Just because something has the potential for criminal use (ie; everything in life), doesn't mean certain organizations should be given a blank check to use quasi-hacker tools against it as they see fit. I mean really. Hey! I know! Let's disrupt the entire internet since it has the potential for criminal use! Or the freeway! Burglers and rapist use it ever day!
Face it, this is the lazy way out. And so I ask you, who commited the crime? The freeway or the person speeding over the limit on it? By your response, we'll be DoSing every major roadway in the nation.
Is everything looking like a nail to you, cuz you're sure hitting them on the head...
I agree with damn near every point you bring up. I got tired of paying premium for a song with one hit and the rest filler. I got tired of using the same ol 20 per track CD format when I could have 100's of songs of nearly the same quality on one disk and I got tired of the labels raping you on every purchase.
And since you brought it up, I'll pose an interesting question, using myself as an example, though it'd apply to anybody. It's generally accepted that if you own the copywrited material, you can make as many copies as you want for personal use, right? So let's say I buy a DVD (as per parent's supposition). Tomb Raider. It obviously has the same music that the audio CD will come out with. Some DVD even have a seperate option to listen to the soundtrack seperately. Now, especially in the latter case, don't I own the rights to the content of the DVD (keeping the studios EULA in mind), including all features, music and "bonus material"? And since I now effectively own the soundtrack on the DVD, in many cases the same music, I shouldn't be violating any clause prohibting "illegle use". One copy is as good as another, right? That's where the fun begins >:)
As to customer service, that only flies with companies who care. Most of the labels have proven they are nothing more than parasites. And the DoS? Heh. You could see that one happening 50 miles out. If they are going to use an easily availible "script kiddie" hacker tool to deny service, then they should have seen the consequences. I mean really. But then, maybe this is what they were hoping for... (Cue Twilight Zone music). Can we now associate illegle music downloads with "hackers"!? OMG!! Ahem. Either way they're idiots.
Apollo 440 is actually a prety damn good test bed for this stuff, especially (in my opinion) the Rapid Racer theme. Vocals, guitars, high frequency synth and ultra-low "theta-bass". Of course, you could have just used one of those Dynamic Frequancy test CDs, but what fun would that have been?
Metal Gear. The Original. No chance of making money now, right? Compilations of the Final Fantasy series? THAT is the only reason I can see them being so anal about copies of Space Invaders and Dig Dug. Potential future use. Like frickin' ET. You only see him once every seven years and when they pull him out of hibernation, he usually is a cash cow. It's not so much about making money off that individual game as opposed to making it a rare and unique experience so they can make more money off either the sequel or a complilation of those games, I'd imagine. The game itself is relatively small change compared to the nostalgia it has the potential of creating if the ROM wasn't so readily availible. At least, that's my take on it. It's the only halfway logical reason I could think of for companies like Nintendo to be so protective of them. Not that I agree, but...
"I wonder if this will allow an end-run around some of the questionable legality of file-sharing"
MP3 sites can't hide behind the "borrow/delete within 48 hours" scam and neither can these people. It's a complete falsehood. There is no end run around. That stupid little statment doesn't protect anybody and if the copywrite holder of the ROM wants to take em out, they will. Considering they don't have the right to give such user permissions to begin with, they've just ensured their service is even more cumbersome and even more of a joke than anything else out there. Oh! Somebody has Chrono Trigger "checked out" and thus unplayable? Dang. Guess I'll have to pop on to Kazaa Lite and download it. Gee, what a great system.
What games do you buy? I'd imagine the Sims since you mentioned it. What else? And while we're at it, what games would you like to see more of? Any other gamer-type females feel free to respond as well. Call it research.
And it was the first thing that came to mind when the words "Ziff-Davis" and "Gaming" were once again mentioned like they just were. They screwed the staff. Hard. Best all around coverage of Consoles and PC games. It was the end of an era.
I agree with you on the sugar coated reviews. Like you said, sometimes it's painfully obvious what company pays the bills or who the magazine can't afford to piss off. And rich game fans out there who would like to produce an independent mag without whoring it out to a 3rd party income producer? THAT would be a mag to remember. "What? You gotta be kidding me?! This is Sony's worst effort to date!? It deserves to be sacrified on an alter dedicated to the gods of Shit and Flaming Anal Sores respectively!" Maybe not that rough, but you get the idea.
Booth Babes? Lara Croft? Horny teenage guys = $$$? What!? I want telephone book thick Japanese gaming mags... That's all I want here... Please?
Speaking of ZD and gaming, I used to have this favorite gaming publication called "Gamefan". Two favorite gaming mags, actually; NextGen for in-depth coverage of the industry and Gamefan for the big picture. Life was good until ZD started doing something that would annoy most of us... Stopped paying the Gamefan Editors... They weren't fired or layed off. ZD just wasn't coming through with the money. About half the staff quit and formed Gamers Republic, which was short lived. The remaining staff was forced to shut down the site and the great mag eventially disappeared into oblivion. Given this and other incidents, you can see why I am oh so hopeful that ZD succeeds in their new gaming venture. Or not.
Oh, come on. We all noticed this one, right? UFO With Fighter Escort Over DC!...News at Eleven. On a side note, of course Boing and NASA are sinking money into this; Just like several well known companies sank money into the Internet via Powerlines scam. If it pans out, your looking at a real society changing event, not some auto-balacing scooter hype. If not, they'll try to sue the guy's butt, legs and arms off and walk away with their tail between their legs. Life goes on. Further, you won't see this in civilian applications anytime soon if it is the real anti-gravity McCoy. Ever see Evangelion? Notice how they were always (until the later eps) attatched to a giant extention cord? I suspect your power-hungery anti-gravity unit is either going to be teathered to one of these or have it's own mini S2 nuclear plant. At least until we develop Mr. Fission, that is.
I know, I know... Princess Mono, but this really is a bad omen... Mark my words... Of course, i could be paranoid at this point... A company the size of Disney would represent a large cash infusion into the genre... But it's DISNEY!!!
Now all he needs are a few more of these and he could start charging admission... Heck, he's probably getting offers from other people to build him as we speak...
"Heatsinks!? This is the 25th Century for cryin out loud!"
I'd say match the velocity, but that is a healthy chunk of speed to dump from intercept to velocity matching. Ok, have the nuclear rockets aim for the flanks. I guess it's the easiest solution. But you're right. Velocity matching isn't exactly an economical easy fix.
Actucally, this really isn't a huge challenge. We have the technology at every level to develope a weapon that will destroy a rogue asteroid.
Design. We can not only land payloads on other planets, but achieve there orbits without much difficulty (relatively speaking). Hitting an asteroid using basic physics shouldn't be hard. It'd probably be wiser to assemble any Anti-Ballistic Event weapon in orbit. This will give it a greater endurance from it's propulsion system than from launching so deep within the Earth's gravity well. More endurance = greater in flight error tolerance if something should go amiss trajectory-wise. If we can put a giant space station in orbit, we can do this.
Payload. So far, nuclear weapons are the payload of choice for an ABE Weapon, ie; We have the most experience in them and they have plenty of power. If you can dig massive craters with these, surely it'd do something nasty to a space rock, though I'm no nuclear weapons in a vacuume expert.
Alternatives. Partical dispersion. Theory- A meteor burns up in the atmosphere because of it's speed and atmospheric friction. So our ABE Weapon is loaded up with sandbags... Yes, Sandbags. These will be dispersed directly in front of the incoming asteroid (collision course). Repeated assaults of this sort might have the same effect as an atmosphere, burning it up in a fasion.
Yeah, you could also try the Armageddon approach, I guess. Not a huge fan of it, but there's no reason why it couldn't be done. That's what drones are for, personally. Any laser based weapon would have to be built in space to be even remotly effective (vaporize? And barely within current technology). Still, it's looking like nukes (which we have LOTS of) are the best bet. Heck, you could even attatch orbit-built solid and liquid boosters to it if you wanted to get fancy. On that note, a probe with a four or five weapons landing on it's flank, detonating simutaneously might just bounce it out of it's track even if destruction isn't outright. See? no problems ^__^
I don't think he'll have a problem showing off his modded DVD player on stage. Remember the outcry over Dmitry Sklyarov? It would be a thousand times worse if the BSA mafia marched on stage and arrested him on the spot. Creating such a high profile will certainly buffer himself from any consequences... At this point, I'd love to see them try... It's just another nail in the BSA coffin.
The threat is known, it's orbit watched and we have 60+ years to do something about it. Even with as little as 5 years and a more precise trajectory, I'm sure we could build something riduculously nasty to introduce it to... A government in panic mode can do a lot of things in that time, devoting all it's resources to survival.
And after the dust settles and the Aliens have stomped every major city flat with their Giant Destructo Beams (useable only if hovering directly above said city) and have enslaved the entire population, the remenants of Man will wonder how... How in the world those monsterous aliens found them? And they'll reply, "How could we not? You gave us a written invitation from that dinky little dish-rocket we found as well as pictures of all your cities and yourselves and your language! We thought to ourselves, 'this is gonna be cake.'"
Vote YES on proposotion 645: The "Visit them with vastly superior firepower before they visit us" initiative. Every vote counts!
...About the Earth expiring in 2050!! Yadda, yadda, yadda. All these studies see to have one thing in common: They seem to assume the Earth (or the net in this case) is a static enviornament in which nothing changes, from technology to resources. Every worm and virus to this day has acted to strengthen the structure of the internet. Sure, they've caused problems, but they've cause anti-virus software developers to adapt. Sure, somebody can develope something nasty, but if it can be made by a man, it can be analyzed and circumvented by a man. And that's what backups are for anyway. Any admin worth his salt and any absolutely critical system has backups and redundancies. It may hurt, but it will hardely be the collapse of civilization the artical seems to advocate.
No! You don't realize the glory of blessing Linux upon a platform it was never meant to receive! Unwashed heathen! Consoles! MP3 players! Dishwashers! All should have Linux mounted upon their very souls! Linux bubble gum! linux candy! Linux toothbrushes! SACRIFICE IN THE NAME OF LINUX!!!!
Ahem. that was a minor summery of what happens on slashdot anytime a minor electronic device is mentioned on linux. The real texts are a whole lot worse.
Rabid Apple fanboys prop their products up way too much sometimes. No, it doesn't have to be one way or the other, but beyond the "wow, it's a small MP3 HD thing", it isn't all that in the looks department. Infact, it rather looks like an eMac, which are butt-ugly. Just an opinion. I want different colors. But then, I still doubt I'd pay the premium price tag...
So logially you're saying that since the dotcoms failed, everything they did was wrong. Or am I misreading that? Which we both know isn't true. One step forward two steps back. At any rate, spam is a lot like late night television. Who the hell is that targeted to? People who stay up late? And they, regardless of how cheap airtime is at that hour, are shelling out money. You think, Dang! Why do they air these lame shows?! Isn't there anything good on? Who watches this stuff?! And unlike the spammers, they are paying for that time. I have to ask why. Would any company even mildly intrested in making money simply flush money down the toilet like that? I have to say "no". My faulty logic says there must be some benefit in those damn infomercials for them and it's quite easy to extend that logic to spamming. Why rouse the ire of half the internet with mistargeted (or even aptly targeted) spam? Are they idiots? Don't they know better?!!? I'm sure some of them are idiots. But I'm betting, just betting the others are willing to brave the hate and discontent for a reason. The same could be said for spyware. It's on the rise. Who would be stupid enough to alinate blah blah blah...
So don't they know any better? I'm sure they do. In fact, I'll bet they know better than most people give them credit for.
Some of the more unscrupulous ones do it, I'm sure. As I hardly ever dig into my spam, I wouldn't know. I can speak from an Amway/Quixtar point of view having been involved during their internet rollout. They can any distributor they find spamming in their guise. 6 month suspention, then permanently for a second offense if I remeber right.
Just a happy thought of the day: You're job is a pyrimid scheme. ^__^
Slashdot Mirror
Just because something has the potential for criminal use (ie; everything in life), doesn't mean certain organizations should be given a blank check to use quasi-hacker tools against it as they see fit. I mean really. Hey! I know! Let's disrupt the entire internet since it has the potential for criminal use! Or the freeway! Burglers and rapist use it ever day!
Face it, this is the lazy way out. And so I ask you, who commited the crime? The freeway or the person speeding over the limit on it? By your response, we'll be DoSing every major roadway in the nation.
Is everything looking like a nail to you, cuz you're sure hitting them on the head...
I agree with damn near every point you bring up. I got tired of paying premium for a song with one hit and the rest filler. I got tired of using the same ol 20 per track CD format when I could have 100's of songs of nearly the same quality on one disk and I got tired of the labels raping you on every purchase.
And since you brought it up, I'll pose an interesting question, using myself as an example, though it'd apply to anybody. It's generally accepted that if you own the copywrited material, you can make as many copies as you want for personal use, right? So let's say I buy a DVD (as per parent's supposition). Tomb Raider. It obviously has the same music that the audio CD will come out with. Some DVD even have a seperate option to listen to the soundtrack seperately. Now, especially in the latter case, don't I own the rights to the content of the DVD (keeping the studios EULA in mind), including all features, music and "bonus material"? And since I now effectively own the soundtrack on the DVD, in many cases the same music, I shouldn't be violating any clause prohibting "illegle use". One copy is as good as another, right?
That's where the fun begins >:)
As to customer service, that only flies with companies who care. Most of the labels have proven they are nothing more than parasites. And the DoS? Heh. You could see that one happening 50 miles out. If they are going to use an easily availible "script kiddie" hacker tool to deny service, then they should have seen the consequences. I mean really. But then, maybe this is what they were hoping for... (Cue Twilight Zone music). Can we now associate illegle music downloads with "hackers"!? OMG!! Ahem. Either way they're idiots.
Apollo 440 is actually a prety damn good test bed for this stuff, especially (in my opinion) the Rapid Racer theme. Vocals, guitars, high frequency synth and ultra-low "theta-bass". Of course, you could have just used one of those Dynamic Frequancy test CDs, but what fun would that have been?
Didn't mean to imply that they financed NextGen, but realitively sure they did GameFan. If not, then who?
Metal Gear. The Original. No chance of making money now, right? Compilations of the Final Fantasy series? THAT is the only reason I can see them being so anal about copies of Space Invaders and Dig Dug. Potential future use. Like frickin' ET. You only see him once every seven years and when they pull him out of hibernation, he usually is a cash cow. It's not so much about making money off that individual game as opposed to making it a rare and unique experience so they can make more money off either the sequel or a complilation of those games, I'd imagine. The game itself is relatively small change compared to the nostalgia it has the potential of creating if the ROM wasn't so readily availible.
At least, that's my take on it. It's the only halfway logical reason I could think of for companies like Nintendo to be so protective of them. Not that I agree, but...
"I wonder if this will allow an end-run around some of the questionable legality of file-sharing"
MP3 sites can't hide behind the "borrow/delete within 48 hours" scam and neither can these people. It's a complete falsehood. There is no end run around. That stupid little statment doesn't protect anybody and if the copywrite holder of the ROM wants to take em out, they will. Considering they don't have the right to give such user permissions to begin with, they've just ensured their service is even more cumbersome and even more of a joke than anything else out there. Oh! Somebody has Chrono Trigger "checked out" and thus unplayable? Dang. Guess I'll have to pop on to Kazaa Lite and download it. Gee, what a great system.
What games do you buy? I'd imagine the Sims since you mentioned it. What else? And while we're at it, what games would you like to see more of? Any other gamer-type females feel free to respond as well. Call it research.
And it was the first thing that came to mind when the words "Ziff-Davis" and "Gaming" were once again mentioned like they just were. They screwed the staff. Hard. Best all around coverage of Consoles and PC games. It was the end of an era.
I agree with you on the sugar coated reviews. Like you said, sometimes it's painfully obvious what company pays the bills or who the magazine can't afford to piss off. And rich game fans out there who would like to produce an independent mag without whoring it out to a 3rd party income producer? THAT would be a mag to remember. "What? You gotta be kidding me?! This is Sony's worst effort to date!? It deserves to be sacrified on an alter dedicated to the gods of Shit and Flaming Anal Sores respectively!" Maybe not that rough, but you get the idea.
Booth Babes? Lara Croft? Horny teenage guys = $$$? What!? I want telephone book thick Japanese gaming mags... That's all I want here... Please?
Speaking of ZD and gaming, I used to have this favorite gaming publication called "Gamefan". Two favorite gaming mags, actually; NextGen for in-depth coverage of the industry and Gamefan for the big picture. Life was good until ZD started doing something that would annoy most of us... Stopped paying the Gamefan Editors... They weren't fired or layed off. ZD just wasn't coming through with the money. About half the staff quit and formed Gamers Republic, which was short lived. The remaining staff was forced to shut down the site and the great mag eventially disappeared into oblivion. Given this and other incidents, you can see why I am oh so hopeful that ZD succeeds in their new gaming venture. Or not.
My excuse? It's morning.
Oh, come on. We all noticed this one, right? UFO With Fighter Escort Over DC! ...News at Eleven. On a side note, of course Boing and NASA are sinking money into this; Just like several well known companies sank money into the Internet via Powerlines scam. If it pans out, your looking at a real society changing event, not some auto-balacing scooter hype. If not, they'll try to sue the guy's butt, legs and arms off and walk away with their tail between their legs. Life goes on. Further, you won't see this in civilian applications anytime soon if it is the real anti-gravity McCoy. Ever see Evangelion? Notice how they were always (until the later eps) attatched to a giant extention cord? I suspect your power-hungery anti-gravity unit is either going to be teathered to one of these or have it's own mini S2 nuclear plant. At least until we develop Mr. Fission, that is.
I know, I know... Princess Mono, but this really is a bad omen... Mark my words... Of course, i could be paranoid at this point... A company the size of Disney would represent a large cash infusion into the genre... But it's DISNEY!!!
Now all he needs are a few more of these and he could start charging admission... Heck, he's probably getting offers from other people to build him as we speak...
"Heatsinks!? This is the 25th Century for cryin out loud!"
I'd say match the velocity, but that is a healthy chunk of speed to dump from intercept to velocity matching. Ok, have the nuclear rockets aim for the flanks. I guess it's the easiest solution. But you're right. Velocity matching isn't exactly an economical easy fix.
Actucally, this really isn't a huge challenge. We have the technology at every level to develope a weapon that will destroy a rogue asteroid.
Design. We can not only land payloads on other planets, but achieve there orbits without much difficulty (relatively speaking). Hitting an asteroid using basic physics shouldn't be hard. It'd probably be wiser to assemble any Anti-Ballistic Event weapon in orbit. This will give it a greater endurance from it's propulsion system than from launching so deep within the Earth's gravity well. More endurance = greater in flight error tolerance if something should go amiss trajectory-wise. If we can put a giant space station in orbit, we can do this.
Payload. So far, nuclear weapons are the payload of choice for an ABE Weapon, ie; We have the most experience in them and they have plenty of power. If you can dig massive craters with these, surely it'd do something nasty to a space rock, though I'm no nuclear weapons in a vacuume expert.
Alternatives. Partical dispersion. Theory- A meteor burns up in the atmosphere because of it's speed and atmospheric friction. So our ABE Weapon is loaded up with sandbags... Yes, Sandbags. These will be dispersed directly in front of the incoming asteroid (collision course). Repeated assaults of this sort might have the same effect as an atmosphere, burning it up in a fasion.
Yeah, you could also try the Armageddon approach, I guess. Not a huge fan of it, but there's no reason why it couldn't be done. That's what drones are for, personally. Any laser based weapon would have to be built in space to be even remotly effective (vaporize? And barely within current technology). Still, it's looking like nukes (which we have LOTS of) are the best bet. Heck, you could even attatch orbit-built solid and liquid boosters to it if you wanted to get fancy. On that note, a probe with a four or five weapons landing on it's flank, detonating simutaneously might just bounce it out of it's track even if destruction isn't outright. See? no problems ^__^
I don't think he'll have a problem showing off his modded DVD player on stage. Remember the outcry over Dmitry Sklyarov? It would be a thousand times worse if the BSA mafia marched on stage and arrested him on the spot. Creating such a high profile will certainly buffer himself from any consequences... At this point, I'd love to see them try... It's just another nail in the BSA coffin.
The threat is known, it's orbit watched and we have 60+ years to do something about it. Even with as little as 5 years and a more precise trajectory, I'm sure we could build something riduculously nasty to introduce it to... A government in panic mode can do a lot of things in that time, devoting all it's resources to survival.
Just like Axe make makers don't take into account the effect of an axe murder? I thinking I'm beginning to see...
And after the dust settles and the Aliens have stomped every major city flat with their Giant Destructo Beams (useable only if hovering directly above said city) and have enslaved the entire population, the remenants of Man will wonder how... How in the world those monsterous aliens found them? And they'll reply, "How could we not? You gave us a written invitation from that dinky little dish-rocket we found as well as pictures of all your cities and yourselves and your language! We thought to ourselves, 'this is gonna be cake.'"
Vote YES on proposotion 645: The "Visit them with vastly superior firepower before they visit us" initiative. Every vote counts!
...About the Earth expiring in 2050!! Yadda, yadda, yadda. All these studies see to have one thing in common: They seem to assume the Earth (or the net in this case) is a static enviornament in which nothing changes, from technology to resources. Every worm and virus to this day has acted to strengthen the structure of the internet. Sure, they've caused problems, but they've cause anti-virus software developers to adapt. Sure, somebody can develope something nasty, but if it can be made by a man, it can be analyzed and circumvented by a man. And that's what backups are for anyway. Any admin worth his salt and any absolutely critical system has backups and redundancies. It may hurt, but it will hardely be the collapse of civilization the artical seems to advocate.
No! You don't realize the glory of blessing Linux upon a platform it was never meant to receive! Unwashed heathen! Consoles! MP3 players! Dishwashers! All should have Linux mounted upon their very souls! Linux bubble gum! linux candy! Linux toothbrushes! SACRIFICE IN THE NAME OF LINUX!!!!
Ahem. that was a minor summery of what happens on slashdot anytime a minor electronic device is mentioned on linux. The real texts are a whole lot worse.
Sure it's flamebait. But it's TRUE.
Rabid Apple fanboys prop their products up way too much sometimes. No, it doesn't have to be one way or the other, but beyond the "wow, it's a small MP3 HD thing", it isn't all that in the looks department. Infact, it rather looks like an eMac, which are butt-ugly. Just an opinion. I want different colors. But then, I still doubt I'd pay the premium price tag...
So logially you're saying that since the dotcoms failed, everything they did was wrong. Or am I misreading that? Which we both know isn't true. One step forward two steps back. At any rate, spam is a lot like late night television. Who the hell is that targeted to? People who stay up late? And they, regardless of how cheap airtime is at that hour, are shelling out money. You think, Dang! Why do they air these lame shows?! Isn't there anything good on? Who watches this stuff?! And unlike the spammers, they are paying for that time. I have to ask why. Would any company even mildly intrested in making money simply flush money down the toilet like that? I have to say "no". My faulty logic says there must be some benefit in those damn infomercials for them and it's quite easy to extend that logic to spamming. Why rouse the ire of half the internet with mistargeted (or even aptly targeted) spam? Are they idiots? Don't they know better?!!? I'm sure some of them are idiots. But I'm betting, just betting the others are willing to brave the hate and discontent for a reason. The same could be said for spyware. It's on the rise. Who would be stupid enough to alinate blah blah blah...
So don't they know any better? I'm sure they do. In fact, I'll bet they know better than most people give them credit for.
Some of the more unscrupulous ones do it, I'm sure. As I hardly ever dig into my spam, I wouldn't know. I can speak from an Amway/Quixtar point of view having been involved during their internet rollout. They can any distributor they find spamming in their guise. 6 month suspention, then permanently for a second offense if I remeber right.
Just a happy thought of the day: You're job is a pyrimid scheme. ^__^
There's a sucker born every minute, right? They gotta buy from somewhere...