Don't forget that this is pirate code - game studios themselves tell us it's nigh-guaranteed to be hard-drive melting malware.
Two different cases here, as they decided to remove the DRM on their own terms.
By (apparently) directly copying a pirates code. If so it's an admission on their part that pirate code is just fine. Even the game companies now realize the best way to please the customers is to just ship the warez version.
This assumes the person who cracked it is also the person who distributed the modified version. But if they weren't...
Had I been the one to modify a game I worked to make it play, and distributed the crack to friends via diff, before someone went and distributed it with the game, I'd step up and ask Rockstar to stop distributing my code. Modifying a game you own to make it work is totally reasonable - them to bitch about piracy while forcing people to crack their software to make it work and then resorting to piracy themselves isn't right.
Even if they could find problems with it, we won't end up with sane laws by hiding behind a lawyer.
Yes, you, Lars T and others are best addressed in the only tone you understand. Sumdumass is well represented in there if you care to keep looking. And you one of his drinking buddies?
Unlike you, I'll refrain from the amateur online psychological diagnosis. It's a ridiculous thing to do.
Noticing that you've got a problem is a lot different than diagnosing what it is.
repetitive pattern of abuse
Oh, you unimaginative bastard, you've got no clue. Has your world really been so pampering that you've never been addressed harshly for being an time-wasting ass? They made the Whaaaambulance for you.
It's not a case of me being free to win. It's a battle you can't possibly win.
I know, *all* battles with you are ones that no sane person can win. I'm sure you're a master. You were trying to convince someone his desires were unreasonable when I came in.
All you've done, and all you likely ever will do, is take the conversation from your treatment of a user and their opinion and twist it. You'll play the attacker, the victim, the tired person who's so above this, and yet you'll never just admit you were a jerk because someone's desires don't match yours.
Yet looking back I see that you didn't get a single positive mod or post to back you up.
I'd hope not. We need an off-topic - you for your original lame question, and everything below it.
We name is PRINCE WUNDAI, my family is ONE OF the largest farmer in Nigeria. Father was captured by Warlord who is trying to steal our family fortune. To secure our family, decided we are to looking for a country we can trust to help us smuggle the grain to a safe location.
We picked your country, NORTH KOREA, because of your honest reputation. We'd like to offer you 50% (HALF) of the grain for your help in securing the rest against warlords and USA aggression.
The grain is packed on ships, waiting on the name of a port to deliver it to.
We need only small bribes for the Somalian pirates to let our ships pass, and we will be on our way.
But then the war comes to them anyways and the boy's mangled legs mean he's no help...?
But, the new warlord is better than the last...
But, this new peace removes the determination to really improve their lot in life...
As for getting people away from Facebook, when a "better" alternative comes around, I know one site you'll be able to spread the word on... It's already guaranteed to have 95% of those interested in such a site on it, and is made for rapid communication between those members.
Facebook is where people will hear about the new site, until they censor it.
The difference is supposed to be that they won't be able to control your experience because you'll run (like a blog, some company will for you) the server yourself.
For getting users into it, just setup spiders that reflect everything from Facebook into the new network until it's got the critical mass to be useful.
As for Facebook's take on that, meh, whatever. Let them rail about people taking their data and reproducing it, would be funny.
The word faith accurately describes this situation since I stand behind the democratic principles not matter what
So in other words you don't have any faith in our current system of voting, but you have faith in the concept of democratic self-determination or something?
I'd still recommend another word because I can't think of anything you should believe despite evidence to the contrary, but okay.
But it always leads to interesting political and social issues too.
Indeed. It appears the US founding fathers would have rejected a true democracy even if it were possible then. If we could give everyone the vote, would all the intolerant bastards just vote for something brutal? Should we be bound to it just because a large number of people like it...
Just like communism failed in practice
Have there ever been any communist countries? Not just ones dictatorships up on the new rhetoric, but actual share-and-share-alike communisms?
Not that I really hold out a lot of hope, but I don't think it's actually ever been tested.
to try and find a solution for a seemingly impossible solution intrigues me.
I agree. I've wondered how you could vote at home, be able to check your vote was properly registered and counted, and yet there not be a way to force you to show this to others.
Perhaps when you vote you get a receipt with two numbers, one shows one vote...
But then, how could the populace check that these votes were counted properly. Those links might report the right thing, but then simply be ignored.
You could do micro-counts as the "box" was filling and if the small group felt the count was likely wrong the vote could be inspected there - that way if the overall count changes later you've got evidence. But this links people to their votes - as less people have voted at each smaller count you have a greater idea about what each one voted...
This is the stuff that seems important - a late count is no big deal, but Iran's recent election where the religious tyrants apparently just made up a result, is. Or if they simply arrested everyone who voted against them.
I would like to know how they compare in theory.
A better examination of pen&paper voting, as if it were a modern alternative we were considering, with all the pros and cons examined, would be interesting. We use it now, but would we pick it if not for inertia?
I wonder about democracy at all though - not the idea of people choosing, but the idea that for everything every person gets an equal vote when they have vastly unequal stakes.
For instance, gay marriage. If you're not gay, why do you even get a vote? A gay marriage can't change your non-gay marriage... We don't give whites a vote on black marriage - this is just as silly.
Therefore, I think 99% of the time, it would be foolish not to take a browser update.
Not at all. Less than 1% matter to me. Do you read release notes on the security fixes that come along? Usually they involve options I'm not using, things I'm not doing, or can be mitigated by precautions I already take.
Unfortunately in most programs it's usually rolled into one big ball that I have to take.
I guess I can kind of buy the argument that you might want to roll back your version if an update breaks your access to an important intranet site at work
What a funny set of values. At work, I don't give a shit. If they give me IE and it breaks I can twiddle my thumbs on their dollar all day. At home, on my time, the browser is my tool, my window to the world. Downtime comes out of my budget.
If an update breaks Aardvark, or HaH/LoL it makes browsing SO painful.
I gave it some more thought, I don't really buy the whole, "I want to be able to reject browser updates" argument
You aren't a sysadmin are you? Or if you are, you're also responsible for cleaning up user problems...
It could be a good default, but it needs a way to be switched off.
Paranoia... You're *this* close to serious mental disorder.
Please direct me to one of these lucrative "slag Apple" jobs.
No, he compared it to every other on the web, you dickhead.
No, he said it sucks. Your mental illness read that as an implicit comparison.
Sure, vanishingly few companies consistently do better, but that doesn't change that it sucks.
Hell, simply compared to the old Apple they do suck - they used to give complete schematics for their machines and listings of the machine code. To someone stepping out of the 80s Apple today would appear like Microsoft.
I have never had a favorite open source game that wasn't totally open source - ie would prefer code rather than cash. I played a lot of OpenTTD for a while, but that's about it.
Presumably DF wasn't always your favourite game.
It isn't now. It could be, if all the things he does that I don't like were removed. I'd love a quick-save key. Losing a fort to a magma leak is the game, losing hours of work to a crash is NOT fun and cancels a lot of what was fun.
Toady will *never* change that because it goes against his view of how the game should be played.
I'd also have changed the date format it uses for saves to have the year first so I can sort the damned things.
Have you ever done a repeating donation of that much for your favourite open-source game?
No, but I can imagine being absolutely hooked on Dwarf for longer than on most. If I was still playing heavily when significant enhancements came out I'd donate again. I wouldn't set it up to repeat, I just mean I could picture being around that long.
So would a decent API, or improving the interface (e.g. grid view of dwarf vs skills) so that the tools are no longer necessary.
Depends which tools you use - if you're satisfied with Dwarf Therapist, etc, then yes. If you're trying to write your own, no, again. It's unlikely Toady's ever going to see my need for finding the most traveled areas, etc, or at least not outside of the pathfinding algorithm. Certainly not up where I'd be able to get feedback for fortress layout.
Personally the only external tools I use are visualisers, which would be better served by an API than hacking.
Amusingly, that's the thing I've never gotten to. I really want to be able to issue my own orders from Ruby.
If you've heard of Armadillo Run (unfortunately not open source), I wrote a Ruby library for outputting maps. With a little code in IRB I can generate huge truss structures, rocket wheels, etc.
I'd love to be able to play Dwarf the same way.
What tileset do you use when not using a visualizer? I use Kelora16 for the diagonal walls. It's nice because it reflects how dwarves can move diagonally, but also for how sharp a properly smoothed fort looks.
I simply wasn't referring to you, except implicitly.
The only "lesson" anyone gets from watching you is to ignore the misdirection.
You still don't get it - that YOU can't think of a need for details on an accelerometer doesn't mean nobody needs those, it means YOU can't think of a need - unimaginative.
And that you argue with people who do have these needs, and who simply didn't find a website useful, that's the bastard part.
This isn't an insult contest, which you're free to win - I've got baby pictures online - this is me and many other people trying to explain your mental disorder to you so you'll stop inflicting it on us.
You aren't Apple. It's true, cut you and Steve Jobs does not bleed, insult Apple and your stock price doesn't fall. You don't need to take everyone's reactions to Apple personally, and when you do, you make yourself and Apple look worse.
I complained to a co-worker about Microsoft's site in ~2000 when it wasn't giving me non-stub versions of IE and DirectX. He's an MSVP and knew the site well. I had already gotten the files via googling Microsoft's site, but he wanted to show me how easy the site was. He pulled it up, clicked the little link for 'MSDN', and used the OTHER SEARCH ENGINE to quickly find what I wanted.
I thanked him, but pointed out that it didn't mean the site didn't suck, it just meant that you could get what you want if you were familiar with it - anyone clicking on the intuitive buttons would still get the runaround. He couldn't get it - if he liked it, it was good.
You guys seem the same. The original poster had something he was interested in developing and couldn't find he information HE needed, searching for the things he in that position thought to look for. That you come along and second-guess his need for that information, can point out how to get it now, etc, doesn't change that the website didn't answer his needs at the time.
So he gets flamed for not enjoying his user experience.
Communists aren't extremists, people who take things to extremes are extremists. Many extremists believe the same things you do.
Why would you lump libertarians with communists, btw, even in wanting them to cry in the same corner? They're about as different as you could imagine. Just because they've both got unusual views? At that, apathy is the consensus these days, every actual view is a minority one.
It's not bad for games you've never played, when you weren't going to buy anything. At that, a user paying a penny is at least someone likely to download and install the software - free advertising like piracy, but to pre-qualified purchasers. You'd normally pay to get Google to direct someone to your site, hoping they'd try a demo...
I don't know why you think the price would go up over time though? It's the fundamental problem of closed source payware, before you pay you haven't played and once you've played and might pay more, you aren't going to buy again. Perhaps if they didn't bill until you'd had time to play them and gave you a chance to add a tip when you finalized it.
It's his game, yes. But he wants others to play it. Don't both go without saying?
I too eagerly await new df, specifically not having to set my gridsize and playing natively again.
But I'd think about it more if I had the code, and especially if I could tweak it. I know I'm a niche customer and all but that's the difference between a $5 donation for a game I visit every month or two and a $50 repeating donation for my favorite game.
Admittedly the new version answered a lot of my specific gripes, but being open source would mean I don't need to track down changing memory locations between each build to keep using my tools.
relatively little acknowledgement of what I said in discussions like this.
How many posts do you want, in every thread, acknowledging our own frail mortal limits before we're properly humbled?
I doubt many people *would* come to Slashdot for medical advice, and if they did they'd be rightly sceptical about it. And no-one's going to do an operation based on what they read here.
I'm pretty sure I've seen threads on laser eye surgery. Cancer/chemo, I think... Certainly health and nutrition.
Nor is anyone going to invade a small country based on what they read on Slashdot
"We" invaded Iraq/etc, I don't intend to sign-up myself, but I would like to know as much as possible to make the best decisions here. It's not flashy like "the law" but it's life and death.
So it's the fact that legal advice given here is taken more seriously than it warrants
Medical people find medical shows worse (for TV crap) than other shows, you probably bitch at CSI.
I don't think there's much difference in the help you get here on Slashdot for tech or legal. You wouldn't "take" advice you got here, you'd look it up and use it as the basis for study or to aid in consulting experts. It's like Wikipedia, a good first reference, and likely right if it sounds consistent, but with no guarantees that you aren't missing something.
I don't think I'd learn architecture here but if my company were building an office I'd post an Ask Slashdot on what things a tech company doing XYZ needs to get in a new building, what things to look out for, etc.
and that the people giving it (probably) genuinely believe that they know what they're talking about.
Yeah, Homeopaths and chiropractors (seemingly) honestly believe their craziness.
So? Just that it's harder to distinguish from true that way? Only if you think that someone believing something makes it true... I find it's usually easier because they'll indicate the circular nature of their proof (not understanding this is a weakness in it) and thus be easier to dismiss than a skilled liar.
the general vibe I get is that those taking part in these discussions think they're doing so with the same level of expertise and authority that they can (usually rightly) apply to IT subjects.
Yeah, we can. In any area other than *exactly* mine I have to listen to other people until I check things myself. Some things aren't documented in books precisely enough to answer a layman's question and I need to ask about them, other things are documented well, supported in other works, referenced in still others, etc. You follow?
I know nothing about what you'd do to pursue a copyright claim from start to finish, and I don't expect Slashdot to help here - it'd be asking people to come up with an exhaustive list of things I need to do, not just point out likely things I missed. So I'd consult/hire a pro - with maybe a look through previous Ask Slashdots for tips on finding tech-savvy lawyers...
Where my Slashdot legal degree would come in handy is kicking the pro's tires. For instance, I know the difference between a EULA and the GPL, if they don't, they don't know the area. Not that I wouldn't listen, but if they make and insist on newb misunderstanding of the issue...
No, it's you. You turned a comment that wasn't to you into a challenge you had to answer. A contest nobody was looking for.
or "us",
Well, there are a couple people equally hostile to a user who didn't like part of the Apple experience.
maybe it's you, you paranoid bastard.
No. Still you. There is a bit of an echo in here though.
You're the one talking about VICTORY when responding to someone not liking a website. You're clearly unable to separate threats to Apple's image from your own self esteem and you see everything as hostile or challenging.
I can see from how wildly you grasp at straws that you've never had to actually justify the words you use. It looks like fun. I'll try it. You, ma'am, are a misogynistic quadriplegic and your filibustering gives me serendipity! Or, did you want to explain how I'm paranoid and you, lashing out at users reporting their problems as if they challenged you, are the sane one.
I'd like to take you up on the offer to purchase crack cocaine at discount prices.
I mean, that is what you were alluding to when you said that they employer could potentially lay copyright claim to [...] even the code he wrote before employment started, right?
Because there's no way asking someone to write version 2 implies you'd get ownership of version 1.
No, but he should get modded redundant because someone posts almost exactly the same thing in every thread. Not just law, but everything. "Slashdotter's aren't military experts/doctors/CPU designers/etc, so shutup and stop speculating."
Well yeah, wow. Thanks. We'd so totally have gone out and bought swamp land on account of this thread if not for St. Dogtanian reminding us that we aren't lawyers.
You're playing a cliched part too, there are always a few hangers-on who congratulate them on such a hard truth/worthwhile commentary/slashdot heresy/... without realizing it's just as recycled, trite, and ultimately wrong as what they rail against - while you may not be anything special, many commenters here are - lawyers, doctors, soldiers, etc.
And thanks mom, but we know not to believe everything we read.
If he was hired to continue work on an open source project it's a totally different context than a random hire creating a new work while on the job.
Not that they don't own the copyright to the work, just that under the implicit terms of employment he'd contribute that work under the GPL and merge it with the master project.
They could decide to stop contributing at any time but it'd be a change in the terms of his employment and he could quit.
Slashdot Mirror
Assuming he likes playing Contra, the best situation would be simply to do what he wants, crack/emulate and play it, and not pay Nintendo more.
To accept Nintendo's crazy interpretation (who cares if it matches the courts', it doesn't match the people's views) is to let the lawyers win.
This assumes he's talking about the old version, not some new game only sharing the name.
You don't re-invent the wheel. You copy [...]
Don't forget that this is pirate code - game studios themselves tell us it's nigh-guaranteed to be hard-drive melting malware.
Two different cases here, as they decided to remove the DRM on their own terms.
By (apparently) directly copying a pirates code. If so it's an admission on their part that pirate code is just fine. Even the game companies now realize the best way to please the customers is to just ship the warez version.
This assumes the person who cracked it is also the person who distributed the modified version. But if they weren't...
Had I been the one to modify a game I worked to make it play, and distributed the crack to friends via diff, before someone went and distributed it with the game, I'd step up and ask Rockstar to stop distributing my code. Modifying a game you own to make it work is totally reasonable - them to bitch about piracy while forcing people to crack their software to make it work and then resorting to piracy themselves isn't right.
Even if they could find problems with it, we won't end up with sane laws by hiding behind a lawyer.
I'll refrain from the amateur online psychological diagnosis. [...] very reminiscent of your behaviour.
Oh great, you did manage to find time to diagnose me.
trying to reason with them was mostly unrewarding and unproductive. And so it is with you.
Heh, yeah. You've reasoned so furiously, and it's failed miserably. You should probably have a beer.
Amazing, 100% avoidance.
Adios.
Good riddance.
That works for tech for the reasons give above. It doesn't work for legal advice because [...]
I think you overestimate the quality of the tech advice on here if you think it's much different.
Yes, you, Lars T and others are best addressed in the only tone you understand. Sumdumass is well represented in there if you care to keep looking. And you one of his drinking buddies?
Unlike you, I'll refrain from the amateur online psychological diagnosis. It's a ridiculous thing to do.
Noticing that you've got a problem is a lot different than diagnosing what it is.
repetitive pattern of abuse
Oh, you unimaginative bastard, you've got no clue. Has your world really been so pampering that you've never been addressed harshly for being an time-wasting ass? They made the Whaaaambulance for you.
It's not a case of me being free to win. It's a battle you can't possibly win.
I know, *all* battles with you are ones that no sane person can win. I'm sure you're a master. You were trying to convince someone his desires were unreasonable when I came in.
All you've done, and all you likely ever will do, is take the conversation from your treatment of a user and their opinion and twist it. You'll play the attacker, the victim, the tired person who's so above this, and yet you'll never just admit you were a jerk because someone's desires don't match yours.
Yet looking back I see that you didn't get a single positive mod or post to back you up.
I'd hope not. We need an off-topic - you for your original lame question, and everything below it.
HELLO
We name is PRINCE WUNDAI, my family is ONE OF the largest farmer in Nigeria. Father was captured by Warlord who is trying to steal our family fortune. To secure our family, decided we are to looking for a country we can trust to help us smuggle the grain to a safe location.
We picked your country, NORTH KOREA, because of your honest reputation. We'd like to offer you 50% (HALF) of the grain for your help in securing the rest against warlords and USA aggression.
The grain is packed on ships, waiting on the name of a port to deliver it to.
We need only small bribes for the Somalian pirates to let our ships pass, and we will be on our way.
Please help us, KIM JONG IL
But then the war comes to them anyways and the boy's mangled legs mean he's no help...?
But, the new warlord is better than the last...
But, this new peace removes the determination to really improve their lot in life...
As for getting people away from Facebook, when a "better" alternative comes around, I know one site you'll be able to spread the word on... It's already guaranteed to have 95% of those interested in such a site on it, and is made for rapid communication between those members.
Facebook is where people will hear about the new site, until they censor it.
The difference is supposed to be that they won't be able to control your experience because you'll run (like a blog, some company will for you) the server yourself.
For getting users into it, just setup spiders that reflect everything from Facebook into the new network until it's got the critical mass to be useful.
As for Facebook's take on that, meh, whatever. Let them rail about people taking their data and reproducing it, would be funny.
The word faith accurately describes this situation since I stand behind the democratic principles not matter what
So in other words you don't have any faith in our current system of voting, but you have faith in the concept of democratic self-determination or something?
I'd still recommend another word because I can't think of anything you should believe despite evidence to the contrary, but okay.
But it always leads to interesting political and social issues too.
Indeed. It appears the US founding fathers would have rejected a true democracy even if it were possible then. If we could give everyone the vote, would all the intolerant bastards just vote for something brutal? Should we be bound to it just because a large number of people like it...
Just like communism failed in practice
Have there ever been any communist countries? Not just ones dictatorships up on the new rhetoric, but actual share-and-share-alike communisms?
Not that I really hold out a lot of hope, but I don't think it's actually ever been tested.
to try and find a solution for a seemingly impossible solution intrigues me.
I agree. I've wondered how you could vote at home, be able to check your vote was properly registered and counted, and yet there not be a way to force you to show this to others.
Perhaps when you vote you get a receipt with two numbers, one shows one vote ...
But then, how could the populace check that these votes were counted properly. Those links might report the right thing, but then simply be ignored.
You could do micro-counts as the "box" was filling and if the small group felt the count was likely wrong the vote could be inspected there - that way if the overall count changes later you've got evidence. But this links people to their votes - as less people have voted at each smaller count you have a greater idea about what each one voted...
This is the stuff that seems important - a late count is no big deal, but Iran's recent election where the religious tyrants apparently just made up a result, is. Or if they simply arrested everyone who voted against them.
I would like to know how they compare in theory.
A better examination of pen&paper voting, as if it were a modern alternative we were considering, with all the pros and cons examined, would be interesting. We use it now, but would we pick it if not for inertia?
I wonder about democracy at all though - not the idea of people choosing, but the idea that for everything every person gets an equal vote when they have vastly unequal stakes.
For instance, gay marriage. If you're not gay, why do you even get a vote? A gay marriage can't change your non-gay marriage... We don't give whites a vote on black marriage - this is just as silly.
Therefore, I think 99% of the time, it would be foolish not to take a browser update.
Not at all. Less than 1% matter to me. Do you read release notes on the security fixes that come along? Usually they involve options I'm not using, things I'm not doing, or can be mitigated by precautions I already take.
Unfortunately in most programs it's usually rolled into one big ball that I have to take.
I guess I can kind of buy the argument that you might want to roll back your version if an update breaks your access to an important intranet site at work
What a funny set of values. At work, I don't give a shit. If they give me IE and it breaks I can twiddle my thumbs on their dollar all day. At home, on my time, the browser is my tool, my window to the world. Downtime comes out of my budget.
If an update breaks Aardvark, or HaH/LoL it makes browsing SO painful.
I gave it some more thought, I don't really buy the whole, "I want to be able to reject browser updates" argument
You aren't a sysadmin are you? Or if you are, you're also responsible for cleaning up user problems...
It could be a good default, but it needs a way to be switched off.
you probably get paid attacking Apple.
Paranoia... You're *this* close to serious mental disorder.
Please direct me to one of these lucrative "slag Apple" jobs.
No, he compared it to every other on the web, you dickhead.
No, he said it sucks. Your mental illness read that as an implicit comparison.
Sure, vanishingly few companies consistently do better, but that doesn't change that it sucks.
Hell, simply compared to the old Apple they do suck - they used to give complete schematics for their machines and listings of the machine code. To someone stepping out of the 80s Apple today would appear like Microsoft.
I have never had a favorite open source game that wasn't totally open source - ie would prefer code rather than cash. I played a lot of OpenTTD for a while, but that's about it.
Presumably DF wasn't always your favourite game.
It isn't now. It could be, if all the things he does that I don't like were removed. I'd love a quick-save key. Losing a fort to a magma leak is the game, losing hours of work to a crash is NOT fun and cancels a lot of what was fun.
Toady will *never* change that because it goes against his view of how the game should be played.
I'd also have changed the date format it uses for saves to have the year first so I can sort the damned things.
Have you ever done a repeating donation of that much for your favourite open-source game?
No, but I can imagine being absolutely hooked on Dwarf for longer than on most. If I was still playing heavily when significant enhancements came out I'd donate again. I wouldn't set it up to repeat, I just mean I could picture being around that long.
So would a decent API, or improving the interface (e.g. grid view of dwarf vs skills) so that the tools are no longer necessary.
Depends which tools you use - if you're satisfied with Dwarf Therapist, etc, then yes. If you're trying to write your own, no, again. It's unlikely Toady's ever going to see my need for finding the most traveled areas, etc, or at least not outside of the pathfinding algorithm. Certainly not up where I'd be able to get feedback for fortress layout.
Personally the only external tools I use are visualisers, which would be better served by an API than hacking.
Amusingly, that's the thing I've never gotten to. I really want to be able to issue my own orders from Ruby.
If you've heard of Armadillo Run (unfortunately not open source), I wrote a Ruby library for outputting maps. With a little code in IRB I can generate huge truss structures, rocket wheels, etc.
I'd love to be able to play Dwarf the same way.
What tileset do you use when not using a visualizer? I use Kelora16 for the diagonal walls. It's nice because it reflects how dwarves can move diagonally, but also for how sharp a properly smoothed fort looks.
I simply wasn't referring to you, except implicitly.
The only "lesson" anyone gets from watching you is to ignore the misdirection.
You still don't get it - that YOU can't think of a need for details on an accelerometer doesn't mean nobody needs those, it means YOU can't think of a need - unimaginative.
And that you argue with people who do have these needs, and who simply didn't find a website useful, that's the bastard part.
This isn't an insult contest, which you're free to win - I've got baby pictures online - this is me and many other people trying to explain your mental disorder to you so you'll stop inflicting it on us.
You aren't Apple. It's true, cut you and Steve Jobs does not bleed, insult Apple and your stock price doesn't fall. You don't need to take everyone's reactions to Apple personally, and when you do, you make yourself and Apple look worse.
I complained to a co-worker about Microsoft's site in ~2000 when it wasn't giving me non-stub versions of IE and DirectX. He's an MSVP and knew the site well. I had already gotten the files via googling Microsoft's site, but he wanted to show me how easy the site was. He pulled it up, clicked the little link for 'MSDN', and used the OTHER SEARCH ENGINE to quickly find what I wanted.
I thanked him, but pointed out that it didn't mean the site didn't suck, it just meant that you could get what you want if you were familiar with it - anyone clicking on the intuitive buttons would still get the runaround. He couldn't get it - if he liked it, it was good.
You guys seem the same. The original poster had something he was interested in developing and couldn't find he information HE needed, searching for the things he in that position thought to look for. That you come along and second-guess his need for that information, can point out how to get it now, etc, doesn't change that the website didn't answer his needs at the time.
So he gets flamed for not enjoying his user experience.
You unimaginative bastard.
Communists aren't extremists, people who take things to extremes are extremists. Many extremists believe the same things you do.
Why would you lump libertarians with communists, btw, even in wanting them to cry in the same corner? They're about as different as you could imagine. Just because they've both got unusual views? At that, apathy is the consensus these days, every actual view is a minority one.
It's not bad for games you've never played, when you weren't going to buy anything. At that, a user paying a penny is at least someone likely to download and install the software - free advertising like piracy, but to pre-qualified purchasers. You'd normally pay to get Google to direct someone to your site, hoping they'd try a demo...
I don't know why you think the price would go up over time though? It's the fundamental problem of closed source payware, before you pay you haven't played and once you've played and might pay more, you aren't going to buy again. Perhaps if they didn't bill until you'd had time to play them and gave you a chance to add a tip when you finalized it.
It's his game, yes. But he wants others to play it. Don't both go without saying?
I too eagerly await new df, specifically not having to set my gridsize and playing natively again.
But I'd think about it more if I had the code, and especially if I could tweak it. I know I'm a niche customer and all but that's the difference between a $5 donation for a game I visit every month or two and a $50 repeating donation for my favorite game.
Admittedly the new version answered a lot of my specific gripes, but being open source would mean I don't need to track down changing memory locations between each build to keep using my tools.
Oh yes, the zealots who merely play other games. Wow, look at the zealotry.
It's not an issue of price, or commercialization, but of having the source.
If you like writing or tweaking games it's not an academic difference. All you show is that you can't imagine ever modding a game.
for any critical software
In an increasingly net-centric world, a browser is about as critical as it gets, especially as it's usually the update vector.
relatively little acknowledgement of what I said in discussions like this.
How many posts do you want, in every thread, acknowledging our own frail mortal limits before we're properly humbled?
I doubt many people *would* come to Slashdot for medical advice, and if they did they'd be rightly sceptical about it. And no-one's going to do an operation based on what they read here.
I'm pretty sure I've seen threads on laser eye surgery. Cancer/chemo, I think... Certainly health and nutrition.
Nor is anyone going to invade a small country based on what they read on Slashdot
"We" invaded Iraq/etc, I don't intend to sign-up myself, but I would like to know as much as possible to make the best decisions here. It's not flashy like "the law" but it's life and death.
So it's the fact that legal advice given here is taken more seriously than it warrants
Medical people find medical shows worse (for TV crap) than other shows, you probably bitch at CSI.
I don't think there's much difference in the help you get here on Slashdot for tech or legal. You wouldn't "take" advice you got here, you'd look it up and use it as the basis for study or to aid in consulting experts. It's like Wikipedia, a good first reference, and likely right if it sounds consistent, but with no guarantees that you aren't missing something.
I don't think I'd learn architecture here but if my company were building an office I'd post an Ask Slashdot on what things a tech company doing XYZ needs to get in a new building, what things to look out for, etc.
and that the people giving it (probably) genuinely believe that they know what they're talking about.
Yeah, Homeopaths and chiropractors (seemingly) honestly believe their craziness.
So? Just that it's harder to distinguish from true that way? Only if you think that someone believing something makes it true... I find it's usually easier because they'll indicate the circular nature of their proof (not understanding this is a weakness in it) and thus be easier to dismiss than a skilled liar.
the general vibe I get is that those taking part in these discussions think they're doing so with the same level of expertise and authority that they can (usually rightly) apply to IT subjects.
Yeah, we can. In any area other than *exactly* mine I have to listen to other people until I check things myself. Some things aren't documented in books precisely enough to answer a layman's question and I need to ask about them, other things are documented well, supported in other works, referenced in still others, etc. You follow?
I know nothing about what you'd do to pursue a copyright claim from start to finish, and I don't expect Slashdot to help here - it'd be asking people to come up with an exhaustive list of things I need to do, not just point out likely things I missed. So I'd consult/hire a pro - with maybe a look through previous Ask Slashdots for tips on finding tech-savvy lawyers...
Where my Slashdot legal degree would come in handy is kicking the pro's tires. For instance, I know the difference between a EULA and the GPL, if they don't, they don't know the area. Not that I wouldn't listen, but if they make and insist on newb misunderstanding of the issue...
He didn't compare Apple's website to Nokia's.
And even if he did, and was wrong, it's not your job to defend Apple.
Gee, maybe it's not me
No, it's you. You turned a comment that wasn't to you into a challenge you had to answer. A contest nobody was looking for.
or "us",
Well, there are a couple people equally hostile to a user who didn't like part of the Apple experience.
maybe it's you, you paranoid bastard.
No. Still you. There is a bit of an echo in here though.
You're the one talking about VICTORY when responding to someone not liking a website. You're clearly unable to separate threats to Apple's image from your own self esteem and you see everything as hostile or challenging.
I can see from how wildly you grasp at straws that you've never had to actually justify the words you use. It looks like fun. I'll try it. You, ma'am, are a misogynistic quadriplegic and your filibustering gives me serendipity! Or, did you want to explain how I'm paranoid and you, lashing out at users reporting their problems as if they challenged you, are the sane one.
Would you like a bulb for your projector?
You're job at FOX News is safe.
I are job at FOX? Srs?
I'd like to take you up on the offer to purchase crack cocaine at discount prices.
I mean, that is what you were alluding to when you said that they employer could potentially lay copyright claim to [...] even the code he wrote before employment started, right?
Because there's no way asking someone to write version 2 implies you'd get ownership of version 1.
No, but he should get modded redundant because someone posts almost exactly the same thing in every thread. Not just law, but everything. "Slashdotter's aren't military experts/doctors/CPU designers/etc, so shutup and stop speculating."
Well yeah, wow. Thanks. We'd so totally have gone out and bought swamp land on account of this thread if not for St. Dogtanian reminding us that we aren't lawyers.
You're playing a cliched part too, there are always a few hangers-on who congratulate them on such a hard truth/worthwhile commentary/slashdot heresy/... without realizing it's just as recycled, trite, and ultimately wrong as what they rail against - while you may not be anything special, many commenters here are - lawyers, doctors, soldiers, etc.
And thanks mom, but we know not to believe everything we read.
The code will be considered a "work for hire"
If he was hired to continue work on an open source project it's a totally different context than a random hire creating a new work while on the job.
Not that they don't own the copyright to the work, just that under the implicit terms of employment he'd contribute that work under the GPL and merge it with the master project.
They could decide to stop contributing at any time but it'd be a change in the terms of his employment and he could quit.