Actually, the GPL places no restrictions on how a program may be used. Honestly.
Download it and use it for anything. Give it to your friends, sell it, etc.
The only thing it places limits on is how you may distribute a modified copy.
So if you don't modify it you can do anything you wish with it. And if you do modify it you can either follow the GPL or simply not distribute it.
I think you'll see that the GPL is a very friendly license. The only people for whom it is a problem are companies who don't own all their source code like (supposedly) nVidia. That would make releasing it as GPL a violation of their original licensing terms.
Well, as a general game design issue, I tend to like single-genre games, action or adventure, or puzzle, etc.
I often found the RPG (collect money) aspects and the twitch-gaming got in the way of an otherwise fairly enjoyable adventure while I was playing Z64. Had I wanted twitch I'd have played SMK or Skyfox.
Yeah, the early King's Quest games were kinda bad for that.
I haven't played Bubsy or RE so I can't comment. Tomb Raider had "logical" control layout, but the camera moved around (imho to allow tit viewing) and made it hard to move accurately near a wall for instance.
As for RE having bad control despite the layout, in the early day of first-person shooters there were many that used the same controls as Doom and yet felt bad, sluggish or something. While a good layout is essential it isn't everything.
My favorite games from the past are Loderunner, Ultima 5 (though 4 was pretty good too), Tetris knockoffs, and SSI's AD&D roleplaying games.
I do like most genres of games, however I dislike it when you're playing an RPG and have to use twitch skills all of a sudden. Or if you were playing Loderunner and had to advance in levels to dig big holes.
I think most people see the VM as eventually becoming quite complex. Profiling memory and disk usage (well, having hooks to allow the disk cache to cache based on memory use) allows you to guess when something will be needed and not page it out if it's needed immediately, or to page out something because you know it's not going to be needed for a while.
And eventually, all memory management systems will either reach an out of memory issue (even with a reserved cache, the OS can still grow beyond safety margins) and either stall or kill processes. While some people feel that RIk is focusing a little heavily on the killing processes side, it is something you have to be prepared to do so you want to kill a less useful task (a forked apache server, not the main process, for example) instead of killing something critical to operation.
You can usually come up with a simple solution that covers 95% of the cases very well, but it'll fall apart on that last 5% in a bad way. The complex solutions often offer lower performance in everyday situations but guarantee performance will never get as bad as the easy solutions would allow.
So, I think anyone with design experience expects Rik's VM (or one like it) to go back into the kernel eventually.
Personally, I think Rik should look at the issue of having "Emergency" swap that you don't go into except for OS processess. Once main swap is filled all non-OS processes fail to allocate any new RAM. This lets the system function well enough for non-kernel code (ideally more customizable) to make a system-specific determination on how to proceed. For instance, kill any processes from/usr/bin/games and see if that helps the issue... But, I'll admit to not being an expert and that this is only an educated guess.
They probably do. Well, depending on size. If they're AOL-sized, I doubt they use PCs at all.
If they're smaller, they probably use AMD chips. Certainly they used celerons and other cheap technology.
There are two types of setups.
1) Very expensive server with the best (and best "name") hardware money can buy.
2) Cheap crap in a fail-over cluster.
For many things like email servers, news servers, etc, the cheap cluster is most cost efficient, easier to maintain (want to fix one? Unplug it and the others take over automatically), and easier to build.
While your ISP may not use AMD (the saving for a cheap duron + mobo vs cheap celeron + mobo aren't great when you get into motherboards with integrated video and lan) they would if it saved them any money.
There are some taks that are hard to "fail over" and those require a sturdy server, but even then, as long as it's not rack mounted, AMD has a good reputation (with an AMD chipset).
I know a few people who installed these on their own computers (with nonstandard ports and passwords) for these types of features. Partially the remote access, but partially the "freak the roommate" stuff.
> Okay, so you've made your point that you're obviously an RPG fan
Moreso than whatever Zelda is, yes. But mainly isn't just annoyance at games like that being called wonderful.
> Lousy controls? Have you played Super Mario 64 or Zelda 64? They have near-perfect control,
[choke] M64 has probably the worst control I've ever seen. You have to press in the direction Mario is facing to move forward, not "up" like you would in any well-designed game. This means that when he runs past a wall and the camera swings, you have to move the controls just the keep running in a straight line.
This was less of an issue in Zelda 64 because there wasn't as much action, but I saw a few cases where I though the maps were designed very tight simply to make you fight the controls more than the bad guys.
> I wouldn't even consider Zelda an RPG in the first place, more of an action/adventure,
It's much more like King's Quest (imho) than an RPG, yes. With a little weird fighting tossed in to make it cross-genre. (To the annoyance of most people I know, who want either a good fighting game, or an adventure game without the twitch crap.)
>The thing about F-Zero and SMK is is that they're both FUN.
So is solitaire, if you're into that. But I don't think the inventor of a new form of solitaire is a game god. SMK is okay, but there are games that do that "silly racing" much better, like ReVolt (PC and maybe PS, I dunno).
>You obviously don't think much of the man if you think him that insipid.
I don't think he's insipid, but I don't think he's helped the gaming industry. The thing I don't like is people running around crowing about how wonderful M64 and Z64 are without a clue of what both could be if they didn't have lousy layout and controls.
It's like I don't think Romero is an insipid freak, except for his "Suck it down, Daikatana will kick your ass!" stuff.
> As for consoles and cartridges... what is your point? Maps make the game?
Maps don't make the game, but stretching a game by including the same maps over and over again just to be able to claim more hours of "gameplay" (more like "Gamework") is cheap. How many times did you cross the central hub in Z64? 50+ I'd imagine, because it was used in all ages and you constantly had to run from one side to the other.
They took a given ammount of content and stretched it very thin by making you run between distant points just to experience it.
>Would Tetris be any more interactive or engaging if it came on a DVD with millions of background images
No. But it would be less enjoyable if they made it take longer by having you perform busywork (run across a map, etc) between levels, just so they could claim it took longer to play. In Tetris they boiled away the crap and let people get to the actual gameplay.
>This was never supposed to be about Nintendo, so I don't see what your point about "the Nintendo console"
Most of Miyamoto's games are for the Nintendo, right?
>I do mean that there are other games on other consoles that borrowed heavily from this game.
Perhaps. But whenever I've seen nintendo consoles they'd had very standard games. Racing games like SMK (with or without weapons) and platform games like Mario. When I've seen the PS or Dreamcast they seemed to have a much wider variety of games. (I am willing to accept that this was just luck of the draw though.)
I don't have a console (and never have) so I'm not biased against Nintendo for personal reasons.
Look at Z64 though and tell me they didn't stretch gameplay.
To get the special quiver you have to play a mini-game, but to play you need gold. And there are other examples that I don't remember, where you need gold to play a mini game to try to win an item. Technically they're optional, but most of very important.
An "honest" game would let you either buy the item (by using money gained in the adventure) or endlessly play the mini-game. Requiring both is just a way to make the play take ten minutes between tries, thus a 15-second mini-game ends up taking two hours if the user needs ~10 tries.
I feel about Z64 and M64 (and Miyamoto) like I would about _Dude, Where's My Car_ and _Water Boy_ if someone said they were the best movies ever and Adam Sandler was a genius.
I understand that they can be enjoyable (and very popular) but they're tragicly shallow and full of the same formula jokes that have been used in bad movies for twenty years.
Ditto with people who loved ST:Enterprise because of the detox scene. There's better porn available free online, and better shows on, but flash a little T&A and the market jumps.
Which brings me to Tomb Raider. Many people say it's one of the best games ever, but it has so many flaws and bugs (and lousy gameplay) that it'd never get rated that way if it weren't for tits.
So M64 and Z64 may be good games, worth playing if you've got an N64 even, but they aren't shining examples of the best games ever made.
IMHO, No. Unrealistic circumstances = Fear Mongering.
2) Does AMD need to do something.
IMHO, Yes.
I agree completely with #1 and #2. Especially #2.
#3 however, has to do with an industry standard. AMD can't really change it much.
They could however say that all fans must screw into the board (like the P4 fans) or use all the plastic tabs, if the company wants to say "AMD Approved". (Or, for alternate methods, satisfy AMD engineers that the mounting method is sufficient.)
--
I really don't think there's much chance of a heatsink falling off, even the big copper ones, as long as you're careful with how you move the computer.
Usually if you buy a can of hairspray you can do anything with it, but if you break an existing law while using it, you're guilty of breaking that law, not of misusing hairspray.
This is how mod-chips should be treated. If you use one to facilitate unlawful copying, you should be busted for unlawful copying.
The hairspray company wouldn't be liable for your murder charge, why should the mod-chipcompany be liable for your copyright violations?
Companies haven't yet declared the screw-driver a circumvention device but I don't think it'll take long. (Especially if the bit matches their special screws.)
I wonder when the DMCA will be used to shut down Snap-On Tools.
That's the current court interpretation, but that's not the way the law reads.
You can own a copyright on a book, and you can sell that copyright. This is independent of the book.
Therefore, you can own a book, independently of the copyright.
When you buy a book (or CD) you own that book (or CD) and the information on it. Nobody can take it away from you.
You do not own the right to make new copies though.
If anyone tells you that you don't own the data it's because they're trying to cheat you. That's the whole point behind region coding, to price fix and force consumers into it.
People say that we're in a capitalism and should let market forces decide if Sony (and similar) and able to do this - if they sell CDs, the free market has allowed it.
I disagree. As long as there are laws preventing us from purchasing a mod-chip to use on the Playstation that we own, we aren't in a free market.
Were you told when you bought the computer (to get the OEM copy) what the conditions of the EULA were? If not, it's not valid.
When you buy software from a store do they list the conditions in the EULA? If no, they're not valid.
See a pattern here?
So you've bought software that's not encumbered by any licensing agreements, and you take it home. But then it demands that you license. Well, I guess you're screwed....
Oh wait, at that point they can't make a valid contract because what they're offering (the ability to use the software) is something that you've already paid for.
In fact, withholding the right to use the software at this point is basically extortion and if it wasn't for the fact that money wins in court, you'd be able to sue the publisher.
Look, they're trying to force the UCITA through and the main effect of that will be to make shrink-wrap licenses valid. Now, why would the software companies spend millions on bribes on a law they don't need? They're dishonest, but not stupid. Their lawyers have obviously told then that EULAs aren't binding and that if they fight a well-funded case, they'll lose. That's why they want a new law. This means though that until they get their new law, EULAs and shrink-wrap licenses aren't binding.
If you can't grasp this we basically have to assume you're a troll, or that it's in your professional interests to see the DMCA and UCITA (etc) upheld. Who do you work for and what do they pay you to lie on web forums?
If you buy a game without being informed of any special restrictions then there are no special restrictions.
The second is law, as a body of rules. The law is bought by the rich, why should the poor respect it in any way?
I firmly believe in the social contract, we dealing fairly with someone they are obligated to deal fairly with you, if they ever want your support or protection, etc, etc. However, I didn't get any say in making the DMCA or UCITA, in fact, I was completely ignored because unlike the companies lobbying for them, I didn't bribe politicians and judges. (Campaign donations, and the MPAA's member companies employing judge Kaplan early in his career to work on the DVD issue.)
I feel no more obligated to lay down and let companies rob me blind than I would feel obligated to be eaten if I were a sheep on the wolves voted to have mutton for dinner.
When law is actually by and for the people (and the corporations they run) then I'll think about respecting it and the people who uphold it.
Until then though, judges are simply lawyers who got promoted and lawyers are people who make their living bending rules to suit the guilty, or making the rules more complicated (~60% of US politicians are lawyers) in an attempt to help their industry. As a profession, they are scum and should be treated as thieves.
Try again with an argument that doesn't involve rolling over for corporate powers that bribed your "elected" representatives and we'll talk.
While there's really no way of embedding this in the BIOS, you could wipe the BIOS if the user selects the wrong boot-manager selection... You'd need a new one if you ever got it back, but I suppose you could simply claim that they broke it and add it to the damages.:)
But there are a lot of ways to catch someone like this if you can simply upload and execute scripts. Many FTP servers allow this even (with the right account and directory location...)
Some ideas on catching the crook...
If you know the telco test #s in your area you could have the stolen computer call you, hook-flash, dial that number, and hook-flash back, three-way calling you with the "Your # is..." line.
Or it could call you, then call an operator. You (pretending to be the calling party) say "Excuse me, I'm working on a junction box here with ten lines, can you please tell me which # I'm calling from." Identify yourself as telco staff if necessary.
And if you need to get the house searched, do the same thing with 911... Call the offenders earlier that day in the guise of doing a survey and find out a bit about them. (Almost anyone will stay on for a survey if you offer rewards.) Then call 911 and say "I'm (son/roommate), my (father/roommate/lover) has a gun and is threatening to shoot me because I (...)" and they'll send a few cops over to kick the door in and potentially see illegal stuff going on.
If you don't want this traced back to you, have the script call either a disposable cell phone or a pay-phone at a predetermined time. (Be sure to check that their system time is correct, maybe with AtomTime or something...)
But once you get the computer back, continue torturing these people, finally a target who deserves anything you can do to them.
Or an FTP server that allows you to execute files (with the correct permissions set, for the right account, etc). Simply executing programs (and being able to upload them) isn't that hard. It's writing something that will let you catch them.
I don't deny that he influenced a lot. I simply think we'd be better off if he hadn't.
The games he's made seem like standard console crap. Limited interaction, lousy controls, etc.
Mario is pretty good I guess, for a simple game. Zelda ruined RPG/Adventure games though.
F-Zero I never played, but Mario Kart (and SMK) I played and they seem like fairly basic games. I don't see what the innovation here is? The crossover from Mario to racing?
Donkey Kong was good, but if he brought it out today with the same level of interaction I feel that he'd call it an RPG.
It's probably not really his fault, it's just that consoles are very very limited and you can't make real RPGs or (in the case of cartridge games) anything with much interaction. (And the limited space also explains the endless reuse of maps in those types of games.)
In a car analogy, you don't insult the guy who designed the Gremlin, or Pinto, because he probably had a tiny budget and many constraints, but you also don't call him a design god.
BTW, "How many cart games borrow from SMK?" Isn't that a problem with the Nintendo console? Few games (compared to the PS) and mostly derivative...
The chance of a heatsink falling off completely is pretty small. Only once have I dropped a computer hard enough to possibly cause this (and when I did I opened it up and inspected it, reseated cards, etc).
Worse is the possibility of turning it on without the heatsink properly seated. But ideally since most boards/BIOSes start them seriously underclocked, this would be detected before they kick the speed up during the POST.
IMHO this is stupid. If the power radiates through my property, I should be able to use it. Much the same as the descrambler issue (pre DMCA) of having the right to view anything someone broadcast to you, regardless of their desires.
Does this use of inductive coils somehow reduce the available power at the other end of the wire, or is it just using "waste" energy and not affecting anything?
It's not just the strength of the field that matters (directly), it's the delta in field strength between the ends of the bulb.
At the same field strength, the larger source is further away and the field delta is lower.
Thus, the Earth's EM field could be vastly stronger, but still not cause a bulb to glow as brightly as a power line. (Unless the bulb stretched from here to the moon...)
However, the human body is likely affected in somewhat the same way as a bulb, so it's not totally silly to think that EM from a power line might cause some weird effects.
The people advocating this would get a lot farther if they didn't seem to be crystal-healing, acupuncture using, ginko-biloba eating freaks without a clue about the scientific method (or any discoveries since the 1920s for that matter.) But try to bring up double-blind studies with them and you'll get a rant about the ego of western science, etc, etc...
Without him, we wouldn't have a game that involved running from one side of a map to another, to get a quest that involves running right back across the map, to get a quest...
And then, INNOVATION, he did it again but in 3D with crappy camera angles!
He's also mastered the art of RPGs that measure your progress completely by the last checkpoint you passed (which means they're perfectly linear) and the ammount of gold you have. Of course, they don't actually store the gold, you have to collect that every time. But hey, 90% of the game is collecting gold by 1) slaughtering basic monsters or 2) pulling up flowers.
What's the big deal? It was listed as "Rumoured Takeover Plan". When my friends and I talked about it, we talked about the rumour.
It still brought up interesting questions and let us know where people stand.
I think AOL (or Corel, or IBM) needs to come out with their own distro of Linux, with the WM tweaked to look much like XP. If it supports browsing, playing video, and a decent office suite most users won't know the difference.
MS has done a lot of cool things (dragging and dropping between different programs and getting the data formatting, etc) that other OSes lag a bit behind, but really, how often do 99.9% of people use that? If given the choice between some funky features and a "name brand" office suite, and $600 savings, which would they choose?
And it's interesting that Alan C. was willing to leave RedHat (if the takeover happened) to ensure that he not only stays free of undue influence, but appears that way to everyone else.
All in all, many useful things were said in these threads and they caused many people to think about things they otherwise wouldn't have.
Maybe you should just learn to ignore stories with "rumour" in them.
Why should I be liable for accidental flaws in something I give away for free?
This is the ridiculous legal climate of the US. Nowhere else can you sue someone because the clock they gave you as a gift was defective.
The obvious thing to do with the bill is make sure that it says something to the effect of "at sale" so that only something you purchase needs to be warrantied. This is the way it is now, it'd just be codified. (Well, technically the way it is now, but you can sue over almost anything...)
If you run BeOS, or other non-MS OS, and go to Microsoft and download IE and Outlook, then they shouldn't be financially liable unless they intentionally damage something.
This isn't possible though. IE and Outlook are tied into the OS and are thus being sold with it, even if you can download them seperately as well.
Look at another example... Quake executables. You can download (even before the GPLing) the executables for Quake for any OS, free. This doesn't mean though that id Software doesn't make money from their sale, just that they acknowledge that their only use is with the data files which (theoretically) you can only get by buying the game.
Even worse for MS, IE is an integral part of the OS these days. They use the rendering engine for the help system, much of explorer, etc, etc.
Why? Because one requires you to buy the software, the other is a gift.
If I receive a gift and it malfunctions, I don't have any recourse against the giver unless they specifically intended it to malfunction, or should have known that it would.
If someone gives me a bicycle and it breaks down, they aren't liable to fix it. If I bought the bicycle from them, they may be. (Depending on conditions of sale.)
Seriously, it seems obvious that the big difference is that if you pay for something the seller/maker has an obligation to make sure the product is as advertised. If it's free, well you take your chances.
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Actually, the GPL places no restrictions on how a program may be used. Honestly.
Download it and use it for anything. Give it to your friends, sell it, etc.
The only thing it places limits on is how you may distribute a modified copy.
So if you don't modify it you can do anything you wish with it. And if you do modify it you can either follow the GPL or simply not distribute it.
I think you'll see that the GPL is a very friendly license. The only people for whom it is a problem are companies who don't own all their source code like (supposedly) nVidia. That would make releasing it as GPL a violation of their original licensing terms.
Well, as a general game design issue, I tend to like single-genre games, action or adventure, or puzzle, etc.
I often found the RPG (collect money) aspects and the twitch-gaming got in the way of an otherwise fairly enjoyable adventure while I was playing Z64. Had I wanted twitch I'd have played SMK or Skyfox.
Yeah, the early King's Quest games were kinda bad for that.
I haven't played Bubsy or RE so I can't comment. Tomb Raider had "logical" control layout, but the camera moved around (imho to allow tit viewing) and made it hard to move accurately near a wall for instance.
As for RE having bad control despite the layout, in the early day of first-person shooters there were many that used the same controls as Doom and yet felt bad, sluggish or something. While a good layout is essential it isn't everything.
My favorite games from the past are Loderunner, Ultima 5 (though 4 was pretty good too), Tetris knockoffs, and SSI's AD&D roleplaying games.
I do like most genres of games, however I dislike it when you're playing an RPG and have to use twitch skills all of a sudden. Or if you were playing Loderunner and had to advance in levels to dig big holes.
I think most people see the VM as eventually becoming quite complex. Profiling memory and disk usage (well, having hooks to allow the disk cache to cache based on memory use) allows you to guess when something will be needed and not page it out if it's needed immediately, or to page out something because you know it's not going to be needed for a while.
/usr/bin/games and see if that helps the issue... But, I'll admit to not being an expert and that this is only an educated guess.
And eventually, all memory management systems will either reach an out of memory issue (even with a reserved cache, the OS can still grow beyond safety margins) and either stall or kill processes. While some people feel that RIk is focusing a little heavily on the killing processes side, it is something you have to be prepared to do so you want to kill a less useful task (a forked apache server, not the main process, for example) instead of killing something critical to operation.
You can usually come up with a simple solution that covers 95% of the cases very well, but it'll fall apart on that last 5% in a bad way. The complex solutions often offer lower performance in everyday situations but guarantee performance will never get as bad as the easy solutions would allow.
So, I think anyone with design experience expects Rik's VM (or one like it) to go back into the kernel eventually.
Personally, I think Rik should look at the issue of having "Emergency" swap that you don't go into except for OS processess. Once main swap is filled all non-OS processes fail to allocate any new RAM. This lets the system function well enough for non-kernel code (ideally more customizable) to make a system-specific determination on how to proceed. For instance, kill any processes from
Why doesn't your ISP use AMD for servers?
They probably do. Well, depending on size. If they're AOL-sized, I doubt they use PCs at all.
If they're smaller, they probably use AMD chips. Certainly they used celerons and other cheap technology.
There are two types of setups.
1) Very expensive server with the best (and best "name") hardware money can buy.
2) Cheap crap in a fail-over cluster.
For many things like email servers, news servers, etc, the cheap cluster is most cost efficient, easier to maintain (want to fix one? Unplug it and the others take over automatically), and easier to build.
While your ISP may not use AMD (the saving for a cheap duron + mobo vs cheap celeron + mobo aren't great when you get into motherboards with integrated video and lan) they would if it saved them any money.
There are some taks that are hard to "fail over" and those require a sturdy server, but even then, as long as it's not rack mounted, AMD has a good reputation (with an AMD chipset).
Sounds like Back Orifice and Sub Seven...
I know a few people who installed these on their own computers (with nonstandard ports and passwords) for these types of features. Partially the remote access, but partially the "freak the roommate" stuff.
> Wow, Windows and Linux stricken by the same bug. What's the probability of that?
:)
Probably quite good. I imagine if you examine both systems carefully you'll see a BSD license agreement in the system binaries that deal with AGP.
> Okay, so you've made your point that you're obviously an RPG fan
Moreso than whatever Zelda is, yes. But mainly isn't just annoyance at games like that being called wonderful.
> Lousy controls? Have you played Super Mario 64 or Zelda 64? They have near-perfect control,
[choke] M64 has probably the worst control I've ever seen. You have to press in the direction Mario is facing to move forward, not "up" like you would in any well-designed game. This means that when he runs past a wall and the camera swings, you have to move the controls just the keep running in a straight line.
This was less of an issue in Zelda 64 because there wasn't as much action, but I saw a few cases where I though the maps were designed very tight simply to make you fight the controls more than the bad guys.
> I wouldn't even consider Zelda an RPG in the first place, more of an action/adventure,
It's much more like King's Quest (imho) than an RPG, yes. With a little weird fighting tossed in to make it cross-genre. (To the annoyance of most people I know, who want either a good fighting game, or an adventure game without the twitch crap.)
>The thing about F-Zero and SMK is is that they're both FUN.
So is solitaire, if you're into that. But I don't think the inventor of a new form of solitaire is a game god. SMK is okay, but there are games that do that "silly racing" much better, like ReVolt (PC and maybe PS, I dunno).
>You obviously don't think much of the man if you think him that insipid.
I don't think he's insipid, but I don't think he's helped the gaming industry. The thing I don't like is people running around crowing about how wonderful M64 and Z64 are without a clue of what both could be if they didn't have lousy layout and controls.
It's like I don't think Romero is an insipid freak, except for his "Suck it down, Daikatana will kick your ass!" stuff.
> As for consoles and cartridges... what is your point? Maps make the game?
Maps don't make the game, but stretching a game by including the same maps over and over again just to be able to claim more hours of "gameplay" (more like "Gamework") is cheap. How many times did you cross the central hub in Z64? 50+ I'd imagine, because it was used in all ages and you constantly had to run from one side to the other.
They took a given ammount of content and stretched it very thin by making you run between distant points just to experience it.
>Would Tetris be any more interactive or engaging if it came on a DVD with millions of background images
No. But it would be less enjoyable if they made it take longer by having you perform busywork (run across a map, etc) between levels, just so they could claim it took longer to play. In Tetris they boiled away the crap and let people get to the actual gameplay.
>This was never supposed to be about Nintendo, so I don't see what your point about "the Nintendo console"
Most of Miyamoto's games are for the Nintendo, right?
>I do mean that there are other games on other consoles that borrowed heavily from this game.
Perhaps. But whenever I've seen nintendo consoles they'd had very standard games. Racing games like SMK (with or without weapons) and platform games like Mario. When I've seen the PS or Dreamcast they seemed to have a much wider variety of games. (I am willing to accept that this was just luck of the draw though.)
I don't have a console (and never have) so I'm not biased against Nintendo for personal reasons.
Look at Z64 though and tell me they didn't stretch gameplay.
To get the special quiver you have to play a mini-game, but to play you need gold. And there are other examples that I don't remember, where you need gold to play a mini game to try to win an item. Technically they're optional, but most of very important.
An "honest" game would let you either buy the item (by using money gained in the adventure) or endlessly play the mini-game. Requiring both is just a way to make the play take ten minutes between tries, thus a 15-second mini-game ends up taking two hours if the user needs ~10 tries.
I feel about Z64 and M64 (and Miyamoto) like I would about _Dude, Where's My Car_ and _Water Boy_ if someone said they were the best movies ever and Adam Sandler was a genius.
I understand that they can be enjoyable (and very popular) but they're tragicly shallow and full of the same formula jokes that have been used in bad movies for twenty years.
Ditto with people who loved ST:Enterprise because of the detox scene. There's better porn available free online, and better shows on, but flash a little T&A and the market jumps.
Which brings me to Tomb Raider. Many people say it's one of the best games ever, but it has so many flaws and bugs (and lousy gameplay) that it'd never get rated that way if it weren't for tits.
So M64 and Z64 may be good games, worth playing if you've got an N64 even, but they aren't shining examples of the best games ever made.
Two issues:
1) Was Tom's video a fair representation.
IMHO, No. Unrealistic circumstances = Fear Mongering.
2) Does AMD need to do something.
IMHO, Yes.
I agree completely with #1 and #2. Especially #2.
#3 however, has to do with an industry standard. AMD can't really change it much.
They could however say that all fans must screw into the board (like the P4 fans) or use all the plastic tabs, if the company wants to say "AMD Approved". (Or, for alternate methods, satisfy AMD engineers that the mounting method is sufficient.)
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I really don't think there's much chance of a heatsink falling off, even the big copper ones, as long as you're careful with how you move the computer.
Usually if you buy a can of hairspray you can do anything with it, but if you break an existing law while using it, you're guilty of breaking that law, not of misusing hairspray.
This is how mod-chips should be treated. If you use one to facilitate unlawful copying, you should be busted for unlawful copying.
The hairspray company wouldn't be liable for your murder charge, why should the mod-chipcompany be liable for your copyright violations?
Companies haven't yet declared the screw-driver a circumvention device but I don't think it'll take long. (Especially if the bit matches their special screws.)
I wonder when the DMCA will be used to shut down Snap-On Tools.
That's the current court interpretation, but that's not the way the law reads.
You can own a copyright on a book, and you can sell that copyright. This is independent of the book.
Therefore, you can own a book, independently of the copyright.
When you buy a book (or CD) you own that book (or CD) and the information on it. Nobody can take it away from you.
You do not own the right to make new copies though.
If anyone tells you that you don't own the data it's because they're trying to cheat you. That's the whole point behind region coding, to price fix and force consumers into it.
People say that we're in a capitalism and should let market forces decide if Sony (and similar) and able to do this - if they sell CDs, the free market has allowed it.
I disagree. As long as there are laws preventing us from purchasing a mod-chip to use on the Playstation that we own, we aren't in a free market.
Were you told when you bought the computer (to get the OEM copy) what the conditions of the EULA were? If not, it's not valid.
When you buy software from a store do they list the conditions in the EULA? If no, they're not valid.
See a pattern here?
So you've bought software that's not encumbered by any licensing agreements, and you take it home. But then it demands that you license. Well, I guess you're screwed....
Oh wait, at that point they can't make a valid contract because what they're offering (the ability to use the software) is something that you've already paid for.
In fact, withholding the right to use the software at this point is basically extortion and if it wasn't for the fact that money wins in court, you'd be able to sue the publisher.
Look, they're trying to force the UCITA through and the main effect of that will be to make shrink-wrap licenses valid. Now, why would the software companies spend millions on bribes on a law they don't need? They're dishonest, but not stupid. Their lawyers have obviously told then that EULAs aren't binding and that if they fight a well-funded case, they'll lose. That's why they want a new law. This means though that until they get their new law, EULAs and shrink-wrap licenses aren't binding.
If you can't grasp this we basically have to assume you're a troll, or that it's in your professional interests to see the DMCA and UCITA (etc) upheld. Who do you work for and what do they pay you to lie on web forums?
Two issues...
The first is licensing. There is no license!
If you buy a game without being informed of any special restrictions then there are no special restrictions.
The second is law, as a body of rules. The law is bought by the rich, why should the poor respect it in any way?
I firmly believe in the social contract, we dealing fairly with someone they are obligated to deal fairly with you, if they ever want your support or protection, etc, etc. However, I didn't get any say in making the DMCA or UCITA, in fact, I was completely ignored because unlike the companies lobbying for them, I didn't bribe politicians and judges. (Campaign donations, and the MPAA's member companies employing judge Kaplan early in his career to work on the DVD issue.)
I feel no more obligated to lay down and let companies rob me blind than I would feel obligated to be eaten if I were a sheep on the wolves voted to have mutton for dinner.
When law is actually by and for the people (and the corporations they run) then I'll think about respecting it and the people who uphold it.
Until then though, judges are simply lawyers who got promoted and lawyers are people who make their living bending rules to suit the guilty, or making the rules more complicated (~60% of US politicians are lawyers) in an attempt to help their industry. As a profession, they are scum and should be treated as thieves.
Try again with an argument that doesn't involve rolling over for corporate powers that bribed your "elected" representatives and we'll talk.
echo "Format c: /y" > "%USERPROFILE%\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\KillEverything.bat"
Wow, it's a kill-all script for Windows. The only problem, like always, it getting it to the user.
The good thing about mine is that it won't be caught by a virus scanner. It's stealthed!
While there's really no way of embedding this in the BIOS, you could wipe the BIOS if the user selects the wrong boot-manager selection... You'd need a new one if you ever got it back, but I suppose you could simply claim that they broke it and add it to the damages. :)
..." line.
But there are a lot of ways to catch someone like this if you can simply upload and execute scripts. Many FTP servers allow this even (with the right account and directory location...)
Some ideas on catching the crook...
If you know the telco test #s in your area you could have the stolen computer call you, hook-flash, dial that number, and hook-flash back, three-way calling you with the "Your # is
Or it could call you, then call an operator. You (pretending to be the calling party) say "Excuse me, I'm working on a junction box here with ten lines, can you please tell me which # I'm calling from." Identify yourself as telco staff if necessary.
And if you need to get the house searched, do the same thing with 911... Call the offenders earlier that day in the guise of doing a survey and find out a bit about them. (Almost anyone will stay on for a survey if you offer rewards.) Then call 911 and say "I'm (son/roommate), my (father/roommate/lover) has a gun and is threatening to shoot me because I (...)" and they'll send a few cops over to kick the door in and potentially see illegal stuff going on.
If you don't want this traced back to you, have the script call either a disposable cell phone or a pay-phone at a predetermined time. (Be sure to check that their system time is correct, maybe with AtomTime or something...)
But once you get the computer back, continue torturing these people, finally a target who deserves anything you can do to them.
Or an FTP server that allows you to execute files (with the correct permissions set, for the right account, etc). Simply executing programs (and being able to upload them) isn't that hard. It's writing something that will let you catch them.
I don't deny that he influenced a lot. I simply think we'd be better off if he hadn't.
The games he's made seem like standard console crap. Limited interaction, lousy controls, etc.
Mario is pretty good I guess, for a simple game. Zelda ruined RPG/Adventure games though.
F-Zero I never played, but Mario Kart (and SMK) I played and they seem like fairly basic games. I don't see what the innovation here is? The crossover from Mario to racing?
Donkey Kong was good, but if he brought it out today with the same level of interaction I feel that he'd call it an RPG.
It's probably not really his fault, it's just that consoles are very very limited and you can't make real RPGs or (in the case of cartridge games) anything with much interaction. (And the limited space also explains the endless reuse of maps in those types of games.)
In a car analogy, you don't insult the guy who designed the Gremlin, or Pinto, because he probably had a tiny budget and many constraints, but you also don't call him a design god.
BTW, "How many cart games borrow from SMK?" Isn't that a problem with the Nintendo console? Few games (compared to the PS) and mostly derivative...
The chance of a heatsink falling off completely is pretty small. Only once have I dropped a computer hard enough to possibly cause this (and when I did I opened it up and inspected it, reseated cards, etc).
Worse is the possibility of turning it on without the heatsink properly seated. But ideally since most boards/BIOSes start them seriously underclocked, this would be detected before they kick the speed up during the POST.
IMHO this is stupid. If the power radiates through my property, I should be able to use it. Much the same as the descrambler issue (pre DMCA) of having the right to view anything someone broadcast to you, regardless of their desires.
Does this use of inductive coils somehow reduce the available power at the other end of the wire, or is it just using "waste" energy and not affecting anything?
It's not just the strength of the field that matters (directly), it's the delta in field strength between the ends of the bulb.
At the same field strength, the larger source is further away and the field delta is lower.
Thus, the Earth's EM field could be vastly stronger, but still not cause a bulb to glow as brightly as a power line. (Unless the bulb stretched from here to the moon...)
However, the human body is likely affected in somewhat the same way as a bulb, so it's not totally silly to think that EM from a power line might cause some weird effects.
The people advocating this would get a lot farther if they didn't seem to be crystal-healing, acupuncture using, ginko-biloba eating freaks without a clue about the scientific method (or any discoveries since the 1920s for that matter.) But try to bring up double-blind studies with them and you'll get a rant about the ego of western science, etc, etc...
Oh thank the heavens for Miyamoto.
...
Without him, we wouldn't have a game that involved running from one side of a map to another, to get a quest that involves running right back across the map, to get a quest
And then, INNOVATION, he did it again but in 3D with crappy camera angles!
He's also mastered the art of RPGs that measure your progress completely by the last checkpoint you passed (which means they're perfectly linear) and the ammount of gold you have. Of course, they don't actually store the gold, you have to collect that every time. But hey, 90% of the game is collecting gold by 1) slaughtering basic monsters or 2) pulling up flowers.
What a tribute to the GOD of gaming.
... end sarcasm
What's the big deal? It was listed as "Rumoured Takeover Plan". When my friends and I talked about it, we talked about the rumour.
It still brought up interesting questions and let us know where people stand.
I think AOL (or Corel, or IBM) needs to come out with their own distro of Linux, with the WM tweaked to look much like XP. If it supports browsing, playing video, and a decent office suite most users won't know the difference.
MS has done a lot of cool things (dragging and dropping between different programs and getting the data formatting, etc) that other OSes lag a bit behind, but really, how often do 99.9% of people use that? If given the choice between some funky features and a "name brand" office suite, and $600 savings, which would they choose?
And it's interesting that Alan C. was willing to leave RedHat (if the takeover happened) to ensure that he not only stays free of undue influence, but appears that way to everyone else.
All in all, many useful things were said in these threads and they caused many people to think about things they otherwise wouldn't have.
Maybe you should just learn to ignore stories with "rumour" in them.
Why should I be liable for accidental flaws in something I give away for free?
This is the ridiculous legal climate of the US. Nowhere else can you sue someone because the clock they gave you as a gift was defective.
The obvious thing to do with the bill is make sure that it says something to the effect of "at sale" so that only something you purchase needs to be warrantied. This is the way it is now, it'd just be codified. (Well, technically the way it is now, but you can sue over almost anything...)
I agree.
If you run BeOS, or other non-MS OS, and go to Microsoft and download IE and Outlook, then they shouldn't be financially liable unless they intentionally damage something.
This isn't possible though. IE and Outlook are tied into the OS and are thus being sold with it, even if you can download them seperately as well.
Look at another example... Quake executables. You can download (even before the GPLing) the executables for Quake for any OS, free. This doesn't mean though that id Software doesn't make money from their sale, just that they acknowledge that their only use is with the data files which (theoretically) you can only get by buying the game.
Even worse for MS, IE is an integral part of the OS these days. They use the rendering engine for the help system, much of explorer, etc, etc.
I agree that the total disclaimer should be void on ALL products you purchase.
However, I can't see why free products can't disclaim all resposibility...
Warranties protect buyers - who's the buyer in an open-source situation?
Why? Because one requires you to buy the software, the other is a gift.
If I receive a gift and it malfunctions, I don't have any recourse against the giver unless they specifically intended it to malfunction, or should have known that it would.
If someone gives me a bicycle and it breaks down, they aren't liable to fix it. If I bought the bicycle from them, they may be. (Depending on conditions of sale.)
Seriously, it seems obvious that the big difference is that if you pay for something the seller/maker has an obligation to make sure the product is as advertised. If it's free, well you take your chances.