Either way, Sounds like you need to get another ISP that actually cares about keeping the connection up for its legitimate customers.
In some geographic areas, there exist only two high-speed ISPs: the cable company (cable Internet) and the phone company (DSL). If both are listed on SPEWS, what is a fellow to do?
Perhaps, as seems likely in
a couple of decades, movies could be produced
entirely synthetically, without the need for
actors, scenery, cameras and so forth.
A digital movie producer would still need to hire people to write the script, design and animate the actor models, voice the actors, design the scenery, place the lighting, and so forth. CG isn't the magic bullet for home movie production that some Slashdot readers make it out to be.
We are less than 5 years away from creating a Shrek or a Toy Story in our basements with our desktop PCs.
Those who make movies at home still need to write a good script, make good models, textures, and animations, choose the proper camera angles, find voice actors, etc. Cinematography will not become trivial.
You cannot time/space shift unless you have legal rights to the original copy.
My assumption, "copying the work from a Battlezone board to a computer", assumed that the user was at least in possession of a legitimate copy of Battlezone(tm) software. And unless the user is renting the board (such as in a hypothetical Blockbuster store that carries arcade boards), the user is probably the owner of a legitimate copy and therefore allowed to exercise rights under 17 USC 117.
makes it tough to claim you have the original ROM.
It was a wirewrap, with few if any consequential changes made to the ROM. The diffs from the Battlezone ROM to the Bradley Trainer ROM are a work of the United States government; thus, the XORs from Battlezone to Bradley Trainer are legal to redistribute. (All works created by the US government enter the public domain upon first publication.) If you have a Battlezone board, dump its ROMs and then use the XORs.
the computer software backup clause only applies to identical backups
The backup law, 17 USC 117, permits some limited adaptations, such as (I'd assume; IANAL) copying the work from a Battlezone board to a computer. And even if the backup law doesn't cover it, wouldn't such copying be covered under the fair-use space-shifting right of the Betamax and Diamond precedents?
you can do the compatibility thing in XP also. Never had any trouble here even with old Win95 only games for kids.
There's no choice for MS-DOS. The kids I hang out with like some of the old DOS games. Is something like Bochs the best solution for playing those on a modern PC?
Is there any reason why they couldn't just port this software for Mac, without breaking their DRM schema? Does the Windows operating system offer any inherent advantage to DRM over Apple
Under Windows, it's possible to draw DirectShow video to a DirectDraw surface that no other program can read. That handles the video side.
Under Windows, if a driver is not signed by Microsoft with Secure Audio Path permissions, Windows Media Player will not play copy-protected audio over it. Microsoft won't sign a driver unless it refuses to mix Secure Audio Path signals into its cleartext digital outputs. This plugs the Total Recorder hole on the audio side.
I don't believe that Mac OS X has either of those features. But then, I haven't looked into Mac API since OS 8, so I'm probably mistaken. Anybody?
Or better yet. Use one of those video cards that sends it to a VCR, DVD-R, or HI-8, and record the video output from the screen.
The DMCA states that in addition to it being illegal to defeat transformation-based copy protection (i.e. encryption), it's also illegal to defeat Macrovision's analog video copy protection systems.
Free speech in your precious USA was done in by Wee-Willy Clinton back in '98
The U.S. Congress passed both the DMCA and the Bono Act by "unanimous consent" aka "voice vote", a measure that requires the support of 81 percent of each house. (The Constitution provides that 20 percent opposition can force a roll-call vote.) The President can veto a bill, but it only takes 67 percent of each house to override the veto. So even if then-President Clinton had vetoed the DMCA, it wouldn't have made much difference.
How would one obtain a 200 entry trust list? On average, each adult human being in the world knows about 250 other adults personally in meatspace. And you assume that 80% of all your friends will use a given P2P network?
You don't have to hunt down the perfect actor/actress with the perfect weight, the perfect hair colour, the perfect voice, the perfect skin colour, etc., etc., in animation. You just draw the character the way you want him/her to appear, and there s/he is.
Do you discount the importance of a good voice actor? In some respects, voice acting is harder than traditional stage/screen acting.
if you open up an image-filled webpage in a web browser on the remote computer
Then the bandwidth will spike for a second but return to normal. Did you think that most users were going to watch full-screen Flash or DivX movies on one of these? That's not what they're for. If you want to watch Flash or DivX, use a computer with TV output.
Some online games aren't as network latency bound as FPS games are. Tetrinet isn't. Starcraft isn't. MUDs aren't. Heck, non-action games will work even with the 1000ms ping typical of satellite Internet access.
Isn't the whole point to show off how rich you are by having broadband?
No. To my friends, online game playing isn't about conspicuous consumption; it's about fun.
An action/sports game that would lag so bad as to be unplayable.
That's my biggest concern if online play ever comes to the GameCube. Will Smash Bros. 3 have too much lag?
Be a RTS game with too low of a resolution on a TV to be playable
A 60 Hz TV runs at what amounts to 320x240 pixels. (The USA, Japan, and Brazil use 60 Hz TV.) Warcraft 1 ran at 320x200 pixels. I'm sure that any given RTS could be adapted for a TV; it would just take more work than "TV Out".
Be a FPS played with a GAMEPAD, instead of a keyboard and mouse.
A keyboard is no better than half of a console controller. In fact, it's easier to switch between walking and running with an analog joystick than with a keyboard. The remaining problem is the lack of a trackball, and console FPS games such as GoldenEye tend to have subtle aimbots that take care of aiming accuracy. (It's not cheating in this case because everybody has the same aimbot.) Or they could sell trackballs.
The median American family with Internet access has dial-up at $20/mo. Xbox Live requires cable or DSL at $40/mo. To that $4/mo month we must add the estimated $20/mo for an upgrade from dial-up to (e.g.) MSN broadband. So if the median American family with Internet access buys Xbox Live for the kids, it'll cost $24/mo or $288/year.
I don't know about you, but the fact that Xbox Live doesn't work with dial-up prevents me from considering buying it.
Slashdot Mirror
Either way, Sounds like you need to get another ISP that actually cares about keeping the connection up for its legitimate customers.
In some geographic areas, there exist only two high-speed ISPs: the cable company (cable Internet) and the phone company (DSL). If both are listed on SPEWS, what is a fellow to do?
Perhaps, as seems likely in a couple of decades, movies could be produced entirely synthetically, without the need for actors, scenery, cameras and so forth.
A digital movie producer would still need to hire people to write the script, design and animate the actor models, voice the actors, design the scenery, place the lighting, and so forth. CG isn't the magic bullet for home movie production that some Slashdot readers make it out to be.
We are less than 5 years away from creating a Shrek or a Toy Story in our basements with our desktop PCs.
Those who make movies at home still need to write a good script, make good models, textures, and animations, choose the proper camera angles, find voice actors, etc. Cinematography will not become trivial.
You cannot time/space shift unless you have legal rights to the original copy.
My assumption, "copying the work from a Battlezone board to a computer", assumed that the user was at least in possession of a legitimate copy of Battlezone(tm) software. And unless the user is renting the board (such as in a hypothetical Blockbuster store that carries arcade boards), the user is probably the owner of a legitimate copy and therefore allowed to exercise rights under 17 USC 117.
The DMCA is an American law. There are plenty of countries where you can legally decrypt something you bought.
The country where Slashdot's server is physically located is not one of them.
By the way, the UK has had an equivalent to the DMCA since 1988.
makes it tough to claim you have the original ROM.
It was a wirewrap, with few if any consequential changes made to the ROM. The diffs from the Battlezone ROM to the Bradley Trainer ROM are a work of the United States government; thus, the XORs from Battlezone to Bradley Trainer are legal to redistribute. (All works created by the US government enter the public domain upon first publication.) If you have a Battlezone board, dump its ROMs and then use the XORs.
the computer software backup clause only applies to identical backups
The backup law, 17 USC 117, permits some limited adaptations, such as (I'd assume; IANAL) copying the work from a Battlezone board to a computer. And even if the backup law doesn't cover it, wouldn't such copying be covered under the fair-use space-shifting right of the Betamax and Diamond precedents?
you can do the compatibility thing in XP also. Never had any trouble here even with old Win95 only games for kids.
There's no choice for MS-DOS. The kids I hang out with like some of the old DOS games. Is something like Bochs the best solution for playing those on a modern PC?
Is there any reason why they couldn't just port this software for Mac, without breaking their DRM schema? Does the Windows operating system offer any inherent advantage to DRM over Apple
Under Windows, it's possible to draw DirectShow video to a DirectDraw surface that no other program can read. That handles the video side.
Under Windows, if a driver is not signed by Microsoft with Secure Audio Path permissions, Windows Media Player will not play copy-protected audio over it. Microsoft won't sign a driver unless it refuses to mix Secure Audio Path signals into its cleartext digital outputs. This plugs the Total Recorder hole on the audio side.
I don't believe that Mac OS X has either of those features. But then, I haven't looked into Mac API since OS 8, so I'm probably mistaken. Anybody?
Or better yet. Use one of those video cards that sends it to a VCR, DVD-R, or HI-8, and record the video output from the screen.
The DMCA states that in addition to it being illegal to defeat transformation-based copy protection (i.e. encryption), it's also illegal to defeat Macrovision's analog video copy protection systems.
Free speech in your precious USA was done in by Wee-Willy Clinton back in '98
The U.S. Congress passed both the DMCA and the Bono Act by "unanimous consent" aka "voice vote", a measure that requires the support of 81 percent of each house. (The Constitution provides that 20 percent opposition can force a roll-call vote.) The President can veto a bill, but it only takes 67 percent of each house to override the veto. So even if then-President Clinton had vetoed the DMCA, it wouldn't have made much difference.
then maybe you just should use Windows.
What version? OP wants something as stable in general as Windows XP but which runs older games as well as Windows 98 did.
IE is embedded into Explorer, NOT the OS (i.e. the kernel).
Grandparent said "OS" not "kernel". An operating system is more than a kernel.
You can easiliy run Windows with a different shell (why?).
Why? Easy. Explorer is a RAM hog compared to alternatives such as litestep.
FLOP/s would mean FLoating point Operations Per Per Second
That is, unless their house style specifies that "FLOP" means "FLoating-point OPeration".
But if you have a 200 entry trust list
How would one obtain a 200 entry trust list? On average, each adult human being in the world knows about 250 other adults personally in meatspace. And you assume that 80% of all your friends will use a given P2P network?
You don't have to hunt down the perfect actor/actress with the perfect weight, the perfect hair colour, the perfect voice, the perfect skin colour, etc., etc., in animation. You just draw the character the way you want him/her to appear, and there s/he is.
Do you discount the importance of a good voice actor? In some respects, voice acting is harder than traditional stage/screen acting.
if you open up an image-filled webpage in a web browser on the remote computer
Then the bandwidth will spike for a second but return to normal. Did you think that most users were going to watch full-screen Flash or DivX movies on one of these? That's not what they're for. If you want to watch Flash or DivX, use a computer with TV output.
The close-ups of the phoenix made it look like a prop from a 60's monster movie.
A Phoenix? In a monster movie with a name like "Mozilla"?
This sounds familiar...
Online gaming is not for consoles, the better solution is four game pads and some friends playing with you.
Which doesn't help when your friends go away to college. Being unable to defend your title for nine months is not fun.
Get rid of you lame 300+ ping losers
I find "separate but equal" more fair than completely shutting out dial-up users. Just give 'em their own set of servers to play on.
Who wants to play MP games over dialup anyways?
Some online games aren't as network latency bound as FPS games are. Tetrinet isn't. Starcraft isn't. MUDs aren't. Heck, non-action games will work even with the 1000ms ping typical of satellite Internet access.
Isn't the whole point to show off how rich you are by having broadband?
No. To my friends, online game playing isn't about conspicuous consumption; it's about fun.
At least Sonny Bono didn't write the cartoonists' bill of rights; otherwise we would have seen
sure they do! afterall, photoshop is free isnt it?
Photoshop Elements is neither Free nor free, in fact it costs $100, but GIMP is just as powerful and is both Free and free.
An action/sports game that would lag so bad as to be unplayable.
That's my biggest concern if online play ever comes to the GameCube. Will Smash Bros. 3 have too much lag?
Be a RTS game with too low of a resolution on a TV to be playable
A 60 Hz TV runs at what amounts to 320x240 pixels. (The USA, Japan, and Brazil use 60 Hz TV.) Warcraft 1 ran at 320x200 pixels. I'm sure that any given RTS could be adapted for a TV; it would just take more work than "TV Out".
Be a FPS played with a GAMEPAD, instead of a keyboard and mouse.
A keyboard is no better than half of a console controller. In fact, it's easier to switch between walking and running with an analog joystick than with a keyboard. The remaining problem is the lack of a trackball, and console FPS games such as GoldenEye tend to have subtle aimbots that take care of aiming accuracy. (It's not cheating in this case because everybody has the same aimbot.) Or they could sell trackballs.
$44.99 or ~$3.75/month
The median American family with Internet access has dial-up at $20/mo. Xbox Live requires cable or DSL at $40/mo. To that $4/mo month we must add the estimated $20/mo for an upgrade from dial-up to (e.g.) MSN broadband. So if the median American family with Internet access buys Xbox Live for the kids, it'll cost $24/mo or $288/year.
I don't know about you, but the fact that Xbox Live doesn't work with dial-up prevents me from considering buying it.