cheekyjohnson, are you crazy? Christ man, you're not just "copying data". That's just an inane rationalization. The data you're copying IS the game. It's simple economics. If enough people get it for free, the game maker makes no money. That's all people are trying to point out to you here.
Yes, the system is broken. On slashdot, you're not going to find many people arguing against you on that front. But until the system is fixed, the fact is that the game maker will be out of business if everyone copies his "data". Even an idealist occasionally needs to get a grip on reality.
I've used mediatemple.net for years. They're brilliant. Seem to be known mainly in design circles. Virtually problem-free but when any kind of issue does arise, the support is excellent.
Since your God has directed you to "love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matt22:34-40), to quote your sig, and since you are against homosexual marriage, may I presume that you, too, have refrained from marrying? Out of, you know, solidarity for your gay neighbors whom you love.
Or would that be requiring more logical consistency than you're willing to offer?
I live in Eastern Europe, too. I process text for a living. That means I take in fairly massive numbers of documents from businesses every week. I've never seen a file arrive in native OpenOffice format. Not once. Of course, everybody could be using OpenOffice to export as.doc, but I don't think so.
The truth is simpler. As the post above notes, MS Word is still ungodly expensive here – in Microsoft's shortsightedness, during the 1990s and later, it did indeed cost several months' average salary. The result has been a well-entrenched tradition of using the "free" version of Word. Even at the Ministry level, in at least one prominent case. Getting around an absurd system is also a very old tradition, for obvious reasons.
So the problem OpenOffice faces in catching on here is very definitely one of taking on another free-of-cost competitor. And in a region where people want so badly to catch up with the West, Microsoft has the cachet that comes with being perceived as the Western standard.
With a zero cost differential, the choice will seem clear to a lot of people. It's a very difficult perception to beat.
It's intriguing to wonder what sense of time people who evolved on such a planet might (not) have. Think about it: there is nothing but day. As primitive people, they would have had no direct physical impetus to come up with a concept of hours. Or days. Or seasons. How long would they have evolved before they became aware that time passes? Would their concept of it be based upon their lifespan? What other marker could they find? And how would this impact the evolution of their thinking skills? (And what do they say now in place of "I'll meet you next Tuesday"?)
They just show their teeth and hiss? What the fuck would you do if someone trapped you in a garbage can and started poking sticks at you? You expect the little fucker to greet you?
Take it from someone inside the Czech Republic. The reason: this is still not a full democracy in the Western sense. Corruption is still rampant. And that extends all the way up to Parliament. If you think lobbyists in your country have power over legislators -- try living in this place. Translation: if anyone with an interest in destroying copyleft has enough money or interesting favours to pass to the politicians, the bill gets passed. Meanwhile the Prime Minister, like one of our recent ones, may well turn up standing on a beach in Italy somewhere with a boner.
Will the Czech people do anything to protest? Even the ones who understand this issue will not. After fifty years of the old regime, no one feels any power to stop what the politicians do. This is precisely the dynamic they take advantage of to pass things like this. It is the perfect location to set this kind of precedent.
Slashdot Mirror
cheekyjohnson, are you crazy? Christ man, you're not just "copying data". That's just an inane rationalization. The data you're copying IS the game. It's simple economics. If enough people get it for free, the game maker makes no money. That's all people are trying to point out to you here.
Yes, the system is broken. On slashdot, you're not going to find many people arguing against you on that front. But until the system is fixed, the fact is that the game maker will be out of business if everyone copies his "data". Even an idealist occasionally needs to get a grip on reality.
I've used mediatemple.net for years. They're brilliant. Seem to be known mainly in design circles. Virtually problem-free but when any kind of issue does arise, the support is excellent.
Since your God has directed you to "love thy neighbour as thyself" (Matt22:34-40), to quote your sig, and since you are against homosexual marriage, may I presume that you, too, have refrained from marrying? Out of, you know, solidarity for your gay neighbors whom you love.
Or would that be requiring more logical consistency than you're willing to offer?
I live in Eastern Europe, too. I process text for a living. That means I take in fairly massive numbers of documents from businesses every week. I've never seen a file arrive in native OpenOffice format. Not once. Of course, everybody could be using OpenOffice to export as .doc, but I don't think so.
The truth is simpler. As the post above notes, MS Word is still ungodly expensive here – in Microsoft's shortsightedness, during the 1990s and later, it did indeed cost several months' average salary. The result has been a well-entrenched tradition of using the "free" version of Word. Even at the Ministry level, in at least one prominent case. Getting around an absurd system is also a very old tradition, for obvious reasons.
So the problem OpenOffice faces in catching on here is very definitely one of taking on another free-of-cost competitor. And in a region where people want so badly to catch up with the West, Microsoft has the cachet that comes with being perceived as the Western standard.
With a zero cost differential, the choice will seem clear to a lot of people. It's a very difficult perception to beat.
But do natural numbers even exist in the real world?
Presumably, unless you have multiple personality disorder, there is only one elrous0.
It's intriguing to wonder what sense of time people who evolved on such a planet might (not) have. Think about it: there is nothing but day. As primitive people, they would have had no direct physical impetus to come up with a concept of hours. Or days. Or seasons. How long would they have evolved before they became aware that time passes? Would their concept of it be based upon their lifespan? What other marker could they find? And how would this impact the evolution of their thinking skills? (And what do they say now in place of "I'll meet you next Tuesday"?)
They just show their teeth and hiss? What the fuck would you do if someone trapped you in a garbage can and started poking sticks at you? You expect the little fucker to greet you?
Take it from someone inside the Czech Republic. The reason: this is still not a full democracy in the Western sense. Corruption is still rampant. And that extends all the way up to Parliament. If you think lobbyists in your country have power over legislators -- try living in this place. Translation: if anyone with an interest in destroying copyleft has enough money or interesting favours to pass to the politicians, the bill gets passed. Meanwhile the Prime Minister, like one of our recent ones, may well turn up standing on a beach in Italy somewhere with a boner. Will the Czech people do anything to protest? Even the ones who understand this issue will not. After fifty years of the old regime, no one feels any power to stop what the politicians do. This is precisely the dynamic they take advantage of to pass things like this. It is the perfect location to set this kind of precedent.