...handheld emulation. I've got some of that on my Jornada 720, but not much.
I'd love to see Nintendo/Sony/Microsquish/Whatever come out with a hand-held unit that runs a version of Mame, and the company goes out and buys licenses to all those old arcade games I love. Package'em half-a-dozen to a cartridge (yeah, you'll get one popular one [Pac-Man], a couple of so-so, then three scrubs, but it'll get the cash revenue going). Think: zero development costs, small license/media costs, and profits all around.
That would be sweet. Now throw in GB/GBA/NES/SNES emulation as well - hoody hoo! (Ok, why should Nintendo license their old games to MS? Because they aren't selling many of the old ones nowadays, are they?)
Can someone please explain to me the moral or ethical mandate that supports/justifies this sort of vigilante thinking?
I'd like to start by stating that I don't condone w00w00's (gad what a name) actions, I was simply offering a possible answer to a question (which, for some reason, got modded up all to hell. I guess the SlashThink mindset agrees with all that appears to screw corporations).
Now, in an attempt to answer your question - I think this sort of thing is defnitely a free speech issue, and I think in some cases it's justified.
Let's take your example of a GM exploit - if I discovered such a thing and called GM about it (even if I were a registered/certified GM mechanic) - how many layers of corporate denial, obfuscation and red tape do you think I'd encounter? After all, a recall to fix the problem is going to cost some green, and I'm just some schmuck mechanic. So how long do you think it would take GM to fix the problem, versus the amount of time that someone who liked stealing cars figured it out?
If instead of calling GM I phoned the local TV stations and demonstrated the problems - do you think that would speed up a GM recall? I sure do.
Does this hurt the corporation? Yes. But then it was the corporation that created the exploit, or failed to close it. You reap what you sow.
And how can you claim that they are done in the interest of the public when so much anonymous public damage could result in the short-term?
The same could be said about an internet article that explains how to pick locks. Should such sites be shut down, in the name of the public interest?
Their actions will hasten the approval of legislation which makes online reckless endangerment as criminal on the Internet as it is in your neighborhood.
Which is the greater endangerment: the discription of an exploit, or the exploit's existance?
yes but I can use my computer and recharge it I can't, with what is currently availble, refuel my car and drive
"Turn it off and not smoke" aren't problems with the technology, they're just good safety rules. As far as having to stop the car in order to refuel it, yes, this is a terrible inconvenience, and you'd think Detroit would have addressed this issue by now. Damn GM! Damn them to hell!
My only question How do you refill it if a fuel cell is sposed to get smaller and smaller how do you refill a fuell cell.
If I can recall from one of the many, many previous Slashdot stories / urban legends about the Almighty Fuel Cell, you use something like a hypodermic needle or other injector to shoot more "juice" into your cell.
The other interesting thing is that the cells will "exhale" steam and or other gases. So corrosion of the device would have to be taken into account.
Sounds like a cakewalk - Gandalf is supposed to be some mighty-mojo wizard, and he can do what? Set pine-cones on fire. Wheee. And I can't imagine Aragorn has more than 50 HP.
You oughta beat'em like a rented mule. Hell, you should be forced to do it drunk just to make it a challenge!
There is a word for mints operating at a profit. They're called counterfiters.
There's another word for it: "seigniorage". It's the difference between the cost of making a coin and it's face value. Or did you think the mint was selling quarters to banks for 23 cents apiece?
...of course, the traditional varieties of mice never had this problem, as the natural fur coating would wick away unwanted moisture.
I was thinking along similar lines, albeit steering wheels instead of mice. You can get wool covers for steering wheels, I figure a nice patch (no, the physical kind) of same on the mouse would have a good effect.
On a steering wheel it also keeps you from burning/freezing your hands in hot/cold weather, but until X-Treme Outdoors Quake Arena!!! takes hold, that shouldn't really be a problem.
Re:EEK! A COMPUTER! HIDE! RUN!
on
Gadgets of 2002
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· Score: 1
Infact, why should I need to use a manual to do something as set the time. On my cheap watch I turn the bezel forward - the time moves forward. I turn the bezel back - the time moves backwards.
Why can't a VCR be that simple?
Because knobs and encoders cost more than buttons. People say they want simple, but are they willing to pay for it? My guess is "no".
There was this wonderful gadget that came out in, err, 94 or 95, thereabouts, called VideoGuide. It was an electronic program guide (imagine Tivo without the hard drive and modem, it got info over the pager network) that would also run your TV and VCR. And getting news stories and sports scores live were additional cost options.
It had one of the easiest, smartest user interfaces I've ever seen. You never had to set the clock, if the software had a bug it'd be patched automagically overnight.
Went right into the toilet. Sigh. I refused to send mine back for a refund, I loved it so (snif).
...can be found here concerning the Gamecube/Xbox/PS2 sales. The gist is that the PS2 will outsell all the others primarily because of the massive software base (remember that it plays PS1 games as well), and developers will be skittish to plunge resources into "the next new thing" when there's a well established audience for the PS2.
It's humorously written - and check out the rest of the site, it's a hoot.
The story talks about licenses and the conditional right to use the software.
It talks about this maybe happening. The story gives no examples of actual software that has a set-term license and suddenly turns itself off. Just some vague anecdote about "some guy told me I had to renew so I hung up on him".
All the software mentioned in the article sunsets it's support - not the software itself.
Ok, I know cars and software are worlds apart, but bear with me. Automobile manufacturers will put a warranty on the cars they build (with certain limitations) for a specific period of time. Let's say your car won't start -- if it's in warranty, you call the local dealer, they fix it, you're on your way. If it's out of warranty - ch-ching! You pay. You don't seriously expect the auto companies to support every car they make forever, do you?
I see this same idea (replace "repair" with "support") applying to software. And as you can buy additional coverage for your car, you can buy an upgrade to your software. But there's no such thing as a free lunch.
I don't mind if the software manufacturers sell their latest product with new systems, but to kill support for old systems is not fair.
And expecting companies to continue to support their software for every new operating system, for free, is fair?
Software generally comes in a box, and the box says what the software does and what it runs on. I have yet to see a box say "Runs under Win2000 and anything else Microsoft may come up with".
You got what you paid for - you want it to run on a new system that wasn't supported when you bought the software? Pay more. That sounds fair to me.
All they have to do is implement a computer-based knowledge system and then the tech support monkey just asks you "Alright, what version are you running?" and the knowlege base will adjust its' answers accordingly.
Ok, let's see how that works...
Me (using some 5 year old app): "My copy of Kung-Fu Butt Hampsters v2.3 stopped working!"
Tech Support Monkey: "Ok, what version of Windows are you running?"
Me: "Windows XP+ Gold Bonus Director's Edition."
TSM: "Let me look in the database... Ah. Here's your problem: v2.3 won't work on that OS."
Me: "That's not fair!"
TSM: "I see three solutions in the database for your problem - One, you can upgrade to v5 (and since you're a valuable customer we'll give you 20% off retail), two, you can re-install Win95 on your machine, three, you can FOAD. Hope this helps. Have a nice day!"
Works for me. You can't have your cake (upgrade to new OS) and eat it too (get free upgrades so your old apps work with your new OS)
They'll probably do what I've already seen at least one of them do. I'm not sure how they manage it, but for I while I had one telemarketing company sending a bogus phone# to my caller ID box. (I.e. I tried calling the number back and got the 'there is no such number' sort of message...)
I worked in a building with, I dunno, a few hundred other people, some of which were CSR folks. All the phones went through our switch (Lucent? Don't remember), and from there out to the world. And the switch was configured so it anyone called you from inside that building your caller ID would display the receptionist's number.
Which made for a big PITA for the receptionist - she'd constantly get calls saying "You called me twenty minutes ago. What do you want?" - when it could have been anyone in the building that placed the call, and she had no way of knowing who. When she tried to explain this, many people would get abusive and swear that the caller ID said this was the number so stop lying, etc (it's from the phone company, so it has to be true, right?).
It got to be so bad that they reconfigured the switch to not send caller ID info.
How long will it take for Americans to realize that toys, movies, TV, etc don't make people turn into bad people?
Until some whacko group slams a couple of planes into big buildings, I recon.
The public tolerence for this kind of whiney-pee-pants hand wringing against violence has dropped preciptously since 9/11. And I bet that 90% of the hits this site gets in the next year will have come from Slashdotters in the next few days.
Europe has their problems, of course, but the way they handle these types of things is much better than the way we do. Everything is out in the open and the result is the kids understand real life instead of sheltered life, and I think it results in more mature people.
What an astonishing concept! Hopefully the U.S. will wake up soon.
This is a lame list made by idiotic fundamentalist Christians (they're called the Lion and the Lamb, for crying out loud)
I know it's fun to jerk the knee and all, but do you have any evidence that this is a Christian organization other the the mentioning of two animals in their name?
From my (albeit brief) perusal of the site I get the impression that they're just a bunch of whiney soccer moms who don't want their kids to have any fun that involves violence, because they're sure that violence is never the answer.
A large pile of steaming shit, to be sure, but if their motivation is religous they're hiding it well.
V however was by far, the worst ST movie of em all.
I have to agree. "V" was pretty bad - none of the old crew, no Federation ships, Klingons, phasers or anything, just these dumb aliens running around dressed as humans. Spock coulda whupped the whole fleet of'em in ten minutes.
It was really hard to see how it even was a Trek movie, but at least it was on TV and I didn't have to pay for a ticket.
There was discussion on a DVR board about the ability of the 4000 series to download content from the Internet - why not? You've got the web connection, you've got the hard drive, let's go. Think about that - content delivered on-demand (well, overnight most likely) with the press of a few buttons. No network censorship, no national boundries... we all know what that means.
PORN! And lots of it! Porn drives all the new technologies, it will drive the 4000 to be wildly popular. Pay a buck or two, and download LIVE GOATSE.CX!!! onto you Replay, to enjoy in the privacy of your own home.
This is a marvelous advance in home pr0n delivery. Thank you, Sonic Blue!
Slashdot Mirror
Don't scoff at the stuff Microsoft does(except maybe Bob ;) )
Hey, now - I liked Bob! It was the best damned screensaver ever for Windows!
...handheld emulation. I've got some of that on my Jornada 720, but not much.
I'd love to see Nintendo/Sony/Microsquish/Whatever come out with a hand-held unit that runs a version of Mame, and the company goes out and buys licenses to all those old arcade games I love. Package'em half-a-dozen to a cartridge (yeah, you'll get one popular one [Pac-Man], a couple of so-so, then three scrubs, but it'll get the cash revenue going). Think: zero development costs, small license/media costs, and profits all around.
That would be sweet. Now throw in GB/GBA/NES/SNES emulation as well - hoody hoo! (Ok, why should Nintendo license their old games to MS? Because they aren't selling many of the old ones nowadays, are they?)
Anyone think this has a chance?
Can someone please explain to me the moral or ethical mandate that supports/justifies this sort of vigilante thinking?
I'd like to start by stating that I don't condone w00w00's (gad what a name) actions, I was simply offering a possible answer to a question (which, for some reason, got modded up all to hell. I guess the SlashThink mindset agrees with all that appears to screw corporations).
Now, in an attempt to answer your question - I think this sort of thing is defnitely a free speech issue, and I think in some cases it's justified.
Let's take your example of a GM exploit - if I discovered such a thing and called GM about it (even if I were a registered/certified GM mechanic) - how many layers of corporate denial, obfuscation and red tape do you think I'd encounter? After all, a recall to fix the problem is going to cost some green, and I'm just some schmuck mechanic. So how long do you think it would take GM to fix the problem, versus the amount of time that someone who liked stealing cars figured it out?
If instead of calling GM I phoned the local TV stations and demonstrated the problems - do you think that would speed up a GM recall? I sure do.
Does this hurt the corporation? Yes. But then it was the corporation that created the exploit, or failed to close it. You reap what you sow.
And how can you claim that they are done in the interest of the public when so much anonymous public damage could result in the short-term?
The same could be said about an internet article that explains how to pick locks. Should such sites be shut down, in the name of the public interest?
Their actions will hasten the approval of legislation which makes online reckless endangerment as criminal on the Internet as it is in your neighborhood.
Which is the greater endangerment: the discription of an exploit, or the exploit's existance?
Given that the message states AOL will do a server side fix in a day, why not wait ONE DAY before releasing the exploit details.
Perhaps the former was a result of the latter? There's a concept called "lighting a fire under their ass".
...and now everyone has your mail!
yes but I can use my computer and recharge it I can't, with what is currently availble, refuel my car and drive
"Turn it off and not smoke" aren't problems with the technology, they're just good safety rules. As far as having to stop the car in order to refuel it, yes, this is a terrible inconvenience, and you'd think Detroit would have addressed this issue by now. Damn GM! Damn them to hell!
<cough>
Why would refueling be preferable to recharging?
Speed. Which is faster: filling your car's empty tank, or recharging you laptop's empty batteries?
My only question How do you refill it if a fuel cell is sposed to get smaller and smaller how do you refill a fuell cell.
If I can recall from one of the many, many previous Slashdot stories / urban legends about the Almighty Fuel Cell, you use something like a hypodermic needle or other injector to shoot more "juice" into your cell.
The other interesting thing is that the cells will "exhale" steam and or other gases. So corrosion of the device would have to be taken into account.
A 70s/80s Buck Rogers in the 21st century ( I forget the exact title but the series appeared somewhere between 1973 and 198?) marathon.
;)
1979 to 1981, IIRC. Erin Gray in spandex (pant, pant). I'm going to have to see if that's made it to DVD yet
Battle Star Ponderosa was never my cup of tea, however. To each his own.
Sounds like a cakewalk - Gandalf is supposed to be some mighty-mojo wizard, and he can do what? Set pine-cones on fire. Wheee. And I can't imagine Aragorn has more than 50 HP.
You oughta beat'em like a rented mule. Hell, you should be forced to do it drunk just to make it a challenge!
Set some hobbits on fire for me...
Assuming sets 3 & 4 of the DVDs show up in time (and according to UPS it sounds good).
Horrible acting, awful plots, kick-ass space ship models and explosions. What more do you need?
There is a word for mints operating at a profit. They're called counterfiters.
There's another word for it: "seigniorage". It's the difference between the cost of making a coin and it's face value. Or did you think the mint was selling quarters to banks for 23 cents apiece?
Coins, if I am not mistaken, already cost more to mint than their value.
Why would a mint operate at a loss? What possible reason could they have for spending six cents to make a nickel?
And would you be interested in buying this nice new twenty dollar bill for the low, low price of $35.99? Hell, I'll even autograph it!
...of course, the traditional varieties of mice never had this problem, as the natural fur coating would wick away unwanted moisture.
I was thinking along similar lines, albeit steering wheels instead of mice. You can get wool covers for steering wheels, I figure a nice patch (no, the physical kind) of same on the mouse would have a good effect.
On a steering wheel it also keeps you from burning/freezing your hands in hot/cold weather, but until X-Treme Outdoors Quake Arena!!! takes hold, that shouldn't really be a problem.
Infact, why should I need to use a manual to do something as set the time. On my cheap watch I turn the bezel forward - the time moves forward. I turn the bezel back - the time moves backwards.
Why can't a VCR be that simple?
Because knobs and encoders cost more than buttons. People say they want simple, but are they willing to pay for it? My guess is "no".
There was this wonderful gadget that came out in, err, 94 or 95, thereabouts, called VideoGuide. It was an electronic program guide (imagine Tivo without the hard drive and modem, it got info over the pager network) that would also run your TV and VCR. And getting news stories and sports scores live were additional cost options.
It had one of the easiest, smartest user interfaces I've ever seen. You never had to set the clock, if the software had a bug it'd be patched automagically overnight.
Went right into the toilet. Sigh. I refused to send mine back for a refund, I loved it so (snif).
...can be found here concerning the Gamecube/Xbox/PS2 sales. The gist is that the PS2 will outsell all the others primarily because of the massive software base (remember that it plays PS1 games as well), and developers will be skittish to plunge resources into "the next new thing" when there's a well established audience for the PS2.
It's humorously written - and check out the rest of the site, it's a hoot.
The story talks about licenses and the conditional right to use the software.
It talks about this maybe happening. The story gives no examples of actual software that has a set-term license and suddenly turns itself off. Just some vague anecdote about "some guy told me I had to renew so I hung up on him".
All the software mentioned in the article sunsets it's support - not the software itself.
Ok, I know cars and software are worlds apart, but bear with me. Automobile manufacturers will put a warranty on the cars they build (with certain limitations) for a specific period of time. Let's say your car won't start -- if it's in warranty, you call the local dealer, they fix it, you're on your way. If it's out of warranty - ch-ching! You pay. You don't seriously expect the auto companies to support every car they make forever, do you?
I see this same idea (replace "repair" with "support") applying to software. And as you can buy additional coverage for your car, you can buy an upgrade to your software. But there's no such thing as a free lunch.
I don't mind if the software manufacturers sell their latest product with new systems, but to kill support for old systems is not fair.
And expecting companies to continue to support their software for every new operating system, for free, is fair?
Software generally comes in a box, and the box says what the software does and what it runs on. I have yet to see a box say "Runs under Win2000 and anything else Microsoft may come up with".
You got what you paid for - you want it to run on a new system that wasn't supported when you bought the software? Pay more. That sounds fair to me.
All they have to do is implement a computer-based knowledge system and then the tech support monkey just asks you "Alright, what version are you running?" and the knowlege base will adjust its' answers accordingly.
Ok, let's see how that works...
Me (using some 5 year old app): "My copy of Kung-Fu Butt Hampsters v2.3 stopped working!"
Tech Support Monkey: "Ok, what version of Windows are you running?"
Me: "Windows XP+ Gold Bonus Director's Edition."
TSM: "Let me look in the database... Ah. Here's your problem: v2.3 won't work on that OS."
Me: "That's not fair!"
TSM: "I see three solutions in the database for your problem - One, you can upgrade to v5 (and since you're a valuable customer we'll give you 20% off retail), two, you can re-install Win95 on your machine, three, you can FOAD. Hope this helps. Have a nice day!"
Works for me. You can't have your cake (upgrade to new OS) and eat it too (get free upgrades so your old apps work with your new OS)
They'll probably do what I've already seen at least one of them do. I'm not sure how they manage it, but for I while I had one telemarketing company sending a bogus phone# to my caller ID box. (I.e. I tried calling the number back and got the 'there is no such number' sort of message...)
I worked in a building with, I dunno, a few hundred other people, some of which were CSR folks. All the phones went through our switch (Lucent? Don't remember), and from there out to the world. And the switch was configured so it anyone called you from inside that building your caller ID would display the receptionist's number.
Which made for a big PITA for the receptionist - she'd constantly get calls saying "You called me twenty minutes ago. What do you want?" - when it could have been anyone in the building that placed the call, and she had no way of knowing who. When she tried to explain this, many people would get abusive and swear that the caller ID said this was the number so stop lying, etc (it's from the phone company, so it has to be true, right?).
It got to be so bad that they reconfigured the switch to not send caller ID info.
How long will it take for Americans to realize that toys, movies, TV, etc don't make people turn into bad people?
Until some whacko group slams a couple of planes into big buildings, I recon.
The public tolerence for this kind of whiney-pee-pants hand wringing against violence has dropped preciptously since 9/11. And I bet that 90% of the hits this site gets in the next year will have come from Slashdotters in the next few days.
Europe has their problems, of course, but the way they handle these types of things is much better than the way we do. Everything is out in the open and the result is the kids understand real life instead of sheltered life, and I think it results in more mature people.
What an astonishing concept! Hopefully the U.S. will wake up soon.
This is a lame list made by idiotic fundamentalist Christians (they're called the Lion and the Lamb, for crying out loud)
I know it's fun to jerk the knee and all, but do you have any evidence that this is a Christian organization other the the mentioning of two animals in their name?
From my (albeit brief) perusal of the site I get the impression that they're just a bunch of whiney soccer moms who don't want their kids to have any fun that involves violence, because they're sure that violence is never the answer.
A large pile of steaming shit, to be sure, but if their motivation is religous they're hiding it well.
Two words: paper plates Any questions?
Yes, two: How hot does the CD get, and what's the ignition temperature of a paper plate?
V however was by far, the worst ST movie of em all.
I have to agree. "V" was pretty bad - none of the old crew, no Federation ships, Klingons, phasers or anything, just these dumb aliens running around dressed as humans. Spock coulda whupped the whole fleet of'em in ten minutes.
It was really hard to see how it even was a Trek movie, but at least it was on TV and I didn't have to pay for a ticket.
There was discussion on a DVR board about the ability of the 4000 series to download content from the Internet - why not? You've got the web connection, you've got the hard drive, let's go. Think about that - content delivered on-demand (well, overnight most likely) with the press of a few buttons. No network censorship, no national boundries... we all know what that means.
PORN! And lots of it! Porn drives all the new technologies, it will drive the 4000 to be wildly popular. Pay a buck or two, and download LIVE GOATSE.CX!!! onto you Replay, to enjoy in the privacy of your own home.
This is a marvelous advance in home pr0n delivery. Thank you, Sonic Blue!