Ah-HAH! That explains all the medications that say, "Do not take if you use any MAOI inhibitors." Obviously there's drugs involved with the radio waves and subliminal messages.
The Cell processor is essentially a multi-core chip. It has, IIRC, one "master" CPU, and then multiple slave CPUs on the same die.
A modern desktop computer has one master CPU, then several smaller CPUs each running their own software. Graphics, Sound, CD/DVD, HD, not to mention all the CPUs in all the peripherals.
But the analogy ends there. The Cell has certian limitations and wouldn't be able to operate as a full computer system with no other processors very efficiently. I believe the PS3 has a seperate GPU, for instance. And doubtless has many other microcontrollers managing the rest of the system.
Microchip is coming out with a 28 pin ethernet interface. Couple that with a PIC microcontroller and an ethernet transformer and you'll have what you're asking for.
Alternately you can get something off the shelf from netsilicon. Add a battery and you're good to go.
a person who is merely passively bothering you, not harming you?
Your link does not demonstrate that second hand smoke is not harmful.
From the link: Tobacco defenders claim that of four major ETS studies completed since the EPA report was released, two found no evidence that ETS increased cancer risk, one found weak evidence, and only one found strong evidence.
No studies have shown evidence that secondhand smoke does not increase cancer risk. Let's put this on a scale:
-1: Second hand smoke poses no health risk: strong correlation.
-1: Second hand smoke poses no health risk: weak correlation.
0: It is unknown or unknowable weather second hand smoke poses a health risk: no correlation found in either direction.
+1: Second hand smoke poses a health risk: weak correlation.
+2: Second hand smoke poses a health risk: strong correlation.
Of the studies that snopes notes, the total score is +4. Of course, this means nothing, but then again this argument is as effective as the argument Snopes uses.
The key is that no one is claiming that second hand smoke is harmless. At best a few people are claiming that they haven't found a correlation between second hand smoke and cancer. Several people are claiming to have found that correlation. But by focusing only on cancer we are also ignoring all the other byproducts of smoking.
In other words, I don't see how you can claim with a straight face that second hand smoke is harmless. You are going on the premise that until someone proves conclusively that it is harmful you're going to claim it's harmless. This is the same logic that the smoking industry used for firsthand smoke.
I'd probably pay $400 for one (with no support) if I knew I was also paying for a kid in a developing country to have one. There must be quite a few geeks like me in the west who'd provide a bit of a revenue stream to support the project and maybe add to the development base? Why not allow the in country manufacturers to sell them internationally if they want to. If they are that small and light they would be cheap to ship.
There is going to be a market for these outside of the intended marketplace.
I suggest that whoever manages the manufacture and distribution of these also have a plan to sell them directly to other interested parties because otherwise the black market for them will be huge. The kids and their families would rather sell them, if possible, than use them in some (many?) cases.
It is unlikely that a single third world country is going to purchase enough of these that no black market will exist - they would have to be more common than food and water.
So sell them directly to those who want them. It's more complicated than this, of course, but it should alleviate some of the problems.
My experience with the hacker's diet has shown me that there are two things that affect fade for me.
1. When I eat, I have to eat a diverse meal. I need to eat some sugars (simple carbohydrates - immediate energy), some complex carbohydrates (medium to long term energy) and proteins (long term energy). If I eat only sugars then I'll fade and/or feel hungry very soon after eating. If I only eat carbs I'll probably feel sleepy for an hour or so, then I'll pick up for a few hours and then get tired again. I can just eat carbs and simple carbohydrates for breakfast and lunch, but if I want to wake refreshed I need to eat some protein at night.
2. Exercise is important. When I'm not exercising on a regular basis I have more consistant energy throughout the day. I don't know if this is a result of better managed blood sugar levels, more efficient energy storage and usage in fat, etc, but I experience less fade on those weeks where I've spent a few days on regular exercise.
Good luck with your diet! If nothing else works, remember that you can eat 6 pickles. Six!
-Adam
Use a scanner that's meant for this.
on
Film to X-rays?
·
· Score: 2, Informative
If you need high quality images from a nageitve, use a scanner that's equipped to handle negatives. Many scanners do this. Cheap ones will only scan small sections of negatives, but you can stitch them together later.
You might find that Kinkos or a local print shop has the capability to copy the film to CD as well. Look around.
I don't think you're going to be able to do this job on the cheap and well at the same time.
Perhaps in the early days of computer games would a CS degree be nearly required since understanding the limitations of sound hardware was key to exploiting it to its fullest.
Now there are no practical limitations to sound hardware. There's almost no reason for a good composer to understand anything about the hardware their composition will be playing on. In some extraordinary cases, I suppose, it might be useful to know that a particular sound subsystem can only manage 128 voices instead of 256, or only has 16 bit resolution at 44.1kHz. Generally there is no reason to know this stuff.
Your friend will do far better if he has:
Practical experience with the top 5-10 sound tools used in the industry
Generated music for games (of his own creation, for other effort, open source games, etc)
There are other things that are even more helpful (networking, self advertising/promotion, etc) since a lot of this business isn't who is technically the best, but who do we trust the most and who can consistantly pump out good material. Just like any other industry, music is a commodity material (despite RIAA assertions to the contrary). When they start a project they have to be able to assign you the tasks, and know that you'll meet the milestones on time.
In other news, historians have discovered that both Einstein and Darwin favored the Non-simultaneous Leg Insertion method for putting on their pants - much like you and I.
Yes, but they didn't have the benefit of research done by Wallace, Gromit, etc. I'm sure that had the dressing machine envisioned by the aformentioned pioneers in the field of haberdashery been shown to Einstein and others they, in fact, would have dressed themselves two legs at a time. As we have the knowledge and technology, and yet still do not take advantage of it we must conclude that they are still better than us.
There's really no need for the controversy when the stinking refresh rate is well above the pixel response time. Everyone is babbling about how they have great pixel response but then they go and run the monitor at 75Hz (=13ms). When I can run a 3ms monitor at 300Hz, then I will be impressed.
The reason the fast response is important is for latency.
There is a time lag between the user's brain commanding the fingers to move the joystick. There's a lag between moving the joystick and the computer getting a new value. There's a lag while the computer computes the effects of that change on the game environment. There's a lag as the computer gives the video card that information. There's a lag as the video card proceses the new scene. There's a lag as the scene waits for the next frame to start. There's a lag as the video is transmitted to the monitor. There's a lag as the LCD processor processes the data.
Then there's the lag as the pixel changes value.
If you can shave 5-10mS off the last lag, then you've made a difference which an experienced gamer could not quantify, but could notice.
As always, the graphics card makers quantify the leading game's usage of the API and take shortcuts as needed in order to improve gameplay. Since Doom is released, they can also release these driver shortcuts. These same shortcuts wouldn't necessarily work under another program, and may cause unintended artifacts, crashes, etc.
The only question is why hasn't nVidia released their tweaks yet?
This would only be news once they've both optimized their drivers for this game and one clearly has the advantage.
No. Marketers don't like numbers with more than two significant digits.
While you could sell a 610mm, you would rather sell the 20", 19", 17", 15", 14", 12" than the 508mm, 483mm, 432mm, 381mm, 356mm, 305mm.
DPI is DPI. People in the US know what you mean when you say it has a DPI of 75, or 100, or 133.
Until the US moves wholesale to metric, this isn't going to change. No company or retailer is going to push the metric agenda unless it moves product, and it doesn't.
The primary reason for changing it yet again is to reduce overall fuel consumption. So, instead of mandating higher fuel economy (the average being lower than it was two decades ago) we choose to change time.
This is not insane - it's a perfectly legitimate decision. It's VASTLY cheaper to change DST than to mandate higher fuel economy standards.
Aside from which, anyone who says we can save 50% on fuel economy by changing our cars either doesn't understand thermodynamics or the American buying public.
We have cars that are very efficient, and people are still buying the less efficient cars.
I suppose the government could impose a radical fuel savings plan that requires all cars to comply and forces the buying public to buy something they didn't want in the first place, but you can guess how well that will go over with the public.
I may want to eat ice cream all day, but if I choose to do that (which I do not) I cannot demand to be thin.
Exactly. And the government has no right to mandate low fat, low sugar ice cream to prevent you from being fat.
If people wanted lower emissions cars, they'd buy them. If people wanted to mandate what kind of car their neighbors can or cannot drive, we'd be driving them. If people don't mind the government changing the DST... well, guess what? Apparantly people don't mind!
- The amount of oil predicted to be saved over the several weeks involved in the time shift, is less than all of the oil the USA uses in a SINGLE day.
You are so right! I think you've convinced me that if we can't reduce consumption by at least [arbitrary] percent then we shouldn't reduce consumption at all! What a logical thought!
- There are going to be millions of VCRs and other hard coded devices designed to change to the old DST law, meaning many will auto-adjust to the wrong time.
Perhaps I haven't kept up with technology, but my VCRs and alarm clocks don't adjust to DST. My "atomic" radio clocks will adjust according to NIST. My computers will adjust correctly. I imagine even Tivo will manage just fine.
Oh, I'm sorry, were you trying to bring up another y2k type scarecrow? Oh no! I can't adjust my clocks by hand! The world shall end!
- Airlines and other businesses that depend on time are going to have to reprogram many things, and thus this will impact their bottom line. [Is this a good thing when so many are going bankrupt?]
Oh no! The world shall end!
- If we legislated that vehicles must achieve twice the MPG rating they have today, then we'd use approximately half as much oil. That's a savings of 50% every single day. [Maybe if George thought about that every...single...day, just like he thinks about the Iraq War every..single..Day, then we wouldn't have to put up and deal with this stupid time change!]
Ah, back to the "if we can't save [arbitrary] consumption, it's best not to try at all" argument.
DST is such a non-issue, and I say that if we can save some energy by adjusting our clocks (because us stupid humans like to live by the clock) then by all means let's go for it. Other countries change the DST change dates on a yearly basis, and so most electronic and computer hardware is already equiped to deal with this. Yes, there is some US-centric equipment whose designers, like MBA graduates, look only to the short term and those items will suffer.
Is it worth all the consternation you're working up? I don't think so, but I'm not you, and perhaps this is the most important activity you need to spend time and resources on in your life.
Since the patient survived, it clearly was operated on when it was living.
This presumes that life cannot follow death. In the case of mammals and other higher function organisms this is generally true, however electronic devices can be completely and utterly devoid of life, and yet still attain life at a later date.
Vivisection indicates operation while the patient is living: The act or practice of cutting into or otherwise injuring living animals, especially for the purpose of scientific research.
I believe that a correct iPod vivisection would be done while the unit is powered, and perhaps playing.
The iPod cannot be considered "living" according to the sense of the word as applied to mammals and other creatures, therefore the word "vivisection" has little or no meaning in this case as it depends on the definition of life.
What the publishers are really up in arms about is losing money over new books.
In the google blog, it was noted that at any given time only 20% of all books are in print, 20% are in the public domain. That leaves 60% that are not in print, and aren't in the public doamin.
What Google is doing is giving people access to those books in a limited manner so they can discover the information they need in a book they couldn't easily access (out of print).
What the publishers see is:
Booming market for used books
Furthermore, a lot of books are re-hashes of old subjects. A modern $120 book on metal machining may be no more useful to the user than an old $25 machine handbook made 25 years ago.
The publisher does not get money for a used book.
The publisher only gets money for a new sale.
So while Google can talk all they want about giving users access, what they are really doing is helping the users, not the publishers.
The best solution from the publisher's perspective is to have opt-in (not opt-out as currectly practised). This means the publishers would only add books that are currently in print - books they will stand to make money on - which they will remove when they go out of print or there is another volume they sell which they make more money on.
The best solution from the customer's perspective is to have all books (no opt in or opt out) digitally transcribed and searchable. This will lead to hundreds of suitable books, most of which will be used and therefore cheaply available.
I applaud Google's effort, and hope they win out in the end. The publishers have a valid business concern, but I don't believe it's a valid copyright concern, and I hope that Google is able to go forward with it's program as opt-out.
It doesn't matter if it was satire or not anyway. This game doesn't count - his original "challenge" requires a nationwide boxed retail distribution by summer of next year. The game was going to be created - of that no one should doubt. It is unlikely that a publisher would publish it, and more unlikely that any retailers would carry it.
But even if all that took place, it doesn't matter - this entire debate is being orchestrated by him. When he stops talking, there's nothing to fill the void - there aren't any pro-game people working the press. When he is talking, the debate is always about how bad these games are - not about how good they are.
The upshot:
If the gaming industry wants to gather public (not just gamer) support, they need to stop reacting and start acting.
This particular challenge is one he can't lose no matter how the industry reacts. "Are you still beating your wife?"
Slashdot Mirror
the Masonic Order of the Illuminati.
Ah-HAH! That explains all the medications that say, "Do not take if you use any MAOI inhibitors." Obviously there's drugs involved with the radio waves and subliminal messages.
-Adam
The Cell processor is essentially a multi-core chip. It has, IIRC, one "master" CPU, and then multiple slave CPUs on the same die.
A modern desktop computer has one master CPU, then several smaller CPUs each running their own software. Graphics, Sound, CD/DVD, HD, not to mention all the CPUs in all the peripherals.
But the analogy ends there. The Cell has certian limitations and wouldn't be able to operate as a full computer system with no other processors very efficiently. I believe the PS3 has a seperate GPU, for instance. And doubtless has many other microcontrollers managing the rest of the system.
-Adam
You cannot put a price on human life!
Nonsense. In fact, there's a whole work force employed to do exactly that.
-Adam
Microchip is coming out with a 28 pin ethernet interface. Couple that with a PIC microcontroller and an ethernet transformer and you'll have what you're asking for.
Alternately you can get something off the shelf from netsilicon. Add a battery and you're good to go.
-Adam
a person who is merely passively bothering you, not harming you?
Your link does not demonstrate that second hand smoke is not harmful.
From the link: Tobacco defenders claim that of four major ETS studies completed since the EPA report was released, two found no evidence that ETS increased cancer risk, one found weak evidence, and only one found strong evidence.
No studies have shown evidence that secondhand smoke does not increase cancer risk. Let's put this on a scale:
-1: Second hand smoke poses no health risk: strong correlation.
-1: Second hand smoke poses no health risk: weak correlation.
0: It is unknown or unknowable weather second hand smoke poses a health risk: no correlation found in either direction.
+1: Second hand smoke poses a health risk: weak correlation.
+2: Second hand smoke poses a health risk: strong correlation.
Of the studies that snopes notes, the total score is +4. Of course, this means nothing, but then again this argument is as effective as the argument Snopes uses.
The key is that no one is claiming that second hand smoke is harmless. At best a few people are claiming that they haven't found a correlation between second hand smoke and cancer. Several people are claiming to have found that correlation. But by focusing only on cancer we are also ignoring all the other byproducts of smoking.
In other words, I don't see how you can claim with a straight face that second hand smoke is harmless. You are going on the premise that until someone proves conclusively that it is harmful you're going to claim it's harmless. This is the same logic that the smoking industry used for firsthand smoke.
-Adam
Similar response in article:
I'd probably pay $400 for one (with no support) if I knew I was also paying for a kid in a developing country to have one. There must be quite a few geeks like me in the west who'd provide a bit of a revenue stream to support the project and maybe add to the development base? Why not allow the in country manufacturers to sell them internationally if they want to. If they are that small and light they would be cheap to ship.
There is going to be a market for these outside of the intended marketplace.
I suggest that whoever manages the manufacture and distribution of these also have a plan to sell them directly to other interested parties because otherwise the black market for them will be huge. The kids and their families would rather sell them, if possible, than use them in some (many?) cases.
It is unlikely that a single third world country is going to purchase enough of these that no black market will exist - they would have to be more common than food and water.
So sell them directly to those who want them. It's more complicated than this, of course, but it should alleviate some of the problems.
-Adam
No technology company should make extravagant claims about the capabilities of their product until they have a genuine, working demo.
Unless they are looking for more funding because, apparantly, they don't yet have a genuine working prototype and have run out of money.
-Adam
Even better:
Question: What kind of pop/soda do you see in this picture:
First picture shows a party with several attractive men and women and [good soda].
Second picture shows a senior care hospice and one can of [bad soda] being shared between 5-6 individuals.
Third picture shows a couple in a fast car along a mountian pass, each holding [good soda].
Fourth picture shows a prison cafeteria with a badly maintained [bad soda] machine.
I can't wait for the next election. This kind of "advertising" could be much worse than the kind of adverts we see on TV and in newspapers.
-Adam
My experience with the hacker's diet has shown me that there are two things that affect fade for me.
1. When I eat, I have to eat a diverse meal. I need to eat some sugars (simple carbohydrates - immediate energy), some complex carbohydrates (medium to long term energy) and proteins (long term energy). If I eat only sugars then I'll fade and/or feel hungry very soon after eating. If I only eat carbs I'll probably feel sleepy for an hour or so, then I'll pick up for a few hours and then get tired again. I can just eat carbs and simple carbohydrates for breakfast and lunch, but if I want to wake refreshed I need to eat some protein at night.
2. Exercise is important. When I'm not exercising on a regular basis I have more consistant energy throughout the day. I don't know if this is a result of better managed blood sugar levels, more efficient energy storage and usage in fat, etc, but I experience less fade on those weeks where I've spent a few days on regular exercise.
Good luck with your diet! If nothing else works, remember that you can eat 6 pickles. Six!
-Adam
If you need high quality images from a nageitve, use a scanner that's equipped to handle negatives. Many scanners do this. Cheap ones will only scan small sections of negatives, but you can stitch them together later.
You might find that Kinkos or a local print shop has the capability to copy the film to CD as well. Look around.
I don't think you're going to be able to do this job on the cheap and well at the same time.
-Adam
hey could not put it up earlier or they would screw all of their western affiliates.
When has that stopped them?
-Adam
Now there are no practical limitations to sound hardware. There's almost no reason for a good composer to understand anything about the hardware their composition will be playing on. In some extraordinary cases, I suppose, it might be useful to know that a particular sound subsystem can only manage 128 voices instead of 256, or only has 16 bit resolution at 44.1kHz. Generally there is no reason to know this stuff.
Your friend will do far better if he has:
- Practical experience with the top 5-10 sound tools used in the industry
- Generated music for games (of his own creation, for other effort, open source games, etc)
There are other things that are even more helpful (networking, self advertising/promotion, etc) since a lot of this business isn't who is technically the best, but who do we trust the most and who can consistantly pump out good material. Just like any other industry, music is a commodity material (despite RIAA assertions to the contrary). When they start a project they have to be able to assign you the tasks, and know that you'll meet the milestones on time.-Adam
In other news, historians have discovered that both Einstein and Darwin favored the Non-simultaneous Leg Insertion method for putting on their pants - much like you and I.
Yes, but they didn't have the benefit of research done by Wallace, Gromit, etc. I'm sure that had the dressing machine envisioned by the aformentioned pioneers in the field of haberdashery been shown to Einstein and others they, in fact, would have dressed themselves two legs at a time. As we have the knowledge and technology, and yet still do not take advantage of it we must conclude that they are still better than us.
-Adam
I have never broadcast video, but with the proper codecs VLC should be able to do what you're asking.
-Adam
There's really no need for the controversy when the stinking refresh rate is well above the pixel response time. Everyone is babbling about how they have great pixel response but then they go and run the monitor at 75Hz (=13ms). When I can run a 3ms monitor at 300Hz, then I will be impressed.
The reason the fast response is important is for latency.
There is a time lag between the user's brain commanding the fingers to move the joystick. There's a lag between moving the joystick and the computer getting a new value. There's a lag while the computer computes the effects of that change on the game environment. There's a lag as the computer gives the video card that information. There's a lag as the video card proceses the new scene. There's a lag as the scene waits for the next frame to start. There's a lag as the video is transmitted to the monitor. There's a lag as the LCD processor processes the data.
Then there's the lag as the pixel changes value.
If you can shave 5-10mS off the last lag, then you've made a difference which an experienced gamer could not quantify, but could notice.
-Adam
So, when is there going to be a NetBSD port to this graphics card?
-Adam
if(Window.Title=="DOOM"){
employGraphicsShortcuts();
}
As always, the graphics card makers quantify the leading game's usage of the API and take shortcuts as needed in order to improve gameplay. Since Doom is released, they can also release these driver shortcuts. These same shortcuts wouldn't necessarily work under another program, and may cause unintended artifacts, crashes, etc.
The only question is why hasn't nVidia released their tweaks yet?
This would only be news once they've both optimized their drivers for this game and one clearly has the advantage.
-Adam
Can't we at least say 500mm Laptop ?
No. Marketers don't like numbers with more than two significant digits.
While you could sell a 610mm, you would rather sell the 20", 19", 17", 15", 14", 12" than the 508mm, 483mm, 432mm, 381mm, 356mm, 305mm.
DPI is DPI. People in the US know what you mean when you say it has a DPI of 75, or 100, or 133.
Until the US moves wholesale to metric, this isn't going to change. No company or retailer is going to push the metric agenda unless it moves product, and it doesn't.
-Adam
I think you've been found out
-Adam
The primary reason for changing it yet again is to reduce overall fuel consumption. So, instead of mandating higher fuel economy (the average being lower than it was two decades ago) we choose to change time.
This is not insane - it's a perfectly legitimate decision. It's VASTLY cheaper to change DST than to mandate higher fuel economy standards.
Aside from which, anyone who says we can save 50% on fuel economy by changing our cars either doesn't understand thermodynamics or the American buying public.
We have cars that are very efficient, and people are still buying the less efficient cars.
I suppose the government could impose a radical fuel savings plan that requires all cars to comply and forces the buying public to buy something they didn't want in the first place, but you can guess how well that will go over with the public.
I may want to eat ice cream all day, but if I choose to do that (which I do not) I cannot demand to be thin.
Exactly. And the government has no right to mandate low fat, low sugar ice cream to prevent you from being fat.
Please note: Capitalist Economy. Democratic (well, republic) Government.
If people wanted lower emissions cars, they'd buy them. If people wanted to mandate what kind of car their neighbors can or cannot drive, we'd be driving them. If people don't mind the government changing the DST... well, guess what? Apparantly people don't mind!
-Adam
- The amount of oil predicted to be saved over the several weeks involved in the time shift, is less than all of the oil the USA uses in a SINGLE day.
You are so right! I think you've convinced me that if we can't reduce consumption by at least [arbitrary] percent then we shouldn't reduce consumption at all! What a logical thought!
- There are going to be millions of VCRs and other hard coded devices designed to change to the old DST law, meaning many will auto-adjust to the wrong time.
Perhaps I haven't kept up with technology, but my VCRs and alarm clocks don't adjust to DST. My "atomic" radio clocks will adjust according to NIST. My computers will adjust correctly. I imagine even Tivo will manage just fine.
Oh, I'm sorry, were you trying to bring up another y2k type scarecrow? Oh no! I can't adjust my clocks by hand! The world shall end!
- Airlines and other businesses that depend on time are going to have to reprogram many things, and thus this will impact their bottom line. [Is this a good thing when so many are going bankrupt?]
Oh no! The world shall end!
- If we legislated that vehicles must achieve twice the MPG rating they have today, then we'd use approximately half as much oil. That's a savings of 50% every single day. [Maybe if George thought about that every...single...day, just like he thinks about the Iraq War every..single..Day, then we wouldn't have to put up and deal with this stupid time change!]
Ah, back to the "if we can't save [arbitrary] consumption, it's best not to try at all" argument.
DST is such a non-issue, and I say that if we can save some energy by adjusting our clocks (because us stupid humans like to live by the clock) then by all means let's go for it. Other countries change the DST change dates on a yearly basis, and so most electronic and computer hardware is already equiped to deal with this. Yes, there is some US-centric equipment whose designers, like MBA graduates, look only to the short term and those items will suffer.
Is it worth all the consternation you're working up? I don't think so, but I'm not you, and perhaps this is the most important activity you need to spend time and resources on in your life.
-Adam
The author typically gives up most rights to the publisher.
Perhaps you have more insight into author's rights?
-Adam
Since the patient survived, it clearly was operated on when it was living.
This presumes that life cannot follow death. In the case of mammals and other higher function organisms this is generally true, however electronic devices can be completely and utterly devoid of life, and yet still attain life at a later date.
Vivisection indicates operation while the patient is living:
The act or practice of cutting into or otherwise injuring living animals, especially for the purpose of scientific research.
I believe that a correct iPod vivisection would be done while the unit is powered, and perhaps playing.
The iPod cannot be considered "living" according to the sense of the word as applied to mammals and other creatures, therefore the word "vivisection" has little or no meaning in this case as it depends on the definition of life.
-Adam
What the publishers are really up in arms about is losing money over new books.
In the google blog, it was noted that at any given time only 20% of all books are in print, 20% are in the public domain. That leaves 60% that are not in print, and aren't in the public doamin.
What Google is doing is giving people access to those books in a limited manner so they can discover the information they need in a book they couldn't easily access (out of print).
What the publishers see is:
Booming market for used books
Furthermore, a lot of books are re-hashes of old subjects. A modern $120 book on metal machining may be no more useful to the user than an old $25 machine handbook made 25 years ago.
The publisher does not get money for a used book.
The publisher only gets money for a new sale.
So while Google can talk all they want about giving users access, what they are really doing is helping the users, not the publishers.
The best solution from the publisher's perspective is to have opt-in (not opt-out as currectly practised). This means the publishers would only add books that are currently in print - books they will stand to make money on - which they will remove when they go out of print or there is another volume they sell which they make more money on.
The best solution from the customer's perspective is to have all books (no opt in or opt out) digitally transcribed and searchable. This will lead to hundreds of suitable books, most of which will be used and therefore cheaply available.
I applaud Google's effort, and hope they win out in the end. The publishers have a valid business concern, but I don't believe it's a valid copyright concern, and I hope that Google is able to go forward with it's program as opt-out.
-Adam
It doesn't matter if it was satire or not anyway. This game doesn't count - his original "challenge" requires a nationwide boxed retail distribution by summer of next year. The game was going to be created - of that no one should doubt. It is unlikely that a publisher would publish it, and more unlikely that any retailers would carry it.
But even if all that took place, it doesn't matter - this entire debate is being orchestrated by him. When he stops talking, there's nothing to fill the void - there aren't any pro-game people working the press. When he is talking, the debate is always about how bad these games are - not about how good they are.
The upshot:
If the gaming industry wants to gather public (not just gamer) support, they need to stop reacting and start acting.
This particular challenge is one he can't lose no matter how the industry reacts. "Are you still beating your wife?"
-Adam