"If BackupHDDVD does in fact decrypt encrypted content than per the DMCA it needs a license to do that."
Yep - and the users who are entering keys for encrypted content should do exactly that. The software is no more a violation of DMCA than is the PC it runs on. Oh wait - I guess that's where we're headed, isn't it?
We've become a race of frightened mice - afraid to venture out of our cozy little gravity hole for fear that "something bad" will happen. And when something bad *does* happen, the media play it up as a huge disaster. Millions of people die in accidents on Earth every year - is worse to die doing something really incredible?
For those who claim we have to crawl before we walk before we run - what is it you think you don't know, that we haven't already learned from operating the ISS and landing on the moon and getting back to Earth? What can a moon base teach us about a Mars base, that we couldn't learn and deal with just as easily on Mars?
We should skip the moon and go directly to Mars.
Not for flags and footprints and rocks. Make it a one-way mission to establish a permanent colony. Follow Zubrin's plan, but take it further. Send ahead several habs and several nuclear reactors to make fuel for vehicles. But instead of sending earth return ships, send far more equipment to insure the long term survival of a Mars colony, and to assist in their exploration and exploitation of Mars resources. Send more colonists and supplies every 2 years. Eventually build a Mars cycler, allowing people to return to Earth if they wish.
How about a $199 add on to a Mac that makes it XBox360 compatible, using the existing DVD, hard drive, display, sound - i.e using the Mac as an audio and storage peripheral, and steal its monitor to play games? And that can also work with any PC whose manufacturer takes the trouble to tweak the software?
The only way to eliminate Grind is to eliminate the concept of "leveling". Leveling up works in pen and paper RPGs where a live GM creates new content customized to the players. But the pale immitation of that (grinding) in MMORPGs is inadequate and quickly becomes un-fun.
Shooter multiplayer games are fun with little or no plot, and no character development beyond acquiring different items and maybe picking a character class at the start. The basic actions possible to the player are mostly available from the beginning - it's the interactions with environment and other players and development of *player* skills and knowledge that make them interesting.
Someone needs to implement a "shooter style" (no advancement) RPG. For ego-addicts, maybe provide a "ranking" system that doesn't affect game play, but gives players bragging rights for having played a lot, done lots of quests, etc.
Actually, the difference would be quite significant - but probably not enough.
Going from earth to LEO, with some margin of safety, will take about 10000m/sec of delta-V, with a final orbital velocity around 8000m/s. A H2/O2 rocket at sea level can give you about 3300m/s exhaust velocity, but in space it could give nearly 4000m/s.
Mwf / Md = e^3 from Earth or e^2 dropped at LEO - so your mass ratio would fall by about 2.7x - a much smaller rocket.
Unfortunately, you'd still need around 100 tons of rocket just to put a Gemini-sized capsule (2 crew, not much maneuvering fuel) into LEO. That'd require a much bigger elevator than is commonly discussed, by about a factor of 20x.
Since the court doesn't accept 'automatic' or 'mechanical' acceptance, I say each employee must be required to compose and perform a dance routine indicating his or her acceptance.
Or the courts could simply recognize the right of employers to fire someone who breaks obvious rules.
If the Metaverse is ever to take off, they need to dump the assumptions that came out of cool science fiction stories (3D, avatars, etc) and think about what extensions of the existing web would be useful, and how MAYBE that might take advantage of some useful elements of the original SciFi metaverse vision.
Yes, I WOULD like a better way to organize my virtual office. Remembering all the paths to every file (for a command line interface) is impossible - I end up searching or reading through a bunch of directories or using auto-complete and guess. Exploring graphical lists of folders isn't much better - often slower. I'd prefer to quickly and smoothly zoom in and out and pan around over a 2D surface on which I've grouped my documents and other things. Most should be simple rectangles with file names - too many icons (2D or 3D) and it becomes chaotic and impossible to see anything.
Then let me use simple cues like color and size - with most of those cues set automatically - to let me find things even faster. E.g. more recent documents would be larger by default - but to see older files, I only need to zoom in a little further. I could lasso a group of documents, creating a colored background blob around them, so I can spot a particular project in an instant. And not just documents - email, saved game states, my web favorites, live video feeds, songs, etc.
When I want to "open" a particular document, I click on it and it's rectangle updates to show the contents at a reasonable window size. Double click and it snaps to full screen. Hit the ESC key, and my view pops back so it's just another item.
Since I might need to pull documents from many locations for a project, but I don't want to mess up my storage view, I'll want to be able to set an anchor point that I can snap back to with one keypress, pulling along and depositing links to any documents I've selected or opened. Hit that key again and I snap back to where I just was, to get a link to a file I forgot to bring along.
And that's just my "desk" - I also want websites organized this way. When I'm browsing, I'd still go to home pages by clicking links - but at any time I can click a "whole site" icon and pop into a space representing the whole website - and if the site's creators have done a good job it'll quickly be obvious which area I want to zoom in on. And now a link to a whole site would actually take me to the web-space, instead of a home page.
Then there should be views which are essentially collections of links to documents that can reside in any storage space. E.g. collegues could set up shared view spaces for collaborative work. Usually the closest thing to "avatars" would pop-up when a collegue comes into a shared workspace, or wants my attention for a few quick text messages or a voice call.
The elephant in the room that few seem to be noticing:
The patent was authorized by the Constitution so that inventions would be shared and used by others, with reasonable payment to the inventor.
These days, very few actually do that, especially in complex technical fields. If a company uses some idea, it's not because it went to the Patent Office and searched for good ideas to implement. They independently develop ideas - which may or may not have been patented by someone else. Or they draw ideas from the public domain. They rarely gain any benefit from the patented and published inventions of others. Generally one can't even give away good ideas these days, because companies fear that the "inventor" will come back and sue them, if they do follow a suggestion.
The Patent system simply doesn't work. It's a bad idea that got started when Kings passed out monopolies to their favorites. Ideas are not valuable - implementation is everything.
"Voting for a third party is in the short term throwing your vote away."
Voting for anyone you don't believe is the best candidate is throwing your vote away.
Voting as if it's a sporting event in which you "win" if you bet on the right candidate, is throwing your vote away. You don't win - you lose because you supported someone you don't approve of, and now they're going to govern you in ways you don't like. Loser!
Your one vote has very little statistical significance - but when you vote for a 3rd party that gets 1/10th as many votes as the major parties, your vote has 10 times the impact.
Voting for a 3rd party sends a message to both major parties that you are fed up with both of them, and that you aren't going to fall for the "throwing your vote away" lie any more. That's the only message they truly fear. If 20% voted for a 3rd party, one or both other parties would try to change to win back those votes.
Millions of people believing the lie that voting 3rd party is throwing away their vote, is how we got where we are today. So tell me - aren't you glad you didn't "throw your vote away"? Aren't you happy that you supported the current situation, either by voting Republican, or be contributing to the idea that others who voted Republican would have been throwing their votes away by voting 3rd party?
Sure it's horrible to have one party dominate both houses and the executive branch. But hoping that Gridlock will save you is a loser's game - gridlock just slows down the rate at which you lose. Your only chance to improve things is to vote your conscience, and encourage others to follow your example.
Just string a counter-weight from the satellite out on a tether, give the tethered system some spin, and constantly vary the length of the tether to vary the rate of revolution. Try targeting THAT China!
Hey - if we don't mess around doing experiments with our atmosphere, how will ever learn anything? If we mess it up, we can always just replace it, right?
We don't need robots - we need shopping-cart taxis
on
Robocabs Coming to Europe
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Robots aren't very good drivers yet.
What we need are really cheap taxis that people can rent with a credit or debit card, drive a short distance, and pretty much just jump out and leave them. They need to be about as cheap as shopping carts - and even designed to fold up like shopping carts, so they can be racked conveniently in a compact space.
You'd probably rent the right to keep one at home over-night. You'd drive it a mile or two on surburban streets to a bus or lightrail terminal, where you'd rack it and get your "taxicard" back. Ride the transit, get off within a mile or two of where you need to be. Grab another taxi-cart, insert your taxicard, drive to your final destination. Rack it up with dozens or hundreds of others in the taxicart stall, and get your taxicard back again.
Reverse that, when going home. Each Taxicart stand would have extra taxicarts, and a computer system would note when a stand runs out completely, so that a couple of extras could quickly be delivered there. In the rare case that you arrive somewhere with an empty taxicart rack, you can punch a button to have one delivered, and get a credit for your inconvenience of having to wait.
The taxicart would be all electric, with maybe a 15 mile range, probably about 25mph maximum speed. It would re-charge while racked up. It'd also have a small tank of water - in the summer that'd be frozen (while on the rack) to provide maybe half an hour's air conditioning. In the winter, it'd be heated, for about the same duration of heat.
It'd be computer tracked with wireless and GPS - so the central computer could track units that get stalled. If you need to go somewhere without a rack, and leave the cart there, you could punch a button and pay to have it picked up - trucks would drive around just for that purpose - and again get your taxicard back. It'd have a plug too, so you could charge it up if necessary.
Until someone does this in an actual election, and then announces that they've skewed the results (and they'd better do it anonymously, or jail awaits them), no on in power is going to pay any attention. Reform only happens after actual problems get the public upset.
If this short-range mesh networking is to work, the internet software needs to be adapted.
Anything that your neighbor has pulled down from anywhere, or which has been forwarded through that system, should be cached for nearby users to get without going dozens of hops. This will be complicated by self-healing/dynamic routing of the mesh (i.e. content may be pulled down via different routes - splitting individual files).
Combine that with a common portal that everyone goes to first, to increase the hit rate on the cached information that many in an area use.
It's time. Split NASA into operations and research.
Turn the shuttle and space station and all non-research operation/facilities (including launch) over to the Navy (not the Air Force, despite the superficial similarities) with the mandate to provide the US a continuous capability to deliver large payloads into space on demand.
NASA keeps making robotic probes and running science programs and focuses on organizing and developing for the "return to moon and on to Mars". All rockets and launch services to be contracted from the Navy or private industry.
Actually, split it into three portions - the utter fat (museums and such) gets divided between various other agencies such as education. Or simply cut it out entirely.
Compromise - split the Internet in two separate halves (i.e. not stealing bandwidth from each other at all). Leave it up to users which they want to use.
The "Neutral" half is the current internet - not reduced in any way.
The quality of service (QOS) network would be built in parallel, would use variable pricing, so that supply and demand keeps users filling the pipes, without hurting QOS. A typical application would set the price the user is willing to pay, based on the current end-to-end price of their virtual connection. Any time the price for their virtual connection exceeded that price, their data would be re-routed through the "Neutral" network. Either the transmitter or receiver of content can decide to pay for QOS service..
Multicast technology should be implemented at least on the QOS network, so that one-to-many broadcasts (live TV, radio, etc) can be done in the most efficient fashion - users would only pay for their share of the shared channels.
I suspect the "multi-game subscription package" approach is going to take off. How many people will pay for more than one monthly subscription? Darn few, I'll bet. But many would pay a bit more a month for a "universal" subscription to a bunch of games, even if they don't end up playing any more hourse a month. The advantage to the publisher is that players are more likely to stay with them, if they have multiple games - if one game gets old, they may still be hooked on another.
Within a couple of years, there'll likely be 2-3 top tier online game publishers, offering exclusive access to hot new games, and some number of second tier publishers that handle older games and new games from developers who don't quite have what it takes to produce a top-flight online game.
Before long, episodic online games will become the new rage - weekly updates with new quests, new story-line plot developments. The name of the game is "keeping subscribers".
Re:Let's turn it into WoW, it worked for SWG, righ
on
DDO Goes Solo
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I can understand the attitude "I just want to play, don't make me work". In essence this is a call to eliminate the concept of character advancement. You start at some level of capability - and never get any more powerful. Developers would have to focus on making new and interesting quests. So you could be a 10th level fighter, or a 10th level thief, or any combination of 10 levels - but that's as far as you ever advance.
Or you might start out with the highest level of skill in one category - but if you want to have skill in more than one thing, you have to earn it. So for DDO, you might start as a 10th level sorceror if you want. (Or a 3/3/4 fighter/wizard/rogue if you prefer.) You could reach 20th or 30th level by training in a second and 3rd class - but 10th is the highest you could ever go in any single class.
Hmm - that actually sounds like it would be the simplest way for DDO to do to quickly expand their game - it doesn't require any additions to skills - just add some harder quests for the higher level characters. Then they could experiment with a server that allows people to start with 10 levels, and exceed the 10th level limit via multi-classing. See how people like the idea.
Slashdot Mirror
Obviously what people want to use the internet for is "information" and "about"...
"If BackupHDDVD does in fact decrypt encrypted content than per the DMCA it needs a license to do that."
Yep - and the users who are entering keys for encrypted content should do exactly that. The software is no more a violation of DMCA than is the PC it runs on. Oh wait - I guess that's where we're headed, isn't it?
We've become a race of frightened mice - afraid to venture out of our cozy little gravity hole for fear that "something bad" will happen. And when something bad *does* happen, the media play it up as a huge disaster. Millions of people die in accidents on Earth every year - is worse to die doing something really incredible?
For those who claim we have to crawl before we walk before we run - what is it you think you don't know, that we haven't already learned from operating the ISS and landing on the moon and getting back to Earth? What can a moon base teach us about a Mars base, that we couldn't learn and deal with just as easily on Mars?
We should skip the moon and go directly to Mars.
Not for flags and footprints and rocks. Make it a one-way mission to establish a permanent colony. Follow Zubrin's plan, but take it further. Send ahead several habs and several nuclear reactors to make fuel for vehicles. But instead of sending earth return ships, send far more equipment to insure the long term survival of a Mars colony, and to assist in their exploration and exploitation of Mars resources. Send more colonists and supplies every 2 years. Eventually build a Mars cycler, allowing people to return to Earth if they wish.
How about a $199 add on to a Mac that makes it XBox360 compatible, using the existing DVD, hard drive, display, sound - i.e using the Mac as an audio and storage peripheral, and steal its monitor to play games? And that can also work with any PC whose manufacturer takes the trouble to tweak the software?
The only way to eliminate Grind is to eliminate the concept of "leveling". Leveling up works in pen and paper RPGs where a live GM creates new content customized to the players. But the pale immitation of that (grinding) in MMORPGs is inadequate and quickly becomes un-fun.
Shooter multiplayer games are fun with little or no plot, and no character development beyond acquiring different items and maybe picking a character class at the start. The basic actions possible to the player are mostly available from the beginning - it's the interactions with environment and other players and development of *player* skills and knowledge that make them interesting.
Someone needs to implement a "shooter style" (no advancement) RPG. For ego-addicts, maybe provide a "ranking" system that doesn't affect game play, but gives players bragging rights for having played a lot, done lots of quests, etc.
Actually, the difference would be quite significant - but probably not enough.
Going from earth to LEO, with some margin of safety, will take about 10000m/sec of delta-V, with a final orbital velocity around 8000m/s. A H2/O2 rocket at sea level can give you about 3300m/s exhaust velocity, but in space it could give nearly 4000m/s.
Applying (Mass-with-fuel / Mass-dry ) = e^( delta-V / exhaust-V ),
Mwf / Md = e^3 from Earth or e^2 dropped at LEO - so your mass ratio would fall by about 2.7x - a much smaller rocket.
Unfortunately, you'd still need around 100 tons of rocket just to put a Gemini-sized capsule (2 crew, not much maneuvering fuel) into LEO. That'd require a much bigger elevator than is commonly discussed, by about a factor of 20x.
Since the court doesn't accept 'automatic' or 'mechanical' acceptance, I say each employee must be required to compose and perform a dance routine indicating his or her acceptance.
Or the courts could simply recognize the right of employers to fire someone who breaks obvious rules.
If the Metaverse is ever to take off, they need to dump the assumptions that came out of cool science fiction stories (3D, avatars, etc) and think about what extensions of the existing web would be useful, and how MAYBE that might take advantage of some useful elements of the original SciFi metaverse vision.
Yes, I WOULD like a better way to organize my virtual office. Remembering all the paths to every file (for a command line interface) is impossible - I end up searching or reading through a bunch of directories or using auto-complete and guess. Exploring graphical lists of folders isn't much better - often slower. I'd prefer to quickly and smoothly zoom in and out and pan around over a 2D surface on which I've grouped my documents and other things. Most should be simple rectangles with file names - too many icons (2D or 3D) and it becomes chaotic and impossible to see anything.
Then let me use simple cues like color and size - with most of those cues set automatically - to let me find things even faster. E.g. more recent documents would be larger by default - but to see older files, I only need to zoom in a little further. I could lasso a group of documents, creating a colored background blob around them, so I can spot a particular project in an instant. And not just documents - email, saved game states, my web favorites, live video feeds, songs, etc.
When I want to "open" a particular document, I click on it and it's rectangle updates to show the contents at a reasonable window size. Double click and it snaps to full screen. Hit the ESC key, and my view pops back so it's just another item.
Since I might need to pull documents from many locations for a project, but I don't want to mess up my storage view, I'll want to be able to set an anchor point that I can snap back to with one keypress, pulling along and depositing links to any documents I've selected or opened. Hit that key again and I snap back to where I just was, to get a link to a file I forgot to bring along.
And that's just my "desk" - I also want websites organized this way. When I'm browsing, I'd still go to home pages by clicking links - but at any time I can click a "whole site" icon and pop into a space representing the whole website - and if the site's creators have done a good job it'll quickly be obvious which area I want to zoom in on. And now a link to a whole site would actually take me to the web-space, instead of a home page.
Then there should be views which are essentially collections of links to documents that can reside in any storage space. E.g. collegues could set up shared view spaces for collaborative work. Usually the closest thing to "avatars" would pop-up when a collegue comes into a shared workspace, or wants my attention for a few quick text messages or a voice call.
The elephant in the room that few seem to be noticing:
The patent was authorized by the Constitution so that inventions would be shared and used by others, with reasonable payment to the inventor.
These days, very few actually do that, especially in complex technical fields. If a company uses some idea, it's not because it went to the Patent Office and searched for good ideas to implement. They independently develop ideas - which may or may not have been patented by someone else. Or they draw ideas from the public domain. They rarely gain any benefit from the patented and published inventions of others. Generally one can't even give away good ideas these days, because companies fear that the "inventor" will come back and sue them, if they do follow a suggestion.
The Patent system simply doesn't work. It's a bad idea that got started when Kings passed out monopolies to their favorites. Ideas are not valuable - implementation is everything.
"Geez - if I'd known how easy it is, I coulda saved myself a BUNDLE on campaign expenses!"
"Voting for a third party is in the short term throwing your vote away."
Voting for anyone you don't believe is the best candidate is throwing your vote away.
Voting as if it's a sporting event in which you "win" if you bet on the right candidate, is throwing your vote away. You don't win - you lose because you supported someone you don't approve of, and now they're going to govern you in ways you don't like. Loser!
Your one vote has very little statistical significance - but when you vote for a 3rd party that gets 1/10th as many votes as the major parties, your vote has 10 times the impact.
Voting for a 3rd party sends a message to both major parties that you are fed up with both of them, and that you aren't going to fall for the "throwing your vote away" lie any more. That's the only message they truly fear. If 20% voted for a 3rd party, one or both other parties would try to change to win back those votes.
Millions of people believing the lie that voting 3rd party is throwing away their vote, is how we got where we are today. So tell me - aren't you glad you didn't "throw your vote away"? Aren't you happy that you supported the current situation, either by voting Republican, or be contributing to the idea that others who voted Republican would have been throwing their votes away by voting 3rd party?
Sure it's horrible to have one party dominate both houses and the executive branch. But hoping that Gridlock will save you is a loser's game - gridlock just slows down the rate at which you lose. Your only chance to improve things is to vote your conscience, and encourage others to follow your example.
Just string a counter-weight from the satellite out on a tether, give the tethered system some spin, and constantly vary the length of the tether to vary the rate of revolution. Try targeting THAT China!
Ooops - can't take the fuel through security...
Might as well stop working on this technology right now...
Hey - if we don't mess around doing experiments with our atmosphere, how will ever learn anything? If we mess it up, we can always just replace it, right?
Dooooood! Learn to recognize hyperbole!
Robots aren't very good drivers yet.
What we need are really cheap taxis that people can rent with a credit or debit card, drive a short distance, and pretty much just jump out and leave them. They need to be about as cheap as shopping carts - and even designed to fold up like shopping carts, so they can be racked conveniently in a compact space.
You'd probably rent the right to keep one at home over-night. You'd drive it a mile or two on surburban streets to a bus or lightrail terminal, where you'd rack it and get your "taxicard" back. Ride the transit, get off within a mile or two of where you need to be. Grab another taxi-cart, insert your taxicard, drive to your final destination. Rack it up with dozens or hundreds of others in the taxicart stall, and get your taxicard back again.
Reverse that, when going home. Each Taxicart stand would have extra taxicarts, and a computer system would note when a stand runs out completely, so that a couple of extras could quickly be delivered there. In the rare case that you arrive somewhere with an empty taxicart rack, you can punch a button to have one delivered, and get a credit for your inconvenience of having to wait.
The taxicart would be all electric, with maybe a 15 mile range, probably about 25mph maximum speed. It would re-charge while racked up. It'd also have a small tank of water - in the summer that'd be frozen (while on the rack) to provide maybe half an hour's air conditioning. In the winter, it'd be heated, for about the same duration of heat.
It'd be computer tracked with wireless and GPS - so the central computer could track units that get stalled. If you need to go somewhere without a rack, and leave the cart there, you could punch a button and pay to have it picked up - trucks would drive around just for that purpose - and again get your taxicard back. It'd have a plug too, so you could charge it up if necessary.
Until someone does this in an actual election, and then announces that they've skewed the results (and they'd better do it anonymously, or jail awaits them), no on in power is going to pay any attention. Reform only happens after actual problems get the public upset.
If this is an analog fingerprint, there's a chance it'll change over time, under different conditions of heat, etc. Doesn't sound trustworthy.
Your ID card protects your identity - keep it close!
Smile! Our cameras are here to protect your privacy!
The new limits on automotive traffic will ensure you get to your destination quicker!
Friendly reminder from the Revenue Service - save all financial records - We Do!
Please don't litter - remember: everything you throw away has your DNA on it, so we'll know!
If this short-range mesh networking is to work, the internet software needs to be adapted.
Anything that your neighbor has pulled down from anywhere, or which has been forwarded through that system, should be cached for nearby users to get without going dozens of hops. This will be complicated by self-healing/dynamic routing of the mesh (i.e. content may be pulled down via different routes - splitting individual files).
Combine that with a common portal that everyone goes to first, to increase the hit rate on the cached information that many in an area use.
It's time. Split NASA into operations and research.
Turn the shuttle and space station and all non-research operation/facilities (including launch) over to the Navy (not the Air Force, despite the superficial similarities) with the mandate to provide the US a continuous capability to deliver large payloads into space on demand.
NASA keeps making robotic probes and running science programs and focuses on organizing and developing for the "return to moon and on to Mars". All rockets and launch services to be contracted from the Navy or private industry.
Actually, split it into three portions - the utter fat (museums and such) gets divided between various other agencies such as education. Or simply cut it out entirely.
Compromise - split the Internet in two separate halves (i.e. not stealing bandwidth from each other at all). Leave it up to users which they want to use.
The "Neutral" half is the current internet - not reduced in any way.
The quality of service (QOS) network would be built in parallel, would use variable pricing, so that supply and demand keeps users filling the pipes, without hurting QOS. A typical application would set the price the user is willing to pay, based on the current end-to-end price of their virtual connection. Any time the price for their virtual connection exceeded that price, their data would be re-routed through the "Neutral" network. Either the transmitter or receiver of content can decide to pay for QOS service..
Multicast technology should be implemented at least on the QOS network, so that one-to-many broadcasts (live TV, radio, etc) can be done in the most efficient fashion - users would only pay for their share of the shared channels.
I suspect the "multi-game subscription package" approach is going to take off. How many people will pay for more than one monthly subscription? Darn few, I'll bet. But many would pay a bit more a month for a "universal" subscription to a bunch of games, even if they don't end up playing any more hourse a month. The advantage to the publisher is that players are more likely to stay with them, if they have multiple games - if one game gets old, they may still be hooked on another.
Within a couple of years, there'll likely be 2-3 top tier online game publishers, offering exclusive access to hot new games, and some number of second tier publishers that handle older games and new games from developers who don't quite have what it takes to produce a top-flight online game.
Before long, episodic online games will become the new rage - weekly updates with new quests, new story-line plot developments. The name of the game is "keeping subscribers".
I can understand the attitude "I just want to play, don't make me work". In essence this is a call to eliminate the concept of character advancement. You start at some level of capability - and never get any more powerful. Developers would have to focus on making new and interesting quests. So you could be a 10th level fighter, or a 10th level thief, or any combination of 10 levels - but that's as far as you ever advance.
Or you might start out with the highest level of skill in one category - but if you want to have skill in more than one thing, you have to earn it. So for DDO, you might start as a 10th level sorceror if you want. (Or a 3/3/4 fighter/wizard/rogue if you prefer.) You could reach 20th or 30th level by training in a second and 3rd class - but 10th is the highest you could ever go in any single class.
Hmm - that actually sounds like it would be the simplest way for DDO to do to quickly expand their game - it doesn't require any additions to skills - just add some harder quests for the higher level characters. Then they could experiment with a server that allows people to start with 10 levels, and exceed the 10th level limit via multi-classing. See how people like the idea.
...will be whatever AMD comes up with as it tries to imitate Intel's names...