As 3D graphics become more realistic the chances of disturbing people become greater. It's not like watching a horror film where you are the observer, you are taking on the role of the killer.
I disagree. In a movie, you are expected to form an emotional contact with the characters. At least for the duration of the movie. the director builds tension, suspense, gives hope of the character reaching their goals etc. While in a video game, you are moving a character with little or no emotional attachment around a screen, and depending on the game, killing monsters or zombies or whatever. The graphical accuracy and physics engines don't make nearly as much difference as the marketing people and game reviewers seem to think. A good game will be a good game no matter how dated the graphics are, and a bad game will sink on it's game play.
Repetitive playing only serves to further objectify the other characters in the game as obstacles to be overcome. Not to identify them as human or to reduce the worth of a life to that of a video game character. The goal being to finish the game. Doom was cited as a psychopathic killing machine trainer a few years ago, and that wasn't even true 3D.
I seriously doubt there is any solid evidence to link disproportionate aggression to game playing, or to movies or to sports or any of the other ways we fill our time. Disturbed people will do disturbing stuff, not because they have played a violent video game, but because they are disturbed.
In this case however, my money is on Rockstar and Take2 releasing a game to the censors and getting lots of publicity, before withdrawing it and getting it passed once they remove the grossest scenes. Its a hack and slash video game which has been written and marketed by companies who have a history of releasing controversial games. Not art, and not a free speech issue. Expect Manhunt 2.1 to be appearing in stores near you in a surprisingly short time.
No... The goal is to stop ANYBODY pushing us around. Americans just seem to be the ones who are most visibly pushing, and most vocally objecting when the pushing doesn't work.
Very true, and also an even bigger reason to teach the concepts instead of the specific app. Teaching someone word on a Windows 95 machine, is not any more difficult to teaching them word processing on a random app running on a random OS. An Apple is just as valid a choice as a PC in this case. On the programming side, people still use COBOL, so how ever much the sales people would like for it to change.. Big business concerns don't change anywhere near as fast as they would like.
I would imagine that would be very dangerous. They would have to find some way to get the code into a distro but with no trail leading back to themselves. Assuming that would also be a criminal act of fraud, rather than a corporate thing like licensing and patents, they would have to be very sure that they couldn't possibly be implicated... Not very likely. Blackmail angles alone would make it a very stupid idea. Microsoft may as well try to write a Linux virus and hope nobody ever traced it back to them.
A much more effective route, is to create a compatibility layer between Windows and the chosen Linux distros. Sell this as a compatibility tool to run on the Windows side, but only on the chosen distros, and you have your promise of MS working with Linux to make the two OSs inter operate better, without any Microsoft secret recipes being exposed. If they can make the distros change their code a little bit too, then so much better. The plan being to give them a competitive advantage by being more compatible with Windows. Then later on if the plan works, MS can change the parts the layer used to work with, or threaten to pull out, as the 5 year deal is up. If it fails, Microsoft can come the innocent and tell the world that it really tried to work with Linux.
Another very slight possibility is that they actually do want to work with Linux on some levels of the company, but while the techy areas are all for it, the business areas are trying to find a way to take it over, and the legal department are having seizures when confronted with the idea of MS code being open source instead of bound with increasingly vague but more restrictive licenses.
Assuming it was all about money, then both sides lose. Nobody is going to walk away with any money. On the other hand, IBM and Novell have shown that they are able and willing to protect their customers from this nonsense, and that they will push back if someone pushes them. IBM could easily have taken a step to one side and effectively said that it was nothing to do with them, but they didn't. And Novell could have settled out of court, but they didn't.
Both Novell and Microsoft will lose money on court costs and resources expended during this case, but how much have they both gained in the sale of equipment and services based on a license free product they can sell on going support to?
If nothing else, it proves that Linux is not a Geek hobby OS any more. Big companies have enough invested in using it to make it worth their while spending money to defend it. So if MS decide to go to court, they will not just be taking on a fractured market made up of lots of tiny little projects, or just the Linux foundation, but the big guys who can see a financial advantage in keeping Linux around.
A while after the MS/Novell deal, Red Hat made a statement that they would be quite happy to work with MS on interoperability issues.. Providing the results were all open sourced. I doubt anybody would refuse the offer to work with Microsoft to make their product interact with Windows. But not on Microsoft's terms.
Another difference is when you play the game, you are doing the killing. I'm not for banning video games, but let's not dismiss entirely the consequences of such a simulation. Simulating the performance of violent acts does have some overlap with actually committing them. Imagining action and watching actions all recruit the brain's circuitry for action planning and performance (see mirror neurons), and these systems are connected with the emotional and motivational networks that feed them. The different thing with a video game that most seem to ignore or not get, is that the object of any game is to win.
Its not about the actions you perform during the game, or the realism of the graphics. Its about advancing to the next level. The actions required to do so are secondary at best.So people get too bound up in the journey and make lots of wild assumptions about the objective. the only thing a video game trains anybody to do is push buttons and perhaps wiggle a joystick or move a mouse.
Being able to hit a target in the eyeball at 2000 meters with a sniper rifle doesn't mean that person could hit the side of a barn with a sawn off shotgun from six feet, nor does coming first in a racing game mean that the player even knows how to drive.
Even if the level of immersion reaches more realistic levels any time in the future, those who can't distinguish between reality and fantasy are still gong to exist, and will still be in the microscopic minority.
Space invaders didn't spawn a generation of genocidal maniacs that could only shoot upwards, Dungeons and Dragons didn't swell the armies of Satan, and games like Manhunt or any of the other gory games don't train people to kill.
Hacking someone to death is no different in the motivation aspect than finding carrots to feed to cute little bunny rabbits in a video game. Both can allow you to advance so you get more power ups or can access different areas of the map, or whatever the reward system is in the particular game. Dismembering the same computer controlled player for the fiftieth time in the same place is not going to make anybody who doesn't already have a problem wish to go out and do so in real life. It just means that they have not figured out how to get past the next opponent.
There are millions of severely disturbed people all over the world. There always has been and there always will be. Some will find a bible and decide they are being told to kill people by god, others will find a video game and get so carried away that they will attempt to emulate it, others will find any one of the infinite switches that bring their personal kink to the surface. Video games are just one of the infinite number.
If you want to be scared of someone, be scared of the individuals who can dismiss reality at will and lie through their teeth about issues that can mean the death of thousands of real people. Or those who are so divorced from reality that they are afraid of Harry Potter books popularizing the occult.
All banning does is advertise a mediocre game so that the publishers can get more publicity for nothing. Those who really want the game will get it, those that wouldn't have played the game will still not get it. Rock Star games know this better than most. The majority if not all of their games have been controversial and the publicity circus has saved them a mint in advertising. They may lose the big chain store outlets in some countries, but they make up for it by selling through the internet and mail order.
Computers are still new. Its easy to forget that as little as ten years ago, the majority of home users were geeks, and everyone else only came across a computer when they went to work. There is a generation that has grown up with computers entering the workforce right now, so things will change.
This is something I don't get. In a controlled classroom environment, where all the maintenance will be done by the school I.T. staff, the pupils will not be allowed to have root access or install programs unless its a class specifically for that(which implies that some of the pupils at least are going to be doing something other than leveraging their skills), and there will be a teacher on hand to help them when they get stuck...
Where exactly (outside a class that deals with the mechanics of a computer) are they going to run into the mechanics of the computer?
Teach someone how to use Word and they will be able to use Word. Teach them how to use a word processor, and they will be able to use any word processor. Concepts and methods of working are valuable marketable skills. Learning a few specific applications is pointless. They can also have the programs at home on a fairly low powered system so they can get their homework done without having to shell out for an expensive application, or pirate a copy.
So instead of teaching applications, teach concepts. There is no profound difference in using Windows and associated apps and using Linux and the alternatives until you start doing the admin stuff. Outside any computer tech classes, that isn't even a consideration. These are school kids not IT admins. You still click on a menu or an icon to open a program, you still need to use a menu or a button to save a document. And last time I checked, Open Office didn't require you to convert everything to hex and back to decimal to do any calculations, Same old formulas in cells stuff as Excel.
I agree, a monoculture is bad.. So how are you proposing that it changes? Teaching kids that the only way to use a computer is with Microsoft products just maintains the current state. Teaching them to use different systems can only be an advantage. If nothing else, it will give the kids a chance to see a different system in use. At worst, it will require them to do a little more study to get up to speed with Office.
Isn't the point that while other OSs and third parties all provide search/indexing tools... Only Microsoft provide one that doesn't switch off? Which will no doubt be described as an integral part of the OS, and if it is removed or given an off switch, the terrorists will win and pedophiles will run amok.
Its not just the lazy ones. I've seen requests to be unsubscribed from a non advertising, opt in only email group where the unsubscribe instructions are very simple and included at the end of every email.
My theory.. Make a compatibility layer that runs on Windows only, so that Linux and Windows can work together harmoniously. Then release it as a paid for extension that is only compatible with the blessed distros, and fully WGA compliant. Then make it a condition that it is only available on presentation of a Novell voucher or a Xandros license. Wait a few years, and other smaller distros will roll over if they want to get into mixed corporate environments.
>>Why should ODF reguire legislation to be passed in order for it to be successful?
Who suggested legislation? From the article, the local government is only researching the benefits of converting from one format to another *INTERNALLY* not mandating that everybody uses the same format universally. Would it be such a big deal if they decided to move from one printer manufacturer to another? It would be just as serious for the retailer that was selling the printers.
>>Would you know an open document format if it bit you on the butt?
Yes. Closed document formats are much more difficult to remove.
Can you explain how the licensing of ODF better than Microsoft's OpenXML?
ODF is a format supported by a range of vendors who compete with each other. Its also as I understand, a format that can be implemented on any OS, so little or no vendor lock in. A customer is free to change OS, Office suite, and underwear at their discretion.
OOXML is supported by one convicted monopolist who frequently uses closed formats to shut the competition out of the market. Thus making it artificially difficult to change OS, Office suite or anything else without expensive and complicated measures.
OR..... and this is the completely off the wall innovative bit that nobody has ever thought of before..... !! Teach the kids to be responsible on the net.. Generations of kids have known better than to go off with the guy with the puppies in his van, or take sweets from a stranger, so why not apply the same logic to the net?
I know.. It goes against every scare story around.. BUT KIDS ARE NOT STUPID!! If it is explained to most kids what the real dangers are, then they will understand. Thus you avoid the infinitesimally small risk that actually exists instead of trying the impossible task of blocking any possibility of the hugely over rated and blown up out of all proportion pretend risk.
Didn't NASA have a little problem with that a few years ago?
Re:Same with the ipods back when they hit 1 mil.
on
A Million Zunes Sold
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· Score: 1
The thing is... MP3 players were not that big back then, so obviously it took a lot longer to get up to speed. At the time Apple hit it's millionth sale, digital music players were expensive and rare. The first few were more status symbols than anything else. And being only available for those with Apples would also have hurt their early sales.
Now players are everywhere. Storage is dirt cheap, and computers capable of ripping CDs and storing vast amounts of music are commonplace. A portable media player is now much more common than any other portable music playing device. When did you last see a personal cassette or CD player?
It would be interesting to see if the Microsoft figure of a million Zunes sold is sold to retailers and distributors and sitting in some warehouses somewhere, or if it is sold to actual users.
Very true. The advantage for the Linux community as a whole is that a company like Dell will not only be able to give an incentive to the hardware manufacturers to produce Linux drivers, but that they will also encourage other big companies to offer Linux as an option on at least some selected lines. Provided they are successful that is.
That is in the future though. Right now, Dell have work within the subset of hardware that is Linux friendly, and get past the legion of nit pickers who are predicting the failure of the project before it even starts, to get to the customers who actually want to buy a Linux PC pre installed.
they may be successful and sell lots of Linux machines, or they may not, but at least they are having a go.
More like saying that if you leave your car unlocked with the keys in it, then opening the car door but not stealing the car or contents is not a crime = Buying/renting a DVD and playing it on your Linux computer.
But if the thief then drives the car away or helps themselves to the contents of the car, then it is still a crime = copying for non personal use and/or putting unencrypted DVD on a bit torrent. Fair use, as in copying or format shifting for personal use is not a standard thing in Europe as far as I know, but I doubt it is enforced by the EU versions of the RIAA/MPAA
And there are the customers like me. I don't buy ready built computers. And I hate fixing friend's pre built PCs. But..... If I was in the market for a laptop, I would have the Linux Dells as my first choice. I'm a Linux Noob myself, and while I can install and try out any distro I want, I can't guarantee that my hardware will work with Linux. Time is not an issue for me, but I dislike wasting my time as much as anybody, and spending days trying to get networking up and running on some freaky closed network connection is a task I'll happily avoid if I can.
Idiot is the wrong word. Ignorant, yes. Some have decided that they know nothing about computers and refuse to change that state of affairs. Even to the point where they make huge amounts of more work for themselves. Its sometimes quite a magnificent sight to see the level of buggered upness they can manage. Anybody who has helped out a friend of family member knows these people exist.
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I seriously doubt there is any solid evidence to link disproportionate aggression to game playing, or to movies or to sports or any of the other ways we fill our time. Disturbed people will do disturbing stuff, not because they have played a violent video game, but because they are disturbed.
In this case however, my money is on Rockstar and Take2 releasing a game to the censors and getting lots of publicity, before withdrawing it and getting it passed once they remove the grossest scenes. Its a hack and slash video game which has been written and marketed by companies who have a history of releasing controversial games. Not art, and not a free speech issue. Expect Manhunt 2.1 to be appearing in stores near you in a surprisingly short time.
No... The goal is to stop ANYBODY pushing us around. Americans just seem to be the ones who are most visibly pushing, and most vocally objecting when the pushing doesn't work.
But would you want to be the one that confirms it... From ether side?
Very true, and also an even bigger reason to teach the concepts instead of the specific app. Teaching someone word on a Windows 95 machine, is not any more difficult to teaching them word processing on a random app running on a random OS. An Apple is just as valid a choice as a PC in this case. On the programming side, people still use COBOL, so how ever much the sales people would like for it to change.. Big business concerns don't change anywhere near as fast as they would like.
I'm guessing you got stuck with Windows then..
But more people are getting to know this. Should we perhaps send a thanks for the free advertising to Steve?
I would imagine that would be very dangerous. They would have to find some way to get the code into a distro but with no trail leading back to themselves. Assuming that would also be a criminal act of fraud, rather than a corporate thing like licensing and patents, they would have to be very sure that they couldn't possibly be implicated... Not very likely. Blackmail angles alone would make it a very stupid idea. Microsoft may as well try to write a Linux virus and hope nobody ever traced it back to them.
A much more effective route, is to create a compatibility layer between Windows and the chosen Linux distros. Sell this as a compatibility tool to run on the Windows side, but only on the chosen distros, and you have your promise of MS working with Linux to make the two OSs inter operate better, without any Microsoft secret recipes being exposed. If they can make the distros change their code a little bit too, then so much better. The plan being to give them a competitive advantage by being more compatible with Windows. Then later on if the plan works, MS can change the parts the layer used to work with, or threaten to pull out, as the 5 year deal is up. If it fails, Microsoft can come the innocent and tell the world that it really tried to work with Linux.
Another very slight possibility is that they actually do want to work with Linux on some levels of the company, but while the techy areas are all for it, the business areas are trying to find a way to take it over, and the legal department are having seizures when confronted with the idea of MS code being open source instead of bound with increasingly vague but more restrictive licenses.
Assuming it was all about money, then both sides lose. Nobody is going to walk away with any money. On the other hand, IBM and Novell have shown that they are able and willing to protect their customers from this nonsense, and that they will push back if someone pushes them. IBM could easily have taken a step to one side and effectively said that it was nothing to do with them, but they didn't. And Novell could have settled out of court, but they didn't.
Both Novell and Microsoft will lose money on court costs and resources expended during this case, but how much have they both gained in the sale of equipment and services based on a license free product they can sell on going support to?
If nothing else, it proves that Linux is not a Geek hobby OS any more. Big companies have enough invested in using it to make it worth their while spending money to defend it. So if MS decide to go to court, they will not just be taking on a fractured market made up of lots of tiny little projects, or just the Linux foundation, but the big guys who can see a financial advantage in keeping Linux around.
A while after the MS/Novell deal, Red Hat made a statement that they would be quite happy to work with MS on interoperability issues.. Providing the results were all open sourced. I doubt anybody would refuse the offer to work with Microsoft to make their product interact with Windows. But not on Microsoft's terms.
Its not about the actions you perform during the game, or the realism of the graphics. Its about advancing to the next level. The actions required to do so are secondary at best.So people get too bound up in the journey and make lots of wild assumptions about the objective. the only thing a video game trains anybody to do is push buttons and perhaps wiggle a joystick or move a mouse.
Being able to hit a target in the eyeball at 2000 meters with a sniper rifle doesn't mean that person could hit the side of a barn with a sawn off shotgun from six feet, nor does coming first in a racing game mean that the player even knows how to drive. Even if the level of immersion reaches more realistic levels any time in the future, those who can't distinguish between reality and fantasy are still gong to exist, and will still be in the microscopic minority.
Space invaders didn't spawn a generation of genocidal maniacs that could only shoot upwards, Dungeons and Dragons didn't swell the armies of Satan, and games like Manhunt or any of the other gory games don't train people to kill.
Hacking someone to death is no different in the motivation aspect than finding carrots to feed to cute little bunny rabbits in a video game. Both can allow you to advance so you get more power ups or can access different areas of the map, or whatever the reward system is in the particular game. Dismembering the same computer controlled player for the fiftieth time in the same place is not going to make anybody who doesn't already have a problem wish to go out and do so in real life. It just means that they have not figured out how to get past the next opponent.
There are millions of severely disturbed people all over the world. There always has been and there always will be. Some will find a bible and decide they are being told to kill people by god, others will find a video game and get so carried away that they will attempt to emulate it, others will find any one of the infinite switches that bring their personal kink to the surface. Video games are just one of the infinite number.
If you want to be scared of someone, be scared of the individuals who can dismiss reality at will and lie through their teeth about issues that can mean the death of thousands of real people. Or those who are so divorced from reality that they are afraid of Harry Potter books popularizing the occult.
All banning does is advertise a mediocre game so that the publishers can get more publicity for nothing. Those who really want the game will get it, those that wouldn't have played the game will still not get it. Rock Star games know this better than most. The majority if not all of their games have been controversial and the publicity circus has saved them a mint in advertising. They may lose the big chain store outlets in some countries, but they make up for it by selling through the internet and mail order.
So Bolivian companies will outsource to China for support instead of using cheap labor in their own country? What a brilliant idea.
Computers are still new. Its easy to forget that as little as ten years ago, the majority of home users were geeks, and everyone else only came across a computer when they went to work. There is a generation that has grown up with computers entering the workforce right now, so things will change.
You don't. You learn to word process or use a spreadsheet. Not how to use a specific package. Then you can move from one to the other.
This is something I don't get. In a controlled classroom environment, where all the maintenance will be done by the school I.T. staff, the pupils will not be allowed to have root access or install programs unless its a class specifically for that(which implies that some of the pupils at least are going to be doing something other than leveraging their skills), and there will be a teacher on hand to help them when they get stuck...
Where exactly (outside a class that deals with the mechanics of a computer) are they going to run into the mechanics of the computer?
Teach someone how to use Word and they will be able to use Word. Teach them how to use a word processor, and they will be able to use any word processor. Concepts and methods of working are valuable marketable skills. Learning a few specific applications is pointless. They can also have the programs at home on a fairly low powered system so they can get their homework done without having to shell out for an expensive application, or pirate a copy.
So instead of teaching applications, teach concepts. There is no profound difference in using Windows and associated apps and using Linux and the alternatives until you start doing the admin stuff. Outside any computer tech classes, that isn't even a consideration. These are school kids not IT admins. You still click on a menu or an icon to open a program, you still need to use a menu or a button to save a document. And last time I checked, Open Office didn't require you to convert everything to hex and back to decimal to do any calculations, Same old formulas in cells stuff as Excel.
I agree, a monoculture is bad.. So how are you proposing that it changes? Teaching kids that the only way to use a computer is with Microsoft products just maintains the current state. Teaching them to use different systems can only be an advantage. If nothing else, it will give the kids a chance to see a different system in use. At worst, it will require them to do a little more study to get up to speed with Office.
Isn't the point that while other OSs and third parties all provide search/indexing tools... Only Microsoft provide one that doesn't switch off? Which will no doubt be described as an integral part of the OS, and if it is removed or given an off switch, the terrorists will win and pedophiles will run amok.
Its not just the lazy ones. I've seen requests to be unsubscribed from a non advertising, opt in only email group where the unsubscribe instructions are very simple and included at the end of every email.
My theory.. Make a compatibility layer that runs on Windows only, so that Linux and Windows can work together harmoniously. Then release it as a paid for extension that is only compatible with the blessed distros, and fully WGA compliant. Then make it a condition that it is only available on presentation of a Novell voucher or a Xandros license. Wait a few years, and other smaller distros will roll over if they want to get into mixed corporate environments.
>>Why should ODF reguire legislation to be passed in order for it to be successful?
Who suggested legislation? From the article, the local government is only researching the benefits of converting from one format to another *INTERNALLY* not mandating that everybody uses the same format universally. Would it be such a big deal if they decided to move from one printer manufacturer to another? It would be just as serious for the retailer that was selling the printers.
>>Would you know an open document format if it bit you on the butt?
Yes. Closed document formats are much more difficult to remove.
Can you explain how the licensing of ODF better than Microsoft's OpenXML?
ODF is a format supported by a range of vendors who compete with each other. Its also as I understand, a format that can be implemented on any OS, so little or no vendor lock in. A customer is free to change OS, Office suite, and underwear at their discretion.
OOXML is supported by one convicted monopolist who frequently uses closed formats to shut the competition out of the market. Thus making it artificially difficult to change OS, Office suite or anything else without expensive and complicated measures.
OR..... and this is the completely off the wall innovative bit that nobody has ever thought of before..... !! Teach the kids to be responsible on the net.. Generations of kids have known better than to go off with the guy with the puppies in his van, or take sweets from a stranger, so why not apply the same logic to the net?
I know.. It goes against every scare story around.. BUT KIDS ARE NOT STUPID!! If it is explained to most kids what the real dangers are, then they will understand. Thus you avoid the infinitesimally small risk that actually exists instead of trying the impossible task of blocking any possibility of the hugely over rated and blown up out of all proportion pretend risk.
Didn't NASA have a little problem with that a few years ago?
The thing is... MP3 players were not that big back then, so obviously it took a lot longer to get up to speed. At the time Apple hit it's millionth sale, digital music players were expensive and rare. The first few were more status symbols than anything else. And being only available for those with Apples would also have hurt their early sales.
Now players are everywhere. Storage is dirt cheap, and computers capable of ripping CDs and storing vast amounts of music are commonplace. A portable media player is now much more common than any other portable music playing device. When did you last see a personal cassette or CD player? It would be interesting to see if the Microsoft figure of a million Zunes sold is sold to retailers and distributors and sitting in some warehouses somewhere, or if it is sold to actual users.
Very true. The advantage for the Linux community as a whole is that a company like Dell will not only be able to give an incentive to the hardware manufacturers to produce Linux drivers, but that they will also encourage other big companies to offer Linux as an option on at least some selected lines. Provided they are successful that is.
That is in the future though. Right now, Dell have work within the subset of hardware that is Linux friendly, and get past the legion of nit pickers who are predicting the failure of the project before it even starts, to get to the customers who actually want to buy a Linux PC pre installed.
they may be successful and sell lots of Linux machines, or they may not, but at least they are having a go.
More like saying that if you leave your car unlocked with the keys in it, then opening the car door but not stealing the car or contents is not a crime = Buying/renting a DVD and playing it on your Linux computer.
But if the thief then drives the car away or helps themselves to the contents of the car, then it is still a crime = copying for non personal use and/or putting unencrypted DVD on a bit torrent. Fair use, as in copying or format shifting for personal use is not a standard thing in Europe as far as I know, but I doubt it is enforced by the EU versions of the RIAA/MPAA
(my first car metaphor)
And there are the customers like me. I don't buy ready built computers. And I hate fixing friend's pre built PCs. But..... If I was in the market for a laptop, I would have the Linux Dells as my first choice. I'm a Linux Noob myself, and while I can install and try out any distro I want, I can't guarantee that my hardware will work with Linux. Time is not an issue for me, but I dislike wasting my time as much as anybody, and spending days trying to get networking up and running on some freaky closed network connection is a task I'll happily avoid if I can.
Idiot is the wrong word. Ignorant, yes. Some have decided that they know nothing about computers and refuse to change that state of affairs. Even to the point where they make huge amounts of more work for themselves. Its sometimes quite a magnificent sight to see the level of buggered upness they can manage. Anybody who has helped out a friend of family member knows these people exist.