I am Seth. Just Seth. From god, to Kane, to Seth. I'm his right hand and I've got a business opportunity for you. You see, back in 1972, I have patented RAM memory. Allot of people realized how great my idea was and promptly started ripping me off. I assure you however that I am the logal patent holder for RAM memory but I'm not going to show anyone. From this day forth i would like to use this to claim some minor royalties. I would like $ 499,98 per megabyte of SDRAM, $ 799,98 per megabyte of DDR SDRAM and $ 10 per kilobyte of EEPROM. I will accept these royalties in unmarked 1000 ( one thousand ) dollar bills, left in non-descript paper bags behind the dumpter, next Wednesday.
Thank you, for your time and for respecting my patent.
PS,
I will be in touch in a few days regarding my patents for boolean values, macros, flash memory, DVDs and 19" rackmount cases. I assure you that I am the sole parent holder of all these items but I won't show anyone. Again, thank you for your time.
And let's not forget the fact that that 14 million dollar will most likely end up in SCO's war chest and be used against IBM, Red Hat, Novell and possibly Google, if not personal linux server administrators. Good going EV1, not only does this immediately give you a status as completely gullible, you've also made the threat itself worse.
Depends on the law in your country. In some places, the law is ambiguous at best, and while you may not actually own the data or demand that it is handed over to you, a court can decide (and in some cases already has done exactly that) that the game company has an obligation to keep your character's data reasonably safe from hackers and the like.
When MMORPGs become more mainstream, I fully expect lawsuits to be fought over virtual property, and at some point I think the law will be changed to cope explicitly with these issues.
Hmmm, that would make sense really. But I don't think companies are required by law to protect their data. After all, the character and item data still belongs to the company ( imho ) and it's their call what to do with it. They can secure it, delete it, have crackers do their things with it... Heck, they can even print it out and wipe their asses with it without any sort fo contract between the company and the client. However, I think most games will have a sort of EULA with them that will probably contain a clause stating the company will protect the data. Heck, even if it doesn't, the company will probably remain a normal level of security around the data considering massive cracks on MMORPG databases does terrible things to the image of the company and the game toward the public.
And as long as the game hosts the data, I don't think anyone other then the person/company repsonsible for the game can be considered the legal owner. The only way that I can see, for now, that someone might actually own the data is if someone were to put the data online him/herself and I highly doubt that allowing players access to raw character and item data would be a smart idea in the MMORPG world.
Verisign: Mwahaha! Say hello to millions in advertisement revenue... We mean, Sitefinder! ICANN: Hey Verisign. Verisign: Yesh? ICANN: Fuck off. Verisign:... Verisign: To hell with you, I'm going to sue you! Rest of the world: GO TO HELL, BOTH OF YOU!!!
Return tomorrow for the next episode of "As the DNS resolves."!
Good point, but over here you get screwed over if you even go 4 kmh ( roughly 2,5 mph ) over the limit. They don't care if you're overtaking at the moment or not. Besides, the police are supposed to keep speeding under control where relevant, not where it is most profitable.
It's quite a riot over here in the NL, where our goverment and police ( on all levels ) are practically conspiring against people with cars. Instead of maintaining control at essential points where people might actually be in danger from speeding traffic, ( such as elementary schools near long straight roads, faciltities for deaf or blind people, playgrounds, parks, roads adjacent to residential areas... ) they clock for speeds at places where, for example, the usual 120 kmph changes into 100 kmph for some reason no one understands in the first place. You see the 100 sign, you let go of the gas and less then a second later you see a flash in your rear view mirror and find yourself EUR 48 poorer then before.
Also common around here are the roads with nonsensical speed limit. Why just 80 on a long straight road with clear and largely empty banks on either side and at least 50m away from the nearest house? The road isn't too busy and everyone wants to get to his/her destination in time. But you can NOT take advantage of this because as soon as you go 84 kmph, you've lost EUR 23 to some idiot dressed in blue. Meanwhile, on the less-busy parallel road just 5m from the houses, someone goes 100 kmph, nearly kills a playing kid and doesn't get fined because it's not profitable enough to station someone over there.
I do not know what is worse: the fact I have to pay extra taxes because of poor laws in this country, ( Especially regarding highways when compared to Germany, where you can go as fast as you want during certain times iirc... ) or the fact officials downright LIE to us and STILL claim it is all for "safety" and not to just rake in some extra cash. Now this all might be very different where you are, but over here it tends to piss people off. Including yours truly.
The difference is that, in a good MMORPG, Darkhaven will be populated with many like-minded players, all trying to exist as make-believe characters in a virtual world. Rather than calling you a looney, they'll try and play along. I am not sure what you are referring to with the "actually being Thorpe" remark... but yes, some people will go very far with imagining themselves being their character. That has nothing to do with split personalities or psychological problems, it's simply the enjoyment of trying to create a believable character by exercising ones imagination
So basically, what you are saying is that if I find 100 other people with yellow penguins and walk around town with them, then it's suddenly okay and acceptable? From the inside of this group, it sure looks okay. I mean, from the inside it appears that everyone is doing it. However, if an outsider takes a look at this sort of behaviour ( 101 people walking around with yellow penguins while said penguins beat eachother up and shock eachother with tazers ) they'd get worried and sooner or later, all 101 of us would end up in the local funny farm. Now apply this to a bunch of people who ARE their respective RP characters. From the inside it looks perfectly normal; Everyone else is doing it so it's probably okay, right? From an outside perspective, it's still scary as hell to see people going that far for something as simple as a game.
But, you've got a point. It's not like all MUD/MMORPG players are mentally instable. The majority of people in said games are ( I hope... ) stable enough to keep a firm distinction between reality and the game. They just play the game, enjoy it, have fun with others and still maintain the ability to be able to let go of their onlines "lives".
Yes, of course people get upset emotionally if their characters are harmed or their items stolen. Would you not be upset if someone ruined a painting you have been working hard on? Someone keying the classic car you've slaved over many hours to restore it to its former glory? Same deal... you get pissed at the person who is wilfully destroying something that gave you intense enjoyment.
Ah, very true. Very good point, too. Yes, i would be upset if someone destroyed something I've been working hard on. Like I said, I've been on both sides regarding this kind of behaviour. I myself had 1,5 years of hard effort on a MUD thrown away after some minor incidents which ended up being grossly exagerated by people who opposed me back then. All in all, I ended up with a nice ban on my IP adress and everything from the past 1,5 years more or less got deleted. Of course I myself was mad at this... Downright seething. It took me a while but I realized that it just really did not matter a bit and that I should have been GLAD I got banned. After all, it did help me get rid of my addiction to MUDding ( albeit not voluntarily... ) and it made me realize that people should keep a firm grip on reality.
The comparisons to ruining a painting or wrecking a car would be comparable to this, yes. But you never really "own" your character or your equipment in a game. It's all imaginary and thus you never own anything at all except the PRIVILEGE to use it. Unlike the car or the painting, which you do own yourself. Having your character and all your items deleted by an admin is something you can't do much against, considering it's their computer and their data.
Besides, the wilful destruction of property is against the law and thus you can go to court if someone decides to be a "griever" and ruin your fun. Unlike blocked accounts/bans/whatever on online games, there's allot you can do about destruction of property in real life. Sure, it still pisses you off but at least you can get back at the "assho-"... err... "griever".:)
... having radar in your car. Just don't be surprised one the police finds a way to screw you over for a few more bucks by using passive radar to determine your speed.
If I walk around in my town, carrying about a penguin that's been painted yellow and while trying to make everyone call said penguin "Pikachu", I'll be comitted to the local looney bin. How is that any different from romping about an imaginary town called "Darkhaven" and insisting that you're not John Doe, but "Thorpe the Ranger"? Even if it is a game, there is still a fine line between reality ( playing Thorpe the Ranger realistically ) and imagination. ( actually BEING Thorpse the Ranger ) As soon as this line is crossed you've got issues and need help. Once the game reaches this kind of level for someone they should be removed from the game as it's no longer a game to them anymore.
And give me a break. Living, breathing people do not disconnect, get their connections reset by peer or time-out in the middle of a conversation. ( Sadly, sometimes... ) The same line between reality and imagination apply over here as well. Trust me on this one, considering I've been on both extremes considering this as a former MUD player myself. I know of people who were in a true state of bliss over something on the MUD, who were crying about the same thing later being taken away. I have seen people meeting their true love on the internet, I've seen people denouncing their true love as hellspawn bad enough to make the Nine Hells themselves shake in terror... People on the internet are easier to deal with if you just show some respect and keep real, personal feelings out of it. Keep those for real friends who appreciate it much, MUCH more.
Doesn't ICANN hold SOME authority over VeriSign about DNS? Can't ICANN just "pull the plug" and tell VeriSign to go take a hike while they find someone more competent to take care of the root DNS servers? I mean, this is getting more or less ridiculous and as far as I understand it, would severely hamper several spam-fighting techniques used, possibly other things as well.
Besides, isn't it possible to get rid of the whole root DNS server idea in the first place? The attack on the root servers a few months ago didn't do much damage but it made clear that IF the root server went down ( granted, for extended periods... ) that the internet would be flat on it's arse unless we started using IP adresses. ( Which doesn't solve the problem because of absolute linking used on some websites... Though it would allow other uses again like FTP, SSH, etcetera. ) So why not a root DNS p2p network then? Still the root idea as used for DNS now, but instead of querying a set of dedicated root servers, DNS servers lower in the hierachy would query a root p2p network instead. Give ISPs a server with access to the network, same thing for registrars & co and someone decides to be a prick with DNS records, have ICANN throw them off be severing all communications with the other party's DNS servers.
BTX (more of a form factor but i believe ties into OS controlled temp and whatnot)
Do you have anything to prove that bit? Last thing I'd like is for tempctrl.exe to crash and end up with a 64 bit, 200 euro slab of silicon goo oozing down my mainboard...
Have all Slashdotters run around ATMs and check for card skimmers. If found, remove card skimmer, take home, disassemble, build into $anything, add keypad and have your own PIN access system to $anything! All the while doing the rest of the world a favour by taking away card skimmers! Woot!
I know a grand total of 1 ( ONE ) female gamer. And she looks like she has been hit in the face by a vat of acid at 300km/h, has about the same weight as as the Eurasian tectonic plate, is as charming as Margaret Thatcher on a Sunday morning, about as reliable and trustworthy as an unnamed operating system which does NOT control 5% of the global market and she's got emotional problems. Severe problems.
Someone really ought to merge The Sims with Battlefield 1942.
Meet new people! Pimp out the neighbohr's teenage daughter! Strafe your boss' car! Curse each day about not respawning next to your car and watching your son drive of with it instead! WOOT! And you gain valuable military experience as well!
Has anyone even looked at the "Realizability" ??? "Near Term" and "Slightly Farther Out Than the Phone and Camera" both equate to "Not in your lifetime, bozo!" in my book. Pretty much like diamond-based processors, solid state storage, quantum computing and DNF.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, they found remnants of bacterial life and water but...
... not on Mars. The probes navigational systems malfunctioned and they spend the last few weeks driving around Nevada instead.
Ooo! I know!
Subject: Business opportunity.
Dear friends,
I am Seth. Just Seth. From god, to Kane, to Seth. I'm his right hand and I've got a business opportunity for you. You see, back in 1972, I have patented RAM memory. Allot of people realized how great my idea was and promptly started ripping me off. I assure you however that I am the logal patent holder for RAM memory but I'm not going to show anyone. From this day forth i would like to use this to claim some minor royalties. I would like $ 499,98 per megabyte of SDRAM, $ 799,98 per megabyte of DDR SDRAM and $ 10 per kilobyte of EEPROM. I will accept these royalties in unmarked 1000 ( one thousand ) dollar bills, left in non-descript paper bags behind the dumpter, next Wednesday.
Thank you, for your time and for respecting my patent.
PS,
I will be in touch in a few days regarding my patents for boolean values, macros, flash memory, DVDs and 19" rackmount cases. I assure you that I am the sole parent holder of all these items but I won't show anyone. Again, thank you for your time.
Sincerily,
Seth
And let's not forget the fact that that 14 million dollar will most likely end up in SCO's war chest and be used against IBM, Red Hat, Novell and possibly Google, if not personal linux server administrators. Good going EV1, not only does this immediately give you a status as completely gullible, you've also made the threat itself worse.
Why am I not surprised?
Did anyone hear that whooshing sound? That was Rockstar's reputation amongst PC & Xbox gamers taking a nose dive.
Even cheaper, don't get married and don't get kids.
Just add this to it!
Hmmm, that would make sense really. But I don't think companies are required by law to protect their data. After all, the character and item data still belongs to the company ( imho ) and it's their call what to do with it. They can secure it, delete it, have crackers do their things with it... Heck, they can even print it out and wipe their asses with it without any sort fo contract between the company and the client. However, I think most games will have a sort of EULA with them that will probably contain a clause stating the company will protect the data. Heck, even if it doesn't, the company will probably remain a normal level of security around the data considering massive cracks on MMORPG databases does terrible things to the image of the company and the game toward the public.
And as long as the game hosts the data, I don't think anyone other then the person/company repsonsible for the game can be considered the legal owner. The only way that I can see, for now, that someone might actually own the data is if someone were to put the data online him/herself and I highly doubt that allowing players access to raw character and item data would be a smart idea in the MMORPG world.
Good point, but over here you get screwed over if you even go 4 kmh ( roughly 2,5 mph ) over the limit. They don't care if you're overtaking at the moment or not. Besides, the police are supposed to keep speeding under control where relevant, not where it is most profitable.
It's quite a riot over here in the NL, where our goverment and police ( on all levels ) are practically conspiring against people with cars. Instead of maintaining control at essential points where people might actually be in danger from speeding traffic, ( such as elementary schools near long straight roads, faciltities for deaf or blind people, playgrounds, parks, roads adjacent to residential areas... ) they clock for speeds at places where, for example, the usual 120 kmph changes into 100 kmph for some reason no one understands in the first place. You see the 100 sign, you let go of the gas and less then a second later you see a flash in your rear view mirror and find yourself EUR 48 poorer then before.
Also common around here are the roads with nonsensical speed limit. Why just 80 on a long straight road with clear and largely empty banks on either side and at least 50m away from the nearest house? The road isn't too busy and everyone wants to get to his/her destination in time. But you can NOT take advantage of this because as soon as you go 84 kmph, you've lost EUR 23 to some idiot dressed in blue. Meanwhile, on the less-busy parallel road just 5m from the houses, someone goes 100 kmph, nearly kills a playing kid and doesn't get fined because it's not profitable enough to station someone over there.
I do not know what is worse: the fact I have to pay extra taxes because of poor laws in this country, ( Especially regarding highways when compared to Germany, where you can go as fast as you want during certain times iirc... ) or the fact officials downright LIE to us and STILL claim it is all for "safety" and not to just rake in some extra cash. Now this all might be very different where you are, but over here it tends to piss people off. Including yours truly.
So basically, what you are saying is that if I find 100 other people with yellow penguins and walk around town with them, then it's suddenly okay and acceptable? From the inside of this group, it sure looks okay. I mean, from the inside it appears that everyone is doing it. However, if an outsider takes a look at this sort of behaviour ( 101 people walking around with yellow penguins while said penguins beat eachother up and shock eachother with tazers ) they'd get worried and sooner or later, all 101 of us would end up in the local funny farm. Now apply this to a bunch of people who ARE their respective RP characters. From the inside it looks perfectly normal; Everyone else is doing it so it's probably okay, right? From an outside perspective, it's still scary as hell to see people going that far for something as simple as a game.
But, you've got a point. It's not like all MUD/MMORPG players are mentally instable. The majority of people in said games are ( I hope... ) stable enough to keep a firm distinction between reality and the game. They just play the game, enjoy it, have fun with others and still maintain the ability to be able to let go of their onlines "lives".
Ah, very true. Very good point, too. Yes, i would be upset if someone destroyed something I've been working hard on. Like I said, I've been on both sides regarding this kind of behaviour. I myself had 1,5 years of hard effort on a MUD thrown away after some minor incidents which ended up being grossly exagerated by people who opposed me back then. All in all, I ended up with a nice ban on my IP adress and everything from the past 1,5 years more or less got deleted. Of course I myself was mad at this... Downright seething. It took me a while but I realized that it just really did not matter a bit and that I should have been GLAD I got banned. After all, it did help me get rid of my addiction to MUDding ( albeit not voluntarily... ) and it made me realize that people should keep a firm grip on reality.
The comparisons to ruining a painting or wrecking a car would be comparable to this, yes. But you never really "own" your character or your equipment in a game. It's all imaginary and thus you never own anything at all except the PRIVILEGE to use it. Unlike the car or the painting, which you do own yourself. Having your character and all your items deleted by an admin is something you can't do much against, considering it's their computer and their data.
Besides, the wilful destruction of property is against the law and thus you can go to court if someone decides to be a "griever" and ruin your fun. Unlike blocked accounts/bans/whatever on online games, there's allot you can do about destruction of property in real life. Sure, it still pisses you off but at least you can get back at the "assho-" ... err... "griever". :)
... having radar in your car. Just don't be surprised one the police finds a way to screw you over for a few more bucks by using passive radar to determine your speed.
Oh please.
If I walk around in my town, carrying about a penguin that's been painted yellow and while trying to make everyone call said penguin "Pikachu", I'll be comitted to the local looney bin. How is that any different from romping about an imaginary town called "Darkhaven" and insisting that you're not John Doe, but "Thorpe the Ranger"? Even if it is a game, there is still a fine line between reality ( playing Thorpe the Ranger realistically ) and imagination. ( actually BEING Thorpse the Ranger ) As soon as this line is crossed you've got issues and need help. Once the game reaches this kind of level for someone they should be removed from the game as it's no longer a game to them anymore.
And give me a break. Living, breathing people do not disconnect, get their connections reset by peer or time-out in the middle of a conversation. ( Sadly, sometimes... ) The same line between reality and imagination apply over here as well. Trust me on this one, considering I've been on both extremes considering this as a former MUD player myself. I know of people who were in a true state of bliss over something on the MUD, who were crying about the same thing later being taken away. I have seen people meeting their true love on the internet, I've seen people denouncing their true love as hellspawn bad enough to make the Nine Hells themselves shake in terror... People on the internet are easier to deal with if you just show some respect and keep real, personal feelings out of it. Keep those for real friends who appreciate it much, MUCH more.
Well, ask yourself the following; Do you want more users to suffer because of a petty dispute?
Doesn't ICANN hold SOME authority over VeriSign about DNS? Can't ICANN just "pull the plug" and tell VeriSign to go take a hike while they find someone more competent to take care of the root DNS servers? I mean, this is getting more or less ridiculous and as far as I understand it, would severely hamper several spam-fighting techniques used, possibly other things as well.
Besides, isn't it possible to get rid of the whole root DNS server idea in the first place? The attack on the root servers a few months ago didn't do much damage but it made clear that IF the root server went down ( granted, for extended periods... ) that the internet would be flat on it's arse unless we started using IP adresses. ( Which doesn't solve the problem because of absolute linking used on some websites... Though it would allow other uses again like FTP, SSH, etcetera. ) So why not a root DNS p2p network then? Still the root idea as used for DNS now, but instead of querying a set of dedicated root servers, DNS servers lower in the hierachy would query a root p2p network instead. Give ISPs a server with access to the network, same thing for registrars & co and someone decides to be a prick with DNS records, have ICANN throw them off be severing all communications with the other party's DNS servers.
Do you have anything to prove that bit? Last thing I'd like is for tempctrl.exe to crash and end up with a 64 bit, 200 euro slab of silicon goo oozing down my mainboard...
Imagine an OpenMOSIX cluster of these babies!
When did Sony buy out Jasc software and aquire Paint Shop pro? ... Oh! Playstation... Erm... ... Is this the way out?
Toss vb6.dll out of the development tree!
Punt it! PUNT IT!!
Don't worry, at least Blinky tasted good. *burp*
Have all Slashdotters run around ATMs and check for card skimmers. If found, remove card skimmer, take home, disassemble, build into $anything, add keypad and have your own PIN access system to $anything! All the while doing the rest of the world a favour by taking away card skimmers! Woot!
I know a grand total of 1 ( ONE ) female gamer. And she looks like she has been hit in the face by a vat of acid at 300km/h, has about the same weight as as the Eurasian tectonic plate, is as charming as Margaret Thatcher on a Sunday morning, about as reliable and trustworthy as an unnamed operating system which does NOT control 5% of the global market and she's got emotional problems. Severe problems.
I lost faith in humanity long ago...
Someone really ought to merge The Sims with Battlefield 1942.
Meet new people! Pimp out the neighbohr's teenage daughter! Strafe your boss' car! Curse each day about not respawning next to your car and watching your son drive of with it instead! WOOT! And you gain valuable military experience as well!
Has anyone even looked at the "Realizability" ??? "Near Term" and "Slightly Farther Out Than the Phone and Camera" both equate to "Not in your lifetime, bozo!" in my book. Pretty much like diamond-based processors, solid state storage, quantum computing and DNF.