I agree with everything you said, but not the following:
Regarding DRM, finding some clever way to open a vault and remove the gold within makes it no less theft. Finding clever ways around DRM to extract the protected work within makes the act no less theft.
First of all, copyright infringement != theft.
But even if we ignore that, your analogy does not hold true. If I buy gold protected by a vault, it's perfectly okay for me to find a clever way of removing the gold within and carry it wherever I want to, without asking for anyone's permission. If I buy a song protected by DRM, it should be perfectly okay for me to find a clever way of extracting the song within and use it on whatever device I want to, without asking for anyone's permission.
Why anyone would want to buy gold protected by a vault of which only someone else knows the combination, I don't know. Same with DRM.
African internet speed or European internet speed?
With apologies to Monty Python:
Soldier #1: It's a simple question of bandwidth! A low-bandwidth connection could not support a high-bandwidth ddos attack. Arthur: Well, it doesn't matter. Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here? Soldier #1: Listen. In order to maintain internet speed, a connection needs to route packages forty-three times every second, right? Arthur: Please! Soldier #1: Am I right? Arthur: I'm not interested! Soldier #2: It could be connected through the African internet! Soldier #1: Oh, yeah, an African internet maybe, but not a European internet. That's my point. Soldier #2: Oh, yeah, I agree with that. Arthur: Will you ask your master if he wants to join my court at Camelot?! Soldier #1: But then of course a-- African internets are non-migratory. Soldier #2: Oh, yeah... Soldier #1: So, they couldn't bring a spam mail back anyway... [clop clop clop]
The "30" in this case is represented by two 8-sided dice -- clever enough but very difficult to read. And why 8s? Why not 20s? Wouldn't that make more sense if we were trying to be clever? (Ed. It's been pointed out since I wrote this that it's actually a d8 and a d10, though my opinion stands.)
Why not 20s? I guess because d20s don't have a "0".
There's a database called RIAA Radar that can tell you if an album is from a RIAA label.
They even have a nifty little script that you can save as a bookmark in your browser, and when you are on an amazon page you can just click it and it opens a page with RIAA information about the album in question.
I'm using it for a while now and it's quite handy.
That's funny, just last weekend, I showed my new iPod to my brother-in-law. I placed it into his palm "Look at this!" First thing he said: "What's that, a bar of soap?"
Ah, now I understand why the block occupied by SOCOM2 on the memory card is 3MB big (I had to buy a new one, btw). That's an insane size just for game data, but understandable if it was intended to be used for patches.
FYI, Socom2 was released in Europe only two days ago. About 6000 players already registered, with about 1500 playing in the evening. I hope Sony will soon introduce an international server, so that we can have some inter-continental matches (currently, the american, asian and european servers are not connected).
1100 Euro is not a bad price for a custom made sword of this quality. I am already a customer of Rob (the bladesmith), having bought two swords a couple of years ago, a longsword and claymore, and I'm very pleased with the quality of his work. These are real swords, not show-pieces. He customizes the swords to your wishes, e.g. with special engravings or customizing the length of your two-handed sword to your size. Recommended.
It didn't generate "levels", but if you'll recall, the Monster Rancher series let you put any CD in the machine, and it would generate the monsters you fought with based on the CD. It blew my mind when I first heard about it.
Oh, I didn't know that one - that's certainly very cool, too. Was this pre- or post-Vib Ribbon?
Personally, I always wished I had a game for car rides or something which would have VR goggles, and make a level based on what I was actually seeing, working all of the enemies into my environment, and I could shoot them with a light gun, or more a cursor around with a special mouse of some sort. Yup, but we prolly don't have the processing power for real-time processing video input in that way today. The new Vib game at least uses static pictures in a similar way (without the VR bit, of course), so there's a step in that direction.
I think he's worthy of an award that is "acknowledging developers who have taken risks to break new ground."
Maybe he didn't have such an impact on the game scene as Activision (yet), but he's definitely pushing into new directions. IMO you shouldn't compare Activision and Matsuura directly (Activision may have pioneered the 3rd party development in the 80s - Matsuura is innovating in a completely different playing field).
Nowadays, where most game companies crank out sequel after sequel or variations of known themes, here's a guy that had the guts to make Vib Ribbon, a game which is not relying on fancy effects (it's a black and white game), but instead tries something that no other game has tried before, generating the levels from normal audio CDs - using your favorite songs as soundtrack and level designer. If that ain't breaking new ground, it don't know what is...
Yup, TSR went bankrupt. Here's an old salon.com article which, interestingly, comes to the conclusion that TSR failed because it behaved like the Microsoft of RPG publishers: closed source and a lot of law suites. WotC published the rules for the new D&D under the so-called OGL (open gaming license), which has similarities to open source. Now everybody can write and even sell games using the D&D rules set. You just can't call it D&D.
In 1997, Wizards of the Coast, publishers of the Magic: The Gathering(R) trading card game, acquired TSR, and with it all the rights to D&D. They released the totally revamped 3rd Edition at GenCon 2000, which was a wild success. V3.5 was the most recent update.
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I agree with everything you said, but not the following:
Regarding DRM, finding some clever way to open a vault and remove the gold within makes it no less theft. Finding clever ways around DRM to extract the protected work within makes the act no less theft.
First of all, copyright infringement != theft.
But even if we ignore that, your analogy does not hold true. If I buy gold protected by a vault, it's perfectly okay for me to find a clever way of removing the gold within and carry it wherever I want to, without asking for anyone's permission. If I buy a song protected by DRM, it should be perfectly okay for me to find a clever way of extracting the song within and use it on whatever device I want to, without asking for anyone's permission.
Why anyone would want to buy gold protected by a vault of which only someone else knows the combination, I don't know. Same with DRM.
Would it help if you'd store your decryption key on a USB stick and lose/destroy it?
no kidding... how can you compare that dreck with something so sublime and beautiful as the complex intertwined plot of DOOM,
;)
your on mars... and there are DEMONS!
you cant make that shit up!
Hey, for all we know, this seems to be a too complex plot for making a Hollywood movie out of it
Well, I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords!
I'd mod you insightful if I had any points...
African internet speed or European internet speed?
With apologies to Monty Python:
Soldier #1: It's a simple question of bandwidth! A low-bandwidth connection could not support a high-bandwidth ddos attack.
Arthur: Well, it doesn't matter. Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here?
Soldier #1: Listen. In order to maintain internet speed, a connection needs to route packages forty-three times every second, right?
Arthur: Please!
Soldier #1: Am I right?
Arthur: I'm not interested!
Soldier #2: It could be connected through the African internet!
Soldier #1: Oh, yeah, an African internet maybe, but not a European internet. That's my point.
Soldier #2: Oh, yeah, I agree with that.
Arthur: Will you ask your master if he wants to join my court at Camelot?!
Soldier #1: But then of course a-- African internets are non-migratory.
Soldier #2: Oh, yeah...
Soldier #1: So, they couldn't bring a spam mail back anyway...
[clop clop clop]
The "30" in this case is represented by two 8-sided dice -- clever enough but very difficult to read. And why 8s? Why not 20s? Wouldn't that make more sense if we were trying to be clever? (Ed. It's been pointed out since I wrote this that it's actually a d8 and a d10, though my opinion stands.)
Why not 20s? I guess because d20s don't have a "0".
In Soviet Russia, a federal copyright enforcement czar from the US watches you!
There's a database called RIAA Radar that can tell you if an album is from a RIAA label.
They even have a nifty little script that you can save as a bookmark in your browser, and when you are on an amazon page you can just click it and it opens a page with RIAA information about the album in question.
I'm using it for a while now and it's quite handy.
I didn't hear of this bug before. Any more infos? (E.g. define "immediately") Thanks!
That's funny, just last weekend, I showed my new iPod to my brother-in-law. I placed it into his palm "Look at this!" First thing he said: "What's that, a bar of soap?"
Lest we end up watching pong for 90 minutes.
Pong - It's not just a game!... the Pong flash movie! (Not 90 minutes, but that's probably a good thing.)
Pong - It's not just a game!... the Pong flash movie ;)
How in hell's name was Jar-Jar offensive!? ;)
Innocent Kids use Jar-Jar as masturbation toys!
Not everyone has the time to read everything at a +2 threshhold, Mr. Anonymus Coward. And my post contained a link with further information. Geez.
Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: The Gathering, proposed to his wife with a custom Magic card called "Proposal".
Ah, now I understand why the block occupied by SOCOM2 on the memory card is 3MB big (I had to buy a new one, btw). That's an insane size just for game data, but understandable if it was intended to be used for patches.
FYI, Socom2 was released in Europe only two days ago. About 6000 players already registered, with about 1500 playing in the evening. I hope Sony will soon introduce an international server, so that we can have some inter-continental matches (currently, the american, asian and european servers are not connected).
1100 Euro is not a bad price for a custom made sword of this quality. I am already a customer of Rob (the bladesmith), having bought two swords a couple of years ago, a longsword and claymore, and I'm very pleased with the quality of his work. These are real swords, not show-pieces. He customizes the swords to your wishes, e.g. with special engravings or customizing the length of your two-handed sword to your size. Recommended.
It didn't generate "levels", but if you'll recall, the Monster Rancher series let you put any CD in the machine, and it would generate the monsters you fought with based on the CD. It blew my mind when I first heard about it.
Oh, I didn't know that one - that's certainly very cool, too. Was this pre- or post-Vib Ribbon?
Personally, I always wished I had a game for car rides or something which would have VR goggles, and make a level based on what I was actually seeing, working all of the enemies into my environment, and I could shoot them with a light gun, or more a cursor around with a special mouse of some sort.
Yup, but we prolly don't have the processing power for real-time processing video input in that way today. The new Vib game at least uses static pictures in a similar way (without the VR bit, of course), so there's a step in that direction.
I think he's worthy of an award that is "acknowledging developers who have taken risks to break new ground."
Maybe he didn't have such an impact on the game scene as Activision (yet), but he's definitely pushing into new directions. IMO you shouldn't compare Activision and Matsuura directly (Activision may have pioneered the 3rd party development in the 80s - Matsuura is innovating in a completely different playing field).
Nowadays, where most game companies crank out sequel after sequel or variations of known themes, here's a guy that had the guts to make Vib Ribbon, a game which is not relying on fancy effects (it's a black and white game), but instead tries something that no other game has tried before, generating the levels from normal audio CDs - using your favorite songs as soundtrack and level designer. If that ain't breaking new ground, it don't know what is...
Yup, TSR went bankrupt.
Here's an old salon.com article which, interestingly, comes to the conclusion that TSR failed because it behaved like the Microsoft of RPG publishers: closed source and a lot of law suites. WotC published the rules for the new D&D under the so-called OGL (open gaming license), which has similarities to open source. Now everybody can write and even sell games using the D&D rules set. You just can't call it D&D.
In 1997, Wizards of the Coast, publishers of the Magic: The Gathering(R) trading card game, acquired TSR, and with it all the rights to D&D. They released the totally revamped 3rd Edition at GenCon 2000, which was a wild success. V3.5 was the most recent update.
...but what the heck are "googled orks"?
Searched the web for orks. Results 1 - 10 of about 203,000.
>Maybe we should suggest a Sun Base to our deer leader
George is a deer leader? That explains some things.
The SSX soundtracks are great, and they introduced that cool mix-depending-on-how-well-you-play feature.
The soundtrack of the first Tenchu on PSone is prolly one of my favorite original soundtracks of all time. I'd like to have that one on CD...
Of course, GTAIII and GTA:VC have to be mentioned. What's better than a police chase with the classic station or your favorite 80's radio channel on?
Board game, card game and RPG recommendations for christmas: check out the Ogrecave's Christmas Guide 2003.