The problem is with this whole piracy issue is this: everybody who does it knows it is illegal to download music/software/movies that you do not own - they are aware of this and they don't care about the legality of it. It seems that there are some legitimate artists out there against piracy, but it seems the loudest and most frequent voices are the industries themselves - where the profits are... The musicians receive a pittance from every CD sold, and usually end up owing the production company money anyway -- the public (for the most part) knows this and doesn't see P2P networks as taking money from the musicians, but denying exorbitant profits from the music companies. Perhaps a change in the entertainment business structure - there a many models/theories floating about - would be an option.
As far as 'the IP police', this may be actually more preferable to any legislation concerning copyrights/intellectual property piracy. I firmly believe that the government should not set standards for technology (should be resolved within the industry), nor should they legislate morality (what happened to parents/community and mores?). I am afraid that I would be opposed to any legislation that would restrict my fair usage of any piece of equipment or media.
$3800.00 for a monitor (that has limitations pointed out by the rest of/.) is ridiculous! No DVI, fixed resolution, plus it is an LCD (cannot match CRT/Trinitron for crisp text, motion, etc). I would love to see their sales projections on something like this. Granted, there will be that handful of geewhizzers who jump on this, but the rest of us can make a complete system with $3800.00... easily!
And this is news.... why? So the PS3 is in development... it will kick the Xbox's butt... it will offer things that aren't on the market yet... it will balance your checkbook and make you look years younger.... it will be on the DEA's schedule of controlled substances... right. If and when the consoles are released relatively close to each other (within 6 months or so) and you can play the same games on each of them, then we can compare them directly. Until then, the newest one will have the coolest features, the existing one will have the market/fanbase, and the one on the drawing board will make everyone drool.... This happens in consoles, cpu's, cars, everything.
Running 100% MS software, off-the-shelf NAV, and good ol' 56k dial-up....No Klez, Nimda, Melissa, or any other damn virus... The trick? Very picky about who gets my email address, don't register for anything online, and am very particular about what software/files I download from the 'net. I am reading about you guys who are getting clobbered with multiples of thousands of hits and don't understand how you can live like that. Sorry to put the damper on the anti-MS guys, but that isn't the problem here; the users who don't update their virus sigs, don't pay attention to their email clients (what do you mean I have sent a bajillion messages?), and don't understand what the hell they are doing online to begin with (don't even get me started on opening attachments). This makes for great sensationalized news (OH MY GOD, ANOTHER VIRUS), but for true users, it is not news. Yeah, I am going to get modded to death here, but sick of the bitchin' and whinin' about viruses -- it is a price you pay to play.
Wouldn't know about how the private sector is handling these rough times; our agency has never had a RIF. It is at times like this I appreciate being recruited by the fed. Sounds like it is more attractive everyday: employment for life + great benefits + transfer anywhere in country (and some foreign posts) + good wages.
Michael had better watch out, considering he has nothing to do with Gateway (or is this the beginning of a new conspiracy theory?)... Ted Waitt is really Michael Dell... hmmm
Granted, we have a lot of gloom and doom here, with sales dropping, MS dropping their expected shipments by 40%, Blackley leaving, etc... but this is MS remember. Against the juggernaut of PS2, the Xbox does seem dead, but then MS doesn't usually just drop something that has this much market/profit share. Will MS make a bid to buy out Sony's PS development team to 86 any competition? We will have to wait and see....
No, we should not insulate them from life, but we should make it difficult for them to buy games/magazines/videos that may portray a distorted or possibly dangerous view of life for a child.
Violence is real, nudity is not bad, but these things have a place and time for introduction into a child's life and they should not be on the way home from school, playing a video game.
I think, at least from reading the majority of the posts here, that we may be missing the point. The point isn't that the judge didn't rule that games are a form of free speech, but that he did this in the case of children, and he made the statement to that effect. Granted, I am going to jump up and down, wail, and gnash my teeth at the thought of someone threatening my 1st amendment rights, but this is not what is going on here. RTFA, guys!!
I guess I don't understand the reason why this was in front of a US judge to begin with; we are talking about restricting access of questionable material to children, not adults. If this is the case, then I really don't understand. These are children; they are supposed to have restricted access to violence and nudity. The video game group that filed this suit should be ashamed of themselves. The ordinance didn't ban the questionable video games, just limited access to them. I have to agree that it is a shame that we expect the law/government to pick where parents are failing, but this is the corner we have painted ourselves into....
While a machine may compile/test code for errors, it cannot replace the thought processes/creativity of the human brain. Without this, you have nothing - it has been stated here on several posts already that it may not be a glamour position, or the highest-paid in the company, but it will always be there. Where is all the code going to come from if there are not programmers actually programming. This article seems to paint a dark picture, but it really sounds more like an embedded programmer is burnt and thinking about a career change and decided to share it with us...
It was banded... and released? then found miles away in another country.... then much later found with its batteries drained and tangled in some electrical lines, apparently trying to recharge itself...
Finally, BillG blurts out the truth, but before he can take it back (and explain it was gas), it is recorded, filed, and sent into the public domain. Is anyone surprised by this revelation, or is it just more amazing that he acutally admitted it.... Microsoft is slipping....
Remember reading about this in MaximumPC a month or two ago; Best Buy's stand then was that it was an error/typo and not a legally binding contract -- they said that they would not honor the price... seems that some of the stores have been honoring the price, unbeknownst to corporate management..
Apples and oranges: the Y2K mess was not a virus -- it was not a piece of code that was maliciously released with intent to harm/destroy. The hype surrounding Y2K was still ridiculous, but yes it did serve to get idiots moving to upgrade their code/systems; maybe the world would have been slightly altered from today's reality if the Y2K bug had been a bigger mess than it turned out to be?
Hmm... who has an idea of what it would be like if the Y2K bug had been kept mum?
Yes there would be more people who contract the virus, but those who understand computers/know what they are doing with computers already know that regular (sometimes daily) updates to your antivirus software is mandatory. Why shouldn't we look at this as survival of the fittest? If people buy computers and don't understand what the computer can do for them and what risks they face if they use one (I am speaking about online usage here), why is this bad? Granted, I don't want my grandmother to be online, using her email, opening attachments from God-knows-where, so I take the time to educate her, explain to her about the pitfalls of being online and the possibility of picking up viruses; I don't just leave her to the mercy of the 'net.
I understand that you are talking from a work perspective, and that in itself is completely different than the private, single user. Even in the work environment, employees either must be educated or have the access restricted - and don't give me the bs about restricting access at work; unless your work necessitates your access, you have no right/entitlement to online access at your jobsite.
The point of the article is that many of the hyped viruses this past year have been basically less than what the media/software companies have made them out to be.
A company with a product to challenge the DMCA -- thank you, 321 Studios. And how long did we have to wait for some company with the guts to stand up and say "It should not be illegal for a consumer to make a copy of something they own." Will have to wait and see the outcome on this one.
It isn't a culture-statement that I burn CD's, either with music or data, it is simply one of the ways I use technology. CD burning allows me to backup my files, distribute photographs to my mother, give a copy of my file of.WAV's to a buddy in my office -- it used to be a floppy (or several of them) or a Zip disc. Within the next few years, it will be DVD's with gigs of data or music (she'll love that) on them. It is just that technology has become so prevalent in our lives and the CD-burners are standard equipment in PC's today. The RIAA should make better analogies than the school report and the 'A' grade -- maybe if I were to sell the paper for $$$ and then found out later that somebody had made a copy and was not sending me my cut of it.... and I wouldn't care.
Not only is the "on the bandwagon", but open-source is one of those buzzwords that comes around and sticks in the lexicon of the public. Everyone sees/hears/reads that Microsoft is being sued because, amongst other things, they are not open-source. Open-source must be good then, if the courts are forcing MS to be that. Open-source gets good press; IT companies believe that they would have a favorable image if they offer something that they can point to and say "We use open-source code for that and look how great it is." Also, open-source should be more economical to run/code/acquire than proprietary solutions. I guess the problem with that is, if you are an IT company, why don't you have/use your own solution??
While I applaude JKatz for sticking to his guns (he never disappoints in pissing people off), I still have to wonder the point of this story. Granted,/. does book reviews, posts stories that are shameless plugs for products, and even occasionally plays host for rampant, undisguised commercialism, but why this drivel? In some twisted, sadomasochistic parallel universe, yes, this would fit, but not here! A plug about a book that has no connection to/. except for the author. This guy must simply enjoy the attention. Forget the 'Great/. Blackout', I propose a complete and total boycott of all future JKatz stories/postings. Who is with me?
But have you noticed just how much advertisting dell do in print and online media? Often they have the inside front cover and two or three pages inside a magazine. This makes it almost impossible for the publication to say anything bad about their products.
I subscribe to several magazines, and yes, some do seem to be lenient on their advertisers, but there are some publications out there who stick to their guns and call a spade a spade -- one recent review blasted Dell for shipping a P4 system with DDR SDRAM rather than RDRAM due to the performance hit. So making a blanket statement such as this is not accurate.
Just the thought of seeing all the old gang, Defender, Galaga, et al. brings a nostalgic tear to my eye... remembering mastering Pong and Breakout. Atari, we hardly knew ye.... and no quarters necessary?? Man, we gotta get these guys over here...
Yes, but does Microsoft have any proof that you've accepted any EULA terms?
If you registered even one copy of their software within the organization/school system, then MS would have the notion that you probably have more than one application of theirs... then they would have cause to audit you. Yes, it is a damn shame that MS (or any other company), but people still don't read/understand what they are agreeing to when the 'agree' to the EULA of any software. There was a story posted to/. not too long ago about this very topic...
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As far as 'the IP police', this may be actually more preferable to any legislation concerning copyrights/intellectual property piracy. I firmly believe that the government should not set standards for technology (should be resolved within the industry), nor should they legislate morality (what happened to parents/community and mores?). I am afraid that I would be opposed to any legislation that would restrict my fair usage of any piece of equipment or media.
$3800.00 for a monitor (that has limitations pointed out by the rest of /.) is ridiculous! No DVI, fixed resolution, plus it is an LCD (cannot match CRT/Trinitron for crisp text, motion, etc). I would love to see their sales projections on something like this. Granted, there will be that handful of geewhizzers who jump on this, but the rest of us can make a complete system with $3800.00... easily!
....but I still want one.........
sorry, lost my mind for a second there...Running 100% MS software, off-the-shelf NAV, and good ol' 56k dial-up. ...No Klez, Nimda, Melissa, or any other damn virus... The trick? Very picky about who gets my email address, don't register for anything online, and am very particular about what software/files I download from the 'net. I am reading about you guys who are getting clobbered with multiples of thousands of hits and don't understand how you can live like that. Sorry to put the damper on the anti-MS guys, but that isn't the problem here; the users who don't update their virus sigs, don't pay attention to their email clients (what do you mean I have sent a bajillion messages?), and don't understand what the hell they are doing online to begin with (don't even get me started on opening attachments). This makes for great sensationalized news (OH MY GOD, ANOTHER VIRUS), but for true users, it is not news. Yeah, I am going to get modded to death here, but sick of the bitchin' and whinin' about viruses -- it is a price you pay to play.
Wouldn't know about how the private sector is handling these rough times; our agency has never had a RIF. It is at times like this I appreciate being recruited by the fed. Sounds like it is more attractive everyday: employment for life + great benefits + transfer anywhere in country (and some foreign posts) + good wages.
Michael had better watch out, considering he has nothing to do with Gateway (or is this the beginning of a new conspiracy theory?)... Ted Waitt is really Michael Dell... hmmm
I bet they are now Rosen's new poster child for the evil empire...
Interesting statement... I didn't think that Apple did much at all before Mr. Jobs.....
Granted, we have a lot of gloom and doom here, with sales dropping, MS dropping their expected shipments by 40%, Blackley leaving, etc... but this is MS remember. Against the juggernaut of PS2, the Xbox does seem dead, but then MS doesn't usually just drop something that has this much market/profit share. Will MS make a bid to buy out Sony's PS development team to 86 any competition? We will have to wait and see....
Violence is real, nudity is not bad, but these things have a place and time for introduction into a child's life and they should not be on the way home from school, playing a video game.
I think, at least from reading the majority of the posts here, that we may be missing the point. The point isn't that the judge didn't rule that games are a form of free speech, but that he did this in the case of children, and he made the statement to that effect. Granted, I am going to jump up and down, wail, and gnash my teeth at the thought of someone threatening my 1st amendment rights, but this is not what is going on here. RTFA, guys!!
I guess I don't understand the reason why this was in front of a US judge to begin with; we are talking about restricting access of questionable material to children, not adults. If this is the case, then I really don't understand. These are children; they are supposed to have restricted access to violence and nudity. The video game group that filed this suit should be ashamed of themselves. The ordinance didn't ban the questionable video games, just limited access to them. I have to agree that it is a shame that we expect the law/government to pick where parents are failing, but this is the corner we have painted ourselves into....
While a machine may compile/test code for errors, it cannot replace the thought processes/creativity of the human brain. Without this, you have nothing - it has been stated here on several posts already that it may not be a glamour position, or the highest-paid in the company, but it will always be there. Where is all the code going to come from if there are not programmers actually programming. This article seems to paint a dark picture, but it really sounds more like an embedded programmer is burnt and thinking about a career change and decided to share it with us...
It was banded... and released? then found miles away in another country.... then much later found with its batteries drained and tangled in some electrical lines, apparently trying to recharge itself...
sorry, but I had toFinally, BillG blurts out the truth, but before he can take it back (and explain it was gas), it is recorded, filed, and sent into the public domain. Is anyone surprised by this revelation, or is it just more amazing that he acutally admitted it.... Microsoft is slipping....
Remember reading about this in MaximumPC a month or two ago; Best Buy's stand then was that it was an error/typo and not a legally binding contract -- they said that they would not honor the price... seems that some of the stores have been honoring the price, unbeknownst to corporate management..
Hmm... who has an idea of what it would be like if the Y2K bug had been kept mum?
I understand that you are talking from a work perspective, and that in itself is completely different than the private, single user. Even in the work environment, employees either must be educated or have the access restricted - and don't give me the bs about restricting access at work; unless your work necessitates your access, you have no right/entitlement to online access at your jobsite.
The point of the article is that many of the hyped viruses this past year have been basically less than what the media/software companies have made them out to be.
A company with a product to challenge the DMCA -- thank you, 321 Studios. And how long did we have to wait for some company with the guts to stand up and say "It should not be illegal for a consumer to make a copy of something they own." Will have to wait and see the outcome on this one.
It isn't a culture-statement that I burn CD's, either with music or data, it is simply one of the ways I use technology. CD burning allows me to backup my files, distribute photographs to my mother, give a copy of my file of .WAV's to a buddy in my office -- it used to be a floppy (or several of them) or a Zip disc. Within the next few years, it will be DVD's with gigs of data or music (she'll love that) on them. It is just that technology has become so prevalent in our lives and the CD-burners are standard equipment in PC's today. The RIAA should make better analogies than the school report and the 'A' grade -- maybe if I were to sell the paper for $$$ and then found out later that somebody had made a copy and was not sending me my cut of it.... and I wouldn't care.
Not only is the "on the bandwagon", but open-source is one of those buzzwords that comes around and sticks in the lexicon of the public. Everyone sees/hears/reads that Microsoft is being sued because, amongst other things, they are not open-source. Open-source must be good then, if the courts are forcing MS to be that. Open-source gets good press; IT companies believe that they would have a favorable image if they offer something that they can point to and say "We use open-source code for that and look how great it is." Also, open-source should be more economical to run/code/acquire than proprietary solutions. I guess the problem with that is, if you are an IT company, why don't you have/use your own solution??
While I applaude JKatz for sticking to his guns (he never disappoints in pissing people off), I still have to wonder the point of this story. Granted, /. does book reviews, posts stories that are shameless plugs for products, and even occasionally plays host for rampant, undisguised commercialism, but why this drivel? In some twisted, sadomasochistic parallel universe, yes, this would fit, but not here! A plug about a book that has no connection to /. except for the author. This guy must simply enjoy the attention. Forget the 'Great /. Blackout', I propose a complete and total boycott of all future JKatz stories/postings. Who is with me?
But have you noticed just how much advertisting dell do in print and online media? Often they have the inside front cover and two or three pages inside a magazine. This makes it almost impossible for the publication to say anything bad about their products.
I subscribe to several magazines, and yes, some do seem to be lenient on their advertisers, but there are some publications out there who stick to their guns and call a spade a spade -- one recent review blasted Dell for shipping a P4 system with DDR SDRAM rather than RDRAM due to the performance hit. So making a blanket statement such as this is not accurate.
Just the thought of seeing all the old gang, Defender, Galaga, et al. brings a nostalgic tear to my eye... remembering mastering Pong and Breakout. Atari, we hardly knew ye.... and no quarters necessary?? Man, we gotta get these guys over here...
If you registered even one copy of their software within the organization/school system, then MS would have the notion that you probably have more than one application of theirs... then they would have cause to audit you. Yes, it is a damn shame that MS (or any other company), but people still don't read/understand what they are agreeing to when the 'agree' to the EULA of any software. There was a story posted to /. not too long ago about this very topic...