Doesn't this strike you as somewhat similar to court-TV shows when a lawyer makes an obviously incriminating but possibly unproven remark... gets an immediate response from the opposing lawyer, and withdraws the remark.
That is... once the initial remark is made... the jury (or the users/buyers/slashdotters) know that vVidia cheated. Anyone searching the net will probably find a whole whack of references to this (esp on slashdot). Perhaps it hurts Futuremark's credibility a bit to offer the recant, but by now everyone knows it's just to appease nVidia.
It's like saying "The jury will disregard the previous comment." Once you've heard it, it's pretty hard to disregard. Even an nVidia fan like myself finds it pretty hard to justify getting one of these cards now based on crappy benchmarks. I'll just wait until Doom3 or another new game comes out and then see which is proven to perform better, which is usually a much better than a benchmark anyhow.
Something I wondered. A lot of people have "celeb fetishes", and I'm sure some of them write about them. Would such a work, if clearly defined as fiction or just clearly fictitious, be judged as slander or simply written off as entertainment?
I suppose tabloids fall into this category somehow: a lot of them catch people who are intentionally in the limelite, but others focus on families/etc that are simply victims of circumstance and mass-media attention. How is it they can get away with such acts, while a personal website/diary couldn't?
In a game...
Koreandude: Hehehe... head-shot
AmericanPl8r: Dude, you haxor, cheater!
KoreanDude: You calling me a cheater?
AmericanPl8r: Yeah. You suck. Cheating hacker.
KoreanDude: You want to see sum real hackin?
AmericanPl8r: ?? Brb, I smell something bur..[NO CARRIER]
Yeah... as if we aren't seeing enough overseas hacking in games, etc as it is... now they're being trained for more serious stuff? Luckily, Canada is already producing a counterforce
I'm thinking more along the lines of businesses moving out as opposed to citizens. How about ebay moves its entire operations to Canada, or maybe Aus? We have decent webserver pricing, there's already ebay.ca, etc. Swap the domain name to a Canadian nameserver.
Such an incredibly stupid patent would have less chance of surviving Canadian court... not sure about Aus... but it seems that America is slowly poisoning its own economy. I mean, X years from now America will be so bogged down by bad patents and innovation-stifling technology/laws that it will be far behind the rest of the world in a technological sense.
I think that the biggest benefit to SearchKing from this lawsuit would be all the media attention it received. Maybe the courts need a "moderation" system.
Sorry searchking, you've just been moderated -1 Troll, no publicity for this trial is allowed
Seriously though, it seems that the legal system does have a serious troll problem, with unfounded lawsuits simply for intimidation, fame, or quickcash (usually against those who find it cheaper to pay out than go to court).
OK, MS has a license to use unix-code for software. Microsoft makes a well-known and fairly decent GUI, some decent office stuff (hey, it works, it's just bloated), and a few games, etc.
Now... remember this little thing called OSX? Hmm, and what do you get when you're in a terminal. Continuing...
MS takes Unix, fixes up a little here and then, takes a head from the Linux developers on what is good and what's not. They have enough money to actually do something right if they had half a brain. Who would work on MS-Linux if it looked to actually be a good product? Continuing...
So MS-Linux comes out, it has a decent GUI, multimedia capability, hardware detection, and it can run windows programs quite decently (not everything, but hey even windows doesn't run all windows apps) - at least better than WINE. And then they release it at a profitable but not-too-insane price. Would you buy it? I can't say 100% that I wouldn't... depending on if was choked up with DRM. I know a lot of linux geeks who would give their right testicle for linux filepermissions, security, and the ability to run windoze apps/games.
Re:It was looking good until
on
A Tour of Pixar
·
· Score: 1
Sounds better than the ol'-fashioned corporate outhouses. You know, the one where the management outhouse was directly above the employee outhouse...
What did I find on his desk? He had on his desk an 8x10 photo of... himself.
Actually, quite a few execs might have this. Usually, it has another person, however sometimes they are solitary photos. Many are of an "event" that one wants to be reminded of,those for some that t could simply be "that great time... back when I had hair."
Perhaps he looks at that picture ever now and then to compare and see if he has any new bald-spots, receding hairline, or whatever. Managers are uncommonly strange about such things.
And locksmiths use lockpics, or other special devices to open up locations where keys have been lost, etc. But, lockpicks are used by burglars, burglars are criminals and locksmiths use lockpicks, so that must mean that locksmiths are criminals.
Geeze... doesn't this sound like basic High-School logic courses? Just because once group uses a tool for a purpose does not make the tool criminal, and does not make other groups using the tool criminals.
Meanwhile... a warrant is out for the inventor of the coathanger, after it was discovered that this device could also be used as a tool for burglarizing vehicles...
What about developers that rush a product out the door - hoping to make a buck - and using the poor mentality "if something's wrong, we'll know once it gets out there."
I mean, yes, those who dedicate their whole lives to breaking some well-built system deserve what they get if they are caught. Some kid who finds out that by typing "allpowerful" in a game console or "stepping on the magic square" suddenly gives him admin... well that's a bit different.
You can't excuse ineptitude with legal retaliation, if anything it just encourages more ineptitude.
Coder: "Don't worry, we'll know if something's wrong once we hit the release date"
Boss: "What if somebody breaks it when it's out there?"
Coder: "Well, if we release early, we profit more. If we get caught with a bug, just sue the bejesus anybody that exploits it"
Boss: "Great idea! We haven't fed the lawyers lately, they're probably hungry anyhow".
I don't think this will be any worse-off for the creator than FTP. Really, if one needs a website from which first to obtain the file link, then we'll probably just have the same issues as posting "not-on-my-server-but-heres-the-link" to mp3's.
The site owners will be the ones who can take the flak for this.
If it's an actual rooted server or other high-level problem
Keeping in mind the actual damage done by the crime, and actions persued (game havoc, but no malicious file deletion, record stealing, theft, etc) - I would say to slap the offender with a nice stiff fine for time involved in fixing the server and possibly reputation loss, revoke his/her account, and deal with him/her through the ISP. Fine can't be too big though, we're probably dealing with a 15-year-old, a $1000-$2000 would be more than enough to bring swift repentance from most.
If it's a game exploit
Suck it down. Track down and ban the player in question, but at least acknowledge that there was a bug in your software. Yes, players exploiting said bugs or lack of security are making online gameplay lose its lustre, but that's also the fault of the developers. You can't solve bad coding or protection with lawsuits, unless you think perhaps that you're Microsoft or the ??AA.
Why can't people simply say "oops, we screwed up, and somebody took advantage of us. It's fixed now, and we're making sure it won't happen again."
The army of "Open Source" - a bit ragtag, and scattered, though very well-trained and dedicated to their cause are poorly armed.
Then SCO marches over the hill, led by gentlemen in white shirts and black ties - they lead an army of lawyers carrying broadswords and briefcases. They also lead some heavy artillry, catapults and such, but it's a little old and rusty looking. The lawyers though are all decked out, with armor that isn't entirely functional but definately flashy, and a bit superior to the "Open Source" army.
As the SCO army is just about to invade, IBM suddenly comes rushing down the hill mounted on charging destriers, with heavy bowmen, superior armor, and long pointed lances. SCO is split down the middle - over half their forces crushed by the IBM horse - and IBM rallies forth to join the OS team.
As IBM and OS join together, SCO tries to regroup, but their army is shattered, and most of their seige equipment is destroyed. They're desperately rallying to defend against the concerted defence and attack of both IBM and OS, but the cause is now almost hopeless.
Meanwhilst, the trolls are wandering around unchecked. Occasionally they pause to munch on the head of a fallen SCO knight, but when they approach the OS line they are shot down by OS marksmen (also known as moderators).
OK... maybe a bit overdone, but the image of IBM marching in unheralded and trampling all over SCO just seems to fit. It's somewhat of a pleasant image... now all we need is some boiling oil, a few stakes and perhaps an anthill to deal with the remaining SCO execs. Maybe somebody could make this into a flash movie, I was considering it but my flash skill isn't great (care to dig up some SCO exec faces to paste in?)
Let's make some great new innovative Dreamcast games!
Whilst I do like the dreamcast, I - as well as many slashdotters I'm sure - do not personally own one. While you're at it, how about a trying at a few decent 'nix games for PC... we're still waiting for that hit that brings it into the home anyhow.
There were a lot of people who let out involuntary screams and some very distressed young children crying near us
This is as opposed to a voluntary scream? Seriously, what do the speaker expect people to do?
"Oh shit, it does appear to me that giant hailstones are pummeling our plane somewhat fiercly. Attendant, please fetch me a cup of tea, and this time please strengthen it with a little rye. Well, get along then. That's a good girl"
Personally the only thing that I might be considering more than screaming would be to find the nearest source of a life raft/parachute in case of future need.
I think that "Computrons" also include some measurement of space - but that would indicate that others' data is being stored on HP servers. Mind you, for some calculations, this would have to be done, at least on a temporary basis. Wonder what the papers on "privacy of data" and "liability" would be for this though.
Hopefully, as games evolve in graphics, we'll move towards more of a story-style or perhaps cinematic (as long as we don't get bad game cinematics the way we get bad movies) style. If you view something like FFX... you get talking characters, solid graphics, interesting storyline, and decent gameplay. It's the first FF game that I've been able to get my g/f to play, likely mainly due to the fact that it's not a bunch of funky looking characters walking around with textboxes (speech definately seems to attract more interest in some cases).
Shooters can be improved. For example, spy games wherein you still get to blow the crap out of stuff, but still have to solve clues to follow a (possibly not overly strong, but better than doom-clones) plot. How about a "Roger Wilco" game in 3d? I think we've come to the point where you could have Roger in full 3d, cinematic, and speech-enabled glory (heck, evil SQIV had a talkie version).
Maybe something along the lines of "Alien Vs Predator", except you could interact with civilians etc as you progress through an alien overtaking. I know that AvP2 had the potential to be a real freak out... with effects such as walls being dented open, bodies dragged around corners, etc. How about some more of that, a little spruced-up graphics and some TLC and you might just have a really good interactive game, guns included!
I haven't seen it up. Can't you at least post the link if you're going to tease us like this.
Really, I think a use of BT that would satisfy **AA and still generate revenue would be to post partial movies. Then you get to see if the movie sucks, and if it doesn't you'll probably want to see the rest (doesn't help on movies with suckish endings, but ah well)
Re:"Military Intelligence" is an oxymoron
on
IT at the CIA
·
· Score: 1
Are you sure you'd prefer the alternative, and what are the alternatives? Personally, I don't even trust those that have their fingers on the button now.
Personally, I think that the military must have an intranet page something akin to
<IMG SRC='mushroomcloud.gif'>
<form method=POST>
Who do we want to nuke today:
<input name='todaysenemy'>?
<input type='submit' value='nuke em'>
</form>
Is something more along the lines of "live" demos. Not these flash-stuff-by, fixed-POV, fixed-scene demos, but something more akin to a game or whatever. The "Dawn" demo is cool, and would be a neat thing to have in testing as you can see the differences and/or notice any graphical distortions or lag.
A better thing would be to have a demo with a simple multi-room house or whatnot. Various lighting effects, a few characters perhaps, window panes, maybe the outside is blocked by lava or something so that you can pull off a few cool lighting/sprite/particle effects.
How hard would it be for a knowledgable openGL or DirectX programmer to code a small "house" demo, maybe with a small forest, a pond, and a house to walk though. Depending on the details, such a demo would more adequately respresent real-life of the card (say Nvidia shows nicer trees in the forest but slows to xx FPS).
Standards may be revised, improved, or replaced. VHS is being replaced by DVD's... same general purpose, different standard. Yes, as far as recordable DVD's this is still sometimes a messy arena, wouldn't you prefer to just have it work without format wars.
And yes again, sometimes an old standard holds back a new innovation. It's a conflict between whether the current "stable" standard is worth changing in order to incorporate new features. If a new feature is good enough to incorporate, or enough new features/characteristics are added... the standard can change. Think of HTML, or just webpages in general (XML, etc), there are many versions of HTML, ja?
Newer browser support what is a new standard, or new additions on top of an older standard.
It's not a fixed thing... it can be improved. Innovation is only stifled if you let it be.
Um... how about those that:
a) Like the crowd experience. Funny movies are cooler when you have a whole theatre cracking up.
b) Aren't pampered or rich enough to have a home theatre
c) Prefer to see the movie when it comes out, rather than having it spoiled by all your friends talking about it so that you know half the story by the time it's out on DVD.
Scientist dude in white coat: "According to our calculations, the mini black-hole created will not be of any danger. In fact, it will have only 1/1000000000 of the force required to suck the planet into a screaming oblivion"
Black-hole generator activated
Nerdy scientist voice fading into the distance: "Oops, I um, forgot to carry the one"
Your car has a gas meter, you can see when you're reaching your limit (in this case, the end of your gas tank). If you can't afford more, you can park the car for awhile.
A car is a vehicle which takes a finite quantity of a substance in order to run. The internet is more comparable to a television or telephone in relevance to fees (yes, you can pay on a per-use basis with phones, but again - it is easy to track by time - whilst bandwidth is not a strict bytes/time measure).
High Speed internet is often dvertised as unlimited. In some cases there is fine print stating xx GB/month, but again you have no way of telling when you reach the limit (exclude linux NAT boxes with bandwidth calculators or stuff beyond the technical means of the masses).
In most cases, somebody can't just walk up to your car and start using your gas. Yes, you can be siphoned, but that's why cars have locking gas-caps. In computing, you end up losing bandwidth due to spam/trojans/easter-eggs/etc which you may not authorize or even be aware of
And yes, I'm sure there are ways for a decent geek to deal with the above, particularly those with a NAT box,etc - but not for Joe Average or even many geeks.
Slashdot Mirror
Doesn't this strike you as somewhat similar to court-TV shows when a lawyer makes an obviously incriminating but possibly unproven remark... gets an immediate response from the opposing lawyer, and withdraws the remark.
That is... once the initial remark is made... the jury (or the users/buyers/slashdotters) know that vVidia cheated. Anyone searching the net will probably find a whole whack of references to this (esp on slashdot). Perhaps it hurts Futuremark's credibility a bit to offer the recant, but by now everyone knows it's just to appease nVidia.
It's like saying "The jury will disregard the previous comment." Once you've heard it, it's pretty hard to disregard. Even an nVidia fan like myself finds it pretty hard to justify getting one of these cards now based on crappy benchmarks. I'll just wait until Doom3 or another new game comes out and then see which is proven to perform better, which is usually a much better than a benchmark anyhow.
Something I wondered. A lot of people have "celeb fetishes", and I'm sure some of them write about them. Would such a work, if clearly defined as fiction or just clearly fictitious, be judged as slander or simply written off as entertainment?
I suppose tabloids fall into this category somehow: a lot of them catch people who are intentionally in the limelite, but others focus on families/etc that are simply victims of circumstance and mass-media attention. How is it they can get away with such acts, while a personal website/diary couldn't?
In a game...
Koreandude: Hehehe... head-shot
AmericanPl8r: Dude, you haxor, cheater!
KoreanDude: You calling me a cheater?
AmericanPl8r: Yeah. You suck. Cheating hacker.
KoreanDude: You want to see sum real hackin?
AmericanPl8r: ?? Brb, I smell something bur..[NO CARRIER]
Yeah... as if we aren't seeing enough overseas hacking in games, etc as it is... now they're being trained for more serious stuff? Luckily, Canada is already producing a counterforce
I'm thinking more along the lines of businesses moving out as opposed to citizens. How about ebay moves its entire operations to Canada, or maybe Aus? We have decent webserver pricing, there's already ebay.ca, etc. Swap the domain name to a Canadian nameserver.
Such an incredibly stupid patent would have less chance of surviving Canadian court... not sure about Aus... but it seems that America is slowly poisoning its own economy. I mean, X years from now America will be so bogged down by bad patents and innovation-stifling technology/laws that it will be far behind the rest of the world in a technological sense.
I think that the biggest benefit to SearchKing from this lawsuit would be all the media attention it received. Maybe the courts need a "moderation" system.
Sorry searchking, you've just been moderated -1 Troll, no publicity for this trial is allowed
Seriously though, it seems that the legal system does have a serious troll problem, with unfounded lawsuits simply for intimidation, fame, or quickcash (usually against those who find it cheaper to pay out than go to court).
Ain't gonna happen. However...
OK, MS has a license to use unix-code for software. Microsoft makes a well-known and fairly decent GUI, some decent office stuff (hey, it works, it's just bloated), and a few games, etc.
Now... remember this little thing called OSX? Hmm, and what do you get when you're in a terminal.
Continuing...
MS takes Unix, fixes up a little here and then, takes a head from the Linux developers on what is good and what's not. They have enough money to actually do something right if they had half a brain. Who would work on MS-Linux if it looked to actually be a good product? Continuing...
So MS-Linux comes out, it has a decent GUI, multimedia capability, hardware detection, and it can run windows programs quite decently (not everything, but hey even windows doesn't run all windows apps) - at least better than WINE. And then they release it at a profitable but not-too-insane price. Would you buy it? I can't say 100% that I wouldn't... depending on if was choked up with DRM. I know a lot of linux geeks who would give their right testicle for linux filepermissions, security, and the ability to run windoze apps/games.
Sounds better than the ol'-fashioned corporate outhouses. You know, the one where the management outhouse was directly above the employee outhouse...
What did I find on his desk? He had on his desk an 8x10 photo of... himself.
Actually, quite a few execs might have this. Usually, it has another person, however sometimes they are solitary photos. Many are of an "event" that one wants to be reminded of,those for some that t could simply be "that great time... back when I had hair."
Perhaps he looks at that picture ever now and then to compare and see if he has any new bald-spots, receding hairline, or whatever. Managers are uncommonly strange about such things.
And locksmiths use lockpics, or other special devices to open up locations where keys have been lost, etc. But, lockpicks are used by burglars, burglars are criminals and locksmiths use lockpicks, so that must mean that locksmiths are criminals.
Geeze... doesn't this sound like basic High-School logic courses? Just because once group uses a tool for a purpose does not make the tool criminal, and does not make other groups using the tool criminals.
Meanwhile... a warrant is out for the inventor of the coathanger, after it was discovered that this device could also be used as a tool for burglarizing vehicles...
What about developers that rush a product out the door - hoping to make a buck - and using the poor mentality "if something's wrong, we'll know once it gets out there."
I mean, yes, those who dedicate their whole lives to breaking some well-built system deserve what they get if they are caught. Some kid who finds out that by typing "allpowerful" in a game console or "stepping on the magic square" suddenly gives him admin... well that's a bit different.
You can't excuse ineptitude with legal retaliation, if anything it just encourages more ineptitude.
Coder: "Don't worry, we'll know if something's wrong once we hit the release date"
Boss: "What if somebody breaks it when it's out there?"
Coder: "Well, if we release early, we profit more. If we get caught with a bug, just sue the bejesus anybody that exploits it"
Boss: "Great idea! We haven't fed the lawyers lately, they're probably hungry anyhow".
I'm curious, since I haven't seen any of these yet. Any links?
I don't think this will be any worse-off for the creator than FTP. Really, if one needs a website from which first to obtain the file link, then we'll probably just have the same issues as posting "not-on-my-server-but-heres-the-link" to mp3's.
The site owners will be the ones who can take the flak for this.
If it's an actual rooted server or other high-level problem
Keeping in mind the actual damage done by the crime, and actions persued (game havoc, but no malicious file deletion, record stealing, theft, etc) - I would say to slap the offender with a nice stiff fine for time involved in fixing the server and possibly reputation loss, revoke his/her account, and deal with him/her through the ISP. Fine can't be too big though, we're probably dealing with a 15-year-old, a $1000-$2000 would be more than enough to bring swift repentance from most.
If it's a game exploit
Suck it down. Track down and ban the player in question, but at least acknowledge that there was a bug in your software. Yes, players exploiting said bugs or lack of security are making online gameplay lose its lustre, but that's also the fault of the developers. You can't solve bad coding or protection with lawsuits, unless you think perhaps that you're Microsoft or the ??AA.
Why can't people simply say "oops, we screwed up, and somebody took advantage of us. It's fixed now, and we're making sure it won't happen again."
The army of "Open Source" - a bit ragtag, and scattered, though very well-trained and dedicated to their cause are poorly armed.
Then SCO marches over the hill, led by gentlemen in white shirts and black ties - they lead an army of lawyers carrying broadswords and briefcases. They also lead some heavy artillry, catapults and such, but it's a little old and rusty looking. The lawyers though are all decked out, with armor that isn't entirely functional but definately flashy, and a bit superior to the "Open Source" army.
As the SCO army is just about to invade, IBM suddenly comes rushing down the hill mounted on charging destriers, with heavy bowmen, superior armor, and long pointed lances. SCO is split down the middle - over half their forces crushed by the IBM horse - and IBM rallies forth to join the OS team.
As IBM and OS join together, SCO tries to regroup, but their army is shattered, and most of their seige equipment is destroyed. They're desperately rallying to defend against the concerted defence and attack of both IBM and OS, but the cause is now almost hopeless.
Meanwhilst, the trolls are wandering around unchecked. Occasionally they pause to munch on the head of a fallen SCO knight, but when they approach the OS line they are shot down by OS marksmen (also known as moderators).
OK... maybe a bit overdone, but the image of IBM marching in unheralded and trampling all over SCO just seems to fit. It's somewhat of a pleasant image... now all we need is some boiling oil, a few stakes and perhaps an anthill to deal with the remaining SCO execs. Maybe somebody could make this into a flash movie, I was considering it but my flash skill isn't great (care to dig up some SCO exec faces to paste in?)
Let's make some great new innovative Dreamcast games!
Whilst I do like the dreamcast, I - as well as many slashdotters I'm sure - do not personally own one. While you're at it, how about a trying at a few decent 'nix games for PC... we're still waiting for that hit that brings it into the home anyhow.
There were a lot of people who let out involuntary screams and some very distressed young children crying near us
This is as opposed to a voluntary scream? Seriously, what do the speaker expect people to do?
"Oh shit, it does appear to me that giant hailstones are pummeling our plane somewhat fiercly. Attendant, please fetch me a cup of tea, and this time please strengthen it with a little rye. Well, get along then. That's a good girl"
Personally the only thing that I might be considering more than screaming would be to find the nearest source of a life raft/parachute in case of future need.
I think that "Computrons" also include some measurement of space - but that would indicate that others' data is being stored on HP servers. Mind you, for some calculations, this would have to be done, at least on a temporary basis. Wonder what the papers on "privacy of data" and "liability" would be for this though.
Hopefully, as games evolve in graphics, we'll move towards more of a story-style or perhaps cinematic (as long as we don't get bad game cinematics the way we get bad movies) style. If you view something like FFX... you get talking characters, solid graphics, interesting storyline, and decent gameplay. It's the first FF game that I've been able to get my g/f to play, likely mainly due to the fact that it's not a bunch of funky looking characters walking around with textboxes (speech definately seems to attract more interest in some cases).
Shooters can be improved. For example, spy games wherein you still get to blow the crap out of stuff, but still have to solve clues to follow a (possibly not overly strong, but better than doom-clones) plot. How about a "Roger Wilco" game in 3d? I think we've come to the point where you could have Roger in full 3d, cinematic, and speech-enabled glory (heck, evil SQIV had a talkie version).
Maybe something along the lines of "Alien Vs Predator", except you could interact with civilians etc as you progress through an alien overtaking. I know that AvP2 had the potential to be a real freak out... with effects such as walls being dented open, bodies dragged around corners, etc. How about some more of that, a little spruced-up graphics and some TLC and you might just have a really good interactive game, guns included!
I haven't seen it up. Can't you at least post the link if you're going to tease us like this.
Really, I think a use of BT that would satisfy **AA and still generate revenue would be to post partial movies. Then you get to see if the movie sucks, and if it doesn't you'll probably want to see the rest (doesn't help on movies with suckish endings, but ah well)
Are you sure you'd prefer the alternative, and what are the alternatives? Personally, I don't even trust those that have their fingers on the button now.
Personally, I think that the military must have an intranet page something akin to
<IMG SRC='mushroomcloud.gif'>
<form method=POST>
Who do we want to nuke today: <input name='todaysenemy'>?
<input type='submit' value='nuke em'>
</form>
Is something more along the lines of "live" demos. Not these flash-stuff-by, fixed-POV, fixed-scene demos, but something more akin to a game or whatever. The "Dawn" demo is cool, and would be a neat thing to have in testing as you can see the differences and/or notice any graphical distortions or lag.
A better thing would be to have a demo with a simple multi-room house or whatnot. Various lighting effects, a few characters perhaps, window panes, maybe the outside is blocked by lava or something so that you can pull off a few cool lighting/sprite/particle effects.
How hard would it be for a knowledgable openGL or DirectX programmer to code a small "house" demo, maybe with a small forest, a pond, and a house to walk though. Depending on the details, such a demo would more adequately respresent real-life of the card (say Nvidia shows nicer trees in the forest but slows to xx FPS).
Standards may be revised, improved, or replaced. VHS is being replaced by DVD's... same general purpose, different standard. Yes, as far as recordable DVD's this is still sometimes a messy arena, wouldn't you prefer to just have it work without format wars.
And yes again, sometimes an old standard holds back a new innovation. It's a conflict between whether the current "stable" standard is worth changing in order to incorporate new features. If a new feature is good enough to incorporate, or enough new features/characteristics are added... the standard can change. Think of HTML, or just webpages in general (XML, etc), there are many versions of HTML, ja?
Newer browser support what is a new standard, or new additions on top of an older standard.
It's not a fixed thing... it can be improved. Innovation is only stifled if you let it be.
Um... how about those that:
a) Like the crowd experience. Funny movies are cooler when you have a whole theatre cracking up.
b) Aren't pampered or rich enough to have a home theatre
c) Prefer to see the movie when it comes out, rather than having it spoiled by all your friends talking about it so that you know half the story by the time it's out on DVD.
Scientist dude in white coat: "According to our calculations, the mini black-hole created will not be of any danger. In fact, it will have only 1/1000000000 of the force required to suck the planet into a screaming oblivion"
Black-hole generator activated
Nerdy scientist voice fading into the distance: "Oops, I um, forgot to carry the one"
- Your car has a gas meter, you can see when you're reaching your limit (in this case, the end of your gas tank). If you can't afford more, you can park the car for awhile.
- A car is a vehicle which takes a finite quantity of a substance in order to run. The internet is more comparable to a television or telephone in relevance to fees (yes, you can pay on a per-use basis with phones, but again - it is easy to track by time - whilst bandwidth is not a strict bytes/time measure).
- High Speed internet is often dvertised as unlimited. In some cases there is fine print stating xx GB/month, but again you have no way of telling when you reach the limit (exclude linux NAT boxes with bandwidth calculators or stuff beyond the technical means of the masses).
- In most cases, somebody can't just walk up to your car and start using your gas. Yes, you can be siphoned, but that's why cars have locking gas-caps. In computing, you end up losing bandwidth due to spam/trojans/easter-eggs/etc which you may not authorize or even be aware of
And yes, I'm sure there are ways for a decent geek to deal with the above, particularly those with a NAT box,etc - but not for Joe Average or even many geeks.