> The technical question is: How on earth do you put watermarking in a visual medium without people seeing it and in an audible medium without people hearing it?
I've heard this over and over again, so let's put this issue to rest. Believe it or not, human beings cannot see the entire spectrum of light, and human beings cannot hear the full range of possible sounds.
A visual watermark would be right smack dab in the middle of the picture, displayed in some harmless band of ultra-violet or infra-red. Audio watermarks would be too high pitched for us to hear (though hopefully they'd also put it out of dog hearing range too.)
And, of course, it'd be illegal to own an output device that couldn't display these innocuious signatures.
Maybe this would be where the Xbox pricing scheme would come in handy? Ten bucks a month for all the online games you can eat, regardless of whether they're shooters, RTSes, MMORPGs, or whatever.
Sharp-edged, stone successors to the fingernail that eliminate the frustration of tearing open shellfish for nourishment have crossed a popularity threshold, raising alarm among Thog, the old man who never took a wife for some reason, who sees the devices as a threat to the economics of doing manicures in exchange for uncomfortably long hugs.
> My grandma releases a console called the "Playstation 2" in 1965, composed of old sewing machine parts.
Well, I was going to list a third reason: "They didn't do something horribly stupid." You know, like not ship dev kits, or accidently blow up Sony headquarters, or have it dispense gumballs instead of play games. But I figured the intelligent readers here wouldn't need that explained to them. What was I thinking?
And yes, the Microsoft Playstation 2 or even the Sega Playstation 2 with Dreamcast hardware would've been smash successes. (Provided they got the legal right to use that name, but I don't have to explain that, do I?) Remember, fanboys are dumb, and moms shopping for their kids are even dumber.
I know nobody will read my post all the way down here, but what the hell.
There are TWO reasons that Sony is winning the console war thus far. The reasons most people are listing (great games, etc) are just effects of their selling so many units. The cause of their success with the PS2 boils down to two points:
Remember when the courts ruled that the brand name "Webster's" was ruled to be a generic term for a dictionary? Compared to that, this ruling on the "Windows" name seems tame. I mean, at least window is both a common English word and a term for GUI object used across multiple OSes.
Hm... I wonder, if the case keeps going like this, people can name any OS "Windows", as long as they brand it properly: Sun Windows 2001, AOL Windows ver 5.0, Rayonic's Windows Infinity+1 - 'So there, nyah' Edition.
> I'm still hoping that someone will get the MMORPG right in the not so distant future.
Are you talking about this MMORPG, or MMORPGs in general? IIRC, FFXI isn't trying anything drastically new in the Massively Online RPG arena (besides being on a console. Whoop.)
The first couple times I read the article title, I thought it said "Your Rights Online: Seems Nobody Gives A Damn About Piracy". Which I guess is true also.:)
I'm a little wary of the simplistic "exposing kids to X makes them do X" philosophy. For instance, my mother was an alcoholic while I was growing up (still is) but I've never touched any alcohol myself. Certainly by the "common wisdom" of today's political scene, I should have grown up to drink just as heavily as her. Obviously kids don't develop quite the way we think they do.
I think that if a child fully understands the aspects of a certain activity, all the mystery surrounding that activity disappears and they lose the urge to experiment. My fianceé's mother always had frank talks about sex with her, and thus she never slept around or did other stupid sex-related things. We see the side-effects of shielding our kids from the world all the time; sheltered college freshmen binge drinking at every opportunity, Catholic school students doing goodness-knows-what in their free moments.
Video games aren't as powerful, emotionally, as personal experience, but I don't see why they'd work much different. So sure you can carjack a car and run down a pedestrians in GTA3, but what happens nine times out of ten afterwards? Right, you get hunted down, arrested, or alternately riddled with holes. And even kids know you don't get a restart option in real life.
You're doomed. I've been doomed since I graduated in December 2001. Never a bite on any job I applied to, online or otherwise.
So you'd better contact your local retail businesses, because it's going to be a long search for a job. Hopefully your parents won't mind having you back for a while, if not you'll have to bunk up with multiple roommates in some cheap apartment, have no car, and live paycheck to paycheck.
Don't worry about that economic upswing - I'm sure the government can import enough H1-B's to take care of that. Yes, I'm in a bad mood today.
Great point, definitely deserving of a (+5 Insightful). But, are you sure that all of the DMCA's consequences are intentional? We've been under the general impression that those responsible for it's passage (RIAA, MPAA, etc) have not a whit of technical knowledge, despite all of their PH.Ds and MBAs. I've sure all of us have met supposedly well-educated individuals without even a basic grasp of any technical issues. Remember when the MPAA tried to outlaw the VCR, and then it became one of their biggest moneymakers? That wasn't that long ago, and those dumb fsckheads are still the ones in charge.
Of course, whatever the reasoning, I'm sure they're peeing their pants with joy about the full implications of the new law they bought.
And this will be small enough to be included in the mandatory National IDs. It'll be a boon to the television industry. Mmm... instant "tickets" whenever we fast forward. Or time shift. Or blink.
I was lucky enough to see that particular feature before it was pulled. It wasn't the best Photoshop Phriday, but it was rather large and had a few gems. My favorite? A reworked Dirty Harry poster starring The Sweedish Chef. "Do yoo veel looki, POONK?!"
So anyone got a mirror? I hope I can't get sued for describing or asking for a "copyright-infringing image." I probably can.
I know it'll take a while before DQ8 sees the light of day, but the mere announcement of a DQ8 exclusive would create a whole lot of positive vibes for the Xbox. Add to that a few announced-but-missed release dates and the possibility of MS hurrying them along (with cash, etc.), and you're looking at whole lot of sold X-boxen.
Not saying that it's right, but it's what they should do.
You've heard of them, right? They put out that little Dragon Quest/Warrior series, the seventh of which is the all-time best selling game in Japan. Heck, there's even a Japanese law saying that Enix can only release a new DQ game on a weekend, because otherwise millions of kids/adults will skip school/work just to get their hands on it ASAP and play it all day.
Even the mere announcement that the next Dragon Quest game will be an Xbox exclusive would guarantee the console's success in Japan. It's like Japanese gamers wouldn't have a choice in the matter. They'd need Dragon Quest 8, and thus they would need an Xbox, no matter what.
> I can list four games off the top of my *head* that have more speech and artistic values than all four of those movies I just mentioned put together.
Not a bad list, but I can do one (or four) better.
The Longest Journey - Adventure games are really the closest thing you can get to a movie in a game. TLJ is one of the best to come out recently, though it was a toss-up between this and Grim Fandango.
Zork - It's almost like reading! Surely even he can get that through his thick skull.
Deus Ex - One of the more literate FPSes. You've got to throw an action one in there.
Tetris - Hey, if we can get him hooked maybe he'll see things in a different light.;-)
This is, of course, ignoring the fact that he has NO PLACE JUDGING WHAT IS SPEECH AND WHAT ISN'T. But if he was a good judge I guess he'd know that already.
"When I eval stuff for work (software developer), I don't mind at all registering my work info. It's the same way with conferences - I'm happy to give out my info."
Good point, I wouldn't mind giving out your work info either. So, what was that e-mail addess?
Slashdot Mirror
> The technical question is: How on earth do you put watermarking in a visual medium without people seeing it and in an audible medium without people hearing it?
I've heard this over and over again, so let's put this issue to rest. Believe it or not, human beings cannot see the entire spectrum of light, and human beings cannot hear the full range of possible sounds.
A visual watermark would be right smack dab in the middle of the picture, displayed in some harmless band of ultra-violet or infra-red. Audio watermarks would be too high pitched for us to hear (though hopefully they'd also put it out of dog hearing range too.)
And, of course, it'd be illegal to own an output device that couldn't display these innocuious signatures.
Maybe this would be where the Xbox pricing scheme would come in handy? Ten bucks a month for all the online games you can eat, regardless of whether they're shooters, RTSes, MMORPGs, or whatever.
I hear it has great mini-games. Particularly the ones that involve other people.
Sharp-edged, stone successors to the fingernail that eliminate the frustration of tearing open shellfish for nourishment have crossed a popularity threshold, raising alarm among Thog, the old man who never took a wife for some reason, who sees the devices as a threat to the economics of doing manicures in exchange for uncomfortably long hugs.
That's an especially astute analogy for me, seeing as I only eat bananas.
> My grandma releases a console called the "Playstation 2" in 1965, composed of old sewing machine parts.
Well, I was going to list a third reason: "They didn't do something horribly stupid." You know, like not ship dev kits, or accidently blow up Sony headquarters, or have it dispense gumballs instead of play games. But I figured the intelligent readers here wouldn't need that explained to them. What was I thinking?
And yes, the Microsoft Playstation 2 or even the Sega Playstation 2 with Dreamcast hardware would've been smash successes. (Provided they got the legal right to use that name, but I don't have to explain that, do I?) Remember, fanboys are dumb, and moms shopping for their kids are even dumber.
I know nobody will read my post all the way down here, but what the hell.
There are TWO reasons that Sony is winning the console war thus far. The reasons most people are listing (great games, etc) are just effects of their selling so many units. The cause of their success with the PS2 boils down to two points:
1) It's named "Playstation 2".
2) Big head start.
I defy anyone to refute that.
Remember when the courts ruled that the brand name "Webster's" was ruled to be a generic term for a dictionary? Compared to that, this ruling on the "Windows" name seems tame. I mean, at least window is both a common English word and a term for GUI object used across multiple OSes.
Hm... I wonder, if the case keeps going like this, people can name any OS "Windows", as long as they brand it properly: Sun Windows 2001, AOL Windows ver 5.0, Rayonic's Windows Infinity+1 - 'So there, nyah' Edition.
> I'm still hoping that someone will get the MMORPG right in the not so distant future.
Are you talking about this MMORPG, or MMORPGs in general? IIRC, FFXI isn't trying anything drastically new in the Massively Online RPG arena (besides being on a console. Whoop.)
You'd think we'd have learned after that "Spider-Man" fiasco. ;o)
So "Planescape Torment" has no artistic value, but a painting of a can of Campbell's soup is art? Bah.
(And yes, I know the significance of Post-Modernism in art, so no flames on that. Just trying to make a point.)
The first couple times I read the article title, I thought it said "Your Rights Online: Seems Nobody Gives A Damn About Piracy". :)
Which I guess is true also.
I'm a little wary of the simplistic "exposing kids to X makes them do X" philosophy. For instance, my mother was an alcoholic while I was growing up (still is) but I've never touched any alcohol myself. Certainly by the "common wisdom" of today's political scene, I should have grown up to drink just as heavily as her. Obviously kids don't develop quite the way we think they do.
I think that if a child fully understands the aspects of a certain activity, all the mystery surrounding that activity disappears and they lose the urge to experiment. My fianceé's mother always had frank talks about sex with her, and thus she never slept around or did other stupid sex-related things. We see the side-effects of shielding our kids from the world all the time; sheltered college freshmen binge drinking at every opportunity, Catholic school students doing goodness-knows-what in their free moments.
Video games aren't as powerful, emotionally, as personal experience, but I don't see why they'd work much different. So sure you can carjack a car and run down a pedestrians in GTA3, but what happens nine times out of ten afterwards? Right, you get hunted down, arrested, or alternately riddled with holes. And even kids know you don't get a restart option in real life.
> the really neat thing is that you can reprogram your Aibo to meow.
And, like, what if c-a-t really spelled "dog"? Whoa...
(Bonus points to anyone who gets that obscure Revenge of the Nerds II reference.)
You're doomed. I've been doomed since I graduated in December 2001. Never a bite on any job I applied to, online or otherwise.
So you'd better contact your local retail businesses, because it's going to be a long search for a job. Hopefully your parents won't mind having you back for a while, if not you'll have to bunk up with multiple roommates in some cheap apartment, have no car, and live paycheck to paycheck.
Don't worry about that economic upswing - I'm sure the government can import enough H1-B's to take care of that. Yes, I'm in a bad mood today.
Great point, definitely deserving of a (+5 Insightful). But, are you sure that all of the DMCA's consequences are intentional? We've been under the general impression that those responsible for it's passage (RIAA, MPAA, etc) have not a whit of technical knowledge, despite all of their PH.Ds and MBAs. I've sure all of us have met supposedly well-educated individuals without even a basic grasp of any technical issues. Remember when the MPAA tried to outlaw the VCR, and then it became one of their biggest moneymakers? That wasn't that long ago, and those dumb fsckheads are still the ones in charge.
Of course, whatever the reasoning, I'm sure they're peeing their pants with joy about the full implications of the new law they bought.
And this will be small enough to be included in the mandatory National IDs. It'll be a boon to the television industry. Mmm... instant "tickets" whenever we fast forward. Or time shift. Or blink.
I was lucky enough to see that particular feature before it was pulled. It wasn't the best Photoshop Phriday, but it was rather large and had a few gems. My favorite? A reworked Dirty Harry poster starring The Sweedish Chef. "Do yoo veel looki, POONK?!"
So anyone got a mirror? I hope I can't get sued for describing or asking for a "copyright-infringing image." I probably can.
I know it'll take a while before DQ8 sees the light of day, but the mere announcement of a DQ8 exclusive would create a whole lot of positive vibes for the Xbox. Add to that a few announced-but-missed release dates and the possibility of MS hurrying them along (with cash, etc.), and you're looking at whole lot of sold X-boxen.
Not saying that it's right, but it's what they should do.
Enix.
You've heard of them, right? They put out that little Dragon Quest/Warrior series, the seventh of which is the all-time best selling game in Japan. Heck, there's even a Japanese law saying that Enix can only release a new DQ game on a weekend, because otherwise millions of kids/adults will skip school/work just to get their hands on it ASAP and play it all day.
Even the mere announcement that the next Dragon Quest game will be an Xbox exclusive would guarantee the console's success in Japan. It's like Japanese gamers wouldn't have a choice in the matter. They'd need Dragon Quest 8, and thus they would need an Xbox, no matter what.
I know I shouldn't respond to sigs, but I found it funnily ironic when I misread your tagline as:
"Windows - Free for over 6 years..."
I can take any game, and gradually transform it into a book...
Oh yeah? Then I dare you to take Final Fantasy X and make it into a linear narrative! Ha!
> I can list four games off the top of my *head* that have more speech and artistic values than all four of those movies I just mentioned put together.
;-)
Not a bad list, but I can do one (or four) better.
The Longest Journey - Adventure games are really the closest thing you can get to a movie in a game. TLJ is one of the best to come out recently, though it was a toss-up between this and Grim Fandango.
Zork - It's almost like reading! Surely even he can get that through his thick skull.
Deus Ex - One of the more literate FPSes. You've got to throw an action one in there.
Tetris - Hey, if we can get him hooked maybe he'll see things in a different light.
This is, of course, ignoring the fact that he has NO PLACE JUDGING WHAT IS SPEECH AND WHAT ISN'T . But if he was a good judge I guess he'd know that already.
1. Come up with a running joke.
2. ???
3. Repeat!
;-)
"When I eval stuff for work (software developer), I don't mind at all registering my work info. It's the same way with conferences - I'm happy to give out my info."
Good point, I wouldn't mind giving out your work info either. So, what was that e-mail addess?