1. To some people, the benefits of facebook outweigh the risks of the government knowing your favorite movies.
2. Limiting the amount of trivial information availiable is NOT the way to fight big brother. If myspace, facebook, and whatever else were to crumble, as they very well might with the impending dotcom bubble 2.0, that's not going to prevent abuses of privacy. You combat this by voting, by raising awareness, by protesting, letter writing, etc.
To me, it seems kind of like saying "Why would anyone drive on the roads? Your tax money is being used to keep up those roads, and taxes are too high!" Not driving won't lower taxes, and not having a facebook account won't keep you safe from big brother.
This is of no real importance, but the "suddenoutbreakofcommonsense" has struck me as often being misapplied for a while. Here it is especially flagrant.
First of all "sudden." This doesn't seem very sudden, the prof doesn't appear to have suddenly thought "Oh crap! We've been going about this all wrong!" and published it on his blog. This seems like something that was more considered.
Outbreak: It sounds like it's just one guy suggesting this interpretation. For it to be an outbreak, there would have to be other constitutional scholars jumping on board, right? There are plenty of slashdotters who are going to be jumping on board, but that's not really "catching" the "maybe the RIAA is wrong" bug, that's just adding to the long list of reasons we already had.
This isn't common sense, this is an interpretation of constitutional law, something that doesn't work much by common sense, especially not in recent history.
A real case the tag could have been applied was when everyone started realizing that when we have a misfortune, like getting sick, it might not be because God is punishing us for something we did. That's an outbreak of common sense. This is more properly tagged "aguyhasanothergoodreasontheRIAAsucks."
Take that for what it's worth (about half a penny, probably.)
Again: They could have simply boycotted that whole platform.
Oh please. They were more interested in making a game than a political stand. Penny arcade has always had a healthy perspective on DRM, that there are more important things out there if it's not actually a problem. XBLA DRM is not draconian.
Do we have time to assemble a crack team of oil-rig roughnecks to land on them and nuke them? More importantly, does this mean another terrible Aerosmith song?!?
The judge did not seem to acknowledge any responsibility on her part, however, for having created the 'imbalance', and also stated that the law is 'overwhelmingly on the side of the record companies', even though she seems to recognize that for the past 5 years she has been hearing only one side of the legal story."
I'm going to need a little bit more explanation that isn't in TFA. The judge has been presiding over a trial for 5 years in which only one side is allowed to speak? Is this the result of some RIAA-lobbyist induced law that says the other side doesn't get a say, or for some reason did the judge declare the other side didn't get to talk in this case? Are the next five years of the court case going to be "Now the RIAA doesn't get to talk, defendants only."?
Most of it was a reference. The joke was that research money is apperantly being spent on filesharing rather than, you know, curing cancer. IE it's a lower priority than fixing bittorrent. I'm not actually criticizing this though, as I'm sure this work has some value.
Children's toys get broken easily. There's probably a higher casualty rate for Wii's than for the systems made for mature people.
Hey, that's a bit far even for trolling. In fact, let's give a hand to nintendo for consistently making the most bullet proof consoles. Millions of years from now, after the nuclear apocalypse, alien scientists will come to earth and find nothing but slightly radioactive, still completely functional game boy advances.
He has not earned the right to be called Cliff or Clifford. He has to own up to hundreds of stupid comments yet.
Looks like one thief is a little upset about being called a thief!
(I joke, calm down)
Serious point: who hasn't said stupid things? Find me one person who has never put their foot in their mouth and I'll show you someone who doesn't have a mouth (or maybe a foot, but that strains the metaphor.) I've said dumb stuff today. Fortunately for me, there were no reporters present and no one really cared enough to blog about it. Saying all PC gamers are thieves sounds like something that's been taken far out of context. The guy makes games for PC, right? As I understand that, the PC games market is on the endangered species list. Maybe some of that is because PC gamers tend to throw temper tantrums every time something is not quite up to their liking? Like if one developer one time says something that could be taken out of context as disparaging to PC gamers, at least some of them make voodoo dolls of that developer?
It takes a special brand of bravery to subject yourself to abuse at the keyboards of gamers by making any game, but you're opening yourself up to a whole new world of flaming by making a PC game that isn't absolutely perfect. I'm not sure why anyone is suprised when games don't come out for the PC with crap like this.
Just to point out that the makers of this game, pennyarcade and whoever else, the DRM of XBLA was beyond their control. They never said "let's put DRM into the XBLA version." My impression is that microsoft puts it automatically on everything. I would wager that even the stuff that is free is technically locked to one console.
But you have to be clear that the game shouldn't be dinged points because it has XBLA "DRM." It's not a choice in that case.
That would be worth pointing out if it was just schools saying "You like playing games? Major in this!" TFA does not make it sound like that is going on many places. Furthermore, it doesn't sound like the emphasis is entirely on programming, citing games as a combination of many fields. Mentions something about pairing a CS major up with a drama major. (I would be worried about creating a black hole of pure ego and pretentiousness if I were setting up that team...)
Not that that is a good approach either. I'm assuming that good programmers are what is lacking, that there's no end of people with ideas but no technical skill in CS. I mean, I've come up with some ideas for games and I know nothing about programming aside from the snippets I glean here, so that tells me that "people with ideas but not programming skills" are pretty valueless to the game industry. The drama major interested in making games is STILL not going to have a job.
This is clearly the work of the union, posing as a government employee. They found out he wasn't a member and have initiated a smear campaign against him. The most insidious thing is that they're blaming the democrats for it!
Fact: The plumber unions secretly run the stonecutters guild, which in turn secretly runs the world.
Nano-something you say? Can it possibly be used in the production of biofuels to increase homeland security against bioterrorism? If so I have a big check for you to pick up.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, and cows don't WANT to be eaten, but they taste good with barbecue sauce...
Similarly, information might "want" to be free, but giving other countries our technology is a stupid move, so it's not going to.
And what the fuck does "Information wants to be free" even mean or justify anyway?
Two reasons
1. To some people, the benefits of facebook outweigh the risks of the government knowing your favorite movies.
2. Limiting the amount of trivial information availiable is NOT the way to fight big brother. If myspace, facebook, and whatever else were to crumble, as they very well might with the impending dotcom bubble 2.0, that's not going to prevent abuses of privacy. You combat this by voting, by raising awareness, by protesting, letter writing, etc.
To me, it seems kind of like saying "Why would anyone drive on the roads? Your tax money is being used to keep up those roads, and taxes are too high!" Not driving won't lower taxes, and not having a facebook account won't keep you safe from big brother.
This is of no real importance, but the "suddenoutbreakofcommonsense" has struck me as often being misapplied for a while. Here it is especially flagrant.
First of all "sudden." This doesn't seem very sudden, the prof doesn't appear to have suddenly thought "Oh crap! We've been going about this all wrong!" and published it on his blog. This seems like something that was more considered.
Outbreak: It sounds like it's just one guy suggesting this interpretation. For it to be an outbreak, there would have to be other constitutional scholars jumping on board, right? There are plenty of slashdotters who are going to be jumping on board, but that's not really "catching" the "maybe the RIAA is wrong" bug, that's just adding to the long list of reasons we already had.
This isn't common sense, this is an interpretation of constitutional law, something that doesn't work much by common sense, especially not in recent history.
A real case the tag could have been applied was when everyone started realizing that when we have a misfortune, like getting sick, it might not be because God is punishing us for something we did. That's an outbreak of common sense. This is more properly tagged "aguyhasanothergoodreasontheRIAAsucks."
Take that for what it's worth (about half a penny, probably.)
Again: They could have simply boycotted that whole platform.
Oh please. They were more interested in making a game than a political stand. Penny arcade has always had a healthy perspective on DRM, that there are more important things out there if it's not actually a problem. XBLA DRM is not draconian.
Do we have time to assemble a crack team of oil-rig roughnecks to land on them and nuke them? More importantly, does this mean another terrible Aerosmith song?!?
The judge did not seem to acknowledge any responsibility on her part, however, for having created the 'imbalance', and also stated that the law is 'overwhelmingly on the side of the record companies', even though she seems to recognize that for the past 5 years she has been hearing only one side of the legal story."
I'm going to need a little bit more explanation that isn't in TFA. The judge has been presiding over a trial for 5 years in which only one side is allowed to speak? Is this the result of some RIAA-lobbyist induced law that says the other side doesn't get a say, or for some reason did the judge declare the other side didn't get to talk in this case? Are the next five years of the court case going to be "Now the RIAA doesn't get to talk, defendants only."?
Depends, which has more free porn?
Most of it was a reference. The joke was that research money is apperantly being spent on filesharing rather than, you know, curing cancer. IE it's a lower priority than fixing bittorrent. I'm not actually criticizing this though, as I'm sure this work has some value.
I always feel the need to correct this joke.
Well then the joke is partially on you.
My forged passport which reads "Joseph P. Average, citizen of Guatemala"
This started out as a "+1 funny"... but now I just feel "-1 WTH is happening to your country?" :-(
What is happening is that things are changing too fast for law enforcement and other bureacracies to keep up and make sense of it.
1. Decentralize bittorrent
2. Share pirated stuff
3. ???
4. profit
5. Cure cancer?
Me, for one.
A whole two companies!?! Wow, nevermind, maybe it's CONSOLES that need to worry about a dearth of games!
Children's toys get broken easily. There's probably a higher casualty rate for Wii's than for the systems made for mature people.
Hey, that's a bit far even for trolling. In fact, let's give a hand to nintendo for consistently making the most bullet proof consoles. Millions of years from now, after the nuclear apocalypse, alien scientists will come to earth and find nothing but slightly radioactive, still completely functional game boy advances.
What, are they EATING wiis? They've been selling out for over a year now, by my calculations that's 3 wiis per everyone.
He has not earned the right to be called Cliff or Clifford. He has to own up to hundreds of stupid comments yet.
Looks like one thief is a little upset about being called a thief!
(I joke, calm down)
Serious point: who hasn't said stupid things? Find me one person who has never put their foot in their mouth and I'll show you someone who doesn't have a mouth (or maybe a foot, but that strains the metaphor.) I've said dumb stuff today. Fortunately for me, there were no reporters present and no one really cared enough to blog about it. Saying all PC gamers are thieves sounds like something that's been taken far out of context. The guy makes games for PC, right? As I understand that, the PC games market is on the endangered species list. Maybe some of that is because PC gamers tend to throw temper tantrums every time something is not quite up to their liking? Like if one developer one time says something that could be taken out of context as disparaging to PC gamers, at least some of them make voodoo dolls of that developer?
It takes a special brand of bravery to subject yourself to abuse at the keyboards of gamers by making any game, but you're opening yourself up to a whole new world of flaming by making a PC game that isn't absolutely perfect. I'm not sure why anyone is suprised when games don't come out for the PC with crap like this.
Door locks are designed to convince the casual thief to rob your neighbour.
I'm pretty sure this is, in fact, NOT what they're designed for.
I'm up for sem antics. Like egging the neighbors heuse, that seunds like sem fun times.
Just to point out that the makers of this game, pennyarcade and whoever else, the DRM of XBLA was beyond their control. They never said "let's put DRM into the XBLA version." My impression is that microsoft puts it automatically on everything. I would wager that even the stuff that is free is technically locked to one console.
But you have to be clear that the game shouldn't be dinged points because it has XBLA "DRM." It's not a choice in that case.
That would be worth pointing out if it was just schools saying "You like playing games? Major in this!" TFA does not make it sound like that is going on many places. Furthermore, it doesn't sound like the emphasis is entirely on programming, citing games as a combination of many fields. Mentions something about pairing a CS major up with a drama major. (I would be worried about creating a black hole of pure ego and pretentiousness if I were setting up that team...)
Not that that is a good approach either. I'm assuming that good programmers are what is lacking, that there's no end of people with ideas but no technical skill in CS. I mean, I've come up with some ideas for games and I know nothing about programming aside from the snippets I glean here, so that tells me that "people with ideas but not programming skills" are pretty valueless to the game industry. The drama major interested in making games is STILL not going to have a job.
This is clearly the work of the union, posing as a government employee. They found out he wasn't a member and have initiated a smear campaign against him. The most insidious thing is that they're blaming the democrats for it!
Fact: The plumber unions secretly run the stonecutters guild, which in turn secretly runs the world.
My toilet is overflowing, they're onto me...
Let us outlaw anything that has a potential. And please start with my hands because they are the most lethal of all.
Mr. Norris? Is that you? I'm personally more worried about your legs, sir.
Not that it matters, but that's off-topic, not flamebait.
Nano-something you say? Can it possibly be used in the production of biofuels to increase homeland security against bioterrorism? If so I have a big check for you to pick up.