Man, someone already said that! What the hell's wrong with you? Were you hoping the less observant mods would slip up and grant you some karma, you whore?
Consider his point that pirates destroy the incentive to create new software. He's saying that the pirates are responsible for keeping people from releasing quality software. Did you even read my post? You know, the part where I say I agree with this?
I did, actually. I was asking you to consider it further, you seem to have either overlooked the implications of it or purposely ignored them in order to reinforce an otherwise weak point. I would like to congratulate you, however, on only quoting the part of the paragraph that agrees with you and then bitching about my agreeing. It's a move worthy of Gates himself, you should be proud.
Consider his point that pirates destroy the incentive to create new software. He's saying that the pirates are responsible for keeping people from releasing quality software. The state of software on early home computers was a joke, it needed all the help it could get. If I ran a hobby club, I certainly wouldn't want members engaging in activities that make the hobby less fun. I'd probably kick them out of the club.
It's a reasonable idea in a reasonable letter. Of course in the end it seems Gates turned piracy to his advantage by waiting until piracy had spread his software to most of the computers in the world before cracking down on it. Remember, for a long time most Microsoft products accepted a key of all 1s, 11111-11111-11111-11111-11111. No need for a crack or a keygen. There's no way this was done accidentally; it continued to work in new products even after the 11111 thing was common knowledge. He couldn't beat the pirates at the time so he used them to his advantage. In a sense, we can all thank pirates for helping create the MS monopoly.
Maybe they should have read this letter and taken it seriously. =)
See above. Sometimes I think we should just scrap the moderation system, pin the comments to a wall and throw moderation darts at them while blindfolded.
Wow, whoever modded the parent Troll is a fucking moron. Mod, please promise me you won't breed.
THIS post, on the other hand, could be considered a Troll or at least Flamebait. Of course with mods like these it'll probably wind up Insightful or Funny or something equally retarded. Go figure.
BTW, guinea pigs are not the same as beta testers. The definition of guinea pig is an animal or person used in an *experiment*; -- also applied to people who are unwillingly or unknowingly subjected by authorities to policies or procedures which might cause bodily or mental harm. (Note: It certainly harmed my computer. Does that count? Thank goodness for ERUNT.)
That would make us knowing guinea pigs then, I suppose. =) MS is experimenting on IE, they're moving it into a larger environment to see what works and what breaks. I guess in another sense you could say that IE7 is the guinea pig and we're all being invited to experiment on it. You could even argue that the users are being experimented on to see how the average user reacts to the software in its current state. As your situation shows, our computers are most certainly being experimented on.
I consider the "beta" thing fair warning myself, but then again I haven't run into half of the problems others have. For example, the Live Mail beta works perfectly for me with IE7 and I have yet to run into a single crash or a page that rendered incorrectly. Maybe I got off lucky. I removed my shortcut to Firefox and started using IE7 as my default browser to get some realistic usage/testing in on it. All's well so far aside from one stupid bug with the initial runonce page, and that's hardly a showstopper.
If it had trashed my computer I'd be pissed too, though. That sucks.
(Okay, I'll admit to personal bias and say I certainly hope this is not what Microsoft considers a "feature complete" browser.)
Yeah, no kidding. IE7 will be a real disappointment if this is all there is in the final version. That said, even if nothing else is added I think it might be good enough for me to use in place of Firefox. FF is still better but it's not so much better as to justify keeping two browsers installed.
As for naming conventions, you're right. Maybe the choice to call it a beta had to do with the fact that most people have heard of beta testing before, but not as many know of alpha/gamma/whatever other Greek letters the programmers decide to use. Maybe they use beta to mean that this version will be released to the public for testing. Dunno what they're thinking, but I do sincerely hope they don't consider this thing feature-complete.
Microsoft sees its customers as guinea pigs, at least in this case.
Of course MS sees the beta testers as guinea pigs! To most rational people the phrase "beta test" would imply some sort of testing.
Then again, you probably downloaded the beta to bitch about it rather than to help test. I love your trolling attempts in the microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general newsgroup, for instance:
Subject: We waited for this [POS]? Date: 2/1/2006 7:41 AM PST By: ZenWarrior In: microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general [snip] It's now official: There are some *really* stupid people working at Microsoft. They couldn't even copy good ideas. They didn't even re-invent any wheels. Instead, MS still tries to operate a browser with at least one or two wheels fully missing! In sum, IE Deep-6 is far from a 21st century browser. Instead, it hearkens back to Microsoft's own Dark Ages. [snip]
With helpful feedback like that from you and the rest of Slashdot mentalities I'm surprised they haven't already squashed all the bugs and announced a final release..
They're mutually exclusive in the sense that you can't run 6 while 7beta is installed, but if you uninstall 7 you're left with 6. No big deal.
Even if something should go wrong, you could always reinstall 6 assuming you have an XP CD. Maybe that's one reason to require the Windows validation during installation?
GPL Vader finds your lack of faith disturbing... (psst, it's ok, i don't buy it either. just don't tell these/. loonies)
If a Google OS did become a de facto Linux standard, fine by me. Linux could use some standardization, if Google wins there then everyone wins. I'd still probably ignore it and use Windows and FreeBSD though. =)
It's not like Google could gain a monopoly on desktops in general without damn nice Windows compatibility and lots of application developers anyway, and if they managed that you'd have GPL Vader dressing up as Santa to drop the code down your chimney. I imagine it would be hard to found a monopoly on GPL'd software if you actually follow the license.
What would be hilarious is if they wrote their own software for Linux from scratch and released it under a proprietary license.
Ok, first of all I think it's weird that MS can claim the source code is a trade secret in the first place. It's my understand that in order for something to be classified as a trade secret it would have to be kept secret, and people who take it and distribute it would have to be pursued and dealt with. otherwise the company loses its right to claim it as a trade secret. Witness how little (if anything) they've done about the code being swapped around for years now. Then again, IANAL, ISUCK, etc.
Regardless, the guy was convicted of selling stolen trade secrets. He was a dumbass for selling it in the first place, but I digress.. It turns out that the penalty for POSSESSION of a stolen trade secret is up to 10 years in jail and a $250k fine. It's worth considering for those of you who might have copies stashed away in backups somewhere just for the hell of it.
Not that I'd ever stoop so low as to possess stolen trade secrets, of course..
(runs off to scour his hard drive)
I wonder how hard it would be for MS to decide to scan your system for files with names matching those discovered on p2p networks. They could stick it in that monthly "Malicious Software Removal" tool in Windows Update, even. Ouch. I doubt it would work as evidence in a court but it would give them reason to suspect you or to attempt to gather evidence that WOULD stand up if they really wanted to bother charging everyone.
Re:say what you mean
on
Chess for Kids?
·
· Score: -1, Troll
Maybe, but chess was invented for brown people by brown people. I guess TEH WITE MANZORZ (!!1) will have to stick to quality WITEMANZ entertainment like American football, cow tipping and monster truck rallies... oh, and prancing around in those fashionable pointy white hoods.
Screw SSB on the Rev. Give me a version for the DS with download play that I can use NOW, anywhere I want. It wouldn't even have to use WFC, although that would be nice if lag weren't so painful.
Ok, fine, don't screw it just yet. Every means I can think of for controlling the character in SSB would be gimmicky and cumbersome unless you're using motion to handle weapons. It might be interesting to control Sheik's chain with a motion-sensitive controller though, maybe if all the characters in a new version had swinging weapons or... blah. It's stupid, never mind. I'm sure Nintendo has more inventive and experienced minds than mine to figure this crap out.
Zelda's easy. Hook up the nunchaku to handle movement and use the motion-sensitive end like a sword. A rumble function could be used to show when you parry an attack or have one of yours parried. Use a weaker rumble to show when you hit, a stronger one to show when you are hit. Aiming attacks and parries adds a lot to combat. I did something similar with the melee combat system in Custom TF back when I used to do Quake modding and it was pretty popular.
I have no idea about Mario, I couldn't stand playing the 3D versions long enough to remember the controls after so many years.
I think the reason the DS is so popular is a simple one... It's fun to play with.*Gasps*
Exactly. I'm not curious enough yet to plunk down money for Nintendogs or Animal Crossing (although I might get them "for my wife") but Mario Kart DS is the best game I've played in a very long time. That new Tony Hawk game looks promising too. Six to ten hour battery life, free internet play via WFC, touchscreen, $130? I'm there, screw PSP in the eye.
I've spent more time playing on these piddly little 3" screens since I got my DS than I've spent playing any of my PC games. In fact, aside from the occasional game of Subspace I haven't bothered with other games at all since I got the DS. I usually hate consoles, it's weird.
The only thing that could make the DS better for me is if I could get my hands on a developer kit for it.
As a result, players are asking anyone who wants to join a group to type one or two sentences in English. If the sentences contain spelling or grammar mistakes, the player is rejected.
You also seem to be able to speak English better than your average American "LOLZ HI@U I WHAT A ITAM PLX OK !!" gamer kid. Typing one or two sentences in English shouldn't pose a major problem for you. It's the American kids that should really be worried about this practice. =)
From TFA, emphasis added: "The cadmium atom that has lost an electron becomes a negatively charged ion, which can then be controlled with an electrical field," said Daniel Stick, a doctoral student in the University of Michigan's physics department who participated in the work.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but basic high school chemistry says that an atom that loses an electron has an overall positive charge, which makes it a positively charged ion or a cation...
I'm not sure I want this guy designing my computer. =)
I don't know about you guys, but my data always feels "warmer" when I read it from an LP-ROM. I can't explain it any better than that, you can just FEEL it, man! CDs are cold and digital, there's no love there.. Look, all I'm saying is that when I'm in the mood for some soulful gaming I bust out my copy of Quake4 on vinyl, none of this crap you'll find on CD (or worse, DVD) feels RIGHT, MAN!! VINYL FOREVER!!11 DEATH TO THE OPTICAL OPPRESSORS!!1111
Slashdot Mirror
Man, someone already said that! What the hell's wrong with you? Were you hoping the less observant mods would slip up and grant you some karma, you whore?
Disable the welcome screen in XP and you'll get the easy way back.
Consider his point that pirates destroy the incentive to create new software. He's saying that the pirates are responsible for keeping people from releasing quality software.
Did you even read my post? You know, the part where I say I agree with this?
I did, actually. I was asking you to consider it further, you seem to have either overlooked the implications of it or purposely ignored them in order to reinforce an otherwise weak point. I would like to congratulate you, however, on only quoting the part of the paragraph that agrees with you and then bitching about my agreeing. It's a move worthy of Gates himself, you should be proud.
Consider his point that pirates destroy the incentive to create new software. He's saying that the pirates are responsible for keeping people from releasing quality software. The state of software on early home computers was a joke, it needed all the help it could get. If I ran a hobby club, I certainly wouldn't want members engaging in activities that make the hobby less fun. I'd probably kick them out of the club.
It's a reasonable idea in a reasonable letter. Of course in the end it seems Gates turned piracy to his advantage by waiting until piracy had spread his software to most of the computers in the world before cracking down on it. Remember, for a long time most Microsoft products accepted a key of all 1s, 11111-11111-11111-11111-11111. No need for a crack or a keygen. There's no way this was done accidentally; it continued to work in new products even after the 11111 thing was common knowledge. He couldn't beat the pirates at the time so he used them to his advantage. In a sense, we can all thank pirates for helping create the MS monopoly.
Maybe they should have read this letter and taken it seriously. =)
See above. Sometimes I think we should just scrap the moderation system, pin the comments to a wall and throw moderation darts at them while blindfolded.
Wow, whoever modded the parent Troll is a fucking moron. Mod, please promise me you won't breed.
THIS post, on the other hand, could be considered a Troll or at least Flamebait. Of course with mods like these it'll probably wind up Insightful or Funny or something equally retarded. Go figure.
BTW, guinea pigs are not the same as beta testers. The definition of guinea pig is an animal or person used in an *experiment*; -- also applied to people who are unwillingly or unknowingly subjected by authorities to policies or procedures which might cause bodily or mental harm. (Note: It certainly harmed my computer. Does that count? Thank goodness for ERUNT.)
That would make us knowing guinea pigs then, I suppose. =) MS is experimenting on IE, they're moving it into a larger environment to see what works and what breaks. I guess in another sense you could say that IE7 is the guinea pig and we're all being invited to experiment on it. You could even argue that the users are being experimented on to see how the average user reacts to the software in its current state. As your situation shows, our computers are most certainly being experimented on.
I consider the "beta" thing fair warning myself, but then again I haven't run into half of the problems others have. For example, the Live Mail beta works perfectly for me with IE7 and I have yet to run into a single crash or a page that rendered incorrectly. Maybe I got off lucky. I removed my shortcut to Firefox and started using IE7 as my default browser to get some realistic usage/testing in on it. All's well so far aside from one stupid bug with the initial runonce page, and that's hardly a showstopper.
If it had trashed my computer I'd be pissed too, though. That sucks.
(Okay, I'll admit to personal bias and say I certainly hope this is not what Microsoft considers a "feature complete" browser.)
Yeah, no kidding. IE7 will be a real disappointment if this is all there is in the final version. That said, even if nothing else is added I think it might be good enough for me to use in place of Firefox. FF is still better but it's not so much better as to justify keeping two browsers installed.
As for naming conventions, you're right. Maybe the choice to call it a beta had to do with the fact that most people have heard of beta testing before, but not as many know of alpha/gamma/whatever other Greek letters the programmers decide to use. Maybe they use beta to mean that this version will be released to the public for testing. Dunno what they're thinking, but I do sincerely hope they don't consider this thing feature-complete.
Of course MS sees the beta testers as guinea pigs! To most rational people the phrase "beta test" would imply some sort of testing.
Then again, you probably downloaded the beta to bitch about it rather than to help test. I love your trolling attempts in the microsoft.public.internetexplorer.general newsgroup, for instance:
With helpful feedback like that from you and the rest of Slashdot mentalities I'm surprised they haven't already squashed all the bugs and announced a final release..
They're mutually exclusive in the sense that you can't run 6 while 7beta is installed, but if you uninstall 7 you're left with 6. No big deal.
Even if something should go wrong, you could always reinstall 6 assuming you have an XP CD. Maybe that's one reason to require the Windows validation during installation?
Yeah, maybe there's an opening for you with the EFF or something.
"Doesn't the field become richer when the wider spectrum of legal thought is explored and encouraged?"
(DRM advocate): No.
Oddly enough, it defaulted to Google in the searchbox for me.
GPL Vader finds your lack of faith disturbing... (psst, it's ok, i don't buy it either. just don't tell these /. loonies)
If a Google OS did become a de facto Linux standard, fine by me. Linux could use some standardization, if Google wins there then everyone wins. I'd still probably ignore it and use Windows and FreeBSD though. =)
It's not like Google could gain a monopoly on desktops in general without damn nice Windows compatibility and lots of application developers anyway, and if they managed that you'd have GPL Vader dressing up as Santa to drop the code down your chimney. I imagine it would be hard to found a monopoly on GPL'd software if you actually follow the license.
What would be hilarious is if they wrote their own software for Linux from scratch and released it under a proprietary license.
Ok, first of all I think it's weird that MS can claim the source code is a trade secret in the first place. It's my understand that in order for something to be classified as a trade secret it would have to be kept secret, and people who take it and distribute it would have to be pursued and dealt with. otherwise the company loses its right to claim it as a trade secret. Witness how little (if anything) they've done about the code being swapped around for years now. Then again, IANAL, ISUCK, etc.
Regardless, the guy was convicted of selling stolen trade secrets. He was a dumbass for selling it in the first place, but I digress.. It turns out that the penalty for POSSESSION of a stolen trade secret is up to 10 years in jail and a $250k fine. It's worth considering for those of you who might have copies stashed away in backups somewhere just for the hell of it.
Not that I'd ever stoop so low as to possess stolen trade secrets, of course..
(runs off to scour his hard drive)
I wonder how hard it would be for MS to decide to scan your system for files with names matching those discovered on p2p networks. They could stick it in that monthly "Malicious Software Removal" tool in Windows Update, even. Ouch. I doubt it would work as evidence in a court but it would give them reason to suspect you or to attempt to gather evidence that WOULD stand up if they really wanted to bother charging everyone.
Maybe, but chess was invented for brown people by brown people. I guess TEH WITE MANZORZ (!!1) will have to stick to quality WITEMANZ entertainment like American football, cow tipping and monster truck rallies... oh, and prancing around in those fashionable pointy white hoods.
Screw SSB on the Rev. Give me a version for the DS with download play that I can use NOW, anywhere I want. It wouldn't even have to use WFC, although that would be nice if lag weren't so painful.
... blah. It's stupid, never mind. I'm sure Nintendo has more inventive and experienced minds than mine to figure this crap out.
Ok, fine, don't screw it just yet. Every means I can think of for controlling the character in SSB would be gimmicky and cumbersome unless you're using motion to handle weapons. It might be interesting to control Sheik's chain with a motion-sensitive controller though, maybe if all the characters in a new version had swinging weapons or
Zelda's easy. Hook up the nunchaku to handle movement and use the motion-sensitive end like a sword. A rumble function could be used to show when you parry an attack or have one of yours parried. Use a weaker rumble to show when you hit, a stronger one to show when you are hit. Aiming attacks and parries adds a lot to combat. I did something similar with the melee combat system in Custom TF back when I used to do Quake modding and it was pretty popular.
I have no idea about Mario, I couldn't stand playing the 3D versions long enough to remember the controls after so many years.
A thousand blessings upon your home, good sir!
It's featured here:/ 1759224
/ 1723256/ 2132222
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/13
It's mentioned here:
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/16
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/13
Heh, it seems all of these were posted by the same editor. You wouldn't be filtering Zonk's articles, would you?
I think the reason the DS is so popular is a simple one... It's fun to play with.*Gasps*
Exactly. I'm not curious enough yet to plunk down money for Nintendogs or Animal Crossing (although I might get them "for my wife") but Mario Kart DS is the best game I've played in a very long time. That new Tony Hawk game looks promising too. Six to ten hour battery life, free internet play via WFC, touchscreen, $130? I'm there, screw PSP in the eye.
I've spent more time playing on these piddly little 3" screens since I got my DS than I've spent playing any of my PC games. In fact, aside from the occasional game of Subspace I haven't bothered with other games at all since I got the DS. I usually hate consoles, it's weird.
The only thing that could make the DS better for me is if I could get my hands on a developer kit for it.
As a result, players are asking anyone who wants to join a group to type one or two sentences in English. If the sentences contain spelling or grammar mistakes, the player is rejected.
You also seem to be able to speak English better than your average American "LOLZ HI@U I WHAT A ITAM PLX OK !!" gamer kid. Typing one or two sentences in English shouldn't pose a major problem for you. It's the American kids that should really be worried about this practice. =)
Aw, damnit.. You beat me to it too, now I'm going to be smoking the redundant mods. Thanks a lot! =)
From TFA, emphasis added:
"The cadmium atom that has lost an electron becomes a negatively charged ion, which can then be controlled with an electrical field," said Daniel Stick, a doctoral student in the University of Michigan's physics department who participated in the work.
Maybe I'm missing something here, but basic high school chemistry says that an atom that loses an electron has an overall positive charge, which makes it a positively charged ion or a cation...
I'm not sure I want this guy designing my computer. =)
Sounds a bit like the "Sharing Folders" in Windows Live Messenger, the new MSN Messenger incarnation in beta now.
I don't know about you guys, but my data always feels "warmer" when I read it from an LP-ROM. I can't explain it any better than that, you can just FEEL it, man! CDs are cold and digital, there's no love there.. Look, all I'm saying is that when I'm in the mood for some soulful gaming I bust out my copy of Quake4 on vinyl, none of this crap you'll find on CD (or worse, DVD) feels RIGHT, MAN!! VINYL FOREVER!!11 DEATH TO THE OPTICAL OPPRESSORS!!1111
It's not A flat, it's G#!