Hey, our president hasn't gotten his approval ratings out of the mid 30 percent range in years, yet we haven't several consecutive days' worth of continually growing protests in our streets. You might want to hold back on that "wide popular support" assertion.
In Ohio (one of the United States, for those unfamiliar with the term), it's illegal to turn on a camcorder anywhere in a commercial building where movies are being shown. That includes movie theaters - even out in the lobby - and presumably retail stores where camcorders are sold alongside movies. Moreover, the store/theater/whatever workers have the right to detain you until the cops show up to arrest you.
Local TV news crew doing an expose on the poor health code compliance of a theater's concession stand? Busted.
Family testing out a camcorder at the local big-box electronics store where a movie is coincidentally being demo'd nearby? Busted.
And what makes matters worse is that we already had laws to cover copyright infringement, but the content cabal decided that somehow that just wasn't enough.
IMO the most important representatives of personal freedom are freedom of speech, freedom of thought, political preferences, sexual preferences, the right to decide what you do with your own property, the right to proper health care and education, even for the less wealthy, etc. etc. etc. Guns of all things *don't even occur to me* when thinking of personal freedom...
How about the freedom to decide for yourself which Constitutionally-protected freedoms mean more to you than others?
AACS does stop casual copying, but it hasn't prevented unencrypted HD content from being distributed over the Internet.
That's really what the content cabal are most interested in. Piracy of their content is a foregone conclusion. It's been happening for decades, and in some countries, almost the entire market for their content is based on counterfeit copies. They've long since priced their "losses" into the cost of their product.
What AACS (and CSS before it) is really about is enforcing the other forms of DRM they've implemented, like user-operation prohibition (preventing you from skipping the pointless FBI notice, company credits, and best/worst of all, advertising) and region coding. Note that neither of those DRM schemes have anything to do with piracy prevention - they're just another route for indirectly extracting revenue from the consumer, by force-feeding advertising or by exploiting the arbitrage created when they don't release their content simultaneously around the world.
While the talks were described by Jobs as being "positive", rumor has it that neither side brought up hot topics such as Microsoft's continued use of centrifuges for uranium enrichment or Apple's purported covert operations in Redmond.
What you describe is called group selection, and while it hasn't by any means been discounted as a factor in evolution, it is generally regarded as being much weaker than normal self-beneficiary selection pressures. That said, higher levels of intelligence in humans than is average for the animal kingdom could be a factor in enhancing the importance of group selection. The saying, "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" comes to mind, but then again, one could also regard implicit-quid-pro-quo-as-altruism as being self-serving, rather than altruistic, behavior.
Urquhart raises some good points on how to design a top-notch RPG (he's perhaps the kick-assest RPG producer in the western world, after all), but even in the absence of MMORPGs, those points would still be just as important.
The real difference that puts RPGs at such a disadvantage isn't playability or content - it's money. MMOGs are the gift that keeps on taking, and financiers are increasingly interested in funding a multi-bazillion dollar MMOG in hopes that five years down the road, they'll still be raking in $15 every month per subscriber, compared with a single-player RPG that ends up in the bargain bin for $15 in the same length of time. This is why you see the RPG industry trying to adopt the MMOG model, by providing multiple expansions and even mini-expansions (a la Oblivion or NWN) to keep the players paying. Make repeated payments a part of your development and marketing scheme, and suddenly, making a game that people want to play becomes a lot less important for getting said game funded and out the door.
Of course, those of us who are true-blue fans of the genre still appreciate it when developers put time and effort into making a quality product:)
Sometimes it can be confusing, like if you get out of the car while it's running to let a friend borrow it.... but if you don't remember to take the key out of your pocket and give it to your friend, they can drive away but won't be able to start the car once they turn it off.
I had a 1982 AMC Spirit that worked like that, although I'm pretty sure it wasn't by design.
the premise behind Tron was no more believable (less, to me) than a mysterious "force" that permeates the universe that can be bent to human will with enough effort and skill -- and definitely not as cool.
Slashdot Mirror
Hey, our president hasn't gotten his approval ratings out of the mid 30 percent range in years, yet we haven't several consecutive days' worth of continually growing protests in our streets. You might want to hold back on that "wide popular support" assertion.
In Ohio (one of the United States, for those unfamiliar with the term), it's illegal to turn on a camcorder anywhere in a commercial building where movies are being shown. That includes movie theaters - even out in the lobby - and presumably retail stores where camcorders are sold alongside movies. Moreover, the store/theater/whatever workers have the right to detain you until the cops show up to arrest you.
Local TV news crew doing an expose on the poor health code compliance of a theater's concession stand? Busted.
Family testing out a camcorder at the local big-box electronics store where a movie is coincidentally being demo'd nearby? Busted.
And what makes matters worse is that we already had laws to cover copyright infringement, but the content cabal decided that somehow that just wasn't enough.
IMO the most important representatives of personal freedom are freedom of speech, freedom of thought, political preferences, sexual preferences, the right to decide what you do with your own property, the right to proper health care and education, even for the less wealthy, etc. etc. etc. Guns of all things *don't even occur to me* when thinking of personal freedom...
How about the freedom to decide for yourself which Constitutionally-protected freedoms mean more to you than others?
Seriously. Elrond has a normal-sized forehead? Narsil is a coffee-table centerpiece? And what's up with that kung-fu grip?
AACS does stop casual copying, but it hasn't prevented unencrypted HD content from being distributed over the Internet.
That's really what the content cabal are most interested in. Piracy of their content is a foregone conclusion. It's been happening for decades, and in some countries, almost the entire market for their content is based on counterfeit copies. They've long since priced their "losses" into the cost of their product.
What AACS (and CSS before it) is really about is enforcing the other forms of DRM they've implemented, like user-operation prohibition (preventing you from skipping the pointless FBI notice, company credits, and best/worst of all, advertising) and region coding. Note that neither of those DRM schemes have anything to do with piracy prevention - they're just another route for indirectly extracting revenue from the consumer, by force-feeding advertising or by exploiting the arbitrage created when they don't release their content simultaneously around the world.
While the talks were described by Jobs as being "positive", rumor has it that neither side brought up hot topics such as Microsoft's continued use of centrifuges for uranium enrichment or Apple's purported covert operations in Redmond.
OMFG, and maybe it would have helped if he'd watched The Lone Gunmen!
'When you control the pipe you should be able to get profit from your investment.'
Who thought John McCain would be in favor of legalizing crack cocaine?!
Bob Dole: What the hell is this, some kind of tube?
Actually, it's not necessarily a bad thing for your code to destroy you. Just make sure you don't dereference any old pointers to you afterwards.
Out of curiosity, why didn't you take your insurance case before a judge?
Also, you should have sued the old lady for your vehicle damage and injuries. Most personal injury lawyers will work on contingency.
An electrical field is used in certain sporting events.
What you describe is called group selection, and while it hasn't by any means been discounted as a factor in evolution, it is generally regarded as being much weaker than normal self-beneficiary selection pressures. That said, higher levels of intelligence in humans than is average for the animal kingdom could be a factor in enhancing the importance of group selection. The saying, "I scratch your back, you scratch mine" comes to mind, but then again, one could also regard implicit-quid-pro-quo-as-altruism as being self-serving, rather than altruistic, behavior.
Urquhart raises some good points on how to design a top-notch RPG (he's perhaps the kick-assest RPG producer in the western world, after all), but even in the absence of MMORPGs, those points would still be just as important.
:)
The real difference that puts RPGs at such a disadvantage isn't playability or content - it's money. MMOGs are the gift that keeps on taking, and financiers are increasingly interested in funding a multi-bazillion dollar MMOG in hopes that five years down the road, they'll still be raking in $15 every month per subscriber, compared with a single-player RPG that ends up in the bargain bin for $15 in the same length of time. This is why you see the RPG industry trying to adopt the MMOG model, by providing multiple expansions and even mini-expansions (a la Oblivion or NWN) to keep the players paying. Make repeated payments a part of your development and marketing scheme, and suddenly, making a game that people want to play becomes a lot less important for getting said game funded and out the door.
Of course, those of us who are true-blue fans of the genre still appreciate it when developers put time and effort into making a quality product
I don't suppose you feel like answering my question, do you?
Sometimes it can be confusing, like if you get out of the car while it's running to let a friend borrow it. ... but if you don't remember to take the key out of your pocket and give it to your friend, they can drive away but won't be able to start the car once they turn it off.
I had a 1982 AMC Spirit that worked like that, although I'm pretty sure it wasn't by design.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idU SL2272661220070323
So why is it again that China gets off scot-free while the US ends up at the bottom of the dogpile?
Actually, the best protest is simply not to go to the museum.
I mean, we all know the Scientologists are a bunch of wackos, too, but you don't go laugh for five minutes outside Tom Cruise's house, do you?
Hey, until Phantom Menace, it wasn't even one word.
Well, Yori did put the moves on Tron at the end of the movie.
Gibbs: User requests are what computers are for.
Dillinger: Doing our business is what computers are for!
the premise behind Tron was no more believable (less, to me) than a mysterious "force" that permeates the universe that can be bent to human will with enough effort and skill -- and definitely not as cool.
Two words: Midichlorians.
If Tron was The Matrix's beta, then Matrix Revolutions was like SWG's NGE.
but when quizzed for any specific details
/. may actually find your post and answer.
Axe away. The two or three conservatives on