"Hopefully, if the piracy rate for the game is low, perhaps EA will get comfortable enough to ship with even less DRM in the future."
Lemme correct that for you:
"Hopefully, if the piracy rate for the game is HIGH ENOUGH, perhaps EA will get THE MESSAGE to ship with even less DRM in the future."
There you go. Much better.
On the one hand, while allowing false advertising and fraud is a bad thing in the vast majority of circumstances, this isn't really that bad.
Someone who can tell the difference will ask for their money back, and get it. Someone who can't will enjoy their sushi that they bought because it was expensive... and enjoy it because it was expensive. It's not like they are serving contaminated fish or something.
It's probably cheaper because it's less rare, so this practice probably helps protect against overfishing.
Not to be too nitpicky, but traditional Tibetan society practices both polyandry and polygamy. Usually the wealthy men would take multiple wives, while the "middle class" farmers would pass their farms on to all their sons, who would share a wife. Additionally, there is very little stigma against out of wedlock children, as long as the affair was kept relatively discreet. For reference, google for the article "When Brothers Share a Wife". The top hit is a well researched paper on the topic.
Just downloaded and tried out Qtopia (I am one of the lucky few who got a Neo1973 before they ran out of the developer edition). It ALMOST works. It can make and receive calls seamlessly, and does power management. In this respect, they are way out in front of OpenMoko (the system developed for the Neo by FIC). However, once in one of those calls, sound doesn't work. Any attempt to set the volume above 0 fails. Also, Qtopia was developed originally for the greenphone, which has a keypad. The Neo uses a large touchscreen instead. Since Qtopia assumes that there is a keypad, they don't bother to offer a software number pad in anything other than the phone application which makes entering numbers (in say, one's contacts) kind of difficult. It seems like these issues are probably only a couple hours of work for the right developer, but right now, neither platform is viable for the end user. Qtopia is definitely closer, but the competition will only benefit the end user. This is why open devices are great.
If this is the same breakthrough that was also featured on digg, then they claim to have achieved a ratio of about 1000000 to 1 in terms of the relaxation time to clock cycles. With a million clock cycles to play with, it seems likely that they would be able to read the spin state somewhere around clock cycle 900000 and refresh it with plenty of time to spare, similar to the way DRAM requires periodic input energy to retain data.
I've got an idea! How about they put it with carbon! Then they could pack one more hydrogen in and have less than half the weight for the carrier atom, creating a great storage molecule. CH4. I've even got an idea of what to call it: "methane".
This "methane" could then be "burnt" in an "internal combustion engine" to make torque, which could be mechanically coupled to the wheels to make the car go. Alternatively, the "methane" could be "burnt" in fuel cell to make electricity, which could be used to power a motor, which could be mechanically coupled to the wheels, which could make the car go.
Somebody gimme a Nobel Prize! I just solved the major problem of the hydrogen economy!
Nano-tech, as Drexler imagines it (although he likes the term molecular manufacturing more now, to distinguish it from nano-pants and sun-block) will be immune to government regulation, so talking about it is pointless.
How will a government exist when people can create their own power, food, and weapons (that make the pentagon's latest gadgets look like pop-guns) out of dirt? Are they going to prevent people from downloading the plans online? We see how well that is working with media now.
The power of governments today is based on the threat of violence. If you violate the law, people with guns will show up to take you away. If you kill them, more and more people with bigger and bigger guns will show up until you surrender or are killed.
If individuals are all armed similarly to the armed forces, how do you enforce law and order? You don't. The only organizations that will survive will be ones based on mutual cooperation, not threat of violence. Try to imagine mutually assured destruction where every individual is a nuclear power. The old paradigms won't make sense any more.
When I get my cornucopia machine, I'm either taking off for space, or digging a bomb shelter 8 miles deep, because if you think the neighbors arguing at 10 p.m. is bad now, wait until they're armed with WMD's.
Slashdot Mirror
"Hopefully, if the piracy rate for the game is low, perhaps EA will get comfortable enough to ship with even less DRM in the future." Lemme correct that for you: "Hopefully, if the piracy rate for the game is HIGH ENOUGH, perhaps EA will get THE MESSAGE to ship with even less DRM in the future." There you go. Much better.
On the one hand, while allowing false advertising and fraud is a bad thing in the vast majority of circumstances, this isn't really that bad. Someone who can tell the difference will ask for their money back, and get it. Someone who can't will enjoy their sushi that they bought because it was expensive... and enjoy it because it was expensive. It's not like they are serving contaminated fish or something. It's probably cheaper because it's less rare, so this practice probably helps protect against overfishing.
Not to be too nitpicky, but traditional Tibetan society practices both polyandry and polygamy. Usually the wealthy men would take multiple wives, while the "middle class" farmers would pass their farms on to all their sons, who would share a wife. Additionally, there is very little stigma against out of wedlock children, as long as the affair was kept relatively discreet. For reference, google for the article "When Brothers Share a Wife". The top hit is a well researched paper on the topic.
Just downloaded and tried out Qtopia (I am one of the lucky few who got a Neo1973 before they ran out of the developer edition). It ALMOST works. It can make and receive calls seamlessly, and does power management. In this respect, they are way out in front of OpenMoko (the system developed for the Neo by FIC). However, once in one of those calls, sound doesn't work. Any attempt to set the volume above 0 fails. Also, Qtopia was developed originally for the greenphone, which has a keypad. The Neo uses a large touchscreen instead. Since Qtopia assumes that there is a keypad, they don't bother to offer a software number pad in anything other than the phone application which makes entering numbers (in say, one's contacts) kind of difficult. It seems like these issues are probably only a couple hours of work for the right developer, but right now, neither platform is viable for the end user. Qtopia is definitely closer, but the competition will only benefit the end user. This is why open devices are great.
If this is the same breakthrough that was also featured on digg, then they claim to have achieved a ratio of about 1000000 to 1 in terms of the relaxation time to clock cycles. With a million clock cycles to play with, it seems likely that they would be able to read the spin state somewhere around clock cycle 900000 and refresh it with plenty of time to spare, similar to the way DRAM requires periodic input energy to retain data.
I've got an idea! How about they put it with carbon! Then they could pack one more hydrogen in and have less than half the weight for the carrier atom, creating a great storage molecule. CH4. I've even got an idea of what to call it: "methane". This "methane" could then be "burnt" in an "internal combustion engine" to make torque, which could be mechanically coupled to the wheels to make the car go. Alternatively, the "methane" could be "burnt" in fuel cell to make electricity, which could be used to power a motor, which could be mechanically coupled to the wheels, which could make the car go. Somebody gimme a Nobel Prize! I just solved the major problem of the hydrogen economy!
Nano-tech, as Drexler imagines it (although he likes the term molecular manufacturing more now, to distinguish it from nano-pants and sun-block) will be immune to government regulation, so talking about it is pointless.
How will a government exist when people can create their own power, food, and weapons (that make the pentagon's latest gadgets look like pop-guns) out of dirt? Are they going to prevent people from downloading the plans online? We see how well that is working with media now.
The power of governments today is based on the threat of violence. If you violate the law, people with guns will show up to take you away. If you kill them, more and more people with bigger and bigger guns will show up until you surrender or are killed.
If individuals are all armed similarly to the armed forces, how do you enforce law and order? You don't. The only organizations that will survive will be ones based on mutual cooperation, not threat of violence. Try to imagine mutually assured destruction where every individual is a nuclear power. The old paradigms won't make sense any more.
When I get my cornucopia machine, I'm either taking off for space, or digging a bomb shelter 8 miles deep, because if you think the neighbors arguing at 10 p.m. is bad now, wait until they're armed with WMD's.