I know exactly what you mean. Here in NY. You can walk into any of the major shopping malls and find a pirated dvd booth setup. I know of 2 on Long Island.
The problem is... they only sell pirated asian films... and Hollywood doesnt care about that...
No MONEY in it for them:) So why bust them?
These guys have been working in 2 malls with a booth for atleast 10+ years. Pirated VHS tapes, to now very convincing looking pirated DVDs
Hollywood doesnt give a shit because its Asian cinema and they have no stake in it...
They did bust some guy not to long ago here in NY. He had a whole setup in his house... ROOMS filled with multiple DVD/CD burning towers. He would burn and package thousands of DVDs. his house looked like a Disc duplication company:) There was defintaly some funny and interesting footage on the local news about it showing this guys house inside and out. The feds were pulling out tons of dvds. even Playstation and Xbox pirated games.
So they do bust those guys but... certainly they should be going after those guys more than the small guys on the net who do it for non-profit reasons.
These CD/DVD pirate rings on the net are more or less enthusiasts doing it for a non-profit reason. Perhaps even as protest to high prices, or corperate abuse and to give the people a stake in the buisness world, a way to protest...
However the CD/DVD pirates on the streets selling copies, are part of mafia crime syndicates. They are the real deal bad guys. They're not some teenager trying to be elite in his dormroom.
They're mixed up in serious organized crime for profit.
They're out to profit, not protest, not share freely. they're the ones REALLY taking money away from the movie/recording industry... because people are paying them for pirated copies. Which is a clear example of actual money lost and not the false claims numbers that the RIAA and MPAA make up.
In China they'll buy XP pro on CD for $5 pirated in the same shops where XP pro authentic versions are sold for $300
The point worth noting is... people are PAYING for pirated software/movies/music
The would-be customers of authentic items are PAYING for a pirated item because its cheaper.
I really thing its time companies rethink their prices.
Lets be honest. With the current state of our US economy... Lets all make a bet... Who is going to bet that Movie ticket sales will go up, or down?:) I bet you they go up.
They never seem to go down do they? Not even when our economy is in decline...
and of course i'm not an absolutist but it ICO really is a game that moved me and captured my soul for the 10 hours of gameplay i experienced. ICO is the best game I have ever played. Of course for others, they have their own "bests ever" but for me its ICO. I've never felt moved by a game emotionally like ICO.
It really captures a part of you and if you play it straight through 10 hours of sitting, no interuptions... it will have its grip on you and the ending is so incredibly rewarding emotionally.
So many games are filled with a thing you repeat constantly until the end, and then a story is afterthought. But with ICO.. the story is told with few words, and subtle story telling that isnt literal, its more emotionally gripping in that it connects with you. The adventure you go through, is your own and the ending is sad and you feel it. It's a very very very incredible game considering that its story telling says just enough to get you somewhere emotionally and then allows you to live it...
It's a brilliant work of art and there just arent enough games you can say that about. ICO really is one of a kind... that is until Team ICO releases Shadow Versus the Collosus this year (LOOKS UNREAL!!!!! you HAVE TO look at the new trailers for the game.. you have not seen a game like this... and just like ICO... It looks original and artistically thought out if not moer than ICO. So i look forward to it so much.
Sony has a kick ass team there at Team ICO. They're not game developers, they're more like filmmakers.... where story comes before the gameplay gimmick... and camera angles and visuals are thought out. The environments are characters, and the relationships are personal.
Just Play ICO. Allow yourself to get into the story. It's worth it.
Check out Wanda versus the Collosus (AKA Shadow Versus the Collosus) Its made by the team that made ICO.
These guys make games like fine art. Do yourself a favor and check out these games. Good luck finding a copy of ICO for PS2... Its worth looking for it though. Amazing sense of story and adventure through subtle and "of the moment" like atmosphere. Great ending... beautiful music. Its like a Miyazaki film.
Very interesting answers, many things i agree with. As a filmmaker i completely agree with a lot of what he said on the current climate. And certainly the runaway bride split screen micheal jackson comment is dead on.
The our corperate world is certainly fucked in many ways... Wesley Crusher even knows it!:)
You deserve a +50 insightful. People do not care, nor are they smart enough to understand corperate crime and how/what is taking place in the buisness world and how it effects our government and economy.
I have an aunt thats is a professor of criminology and she can tell you how simple minded the students are in her class. She says its so hard for them to grasp the idea that white collar crime is far worse than petty theft. I'm serious! She has a hell of a time, trying to open their minds to how the system of buisness works and exploits criminally. Its very frustrating to her.
Apathy is the correct word... but it also is a bit of blind ignorance and stubburness. The political wars in this countyr have everyone so "righteous" about their point of view.
I should clarify the dos box comment. I know the run command on the start menu remembers commmands. What i meant was that the dos box would remember the inputs as well as have a scroll back buffer that shows the output result from the dos window.
In a sense it would be a dos box that never closes. Of course you could unload it behind the scenes when the user closes it, but when he/she opens it again, have it reload the dosbox and display the scrollback buffer.
yeah details needs to be the default view in explorer.
The windows explorer needs an overall too. I would like to see more functionality to it. It should be faster to do some things. I find myself constantly switching folders to detail view. Slideview is terrible. I know you can default all folders to open up in a specific listing format but it then makes it hard to have those few that you want in thumbnail view.
As a 3d artist, i use alias maya, softimage xsi, and 3dsmax on a daily basis. I've even worked on the developement of them. There are workflow things that could be borrowed from them. I would love a nice marking menu ui system in windows. Mouse gesturing etc.
I cant tell you how many times i try to mouse guesture a "back" command in the file explorer now that i'm so used to using mouse guestures in firefox.
I Would like the "run" command to be more upfront on the task bar. I'd like not only a run dialogue input box on the start bar, but also a small icon that opens up a dos box, that remembers input commands etc from last time opening. 3d programs make great use of this in their scripting interface.
I'd like the file explorer easily accessable from anywhere in windows by a simple mouse guesture.
I'd like to map mouse gestures that will launch apps. Lets say i commonly use firefox or thunderbird.. How about a middle mouse click drag diagonal and boom up pops firefox.
How about mouse gesture window tabbing?
multiple virtuald esktops and a GOOD desktop manager should be in XP already. The powertoys thing stinks.
There are some things that could be done to improve the ui of course. Frankly Windows is of course very easy to use generally, but the flow of it at times is very frustrating. It seems to get in the way of truly flowing. Perhaps mouse gestures, marking menus etc would help some.
things i generally do not use is ALL of window's XP's silly web intergrated ui components. I couldnt even tell you what they are, since i turn them all off.
And of course you can hide parts of IE etc... thats not quite my point. The general screen space taken up by XP's default theme is ridiculous. How big must a title bar be?! How big must a "X" icon be for closing a window?
MS just seems to have this big bold UI mentality. In your face, big, lots of silly integrated web link like "tools" which are useless. Its just not thought out well at all. Hell, opening the file explorer is basically a hidden feature! One of the most important things is burried deep in the start menu/all programs/accessories/windows explorer. (Or right click explore all users on start menu)
MS considers the windows file explorer to be an "Accessory" And yet it is one of the MOST important aspects to an os.
Its just like MS's media player. Its so poorly thought out, its as if no one uses it at Microsoft. Media Player Classic is far better.
:) It just seems that it is always him, and his people taking a stand and going after things with a clear sense of right and wrong, concerning matters of corperate abuse.
Or atleast he's the only one who gets press when doing so. Either way.. Go get em Spitzer.
Sony should just work with the MAME team and work on a nice free MAME version for PSP right from sony (or any other coder working on it publically) that is open source of course.
MAME on PSP is such a desirable item.
I really want MAME on my PSP. I dont care too much about copying games. You can only fit maybe 2 PSP UMD games on a 1gig stick anyways.
I really just want an opened up PSP without a region code for videos, and teh ability to run homebrewed software/os.
MAME is great... but also there is the possibility of new applications that hackers could make. We could beam back and forth music on psps... or how about GAIM on PSP?
There is so much that could be done, and SONY may or may not be planning on it, and that is why i want the PSP open. I want the scene to have the ability to improve on the PSP where Sony wont.
Piracy may be an issue, but the real benefit is not running copied UMD's of expensive 1 gig memsticks.... but instead, the possibilities of the hardware in combination with software from inventive coders.
Unless you're so blinded by partisan politics that you consider O'Connor, Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas to be liberals (well, at least for today), this isn't one of those threads.
Labels mean nothing. Most people are blinded by partisan politics that they think George Bush is a conservative. He's certainly not liberal, but he definatly is not conservative.
If anything, he's a liar, power hungry oppurtunist that exploits our laws, and our military for personal wealth.
A typical rich man, not a typical conservative.
One of these days the rich real realize that it's the poor that go to war.... and the poor may just point the guns back at the rich.
It is VERY unfair to judge people by a label. There are PLENTY of conservatives who do not understand what being a conservative means.
There are plenty of Liberals who do not understand what being a liberal means.
Unfortunately we judge each other by these lame ass labels. Its a trick created by those in power who wish to keep us dumb and simple.
The realness of each persons political views is evident in their actions... not their words.
Conservative/Liberal are just labels... dumb fucking labels that do not mean a thing.
Does Bad mean good? or bad mean bad today? What do words really mean? The truth is in their actions... VOTE based on their ACTIONS... NOT THEIR WORDS. NOT THE FUCKING MIND GAMES they have created to keep us dumb and simple.
Check out a 3rd party today! Start a revolution. THIS IS AMERICA!
That is exactly what has happened. In so many areas of our country.
We're up to our necks in doo'doo. So much we can taste it.
You cant afford to live in the US because the rich moved Jobs overseas and dont feel like employing you (that is unless they need someone to wipe their ass).
It is a cycle, and if nothing is done to break it, it will continue. I'm just trying to figure out a way to reach those who would not pay, and turn them into paying customers while profiting.
You're Ipod analogy is ineffective. Hardware will never relate to software in this manner. The cost to physically produce an Ipod, the limited amount of availability etc... those things will never apply to software. Software can be copied infinately and being such, everyone can possibly aquire a copy. It would be best to try to get them to pay for it.
Hardware is a bit different. There are only so many ferrari's made a year, there's only so many Ipods made a year. People cant replicate ferrari's and Ipods infinately on their own.
They must obtain the real article. Software isnt limited to that.
Well thats the exact point. The BSA is nothing more than a lobbying organization formed to help push forward an agenda that benefits software developement, both politically and financially. And of course like all Lobbiests, they're figures are slanted heavily by design to get their agenda made into law.
Really it has little to do with software piracy. It has more to do with getting the power of LAW to help raise the cost of software, or atleast maintain it.
I'm still a firm beleiver that if Microsoft sold Office (the full version, bells whistles and all) for $50. Office would HARDLY ever be pirated. It would only perhaps be pirated by younger people such as teens.
Same thing with Photoshop. There are so many pirated copies of Photoshop installed accross the country. If Adobe wants to truly bring in money they would sell it for a fair price such as $50 and they would get so much money in return. They would profit more than they are now. They would not be losing sales to Piracy etc.
Look at videogames. Yes Kids tend to pirate games because they run through them like cheap cookies... But the game industry is very successful with their $50 price for software.
They make a lot of money.
Really the trick is getting people to pony up $50 each year or 2 for a new version of the software. Frankly i dont see that as a problem because people do it now for $300, to $8000 software.
Give people a fair price, and Piracy will deminish. The software companies will sell more units, at a fair price, and benefit from greater profit.
The BSA has so little to do with piracy, other than busting and auditing people. And I see nothing wrong with that, as long as they're fair and honest with their numbers, their penalties and so forth. But clearly they're not because they have an agenda like all lobbiests.
Oh definatly... the easiest way to swing things is too work for less in America. And that might actually be possible if the entire economy allowed workers to work for less. But our cost of living will never compete with China's (Well i shouldnt say never)
Its not as if i dont get the idea that we're balancing out... and we will balance out. I'm more concerned with losing the standard of living. I dont think we're entitled to it, but i do beleive as a country we should try to maintain it or improve it. If a corperation does not feel like it should support our country, then we should make laws.... STRICT laws to make sure we protect ourselves from being drained of our wealth.
The whole issue of fair trade comes to mind, which many beleive is anything but fair.
As for the issue of entitlement. I dont beleive we're entitled ot a way of life. However I feel as am American we're a team. My neighbor and I may disagree on many things but we're Americans. We're on the same team and i'll fight for him/her and i'm sure they would fight for me as an American.
The people within our country are my teammates. And from my point of view my team is being stabbed in the back by wealthy living within our own country. That worries me. Its a seperation. Apart of our team is doing something that on the surface looks very bad for the team. Now i'm open minded enough to listen to all views on the matter, and try to learn as i go, but on the surface it looks very bad for our team. And all i want is the best for our team.
There is no reason Apple could not take on Microsoft in the Office department either.
I think OSX should be opened up to all intel/amd platforms.
Now is a great time. I think the general public is getting a sense that microsoft means "lack of security" I think the public is tired of spyware etc. I think Apple could pull a great marketing campaign and say that switching to APPLE OSX for your PC would solve many of the issues you have with windows.
I'm not pro apple, i dont own an apple... I've been a PC guy forever but i'm seriously looking for a change. Microsoft keeps getting slower, bloated, and full of things i dont need (active X etc)
I would love to have final cut pro running on OSX on my amd 64.
I would LOVE to see someoen give microsoft some real competition. It will improve both products through competition.
Apple does think differently. And i like that because microsoft never appears to be thinking period.
So many things in XP are half assed. Thumbnail intergration in xp only views bmp, jpg, and gif... Why not TGA? PIC? TIF? PCX, PNG, Alias image formats etc etc (I do 3d animation for a living) I have to go to some page on the web where a very generous asian programmer wrote the dll's to view TGA thumbnails in the explorer.
How about the media player? It sucks. Every professional 3d animator/graphics artist i know uses the open sourced, freeware Media Player Classic.
How about picture viewing in xp? Its limited to formats again, AND its a terrible interface.... So EVERYONE uses Irfanview.
XP's sound recorder... useless...
Windows Paint... USELESS
There's plenty of things in XP that seem so half assed that are new... and there are legacy things that simply dont need to be there.
Everyone is tired of the XP/windows2000 ui. Its boring, dull etc. So many people are running styleXP, windowblindz, etc to theme/skin their windows ui.
If windows didnt run the programs i needed... I would dump windows.
I have no love for windows itself. It's boring, plain, half assed, uninspiring.
The programs i use are the only thing that makes the windows platform appealing.
If Apple would bring OSX to all of us amd/intel users... I think they would have a fairly easy time winning users over to their OS. The trick again is applications. But Apple has always had that struggle, and Apple has been doing fairly well image wise as of late thanks to the Ipod, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Motion, Shake, etc.
It would be interesting to see OSX and Windows battle for the same hardware.
It's all relative though. The poor living in America is in a sense similar to the poor living in China and Africa if you consider each as relative to its own economy. In other words, being poor in America may not mean living in a mud hut, but it means you're still relatively under classed compared to standard of living.
The standard of living in Africa is far lower than that of America... So the poor of Africa certainly look worse off than the poor in America... but in a sense its all relative.
If the idea is that no one in a wealthy country should be poor, then why is there poor in America?
And further more... How will bringing wealth to poor countries improve the poor? Wealth does tend to find its way to the wealthy rather than the poor.
The corperations employing "slave labor" in poorer nations is proof of this. The corperations are not doing it to improve a standard of life. It just so happens that we can pay them so little in money that it does happen to improve their life a little.
In the big picture, its still wealth, holding on to wealth. The poor are only benefiting because they are poorer than us who demand a standard of living that is greater than the extremely poor of other nations.
I guess the good side of me wants to just say "none of this is for the good of man" The side effects may help china become more of a working/educated nation but I'm not quite sure any of this has anythign to do with improving people's lives.
The second China's middle class becomes the American middle class... the second they allow their currency to rise in value.... thats when the corperations find another poor nation to exploit.
None of it seems right to me, or good for people. Sure there are some side effects that are beneficial but it appears that its all about the wealthy controling wealth and concentrating it even more, squeezing the working class into a lower standard of living.
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I know exactly what you mean. Here in NY. You can walk into any of the major shopping malls and find a pirated dvd booth setup. I know of 2 on Long Island.
:) So why bust them?
:) There was defintaly some funny and interesting footage on the local news about it showing this guys house inside and out. The feds were pulling out tons of dvds. even Playstation and Xbox pirated games.
:) I bet you they go up.
The problem is... they only sell pirated asian films... and Hollywood doesnt care about that...
No MONEY in it for them
These guys have been working in 2 malls with a booth for atleast 10+ years. Pirated VHS tapes, to now very convincing looking pirated DVDs
Hollywood doesnt give a shit because its Asian cinema and they have no stake in it...
They did bust some guy not to long ago here in NY. He had a whole setup in his house... ROOMS filled with multiple DVD/CD burning towers. He would burn and package thousands of DVDs. his house looked like a Disc duplication company
So they do bust those guys but... certainly they should be going after those guys more than the small guys on the net who do it for non-profit reasons.
These CD/DVD pirate rings on the net are more or less enthusiasts doing it for a non-profit reason. Perhaps even as protest to high prices, or corperate abuse and to give the people a stake in the buisness world, a way to protest...
However the CD/DVD pirates on the streets selling copies, are part of mafia crime syndicates. They are the real deal bad guys. They're not some teenager trying to be elite in his dormroom.
They're mixed up in serious organized crime for profit.
They're out to profit, not protest, not share freely. they're the ones REALLY taking money away from the movie/recording industry... because people are paying them for pirated copies. Which is a clear example of actual money lost and not the false claims numbers that the RIAA and MPAA make up.
In China they'll buy XP pro on CD for $5 pirated in the same shops where XP pro authentic versions are sold for $300
The point worth noting is... people are PAYING for pirated software/movies/music
The would-be customers of authentic items are PAYING for a pirated item because its cheaper.
I really thing its time companies rethink their prices.
Lets be honest. With the current state of our US economy... Lets all make a bet... Who is going to bet that Movie ticket sales will go up, or down?
They never seem to go down do they? Not even when our economy is in decline...
Greed is a bitch, legit or criminal.
yeah you can find it on ebay. Its much harder to find a version in a local store though. Almost impossible.
and of course i'm not an absolutist but it ICO really is a game that moved me and captured my soul for the 10 hours of gameplay i experienced. ICO is the best game I have ever played. Of course for others, they have their own "bests ever" but for me its ICO. I've never felt moved by a game emotionally like ICO.
It really captures a part of you and if you play it straight through 10 hours of sitting, no interuptions... it will have its grip on you and the ending is so incredibly rewarding emotionally.
So many games are filled with a thing you repeat constantly until the end, and then a story is afterthought. But with ICO.. the story is told with few words, and subtle story telling that isnt literal, its more emotionally gripping in that it connects with you. The adventure you go through, is your own and the ending is sad and you feel it. It's a very very very incredible game considering that its story telling says just enough to get you somewhere emotionally and then allows you to live it...
It's a brilliant work of art and there just arent enough games you can say that about. ICO really is one of a kind... that is until Team ICO releases Shadow Versus the Collosus this year (LOOKS UNREAL!!!!! you HAVE TO look at the new trailers for the game.. you have not seen a game like this... and just like ICO... It looks original and artistically thought out if not moer than ICO. So i look forward to it so much.
Sony has a kick ass team there at Team ICO. They're not game developers, they're more like filmmakers.... where story comes before the gameplay gimmick... and camera angles and visuals are thought out. The environments are characters, and the relationships are personal.
Just Play ICO. Allow yourself to get into the story. It's worth it.
Play ICO on the PS2 (best game ever made)
Check out Wanda versus the Collosus (AKA Shadow Versus the Collosus) Its made by the team that made ICO.
These guys make games like fine art. Do yourself a favor and check out these games. Good luck finding a copy of ICO for PS2... Its worth looking for it though. Amazing sense of story and adventure through subtle and "of the moment" like atmosphere. Great ending... beautiful music. Its like a Miyazaki film.
Sony's ICO team is incredible!!!
Very interesting answers, many things i agree with. As a filmmaker i completely agree with a lot of what he said on the current climate. And certainly the runaway bride split screen micheal jackson comment is dead on.
:)
The our corperate world is certainly fucked in many ways... Wesley Crusher even knows it!
Thanks Will for taking the time.
Excactly.
You deserve a +50 insightful. People do not care, nor are they smart enough to understand corperate crime and how/what is taking place in the buisness world and how it effects our government and economy.
I have an aunt thats is a professor of criminology and she can tell you how simple minded the students are in her class. She says its so hard for them to grasp the idea that white collar crime is far worse than petty theft. I'm serious! She has a hell of a time, trying to open their minds to how the system of buisness works and exploits criminally. Its very frustrating to her.
Apathy is the correct word... but it also is a bit of blind ignorance and stubburness. The political wars in this countyr have everyone so "righteous" about their point of view.
I should clarify the dos box comment. I know the run command on the start menu remembers commmands. What i meant was that the dos box would remember the inputs as well as have a scroll back buffer that shows the output result from the dos window.
In a sense it would be a dos box that never closes. Of course you could unload it behind the scenes when the user closes it, but when he/she opens it again, have it reload the dosbox and display the scrollback buffer.
yeah details needs to be the default view in explorer.
The windows explorer needs an overall too. I would like to see more functionality to it. It should be faster to do some things. I find myself constantly switching folders to detail view. Slideview is terrible. I know you can default all folders to open up in a specific listing format but it then makes it hard to have those few that you want in thumbnail view.
As a 3d artist, i use alias maya, softimage xsi, and 3dsmax on a daily basis. I've even worked on the developement of them. There are workflow things that could be borrowed from them. I would love a nice marking menu ui system in windows. Mouse gesturing etc.
I cant tell you how many times i try to mouse guesture a "back" command in the file explorer now that i'm so used to using mouse guestures in firefox.
I Would like the "run" command to be more upfront on the task bar. I'd like not only a run dialogue input box on the start bar, but also a small icon that opens up a dos box, that remembers input commands etc from last time opening. 3d programs make great use of this in their scripting interface.
I'd like the file explorer easily accessable from anywhere in windows by a simple mouse guesture.
I'd like to map mouse gestures that will launch apps. Lets say i commonly use firefox or thunderbird.. How about a middle mouse click drag diagonal and boom up pops firefox.
How about mouse gesture window tabbing?
multiple virtuald esktops and a GOOD desktop manager should be in XP already. The powertoys thing stinks.
There are some things that could be done to improve the ui of course. Frankly Windows is of course very easy to use generally, but the flow of it at times is very frustrating. It seems to get in the way of truly flowing. Perhaps mouse gestures, marking menus etc would help some.
things i generally do not use is ALL of window's XP's silly web intergrated ui components. I couldnt even tell you what they are, since i turn them all off.
And of course you can hide parts of IE etc... thats not quite my point. The general screen space taken up by XP's default theme is ridiculous. How big must a title bar be?! How big must a "X" icon be for closing a window?
MS just seems to have this big bold UI mentality. In your face, big, lots of silly integrated web link like "tools" which are useless. Its just not thought out well at all. Hell, opening the file explorer is basically a hidden feature! One of the most important things is burried deep in the start menu/all programs/accessories/windows explorer. (Or right click explore all users on start menu)
MS considers the windows file explorer to be an "Accessory" And yet it is one of the MOST important aspects to an os.
Its just like MS's media player. Its so poorly thought out, its as if no one uses it at Microsoft. Media Player Classic is far better.
IE? Wont even touch it.
Microsoft really needs to hire some real UI artists one of these days.
Personally, i dont need the windows title bar, address bar, etc taking of a chunk of the screen like that. It must be a low res shot but still...
MS likes to make these big screen eating UI's with things that most people never use.
:) It just seems that it is always him, and his people taking a stand and going after things with a clear sense of right and wrong, concerning matters of corperate abuse.
Or atleast he's the only one who gets press when doing so. Either way.. Go get em Spitzer.
USB keyboard (there is one for sale)
Also analogue nub could be used as mouse.
yes, they would be able to compete for jobs at rates lower than $5 an hour.
The problem is they still couldnt afford to live in this country. (ex buy a house, eat, clothing)
People on the current min wage cant really liven decently so why would we be better off fighting over pennies?
sure is! :) Shall I bring around the bently sire? :)
NICE TRY! ;)
Sony should just work with the MAME team and work on a nice free MAME version for PSP right from sony (or any other coder working on it publically) that is open source of course.
MAME on PSP is such a desirable item.
I really want MAME on my PSP. I dont care too much about copying games. You can only fit maybe 2 PSP UMD games on a 1gig stick anyways.
I really just want an opened up PSP without a region code for videos, and teh ability to run homebrewed software/os.
MAME is great... but also there is the possibility of new applications that hackers could make. We could beam back and forth music on psps... or how about GAIM on PSP?
There is so much that could be done, and SONY may or may not be planning on it, and that is why i want the PSP open. I want the scene to have the ability to improve on the PSP where Sony wont.
Piracy may be an issue, but the real benefit is not running copied UMD's of expensive 1 gig memsticks.... but instead, the possibilities of the hardware in combination with software from inventive coders.
Unless you're so blinded by partisan politics that you consider O'Connor, Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas to be liberals (well, at least for today), this isn't one of those threads.
Labels mean nothing. Most people are blinded by partisan politics that they think George Bush is a conservative. He's certainly not liberal, but he definatly is not conservative.
If anything, he's a liar, power hungry oppurtunist that exploits our laws, and our military for personal wealth.
A typical rich man, not a typical conservative.
One of these days the rich real realize that it's the poor that go to war.... and the poor may just point the guns back at the rich.
this is true.
It is VERY unfair to judge people by a label. There are PLENTY of conservatives who do not understand what being a conservative means.
There are plenty of Liberals who do not understand what being a liberal means.
Unfortunately we judge each other by these lame ass labels. Its a trick created by those in power who wish to keep us dumb and simple.
The realness of each persons political views is evident in their actions... not their words.
Conservative/Liberal are just labels... dumb fucking labels that do not mean a thing.
Does Bad mean good? or bad mean bad today? What do words really mean? The truth is in their actions... VOTE based on their ACTIONS... NOT THEIR WORDS. NOT THE FUCKING MIND GAMES they have created to keep us dumb and simple.
Check out a 3rd party today! Start a revolution. THIS IS AMERICA!
That is exactly what has happened. In so many areas of our country. We're up to our necks in doo'doo. So much we can taste it. You cant afford to live in the US because the rich moved Jobs overseas and dont feel like employing you (that is unless they need someone to wipe their ass).
Dont want the public to fight back? Offer your product at a fair price.
Well, thats a fair enough point actually.
It is a cycle, and if nothing is done to break it, it will continue. I'm just trying to figure out a way to reach those who would not pay, and turn them into paying customers while profiting.
You're Ipod analogy is ineffective. Hardware will never relate to software in this manner. The cost to physically produce an Ipod, the limited amount of availability etc... those things will never apply to software. Software can be copied infinately and being such, everyone can possibly aquire a copy. It would be best to try to get them to pay for it.
Hardware is a bit different. There are only so many ferrari's made a year, there's only so many Ipods made a year. People cant replicate ferrari's and Ipods infinately on their own.
They must obtain the real article. Software isnt limited to that.
Well thats the exact point. The BSA is nothing more than a lobbying organization formed to help push forward an agenda that benefits software developement, both politically and financially. And of course like all Lobbiests, they're figures are slanted heavily by design to get their agenda made into law.
Really it has little to do with software piracy. It has more to do with getting the power of LAW to help raise the cost of software, or atleast maintain it.
I'm still a firm beleiver that if Microsoft sold Office (the full version, bells whistles and all) for $50. Office would HARDLY ever be pirated. It would only perhaps be pirated by younger people such as teens.
Same thing with Photoshop. There are so many pirated copies of Photoshop installed accross the country. If Adobe wants to truly bring in money they would sell it for a fair price such as $50 and they would get so much money in return. They would profit more than they are now. They would not be losing sales to Piracy etc.
Look at videogames. Yes Kids tend to pirate games because they run through them like cheap cookies... But the game industry is very successful with their $50 price for software.
They make a lot of money.
Really the trick is getting people to pony up $50 each year or 2 for a new version of the software. Frankly i dont see that as a problem because people do it now for $300, to $8000 software.
Give people a fair price, and Piracy will deminish. The software companies will sell more units, at a fair price, and benefit from greater profit.
The BSA has so little to do with piracy, other than busting and auditing people. And I see nothing wrong with that, as long as they're fair and honest with their numbers, their penalties and so forth. But clearly they're not because they have an agenda like all lobbiests.
Oh definatly... the easiest way to swing things is too work for less in America. And that might actually be possible if the entire economy allowed workers to work for less. But our cost of living will never compete with China's (Well i shouldnt say never)
;)
Its not as if i dont get the idea that we're balancing out... and we will balance out. I'm more concerned with losing the standard of living. I dont think we're entitled to it, but i do beleive as a country we should try to maintain it or improve it. If a corperation does not feel like it should support our country, then we should make laws.... STRICT laws to make sure we protect ourselves from being drained of our wealth.
The whole issue of fair trade comes to mind, which many beleive is anything but fair.
As for the issue of entitlement. I dont beleive we're entitled ot a way of life. However I feel as am American we're a team. My neighbor and I may disagree on many things but we're Americans. We're on the same team and i'll fight for him/her and i'm sure they would fight for me as an American.
The people within our country are my teammates. And from my point of view my team is being stabbed in the back by wealthy living within our own country. That worries me. Its a seperation. Apart of our team is doing something that on the surface looks very bad for the team. Now i'm open minded enough to listen to all views on the matter, and try to learn as i go, but on the surface it looks very bad for our team. And all i want is the best for our team.
Maybe we'll become a nation of stock brokers
There is no reason Apple could not take on Microsoft in the Office department either.
I think OSX should be opened up to all intel/amd platforms.
Now is a great time. I think the general public is getting a sense that microsoft means "lack of security" I think the public is tired of spyware etc. I think Apple could pull a great marketing campaign and say that switching to APPLE OSX for your PC would solve many of the issues you have with windows.
I'm not pro apple, i dont own an apple... I've been a PC guy forever but i'm seriously looking for a change. Microsoft keeps getting slower, bloated, and full of things i dont need (active X etc)
I would love to have final cut pro running on OSX on my amd 64.
I would LOVE to see someoen give microsoft some real competition. It will improve both products through competition.
Apple does think differently. And i like that because microsoft never appears to be thinking period.
So many things in XP are half assed. Thumbnail intergration in xp only views bmp, jpg, and gif... Why not TGA? PIC? TIF? PCX, PNG, Alias image formats etc etc (I do 3d animation for a living) I have to go to some page on the web where a very generous asian programmer wrote the dll's to view TGA thumbnails in the explorer.
How about the media player? It sucks. Every professional 3d animator/graphics artist i know uses the open sourced, freeware Media Player Classic.
How about picture viewing in xp? Its limited to formats again, AND its a terrible interface.... So EVERYONE uses Irfanview.
XP's sound recorder... useless...
Windows Paint... USELESS
There's plenty of things in XP that seem so half assed that are new... and there are legacy things that simply dont need to be there.
Everyone is tired of the XP/windows2000 ui. Its boring, dull etc. So many people are running styleXP, windowblindz, etc to theme/skin their windows ui.
If windows didnt run the programs i needed... I would dump windows.
I have no love for windows itself. It's boring, plain, half assed, uninspiring.
The programs i use are the only thing that makes the windows platform appealing.
If Apple would bring OSX to all of us amd/intel users... I think they would have a fairly easy time winning users over to their OS. The trick again is applications. But Apple has always had that struggle, and Apple has been doing fairly well image wise as of late thanks to the Ipod, Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Motion, Shake, etc.
It would be interesting to see OSX and Windows battle for the same hardware.
It's all relative though. The poor living in America is in a sense similar to the poor living in China and Africa if you consider each as relative to its own economy. In other words, being poor in America may not mean living in a mud hut, but it means you're still relatively under classed compared to standard of living.
The standard of living in Africa is far lower than that of America... So the poor of Africa certainly look worse off than the poor in America... but in a sense its all relative.
If the idea is that no one in a wealthy country should be poor, then why is there poor in America?
And further more... How will bringing wealth to poor countries improve the poor? Wealth does tend to find its way to the wealthy rather than the poor.
The corperations employing "slave labor" in poorer nations is proof of this. The corperations are not doing it to improve a standard of life. It just so happens that we can pay them so little in money that it does happen to improve their life a little.
In the big picture, its still wealth, holding on to wealth. The poor are only benefiting because they are poorer than us who demand a standard of living that is greater than the extremely poor of other nations.
I guess the good side of me wants to just say "none of this is for the good of man" The side effects may help china become more of a working/educated nation but I'm not quite sure any of this has anythign to do with improving people's lives.
The second China's middle class becomes the American middle class... the second they allow their currency to rise in value.... thats when the corperations find another poor nation to exploit.
None of it seems right to me, or good for people. Sure there are some side effects that are beneficial but it appears that its all about the wealthy controling wealth and concentrating it even more, squeezing the working class into a lower standard of living.