No problem, I'm glad I was able to communicate effectively. Too many discussions here disintegrate into trolling or brand bashing. Really refreshing to participate in a positive one!
Here's how it works. Anyone can download Minecraft and play single player. Also, anyone can download and set up a server. If you change a single option, your server will allow anyone (not just people who bought the game) to connect. If you leave it as-is, your server will only allow people who have purchased to connect. What Mojang provides is a centralized authentication service, and if you (the player) want to use their service, you need to pay a 1 time fee of about $20. There are other authentication services out there, but they aren't as easy to set up and use.
Mechanically, there is nothing to prevent you from downloading the Minecraft server right now, setting "online-mode" to false, and allowing anyone to connect without needing to purchase Minecraft. Mojang also allows you to invite other people into a single player world. To me, that's DRM free.
Now, most server owners opt to support Mojang (and make life easier for themselves) by leaving "online-mode" the way it is. And, if Mojang has an issue with their authentication servers, then any server that authenticates with them can't authenticate. This happens from time to time, but unlike EA, Mojang has done a really good job of scaling their system up as the load increases. The downtimes in the past year have been brief (less than an hour in most cases), and I can switch off authentication for those periods of time. It's been solid for a long time now, I honestly can't remember when the last downtime was. And, for having over 9,725,000 users, that's pretty good in my book.
Sure, you can't just plug and chug with everything disconnected and non-authenticated, but it's literally as easy as changing a value in the main server config file from "true" to "false". Or hitting the "Open to LAN" button if you just want to play on LAN with some buddies.
Source: 3+ years of being a Minecraft server admin.
Minecraft is DRM free. It doesn't require server-side activation. Are you encouraged not to turn off authentication with Mojang? Yeah. Does turning it off make the game unplayable? Nope. Doesn't change a thing with the mechanics. Granted, if you're not authenticating users, you'd better make sure you're dealing with skript kiddies some other way, because it'll take about five minutes for some random kid to log in with an admin username and start wrecking stuff, but authentication isn't required.
And, yeah, you have to download the initial files from them...but that's not DRM. That's "we made this game, so obviously we have the files to make aforementioned game run"
Can I ask what exactly qualifies as DRM in this case? Because as far as I can tell (from 3+ years of hosting a server, and longer than that playing), I can go to the Mojang site, download the launcher (or use one of the multiple custom launchers that are out there, like Sk89q's launcher or the Technic client), download the game files from their publically accessible server, and play singleplayer with all the options.
And multiplayer is almost as easy. The option to allow anyone to play (not just people who have paid Mojang) is a simple true/false option in the server config. Sure, they politely ask you to pay if you're going to play, but they make it super easy to just refuse to pay them. Mojang even encourages people to decompile and modify the client and server. They have even hired the authors of one of the more successful mod platforms.
So, basically, I'm not seeing where in this whole cycle the DRM is. Sure, they say "don't sell our game as yours", but that's not DRM, that's asking you to play nice.
Minecraft doesn't require server side activation. They (politely) ask you to pay for the game if you're going to play it multiplayer, but they built a Boolean option right into servers to allow people to play without buying. If you don't believe me, use your Google-fu to look up "cracked" minecraft servers.
I strongly agree with this. Minecraft did this right, and I hope that people will see Mojang's success with DRM free and community driven development and learn that it's still a viable business model.
You and I may know that to install a printer on the next floor that is attached to a network cable that we should choose "install local printer" but
Normally, if it's on the network, I select "Install Network Printer":-P
Specific example: the computer lab at my university has an issue where randomly, on boot, some of the systems don't have the default printer installed. I put instructions to fix this on the post board at the front of the room, which is essentially "click add network printer, type in $specific_IP_address, and click "add this printer now".
Even with written instructions and no drivers to install I've only actually seen one student successfully do so. Most students spend 5 or so minutes saving their stuff, moving to another computer, logging in, and trying again. As sometimes it happens in batches (eg, a whole row fails to have the default printer), this can be painful to watch.
Note that I'm not a computer lab admin...I'm just there working on homework all the time. I wrote the instructions because I got tired of saying the exact same thing. I don't know how to make it any simpler than "use the win7 search bar to search for 'add printer', type in IP address, and click done".
Oh, I have. That's why it's killing me to see them keep using the old way. I limit myself to reminding them about any specific thing twice in one visit. I figure if they still do it the old way...I can't help them.
Nah, I actually saw uses for copypasta more often than cuttypasta. A lot of these people were data entry, so having data "disappear" from their master spreadsheet would cause a small scale panic. Explaining does no good, they saw it disappear with their own eyes!
It's not exactly DOS 6.22, but this article actually spoke on exactly the question of "Can I run a decade old OS on modern hardware and get anything at all done?".
Yup. That's how they do it. As desktop support, it was almost painful having to surpress my impulse to reach down and hit Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V when I watch them do it for the 15th time.
If I had mod points, this would get a "+1 Funny" and/or "+1 Informative".
Your average computer user can't figure out how to add a printer without help, much less customize the interface. The ones who "know computer stuff" tend to do things like download free fonts and emoticons, animated desktops or screensavers, install browser toolbars, and disable "that annoying virus thingy that keeps me from downloading my bling". They then wonder why their computer runs slow.
Source: many years of tech support, working as a computer lab administrator, and observing my relatives and friends screw up their computers because they just simply don't have a clue
Yeah, and Verizon has been doing the whole "if you have a smartphone, you must have a dataplan" crap for years. I love my 'Droid, but I'm also a student, so when I got "upgraded" to an (unwanted) dataplan, it's back to the old G'Zone for me...
I'm wondering how long it will be before Big Oil starts claiming that this substitute damages your car. Or that somehow, "true oil" is better for the environment. Brings to mind the situation with lab grown carbon crystals...it just isn't a diamond unless it was pulled out of the ground through the sweat and labor of someone making minimum wage, right?
As much as I'd like to agree with this, I just can't. The nature of "Anonymous" is that it's...well...hard to track them down. Meaning that yeah, there'll be news about how some skiddy gets dox'd and taken down by law enfourcement, but penalizing people for participating in a DDOS is really really hard.
If this crap actually gets pushed through (internet gods forbid), I'm putting all my sites behind CloudFlare.
And they're illegal. And when they happen, people go to jail. If you haven't noticed, people have been going to jail in proven DDOS cases too. I'm glad you noted the similarity.
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No problem, I'm glad I was able to communicate effectively. Too many discussions here disintegrate into trolling or brand bashing. Really refreshing to participate in a positive one!
Yes, actually.
Here's how it works. Anyone can download Minecraft and play single player. Also, anyone can download and set up a server. If you change a single option, your server will allow anyone (not just people who bought the game) to connect. If you leave it as-is, your server will only allow people who have purchased to connect. What Mojang provides is a centralized authentication service, and if you (the player) want to use their service, you need to pay a 1 time fee of about $20. There are other authentication services out there, but they aren't as easy to set up and use.
Mechanically, there is nothing to prevent you from downloading the Minecraft server right now, setting "online-mode" to false, and allowing anyone to connect without needing to purchase Minecraft. Mojang also allows you to invite other people into a single player world. To me, that's DRM free.
Now, most server owners opt to support Mojang (and make life easier for themselves) by leaving "online-mode" the way it is. And, if Mojang has an issue with their authentication servers, then any server that authenticates with them can't authenticate. This happens from time to time, but unlike EA, Mojang has done a really good job of scaling their system up as the load increases. The downtimes in the past year have been brief (less than an hour in most cases), and I can switch off authentication for those periods of time. It's been solid for a long time now, I honestly can't remember when the last downtime was. And, for having over 9,725,000 users, that's pretty good in my book.
Sure, you can't just plug and chug with everything disconnected and non-authenticated, but it's literally as easy as changing a value in the main server config file from "true" to "false". Or hitting the "Open to LAN" button if you just want to play on LAN with some buddies.
Source: 3+ years of being a Minecraft server admin.
Minecraft is DRM free. It doesn't require server-side activation. Are you encouraged not to turn off authentication with Mojang? Yeah. Does turning it off make the game unplayable? Nope. Doesn't change a thing with the mechanics. Granted, if you're not authenticating users, you'd better make sure you're dealing with skript kiddies some other way, because it'll take about five minutes for some random kid to log in with an admin username and start wrecking stuff, but authentication isn't required.
And, yeah, you have to download the initial files from them...but that's not DRM. That's "we made this game, so obviously we have the files to make aforementioned game run"
Can I ask what exactly qualifies as DRM in this case? Because as far as I can tell (from 3+ years of hosting a server, and longer than that playing), I can go to the Mojang site, download the launcher (or use one of the multiple custom launchers that are out there, like Sk89q's launcher or the Technic client), download the game files from their publically accessible server, and play singleplayer with all the options.
And multiplayer is almost as easy. The option to allow anyone to play (not just people who have paid Mojang) is a simple true/false option in the server config. Sure, they politely ask you to pay if you're going to play, but they make it super easy to just refuse to pay them. Mojang even encourages people to decompile and modify the client and server. They have even hired the authors of one of the more successful mod platforms.
So, basically, I'm not seeing where in this whole cycle the DRM is. Sure, they say "don't sell our game as yours", but that's not DRM, that's asking you to play nice.
Minecraft doesn't require server side activation. They (politely) ask you to pay for the game if you're going to play it multiplayer, but they built a Boolean option right into servers to allow people to play without buying. If you don't believe me, use your Google-fu to look up "cracked" minecraft servers.
I strongly agree with this. Minecraft did this right, and I hope that people will see Mojang's success with DRM free and community driven development and learn that it's still a viable business model.
Try explaining this to a panicing accountant. Trust me, it's faster to simply copy+paste, once you facter in the time taken calming the panic.
Not necessarily. It depends on how often his network is set to lease out IP addresses. I can set my router for anywhere from 1 minute to 999 days.
You and I may know that to install a printer on the next floor that is attached to a network cable that we should choose "install local printer" but
Normally, if it's on the network, I select "Install Network Printer" :-P
Specific example: the computer lab at my university has an issue where randomly, on boot, some of the systems don't have the default printer installed. I put instructions to fix this on the post board at the front of the room, which is essentially "click add network printer, type in $specific_IP_address, and click "add this printer now".
Even with written instructions and no drivers to install I've only actually seen one student successfully do so. Most students spend 5 or so minutes saving their stuff, moving to another computer, logging in, and trying again. As sometimes it happens in batches (eg, a whole row fails to have the default printer), this can be painful to watch.
Note that I'm not a computer lab admin...I'm just there working on homework all the time. I wrote the instructions because I got tired of saying the exact same thing. I don't know how to make it any simpler than "use the win7 search bar to search for 'add printer', type in IP address, and click done".
Thoughts?
Oh, I have. That's why it's killing me to see them keep using the old way. I limit myself to reminding them about any specific thing twice in one visit. I figure if they still do it the old way...I can't help them.
Nah, I actually saw uses for copypasta more often than cuttypasta. A lot of these people were data entry, so having data "disappear" from their master spreadsheet would cause a small scale panic. Explaining does no good, they saw it disappear with their own eyes!
It's not exactly DOS 6.22, but this article actually spoke on exactly the question of "Can I run a decade old OS on modern hardware and get anything at all done?".
Yup. That's how they do it. As desktop support, it was almost painful having to surpress my impulse to reach down and hit Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V when I watch them do it for the 15th time.
If I had mod points, this would get a "+1 Funny" and/or "+1 Informative".
Your average computer user can't figure out how to add a printer without help, much less customize the interface. The ones who "know computer stuff" tend to do things like download free fonts and emoticons, animated desktops or screensavers, install browser toolbars, and disable "that annoying virus thingy that keeps me from downloading my bling". They then wonder why their computer runs slow.
Source: many years of tech support, working as a computer lab administrator, and observing my relatives and friends screw up their computers because they just simply don't have a clue
No, Ubuntu is wrong too. There's a reason I use Xubuntu. Or Fuduntu. Or Kubuntu. Or anything other than the Unity interface.
This. Someone please mod this up. I'd use my points, but I had already commented here.
This is a good list, but not what the OP was asking for. None of these are overtly database driven, and all of them are pre-existing projects.
...with its own bugtracking system.
Yeah, and Verizon has been doing the whole "if you have a smartphone, you must have a dataplan" crap for years. I love my 'Droid, but I'm also a student, so when I got "upgraded" to an (unwanted) dataplan, it's back to the old G'Zone for me...
MS: It's ok, all our Windows are square.
I'm wondering how long it will be before Big Oil starts claiming that this substitute damages your car. Or that somehow, "true oil" is better for the environment. Brings to mind the situation with lab grown carbon crystals...it just isn't a diamond unless it was pulled out of the ground through the sweat and labor of someone making minimum wage, right?
As much as I'd like to agree with this, I just can't. The nature of "Anonymous" is that it's...well...hard to track them down. Meaning that yeah, there'll be news about how some skiddy gets dox'd and taken down by law enfourcement, but penalizing people for participating in a DDOS is really really hard.
If this crap actually gets pushed through (internet gods forbid), I'm putting all my sites behind CloudFlare.
And we have an AC who hit the nail on the head. Legalizing DDOS attacks as a form of protest will turn the internet into a warzone.
And they're illegal. And when they happen, people go to jail. If you haven't noticed, people have been going to jail in proven DDOS cases too. I'm glad you noted the similarity.
My DDR game just made more sense...err...wait...sorry...wrong acronym...