Imagine, if you will, that it's the late Nineties. A certain software company based in Redmond, Washington has recently released Visual Studio 97--thereby bundling together many of its development tools for the first time. Now imagine that the company decided to release those tools for free. What do you think the general reaction would have been? Applause for Microsoft's generosity? Or widespread condemnation for using its market power to make such a transparently anti-competitive attack on other makers of development tools--most of whom, like Borland, were already struggling anyway, and that were far more dependent on their development tools revenues than Microsoft was on its?
If you're talking about "free" as in Internet Explorer, then they would have been rightly seen as predatory. If you mean "free" as in GPL/BSD licensed the whole set, then they would have been hailed as heroes. This blogger doesn't know FOSS from his elbow.
Software can be "free" as in $0 and not be predatory or impact commercial competitors due to poor quality, poor implementation or just being unsuitable for the job. Eclipse didn't kill the commercial Java IDEs because it was free, it did it because it was free and GOOD. If it was shit, it wouldn't have impacted competitors one iota.
I can understand Richard Stallman's dislike for the term "Open Source". Aras will show you the code, but you have no sub-license rights, can't give the code to anyone else, and need a MAC-based license key to run it. "Look but don't touch" is more like it. Big, fat, hairy deal.
I live in the western suburbs and my choices are Comcast, WOW and DSL. I'm switching over from Comcast to SpeakEasy as soon as I can. I live close to a CO. RCN doesn't make it out here.
Even then, "20 MBps" doesn't mean squat. I'm more interested in UPLOAD speed than download. With 3 kids on TeamSpeak or X-Box Live, a VoIP phone and me running a VPN, it is the upstream that kills me.
Sweden, Japan and S. Korea all offer affordable ($100 a month or less) 100 Mbps connections in urban areas.
Where I live Comcast just upped the download speeds to an advertised 8 Mbps. Of course, the UPLOAD speeds are still 384 Kbps or 768 Kbps as a premium... bastards.
You can't get 10 MBps or 100 Mbps Internet links in the San Fernando Valler or the Washington-New York City area. At least, not without paying close to $1000 a month.
The poor? How about decent broadband for the RICH? They don't have it, either.
That's part of the point. The U.S. considers anything above ISDN "broadband", whereas in the rest of the world you can get 10 and 100 MBps access. That is almost unheard of in the U.S., rich or not.
If that were true, our major cities with high population densities would be well served. And I don't consider 6 Mbps / 768 Kbps well served.
They aren't. The major companies aren't interested in providing you with broadband access. They are only interested in providing you with "Triple Play" coverage -- television, phone and, oh yeah, Internet.
Wow! So, you mean, I can move to somewhere with a super-dense population like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago and be able to get 100 MBps broadband for a reasonable price?
Wait...I live in one of those places and it isn't available.
Population density isn't the problem here. If that were the case, our major cities would be wired out the wazoo, but they're still "oooo...ADSL! I can get 768 Kbps upstream for only $65!"
But is Cars really that great of a game? It sold 2 million because it was a popular movie and the game's sole purpose was to rake in more cash.
From a business/investment perspective, that is all that matters.
Moreover, in many years are people going to care about Cars or will they remember how awesome Gears was and how they can't wait for part 2 to release?
That depends directly on the success of Cars 2, the movie. If it is a big winner, the game most likely will be as well.
In a year is Cars going to continue to sell as many units as Gears?
In a year, the investors will have moved on to the next mass market title. While the developers may care about milking every last sale, the investors know that the vast bulk of the return was made within the first 6-months or so. Their business plan doesn't take into account residual sales over years to come.
Yes, but wouldn't his method of recording the memory location changes work again? I believe they could take a page from OpenBSD's playbook (and others) and randomize memory locations, but short of de-authorizing every player that does it the old way, they're screwed.
Even with memory randomization, you could find it, since he knows what to look for.
Absolute DRM is a fundamentally flawed concept. It is like locks on interior (hollow) doors. They aren't there to keep you out, they're there to let you know you should keep out. If you're determined, all they can do is slow you down.
I think the real point in those situations is "if it goes wrong I can put the blame on a big company the PHB has heard of, otherwise it will be my fault".
Guess what. Odds are, it'll still be your fault. Your fault for not getting the specs right. Your fault for not working with the major vendor to make it work. After all, they're a big company and have hundreds if not thousands of other installations working right. Thus, if they all work and yours doesn't -- it is your fault.
The ONLY way you might get away with that is if some executive MANDATED you use a specific product, overriding your objections or advise to the contrary, and he is a known asshole in the company. Even then, it is still iffy.
And finally, even if it isn't your fault and you can successfully blame someone else, you'll still get a bit of a reputation of "that guy who couldn't get it done".
Thus mandating DRM-only digital purchases. What a wonderful option.
How about setting a $ threshold (I can't be bothered to look up the Euro symbol right now) for the "cooling off period". "Oh my God! I really can't afford this 52\" HDTV" is one thing. "Oh my God! I spent $2.98 on music!" isn't on the same scale. Suck it up and take the loss.
My understanding is that they are still using it because their deal with the record companies, who actually own the rights to the music, won't let them sell it without DRM. If some of the labels don't require DRM, then Apple should definitely not require it either, though.
Only the Big 4, and EMI is wavering. Apple sells other music from publishers who not only don't require DRM, but actually sell plain MP3s on other sites.
For example, Loreena McKennitt is available thru iTunes, in FairPlay wrapped evilness. However, head on over to her website and you can purchase her music direct, in MP3, AAC and even FLAC.
From the site: "What is the difference between these Loreena McKennitt downloads and those offered by other digital download companies such as iTunes? A: Our files are Digital Rights Management free and are therefore compatible with most digital devices, playable on most audio programs and can be burned to CD."
It is a Dell Axim X50 series PocketPC with ruggedized case, screen protectors, fingerprint scanner and custom software. Base price of about $450 for the hardware. The unit is only rated to 104 degrees F for operation, so that could be an issue. However, if these are being used in police capacity, in the city, and not in the field, then that could be mitigated.
I don't think high humidity is going to be an issue in Iraq. The casing is supposed to protect it from dust, as well as provide protection from shock.
I'm willing to bet it is cheaper than the 4-year-in-development model, so you could afford to have standby units. Also, they were able to get SOMETHING in the field. The objective was to get the job done. The contractor's objective was to develop something they could sell for the next 20 years. "Now" wasn't as important.
And how hard was that to do, exactly? Something you'd be comfortable handing over to someone's techno-illiterate grandma? (I run Slamd64, so I know the answers.:-)
You have it, but it was a PITA. Too much so for most people.
Actually, I purchased a PlayStation 2 just to play God of War. No, I never purchased another PS2 game. Yes, it was worth it. (And yes, I know I'm in the serios minority here.)
Here is a link to the ISO Burner Power Toy for Windows XP. This will allow you to record a CD or DVD.iso image under WinXP without having to go out and purchase a full version of Nero or Roxio. This is a very handy tool.
At the time, it was physical abuse. Hitting, etc. My kid was coming home with bruises. Anything short of self-defense and they're not justified in violence. I've taught them to ignore/brush off a lot, because most people just have a big mouth. But they're not to tolerate physical violence at all.
1. Tune them out
A. Don't bring your mobile phone/pager/blackberry to school, so you aren't checking IMs at school.
B. Don't post a MySpace site, or totally ignore other MySpace sites that are critical of you.
C. Set up blocks in your IM and e-mail so you don't get messages/mail from people who harass you.
2. Tell them to fuck off
A. If you have friends who keep telling you stuff like "do you know what so-and-so is saying about you?" and "did you see what they posted about you", you tell them "I don't give a fuck about what so-and-so says or posts, they're nothing but a sad loser."
3. Realize that once you get out of high school, no one gives a damn about high school. It is so not important. No one wears the letter jacket or the school ring beyond about the summer after they graduate. The opinions of those high school kids are less than worthless. Those people do not matter at all.
I'll vote for this one. One of my sons, an identical twin, had this issue when in 5th grade. The bus driver didn't deal with it, the school didn't deal with it. After several attempts to have the "authorities" take action, I simply told him AND HIS TWIN BROTHER, to beat the living daylights out of the bully and not to stop until the bus driver physically stops the bus and comes back there.
The next day I had a confrontation with the school where I had to threaten to sue them because they were going to expel my kids. Fortunately, I had kept a log of my attempted contacts with the "authorities" about how many times I had tried to have them resolve it.
My kids were never bothered by bullies in that school again.
Yes, kids. There are several cases where violence DOES solve the problem.
Google on "britney spears gas station" and it is the 6th link. It was closer to the top, but it seems Miss White Trash has offended the public yet again by heading barefoot into a public restroom.
There was lots of porn on Beta, but that is because anyone could record Beta due to the nature of the tape. Anyone can NOT record BluRay. In order to get a disc mastered, you have to go thru a Sony-authorized mastering service and they've been told NO PORN.
I also feel the studios are more interested in a token attempt. The encryption, even when broken, protects against the vast majority of that type of piracy. The geek market that is capable of doing that is so small it is almost negligible. They just have to go thru the motions to make sure the rest of the public keeps thinking "this is too hard to bother with, unless you are a basement-living uber-geek with no life". The big problem is the counterfeit discs that are mass-produced.
I thought it was obvious this was nothing more than a money-making scam. You know, like those "Privacy Certificates", where anyone with a privacy policy gets a cert. Even those whose policy says "we'll sell your info to anyone whose check clears"...
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Imagine, if you will, that it's the late Nineties. A certain software company based in Redmond, Washington has recently released Visual Studio 97--thereby bundling together many of its development tools for the first time. Now imagine that the company decided to release those tools for free. What do you think the general reaction would have been? Applause for Microsoft's generosity? Or widespread condemnation for using its market power to make such a transparently anti-competitive attack on other makers of development tools--most of whom, like Borland, were already struggling anyway, and that were far more dependent on their development tools revenues than Microsoft was on its?
If you're talking about "free" as in Internet Explorer, then they would have been rightly seen as predatory. If you mean "free" as in GPL/BSD licensed the whole set, then they would have been hailed as heroes. This blogger doesn't know FOSS from his elbow.
Software can be "free" as in $0 and not be predatory or impact commercial competitors due to poor quality, poor implementation or just being unsuitable for the job. Eclipse didn't kill the commercial Java IDEs because it was free, it did it because it was free and GOOD. If it was shit, it wouldn't have impacted competitors one iota.
I can understand Richard Stallman's dislike for the term "Open Source". Aras will show you the code, but you have no sub-license rights, can't give the code to anyone else, and need a MAC-based license key to run it. "Look but don't touch" is more like it. Big, fat, hairy deal.
I live in the western suburbs and my choices are Comcast, WOW and DSL. I'm switching over from Comcast to SpeakEasy as soon as I can. I live close to a CO. RCN doesn't make it out here.
Even then, "20 MBps" doesn't mean squat. I'm more interested in UPLOAD speed than download. With 3 kids on TeamSpeak or X-Box Live, a VoIP phone and me running a VPN, it is the upstream that kills me.
Sweden, Japan and S. Korea all offer affordable ($100 a month or less) 100 Mbps connections in urban areas.
Where I live Comcast just upped the download speeds to an advertised 8 Mbps. Of course, the UPLOAD speeds are still 384 Kbps or 768 Kbps as a premium... bastards.
You can't get 10 MBps or 100 Mbps Internet links in the San Fernando Valler or the Washington-New York City area. At least, not without paying close to $1000 a month.
It's cold up there and they have nothing else to do.
Besides, Canada doesn't count. The country is physically larger, but damn near everyone lives within a 100 mile wide strip at the U.S. border.
The poor? How about decent broadband for the RICH? They don't have it, either.
That's part of the point. The U.S. considers anything above ISDN "broadband", whereas in the rest of the world you can get 10 and 100 MBps access. That is almost unheard of in the U.S., rich or not.
If that were true, our major cities with high population densities would be well served. And I don't consider 6 Mbps / 768 Kbps well served.
They aren't. The major companies aren't interested in providing you with broadband access. They are only interested in providing you with "Triple Play" coverage -- television, phone and, oh yeah, Internet.
Wow! So, you mean, I can move to somewhere with a super-dense population like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago and be able to get 100 MBps broadband for a reasonable price?
Wait...I live in one of those places and it isn't available.
Population density isn't the problem here. If that were the case, our major cities would be wired out the wazoo, but they're still "oooo...ADSL! I can get 768 Kbps upstream for only $65!"
But is Cars really that great of a game? It sold 2 million because it was a popular movie and the game's sole purpose was to rake in more cash.
From a business/investment perspective, that is all that matters.
Moreover, in many years are people going to care about Cars or will they remember how awesome Gears was and how they can't wait for part 2 to release?
That depends directly on the success of Cars 2, the movie. If it is a big winner, the game most likely will be as well.
In a year is Cars going to continue to sell as many units as Gears?
In a year, the investors will have moved on to the next mass market title. While the developers may care about milking every last sale, the investors know that the vast bulk of the return was made within the first 6-months or so. Their business plan doesn't take into account residual sales over years to come.
Yes, but wouldn't his method of recording the memory location changes work again? I believe they could take a page from OpenBSD's playbook (and others) and randomize memory locations, but short of de-authorizing every player that does it the old way, they're screwed.
Even with memory randomization, you could find it, since he knows what to look for.
Absolute DRM is a fundamentally flawed concept. It is like locks on interior (hollow) doors. They aren't there to keep you out, they're there to let you know you should keep out. If you're determined, all they can do is slow you down.
I think the real point in those situations is "if it goes wrong I can put the blame on a big company the PHB has heard of, otherwise it will be my fault".
Guess what. Odds are, it'll still be your fault. Your fault for not getting the specs right. Your fault for not working with the major vendor to make it work. After all, they're a big company and have hundreds if not thousands of other installations working right. Thus, if they all work and yours doesn't -- it is your fault.
The ONLY way you might get away with that is if some executive MANDATED you use a specific product, overriding your objections or advise to the contrary, and he is a known asshole in the company. Even then, it is still iffy.
And finally, even if it isn't your fault and you can successfully blame someone else, you'll still get a bit of a reputation of "that guy who couldn't get it done".
Good luck!
It'd be funnier if an unmeasurable number of new Linux drivers were created. "An infinite number of Linux drivers were created this week."
If only we had an infinite number of monkeys...
(Gotta love preview. I just noticed the original article is on the Linux Kernel Monkey Log. Maybe we DO have more monkeys than I realize.)
Thus mandating DRM-only digital purchases. What a wonderful option.
How about setting a $ threshold (I can't be bothered to look up the Euro symbol right now) for the "cooling off period". "Oh my God! I really can't afford this 52\" HDTV" is one thing. "Oh my God! I spent $2.98 on music!" isn't on the same scale. Suck it up and take the loss.
My understanding is that they are still using it because their deal with the record companies, who actually own the rights to the music, won't let them sell it without DRM. If some of the labels don't require DRM, then Apple should definitely not require it either, though.
Only the Big 4, and EMI is wavering. Apple sells other music from publishers who not only don't require DRM, but actually sell plain MP3s on other sites.
For example, Loreena McKennitt is available thru iTunes, in FairPlay wrapped evilness. However, head on over to her website and you can purchase her music direct, in MP3, AAC and even FLAC.
From the site: "What is the difference between these Loreena McKennitt downloads and those offered by other digital download companies such as iTunes?
A: Our files are Digital Rights Management free and are therefore compatible with most digital devices, playable on most audio programs and can be burned to CD."
It is a Dell Axim X50 series PocketPC with ruggedized case, screen protectors, fingerprint scanner and custom software. Base price of about $450 for the hardware. The unit is only rated to 104 degrees F for operation, so that could be an issue. However, if these are being used in police capacity, in the city, and not in the field, then that could be mitigated.
I don't think high humidity is going to be an issue in Iraq. The casing is supposed to protect it from dust, as well as provide protection from shock.
I'm willing to bet it is cheaper than the 4-year-in-development model, so you could afford to have standby units. Also, they were able to get SOMETHING in the field. The objective was to get the job done. The contractor's objective was to develop something they could sell for the next 20 years. "Now" wasn't as important.
And how hard was that to do, exactly? Something you'd be comfortable handing over to someone's techno-illiterate grandma? (I run Slamd64, so I know the answers. :-)
You have it, but it was a PITA. Too much so for most people.
Actually, I purchased a PlayStation 2 just to play God of War. No, I never purchased another PS2 game. Yes, it was worth it. (And yes, I know I'm in the serios minority here.)
For the curious...
.iso image under WinXP without having to go out and purchase a full version of Nero or Roxio. This is a very handy tool.
m
Here is a link to the ISO Burner Power Toy for Windows XP. This will allow you to record a CD or DVD
http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.ht
At the time, it was physical abuse. Hitting, etc. My kid was coming home with bruises. Anything short of self-defense and they're not justified in violence. I've taught them to ignore/brush off a lot, because most people just have a big mouth. But they're not to tolerate physical violence at all.
1. Tune them out
A. Don't bring your mobile phone/pager/blackberry to school, so you aren't checking IMs at school.
B. Don't post a MySpace site, or totally ignore other MySpace sites that are critical of you.
C. Set up blocks in your IM and e-mail so you don't get messages/mail from people who harass you.
2. Tell them to fuck off
A. If you have friends who keep telling you stuff like "do you know what so-and-so is saying about you?" and "did you see what they posted about you", you tell them "I don't give a fuck about what so-and-so says or posts, they're nothing but a sad loser."
3. Realize that once you get out of high school, no one gives a damn about high school. It is so not important. No one wears the letter jacket or the school ring beyond about the summer after they graduate. The opinions of those high school kids are less than worthless. Those people do not matter at all.
I'll vote for this one. One of my sons, an identical twin, had this issue when in 5th grade. The bus driver didn't deal with it, the school didn't deal with it. After several attempts to have the "authorities" take action, I simply told him AND HIS TWIN BROTHER, to beat the living daylights out of the bully and not to stop until the bus driver physically stops the bus and comes back there.
The next day I had a confrontation with the school where I had to threaten to sue them because they were going to expel my kids. Fortunately, I had kept a log of my attempted contacts with the "authorities" about how many times I had tried to have them resolve it.
My kids were never bothered by bullies in that school again.
Yes, kids. There are several cases where violence DOES solve the problem.
http://www.hollywoodrag.com/index.php?/weblog/brea king_britney_spears_buys_panties1/
Google on "britney spears gas station" and it is the 6th link. It was closer to the top, but it seems Miss White Trash has offended the public yet again by heading barefoot into a public restroom.
Yeah, both of 'em.
There was lots of porn on Beta, but that is because anyone could record Beta due to the nature of the tape. Anyone can NOT record BluRay. In order to get a disc mastered, you have to go thru a Sony-authorized mastering service and they've been told NO PORN.
I also feel the studios are more interested in a token attempt. The encryption, even when broken, protects against the vast majority of that type of piracy. The geek market that is capable of doing that is so small it is almost negligible. They just have to go thru the motions to make sure the rest of the public keeps thinking "this is too hard to bother with, unless you are a basement-living uber-geek with no life". The big problem is the counterfeit discs that are mass-produced.
I thought it was obvious this was nothing more than a money-making scam. You know, like those "Privacy Certificates", where anyone with a privacy policy gets a cert. Even those whose policy says "we'll sell your info to anyone whose check clears"...