I remember that. They claimed that 2000 server had an uptime of 99.99999%. (5 nines, that was one of their slogans.) Heh I've had good luck with Windows servers, but that claim is misleading.
"The point the grandparent was trying to make is that, strictly speaking, it's not really SCIENCE fiction because there's no science."
The lack science bit is true, however the definition of science fiction basically says "set in space". I looked it up before making that post. If you take Pinnochio and set it to take place on Jupiter, then it qualifies as sci-fi. Hardcore scifi? No. Intellectual scifi, no. Basic scifi? Yep. The error was not mine, it was in the post I originally replied to for not being more specific.
"Actually, you don't know that I don't know that. In other words, don't assume what other people don't know, and just stick to what you do."
Actually I know you don't know because I know you don't work at Alias. Oops.
"They don't have to reinvent the wheel, they only need to apply what they've already spent money on to as wide a product base as they can."
They only need to only if they need to. If they're not dropping enough potential customers over it, then they don't need to di it.
"As they already have Irix and Linux versions, I doubt tech-support is going to be any harder for them if a cripple-ware version (which often don't come with anything more than e-mail support) is made available."
It's possible it wouldn't be that hard. Not arguing that. Truth is, we don't know. It is pretty easy to guess, though, that if it were easy enough, they'd just do it. They didn't suddenly drop 50 IQ points and decide not to do it.
"Why do you think the PLE version was created for Windows or Mac anyhow?"
The P in PLE stands for Personal. There aren't a heck of a lot of personal computers running Irix or Linux, certainly less of those are individuals at home wanting to learn how to use Maya. The logic is reasonably sound.
" as there's little doubt if they want to drum up business in the Linux, they'll have to make it available as a free download for Linux."
I respectfully disagree. They only need to run the app, it's not all that necessary that they actually have it running on Linux. It's not like it's going to change much, if at all just because it started up on a different OS.
The L in Maya PL is for Learning. The big deal behind Maya PLE is it allows for aspiring artists to actually learn how to use the app and potentially build their career on it. More talent == more studios wanting to use Maya. Unless a heap of those people are running Linux, there's no point in porting it over.
"How much more costly would it be to put a watermark on the Linux version's output, and tweak the downloads page to add another file to download? Negligible."
Actually, you don't know that.
a.) It's not clear how hard it is to make that watermark work out. One thing they'd definitely need to work on is making sure that somebody can't hack it to disable the watermark. The testing alone makes this a non-trivial task.
b.) They'll have to perform more tech support on an even harder platform to use than Mac or Windows, and this is for customers who haven't given them any money yet.
c.) They're not being silly. What WOULD be silly is to go through the BS to make Maya PLE work in Linux, then have virtually nobody use it.
"If obtaining something that is not rightfully yours (and no, it's NOT - a musicians music isn't yours to take any more than a sculptur's sculpture would be) is not stealing just because there isn't a tangible decrease in a inventory somewhere, then what is it?"
Depends on what the situation is, doesn't it? What if I listen to a song, then delete it, and decide I don't want to buy that album. Have I stolen? Yes? Then if I had bought the CD, didn't like it, and couldn't return it, that wouldn't be a form of theft from the recording industry? No? Better chew on that for a sec before flinging the word 'crime' at people.
"The "it's not stealing/piracy it's copyright infringement", is a straw man argument that misses the point"
The proportion of the punishment to the crime is an issue no matter how you go about oversimplifying it. Jaywalking's a crime, but using sting operations to catch these people and sentencing jaywalkers to 20 years in prison will make one argue about the real threat it causes.
"The DS won't play games like Gran Turismo 4. Well, it might play games kind of like it, but not as detailed."
Though I'm a Nintendo fan boy, I concede that the PSP will have better graphics than the DS. However, it isn't clear yet that the DS would or wouldn't be able to do a decent port of it. That thing can more or less push the same polys an N64 can (fewer texture effects of course...), it'll do alright.
"But, there is room in my collection (if not my wallet) for the PSP, which is a very different beast."
Very different than what? The only ups it has are the optical media and it can push a few more polygons around. In terms of being 'very different', the DS easily holds that crown. Maybe I'm being too much of an optimist here, but I'm excited about that thing having a stylus screen (on a seperate display, no less) and built in 802.11. It'd be trivial to make that thing play games over the net. If they got that working, those two features together make for a damn interesting machine.
However, this is really an academic discussion. I'm not intrigued much by the PSP. But if you buy one, and you have fun with it, then nothing I say matters in the slightest. Know what I mean? Buy these things for fun. Stylus interface + 802.11 == 0 if the games aren't interesting to you. Equally, if the PSP ends up with games I'm interested in, I'd probably end up with one. (Heck, I'm finally getting a PS2 when GTA:San Andreas comes out.)
So, in short, hope ya end up happy. Just be careful about getting sucked into Sony's (or Nintendo's) hype. Go by the games, not by their silly claims about what their hardware can do.
"The game came with a coupon for a free personal pan pizza, now that is great advertisment to bovine America. Get your kids to play video games, then take them out for some greasy pizza!"
Yes, I'm a fat ass because of Ninja Turtles. It took a whopping week for my transformation to occur.
"So you buy a new firewire bay for each harddrive? (I'm assuming external hdd backup only)..."
Doh, I said it, but wasn't thinking it. I have a firewire drive I've taken apart. I swap drives in and out of it. When i get a bigger drive, the older ones are retired. (Much like you've described.)
If I had the money to burn, though, I would get a fw bay for each drive, though. It'd make using them infrequently a lot easier than I'm doing now.
"Why is it arrogant to judge France's laws, but not arrogant to judge China's laws?"
I didn't say it wasn't arrogant to judge China's laws. If I were to venture a guess, though, I'd wager it's because of their gov't. It's difficilt to imagine that the net censorship there was voted on by the people.
" And since when is America a democratic nation?"
I didn't say America is a democracy. However, it is worth mentioning that we (the people) actually do have some control over what the gov't does. I know some of you are snickering right now, but things like this have been righted before.
"and a corporate oligarchy in practice."
Eh sorta. Bit of a dramatic oversimplification, tho.
"If the land was given back to them, the "native-americans" (every single one I've ever met, which adds up to alot since I lived in Arizona) would just sell it right back to us for whiskey and the opportunity to steal from and kill each other"
A.) That doesn't excuse what American settlers did when they arrived here.
B.) Making a generalization like that places you well below what you descrbed an entire group of people to be.
Mods: Feel free to mod me off-topic. I just wouldn't have felt right if I didn't stand up to this lame attitude.
"They don't respect peoples freedoms, why should we respect their laws?"
Because it is arrogant to judge somebody else's laws?
It offends me too, but I have absolutely no right (heh believe it or not, I'm American) to tell another democratic nation whether its laws are good or bad. I'm reserving judgement. I have my lightly-informed opinions, but that's as far as I'm going with it.
"Theres a simple solution: delete the Yahoo.fr site and shut down all French business units. If Yahoo has no presence in France, their laws wont apply. Its not like France is as imperialistic as America; they cant make their laws transcend their borders. Then the problem becomes the French governments and how they might block Yahoo."
Isn't the main reason to go to yahoo.fr so that you get it in French instead of English? Okay, that's not quite the same as censorship, but I feel sorry for the French speakers out there either way.
Hmm I think I made my previous post confusing. I wasn't talking about TiVo specifically, I meant that XP Media Center edition has TiVo-esque features. I was trying to point out that XP is not a replacement for this Linux player, nor is it true the other way around.
Either way, I reread the article and realize I made an error. They didn't list the TiVo-esque features on the laptops, but apparently IsntantOn does support it. Oops. Sorry.
"No doubt MS will offer an "upgrade" to "help" users remove "and inferior player"."
If you mean "They'll try to make a better product", I agree.
"Bye bye Windows XP Media Center Edition!!! Honestly, are people going to wait for all that crap to load or get something much sooner, with Linux?"
Bye bye Windows XP Media Center Edition? What, is this thing going to make your laptop into a TiVo as well? No? Okay then, we agree, it's neat for some situations, but XP's Media Center isn't going anywhere yet.
" i tried installing linux on some of my friend's computer because all they do is surf the Internet and talk on IM clienets they still wanted there windows back because they didn't like the look of linux ( i have no idea what that means )"
If their experience was anything like mine, it means that Linux isn't all that intuitive to navigate around. I used to think that the reason I've struggled with Linux (KDE?) was because I was too familiar with Windows. My mind changed when I found myself sporadic access to a couple of Macs. (One OSX, the other OS9.) True, they were unfamiliar, and true I actually used Linux/KDE more than I used any generation of Mac, but I was able to actually get around on either of the Macs better than I ever did with a Linux box.
Maybe your friends didn't like whatever desktop theme you were using, but frankly, I suspect it had more to do with frustration at not being able to easily do what they want to do. Man I wish Apple would design a UI for Linux.
"I think I liked it better when I was blissfully ignorant of our impending doom."
Take comfort in knowing that your individual life is far more likely to end than the rest of the world's. I mean, 6 billion people aren't likely to suddenly die of an anyeurism.
"So it is no longer legal to add additional functionality to a device you are creating?"
Legalities haven't changed. For example, you can't break contractual deals. I think the MPAA's being silly, but really let's not blow this out of proportion.
Slashdot Mirror
"Windows2000 is crash proof and the Unix killer!"
I remember that. They claimed that 2000 server had an uptime of 99.99999%. (5 nines, that was one of their slogans.) Heh I've had good luck with Windows servers, but that claim is misleading.
"Actually I know you don't know because I know you don't work at Alias. Oops."
It's a couple of hours later now, I feel like a jerk for saying that. Sorry for writing that whole post in a shitty tone.
"The point the grandparent was trying to make is that, strictly speaking, it's not really SCIENCE fiction because there's no science."
The lack science bit is true, however the definition of science fiction basically says "set in space". I looked it up before making that post. If you take Pinnochio and set it to take place on Jupiter, then it qualifies as sci-fi. Hardcore scifi? No. Intellectual scifi, no. Basic scifi? Yep. The error was not mine, it was in the post I originally replied to for not being more specific.
"What does Star Wars have to do with science fiction?"
Mod parent up!!!
(so we can all point and laugh...)
The Matrix is up there but Wrath of Khan isn't?
"Actually, you don't know that I don't know that. In other words, don't assume what other people don't know, and just stick to what you do."
Actually I know you don't know because I know you don't work at Alias. Oops.
"They don't have to reinvent the wheel, they only need to apply what they've already spent money on to as wide a product base as they can."
They only need to only if they need to. If they're not dropping enough potential customers over it, then they don't need to di it.
"As they already have Irix and Linux versions, I doubt tech-support is going to be any harder for them if a cripple-ware version (which often don't come with anything more than e-mail support) is made available."
It's possible it wouldn't be that hard. Not arguing that. Truth is, we don't know. It is pretty easy to guess, though, that if it were easy enough, they'd just do it. They didn't suddenly drop 50 IQ points and decide not to do it.
"Why do you think the PLE version was created for Windows or Mac anyhow?"
The P in PLE stands for Personal. There aren't a heck of a lot of personal computers running Irix or Linux, certainly less of those are individuals at home wanting to learn how to use Maya. The logic is reasonably sound.
" as there's little doubt if they want to drum up business in the Linux, they'll have to make it available as a free download for Linux."
I respectfully disagree. They only need to run the app, it's not all that necessary that they actually have it running on Linux. It's not like it's going to change much, if at all just because it started up on a different OS.
The L in Maya PL is for Learning. The big deal behind Maya PLE is it allows for aspiring artists to actually learn how to use the app and potentially build their career on it. More talent == more studios wanting to use Maya. Unless a heap of those people are running Linux, there's no point in porting it over.
"if every user were root."
Yeah cos an app can only be a nuisance if you're running root.
"How much more costly would it be to put a watermark on the Linux version's output, and tweak the downloads page to add another file to download? Negligible."
Actually, you don't know that.
a.) It's not clear how hard it is to make that watermark work out. One thing they'd definitely need to work on is making sure that somebody can't hack it to disable the watermark. The testing alone makes this a non-trivial task.
b.) They'll have to perform more tech support on an even harder platform to use than Mac or Windows, and this is for customers who haven't given them any money yet.
c.) They're not being silly. What WOULD be silly is to go through the BS to make Maya PLE work in Linux, then have virtually nobody use it.
"If obtaining something that is not rightfully yours (and no, it's NOT - a musicians music isn't yours to take any more than a sculptur's sculpture would be) is not stealing just because there isn't a tangible decrease in a inventory somewhere, then what is it?"
Depends on what the situation is, doesn't it? What if I listen to a song, then delete it, and decide I don't want to buy that album. Have I stolen? Yes? Then if I had bought the CD, didn't like it, and couldn't return it, that wouldn't be a form of theft from the recording industry? No? Better chew on that for a sec before flinging the word 'crime' at people.
"The "it's not stealing/piracy it's copyright infringement", is a straw man argument that misses the point"
The proportion of the punishment to the crime is an issue no matter how you go about oversimplifying it. Jaywalking's a crime, but using sting operations to catch these people and sentencing jaywalkers to 20 years in prison will make one argue about the real threat it causes.
"The DS won't play games like Gran Turismo 4. Well, it might play games kind of like it, but not as detailed."
Though I'm a Nintendo fan boy, I concede that the PSP will have better graphics than the DS. However, it isn't clear yet that the DS would or wouldn't be able to do a decent port of it. That thing can more or less push the same polys an N64 can (fewer texture effects of course...), it'll do alright.
"But, there is room in my collection (if not my wallet) for the PSP, which is a very different beast."
Very different than what? The only ups it has are the optical media and it can push a few more polygons around. In terms of being 'very different', the DS easily holds that crown. Maybe I'm being too much of an optimist here, but I'm excited about that thing having a stylus screen (on a seperate display, no less) and built in 802.11. It'd be trivial to make that thing play games over the net. If they got that working, those two features together make for a damn interesting machine.
However, this is really an academic discussion. I'm not intrigued much by the PSP. But if you buy one, and you have fun with it, then nothing I say matters in the slightest. Know what I mean? Buy these things for fun. Stylus interface + 802.11 == 0 if the games aren't interesting to you. Equally, if the PSP ends up with games I'm interested in, I'd probably end up with one. (Heck, I'm finally getting a PS2 when GTA:San Andreas comes out.)
So, in short, hope ya end up happy. Just be careful about getting sucked into Sony's (or Nintendo's) hype. Go by the games, not by their silly claims about what their hardware can do.
From your site: "How does one make Trill spots?"
:(
Man, I want to make fun of whoever typed this in, but I know the answer.
" Bring your AC or DC adapter, depending on where you're going to be. Maybe even invest in a jacket with a goofy solar panel on it or something."
Or invest in a Nintendo DS.
"The game came with a coupon for a free personal pan pizza, now that is great advertisment to bovine America. Get your kids to play video games, then take them out for some greasy pizza!"
Yes, I'm a fat ass because of Ninja Turtles. It took a whopping week for my transformation to occur.
"So you buy a new firewire bay for each harddrive? (I'm assuming external hdd backup only)..."
Doh, I said it, but wasn't thinking it. I have a firewire drive I've taken apart. I swap drives in and out of it. When i get a bigger drive, the older ones are retired. (Much like you've described.)
If I had the money to burn, though, I would get a fw bay for each drive, though. It'd make using them infrequently a lot easier than I'm doing now.
Sorry, I was confusing in my previous post.
"Why is it arrogant to judge France's laws, but not arrogant to judge China's laws?"
I didn't say it wasn't arrogant to judge China's laws. If I were to venture a guess, though, I'd wager it's because of their gov't. It's difficilt to imagine that the net censorship there was voted on by the people.
" And since when is America a democratic nation?"
I didn't say America is a democracy. However, it is worth mentioning that we (the people) actually do have some control over what the gov't does. I know some of you are snickering right now, but things like this have been righted before.
"and a corporate oligarchy in practice."
Eh sorta. Bit of a dramatic oversimplification, tho.
"If the land was given back to them, the "native-americans" (every single one I've ever met, which adds up to alot since I lived in Arizona) would just sell it right back to us for whiskey and the opportunity to steal from and kill each other"
A.) That doesn't excuse what American settlers did when they arrived here.
B.) Making a generalization like that places you well below what you descrbed an entire group of people to be.
Mods: Feel free to mod me off-topic. I just wouldn't have felt right if I didn't stand up to this lame attitude.
"They don't respect peoples freedoms, why should we respect their laws?"
Because it is arrogant to judge somebody else's laws?
It offends me too, but I have absolutely no right (heh believe it or not, I'm American) to tell another democratic nation whether its laws are good or bad. I'm reserving judgement. I have my lightly-informed opinions, but that's as far as I'm going with it.
"You can partition them, and use them like slow hard drives. I'm..." .. using one as a swap drive right now!
"Theres a simple solution: delete the Yahoo.fr site and shut down all French business units. If Yahoo has no presence in France, their laws wont apply. Its not like France is as imperialistic as America; they cant make their laws transcend their borders. Then the problem becomes the French governments and how they might block Yahoo."
Isn't the main reason to go to yahoo.fr so that you get it in French instead of English? Okay, that's not quite the same as censorship, but I feel sorry for the French speakers out there either way.
"Easy: stick to what's proven. For me it's CDRs. I won't even touch DVD-Rs until I stop reading a million different labels at the store."
For me, it's the occasional new hard drive + firewire bay.
My beef with DVD-Rs isn't compatibility, it's longevity. It doesn't take much to screw up a DVD.
" Tivo run Linux"
Hmm I think I made my previous post confusing. I wasn't talking about TiVo specifically, I meant that XP Media Center edition has TiVo-esque features. I was trying to point out that XP is not a replacement for this Linux player, nor is it true the other way around.
Either way, I reread the article and realize I made an error. They didn't list the TiVo-esque features on the laptops, but apparently IsntantOn does support it. Oops. Sorry.
"No doubt MS will offer an "upgrade" to "help" users remove "and inferior player"."
If you mean "They'll try to make a better product", I agree.
"Bye bye Windows XP Media Center Edition!!! Honestly, are people going to wait for all that crap to load or get something much sooner, with Linux?"
Bye bye Windows XP Media Center Edition? What, is this thing going to make your laptop into a TiVo as well? No? Okay then, we agree, it's neat for some situations, but XP's Media Center isn't going anywhere yet.
" i tried installing linux on some of my friend's computer because all they do is surf the Internet and talk on IM clienets they still wanted there windows back because they didn't like the look of linux ( i have no idea what that means )"
If their experience was anything like mine, it means that Linux isn't all that intuitive to navigate around. I used to think that the reason I've struggled with Linux (KDE?) was because I was too familiar with Windows. My mind changed when I found myself sporadic access to a couple of Macs. (One OSX, the other OS9.) True, they were unfamiliar, and true I actually used Linux/KDE more than I used any generation of Mac, but I was able to actually get around on either of the Macs better than I ever did with a Linux box.
Maybe your friends didn't like whatever desktop theme you were using, but frankly, I suspect it had more to do with frustration at not being able to easily do what they want to do. Man I wish Apple would design a UI for Linux.
"I think I liked it better when I was blissfully ignorant of our impending doom."
Take comfort in knowing that your individual life is far more likely to end than the rest of the world's. I mean, 6 billion people aren't likely to suddenly die of an anyeurism.
"So it is no longer legal to add additional functionality to a device you are creating?"
Legalities haven't changed. For example, you can't break contractual deals. I think the MPAA's being silly, but really let's not blow this out of proportion.