The rules of the world change because they are a monoply.
True, but maybe the common idea of a monopoly doesn't fit the Information Age. Software is a cloudy subject. I don't think Microsoft's "monopoly" is quite like the railroad and oil monopolies of the past. Sure, they shouldn't be allowed to have absolute control of the desktop once it's on a computer...but you can't have double standards either. I think they made the right move saying "all of nothing". Microsoft has just as much right having their icons on the desktop as AOL does (maybe even more...it is their OS). The bottom line is that we're still in the growing stages when it comes to IT. Definitions and guidlines are still very hazy. When you're dealing with software, you've got to rework the whole system. Nothing's black and white anymore.
It's also historic: Nintendo is a games company that builds hardware to sell games; Sony is a hardware company that licenses games to sell hardware.
Yeah, I can definitely see that. Only, as the consoles become more advanced, the companies seem to be losing more on hardware sales. I forget the exact total, but Sony is losing money on every PS2 unit they sell.
What makes you think what you find cool is what the rest of us find cool?
Well I seem to enjoy games that are challenging and have a lot of depth. I also enjoy new, obscure titles (like Chu Chu Rocket, for example). I won't purchase a game just because it has a "WCW" or an "Xtreme" in front of the title. I feel a lot of gamers (guys that have been playing video games since they were in the womb) feel the same way.
Even so, when was the last time you waited in a line all night? That kid stuff is over -- our generation of gamers now have days jobs and don't mind picking up a game a few days late. This kind of messaniac fervor is passing.
OK, I'll admit that I'm not that fanatical. The last time I waited outside an ElBo (Electronics Boutique) was at the Dreamcast launch. But, I also plan on doing it for the GameCube launch. I'll call in sick if I can get the chance to hang out with a lot of cool people and talk shop all night.
If Sega's Smilebit team targets it, yeah, that would rule, but they're already targeting PS2, mainly because it's open to all comers.
Sega's got eyes on all the consoles, but I heard Naka's working on a Sonic title and perhaps even a NiGHTS (if it's true, I just might wet myself) title for the GameCube. So SonicTeam seems to be partial to the GameCube. But, whatever...one man's Metroid is another man's TNN Hardcore Heat.
Bottom line is I hate SCEA and I think a majority of the PS library (1st and 3rd party) is crap. But they make money and they're damn good at what they do (selling consoles and games), so they get some props (kind of like Microsoft).
Really? Everything Square has done in the last 5 years isn't quality? You can't find quality on a platform that is the unquestioned leader in every market segment that doesn't have the word 'Mario' in it?
Come on...I did say "rarely". Square is an obvious exception. Same with MGS and the Gran Turismo series. But compared to Sega and Nintendo, Sony's lineup is pretty shallow (989 Studios comes to mind). A large percentage (note: not ALL...I own a (dusty) PS) of Sony's userbase consists of your average, mindless Joe Consumer.
How has Sony's quantity over quality creed hurt them? Everyone jumped ship from Nintendo to PSX due to Nintendo's censorship, incredibly restrictive licensing system, and bad technical decisions.
Yet Nintendo is still a goddamn gaming beast. Sega and Nintendo hold the majority of the "hardcore" crowd, because they still make games that are as groundbreaking and intuitive as the old NES games (I'd take Metroid over all the PS2 titles any day). Now Sega obviously made a couple mistakes (IMO it started going downhill when Bernie left), but Nintendo is stronger than ever. And with Sega drifting further towards the big N's camp every day, it looks like the GameCube is going to be THE platform for quality games.
Sony, a big dumb company if ever there was one, has gained a great deal by keeping their hands off their developers.
Very true. But they also lost out on a very powerful chunk of the market: those of us who'd sit outside ElBo the whole night, blindly waiting for the next Sonic game just because it has Yuji Naka's name on it. And while I'm tempted to purchase a PS2 for MGS2, I can't rationalize dropping $300 on a platform for which I know I'm only going to want 3 or 4 games.
They actually been intregrating ICQ with AIM for a while now. Last I checked (months ago) you could log onto the ICQ network via the AIM client by using your UIN as a screenname. (You could only see ICQ users though..not AIM users.) Eventually they want to completely merge the two networks so you could see both AIM and ICQ users on the same client.
So, most small developers are going to be limited to creating PC quality games?
The reason they're not as good as console games is because of open architecture of the PC. You have to sacrifice a lot to make sure your game runs on most machines. Developing for a console allows you to do more because every PS has the same architecture. (And I've rarely seen a PS1,PS2 game that was better than your standard PC game, anyway.)
Also, I'm sure all those art school graduated, maya using kids are not going to be very familiar with fsck or how to setup their xf86config when they have problems with their video card.
Anyone working in that industry has to have some brains. Your average schlub doesn't make videogames...you have to be pretty "1337" to get a job in the game industry. And even if those art school kids didn't know much about Linux, I'm sure the guy in the next cubicle could teach 'em.
That could be a blessing or a curse. With the smaller developers finding it easy to develop for the PS2, you'll have a larger, more varied library. Yet Sony's quantity over quality creed has hurt them in the past. When I think of quality games, the Playstation (1 or 2) rarely comes to mind. But I guess Sony must be doing something right if they're still in the game.
No matter how much definition you add to crap, it's still crap. The only thing I'd like to see at a higher quality then regular cable are movies, but that's what DVDs are for. Well...maybe hockey games too. Mmm, high definition hockey.
Protests are for tree-huggers and bible-humpers. Besides, has a protest really ever accomplished anything besides helping the protestors feel good about theimselves?
Not to be offensive or anything, but I don't think protests sway the governing parties much. Do you think Adobe actually cares if a bunch of unemployed schlubs march around with signs for a couple hours? I highly doubt it.
If NASA would sell these as toys (modified for earth gravity, with lots of LEDs), maybe their funding problems would disappear.
Exactly. If NASA was completely independent we'd all be flying our private jets in the upper atmosphere while a fleet of robots protected and cleaned the house back on the ground. The whole velcro and Tang thing is starting to get old.
A measly little air frag with a railgun will never, ever equal it.
I dunno...I'm a big fan of text-based adventures and all (luckily I'm just old enough to have hit the end of the "classic" era), but a mid-air railgun blast to the face is a damn near religious experience. And I rarely play FPS games.
It's interesting to see what Lebling had to say about the so-called demise of the adventure genre. I suppose he's right in some respects, but the situation is a bit more complex than that. I think what's really dying is the idea of genres themselves. I mean, categories like your tried-and-true sports and puzzles are here to stay...they're pretty defninite in form and function. But all the other genres seem to be mixing into one big pot. You've got RTS games with a hint of sim (or even FPS in some cases). You've got RPGs mixing up with action and strategy aspects. I think I've even seen a role-playing racing sim out there somewhere.
IMO the adventure genre is still alive, only it has taken on many different forms. And even if there seems to be a decline of "adventure" in today's games, I'm sure it'll come back in fashion tomorrow because the video game industry cycles. Games like Zork are simply to frickin' sweet to just fade away out of existence like that.
The Google cache is the best thign since breaded slice. Even is there was a search engine that was better than Google, I'd have a hard time switching over to it if it didn't have the cache feature. It's especially helpful for finding "illegal" information after the site has been taken down.
I just happened to be searching for a new discman (my old one seems to have developed the wonderful new feature of shutting off every time it tries to activate the skip protection), so I fired up this Teoma to see how it compared to Google. Using the search string "portable CD player reviews", I got a load of links for DVD and MD players...yet no CD players. (Maybe it's trying to tell me something...) Yet Google gave me this sweet link (http://www.storescanner.com/cat/Portable-CD-Playe rs.asp) on the first page. I suppose I can't bash it much since it's still in beta, but Google will be with me for a while still.
A course in quality coding...god, I would love that. I had a course a year or two ago that taught programming language concepts. Basically it taught you how to develop your own programming language. It was really usefull in understanding the optimization and the like. The professor even went into programming ethics...really cool. That's about as close as they got though.
I suppose you could blame comp-sci curricula (along with simple laziness)...I've got mixed feelings in that area. Some courses I have taken were incredibly helpful, while some were complete wastes of time. Yet, I'm lucky enough to be going to a pretty damn good school for CIS. I've seen graduates of some other schools that put shame to our field. I don't know what someof these colleges are teaching, but it sure ain't comp sci.
The best way to teach comp sci is not to give the students "safe lanuages", but to teach them how to learn languages and how to develop software (planning, modularity, commenting, etc.). The problem is that I think the field of computer science is still going through beta testing in most universities. Topics like CoE and EE have a pretty firm base. The classes don't vary much from school to school. But with CIS, schools are still learning how to teach the concepts. Sure, a class in C++ or assembly lanuages won't vary much...but knowing a language can only get you so far. There's really not a solid platform yet for universities to start their curriculum.
As high schools start offering more technology classes (which they're starting to) and colleges work out the bugs in their curricula, you'll probably start seeing the software industry become more stream-lined and standardized...like engineering.
I can definitely see how it would be useful while beating my monkey in Black & White, and I'd love to try it out in a old fashioned Total Annihilation throwdown...but it seems a bit pricey for a gaming peripheral. And if you wanted a device that held website links you could get one of those fancy mousepads with the shortcut buttons for free. (Even that is just a novelty, as I got bored of it after a couple days and hucked it at the nearest stop sign.)
Good idea for a nifty gadget, but way too expensive.
Love the article. An excellent companion to CmdrTaco's editorial. I'm pretty new to the Linux scene. I'm definitely not what you'd call hardcore, but I can hold my own. What really surprises me is that Linux users actually trash other versions of Linux. "Red Hat's just the big commercial sellout" That sounds like one of those spiky-haired little freaks telling you your favorite punk band is "lame because they sold-out." It's only cool if it's underground because no one knows about it and we can mock them for it. That's completely ridiculous. I thought Red Hat is an excellent start for a newbie. It lets you test the waters before jumping into the deep-end of more complicated installations, like Debian.
I think what people have to realize is that Linux just isn't for everyone. Even though I have two different flavors of Linux on my machine right now, I still tend to gravitate towards Windows. It's not a bad OS, it's definitely not evil (most of the time, at least). The majority of the time I like to browse the Web while I'm working (I have a very short attention span). And, IMHO, IE is the better browser. I've also become accustomed to all the fancy extras in the Windows version of AIM. So, while I love doing coding and whatnot in Linux, I usually choose Windows because it fulfills my needs.
Not everyone concerned about customizing every aspect of their OS or how long they can keep their computer running before it implodes. Linux users have to understand this. Church's don't recruit parishioners by laughing in their faces ("Haha! My l33t god r0x0rs your deity's ass!") or forcing them to convert. They get the most numbers when they just introduce their doctrines and answer questions. I was almost scared away from the Linux scene, too. I don't like elitist loud mouths. You can have your underground. Luckily I'm a very stubborn person and I'm determined to master Linux...with your help or without.
You're right. Putting copy protection on the CD infers that we spend $17.99 for a cheap piece of plastic. In reality, we spend $17.99 for the music that's on that plastic. (Which is, more often than not, still ridiculously overpriced when you consider all the crap bands out there today.) We should be free to make backup copies or archive the music on our hard drives all we want.
Keep in mind that this is TV entertainment, not a real competition.
Exactly. While part of me would like to see some failure, most of me just wants to be entertained. Besides, what good is a hovercraft race if only one can hover?
"Genetic engineering lets us fix god's horrible, horrible mistakes...like German people."
I'm talking about just the basic standards...the latest versions of html, xhtml, and css for starters. They're the foundation that everything else is built upon. And MS and Netscape are equally responsible for creating new "standards" for their browsers. But a good browser should also support the W3C standards. Netscape 4.whathaveyou fails miserably at that. I will however, give them an A for effort with Netscape 6, since it has probably the best CSS support I've ever seen. But I've never gotten it to run for more than a couple minutes on any platform without choking, and shortly thereafter, dying. If they kept up with standards instead of whining about the big, bad MS I'd probably be typing this in a Netscape browse right now. MSIE 5.5, on the other hand, has tons of support for the latest Consortium standards and it's functional (call me picky, but I tend to like that in a browser).
Ultimately I prefer to use the most stable and attractive browser out there. I'm not a hardcore Linux fanatic who shuns anything remotely linked to Bill Gates. But on the same token, I'm not a drugged-up MS drone drooling over WindowsME. I don't worry about being hip or stickin' it to the man. If Bill Gates gives me something that's functional and helps me see the true potential of the Web, then I'll gladly give him money. I like to use what works, and for the moment that would be Internet Explorer. Now if Netscape ever gets version 6 to run without exploding (and, please god, slaps some CSS3 support on it...drool), I'll gladly switch over to Netscape.
"Genetic engineering lets us fix god's horrible, horrible mistakes...like German people."
That's cool, but I think it should be shunning away Netscape users instead. I understand most Linux users use Netscape...but it's a pretty weak browser. The internet has standards and MSIE is the only browser that comes close to supporting those standards. Have you seen the wonders of CSS2? There's so much potential out there that's going to waste because web designers have to cater to the lowest common denominator (read "Netscape"). Instead of using a style sheet to present the layout of the site, designers are forced to use god-awful tables (which aren't even meant to serve layout purposes) and ugly frames. We should be discouraging Netscape use until they get around to supporting the latest standards (or in version 6's case, making that browser stable enough to run for more than a minute and not eat your computer in the process).
"Genetic engineering lets us fix god's horrible, horrible mistakes...like German people."
I'm sure the fix would come on the duplication end. If you had the software installed on your computer then copying the CD would produce a "clean" CD you could play anywhere. Although, while people who make their own compilations or make a copy of their CDs for car use (yeah, I'm that lazy) wouldn't mind much, I'm sure it would be a pain in the ass for others. Something tells me this whole protection method won't go very far, though. No musician likes to have their work fiddled with like that.
I still have cassette tapes from high school.... eighty something.... that still work. I have CD's I bought last year the have the shit scratched out of them and won't work.
I think you're the only one. For most people it's the other way around. Not only do cassette tapes offer a considerably lower audio quality, but they also wear down after repeated use. (Not to mention getting one of those little f'ckers caught in your tape player and having to wind the bastard back up.) Every cassette tape I've ever owned has gone to hell after a couple of years, but every one of my 500+ CDs still plays perfectly. I take excellent care of my music collection, but I do end up with a scratched up CD every now and then. Fortunately CDs only skip (this also depends on the quality of your CD player, of course) after you drag them behind your Jeep for several miles.
Inferior media? Maybe only to records. Even that debate is questionable.
Slashdot Mirror
The rules of the world change because they are a monoply.
True, but maybe the common idea of a monopoly doesn't fit the Information Age. Software is a cloudy subject. I don't think Microsoft's "monopoly" is quite like the railroad and oil monopolies of the past. Sure, they shouldn't be allowed to have absolute control of the desktop once it's on a computer...but you can't have double standards either. I think they made the right move saying "all of nothing". Microsoft has just as much right having their icons on the desktop as AOL does (maybe even more...it is their OS). The bottom line is that we're still in the growing stages when it comes to IT. Definitions and guidlines are still very hazy. When you're dealing with software, you've got to rework the whole system. Nothing's black and white anymore.
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I'll personally offer 99 bottles of Chimay Belgian beer to the winner of he does it in BrainF***
I think I'd need those beers before coding.
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It's also historic: Nintendo is a games company that builds hardware to sell games; Sony is a hardware company that licenses games to sell hardware.
Yeah, I can definitely see that. Only, as the consoles become more advanced, the companies seem to be losing more on hardware sales. I forget the exact total, but Sony is losing money on every PS2 unit they sell.
What makes you think what you find cool is what the rest of us find cool?
Well I seem to enjoy games that are challenging and have a lot of depth. I also enjoy new, obscure titles (like Chu Chu Rocket, for example). I won't purchase a game just because it has a "WCW" or an "Xtreme" in front of the title. I feel a lot of gamers (guys that have been playing video games since they were in the womb) feel the same way.
Even so, when was the last time you waited in a line all night? That kid stuff is over -- our generation of gamers now have days jobs and don't mind picking up a game a few days late. This kind of messaniac fervor is passing.
OK, I'll admit that I'm not that fanatical. The last time I waited outside an ElBo (Electronics Boutique) was at the Dreamcast launch. But, I also plan on doing it for the GameCube launch. I'll call in sick if I can get the chance to hang out with a lot of cool people and talk shop all night.
If Sega's Smilebit team targets it, yeah, that would rule, but they're already targeting PS2, mainly because it's open to all comers.
Sega's got eyes on all the consoles, but I heard Naka's working on a Sonic title and perhaps even a NiGHTS (if it's true, I just might wet myself) title for the GameCube. So SonicTeam seems to be partial to the GameCube. But, whatever...one man's Metroid is another man's TNN Hardcore Heat.
Bottom line is I hate SCEA and I think a majority of the PS library (1st and 3rd party) is crap. But they make money and they're damn good at what they do (selling consoles and games), so they get some props (kind of like Microsoft).
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Really? Everything Square has done in the last 5 years isn't quality? You can't find quality on a platform that is the unquestioned leader in every market segment that doesn't have the word 'Mario' in it?
Come on...I did say "rarely". Square is an obvious exception. Same with MGS and the Gran Turismo series. But compared to Sega and Nintendo, Sony's lineup is pretty shallow (989 Studios comes to mind). A large percentage (note: not ALL...I own a (dusty) PS) of Sony's userbase consists of your average, mindless Joe Consumer.
How has Sony's quantity over quality creed hurt them? Everyone jumped ship from Nintendo to PSX due to Nintendo's censorship, incredibly restrictive licensing system, and bad technical decisions.
Yet Nintendo is still a goddamn gaming beast. Sega and Nintendo hold the majority of the "hardcore" crowd, because they still make games that are as groundbreaking and intuitive as the old NES games (I'd take Metroid over all the PS2 titles any day). Now Sega obviously made a couple mistakes (IMO it started going downhill when Bernie left), but Nintendo is stronger than ever. And with Sega drifting further towards the big N's camp every day, it looks like the GameCube is going to be THE platform for quality games.
Sony, a big dumb company if ever there was one, has gained a great deal by keeping their hands off their developers.
Very true. But they also lost out on a very powerful chunk of the market: those of us who'd sit outside ElBo the whole night, blindly waiting for the next Sonic game just because it has Yuji Naka's name on it. And while I'm tempted to purchase a PS2 for MGS2, I can't rationalize dropping $300 on a platform for which I know I'm only going to want 3 or 4 games.
--
They actually been intregrating ICQ with AIM for a while now. Last I checked (months ago) you could log onto the ICQ network via the AIM client by using your UIN as a screenname. (You could only see ICQ users though..not AIM users.) Eventually they want to completely merge the two networks so you could see both AIM and ICQ users on the same client.
--
So, most small developers are going to be limited to creating PC quality games?
The reason they're not as good as console games is because of open architecture of the PC. You have to sacrifice a lot to make sure your game runs on most machines. Developing for a console allows you to do more because every PS has the same architecture. (And I've rarely seen a PS1,PS2 game that was better than your standard PC game, anyway.)
Also, I'm sure all those art school graduated, maya using kids are not going to be very familiar with fsck or how to setup their xf86config when they have problems with their video card.
Anyone working in that industry has to have some brains. Your average schlub doesn't make videogames...you have to be pretty "1337" to get a job in the game industry. And even if those art school kids didn't know much about Linux, I'm sure the guy in the next cubicle could teach 'em.
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That could be a blessing or a curse. With the smaller developers finding it easy to develop for the PS2, you'll have a larger, more varied library. Yet Sony's quantity over quality creed has hurt them in the past. When I think of quality games, the Playstation (1 or 2) rarely comes to mind. But I guess Sony must be doing something right if they're still in the game.
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No matter how much definition you add to crap, it's still crap. The only thing I'd like to see at a higher quality then regular cable are movies, but that's what DVDs are for. Well...maybe hockey games too. Mmm, high definition hockey.
--
Protests are for tree-huggers and bible-humpers. Besides, has a protest really ever accomplished anything besides helping the protestors feel good about theimselves?
Not to be offensive or anything, but I don't think protests sway the governing parties much. Do you think Adobe actually cares if a bunch of unemployed schlubs march around with signs for a couple hours? I highly doubt it.
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If NASA would sell these as toys (modified for earth gravity, with lots of LEDs), maybe their funding problems would disappear.
Exactly. If NASA was completely independent we'd all be flying our private jets in the upper atmosphere while a fleet of robots protected and cleaned the house back on the ground. The whole velcro and Tang thing is starting to get old.
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A measly little air frag with a railgun will never, ever equal it.
I dunno...I'm a big fan of text-based adventures and all (luckily I'm just old enough to have hit the end of the "classic" era), but a mid-air railgun blast to the face is a damn near religious experience. And I rarely play FPS games.
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It's interesting to see what Lebling had to say about the so-called demise of the adventure genre. I suppose he's right in some respects, but the situation is a bit more complex than that. I think what's really dying is the idea of genres themselves. I mean, categories like your tried-and-true sports and puzzles are here to stay...they're pretty defninite in form and function. But all the other genres seem to be mixing into one big pot. You've got RTS games with a hint of sim (or even FPS in some cases). You've got RPGs mixing up with action and strategy aspects. I think I've even seen a role-playing racing sim out there somewhere.
IMO the adventure genre is still alive, only it has taken on many different forms. And even if there seems to be a decline of "adventure" in today's games, I'm sure it'll come back in fashion tomorrow because the video game industry cycles. Games like Zork are simply to frickin' sweet to just fade away out of existence like that.
--
The Google cache is the best thign since breaded slice. Even is there was a search engine that was better than Google, I'd have a hard time switching over to it if it didn't have the cache feature. It's especially helpful for finding "illegal" information after the site has been taken down.
--
I just happened to be searching for a new discman (my old one seems to have developed the wonderful new feature of shutting off every time it tries to activate the skip protection), so I fired up this Teoma to see how it compared to Google. Using the search string "portable CD player reviews", I got a load of links for DVD and MD players...yet no CD players. (Maybe it's trying to tell me something...) Yet Google gave me this sweet link (http://www.storescanner.com/cat/Portable-CD-Playe rs.asp) on the first page. I suppose I can't bash it much since it's still in beta, but Google will be with me for a while still.
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A course in quality coding...god, I would love that. I had a course a year or two ago that taught programming language concepts. Basically it taught you how to develop your own programming language. It was really usefull in understanding the optimization and the like. The professor even went into programming ethics...really cool. That's about as close as they got though.
--
I suppose you could blame comp-sci curricula (along with simple laziness)...I've got mixed feelings in that area. Some courses I have taken were incredibly helpful, while some were complete wastes of time. Yet, I'm lucky enough to be going to a pretty damn good school for CIS. I've seen graduates of some other schools that put shame to our field. I don't know what someof these colleges are teaching, but it sure ain't comp sci.
The best way to teach comp sci is not to give the students "safe lanuages", but to teach them how to learn languages and how to develop software (planning, modularity, commenting, etc.). The problem is that I think the field of computer science is still going through beta testing in most universities. Topics like CoE and EE have a pretty firm base. The classes don't vary much from school to school. But with CIS, schools are still learning how to teach the concepts. Sure, a class in C++ or assembly lanuages won't vary much...but knowing a language can only get you so far. There's really not a solid platform yet for universities to start their curriculum.
As high schools start offering more technology classes (which they're starting to) and colleges work out the bugs in their curricula, you'll probably start seeing the software industry become more stream-lined and standardized...like engineering.
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mmmmm third hand
Amen, brother.
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I can definitely see how it would be useful while beating my monkey in Black & White, and I'd love to try it out in a old fashioned Total Annihilation throwdown...but it seems a bit pricey for a gaming peripheral. And if you wanted a device that held website links you could get one of those fancy mousepads with the shortcut buttons for free. (Even that is just a novelty, as I got bored of it after a couple days and hucked it at the nearest stop sign.)
Good idea for a nifty gadget, but way too expensive.
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Love the article. An excellent companion to CmdrTaco's editorial. I'm pretty new to the Linux scene. I'm definitely not what you'd call hardcore, but I can hold my own. What really surprises me is that Linux users actually trash other versions of Linux. "Red Hat's just the big commercial sellout" That sounds like one of those spiky-haired little freaks telling you your favorite punk band is "lame because they sold-out." It's only cool if it's underground because no one knows about it and we can mock them for it. That's completely ridiculous. I thought Red Hat is an excellent start for a newbie. It lets you test the waters before jumping into the deep-end of more complicated installations, like Debian.
I think what people have to realize is that Linux just isn't for everyone. Even though I have two different flavors of Linux on my machine right now, I still tend to gravitate towards Windows. It's not a bad OS, it's definitely not evil (most of the time, at least). The majority of the time I like to browse the Web while I'm working (I have a very short attention span). And, IMHO, IE is the better browser. I've also become accustomed to all the fancy extras in the Windows version of AIM. So, while I love doing coding and whatnot in Linux, I usually choose Windows because it fulfills my needs.
Not everyone concerned about customizing every aspect of their OS or how long they can keep their computer running before it implodes. Linux users have to understand this. Church's don't recruit parishioners by laughing in their faces ("Haha! My l33t god r0x0rs your deity's ass!") or forcing them to convert. They get the most numbers when they just introduce their doctrines and answer questions. I was almost scared away from the Linux scene, too. I don't like elitist loud mouths. You can have your underground. Luckily I'm a very stubborn person and I'm determined to master Linux...with your help or without.
--
You're right. Putting copy protection on the CD infers that we spend $17.99 for a cheap piece of plastic. In reality, we spend $17.99 for the music that's on that plastic. (Which is, more often than not, still ridiculously overpriced when you consider all the crap bands out there today.) We should be free to make backup copies or archive the music on our hard drives all we want.
--
Keep in mind that this is TV entertainment, not a real competition.
Exactly. While part of me would like to see some failure, most of me just wants to be entertained. Besides, what good is a hovercraft race if only one can hover?
"Genetic engineering lets us fix god's horrible, horrible mistakes...like German people."
I'm talking about just the basic standards...the latest versions of html, xhtml, and css for starters. They're the foundation that everything else is built upon. And MS and Netscape are equally responsible for creating new "standards" for their browsers. But a good browser should also support the W3C standards. Netscape 4.whathaveyou fails miserably at that. I will however, give them an A for effort with Netscape 6, since it has probably the best CSS support I've ever seen. But I've never gotten it to run for more than a couple minutes on any platform without choking, and shortly thereafter, dying. If they kept up with standards instead of whining about the big, bad MS I'd probably be typing this in a Netscape browse right now. MSIE 5.5, on the other hand, has tons of support for the latest Consortium standards and it's functional (call me picky, but I tend to like that in a browser).
Ultimately I prefer to use the most stable and attractive browser out there. I'm not a hardcore Linux fanatic who shuns anything remotely linked to Bill Gates. But on the same token, I'm not a drugged-up MS drone drooling over WindowsME. I don't worry about being hip or stickin' it to the man. If Bill Gates gives me something that's functional and helps me see the true potential of the Web, then I'll gladly give him money. I like to use what works, and for the moment that would be Internet Explorer. Now if Netscape ever gets version 6 to run without exploding (and, please god, slaps some CSS3 support on it...drool), I'll gladly switch over to Netscape.
"Genetic engineering lets us fix god's horrible, horrible mistakes...like German people."
That's cool, but I think it should be shunning away Netscape users instead. I understand most Linux users use Netscape...but it's a pretty weak browser. The internet has standards and MSIE is the only browser that comes close to supporting those standards. Have you seen the wonders of CSS2? There's so much potential out there that's going to waste because web designers have to cater to the lowest common denominator (read "Netscape"). Instead of using a style sheet to present the layout of the site, designers are forced to use god-awful tables (which aren't even meant to serve layout purposes) and ugly frames. We should be discouraging Netscape use until they get around to supporting the latest standards (or in version 6's case, making that browser stable enough to run for more than a minute and not eat your computer in the process).
"Genetic engineering lets us fix god's horrible, horrible mistakes...like German people."
I'm sure the fix would come on the duplication end. If you had the software installed on your computer then copying the CD would produce a "clean" CD you could play anywhere. Although, while people who make their own compilations or make a copy of their CDs for car use (yeah, I'm that lazy) wouldn't mind much, I'm sure it would be a pain in the ass for others. Something tells me this whole protection method won't go very far, though. No musician likes to have their work fiddled with like that.
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I still have cassette tapes from high school.... eighty something.... that still work. I have CD's I bought last year the have the shit scratched out of them and won't work.
I think you're the only one. For most people it's the other way around. Not only do cassette tapes offer a considerably lower audio quality, but they also wear down after repeated use. (Not to mention getting one of those little f'ckers caught in your tape player and having to wind the bastard back up.) Every cassette tape I've ever owned has gone to hell after a couple of years, but every one of my 500+ CDs still plays perfectly. I take excellent care of my music collection, but I do end up with a scratched up CD every now and then. Fortunately CDs only skip (this also depends on the quality of your CD player, of course) after you drag them behind your Jeep for several miles.
Inferior media? Maybe only to records. Even that debate is questionable.
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