Even without the link to the hidden Grand Theft Auto content, I would STILL argue that hot coffee is worth network downtime. Especially if the beans are freshly ground.
Why not accept it and fix the documentation issue?
Because the documentation issue, as real as it is, should have little effect on the amount of UPTIME a system experiences?
If you got it up and running in the first place, the setup documentation was probably good enough. If you experience problems that lead to downtime after that, it's possible that better documentation could reduce the timeframe where the system is offline -- but it's also possible that the system has an innate problem that goes beyond what can be fixed by simply RTFMing.
I seem to remember warp pipes. Also there was the Star Road in Super Mario World. Oh and Bowser's backdoor.
All of which required you to WORK to "unlock" them. You had to locate the secret exits, work out the puzzles. You had to press the button before you were rewarded with a pellet.
It's not as if you get presented with a Level Select screen as soon as you power on the game for the first time ever. Or a "Skip the game, show me the ending sequence" menu option.
1. Get a copy of Heroes of Might and Magic 2. It comes with a level editor. 2. Make a new map. Place gold on every square of the map (except the one where your hero starts of course). 3. Walk around and collect all the gold. 4. Feel good.
Why are the game's designers forcing me to make my hero COLLECT the gold before he can have it? I want my character to have All The Gold And All The Candy In The World right from the moment I start playing! Even earlier than that, if possible!
Unlocking features that I paid for, like gold-having, is unfair.
he meant that in the future, when they can REMOVE the PS2 hardware from the PS3, THAT would make the price come down.
It would make the cost of parts needed to assemble a PS3 go down by $50 or whatever it costs Sony to fabricate the PS2 chipset, but the costs involved with developing a software emulator capable of running all (or even just most) PS2 games on the PS3 would be ENORMOUS, if it's even possible.
If you're faced with thousands of e-mails all seemingly complaining about the same things, knowing that it took little effort to write them, would read them?
Would if it were my job to determine what people are complaining about, yes. And that happens to be the job of every elected representative (yes, most have staffers to do the actual reading and then receive only a summary of the complaints).
You will probably be able to do your work locally with your browser since it is possible for AJAX application to delay data sending. Therefore it shouldn't be a problem for Spreadsheet or Word like application.
Working locally in an AJAXed Web Application requires the browser to be able to access the local filesystem, so the work can be stored until network connectivity resumes. And that could be a potentially severe security hazard.
Customers don't want to pay out the ass again for you to add a simple feature because you didn't take the time to do it properly the first time around.
Customers don't want to pay out the ass for you to take the time to do it properly the first time around, either.
BASIC was never a bad language; it's just not a particularly high-level language.
Think of it as assembly, with some syntactic sugar on top that automatically handles I/O and string management for you. I mean, what more is a GOTO command than a JMP operation of some kind? PEEK/POKE? LDA/STA. GOSUB/RETURN are stack operations. The similarities are uncanny.
In fact, I'd trust a classical BASIC hacker to write solid ASM more than I would someone who cut their teeth on a high-level functional or object-oriented language.
The problems with PHP are entirely different than those of BASIC, and have been better addressed by other commenters than I could do here. But fundamentally, I think PHP is just too complex to be appropriate for beginning programmers, especially when intermingled with HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL, and The Kitchen Sink as is the case in most PHP applications.
Thanks for that summary, BlueStrat. It has made it clear to me that the bill's intent is to prevent exactly the type of content cartel behavior
In essence, this bill reaffirms that streaming music over a computer network is legally akin to broadcasting, and not distribution. Under copyright law, an entity may not re-distribute a copyrighted song unless the copyright holder explicitly gives consent, but there are also compulsory performance licenses for radio play where if the broadcaster ponies up a certain amount of cash, the creator cannot refuse to license.
This is Good For Internet Broadcasters.
The fact that there is very little technical difference between an audio stream and transfer of a discrete audio file is left unaddressed in this bill, but maybe that's for the best. It could cause problems with interpreting traditional notions of broadcast and distribution.
It's not like you're getting any drawbacks from powering stuff down when not in use.
Unless the devices have passive use in addition to active use, and powering it down negates the passive use. Like leaving your cable modem powered-up overnight so you can finish downloading a large file while you sleep. Or letting a laser printer go into standby after you print instead of pulling the power cord out of the wall, to allow it to cool down properly and not ruin the fuser.
the NYT and a lot of bloggers think of this as an attack on the web, as though telecoms really want to block off websites instead of regulate bandwidth to things that are going to consume terabytes or more of bandwidth like hi-def video services.
I don't know why you'd assume that's NOT what the telecoms really want to do.
It's not like the future of online hi-def video services is going to be Anonymous FTP sites. That content is going to be distributed via the Web, and more specifically via video-centric websites like Google Video et al.
The FIRST thing a profit-conscious, discrimination-enabled telecom company would do after looking at how much of their pipe is taken up by traffic originating at YouTube is to approach YouTube's operators and threaten that unless the standard protection fee is paid, packets being sent to their users might start mysteriously disappearing along the way.
I don't get the "sequel" criticism directed only at Sony -- Nintendo milk just as much, if not more.
The difference from my perspective is that even though Nintendo puts the same cast of characters in game after game, there is often an attempt to tweak the formula of the game each time, to bring something new to the experience. Yoshi's Island, Super Mario 64, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, and New Super Mario Bros. are all very different games, even if they all share a common ancestor in the original SMB of 20 years ago.
I haven't seen that same evolution of gameplay in many of Sony's flagship franchises. Sure, each successive EA Sports title or Ratchet & Clank is a little more refined than the previous, but there seems (to me at least) a hesitancy to mess with the formula more than just a little.
Re:Proof we are not a democracy
on
Death By DMCA
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· Score: 1
This is yet more evidence that we are not a democracy. [...] No citizen majority voted for these.
Right. As every high schooler should know, the United States is NOT a democracy, but rather a democratic republic. The Citizenry vote on who our representatives will be, and then it is those representatives that vote on legislative issues.
Re:more proof the RIAA/MPAA are insane
on
Death By DMCA
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· Score: 1
I'm not saying it's theft or agreeing with any of the other comments made by those companies, but you need to put down emotion and maybe start coming up with reasonable alternative business models if you want to see devices like this suceed.
No. *I* don't need to come up with reasonable alternative business models; the media businesses do.
If you read the TFA, the Court's rejection of Snow's suit is based on the fact that he took no effective measures to keep people out. It did not say in any form or fashion that you could not erect such effective barriers as you desire - only that 'self screening' (having a user click the 'I agree' button) does not constitute an effective barrier.
So if I post a sign on my property reading "No Trespassing", but fail to employ any effective barrier (like a fence), I have no recourse against the damn kids who hang out on my lawn all day?
this case only dealt with the meaning of a particular statute (the SCA). EULAs rely on contract law, which are a totally different area of the law.
Correct. The door is still open for the plaintiff to file a new case against the defendants for violating the site's EULA, if he wishes. They checked the "I agree to these terms" box when they registered, yet they violated those terms.
Why is this hapless joe who accidentally mounted a hard drive then scoured it's contents closely enough to find social security numbers and the like guilty? It's like walking down a street and seeing a house with a door open. You can see the open door, and anything plainly visible from the street because of the open door. The second you walk through that door, you have trespassed.
Guilty of WHAT? Your analogy is fundamentally flawed.
Once you dispose of something (or authorize a Best Buy schlub to dispose of it on your behalf), it doesn't belong to you anymore. California v. Greenwood established that there is no expectation of privacy regarding discarded materials.
We have this discussion all the time, but once more can't hurt: on single-user Linux systems or Unix workstations, losing $HOME is far more serious than losing system files.
Once more for this response can't hurt, either: losing one user's $HOME is far less serious than losing every home directory on the box plus the box itself maliciously attacking other parts of the network.
Sony was able to do this better as they did not change the underlying architecture (PS1 - MIPS R3000, PS2 - MIPS R5900), whereas Microsoft has (XBox - x86 P3, X360 - PPC Cell).
Someone will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the 360's CPU, while PPC-derived, is not part of the Cell line.
Your comment also leads me to think about the prognosis for Sony's backwards-compatibility. The PS3 architecture is vastly different from the PS1 and PS2 -- how well can we expect Playstation titles compiled for a MIPS CPU to run on the Cell? Will compatibility be limited to selected titles as Microsoft as done, or will the older hardware be completely emulated on the new hardware (possible for PSX, unlikely for PS2)? Or will there be no backwards compatibility to speak of?
Sony themselves have been very quiet on the issue. I can't say I blame them, as they seem to be running out of toes to shoot off.
Slashdot Mirror
Even without the link to the hidden Grand Theft Auto content, I would STILL argue that hot coffee is worth network downtime. Especially if the beans are freshly ground.
1680x1050 is horrible resolution for 20" of screen space
???
That's about the same resolution as the highest-quality HDTV format, and people don't seem to mind looking at that even on a 61" TV screen.
1680x1050 on a 20" LCD screen is a fine resolution.
Why not accept it and fix the documentation issue?
Because the documentation issue, as real as it is, should have little effect on the amount of UPTIME a system experiences?
If you got it up and running in the first place, the setup documentation was probably good enough. If you experience problems that lead to downtime after that, it's possible that better documentation could reduce the timeframe where the system is offline -- but it's also possible that the system has an innate problem that goes beyond what can be fixed by simply RTFMing.
Give me something that's better than the (illegal) p2p-nets out there and I'll use it.
http://www.emusic.com/
Amazing. A record industry trade association asserts that a popular web site for music downloading is illegal. Who would have imagined.
I seem to remember warp pipes. Also there was the Star Road in Super Mario World. Oh and Bowser's backdoor.
All of which required you to WORK to "unlock" them. You had to locate the secret exits, work out the puzzles. You had to press the button before you were rewarded with a pellet.
It's not as if you get presented with a Level Select screen as soon as you power on the game for the first time ever. Or a "Skip the game, show me the ending sequence" menu option.
1. Get a copy of Heroes of Might and Magic 2. It comes with a level editor.
2. Make a new map. Place gold on every square of the map (except the one where your hero starts of course).
3. Walk around and collect all the gold.
4. Feel good.
Why are the game's designers forcing me to make my hero COLLECT the gold before he can have it? I want my character to have All The Gold And All The Candy In The World right from the moment I start playing! Even earlier than that, if possible!
Unlocking features that I paid for, like gold-having, is unfair.
he meant that in the future, when they can REMOVE the PS2 hardware from the PS3, THAT would make the price come down.
It would make the cost of parts needed to assemble a PS3 go down by $50 or whatever it costs Sony to fabricate the PS2 chipset, but the costs involved with developing a software emulator capable of running all (or even just most) PS2 games on the PS3 would be ENORMOUS, if it's even possible.
If you're faced with thousands of e-mails all seemingly complaining about the same things, knowing that it took little effort to write them, would read them?
Would if it were my job to determine what people are complaining about, yes. And that happens to be the job of every elected representative (yes, most have staffers to do the actual reading and then receive only a summary of the complaints).
You will probably be able to do your work locally with your browser since it is possible for AJAX application to delay data sending. Therefore it shouldn't be a problem for Spreadsheet or Word like application.
Working locally in an AJAXed Web Application requires the browser to be able to access the local filesystem, so the work can be stored until network connectivity resumes. And that could be a potentially severe security hazard.
Customers don't want to pay out the ass again for you to add a simple feature because you didn't take the time to do it properly the first time around.
Customers don't want to pay out the ass for you to take the time to do it properly the first time around, either.
BASIC was never a bad language; it's just not a particularly high-level language.
Think of it as assembly, with some syntactic sugar on top that automatically handles I/O and string management for you. I mean, what more is a GOTO command than a JMP operation of some kind? PEEK/POKE? LDA/STA. GOSUB/RETURN are stack operations. The similarities are uncanny.
In fact, I'd trust a classical BASIC hacker to write solid ASM more than I would someone who cut their teeth on a high-level functional or object-oriented language.
The problems with PHP are entirely different than those of BASIC, and have been better addressed by other commenters than I could do here. But fundamentally, I think PHP is just too complex to be appropriate for beginning programmers, especially when intermingled with HTML, CSS, Javascript, SQL, and The Kitchen Sink as is the case in most PHP applications.
Thanks for that summary, BlueStrat. It has made it clear to me that the bill's intent is to prevent exactly the type of content cartel behavior
In essence, this bill reaffirms that streaming music over a computer network is legally akin to broadcasting, and not distribution. Under copyright law, an entity may not re-distribute a copyrighted song unless the copyright holder explicitly gives consent, but there are also compulsory performance licenses for radio play where if the broadcaster ponies up a certain amount of cash, the creator cannot refuse to license.
This is Good For Internet Broadcasters.
The fact that there is very little technical difference between an audio stream and transfer of a discrete audio file is left unaddressed in this bill, but maybe that's for the best. It could cause problems with interpreting traditional notions of broadcast and distribution.
It's not like you're getting any drawbacks from powering stuff down when not in use.
Unless the devices have passive use in addition to active use, and powering it down negates the passive use. Like leaving your cable modem powered-up overnight so you can finish downloading a large file while you sleep. Or letting a laser printer go into standby after you print instead of pulling the power cord out of the wall, to allow it to cool down properly and not ruin the fuser.
the NYT and a lot of bloggers think of this as an attack on the web, as though telecoms really want to block off websites instead of regulate bandwidth to things that are going to consume terabytes or more of bandwidth like hi-def video services.
I don't know why you'd assume that's NOT what the telecoms really want to do.
It's not like the future of online hi-def video services is going to be Anonymous FTP sites. That content is going to be distributed via the Web, and more specifically via video-centric websites like Google Video et al.
The FIRST thing a profit-conscious, discrimination-enabled telecom company would do after looking at how much of their pipe is taken up by traffic originating at YouTube is to approach YouTube's operators and threaten that unless the standard protection fee is paid, packets being sent to their users might start mysteriously disappearing along the way.
I don't get the "sequel" criticism directed only at Sony -- Nintendo milk just as much, if not more.
The difference from my perspective is that even though Nintendo puts the same cast of characters in game after game, there is often an attempt to tweak the formula of the game each time, to bring something new to the experience. Yoshi's Island, Super Mario 64, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, and New Super Mario Bros. are all very different games, even if they all share a common ancestor in the original SMB of 20 years ago.
I haven't seen that same evolution of gameplay in many of Sony's flagship franchises. Sure, each successive EA Sports title or Ratchet & Clank is a little more refined than the previous, but there seems (to me at least) a hesitancy to mess with the formula more than just a little.
This is yet more evidence that we are not a democracy. [...] No citizen majority voted for these.
Right. As every high schooler should know, the United States is NOT a democracy, but rather a democratic republic. The Citizenry vote on who our representatives will be, and then it is those representatives that vote on legislative issues.
I'm not saying it's theft or agreeing with any of the other comments made by those companies, but you need to put down emotion and maybe start coming up with reasonable alternative business models if you want to see devices like this suceed.
No. *I* don't need to come up with reasonable alternative business models; the media businesses do.
If you read the TFA, the Court's rejection of Snow's suit is based on the fact that he took no effective measures to keep people out. It did not say in any form or fashion that you could not erect such effective barriers as you desire - only that 'self screening' (having a user click the 'I agree' button) does not constitute an effective barrier.
So if I post a sign on my property reading "No Trespassing", but fail to employ any effective barrier (like a fence), I have no recourse against the damn kids who hang out on my lawn all day?
this case only dealt with the meaning of a particular statute (the SCA). EULAs rely on contract law, which are a totally different area of the law.
Correct. The door is still open for the plaintiff to file a new case against the defendants for violating the site's EULA, if he wishes. They checked the "I agree to these terms" box when they registered, yet they violated those terms.
You don't think a 15 foot wave of syrup engulfing a town is funny? Check his pulse, I think he's dead!
Probably suffocated under a ton of molasses.
It's funny-strange, not funny-ha-ha, unless you think people dying is amusing.
Why is this hapless joe who accidentally mounted a hard drive then scoured it's contents closely enough to find social security numbers and the like guilty? It's like walking down a street and seeing a house with a door open. You can see the open door, and anything plainly visible from the street because of the open door. The second you walk through that door, you have trespassed.
Guilty of WHAT? Your analogy is fundamentally flawed.
Once you dispose of something (or authorize a Best Buy schlub to dispose of it on your behalf), it doesn't belong to you anymore. California v. Greenwood established that there is no expectation of privacy regarding discarded materials.
We have this discussion all the time, but once more can't hurt: on single-user Linux systems or Unix workstations, losing $HOME is far more serious than losing system files.
Once more for this response can't hurt, either: losing one user's $HOME is far less serious than losing every home directory on the box plus the box itself maliciously attacking other parts of the network.
Sony was able to do this better as they did not change the underlying architecture (PS1 - MIPS R3000, PS2 - MIPS R5900), whereas Microsoft has (XBox - x86 P3, X360 - PPC Cell).
Someone will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the 360's CPU, while PPC-derived, is not part of the Cell line.
Your comment also leads me to think about the prognosis for Sony's backwards-compatibility. The PS3 architecture is vastly different from the PS1 and PS2 -- how well can we expect Playstation titles compiled for a MIPS CPU to run on the Cell? Will compatibility be limited to selected titles as Microsoft as done, or will the older hardware be completely emulated on the new hardware (possible for PSX, unlikely for PS2)? Or will there be no backwards compatibility to speak of?
Sony themselves have been very quiet on the issue. I can't say I blame them, as they seem to be running out of toes to shoot off.
I can't think of an example of a texture-shaded polygonal 3D PC game from 1994 or earlier, but I'm sure some exist.
Microsoft Flight Simulator had flat-shaded polygons up to v5.0 in 1993, when textures were introduced.