I'm game. Not like I can get any of the music I like in this freakin hicksville town (without using Napster or similar equipment) anyway.
<p>
I mean, the way I see it if the people of America, by some miracle, get some brains, The RIAA is in serious trouble. I foresee a few different scenarios:
<p>
1) RIAA wins case, Napster dies, users get pissed, hackers create several free servers, users boycott RIAA and get the music they like from hacker's servers for Free or a small fee.
<p>
2) RIAA wins case, shows foresite but remain greedy, give cheap alternative to napster and lower CD prices, cut royalties to their artists, Artists get pissed, break away from lable and go independant / sue RIAA for holding out profit.
<P>
3) RIAA wins case, miracurously loose greedy outlook, cut prices on CD's, <b>Widen Distribution channels to include the hapless goth people that by some twist of demonic fate wind up living in the Bible Belt</b>, increase wadges for Artists... everyone becomes happy shining people hoding hands. ((yeah...right, they'd do this.))
<p>
With any luck the first two options will take effect soon, and then we won't have to put up with the BS of the RIAA.
<p>
Unfortunatly, the possibility that seems more likely is that Napster gets crushed, some users go on to use clones, but most Americans fall victim once again to the propaganda of the major Associations and mindlessly buy overpriced, low quality recordings of some blonde bimbo asking to be beaten.
<p>
If there is REALY a God...PLEASE don't let that Last thing Happen!!! I swear..I'll go to curch for a change!!! Just Don't let the RIAA Win!! I WANT My NAPSTER FREE!!!
The word itself isn't realy trademarked, but the word with the special fonts that Blizzard used on the games is. However, if they have announced the trademark to be the name of a prospective movie, then the Title of the movie as well as the title of the game becomes the property of Blizzard Entertainment.
For futher consideration, in movies, the soul way to identify a movie is by its name. If Blizzard had planned on using the name Diablo as a title for a movie, and newline also put out the title Diablo at the same time... How would the consumer realy know which movie was which? Look at the company that created it, but consumers don't realy pay attention to who made it. They only see the action sequences in the previews and the name of the movie.
Your statement imply that you say that ALL games are not an art form. This is not true. Games that are not truely an art form are those such as Tetris, Solitaire, Mah Jongg, and some of the more basic shareware games.
However..what about Games with extensive thought out environments? games that have complete musical scores that can be found no where else? games that show fantastic displays of processor power, and just make the player go "WOW!!"?
If you are an experienced enough gamer you will find that there are games out there where a single look at the environmental art and you know who the designer is. You can Identify the musical and sound composers from the score of various games. You can identify who did the control scheme just by the feel of the character moving on the screen.
All these are indications of an Art form. People pouring their personalities into the works that they produce. The only reason why it's such a debate at this moment is because gaming is so mainstream that the artists are experiencing the fruits of their labors while they are still living. In reality, if fifty or 100 years pass and we look back at the games that have been produced, will we see them as we currently look back upon a Van Gogh, Rembrant, Picasso, or Renoir?
A previous poster had stated something along the lines of a computer is as much of an artists tool as a paintbrush. You have to ask yourself, what is the true meaning of Art? I have always seen the definition as a creation of a person's expression of his most heartfelt ideas. Sure some games are just comercial pushes, but the best games are more often truely art.
------------ The empty can may rattle the most, but a full can sure hurts like hell when it beans off some poor sap's forehead.
True...over what MICROSOFT put out previously, W2k is substantially the supirior of WinNT, and it may be even more stable than SOME distributions of Linux. However, Linux isn't M$'s ONLY competing OS. You have IBM's OS/2 out there, which I have not very much knowledge about I admit. But what about UNIX? Microsoft as Leaps and bounds to go before it achieves the stability of a full UNIX machine.
I give an example. My school is running two different webservers. Both are roughly equally used, as depected by Sniffer analisys. They are run on the same type of hardware. The only difference? One is running Win2K Advanced Server, and the other is running IBM's Version of UNIX. Guess which server requires a weekly reboot? Guess which server has been running for roughly three months non-stop?
M$ never innovated anything. They just come up with their own version what has already been done more efficiently by another company 20 years before, and slap on an "Spanking New" Label.
The only thing that has put M$ on top are the non-tech masses that own a computer at home and use it to do the natural stuff like surf the web, check their email, and write letters / reports. Those that need more robust remote administration, multi tasking, along with support for Telnet and a reliable server usually turn to a UNIX Machine or variant.
---
It is the smart man who can quote others, and it is the wise man that can come up with his own, but it is the wise @$$ that came up with this one.
I still feel that how my school administration handled an aleged bomb threat from one of the students (we won't mention who *coughsmecoughs*)was the best way to handle such an incident.
The student in question held the nickname "Unabomber" throughout most of his highschool career. Most all of the student body would joke with this student about his reclusive tendancies as well as pull pranks on the student. This joking came to a head when the student in question brought a camera case aboard the bus during his senior year. A few peers joked with him about the contents of the case, and the student went along with the joking...even going so far to come up with a general and false list of comments along with a proposed location of where it was to be placed. Too all student's involved it was assumed that the Joke was understood.
Later on in the day, the administration went to work on an anonomous tip, even interupting the Principal and Vice Principal during a seinior assembly. The administration went on to pull all known parties involved into the office and interview them heavily. The incidents were gone through, as well as the student's locker was inspected as well as the alleged "Bomb" inpected to be found to be a valid LOADED camera. (I lost a good roll of film doing all of this..er..ahem *the student* lost a good roll of film.)
After the all clear was given and the student was found innocent, the administration then discussed "Public Relations" with the students involved to, and I quote the Vice Principal, "Diffuse all rumors that may have spawned from the investigation and that the tipper may have started, no pun intended." In otherwords, deny everything pertaining to it using tact.
The rumor never lived past the first day and the rest of the year went on without any even. The students involved still joked about it for the rest of the year, but never in the public's ear. We never did find out who the anonomous tipper was, however, after calmly talking to other students and geting convincing answers, we have concluded that it was most likely the bus driver that decided to do the school a public service...and interupted a decent assembly to get my ass out of classes. The whole ordeal lasted roughly 4 of the six hours.
----
Windoze....WINDOZE?? weee dun neeed nooo schtinkin windoze!!!!
There is a different point to consider though. Linux, so long as it is open source with no dedicated colaberation, will never become an operating system that is stable enough to run as a corporate server system. With many distributions of Linux 90% of the code is good and solid, and in VERY many cases much better than that of Windoze. However, that 10% of code that is uncertain could be the difference between doing well and spending a weekend doing electronic disaster recovery. And in reality, Windoze ANYTHING is even less capable than Linux. For example, Windows 2000 wasn't even out a year before a need for a service pack arose to increase the stability of M$'s server system, and it is still EXTREEMLY buggy. (I know from experience, I'm working toward an MCSE)
I simply see it as "Choose your Operating system based on the Company's Mission, Need, User Skill, and Priority." If you need a server that will more than likely not crap out for six months or more, a safe bet is to go with a full on distribution of UNIX. If your business does not require such a robust system, and needs something more cost effective, by all means, use a Linux system as your server. However, if you just want to have low personel training costs for your sysadmins, use Windows NT/2000 as your server software.
Likewise for the Workstation level, The best bet to cut on training costs is use Windows 9x/NT/2000. However, when going the "stable system route", instead of using a UNIX workstation, I would use a distribution of Linux for all the workstations. Workstations will usually never require that much stability to require a full unix system.
-"You can have a meal that looks and tastes awesome... but if 10% of that meal is made up of rat poison, it's still going to kill you."
Slashdot Mirror
I'm game. Not like I can get any of the music I like in this freakin hicksville town (without using Napster or similar equipment) anyway.
<p>
I mean, the way I see it if the people of America, by some miracle, get some brains, The RIAA is in serious trouble. I foresee a few different scenarios:
<p>
1) RIAA wins case, Napster dies, users get pissed, hackers create several free servers, users boycott RIAA and get the music they like from hacker's servers for Free or a small fee.
<p>
2) RIAA wins case, shows foresite but remain greedy, give cheap alternative to napster and lower CD prices, cut royalties to their artists, Artists get pissed, break away from lable and go independant / sue RIAA for holding out profit.
<P>
3) RIAA wins case, miracurously loose greedy outlook, cut prices on CD's, <b>Widen Distribution channels to include the hapless goth people that by some twist of demonic fate wind up living in the Bible Belt</b>, increase wadges for Artists... everyone becomes happy shining people hoding hands. ((yeah...right, they'd do this.))
<p>
With any luck the first two options will take effect soon, and then we won't have to put up with the BS of the RIAA.
<p>
Unfortunatly, the possibility that seems more likely is that Napster gets crushed, some users go on to use clones, but most Americans fall victim once again to the propaganda of the major Associations and mindlessly buy overpriced, low quality recordings of some blonde bimbo asking to be beaten.
<p>
If there is REALY a God...PLEASE don't let that Last thing Happen!!! I swear..I'll go to curch for a change!!! Just Don't let the RIAA Win!! I WANT My NAPSTER FREE!!!
For futher consideration, in movies, the soul way to identify a movie is by its name. If Blizzard had planned on using the name Diablo as a title for a movie, and newline also put out the title Diablo at the same time... How would the consumer realy know which movie was which? Look at the company that created it, but consumers don't realy pay attention to who made it. They only see the action sequences in the previews and the name of the movie.
However..what about Games with extensive thought out environments? games that have complete musical scores that can be found no where else? games that show fantastic displays of processor power, and just make the player go "WOW!!"? If you are an experienced enough gamer you will find that there are games out there where a single look at the environmental art and you know who the designer is. You can Identify the musical and sound composers from the score of various games. You can identify who did the control scheme just by the feel of the character moving on the screen.
All these are indications of an Art form. People pouring their personalities into the works that they produce. The only reason why it's such a debate at this moment is because gaming is so mainstream that the artists are experiencing the fruits of their labors while they are still living. In reality, if fifty or 100 years pass and we look back at the games that have been produced, will we see them as we currently look back upon a Van Gogh, Rembrant, Picasso, or Renoir?
A previous poster had stated something along the lines of a computer is as much of an artists tool as a paintbrush. You have to ask yourself, what is the true meaning of Art? I have always seen the definition as a creation of a person's expression of his most heartfelt ideas. Sure some games are just comercial pushes, but the best games are more often truely art.
------------
The empty can may rattle the most, but a full can sure hurts like hell when it beans off some poor sap's forehead.
I give an example. My school is running two different webservers. Both are roughly equally used, as depected by Sniffer analisys. They are run on the same type of hardware. The only difference? One is running Win2K Advanced Server, and the other is running IBM's Version of UNIX. Guess which server requires a weekly reboot? Guess which server has been running for roughly three months non-stop?
M$ never innovated anything. They just come up with their own version what has already been done more efficiently by another company 20 years before, and slap on an "Spanking New" Label.
The only thing that has put M$ on top are the non-tech masses that own a computer at home and use it to do the natural stuff like surf the web, check their email, and write letters / reports. Those that need more robust remote administration, multi tasking, along with support for Telnet and a reliable server usually turn to a UNIX Machine or variant. --- It is the smart man who can quote others, and it is the wise man that can come up with his own, but it is the wise @$$ that came up with this one.
The student in question held the nickname "Unabomber" throughout most of his highschool career. Most all of the student body would joke with this student about his reclusive tendancies as well as pull pranks on the student. This joking came to a head when the student in question brought a camera case aboard the bus during his senior year. A few peers joked with him about the contents of the case, and the student went along with the joking...even going so far to come up with a general and false list of comments along with a proposed location of where it was to be placed. Too all student's involved it was assumed that the Joke was understood.
Later on in the day, the administration went to work on an anonomous tip, even interupting the Principal and Vice Principal during a seinior assembly. The administration went on to pull all known parties involved into the office and interview them heavily. The incidents were gone through, as well as the student's locker was inspected as well as the alleged "Bomb" inpected to be found to be a valid LOADED camera. (I lost a good roll of film doing all of this..er..ahem *the student* lost a good roll of film.)
After the all clear was given and the student was found innocent, the administration then discussed "Public Relations" with the students involved to, and I quote the Vice Principal, "Diffuse all rumors that may have spawned from the investigation and that the tipper may have started, no pun intended." In otherwords, deny everything pertaining to it using tact.
The rumor never lived past the first day and the rest of the year went on without any even. The students involved still joked about it for the rest of the year, but never in the public's ear. We never did find out who the anonomous tipper was, however, after calmly talking to other students and geting convincing answers, we have concluded that it was most likely the bus driver that decided to do the school a public service...and interupted a decent assembly to get my ass out of classes. The whole ordeal lasted roughly 4 of the six hours.
----
Windoze....WINDOZE?? weee dun neeed nooo schtinkin windoze!!!!
There is a different point to consider though. Linux, so long as it is open source with no dedicated colaberation, will never become an operating system that is stable enough to run as a corporate server system. With many distributions of Linux 90% of the code is good and solid, and in VERY many cases much better than that of Windoze. However, that 10% of code that is uncertain could be the difference between doing well and spending a weekend doing electronic disaster recovery. And in reality, Windoze ANYTHING is even less capable than Linux. For example, Windows 2000 wasn't even out a year before a need for a service pack arose to increase the stability of M$'s server system, and it is still EXTREEMLY buggy. (I know from experience, I'm working toward an MCSE) I simply see it as "Choose your Operating system based on the Company's Mission, Need, User Skill, and Priority." If you need a server that will more than likely not crap out for six months or more, a safe bet is to go with a full on distribution of UNIX. If your business does not require such a robust system, and needs something more cost effective, by all means, use a Linux system as your server. However, if you just want to have low personel training costs for your sysadmins, use Windows NT/2000 as your server software. Likewise for the Workstation level, The best bet to cut on training costs is use Windows 9x/NT/2000. However, when going the "stable system route", instead of using a UNIX workstation, I would use a distribution of Linux for all the workstations. Workstations will usually never require that much stability to require a full unix system. -"You can have a meal that looks and tastes awesome... but if 10% of that meal is made up of rat poison, it's still going to kill you."