"I own version 1.0 - it works for me, I expect it to be maintained as long as I use it (I might even pay for that support). I don't care for the bells and whistles of version 2.0."
OTOH
"I developed version 1.0 AND 2.0. I pay for a support call centre for my product suite. Fewer and fewer people call about v1.0 so it costs me more and more to train staff to support it. Staff turnover is a reality that drains my cash."
SOLUTION
Remove the company from the equation. Find third-party support: the guy down the road, volunteer-run forums, etc.
What about a professional company who specialise in providing support for out-of-date software. Would it take much more than a few switched on dudes with access to lots of manuals and time? Forgive me if I'm speaking sh1t.
Because, unless you've packed so much good stuff into your new version, people will use your old one and decide not to ever buy your current one.
It's sad but true.
There's no magic rule for this, though. I happily use an FTP client that's several years old. I also play C64 emulated games. I'm not going to get a new FTP client any time soon, but I still got Return 2 C Wolf because C64 games don't scratch the same itch (multiplayer eyecandy immersion).
Your label of "consumer" isn't necessarily accurate. I don't get to choose what software I use (I have a job - my employer does, and I have little chance of influencing those decisions).
Writing a new, competing program (and then convincing my employer that it's a better product than Norton AV) is a nice idea, but it misses the point. Australians PAY to have virus protection from these companies. They are not providing the product they agreed to - plain and simple. Why should we pay twice?
If you think this is impractical, then remember that 40 bit and 128 bit SSL is available, from US browser companies, depending on where you intend to use it.
But it's worse. What if I write (in Australia) an antivirus program that defeats Magic Lantern, then try to visit the US for a holiday? Ask Dimitry for the answer.
I've been browsing at +2 so sorry if someone else has mentioned this already.
I am Australian. I use American antivirus software. There is no indication that Symantec or McAfee are going to protect their Australian consumers from the American government.
Most of this discussion has centred on the FBI invading domestic computers. I am more concerned, not personally, but ethically as a global citizen, with the CIA or another US body using this technique to invade my country's rights.
I have no recompense, short of diplomatic channels, or through whatever (uberexpensive) international anti-espionage laws , at stopping this.
Magic Lantern is a very blunt intelligence instrument. Right now (and the irony is NOT lost on me) all I have to be thankful for is that my sychophantic Prime Minister has been licking Dubwya's scrotum so much lately that Australians are probably far down the list of suitable intelligence targets.
Mr Packer believes that the Kimberley can best replicate the huge savannahs of Africa - without the constant threat of poachers who threaten the extinction of several species.
Anyone who knows anything about.au's current problems repelling illegal immigrants (mainly boatpeople travelling down through Indonesia) knows we haven't a hope stopping people landing on the North-West coast. Shooting poachers is still illegal here, even if blind eyes are turned in Africa. I would expect that organised groups would at least try to see if it's more cost-effective to harvest animals here than in their native habitat, once the populations reach a big enough size.
Sure, people that play these games all the time might appreciate the skill involved in winning the top gaming tournaments, but to people who don't play these games, they have no basis for understanding this skill. In traditional sports they can still be impressed by the human factors involved -- eg. "wow that guy jumps real high", or "wow that guy runs real fast".
There are plenty of sports with "specific" skills that aren't immediately apparent to the casual observer - think of batting techniques in Cricket, or the teamwork needed for many sports, especially football(s). Not knowing "how" someone is really good isn't always crucial to enjoying watching them play.
For Counter-Strike, I believe the most accessible, enjoyable aspect is seeing the teams work coherently - this is a difficult thing to capture from a third-person perspective, so would require expert commentary to work well.
There's nothing about online gaming per se that is non-teeveeable - that's why the term "spectator sport" was invented: to differentiate certain sports from other, boring-to-watch ones.
Think for a moment about how the impact of television has affected the rules of many sports - different scoring systems, rounds timed to fit timeslots (eg. day/night Cricket was invented by the media) Granted, there are limitations with current games that will prevent them from getting airtime on Sundays, but that will change once someone designs a game both for players' and spectators' enjoyment from the ground up.
... A sense of continuity and antiquity is one of the things lacking in America that I truly miss (Native Americans excepted).
I'm Australian so we have the same "problem". Although, I think you've made a subtle distinction between indigenous culture and others that I find interesting. Do Italians, etc. feel a sense of connection with their ancestors and their environment in the way that Native American people do?
Can we not feel a sense of "antiquity" without needing a cultural "continuity"?
A few suburbs from me, a tens-of-thousands-of-years-old bora ring was recently rediscovered. The same culture that created that site still exists today - although I am not indigenous, I can't help but feel awe at the fact that I live so close to a cultural relic of a truly geological timescale that still has contemporary significance.
Your president and government realise how dependent their economy is on M$ products. Of course, they can't just ask Microsoft what the terrorist-exploitable holes in the code are, because the company is big enough to hang on to their corp. secrets from even the US government.
So they employ the guy and put him in a safehouse where they can have a long chat, Dubwya gets a clearer picture of what he's up against.
I know nothing about the chip manufacturing industry so I'll put my newbie propeller-cap on for a moment.
Nothing in that article tells me whether what they are doing (constructing really fast chips) is really that hard - in a scientific sense. Is it simply an engineering challenge? What spin-off technologies are likely to result? What's going to come 'next' from all this, apart from more chips?
...it is our moral obligation.. NO survival emperitive to replace the species.
I thought like this too, until I asked my girlfriend what she thought. She said that in practical terms, we could spend an awful lot more (time, money, take your pick) figuring out how to bring back a single species when the same time/money could save dozens of species we haven't yet made extinct.
If this grows beyond scientific vapourware, then the question becomes "what industy do we do try now?". Would we ensure that we laboured towards resurrecting species that still have their own habitat in existence, or, perhaps more likely, new types of meat or animal products (I hear a dodo steak sets you back quite a bit in the best restaurants)?
Actually, no, it is a gravity map. If you follow this link (one of those background/depth things I mentioned), you might find out that:
The density of its mass and the distance to that mass varies as you move around Earth's surface. The effect on gravity is small and has mostly to do with the internal structure of Earth and to some extent with its topography.
So it isn't just a geoid map after all! How about that.
More info and links
on
Mapping Gravity
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Anyone who wants to be on the Internet is already on it. The rest are just cheapskates and technophobes. Do we WANT them on the Internet?
By your thinking:
people who can't afford a computer (with or without 'Net access) are wrong to put their kids' schooling or next meal ahead in the list of priorities, or
people's distaste for currently available technology and/or those who find the standard of Internet content not useful or applicable to their lives shouldn't be encouraged to at least keep up, so that in five years' time when it does become essential, they're not an underclass?
Step outside and see how 99% of the world lives, dude.
In fact, every sea-going european race extant at or a bit before plato's time talks about land to the far west of europe....
Well, doesn't that make perfect sense, since they could (and did) strut about all over the land to the South, East and North? I mean, where else was there to put a mythical land, other than West?
Is it any wonder that bimbettes and games appear often together? Male adolescents playing games are already likely to be struggling for self-esteem and experimenting with pr0n at the expense of forming actual relationships with girls. Sorry to sound like Katz, but doesn't this stem from the poor socialisation of youth in general?
You can't blame marketers for picking the easiest, most-likely-to-succeed option for shifting units. Duke Nukem Forever will sell by the bucketful, esp. now that 3DRealms spent long hours coding that g-string dancer at the end of the preview movie released recently.
It isn't the gibs or girls I play games to see. Sure, seeing blood on a wall is handy for seeing if you've hit your opponent. I can't explain the value of tasselled b00bs in the same way. Once you develop some social skills and a mature attitude to other human beings, all this skin just becomes an obstacle to avoid when you're trying to have fun.
One of the worst things schools can do is fail to practice what they preach. When I was in high school, several final-year kids were expelled for playing "Running Man" (a cruel activity inspired by the movie - probably not the book) with a kid four years younger than them. Once caught, the unwilling victim was stripped naked, hung upside down from a tree and whipped with branches. His parents removed him from the school for his own safety and mental recovery.
About half of the students responsible had their punishments reduced to detentions because they happened to be in the First XV rugby team - Rugby being the paramount activity at this Australian private school. The rest were suspended.
Although your cracking was nothing like the criminal violence I've described here, I shudder to think that schools determine what is an appropriate punishment by measuring what the kid is worth to them.
Re:Why have I never heard of this movie?
on
Review: The Dish
·
· Score: 1
Is it any wonder? The production cost of this film was a fraction of the catering budget for most of the work coming out of the US. After you pay for marketing in.au (clearly the most receptive audience) there's not a lot left with which to compete against the American domestic film industry.
Keep in mind that we've barely a tenth of your population here - which translates to a lot less box office takings at home to put back into new movies. Government funding is still significant. Reverse the situation and you end up with a US film industry churning out product at a rate almost that of India.
Very few films from this part of the world are released in the US for direct commercial gain - it's just too expensive (those that are could hardly be called 'typical' - Croc Dundee case in point). Keep an eye out on the arthaus circuit where we'll be looking for reputation-building critical attention, if not public. That's the Australian way - look for a backdoor to sneak through.
If that doesn't work - try dropping your pants;-)
Re:finally a movie that belongs here!
on
Review: The Dish
·
· Score: 1
If anyone has ever wondered why Australians seem so hell-bent on beating everyone (esp Americans) at sports, watch this movie and understand the theme.
Australia draws its cultural strength from sporadic and isolated instances appearing to be of "world quality" - the beauty of this film (for domestic audiences anyway) is seeing that this permeates beyond Olympic swimming pools and into somewhere that Australians don't yet identify as their own - Science.
While many Australians are thrilled to hear that Paul Hogan receives 20 seconds of news airtime at the latest Croc Dundee premiere (cringe...), it's efforts like this that push the boundary of cultural mindset already at least a hundred years old.
Jon - cheers for noticing and hopefully slashdotting this one.
Slashdot Mirror
Competing argument summary:
"I own version 1.0 - it works for me, I expect it to be maintained as long as I use it (I might even pay for that support). I don't care for the bells and whistles of version 2.0."
OTOH
"I developed version 1.0 AND 2.0. I pay for a support call centre for my product suite. Fewer and fewer people call about v1.0 so it costs me more and more to train staff to support it. Staff turnover is a reality that drains my cash."
SOLUTION
Remove the company from the equation. Find third-party support: the guy down the road, volunteer-run forums, etc.
What about a professional company who specialise in providing support for out-of-date software. Would it take much more than a few switched on dudes with access to lots of manuals and time? Forgive me if I'm speaking sh1t.
Because, unless you've packed so much good stuff into your new version, people will use your old one and decide not to ever buy your current one.
It's sad but true.
There's no magic rule for this, though. I happily use an FTP client that's several years old. I also play C64 emulated games. I'm not going to get a new FTP client any time soon, but I still got Return 2 C Wolf because C64 games don't scratch the same itch (multiplayer eyecandy immersion).
It appears your registration period has expired.
Please take a moment to re-register your software product now, to receive exciting benefits, like:
* Our new, 65535 colour splash screen
* The FBI Magic Lantern bonus pack autoinstall wizard
* The latest version of our popular readme.txt file
If you prefer, you can print a registration form to fax or mail later.
[buy now] [remind me later] [issue warrant]
I think you could benefit from an answer.
Your label of "consumer" isn't necessarily accurate. I don't get to choose what software I use (I have a job - my employer does, and I have little chance of influencing those decisions).
Writing a new, competing program (and then convincing my employer that it's a better product than Norton AV) is a nice idea, but it misses the point. Australians PAY to have virus protection from these companies. They are not providing the product they agreed to - plain and simple. Why should we pay twice?
If you think this is impractical, then remember that 40 bit and 128 bit SSL is available, from US browser companies, depending on where you intend to use it.
But it's worse. What if I write (in Australia) an antivirus program that defeats Magic Lantern, then try to visit the US for a holiday? Ask Dimitry for the answer.
I am Australian. I use American antivirus software. There is no indication that Symantec or McAfee are going to protect their Australian consumers from the American government.
Most of this discussion has centred on the FBI invading domestic computers. I am more concerned, not personally, but ethically as a global citizen, with the CIA or another US body using this technique to invade my country's rights.
I have no recompense, short of diplomatic channels, or through whatever (uberexpensive) international anti-espionage laws , at stopping this.
Magic Lantern is a very blunt intelligence instrument. Right now (and the irony is NOT lost on me) all I have to be thankful for is that my sychophantic Prime Minister has been licking Dubwya's scrotum so much lately that Australians are probably far down the list of suitable intelligence targets.
Remember when alt.sexy.bald.captains still had Star Trek in it?? These days, it's all alt, sexy, and probably bald - but that's about it :(
natslovR from QGL?
<conspiracy theory>
With M$ in bed with US politics, what other national government would trust the US not to embed espionageware in their OSes?
</conspiracy theory>
For Counter-Strike, I believe the most accessible, enjoyable aspect is seeing the teams work coherently - this is a difficult thing to capture from a third-person perspective, so would require expert commentary to work well.
There's nothing about online gaming per se that is non-teeveeable - that's why the term "spectator sport" was invented: to differentiate certain sports from other, boring-to-watch ones.
Think for a moment about how the impact of television has affected the rules of many sports - different scoring systems, rounds timed to fit timeslots (eg. day/night Cricket was invented by the media) Granted, there are limitations with current games that will prevent them from getting airtime on Sundays, but that will change once someone designs a game both for players' and spectators' enjoyment from the ground up.
Can we not feel a sense of "antiquity" without needing a cultural "continuity"?
A few suburbs from me, a tens-of-thousands-of-years-old bora ring was recently rediscovered. The same culture that created that site still exists today - although I am not indigenous, I can't help but feel awe at the fact that I live so close to a cultural relic of a truly geological timescale that still has contemporary significance.
Your president and government realise how dependent their economy is on M$ products. Of course, they can't just ask Microsoft what the terrorist-exploitable holes in the code are, because the company is big enough to hang on to their corp. secrets from even the US government.
So they employ the guy and put him in a safehouse where they can have a long chat, Dubwya gets a clearer picture of what he's up against.
I know nothing about the chip manufacturing industry so I'll put my newbie propeller-cap on for a moment.
Nothing in that article tells me whether what they are doing (constructing really fast chips) is really that hard - in a scientific sense. Is it simply an engineering challenge? What spin-off technologies are likely to result? What's going to come 'next' from all this, apart from more chips?
I thought like this too, until I asked my girlfriend what she thought. She said that in practical terms, we could spend an awful lot more (time, money, take your pick) figuring out how to bring back a single species when the same time/money could save dozens of species we haven't yet made extinct.
If this grows beyond scientific vapourware, then the question becomes "what industy do we do try now?". Would we ensure that we laboured towards resurrecting species that still have their own habitat in existence, or, perhaps more likely, new types of meat or animal products (I hear a dodo steak sets you back quite a bit in the best restaurants)?
This was Astronomy Picture of the Day last week.
Plenty of depth/background available from there, as always!
people who can't afford a computer (with or without 'Net access) are wrong to put their kids' schooling or next meal ahead in the list of priorities, or
people's distaste for currently available technology and/or those who find the standard of Internet content not useful or applicable to their lives shouldn't be encouraged to at least keep up, so that in five years' time when it does become essential, they're not an underclass?
Step outside and see how 99% of the world lives, dude.
Well, doesn't that make perfect sense, since they could (and did) strut about all over the land to the South, East and North? I mean, where else was there to put a mythical land, other than West?
Is it any wonder that bimbettes and games appear often together? Male adolescents playing games are already likely to be struggling for self-esteem and experimenting with pr0n at the expense of forming actual relationships with girls. Sorry to sound like Katz, but doesn't this stem from the poor socialisation of youth in general?
You can't blame marketers for picking the easiest, most-likely-to-succeed option for shifting units. Duke Nukem Forever will sell by the bucketful, esp. now that 3DRealms spent long hours coding that g-string dancer at the end of the preview movie released recently.
It isn't the gibs or girls I play games to see. Sure, seeing blood on a wall is handy for seeing if you've hit your opponent. I can't explain the value of tasselled b00bs in the same way. Once you develop some social skills and a mature attitude to other human beings, all this skin just becomes an obstacle to avoid when you're trying to have fun.
About half of the students responsible had their punishments reduced to detentions because they happened to be in the First XV rugby team - Rugby being the paramount activity at this Australian private school. The rest were suspended.
Although your cracking was nothing like the criminal violence I've described here, I shudder to think that schools determine what is an appropriate punishment by measuring what the kid is worth to them.
Keep in mind that we've barely a tenth of your population here - which translates to a lot less box office takings at home to put back into new movies. Government funding is still significant. Reverse the situation and you end up with a US film industry churning out product at a rate almost that of India.
Very few films from this part of the world are released in the US for direct commercial gain - it's just too expensive (those that are could hardly be called 'typical' - Croc Dundee case in point). Keep an eye out on the arthaus circuit where we'll be looking for reputation-building critical attention, if not public. That's the Australian way - look for a backdoor to sneak through.
If that doesn't work - try dropping your pants ;-)
If anyone has ever wondered why Australians seem so hell-bent on beating everyone (esp Americans) at sports, watch this movie and understand the theme. Australia draws its cultural strength from sporadic and isolated instances appearing to be of "world quality" - the beauty of this film (for domestic audiences anyway) is seeing that this permeates beyond Olympic swimming pools and into somewhere that Australians don't yet identify as their own - Science. While many Australians are thrilled to hear that Paul Hogan receives 20 seconds of news airtime at the latest Croc Dundee premiere (cringe...), it's efforts like this that push the boundary of cultural mindset already at least a hundred years old. Jon - cheers for noticing and hopefully slashdotting this one.