The Famicom was also the first home system to put the directional control on the left. While many arcade systems had the directional control joystick on the left of the buttons, most home systems of the era used joysticks designed for right-handed operation. The division has continued to this day, with computer joysticks typically being designed for use in the right hand with gamepads and arcade joysticks favoring the left hand.
If Atari had come up with a Gamepad for their 5200 system, who knows, perhaps the standard would have been stick on the right, buttons on the left.
This is exactly how I am explaining to everyone what the 'ideal' (so it won't be confusing) side of the road is to drive on:
Assumptions:
1. There are two side-by-side seats in front, with a center console for instrumentation.
2. One sits on the opposite side of the side of the road one drives on (e.g. drive on the right, sit on the left).
3. Drivers prefer to use their dominant hand for tasks that require the most precise motor control.
Argument:
Since the console, which holds the gear shift, climate control, GPS, stereo, etc. is in the centre, it depends on what the dominant hand is for the majority of the population. If that happens to be the right hand, the console should be to the right of the driver, hence the driver is sitting in the left seat. With assumption 2 that follows the car should drive on the right-hand side of the road.
Lefties can rejoyce themselves in thinking what it would be like for a right-handed person to learn to drive with a standard stick-shift over in the UK.
Laws that are unenforceable are moot. Copyright laws are unenforceable in the current world. So lets stop wasting our efforts trying to preserve outdated business models that can't be possibly preserved.
It's not just that they are unenforceable. They have lost popular support, the only reason that they are still there is that these laws still do no really affect the older folk. Plus at election time there are somehow always "more important issues" that need to be talked about.
In the mean time, behind closed door, Hollywood is pushing it's agenda in TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement) and CETA. Would anyone believe that Hollywood is trying to extend Canada's copyright term by another 2 decades? Today that's longer than most kids take to grow from a baby into someone that's out the door and in college. And that's just the term *extension*!
What you need is a Third Political Party in the US, one that champions human-people over corporations. The "R" and "D" denominations have a "What's good for Business, is good for the Country. What's good for the Country, is good for its People" mentality. Everything else is splintered to death. I'd say rally behind the US Pirate Party and enjoy the benefits of help from Pirate Parties International, who is on track to gain observer membership in WIPO.
What never comes up is that most pirated content gets paid for, eventually. I say 'most' because content that is out-of-print will of course not get paid for.
But BigBlockBuster movie comes out in theatres on the big screens; if you download it, you can see it now on your smaller screen and not pay for it. I can see you do this for a movie that is mainly people talking to each other, but not for a movie like the Hobbit, Star Trek "2", etc. It's up to the creator to make it interesting to go out and see it on the big screen, not because that's the only option you have, but because it's so AWESOME. That requires quite a bit of "umdenken" on Hollywood's part.
If you have what's here the Movie Network package (mine includes HBO Canada), once that movie is premiered on TMN, you paid the creators through your subscription dollars. At that moment in time, the 'damage' is undone: you watched the movie on your small screen, and you paid for it. After that, it will appear on a premium cable channel you might subscribe to (pay or pay again). Then it will appear on the regular OTA channels (carrying fee and/or advertising dollars generated through products you buy). After that it will appear every now and then on various channels, again advertising dollars.
Unless you're really off the consumer radar, eventually some of your money will end up with the creators of content, like it or not (i.e. Uwe Boll movies on Netflix).
near-death experiences and the impact of belief in an afterlife on human behavior.
Near-death experiences have nothing to do with immortality (but it's interesting for another reason). "Belief in an afterlife" is just some story made up for people to cope with death of loved ones (ohhh "they're with God now" and suddenly it's alllllllright), and their own ever-nearing death.
Why not give the money to Aubrey de Grey and/or the SENS Foundation - have some actual research done on the causes of aging and what to do about them. You can say what you like about de Grey, but he's right about one thing: aging should be treated as a disease.
WTF? The summary should have made it more clear that these are pre-iPhone *Samsung* designs, showing pretty clearly that they were considering very iPhone-like designs before the iPhone had even released. It's the cornerstone of Samsung's case that Apple didn't invent the idea of a rectangular phone with a touchscreen and that they had been developing the same design idea at the time.
Not sure how a judge can prohibit someone from releasing their own designs.
Because that shows the "obviousness" of certain design elements. Just compare pictures of a (switched-off) HP TouchPad and an Apple iPad, they are freakishly similar up to the one button at the bottom center (though it's shaped differently).
LUCKILY these designs are all over the net, so everyone knows that the general appearance is not a Revelation Given To Humanity by Apple.
Barack Obama has Joe Biden. Romney wants to win, so has to out-perform Obama. There is only one person alive that out-performs Joe Biden, no other than... Chris Dodd!
Try: douchebags that see comments that aren't politically correct will try to find out where you are employed and then complain with your employer "Did you know that your employee so-and-so said this-and-that?"
Can't win online with arguments, then extort the employer. Because if they don't punish you, the employer must agree, no?
To those who think that it's not all that bad and it's just voluntary, etc. etc.: this is a sliding scale. This is how it starts. Just sending a few notices to naughty customers. It will end in full-blown surveillance: deep packet inspection and anything that smells like encryption to other-than-whitelisted-approved-sites will be dropped.
As nice as it is that someone at the FSF says they would not, we have to plan for a world where leaders change and institutional priorities change
As nice as it is that someone at Microsoft says they will sell $99 keys, we have to plan for a world where leaders change and institutional priorities change
What would help is a drastic copyright term reduction; at the very least for computer programs (to be interpreted broadly that audio-visual elements etc. as part of it fall under the lower term). This removes all legal obstacles and anyone with access to the original source and/or reverse-engineered source is free to release it to the public. It should also be made clear that "all trademarks belong to their respective owners" is enough to circumvent any trademark disputes, e.g. you can distribute the source to"Donkey Kong" even though Nintendo holds important trademarks.
Perhaps one day the European Union will implement this and the North Americans wake up and demand the same. On the other hand, free-to-air satellite TV is ubiquitous in Europe (e.g. Astra satellites) and almost non-existent here.
It's obviously another case of the Streisand Effect: the media coverage about TPB being blocked generates interest and people will go see what it is all about. Then there was news coverage about the proxies to bypass the block. Popular blogs like "geen stijl" point towards proxies, in particular one that has "fuck" and "tim kuik" (.nl copyright industry rights enforcement figurehead) in it.
The Pirate Party is very influential. Take a look for instance at this "Creation and Copyright in the Digital Era" position paper, in particular paragraph 26. The Greens/EFA is the fourth-largest political group in the European Parliament and officially supports reducing copyright to 20 years after publication. There's even more in that paper.
Guess what your MAME collection could look like with a copyright limited to 20 years? Or software for your 8-bit home computer emulator you used way back when? As well, Windows 3.1 would be entering the Public Domain. The first 10 years of Compact Disc - Digital Audio releases (1982-1991).
Without the Pirate Party, there wouldn't be so much interest in copyright reform.
the committee has until November 30th, 2013 to create their report.
The scope of the inquiry will include the impact of legislative solutions and their consistency with Australia’s international obligations and government reviews and their recommendations, such as the Convergence Review.
Just in time for ACTA (without the EU) and TPP to be finalized. How convenient.
Gucht: "But for me there is no moral difference between taking something that is not yours in the physical world and doing so in the virtual world."
If that is his opinion, then De Gucht must be a proponent of an Intellectual Property Tax. A single European property tax if the proprietor accepts a Europe-wide license, national property taxes in each country the property is marketed and/or the copyright enforced. The funds collected to be used do stimulate culture and struggling/starving artists.
Wouldn't it be fair that huge IP warehouses start contributing themselves? An IP Tax will help do that. Come on, De Gucht, if it's property it can be taxed!
Read both releases carefully. Then go back in time how ACTA is about counterfeiting, fake medications, etc. Bzzzzt. Here's the truth. And De Gucht knew that truth back then.
ACTA needs to die, not because it may not be compatible with the 'EU constitution', but because the European public doesn't want it. And the longer it takes, the more of the typewriter-generation dies off to be replaced by first-time voting Internet generation youngsters. And we know what they think about what they should be able to do with content they like.
Slashdot Mirror
The Famicom was also the first home system to put the directional control on the left. While many arcade systems had the directional control joystick on the left of the buttons, most home systems of the era used joysticks designed for right-handed operation. The division has continued to this day, with computer joysticks typically being designed for use in the right hand with gamepads and arcade joysticks favoring the left hand.
If Atari had come up with a Gamepad for their 5200 system, who knows, perhaps the standard would have been stick on the right, buttons on the left.
This is exactly how I am explaining to everyone what the 'ideal' (so it won't be confusing) side of the road is to drive on:
Assumptions:
1. There are two side-by-side seats in front, with a center console for instrumentation.
2. One sits on the opposite side of the side of the road one drives on (e.g. drive on the right, sit on the left).
3. Drivers prefer to use their dominant hand for tasks that require the most precise motor control.
Argument:
Since the console, which holds the gear shift, climate control, GPS, stereo, etc. is in the centre, it depends on what the dominant hand is for the majority of the population. If that happens to be the right hand, the console should be to the right of the driver, hence the driver is sitting in the left seat. With assumption 2 that follows the car should drive on the right-hand side of the road.
Lefties can rejoyce themselves in thinking what it would be like for a right-handed person to learn to drive with a standard stick-shift over in the UK.
Laws that are unenforceable are moot. Copyright laws are unenforceable in the current world. So lets stop wasting our efforts trying to preserve outdated business models that can't be possibly preserved.
It's not just that they are unenforceable. They have lost popular support, the only reason that they are still there is that these laws still do no really affect the older folk. Plus at election time there are somehow always "more important issues" that need to be talked about.
In the mean time, behind closed door, Hollywood is pushing it's agenda in TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement) and CETA. Would anyone believe that Hollywood is trying to extend Canada's copyright term by another 2 decades? Today that's longer than most kids take to grow from a baby into someone that's out the door and in college. And that's just the term *extension*!
Can't answer that, but I do know that the UK is bound by US copyright laws.
What you need is a Third Political Party in the US, one that champions human-people over corporations. The "R" and "D" denominations have a "What's good for Business, is good for the Country. What's good for the Country, is good for its People" mentality. Everything else is splintered to death. I'd say rally behind the US Pirate Party and enjoy the benefits of help from Pirate Parties International, who is on track to gain observer membership in WIPO.
...and there's a Western Front too: TPP or Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, containing it's own err... "IPR Chapter".
Don't let the limited "fair use" rules news stories blind you. TPP is a direct attack on the free Internet as well.
Imagine that in the 70s software patents were as they are now... we would not be having this discussion.
What never comes up is that most pirated content gets paid for, eventually. I say 'most' because content that is out-of-print will of course not get paid for.
But BigBlockBuster movie comes out in theatres on the big screens; if you download it, you can see it now on your smaller screen and not pay for it. I can see you do this for a movie that is mainly people talking to each other, but not for a movie like the Hobbit, Star Trek "2", etc. It's up to the creator to make it interesting to go out and see it on the big screen, not because that's the only option you have, but because it's so AWESOME. That requires quite a bit of "umdenken" on Hollywood's part.
If you have what's here the Movie Network package (mine includes HBO Canada), once that movie is premiered on TMN, you paid the creators through your subscription dollars. At that moment in time, the 'damage' is undone: you watched the movie on your small screen, and you paid for it. After that, it will appear on a premium cable channel you might subscribe to (pay or pay again). Then it will appear on the regular OTA channels (carrying fee and/or advertising dollars generated through products you buy). After that it will appear every now and then on various channels, again advertising dollars.
Unless you're really off the consumer radar, eventually some of your money will end up with the creators of content, like it or not (i.e. Uwe Boll movies on Netflix).
near-death experiences and the impact of belief in an afterlife on human behavior.
Near-death experiences have nothing to do with immortality (but it's interesting for another reason). "Belief in an afterlife" is just some story made up for people to cope with death of loved ones (ohhh "they're with God now" and suddenly it's alllllllright), and their own ever-nearing death.
Why not give the money to Aubrey de Grey and/or the SENS Foundation - have some actual research done on the causes of aging and what to do about them. You can say what you like about de Grey, but he's right about one thing: aging should be treated as a disease.
WTF? The summary should have made it more clear that these are pre-iPhone *Samsung* designs, showing pretty clearly that they were considering very iPhone-like designs before the iPhone had even released. It's the cornerstone of Samsung's case that Apple didn't invent the idea of a rectangular phone with a touchscreen and that they had been developing the same design idea at the time.
Not sure how a judge can prohibit someone from releasing their own designs.
Because that shows the "obviousness" of certain design elements. Just compare pictures of a (switched-off) HP TouchPad and an Apple iPad, they are freakishly similar up to the one button at the bottom center (though it's shaped differently).
LUCKILY these designs are all over the net, so everyone knows that the general appearance is not a Revelation Given To Humanity by Apple.
Barack Obama has Joe Biden. Romney wants to win, so has to out-perform Obama. There is only one person alive that out-performs Joe Biden, no other than... Chris Dodd!
Soon there'll be one hanging as a "prize" in the Chairman's room in Beijing, China.
Try: douchebags that see comments that aren't politically correct will try to find out where you are employed and then complain with your employer "Did you know that your employee so-and-so said this-and-that?"
Can't win online with arguments, then extort the employer. Because if they don't punish you, the employer must agree, no?
To those who think that it's not all that bad and it's just voluntary, etc. etc.: this is a sliding scale. This is how it starts. Just sending a few notices to naughty customers. It will end in full-blown surveillance: deep packet inspection and anything that smells like encryption to other-than-whitelisted-approved-sites will be dropped.
As nice as it is that someone at the FSF says they would not, we have to plan for a world where leaders change and institutional priorities change
As nice as it is that someone at Microsoft says they will sell $99 keys, we have to plan for a world where leaders change and institutional priorities change
What would help is a drastic copyright term reduction; at the very least for computer programs (to be interpreted broadly that audio-visual elements etc. as part of it fall under the lower term). This removes all legal obstacles and anyone with access to the original source and/or reverse-engineered source is free to release it to the public. It should also be made clear that "all trademarks belong to their respective owners" is enough to circumvent any trademark disputes, e.g. you can distribute the source to"Donkey Kong" even though Nintendo holds important trademarks.
Perhaps one day the European Union will implement this and the North Americans wake up and demand the same. On the other hand, free-to-air satellite TV is ubiquitous in Europe (e.g. Astra satellites) and almost non-existent here.
It's obviously another case of the Streisand Effect: the media coverage about TPB being blocked generates interest and people will go see what it is all about. Then there was news coverage about the proxies to bypass the block. Popular blogs like "geen stijl" point towards proxies, in particular one that has "fuck" and "tim kuik" (.nl copyright industry rights enforcement figurehead) in it.
So what is HTC doing right that Samsung is doing wrong?
The Pirate Party is very influential. Take a look for instance at this "Creation and Copyright in the Digital Era" position paper, in particular paragraph 26. The Greens/EFA is the fourth-largest political group in the European Parliament and officially supports reducing copyright to 20 years after publication. There's even more in that paper.
Guess what your MAME collection could look like with a copyright limited to 20 years? Or software for your 8-bit home computer emulator you used way back when? As well, Windows 3.1 would be entering the Public Domain. The first 10 years of Compact Disc - Digital Audio releases (1982-1991).
Without the Pirate Party, there wouldn't be so much interest in copyright reform.
the committee has until November 30th, 2013 to create their report.
The scope of the inquiry will include the impact of legislative solutions and their consistency with Australia’s international obligations and government reviews and their recommendations, such as the Convergence Review.
Just in time for ACTA (without the EU) and TPP to be finalized. How convenient.
Hey... just used my Rhode Island proxy and I'm able to access both RIAA.com and MPAA.org again!
Panguite’s primordial nature means that it was actually around before the Earth and other planets formed
It's actually a very old mineral that has been found.
Gucht: "But for me there is no moral difference between taking something that is not yours in the physical world and doing so in the virtual world."
If that is his opinion, then De Gucht must be a proponent of an Intellectual Property Tax. A single European property tax if the proprietor accepts a Europe-wide license, national property taxes in each country the property is marketed and/or the copyright enforced. The funds collected to be used do stimulate culture and struggling/starving artists.
Wouldn't it be fair that huge IP warehouses start contributing themselves? An IP Tax will help do that. Come on, De Gucht, if it's property it can be taxed!
Read both releases carefully. Then go back in time how ACTA is about counterfeiting, fake medications, etc. Bzzzzt. Here's the truth. And De Gucht knew that truth back then.
ACTA needs to die, not because it may not be compatible with the 'EU constitution', but because the European public doesn't want it. And the longer it takes, the more of the typewriter-generation dies off to be replaced by first-time voting Internet generation youngsters. And we know what they think about what they should be able to do with content they like.
Perhaps Samsung should sell the German version, the Galaxy Tab 10.1N which passed the 'think different' test in German courts.