Separate but equal would work quite well in this case. The server does not care what bits are transmitted to it - the "Pink Triangle" server would not be missing any mobs, treasures, or instances.
1> Its a fricken game, not real life.
2> Any gays who want to play on "mainstream" srvers should keep their sexual/orientation/identity out of the game. The only way their orientation becomes an issue is when they go all "Queer Nation"/"Act Up!" on folks who would really rather not have top deal with a controversial RL subject in their game. When a player decides to force their sexual orientation on others it is just as much an act of harassment as camping a graveyard in PVP. The folks who don't like it are acting properly in bringing this behavior to Blizzard's attention. (On the hypothetical "Pink Triangle" server, the folks who don't like having alternative lifestyles rammed down their throats are obviously need to get back to a nice safe "normal" server)
3> Sexual orientation is NOT a race issue. No matter how much the activists want everyone to think it is - it is not. When a gay plays the "civil rights" card in an argument they have lost that argument just as surely as if they had called the opposition Nazis. Call that WinPimp2K's Corrolary to Godwin's Law.
Now if you have problems with any of those points and wish to descend into personal attacks. I would point out that you know nothing of my politics, religion, parentage, sexual orientation, or my social associations.
But if you read carefully, you might realize that I don't have a lot of use for rude people of any persuasion
Just let Blizzard start up a "Pink Triangle" server - it can have its own set of rules regarding acceptable behavior. After all Blizz has a lot of servers, let the folks from Queer Nation etc have their own server where you can be permabanned for not being properly respectful of alternative lifestyles - or for just admitting that you persoannly favor a hetero lifestyle.
Heck they can even turn the permabanning power over to members of "teh community" like Rosie O'Donnel, Race Bannon, Pat Califia, etc.:)
And of course they can relax the rules on guild and character names as well. But would they welcome gay Christian guilds?
Overheard in high level meeting of Big Consumer Tech Corp:
Marketing: So what's the dealio with this new AI thingy I heard about?
IT: It's just a bunch of hot air. That "AI" isn't really all that capable. They claim it can pick up on the emotional state of people on the phone and switch their response script accordingly. No real intelligence involved there of either the real or artificial kind
Customer Relations: Hey! Pull your head out of your Beowulf cluster. Let me provide you with a few numbers on our customer satisfaction ratings with regards to our call centers...
(several snore inducing minutes later)
CEO: Enough already! IT, go get us a couple of gross of those Dual Pentagram Servers you have been salivating over. Install 20 copies of these Virtual Call Center employees on each one. We will set up the "server ranchette" in our North Austin offices. HR, get some H1-Bs for the network administration staff in Bangladore.
Later that week in a press release:
"Big Consumer Tech Corp is pleased to announce that in these times of increased outsourcing of American jobs we at BCTC are shutting down our call centers in Bangladore. The services provided by 6000 employees in India will now be provided here in America."
1> SONY installs a rootkit and did not say they were installing a rootkit. A much less damaging form of spyware would have been able to accomplish the tasks that SONY claimed the rootkit was intended for. (If your PC were a neighborhood, you might agree to having a security patrol, but I doubt you would agree to giving them the keys to your home, code for your alarm, and potentially access to your bank accounts, tax returns, and video library)
2> The rootkit SONY installed has known vulnerabilities - meaning that folks other than SONY would be able to use the rootkit for their own purposes. (Back to PC as neighborhood, not only is that security watch doing a whole lot more than you realized, but anyone who knows the secret handshake is a fully authorized member of the patrol - with the same authority as the head honcho.
Now, think of what a class action lawsuit will mean when every member of the afdfected class can claim financial damages based simply off the documented costs of repairing "damage" to systems done from "I love you". (Several thousands of dollars minimum PER PC) - or, to put it another way:
I agree with the other poster. comic book sales are not the driving force behind various comic books getting the movie treatment.
Laziness, lack of imagination and lack of time at the decisionmaking level is. Pretend you are pitching a movie idea to a studio exec. You will make the big bucks for a successful pitch - how well your presentation is received determines whether or not you get to make a movie - not how good your actual source material is.
1> An NYT bestselling novel. Well, even if the studio exec reads at 2000 wpm, it would take him hours to read the book. And NYT bestseller? he was not born yesterday - he remembers how Sly Stallone turned Vanna White into a bestselling author even if you don't. He wants a one or two sentence distillation in terms of movies already made. Kinda works against original movies being made.
2> A comic book. Now you can give the exec a one or two sentence summary of the concept (It's a cross between Indiana Jones and Batman), point out the existence of a known audience, and top it off with a storyboard presentation that you paid all of three bucks for - at the comic book store. Add in a tidbit about a name actor who would do the role, and you have a green light almost as fast as you can say "It's Jim Carrey in The Mask"
Because neither the telcos nor the cablecos are in the "content" market. They are both in the delivery market. It just took the development of VoIP and the digital phone services being offered by the cablecos to wake the telcos up.
Once upon a time telco service was seen as a "natural monopoly". Now that there are multiple outfits that already have big pipes coming into your house (or almost there) we should be able to look forward to actual competitive pricing on "data delivery".
You can go ahead and keep moaning about the lack of content, but the telcos have not fallen into that trap.
The cable companies are going after the telco's market. Since the government has not squished the cable companies like little bugs for this, the telcos either develop a competitive product or they go out of business.
Frankly, the telcos have one massive advantage over the cablecos. They have more reliable gear. I just went through 4 days of screwups with my local cable company. If my phone service had been provided through them as well, I would have had no way to talk to their tech support while tryning to determine where the problem was.
Of course everyone has a cell phone (right), but I can already see the marketing strategy from the sons of Ma Bell. And it's going to pump more FUD than IBM ever dreamed of.
I never really believed that man walked on the moon
Ah, but now the US has to hurry up and get back to the moon so they can plant the evidence of the Apollo landings... Because if the Chinese get there first they will destroy the evidence of the Apollo landings.
Doesn't thinking like that make your head hurt?
Well from what little I rememember, one of the reasons we only dropped two nukes was because that was all we had at at the time - some guy named Joe convinced Harry it would be better for the Allies if the US didn't save any of those weapons right at that particular point in time.
It seems Joe heard about some guy named George who felt that as long as there were all these big armies in Europe it would be a good time to get rid of the Commies - before the borders got all settled down and everything.
Of course that is just my understanding about some of the reasoning that went into the decision to follow up with a second bomb so soon after Hiroshima.
Yes damnitall. in the book "The Puppet Masters" we had:
1> Flying cars
2> Variable length marriages (pick duration when you buy your license)
3> Flying Cars
4> Super spies
5> Flying Cars
6> Really nasty alien invaders
7> flying cars
8> Public nudity
9> Did I mention the flying cars?
I remember when the Jaguar frst came out. This was when console games were first starting to be popular in video stores. After all how many folks were going to drop 30-60 bucks for a game without trying it out for 3 bucks first. For that matter back then you could rent consoles from the video store as well - trying to decide which console to buy? You could "test drive" an SNES or a Sega along with a few games for about 15 bucks, but not a Jaguar.
The folks at Atari slapped a TOS license on everything related to the Jaguar that said in essence:
You can only buy a license to use the Jaguar as an end user.
You may not resell, loan or rent this console.
You may only play games you have purchased on this console.
You may not play rented games on the Jaguar.
You may not play your friends games on the Jaguar.
If you think you found a way to use the Jaguar that does not involve paying Atari boatloads of money - you are wrong.
I picked up a Jaguar box and read that highly restrictive license. (It was printed on the box in a decent sized font). I gently put the box back down and backed away from the obviously terminally diseased Jaguar and never looked back.
What the author is describing is the advance of machines to the point where people on the left side of the bell curve will be unable to compete with robots.
What new jobs will the people who lose their relatively unksilled jobs do? "But am I certain that something will come along next to consume our collective labor" The problem is that "our collective labor" is going to include ever more efficient macines. Now, as a potential employer, why would I hire people to do this job when I can buy or lease a robot to do it for a heck of a lot less money - plus I won't have any nasty labor relations issues.(Remember that if I were to hire people anyways because I have some strange "humans first" mentality, I will soon be out of business becasue of my more rational and less compassionate competitor.)
I don't know if the approach suggested in the article will work - it sounds an awful lot like the approach Mack Reynolds came up with back in the 70s (with his "Guaranteed Basic" - which was a pretty dystopian society), but any approach that does not come up with some permamnent method of dealing with the folks on the left side of the bell curve will guarantee a non-viable society.
If you think you are on the right side of the bell curve, just wait - think about how long it will take for the machines to reach intellectual parity with you? with your children?
And if you think that engineering smarter kids (which I think is a good idea- just not a solution to this problem) will stave this off, consider:
How long to get from "Specialized Machine Intelligence 1.0" to SMI 7.0? (12-15 years using Moore's Law?)
How long to get from Natural Human Intelligence 1.0 to Enhanced Human Intelligence 6.0? I could see new human enhancements that double human intellectual capability coming out every couple of years ( call it WinPimp's Corrolary to Moore's Law), but how long does it take before our enhanced human comes "online" (ie enters the economy as a producer rather than just a consumer)? The machines will still have a massive economic advantage over humans. If we don't start dealing (and dealing properly) with the problem no, how will we deal with it in 15-20 years?
Darn those invisible *sarcasm* tags. I was drawing a parallel between the benefits the automotive industry provided in 1903 ( not very clear) and those provided by the aerospace industry currently.(also very fuzzy because spaceflight has not shown significant advancement in the past 40 years ) I feel that the lack of progress in spaceflight is becasue it has been kept as a governement monopoly. In 1903, the railroad was the King for land based cargo transport, little things like interstate trucking just would not make sense based on something like the original Fords or Cadillacs. Nor would the Interstate Highway system. (what would be the equivalents to those after 40 years of actual progress in spaceflight)
Yes we already have satelites, but where the heck are our giant space stations, Pan Am space clippers, Moonbases, and orbial solar power satellites? We don't have them becasue it is currently too darn expensive to get into orbit (remember that earth orbit is halfway to anywhere in the Solar System in terms of energy (fuel) cost)
In other words cheap access to space will not happen as long as government agencies define their mission as preventing private development of spacecraft.. When it does happen, then we will begin to see the benefits of cheap spaceflight..
I agree that companies will need a good reason to pass on savings to consumers and that reason is generally competition. DIrecTV will lower their prices when they have competition that is hurting them. If Warner Cable cut their rates 75% across the board, DirecTV would have to get competitive or go out of business. - However , infrastructure costs are only part of the picture, both DirecTV andthe cable companies have to buy programming from others. HBO costs about the same whether you get it via satellite or cable.
Still remember that the DirecTV came about becasue the infrastructure cost was at the point where they could be competitive with cable. This was not becasue the launching costs went down, but becasue other technology advanced far enough that a satellite with a network of small home dishes could eat that launch cost and still come in competitive to cable (which is protected by local monopolies in every city I know of)
"the general public gets a great deal of benefit from automobiles and automotive transportation"
Prove it hotshot:
Please detail (three examples will do) the benefit the general public receives from autos and automotive transportaion. Before you answer, please check your calendar.. you will note that the four digit year is 1903, not 2003.
And stop setting up straw men (stray rocket landing on an elementary school). The early automotive developers did not have to stop development because a "stray auto" might plow through a school playground. They took reasonable precautions - as did the early aeroplane companies when developing their vehicles.
As to your anti capitalist (pigs will fly) rant - you are way off base here - or do you work for NASA. The "companies involved" will pass the savings along to their customers as fast as they possibly can - if they have competition. Monopolists and cartels keep prices artificially high.
Right now space access is damn-all expensive because of the massive bureaucracies that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Ask yourself why in the heck does the FAA have any say at all over *spacecraft* development? Did the FAA approve any of the following? Redstone, Atlas, Titan, Saturn, STS? Kind of interesting that the Federal Aviation Agency is busy stopping commercial spaceflight - so busy that several parts of that agency are independently demanding compliance to *their* regulations for something one might reasonably think would come under the purview of NASA. What is the original ststute wherein Congress gave the FAA authority over spacecraft? (If there was noe, it is a very intereting bit of "mission creep", and if Congress did do it, the history of the legislation should be educational in terms of how NASA felt about it and what deals were cut to make it happen)
Unless something drastic happens (think Chinese space program) you can expect that NASA is ready to stifle the upstart aerospace corps as soon as they fight their way free of the FAA. Expect lots of requirements for "man-rating" the indie spacecraft. Don't worry that NASA has no set of standards for "man-rating" a spacecraft. Every NASA spacecraft from Mercury on has benn "man-rated" becasue NASA wanted it to fly, not because they passed any objective set of requirements. (Just ask the astronauts how they really feel about flying in a pure oxygen environment) The lack of "man-rating" standards will not stop NASA from being the next obstacle to orbit
Please don't take this as a conspiracy rant, it is simply the nature of the organizations involved. Although I'm certain there are some rabid anti-space (or outright neo-Luddite)people in positions of power, simple bureaucratic empire building is all that is required to stifle indie spacecraft development at this time.
And if so, can you provide examples? what about bad applications of the law?
Obviously the folks in this forum will answer that in only one way (unless they forget their tags) - although their specific examples may vary.
Because most of my understanding of how prosecutors work is based upon what I see on TV ("documentaries" such as "Law and Order" etc). I get the impression that laws are the tools you use to solve "problems" brought to your attention.
In the computer programming world, sometimes the customer requires the use of certain tools that may not be the best choice for the task at hand. Sometimes we can convince them to go with a technically superior solution, and sometimes we may have to lay in an extra large supply of aspirin and antacid and do it the way they insist. Generally (in the computer programming world), this does not have to involve major ethical issues.
Have you ever had a complaint brought where there was pressure to use a specific law where using that law might not really be the best choice? examples if so?
I do not have any specific examples in mind as regards to IP law, but most everyone in the US is aware of how the property seizure portions of the RICO act have been applied in areas far from their "original intent". Are you aware of any instances where any IP laws have been "stretched" to accomodate a complaint - andonce again can you give examples?
What Lexmark is doing is preventing anyone else from making a replacement ink cartridge for their inkjet printers. They put a smart ship in their inkjet cartridges that can commuicate with the printer (things like ink level, etc) Lexmark then copyrighted the embedded code in their printers. Lexmark would not give a darn if someone made a printer that could use Lexmark ink cartridges.
But, Brand X decided to sell their own replacement cartridges for Lexmark printers. They had to make cartridges that could talk with the Lexmark printers. If they can do this, it might gut Lexmark's business plan (sell printer at cost, reap huge profits on ink cartridges). So, Lexmark has to make sure that people will want to use only genuine Lexmark cartridges in their Lexmark printers. Now they could try and do this with a big marketing campaign (convince consumers to pay more for their ink), or they could try to litigate their competition out of business (leaving the consumer with no choice of what cartridge to put in their Lexmark printer).
Lexmark claims this violates the "anti-cirumvention" clause in the DMCA. The way the DMCA is written - and this is exactly the way that Lexmark is using it - is that the third party chips are allowing ACCESS to a "protected" copyrighted work. It doesn't matter that the copyright on the work is not being infringed (Brand X is not copying it after all). All that matters is that they are gaining access to it.
As other posters have pointed out, the automotive analogy would be for auto manufacturers to build cars that have the engine refuse to start if car detected any part (tires, oil filter, etc) that did not come from the only approved source. Of course in th US, there are specific laws preventing the auto industry from doing anything like that (because once upon a time the auto industry tried to shut down third party replacement parts by voiding warranties whenever they were used)
If Rowlings does have a contract that limits WB to seven movies then more power to her.
Just think of another famous literary figure who has founded a movie dynasty that has spanned nearly 40 years and 20 movies. (Can you say "Bond, James Bond"?) Of course, Ian Fleming did not have nearly so much control over what the production company did (being dead kind of limits your creative input). At any rate after they ran out of book titles to use for movie titles, they used the titles of the Bond short stories and then they just kind of degenerated into making movies using characters from the books. (Hint, "Moonraker" had nothing to do with with invisible space stations, fleets of space shuttles, or a plot to create the perfect society by killing off everyone living *on* Earth at the time)
I can just see WB thinking ahead ten years to when Harry is all grown up. We could be subjected to a whole slew of "Hary Potter: Secret (M)agent Man" movies. Harry would be the debonair secret agent with a license to "wave his wand". Ron Weasly's dad would play the part of "M", and his sister could play Moneypenny. Hermione would take on the role of "Q". Voldemort would take the place of Blofeld. J-Lo would be the... ermm I'm gonna stop here, if the folks at WB want more details they are going to have to pay me.
So, if Rowlings has limited them to only seven movies, bully for her.
Sorry for not being clearer, what I meant was that "destruction" would (if possible) involve more than simply wiping your hard drive and requiring restoration of backups. DId I misread though? I thought your original post said you were using XP.
As to physical damage, well I don't know just what is possible for malicious code to do, but think of how the RIAA et al feel.
How do many people feel about spammers? A lot of folks have gone to the trouble of making sure that e-mail spammers always have their mail boxe filled with all manner of commercial bulk mail. Other people feel the only way to stop spam is for very Bad Things (involving full body casts or worse) to befall spammers - and the spammers claim they are doing nothing wrong...
Well folks owning lucrative copyrights have the same special feelings about file "traders". In the eyes of the RIAA and their lapdogs, the file "trader" is stealing from them - and the file "trader" claims to be doing nothing wrong - or claims that it is only fair because the copyright owner has a history of extortion (price fixing etc). So, I'm sure at least some of the copyright owners would be all in favor of doing physical damage to the "trader", but would be willing to settle for whatever they can get away with.
As I said, I doubt that something like this proposal will pass, but what does come out will be plenty bad.
Nope, I'm not gonna flame you, but you have not really thought this out.
You are using WinXP, therefore your system would not be destroyed unless the destructive program also invalidated every software activation key you have - requiring a purchase of ALL NEW software from MSFT at the very least. Plus, you are now a "registered software pirate" with MSFT and their enforcement division (BSA).
Or do you think for a moment that Mr. Trusted Computing would even blink at the opportunity to increase sales by "a few hundred thousand" units per year at full retail?
Actually I think Sen Hatch has deliberately gone "over the top" to get some serious proposals moving forward - but I fully expect the final results will probably be pretty unpalatable.
I also love QNX - even though I have not done any active work in it for over five years.
QNX Trivia: when QNX Software was still called Quantum Software Systems Ltd., they called their operating system QUNIX (which should answer any questions about how to pronounce the name). However, after a visit from AT&T's lawyers, they decided to drop the vowels.
Back in 1985 I wrote a Point-Of-Sale application for video stores. It used QNX version 2 in real mode (8088s and 8086s) or in protected mode (80286, later 386 and beyond). And even on the lowly 8088 machines, it was possible to run the application for two users (main console and one dumb terminal in 640K). With a 286 machine, and a multiport serial card, 11 users could be supported with just 4 megs of RAM (but the hard drive could be a bottleneck) At one point (1990) over 600 video stores used that software. That app was written and compiled under the "K&R C compiler - not ANSI C" that QNX provided back then. The OS came on two 1.2M floppies, the compiler came on a third floppy.
There are still 30 odd video stores running that software and they will be using it as long as their hardware holds out. (It is getting harder to find P166 or 486 class machines...QNX 2 will not run on anything faster and the upgrade path is expensive)
They use it because the only problems they experience are hardware problems and operator error. The OS can't protect you from a failed power supply or a direct hit from lightning. It also can not protect you from the superuser (root) person who types in something like: "zap/cmds [ENTER]"
Several places just do not turn their machines off - ever. So far as I know the best record for uptime was nearly ten years. Some would have been better, but there was an occasion requiring some mandatory "downtime" a few years ago when everyone had to upgrade their apps - but not their OS.
Otherwise you can't get in the proper pop culture reference:
the hacker has a dislike for the game
...
(No) Profit! (for Ubisoft)
For those folks who actually enjoy Shadowbane (all four of you including Mr Wolfpack's mama) you have my condolences.My own experience with the game was very bad (lag, etc on broadband).
I am surprised the game server was hacked. Yes the folks at Ubisoft/Wolfpack did sell a product that was very inferior to other offerings in their niche market (Diablo 1 on cheaternet). So there would be no shortage of people with motives to wreak a little mayhem. But I am surprised that the game survived long enough to give anyone the opportunity to hack it.
Slashdot Mirror
Separate but equal would work quite well in this case. The server does not care what bits are transmitted to it - the "Pink Triangle" server would not be missing any mobs, treasures, or instances.
1> Its a fricken game, not real life.
2> Any gays who want to play on "mainstream" srvers should keep their sexual/orientation/identity out of the game. The only way their orientation becomes an issue is when they go all "Queer Nation"/"Act Up!" on folks who would really rather not have top deal with a controversial RL subject in their game. When a player decides to force their sexual orientation on others it is just as much an act of harassment as camping a graveyard in PVP. The folks who don't like it are acting properly in bringing this behavior to Blizzard's attention. (On the hypothetical "Pink Triangle" server, the folks who don't like having alternative lifestyles rammed down their throats are obviously need to get back to a nice safe "normal" server)
3> Sexual orientation is NOT a race issue. No matter how much the activists want everyone to think it is - it is not. When a gay plays the "civil rights" card in an argument they have lost that argument just as surely as if they had called the opposition Nazis. Call that WinPimp2K's Corrolary to Godwin's Law.
Now if you have problems with any of those points and wish to descend into personal attacks. I would point out that you know nothing of my politics, religion, parentage, sexual orientation, or my social associations.
But if you read carefully, you might realize that I don't have a lot of use for rude people of any persuasion
Just let Blizzard start up a "Pink Triangle" server - it can have its own set of rules regarding acceptable behavior. After all Blizz has a lot of servers, let the folks from Queer Nation etc have their own server where you can be permabanned for not being properly respectful of alternative lifestyles - or for just admitting that you persoannly favor a hetero lifestyle.
:)
Heck they can even turn the permabanning power over to members of "teh community" like Rosie O'Donnel, Race Bannon, Pat Califia, etc.
And of course they can relax the rules on guild and character names as well. But would they welcome gay Christian guilds?
No, This is marketing goobledeygok:
Overheard in high level meeting of Big Consumer Tech Corp:
Marketing: So what's the dealio with this new AI thingy I heard about?
IT: It's just a bunch of hot air. That "AI" isn't really all that capable. They claim it can pick up on the emotional state of people on the phone and switch their response script accordingly. No real intelligence involved there of either the real or artificial kind
Customer Relations: Hey! Pull your head out of your Beowulf cluster. Let me provide you with a few numbers on our customer satisfaction ratings with regards to our call centers...
(several snore inducing minutes later)
CEO: Enough already! IT, go get us a couple of gross of those Dual Pentagram Servers you have been salivating over. Install 20 copies of these Virtual Call Center employees on each one. We will set up the "server ranchette" in our North Austin offices. HR, get some H1-Bs for the network administration staff in Bangladore.
Later that week in a press release:
"Big Consumer Tech Corp is pleased to announce that in these times of increased outsourcing of American jobs we at BCTC are shutting down our call centers in Bangladore. The services provided by 6000 employees in India will now be provided here in America."
Hmm.. lets see. If I recall correctly:
1> SONY installs a rootkit and did not say they were installing a rootkit. A much less damaging form of spyware would have been able to accomplish the tasks that SONY claimed the rootkit was intended for. (If your PC were a neighborhood, you might agree to having a security patrol, but I doubt you would agree to giving them the keys to your home, code for your alarm, and potentially access to your bank accounts, tax returns, and video library)
2> The rootkit SONY installed has known vulnerabilities - meaning that folks other than SONY would be able to use the rootkit for their own purposes. (Back to PC as neighborhood, not only is that security watch doing a whole lot more than you realized, but anyone who knows the secret handshake is a fully authorized member of the patrol - with the same authority as the head honcho.
Now, think of what a class action lawsuit will mean when every member of the afdfected class can claim financial damages based simply off the documented costs of repairing "damage" to systems done from "I love you". (Several thousands of dollars minimum PER PC) - or, to put it another way:
3> Profit! (but not for SONY)
Au contraire - (That's French for Kind of - not really)
Each copy of XP Pro comes with a CAL for Terminal services - but only if your server for Terminal Services is running Server 2000.
Those CAL's are not valid if your TS box is running Server 2003 (once known as XP Server)
I agree with the other poster. comic book sales are not the driving force behind various comic books getting the movie treatment.
Laziness, lack of imagination and lack of time at the decisionmaking level is. Pretend you are pitching a movie idea to a studio exec. You will make the big bucks for a successful pitch - how well your presentation is received determines whether or not you get to make a movie - not how good your actual source material is.
1> An NYT bestselling novel. Well, even if the studio exec reads at 2000 wpm, it would take him hours to read the book. And NYT bestseller? he was not born yesterday - he remembers how Sly Stallone turned Vanna White into a bestselling author even if you don't. He wants a one or two sentence distillation in terms of movies already made. Kinda works against original movies being made.
2> A comic book. Now you can give the exec a one or two sentence summary of the concept (It's a cross between Indiana Jones and Batman), point out the existence of a known audience, and top it off with a storyboard presentation that you paid all of three bucks for - at the comic book store.
Add in a tidbit about a name actor who would do the role, and you have a green light almost as fast as you can say "It's Jim Carrey in The Mask"
Because neither the telcos nor the cablecos are in the "content" market. They are both in the delivery market. It just took the development of VoIP and the digital phone services being offered by the cablecos to wake the telcos up.
Once upon a time telco service was seen as a "natural monopoly". Now that there are multiple outfits that already have big pipes coming into your house (or almost there) we should be able to look forward to actual competitive pricing on "data delivery".
You can go ahead and keep moaning about the lack of content, but the telcos have not fallen into that trap.
The cable companies are going after the telco's market. Since the government has not squished the cable companies like little bugs for this, the telcos either develop a competitive product or they go out of business.
Frankly, the telcos have one massive advantage over the cablecos. They have more reliable gear. I just went through 4 days of screwups with my local cable company. If my phone service had been provided through them as well, I would have had no way to talk to their tech support while tryning to determine where the problem was.
Of course everyone has a cell phone (right), but I can already see the marketing strategy from the sons of Ma Bell. And it's going to pump more FUD than IBM ever dreamed of.
Ah, but now the US has to hurry up and get back to the moon so they can plant the evidence of the Apollo landings... Because if the Chinese get there first they will destroy the evidence of the Apollo landings. Doesn't thinking like that make your head hurt?
Well from what little I rememember, one of the reasons we only dropped two nukes was because that was all we had at at the time - some guy named Joe convinced Harry it would be better for the Allies if the US didn't save any of those weapons right at that particular point in time.
It seems Joe heard about some guy named George who felt that as long as there were all these big armies in Europe it would be a good time to get rid of the Commies - before the borders got all settled down and everything.
Of course that is just my understanding about some of the reasoning that went into the decision to follow up with a second bomb so soon after Hiroshima.
Hey I think Bruce Campbell should be the Captain (or maybe helmsman) of the Thunderchilde.
Yes damnitall. in the book "The Puppet Masters" we had:
1> Flying cars
2> Variable length marriages (pick duration when you buy your license)
3> Flying Cars
4> Super spies
5> Flying Cars
6> Really nasty alien invaders
7> flying cars
8> Public nudity
9> Did I mention the flying cars?
nope it is POE for Purity Of Essence... or was it Peace On Earth? They never could make up their minds in that movie... :)
I'm a hardware tech and I just applied a code patch. Now the system won't run.
But at least that pesky user will not be able to send out an email about his idea...
I remember when the Jaguar frst came out. This was when console games were first starting to be popular in video stores. After all how many folks were going to drop 30-60 bucks for a game without trying it out for 3 bucks first. For that matter back then you could rent consoles from the video store as well - trying to decide which console to buy? You could "test drive" an SNES or a Sega along with a few games for about 15 bucks, but not a Jaguar.
The folks at Atari slapped a TOS license on everything related to the Jaguar that said in essence:
You can only buy a license to use the Jaguar as an end user.
You may not resell, loan or rent this console.
You may only play games you have purchased on this console.
You may not play rented games on the Jaguar.
You may not play your friends games on the Jaguar.
If you think you found a way to use the Jaguar that does not involve paying Atari boatloads of money - you are wrong.
I picked up a Jaguar box and read that highly restrictive license. (It was printed on the box in a decent sized font). I gently put the box back down and backed away from the obviously terminally diseased Jaguar and never looked back.
Read the article.
Take a moment and THINK!
What the author is describing is the advance of machines to the point where people on the left side of the bell curve will be unable to compete with robots.
What new jobs will the people who lose their relatively unksilled jobs do?
"But am I certain that something will come along next to consume our collective labor"
The problem is that "our collective labor" is going to include ever more efficient macines.
Now, as a potential employer, why would I hire people to do this job when I can buy or lease a robot to do it for a heck of a lot less money - plus I won't have any nasty labor relations issues.(Remember that if I were to hire people anyways because I have some strange "humans first" mentality, I will soon be out of business becasue of my more rational and less compassionate competitor.)
I don't know if the approach suggested in the article will work - it sounds an awful lot like the approach Mack Reynolds came up with back in the 70s (with his "Guaranteed Basic" - which was a pretty dystopian society), but any approach that does not come up with some permamnent method of dealing with the folks on the left side of the bell curve will guarantee a non-viable society.
If you think you are on the right side of the bell curve, just wait - think about how long it will take for the machines to reach intellectual parity with you? with your children?
And if you think that engineering smarter kids (which I think is a good idea- just not a solution to this problem) will stave this off, consider:
How long to get from "Specialized Machine Intelligence 1.0" to SMI 7.0? (12-15 years using Moore's Law?)
How long to get from Natural Human Intelligence 1.0 to Enhanced Human Intelligence 6.0? I could see new human enhancements that double human intellectual capability coming out every couple of years ( call it WinPimp's Corrolary to Moore's Law), but how long does it take before our enhanced human comes "online" (ie enters the economy as a producer rather than just a consumer)? The machines will still have a massive economic advantage over humans. If we don't start dealing (and dealing properly) with the problem no, how will we deal with it in 15-20 years?
Darn those invisible *sarcasm* tags. I was drawing a parallel between the benefits the automotive industry provided in 1903 ( not very clear) and those provided by the aerospace industry currently.(also very fuzzy because spaceflight has not shown significant advancement in the past 40 years ) I feel that the lack of progress in spaceflight is becasue it has been kept as a governement monopoly. In 1903, the railroad was the King for land based cargo transport, little things like interstate trucking just would not make sense based on something like the original Fords or Cadillacs. Nor would the Interstate Highway system. (what would be the equivalents to those after 40 years of actual progress in spaceflight)
Yes we already have satelites, but where the heck are our giant space stations, Pan Am space clippers, Moonbases, and orbial solar power satellites? We don't have them becasue it is currently too darn expensive to get into orbit (remember that earth orbit is halfway to anywhere in the Solar System in terms of energy (fuel) cost)
In other words cheap access to space will not happen as long as government agencies define their mission as preventing private development of spacecraft.. When it does happen, then we will begin to see the benefits of cheap spaceflight..
I agree that companies will need a good reason to pass on savings to consumers and that reason is generally competition. DIrecTV will lower their prices when they have competition that is hurting them. If Warner Cable cut their rates 75% across the board, DirecTV would have to get competitive or go out of business. - However , infrastructure costs are only part of the picture, both DirecTV andthe cable companies have to buy programming from others. HBO costs about the same whether you get it via satellite or cable.
Still remember that the DirecTV came about becasue the infrastructure cost was at the point where they could be competitive with cable. This was not becasue the launching costs went down, but becasue other technology advanced far enough that a satellite with a network of small home dishes could eat that launch cost and still come in competitive to cable (which is protected by local monopolies in every city I know of)
"the general public gets a great deal of benefit from automobiles and automotive transportation"
Prove it hotshot:
Please detail (three examples will do) the benefit the general public receives from autos and automotive transportaion. Before you answer, please check your calendar.. you will note that the four digit year is 1903, not 2003.
And stop setting up straw men (stray rocket landing on an elementary school). The early automotive developers did not have to stop development because a "stray auto" might plow through a school playground. They took reasonable precautions - as did the early aeroplane companies when developing their vehicles.
As to your anti capitalist (pigs will fly) rant - you are way off base here - or do you work for NASA. The "companies involved" will pass the savings along to their customers as fast as they possibly can - if they have competition. Monopolists and cartels keep prices artificially high.
Right now space access is damn-all expensive because of the massive bureaucracies that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Ask yourself why in the heck does the FAA have any say at all over *spacecraft* development? Did the FAA approve any of the following? Redstone, Atlas, Titan, Saturn, STS? Kind of interesting that the Federal Aviation Agency is busy stopping commercial spaceflight - so busy that several parts of that agency are independently demanding compliance to *their* regulations for something one might reasonably think would come under the purview of NASA. What is the original ststute wherein Congress gave the FAA authority over spacecraft? (If there was noe, it is a very intereting bit of "mission creep", and if Congress did do it, the history of the legislation should be educational in terms of how NASA felt about it and what deals were cut to make it happen)
Unless something drastic happens (think Chinese space program) you can expect that NASA is ready to stifle the upstart aerospace corps as soon as they fight their way free of the FAA. Expect lots of requirements for "man-rating" the indie spacecraft. Don't worry that NASA has no set of standards for "man-rating" a spacecraft. Every NASA spacecraft from Mercury on has benn "man-rated" becasue NASA wanted it to fly, not because they passed any objective set of requirements. (Just ask the astronauts how they really feel about flying in a pure oxygen environment) The lack of "man-rating" standards will not stop NASA from being the next obstacle to orbit
Please don't take this as a conspiracy rant, it is simply the nature of the organizations involved. Although I'm certain there are some rabid anti-space (or outright neo-Luddite)people in positions of power, simple bureaucratic empire building is all that is required to stifle indie spacecraft development at this time.
And if so, can you provide examples? what about bad applications of the law?
Obviously the folks in this forum will answer that in only one way (unless they forget their tags) - although their specific examples may vary.
Because most of my understanding of how prosecutors work is based upon what I see on TV ("documentaries" such as "Law and Order" etc). I get the impression that laws are the tools you use to solve "problems" brought to your attention.
In the computer programming world, sometimes the customer requires the use of certain tools that may not be the best choice for the task at hand. Sometimes we can convince them to go with a technically superior solution, and sometimes we may have to lay in an extra large supply of aspirin and antacid and do it the way they insist. Generally (in the computer programming world), this does not have to involve major ethical issues.
Have you ever had a complaint brought where there was pressure to use a specific law where using that law might not really be the best choice? examples if so?
I do not have any specific examples in mind as regards to IP law, but most everyone in the US is aware of how the property seizure portions of the RICO act have been applied in areas far from their "original intent". Are you aware of any instances where any IP laws have been "stretched" to accomodate a complaint - andonce again can you give examples?
What Lexmark is doing is preventing anyone else from making a replacement ink cartridge for their inkjet printers. They put a smart ship in their inkjet cartridges that can commuicate with the printer (things like ink level, etc) Lexmark then copyrighted the embedded code in their printers. Lexmark would not give a darn if someone made a printer that could use Lexmark ink cartridges.
But, Brand X decided to sell their own replacement cartridges for Lexmark printers. They had to make cartridges that could talk with the Lexmark printers. If they can do this, it might gut Lexmark's business plan (sell printer at cost, reap huge profits on ink cartridges). So, Lexmark has to make sure that people will want to use only genuine Lexmark cartridges in their Lexmark printers. Now they could try and do this with a big marketing campaign (convince consumers to pay more for their ink), or they could try to litigate their competition out of business (leaving the consumer with no choice of what cartridge to put in their Lexmark printer).
Lexmark claims this violates the "anti-cirumvention" clause in the DMCA. The way the DMCA is written - and this is exactly the way that Lexmark is using it - is that the third party chips are allowing ACCESS to a "protected" copyrighted work. It doesn't matter that the copyright on the work is not being infringed (Brand X is not copying it after all). All that matters is that they are gaining access to it.
As other posters have pointed out, the automotive analogy would be for auto manufacturers to build cars that have the engine refuse to start if car detected any part (tires, oil filter, etc) that did not come from the only approved source. Of course in th US, there are specific laws preventing the auto industry from doing anything like that (because once upon a time the auto industry tried to shut down third party replacement parts by voiding warranties whenever they were used)
If Rowlings does have a contract that limits WB to seven movies then more power to her.
Just think of another famous literary figure who has founded a movie dynasty that has spanned nearly 40 years and 20 movies. (Can you say "Bond, James Bond"?) Of course, Ian Fleming did not have nearly so much control over what the production company did (being dead kind of limits your creative input). At any rate after they ran out of book titles to use for movie titles, they used the titles of the Bond short stories and then they just kind of degenerated into making movies using characters from the books. (Hint, "Moonraker" had nothing to do with with invisible space stations, fleets of space shuttles, or a plot to create the perfect society by killing off everyone living *on* Earth at the time)
I can just see WB thinking ahead ten years to when Harry is all grown up. We could be subjected to a whole slew of "Hary Potter: Secret (M)agent Man" movies. Harry would be the debonair secret agent with a license to "wave his wand". Ron Weasly's dad would play the part of "M", and his sister could play Moneypenny. Hermione would take on the role of "Q". Voldemort would take the place of Blofeld. J-Lo would be the... ermm I'm gonna stop here, if the folks at WB want more details they are going to have to pay me.
So, if Rowlings has limited them to only seven movies, bully for her.
Sorry for not being clearer, what I meant was that "destruction" would (if possible) involve more than simply wiping your hard drive and requiring restoration of backups. DId I misread though? I thought your original post said you were using XP.
As to physical damage, well I don't know just what is possible for malicious code to do, but think of how the RIAA et al feel.
How do many people feel about spammers? A lot of folks have gone to the trouble of making sure that e-mail spammers always have their mail boxe filled with all manner of commercial bulk mail. Other people feel the only way to stop spam is for very Bad Things (involving full body casts or worse) to befall spammers - and the spammers claim they are doing nothing wrong...
Well folks owning lucrative copyrights have the same special feelings about file "traders". In the eyes of the RIAA and their lapdogs, the file "trader" is stealing from them - and the file "trader" claims to be doing nothing wrong - or claims that it is only fair because the copyright owner has a history of extortion (price fixing etc). So, I'm sure at least some of the copyright owners would be all in favor of doing physical damage to the "trader", but would be willing to settle for whatever they can get away with.
As I said, I doubt that something like this proposal will pass, but what does come out will be plenty bad.
Nope, I'm not gonna flame you, but you have not really thought this out.
You are using WinXP, therefore your system would not be destroyed unless the destructive program also invalidated every software activation key you have - requiring a purchase of ALL NEW software from MSFT at the very least. Plus, you are now a "registered software pirate" with MSFT and their enforcement division (BSA).
Or do you think for a moment that Mr. Trusted Computing would even blink at the opportunity to increase sales by "a few hundred thousand" units per year at full retail?
Actually I think Sen Hatch has deliberately gone "over the top" to get some serious proposals moving forward - but I fully expect the final results will probably be pretty unpalatable.
I also love QNX - even though I have not done any active work in it for over five years.
/cmds [ENTER]"
QNX Trivia: when QNX Software was still called Quantum Software Systems Ltd., they called their operating system QUNIX (which should answer any questions about how to pronounce the name). However, after a visit from AT&T's lawyers, they decided to drop the vowels.
Back in 1985 I wrote a Point-Of-Sale application for video stores. It used QNX version 2 in real mode (8088s and 8086s) or in protected mode (80286, later 386 and beyond). And even on the lowly 8088 machines, it was possible to run the application for two users (main console and one dumb terminal in 640K). With a 286 machine, and a multiport serial card, 11 users could be supported with just 4 megs of RAM (but the hard drive could be a bottleneck) At one point (1990) over 600 video stores used that software. That app was written and compiled under the "K&R C compiler - not ANSI C" that QNX provided back then. The OS came on two 1.2M floppies, the compiler came on a third floppy.
There are still 30 odd video stores running that software and they will be using it as long as their hardware holds out. (It is getting harder to find P166 or 486 class machines...QNX 2 will not run on anything faster and the upgrade path is expensive)
They use it because the only problems they experience are hardware problems and operator error. The OS can't protect you from a failed power supply or a direct hit from lightning. It also can not protect you from the superuser (root) person who types in something like:
"zap
Several places just do not turn their machines off - ever. So far as I know the best record for uptime was nearly ten years. Some would have been better, but there was an occasion requiring some mandatory "downtime" a few years ago when everyone had to upgrade their apps - but not their OS.
- the hacker has a dislike for the game
- ...
- (No) Profit! (for Ubisoft)
For those folks who actually enjoy Shadowbane (all four of you including Mr Wolfpack's mama) you have my condolences.My own experience with the game was very bad (lag, etc on broadband).I am surprised the game server was hacked. Yes the folks at Ubisoft/Wolfpack did sell a product that was very inferior to other offerings in their niche market (Diablo 1 on cheaternet). So there would be no shortage of people with motives to wreak a little mayhem. But I am surprised that the game survived long enough to give anyone the opportunity to hack it.