I like the idea that anyone can still contribute, but people with credentials get that noted so people can use that info if they feel it's relevant.
However, not all credentials are academic. Let's say you looked up the history of a large company and I was an employee of that company for 30 years. I probably have insights into the company that can't readily be backed up by a diploma, but in fact I'm the best source. And that's probably true for anything historic. To use an exact example, if you're writing about the 9/11 attack in NYC, an eyewitness to the account carries as much (if not more) weight than someone who has an academic credential.
"and sick of wandering thorugh endless levels of art looking for a save point"
I've always thought that "save points" were essentially a way to lengthen a game. If you have a game that's good, but too short, the most common things to do is to make enemies more difficult (more health and/or attack strength), and stop you from saving anywhere you want. The good games are the ones where you turn off the game if you run out of time, and it picks up where you left off when you turn it back on.
I think Nintendo made some shrewd choices; the Wii is clearly an interim step because (in my opinion), the time is not quite ripe for a "next generation" console. I say this because two features that would define the new generation, ubiquitous High Resolution TV and cheap high density optical storage (HDDVD and/or BluRay) are still too expensive to be included (or assumed) in a consumer device. It seems to me 2 years would have been ideal. But Sony and Microsoft are kind of stuck with their hand at this point. Nintendo, by evolving the game cube is in a position in the next generation to offer backward compatibility, better graphics, and better storage cheaper in 2-3 years. Those technologies will be common, and because they've charged "only" $250, consumers won't feel ripped off when the next shiny thing comes out.
That said, Nintendo has got to execute to pull this off. There's the engineering challenge of creating this next generation, and more importantly, they've got to get the developers on board. Their big strength now is that they have this great input device that people are expecting new games to actually use. Wii Sports hints at what's possible, but I really want to play a good Tennis Game, or a good Baseball Game, or whatever, not the demos they throw into the box.
"but in the short term (next 2 years) it's looking sorta grim"
Yeah, so don't buy now. I'll eventually buy one when there's a reason to buy one (maybe Ratchet and Clank, unless they screw up that franchise even more), and the bonus is that by the time the games are ready, the prices will fall.
If a person is kicking with one foot, then he other foot is braced against the ground. I promise this will make a person go backwards. It's easy to do. Try kicking a large object. Pull your toes back.
If you are flying through midair, it's the same as a flying football tackle. What happens depends on the velocity and size of each person, but every football fan has seen the free safety fly through the air and knock a ball carrier backwards a few yards.
That, I don't know. But clearly, there are many devices that play WMA and MP3. I just don't know of a device that plays WMA, MP3, and AAC. The rumor is that the ipod has the hardware support for WMA, but Apple has chosen not to support it.
"WGA doesn't target just US. Piracy can be more common in other countries"
This is a possibility.
"- You may have only one PC, but you may have 1,000 virtual machines on it."
WGA wouldn't catch this. And I'm not clear in the rules on XP prevent this.
"You can build a PC instead of buying a prebuilt one."
My point is that this percentage is so small that it's not worth spending this much time to catch the few homebuilt PC's out there. Certainly, 1 out of 5 PC's it not homebuilt.
In the United States, it's pretty difficult to buy a pre-made PC without a license for Microsoft Windows. Yes, I've heard about the Dell "N" series, yes, I know you can build your own. But go to CompUSA, BestBuy, Costco, Dell direct, and these machines all have licenses for Windows.
So ask yourself this... in the current situation, why is microsoft investing so heavily in WGA? Surely, there are no more licenses to be sold.
But apparently there is. Microsoft has so narrowly defined the definition of a "legal copy of windows" that you really can't be sure.
If my Dell is smoked, and I replace the motherboard, apparently, I don't have a valid license? Or maybe I do. MS will let me know when they decide.
If I've changed too many things too many times in my PC (RAM, HD, Memory, etc), apparently, I am a software pirate. Go figure.
Going back to my original point. If MS is saying 1 of 5 PC's fail this test, they're saying 20% of all PC's don't have a license for Windows. If I assume that 2% of new PC's are sold in the U.S. without a Windows license, then what happened to those other 18% of licenses?
It's a great foundation, and I think they're terrific. However, while Bill Gates is a big shareholder of Microsoft, and he is the owner of the Foundation, they don't appear to be related at all. That is, Microsoft's will is not expressed via the Foundation, which is a good thing. They're more concerned with at-risk children, and the welfare of the planet, which doesn't necessary align with Microsoft's business plan.
But, I went to the link, and it doesn't mention anything about training U.S. programmers to help the crisis. In fact, if you look here at this link, http://www.gatesfoundation.org/UnitedStates/ you'll see the only thing they're trying to do is make sure U.S. students graduate from high school:
"Significantly increasing the number of students who graduate from high school with the skills needed to succeed in college and work"
Which I find is terrific. I love that Bill and Melinda have really stepped up and helped.
However, I'm asking what Microsoft (not Bill Gates) is doing to help the situation. I would be interesting to see if they're spending more on H1-B lobbying, or actually spending money in the areas that I mentioned (or indeed any sort of Computer Science/Programmer training and encouragement). Do you know where we might find out how much is spent in those areas?
...and Microsoft will do anything to solve this "crisis" except spend money on it.
That's the government's job! (i.e. yours and mine)...and meanwhile keep those cheap programmers coming from overseas, otherwise, where will the next version of Windows come from?
"They could probably launch something geosynchronous"
Almost certainly not. This was a ballistic missile test, so it lacks the energy to achieve orbit. Also, sending a rocket on a ballistic path is an order of magnitude easier than orbiting something. The Germans had ballistic missiles in the 40's. It took the Soviets another 15 years to put something in orbit.
They're assuming then that they can raking in 10% of this amount as taxes. That would be amazing, particular if we assume a cost basis of 50%, particularly since the bulk of ebay-ers probably come under the $5,000 amount and if anything, probably sell for a "loss".
Do the math people, this doesn't add up. One of two things will happen: Either they're going to go after every eBay transaction, of they're going to get probably 1/20th of the amount they claim. They may be counting on the fact that when you sell a Stereo you bought in 1978 for $400, you won't keep the original receipt making you liable for the entire $400 amount.
Really, this will add up to a tax bill for everybody who uses ebay, and the only people who will truly benefit will be accountants and TurboTax.
"They are not only competing against large retailers, but are also competing against small and medium sized brick-and-mortar stores (mom and pops!)."
If you are a local store and you can't compete with some guy hidden on the Internet for business, then you've got issues as a store. Just considering all the horror stories with crooked ebay resellers, paypal issues... I'll bet the bulk of the population is afraid to type in the URL "www.ebay.com".
If you can't compete with that, then you really don't know how to run a business.
"Movie DRM was a direct result of overseas counterfeiting."
Except the DRM on DVDs isn't a hindrance to illegitimate disk duplication. Yeah, it prevents grandma from copying the disk, but nobody else. And even if CSS had never been cracked, the disks could be duplicated using professional equipment that the counterfeiters typically have.
I think the DRM on DVD's was more closely related to RCE protection in place on most disks.
It seems a little 1984-ish to somehow claim there is an enemy "out there" and we need to enact a more draconian central government with more powers to somehow take on this unnamed enemy.
Do you see the problem? As long as no one will name the black hats, you can claim a constant war, and every time some random violence strikes, governments can claim the "black hats" are getting more and more clever and that even more laws need to be enacted.
Meanwhile, are we any safer today than in the year 2000? It appears we aren't. And worse, we keep putting more restrictions on people based on some crazy nutty idea of where a terrorist might or could strike. And every time you do that, you force this mythical bad guy to strike in a different way, which requires more and more restrictions.
It's a flawed way of thinking. You cannot guess even a fraction of the infinite ways to screw up a civilization. And I'm not sure I want to live in a world like that anyway.
Frankly there has never been a government trustworthy enough to give what amounts to unlimited access to our personal lives on the off chance that someone may be a terrorist. Worse, there's no proof that this type of intrusions into our lives has even a small impact on making safer.
Actually, it doesn't just cover speech, as you probably know, it covers written word, and is generally understood to include freedom of expression. That's why things like flag burning is a legitimate form of expression and is covered by the 1st amendment. That went all the way to the Supreme Court.
The best bet is probably to try to have the 1st amendment altered to suit the modern age. Perhaps we could make it just like it is now, but add at the end, "...but make sure we take the welfare of children into account". Just an idea.
When the FCC started, it's job was to regulate frequencies.
But that probably only takes a small staff. A few tech guys and some administrative people. Probably a staff of under 100 people could run the FCC if they didn't try to do things like censor TV/Radio, try to worry about encrypting content, and a bunch of other stuff under the guise of protecting us, but mainly seems geared towards protecting the incumbent carriers.
But enough of that talk, let's be real... if you want to make a big organization, you've got to expand...
Senator! Howard Stern is horrible! The FCC needs to regulate! Send all the dirty tapes to us to listen to!
Mr. President! Sex! On the Television! Someone might fall off! The FCC needs to regulate!
Cable TV has like, people copulating! My god. We need a new law!
Violence! Mr. Representative, On the tube! Our children will see! The FCC needs to regulate!
It's pretty transparent.
Of course as the citizens, we're pretty stupid about it too. We're too stupid to say "uh...what does the FCC have to do with regulating violence...". Instead we hear "...children are endangered..." and we're ready to junk the constitution just so we're "safer".
People may be smart individually, but in a group, we're pretty dumb.
Slashdot Mirror
I like the idea that anyone can still contribute, but people with credentials get that noted so people can use that info if they feel it's relevant.
However, not all credentials are academic. Let's say you looked up the history of a large company and I was an employee of that company for 30 years. I probably have insights into the company that can't readily be backed up by a diploma, but in fact I'm the best source. And that's probably true for anything historic. To use an exact example, if you're writing about the 9/11 attack in NYC, an eyewitness to the account carries as much (if not more) weight than someone who has an academic credential.
"and sick of wandering thorugh endless levels of art looking for a save point"
I've always thought that "save points" were essentially a way to lengthen a game. If you have a game that's good, but too short, the most common things to do is to make enemies more difficult (more health and/or attack strength), and stop you from saving anywhere you want. The good games are the ones where you turn off the game if you run out of time, and it picks up where you left off when you turn it back on.
I think Nintendo made some shrewd choices; the Wii is clearly an interim step because (in my opinion), the time is not quite ripe for a "next generation" console. I say this because two features that would define the new generation, ubiquitous High Resolution TV and cheap high density optical storage (HDDVD and/or BluRay) are still too expensive to be included (or assumed) in a consumer device. It seems to me 2 years would have been ideal. But Sony and Microsoft are kind of stuck with their hand at this point. Nintendo, by evolving the game cube is in a position in the next generation to offer backward compatibility, better graphics, and better storage cheaper in 2-3 years. Those technologies will be common, and because they've charged "only" $250, consumers won't feel ripped off when the next shiny thing comes out.
That said, Nintendo has got to execute to pull this off. There's the engineering challenge of creating this next generation, and more importantly, they've got to get the developers on board. Their big strength now is that they have this great input device that people are expecting new games to actually use. Wii Sports hints at what's possible, but I really want to play a good Tennis Game, or a good Baseball Game, or whatever, not the demos they throw into the box.
"but in the short term (next 2 years) it's looking sorta grim"
Yeah, so don't buy now. I'll eventually buy one when there's a reason to buy one (maybe Ratchet and Clank, unless they screw up that franchise even more), and the bonus is that by the time the games are ready, the prices will fall.
Win/win.
If a person is kicking with one foot, then he other foot is braced against the ground. I promise this will make a person go backwards. It's easy to do. Try kicking a large object. Pull your toes back.
If you are flying through midair, it's the same as a flying football tackle. What happens depends on the velocity and size of each person, but every football fan has seen the free safety fly through the air and knock a ball carrier backwards a few yards.
This sounds like an April Fools article.
Next Article:
RIAA concerned about musicians being ripped off by lopsided contracts
After that:
Auto Makers insist Congress must tighten emissions and fuel economy standards.
That, I don't know. But clearly, there are many devices that play WMA and MP3. I just don't know of a device that plays WMA, MP3, and AAC. The rumor is that the ipod has the hardware support for WMA, but Apple has chosen not to support it.
"WGA doesn't target just US. Piracy can be more common in other countries"
This is a possibility.
"- You may have only one PC, but you may have 1,000 virtual machines on it."
WGA wouldn't catch this. And I'm not clear in the rules on XP prevent this.
"You can build a PC instead of buying a prebuilt one."
My point is that this percentage is so small that it's not worth spending this much time to catch the few homebuilt PC's out there. Certainly, 1 out of 5 PC's it not homebuilt.
WinAmp plays all formats including WMA, WMP, MP3, MP4, ACC.
I'm not sure what you're saying is accurate.
In the United States, it's pretty difficult to buy a pre-made PC without a license for Microsoft Windows. Yes, I've heard about the Dell "N" series, yes, I know you can build your own. But go to CompUSA, BestBuy, Costco, Dell direct, and these machines all have licenses for Windows.
So ask yourself this... in the current situation, why is microsoft investing so heavily in WGA? Surely, there are no more licenses to be sold.
But apparently there is. Microsoft has so narrowly defined the definition of a "legal copy of windows" that you really can't be sure.
If my Dell is smoked, and I replace the motherboard, apparently, I don't have a valid license? Or maybe I do. MS will let me know when they decide.
If I've changed too many things too many times in my PC (RAM, HD, Memory, etc), apparently, I am a software pirate. Go figure.
Going back to my original point. If MS is saying 1 of 5 PC's fail this test, they're saying 20% of all PC's don't have a license for Windows. If I assume that 2% of new PC's are sold in the U.S. without a Windows license, then what happened to those other 18% of licenses?
It doesn't add up.
It's a great foundation, and I think they're terrific. However, while Bill Gates is a big shareholder of Microsoft, and he is the owner of the Foundation, they don't appear to be related at all. That is, Microsoft's will is not expressed via the Foundation, which is a good thing. They're more concerned with at-risk children, and the welfare of the planet, which doesn't necessary align with Microsoft's business plan.
But, I went to the link, and it doesn't mention anything about training U.S. programmers to help the crisis. In fact, if you look here at this link, http://www.gatesfoundation.org/UnitedStates/ you'll see the only thing they're trying to do is make sure U.S. students graduate from high school:
"Significantly increasing the number of students who graduate from high school with the skills needed to succeed in college and work"
Which I find is terrific. I love that Bill and Melinda have really stepped up and helped.
However, I'm asking what Microsoft (not Bill Gates) is doing to help the situation. I would be interesting to see if they're spending more on H1-B lobbying, or actually spending money in the areas that I mentioned (or indeed any sort of Computer Science/Programmer training and encouragement). Do you know where we might find out how much is spent in those areas?
...and Microsoft will do anything to solve this "crisis" except spend money on it.
...and meanwhile keep those cheap programmers coming from overseas, otherwise, where will the next version of Windows come from?
That's the government's job! (i.e. yours and mine)
"They could probably launch something geosynchronous"
Almost certainly not. This was a ballistic missile test, so it lacks the energy to achieve orbit. Also, sending a rocket on a ballistic path is an order of magnitude easier than orbiting something. The Germans had ballistic missiles in the 40's. It took the Soviets another 15 years to put something in orbit.
Ballistic is easy. Orbit is hard.
It only went 90 miles high, and didn't have the ability to go into orbit.
Even if you accept what Iran says at face value, this was a ballistic missile test. It had nothing to do with space exploration.
"but tigers do what tigers do"
I get your point, but Iran as a tiger? I was thinking more like a Raven that picks over the bones of a dead animal.
Are there really that many powersellers on ebay that they expect to get $2B from this small amount? I doubt it.
0 07/02/24/MNGMPOAK5C1.DTL it says the total amount of goods sold on ebay last year was $25.2 billion.
If we look at this article http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2
They're assuming then that they can raking in 10% of this amount as taxes. That would be amazing, particular if we assume a cost basis of 50%, particularly since the bulk of ebay-ers probably come under the $5,000 amount and if anything, probably sell for a "loss".
Do the math people, this doesn't add up. One of two things will happen: Either they're going to go after every eBay transaction, of they're going to get probably 1/20th of the amount they claim. They may be counting on the fact that when you sell a Stereo you bought in 1978 for $400, you won't keep the original receipt making you liable for the entire $400 amount.
Really, this will add up to a tax bill for everybody who uses ebay, and the only people who will truly benefit will be accountants and TurboTax.
"They are not only competing against large retailers, but are also competing against small and medium sized brick-and-mortar stores (mom and pops!)."
If you are a local store and you can't compete with some guy hidden on the Internet for business, then you've got issues as a store. Just considering all the horror stories with crooked ebay resellers, paypal issues... I'll bet the bulk of the population is afraid to type in the URL "www.ebay.com".
If you can't compete with that, then you really don't know how to run a business.
"Movie DRM was a direct result of overseas counterfeiting."
Except the DRM on DVDs isn't a hindrance to illegitimate disk duplication. Yeah, it prevents grandma from copying the disk, but nobody else. And even if CSS had never been cracked, the disks could be duplicated using professional equipment that the counterfeiters typically have.
I think the DRM on DVD's was more closely related to RCE protection in place on most disks.
"If there is no DRM, would people all of a sudden decide to go buy stuff instead of pirating it? "
Well, CD's are pretty profitable, they're digital, and they've got no copy protection or DRM.
So, I guess the answer is yes.
I haven't tried that yet; it would be interesting to see...
Nintendo sells them direct from Nintendo.com. They work fine.
"The black hats make mistakes, too"
What black hats?
It seems a little 1984-ish to somehow claim there is an enemy "out there" and we need to enact a more draconian central government with more powers to somehow take on this unnamed enemy.
Do you see the problem? As long as no one will name the black hats, you can claim a constant war, and every time some random violence strikes, governments can claim the "black hats" are getting more and more clever and that even more laws need to be enacted.
Meanwhile, are we any safer today than in the year 2000? It appears we aren't. And worse, we keep putting more restrictions on people based on some crazy nutty idea of where a terrorist might or could strike. And every time you do that, you force this mythical bad guy to strike in a different way, which requires more and more restrictions.
It's a flawed way of thinking. You cannot guess even a fraction of the infinite ways to screw up a civilization. And I'm not sure I want to live in a world like that anyway.
Frankly there has never been a government trustworthy enough to give what amounts to unlimited access to our personal lives on the off chance that someone may be a terrorist. Worse, there's no proof that this type of intrusions into our lives has even a small impact on making safer.
Those have existed in their current form for about 15 years.
And I'll believe that copyrights and patents are "property" right around the time that they're taxed the way real property is taxed.
Until then, it's a load of crap.
Actually, it doesn't just cover speech, as you probably know, it covers written word, and is generally understood to include freedom of expression. That's why things like flag burning is a legitimate form of expression and is covered by the 1st amendment. That went all the way to the Supreme Court.
The best bet is probably to try to have the 1st amendment altered to suit the modern age. Perhaps we could make it just like it is now, but add at the end, "...but make sure we take the welfare of children into account". Just an idea.
When the FCC started, it's job was to regulate frequencies.
But that probably only takes a small staff. A few tech guys and some administrative people. Probably a staff of under 100 people could run the FCC if they didn't try to do things like censor TV/Radio, try to worry about encrypting content, and a bunch of other stuff under the guise of protecting us, but mainly seems geared towards protecting the incumbent carriers.
But enough of that talk, let's be real... if you want to make a big organization, you've got to expand...
Senator! Howard Stern is horrible! The FCC needs to regulate! Send all the dirty tapes to us to listen to!
Mr. President! Sex! On the Television! Someone might fall off! The FCC needs to regulate!
Cable TV has like, people copulating! My god. We need a new law!
Violence! Mr. Representative, On the tube! Our children will see! The FCC needs to regulate!
It's pretty transparent.
Of course as the citizens, we're pretty stupid about it too. We're too stupid to say "uh...what does the FCC have to do with regulating violence...". Instead we hear "...children are endangered..." and we're ready to junk the constitution just so we're "safer".
People may be smart individually, but in a group, we're pretty dumb.