But if the GPL is not valid and enforceable, then what software license is? I'd imagine that if the GPL were found not valid, then it could validly be argued that Microsoft's EULA is not valid either. That would be a hell of an interesting class action lawsuit.
It means a "gold master" CD/DVD has been burnt and sent off for duplication.
I expect most game studios these days use off-the-shelf CD burners for the purpose these days. Back before CD burner technology got cheap, the dye was gold instead of green/teal. It was called "gold master" because it was a golden color and was used to create a glass master used in mass duplication of standard silver CDs.
Actually, "crouching away at their computer, beating wombat after wombat to get the extra gold and items" is the fun of this type of game. In Diablo II groups of people routinely get together and repeatedly go and kill certain boss monsters over and over and over again, either because those monsters drop the phat loot or are good for leveling your characters. They create a new game, go in, kill the baddies, collect the loot, then leave the game and start another. Typical cycle time is less than 5 minutes.
They'll do this for hours on end. They aren't doing it to get items to sell on eBay (some do, but most don't). They are doing it because by doing so they are working towards a goal -- finding just the right magic item for their particular character, or leveling a character up.
You see the same thing in Ultima Online, EverQuest, and all the other MMORPGs. There's even a term for it: Camping. Like, guilds of players get together and decide what to camp during the night's play session.
These games are creating real economics. It takes time to level up characters and collect sets of powerful magic items. Time = money. There is actual supply and demand at play here. Some people have extra stuff they don't want. Many trade or sell them for other items in the game. Some take it to eBay and take advantage of market demand to sell their items. There are plenty of players who want the uber loot and don't want to invest hundreds of hours in getting it. It is worth it to them to shell out a few greenbacks to save themselves that time.
The unfortunate side-effect of these in-game items having real-world value is that people do find ways to cheat or automate obtaining them. There are always stories floating around about people with "bot" game clients automating the monster camping process. This is a problem the game developers and publishers have to deal with.
There are at least two ways of looking at the sale of in-game items. On the one side, the game publisher claims that the in-game items have no cash value, much like a sweepstakes ticket. On the other side, people who trade in-game items for real-world money argue that they're not selling goods -- they're selling services. Specifically, they are selling you the time it took them to obtain the item. They spend the time, you get the benefit.
IANAL, but these games don't qualify as gambling, even though often a random number generator controls when you get loot and what it is. You pay a flat subscription rate for the MMORPGs, and Diablo II gives you unlimited free play with purchase of the game software. You aren't betting real money -- at best, you are betting some of your time spent camping for the chance to win something that alters your gameplay experience.
As far as "role play" goes -- people do actually role play in these games. The actual definition varies. For many, role playing is the point of the game instead of building the perfect character. More power to them. In this case, the ones we are actually talking about are the ones who want to "win" the game, not the ones who just want to hang out with like-minded friends in collective make-believe.
I saw a three-flusher last week. One shouldn't have been raising, and should have folded when both the others raised. One had the ace in the hole, and thought he owned that pot. But the third flush was straight...
It was in a limit game. I'm sure they all would have gone all-in if it were no-limit.
In Hold 'Em poker, the position left of the dealer posts a small blind bet, and the position to the left of that posts big blind. These "blinds" are forced bets, and as the deal switches clockwise with each hand, over time everybody must make the blind bets. The blinds guarantee action but do it in a very different way from ante.
Each player is dealt two face-down cards. Starting with theh position to the left of big blind, each player in turn must choose to either fold, call the blind bet, or raise. Play continues around the table until all players have either folded or called the blind bet or any raises. (But the big blind is given an opportunity to raise if other players only called (or folded out). Some hands end where all but one fold out before this first betting round is over.
There's your first difference between Hold 'Em and varieties of poker where you ante. You have to start making decisions about the strength of your hand very early.
Once the pot's right, three cards are dealt face-up in the middle of the table. This is the "flop". Each player will build his final poker hand using any combination of his own cards and the community cards in the middle. After the flop, another betting round ensues. Then the "turn" (a fourth community card) is dealt, and more betting happens. Finally, the fifth community card (the "river") is dealt, and after one final betting round the top hand wins.
There's the other big difference between Hold 'Em and Stud or Draw. The community cards. (Omaha also uses community cards but has more complex hand building rules). When you have shared cards, then your own hand's strength becomes relative. If three cards of the same suit are showing in the middle, and you got a pair of the same suit, then you have a flush. But there are reasonable odds that someone else at the table also has a pair of cards in the same suit. In stud or draw a flush is a very strong hand -- but in Hold 'Em it's not all that rare to see a showdown with two or three flushes in the same suit. (It's not actually possible in Hold 'Em for two players to get flushes in different suits in the same hand, because the majority of the community cards have to be in the flush's suit.) When that happens, the flush with the highest cards in it wins. The inexperienced often reraise aggressively with a low flush, only to lose to the other guy's higher hole card.
! I imagine that I'm not the first person who gets electrocuted by these things.
You weren't electrocuted by one of those things. "Electrocute" is a combination of the words "electricity" and "execute"; someone who has been electrocuted has been killed by electricity. Unless you are somehow slashdotting from the Other Side, you merely experienced electrical shock.
How 'bout we sidestep the issue by no longer calling junk email "spam". Instead, we can call it "whore mail". That wouldn't violate Hormel in any way at all, would it?
This morning my local paper, the Austin American Statesman, printed a small article about this as well. According to that article, Hormel doesn't mind the use of the word "spam" as a slang term, so long as pictures of their product aren't used with it. They're sueing companies that use their trademarked name "Spam" in their own names or in the names of their products.
Unfortunately for them, they should have started fighting that battle years and years ago when the slang usage of "spam" first began to spread. Seems too late to do anything about it now. Spam as slang for "junk email" is now firmly entrenched in our culture. It's a dictionary word now.
Tim Powers novels Last Call, Expiration Date, and Earthquake Weather. These simply rock. They are set in the modern era, except ghosts and various forms of magic are the reality. It is a fresh take on mysticism of all sorts and definitely worth reading twice.
It's sci-fi that tackles the subject of life after death by means of neuroscience. Set in the near future, it provides a very plausible setting, deep characters, and a very entertaining ride. I can't wait for the sequel.
James P. Hogan has written about artificial black holes in at least two of his novels. In Thrice Upon a Time, scientists accidentally created a bunch of microscopic black holes tha turned out to be stable, and proceeded to destroy the earth, pac-man style. In The Genesis Machine a machine can create small singularities and turns out to be useful as a doomsday weapon.
Ok, so it's just sci-fi and the author ignores (or misunderstands) relativity, causality, and quantum mechanics. And it's still a good read. But -- if these guys are actually going to go creating singularities, could we make 'em set up shop on the moon to do it? I'd rather not have a black hole in my back yard. Yes, I know the article makes some reassuring statements about the incredible smallness and short life-span of such a thing. But, seriously, splitting the atom led to the Cold War and we're all still sitting on enough nukes to turn Earth into a warm glob of glowing goo. I hope we don't rush headlong into this singularity thing -- what if it turns out to be more dangerous than fusion bombs?
The Sims Online has sold 125,000 copies retail, has been discounted from $50 to as low as $20 on Amazon and has 97,000 active subscribers.' Compare that to EverQuest, with 470,000 subscriptions.
EverQuest has been around for several years; The Sims Online has been around for several months. EverQuest didn't just jump up to 400K+ subscriptions right after launch. No game of that genre has. If a MMO game gets 100K+ subscribers on launch, it's doing great. At $10 a pop, that's a cool million in gross revenues per month. So long as there's a decent profit margin in there, that's not an amount to sneeze at. But what is important here is the growth curve, not the subscriber numbers at any given time.
The retail price for the box is also not really relevant either. That is a one-time sale. The monthly subscription is recurring revenue.
By and large, though, if Tivo is having a hard time reaching commercial success, I can't imagine this doing any better!
The problem with TiVo is the price point. Nobody wants to shell out a couple C-notes or more for what amounts to a spiffy cable box or satellite receiver, when the cable and satellite companies practically give standard receivers away.
They need to subsidize that hardware. Give you huge rebates in exchange for a year's contract, and all those other marketing ploys.
From personal experience, I can confidently state that once you get past buying the TiVo box, you'll think they're underpriced. Gonna be working late? You don't have to miss Survivor, 'cause TiVo's on it. Or, if you like old shows but they only play the reruns late at night or while you're at work, TiVo is your best friend. Then, of course, there's the ol' fast forward button -- I often prefer to watch one recording while TiVo is recording another, just because you can't skip past the commercials when you're watching TV real-time. Think about it -- you can watch a typical show 25% faster without commercials. I regard my time as extremely valuable (to me, if not everyone else!), so saving time this way is a big win in my book.
AvantLegion wrote: We all know how great Slashdot quality control is.:)
For something mostly moderated by its users, I'd say it's pretty damn successful and I haven't seen anything better anywhere else. These message boards are far better moderated than your typical big message board site that has a few volunteer moderators who get nothing from their time except a special red name and often go on Eric Cartman-like "you will respect my authoritah!" ego trips.
Blue Stone wrote: all the legit files are on average 2 to 4Kbps, whereas all the fake files download at 7 to 15Kbps
Luke-Jr wrote: Real downloads usually range from 10KB/sec to 100KB/sec
Sounds to me like Blue Stone is using a 56K modem with data compression. An MP3 file (a compressed format) would download at the modem's speed limit. A blank or garbage file, probably full of repeating junk, might be highly compressible and therefore download much faster.
Slashdot Mirror
Read it again, slowly this time.
But if the GPL is not valid and enforceable, then what software license is? I'd imagine that if the GPL were found not valid, then it could validly be argued that Microsoft's EULA is not valid either. That would be a hell of an interesting class action lawsuit.
It means a "gold master" CD/DVD has been burnt and sent off for duplication.
I expect most game studios these days use off-the-shelf CD burners for the purpose these days. Back before CD burner technology got cheap, the dye was gold instead of green/teal. It was called "gold master" because it was a golden color and was used to create a glass master used in mass duplication of standard silver CDs.
Dyeing is done to clothes; dying happens to people pushed off really high buildings.
No. It's referred to as removable media for a reason.
I'd bet dollars to donuts that if /.ers could transfer their mod points, some would be for sale on eBay.
Actually, "crouching away at their computer, beating wombat after wombat to get the extra gold and items" is the fun of this type of game. In Diablo II groups of people routinely get together and repeatedly go and kill certain boss monsters over and over and over again, either because those monsters drop the phat loot or are good for leveling your characters. They create a new game, go in, kill the baddies, collect the loot, then leave the game and start another. Typical cycle time is less than 5 minutes.
They'll do this for hours on end. They aren't doing it to get items to sell on eBay (some do, but most don't). They are doing it because by doing so they are working towards a goal -- finding just the right magic item for their particular character, or leveling a character up.
You see the same thing in Ultima Online, EverQuest, and all the other MMORPGs. There's even a term for it: Camping. Like, guilds of players get together and decide what to camp during the night's play session.
These games are creating real economics. It takes time to level up characters and collect sets of powerful magic items. Time = money. There is actual supply and demand at play here. Some people have extra stuff they don't want. Many trade or sell them for other items in the game. Some take it to eBay and take advantage of market demand to sell their items. There are plenty of players who want the uber loot and don't want to invest hundreds of hours in getting it. It is worth it to them to shell out a few greenbacks to save themselves that time.
The unfortunate side-effect of these in-game items having real-world value is that people do find ways to cheat or automate obtaining them. There are always stories floating around about people with "bot" game clients automating the monster camping process. This is a problem the game developers and publishers have to deal with.
There are at least two ways of looking at the sale of in-game items. On the one side, the game publisher claims that the in-game items have no cash value, much like a sweepstakes ticket. On the other side, people who trade in-game items for real-world money argue that they're not selling goods -- they're selling services. Specifically, they are selling you the time it took them to obtain the item. They spend the time, you get the benefit.
IANAL, but these games don't qualify as gambling, even though often a random number generator controls when you get loot and what it is. You pay a flat subscription rate for the MMORPGs, and Diablo II gives you unlimited free play with purchase of the game software. You aren't betting real money -- at best, you are betting some of your time spent camping for the chance to win something that alters your gameplay experience.
As far as "role play" goes -- people do actually role play in these games. The actual definition varies. For many, role playing is the point of the game instead of building the perfect character. More power to them. In this case, the ones we are actually talking about are the ones who want to "win" the game, not the ones who just want to hang out with like-minded friends in collective make-believe.
You might see a lot of bluffing for a $0.50/$1.00 table, or in a $6 buy-in tourney, but when the stakes go up the play improves a lot.
I saw a three-flusher last week. One shouldn't have been raising, and should have folded when both the others raised. One had the ace in the hole, and thought he owned that pot. But the third flush was straight... It was in a limit game. I'm sure they all would have gone all-in if it were no-limit.
In Hold 'Em poker, the position left of the dealer posts a small blind bet, and the position to the left of that posts big blind. These "blinds" are forced bets, and as the deal switches clockwise with each hand, over time everybody must make the blind bets. The blinds guarantee action but do it in a very different way from ante.
Each player is dealt two face-down cards. Starting with theh position to the left of big blind, each player in turn must choose to either fold, call the blind bet, or raise. Play continues around the table until all players have either folded or called the blind bet or any raises. (But the big blind is given an opportunity to raise if other players only called (or folded out). Some hands end where all but one fold out before this first betting round is over.
There's your first difference between Hold 'Em and varieties of poker where you ante. You have to start making decisions about the strength of your hand very early.
Once the pot's right, three cards are dealt face-up in the middle of the table. This is the "flop". Each player will build his final poker hand using any combination of his own cards and the community cards in the middle. After the flop, another betting round ensues. Then the "turn" (a fourth community card) is dealt, and more betting happens. Finally, the fifth community card (the "river") is dealt, and after one final betting round the top hand wins.
There's the other big difference between Hold 'Em and Stud or Draw. The community cards. (Omaha also uses community cards but has more complex hand building rules). When you have shared cards, then your own hand's strength becomes relative. If three cards of the same suit are showing in the middle, and you got a pair of the same suit, then you have a flush. But there are reasonable odds that someone else at the table also has a pair of cards in the same suit. In stud or draw a flush is a very strong hand -- but in Hold 'Em it's not all that rare to see a showdown with two or three flushes in the same suit. (It's not actually possible in Hold 'Em for two players to get flushes in different suits in the same hand, because the majority of the community cards have to be in the flush's suit.) When that happens, the flush with the highest cards in it wins. The inexperienced often reraise aggressively with a low flush, only to lose to the other guy's higher hole card.
How 'bout we sidestep the issue by no longer calling junk email "spam". Instead, we can call it "whore mail". That wouldn't violate Hormel in any way at all, would it?
This morning my local paper, the Austin American Statesman, printed a small article about this as well. According to that article, Hormel doesn't mind the use of the word "spam" as a slang term, so long as pictures of their product aren't used with it. They're sueing companies that use their trademarked name "Spam" in their own names or in the names of their products. Unfortunately for them, they should have started fighting that battle years and years ago when the slang usage of "spam" first began to spread. Seems too late to do anything about it now. Spam as slang for "junk email" is now firmly entrenched in our culture. It's a dictionary word now.
I'll match your Web Sphere against my Time Cube any day.
Tim Powers novels Last Call, Expiration Date, and Earthquake Weather. These simply rock. They are set in the modern era, except ghosts and various forms of magic are the reality. It is a fresh take on mysticism of all sorts and definitely worth reading twice.
Vectors. This book pwns jo0!!!!11!
It's sci-fi that tackles the subject of life after death by means of neuroscience. Set in the near future, it provides a very plausible setting, deep characters, and a very entertaining ride. I can't wait for the sequel.
James P. Hogan has written about artificial black holes in at least two of his novels. In Thrice Upon a Time, scientists accidentally created a bunch of microscopic black holes tha turned out to be stable, and proceeded to destroy the earth, pac-man style. In The Genesis Machine a machine can create small singularities and turns out to be useful as a doomsday weapon.
Ok, so it's just sci-fi and the author ignores (or misunderstands) relativity, causality, and quantum mechanics. And it's still a good read. But -- if these guys are actually going to go creating singularities, could we make 'em set up shop on the moon to do it? I'd rather not have a black hole in my back yard. Yes, I know the article makes some reassuring statements about the incredible smallness and short life-span of such a thing. But, seriously, splitting the atom led to the Cold War and we're all still sitting on enough nukes to turn Earth into a warm glob of glowing goo. I hope we don't rush headlong into this singularity thing -- what if it turns out to be more dangerous than fusion bombs?
The retail price for the box is also not really relevant either. That is a one-time sale. The monthly subscription is recurring revenue.
They need to subsidize that hardware. Give you huge rebates in exchange for a year's contract, and all those other marketing ploys.
From personal experience, I can confidently state that once you get past buying the TiVo box, you'll think they're underpriced. Gonna be working late? You don't have to miss Survivor, 'cause TiVo's on it. Or, if you like old shows but they only play the reruns late at night or while you're at work, TiVo is your best friend. Then, of course, there's the ol' fast forward button -- I often prefer to watch one recording while TiVo is recording another, just because you can't skip past the commercials when you're watching TV real-time. Think about it -- you can watch a typical show 25% faster without commercials. I regard my time as extremely valuable (to me, if not everyone else!), so saving time this way is a big win in my book.
Agreed. Netrek owns. It deserves an article of its own.
You can light up a fluorescent bulb in your hand with a plasma globe.
Sounds to me like Blue Stone is using a 56K modem with data compression. An MP3 file (a compressed format) would download at the modem's speed limit. A blank or garbage file, probably full of repeating junk, might be highly compressible and therefore download much faster.