Hopefully Blizzard will drop their attack against Bnetd before the release
And if they choose not to drop it, I hope the community speaks out by choosing not to support them by buying it. It is really easy to bitch about companies and their policies but how many of us actually do something about it?
I for one will not be buying it and will send them a letter explaining why I have passed up Warcraft III, and possibly future titles by Blizard.
How many though will say they were wrong to shut down bnetd as they hand them $50?
In my Profile this is what the checkboxes at the bottom are described as. You can speed registration and get personalized services at participating sites by sharing your.NET Passport information with them when you sign in.
Choose how much of your.NET Passport information Microsoft can share with other companies'.NET Passport sites at sign-in:
[] Share my e-mail address. [] Share my first and last names. [] Share my other registration information.
This is for setting how much personal info you want shared when you sign in to a site that uses Passport. If you did not use Passport then you would have registered at the site and probably given the same info. This does not mean they are selling my info to 3rd parties. This article is FUD.
Given the size of most cell phone displays perhaps they are doing a public service by blocking pr0n by saving people from unneeded eye strain. Ok, so I am reaching....
I'm just waiting for a voice over IP chat application on my cell phone. I think this will be the killer app for internet enabled cell phones. Imagine the convenience of being able to have a voice conversation on your internet enabled cell phone with another internet enabled cell phone user.
I would like to know exactly what this copy protection exploits. If it is designed to lock up a PC then I would say this copy protection is no better than a trojan horse. If I wrote code that intentionally damaged a PC of a user that was not using my software the way I had intended then I would probably be sitting behind bars.
Exactly how big is the print that says not to be used on a PC or a Mac? Is it written in braile as well so a blind person who picks it up won't make a mistake that could damage his PC or Mac?
Furthermore, what is the point of copy protecting CD's in one country and not another? The net is global folks.
Just because the movie is ready NOW and not released or not on DVD does not make it ok to pirate it. The studios are certainly within their rights to release it whenever they want for whatever reasons they want. They after all footed the bill to make it. I'm tired of all the flawed logic people use to justify their crimes.
Using this same logic can I rape a woman I am on a date with and then in my defense say that she told me she wasn't ready yet but did say she was interested in me but would like to wait just a little longer? This happens and guys go free with the right defense team and many women get hurt and sometimes emotionally damaged for life. Naturally this is a lot worse than pirating a movie or CD but the point I am making is when you start along that path of justifying crimes you make it easier to overlook some of the more serious evils out there.
Let the copyright holders control their content. When it comes to the point of them controlling how you view or use your legitimate copy of that content within your domain (and I ain't talking about no internet domains. *grin*) then you can cry foul and scream fair use.
"Information doesn't necessarily want to be free. I just can't afford all that I want right now." -Me
Why don't we try to control the source of the real violence, real guns, instead of going after these false demons like video games that don't have a powerful lobby to protect them.
My.45 locked in its gun case is not a cause of violence anymore than my copy of Quake 3 or Halflife. Please don't try to fight bad legislation with bad legislation.
If you want to control the source of the problem and you are a parent then you need to get involved in your kids lives. If you aren't a parent and you know a troubled teen then get involved in their life and be a friend. Simple shit like that will solve more than any legislation can.
I'm telling you, software makers NEED liability. It's the only way we will ever have responsible programs released. Right now, software makers can get away with selling products that have defects in them on the order of ones that if they were in cars, would send Ford or GM into receivership.
Before you go asking for something like this think about how it will impact the open source and free software community. All software has bugs. Bugs for the most part are not intentional. Would a free software project have the resources to fight off litigation caused by exploit? Punish the script kiddies if you want to punish someone but don't go after the industry because of a few bad apples. This is very similar to copy protecting CD's because a few people might pirate the contents.
I suppose they are talking about the interface in the upper right part of the app as shown in this screenshot.
Clicking the bars slides the bars and shows the tool you want. It isn't a tabpage like I am used to seeing but has the same function. I have seen this technique used somewhere else recently and it wasn't an Adobe product. I wish I could place it. Actually, it just dawned on me that this screenshot is a beta version so it is possible they have already corrected it.
I had no idea that not watching commercials equated to stealing televison shows. My cheesy RCA VCR marks commercials after recording and skips them during playback. This has been around for a while. How does ReplayTV make it different?
So what happens to people who have sent a copy of Six Feet Under to their non HBO subscribing friends? Will they get jail time for this?
Exactly. If they can beep us geek folk at 3am to fix a database, router, or program then we should be able to take a 2 hour lunch to see the latest movies that we can't see on the weekends because at that time we are doing upgrades or some other after hours tech stuff.
Most managers I've had are ok with this and if they aren't you just go do your thing when they take off early to play golf.:)
Eh artists resent it. I f*cking refuse to pay $16 dollars for a CD worth not more than $2-$3.
Where do you come up with these figures? Break it down for me please because I just don't see how bands that are getting screwed over a $16 CD are going to be less screwed on a $3 CD.
The sad thing is writers take it in the ass a lot harder than recording artists do but no one gives a shit. We don't care because we don't have an easy way to steal their work yet. Once we do and the writers start complaining then I'm sure we'll all come to the table about how the publishing industry is ripping off writers so we can justify ourselves ripping off the publishers.
Will Microsoft even allow you to recycle your Win2k license on a new computer?
They let me recycle my XP license on a new computer. They asked if I removed it from the old computer and then gave me a new code. The lady on the other end of the phone was very polite too. They didn't ask about any first born children and I could barely here the voodoo drums in the background.
When will people start finishing an article or a comment before jumping to conclusions. If you and the other poster took the time to finish reading my post you might have seen the humor in my last sentence where I implied that DBA's are as nutty as they come. Nowhere did I imply that non sysadmins were shit.
It doesn't. He's just holds several degrees, and is running for Congress. That would normally overqualify someone for working in a supermarket. If he was in management I would think the article would mention that much at least. I think most of us envisioned him as a college grad who still bagged groceries however.
As for my "total nutcase" comment, I am an Oracle DBA. So either I am higher and mightier than him or come from a larger jar of nuts. I will let you decide which one it is.
Publix Supermarkets has a really strange retirement plan where you're vested in a short amount of time. He's could have held that job during his school years and just be hanging on trying to cash in on the pension. Or he could actually be a total nutcase and can't hold a regular job.
I think we fail to see Katz's point.
on
Dog Bites Website
·
· Score: 2
Does anyone else think it is a perversion of the purpose of slashdot (that being to provide news and stories nerds will care about) for JohnKatz to try and pimp his book to us, the guaranteed massive readership of the site?
This article by Katz comes at a time where people are bitching about slashdots advertising system and the supposed slashdot blackout. The article is a very timely piece which I think justifies the posting of it.
I've been very critical of Katz's postings of the past and even modded down as flamebait on several occasions because I disagreed with him so much that I just couldn't make a rational post. This article however I find no fault at all with. In fact I would almost call it genius because it does several things.
First of all it gives him a free plug for several of his books which are far from the techno-geek culture and does so in keeping with current hot topic of slashdot advertising and how so many of us hotheads are against it.
Secondly it forces us to click open the article and post comments which leads to more ads viewed and of course more content for the site.
Pretty clever if you ask me. And on another note, I like dogs and just might pick up a copy of Katz's book just to add some mix to my current reading list. Based on some of the reviews on Amazon it looks like I'd enjoy it.
Put it into the context of the discussion. This is about bnetd not about httpd (or other OSS).:) The question was poorly worded to get a rise out of open source supporters and muddy the water even more. Personally I feel Blizzard does have the right to protect their games. They might not be doing it in the best way this time around but I'd almost bet that the problems this has caused them this time around will be taken care of in their next game.
For now let Blizzard do what they're doing. It's good for the game industry. How you ask? Take a look at Diablo II and its Battle.net problems. People know Battle.net is full of problems. People know gamers want control and the ability to run their own servers. Blizzard is fighting these folks tooth and nail with bnetd. Enter the competition, Gas Powered Games and BioWare with two Diablo-like RPG's where players can host thier own servers and build their own worlds. We've already seen GPG's early success with Dungeon Siege. Once players can start cranking out their Siegelets Diablo II will start fading from Battlenet. Blizzard will have to either compete by developing similar technology or hold to their guns with their next RPG and stick with a briken battlenet. In my opinion this is all good.
As for the bnetd folks, it's too bad that they put so much time and effort in and few will be able to use bnetd. However, they have done something really good and that is they've made people in the industry rethink what they were doing. Maybe it is in Blizzards best interest to work with bnetd to get the community something they want, an alternative to battlenet, and still protect their vision of a beta that ends so people will buy WarCraft III or not play with cracks.
Their lawsuit to stop bnetd will probably do more damage to themselves as they are basically going after their most hardcore customers. This will be a lesson learned for them and others in the industry to build game that are more open. All you have to do is look at Halflife to see how a game that is open can thrive and still sell copies years after releases of that same time period are in the $4.99 bargain bins.
Check out Dungeon Siege from Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft. This is the latest RPG and they knew in advanced about player supported expansions and I think will benefit greatly from it. I am already looking forward to some new mods. Several Ultima titles are already in the workings. Check out www.planetdungeonsiege.com for more info on modding Dungeon Siege if you are interested.
Is it frustrating to see potential revenue lost due to offering the same products for free? Do you ever run the numbers to see what your income potential might be if you stopped giving away the same software you sell or do you believe that the Linux community, as a whole, cannot and will not support companies who only sell Linux software?
How about a website where I can create my own CD complitation and have it mailed to me... or download the.iso?
Ha! That is a good thought but if the industry did that they would end up charging $15.99 to download an ISO. Its similar to eBooks. I was an eBook reader. I wrote to an eBook publisher asking why in the hell an electronic copy of a book that uses no paper, has no binding, has no shipping costs, no warehousing costs, and takes up no space on a shelf costs the same as the latest hardcover copy of the same book. They blamed it on the technology required to make the ebook, store it, and transmit it. I thought it was pretty funny and decided I would just buy the paper books as I can still loan those out to friends without the fear of going to prison for piracy.
On another note... I know a person who knows a person who has a relative who is an executive a major movie studio(whew). Guess what happens when the studios send out VHS tapes for review purposes or for Academy Award viewing purposes? The employees copy them and give them to friends. I often see full CD's on Usenet or Kazaa weeks or months before the CD is released. I wonder how these rips get out there? People who work in the industry perhaps? Has anyone ever asked the RIAA about this?
Slashdot Mirror
Hopefully Blizzard will drop their attack against Bnetd before the release
And if they choose not to drop it, I hope the community speaks out by choosing not to support them by buying it. It is really easy to bitch about companies and their policies but how many of us actually do something about it?
I for one will not be buying it and will send them a letter explaining why I have passed up Warcraft III, and possibly future titles by Blizard.
How many though will say they were wrong to shut down bnetd as they hand them $50?
If only they were using Open Source Software in the aviation industry...
Yeah, I'd like to see how quickly the Open Source community could fix the problem during the opening weekend of Episode II.
With the amount of spam I get on my hotmail account I would rather pay to get more filters/rules than for more diskspace.
Do I really need 8 more MB of "Add 3 inches with one little pill" in my mailbox?
In my Profile this is what the checkboxes at the bottom are described as.
.NET Passport information with them when you sign in.
.NET Passport information Microsoft can share with other companies' .NET Passport sites at sign-in:
You can speed registration and get personalized services at participating sites by sharing your
Choose how much of your
[] Share my e-mail address.
[] Share my first and last names.
[] Share my other registration information.
This is for setting how much personal info you want shared when you sign in to a site that uses Passport. If you did not use Passport then you would have registered at the site and probably given the same info. This does not mean they are selling my info to 3rd parties. This article is FUD.
Red Hat 7.3 flashes a little update icon when there are updates available. Click the icon and then cycle through the Next buttons and you are patched.
Given the size of most cell phone displays perhaps they are doing a public service by blocking pr0n by saving people from unneeded eye strain. Ok, so I am reaching....
I'm just waiting for a voice over IP chat application on my cell phone. I think this will be the killer app for internet enabled cell phones. Imagine the convenience of being able to have a voice conversation on your internet enabled cell phone with another internet enabled cell phone user.
I would like to know exactly what this copy protection exploits. If it is designed to lock up a PC then I would say this copy protection is no better than a trojan horse. If I wrote code that intentionally damaged a PC of a user that was not using my software the way I had intended then I would probably be sitting behind bars.
Exactly how big is the print that says not to be used on a PC or a Mac? Is it written in braile as well so a blind person who picks it up won't make a mistake that could damage his PC or Mac?
Furthermore, what is the point of copy protecting CD's in one country and not another? The net is global folks.
Just because the movie is ready NOW and not released or not on DVD does not make it ok to pirate it. The studios are certainly within their rights to release it whenever they want for whatever reasons they want. They after all footed the bill to make it. I'm tired of all the flawed logic people use to justify their crimes.
Using this same logic can I rape a woman I am on a date with and then in my defense say that she told me she wasn't ready yet but did say she was interested in me but would like to wait just a little longer? This happens and guys go free with the right defense team and many women get hurt and sometimes emotionally damaged for life. Naturally this is a lot worse than pirating a movie or CD but the point I am making is when you start along that path of justifying crimes you make it easier to overlook some of the more serious evils out there.
Let the copyright holders control their content. When it comes to the point of them controlling how you view or use your legitimate copy of that content within your domain (and I ain't talking about no internet domains. *grin*) then you can cry foul and scream fair use.
"Information doesn't necessarily want to be free. I just can't afford all that I want right now." -Me
Why don't we try to control the source of the real violence, real guns, instead of going after these false demons like video games that don't have a powerful lobby to protect them.
.45 locked in its gun case is not a cause of violence anymore than my copy of Quake 3 or Halflife. Please don't try to fight bad legislation with bad legislation.
My
If you want to control the source of the problem and you are a parent then you need to get involved in your kids lives. If you aren't a parent and you know a troubled teen then get involved in their life and be a friend. Simple shit like that will solve more than any legislation can.
What about magic missle? Can I cast magic missile at the humans?
[Anytown, USA - 1981]
DM: Your party is surrounded by brigands.
Fizzlwhiff: What race are they?
DM: Human.
Fizzlewhiff: I cast magic missile at the first Brigand.
DM: You already cast it at the darkness.
Fizzlewhiff: Crikey! I did. Ok, I cast magic missile using my wand.
DM: Your wand glows and shoots forth a fireball engulfing the brigand for 14 damage thus ending his life.
[Game Store]
Nothing happens
[Anytown, USA - 2002]
*click* *click* *click*
"Your party is surrounded by Brigands"
*click* *click*
"You are out of mana"
*click* *click* *click*
"A brigand is hit for 18 damage. A brigand dies. Your wand is out of charges"
[Video Game Store]
"You have the right to remain silent..."
Nuts!
I'm telling you, software makers NEED liability. It's the only way we will ever have responsible programs released. Right now, software makers can get away with selling products that have defects in them on the order of ones that if they were in cars, would send Ford or GM into receivership.
Before you go asking for something like this think about how it will impact the open source and free software community. All software has bugs. Bugs for the most part are not intentional. Would a free software project have the resources to fight off litigation caused by exploit? Punish the script kiddies if you want to punish someone but don't go after the industry because of a few bad apples. This is very similar to copy protecting CD's because a few people might pirate the contents.
I suppose they are talking about the interface in the upper right part of the app as shown in this screenshot.
Clicking the bars slides the bars and shows the tool you want. It isn't a tabpage like I am used to seeing but has the same function. I have seen this technique used somewhere else recently and it wasn't an Adobe product. I wish I could place it. Actually, it just dawned on me that this screenshot is a beta version so it is possible they have already corrected it.
I had no idea that not watching commercials equated to stealing televison shows. My cheesy RCA VCR marks commercials after recording and skips them during playback. This has been around for a while. How does ReplayTV make it different?
So what happens to people who have sent a copy of Six Feet Under to their non HBO subscribing friends? Will they get jail time for this?
Exactly. If they can beep us geek folk at 3am to fix a database, router, or program then we should be able to take a 2 hour lunch to see the latest movies that we can't see on the weekends because at that time we are doing upgrades or some other after hours tech stuff.
:)
Most managers I've had are ok with this and if they aren't you just go do your thing when they take off early to play golf.
They need to invent a woman that pees Guinness and poops gold. That would solve all my problems.
Eh artists resent it. I f*cking refuse to pay $16 dollars for a CD worth not more than $2-$3.
Where do you come up with these figures? Break it down for me please because I just don't see how bands that are getting screwed over a $16 CD are going to be less screwed on a $3 CD.
The sad thing is writers take it in the ass a lot harder than recording artists do but no one gives a shit. We don't care because we don't have an easy way to steal their work yet. Once we do and the writers start complaining then I'm sure we'll all come to the table about how the publishing industry is ripping off writers so we can justify ourselves ripping off the publishers.
Will Microsoft even allow you to recycle your Win2k license on a new computer?
They let me recycle my XP license on a new computer. They asked if I removed it from the old computer and then gave me a new code. The lady on the other end of the phone was very polite too. They didn't ask about any first born children and I could barely here the voodoo drums in the background.
When will people start finishing an article or a comment before jumping to conclusions. If you and the other poster took the time to finish reading my post you might have seen the humor in my last sentence where I implied that DBA's are as nutty as they come. Nowhere did I imply that non sysadmins were shit.
It doesn't. He's just holds several degrees, and is running for Congress. That would normally overqualify someone for working in a supermarket. If he was in management I would think the article would mention that much at least. I think most of us envisioned him as a college grad who still bagged groceries however.
As for my "total nutcase" comment, I am an Oracle DBA. So either I am higher and mightier than him or come from a larger jar of nuts. I will let you decide which one it is.
Publix Supermarkets has a really strange retirement plan where you're vested in a short amount of time. He's could have held that job during his school years and just be hanging on trying to cash in on the pension. Or he could actually be a total nutcase and can't hold a regular job.
Does anyone else think it is a perversion of the purpose of slashdot (that being to provide news and stories nerds will care about) for JohnKatz to try and pimp his book to us, the guaranteed massive readership of the site?
This article by Katz comes at a time where people are bitching about slashdots advertising system and the supposed slashdot blackout. The article is a very timely piece which I think justifies the posting of it.
I've been very critical of Katz's postings of the past and even modded down as flamebait on several occasions because I disagreed with him so much that I just couldn't make a rational post. This article however I find no fault at all with. In fact I would almost call it genius because it does several things.
First of all it gives him a free plug for several of his books which are far from the techno-geek culture and does so in keeping with current hot topic of slashdot advertising and how so many of us hotheads are against it.
Secondly it forces us to click open the article and post comments which leads to more ads viewed and of course more content for the site.
Pretty clever if you ask me. And on another note, I like dogs and just might pick up a copy of Katz's book just to add some mix to my current reading list. Based on some of the reviews on Amazon it looks like I'd enjoy it.
Put it into the context of the discussion. This is about bnetd not about httpd (or other OSS). :) The question was poorly worded to get a rise out of open source supporters and muddy the water even more. Personally I feel Blizzard does have the right to protect their games. They might not be doing it in the best way this time around but I'd almost bet that the problems this has caused them this time around will be taken care of in their next game.
For now let Blizzard do what they're doing. It's good for the game industry. How you ask? Take a look at Diablo II and its Battle.net problems. People know Battle.net is full of problems. People know gamers want control and the ability to run their own servers. Blizzard is fighting these folks tooth and nail with bnetd. Enter the competition, Gas Powered Games and BioWare with two Diablo-like RPG's where players can host thier own servers and build their own worlds. We've already seen GPG's early success with Dungeon Siege. Once players can start cranking out their Siegelets Diablo II will start fading from Battlenet. Blizzard will have to either compete by developing similar technology or hold to their guns with their next RPG and stick with a briken battlenet. In my opinion this is all good.
As for the bnetd folks, it's too bad that they put so much time and effort in and few will be able to use bnetd. However, they have done something really good and that is they've made people in the industry rethink what they were doing. Maybe it is in Blizzards best interest to work with bnetd to get the community something they want, an alternative to battlenet, and still protect their vision of a beta that ends so people will buy WarCraft III or not play with cracks.
Their lawsuit to stop bnetd will probably do more damage to themselves as they are basically going after their most hardcore customers. This will be a lesson learned for them and others in the industry to build game that are more open. All you have to do is look at Halflife to see how a game that is open can thrive and still sell copies years after releases of that same time period are in the $4.99 bargain bins.
Check out Dungeon Siege from Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft. This is the latest RPG and they knew in advanced about player supported expansions and I think will benefit greatly from it. I am already looking forward to some new mods. Several Ultima titles are already in the workings. Check out www.planetdungeonsiege.com for more info on modding Dungeon Siege if you are interested.
Is it frustrating to see potential revenue lost due to offering the same products for free? Do you ever run the numbers to see what your income potential might be if you stopped giving away the same software you sell or do you believe that the Linux community, as a whole, cannot and will not support companies who only sell Linux software?
How about a website where I can create my own CD complitation and have it mailed to me... or download the .iso?
Ha! That is a good thought but if the industry did that they would end up charging $15.99 to download an ISO. Its similar to eBooks. I was an eBook reader. I wrote to an eBook publisher asking why in the hell an electronic copy of a book that uses no paper, has no binding, has no shipping costs, no warehousing costs, and takes up no space on a shelf costs the same as the latest hardcover copy of the same book. They blamed it on the technology required to make the ebook, store it, and transmit it. I thought it was pretty funny and decided I would just buy the paper books as I can still loan those out to friends without the fear of going to prison for piracy.
On another note... I know a person who knows a person who has a relative who is an executive a major movie studio(whew). Guess what happens when the studios send out VHS tapes for review purposes or for Academy Award viewing purposes? The employees copy them and give them to friends. I often see full CD's on Usenet or Kazaa weeks or months before the CD is released. I wonder how these rips get out there? People who work in the industry perhaps? Has anyone ever asked the RIAA about this?