The reccomendation that Port 25 be blocked except for the ISP's own mail servers sounds like it will work. However, for the tinfoil hat crowd and hardcore geek types, this can be a problem.
Why not force a liscencing scheme on it? For a nominal fee and/or some paperwork, you could force a paper trail leading to a meatbag human. For those that want to own their own mail server for technical reasons, this would not be a problem. But for spammer types, it would pretty much kill them.
Of course, you end up with the tinfoil body suit crowd who are paranoid enough to not want anyone to connect their e-mails to them. Forgetting for a moment that by having an internet account they already have a paper trail pointing at them, no body likes those people anyway. Therefore, them being unhappy should be a non-issue.
If your going to live in a capitolist socieity, you have to be aware that this sort of thing can happen. You cannot tie your personal prosperity, or the prosperity of that nation, to jobs that will be undercut.
So the textile and clothing industry has locally gone to shit. Either you find a way to stay competitive, or you tighten your belt, suck it up, and work at Walmart. You you retrain for a job that cannot be out sourced. Or you find a tall building and take the quickest possible route to the side walk.
If the work is simple enough that it requires little to no skill, or can be taught on the job, its not a job worth keeping. It sucks if its the only job you are qualified to do, I suppose. And I suppose that such a job is better then nothing.
Bemoaning the loss of a job you would never choose to yourself is just stupid in any event. Worry about your own bottom line. Unless you worked at the textile plant and now work at walmart, what cause have you to complain?
If it has to be recompiled, it will probably end up just being a download of a new.exe over Live. They would not need to download the graphics, because those could probably still be pulled from the disk.
The general consensus among my friends is that while making the old library of games available for the new platform is a hugely good thing, they are concerned about the apparant hardware spec.
After Sony and Microsoft making a huge deal of the processing power of their hardware, the rumors that Revolution will only be 2 - 3 times more powerful then the Gamecube (as opposed to 15 or so times more powerful for PS3 vs PS2)is somewhat troubling.
If any company can make games on weaker hardware that are better then offerings of competitors on faster hardware, it is Nintendo. But for 3rd party developers that lack Nintendo's pedigree, there may be some balking at putting new games on what appears to be an inferior platform.
The best chance for Revolution to succeed over PS3 or XBox 360 is for development on Revolution to be absurdly easy and cost effective. They may still lose out on having companies like EA target their platform, but can mitigate that by attracting publishers who are starting up and cannot afford to develop for the other platforms.
If Nintendo can attract enough developers to their platform, and have a heavy stream of new games coming out for their platform, they will do amazingly well.
Lots of new games + Abusrd amunts of old cheap games + low price of the console will allow Nintendo to succeed.
Of course, this is all speculation on my part. Until we know exactly what the hardware specs for Revolution are, being worried about the console being underpowerered are premature.
Since I am not any sort of legal expert, is there any reason why whistle blower laws dont at least indirectly apply?
I suppose that instead of exposing blatant wrong doing, they are instead exposing what could be considered gross negligence with the handling of sensitive information.
END COMMUNICATION
Any reason they should not be able to?
on
Safari vs. KHTML
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I suppose the typical GPL liscence states that you need to share your changes or otherwise make them available.
But in practice, I dont think there is much stopping any given company from using an open code base to use a more or less closed product. The BSD liscence specifically permits this.
Being the sort that does not care much one way or the other about this topic, is Apple doing anything that the liscence in question prohibits?
If not, then its permitted, and if its permitted, no use complaining. If your going to have a code base that open, then you should not be shocked when someone uses that liscence to their own advantage.
It appears that Bell and Telus (Canadas two largest telphone companies) were against regulation. Is it possible that a lack of regulation would have permitted Telus and Bell to pull some shenannigans with respect to Shaw / Rogers (two cable TV and cable internet providers) VOIP customers attempting to call POTS customers of Telus and Bell?
Also, for those whom compare this to regulating AOL Instant Messenger, the difference, I think, is that you cannot use that sort of client's voice capability to speak to someone using a simple telephone. The entire point of VOIP is that you can.
How about individual components that do their chosen functions well and are able to interact usefully with one another?
I want a video player that will play videos on my TV, and that can be accessed from my computer, and that can, in turn, be accessed by my computer.
I want a video game system that can be configured to play music other then that provided by the game (as the X-Box allows), and to be able to access music from whatever device is acting as a music server.
Convergence in functionality is good, if it means good interoperability. Convergence in hardware is OK if the features make sense. Some overlap is not too bad either. A DVD + Digital Cable box makes sense to me (both play encoded video). A DVD + Videogame system sort of makes sense (both use the same physical media). But a Videogame + Cable box does not make much sense to me.
Give me inteligent convergence, and I will be happy. Try to sell me a digital swiss army knife that does many things poorly, and I will just keep my money.
Some of the most evil bugs in any game are the ones caused by players going where they arent meant to, and wandering out of the level and into the black infinity, or falling through the gaming geometry. No jumping prevents most of that, and canned paths will fix the rest.
Its as annoying as hell, but as a game developer, I can see why they would do that.
I would say that reasonably well written and organized code does not need extensive documentation for you to come back to it later and maintain / extend it.
I would also say that such code by its self is totally inadequate if someone other then your self needs to come along and maintain / extend that code.
The real problem is not code in general, but code written under an immediately approaching deadline. I am in the ass end of a crunch that has gone on a bit longer then anyone would have liked it to. Code written this time last year is still pretty good. But code written in the last few months is pretty rough from a long term maintainability standpoint.
Therefore, I suggest this:
When writing new code, make it self documenting, and comment at your discretion.
When fixing bugs frantically in the ass end of the project, Comment extensively.
I have a co-worker who has young (approx 4 and 5 years old) children, and he also owns Doom 3 and Leisure suit Larry. Odds are that he would not want his childrent playing those games.
Then again, I dont think my co-worker would let his kids near his machine in any event, so the point is moot.
It is always painful to see an artist / athlete or whatever keep trying when they no longer appear to measure up to their prime.
But even if the artist's talent is no longer what it was, or the athlete is past their prime, its their choice to keep going or not. If the artist continues to enjoy performing, let him perform. If the athlete wants to keep playing, let him keep playing.
So as long as George Lucas is enjoying what he is doing, and making money at it, he should probably keep going. And if you dont like it, dont pay to watch it.
I for one admire that Lucas has kept creative control of his creation and is in a position to still profit off of it. I may not have liked the Phantom Menace, but its my fault for watching it, not his fault for making it.
Microsoft may be copying Apple, but what does it matter? As long as you sell more units then you would have otherwise, it basically makes it the right plan.
Does anyone really think that a company that eveyone beleives to use uncompetitive monopolistic tactics would balk at the shame of copying a competitor?
END COMMUNICATION
About Pre-Orders, and specialty vs Walmart
on
GameStop buys EB
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· Score: 1
Alot of people bash pre-orders and complain about how aggessive EB / Gamestop are in pushing them.
However, Pre-Orders are probably the safest way for a specialty shop to go. Ordinarily, they would only order as many copies as they think will sell. Pre-orders are guaranteed sales. They know that the copy will be bought. They dont have to waste shelf space on it.
In general, if you want to guarantee a game at launch, pre-order it. If you want to buy within a month or so of launch, go to Walmart and get the better price.
If you want to buy a game several months past its launch date, and its a B grade title, you need to go to a specialty shop.
The game is the same regardless where your buying it. Just know when you want it, and shop accordingly.
END COMMUNICATION
Think.. Who shops at Walmart for games
on
GameStop buys EB
·
· Score: 1
From what I read about the PSP launch, the specialty retailers sold out of PSP's reasonably often, while the Walmart / Target type places had plenty on hand.
The PSP appealed to hard core gamers willing to burn money for a PSP. More casual gamer types who tend to pick up games at Walmart were not about to burn that much for the console.
1) Nintendo has on occasion re-released old NES games for new platforms, so they are still able to make money off of those titles.
2) Many 8-bit games have new incarnations, and as far as I know, its a good idea to control the IP in all its incarnations if you dont wish to lose that control.
3) This is about as blatant a case of piracy as one can name. It was both wholesale and flagrant. And Nintendo went after the source, not the customer.
This is not anything like the RIAA / MPAA suing individual users.
This game may be little more then a shallow attempt to cash in on the Godfather brand / franchise, but without control of the Godfather IP, it is out of Mr Coppola's hands. The best he can do is try to convince die hard fans to stay away from the game.
This is what happens when a director / author / whatever does not hold the rights to a franchise. It is also why I tend to admire George Lucas. Regardless of what you think of George Lucas' films, he has maintained an iron grip on his creation. So Coppola either was never in a position to have that kind of control over the franchise (in which case he has no real grounds to complain), or he sold those rights for a paycheque (in which case he sold his rights to complain right along with it).
That aside, What content creators fail to realize is that its ultimately the fans that decide the fate of the franchise, not its creators. If this game sells well, and it is well received by the fans, then it will become part of the greater franchise.
They can pass all the laws they want about copyrights for digital media. They will be largely inneffective as a deterrent.
Until someone breaking such a law shows up in court, this will all mean nothing anyway. I would prefer the petition succeeds, but sooner or later, the entire damn thing will come crashing down simply because the law that the petition is against is essentially unenforcible anyway.
Trying to pass laws preventing computers from copying information and using the internet from sharing that information is like trying to pass a law saying you can buy scissors, but cannot use scissors to cut things.
It makes no sense to pass a law preventing you from using an item that you are permitted to own in a manner it is designed to be used.
I bought a Game Cube at it's launch, because I was certain that there would be games on that platform that I would absolutely want to play. Once I overcome that barrier though, there are other games that I would buy for that console.
There are some games that you like enought to buy the console for, if you dont own that console.
There are some games that you like enough to buy if you already own the console that it comes out on.
Metroid Prime, Super Smash brothers, and Legend of Zelda can get me to buy a console. Wario Ware, Soul Calibur 2, or Pikmin cannot get me to buy a console.
But a few role playing actors does imply a consistent supply of Live Content / Game Events. This will permit those intrested do live quests and have some direction / goal to their gamplay, rather then playing "Click the 3D Monster to Death".
For any game that comes out on any console, the platform owner takes a royalty cut. By taking a smaller royalty cut, Namco can potentially earn more money on the title then they could by going to all 3 platforms.
I would assume that Sony negotiated this with the following points.
1) A large number of people who bought the game on X-Box or Gamecube probably also owned a PS2, and bought that version based on either graphics or Link.
2) If Soul Calibur 2 was PS2 exclusive, it would probably have sold nearly the same as a result.
3) In exchange for PS2 Exclusivity, we will take a smaller cut of the final sale.
Namco, being a smart developer that likes money, probably agreed, but likley left themselves some loop holes allowing them to port it to all the next gen platforms.
Slashdot Mirror
The reccomendation that Port 25 be blocked except for the ISP's own mail servers sounds like it will work. However, for the tinfoil hat crowd and hardcore geek types, this can be a problem.
Why not force a liscencing scheme on it? For a nominal fee and/or some paperwork, you could force a paper trail leading to a meatbag human. For those that want to own their own mail server for technical reasons, this would not be a problem. But for spammer types, it would pretty much kill them.
Of course, you end up with the tinfoil body suit crowd who are paranoid enough to not want anyone to connect their e-mails to them. Forgetting for a moment that by having an internet account they already have a paper trail pointing at them, no body likes those people anyway. Therefore, them being unhappy should be a non-issue.
END COMMUNICATION
If your going to live in a capitolist socieity, you have to be aware that this sort of thing can happen. You cannot tie your personal prosperity, or the prosperity of that nation, to jobs that will be undercut.
So the textile and clothing industry has locally gone to shit. Either you find a way to stay competitive, or you tighten your belt, suck it up, and work at Walmart. You you retrain for a job that cannot be out sourced. Or you find a tall building and take the quickest possible route to the side walk.
If the work is simple enough that it requires little to no skill, or can be taught on the job, its not a job worth keeping. It sucks if its the only job you are qualified to do, I suppose. And I suppose that such a job is better then nothing.
Bemoaning the loss of a job you would never choose to yourself is just stupid in any event. Worry about your own bottom line. Unless you worked at the textile plant and now work at walmart, what cause have you to complain?
END COMMUNICATION
If it has to be recompiled, it will probably end up just being a download of a new .exe over Live. They would not need to download the graphics, because those could probably still be pulled from the disk.
END COMMUNICATION
The general consensus among my friends is that while making the old library of games available for the new platform is a hugely good thing, they are concerned about the apparant hardware spec.
After Sony and Microsoft making a huge deal of the processing power of their hardware, the rumors that Revolution will only be 2 - 3 times more powerful then the Gamecube (as opposed to 15 or so times more powerful for PS3 vs PS2)is somewhat troubling.
If any company can make games on weaker hardware that are better then offerings of competitors on faster hardware, it is Nintendo. But for 3rd party developers that lack Nintendo's pedigree, there may be some balking at putting new games on what appears to be an inferior platform.
The best chance for Revolution to succeed over PS3 or XBox 360 is for development on Revolution to be absurdly easy and cost effective. They may still lose out on having companies like EA target their platform, but can mitigate that by attracting publishers who are starting up and cannot afford to develop for the other platforms.
If Nintendo can attract enough developers to their platform, and have a heavy stream of new games coming out for their platform, they will do amazingly well.
Lots of new games + Abusrd amunts of old cheap games + low price of the console will allow Nintendo to succeed.
Of course, this is all speculation on my part. Until we know exactly what the hardware specs for Revolution are, being worried about the console being underpowerered are premature.
END COMMUNICATION
Since I am not any sort of legal expert, is there any reason why whistle blower laws dont at least indirectly apply?
I suppose that instead of exposing blatant wrong doing, they are instead exposing what could be considered gross negligence with the handling of sensitive information.
END COMMUNICATION
I suppose the typical GPL liscence states that you need to share your changes or otherwise make them available.
But in practice, I dont think there is much stopping any given company from using an open code base to use a more or less closed product. The BSD liscence specifically permits this.
Being the sort that does not care much one way or the other about this topic, is Apple doing anything that the liscence in question prohibits?
If not, then its permitted, and if its permitted, no use complaining. If your going to have a code base that open, then you should not be shocked when someone uses that liscence to their own advantage.
END COMMUNICATION
It appears that Bell and Telus (Canadas two largest telphone companies) were against regulation. Is it possible that a lack of regulation would have permitted Telus and Bell to pull some shenannigans with respect to Shaw / Rogers (two cable TV and cable internet providers) VOIP customers attempting to call POTS customers of Telus and Bell?
Also, for those whom compare this to regulating AOL Instant Messenger, the difference, I think, is that you cannot use that sort of client's voice capability to speak to someone using a simple telephone. The entire point of VOIP is that you can.
END COMMUNICATION
How about individual components that do their chosen functions well and are able to interact usefully with one another?
I want a video player that will play videos on my TV, and that can be accessed from my computer, and that can, in turn, be accessed by my computer.
I want a video game system that can be configured to play music other then that provided by the game (as the X-Box allows), and to be able to access music from whatever device is acting as a music server.
Convergence in functionality is good, if it means good interoperability. Convergence in hardware is OK if the features make sense. Some overlap is not too bad either. A DVD + Digital Cable box makes sense to me (both play encoded video). A DVD + Videogame system sort of makes sense (both use the same physical media). But a Videogame + Cable box does not make much sense to me.
Give me inteligent convergence, and I will be happy. Try to sell me a digital swiss army knife that does many things poorly, and I will just keep my money.
END COMMUNICATION
If you live in say, New York, and you order one item, maybe its shipped from Boston. Or maybe its shipped from California.
Its probably cheaper to ship over shorter distances, which would explain the discrepency.
END COMMUNICATION
If the movie sucked, they would just not put it on as many screens.
END COMMUNICATION
Some of the most evil bugs in any game are the ones caused by players going where they arent meant to, and wandering out of the level and into the black infinity, or falling through the gaming geometry. No jumping prevents most of that, and canned paths will fix the rest.
Its as annoying as hell, but as a game developer, I can see why they would do that.
END COMMUNIATION
I would say that reasonably well written and organized code does not need extensive documentation for you to come back to it later and maintain / extend it.
I would also say that such code by its self is totally inadequate if someone other then your self needs to come along and maintain / extend that code.
The real problem is not code in general, but code written under an immediately approaching deadline. I am in the ass end of a crunch that has gone on a bit longer then anyone would have liked it to. Code written this time last year is still pretty good. But code written in the last few months is pretty rough from a long term maintainability standpoint.
Therefore, I suggest this:
When writing new code, make it self documenting, and comment at your discretion.
When fixing bugs frantically in the ass end of the project, Comment extensively.
END COMMUNICATION
I have a co-worker who has young (approx 4 and 5 years old) children, and he also owns Doom 3 and Leisure suit Larry. Odds are that he would not want his childrent playing those games.
Then again, I dont think my co-worker would let his kids near his machine in any event, so the point is moot.
END COMMUNICATION
It is always painful to see an artist / athlete or whatever keep trying when they no longer appear to measure up to their prime.
But even if the artist's talent is no longer what it was, or the athlete is past their prime, its their choice to keep going or not. If the artist continues to enjoy performing, let him perform. If the athlete wants to keep playing, let him keep playing.
So as long as George Lucas is enjoying what he is doing, and making money at it, he should probably keep going. And if you dont like it, dont pay to watch it.
I for one admire that Lucas has kept creative control of his creation and is in a position to still profit off of it. I may not have liked the Phantom Menace, but its my fault for watching it, not his fault for making it.
END COMMUNICATION
Microsoft may be copying Apple, but what does it matter? As long as you sell more units then you would have otherwise, it basically makes it the right plan.
Does anyone really think that a company that eveyone beleives to use uncompetitive monopolistic tactics would balk at the shame of copying a competitor?
END COMMUNICATION
Alot of people bash pre-orders and complain about how aggessive EB / Gamestop are in pushing them.
However, Pre-Orders are probably the safest way for a specialty shop to go. Ordinarily, they would only order as many copies as they think will sell. Pre-orders are guaranteed sales. They know that the copy will be bought. They dont have to waste shelf space on it.
In general, if you want to guarantee a game at launch, pre-order it. If you want to buy within a month or so of launch, go to Walmart and get the better price.
If you want to buy a game several months past its launch date, and its a B grade title, you need to go to a specialty shop.
The game is the same regardless where your buying it. Just know when you want it, and shop accordingly.
END COMMUNICATION
From what I read about the PSP launch, the specialty retailers sold out of PSP's reasonably often, while the Walmart / Target type places had plenty on hand.
The PSP appealed to hard core gamers willing to burn money for a PSP. More casual gamer types who tend to pick up games at Walmart were not about to burn that much for the console.
END COMMUNICATION
I would say that Genre defining game has the following characteristics.
1) It sets the standard for its gameplay type.
2) It has signifigant retail success.
3) It is imitated.
The third one is very important. Metroid succeeds at the first two, but it is hardly imitated.
Diablo, Doom, Warcraft 2, Final Fantasy, Super Mario Brothers, and Street Fighter 2 are all genre defining.
END COMMUNICATION
1) Nintendo has on occasion re-released old NES games for new platforms, so they are still able to make money off of those titles.
2) Many 8-bit games have new incarnations, and as far as I know, its a good idea to control the IP in all its incarnations if you dont wish to lose that control.
3) This is about as blatant a case of piracy as one can name. It was both wholesale and flagrant. And Nintendo went after the source, not the customer.
This is not anything like the RIAA / MPAA suing individual users.
END COMMUNICATION
This game may be little more then a shallow attempt to cash in on the Godfather brand / franchise, but without control of the Godfather IP, it is out of Mr Coppola's hands. The best he can do is try to convince die hard fans to stay away from the game.
This is what happens when a director / author / whatever does not hold the rights to a franchise. It is also why I tend to admire George Lucas. Regardless of what you think of George Lucas' films, he has maintained an iron grip on his creation. So Coppola either was never in a position to have that kind of control over the franchise (in which case he has no real grounds to complain), or he sold those rights for a paycheque (in which case he sold his rights to complain right along with it).
That aside, What content creators fail to realize is that its ultimately the fans that decide the fate of the franchise, not its creators. If this game sells well, and it is well received by the fans, then it will become part of the greater franchise.
END COMMUNICATION
They can pass all the laws they want about copyrights for digital media. They will be largely inneffective as a deterrent.
Until someone breaking such a law shows up in court, this will all mean nothing anyway. I would prefer the petition succeeds, but sooner or later, the entire damn thing will come crashing down simply because the law that the petition is against is essentially unenforcible anyway.
Trying to pass laws preventing computers from copying information and using the internet from sharing that information is like trying to pass a law saying you can buy scissors, but cannot use scissors to cut things.
It makes no sense to pass a law preventing you from using an item that you are permitted to own in a manner it is designed to be used.
END COMMUNICATION
A clairification...
I bought a Game Cube at it's launch, because I was certain that there would be games on that platform that I would absolutely want to play. Once I overcome that barrier though, there are other games that I would buy for that console.
There are some games that you like enought to buy the console for, if you dont own that console.
There are some games that you like enough to buy if you already own the console that it comes out on.
Metroid Prime, Super Smash brothers, and Legend of Zelda can get me to buy a console. Wario Ware, Soul Calibur 2, or Pikmin cannot get me to buy a console.
END COMMUNICATION
Your right.
But a few role playing actors does imply a consistent supply of Live Content / Game Events. This will permit those intrested do live quests and have some direction / goal to their gamplay, rather then playing "Click the 3D Monster to Death".
END COMMUNICATION
For any game that comes out on any console, the platform owner takes a royalty cut. By taking a smaller royalty cut, Namco can potentially earn more money on the title then they could by going to all 3 platforms.
I would assume that Sony negotiated this with the following points.
1) A large number of people who bought the game on X-Box or Gamecube probably also owned a PS2, and bought that version based on either graphics or Link.
2) If Soul Calibur 2 was PS2 exclusive, it would probably have sold nearly the same as a result.
3) In exchange for PS2 Exclusivity, we will take a smaller cut of the final sale.
Namco, being a smart developer that likes money, probably agreed, but likley left themselves some loop holes allowing them to port it to all the next gen platforms.
END COMMUNICATION
I own a the Gamecube version of Soul Calibur. I only buy consoles if a game will be on that console that I absolutely must own.
I will buy Soul Calibur 3 for GCN. I will not buy it for PS2.
Of course, given the installed base of the PS2 vs the Gamecube, I somehow doubt that my input on this will influence Namco though.
END COMMUNICATION