Normally I don't feed the trolls, but it's a Saturday.
1) You can't modify your car to your heart's content, it's a safety issue. Just one in a bunch of cases where, although you technically 'own' the property, you are restricted in its use for public safety reasons.
2) These black boxes don't have fancy satellite uplinks or anything, they need to be physically removed to be read. At this point in time, you fantasy is just that.
Yes, let's disable these hideous things that invade our privacy! It isn't the police's right to know that you had the gas to the floor when you rear-ended the woman in front of you, killing her and her two kids. Let her insurance company try to put that theory forth, give you a chance!
Please. These things record data that can be very useful in collision investigations, give the investigators an idea of what happened by letting them know what each car was doing at the time of impact. Seems like this could certainly help to reduce insurance costs if it helps show that you weren't at fault. Presumably, if collision data can be collected and recorded in a central repository it could help auto designers work on the safety systems of their cars as well. I mean, doing your own controlled crash tests are fine and well, but it would seem to me they'd cost a lot of money. Add in some real-world collisions to the mix and you can get a more useful picture.
Well, there we go, guess I was wrong. I still question whether such a thing would really take off in the US, though. I mean, we can't even decide on one language to speak anymore (won't get into that right now:-P), in this age of make-this-user-friendly-or-we'll-sue-you I don't think we're going to see fully-automated supermarkets until this aspect of our society passes.
I've picked up a number of game soundtracks in my time (I've got a number of FF soundtracks and other FF albums, two of the three Metal Gear Solid 2 soundtracks, and a few others.) While the music in them is pretty great, there is a certain nostalgic factor too. I'm not sure Aerith's Theme (FF7), The Oath (FF8), or others would elicit quite the same response from me if I just heard them without having in the back of my head the circumstances at which you hear them in the game. Although, the opening to Chrono Cross is just beautiful by itself.:D As is the MGS2 theme. But I digress.
It would be nice to see major chains in the US start picking up video game soundtracks, but I don't know how commercially viable it would be, whether many people beyond the gamers would buy them. And even of the gamers, how many would plunk down the money for the soundtracks to the games as well? Most of my friends who are avid gamers could really care less about the music. It would be real nice to have translated CD inserts though, save me the trouble of having to learn to read them.:)
Anime Nation is my current importer of choice, theyv'e got a pretty decent selection, and their prices aren't too horrendous. High enough to keep me in check at least.
I'm curious what jobs this shopping buddy is going to take away. Have you ever tried asking one of the Stop and Shop employees where something is? If you're lucky, you'll get one who actually speaks English, but even then they're typically not too helpful.
I can see the point about losing cashiers to self-serve checkouts, but I know a number of people who don't use those things just because of the annoyance factor (why does the volume have to be cranked? Does anyone else get accused of shoplifting half the time? Ever notice that it takes the thing almost 15 seconds to figure out whether you need change or not?), and some for the neurotic big brother frascination. You're not going to get a grocery store run entirely on computers anytime in the near future, usability just isn't quite there yet.
This is something I've never really considered before, how color blindness would affect one's ability to play video games, it's pretty interesting. Of the comments, yours is one of the cooler ones, turning a single-player game into multi-player in a sense.:)
I think the only game I've found that useful with was an old Atari game called the Eidolon. Again, the dragons were each different colors and required different colors of shots to defeat them. I'm not color blind, but I was pretty little and couldn't handle having to quickly press the right number then fire and all that, got my dad in on the action. Pretty fun.
It's an interesting thought, and perhaps this would be about the only way to start something of this nature.
Company A makes a great game for Windows that people absolutely love. Linux community begs for a port, but A doesn't want to spend the time. Someone gets their hands on the source code to the game and widely distributes it, to the point where it's everywhere. It's not feasible for A to try to legally crush the people who have the source, since they're simply too many, and decide to cut their losses and support them. The company provides further support, helps to organize work, etc. using the open-source community to help build their Linux version. In the process, bugs are found and patches are released for the Windows version while the Linux port is being worked on.
Idealist? Of course, there'll be many arguments by GPL zealots and so forth. Still an interesting thought though.
I'm feeling much better about Twin Snakes. The first trailer left a sour taste in my mouth, this new one makes me feel a lot better.
Some of the new cinematics look great. Did I catch a little added foreshadowing in the trailer, in the scene with Snake and Gray Fox fighting while Ocelot runs away minus one arm? Fox saying "Do you remember me now?" combined with the fight itself...
The voices don't bother me so much anymore, although it sounds as though Otacon's been re-voiced? It's either not Christopher Randolph, or he's purposely sounding much younger...
Harry Gregson-Williams: SCORE! Love all these variations of the MGS theme that have been thrown around in the past months.:-D
As for the MGS3 trailer, I shall just say "roflmao". Those guys are having too much fun with their trailers.:-P Although hey, it fits, I mean, the game is set in the mid 60's, right? Prime Bond time right there.
In the end: Konami + MGS3 + MGS:TTS (sure, not Konami directly, but still) + Gradius V =:D
(This is guaranteed to be marked as flamebait, but I've got to say it.)
Last sentence of paragraph 4 in the article, "They have been decried by parents and lawmakers, among others, for depictions of graphic violence against women, law enforcement officers and the elderly." HEAVEN FORBID there be violence against women in a game where violence is one of the major points. I note the distinction they made, that it's violence against WOMEN and not simply violence against people. Violence towards men is acceptable these days?
Because you've taken away the author's right for compensation to the product. See, in the LEGAL manner, the author has (this is in theory, so don't bother pointing out my oversimplification) the only true copy of the work. The only way you, or anyone else, can legally get a copy of that is through the author, who will make a perfect copy for you pending compensation on your part, typically the exchange of money.
Now, in the new case, someone purchases an authorized copy by the author. This person makes a perfect copy, and then begins either reselling the work without the author's permission or simply begins giving away the work for free. In both cases the author does not get compensated for their time and effort in creating said work, bypassing the traditional controls.
What you are stealing from the author is money that they would otherwise have made. If the author sells 5,000 copies of their work for $14.99 a copy, that's $74,950 they will have made. If 2,500 of those copies are perfect copies distributed by someone else, however, the author loses out on $37,475 they should have been given. Thus, in effect, 2,500 people have stolen a combined amount of $37,475 from the author.
Now, I admit, making a perfect copy for YOURSELF and only yourself should be all right. In the past it has been, today it's slightly questionable though, but mostly by only the YRO folk and they get their panties in a twist for fun anyway.
Many students seem to think, apparently, that the internet is a law free zone.
There seems to be some belief on campus that taking music without paying for it is not quite breaking the law because the big, bad record companies charge high prices - they rip us off so we can rip them off, might be the general tenor of the argument.
It's great to see someone putting forth into the mainstream news services the pathetic argument by many file sharers. Bravo, I say.
Out of the goodness of my heart, I feel I need to inform you that my post was more of a troll than anything, feeding off the mass hysteria that is Slashdot and privacy matters.
I personally think VINs are quite wonderful little creatures, along with RFID's. I suppose my point was to show, to some extent, that although things CAN be used for invasive practices, it doesn't mean they WILL.
Well, the raw tag number is unique within any given state, but looked at nationally, each number could have up to 50 duplicates, ignoring the state of origin. Besides, what can you tell from a license plate itself? There's a much more serious issue in the automotive industry; the VIN.
The VIN is truly unique; no two cars have the same number. They are unique amongst a common manufacturer, and unique amongst all automotive manufacturers. Every car, truck, minivan, SUV, etc. has one of these numbers, often written in multiple places, and oftentimes PHYSICALLY STAMPED in the material of the car so as to prevent fraud (it's illegal to remove this privacy-infringing device!)
These numbers are not protected at all; they're prominently displayed on the dash of all vehicles equipped with them, so that anyone simply walking past your car can look in and record the number. From it, they'll know what manufacturer produced your car, the car's series, its body style, engine type, emissions, what model year it is, what factory it was produced in, and on top of that, A SIX-DIGIT UNIQUE IDENTIFIER!
This problem has existed for decades, and few people actually know the evils that lurk inside! This must be stopped! Stand up to your car manufacturers, tell them you WILL NOT BUY another vehicle from them until this travesty is corrected!
It's a nice thought, but when it comes down to it, it's still a worm. It installs itself on your machine, without your permission, exploiting a hole in the Windows RPC code, downloads patches without your permission, installs the patches, still without your permission, and then sits there until it kills itself on Jan 1, 2004. I know on Slashdot there are enough people paranoid about Windows patches to want to not download them anyway, this will surely set them off. If worm/virus authors were ever tracked down and prosecuted, I'd demand the author of this worm to be dealt with in the same manner.
On a more practical side, though, perhaps we need more of these, enough people seem to not patch their systems themselves...
D'oh. Good call. I've been looking for the story I read listing the various awards she got, I can't find it though. I do recall there being one medal regarding valor in combat which really didn't seem to fit the bill. It's like one of the local Boston talk radio folks had said, first her convoy was attacked and she was captured. The next day, the story changed to her killing a few Iraqis with her sidearm. Then it was a dozen. Then it turned into her wiping out half the attacking force. It's a bit crazy...
...of a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer OZ-Rally (how I wish I could afford the payments & insurance on an Evolution VIII...:-D~~). While GT3 didn't actually get me to just go out and buy the car, it did pique my interest in Lancers. After reading up on them on Mitsubishi's website and other auto sites, I found that they are pretty nice cars. Went from an American 24-valve 200HP V6 down to a Japanese 16-valve inline-4 and have never looked back. The 36mpg over the 20mpg with the V6 is a nice addition too.
"I met my new car on Gran Turismo 3!" (poor excuse at spoofing eharmony.com commercials)
PS - My salesman did let me sit in an Evolution VIII in the showroom.:-D Wouldn't let me drive it, though.:(
Slashdot Mirror
Normally I don't feed the trolls, but it's a Saturday.
1) You can't modify your car to your heart's content, it's a safety issue. Just one in a bunch of cases where, although you technically 'own' the property, you are restricted in its use for public safety reasons.
2) These black boxes don't have fancy satellite uplinks or anything, they need to be physically removed to be read. At this point in time, you fantasy is just that.
"Time to start working on the mod for my Toyota."
Yes, let's disable these hideous things that invade our privacy! It isn't the police's right to know that you had the gas to the floor when you rear-ended the woman in front of you, killing her and her two kids. Let her insurance company try to put that theory forth, give you a chance!
Please. These things record data that can be very useful in collision investigations, give the investigators an idea of what happened by letting them know what each car was doing at the time of impact. Seems like this could certainly help to reduce insurance costs if it helps show that you weren't at fault. Presumably, if collision data can be collected and recorded in a central repository it could help auto designers work on the safety systems of their cars as well. I mean, doing your own controlled crash tests are fine and well, but it would seem to me they'd cost a lot of money. Add in some real-world collisions to the mix and you can get a more useful picture.
Well, there we go, guess I was wrong. I still question whether such a thing would really take off in the US, though. I mean, we can't even decide on one language to speak anymore (won't get into that right now :-P), in this age of make-this-user-friendly-or-we'll-sue-you I don't think we're going to see fully-automated supermarkets until this aspect of our society passes.
I'm still waiting on my personal jetpack...
I've picked up a number of game soundtracks in my time (I've got a number of FF soundtracks and other FF albums, two of the three Metal Gear Solid 2 soundtracks, and a few others.) While the music in them is pretty great, there is a certain nostalgic factor too. I'm not sure Aerith's Theme (FF7), The Oath (FF8), or others would elicit quite the same response from me if I just heard them without having in the back of my head the circumstances at which you hear them in the game. Although, the opening to Chrono Cross is just beautiful by itself. :D As is the MGS2 theme. But I digress.
:)
It would be nice to see major chains in the US start picking up video game soundtracks, but I don't know how commercially viable it would be, whether many people beyond the gamers would buy them. And even of the gamers, how many would plunk down the money for the soundtracks to the games as well? Most of my friends who are avid gamers could really care less about the music. It would be real nice to have translated CD inserts though, save me the trouble of having to learn to read them.
Anime Nation is my current importer of choice, theyv'e got a pretty decent selection, and their prices aren't too horrendous. High enough to keep me in check at least.
I'm curious what jobs this shopping buddy is going to take away. Have you ever tried asking one of the Stop and Shop employees where something is? If you're lucky, you'll get one who actually speaks English, but even then they're typically not too helpful.
I can see the point about losing cashiers to self-serve checkouts, but I know a number of people who don't use those things just because of the annoyance factor (why does the volume have to be cranked? Does anyone else get accused of shoplifting half the time? Ever notice that it takes the thing almost 15 seconds to figure out whether you need change or not?), and some for the neurotic big brother frascination. You're not going to get a grocery store run entirely on computers anytime in the near future, usability just isn't quite there yet.
Just wait a few months for the director's cut, complete with a making-of documentary and bonus footage.
This is something I've never really considered before, how color blindness would affect one's ability to play video games, it's pretty interesting. Of the comments, yours is one of the cooler ones, turning a single-player game into multi-player in a sense. :)
I think the only game I've found that useful with was an old Atari game called the Eidolon. Again, the dragons were each different colors and required different colors of shots to defeat them. I'm not color blind, but I was pretty little and couldn't handle having to quickly press the right number then fire and all that, got my dad in on the action. Pretty fun.
Really, that's interesting. I'd never actually heard much about how the linux port actually started.
Well then, perhaps there's hope.
It's ovious that this was a leak from the White House in retribution for criticism on the war in Iraq!
(:-P)
It's an interesting thought, and perhaps this would be about the only way to start something of this nature.
Company A makes a great game for Windows that people absolutely love. Linux community begs for a port, but A doesn't want to spend the time. Someone gets their hands on the source code to the game and widely distributes it, to the point where it's everywhere. It's not feasible for A to try to legally crush the people who have the source, since they're simply too many, and decide to cut their losses and support them. The company provides further support, helps to organize work, etc. using the open-source community to help build their Linux version. In the process, bugs are found and patches are released for the Windows version while the Linux port is being worked on.
Idealist? Of course, there'll be many arguments by GPL zealots and so forth. Still an interesting thought though.
I'm feeling much better about Twin Snakes. The first trailer left a sour taste in my mouth, this new one makes me feel a lot better.
Some of the new cinematics look great. Did I catch a little added foreshadowing in the trailer, in the scene with Snake and Gray Fox fighting while Ocelot runs away minus one arm? Fox saying "Do you remember me now?" combined with the fight itself...
The voices don't bother me so much anymore, although it sounds as though Otacon's been re-voiced? It's either not Christopher Randolph, or he's purposely sounding much younger...
Harry Gregson-Williams: SCORE! Love all these variations of the MGS theme that have been thrown around in the past months. :-D
:-P Although hey, it fits, I mean, the game is set in the mid 60's, right? Prime Bond time right there.
:D
As for the MGS3 trailer, I shall just say "roflmao". Those guys are having too much fun with their trailers.
In the end: Konami + MGS3 + MGS:TTS (sure, not Konami directly, but still) + Gradius V =
Thanks for graciously saving us the bothersome task of going to oreilly.com and reading their review ourself.
(This is guaranteed to be marked as flamebait, but I've got to say it.)
Last sentence of paragraph 4 in the article, "They have been decried by parents and lawmakers, among others, for depictions of graphic violence against women, law enforcement officers and the elderly." HEAVEN FORBID there be violence against women in a game where violence is one of the major points. I note the distinction they made, that it's violence against WOMEN and not simply violence against people. Violence towards men is acceptable these days?
Could you provide links to substantiate your claims of increased music sales linked to P2P piracy? Thanks.
Because you've taken away the author's right for compensation to the product. See, in the LEGAL manner, the author has (this is in theory, so don't bother pointing out my oversimplification) the only true copy of the work. The only way you, or anyone else, can legally get a copy of that is through the author, who will make a perfect copy for you pending compensation on your part, typically the exchange of money.
Now, in the new case, someone purchases an authorized copy by the author. This person makes a perfect copy, and then begins either reselling the work without the author's permission or simply begins giving away the work for free. In both cases the author does not get compensated for their time and effort in creating said work, bypassing the traditional controls.
What you are stealing from the author is money that they would otherwise have made. If the author sells 5,000 copies of their work for $14.99 a copy, that's $74,950 they will have made. If 2,500 of those copies are perfect copies distributed by someone else, however, the author loses out on $37,475 they should have been given. Thus, in effect, 2,500 people have stolen a combined amount of $37,475 from the author.
Now, I admit, making a perfect copy for YOURSELF and only yourself should be all right. In the past it has been, today it's slightly questionable though, but mostly by only the YRO folk and they get their panties in a twist for fun anyway.
Don't copy that floppy!
From the article,
Many students seem to think, apparently, that the internet is a law free zone.
There seems to be some belief on campus that taking music without paying for it is not quite breaking the law because the big, bad record companies charge high prices - they rip us off so we can rip them off, might be the general tenor of the argument.
It's great to see someone putting forth into the mainstream news services the pathetic argument by many file sharers. Bravo, I say.
The poster is obviously a southerner. Perhaps from the Deep South, like NYC or DC.
It's summer, I bet the air temperature didn't even drop below freezing! Even with the wind chill, I'm sure it was still in the positives.
Weenies.
Heheh, no worries. I thought about adding a to the end of it, but figured that'd give it away too easily.
Out of the goodness of my heart, I feel I need to inform you that my post was more of a troll than anything, feeding off the mass hysteria that is Slashdot and privacy matters.
I personally think VINs are quite wonderful little creatures, along with RFID's. I suppose my point was to show, to some extent, that although things CAN be used for invasive practices, it doesn't mean they WILL.
Sorry if I confused you.
Well, the raw tag number is unique within any given state, but looked at nationally, each number could have up to 50 duplicates, ignoring the state of origin. Besides, what can you tell from a license plate itself? There's a much more serious issue in the automotive industry; the VIN.
The VIN is truly unique; no two cars have the same number. They are unique amongst a common manufacturer, and unique amongst all automotive manufacturers. Every car, truck, minivan, SUV, etc. has one of these numbers, often written in multiple places, and oftentimes PHYSICALLY STAMPED in the material of the car so as to prevent fraud (it's illegal to remove this privacy-infringing device!)
These numbers are not protected at all; they're prominently displayed on the dash of all vehicles equipped with them, so that anyone simply walking past your car can look in and record the number. From it, they'll know what manufacturer produced your car, the car's series, its body style, engine type, emissions, what model year it is, what factory it was produced in, and on top of that, A SIX-DIGIT UNIQUE IDENTIFIER!
This problem has existed for decades, and few people actually know the evils that lurk inside! This must be stopped! Stand up to your car manufacturers, tell them you WILL NOT BUY another vehicle from them until this travesty is corrected!
(Peace out, yo.)
It's a nice thought, but when it comes down to it, it's still a worm. It installs itself on your machine, without your permission, exploiting a hole in the Windows RPC code, downloads patches without your permission, installs the patches, still without your permission, and then sits there until it kills itself on Jan 1, 2004. I know on Slashdot there are enough people paranoid about Windows patches to want to not download them anyway, this will surely set them off. If worm/virus authors were ever tracked down and prosecuted, I'd demand the author of this worm to be dealt with in the same manner.
On a more practical side, though, perhaps we need more of these, enough people seem to not patch their systems themselves...
D'oh. Good call. I've been looking for the story I read listing the various awards she got, I can't find it though. I do recall there being one medal regarding valor in combat which really didn't seem to fit the bill. It's like one of the local Boston talk radio folks had said, first her convoy was attacked and she was captured. The next day, the story changed to her killing a few Iraqis with her sidearm. Then it was a dozen. Then it turned into her wiping out half the attacking force. It's a bit crazy...
The worst part is she was awarded the PURPLE HEART. Talk about dishonoring the other recipients...
She's America's little sweetheart, that's the extent of it. It's sickening.
...of a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer OZ-Rally (how I wish I could afford the payments & insurance on an Evolution VIII... :-D~~). While GT3 didn't actually get me to just go out and buy the car, it did pique my interest in Lancers. After reading up on them on Mitsubishi's website and other auto sites, I found that they are pretty nice cars. Went from an American 24-valve 200HP V6 down to a Japanese 16-valve inline-4 and have never looked back. The 36mpg over the 20mpg with the V6 is a nice addition too.
:-D Wouldn't let me drive it, though. :(
"I met my new car on Gran Turismo 3!" (poor excuse at spoofing eharmony.com commercials)
PS - My salesman did let me sit in an Evolution VIII in the showroom.