Oh no! These first name only email addresses confuse me. I'm new at this and I've only been using email for 25 years. I can't understand how to type in a name or use an address book. derp!
If silicon valley can't figure out how to email, we're in a lot worse trouble than I thought.
Or at least that is what the people on the top want the rest of us to believe. An authoritarian's ideal structure is one with a small number at the top and the rest of the people on the bottom. Online communication is the most profound change to society in the last few centuries, perhaps in all of human history. So of course authoritarian-leaning people want to be the gatekeepers to it.
Fear mongering would be telling you that we'll have a lawless wild west if we don't quickly transfer authority to a central entity. As if this is an either or scenario.
Fortran isn't used to generate garbage mini-programs for advertisements. It's clear how JavaScript is used more than anything else despite its very short life.
I wouldn't be surprised if more JavaScript is written in a year than in all of COBOL's lifetime. I don't have the numbers, so I don't know. but something to think about.
That said being the most used or the most popular doesn't really mean these languages are the best. (depends on what you measure the language by)
Yes and no, it can't be done arbitrarily. The government is able to do so if it is justified and legal, and by the Fifth Amendment is required to provide "just compensation". The IP holder can take federal entities to court in some cases, either to reverse the seizure or to receive compensation.
I don't remember exactly what it was, but I recall software for DOS back in the 80's or 90's that was free for personal, educational, and even commercial use. But strictly prohibited use by military or in weapons systems (I think it even called out nuclear weapons systems. the 80's had a lot of anti-nuclear activism). Theoretically you can put these sorts of restrictions in your software license. OSI might not consider it Free software, and technically such a license would be incompatible with GPL. But maybe being compliant with RMS is less important than a software author's political stance on war.
I need to make a video game about two anthropomorphize male-identify assault rifles that fall in love.
Spoiler 1: the climax is they shoot up an abortion clinic, and save many God fearing babies. Spoiler 2: In the sequel the duo solve global warming, and reduce our dependence on oil through an innovative carbon tax system.
Or those device users should learn their proper use?
I can type ', ", ', ‘, ’, ", “, and ”.
But seriously, Slashdot's DOCTYPE is an HTML5 one, not HTML4.01. The default charset for INPUT elements is UTF-8, not ISO-8859-1. It's not really a big surprise that newer mobile browsers have trouble figuring out what Slashdot expects. I think fixing the problem might be as simple as/. changed a few lines of code to use <form accept-charset="ISO-8859-1">. But I'm no web expert, I only RTFM in 2-3 minutes to post this.
What you call my "real name" is the handle my parents selected for me. It happens to be based on anglicized Hebrew, as is typical of names of European Christians. Except I'm not Christian, my most ancient ancestors were not Christian, and I was not born in medieval Europe.
In contrast, the handle I've selected for myself does have significance to me and is related to my own personal events.
If it's abandonware, how can it still be copyright infringement?
There probably aren't very many legal examples of abandonware. The way copyright law works in many countries, at least in the 21st century, is that a work doesn't passively cease to be covered. You may not know who owns it anymore, but that doesn't mean it is abandoned.
Abandonware means there's no owner anymore so there's nobody to "steal" from.
When businesses go under, their assets are purchases. Theoretically the rights to all works gets transferred somewhere along the way, and it is horribly complicated in my opinion. Also when a person dies, their estate gets the right unless their will explicitly says otherwise. You can be fairly certain that nearly everything has a legal owner these days, even if that owner is inactive or difficult to track down.
Now I'd like to say that I'm not happy with the current situation. I think it's ridiculous that you can come up with an idea and then benefit from a government protected monopoly for a hundred years. We literally send paramilitary police forces into people's homes for copyright violation. Copyright violation is something that I consider to be more appropriately handled as a civil case rather than equivalent to an armed police raid against a violent criminal.
Not supporting Android, iOS, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One? Collectively that's a larger market than Windows and Linux. And Linux is the smallest market of the bunch. (Android != Linux, practically speaking)
not counting framebuffer memory, I don't think any of my software (mostly drivers) over the last two decades needed anywhere near 640k RAM.
a 486 typically had 4MB installed. a 386 typically had 2MB. I think you can do a lot of computing with that amount of memory as long as you don't do multimedia (graphics and audio) and don't need a lot of multitasking. And there were some very nice WYSIWYG word processors that ran in 512K on Mac & Atari ST. But a simple computer with such restrictions is not much more than a big calculator + typewriter replacement. That doesn't mean it is useless, but it's not flashy enough for people to run out and buy a new one every 18 months.
I guess I'm one of those heretics that thinks there is more to computers than AAA gaming and YouTube.
I don't have to judge a company by a carefully chosen slice of its overall history. I'd rather give new companies a shot instead, ones that don't have decades of abusive anti-competitive behavior.
If Microsoft wants to get away from its past, it is free to close its doors, rename itself, or formally apologize with sincere acknowledgement of responsibility, wrongdoing, and regret.
"Unlike the taxi industry, our background checking process and standards are consistent across the United States and often more rigorous than what is required to become a taxi driver," -- March 3, 2015, Uber spokesman Taylor Bennett
The idea that a taxi driver would murder is not really all that new.
Now let's talk support. It's Linux and not Chrome. Not sure if that matters. If the only folks who buy it are techies they might be OK, but there's still going to be support costs.
Support will likely be: 1. you plugged it in and it didn't work? mail it to us and you'll get a refurbished unit 2. you don't understand how to use a webbrowser UI to play your games? go to our forum on your computer and ask questions.
(the company I currently work for uses the same sort of "support forum" for PC, Mac and Linux gamers)
As for the price. I suspect BOM plus production costs are around $80-120, anything more and they'd walk away from it and cancel the campaign. If executed poorly BOM can be $230-250 for something like this (yeah, I've worked at those kind of startups, ugh. we sold a device for $279, initially costs $340 to build). With costs going down slightly if volume is high enough to negotiate additional production runs. (in my case we cut the device cost in half, and lowered the sale price by $50 on our later production runs)
I think some of your smaller estimates are off. Controller is probably closer to $7-10 to make, packaging is closer to $1.50. Expect RAM to be low to mid-range quality, much cheaper than what you find on newegg. And they'll probably do a burn-in (1 hour? 4 hours?) for the initial batch (first 500 units?) to get some data on what return rate to expect and shake out the assembly line. That costs real money, so you would only do it to make your statistics meaningful. With narrow margins you can end up losing money on those first production units because you easily double or triple the production cost which typically the third or fourth biggest cost in a consumer electronics device.
I don't think I really want to spend $199 to play Atari 2600/5200 games.
Now if the catalog was all the PC games Atari/Infogrames/GT Interactive has published for the last 25 years then that is more interesting. For example: Roller Coaster Tycoon, Alone in the Dark, Test Drive, Deer Hunter, Unreal Tournament (technically), Neverwinter Nights, Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard, Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes,... there are lots of decent to good games in their catalog.
Lots of contracts and agreements to hammer out as I'm sure many rights have reverted back to the original owners by now. But I'm optimistic because there is a convincing argument that money can be made.
Sure, but I can maintain membership on multiple sites. It's not really an either-or problem. I guess I'm on YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, Github, Slashdot,...
Slashdot Mirror
Oh no! These first name only email addresses confuse me. I'm new at this and I've only been using email for 25 years. I can't understand how to type in a name or use an address book. derp!
If silicon valley can't figure out how to email, we're in a lot worse trouble than I thought.
Or at least that is what the people on the top want the rest of us to believe. An authoritarian's ideal structure is one with a small number at the top and the rest of the people on the bottom. Online communication is the most profound change to society in the last few centuries, perhaps in all of human history. So of course authoritarian-leaning people want to be the gatekeepers to it.
Fear mongering would be telling you that we'll have a lawless wild west if we don't quickly transfer authority to a central entity. As if this is an either or scenario.
Because the first thing I think when I get a new laptop is how fast can it run PHP.
Fortran isn't used to generate garbage mini-programs for advertisements. It's clear how JavaScript is used more than anything else despite its very short life.
I wouldn't be surprised if more JavaScript is written in a year than in all of COBOL's lifetime. I don't have the numbers, so I don't know. but something to think about.
That said being the most used or the most popular doesn't really mean these languages are the best. (depends on what you measure the language by)
Yes and no, it can't be done arbitrarily. The government is able to do so if it is justified and legal, and by the Fifth Amendment is required to provide "just compensation". The IP holder can take federal entities to court in some cases, either to reverse the seizure or to receive compensation.
I don't remember exactly what it was, but I recall software for DOS back in the 80's or 90's that was free for personal, educational, and even commercial use. But strictly prohibited use by military or in weapons systems (I think it even called out nuclear weapons systems. the 80's had a lot of anti-nuclear activism). Theoretically you can put these sorts of restrictions in your software license. OSI might not consider it Free software, and technically such a license would be incompatible with GPL. But maybe being compliant with RMS is less important than a software author's political stance on war.
When you can have 2,666 emojis!
I need to make a video game about two anthropomorphize male-identify assault rifles that fall in love.
Spoiler 1: the climax is they shoot up an abortion clinic, and save many God fearing babies.
Spoiler 2: In the sequel the duo solve global warming, and reduce our dependence on oil through an innovative carbon tax system.
Or those device users should learn their proper use?
I can type ', ", ', ‘, ’, ", “, and ”.
But seriously, Slashdot's DOCTYPE is an HTML5 one, not HTML4.01. The default charset for INPUT elements is UTF-8, not ISO-8859-1. It's not really a big surprise that newer mobile browsers have trouble figuring out what Slashdot expects. I think fixing the problem might be as simple as /. changed a few lines of code to use <form accept-charset="ISO-8859-1">. But I'm no web expert, I only RTFM in 2-3 minutes to post this.
What you call my "real name" is the handle my parents selected for me. It happens to be based on anglicized Hebrew, as is typical of names of European Christians. Except I'm not Christian, my most ancient ancestors were not Christian, and I was not born in medieval Europe.
In contrast, the handle I've selected for myself does have significance to me and is related to my own personal events.
So in order to preserve the traditional 24 hour day that is the foundation of our society and culture, we must destroy the Moon.
If it's abandonware, how can it still be copyright infringement?
There probably aren't very many legal examples of abandonware. The way copyright law works in many countries, at least in the 21st century, is that a work doesn't passively cease to be covered. You may not know who owns it anymore, but that doesn't mean it is abandoned.
Abandonware means there's no owner anymore so there's nobody to "steal" from.
When businesses go under, their assets are purchases. Theoretically the rights to all works gets transferred somewhere along the way, and it is horribly complicated in my opinion. Also when a person dies, their estate gets the right unless their will explicitly says otherwise. You can be fairly certain that nearly everything has a legal owner these days, even if that owner is inactive or difficult to track down.
Now I'd like to say that I'm not happy with the current situation. I think it's ridiculous that you can come up with an idea and then benefit from a government protected monopoly for a hundred years. We literally send paramilitary police forces into people's homes for copyright violation. Copyright violation is something that I consider to be more appropriately handled as a civil case rather than equivalent to an armed police raid against a violent criminal.
Because it's all in good fun?
Not supporting Android, iOS, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One? Collectively that's a larger market than Windows and Linux. And Linux is the smallest market of the bunch. (Android != Linux, practically speaking)
You'll save yourself a few bucks by never buying Apple again.
not counting framebuffer memory, I don't think any of my software (mostly drivers) over the last two decades needed anywhere near 640k RAM.
a 486 typically had 4MB installed. a 386 typically had 2MB. I think you can do a lot of computing with that amount of memory as long as you don't do multimedia (graphics and audio) and don't need a lot of multitasking. And there were some very nice WYSIWYG word processors that ran in 512K on Mac & Atari ST. But a simple computer with such restrictions is not much more than a big calculator + typewriter replacement. That doesn't mean it is useless, but it's not flashy enough for people to run out and buy a new one every 18 months.
I guess I'm one of those heretics that thinks there is more to computers than AAA gaming and YouTube.
I don't have to judge a company by a carefully chosen slice of its overall history. I'd rather give new companies a shot instead, ones that don't have decades of abusive anti-competitive behavior.
If Microsoft wants to get away from its past, it is free to close its doors, rename itself, or formally apologize with sincere acknowledgement of responsibility, wrongdoing, and regret.
"Unlike the taxi industry, our background checking process and standards are consistent across the United States and often more rigorous than what is required to become a taxi driver," -- March 3, 2015, Uber spokesman Taylor Bennett
The idea that a taxi driver would murder is not really all that new.
I'll be curious to see if it played on a $200 TV device. But at least there is a linux version
Now let's talk support. It's Linux and not Chrome. Not sure if that matters. If the only folks who buy it are techies they might be OK, but there's still going to be support costs.
Support will likely be:
1. you plugged it in and it didn't work? mail it to us and you'll get a refurbished unit
2. you don't understand how to use a webbrowser UI to play your games? go to our forum on your computer and ask questions.
(the company I currently work for uses the same sort of "support forum" for PC, Mac and Linux gamers)
As for the price. I suspect BOM plus production costs are around $80-120, anything more and they'd walk away from it and cancel the campaign. If executed poorly BOM can be $230-250 for something like this (yeah, I've worked at those kind of startups, ugh. we sold a device for $279, initially costs $340 to build). With costs going down slightly if volume is high enough to negotiate additional production runs. (in my case we cut the device cost in half, and lowered the sale price by $50 on our later production runs)
I think some of your smaller estimates are off. Controller is probably closer to $7-10 to make, packaging is closer to $1.50. Expect RAM to be low to mid-range quality, much cheaper than what you find on newegg. And they'll probably do a burn-in (1 hour? 4 hours?) for the initial batch (first 500 units?) to get some data on what return rate to expect and shake out the assembly line. That costs real money, so you would only do it to make your statistics meaningful. With narrow margins you can end up losing money on those first production units because you easily double or triple the production cost which typically the third or fourth biggest cost in a consumer electronics device.
I don't think I really want to spend $199 to play Atari 2600/5200 games.
Now if the catalog was all the PC games Atari/Infogrames/GT Interactive has published for the last 25 years then that is more interesting. For example: Roller Coaster Tycoon, Alone in the Dark, Test Drive, Deer Hunter, Unreal Tournament (technically), Neverwinter Nights, Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard, Dungeons & Dragons: Heroes, ... there are lots of decent to good games in their catalog.
Lots of contracts and agreements to hammer out as I'm sure many rights have reverted back to the original owners by now. But I'm optimistic because there is a convincing argument that money can be made.
There will be a 1 cm hole in the center of the screen for a new camera. And we'll all have to rewrite our apps to literally work around the problem.
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." — Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride
Sure, but I can maintain membership on multiple sites. It's not really an either-or problem. I guess I'm on YouTube, Facebook, Reddit, Github, Slashdot, ...
I'm only looking for a Personal Computer or Workstation. I don't wish to commit to anything beyond that.
It's like when I buy a blender, I don't also need it to be a cheese grater.