You're a fool if you're upset that Wizards of the Coast is trying to make a profit with a new gaming line.
Personally, I don't care what they do with their gaming line, although I have some ideas for them that would make their proctologist blush. I'm just tired of the Microsoft-style new incompatible versions that influence people to re-release (and suggest to customers they should re-purchase) material that they already have.
Maybe if it was a completely new gaming line, that might be something. But much of the non-mechanical material seems like retread of IP they published in the 80's.
I guess my point is, if I've invested heavily in 3.5, say a nice $50 leatherbound DMG, I might feel a little peeved if it was suggested I should buy another DMG with the same races, equipment, skills, and themes, and new combat mechanics to go behind it.
If I invested in 3e, I'm starting to see a pattern in all of this...
If I invested in 2e, I'm just shaking my head... ...if I invested in 1e, I'm shaking my cane! Damn kids and your fancy new books!
In 3rd edition you would have run into similar problems with the fighter...but not so with the rogue.
...while of course, in 2nd Edition you could be flexible with either a Swashbuckler Fighter (Swashbuckler Kit from The Complete Fighter's Handbook) or a Swashbuckling Rogue (half a dozen kits from The Complete Thief's Handbook), with whatever skills you like.
For that matter, if you wanted to tweak the armour and weapon proficiencies even further, the Player's Option books allow more customization than you might have been aware of, rendering classes almost completely into custom characterizations.
I'm not entirely certain why everyone seems to think their only options are a poor 3e, a mediocre 3.5e, or a disastrous 4e... all three were ruined by the WoTC CCG-style marketing.
At a Previous Place of Employment(tm), breaking the high-security hard drives into pieces was only the first part. We were then required to submit the pieces to inspection from some contractor, and then the best part of all: Watching him submit them to thermite. From what I remember, not only did it melt the platters to slag, it also messed with the magnetics of any pieces that happened to survive it.
Even with all of this, we weren't allowed to keep souvenirs of the process.:(
There is a family that (I think) has a prion disease such that if a family member gets it, they stay awake until they die a few months later - and it sounds like a very horrible death too.
*shudder* That's the sort of horror story that keeps me up at night...
No, this isn't American democracy. This is sickness in its true form, also known as revolutionary leftism.
No, I think he was confused by the fact that it resembles the revolutionary right-ism in the United States so much that it is difficult to distinguish them.
The political landscape is a sphere, go far enough in ANY direction (right or left, progressive or conservative) from freedom at the "top" and you always eventually get to dictatorship, down at the bottom.
In fact, the statement "Microsoft complies with law" is demonstrably false. The courts have spoken.
From their point of view, though, they are complying with the law. As far as they're concerned, the law doesn't say "Don't abuse a monopoly position", it says "If you abuse a monopoly position, you will need to pay X dollars."
For a lot of large companies, judgements and fines are just another cost of doing (dirty) business.
According to the Single Unix Standard, only Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) can be considered "Unix". And only when deployed on Intel-based Macs. Previous versions must be considered like Linux: "Unix-like".
FWIW, Sun's operating system (SunOS) has been fairly close to Unix standards over its lifetime. In fact, the official version of System V release 4 was written by Sun and called SunOS 5, integrated into Solaris 2
Why is anyone even having this argument? GNU means "Gnu's NOT Unix" for a reason...
With this type of equipment, if for some reason you lose power and the generator doesn't start before the flywheel runs down, you're dead. There's no way to start the thing without external power. Unless you buy the optional Black Start feature, which has an extra battery pack for starting the Diesel
How... JV.
If you want to see how its done, go tour a telco managed facility (Not ncessesarily a datacenter, but the BMF - the place with the big wall where your phonelines are fused). I've had a tour of the one near me - no windows, one door, power from two separate grids, massive diesel generator (and a priority on fuel in case of disaster - see Katrina and the MSY BMF), and a huge room filled with enough marine batteries to keep the place going for hours.
Ma Bell - when it absolutely, positively, has to have a dialtone.
I have read it (and based my last couple.sig's on it, even), and I find the Tivo section to make it sound very much like "You are free to use this however you want. Except for things we disagree with.". Which is really a very hollow sort of "freedom", regardless of how bad the "things we disagree with" are.
So, if you want "You are free to use this however you want, including locking up my code behind your patents and DMCA-lockdowns so that I never see my code again", there's always the BSD license and its thousand variants. Nobody's forcing you to use the GPL for your code, or GPL code for your project...
And an even more interesting connection, how do they intend to collect these said royalties?
Well, the RIAA figured out how to get royalties out of Canadian citizens, so maybe something similar would happen here. Obviously, they can't add a tax to your download easily, so how's about the it just comes out of the taxes we pay?
Hows about Microsoft just receives a regular stipend from the US Treasury, like a fine of $1500 for every man, woman, and child, every year, for the MASSIVE PATENT INFRINGEMENT that EVERY CITIZEN partakes of EVERY DAY of Microsoft's INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. 300mil x $1500.00 is about $450billion a year in subsidies that Microsoft DESERVES! After all, this OPEN SORES SOFTWARE is DESTROYING THEIR BUSINESS PRACTICE!
Oh, and if they could get a bill passed so that: ...we have to install their software on all new computer-like products, and ...we have to upgrade every time they recompile their shit code and box it, and ...manufacturers are forced to weld their products closed except for the little hole they use to fill it with epoxy. ...That'd be great. I'd say they might try to come up with a reason of why this would be important for the American people, but they're not even trying to make shit up for the assinine legislation they pass nowadays.
I might be tempted to take the series in a completely different direction; make a show about a group of Vulcan and Romulan terrorists/freedom fighters on Romulus pushing a reunificationist agenda, for example.
Or... or... an entire series about the Mirror Universe! Fu-manchus and gold bikinis all around! They could even recast the same actors, use half of the same plots, and rebuild all of the old sets... just EVIL!
You could even have it written and directed by the Mirror Universe Rick Berman, who makes thoughtful, entertaining, and understated cinematic art.
If you create a perfect atomic copy of a living being and then destroy the original, is the copy really the same as the original? What if you just never destroyed the original? Is destroying the original tantamount to murder?
Luckily, with this method of teleportation, we'll never have those types of questions. Instantaneously as the "copy" is created, the "original" ceases to exist by phsyical laws; there is no "...and _then_ destroy the original", because the original is gone. For all intents and purposes, the original has moved; it never exists in two places simultaneously.
I'm sure politicians will never figure this out and will move to have it classified as the highest form of murder until the Transportation Industry gets their piece of the pie, of course
Stop reviewing 360 games without the proper hardware. Its like reviewing Half Life 2 with a 13" monitor and playing with a gamepad.
No, because its assumed the computer you're playing HL2 on came with the proper controller (keyboard and mouse, natch) and a display that's already otherwise comfortable for viewing. So now the $699 Xbox360 is only playable with another $699 widescreen hd display (or, as you explain, a $3,999 Sony SXRD?) How does that impact the value economics the console fanboys trumpet?:P
Why does it ASSUME that if I type ls I want to see a directory listing?
The GP isn't so much complaining about the assumption, but the arbitrariness of it. In most UNIX shells, everything you type at the prompt is a command. In MSH however, it appears that sometimes when you type something in, it might be a command, it might be a value, it might be a.... etc.
msh> 5
5
Who's to say I don't have a command called '5'? What if it's not in the correct path? Or, for that matter, who's to say I don't have a command called '6' that I typo'd?
The purpose of the GPL was to ensure that if someone gives you software for trade or for free, that you don't end up screwed because you have some unmodifiable binary - that instead you have the source.
Curious. I thought the purpose of the GPL was to foster Free Software - that is, software I am free to modify to suit my purposes and share with others, as long as I share my modifications with others. It allows me to work off the backs of others, as long as I'm willing to allow others to work off of my back. Currently, a web service using GPL code has taken a shortcut by exploiting someone else's work... what are they giving back?
Simply show that all existing structure is practically achievable through random chance, and you're done
Oh, is that all? We just have to document every bit of structure in the entire universe, and the path it took for every quanta of time since the beginning of time itself, and prove that every path taken could have been random, and then we're done?
That certainly sounds like a reasonable argument. Lets say you start with all existing structure in the universe, and show that it makes sense for every bit of it to be designed, and show how it was designed, every step of the way. The first one to document every bit of structure in the universe, wins.
Lemme guess, you don't believe that prime numbers continue infinitely, because nobody has actually provided you a list of all of them...
Well, they're not "human", so of course they'll be discussions about whether they have civil rights.
Given the upcoming supreme court nominations, it won't be long until they're the new completely-legal slave race for the rich and powerful (a position currently occupied by the United States legislature)
Slashdot Mirror
"It is illegal to be poor. Off to the spice mines with you!"
*shudder*
Personally, I don't care what they do with their gaming line, although I have some ideas for them that would make their proctologist blush. I'm just tired of the Microsoft-style new incompatible versions that influence people to re-release (and suggest to customers they should re-purchase) material that they already have.
Maybe if it was a completely new gaming line, that might be something. But much of the non-mechanical material seems like retread of IP they published in the 80's.
I guess my point is, if I've invested heavily in 3.5, say a nice $50 leatherbound DMG, I might feel a little peeved if it was suggested I should buy another DMG with the same races, equipment, skills, and themes, and new combat mechanics to go behind it.
...if I invested in 1e, I'm shaking my cane! Damn kids and your fancy new books!
If I invested in 3e, I'm starting to see a pattern in all of this...
If I invested in 2e, I'm just shaking my head...
...while of course, in 2nd Edition you could be flexible with either a Swashbuckler Fighter (Swashbuckler Kit from The Complete Fighter's Handbook) or a Swashbuckling Rogue (half a dozen kits from The Complete Thief's Handbook), with whatever skills you like.
For that matter, if you wanted to tweak the armour and weapon proficiencies even further, the Player's Option books allow more customization than you might have been aware of, rendering classes almost completely into custom characterizations.
I'm not entirely certain why everyone seems to think their only options are a poor 3e, a mediocre 3.5e, or a disastrous 4e... all three were ruined by the WoTC CCG-style marketing.
IMHO. :)
It's interesting, anyway
At a Previous Place of Employment(tm), breaking the high-security hard drives into pieces was only the first part. We were then required to submit the pieces to inspection from some contractor, and then the best part of all: Watching him submit them to thermite. From what I remember, not only did it melt the platters to slag, it also messed with the magnetics of any pieces that happened to survive it.
Even with all of this, we weren't allowed to keep souvenirs of the process. :(
Well, let's see... last time they made money hand-over-fist, so why would they change things around?
Oh SURE, because TSR^WWizar^WHasbro is JUST FINE with you NOT BUYING completely new editions of the SAME BOOK. AGAIN AND AGAIN.
Have you not seen their CCG business? Just scale it up to book size and it's the same business:
Come to think of it, this is damn near the Hollywood formula, too...
This is slashdot. Be happy the GP read the TITLE.
*shudder* That's the sort of horror story that keeps me up at night...
No, I think he was confused by the fact that it resembles the revolutionary right-ism in the United States so much that it is difficult to distinguish them.
The political landscape is a sphere, go far enough in ANY direction (right or left, progressive or conservative) from freedom at the "top" and you always eventually get to dictatorship, down at the bottom.
From their point of view, though, they are complying with the law. As far as they're concerned, the law doesn't say "Don't abuse a monopoly position", it says "If you abuse a monopoly position, you will need to pay X dollars."
For a lot of large companies, judgements and fines are just another cost of doing (dirty) business.
You should get out more: (from the Linux manpage)
According to the Single Unix Standard, only Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) can be considered "Unix". And only when deployed on Intel-based Macs. Previous versions must be considered like Linux: "Unix-like".
FWIW, Sun's operating system (SunOS) has been fairly close to Unix standards over its lifetime. In fact, the official version of System V release 4 was written by Sun and called SunOS 5, integrated into Solaris 2
Why is anyone even having this argument? GNU means "Gnu's NOT Unix" for a reason...
Now we know they're joking. When did IBM port AIX to UNIX? :)
How... JV.
If you want to see how its done, go tour a telco managed facility (Not ncessesarily a datacenter, but the BMF - the place with the big wall where your phonelines are fused). I've had a tour of the one near me - no windows, one door, power from two separate grids, massive diesel generator (and a priority on fuel in case of disaster - see Katrina and the MSY BMF), and a huge room filled with enough marine batteries to keep the place going for hours.
Ma Bell - when it absolutely, positively, has to have a dialtone.
So, if you want "You are free to use this however you want, including locking up my code behind your patents and DMCA-lockdowns so that I never see my code again", there's always the BSD license and its thousand variants. Nobody's forcing you to use the GPL for your code, or GPL code for your project...
Well, the RIAA figured out how to get royalties out of Canadian citizens, so maybe something similar would happen here. Obviously, they can't add a tax to your download easily, so how's about the it just comes out of the taxes we pay?
Hows about Microsoft just receives a regular stipend from the US Treasury, like a fine of $1500 for every man, woman, and child, every year, for the MASSIVE PATENT INFRINGEMENT that EVERY CITIZEN partakes of EVERY DAY of Microsoft's INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. 300mil x $1500.00 is about $450billion a year in subsidies that Microsoft DESERVES! After all, this OPEN SORES SOFTWARE is DESTROYING THEIR BUSINESS PRACTICE!
Oh, and if they could get a bill passed so that:
...we have to install their software on all new computer-like products, and
...we have to upgrade every time they recompile their shit code and box it, and
...manufacturers are forced to weld their products closed except for the little hole they use to fill it with epoxy.
...That'd be great. I'd say they might try to come up with a reason of why this would be important for the American people, but they're not even trying to make shit up for the assinine legislation they pass nowadays.
Wait until you see the minimum system requirements for Microsoft Word 2017...
Or... or... an entire series about the Mirror Universe! Fu-manchus and gold bikinis all around! They could even recast the same actors, use half of the same plots, and rebuild all of the old sets... just EVIL!
You could even have it written and directed by the Mirror Universe Rick Berman, who makes thoughtful, entertaining, and understated cinematic art.
Luckily, with this method of teleportation, we'll never have those types of questions. Instantaneously as the "copy" is created, the "original" ceases to exist by phsyical laws; there is no "...and _then_ destroy the original", because the original is gone. For all intents and purposes, the original has moved; it never exists in two places simultaneously.
I'm sure politicians will never figure this out and will move to have it classified as the highest form of murder until the Transportation Industry gets their piece of the pie, of course
No, because its assumed the computer you're playing HL2 on came with the proper controller (keyboard and mouse, natch) and a display that's already otherwise comfortable for viewing. So now the $699 Xbox360 is only playable with another $699 widescreen hd display (or, as you explain, a $3,999 Sony SXRD?) How does that impact the value economics the console fanboys trumpet? :P
The GP isn't so much complaining about the assumption, but the arbitrariness of it. In most UNIX shells, everything you type at the prompt is a command. In MSH however, it appears that sometimes when you type something in, it might be a command, it might be a value, it might be a.... etc.
Who's to say I don't have a command called '5'? What if it's not in the correct path? Or, for that matter, who's to say I don't have a command called '6' that I typo'd?
Dude, do you even read Slashdot? :P
Curious. I thought the purpose of the GPL was to foster Free Software - that is, software I am free to modify to suit my purposes and share with others, as long as I share my modifications with others. It allows me to work off the backs of others, as long as I'm willing to allow others to work off of my back. Currently, a web service using GPL code has taken a shortcut by exploiting someone else's work... what are they giving back?
Oh, is that all? We just have to document every bit of structure in the entire universe, and the path it took for every quanta of time since the beginning of time itself, and prove that every path taken could have been random, and then we're done?
That certainly sounds like a reasonable argument. Lets say you start with all existing structure in the universe, and show that it makes sense for every bit of it to be designed, and show how it was designed, every step of the way. The first one to document every bit of structure in the universe, wins.
Lemme guess, you don't believe that prime numbers continue infinitely, because nobody has actually provided you a list of all of them...
Well, they're not "human", so of course they'll be discussions about whether they have civil rights.
Given the upcoming supreme court nominations, it won't be long until they're the new completely-legal slave race for the rich and powerful (a position currently occupied by the United States legislature)