LEGENDARY? Vivaldi was legendary. Bach, Mozart were legendary. In 100 years no one will remember "Prince", but everyone will still remember the legends. Over-hyped and over-rated does not mean legendary.
People who visit porn websites or search for adult pornography on the Web are facing the risk of being arrested for accessing child abuse images.
could be accessed if a special link was requested.
Good thing they don't leave the court system to journalists. Yeah ok he was in the same bar as that murderer, arrest him too! I think it's pretty reasonable to expect to be found guilty of a crime if you actually, you know, commit the crime. If you're not interested in kiddie porn there's a good chance you won't be clicking on that "special link". IANAL but I think the intent part is pretty important too. If you click on a link that says "Click here to send flowers to your girlfriend", even if that link opened up a kiddie porn page the prosecution is going to have to work a little harder than that to prove that you actually were interested in the porn and not, say, sending flowers to your girlfriend...
And allowing you multiple copies on multiple machines. The only (and very sensible) restriction is you can only play on one machine at a time. So you can start a game on your computer in Los Angeles and finish it later in the week on your computer in London if you travel a lot, for example. Traveling with a bunch of CD's was a PITA, not to mention CD's get scratched/lost/stolen. And it's even worse if you have to start dragging game manuals/activation codes around with you everywhere.
So basically: people with opinions make you angry?
I've been a PC gamer ever since PC's have existed. I remember Electronics Boutique, before it was swallowed by Gamestop. Heck I remember computer games consisting of a cassette and a tiny manual in a zip-loc bag you'd buy at the computer store - assuming your friend didn't give you a copy already, but that's going too far back for my point. Retail game stores made a huge mistake in the 1990's and bet big on consoles at the expense of the PC market. The main reason that Steam exists is precisely because Gamestop and others would no longer stock any sort of variety of PC games. Traditional retailers figured - wrongly - that console and cartridge games were harder to pirate and therefore were a "safer" investment. What they didn't realize is that most people were pirating PC games precisely because it was almost impossible to find the title you wanted in your local retail outlet.
The other part of this is the retailer mentality, where a retailer of a certain size expects to be paid up front just for the privilege of them allowing your product on the shelf. Of course this limits your suppliers to only the suppliers big enough to afford this business model. So you get a virtual monoculture of "big publisher name" games that at version 10 of the same incrementally updated crap becomes kind of stale, and you lock out the creative and the independent.
Far from being a "kneejerk reaction" it's pretty obvious that Gamestop is, and has been, in a death spiral for many years now. Console games were keeping it alive, but now even consoles allow for online purchasing and downloading of games. The retailer is now completely out of the loop. And in part, it's their own doing. EB Games and Gamestop used to sell games online. You'd go to the website and get your boxed game in the mail a week later. But they were either too afraid or too lazy to do what Valve did, and convince publishers that the DRM part of it could be dealt with adequately. Well, they missed the boat. And this last gasp would be laughable if it wasn't so pitiful.
First, coding a website is a different skill from coding a game.
Oh come on, unless your "coding" vocabulary consists of something totally weird, learning PHP won't take you more than an afternoon, HTML and CSS is pretty straightforward. I'm not saying a kickass website wouldn't take a bit of effort, but it's the game you're selling not the website. All you need is a bit of database knowledge, a bit of PHP, a bit of layout, and you're done. I know I'm a fricken genius but I'm not THAT smart. I'm sure other people can do it too. Someone who knows how to code can easily move between languages if you understand how the machine is working. Someone who just copies a script and has no idea what s/he's doing is not going to finish a game anyway so it's a moot point.
As for console devs - if you say there's a barrier to entry via the dev kit (I don't know much about console coding), then Gamestop is already shooting itself in the foot looking for "indie" developers who probably can't afford that barrier to entry in the first place, right?
Because someone skilled enough to code their own game is not going to be skilled enough to, say, write code for a website so you can download/register/activate it. Plenty of cloud-based solutions to accept all major credit cards nowadays, too. And then there's Steam - the place people already know about where digital games are sold.
It's about as good as anything else. Speed eating. Speed cooking. Speed sex. It's one thing to race to the finish and say you're done. It's another thing to say you actually had the experience and savored it. Practice practice practice will get your reading speed up. I finish the typical paperback in 8 hours or so because I've been reading for years. My wife can't believe the amount of books I go through in a month. I can read faster, but I end up missing bits. When I reach a well written passage, or when I read technical documents, I read slower or re-read to be sure I understood.
But if you're the kind of person that has to say the words you're reading out loud... no, just.... no.
You do realize you just said you should be put in a cage because the world doesn't revolve around you.
I fail to see how you reach that conclusion. I agree that sometimes those in charge sometimes act even worse than the ones underneath them - however this is not the norm it is the exception and should be dealt with. I also know that people do get falsely accused for whatever reason ranging from bad luck to malice to sheer laziness.
But I have met and worked with the real predators and there is no rehabilitation, no loving and hugs. Those people do not belong in a civilized society any more than a wolf pack should be allowed among a flock of sheep. That is, if you want to keep your sheep.
But we ARE drowning in oil. When they're talking about renting oil tankers just to store the stuff, there's a lot of unused oil. Therefore production currently far exceeds demand - but not because production has or can increase - because demand has slacked off. Slightly. China by 1%. The US by 2%. Every country in the world that HAS oil is trying to produce that oil. Refineries around the world are working at full capacity. Saudi Arabia has not slacked off production and is almost at full capacity. Never has oil been sucked out of the ground at a higher rate than today. And it's barely enough. Even if oil demand doesn't grow in the next year or so through industrial demand, it will grow through population increase.
China alone adds the population of Australia to the world every single year. All of them will need food, heat, light, transport, etc - even when the economy is in the tank. And when you talk about the Chinese economy being in the tank, it's still growing at 6% per year. That means the Chinese economy doubles in size in 12 years. It is currently tied with the US for the largest. In 12 years it will be twice the size of the US. Imagine every chinaman wanting and more importantly being able to afford a new car. How much oil are they going to want? US currently guzzles 20 million barrels a day. What happens when China ALSO wants 20 million barrels a day? They currently consume 11 and are growing at 4.3% per year. In 16 years, China will want 22 million bbl a day. Do you see world production of oil DOUBLING in 16 years? I don't. Peak oil is right now.
Pile on a few more conditions and you realize this is just wishful thinking. Some "think tank". Alternative energy is growing. And this is a good thing. But oil was still viable at $150/bbl. Don't think that at $40/bbl people are going to drop it. I think we're currently at or just past peak oil. Peak oil is not where oil is scarce - peak oil is where there is so much oil available that we are literally drowning in oil. Which is why we're hearing about oil gluts, and seeing plummeting oil prices.
Yes, economic slowdown in the US and China has something to do with that too. But currently we are running flat out pumping up oil from tar sands, from the bottom of the oceans at scary depths, and even shale oil from coal and barely treading water, barely producing oversupply. Once the economic slowdown reverses and demand picks up again, these gluts are going to disappear, but production will not pick up as quickly. It can't. All the "easy" oil has already been drilled. Fossil fuels will be not be phased out, there just won't be anymore. But it's going to take a lot more than a decade.
Ghandi did not drive the British out of India. Ghandi united the people of the continent so that they could identify as one. The British drove themselves out of India, first by committing the gaffe of trying key members of the Indian National Army for treason, and second for no longer having the military force or will post-war to police India for themselves after losing the support of the Indian army. THAT is why the Brits lost India. Ghandi was part of it, but not all of it. And violence and the threat of further violence is what pushed the British out.
Not bullshit. Anti-social types are 100% convinced that the world revolves around them. They have no problem justifying their theft/murder/rape - because it served their purpose. Just as they have no problem being genuinely interested in going along with whatever cult they choose to claim to belong to. See, anti-social types are 100% self serving. That's not bullshit - it's the rest of the world that is bullshit to them. But they're not making it up. They're not lying. They actually believe themselves to be the center of the universe. Which is why they belong in cages.
Slashdot Mirror
LEGENDARY? Vivaldi was legendary. Bach, Mozart were legendary. In 100 years no one will remember "Prince", but everyone will still remember the legends. Over-hyped and over-rated does not mean legendary.
People who visit porn websites or search for adult pornography on the Web are facing the risk of being arrested for accessing child abuse images.
could be accessed if a special link was requested.
Good thing they don't leave the court system to journalists. Yeah ok he was in the same bar as that murderer, arrest him too! I think it's pretty reasonable to expect to be found guilty of a crime if you actually, you know, commit the crime. If you're not interested in kiddie porn there's a good chance you won't be clicking on that "special link". IANAL but I think the intent part is pretty important too. If you click on a link that says "Click here to send flowers to your girlfriend", even if that link opened up a kiddie porn page the prosecution is going to have to work a little harder than that to prove that you actually were interested in the porn and not, say, sending flowers to your girlfriend...
3 Terry Pratchett, RIP...
If porn bothers you so much, stop watching it?
The NSA and CIA are too busy sorting through your emails, tweets and text messages to be doing this kind of shit, you terrorist.
Neil Tyson needs to stfu and recognize the fact that no matter how hard he tries he will never be Carl Sagan. And I LIKED Pluto.
And allowing you multiple copies on multiple machines. The only (and very sensible) restriction is you can only play on one machine at a time. So you can start a game on your computer in Los Angeles and finish it later in the week on your computer in London if you travel a lot, for example. Traveling with a bunch of CD's was a PITA, not to mention CD's get scratched/lost/stolen. And it's even worse if you have to start dragging game manuals/activation codes around with you everywhere.
So basically: people with opinions make you angry?
I've been a PC gamer ever since PC's have existed. I remember Electronics Boutique, before it was swallowed by Gamestop. Heck I remember computer games consisting of a cassette and a tiny manual in a zip-loc bag you'd buy at the computer store - assuming your friend didn't give you a copy already, but that's going too far back for my point. Retail game stores made a huge mistake in the 1990's and bet big on consoles at the expense of the PC market. The main reason that Steam exists is precisely because Gamestop and others would no longer stock any sort of variety of PC games. Traditional retailers figured - wrongly - that console and cartridge games were harder to pirate and therefore were a "safer" investment. What they didn't realize is that most people were pirating PC games precisely because it was almost impossible to find the title you wanted in your local retail outlet.
The other part of this is the retailer mentality, where a retailer of a certain size expects to be paid up front just for the privilege of them allowing your product on the shelf. Of course this limits your suppliers to only the suppliers big enough to afford this business model. So you get a virtual monoculture of "big publisher name" games that at version 10 of the same incrementally updated crap becomes kind of stale, and you lock out the creative and the independent.
Far from being a "kneejerk reaction" it's pretty obvious that Gamestop is, and has been, in a death spiral for many years now. Console games were keeping it alive, but now even consoles allow for online purchasing and downloading of games. The retailer is now completely out of the loop. And in part, it's their own doing. EB Games and Gamestop used to sell games online. You'd go to the website and get your boxed game in the mail a week later. But they were either too afraid or too lazy to do what Valve did, and convince publishers that the DRM part of it could be dealt with adequately. Well, they missed the boat. And this last gasp would be laughable if it wasn't so pitiful.
First, coding a website is a different skill from coding a game.
Oh come on, unless your "coding" vocabulary consists of something totally weird, learning PHP won't take you more than an afternoon, HTML and CSS is pretty straightforward. I'm not saying a kickass website wouldn't take a bit of effort, but it's the game you're selling not the website. All you need is a bit of database knowledge, a bit of PHP, a bit of layout, and you're done. I know I'm a fricken genius but I'm not THAT smart. I'm sure other people can do it too. Someone who knows how to code can easily move between languages if you understand how the machine is working. Someone who just copies a script and has no idea what s/he's doing is not going to finish a game anyway so it's a moot point.
As for console devs - if you say there's a barrier to entry via the dev kit (I don't know much about console coding), then Gamestop is already shooting itself in the foot looking for "indie" developers who probably can't afford that barrier to entry in the first place, right?
Because someone skilled enough to code their own game is not going to be skilled enough to, say, write code for a website so you can download/register/activate it. Plenty of cloud-based solutions to accept all major credit cards nowadays, too. And then there's Steam - the place people already know about where digital games are sold.
Desperate to stay relevant in the digital age. Brick and mortar retail software is finally dying the death that has been long overdue.
Taking them to court for $42 doesn't really seem worth it
This is exactly what they are counting on.
Due process died a long time ago. Now the rule is "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it's gone!"
while(1){
if(GetIsIt80PercentTimeYet()){
printf("Cyberattack detected, Putin did it!");
}
}
Breaking news. Well done, slashdot.
OK I'll remind you of that when you're bitching about how your health insurance premiums have gone up. Again.
For only $500,000 per dose.
It's about as good as anything else. Speed eating. Speed cooking. Speed sex. It's one thing to race to the finish and say you're done. It's another thing to say you actually had the experience and savored it. Practice practice practice will get your reading speed up. I finish the typical paperback in 8 hours or so because I've been reading for years. My wife can't believe the amount of books I go through in a month. I can read faster, but I end up missing bits. When I reach a well written passage, or when I read technical documents, I read slower or re-read to be sure I understood.
But if you're the kind of person that has to say the words you're reading out loud... no, just.... no.
You do realize you just said you should be put in a cage because the world doesn't revolve around you.
I fail to see how you reach that conclusion. I agree that sometimes those in charge sometimes act even worse than the ones underneath them - however this is not the norm it is the exception and should be dealt with. I also know that people do get falsely accused for whatever reason ranging from bad luck to malice to sheer laziness.
But I have met and worked with the real predators and there is no rehabilitation, no loving and hugs. Those people do not belong in a civilized society any more than a wolf pack should be allowed among a flock of sheep. That is, if you want to keep your sheep.
But we ARE drowning in oil. When they're talking about renting oil tankers just to store the stuff, there's a lot of unused oil. Therefore production currently far exceeds demand - but not because production has or can increase - because demand has slacked off. Slightly. China by 1%. The US by 2%. Every country in the world that HAS oil is trying to produce that oil. Refineries around the world are working at full capacity. Saudi Arabia has not slacked off production and is almost at full capacity. Never has oil been sucked out of the ground at a higher rate than today. And it's barely enough. Even if oil demand doesn't grow in the next year or so through industrial demand, it will grow through population increase.
China alone adds the population of Australia to the world every single year. All of them will need food, heat, light, transport, etc - even when the economy is in the tank. And when you talk about the Chinese economy being in the tank, it's still growing at 6% per year. That means the Chinese economy doubles in size in 12 years. It is currently tied with the US for the largest. In 12 years it will be twice the size of the US. Imagine every chinaman wanting and more importantly being able to afford a new car. How much oil are they going to want? US currently guzzles 20 million barrels a day. What happens when China ALSO wants 20 million barrels a day? They currently consume 11 and are growing at 4.3% per year. In 16 years, China will want 22 million bbl a day. Do you see world production of oil DOUBLING in 16 years? I don't. Peak oil is right now.
Yes, but before you go down the big hill in the rollercoaster, you have to be at the top.
Pile on a few more conditions and you realize this is just wishful thinking. Some "think tank". Alternative energy is growing. And this is a good thing. But oil was still viable at $150/bbl. Don't think that at $40/bbl people are going to drop it. I think we're currently at or just past peak oil. Peak oil is not where oil is scarce - peak oil is where there is so much oil available that we are literally drowning in oil. Which is why we're hearing about oil gluts, and seeing plummeting oil prices.
Yes, economic slowdown in the US and China has something to do with that too. But currently we are running flat out pumping up oil from tar sands, from the bottom of the oceans at scary depths, and even shale oil from coal and barely treading water, barely producing oversupply. Once the economic slowdown reverses and demand picks up again, these gluts are going to disappear, but production will not pick up as quickly. It can't. All the "easy" oil has already been drilled. Fossil fuels will be not be phased out, there just won't be anymore. But it's going to take a lot more than a decade.
Ghandi did not drive the British out of India. Ghandi united the people of the continent so that they could identify as one. The British drove themselves out of India, first by committing the gaffe of trying key members of the Indian National Army for treason, and second for no longer having the military force or will post-war to police India for themselves after losing the support of the Indian army. THAT is why the Brits lost India. Ghandi was part of it, but not all of it. And violence and the threat of further violence is what pushed the British out.
Not bullshit. Anti-social types are 100% convinced that the world revolves around them. They have no problem justifying their theft/murder/rape - because it served their purpose. Just as they have no problem being genuinely interested in going along with whatever cult they choose to claim to belong to. See, anti-social types are 100% self serving. That's not bullshit - it's the rest of the world that is bullshit to them. But they're not making it up. They're not lying. They actually believe themselves to be the center of the universe. Which is why they belong in cages.
I've published some articles, making me an author. I think I'm authorized too.