Ah, but if you pack the servers with titles owned by the RIAA members could they not be legally downloaded and kept for all time free of charge since the owner is distributing them? Both options are poetic justice.
I believe it was Romero's head on the stick (last level of Doom2, but I think everyone here knows that...). In any case I know it wasn't Carmacks, he has blonde hair, not black.
bastardizing something that Ben Franklin had said regarding the most basic of human freedoms
While looking through a quote book looking for that quote, I found:
"Since the general civilizations of mankind I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." --James Madison
There is at least one anxiety-inducing step in putting together one's own system, namely installing the heat sink and fan on the CPU. I have so far always wimped out and asked someone with more experience to do that...just be sure you know what you're doing and what precautions to take.
Amen, when I installed the heatsink on the computer I'm sitting at(AthlonXP), I used the brass tool that came with the Asus motherboard. The thing is about 2-3mm thick, solid, and looks to be brass. I bent it while pushing the heatsink's bracket into place. The next time I fiddled with the heatsink I found a large, steel, 12 inch, flathead screwdriver was much more appropriate and I highly recommend it to anyone installing one of these heatsinks. The length of the screwdriver makes it much easier to enough torque to bend the bracket out enough to get it over the outcropping on the socket (with the other tool it took an enormous amount of force, its only about 3 inches long).
They'll move to another service, such as BearShare, iMesh, or WinMX. Very few of them will bother finding true alternative sources, such as IRC channels or FTP servers. And what does RIAA do best? Look for popular services and nuke them.
Just curious, has anyone heard of any attempts by services such as these to buy copyrights from artists and challenge the RIAA as a legitimate (competing, rather than RIAA-owned) distributor on legally even ground? If not, would anyone care to speculate as to why not? At first glance I would guess revenue would be a problem, but surely there would be some artists out there willing to trade a few songs for shares of the company. This type of business also could prove once and for all whether MP3 downloaders are being freeloaders or just loath the middle-man. After a little more thought I think the biggest obstacle would be the difficulty in acquiring enough copyrights to pose a threat to the RIAA. Any thoughts?
If there is no afterlife for an AI and no punishment, what motivation does it have to be good?
Are you implying that the belief in an afterlife and punishment in it is humanities only motive for being good? That is not the case as there are quite a few of us who don't believe in such a thing.
My high school did this. Anyone was allowed to participate and the games we played more than any others were First Person Shooters: Action Quake2, the early betas of Counterstrike, Half-Life. It was mostly a small group of gamers/techs that worked in the labs that were interested, but there were occasions where other people popped up and played, everyone from the schools star football player to one of the assistant principles; one of the teachers (incidentally, the one who showed me/. for the first time) played regularly. These games were organized several times a week, we, the students, would see each other around school and get an idea if anyone was going to show up that day. From the schools perspective I think it was a reward for the work we did. It was a nice conclusion to a day of work at school, and allowed us to go home in a good mood. It really didn't cost the school anything and made us more willing to work on whatever needed done around the lab/school. Definitely a win-win situation, I highly recommend it.
I scrapped my old computer a couple weeks ago and upgraded my processor, RAM, motherboard, and video card for around $510. Since you didn't mention a video card I'll assume you have one, mine was $240. That leaves $270 for Athlon XP 1800+, Asus A7S333 motherboard, 256 meg PC2100 DDR DIMM. Throw in a decent case/power supply and I'd say your total would come out more like $350 than $500. You might want to check Pricewatch if you haven't lately.
My university sent out a newsletter to all the Computer Science students and faculty, then we had to go register on MS's site. As for what part of the site, sorry, I got the email back in February, its long gone. You might try looking around on MS's site for some sort of promotional developer meeting.
Go and listen to an hour of their brain-wa^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hmarketing drivel about.NET development and they'll give you a free copy of XP Professional, key and all. That's where I got mine.
And if there is technology to support unborn children outside of the womb, where is your silly argument about the safety of the mother anyway?
A valid point. Agreed, argument withdrawn. But you still have not addressed other problems I stated, I will join you in the ranks of the anti-abortionists only if you can solve those. Your moral arguments will not sway me, as they are idealistic for the reasons previously stated.
Successful in life? Who knows what child will be successful in life. So who cares if kill any kid right? Give me a break.
Statistically speaking, children that grow up being neglected by parents are almost certain to become unproductive adults. These are the conditions the children would be faced with should they not be aborted.
Handicapped persons - why don't we kill the grown up ones too eh? They're a drain on society right? Nah, you don't want to pay more tax, you'd rather get the latest computer to play Quake, never mind that numbers of handicapped persons are on the decrease due to technology anyway.
I can't speak for everyone, but if I'd rather die that have a defective mind, those parents that abort these children likely feel this way about whatever part of the fetus is disabled. And yes, I've instructed my relatives to pull the plug if I ever become a vegetable. Mother's life dependant: Well obviously if the mother dies before birth, both would die so it's not an either/or proposition.
They're killing babies, you're suggesting killing a full grown human who has proven that he or she can be successful in life. How does this not make you ten times worse? Most mothers get abortions because they cannot care for the child or if the unfortunate fetus has a major defect; in essense the child would live in hell from day one, it has long been clear that such conditions foster criminal adults and other counter/non-productive members of society. The alternatives, adoption agencies and foster homes, are full beyond capacity already, do not always provide better conditions and are funded by tax dollars. What is your solution to these problems? Abortion is not a good alternative, but it is the best we have. And what about cases where the mothers life is directly dependent on that she not have the baby? Do you kill fetus or mother? Both are are innocent. You post fails to address these issues, I suggest you consider them before forming an opinion.
From the article: The average office desk harbors 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat, according to a new University of Arizona study.
From the slashdot article: computer workstations harbour 400 times more health threatening bacteria
Note that the article makes no mention that the bacteria they found were a health threat. News flash! There are ten times as many bacterial cells in your intestines as human cells in your whole body. Not all bacteria are a health hazard, in fact many species are quite helpful in digestion and competing against disease causing bacteria for food and residence. Your entire skin is crawling with the little buggers. I've never heard of computers being a significant reservoir of any type of disease causing agent, but any microbiologists out there feel free to enlighten me.
I think under that circumstance I would complain, maybe say "I didn't give you permission to open my product, I demand you give me an unopened one." The customer is always right. If you make a big enough scene over it you'll get your money back or every customer in 100 feet of you will think twice before making a purchase there after hearing they screw you over if you try to return something. The last thing the store wants is a bad reputation. For all they know you intend to give it as a gift or resell it, it should be shrinkwrapped if that's the case. They can either cooperate or you can screw them out of some money too. At the very least you learn not to buy any software from that store that you might want to return.
"If you cannot accept this agreement, please return this product to the retailer you purchaced it from". Has anyone ever actually done this?...Returned opened software saying 'I couldn't accept the license agreement'?
The way you do it is to exchange your "defective" copy first, then return the unopened one they give you.
I also don't want information on my shopping and surfing habits getting released as it leads to phone solicitations
Just a little tidbit I picked up a long time ago (probably on this site), phone solicitation companies are required by the FCC to keep a do-not-call list (different from saying "remove me from your calling list", because they can't reacquire and reuse your name and number) and are required to add you to it at your request. If they call thereafter or claim they don't have such a list you are entitled something like $500 and/or a lawsuit. I've been told they're also legally barred from calling cell phone numbers so I just put in my cell number in all forms I fill out online. I hardly ever get soliciting calls any more and my cell has never gotten one.
IIRC the Chinese tried to claim Taiwan was Chinese property a few years ago, even going so far as to strut around like tough shit and gave a target practice show just off the Taiwanese coast, but the US sent a couple navy boats over and they backed off.
IMO this whole thing is bogus, it supposedly comes from a classified CIA document - how'd the LA Times get ahold of that? Do the Chinese really want to pick a fight with a country that is fairly internet-dependent and risk starting World War 3 and in the process getting nuked into oblivion? Unlikely. I doubt the Chinese are naive enough to believe that an attack that comes over the internet is any less than just that, an attack.
The code is only part of the finished game. Sexually explicit parts of films can be removed to make them TV-safe, and it seems to me that this would be the same case. The objective is not to supress the code but the explicit parts of the game if those parts cannot easily be removed, the game as a whole must be supressed. If an entire movie is one big fuck-fest and five minutes of plot, its not getting shown on the public airwaves because the explicit content can't be removed and as a consequence the nonexplicit parts aren't shown either. (IANAL)
Fair enough. The game packaging and web site said it was modifyable but failed to mention to what extent, and the entire team bought it the day it came out (another team member and I rode in the same car to CompUSA) so there weren't many reviews available; over all, you're right though. Every game all of us had played recently was designed from the ground up to be modified by the methods used for Quake3, and Half-Life. We made the fatal assumption that this had become a standard feature in all 3d engines.
About 6 months ago I bought Red Faction for the sole purpose of modifying it. My team chose this platform because the type of mod we wanted to produced would benefit greatly from the engine's GeoMod technology. To make a long story short, the games creators to my knowledge have never published any means to create mods beyond simple deathmatch variants. What my team had planned was quite an in-depth total conversion so we were forced to scrap the project. We're hoping the next engine from id, Valve, et. al will contain dynamic terrain so we can pick it up again, or that Red Factions creators will come to their senses.
Slashdot Mirror
Here ya go. And this one's much cheaper.
Ah, but if you pack the servers with titles owned by the RIAA members could they not be legally downloaded and kept for all time free of charge since the owner is distributing them? Both options are poetic justice.
I believe it was Romero's head on the stick (last level of Doom2, but I think everyone here knows that...). In any case I know it wasn't Carmacks, he has blonde hair, not black.
bastardizing something that Ben Franklin had said regarding the most basic of human freedoms
While looking through a quote book looking for that quote, I found:
"Since the general civilizations of mankind I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." --James Madison
Rather appropriate to our current situation IMO.
There is at least one anxiety-inducing step in putting together one's own system, namely installing the heat sink and fan on the CPU. I have so far always wimped out and asked someone with more experience to do that...just be sure you know what you're doing and what precautions to take.
Amen, when I installed the heatsink on the computer I'm sitting at(AthlonXP), I used the brass tool that came with the Asus motherboard. The thing is about 2-3mm thick, solid, and looks to be brass. I bent it while pushing the heatsink's bracket into place. The next time I fiddled with the heatsink I found a large, steel, 12 inch, flathead screwdriver was much more appropriate and I highly recommend it to anyone installing one of these heatsinks. The length of the screwdriver makes it much easier to enough torque to bend the bracket out enough to get it over the outcropping on the socket (with the other tool it took an enormous amount of force, its only about 3 inches long).
They'll move to another service, such as BearShare, iMesh, or WinMX. Very few of them will bother finding true alternative sources, such as IRC channels or FTP servers. And what does RIAA do best? Look for popular services and nuke them.
Just curious, has anyone heard of any attempts by services such as these to buy copyrights from artists and challenge the RIAA as a legitimate (competing, rather than RIAA-owned) distributor on legally even ground? If not, would anyone care to speculate as to why not? At first glance I would guess revenue would be a problem, but surely there would be some artists out there willing to trade a few songs for shares of the company. This type of business also could prove once and for all whether MP3 downloaders are being freeloaders or just loath the middle-man. After a little more thought I think the biggest obstacle would be the difficulty in acquiring enough copyrights to pose a threat to the RIAA. Any thoughts?
If there is no afterlife for an AI and no punishment, what motivation does it have to be good?
Are you implying that the belief in an afterlife and punishment in it is humanities only motive for being good? That is not the case as there are quite a few of us who don't believe in such a thing.
My high school did this. Anyone was allowed to participate and the games we played more than any others were First Person Shooters: Action Quake2, the early betas of Counterstrike, Half-Life. It was mostly a small group of gamers/techs that worked in the labs that were interested, but there were occasions where other people popped up and played, everyone from the schools star football player to one of the assistant principles; one of the teachers (incidentally, the one who showed me /. for the first time) played regularly. These games were organized several times a week, we, the students, would see each other around school and get an idea if anyone was going to show up that day. From the schools perspective I think it was a reward for the work we did. It was a nice conclusion to a day of work at school, and allowed us to go home in a good mood. It really didn't cost the school anything and made us more willing to work on whatever needed done around the lab/school. Definitely a win-win situation, I highly recommend it.
I scrapped my old computer a couple weeks ago and upgraded my processor, RAM, motherboard, and video card for around $510. Since you didn't mention a video card I'll assume you have one, mine was $240. That leaves $270 for Athlon XP 1800+, Asus A7S333 motherboard, 256 meg PC2100 DDR DIMM. Throw in a decent case/power supply and I'd say your total would come out more like $350 than $500. You might want to check Pricewatch if you haven't lately.
My university sent out a newsletter to all the Computer Science students and faculty, then we had to go register on MS's site. As for what part of the site, sorry, I got the email back in February, its long gone. You might try looking around on MS's site for some sort of promotional developer meeting.
Go and listen to an hour of their brain-wa^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hmarketing drivel about .NET development and they'll give you a free copy of XP Professional, key and all. That's where I got mine.
A valid point. Agreed, argument withdrawn. But you still have not addressed other problems I stated, I will join you in the ranks of the anti-abortionists only if you can solve those. Your moral arguments will not sway me, as they are idealistic for the reasons previously stated.
Statistically speaking, children that grow up being neglected by parents are almost certain to become unproductive adults. These are the conditions the children would be faced with should they not be aborted.
Handicapped persons - why don't we kill the grown up ones too eh? They're a drain on society right? Nah, you don't want to pay more tax, you'd rather get the latest computer to play Quake, never mind that numbers of handicapped persons are on the decrease due to technology anyway.
I can't speak for everyone, but if I'd rather die that have a defective mind, those parents that abort these children likely feel this way about whatever part of the fetus is disabled. And yes, I've instructed my relatives to pull the plug if I ever become a vegetable.
Mother's life dependant: Well obviously if the mother dies before birth, both would die so it's not an either/or proposition.
Think again. The technology exists to support developing children outside of a natural womb.
You still have failed to provide me with a better alternative, instead insisting on continuing your moral crusade. Come back when you have answers.
Then why are there so many left to adopt?
They're killing babies, you're suggesting killing a full grown human who has proven that he or she can be successful in life. How does this not make you ten times worse?
Most mothers get abortions because they cannot care for the child or if the unfortunate fetus has a major defect; in essense the child would live in hell from day one, it has long been clear that such conditions foster criminal adults and other counter/non-productive members of society. The alternatives, adoption agencies and foster homes, are full beyond capacity already, do not always provide better conditions and are funded by tax dollars. What is your solution to these problems? Abortion is not a good alternative, but it is the best we have.
And what about cases where the mothers life is directly dependent on that she not have the baby? Do you kill fetus or mother? Both are are innocent. You post fails to address these issues, I suggest you consider them before forming an opinion.
From the article: The average office desk harbors 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat, according to a new University of Arizona study.
From the slashdot article: computer workstations harbour 400 times more health threatening bacteria
Note that the article makes no mention that the bacteria they found were a health threat. News flash! There are ten times as many bacterial cells in your intestines as human cells in your whole body. Not all bacteria are a health hazard, in fact many species are quite helpful in digestion and competing against disease causing bacteria for food and residence. Your entire skin is crawling with the little buggers. I've never heard of computers being a significant reservoir of any type of disease causing agent, but any microbiologists out there feel free to enlighten me.
I think under that circumstance I would complain, maybe say "I didn't give you permission to open my product, I demand you give me an unopened one." The customer is always right. If you make a big enough scene over it you'll get your money back or every customer in 100 feet of you will think twice before making a purchase there after hearing they screw you over if you try to return something. The last thing the store wants is a bad reputation. For all they know you intend to give it as a gift or resell it, it should be shrinkwrapped if that's the case. They can either cooperate or you can screw them out of some money too. At the very least you learn not to buy any software from that store that you might want to return.
"If you cannot accept this agreement, please return this product to the retailer you purchaced it from". Has anyone ever actually done this?...Returned opened software saying 'I couldn't accept the license agreement'?
The way you do it is to exchange your "defective" copy first, then return the unopened one they give you.
Just a little tidbit I picked up a long time ago (probably on this site), phone solicitation companies are required by the FCC to keep a do-not-call list (different from saying "remove me from your calling list", because they can't reacquire and reuse your name and number) and are required to add you to it at your request. If they call thereafter or claim they don't have such a list you are entitled something like $500 and/or a lawsuit. I've been told they're also legally barred from calling cell phone numbers so I just put in my cell number in all forms I fill out online. I hardly ever get soliciting calls any more and my cell has never gotten one.
IMO this whole thing is bogus, it supposedly comes from a classified CIA document - how'd the LA Times get ahold of that? Do the Chinese really want to pick a fight with a country that is fairly internet-dependent and risk starting World War 3 and in the process getting nuked into oblivion? Unlikely. I doubt the Chinese are naive enough to believe that an attack that comes over the internet is any less than just that, an attack.
The code is only part of the finished game. Sexually explicit parts of films can be removed to make them TV-safe, and it seems to me that this would be the same case. The objective is not to supress the code but the explicit parts of the game if those parts cannot easily be removed, the game as a whole must be supressed. If an entire movie is one big fuck-fest and five minutes of plot, its not getting shown on the public airwaves because the explicit content can't be removed and as a consequence the nonexplicit parts aren't shown either. (IANAL)
Sorry for the repeat. Someone beat me to the Submit button.
It would be very difficult if not impossible to define what constitutes "one law" in all cases. Good idea, but impractical.
Fair enough. The game packaging and web site said it was modifyable but failed to mention to what extent, and the entire team bought it the day it came out (another team member and I rode in the same car to CompUSA) so there weren't many reviews available; over all, you're right though. Every game all of us had played recently was designed from the ground up to be modified by the methods used for Quake3, and Half-Life. We made the fatal assumption that this had become a standard feature in all 3d engines.
About 6 months ago I bought Red Faction for the sole purpose of modifying it. My team chose this platform because the type of mod we wanted to produced would benefit greatly from the engine's GeoMod technology. To make a long story short, the games creators to my knowledge have never published any means to create mods beyond simple deathmatch variants. What my team had planned was quite an in-depth total conversion so we were forced to scrap the project. We're hoping the next engine from id, Valve, et. al will contain dynamic terrain so we can pick it up again, or that Red Factions creators will come to their senses.