This whole interview seems extremely premature. There is no website, no product, no details. And by no details, I mean, even the basic research needed for a business owner seems missing.
As mentioned earlier, I was only comfortable doing the interview before there were products available. I used to write for Slashdot, so I didn't want to create a scenario in which it looked like people were being encouraged to buy stuff from my company because I'm an old friend of the family. When the first products come online, you can rest assured that I won't agree to Slashdot coverage.
What about things like drivethrurpg.com? Fiasco? Fate? You sound like you aren't even aware of what is out there.. What do you play? What do your people play?
We intend to release through Drive-Thru RPG. I play d20 Modern, D&D 3.5, Paranoia, Star Wars d6 (West End Games). Our writers play way more systems (and considerably more often) than I do, but they have a lot more interest in D&D Next, Pathfinder, 13th Age... What I play and what I like isn't terribly relevant (and producing games for dead systems that I like would be the definition of a terrible business plan). I'm good at the business side of things -- Managing people, managing money, investing in products. I'm not a world-class RPG author or even a notable figure in that universe, but one of the consistent problems we've seen with great independent games is that fantastic RPG authors and writers aren't necessarily savvy when it comes to the boring side of building and maintaining a business. They're really good at helping you and your friends have a good time, so my job is to back them up with solid talent to help them do that, and take care of the boring stuff. In a lot of cases, these authors don't have time to focus on business as writing RPG stuff happens in their spare time and isn't their primary means of income. Some are simply insanely bored by the business side of things, so their interest in handling that stuff is roughly on par with cleaning the litterbox.
What kind of games do you want to make? Pet genre's? What important niche will you fill? What is the hole in the indie gaming industry that you are planning to fill?
These are just a few basic questions I expect you would have to have good answers for in order to seriously try to startup a gaming company.
Frankly, you may have great answers for all of these, but based on the video, there is no indication of it. It sounds like a lot of general conjecture and posturing.
Sorry if it isn't.. But you DID have a video posted to a public forum.
This was a quick-and-dirty interview that took place in my backyard -- It wasn't intended to serve as a line-by-line description of exactly what we're doing, our specific goals for products we intend to introduce, how we intend to market them and how we're going to pay for everything. I understand that this kind of information is craved by a certain percentage of people (and I'm happy to share), but this simply wasn't the best venue for that. I could probably spend a solid hour talking about royalties and how it's set up for products we intend to sell. Interesting to me? Sure. To our authors? Definitely. To everyone reading Slashdot? Extraordinarily unlikely.
The kind of games we produce has a little to do with me, but it has a lot to do with our authors. They're not just writing the games they want to write, they're also actively on the lookout for cool games written by other authors interested in having them produced. Realistically, a lot of our folks have been writing RPGs for a very long time, and while we do pay higher-than-average rates the average rates border on the laughable. For anyone to be writing this stuff in the first place, they have to be interested by it, they have to be excited by it. Enthusiasm matters.
For instance, Rob Alpizar was interested in writing an adventure that's tentatively-titled 'Burning Down The Hou
We used to keep the ship sheets in a plastic cover, and mark up the plastic cover with a grease marker as the battles raged on. I really like what I'm seeing with Federation Commander, but to be fair I haven't played either SFB or Federation Commander recently. I made the mistake of picking up a 'battle box' of ships, and I enjoy painting and re-painting them. I don't do it as often as I'd like, but such is life.:)
Sometimes it's like watching a very old science fiction movie that has a fantastic story, but the effects are cringe-worthy. I hope that we're able to grab some more work by those authors, do a great job with it and really expand their vision by bringing in some of the other pieces of the puzzle.
Even at that, I still think that something like Drive-Thru RPG is a billion times better than waiting for an expensive 'module' at the local hobby shop. I just think we can add some juice, that's all.
I like RPGs, and I've played a lot of them. Ultimately, I try to hire people smarter than I am. This means that part of my job is hiring those people, but another part of my job is keeping them interested and excited about doing stuff. If they feel like they're wasting their time, they're going to haul ass and work somewhere else.
Starting this company was a really weird way to connect a lot of them together. They like new things, they like games, they share an interest. They enjoy open-ended problems. We bounced the idea around, and here we are.
...at how often people who work on 'Star Trek' take an extraordinarily dim view of some of the products that surround the franchise. You are not alone.
The first purchase we made was of Darklight Interactive's work which was on Drive-Thru RPG. I think we're going to do a great job with that, and I hope that the final products are good enough to get the authors of other well-written adventures to sign with us.
I've done a lot of research in the market, and if I'd had a solid hour to talk about the industry (instead of about ten minutes in my backyard) I would have done so! We're planning to distribute via Drive-Thru RPG, and one of our authors (David Flor) is chomping at the bit to get something moving on a 13th Age adventure right now, because he's excited about that platform.
Tim Lord expressed an interest in talking about it, and I agreed to do it specifically *because* we don't have any games out at the moment -- Otherwise it would have been a goddamn commercial, and I wouldn't want to subject anyone to a hailstorm of 'former Slashdot and Linux.com guy wants you to buy his shit! Do it now!'
There are a lot of different systems that deserve attention beyond the d20 D&D stuff -- Hell, I'd love to go back and revisit d20 Modern at some point. I have an idea for a game that doesn't use any existing system, but we'll see how that goes. Ideas for games are a far cry from 'product.'
I run a profitable media production company called Clockwork Jetpack, and I've been on the business side of video games for more than the past decade. I understand your point-of-view completely, and I agree that working in a market is a hell of a lot different than *playing* in a market. For instance, working in video games makes it almost impossible for me to enjoy video games.
My issue wasn't with you supporting the community by posting it or by speaking there to support the community, I think thats great and I commend you for it. The thing is though, would the story have made it to Slashdot if you werent speaking there? How many other LUG related events go unnoticed even though they could be pretty major events drawing alot of people.
Well, I'm here. I'm part of this thing. I happen to work at Slashdot. Would it have been posted if I weren't here? Maybe, it all depends. I would like to think it would have been posted. On the other hand, if all I saw was a submission in the bin that said, 'Don't go to this thing, it sucks,' I would probably delete it in seconds.
The problem is that this isn't, and never was, a LUG related event. Ever. LUG members volunteered early and often to no response. I think that I would be way into mentioning a big cool LUG event in the Quickies. Bruce is wrong, by the way. We don't even think about advertisers when we create and/or choose content for Slashdot. Getting something on Slashdot varies with the relevance of the story, the timing of the story, the quality of the link, the phase of the moon, and the cost of tea in China.
Maybe posting this story was irrelevant and selfish, I don't know. It's up to the reader to figure that stuff out on their own. I just wanted to say, 'Hey, I'm here, I'm having a party, wanna come?' I think what we're talking about here is basically a difference of scale. If HVLUG (The Hill Valley Linux User Group) was having a Linux installfest at Lou's Cafe across the street from the Clock Tower, I don't think it would be Slashdot-worthy, because you would be talking about people running Linux, you'd want to talk to people who want to try Linux. We're talking about a show with sixty-thousand square feet of sell space being torn to shreds because of a lack of proper planning and infrastructure.
The saddest part about the entire ordeal is that I can't blame anyone but Greg Palmer. When you bring the entire weight of the show on one person, the fame and glory or the fire and brimstone is going to come down on them. This is really sad because I think in a really big way, Greg gets it. I think Greg really did the best he could with what he thought he had. Greg's idea of a big midwestern Linux tradeshow was a good one, and everyone in this community knows it. It all comes down to moving from theory to implementation and finally, proof-of-concept. One day, someone, whether it's a big-ass Expo like IDG's, or just a big-ass LUG conglomerate, is going to create an incredible show here, and it could happen as early as next year.
The power of the open source community is the ability to move, change and adapt. The next show to happen here could be a raging success, and the show planners would have to take a moment to look at Greg Palmer, and see how much they've learned from his mistakes. I think the community sees the forest for the trees, and knows better than to call this show a failure. We don't know failure, only experiments that failed to produce expected results on a hypothesis.
Why is it that this event gets attention on Slashdot while others get rejected or looked over? Is it because a member of the Slashdot staff is giving a keynote at the event? That sounds really unprofessional to me.
Maybe because I don't want people to walk out of this show saying 'Linux sucks.' I've been the only community presence at this show all week, and that's the way it is.
What's unprofessional about it? I'm not making money from my appearance; The conference itself didn't even get me out there. It was the local LUG that flew me out there and let me sleep on a LUG member's couch for the week.
I'm giving a keynote because I'm trying to help rescue this conference almost single-handedly with the help of the LUG communities. The members of KULUA alone have put well over a thousand dollars worth of time, energy and effort trying to make this a great show. The LUGs were not involved in the planning or infrastructure of this event, and hooboy, does it show. They were not invited to help. As a matter of fact, when the LUG decided to have me out, I called the conference organizer, and said, 'Look. I'll do a keynote. But you let all the LUG members in free because they got me here.' Originally, the conference organizer wanted LUG members to pay for a booth, a network drop, and electricity. Oh, and they were supposed to buy show passes, too.
I posted this for the benefit of the LUG, not the benefit of the show itself. The members of the LUG have busted their asses trying to fix this show for the past three days, and we have made a bit of difference. At this point, the show is free, the hall is rented, and goddamnit, I'm going to have a little party. Join me if you like. I'm sure a lot of people would rather go to a cool party with fun friends than stay home and bitch about the perceived unprofessionalism of the Slashdot staff.
I've gotten a lot of questions, like, 'Hey, Emmett, the show is probably going to be dead tomorrow. Why don't you skip the keynote, hang out in Lawrence and look at the pretty girls, instead?' The answer is, the local community has been let down by this show more than you can possibly imagine. This was the first serious Linux event in a Microsoft town, and they were let down severely. Exhibitors may have packed their bags and gome home because of cost issues and lack of foot traffic. I don't have to concern myself with a bottom line. I'm doing my keynote because I said I would, and I will be damned if you think I'm going to let down the community by not showing up for a keynote.
We've got plenty of free soda left, and I've got some Slashdot swag to give away. Show up. Have fun. Enjoy yourselves. Bitch at me in person about Slashdot, if you want. Just come down, shoot some Nerf guns and enjoy the rest of the show. I'll try to make it worth your while.
I used to work at LinuxToday, as a matter of fact I was recommended to the job by Dave himself. Dave is a really fantastic guy with a lot of really fantastic ideas, and I'm really sorry that LinSight wasn't the success he was hoping for. There's one thing I will say, though. Don't count out Dave Whitinger. Dave is a fast-moving, intelligent entrepreneur, and I'm sure he'll surprise us again with something cool. I was actually the first person Dave told about LinSight, and I still think it's a good idea. Who knows what else is in his brain?
so does this mean all the slashdot guys are millionares now?
I can't tell you how much this assumption bothers me. Currently, I'm overdrawn in my bank account by about $150. I don't own stock, I've never owned stock, and I haven't gotten rich off of the Linux hype. People should stop assuming that if you're a Slashdot Author, you're loaded.:)
I like napster. I like slashdot. But the combination bores me. It's napster-this and napster-that. If I want to hear that, I'll just turn on the radio, or the TV. Napster is a complete hype. It will pass. And frankly, I don't care. It's a way overrated (although by some underrated) system. Of course it's cute, downloading all that music, but I just about had it with all the so-called "news" about it.
You have no idea how much the Slashdot staff agrees with you. We're tired of it, too. This 'quickies' is just a way to deal with the insanity instead of giving each thing its own story.
This is another common misconception, that John Loggie Baird (sp?) invented modern television. His invention used a mechanical scanning disk, not an electron gun. The electron gun TV was a seperate invention (And i can't even name it's inventor off the top of my head). Baird still gets the credit for inventing TV, however.
But I'm starting to see a connection. Looking Glass were programmers. Many Slashdot readers are also programmers. They're busy looking out for Number One while simultaneously fucking everyone else over. Nice. Maybe if you were musicians, you'd have a different point of view.
I'm a Slashdot Author, as well as a musician. Maybe you'd do well to check your sources first.
You don't know why Looking Glass is out of business. It could have poor management of money, time, employees, or other resources. It could also just be a testament to the insanity that is the game industry. You can have a fantastic game, but games are the most expensive things to create, and also the riskiest investment in the tech industry. Things like this happen. It's sad, but it happens.
Did they *promise* us an interview, is it something that their publicists had said previously might happen or what.
They promised us an interview. It was never presented to me (or anyone else, for that matter) as a 'possibility' thing. It was always talked as a definite, a 'when,' not an 'if.'
The connotation in common usage is different from that listed in your Funk and Wagnalls.
Sorry, I was using a word defined by a dictionary, not by common usage. If I meant 'overbearing, rude enthusiast,' as I think you're reading it, I would have said it that way. Then again, I don't know what you were thinking, and 'common usage' is probably a lot different in your house than it is in mine. After all, my friends and I may refer to a sneaker as a 'snorphblatz,' but I'm sure that means little to you. This is why, as a writer, it's imperative to use words which have meanings that are easily found in a dictionary, which is what I've done.
--Emmett
pssst - Hey, Bruce. A lot of people probably think we're bitter and angry at each other now, because a lot of people like to stir up controversy where there's none to be had. I bet we'll be a Register headline tomorrow morning. Wanna blow this up into a nuclear knock-down drag-out, sell tickets and donate the proceeds to Software in the Public Interest?
Do you have to call somebody who believes in Open Source a zealot?!?!?! Is it really necessary to editorialize that way in your first sentence of introduction to an interview? Did you not take your brain-Beano today?:-)
Main Entry: zealot Pronunciation: 'ze-l&t Function: noun Etymology: Late Latin zelotes, from Greek zElOtEs, from zElos Date: 1537 1 capitalized : a member of a fanatical sect arising in Judea during the first century A.D. and militantly opposing the Roman domination of Palestine 2 : a zealous person; especially : a fanatical partisan
Please accept option '2' in the definition above. When I editorialize, I'll let ya know.
I wish I could go through and pick apart every line in the diatribe posted by emmet entitled "Censorship != Innovation". But it all stems from a single misconception-- what Microsoft is asking for is NOT censorship. It's a protection of their copyright.
Like everyone else exercising this logic on this issue, you're just plain wrong. Here's something from their E-mail that they want pulled.
Comments Containing Instructions on How to Bypass the End User License Agreement and Extract the Specification: "by myconid (my S conid@ P toge A the M r.net) on Tuesday May 02, @07:27PM EST (#362)" "by markb on Tuesday May 02, @05:47PM EST (#321)" "by Sami (respect.my@authorita-dot-net) on Tuesday May 02, @01:47PM EST (#19)" "by iCEBalM (icebalm@[NOSPAM]bigfoot.com) on Tuesday May 02, @01:52PM EST (#33)" "by Jonny Royale (moc.mocten.xi@notners) on Tuesday, May 02, @01:59PM EST (#51)" "by rcw-work (rcw@d.e.b.i.a.n.org.without.dots) on Tuesday, May 02, @07:12PM EST (#353)"
You get that? They want us to pull instructions on cracking the thing open to get the specs out. I suppose if I post factory instructions for the mass production of AK-47's, I'll be a murderer, eh?
What Microsoft is asking for is censorship. Looking at this from the copyright angle is something I did for a long time before I wrote my editorial. This is not a copyright issue, this is a censorship issue, and never the twain shall meet.
Please email me at j.doty@gte.net if you want to argue this in more detail.
If you weren't so completely wrong, I wouldn't be bothering to send the link to this comment to you in E-mail.
You know why everyone flames Jon Katz? Do you slashdot people ever read comments? We want news, not editorials, and not stupid ones. We have things on our minds, and thats good enough for us. We want to fill our minds with more, instead of polluting them with stupid made up buzzwords
Well, I read comments. I even occasionally reply to them, but not if they're entirely devoid of thought or interest. Guess I shouldn't respond to this one, though.
Slashdot Mirror
Chris' LORD games are available right here, by the way.
This whole interview seems extremely premature. There is no website, no product, no details. And by no details, I mean, even the basic research needed for a business owner seems missing.
As mentioned earlier, I was only comfortable doing the interview before there were products available. I used to write for Slashdot, so I didn't want to create a scenario in which it looked like people were being encouraged to buy stuff from my company because I'm an old friend of the family. When the first products come online, you can rest assured that I won't agree to Slashdot coverage.
What about things like drivethrurpg.com? Fiasco? Fate? You sound like you aren't even aware of what is out there.. What do you play? What do your people play?
We intend to release through Drive-Thru RPG. I play d20 Modern, D&D 3.5, Paranoia, Star Wars d6 (West End Games). Our writers play way more systems (and considerably more often) than I do, but they have a lot more interest in D&D Next, Pathfinder, 13th Age... What I play and what I like isn't terribly relevant (and producing games for dead systems that I like would be the definition of a terrible business plan). I'm good at the business side of things -- Managing people, managing money, investing in products. I'm not a world-class RPG author or even a notable figure in that universe, but one of the consistent problems we've seen with great independent games is that fantastic RPG authors and writers aren't necessarily savvy when it comes to the boring side of building and maintaining a business. They're really good at helping you and your friends have a good time, so my job is to back them up with solid talent to help them do that, and take care of the boring stuff. In a lot of cases, these authors don't have time to focus on business as writing RPG stuff happens in their spare time and isn't their primary means of income. Some are simply insanely bored by the business side of things, so their interest in handling that stuff is roughly on par with cleaning the litterbox.
What kind of games do you want to make? Pet genre's? What important niche will you fill? What is the hole in the indie gaming industry that you are planning to fill?
These are just a few basic questions I expect you would have to have good answers for in order to seriously try to startup a gaming company.
Frankly, you may have great answers for all of these, but based on the video, there is no indication of it. It sounds like a lot of general conjecture and posturing.
Sorry if it isn't.. But you DID have a video posted to a public forum.
This was a quick-and-dirty interview that took place in my backyard -- It wasn't intended to serve as a line-by-line description of exactly what we're doing, our specific goals for products we intend to introduce, how we intend to market them and how we're going to pay for everything. I understand that this kind of information is craved by a certain percentage of people (and I'm happy to share), but this simply wasn't the best venue for that. I could probably spend a solid hour talking about royalties and how it's set up for products we intend to sell. Interesting to me? Sure. To our authors? Definitely. To everyone reading Slashdot? Extraordinarily unlikely.
The kind of games we produce has a little to do with me, but it has a lot to do with our authors. They're not just writing the games they want to write, they're also actively on the lookout for cool games written by other authors interested in having them produced. Realistically, a lot of our folks have been writing RPGs for a very long time, and while we do pay higher-than-average rates the average rates border on the laughable. For anyone to be writing this stuff in the first place, they have to be interested by it, they have to be excited by it. Enthusiasm matters.
For instance, Rob Alpizar was interested in writing an adventure that's tentatively-titled 'Burning Down The Hou
We used to keep the ship sheets in a plastic cover, and mark up the plastic cover with a grease marker as the battles raged on. I really like what I'm seeing with Federation Commander, but to be fair I haven't played either SFB or Federation Commander recently. I made the mistake of picking up a 'battle box' of ships, and I enjoy painting and re-painting them. I don't do it as often as I'd like, but such is life. :)
Sometimes it's like watching a very old science fiction movie that has a fantastic story, but the effects are cringe-worthy. I hope that we're able to grab some more work by those authors, do a great job with it and really expand their vision by bringing in some of the other pieces of the puzzle.
Even at that, I still think that something like Drive-Thru RPG is a billion times better than waiting for an expensive 'module' at the local hobby shop. I just think we can add some juice, that's all.
I like RPGs, and I've played a lot of them. Ultimately, I try to hire people smarter than I am. This means that part of my job is hiring those people, but another part of my job is keeping them interested and excited about doing stuff. If they feel like they're wasting their time, they're going to haul ass and work somewhere else.
Starting this company was a really weird way to connect a lot of them together. They like new things, they like games, they share an interest. They enjoy open-ended problems. We bounced the idea around, and here we are.
...at how often people who work on 'Star Trek' take an extraordinarily dim view of some of the products that surround the franchise. You are not alone.
The first purchase we made was of Darklight Interactive's work which was on Drive-Thru RPG. I think we're going to do a great job with that, and I hope that the final products are good enough to get the authors of other well-written adventures to sign with us.
I've done a lot of research in the market, and if I'd had a solid hour to talk about the industry (instead of about ten minutes in my backyard) I would have done so! We're planning to distribute via Drive-Thru RPG, and one of our authors (David Flor) is chomping at the bit to get something moving on a 13th Age adventure right now, because he's excited about that platform.
Tim Lord expressed an interest in talking about it, and I agreed to do it specifically *because* we don't have any games out at the moment -- Otherwise it would have been a goddamn commercial, and I wouldn't want to subject anyone to a hailstorm of 'former Slashdot and Linux.com guy wants you to buy his shit! Do it now!'
There are a lot of different systems that deserve attention beyond the d20 D&D stuff -- Hell, I'd love to go back and revisit d20 Modern at some point. I have an idea for a game that doesn't use any existing system, but we'll see how that goes. Ideas for games are a far cry from 'product.'
I run a profitable media production company called Clockwork Jetpack, and I've been on the business side of video games for more than the past decade. I understand your point-of-view completely, and I agree that working in a market is a hell of a lot different than *playing* in a market. For instance, working in video games makes it almost impossible for me to enjoy video games.
Well, I'm here. I'm part of this thing. I happen to work at Slashdot. Would it have been posted if I weren't here? Maybe, it all depends. I would like to think it would have been posted. On the other hand, if all I saw was a submission in the bin that said, 'Don't go to this thing, it sucks,' I would probably delete it in seconds.
The problem is that this isn't, and never was, a LUG related event. Ever. LUG members volunteered early and often to no response. I think that I would be way into mentioning a big cool LUG event in the Quickies. Bruce is wrong, by the way. We don't even think about advertisers when we create and/or choose content for Slashdot. Getting something on Slashdot varies with the relevance of the story, the timing of the story, the quality of the link, the phase of the moon, and the cost of tea in China.
Maybe posting this story was irrelevant and selfish, I don't know. It's up to the reader to figure that stuff out on their own. I just wanted to say, 'Hey, I'm here, I'm having a party, wanna come?' I think what we're talking about here is basically a difference of scale. If HVLUG (The Hill Valley Linux User Group) was having a Linux installfest at Lou's Cafe across the street from the Clock Tower, I don't think it would be Slashdot-worthy, because you would be talking about people running Linux, you'd want to talk to people who want to try Linux. We're talking about a show with sixty-thousand square feet of sell space being torn to shreds because of a lack of proper planning and infrastructure.
The saddest part about the entire ordeal is that I can't blame anyone but Greg Palmer. When you bring the entire weight of the show on one person, the fame and glory or the fire and brimstone is going to come down on them. This is really sad because I think in a really big way, Greg gets it. I think Greg really did the best he could with what he thought he had. Greg's idea of a big midwestern Linux tradeshow was a good one, and everyone in this community knows it. It all comes down to moving from theory to implementation and finally, proof-of-concept. One day, someone, whether it's a big-ass Expo like IDG's, or just a big-ass LUG conglomerate, is going to create an incredible show here, and it could happen as early as next year.
The power of the open source community is the ability to move, change and adapt. The next show to happen here could be a raging success, and the show planners would have to take a moment to look at Greg Palmer, and see how much they've learned from his mistakes. I think the community sees the forest for the trees, and knows better than to call this show a failure. We don't know failure, only experiments that failed to produce expected results on a hypothesis.
--Emmett
Oh, by the way, I talk at 12pm tomorrow.
Maybe because I don't want people to walk out of this show saying 'Linux sucks.' I've been the only community presence at this show all week, and that's the way it is.
What's unprofessional about it? I'm not making money from my appearance; The conference itself didn't even get me out there. It was the local LUG that flew me out there and let me sleep on a LUG member's couch for the week.
I'm giving a keynote because I'm trying to help rescue this conference almost single-handedly with the help of the LUG communities. The members of KULUA alone have put well over a thousand dollars worth of time, energy and effort trying to make this a great show. The LUGs were not involved in the planning or infrastructure of this event, and hooboy, does it show. They were not invited to help. As a matter of fact, when the LUG decided to have me out, I called the conference organizer, and said, 'Look. I'll do a keynote. But you let all the LUG members in free because they got me here.' Originally, the conference organizer wanted LUG members to pay for a booth, a network drop, and electricity. Oh, and they were supposed to buy show passes, too.
I posted this for the benefit of the LUG, not the benefit of the show itself. The members of the LUG have busted their asses trying to fix this show for the past three days, and we have made a bit of difference. At this point, the show is free, the hall is rented, and goddamnit, I'm going to have a little party. Join me if you like. I'm sure a lot of people would rather go to a cool party with fun friends than stay home and bitch about the perceived unprofessionalism of the Slashdot staff.
I've gotten a lot of questions, like, 'Hey, Emmett, the show is probably going to be dead tomorrow. Why don't you skip the keynote, hang out in Lawrence and look at the pretty girls, instead?' The answer is, the local community has been let down by this show more than you can possibly imagine. This was the first serious Linux event in a Microsoft town, and they were let down severely. Exhibitors may have packed their bags and gome home because of cost issues and lack of foot traffic. I don't have to concern myself with a bottom line. I'm doing my keynote because I said I would, and I will be damned if you think I'm going to let down the community by not showing up for a keynote.
We've got plenty of free soda left, and I've got some Slashdot swag to give away. Show up. Have fun. Enjoy yourselves. Bitch at me in person about Slashdot, if you want. Just come down, shoot some Nerf guns and enjoy the rest of the show. I'll try to make it worth your while.
--Emmett
King Arthur? Are you mad?
--Emmett
--Emmett
I can't tell you how much this assumption bothers me. Currently, I'm overdrawn in my bank account by about $150. I don't own stock, I've never owned stock, and I haven't gotten rich off of the Linux hype. People should stop assuming that if you're a Slashdot Author, you're loaded. :)
--Emmett
You have no idea how much the Slashdot staff agrees with you. We're tired of it, too. This 'quickies' is just a way to deal with the insanity instead of giving each thing its own story.
--Emmett
Dude. Philo Farnsworth!
--Emmett
As far as I know, neither Rob or I have moderated this story today. Sorry to break your conspiracy theory. You can have the pieces, though.
--Emmett
I secured the interview, but timothy conducted and transcribed it.
--Emmett
I'm a Slashdot Author, as well as a musician. Maybe you'd do well to check your sources first.
You don't know why Looking Glass is out of business. It could have poor management of money, time, employees, or other resources. It could also just be a testament to the insanity that is the game industry. You can have a fantastic game, but games are the most expensive things to create, and also the riskiest investment in the tech industry. Things like this happen. It's sad, but it happens.
--Emmett
They promised us an interview. It was never presented to me (or anyone else, for that matter) as a 'possibility' thing. It was always talked as a definite, a 'when,' not an 'if.'
--Emmett
The connotation in common usage is different from that listed in your Funk and Wagnalls.
Sorry, I was using a word defined by a dictionary, not by common usage. If I meant 'overbearing, rude enthusiast,' as I think you're reading it, I would have said it that way. Then again, I don't know what you were thinking, and 'common usage' is probably a lot different in your house than it is in mine. After all, my friends and I may refer to a sneaker as a 'snorphblatz,' but I'm sure that means little to you. This is why, as a writer, it's imperative to use words which have meanings that are easily found in a dictionary, which is what I've done.
--Emmett
pssst - Hey, Bruce. A lot of people probably think we're bitter and angry at each other now, because a lot of people like to stir up controversy where there's none to be had. I bet we'll be a Register headline tomorrow morning. Wanna blow this up into a nuclear knock-down drag-out, sell tickets and donate the proceeds to Software in the Public Interest?
Main Entry: zealot
Pronunciation: 'ze-l&t
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin zelotes, from Greek zElOtEs, from zElos
Date: 1537
1 capitalized : a member of a fanatical sect arising in Judea during the first century A.D. and militantly opposing the Roman domination of Palestine
2 : a zealous person; especially : a fanatical partisan
Please accept option '2' in the definition above. When I editorialize, I'll let ya know.
--Emmett
I agree! :)
From the response to the first editorial, I think I may do more in the future. Maybe on Sunday nights or something. Who knows?
--Emmett
Like everyone else exercising this logic on this issue, you're just plain wrong. Here's something from their E-mail that they want pulled.
Comments Containing Instructions on How to Bypass the End User License Agreement and Extract the Specification: "by myconid (my S conid@ P toge A the M r.net) on Tuesday May 02, @07:27PM EST (#362)" "by markb on Tuesday May 02, @05:47PM EST (#321)" "by Sami (respect.my@authorita-dot-net) on Tuesday May 02, @01:47PM EST (#19)" "by iCEBalM (icebalm@[NOSPAM]bigfoot.com) on Tuesday May 02, @01:52PM EST (#33)" "by Jonny Royale (moc.mocten.xi@notners) on Tuesday, May 02, @01:59PM EST (#51)" "by rcw-work (rcw@d.e.b.i.a.n.org.without.dots) on Tuesday, May 02, @07:12PM EST (#353)"
You get that? They want us to pull instructions on cracking the thing open to get the specs out. I suppose if I post factory instructions for the mass production of AK-47's, I'll be a murderer, eh?
What Microsoft is asking for is censorship. Looking at this from the copyright angle is something I did for a long time before I wrote my editorial. This is not a copyright issue, this is a censorship issue, and never the twain shall meet.
Please email me at j.doty@gte.net if you want to argue this in more detail.
If you weren't so completely wrong, I wouldn't be bothering to send the link to this comment to you in E-mail.
--Emmett
Well, I read comments. I even occasionally reply to them, but not if they're entirely devoid of thought or interest. Guess I shouldn't respond to this one, though.
--Emmett