nobody seems to be screaming that Apple is stupid and lazy. In fact, I see more Microsoft security bashing here that Apple security bashing.
But... isn't the error with Apple software?
So... why aren't you all screaming at the horrible evil that is Apple?
Not that I think Apple is either of those things, mind you. Or at least not in relation to this issue. I just think that the obscene amount of Microsoft bashing is 20% based on their problems and business practices, and 80% because of jealousy that we all can't have billions of dollars too.
Did anyone else notice that this game, which will take place at a school called "Hogwarts" is being developed by...
Warthog?
On a more serious note, I think that making a better game out of the license is a good idea. The Harry Potter fan base is huge. The segment of the population who dislike it are vocal, but they won't likely stop fans from buying or stores from selling.
And... the PC game, at least, was extremely lacking. Great waste of $19.99 in my opinion. Perhaps the 8-year-olds liked it, I don't know. It used the UT engine, so it looked pretty good, but gameplay was pretty terrible, and boring too...
As for interacting with Rowling? She has lots of power now, doesn't she. She has approval rights on everything. Except merchandising, I believe, since she keeps saying how much she hates the Potter toys.
I agree whole-heartedly (as if my heart has anything to do with the process except providing my brain and fingers with blood)
I was greatly disturbed when my highschool math instructors informed me that, sans a TI-82 or better calculator (at the time, about $75 - $80 -- its a graphing calculator) that I would be at such a tremendous disadvantage that I'd likely not pass the course.
See, we learned how to do matrix multiplications, we learned how to graph some pretty spiffy functions, we learned how to find the roots for all sorts of goofy functions, we learned to take logs and nth roots.
Or, at least, we learned the commands to do so on the calculator.
Quick poll: who here is under 30 and ever EVER learned how to take a square root sans calculator?
there are so many wonderful uses of technology, a calculator that factors for you being used instead of learning factoring and synthetic division is jut NOT one of them
at UCI, this sourt of honor system would not work, in my opinion, as well as that of many of my fellow students.
At Harvey Mudd (sp?) in Claremont, CA. it is a common practice for final exams to be given this way. I have yet to find a student that would admit to having taken even five minutes longer than allowed, or having opened a book or looked online, or asked for help.
Also, nobody admitted to ever being asked for help on such an exam.
So... it can work, in the right academic environment.
Morally, cheating is cheating. Do what you will, rationalize it how you like. I'll take my B and know that I have some small degree of integrity, thanks much.
You go ahead and get your A. I won't really be mad at you, but you'll know that you cheated, and I will to. And that really makes the difference.
see, I have encountered the opposite problem. Professors who say "information gotten off the internet is less good than information in books"
and therefore, my printout of a Supreme Court opinion (from the Supreme Court Website, mind you) got me docked, because this source would have been better gotten from the library reference series that contains these things. Incidentally, since the case was very new (the opinion about 2 weeks old -- from MPAA v 2600, by the way) it was not available in printed form anywhere I could find.
Incidentally, this happened as well with my copy of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which I took from a web resource (PDFs) instead of from a book...
Just because it's printed doesn't meen it's true, just because it's electronic doesn't mean it's bogus.
There is but one difficult problem with the resetting of copyright law.
I mean, only one OTHER than the fact that the media companies could and would spend BILLIONS to prevent it...
The United States government has signed numerous treaties (including the one mentioned on the Eldred page).
It would be difficult (although not impossible) for the U.S. to extricate itself from these treaties without significant damage to our already lagging credibility.
Otherwise, I'm all for it. Go ahead, lobby Congress, sign the petition. It might have some impact. eventually.
what Disney is afraid of is that, as soon as it becomes legal to do so, someone will create a "derivative work" that is contrary to the disney image.
For example, some company would likely take it upon themselves to create R or NC-17 rated cartoons that feature Mickey.
I am farily certain that it is the concept of an "unwholesome" Mickey cartoon that concerns them most, because, as you said, Disney could and would continue to sell his likeness...
Also, realize that this would introduce a bit more competition into the Mickey Merchandizing business, not to mention that any continuing licenses for Mickey would be dropped.
See, the problem here is this. I'm a programmer, I want to write code, and I'm going to use a tool that lets me write code the way I want to write it, not a tool that tells me I'm too stupid to write good code, so it's going to force me to jump through hoops.
Take, for instance, this particular annoyance in Java:
I am trying to read from STDIN, wait, Java calls that System.in (everyone else in the universe seems to be able to agree on this one...) -- Specifically, I need something with a readLine() function, so I have to construct something around System.in.
So, first, this annoys me greatly, because there is a certain amount of overhead in continually constructing new objects from old ones... In C I could just call a different function and pass it my FILE* pointer. I can (and generally will) do this in C++ as well...
So... anyway, I do something like this (which comes from the Java API Docs) BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
two constructions... oh goody... So... anyway, now I readLine() Now... I have to do this (like about 99% of all my lines of code) within a try/catch block, because it _might_ throw an IOException.
well... it might, except that the source is System.in so it won't. If it runs out of data, it'll sit and wait until I type something (unless, of course, System.in is set to some file, but then my particular program (a chatbot AI) is not really very meaningful.)
But Java thinks I'm too stupid to know what I'm doing, so I can't call readLine(), I have to do this
this has turned one very simple line of code into 7, and don't tell me that I can save space by moving the brackets, I can save even more my not putting \n's anywhere, but sometimes it makes code more readable
so... yeah... when I'm forced to use Java, I hate it... I keep thinking 'wow... this could be done 5 times faster with half the code in C++ and it'd be more legible to boot!'. I don't want to be protected from myself... If your not capable of enforcing reasonable restrictions on yourself, or your organization is too lazy to do real code-reviews, then your code deserves to suck it up...
So... yeah... that's the second half of my "I hate Java" rant... perhaps someday I'll give y'all the first half.
Slashdot Mirror
Funny,
nobody seems to be screaming that Apple is stupid and lazy. In fact, I see more Microsoft security bashing here that Apple security bashing.
But... isn't the error with Apple software?
So... why aren't you all screaming at the horrible evil that is Apple?
Not that I think Apple is either of those things, mind you. Or at least not in relation to this issue. I just think that the obscene amount of Microsoft bashing is 20% based on their problems and business practices, and 80% because of jealousy that we all can't have billions of dollars too.
Did anyone else notice that this game, which will take place at a school called "Hogwarts" is being developed by...
Warthog?
On a more serious note, I think that making a better game out of the license is a good idea. The Harry Potter fan base is huge. The segment of the population who dislike it are vocal, but they won't likely stop fans from buying or stores from selling.
And... the PC game, at least, was extremely lacking. Great waste of $19.99 in my opinion. Perhaps the 8-year-olds liked it, I don't know. It used the UT engine, so it looked pretty good, but gameplay was pretty terrible, and boring too...
As for interacting with Rowling? She has lots of power now, doesn't she. She has approval rights on everything. Except merchandising, I believe, since she keeps saying how much she hates the Potter toys.
Here, Here!
I agree whole-heartedly (as if my heart has anything to do with the process except providing my brain and fingers with blood)
I was greatly disturbed when my highschool math instructors informed me that, sans a TI-82 or better calculator (at the time, about $75 - $80 -- its a graphing calculator) that I would be at such a tremendous disadvantage that I'd likely not pass the course.
See, we learned how to do matrix multiplications, we learned how to graph some pretty spiffy functions, we learned how to find the roots for all sorts of goofy functions, we learned to take logs and nth roots.
Or, at least, we learned the commands to do so on the calculator.
Quick poll: who here is under 30 and ever EVER learned how to take a square root sans calculator?
there are so many wonderful uses of technology, a calculator that factors for you being used instead of learning factoring and synthetic division is jut NOT one of them
Ok, now this is interesting.
I am a student at Univ. Calif., Irvine
at UCI, this sourt of honor system would not work, in my opinion, as well as that of many of my fellow students.
At Harvey Mudd (sp?) in Claremont, CA. it is a common practice for final exams to be given this way. I have yet to find a student that would admit to having taken even five minutes longer than allowed, or having opened a book or looked online, or asked for help.
Also, nobody admitted to ever being asked for help on such an exam.
So... it can work, in the right academic environment.
Morally, cheating is cheating. Do what you will, rationalize it how you like. I'll take my B and know that I have some small degree of integrity, thanks much.
You go ahead and get your A. I won't really be mad at you, but you'll know that you cheated, and I will to. And that really makes the difference.
Well,
see, I have encountered the opposite problem. Professors who say "information gotten off the internet is less good than information in books"
and therefore, my printout of a Supreme Court opinion (from the Supreme Court Website, mind you) got me docked, because this source would have been better gotten from the library reference series that contains these things. Incidentally, since the case was very new (the opinion about 2 weeks old -- from MPAA v 2600, by the way) it was not available in printed form anywhere I could find.
Incidentally, this happened as well with my copy of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, which I took from a web resource (PDFs) instead of from a book...
Just because it's printed doesn't meen it's true, just because it's electronic doesn't mean it's bogus.
You know... I've heard that before... and its just as stupid-silly as the first time...
Disney probably won't do anything... until you put that on a huge billboard overlooking the I-5.
-- Fareq
P.S. Anyone out there have Photoshop skills?
I mean, only one OTHER than the fact that the media companies could and would spend BILLIONS to prevent it...
The United States government has signed numerous treaties (including the one mentioned on the Eldred page).
It would be difficult (although not impossible) for the U.S. to extricate itself from these treaties without significant damage to our already lagging credibility.
Otherwise, I'm all for it. Go ahead, lobby Congress, sign the petition. It might have some impact. eventually.
Good Luck,
-- Fareq
Ahh... but that's not what Disney is afraid of...
what Disney is afraid of is that, as soon as it becomes legal to do so, someone will create a "derivative work" that is contrary to the disney image.
For example, some company would likely take it upon themselves to create R or NC-17 rated cartoons that feature Mickey.
I am farily certain that it is the concept of an "unwholesome" Mickey cartoon that concerns them most, because, as you said, Disney could and would continue to sell his likeness...
Also, realize that this would introduce a bit more competition into the Mickey Merchandizing business, not to mention that any continuing licenses for Mickey would be dropped.
See, the problem here is this.
// Java doesn't trust me
I'm a programmer, I want to write code, and I'm going to use a tool that lets me write code the way I want to write it, not a tool that tells me I'm too stupid to write good code, so it's going to force me to jump through hoops.
Take, for instance, this particular annoyance in Java:
I am trying to read from STDIN, wait, Java calls that System.in (everyone else in the universe seems to be able to agree on this one...) -- Specifically, I need something with a readLine() function, so I have to construct something around System.in.
So, first, this annoys me greatly, because there is a certain amount of overhead in continually constructing new objects from old ones... In C I could just call a different function and pass it my FILE* pointer. I can (and generally will) do this in C++ as well...
So... anyway, I do something like this (which comes from the Java API Docs)
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
two constructions... oh goody...
So... anyway, now I readLine()
Now... I have to do this (like about 99% of all my lines of code) within a try/catch block, because it _might_ throw an IOException.
well... it might, except that the source is System.in so it won't. If it runs out of data, it'll sit and wait until I type something
(unless, of course, System.in is set to some file, but then my particular program (a chatbot AI) is not really very meaningful.)
But Java thinks I'm too stupid to know what I'm doing, so I can't call readLine(), I have to do this
try
{
myNextLine = br.readLine();
}
catch (IOException ioe)
{
}
this has turned one very simple line of code into 7, and don't tell me that I can save space by moving the brackets, I can save even more my not putting \n's anywhere, but sometimes it makes code more readable
so... yeah... when I'm forced to use Java, I hate it... I keep thinking 'wow... this could be done 5 times faster with half the code in C++ and it'd be more legible to boot!'. I don't want to be protected from myself... If your not capable of enforcing reasonable restrictions on yourself, or your organization is too lazy to do real code-reviews, then your code deserves to suck it up...
So... yeah... that's the second half of my "I hate Java" rant... perhaps someday I'll give y'all the first half.
Until then,
-- Fareq