I apologize for going off. Just when people on here defend piracy, it tends to piss me off.
That's alright. I guess I should have bolded where I said that I used to bust infringers as part of the Community Action Team at AOL.
The whole long post was to provide evidence to back up the great-great-great-grandparent poster (I_Redwolf) concerning EpsCylonB's absurd notion that large file sizes stop piracy. That's just absolutely untrue.
Warning - I'm about to sound preachy: What stops 'piracy' is parents teaching their kids what's right and wrong. I know that's tough with some folks being doggedly determined NOT to learn anything about computers (I know, I talked to them for 8 hours a day for 6 years). If Dad would just sit down at Timmy's computer and say "wow, where did you get Photoshop?" the problem would be solved before it starts. I.e. reminding him that real people write software, and if they sell it for $1200 there must be a reason (and blah blah it's not our place to decide whether it should be free or not, to evade the 'stick it to the man' argument, etc). Then maybe Dad could teach his kid that if you want to get something for free, maybe he should download it from people who want him to have it for free (e.g. use GIMP instead). So yeah... if parents had a passing interest in what was coming across their kids computers, maybe they wouldn't go off to college with a blaise attitude about wholesale infringement (c.f. Napster craze and boom of p2p infringement).
I try not to use 'piracy' because Lessig's Free Culture really changed my mind about that. It's not stealing... and unless they are duping CD/DVDs in bulk and preserving the docs and liners, and sleeves, AND THEN selling it too, you can't fairly call it piracy. Of course that doesn't make it right -- that's not what I'm saying. Just that we need to "call a horse a horse". Infringement is illegal, parents should teach their kids not to do illegal shit. Period.
Or you can stand around in bars AND DRINK.:-D MUaha.
Yeah, if you loved Puzzle Fighter you will LOVE sword fighting. And the team sword fights on the high seas are awesome. I totally agree with the parent poster -- Puzzle Pirates is to fun because it's not about you being 'level awesome' and me being 'level suck' because it's really about wits and spatial relationships. It's kinda the same thing that makes (forgive me) Counter-Strike fun, because it's not about how great your character is, or your +39 Sword of Mole Slaying or whatever...
Another plus is that it's not as Urgent as other mmmorpgs (or even Trade Wars;). You can just pop on whenever, team up with your crew, or job with a friendly Flag and just have some fun and community.
I loved Puzzle pirates, and have been kicking myself for a year for not taking them up on the lifetime membership that was offered to beta testers. I'd love to play it, but just can't justify the monthly fee.
I'm really happy for the guys at Three Rings.
If it's not mentioned somewhere else, the Mac performance is weird (graphic trails, messed up transparency), but it's not Three Rings' fault, the JVM in Panther (so far) doesn't completely support the image object they use. I forget the name. I talked to the java-dev mailing list about it and a forth coming JVM will fix it. I don't know anything about when:-D Still very playable though, it's just not as polished as when running under the Sun x86 Jvm, I guess be forwarned if you are running out to the store to buy it.
More people pirate today than they did in the past...if you go by numbers. Maybe the percentage of people decreased. But even though mainstream people are more apt to buy the game than attempt to pirate, they still would pirate if it were easy and that is why companies have to fight...because people are dishonest.
Yeah, that was exactly my point. I'm glad it came through so clearly. I think I even said infringement was down per unit, as you put "maybe the percentage." So to recap: both you and I agree that dishonest people will continue to infringe, while honest people will continue to buy. Cheers.
A little lighter, smaller and slower than a PowerBook, but cost competititive, I guess. Synaptics trackpads can be found on many Wintel portables and can all use the circular scroll.
If weight isn't an issue, I'd say the PowerBook is a better deal.
You're preaching to the quire here...:-D I have a number of other posts in this discussion if you are interested in my insightful commentary/complaints against the whole thing. It is definitely ridiculous to have any other stance than "honest people will buy it, people who 'pirate' it weren't/aren't going to buy it." Why punish the honest people?
The reason we're talking about the mouse button is because that's what the slashdot article is about.
Heh, sorry. Of course we are. I somehow got this confused with the umpteen Mac Mini threads.:-D
It's not rocket surgery and I think it's really demeaning how a lot of the nerds here on Slashdot think all the "stupid users" can't figure a damned two button mouse with a wheel.
That's true enough. On the other side of that coin though, I did work in [phone] tech support for 5 years (Mac and Windows) and I can make a testimonial to the ease of guiding someone (blindly of course) without having to explain "click" and "right-click". In a majority of my 12,000+ calls I would be saying "No, click with the other one" or "No, when I say click, I mean left-click" or "only left-click please" to the point where with some users, I'd tell them to put the mouse away, and give them only key strokes, "hold down the control key, it's in the bottom left corner on the keyboard. Now escape at very top left... You should see a menu appear, great. Now press the leter S once, is 'Settings' a different color now? Great, press the enter key..." If someone can't (in the time my patience would allow) stop right-clicking on the Start button, you can see how it gets. With a Mac caller each process could begin "Click anywhere on your desktop for me, now click go in the menu at the top, now click Applications" for OS X, or even more clear over the phone using OS 9 and older with the spatial Finder. I know that ease of tech support doesn't really matter to you, but it matters to the people who do it, and the people who need it.
Fortunately, there's always 'more than one way to do it' with all systems.
What's weird is this -- when I'm using my PC I find myself reaching for the scroll wheel all the time, but when I'm using my iBook sans mouse I never feel weird about scrolling with just the spacebar... then I get irked by applications that don't page down when you hit space:-D I mean c'mon programmers, haven't you ever used less (and every browser)?!
Thanks for understanding that I wasn't trying to flame you. I guess what got me going is that I'd not experienced any short comings in the context menus for the apps I use in OS X (iLife, Photoshop, Xcode, Dock/desktop etc). Of course it seems ymmv.:)
Re:Apparently they never heard of the Cappuccino P
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Mac mini to PC Hack
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Even though it's been mentioned that Mocha costs more, I'd like to point out that it is not only bigger and louder, it costs MUCH more for a similarly spec'ed out machine. Try it yourself from one of my sibling poster's links here.
The Mocha bare bones with 2.0GHz Celeron (I won't start a war over whether that's 'better or worse' 1.4GHz G4), 256MB ram, upgrade 40GB 5400rpm (smallest the Mac comes with), upgrade slot load CD-RW/DVD-Rom (cheapest the Mac comes with), upgrade the OS to Win XP Home (cheapest GUI option, even though Pro would be fairer to OS X). This setup comes out to over $1000. The Mac mini, with the bigger drive, and the DVD burner is still under a thousand. You could squeeze in the wireless on the Mac Mini and STILL be under $1000.
So I guess ask yourself... when it comes to small machines: Is having a '500Mhz' more juice worth: Having a bigger enclosure, having a louder enclosure, using more power, and paying twice as much for it. If you upgraded that Mocha all the way out, you'd pay way more than twice as much and not have twice the horsepower, plus you'd still have crappier video:) BUT... you would have an eighth inch stereo-in, which is the one true advantage the Mocha has inbox. I guess you could save the $500-800 and just buy a USB iMic. Oh oh, or you could use that money to buy a sweet Firewire audio device and still break even.
Why handicap the system to tailor to new users? Most of the big windows apps are just as straight forward as Mac apps to use, but take usability even further by comprehensive context menus to accelerate productivity.
One, it's not handicapped. Second, OS X apps have comprehensive context menus. I can understand your reticence when it comes to trying new things. It's no big deal. I doesn't really affect me that you don't like Mac users, but please, please don't just go off half-cocked about stuff when you aren't informed.
I'm not trying to sound elitist or condescending when I say that's it's obvious you have never owned a Mac, one button mouse or not. That's ok, it takes all kinds. However, to put it another way, I don't see how you can make contrasting statements about GUIs you haven't used.
Anyhow, nothing personal. I'm not saying you can't post to your heart's content... This argument is soooo 1997 -- the last year you had to use a one-button ADB mouse (not counting the Kensington 2-button ADB from the mid-80s). I know we are all just arguing for arguments sake - but wow am I tired of it. Every thread on Slashdot devolves into 'haha Macs have one button'. Even the no-button Mini ended up being about one button mice. Can we all give it a rest? I mean really the consensus is "use a one button if it's all you need, buy a [favorite brand here] if you want more." (Of course people trot our the 'but I want the mouse to come with my computer,' well duh, that's why the Apple Store sells multi-button mice.)
The fact is, MacOS has supported multiple buttons for about 15 years now, so why are we still talking about this. Oh wait, I know... For the same reason we still argue about how useful the command line is.:-D
Again, nothing personal, just a general sort of post.
by Anonymous Coward on 2005-01-30 14:36 (#11521764) "VIVENDI UNIVERSAL GAMES" holy shit, you have to mail it back to the people who distributed the cd/dvd version?!?!?! thats MADNESS I TELL YOU
Yeah I know you are being facetious, but the problem could easily be solved by Valve... you know, the ones running the authentication server. I could prove to them my purchase, and they could clear my Steam account, and let me play the game I bought.
Their run around solution -- as logical as it is, given the parties involved -- is just that, a run-around. Instead of just saying "You know, you're right, we let someone else on with your key. I'm sorry, Mr. Legitamate Consumer, let us investigate and we'll either clear your purchase or give you a new key". Now, instead of taking half a man-hour to open my mail and confirm it's authenticity, and flipping the "All Clear" switch, Valve has decided it's a better customer experience to have me wait (almost three months now) for VU -- who has nothing to do with Steam -- to send me a new key.
If it's principle, it's principle. If it's not, it's not. And that again is the point. If one is apt to shop lift because it's faster than check out, I guess that person will shoplift; Why? Because one is apt to shoplift, NOT BECAUSE of the 'time savings'.
The argument that people pirate shit just because it's easy to do is fallacious. Period. If the law was important to them, they wouldn't do it in the first place. Right? Law-abiding citizens live by the rules even when it's not convenient. That's the way I live it, anyhow; That's what honesty is. Just because honesty is in short supply -- again -- has nothing to do with how short a download is.
Now to address specifics: "How many people were doing this ? compare with how many people were buying games..." in the heady days of C64's and the like? Well I don't know how old you are, but back then, in the 'hobbiest' days I like to call them, EVERYONE was copying some games and software. When you spent 2000 1980-dollars on a computer and floppy drives, data casette readers, modems, and maybe the branded monitor too, you were really hurting to spend hunrdreds of dollars on software. You were more apt to copy it wholesale at the local user's group meeting, and maybe ocassionally get some 'free' software by typing out a listing from BYTE. If you were willing to wait 20 MINUTES for a program to load off TAPE you better believe you were willing to wait longer than that for a download. I mean we are talking 300 or 1200 bps here.
Time progressed, modems and cpu's got faster, software got better, sizes increased, but until the mainstreaming of the software market, computer users groups and BBS's were a major source of infringing 'content'. Anyhow. We're talking around 1990 or so before people (average Joe) really started buying computer games. We're talking like Myst and Duke Nukem (pardon the loose dates). Then the Web came along, and once people starting finding out they could "Find anything on the Internet", porn, free software, free games... that's when the real explosion happened. It didn't hurt that some of the most popular games Ever (to that point) came out, Wolfie, Doom (and the like) followed by Quake and the true mainstreaming of online multiplayer gaming.
The point of this history lesson is to illustrate this: Downloading/Copying used to be the norm (whether it was infringement or legal) -- and has been DECREASING as the market has evolved, matured and grown. The proof of this is your opinion that mainstream users don't download games, that they all treat their computers like Atari 2600s: Buy a disc, stick it in, and tada it works.
Unfortunately for Sony, and fortunately for Valve, console gaming and computer gaming started at opposite ends of the distribution spectrum and have converged. Computing moved from tiny sales, mostly copying and downloading to a wholesale industry with tight product controls and MUCH LESS copying and downloading; While console gaming moved from this tight control, hardly any casual infringement straight to dreamcastisos.com and modded xboxes. The major cause for this, again, is not the time involved in infringement, or really the ease of infringement per se, it's the changing attitudes of the [mostly] young people taking part in the 'warez scene' for both computers and consoles (are they different anymore?). How would I know? I terminated accounts for infringement while I worked in CAT at AOL. Maybe you know from personal experience, but have a lower tolerance than some of your more freebie oriented peers. The syndrome is even more pronounced with movie/dvd 'traders': four, eight, or more, gigabytes via DSL or Cable for a movie or a season of TV. It can't be as isolated at you think.
Sorry for the long winded response. In conclusion "thats[sic] absurd eveyone[sic] has their limit," may be true but 'free' will push that limit way beyond what you claim. If the average high schooler is willing to download Playstation ISOs with an AOL dial-up connection that limit is way beyond just 'a few hours'.
I guess it's possible that even a USB dongle check could costs less (in the long run) than running content push/registration servers. If they'd used a more physical security route then they could offer BitTorrent downloads of everything, and just count on purchased dongles to unlock them. Of course it would get cracked, but at least they could save money on administration and bandwidth.:-D
I mean it's not like they aren't selling boxed copies, and mail-order copies already.
Most people don't leave their computer on all the time downloading games off p2p networks.
Wrong. It breaks down like the poster before said -- People who buy games will buy them. People who infringe will download them, regardless of the time involved.
Back when everyone was rocking 2400bps that didn't stop games from getting downloaded for 6 hours.
Back when (or maybe some people still are) people were using 14.4kbps games were still getting downloaded even if they took DAYS (54 hours to download one CD worth).
Then the ISO craze kicked off, everyone started getting cable, Napster and the like taught a generation of college kids to leave their machines up 24/7.
I mean it just sounds like you are talking out your ass... the only people who don't leave their computers on all the time (downloading or not) are the same ones that don't play video games.
They don't publish it. On their support site in the "New copy, CD key already regged" They tell you to -- I'm not making this up -- mail your packaging, key and reciept, or photos thereof, to VIVENDI UNIVERSAL GAMES. They don't even take responsiblility. Further in this document, they tell you it will take a couple weeks for vugames to figure it out.
They could tell you about the command line switch -steam, but they don't. They expect you to sit on your hands while you wait for them to get back to you with a new key, that may already have been genned by the time you get it. But get this... My receipt is dated Nov., when I installed, I got to play online for a day or two before Steam came back and said my key was already on file. On Nov. 26 I mailed my crap to vugames and, wait for it, still haven't heard back from them with a new key.
THAT'S RIGHT VALVE, I'VE BEEN WAITING TO PLAY YOUR GAME FOR OVER TWO MONTHS. The sad thing is... I don't even think I can get a refund (in store return) at this point, so I just have to keep waiting.
The moral of this story: Key checking schemes only hurt the customer. There is some asshole out there that genned my key and has been happily playing online ever since, because VALVE WON'T HANDLE IT. If you bought a hard-copy they refer it to the publisher. That's fucking gay.
If nobody pirated their games, there would be no need for the DRM. Pirates are at least as responsible for DRM as media companies. So if you don't like DRM, then stop pirating games, music, and movies. You're just making life difficult for paying customers.
This is a spurious argument. "So if you don't like DRM, then stop..."? What will that accomplish? Nothing. They aren't making life difficult for paying customers. If every 'pirate' stopped infringing copyright today, it wouldn't matter. The DRM genie is already out of the bottle. Media companies (Valve included) will never go back. For these companies, the doctrines of Fair Use and First Sale are "quaint and obsolete" (to turn Gonzales' phrase).
Regardless of the copyright protections outlined for us, the paying customers, the difficulty is not being caused by 'piracy' [copyright infringement], it's being caused by investors. Media wants to bleed a stone when it comes to music, movies, games, etc. because they are driven by one goal only to increase return on investment. Unfortunately, the real solution would be to turn back the coporate influence in Washington, reduce the reliance on capital markets, and trend back towards Constitutional government. You're a bright reader though, and know this will never come to pass.
would be better. That way if the launch of X11 fails, MyApp won't even try to launch. You wouldn't want this if your app could detect X11 not running and give a pretty warning about it not warning. It would be good, though, as the X11 launch would have to complete before it would even try to launch MyApp.
Holy shit Jesus I'm looking at one and I'm a lefty. Here's the news flash:
When you type with both hands, your right hand is over, typicically, "jkl;". This is like 3cm away from the modals. So -- IN THE REAL WORLD the ACTUAL layout of a keypad and navigation keys really aren't relevant. I can't believe you brought this up as your defense "oh there's a keypad on the right". Stfu, it's obvious I'm talking about the lower right of the typing area. Christ.
So, to be fair, I can see this would be an uncomfortable position for those rare typists -- that you are a member of? -- who touch-type with home keys: asdf 456+.
Wow. What a waste of breath, you troll. I've never been pushed to respond like this. Thanks.
-- Most buyers tend to purchase PCs based more on price and quality of technical support than on design, analysts said. Yet executives such as HP's Anderson see a market for unobtrusive desktops that consumers would purchase as second or third computers and use in settings such as kitchens, where large desktops are impractical.
Well that's still good news for Apple -- as Consumer Reports ranks them number one in customer service (and reliability) year after year after year. Some of those other PC rags vote them tops too.
Anyhow, yeah, I agree with you - In kitchens? are you kidding? Maybe if my [sarcasm] $20k refrigerator with built in LCD had a DVI port I'd put a mini in my kitchen. However, once someone comes up with a tiny head mounted display with eyetracking input then we can have a computer, even in the kitchen, without taking up any counter space! Maybe Anderson will sell it to us!
Fortunately, with the exception of the notebooks (where the track pad is in the middle anyway, which defeats handedness arguments) the modifiers are on both sides of the keyboard... so for lefties, like myself, this argument is moot. The modifiers are [ALSO] on the lower right quadrant.
Is he worth hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives? Because that's how many his men have killed since he was in power. And they didn't just die from bombings, we're talking rape and torture. And no, not the kind of torture where people have sex in front of you and make you undress, but the kind where things are shoved up your ass that don't belong in your ass, where you are slowly killed, you know, real torture.
Hehe, nothing beats the electrodes on testicles though. I mean I guess the next best thing could be getting skinned alive, or being feasted on by ferral creatures. I didn't know there were reports of soddomy in the old 'rape rooms' (that the President loves to justify this war with). "He had rape rooms damnit! People were raped!" Just like in Rwanda - but wait - those lives were somehow worth less than the Iraqi lives - by your calculus anyhow. (And this doesn't even consider the death toll caused by 'our' involvement. I mean lets look at it globally -- because of the war in Iraq, are more or less human souls alive today than if we had made other choices. Well surely Madrid wouldn't have had 311, we might have seen a little less genocide in Africa since maybe we could have been bothered to intervine, we might have made some better progress in Israel, we might have had some extra money left over to finally live up to those AIDS research promises, and arguably Bush might have made a little more "we are a people that respect life" progress on the War Against Abortions.) So anyhow, any thoughts on how your "We did it to save the Iraqis" stacks up to our death toll over the Bush administration?
I think Reagan of the 21st century is a suitable legacy. With one exception, Bush has yet to demand that they 'tear down that wall' [in Israel this time]. Still, it's a legacy that's even more polarized today than it was during the 90s, that's what makes it so appropos.
I hate to get sidetracked by this Zionist stuff, so I apologize. In the long run I'm not so sure this whole era will be remembered fondly, short of a miracle.
Additionally, I see that I was unclear when I cavalierly threw around the words DVI display and Gateway LCD when I was referring to Sony HD TV's and Gateway branded televisions... I should have been explicit.
Slashdot Mirror
Then wouldn't it be intellectually consistent to boycott Slashdot as many in the community boycott Microsoft and other non-open source products?
... because those people are boycotting Slashdot.
We wouldn't know
I apologize for going off. Just when people on here defend piracy, it tends to piss me off.
... and unless they are duping CD/DVDs in bulk and preserving the docs and liners, and sleeves, AND THEN selling it too, you can't fairly call it piracy. Of course that doesn't make it right -- that's not what I'm saying. Just that we need to "call a horse a horse". Infringement is illegal, parents should teach their kids not to do illegal shit. Period.
That's alright. I guess I should have bolded where I said that I used to bust infringers as part of the Community Action Team at AOL.
The whole long post was to provide evidence to back up the great-great-great-grandparent poster (I_Redwolf) concerning EpsCylonB's absurd notion that large file sizes stop piracy. That's just absolutely untrue.
Warning - I'm about to sound preachy: What stops 'piracy' is parents teaching their kids what's right and wrong. I know that's tough with some folks being doggedly determined NOT to learn anything about computers (I know, I talked to them for 8 hours a day for 6 years). If Dad would just sit down at Timmy's computer and say "wow, where did you get Photoshop?" the problem would be solved before it starts. I.e. reminding him that real people write software, and if they sell it for $1200 there must be a reason (and blah blah it's not our place to decide whether it should be free or not, to evade the 'stick it to the man' argument, etc). Then maybe Dad could teach his kid that if you want to get something for free, maybe he should download it from people who want him to have it for free (e.g. use GIMP instead). So yeah... if parents had a passing interest in what was coming across their kids computers, maybe they wouldn't go off to college with a blaise attitude about wholesale infringement (c.f. Napster craze and boom of p2p infringement).
I try not to use 'piracy' because Lessig's Free Culture really changed my mind about that. It's not stealing
If you don't like repititious pirate jokes you will hate Puzzle Pirates.
:-D
Part of the fun is talking like a pirate to everyone for a few hours a week.
Ahoy, mateys. I see ye be quaffing a pint o' grog. Mind if I sit in with ye? Arrrrr!
Or you can stand around in bars AND DRINK. :-D MUaha.
;). You can just pop on whenever, team up with your crew, or job with a friendly Flag and just have some fun and community.
Yeah, if you loved Puzzle Fighter you will LOVE sword fighting. And the team sword fights on the high seas are awesome. I totally agree with the parent poster -- Puzzle Pirates is to fun because it's not about you being 'level awesome' and me being 'level suck' because it's really about wits and spatial relationships. It's kinda the same thing that makes (forgive me) Counter-Strike fun, because it's not about how great your character is, or your +39 Sword of Mole Slaying or whatever...
Another plus is that it's not as Urgent as other mmmorpgs (or even Trade Wars
I loved Puzzle pirates, and have been kicking myself for a year for not taking them up on the lifetime membership that was offered to beta testers. I'd love to play it, but just can't justify the monthly fee.
:-D Still very playable though, it's just not as polished as when running under the Sun x86 Jvm, I guess be forwarned if you are running out to the store to buy it.
I'm really happy for the guys at Three Rings.
If it's not mentioned somewhere else, the Mac performance is weird (graphic trails, messed up transparency), but it's not Three Rings' fault, the JVM in Panther (so far) doesn't completely support the image object they use. I forget the name. I talked to the java-dev mailing list about it and a forth coming JVM will fix it. I don't know anything about when
(Caveat, never tried running it under Linux)
More people pirate today than they did in the past...if you go by numbers. Maybe the percentage of people decreased. But even though mainstream people are more apt to buy the game than attempt to pirate, they still would pirate if it were easy and that is why companies have to fight...because people are dishonest.
Yeah, that was exactly my point. I'm glad it came through so clearly. I think I even said infringement was down per unit, as you put "maybe the percentage." So to recap: both you and I agree that dishonest people will continue to infringe, while honest people will continue to buy. Cheers.
If anyone is interested in the noteook my sibling poster is talking about (circular scroll)--
K A18442 b ook
Panasonic W2 ToughBook
http://www.superwarehouse.com/p.cfm?p=404027&CMP=
http://www.google.com/search?q=panasonic+w2+tough
A little lighter, smaller and slower than a PowerBook, but cost competititive, I guess. Synaptics trackpads can be found on many Wintel portables and can all use the circular scroll.
If weight isn't an issue, I'd say the PowerBook is a better deal.
You're preaching to the quire here... :-D I have a number of other posts in this discussion if you are interested in my insightful commentary/complaints against the whole thing. It is definitely ridiculous to have any other stance than "honest people will buy it, people who 'pirate' it weren't/aren't going to buy it." Why punish the honest people?
The reason we're talking about the mouse button is because that's what the slashdot article is about.
:-D
:-D I mean c'mon programmers, haven't you ever used less (and every browser)?!
:)
Heh, sorry. Of course we are. I somehow got this confused with the umpteen Mac Mini threads.
It's not rocket surgery and I think it's really demeaning how a lot of the nerds here on Slashdot think all the "stupid users" can't figure a damned two button mouse with a wheel.
That's true enough. On the other side of that coin though, I did work in [phone] tech support for 5 years (Mac and Windows) and I can make a testimonial to the ease of guiding someone (blindly of course) without having to explain "click" and "right-click". In a majority of my 12,000+ calls I would be saying "No, click with the other one" or "No, when I say click, I mean left-click" or "only left-click please" to the point where with some users, I'd tell them to put the mouse away, and give them only key strokes, "hold down the control key, it's in the bottom left corner on the keyboard. Now escape at very top left... You should see a menu appear, great. Now press the leter S once, is 'Settings' a different color now? Great, press the enter key..." If someone can't (in the time my patience would allow) stop right-clicking on the Start button, you can see how it gets. With a Mac caller each process could begin "Click anywhere on your desktop for me, now click go in the menu at the top, now click Applications" for OS X, or even more clear over the phone using OS 9 and older with the spatial Finder. I know that ease of tech support doesn't really matter to you, but it matters to the people who do it, and the people who need it.
Fortunately, there's always 'more than one way to do it' with all systems.
What's weird is this -- when I'm using my PC I find myself reaching for the scroll wheel all the time, but when I'm using my iBook sans mouse I never feel weird about scrolling with just the spacebar... then I get irked by applications that don't page down when you hit space
Thanks for understanding that I wasn't trying to flame you. I guess what got me going is that I'd not experienced any short comings in the context menus for the apps I use in OS X (iLife, Photoshop, Xcode, Dock/desktop etc). Of course it seems ymmv.
Even though it's been mentioned that Mocha costs more, I'd like to point out that it is not only bigger and louder, it costs MUCH more for a similarly spec'ed out machine. Try it yourself from one of my sibling poster's links here.
... when it comes to small machines: Is having a '500Mhz' more juice worth: Having a bigger enclosure, having a louder enclosure, using more power, and paying twice as much for it. If you upgraded that Mocha all the way out, you'd pay way more than twice as much and not have twice the horsepower, plus you'd still have crappier video :) BUT... you would have an eighth inch stereo-in, which is the one true advantage the Mocha has inbox. I guess you could save the $500-800 and just buy a USB iMic. Oh oh, or you could use that money to buy a sweet Firewire audio device and still break even.
The Mocha bare bones with 2.0GHz Celeron (I won't start a war over whether that's 'better or worse' 1.4GHz G4), 256MB ram, upgrade 40GB 5400rpm (smallest the Mac comes with), upgrade slot load CD-RW/DVD-Rom (cheapest the Mac comes with), upgrade the OS to Win XP Home (cheapest GUI option, even though Pro would be fairer to OS X). This setup comes out to over $1000. The Mac mini, with the bigger drive, and the DVD burner is still under a thousand. You could squeeze in the wireless on the Mac Mini and STILL be under $1000.
So I guess ask yourself
Why handicap the system to tailor to new users? Most of the big windows apps are just as straight forward as Mac apps to use, but take usability even further by comprehensive context menus to accelerate productivity.
:-D
One, it's not handicapped. Second, OS X apps have comprehensive context menus. I can understand your reticence when it comes to trying new things. It's no big deal. I doesn't really affect me that you don't like Mac users, but please, please don't just go off half-cocked about stuff when you aren't informed.
I'm not trying to sound elitist or condescending when I say that's it's obvious you have never owned a Mac, one button mouse or not. That's ok, it takes all kinds. However, to put it another way, I don't see how you can make contrasting statements about GUIs you haven't used.
Anyhow, nothing personal. I'm not saying you can't post to your heart's content... This argument is soooo 1997 -- the last year you had to use a one-button ADB mouse (not counting the Kensington 2-button ADB from the mid-80s). I know we are all just arguing for arguments sake - but wow am I tired of it. Every thread on Slashdot devolves into 'haha Macs have one button'. Even the no-button Mini ended up being about one button mice. Can we all give it a rest? I mean really the consensus is "use a one button if it's all you need, buy a [favorite brand here] if you want more." (Of course people trot our the 'but I want the mouse to come with my computer,' well duh, that's why the Apple Store sells multi-button mice.)
The fact is, MacOS has supported multiple buttons for about 15 years now, so why are we still talking about this. Oh wait, I know... For the same reason we still argue about how useful the command line is.
Again, nothing personal, just a general sort of post.
Their run around solution -- as logical as it is, given the parties involved -- is just that, a run-around. Instead of just saying "You know, you're right, we let someone else on with your key. I'm sorry, Mr. Legitamate Consumer, let us investigate and we'll either clear your purchase or give you a new key". Now, instead of taking half a man-hour to open my mail and confirm it's authenticity, and flipping the "All Clear" switch, Valve has decided it's a better customer experience to have me wait (almost three months now) for VU -- who has nothing to do with Steam -- to send me a new key.
If it's principle, it's principle. If it's not, it's not. And that again is the point. If one is apt to shop lift because it's faster than check out, I guess that person will shoplift; Why? Because one is apt to shoplift, NOT BECAUSE of the 'time savings'.
... that's when the real explosion happened. It didn't hurt that some of the most popular games Ever (to that point) came out, Wolfie, Doom (and the like) followed by Quake and the true mainstreaming of online multiplayer gaming.
The argument that people pirate shit just because it's easy to do is fallacious. Period. If the law was important to them, they wouldn't do it in the first place. Right? Law-abiding citizens live by the rules even when it's not convenient. That's the way I live it, anyhow; That's what honesty is. Just because honesty is in short supply -- again -- has nothing to do with how short a download is.
Now to address specifics: "How many people were doing this ? compare with how many people were buying games..." in the heady days of C64's and the like? Well I don't know how old you are, but back then, in the 'hobbiest' days I like to call them, EVERYONE was copying some games and software. When you spent 2000 1980-dollars on a computer and floppy drives, data casette readers, modems, and maybe the branded monitor too, you were really hurting to spend hunrdreds of dollars on software. You were more apt to copy it wholesale at the local user's group meeting, and maybe ocassionally get some 'free' software by typing out a listing from BYTE. If you were willing to wait 20 MINUTES for a program to load off TAPE you better believe you were willing to wait longer than that for a download. I mean we are talking 300 or 1200 bps here.
Time progressed, modems and cpu's got faster, software got better, sizes increased, but until the mainstreaming of the software market, computer users groups and BBS's were a major source of infringing 'content'. Anyhow. We're talking around 1990 or so before people (average Joe) really started buying computer games. We're talking like Myst and Duke Nukem (pardon the loose dates). Then the Web came along, and once people starting finding out they could "Find anything on the Internet", porn, free software, free games
The point of this history lesson is to illustrate this: Downloading/Copying used to be the norm (whether it was infringement or legal) -- and has been DECREASING as the market has evolved, matured and grown. The proof of this is your opinion that mainstream users don't download games, that they all treat their computers like Atari 2600s: Buy a disc, stick it in, and tada it works.
Unfortunately for Sony, and fortunately for Valve, console gaming and computer gaming started at opposite ends of the distribution spectrum and have converged. Computing moved from tiny sales, mostly copying and downloading to a wholesale industry with tight product controls and MUCH LESS copying and downloading; While console gaming moved from this tight control, hardly any casual infringement straight to dreamcastisos.com and modded xboxes. The major cause for this, again, is not the time involved in infringement, or really the ease of infringement per se, it's the changing attitudes of the [mostly] young people taking part in the 'warez scene' for both computers and consoles (are they different anymore?). How would I know? I terminated accounts for infringement while I worked in CAT at AOL. Maybe you know from personal experience, but have a lower tolerance than some of your more freebie oriented peers. The syndrome is even more pronounced with movie/dvd 'traders': four, eight, or more, gigabytes via DSL or Cable for a movie or a season of TV. It can't be as isolated at you think.
Sorry for the long winded response. In conclusion "thats[sic] absurd eveyone[sic] has their limit," may be true but 'free' will push that limit way beyond what you claim. If the average high schooler is willing to download Playstation ISOs with an AOL dial-up connection that limit is way beyond just 'a few hours'.
I guess it's possible that even a USB dongle check could costs less (in the long run) than running content push/registration servers. If they'd used a more physical security route then they could offer BitTorrent downloads of everything, and just count on purchased dongles to unlock them. Of course it would get cracked, but at least they could save money on administration and bandwidth. :-D
I mean it's not like they aren't selling boxed copies, and mail-order copies already.
Most people don't leave their computer on all the time downloading games off p2p networks.
... the only people who don't leave their computers on all the time (downloading or not) are the same ones that don't play video games.
Wrong. It breaks down like the poster before said -- People who buy games will buy them. People who infringe will download them, regardless of the time involved.
Back when everyone was rocking 2400bps that didn't stop games from getting downloaded for 6 hours.
Back when (or maybe some people still are) people were using 14.4kbps games were still getting downloaded even if they took DAYS (54 hours to download one CD worth).
Then the ISO craze kicked off, everyone started getting cable, Napster and the like taught a generation of college kids to leave their machines up 24/7.
I mean it just sounds like you are talking out your ass
And, it involves downloading multiple gigs of data.
:-D
Haha, and using Steam doesn't. Heh, have you even used Steam?
They don't publish it. On their support site in the "New copy, CD key already regged" They tell you to -- I'm not making this up -- mail your packaging, key and reciept, or photos thereof, to VIVENDI UNIVERSAL GAMES. They don't even take responsiblility. Further in this document, they tell you it will take a couple weeks for vugames to figure it out.
... My receipt is dated Nov., when I installed, I got to play online for a day or two before Steam came back and said my key was already on file. On Nov. 26 I mailed my crap to vugames and, wait for it, still haven't heard back from them with a new key.
... I don't even think I can get a refund (in store return) at this point, so I just have to keep waiting.
They could tell you about the command line switch -steam, but they don't. They expect you to sit on your hands while you wait for them to get back to you with a new key, that may already have been genned by the time you get it. But get this
THAT'S RIGHT VALVE, I'VE BEEN WAITING TO PLAY YOUR GAME FOR OVER TWO MONTHS. The sad thing is
The moral of this story: Key checking schemes only hurt the customer. There is some asshole out there that genned my key and has been happily playing online ever since, because VALVE WON'T HANDLE IT. If you bought a hard-copy they refer it to the publisher. That's fucking gay.
If nobody pirated their games, there would be no need for the DRM. Pirates are at least as responsible for DRM as media companies. So if you don't like DRM, then stop pirating games, music, and movies. You're just making life difficult for paying customers.
This is a spurious argument. "So if you don't like DRM, then stop..."? What will that accomplish? Nothing. They aren't making life difficult for paying customers. If every 'pirate' stopped infringing copyright today, it wouldn't matter. The DRM genie is already out of the bottle. Media companies (Valve included) will never go back. For these companies, the doctrines of Fair Use and First Sale are "quaint and obsolete" (to turn Gonzales' phrase).
Regardless of the copyright protections outlined for us, the paying customers, the difficulty is not being caused by 'piracy' [copyright infringement], it's being caused by investors. Media wants to bleed a stone when it comes to music, movies, games, etc. because they are driven by one goal only to increase return on investment. Unfortunately, the real solution would be to turn back the coporate influence in Washington, reduce the reliance on capital markets, and trend back towards Constitutional government. You're a bright reader though, and know this will never come to pass.
Not for widgets?
Holy shit Jesus I'm looking at one and I'm a lefty. Here's the news flash:
When you type with both hands, your right hand is over, typicically, "jkl;". This is like 3cm away from the modals. So -- IN THE REAL WORLD the ACTUAL layout of a keypad and navigation keys really aren't relevant. I can't believe you brought this up as your defense "oh there's a keypad on the right". Stfu, it's obvious I'm talking about the lower right of the typing area. Christ.
So, to be fair, I can see this would be an uncomfortable position for those rare typists -- that you are a member of? -- who touch-type with home keys: asdf 456+.
Wow. What a waste of breath, you troll. I've never been pushed to respond like this. Thanks.
-- Most buyers tend to purchase PCs based more on price and quality of technical support than on design, analysts said. Yet executives such as HP's Anderson see a market for unobtrusive desktops that consumers would purchase as second or third computers and use in settings such as kitchens, where large desktops are impractical.
Well that's still good news for Apple -- as Consumer Reports ranks them number one in customer service (and reliability) year after year after year. Some of those other PC rags vote them tops too.
Anyhow, yeah, I agree with you - In kitchens? are you kidding? Maybe if my [sarcasm] $20k refrigerator with built in LCD had a DVI port I'd put a mini in my kitchen. However, once someone comes up with a tiny head mounted display with eyetracking input then we can have a computer, even in the kitchen, without taking up any counter space! Maybe Anderson will sell it to us!
Cheers.
Fortunately, with the exception of the notebooks (where the track pad is in the middle anyway, which defeats handedness arguments) the modifiers are on both sides of the keyboard... so for lefties, like myself, this argument is moot. The modifiers are [ALSO] on the lower right quadrant.
Sheesh. You guys will flame about anything.
Is he worth hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives? Because that's how many his men have killed since he was in power. And they didn't just die from bombings, we're talking rape and torture. And no, not the kind of torture where people have sex in front of you and make you undress, but the kind where things are shoved up your ass that don't belong in your ass, where you are slowly killed, you know, real torture.
Hehe, nothing beats the electrodes on testicles though. I mean I guess the next best thing could be getting skinned alive, or being feasted on by ferral creatures. I didn't know there were reports of soddomy in the old 'rape rooms' (that the President loves to justify this war with). "He had rape rooms damnit! People were raped!" Just like in Rwanda - but wait - those lives were somehow worth less than the Iraqi lives - by your calculus anyhow. (And this doesn't even consider the death toll caused by 'our' involvement. I mean lets look at it globally -- because of the war in Iraq, are more or less human souls alive today than if we had made other choices. Well surely Madrid wouldn't have had 311, we might have seen a little less genocide in Africa since maybe we could have been bothered to intervine, we might have made some better progress in Israel, we might have had some extra money left over to finally live up to those AIDS research promises, and arguably Bush might have made a little more "we are a people that respect life" progress on the War Against Abortions.) So anyhow, any thoughts on how your "We did it to save the Iraqis" stacks up to our death toll over the Bush administration?
I think Reagan of the 21st century is a suitable legacy. With one exception, Bush has yet to demand that they 'tear down that wall' [in Israel this time]. Still, it's a legacy that's even more polarized today than it was during the 90s, that's what makes it so appropos.
I hate to get sidetracked by this Zionist stuff, so I apologize. In the long run I'm not so sure this whole era will be remembered fondly, short of a miracle.
Additionally, I see that I was unclear when I cavalierly threw around the words DVI display and Gateway LCD when I was referring to Sony HD TV's and Gateway branded televisions... I should have been explicit.