Well I'm ready to jump onto [buffering...] this right away. I kid but at least with OTA, cable, or satellite I've never had that particular issue. I think online has a ways to go before it's a replacement.* At least with DVD's , Satellite, and OTA when the weather knocks out service, a generator fixes that.
*There's also the quality issue. Buying a HDTV set but getting at most 720p content.
Between this and the recent story about how they're going to require home routers to maintain logs, we're completely fucked. Everything decent about the internet has been shot in the ass.
That's the thing about alternatives. Storage. Also unlike wind solar panels block the ground underneath big time. One has to wonder about the effect if solar becomes a bigger source.
"And if you do pay the big bucks to a publisher for access to a scientific paper, there's no assurance that you'll be able to read it, unless you've spent your life learning to decipher them. "
"Most people don't know how to turn on WEP or WPA encryption on their wireless routers let along find how to turn on logging and setting a backup routine to keep years of data."
Turning it on was easy. Getting it to work properly was the hard part.
One of the things I've noticed about consumer networking equipment, even the good stuff isn't robust compared to say commercial equipment.
I've lost count the number of times I've had to reboot either the computer, the router, or the modem, due to a problem.
"2. It will require expertise which most people simply don't have, forcing everybody to hire IT professionals to manage their home networks. (Ask your congerssperson if they know how to set up such a log without enlisting the help of an expert. Then ask them how a working-class family could ever afford to hire such help simply to use the Internet on their home laptops.)"
I remember a time when content ripping and P2P downloading required an "expert". Not anymore.
"The last six games I have bought are still in the original packaging unopened. Over the years I have spent a small fortune on games, that after purchase turned out to be complete piles of steaming dog crap. I refuse to buy a game now unless I have downloaded it and played it for at least a few hours and enjoyed it."
Two things. Are those six unopened games "steaming dog crap" because someone said they where? Two the concept of a demo was invented specifically to address the "steaming dog crap" argument.
"The points he makes in the Gamasutra summary sound remarkably clueful for the co-founder of a semi-major media firm. He seems to essentially "get it", that when selling content you're in a market, and if you're failing to sell as much as you'd want, the best solution is to figure out how you're failing to succeed in the market rather than whining about pirates."
Are we saying that piracy has no influence on success?
"1. Price points are not given from God. There's a supply/demand curve, and if you price things higher, you'll get more profit per item but sell fewer items. What shape this curve takes, and where you ought to locate yourself on it, can vary on a lot of factors, and it's your job as a company selling things to research that, rather than decide "games cost $50/$60, and that's that". Maybe they should cost $20, maybe they should cost $100, maybe it varies based on the game and your goals."
And the local economic climate. That's why items can cost different prices in different countries. We're ok with that, right?
"(e.g. region-locked DVDs making it impossible for them to buy a legit copy)"
Selling the rights to a local company can do that too. Not to mention cultural differences can play a part.
"3. Along the lines of #2, DRM can be counter-productive, by making the legit copy seem like a bigger hassle than the cracked copy off Bittorrent. People who are willing to give you money for something they like may not be willing to give you money if you come off seeming like you hate your customers."
Will the real pirates please line up against the wall!
That was many years ago when we used dial-up connection over phone line. One day we just couldn't get connected and I asked around neighbors, who couldn't either. Later the in the local TV news it was revealed the ISP's server room exploded...
"Not only does the photographer get a high-quality description of what's in their photo, but the main Astrometry.net project gets a new image to add to its storehouse of knowledge."
Dear Astronomy Buff. You have an excellent picture of a cruising UFO.
These kind of texts are pretty impossible to translate perfectly from Swedish to English, unfortunatly it get even more tedious in the translation, but you get the general idea.
(*) We actually never had it as bad as the French, we have never ever had feudalism (the closest thing we had was the thrall system, it was graduatelly outlawed until 1335 and was never as bad as the continental feudal system). With the exception of a few short lived (literally) despots we had an almost-democracy with elected kings and queens (it was kind of like the US Presidency, but they usually had less power, was not elected for a specific period, had to have their own private army (or be buddies with people who had one) and only landowners could vote) until Christian the Tyrant 1520-21. A weaker kind of parliamentarism continued to exist even under the new era of hereditary monarcy (that was actually instituted by the man who defeatad Christian the Tyrant, Gustav Vasa). Oh, and every free man had the right to say whatever he wanted (freedom of speak), at least at the Ting (Tingsfrid), he could get killed afterwards though.
Quoted in entirety because it is informative, insightful, and the reason "countless news agencies" don't have anything to worry from profiting from the work they do. Be they Swedish or USA.
"This, btw, is in my opinion the real reason AMD bought ATI. AMD wanted to work toward having a solution for that high volume market, and seemed to think they needed to own ATI to do it."
I think you're partially right. If they indeed wanted entry into the business graphics market. Matrox would have been a better purchase. But ATI makes better GPUs and they wanted entry there as well. It's easier to scale down a high-end GPU than it is to raise up a low-end GPU.
Well that'll never happen for the simple reason that CPUs and GPUs are different architectures geared towards different processing models. At best you'll have a GPU/CPU combination aka CPU/coprocessor. That's one of the reasons AMD bought ATI. For Intel to stay in this race they have to have a decent GPU to go with their CPUs. And Nvidia needs a good CPU to go with their GPU. Everyone's approaching this from their strengths towards their needs.
"If that theory flies in court, I hope someone will similarly prosecute the countless news agencies that benefit on a daily basis from the assorted illegal acts on which they report."
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
"At the heart of this issue is that the CPU has run its course and the soul of the PC is shifting quickly to the GPU. This is clearly an attempt to stifle innovation to protect a decaying CPU business.""
why can't our terrestrial equipment be this efficient?
It can be, it's just too expensive or annoying. My PC has all these high tech power saving features. I've disabled most of them because they're annoying.
Apparently the feature that turned off the user was left on.
"Not in FEAR, though. In FEAR they -will- wait for you. They'll also try and go around and flank you if there is any other way. I remember one instance I entered a room and took some cover. I waited for them to come get me. They didn't. I kept waiting. They never popped out. Just as I was about to leave, a guy shoots me in the back. He had traversed no less than four hallways, countless turns and obstacles, and climbed a ladder to reach me. THAT's good AI. "
The AI in the original Far Cry was good as well. I had one of those mutants come all the way around the mountain I was on to get me.
Slashdot Mirror
Well I'm ready to jump onto [buffering...] this right away. I kid but at least with OTA, cable, or satellite I've never had that particular issue. I think online has a ways to go before it's a replacement.* At least with DVD's , Satellite, and OTA when the weather knocks out service, a generator fixes that.
*There's also the quality issue. Buying a HDTV set but getting at most 720p content.
Between this and the recent story about how they're going to require home routers to maintain logs, we're completely fucked. Everything decent about the internet has been shot in the ass.
Fuck, this shit sucks.
Slashdot has been shot...Where?!
That's the thing about alternatives. Storage. Also unlike wind solar panels block the ground underneath big time. One has to wonder about the effect if solar becomes a bigger source.
"And if you do pay the big bucks to a publisher for access to a scientific paper, there's no assurance that you'll be able to read it, unless you've spent your life learning to decipher them. "
I predict the dumbing down of science.
"Most people don't know how to turn on WEP or WPA encryption on their wireless routers let along find how to turn on logging and setting a backup routine to keep years of data."
Turning it on was easy. Getting it to work properly was the hard part.
One of the things I've noticed about consumer networking equipment, even the good stuff isn't robust compared to say commercial equipment.
I've lost count the number of times I've had to reboot either the computer, the router, or the modem, due to a problem.
"Nudity is not illegal regardless of age, again according to the U.S. S.C. which is why nude photos of children are sold in public stores."
They are? Where?
The lumber industry is in on it!
"2. It will require expertise which most people simply don't have, forcing everybody to hire IT professionals to manage their home networks. (Ask your congerssperson if they know how to set up such a log without enlisting the help of an expert. Then ask them how a working-class family could ever afford to hire such help simply to use the Internet on their home laptops.)"
I remember a time when content ripping and P2P downloading required an "expert". Not anymore.
"The last six games I have bought are still in the original packaging unopened. Over the years I have spent a small fortune on games, that after purchase turned out to be complete piles of steaming dog crap. I refuse to buy a game now unless I have downloaded it and played it for at least a few hours and enjoyed it."
Two things. Are those six unopened games "steaming dog crap" because someone said they where? Two the concept of a demo was invented specifically to address the "steaming dog crap" argument.
"Piracy on the whole would be expected to affect each player in the industry equally. "
Upon what basis would you make that assertion?
"The points he makes in the Gamasutra summary sound remarkably clueful for the co-founder of a semi-major media firm. He seems to essentially "get it", that when selling content you're in a market, and if you're failing to sell as much as you'd want, the best solution is to figure out how you're failing to succeed in the market rather than whining about pirates."
Are we saying that piracy has no influence on success?
"1. Price points are not given from God. There's a supply/demand curve, and if you price things higher, you'll get more profit per item but sell fewer items. What shape this curve takes, and where you ought to locate yourself on it, can vary on a lot of factors, and it's your job as a company selling things to research that, rather than decide "games cost $50/$60, and that's that". Maybe they should cost $20, maybe they should cost $100, maybe it varies based on the game and your goals."
And the local economic climate. That's why items can cost different prices in different countries. We're ok with that, right?
"(e.g. region-locked DVDs making it impossible for them to buy a legit copy)"
Selling the rights to a local company can do that too. Not to mention cultural differences can play a part.
"3. Along the lines of #2, DRM can be counter-productive, by making the legit copy seem like a bigger hassle than the cracked copy off Bittorrent. People who are willing to give you money for something they like may not be willing to give you money if you come off seeming like you hate your customers."
Will the real pirates please line up against the wall!
That was many years ago when we used dial-up connection over phone line. One day we just couldn't get connected and I asked around neighbors, who couldn't either. Later the in the local TV news it was revealed the ISP's server room exploded...
Back when filesharing was still in the lab. :)
"Not only does the photographer get a high-quality description of what's in their photo, but the main Astrometry.net project gets a new image to add to its storehouse of knowledge."
Dear Astronomy Buff. You have an excellent picture of a cruising UFO.
This is in Sweden, not the USA. The US constitution does not apply.
But we do have all the content in First Amendment to the United States Constitution in our own constitution: semi-official translation of The Swedish Constitution (another easier to navigate translation), including a Freedom of The Press Act. It was not just the French Revolution you inspired in the 18th century, there was a lot of European countries that started to evolve their own parliamentarism(*).
These kind of texts are pretty impossible to translate perfectly from Swedish to English, unfortunatly it get even more tedious in the translation, but you get the general idea.
(*) We actually never had it as bad as the French, we have never ever had feudalism (the closest thing we had was the thrall system, it was graduatelly outlawed until 1335 and was never as bad as the continental feudal system). With the exception of a few short lived (literally) despots we had an almost-democracy with elected kings and queens (it was kind of like the US Presidency, but they usually had less power, was not elected for a specific period, had to have their own private army (or be buddies with people who had one) and only landowners could vote) until Christian the Tyrant 1520-21. A weaker kind of parliamentarism continued to exist even under the new era of hereditary monarcy (that was actually instituted by the man who defeatad Christian the Tyrant, Gustav Vasa). Oh, and every free man had the right to say whatever he wanted (freedom of speak), at least at the Ting (Tingsfrid), he could get killed afterwards though.
Quoted in entirety because it is informative, insightful, and the reason "countless news agencies" don't have anything to worry from profiting from the work they do. Be they Swedish or USA.
"This, btw, is in my opinion the real reason AMD bought ATI. AMD wanted to work toward having a solution for that high volume market, and seemed to think they needed to own ATI to do it."
I think you're partially right. If they indeed wanted entry into the business graphics market. Matrox would have been a better purchase. But ATI makes better GPUs and they wanted entry there as well. It's easier to scale down a high-end GPU than it is to raise up a low-end GPU.
Specifically why the "dying" x86 technology?
Well then the "countless news agencies" are safe then.
Well that'll never happen for the simple reason that CPUs and GPUs are different architectures geared towards different processing models. At best you'll have a GPU/CPU combination aka CPU/coprocessor. That's one of the reasons AMD bought ATI. For Intel to stay in this race they have to have a decent GPU to go with their CPUs. And Nvidia needs a good CPU to go with their GPU. Everyone's approaching this from their strengths towards their needs.
"If that theory flies in court, I hope someone will similarly prosecute the countless news agencies that benefit on a daily basis from the assorted illegal acts on which they report."
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
"At the heart of this issue is that the CPU has run its course and the soul of the PC is shifting quickly to the GPU. This is clearly an attempt to stifle innovation to protect a decaying CPU business.""
Sounds like he reads slashdot.
why can't our terrestrial equipment be this efficient?
It can be, it's just too expensive or annoying. My PC has all these high tech power saving features. I've disabled most of them because they're annoying.
Apparently the feature that turned off the user was left on.
"I would LOVE another no one lives forever and another SHOGO!!!!"
I suspect the mech level was a nod towards SHOGO.
"Not in FEAR, though. In FEAR they -will- wait for you. They'll also try and go around and flank you if there is any other way. I remember one instance I entered a room and took some cover. I waited for them to come get me. They didn't. I kept waiting. They never popped out. Just as I was about to leave, a guy shoots me in the back. He had traversed no less than four hallways, countless turns and obstacles, and climbed a ladder to reach me. THAT's good AI. "
The AI in the original Far Cry was good as well. I had one of those mutants come all the way around the mountain I was on to get me.
PsyX, Mirrors edge. And yes there's a penalty for using that feature.
Some simple experiments.