You think Google is going to put up long with some idiot provider charging customers an extra $20/month to allow access to *.google.com/* You think Google is going to share it's ad revenue with consumer ISPs? I'm just using Google as an example, but multiply this by all the big businesses out there.
Time Warner, Comcast, Charter, AT&T, Verizon, etc are all competing with each other using different technologies. Within the next 5 years or so you'll have fiber-class wireless connections available to your homes.
You really think every single player is going to be able to pull their head out of their butts long enough to coordinate something as complex as tiered internet?
Competition is going to keep net neutrality a reality until the basics fundamentally change. You may have the odd player who tries to nickel and dime their customers by over regulating their networks, but it'll be the minority, and there will be options.
Sure, you can boycott DRM hardware, to a point, but at some point you have no choice.
You have a different definition of "no choice" than I do it seems.
Choice as defined by Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice (yes, I know its not perfect, but it'll do in this case)
Choice consists of the mental process of thinking involved with the process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them for action. Some simple examples include deciding whether to get up in the morning or go back to sleep, or selecting a given route for a journey. More complex examples (often decisions that affect what a person thinks or their core beliefs) include choosing a lifestyle, religious affiliation, or political position.
Most people regard having choices as a good thing, though a severely limited or artificially restricted choice can lead to discomfort with choosing and possibly, an unsatisfactory outcome. In contrast, unlimited choice may lead to confusion, regret of the alternatives not taken, and indifference in an unstructured existence; and the illusion that choosing an object or a course leads necessarily to control of that object or course can cause psychological problems.
What would happen if everyone stopped buying products that contained DRM? The companies who sold them would either: A) go out of business or B) take a huge hit and change their strategy (this of course assumes they know -why- a product isn't being purchased). Why do TV's and monitors with HDMI keep getting made? Because people keep buying them. We do in fact have the choice to -not- buy DRM, but most people either don't care or don't know enough. If there are no TV's on the market that don't carry HDMI, don't buy a TV (and don't you dare tell me you "need" one). Don't like Vista's DRM, DONT BUY IT.
If the bonuses (high def, high fidelity, etc) outweigh the negatives (DRM, subscription fees, etc) and you spend money on it, do not complain like you got ripped off. You chose to buy a crippled product, you chose to endorse the DRM, you chose to hand them money, you gave them the power to take your purchased item away from you -at any time-. Make a different choice next time.
You can blame Atari who made Obsidian cut large parts of the end of KotOR2 and ship it incomplete. Atari did the same thing to Temple of Elemental Evil. I hate Atari.
Also, here is the very worst thing about Linux: > In the future if you think something is a hassle or annoying, do a little research on it, Linux is very flexible and odds are you can modify or change it.
This means that every person who ever uses Linux has to fix it. What makes me so happy about Ubuntu is that I think they get what a horrible concept that is. Actually my meaning was not "fix it yourself". My meaning was "there is a way to do what you're asking, you just need to look". Asking is also a good way to figure these things out. The more vocal of our community spend a lot of time complaining about missing features and usability, and every so often the people who are able to add/change those things do so.
Oh, and hey--one complaint (more of an observation actually), for those of you who complain about how often you must enter the root password on a PC, take a look at that page and see how often "SUDO" (the Linux equivalent) is required. Holy cow, it's like every single time you want to call apt-get (in other words, any time you want to install ANYTHING), you have to give up the root password. I believe this means that all install scripts are running as root--I don't know if this is a security hole, but it sure sounds like one. This is the exact equivalent to every windows program install requiring administrator access--something they have at least recognized as a flaw and begun to combat. This not entirely true. (in an otherwise positive post). It's true, when you need to install something you will likely need to provide *your* password (there is no root password, just accounts with sudo privilege). However, sudo will only ask for your password once every 5 minutes (and that can be changed) so you can accomplish a variety of tasks with only one password entry. Having to be root to write to certain directories is essential for the security of linux.
In the future if you think something is a hassle or annoying, do a little research on it, Linux is very flexible and odds are you can modify or change it.
Why have backward compatibility on a console? As I see it there are 2 reasons: 1) As a consumer, if your console has backward compatibility you only have to have 1 device plugged in and hooked up to your TV. It helps with space issues and power issues. 2) As a company, it's a tick mark on a "features" list.
In order for number 1 to be useful it needs to encompass your entire library of games. If it doesn't then you still need to have your old console setup to play your old games. This defeats the purpose of backward compatibility entirely as no consumer I know gives a damn about item 2. There's no recourse to this sloppy craftsmanship other than to not buy the console, but that doesn't specify to these companies why.
Should they remove the feature? No. But as a consumer you should not take this "feature" into consideration unless your game library happens to match their compatibility list exactly.
I was very sad we never saw a linux client for Ryzom (if there was, they forgot to email me to tell me to re-activate my account). I had a lot of fun and I liked what it *appeared* to have going for it at the time.
It's great that you were able to accomplish as much as you did. I hope your next project is even more successful.
My understanding is that this is a significantly large number of people. I imagine they can narrow it down a bit, but I'm betting this still leaves them with hundreds of people on their potential perp list.
Ask an EB employee what you are getting for your $50 dollars. It sure isn't a guarentee that you will get a Wii on day 1. Just a guarentee that they will probably sell it to you before they sell it to someone who didn't pre-order.... maybe. EB can get stuffed, how about they provide me with service rather than taking my money for nothing?
"Choosing not [to] a use a perfectly viable distribution of Linux because you can't surf the web during its installation (but can afterward) is stupid."
1.) Why?
2.) As I said, I've also worked with SuSE and FC5 (neither of which have LiveCD installs).
3.) If you have a LiveCD it should fully showcase your distrobutions abilities. Failing to recognize hardware indicates to me that Im going to have problems getting it to work later. For this reason I may not recommend it to my friends or family (most of whom do not want to deal with a learning curve)
Im leaving for the weekend to a place with no internet (oops, misjudged me didnt you), so I wont have an opportunity to respond futher this weekend. Enjoy your weekend.
I understand why you would say this, but the install disk really does say something about the usability of the distro in general. I spent the last month playing with FC5, SuSE, Gentoo, and Ubuntu, and each time I run an install I have a different problem or something that doesnt work right that requires me to spend X hours hacking, reading, and compiling. I know how to do a post install customization job and compile my own kernel and all (I've been running gentoo for a long time now on other systems, all of which required quite a bit of tweaking). Part of what I am doing is scouting out what will work "out-of-the-box" so that I can recommend it to friends and family in the future. I love portage, debs and rpms are ok, but overall usability is very important if I'm going to recommend it.
In the future try not to whip out the "so stupid" comments right away. It just makes you sounds emotionally driven and less informed. Inital detection of hardware and usability in a LiveCD distrobution is a direct indication of how well it will work after being installed.
The question I will attempt to answer when I get home, is: Does it allow me to use my WiFi on my laptop without having to do much tweaking. Currently there arent any livecd installers that allow me to browse using WPA while I install (im even having issues with knoppix)
I very much enjoyed Ayn's work, but please remember as you are reading that this is a work of fiction, and that real life is not like this. In Atlas Shrugged Hank Rearden is being blackmailed into pretending that this is something that he does willingly, whereas France is being open and honest about what it is doing and why (not to say I agree with what they are doing). There is a level of deceit and lies that isn't present here (elsewhere...).
Honestly, I hope this happens (I will be investing in a transgaming account again, but eh). It will help curb my gaming habit. I hope it does the same thing for a lot of other people (if I dont see some more support for Linux and Mac in the gaming world then game developers are going to stop making money off of me)
I am sick of Sony trying to control the format of . They keep trying to use their sheer bulk to force us to use their latest tech (see their music player history for an example). I know Sony is capable of producing a quality product that I would love to use, but they just keep shooting themselves in the foot (UMD anyone?). Now they want to try to shove a heavily DRM'd format down our throats and make us like it (and they dont even seem to be able to put out a proper product). I wish consumers would wake up and grow some self control (I have to admit to being the first in line occasionally). If you stop buying products that contain objectionable components (whatever your hot button issue is DRM, porn, violence) then the companies will stop making it. Consumers need to stop "compromising" with companies. Give us a product that we want 100%.
I, for one, would not be sad to see Atari go. They have personally cheesed me off recently on several occasions. The biggest and saddest of these was The Temple of Elemental Evil. The game had so much potential to be a very well done D&D 3.5 game, but was completely and totally fucked by Atari who pushed it out the door incomplete, stripped of solid content, and untested. For that alone I hope they die. More recently they've completely ignored the linux community in regards to Neverwinter Nights 2.
Slashdot Mirror
It's less clear to me that this is the case.
You think Google is going to put up long with some idiot provider charging customers an extra $20/month to allow access to *.google.com/*
You think Google is going to share it's ad revenue with consumer ISPs? I'm just using Google as an example, but multiply this by all the big businesses out there.
Time Warner, Comcast, Charter, AT&T, Verizon, etc are all competing with each other using different technologies. Within the next 5 years or so you'll have fiber-class wireless connections available to your homes.
You really think every single player is going to be able to pull their head out of their butts long enough to coordinate something as complex as tiered internet?
Competition is going to keep net neutrality a reality until the basics fundamentally change. You may have the odd player who tries to nickel and dime their customers by over regulating their networks, but it'll be the minority, and there will be options.
Last I heard it would connect St.Paul and Chicago by way of Madison. I would probably end up traveling every other week.
I wish in order to enact these kinds of changes companies had to cancel my service and then convince me to sign up again.
I thought everyone on slashdot uses TOR...
Look at their hardware survey
http://www.steampowered.com/status/survey.html
Its not completely accurate because only a % (unknown) actually respond, but look at the ratio of XP to Vista: 11/1
Now take a guess why they didn't do a Vista only release...
Choice as defined by Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choice (yes, I know its not perfect, but it'll do in this case) What would happen if everyone stopped buying products that contained DRM? The companies who sold them would either: A) go out of business or B) take a huge hit and change their strategy (this of course assumes they know -why- a product isn't being purchased). Why do TV's and monitors with HDMI keep getting made? Because people keep buying them. We do in fact have the choice to -not- buy DRM, but most people either don't care or don't know enough. If there are no TV's on the market that don't carry HDMI, don't buy a TV (and don't you dare tell me you "need" one). Don't like Vista's DRM, DONT BUY IT.
If the bonuses (high def, high fidelity, etc) outweigh the negatives (DRM, subscription fees, etc) and you spend money on it, do not complain like you got ripped off. You chose to buy a crippled product, you chose to endorse the DRM, you chose to hand them money, you gave them the power to take your purchased item away from you -at any time-. Make a different choice next time.
You can blame Atari who made Obsidian cut large parts of the end of KotOR2 and ship it incomplete. Atari did the same thing to Temple of Elemental Evil. I hate Atari.
> In the future if you think something is a hassle or annoying, do a little research on it, Linux is very flexible and odds are you can modify or change it.
This means that every person who ever uses Linux has to fix it. What makes me so happy about Ubuntu is that I think they get what a horrible concept that is. Actually my meaning was not "fix it yourself". My meaning was "there is a way to do what you're asking, you just need to look". Asking is also a good way to figure these things out. The more vocal of our community spend a lot of time complaining about missing features and usability, and every so often the people who are able to add/change those things do so.
In the future if you think something is a hassle or annoying, do a little research on it, Linux is very flexible and odds are you can modify or change it.
Why have backward compatibility on a console? As I see it there are 2 reasons:
1) As a consumer, if your console has backward compatibility you only have to have 1 device plugged in and hooked up to your TV. It helps with space issues and power issues.
2) As a company, it's a tick mark on a "features" list.
In order for number 1 to be useful it needs to encompass your entire library of games. If it doesn't then you still need to have your old console setup to play your old games. This defeats the purpose of backward compatibility entirely as no consumer I know gives a damn about item 2. There's no recourse to this sloppy craftsmanship other than to not buy the console, but that doesn't specify to these companies why.
Should they remove the feature? No. But as a consumer you should not take this "feature" into consideration unless your game library happens to match their compatibility list exactly.
I was very sad we never saw a linux client for Ryzom (if there was, they forgot to email me to tell me to re-activate my account). I had a lot of fun and I liked what it *appeared* to have going for it at the time.
It's great that you were able to accomplish as much as you did. I hope your next project is even more successful.
I like "privateers" better.
My understanding is that this is a significantly large number of people. I imagine they can narrow it down a bit, but I'm betting this still leaves them with hundreds of people on their potential perp list.
Ask an EB employee what you are getting for your $50 dollars. It sure isn't a guarentee that you will get a Wii on day 1. Just a guarentee that they will probably sell it to you before they sell it to someone who didn't pre-order.... maybe. EB can get stuffed, how about they provide me with service rather than taking my money for nothing?
I love that this comment was posted AC.
Just a mild shoulder sunburn from the weekend, and I learned how good bourben slush is.
1.) Why?
2.) As I said, I've also worked with SuSE and FC5 (neither of which have LiveCD installs).
3.) If you have a LiveCD it should fully showcase your distrobutions abilities. Failing to recognize hardware indicates to me that Im going to have problems getting it to work later. For this reason I may not recommend it to my friends or family (most of whom do not want to deal with a learning curve)
Im leaving for the weekend to a place with no internet (oops, misjudged me didnt you), so I wont have an opportunity to respond futher this weekend. Enjoy your weekend.
I understand why you would say this, but the install disk really does say something about the usability of the distro in general. I spent the last month playing with FC5, SuSE, Gentoo, and Ubuntu, and each time I run an install I have a different problem or something that doesnt work right that requires me to spend X hours hacking, reading, and compiling. I know how to do a post install customization job and compile my own kernel and all (I've been running gentoo for a long time now on other systems, all of which required quite a bit of tweaking). Part of what I am doing is scouting out what will work "out-of-the-box" so that I can recommend it to friends and family in the future. I love portage, debs and rpms are ok, but overall usability is very important if I'm going to recommend it.
In the future try not to whip out the "so stupid" comments right away. It just makes you sounds emotionally driven and less informed. Inital detection of hardware and usability in a LiveCD distrobution is a direct indication of how well it will work after being installed.
The question I will attempt to answer when I get home, is:
Does it allow me to use my WiFi on my laptop without having to do much tweaking. Currently there arent any livecd installers that allow me to browse using WPA while I install (im even having issues with knoppix)
I very much enjoyed Ayn's work, but please remember as you are reading that this is a work of fiction, and that real life is not like this. In Atlas Shrugged Hank Rearden is being blackmailed into pretending that this is something that he does willingly, whereas France is being open and honest about what it is doing and why (not to say I agree with what they are doing). There is a level of deceit and lies that isn't present here (elsewhere...).
Anyone else read "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand (if so congrats and apologies)?
Anyone want to buy some Miracle Metal (formerly Rearden Steel)? Anyone want to buy some MiracleTunes (formerly iTunes)?
Honestly, I hope this happens (I will be investing in a transgaming account again, but eh). It will help curb my gaming habit. I hope it does the same thing for a lot of other people (if I dont see some more support for Linux and Mac in the gaming world then game developers are going to stop making money off of me)
I am sick of Sony trying to control the format of . They keep trying to use their sheer bulk to force us to use their latest tech (see their music player history for an example). I know Sony is capable of producing a quality product that I would love to use, but they just keep shooting themselves in the foot (UMD anyone?). Now they want to try to shove a heavily DRM'd format down our throats and make us like it (and they dont even seem to be able to put out a proper product). I wish consumers would wake up and grow some self control (I have to admit to being the first in line occasionally). If you stop buying products that contain objectionable components (whatever your hot button issue is DRM, porn, violence) then the companies will stop making it. Consumers need to stop "compromising" with companies. Give us a product that we want 100%.
"A luxury once experienced becomes a necessity".
Well this is good news. It means that there is less opportunity for RIM jobs.
yeah yeah, mod me down for the horrible-punned-to-death-already.
Excellent, now all I need is some cybereyes, a datajack, and some skillsofts and I start start doing runs on the 8+ diamond stores in town.
I, for one, would not be sad to see Atari go. They have personally cheesed me off recently on several occasions. The biggest and saddest of these was The Temple of Elemental Evil. The game had so much potential to be a very well done D&D 3.5 game, but was completely and totally fucked by Atari who pushed it out the door incomplete, stripped of solid content, and untested. For that alone I hope they die. More recently they've completely ignored the linux community in regards to Neverwinter Nights 2.
I will do a little dance the day they die.