Didn't Shakespeare already write all the blockbuster plots?
Yes, but he didn't file a patent or SIR application with the USPTO; therefore they're not part of the corpus of prior art. So they're still up for grabs.
...And here are the assholes who have been doing the legal legwork to make this possible. Here is their argument in law, which draws heavily on the flawed, idiotic precedents established with software patents.
The system is now officially broken, and anyone who takes the USPTO seriously after today is part of the problem.
Yes, it does scan window titles, and yes, coincidentally, those window titles may contain URLs or e-mail addresses. But Warden only works with hashes of those strings and doesn't phone them home.
Bullshit response. Just because the data's hashed doesn't mean it can't be reconstructed. Yes, there are multiple source data that can yield a given hash value, but if you get the hash value 0xB29AF45E taken from a window title, it's a fair bet that the title was more likely to have said "http://blizzardareassholes.org/", and not "?*(2Bks*81(y3Ddn39@*&1nzb82".
The difference is that you have the right to private property, WoW has the right to deny you access to THEIR private property based on their own criteria. If this you feel this criteria is too invasive then, by all means, do not use their software/services.
That's reasonable as far as it goes, but it fails to take into account that Blizzard is also refuses to permit competitors to exist. Some server operators may take a more relaxed attitude on cheating, or at the very least find it ethically reprehensible to install a piece of spyware on a client's machine to ensure fair game play. But we will never get to know these alternate server providers, because Blizzard has had the Open Source server workalike 'bnetd' declared illegal on highly specious grounds. So it's either unethical spyware with your game, or no game at all.
Me? I voted with my dollars; I don't own WoW. The last Blizzard game I played (and paid for) was Diablo II.
It's nothing to do with Space Surgery(TM), and everything to do with outsourcing.
After all, why would you hire the ludicrously expensive local surgeon when you can hire an equally-skilled Indian living in Bangalore (right next door to the Dell phone support center) to use these robots to work remotely.
Soon, you'll be able to have your surgery done at WalMart, and the only people they have to pay directly are the anesthesiologist and maybe a couple of post-op nurses.
Oh, and don't think that WalMart won't be saving copies of the surgical procedure so that they can be replayed, probably under the control of a expert system or primitive AI. Then you can cut the pesky surgeon out of the equation entirely (except in extremely unusual cases) and boost profits even higher.
"Space Surgery" is just window dressing. This is all about offshoring more jobs.
I have little doubt the law will be struck down. Lowenstein and the ESA have an excellent track record of going into states that have enacted similar wrong-headed laws and had them struck down. Not only is it a clear violation of the First Amendment, it unfairly and unnecessarily targets video games, while leaving other forms of popular media (movies, books, music) unaddressed. From a legal standpoint, this is indefensible, so the state doesn't stand much of a chance.
As long as it is clearly stated on the CD, DVD, or software what the limitations are of the contract under which it is offered, then it falls to the consumer to either fully accept or refuse it.
Yup, I'm totally fine with that.
Oh! You do realize, of course, that CDs, DVDs, books, and computer software are sold as goods under the terms of the Uniform Commercial Code, the uniform contract that governs all transactions taking place in a retail venue? And that "EULA" of which you speak is nothing more than wishful thinking? Yeah, I thought not... (And before you utter "UCITA," kindly observe that UCITA is not 'U' (uniform) at all. Only two or three states have enacted it. And several states have expressly enacted anti-UCITA provisions to their UCC regs.)
Copy protection is a product defect. It is an artificially-introduced capacity for failure that would not exist if it wasn't there. Intentionally selling defective merchandise shouldn't be tolerated.
Intel are the primary supporters of Treacherous (nee Trusted) Computing. They developed the CPRM and CPPM copy protection technologies, which they tried to stick into ATA hard disks, and which they have jammed into IEEE-1394 (Firewire) interfaces.
Intel is talking out of both sides of their mouth. If they really gave a damn about the rights of citizens, they would tell Hollywood to cram it, repudiate CPRM and CPPM, and lobby for copyright reform.
B3's soundtrack sucked. Not a single good tune, with the possible exception of the music behind the game's opening logo and "Press Start" screen (right after the opening music video). My sweetie's 16-year-old son agrees; none of the music in Burnout 3 was really any good, and certainly not what could be called driving music.
It appears from the review that EA made the same error with Burnout Revenge: They "did a deal" with some music studio to get some "big name" artists, thereby "adding premium value" to the game. And like Burnout 3, we'll probably be turning the music completely off, because it's just so annoying.
Schwab
Technology vs. Game Design
on
Ask Sid Meier
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
It is widely opined that computer games seem to have hit creative stagnation. All we seem to be getting are mostly technological advancements, not imaginative new games.
Not so very long ago, computer games were simple beasts, relying on little more than text and simple rectangles. Nearly all of these games remain fun today. Advancing technology has made it possible to experience games in new ways, but do you believe the art of game creation itself has been much advanced by computers? As an example, conceptually speaking, Doom and Quake, though technological marvels, aren't so very far removed from paper-and-pencil role playing games. The computer merely automates the dice-rolling and map drawing.
To put it another way, are there any new types of games that you've thought of or are out there that are simply impossible without computers?
I believe the theory is known as the "WON'T ANYONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN" WAPTOC greater theory of social conformity, where by society is deemed to be best lead towards at state where no child can ever encounter an object or idea which may cause them to ask a question that in any way makes their guardians uncomfortable.
Actually, my middle-class secular armchair analysis goes like this:
Children need to be shielded from all manifestations of Impurity possible. By so doing, their Innocence will be compromised to the minimum possible extent. They will grow up to beget more children, who will be better shielded and more Innocent than themselves, until one day the human race will become Perfectly Innocent beings and, as Perfectly Innocent, will be able to petition $(GOD) for readmittance to the Garden of Eden. $(GOD)'s unconditional love will have been earned once more, and we'll all get to enjoy a living paradise.
Mind you, I pulled this completely out of my ass. But that should be okay, because they did, too.
Your brief story about Bronfman would seem to add some clarity to how this video came about. If you can find a copy of it on the Net somewhere, have a look; it's hysterical.
What does "use" mean? Any damn thing the customer defines it to mean. The vendor gave up all rights to constrain the customer when s/he sold the item (and yes, you sold it despite what that flimsly little piece of paper inside the shrinkwrap may say).
To placate the IP Fundamentalists, we may agree, for the moment, that "use" should not include the making and distribution of copies to others. Anything outside of that should be perfectly okay. Meaningful counterexamples welcome.
One of the things I've often noted about EMACS users is that they seem so effective. A couple former colleages of mine would flip around at amazing speed, getting to the exact point in the code they needed, make a change, launch a build in a separate EMACS window, and the error output would take them to the correct line in the broken file where they'd fix it.
Granted, most of the other editors do this, too. I've been using 'vi' variants for over 20 years, and have currently settled on VIM. Most of them have built-in help for parsing build output, but it just seems so much clunkier than when I watch an EMACS user do it.
What I'd really like is a book or HOWTO that's focused on effective software development using EMACS. The general-purpose "learning" books just don't get into that kind of narrow depth.
Oh, for cry eye, a Minox camera can be used to copy pages. How about a Kodak Brownie? Christ, how about a fscking Daguerreotype?
You're not seriously telling me that photographic copying is a surprise to these people?
I'm sorry, but consumer-level digital computers are 30 years old. Electronic computing in general is at least 60 years old. Photography is over 160 years old. If you haven't figured out by now that Copying Happens, then you're a complete, blithering idiot. Seriously. Grow the hell up now; the world isn't going to stop for you, and the ulcer you save may be your own.
You're looking at it backwards: It's amazing that a software project as solid, reliable, and high-performance as Linux got that way without a "traditional" quality assurance process.
The note to take away is not that Linux is a piece of junk because it lacked a formal QA cycle, but that true software quality doesn't proceed from a formal QA cycle (though it can help).
To the apologists who claim that a contract is created between Lexmark and the purchaser, I ask: Where is the informed disclosure? Where is the manifestation of informed assent? Where are the signed copies of the "contract"?
The reason retail markets are so valuable is because a regular set of rules that is common to all states governs how transactions in the market take place. This regularity is what enables an accelerated transfer of goods and services, which lets money flow around the economy that much faster, benefiting everyone. If you want special terms or conditions you, by definition, are not trading in a retail market. For you to sell your goods in a retail venue is therefore, at best, misleading ("bait-and-switch," anyone?).
If you want special terms and conditions, get a signed contract. Oh, that's too much trouble? Well, tough shit. And if you try sneaking a contract in under the radar, well, that doesn't prove you have any kind of rights or moral authority, all it proves is you're sneaky.
This is a crap decision, following on twenty years of previous crap decisions (ProCD vs. Zeidenberg being but one of them).
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but he didn't file a patent or SIR application with the USPTO; therefore they're not part of the corpus of prior art. So they're still up for grabs.
Schwab
P.S: I call dibs on, "Twelfth Night."
However, the fact that the USPTO accepted the application at all merely reinforces my assertion: The USPTO is now officially broken.
Schwab
The system is now officially broken, and anyone who takes the USPTO seriously after today is part of the problem.
Schwab
Schwab
Bullshit response. Just because the data's hashed doesn't mean it can't be reconstructed. Yes, there are multiple source data that can yield a given hash value, but if you get the hash value 0xB29AF45E taken from a window title, it's a fair bet that the title was more likely to have said "http://blizzardareassholes.org/", and not "?*(2Bks*81(y3Ddn39@*&1nzb82".
Schwab
That's reasonable as far as it goes, but it fails to take into account that Blizzard is also refuses to permit competitors to exist. Some server operators may take a more relaxed attitude on cheating, or at the very least find it ethically reprehensible to install a piece of spyware on a client's machine to ensure fair game play. But we will never get to know these alternate server providers, because Blizzard has had the Open Source server workalike 'bnetd' declared illegal on highly specious grounds. So it's either unethical spyware with your game, or no game at all.
Me? I voted with my dollars; I don't own WoW. The last Blizzard game I played (and paid for) was Diablo II.
Schwab
After all, why would you hire the ludicrously expensive local surgeon when you can hire an equally-skilled Indian living in Bangalore (right next door to the Dell phone support center) to use these robots to work remotely.
Soon, you'll be able to have your surgery done at WalMart, and the only people they have to pay directly are the anesthesiologist and maybe a couple of post-op nurses.
Oh, and don't think that WalMart won't be saving copies of the surgical procedure so that they can be replayed, probably under the control of a expert system or primitive AI. Then you can cut the pesky surgeon out of the equation entirely (except in extremely unusual cases) and boost profits even higher.
"Space Surgery" is just window dressing. This is all about offshoring more jobs.
Schwab
Anyone have a spare Senator they're not using?
Schwab
Hell, are there Windows drivers that don't explode on an SMP machine?
Nope? I guess it stays on the shelf, then...
Schwab
Schwab
California Resident
Yup, I'm totally fine with that.
Oh! You do realize, of course, that CDs, DVDs, books, and computer software are sold as goods under the terms of the Uniform Commercial Code, the uniform contract that governs all transactions taking place in a retail venue? And that "EULA" of which you speak is nothing more than wishful thinking? Yeah, I thought not... (And before you utter "UCITA," kindly observe that UCITA is not 'U' (uniform) at all. Only two or three states have enacted it. And several states have expressly enacted anti-UCITA provisions to their UCC regs.)
Schwab
Copy protection is a product defect. It is an artificially-introduced capacity for failure that would not exist if it wasn't there. Intentionally selling defective merchandise shouldn't be tolerated.
Schwab
Intel is talking out of both sides of their mouth. If they really gave a damn about the rights of citizens, they would tell Hollywood to cram it, repudiate CPRM and CPPM, and lobby for copyright reform.
I'm not impressed.
Schwab
2005-09-27 23:40:03 SanDisk to Provide Copy-Protected Flash Chips (Your Rights Online,Technology) (rejected)
Schwab
It appears from the review that EA made the same error with Burnout Revenge: They "did a deal" with some music studio to get some "big name" artists, thereby "adding premium value" to the game. And like Burnout 3, we'll probably be turning the music completely off, because it's just so annoying.
Schwab
Not so very long ago, computer games were simple beasts, relying on little more than text and simple rectangles. Nearly all of these games remain fun today. Advancing technology has made it possible to experience games in new ways, but do you believe the art of game creation itself has been much advanced by computers? As an example, conceptually speaking, Doom and Quake, though technological marvels, aren't so very far removed from paper-and-pencil role playing games. The computer merely automates the dice-rolling and map drawing.
To put it another way, are there any new types of games that you've thought of or are out there that are simply impossible without computers?
Actually, my middle-class secular armchair analysis goes like this:
Children need to be shielded from all manifestations of Impurity possible. By so doing, their Innocence will be compromised to the minimum possible extent. They will grow up to beget more children, who will be better shielded and more Innocent than themselves, until one day the human race will become Perfectly Innocent beings and, as Perfectly Innocent, will be able to petition $(GOD) for readmittance to the Garden of Eden. $(GOD)'s unconditional love will have been earned once more, and we'll all get to enjoy a living paradise.
Mind you, I pulled this completely out of my ass. But that should be okay, because they did, too.
Schwab
Schwab
"Right to Use is concomitant with purchase."
What does "use" mean? Any damn thing the customer defines it to mean. The vendor gave up all rights to constrain the customer when s/he sold the item (and yes, you sold it despite what that flimsly little piece of paper inside the shrinkwrap may say).
To placate the IP Fundamentalists, we may agree, for the moment, that "use" should not include the making and distribution of copies to others. Anything outside of that should be perfectly okay. Meaningful counterexamples welcome.
Schwab
Granted, most of the other editors do this, too. I've been using 'vi' variants for over 20 years, and have currently settled on VIM. Most of them have built-in help for parsing build output, but it just seems so much clunkier than when I watch an EMACS user do it.
What I'd really like is a book or HOWTO that's focused on effective software development using EMACS. The general-purpose "learning" books just don't get into that kind of narrow depth.
Schwab
You're not seriously telling me that photographic copying is a surprise to these people?
I'm sorry, but consumer-level digital computers are 30 years old. Electronic computing in general is at least 60 years old. Photography is over 160 years old. If you haven't figured out by now that Copying Happens, then you're a complete, blithering idiot. Seriously. Grow the hell up now; the world isn't going to stop for you, and the ulcer you save may be your own.
Schwab
Let's see:
And that's just off the top of my head.
Schwab
You're looking at it backwards: It's amazing that a software project as solid, reliable, and high-performance as Linux got that way without a "traditional" quality assurance process.
The note to take away is not that Linux is a piece of junk because it lacked a formal QA cycle, but that true software quality doesn't proceed from a formal QA cycle (though it can help).
Schwab
What have I been telling you people for at least the last ten years? Why haven't you been paying attention?
To the apologists who claim that a contract is created between Lexmark and the purchaser, I ask: Where is the informed disclosure? Where is the manifestation of informed assent? Where are the signed copies of the "contract"?
The reason retail markets are so valuable is because a regular set of rules that is common to all states governs how transactions in the market take place. This regularity is what enables an accelerated transfer of goods and services, which lets money flow around the economy that much faster, benefiting everyone. If you want special terms or conditions you, by definition, are not trading in a retail market. For you to sell your goods in a retail venue is therefore, at best, misleading ("bait-and-switch," anyone?).
If you want special terms and conditions, get a signed contract. Oh, that's too much trouble? Well, tough shit. And if you try sneaking a contract in under the radar, well, that doesn't prove you have any kind of rights or moral authority, all it proves is you're sneaky.
This is a crap decision, following on twenty years of previous crap decisions (ProCD vs. Zeidenberg being but one of them).
Schwab
You did buy a copy of Darwinia, didn't you? How about Uplink?
Schwab