I still wonder if it would be workable for an ISP to supply a router which gives the owner priority over the bandwidth but allows any subscriber to connect (only) to the internet.
For the consumer it's a mutual benefit, I make my bandwidth open to fellow customers and they do the same for me. The ISP wins from having a better service to attract customers, and also from wifi-only subscribers. The latter may also make for cost/price competitiveness, since you have more subscribers per physical connection.
Wouldn't I have to put down quite a lot of detail on the register just to enable companies to figure out whether they are supposed to avoid tracking me?
Worse, it'd be doing the hardest bit - connecting the dots.
What we do care about is when a bootlegger makes half a million copies of our game and gets wide distribution to retail stores that either don't know any better or don't care. This is a major problem in Asia, particularly China. Since you missed it:
We also don't make games targeting the Chinese market
When you make a game for a target market, you have to look at how many people will actually buy your game combined with how much it will cost to make a game for that target market. What good is a large number of users if they're not going to buy your game? And what good is a market where the minimal commitment to make a game for it is $10 million if the target audience isn't likely to pay for the game?
If the target demographic for your game is full of pirates who won't buy your game, then why support them? That's one of the things I have a hard time understanding. It's irrelevant how many people will play your game (if you're in the business of selling games that is). It's only relevant how many people are likely to buy your game.
Stardock doesn't make games targeting the Chinese market. If we spent $10 million on a PC game explicitly for the Chinese market and we lost our shirts, would you really feel that much sympathy for us? Or would you think "Duh." Unfortunately, your DRM presents problems for your consumers and a minor irritation for your bootlegger. All of your customers have to deal with the DRM every time; the bootlegger deals with it once and the bootlegger's customers never see it.
It seems so very strange to afflict your customers when you say that your problem lies "in the mastering lab, or somewhere else along the line in between when the title goes to manufacturing and when it hits shelves". So here's your better method: target the problem.
The PicLens demo appears to simply present google images search results in a tarted-up Windows Explorer. The 3D is merely a different perspective to allow more to be displayed on screen conveniently, it seems to be a benefit but there's no true change in function.
One of the reasons it looks more appealing is simply that the UI is simply prettier, the other is it appears neater. But this has been done by stripping out information, not by presenting it better. Referring back to the PicLens demo, being able to see the source website on google images adds context - an image of space from DeviantArt does not mean the same thing as an image from NASA.
The NYT caption runs "The PicLens software from Cooliris offers a way to directly explore online images without navigating Web pages." This makes another flaw obvious. Google image search is balanced - you can see the thumbnails but it's a means to visiting a useful web page, not cutting it out. Once you start doing that, the page gets no revenue.
I don't really see the revolution with touch-screens either, as you should really be able to guess from the name, the pointer was always an extension of the finger.
They're very nice, but they're evolutionary, and more often than not it's style over substance, form over function.
Unfortunately matching suggestions to your requirements is left to chance as the OP does not state needs and usage.
Reading into the wording perhaps more than is warranted, have a look at the Nokia N95 8gb (be sure to get the 8gb model). For a phone, it has an excellent camera - no match for a good standalone but it's one less thing to carry/lose/be killed for. It also does email and has SatNav, plus the screen is actually usable (very handy to have google maps in your pocket). While it can make use of WiFi, it can also be used as a wireless broadband modem for the laptop. Music too - "high-quality" is rather subjective but I assume you're going to be using earbuds anyway...
You'll need to figure out if the phone can do satnav and mobile broadband in the countries you are going to.
Assuming you just need the laptop for general office type use, everything I see in the shops is very easily powerful enough. Just get something fairly light, small enough to tuck into a backpack and cheap. Remember encryption if there's any data you would mind being in the hands of criminals. Backup to online storage, either paid for, windows live skydrive or whatever.
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I still wonder if it would be workable for an ISP to supply a router which gives the owner priority over the bandwidth but allows any subscriber to connect (only) to the internet.
For the consumer it's a mutual benefit, I make my bandwidth open to fellow customers and they do the same for me. The ISP wins from having a better service to attract customers, and also from wifi-only subscribers. The latter may also make for cost/price competitiveness, since you have more subscribers per physical connection.
Wouldn't I have to put down quite a lot of detail on the register just to enable companies to figure out whether they are supposed to avoid tracking me?
Worse, it'd be doing the hardest bit - connecting the dots.
When you make a game for a target market, you have to look at how many people will actually buy your game combined with how much it will cost to make a game for that target market. What good is a large number of users if they're not going to buy your game? And what good is a market where the minimal commitment to make a game for it is $10 million if the target audience isn't likely to pay for the game?
If the target demographic for your game is full of pirates who won't buy your game, then why support them? That's one of the things I have a hard time understanding. It's irrelevant how many people will play your game (if you're in the business of selling games that is). It's only relevant how many people are likely to buy your game.
Stardock doesn't make games targeting the Chinese market. If we spent $10 million on a PC game explicitly for the Chinese market and we lost our shirts, would you really feel that much sympathy for us? Or would you think "Duh." Unfortunately, your DRM presents problems for your consumers and a minor irritation for your bootlegger. All of your customers have to deal with the DRM every time; the bootlegger deals with it once and the bootlegger's customers never see it.
It seems so very strange to afflict your customers when you say that your problem lies "in the mastering lab, or somewhere else along the line in between when the title goes to manufacturing and when it hits shelves". So here's your better method: target the problem.
The PicLens demo appears to simply present google images search results in a tarted-up Windows Explorer. The 3D is merely a different perspective to allow more to be displayed on screen conveniently, it seems to be a benefit but there's no true change in function.
One of the reasons it looks more appealing is simply that the UI is simply prettier, the other is it appears neater. But this has been done by stripping out information, not by presenting it better. Referring back to the PicLens demo, being able to see the source website on google images adds context - an image of space from DeviantArt does not mean the same thing as an image from NASA.
The NYT caption runs "The PicLens software from Cooliris offers a way to directly explore online images without navigating Web pages." This makes another flaw obvious. Google image search is balanced - you can see the thumbnails but it's a means to visiting a useful web page, not cutting it out. Once you start doing that, the page gets no revenue.
I don't really see the revolution with touch-screens either, as you should really be able to guess from the name, the pointer was always an extension of the finger.
They're very nice, but they're evolutionary, and more often than not it's style over substance, form over function.
Unfortunately matching suggestions to your requirements is left to chance as the OP does not state needs and usage.
Reading into the wording perhaps more than is warranted, have a look at the Nokia N95 8gb (be sure to get the 8gb model). For a phone, it has an excellent camera - no match for a good standalone but it's one less thing to carry/lose/be killed for. It also does email and has SatNav, plus the screen is actually usable (very handy to have google maps in your pocket). While it can make use of WiFi, it can also be used as a wireless broadband modem for the laptop. Music too - "high-quality" is rather subjective but I assume you're going to be using earbuds anyway...
You'll need to figure out if the phone can do satnav and mobile broadband in the countries you are going to.
Assuming you just need the laptop for general office type use, everything I see in the shops is very easily powerful enough. Just get something fairly light, small enough to tuck into a backpack and cheap. Remember encryption if there's any data you would mind being in the hands of criminals. Backup to online storage, either paid for, windows live skydrive or whatever.