Want to help third-world countries to get affordable laptops for their children? Here is a reasonable way to do it:
Ask Dell, Asus, HP, Lenovo, Sony, Apple, and whoever else for the lowest priced laptop they and their OEM manufacturer partners can offer. Compare the specs, the best offer at the lowest price wins the contract for the next 3 years. If there is no good offer, order at the OEM manufacturers directly. (But there will be a good offer.)
Put Ubuntu (fresh standard install, nothing else) and a few hundred essential textbooks on it.
Make deals with governments/politicians to make sure the laptops get distributed in a halfway fair manner.
Repeat after 3 years.
If the children in those countries feel a need for it, I'm sure they're smart enough to write some "sugar" interface or similar trash themselves. and if they need Windows(tm) I'm sure they'll figure out where to find it.
Apparently you've never been in an underground club, because there are plenty of completely legal underground clubs that encourage the use of illicit drugs.
It evaluates as "laws are not based on pointer arithmetic".
See the concept of aiding and abetting. Things that are, on the surface, legal, can be illegal if they are knowingly and willingly and purposefully helping the commission of a crime.
Such as, for example, Google or toilet paper manufacturers that do not explicitly declare on the packaging that their toilet paper may not be used to suffocate someone to death.
Not that I care very much, but I still think it's weird that the people responsible for security holes like that don't go to prison for it or have to face other serious consequences. It seems to me that in every other engineering domain engineers are more liable for what they do and companies at one point or another are held responsible for failures and malfunctions than in end-consumer hardware and particularly software, where people seem to get away with just about anything that doesn't kill the customer instantly. I'm not talking about bugs or mistakes, which cannot be avoided 100%, but obvious negligence or incompetence like in the above case. Strange.
It's still a bad idea. If in-game ads became more widespread, this would have the consequence that games in which ads are not appropriate for artistic reasons or because of the setting or storyline would not be as lucrative as previously and might no longer be produced. In-game ads take away a lot of artistic freedom, making games even more stereotypical and boring than they already are. Instead, I would like to see more games with some interesting artistic value. Hollywood can do it, they produce blockbusters but also the occasional author cinema movie with unknown actors and new ideas, so why can't game producers do it? Are they even MORE greedy than Hollywood?
Oops, sorry for replying to myself but I forgot some points:
The software producer/seller may under no circumstances delete or alter purchased content or software without the explicit permission by the user.
Collecting and sending back personal data, usage statistics, or any other data that is not directly related and necessary for gameplay without explicit user permission is strictly prohibited.
The user may choose to not allow sending of data that is not immediately necessary for gameplay from his machine to the remote server and the game may not cease functionality if the user chooses to do so.
The user has the right to remain anonymous and may not be required to disclose his real name, address, email, or any other personal information to the game publisher in order to be able to play the game.
DRM is fine for me as long as the DRM scheme fulfills the following requirements:
The game producer is required by law to ensure that the game can be used infinitely many times on subsequent machines,only one machine at a time but including virtual machines, for the next 50 years.
The game can be resold as many times as you like.
When the game is deinstalled, there must be an option to remove all traces of the game and the DRM mechanisms without any exception.
When the game is deinstalled, there must be an option to remove all traces of user data forever from any remote locations where customer data is stored, including backup copies of it.
The DRM mechanism may under no circumstances negatively impact performance of other software running on the computer system.
In case the user is required to insert a DVD in order to play the game, this must be indicated clearly on the retail packaging and a free replacement DVD must be sent to the customer via express mail within a maximum of 3 days whenever his old DVD ceases to work.
On the packaging of the game it must be indicated in clearly visible, large red letters that the software contains DRM protection.
Opened and installed software purchases can be returned within 14 days if the customer doesn't like them. (Why not? After all, it's DRM protected.)
The game start/launch may not be delayed longer than a maximum of one minute by the DRM mechanism at any time.
If any of these requirements are not fulfilled then the game producer and/or the persons responsible for the DRM mechanism have to pay individual fines of up to 5 million dollars or go to prison for up to 3 years.
My solution is simple: I just enter complete bullshit information into any form I have to fill out. This works for most sites and it is completely legitimate. If a stranger asks me about my name, telephone, birthdate, name of my favorite toy when I was a child, and so on I would certainly not give him this information either.
I've heard from someone who was there that they have a bookscanner at Harvard that scans from above and only requires you to flip the pages. It's also very fast.
Who on earth needs to read books in COLOR? It's part of my job at a research institute to read tons of books and articles. About one in every 50 of the papers or books I read has a colored table or figures. Colored display for books is fairly idiotic.
Okay I know it's important for big server farms, but personally speaking I'm not interested in performance per watt at all. I'm only interested in one thing: Which processor/motherboard/graphics card/OS combination gives me the biggest bang for the bucks for my gaming, compilation, and simulation needs?
I agree. And to add one more thing, I don't understand why so many companies want their games to be teen-rated. In fact, wouldn't it be nice to have games for teens and games for adults? For me as a thirty-something it gets increasingly hard to decide (from the box and reviews) whether a game is a lame teeny game or has some story that is at least tolerable for a halfway educated and mature person. If the story is good, why shouldn't it contain sex scenes? After all, most people have sex in real life, too.
I'd also like to see online games that require proof of age above 30---I don't claim that all people above 30 are reasonable or that the kids are all annoying, but in general I'd prefer to play with people of my own age group.
Absolutely true. The last of these "ports" to OS X that I tried was Spore. Be it a port or not, in any case it never worked on my OS X and crashed immediately to the Finder. EA Support ignored my mails entirely and instead replied with automated responses. For a short time I was considering to sue them, but then just decided to install it on Windows XP using Bootcamp. Needless to say that it was crap anyway and I stopped playing after a short time....
To summarize, I'd say that OS X is pretty much dead as a gaming platform.
The problem is not OSS versus closed software, the problem is that inherently unsafe programming languages are still in use and that developers don't know enough or don't care enough about rigid input validation. I guess it's a bit unpopular to say this, but the world would be a better and safer place if the use of C and C++ was prohibited by law and halfway sound languages like Ada, Eiffel, Scheme, or Haskell were used instead.
The price is fine and all that. Unfortunately, at least according to my (personal) doesn't it doesn't look good in the literal sense. It looks like one of those cheap PCs back in the time when they were put on the desk below the monitor. The keyboard looks horrifying, too. Are all good industrial designers working for Apple?
Standards is good for you, and to make certain applications we will need 3D directly in the browser (I'm not just thinking geek stuff here, lots of stuff like you need a standalone program for today could run directly in the browser, planing your home, drag around those furnitures and when your happy, just click order !).
*Sigh* Apparently, I'm the only one left that really doesn't want to run applications in my browser but simply uses a web browser for browsing the web. If I want an application, then I want to run it as a ordinary executable stored on my machine, want to have full control over its installation, deinstallation, and particularly full control over when the application is started. I know it sounds 80ies, but look, it has some advantages...
If we can somehow make this island more "solid", for example by spraying insulation foam on it, and connect the new island to the Internetzwerk via home-brewn undersea cables or satellite dishes, wouldn't this make a great new home for the Pirate Bay? Which name do you think should the new nation have? IMHO, naming it "The Pirate Bay" would be appropriate, although this might create confusion with its virtual pendant on the Internetzwerk.
Software does not manipulate matter. You probably mean software running on a particular machine. I agree with the OP that only physical machines should be patentable. Yes, you can put software into hardware, but patents for these kinds of machines wouldn't be a problem. It's the patenting of general and vague descriptions of software that has become ridiculous.
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Is that you, Ringo?
Dear Mr. Negroponte,
Want to help third-world countries to get affordable laptops for their children? Here is a reasonable way to do it:
If the children in those countries feel a need for it, I'm sure they're smart enough to write some "sugar" interface or similar trash themselves. and if they need Windows(tm) I'm sure they'll figure out where to find it.
Apparently you've never been in an underground club, because there are plenty of completely legal underground clubs that encourage the use of illicit drugs.
> Remind me: How does (x == px) evaluate?
It evaluates as "laws are not based on pointer arithmetic".
See the concept of aiding and abetting. Things that are, on the surface, legal, can be illegal if they are knowingly and willingly and purposefully helping the commission of a crime.
Such as, for example, Google or toilet paper manufacturers that do not explicitly declare on the packaging that their toilet paper may not be used to suffocate someone to death.
Not that I care very much, but I still think it's weird that the people responsible for security holes like that don't go to prison for it or have to face other serious consequences. It seems to me that in every other engineering domain engineers are more liable for what they do and companies at one point or another are held responsible for failures and malfunctions than in end-consumer hardware and particularly software, where people seem to get away with just about anything that doesn't kill the customer instantly. I'm not talking about bugs or mistakes, which cannot be avoided 100%, but obvious negligence or incompetence like in the above case. Strange.
It's always newsworthy when something has happened in Iowa.
It's still a bad idea. If in-game ads became more widespread, this would have the consequence that games in which ads are not appropriate for artistic reasons or because of the setting or storyline would not be as lucrative as previously and might no longer be produced. In-game ads take away a lot of artistic freedom, making games even more stereotypical and boring than they already are. Instead, I would like to see more games with some interesting artistic value. Hollywood can do it, they produce blockbusters but also the occasional author cinema movie with unknown actors and new ideas, so why can't game producers do it? Are they even MORE greedy than Hollywood?
Don't forget Philip K. Dick and Stanislaw Lem!
I don't need GoogleWave, I need a secretary that keeps people AWAY from me, so I can get something done.
Oops, sorry for replying to myself but I forgot some points:
DRM is fine for me as long as the DRM scheme fulfills the following requirements:
My solution is simple: I just enter complete bullshit information into any form I have to fill out. This works for most sites and it is completely legitimate. If a stranger asks me about my name, telephone, birthdate, name of my favorite toy when I was a child, and so on I would certainly not give him this information either.
I've heard from someone who was there that they have a bookscanner at Harvard that scans from above and only requires you to flip the pages. It's also very fast.
Who on earth needs to read books in COLOR? It's part of my job at a research institute to read tons of books and articles. About one in every 50 of the papers or books I read has a colored table or figures. Colored display for books is fairly idiotic.
Okay I know it's important for big server farms, but personally speaking I'm not interested in performance per watt at all. I'm only interested in one thing: Which processor/motherboard/graphics card/OS combination gives me the biggest bang for the bucks for my gaming, compilation, and simulation needs?
I agree. And to add one more thing, I don't understand why so many companies want their games to be teen-rated. In fact, wouldn't it be nice to have games for teens and games for adults? For me as a thirty-something it gets increasingly hard to decide (from the box and reviews) whether a game is a lame teeny game or has some story that is at least tolerable for a halfway educated and mature person. If the story is good, why shouldn't it contain sex scenes? After all, most people have sex in real life, too.
I'd also like to see online games that require proof of age above 30---I don't claim that all people above 30 are reasonable or that the kids are all annoying, but in general I'd prefer to play with people of my own age group.
Google is your friend, so nothing to worry about! Google is your friend!
Sure, at least to some extent. See this paper for more information. Why?
Absolutely true. The last of these "ports" to OS X that I tried was Spore. Be it a port or not, in any case it never worked on my OS X and crashed immediately to the Finder. EA Support ignored my mails entirely and instead replied with automated responses. For a short time I was considering to sue them, but then just decided to install it on Windows XP using Bootcamp. Needless to say that it was crap anyway and I stopped playing after a short time....
To summarize, I'd say that OS X is pretty much dead as a gaming platform.
...as long as I can be the captain.
The problem is not OSS versus closed software, the problem is that inherently unsafe programming languages are still in use and that developers don't know enough or don't care enough about rigid input validation. I guess it's a bit unpopular to say this, but the world would be a better and safer place if the use of C and C++ was prohibited by law and halfway sound languages like Ada, Eiffel, Scheme, or Haskell were used instead.
The price is fine and all that. Unfortunately, at least according to my (personal) doesn't it doesn't look good in the literal sense. It looks like one of those cheap PCs back in the time when they were put on the desk below the monitor. The keyboard looks horrifying, too. Are all good industrial designers working for Apple?
Standards is good for you, and to make certain applications we will need 3D directly in the browser (I'm not just thinking geek stuff here, lots of stuff like you need a standalone program for today could run directly in the browser, planing your home, drag around those furnitures and when your happy, just click order !).
*Sigh* Apparently, I'm the only one left that really doesn't want to run applications in my browser but simply uses a web browser for browsing the web. If I want an application, then I want to run it as a ordinary executable stored on my machine, want to have full control over its installation, deinstallation, and particularly full control over when the application is started. I know it sounds 80ies, but look, it has some advantages...
If we can somehow make this island more "solid", for example by spraying insulation foam on it, and connect the new island to the Internetzwerk via home-brewn undersea cables or satellite dishes, wouldn't this make a great new home for the Pirate Bay? Which name do you think should the new nation have? IMHO, naming it "The Pirate Bay" would be appropriate, although this might create confusion with its virtual pendant on the Internetzwerk.
Software does not manipulate matter. You probably mean software running on a particular machine. I agree with the OP that only physical machines should be patentable. Yes, you can put software into hardware, but patents for these kinds of machines wouldn't be a problem. It's the patenting of general and vague descriptions of software that has become ridiculous.