Ah yes, that's what I like to call, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it". It's the same thing when you go into one of those jewelry stores that hides all the prices. I like places that put the prices right up front where the customer can see them. Usually when they don't show the price, it means that it's pretty expensive, and that they want you to decide that you want it before seeing the price.
I don't believe that PCs will ever become like this. Or at least I hope not. For the end user, it seems like a pretty good idea. They can't pirate software, and don't have to worry about code being run that shouldn't be run. On the other hand, a lot of developers get cut out of the loop. How do you even develop for one of these computers. Do you have to resign the code every time you compile? Everyone would have to have access to the same private key, which doesn't make it very private. Either that or we use a certificate authority like we do for secure web sites, in which anybody can sign code with their own key, and not really garaunteeing that any of the code is even trustworthy at all. A better system could be more easily maintained on a computer by computer basis, by only running executables which have been deemed to be safe by the person running the computer. People will always be able to mess up their own computers. The best they can do is make it easier to not mess it up, for those who are interested in keeping their computer in good working order.
But then you're also taxing those who aren't downloading MP3s. I don't download illegal content with my connection. Why should I have to pay an extra $5 a month. Especially since that $5 will be split between all the artists under this program, and not go directly to the artists that I want to support. If they could devise a system whereby the money I pay goes to the bands I like, then it may work. But I still think it's a stupid idea. Either the money would be split up evenly between the artists, and the more popular ones that deserve more would get mad, or they'd have to have a way to keep track of every file you had, and distribute the money accordingly. Which I think would be an impossible system to maintain, assuming I could download the music from wherever I want.
Just to be cool. I don't really know why anyone buys stuff on iTunes. I can pick up a disc for $10. If there's only 1 song I want, then the disc isn't worth it. But if the band can only produce 1 good song, i'm not interested in supporting them anyway. I only feel they should get my money if they prove they can produce a good album.
Yeah, but then it just comes down to how well they keep that private key, well, private. If there is only 1 key, then what is the feasibility of either brute forcing it, or stealing it from Microsoft. Once you have it, they can't change it, because it's embedded in every single CPU. Does everyone have to send their stuff to MS to get it signed? Even if they do, how well do they keep that key hidden, and away from anyone who might be interested in selling it.
I think 2 needs to be clarified. I think what he's trying to say is either use blogger.com for your blog, or get a cheap webhost. Don't try to do it on your own machine at home. I tried this for a while, and it was more trouble than it was worth. For $4 a month you can get almost everything you need to run a blog. It's well worth it.
I find by far the easiest way to do it is by paying for hosting. You can get super cheap packages with shared hosting starting at less than $4 per month. This goes all the way up to dedicated machines where the price can get up around $200 a month. There's a lot less to manage, and uptimes are usually pretty good. This way you can spend more time putting the content on your server, and less time making sure the server is running properly.
If they signed it with their private key, then the public key that the system uses to check that signature must either be located on the system, or be downloaded from the server. If you could change the public key, either by swapping out a chip, or by tricking the system into getting the public key off the wrong server, then you could sign anything you wanted to run with your own private key, which corresponds to the public key which you switched the original one with. I'm not a mad haxor, so i'm not really sure where you'd start on a project like this, but i'm sure it's possible.
But if EA knows that out of your 10,000,000 units, that 3,000,000 are being used for modding/pirating/not buying games and that your competitor has 0 units out of 8,000,000, then who do you think is going to have higher licensing fees. Realistically, EA will just make a game for both consoles, unless you only have like 100,000 units out there.
How can you patent a gene? you don't create new genes, you just figure out what existing ones do. I don't think that's deserving of a patent. If I figure why a horse has ears, should I be able to patent that? Just because I figured out that they are used for hearing, doesn't mean that I have come up with a new invention.
The problem is, is that they are very afraid to undercut their own retailers. If they significantly undercut the DVDs, and people actually start buying a significant amount of stuff online, many retailers won't see it as worth their time to continue to even stock the DVDs. They have to keep the retailers happy. If you don't then they will revolt. It's the same reason why buying a computer direct from HP costs the same amount as buying it from the retailer, even though there should be no distribution markup.
The difference between BSD and the public domain is that with BSD you still maintain copyright over whatever you release. Others can do whatever they want to with it, but you still have the copyright. If you release something into the public domain, I don't believe you retain any copyright to whatever you release.
If I was the Prof of that CS grad student, then I wouldn't give them any pity. Being a CS grad student means that you should be away that only storing your paper on 1 disk is not a very good idea. Always make backups of your work. Possibly 2 or 3, depending on how important the assignment is. I always did offsite backups of my work, to my hosting company. I had heard enough horror stories of people who had their computer crash and lost all their work.
But maybe we don't want the most open and least restrictive. Because if we did, we'd all be using BSD. Which is the least restrictive license I know of. I think what a lot of GPL users want is for their code to stay GPL, and for changes made to the code by others to be brought back upstream, so the whole community can take advantage of the changes. I think that's what GPL V3 is trying to accomplish.
The thing is, you could still get a lot of interesting tech from the solaris OS without necessarily taking anything from the kernel. Remeber, that Linux is simply a kernel. It doesn't require that all software run on top of that kernel be run under the same license. If they simply release the Solaris kernel, it probably wouldn't have meant much to Linux, because Linux already has a pretty good kernel, and I'm pretty sure they'd be a little incompatible anyway. I think the main thing that will help is the applications that run on top of the kernel, that Sun may be releasing.
Well, in the case of descent 3, it wasnt' the games company, it was just the complexity. They released an editor, which as far as I could tell, was actually quite good. The problem was that the learning curve was quite high. And I wasn't ready to commit the time I was going to need to do it properly. By that point I was in University, and had classes that I needed to spend my time on. With the original descent, I was in high school and had lots of free time on my hands.
Computers aren't that good at understanding natural language in order to follow commands. This is why we have programming languages, scripting languages, and macros. If computers were anywhere close to be able to understand natural language, then we would have no need for programming. The only thing i've seen work on a computer as far as voice commands, are using your voice to navigate the menus. I realize the usefullness of these technologies for those without the ability to type or use a mouse, but beyond that, I think that people should just learn to use the tools, and stop trying to create a solution to a problem that isn't there.
The problem is, even if we get speech recognition, the computer might know which words you are saying, but not what they mean. Assuming the computer understood "sum the row labeled timing, but only include values greater than 10", then your idea of speach recognition would work great. But since computers don't understand that, and it will be a while before they understand arbitrary commands, speech recognition will only be for those who are too lazy to learn how to type.
And keyboard only is much faster than mouse+keyboard if the system is designed correctly. Except in the case where you are required to point at spots on the screen, such as for editing images, I would rather not use a mouse at all. Word Perfect 5.1 was the king of word processors. Everything could be done as a combination of alt/ctrl/shift and the F keys.
Yeah, when Descent 3 came out, I thought it would be cool to make my own maps. Turns out it was way too hard, even with the many hours/weeks/months I had devoted to making maps in Descent 1. I love games that allow the players to make expansions for the games. It's the one thing I miss since I switched from PC to Console gaming. I switched because it was too costly to have a computer that could run all the newest games.
This is the same reason I loved the original Descent. The levels were quite easy to edit, and the editor was available for free. Everything consisted of cubes which had been stretch and contorted and joined together. I made some pretty cool levels in that game. globe shaped rooms, a big cubic room with a floating cube in the middle, with a door on it, that lead to a larger room. Yeah, not exactly realistic, but cool as hell.
I heard the same kind of thing when some guys robbed a jewelry store a couple years back. Not only did they get charged with robbing the place, but with wearing a disguise (ski mask) while robbing a place. That charge can only exist in order to lay more charges on someone who you have already charged with commiting a crime. Wearing a ski mask is not a crime, but it is when you rob someone. So you have to be convicted of robbing someone to be convicted of wearing that ski mask. That's 2 charges for 1 act. It would be like having laws against murduring someone while wearing pants. If you wore pants when you murdered them, you'd get an extra 5 years.
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Ah yes, that's what I like to call, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it". It's the same thing when you go into one of those jewelry stores that hides all the prices. I like places that put the prices right up front where the customer can see them. Usually when they don't show the price, it means that it's pretty expensive, and that they want you to decide that you want it before seeing the price.
I don't believe that PCs will ever become like this. Or at least I hope not. For the end user, it seems like a pretty good idea. They can't pirate software, and don't have to worry about code being run that shouldn't be run. On the other hand, a lot of developers get cut out of the loop. How do you even develop for one of these computers. Do you have to resign the code every time you compile? Everyone would have to have access to the same private key, which doesn't make it very private. Either that or we use a certificate authority like we do for secure web sites, in which anybody can sign code with their own key, and not really garaunteeing that any of the code is even trustworthy at all. A better system could be more easily maintained on a computer by computer basis, by only running executables which have been deemed to be safe by the person running the computer. People will always be able to mess up their own computers. The best they can do is make it easier to not mess it up, for those who are interested in keeping their computer in good working order.
But then you're also taxing those who aren't downloading MP3s. I don't download illegal content with my connection. Why should I have to pay an extra $5 a month. Especially since that $5 will be split between all the artists under this program, and not go directly to the artists that I want to support. If they could devise a system whereby the money I pay goes to the bands I like, then it may work. But I still think it's a stupid idea. Either the money would be split up evenly between the artists, and the more popular ones that deserve more would get mad, or they'd have to have a way to keep track of every file you had, and distribute the money accordingly. Which I think would be an impossible system to maintain, assuming I could download the music from wherever I want.
Just to be cool. I don't really know why anyone buys stuff on iTunes. I can pick up a disc for $10. If there's only 1 song I want, then the disc isn't worth it. But if the band can only produce 1 good song, i'm not interested in supporting them anyway. I only feel they should get my money if they prove they can produce a good album.
Yeah, but then it just comes down to how well they keep that private key, well, private. If there is only 1 key, then what is the feasibility of either brute forcing it, or stealing it from Microsoft. Once you have it, they can't change it, because it's embedded in every single CPU. Does everyone have to send their stuff to MS to get it signed? Even if they do, how well do they keep that key hidden, and away from anyone who might be interested in selling it.
I think 2 needs to be clarified. I think what he's trying to say is either use blogger.com for your blog, or get a cheap webhost. Don't try to do it on your own machine at home. I tried this for a while, and it was more trouble than it was worth. For $4 a month you can get almost everything you need to run a blog. It's well worth it.
I find by far the easiest way to do it is by paying for hosting. You can get super cheap packages with shared hosting starting at less than $4 per month. This goes all the way up to dedicated machines where the price can get up around $200 a month. There's a lot less to manage, and uptimes are usually pretty good. This way you can spend more time putting the content on your server, and less time making sure the server is running properly.
If they signed it with their private key, then the public key that the system uses to check that signature must either be located on the system, or be downloaded from the server. If you could change the public key, either by swapping out a chip, or by tricking the system into getting the public key off the wrong server, then you could sign anything you wanted to run with your own private key, which corresponds to the public key which you switched the original one with. I'm not a mad haxor, so i'm not really sure where you'd start on a project like this, but i'm sure it's possible.
But if EA knows that out of your 10,000,000 units, that 3,000,000 are being used for modding/pirating/not buying games and that your competitor has 0 units out of 8,000,000, then who do you think is going to have higher licensing fees. Realistically, EA will just make a game for both consoles, unless you only have like 100,000 units out there.
How can you patent a gene? you don't create new genes, you just figure out what existing ones do. I don't think that's deserving of a patent. If I figure why a horse has ears, should I be able to patent that? Just because I figured out that they are used for hearing, doesn't mean that I have come up with a new invention.
The problem is, is that they are very afraid to undercut their own retailers. If they significantly undercut the DVDs, and people actually start buying a significant amount of stuff online, many retailers won't see it as worth their time to continue to even stock the DVDs. They have to keep the retailers happy. If you don't then they will revolt. It's the same reason why buying a computer direct from HP costs the same amount as buying it from the retailer, even though there should be no distribution markup.
The difference between BSD and the public domain is that with BSD you still maintain copyright over whatever you release. Others can do whatever they want to with it, but you still have the copyright. If you release something into the public domain, I don't believe you retain any copyright to whatever you release.
If I was the Prof of that CS grad student, then I wouldn't give them any pity. Being a CS grad student means that you should be away that only storing your paper on 1 disk is not a very good idea. Always make backups of your work. Possibly 2 or 3, depending on how important the assignment is. I always did offsite backups of my work, to my hosting company. I had heard enough horror stories of people who had their computer crash and lost all their work.
But maybe we don't want the most open and least restrictive. Because if we did, we'd all be using BSD. Which is the least restrictive license I know of. I think what a lot of GPL users want is for their code to stay GPL, and for changes made to the code by others to be brought back upstream, so the whole community can take advantage of the changes. I think that's what GPL V3 is trying to accomplish.
The thing is, you could still get a lot of interesting tech from the solaris OS without necessarily taking anything from the kernel. Remeber, that Linux is simply a kernel. It doesn't require that all software run on top of that kernel be run under the same license. If they simply release the Solaris kernel, it probably wouldn't have meant much to Linux, because Linux already has a pretty good kernel, and I'm pretty sure they'd be a little incompatible anyway. I think the main thing that will help is the applications that run on top of the kernel, that Sun may be releasing.
I think we all need to be reminded of what D&D geeks are really like. 8-bit theatre, Final Fantasy style
My computer is too slow to play videos via flash. Anybody have a torrent to a video file?
Well, in the case of descent 3, it wasnt' the games company, it was just the complexity. They released an editor, which as far as I could tell, was actually quite good. The problem was that the learning curve was quite high. And I wasn't ready to commit the time I was going to need to do it properly. By that point I was in University, and had classes that I needed to spend my time on. With the original descent, I was in high school and had lots of free time on my hands.
Computers aren't that good at understanding natural language in order to follow commands. This is why we have programming languages, scripting languages, and macros. If computers were anywhere close to be able to understand natural language, then we would have no need for programming. The only thing i've seen work on a computer as far as voice commands, are using your voice to navigate the menus. I realize the usefullness of these technologies for those without the ability to type or use a mouse, but beyond that, I think that people should just learn to use the tools, and stop trying to create a solution to a problem that isn't there.
The problem is, even if we get speech recognition, the computer might know which words you are saying, but not what they mean. Assuming the computer understood "sum the row labeled timing, but only include values greater than 10", then your idea of speach recognition would work great. But since computers don't understand that, and it will be a while before they understand arbitrary commands, speech recognition will only be for those who are too lazy to learn how to type.
And keyboard only is much faster than mouse+keyboard if the system is designed correctly. Except in the case where you are required to point at spots on the screen, such as for editing images, I would rather not use a mouse at all. Word Perfect 5.1 was the king of word processors. Everything could be done as a combination of alt/ctrl/shift and the F keys.
Yeah, when Descent 3 came out, I thought it would be cool to make my own maps. Turns out it was way too hard, even with the many hours/weeks/months I had devoted to making maps in Descent 1. I love games that allow the players to make expansions for the games. It's the one thing I miss since I switched from PC to Console gaming. I switched because it was too costly to have a computer that could run all the newest games.
This is the same reason I loved the original Descent. The levels were quite easy to edit, and the editor was available for free. Everything consisted of cubes which had been stretch and contorted and joined together. I made some pretty cool levels in that game. globe shaped rooms, a big cubic room with a floating cube in the middle, with a door on it, that lead to a larger room. Yeah, not exactly realistic, but cool as hell.
I think you need a visit from Mr. Period
I heard the same kind of thing when some guys robbed a jewelry store a couple years back. Not only did they get charged with robbing the place, but with wearing a disguise (ski mask) while robbing a place. That charge can only exist in order to lay more charges on someone who you have already charged with commiting a crime. Wearing a ski mask is not a crime, but it is when you rob someone. So you have to be convicted of robbing someone to be convicted of wearing that ski mask. That's 2 charges for 1 act. It would be like having laws against murduring someone while wearing pants. If you wore pants when you murdered them, you'd get an extra 5 years.