What ever happened to being banned from hooking computers with phone lines, and being forced to humbly shelf your handle; only to make friends with kids at a new school ten years later and join an elite underground hacking network to stop an evil corporate information security guy from spilling oil on penguins?
We were not going to pay anyone $50,000 for anything. No one lost money.
Just because no one lost any money doesn't mean it's not a crime, although it might not be 'stealing'. It's more like Intellectual Property Trespassing. You weren't allowed by the owners of that property to use that property without paying for a license. It is their right to decide at what price to offer admission to (use of) their property, not yours. You are also stealing from competitor companies by eliminating the factor of price vs. quality. If you physically couldn't use software without paying for it (if commercial cybercafes were the only computers you could access and they charged based on the cost of the programs you used), or if you had morals and refused to steal, and you needed statistics software, you would have bought a cheaper, less featured version instead of stealing it. If price mattered, companies would be forced to put out more competitive pricing for low end users. That's why the car industry offers high-end BMW's and also low-end KIA's, and almost anyone can afford a car.
<sarcasm>I punch someone in the face, is it a crime? No, no one lost any money.</sarcasm>
But theft of physical goods and software IS different (and both wrong). Someone stole the software you spend a lot of time (and money) to write, you might have lost a sale... Someone stole some physical good you manufactured, you're out the physical cost of the good AND the loss of sale.
Except in auctions and shareware, it's the owner's decision to set the cost at which you may acquire his service/product, not yours, regardless of what the cost of production/duplication is.
Let's approach the problem from a different angle. Let's think about "gifts" instead of "thefts". When Bill Gates or MS announces that they've donated $1 billion to xyz charity/school/government (and probably take a tax write off accordingly), what did this $1 billion gift really cost them? Arguably a fraction of the $1 billion in lost sales. Most likely, nothing, since we're talking about charities that could never afford the software in the first place.
And if you factor in the taxes they would have had to pay had they kept that $1 Billion of capital/revenue from sale for themselves, they would have been left with closer to $0.5 Billion after taxes. Then, treating the charitable contribution as a 'Free Sample', you factor in how the school may use other microsoft products ni the future, as well as all of the kids who will now grow up learning on MS computers and probably not others. <rant>They should be forced to donate spendable money, so the school can choose to buy Apple, Linux, etc. and not have their futures decided/bribed by a rich corporation.</rant>
There is a HUGE difference. If someone steals a physical object, you're always out the cost of the physical object. If someone steals a software producct, and they weren't planning on buying it anyway (how many people who steal Maya would ever, ever buy it?), then this theft has cost you not one red cent. $X of piracy does NOT equal $X of lost revenue.
For any commercial product and most software, except shareware, it is not an individual's choice of whether to pay for something or not. You're saying that just because you don't like something enough to pay for it means that you should be able to take it for free?
Well I don't really like baseball that much, but I might want to see a game once in a while, probably as rarely (3 or 4 times in a summer?) as I might use Maya. Is it right, then, to forge season tickets and attend 3 or 4 games, and receive all its external benefits (entertainment for a few hours, possibly a free gift) without paying for it, all because I didn't think it was worth admission? Doesn't cost them anything, unless I try sitting in some guy's paid-for seat.
I didn't plan on buying a BMW, so can I have it for just the cost of the parts?
As an army general (hypothetically), I don't think it's very valuable to be able to quarter my troops in your house on your otherwise unused livingroom floor, so I can just send them in whether you like it or not?
It's the owner's right to decide how much it costs them, monetary or otherwise, for you to use their product or service. No discussion. Sorry, but except in auctions and shareware, it's the owner's right to decide the price, not you.
We know the Egyptians drank beer in preference to water as the fermentation process helped purify the water and reduced the risk of waterborne disease.
Yeah, uh, me too! That's why I drink beer like it's water.
Having such a well concealed room at the end of a completely impassable tunnel which in turn is blocked by two huge stone doors screams: "DO NOT ENTER! DANGER!" to anyone who's not blinded by the belief in our science.
Actually, richly stocked and securely guarded tombs meant to the ancient egyptians that their eternal spirits would continue to enjoy a luxurious existence even after death. The only threat present to ancient graverobbers was the potential of pulling their own arms off (Bender style) while trying to move those slabs without heavy machinery.
Considering the cultish mentality of the average Phish-head, he was probably afraid of having to deal with a mewling, groveling stoner, asking him to autograph his bong or something;-)
No, it's more likely that he didn't have time for an interesting conversation with one of his band's fans, who tend to have a better understanding of what music is than any fans of those sweet voiced strippers polluting MTV these days.;-)
All I want to know is how come Afghanistan, a 4th wold nation in complete ruins, managed to have an election and we cannot
<offtopic> To say '4th world' isn't really meaningful. The term Third World came from the cold war, where (to an American) the US was first-person/world, the USSR was second-person/world, and any country not yet decidedly allied behind either communism or capitalism was considered third-person/world (and up for grabs). In short, it refers to "Us, You, and Them". It is more of a label on type of economy or government, not a measure of how advanced the country is. <rant>Since there's not so much concern over the capitalist/communist debate anymore, terms like Third World should probably be discarded in favor of more accurate terms such as Developing, Underdeveloped, or better yet not categorize them at all and instead name the tehnological/economics situation that you mean to refer to. (eg: "Afghanistan, an extremely low-tech nation in complete ruins").</rant></offtopic>
I'm curious to know; what went into the decision for allowing political parties to see the source code, but not the voters? There's enough conspiracy-theory/don't-trust-the-government sentiment that the last thing we'd need is another thing that the government can know but we cannot.
Otherwise, I think this sounds like a great solution, to blend electronic efficiency with hard-copy trust. Any efforts to market this system to other countries?
Wow, take it easy. No need for foul language with me. Equally, I retract the crybaby comment, it was uncalled for.
Costs for all the testing and fixing that goes on between a software's initial release and its first few patches can be very expensive, and it's even more expensive to do it for two different platforms at once, unless you've written in some highly portable language. I can't see how a company could afford to spend lots of resources on simultaneously supporting a second OS, until after a few months have gone by, the basic bugs and design flaws have been weeded out, and their builders are freed up.
Have any games (or other types of software?) proven that there's a significant, and potentially profitable Linux market that deserves to take resources away from other projects within the company, or to justify hiring more developers, testers, etc.?
In May, I travelled to Honolulu for a conference. I flew directly from Auckland to Honolulu. At Auckland, on the way out, I had to go through two sets of metal detectors and x-rays, as well as a search of my carry-on luggage (although that may have been because I was carrying a plastic poster roll). When I flew from Honolulu back to Auckland, there was just a single metal detector and a single x-ray...
I think a plane flying away from the US Hawaii to New Zealand), is not as threatening as a plane flying into JFK in New York. Especially flights from Hawaii, which barely have any fuel left when they reach the California coast.
Why did they try Timohy McVeigh, then? Why didn't they just hang him from the nearest post, or (as you suggest) just take away his citizenship and throw him in a military brig for 300 years? Tim McVeigh, who blew up 168 men, women and children had more rights than this Padilla character! I'm not saying he's innocent; but if he is guilty, try the bastard and hang him for all I care! But try him in a court of law first before you presume his guilt!
Duh, we only tried McVeigh because we knew he was guilty. We don't waste our time with trials for people who we don't think we can prove guilty; instead, we just pass offensive and misleadingly named red-scare like legislature that allows us to avoid the pesky trial process altogether.
The article blurb should probably mentioned that they have a free section!!! That's cool of them to offer so much bandwidth for a no-profit item, as well as get more exposure for lesser-known movies.
The things mentioned in these posts aren't exactly revolutionary. Of course someone will hack it one day. But the fact is that consumers that the industry actually care about are not going to bother. They like their one-hit wonders and pay-per-view movies just fine, thank you. It's only teenagers and life-long teenagers who'll bypass the $3.99 they weren't going to spend anyway.
Slashdot types are not the majority, by far, and this business model will work. Copy-capable VCR's didn't stop people from renting the same movie multiple times, nor will downloadable movies stop me from buying a convenient, $20, special-feature filled DVD. DVD-burns are available in chinatown (nyc) for $5, but have you ever bought one?
Similarly, I think if the record industry added benefits to CD's over mp3's in the way the DVD's have more than just the movie, they'd see an increase in demand for music on CD.
Don't be such a crybaby! They've gotta make money somehow, it's their job to make and sell games. You want it for free under GNU/Linux, then you wait while they make money off the initial popularity. You want it right away, then you buy the not-free version on release day.
Best of both worlds would be for them to release a not-free linux version (as someone previously posted), at the same time as the windows version, even if it's only for-sale online (since many computer stores might be reluctant to use up shelf space for a niche linux version).
Just like radio stations have famous musicians overdubbed as a song starts, like as Walk This Way starts you might hear "Hi, I'm Steven Tyler, and you're listening to Q104.3, New York's only classic rock station!", you can put out an mp3 with a quick hello mixed over the beginning of your own song.
If one of your favorite songs has a few seconds intro before the lyrics start, mix in your band member(s) saying "Hi we're [band's name] and this one's called [the song's name]. If you like it, feel free to pass this MP3 on to your friends. And if you really like it, consider buying our new album, [album name] at [your band's website]".
This way, you can get more exposure and name recognition than those one hit wonders, and also if anyone tried to burn it to a CD they'll still have your band/album name spoken at the beginning of the song. If you give a little for free and offer more for pay, like shareware software, people will usually appreciate and respect your terms.
And if people begin burning clean versions straight from your CD (without the intro mixed into the song), well that means you're already getting popular and selling CD's and you should be happy:-) [And anyways usually the first widespread MP3 file - the one with the intro - sticks around longest; most people won't bother months later to replace it with a clean version of the song.]
Why do some folks on this board feel the need to criticize how a group of people honored the loss of a casual friend? It's not as if he didn't have a real life funeral for close friends and family. Would it be better if they hadn't done it at all? These are people who othewise wouldn't have known the guy and wouldn't have cared if he dies. But they did care and that's significant.
Would it be more humane if the opposing clans stuck to character and celebrated the death of a sworn enemy? No, because even mortal enemies know when to take a moment of silence.
The conservative part of the media industry has made many arguments that FPS and hack'n'slash games dull people's sensitivity to violence and death, but this proves that gamers know the difference.
Have we seen this much positive human emotion and respect in Israel or Palestine when an 'enemy' is shot, gassed, or brutally blown apart on a bus? No.
I'm proud to be a part of a community that values human life.
To demonstrate the magnitude and complexity of what can be accomplished through open-source software development, someone should project the entire Kernal image onto some enourmous structure, such as the moon, or the side of a building, or a football field, or a convention ceiling.
People can not apply the phrase on a computer on the back of every tried and true business model and expect to get royalties or the ability to sue the bejesus out of people.
But what about the phrase... "on weed." ? I could patent the acts of "watching a movie, or summer sky, or one's own hand on weed." Now if only the people who do that had any money for me to take...
That's fine for you, punk. But I prefer the Slashdiet:
Diet soda instead of regular soda: No. Sugar and caffeine make a great, metabolism boosting combination.
Swimming: Well, I am a human, so I guess I can swim, but all my other M&M buddies can't join in, so that's out.
Moderation: Well, your post got a 5, so I really can't agree that moderation is a good thing.(unless you're positively moderating my post)
Cooking: I'm an excellent chef, but only using recipes from the Anarchist's Cookbook.
Hitting a gym twice a week: I'd rather hit a bank; then I can buy friends and plastic surgery. And a gun and an FBI badge.
Polarization doesn't really work that way; if you had anything other than very thin straight vertical lines as the polarization pattern, it wouldn't work.
You might get away with different degrees of polarization, like the different frequencies you can pick up on your radio, but that's about it.
This tech isn't very secure, but it's much better than nothing, and it would be kind of obvious that you were snooping if you're standing head on to someone else's monitor wearing big black glasses.
OBEY!
CONSUME!
MARRY AND REPRODUCE!
Remember the good ol' pre-W days when those messages were still subliminal, and you could almost pretend you had a good government?
Anyway, see that big yellow disk up in the sky? Most of that vast supply of energy will be lost to space until we capture it with solar power satellites (and microwave it back to the Earth's surface).
Has someone been reading Ben Bova's novel, "Colony"?
Slashdot Mirror
What ever happened to being banned from hooking computers with phone lines, and being forced to humbly shelf your handle; only to make friends with kids at a new school ten years later and join an elite underground hacking network to stop an evil corporate information security guy from spilling oil on penguins?
We were not going to pay anyone $50,000 for anything. No one lost money.
Just because no one lost any money doesn't mean it's not a crime, although it might not be 'stealing'. It's more like Intellectual Property Trespassing. You weren't allowed by the owners of that property to use that property without paying for a license. It is their right to decide at what price to offer admission to (use of) their property, not yours. You are also stealing from competitor companies by eliminating the factor of price vs. quality. If you physically couldn't use software without paying for it (if commercial cybercafes were the only computers you could access and they charged based on the cost of the programs you used), or if you had morals and refused to steal, and you needed statistics software, you would have bought a cheaper, less featured version instead of stealing it. If price mattered, companies would be forced to put out more competitive pricing for low end users. That's why the car industry offers high-end BMW's and also low-end KIA's, and almost anyone can afford a car.
<sarcasm>I punch someone in the face, is it a crime? No, no one lost any money.</sarcasm>
But theft of physical goods and software IS different (and both wrong). Someone stole the software you spend a lot of time (and money) to write, you might have lost a sale... Someone stole some physical good you manufactured, you're out the physical cost of the good AND the loss of sale.
Except in auctions and shareware, it's the owner's decision to set the cost at which you may acquire his service/product, not yours, regardless of what the cost of production/duplication is.
Let's approach the problem from a different angle. Let's think about "gifts" instead of "thefts". When Bill Gates or MS announces that they've donated $1 billion to xyz charity/school/government (and probably take a tax write off accordingly), what did this $1 billion gift really cost them? Arguably a fraction of the $1 billion in lost sales. Most likely, nothing, since we're talking about charities that could never afford the software in the first place.
And if you factor in the taxes they would have had to pay had they kept that $1 Billion of capital/revenue from sale for themselves, they would have been left with closer to $0.5 Billion after taxes. Then, treating the charitable contribution as a 'Free Sample', you factor in how the school may use other microsoft products ni the future, as well as all of the kids who will now grow up learning on MS computers and probably not others. <rant>They should be forced to donate spendable money, so the school can choose to buy Apple, Linux, etc. and not have their futures decided/bribed by a rich corporation.</rant>
There is a HUGE difference. If someone steals a physical object, you're always out the cost of the physical object. If someone steals a software producct, and they weren't planning on buying it anyway (how many people who steal Maya would ever, ever buy it?), then this theft has cost you not one red cent. $X of piracy does NOT equal $X of lost revenue. For any commercial product and most software, except shareware, it is not an individual's choice of whether to pay for something or not. You're saying that just because you don't like something enough to pay for it means that you should be able to take it for free?
Well I don't really like baseball that much, but I might want to see a game once in a while, probably as rarely (3 or 4 times in a summer?) as I might use Maya. Is it right, then, to forge season tickets and attend 3 or 4 games, and receive all its external benefits (entertainment for a few hours, possibly a free gift) without paying for it, all because I didn't think it was worth admission? Doesn't cost them anything, unless I try sitting in some guy's paid-for seat.
I didn't plan on buying a BMW, so can I have it for just the cost of the parts?
As an army general (hypothetically), I don't think it's very valuable to be able to quarter my troops in your house on your otherwise unused livingroom floor, so I can just send them in whether you like it or not?
It's the owner's right to decide how much it costs them, monetary or otherwise, for you to use their product or service. No discussion. Sorry, but except in auctions and shareware, it's the owner's right to decide the price, not you.
We know the Egyptians drank beer in preference to water as the fermentation process helped purify the water and reduced the risk of waterborne disease.
Yeah, uh, me too! That's why I drink beer like it's water.
Well, an endless hole sure would solve the world's problem of where to throw away all their promotional AOL cd's.
It'd just make my day if the doors made the same sound when they open and close as AIM does when a buddy signs on or off.
Having such a well concealed room at the end of a completely impassable tunnel which in turn is blocked by two huge stone doors screams: "DO NOT ENTER! DANGER!" to anyone who's not blinded by the belief in our science.
Actually, richly stocked and securely guarded tombs meant to the ancient egyptians that their eternal spirits would continue to enjoy a luxurious existence even after death. The only threat present to ancient graverobbers was the potential of pulling their own arms off (Bender style) while trying to move those slabs without heavy machinery.
Why can't we just leave things as they are?
<technologyrant>Blah blah blah</technologyrant>
Considering the cultish mentality of the average Phish-head, he was probably afraid of having to deal with a mewling, groveling stoner, asking him to autograph his bong or something ;-)
;-)
No, it's more likely that he didn't have time for an interesting conversation with one of his band's fans, who tend to have a better understanding of what music is than any fans of those sweet voiced strippers polluting MTV these days.
All I want to know is how come Afghanistan, a 4th wold nation in complete ruins, managed to have an election and we cannot
<offtopic> To say '4th world' isn't really meaningful. The term Third World came from the cold war, where (to an American) the US was first-person/world, the USSR was second-person/world, and any country not yet decidedly allied behind either communism or capitalism was considered third-person/world (and up for grabs). In short, it refers to "Us, You, and Them". It is more of a label on type of economy or government, not a measure of how advanced the country is. <rant>Since there's not so much concern over the capitalist/communist debate anymore, terms like Third World should probably be discarded in favor of more accurate terms such as Developing, Underdeveloped, or better yet not categorize them at all and instead name the tehnological/economics situation that you mean to refer to. (eg: "Afghanistan, an extremely low-tech nation in complete ruins").</rant></offtopic>
I'm curious to know; what went into the decision for allowing political parties to see the source code, but not the voters? There's enough conspiracy-theory/don't-trust-the-government sentiment that the last thing we'd need is another thing that the government can know but we cannot.
Otherwise, I think this sounds like a great solution, to blend electronic efficiency with hard-copy trust. Any efforts to market this system to other countries?
Wow, take it easy. No need for foul language with me. Equally, I retract the crybaby comment, it was uncalled for.
Costs for all the testing and fixing that goes on between a software's initial release and its first few patches can be very expensive, and it's even more expensive to do it for two different platforms at once, unless you've written in some highly portable language. I can't see how a company could afford to spend lots of resources on simultaneously supporting a second OS, until after a few months have gone by, the basic bugs and design flaws have been weeded out, and their builders are freed up.
Have any games (or other types of software?) proven that there's a significant, and potentially profitable Linux market that deserves to take resources away from other projects within the company, or to justify hiring more developers, testers, etc.?
In May, I travelled to Honolulu for a conference. I flew directly from Auckland to Honolulu. At Auckland, on the way out, I had to go through two sets of metal detectors and x-rays, as well as a search of my carry-on luggage (although that may have been because I was carrying a plastic poster roll). When I flew from Honolulu back to Auckland, there was just a single metal detector and a single x-ray...
I think a plane flying away from the US Hawaii to New Zealand), is not as threatening as a plane flying into JFK in New York. Especially flights from Hawaii, which barely have any fuel left when they reach the California coast.
Why did they try Timohy McVeigh, then? Why didn't they just hang him from the nearest post, or (as you suggest) just take away his citizenship and throw him in a military brig for 300 years? Tim McVeigh, who blew up 168 men, women and children had more rights than this Padilla character! I'm not saying he's innocent; but if he is guilty, try the bastard and hang him for all I care! But try him in a court of law first before you presume his guilt!
Duh, we only tried McVeigh because we knew he was guilty. We don't waste our time with trials for people who we don't think we can prove guilty; instead, we just pass offensive and misleadingly named red-scare like legislature that allows us to avoid the pesky trial process altogether.
The article blurb should probably mentioned that they have a free section!!! That's cool of them to offer so much bandwidth for a no-profit item, as well as get more exposure for lesser-known movies.
The things mentioned in these posts aren't exactly revolutionary. Of course someone will hack it one day. But the fact is that consumers that the industry actually care about are not going to bother. They like their one-hit wonders and pay-per-view movies just fine, thank you. It's only teenagers and life-long teenagers who'll bypass the $3.99 they weren't going to spend anyway.
Slashdot types are not the majority, by far, and this business model will work. Copy-capable VCR's didn't stop people from renting the same movie multiple times, nor will downloadable movies stop me from buying a convenient, $20, special-feature filled DVD. DVD-burns are available in chinatown (nyc) for $5, but have you ever bought one?
Similarly, I think if the record industry added benefits to CD's over mp3's in the way the DVD's have more than just the movie, they'd see an increase in demand for music on CD.
for ad-aware to scan my hard disk.
Don't be such a crybaby! They've gotta make money somehow, it's their job to make and sell games. You want it for free under GNU/Linux, then you wait while they make money off the initial popularity. You want it right away, then you buy the not-free version on release day.
Best of both worlds would be for them to release a not-free linux version (as someone previously posted), at the same time as the windows version, even if it's only for-sale online (since many computer stores might be reluctant to use up shelf space for a niche linux version).
Just like radio stations have famous musicians overdubbed as a song starts, like as Walk This Way starts you might hear "Hi, I'm Steven Tyler, and you're listening to Q104.3, New York's only classic rock station!", you can put out an mp3 with a quick hello mixed over the beginning of your own song.
:-) [And anyways usually the first widespread MP3 file - the one with the intro - sticks around longest; most people won't bother months later to replace it with a clean version of the song.]
If one of your favorite songs has a few seconds intro before the lyrics start, mix in your band member(s) saying "Hi we're [band's name] and this one's called [the song's name]. If you like it, feel free to pass this MP3 on to your friends. And if you really like it, consider buying our new album, [album name] at [your band's website]".
This way, you can get more exposure and name recognition than those one hit wonders, and also if anyone tried to burn it to a CD they'll still have your band/album name spoken at the beginning of the song. If you give a little for free and offer more for pay, like shareware software, people will usually appreciate and respect your terms.
And if people begin burning clean versions straight from your CD (without the intro mixed into the song), well that means you're already getting popular and selling CD's and you should be happy
Why do some folks on this board feel the need to criticize how a group of people honored the loss of a casual friend? It's not as if he didn't have a real life funeral for close friends and family. Would it be better if they hadn't done it at all? These are people who othewise wouldn't have known the guy and wouldn't have cared if he dies. But they did care and that's significant.
Would it be more humane if the opposing clans stuck to character and celebrated the death of a sworn enemy? No, because even mortal enemies know when to take a moment of silence.
The conservative part of the media industry has made many arguments that FPS and hack'n'slash games dull people's sensitivity to violence and death, but this proves that gamers know the difference.
Have we seen this much positive human emotion and respect in Israel or Palestine when an 'enemy' is shot, gassed, or brutally blown apart on a bus? No.
I'm proud to be a part of a community that values human life.
To demonstrate the magnitude and complexity of what can be accomplished through open-source software development, someone should project the entire Kernal image onto some enourmous structure, such as the moon, or the side of a building, or a football field, or a convention ceiling.
People can not apply the phrase on a computer on the back of every tried and true business model and expect to get royalties or the ability to sue the bejesus out of people.
... "on weed." ? I could patent the acts of "watching a movie, or summer sky, or one's own hand on weed." Now if only the people who do that had any money for me to take...
But what about the phrase
No. Sugar and caffeine make a great, metabolism boosting combination.
Swimming:
Well, I am a human, so I guess I can swim, but all my other M&M buddies can't join in, so that's out.
Moderation:
Well, your post got a 5, so I really can't agree that moderation is a good thing.(unless you're positively moderating my post)
Cooking:
I'm an excellent chef, but only using recipes from the Anarchist's Cookbook.
Hitting a gym twice a week:
I'd rather hit a bank; then I can buy friends and plastic surgery. And a gun and an FBI badge.
Dancing:
/|
//
o/
/ \
o
\|-
>-+o
We all know where dancing takes us.
Polarization doesn't really work that way; if you had anything other than very thin straight vertical lines as the polarization pattern, it wouldn't work.
You might get away with different degrees of polarization, like the different frequencies you can pick up on your radio, but that's about it.
This tech isn't very secure, but it's much better than nothing, and it would be kind of obvious that you were snooping if you're standing head on to someone else's monitor wearing big black glasses.
OBEY!
CONSUME!
MARRY AND REPRODUCE!
Remember the good ol' pre-W days when those messages were still subliminal, and you could almost pretend you had a good government?
Anyway, see that big yellow disk up in the sky? Most of that vast supply of energy will be lost to space until we capture it with solar power satellites (and microwave it back to the Earth's surface).
Has someone been reading Ben Bova's novel, "Colony"?