He's a 69 year old actor, can you really imagine him sitting down at his computer and ripping this video tape? Or even giving it to somebody else to do that? I'm surprised nobody else is thoerizing that the tape was leaked without him knowing it. Its not entirely clear if he is liable in the case of being framed.
If I were the judge of this case, unless there were tangible evidence or a plausible motive for doing this, I think I'd go with the plausible deniability that somebody else stole it, ripped it, and put it back.
Can you imagine if when recorded music first became widely available and used if live musicians successfully sued to have the technology banned or heavily taxed because it would put them out of business? Apply that kind of logic to every sector and you've got a world of nothing but amish lawyers and tax collectors.
Whats far more ridiculous though is they think its sensical to inconvience the paying consumer when they could just get a no strings attached version online. I'm sure the vast majority of people ripping their own CDs are honest consumers who want to make mix discs, use MP3 players, play it on their computer and that sort of thing. Everybody else has already downloaded it, only one person needs to make a halfway decent version of a rip and then the copy protection ceases to accomplish anything whatsoever other then to discourage people from buying CDs.
Music CDs that attempt to instantly install software on your computer that limits it's functionality? What kind of crack were on they on when they thought that sort of behavior was going to pay off for them?
Yea, I got a weird errie feeling of awe from looking at that picture that I never got from looking at other pictures of mars before. I think it was because for a split second, I thought I saw a large beetle on the surface, and during my natural instinct to look closer and verify that, a thought short circuited in during that split second before I had the chance, "No, thats Mars, that's pretty much impossible, theres no life there." and suddenly the picture had an actual meaning to me, I sensed its environment of total lifelessness that extended far beyond that horizon.
Then I scrolled over the picture, looking down at the rocks, and up at the horizon, and over, and felt how it was this huge expanse of real land, across the vacuum of space, virtually untouched, and actually sitting there with who knows what kind of potential. It was almost as if without any life, it seemed like the rocks in that picture had to make up for it, and they are sitting in that picture in total shock at the thing that just landed next to them. Eons of nothing happening and then that.
It's always boggled my mind that games don't just use the exact same rating system as movies. Why in the world did they create a new system unneccesarily that obviously quite a few parents don't seem to understand?
The only reason I can possibly imagine is that they didn't want the same kind of mental associations that movies come with, particularly if Game 'E' == Movie 'G'. Would most games be 'PG' like most movies? There is currently no game equivalent to simply 'PG'.
Well, the more likely reason is that some people wanted to create themselves some jobs by arbitrarily creating and overseeing a new system.
"What if a company comes out this year with a new blockbuster game where you serially rape women and then must dump the bodies?"
Grand Theft Auto wasn't a blockbuster merely on the principle that you can run over people and kill innocent civilians, it has great vehicle physics, a pretty decent storyline, good voice acting, a really great soundtrack, a large detailed world with many things to explore, and a lot of open ended freedom, a very solid game in virtually every respect. This simple fact is something virtually nobody ever seems to take into consideration at all on the issue of its popularity.
Its the player that determines whether or not Grand Theft Auto is about picking up prostitutes and beating them to death or simply doing stunts with vehicles and searching for hidden packages. I think to a lot of people, the violence against innocents is a novelty at first, to sort of see the limits of the game, and over time you are more likely to have fun with the driving, exploration and storyline.
Custer's revenge was a commericial failure and the company that made it, Mystique, clearly has gone out of business. I think the premise that a game where you serially rape women and dump the bodies would be a blockbuster is seriously broken. At most it could garner a whole mess of media hype because they have a dysfunctional understanding of what makes a game popular and actually successful.
Within a decade armies of tiny helicopter drones will distract traffic, crash into buildings causing maintenance problems, start bushfires, make faults in powerlines, and require search-and-rescue missions.
Arcades appear to be completely immune from any amount of economic reasoning. I almost never see anybody in them and all the good games you can't play at home cost a buck to play. I tried some weird beat game, cost a buck, put it on the easiest difficulty and the controls were so awkward that I immediately lost. Had it cost 25 cents instead of a buck, I probably would have tried it quite a few more times until I got the hang of it, but a buck per play? There was absolutely no way that was going to happen, it was just a total joke.
25 cents just feels pyschologically like something you can blow on what might only be a minute or two of entertainment. 50 cents for pacman, street fighter, and the basics? Its nuts. $1 for 2 minutes of brief entertainment and a 'You lose' means -zero- repeat business.
I'd love to put virtually a whole arcade on 25 cents for a couple weeks and put a fat "95% of games 25 cents!" sign out front and see what happens. They do so terribly now, what do they have to lose?
Supposedly the point of the rave scene was to demonstrate how you've got this situation where the remainder of humanity just had to reproduce like heck in order to survive, so you've got this wild party to get everybody horny to facilitate that.
Uhh, yea, I didnt quite catch that when I was watching the movie heh, just seemed totally superflous as it dragged on. They shoulda counterpointed it with some mom trying to keep her baby asleep with this annoying rave going on. Then at least it woulda been comedic.
Speaking of pacing, I think a cool idea for software would be something along the lines of a DVD remixer, with an online database of remixes. Have the capability to jump to any spot, play any length, and maybe do some post effect type transitions if they'd be too abrupt in your mix. Then you'd be able to pop in some action flick, pick the 'fights / chases / explosions' mix, which could maybe be broken up a little bit with maybe the few actually funny moments in the movie and be entertained for 10 minutes and spared an hour and a half of really cheesy garbage crap.
Its obvious why the movie had to be changed from the books slightly, but in crucial ways.
The powerful national board of educators demanded that certain key elements be changed so that they can tell the difference between students that did their book report on the movies and those that actually read the books.
I hope that DVR devices reach some kind of high level of availability and affordablity before all of this comes to pass so that people really see what it is they are going to be denied by this trend. If I were ever forced to give up Tivo like capabilities to watch television I don't think I'd even bother with television anymore, I'm way too spoiled by now. They would push their DRM enabled on-demand alternatives that'll either be forced commericial watching or pay-per-view, or just as likely, both.
It is kind of scary though, I heard from a comcast employee that they have plans to wire significant amounts of residential areas in the bay area with fibre to the home in a few years. If they can amass a large enough pool of content and started off really cheap for a couple years they could really get people hooked. Any show, any episode, any time, all only allowed by copyright holders given very strict DRM requirements....
Is this an irablommensucne pomenologicahenl hsiotheyps or the matiostenifan of the igibilitieltny of imatioidc iialistividundc icationommunitercns? Is tihs an iommensurablnce paogicolenomenhl hesipothys or the mfestatioinan of the iilitteligibny of iiomatidc iividualistidnc icommunicationrntes? Is tihs an isurablcommenne phenomenological hesipothys or the manifestation of the iigibilitlteny of imatiodic iistilduadivinc iationccommuniernts? Is tihs an immensurablcone pologicaenmnohel hhesiypots or the mifestationan of the iibilitglienty of itiadiomc iividualistidnc intercommunications? Is tihs an immensurablocne penomenologicahl hipothesys or the mnifestatioan of the iteligibilitny of iatimdioc iidualistindivc iommunicationcterns? Is this an icommensurablne phenomenological hhesipotys or the matioanifestn of the ibilitielignty of iatidiomc istialidividunc intiorcommunicaetns? Is this an imensurablcomne pologicaennomehl hesipothys or the mestatioifnan of the iiliteligibtny of itiamiodc ialistividundic iationtercommunicns? Is tihs an ilommensurabcne phenomenological hothesiyps or the mestatiofanin of the inteligibility of iomatidic idividualistinc iationcommunicertns? Is this an isurablmenmncoe penologicaenomhl hipothesys or the mtionifestaan of the iitbilnteligiy of iiomatidc ialistidividunc itioncommunicaertns? Is this an icommensurablne pnomenologicahel hothesiyps or the mfestatioanin of the ilitibinteligy of iomatiidc iidualistividnc inicationntercommus? Is this an irablmensucomne pgicaonomenolhel hypothesis or the mestatioanifn of the igibilitnteliy of iomatiidc ilistividuadinc intercommunications? Is this an immensurablcone pnologicahenomel hisypothes or the matioifestann of the itlinteligibiy of idiomatic iistindividualc inotercommunicatins?
I bought one of the first Radeons just because I wanted to support the underdog and I seriously regretted it at the time. Hardware incompatibilities with my mobo and soundcard. Lots of game incompatibilities anytime a new game came out, there'd usually be a driver or game patch weeks later to fix very annoying graphical glitches. It took me days to from the time I bought the system and put it together before I had pretty much eliminated all the hard locks and sudden reboots. Driver releases were few and far between and always introduced as many problems as they solved. Most people would have probably returned the card and never bought ATI again, but I stuck with it, hit the forums alot, and must've reinstalled the 4in1s, special agp drivers, video drivers and directX in particular orders and subtly different ways an uncountable number of times.
I swore I'd never get a radeon again.
Then I did, I got the first All-in-Wonder card. I didn't have a TV and an integrated solution like that looked really cool, I was going to risk it again. Still had lots of compatibility problems with software, but overall my hardware issues were seriously reduced. I never got the DVR functionality working very well and was always prone to crashing my whole computer. As a TV it worked pretty well, although trying to play console systems on it was terrible, so I lost interest in the idea of AIW and figured my next card would be an Nvidia so I could get back on the game compatibility band wagon.
Nope.. Radeon 9700 pro.. Read a lot of good reviews, was used to the ATI thing by now and figured what the hell. This card has been _great_, not a single hardware compatibilty issue this time around, and very few game compatibilty issues (although everynow and then I get crap like flickering shadows, etc). The build of this machine was utterly flawless without any troubleshooting required. Not a single driver revision has introduced problems for me, and they have been a lot more consistent lately with addressing any driver issues that do exist.
I definitely appreciate it for being stylistic, but to me its contnet has gotten to be very redundant. Its saved somewhat by the fact that other characters aren't totally overwhelmed by the main character. He pokes almost as much fun at the repetitively sarcastic and angry commentator as he does at the issues themselves. I don't find it as interesting as I used to because of it overusing bush jokes, making fun of rappers too many times, etc, I can't really tell if the characters are developing or what. I'd say overall it has the distinction of being anti-pop as opposed to left-wing. Its still one of the better comics though just off virtue of the art alone.
Its totally beyond me how they think putting copy protection on a CD is a good idea. Even if it were impossible to make a perfect digital rip, somebody would be able to make a good enough analog one no matter what. All it takes is one good rip to start distributing to everybody... What in the world do they have to gain by making what amounts of an incompatible and thus inferior product for people?
This is all rherotical of course, its obvious they simply aren't thinking critically along a number of lines.
I'd like to hear the marketting guy from the tech company that licenses this technology putting forth his spiel about how people making perfect digital copies of cds and giving them to their friends is the total bane of the recording industry. I wonder what kinds of bizarre ways they try to look at sales of protected vs unprotected cds to try to prove that protected cds sold more.
It can be useful to gain insight into how BSP visible surface algorithms work. When you use the opengl hack with half-life, you can't see straight through the entire level, but only into other zones that are determined visible from the zone you are in, which generally arent 100% precise.
If the engine didn't rely on a z-buffer or surface drawing order to make sure that surfaces were hidden, then these kinds of cheats wouldn't even work.
I'm not so sure that those concepts are a given. The trend I've witnessed, adventure games in particular, is that the players have fewer options then ever. When text based input interfaces were all but totally eliminated in favor of icon systems, games that were once expected to take weeks to finish could now be clicked through in a couple of nights.
Even the Baldur's Gate games, with a huge detailed world full of objects doesn't have the kind of object interoperability that the Ultima games had. Even if a lot of the possibilties that were opened up seemed mostly useless (making bread), it was the fact that it was possible that led to a more involving experience. I think that the game everybody is looking at right now to bring a lot of that back is Neverwinter Nights.
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He's a 69 year old actor, can you really imagine him sitting down at his computer and ripping this video tape? Or even giving it to somebody else to do that? I'm surprised nobody else is thoerizing that the tape was leaked without him knowing it. Its not entirely clear if he is liable in the case of being framed.
If I were the judge of this case, unless there were tangible evidence or a plausible motive for doing this, I think I'd go with the plausible deniability that somebody else stole it, ripped it, and put it back.
Can you imagine if when recorded music first became widely available and used if live musicians successfully sued to have the technology banned or heavily taxed because it would put them out of business? Apply that kind of logic to every sector and you've got a world of nothing but amish lawyers and tax collectors.
Whats far more ridiculous though is they think its sensical to inconvience the paying consumer when they could just get a no strings attached version online. I'm sure the vast majority of people ripping their own CDs are honest consumers who want to make mix discs, use MP3 players, play it on their computer and that sort of thing. Everybody else has already downloaded it, only one person needs to make a halfway decent version of a rip and then the copy protection ceases to accomplish anything whatsoever other then to discourage people from buying CDs.
Music CDs that attempt to instantly install software on your computer that limits it's functionality? What kind of crack were on they on when they thought that sort of behavior was going to pay off for them?
Yea, I got a weird errie feeling of awe from looking at that picture that I never got from looking at other pictures of mars before. I think it was because for a split second, I thought I saw a large beetle on the surface, and during my natural instinct to look closer and verify that, a thought short circuited in during that split second before I had the chance, "No, thats Mars, that's pretty much impossible, theres no life there." and suddenly the picture had an actual meaning to me, I sensed its environment of total lifelessness that extended far beyond that horizon.
Then I scrolled over the picture, looking down at the rocks, and up at the horizon, and over, and felt how it was this huge expanse of real land, across the vacuum of space, virtually untouched, and actually sitting there with who knows what kind of potential. It was almost as if without any life, it seemed like the rocks in that picture had to make up for it, and they are sitting in that picture in total shock at the thing that just landed next to them. Eons of nothing happening and then that.
It's always boggled my mind that games don't just use the exact same rating system as movies. Why in the world did they create a new system unneccesarily that obviously quite a few parents don't seem to understand?
The only reason I can possibly imagine is that they didn't want the same kind of mental associations that movies come with, particularly if Game 'E' == Movie 'G'. Would most games be 'PG' like most movies? There is currently no game equivalent to simply 'PG'.
Well, the more likely reason is that some people wanted to create themselves some jobs by arbitrarily creating and overseeing a new system.
"What if a company comes out this year with a new blockbuster game where you serially rape women and then must dump the bodies?"
Grand Theft Auto wasn't a blockbuster merely on the principle that you can run over people and kill innocent civilians, it has great vehicle physics, a pretty decent storyline, good voice acting, a really great soundtrack, a large detailed world with many things to explore, and a lot of open ended freedom, a very solid game in virtually every respect. This simple fact is something virtually nobody ever seems to take into consideration at all on the issue of its popularity.
Its the player that determines whether or not Grand Theft Auto is about picking up prostitutes and beating them to death or simply doing stunts with vehicles and searching for hidden packages. I think to a lot of people, the violence against innocents is a novelty at first, to sort of see the limits of the game, and over time you are more likely to have fun with the driving, exploration and storyline.
Custer's revenge was a commericial failure and the company that made it, Mystique, clearly has gone out of business. I think the premise that a game where you serially rape women and dump the bodies would be a blockbuster is seriously broken. At most it could garner a whole mess of media hype because they have a dysfunctional understanding of what makes a game popular and actually successful.
Within a decade armies of tiny helicopter drones will distract traffic, crash into buildings causing maintenance problems, start bushfires, make faults in powerlines, and require search-and-rescue missions.
Arcades appear to be completely immune from any amount of economic reasoning. I almost never see anybody in them and all the good games you can't play at home cost a buck to play. I tried some weird beat game, cost a buck, put it on the easiest difficulty and the controls were so awkward that I immediately lost. Had it cost 25 cents instead of a buck, I probably would have tried it quite a few more times until I got the hang of it, but a buck per play? There was absolutely no way that was going to happen, it was just a total joke.
25 cents just feels pyschologically like something you can blow on what might only be a minute or two of entertainment. 50 cents for pacman, street fighter, and the basics? Its nuts. $1 for 2 minutes of brief entertainment and a 'You lose' means -zero- repeat business.
I'd love to put virtually a whole arcade on 25 cents for a couple weeks and put a fat "95% of games 25 cents!" sign out front and see what happens. They do so terribly now, what do they have to lose?
Supposedly the point of the rave scene was to demonstrate how you've got this situation where the remainder of humanity just had to reproduce like heck in order to survive, so you've got this wild party to get everybody horny to facilitate that.
Uhh, yea, I didnt quite catch that when I was watching the movie heh, just seemed totally superflous as it dragged on. They shoulda counterpointed it with some mom trying to keep her baby asleep with this annoying rave going on. Then at least it woulda been comedic.
Speaking of pacing, I think a cool idea for software would be something along the lines of a DVD remixer, with an online database of remixes. Have the capability to jump to any spot, play any length, and maybe do some post effect type transitions if they'd be too abrupt in your mix. Then you'd be able to pop in some action flick, pick the 'fights / chases / explosions' mix, which could maybe be broken up a little bit with maybe the few actually funny moments in the movie and be entertained for 10 minutes and spared an hour and a half of really cheesy garbage crap.
Its obvious why the movie had to be changed from the books slightly, but in crucial ways.
The powerful national board of educators demanded that certain key elements be changed so that they can tell the difference between students that did their book report on the movies and those that actually read the books.
I hope that DVR devices reach some kind of high level of availability and affordablity before all of this comes to pass so that people really see what it is they are going to be denied by this trend. If I were ever forced to give up Tivo like capabilities to watch television I don't think I'd even bother with television anymore, I'm way too spoiled by now. They would push their DRM enabled on-demand alternatives that'll either be forced commericial watching or pay-per-view, or just as likely, both.
It is kind of scary though, I heard from a comcast employee that they have plans to wire significant amounts of residential areas in the bay area with fibre to the home in a few years. If they can amass a large enough pool of content and started off really cheap for a couple years they could really get people hooked. Any show, any episode, any time, all only allowed by copyright holders given very strict DRM requirements....
Is this an irablommensucne pomenologicahenl hsiotheyps or the matiostenifan of the igibilitieltny of imatioidc iialistividundc icationommunitercns?
Is tihs an iommensurablnce paogicolenomenhl hesipothys or the mfestatioinan of the iilitteligibny of iiomatidc iividualistidnc icommunicationrntes?
Is tihs an isurablcommenne phenomenological hesipothys or the manifestation of the iigibilitlteny of imatiodic iistilduadivinc iationccommuniernts?
Is tihs an immensurablcone pologicaenmnohel hhesiypots or the mifestationan of the iibilitglienty of itiadiomc iividualistidnc intercommunications?
Is tihs an immensurablocne penomenologicahl hipothesys or the mnifestatioan of the iteligibilitny of iatimdioc iidualistindivc iommunicationcterns?
Is this an icommensurablne phenomenological hhesipotys or the matioanifestn of the ibilitielignty of iatidiomc istialidividunc intiorcommunicaetns?
Is this an imensurablcomne pologicaennomehl hesipothys or the mestatioifnan of the iiliteligibtny of itiamiodc ialistividundic iationtercommunicns?
Is tihs an ilommensurabcne phenomenological hothesiyps or the mestatiofanin of the inteligibility of iomatidic idividualistinc iationcommunicertns?
Is this an isurablmenmncoe penologicaenomhl hipothesys or the mtionifestaan of the iitbilnteligiy of iiomatidc ialistidividunc itioncommunicaertns?
Is this an icommensurablne pnomenologicahel hothesiyps or the mfestatioanin of the ilitibinteligy of iomatiidc iidualistividnc inicationntercommus?
Is this an irablmensucomne pgicaonomenolhel hypothesis or the mestatioanifn of the igibilitnteliy of iomatiidc ilistividuadinc intercommunications?
Is this an immensurablcone pnologicahenomel hisypothes or the matioifestann of the itlinteligibiy of idiomatic iistindividualc inotercommunicatins?
Came up with this after receiving an email that contained just the little bit of text.
#!/usr/bin/perl -p -w
use strict;
sub scramble {
my @i = split(//, shift);
my @o;
push(@o, splice( @i, rand( @i ))) while @i;
return join('', @o);;
}
s/\b(\w)(\w\w+)(\w)/$1 . scramble($2) . $3/eg;
# Seems to work pretty well.
I bought one of the first Radeons just because I wanted to support the underdog and I seriously regretted it at the time. Hardware incompatibilities with my mobo and soundcard. Lots of game incompatibilities anytime a new game came out, there'd usually be a driver or game patch weeks later to fix very annoying graphical glitches. It took me days to from the time I bought the system and put it together before I had pretty much eliminated all the hard locks and sudden reboots. Driver releases were few and far between and always introduced as many problems as they solved. Most people would have probably returned the card and never bought ATI again, but I stuck with it, hit the forums alot, and must've reinstalled the 4in1s, special agp drivers, video drivers and directX in particular orders and subtly different ways an uncountable number of times.
I swore I'd never get a radeon again.
Then I did, I got the first All-in-Wonder card. I didn't have a TV and an integrated solution like that looked really cool, I was going to risk it again. Still had lots of compatibility problems with software, but overall my hardware issues were seriously reduced. I never got the DVR functionality working very well and was always prone to crashing my whole computer. As a TV it worked pretty well, although trying to play console systems on it was terrible, so I lost interest in the idea of AIW and figured my next card would be an Nvidia so I could get back on the game compatibility band wagon.
Nope.. Radeon 9700 pro.. Read a lot of good reviews, was used to the ATI thing by now and figured what the hell. This card has been _great_, not a single hardware compatibilty issue this time around, and very few game compatibilty issues (although everynow and then I get crap like flickering shadows, etc). The build of this machine was utterly flawless without any troubleshooting required. Not a single driver revision has introduced problems for me, and they have been a lot more consistent lately with addressing any driver issues that do exist.
I definitely appreciate it for being stylistic, but to me its contnet has gotten to be very redundant. Its saved somewhat by the fact that other characters aren't totally overwhelmed by the main character. He pokes almost as much fun at the repetitively sarcastic and angry commentator as he does at the issues themselves. I don't find it as interesting as I used to because of it overusing bush jokes, making fun of rappers too many times, etc, I can't really tell if the characters are developing or what. I'd say overall it has the distinction of being anti-pop as opposed to left-wing. Its still one of the better comics though just off virtue of the art alone.
Its totally beyond me how they think putting copy protection on a CD is a good idea. Even if it were impossible to make a perfect digital rip, somebody would be able to make a good enough analog one no matter what. All it takes is one good rip to start distributing to everybody... What in the world do they have to gain by making what amounts of an incompatible and thus inferior product for people?
This is all rherotical of course, its obvious they simply aren't thinking critically along a number of lines.
I'd like to hear the marketting guy from the tech company that licenses this technology putting forth his spiel about how people making perfect digital copies of cds and giving them to their friends is the total bane of the recording industry. I wonder what kinds of bizarre ways they try to look at sales of protected vs unprotected cds to try to prove that protected cds sold more.
It can be useful to gain insight into how BSP visible surface algorithms work. When you use the opengl hack with half-life, you can't see straight through the entire level, but only into other zones that are determined visible from the zone you are in, which generally arent 100% precise. If the engine didn't rely on a z-buffer or surface drawing order to make sure that surfaces were hidden, then these kinds of cheats wouldn't even work.
I'm not so sure that those concepts are a given. The trend I've witnessed, adventure games in particular, is that the players have fewer options then ever. When text based input interfaces were all but totally eliminated in favor of icon systems, games that were once expected to take weeks to finish could now be clicked through in a couple of nights.
Even the Baldur's Gate games, with a huge detailed world full of objects doesn't have the kind of object interoperability that the Ultima games had. Even if a lot of the possibilties that were opened up seemed mostly useless (making bread), it was the fact that it was possible that led to a more involving experience. I think that the game everybody is looking at right now to bring a lot of that back is Neverwinter Nights.