Not Xbox, but yes, I can copy any old Sega CD game onto a CD-R disc and run it. The only "copy protection" on Sega CD discs was the lack of CD burners. Would you be in favor of classifying all CD burners as "circumvention devices"?
It's an NVIDIA chipset, but it's not a GeForce brand chipset.
If so, NVidia fully supports their cards under Linux
Unless contractually required otherwise. What makes you think Microsoft will let NVIDIA publish accelerated video drivers for a hypothetical Xbox Linux distro?
Why spend $149 or more for an X-Box, which has numerous barriers to ease of installation of Linux anyway, and opt to use that as your Linux box?
Because it can display video on an ordinary TV. A TV may not be as sharp as an XGA monitor, but it's one hell of a lot bigger. TV output is one of the reasons that I got into console software development.
conversion kits to make your screwdrivers into drills
I thought a rotary tool such as one made by Dremel could be used as both a screwdriver and as a drill.
Yes, most programs have an option to render all of the effects, but this usually takes an extra step and is non-intuitive.
You could have it render the effects in the background for the portions of the waves that are within the start and end of the visible window. Or attach a "script" to each wave that renders the effects on Project > Open...
With Audacity, we're starting the other way - effects are always offline for now, so they work on everyone's computer - and we're slowly adding realtime effects.
Cool Edit Pro 2's multitrack editor seems to have taken the same approach: make effects, and then add real-time versions.
And that explains why there are no Free games worth a shit compared to the evil proprietary closed source games?
So you think the game of chess isn't "worth a shit"? Or do you claim that Free chess bots have not progressed adequately, that you can consistently beat GNU Chess on its hardest level?
The hardest thing about making a Free game isn't the coding but rather the fact that graphic artists and music composers typically make a larger contribution to modern video games than coders make, and most artists and composers have not yet warmed up to the Free mindset.
And why MS Office still is light-years ahead of the open-source office suites?
Other than the ability to read its own proprietary document format, what does Microsoft Office have that OpenOffice.org lacks?
And why closed-evil Apple has brought UNIX to usability in a few years, that the might free hackers couldn't in 30?
Apple manufactures and sells computer hardware. Hardware cannot be duplicated as easily as software. Apple can make its hardware uniform and shift effort from debugging device drivers to UI research.
Kirby's Tilt and Tumble already does this, using a motion sensor in the cart to control Kirby's motion. It's compatible with Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance but not GBA SP or GameCube GB Player.
How does Ardour compare to Audacity, another free digital audio editing program? I want to know my options before switching from proprietary Cool Edit.
GPLing only the copyright still allows independent reimplementation of the algorithm. Getting a patent and GPLing it, on the other hand, gives the patent holder a monopoly on all proprietary implementations of the algorithm.
Save you the 10K of filing for the patent plus maintenance cost.
And if the algorithm is novel enough and useful in proprietary software, that $10K could easily be recouped.
You wrote "functionality", which I argued is equivalent to "fun". Read the rest of my comment where I explained the side of "functionality" that I assumed that you actually meant.
mobile games have zero fun... compared to modern 3D PC games
I abbreviated "functionality" to "fun" because the concepts are equivalent, as the ultimate function of a game is to provide enjoyment. Play WarioWare for Game Boy Advance and tell me how 213 three-second games translates to "zero functionality".
You probably meant "mobile games have near zero complexity compared to modern 3D PC games." I'll grant you this, but most of this complexity lies in the graphic engine. Pretty much any game that has been done on the PC has been done on 8- or 16-bit consoles. Games where the player runs around and shoots monsters have been around since Contra, Zelda, and even the dreadful Ikari (called Ikari Warriors in some markets). They had the same basic design ideas as any FPS, only in an overhead view. The roots of Final Fantasy X can be found in (guess) Final Fantasy IV. So it's in a 3D view now... big whoop;-)
Most NES games were 256 KB or smaller. (Super Mario Bros. 3 was 384 KB, but the original was only 40 KB.) This means your 8 MB of NES games equal at least 30 different games. Your parents must have been richer than mine in order to afford at least 30 NES carts;-)
I know about the PS1 adapter; I currently use an EMS USB2 adapter. However, I also mentioned Super NES controllers. Can you provide a link to an adapter that turns a Super NES controller, or any of the dozen or so other models supported by DirectPad and NTPad, into a USB HID joypad?
However, your USB to parallel solution may not work well for the MBV2 cable that connects a PC's parallel port to a GBA's link port. Does this cable have a USB equivalent?
Now, if you take out a patent and make it irrevocably royalty-free and public, then you would have no recourse against another company that infringes that patent.
However, I could impose a "free software only" limitation on the royalty-free public license and then use the patent against companies that want to use my invention in a proprietary program.
It takes time for the copyright issues, server load issues, and financial infrastructure issues to be hammered out from one country to the next. Starting off with Canada, America, and Mexico should provide enough of a revenue kick to fund bringing the game to the rest of the world.
How about setting things up in Mexico, right across the border ?
According to what I've read, the copyright and patent laws of the United States of Mexico are just as restrictive as those of the United States of America. Recall that Mexico tried to extend copyright terms to life plus 100 years, which is 50 years beyond the minimum of the Berne Convention and 30 years beyond even what the EU and US set with the Bono Acts of the 1990s. ("Acts", plural; the EU had its own Bono Act as well.)
My point is that there is no financial gain between one user sharing with another.
Except copyright law defines "financial gain" to include "receipt, or expectation of receipt, of anything of value, including the receipt of other copyrighted works" (17 USC 101).
But, Napster was a business and Napster themselves connected the users based on information maintained at the server. There is NO commercial business involved in the distribution of these songs.
Isn't there a business behind KaZaA that runs the servers that tell clients where the supernodes are? Otherwise, how can a client join the network? Random IP scan? Not in IPv6.
If something like "its a wondeful life" goes into the public domain, and then 20 years later beecomes a big moneymaker again, can anyone pay $1 and put it back under copyright?
From what I've read, once the fee has not been paid for three years, the work falls into PD in the USA.
It's a Wonderful Life fell back under copyright for an entirely different reason: it was discovered that unlike all other parties involved, the publisher of the music composed for the movie had renewed copyright in the work.
Slashdot Mirror
Remember that airplanes fly from Australia to places where circumvention bans do exist.
Not Xbox, but yes, I can copy any old Sega CD game onto a CD-R disc and run it. The only "copy protection" on Sega CD discs was the lack of CD burners. Would you be in favor of classifying all CD burners as "circumvention devices"?
Doesn't the Xbox have an NVidia card?
It's an NVIDIA chipset, but it's not a GeForce brand chipset.
If so, NVidia fully supports their cards under Linux
Unless contractually required otherwise. What makes you think Microsoft will let NVIDIA publish accelerated video drivers for a hypothetical Xbox Linux distro?
Why spend $149 or more for an X-Box, which has numerous barriers to ease of installation of Linux anyway, and opt to use that as your Linux box?
Because it can display video on an ordinary TV. A TV may not be as sharp as an XGA monitor, but it's one hell of a lot bigger. TV output is one of the reasons that I got into console software development.
conversion kits to make your screwdrivers into drills
I thought a rotary tool such as one made by Dremel could be used as both a screwdriver and as a drill.
You know, you deal coke and you go to a resort prison for two years.
Then how can McDonald's employees deal Coke and not go to prison?
No, for playback everything mixes to stereo. Out of curiosity, what do you use this for?
One popular surround-sound system has three speakers in front, two speakers in back, and one subwoofer for bass enhancement.
Yes, most programs have an option to render all of the effects, but this usually takes an extra step and is non-intuitive.
You could have it render the effects in the background for the portions of the waves that are within the start and end of the visible window. Or attach a "script" to each wave that renders the effects on Project > Open...
With Audacity, we're starting the other way - effects are always offline for now, so they work on everyone's computer - and we're slowly adding realtime effects.
Cool Edit Pro 2's multitrack editor seems to have taken the same approach: make effects, and then add real-time versions.
And that explains why there are no Free games worth a shit compared to the evil proprietary closed source games?
So you think the game of chess isn't "worth a shit"? Or do you claim that Free chess bots have not progressed adequately, that you can consistently beat GNU Chess on its hardest level?
The hardest thing about making a Free game isn't the coding but rather the fact that graphic artists and music composers typically make a larger contribution to modern video games than coders make, and most artists and composers have not yet warmed up to the Free mindset.
And why MS Office still is light-years ahead of the open-source office suites?
Other than the ability to read its own proprietary document format, what does Microsoft Office have that OpenOffice.org lacks?
And why closed-evil Apple has brought UNIX to usability in a few years, that the might free hackers couldn't in 30?
Apple manufactures and sells computer hardware. Hardware cannot be duplicated as easily as software. Apple can make its hardware uniform and shift effort from debugging device drivers to UI research.
Kirby's Tilt and Tumble already does this, using a motion sensor in the cart to control Kirby's motion. It's compatible with Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance but not GBA SP or GameCube GB Player.
I like Cool Edit, but it's one of five pieces of software I have to ditch before beginning migration to FreeBSD or Linux.
How does Ardour compare to Audacity, another free digital audio editing program? I want to know my options before switching from proprietary Cool Edit.
so why don't u just GPL it??
GPLing only the copyright still allows independent reimplementation of the algorithm. Getting a patent and GPLing it, on the other hand, gives the patent holder a monopoly on all proprietary implementations of the algorithm.
Save you the 10K of filing for the patent plus maintenance cost.
And if the algorithm is novel enough and useful in proprietary software, that $10K could easily be recouped.
You wrote "functionality", which I argued is equivalent to "fun". Read the rest of my comment where I explained the side of "functionality" that I assumed that you actually meant.
mobile games have zero fun... compared to modern 3D PC games
I abbreviated "functionality" to "fun" because the concepts are equivalent, as the ultimate function of a game is to provide enjoyment. Play WarioWare for Game Boy Advance and tell me how 213 three-second games translates to "zero functionality".
You probably meant "mobile games have near zero complexity compared to modern 3D PC games." I'll grant you this, but most of this complexity lies in the graphic engine. Pretty much any game that has been done on the PC has been done on 8- or 16-bit consoles. Games where the player runs around and shoots monsters have been around since Contra, Zelda, and even the dreadful Ikari (called Ikari Warriors in some markets). They had the same basic design ideas as any FPS, only in an overhead view. The roots of Final Fantasy X can be found in (guess) Final Fantasy IV. So it's in a 3D view now... big whoop ;-)
and 8MB of NES games :-)
Most NES games were 256 KB or smaller. (Super Mario Bros. 3 was 384 KB, but the original was only 40 KB.) This means your 8 MB of NES games equal at least 30 different games. Your parents must have been richer than mine in order to afford at least 30 NES carts ;-)
I know about the PS1 adapter; I currently use an EMS USB2 adapter. However, I also mentioned Super NES controllers. Can you provide a link to an adapter that turns a Super NES controller, or any of the dozen or so other models supported by DirectPad and NTPad, into a USB HID joypad?
However, your USB to parallel solution may not work well for the MBV2 cable that connects a PC's parallel port to a GBA's link port. Does this cable have a USB equivalent?
Now, if you take out a patent and make it irrevocably royalty-free and public, then you would have no recourse against another company that infringes that patent.
However, I could impose a "free software only" limitation on the royalty-free public license and then use the patent against companies that want to use my invention in a proprietary program.
But will the popular SNESPAD and PSXPAD legacy adapters, which require precise timing, work through a USB to parallel adapter?
All you have to do is publish an invention for it to serve as prior art.
This is true, but USPTO examiners are lazy. They're more likely to find the prior invention if it's been patented.
A "patent" that will never be enforced
What about offering the world a royalty-free license limited to using the invention in OSI Certified(tm) open source software?
It takes time for the copyright issues, server load issues, and financial infrastructure issues to be hammered out from one country to the next. Starting off with Canada, America, and Mexico should provide enough of a revenue kick to fund bringing the game to the rest of the world.
How about setting things up in Mexico, right across the border ?
According to what I've read, the copyright and patent laws of the United States of Mexico are just as restrictive as those of the United States of America. Recall that Mexico tried to extend copyright terms to life plus 100 years, which is 50 years beyond the minimum of the Berne Convention and 30 years beyond even what the EU and US set with the Bono Acts of the 1990s. ("Acts", plural; the EU had its own Bono Act as well.)
There is no such thing as a defensive patent application!
Would you consider a patent with an irrevocable royalty-free public license to be a "defensive" patent?
My point is that there is no financial gain between one user sharing with another.
Except copyright law defines "financial gain" to include "receipt, or expectation of receipt, of anything of value, including the receipt of other copyrighted works" (17 USC 101).
But, Napster was a business and Napster themselves connected the users based on information maintained at the server. There is NO commercial business involved in the distribution of these songs.
Isn't there a business behind KaZaA that runs the servers that tell clients where the supernodes are? Otherwise, how can a client join the network? Random IP scan? Not in IPv6.
If something like "its a wondeful life" goes into the public domain, and then 20 years later beecomes a big moneymaker again, can anyone pay $1 and put it back under copyright?
From what I've read, once the fee has not been paid for three years, the work falls into PD in the USA.
It's a Wonderful Life fell back under copyright for an entirely different reason: it was discovered that unlike all other parties involved, the publisher of the music composed for the movie had renewed copyright in the work.