Oh that? Yeah, let me tell you how that works. I have my gamer tag/profile on a memory unit (an over priced USB flash drive) so I can just plug it in to whatever box I'm in front of and unlock the content I have there. So the new dashboard updates comes out. I'm stoked because it's rumored to solves the DRM problems I've been having.
So, I take out an Xbox360 from storage, plug in in, get the newest firmware updates, jack-into their matrix with my "USB identity shackles".
"You need to retrieve your gamer profile on this console to connect to XBL." ... or something very similar to that... OK, no problem, let's do this...
"Service Unavailable at this time. [error code: ####]" WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK is going on Microsoft?!?! SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
So, I put the damn UNSUABLE XBOX 360 AND IT'S CRIPPLED DRM BULLSHIT back into storage, and went back to playing & creating user generate content with the Voxatron Indie Game (Alpha) on my TV+Linux setup -- with an Xbox360 wireless controller, I might add...
Additionally, IT'S NOT THE SAVED GAME BULLSHIT THAT'S PISSING ME OFF, the update doesn't address that issue anyway, it's a gilded cage! I already solved that with a memory unit, and I'm not too lazy to plug it in wherever I am... What's pissing me off is the UNUSABLE DRM SYSTEM they've created.
Interestingly enough, my Kinect is far more useful and fun on Linux with OpenCV than on the 360 or with Windows and their closed source drivers... I'd estimate it's been plugged into a Linux box 95% of the time I've owned it.
P.S. Why would I want MS to have further control over my content? Esp. my saved game data? I mean, if I let my subscription to XBL run out I can still use my memory unit saved games, but with this new offering they'd be locked behind the XBL pay-wall... DO NOT WANT. I seriously doubt I'll even want a 720 from MS, or even a double density 1.44K at this rate.
I have three Xbox360s, each for a different room of the house. In addition to game consoles they function as media consumption devices for Netflix and for my mountain of movies on the NAS. However, It is such a pain in the ass to migrate between them (and you must, if you want your gamer profile & saved games to interoperate), that I've actually disconnected TWO of them and replaced them with smaller quieter Linux media centers (screw it, If I can only play games on one, I'll only play games on one).
The DRM they employ is hurting their business. I'm thankful that I can re-download my content on different consoles, or swap my hard-drives around, but the fact is, I can only be signed in to XBL in one room at a time, and my Netfilx bandwidth isn't tied to XBL servers except artificially. When I want to play a game online, no one else can watch the movies or surf the marketplace which I pay to access. Yes, I can use separate accounts, but I shouldn't have to fragment my usage needlessly. Besides, I tried that already, trying to find the right drive or profile to play a specific game or movie is RIDICULOUS.
Also, this "online pass" bullshit that's bundled with games has to stop. I already pay for XBL services, MS provides the matchmaking API, its XBL. Dear Epic, I've bought and played every game you ever made from Zork to Gears, but when your activation code prevented me from playing the game I purchased, because another player had used the online pass first, I decided to boycot you... We have 1 disc. Only one of us can play at a time online anyway. You once did produce truly beloved Epic MegaGames, but this bullshit attempt to rape the used game market has caused me to hate you.
In short: SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! People will spend a lot more if you make it easier us to do so. Get rid of the DRM, or at least make it marginally usable.
Until then, I think I'll start investing in your competitors: The DRM free, truly cross platform, charity supporting, indie games.
My database has a "not deleted" field instead. And when I mark it "deleted" I set it to zero. It's called the profile_enc_key field. Furthermore, I don't back up this key along with the other records. It's kept in a separate database that's still retrievable and redundant, yet easy to zero out when it comes time to do so.
There are two types of companies in this world: Those that learned from Sony's mistakes, and those that will make the same ones themselves.
Gentlemen, We have the technology... The data is not yet our masters, we can still wrangle it; Or, are you merely a stone-age hold over pretending to belong in our Age of Information?
How does a company instantly delete backups on redundant servers? How do they delete redundant hard copies kept in closets separated by meatspace?
By deleting the fucking encryption key. This shit isn't rocket surgery folks.
Oh, it's not encrypted? WHY THE FUCK NOT? Seriously, Best Security Practices Rule #1: Don't Be Sony
Even my Media Library's SQL metadata is encrypted. I keep that database backed up, but if I want to INSTANTLY DELETE BACKUPS THE WORLD OVER ON REDUNDANT SERVERS, I simply wipe the decryption keys. Now, if I can do this, there's really no reason for them to not be able to. If you're concerned about scaling, that's not an issue, (additionally, scalability isn't my problem). They could store the decryption key in a separate table in the same DB, or right in with the other row data, I DON'T CARE, SO LONG AS YOU DON'T SAVE THE DECRYPTION KEY IN THE BACKUP ARCHIVE. That's data that's small enough to have it's own separate archive that's easy to delete on demand. If they can track all that crap they're tracking, they could take the (CPU) time to do it securely... of course they're not required to by law, yet.
Furthermore, if you upload something to Facebook, and someone ELSE downloads it and saves it to a CD, and you delete it off facebook, should THEY be forced to magically know you deleted it, and delete their copy as well?
Of course not you TWIT. That's not remotely as feasible as wiping out a few bytes of key-data; Besides, I don't have a 1st party relationship with them. I DO HAVE a 1st party relationship with Facebook, and in their TOS it says they'll delete shit that I tell them to, but that it may not happen "immediately", and that it may temporarily enter a refuse bin like system. Do you empty your recyling bin once every quarter decade? Do you flush your toilet once a century? WHAT'S A REASONABLE LENGTH OF TIME TO NOT DELETE AN ENCRYPTINON KEY?!
Does Google have to delete their caches of your facebook page? Or maybe you are saying that Facebook, Google, etc should never make backups?
Once again 1st & 3rd parties. Since Facebook says they WILL DELETE your content once you've deleted your profile (unless it's been shared on another's wall, etc), THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO DELETE IT. Now, they haven't done so in what I'd consider a reasonable amount of time... indeed, they show the opposite effect. This is my opinion. Perhaps you're more unreasonable than I.
Considering that we JUST GOT SELF DRIVING CARS, which have been driving around California public roads without anyone being the wiser...
This crap of a law is SO FAIL.
Amend it to say: "None of this applies if the Driver is AI" and I'll think about it.
Oh, and before you reply "A human driver will need to watch the road just in case" PAH! There are already luxury cars that watch the road and stop you BEFORE you even noticed a problem. In fact, once the cars can talk to each other safely one can alert many others MILES AWAY that they slammed on their breaks because of an obstruction, and if it persists DIRECT TRAFFIC AWAY before it creates grid-lock.
While I agree to a degree, I have to point out that my open source applications run on Linux, Mac and Windows because I ACTUALLY care about customer freedoms. Why SHOULDN'T I accept patches to get my code running on windows?
I wouldn't call that foolish. I'd call it: Complete & total disdain of any OS loyalty whatsoever. If every dev worked this way there would never be a situation where you're forced to stop using the software you want/need just because you have issues with the underlying OS.
At the end of the day, there's a Windows user who tripple-boots Linux & Mac too, and he wants to use the FLOSS software I wrote for use with Linux on Windows. I believe it would be foolish to limit my exposure & thus donations. In fact, I think it foolish to ignore significant market segments altogether for trivial reasons. Even more foolish would be to fragment the user base and cause a fork due to my own OS preferences.
I'm not saying I'm going to distribute my applications in the Windows 8 store, but if anyone else wants to, and they can satisfy the AGPLv3 requirements, have at it.
Cars are not allowed design patents or copyrights; Neither does the fashion industry. Transportation & Clothing are "too utilitarian". I'm having a hard time in this day and age NOT classifying computing devices as utilitarian.
I mean: I wan REQUIRED to use a computer to get tax forms -- They were out of stock. I could have filed an extension, but now you're just being silly. College kids are REQUIRED to use computers for learning -- In fact, I had to repair my 12 year old nephew's computer SO HE COULD DO HOMEWORK (he attends US public school). There are no pay phones in a 10 mile radius of my home (where most accidents are said to occur), I must have a mobile cellular computing device (even feature phones run Java!). I've seen government subsidization for cellular phones, and talk of Internet access being a "human right" akin to having access to water. Even if you do not argee today that computing devices are utilitarian, you will soon (this, or you'll be too dead to care).
Before you point out the fallacy that access to this technology is not NEEDED to live, I would direct you to examine 3rd world countries which are rapidly adopting my views. Furthermore, You could live without toothpaste, agriculture, CLOTHING, or AUTOMOBILES as well, this does not mean these things are not utilitarian.
We don't have to get rid of technology design, hardware & software copyright & patents altogether, just do so for consumer electronics -- People need to be free. The market will survive, indeed the fashion industry and automotive industries are some of the most successful yet least protected by copyright & patents. Trademark law still applies, which is just enough to keep counterfeit knockoffs off the shelves.
THIS IS THE INFORMATION AGE. Would you not agree stone tools were utilitarian in the stone age? Would you not agree iron tools were also in the iron age? Automobiles were revolutionary once, and are utilitarian now. Computing was revolutionary once, and now is as commonplace as any essential advancement has become in the past.
Are we beaming out radio transmissions to the eight corners of the universe? No? Then why the hell do we expect anyone else to? Energy is the universal currency; Listening is so much economically cheaper, the Universe probably IS all ears.
Nope. Because the little shell corp is FUNDED by the big dog, so they'll magically have JUST ENOUGH to fund it. If the issue isn't pressed, it's all the better because they can claim bankrupcy, and guess who will want to buy the patents back?
Additionally -- Do you really think it's good that my little game company can't sue a larger company for copyright infringement because we don't have the capital to back whatever HUGE lawyer fees they'll invent?
If so, I sincerely hope that a terrible tragedy befalls you.
this is a smart way to avoid negative publicity. 'apple sues xyz' makes apple sound like an evil company. 'digitude innovation sues xyz' is a way protecting the brand
Yes it's also smart from a defensive standpoint. If Apple were to sue, then it's simple to counter sue, eventually they'll cross license the patents in question. However, if Apple is only seeking to be anti-competitive instead of competitive, they'll use the shell company. This way, since Digitude makes NOTHING the folks they sue can't exactly use their own patent portfolio against Digitude.
The interesting thing is, now that the cat's out of the bag, expect suits to be filed against Apple in hopes they'll call off their trolls. However, unless the same shell corp tactic is used they'll end up looking like the bad guys in the press.
Moral of the story? Set up your corporation today. File the taxes, pay the dues, you don't have to do anything else with it. Later, you can sell them to the big guys who are looking to do some shady shit, OR to the new guys who want to seem like they've been in good standing for much longer than they have. Invest Now! These fake paper people are actually appreciating in value!
It would be stupid to choose lesser solution only because authoring tools don't need to pay small licensing costs.
Hey! I'm an indie dev with Zero initial capital! I want my players to be able to capture video feeds of in-game play and upload them to video sites. I also want to open source the game at some point... Guess which codec standard PREVENTS THIS? Not WebM. I'm sorry, H.264 isn't even an option for me. It was trivial for me to include a WebM encoder in my code, took one afternoon. It's also natively supported by the most used video upload site... Youtube. I can't even begin the process of legally doing the same with H.264.
To me the lesser solution is H.264... the VERY MUCH LESSER solution is a stripped down version of it -- Which is what TFA is talking about having made license free.
Also: HTML5 has a video tag. That's great! Northing's stopping us from having two or more video codecs installed so you can deliver H.666 or whatever, but the fact is: If you want ANYONE to be able to compile a browser or any other program that contains a video encoder / decoder, H.264 is not an option. Make VP8 the standard and your Windows & Mac OSs can still come with H.264 codec plugins. That's fine, but think about people that want to use Free Software... we can't use H.264 for that; Each user can't pay license fees just to compile their own software & FOSS projects can't pay license fees for every single user who compiles the project either (technically each compilation is a different product).
Also: As for patent worries? HAHAHA! You have to be shitting me right? I mean... considering my codebase is over 100,000 SLOC, and the USPTO is FULL of bogus trivial & over-broad software patents, an optional component such as a Video Codec is the LEAST of my worries. At least with WebM, if a video myself or a user produced gets popular Google won't come knocking asking for a payout... like they currently WILL with H.264.
I'm all for competition in video standards, but the fact is: H.264 should NOT be a web standard. They're taking about making a CRAPPY version of it "license free" -- Who give a damn when THE FULL VERSION of VP8 is available now, and as has been said: Either codec has just as many submarine patent worries as ANY TRIVIAL SOFTWARE does.
The science of fanboism says you'll stick to your initial choice fervently and illogically no matter how much we banter back and forth, but I'm taking facts here man: Crippled H.264 vs Full VP8 as a web standard... It's no contest you fool.
I think you're missing something important. Every bit of JavaScript you run on modern browsers is compiled into machine code in memory, marked as executable, then executed -- right on the metal.
This is why mistakes in the compiler and/or buffer overflows in JS supporting code can so easily cause remote code execution. All the "sandboxing" NaCl provides is the same as what JS provides -- NONE! Do you actually think that there are Zero buffer overflow vulnerabilities in any of your favorite softwares?
The only way to sand box this stuff is to have a secure Hardware supported VM, or use an interpreted language. We traded speed for security with WEB BROWSERS!?!? Yeah, the whole web is held together with duct-tape bubble gum and twine. I'm out. The native vetted application market is the way to go, except they all made the same SNAFUBAR, compiling bytecode to machine code and calling that a sandbox.
Single core code... You bought more cores thinking coders (especially poor indie ones) were going to support all of them at once?
My 7 year old 3ghz single core machine, w/ 3GB RAM and a crappy $50 Nvidia GeForec FX 5200 runs this fantastically.
As a coder myself I take great pains to ensure my software can take advantage of as many cores as you throw at it, but in reality, most programs do not. What's the individual cycle speed of one of your cores? Less than my 6 year old laptop? Yeah, don't expect low quality software to run well on your high quality rig.
I wish Erlang wasn't crap when it comes to games -- it was a step in the right direction.
To note: Cars are still legal -- I see or hear of people killed on those death-traps we call highways every day. We may have better safety guidelines now, but the industry doesn't stop. Occasional deaths seem to be part of the cost of doing business with the living.
I suppose it may be a valid point to consider: When rockets kill people it's usually REALLY expensive both in terms of the hardware and highly skilled individuals -- Unless, of course, we're launching the rockets at brown people; Then people seem to care a lot less...
Kentucky Fried Chicken Foundation is asking eligible high school seniors to tweet a photo that illustrates their commitment to education
Twitter post.
Photo.
Choose one.
A link to a photo perhaps? If so -- Well, will I get demerits for linking to a blog post with photos, an essay, and comments from the community extolling my dedication to education? Won't the "tweet" be significantly less than 140 characters due to the linked image?
We're seriously not talking a a 10x14 pixel image... I hope.
After all: Brain cells are brain cells; Neural networks are neural networks; Intelligence is intelligence; Humans aren't really that special, even if you think they are, they won't be for long.
We've only really scratched the surface in our experimenting with Machine Intelligence interfacing with, and even enhancing Organic Intelligence, or vise versa. Not only this, but a mind machine interface creates the possibility for multi-mind beings -- One rat may have less intelligence than a human... but what about a million rat-mind collective?
This type of research is important, especially using non-human minds because through it we may find whether sympathy is an inherent trait in all life, including that of machine intelligences, hybrid organic intelligences, and even advanced alien intelligences.
I hope we do discover empathy and kindness to be universal truths. Talk about social awareness...
Well, since they sell clothes, not computer models, it may be better to think: S1m0ne.
The movie missed many opportunities to explore the implications of a realistic virtual actor/model, but it was a start. Certainly a better example than JJ.
Perhaps it would be easier to keep all the phones up to date if the Microsoft Patent Licensing deal didn't involve renegotiation for each new Android version that you want to install on the phone...
Oh hey, guess what? MS charges LESS for a full install of WP7 than their bogus Android license fees. This is the same sort of behavior that got them in anti-competitive trouble LAST TIME. Funny how immediately after their DOJ anti-trust oversight expires, the ramp up the anti-competitive practices.
Slashdot Mirror
*UNUSABLE
heh... unsuable, well, I guess that's technically correct given their EULA.
Oh that? Yeah, let me tell you how that works. I have my gamer tag/profile on a memory unit (an over priced USB flash drive) so I can just plug it in to whatever box I'm in front of and unlock the content I have there. So the new dashboard updates comes out. I'm stoked because it's rumored to solves the DRM problems I've been having.
So, I take out an Xbox360 from storage, plug in in, get the newest firmware updates, jack-into their matrix with my "USB identity shackles".
"You need to retrieve your gamer profile on this console to connect to XBL."
... or something very similar to that... OK, no problem, let's do this...
"Service Unavailable at this time. [error code: ####]"
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK is going on Microsoft?!?! SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
So, I put the damn UNSUABLE XBOX 360 AND IT'S CRIPPLED DRM BULLSHIT back into storage, and went back to playing & creating user generate content with the Voxatron Indie Game (Alpha) on my TV+Linux setup -- with an Xbox360 wireless controller, I might add...
Additionally, IT'S NOT THE SAVED GAME BULLSHIT THAT'S PISSING ME OFF, the update doesn't address that issue anyway, it's a gilded cage! I already solved that with a memory unit, and I'm not too lazy to plug it in wherever I am... What's pissing me off is the UNUSABLE DRM SYSTEM they've created.
Interestingly enough, my Kinect is far more useful and fun on Linux with OpenCV than on the 360 or with Windows and their closed source drivers... I'd estimate it's been plugged into a Linux box 95% of the time I've owned it.
P.S. Why would I want MS to have further control over my content? Esp. my saved game data? I mean, if I let my subscription to XBL run out I can still use my memory unit saved games, but with this new offering they'd be locked behind the XBL pay-wall... DO NOT WANT. I seriously doubt I'll even want a 720 from MS, or even a double density 1.44K at this rate.
I have three Xbox360s, each for a different room of the house. In addition to game consoles they function as media consumption devices for Netflix and for my mountain of movies on the NAS. However, It is such a pain in the ass to migrate between them (and you must, if you want your gamer profile & saved games to interoperate), that I've actually disconnected TWO of them and replaced them with smaller quieter Linux media centers (screw it, If I can only play games on one, I'll only play games on one).
The DRM they employ is hurting their business. I'm thankful that I can re-download my content on different consoles, or swap my hard-drives around, but the fact is, I can only be signed in to XBL in one room at a time, and my Netfilx bandwidth isn't tied to XBL servers except artificially. When I want to play a game online, no one else can watch the movies or surf the marketplace which I pay to access. Yes, I can use separate accounts, but I shouldn't have to fragment my usage needlessly. Besides, I tried that already, trying to find the right drive or profile to play a specific game or movie is RIDICULOUS.
Also, this "online pass" bullshit that's bundled with games has to stop. I already pay for XBL services, MS provides the matchmaking API, its XBL. Dear Epic, I've bought and played every game you ever made from Zork to Gears, but when your activation code prevented me from playing the game I purchased, because another player had used the online pass first, I decided to boycot you... We have 1 disc. Only one of us can play at a time online anyway. You once did produce truly beloved Epic MegaGames, but this bullshit attempt to rape the used game market has caused me to hate you.
In short: SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! People will spend a lot more if you make it easier us to do so. Get rid of the DRM, or at least make it marginally usable.
Until then, I think I'll start investing in your competitors: The DRM free, truly cross platform, charity supporting, indie games.
Or... "We keep a tally of the number of times you write or receive certain words or phrases, or visit certain websites."
Doing the aggregation on the client end just saves their servers some CPU... Speaking of, how much battery has this crap eaten in aggregate?
Actually, you're almost there. The most secure encryption is to simply XOR each byte with itself.
My database has a "not deleted" field instead. And when I mark it "deleted" I set it to zero. It's called the profile_enc_key field. Furthermore, I don't back up this key along with the other records. It's kept in a separate database that's still retrievable and redundant, yet easy to zero out when it comes time to do so.
There are two types of companies in this world: Those that learned from Sony's mistakes, and those that will make the same ones themselves.
Gentlemen, We have the technology... The data is not yet our masters, we can still wrangle it; Or, are you merely a stone-age hold over pretending to belong in our Age of Information?
I find this attitude so ignorant.
I find you so ignorant...
How does a company instantly delete backups on redundant servers? How do they delete redundant hard copies kept in closets separated by meatspace?
By deleting the fucking encryption key. This shit isn't rocket surgery folks.
Oh, it's not encrypted? WHY THE FUCK NOT? Seriously, Best Security Practices Rule #1: Don't Be Sony
Even my Media Library's SQL metadata is encrypted. I keep that database backed up, but if I want to INSTANTLY DELETE BACKUPS THE WORLD OVER ON REDUNDANT SERVERS, I simply wipe the decryption keys. Now, if I can do this, there's really no reason for them to not be able to. If you're concerned about scaling, that's not an issue, (additionally, scalability isn't my problem). They could store the decryption key in a separate table in the same DB, or right in with the other row data, I DON'T CARE, SO LONG AS YOU DON'T SAVE THE DECRYPTION KEY IN THE BACKUP ARCHIVE. That's data that's small enough to have it's own separate archive that's easy to delete on demand. If they can track all that crap they're tracking, they could take the (CPU) time to do it securely... of course they're not required to by law, yet.
Furthermore, if you upload something to Facebook, and someone ELSE downloads it and saves it to a CD, and you delete it off facebook, should THEY be forced to magically know you deleted it, and delete their copy as well?
Of course not you TWIT. That's not remotely as feasible as wiping out a few bytes of key-data; Besides, I don't have a 1st party relationship with them. I DO HAVE a 1st party relationship with Facebook, and in their TOS it says they'll delete shit that I tell them to, but that it may not happen "immediately", and that it may temporarily enter a refuse bin like system. Do you empty your recyling bin once every quarter decade? Do you flush your toilet once a century? WHAT'S A REASONABLE LENGTH OF TIME TO NOT DELETE AN ENCRYPTINON KEY?!
Does Google have to delete their caches of your facebook page? Or maybe you are saying that Facebook, Google, etc should never make backups?
Once again 1st & 3rd parties. Since Facebook says they WILL DELETE your content once you've deleted your profile (unless it's been shared on another's wall, etc), THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO DELETE IT. Now, they haven't done so in what I'd consider a reasonable amount of time... indeed, they show the opposite effect. This is my opinion. Perhaps you're more unreasonable than I.
Install gentoo.
Considering that we JUST GOT SELF DRIVING CARS, which have been driving around California public roads without anyone being the wiser...
This crap of a law is SO FAIL.
Amend it to say: "None of this applies if the Driver is AI" and I'll think about it.
Oh, and before you reply "A human driver will need to watch the road just in case" PAH! There are already luxury cars that watch the road and stop you BEFORE you even noticed a problem. In fact, once the cars can talk to each other safely one can alert many others MILES AWAY that they slammed on their breaks because of an obstruction, and if it persists DIRECT TRAFFIC AWAY before it creates grid-lock.
While I agree to a degree, I have to point out that my open source applications run on Linux, Mac and Windows because I ACTUALLY care about customer freedoms. Why SHOULDN'T I accept patches to get my code running on windows?
I wouldn't call that foolish. I'd call it: Complete & total disdain of any OS loyalty whatsoever. If every dev worked this way there would never be a situation where you're forced to stop using the software you want/need just because you have issues with the underlying OS.
At the end of the day, there's a Windows user who tripple-boots Linux & Mac too, and he wants to use the FLOSS software I wrote for use with Linux on Windows. I believe it would be foolish to limit my exposure & thus donations. In fact, I think it foolish to ignore significant market segments altogether for trivial reasons. Even more foolish would be to fragment the user base and cause a fork due to my own OS preferences.
I'm not saying I'm going to distribute my applications in the Windows 8 store, but if anyone else wants to, and they can satisfy the AGPLv3 requirements, have at it.
Cars are not allowed design patents or copyrights; Neither does the fashion industry. Transportation & Clothing are "too utilitarian". I'm having a hard time in this day and age NOT classifying computing devices as utilitarian.
I mean: I wan REQUIRED to use a computer to get tax forms -- They were out of stock. I could have filed an extension, but now you're just being silly. College kids are REQUIRED to use computers for learning -- In fact, I had to repair my 12 year old nephew's computer SO HE COULD DO HOMEWORK (he attends US public school). There are no pay phones in a 10 mile radius of my home (where most accidents are said to occur), I must have a mobile cellular computing device (even feature phones run Java!). I've seen government subsidization for cellular phones, and talk of Internet access being a "human right" akin to having access to water. Even if you do not argee today that computing devices are utilitarian, you will soon (this, or you'll be too dead to care).
Before you point out the fallacy that access to this technology is not NEEDED to live, I would direct you to examine 3rd world countries which are rapidly adopting my views. Furthermore, You could live without toothpaste, agriculture, CLOTHING, or AUTOMOBILES as well, this does not mean these things are not utilitarian.
We don't have to get rid of technology design, hardware & software copyright & patents altogether, just do so for consumer electronics -- People need to be free. The market will survive, indeed the fashion industry and automotive industries are some of the most successful yet least protected by copyright & patents. Trademark law still applies, which is just enough to keep counterfeit knockoffs off the shelves.
THIS IS THE INFORMATION AGE. Would you not agree stone tools were utilitarian in the stone age? Would you not agree iron tools were also in the iron age? Automobiles were revolutionary once, and are utilitarian now. Computing was revolutionary once, and now is as commonplace as any essential advancement has become in the past.
Are we beaming out radio transmissions to the eight corners of the universe? No? Then why the hell do we expect anyone else to? Energy is the universal currency; Listening is so much economically cheaper, the Universe probably IS all ears.
Nope. Because the little shell corp is FUNDED by the big dog, so they'll magically have JUST ENOUGH to fund it. If the issue isn't pressed, it's all the better because they can claim bankrupcy, and guess who will want to buy the patents back?
Additionally -- Do you really think it's good that my little game company can't sue a larger company for copyright infringement because we don't have the capital to back whatever HUGE lawyer fees they'll invent?
If so, I sincerely hope that a terrible tragedy befalls you.
this is a smart way to avoid negative publicity. 'apple sues xyz' makes apple sound like an evil company. 'digitude innovation sues xyz' is a way protecting the brand
Yes it's also smart from a defensive standpoint. If Apple were to sue, then it's simple to counter sue, eventually they'll cross license the patents in question. However, if Apple is only seeking to be anti-competitive instead of competitive, they'll use the shell company. This way, since Digitude makes NOTHING the folks they sue can't exactly use their own patent portfolio against Digitude.
The interesting thing is, now that the cat's out of the bag, expect suits to be filed against Apple in hopes they'll call off their trolls. However, unless the same shell corp tactic is used they'll end up looking like the bad guys in the press.
Moral of the story? Set up your corporation today. File the taxes, pay the dues, you don't have to do anything else with it. Later, you can sell them to the big guys who are looking to do some shady shit, OR to the new guys who want to seem like they've been in good standing for much longer than they have. Invest Now! These fake paper people are actually appreciating in value!
It would be stupid to choose lesser solution only because authoring tools don't need to pay small licensing costs.
Hey! I'm an indie dev with Zero initial capital! I want my players to be able to capture video feeds of in-game play and upload them to video sites. I also want to open source the game at some point... Guess which codec standard PREVENTS THIS? Not WebM. I'm sorry, H.264 isn't even an option for me. It was trivial for me to include a WebM encoder in my code, took one afternoon. It's also natively supported by the most used video upload site... Youtube. I can't even begin the process of legally doing the same with H.264.
To me the lesser solution is H.264... the VERY MUCH LESSER solution is a stripped down version of it -- Which is what TFA is talking about having made license free.
Also: HTML5 has a video tag. That's great! Northing's stopping us from having two or more video codecs installed so you can deliver H.666 or whatever, but the fact is: If you want ANYONE to be able to compile a browser or any other program that contains a video encoder / decoder, H.264 is not an option. Make VP8 the standard and your Windows & Mac OSs can still come with H.264 codec plugins. That's fine, but think about people that want to use Free Software... we can't use H.264 for that; Each user can't pay license fees just to compile their own software & FOSS projects can't pay license fees for every single user who compiles the project either (technically each compilation is a different product).
Also: As for patent worries? HAHAHA! You have to be shitting me right? I mean... considering my codebase is over 100,000 SLOC, and the USPTO is FULL of bogus trivial & over-broad software patents, an optional component such as a Video Codec is the LEAST of my worries. At least with WebM, if a video myself or a user produced gets popular Google won't come knocking asking for a payout... like they currently WILL with H.264.
I'm all for competition in video standards, but the fact is: H.264 should NOT be a web standard. They're taking about making a CRAPPY version of it "license free" -- Who give a damn when THE FULL VERSION of VP8 is available now, and as has been said: Either codec has just as many submarine patent worries as ANY TRIVIAL SOFTWARE does.
The science of fanboism says you'll stick to your initial choice fervently and illogically no matter how much we banter back and forth, but I'm taking facts here man: Crippled H.264 vs Full VP8 as a web standard... It's no contest you fool.
Don't blame the devil for doing bad things with your sole after you sold it to him.
Joke's on him: That Demented Demon just made me supreme ruler of all the ocean front property in Arizona!
HA! I don't give a damn what he does to those used sneakers!
I think you're missing something important. Every bit of JavaScript you run on modern browsers is compiled into machine code in memory, marked as executable, then executed -- right on the metal.
This is why mistakes in the compiler and/or buffer overflows in JS supporting code can so easily cause remote code execution. All the "sandboxing" NaCl provides is the same as what JS provides -- NONE! Do you actually think that there are Zero buffer overflow vulnerabilities in any of your favorite softwares?
The only way to sand box this stuff is to have a secure Hardware supported VM, or use an interpreted language. We traded speed for security with WEB BROWSERS!?!? Yeah, the whole web is held together with duct-tape bubble gum and twine. I'm out. The native vetted application market is the way to go, except they all made the same SNAFUBAR, compiling bytecode to machine code and calling that a sandbox.
Single core code... You bought more cores thinking coders (especially poor indie ones) were going to support all of them at once?
My 7 year old 3ghz single core machine, w/ 3GB RAM and a crappy $50 Nvidia GeForec FX 5200 runs this fantastically.
As a coder myself I take great pains to ensure my software can take advantage of as many cores as you throw at it, but in reality, most programs do not. What's the individual cycle speed of one of your cores? Less than my 6 year old laptop? Yeah, don't expect low quality software to run well on your high quality rig.
I wish Erlang wasn't crap when it comes to games -- it was a step in the right direction.
To note: Cars are still legal -- I see or hear of people killed on those death-traps we call highways every day. We may have better safety guidelines now, but the industry doesn't stop. Occasional deaths seem to be part of the cost of doing business with the living.
I suppose it may be a valid point to consider: When rockets kill people it's usually REALLY expensive both in terms of the hardware and highly skilled individuals -- Unless, of course, we're launching the rockets at brown people; Then people seem to care a lot less...
Kentucky Fried Chicken Foundation is asking eligible high school seniors to tweet a photo that illustrates their commitment to education
Twitter post.
Photo.
Choose one.
A link to a photo perhaps? If so -- Well, will I get demerits for linking to a blog post with photos, an essay, and comments from the community extolling my dedication to education? Won't the "tweet" be significantly less than 140 characters due to the linked image?
We're seriously not talking a a 10x14 pixel image... I hope.
As a cyberneticist, I can tell you that not all humans take rats for granted...
After all: Brain cells are brain cells; Neural networks are neural networks; Intelligence is intelligence; Humans aren't really that special, even if you think they are, they won't be for long.
We've only really scratched the surface in our experimenting with Machine Intelligence interfacing with, and even enhancing Organic Intelligence, or vise versa. Not only this, but a mind machine interface creates the possibility for multi-mind beings -- One rat may have less intelligence than a human... but what about a million rat-mind collective?
This type of research is important, especially using non-human minds because through it we may find whether sympathy is an inherent trait in all life, including that of machine intelligences, hybrid organic intelligences, and even advanced alien intelligences.
I hope we do discover empathy and kindness to be universal truths. Talk about social awareness...
Well, since they sell clothes, not computer models, it may be better to think: S1m0ne.
The movie missed many opportunities to explore the implications of a realistic virtual actor/model, but it was a start. Certainly a better example than JJ.
Perhaps it would be easier to keep all the phones up to date if the Microsoft Patent Licensing deal didn't involve renegotiation for each new Android version that you want to install on the phone...
Oh hey, guess what? MS charges LESS for a full install of WP7 than their bogus Android license fees. This is the same sort of behavior that got them in anti-competitive trouble LAST TIME. Funny how immediately after their DOJ anti-trust oversight expires, the ramp up the anti-competitive practices.
I hope B & N tears them a new one.
Pretty old news for being Slahdot
Heh, you must be new here...
Slashdot used to be quicker than this.
Oh, never mind, you must be really old here.
This is the 21st century. Why do we still have book publishing? Everything should by indie and self marketed.
FTFY
You threw an extra punctuation mark in there... That'll be US$0.99 for proofreading services rendered.
I'll bill you at the end of the month.