The games are works for hire for the software vendors. The copyright dies years after the company does, that's how copyright works. This means that a long time, after the software vendor permanently closes its doors, the software goes into the public domain, which could be a VERY long time for anything by Microsoft.
This isn't even about their damned DVD's anymore, it's about control. Who the heck is going to buy a T-Shirt just so they can copy the source code into their computer. You can download it for free off the net. People who are buying the t-shirt are making a statement. Either these people want to completely stamp out any thought that they could ever be beaten, or they want to stamp out EVERY COPY EVERYWHERE. Why worry about a freaking t-shirt when you can get it all over the net? These people are really, litterally, making a federal case over their ability to stamp out independant thought.
I wasn't saying "go out and rip PS/2 games kids, rip off Sega if you can, storm Nintendo!" What I am saying is... Activision isn't making money off of Barnstorming anymore. Why not release it into the public domain and have a legal repository of such. Why hold onto a license that isn't EVER going to be used, when the game is plenty of fun anyways?
I really like ROMs. I think that it is a shame that software companies get all pissed off about people trading software titles that they don't even publish anymore. I mean, how else are you going to get it? They aren't making any money off of the stores that trade antique games and such, and quite frankly, you don't always find what you're looking for at these stores. I can see it if the company actually plans on licensing out the game to someone, but really, all that comes out of the license is a rewrite, which is technically a different game, and probably utilizes new hardware and such. So what if I want to download Castlevania, the original one? If they come out with a new version for Nintendo's new system, it's not really going to be the original anyways. I am glad that ROMNet is around, its' a great idea... What I am not glad about is people holding onto licenses and letting such great games die. I hope that people can start to be kinder about such things and just let 10 their 10 year old games out into the public domain.
I know that I would MUCH rather pay for an S/390 than for the equivalent processing power in PC boxen. I also know that I would MUCH rather administer 1 of these than hundreds of those. That and my AC/Power can cope much better. I think that all in all, I'd be WAY happier with one of these with a decent stack of software running on it than with a handful of PCs.
Heck. Why stop there? Use the virtual machine to run several different OS's and several hostnames. You could have hundreds of BSD virtual boxen and hundreds of Linux virtual boxen. Plan 9/Inferno clusters built in one box. A beowulf cluster of virtual machines all running on the same computer. Can you imagine... a beowulf cluster of virtual machines all running on the same machine *grin* (just think about the loss from overhead... it's a joke people). Heck, most trail mixes include something that nobody likes, so you could toss some CPU emulators in there and run every version of windows (sorry M$ fans, it had to be said).
Gotta love the idea of growing processors rather than building them. Talk about knocking the price down a notch. You could go to the drive through for all your semiconductor needs rather than having to mail order them, and you could afford a reasonable computer on a day's salary.
If American's started using the train more, that would be different, but fares would have to be reduced. That and getting some bullet trains. I love riding the Amtrak personally. Great to sit in the dining car sipping on a beer working at a laptop rather than behind the wheel of a car... and you meet the most interesting people.
Set deadlines for yourself, even if they are only fictitious. As the deadline approaches, you will feel pressure to do SOMETHING. That is the first step. The closer the deadline gets, the more work you will get done. It has always worked for me.
It is funny that the USPS needs to bend over backwards to get customers these days. Now, they want to set you up with e-mail to justify their size. People are going through private carriers and other services these days, it's not just the internet. The USPS is a great service and all, but they are a federal business, why should they compete for customers? It's not like they will make more or less money this way. Still, it is a good idea, simply because if everyone has an e-mail address, good things should happen. What happens when we run out of USPS.gov e-mail addys? I mean, I'll probably have 19128232 after my last name as my e-mail. Lots to consider. Should be interesting... Good... They'll work on that. Whatever they develop coming out of this will have to be useful, if it is to work at all...
I post at +2. So 1 person modded it up. Also, by ubiquitous I meant in more than just the sense of the processing power. Which is what people generally think of when they think distributed computing. As for personal problems, it's really easy to knock on me as an AC. If you don't like me because I have a high karma, you're a rather immature person. I just enjoy talking on/. Earlier I had plenty modded down, and yet somehow, I didn't make a big fuss about it. Interesting how that is.
Notice the paragraph break. It was 2 separate topics. Should I have posted twice? I think that that would really be a waste of time. So, I posted 2 topics in one post. I didn't mean for it to be interpretted that way. Perhaps I should have used better punctuation or something. I was saying, Suns, everyone is familiar with them. Then I was saying Plan 9, few people outside of academia are familiar with it.
Sun Microsystems products are designed around a network paradigm. A lot of the distributed stuff we have today comes out of their work. Distributed being used in a bit more ubiquitous sense than necessarily meaning clustering the processor power.
Plan 9, as part of its design, is designed with distribution in mind. Check it out!
Yeah, I was aware of that, but thanks for the info. The other thing is, the hardware is different from flavor to flavor, right? Well, what if someone just happens to like grape, but wants the hardware that is in the cherry one?
I personally bought the LinuxPPC 1999 Distro for my Beige G3/300 tower and had problems installing the thing
Great, a somewhat normal color. I love the processors... I don't have a problem with colored cases... Why does every damned review of mac hardware have to mention, "Mine is a grape flavored mac, shaped like a cube!"
Curse the need to make money for binding me to an office this week. DEFCONs tend to be pretty cool. It's unbelieveable how much they have grown and the audience that they have gained. It's now, as one would say "taken seriously."
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We had a few old games without any real sellable characters too. Think about those. I can see protecting Pac-Man...
The games are works for hire for the software vendors. The copyright dies years after the company does, that's how copyright works. This means that a long time, after the software vendor permanently closes its doors, the software goes into the public domain, which could be a VERY long time for anything by Microsoft.
This isn't even about their damned DVD's anymore, it's about control. Who the heck is going to buy a T-Shirt just so they can copy the source code into their computer. You can download it for free off the net. People who are buying the t-shirt are making a statement. Either these people want to completely stamp out any thought that they could ever be beaten, or they want to stamp out EVERY COPY EVERYWHERE. Why worry about a freaking t-shirt when you can get it all over the net? These people are really, litterally, making a federal case over their ability to stamp out independant thought.
Better would be if the companies just re-released them on CD or something.
I wasn't saying "go out and rip PS/2 games kids, rip off Sega if you can, storm Nintendo!" What I am saying is... Activision isn't making money off of Barnstorming anymore. Why not release it into the public domain and have a legal repository of such. Why hold onto a license that isn't EVER going to be used, when the game is plenty of fun anyways?
I really like ROMs. I think that it is a shame that software companies get all pissed off about people trading software titles that they don't even publish anymore. I mean, how else are you going to get it? They aren't making any money off of the stores that trade antique games and such, and quite frankly, you don't always find what you're looking for at these stores. I can see it if the company actually plans on licensing out the game to someone, but really, all that comes out of the license is a rewrite, which is technically a different game, and probably utilizes new hardware and such. So what if I want to download Castlevania, the original one? If they come out with a new version for Nintendo's new system, it's not really going to be the original anyways. I am glad that ROMNet is around, its' a great idea... What I am not glad about is people holding onto licenses and letting such great games die. I hope that people can start to be kinder about such things and just let 10 their 10 year old games out into the public domain.
That was in reply to a question asking "I thought linux was FREE." As in, I was explaining where the $45 a box came from.
I know that I would MUCH rather pay for an S/390 than for the equivalent processing power in PC boxen. I also know that I would MUCH rather administer 1 of these than hundreds of those. That and my AC/Power can cope much better. I think that all in all, I'd be WAY happier with one of these with a decent stack of software running on it than with a handful of PCs.
The virtual machine software is what the additional cost is, not linux.
Heck. Why stop there? Use the virtual machine to run several different OS's and several hostnames. You could have hundreds of BSD virtual boxen and hundreds of Linux virtual boxen. Plan 9/Inferno clusters built in one box. A beowulf cluster of virtual machines all running on the same computer. Can you imagine... a beowulf cluster of virtual machines all running on the same machine *grin* (just think about the loss from overhead... it's a joke people). Heck, most trail mixes include something that nobody likes, so you could toss some CPU emulators in there and run every version of windows (sorry M$ fans, it had to be said).
Gotta love the idea of growing processors rather than building them. Talk about knocking the price down a notch. You could go to the drive through for all your semiconductor needs rather than having to mail order them, and you could afford a reasonable computer on a day's salary.
If American's started using the train more, that would be different, but fares would have to be reduced. That and getting some bullet trains. I love riding the Amtrak personally. Great to sit in the dining car sipping on a beer working at a laptop rather than behind the wheel of a car... and you meet the most interesting people.
This reminds me of the Discovery channel commercial with the meteors. Picture microbes doing this instead of meteors.
"On the Discovery channel I learn all about everything, including how to make everything from French pastries to nuclear explosives"
"I learned that meteors burn up in the atmosphere"
"AHHH, the atmosphere! The atmosphere!"
Poor microbes. They should test reentry. That would prove a lot too (not that this didn't).
Set deadlines for yourself, even if they are only fictitious. As the deadline approaches, you will feel pressure to do SOMETHING. That is the first step. The closer the deadline gets, the more work you will get done. It has always worked for me.
Picking from a set of stock colors doesn't make you very individual. That cow case, and the fishbowl... Those are individual.
It is funny that the USPS needs to bend over backwards to get customers these days. Now, they want to set you up with e-mail to justify their size. People are going through private carriers and other services these days, it's not just the internet. The USPS is a great service and all, but they are a federal business, why should they compete for customers? It's not like they will make more or less money this way. Still, it is a good idea, simply because if everyone has an e-mail address, good things should happen. What happens when we run out of USPS.gov e-mail addys? I mean, I'll probably have 19128232 after my last name as my e-mail. Lots to consider. Should be interesting... Good... They'll work on that. Whatever they develop coming out of this will have to be useful, if it is to work at all...
I post at +2. So 1 person modded it up. Also, by ubiquitous I meant in more than just the sense of the processing power. Which is what people generally think of when they think distributed computing. As for personal problems, it's really easy to knock on me as an AC. If you don't like me because I have a high karma, you're a rather immature person. I just enjoy talking on /. Earlier I had plenty modded down, and yet somehow, I didn't make a big fuss about it. Interesting how that is.
Notice the paragraph break. It was 2 separate topics. Should I have posted twice? I think that that would really be a waste of time. So, I posted 2 topics in one post. I didn't mean for it to be interpretted that way. Perhaps I should have used better punctuation or something. I was saying, Suns, everyone is familiar with them. Then I was saying Plan 9, few people outside of academia are familiar with it.
Sun Microsystems products are designed around a network paradigm. A lot of the distributed stuff we have today comes out of their work. Distributed being used in a bit more ubiquitous sense than necessarily meaning clustering the processor power.
Plan 9, as part of its design, is designed with distribution in mind. Check it out!
Yeah, I was aware of that, but thanks for the info. The other thing is, the hardware is different from flavor to flavor, right? Well, what if someone just happens to like grape, but wants the hardware that is in the cherry one?
I personally bought the LinuxPPC 1999 Distro for my Beige G3/300 tower and had problems installing the thing
Great, a somewhat normal color. I love the processors... I don't have a problem with colored cases... Why does every damned review of mac hardware have to mention, "Mine is a grape flavored mac, shaped like a cube!"
If it helps, my older one only has 5.
I post at +2 automatically. One would have to click the "No Score +1 Bonus" box in order to not post at +2.
That will teach me to leave my computer logged into /. Someone has been tinkering while I was out. Sorry folks.
Curse the need to make money for binding me to an office this week. DEFCONs tend to be pretty cool. It's unbelieveable how much they have grown and the audience that they have gained. It's now, as one would say "taken seriously."