agreed, and its sad that such a comment has been modded as offtopic. I'm working quite happily on vista, the standby stuff isnt working 100% right, but that could well be my bios settings. Vista is not the antichrist, its a new operating system. I don't see why there is such slashdot hatred of it. If you don't want it, don't buy it. I did want it, bought it, and am happy. Nothing to see here.
Research is welcome, and great, but big business does not work to the long timescales required to ensure that the research is thorough and poses no risks to humans. You only have to see the feverish way in which GM Food companies try to ram their product into europe, against firm customer resistance, to realise that what seems to really matter is the bottom line, not health, safety or curing diseases. I'd love to be able to read about this kind of research, happy that its being carreid out with the right motives and will have no ill effects, but these days, there is always someone wanting to rush things ahead to boost this years stock price.
why is th answer to everything "talk to a lawyer", and the first thing a lawyer says is "dont talk to them diretc, it must go through me. no comment". Lawyers get dollar signs in their eyes when they hear this kind of crap. Its not beyond the skill of man to draft contracts that intelligent people can understand. lawyers try to create some bullshit that "only lawyers can talk to lawyers" to perpetuate their gravy train. Once you see this attitdue for what it is, its laughable. Some company just unleashed a lawyer at me, with a long rambling letter that they probably got charged $300 for. A simple 2 minute, 15 cent polite phonecall would have got them what they were asking for, but instead they decided to throw the cash at their lawyers. Very few problems are made better by the application of lawyers.
paganini was also a savvy businessman. The whole 'black clothes' thing started after someone declared that his prowess on the violin must mean he was in league with the devil. That sold tickets, and paginini went out of his way to encourage that image, because he knew it attracted crowds. He was also a womaniser, always lusting after rich influential peoples wives and daughetrs. As i recall it was some sexually transmitted disease that finally finished him off. He used to play free gigs in graveyards to the poor as well, that probably helped his 'metal' image.
There are CERTAINLY unintended side effects. You can't genetically change an entire species and think you know what the endgame will be, unless you have unlimited computer power for simulations, combined with total knowledge of the entire ecosystem. I'm guessing we aren't there yet. GM lets us make changes that go beyond normal mutation, which means that if there is some negative side effect that would happen half way along the natural mutation cycle, we aren't letting nature do its job and stop that muattion in its tracks. We are leapfrogging the usual method and introducing a new species. The potential for alterations of this kind are huge, and beneficial, but I don't think we know enough about eco systems to try this yet. The problem with releasing GM stuff into the wild is it's like a nuclear launch button, you can't click the undo button when you realise you fucked up big time.
we already have this. Almost every country has government set minimum energy efficiency levels for cars. In Europe, the regulations are way tighter than the US, and *tada*! we have more energy efficient cars. Year after year, people try to get the US efficiency standards raised, and year after year, the car lobby forces such measures to be abandoned. But the fact that such standards exist at all (weak though they are) shows that the system works fine, we are just arguing over the extent to which such standards should be enforced.
I like luxury too, but luxury doesn't have to equate to waste. A luxurious car is defined in many ways, and none of them (in my mind) equate with lower fuel efficiency.
are you serious? is this why most UK high street stores heat the store during the winter but jam the doors open to 'entice' people in? You don't consider that wasteful? Why are the street lights in the middle of nowheresville still on at 3AM when the only eyes looking at them are foxes? Why are street lights not fitted with motion sensors for that stuff anyway? Why are businesses leaving their billboard lighting on from 1am-5am every night?
We waste an incredible amount of energy all the time. The PC I'm typing this on is wasting god knows much power, even between each keystroke.
And I personally do not know a single environmentalist who opposes widespread use of wind power. Yes, it means we kill more birds, but on a cost-benefit scale, I'm fine with that.
yup, the UK does it well. Partly because of Northern ireland. NI is no picnic, but its not a sea of rubble and beheadings either. All things considered, the british army has handled that situation fairly well, which may explain why basra isn't as bad as baghdad.
That money would be better spent on teaching soldiers some arabic. Seriously. Modern war isnt about tanks and pitch battles between rival fleets of helicopter gunships. Modern warfare is fought in a city, in amongst a civilian population, who may or may not be hostile to US troops. teaching some basic arabic for beginners to soldiers so they can understand what the locals are saying is going to save more lives, and lead to a better outcome, than any l33t new nano-engineered hi tech gubbins that will most likely fail the moment it gets exposed to heat and sand.
UI see. so when you buy clothes in a shop, and they need to remove that tag when you pay at the till, and then you need to walk through the scanner at the door......... do you just not buy clothes anymore?
Every industry has to take measure s against people stealing their stuff. retail does it, and software companies will have to do it too, especially as its even easier to pirate a game than it is to shoplift. The alternative is no more new games. Hope you like solitaire.
"It just seems to me that Greenpeace is following the formula of the religions - find something that is mysterious and unsettling to the average person, vilify it, then profit."
err.... whers the profit part? does the proft go to those rich greenpeace shareholders? or maybe its spent on fast cars and luxury holiday homes for the greenpeace board of directors? Didnt think so.
Comparing the profit motive of a large multinational company that has been known to sue farmers whsoe only crime was having GM corn blown into their fields, with an enviornmental pressure group staffed mainly by volunteers, seems a bit silly.
Most people who would campaign about GM food would rather not have to bother. I'd much rather we could trust food companies and governments to make sure there are no safety concerns over what we eat. Food-scare after food scare has shown this to be not the case. It took BSE for brits to even be told that cattle spines and spinal cord were being ground up and fed to cattle. This is what food producers try to do if you don't have someone keep an eye on them.
The governing party in the UK is largely bankrolled by Lord Sainsbury and lord Haskins (two food millionaires) so sadly we turn to pressure groups to keep an eye on things. I'm mentioning the Uk because thats where I'm from, so I know more about our situation.
oh grow up,. You can call it copyright infringement if you like. you can call it zaphod beeblebroz if it makes you happy. its still 1)illegal and 2)morally wrong.
And the kind of people who do it are certainly not people I'd associate with, or let in my house.
Both are still wrong. It doesn't matter how you get full copies in the hands of people without the developer making a cent, the effect is still the same, and id software have shown us the end result -> the death of PC gaming.
I spend thousands of dollars a year on groceries. Am I entitled to steal the odd packet of biscuits? If the biscuits really *rock*, then I might buy some of them next time. It's ok right?
Taking stuff you haven't paid for is morally wrong. you can call it what you like, it doesn't change the fact that its a dirty low-down thing to do. Most games have demos, there are reviews, previews and screenshots, movies of gameplay etc etc. And its not like its buying a house, its a thirty-fourty dollar PC game. People who pirate games do so for one reason -> they think they can get away with it. All other excuses are just that...excuses.
why stop with games then? why not do this in movies too? and books, and plays, and music? I think pink floyds dark side of the moon would been better if they had managed to get 'pepsi' into the lyrics don't you think? And why have lammas bread in lord of the rings, when frodo could have just feasted on a pizza hut pizza instead?
Seriously, games are in some ways an artistic endeavour, they should be designed to be fun, and immersive. Anything that compromises that ideal will make a worse game. Do I *really* think this level will play / feel / look better with yet another vending machine in it? Or has my boss told me we need 16 coke machines in the game, and so I don't have a choice in the matter?
Don't let the ad dollars become a factor in map design. And trust me they DO become a factor. I've worked on games with billboard ads, I've heard the design decisions change to fit in more billboards. I will NEVER put ads in my games.
His points defend the principle of patents. You are attacking certain abuses of the patent system. These are different arguments. I believe in democracy as a principle, but if 51% of the country voted that black people should be tortured, I would be against it. I'm in favour of the principle of the free market, but if some people lie starving in the street because they have no job or skills, I'm against that. Patents are like anything else, there are abuses of the system, and extremes that can be cited, but in principle, we are better off with patents and copyright than we would be without them. The problematic cases and implementations need fixing, but don't throw out the whole system because parts of it need work. It's easy to say "do away with it all". Its much harder to say what you would replace it with.
The olympics have a history of this. Far too much corruption, intimidation, and plain out extortion. The fact that they try to enforce some kind of corporate ownership of everyday words does not suprise me. I always go out of my way to avoid the products of ANY company that aligns itself with the olympic brand. It's marketing at its most pathetic and annoying. The way the olympic commitee jets around the world expecting to be showered with gifts and bribes in order to choose cities is possibly the worst example. I'd love a group of nations to club together and say "fuck the olympics. Lets start up a new 'international games'. One day maybe..."
that stupid business model is making a lot of billionaires. The only people who describe other peoples business models as stupid tend to be those people who work for someone else and think they know better. If you do, by all means go start a company and make a million. The console business model has been around long enough for any claims to its stupidity to be a bit... silly. The fact that the XBox cant be used as a home PC probably means I can get one cheaper than if it was. thats true for most people buying it as a games amchine. Methinks the 99.999% of people who buy a console to play games trump the 0.00001% of people obsessed with running linux on it.
Forgive my ignorance, but as I understand it, consoles have all this security stuff on them to stop this, because they do not *want* to be used as general purpose computers, partly because the things are subsidised on sale, and the shortfall recouped by games sales? If that's true, then an all-out war to hack the things will eventually,lead to console maufacturers giving up. At which point the price of the next gen of consoles will probably double, as they will be sold at true cost. Who wants that?
possibly, but a 'five year deal' on what terms? a ten thousand dollar advance might sound a lot to someone who makes games as a hobby, but to serious independent developers, it's pocketchange, especially when talking about five year deals. Sadly i can't find any information on the details on this at their website. anyone know more?
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agreed, and its sad that such a comment has been modded as offtopic. I'm working quite happily on vista, the standby stuff isnt working 100% right, but that could well be my bios settings.
Vista is not the antichrist, its a new operating system. I don't see why there is such slashdot hatred of it. If you don't want it, don't buy it. I did want it, bought it, and am happy. Nothing to see here.
Research is welcome, and great, but big business does not work to the long timescales required to ensure that the research is thorough and poses no risks to humans. You only have to see the feverish way in which GM Food companies try to ram their product into europe, against firm customer resistance, to realise that what seems to really matter is the bottom line, not health, safety or curing diseases.
I'd love to be able to read about this kind of research, happy that its being carreid out with the right motives and will have no ill effects, but these days, there is always someone wanting to rush things ahead to boost this years stock price.
"A smart investor will not put his money in something that has the risk of becoming valueless"
you mean like the futures market?
I disagree, its a matter of risk.
why is th answer to everything "talk to a lawyer", and the first thing a lawyer says is "dont talk to them diretc, it must go through me. no comment".
Lawyers get dollar signs in their eyes when they hear this kind of crap. Its not beyond the skill of man to draft contracts that intelligent people can understand. lawyers try to create some bullshit that "only lawyers can talk to lawyers" to perpetuate their gravy train. Once you see this attitdue for what it is, its laughable.
Some company just unleashed a lawyer at me, with a long rambling letter that they probably got charged $300 for. A simple 2 minute, 15 cent polite phonecall would have got them what they were asking for, but instead they decided to throw the cash at their lawyers.
Very few problems are made better by the application of lawyers.
paganini was also a savvy businessman. The whole 'black clothes' thing started after someone declared that his prowess on the violin must mean he was in league with the devil. That sold tickets, and paginini went out of his way to encourage that image, because he knew it attracted crowds.
He was also a womaniser, always lusting after rich influential peoples wives and daughetrs. As i recall it was some sexually transmitted disease that finally finished him off.
He used to play free gigs in graveyards to the poor as well, that probably helped his 'metal' image.
If the RIAA stooped to such stupid tactics, it would be slashdot front page news OMG LOOK AT TEH MAFIAAAAAAAA for the next 6 months.
There are CERTAINLY unintended side effects. You can't genetically change an entire species and think you know what the endgame will be, unless you have unlimited computer power for simulations, combined with total knowledge of the entire ecosystem.
I'm guessing we aren't there yet.
GM lets us make changes that go beyond normal mutation, which means that if there is some negative side effect that would happen half way along the natural mutation cycle, we aren't letting nature do its job and stop that muattion in its tracks. We are leapfrogging the usual method and introducing a new species.
The potential for alterations of this kind are huge, and beneficial, but I don't think we know enough about eco systems to try this yet. The problem with releasing GM stuff into the wild is it's like a nuclear launch button, you can't click the undo button when you realise you fucked up big time.
we already have this. Almost every country has government set minimum energy efficiency levels for cars. In Europe, the regulations are way tighter than the US, and *tada*! we have more energy efficient cars.
Year after year, people try to get the US efficiency standards raised, and year after year, the car lobby forces such measures to be abandoned. But the fact that such standards exist at all (weak though they are) shows that the system works fine, we are just arguing over the extent to which such standards should be enforced.
I like luxury too, but luxury doesn't have to equate to waste. A luxurious car is defined in many ways, and none of them (in my mind) equate with lower fuel efficiency.
are you serious?
is this why most UK high street stores heat the store during the winter but jam the doors open to 'entice' people in?
You don't consider that wasteful?
Why are the street lights in the middle of nowheresville still on at 3AM when the only eyes looking at them are foxes?
Why are street lights not fitted with motion sensors for that stuff anyway?
Why are businesses leaving their billboard lighting on from 1am-5am every night?
We waste an incredible amount of energy all the time. The PC I'm typing this on is wasting god knows much power, even between each keystroke.
And I personally do not know a single environmentalist who opposes widespread use of wind power. Yes, it means we kill more birds, but on a cost-benefit scale, I'm fine with that.
yup, the UK does it well. Partly because of Northern ireland. NI is no picnic, but its not a sea of rubble and beheadings either. All things considered, the british army has handled that situation fairly well, which may explain why basra isn't as bad as baghdad.
That money would be better spent on teaching soldiers some arabic. Seriously.
Modern war isnt about tanks and pitch battles between rival fleets of helicopter gunships. Modern warfare is fought in a city, in amongst a civilian population, who may or may not be hostile to US troops.
teaching some basic arabic for beginners to soldiers so they can understand what the locals are saying is going to save more lives, and lead to a better outcome, than any l33t new nano-engineered hi tech gubbins that will most likely fail the moment it gets exposed to heat and sand.
UI see. so when you buy clothes in a shop, and they need to remove that tag when you pay at the till, and then you need to walk through the scanner at the door......... do you just not buy clothes anymore?
Every industry has to take measure s against people stealing their stuff. retail does it, and software companies will have to do it too, especially as its even easier to pirate a game than it is to shoplift.
The alternative is no more new games. Hope you like solitaire.
"It just seems to me that Greenpeace is following the formula of the religions - find something that is mysterious and unsettling to the average person, vilify it, then profit."
err.... whers the profit part? does the proft go to those rich greenpeace shareholders? or maybe its spent on fast cars and luxury holiday homes for the greenpeace board of directors?
Didnt think so.
Comparing the profit motive of a large multinational company that has been known to sue farmers whsoe only crime was having GM corn blown into their fields, with an enviornmental pressure group staffed mainly by volunteers, seems a bit silly.
Most people who would campaign about GM food would rather not have to bother. I'd much rather we could trust food companies and governments to make sure there are no safety concerns over what we eat. Food-scare after food scare has shown this to be not the case. It took BSE for brits to even be told that cattle spines and spinal cord were being ground up and fed to cattle. This is what food producers try to do if you don't have someone keep an eye on them.
The governing party in the UK is largely bankrolled by Lord Sainsbury and lord Haskins (two food millionaires) so sadly we turn to pressure groups to keep an eye on things.
I'm mentioning the Uk because thats where I'm from, so I know more about our situation.
oh grow up,.
You can call it copyright infringement if you like. you can call it zaphod beeblebroz if it makes you happy. its still
1)illegal
and
2)morally wrong.
And the kind of people who do it are certainly not people I'd associate with, or let in my house.
Both are still wrong. It doesn't matter how you get full copies in the hands of people without the developer making a cent, the effect is still the same, and id software have shown us the end result -> the death of PC gaming.
thanks for your post, your a great example of the kind of person who believes its ok to copy games.
I spend thousands of dollars a year on groceries. Am I entitled to steal the odd packet of biscuits? If the biscuits really *rock*, then I might buy some of them next time.
It's ok right?
Taking stuff you haven't paid for is morally wrong. you can call it what you like, it doesn't change the fact that its a dirty low-down thing to do.
Most games have demos, there are reviews, previews and screenshots, movies of gameplay etc etc.
And its not like its buying a house, its a thirty-fourty dollar PC game.
People who pirate games do so for one reason -> they think they can get away with it. All other excuses are just that...excuses.
why stop with games then? why not do this in movies too? and books, and plays, and music?
I think pink floyds dark side of the moon would been better if they had managed to get 'pepsi' into the lyrics don't you think?
And why have lammas bread in lord of the rings, when frodo could have just feasted on a pizza hut pizza instead?
Seriously, games are in some ways an artistic endeavour, they should be designed to be fun, and immersive. Anything that compromises that ideal will make a worse game. Do I *really* think this level will play / feel / look better with yet another vending machine in it? Or has my boss told me we need 16 coke machines in the game, and so I don't have a choice in the matter?
Don't let the ad dollars become a factor in map design. And trust me they DO become a factor. I've worked on games with billboard ads, I've heard the design decisions change to fit in more billboards.
I will NEVER put ads in my games.
but the patent system should prevent the patenting of obvious ideas, if it worked as intended.
I'm super excited.
God I hate the mainstream games industry.
His points defend the principle of patents. You are attacking certain abuses of the patent system. These are different arguments. I believe in democracy as a principle, but if 51% of the country voted that black people should be tortured, I would be against it. I'm in favour of the principle of the free market, but if some people lie starving in the street because they have no job or skills, I'm against that.
Patents are like anything else, there are abuses of the system, and extremes that can be cited, but in principle, we are better off with patents and copyright than we would be without them. The problematic cases and implementations need fixing, but don't throw out the whole system because parts of it need work.
It's easy to say "do away with it all". Its much harder to say what you would replace it with.
The olympics have a history of this. Far too much corruption, intimidation, and plain out extortion. The fact that they try to enforce some kind of corporate ownership of everyday words does not suprise me.
I always go out of my way to avoid the products of ANY company that aligns itself with the olympic brand. It's marketing at its most pathetic and annoying.
The way the olympic commitee jets around the world expecting to be showered with gifts and bribes in order to choose cities is possibly the worst example. I'd love a group of nations to club together and say "fuck the olympics. Lets start up a new 'international games'. One day maybe..."
that stupid business model is making a lot of billionaires. The only people who describe other peoples business models as stupid tend to be those people who work for someone else and think they know better. If you do, by all means go start a company and make a million.
The console business model has been around long enough for any claims to its stupidity to be a bit... silly.
The fact that the XBox cant be used as a home PC probably means I can get one cheaper than if it was. thats true for most people buying it as a games amchine. Methinks the 99.999% of people who buy a console to play games trump the 0.00001% of people obsessed with running linux on it.
Forgive my ignorance, but as I understand it, consoles have all this security stuff on them to stop this, because they do not *want* to be used as general purpose computers, partly because the things are subsidised on sale, and the shortfall recouped by games sales? ,lead to console maufacturers giving up.
If that's true, then an all-out war to hack the things will eventually
At which point the price of the next gen of consoles will probably double, as they will be sold at true cost.
Who wants that?
possibly, but a 'five year deal' on what terms? a ten thousand dollar advance might sound a lot to someone who makes games as a hobby, but to serious independent developers, it's pocketchange, especially when talking about five year deals.
Sadly i can't find any information on the details on this at their website. anyone know more?