I played FFXI for just the free trial month, and given the level limits etc. I guess I tend to agree that there isn't much value in auctioned money etc.
In EverQuest however most of the "old world" items have no level limits, so you can give your level 1 character what was, in the old days, the absolute best gear. Thus buying plat online is of great value. HOWEVER, you never get THE BEST. The BEST items currently are in the "Plane of Time" (ignoring recent expansion which I don't understand), and you have to play seriously just to get in there, or eBay a character that can.
Buying plat has ups and downs. The upside is that if you are a working stiff with a wife and kids, you can get your character decent enough equipment such that you can be useful to other people playing the game. Without such equipment many people will snob you out of their groups/raids/guilds/etc. I see it happen every day " can't tank for shit, her AC is 1000 and she can't hold agro", so they find someone else or make do with other strategies.
The downside is that buying plat makes this elitism problem WORSE because in some peoples minds there is no excuse for not having 1400 AC by level 52. Sucky equipment? Give yantis some money, he'll give you some plat. Secondly, the flood of plat coming in to the game drives prices sky high. Decent items right now sell for 100ks worth of platinum (100k plat is about $70 US). If you play legit, and do not buy plat online, that amount of money is essentially unattainable without spending a lot of time doing very boring things. Finally, I'm not sure how IGE gets the plat, but I can't help but shake the belief that Sony isn't getting a peice of the action, and that makes me mad.
This is the online equivalent of the mary sue problem, except that since EQ is largely a strategy/combat based game, if you're NOT a mary sue you are at a disadvantage.
Skeletons will now have voices to say: "Aarrreeeeeewwwwwwwwww!"
and almost every single other NPC in the game: "You have ruined your lands, you will not ruin mine!"
It's their latest xp nerf, no one will get past character select for fear of the voices. I'd be happy if they could just get some background music that didn't make me want to hurl my speakers out the window.
I'm not sure anti-gambling laws have anythign to do with religion. There's some belief around here at least that some people have a "sickness" that relates to the inability to excersize self-control when placed in front of a blackjack dealer.
Similar minded induhviduals would like to make smoking, eating high fat food (or high carb, pick one!), etc. illegal. Seems like it's more of a desire to impose your value system on others, rather than doing something that helps keep the fabric of society together.
I guess it was over 7 years ago now, but there was a time, not long ago, when console technology had fallen so far by the wayside, that gaming was almost exclusively PC driven.
Prior to that, was the birth of the console, wherein gaming was almost exclusively console driven.
PCs have always been home to "new" genre's of games, owing primarily to the flexible input methods, and the ease (and low cost) which they can write PC applications. Consoles at times, have been the best performers....
It's a stupid argument to have, it's not a totally competitive space. As long as people have PCs, PCs will have games.
It's the governments job to keep people happy, we can have a long fruitless argument about weather the government should be FOR the people or BY the people, and which is best, but I'm not in to philosophy.
If people get unhappy with xyz corporation that may or may not be robbing them blind, they're going to do something about it one way or another. If the government fails to be responsive, then people are likely to take the matter into their own hands. We don't see that much here since our politicians often get replaced before it gets out of hand, but it has happened throughout our history. There is a belief, that I also subscribe to, that a) monopolies are always bad, b) government regulated facilities are always bad in a different way, and c) the government should endeavor to encourage competitors to monopolies. Sometimes the courts agree, sometimes not.
Ask the average guy on the street and he will feel like he has a right to get telephone, cable, gas, water and electricity as life necessities, just as much as military protection, civil order and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Most people are willing to pay for those services, but they want to feel like it's being distributed to them fairly and as efficiently as possible. Yes, it's true, 100 years ago, electricity was a luxury, but now it's mandated by law in various places.
The answer is simple, retrain to a job that pays less and has more probability of dead-ending.
I also don't buy the argument that the jobs "we're good at" are coming in, and the jobs we aren't good at are going out. It seems to me like we're shipping out high paying jobs (to people able to work for what amounts to peanuts here) and trying to convince our locals to retrain to low paying dead end jobs.
Whenever I see these numbesr telling me the direct opposite of what I see I want to find the author and hit him with a heavy blunt object.
At least to my social world it's quite obvious the economy sucks and has recovered only marginally. Most of my friends (and my wife) have lost their job at least once in the past 3 years, and those that found new jobs did so at a lower salary. I don't need magazines or newspapers to tell me "it's all OK" because it obviously is not.
I'm not voting for Bush again until he figures out how to punish companies that are outsourcing work.
"I will never download the source code and you should better not try too."
Why? Because other people might find bugs in it? Because evil foreign spies might find holes that threaten national security? If our entire means of security is having bad people voluntarily not download source code, we're in a bad position! It's out there, it's too late to stop it from spreading.
I, for one, am not going to release viruses, thus I'm not harming anyone by downloading anything.
"Anyway what's the point in seeing/having it?"
To learn from it and create a better operating system. Not even remotely illegal in and of itself (perhaps downloading the code is). Our country was founded by "innovators" who did little more than carry european ideas over in their heads and implement them here. Without such people, we'd still be farming for the Queen.
Now it would be WRONG if I were to take their source code, fill in the "missing bits" (quite substantial from what I understand, I do not actually have the code) and sell it as my own OS. I won't do that either for many reasons.
I think "open source is our friend" to analysts justifies why his company is participating in open source projects since clearly there is an investment and no clear return. From first hand experience I can tell you that many such analysts are skeptical at best that this is a good idea. The term "communism" and "waste of investor money" is often used. He needs support of analysts and investors alike to continue leadership of his company.
Saying "open source is our friend" to the open source community may be taken more as an endorsement that "hey you guys are great we'll do anything you want", which is both untrue and not really in the best interests of the open source community anyway.
I suspect ESR has a point that is being carefully evaded (if only because the point was unclearly stated, and wrapped in character assaults on a company). Java is free except for the particular implementation that matters. It's too hard for the open source community to pick up, and sun doesn't want to give it away.
Oh, rather give me commentators plain, Who with no deep researches vex the brain; Who from the dark and doubtful love to run, And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun.
I agree, it's the time portion for me that has disappeared. I remember spending 8 hours a day in front of my monitor or TV in high school playing whatever game had my attention. I remember the intense boredom "between games", and in desperation I'd play almost any of the trash released that could hold my attention.
Then I went to college, had less time and was busy thinking about "what i will do when I grow up", so i often spent at least some of my free time designing and creating, and less time playing games. I became more choosey about what I played, they all looked pretty but I only had time for "the best" and couldn't be bothered with anything that wasn't truly excellent.
Then I got a job, back during the boom. I regularly worked 100+ hours a week, I came home and passed out. The money was great, I was happy doing that kind of work, and time became scarce. I played only those games that were so good I would be criminal to miss, with emphasis on games that I could pick up, play and beat, and then move on from. I lost patience for strategy games (MOO, Civilization, etc.) that could go on forever, because it may be months before I could play again, and I'd have forgotten my strategy.
The economy crashed, I had more free time, but instead got married. Time is still scarce and I find myself going to EB or some other game shop and window shopping, thinking "this looks neat" but knowing that I have thousands of dollars of games at home that I still actively play, I can't afford another. Shit I'm still only level 56 in Everquest (which I bought in like august of 99) and reaching 65 will take at least the next 6 months...etc. I like finishing what I start, when possible...etc.
The gaming industry produces far more games a month now than it did in a year when i was a kid on my nintendo, but most of it is rehashes of stuff I've played before over the past 20 years. It's fun for kids still because they have time and they haven't necessarily seen it before, but for me... i'd rather just stick with what works until something better is thrust upon me.
I'm not sure it's growing up mentally so much as having real responsibilities, other commitments that are of equal importance, or just having been-there-done-that. How much TV do you watch now compared to when you were a kid? I watch the simpsons for 30mins-1hour a day while making/eating dinner...that's it, compared to god knows how much as a kid. The simpsons still surprise me, "Everybody Loves Raymond" reminds me of growing pains, family ties, tool time, etc. Boring.
Oh well, life changes that's half the fun. Intriguing new stuff does still come out. I like the prospects of MMOGs but do not like the blatant "wallet vac" implementations that are out there. I miss plots, stories, characters etc. from classic sierra adventure games, "Ultima" games etc. I agree these may be merged successfully in the future. How much time and enjoyment will they produce for me personally? Probably less than it would have 15 years ago.
Please. Then every employee of every software product around the world could be considered "co-opted" in court if enough doubt about whether the employee has seen the w2k code could be planted. Then every software company in the world would have to pay royalties to Microsoft. I'm not a lawyer, but let's use a little common sense.
COPYING code surely will get you in trouble, and it's easiest tested on open source code. Having seen an implementation... Bah, consider it research. In this case, consider it an example of how NOT to design an operating system.
I understand the military analogy, I have however, never worked in company like that. I rabidly disobey orders that I perceive as stupid, and I not only continue to be employed but receive nice bonuses. I work in a company where I have to fix the managers mistakes. I think many people do.
My primary dysfunction with my current employment is that we are unable to undo the mistakes that matter, specifically the mistakes of upper executives who, in spite of our poor corporate performance, simply have not receive the cluons that their corporate strategy is flawed. They may see the whole battlefield as you say, but they see it as a tennis court, and the game we're playing is ping pong.
I am a manager now. I hope somehow I am able going forward to continue to keep the grunt perspective, because i think all truly good ideas in technology start there. I work for my employees, if 5 of them tell me I'm screwing up, I probably ought to think about it. That does not mean in meetings I have to immediately kowtow, but I should endeavor not to entrench myself in a position I will be unwilling to retract later.
If it's anything like using a beowulf cluster of engineers to design...anything... you'll get umpteen fights, someone will go to the hospital, they'll fork the game into N fragments, and the audience will die before the first move can get made by anyone.
Don't confuse professional and polite, they are not the same. All definitions of professional point to your ability to understand and carry out your job in a proficient manner.
This is a very impolite letter, very few people are paid to be polite.
Yeah but I'm thinking that source code itself falls under first amendment rights... You're free to write and publish pretty much anything, as long as it's not untrue. The only difference is that source code has too much punctuation;)
The GPL and it's legality is a second issue, that has to be fought in a court of law, not in a politicians wallet.
What I don't get, is why in the name of all that is holy, would Darl do this. It's so outrageous and so distracting from the issue at hand, that either this is a very stupid/insane man, or, he's up to something else and this is a funny distraction.
I disagree that evolution is now moot for humans, it's as strong as ever. Whoever breeds fastest with survivable offspring will have a significant effect upon the gene pool, and over millions of years or so, have the most impact in what we become. You can have the opinion that evolution no longer serves the most important needs of humanity, but it's a fact that evolution is not dead, that's BIO 101.
As for the rest...I'm not religious and I try not to be overly fearful of new things, but care should be taken with how we tamper with our genes in the same way we take care when splitting atoms.
It should not be a tool of the rich, effects of tampering should be evaluated over a lifetime, and we need to get a snapshot of the 1.0 release so we can get it back if the build gets hairy.
Online people may spend more overall time in "social activities" - but a lot of these social activities probably don't really count...
It would appear, perhaps due to some insecurity in my brain, that you are implying that one form of socializing is better than another, I guess the implication being chat rooms are inferior than malls.
As a married person, I am often compelled to leave my dungeon to socialize with our friends. Usually one of these destinations are chosen: movies, bowling (yeah really), local outlet mall or a bar/club. Most of these activities, if done with enough zeal to make them fun, usually detract from actual social interaction. In fact some activities (noteably movies and clubs) are very hostile environments to trying to communicate.
Yet while I may be playing everquest on 2 machines simultaneously, have IRC running on a 3rd, some work project running on a 4th, my wife and 2 cats constantly interrupting, I think I know and understand my internet friends far better than anyone "in the real world". Our conversations are far more productive in most senses of the word, we've kept coming back to the same place for 7 years. Sometimes our conversations are more intellectual, sometimes they're more supportive or informative, sometimes they're about paris hilton's latest slutcapade...but I think they're free of the usual social self-conciousness that seems to lurk amongst "real life encounters", and the message always gets across.
I think to get away with that statement you bear the burden of proof on a number of things: that socialization is actually healty and beneficial (I'm not there yet), what level of socialization is healthy and beneficial, what defines socialization (and quality). To my hard science directed brain, this whole line of thinking (article included) is bunk, I have a hard time finding value in all sociological pursuits and even most psychological pursuits. I entertain it because many believe in this in the same way that others believe in God. I don't understand it, but it may be worth it to try occasionally. I get angry though when I detect that perhaps I'm the victim of a backhanded compliment, which is often the case of sociological surveys.
I think the point is that including anti-counterfitting measures in a product that is designed ostensibly to touch up photo's is both ridiculous and inappropriate.
Counterfeiting is specifically illegal, and is Not Our Right Anywhere, I did not see any suggestion or insinuation that it ought to be. However, having to pay a "big brother tax" for ill-conceived or impossible to implement "crime prevention" features is an idea that many find offensive.
On the other hand, while almost everyone I know uses photoshop, almost no one I know has actually paid for it, or could afford it. Obviously their crime prevention abilities are somewhat limited:)
As an aside, a DSLAM costs between $15-$25/port when fully populated (although some american companies may delude themselves into believing otherwise, I'm an american and work for one such company, I can say that). A fully populated DSLAM is (depending on vendor and exact model) 500-1000 users all of which must be within (roughly, depending on policy) 8000-11,000ft "as the wire runs" (I live.8 mi from the CO, but am 7,032 ft "by wire"). Models for lower density configurations (say 50 users) exist, and have roughly the same cost/maintenance situation. I'd like to say I believe there is an ideally competitive market for DSLAM equipment, but there isn't. Decisions (in North America) are usually made on politics and not on best product/price. You may find this helpful in understanding how bad you're probably being ripped off.
As long as you stipulate your bandwidth limitations, then I may or may not care about "bandwidth hogs" needs. My ISP tells me it's unlimited, and I would be outraged if I were sent a letter telling me to stop.
An interesting, but necessarily confidential number is how many DSL lines you pay for, and how much you pay in "fat pipe" fees. That's money you're forced to pay to your competitors (for lack of options), and that they're almost certainly not paying themselves.
That's interesting. Here in NY, the LECs charge about $40/mo for "High speed broadband internet" for the same price as the CONNECTION they're charging you (presumably a line on their DSLAM, and a PVC to your office on which the services run, to which you have to add IP services/routers/etc. and then pay for a T1/T3 from the LEC for connectivity).
How are private ISPs supposed to compete with LECs really? LECs have little to no competition for the actual DSL equipment and can set whatever price they want.
With the risk of being banned from the intelligensia, yeah I think original Star Wars movies are more fun than dusty history books. George Lucas's questionable imagination probably draws heavily from history books he's read. I think Star Wars is also more adequate of a response to the comment, as it is also fiction.
We have not identified a malevolent entity who is attempting to acquire power, nor even speculated at who this evil genius might be (Dubya? hahahaha). This person, whose sole contribution to society was to break in to someones computer system (maybe), and then threaten to exploit it if he was not sent a lot of money. The FBI followed legal procedure, and used this persons own stupidity to reveal his identity.
Senator Palpatine, Stalin, et al. are bad people because they killed innocents and anyone who disagreed with them and perpetrated other fun tyrannical acts. I bet this guy gets somewhere around 10 years in a fed prison, wherein he can lift weights, watch cable, join a religious cult, shiv fight with inmates, and learn how to be a dangerous criminal for his release. Please, stop this facism immediately!
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I played FFXI for just the free trial month, and given the level limits etc. I guess I tend to agree that there isn't much value in auctioned money etc.
In EverQuest however most of the "old world" items have no level limits, so you can give your level 1 character what was, in the old days, the absolute best gear. Thus buying plat online is of great value. HOWEVER, you never get THE BEST. The BEST items currently are in the "Plane of Time" (ignoring recent expansion which I don't understand), and you have to play seriously just to get in there, or eBay a character that can.
Buying plat has ups and downs. The upside is that if you are a working stiff with a wife and kids, you can get your character decent enough equipment such that you can be useful to other people playing the game. Without such equipment many people will snob you out of their groups/raids/guilds/etc. I see it happen every day " can't tank for shit, her AC is 1000 and she can't hold agro", so they find someone else or make do with other strategies.
The downside is that buying plat makes this elitism problem WORSE because in some peoples minds there is no excuse for not having 1400 AC by level 52. Sucky equipment? Give yantis some money, he'll give you some plat. Secondly, the flood of plat coming in to the game drives prices sky high. Decent items right now sell for 100ks worth of platinum (100k plat is about $70 US). If you play legit, and do not buy plat online, that amount of money is essentially unattainable without spending a lot of time doing very boring things. Finally, I'm not sure how IGE gets the plat, but I can't help but shake the belief that Sony isn't getting a peice of the action, and that makes me mad.
This is the online equivalent of the mary sue problem, except that since EQ is largely a strategy/combat based game, if you're NOT a mary sue you are at a disadvantage.
No it's far worse if you've played EQ:
Skeletons will now have voices to say: "Aarrreeeeeewwwwwwwwww!"
and almost every single other NPC in the game:
"You have ruined your lands, you will not ruin mine!"
It's their latest xp nerf, no one will get past character select for fear of the voices. I'd be happy if they could just get some background music that didn't make me want to hurl my speakers out the window.
I've been told by Suit Wearing Induhviduals that a "mob of computer nerds" is referred to as "a gaggle of geeks" in the common parlance.
I'm not sure anti-gambling laws have anythign to do with religion. There's some belief around here at least that some people have a "sickness" that relates to the inability to excersize self-control when placed in front of a blackjack dealer.
Similar minded induhviduals would like to make smoking, eating high fat food (or high carb, pick one!), etc. illegal. Seems like it's more of a desire to impose your value system on others, rather than doing something that helps keep the fabric of society together.
I guess it was over 7 years ago now, but there was a time, not long ago, when console technology had fallen so far by the wayside, that gaming was almost exclusively PC driven.
Prior to that, was the birth of the console, wherein gaming was almost exclusively console driven.
PCs have always been home to "new" genre's of games, owing primarily to the flexible input methods, and the ease (and low cost) which they can write PC applications. Consoles at times, have been the best performers....
It's a stupid argument to have, it's not a totally competitive space. As long as people have PCs, PCs will have games.
It's the governments job to keep people happy, we can have a long fruitless argument about weather the government should be FOR the people or BY the people, and which is best, but I'm not in to philosophy.
If people get unhappy with xyz corporation that may or may not be robbing them blind, they're going to do something about it one way or another. If the government fails to be responsive, then people are likely to take the matter into their own hands. We don't see that much here since our politicians often get replaced before it gets out of hand, but it has happened throughout our history. There is a belief, that I also subscribe to, that a) monopolies are always bad, b) government regulated facilities are always bad in a different way, and c) the government should endeavor to encourage competitors to monopolies. Sometimes the courts agree, sometimes not.
Ask the average guy on the street and he will feel like he has a right to get telephone, cable, gas, water and electricity as life necessities, just as much as military protection, civil order and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Most people are willing to pay for those services, but they want to feel like it's being distributed to them fairly and as efficiently as possible. Yes, it's true, 100 years ago, electricity was a luxury, but now it's mandated by law in various places.
You look at the picture and say "Damn, that's a big quarter."
The answer is simple, retrain to a job that pays less and has more probability of dead-ending.
I also don't buy the argument that the jobs "we're good at" are coming in, and the jobs we aren't good at are going out. It seems to me like we're shipping out high paying jobs (to people able to work for what amounts to peanuts here) and trying to convince our locals to retrain to low paying dead end jobs.
Whenever I see these numbesr telling me the direct opposite of what I see I want to find the author and hit him with a heavy blunt object.
At least to my social world it's quite obvious the economy sucks and has recovered only marginally. Most of my friends (and my wife) have lost their job at least once in the past 3 years, and those that found new jobs did so at a lower salary. I don't need magazines or newspapers to tell me "it's all OK" because it obviously is not.
I'm not voting for Bush again until he figures out how to punish companies that are outsourcing work.
"I will never download the source code and you should better not try too."
Why? Because other people might find bugs in it? Because evil foreign spies might find holes that threaten national security? If our entire means of security is having bad people voluntarily not download source code, we're in a bad position! It's out there, it's too late to stop it from spreading.
I, for one, am not going to release viruses, thus I'm not harming anyone by downloading anything.
"Anyway what's the point in seeing/having it?"
To learn from it and create a better operating system. Not even remotely illegal in and of itself (perhaps downloading the code is). Our country was founded by "innovators" who did little more than carry european ideas over in their heads and implement them here. Without such people, we'd still be farming for the Queen.
Now it would be WRONG if I were to take their source code, fill in the "missing bits" (quite substantial from what I understand, I do not actually have the code) and sell it as my own OS. I won't do that either for many reasons.
I think "open source is our friend" to analysts justifies why his company is participating in open source projects since clearly there is an investment and no clear return. From first hand experience I can tell you that many such analysts are skeptical at best that this is a good idea. The term "communism" and "waste of investor money" is often used. He needs support of analysts and investors alike to continue leadership of his company.
Saying "open source is our friend" to the open source community may be taken more as an endorsement that "hey you guys are great we'll do anything you want", which is both untrue and not really in the best interests of the open source community anyway.
I suspect ESR has a point that is being carefully evaded (if only because the point was unclearly stated, and wrapped in character assaults on a company). Java is free except for the particular implementation that matters. It's too hard for the open source community to pick up, and sun doesn't want to give it away.
Oh, rather give me commentators plain,
Who with no deep researches vex the brain;
Who from the dark and doubtful love to run,
And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun.
I agree, it's the time portion for me that has disappeared. I remember spending 8 hours a day in front of my monitor or TV in high school playing whatever game had my attention. I remember the intense boredom "between games", and in desperation I'd play almost any of the trash released that could hold my attention.
Then I went to college, had less time and was busy thinking about "what i will do when I grow up", so i often spent at least some of my free time designing and creating, and less time playing games. I became more choosey about what I played, they all looked pretty but I only had time for "the best" and couldn't be bothered with anything that wasn't truly excellent.
Then I got a job, back during the boom. I regularly worked 100+ hours a week, I came home and passed out. The money was great, I was happy doing that kind of work, and time became scarce. I played only those games that were so good I would be criminal to miss, with emphasis on games that I could pick up, play and beat, and then move on from. I lost patience for strategy games (MOO, Civilization, etc.) that could go on forever, because it may be months before I could play again, and I'd have forgotten my strategy.
The economy crashed, I had more free time, but instead got married. Time is still scarce and I find myself going to EB or some other game shop and window shopping, thinking "this looks neat" but knowing that I have thousands of dollars of games at home that I still actively play, I can't afford another. Shit I'm still only level 56 in Everquest (which I bought in like august of 99) and reaching 65 will take at least the next 6 months...etc. I like finishing what I start, when possible...etc.
The gaming industry produces far more games a month now than it did in a year when i was a kid on my nintendo, but most of it is rehashes of stuff I've played before over the past 20 years. It's fun for kids still because they have time and they haven't necessarily seen it before, but for me... i'd rather just stick with what works until something better is thrust upon me.
I'm not sure it's growing up mentally so much as having real responsibilities, other commitments that are of equal importance, or just having been-there-done-that. How much TV do you watch now compared to when you were a kid? I watch the simpsons for 30mins-1hour a day while making/eating dinner...that's it, compared to god knows how much as a kid. The simpsons still surprise me, "Everybody Loves Raymond" reminds me of growing pains, family ties, tool time, etc. Boring.
Oh well, life changes that's half the fun. Intriguing new stuff does still come out. I like the prospects of MMOGs but do not like the blatant "wallet vac" implementations that are out there. I miss plots, stories, characters etc. from classic sierra adventure games, "Ultima" games etc. I agree these may be merged successfully in the future. How much time and enjoyment will they produce for me personally? Probably less than it would have 15 years ago.
Please. Then every employee of every software product around the world could be considered "co-opted" in court if enough doubt about whether the employee has seen the w2k code could be planted. Then every software company in the world would have to pay royalties to Microsoft. I'm not a lawyer, but let's use a little common sense.
... Bah, consider it research. In this case, consider it an example of how NOT to design an operating system.
COPYING code surely will get you in trouble, and it's easiest tested on open source code. Having seen an implementation
I understand the military analogy, I have however, never worked in company like that. I rabidly disobey orders that I perceive as stupid, and I not only continue to be employed but receive nice bonuses. I work in a company where I have to fix the managers mistakes. I think many people do.
My primary dysfunction with my current employment is that we are unable to undo the mistakes that matter, specifically the mistakes of upper executives who, in spite of our poor corporate performance, simply have not receive the cluons that their corporate strategy is flawed. They may see the whole battlefield as you say, but they see it as a tennis court, and the game we're playing is ping pong.
I am a manager now. I hope somehow I am able going forward to continue to keep the grunt perspective, because i think all truly good ideas in technology start there. I work for my employees, if 5 of them tell me I'm screwing up, I probably ought to think about it. That does not mean in meetings I have to immediately kowtow, but I should endeavor not to entrench myself in a position I will be unwilling to retract later.
If it's anything like using a beowulf cluster of engineers to design ...anything... you'll get umpteen fights, someone will go to the hospital, they'll fork the game into N fragments, and the audience will die before the first move can get made by anyone.
Don't confuse professional and polite, they are not the same. All definitions of professional point to your ability to understand and carry out your job in a proficient manner.
This is a very impolite letter, very few people are paid to be polite.
How politely would you respond to extortion?
Yeah but I'm thinking that source code itself falls under first amendment rights... You're free to write and publish pretty much anything, as long as it's not untrue. The only difference is that source code has too much punctuation ;)
The GPL and it's legality is a second issue, that has to be fought in a court of law, not in a politicians wallet.
What I don't get, is why in the name of all that is holy, would Darl do this. It's so outrageous and so distracting from the issue at hand, that either this is a very stupid/insane man, or, he's up to something else and this is a funny distraction.
I disagree that evolution is now moot for humans, it's as strong as ever. Whoever breeds fastest with survivable offspring will have a significant effect upon the gene pool, and over millions of years or so, have the most impact in what we become. You can have the opinion that evolution no longer serves the most important needs of humanity, but it's a fact that evolution is not dead, that's BIO 101.
As for the rest...I'm not religious and I try not to be overly fearful of new things, but care should be taken with how we tamper with our genes in the same way we take care when splitting atoms.
It should not be a tool of the rich, effects of tampering should be evaluated over a lifetime, and we need to get a snapshot of the 1.0 release so we can get it back if the build gets hairy.
As a married person, I am often compelled to leave my dungeon to socialize with our friends. Usually one of these destinations are chosen: movies, bowling (yeah really), local outlet mall or a bar/club. Most of these activities, if done with enough zeal to make them fun, usually detract from actual social interaction. In fact some activities (noteably movies and clubs) are very hostile environments to trying to communicate.
Yet while I may be playing everquest on 2 machines simultaneously, have IRC running on a 3rd, some work project running on a 4th, my wife and 2 cats constantly interrupting, I think I know and understand my internet friends far better than anyone "in the real world". Our conversations are far more productive in most senses of the word, we've kept coming back to the same place for 7 years. Sometimes our conversations are more intellectual, sometimes they're more supportive or informative, sometimes they're about paris hilton's latest slutcapade...but I think they're free of the usual social self-conciousness that seems to lurk amongst "real life encounters", and the message always gets across.
I think to get away with that statement you bear the burden of proof on a number of things: that socialization is actually healty and beneficial (I'm not there yet), what level of socialization is healthy and beneficial, what defines socialization (and quality). To my hard science directed brain, this whole line of thinking (article included) is bunk, I have a hard time finding value in all sociological pursuits and even most psychological pursuits. I entertain it because many believe in this in the same way that others believe in God. I don't understand it, but it may be worth it to try occasionally. I get angry though when I detect that perhaps I'm the victim of a backhanded compliment, which is often the case of sociological surveys.
I think the point is that including anti-counterfitting measures in a product that is designed ostensibly to touch up photo's is both ridiculous and inappropriate.
:)
Counterfeiting is specifically illegal, and is Not Our Right Anywhere, I did not see any suggestion or insinuation that it ought to be. However, having to pay a "big brother tax" for ill-conceived or impossible to implement "crime prevention" features is an idea that many find offensive.
On the other hand, while almost everyone I know uses photoshop, almost no one I know has actually paid for it, or could afford it. Obviously their crime prevention abilities are somewhat limited
As an aside, a DSLAM costs between $15-$25/port when fully populated (although some american companies may delude themselves into believing otherwise, I'm an american and work for one such company, I can say that). A fully populated DSLAM is (depending on vendor and exact model) 500-1000 users all of which must be within (roughly, depending on policy) 8000-11,000ft "as the wire runs" (I live .8 mi from the CO, but am 7,032 ft "by wire"). Models for lower density configurations (say 50 users) exist, and have roughly the same cost/maintenance situation. I'd like to say I believe there is an ideally competitive market for DSLAM equipment, but there isn't. Decisions (in North America) are usually made on politics and not on best product/price. You may find this helpful in understanding how bad you're probably being ripped off.
As long as you stipulate your bandwidth limitations, then I may or may not care about "bandwidth hogs" needs. My ISP tells me it's unlimited, and I would be outraged if I were sent a letter telling me to stop.
An interesting, but necessarily confidential number is how many DSL lines you pay for, and how much you pay in "fat pipe" fees. That's money you're forced to pay to your competitors (for lack of options), and that they're almost certainly not paying themselves.
I just really hate monopolies of all types.
That's interesting. Here in NY, the LECs charge about $40/mo for "High speed broadband internet" for the same price as the CONNECTION they're charging you (presumably a line on their DSLAM, and a PVC to your office on which the services run, to which you have to add IP services/routers/etc. and then pay for a T1/T3 from the LEC for connectivity).
How are private ISPs supposed to compete with LECs really? LECs have little to no competition for the actual DSL equipment and can set whatever price they want.
With the risk of being banned from the intelligensia, yeah I think original Star Wars movies are more fun than dusty history books. George Lucas's questionable imagination probably draws heavily from history books he's read. I think Star Wars is also more adequate of a response to the comment, as it is also fiction.
We have not identified a malevolent entity who is attempting to acquire power, nor even speculated at who this evil genius might be (Dubya? hahahaha). This person, whose sole contribution to society was to break in to someones computer system (maybe), and then threaten to exploit it if he was not sent a lot of money. The FBI followed legal procedure, and used this persons own stupidity to reveal his identity.
Senator Palpatine, Stalin, et al. are bad people because they killed innocents and anyone who disagreed with them and perpetrated other fun tyrannical acts. I bet this guy gets somewhere around 10 years in a fed prison, wherein he can lift weights, watch cable, join a religious cult, shiv fight with inmates, and learn how to be a dangerous criminal for his release. Please, stop this facism immediately!
Ok but you forgot that it uses an illicit modulated inter-phasic beam to move the cancer out of phase of the time-space continuum.
Very important, never forget that part.
Why do I think this should have been modded as "Funny"...