On an individual basis, obviously you are correct.
When we are talking about social policy, though, a policy can be reasonably said to "cause" the things which follow from it consistently in multiple experiments. If you do X, Y will happen, consistently enough that you can make predictions about it.
Re:Call me a stickler for language...
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DRM Causes Piracy
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· Score: 1
I disagree with your analysis, and I think Flint is right.
Every time in my entire life I have copied something in a way contrary to copyright law, it has been because of some kind of problem with anti-copying measures. The version of Populous I got for my Amiga wouldn't run, because the copy protection used on it didn't work on 68030 processors. The result was the first time in my life I ever "cheated" a copy protection scheme; I figured out a way to crack a different game from the same publisher, and got that without paying for it, because I figured they owed me a game.
Baen books has been giving away free versions of many of their books, and selling many more. I consistently buy the ones that I want that they ask money for.
However, copyright protection schemes are sufficiently odious that, although I do buy video games fairly often, I nearly invariably end up cracking whatever security they had just so I can play the damn game.
If, as they say, breaking the protection is "piracy", then yes, DRM is causing piracy.
Even if it's not, they've established that their product is worse than competing products, and I have stopped buying PC games that use copy protection. Now, I'm pretty much straightedge, so I'm not going around getting the warez versions... But it is worth noting that, at this point, if I wanted to play a game, I would simply assume that I had to find a warez version to actually successfully play it.
Bad analogy. If you steal my physical video game console, I no longer have it. If you download a copy of my book, I still have my book.
Anyway, I don't think you understand his central points: 1. Even if it is, in fact, their right to release heavily encrypted copies of whatever data, it is stupid of them to do so, and only hurts them. 2. There is no obvious reason for society to give them any legal backing. Laws like the DMCA serve no useful social function, and indeed, are harmful to society as a whole.
In short, it's fine by me if people want to release special encrypted files. What's not fine is if they tell me that I'm not allowed to decrypt files.
Baen Books has always gotten this:
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DRM Causes Piracy
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Jim Baen kindly responded to my email asking him why they'd selected open standards and formats: "Because not only are our readers, in the main, not thieves, but because there is nothing there that is stealable." His point is an interesting one: there's not much point in stealing paperback books -- they are pretty cheap -- and you couldn't print out the text for less than it would cost to buy the book. The only people who could possibly be "stealing" are the ones who, for whatever reason, end up not wanting the books and they wouldn't have bought the books anyway.
Jim Baen died last summer, but Baen Books still gives away a huge number of books in completely unencrypted, un-DRM'd formats. I think I have bought well over $100 of their buyable e-books, because I can read them on anything I want, any time I want.
On the one hand, I don't blame him at all for being really sick of all the warez people. On the other hand, I do blame him for choosing a harmful way to deal with it.
Why not just, say, phone home with any useful information (user name, IP address) available to the program every time it's run, and then he can sue?
What, you think a $10 cable is doing "conversion"?
The connector has signal wires for the various parts of component signals. There's no signal wires for digital. Thus, there's no way to do digital out (say, HDMI) without a new connector.
The reason I always use SCSI in servers is performance bottlenecks under heavy load, not "reliability". I haven't got enough experience with heavily loaded SATA to know whether it performs as well.
My guess is that this is much more a matter of controllers than of drives; PATA controllers tend to be the cheapest crap the manufacturer could get to respond to the BIOS. SCSI controllers have generally been more reliable for me.
The problem is, this isn't just a popularity contest. In some cases, an "objectionable usage" is just an extension to the language; it doesn't confuse, it just adds new options.
In this case, we have a word which is being used as its own antonym. That's not so great.
To comprise is to be composed of. The chip comprises 227 million transistors, or is composed of 227 million transistors.
This is one of the rare cases where a common misuse isn't just a gradual development of language; it actually reverses the sense of a word, replacing the relation of the whole to the parts with the relation of the parts to the whole.
The thing is, the Wii controller has more flexible options in most cases than the PS360 controllers do, so in most cases, if you could design a usable interface for those, you can come up with a playable interface for the Wiimote.
In the other direction, though, if you built a game that was basically "duck hunt" for the Wii, there would simply be no way to make it playable on the PS360 controller; analog sticks can't aim that fast.
The Wii can get mediocre ports of PS3 or 360 games. They can't even get mediocre ports of the interesting Wii games.
I play Angband on a desktop computer. I don't need a console for that. Angband would suck badly on a console; it depends on a huge array of key options and a screen with a huge amount of data, rather than on simpler graphics and fewer buttons.
It's ridiculous. While "Linux" may be a large market, each individual Linux is going to appeal only to a subset, and furthermore, users may not know which one they want. How do you know whether you want Linux Home Basic, Linux Home Premium, or Linux Ultimate? Or, if you run a home business, maybe you need Linux Enterprise or Linux Business. If you're not sure, maybe you should try Linux Starter, but I'm not sure you can upgrade.
No one would ever expect a commercial product to succeed with that kind of internal market fragmentation, I don't see why they think it'll work for Linux.
A lot of ported games are still showing up for the PS2, so it's not power.
What is at issue is that a casual port to the Wii won't compare well against native games. With rare exceptions, the most successful DS games are not the ones which are straight ports of games from something with no touch screen; a lot of them depend on the touch screen, or the second display, to do things which are interesting or useful. A straight port will not be as immersive, in general.
The advantage the Wii gets is that, if you do a game for the Wii, and you make good use of the controller, a port to 360 or PS3 will just seem lame by comparison.
Depends on what you enjoy. I think a few games are at least "must-try"; you should have a look at them and see how they suit you. You might love Trauma Center; you might hate it. I've been pretty happy with Wario Ware; if I play it for a few minutes, I end up with all the roommates watching.
Wii Sports stays fun; I'm still learning to control tennis balls, but I'm definitely improving. I've had the system since launch, and I'm not close to running out of fun there.
"Red Steel is twitchy and occassionaly clumsy, Need For Speed: Most Wanted is near unplayable, Far Cry got it all wrong, and the motion control in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance just feels tacked on."
If there had ever been a release of "Need For Speed: Most Wanted", this would not be a particularly obvious gaffe. The game that came out for the Wii is Need For Speed: Carbon. (I don't find it unplayable, FWIW.)
I agree that some of the controls in the Marvel game are tacked on, but the camera control is awesome, and shows real potential.
Dearth of games? I'm still enjoying Wii Sports. I'm still enjoying Rayman. I have barely scratched the surface of some of the games I have now.
Meanwhile, the PS3 I got for Cell Linux is sitting around collecting dust because the only "great" game for it is yet another shooter just like all the other shooters.
Everyone I know plans to get a Wii, pretty much. They're awesome.
The PS2 was not all that powerful; it was just better than the PS1 and N64. It was also astoundingly hard to get good results on, requiring a whole lot of developer time. Not a very good standard.
They are now, but they weren't. When the December NPD numbers came out, vgcharts suddenly went from reporting 4M Wiis sold to reporting 3.5M Wiis sold.
They update when the real numbers come out, but they guess in the meantime.
Monkey Ball for Wii has sucky controls. However, they are poorly implemented controls on a good controller. Compare it to Wario Ware before you dismiss the controller as not working well.
How can you consider the Wii to be the best system to purchase based on the controls when most of the games currently on the system make the controls feel tacked on.
The same way I can consider the Wii to be the best system to purchase when elephants are usually a vivid pink and fly around using rocket packs.
Since, right now, most of the games I have do not "make the controls feel tacked on", your question refers only to a hypothetical situation which does not obtain.
The Wii is a better machine for playing party games, but when it comes to FPS or adventure it sucks. The PC and other consoles provide a better controls.
Written like someone who hasn't played it. There is simply no way I can imagine being persuaded to play another analog stick shooter, having had access to an actual pointing device on a console. The Remote kicks the ass of analog sticks for aiming. PC controls are arguably even more flexible, but the Wii is a lot easier to use. (Admittedly, the FPS games out for it have mostly been lame; amusingly, Elebits, while not at all FPS-like in plot or structure, has the controls of a fairly nice FPS.)
But as an example, consider Wii Sports. I dismissed it at first as being really simplistic, but I thought I'd try the tennis a bit more, and then I discovered something: In fact, there's a lot of control over the ball in that game. It doesn't LOOK like it at first, because I am not a tennis player, so I didn't know anything about control, but in fact, just playing has gotten me a lot more skilled; I can now aim the ball, most of the time. Suddenly, an apparently "tacked on" game has become a really good experience. The controls are not just subtituting "wave your arm" for "push the swing button". No, the controls are using arm motions for aiming, for lob, for spin... For all the things you would actually control with your swing playing Tennis.
Similarly, I've gotten smacked down by multiple 3D Zelda games in the past because the controls are always a little obnoxious; most noticably, I hate trying to aim with an analog stick while something is trying to hit me. In Twilight Princess, aiming is effortless and instantaneous, and the net result is that the game is a lot easier.
Slashdot Mirror
On an individual basis, obviously you are correct.
When we are talking about social policy, though, a policy can be reasonably said to "cause" the things which follow from it consistently in multiple experiments. If you do X, Y will happen, consistently enough that you can make predictions about it.
I disagree with your analysis, and I think Flint is right.
Every time in my entire life I have copied something in a way contrary to copyright law, it has been because of some kind of problem with anti-copying measures. The version of Populous I got for my Amiga wouldn't run, because the copy protection used on it didn't work on 68030 processors. The result was the first time in my life I ever "cheated" a copy protection scheme; I figured out a way to crack a different game from the same publisher, and got that without paying for it, because I figured they owed me a game.
Baen books has been giving away free versions of many of their books, and selling many more. I consistently buy the ones that I want that they ask money for.
However, copyright protection schemes are sufficiently odious that, although I do buy video games fairly often, I nearly invariably end up cracking whatever security they had just so I can play the damn game.
If, as they say, breaking the protection is "piracy", then yes, DRM is causing piracy.
Even if it's not, they've established that their product is worse than competing products, and I have stopped buying PC games that use copy protection. Now, I'm pretty much straightedge, so I'm not going around getting the warez versions... But it is worth noting that, at this point, if I wanted to play a game, I would simply assume that I had to find a warez version to actually successfully play it.
Bad analogy. If you steal my physical video game console, I no longer have it. If you download a copy of my book, I still have my book.
Anyway, I don't think you understand his central points:
1. Even if it is, in fact, their right to release heavily encrypted copies of whatever data, it is stupid of them to do so, and only hurts them.
2. There is no obvious reason for society to give them any legal backing. Laws like the DMCA serve no useful social function, and indeed, are harmful to society as a whole.
In short, it's fine by me if people want to release special encrypted files. What's not fine is if they tell me that I'm not allowed to decrypt files.
Jim Baen died last summer, but Baen Books still gives away a huge number of books in completely unencrypted, un-DRM'd formats. I think I have bought well over $100 of their buyable e-books, because I can read them on anything I want, any time I want.
On the one hand, I don't blame him at all for being really sick of all the warez people. On the other hand, I do blame him for choosing a harmful way to deal with it.
Why not just, say, phone home with any useful information (user name, IP address) available to the program every time it's run, and then he can sue?
What, you think a $10 cable is doing "conversion"?
The connector has signal wires for the various parts of component signals. There's no signal wires for digital. Thus, there's no way to do digital out (say, HDMI) without a new connector.
The reason I always use SCSI in servers is performance bottlenecks under heavy load, not "reliability". I haven't got enough experience with heavily loaded SATA to know whether it performs as well.
My guess is that this is much more a matter of controllers than of drives; PATA controllers tend to be the cheapest crap the manufacturer could get to respond to the BIOS. SCSI controllers have generally been more reliable for me.
The problem is, this isn't just a popularity contest. In some cases, an "objectionable usage" is just an extension to the language; it doesn't confuse, it just adds new options.
In this case, we have a word which is being used as its own antonym. That's not so great.
To comprise is to be composed of. The chip comprises 227 million transistors, or is composed of 227 million transistors.
This is one of the rare cases where a common misuse isn't just a gradual development of language; it actually reverses the sense of a word, replacing the relation of the whole to the parts with the relation of the parts to the whole.
Oh, definitely.
The thing is, the Wii controller has more flexible options in most cases than the PS360 controllers do, so in most cases, if you could design a usable interface for those, you can come up with a playable interface for the Wiimote.
In the other direction, though, if you built a game that was basically "duck hunt" for the Wii, there would simply be no way to make it playable on the PS360 controller; analog sticks can't aim that fast.
The Wii can get mediocre ports of PS3 or 360 games. They can't even get mediocre ports of the interesting Wii games.
Hee.
No, actually, I hated Animal Crossing. Too materialistic for me.
I wasn't even using X; I was ssh'd in and playing with the compiler.
But since people pay me to write about Linux, that's a good reason to have a PS3.
I play Angband on a desktop computer. I don't need a console for that. Angband would suck badly on a console; it depends on a huge array of key options and a screen with a huge amount of data, rather than on simpler graphics and fewer buttons.
It's ridiculous. While "Linux" may be a large market, each individual Linux is going to appeal only to a subset, and furthermore, users may not know which one they want. How do you know whether you want Linux Home Basic, Linux Home Premium, or Linux Ultimate? Or, if you run a home business, maybe you need Linux Enterprise or Linux Business. If you're not sure, maybe you should try Linux Starter, but I'm not sure you can upgrade.
No one would ever expect a commercial product to succeed with that kind of internal market fragmentation, I don't see why they think it'll work for Linux.
A lot of ported games are still showing up for the PS2, so it's not power.
What is at issue is that a casual port to the Wii won't compare well against native games. With rare exceptions, the most successful DS games are not the ones which are straight ports of games from something with no touch screen; a lot of them depend on the touch screen, or the second display, to do things which are interesting or useful. A straight port will not be as immersive, in general.
The advantage the Wii gets is that, if you do a game for the Wii, and you make good use of the controller, a port to 360 or PS3 will just seem lame by comparison.
It's a gimmick the way the analog stick was a gimmick. :)
Seriously, it's plenty accurate, and yes, it stays fun for four hours or more at a time.
Maybe if you had any kind of factual basis for your opinions, they wouldn't be stupid? Just a thought.
Depends on what you enjoy. I think a few games are at least "must-try"; you should have a look at them and see how they suit you. You might love Trauma Center; you might hate it. I've been pretty happy with Wario Ware; if I play it for a few minutes, I end up with all the roommates watching.
Wii Sports stays fun; I'm still learning to control tennis balls, but I'm definitely improving. I've had the system since launch, and I'm not close to running out of fun there.
"Red Steel is twitchy and occassionaly clumsy, Need For Speed: Most Wanted is near unplayable, Far Cry got it all wrong, and the motion control in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance just feels tacked on."
If there had ever been a release of "Need For Speed: Most Wanted", this would not be a particularly obvious gaffe. The game that came out for the Wii is Need For Speed: Carbon. (I don't find it unplayable, FWIW.)
I agree that some of the controls in the Marvel game are tacked on, but the camera control is awesome, and shows real potential.
Dearth of games? I'm still enjoying Wii Sports. I'm still enjoying Rayman. I have barely scratched the surface of some of the games I have now.
Meanwhile, the PS3 I got for Cell Linux is sitting around collecting dust because the only "great" game for it is yet another shooter just like all the other shooters.
Everyone I know plans to get a Wii, pretty much. They're awesome.
The PS2 was not all that powerful; it was just better than the PS1 and N64. It was also astoundingly hard to get good results on, requiring a whole lot of developer time. Not a very good standard.
They are now, but they weren't. When the December NPD numbers came out, vgcharts suddenly went from reporting 4M Wiis sold to reporting 3.5M Wiis sold.
They update when the real numbers come out, but they guess in the meantime.
Monkey Ball for Wii has sucky controls. However, they are poorly implemented controls on a good controller. Compare it to Wario Ware before you dismiss the controller as not working well.
The same way I can consider the Wii to be the best system to purchase when elephants are usually a vivid pink and fly around using rocket packs.
Since, right now, most of the games I have do not "make the controls feel tacked on", your question refers only to a hypothetical situation which does not obtain.
Written like someone who hasn't played it. There is simply no way I can imagine being persuaded to play another analog stick shooter, having had access to an actual pointing device on a console. The Remote kicks the ass of analog sticks for aiming. PC controls are arguably even more flexible, but the Wii is a lot easier to use. (Admittedly, the FPS games out for it have mostly been lame; amusingly, Elebits, while not at all FPS-like in plot or structure, has the controls of a fairly nice FPS.)
But as an example, consider Wii Sports. I dismissed it at first as being really simplistic, but I thought I'd try the tennis a bit more, and then I discovered something: In fact, there's a lot of control over the ball in that game. It doesn't LOOK like it at first, because I am not a tennis player, so I didn't know anything about control, but in fact, just playing has gotten me a lot more skilled; I can now aim the ball, most of the time. Suddenly, an apparently "tacked on" game has become a really good experience. The controls are not just subtituting "wave your arm" for "push the swing button". No, the controls are using arm motions for aiming, for lob, for spin... For all the things you would actually control with your swing playing Tennis.
Similarly, I've gotten smacked down by multiple 3D Zelda games in the past because the controls are always a little obnoxious; most noticably, I hate trying to aim with an analog stick while something is trying to hit me. In Twilight Princess, aiming is effortless and instantaneous, and the net result is that the game is a lot easier.
Hint: Go poking around for articles with my name as a byline.
Did you know that the PS3 runs Linux, and has a Cell processor?
Did you know that I write a LOT of material about Linux, and a lot more material about the Cell processor?
I have a very compelling reason to own a PS3, which involves neither movies nor games.
Empirically, aligning the sensor bar does not require nearly that level of care. I just sorta put mine on top of the display and it works fine.