Because software inventions are closer to mechanical inventions, with modules analogous to moving parts, than they are to a piece of art or prose.
Shouldn't the INVENTION be protected, not just the specific implementation of the invention?
Actually, the patents on mechanical inventions do patent the specific implementation, and not the idea itself. You cannot patent the concept of converting flammable fuels into motive force, but you can patent a specific implementation of an internal combustion engine. Someone could then come along and patent a totally different implementation, and his patent would be as valid as yours.
There are lots of cool things that are physically impossible. Free energy, the ansible, matter teleportation, time travel... These things aren't impossible in the sense of, "we don't know how to do them yet", they're impossible in the sense of, "we are pretty sure these things can't be done, at all, ever, by anyone". These concepts make for cool sci-fi premises, but for very poor ROI.
Agreed. Interactive art is exactly what these titles are, and they deserve the credit. I still have my Ico disk, and I'm never selling it; it's a work of pure beauty.
Some other games might fit into this category as well, such as Syberia (the first one, not the second one), or Jade Cocoon (which is actually pretty scathing, when you think about it). But, additionally, some games are also great works of interactive literature, especially adventure games (including the first TLJ, and maybe Planescape Torment, though there are many other titles... I'm not sure where the Soul Reaver saga fits in).
I think it's wrong to say that there are no "highbrow" games. Highbrow games do not get any recognition or respect, but they do exist.
Okay, I don't actually believe that systems are consciously projecting their thoughts in to your mind. But it does freak people out slightly when you expect a system to do something nobody expected - then it does.
Or maybe it's just selective memory. Doesn't it freak people out when you expect a system to do something nobody expected... but it doesn't ? Well, no, that doesn't freak people out because they're used to it. They only remember that one single time when you were right, and forget the thousands of other predictions when you were wrong.
Hey ! Making maps with a level-editor is cool. It's not programming, but then, neither is writing poetry or sculpting wood. And it's also fiendishly difficult to do properly, just like any other art.
There's a genre of games, called "adventure games", which rely primarily on story, and dialogue, to provide their entertainment. The story is their gameplay mechanic. Planescape Torment, The Longest Journey, the venerable Quest for Glory, the eminent Monkey Island, and of course Chrono Trigger... without good writing, these games would not be worth playing. At all.
Even more traditional games, such as first-person shooters, can benefit greatly from a good story. Without the story, Half-Life and Deus Ex would be just shooters, not the phenomenal games that they actually were. And if you imagine System Shock without the story, what you get is F.E.A.R. -- a boring, run-of-the-mill shooter with delusions of horror. On the strategy side, compare Age of Whatever with Starcraft. Which one sticks more in your mind ? Even MMORPGs, populated mostly by people who can barely read or write, rely on the story to immerse the players in their soul-sucking worlds -- in fact, I believe good writing is one of the reasons why WoW is so popular, despite their numerous bugs.
Personally, I'd rather play a well-written game with poor graphics, than a shiny pretty game full of bells and whistles whose sole purpose is to get you from level N to level N+1.
I think the biggest misunderstanding -- the one from which all others stem -- is the tendency to treat the computer as a single entity. It's not; it's a complex system built out of parts.
For example, it is a revelation for some people that if you save a picture from Photoshop, you can open it from Paint Shop Pro. It's an even bigger revelation that you can move music files from the "My Music" folder and still play them with Winamp.
The lack of understanding of the file system is at the root of both of these problems. The same can be said for drives, peripherals, etc. etc.
Are people happier, safer, richer etc when there is more technology around them?
Yes. It's that simple. Today, in developed countries, people don't die of plague, and they very rarely die of childbirth. They can see clearly even if they're farsighted or nearsighted. They can eat a variety of cheap, easily obtainable foods. They can travel great distances at a whim. They can speak to each other across the entire planet. They have enough leisure time to post on Slashdot. They have a very high chance of surviving through childhood. They can fly.
Are there still poor people who lack access to some or all of these powers ? Yes. Are these poor people still richer than an average Dark-Ages-grade peasant ? Also yes. Overall, technology has been a positive influence of humanity, and that's even with atomic bombs factored in.
You're better off because you can buy apples at all. You don't have to grow your own apples. Someone, somewhere, is using massive amounts of technology to grow massive amounts of apples, and ship them massive distances, so that lazy people like you who don't feel like investing most of their time into agriculture can eat apples.
Think about this, for a moment: you can walk into any supermarket, anywhere in the country, and buy any kind of food any time you want. That's technology at work.
And how exactly are you going to "encourage" all these things ? Mass media campaign (hasn't worked so far) ? Extra taxes (the more you weigh, the more you pay) ? Police action (lose 10 lbs and sell the car, or we throw you into the slammer) ?
Just how far will you go in the name of your lofty goals ? Will the end justify your means ?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't they actually look at the content of the individual packets in order to determine which of these packets belong to P2P ? Etherpeek and (I think) Ethereal both have this capability, so it should be possible to implement this at ISP level.
An obvious countermeasure would be to tunnel P2P packets through SSH, but this solution has problems of its own. Current P2P clients are not equipped for it, and I don't think it's easy to anonymize.
Yeah, that'd be option #3. The problem is that I do not feel comfortable with people reading my mail (electronic or otherwise), poring over my shopping lists, looking into my medical records, seeing which books I've checked out at the library, etc., etc. There are practical reasons for this -- for example, what if I check out a chemistry book ? Am I a terrorist now ? -- but, at the basic level, the very idea of people prying into my private life for no reason... It fills me with disgust.
I realize that I'm in the minority on this issue; most people just don't care. Maybe it's because of my historical background: I come from the USSR originally, where there wasn't even a word for "privacy", and I don't ever want to go back to the same lifestyle.
I used to feel all idealistic and outraged about this, but by now I'm ready to face reality. Governments and media corporations are big and powerful; privacy-conscious individuals are tiny and weak. Most people don't care about privacy, because they simply do not understand it (and because they don't exercise their free speech rights anyway). After all, if you're not a terrorist, then you have nothing to hide -- right ?
So, I am pretty sure that the erosion of privacy is inevitable. It will happen sooner rather than later. Question is, how can a tiny, weak individual protect himself from the Homeland RIAA anti-terrorist piracy-fighting taskforce ? I can think of a few solutions, but all of them are sub-par.
Move to a country where privacy still exists. But, the number of these countries is shrinking rapidly -- and, as Jon Johansen's case deminstrated, USA can still get you regardless of where you live. And of course, moving to a whole different country is a huge, cataclysmic lifestyle change; not everyone can afford to do it.
Encrypt everything. Encrypt email, surf through anonymizing proxies, don't use loyalty cards, pay cash, and live "off the grid" if you're really hardcore. Sure, that might work, depending on how much inconvenience you're willing to put up with. Unless you live completely off the grid, you still need to pay your bills, and your bills are traceable. In addition, the government and the media companies can simply make encryption illegal -- they have basically already done so in the USA and EU... So, you're a terrorist now.
Do nothing, and hope that your actions will be a drop of water in the ocean of data, indistinguishable from all the rest. That's what most people do, and they think it works. It doesn't. Modern search engines are quite powerful, and modern storage is quite cheap. The government/MPAA officials not only can find out everything about you -- they already do know everything about you.
Ok, I had no idea that you guys hardcoded everything by hand (I wasn't a frequent OSWD user, so I know next to nothing about it). But I still think that, given the apparently overwhelming number of users that you had, at least some of the data would be recoverable. I personally, for example, sometimes wget portions of my favorite sites, just so that I have access to them locally. Sadly, OSWD was not one of my favorite sites; however, I can't possibly be the only wget-happy user out there... can I ?
Surely, someone has the relevant OSWD content cached somewhere ? If the site truly does die (as seems likely), how hard would it be to simply rebuild it from cached content, using Slashcode or Scoop or whatever lightweight CMS it was originally using ?
I find it kind of ridiculous that one man appears to have the power to eliminate a valuable resource used by thousands of users. That just can't be right.
the video iPod only has it half right: if it took material from the television as readily as it did from the Internet, it could be a blockbuster.
I should point out that Archos has been selling devices that do just that, for quite some time now. I'm sure there are other companies that do this, as well. Archos's video recorders are a lot bulkier than the standard iPod, though... But I haven't seen the video iPod, so I can't compare them directly.
I also have a plan to colonize Mars, by 2007, personally. It's all pretty technical, and a trade secret to boot, but I can tell you that it involves quantum teleportation, the unified field theory, and a platoon of mecha-monkeys. Oh, and I'm hiring, too !
Seriously... Does this company have any evidence at all that their grandiose designs are plausible in any way ? Mars is a long way from here...
Personally, I liked the cel-shaded style of The Wind Waker, but I hated the actual art. It looked ugly; the characters and the environment features felt lopsided and misshapen. And when they didn't look lopsided, they just looked bland. If The Wind Waker used a more photorealistic engine, it wouldn't have made any difference.
Ultimately, it's not important what superficial style you use -- cel shading, cartoons, photorealism, 2D sprites, whatever. What does matter is that you get actual artists, with actual talent, to draw your graphics for you. I mean... Doom III was fairly photorealistic, and all it did was put me to sleep. There are only so many rusty pipes that I can look at before getting bored.
Cringley claims that Google won't come up with any radically new products, but I can think of at least one.
Last I heard, Google was working on an improved way of doing machine translation. If they manage to get it to the point where it can translate from one language to another as well as a moderately competent human translator can... the breakthrough would be as powerful as Google itself (i.e., the search engine) was.
Of course, some people would say that such a powerful machine translator cannot exist a priori, but I guess time will tell:-)
Archos does not have a digital distribution system (unlike Apple with iTunes) and thus it is not a serious suggestion.
Hm, so you're saying that Apple's new iVideoPlayer should automatically come with iVideos (video equivalent of iTunes) ? I don't know, it's possible. But I don't think Archos are amining for the distribution market. They have, essentially, a portable PVR (that records in DivX, natch); with it, you can record whatever kind of video you want. And, presumably, you would be able to download Apple's video on it, as well.
There are many mp3 players on the market right now that are doing just fine, but don't have a dedicated music distribution system to go with them. I think that you overestimate the importance of such a system, and I think that Archos has a real chance to prevail (especially if they'd come down in price a bit).
As good Slashdot and Digg readers, we know that word on the street is to expect an iPod Video model to debut sometime perfect for the Christmas 2005 holiday buying season.
You mean, something like this ? They have cheaper, older models too... they've been out for like a year now.
I was actually pretty unhappy with Archos's Gmini 220, but their portable video recorders look great. And their Jukebox Recorder beats the pants off of the iPod, once you install Rockbox on it. If only these guys would release a similar OS for the Gmini... it would become the best mp3 player evar.
Thermoelectric refrigerators utilizing this same effect have been on the market for a while now. The original site is toast, so I can't quite figure out: how is this new invention any different ?
And you'd be wrong. I and my peers didn't get more intelligent; we got better at handling the stress associated with the test.
It ends up being equivalent in the end, though. An overwhelming majority of situations that call upon you to apply your intelligence are very stressful. Thus, having a high intelligence that shuts off during stress is functionally similar to having a low intelligence overall.
Slashdot Mirror
There are lots of cool things that are physically impossible. Free energy, the ansible, matter teleportation, time travel... These things aren't impossible in the sense of, "we don't know how to do them yet", they're impossible in the sense of, "we are pretty sure these things can't be done, at all, ever, by anyone". These concepts make for cool sci-fi premises, but for very poor ROI.
Agreed. Interactive art is exactly what these titles are, and they deserve the credit. I still have my Ico disk, and I'm never selling it; it's a work of pure beauty.
Some other games might fit into this category as well, such as Syberia (the first one, not the second one), or Jade Cocoon (which is actually pretty scathing, when you think about it). But, additionally, some games are also great works of interactive literature, especially adventure games (including the first TLJ, and maybe Planescape Torment, though there are many other titles... I'm not sure where the Soul Reaver saga fits in).
I think it's wrong to say that there are no "highbrow" games. Highbrow games do not get any recognition or respect, but they do exist.
Hey ! Making maps with a level-editor is cool. It's not programming, but then, neither is writing poetry or sculpting wood. And it's also fiendishly difficult to do properly, just like any other art.
Assuming you're right, what's your lifestyle advice ? How does a person make money while being employed by a corporation ? How do you make money ?
Even more traditional games, such as first-person shooters, can benefit greatly from a good story. Without the story, Half-Life and Deus Ex would be just shooters, not the phenomenal games that they actually were. And if you imagine System Shock without the story, what you get is F.E.A.R. -- a boring, run-of-the-mill shooter with delusions of horror. On the strategy side, compare Age of Whatever with Starcraft. Which one sticks more in your mind ? Even MMORPGs, populated mostly by people who can barely read or write, rely on the story to immerse the players in their soul-sucking worlds -- in fact, I believe good writing is one of the reasons why WoW is so popular, despite their numerous bugs.
Personally, I'd rather play a well-written game with poor graphics, than a shiny pretty game full of bells and whistles whose sole purpose is to get you from level N to level N+1.
For example, it is a revelation for some people that if you save a picture from Photoshop, you can open it from Paint Shop Pro. It's an even bigger revelation that you can move music files from the "My Music" folder and still play them with Winamp.
The lack of understanding of the file system is at the root of both of these problems. The same can be said for drives, peripherals, etc. etc.
Are there still poor people who lack access to some or all of these powers ? Yes. Are these poor people still richer than an average Dark-Ages-grade peasant ? Also yes. Overall, technology has been a positive influence of humanity, and that's even with atomic bombs factored in.
Think about this, for a moment: you can walk into any supermarket, anywhere in the country, and buy any kind of food any time you want. That's technology at work.
Just how far will you go in the name of your lofty goals ? Will the end justify your means ?
Is it still good to be King ?
An obvious countermeasure would be to tunnel P2P packets through SSH, but this solution has problems of its own. Current P2P clients are not equipped for it, and I don't think it's easy to anonymize.
I realize that I'm in the minority on this issue; most people just don't care. Maybe it's because of my historical background: I come from the USSR originally, where there wasn't even a word for "privacy", and I don't ever want to go back to the same lifestyle.
I used to feel all idealistic and outraged about this, but by now I'm ready to face reality. Governments and media corporations are big and powerful; privacy-conscious individuals are tiny and weak. Most people don't care about privacy, because they simply do not understand it (and because they don't exercise their free speech rights anyway). After all, if you're not a terrorist, then you have nothing to hide -- right ?
So, I am pretty sure that the erosion of privacy is inevitable. It will happen sooner rather than later. Question is, how can a tiny, weak individual protect himself from the Homeland RIAA anti-terrorist piracy-fighting taskforce ? I can think of a few solutions, but all of them are sub-par.
So... any other bright ideas ?
Ok, I had no idea that you guys hardcoded everything by hand (I wasn't a frequent OSWD user, so I know next to nothing about it). But I still think that, given the apparently overwhelming number of users that you had, at least some of the data would be recoverable. I personally, for example, sometimes wget portions of my favorite sites, just so that I have access to them locally. Sadly, OSWD was not one of my favorite sites; however, I can't possibly be the only wget-happy user out there... can I ?
I find it kind of ridiculous that one man appears to have the power to eliminate a valuable resource used by thousands of users. That just can't be right.
> "99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall; 99 dead duelists of Dios. Take one's ring, pass it around...."
This is totally offtopic, but: best. sig. evar.
Seriously... Does this company have any evidence at all that their grandiose designs are plausible in any way ? Mars is a long way from here...
Ultimately, it's not important what superficial style you use -- cel shading, cartoons, photorealism, 2D sprites, whatever. What does matter is that you get actual artists, with actual talent, to draw your graphics for you. I mean... Doom III was fairly photorealistic, and all it did was put me to sleep. There are only so many rusty pipes that I can look at before getting bored.
Last I heard, Google was working on an improved way of doing machine translation. If they manage to get it to the point where it can translate from one language to another as well as a moderately competent human translator can... the breakthrough would be as powerful as Google itself (i.e., the search engine) was.
Of course, some people would say that such a powerful machine translator cannot exist a priori, but I guess time will tell :-)
There are many mp3 players on the market right now that are doing just fine, but don't have a dedicated music distribution system to go with them. I think that you overestimate the importance of such a system, and I think that Archos has a real chance to prevail (especially if they'd come down in price a bit).
I was actually pretty unhappy with Archos's Gmini 220, but their portable video recorders look great. And their Jukebox Recorder beats the pants off of the iPod, once you install Rockbox on it. If only these guys would release a similar OS for the Gmini... it would become the best mp3 player evar.
Thermoelectric refrigerators utilizing this same effect have been on the market for a while now. The original site is toast, so I can't quite figure out: how is this new invention any different ?