It was never really an Internet company. AOL was based on the idea that people needed to live in a halfway house while they became accustomed to the Net.'...If folks can get a better, faster, cheaper online experience by ditching AOL, they'll do it in a heartbeat.'
I don't think this analogy is fair. AOL is definitely an Internet company, it's just that their "online presence" is so huge that they can justifiably call themselves their own little Internet (so to speak) even though none of their content is really available to the general Internet community. Hundreds of other Internet companies have tried to do with web sites what AOL has done with their business, namely the ultimate portal. Even the most successful of these attempts (e.g. Yahoo!, MSN, Netscape) has no where near the content, usability, and breadth that AOL has achieved through their proprietary software and business partnerships. No one advertises Yahoo! keyword "The WB".
I ditched AOL years ago but AOL does honestly have an interface to and navigation context with an enormous amount of general content which cannot be rivaled by anyone else.
There are other things, like extensions being left around... and we all know that extensions NEVER, EVER, EVER cause system conflicts. Basically it's the DLL hell all over again, just renamed.
Some people argue that Mac OS X doesn't do extensions anymore because everything is in Bundles. That's not true. An application may install what is called a kext which is very much like extensions were in the previous Mac OS releases. This kext will be included as part of the system when a user logs in.
Actually... to the best of my knowledge that uninstall method has issues.
Yes, this is true. However the drag-and-delete uninstall method will not mess up your system and really does everything except remove files which may never be used again or those kext files which will still be used. Except for kext files, anything which an application may install in */Library or ~/Library/Preferences will never be used again once you delete the application that installed it. Unfortunate to have this type of hard disk clutter, but that's the way it is right now. I think keeping preferences around is a good thing since they don't use up much space and will let a user get their preferences back if they ever reinstall a program.
There should be an uninstall equivalent to the installer for those packages which are installed that way (yucky sentence). If you installed it with drag-and-drop you can delete it with drag-and-delete. But if it was installed with the installer, you should be able to launch an uninstaller to clean up. Still, drag-and-delete works for both types of installed applications is better than Windows where the only drag-and-delete applications are those written for DOS.
This makes sense because it's relatively easy for a parent to figure out if a movie or magazine is R-rated. They know what to look for and how to judge the content.
You don't need to worry so much about books which contain adult themes (these stores do not carry erotic stories, but do carry books that may contain sexual or adult content) because anyone who can read those types of books is probably old enough to handle it. Plus reading the book places those adult themes into adult context.
But when it comes to video and computer games, how often do you hear the kid asking the parent what the game is about? It's entirely the other way around; the parent asks the kid what the game is about. It's entirely plausible that a lot of parents will actually stand there and buy a game like BMX XXX for their 10 year old son and not realize what they are purchasing. I doubt the same is likely to occur for a movie that has XXX in the title let alone a magazine.
Yes, there are many problems with the EULAs and other business practices of the software industry. But I don't think those practices, or a hostile software purchasing environment, justify bypassing software copyright protection or distributing software illegally. You still have the choice and the legal right to exercise your choice and punish those who try to impose illegal restrictions on you or commit fraudulent or misleading business.
And yes, while our system is not perfect for helping the little guy do this, that is the system we have and the system we have to work with. I don't like how big business has railroaded a lot of the laws in Congress, but I don't have the right to not live under those laws. I do have the right to try and change those laws and elect different people.
But actually, I'm not even so sure groups like DoD should be considered as commiting "larger crimes" simply because larger amounts of software pass through their hands.
Is this so much a "criminal" action, or "providing a service to the public"? How often has copy protection gotten in your way?
I can understand this, and am often just as annoyed at how some copy protection schemes work and nag. I will vote with my dollar.
I do think that more illegal activity does correspond to a larger crime, but it is hard to come up with an analogy or precedent that definitively makes this case. I would think the closest thing is probably renting a movie and making 1 copy for yourself versus 1000 copies for everyone in your neighborhood and office. I think most people will agree that the latter is a much more severe act than the first.
Also, I will not agree with your criminal versus Robin Hood speculation. It is not as though we are forced to purchase one software package each month or get sent to jail, or lose our rights. That's like saying gas is too expensive so it's okay to buy stolen gas (I know, not perfect because of the change of product, but the idea is similar in my mind). That could certainly also be seen as a service to the public, but I wouldn't accept that statement. The Robin Hood idea is to relieve suffering and oppression by stealing from the oppressors to benefit the oppressed. That is certainly not applicable with Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop.
You're bringing up quite different situations when you start talking about the morality of killing an abortion doctor, or gasing Jews.
I was primarily responding to the parent poster's comment that thinking about what's right is the job of "ethicists" and not the rest of us. Not to the topic of software piracy.
Software piracy, in most rational people's view, is much more akin to choosing to drive 75MPH in a 55MPH zone, or choosing not to report your earnings on a garage sale to skirt the taxes.
I agree that software piracy in most cases is close to your analogies. On the other hand, the level of activity involved in the DrinkOrDie operation is probably closer to not reporting the sale of a Boeing 747.
"What's right" is for the ethicists. Cost benefit analysis for the rest of us.
Um, excuse me? "What's right" is for every single human being to ponder and base their life decisions upon.
Sounds to me that you've decided that what's right for you is to ensure you have the greatest benefit for least cost, regardless of anyone else. You're basing your cost benefit analysis on what you think is right. Namely that you come first. Someone who thinks the government shouldn't tax, perhaps, or that you shouldn't have to pay social security for the 65+ population. That it's okay to steal the pie of the window sill if you won't get caught.
Either that, or you are taking the view that everyone's moral beliefs and ethical decisions are equally correct. In which case it's okay for the Christian anti-abortionists to kill abortion doctors, because their moral belief and ethics dictate that it is so. And it's okay to gas and burn all the Jews because the belief of a "superior race" means you are free to treat "inferior races" as you would a plague of locusts.
While I will agree that such views are valid, I will not agree that they are correct. I will live by my moral beliefs and I will make moral judgements of other people. This does not mean thinking a culture is uncivilized because they eat their dead out of respect. It does mean thinking a person is wrong because they think murder for fun is okay. To me, what's right also involves the benefits of others. And my monetary cost benefit analysis will be based on that. Along with my decisions involving things like the environment, or politics, the situation between the US and Iraq, etc.
If it's bags of money, it's called stealing. If it's ones and zeros, it's called copyright infringement.
You are confusing his use of the word "stealing" in a moral sense with your use of the word in a legal sense. Morally speaking, I believe, and so do many others, that "pirating" software which in the US is legally "copyright infringement" is _also_ stealing. The same way you can steal a person's job, steal someone's thunder (something I'm sure quite a few Dilbert's have experienced under their PHBs), steal someone's identity, etc.
If you want to be a lawyer, fine, go ahead and say it's copyright infringement. I, however, choose to be a human being and make a moral statement: pirating software/music/movies is stealing, and that it is wrong.
N.B. Moral does not by definition mean good. Good morals mean good. Bad morals mean bad.
Wouldn't it make more sense for Apple to travel both paths and allow you to play the "Palladium-certified" media but not enforce the DRM requirement? All that would prevent them from doing is putting a Palladium-inside sticker on the box.
Unless there is something which says you can't implement half of Palladium, you always have to implement all of it, even if you're not saying you're implementing Palladium. But I don't think there's any such thing, or that something like that would stand up in court.
"Now, if Nintendo announced they are going to shift away from younger gamers and target the 18+ crowd, I'm sure that would get posted here as well."
Just because I'm over the age of 18, doesn't mean I suddenly stop enjoying the games I used to enjoy. Fun is fun, regardless of age. Have you even tried Animal Crossing yet? Super Monkey Ball?
Actually, I'm so into those "kiddie" games as well. But they are still games marketed towards younger gamers. And yes, while Nintendo does have some titles for the mature audience, those really aren't Nintendo games, so to speak. When you think Nintendo, you think Super Monkey Ball, Super Smash Brothers, Donkey Kong, Mario (et al), Zelda, Metroid. You don't think Resident Evil.
Nintendo is actually my game console of choice, along with titles like Zelda, except for the desire to play Final Fantasy titles which are only available for Playstation now.
Probably because it's not news for Sony and Nintendo to have great games or announce game partnerships. We already know that the PS2 and GameCube have awesome games. Neither Sony nor Nintendo are holding press conferences or exhibitions to try and convince us of something we don't think they are.
News like the console price drops did get posted on Slashdot. And the PS3's "out-of-box" speculation. And the PS2 sales and DVD integration. And the GameCube of worms eating.
Now, if Nintendo announced they are going to shift away from younger gamers and target the 18+ crowd, I'm sure that would get posted here as well.
I just mentioned some things in a previous post. It's really the sum of little things that makes a difference. Little things which are easy to overlook and simply attribute to "I just need to get used to it" or "I didn't know better yet". That's why I also said "all the time" and not just "easy to use".
Kids are probably the worst way to get feedback on a UI, unless you are constantly watching, because they will quickly learn the "correct" way to do something, even if it means doing things an incorrect way lots of times first. You might ask your children if there was anything they wanted to do which took them more than one try. I'm not sure they would remember, since once they've figured something out it tends to become second nature.
You could ask the same question of your wife, but how about also asking what things about using the OS annoy her and she wishes were different? (I'm not sure children will be as quick to figure out what annoys them and what they would like to be different.) And if there's anything she wanted to do but just didn't bother to do, and why?
I don't think people have a real problem with just using KDE to perform most routine GUI tasks like opening windows or browsing for files (although browsing for files can be a real adventure in itself for some people, like my mom). But another problem crops up when KDE does not behave in a consistent manner or in a manner which makes it easy for a new user to adapt.
For example, what happens when I accidentally "delete" the trash can? What am I supposed to do? Can I no longer delete things? (I know you can't do this from the desktop, but you can do it from Konqueror.)
How come the default is to single-click (I recently saw someone get mad about RedHat moving to a double-click default)? That makes it extremely difficult to select a file without opening it. And users won't know how to change this.
Why can't I open my hard disk from the Desktop? KDE puts icons for the floppy and CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives, but no hard disk? Or is it just that my installed copy of KDE and/or particular desktop configuration doesn't have the hard disk on it?
It's little things like this which companies spend millions and millions of dollars to address. Unfortunately, KDE doesn't have the money or manpower to actually conduct a formal user interface study.
What's not so easy to use under KDE? Whenever I let people use my machine who've only used Windows, they have no problems doing so, unless I happen to have the BeOS window decorations on, but that's understandable. Now, mind you, the only things in my GUI that I concern myself with configuring are the look-n-feel elements, otherwise, I mostly just leave it to the installed defaults. Beyond that, I only concern myself with configuring things like Apache, sshd, samba, or some other such arcane Unix utility.
Re:I know you're kidding, but....
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Undelete In Linux
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· Score: 4, Insightful
[X] Easy to use Windowing system - KDE
Um, KDE is really nice and my windowing system/manager of choice under Linux. But it's really not so "easy to use" "all the time" to the degree that Windows and Mac OS are.
[X] Standard software install system - LSB, Red Hat, Mandrake, Suse
By listing four things here, you've gone right ahead and said that the software install system is _not_ standard. There is a very different user experience for each distribution's install, enough to make the average user think he is installing a different OS for each one. I know my mom thinks Red Hat is an OS.
[X] Easy to use Windows filesharing - KDE, Samba
I can't say Samba is easy to use Windows filesharing. Easy to use Windows filesharing is clicking on a button that says share files and seeing that folder show up in Network Neighborhood. It's not SWAT.
Actually, having surround sound in an "office of the future" will be extremely important. I think the problem a lot of people have when thinking about something like this is they are thinking surround sound coming out of their computer speakers. But that is not the only place audio will be important in the "office of the future".
What will be great about these proposed offices is teleconferencing and immersive environments. And that is where surround sound (i.e. directional sound) will be incredibly important. If you are teleconferencing with several people, who will be spread out across a wall or several walls, you need audio to help you figure out who is talking. Without it, things will both feel weird and strain your brain. Think watching a movie with left and right channels reversed and both speakers on one side of your head instead of in front.
The same thing goes for video, BTW. You want eye contact to be there, so when you are talking to person A, you better be looking into person A's camera view.
Access Grid nodes encourage stereo sound and camera placement in-line with eye contact. Cool concept images and actual working prototypes of an "office of the future" can be seen at the UNC Office of the Future research site.
But if we've learned anything from watching Star Trek, you should realize that this is exactly how one of those alien beings will either:
possess someone's body for personal gain.
attack us for kidnapping one of their people.
engage in war for killing 1 million from the electrostatic charge of the probe.
mate with a beautiful ship's counselor (they might have to settle for a high school counselor).
become curious and instantiate a young child's imaginary friend.
feed off our sources of energy, causing global famine and slow death.
call down the wrath of the crystal entity.
Obviously, these are issues which must be fully investigated before we risk sending a probe into the Venus atmosphere. I'm sure NASA will develop contingency plans to deal with these risks.
Quoted: 1. Put a vehicle in orbit.
2. Insert a probe into the atmosphere (either from the orbiter or as a separate vehicle). This probe could use one or more of several techniques (parachute, winged design (no retro-thrusters at this stage as this may contaminate the samples)) to perform a fairly slow and controlled descent.
3. The probe fills a small canister with gas (possibly several compartments from different altitudes) and propels it back up into orbit before the pressure and gravity gets too high
4. Dock the canister with the orbiter and send it back to earth.
The first thing that hit my brain when I read this is "history is written by the victors". Because in a lot of ways, that is exactly the type of tactic that is being used here.
The Wayback Machine has always been something I viewed as a type of historical record. But for the first time, we actually had a real record of everything. This wasn't an interpretation of history by an individual, or organization. This wasn't a collection of stories told by people, where each time the story is retold the meanings are changed and people tell things differently and emphasize different points of view. This was an actual snapshot of our history that would not be presented in any way other than it was, or corrupted by human motives or fallacy.
How many times have you wished for a time machine just so that we could really know what happened? We could really know how the Dinosaurs were destroyed. Who shot JFK. Why Hitler would invade his own country and promote racial superiority with characteristics he did not have himself. What really happened when Jesus was crucified. Exactly what did Mohammed see when Allah appeared to him. Did Atlantis exist. Did King Arthur really receive a sword from a lady in the lake.
Pure data gathering through something like the Wayback Machine has a real chance to take snapshots of time. You would have the ability to look at firsthand testimonials, videos, images, and audio from every viewpoint and in an entire context. U.S. history books may never discuss how the United States polarized after September 11th, but preserving all of the blogs and news articles and video footage and interviews dumped onto the Internet, from the United States, Afghanistan, other countries in the Middle East, all over the world, would provide our descendants with an understanding of what happened orders of magnitude greater than anything we can comprehend about history today.
A thousand years from now, when Scientology becomes the religion 99% of the human race believes in because we are scattered across galaxies, a historical record of Xenu.net and the debates on Scientology, the believers of Scientology, and the detractors, would be akin to finding the original stone tablet which Moses brought down from the heavens, along with every single version of the bible in every single language since then.
I cannot be happy with our species to see history get thrown away like this.
What if the reason Microsoft is interested in XBox security is because of where they want to take the XBox. i.e. beyond a console gaming platform. We've already seen rumors that the next version of their XBox will incorporate a lot of PVR capabilities, and Microsoft has hinted at moving towards a single entertainment/multimedia/communication box which is a replacement for a family's living room TV. Add in.Net and Hailstorm and you see a problem: what kind of security will Microsoft be able to "guarantee" (to use the term loosely) if XBox's are modded or hacked?
Sure, you can argue that people who do this are taking on the risk themselves, much like someone who OC's his or her own computer. But, being able to play with an XBox's internals in this manner also means you know _exactly_ what is in other people's XBoxes, the software: the hardware, everything. With that information, do you think it will be easier or harder to infiltrate and exploit another person's XBox which is used for everything from video games to online banking? Remember, Microsoft's security policy is "security through obscurity".
And don't think the next XBox version is going to contain completely different code and hardware from the current XBox. That wouldn't make much sense.
I read here that additional dialog was added to the U.S. theatrical release to help explain some things which would be more obvious to a Japanese citizen. I was thinking that the Japanese language track wouldn't be changed, but if I turn on sub-titles, would those sub-titles have the additional dialogue in them? I don't know.
I was looking around for imports of Spirited Away on DVD. I searched places like eBay, Yahoo! Shopping, and AnimeNation. I found a few different versions, and was wondering which of these is an actual import and not a pirated version (I know, it's hard to say, but hopefully my next questions will make it clearer what I mean).
There are appear to be three different versions, regardless of the region code. There is a 1-disc version with a light blue cover, a 1-disc version with a dark cover, and a 2-disc version with the same dark cover. So, I am wondering what the difference is between the light blue and dark cover DVDs?
With regard to region codes, I was only able to find dics with either no region code (distributed by Manga International, Inc.?), and discs with a region 3 code (from Singapore), but none with region 2 code (from Japan). I'm guessing that the discs with no region code are not legal. But I couldn't say for sure. I'd never heard of Manga International, Inc. before.
And finally, there are a several different language choices. Japanese + English/Chinese subtitles, Chinese + English/Chinese subtitles, Japanese + French/Chinese subtitles, Japanese/Chinese + English/Chinese subtitles, etc. Anyone have any ideas as to which of these are "real"?
What I'm looking for is a Japanese + English subtitles region 2 2-disc set (or region free if those are not pirated versions). The reason I want the import is because I read the U.S. release of Spirited Away has had additional dialogue added and I don't want to see this dialogue, even in the subtitles.
The screen shots were posted by Stefan Hundhammer and aren't part of the offical SuSE web site. This was just a single developer putting up some stuff on YaST2 with screenshots from his personal working environment.
Slashdot Mirror
It was never really an Internet company. AOL was based on the idea that people needed to live in a halfway house while they became accustomed to the Net.'...If folks can get a better, faster, cheaper online experience by ditching AOL, they'll do it in a heartbeat.'
I don't think this analogy is fair. AOL is definitely an Internet company, it's just that their "online presence" is so huge that they can justifiably call themselves their own little Internet (so to speak) even though none of their content is really available to the general Internet community. Hundreds of other Internet companies have tried to do with web sites what AOL has done with their business, namely the ultimate portal. Even the most successful of these attempts (e.g. Yahoo!, MSN, Netscape) has no where near the content, usability, and breadth that AOL has achieved through their proprietary software and business partnerships. No one advertises Yahoo! keyword "The WB".
I ditched AOL years ago but AOL does honestly have an interface to and navigation context with an enormous amount of general content which cannot be rivaled by anyone else.
There are other things, like extensions being left around... and we all know that extensions NEVER, EVER, EVER cause system conflicts. Basically it's the DLL hell all over again, just renamed.
Some people argue that Mac OS X doesn't do extensions anymore because everything is in Bundles. That's not true. An application may install what is called a kext which is very much like extensions were in the previous Mac OS releases. This kext will be included as part of the system when a user logs in.
Actually... to the best of my knowledge that uninstall method has issues.
Yes, this is true. However the drag-and-delete uninstall method will not mess up your system and really does everything except remove files which may never be used again or those kext files which will still be used. Except for kext files, anything which an application may install in */Library or ~/Library/Preferences will never be used again once you delete the application that installed it. Unfortunate to have this type of hard disk clutter, but that's the way it is right now. I think keeping preferences around is a good thing since they don't use up much space and will let a user get their preferences back if they ever reinstall a program.
There should be an uninstall equivalent to the installer for those packages which are installed that way (yucky sentence). If you installed it with drag-and-drop you can delete it with drag-and-delete. But if it was installed with the installer, you should be able to launch an uninstaller to clean up. Still, drag-and-delete works for both types of installed applications is better than Windows where the only drag-and-delete applications are those written for DOS.
This makes sense because it's relatively easy for a parent to figure out if a movie or magazine is R-rated. They know what to look for and how to judge the content.
You don't need to worry so much about books which contain adult themes (these stores do not carry erotic stories, but do carry books that may contain sexual or adult content) because anyone who can read those types of books is probably old enough to handle it. Plus reading the book places those adult themes into adult context.
But when it comes to video and computer games, how often do you hear the kid asking the parent what the game is about? It's entirely the other way around; the parent asks the kid what the game is about. It's entirely plausible that a lot of parents will actually stand there and buy a game like BMX XXX for their 10 year old son and not realize what they are purchasing. I doubt the same is likely to occur for a movie that has XXX in the title let alone a magazine.
Yes, there are many problems with the EULAs and other business practices of the software industry. But I don't think those practices, or a hostile software purchasing environment, justify bypassing software copyright protection or distributing software illegally. You still have the choice and the legal right to exercise your choice and punish those who try to impose illegal restrictions on you or commit fraudulent or misleading business.
And yes, while our system is not perfect for helping the little guy do this, that is the system we have and the system we have to work with. I don't like how big business has railroaded a lot of the laws in Congress, but I don't have the right to not live under those laws. I do have the right to try and change those laws and elect different people.
But actually, I'm not even so sure groups like DoD should be considered as commiting "larger crimes" simply because larger amounts of software pass through their hands.
Is this so much a "criminal" action, or "providing a service to the public"? How often has copy protection gotten in your way?
I can understand this, and am often just as annoyed at how some copy protection schemes work and nag. I will vote with my dollar.
I do think that more illegal activity does correspond to a larger crime, but it is hard to come up with an analogy or precedent that definitively makes this case. I would think the closest thing is probably renting a movie and making 1 copy for yourself versus 1000 copies for everyone in your neighborhood and office. I think most people will agree that the latter is a much more severe act than the first.
Also, I will not agree with your criminal versus Robin Hood speculation. It is not as though we are forced to purchase one software package each month or get sent to jail, or lose our rights. That's like saying gas is too expensive so it's okay to buy stolen gas (I know, not perfect because of the change of product, but the idea is similar in my mind). That could certainly also be seen as a service to the public, but I wouldn't accept that statement. The Robin Hood idea is to relieve suffering and oppression by stealing from the oppressors to benefit the oppressed. That is certainly not applicable with Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop.
You're bringing up quite different situations when you start talking about the morality of killing an abortion doctor, or gasing Jews.
I was primarily responding to the parent poster's comment that thinking about what's right is the job of "ethicists" and not the rest of us. Not to the topic of software piracy.
Software piracy, in most rational people's view, is much more akin to choosing to drive 75MPH in a 55MPH zone, or choosing not to report your earnings on a garage sale to skirt the taxes.
I agree that software piracy in most cases is close to your analogies. On the other hand, the level of activity involved in the DrinkOrDie operation is probably closer to not reporting the sale of a Boeing 747.
"What's right" is for the ethicists. Cost benefit analysis for the rest of us.
Um, excuse me? "What's right" is for every single human being to ponder and base their life decisions upon.
Sounds to me that you've decided that what's right for you is to ensure you have the greatest benefit for least cost, regardless of anyone else. You're basing your cost benefit analysis on what you think is right. Namely that you come first. Someone who thinks the government shouldn't tax, perhaps, or that you shouldn't have to pay social security for the 65+ population. That it's okay to steal the pie of the window sill if you won't get caught.
Either that, or you are taking the view that everyone's moral beliefs and ethical decisions are equally correct. In which case it's okay for the Christian anti-abortionists to kill abortion doctors, because their moral belief and ethics dictate that it is so. And it's okay to gas and burn all the Jews because the belief of a "superior race" means you are free to treat "inferior races" as you would a plague of locusts.
While I will agree that such views are valid, I will not agree that they are correct. I will live by my moral beliefs and I will make moral judgements of other people. This does not mean thinking a culture is uncivilized because they eat their dead out of respect. It does mean thinking a person is wrong because they think murder for fun is okay. To me, what's right also involves the benefits of others. And my monetary cost benefit analysis will be based on that. Along with my decisions involving things like the environment, or politics, the situation between the US and Iraq, etc.
If it's bags of money, it's called stealing.
If it's ones and zeros, it's called copyright infringement.
You are confusing his use of the word "stealing" in a moral sense with your use of the word in a legal sense. Morally speaking, I believe, and so do many others, that "pirating" software which in the US is legally "copyright infringement" is _also_ stealing. The same way you can steal a person's job, steal someone's thunder (something I'm sure quite a few Dilbert's have experienced under their PHBs), steal someone's identity, etc.
If you want to be a lawyer, fine, go ahead and say it's copyright infringement. I, however, choose to be a human being and make a moral statement: pirating software/music/movies is stealing, and that it is wrong.
N.B. Moral does not by definition mean good. Good morals mean good. Bad morals mean bad.
Wouldn't it make more sense for Apple to travel both paths and allow you to play the "Palladium-certified" media but not enforce the DRM requirement? All that would prevent them from doing is putting a Palladium-inside sticker on the box.
Unless there is something which says you can't implement half of Palladium, you always have to implement all of it, even if you're not saying you're implementing Palladium. But I don't think there's any such thing, or that something like that would stand up in court.
Although frankly, there's no such thing as a "mature" game. "Mature" is a word that you never use once you hit 21. Seriously.
:P
You're obviously not a female. Because mature is definitely a word a female uses more after hitting 21.
"Now, if Nintendo announced they are going to shift away from younger gamers and target the 18+ crowd, I'm sure that would get posted here as well."
Just because I'm over the age of 18, doesn't mean I suddenly stop enjoying the games I used to enjoy. Fun is fun, regardless of age. Have you even tried Animal Crossing yet? Super Monkey Ball?
Actually, I'm so into those "kiddie" games as well. But they are still games marketed towards younger gamers. And yes, while Nintendo does have some titles for the mature audience, those really aren't Nintendo games, so to speak. When you think Nintendo, you think Super Monkey Ball, Super Smash Brothers, Donkey Kong, Mario (et al), Zelda, Metroid. You don't think Resident Evil.
Nintendo is actually my game console of choice, along with titles like Zelda, except for the desire to play Final Fantasy titles which are only available for Playstation now.
wish I could mod you up :-(
:)
Thanks
I think that's probably one of the nicest things you can say on Slashdot. I wonder if that means it's a good pickup line...
Probably because it's not news for Sony and Nintendo to have great games or announce game partnerships. We already know that the PS2 and GameCube have awesome games. Neither Sony nor Nintendo are holding press conferences or exhibitions to try and convince us of something we don't think they are.
News like the console price drops did get posted on Slashdot. And the PS3's "out-of-box" speculation. And the PS2 sales and DVD integration. And the GameCube of worms eating.
Now, if Nintendo announced they are going to shift away from younger gamers and target the 18+ crowd, I'm sure that would get posted here as well.
I just mentioned some things in a previous post. It's really the sum of little things that makes a difference. Little things which are easy to overlook and simply attribute to "I just need to get used to it" or "I didn't know better yet". That's why I also said "all the time" and not just "easy to use".
Kids are probably the worst way to get feedback on a UI, unless you are constantly watching, because they will quickly learn the "correct" way to do something, even if it means doing things an incorrect way lots of times first. You might ask your children if there was anything they wanted to do which took them more than one try. I'm not sure they would remember, since once they've figured something out it tends to become second nature.
You could ask the same question of your wife, but how about also asking what things about using the OS annoy her and she wishes were different? (I'm not sure children will be as quick to figure out what annoys them and what they would like to be different.) And if there's anything she wanted to do but just didn't bother to do, and why?
I don't think people have a real problem with just using KDE to perform most routine GUI tasks like opening windows or browsing for files (although browsing for files can be a real adventure in itself for some people, like my mom). But another problem crops up when KDE does not behave in a consistent manner or in a manner which makes it easy for a new user to adapt.
For example, what happens when I accidentally "delete" the trash can? What am I supposed to do? Can I no longer delete things? (I know you can't do this from the desktop, but you can do it from Konqueror.)
How come the default is to single-click (I recently saw someone get mad about RedHat moving to a double-click default)? That makes it extremely difficult to select a file without opening it. And users won't know how to change this.
Why can't I open my hard disk from the Desktop? KDE puts icons for the floppy and CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives, but no hard disk? Or is it just that my installed copy of KDE and/or particular desktop configuration doesn't have the hard disk on it?
It's little things like this which companies spend millions and millions of dollars to address. Unfortunately, KDE doesn't have the money or manpower to actually conduct a formal user interface study.
What's not so easy to use under KDE? Whenever I let people use my machine who've only used Windows, they have no problems doing so, unless I happen to have the BeOS window decorations on, but that's understandable. Now, mind you, the only things in my GUI that I concern myself with configuring are the look-n-feel elements, otherwise, I mostly just leave it to the installed defaults. Beyond that, I only concern myself with configuring things like Apache, sshd, samba, or some other such arcane Unix utility.
[X] Easy to use Windowing system - KDE
Um, KDE is really nice and my windowing system/manager of choice under Linux. But it's really not so "easy to use" "all the time" to the degree that Windows and Mac OS are.
[X] Standard software install system - LSB, Red Hat, Mandrake, Suse
By listing four things here, you've gone right ahead and said that the software install system is _not_ standard. There is a very different user experience for each distribution's install, enough to make the average user think he is installing a different OS for each one. I know my mom thinks Red Hat is an OS.
[X] Easy to use Windows filesharing - KDE, Samba
I can't say Samba is easy to use Windows filesharing. Easy to use Windows filesharing is clicking on a button that says share files and seeing that folder show up in Network Neighborhood. It's not SWAT.
Actually, having surround sound in an "office of the future" will be extremely important. I think the problem a lot of people have when thinking about something like this is they are thinking surround sound coming out of their computer speakers. But that is not the only place audio will be important in the "office of the future".
What will be great about these proposed offices is teleconferencing and immersive environments. And that is where surround sound (i.e. directional sound) will be incredibly important. If you are teleconferencing with several people, who will be spread out across a wall or several walls, you need audio to help you figure out who is talking. Without it, things will both feel weird and strain your brain. Think watching a movie with left and right channels reversed and both speakers on one side of your head instead of in front.
The same thing goes for video, BTW. You want eye contact to be there, so when you are talking to person A, you better be looking into person A's camera view.
Access Grid nodes encourage stereo sound and camera placement in-line with eye contact. Cool concept images and actual working prototypes of an "office of the future" can be seen at the UNC Office of the Future research site.
But if we've learned anything from watching Star Trek, you should realize that this is exactly how one of those alien beings will either:
Obviously, these are issues which must be fully investigated before we risk sending a probe into the Venus atmosphere. I'm sure NASA will develop contingency plans to deal with these risks.
Quoted:
1. Put a vehicle in orbit.
2. Insert a probe into the atmosphere (either from the orbiter or as a separate vehicle). This probe could use one or more of several techniques (parachute, winged design (no retro-thrusters at this stage as this may contaminate the samples)) to perform a fairly slow and controlled descent.
3. The probe fills a small canister with gas (possibly several compartments from different altitudes) and propels it back up into orbit before the pressure and gravity gets too high
4. Dock the canister with the orbiter and send it back to earth.
The first thing that hit my brain when I read this is "history is written by the victors". Because in a lot of ways, that is exactly the type of tactic that is being used here.
The Wayback Machine has always been something I viewed as a type of historical record. But for the first time, we actually had a real record of everything. This wasn't an interpretation of history by an individual, or organization. This wasn't a collection of stories told by people, where each time the story is retold the meanings are changed and people tell things differently and emphasize different points of view. This was an actual snapshot of our history that would not be presented in any way other than it was, or corrupted by human motives or fallacy.
How many times have you wished for a time machine just so that we could really know what happened? We could really know how the Dinosaurs were destroyed. Who shot JFK. Why Hitler would invade his own country and promote racial superiority with characteristics he did not have himself. What really happened when Jesus was crucified. Exactly what did Mohammed see when Allah appeared to him. Did Atlantis exist. Did King Arthur really receive a sword from a lady in the lake.
Pure data gathering through something like the Wayback Machine has a real chance to take snapshots of time. You would have the ability to look at firsthand testimonials, videos, images, and audio from every viewpoint and in an entire context. U.S. history books may never discuss how the United States polarized after September 11th, but preserving all of the blogs and news articles and video footage and interviews dumped onto the Internet, from the United States, Afghanistan, other countries in the Middle East, all over the world, would provide our descendants with an understanding of what happened orders of magnitude greater than anything we can comprehend about history today.
A thousand years from now, when Scientology becomes the religion 99% of the human race believes in because we are scattered across galaxies, a historical record of Xenu.net and the debates on Scientology, the believers of Scientology, and the detractors, would be akin to finding the original stone tablet which Moses brought down from the heavens, along with every single version of the bible in every single language since then.
I cannot be happy with our species to see history get thrown away like this.
What if the reason Microsoft is interested in XBox security is because of where they want to take the XBox. i.e. beyond a console gaming platform. We've already seen rumors that the next version of their XBox will incorporate a lot of PVR capabilities, and Microsoft has hinted at moving towards a single entertainment/multimedia/communication box which is a replacement for a family's living room TV. Add in .Net and Hailstorm and you see a problem: what kind of security will Microsoft be able to "guarantee" (to use the term loosely) if XBox's are modded or hacked?
Sure, you can argue that people who do this are taking on the risk themselves, much like someone who OC's his or her own computer. But, being able to play with an XBox's internals in this manner also means you know _exactly_ what is in other people's XBoxes, the software: the hardware, everything. With that information, do you think it will be easier or harder to infiltrate and exploit another person's XBox which is used for everything from video games to online banking? Remember, Microsoft's security policy is "security through obscurity".
And don't think the next XBox version is going to contain completely different code and hardware from the current XBox. That wouldn't make much sense.
I read here that additional dialog was added to the U.S. theatrical release to help explain some things which would be more obvious to a Japanese citizen. I was thinking that the Japanese language track wouldn't be changed, but if I turn on sub-titles, would those sub-titles have the additional dialogue in them? I don't know.
I was looking around for imports of Spirited Away on DVD. I searched places like eBay, Yahoo! Shopping, and AnimeNation. I found a few different versions, and was wondering which of these is an actual import and not a pirated version (I know, it's hard to say, but hopefully my next questions will make it clearer what I mean).
There are appear to be three different versions, regardless of the region code. There is a 1-disc version with a light blue cover, a 1-disc version with a dark cover, and a 2-disc version with the same dark cover. So, I am wondering what the difference is between the light blue and dark cover DVDs?
With regard to region codes, I was only able to find dics with either no region code (distributed by Manga International, Inc.?), and discs with a region 3 code (from Singapore), but none with region 2 code (from Japan). I'm guessing that the discs with no region code are not legal. But I couldn't say for sure. I'd never heard of Manga International, Inc. before.
And finally, there are a several different language choices. Japanese + English/Chinese subtitles, Chinese + English/Chinese subtitles, Japanese + French/Chinese subtitles, Japanese/Chinese + English/Chinese subtitles, etc. Anyone have any ideas as to which of these are "real"?
What I'm looking for is a Japanese + English subtitles region 2 2-disc set (or region free if those are not pirated versions). The reason I want the import is because I read the U.S. release of Spirited Away has had additional dialogue added and I don't want to see this dialogue, even in the subtitles.
Any help?
Impossible to copy/forge/tamper unless you believe in Nano-Technology. In which case, this "crypto" is only good for the next decade or two.
Don't forget to send a signed copy of your books to Mrs. Lee, written in 1337 speak.
"4 u, Mizzuz Lee. F0r 1 4m 4 57up1d 4c70r."
The screen shots were posted by Stefan Hundhammer and aren't part of the offical SuSE web site. This was just a single developer putting up some stuff on YaST2 with screenshots from his personal working environment.