Indeed, the point of a EULA isn't to actually stop you, it's to make your life hard enough that _most_ don't bother. Proving your case in court, against a flock of ninja-lawyers counts.
Steam provides control of what you can play and when. It sweetens it somewhat with convenience. It's a bit like someone wearing a condom when you get raped. Strictly speaking better than the alternative, but still fundamentally unpleasant.
An annual fee to allow access to record company catalogues is something I'd actually consider worth paying for.
An annual fee to allow them to prosecute 'copyright infringers' more easily... not so much. Digital distribution made the 'old' model of pay money to record company for CD obselete. They really do need to be thinking more in terms of redesigning how they do business, because they can't change the fundamental facts in front of them - they're 'selling' information, and trying to somehow inhibit what you do with that information.
I think it would be an excellent use of taxpayer money, to get every household in the UK properly fiber cabled. BT won't do it, because they'll just get burned - if they're forced to fork out the cash, then 'forced' to unbundle, then that really destroys their commercial viability.
But I think it should be done, and funded by the taxpayer, and then allow service providers to use that infrastructure.
Sod the 'copyright tax'. A tax to get everyone in the country on fiber though, is one I'd support.
BBC is worth every penny paid for it, and then some. Having a news/media source that has no 'big money' fundamentally biasing it is fantastic, and doubly so that I get an hour of TV per hour, not 35 minutes + advertising.
Not to mention that pre installing cables is great, but never ever assume that will be 'enough' - if you cannot get to your ducting to run more bundles of fiber or copper, then you are going to suffer a lot of pain in a few years time.
That sounds like there's someone who's been told what questions to draft, and is hating the idiocy surrounding them, looking for escape.
I actaully remember a short story about devices that had 'gone smart' when having too many of them in close proximity, they got a bit too clever, and started causing trouble as gestalt entities. Was rather fun, if a bit silly.
Well, I was thinking in terms that solar power is just a question of land area, and mars is basically empty. Nuclear would require the nuclear fuel for it, and I seem to recall that that kind of thing just isn't particularly available on Mars. Then again, a couple of KG of radioactive last a good long time, so... whatever:).
IIRC the atmosphere of mars is mostly CO2 already, which makes actually growing plants to be almost trivial. Well, once you get past the fact that the climate isn't that great for plant life.
Close enough I reckon. The biggest inhibitor to colonization of Mars is not the atmosphere or the magnetosphere - those are possible to solve technically, and already have been for previous space expeditions.
What's really not easy to deal with is water and oxygen supplies - if you have to haul every single kilo of water up the gravity well, you add a massive burden to the operation.
The fact that we have large quantities of ice to work with, means we have both water, and - by virtue of solar power if necessary, oxygen from electrolysis.
That's really the major ingredients that are needed to consider a place 'habitable' if not exactly 'comfortable'.
No, that's what BBC Radio/TV is for. Don't put the ads in in the first place = almost an hour's worth of content per hour, and no need to filter them back out again.
Some vendors do actually do that. Mostly these are the ones that didn't want DRM in the first place, but the publisher put it onto their 'gold' copy for them.
Having acquired steam because of left4dead and soon to be Empire:Total War, it's starting to grow on me.
I just wish they'd let me a) throttle my download bandwidth and b) separate out 'game audio' from 'voice comms audio' so I can use my headset in Left4Dead on a public-ish game.
Well, the basic is I don't like losing because I don't know what I'm doing.
The other though, is it's quite frequent to run into... shall we say 'people intolerant of the learning curve'. Sorta situations where you get smacked for 'being clueless', or worse kicked from a game.
Visible spectrum 'invisibility' is pretty much 'perfect camoflague'. Even if I can spot squaddies/tanks with thermal cameras or radars, that doesn't mean they don't find camo to be valuable.
I mean, 'in the field' the mark 1 eyeball is a vital component, and anything more complicated takes training to use, suffers reliability/maintenance issues, generally can't cover as much ground, and probably has a whole bunch of drawbacks all of it's own.
Your friends will forgive your failures, almost regardless of why.
Your acquaintances will not - they have not real reason to do so - and they'll replace you if your failure rate exceeds the hassle of finding an alternative.
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Indeed, the point of a EULA isn't to actually stop you, it's to make your life hard enough that _most_ don't bother. Proving your case in court, against a flock of ninja-lawyers counts.
Steam provides control of what you can play and when. It sweetens it somewhat with convenience. It's a bit like someone wearing a condom when you get raped. Strictly speaking better than the alternative, but still fundamentally unpleasant.
An annual fee to allow them to prosecute 'copyright infringers' more easily ... not so much. Digital distribution made the 'old' model of pay money to record company for CD obselete. They really do need to be thinking more in terms of redesigning how they do business, because they can't change the fundamental facts in front of them - they're 'selling' information, and trying to somehow inhibit what you do with that information.
But I think it should be done, and funded by the taxpayer, and then allow service providers to use that infrastructure.
Sod the 'copyright tax'. A tax to get everyone in the country on fiber though, is one I'd support.
Could have possibly done with a line for 'anti-terrorism + surveillance culture' though :)
Let's skip the 'broadband revolution' and carry on past to 'lets get LAN speeds into every household'.
BBC is worth every penny paid for it, and then some. Having a news/media source that has no 'big money' fundamentally biasing it is fantastic, and doubly so that I get an hour of TV per hour, not 35 minutes + advertising.
Post pub, with triple-fried-egg-chilli-chutney-sandwiches.
I had forgotten. You reminded me. I must now hate you forever.
Hey, at least if you make sequels of bad films, you don't have to live up to much in the way of expectations :)
Not to mention that pre installing cables is great, but never ever assume that will be 'enough' - if you cannot get to your ducting to run more bundles of fiber or copper, then you are going to suffer a lot of pain in a few years time.
I actaully remember a short story about devices that had 'gone smart' when having too many of them in close proximity, they got a bit too clever, and started causing trouble as gestalt entities. Was rather fun, if a bit silly.
IIRC the atmosphere of mars is mostly CO2 already, which makes actually growing plants to be almost trivial. Well, once you get past the fact that the climate isn't that great for plant life.
What's really not easy to deal with is water and oxygen supplies - if you have to haul every single kilo of water up the gravity well, you add a massive burden to the operation.
The fact that we have large quantities of ice to work with, means we have both water, and - by virtue of solar power if necessary, oxygen from electrolysis.
That's really the major ingredients that are needed to consider a place 'habitable' if not exactly 'comfortable'.
No, that's what BBC Radio/TV is for. Don't put the ads in in the first place = almost an hour's worth of content per hour, and no need to filter them back out again.
Truly the American dream. Yet another service that includes propaganda to convince you to buy more stuff that you don't need.
I'll have you know Windows is the most intelligently designed piece of malware out there.
There's not a lot of point though. I mean, why go through two layers of DRM?
Some vendors do actually do that. Mostly these are the ones that didn't want DRM in the first place, but the publisher put it onto their 'gold' copy for them.
I just wish they'd let me a) throttle my download bandwidth and b) separate out 'game audio' from 'voice comms audio' so I can use my headset in Left4Dead on a public-ish game.
The other though, is it's quite frequent to run into... shall we say 'people intolerant of the learning curve'. Sorta situations where you get smacked for 'being clueless', or worse kicked from a game.
I mean, 'in the field' the mark 1 eyeball is a vital component, and anything more complicated takes training to use, suffers reliability/maintenance issues, generally can't cover as much ground, and probably has a whole bunch of drawbacks all of it's own.
Yes, but morons can install and admin exchange. That's worth any other feature you care to name.
Unix is very user friendly; It's just a bit choosier about it's friends.
No one cares why you failed, only that you did.
Your friends will forgive your failures, almost regardless of why.
Your acquaintances will not - they have not real reason to do so - and they'll replace you if your failure rate exceeds the hassle of finding an alternative.
It's harsh, but it really is that simple.