The aggravating thing about this is that even if they did approve building another power plant, it may not even help because technically the power plants we already have in California are sufficient for OUR purposes. The problem is that the power companies are exporting what used to be excess power to other states because it's MORE PROFITABLE.
Now that we need that excess power, we have to pay a lot more money so the power company doesn't LOSE money diverting that power to us instead of more desperate people outside CA. Needless to say, a lot of people think the power companies are "creating" this crisis to squeeze more money out of Californians. No evidence yet, but I wouldn't doubt it...
Did you say the "food is great" in the valley? From all of your comments, I don't think you know the Bay Area very well. Most people who have lived here for a few years agree (even me) that San Francisco restaurants are still the best anywhere in the Bay Area. San Jose still has to mature a little bit to attract the kind of world-class restaurants that San Francisco has -- but maybe it's only a matter of time...
And I'm not having a hard time staying out of my home-state of South Dakota (or Michigan, where I could've emigrated to 10 years ago)! I'll gladly stay here in sunny California and enjoy the geek culture!!
(How can you not like those want ads before movies? It's so cool to see a company where you know a person who works there and make fun of it/him/her!)
Everything does revolve around what we do here -- even San Francisco culture is beginning to be (willfully) eclipsed by the Valley culture. San Francisco used to be "the City" 5-10 years ago, but now that the valley is more "city-like" (populous, expensive to live in, interesting people and happenings), only "old-timers" call it that.
The valley and San Jose in particular have changed so much (in both good and bad ways) in just the past 3 years due to the influx of people and money that I hardly ever go to San Francisco any more (I used to go every weekend) -- no need to.
I think this ComDex press release is over-exaggerated. 3dfx is simply pulling out of making their *own* cards. This doesn't mean they're leaving their own market. It means they've re-discovered what a lot of electronics companies have -- OEM'ing and outsourcing is GOOD.
To the average gamer, 3dfx still has the strongest brand name. Nvidia still has a reputation for making crappy cards because their bundled cards make them look bad compared to what customers see in the retail stores.
Of course, this is only based on my opinion from advising dozens of new computer users here at work:
"Why don't you upgrade the Nvidia/ATI card that came with your computer to a better Nvidia/ATI card?"
"Because it sucks -- I want to get a GOOD card."
Sorry, but before it was mostly ATI cards or chipsets bundled with new computers and now you're seeing more Nvidia cards bundled, but the end-result is the same.
I know this news item seems cool on the surface, but isn't it just plain stupid? Who the hell wants to shake their head around instead of using a hand control? Maybe in addition to a standard controller (like the little hat used on better joysticks), but as the primary controller?
Uh, the point is that you needed some form of connection to get the thing in the first place -- why the hell piss off the majority of end-users who are fine with what they have. Hell, the VAST majority of internet users (what is it, about 95% of internet users are non-AOL users?) use something other than AOL, although I'm SURE all of them have heard of AOL.
I'm sure the in-your-face advertising works (AOL has been around a lot longer than 10 years), but only to a certain point. Even [most] car salesmen know where to draw the line!
Here's my Netscape 6 F*CK-UP story: after installation, all the icons on my desktop (Win2000) became AOL icons (and stayed that way) -- scared the sh*t out of me. After running it and seeing the same slow, buggy crap I've always expected from AOL and other big companies, I promptly uninstalled it -- luckily it appears to have uninstalled properly. (if you don't hear from me for a few days, assume the worst!)
Face it, AOL is the number one ISP the same way that Apple used to be the number one computer maker -- 90% of the rest of the world STILL doesn't use their service! Are you trying to tell us that is the goal of their in-your-face advertising??? I think not... The simple fact is that the vast majority of people don't use their service and don't need it.
I've had flex time here at work for several years and I am much more productive because of it. With it I:
-- Take less hours or days off for personal stuff.
-- Am less likely to handle personal things during work hours.
-- Spend less time commuting because I can work my hours around the traffic (telecommuting is always best, but sometimes you can't).
-- Have more skilled people because they don't have to quit to take classes part-time or full-time. And those same skilled people tend to stay longer (one very valuable employee would've left years ago without flex time)
Those are the biggest things. Part of it depends on the employment environment where you are, because these arguments wouldn't hold up if I still lived in South Dakota. But here in Calfornia they are big reasons that most companies have flex-time and many companies have it just to compete.
You're right, it's *not* that easy -- as soon as those foreign interests are gone, everything goes back to business-as-usual.
I have friends and family in Vietnam, China, & S. Korea and believe me, that's the way it goes. On my recent vacation in Vietnam & Hong Kong in August I was able to buy VCD movies (*anything* available, even in the theaters) and apparently legal audio CD's for about the equivalent of $1.50 U.S. *If* those 25+ disks had been noticed when I was going through customs in Vietnam (my main destination) a simple $5 (about $0.20/disk) under-the-counter bribe would've been more than sufficient to allow me to blow through customs.
And U.S. customs? Give me a break, in all the trips I or my friends have ever made they've never given us a second look -- they're too busy collecting duties on goods purchased overseas (if you purchase more than $400 in goods, which makes Vietnam a great destination).
Anyway, don't belittle the power of a government-signed treaty -- it has more power to force the government in question to enforce the agreement than some "foreign organization" visit. Without that signed treaty it'll take a *huge* effort (and I mean much bigger than Microsoft) to push an issue like this.
Your statments are a textbook example of closed-mindedness.
If you actually left the U.S. (doubt that you have), you'd realize that all over the world there is truly good original music that has nothing to do with the U.S. Sure, you see U.S. cultural influences, everywhere, but you also see good, if not great, local music that we in the U.S. will never see because of Americans with your attitude. On a recent trip to Vietnam, Thailand, & Hong Kong, I was blown away by Thai and HK music that was in no way derivative of any U.S. music -- it was great in its own right (sorry, Vietnam, because of your repression your best music is coming out of California). I'm still driving here in the the SF Bay Area every day listening to the great music I picked up on my trip -- and because of limited international music availability here in the U.S., Napster is sometimes the *only* way for me to get a great song. (realistically, I can pick up some HK stuff in asian shopping centers here, but the rest is nearly impossible to find)
Anyway, I sincerely hope Americans like you go the way of the dinosaur real damn soon because I'm getting tired of this closed-minded crap. No one country (sorry, U.K., I've been there this year, too) has a lock on good or great music. Everyone just needs to get over this nationalistic crap!
This argument only makes sense if you ship huge numbers of people off-planet *all the time* for no real purpose! Imagine if they had stuck to this argument when colonizing the Western hemisphere? The argument was there then, too, but people just had to work off the cost of their trips.
The cost of the initial trip isn't the problem, it's the cost of living at the destination that's the problem. Once you make it relatively cheap to live off-planet and/or establish industries off-planet that justify that cost of living, then it doesn't matter any more and the initial trip is irrelevant.
I know, I live in the Silicon Valley -- I've been thinking how much cheaper it'd be to move our operations into orbit...
I've used Excite@Home about a year and DHCP has always been an option (and a crappy one, at that). Even if you DO use DHCP, you're still using it to access a permanent IP address -- not a different one every time you use the internet. It's scary how easy it is to look out over my subnet at home and see everyone else's computers -- an Airport here, and iBook there, a Sun here, a few Win NT machines there, etc.
With the right tools, anyone could crack any of those computers -- you think systems are weak in businesses? Home computers are much more out-of-date and more easily crackable than most business systems!
Everyone who uses any broadband for internet access should be VERY paranoid about it -- paranoia is the best way to be prepared. Don't go crazy, of course, but use your paranoia to protect yourself. Lots of people are posting good suggestions here, but the main point here is not to let your guard down on this just because the companies who want your money say so.
I think I have the answer to a lot of the problems people are coming up with here: Limit personal flyers to only using the current road system and most of the current traffic rules. Sure, it won't work 100% everywhere, but we can adapt by taking baby steps.
Instead of suddenly having large numbers of individuals flying around everywhere:
-- they have to fly 20 feet over the current road system (or whatever makes sense -- don't go into that tunnel, obviously)
-- stop at stoplights (I thought they could go right through stoplights, but then you have chaos again)
-- park in the same parking spaces (another problem that will only get worse with these big things)
-- reasonably similar speed limits (the main reason speed limits are where they are is primarily the average car's stopping speed which would be different with these things)
-- you can only go off-road with these things where any car could go off-road (except, of course, for the emergency examples given in the article like medics and police)
You know that if this became publicly available and licensed (don't think you won't need another license for this thing like a motorcycle), rules like the above ones would be the only way the public/government would accept it. Machines like in the article ARE going to come once they are practical and we'll just adapt them to our current infrastructure when they do.
The other answer to make these things unnecessary is to... limit the population density of our cities so we don't have such traffic problems? But, that's another debate...
And I could buy 3 20" CRT's and hook them up to a Mac for about a total of $2000 and create the same effect! (I believe you can do this on modern Windows PC's, too, although I've never had a reason to try) Or maybe even 3 20" LCD's for still much less than this thing costs. Again, "Big deal!"
What, are you a left-over from the Vietnam war protest movement? MOST of those women aren't being exploited for money any more than I am at my everyday job. The difference is they are performing a job that some cultures consider to be bad. Many other cultures, however, don't have as many Victorian-era hangups as Americans do...
As for cheap PPC systems, Amiga was never known for selling anything cheap!
WTF??? Did you ever own an Amiga in the '80's?? The main reason I bought an Amiga 1000, then an Amiga 500 while I was in college was because they were CHEAP! Even as a Mac fan and Windows user (sorry, I couldn't bring myself to say "Windows fan") today I can admit that PC's and Mac's were outrageously overpriced and underpowered back then compared to Amigas. Their primary attraction among their fans back then was the big bang-for-the-buck that you got when you bought an Amiga.
Face it, you need to learn to close your mouth when you don't know what you're talking about!
This is a prime example of why copyrights should be more limited or at least more limited for certain media. I have games from years ago (5-10 years ago) and who cares about them any more? On the open market, they're worth practically nothing -- I'd be lucky if I could get maybe $10 for a small box of them. But, if I make copies of those old games for friends who want them, but can't buy them then I'm breaking the law.
I mean, hell, in some cases the copyright laws are ridiculously irrelevent -- I can't even use some of those games on my new WinME-based PC. So, in the very least, why not have different copyright limitations on different media? Like:
Computer software: 5 years
Computer hardware: 10 years
Movies: 10 years
Books: 25 years
Copyrights were never intended to put a strangle-hold on free movement of information, just to reasonably reward the creator. They weren't intended to reward the creator's estate decades after his/her death. I think modern copyright laws are a case of a good idea twisted into yet-another-way for corporations to squeeze more profits out of us. DIVX was an example of corporations pushing copyright laws too far -- I think that at some reasonable point we have to demand that media be released into the public domain for the greater good.
This should and probably will be handled like business phone service -- we (businesses) pay much more for all phone services than residential customers because we are subsidizing residential users. At least that's the way it is here in the U.S., but I think it's different in some other countries.
Because it is this way here in the U.S. you rarely, if ever, find an existing apartment or house without a phone line. Go to Spain or France (for instance) and that's far from the case. One customer of ours told me that she had to pay over $1000 to get a phone line installed in her apartment, not to mention paying per-minute charges for all phone calls including local calls. (residential customers in the U.S. typically pay maybe $50, at most, to "turn on" phone service and local calls are always free)
So, I think the best way to get the internet into as many homes as possible is the way we got phone lines into every residence here in the U.S. -- have business subsidize it as much as possible because they are heavier users, generally. In fact, do that and cut my home connection fees in half, please (I have my wonderful cable modem in my house and regular modem dial-up for my laptops).
If my own 12 year-old daughter thinks it's stupid to pay $2500+ for a robotic dog (yes, she saw it and knows what it can do), then what the hell is wrong with all these adults buying these things? I see so many people on eBay trying to get rid of these things because they get bored with them after a short period of time -- why? Because if you've seen a video of one "running" around, it *looks* like a rudimentary robot. It'll run after a ball at the wrong angle and get stuck trying to back up from the shoes it ran into -- it can't TURN, for christ's sakes, it just turns a little at a time as it moves forward or backward like it's a remote control car!!!
I mean, this is a great technological feat, but call me back when it at least moves like a dog! Until then, I'll stick with my less-than-$700 pedigreed dogs, thank you very much!
I don't blame Lucas for wanting to make money, but this is just another example of how much of an irrational control freak Lucas is. If you don't think so, consider this parallel example:
--A band informs the public that their next album will only be released on standard vinyl records -- a cassette version will be released 3 years later when ready and a CD version 3 years after that.
--The same band finds out that several websites have detailed descriptions of songs on the same upcoming album; there are also rumors of stolen copies of the lyrics floating around. They threaten to sue the crap out of the websites if they don't remove the material.
Doesn't this sound absolutely ridiculous? Nobody (in their right mind) would just accept crap like this from any band, so why do Lucas worshippers take it from Lucas??? I'm an ex-Lucas fan and I'm not buying this crap from him any more...
I didn't plunk down $50+ for me and my family to go see Episode II, and I was sure glad my intuition was right when we rented it and I saw I saved my money. It wasn't a bad movie, it just wasn't a great movie -- it was just OK. You just know a kids movie isn't that good when the kids it's aimed at fall asleep before it's over.
I'm betting Episode II will be marginally better, but still not worth our time.
Now, the Matrix was well worth our time to go see TWICE at the theatres, not to mention buying the DVD. And we WILL go pay for the Matrix II when it comes to theaters.
I know I wasn't the only one who didn't go see Episode I at the theaters because the hype sure died off fast after it was released...
I agree on the issue of not having to pay for software you already paid for because you lost it over the years or because you spilled coffee on the install media or something like that.
How would I prove to the publisher that I bought their computer game "Nuclear War" 12 years ago and I want another copy because I lost the original one during one of my many moves back then? Sure, if the only way to get a replacement copy is to buy it, then that's the price of stupidity and I'd buy it, but if I can download it off the internet then what's wrong with that? Oh they don't like that because then people who didn't pay for it could download it and they'd be losing money... even though they don't even sell it, let alone support it any more, so how much money could they really lose?
Why don't you software companies stop letting the bean-counters run your companies and do what some software companies *have* done and post the old software on your site as an unsupported free download? Then, if you find it is popular, you can re-release it and make money off of it... oh, I guess you won't do that because then you'd find out that next-to-nobody wants those old games anyway, only a few of us who really loved them.
Anybody know where I can download (or even buy) copies of those ancient InfoCom games we used to have so much fun with?
As a current/former Amiga user, I think that's a very good point. The first thing out of everyone's mouth on "why NeXT failed" seems to be a continual stream of "it cost too much". Sure, that's true... if you're open-minded to all options. The failure of the Amiga has to show that NeXT's and the Amiga's failures were primarily marketing. If people didn't know about the Amiga or just couldn't get one easily, then they'd buy a Wintel PC. (Yes, yes, NeXT didn't compete in the consumer market, but you can't completely write off marketing for their target market of higher education -- look at the Mac vs. Wintel situation today in the same market)
They are original pictures and "Property of Apple Computer, Inc." -- that means you can't use them unless you get permission from Apple. Because, the photos and photo subject(s) were Apple's property since they took a picture of something they created so they own that picture... get it?
Just a question, but did you read the ENTIRE article??? They are talking about how he's such a pioneer because he's been able to keep the equipment weight/size very low ("big box"???) and the pressure at 1 atm (how is that "really really high pressure"?).
Also, with cloaking we're only talking about shielding from RADAR or other conventional 50-100 year old technology -- anybody who read the article knows that. Nobody's talking about Trek-style invisibility cloaks. By the time this becomes feasible you can be sure someone will have (there are already RADAR alternatives today that take the "stealth" out of "stealth bomber") other detection methods to beat it.
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The aggravating thing about this is that even if they did approve building another power plant, it may not even help because technically the power plants we already have in California are sufficient for OUR purposes. The problem is that the power companies are exporting what used to be excess power to other states because it's MORE PROFITABLE.
Now that we need that excess power, we have to pay a lot more money so the power company doesn't LOSE money diverting that power to us instead of more desperate people outside CA. Needless to say, a lot of people think the power companies are "creating" this crisis to squeeze more money out of Californians. No evidence yet, but I wouldn't doubt it...
Sorry, one more thing:
Did you say the "food is great" in the valley? From all of your comments, I don't think you know the Bay Area very well. Most people who have lived here for a few years agree (even me) that San Francisco restaurants are still the best anywhere in the Bay Area. San Jose still has to mature a little bit to attract the kind of world-class restaurants that San Francisco has -- but maybe it's only a matter of time...
And I'm not having a hard time staying out of my home-state of South Dakota (or Michigan, where I could've emigrated to 10 years ago)! I'll gladly stay here in sunny California and enjoy the geek culture!!
(How can you not like those want ads before movies? It's so cool to see a company where you know a person who works there and make fun of it/him/her!)
Everything does revolve around what we do here -- even San Francisco culture is beginning to be (willfully) eclipsed by the Valley culture. San Francisco used to be "the City" 5-10 years ago, but now that the valley is more "city-like" (populous, expensive to live in, interesting people and happenings), only "old-timers" call it that.
The valley and San Jose in particular have changed so much (in both good and bad ways) in just the past 3 years due to the influx of people and money that I hardly ever go to San Francisco any more (I used to go every weekend) -- no need to.
I think this ComDex press release is over-exaggerated. 3dfx is simply pulling out of making their *own* cards. This doesn't mean they're leaving their own market. It means they've re-discovered what a lot of electronics companies have -- OEM'ing and outsourcing is GOOD.
To the average gamer, 3dfx still has the strongest brand name. Nvidia still has a reputation for making crappy cards because their bundled cards make them look bad compared to what customers see in the retail stores.
Of course, this is only based on my opinion from advising dozens of new computer users here at work:
"Why don't you upgrade the Nvidia/ATI card that came with your computer to a better Nvidia/ATI card?"
"Because it sucks -- I want to get a GOOD card."
Sorry, but before it was mostly ATI cards or chipsets bundled with new computers and now you're seeing more Nvidia cards bundled, but the end-result is the same.
I know this news item seems cool on the surface, but isn't it just plain stupid? Who the hell wants to shake their head around instead of using a hand control? Maybe in addition to a standard controller (like the little hat used on better joysticks), but as the primary controller?
Uh, the point is that you needed some form of connection to get the thing in the first place -- why the hell piss off the majority of end-users who are fine with what they have. Hell, the VAST majority of internet users (what is it, about 95% of internet users are non-AOL users?) use something other than AOL, although I'm SURE all of them have heard of AOL.
I'm sure the in-your-face advertising works (AOL has been around a lot longer than 10 years), but only to a certain point. Even [most] car salesmen know where to draw the line!
Here's my Netscape 6 F*CK-UP story: after installation, all the icons on my desktop (Win2000) became AOL icons (and stayed that way) -- scared the sh*t out of me. After running it and seeing the same slow, buggy crap I've always expected from AOL and other big companies, I promptly uninstalled it -- luckily it appears to have uninstalled properly. (if you don't hear from me for a few days, assume the worst!)
Face it, AOL is the number one ISP the same way that Apple used to be the number one computer maker -- 90% of the rest of the world STILL doesn't use their service! Are you trying to tell us that is the goal of their in-your-face advertising??? I think not... The simple fact is that the vast majority of people don't use their service and don't need it.
I've had flex time here at work for several years and I am much more productive because of it. With it I:
-- Take less hours or days off for personal stuff.
-- Am less likely to handle personal things during work hours.
-- Spend less time commuting because I can work my hours around the traffic (telecommuting is always best, but sometimes you can't).
-- Have more skilled people because they don't have to quit to take classes part-time or full-time. And those same skilled people tend to stay longer (one very valuable employee would've left years ago without flex time)
Those are the biggest things. Part of it depends on the employment environment where you are, because these arguments wouldn't hold up if I still lived in South Dakota. But here in Calfornia they are big reasons that most companies have flex-time and many companies have it just to compete.
You're right, it's *not* that easy -- as soon as those foreign interests are gone, everything goes back to business-as-usual.
I have friends and family in Vietnam, China, & S. Korea and believe me, that's the way it goes. On my recent vacation in Vietnam & Hong Kong in August I was able to buy VCD movies (*anything* available, even in the theaters) and apparently legal audio CD's for about the equivalent of $1.50 U.S. *If* those 25+ disks had been noticed when I was going through customs in Vietnam (my main destination) a simple $5 (about $0.20/disk) under-the-counter bribe would've been more than sufficient to allow me to blow through customs.
And U.S. customs? Give me a break, in all the trips I or my friends have ever made they've never given us a second look -- they're too busy collecting duties on goods purchased overseas (if you purchase more than $400 in goods, which makes Vietnam a great destination).
Anyway, don't belittle the power of a government-signed treaty -- it has more power to force the government in question to enforce the agreement than some "foreign organization" visit. Without that signed treaty it'll take a *huge* effort (and I mean much bigger than Microsoft) to push an issue like this.
Your statments are a textbook example of closed-mindedness.
If you actually left the U.S. (doubt that you have), you'd realize that all over the world there is truly good original music that has nothing to do with the U.S. Sure, you see U.S. cultural influences, everywhere, but you also see good, if not great, local music that we in the U.S. will never see because of Americans with your attitude. On a recent trip to Vietnam, Thailand, & Hong Kong, I was blown away by Thai and HK music that was in no way derivative of any U.S. music -- it was great in its own right (sorry, Vietnam, because of your repression your best music is coming out of California). I'm still driving here in the the SF Bay Area every day listening to the great music I picked up on my trip -- and because of limited international music availability here in the U.S., Napster is sometimes the *only* way for me to get a great song. (realistically, I can pick up some HK stuff in asian shopping centers here, but the rest is nearly impossible to find)
Anyway, I sincerely hope Americans like you go the way of the dinosaur real damn soon because I'm getting tired of this closed-minded crap. No one country (sorry, U.K., I've been there this year, too) has a lock on good or great music. Everyone just needs to get over this nationalistic crap!
This argument only makes sense if you ship huge numbers of people off-planet *all the time* for no real purpose! Imagine if they had stuck to this argument when colonizing the Western hemisphere? The argument was there then, too, but people just had to work off the cost of their trips.
The cost of the initial trip isn't the problem, it's the cost of living at the destination that's the problem. Once you make it relatively cheap to live off-planet and/or establish industries off-planet that justify that cost of living, then it doesn't matter any more and the initial trip is irrelevant.
I know, I live in the Silicon Valley -- I've been thinking how much cheaper it'd be to move our operations into orbit...
You must be fun at parties. It's a JOKE. Correct syntax is an after-thought at best...
I've used Excite@Home about a year and DHCP has always been an option (and a crappy one, at that). Even if you DO use DHCP, you're still using it to access a permanent IP address -- not a different one every time you use the internet. It's scary how easy it is to look out over my subnet at home and see everyone else's computers -- an Airport here, and iBook there, a Sun here, a few Win NT machines there, etc.
With the right tools, anyone could crack any of those computers -- you think systems are weak in businesses? Home computers are much more out-of-date and more easily crackable than most business systems!
Everyone who uses any broadband for internet access should be VERY paranoid about it -- paranoia is the best way to be prepared. Don't go crazy, of course, but use your paranoia to protect yourself. Lots of people are posting good suggestions here, but the main point here is not to let your guard down on this just because the companies who want your money say so.
I think I have the answer to a lot of the problems people are coming up with here: Limit personal flyers to only using the current road system and most of the current traffic rules. Sure, it won't work 100% everywhere, but we can adapt by taking baby steps.
... limit the population density of our cities so we don't have such traffic problems? But, that's another debate...
Instead of suddenly having large numbers of individuals flying around everywhere:
-- they have to fly 20 feet over the current road system (or whatever makes sense -- don't go into that tunnel, obviously)
-- stop at stoplights (I thought they could go right through stoplights, but then you have chaos again)
-- park in the same parking spaces (another problem that will only get worse with these big things)
-- reasonably similar speed limits (the main reason speed limits are where they are is primarily the average car's stopping speed which would be different with these things)
-- you can only go off-road with these things where any car could go off-road (except, of course, for the emergency examples given in the article like medics and police)
You know that if this became publicly available and licensed (don't think you won't need another license for this thing like a motorcycle), rules like the above ones would be the only way the public/government would accept it. Machines like in the article ARE going to come once they are practical and we'll just adapt them to our current infrastructure when they do.
The other answer to make these things unnecessary is to
I'm sorry, but I guess I agree with a previous poster that the SGI "Reality Center" desk displays are truly awesome!
What, are you a left-over from the Vietnam war protest movement? MOST of those women aren't being exploited for money any more than I am at my everyday job. The difference is they are performing a job that some cultures consider to be bad. Many other cultures, however, don't have as many Victorian-era hangups as Americans do...
WTF??? Did you ever own an Amiga in the '80's?? The main reason I bought an Amiga 1000, then an Amiga 500 while I was in college was because they were CHEAP! Even as a Mac fan and Windows user (sorry, I couldn't bring myself to say "Windows fan") today I can admit that PC's and Mac's were outrageously overpriced and underpowered back then compared to Amigas. Their primary attraction among their fans back then was the big bang-for-the-buck that you got when you bought an Amiga.
Face it, you need to learn to close your mouth when you don't know what you're talking about!
And my opinion:
This is a prime example of why copyrights should be more limited or at least more limited for certain media. I have games from years ago (5-10 years ago) and who cares about them any more? On the open market, they're worth practically nothing -- I'd be lucky if I could get maybe $10 for a small box of them. But, if I make copies of those old games for friends who want them, but can't buy them then I'm breaking the law.
I mean, hell, in some cases the copyright laws are ridiculously irrelevent -- I can't even use some of those games on my new WinME-based PC. So, in the very least, why not have different copyright limitations on different media? Like:
Computer software: 5 years
Computer hardware: 10 years
Movies: 10 years
Books: 25 years
Copyrights were never intended to put a strangle-hold on free movement of information, just to reasonably reward the creator. They weren't intended to reward the creator's estate decades after his/her death. I think modern copyright laws are a case of a good idea twisted into yet-another-way for corporations to squeeze more profits out of us. DIVX was an example of corporations pushing copyright laws too far -- I think that at some reasonable point we have to demand that media be released into the public domain for the greater good.
This should and probably will be handled like business phone service -- we (businesses) pay much more for all phone services than residential customers because we are subsidizing residential users. At least that's the way it is here in the U.S., but I think it's different in some other countries.
Because it is this way here in the U.S. you rarely, if ever, find an existing apartment or house without a phone line. Go to Spain or France (for instance) and that's far from the case. One customer of ours told me that she had to pay over $1000 to get a phone line installed in her apartment, not to mention paying per-minute charges for all phone calls including local calls. (residential customers in the U.S. typically pay maybe $50, at most, to "turn on" phone service and local calls are always free)
So, I think the best way to get the internet into as many homes as possible is the way we got phone lines into every residence here in the U.S. -- have business subsidize it as much as possible because they are heavier users, generally. In fact, do that and cut my home connection fees in half, please (I have my wonderful cable modem in my house and regular modem dial-up for my laptops).
If my own 12 year-old daughter thinks it's stupid to pay $2500+ for a robotic dog (yes, she saw it and knows what it can do), then what the hell is wrong with all these adults buying these things? I see so many people on eBay trying to get rid of these things because they get bored with them after a short period of time -- why? Because if you've seen a video of one "running" around, it *looks* like a rudimentary robot. It'll run after a ball at the wrong angle and get stuck trying to back up from the shoes it ran into -- it can't TURN, for christ's sakes, it just turns a little at a time as it moves forward or backward like it's a remote control car!!!
I mean, this is a great technological feat, but call me back when it at least moves like a dog! Until then, I'll stick with my less-than-$700 pedigreed dogs, thank you very much!
I don't blame Lucas for wanting to make money, but this is just another example of how much of an irrational control freak Lucas is. If you don't think so, consider this parallel example:
--A band informs the public that their next album will only be released on standard vinyl records -- a cassette version will be released 3 years later when ready and a CD version 3 years after that.
--The same band finds out that several websites have detailed descriptions of songs on the same upcoming album; there are also rumors of stolen copies of the lyrics floating around. They threaten to sue the crap out of the websites if they don't remove the material.
Doesn't this sound absolutely ridiculous? Nobody (in their right mind) would just accept crap like this from any band, so why do Lucas worshippers take it from Lucas??? I'm an ex-Lucas fan and I'm not buying this crap from him any more...
You're wrong here.
I didn't plunk down $50+ for me and my family to go see Episode II, and I was sure glad my intuition was right when we rented it and I saw I saved my money. It wasn't a bad movie, it just wasn't a great movie -- it was just OK. You just know a kids movie isn't that good when the kids it's aimed at fall asleep before it's over.
I'm betting Episode II will be marginally better, but still not worth our time.
Now, the Matrix was well worth our time to go see TWICE at the theatres, not to mention buying the DVD. And we WILL go pay for the Matrix II when it comes to theaters.
I know I wasn't the only one who didn't go see Episode I at the theaters because the hype sure died off fast after it was released...
I agree on the issue of not having to pay for software you already paid for because you lost it over the years or because you spilled coffee on the install media or something like that.
... even though they don't even sell it, let alone support it any more, so how much money could they really lose?
... oh, I guess you won't do that because then you'd find out that next-to-nobody wants those old games anyway, only a few of us who really loved them.
How would I prove to the publisher that I bought their computer game "Nuclear War" 12 years ago and I want another copy because I lost the original one during one of my many moves back then? Sure, if the only way to get a replacement copy is to buy it, then that's the price of stupidity and I'd buy it, but if I can download it off the internet then what's wrong with that? Oh they don't like that because then people who didn't pay for it could download it and they'd be losing money
Why don't you software companies stop letting the bean-counters run your companies and do what some software companies *have* done and post the old software on your site as an unsupported free download? Then, if you find it is popular, you can re-release it and make money off of it
Anybody know where I can download (or even buy) copies of those ancient InfoCom games we used to have so much fun with?
As a current/former Amiga user, I think that's a very good point. The first thing out of everyone's mouth on "why NeXT failed" seems to be a continual stream of "it cost too much". Sure, that's true ... if you're open-minded to all options. The failure of the Amiga has to show that NeXT's and the Amiga's failures were primarily marketing. If people didn't know about the Amiga or just couldn't get one easily, then they'd buy a Wintel PC. (Yes, yes, NeXT didn't compete in the consumer market, but you can't completely write off marketing for their target market of higher education -- look at the Mac vs. Wintel situation today in the same market)
What?
... get it?
They are original pictures and "Property of Apple Computer, Inc." -- that means you can't use them unless you get permission from Apple. Because, the photos and photo subject(s) were Apple's property since they took a picture of something they created so they own that picture
Just a question, but did you read the ENTIRE article??? They are talking about how he's such a pioneer because he's been able to keep the equipment weight/size very low ("big box"???) and the pressure at 1 atm (how is that "really really high pressure"?).
Also, with cloaking we're only talking about shielding from RADAR or other conventional 50-100 year old technology -- anybody who read the article knows that. Nobody's talking about Trek-style invisibility cloaks. By the time this becomes feasible you can be sure someone will have (there are already RADAR alternatives today that take the "stealth" out of "stealth bomber") other detection methods to beat it.