There is a joke/story that Jick, one of the creators of The Kingdom of Loathing, likes to tell and refer to in his biweekly podcast. To roughly paraphrase:
Someday, I'd like to make a game called "The Future". And all what this game would be is an empty space to start with. The users would then, for a fee, be able to upload the game's content. Everything, down to dungeon designs, graphics for monsters, items, weapons, game mechanics, everything would be user-created, because as we all know from all these game developer conferences I go to, "user-created content is The Future"!
So we'd create this game and release it. All user-created content. And then in a matter of a couple weeks, we would have a few thousand drawings of cocks and balls making up the vast majority of the game's world. Cocks and balls as monsters, cocks and balls as items, cocks and balls as weapons, dungeons shaped like cocks and balls populated with cocks and balls that drop cocks and balls that you fight with cocks and balls. And that's all anyone would ever bother creating, because that's the only sort of person with time to do this, and anyone who's been on the internet knows this is what would happen, because user-created content, on the whole, sucks. And that's The Future!!
That's the sort of thing I think back on and chuckle about to myself whenever I hear of a game world made of user-created content and how it's the future of gaming and how awesome it's going to be. Looks like Jick's not too far off the mark.
The guys who need this stuff are already geeky, and why would geeky guys use something "for pay" that comes out of a budget? And since this will be in a proprietary format, why would they risk these documents becoming unreadable?
Both questions can be answered by remembering that in many cases, the geeky guys aren't the ones making the purchasing or interoperability decisions, the rubber stamps labeled "MS OFFICE" wielded by the MBAs and business suited guys are.
While the Personal Genome Project won't publish names, just about everything else will be made public [...]
Why do we need the names? Just take the genome data and use it to concoct an unholy abomination, mocking the laws of God and man, making a soulless clone of the person in question, rousing the populace to chase you down with torches and pitchforks in an attempt to stop pure genius their pitifully small minds could never truly understand, and just ASK what his/her name is?
Research the artist. Research the label. If it really means that much to you, take the time to learn who, by your definition, is a tool and who isn't*. Even a simple Wikipedia search might net you some information.
*: Note that this does not mean you have to learn who Tool, the band, is if you don't want to.
And amidst all the chaos and all the horror that is the closing of 3D Realms, I'm left with one cruel, cruel realization: This really DOES mean we'll never see a proper sequel to Rise of the Triad. *sigh*
Do we need a "sensationalist" tag? Is CmdrTaco abusing his power as editor? What's stopping him from using these powers to spy on your Slashdot viewing habits? Will he kill your family and steal your very soul through your nose? And what about his wife? Why don't we ever hear about her? What's she got to hide?
Saying that its users are becoming increasingly sophisticated, Google has unveiled a list of new search technologies geared to help users 'slice and dice' their Google search results, along with a new tool to help them cull information instead of Web pages.
(emphasis mine)
And ten minutes after they release this for real, they get sued by thousands of websites claiming that they're circumventing their ad income or whatever by giving viewers an option to get the data without going to the website and thus not see the ads.
I mean, that's what the AP's whining about, right?
for free (if I don't want to distribute them, or for just $25 one time developer's fee if I do)
You mean "distribute them through the Android Market". On Android, there's nothing stopping you from distributing it through the web (apart from a user-configurable option flag in a somewhat obvious place). Just point your phone to an.apk and let it do the rest.
But I payed the $25 anyway. One-time and cheap to use their distribution system and have an easy way for people to use my app? I'll go with that.
Plus I hate how they turned the original Zephram Cochrane from a genius engineer into a drunken fool.
You say that as if the two are mutually exclusive.
Hang on, let me rephrase that: You say that to an audience of a fair amount of engineers of some fashion who like to have fun as if the two are mutually exclusive.
"You see, when counterfeit software shows up in the hands of some unlucky customer, Big Louie, an associate of ours, shows up as well. After a spirited discussion of the matter with said customer, Big Louie tells us that the customer does not approve of the resulting experience counterfeit software brings and much prefers the experience of genuine software, wherein Big Louie does not intervene."
Virgin American In-Flight Internet Review, From In-Flight
Which would be far better if the blog in which this was written was called "In-Flight". And if this person was on the run from the law. Then we'd have "Virgin American In-Flight Internet Review, From In-Flight, On In-Flight, In-Flight".
Here is some what we can look for: having your personal music integrated into a title, a 'natural' gesture multitouch interface, and a single online store that sells games, media, and video.
So... they're just claiming patents on the iPhone and iPod Touch?
If I'm not mistaken, I think most airlines have signs all over the place informing you NOT to put laptops in your checked luggage (in addition to leaving them out of any x-rayed carry-ons). They could fairly easily deny responsibility at that point.
And if I'm wrong and they DON'T have such signs, it's a dead safe bet that after one person takes any airline to court over a busted laptop screen, air travelers would have yet another set of instructions assaulting them on signs as they check in to deny responsibility the NEXT time.
Looking over the summary, at least, I'm left with one question: Are there any actual legal ramifications to this, or does this more or less boil down to "Mommy, make them stop saying mean things about meeeeeee!"?
Well! After this and the report from McAfee that all that ugly, ugly spam is ruining the environment, I'm convinced I need to do something! And since Microsoft told me that Vista is the most secure OS on the planet (and since they invented the computer, you know we should believe them!), all this malicious activity has to be the evil work of that gosh-darn Linux computer I've got back at home! Good thing these companies have wide-reaching, robustly-developed tools to help secure my Lin...
Oh. Huh.
Why does this sound to me like an attempt at an orchestrated astroturfing campaign amongst software giants that either wasn't planned very well or was intended for people far more stupid than us and/or with less long-term memory than we have?
Can three operating systems from three different cultures get along in the same wacky network? Tune in this fall to NBC for _Broken Pipes_, the hilarious new sitcom from those nutty writers behind BSD and VMS!
Slashdot Mirror
There is a joke/story that Jick, one of the creators of The Kingdom of Loathing, likes to tell and refer to in his biweekly podcast. To roughly paraphrase:
Someday, I'd like to make a game called "The Future". And all what this game would be is an empty space to start with. The users would then, for a fee, be able to upload the game's content. Everything, down to dungeon designs, graphics for monsters, items, weapons, game mechanics, everything would be user-created, because as we all know from all these game developer conferences I go to, "user-created content is The Future "!
So we'd create this game and release it. All user-created content. And then in a matter of a couple weeks, we would have a few thousand drawings of cocks and balls making up the vast majority of the game's world. Cocks and balls as monsters, cocks and balls as items, cocks and balls as weapons, dungeons shaped like cocks and balls populated with cocks and balls that drop cocks and balls that you fight with cocks and balls. And that's all anyone would ever bother creating, because that's the only sort of person with time to do this, and anyone who's been on the internet knows this is what would happen, because user-created content, on the whole, sucks. And that's The Future!!
That's the sort of thing I think back on and chuckle about to myself whenever I hear of a game world made of user-created content and how it's the future of gaming and how awesome it's going to be. Looks like Jick's not too far off the mark.
The guys who need this stuff are already geeky, and why would geeky guys use something "for pay" that comes out of a budget? And since this will be in a proprietary format, why would they risk these documents becoming unreadable?
Both questions can be answered by remembering that in many cases, the geeky guys aren't the ones making the purchasing or interoperability decisions, the rubber stamps labeled "MS OFFICE" wielded by the MBAs and business suited guys are.
While the Personal Genome Project won't publish names, just about everything else will be made public [...]
Why do we need the names? Just take the genome data and use it to concoct an unholy abomination, mocking the laws of God and man, making a soulless clone of the person in question, rousing the populace to chase you down with torches and pitchforks in an attempt to stop pure genius their pitifully small minds could never truly understand, and just ASK what his/her name is?
That's cool and all that, but who (or what) flips the pages?
Interns.
Research the artist. Research the label. If it really means that much to you, take the time to learn who, by your definition, is a tool and who isn't*. Even a simple Wikipedia search might net you some information.
*: Note that this does not mean you have to learn who Tool, the band, is if you don't want to.
Shame Joe was the only one who cared about ROTT, though... :-)
And amidst all the chaos and all the horror that is the closing of 3D Realms, I'm left with one cruel, cruel realization: This really DOES mean we'll never see a proper sequel to Rise of the Triad. *sigh*
Do we need a "sensationalist" tag? Is CmdrTaco abusing his power as editor? What's stopping him from using these powers to spy on your Slashdot viewing habits? Will he kill your family and steal your very soul through your nose? And what about his wife? Why don't we ever hear about her? What's she got to hide?
All very suspicious. Terrifying, you might say...
Saying that its users are becoming increasingly sophisticated, Google has unveiled a list of new search technologies geared to help users 'slice and dice' their Google search results, along with a new tool to help them cull information instead of Web pages.
(emphasis mine)
And ten minutes after they release this for real, they get sued by thousands of websites claiming that they're circumventing their ad income or whatever by giving viewers an option to get the data without going to the website and thus not see the ads.
I mean, that's what the AP's whining about, right?
for free (if I don't want to distribute them, or for just $25 one time developer's fee if I do)
You mean "distribute them through the Android Market". On Android, there's nothing stopping you from distributing it through the web (apart from a user-configurable option flag in a somewhat obvious place). Just point your phone to an .apk and let it do the rest.
But I payed the $25 anyway. One-time and cheap to use their distribution system and have an easy way for people to use my app? I'll go with that.
Plus I hate how they turned the original Zephram Cochrane from a genius engineer into a drunken fool.
You say that as if the two are mutually exclusive.
Hang on, let me rephrase that: You say that to an audience of a fair amount of engineers of some fashion who like to have fun as if the two are mutually exclusive.
"You see, when counterfeit software shows up in the hands of some unlucky customer, Big Louie, an associate of ours, shows up as well. After a spirited discussion of the matter with said customer, Big Louie tells us that the customer does not approve of the resulting experience counterfeit software brings and much prefers the experience of genuine software, wherein Big Louie does not intervene."
Virgin American In-Flight Internet Review, From In-Flight
Which would be far better if the blog in which this was written was called "In-Flight". And if this person was on the run from the law. Then we'd have "Virgin American In-Flight Internet Review, From In-Flight, On In-Flight, In-Flight".
Then I suppose it follows that they will be the ones released.
It'll be released "when it's done". The fact that it will never be done does not change the validity of that statement.
Here is some what we can look for: having your personal music integrated into a title, a 'natural' gesture multitouch interface, and a single online store that sells games, media, and video.
So... they're just claiming patents on the iPhone and iPod Touch?
If I'm not mistaken, I think most airlines have signs all over the place informing you NOT to put laptops in your checked luggage (in addition to leaving them out of any x-rayed carry-ons). They could fairly easily deny responsibility at that point.
And if I'm wrong and they DON'T have such signs, it's a dead safe bet that after one person takes any airline to court over a busted laptop screen, air travelers would have yet another set of instructions assaulting them on signs as they check in to deny responsibility the NEXT time.
In English, it works out to something like "Smegging Hell".
(yes, I know I just added another unrelated series in for the joke; you may hate me at your convenience)
So... the EFF made iTunes?
Seriously, we are pretty nerdy.
And evil, too, don't forget that part.
I was there
To match my intellect
On national TV
Against an AI
Backed with a database
Both made by PhDs...
Looking over the summary, at least, I'm left with one question: Are there any actual legal ramifications to this, or does this more or less boil down to "Mommy, make them stop saying mean things about meeeeeee!"?
Well! After this and the report from McAfee that all that ugly, ugly spam is ruining the environment, I'm convinced I need to do something! And since Microsoft told me that Vista is the most secure OS on the planet (and since they invented the computer, you know we should believe them!), all this malicious activity has to be the evil work of that gosh-darn Linux computer I've got back at home! Good thing these companies have wide-reaching, robustly-developed tools to help secure my Lin...
Oh. Huh.
Why does this sound to me like an attempt at an orchestrated astroturfing campaign amongst software giants that either wasn't planned very well or was intended for people far more stupid than us and/or with less long-term memory than we have?
He's a Mac, He's a PC, [and] We're Linux!
Can three operating systems from three different cultures get along in the same wacky network? Tune in this fall to NBC for _Broken Pipes_, the hilarious new sitcom from those nutty writers behind BSD and VMS!
Hopefully they share their experiences in some form.
If downtime and lag each count as "some form", I think we'll have us plenty of data to observe!