> Dude, a rule is a rule, it has nothing to do with semantics.
You're missing the point.
If games are played by the Lette of the law (aka, by the rules), the game is still NOT fair! (Humans have major advantages and weaknesses over computers, and computers vice versa. Which is what makes this topic so fascinating. Comparing apples and orages.:)
You're following the Letter of the law, when games are built upon the Spirit of the law:
One of the goals of game design is to make the game challenging. If there is no challenge, then what is the point of playing?? As you pointed out "I like to win by out-strategizing my opponent"
> but personal opinion o' me is that it's a cop-out, a willing admission that the developer is either incapable or unwilling to make the AI smarter.
This I whole heartily agree! The problem is that this is almost impossible within the time constraints with today's technology.
The problem I have with people calling it "AI Cheating" is that they criticize the 'solution' without understanding the REAL problem.
> Take the game of chess,
The "AI Boosting" isn't done in chess because - It would be quite noticable - It doesn't need to. The computer can look at billions of moves. Prediction of the future can give the 'sense' of intelligence.
> The fact that the computer doesn't know anything and is only simulating thinking
The computer simulates thinking the same way you can 'speak' a language by speaking the phonemes -- it sounds like the real thing, but it isn't. Doing something by 'rote' is NOT intelligence.
> Developers themselves commonly refer to this as cheating.
Any developer (or player) who does this, doesn't understand game design! I can say this because, as a programmer who's shipped a few titles, I used to commit this very same mistake myself.
> At the harder difficulty levels it's easier from a coding viewpoint to tweak things like unit cost or resource availability for the computer player rather than making an AI that is harder to beat while operating within the same ruleset as the human player.
Yes, that's the classic excuse -- it's too hard to make a "good" AI, so we'll bend the rules to ramp up the difficulty to keep the player challenged. (I'm not saying its not justified, good "AI" is HARD.)
The fallacy is assuming that if the computer and a human follow the same rules, that the game is "fair." "Equal" does not mean "Same"! i.e. Here's an analogy: 1 US dollar == 1.21 Canadian. "Equal" amounts, but different numerical values.
Here's a practical example: Two people are playing deathmatch in a FPS. One guy has the better video card, faster cpu, and way bigger monitor. While they both play by the equal (in-game) rules, that extra hardware is still a (tiny) advantage; the game is not the same -- one person may be able to use his awareness to his advantage.
Getting back to why "AI Cheating" is mis-labeled...
We agreed on a definition:
"You're defining the computer cheating because it's playing by a different set of rules that you don't know about?"
So why is that when a _human_ does this, and play by rules that the computer (can't possibly know about) its "OK", yet when the computer does this, it's now called "cheating"?
To say the computer is "cheating" is a bit hypocritical, methinks.
This isn't a discussion about semantics -- we need a new word, to let the player know 'which of the rules are reasonably allowed to be bent, in order to keep some sense of challenge.'
If games did this up front, what would you call it?
Note: AI probably should be called Artifical Ignorance, because the computer doesn't "know" anything. It just blindly follows some steps, and gives the appearance of making a "intelligent" decision. But that is a discussion for another day.
> Whay does everyone bring up games!? > A computer is for work. A PS2 or XBox are for games. > Period.
What an ignorant attitude -- and I'm not saying that just because I'm a PC / PS2 game developer.
i.e.
What platform is the game developed on? I'm not just talking about the code editor, but also the level editor, and tool chain. The more platforms a game runs on, the better polished it becomes due to more bugs being exposed.
1. Problem: In the File Open Dialog, there is a left column showing common locations. Why can't one drag Folders into this to make their own "favorite" directory list? This should be supported out of the box.
Mac OS X does a very good job with this. Just drag a folder in Finder to the left, and it creates a shortcut / link to the one dragged in, that other applications see as well.
2. Problem: The text in a Window Title stretched all the way across a window. This wastes a lot of valuable screen estate, especially one a big monitor.
Soluion: Anyone who has used BeOS knows how one could drag the Window "Tabs", making it VERY easy to have multiple windows taking up the same physical space and easily select among them.
3. Problem/Solution: A way to remap the dam CAPS key so it _does't_ change the upper/lower case state. I wanted it treated just like any other key. I have my CAPS used in gaming, but when I go to type messages to others, half the time the text is lower case, the other half, upper case. Very Annoying.
4. Stop the Automatic Focus Switching!! Ever have an app bring up a dialog box, another app brings the focus up (i.e. low batteries in mouse), but you can't find the orginal child dialog, because it is BEHIND the parent window?!! Clicking on the parent, SHOULD bring focus to the child dialog!
5. More control over skinning, supported out of the box. I should be able to use any.bmp, or.jpeg for the UI elements. Also give me a few options where the buttons are, i.e. close ('X') button can be left or right, the ability to disable borders, etc.
6. All dialog boxes should support resizing. Some of the text fields are too small, especially one that contains a path. It's a little ridiculous on a big monitor I'm forced to used a tiny dialog box.
> I've got a mac now. The first of my life, from someone who wasn't ever a mac guy (and was probably more 'anti-mac' than most.)
Me 2. I couldn't agree more.
Three of my good friends who are power users (they used to run Linux on the desktop and server) have all switched over to Macs. Apple has one thing that Linux lacks -- consistency. But that's the advantage of "commercial" software.
For power users: Pre OS X felt like such a straight-jacket. I used to ridicule the "menu bar at the top" GUI. Now that I've done some dev on it, the whole Mac experience is just more consistent, then the half-baked Windows UI. Apple really has taken the best from Next, Mac, and Windows. Is it perfect? No, but for the most part, things seem to "just work." Ever try coping multiple files totaling over 1+ Gig across on a Windows Box with some of the files already there? Where is the "No to all" button? It's all the "little" UI touches that Windows misses. It all adds up.
For developers: XCode - doc markup, version control, and a half decent IDE "free" on the 4th OS CD. This is a great way to "win" Window's developers. Microsoft learnt this long ago -- without developers, your OS is going no where.
My next PC is going to be a Mac.
The 17" PowerBooks are sweet -- the next revision should have great 3D performance. The current ones have "good" 3D performance. Gaming is the only real reason to stay away from Macs.
-- XCode tip - trying to add a file that doesn't show up in the file dialog? (Stupid Mac File Dialog:) Press '/' and you can type in any path you wan to add any lib(s) you want.
Early molecular comparisons between humans and chimpanzees suggested that the species are very similar to each other at the nucleotide sequence level--a difference of between 1.23% and 5%, Sakaki said. The results reported this week showed that "83% of the genes have changed between the human and the chimpanzee--only 17% are identical--so that means that the impression that comes from the 1.2% [sequence] difference is [misleading]. In the case of protein structures, it has a big effect," Sakaki said.
Peace
How did they generate them?
on
Video Game Atlas
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Yes, I know how, but I'd be interesting in hearing what they had to go throw to acquire each of the screens, what did they use to "stitch" the images together, etc.
I know the article was about pictures, but I'd like to digress to "music" as this reminds me of when I "ripped" the music for the Apple ][ version of "Karateka" (also by Jordan Mechner, his "ground breaking" precursor work to Prince of Persia.)
There was a article in the magazine "Nibble" about "pseudo duel voices" from the Apple squeeker. (Yeah, us Apple fans were always jeolous that the C64 had REAL 4-voice FM music.) Anyways, After looking at the boot code, and seeing that it re-mapped the CTRL-RESET vector, it was easy to change it to dump into the "monitor" when pressed after beating the game . I wrote a small little assembly program to scan memory tucked away at $0300, looking for a sequence of bytes. Since the speaker output was at $C030, and the 6502 was little endian CPU, scanning for 0x30 0xC0 would reveal the assmebly code for the "music" code. And Since the code had a "RTS" (return to caller), you could search for a "JSR" (Jump to Sub Routine) via 0x20 0xSS xSS, to see who called it.
I finally found the code and the data. Amazingly, the data for the notes matched the info in the "Nibble" article. I decoded the notes, and transcriped it in a MIDI file.
To me, the process was more fun then the actual product. Guess that's one defintion of what makes a person a geek / engineer. LOL.
Is there any place on the net to talk bout game ripping?
There are many problems with biological evolution.
The main one: That the lineage can be traced back to a "root."
Who came from who? Because there is a problem with chromosome count and comparisons. It's all OVER the map with plants & animals. Species can't reproduce if one partner has a different number of chromosomes -- so how do we get (both male & female) offspring of a new generation that either GAIN or LOSE _multiple_ chromosomes?
Unfortunately the article is supported by "Creation Science" (which is another type of junk science.) but that doesn't change the question.
Peace
-- 5 Years driving without a "Driver's Licence." 3 times being pulled over by the Police. ZERO tickets for "driving without a license." ANSWER: ALL [Man-Made] Law is Contract Law. (Admitted VERY grudgingly by a Lawyer friend.)
LOL - Now *that's the Dilbert principle! You do your job well, so you get promoted/moved!
I would love to have you on my team -- far too many testers don't think "outside the box" when testing.
I agree that programmers assume far too much about how the code will operate on its data. We really need to ask ourselves: - How will my code function if I've given random/bad data? - How about 95% correct data? - And how will I communicate this to the rest of the system?
You should of told your peers
"Don't shoot the messanger, just because you hate the message":-)
Peace
-- 5 Years driving without a "Driver's Licence." 3 times being pulled over by the Police. ZERO tickets for driving without a license. ANSWER: ALL [Man-Made] Law is Contract Law. (Admitted very grudgingly by a Lawyer friend.)
> Just to clarify, do you mean all games have some of those elements?
Yes, all games, MAY have 1 or more of those elements. The elements are all othognal.
Sorry for the confusion if you thought any one game had all those elements. That's clearly not the case, as you are perfectly aware. i.e. there is no exploration, cooperation in chess.
Silly me, I forgot its easier to shoot the messenger then to listen to the message...
Look, there is more at stake then just simply "leeching."
Copyright is an barbiac holdover from the 18th Century. That fact that more and more people "pirate" information in a digital form (video, sound, apps, etc) shows that they reject this notion of "informational ownership." The progress of civiliation is based on free exchange of ideas. There is more to life then just money.
Maybe you aren't aware that Copyright was invented by the PUBLISHERS, to control access of information. (Namely to keep OTHER publishers from ripping them off.) What the 20th century taught us, is that all information can be reduced to mathematics; viz a viz Physical Reality can be simulated and stored digitally. i.e. Audio can be represented as Light, which is stored digitally on a CD / DVD. What "a" series of numbers represents is open to interpretation. Whether it is the latest pop song, or not, is irrelevent. To legislate that a certain large integer can not be exchanged is ridiculous.
The idea of "Intellectual Property Rights" is about as absurd as someone claiming that they "own" the right to the use of "2." What about mathematical formulas? Can Drug formulas be owned? (The "Right to Profit" is red-herring to the REAL issue, namely control, and maximizing profit. If you invent the drug to "cure" Cancer do you have the "Right to Profit" from it?? What about OTHERS Right to Live?? I have friends in exactly this dilema. The "Food and Drug Admistration" is a great example of profitting on people's sickness. You think this is OK?!) Once someone starts the slippery slope of "ownership" of ideas, the border keeps getting pushed. Where does it end? THAT is what most people are afraid of. If you indepently think of a "orginal" idea (that others have thought of too), who the hell has the right to tell you that you are violating someone's "patent" for implementing it? Do you really want to live in a world where almost every idea you think is violating someone else's right to limit that information?
Does that mean that ALL information should be freely shared?
Obviously, NO. Your Credit Card # is not copyrighted, yet MOST people respect that "that info" should not be shared. Whether the number is copyrighted or not is completely irrelevent, as the people following the [legal] Law didn't need the [legal] Law to do "The Right Thing", and those who don't follow the [legal] law, well, it doesn't matter if the [legal] law says they can't use it. Trying to legislate morality is always a bad idea. That worked REALLY well for "Prohibition", and the "Drug War" right?
The solution is education.
The Golden Rule is "Treat others how you want to be treated" modified in case to be:
"Treat other's information the same way you want your information to be treated."
I'm a software developer. Does it matter that people pirate my software? The answer is irrelevent for 2 reasons: - It is more important that people exchange information, then to worry about every little penny. Love is more important then Greed. If you want to base your life on greed, you'll find yourself being taught the ultimate lesson in it: When you die, you can't take ANY of it with you. GET OVER IT. Is your life really that petty that you need to focus on the symptom instead of the cause? - The Law of Karma dictates that all people get what they deserve. This is Divine Justice.
Modern Copyright didn't exist until recently. Humans and Civilization survived just fine for millions of years WITHOUT it. So yes, trashdot is a good place to discuss the irrationallity of Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks.
To "hand wave" the discussion as just "rants" shows your ignorance.
I believe the grandparent meant "Police Academy" (which I agree, tanked after the 1st one), instead of "Beverly Hills Cop" (which all 3 are still half decent.)
Slashdot Mirror
> Dude, a rule is a rule, it has nothing to do with semantics.
:)
You're missing the point.
If games are played by the Lette of the law (aka, by the rules), the game is still NOT fair! (Humans have major advantages and weaknesses over computers, and computers vice versa. Which is what makes this topic so fascinating. Comparing apples and orages.
You're following the Letter of the law, when games are built upon the Spirit of the law:
One of the goals of game design is to make the game challenging. If there is no challenge, then what is the point of playing?? As you pointed out "I like to win by out-strategizing my opponent"
> but personal opinion o' me is that it's a cop-out, a willing admission that the developer is either incapable or unwilling to make the AI smarter.
This I whole heartily agree! The problem is that this is almost impossible within the time constraints with today's technology.
The problem I have with people calling it "AI Cheating" is that they criticize the 'solution' without understanding the REAL problem.
> Take the game of chess,
The "AI Boosting" isn't done in chess because
- It would be quite noticable
- It doesn't need to. The computer can look at billions of moves. Prediction of the future can give the 'sense' of intelligence.
> The fact that the computer doesn't know anything and is only simulating thinking
The computer simulates thinking the same way you can 'speak' a language by speaking the phonemes -- it sounds like the real thing, but it isn't. Doing something by 'rote' is NOT intelligence.
Peace
--
"Geometry is frozen music"
- Pythagoras
> Developers themselves commonly refer to this as cheating.
Any developer (or player) who does this, doesn't understand game design! I can say this because, as a programmer who's shipped a few titles, I used to commit this very same mistake myself.
> At the harder difficulty levels it's easier from a coding viewpoint to tweak things like unit cost or resource availability for the computer player rather than making an AI that is harder to beat while operating within the same ruleset as the human player.
Yes, that's the classic excuse -- it's too hard to make a "good" AI, so we'll bend the rules to ramp up the difficulty to keep the player challenged. (I'm not saying its not justified, good "AI" is HARD.)
The fallacy is assuming that if the computer and a human follow the same rules, that the game is "fair." "Equal" does not mean "Same"!
i.e. Here's an analogy: 1 US dollar == 1.21 Canadian. "Equal" amounts, but different numerical values.
Here's a practical example:
Two people are playing deathmatch in a FPS. One guy has the better video card, faster cpu, and way bigger monitor. While they both play by the equal (in-game) rules, that extra hardware is still a (tiny) advantage; the game is not the same -- one person may be able to use his awareness to his advantage.
Getting back to why "AI Cheating" is mis-labeled...
We agreed on a definition:
"You're defining the computer cheating because it's playing by a different set of rules that you don't know about?"
So why is that when a _human_ does this, and play by rules that the computer (can't possibly know about) its "OK", yet when the computer does this, it's now called "cheating"?
To say the computer is "cheating" is a bit hypocritical, methinks.
This isn't a discussion about semantics -- we need a new word, to let the player know 'which of the rules are reasonably allowed to be bent, in order to keep some sense of challenge.'
If games did this up front, what would you call it?
Note: AI probably should be called Artifical Ignorance, because the computer doesn't "know" anything. It just blindly follows some steps, and gives the appearance of making a "intelligent" decision. But that is a discussion for another day.
Peace
> so much so that I even gave Project Entropia a try (helpful hint: do not play Project Entropia)
Any one care to summarize/comment on the strengths and weaknesses of PE?
Let me see if I understand your argument:
You're defining the computer cheating because it's playing by a different set of rules that you don't know about?
> (The "AI" and movement controls were about as feeble as they come, not to mention that the "AI" cheats.)
Define "AI" cheats please?
> Whay does everyone bring up games!?
> A computer is for work. A PS2 or XBox are for games.
> Period.
What an ignorant attitude -- and I'm not saying that just because I'm a PC / PS2 game developer.
i.e.
What platform is the game developed on? I'm not just talking about the code editor, but also the level editor, and tool chain. The more platforms a game runs on, the better polished it becomes due to more bugs being exposed.
Peace
1. Problem: In the File Open Dialog, there is a left column showing common locations. Why can't one drag Folders into this to make their own "favorite" directory list? This should be supported out of the box.
.bmp, or .jpeg for the UI elements. Also give me a few options where the buttons are, i.e. close ('X') button can be left or right, the ability to disable borders, etc.
Mac OS X does a very good job with this. Just drag a folder in Finder to the left, and it creates a shortcut / link to the one dragged in, that other applications see as well.
2. Problem: The text in a Window Title stretched all the way across a window. This wastes a lot of valuable screen estate, especially one a big monitor.
Soluion: Anyone who has used BeOS knows how one could drag the Window "Tabs", making it VERY easy to have multiple windows taking up the same physical space and easily select among them.
3. Problem/Solution: A way to remap the dam CAPS key so it _does't_ change the upper/lower case state. I wanted it treated just like any other key. I have my CAPS used in gaming, but when I go to type messages to others, half the time the text is lower case, the other half, upper case. Very Annoying.
4. Stop the Automatic Focus Switching!! Ever have an app bring up a dialog box, another app brings the focus up (i.e. low batteries in mouse), but you can't find the orginal child dialog, because it is BEHIND the parent window?!! Clicking on the parent, SHOULD bring focus to the child dialog!
5. More control over skinning, supported out of the box. I should be able to use any
6. All dialog boxes should support resizing. Some of the text fields are too small, especially one that contains a path. It's a little ridiculous on a big monitor I'm forced to used a tiny dialog box.
Peace
> Why does he "need" an office suite anyway?
Don't under-estimate a spreadsheet's ability.
As a programmer who loves math, I use a spreadsheet for building tables, checking relative errors, and graphing formulas.
(Of course a math package like Mathematica helps too =P)
> I've got a mac now. The first of my life, from someone who wasn't ever a mac guy (and was probably more 'anti-mac' than most.)
:)
Me 2. I couldn't agree more.
Three of my good friends who are power users (they used to run Linux on the desktop and server) have all switched over to Macs. Apple has one thing that Linux lacks -- consistency. But that's the advantage of "commercial" software.
For power users:
Pre OS X felt like such a straight-jacket. I used to ridicule the "menu bar at the top" GUI. Now that I've done some dev on it, the whole Mac experience is just more consistent, then the half-baked Windows UI. Apple really has taken the best from Next, Mac, and Windows. Is it perfect? No, but for the most part, things seem to "just work." Ever try coping multiple files totaling over 1+ Gig across on a Windows Box with some of the files already there? Where is the "No to all" button? It's all the "little" UI touches that Windows misses. It all adds up.
For developers:
XCode - doc markup, version control, and a half decent IDE "free" on the 4th OS CD. This is a great way to "win" Window's developers. Microsoft learnt this long ago -- without developers, your OS is going no where.
My next PC is going to be a Mac.
The 17" PowerBooks are sweet -- the next revision should have great 3D performance. The current ones have "good" 3D performance. Gaming is the only real reason to stay away from Macs.
--
XCode tip - trying to add a file that doesn't show up in the file dialog? (Stupid Mac File Dialog
Press '/' and you can type in any path you wan to add any lib(s) you want.
That's only true at the nucleotide / molecular level.
i.e.
Chimps are not like humans
Peace
Yes, I know how, but I'd be interesting in hearing what they had to go throw to acquire each of the screens, what did they use to "stitch" the images together, etc.
I know the article was about pictures, but I'd like to digress to "music" as this reminds me of when I "ripped" the music for the Apple ][ version of "Karateka" (also by Jordan Mechner, his "ground breaking" precursor work to Prince of Persia.)
There was a article in the magazine "Nibble" about "pseudo duel voices" from the Apple squeeker. (Yeah, us Apple fans were always jeolous that the C64 had REAL 4-voice FM music.) Anyways, After looking at the boot code, and seeing that it re-mapped the CTRL-RESET vector, it was easy to change it to dump into the "monitor" when pressed after beating the game . I wrote a small little assembly program to scan memory tucked away at $0300, looking for a sequence of bytes. Since the speaker output was at $C030, and the 6502 was little endian CPU, scanning for 0x30 0xC0 would reveal the assmebly code for the "music" code. And Since the code had a "RTS" (return to caller), you could search for a "JSR" (Jump to Sub Routine) via 0x20 0xSS xSS, to see who called it.
I finally found the code and the data. Amazingly, the data for the notes matched the info in the "Nibble" article. I decoded the notes, and transcriped it in a MIDI file.
To me, the process was more fun then the actual product. Guess that's one defintion of what makes a person a geek / engineer. LOL.
Is there any place on the net to talk bout game ripping?
Peace
> What specific parts do you think are unproven?
. htm
There are many problems with biological evolution.
The main one: That the lineage can be traced back to a "root."
Who came from who? Because there is a problem with chromosome count and comparisons. It's all OVER the map with plants & animals. Species can't reproduce if one partner has a different number of chromosomes -- so how do we get (both male & female) offspring of a new generation that either GAIN or LOSE _multiple_ chromosomes?
http://www.pathlights.com/ce_encyclopedia/15sim03
Unfortunately the article is supported by "Creation Science" (which is another type of junk science.) but that doesn't change the question.
Peace
--
5 Years driving without a "Driver's Licence."
3 times being pulled over by the Police.
ZERO tickets for "driving without a license."
ANSWER: ALL [Man-Made] Law is Contract Law. (Admitted VERY grudgingly by a Lawyer friend.)
> Slashdotters are now looking to alien life for "companionship"?
It's "alien" if you don't understand it.
Since men don't understand women,
Therefore women must be aliens!
j/k
LOL - Now *that's the Dilbert principle! You do your job well, so you get promoted/moved!
:-)
I would love to have you on my team -- far too many testers don't think "outside the box" when testing.
I agree that programmers assume far too much about how the code will operate on its data. We really need to ask ourselves:
- How will my code function if I've given random/bad data?
- How about 95% correct data?
- And how will I communicate this to the rest of the system?
You should of told your peers
"Don't shoot the messanger, just because you hate the message"
Peace
--
5 Years driving without a "Driver's Licence."
3 times being pulled over by the Police.
ZERO tickets for driving without a license.
ANSWER: ALL [Man-Made] Law is Contract Law. (Admitted very grudgingly by a Lawyer friend.)
> Don't ever quite (read it twice) unless you have something else in line.
I disagree.
You can sell you morals, but you can't buy your values.
Peace
> Just to clarify, do you mean all games have some of those elements?
Yes, all games, MAY have 1 or more of those elements. The elements are all othognal.
Sorry for the confusion if you thought any one game had all those elements. That's clearly not the case, as you are perfectly aware. i.e. there is no exploration, cooperation in chess.
Peace
I'm a programmer, and game designer. These are the core elements I've identified in all games:
I really should get my "Fundamentals of Game Design" book done someday...
Peace
> Ahh, the good ole days. Choplifter, Hard Hat Mack, Conan, Gemstone Warrior, & Karateka.
;-) Gumball, Dino Eggs, Diamond Mine were fun too.
... and manually typed it up as MIDI. I should post that someday...
Definately gota agree with you about Conan, Gemstone Warrior, and Karateka.
What no Aquatron, Montezuma's Revenge, Lode Runner, Rescue Raiders, Wings of Fury, or Spare Change!
Only game I miss is Pharoah's Curse on the C64.
I ripped the music for Karateka
> Instead, they just rant about it here,
Silly me, I forgot its easier to shoot the messenger then to listen to the message...
Look, there is more at stake then just simply "leeching."
Copyright is an barbiac holdover from the 18th Century. That fact that more and more people "pirate" information in a digital form (video, sound, apps, etc) shows that they reject this notion of "informational ownership." The progress of civiliation is based on free exchange of ideas. There is more to life then just money.
Maybe you aren't aware that Copyright was invented by the PUBLISHERS, to control access of information. (Namely to keep OTHER publishers from ripping them off.) What the 20th century taught us, is that all information can be reduced to mathematics; viz a viz Physical Reality can be simulated and stored digitally. i.e. Audio can be represented as Light, which is stored digitally on a CD / DVD. What "a" series of numbers represents is open to interpretation. Whether it is the latest pop song, or not, is irrelevent. To legislate that a certain large integer can not be exchanged is ridiculous.
The idea of "Intellectual Property Rights" is about as absurd as someone claiming that they "own" the right to the use of "2." What about mathematical formulas? Can Drug formulas be owned? (The "Right to Profit" is red-herring to the REAL issue, namely control, and maximizing profit. If you invent the drug to "cure" Cancer do you have the "Right to Profit" from it?? What about OTHERS Right to Live?? I have friends in exactly this dilema. The "Food and Drug Admistration" is a great example of profitting on people's sickness. You think this is OK?!) Once someone starts the slippery slope of "ownership" of ideas, the border keeps getting pushed. Where does it end? THAT is what most people are afraid of. If you indepently think of a "orginal" idea (that others have thought of too), who the hell has the right to tell you that you are violating someone's "patent" for implementing it? Do you really want to live in a world where almost every idea you think is violating someone else's right to limit that information?
Does that mean that ALL information should be freely shared?
Obviously, NO. Your Credit Card # is not copyrighted, yet MOST people respect that "that info" should not be shared. Whether the number is copyrighted or not is completely irrelevent, as the people following the [legal] Law didn't need the [legal] Law to do "The Right Thing", and those who don't follow the [legal] law, well, it doesn't matter if the [legal] law says they can't use it. Trying to legislate morality is always a bad idea. That worked REALLY well for "Prohibition", and the "Drug War" right?
The solution is education.
The Golden Rule is "Treat others how you want to be treated" modified in case to be:
"Treat other's information the same way you want your information to be treated."
I'm a software developer. Does it matter that people pirate my software? The answer is irrelevent for 2 reasons:
- It is more important that people exchange information, then to worry about every little penny. Love is more important then Greed. If you want to base your life on greed, you'll find yourself being taught the ultimate lesson in it: When you die, you can't take ANY of it with you. GET OVER IT. Is your life really that petty that you need to focus on the symptom instead of the cause?
- The Law of Karma dictates that all people get what they deserve. This is Divine Justice.
Modern Copyright didn't exist until recently. Humans and Civilization survived just fine for millions of years WITHOUT it. So yes, trashdot is a good place to discuss the irrationallity of Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks.
To "hand wave" the discussion as just "rants" shows your ignorance.
http://zalus.koga.hu/lotrdvd.gif
_ 1161x1024.jpg
Said tongue in cheek since I'm buying all the LOTR DVD's...
Here's a nice map for fans...
http://www.aloha.net/~shaug/pix/lotr/middle-earth
--
Peace
> If you don't have anything to hide than what do you have to fear?
Can I have your bank account #, PIN, and social?
I thought you had nothing to hide?
Peace
> Unfortunately up until this point the plasmas have been slightly more in my price range for the size I am looking for.
Have you checked www.visualapex.com?
Note: I'm a happy customer, so I'm rather biased, but they were able to take care of my needs when ordering the Plasma last year.
Peace
I believe the grandparent meant "Police Academy" (which I agree, tanked after the 1st one),
instead of "Beverly Hills Cop" (which all 3 are still half decent.)
> nything that you, yourself, create is going to be shitty and rather stupid
Right! So we should NEVER do anything for the FUN of doing it.
> and most people are fucking incredibly untalented.
And this is based on what data?
Peace
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb
= &forumid=93
There is even a sub-forum specifically for remotes...
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s
I have the MX-500. Worth every penny.
http://www.remotecentral.com/mx500/
Peace