>>but to Rockstar's credit they didn't put it [Hot Coffee] in the game."
Yes they did. At first they claimed it was a player created mod for the PC version. Then people unlocked it on both the PS2 and XBox versions. R* was called out on their lie quite vehemently. R* then recalled every unsold disc and sent out a second pressing that had the Hot Coffee data removed. Why would they do a recall if the data wasn't included on the disc by default? They most definitely put Hot Coffee in. It was, more than likely, a mini-game that was (wisely) cut during production. Instead of taking the time to audit their assets & code to truly remove the offending data they just disabled access to it. They didn't think anyone would go poking around in the game files and find it. It's their fault for doing a slapdash job of "removing" it before the game shipped.
Do an EBay search for GTA & Hot Coffee and you'll see a lot of original game discs, the ones that still have the data on them, for sale.
Let's all bask in its glory for a few moments, shall we?
Due to a freak hail storm February 26 that had golf-sized hail chunks raining down on the launchpad put several thousand dings in the foam covering the external fuel tank as well as damaging 28 tiles on Atlantis' wing.
"if Steve Ballmer maintains silence, then the community and companies behind Linux can take the silence for for the admission that it is."
No, they can't. Silence does not equal tacit admission or approval. The patent holder can keep their mouth shut about everything until the patent has all but expired and then go crazy sue-happy to their heart's content. Unlike trademarks patents don't have to be defended to remain valid.
Instead of a stupid mainfesto-rant web page the "community" (and boy do I hate that term being used in place of "users" or "developers" all to often) should instead be reading through Microsoft's patent portfolio and using that to determine if Linux is infringing. That's the point of patents....the patent holder is given an exclusive lock on the technology, but only if they share their idea with the world.
DX10 *can't* run on XP. It's technically impossible. Microsoft changed the entire graphics subsystem in Vista. The graphic system is back in user space where it belongs, GDI/GDI+ is gone, and, among other things, the driver model has changed completely. For DX10 to exist on Vista there would have to be parallel development of an entirely different system that behaved like DX10 and had the same API. Even if Microsoft attempted that it still wouldn't be truly DX10 as it would be hamstrung by the NT-era issues that hamper the graphics system in XP.
>> So get a satellite dish - what's the difference?
And this has what to do with the parent's question, exactly? I do have a dish. I picked DirecTV because of Insights sucky DVR. That's a perfect example of the parent's question. Cable is closed so it makes sense for the FCC to finally offer a rule that allows me a choice in set top boxes. Satellite is an open market. The barrier to entry is only limited by the financial backing of the company that wants to pop some sats into orbit. I chose the latter because I had two providers to choose from and could make an informed decision as a consumer as to what suited my needs/budget. If cable had been the only option I'd have been screwed. The FCC ruling makes sense for cable providers since there is currently no consumer choice in a given market area. It doesn't make sense for satellite providers (the parent poster's issue) since there are multiple options from which to choose.
It's not a double standard at all. Cable companies and Telco's operate under the idea of regional monopolies. Local/State governments give providers monopolistic contracts to service an area to entice the provider to come in and create the necessary infrastructure. I can't get anything other Insight Cable where I live. The same is true, but with different providers, for the majority of the country. The set-top box with DVR that Insight offers is F'ing abysmal. It's about as programmable as a VCR. Other than an over priced Series 3 TiVO with an extra monthly charge I have *no* choice in how I can receive and record Insight's digital/HD programming. Due to Insight's approved local monopoly I am stuck with their crappy system if I want to subscribe to their service.
Satellite services don't operate under the same monopoly based business model. Space is open to whomever has the cash to toss a ton of satellites up there and start providing signal. I can freely choose from Sirius or XM for my radio and Dish or DirecTV for my video. If I don't like the channel lineup or available hardware for one I can always sign up with the other service.
You probably won't even need a new video card. I was running the Aero Glass desktop enhancements on a P4 with an onboard Intel graphics (915) chipset during the Vista beta. As long as the card can do DirectX w/ shader model 2.0 or later it will run Aero without a problem. Any machine purchased in the last two to three years will be more than adequate to run Vista.
The only reason one of those machines would need a new video card is if the owner wants to run DirectX 10 games. Since no DX10 capable cards or games exist at the moment it's a moot point.
I'd call your analogy flawed, too. A better one would be, "Do you rent a car and then keep it?" or "Do you rent a movie at Blockbuster and then crow manaiacally about 'sticking it to da man' because you have no intention of ever returning it?
DRM sucks, yes. But if you are agreeing to pay for a rental of a movie you have no right; legal, moral, or otherwise, to keep it permanently. Yes DRM sucks. Yes we should be able to watch content on a device of our choosing. But, if we know the content we purchased is only valid for a limited time (or number of viewings) we should happily put the content on whatever device we want and then agree to the rental terms.
Given that Intelligent Design is the one-true-truth to the 'Pubs and the fact that they're busy talking out of both sides of their mouths about their original goals and plans for the Iraq war I propose we replace their mascot with this lizard.
There are plenty of blogs that make money: Consumerist.com, Lifehacker.com, Engadget.com, Gizmodo.com, Wonkette.com, TalkingPointsMemo, Photojojo, etc... ad infinitum.
The argument that a blog can't be on.com because blogs aren't commercial is not valid.
No. Mucking about doing half-assed bad-movie science things like injecting this or that into the atmosphere or building a sun-shield in space or any of the other baker's dozen "Global Warming solutions" that have gotten press in the past eighteen months.
Yes, we can all conserve energy, thanks for pointing that obviousness out. I'm sorry your attempt to turn my comment into a strawman didn't work out as well as you had hoped.
If it's nature's doing the last statement we humans should be making is "We can still help slow it down." Who are we to say that it should be slowed down? We are so ignorant of the whole thing we can't even agree on the base cause of it. I, for one, wouldn't want us mucking around trying to change nature under the auspices that we're doing it for nature's own good.
I prefer having my mouse and keyboard use an easier to code, unchanging, decade old interface
Ah, so you do like to use USB, which was first released in Jan of 1996. PS/2 ports, on the other hand, have been around since the PS/2 computer was introduced--circa 1987 or so.
Just because someone makes up a noun by combining a greek letter, a type of radiation, and either of the words, "particle" or "wave" it doesn't mean sci-fi has original story ideas. If anything sci-fi suffers more from trite and predictable plots more than other types of fiction. Only a geek would think that sci-fi was the silver bullet to save creativity.
While your response is interesting it isn't relevant in this branch of the discussion. We were commenting on whether or not the keys should be aligned on a grid of perfect rows & columns or in the more traditional staggered column layout. We weren't discussing where each individual key is located with respect to the keys around it.
Well, that allays all of my fears. If you haven't heard about the data being removed then it must all be ok. If you can't trust a random guy who, during junior college, sat next to the guy who started the company who can you trust?
OMG! They "destroyed it" by supporting the keyboard design the overwhelming majority of people are used to instead of supporting a layout that only two companies feel is important.
Those bastards.
What good are your decade old Visual Basic skills when the entire concept and syntax of the language changed between VB6 and VB.NET? They're entirely different. VB.NET shares more in common (quite a lot, really) with C# than it does with VB6.
"After several months of silence it was more or less accepted that Microsoft wasn't going to do anything about the firmware hacks that allow Xbox 360s to play backups..."
How naive must someone be to think that silence on the part of a corporation equates to a tacit approval for people to circumvent a piece of hardware's embedded security system in order to run pirated copies of software?
* Applications for the cell have to be written to a high level language or else a world wide system crash could occur.
* The PS3 will take your current movies, work with other PS3s and digitally enhance them. It's not upscaling, it's digital aging, like a fine wine.
* Real time weapon switching
* Genji 2 is based on actual historical Japanese facts. Hit the giant enemy crab's weak spot for MASSIVE DAMAGE!"
* Ridge Racer. RIIIIIIIDGE RACEEEER!! Ridge RACER!!
And, just like above, you average iTunes user is not necessarily someone who knows how to use, let along knows about at all, bit torrent, eDonkey, etc... I know computer geeks like to think they are equal to the majority, but they're not.
Your theory only works if you assume everyone knows how to acquire the tools necessary to circumvent the DRM. For the majority of consumers that's not a valid assumption. Even if the DRM is broken only a small minority of potential customers will have the knowledge and/or the desire to acquire the necessary tools and information to get around the copy protection.
Slashdot Mirror
She'll already be moving close to 17500 mph. How much more of a headwind do you want her to have?
Yes they did. At first they claimed it was a player created mod for the PC version. Then people unlocked it on both the PS2 and XBox versions. R* was called out on their lie quite vehemently. R* then recalled every unsold disc and sent out a second pressing that had the Hot Coffee data removed. Why would they do a recall if the data wasn't included on the disc by default? They most definitely put Hot Coffee in. It was, more than likely, a mini-game that was (wisely) cut during production. Instead of taking the time to audit their assets & code to truly remove the offending data they just disabled access to it. They didn't think anyone would go poking around in the game files and find it. It's their fault for doing a slapdash job of "removing" it before the game shipped.
Do an EBay search for GTA & Hot Coffee and you'll see a lot of original game discs, the ones that still have the data on them, for sale.
Due to a freak hail storm February 26 that had golf-sized hail chunks raining down on the launchpad put several thousand dings in the foam covering the external fuel tank as well as damaging 28 tiles on Atlantis' wing.
No, they can't. Silence does not equal tacit admission or approval. The patent holder can keep their mouth shut about everything until the patent has all but expired and then go crazy sue-happy to their heart's content. Unlike trademarks patents don't have to be defended to remain valid.
Instead of a stupid mainfesto-rant web page the "community" (and boy do I hate that term being used in place of "users" or "developers" all to often) should instead be reading through Microsoft's patent portfolio and using that to determine if Linux is infringing. That's the point of patents....the patent holder is given an exclusive lock on the technology, but only if they share their idea with the world.
DX10 *can't* run on XP. It's technically impossible. Microsoft changed the entire graphics subsystem in Vista. The graphic system is back in user space where it belongs, GDI/GDI+ is gone, and, among other things, the driver model has changed completely. For DX10 to exist on Vista there would have to be parallel development of an entirely different system that behaved like DX10 and had the same API. Even if Microsoft attempted that it still wouldn't be truly DX10 as it would be hamstrung by the NT-era issues that hamper the graphics system in XP.
And this has what to do with the parent's question, exactly? I do have a dish. I picked DirecTV because of Insights sucky DVR. That's a perfect example of the parent's question. Cable is closed so it makes sense for the FCC to finally offer a rule that allows me a choice in set top boxes. Satellite is an open market. The barrier to entry is only limited by the financial backing of the company that wants to pop some sats into orbit. I chose the latter because I had two providers to choose from and could make an informed decision as a consumer as to what suited my needs/budget. If cable had been the only option I'd have been screwed. The FCC ruling makes sense for cable providers since there is currently no consumer choice in a given market area. It doesn't make sense for satellite providers (the parent poster's issue) since there are multiple options from which to choose.
Satellite services don't operate under the same monopoly based business model. Space is open to whomever has the cash to toss a ton of satellites up there and start providing signal. I can freely choose from Sirius or XM for my radio and Dish or DirecTV for my video. If I don't like the channel lineup or available hardware for one I can always sign up with the other service.
The only reason one of those machines would need a new video card is if the owner wants to run DirectX 10 games. Since no DX10 capable cards or games exist at the moment it's a moot point.
DRM sucks, yes. But if you are agreeing to pay for a rental of a movie you have no right; legal, moral, or otherwise, to keep it permanently. Yes DRM sucks. Yes we should be able to watch content on a device of our choosing. But, if we know the content we purchased is only valid for a limited time (or number of viewings) we should happily put the content on whatever device we want and then agree to the rental terms.
Given that Intelligent Design is the one-true-truth to the 'Pubs and the fact that they're busy talking out of both sides of their mouths about their original goals and plans for the Iraq war I propose we replace their mascot with this lizard.
The argument that a blog can't be on .com because blogs aren't commercial is not valid.
The PC version was in stores the week of 12/4. The 360 version was released a week later and has been in stores since 12/11 or 12/12.
Yes, we can all conserve energy, thanks for pointing that obviousness out. I'm sorry your attempt to turn my comment into a strawman didn't work out as well as you had hoped.
If it's nature's doing the last statement we humans should be making is "We can still help slow it down." Who are we to say that it should be slowed down? We are so ignorant of the whole thing we can't even agree on the base cause of it. I, for one, wouldn't want us mucking around trying to change nature under the auspices that we're doing it for nature's own good.
Ah, so you do like to use USB, which was first released in Jan of 1996. PS/2 ports, on the other hand, have been around since the PS/2 computer was introduced--circa 1987 or so.
Just because someone makes up a noun by combining a greek letter, a type of radiation, and either of the words, "particle" or "wave" it doesn't mean sci-fi has original story ideas. If anything sci-fi suffers more from trite and predictable plots more than other types of fiction. Only a geek would think that sci-fi was the silver bullet to save creativity.
While your response is interesting it isn't relevant in this branch of the discussion. We were commenting on whether or not the keys should be aligned on a grid of perfect rows & columns or in the more traditional staggered column layout. We weren't discussing where each individual key is located with respect to the keys around it.
Well, that allays all of my fears. If you haven't heard about the data being removed then it must all be ok. If you can't trust a random guy who, during junior college, sat next to the guy who started the company who can you trust?
OMG! They "destroyed it" by supporting the keyboard design the overwhelming majority of people are used to instead of supporting a layout that only two companies feel is important. Those bastards.
What good are your decade old Visual Basic skills when the entire concept and syntax of the language changed between VB6 and VB.NET? They're entirely different. VB.NET shares more in common (quite a lot, really) with C# than it does with VB6.
How naive must someone be to think that silence on the part of a corporation equates to a tacit approval for people to circumvent a piece of hardware's embedded security system in order to run pirated copies of software?
Well, for one thing it would always create desktop and Start Menu icons, regardless of how the various "Do you want to create >location
* Applications for the cell have to be written to a high level language or else a world wide system crash could occur. * The PS3 will take your current movies, work with other PS3s and digitally enhance them. It's not upscaling, it's digital aging, like a fine wine. * Real time weapon switching * Genji 2 is based on actual historical Japanese facts. Hit the giant enemy crab's weak spot for MASSIVE DAMAGE!" * Ridge Racer. RIIIIIIIDGE RACEEEER!! Ridge RACER!!
And, just like above, you average iTunes user is not necessarily someone who knows how to use, let along knows about at all, bit torrent, eDonkey, etc... I know computer geeks like to think they are equal to the majority, but they're not.
Your theory only works if you assume everyone knows how to acquire the tools necessary to circumvent the DRM. For the majority of consumers that's not a valid assumption. Even if the DRM is broken only a small minority of potential customers will have the knowledge and/or the desire to acquire the necessary tools and information to get around the copy protection.