You have obviously never programmed a video game for a home console system. Many older systems tied timing routines to the vertical refresh interval, so everything from input checking and buffering, to timing, AI loops, even in radical cases number of visible sprites had to be changed when shifting from 60Hz NTSC to 50Hz PAL and vice versa. The most famous example of course is the Atari VCS/2600, which has no video RAM at all, and requires each scanline to be built up as the signal is output.
Even on today's hardware, one of the interrupt sources is the VBI, and the APIs include thread syncronization primitives like WaitForVI(), and there can be differences in hardware based on regions (font roms, bootloader versions, optional hardware interfacing, etc)
So just switching the refresh rate could change the playability of a game, or even stop it from functioning at all.
Add in the occasional outrage about video game content and how things might be changed to 'better suit' a target region (no red blood, removal of religious symbols/memes, profanity/nudity, percieved cruelty to animals or minorities, etc) and you might see why region codes provide a legal fig leaf for makers and distributors ("But we didn't release it for use in your country!").
Of course, the fact that it allows the same product to be contracted to several different companies for distribution in different regions at wildly differing prices, and allows control over time of release, etc is beside the point... *cough*
This is very different, in fact it's a completely different thing. Taxing imports, quotas and other forms of protectionism are all there to 'promote' local industry over foreign, and provide relief and support for companies/economic sectors that for reasons supposedly beyond their control cannot compete in a global marketplace. I personally don't support any such ideas, but there are some other considerations than just free market survival, (for example: a desire to keep local industry alive in case of foreign embargo).
The tariff talked about here, or more accurately the levy is imposed not on imports into an economic area that compete with local product, but on sales of all product, with the money raised being given to not members of an analogous local industry, but a completely separate set of interests! This is equivalent to restaurants crying foul on delivery food services, and demanding that an additional fee be added to each delivered order to compensate them for lost business. This is illogical in the extreme, and the sad part is it's already in practice. The US, Canada, Japan and other countries already have these charges in place, this proposal simply ups the ante for Canada.
Lots more where those came from, and those are just ones that I use... And there are many other 'large companies' that contribute efforts for Linux and OSS in other ways, just don't stamp their name all over it. Just allowing an employee to publish work they do on OSS projects that benefit the company during company time is a big plus for us all, no?
Put this in perspective, I'm the happy owner of a Sony DVD deck. I have several films that I purchased before this hubbub started, but since then I've focused on independant stuff because I am in support of Eric Corley, and I am in support of Fair Use. I also own a Creative Labs Encore kit for my PC. I purchased both players, and I purchase my DVDs just like any other upstanding consumer. Since DeCSS uses real decryption keys (found through reverse engineering if I recall correctly), it's not 'circumventing' CSS anymore than my Sony deck is. I think the issue here is yes, they're scrambling to keep sales of their (expensive) DVD players from faltering, when there's the prospect of the money going elsewhere on the horizon for open standard hardware playing back a closed standard medium. Is that not monopolistic? Yes, I have a choice of licensed players from Sony, JVC, Toshiba, Panasonic, etc...but does the buck stop with those companies? How much does it cost a company to license CSS decryption for a player?
The problem is not so much the cost of the license, but the terms of the license itself. Inorder to actually sell DVD players/playback software under the terms of the licenses, you MUST implement the features called for by the MPAA, including such wonderful gems as the ability to disable controls (preventing navigation during certain sections), MACROVISION (analog copy protection that functions by placng noise in the vertical blank section, which throws off the autogain systems of VCRs and capture boards) on/off flags, regional coding systems, encrypted output on all digital outputs, etc. They even go so far as to place restrictions on your code, that your software must keep its keys encrypted.
There are some hefty enforcement provisions too, including the fact that they can stop including your licensed key on future discs, stopping your system from being able to play product made after a certain date (imagine the support nightmare that would cause...) For social reasons I can't imagine that ever coming to pass, but...
All in all, the DVD format is a crock of horseapples, the majority of features shackled by non-engineers in the name of bringing the movie companies onboard. I can imagine the original design engineers gritting their teeth over the monstrosity they were birthing...
I do hope you know that while blowfish is an encryption algorithm, SSL is a protocol that negotiates end-to-end encryption? Perhaps even using blowfish as the algorithm? Please compare apples to apples. Blowfish files sent over http are not generally more or less secure than that same file sent via SSL (for example, https). The difference comes in key exchange, control and lifetime, which changes the effort needed to attack the ciphertext.
The hard part of crypto is not choosing or even inplementing the algorithm, its setting up the security boundaries, deploying the algorithm correctly, and proper key management. The most secure algorithm can be destroyed by wonky random number generators, insecure key storage, improper key lifetimes, swap files or temp files that keep plaintext copies, etc... Choosing the algorithm should be almost an afterthought, as the system design is vastly more important.
I should note that I am not a professional cryptographer, just an interested amateur who has deployed a few simple cryptosystems.
The sad state of their layout routines allow for much more screwage than just a dropped paren...
Actually, having ONLY the right parenthesis obscured is actually an improvement on the current situation with Win98J... some dialog boxes have controls pushed off the box, or are have many characters obscured. Of course, I doubt they've actually tested a majority of apps with Japanese, as otherwise the bug count would most likely be MUCH higher... Too many programmers have very little clue about i18n.
Of course one of the funiest bugs I've run across was the install of one of the patches for IE under Win98J... The 'accept' button for the 'license' of theirs was pushed almost all the way off the box (you couldn't read the text on the button).
Excuse me? I sincerely hope that your company hires better engineers than marketers, as your stated points are very poorly reasoned, close-minded and short-sighted. Let's look at them, shall we?
a) size of market. DVD drives are being bundled and produced at a fast rate -- however, with the limited size of market for DVD-ROM drives, especially in the linux community, we aren't likely to recoup costs
If all those drives are being bundled, how many do you think might possibly be on machines that will also run Linux? Ever hear of the 'chicken or egg' problem? Did it occur to your planners that the first company to market such a product would most likely get a very favorable position there?
b) the linux community is generally open source oriented. We predicted that piracy would be more prevalent -- as users are more technically oriented, and most of our deals are OEM's sold to large computer manufacturers selling to end users.
This point of yours makes no sense unless you are trying to make three different points... But to attempt to respond to all three:
Yes, the Linux community is open source oriented, but there is acceptance for closed source software as well. A good example might be Loki Software.
Technically oriented users DO NOT pirate software more than other groups. I have never seen a study that proves this, and indeed have found much anecdotal evidence to the contrary (i.e. the 'warez' community).
Most of your sales may be to OEMs, but if you have a retail channel at all this makes no difference. In fact, because of the 'technical orientation' of most of the Linux userbase, they would be quite happy to go through mail-order or web-order channels and therefore free you from shelf-space and warehousing problems.
I should comment in passing that throwing out what might be interpreted as a slur upon the types of users who most other users turn to for advice on purchasing decisions is not good policy...
c) constantly changing systems that would be hard to support. From X to the linux kernel, there are many potential problems. There are also potential technical support nightmares helping new linux users through a non-standardized system.
This is your only point that has any real meat to it, and even it is flawed. X has had no changes that break compatibility in several years (when was rev5 released?) and there are ways for your software to run completely in userspace, or perhaps with open-source kernel modules that would not compromise your licensing agreements with the DVD forum.
I could wish that your company would show a bit more intelligence and foresight. However, those are things that seem to be lacking in today's business software world.
Re:Casio E-100 and E-105 (WIN CE) does it already.
on
PDA+MP3 Player
·
· Score: 1
Just out of curisioty, do you actually own and use one? I saw one in one of the shops near my office, and after doodling with it for about 2 minutes I walked away... My impression was it was way to slow for regular use (I hit the launcher button and it took *10* seconds to draw the menu button screen).
The interface/speed problem, coupled with size, power and the fact that I'm lefthanded seems to downgrade the coolness factor for me into negative levels... Maybe if they'd make a lefthanded model I'd be more charitable.
Just a minor correction: Nintendo's 'anti-piracy system' is actually a lockout designed to prevent anyone from marketing games for the machine that are not licensed from Nintendo. It's basically a checksum system that is supposed to keep people from making games without Nintendo's consent.
This system perhaps counts as 'anti-piracy' in that it can keep people from selling or providing modified copies of games (removed/altered credits, what have you). However, the implementation is very week and easily circumvented.
It has actually nothing to do with keeping code from running on non-Nintendo machines.
Slashdot Mirror
You have obviously never programmed a video game for a home console system. Many older systems tied timing routines to the vertical refresh interval, so everything from input checking and buffering, to timing, AI loops, even in radical cases number of visible sprites had to be changed when shifting from 60Hz NTSC to 50Hz PAL and vice versa. The most famous example of course is the Atari VCS/2600, which has no video RAM at all, and requires each scanline to be built up as the signal is output.
Even on today's hardware, one of the interrupt sources is the VBI, and the APIs include thread syncronization primitives like WaitForVI(), and there can be differences in hardware based on regions (font roms, bootloader versions, optional hardware interfacing, etc)
So just switching the refresh rate could change the playability of a game, or even stop it from functioning at all.
Add in the occasional outrage about video game content and how things might be changed to 'better suit' a target region (no red blood, removal of religious symbols/memes, profanity/nudity, percieved cruelty to animals or minorities, etc) and you might see why region codes provide a legal fig leaf for makers and distributors ("But we didn't release it for use in your country!").
Of course, the fact that it allows the same product to be contracted to several different companies for distribution in different regions at wildly differing prices, and allows control over time of release, etc is beside the point... *cough*
A partial solution for you: Hearse, a program to trade bones files automagically.
This is very different, in fact it's a completely different thing. Taxing imports, quotas and other forms of protectionism are all there to 'promote' local industry over foreign, and provide relief and support for companies/economic sectors that for reasons supposedly beyond their control cannot compete in a global marketplace. I personally don't support any such ideas, but there are some other considerations than just free market survival, (for example: a desire to keep local industry alive in case of foreign embargo). The tariff talked about here, or more accurately the levy is imposed not on imports into an economic area that compete with local product, but on sales of all product, with the money raised being given to not members of an analogous local industry, but a completely separate set of interests! This is equivalent to restaurants crying foul on delivery food services, and demanding that an additional fee be added to each delivered order to compensate them for lost business. This is illogical in the extreme, and the sad part is it's already in practice. The US, Canada, Japan and other countries already have these charges in place, this proposal simply ups the ante for Canada.
- Remote host Linux kernel debugger via GDB
- Kernel debugger
- Linux scalability
- XFS Journaled File System
Lots more where those came from, and those are just ones that I use... And there are many other 'large companies' that contribute efforts for Linux and OSS in other ways, just don't stamp their name all over it. Just allowing an employee to publish work they do on OSS projects that benefit the company during company time is a big plus for us all, no?The problem is not so much the cost of the license, but the terms of the license itself. Inorder to actually sell DVD players/playback software under the terms of the licenses, you MUST implement the features called for by the MPAA, including such wonderful gems as the ability to disable controls (preventing navigation during certain sections), MACROVISION (analog copy protection that functions by placng noise in the vertical blank section, which throws off the autogain systems of VCRs and capture boards) on/off flags, regional coding systems, encrypted output on all digital outputs, etc. They even go so far as to place restrictions on your code, that your software must keep its keys encrypted.
There are some hefty enforcement provisions too, including the fact that they can stop including your licensed key on future discs, stopping your system from being able to play product made after a certain date (imagine the support nightmare that would cause...) For social reasons I can't imagine that ever coming to pass, but...
All in all, the DVD format is a crock of horseapples, the majority of features shackled by non-engineers in the name of bringing the movie companies onboard. I can imagine the original design engineers gritting their teeth over the monstrosity they were birthing...
I do hope you know that while blowfish is an encryption algorithm, SSL is a protocol that negotiates end-to-end encryption? Perhaps even using blowfish as the algorithm? Please compare apples to apples. Blowfish files sent over http are not generally more or less secure than that same file sent via SSL (for example, https). The difference comes in key exchange, control and lifetime, which changes the effort needed to attack the ciphertext.
The hard part of crypto is not choosing or even inplementing the algorithm, its setting up the security boundaries, deploying the algorithm correctly, and proper key management. The most secure algorithm can be destroyed by wonky random number generators, insecure key storage, improper key lifetimes, swap files or temp files that keep plaintext copies, etc... Choosing the algorithm should be almost an afterthought, as the system design is vastly more important.
I should note that I am not a professional cryptographer, just an interested amateur who has deployed a few simple cryptosystems.
Actually, having ONLY the right parenthesis obscured is actually an improvement on the current situation with Win98J... some dialog boxes have controls pushed off the box, or are have many characters obscured. Of course, I doubt they've actually tested a majority of apps with Japanese, as otherwise the bug count would most likely be MUCH higher... Too many programmers have very little clue about i18n.
Of course one of the funiest bugs I've run across was the install of one of the patches for IE under Win98J... The 'accept' button for the 'license' of theirs was pushed almost all the way off the box (you couldn't read the text on the button).
If all those drives are being bundled, how many do you think might possibly be on machines that will also run Linux? Ever hear of the 'chicken or egg' problem? Did it occur to your planners that the first company to market such a product would most likely get a very favorable position there?
This point of yours makes no sense unless you are trying to make three different points... But to attempt to respond to all three:
- Yes, the Linux community is open source oriented, but there is acceptance for closed source software as well. A good example might be Loki Software.
- Technically oriented users DO NOT pirate software more than other groups. I have never seen a study that proves this, and indeed have found much anecdotal evidence to the contrary (i.e. the 'warez' community).
- Most of your sales may be to OEMs, but if you have a retail channel at all this makes no difference. In fact, because of the 'technical orientation' of most of the Linux userbase, they would be quite happy to go through mail-order or web-order channels and therefore free you from shelf-space and warehousing problems.
I should comment in passing that throwing out what might be interpreted as a slur upon the types of users who most other users turn to for advice on purchasing decisions is not good policy...This is your only point that has any real meat to it, and even it is flawed. X has had no changes that break compatibility in several years (when was rev5 released?) and there are ways for your software to run completely in userspace, or perhaps with open-source kernel modules that would not compromise your licensing agreements with the DVD forum.
I could wish that your company would show a bit more intelligence and foresight. However, those are things that seem to be lacking in today's business software world.
The interface/speed problem, coupled with size, power and the fact that I'm lefthanded seems to downgrade the coolness factor for me into negative levels... Maybe if they'd make a lefthanded model I'd be more charitable.
Just a minor correction: Nintendo's 'anti-piracy system' is actually a lockout designed to prevent anyone from marketing games for the machine that are not licensed from Nintendo. It's basically a checksum system that is supposed to keep people from making games without Nintendo's consent.
This system perhaps counts as 'anti-piracy' in that it can keep people from selling or providing modified copies of games (removed/altered credits, what have you). However, the implementation is very week and easily circumvented.
It has actually nothing to do with keeping code from running on non-Nintendo machines.