a) The information on TPB was in a large-part posted by the members, but not the owners, of the site
b) Not all the information led to infringing torrents (there are lots of things that require large downloads, after all)
c) Therefore, while knowledge is in the hands of the owners, the supposed abuse is likely in the hands of the users.
Unless TPB users or admins were downloading items from the torrent lists themselves. Not entirely an impossible scenario, and in that case you go from being purely a linker (in the technical sense) to actually being in possession of the copyrighted material.
I'm hoping they were smarter than this, but with their "you can't touch us" attitude it wouldn't be impossible for somebody to have strayed across the line. Hopefully we'll get an update on this soon.
While I can do without the shiney eyes and batman-like monograms, the big fans seem like a good idea to me.
Big fans tend to push more air at a lower RPM, and are generally less noisy. Of course, the real problem is that finding someplace stocking a fan bigger than 12" could be a real pain, so I'd bet they're pricey to replace. But if they're good quality fans and you clean 'em regularly, they'll probably do a lot of good for reducing the noise of your case.
On the other hand, I got one of those 'spiffy looking' cases because it was on the bargain bin and with PSU came out pretty cheap (local store bought out another computer store). However, the damn thing is really noisy as it uses thin, rattly metal. It also has issues fitting things properly behind the little doors and windows etc on the front. Annoying.
Give me a nice solid case with some easily accessible USB-slots on the front (or in my case I just use a header), easily-removal anti-noise brackets on the drive (rubber surrounds on the screws), large fan ports, and perhaps a decent PSU (though you're generally better to buy your own). That's what a real 'gaming' PC is about. If you want fancy lights and monograms, hire somebody with skill to paint the thing custom for you and then add some LED's.
p.s. Does anyone actually do PC art? It would be a neat sideline.
Unless they become the replacement for both ebay and paypal.
Ebay's become a cesspool anyhow, with severely overrated shipping costs ($50 shipping with a $1 item still shows the item as $1 in the listings), people selling "how buy get a cheap X" crap, and much more. The days of low-bid bargains seem to have gone past, and the present reality is that you have to do a lot of searching just to find the real item.
And the "Desert Combat" mods for Battlefield 1942 as well. They added a lot to the gameplay and so far as I know were provided freely by a third party.
There are lots, the problem is that - as a buyer - you don't have much choice in what you use (it's the seller's available payment options). If you're a seller there are quite a few others you can choose from... but most seem no reliable (or less so) than paypal.
Well, I for one welcome 'useful' features on my phone, so long as they don't compromise the usability or quality of the primary function (to be a phone).
The last thing I need it to be is an mp3-player and/or TV and further drain my battery. Ringtones I'm somewhat in-between with... the nice thing about polyphonics is at least you can tell your phone apart from others of the same make (it was quite annoying back in the day when you'd have 3 people with the same ringer).
Other features do come in useful for me as well... but aren't 100% necessary. The ability to stick calendar items and/or up to 3 alarm ringers is great. My phone travels with me almost everywhere, so on the go it's my alarm clock, and my reminder when I might otherwise miss an important event. Not a necessary phone, but a convenient one, and ones that make more sense than video games, television, or other such things (the mp3 player I could see being semi-convenient for those times when I decide to run off for a random bit of exercise, etc, but it's just also a battery drain).
Is that in many places, the pictures would be illegal, but they could happily f*ck somebody over the age of age and be fully within the law... at least until they take pictures.
Taxes are generally in support of a particular expense/medium. What would email or SMS taxes be supporting?
Education taxes are for schools, etc
Gas taxes are for road maintenance, etc
So if I were an EU citizen what would I get from this tax? I don't know how their phone carriers work, but I'd imagine that the lines for internet are either already/mostly paid for, possibly all by private companies that sell the service, and the cell towers would be put up by the cellular companies.
So, other than money-grabbing, what - if any - do the EU governments do that justifies them in taxation of email, SMS, or otherwise?
Taxes are generally in support of a particular expense/medium. What would email or SMS taxes be supporting?
Education taxes are for schools, etc
Gas taxes are for road maintenance, etc
So if I were an EU citizen what would I get from this tax? I don't know how their phone carriers work, but I'd imagine that the lines for internet are either already/mostly paid for, possibly all by private companies that sell the service, and the cell towers would be put up by the cellular companies.
So, other than money-grabbing, what - if any - do the EU governments do that entitles them to taxation of email, SMS, or otherwise?
They do mention the poor third-party support, but as mentioned by many the real problem was an overall lack of impressive games on the opening lineup. A lot of the time, that opening lineup can be what really pushes the sales of your console (many buy the console because they REALLY WANT to play game X). That being said, I know that Twilight Princess should be on the opening lineup for Wii (also out for GC, but supposedly a lot better for Wii). Can anyone else name some that look to be sales-makers?
Hmmm. Well, with the exemption of those ads that are repeated a dozen times for show, I've been rather impressed with the direction of commercials thus far. I mean, years ago would you have imagined that people would donate massive websites or downloads to downloading funny or amusing ADS!?
I downloaded a bunch of the "get a mac" ads recently to show friends. In particular the one entitled "rebooting" was pretty damn funny.
Advertisers are just learning to make their ads better... so I'd rather see a lack of crappy ads (or a way to rate ads) than eliminating them overall.
Some people are less mentally stable, less well-reared, and more easily influenced than others. My sister, for example, has had several arguements with me claiming that the Davinci Code (the book, this was back before the movie) was all true and that there's a massive church conspiracy etc etc.
Some people just can't seem to glean that what they see on TV or read in a book/magazine isn't real. Heck, even I get a bit irate when I see the stuff that happens on certain cop shows (although mainly because the shows reflect the abuse of the law that happens in real life, such as arresting non-terrorists under Patriot, etc).
It doesn't make the shows or games evil though, it just means that some people are too easily influenced. In the case of kids, it's a parents' job to determine whether such material is appropriate for their children or not.
but if people think this stuff is crap why are people being caught downloading it
Two scenarios:
a) Go to theatre, see good movie, enjoy. Benefit from the experience.
b) Go to theatre, see an overhyped piece of crapulance. Waste time off your lifespan in addition to the cost(s)
or, download the movie, determine whether it's good or not, and buy it on DVD if you like it (even see it on the big-screen, if you deem it worthy).
I guess those would be in the etc category. The GBA/GameCube connection was definately a neat way to make money, and apparently popular enough at the same time (I found it annoying, as I didn't buy into the whole GBA thing, but hey). Power-pad seems like it was just a few generations too early, or at least lacking in the games, but it could have been a popular one with the right timing (see current DDR-pads and games).
And yes, I'll admit to completely forgetting our li'l robot buddy (say one, thought it was rather cool looking, never had one though), and the Konga drums are neat though not widespread in use.
Again, though not all of these were all that successful, it definately shows a willingness to take risks will innovation on Nintendo's part that hasn't been seen in most other competing companies. Well, that and anyone who names their console Wii is pretty willing to take a leap of faith:-)
I haven't really checked (and I'm on dialup for the next few days, so doing so would take forever), but what's the current pricepoint on regular HL2 in boxed vs steam format. Has it gone down substantially?
I'm expecting the fanboys to do the initial payout, and while I'm a big HL2 fan I'm not such a diehard that I can't wait awhile especially since I'm rather busy at the moment for it or other games (and I've other games which I need to finish when I find time). $20 for 5h is somewhat iffy and subjective. Who is it 5h for, the pro, the average, or the ubernoob? What does it add in terms of storyline and modification? I'll let somebody else take the bite and probably go for it later
As for those that argue that the existing HL2 doesn't have a 'script', it has a lot in comparison to most others out there in the FPS genre.
Let's rehash:
- Some things you don't know. Such as where you came from, what's with the 'time freeze', and who the 'g-man' is. G-man is particularly interesting
- What exactly are the combine? There are arguements around that the combine as humans that have been "modified" or are aliens, etc. Some things may be more explained in HL1
Plot includes:
- Landing on a enemy-held city. Running amuck of enforcement and getting to the local resistance. Meeting a crazy doc, some aliens which attach to your head and zombify you (think aliens mixed with some undead movie)... meet a cute girl and a robotic dog
- Getting a cool-ass "gravity" gun, downing some imperial-walker style drones, finding a city with humans that seem to be partly roboticized.
- Travelling through a city that with creepy-ass alien-head-zombies. C'mon this was the best part... and at night with the lights out and surround turned on even a bit freaky. Plus don't forget the gravity gun+saw blades, or flame traps, and that weird preacher
- Funky aliens from a race you helped out in HL1
- A prison breakout, betrayal, capture, an a big floating city
- A warp portal that you disrupt... and an explosion, and our mysterious G-man again
Of course, there is some more than that, but really I've seen full movies with less plotline than the above (and even good ones, too). Half Life + HL2 would make for decent cinema if done right, so depending on how they cash-cow it the plotline in the episodes could be work it.
I think that the statement given here is basically that the "next-gen" consoles don't have any "new" features, just upgraded ones. Faster processor and GPU, more RAM, and larger storage device.
You might not think Nintendo innovative, as they do definately use their brand-name games (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc), but those games differ greatly along the way. And Nintendo is definately no slouch to trying new things, whether or not they all work out:
Super Scope
Power Glove
Virtual Boy
Gameboy Handheld (although I'm not sure it was the first handheld, it was one of the most popular)
Handheld with Touchscreen
Motion-sension Wii Controller
etc
Again, granted that some of these ideas didn't go very far... but I do remember the scope on my SNES being a whole lotta fun even with the accompanying games (there just weren't many games for it), and though the PowerGlove and Virtual Boy pretty much bombed, the handheld touchscreens, Wii Controller, and many others all seem to be going in good places.
While this is true, what if they just product a certain number of "special" bugged units. Since both the selling and producing company is now Chinese, why not just swap in a few "special" computers the next time an order comes from the DOD or another government agency?
When you know who your buyer is, you just need to slip something to that buyer specifically... which is a bit different from a Chinese factory making Dell's independent of whom the recipient is.
Not only that, but what exactly makes one piece of literature better than the other? I'm a voracious reader, and I consume books only a daily to weekly basis. That being the case, I'm still not a fan of Moby Dick or even most Shakespear. I'm also a big fan of modern sci-fi and fantasy, but I'm not really a huge fan of Tolkien in comparison to some of the recent authors, though I do appreciate his value in a historic sense.
Take the above and substitute "Moby Dick" or even "Shakespeare" for their modern counterparts of "Harry Potter" or perhaps "Narnia" (ok, not so modern since I read that one as a kid, but it is getting a rehash and good marketing lately).
As per your point: many kids do, or would, enjoy reading. However, making them read books created in decades (or centuries) past replete with outdated forms of the language adding additional difficulty just doesn't work. Perhaps if more english-professor types encouraged reading amoungst a choose of good books, rather than reading what *they* think are good books, it would help.
On the other hand, some rather dull books are more useful for their underlying themes. Certain authors such as Orwell aren't that useful in regards to their books' appeal to young minds, but rather due to the lessons and/or socio-political connotations of their works.
But again, as you said, Moby Dick. Classic, yes. Interesting, no.
I'm a Canadian, so the legalities would be even more interesting. I'm also of the opinion that the majority of American's are decent people, but your government and corporate corruption is a steaming pile of crapulance (well, so is mine, less in some ways and possibly more in others).
However, I would be hesitant to mirror the site purely on an I'm-afraid-of-slashdotting basis. However, in the meantime I'll happily seed P2P networks with copies of the PDF, perhaps those interested can do the same.
How about "secret" rooms with AT&T wiretaps. How long was that around before somebody leaked it? From my understanding it was happening for quite awhile.
Seems to me that a lot of big things manage to stay hidden when the government wants them to.
Of course. I've had no problem browsing pr0n in Links/Lynx. For example, there's a great repository here. Of course, really l33t linux users browse their porn using a direct telnet session to port 80, but for those less technical links works well too.
(Of course, you could always use the normal channels of aMule, BitTornado, Firefox, and Pan or your newsgroup reader of preference).:-)
A jihad against lawyers wouldn't be a bad idea either
How about a special "patent-abuse" board or something like that. On a failed attempt to use a bogus patent, they can assess you return damages for abuse of the patent system. Lawyers wouldn't be so much a problem if businesses weren't willing to use/abuse them.
Slashdot Mirror
Likely:
a) The information on TPB was in a large-part posted by the members, but not the owners, of the site
b) Not all the information led to infringing torrents (there are lots of things that require large downloads, after all)
c) Therefore, while knowledge is in the hands of the owners, the supposed abuse is likely in the hands of the users.
Unless TPB users or admins were downloading items from the torrent lists themselves. Not entirely an impossible scenario, and in that case you go from being purely a linker (in the technical sense) to actually being in possession of the copyrighted material.
I'm hoping they were smarter than this, but with their "you can't touch us" attitude it wouldn't be impossible for somebody to have strayed across the line. Hopefully we'll get an update on this soon.
While I can do without the shiney eyes and batman-like monograms, the big fans seem like a good idea to me.
Big fans tend to push more air at a lower RPM, and are generally less noisy. Of course, the real problem is that finding someplace stocking a fan bigger than 12" could be a real pain, so I'd bet they're pricey to replace. But if they're good quality fans and you clean 'em regularly, they'll probably do a lot of good for reducing the noise of your case.
On the other hand, I got one of those 'spiffy looking' cases because it was on the bargain bin and with PSU came out pretty cheap (local store bought out another computer store). However, the damn thing is really noisy as it uses thin, rattly metal. It also has issues fitting things properly behind the little doors and windows etc on the front. Annoying.
Give me a nice solid case with some easily accessible USB-slots on the front (or in my case I just use a header), easily-removal anti-noise brackets on the drive (rubber surrounds on the screws), large fan ports, and perhaps a decent PSU (though you're generally better to buy your own). That's what a real 'gaming' PC is about. If you want fancy lights and monograms, hire somebody with skill to paint the thing custom for you and then add some LED's.
p.s. Does anyone actually do PC art? It would be a neat sideline.
Unless they become the replacement for both ebay and paypal.
Ebay's become a cesspool anyhow, with severely overrated shipping costs ($50 shipping with a $1 item still shows the item as $1 in the listings), people selling "how buy get a cheap X" crap, and much more. The days of low-bid bargains seem to have gone past, and the present reality is that you have to do a lot of searching just to find the real item.
And the "Desert Combat" mods for Battlefield 1942 as well. They added a lot to the gameplay and so far as I know were provided freely by a third party.
There are lots, the problem is that - as a buyer - you don't have much choice in what you use (it's the seller's available payment options). If you're a seller there are quite a few others you can choose from... but most seem no reliable (or less so) than paypal.
Well, I for one welcome 'useful' features on my phone, so long as they don't compromise the usability or quality of the primary function (to be a phone).
The last thing I need it to be is an mp3-player and/or TV and further drain my battery. Ringtones I'm somewhat in-between with... the nice thing about polyphonics is at least you can tell your phone apart from others of the same make (it was quite annoying back in the day when you'd have 3 people with the same ringer).
Other features do come in useful for me as well... but aren't 100% necessary. The ability to stick calendar items and/or up to 3 alarm ringers is great. My phone travels with me almost everywhere, so on the go it's my alarm clock, and my reminder when I might otherwise miss an important event. Not a necessary phone, but a convenient one, and ones that make more sense than video games, television, or other such things (the mp3 player I could see being semi-convenient for those times when I decide to run off for a random bit of exercise, etc, but it's just also a battery drain).
Is that in many places, the pictures would be illegal, but they could happily f*ck somebody over the age of age and be fully within the law... at least until they take pictures.
Taxes are generally in support of a particular expense/medium. What would email or SMS taxes be supporting?
Education taxes are for schools, etc
Gas taxes are for road maintenance, etc
So if I were an EU citizen what would I get from this tax? I don't know how their phone carriers work, but I'd imagine that the lines for internet are either already/mostly paid for, possibly all by private companies that sell the service, and the cell towers would be put up by the cellular companies.
So, other than money-grabbing, what - if any - do the EU governments do that justifies them in taxation of email, SMS, or otherwise?
Taxes are generally in support of a particular expense/medium. What would email or SMS taxes be supporting?
Education taxes are for schools, etc
Gas taxes are for road maintenance, etc
So if I were an EU citizen what would I get from this tax? I don't know how their phone carriers work, but I'd imagine that the lines for internet are either already/mostly paid for, possibly all by private companies that sell the service, and the cell towers would be put up by the cellular companies.
So, other than money-grabbing, what - if any - do the EU governments do that entitles them to taxation of email, SMS, or otherwise?
They do mention the poor third-party support, but as mentioned by many the real problem was an overall lack of impressive games on the opening lineup. A lot of the time, that opening lineup can be what really pushes the sales of your console (many buy the console because they REALLY WANT to play game X). That being said, I know that Twilight Princess should be on the opening lineup for Wii (also out for GC, but supposedly a lot better for Wii). Can anyone else name some that look to be sales-makers?
Hmmm. Well, with the exemption of those ads that are repeated a dozen times for show, I've been rather impressed with the direction of commercials thus far. I mean, years ago would you have imagined that people would donate massive websites or downloads to downloading funny or amusing ADS!?
I downloaded a bunch of the "get a mac" ads recently to show friends. In particular the one entitled "rebooting" was pretty damn funny.
Advertisers are just learning to make their ads better... so I'd rather see a lack of crappy ads (or a way to rate ads) than eliminating them overall.
Some people are less mentally stable, less well-reared, and more easily influenced than others. My sister, for example, has had several arguements with me claiming that the Davinci Code (the book, this was back before the movie) was all true and that there's a massive church conspiracy etc etc.
Some people just can't seem to glean that what they see on TV or read in a book/magazine isn't real. Heck, even I get a bit irate when I see the stuff that happens on certain cop shows (although mainly because the shows reflect the abuse of the law that happens in real life, such as arresting non-terrorists under Patriot, etc).
It doesn't make the shows or games evil though, it just means that some people are too easily influenced. In the case of kids, it's a parents' job to determine whether such material is appropriate for their children or not.
For those that want a little history, can somebody here dig up some of the good ol' days of D&D witch-hunts? D&D promotes devil-worship, etc etc....
but if people think this stuff is crap why are people being caught downloading it
Two scenarios:
a) Go to theatre, see good movie, enjoy. Benefit from the experience.
b) Go to theatre, see an overhyped piece of crapulance. Waste time off your lifespan in addition to the cost(s)
or, download the movie, determine whether it's good or not, and buy it on DVD if you like it (even see it on the big-screen, if you deem it worthy).
I guess those would be in the etc category. The GBA/GameCube connection was definately a neat way to make money, and apparently popular enough at the same time (I found it annoying, as I didn't buy into the whole GBA thing, but hey). Power-pad seems like it was just a few generations too early, or at least lacking in the games, but it could have been a popular one with the right timing (see current DDR-pads and games).
:-)
And yes, I'll admit to completely forgetting our li'l robot buddy (say one, thought it was rather cool looking, never had one though), and the Konga drums are neat though not widespread in use.
Again, though not all of these were all that successful, it definately shows a willingness to take risks will innovation on Nintendo's part that hasn't been seen in most other competing companies. Well, that and anyone who names their console Wii is pretty willing to take a leap of faith
I haven't really checked (and I'm on dialup for the next few days, so doing so would take forever), but what's the current pricepoint on regular HL2 in boxed vs steam format. Has it gone down substantially?
I'm expecting the fanboys to do the initial payout, and while I'm a big HL2 fan I'm not such a diehard that I can't wait awhile especially since I'm rather busy at the moment for it or other games (and I've other games which I need to finish when I find time). $20 for 5h is somewhat iffy and subjective. Who is it 5h for, the pro, the average, or the ubernoob? What does it add in terms of storyline and modification? I'll let somebody else take the bite and probably go for it later
As for those that argue that the existing HL2 doesn't have a 'script', it has a lot in comparison to most others out there in the FPS genre.
Let's rehash:
- Some things you don't know. Such as where you came from, what's with the 'time freeze', and who the 'g-man' is. G-man is particularly interesting - What exactly are the combine? There are arguements around that the combine as humans that have been "modified" or are aliens, etc. Some things may be more explained in HL1 Plot includes: - Landing on a enemy-held city. Running amuck of enforcement and getting to the local resistance. Meeting a crazy doc, some aliens which attach to your head and zombify you (think aliens mixed with some undead movie)... meet a cute girl and a robotic dog - Getting a cool-ass "gravity" gun, downing some imperial-walker style drones, finding a city with humans that seem to be partly roboticized. - Travelling through a city that with creepy-ass alien-head-zombies. C'mon this was the best part... and at night with the lights out and surround turned on even a bit freaky. Plus don't forget the gravity gun+saw blades, or flame traps, and that weird preacher - Funky aliens from a race you helped out in HL1 - A prison breakout, betrayal, capture, an a big floating city - A warp portal that you disrupt... and an explosion, and our mysterious G-man again
Of course, there is some more than that, but really I've seen full movies with less plotline than the above (and even good ones, too). Half Life + HL2 would make for decent cinema if done right, so depending on how they cash-cow it the plotline in the episodes could be work it.
I think that the statement given here is basically that the "next-gen" consoles don't have any "new" features, just upgraded ones. Faster processor and GPU, more RAM, and larger storage device.
You might not think Nintendo innovative, as they do definately use their brand-name games (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc), but those games differ greatly along the way. And Nintendo is definately no slouch to trying new things, whether or not they all work out:
Super Scope
Power Glove
Virtual Boy
Gameboy Handheld (although I'm not sure it was the first handheld, it was one of the most popular)
Handheld with Touchscreen
Motion-sension Wii Controller
etc
Again, granted that some of these ideas didn't go very far... but I do remember the scope on my SNES being a whole lotta fun even with the accompanying games (there just weren't many games for it), and though the PowerGlove and Virtual Boy pretty much bombed, the handheld touchscreens, Wii Controller, and many others all seem to be going in good places.
While this is true, what if they just product a certain number of "special" bugged units. Since both the selling and producing company is now Chinese, why not just swap in a few "special" computers the next time an order comes from the DOD or another government agency?
When you know who your buyer is, you just need to slip something to that buyer specifically... which is a bit different from a Chinese factory making Dell's independent of whom the recipient is.
Not only that, but what exactly makes one piece of literature better than the other? I'm a voracious reader, and I consume books only a daily to weekly basis. That being the case, I'm still not a fan of Moby Dick or even most Shakespear. I'm also a big fan of modern sci-fi and fantasy, but I'm not really a huge fan of Tolkien in comparison to some of the recent authors, though I do appreciate his value in a historic sense.
Take the above and substitute "Moby Dick" or even "Shakespeare" for their modern counterparts of "Harry Potter" or perhaps "Narnia" (ok, not so modern since I read that one as a kid, but it is getting a rehash and good marketing lately).
As per your point: many kids do, or would, enjoy reading. However, making them read books created in decades (or centuries) past replete with outdated forms of the language adding additional difficulty just doesn't work. Perhaps if more english-professor types encouraged reading amoungst a choose of good books, rather than reading what *they* think are good books, it would help.
On the other hand, some rather dull books are more useful for their underlying themes. Certain authors such as Orwell aren't that useful in regards to their books' appeal to young minds, but rather due to the lessons and/or socio-political connotations of their works.
But again, as you said, Moby Dick. Classic, yes. Interesting, no.
So your normal filtered access is free... but perhaps they'll be charging for "unfiltered" access.
It would be a clever move, as there has always been a market for pr0n and ways to access it...
I'm a Canadian, so the legalities would be even more interesting. I'm also of the opinion that the majority of American's are decent people, but your government and corporate corruption is a steaming pile of crapulance (well, so is mine, less in some ways and possibly more in others).
However, I would be hesitant to mirror the site purely on an I'm-afraid-of-slashdotting basis. However, in the meantime I'll happily seed P2P networks with copies of the PDF, perhaps those interested can do the same.
How about "secret" rooms with AT&T wiretaps. How long was that around before somebody leaked it? From my understanding it was happening for quite awhile.
Seems to me that a lot of big things manage to stay hidden when the government wants them to.
Of course. I've had no problem browsing pr0n in Links/Lynx. For example, there's a great repository here. Of course, really l33t linux users browse their porn using a direct telnet session to port 80, but for those less technical links works well too.
:-)
(Of course, you could always use the normal channels of aMule, BitTornado, Firefox, and Pan or your newsgroup reader of preference).
A jihad against lawyers wouldn't be a bad idea either
How about a special "patent-abuse" board or something like that. On a failed attempt to use a bogus patent, they can assess you return damages for abuse of the patent system. Lawyers wouldn't be so much a problem if businesses weren't willing to use/abuse them.