There's going to be major problems with this, depending on how its set up..
If they start replacing ads on pages, Google or other Ad-serving companies will definitely sue (as they are subverting their advertising revenue; akin to your local TV station replacing SuperBowl ads with their own).
If they are inserting their ads into a page without actually replacing other content (ads or other) they get into content issues; they don't have the right to monetize content that they do not own..
However if they actually become an ad-serving company (other websites to have thier ads served by Charter) this could be viable.. Only due to their large subscriber base..
Privacy issues aside, of course..
If I remember correctly, Kevin Mitnick was imprisoned for 5 years, 4.5 of them pre-trial; 8 months of solitary confinement, for copying files "worth" 160k (actual value much less)..
And now its "same as looking in a suitcase"??
obviously "who" does it makes a difference.. The government has your best interests at heart, honestly!!
How skewed can you get?? W3Schools is not a good representation of the people out on the web. The only people that will go to this site are those that are savy (like/.ers); your average everyday person (many of which still run 98) will not visit this site, and their numbers will not be reflective in the total.
My company's statistics list 98 and below ranging from 12%-20%. On a daily basis. Again, ours is skewed to the non-technical user. But its not 2.1%.
Your best bet is to use statistics from major portals, Yahoo, MSN, Google, etc, ones that will give a good random sampling rather than a random sampling of a specific demographic.
Yes, it can be the OS's fault, but don't solely blame Microsoft.. Rootkits have been around for a long while; Unix and Linux are far from exempt from this..
You're missing the entire point of copy protection.. Every single attempt at copy protection will be cracked, and available online, by the "technological elite".. That is without a fact.. however, the "CD in the tray", as easy as it is to defeat, is not to stop the elite; its to stop Joe Shmoe gamer, with his Dell-designed system, from popping the CD into the drive, opening up Eazy CD Creator, and burning a copy for his neighbor friend across the street. Copy Protection is not going to stop piracy completely, but it will definitely reduce it.
How well it does that is an entirely different matter.
Aside from the fact that this has already been covered to death in the blog world (GDC this past spring).. and no, I did not RTFA, but I've read many different pieces on this subject, and don't need to read it to know what they say.
The goal market that The Escapist describes already exists in the casual game market. A place that serves creative vision over supressing it: casual games. Niche products successful: again, casual games. Gameplay over glitz: again, casual games. And as far as IP; again, casual games.
Yes, the hardcore poo-poo the casual game market; "those aren't games, more of a past time or waste of time"... They can decry it all they want, it won't change the fact that casual games have just the same ability of entertainment, immersion, and addictiveness as your "God of War" or "Civilization XVII" or what not. Just to a smaller scale. But I imagine thats not the goal of the question that the article is asking..
But what to do about the hardcore games, the "consoles" and such?? As much as games drive technological advancements, games are just as much of a slave to those technological advancements. We need to separate the capabilities of the machine with the percieved success of the game. Unfortunately that is not possible in this day and age, where consoles are completely redone every three years, video card manufacturers in a race to be the best, and the market constantly demanding "bigger, better, faster". An ideal industry is not possible under this model.
Yes, the "hardcore" industry will implode. It won't be economically viable to continue creativity; and as people get turned off by "Pole Position, new and improved!"; its inevitable that even the rehashes of the same-old will also die. But it will not destroy the industry; only normalize it. Think of it as the dot-com bust for the games industry. It will recover, and be better off in the long run because of it.
I would agree with you, to an extent, on an individual basis, on both sides of the aisle. However, with the amount of infighting, backstabbing, lying, misrepresentation of the facts, and other such "politics" that takes place, at least what we see in the news, it does leave the distinct impression of psychopathic tendancies in our government. While it can be minimal in the day to day operations (non-election years), when the campaigns do come around, with all the mudslinging, glib comments that get all the attention, its hard to say that all of them are "good" people, and not out to just further their career.
While I do want to believe that most (if not all) of our career politicians are good people, Unfortunately (just as it is in business) the psychopaths get all the media attention. These are the ones giving the entire body the bad name; if a simple screening could ferret these out it would make me feel so much better about who we elect to represent us.
And maybe I'd vote again if this was the case; because it is the ones that show this tendency that has made me lose faith in our governing system, and disillusioned me from the entire process.
And this is probably the easiest fishing they'll be able to do.. Until companies are made liable for any damages that occurr when they "lose" their information, this will probably be an extremely easy method of fishing..
Of course, they should also consider adding Oolong Collophid's (sp?) great Trilogy: "Where God Went Wrong", "Some of God's Greatest Mistakes", and "Who is this God Person Anyways?"
In its attempt to grow the online gaming market, NCSoft's Guild Wars has turned the MMOG model on its head. U.S. CEO Robert Garriott reckons giant ambitions justify mighty risks.
Robert Garriott?? Bob Garriott?? Quite honestly, how could they miss something so large?? Its Richard Garriott (Dick to some).. Thousands of Avatars scream out in pain as their beloved Lord British gets called a common "Bobby".
Honestly, how reputable of a "reporting" company are you if you can't even get the name right of the person you interviewed??
1) become an illegal distributer of content 2) get sued by the industry that the target(s) hate (or at least despise) 3) Collect donations for your legal defense 4) run like hell..
In a way, it does kinda seem like a prince of (insert third-world country) trying to smuggle cash thru your bank account etc etc...
SECONDARY MARKET FOR MOG IS A YOUNG PHENOMENON AND ALWAYS EVOLVING, WHICH LEAVES IT OPEN TO A LOT OF DEBATE AND DISCUSSION
What I don't get is how solely being a phenomenon and always evolving makes it not a cut and dry situation, but the monopoly example does.. Does this mean that any dynamic content (well, content stays static, the context changes) can't be judged, but static content (or context) can be??
Bah, I say.. If thats the case I'm going to make a game where the actual locations of Monopoly property changes randomly at random times; they'll jump over the whole table.. Then I'll start selling Boardwalk for 5 bucks a pop.. And of course, make the player pieces first-person that can move anywhere about the board.. Think I'll call it MMOnopoly..
The two biggest franchises around are Grand Theft Auto and The Sims. EA owns one, Take-Two (the newsworthy competitor to EA) owns the other
EA's The Sims is a Maxis creation. While EA did buy Maxis, The Sims was originally a Will Wright creation, and was not a "star product" like others were. GTA is a Rockstar game also; published by Take-Two (perhaps in the same position as Maxis and EA)..
Don't confuse publisher with developer. While the publisher will often fund the developer's projects (and and own the IP), they are still the creations of the smaller developer.. rarely will you see a blockbuster be developed in-house by the publisher..
Its not as bad as you think.. I bought the stand-alone Koolance system (not attached to the case) this past summer; yes, it was expensive, and yes, it did not come with the water blocks. But I look at it this way; the actual resivoir, tubing and such is in investment; its not like normal computer equipment that will lose value with age. The system can easily be transferred to another system; even the cooling blocks are compatible with different processors/sockets, and can be reused. If I were to get a processor that the block couldn't handle, I don't need to buy a new system; just a new block.
All in all, I'm happy with my Koolance solution; its well worth the money.
You two are both wusses.. I mean, seriously.. Level 48, 56?? What, have you been making progress for only a month?? My Dung-Elf Tickle Mimic would wipe the floor with both of you, and then have enough time to do her nails with your lifeblood.. Her Seasick MMCCLXII will make you wish you stayed on shore, for sure!!
And not to mention that our guild Golden Rat Killers is one of the best around.. We are fast outdistancing all competition in the Bands list.. Roofed, I say, Roofed!!
I've been in the closed beta since July.. this one, unlike other high profile MMOs, is ready as its going to be for launch. And its fun; well worth the 15 bucks a month..
If you are a casual gamer you have to try it out..
I would be willing to bet that none of the "trade secrets" they're worried about are patented.. One of the advantages (drawbacks, depending on how you look at it) is that Patents are released to the world; they cannot keep them secret. Patents and trade secrets are on opposite sides of the IP spectrum.
My suggestion for the RIAA is to actually lay off the worrying about piracy, and instead, run an information and advertising campaign informing consumers about how when they buy a used CD, they are in fact ripping off their favorite artist.
I knew I had heard this before; Music industry has already tried to go after the used CD sales.. Old article here but still relevant.. Don't remember how this turned out tho..
Slashdot Mirror
There's going to be major problems with this, depending on how its set up.. If they start replacing ads on pages, Google or other Ad-serving companies will definitely sue (as they are subverting their advertising revenue; akin to your local TV station replacing SuperBowl ads with their own). If they are inserting their ads into a page without actually replacing other content (ads or other) they get into content issues; they don't have the right to monetize content that they do not own.. However if they actually become an ad-serving company (other websites to have thier ads served by Charter) this could be viable.. Only due to their large subscriber base.. Privacy issues aside, of course..
This entire entry makes me think of the Douglas Adams (RIP) bit on the sperm whale falling towards the planet surface..
"I wonder if it will be friends with me?"
If I remember correctly, Kevin Mitnick was imprisoned for 5 years, 4.5 of them pre-trial; 8 months of solitary confinement, for copying files "worth" 160k (actual value much less)..
And now its "same as looking in a suitcase"??
obviously "who" does it makes a difference.. The government has your best interests at heart, honestly!!
Is it specifically the encryption, or are the compression and shred (both of which often do not scale well) taking the most of the time?
How skewed can you get?? W3Schools is not a good representation of the people out on the web. The only people that will go to this site are those that are savy (like /.ers); your average everyday person (many of which still run 98) will not visit this site, and their numbers will not be reflective in the total.
My company's statistics list 98 and below ranging from 12%-20%. On a daily basis. Again, ours is skewed to the non-technical user. But its not 2.1%.
Your best bet is to use statistics from major portals, Yahoo, MSN, Google, etc, ones that will give a good random sampling rather than a random sampling of a specific demographic.
Yes, it can be the OS's fault, but don't solely blame Microsoft.. Rootkits have been around for a long while; Unix and Linux are far from exempt from this..
You're missing the entire point of copy protection.. Every single attempt at copy protection will be cracked, and available online, by the "technological elite".. That is without a fact.. however, the "CD in the tray", as easy as it is to defeat, is not to stop the elite; its to stop Joe Shmoe gamer, with his Dell-designed system, from popping the CD into the drive, opening up Eazy CD Creator, and burning a copy for his neighbor friend across the street. Copy Protection is not going to stop piracy completely, but it will definitely reduce it.
How well it does that is an entirely different matter.
Aside from the fact that this has already been covered to death in the blog world (GDC this past spring).. and no, I did not RTFA, but I've read many different pieces on this subject, and don't need to read it to know what they say.
The goal market that The Escapist describes already exists in the casual game market. A place that serves creative vision over supressing it: casual games. Niche products successful: again, casual games. Gameplay over glitz: again, casual games. And as far as IP; again, casual games.
Yes, the hardcore poo-poo the casual game market; "those aren't games, more of a past time or waste of time"... They can decry it all they want, it won't change the fact that casual games have just the same ability of entertainment, immersion, and addictiveness as your "God of War" or "Civilization XVII" or what not. Just to a smaller scale. But I imagine thats not the goal of the question that the article is asking..
But what to do about the hardcore games, the "consoles" and such?? As much as games drive technological advancements, games are just as much of a slave to those technological advancements. We need to separate the capabilities of the machine with the percieved success of the game. Unfortunately that is not possible in this day and age, where consoles are completely redone every three years, video card manufacturers in a race to be the best, and the market constantly demanding "bigger, better, faster". An ideal industry is not possible under this model.
Yes, the "hardcore" industry will implode. It won't be economically viable to continue creativity; and as people get turned off by "Pole Position, new and improved!"; its inevitable that even the rehashes of the same-old will also die. But it will not destroy the industry; only normalize it. Think of it as the dot-com bust for the games industry. It will recover, and be better off in the long run because of it.
I would agree with you, to an extent, on an individual basis, on both sides of the aisle. However, with the amount of infighting, backstabbing, lying, misrepresentation of the facts, and other such "politics" that takes place, at least what we see in the news, it does leave the distinct impression of psychopathic tendancies in our government. While it can be minimal in the day to day operations (non-election years), when the campaigns do come around, with all the mudslinging, glib comments that get all the attention, its hard to say that all of them are "good" people, and not out to just further their career.
While I do want to believe that most (if not all) of our career politicians are good people, Unfortunately (just as it is in business) the psychopaths get all the media attention. These are the ones giving the entire body the bad name; if a simple screening could ferret these out it would make me feel so much better about who we elect to represent us.
And maybe I'd vote again if this was the case; because it is the ones that show this tendency that has made me lose faith in our governing system, and disillusioned me from the entire process.
And this is probably the easiest fishing they'll be able to do.. Until companies are made liable for any damages that occurr when they "lose" their information, this will probably be an extremely easy method of fishing..
Social Engineering, anyone??
Of course, they should also consider adding Oolong Collophid's (sp?) great Trilogy: "Where God Went Wrong", "Some of God's Greatest Mistakes", and "Who is this God Person Anyways?"
Well, once he writes them, of course..
eh, scratch that.. Apparently the common "Bobby" is Lord British's older brother.. meh...
In its attempt to grow the online gaming market, NCSoft's Guild Wars has turned the MMOG model on its head. U.S. CEO Robert Garriott reckons giant ambitions justify mighty risks.
Robert Garriott?? Bob Garriott?? Quite honestly, how could they miss something so large?? Its Richard Garriott (Dick to some).. Thousands of Avatars scream out in pain as their beloved Lord British gets called a common "Bobby". Honestly, how reputable of a "reporting" company are you if you can't even get the name right of the person you interviewed??
How to phish geeks:
1) become an illegal distributer of content
2) get sued by the industry that the target(s) hate (or at least despise)
3) Collect donations for your legal defense
4) run like hell..
In a way, it does kinda seem like a prince of (insert third-world country) trying to smuggle cash thru your bank account etc etc...
What I don't get is how solely being a phenomenon and always evolving makes it not a cut and dry situation, but the monopoly example does.. Does this mean that any dynamic content (well, content stays static, the context changes) can't be judged, but static content (or context) can be??
Bah, I say.. If thats the case I'm going to make a game where the actual locations of Monopoly property changes randomly at random times; they'll jump over the whole table.. Then I'll start selling Boardwalk for 5 bucks a pop.. And of course, make the player pieces first-person that can move anywhere about the board.. Think I'll call it MMOnopoly..
The two biggest franchises around are Grand Theft Auto and The Sims. EA owns one, Take-Two (the newsworthy competitor to EA) owns the other
EA's The Sims is a Maxis creation. While EA did buy Maxis, The Sims was originally a Will Wright creation, and was not a "star product" like others were. GTA is a Rockstar game also; published by Take-Two (perhaps in the same position as Maxis and EA)..
Don't confuse publisher with developer. While the publisher will often fund the developer's projects (and and own the IP), they are still the creations of the smaller developer.. rarely will you see a blockbuster be developed in-house by the publisher..
Its not as bad as you think.. I bought the stand-alone Koolance system (not attached to the case) this past summer; yes, it was expensive, and yes, it did not come with the water blocks. But I look at it this way; the actual resivoir, tubing and such is in investment; its not like normal computer equipment that will lose value with age. The system can easily be transferred to another system; even the cooling blocks are compatible with different processors/sockets, and can be reused. If I were to get a processor that the block couldn't handle, I don't need to buy a new system; just a new block.
All in all, I'm happy with my Koolance solution; its well worth the money.
You two are both wusses.. I mean, seriously.. Level 48, 56?? What, have you been making progress for only a month?? My Dung-Elf Tickle Mimic would wipe the floor with both of you, and then have enough time to do her nails with your lifeblood.. Her Seasick MMCCLXII will make you wish you stayed on shore, for sure!!
And not to mention that our guild Golden Rat Killers is one of the best around.. We are fast outdistancing all competition in the Bands list.. Roofed, I say, Roofed!!
I've been in the closed beta since July.. this one, unlike other high profile MMOs, is ready as its going to be for launch. And its fun; well worth the 15 bucks a month..
If you are a casual gamer you have to try it out..
I would be willing to bet that none of the "trade secrets" they're worried about are patented.. One of the advantages (drawbacks, depending on how you look at it) is that Patents are released to the world; they cannot keep them secret. Patents and trade secrets are on opposite sides of the IP spectrum.
I thought the answer was 42??
Have you ever tried to zip a binary file?? Ratio of the compression is less than 1%; in the case of kkrieger:
Compressed: 97256 bytes
Uncompressed: 97280 bytes
24 bytes were compressed, which makes the compression ratio 0.0246% percent of the original... And then add the readme file, which is 5k..