The root problem with the new SimCity is not the always-on DRM crap (regardless of what it might actually be), its the fact that they took the game that basically created the god-simulation genre and ruined it by making it multiplayer-only with limited city sizes and other crap.
It looks like its a combination of a userspace patch, a kernel patch (if you click "next message" on the one with the firmware link you will see all 10 of the patches) and some microcode firmware that is either loaded onto the card or interpreted by an interpreter in the driver (not sure which).
There is always Air Canada from London to Sydney via Vancouver (the Queen is still the head of state of Canada last I checked) And the flight to Vancouver from London doesn't fly anywhere near the USA (per the Air Canada web site) so there is no risk there either.
I am in Australia and have been applying for job after job without even getting an interview. I have a computer science degree and great skills in a number of technologies but no-one is willing to give me any "commercial experience" (in fact, it wouldn't surprise me if my last job doing VB.NET, SQL Server and SQL Server Reporting Services work at a state government department isn't being counted as "commercial experience" by the IT recruitment people who see my resume in the pile of other resumes)
In the case of Boucher, he had already shown the data in question to the border agents (and there were witnesses of that) therefore he lost his 5th amendment protection. As for Fricosu, no decision was handed down as the government obtained the keys from his wife so there is no precedent one way or the other from that case.
In the US at least, the courts (all the way up to the Supreme Court IIRC) have ruled that law enforcement can't legally force you to provide access to your encrypted data (thanks to a little thing called the 5th amendment)
Oh and good luck finding many documentaries from networks like History, National Geographic and Discovery... (Modern Marvels, Tales of the Gun and others)
Its ridiculous that I am still (even now) unable to buy either of the Aussie Cult Classic Yahoo Serious Films, Young Einstein or Reckless Kelly on DVD here in Australia. I imported Young Einstein from the USA many years ago and still dont own Reckless Kelly. I did watch Reckless Kelly a while back on an online video site (where it was doubtless uploaded without the permission of Warner Brothers) but I would gladly walk into JB Hi-Fi or some other store and buy a DVD for my collection if it was possible to do it.
Quite a few other things that are available on DVD elsewhere but not in Australia (The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series for one)
Fact is, the parts of a modern machine gun (including full-auto) that a skilled metalworker can't easily fabricate at home ARE legally available online with no restrictions or background check.
And if you dont care about making a good gun, just something that can cause some damage, its even easier.
A few years ago there was a lawsuit where Omega (a maker of fancy watches) sued Costco for copyright violation claiming that because designs on the watches were protected by copyright, Costco couldn't legally import the watches from overseas (which it was doing since it could source them cheaper than what Omega USA was asking for). Does this new supreme court decision override the decision in "Omega S.A. v. Costco Wholesale Corp" and allow Costco (and others) to parallel import these products?
As someone living in Perth who has been trying (and failing) to find a job in software development (or IT more broadly) for quite a while now, I support this idea if it means people like me get hired instead of some foreign guy here on a work visa.
Get the sort of ear protection that people who work around power stations, airports and other places with ear-damaging levels of noise wear. If its good enough to block out the noise of a jet engine, it should be good enough to block out dorm room noise.
The thing people are forgetting is the massive number of prepaid phones sold in the US, most (if not all) of which are sold below cost with no further payments required. The carriers (including prepaid only carriers like TracFone) can get away with this because they know that the prepaid phone you just bought is locked to them and will only work with their network, forcing you to buy service through them.
+1 for John Williams, he is an amazing composer and conductor. If there is a news bulletin anywhere in the world with a more awesome theme than NBC, I have yet to hear it:)
There are any number of items that are allowed on an airplane (or already exist on an airplane or can be obtained airside or whatever) that could easily be used to cause serious injury if not death.
Like the situation with knitting needles where knitting needles are (or were) banned but if you add a graphite center to it and make it a pencil its magically ok even though its just as long and just as sharp (if not sharper)
Or the situation where you have soldiers or law enforcement in full uniform with full gear and weapons (which could easily be used to take over the plane if they wanted to) being forced to surrender pairs of nail clippers or other little items.
Or the situation where razor-sharp ice skates (sharp enough to take someones head off) are allowed but little Swiss Army knives and multi-tools are banned even though they are far less dangerous.
Change the law such that the owner of the computer system that was accessed without authorization has to "press charges" before the feds can investigate.
If the owner of the computer does not want the alleged offense prosecuted, no prosecution can go ahead.
And to think I might actually have been willing to PAY for whatever comes next in the C&C franchise if it was as good as previous titles (the abomination that is Tiberian Twilight not withstanding)
Will be interesting to see how they put micro transactions in the EA sports titles... Will people have to pay real world money to get a full set of clubs in EA Sports Golf? Or worse, real world money every time they loose a golf ball and need a new one?
There are some parts of the old ship that most definitely should NOT be replicated on the new one. Like the lifeboats. And the engines. And the bridge (and its navigation equipment and iceburg detection systems) And the kitchens
Slashdotters (including myself) dont hate code signing, they just hate code signing where the owner of the computer does not control what gets signed and what can run.
All of the cable companies obviously rely heavily on the media companies for their content on the cable channels but so to do Verizon (with FiOS TV) and AT&T (with u-verse TV).
The ISPs need to do this to keep their friends in the content industry happy and providing them with the content they need for their TV setups.
Slashdot Mirror
The root problem with the new SimCity is not the always-on DRM crap (regardless of what it might actually be), its the fact that they took the game that basically created the god-simulation genre and ruined it by making it multiplayer-only with limited city sizes and other crap.
It looks like its a combination of a userspace patch, a kernel patch (if you click "next message" on the one with the firmware link you will see all 10 of the patches) and some microcode firmware that is either loaded onto the card or interpreted by an interpreter in the driver (not sure which).
There is always Air Canada from London to Sydney via Vancouver (the Queen is still the head of state of Canada last I checked)
And the flight to Vancouver from London doesn't fly anywhere near the USA (per the Air Canada web site) so there is no risk there either.
With QANTAS flying via Dubai now, are there any flights left between the UK and Australia that stop in commonwealth countries?
I am in Australia and have been applying for job after job without even getting an interview. I have a computer science degree and great skills in a number of technologies but no-one is willing to give me any "commercial experience" (in fact, it wouldn't surprise me if my last job doing VB.NET, SQL Server and SQL Server Reporting Services work at a state government department isn't being counted as "commercial experience" by the IT recruitment people who see my resume in the pile of other resumes)
In the case of Boucher, he had already shown the data in question to the border agents (and there were witnesses of that) therefore he lost his 5th amendment protection.
As for Fricosu, no decision was handed down as the government obtained the keys from his wife so there is no precedent one way or the other from that case.
In the US at least, the courts (all the way up to the Supreme Court IIRC) have ruled that law enforcement can't legally force you to provide access to your encrypted data (thanks to a little thing called the 5th amendment)
My current phone is a Nokia N900 but with all the crap they are doing, my next phone will definatly NOT be a Nokia (unless its another N900)
Oh and good luck finding many documentaries from networks like History, National Geographic and Discovery... (Modern Marvels, Tales of the Gun and others)
Its ridiculous that I am still (even now) unable to buy either of the Aussie Cult Classic Yahoo Serious Films, Young Einstein or Reckless Kelly on DVD here in Australia.
I imported Young Einstein from the USA many years ago and still dont own Reckless Kelly. I did watch Reckless Kelly a while back on an online video site (where it was doubtless uploaded without the permission of Warner Brothers) but I would gladly walk into JB Hi-Fi or some other store and buy a DVD for my collection if it was possible to do it.
Quite a few other things that are available on DVD elsewhere but not in Australia (The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series for one)
Didn't IBM do this when they created a computer to play on that quiz show? (the name escapes me)
Fact is, the parts of a modern machine gun (including full-auto) that a skilled metalworker can't easily fabricate at home ARE legally available online with no restrictions or background check.
And if you dont care about making a good gun, just something that can cause some damage, its even easier.
A few years ago there was a lawsuit where Omega (a maker of fancy watches) sued Costco for copyright violation claiming that because designs on the watches were protected by copyright, Costco couldn't legally import the watches from overseas (which it was doing since it could source them cheaper than what Omega USA was asking for).
Does this new supreme court decision override the decision in "Omega S.A. v. Costco Wholesale Corp" and allow Costco (and others) to parallel import these products?
As someone living in Perth who has been trying (and failing) to find a job in software development (or IT more broadly) for quite a while now, I support this idea if it means people like me get hired instead of some foreign guy here on a work visa.
Get the sort of ear protection that people who work around power stations, airports and other places with ear-damaging levels of noise wear. If its good enough to block out the noise of a jet engine, it should be good enough to block out dorm room noise.
The thing people are forgetting is the massive number of prepaid phones sold in the US, most (if not all) of which are sold below cost with no further payments required.
The carriers (including prepaid only carriers like TracFone) can get away with this because they know that the prepaid phone you just bought is locked to them and will only work with their network, forcing you to buy service through them.
+1 for John Williams, he is an amazing composer and conductor. :)
If there is a news bulletin anywhere in the world with a more awesome theme than NBC, I have yet to hear it
Better yet, spend the income from fines on road safety related items.
There are any number of items that are allowed on an airplane (or already exist on an airplane or can be obtained airside or whatever) that could easily be used to cause serious injury if not death.
Like the situation with knitting needles where knitting needles are (or were) banned but if you add a graphite center to it and make it a pencil its magically ok even though its just as long and just as sharp (if not sharper)
Or the situation where you have soldiers or law enforcement in full uniform with full gear and weapons (which could easily be used to take over the plane if they wanted to) being forced to surrender pairs of nail clippers or other little items.
Or the situation where razor-sharp ice skates (sharp enough to take someones head off) are allowed but little Swiss Army knives and multi-tools are banned even though they are far less dangerous.
Change the law such that the owner of the computer system that was accessed without authorization has to "press charges" before the feds can investigate.
If the owner of the computer does not want the alleged offense prosecuted, no prosecution can go ahead.
And to think I might actually have been willing to PAY for whatever comes next in the C&C franchise if it was as good as previous titles (the abomination that is Tiberian Twilight not withstanding)
Will be interesting to see how they put micro transactions in the EA sports titles... Will people have to pay real world money to get a full set of clubs in EA Sports Golf? Or worse, real world money every time they loose a golf ball and need a new one?
Hey, the guy DOES own a whole pile of coal mines :)
There are some parts of the old ship that most definitely should NOT be replicated on the new one.
Like the lifeboats.
And the engines.
And the bridge (and its navigation equipment and iceburg detection systems)
And the kitchens
Slashdotters (including myself) dont hate code signing, they just hate code signing where the owner of the computer does not control what gets signed and what can run.
All of the cable companies obviously rely heavily on the media companies for their content on the cable channels but so to do Verizon (with FiOS TV) and AT&T (with u-verse TV).
The ISPs need to do this to keep their friends in the content industry happy and providing them with the content they need for their TV setups.