You too are ignoring my point in favour of a particularly useless ramble over a point of grammar. Yes, I probably should have said "want" instead of "need".
Big deal.
Here's a big difference between going out and stealing that $10,000 TV and downloading a song. With the TV there is a tangible item. It is property. If you steal it, that store has a loss to their inventory. If someone downloads a song or an entire CD from a P2P service, no store has lost that CD or that song. They still have the same inventory as before, but perhaps (and this is the important part) only have lost one customer. Businesses exist to make money. I'm not going to argue that. Most businesses that don't make money don't stick around for long, government subsidized ones notwithstanding. But the business (in this case a music store) did not lose any merchandise. Someone can still come in and buy that CD.
And how much does one song on a CD weigh? I can weigh the TV. How much is it worth? I can price TV's individually. It is worth more if it's a Top 40 hit? Some TVs are more expensive then others. How about if it's been the #1 song for 12 weeks running? What if it's a "B side" song? And some TV's are less expensive. It depends on the brand.
Thank you for entirely ignoring my point and focusing on a point of grammar. Should I have "want" instead of "need"? Probably. It doesn't negate my point that there are people who would be perfectly willing to buy music instead of pirate it through KaZaa or what have you if the prices of CD were lower.
Oh, and I suspect that there are people who "need" to download music. Considering that there are "internet addicts", "e-mail addicts", "Everquest addicts", and so on, I'd imagine there are people out there who feel a psychological pressure to continue downloading as many songs as they can get through P2P services.
Let me ask you this, though. If the prices of CDs went down to reflect the drop in costs of manufacturing the CDs, would many people be less inclined to use KaZaa or whatever to pirate them?
I mean, CDs should cost a lot less then they do. If they cost consumers less, there would probably be more sales. And therefore, with more sales, you have less people that need to pirate the songs.
Well, considering that this bill cannot be brought up this year, as those wonderful Congress-critters are about to embark on their winter vacation (starting in early fall), it's highly likely that by the time this bill does get brought up, the "war" with Iraq could be over, depending on how badly GWB wants to avenge Daddy.
You must be kidding, right? I've seen some movies dozens of times, and only listened to the entire CD of some of the music I've bought/received as a gift a couple of times. And how many people own every different release of the Star Wars trilogy?
Example: The Rolling Stones are (I believe) releasing another album that contains only 4 new songs, and has 36 of their old songs. If I recall the article correctly, it's called "Forty licks".
Now, odds are that this album will contain most, if not all of the songs that are on another album of theirs called "Hot Rocks" which is a greatest hits album. Shouldn't the price on that album go down, if this is indeed the case? But I'll bet it won't.
*nod* We had so many computer labs with AutoCAD on it that it wasn't even funny. The early versions had some serious problems, though, and it was with great relief that for my Senior Design course in Mechanical Engineering we used Pro-Engineer.
Your point is good. If it's all we know, it's all we'll want to know unless there is a pressing reason why we would switch to something new. How many people do you know who have routines so structured that you could set your watch by them? Or that eat pretty much the same thing from day to day or week to week?
Microsoft is banking on the premise that more people will be resistant to change then not.
Tell me about it. This is why a lot of people pirate music. Because they would rather have that one song for free then 17 songs of crap and that one song for $12-$18.
I mean, sure, there are people who collect every single mp3 ripped from an album. But they are the only ones that RIAA should be super-pissed at, because the obvious indications is that they would have bought the album. Me, I'm not about to buy a 80s anthology album just to get After The Fire's "Der Kommisar". I am likely to go out and buy System of a Down's "Toxicity" album though, but only because every song I have heard off of it is good (IMAO, of course).
What the RIAA needs to go is remove their heads from their asses and come to the realization that piracy, in some form or another, will always exist. If they can offer a product that is better in terms of quality, availability (as in being able to buy select songs instead of the entire album), and lower the price, they will see a greater return on their investment.
You do realize that for many years, the Batman comic was incredibly campy as well, right? I mean, Batman, for quite some time, time-traveled quite extensively, fought villians in lairs that were filled with giant props ("Holy giant typewriter, Batman!"), etc.
It was really only after years of that crap that he became serious again (in the early issues of Detective Comics, Batman was incredibly serious, and casually killed criminals).
But it was during the campy years in the comics that the Adam West TV series was done.
Exactly. Before I buy the XBox, Microsoft can do whatever they want to it as long as it still operates in the function it was intended to, i.e. it still runs XBox games properly. If they do something to it that causes it, before I buy it, to not run those games, well, that's their fault, and they should get hammered for it.
However, once I own it, it's mine. If I want to turn the damn thing into a grilled cheese sandwich maker, I can. If I want to empty out the case and make it into the world's ugliest fish tank, likewise, that is within my rights. And if I want to slap a mod chip on it so I can have it play DVDs, again, I can.
It's not like Microsoft is going around and replacing all existing XBoxes with the new ones, thereby rendering all the mod chips obsolete. Sure, it may be a couple months/weeks/days before someone gets the new brand of mod chips out there, but it will happen. Because it's much easier to make the new mods chips for what really ends up being an extrememly limited market (as only a relatively small percentage of XBox owners are likely to mod their consoles), as opposed to making the changes to the XBox time and time again.
No, you go to prison if you break the law and are found guilty. If "harming" someone was a prerequisite, then any crime that did not cause physical injury would result in no prison time.
And quite frankly, I want people like these scammers (and incidentally, many CEOs as well) to go to jail.
It means that if the idiot box wasn't spewing pro-GWB rhetoric all the time, the Democrats would have a chance of taking the White House next presidential election.
Of course, if lil' Georgie Bush actually happens to get to attack Iraq, and kick Saddam's butt all over the place, the Dems would have to nominate the most likeably, charismatic, and popular person in the world to have a chance at beating him. And just looking from their last few choices, well, at best they can manage 2 out of 3.
Kierthos
Re:aren't they going to run out of characters?
on
Marvel Goes MMPORG
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· Score: 1
Assuming that I have gotten tired of Dark Age of Camelot by then, I actually plan on buying City of Heroes and seeing what orignal* characters I can make. I already have a couple different ideas, but I'll have to see if the character creation engine and the costume design can support them. (And oh god, I am hoping that they at least put trenchcoats and capes in the game.)
*In this connotation, original is defined as not being deliberately based upon comic book characters I am aware of. If, through happenstance, I happen to greatly mimic a comic book character that I am unaware of (such as a great deal of independent comic characters, and most of the DC lineup outside of the Batman titles), I am not trying to "rip off" or "copy" this character.
Kierthos
Re:aren't they going to run out of characters?
on
Marvel Goes MMPORG
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· Score: 1
No, the real solution is wait until City of Heroes comes out, and make your own damn characters instead of arguing over everyone else's interpretation of Spider-Man/the Hulk/Daredevil/whoever.
You don't play EQ, do you? Let me clue you in on something. In EQ, unless you're really low level, or unless only one of the two of you has some really studly gear, a one level difference does not mean a thing.
Same thing in DAOC, where they actually got rid of the EQ'esque 1st level character with 45th level gear problem from pretty much the beginning of the game. One level means _nothing_ unless you're talking a 1st level vs. a 2nd level. (And considering how little time it takes to get to 2nd level....)
Er, no, it didn't. There were several inherent design and safety flaws in the Titanic. The "water-tight" compartments were not water-tight, and the bulkheads for them only extended 10 feet above the water line. Also, the sheer lack of lifeboats was done because they were not "aesthetically pleasing" to have them crowding the decks.
In a like manner, how many MS products have had inherent design flaws and safety features which merely add to the aesthetics but offer no real security?
Frankly, I do not trust Microsoft to implement this properly, efficiently, and ethically.
Yes. And here's why. It is not illegal to use Linux. Once you own the computer, you OWN the computer. You are not licensing the computer. You are not renting the chips. It will be relatively easy to disable whatever needs to be turned off in order to run Linux.
Now, when GWB and/or his successor(s) make it illegal to run Linux, come back and ask about breaking the law again.
And it's not like many of them can afford _not_ to work. Let's face it, freelancing doesn't pay much in the gaming industry (I have friends who have written sourcebooks and modules, and let's face it, early on, the biggest benefit is the free copies and getting your name on the cover), so they will need to keep working in order to keep putting food on the table.
Luckily, there are some companies that are continuing to put out d20 products under the OGL. White Wolf is one of them (although I wish they would hurry up and print the Traditionbook: Sons of Ether as well), and they seem to be doing quite well. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if a few more people came to freelance for them.
Saying they are "not engineered" is a statement of your naivity. Imagine designing and coding a huge prog. such as Windows or MS Office... Do you think they sit a big room and just piece code together like a puzzle? Please don't say that they are not engineered...
Hrm... sit in a big room and just piece together code like a puzzle? Yeah, that's exactly what it feels like, half the time. Counter-intuitive commands, shoddy execution, worse then useless help systems.... yup, yup, yup.
Now, was it done that way? Obviously not. But they definitely need some improvement between the design phase, the engineering phase, and the implementation phase.
And quite frankly, I don't want pretty. I want functional. I want an easy to use system, not one that sparkles and gleams. I don't want bells and whistles. I don't want little pop-up paperclip buddies (and how freaking long did it take to add that piece of feces?), and I don't want programs that think they know what I want to do and are wrong half the time.
I want a system that does what I tell it to, not what it thinks I want. I want something that is coded efficiently, smoothly, and takes up a minimum of space.
However, the fact that he started immediately after being granted the patent shows that there were already existing processes and businesses using those methods that he patented. If such things are allowed by the Patent Office, how long is it before someone patents a process whereby you type things into a text box? Or patents a moderation system for a message board? Or patents meta-moderation?
The outcome will most likely be that eBay pays an undisclosed amount in a settlement. Frankly, from reading the article, this patent-filing jackass is yet another example of a lawyer abusing the system, rather then using it. At least one of his patents should not have been granted, probably all three mentioned.
And in his filing against Priceline, it's pretty obvious that they were already engaged in that business model before he filed the patent.
Hopefully, however, common sense in the judge will reign, and he will not only throw out any case against eBay, but hit this lawyer with extremely large financial sanctions and strip him of his license to practice law.
Hell yeah, you must. Heck, even in Columbia, South Carolina, we have a couple theatres with chairs so comfortable, they almost made watching "Mystery Men" tolerable.
Slashdot Mirror
You too are ignoring my point in favour of a particularly useless ramble over a point of grammar. Yes, I probably should have said "want" instead of "need".
Big deal.
Here's a big difference between going out and stealing that $10,000 TV and downloading a song. With the TV there is a tangible item. It is property. If you steal it, that store has a loss to their inventory. If someone downloads a song or an entire CD from a P2P service, no store has lost that CD or that song. They still have the same inventory as before, but perhaps (and this is the important part) only have lost one customer. Businesses exist to make money. I'm not going to argue that. Most businesses that don't make money don't stick around for long, government subsidized ones notwithstanding. But the business (in this case a music store) did not lose any merchandise. Someone can still come in and buy that CD.
And how much does one song on a CD weigh? I can weigh the TV. How much is it worth? I can price TV's individually. It is worth more if it's a Top 40 hit? Some TVs are more expensive then others. How about if it's been the #1 song for 12 weeks running? What if it's a "B side" song? And some TV's are less expensive. It depends on the brand.
Your arguement holds little merit.
Kierthos
Thank you for entirely ignoring my point and focusing on a point of grammar. Should I have "want" instead of "need"? Probably. It doesn't negate my point that there are people who would be perfectly willing to buy music instead of pirate it through KaZaa or what have you if the prices of CD were lower.
Oh, and I suspect that there are people who "need" to download music. Considering that there are "internet addicts", "e-mail addicts", "Everquest addicts", and so on, I'd imagine there are people out there who feel a psychological pressure to continue downloading as many songs as they can get through P2P services.
Kierthos
Let me ask you this, though. If the prices of CDs went down to reflect the drop in costs of manufacturing the CDs, would many people be less inclined to use KaZaa or whatever to pirate them?
I mean, CDs should cost a lot less then they do. If they cost consumers less, there would probably be more sales. And therefore, with more sales, you have less people that need to pirate the songs.
Kierthos
Well, considering that this bill cannot be brought up this year, as those wonderful Congress-critters are about to embark on their winter vacation (starting in early fall), it's highly likely that by the time this bill does get brought up, the "war" with Iraq could be over, depending on how badly GWB wants to avenge Daddy.
Kierthos
You must be kidding, right? I've seen some movies dozens of times, and only listened to the entire CD of some of the music I've bought/received as a gift a couple of times. And how many people own every different release of the Star Wars trilogy?
Example: The Rolling Stones are (I believe) releasing another album that contains only 4 new songs, and has 36 of their old songs. If I recall the article correctly, it's called "Forty licks".
Now, odds are that this album will contain most, if not all of the songs that are on another album of theirs called "Hot Rocks" which is a greatest hits album. Shouldn't the price on that album go down, if this is indeed the case? But I'll bet it won't.
Kierthos
Didn't read the article under Old Hat, did you.
Kierthos
*nod* We had so many computer labs with AutoCAD on it that it wasn't even funny. The early versions had some serious problems, though, and it was with great relief that for my Senior Design course in Mechanical Engineering we used Pro-Engineer.
Your point is good. If it's all we know, it's all we'll want to know unless there is a pressing reason why we would switch to something new. How many people do you know who have routines so structured that you could set your watch by them? Or that eat pretty much the same thing from day to day or week to week?
Microsoft is banking on the premise that more people will be resistant to change then not.
Kierthos
Tell me about it. This is why a lot of people pirate music. Because they would rather have that one song for free then 17 songs of crap and that one song for $12-$18.
I mean, sure, there are people who collect every single mp3 ripped from an album. But they are the only ones that RIAA should be super-pissed at, because the obvious indications is that they would have bought the album. Me, I'm not about to buy a 80s anthology album just to get After The Fire's "Der Kommisar". I am likely to go out and buy System of a Down's "Toxicity" album though, but only because every song I have heard off of it is good (IMAO, of course).
What the RIAA needs to go is remove their heads from their asses and come to the realization that piracy, in some form or another, will always exist. If they can offer a product that is better in terms of quality, availability (as in being able to buy select songs instead of the entire album), and lower the price, they will see a greater return on their investment.
Kierthos
You do realize that for many years, the Batman comic was incredibly campy as well, right? I mean, Batman, for quite some time, time-traveled quite extensively, fought villians in lairs that were filled with giant props ("Holy giant typewriter, Batman!"), etc.
It was really only after years of that crap that he became serious again (in the early issues of Detective Comics, Batman was incredibly serious, and casually killed criminals).
But it was during the campy years in the comics that the Adam West TV series was done.
Kierthos
Exactly. Before I buy the XBox, Microsoft can do whatever they want to it as long as it still operates in the function it was intended to, i.e. it still runs XBox games properly. If they do something to it that causes it, before I buy it, to not run those games, well, that's their fault, and they should get hammered for it.
However, once I own it, it's mine. If I want to turn the damn thing into a grilled cheese sandwich maker, I can. If I want to empty out the case and make it into the world's ugliest fish tank, likewise, that is within my rights. And if I want to slap a mod chip on it so I can have it play DVDs, again, I can.
It's not like Microsoft is going around and replacing all existing XBoxes with the new ones, thereby rendering all the mod chips obsolete. Sure, it may be a couple months/weeks/days before someone gets the new brand of mod chips out there, but it will happen. Because it's much easier to make the new mods chips for what really ends up being an extrememly limited market (as only a relatively small percentage of XBox owners are likely to mod their consoles), as opposed to making the changes to the XBox time and time again.
Kierthos
Frankly, I don't take it for what it's worth, because I think we can all remember the MPAA's claims about not making money on Titanic.
Kierthos
No, you go to prison if you break the law and are found guilty. If "harming" someone was a prerequisite, then any crime that did not cause physical injury would result in no prison time.
And quite frankly, I want people like these scammers (and incidentally, many CEOs as well) to go to jail.
Kierthos
It means that if the idiot box wasn't spewing pro-GWB rhetoric all the time, the Democrats would have a chance of taking the White House next presidential election.
Of course, if lil' Georgie Bush actually happens to get to attack Iraq, and kick Saddam's butt all over the place, the Dems would have to nominate the most likeably, charismatic, and popular person in the world to have a chance at beating him. And just looking from their last few choices, well, at best they can manage 2 out of 3.
Kierthos
Assuming that I have gotten tired of Dark Age of Camelot by then, I actually plan on buying City of Heroes and seeing what orignal* characters I can make. I already have a couple different ideas, but I'll have to see if the character creation engine and the costume design can support them. (And oh god, I am hoping that they at least put trenchcoats and capes in the game.)
*In this connotation, original is defined as not being deliberately based upon comic book characters I am aware of. If, through happenstance, I happen to greatly mimic a comic book character that I am unaware of (such as a great deal of independent comic characters, and most of the DC lineup outside of the Batman titles), I am not trying to "rip off" or "copy" this character.
Kierthos
No, the real solution is wait until City of Heroes comes out, and make your own damn characters instead of arguing over everyone else's interpretation of Spider-Man/the Hulk/Daredevil/whoever.
Kierthos
You don't play EQ, do you? Let me clue you in on something. In EQ, unless you're really low level, or unless only one of the two of you has some really studly gear, a one level difference does not mean a thing.
Same thing in DAOC, where they actually got rid of the EQ'esque 1st level character with 45th level gear problem from pretty much the beginning of the game. One level means _nothing_ unless you're talking a 1st level vs. a 2nd level. (And considering how little time it takes to get to 2nd level....)
Kierthos
No, no. Berkeley is so different from the rest of the US. Large portions of California outside of Berkeley are amazingly normal.
Kierthos
Er, no, it didn't. There were several inherent design and safety flaws in the Titanic. The "water-tight" compartments were not water-tight, and the bulkheads for them only extended 10 feet above the water line. Also, the sheer lack of lifeboats was done because they were not "aesthetically pleasing" to have them crowding the decks.
In a like manner, how many MS products have had inherent design flaws and safety features which merely add to the aesthetics but offer no real security?
Frankly, I do not trust Microsoft to implement this properly, efficiently, and ethically.
Kierthos
Are you willing to violate laws to run Linux?
Yes. And here's why. It is not illegal to use Linux. Once you own the computer, you OWN the computer. You are not licensing the computer. You are not renting the chips. It will be relatively easy to disable whatever needs to be turned off in order to run Linux.
Now, when GWB and/or his successor(s) make it illegal to run Linux, come back and ask about breaking the law again.
Kierthos
And it's not like many of them can afford _not_ to work. Let's face it, freelancing doesn't pay much in the gaming industry (I have friends who have written sourcebooks and modules, and let's face it, early on, the biggest benefit is the free copies and getting your name on the cover), so they will need to keep working in order to keep putting food on the table.
Luckily, there are some companies that are continuing to put out d20 products under the OGL. White Wolf is one of them (although I wish they would hurry up and print the Traditionbook: Sons of Ether as well), and they seem to be doing quite well. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if a few more people came to freelance for them.
Kierthos
Saying they are "not engineered" is a statement of your naivity. Imagine designing and coding a huge prog. such as Windows or MS Office... Do you think they sit a big room and just piece code together like a puzzle? Please don't say that they are not engineered...
Hrm... sit in a big room and just piece together code like a puzzle? Yeah, that's exactly what it feels like, half the time. Counter-intuitive commands, shoddy execution, worse then useless help systems.... yup, yup, yup.
Now, was it done that way? Obviously not. But they definitely need some improvement between the design phase, the engineering phase, and the implementation phase.
And quite frankly, I don't want pretty. I want functional. I want an easy to use system, not one that sparkles and gleams. I don't want bells and whistles. I don't want little pop-up paperclip buddies (and how freaking long did it take to add that piece of feces?), and I don't want programs that think they know what I want to do and are wrong half the time.
I want a system that does what I tell it to, not what it thinks I want. I want something that is coded efficiently, smoothly, and takes up a minimum of space.
And I want it by Thursday.
Kierthos
Right. Before eBay, no one ever conducted auctions online. Yup, yup, yup.
Look, eBay popularized it. That's all. Sure, they have a nice set-up and all that, but I assure you, internet auctions existed before eBay.
(insert sarcastic tone where needed)
Kierthos
However, the fact that he started immediately after being granted the patent shows that there were already existing processes and businesses using those methods that he patented. If such things are allowed by the Patent Office, how long is it before someone patents a process whereby you type things into a text box? Or patents a moderation system for a message board? Or patents meta-moderation?
Kierthos
The outcome will most likely be that eBay pays an undisclosed amount in a settlement. Frankly, from reading the article, this patent-filing jackass is yet another example of a lawyer abusing the system, rather then using it. At least one of his patents should not have been granted, probably all three mentioned.
And in his filing against Priceline, it's pretty obvious that they were already engaged in that business model before he filed the patent.
Hopefully, however, common sense in the judge will reign, and he will not only throw out any case against eBay, but hit this lawyer with extremely large financial sanctions and strip him of his license to practice law.
Kierthos
Hell yeah, you must. Heck, even in Columbia, South Carolina, we have a couple theatres with chairs so comfortable, they almost made watching "Mystery Men" tolerable.
Kierthos