That was a great idea when casual copying was the norm; that is, when sneakernet's bandwidth was several orders of magnitude greater than any other link. But now that P2P is a fact of life, "casual copying" is unimportant. What's important is "casual acquisition", and as long as even one guy can crack the protection there is no significant barrier possible to casual acquisition.
Because this legislation CRIMINALIZES the sale of games to minors. *Criminalizes* is the key word, and you have to think about what that means. Your addition problem analogy is indeed appropriate here, because I simply cannot see jail time being a fitting penalty for selling a minor an M-rated game.
Heh. Looks like you didn't actually read the bill. Nobody's going to be sent to jail for violating this law.
Given that the majority of PS2 owners purchased their console when it was NOT the most technologically advanced console out there, what makes you think that owning the most gigahurtzy console will be important to them this time around?
Ah, "art": that most bloodied and sacred of semantic battlegrounds. For centuries it will be fought over by the classicists and the abstract impressionists, neither side ever holding the line for long, all for the right to apply the fortifying balm it exudes to one's tortured ego.
Nobody has the right to success, but everyone has the right to a fair and level playing field.
The hell with that. As a consumer, I use things like Google and Consumer Reports precisely to un-level the playing field. If I want a spatula, I don't care about allotting precisely 1/47th of my business to the 47 spatula stores out there. Instead, I want someone to whittle that number down to two or three spatula stores which I am likely to be happy patronizing. People trust Google precisely because their penalty box stuff usually works, and that's good enough for us. If YourFreeRingtones.com is pissed off that I trust someone who is telling me not to go there, well, tough toenails.
Now, I don't know about you, but I don't know ANY programmers that would do this. What would happen if something happened to your hardware (surge, heat, solar flare, misbehaving thread, etc.) and during your precious array loop something happened and your computer mis-interpreted your array length. You could have yourself a very fun infinite loop.
Sounds good. Tell me when you've finished protecting your code against, uh, solar flares. May I suggest using lots of comments? They absorb neutrinos.
Ah, but that's the beauty of it. Luiz has shown an incredible resilience against the forces of bloat. IIRC, the language syntax is actually a little simpler now than it was two years ago.
Rated M, what does that mean? Does it mean that you have to 18 yrs or older to buy the game? Nope. Does it mean you have to have your parents with you to buy the game? Nope. It means nothing at all. It's voluntarily rated M as a warning to parents who may be buying the game for their preacher's kid, nothing more. There is no legal binding behind it. Perhaps you should review the legal status of movie ratings in the US.
It's difficult for me to describe just how worthless and futile it is to scrutinize an analogy over the internet. It's a little like nailing Jello to a swimming pool.
I've observed this interesting thing about many (most?) people who started using computers at a young age, have been using computers for quite some time, and are generally proficient at doing so: They do not notice or remember the extra little things they have to do. If they accidentally type a backslash right before pressing enter, they'll know how to recover from that, instead of retyping the command. (For that matter, they know the difference between a slash and a backslash.) They'll notice an extra period in an IP address and remove it. If a form lacks an "OK" button, they'll know to press enter. They know where their files download to, and they're capable of navigating a shell there. These are the sorts of things that fall under the category of "good user interface design" and particularly "usability testing", which is something Linux is sorely in need of. Microsoft, AOL, and Apple spend millions of dollars on it, and for their money they have a system which does not trip up or confound the poor user. I have personally done a fair amount of commercial-quality usability testing, and the biggest lesson is that the really confusing things are usually not the things that we would consider even slightly confusing. To put it shortly: If you aren't them, you really do not know.
Because people who use Linux generally don't need the extra help, they are genuinely confused by how every few months some poor columnist shrugs and says "Linux still not ready for the desktop!" And more than that, they are pissed, because they've used Linux for quite some time and seen it become more and more user-friendly (relatively speaking) and know that it's been quite some time since they had to do anything as heavy as recompiling the kernel. So while I understand and believe your experiences, you need to realize that the troubles people have are real (well, okay, not in the case above) and that well-intentioned Linux boosterism alone is not going to make them go away.
The only way I can see a sale to an "underage" child being reported is by a parent who notices the game being played (or on the floor/shelf/etc.) but not having had purchased it for the child....or by secret shoppers who are already used to monitor movie ticket sales, alcohol sales, tobacco sales, pornography sales... pretty much anything age-restricted. Seriously, I know nobody reads the articles, but this was in the summary text.
No, seriously. As someone entering the video game development industry, and who doesn't want to see the industry shackled by a decade of Hayes-code-esque "decency laws", I think it's about time for retailers to start picking up the slack WRT enforcement. Sooner or later the Jack Thompsons of the world are not going to be batshit insane self-destructors, and when that happens we need to be able to show that heavy-handed legislation is not the solution to keeping video games age-appropriate.
I tried the first thingy and it said something about "dependencies" and "non-free". I tried the second thingy and it said something about "libpong" or something and not being able to continue. For god's sake, I just want to watch this video of my grandkids, like I could do with AOL. AOL is a much friendlier OS than Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
That was a great idea when casual copying was the norm; that is, when sneakernet's bandwidth was several orders of magnitude greater than any other link. But now that P2P is a fact of life, "casual copying" is unimportant. What's important is "casual acquisition", and as long as even one guy can crack the protection there is no significant barrier possible to casual acquisition.
Ten years ago, I would have assumed he was kidding.
"Sire! People posting on an internet tech forum have expressed solidarity with the protesters!"
"They must have been watching us! Quickly, to the escape pods!"
Given that the majority of PS2 owners purchased their console when it was NOT the most technologically advanced console out there, what makes you think that owning the most gigahurtzy console will be important to them this time around?
As long as hitchhikers primarily need to know how to evolve a Pikachu into a Raichu, and how Benjamin Disraeli has been referenced in pop culture.
I suppose. Dadaists, like every single other faction in this war, believe themselves to be above the fray.
Ah, "art": that most bloodied and sacred of semantic battlegrounds. For centuries it will be fought over by the classicists and the abstract impressionists, neither side ever holding the line for long, all for the right to apply the fortifying balm it exudes to one's tortured ego.
Wow, a Monopoly snob. I didn't know they existed.
The hell with that. As a consumer, I use things like Google and Consumer Reports precisely to un-level the playing field. If I want a spatula, I don't care about allotting precisely 1/47th of my business to the 47 spatula stores out there. Instead, I want someone to whittle that number down to two or three spatula stores which I am likely to be happy patronizing. People trust Google precisely because their penalty box stuff usually works, and that's good enough for us. If YourFreeRingtones.com is pissed off that I trust someone who is telling me not to go there, well, tough toenails.
Sounds good. Tell me when you've finished protecting your code against, uh, solar flares. May I suggest using lots of comments? They absorb neutrinos.
What jfengel meant to say was:
List s = new ArrayList<Integer>();
List l = s;
l.add("foo");
Ah, but that's the beauty of it. Luiz has shown an incredible resilience against the forces of bloat. IIRC, the language syntax is actually a little simpler now than it was two years ago.
Nah, it's okay. It'll just take a little longer.
Rated M, what does that mean? Does it mean that you have to 18 yrs or older to buy the game? Nope. Does it mean you have to have your parents with you to buy the game? Nope. It means nothing at all. It's voluntarily rated M as a warning to parents who may be buying the game for their preacher's kid, nothing more. There is no legal binding behind it.
Perhaps you should review the legal status of movie ratings in the US.
It's difficult for me to describe just how worthless and futile it is to scrutinize an analogy over the internet. It's a little like nailing Jello to a swimming pool.
Worked fine for me.
I'll bet it did.
I've observed this interesting thing about many (most?) people who started using computers at a young age, have been using computers for quite some time, and are generally proficient at doing so: They do not notice or remember the extra little things they have to do. If they accidentally type a backslash right before pressing enter, they'll know how to recover from that, instead of retyping the command. (For that matter, they know the difference between a slash and a backslash.) They'll notice an extra period in an IP address and remove it. If a form lacks an "OK" button, they'll know to press enter. They know where their files download to, and they're capable of navigating a shell there. These are the sorts of things that fall under the category of "good user interface design" and particularly "usability testing", which is something Linux is sorely in need of. Microsoft, AOL, and Apple spend millions of dollars on it, and for their money they have a system which does not trip up or confound the poor user. I have personally done a fair amount of commercial-quality usability testing, and the biggest lesson is that the really confusing things are usually not the things that we would consider even slightly confusing. To put it shortly: If you aren't them, you really do not know.
Because people who use Linux generally don't need the extra help, they are genuinely confused by how every few months some poor columnist shrugs and says "Linux still not ready for the desktop!" And more than that, they are pissed, because they've used Linux for quite some time and seen it become more and more user-friendly (relatively speaking) and know that it's been quite some time since they had to do anything as heavy as recompiling the kernel. So while I understand and believe your experiences, you need to realize that the troubles people have are real (well, okay, not in the case above) and that well-intentioned Linux boosterism alone is not going to make them go away.
What? Are you being facetious, or was that actually serious?
The only way I can see a sale to an "underage" child being reported is by a parent who notices the game being played (or on the floor/shelf/etc.) but not having had purchased it for the child. ...or by secret shoppers who are already used to monitor movie ticket sales, alcohol sales, tobacco sales, pornography sales... pretty much anything age-restricted. Seriously, I know nobody reads the articles, but this was in the summary text.
No, seriously. As someone entering the video game development industry, and who doesn't want to see the industry shackled by a decade of Hayes-code-esque "decency laws", I think it's about time for retailers to start picking up the slack WRT enforcement. Sooner or later the Jack Thompsons of the world are not going to be batshit insane self-destructors, and when that happens we need to be able to show that heavy-handed legislation is not the solution to keeping video games age-appropriate.
apt-get packagename OR ./configure && make install
I tried the first thingy and it said something about "dependencies" and "non-free". I tried the second thingy and it said something about "libpong" or something and not being able to continue. For god's sake, I just want to watch this video of my grandkids, like I could do with AOL. AOL is a much friendlier OS than Linux.
Sounds fine, as long as it's coupled with a plausible explanation for god.
I'm not trying to insult you or make ad hominem attacks, but do you realize your signoff can be abbreviated to DiMWit?
The penguin lobby is pretty powerful here.
Will the ball of unfinished games be able to roll through the tubes of the internet?