'Who is accountable for the security of the Linux kernel? Does Red Hat, for example, take responsibility? It cannot, as it does not produce the Linux kernel. It produces one distribution of Linux.'
And who, pray tell, is accountable for the thousands of holes that have left Windows users open to viruses, trojans, and other malicious uses of their hardware? Billions of dollars in money throw into the toilet fixing the results of nonexistant to pathetic securty in Windows, with an EULA that specifically absolves Microsoft of all blame if anything goes wrong using their software, and they have the gall to claim that they are accountable for Windows?
Should I be submitting my bills to Microsoft instead of my clients when their poorly designed, poorly implemented software causes them to need my services for hours on end, making them unable to do work, let alone pay my fees?
Smoking pot doesn't generally cause tens of thousands of dollars in lost time, lost data, dreckcetera that happens when a Blaster-level virus starts causing havoc.
Not commenting on his specific case, but equating this in a "what harm does this action do to people effected by it other than myself" sense, releasing a virus does far more damage than lighting up a bowl ever did. No he didn't punch someone, but he did a hell of a lot more than kill a few brain cells.
But in that case, why no inclusion of data from Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, also based on the Source engine?
Well, since there aren't any Doom 3 engine games in the marketplace aside from Doom 3 itself, it wouldn't be an especially well thought out comparison. Once Quake 4 gets released and we have more data points on both sides, I agree, that should be done.
The G4 Cube's main problem, as far as I'm concerned (and I own one) is very much the design.
While the actual "case" is quite small, the area you have to plug in peripherals is abyssmally placed. I've made useless many a network, firewire, and USB cable attempting to bend them as close to the plug as the Cube makes it necessary.
The sheer amount of cabling necessary for getting the Cube to work (large amounts coming out the previously mentioned small hole in the rear, the VERY large power supply unit that has to go somewhere) make actually fitting it into any random small space you theoretically would put it not as easy as you think.
And as well, the "power button" area at the top of the Cube is ridiculously sensitive. I know a few people that have them, and regularly our cats will shut the machine down putting a paw on it. Also some of them will power off merely by putting the machine on it's side. (tried everything we could to fix it for a long time)
Yeah, it's an nice cute little machine, but there were a lot of issues with the design that from all appearences were worked out on the Mac Mini and the various iMac iterations since then. No Mac has had the touchpad style power button since then. Plenty of space on the back of the mini (and all the iMac models) to plug things in. The power supply on the mini is nice and small. As far as I can tell without actually getting my hands on one (yet) and putting it through its paces, it looks like the Cube That Should Have Been.
Possession is 9/10 of the law. If I steal your cellphone and you claim that I did to anyone that didn't witness me stealing it, you'd have to go through a lot more than just yelling "that guy stole my phone!!" to get anyone to listen to you, or to get me to give it back.
The key most certainly is part of the license, as it is one of the possessions (along with the certificate of authenticity) that proves your ownership. Microsoft is the one doing the selling, so generally you have the burden of proof that what you bought is different than what they say you bought. If you don't like it and wish to remain within the law, I suggest you stop using Windows and use software whose owners have released it under a license that is more amenable to you. If not, I suggest some patience, as this whole denial mechanism will probably get cracked pretty quickly in any case.
Nope, it's still California, who is allocating triple that amount to stem cell research.
The text of Proposition 71 which proposes a 3 billion dollar bond sale to fund stem cell research in the state. It even says in your linked article that New Jersey isn't trying to outdo California's 3 billion.
New stem cell harvesting paid for with federal funding was prohibited by the executive order. Private and state funding can still be used for that purpose (like the money that California will be pumping into stem cell research).
When in the specific case of Massively Multiplayer games? Yeah, I'd like to see some actual precedent in this area referenced before I believe anything. MMOGs are not the same as other services, just because courts have ruled one way for other types of service doesn't mean they will rule the same for this unique type of service.
While I don't necessarily disagree with you, merely stating that a lot of precedent exists without providing links or some examples doesn't prove an argument. It's hearsay.
The main Normal server I was on was Elune (I think) and it was just rank with crap. Straight up "d00d" speak, spamming, people without the sense the gods gave granite asking how to complete quests that are spelled out in exacting detail over and over again. Not to mention people dogpiling on other games as crap and holding up WoW as the greatest game ever and anyone else who plays those old games is a toad. (My girlfriend plays Camelot, has no interest in WoW, and this is kind of a sore point, as a lot of ex-Camelot players at the time I was playing WoW would continue to visit Camelot boards and troll fairly mercilessly). It was an East Coast server before they took the seperate listings down, so that may have had something to do with it, as those were the packed ones as far as I remember.
I'm sure somewhere there are fine Normal servers where the jerk-generally inoffensive ratio is a bit easier on me, but I don't want to spend more money and wasting more of my time on it.
Appropos of nothing, this will probably stop me from ever getting into an MMO ever again, as this kind of crap has been endemic everywhere. At least in real life I can throw people out of my apartment/property, call the cops, and other things with real consequences when people are doing their best to cause trouble.
I quit mostly because the WoW community was generally more annoying than even the EQ community. Normal servers were so infested with people unable or unwilling to spell such simple words as "you," as well as just general idiots flooding the General channel with so much crap my/ignore list was filling up at the rate of 20+ names a day, and it was honestly taking up too much of my time getting away from those people. I tried leaving the General channel, but that caused all kinds of wierdness for me.
PvP servers were off the list as I'm not interested in any PvP at all. Besides, they by definition aren't friendly places.
I tried Roleplaying servers, and while they were certainly quieter and mostly free of morons, I am not interested in playing a character, and in the little time I had available to look around for guilds, I couldn't find any where I wasn't expected to roleplay in guild chat (not unexpected as it's a roleplaying server) and I was having the devil of a time finding groups so I could complete my elite level quests.
So I just quit. Interesting thing is that you can't cancel WoW without giving a reason, with associated "Did You Know" from Blizzard trying to get you to keep playing. My reasoning wasn't on there so I gave them something random. Fun game. Lag was annoying but not too awful. If it wasn't so popular and therefore drew so many jerks, assholes, and other such people I might have kept playing.
...to never, ever buy a new album ever again. I'll just use this crane here to put it on the tippity top there, like the star at the top of a Christmas tree.
The market for old, used Macs is about to go kerblooey because no one's going to want to buy an old 500MHz G4 off of eBay because of the Mac mini.
Doubtful. The mini has no expansion slots, and I don't know if it will run OS9 outside of Classic mode. There is a significant (though shrinking) number of Mac users that sees no reason to move from their old machines and old OS, or even if they do need the expansion slots for some reason. (SCSI card, multiple hard drives, etc).
In an amusing corrolary to this story, I looked at my fax machine this morning after leaving ignored for the holidays, I found someone pumping Infinium as the "MOST INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY OF THE YEAR" (caps definitetly not mine).
I laughed so hard and no one else around me knew why. Hard to explain, but it certainly brightened my New Year...
Merely ordering GPUs will not prove that it's real or not. Plenty of vaporware companies in the dot.bomb had huge server racks, IT people, secretaries, business plans, hardware and software developed.
I'm sure Infinium is buying GPUs for whatever it is they are developing. Whether what they are developing will ever see the market, or if anyone will buy it, is anyone's guess.
The GTA angle is just a sad attempt to push a political agenda (far-right tightwads).
Far left treehuggers are just as opposed to video game violence if not moreso.
However, I doubt it's any kind of political agenda. These kids are scared that they got caught, and are trying to avoid getting punished. Remember when you were a kid and got in trouble? Same shit, different day.
"Listening to fanboys whine about the resaons why Nintendo isn't the dominant player in the industry gets old."
I couldn't agree more. I frankly wonder why these people care so much about Nintendo. It's not like Nintendo actually puts food on the table for these people, unless they happen to be Nintendo employees. As long as they're making enough money to be profitable, who gives a crap what they're doing with the company. Who cares whether your friends like what console games you play. If they don't want to be your friend because you have a GameCube, and not an Xbox or PS2 which is "better" you ought to not have been friends with people that shallow in the first place.
Welcome to the planet Earth. Many people on this planet are happy the the twin towers were brought down. We are not a species that is nice by nature. To paraphrase the Princess Bride, anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
I wouldn't have bought a football game at all if EA hadn't sewn up all the official NFL games under their name. Now I'm considering Midway's new Blitz" Playmakers title just because it sounds substantially different and interesting from the normal football crap. Even ESPN's football games have been pretty bloody boring. Nothing new to see here, just a few more camera angles, "more realistic" physics, dreckcetera. Seems that with Midways new found freedom they have the opportunity to make something actually new and different for a change. Hopefully others will follow in their stead and actually create some REAL competition for a change.
"giving a copy to a relative is unquestionably OK"
There is no legal definition of "OK". It's either legal or illegal. There is no middle ground.
Now you may be referring to the range of:
"likely to be caught, and prosecuted if caught"
"unlikely to be caught, but likely to be prosecuted if caught"
"likely to be caught, but not likely to be prosecuted if caught"
"unlikely to be caught, and unlikely to be prosecuted if caught"
None of these ever make it legal, it just lets each of us make decisions on what we're going to do when what we need/want to do comes in conflict with the societal laws we're placed under. Add the infinite granularities the human experience can come up with.
Now I'm no statistician, so I won't throw around numbers with no possible basis in fact, however in my personal experience I know few people that don't flagrantly break the law at least once a day. When you speed, you are a lawbreaker. When you cross the street not at a crosswalk, or against the light, you are a lawbreaker. When you invite your friends over, and tell them to bring people for a party and you show the Return of the King Extended cut, you are having an unauthorized public performance, and are therefore a lawbreaker, unless you obtained permission to do so from the copyright holder (buying a copy doesn't confer that permission to you). The fact that no prosecutor in their right mind, with plenty of murders, rapes, assaults, and other flashy, headline-grabbing crimes on his docket would waste time going after you for it doesn't change the fact that you are committing a crime.
So lets get back to your example. Giving a copy to a relative is illegal. However, you are unlikely to be caught or prosecuted for your crime should you be caught. However, it isn't "legally OK". There is no such thing as "legally OK".
Whomever modded your post up knows nothing about the law, or plain simple logic for that matter. You can live in dream worlds where the law says you're "OK". I prefer to live in the real one. Makes things a touch easier.
Which is why it's really a much nicer mod for a LAN party. Much easier to get the newbies into line, and get them to stop when they're running down the wrong corridor.
And if no one knows the maps, restarts are a lot easier to deal with, planning out the next try, etc.
I played Alien Swarm first at a LAN party, and it seems to be much better suited for that kind of thing, as it's not the kind of game you can take the time to type out directions to your teammates with, unless everyone is using some kind of voice chat system, and even then, that's kinda awkward.
Slashdot Mirror
I actually thought it was an article about Harvest Moon or something. Close enough to SimFarm I guess.
'Who is accountable for the security of the Linux kernel? Does Red Hat, for example, take responsibility? It cannot, as it does not produce the Linux kernel. It produces one distribution of Linux.'
And who, pray tell, is accountable for the thousands of holes that have left Windows users open to viruses, trojans, and other malicious uses of their hardware? Billions of dollars in money throw into the toilet fixing the results of nonexistant to pathetic securty in Windows, with an EULA that specifically absolves Microsoft of all blame if anything goes wrong using their software, and they have the gall to claim that they are accountable for Windows?
Should I be submitting my bills to Microsoft instead of my clients when their poorly designed, poorly implemented software causes them to need my services for hours on end, making them unable to do work, let alone pay my fees?
Same as smoking pot...
Smoking pot doesn't generally cause tens of thousands of dollars in lost time, lost data, dreckcetera that happens when a Blaster-level virus starts causing havoc.
Not commenting on his specific case, but equating this in a "what harm does this action do to people effected by it other than myself" sense, releasing a virus does far more damage than lighting up a bowl ever did. No he didn't punch someone, but he did a hell of a lot more than kill a few brain cells.
But in that case, why no inclusion of data from Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, also based on the Source engine?
Well, since there aren't any Doom 3 engine games in the marketplace aside from Doom 3 itself, it wouldn't be an especially well thought out comparison. Once Quake 4 gets released and we have more data points on both sides, I agree, that should be done.
The G4 Cube's main problem, as far as I'm concerned (and I own one) is very much the design.
While the actual "case" is quite small, the area you have to plug in peripherals is abyssmally placed. I've made useless many a network, firewire, and USB cable attempting to bend them as close to the plug as the Cube makes it necessary.
The sheer amount of cabling necessary for getting the Cube to work (large amounts coming out the previously mentioned small hole in the rear, the VERY large power supply unit that has to go somewhere) make actually fitting it into any random small space you theoretically would put it not as easy as you think.
And as well, the "power button" area at the top of the Cube is ridiculously sensitive. I know a few people that have them, and regularly our cats will shut the machine down putting a paw on it. Also some of them will power off merely by putting the machine on it's side. (tried everything we could to fix it for a long time)
Yeah, it's an nice cute little machine, but there were a lot of issues with the design that from all appearences were worked out on the Mac Mini and the various iMac iterations since then. No Mac has had the touchpad style power button since then. Plenty of space on the back of the mini (and all the iMac models) to plug things in. The power supply on the mini is nice and small. As far as I can tell without actually getting my hands on one (yet) and putting it through its paces, it looks like the Cube That Should Have Been.
Possession is 9/10 of the law. If I steal your cellphone and you claim that I did to anyone that didn't witness me stealing it, you'd have to go through a lot more than just yelling "that guy stole my phone!!" to get anyone to listen to you, or to get me to give it back.
The key most certainly is part of the license, as it is one of the possessions (along with the certificate of authenticity) that proves your ownership. Microsoft is the one doing the selling, so generally you have the burden of proof that what you bought is different than what they say you bought. If you don't like it and wish to remain within the law, I suggest you stop using Windows and use software whose owners have released it under a license that is more amenable to you. If not, I suggest some patience, as this whole denial mechanism will probably get cracked pretty quickly in any case.
Nope, it's still California, who is allocating triple that amount to stem cell research.
The text of Proposition 71 which proposes a 3 billion dollar bond sale to fund stem cell research in the state. It even says in your linked article that New Jersey isn't trying to outdo California's 3 billion.
New stem cell harvesting paid for with federal funding was prohibited by the executive order. Private and state funding can still be used for that purpose (like the money that California will be pumping into stem cell research).
What does it say about the times we are in...
Appropriately enough, it says that they are interesting times.
When in the specific case of Massively Multiplayer games? Yeah, I'd like to see some actual precedent in this area referenced before I believe anything. MMOGs are not the same as other services, just because courts have ruled one way for other types of service doesn't mean they will rule the same for this unique type of service.
...tons of legal precedent...
While I don't necessarily disagree with you, merely stating that a lot of precedent exists without providing links or some examples doesn't prove an argument. It's hearsay.
The main Normal server I was on was Elune (I think) and it was just rank with crap. Straight up "d00d" speak, spamming, people without the sense the gods gave granite asking how to complete quests that are spelled out in exacting detail over and over again. Not to mention people dogpiling on other games as crap and holding up WoW as the greatest game ever and anyone else who plays those old games is a toad. (My girlfriend plays Camelot, has no interest in WoW, and this is kind of a sore point, as a lot of ex-Camelot players at the time I was playing WoW would continue to visit Camelot boards and troll fairly mercilessly). It was an East Coast server before they took the seperate listings down, so that may have had something to do with it, as those were the packed ones as far as I remember.
I'm sure somewhere there are fine Normal servers where the jerk-generally inoffensive ratio is a bit easier on me, but I don't want to spend more money and wasting more of my time on it.
Appropos of nothing, this will probably stop me from ever getting into an MMO ever again, as this kind of crap has been endemic everywhere. At least in real life I can throw people out of my apartment/property, call the cops, and other things with real consequences when people are doing their best to cause trouble.
I quit mostly because the WoW community was generally more annoying than even the EQ community. Normal servers were so infested with people unable or unwilling to spell such simple words as "you," as well as just general idiots flooding the General channel with so much crap my /ignore list was filling up at the rate of 20+ names a day, and it was honestly taking up too much of my time getting away from those people. I tried leaving the General channel, but that caused all kinds of wierdness for me.
PvP servers were off the list as I'm not interested in any PvP at all. Besides, they by definition aren't friendly places.
I tried Roleplaying servers, and while they were certainly quieter and mostly free of morons, I am not interested in playing a character, and in the little time I had available to look around for guilds, I couldn't find any where I wasn't expected to roleplay in guild chat (not unexpected as it's a roleplaying server) and I was having the devil of a time finding groups so I could complete my elite level quests.
So I just quit. Interesting thing is that you can't cancel WoW without giving a reason, with associated "Did You Know" from Blizzard trying to get you to keep playing. My reasoning wasn't on there so I gave them something random. Fun game. Lag was annoying but not too awful. If it wasn't so popular and therefore drew so many jerks, assholes, and other such people I might have kept playing.
...to never, ever buy a new album ever again. I'll just use this crane here to put it on the tippity top there, like the star at the top of a Christmas tree.
The market for old, used Macs is about to go kerblooey because no one's going to want to buy an old 500MHz G4 off of eBay because of the Mac mini.
Doubtful. The mini has no expansion slots, and I don't know if it will run OS9 outside of Classic mode. There is a significant (though shrinking) number of Mac users that sees no reason to move from their old machines and old OS, or even if they do need the expansion slots for some reason. (SCSI card, multiple hard drives, etc).
Just because I believe they were stupid to be caught doesn't mean I have any pity. They're not mutually exclusive.
In an amusing corrolary to this story, I looked at my fax machine this morning after leaving ignored for the holidays, I found someone pumping Infinium as the "MOST INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY OF THE YEAR" (caps definitetly not mine).
I laughed so hard and no one else around me knew why. Hard to explain, but it certainly brightened my New Year...
Merely ordering GPUs will not prove that it's real or not. Plenty of vaporware companies in the dot.bomb had huge server racks, IT people, secretaries, business plans, hardware and software developed.
I'm sure Infinium is buying GPUs for whatever it is they are developing. Whether what they are developing will ever see the market, or if anyone will buy it, is anyone's guess.
The GTA angle is just a sad attempt to push a political agenda (far-right tightwads).
Far left treehuggers are just as opposed to video game violence if not moreso.
However, I doubt it's any kind of political agenda. These kids are scared that they got caught, and are trying to avoid getting punished. Remember when you were a kid and got in trouble? Same shit, different day.
"Listening to fanboys whine about the resaons why Nintendo isn't the dominant player in the industry gets old."
I couldn't agree more. I frankly wonder why these people care so much about Nintendo. It's not like Nintendo actually puts food on the table for these people, unless they happen to be Nintendo employees. As long as they're making enough money to be profitable, who gives a crap what they're doing with the company. Who cares whether your friends like what console games you play. If they don't want to be your friend because you have a GameCube, and not an Xbox or PS2 which is "better" you ought to not have been friends with people that shallow in the first place.
Welcome to the planet Earth. Many people on this planet are happy the the twin towers were brought down. We are not a species that is nice by nature. To paraphrase the Princess Bride, anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
I wouldn't have bought a football game at all if EA hadn't sewn up all the official NFL games under their name. Now I'm considering Midway's new Blitz" Playmakers title just because it sounds substantially different and interesting from the normal football crap. Even ESPN's football games have been pretty bloody boring. Nothing new to see here, just a few more camera angles, "more realistic" physics, dreckcetera. Seems that with Midways new found freedom they have the opportunity to make something actually new and different for a change. Hopefully others will follow in their stead and actually create some REAL competition for a change.
"giving a copy to a relative is unquestionably OK"
There is no legal definition of "OK". It's either legal or illegal. There is no middle ground.
Now you may be referring to the range of:
"likely to be caught, and prosecuted if caught"
"unlikely to be caught, but likely to be prosecuted if caught"
"likely to be caught, but not likely to be prosecuted if caught"
"unlikely to be caught, and unlikely to be prosecuted if caught"
None of these ever make it legal, it just lets each of us make decisions on what we're going to do when what we need/want to do comes in conflict with the societal laws we're placed under. Add the infinite granularities the human experience can come up with.
Now I'm no statistician, so I won't throw around numbers with no possible basis in fact, however in my personal experience I know few people that don't flagrantly break the law at least once a day. When you speed, you are a lawbreaker. When you cross the street not at a crosswalk, or against the light, you are a lawbreaker. When you invite your friends over, and tell them to bring people for a party and you show the Return of the King Extended cut, you are having an unauthorized public performance, and are therefore a lawbreaker, unless you obtained permission to do so from the copyright holder (buying a copy doesn't confer that permission to you). The fact that no prosecutor in their right mind, with plenty of murders, rapes, assaults, and other flashy, headline-grabbing crimes on his docket would waste time going after you for it doesn't change the fact that you are committing a crime.
So lets get back to your example. Giving a copy to a relative is illegal. However, you are unlikely to be caught or prosecuted for your crime should you be caught. However, it isn't "legally OK". There is no such thing as "legally OK".
Whomever modded your post up knows nothing about the law, or plain simple logic for that matter. You can live in dream worlds where the law says you're "OK". I prefer to live in the real one. Makes things a touch easier.
Which is why it's really a much nicer mod for a LAN party. Much easier to get the newbies into line, and get them to stop when they're running down the wrong corridor.
And if no one knows the maps, restarts are a lot easier to deal with, planning out the next try, etc.
I played Alien Swarm first at a LAN party, and it seems to be much better suited for that kind of thing, as it's not the kind of game you can take the time to type out directions to your teammates with, unless everyone is using some kind of voice chat system, and even then, that's kinda awkward.