I would be willing to pay $5-$10 (includes shipping) for a replacement disk. I send them the original scratched disk and they send me a replacement. They can even send it back in a generic box.
Why should they care? They already suckered you out of the fifty bucks you originally paid, and don't consider it their responsibility if the media fails. And that would be okay, if you were able to make copies for your own consumption, but of course the DMCA makes that difficult.
If there was ever a legitimate application of fair use, this would seem to be it. Of course, in order to permit you, a legitimate customer, the exercise of your legal rights they'd have to grant the same to (ahem!) "pirates." Now, if games cost ten bucks instead of forty or fifty they might have less infringement on their hands, but they want to have their cake and eat the damned thing too.
Do you really think that it's as simple as there being an "addict gene"? Are you saying that if you took crystal meth, that you wouldn't soon become addicted?
No, but there is a stupidity gene. Think of this as evolution in action.
Yeah, that's kind of the problem. Drug addicts are ALREADY on their own. Once they burn through their savings and lose their ability to find work, they turn to crime to support their addictions. That hurts the rest of us.
So, a readily-available supply of cheap government certified drugs offered along with counseling/treatment would seem to be a solution. Expensive you say? Sure, but probably not as expensive as the War on Drugs, and in the long run would do much more good, save many more lives. Still, any such plan would involve disbanding or dramatically scaling back the DEA, ATF and other government organs dependent upon the illicit nature of recreational drugs... and that's unlikely to happen no matter how many of our lives it costs. Bureaucrats like their jobs, and their perks, and they don't go down without a fight, or a really good reason. That they may be completely unnecessary, or in fact detrimental to society, is not a sufficient reason.
There's also the matter of the religious right, those self-appointed guardians of Universal Propriety, who staunchly oppose anything resembling a rational approach to this problem. And it is a problem. To them, it is better that a million die of a drug overdose so long as the government is sending the right "message." To them, I will say this: your message is killing people by the thousands. Is that really what your God wants? Apparently, religious intoxication is just as dangerous as an honest-to-God chemically-induced high... probably more so.
The one thing that governments never seem to understand (or, perhaps they understand all too well) is that when there is a demand, there will be a supply. It's that simple, and if there's sufficient demand there's really no way to prevent people from getting what they want. It's not just the United States: every country on Earth has a black market for something that the citizens want but the government wishes to deny them. Usually it's many somethings.
To put this back on topic, what Nintendo wants is for government(s) to consider video games as contraband, as important black-market items. That way, said government(s) will redirect considerable law enforcement efforts to curbing what Nintendo so blithely labels "piracy." And should Nintendo succeed in this effort, I think they'll find that it will be just about as successful as the DEA has been in eliminating the consumption of illicit drugs in the United States. That is to say, not very.
Frankly, we do not need a GEA (Games Enforcement Agency.) We have enough three-letter outfits already, thank you very much.
doesn't matter how it affects their product - they, for whatever reason, are refusing to do business with you and guess what they are entitled refuse it.
That's a ridiculous blanket statement. That to which they are (or are not) entitled is entirely up to the laws of any particular country.
Like him or not, you are someone posting on Slashdot. Steve has managed to amass a personal net worth of $15B and runs a $50B a year company with 80,000+ employees. If you want to claim that that doesn't take intelligence, by all means...
I didn't say he wasn't intelligent. I just said he wasn't a genius.
Meaning, in no way will Microsoft ever be able to take on Linux directly.... Doing so would force the hand of IBM to get involved because they have much at stake...
In one corner we have Horacio Gutierrez, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft. In the other corner we have... the Nazgul.
Ballmer isn't exactly a genius but he's not that stupid.
You probably have some things to learn about zealotry. In a case like this, you should jump at the chance to not come to microsofts defense, Anonymous Coward....if that even is your real name.
Cisco is where they are because they monetize everything.
And where they are is with a customer base that is reluctant to fix security holes...
No kidding. Even the great Beast of Redmond has not, so far as I'm aware, tried to profit from WindowsUpdate. Of course, if they did, nobody would ever use it.
I agree that we've got nothing on what Persia and Rome had historically, nor our friend upon which "the sun never sets," but they all started somewhere.
Well, it's highly unlikely that we'll ever be a true Imperial power... we're pretty far along the slide into oblivion. Nor do we really have the stomach for it: Empires are usually started by more monolithic cultures, countries where the people all have similar ideals that can be conscripted by those in power. We're so damn fractious that the odds of our ever acquiring the combined, sustained effort of will that would permit an Empire is virtually nil. Unless, of course, we go all totalitarian and become a monolithic society by fiat.
Hell, we can't even manage to annex a two-bit operation like Iraq without tearing ourselves apart over it. Maintaining some degree of economic hegemony, keeping our place in the manufacturing world, is all that will keep us from becoming yet another third-world country looking for a handout. We need to keep creating wealth, need to continue being the nation that makes everything for everyone else, otherwise we'll become a backwater. It's not like we don't have massive competition nowadays: either we get cracking, or we just give it up. There's no middle ground anymore.
Damn right it's my tax dollars at work, and millions of us approve of it.
Well... those of us who understand the logic behind science and the scientific method most certainly do. I'm just not sure how many of us fit that description, anymore.
I've just finished reading this novel. The interesting theme that Card points out is that intensive partisanship is a destructive force.
In an even more interesting afterword, Card identifies himself as a recipient of both radical and reactionary ostracism as a tendency away from moderation and idiological tolerance.
My personal opinion is that the world has more serious issues to deal with than a witchhunt into the past. I'd rather the new administration be forward-looking, constructive, and collaborative instead of backward-focused, destructive, and contentious. Difficult times call for solving present problems in the future, not solving past problems in the present. The election did the latter.
Nice sounding words, but the reality is that if Obama doesn't deal with this effectively now, it will continue to happen. A focus on the past is a good part of what politics is about, because that's how we know what worked... and what did not. And what George Bush did, generally didn't.
our empire is crumbling and most of the people on the street don't even know what the word "empire" means and how it applies to America today
Neither do you, it seems. There are some people that could help define more precisely what an Empire is... and is not. The Romans, Persians, even the Greeks: a more recent example would be our British friends. They really had that empire business down pat.
Of course, most of them are dead and buried now: that's the usual fate of empires and empire builders. Now, if you're referring to economic hegemony I'd agree, but that's a very different matter.
The simple truth is that the US is at least as corrupt as Mexico
Wait a second. Do you seriously believe that? Can you so easily dismiss the corruption that permeates the Mexican society (yes, not only the political institutions)? It's a corruption so pervasive, people take it for granted and live by it.
The USA certainly has the faults you listed, I won't deny any of those, but to say that it's more corrupted than Mexico?
Besides, if we were that corrupt we wouldn't even notice the wave of violence and corruption that's making it's way around the U.S. from our neighbor to the south. Matter of fact, most of us aren't noticing it, but that's only because our media isn't bothering to report it. I happen to have family in Arizona, not far from the border, and they have a very different story to tell.
So, yes, comparing Mexico to the United States in that regard is ridiculous.
Yes, that's actually a very good example of a republic that worked. The ancient Romans maintained a very high civilization that lasted a hell of a lot longer than we've been around, and way longer than we're likely to. So yes, Republics can work, can work very well, but like all edifices built by the hand of Man they don't last forever.
Nothing does. Even the Great Pyramid will be dust one day.
I don't think people quite got what "YES WE CAN" really meant. They didn't read the "FUCK YOU OVER" at the end that was implied.
In other words, voting for change doesn't mean you get it. The one common aspect to most forms of intoxication is that eventually you have to come down from the high. Obama rapture is no exception.
Slashdot Mirror
I would be willing to pay $5-$10 (includes shipping) for a replacement disk. I send them the original scratched disk and they send me a replacement. They can even send it back in a generic box.
Why should they care? They already suckered you out of the fifty bucks you originally paid, and don't consider it their responsibility if the media fails. And that would be okay, if you were able to make copies for your own consumption, but of course the DMCA makes that difficult.
If there was ever a legitimate application of fair use, this would seem to be it. Of course, in order to permit you, a legitimate customer, the exercise of your legal rights they'd have to grant the same to (ahem!) "pirates." Now, if games cost ten bucks instead of forty or fifty they might have less infringement on their hands, but they want to have their cake and eat the damned thing too.
Do you really think that it's as simple as there being an "addict gene"? Are you saying that if you took crystal meth, that you wouldn't soon become addicted?
No, but there is a stupidity gene. Think of this as evolution in action.
Yeah, that's kind of the problem. Drug addicts are ALREADY on their own. Once they burn through their savings and lose their ability to find work, they turn to crime to support their addictions. That hurts the rest of us.
So, a readily-available supply of cheap government certified drugs offered along with counseling/treatment would seem to be a solution. Expensive you say? Sure, but probably not as expensive as the War on Drugs, and in the long run would do much more good, save many more lives. Still, any such plan would involve disbanding or dramatically scaling back the DEA, ATF and other government organs dependent upon the illicit nature of recreational drugs ... and that's unlikely to happen no matter how many of our lives it costs. Bureaucrats like their jobs, and their perks, and they don't go down without a fight, or a really good reason. That they may be completely unnecessary, or in fact detrimental to society, is not a sufficient reason.
There's also the matter of the religious right, those self-appointed guardians of Universal Propriety, who staunchly oppose anything resembling a rational approach to this problem. And it is a problem. To them, it is better that a million die of a drug overdose so long as the government is sending the right "message." To them, I will say this: your message is killing people by the thousands. Is that really what your God wants? Apparently, religious intoxication is just as dangerous as an honest-to-God chemically-induced high... probably more so.
The one thing that governments never seem to understand (or, perhaps they understand all too well) is that when there is a demand, there will be a supply. It's that simple, and if there's sufficient demand there's really no way to prevent people from getting what they want. It's not just the United States: every country on Earth has a black market for something that the citizens want but the government wishes to deny them. Usually it's many somethings.
To put this back on topic, what Nintendo wants is for government(s) to consider video games as contraband, as important black-market items. That way, said government(s) will redirect considerable law enforcement efforts to curbing what Nintendo so blithely labels "piracy." And should Nintendo succeed in this effort, I think they'll find that it will be just about as successful as the DEA has been in eliminating the consumption of illicit drugs in the United States. That is to say, not very.
Frankly, we do not need a GEA (Games Enforcement Agency.) We have enough three-letter outfits already, thank you very much.
So anything $69 and up?
Nope. $69 and going down.
(Obviously they do in a legal sense)
China would probably have a different opinion on this matter.
doesn't matter how it affects their product - they, for whatever reason, are refusing to do business with you and guess what they are entitled refuse it.
That's a ridiculous blanket statement. That to which they are (or are not) entitled is entirely up to the laws of any particular country.
That would presumably be perjury. You might get away with it but really it's not something you want to be charged for.
Worse than going down for possessing child pornography?
Like him or not, you are someone posting on Slashdot. Steve has managed to amass a personal net worth of $15B and runs a $50B a year company with 80,000+ employees. If you want to claim that that doesn't take intelligence, by all means...
I didn't say he wasn't intelligent. I just said he wasn't a genius.
Meaning, in no way will Microsoft ever be able to take on Linux directly.... Doing so would force the hand of IBM to get involved because they have much at stake...
In one corner we have Horacio Gutierrez, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft. In the other corner we have ... the Nazgul.
Ballmer isn't exactly a genius but he's not that stupid.
Not to go too far offtopic, but I was intrigued by your post and looked into it a bit more.
You should subscribe to his newsletter.
Slashdot needs a CAPTCHA which restricts posting to people who are able to pass a reading comprehension test.
Or, as Shadow Warrior's Lo Wang was wont to ask, "Are you a STUPID?"
Man, I really hope scientists are working on a vaccine for that. That alone would advance humanity much further than curing cancer.
Yeah, and if we could keep stupid people out of the picture, we'd probably have a universal cancer cure in record time anyway.
You both.
That's the most terrifying thing I've ever read on Slashdot.
You probably have some things to learn about zealotry. In a case like this, you should jump at the chance to not come to microsofts defense, Anonymous Coward. ...if that even is your real name.
Zealot is not synonymous with bigot.
Cisco is where they are because they monetize everything.
And where they are is with a customer base that is reluctant to fix security holes...
No kidding. Even the great Beast of Redmond has not, so far as I'm aware, tried to profit from WindowsUpdate. Of course, if they did, nobody would ever use it.
I agree that we've got nothing on what Persia and Rome had historically, nor our friend upon which "the sun never sets," but they all started somewhere.
Well, it's highly unlikely that we'll ever be a true Imperial power ... we're pretty far along the slide into oblivion. Nor do we really have the stomach for it: Empires are usually started by more monolithic cultures, countries where the people all have similar ideals that can be conscripted by those in power. We're so damn fractious that the odds of our ever acquiring the combined, sustained effort of will that would permit an Empire is virtually nil. Unless, of course, we go all totalitarian and become a monolithic society by fiat.
Hell, we can't even manage to annex a two-bit operation like Iraq without tearing ourselves apart over it. Maintaining some degree of economic hegemony, keeping our place in the manufacturing world, is all that will keep us from becoming yet another third-world country looking for a handout. We need to keep creating wealth, need to continue being the nation that makes everything for everyone else, otherwise we'll become a backwater. It's not like we don't have massive competition nowadays: either we get cracking, or we just give it up. There's no middle ground anymore.
Damn right it's my tax dollars at work, and millions of us approve of it.
Well ... those of us who understand the logic behind science and the scientific method most certainly do. I'm just not sure how many of us fit that description, anymore.
I keep hearing about how Obama represents a "Mixed Bag".
Obama & Biden are more of a "salt and pepper" team, if you ask me.
I've just finished reading this novel. The interesting theme that Card points out is that intensive partisanship is a destructive force. In an even more interesting afterword, Card identifies himself as a recipient of both radical and reactionary ostracism as a tendency away from moderation and idiological tolerance.
My personal opinion is that the world has more serious issues to deal with than a witchhunt into the past. I'd rather the new administration be forward-looking, constructive, and collaborative instead of backward-focused, destructive, and contentious. Difficult times call for solving present problems in the future, not solving past problems in the present. The election did the latter.
Nice sounding words, but the reality is that if Obama doesn't deal with this effectively now, it will continue to happen. A focus on the past is a good part of what politics is about, because that's how we know what worked ... and what did not. And what George Bush did, generally didn't.
our empire is crumbling and most of the people on the street don't even know what the word "empire" means and how it applies to America today
Neither do you, it seems. There are some people that could help define more precisely what an Empire is ... and is not. The Romans, Persians, even the Greeks: a more recent example would be our British friends. They really had that empire business down pat.
Of course, most of them are dead and buried now: that's the usual fate of empires and empire builders. Now, if you're referring to economic hegemony I'd agree, but that's a very different matter.
The simple truth is that the US is at least as corrupt as Mexico
Wait a second. Do you seriously believe that? Can you so easily dismiss the corruption that permeates the Mexican society (yes, not only the political institutions)? It's a corruption so pervasive, people take it for granted and live by it.
The USA certainly has the faults you listed, I won't deny any of those, but to say that it's more corrupted than Mexico?
Besides, if we were that corrupt we wouldn't even notice the wave of violence and corruption that's making it's way around the U.S. from our neighbor to the south. Matter of fact, most of us aren't noticing it, but that's only because our media isn't bothering to report it. I happen to have family in Arizona, not far from the border, and they have a very different story to tell.
So, yes, comparing Mexico to the United States in that regard is ridiculous.
Republics work.
Where? Rome?
Yes, that's actually a very good example of a republic that worked. The ancient Romans maintained a very high civilization that lasted a hell of a lot longer than we've been around, and way longer than we're likely to. So yes, Republics can work, can work very well, but like all edifices built by the hand of Man they don't last forever.
Nothing does. Even the Great Pyramid will be dust one day.
I don't think people quite got what "YES WE CAN" really meant. They didn't read the "FUCK YOU OVER" at the end that was implied.
In other words, voting for change doesn't mean you get it. The one common aspect to most forms of intoxication is that eventually you have to come down from the high. Obama rapture is no exception.
Uncle Sam's Travel Site Grounded By Breach
Can we at least spell Nothrop Grumman correctly?
Well, at least it wasn't grounded by a breech.
twiddling a framis panel instead of sparting the glinbo interface
That's very (ahem!) creative. May I have some of whatever it is you have in your pipe?