I suggest we launch a campaign to ask the design to become open sourced so we can do battle over the license and split it among many spacefaring distributions, thus have our own version of Star Wars
Other "common" objects that would be just asking to be used in a game:
- Swords, knives
- Batons, staves, nunchucks
- Guns, rifles
- insert lethal weapon of your choice here)
I mean, you're playing an FPS or an RPG and you can use any item as a controller? Who can resist going overboard with realism!
To use the tab close button to clear the last tab open and not quit the whole browser, change this setting to false:
browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab
If you're interested to know, the text the hackers left is a childish rant against others that they claim pretend to be l33t but are not unlike them. Pretty stereotypical hacker/cracker message since the dawn of machines. Probably every hacking group in history has written such a message claiming superiority over lazy, unskilled pretenders.
It actually has nothing to do with the LHC.
The only reason they hacked this site was because as they state was going to be popular, thus a good place to advertise their rant and group.
Thanks, but I don't need to change bodies.
The vast majority of digital backs come with Hasselblad V adapters. Plus, it will be a while since I will be seriously interested in a digital back.
I disagree.
I found their writing really beautiful.
Handwriting in the end, isn't different from drawing (nor drawing is much different from handwriting) so you have to look at them artistically and study their lines, shapes and relationships like you would do with a free hand sketch. Apart from revealing their personality (as for any of us), handwriting is the best proof that everyone has an artist inside of us. And an art critic, as well.:)
You don't need to be aggressive, for it was not really a gripe, maybe a slightly sad look at reality.
Hasselblad HAD to move to a different system, to accommodate the new technologies, as the box design of the V system would need many things changed and in the end wouldn't worth it. The autofocus is a bit of a bonus, as the photographers who used Hasselblad camera rarely missed it. Otherwise it would have been incorporated by Carl Zeiss and Hasselblad long ago. The real design focus wasn't so much the 6x4.5 frame as the square never really stopped magazines from accepting pictures. The competition isn't from the 645 cameras, but from the 35mm DSLRs of Nikon and Canon. The professionals who jumped from film to digital did it not for the sake of quality, but for the workflow that digital provided, the convenience and opportunities digital manipulation opened. Professional photographers who go by the tastes of their clients, saw the demand for this new digital market and they settled for the lower quality as their clients didn't seem to care. "Good enough for my clients" is a common motto among the commercial photographers.
Now, since Hasselblad doesn't produce the sensors and since they even had to merge with Imacon for access to some technology (like the drum scanners and some backs), they had to adjust to what was offered. Since the market for square backs is pretty much down to Hasselblad, digital sensor manufacturers didn't see the point in designing sensors just for them. So, instead, Hasselblad had to adjust to that and accept the rectangle, since they were going for a redesign anyway. So, with the adjustment to the rectangle (thus the 645 format), came the new body, new lenses (from a new manufacturer, Fuji instead of Carl Zeiss) and all the other electronics, like autofocus.
The film backs for the H system, from the very beginning was a stop-gap measure, a way to lure and facilitate the conversion of V system and film users to the new format and then to digital.
Hasselblad did the only thing they could do and one cannot blame them for being realistic, especially since they adapted so well to the new marketplace and kept their avant guard status. When a clean break is required, sacrifices have to be made.
From my perspective and that of other V system users, of course things aren't that rosy. The main attractions for professionals to the Hasselblad system is the high quality of the products and the support for them. My investment still stands, as I can still make photographs of exceptional image qualities (aside from the aesthetics which is up to me). But the support has but disappeared. Local repaired shops have closed and one has to send the gear all the way to Denmark even for just a CLA. Also, even talking to a Hasselblad representative, his reply would be to get rid of the V system and move over to H. Hasselblad does not make any new products for the V line and the existing offerings have shrunk tremendously. The V will be discontinued soon as it is but a tribute, nostalgic retro product now for Hasselblad (see the new chrome Carl Zeiss lenses that differ only in looks from the standard CFE).
As it stands, my Hasselblad still remains a great investment. It will be a while since digital becomes attractive enough, in quality and economics, for me to consider moving over. And then, I might have a chance of a new digital back. Otherwise, I would still have saved a lot of money not forking for incremental upgrades from H1, to H2, to H3 and so on.
When it comes to my photographs, my final output that is, I can make a 50x60cm (20x24") print from a 50 or even 100 iso film (color or BW) that shows absolutely no grain, has detail to spare and will a couple lifetimes atleast. My negatives are also a more secure storage medium and can always scan them (as I do) for that 10k square image.
I have an extensive Hasselblad V system which totals more than 30,000 euros but it is completely film-based. Unfortunately only major photographic studios can afford MF digital backs, save for the small 16mp back for the V System.
So, at the moment, I consider a better investment the scanning of 6x6 film frames which at 4800 gives an image around 10,100 pixels square which can reach up to half a gig in size in 16bit resolution.
Unfortunately, Hasselblad has given up on the V system line (as the H system is a completely different design) and only the lowly 16mp back is offered with a square sensor. And its mostly as a tribute to V system diehards and possibly be discontinued soon.
That means that if a V system user want to upgrade to a new digital back, like the 50mp one, will need to dump the whole system. The lenses can be used with adaptors but then you will miss their real focal length and the autofocus and electronics of the H system. Which unfortunately goes against the philosophy of the "old" Hasselblad company where one could mix modern and old components freely. That meant that you could stick a modern lens and a digital back on a 50 year old body. Now, its pretty much "dump everything" to upgrade.
So, this is not really different from what Spartans used to do in the day, apart from saving the woman the trouble of actually giving birth before the child is inspected and then possibly thrown off a cliff.
Zero Image makes excellent pinhole cameras and they also have a special zone plate accessory. Follow this link to learn more about the technique and how it looks like on photographs:
http://www.zeroimage.com/web2003/EntryPage/entryFrameset.htm
Being an artist myself, understanding Art is simple:
You either like it or you don't.
Uh, sort of.
You could reduce pretty much any human endeavor to a pithy quote. "Creating a painting is simple: you just put the paint on the canvas." But that doesn't exactly capture anything useful, does it?
To understand and appreciate pretty much anything, including art, you need to place it in context and cross-reference it with other experiences.
I'm not into wine, for instance. It all tastes like alcoholic grape juice to me. But other people who are into it have learned, via the "cross-referencing" process, what's different between each glass. Also, there's "context": why do different wines taste this way? Can I reverse-engineer certain facts about a wine by its taste? Is there any interesting history about this wine or vineyard? What do other people think about this wine? Can I score that hot librarian chick who always goes to those wine tasting parties?
When a person looks at a piece of art they need to really stop and consider what they are seeing. That's what art is about, to me.. somebody put a frame around something, or recorded something, or whatever, and what do I think about it? Not just "do I like it", but what thought processes does it trigger? WHY do I like it? That slight bit of "meta thinking" is what separates humans from animals, right?
Did you read what I wrote past that line you quoted?
I did write that one has to use knowledge, aesthetics, instinct, etc, but what one has at the precise moment. Yes, you do get to think about the artwork when experiencing it. But no, I am against researching about it if you don't like it and try to find reasons to do so.
You see, why are in agreement, even if you had a negative knee jerk reaction. I agree with everything you say, if you take time and compare our posts.
Of course, one thinks about "why do I like it", as one thinks about "why I don't like it". Thinking is not the problem you see, being told what and how to like something is. And that is exactly the tricky part: learning about art without being trapped in a confinement of someone else's ideas, but being liberated by the knowledge.
Let's say you reject the Surreallists. You don't understand them, you don't like them, yet you know little or nothing about them. Then you go research what they believed in and why they created artwork like this. And so, your attitude may change. And maybe you begin to like them. But that idea would be immature, because you would be too much influenced by your new knowledge which is still just information and not wisdom, part of your experience. You have to let the knowledge mature inside you, become part of you.
I will use an example (wine I am afraid was not a good one):
You can either learn everything about a movie from imdb before seeing it, or learn just the theme of it, or go completely "pure". You watch the movie, you like it and then want to read everything about it. Or, the opposite, you watch it, you don't like it, then read everything about it in hopes you understand and like it. If you do so and decide you like it because of the information you read, then it would not be you who liked it, it wouldn't be your experience, but someone else's.
I hope I am more understood now. After all, we didn't really disagree.
And yes, you can reduce pretty much any human endeavor to a pithy quote and yes it is quite useful to do so: you don't need to write a lot and the reader doesn't need to read a lot. But it requires the reader to have some imagination and abstract thinking capacity and of course some faith for the author. You can well spoon feed the reader, but that would also defeat my whole point about Art, wouldn't it?
Being an artist myself, understanding Art is simple:
You either like it or you don't.
You shouldn't -try- to like it if you don't and you shouldn't -try- to understand it if you think you don't. Art has to be appreciated by the instinct, knowledge, aesthetics, etc one has at the moment, otherwise any further analysis will detract from the appreciation and real meaning and push you further away. One can't understand why a flower is beautiful by chopping it to pieces and measuring its parts.
When you don't like something and think you don't understand it, then back away, forget about it and give it another chance later in life. If you have changed, your perception will have too and will see the artwork in a new light. That doesn't mean you will like it then though. Maybe you never will or maybe it will take you half a lifetime.
If you don't like something, keep an open mind and be prepared to give it a chance later on. You never know...
Considering that many people around the world have been prosecuted for their blogs, imprisoned,
tortured and maybe even killed, it is not just humor, its a terrifying fact.
Those businesses have different business plans.
Intel sells hardware.
They enter the project half-heartly not trusting the whole cheap-underperforming laptop concept.
Then they see that is the new trend: Asus, even Wal-Mart is doing it and other are thinking about it. Suddenly it makes sense. So, they are off to cut their own share of the pie.
Google's plan is to give its software free so it is found everywhere and used by everyone and then money will come.
Red Hat's money is in enterprise support. Plus, the more people know and use Open Source, the better future they have.
etc.etc.
Nobody's doing it for the soul of their mothers.
Even Microsoft wants to play the game, they are just getting resistance because of the conflict in philosophies. Some businesses can go with OLPC and make profit in cooparation and somewhat humility, others want the whole damn pie and the souls of the children to themselves.
Negroponte just needs to juggle and find the right balance and that's his job.
Education should be free.
In the case of OLPC, citizens pay with their taxes the laptops their children get, which in turn are shared, not owned. The concepts are different.
Modern courthouses are our dueling grounds with the difference is that the size of your wallet determines the type of your weapon. It is not uncommon to have duels where one is armed with a nail-cutter and the other with a cannon.
And that is the really horrible part:
not that the ones in power exercise their control to the extremes but the people let them.
Unfortunately, like you said, there is no convincing most of them unless it happens close
to them. And by then it would be too late.
No wonder democracy fails then: it has no one to protect it.
It all reminds me not of Orwell's 1984 but Terry Gilliam's Brazil...
More ram with a new computer and cheaper ram to upgrade with.
Doesn't sound too bad.
If you also use a resource-laconic OS, it will mean more ram for your software.
Bloatware will always exist and lean programming will also continue.
A word processor can be made to run slow on future super computers or really
fast on 90s era computers and its all depended on the programming philosophy and skills.
People who care will always complain or work with every little byte of ram, even if
you have tenths of GBs to spare.
Considering the history of the organization with enforcing their control, how far will they go this time?
Forgive me for not paying attention in regards to enforcing the law to satelite and interent radio but I have some
thoughts that maybe you can clarify:
- Will they actively crack down on pirate radios with police and legal forces?
- Will possession of radio or any broadcast equipment become illegal?
-...how about tools and/or plans for building them?
- Will they cross borders and seas to get broadcasters not on US soil (that reach the US via their broadcasts)?
- Does such laws apply to other broadcast devices such as portable players with wireless connections (like phones with bluetooth, wireless home music systems, wifi capable laptops, etc)?
- Is there some sort of reaction from the rest of the world to this? Do they follow suit or object?
My view is that restrictions are not just a blow to the ideas of freedom and sharing, but to culture itself. Culture is based upon the free circulation of ideas and art and is not a payed commodity, especially popular culture. But I am an optimist: the further they pull the chains, the closer they get to the demise of their system: Monolithic control system will collapse and artists will be free.
I will share with you a little related story, hoping you won't find it off topic.
Some years ago, when I entered the greek army to do my military duty and after boot camp,
I ended up in a military hospital. To make the story short, I worked there for a couple
months as an office assistant.
The resident Captain Psychiatrist called me to his office one day to request assistance
for some Microsoft Access database he was building. I told him I didn't knew anything about
it, but I was going to find out. I had time to spare.
I went through the built in help files and solved his problem and that excited him probably
thinking he found some computer genius. So, he showed me his project, which was an extremely
basic database in Access for his patients and asked me if I could take over.
I am not a programmer (having only typed a few lines in C64 Basic and Amiga AMOS)
and not the programming type (I even failed math at high school),but I am comfortable with
computers and in the greek army people that know how to use a keyboard and click with a mouse are a tiny minority.
Plus, I definitely had lots of time to spare!
So I bought a book on the subject, borrowed his Psycho-bible and sat down and learned about MS Access, databases,
interface design and psychology while programming this thing. It became a complicated beast with all kind of
diagnostic entries and references and pushed Access and myself to the limits.
After about a month, Captair Doctor was jumping around with joy as the project seemed to have a good starting point
and lots of potential. He told me that there was nothing good in the market, especially the greek one and that
we should develop and market it commercially. We also became friends and even had dinner with his family, a very
rare thing to happen, considering I was a drafted private and he a professional officer.
I had to abandon the project when my time to leave the hospital came but I found out that it was picked up
by another, just like me, drafted soldier who took my position in the hospital office.
Now, isn't that more or less the situation with Open Source?
Imagine if I didn't have to use a developing base that sucked (both OS and tool), actually was skilled with coding,
had more time and a whole community to take the project from me, instead of letting it die in some dusty box...
Slashdot Mirror
I suggest we launch a campaign to ask the design to become open sourced so we can do battle over the license and split it among many spacefaring distributions, thus have our own version of Star Wars
So, does that mean that the Linux community will be getting anything back or is it licenced in a way that we won't be seeing one line of code?
Other "common" objects that would be just asking to be used in a game: - Swords, knives - Batons, staves, nunchucks - Guns, rifles - insert lethal weapon of your choice here) I mean, you're playing an FPS or an RPG and you can use any item as a controller? Who can resist going overboard with realism!
To use the tab close button to clear the last tab open and not quit the whole browser, change this setting to false: browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab
If you're interested to know, the text the hackers left is a childish rant against others that they claim pretend to be l33t but are not unlike them. Pretty stereotypical hacker/cracker message since the dawn of machines. Probably every hacking group in history has written such a message claiming superiority over lazy, unskilled pretenders. It actually has nothing to do with the LHC. The only reason they hacked this site was because as they state was going to be popular, thus a good place to advertise their rant and group.
Thanks, but I don't need to change bodies. The vast majority of digital backs come with Hasselblad V adapters. Plus, it will be a while since I will be seriously interested in a digital back.
I disagree. I found their writing really beautiful. Handwriting in the end, isn't different from drawing (nor drawing is much different from handwriting) so you have to look at them artistically and study their lines, shapes and relationships like you would do with a free hand sketch. Apart from revealing their personality (as for any of us), handwriting is the best proof that everyone has an artist inside of us. And an art critic, as well. :)
Hasselblad HAD to move to a different system, to accommodate the new technologies, as the box design of the V system would need many things changed and in the end wouldn't worth it. The autofocus is a bit of a bonus, as the photographers who used Hasselblad camera rarely missed it. Otherwise it would have been incorporated by Carl Zeiss and Hasselblad long ago. The real design focus wasn't so much the 6x4.5 frame as the square never really stopped magazines from accepting pictures. The competition isn't from the 645 cameras, but from the 35mm DSLRs of Nikon and Canon. The professionals who jumped from film to digital did it not for the sake of quality, but for the workflow that digital provided, the convenience and opportunities digital manipulation opened. Professional photographers who go by the tastes of their clients, saw the demand for this new digital market and they settled for the lower quality as their clients didn't seem to care. "Good enough for my clients" is a common motto among the commercial photographers.
Now, since Hasselblad doesn't produce the sensors and since they even had to merge with Imacon for access to some technology (like the drum scanners and some backs), they had to adjust to what was offered. Since the market for square backs is pretty much down to Hasselblad, digital sensor manufacturers didn't see the point in designing sensors just for them. So, instead, Hasselblad had to adjust to that and accept the rectangle, since they were going for a redesign anyway. So, with the adjustment to the rectangle (thus the 645 format), came the new body, new lenses (from a new manufacturer, Fuji instead of Carl Zeiss) and all the other electronics, like autofocus.
The film backs for the H system, from the very beginning was a stop-gap measure, a way to lure and facilitate the conversion of V system and film users to the new format and then to digital.
Hasselblad did the only thing they could do and one cannot blame them for being realistic, especially since they adapted so well to the new marketplace and kept their avant guard status. When a clean break is required, sacrifices have to be made.
From my perspective and that of other V system users, of course things aren't that rosy. The main attractions for professionals to the Hasselblad system is the high quality of the products and the support for them. My investment still stands, as I can still make photographs of exceptional image qualities (aside from the aesthetics which is up to me). But the support has but disappeared. Local repaired shops have closed and one has to send the gear all the way to Denmark even for just a CLA. Also, even talking to a Hasselblad representative, his reply would be to get rid of the V system and move over to H. Hasselblad does not make any new products for the V line and the existing offerings have shrunk tremendously. The V will be discontinued soon as it is but a tribute, nostalgic retro product now for Hasselblad (see the new chrome Carl Zeiss lenses that differ only in looks from the standard CFE).
As it stands, my Hasselblad still remains a great investment. It will be a while since digital becomes attractive enough, in quality and economics, for me to consider moving over. And then, I might have a chance of a new digital back. Otherwise, I would still have saved a lot of money not forking for incremental upgrades from H1, to H2, to H3 and so on.
When it comes to my photographs, my final output that is, I can make a 50x60cm (20x24") print from a 50 or even 100 iso film (color or BW) that shows absolutely no grain, has detail to spare and will a couple lifetimes atleast. My negatives are also a more secure storage medium and can always scan them (as I do) for that 10k square image.
Unfortunately, Hasselblad has given up on the V system line (as the H system is a completely different design) and only the lowly 16mp back is offered with a square sensor. And its mostly as a tribute to V system diehards and possibly be discontinued soon.
That means that if a V system user want to upgrade to a new digital back, like the 50mp one, will need to dump the whole system. The lenses can be used with adaptors but then you will miss their real focal length and the autofocus and electronics of the H system. Which unfortunately goes against the philosophy of the "old" Hasselblad company where one could mix modern and old components freely. That meant that you could stick a modern lens and a digital back on a 50 year old body. Now, its pretty much "dump everything" to upgrade.
So, this is not really different from what Spartans used to do in the day, apart from saving the woman the trouble of actually giving birth before the child is inspected and then possibly thrown off a cliff.
Zero Image makes excellent pinhole cameras and they also have a special zone plate accessory. Follow this link to learn more about the technique and how it looks like on photographs: http://www.zeroimage.com/web2003/EntryPage/entryFrameset.htm
I would have shifted the buttons a little bit lower then attend a female gamers' convention.
(too bad Windows is just software)
They just need some excuse for "losing" dangerous email messages...
Is Microsoft contemplating committing seppuku then?
Being an artist myself, understanding Art is simple: You either like it or you don't.
Uh, sort of.
You could reduce pretty much any human endeavor to a pithy quote. "Creating a painting is simple: you just put the paint on the canvas." But that doesn't exactly capture anything useful, does it?
To understand and appreciate pretty much anything, including art, you need to place it in context and cross-reference it with other experiences.
I'm not into wine, for instance. It all tastes like alcoholic grape juice to me. But other people who are into it have learned, via the "cross-referencing" process, what's different between each glass. Also, there's "context": why do different wines taste this way? Can I reverse-engineer certain facts about a wine by its taste? Is there any interesting history about this wine or vineyard? What do other people think about this wine? Can I score that hot librarian chick who always goes to those wine tasting parties?
When a person looks at a piece of art they need to really stop and consider what they are seeing. That's what art is about, to me.. somebody put a frame around something, or recorded something, or whatever, and what do I think about it? Not just "do I like it", but what thought processes does it trigger? WHY do I like it? That slight bit of "meta thinking" is what separates humans from animals, right?
Did you read what I wrote past that line you quoted?I did write that one has to use knowledge, aesthetics, instinct, etc, but what one has at the precise moment. Yes, you do get to think about the artwork when experiencing it. But no, I am against researching about it if you don't like it and try to find reasons to do so.
You see, why are in agreement, even if you had a negative knee jerk reaction. I agree with everything you say, if you take time and compare our posts.
Of course, one thinks about "why do I like it", as one thinks about "why I don't like it". Thinking is not the problem you see, being told what and how to like something is. And that is exactly the tricky part: learning about art without being trapped in a confinement of someone else's ideas, but being liberated by the knowledge.
Let's say you reject the Surreallists. You don't understand them, you don't like them, yet you know little or nothing about them. Then you go research what they believed in and why they created artwork like this. And so, your attitude may change. And maybe you begin to like them. But that idea would be immature, because you would be too much influenced by your new knowledge which is still just information and not wisdom, part of your experience. You have to let the knowledge mature inside you, become part of you.
I will use an example (wine I am afraid was not a good one):
You can either learn everything about a movie from imdb before seeing it, or learn just the theme of it, or go completely "pure". You watch the movie, you like it and then want to read everything about it. Or, the opposite, you watch it, you don't like it, then read everything about it in hopes you understand and like it. If you do so and decide you like it because of the information you read, then it would not be you who liked it, it wouldn't be your experience, but someone else's.
I hope I am more understood now. After all, we didn't really disagree.
And yes, you can reduce pretty much any human endeavor to a pithy quote and yes it is quite useful to do so: you don't need to write a lot and the reader doesn't need to read a lot. But it requires the reader to have some imagination and abstract thinking capacity and of course some faith for the author. You can well spoon feed the reader, but that would also defeat my whole point about Art, wouldn't it?
Being an artist myself, understanding Art is simple:
You either like it or you don't.
You shouldn't -try- to like it if you don't and you shouldn't -try- to understand it if you think you don't. Art has to be appreciated by the instinct, knowledge, aesthetics, etc one has at the moment, otherwise any further analysis will detract from the appreciation and real meaning and push you further away. One can't understand why a flower is beautiful by chopping it to pieces and measuring its parts.
When you don't like something and think you don't understand it, then back away, forget about it and give it another chance later in life. If you have changed, your perception will have too and will see the artwork in a new light. That doesn't mean you will like it then though. Maybe you never will or maybe it will take you half a lifetime.
If you don't like something, keep an open mind and be prepared to give it a chance later on. You never know...
Considering that many people around the world have been prosecuted for their blogs, imprisoned, tortured and maybe even killed, it is not just humor, its a terrifying fact.
Intel sells hardware.
They enter the project half-heartly not trusting the whole cheap-underperforming laptop concept. Then they see that is the new trend: Asus, even Wal-Mart is doing it and other are thinking about it. Suddenly it makes sense. So, they are off to cut their own share of the pie. Google's plan is to give its software free so it is found everywhere and used by everyone and then money will come.
Red Hat's money is in enterprise support. Plus, the more people know and use Open Source, the better future they have.
etc.etc.
Nobody's doing it for the soul of their mothers.
Even Microsoft wants to play the game, they are just getting resistance because of the conflict in philosophies. Some businesses can go with OLPC and make profit in cooparation and somewhat humility, others want the whole damn pie and the souls of the children to themselves. Negroponte just needs to juggle and find the right balance and that's his job.
Education should be free.
In the case of OLPC, citizens pay with their taxes the laptops their children get, which in turn are shared, not owned. The concepts are different.
OLPC is a charity, not a business.
Intel is a business, not a charity.
(using the word "charity" to get the phrase going, there are of course better sounding ones)
Modern courthouses are our dueling grounds with the difference is that the size of your wallet determines the type of your weapon. It is not uncommon to have duels where one is armed with a nail-cutter and the other with a cannon.
not that the ones in power exercise their control to the extremes but the people let them. Unfortunately, like you said, there is no convincing most of them unless it happens close to them. And by then it would be too late.
No wonder democracy fails then: it has no one to protect it.
It all reminds me not of Orwell's 1984 but Terry Gilliam's Brazil...
If you also use a resource-laconic OS, it will mean more ram for your software.
Bloatware will always exist and lean programming will also continue. A word processor can be made to run slow on future super computers or really fast on 90s era computers and its all depended on the programming philosophy and skills. People who care will always complain or work with every little byte of ram, even if you have tenths of GBs to spare.
- Will they actively crack down on pirate radios with police and legal forces?
- Will possession of radio or any broadcast equipment become illegal?
-
- Will they cross borders and seas to get broadcasters not on US soil (that reach the US via their broadcasts)?
- Does such laws apply to other broadcast devices such as portable players with wireless connections (like phones with bluetooth, wireless home music systems, wifi capable laptops, etc)?
- Is there some sort of reaction from the rest of the world to this? Do they follow suit or object?
My view is that restrictions are not just a blow to the ideas of freedom and sharing, but to culture itself. Culture is based upon the free circulation of ideas and art and is not a payed commodity, especially popular culture. But I am an optimist: the further they pull the chains, the closer they get to the demise of their system: Monolithic control system will collapse and artists will be free.
Some years ago, when I entered the greek army to do my military duty and after boot camp, I ended up in a military hospital. To make the story short, I worked there for a couple months as an office assistant.
The resident Captain Psychiatrist called me to his office one day to request assistance for some Microsoft Access database he was building. I told him I didn't knew anything about it, but I was going to find out. I had time to spare.
I went through the built in help files and solved his problem and that excited him probably thinking he found some computer genius. So, he showed me his project, which was an extremely basic database in Access for his patients and asked me if I could take over. I am not a programmer (having only typed a few lines in C64 Basic and Amiga AMOS) and not the programming type (I even failed math at high school),but I am comfortable with computers and in the greek army people that know how to use a keyboard and click with a mouse are a tiny minority. Plus, I definitely had lots of time to spare!
So I bought a book on the subject, borrowed his Psycho-bible and sat down and learned about MS Access, databases, interface design and psychology while programming this thing. It became a complicated beast with all kind of diagnostic entries and references and pushed Access and myself to the limits. After about a month, Captair Doctor was jumping around with joy as the project seemed to have a good starting point and lots of potential. He told me that there was nothing good in the market, especially the greek one and that we should develop and market it commercially. We also became friends and even had dinner with his family, a very rare thing to happen, considering I was a drafted private and he a professional officer. I had to abandon the project when my time to leave the hospital came but I found out that it was picked up by another, just like me, drafted soldier who took my position in the hospital office.
Now, isn't that more or less the situation with Open Source? Imagine if I didn't have to use a developing base that sucked (both OS and tool), actually was skilled with coding, had more time and a whole community to take the project from me, instead of letting it die in some dusty box...