And like, how can a person *own* the land, right? It's like, the land man....and it's old and you can't own it!
--------
Seriously?
You don't understand why we have IP laws? It takes a lot of time, effort and money to produce certain things. Without the ability to receive credit and resources from that work - people won't do it.
You go and raise a few billion dollars of your own money and develop a new drug to fight some disease. Spend the next 15-20 years doing research, getting it approved, demonstrating that your idea works, your formula work. Then ask yourself why Company B shouldn't be able to produce the exact same drug - without having spent 4 billion dollars and 15 years developing it.
Then ask yourself if you'd ever want to produce another drug....as your company folds under the financial burden of that debt while Company B - sells the same thing for the same price; but without 4 billion in debt.
And once everyone had a replicator - everyone would replicate the newest, coolest, best car.
And nobody would pay for it.
And the people who design cars wouldn't have money to keep designing cars. And all of the advancement and innovation that we've seen since the first car and now would grind to a halt.
And that's why I think the justifications for why people steal movies/music/software are crap.
The vast, vast, vast majority of people don't actually care about any of that. They say they do; but the real truth is - it's easy and they won't get caught.
Most of the Sci-Fi from the 20s and 30s are still completely out of reach. Aliens, time travel, space travel, living on other planets, heck - even flying cars and robots that we have don't stand up compared to the sci-fi of the day.
I guess I don't understand why people have their panties in a wad over this.
When you buy a PS3, it is 'yours'. Sony isn't going to break in and change it against your will.
But if you want continued support and certain functionality that is subject to change; you need to patch your PS3 occasionally.
I thought this was par for the course? If you buy World of Warcraft and then, six months later, put out a patch that makes your Hunter less fun to play...that's kinda what happens, right?
I guess I just don't get it.
Was installing Linux on the PS3 ever officially supported by Sony? Did they market that as a feature you get with a PS3?
How many people would pay to watch some kid play a video game in his basement vs. how many people would pay money to watch a real major league picther?
Maybe I'm missing the point but I'm *glad* there is only one version of the.Net Framework 4.0
If the source was truly open, I'm sure someone, somewhere, would make something awesome, that I'd want to use, but it would require me using the forked (or whatever they call it) home-brew version that may or may not introduce instability into my application.
And when I took my problem online and said, 'WTF! I'm just doing System.Console.Writeline()' why doesn't this work!' it would lead to all sorts of confusion.
But yeah, I'm probably missing the point as my understanding of OpenSource is limited. I just don't see why you'd ever want to a modified version of the.Net Framework.
I think there is a minimum success rate that you need to hit for voice recognition to be usable, but frustrating. As the technology has gotten better, we've seen more and more places trying to use it more more ways; and those new ways are more demanding and result in just barely reaching that minimum success rate.
The end result is that most users still feel frustrated.
But back in the day, you were frustrated while trying to get the VR software to understand your account number (limited to only digits). Now, you are frustrated because you called Goog-411 and it is having trouble understanding your City, State and business name.
If they'd just stick a mouse and keyboard into a PS3 and have games support it; all but the most hard-core PC gamers would gladly play the same games, in the same way, on a console.
When a person shows up to the door, people are skeptical because they don't know that person and don't have a business relationship with them.
If you already buy an expensive product from a reputable company; you are going to be far less skeptical about things you are told about that product, by that company. If you buy a new car from Ford and the 'ABS' light comes on - provided you know nothing about cars, other than how to drive them, to believe that there is something wrong with your brakes; compared to how likely you are to believe there is something wrong with your car's brakes if a stranger knocks on your door and tells you.
When people see a pop-up on their computer; they assume it's coming from Microsoft or Dell or whatever. So, they trust it.
I don't think he means 'everyone'. But, he does bring up a good point.
I 'knew a guy' back in high school who worked for Sprint. The short version of the story is that I have a Sprint plan that absolutely beats the pants off of any plan I can get anywhere else and as long as I keep renewing my contract, I'll keep my unbeatable price with Sprint.
When I went to look at smartphones - I was unwilling to change carriers. I couldn't justify paying $20-$40 dollars more, each month, for the same services I already get. I was also unwilling to purchase a phone out-of-pocket.
So, I was left with the phones that Sprint offers. I wanted the plan I had, and I wanted the $200 dollars off when I extend my contract.
Given that selection of phones, I went with the only Android phone they were offering - the HTC Hero. But, for me, there wasn't ever a question of 'Do I want an iPhone or an HTC Hero'. It was 'Here are 10 phones I can get - which one of these are the best....'
It's possible that *you* really did pay for your phone. Most people, don't.
They sign two-year agreements and get several hundred dollars off + rebates. It's possible that phone prices are inflated to support this crap; but most everyone I know doesn't pay anywhere near the advertised full-price for their phone.
I recently purchased my first android phone. People say that it is 'open'. But, people say a lot of things.
My phone isn't open. It's very much locked down. If I want to delete an application like 'Sprint Nascar Cup' - I can't. It won't let me.
If I call up Sprint customer support and ask them how to delete it, they tell me it's impossible. I know, because I asked. It can't be done.
'Rooting' the phone is possible; but it violates your warranty, it forfeits your right to customer service, and comes with some risk of bricking your phone. If you are willing to take that risk; how is that any different from what is available with the iPhone?
That's really what bothers me most about the whole thing - none of it had to go down like that.
Even if I wasn't supposed to have admin access or whatever it was that I did (I still really don't know what it was that set them off) had they just said, 'RobDude - don't do that'. I wouldn't. Even if I could, even if it wasn't locked down - that's all it would have taken.
"RobDude, I see you shared your drive; can you not do that? We don't want anyone to copy your assignments"
It did end up getting escalated to the district superintendents who ultimately decided upon the punishment.
By the time they told us what it would be, I just wanted it all to be over, so I didn't much care. They didn't say they were going to give us F's - they just said that we'd be unable to return to the class and we'd receive 0s for everything we missed. And that, in the future, we'd be unable to use any of the school's computer equipment for any reason.
I honestly figured I'd *still* get an A - the class was almost over and I had a ton of extra credit. Maybe a B. And, I'd taken all the Computer classes the school offered - so it wasn't really much of a punishment at all.
When I got my report card though - it was an F. Mathematically, there is no way it would have worked out like that; but it was the summer and my GPA wasn't anything special. I'd received an A in the AP Computer Science class, scored a 4 on the AP test (as a sophomore) - but received an F in the Intro to Programming class. Despite having done excellent on all the assignments and despite having received lots and lots of extra credit. Some adult, some professional educator who was well paid by tax payer dollars, was angry and decided to give me an F.
My parents wanted to raise hell down at the district over it - but it didn't bother me and, being perfectly honest, I just wanted to be done with the whole mess. So, at my request, they dropped it.
I went through my senior year avoiding the math department, the principal, and all of the computers. It sucked. But, on the plus side, I became somewhat infamous; and pretty much everyone except my closest friends were convinced I'd done something much cooler - like hacked into the grading system or something.
The high school phoned them the same day they called me down to the office.
In the beginning, I was convinced it was just a harmless misunderstanding so I was all, 'No Mom, it's fine. I didn't do anything.'
And - they'd just threatened us with expulsion - they didn't actually punish us at first. After the first day they took us to the office, we were told to go back to the office instead of programming class. We just sit in the general waiting room and were like, 'LOL - wut?' the six of us.
But my parents did end up going down to the district headquarters and speaking with a superintendent and all sorts of junk.
I was actually pretty lucky; my parents believed me when I told them that I didn't do anything that could be considered malicious. The worst thing I did was make it possible for other students to see my assignments. But they were so over-the-top and unique, nobody would be able to copy them and put their name on it.
My biggest fear was getting in trouble with my parents; so once that was I gone, it wasn't so bad.
I graduated back in 01 - this happened during my junior year so 2000.
The school had two computer programming classes - AP Computer Science which was taught in C++ and an 'Intro to Computer Programming' class that was in VB6. At least, I'm pretty sure it was VB6, I know it wasn't.Net and I think it was too late for VB5.
I'd taken the AP Computer Programming class the year before, and wanted to take the Intro class because I thought it would be fun.
It fell onto the Math department to teach the computer classes and, if I remember correctly, it was only the second year of the Intro class and the teacher I had was a very competent math teacher - but seemed a bit out of place behind a computer. Regardless, he was a nice enough guy.
Overall, it seemed pretty sweet. The computers we had were pretty modern and, from what I understand, a lot of schools didn't offer any programming classes.
Fair enough. I won't lie, I'm pretty jaded from my experience. I kept waiting for someone sane and reasonable, who understood this stuff, to step in and say something like...
'Actually, the things this kid did were harmless and he was able to do them because we setup the accounts that way. Remember, we said it would take two weeks, but we had to get it done in a weekend and we were told to just make everyone admins? Well, yeah, so we setup his account as an admin and he did some harmless admin-type stuff. Maybe we shouldn't kick him out of class?'
Slashdot Mirror
Funny how everyone who claims this never actually does it.
You go design a new, better, engine for a car. Do it with your own funding. Then, make it publicly available for car maker to copy.
Then, come back and I'll be like, 'Yup - I was wrong. You showed me'
Yeah man! I feel ya...
And like, how can a person *own* the land, right? It's like, the land man....and it's old and you can't own it!
--------
Seriously?
You don't understand why we have IP laws? It takes a lot of time, effort and money to produce certain things. Without the ability to receive credit and resources from that work - people won't do it.
You go and raise a few billion dollars of your own money and develop a new drug to fight some disease. Spend the next 15-20 years doing research, getting it approved, demonstrating that your idea works, your formula work. Then ask yourself why Company B shouldn't be able to produce the exact same drug - without having spent 4 billion dollars and 15 years developing it.
Then ask yourself if you'd ever want to produce another drug....as your company folds under the financial burden of that debt while Company B - sells the same thing for the same price; but without 4 billion in debt.
And once everyone had a replicator - everyone would replicate the newest, coolest, best car.
And nobody would pay for it.
And the people who design cars wouldn't have money to keep designing cars. And all of the advancement and innovation that we've seen since the first car and now would grind to a halt.
And that's why I think the justifications for why people steal movies/music/software are crap.
The vast, vast, vast majority of people don't actually care about any of that. They say they do; but the real truth is - it's easy and they won't get caught.
That's good enough for most criminals.
I don't know how much I would agree with that.
Most of the Sci-Fi from the 20s and 30s are still completely out of reach. Aliens, time travel, space travel, living on other planets, heck - even flying cars and robots that we have don't stand up compared to the sci-fi of the day.
Ahhh - okay, that makes sense then. Thank you
I guess I don't understand why people have their panties in a wad over this.
When you buy a PS3, it is 'yours'. Sony isn't going to break in and change it against your will.
But if you want continued support and certain functionality that is subject to change; you need to patch your PS3 occasionally.
I thought this was par for the course? If you buy World of Warcraft and then, six months later, put out a patch that makes your Hunter less fun to play...that's kinda what happens, right?
I guess I just don't get it.
Was installing Linux on the PS3 ever officially supported by Sony? Did they market that as a feature you get with a PS3?
Can't PS3 owners simply choose not to install the upgrade?
The truth might be slower than a lie; but technology makes *us* as fast as we want to be.
Lies come to us, but finding the truth has never been easier, if we want to look.
How many people would pay to watch some kid play a video game in his basement vs. how many people would pay money to watch a real major league picther?
Gotcha - thank you.
Maybe I'm missing the point but I'm *glad* there is only one version of the .Net Framework 4.0
If the source was truly open, I'm sure someone, somewhere, would make something awesome, that I'd want to use, but it would require me using the forked (or whatever they call it) home-brew version that may or may not introduce instability into my application.
And when I took my problem online and said, 'WTF! I'm just doing System.Console.Writeline()' why doesn't this work!' it would lead to all sorts of confusion.
But yeah, I'm probably missing the point as my understanding of OpenSource is limited. I just don't see why you'd ever want to a modified version of the .Net Framework.
Maybe this is a stupid question; but isn't getting the source a trivial task?
I thought there were free tools available that would turn .Net .DLLs into code?
I think there is a minimum success rate that you need to hit for voice recognition to be usable, but frustrating. As the technology has gotten better, we've seen more and more places trying to use it more more ways; and those new ways are more demanding and result in just barely reaching that minimum success rate.
The end result is that most users still feel frustrated.
But back in the day, you were frustrated while trying to get the VR software to understand your account number (limited to only digits). Now, you are frustrated because you called Goog-411 and it is having trouble understanding your City, State and business name.
Could be wrong, but that's just my take on it.
If they'd just stick a mouse and keyboard into a PS3 and have games support it; all but the most hard-core PC gamers would gladly play the same games, in the same way, on a console.
When a person shows up to the door, people are skeptical because they don't know that person and don't have a business relationship with them.
If you already buy an expensive product from a reputable company; you are going to be far less skeptical about things you are told about that product, by that company. If you buy a new car from Ford and the 'ABS' light comes on - provided you know nothing about cars, other than how to drive them, to believe that there is something wrong with your brakes; compared to how likely you are to believe there is something wrong with your car's brakes if a stranger knocks on your door and tells you.
When people see a pop-up on their computer; they assume it's coming from Microsoft or Dell or whatever. So, they trust it.
I don't think he means 'everyone'. But, he does bring up a good point.
I 'knew a guy' back in high school who worked for Sprint. The short version of the story is that I have a Sprint plan that absolutely beats the pants off of any plan I can get anywhere else and as long as I keep renewing my contract, I'll keep my unbeatable price with Sprint.
When I went to look at smartphones - I was unwilling to change carriers. I couldn't justify paying $20-$40 dollars more, each month, for the same services I already get. I was also unwilling to purchase a phone out-of-pocket.
So, I was left with the phones that Sprint offers. I wanted the plan I had, and I wanted the $200 dollars off when I extend my contract.
Given that selection of phones, I went with the only Android phone they were offering - the HTC Hero. But, for me, there wasn't ever a question of 'Do I want an iPhone or an HTC Hero'. It was 'Here are 10 phones I can get - which one of these are the best....'
It's possible that *you* really did pay for your phone. Most people, don't.
They sign two-year agreements and get several hundred dollars off + rebates. It's possible that phone prices are inflated to support this crap; but most everyone I know doesn't pay anywhere near the advertised full-price for their phone.
I'm not sure why people say this.
I recently purchased my first android phone. People say that it is 'open'. But, people say a lot of things.
My phone isn't open. It's very much locked down. If I want to delete an application like 'Sprint Nascar Cup' - I can't. It won't let me.
If I call up Sprint customer support and ask them how to delete it, they tell me it's impossible. I know, because I asked. It can't be done.
'Rooting' the phone is possible; but it violates your warranty, it forfeits your right to customer service, and comes with some risk of bricking your phone. If you are willing to take that risk; how is that any different from what is available with the iPhone?
I don't need a background in something to know what I *like*.
Subjective things are subjective.
That's really what bothers me most about the whole thing - none of it had to go down like that.
Even if I wasn't supposed to have admin access or whatever it was that I did (I still really don't know what it was that set them off) had they just said, 'RobDude - don't do that'. I wouldn't. Even if I could, even if it wasn't locked down - that's all it would have taken.
"RobDude, I see you shared your drive; can you not do that? We don't want anyone to copy your assignments"
And I'd have been like, 'Sure thing!'.
It did end up getting escalated to the district superintendents who ultimately decided upon the punishment.
By the time they told us what it would be, I just wanted it all to be over, so I didn't much care. They didn't say they were going to give us F's - they just said that we'd be unable to return to the class and we'd receive 0s for everything we missed. And that, in the future, we'd be unable to use any of the school's computer equipment for any reason.
I honestly figured I'd *still* get an A - the class was almost over and I had a ton of extra credit. Maybe a B. And, I'd taken all the Computer classes the school offered - so it wasn't really much of a punishment at all.
When I got my report card though - it was an F. Mathematically, there is no way it would have worked out like that; but it was the summer and my GPA wasn't anything special. I'd received an A in the AP Computer Science class, scored a 4 on the AP test (as a sophomore) - but received an F in the Intro to Programming class. Despite having done excellent on all the assignments and despite having received lots and lots of extra credit. Some adult, some professional educator who was well paid by tax payer dollars, was angry and decided to give me an F.
My parents wanted to raise hell down at the district over it - but it didn't bother me and, being perfectly honest, I just wanted to be done with the whole mess. So, at my request, they dropped it.
I went through my senior year avoiding the math department, the principal, and all of the computers. It sucked. But, on the plus side, I became somewhat infamous; and pretty much everyone except my closest friends were convinced I'd done something much cooler - like hacked into the grading system or something.
The high school phoned them the same day they called me down to the office.
In the beginning, I was convinced it was just a harmless misunderstanding so I was all, 'No Mom, it's fine. I didn't do anything.'
And - they'd just threatened us with expulsion - they didn't actually punish us at first. After the first day they took us to the office, we were told to go back to the office instead of programming class. We just sit in the general waiting room and were like, 'LOL - wut?' the six of us.
But my parents did end up going down to the district headquarters and speaking with a superintendent and all sorts of junk.
I was actually pretty lucky; my parents believed me when I told them that I didn't do anything that could be considered malicious. The worst thing I did was make it possible for other students to see my assignments. But they were so over-the-top and unique, nobody would be able to copy them and put their name on it.
My biggest fear was getting in trouble with my parents; so once that was I gone, it wasn't so bad.
I graduated back in 01 - this happened during my junior year so 2000.
The school had two computer programming classes - AP Computer Science which was taught in C++ and an 'Intro to Computer Programming' class that was in VB6. At least, I'm pretty sure it was VB6, I know it wasn't .Net and I think it was too late for VB5.
I'd taken the AP Computer Programming class the year before, and wanted to take the Intro class because I thought it would be fun.
It fell onto the Math department to teach the computer classes and, if I remember correctly, it was only the second year of the Intro class and the teacher I had was a very competent math teacher - but seemed a bit out of place behind a computer. Regardless, he was a nice enough guy.
Overall, it seemed pretty sweet. The computers we had were pretty modern and, from what I understand, a lot of schools didn't offer any programming classes.
Fair enough. I won't lie, I'm pretty jaded from my experience. I kept waiting for someone sane and reasonable, who understood this stuff, to step in and say something like...
'Actually, the things this kid did were harmless and he was able to do them because we setup the accounts that way. Remember, we said it would take two weeks, but we had to get it done in a weekend and we were told to just make everyone admins? Well, yeah, so we setup his account as an admin and he did some harmless admin-type stuff. Maybe we shouldn't kick him out of class?'
But yeah - who knows.