I read the paper, and it's got a bunch of points. I'll say that from a bunch of MUDs I used to play you would see the same behavior. But besides just who you know, it's also lots of being in the right place at the right time. I've had characters given cool stuff by high level people all the time. Part of it was so they could be seen as cool by the noob, and part of it was that the super cool item you just got is worthless junk at their level.
Lots of folks get good reps for just helping out noobs or on corpse runs, and you know that that rep stayed around and if they ever needed help they got it, as well as preferental grouping.
You want to be treated nice - play a female healer of some sort - groups will court you, random people will give you things. People will go on quests just to get items for you.
If you want a lone hero vs. the world, play on your home machine. If social gaming is really your style, then MMRPGs have a lot to be said for them. And in any social group, you get the mix of folks -- some will help, some will only help themselves. If you watch your friend's back, that's not mafia, that just taking care of those who take care of you.
But I have no faith in anyone ever fixing the system because almost noone knows what the verb love really means. Nobody understands that concept.
If you love someone you could never give them the death penalty or cut off their hand or hurt them physically in any way. Even if they are a terrorist. See, you don't understand what it really means to love your neighbor.
I define human as an intelligent being that loves all other humans, and right now the lot of you look like a bunch of animals to me.
At that leaves you free to hate everyone else, eh?
Let's start with a base case. I assume you think you are human. At this stage, you're the only human, so loving all other humans (none) is easy. You fit your definition.
At this point, the only way for someone else to be considered human is if they love you and you love them. If they don't love you, they aren't human, and if you don't love them, since you are human (by your definition) you'd have to love them if they were human, and you don't, so they can't be human.
By this it seems that you're defining human as a pretty exclusive club, which is free to ignore/hate/mistreat/etc those not in your club. Sounds rather elitist.
I'd prefer to think of everyone as human and try to treat them as such, even if some of them I consider misguided. But there are those who would consider me misguided, and I hope they show me the same forbearance.
Sorry for going so off topic, but your message really struck a nerve - by dehumanizing all of those that don't fit your criteria, all you are doing is giving yourself license to treat others in ways you wouldn't want to be treated yourself.
Laptops are fine for taking with you, but when I'm staring at it for (too mumble, mumble many) hours a day I prefer a real keyboard and monitor. I've got my IBM Model M going through a Belkin switcher to both the RS/6000 running CDE and my Thinkpad's docking station. This way when I need to switch to the laptop to use the company-mandated Outlook (brrr) I still can use a real keyboard & monitor.
Serious question about the Goldtouch. I've been looking into alternate keyboard and one of my issues is that I have wide shoulders. As is is most standard keyboard feel cramped to get my hands so close to each other (any many laptop keyboards are crazy).
The question is about the folding part of the Goldtouch - it looks like the folding action brings the two halves closer together "as the crow flies", which would seem to make my problem worse. Do you find this is true in practice?
Does anyone have a suggestion for a keyboard like the Goldtouch but with separatable halves so I could have them a distance apart in a more natural position?
There is seriously nothing as solid feeling as my model M. Mine is from an old IBM RS/6000 workstation (250 for anyone keeping count). Who else puts dates on, because you knwo it will last forever. 03-15-90, P/N 1394540.
The key action on this is perfect, even after more then a decade of heavy use. Rock solid, good key action, what more could you want?
I'm a really heavy typer - learned on old Commodore (Pet, Vic20, C64) prducts and you really had to stomp on those keys. The model M is the only thing that survives me. Though my entire department can hear while I'm pounding on it. *grin*
You know a C&D letter may stop people from disclosing exploits, but will not stop people from disclosing that their are exploits. That's enough for lots of poor, enterprising college students.
A much better plan would of been to let these guys give their talk, to hire them, fix the problems, and them make a bundle in upgrades to existing customers. Come on, if some of these installations are 20 years old we're not talking much more then maintenance revenue. On the other hand system upgrades, especially when demanded by parents, can net a pretty penny. The colleges could have fund drives, hit up alumni societies, all the normal ways to get money when something unexpected walks through the door.
Instead the company gets to look like a fool that knows there are security flaws, aren't fixing them and instead are wasting money on laywers, get getting bad press.
Oh well, I guess there is no such thing as bad press. And that companies would rather think about prestige short term then a better product long term, even if the better product will get them more money.
I went to a fine (*cough*) engineering school. At the time I attended, all Unix accounts (and email addresses) were of the form of [three initials][last four SSN]. Since the first three and the middle two can be deduced (though not easily) from your state and year of birth, this means that there are thousands of student's SSNs that are at least partially out there.
BTW, Unix accounts were mandatory for a good number of classes.
Finishes printing off the excel spreadsheet for his 6/6 psionic, Gray Elven Cleric/Magic-User
You know what's sad? I'm actually envious of the spreadsheet idea.
Take a look at PC-Gen. It's a free character editor, they do D&D and lots of other D20 publishers. They work with the publishers (including WotC) to use the stuff.
Good stuff.
http://pcgen.sourceforge.net/
(Oh yeah, and it's open source and people are constantly contributing.)
Actually, back then (yes, I know I'm old) I knew several women who were D&Ders, and at least two male players who met their future spouses playing the game.
I still play, and my wife used to.
Sounds good for the geeky multitudes out there, eh?
Linux isn't exactly an OS built for games, otherwise there would be a lot more titles available.
I think you're jumping to the wrong conclusion there. Linux has a smaller market share then Windows, so when a game company has $X in resources and that will only cover development for one platform, the often focus on the one with the biggest potential for sales - Windows simply because there are more people with it.
Linux is gaining share, and I'm starting to see a shelf in my local computer store for Linux games. People start buying more of them, it will become more profitable to make them, and more will come out.
It's market factors, not any inherent limitation in the OS.
The Swiss are fairly liberal about their gun laws. Indeed IIRC everone is REQUIRED to have a gun in the house. Gun deaths there are comparable to those in the rest of Europe.
Yes, but they are given military weapons with sealed tins of ammunition - NOT something which you can take out and show off/play with, not something children can open easily, not some to use for sport or hunting.
It's hard to draw a valid comparison to the US for gun deaths because of that.
I think it is time to realize that lawyers are humans like you and me. Some are assholes and some are hard-working honest people. That's life.
You're right. But since I think that you can describe 99.99% of the human race as one of the following: ignorant, short-sited, greedy, selfish, un-compassionate, or stupid. As a percentage of the population, laywers fit here.
That makes most people pretty far down on my list. Those with the power to help fellow people, including lawyers, who do not do so, unfortuantately fall even lower.
I'll try to judge YOU by YOU, but I can only judge your profession by an average on the whole of how your profesion acts.
Anyone know if the tax codes apply to auctions? If so, whose responsibility is it to collect tax? eBay or the seller?
If it's eBay, that's a huge amount of work for them.
If it's the seller, does that mean everyone has to become a tax expert, fill in forms with the states, potentially buy the required tax software just to be able to sell anything at all?
From the article: Under the states' plan, online sellers would be required to purchase approved software to compute the appropriate state and local taxes or to certify with the state any in-house calculation systems already in place. E-tailers could choose to outsource tax collection to a certified third-party under the states' plan.
So, this would mean that every single business that wanted to do business on the internet in the US would have to purchase a specific piece of software, and possibly training. I see a lot of problems with that. That monopoly means they can charge as much as they want for the software, for training, for support, and for upgrades, because it would be illegal to do business on the internet without it. Complete monopoly.
I hope at the very least the software is multi-platform and open source. If I run a shop on X, and the tax software will only run on Y, that's a big issue, regardless of what X & Y are.
Intentia International, a company in Sweden, is suing Reuters for publishing an earnings report that they sent to Reuters with an accompany post-it note that said "please publish me". The catch? The report couldn't be accessed unless you understood an obscure and arcane code called "the English language". The precedent this case sets will be interesting. If you write a report in a language that has no native speakers that actually use it correctly, can it be considered public?
but it's such a weird argument! I mean it's like, everyone else uses the telephone to talk over long distances, but i refuse to, i only want to write letters.
I agree it's a weird argument, but I'm not so sure of your telephone analogy. It's got two points that may make a different anology stronger.
1. This mostly affects group communications - any two people could agree not to use DRM. 2. People can become adopters without really thinking about it, like many of the masses will do.
It's because it's so subtle and insidious that it is a real threat.
Microsoft argues that Palladium can always be switched off by users who think it's bad news. If Palladium becomes ubiquitous, critics respond, that may not be an option.
"If you turn it off, then you are an island," says Perens. "You can't communicate with others. Everyone will be using this DRM, and you can't view Web pages."
This is a real worry - not that you won't be able to turn it off, or run Linux/*BSD/whatever and ignore it, but if you do that, then all of the content (email, web pages, documents, etc) created by all of the people who have not turned it off will be unreadable by you.
It's like avoiding email - sure it cuts down on your Spam, but it also cuts down on the legitimate messages you get.
And that's where it gets scary. I'm a UNIX administrator, but I keep a Windows system because there aren't as many games out there for Linux. The same thing - you may want ot be a holdout, but if you can't read 90% of the email or view 90% of what you want to see on the web, you may adopt it just because your other option is "almost nothing".
=Blue(23)
Re:Devices hostile to 3rd party peripherals
on
Analyzing Palladium
·
· Score: 2
I've got an Ericsson T21 mobile phone (or is it T28, I don't have it on me), and it has "optimized charging" for Ericsson batteries, and charges them much quicker then non-Ericsson batteries. Needless to say, this has turned me off from further Ericsson purchases.
If they have the EULA only on the inside, return it as defective. Better yet, EXCHANGE it as defective. Continue.
"I was installing, chose the correct option, and the install exitted with a message. Can exchange this for another copy?"
Each defective disk gets returned, and costs the software maker, not the store (who is lousy for not accepting it for full refund, but isn't as lousy as the people who make the EULA in the first place).
Eventually, after the second or third time and they clue in, explain exactly where it is bombing. Tell tham that that isn't correct behavior for software in your opinion, and then ask for the full refund. You're in the same boat as you were before (owning software you don't like the EULA on), but you've been able to make a true statement that you believe the software is defective for not installing if you disagree with the EULA.
At those prices it doesn't sound like digital theaters will overtake 35mm theaters anytime soon, but what would happen if Hollywood suddenly got the "bright" idea to limit 35mm reel distribution within the next few years?
Let me get this straight. On one side, we have content providers (TV/Cable) that want to stick to an old model which is invalidated by new tachnology (PVRs like TivO and ReplayTV) and that's bad.
On this side, we have content providers (Hollywood) that want to move to a new model which offers them some advantages providing content (digital projection), and that's also bad?
How can you have it both ways?
Assuming you live in USA, you live in a capitalist society. Let the chips fall where they may. If enough cinemas will not convert, then Hollywood will stay 35mm for the most part. If they will, then cinemas that aren't willing to keep up will be deligated to running films from those who aren't in digital, probably lots of indy films. Which IMHO isn't a bad thing.
Plus look at SW:AotC. They released in both formats. I heard a lot of people who specifically went to see it digital - so the cinemas that upgraded got additional revenue. Those that didn't still could play the movie, and had lots of people go.
Code is not art. Code is more like engineering in that you do it to perform a practical job. As a bi-product, it might have certain aesthetic qualities in much the same way that a well designed bridge is beautiful to look at.
Amusingly, I'd take your example and use it to say coding CAN BE art. Some coding is the same as those painted bowls of fruit and flowers that some people hang on their walls. It's functional and decorative, but it isn't art.
But go look at a well designed cathedral, and see how architecture really is art. Coding can be the same. Art does not happen to only non-functional things, anything CAN be art. All it has to be is beatiful, or thought provoking, or...
Hollingsworth is submitting a bill to make it manditory to have a device on all felt tip pens to prevent use on copy-protected CDs.
Don't be silly, it just introduced a bill so that only the RIAA can manufacture felt tip pens, this way they can charge an appropriate rate for them to offset the profits lost due to potential piracy using them.
Oh, and a rider on it extends the blank media "tax" to also include paper. Both lined and unlined.
Slashdot Mirror
I read the paper, and it's got a bunch of points. I'll say that from a bunch of MUDs I used to play you would see the same behavior. But besides just who you know, it's also lots of being in the right place at the right time. I've had characters given cool stuff by high level people all the time. Part of it was so they could be seen as cool by the noob, and part of it was that the super cool item you just got is worthless junk at their level.
Lots of folks get good reps for just helping out noobs or on corpse runs, and you know that that rep stayed around and if they ever needed help they got it, as well as preferental grouping.
You want to be treated nice - play a female healer of some sort - groups will court you, random people will give you things. People will go on quests just to get items for you.
If you want a lone hero vs. the world, play on your home machine. If social gaming is really your style, then MMRPGs have a lot to be said for them. And in any social group, you get the mix of folks -- some will help, some will only help themselves. If you watch your friend's back, that's not mafia, that just taking care of those who take care of you.
==Blue(23)
Thanks for a well thought out response - it's given me something to think about.
=Blue(23)
But I have no faith in anyone ever fixing the system because almost noone knows what the verb love really means. Nobody understands that concept.
If you love someone you could never give them the death penalty or cut off their hand or hurt them physically in any way. Even if they are a terrorist. See, you don't understand what it really means to love your neighbor.
I define human as an intelligent being that loves all other humans, and right now the lot of you look like a bunch of animals to me.
At that leaves you free to hate everyone else, eh?
Let's start with a base case. I assume you think you are human. At this stage, you're the only human, so loving all other humans (none) is easy. You fit your definition.
At this point, the only way for someone else to be considered human is if they love you and you love them. If they don't love you, they aren't human, and if you don't love them, since you are human (by your definition) you'd have to love them if they were human, and you don't, so they can't be human.
By this it seems that you're defining human as a pretty exclusive club, which is free to ignore/hate/mistreat/etc those not in your club. Sounds rather elitist.
I'd prefer to think of everyone as human and try to treat them as such, even if some of them I consider misguided. But there are those who would consider me misguided, and I hope they show me the same forbearance.
Sorry for going so off topic, but your message really struck a nerve - by dehumanizing all of those that don't fit your criteria, all you are doing is giving yourself license to treat others in ways you wouldn't want to be treated yourself.
=Blue(23)
"Monster Typer" - I like that!
Laptops are fine for taking with you, but when I'm staring at it for (too mumble, mumble many) hours a day I prefer a real keyboard and monitor. I've got my IBM Model M going through a Belkin switcher to both the RS/6000 running CDE and my Thinkpad's docking station. This way when I need to switch to the laptop to use the company-mandated Outlook (brrr) I still can use a real keyboard & monitor.
=Blue(23)
Serious question about the Goldtouch. I've been looking into alternate keyboard and one of my issues is that I have wide shoulders. As is is most standard keyboard feel cramped to get my hands so close to each other (any many laptop keyboards are crazy).
The question is about the folding part of the Goldtouch - it looks like the folding action brings the two halves closer together "as the crow flies", which would seem to make my problem worse. Do you find this is true in practice?
Does anyone have a suggestion for a keyboard like the Goldtouch but with separatable halves so I could have them a distance apart in a more natural position?
Thanks,
=Blue(23)
There is seriously nothing as solid feeling as my model M. Mine is from an old IBM RS/6000 workstation (250 for anyone keeping count). Who else puts dates on, because you knwo it will last forever. 03-15-90, P/N 1394540.
The key action on this is perfect, even after more then a decade of heavy use. Rock solid, good key action, what more could you want?
I'm a really heavy typer - learned on old Commodore (Pet, Vic20, C64) prducts and you really had to stomp on those keys. The model M is the only thing that survives me. Though my entire department can hear while I'm pounding on it. *grin*
=Blue(23)
You know a C&D letter may stop people from disclosing exploits, but will not stop people from disclosing that their are exploits. That's enough for lots of poor, enterprising college students.
A much better plan would of been to let these guys give their talk, to hire them, fix the problems, and them make a bundle in upgrades to existing customers. Come on, if some of these installations are 20 years old we're not talking much more then maintenance revenue. On the other hand system upgrades, especially when demanded by parents, can net a pretty penny. The colleges could have fund drives, hit up alumni societies, all the normal ways to get money when something unexpected walks through the door.
Instead the company gets to look like a fool that knows there are security flaws, aren't fixing them and instead are wasting money on laywers, get getting bad press.
Oh well, I guess there is no such thing as bad press. And that companies would rather think about prestige short term then a better product long term, even if the better product will get them more money.
=Blue(23)
I went to a fine (*cough*) engineering school. At the time I attended, all Unix accounts (and email addresses) were of the form of [three initials][last four SSN]. Since the first three and the middle two can be deduced (though not easily) from your state and year of birth, this means that there are thousands of student's SSNs that are at least partially out there.
BTW, Unix accounts were mandatory for a good number of classes.
=Blue(23)
Finishes printing off the excel spreadsheet for his 6/6 psionic, Gray Elven Cleric/Magic-User
You know what's sad? I'm actually envious of the spreadsheet idea.
Take a look at PC-Gen. It's a free character editor, they do D&D and lots of other D20 publishers. They work with the publishers (including WotC) to use the stuff.
Good stuff.
http://pcgen.sourceforge.net/
(Oh yeah, and it's open source and people are constantly contributing.)
Cheers,
=Blue(23)
Actually, back then (yes, I know I'm old) I knew several women who were D&Ders, and at least two male players who met their future spouses playing the game.
I still play, and my wife used to.
Sounds good for the geeky multitudes out there, eh?
I asked her why she stopped. Her answer:
Puberty.
Ouch.
Cheers,
=Blue(23)
Linux isn't exactly an OS built for games, otherwise there would be a lot more titles available.
I think you're jumping to the wrong conclusion there. Linux has a smaller market share then Windows, so when a game company has $X in resources and that will only cover development for one platform, the often focus on the one with the biggest potential for sales - Windows simply because there are more people with it.
Linux is gaining share, and I'm starting to see a shelf in my local computer store for Linux games. People start buying more of them, it will become more profitable to make them, and more will come out.
It's market factors, not any inherent limitation in the OS.
Cheers,
=Blue(23)
The Swiss are fairly liberal about their gun laws. Indeed IIRC everone is REQUIRED to have a gun in the house. Gun deaths there are comparable to those in the rest of Europe.
Yes, but they are given military weapons with sealed tins of ammunition - NOT something which you can take out and show off/play with, not something children can open easily, not some to use for sport or hunting.
It's hard to draw a valid comparison to the US for gun deaths because of that.
-- Jim
I think it is time to realize that lawyers are humans like you and me. Some are assholes and some are hard-working honest people. That's life.
You're right. But since I think that you can describe 99.99% of the human race as one of the following: ignorant, short-sited, greedy, selfish, un-compassionate, or stupid. As a percentage of the population, laywers fit here.
That makes most people pretty far down on my list. Those with the power to help fellow people, including lawyers, who do not do so, unfortuantately fall even lower.
I'll try to judge YOU by YOU, but I can only judge your profession by an average on the whole of how your profesion acts.
=Blue(23)
Anyone know if the tax codes apply to auctions? If so, whose responsibility is it to collect tax? eBay or the seller?
If it's eBay, that's a huge amount of work for them.
If it's the seller, does that mean everyone has to become a tax expert, fill in forms with the states, potentially buy the required tax software just to be able to sell anything at all?
=Blue(23)
From the article:
Under the states' plan, online sellers would be required to purchase approved software to compute the appropriate state and local taxes or to certify with the state any in-house calculation systems already in place. E-tailers could choose to outsource tax collection to a certified third-party under the states' plan.
So, this would mean that every single business that wanted to do business on the internet in the US would have to purchase a specific piece of software, and possibly training. I see a lot of problems with that. That monopoly means they can charge as much as they want for the software, for training, for support, and for upgrades, because it would be illegal to do business on the internet without it. Complete monopoly.
I hope at the very least the software is multi-platform and open source. If I run a shop on X, and the tax software will only run on Y, that's a big issue, regardless of what X & Y are.
=Blue(23)
Intentia International, a company in Sweden, is suing Reuters for publishing an earnings report that they sent to Reuters with an accompany post-it note that said "please publish me". The catch? The report couldn't be accessed unless you understood an obscure and arcane code called "the English language". The precedent this case sets will be interesting. If you write a report in a language that has no native speakers that actually use it correctly, can it be considered public?
...Keanu Reeves Superman...
Keanu Reeves played superman? I feel unclean...
=Blue(23)
I administrate a bunch of IBM's AIX boxes and they have this. A nice little LED that handles POST sequence and error conditions.
Oh yeah, and you can log on and put up your own numbers, to find it physically in crowded data centers. 8)
=Blue(23)
but it's such a weird argument! I mean it's like, everyone else uses the telephone to talk over long distances, but i refuse to, i only want to write letters.
I agree it's a weird argument, but I'm not so sure of your telephone analogy. It's got two points that may make a different anology stronger.
1. This mostly affects group communications - any two people could agree not to use DRM.
2. People can become adopters without really thinking about it, like many of the masses will do.
It's because it's so subtle and insidious that it is a real threat.
=Blue(23)
Microsoft argues that Palladium can always be switched off by users who think it's bad news. If Palladium becomes ubiquitous, critics respond, that may not be an option.
"If you turn it off, then you are an island," says Perens. "You can't communicate with others. Everyone will be using this DRM, and you can't view Web pages."
This is a real worry - not that you won't be able to turn it off, or run Linux/*BSD/whatever and ignore it, but if you do that, then all of the content (email, web pages, documents, etc) created by all of the people who have not turned it off will be unreadable by you.
It's like avoiding email - sure it cuts down on your Spam, but it also cuts down on the legitimate messages you get.
And that's where it gets scary. I'm a UNIX administrator, but I keep a Windows system because there aren't as many games out there for Linux. The same thing - you may want ot be a holdout, but if you can't read 90% of the email or view 90% of what you want to see on the web, you may adopt it just because your other option is "almost nothing".
=Blue(23)
I've got an Ericsson T21 mobile phone (or is it T28, I don't have it on me), and it has "optimized charging" for Ericsson batteries, and charges them much quicker then non-Ericsson batteries. Needless to say, this has turned me off from further Ericsson purchases.
=Blue(23)
If they have the EULA only on the inside, return it as defective. Better yet, EXCHANGE it as defective. Continue.
"I was installing, chose the correct option, and the install exitted with a message. Can exchange this for another copy?"
Each defective disk gets returned, and costs the software maker, not the store (who is lousy for not accepting it for full refund, but isn't as lousy as the people who make the EULA in the first place).
Eventually, after the second or third time and they clue in, explain exactly where it is bombing. Tell tham that that isn't correct behavior for software in your opinion, and then ask for the full refund. You're in the same boat as you were before (owning software you don't like the EULA on), but you've been able to make a true statement that you believe the software is defective for not installing if you disagree with the EULA.
=Blue(23)
At those prices it doesn't sound like digital theaters will overtake 35mm theaters anytime soon, but what would happen if Hollywood suddenly got the "bright" idea to limit 35mm reel distribution within the next few years?
Let me get this straight. On one side, we have content providers (TV/Cable) that want to stick to an old model which is invalidated by new tachnology (PVRs like TivO and ReplayTV) and that's bad.
On this side, we have content providers (Hollywood) that want to move to a new model which offers them some advantages providing content (digital projection), and that's also bad?
How can you have it both ways?
Assuming you live in USA, you live in a capitalist society. Let the chips fall where they may. If enough cinemas will not convert, then Hollywood will stay 35mm for the most part. If they will, then cinemas that aren't willing to keep up will be deligated to running films from those who aren't in digital, probably lots of indy films. Which IMHO isn't a bad thing.
Plus look at SW:AotC. They released in both formats. I heard a lot of people who specifically went to see it digital - so the cinemas that upgraded got additional revenue. Those that didn't still could play the movie, and had lots of people go.
Why is that a bad thing?
=Blue(23)
Code is not art. Code is more like engineering in that you do it to perform a practical job. As a bi-product, it might have certain aesthetic qualities in much the same way that a well designed bridge is beautiful to look at.
...
Amusingly, I'd take your example and use it to say coding CAN BE art. Some coding is the same as those painted bowls of fruit and flowers that some people hang on their walls. It's functional and decorative, but it isn't art.
But go look at a well designed cathedral, and see how architecture really is art. Coding can be the same. Art does not happen to only non-functional things, anything CAN be art. All it has to be is beatiful, or thought provoking, or
=Blue(23)
Hollingsworth is submitting a bill to make it manditory to have a device on all felt tip pens to prevent use on copy-protected CDs.
Don't be silly, it just introduced a bill so that only the RIAA can manufacture felt tip pens, this way they can charge an appropriate rate for them to offset the profits lost due to potential piracy using them.
Oh, and a rider on it extends the blank media "tax" to also include paper. Both lined and unlined.
=Blue(23)