Got paid to create their art, was it amateur, or "PROFESSIONAL-LEVEL ART" as Ellison put it? they got paid a lot, but they didn't get paid over and over again.
Why should modern works be different?
Because instead of being paid 'a lot' once, artists today get paid 'an infinitesimal amount' lots of times.
It equates to the same thing, but ultimately means that you can listen to a band's music on CD for $15.00 or so, instead of paying $200,000 a year for the band to be on-call 24/7 to come to your house and do a live concert for you.
Borrowing a book at the library IS theft. If I could go to a videostore and borrow videos for free wouldn't you call that theft? How are libraries and video stores any different?
They're not; the libraries pay the authors royalties.
Of course, unless you are Steven King, you're not going to get much money from them, but hey...
Zero minus zero equals zero. Read the rant, learn the phrase. Seriously. RIAA types and the IP-martial-law crowd still won't get it (because they can't conceive of anything from which they can't get a percentage), but the average person understands that going to a public library and reading a book is not theft, and neither is 0 - 0 = 0.
What intellectual property have you created in your lifetime?
But it seems we've taken a step back with books - just like it took a fair bit of time to get a (lower quality) copy of your friend's record or tape, it takes time to transfer a book into digital format. Unlike audio, however, the copying of real books into a digital form should not ever become as easy or as quick as ripping cds.
Not if the books are in digital form to begin with - and that's one thing that they're looking at with this. Remember: It has to take into account the future and the present.
For example, when E-paper finally comes out, the book is going to go the way of the dodo. And the Epaper books will be completely digital from the get-go.
Though, one thing I think they failed on was removing the ability to use CDR's in the box. I know they did it for copyright protection, but if they had they could let developers and individuals make mods for Halo and its kind.
Actually, it's because the DVD drive they use is the cheaper, single-laser type - and that only reads CDs, some CDRWs, DVDs and DVDR. You need a twin-laser system typically to be able to read CDRs.
both GC and PS2 supports HDTV + DTV (480p => 1280i) and the PS2 also supports standard VESA resolutions for VGS/SVGA/XGA output. to utilize this you need special cables and games written to take advantage of it.
Actually, the gamecube only supports 480p mode (which is a little better than basic television, but not much). (Check nintendo's site), and while the PS2 supports HDTV for DVDs, typically it only supports anamorphic widescreen (ie. standard TV resolution which is stretched out to fill the full screen). The XBox? Well, that supports 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i.
Well, I have coded under windows, though I'll be the first to admit that it's an experience I like to avoid.:)
It gets better and better with time (provided you're using the ATL Windowing Framework, or WTL for your GUI stuff) until you reach the point where you start noticing the gaps in the APIs where they're just not orthogonal.
Stuff like Winsock2's gethostbyaddr not having an asynchronous version that DOESN'T require you to handle a window message (the ideal would be to use CompletionRoutines or Events so you can ignore/cancel them).
Or the new theming stuff -- because you either need to use delay load DLLs or do all the nasty grunt-work GetProcAddress patching yourself.
... and so on and so on...
Ultimately though, it's very flexible, because you can patch WNDPROCs, chain them together, and completely modify a window's behavior very easily (or very craftily if you want to do complete behavioral changes on them) - and everything's a message ID, so you don't have to worry about making sure there's a virtual function exposed that you can override to change something.
Either way though, if you ever have to do Windows programming again - take a long look at ATL/WTL. It may change your mind about the whole thing:)
How about IE4 altering the entire Windows 95 shell? I *know* there would be a lot of idiots using this feature if it was a public thing...
That's easy:
First: rewrite the Windows 95 shell. Second: install your shell over the top.
That's pretty much what Microsoft did.
Your other options? 1. Inject a DLL into the shell process. Find the desktop window (the one that displays the icons). Replace its window procedure with your own window procedure.
2. Get the desktop Window. Add your browser window as a child window of the desktop window, being sure to create an appropriate frame window around it, and handle WM_NCHITTEST codes to allow moving and resizing.
It's really not all that hard. Of course, you have to actually know a little about how Windows works to do it. Which is where actually doing some windows programming in C/C++ helps.
But it is no problem at all for professional mechanics to get the tools (the Stanley Tools man comes around to auto shops once a week in a van with tools for just about everything), and the rest of us just have to put in a little more effort to find the thing in the McMaster-Carr catalog.
Contrast that with trying to find out how to interface to a Microsoft product...
Let's see:
You enter "http://msdn.microsoft.com" in your browser address bar.
The reason that Apple isn't under antitrust investigation is that they don't have a heavily dominant market share. I know that despite your apparent stupidity you can figure out that Microsoft's 90% market share is much greater than Apple's 5% market share.
Don't forget:
According to Judge Pennfield Jackson, Apple is not in the same market as Microsoft.
As Apple holds nearly 100% of the desktop PPC-based operating systems market, that's a pretty damn surefire monopoly.
Apple's market share is nearly 100% - in its market, as defined by the DOJ.
Ever sat there for two hours with an oscilloscope or bus analyzer trying to figure out exactly why your driver code isn't working properly while the phone is ringing off the hook and people are constantly bugging you in your cube? Problem solving requires thinking, and for most people it's difficult to focus on the problem at hand if there are distractions constantly being put in the way.
Welcome to my life.
In fact, I anticipate doing EXACTLY what you've described next week - I'll be debugging my driver code then when we get the new hardware in our prototype:-)
Im from Italy and I go mad when I visit the States, because they got such lousy television sets in the hotels!! It really hurts my eyes!! My own television is capable of displaying the picture at 100Hz.
... only because your TV set shows each frame 4 times.:-)
Si
Re:I'm shocked...don't you know what framerate rea
on
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The human eye cannot distinguish more than 24 frames per second...at 23 fps you can see some chop, at 25 you can't. That's because the brains "refresh rate" for incoming info from the eyes is at 24 fps. Therefore, anything beyond 24 fps is USELESS! Basic biology, folks! And still we get these idiots going "hey it runs at 30 fps!". You can't see that! Your brain cannot cope with more than 24 still pictures per second before it "runs them together" to make moving images.
Repeat after me:
24 frames per second is the minimum required for fusion.
48 frames per second is the minimum required for lack of flicker. (Movies show at 48fps - didn't you know that? Each frame is shown twice, with a gap in between).
Anything higher than that, up to about 100fps, is better. Above 100fps, qualititative judgement of smoothness is pretty much impossible.
Don't believe me? Look at your 60fps (or 50fps) television set out of the corner of your eye - you'll see flicker.
Or, alternatively, if you're american, go to Europe and watch TV there. The flicker will drive you to DISTRACTION (NTSC = 60fps; PAL = 50fps). It's PLAINLY visible.
So in other words, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Don't assume that just because you heard somewhere that 24fps is the slowest speed at which images join together to make a moving image, that you can't see any difference between that and higher frame rates.
Um, you dont uncheck the "Let Windows manage my virtual memory" box.
DNS is not specialised knowledge. Neither is swap (thats virtual to you) memory. I hope you can still get a job with that MCSE you bought.
Idiot.
I said how it works, not what settings you get to play with.
And DNS is specialized knowledge. Just because someone has an MCSD, doesn't mean they know how DHCP, DNS, BOOTP or RARP work. Typically, they don't need that knowledge.
Similarly, just because someone is a sysadmin and understands how these protocols work, it doesn't mean that they know the first thing about software development, software engineering or software architecture.
Most sysadmins, for example, wouldn't know what the difference between a single-threaded apartment and a free-threaded apartment was. Or what the first window message a dialog box receives. Or, for example, how to program in Sather. Or Cobol. Or Z80 assembly language.
Get the picture? Knowledge is specialized. Just because an "MCSE" or an "MCSD" doesn't know something, that doesn't mean it's wrong. You don't see an internal medicine specialist about your acne - and you don't see a software engineer about how to configure your network. Although, most likely, typically, both will know a little about the other field.
In other words, don't make fun of people's lack of knowledge until you know they're unwilling to learn about anything. Because they may know more than you will ever dream of knowing about some other field.
The funniest thing was that when I notified one of the users ( a MCSE/MCSD ) he asked me to come to his house and configure his Win2k box to stop the bogus updates, because he did not understand DNS. I laughed.
That's okay. I'm willing to bet that you don't understand how virtual memory works under Windows either. Maybe we should all start laughing at your lack of knowledge in this specialized area.
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Books won't die. People like not having to change batteries.
Given the amount of CPU power required, etc etc, the batteries would last about a year.
It could even be parasitically powered by inductance - possibly from your mains supply.
They're real low power devices; when you're not turning a page, they're completely static. No current required.
Si
Got paid to create their art, was it amateur, or "PROFESSIONAL-LEVEL ART" as Ellison put it? they got paid a lot, but they didn't get paid over and over again.
Why should modern works be different?
Because instead of being paid 'a lot' once, artists today get paid 'an infinitesimal amount' lots of times.
It equates to the same thing, but ultimately means that you can listen to a band's music on CD for $15.00 or so, instead of paying $200,000 a year for the band to be on-call 24/7 to come to your house and do a live concert for you.
Simon
Borrowing a book at the library IS theft. If I could go to a videostore and borrow videos for free wouldn't you call that theft? How are libraries and video stores any different?
They're not; the libraries pay the authors royalties.
Of course, unless you are Steven King, you're not going to get much money from them, but hey...
Simon
Zero minus zero equals zero. Read the rant, learn the phrase. Seriously. RIAA types and the IP-martial-law crowd still won't get it (because they can't conceive of anything from which they can't get a percentage), but the average person understands that going to a public library and reading a book is not theft, and neither is 0 - 0 = 0.
What intellectual property have you created in your lifetime?
Just wondering.
Simon
But it seems we've taken a step back with books - just like it took a fair bit of time to get a (lower quality) copy of your friend's record or tape, it takes time to transfer a book into digital format. Unlike audio, however, the copying of real books into a digital form should not ever become as easy or as quick as ripping cds.
Not if the books are in digital form to begin with - and that's one thing that they're looking at with this. Remember: It has to take into account the future and the present.
For example, when E-paper finally comes out, the book is going to go the way of the dodo. And the Epaper books will be completely digital from the get-go.
Simon
Though, one thing I think they failed on was removing the ability to use CDR's in the box. I know they did it for copyright protection, but if they had they could let developers and individuals make mods for Halo and its kind.
Actually, it's because the DVD drive they use is the cheaper, single-laser type - and that only reads CDs, some CDRWs, DVDs and DVDR. You need a twin-laser system typically to be able to read CDRs.
Simon
both GC and PS2 supports HDTV + DTV (480p => 1280i) and the PS2 also supports standard VESA resolutions for VGS/SVGA/XGA output. to utilize this you need special cables and games written to take advantage of it.
Actually, the gamecube only supports 480p mode (which is a little better than basic television, but not much). (Check nintendo's site), and while the PS2 supports HDTV for DVDs, typically it only supports anamorphic widescreen (ie. standard TV resolution which is stretched out to fill the full screen). The XBox? Well, that supports 480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i.
Simon
Come on...Project Gotham better than GT3? Get real.....GT is THE acknowledged king of driving simulations.
Acknowledged by whom? Having played both, GT3 sucks in comparison to Project Gotham Racing.
Heck, it REALLY REALLY TRULY sucks in comparison to RallySport.
Si
Well, I have coded under windows, though I'll be the first to admit that it's an experience I like to avoid. :)
:)
It gets better and better with time (provided you're using the ATL Windowing Framework, or WTL for your GUI stuff) until you reach the point where you start noticing the gaps in the APIs where they're just not orthogonal.
Stuff like Winsock2's gethostbyaddr not having an asynchronous version that DOESN'T require you to handle a window message (the ideal would be to use CompletionRoutines or Events so you can ignore/cancel them).
Or the new theming stuff -- because you either need to use delay load DLLs or do all the nasty grunt-work GetProcAddress patching yourself.
... and so on and so on...
Ultimately though, it's very flexible, because you can patch WNDPROCs, chain them together, and completely modify a window's behavior very easily (or very craftily if you want to do complete behavioral changes on them) - and everything's a message ID, so you don't have to worry about making sure there's a virtual function exposed that you can override to change something.
Either way though, if you ever have to do Windows programming again - take a long look at ATL/WTL. It may change your mind about the whole thing
Si
Why did I get two smartass comments like this?
Two reasons:
1. People who complain that Windows has hidden APIs typically haven't programmed Windows.
2. You might be being a teeeny bit oversensitive, and assuming that the comments are directed at you, not just in general.
Si
poor spectecjr--trolls slashdot and wonders why poeple aren't nice like the ms boards
What MS boards?
And if I were trolling, I'd be posting about Natalie Portman.
Funny how trolls tend to post as Anonymous Cowards, isn't it?
either way... if you want to see a real board, go to leeos.cjb.net
Simon
So presumably you're going to be modded down as flamebait now as well?
Somehow, I don't think that will happen. Even though by your criteria, your post is flamebait too.
*sigh*
How about IE4 altering the entire Windows 95 shell? I *know* there would be a lot of idiots using this feature if it was a public thing...
That's easy:
First: rewrite the Windows 95 shell.
Second: install your shell over the top.
That's pretty much what Microsoft did.
Your other options?
1. Inject a DLL into the shell process. Find the desktop window (the one that displays the icons). Replace its window procedure with your own window procedure.
2. Get the desktop Window. Add your browser window as a child window of the desktop window, being sure to create an appropriate frame window around it, and handle WM_NCHITTEST codes to allow moving and resizing.
It's really not all that hard. Of course, you have to actually know a little about how Windows works to do it. Which is where actually doing some windows programming in C/C++ helps.
Simon
P.S. Crack is smoked, powdered coke is inhaled. If you are going to use drug references at least get them right!
:) But I'm sure that if you smoked enough crack, your nose would explode. Or at least you'd think it would have.
I know that
Tell ya what... replace "nose" with "spleen".
Simon
And what is the URL for the website with the secret, undocumented APIs?
http://127.0.0.1/YourOnAcid/
WHAT undocumented 'secret' APIs.
You show me ONE feature that can't be implemented by an external developer to the same quality and performance as Microsoft attain.
You tell me what supposed secret API that uses.
Big fat clue for you: There isn't one. If you think there is, you're on so much crack that your nose is about to explode.
Simon
But it is no problem at all for professional mechanics to get the tools (the Stanley Tools man comes around to auto shops once a week in a van with tools for just about everything), and the rest of us just have to put in a little more effort to find the thing in the McMaster-Carr catalog.
Contrast that with trying to find out how to interface to a Microsoft product...
Let's see:
You enter "http://msdn.microsoft.com" in your browser address bar.
Sounds much easier to me.
Simon
Windows already overwrites your MBR if you reinstall on a dual-boot Linux system, doesn't it? So in a sense it already doesn't play well with others.
It breaks Windows installs too - try installing Windows 98 on top of a Windows 2000 install some time.
Or Windows 2000 on top of Windows XP.
Simon
The idea here is that X has efficiently managed to maintain full backwards compatibility efficiently.
... by not really adding anything new in the last 10 years.
;-)
Si
I haven't understood the geek fascination with soda. A cooler of water is all I need (I drink tons and actually get a little water high from it).
Excessive soda just makes you look like Cowboy Neal after a few years. Which makes contact with members of the opposite sex difficult.
Or easier, if your building has narrow corridors.
Simon
The reason that Apple isn't under antitrust investigation is that they don't have a heavily dominant market share. I know that despite your apparent stupidity you can figure out that Microsoft's 90% market share is much greater than Apple's 5% market share.
Don't forget:
According to Judge Pennfield Jackson, Apple is not in the same market as Microsoft.
As Apple holds nearly 100% of the desktop PPC-based operating systems market, that's a pretty damn surefire monopoly.
Apple's market share is nearly 100% - in its market, as defined by the DOJ.
Doesn't that sound like a monopoly to you?
Simon
Ever sat there for two hours with an oscilloscope or bus analyzer trying to figure out exactly why your driver code isn't working properly while the phone is ringing off the hook and people are constantly bugging you in your cube? Problem solving requires thinking, and for most people it's difficult to focus on the problem at hand if there are distractions constantly being put in the way.
:-)
Welcome to my life.
In fact, I anticipate doing EXACTLY what you've described next week - I'll be debugging my driver code then when we get the new hardware in our prototype
Si
Im from Italy and I go mad when I visit the States, because they got such lousy television sets in the hotels!! It really hurts my eyes!! My own television is capable of displaying the picture at 100Hz.
:-)
... only because your TV set shows each frame 4 times.
Si
The human eye cannot distinguish more than 24 frames per second...at 23 fps you can see some chop, at 25 you can't. That's because the brains "refresh rate" for incoming info from the eyes is at 24 fps.
Therefore, anything beyond 24 fps is USELESS! Basic biology, folks! And still we get these idiots going "hey it runs at 30 fps!". You can't see that! Your brain cannot cope with more than 24 still pictures per second before it "runs them together" to make moving images.
Repeat after me:
24 frames per second is the minimum required for fusion.
48 frames per second is the minimum required for lack of flicker. (Movies show at 48fps - didn't you know that? Each frame is shown twice, with a gap in between).
Anything higher than that, up to about 100fps, is better. Above 100fps, qualititative judgement of smoothness is pretty much impossible.
Don't believe me? Look at your 60fps (or 50fps) television set out of the corner of your eye - you'll see flicker.
Or, alternatively, if you're american, go to Europe and watch TV there. The flicker will drive you to DISTRACTION (NTSC = 60fps; PAL = 50fps). It's PLAINLY visible.
So in other words, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Don't assume that just because you heard somewhere that 24fps is the slowest speed at which images join together to make a moving image, that you can't see any difference between that and higher frame rates.
Simon
Um, you dont uncheck the "Let Windows manage my virtual memory" box.
DNS is not specialised knowledge. Neither is swap (thats virtual to you) memory. I hope you can still get a job with that MCSE you bought.
Idiot.
I said how it works, not what settings you get to play with.
And DNS is specialized knowledge. Just because someone has an MCSD, doesn't mean they know how DHCP, DNS, BOOTP or RARP work. Typically, they don't need that knowledge.
Similarly, just because someone is a sysadmin and understands how these protocols work, it doesn't mean that they know the first thing about software development, software engineering or software architecture.
Most sysadmins, for example, wouldn't know what the difference between a single-threaded apartment and a free-threaded apartment was. Or what the first window message a dialog box receives. Or, for example, how to program in Sather. Or Cobol. Or Z80 assembly language.
Get the picture? Knowledge is specialized. Just because an "MCSE" or an "MCSD" doesn't know something, that doesn't mean it's wrong. You don't see an internal medicine specialist about your acne - and you don't see a software engineer about how to configure your network. Although, most likely, typically, both will know a little about the other field.
In other words, don't make fun of people's lack of knowledge until you know they're unwilling to learn about anything. Because they may know more than you will ever dream of knowing about some other field.
Simon
The funniest thing was that when I notified one of the users ( a MCSE/MCSD ) he asked me to come to his house and configure his Win2k box to stop the bogus updates, because he did not understand DNS. I laughed.
That's okay. I'm willing to bet that you don't understand how virtual memory works under Windows either. Maybe we should all start laughing at your lack of knowledge in this specialized area.
Simon