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User: Rix

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Comments · 2,263

  1. Are real people buying at iTunes? on Electronic Arts, THQ Look To Microtransactions · · Score: 0

    There is a small but vocal minority that would buy the phone book if Steve Jobs offered it to them, but is anyone else still buying music? I don't know anyone who does.

    If there are, what percentage of them are curmudgeonly old people too conservative or technophobic to pirate, and what percentage aren't going to die in the next 20 years?

  2. Re:Sturgeon's Law on Why Designers Hate Crowdsourcing · · Score: 1

    You're falling into the No true Scotsman fallacy.

  3. It can if you pirate it on DRM vs. Unfinished Games · · Score: 1

    Which, really, I take as the publisher telling me they'd rather I do that.

  4. The problem with that... on Why Designers Hate Crowdsourcing · · Score: 1

    Is that you're just suggesting another sort of boutique. If the apple buyers wanted to buy there, they still could, but they don't.

    The only real solutions are to have a lot of people exit the business, or accept reduced revenues. The former is rather unlikely, especially with a big pool of potential designers from the developing world. The latter is probably mandatory, given that to those developing worlders a couple hundred bucks for a logo is a nice income.

    There will still be boutique design firms, I'm sure, but not as many.

  5. Changed the batteries yet? on Feds Bust Chinese Firm's Hybrid Car Data Heist · · Score: 1

    It's likely you'll wipe out any savings when you do.

  6. Re:You've missed the point on Why Designers Hate Crowdsourcing · · Score: 1

    Well, to abuse that poor metaphor a little more, it lets you squeeze and examine the apples.

    But yeah, that's the point; it's an imbalance. There are far more apples than apple buyers.

  7. You've missed the point on Why Designers Hate Crowdsourcing · · Score: 1

    The graphics designers aren't the grocery store, they're the apples. They're upset because the 99designs model lets us pick the shiniest apple, and throw the rest out.

  8. Sturgeon's Law on Why Designers Hate Crowdsourcing · · Score: 2, Insightful

    99% of everything is crap. That'll be true for crowdsourcing and traditional models.

    Everyone wants a crowdsourced model when they're buying, and no one wants it when they're selling. Do you think the grocery store wants you to pick the nicest looking apples from the pile? Of course not. Do you? Of course you do.

  9. Piracy is not anti-copyright on WordPress Creator GPL Says WP Template Must Be GPL'd · · Score: 1

    The vast majority of pirates support copyright in it's traditional role as an industrial regulation. The objection is to the recent expansion of copyright, largely by non-government, unelected agencies into people's private affairs through bullying, intimidation, and barratry.

    No one was ever sued for taping songs from the radio, or recording a PBS Red Dwarf marathon to VHS cassette. BitTorrent is just the natural evolution of that.

  10. If you have a journalism degree... on Pay-Per-View Journalism Is Burning Out Reporters Young · · Score: 1

    Then the only thing you're qualified to comment on is journalism. There's some call for that, yes, but not much.

  11. You can't on Measuring LAMP Competency? · · Score: 2

    That's what probation periods are for.

    If you try to quantify it, you'll end up hiring people who are good at gaming your system. That's a skillset, I suppose, but probably not the one you're looking for.

  12. It will have the opposite effect on DRM vs. Unfinished Games · · Score: 1

    I've pirated several games that I would have otherwise, and quite wanted to pay for, because they wouldn't let me just *buy* the damn thing.

    I play video games to escape the constant buy buy buy money money money of the real world. Even with MMOs, you pay your monthly fee and it's done. So if I'm going to play a game, I'm first going to make whatever arrangements necessary so that I can do so without being interrupted by requests for my credit card.

    With games that have DLC, my only option is piracy. I have to track down a torrent for both the game and DLC, and cracks for both, but once that's done it's done. Give me the option to pay for that, and I will (so long as you're reasonable about it; $60 is still the price cap). If you want to hold the DLC back and release it all as a reasonably sized expansion pack, that's great too.

    But stop bugging me and let me play the fucking game.

  13. Absurd on Reading E-Books Takes Longer Than Reading Paper Books · · Score: 1

    So they tested a bunch of people intimately familiar with printed books, and found that they had a slight disability with a format they'd not used before.

    As long was we're throwing around anecdotal bullshit, I'll note that I read a lot faster and more frequently with my Reader.

  14. What, exactly... on A Composer's-Eye View of the Copyright Wars · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Do you think all those photocopiers in libraries are for?

  15. You are misinformed on A Composer's-Eye View of the Copyright Wars · · Score: 1

    Libraries buy at the same price as everyone else (or lower, due to volume). We all have the right to lend things out under the first sale doctrine.

    Further, libraries keep and maintain photocopiers expressly for the purposes of making copies from the books they lend.

    Are you really under the impression people are expected to return their photocopies?

  16. I wonder if he writes libraries on A Composer's-Eye View of the Copyright Wars · · Score: 1

    Or is it only not ok when it's done on the internets?

  17. It's a matter of priorities on Google Builds a Native PDF Reader Into Chrome · · Score: 0, Troll

    They can't accommodate you without leaving behind people who don't understand the need to upgrade. If a few 10s of megabytes are really critical to you, then you're very much an edge case.

    As I said above, download the source and change it to meet your needs. Or pay someone to if you can't.

  18. I really hope it's poppler on Google Builds a Native PDF Reader Into Chrome · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    And not that abortion from Adobe.

  19. Which is exactly why you should be ignored on Google Builds a Native PDF Reader Into Chrome · · Score: 0

    Yeah, a 1GB data cap sucks, and is completely unreasonable. My cell phone gives me 5 times that bandwidth. The needs of the average person who doesn't really understand why they need to upgrade their browser or even that it's an issue vastly outweigh your odd little corner case.

    You can download the source and build a non updating version. Or you can get a real ISP like the rest of the world.

  20. Hello 1991! on Tearing Apart a Hard-Sell Anti-Virus Ad · · Score: 0, Troll

    How are you posting into the future? Can you send us some of those colour changing t-shirts? Maybe we could trade for the Friends DVDs.

  21. It couldn't be clearer on Publishing Company Puts Warning Label on Constitution · · Score: 1

    I don't think any administration has ever attempted to prevent a state from operating a well regulated militia.

  22. Contradictory on New York Times Bans Use of Word "Tweet" · · Score: 1

    But we favor established usage and ordinary words

    Unless it's one of them new fangled Interweb words, apparently. Like it or not, "tweet" is the established and ordinary term for posting something to twitter.

  23. Re:So it was an accident? on A Quick Look At KDE SC 4.5 Beta 1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You really think dropping features for years at a time in a stable release is ok if you just call it a bug, effectively meaning there is no stable release?

    All your hyperbole aside, the Gnome strategy is at least honest. There's no reason they couldn't opt to put back whatever features they've dropped in the future, but they're being up front that they're not going to now.

  24. So it was an accident? on A Quick Look At KDE SC 4.5 Beta 1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's really not better.

  25. Why not wait for 8? on Time To Dump XP? · · Score: 1

    Since it's going to be out in a year. There's not much incentive to upgrade knowing they'll just ask for another $150 shortly.