I moderately enjoy DVDs, video games, and the web. They are not, however, integral to my life and/or well-being. My friends enjoy them more than I, to the point that they feel it worthwhile to pay for these things. I have better things on which to spend my money.
Wine. Books. Good food. I buy and share them. Most everything else I can do without;^)
Honestly, I can live without most things. Sure, I listen to music, and I watch DVDs, and I play video games, but only while they're free. (I mooch from my friends) Were these friends to suddenly become unavailable, I would do without.
Same goes for web content. I enjoy slashdot, but I'd give it up in a second before I'd spend one red cent.
"There is an increasing incidence of Vitamin A toxicity due to the long-term use of it in higher doses, which causes raised levels of calcium in blood. This in turn affects the bones, causes skin and neurological effects and occasionally can cause sudden cardiac arrest."
I used Windows Macro Recorder (from Windows 3.11) to make a simple macro that attacked monsters, killed, them, and healed me. Left it running until I hit level 100.
Leveling in that MMORPG (and so many others) was no more than a menial time sink. The fact that a program could easily and unintelligently do it without one whit of input from me gave me very little incentive to waste time. There was no skill involved, no excitement, no fun: just XP >> Levels.
Computers are designed to automate menial tasks. I did just that ^_^ I encourage others to do the same. It lets you spend your time enjoying the "endgame" or whatever you call it, instead of mouth-breathing whilst you stare unblinking at a CRT clicking on monsters.
Nintendo is a niche console. The people who own it will buy the big games no matter what. They don't need market saturation because they have a significant base of loyal fans/customers. These people are a steady, reliable income stream.
Before Rag Online came to the US, a bunch of us tried to sign up for the Korean version...
We couldn't. In Korea, almost every online game requires you to provide a valid KSSN (Korean Social Security Number). Furthermore, these numbers aren't like US SSNs. The number itself reveals such information as birth year and gender (and they tend to enforce gender in the games as well). You can't just make one up, since it either wouldn't have the proper checksum, wouldn't exist in the database, or wouldn't match the age or gender you need. Plus, the Korean government investigates "suspicious use of a KSSN." If a Korean citizen's KSSN is regularly connecting to a game server from the United States, something is likely amiss.
Granted, there are sites that will "sell" you KSSNs, but they often get shut down by the Korean government. We gave up trying and just waited for the American release. (Not that it was worth waiting for -_- Stupid macro-based boring laggy POS MMORPG...)
I would wager RedHat could claim damages to their business reputation for all that SCO has claimed. SCO is trying to scare people away from Linux (and into their license-fee income stream), but if they lose the IBM suit, their statements could be considered libel/slander.
Also, I take this as a good sign that SCO has no chance to survive. The RedHat folk aren't stupid: they wouldn't enter this fray unless they were reasonably sure of success.
Before p2p, I never really bought music. I enjoy listening to it, sure, but it never seemed to be worth the money to pay for it. For the price of a CD, I could get tickets to a DSO consert downtown instead, and still have money left over for lunch.
p2p came, and I started downloading music. I had never bought CDs in the past, and I had no plans of doing so in the future. The record industry is losing no money for all of my downloads: if the internet disappeared, so too would my interest in music.
I make a robot. I don't give it legs. I am angry when it can't walk. I punish my robot.
Free will you say? Why bother with giving someone free will if you're going to punish them for following any but one specific, arbitrary, and somewhat ambiguous path?
Or, what about the time before judeo-christianity? Were those people held to rules they didn't even know about?
Eternity. So a finite crime begets infinite punishment? Doesn't sound fair to me.
Personally, were I to die and find out that the christians were right, I'd join up with Lucifer in hell. I mean, I'm sure he'd take care of his own. Even if not, you have an eternity to get used to that lake of fire. Adapt: prove Darwin right;^)
Keep in mind that digital cameras of this sort incur far less overhead in processing the pictures they take. Ritz thus saves money and makes more profit even if these cameras are functionally no better than conventional ones.
From the article: "Kaplan says he hopes to have a model with an LCD screen out by the end of the year."
If that version is also cheap, then that's that.
I'm betting they're waiting on the LCD version. The first roll-out is probably a test to see if they get their cameras back or not. If this is hacked, or people just plain lose them, it's a lot cheaper to lose a less expensive model.
Heh.. Almost EVERY post up till how has had the basic idea of "this is sooo going to be hacked: cheap digital cameras for all!"
Honestly, I love slashdot. As we read, there are thousands of geeks pondering ways to circumvent whatever protection Ritz has installed on these things. Even better, odds are Ritz has no idea. It will probably take them a few weeks -after- the cameras are hacked before they even notice.
Then, the lawsuits will fly, but by then it will be too late. The cameras will be re-released with stronger protection, and shortly-after they'll be hacked as well. Ritz will at this point likely give up altogether and drop the product. End result: every geek on the planet gets a cheap digital camera (or three).
Buy them early, in case Ritz catches on! In five years, these things will be as "cool" and "old-school" as the old Cap'n Crunch whistles.
Now, this is digital, so there has to be a way for the Ritz folk to get the photos off of the camera.
10 000 points to the first one to figure out how to do this on our own. Release the info anonymously, of course, so they can't get you on DMCA ballyhoo.
I mean, I'd pay that little for a decent digital camera.
This is very similar to the targeted prices of DVDs (region-coding). It's definitly a good thing for corporations (making people with more money pay more while still having access to lower-income markets), but there are obvious implications...
Of course, barring poor legislation, there are always ways around this sort of thing. If $product is available somewhere for less, I will be able to find it somehow (thank you Internet!) regardless of a corporation's efforts to trick me into paying more.
Right now, I have a region-free DVD player (flashed APEX), a region-free PS1 (stealth chipped), etc...
Before everyone starts bitching with their collective "This can't work! How would it work!?! It's insecure!!" pablum, I offer this solution:
wait.
There will be more information in the weeks and months to come. Don't decry this as useless until you know what it actually is. ___________
That aside, this could be a case of "secure computing" working counter to many of the interests that originally pushed it. Sure, encrypted channels can be used to enforce DRM, but they can also be used to hide that cracked media when $badguy comes looking for it on your hard drive.
The DMCA can work for you just as it works for $badguy. That encrypted IDE is protecting -your- copyrighted intellectual property, after all.
Slashdot Mirror
I moderately enjoy DVDs, video games, and the web. They are not, however, integral to my life and/or well-being. My friends enjoy them more than I, to the point that they feel it worthwhile to pay for these things. I have better things on which to spend my money.
;^)
Wine. Books. Good food. I buy and share them. Most everything else I can do without
Honestly, I can live without most things. Sure, I listen to music, and I watch DVDs, and I play video games, but only while they're free. (I mooch from my friends) Were these friends to suddenly become unavailable, I would do without.
Same goes for web content. I enjoy slashdot, but I'd give it up in a second before I'd spend one red cent.
"Niacin is a vitamin, so it is completely safe."
Vitamin A is a vitamin.
From some googling:
"There is an increasing incidence of Vitamin A toxicity due to the long-term use of it in higher doses, which causes raised levels of calcium in blood. This in turn affects the bones, causes skin and neurological effects and occasionally can cause sudden cardiac arrest."
I used Windows Macro Recorder (from Windows 3.11) to make a simple macro that attacked monsters, killed, them, and healed me. Left it running until I hit level 100.
Leveling in that MMORPG (and so many others) was no more than a menial time sink. The fact that a program could easily and unintelligently do it without one whit of input from me gave me very little incentive to waste time. There was no skill involved, no excitement, no fun: just XP >> Levels.
Computers are designed to automate menial tasks. I did just that ^_^ I encourage others to do the same. It lets you spend your time enjoying the "endgame" or whatever you call it, instead of mouth-breathing whilst you stare unblinking at a CRT clicking on monsters.
Well, I use CoolEdit. Vertical scrolling zooms in and out of the wave, which is highly useful. The horizontal scrollwheel would be a nice addition.
Say you have a folder filled with, I don't know, mp3s. Many of them.
Notice how the window's contents are arranged HORIZONTALLY? Seems a horizontal scroll-thingie would me mighty useful in this situation.
Or how about wave editing? It would be nice to mouse-scroll across the waveform HORIZONTALLY.
Just some thoughts.
Nintendo is a niche console. The people who own it will buy the big games no matter what. They don't need market saturation because they have a significant base of loyal fans/customers. These people are a steady, reliable income stream.
See also: Apple Computers.
"Turn on StickyKeys."
Or use the open source solution, pr0n.
Before Rag Online came to the US, a bunch of us tried to sign up for the Korean version...
We couldn't. In Korea, almost every online game requires you to provide a valid KSSN (Korean Social Security Number). Furthermore, these numbers aren't like US SSNs. The number itself reveals such information as birth year and gender (and they tend to enforce gender in the games as well). You can't just make one up, since it either wouldn't have the proper checksum, wouldn't exist in the database, or wouldn't match the age or gender you need. Plus, the Korean government investigates "suspicious use of a KSSN." If a Korean citizen's KSSN is regularly connecting to a game server from the United States, something is likely amiss.
Granted, there are sites that will "sell" you KSSNs, but they often get shut down by the Korean government. We gave up trying and just waited for the American release. (Not that it was worth waiting for -_- Stupid macro-based boring laggy POS MMORPG...)
"Likely, but I don't think the SCO folks would have started this if they weren't reasonably sure of success."
Actually, I'd wager the SCO folks expect to fail.
Consider this:
SCO stock price low: SCO execs buy stock.
SCO announces lawsuit: SCO stock rises.
Execs sell stock: Profit!
Of course, they could also be banking on that slight chance that SCO wins, in which case Profit! rises by an order of magnitude.
I would wager RedHat could claim damages to their business reputation for all that SCO has claimed. SCO is trying to scare people away from Linux (and into their license-fee income stream), but if they lose the IBM suit, their statements could be considered libel/slander.
Also, I take this as a good sign that SCO has no chance to survive. The RedHat folk aren't stupid: they wouldn't enter this fray unless they were reasonably sure of success.
Fuck you, I'm tired. I can misspell concert if I want!
^_^
Before p2p, I never really bought music. I enjoy listening to it, sure, but it never seemed to be worth the money to pay for it. For the price of a CD, I could get tickets to a DSO consert downtown instead, and still have money left over for lunch.
p2p came, and I started downloading music. I had never bought CDs in the past, and I had no plans of doing so in the future. The record industry is losing no money for all of my downloads: if the internet disappeared, so too would my interest in music.
"You are being punished for *who you are*"
But, in this case, didn't god make me who I am?
I make a robot. I don't give it legs. I am angry when it can't walk. I punish my robot.
Free will you say? Why bother with giving someone free will if you're going to punish them for following any but one specific, arbitrary, and somewhat ambiguous path?
Or, what about the time before judeo-christianity? Were those people held to rules they didn't even know about?
It all seems rather silly.
Seems rather silly.
Heh..
;^)
Eternity. So a finite crime begets infinite punishment? Doesn't sound fair to me.
Personally, were I to die and find out that the christians were right, I'd join up with Lucifer in hell. I mean, I'm sure he'd take care of his own. Even if not, you have an eternity to get used to that lake of fire. Adapt: prove Darwin right
Keep in mind that digital cameras of this sort incur far less overhead in processing the pictures they take. Ritz thus saves money and makes more profit even if these cameras are functionally no better than conventional ones.
From the article: "Kaplan says he hopes to have a model with an LCD screen out by the end of the year."
If that version is also cheap, then that's that.
I'm betting they're waiting on the LCD version. The first roll-out is probably a test to see if they get their cameras back or not. If this is hacked, or people just plain lose them, it's a lot cheaper to lose a less expensive model.
It's not stealing. They make a product that can be purchased for $x. They provide value to said product when it is returned to them.
If I can provide said value on my own, I have no reason to return it to them.
Simple economics ^_^
Heh.. Almost EVERY post up till how has had the basic idea of "this is sooo going to be hacked: cheap digital cameras for all!"
Honestly, I love slashdot. As we read, there are thousands of geeks pondering ways to circumvent whatever protection Ritz has installed on these things. Even better, odds are Ritz has no idea. It will probably take them a few weeks -after- the cameras are hacked before they even notice.
Then, the lawsuits will fly, but by then it will be too late. The cameras will be re-released with stronger protection, and shortly-after they'll be hacked as well. Ritz will at this point likely give up altogether and drop the product. End result: every geek on the planet gets a cheap digital camera (or three).
Buy them early, in case Ritz catches on! In five years, these things will be as "cool" and "old-school" as the old Cap'n Crunch whistles.
Now, this is digital, so there has to be a way for the Ritz folk to get the photos off of the camera.
10 000 points to the first one to figure out how to do this on our own. Release the info anonymously, of course, so they can't get you on DMCA ballyhoo.
I mean, I'd pay that little for a decent digital camera.
This is very similar to the targeted prices of DVDs (region-coding). It's definitly a good thing for corporations (making people with more money pay more while still having access to lower-income markets), but there are obvious implications...
Of course, barring poor legislation, there are always ways around this sort of thing. If $product is available somewhere for less, I will be able to find it somehow (thank you Internet!) regardless of a corporation's efforts to trick me into paying more.
Right now, I have a region-free DVD player (flashed APEX), a region-free PS1 (stealth chipped), etc...
Geeks always win.
Heh.. That, my friend, is computer Darwinism.
Before everyone starts bitching with their collective "This can't work! How would it work!?! It's insecure!!" pablum, I offer this solution:
wait.
There will be more information in the weeks and months to come. Don't decry this as useless until you know what it actually is.
___________
That aside, this could be a case of "secure computing" working counter to many of the interests that originally pushed it. Sure, encrypted channels can be used to enforce DRM, but they can also be used to hide that cracked media when $badguy comes looking for it on your hard drive.
The DMCA can work for you just as it works for $badguy. That encrypted IDE is protecting -your- copyrighted intellectual property, after all.
Seriously. What in FUCK are you talking about?
Bookmark indeed.