"Imagine being able to cause a lightning storm over your enemies forces, or causing severe flooding, or even a drought. You could even mix and match to your hearts content."
I gather that the purpose for developing a weapon like this is to *avoid* causing misery and death among the general population, not to prolong it. If we wanted everyone to suffer, we could just bomb them indiscriminately.
Playing Populous with another country is not going to endear us to the world community.
What limp-dick decided that this is one of the top 85 ideas of the century? How is letting old people f*** somehow more important than, say, mechanized infantry?
The shoplifting analogy is clearly flawed, since it places the lose in the hands of a third party - the merchant. However, any argument that tries to suggest that downloading isn't theft simply because no property changes hands is ridiculous. Nobody cares about the round piece of plastic. It's the ability to listen to the songs on the disk that gives it value. So what if the record company still has a warehouse full of plastic, if nobody buys the disk because they took the songs online, they lose money. No semantic contortionism will change that.
Despite all the lame excuses people drag out about fair use and free speech and blah-blah-blah, it all boils down to this:
You buy the product, you hear the songs. You don't buy the product, you don't hear the songs. Anything else is theft.
I wonder what's worse: Being a spectator with no real input into the final product, or *having* input into a final product which will make loads of $$$ for MS with nothing to show for it except some meaningless Junior Cadet title?
At least they should give out t-shirts: "I coded Office 2003, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt"
What next? Maybe they could hit up the lawyers for some freebies: "Write our next EULA and win a Bill Gates inflatable love doll!"
"Linux desktop interfaces provides little that is new, and are dismissed as copies of Windows by the undeducated consumer who does not realize the value of the Linux underpinnings hidden behind the scenes. "
Really? I always dismissed the Windows desktop interfaces as copies of Apple's. Or maybe he meant "the uneducated consumer who does not realize that Windows is a rip-off too."
heh. If RMS were dead, he'd be spinning in his grave right now. Do you suppose they'll write their own compilers/tools/etc., or will they have some Sonny Bono-esque government ho declare the GPL unconstitutional?
Probably means he's switching to a different implementation of the STL - most likely whatever came with his compiler. Shouldn't be any code change, just a matter of including the right library.
We used RW for a few years, now we just use the library included w/ MSVC. IIRC, RW had a number of memory leak problems (BoundsChecker went nuts on string). I don't know if these have been cleaned up in recent releases.
1% for wildlife preservation from: Eagles, Tigers, Bears, SeaHawks, Cardinals, Rams, Ravens, Dawgs, and all variations of 'Cat or 'Hawk. And of course, Da Bulls.
1% for Indians from: Chiefs, Redskins, Reds, Seminoles
The comparison of Amazon's used book program to libraries would be a faulty one, if I were trying to portray them as competing marketing schemes. I wasn't. I was referring only to the number of readers that could be diverted from purchasing the book from the publisher.
Assuming a two-week loan term, a library can satisfy at least two readers per copy -- more if they return the book early. Worst case, if nobody checks the book out but comes in and reads a little each day, that's a lot of lost sales.
With Amazon, availability is limited to how many owners no longer want the book. Any copy will probably switch hands no more than once or twice, unless it is a POS, after which it finds a loving (or at least indifferent) home and is removed from availability altogether.
Then there are the collectors, who are more likely to buy the new copy anyway to avoid tears, smudges, etc. They don't buy used.
I don't quite follow the $5 analogy, but I agree that the Author's Guild does have a right not to link to Amazon if they disagree with their policy. I just don't believe that this action is prudent. If I were a writer, I would rather have my book bought secondhand by someone who enjoyed it and looks forward to the next one, rather than sitting on a shelf reminding the owner that he/she hated this book and probably won't like the next one.
If there are so many used copies for sale that it dramatically affects sales, especially so soon after release date, maybe the Authors ought to look into why so many people want to get rid of it in the first place.
"They don't like the fact that Amazon is selling used books almost immediately when the new ones go on sale "
No, they are selling them immediately when the purchaser decides he/she doesn't need it anymore. Whether it's a new release or not means nothing to the book owner - if it's a POS, or if I later receive another copy as a gift, I'm getting rid of it, and I'm not waiting for the buzz to die down. Better to go to Amazon and connect with someone who wants it, than to hope some random individual happens across it at my garage sale.
This can't seriously be a threat to an author, unless their product is so bad that nobody wants it. Seems like the public library would be of greater concern, since more people can read each copy without buying it.
Sounds like someone at Micros~1 has been reading The Fountainhead. Since I've bought my last MS product, this wouldn't affect me greatly, but I'd love to see them do this just to see what the effect would be.
"Greg Sullivan, product manager for Windows XP, says that the product-activation policy was designed to be as unobtrusive as possible and will have negligible affects[sic] on anyone who isn't breaking the law."
There should be *no* effects, however negligible, on anyone who isn't break the law. Don't you get it yet, MS? Those who buy and lawfully use your product are not going to accept additional hassle just so you can crush the +-15% who don't.
Slashdot Mirror
"Imagine being able to cause a lightning storm over your enemies forces, or causing severe flooding, or even a drought. You could even mix and match to your hearts content."
I gather that the purpose for developing a weapon like this is to *avoid* causing misery and death among the general population, not to prolong it. If we wanted everyone to suffer, we could just bomb them indiscriminately.
Playing Populous with another country is not going to endear us to the world community.
What limp-dick decided that this is one of the top 85 ideas of the century? How is letting old people f*** somehow more important than, say, mechanized infantry?
Same guy.
/ 15 /brin_main/
http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/1999/06
Eh? Shatner's in it? I thought they killed Kirk?
"Dammit Jim, you're dead!"
Why settle for just a state? With an army of ~20,000, they can have France.
The shoplifting analogy is clearly flawed, since it places the lose in the hands of a third party - the merchant. However, any argument that tries to suggest that downloading isn't theft simply because no property changes hands is ridiculous. Nobody cares about the round piece of plastic. It's the ability to listen to the songs on the disk that gives it value. So what if the record company still has a warehouse full of plastic, if nobody buys the disk because they took the songs online, they lose money. No semantic contortionism will change that.
Despite all the lame excuses people drag out about fair use and free speech and blah-blah-blah, it all boils down to this:
You buy the product, you hear the songs.
You don't buy the product, you don't hear the songs.
Anything else is theft.
I wonder what's worse: Being a spectator with no real input into the final product, or *having* input into a final product which will make loads of $$$ for MS with nothing to show for it except some meaningless Junior Cadet title?
At least they should give out t-shirts: "I coded Office 2003, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt"
What next? Maybe they could hit up the lawyers for some freebies: "Write our next EULA and win a Bill Gates inflatable love doll!"
Oh, they'll just nip and tuck a little around his eyes. Trust me dahling, he'll look 20 millenia younger.
What genius decided that the smallest size cup should be called a "Tall"? Tall? Compared to what?
And yeah, they get confused. I ask for a small coffee, they say "You mean a Tall?" No! I mean the smallest f-in one you sell!
"Linux desktop interfaces provides little that is new, and are dismissed as copies of Windows by the undeducated consumer who does not realize the value of the Linux underpinnings hidden behind the scenes. "
Really? I always dismissed the Windows desktop interfaces as copies of Apple's. Or maybe he meant "the uneducated consumer who does not realize that Windows is a rip-off too."
heh. If RMS were dead, he'd be spinning in his grave right now. Do you suppose they'll write their own compilers/tools/etc., or will they have some Sonny Bono-esque government ho declare the GPL unconstitutional?
I think I shall start a company called eNanoCyberDynaTech. Bidding begins at $25.00
Any relation to Murray Spiderman, of Spiderman's Kosher Deli?
The one in Olathe KS is about a mile from my house! I knew living in East Bumf*** would pay off someday!
Looks like MSVC++ 6.0 uses Dinkumware, also. P.J. Plauger's name is on all the files.
Probably means he's switching to a different implementation of the STL - most likely whatever came with his compiler. Shouldn't be any code change, just a matter of including the right library.
We used RW for a few years, now we just use the library included w/ MSVC. IIRC, RW had a number of memory leak problems (BoundsChecker went nuts on string). I don't know if these have been cleaned up in recent releases.
1% for wildlife preservation from:
Eagles, Tigers, Bears, SeaHawks, Cardinals, Rams, Ravens, Dawgs, and all variations of 'Cat or 'Hawk. And of course, Da Bulls.
1% for Indians from:
Chiefs, Redskins, Reds, Seminoles
1% for the IRA from:
the Fightin' Irish
And what do they call fake porn, anyway? Sporn?
The comparison of Amazon's used book program to libraries would be a faulty one, if I were trying to portray them as competing marketing schemes. I wasn't. I was referring only to the number of readers that could be diverted from purchasing the book from the publisher.
Assuming a two-week loan term, a library can satisfy at least two readers per copy -- more if they return the book early. Worst case, if nobody checks the book out but comes in and reads a little each day, that's a lot of lost sales.
With Amazon, availability is limited to how many owners no longer want the book. Any copy will probably switch hands no more than once or twice, unless it is a POS, after which it finds a loving (or at least indifferent) home and is removed from availability altogether.
Then there are the collectors, who are more likely to buy the new copy anyway to avoid tears, smudges, etc. They don't buy used.
I don't quite follow the $5 analogy, but I agree that the Author's Guild does have a right not to link to Amazon if they disagree with their policy. I just don't believe that this action is prudent. If I were a writer, I would rather have my book bought secondhand by someone who enjoyed it and looks forward to the next one, rather than sitting on a shelf reminding the owner that he/she hated this book and probably won't like the next one.
If there are so many used copies for sale that it dramatically affects sales, especially so soon after release date, maybe the Authors ought to look into why so many people want to get rid of it in the first place.
"They don't like the fact that Amazon is selling used books almost immediately when the new ones go on sale "
No, they are selling them immediately when the purchaser decides he/she doesn't need it anymore. Whether it's a new release or not means nothing to the book owner - if it's a POS, or if I later receive another copy as a gift, I'm getting rid of it, and I'm not waiting for the buzz to die down. Better to go to Amazon and connect with someone who wants it, than to hope some random individual happens across it at my garage sale.
This can't seriously be a threat to an author, unless their product is so bad that nobody wants it. Seems like the public library would be of greater concern, since more people can read each copy without buying it.
I haven't seen "Priscilla", but I can only assume that that was one seriously ugly drag queen.
http://www.lynwoodlape.com/starwarpewke.html
Sounds like someone at Micros~1 has been reading The Fountainhead. Since I've bought my last MS product, this wouldn't affect me greatly, but I'd love to see them do this just to see what the effect would be.
"Greg Sullivan, product manager for Windows XP, says that the product-activation policy was designed to be as unobtrusive as possible and will have negligible affects[sic] on anyone who isn't breaking the law."
There should be *no* effects, however negligible, on anyone who isn't break the law. Don't you get it yet, MS? Those who buy and lawfully use your product are not going to accept additional hassle just so you can crush the +-15% who don't.
Dammit! Must learn to read irony! Dammit! Dammit!