If they are targeting casual gamers rather than hardcore gamers (and that's what they do according to TFA) they need only a few good casual sports games. As for other games -- if the market is moderate, indies will crank out games like there's no tomorrow. If the market gets big, big players will join with ported versions of existing games just to get their cut.
Yeah, and they code each copy separately and work overnight to create additional copies which pirates just snatch. Look, it's their choice selling something that can be multiplied at no cost. They profit from this simple fact as they don't need tools or workers to craft another copy. The downside is of course, that they are not the only ones who can make a copy. System works as intended, actually -- you can sell unlimited number of copies, any copy can be copied unlimited. This is basic rule of the game. Now, as a developer, you have to monetize on this. Two schools of thought -- one is advocating DRM to inconvenience pirates/prevent unauthorized copies for as long as possible. Downside -- often more harmful for legitimate users, denies some user rights. Another idea is to make a user want to pay. Online games, collectible items, franchises, Linux ports (Linux users are more likely to pay for a game, myself included), sales etc. Just look at humble indie bundle, IMO beat all the expectations: 1,3Mio. in a few weeks for indies...
P.S. Just look how poor Microsoft is being enslaved and oppressed in China and other developed countries -- they got 90%+ share without spending a dime -- the pirates were more than happy to do the job for them. The world ain't black-n-white, you know...
And yet (without taking a position for/against this leak in specific or WikiLeaks in general), if I'm an Afghan considering becoming an informer, that's sure going to make me think twice about it, especially if I have a family. Trapping rats is great and all, until someone makes you the cheese without your consent.
But US troops surely sprang in action the minute the information has been released and brought all the affected informers and their families to safety, as a proper ally would do, did they? I doubt the economical superpower don't have resources for that. Does the US also take care of family members if they fail to protect the source including transporting them to safety and trying to compensate for the loss? If the answer is yes, I surely would consider becoming an informer.
The situation is something that can be dealt with if you act now. Past crimes would most likely go unpunished without Wikileaks (doubt that now it won't be the case, but still...).
So the all-mighty US with its thousands of troops and all the hardware in Afghanistan is just sitting there waiting for those people to be killed unable to secure them or bring them to safety? Yeah, it's just the biggest economy in the world, can't bear the cost. Anyway, the situation is something you can deal with, but it'll cost.
On the other hand, innocent people had been killed in Afghanistan by US troops, by their mistakes or plain wrongdoing. That's a fact. No amount of money will bring them back to live. To make things worse, US government has classified this information in order to cover up and forget. Do you think they deserve to be forgotten? I don't, but I am OK if you do.
So, on one hand we have some number innocent people who *might* be killed by Taliban because of this leak. The US has all the resources to try and secure those people and their families (at the very least, many of them) -- biggest economy in the world, remember? Knowing next potential targets might also prove useful in order to set up a trap against active Taliban members. Without Wikileaks said people would be less endangered, of course.
On the other hand, we have some number of innocent people who *had been* killed by mistaken or plain wrong US Army actions. Those people deserve to be spoken of. Without Wikileaks the US government would just hide that information and forget about it in order to look good.
The rest is just personal opinions on the topic which of the two is more important. Mine justifies Wikileaks actions.
So basically they are estimating if not guessing what would it be without radiation. As for migrating birds -- you also have to look at where they migrate to/from. It is possible that bad things happen on the other side of the migration (although it is clear that Chernobyl is more likely to be the case).
The exclusion zone has been evacuated, there are however large areas in Ukraine and even larger ones in Belarus that are not exclusion zones, but villages were evacuated too. However people who didn't want to leave stayed there (mostly old people). Eating food and living in such areas is considered harmful in long-term. Yet it is possible for humans to survive there at the cost of much higher cancer rate.
>So what he's basically saying is that humans are more dangerous to animals than radiation. Make sense.
That is the very thing disputed and criticized in TFA. It is clear, however, that no two-headed bramins are walking the grounds there.
Terrorist attacks happened in Spain, March 11, 2004. That's EU. No "patriot" acts so far. Spain also has a long story of terrorist attacks in Basque province.
Piracy creates fanbase for Indie producers which they can monetize upon. Established producers have the fanbase already, they need to reach for the fans, create additional extras or even franchise, make the fans want fan articles (by creating good game) and then sell them what they want to buy. Game publishing is more just software selling, especially if you are big and can afford creating a good franchise.
Eye candy in Linux DEs can make work a good deal smoother -- resources are better shared between CPU and GPU. Plus there are some very useful effects -- expo and scale plugins (both in Kwin and compiz). Transparency can come handy too. Granted, desktop cube is there just for show as there are wobbly windows, fire or water effects.
And advanced effects don't really add that much to boot time -- I still manage to stay within 30 seconds on a rather old hardware, even with P4-class PC.
>climate is warming to a point of unnatural irreversible damage
What exactly is "unnatural irreversible damage"? Were Ice Ages "unnatural irreversible damages"? It is clear, that the damage done by climate changes then has been irreversible to many species. But what about "unnatural"? Is human contribution really that significant that it will be much worse this time only because of humans?
Oh yes, the famous Israeli genocide against Palestine people. They are killing innocents in scores, destroying whole generations, leaving nothing but burned houses and mutilated corpses in their wake... Hold on, the Palestinian population has quadrupled in the last few decades?! Now a genocide should be about *decreasing* the population, someone in the Israeli government has clearly got it wrong. What is it they are shooting Palestinians with? Semen-enriched munition?
OK, I get it, it is the economical blockade which lets Palestinian people starve (but still breed and multiply their numbers) and live their lives in poverty and misery. One problem -- according to UN report, the standards of living in Palestine are higher than in Libya, Syria or even Egypt! Do note that there are no Israeli in said countries to oppress local population...
To summarize -- the Palestinians fight against so-called genocide which lets them breed as rabbits, against relative wealth they have from Israel and international help.
They have no industries to speak of, no economy, the biggest employee in Palestine is their corrupt government, tossing political opponents out of windows (or just shooting them) is politics as usual there. Oh, and *every* Arab country with Palestinian refuge camps was forced to conducted military actions against these camp's inhabitants at least once.
What d'ya say folks, should the international community help them even more? I see no reason to say no, they all seem nice fellas...
I have encountered the very tactic you mention. Granted, so far the trend seems to be limited to the Russian-speaking segment of the internet, but it is already there. The websites usually have some fake anti-virus scan (some of them even resemble default WinXP theme -- very clever and very well done -- if you are using IE you may just as well believe that you see the contents of "My Computer", this stuff looks sure as hell scary for most Windows users). If they manage to scare a victim to pay, the latter receives a copy of ClamWin. The site usually has some fine print saying that ClamWin is a free (as in beer) product (no mention about it being free as in speech or open-source though). They even state that the whole is a game and you pay to receive educational materials about computer security.
I know this because I always enjoy watching those scanners finding some viruses on my system in C:\Windows\system32. They don't bother to include UA detection yet which gives any Linux user a good laugh.
So, your "people in the information security" are basically helping the vendor selling faulty software while withholding crucial information from users of said software at the same time? If the issues you mention are indeed "less than trivial" you help the vendor to cheat people into thinking that they are safe with the software.
"People in the information security" have the job of making the IT environment safer. You must force the vendor to fix these holes even if it takes a vulnerability disclosure and a lot of bad publicity for the vendor. The vendor's job is to make good software. If the job is being done poorly the vendor deserves all the losses it will get. As for users of the software -- how do you know this vulnerability isn't used right now? It is not a widespread issue but maybe it is used to target particular users? Such behavior screws up informed users who care about security at the cost that clueless masses will be temporary safer for the time being.
It is a good idea IMO to stop being short-sighted. In the long term such a disclosure will do more good than current sitting on the issue.
I don't know what drug patents have to with any of it -- I was thinking about McDonalds of drug industry, selling addictive junk at bargain prices, you don't need patents for that. As for regulations -- I am not that optimistic about them especially seeing how food regulations work. Besides, "300 per cent. profit, and there is not a crime at which capital will scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged"
>I'm okay with beer at my local grocer... if they sell heroin there, how can I be less okay with it?
You do understand that net effect would be more people killed by both groups as there will be more heroin addicts? Alcohol is already bad enough, why add another drug to the pool?
Your idea is asking for a "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag. Legalize all the stuff and next day the corporations will take over drug trage. If that doesn't sound bad just look at the food industry. What would happen is a rapidly rising number of drug addicts because an addicted person is much more likely to make another purchase. I recall reading a story here on/. about junk food that has similar addictive effects on a human as drugs. Corporate-driven food industry lead to the rapid grow of overweighted people because junk food sells best -- even if it doesn't make people addictive, obese people eat more for they need more energy to move all these fat around. Replace "obese" with "drug-addict" and you will see what happens to the society if you legalize all the stuff. Second, look at the deaths from corporations running tobacco industry -- they can hire clever people to do clever marketing for them so they can sell poison. Most parents are amateurs in that aspect, they can't really compete with well-educated and well-paid marketing departments of tobacco companies which like to target even less experienced youth. As a result many people die from second-hand smoking, even those who are clever enough not to fall for the shit. Now I know, overpopulation, Darwinism, those who are smart are more likely to survive etc, but there is a catch here: If drug addicts were a danger only for themselves, similar to obese people, it'd be less of a problem. Not the case though. And it will get much worse than obesity and smoking combined if you start selling amphetamines or heroine at your local supermarkets.
Then you'll get posts about children who got a Linux PC and have no problems with that installation (in fact, I've seen such posts already). Me? I'm still reasonably young and can still use my parents as an example.
It their job, not mine. Make goodies for honest players, better multiplayer for them, sell fan articles, calculate the piracy in as advertising expense, change the business model is the above fails. Adapt or die. If your job is to sell some product a copy of which can be created with no expense, then such a copy will be created. If you don't like that simple fact, do something else.
Printed books didn't make information less valuable, quite contrary. Public libraries didn't ruin book industry, they lead to more sales instead. We as a humanity are now elevating ourselves to the next level of freedom of information. So far there's been huge benefits for the humanity from previous steps up, unseen at the time they have been made. History repeats itself.
I insist of having backup copies of the media I have bought, of being able to play it on any number of electronic devices in my vicinity, on being able to share something good with my friends. On the other hand I won't demand being paid for free advertising I do in the process. As long as I don't earn money with the information no money is lost period.
Copyright should IMHO only exist to prevent unauthorized financial gains from others people work. No gain, no loss, hence no crime.
Offering DRM-free games with Linux ports has helped in my case (I actually bought Penumbra Series and World of Goo *after* i have played these games). Treat me with due respect and I'm sold.
Hell, Microsoft's domination on many markets is due to the excessive piracy. They didn't want to put the toothpaste back into the tube, they have embraced it and are now able to milk governments and corporations.
Slashdot Mirror
That was the only flaw in that business model.
If they are targeting casual gamers rather than hardcore gamers (and that's what they do according to TFA) they need only a few good casual sports games. As for other games -- if the market is moderate, indies will crank out games like there's no tomorrow. If the market gets big, big players will join with ported versions of existing games just to get their cut.
He was in dire need of brains indeed. Before he drank the stuff. Otherwise he'd thought better of it.
Yeah, and they code each copy separately and work overnight to create additional copies which pirates just snatch.
Look, it's their choice selling something that can be multiplied at no cost. They profit from this simple fact as they don't need tools or workers to craft another copy. The downside is of course, that they are not the only ones who can make a copy.
System works as intended, actually -- you can sell unlimited number of copies, any copy can be copied unlimited. This is basic rule of the game.
Now, as a developer, you have to monetize on this. Two schools of thought -- one is advocating DRM to inconvenience pirates/prevent unauthorized copies for as long as possible. Downside -- often more harmful for legitimate users, denies some user rights.
Another idea is to make a user want to pay. Online games, collectible items, franchises, Linux ports (Linux users are more likely to pay for a game, myself included), sales etc. Just look at humble indie bundle, IMO beat all the expectations: 1,3Mio. in a few weeks for indies...
P.S. Just look how poor Microsoft is being enslaved and oppressed in China and other developed countries -- they got 90%+ share without spending a dime -- the pirates were more than happy to do the job for them. The world ain't black-n-white, you know...
In other words: no lost sales, but added exposure (free advertisement).
That's why you limit the speed of Volvos to 30 mph.
And yet (without taking a position for/against this leak in specific or WikiLeaks in general), if I'm an Afghan considering becoming an informer, that's sure going to make me think twice about it, especially if I have a family. Trapping rats is great and all, until someone makes you the cheese without your consent.
But US troops surely sprang in action the minute the information has been released and brought all the affected informers and their families to safety, as a proper ally would do, did they? I doubt the economical superpower don't have resources for that. Does the US also take care of family members if they fail to protect the source including transporting them to safety and trying to compensate for the loss?
If the answer is yes, I surely would consider becoming an informer.
The situation is something that can be dealt with if you act now. Past crimes would most likely go unpunished without Wikileaks (doubt that now it won't be the case, but still...).
So the all-mighty US with its thousands of troops and all the hardware in Afghanistan is just sitting there waiting for those people to be killed unable to secure them or bring them to safety? Yeah, it's just the biggest economy in the world, can't bear the cost.
Anyway, the situation is something you can deal with, but it'll cost.
On the other hand, innocent people had been killed in Afghanistan by US troops, by their mistakes or plain wrongdoing. That's a fact. No amount of money will bring them back to live. To make things worse, US government has classified this information in order to cover up and forget. Do you think they deserve to be forgotten? I don't, but I am OK if you do.
So, on one hand we have some number innocent people who *might* be killed by Taliban because of this leak. The US has all the resources to try and secure those people and their families (at the very least, many of them) -- biggest economy in the world, remember? Knowing next potential targets might also prove useful in order to set up a trap against active Taliban members. Without Wikileaks said people would be less endangered, of course.
On the other hand, we have some number of innocent people who *had been* killed by mistaken or plain wrong US Army actions. Those people deserve to be spoken of. Without Wikileaks the US government would just hide that information and forget about it in order to look good.
The rest is just personal opinions on the topic which of the two is more important. Mine justifies Wikileaks actions.
Maybe he was dictating?
Interesting question whether or not animals are capable of detecting high radiation levels.
So basically they are estimating if not guessing what would it be without radiation. As for migrating birds -- you also have to look at where they migrate to/from. It is possible that bad things happen on the other side of the migration (although it is clear that Chernobyl is more likely to be the case).
The exclusion zone has been evacuated, there are however large areas in Ukraine and even larger ones in Belarus that are not exclusion zones, but villages were evacuated too. However people who didn't want to leave stayed there (mostly old people). Eating food and living in such areas is considered harmful in long-term. Yet it is possible for humans to survive there at the cost of much higher cancer rate.
>So what he's basically saying is that humans are more dangerous to animals than radiation. Make sense.
That is the very thing disputed and criticized in TFA. It is clear, however, that no two-headed bramins are walking the grounds there.
Simple solution -- don't be a patriot.
Terrorist attacks happened in Spain, March 11, 2004. That's EU. No "patriot" acts so far. Spain also has a long story of terrorist attacks in Basque province.
Piracy creates fanbase for Indie producers which they can monetize upon. Established producers have the fanbase already, they need to reach for the fans, create additional extras or even franchise, make the fans want fan articles (by creating good game) and then sell them what they want to buy. Game publishing is more just software selling, especially if you are big and can afford creating a good franchise.
Eye candy in Linux DEs can make work a good deal smoother -- resources are better shared between CPU and GPU. Plus there are some very useful effects -- expo and scale plugins (both in Kwin and compiz). Transparency can come handy too. Granted, desktop cube is there just for show as there are wobbly windows, fire or water effects.
And advanced effects don't really add that much to boot time -- I still manage to stay within 30 seconds on a rather old hardware, even with P4-class PC.
>climate is warming to a point of unnatural irreversible damage
What exactly is "unnatural irreversible damage"? Were Ice Ages "unnatural irreversible damages"? It is clear, that the damage done by climate changes then has been irreversible to many species. But what about "unnatural"? Is human contribution really that significant that it will be much worse this time only because of humans?
Anti-anti rant follows:
Oh yes, the famous Israeli genocide against Palestine people. They are killing innocents in scores, destroying whole generations, leaving nothing but burned houses and mutilated corpses in their wake...
Hold on, the Palestinian population has quadrupled in the last few decades?! Now a genocide should be about *decreasing* the population, someone in the Israeli government has clearly got it wrong. What is it they are shooting Palestinians with? Semen-enriched munition?
OK, I get it, it is the economical blockade which lets Palestinian people starve (but still breed and multiply their numbers) and live their lives in poverty and misery. One problem -- according to UN report, the standards of living in Palestine are higher than in Libya, Syria or even Egypt! Do note that there are no Israeli in said countries to oppress local population...
To summarize -- the Palestinians fight against so-called genocide which lets them breed as rabbits, against relative wealth they have from Israel and international help.
They have no industries to speak of, no economy, the biggest employee in Palestine is their corrupt government, tossing political opponents out of windows (or just shooting them) is politics as usual there. Oh, and *every* Arab country with Palestinian refuge camps was forced to conducted military actions against these camp's inhabitants at least once.
What d'ya say folks, should the international community help them even more? I see no reason to say no, they all seem nice fellas...
I have encountered the very tactic you mention. Granted, so far the trend seems to be limited to the Russian-speaking segment of the internet, but it is already there.
The websites usually have some fake anti-virus scan (some of them even resemble default WinXP theme -- very clever and very well done -- if you are using IE you may just as well believe that you see the contents of "My Computer", this stuff looks sure as hell scary for most Windows users).
If they manage to scare a victim to pay, the latter receives a copy of ClamWin.
The site usually has some fine print saying that ClamWin is a free (as in beer) product (no mention about it being free as in speech or open-source though). They even state that the whole is a game and you pay to receive educational materials about computer security.
I know this because I always enjoy watching those scanners finding some viruses on my system in C:\Windows\system32. They don't bother to include UA detection yet which gives any Linux user a good laugh.
So, your "people in the information security" are basically helping the vendor selling faulty software while withholding crucial information from users of said software at the same time? If the issues you mention are indeed "less than trivial" you help the vendor to cheat people into thinking that they are safe with the software.
"People in the information security" have the job of making the IT environment safer. You must force the vendor to fix these holes even if it takes a vulnerability disclosure and a lot of bad publicity for the vendor. The vendor's job is to make good software. If the job is being done poorly the vendor deserves all the losses it will get. As for users of the software -- how do you know this vulnerability isn't used right now? It is not a widespread issue but maybe it is used to target particular users? Such behavior screws up informed users who care about security at the cost that clueless masses will be temporary safer for the time being.
It is a good idea IMO to stop being short-sighted. In the long term such a disclosure will do more good than current sitting on the issue.
I don't know what drug patents have to with any of it -- I was thinking about McDonalds of drug industry, selling addictive junk at bargain prices, you don't need patents for that.
As for regulations -- I am not that optimistic about them especially seeing how food regulations work. Besides, "300 per cent. profit, and there is not a crime at which capital will scruple, nor a risk it will not run, even to the chance of its owner being hanged"
>I'm okay with beer at my local grocer... if they sell heroin there, how can I be less okay with it?
You do understand that net effect would be more people killed by both groups as there will be more heroin addicts? Alcohol is already bad enough, why add another drug to the pool?
Your idea is asking for a "whatcouldpossiblygowrong" tag. Legalize all the stuff and next day the corporations will take over drug trage. If that doesn't sound bad just look at the food industry. What would happen is a rapidly rising number of drug addicts because an addicted person is much more likely to make another purchase. I recall reading a story here on /. about junk food that has similar addictive effects on a human as drugs. Corporate-driven food industry lead to the rapid grow of overweighted people because junk food sells best -- even if it doesn't make people addictive, obese people eat more for they need more energy to move all these fat around. Replace "obese" with "drug-addict" and you will see what happens to the society if you legalize all the stuff.
Second, look at the deaths from corporations running tobacco industry -- they can hire clever people to do clever marketing for them so they can sell poison. Most parents are amateurs in that aspect, they can't really compete with well-educated and well-paid marketing departments of tobacco companies which like to target even less experienced youth. As a result many people die from second-hand smoking, even those who are clever enough not to fall for the shit.
Now I know, overpopulation, Darwinism, those who are smart are more likely to survive etc, but there is a catch here: If drug addicts were a danger only for themselves, similar to obese people, it'd be less of a problem. Not the case though. And it will get much worse than obesity and smoking combined if you start selling amphetamines or heroine at your local supermarkets.
Then you'll get posts about children who got a Linux PC and have no problems with that installation (in fact, I've seen such posts already).
Me? I'm still reasonably young and can still use my parents as an example.
It their job, not mine. Make goodies for honest players, better multiplayer for them, sell fan articles, calculate the piracy in as advertising expense, change the business model is the above fails. Adapt or die.
If your job is to sell some product a copy of which can be created with no expense, then such a copy will be created. If you don't like that simple fact, do something else.
Printed books didn't make information less valuable, quite contrary. Public libraries didn't ruin book industry, they lead to more sales instead. We as a humanity are now elevating ourselves to the next level of freedom of information. So far there's been huge benefits for the humanity from previous steps up, unseen at the time they have been made. History repeats itself.
I insist of having backup copies of the media I have bought, of being able to play it on any number of electronic devices in my vicinity, on being able to share something good with my friends. On the other hand I won't demand being paid for free advertising I do in the process. As long as I don't earn money with the information no money is lost period.
Copyright should IMHO only exist to prevent unauthorized financial gains from others people work. No gain, no loss, hence no crime.
Offering DRM-free games with Linux ports has helped in my case (I actually bought Penumbra Series and World of Goo *after* i have played these games). Treat me with due respect and I'm sold.
Hell, Microsoft's domination on many markets is due to the excessive piracy. They didn't want to put the toothpaste back into the tube, they have embraced it and are now able to milk governments and corporations.