You may never post of./ again. You obviously have too high an IQ to be here. Personally I feel your gift would be better served if you applied yourself to solving world hunger... or the DRM crisis which ever you like.
I'm pretty sure what he's getting at is this DRM system is failing because it requires you to have an internet connection. Steam, which I do like, also requires an internet connection. Steam is better because it doesn't require a persistent connection. However, If for some reason you don't have an internet connection you can't use steam.
As an example if you work in a remote location like an oil rig, scientific research station, space, etc...
More commonly, if you live in a very rural area you might not have access to the internet or limited access through dial-up.
The issue with Steam and this DRM system is that it is assume everyone who wants to use the product has an internet connection. People know what they're getting into with Steam, but DRM schemes don't have to be listed on the box so you might not even know you need an internet connection to play until you get it home and open it, although I read somewhere else that "internet connection required" is on the box for AC2. I use to live in a rural area and once in a while would drive into the city to buy games, movies and anything else I wanted. It was a long trip and my DRM frustration would have been compounded knowing I'd have to make another 3 hour, each way, trip to return the stupid game, if I could return it at all.
I personally don't have issues with DRMs, I've never had one stop me from playing a game, but it should be very clear when one is used and what DRM it is. My older sisters computer was messed up when she bought Spore, I fixed it for her twice before I read about Spores DRM. That being said I have no evidence that was the problem, I just know that after she gave up on Spore and moved on to other things there was no more issue.
Everyone knows getting it to work is part of the game. The harder it is to get it working the greater the sense of accomplishment. Why do you think consumers LOVE DRMs so much!!
People can still modify the software to not check for a dongle, or create fake dongles. Dongles work well in a big companies because if the company is caught using unlicensed software it can mean hundreds of millions of dollars. However, some companies will still work around, or demand work arounds, dongles. I wish I could remember where I read a post on this. I read someone talking about an application they developed that used a dongle, but the customer used laptops and dongles were frequently lost in the field so the customer demanded the software without the dongles. The developer company was able to turn the dongle requirement off just for this "special case". If one person can turn off the requirement then so can others.
Individuals are (or at least think) they're more anonymous and don't have that kind of capital anyway. That being said, we've all heard about the cases where the *IAA has taken someone to court and won some X hundred thousand dollars.
Not that I don't like your solution, but don't you think it'd be much more expensive to pay the lawyer to go to the store with you?
If you could get the store to pay your lawyer fees because they gave you a hard time on a defective or misleading product that'd be a different story, but if you could do that the store wouldn't give you a hard time in the first place.
Yeah, he's pretty badass, but I'm the evil one. People get it confused because I'm the Canadian. However, if your ever in my undisclosed area and want to join me for a few rounds of Street Fighter or Tekken. Feel free to stop in.
I think it would have to be on a case by case basis. Some people wouldn't want to play someone that presented no challenge. On the other hand some people can't stand to loose.
I can't stand playing video games with my wife because she just doesn't have an aptitude or interest in them so if we do play it's for one round then she'll be like, "Ok this is boring lets watch some TV". I often feel guilty because I have a really hot female friend that rocks at fighting games and I love playing with her. However there's always that tension because we are attracted to each other. We almost dated a few years ago before I got married, but because of the situation at the time things just didn't work out. I'm always afraid something will happen so I never have her over when my wife's not around. That also makes playing games with her hard since my wife usually just ends up rolling her eyes and wanting to do something else. I love my wife, she has many great qualities, but I really wish she enjoyed video games.
I can read a 2000 page novel in a weekend and give you a very detailed outline of what's in it.
Try reading a 2000 page text book and reporting back. Novels are suppose to be entertaining, IMHO, equating reading a 2000+ page legal document to reading Huckleberry Finn isn't going to fly.
One of the primary reasons lawyers thrive is due to ambiguity in law.... Law is messy, and needs very complex verbiage to define what's what.
I kind of agree with you on laws being too general, but if you make laws too specific you end up in a position where a law can never be applied because specific circumstances aren't met. Laws are general to allow people to "weasel" out of them, after all who makes laws!? politicians. Whom conveniently are the ones that benefit the most from being about to dance through the loop holes.
As an example, where I'm from we're going through a major "scandal" where politicians have been spending tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax payer money on personal stuff. Recently we got a new Auditor General and a provincial audit was done where more than 3/4 of the politicians were confirmed to be involved. So what happens to the politicians? Nothing. They say, "Oh, were so sorry. The rules for how we can spend tax payer money were vague and we didn't know better.". Supposedly they have all "paid back" their debt. To me that shouldn't matter. If this was a private company and I was an employee and had stolen even $10, I would have been at the very least fired if not be going to jail and most likely I'd have to pay back what I stole too. The rules that apply to me don't apply to the people that make the rules.
My In-laws typically just hit ok when they see a popup, if they were told to press Ctr-D and something poped-up they would most likely just hit OK. You'll have to trust me on this one. Just about every other weekend I have to fix something because they don't read a warning or message.
IMHO this tech is an important step to perfecting cars that can drive on their own. Sure right now it's giving feedback to the driver, but the same underlying system would be used by a computer to navigate the car. Although, I don't think people would ever be comfortable with the idea of a car driving itself. For some reason people tend to not trust devices that can make a split second decision in a nanosecond, I'm assuming its for the same reason as in the movie "I, Robot". Computers a calculating and will make the decision for the best outcome.
I remember a joke: There was this guy driving along and he sees a hitch hiker. Being nice he stops and picks the guy up, a mistake he almost immediately regrets as the hitch hiker won't shut-up. After about an hour of non-stop babbling the driver figures he could scare the guy into shutting up. The driver spots a cyclist on the side of the highway. He slams down the accelerator and screeches off toward the cyclist veering away just before the imminent collision. Passing the cyclist the driver hears a thud and interrupts the hitch hiker, who didn't seem to take any notice and kept on talking, the driver says, "What was that?". The hitch hiker responds, "Oh, it looked like you were going to miss him so I opened the door."
If the computer was driving that joke wouldn't be nearly as funny... well, if it was funny at all.
I could see that working. You start by master basics such as simple programming from scratch, when you level you gain access to a new library or new hardware that gives you more advance tools for building an application. I think it'd be quite an incentive to work hard on mastering basics.
I just bought the Whigs album. It's pretty awesome.
This is the first album I've bought since an Our Lady Peace album back in 2000. If it was always that easy to buy, in the format I wanted it in, that easy to retrieve and I could use it anywhere on anything I wanted to for a reasonable price, which it was, I would always buy music like that.
Thanks for pointing that service out, they have at least one new customer.
I doubt you'd ever see comics (DC and Marvel style) move to a digital format. Part of their appeal and value is that over time only limited copies survive. The chance to be the owner of the fist superman for example would loose its value if it was a digital version that can be infinity copied. I completely understand where you're coming from, I believe comics are written to be read and for someone to buy and original copy, seal it up and lock it away where no one can ever see it again is a real crime in my mind.
I think I'll create a comic about a super hero that goes around "rescuing" comics from evil collectors.
That being said, if it wasn't for early adopters, who end up getting screwed, I don't think some technologies would have taken off.
DVDs for example might not have been, or have gotten, as big as they are now if it wasn't for the people that went out and spent thousands of dollars on the original players and hundreds on the original DVDs.
Some companies use early adopters as their statistics to either continue or discontinue production of a product.
Not even just being out in the wilds. I've been to London and their transit system is infinitely better then what we have here in Dartmouth, Nova Scota. Then again, I think you'd be hard pressed to find any place with worse transit.
Sure I can walk or take a bike, but if you've ever been to Halifax or Dartmouth, you'd know the cities are made up of hills, hills on hills and more hills.
The advantage is I'm in great shape. I was at a bachelor party for a friend of mine about a year ago. He had friends from Alberta visiting and we spent most of the night waiting for them to catch up to us as we moved from bar to bar.
The other issue with traveling without transit is the weather. This last winter was pretty good we only had a couple of snow storms, but normally from about mid January to about mid April there's snow on the ground. Sometimes well over a meter, but normally at least a half a meter. Summer's not too bad and I welcome a nice walk on a warm sunny day, but when it's warm I'm outside until it's time for bed and rarely spend time watching movies.
We have similar bad transit in my city. I'd make a day trip to buy a Console because I only have to do it once. I wouldn't take the same day or half day to go rent a movie for a couple of reasons.
1) You never know if the movie you want is going to be at the store. Wasting a half a day, a few hours there and a few hours back, to go to the store just to find out the don't carry or don't have the movie you wanted in is a major frustration. Before I spent more time downloading then renting I'd try to call ahead to reserve movies. I'd be told, "sure we have that, I'll put it aside for you.", I'd get to the store and the movie I wanted was gone.
2) You have to return the rented movie. Meaning you have to make the same trip back to the store often the next day or the day after or pay the late fees. So if you want to rent a movie you better be sure you have the time to make the initial trip and you better not be doing anything the next day either.
I like Sony's idea, I'd pay the same prices to "own" (by Sony's definition) a movie that I'd pay to rent them from a store (up to $5). Seeing as how Sony is charging the same price I'd pay if I actually bought the movie; I don't think I'll be using their service. Fortunately for me I live in Canada so I don't think I even get the option to pay outrageous prices for their crap anyway.
There are a couple of ways to get rid of a politician, one of them not being getting a super majority to opposes them, although public embarrassment usually causes them to resign. Sure if they get killed there will be a bi-election to replace them, but I would recommend against that route.
For the last few years we've had minority governments, meaning the party in power held less then half the number of seats in parliament (53 I think). So in a minority government the opposition parties can defeat the reining governments budgets and any legislation it deems to be a matter of "confidence". So basically we've had an election almost every other year for the last 5-10 years.
A majority government last 4 years. The advantage to a majority government is things get done, but because the opposition doesn't have enough of a vote to stop bills from going through it's not always in the best interest of the people. In a minority government the parties have to work together to get legislation through, but the almost never agree on anything so almost nothing get done.
I didn't bring apples, I think they're unsanitary to carry around and eat without washing. I brought tangerines.
I'm pretty sure I'm a minority. I love to learn stuff anything I can get my hands/eyes on so I almost never found classes boring. I did however wonder why so many others spent so much time sleeping. I always figured it was because they spent too much time partying and not drinking enough coffee.
I see your point though. There have been classes that dispute my greatest interest in the material the profs. would literally bore me to tears.
I had one class (communications) were a bunch of my friends and I got together and every week only one of us would go to class and take notes, we'd meet later and have a study group to copy the notes and work on assignments/projects. It was mostly about writing resumes, letters and learning to properly shake hands. The things you learn in high school, but it was a required course for Com. Sci. students. The prof sucked goat cheese; if you did an assignment you got 100% on it regardless of how badly you did it.
Slashdot Mirror
You may never post of ./ again. You obviously have too high an IQ to be here. Personally I feel your gift would be better served if you applied yourself to solving world hunger... or the DRM crisis which ever you like.
/whisper DRM, DRM, DRM
I'm pretty sure what he's getting at is this DRM system is failing because it requires you to have an internet connection. Steam, which I do like, also requires an internet connection. Steam is better because it doesn't require a persistent connection. However, If for some reason you don't have an internet connection you can't use steam.
As an example if you work in a remote location like an oil rig, scientific research station, space, etc...
More commonly, if you live in a very rural area you might not have access to the internet or limited access through dial-up.
The issue with Steam and this DRM system is that it is assume everyone who wants to use the product has an internet connection. People know what they're getting into with Steam, but DRM schemes don't have to be listed on the box so you might not even know you need an internet connection to play until you get it home and open it, although I read somewhere else that "internet connection required" is on the box for AC2. I use to live in a rural area and once in a while would drive into the city to buy games, movies and anything else I wanted. It was a long trip and my DRM frustration would have been compounded knowing I'd have to make another 3 hour, each way, trip to return the stupid game, if I could return it at all.
I personally don't have issues with DRMs, I've never had one stop me from playing a game, but it should be very clear when one is used and what DRM it is. My older sisters computer was messed up when she bought Spore, I fixed it for her twice before I read about Spores DRM. That being said I have no evidence that was the problem, I just know that after she gave up on Spore and moved on to other things there was no more issue.
/. mantra "Correlation doesn't mean causation"
Everyone knows getting it to work is part of the game. The harder it is to get it working the greater the sense of accomplishment. Why do you think consumers LOVE DRMs so much!!
I don't think it would work.
People can still modify the software to not check for a dongle, or create fake dongles. Dongles work well in a big companies because if the company is caught using unlicensed software it can mean hundreds of millions of dollars. However, some companies will still work around, or demand work arounds, dongles. I wish I could remember where I read a post on this. I read someone talking about an application they developed that used a dongle, but the customer used laptops and dongles were frequently lost in the field so the customer demanded the software without the dongles. The developer company was able to turn the dongle requirement off just for this "special case". If one person can turn off the requirement then so can others.
Individuals are (or at least think) they're more anonymous and don't have that kind of capital anyway. That being said, we've all heard about the cases where the *IAA has taken someone to court and won some X hundred thousand dollars.
Not that I don't like your solution, but don't you think it'd be much more expensive to pay the lawyer to go to the store with you?
If you could get the store to pay your lawyer fees because they gave you a hard time on a defective or misleading product that'd be a different story, but if you could do that the store wouldn't give you a hard time in the first place.
Sorry,
I'll pay if you don't tell my wife.
was cropped off.
Yeah, he's pretty badass, but I'm the evil one. People get it confused because I'm the Canadian. However, if your ever in my undisclosed area and want to join me for a few rounds of Street Fighter or Tekken. Feel free to stop in.
Dude, I'm going to start shooting on Monday. LOL
you sound familiar!
I doubt I'm who you're thinking of. Here are a hint, I'm Canadian :), I think that eliminates 2/3 of the people on /.
I think it would have to be on a case by case basis. Some people wouldn't want to play someone that presented no challenge. On the other hand some people can't stand to loose.
I can't stand playing video games with my wife because she just doesn't have an aptitude or interest in them so if we do play it's for one round then she'll be like, "Ok this is boring lets watch some TV". I often feel guilty because I have a really hot female friend that rocks at fighting games and I love playing with her. However there's always that tension because we are attracted to each other. We almost dated a few years ago before I got married, but because of the situation at the time things just didn't work out. I'm always afraid something will happen so I never have her over when my wife's not around. That also makes playing games with her hard since my wife usually just ends up rolling her eyes and wanting to do something else. I love my wife, she has many great qualities, but I really wish she enjoyed video games.
I can read a 2000 page novel in a weekend and give you a very detailed outline of what's in it.
Try reading a 2000 page text book and reporting back. Novels are suppose to be entertaining, IMHO, equating reading a 2000+ page legal document to reading Huckleberry Finn isn't going to fly.
One of the primary reasons lawyers thrive is due to ambiguity in law. ... Law is messy, and needs very complex verbiage to define what's what.
I kind of agree with you on laws being too general, but if you make laws too specific you end up in a position where a law can never be applied because specific circumstances aren't met. Laws are general to allow people to "weasel" out of them, after all who makes laws!? politicians. Whom conveniently are the ones that benefit the most from being about to dance through the loop holes.
As an example, where I'm from we're going through a major "scandal" where politicians have been spending tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax payer money on personal stuff. Recently we got a new Auditor General and a provincial audit was done where more than 3/4 of the politicians were confirmed to be involved. So what happens to the politicians? Nothing. They say, "Oh, were so sorry. The rules for how we can spend tax payer money were vague and we didn't know better.". Supposedly they have all "paid back" their debt. To me that shouldn't matter. If this was a private company and I was an employee and had stolen even $10, I would have been at the very least fired if not be going to jail and most likely I'd have to pay back what I stole too. The rules that apply to me don't apply to the people that make the rules.
My In-laws typically just hit ok when they see a popup, if they were told to press Ctr-D and something poped-up they would most likely just hit OK. You'll have to trust me on this one. Just about every other weekend I have to fix something because they don't read a warning or message.
I live in Canada and it's not an acceptable excuse here either.
How am I suppose to tell the cop I didn't know I was in a 50 km/h zone with my stupid windshield pointing out all the frigging signs to me.
Was my attempt at humour. It's ok though, my wife doesn't think I'm funny either.
IMHO this tech is an important step to perfecting cars that can drive on their own. Sure right now it's giving feedback to the driver, but the same underlying system would be used by a computer to navigate the car. Although, I don't think people would ever be comfortable with the idea of a car driving itself. For some reason people tend to not trust devices that can make a split second decision in a nanosecond, I'm assuming its for the same reason as in the movie "I, Robot". Computers a calculating and will make the decision for the best outcome.
I remember a joke: There was this guy driving along and he sees a hitch hiker. Being nice he stops and picks the guy up, a mistake he almost immediately regrets as the hitch hiker won't shut-up. After about an hour of non-stop babbling the driver figures he could scare the guy into shutting up. The driver spots a cyclist on the side of the highway. He slams down the accelerator and screeches off toward the cyclist veering away just before the imminent collision. Passing the cyclist the driver hears a thud and interrupts the hitch hiker, who didn't seem to take any notice and kept on talking, the driver says, "What was that?". The hitch hiker responds, "Oh, it looked like you were going to miss him so I opened the door."
If the computer was driving that joke wouldn't be nearly as funny... well, if it was funny at all.
I don't want my attention drawn to a speed signs.
How am I suppose to tell the cop I didn't know I was in a 50 km/h zone with my stupid windshield pointing out all the frigging signs to me.
I could see that working. You start by master basics such as simple programming from scratch, when you level you gain access to a new library or new hardware that gives you more advance tools for building an application. I think it'd be quite an incentive to work hard on mastering basics.
I just bought the Whigs album. It's pretty awesome.
This is the first album I've bought since an Our Lady Peace album back in 2000. If it was always that easy to buy, in the format I wanted it in, that easy to retrieve and I could use it anywhere on anything I wanted to for a reasonable price, which it was, I would always buy music like that.
Thanks for pointing that service out, they have at least one new customer.
Sorry for the spelling mistakes. I clicked preview and nothing happened. I clicked it a second time and the post was made.
I doubt you'd ever see comics (DC and Marvel style) move to a digital format. Part of their appeal and value is that over time only limited copies survive. The chance to be the owner of the fist superman for example would loose its value if it was a digital version that can be infinity copied. I completely understand where you're coming from, I believe comics are written to be read and for someone to buy and original copy, seal it up and lock it away where no one can ever see it again is a real crime in my mind.
I think I'll create a comic about a super hero that goes around "rescuing" comics from evil collectors.
with advances on the DRM front be able to actually pass these books onto our children!
Now you're just dreaming!! Don't be so greedy! jk ;)
That being said, if it wasn't for early adopters, who end up getting screwed, I don't think some technologies would have taken off.
DVDs for example might not have been, or have gotten, as big as they are now if it wasn't for the people that went out and spent thousands of dollars on the original players and hundreds on the original DVDs.
Some companies use early adopters as their statistics to either continue or discontinue production of a product.
Not even just being out in the wilds. I've been to London and their transit system is infinitely better then what we have here in Dartmouth, Nova Scota. Then again, I think you'd be hard pressed to find any place with worse transit.
Sure I can walk or take a bike, but if you've ever been to Halifax or Dartmouth, you'd know the cities are made up of hills, hills on hills and more hills.
The advantage is I'm in great shape. I was at a bachelor party for a friend of mine about a year ago. He had friends from Alberta visiting and we spent most of the night waiting for them to catch up to us as we moved from bar to bar.
The other issue with traveling without transit is the weather. This last winter was pretty good we only had a couple of snow storms, but normally from about mid January to about mid April there's snow on the ground. Sometimes well over a meter, but normally at least a half a meter. Summer's not too bad and I welcome a nice walk on a warm sunny day, but when it's warm I'm outside until it's time for bed and rarely spend time watching movies.
For more about Halifax/Dartmouth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz88kJSdT6Y This may NSFW unless you have headphones.
We have similar bad transit in my city. I'd make a day trip to buy a Console because I only have to do it once. I wouldn't take the same day or half day to go rent a movie for a couple of reasons.
1) You never know if the movie you want is going to be at the store. Wasting a half a day, a few hours there and a few hours back, to go to the store just to find out the don't carry or don't have the movie you wanted in is a major frustration. Before I spent more time downloading then renting I'd try to call ahead to reserve movies. I'd be told, "sure we have that, I'll put it aside for you.", I'd get to the store and the movie I wanted was gone.
2) You have to return the rented movie. Meaning you have to make the same trip back to the store often the next day or the day after or pay the late fees. So if you want to rent a movie you better be sure you have the time to make the initial trip and you better not be doing anything the next day either.
I like Sony's idea, I'd pay the same prices to "own" (by Sony's definition) a movie that I'd pay to rent them from a store (up to $5). Seeing as how Sony is charging the same price I'd pay if I actually bought the movie; I don't think I'll be using their service. Fortunately for me I live in Canada so I don't think I even get the option to pay outrageous prices for their crap anyway.
For the last few years we've had minority governments, meaning the party in power held less then half the number of seats in parliament (53 I think). So in a minority government the opposition parties can defeat the reining governments budgets and any legislation it deems to be a matter of "confidence". So basically we've had an election almost every other year for the last 5-10 years.
A majority government last 4 years. The advantage to a majority government is things get done, but because the opposition doesn't have enough of a vote to stop bills from going through it's not always in the best interest of the people. In a minority government the parties have to work together to get legislation through, but the almost never agree on anything so almost nothing get done.
I didn't bring apples, I think they're unsanitary to carry around and eat without washing. I brought tangerines.
I'm pretty sure I'm a minority. I love to learn stuff anything I can get my hands/eyes on so I almost never found classes boring. I did however wonder why so many others spent so much time sleeping. I always figured it was because they spent too much time partying and not drinking enough coffee.
I see your point though. There have been classes that dispute my greatest interest in the material the profs. would literally bore me to tears.
I had one class (communications) were a bunch of my friends and I got together and every week only one of us would go to class and take notes, we'd meet later and have a study group to copy the notes and work on assignments/projects. It was mostly about writing resumes, letters and learning to properly shake hands. The things you learn in high school, but it was a required course for Com. Sci. students. The prof sucked goat cheese; if you did an assignment you got 100% on it regardless of how badly you did it.