Oh, I'm pretty sure that the RIAA will some SOME way to write off the lack of legality of tech support willfully searching your system by disguising their assistance as "anonymous whistleblowers". Wouldn't be the first time they gather evidence by illegal means (I'm looking at you, Mediasentry!)
Because there is no way for a tech to know whether the music is legal or not just by looking at it. Has this person ripped it themselves? Have they downloaded something they own?
The RIAA, on the other hand, are famous for being to tell all of this just by looking at your P2P port activity and IP address.
If you can't see that difference you ought to seek help quickly.
Missing the point entirely. I wasn't implying that child porn is on the same level as ill-gotten downloads, rather that if the supreme court allows tech support to gather evidence usable in court, what's stopping the MPAA and RIAA to pay tech shops to tear through their customers' hard drives for any evidence of downloads, and report to them directly their findings along with the culprits' names and addresses?
... RIAA dumps Mediasentry in favor of new sweeping deal with Circuit City. Details are currently kept silent, but if you've been downloading music and your computer breaks down, you'll know.
... and a lawsuit they can't just back out of when they realize they're not going to win. It's two great tastes brought together into a cocktail of bitter irony for the RIAA!
"The morons who cancelled us not only got fired, but also got beaten! Badly!"
The biggest problem plaguing Fox was the constant shuffling of executives in charge of the schedule. Because the new guy in place feared that a succesful show implemented by its predecessor would not give HIM credit, he'd just move it around, keeping prime slots for his own pet projects. Fast forward six months, change execs again, repeat until your schedule is a stinker parade surrounding a few scant barely palatable options. Good shows get lost in the cracks.
"This is executive Alpha, programmed to like things he's seen before."
"Hey hey hey!"
"This is executive Beta, programmed to underestimate the audience."
"It's funny, but how will it go with farmers?"
"And this is executive Gamma, programmed to roll dice to determine the schedule."
*rolls dice* "MORE REALITY SHOWS!"
He'd sent out e-mails from his boss's boss's account, designed to promote his own reputation in his company. This had, of course, gotten back to his management chain. My housemate was actually furious because he was convinced that the allegations against him couldn't be "proved". He freely admitted to us he'd done it. But it couldn't be proved, he cried. Honest. The world just wasn't supposed to work this way.
The moral of this story: there's a clear difference between being a dispenser of punishment for technologically moronic behavior and unprofessional manipulative actions that would make Machiavelli go "Dude, not subtle, would you just read The Prince already?!?"
Is it fun? If it's fun, then I tip my hat and say, 'Well done.' But what's happening sounds to me a lot like, 'Who's got the prettiest picture. Who's got high-definition. Who has the best processing power?' It sounds like technology, when the consumer wants to be entertained.
This is why Nintendo has managed to remain a top dog in a field where it is dominated by 1080i high definition graphics and 5.1 surround sound. It gives players what they want - FUN. Not that the other giants can't give it as well, but they better not forget about it either.
I'm sure that's great comfort to all the people whose computers were infected in all the weeks that have gone by since this viral exploit was uncovered and put to destructive use.
Quarterly makes sense for non-security patches but for critical security patches I hope they go "off-cycle."
Once per quarter is already a huge improvement on their previous schedule of not at all even when thousands of computers were getting infected by virus-ladden rigue PDF files.
It shall be obliterated when the invasion fleet reduces your puny civilization to ashes! Now let's go to entertainment news.
*Mary Heart look-alike laughs vapidly*
From TFA, Ponten claims that because they resist his efforts to shut down TPB, pirates are "impeding his freedom of speech". Anyone here interested in sending this guy a philosophy book about rights and responsabilities to explain to him that his rights stop where he begins to step on other people's toes, millions of them at once as this case shows? Bonus points if you send it as a pirated PDF file.
Isn't that akin to remotely self-destruct all the cars from a particular line as soon as the car company thinks that specific model is "out of fashion"?
It figures that chinese dissidents will still be able to get around censorship filters for a while before the communist regime learns how most basic filters can be dodged with search terms like "pr0n" and "1337 h4xx0rz".
Because these panels are flexible, this means you could easily cover round or curved surfaces, like flag or telephone poles. Imagine a wind generator whose support pillar is itself covered in solar panels for a green power double whammy!
Anybody who thinks that a new tax is the start of a slippery slope has missed the fact that the new tax bandwagon is already a full-on water slide with a near freefall inclination.
From my personal view as someone who was not able to attend and was left with television and website coverage, 2009's edition was little more than 2008 with booth babes and more people in the background. Press conferences were lifeless as ever, with a few scant release announcement to cut the hum-drum of what looked like a stockholders quarterly fiscal meeting laced with flat corporate-approved jokes.
Don't forget the inherent need for developping skills in programming on multiple devkits, each one with its strong suits and weak spots. What can be done easily on one system may take months of tweaking on the other. This of course requires twice the staff, more if you want to have extra platforms (Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Wii...)
All of this extra development takes that much more man-hours, with no guaranteed returns on the investment if one version flounders for some technical reason (or is just not fun to play and word gets around)
When bad games are announced, we cringe (rightfully I think). When good games are announced, we cringe again with arguments like "Too Soon!" as if the publishers had made a dead David Carradine joke. It's clear that Yahtzee Croshaw was right:
Fans are a crying whinny lot who will never be happy with any concession you make, and the sooner you shut them out, the happier you'll be.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, I'm pretty sure that the RIAA will some SOME way to write off the lack of legality of tech support willfully searching your system by disguising their assistance as "anonymous whistleblowers". Wouldn't be the first time they gather evidence by illegal means (I'm looking at you, Mediasentry!)
Because there is no way for a tech to know whether the music is legal or not just by looking at it. Has this person ripped it themselves? Have they downloaded something they own?
The RIAA, on the other hand, are famous for being to tell all of this just by looking at your P2P port activity and IP address.
If you can't see that difference you ought to seek help quickly.
Missing the point entirely. I wasn't implying that child porn is on the same level as ill-gotten downloads, rather that if the supreme court allows tech support to gather evidence usable in court, what's stopping the MPAA and RIAA to pay tech shops to tear through their customers' hard drives for any evidence of downloads, and report to them directly their findings along with the culprits' names and addresses?
... RIAA dumps Mediasentry in favor of new sweeping deal with Circuit City. Details are currently kept silent, but if you've been downloading music and your computer breaks down, you'll know.
... and a lawsuit they can't just back out of when they realize they're not going to win. It's two great tastes brought together into a cocktail of bitter irony for the RIAA!
Please complete three Windows ME to Vista upgrades as penance.
Can't I just take over boulder duty from Sysyphus instead? Then I'd be done sometime this millenia at least!
"The morons who cancelled us not only got fired, but also got beaten! Badly!"
The biggest problem plaguing Fox was the constant shuffling of executives in charge of the schedule. Because the new guy in place feared that a succesful show implemented by its predecessor would not give HIM credit, he'd just move it around, keeping prime slots for his own pet projects. Fast forward six months, change execs again, repeat until your schedule is a stinker parade surrounding a few scant barely palatable options. Good shows get lost in the cracks.
"This is executive Alpha, programmed to like things he's seen before."
"Hey hey hey!"
"This is executive Beta, programmed to underestimate the audience."
"It's funny, but how will it go with farmers?"
"And this is executive Gamma, programmed to roll dice to determine the schedule."
*rolls dice* "MORE REALITY SHOWS!"
"The morons who cancelled us not only got fired, but also got beaten! Badly!"
He'd sent out e-mails from his boss's boss's account, designed to promote his own reputation in his company. This had, of course, gotten back to his management chain. My housemate was actually furious because he was convinced that the allegations against him couldn't be "proved". He freely admitted to us he'd done it. But it couldn't be proved, he cried. Honest. The world just wasn't supposed to work this way.
The moral of this story: there's a clear difference between being a dispenser of punishment for technologically moronic behavior and unprofessional manipulative actions that would make Machiavelli go "Dude, not subtle, would you just read The Prince already?!?"
Is it fun? If it's fun, then I tip my hat and say, 'Well done.' But what's happening sounds to me a lot like, 'Who's got the prettiest picture. Who's got high-definition. Who has the best processing power?' It sounds like technology, when the consumer wants to be entertained.
This is why Nintendo has managed to remain a top dog in a field where it is dominated by 1080i high definition graphics and 5.1 surround sound. It gives players what they want - FUN. Not that the other giants can't give it as well, but they better not forget about it either.
Forget everything you know about misuse of genetics and consumer plasmids... would you kindly?
I'm sure that's great comfort to all the people whose computers were infected in all the weeks that have gone by since this viral exploit was uncovered and put to destructive use.
"This time, I've gone too far! I should not be allowed on television!!!" - Bender
Quarterly makes sense for non-security patches but for critical security patches I hope they go "off-cycle."
Once per quarter is already a huge improvement on their previous schedule of not at all even when thousands of computers were getting infected by virus-ladden rigue PDF files.
Warning: The enema you are about to receive is extremely hot!
"That chair is really hard, it hurts my... what's the word again? Oh yeah, lower back."
It shall be obliterated when the invasion fleet reduces your puny civilization to ashes! Now let's go to entertainment news. *Mary Heart look-alike laughs vapidly*
From TFA, Ponten claims that because they resist his efforts to shut down TPB, pirates are "impeding his freedom of speech". Anyone here interested in sending this guy a philosophy book about rights and responsabilities to explain to him that his rights stop where he begins to step on other people's toes, millions of them at once as this case shows? Bonus points if you send it as a pirated PDF file.
Isn't that akin to remotely self-destruct all the cars from a particular line as soon as the car company thinks that specific model is "out of fashion"?
It figures that chinese dissidents will still be able to get around censorship filters for a while before the communist regime learns how most basic filters can be dodged with search terms like "pr0n" and "1337 h4xx0rz".
Because these panels are flexible, this means you could easily cover round or curved surfaces, like flag or telephone poles. Imagine a wind generator whose support pillar is itself covered in solar panels for a green power double whammy!
Anybody who thinks that a new tax is the start of a slippery slope has missed the fact that the new tax bandwagon is already a full-on water slide with a near freefall inclination.
In short, can we have PAX yet?
All of this extra development takes that much more man-hours, with no guaranteed returns on the investment if one version flounders for some technical reason (or is just not fun to play and word gets around)
Fans are a crying whinny lot who will never be happy with any concession you make, and the sooner you shut them out, the happier you'll be.