the EULA ? I didn't agree to it, someone else did... is this situation is analgous to purchasing a computer with preinstalled software?
What i'd like to know is why M$ can sue for a pirated program -- but I can't sue when a legit program dosen't work as advertised?
We have a couple WinME machines where I work and its an accomplishment if they don't crash once or twice during a workday... but *I* would be the bad guy if I grabbed a NT WKS disk and downgraded to a stable os?
maybe thats what I should have taken issue with:) I think I first heard of these things in the early 90s, and by like 95 or 96 the local Community College had one... now they're so cheap hobbyists can have them...
They're called vocal harmonizers and you can get a bad one for 300$ or a decent one for more like 1200$.. so I'll have to respectfully disagree with the "powerfull DSP" statement:)... these devices have been in use for years in studios...
I regularaly get software and then purchase it if I like it... most software companies expect you to plunk down your money before you EVEN SEE IT WORK. unacceptable
Take this a step further -- I think this will be a great thing for independant artists like myself -- You wanna hear stings new album, but if you buy it you can't listen to it in your car?....
Independant artists won't have these restrictions on their music... They'll distribute in MP3 / OGG formats... In a few years when broadband is avaliable to more people, the same thing might happen with independant movies... alot of DVD players can play VCDs... pay a couple bucks to download a movie, burn it to VCD, watch it on your tv.
Re:the thing about the console wars...
on
XBox Tidbits
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· Score: 2
I think this is the exact thing Sony did to Sega... the announced the PS2 a year (or more?) in advance to "compete" with the dreamcast... and I think it worked for awhile, but even most of the people waiting religiously for the ps2 bought a Dreamcast simply cuz it existed.
Lesson to microsoft -- gotta get it out soon. If the gamecube comes out first all those console purchases will go to it instead.
I'm glad to see the court system has found another way to fuck the citizenry in favor of corporations. It must have taken alot of vasoline to slip this one in. Is "protecting business" REALLY this important to us as a society? I've never seen as much crap as this -> Business needed a way to control employees who *DIDN'T* sign non-competes, and the court system responded by immagining a law and making it so.
What was most offensive to me was the suggestion that companies could pay some kinda fine or levy to make everything equal... I'm some kind of *PRODUCT* that can be bought and sold? Didn't we have a civil war about that already?
The problem for me -- they broke compatibility with the Vx... that means I have to buy a new wallet case, a new gps unit AND a new hardcase, new write-rights...
that all comes out to about 200$ worth of extras, which makes the total cost of an upgrade 450 + 220$... too expensive to do for no reason:)
But must one realize, thats how they make their money! They make profit on the units, but not nearly as much as selling an aluminum case for 40$! A serial cable for 30$! A stylus for 20$.
Lastly, I don't care if it weighs 10 pounds, it has to be thinnnnnnn. Thin means it fits in a wallet case, thin means its not a burden to carry.
probably did... however its the best challenge to the DeCSS decision thus far (IMHO), in that it drives home to even non-technical people how absurd the decision was...
It is you who are mistaken about a great many things
Computer Science is a science, it is *not* a natural science. Yes, there is a difference.
Second of all, your statement about algorithims while correct, completley missed the mark. You need a language to describe algorithims in regardless wether its 2000ad or 830 bc. In computer science this language is almost always C/C++ or pseudo code...
And sure Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khowarizmi might have come up with some algorithims 2800 years ago, but guess what? Most modern algorithims are designed with rates of millions of operations per second in mind... If you don't believe me try decoding an mp3 by hand, thus the necessity of computers.
*Computer Science* is the study of data structures and algorithims, which is *DEFINATLEY* a science... I alwways hated my algorithims courses, no programming, just calculus to prove how fast they were! A famous computer scientist [who's name escapes me] once said "About the only interesting thing you can do with programs is prove they are correct." A good CS curiculium will walk you thru things like:
Data Structures, Algorithims, Automata, Langauge Theroy, Performance Evaluation, and compiler construction, which are the meats of computer science...
However before you can understand any of these advanced topics you need a good base in a few programming languages -- which is where I expect some universities get caught up.
Its supposed to be pretty sophisticated stuff -- they share it among the other UC's (I goto UCR). They're fairly secretive to, only a couple people on campus are allowed to administer it. Its all automated from the TA's perspective, it just spits out a report of what similarities it found.
The block system sounds truely awfull... I didn't say that cheating and the quarter system was the exclusive cause of cheating, just that there was a correlation:)
About choosing another school, thats just not an option for alot of people...
The honor system looks like a good idea, but if you read between the lines, my thesis was that cheating is a supply and demand situation... University policies, bad instuction, and bad students create a demand for cheating. And as wel all learned in econ 10a, demand creates supply... Now granted a school will never do away with cheating completley, but I argue they are in control of atleast two of the demand components, bad policy and bad instruction.
In the end it's much easier to insist amoral students are cheating then to realize you yourself were part of the problem...
College is a contest to see who gets thru, not who gets thru witout cheating.
Re:Americans turning to british television
on
15 Minutes
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· Score: 2
Remeber the 185th episode special? "Who knows what adventures the simpsons will from now until they become unprofitable.":)
Re:I'm holding out for Day Of The Tentacle
on
Leisure Suit Unix
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· Score: 2
I'd seen that around... but I thought it was only for creatin of NEW games?
... running it in VMWare, then suspending the
virtual machine and looking in the RAM file...?
Bet they didn't think of that!
Muahahahaha.....
Once again the universal turing therom [all turing complete machines are equivlent] and the makes it possible to break copy protection.
Could this be a violation of the DMCA?:)
Re:I'm holding out for Day Of The Tentacle
on
Leisure Suit Unix
·
· Score: 2
DOTT is one of the finest games ever made! I keep a vintage 486-66 to play it and a few older lucas games on (:-) 8 megs of ram, SB16, dos 6.22... QEMM 9:) During the killer heat of the california summers I usually play these games in the wee hour of the mornings (the only time its cool enuf not to drive you mad).
Really all of lucas arts work from that period is outstanding, MI 1 and 2, sam 'n max, DOTT...
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting dramatic device anyways...
I point to websites such as http://www.shannons-world.com/ as proof.
these are the reasons I think EULA's are not legal:
They're not avaliable prior to purchase.
No retailer allows the return of software if you don't like the license.
If a retailer *DID* allow the return, MS should bare the cost of that return (restocking fees, shipping etc), but they don't.
A contract is an agreement between two parties ... usually both parties recieve some benifit from the contract ... in the EULA, theres no agreement its "take it or leave it." And the Eula provides no benifit (IE waranty, fitness of purpose) and seeks only to benifit the software company.
Last but not least, a legally enforcable contract has to have a minimum of 3 signatures, the notary and the two parties ... The notary serves several purposes -- she authenticates both parties, can be called upon in a legal dispute, and establishes that both parties are aware of the contents of the contract, which I believe is called [IANAL] "communication." It is my belief that "press f8 to continue" [NT4 installer] is not a sufficent "notary". Can you prove I read and understood the entire agreement then pressed f8 ?
What if I gave someone 5 bucks to install a MS os on my machine ... would I be then bound by the EULA ? I didn't agree to it, someone else did ... is this situation is analgous to purchasing a computer with preinstalled software?
We have a couple WinME machines where I work and its an accomplishment if they don't crash once or twice during a workday ... but *I* would be the bad guy if I grabbed a NT WKS disk and downgraded to a stable os?
Yes, definatley not extrodinary :)
http://www.zzounds.com/searchresults.music?z=102 25 94483414&l=1&b=p&w=vocal
I regularaly get software and then purchase it if I like it ... most software companies expect you to plunk down your money before you EVEN SEE IT WORK. unacceptable
I never figured it out but apparently it is possible.
Independant artists won't have these restrictions on their music ... They'll distribute in MP3 / OGG formats ... In a few years when broadband is avaliable to more people, the same thing might happen with independant movies ... alot of DVD players can play VCDs ... pay a couple bucks to download a movie, burn it to VCD, watch it on your tv.
Lesson to microsoft -- gotta get it out soon. If the gamecube comes out first all those console purchases will go to it instead.
What was most offensive to me was the suggestion that companies could pay some kinda fine or levy to make everything equal ... I'm some kind of *PRODUCT* that can be bought and sold? Didn't we have a civil war about that already?
I took that sentence to mean the first nintendo portable to have horizontal alignment ...
But must one realize, thats how they make their money! They make profit on the units, but not nearly as much as selling an aluminum case for 40$! A serial cable for 30$! A stylus for 20$.
Lastly, I don't care if it weighs 10 pounds, it has to be thinnnnnnn. Thin means it fits in a wallet case, thin means its not a burden to carry.
I can't wait for the t-shirt :)
Computer Science is a science, it is *not* a natural science. Yes, there is a difference.
Second of all, your statement about algorithims while correct, completley missed the mark. You need a language to describe algorithims in regardless wether its 2000ad or 830 bc. In computer science this language is almost always C/C++ or pseudo code ...
And sure Mohammed ibn-Musa al-Khowarizmi might have come up with some algorithims 2800 years ago, but guess what? Most modern algorithims are designed with rates of millions of operations per second in mind ... If you don't believe me try decoding an mp3 by hand, thus the necessity of computers.
Data Structures, Algorithims, Automata, Langauge Theroy, Performance Evaluation, and compiler construction, which are the meats of computer science ...
However before you can understand any of these advanced topics you need a good base in a few programming languages -- which is where I expect some universities get caught up.
YEEEES, work SHOULD provide satisfatcion,,,,,, and pride ....
x+x is not greater than x*2. but it does equal 2x :)
I've always had good service from pageonebook.com ... they carry alot of technical titles, they even have used versions of some.
Its supposed to be pretty sophisticated stuff -- they share it among the other UC's (I goto UCR). They're fairly secretive to, only a couple people on campus are allowed to administer it. Its all automated from the TA's perspective, it just spits out a report of what similarities it found.
About choosing another school, thats just not an option for alot of people ...
The honor system looks like a good idea, but if you read between the lines, my thesis was that cheating is a supply and demand situation ... University policies, bad instuction, and bad students create a demand for cheating. And as wel all learned in econ 10a, demand creates supply ... Now granted a school will never do away with cheating completley, but I argue they are in control of atleast two of the demand components, bad policy and bad instruction.
In the end it's much easier to insist amoral students are cheating then to realize you yourself were part of the problem ...
College is a contest to see who gets thru, not who gets thru witout cheating.
Remeber the 185th episode special? "Who knows what adventures the simpsons will from now until they become unprofitable." :)
I'd seen that around ... but I thought it was only for creatin of NEW games?
Once again the universal turing therom [all turing complete machines are equivlent] and the makes it possible to break copy protection.
Could this be a violation of the DMCA? :)
Really all of lucas arts work from that period is outstanding, MI 1 and 2, sam 'n max, DOTT ...