Maybe it's been mentioned before, but just in case:
Take a look at Unity 3d. (Get it here: http://unity3d.com/) - that's a pretty powerful game engine. The standard version is free and will suffice, it is very easy to learn. It's kinda like an universal level editor. Coding is done in javascript or C#, but there are tons of examples to get started (Official tutorials: http://unity3d.com/support/resources/tutorials/). And the community is pretty active aswell, so he'd be able to get help on the (Official forum: http://forum.unity3d.com/ - User wiki: http://www.unifycommunity.com/).
IMHO, the biggest achievement of Wikipedia is that it raised the bar considerably for other, traditional media. Here in Germany, the 'Brockhaus' encyclopedia recently announced that it won't be publishing books anymore, but change to an online model. (I think that was discussed here a few weeks ago.) So either this new online edition is much better than Wikipedia, or it'll go bust pretty soon. Same holds true for most 'traditional' media, especially newspapers; if they don't offer content that is much, much better than what is aviable for free online, they won't last. And it seems to me that the best guarantee to that end is editorial quality. So bring it on! Time will tell and user will decide which model is going to last.
It has to be noted that this decision does not necessariliy affect anyone apart from the parties involved in that particular case. German courts are not bound to decisions other courts made; there is no such thing as 'case law' in the german legal system. I'm pretty confident that 'regular' logging will continue to be alright; the analysis of user behavior is the critical fact here, at least that's how I read it. Still, every single law concerning the internet seems to be utter nonsense as of late; however, since noone in the government seems to understand how that whole computer-thingy works, that's hardly surprising.
And on a sidenote: The Grundgesetz (*) states in article ten that "The privacy of correspondance, posts, and telecommunication shall be unviolable" - so far so good, however that does only affect the relationship between people and the state, not purely private relationships. I'm in law school, and I recently learned that the "Article 10 is not that important anymore since the Dt. Post and Dt. Telekom became private corperations and are not directly controlled by the state anymore."
* http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/parliament/function/legal/germanbasiclaw.pdf
Heh, kinda shows the big advantage of Steam: They can correct oversights like this almost instantly, and most of the users never know, since most updates are downloaded in the background.
Every german politician shouts about 'banning games' and that it'll be the solution to the problem. Few are asking how the kid could get weapons and explosives.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe it's been mentioned before, but just in case: Take a look at Unity 3d. (Get it here: http://unity3d.com/) - that's a pretty powerful game engine. The standard version is free and will suffice, it is very easy to learn. It's kinda like an universal level editor. Coding is done in javascript or C#, but there are tons of examples to get started (Official tutorials: http://unity3d.com/support/resources/tutorials/). And the community is pretty active aswell, so he'd be able to get help on the (Official forum: http://forum.unity3d.com/ - User wiki: http://www.unifycommunity.com/).
IMHO, the biggest achievement of Wikipedia is that it raised the bar considerably for other, traditional media. Here in Germany, the 'Brockhaus' encyclopedia recently announced that it won't be publishing books anymore, but change to an online model. (I think that was discussed here a few weeks ago.) So either this new online edition is much better than Wikipedia, or it'll go bust pretty soon. Same holds true for most 'traditional' media, especially newspapers; if they don't offer content that is much, much better than what is aviable for free online, they won't last. And it seems to me that the best guarantee to that end is editorial quality. So bring it on! Time will tell and user will decide which model is going to last.
Well, it seems they can't beat Google on Earth, so they gotta think big...
It has to be noted that this decision does not necessariliy affect anyone apart from the parties involved in that particular case. German courts are not bound to decisions other courts made; there is no such thing as 'case law' in the german legal system. I'm pretty confident that 'regular' logging will continue to be alright; the analysis of user behavior is the critical fact here, at least that's how I read it. Still, every single law concerning the internet seems to be utter nonsense as of late; however, since noone in the government seems to understand how that whole computer-thingy works, that's hardly surprising. And on a sidenote: The Grundgesetz (*) states in article ten that "The privacy of correspondance, posts, and telecommunication shall be unviolable" - so far so good, however that does only affect the relationship between people and the state, not purely private relationships. I'm in law school, and I recently learned that the "Article 10 is not that important anymore since the Dt. Post and Dt. Telekom became private corperations and are not directly controlled by the state anymore." * http://www.bundestag.de/htdocs_e/parliament/function/legal/germanbasiclaw.pdf
Heh, kinda shows the big advantage of Steam: They can correct oversights like this almost instantly, and most of the users never know, since most updates are downloaded in the background.
Well, thats odd - Mac OS is 64bit, or is it? And anyway, syncing what is basically an external hard drive? That can't be too hard...
Every german politician shouts about 'banning games' and that it'll be the solution to the problem. Few are asking how the kid could get weapons and explosives.