That doesn't make sense. If copyright expires at the time of the creator's death then the copyrighted work becomes public domain. So who, exactly, is going to murder somebody just so that everybody (including competitors if we are talking about corporations here) can use the material freely? It's not like you get awarded the intellectual property rights of your murder victims. In what kind of situation would somebody murder a copyright holder to get 'access' to their work? Where's the incentive?
The only possibility I could foresee is if a beneficiary knocked off somebody that had written copyrighted works into their will, although that's no more encouraged by copyright expiration upon death than normal probate law encourages murder when people know they are written into a will.
XKCD mentioned databases and I like databases so therefore XKCD is the funniest webcomic in the world. If you don't like XKCD it's just because you don't get the humour.
Perchance Pirate Party Private Paper Pillaging Prompts Protests? Perhaps Personal Power Prevails? Private Plutocratic Plundering Prevents Public Performance, People's Participation. Preposterous Proposals Per Privileged Punks!
I would love to have experienced The Wall at Earls Court (my Dad was there). Fortunately I've just learned that Roger Waters is considering a 2010-2011 The Wall tour, which sounds awesome.
Retaining artistic integrity and being successful are not always mutually exclusive, you know. If I pour all my creativity into a musical masterpiece and it happens to sell millions, does that make me greedy? Does that negate the fact that I am not doing everything for the money?
I think it's fairly obvious that the numerous cultural references found in Duke Nukem 3D were intended to be homages instead of being passed off as original. These comprise one of the main reasons I was looking forward to Duke Nukem Forever - the gags, the easter eggs, the nods towards low culture. Without all that you miss the essence of Duke and have just another generic FPS.
I, for one, find their statistics sub-par and wish to volunteer my services for further study into the effect of having sex with attractive females on sperm behaviour.
I think the basis for questioning his Slashdotter credentials lies not with the games his kids play but in the fact that he managed to reproduce in the first place.
This tech has huge potential. Just yesterday I was watching the video for the Gizmondo 'Catapult' Game. Very cool. I've been looking at virtual reality glasses, and the Vuzix VR920 is a stereoscopic headset that has 3d compatibility with some games as well as head tracking. Attach a couple of webcams and connect it to a portable computer and you can walk around viewing an augmented version of reality, such as having a Terminator-style red overlay with scrolling code and primitive object recognition as shown here. You'd look like a complete dork walking around with it in public, but it's neat tech nonetheless.
A co-worker and I were discussing how you could take a normal laser tag arena, paint all of the walls with patterns that can be recognised by intelligent systems, and combined with headsets you could have an augmented reality laser tag. In one round everything could be decorated in a futuristic theme with metal panelling, neon lights, another could be stone castle walls or a dusty Wild West theme. If the players are wearing patterned jumpsuits, you could overlay them with different skins so they appear to you as terrorists, zombies, whatever you want. You would need some pretty good tracking to calculate location so that people don't run into walls that appear further away and are able to shoot eachother with accuracy, but if implemented well it could be awesome.
Doctor: "But oh, wait, I forgot, this is the future where we deliver stuff by space rockets. What does your daughter prefer, sir, this ultra-reliable robotic heart, or the genetically-compatible one growing in the vat next door?"
The reason behind my consideration of specialised Computer Science Masters courses is that I didn't want to do just another year of general Comp Sci and revisit the dry theory. I'm not massively interested in file systems, writing compilers or low-level operating system functions.
If an MSc in Computer Forensics, Database Systems or Internet Computing is worth junk then fine, I was just asking. All I am trying to do is better myself so that I can spend my working day doing something fulfilling instead of something that I hate. I'm not trying to cheat the system or do it for the money or bullshit my way through. I'm willing to start from the beginning.
I'm sorry for not taking CS seriously, but I don't think you could graduate with the average I did and be completely clueless about Computer Science and what it entails. Sure, it doesn't == programming but it is often seen as the endpoint to a CS degree, and with me not thinking I could become a fully-fledged programmer, I was thinking that I could be in some form of development so that I am not just supporting the usual IT crap.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you mean Kevin Warwick? Funnily enough he's also from the University of Reading.
That doesn't make sense. If copyright expires at the time of the creator's death then the copyrighted work becomes public domain. So who, exactly, is going to murder somebody just so that everybody (including competitors if we are talking about corporations here) can use the material freely? It's not like you get awarded the intellectual property rights of your murder victims. In what kind of situation would somebody murder a copyright holder to get 'access' to their work? Where's the incentive?
The only possibility I could foresee is if a beneficiary knocked off somebody that had written copyrighted works into their will, although that's no more encouraged by copyright expiration upon death than normal probate law encourages murder when people know they are written into a will.
XKCD mentioned databases and I like databases so therefore XKCD is the funniest webcomic in the world. If you don't like XKCD it's just because you don't get the humour.
See Dunbar's number. This is a concept covered, as my Anonymous sibling is correct to believe, in The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.
Perchance Pirate Party Private Paper Pillaging Prompts Protests? Perhaps Personal Power Prevails? Private Plutocratic Plundering Prevents Public Performance, People's Participation. Preposterous Proposals Per Privileged Punks!
I would love to have experienced The Wall at Earls Court (my Dad was there). Fortunately I've just learned that Roger Waters is considering a 2010-2011 The Wall tour, which sounds awesome.
Retaining artistic integrity and being successful are not always mutually exclusive, you know. If I pour all my creativity into a musical masterpiece and it happens to sell millions, does that make me greedy? Does that negate the fact that I am not doing everything for the money?
You can't beat surprise anal.
Coastguard.
The phrase 'core dump' springs to mind.
Evil maids are easy to spot because of their goatees.
You cannabis serious...
I think it's fairly obvious that the numerous cultural references found in Duke Nukem 3D were intended to be homages instead of being passed off as original. These comprise one of the main reasons I was looking forward to Duke Nukem Forever - the gags, the easter eggs, the nods towards low culture. Without all that you miss the essence of Duke and have just another generic FPS.
Careful you don't nick the plastic with the razor or all of the air will escape.
Nah, you can spot the rubber skin a mile off. Definitely a Cyberdyne T-600 model.
Yeah, he jumped off a balcony...on to some bullets.
*shrug* I don't mind. I've had enough of the placebo...
So you're saying that the goggles actually do something?
I, for one, find their statistics sub-par and wish to volunteer my services for further study into the effect of having sex with attractive females on sperm behaviour.
Don't we all, man, don't we all...
I think the basis for questioning his Slashdotter credentials lies not with the games his kids play but in the fact that he managed to reproduce in the first place.
I have an IntelliMouse, you insensitive clod!
This tech has huge potential. Just yesterday I was watching the video for the Gizmondo 'Catapult' Game. Very cool. I've been looking at virtual reality glasses, and the Vuzix VR920 is a stereoscopic headset that has 3d compatibility with some games as well as head tracking. Attach a couple of webcams and connect it to a portable computer and you can walk around viewing an augmented version of reality, such as having a Terminator-style red overlay with scrolling code and primitive object recognition as shown here. You'd look like a complete dork walking around with it in public, but it's neat tech nonetheless.
A co-worker and I were discussing how you could take a normal laser tag arena, paint all of the walls with patterns that can be recognised by intelligent systems, and combined with headsets you could have an augmented reality laser tag. In one round everything could be decorated in a futuristic theme with metal panelling, neon lights, another could be stone castle walls or a dusty Wild West theme. If the players are wearing patterned jumpsuits, you could overlay them with different skins so they appear to you as terrorists, zombies, whatever you want. You would need some pretty good tracking to calculate location so that people don't run into walls that appear further away and are able to shoot eachother with accuracy, but if implemented well it could be awesome.
You forgot the rest:
Doctor: "But oh, wait, I forgot, this is the future where we deliver stuff by space rockets. What does your daughter prefer, sir, this ultra-reliable robotic heart, or the genetically-compatible one growing in the vat next door?"
The reason behind my consideration of specialised Computer Science Masters courses is that I didn't want to do just another year of general Comp Sci and revisit the dry theory. I'm not massively interested in file systems, writing compilers or low-level operating system functions.
If an MSc in Computer Forensics, Database Systems or Internet Computing is worth junk then fine, I was just asking. All I am trying to do is better myself so that I can spend my working day doing something fulfilling instead of something that I hate. I'm not trying to cheat the system or do it for the money or bullshit my way through. I'm willing to start from the beginning.
I'm sorry for not taking CS seriously, but I don't think you could graduate with the average I did and be completely clueless about Computer Science and what it entails. Sure, it doesn't == programming but it is often seen as the endpoint to a CS degree, and with me not thinking I could become a fully-fledged programmer, I was thinking that I could be in some form of development so that I am not just supporting the usual IT crap.