Baen found a way around that, give stuff away that isn't in print Not really. The David Weber books, including At Basilisk Station, are on the free library, and also in print. You can buy the paperback new from Amazon. I know, because I did.
Yea, I haven't really read anything from the Baen Library, but when I was recommended Honor Harrington, when I saw it was published by Baen, I bought the first book just to support the company as being one that isn't an adversarial company. Sort of to reward the company. Anyway, since then, I've bought all the Honor Harrington books so far and enjoyed them a great deal. I will admit I bought several used however.
I think it's also a perception problem. We've never had music rentals before, while everyone is ok with, and at a gut level, understands video/game rentals from Blockbuster, Netflix and back 20 + years of stuff. Music has always been a "buy" transaction, and people just think of it like that.
OTOH, the big deal here is that DRM gets in the way of freely competing rental companies, you can't buy a "music player de jure" like a Walkman or a CD player and get music from anywhere like you could with a VHS deck and blockbuster, Video King, Hollywood Video *or* the local shop.
I think for rental to take off, you'll need to be able to mix and match, and enable smaller locales to rent if they want to get into that. With the same sort of purchase mechanism as rental DVDs, not some really expensive up front costs.
I've always wondered, how do you know if someone needs antibiotics? Several times I've been really sick with something like a flu/cold, gone to see a doctor and been prescrived antibiotics. A week later and I'm cured - but would I just have gotten better anyway if I waited?
I'm one of those people who likes to avoid the doctor and medicines both because I want any bactiera to not be the resistant kind if I really need something, and because it's 50/50 whether the doctors advice is just rest + soup, but I get to pay several hundred dollars for that (and I like to keep my money for more fun stuff).
Generally, if you have XP, you can get the same functionality with Find and Run Robot and Locate32. Oh, and locate32 only indexes when you tell it to/schedule it to. Both are free.
The problem isn't so much Vista's features as it is a big meh vs what everyone who cared already has in XP with free or cheap 3rd party add ons.
For me, Vista's big problem isn't that it's slow. It's that it's slow for me to operate because MS, like every time before, decided to *MOVE EVERY DAMN* setting location so I can't find anything. Oh, and lots of hardware doesn't work because manufacturers suck with the drivers. Not MS fault, but there it is (same as it isn't Linux's fault, but doesn't matter, I can't use it without buying new crap).
So I'm still left with, what do I get? New Features? Not really, I can skin XP if I fell like I need eye candy. I've got indexed search that doesn't kill the PC. I've got keyboard find as you type access to the start menu. I've got breadcrumbs via Directory Opus, and way the hell more of a file manager in general. I've got CDBurnerXP for DVD and CD Burning. I've got Comodo Firewall for a actually USEFUL HIPS (and 2 way firewall) vs UAC which is just a PITA that has to be turned off (for me anyway).
Vista isn't more stable than XP. Vista isn't more secure than the above setup. Software still comes out for XP, and it doesn't look like it's stopping.
I build my own PCs, so I'd have to get the retail version of Vista if I want to be legal (if I do understand their licensing, which is kind of confusing). They aren't selling me on Vista like they did with XP over 98SE. Now with new PCs, bought in the store, it's half and half if people want Vista or XP. Lots want XP because of familiarity. I really think MS just want's to make it harder on itself... otherwise, why is the UI for Vista about as similar to XP as KDE is?
I actually have done something like this but fleshed it out a little more - and I think it makes things pretty fun. Not too imbalincing in 3e anyway.
1) Cantrips are non prepared, cast like a sorcerer.
2) You take your spells and figure out how many you have and divide it into the 1 hr the PHB says it takes to prepare spells in the morning. Specifically, add up all the spell levels of spells you get: 3 level wizard might get 3 1st and 1 2nd, so (3x1) + (1x2) = 5 spell levels. So 60/5 = 12 minutes per level. So 12 minutes for a first level spell, 24 for a second level. As you get higher level, easier spells get faster. Do this PITA once per level or new magic item that changes things and bam.
3) You can do this as much as you want, but you have to make an increasing DC to keep going. I forget the exact mechanics, but it's something like DC of 10 + cumulative spell level that you're trying to re-prepare. So in the above, the caster decided he's going to prepare the 2nd level first, then each 1st level: So, he needs 24 minutes, and needs to roll a 10 + 2 = 12DC to re-prepare the 2nd level spell. Then he needs an additional 12 minutes for the 1st level spell, so 12(old DC today) + 1 = 13DC. Go until fails a check. Can be separate rest stops. Reset when you rest for 8 hours. If you fail the check, cannot try again until you rest for 8 hours.
4) Somewhat related, metamagic feats can be applied on the fly to spells with a DC check. It was some wacky formula that I forget, but have written down in my house rules + a table I hand out to spell casters. Makes metamagic worthwhile IMO. Not easy to do and burns the spell if you fail, so not really overbalanced.
Clerics can also pray for spells as much as they want. This is primarily a roleplaying call - how good are they in with their god? One that is well though of or is doing something their god wants done might get several refreshes in a day if it's not constant. One on a critical mission for their God might get a divine stream of power... One that has strayed might never get a refill. I sort of use an old book from WoTC about divine beings and Primal Energy (name escapes me), just to get a feel for how much power a god might have to send out to the clerics, so if the god has more primal than stuff to do, he'll be free with the spells, if just to get more followers and hence more primal to use, one who's in hard times might be much more frugal with spells.
Well, the things I've done is something like the 4E rules, though I dislike the idea of there being defined roles for combat by class. That is, allow more spell memorizations without the 8 hour rest. But have an increasing DC to keep it from being to crazy.
One thing of course is whether you want some level of "fantasy realism" or just high fantasy. Don't you think fighters start to get a little tired after 2 hours straight of life and death combat swinging a sword around and being thumped? So I allow wizards to spend X amount of time (it's somewhat complicated as I *like* rules) to re-prepare spells. Only if they fail the DC do they then have to rest 8 hours.
Likewise, I think roleplaying wise, they might want to give the fighters 10 minutes to take a breather.
Finally, I've found that wizards work better if you spend some of your loot or time making scrolls/wands so for the fireball, MM, etc combat spells aren't coming off your prepared spell list.
Also, I tend to minimize Dungeons as they just don't lend themselves to roleplaying much - for me they are usually unbelievable. So if you're fighting overland, or in an urban area or just about anywhere but in a dungeon, you can find a place to rest. Finally there is the "panic room" senario where they just barricade themselves in one of those rooms, and get all ready to blast the hell out of anyone who decides to nicely line up outside the door.
Some of the roleplaying should have mechanics also if you want Charisma etc to mean anything.
Personally, the reason I like rule sets is so that the players can have a consistent expectation as to how likely they are going to be able to do something, that also "feels right" at a gut level for reality.
That is, am I strong enough to open that door? In a rules lite system, there's no way to reason it out like you might in real life. GM Fiat. And if the GM doesn't know, he's just got to flip a mental coin. This leads to a lack of fun IMO - you end up with all sorts of plot holes etc. Sort of the world revolves around the story. I would find it hard to have the same level of detachment, and never the situation where I set up an encounter and it starts to go badly for the players, even against my expectations. No tense moments that suprise everyone, even the GM. I'd feel much more like I ought to just write a book as I know even more what's going to happen.
That said, the rules have to *work* also. In d20 modern, the rules don't seem to work as well - maybe because we didn't want a "Matrix" style where you can run up behind someone, shoot them with a shotgun at 1 foot range, and have them just keep fighting like they weren't hurt. I don't know why high adventure works so well with swords and sorcery but not with modern day - probably because we wanted something closer to reality in a story that is like real life. We don't really relate to sword battles.
I've never liked the idea of defined roles however. I don't like much of what I've heard about the "striker" etc in 4E, does sound too WoWish. I much prefer the characters deciding what they want to be. Someone can train to do something they are really bad at. I had a lot of fun playing a rogue who wanted to be a ninja. Not a striker at all, much more a confused person. Plus, I think defined roles will lead more than before to every fighter being the tank, every rogue being some combat role? But rogues really aren't about combat so much - and it looks like 4E is figuring that the classes are only about combat. I mean, what's wrong with a wizard being about divination? Or is a rogue who is geared towards, IDK, cat burgurly not as valid as one who is a sneak attack machine?
Generally I find that Obama is closer to my principles of the major Democratic candidates.
Specifically, I find that he seems younger and more in touch with the tech issues. He also has less of a censor "bad" videogames stance. I also prefer his stronger "get out of Iraq" stance, though this might make it harder in the general election. Finally, his position on more involvement by interested individuals, and more info on the internet re government spending is exciting to me as well.
Indeed. While there is no way I'd ever pay to go see "Meet the Spartans" based on the reviews all over the net, nor would I likely pay to rent it from blockbuster, I might well queue it up on netflix if I can't find anything else more interesting to put there. I also might grab it from the local library or borrow it from a friend.
Specifically, "Meet the Spartans" is more entertaining that starting at my wall. If I have nothing else to do, I would enjoy it over contemplating my navel.
What I find really annoying however is that there is no rental for CDs/music. We finally got something like Netflix via Rhaposody and the new Napster, but you have the PITA that is DRM. I can't just drop the CD in my car to go to work for a week, then cycle it for something new. But I can download it and make a CD... Rhaposody style products CANNOT work for CDs, but mailing out a CD might - at least you have to take a positive step to copy the CD, vs a positive step to destroy your CD-R when you're cycling it out.
I think that's often true. As long as you're not trying to intrude on me in some way, I really don't care what you believe. Actually, it's not so much that I care that you believe you have to convert me or kill me, or supress evolution or base foreign policy on faith. It's you trying to convert me or trying to kill me etc.
Exactly! They believe (in the affirmative sense) that no gods exist without feeling the need for proof, i.e., they have faith in the non-existence of god(s) in exactly the same way that religious people have faith in the existence of them.
I am atheistic/agnostic, and I've wavered between the two. Mostly because of what level of rigiourous logic is being used.
I disbelieve in god in the way I disbelieve in alien abductions. There just isn't any (to me) credible evidence either is happening, and enough credibility issues for enough proponents that I remain skeptical.
I don't see any reason to think, as suggested, that either example is unknowable however. A D&D style avatar could appear one day, heal and damn people and otherwise give pretty good proof for the existance of *a* god, though maybe not the one anyone expected. Priests could obtain the ability to create food, convert water into wine, and lay on hands to heal sicknesses medicine cannot. If studied scientifically and shown to both not be "magic tricks" in the david copperfield sense, and widely reported in various non-affiliated news sources, then good evidence for the existance of god would appear.
I don't, in the way religious people often describe, hold any *faith* that god doesn't exist. My faith in the non-existance of god is the same as my faith that cold-fusion doesn't exist.
I don't think lack of belief is the same as belief, and this idea that both are equally based of faith would be a somewhat differnt definition of faith than normally used.
I'm sorry, we see this frequently, and it's just not true. I'll address each point: 1. Obtain information from your ISP giving more information on how your account was tied to the copyright violation. Maybe they made a mistake, or perhaps the telephone line (heh) used was not tied to you in any way.
Well, we've already had *several* highly publicized ISP errors in this process. ISPs have LOTS of old info, telephone companies often have worse info. At least several years ago when I worked for a contractor for one, often we'd have "open" accounts for people who migrated their number YEARS ago. I mean, something like one every other day. That's thousands and thousands open...
2. Perhaps you left your WAP open, in which case it should be possible to determine whether it's possible to actually use a guest computer to run a file distributor program. It probably isn't, but if it is, you at least have something to go on.
Why wouldn't it be possible? Hell, did you not read the several recent reports of websites using flash to open ports in routers via UPnP, and several Linksys and other popular brands in certain models you *can't even turn it off*! I don't know specifically about bittorrent, but it's certainly possible to distribute files if you can connect to "supernodes" so you can "push" the files past your router. You might also configure various DMZs incorrectly.
3. See if your computer has been hacked. It probably hasn't been, as there's no earthly reason to plant file distributor clients on innocent people's computers.
I'm close to being rude. Of course there is a reason to do this. It depends on lots of factors, but if you were running an FTP dumpsite, why would't you put the files on somebody else's computer and network connections? Especially if they have FIOS or other highspeed? Spammers use botnets, might not scriptkiddies do the same for their warez?
Also, what about TOR?
4. Have an extremely frank chat with the other people who you know have used your account. Sure, this might help. This will depend on a lot of factors, but it's entirely possible it's a friend of your kid's laptop that got caught one day. I mean, is the RIAA actually looking for a pattern of sharing, or is it just, one time there were files on that IP? How many people are going to be doing some sort of policy based checks of every laptop that might walk through their house and so and so want's to check GMAIL?
The final issue with this whole thing is let's say it's #4. You still end up going to court, spending money trying to prove it's friend Pirate, and then the **AA tries to pin you with some liability anyway.
http://www.webdevout.net/browser-support Generally shows that Opera is much closer to firefox that IE7 in terms of standards support. They haven't tested webkit yet, so I can't comment there.
The biggest problem I have always had with copyright, especially as it is incredibly long now, is that it seems fundamentally unfair for content producers to somehow be due money ad infinitum for work they did once. I don't get paid every day for work I did in my last job... When I moved on, they stopped paying me.
But if I wrote a book with one publisher, and then later switched to another, the payments keep coming in.
I understand writing is hard. I understand it can take time to get published. Well, I don't find my job super easy - and it took me years to get it. I was rejected by lots of employers. Creating content is not special IMO - it's just another job, something that some people are good at and others suck at. Like most other jobs. But only content creators expect to get paid *over and over* for the same work as their due.
I don't know what the right answer is, but I do think this: You don't have a right to make money. You can try to make money at what you do - and if it fails, well, that happens to lots of people.
I still think that as we go more and more digital, we're looking at lots of people making money in different ways. Several online comics provide the whole comic online, but still can sell books - see megatokyo for instance. Several software projects have "bug bounties" where interested parties donate money to getting bugs fixed, or to get features coded. Look at the amount of money raised to try and continue Star Trek Enterprise - it was in the millions. Look at Baen Books subscriptions. Sure, it's trivial to copy the partial books, but you want to read the ending of the story... Or you want the hardcover, or you want the author to write a sequel. Radiohead is a good example of music working without enforced copyright.
I still like the idea of various organizations providing some services, but not like the publishers etc of today. First, there could well be reviewers like the Consumer Reports of free media (there's a lot, what's good?). You pay a fee for an easy feed, or Amazon provides it as part of Amazon Prime to entice you to purchase hardcopys from them or whatever. There are consumer escrow companies to safely take pre-payments to help produce various seasons etc. Advertisers work much like today. Agents get paid from bands etc to promote them, PR firms work for the big acts etc.
You might have to get big by playing local venues and asking people to mod you up on myspace or whatever - you might give away some tracks and run an easy paypal escrow that says when you get $100 you'll be able to record a second song to pass out, etc. You could still have loans etc.
I think it might be different - but rather than trying to force people to stop doing things, this is actually having people do things they want to do. Look at the guy who came up with the $1 million pixil page. You do something unique that people want to see more of, you will get money.
The worst part is, this isn't just DRM. The whole legal system of licensing, the crappy license management software, the node locking etc imposes *huge* costs on anyone trying to do "the right thing".
In software: First, you have to figure out which of several licenses is the right one for you. Then you have to fight with various vendors to get a quote - I've had to get quotes from companies like Acronis for $44 to continue maitenence on 2 license of TIW + UR. Why did they take that off their website? From Altiris I have to get a quote for 5 licenses of SVS ~$150. Why? Why isn't small numbers of licenses available for purchase on a website?
Then you've got crappy license management stuff like FlexLM for Matlab or ANSYS - which just serves to try and force you to do manual installs... Why can't I package for deployment? I have the licenses, why does it need to be node locked. Why do you care on the network licensed ones (that is, license is install anywhere on network, so many can be used at once)? If I want to update, they want me to go to each system manually and run the installer... How is this supposed to be done on 30 systems across several sites? Why do I have to waste time?
I could go on, but the point I'm making is if I just ignored the licensing or cracked it, I'd be able to do my job faster and spend more time on things that need more of an IT background than clicking next a lot, or waiting for PDFs so I can submit a payment!
On the media industries, we already see that CDs are a better deal for most users than digital music with DRM - better quality, less or no copy protection, will work or can be converted to any player.
Netflix is a great example - I can rent DVDs and pretty much watch them anywhere (though I might have to still break the license/law to watch on Linux), why would I want to use a streaming service that has crappy quality, requires Windows *and* IE?
eBooks pretty much continue to kill any possible market through stupid policies of locked formats, prices higher than paperbacks and the other issue of really expensive readers or lesser quality print.
Anyway,the above question is why do I have to pay all those costs? Why don't I get discounts on the media and devices if I have to spend so much time, effort, etc.
Digital watermarks fail as well. They do not address the concept of physical theft of a victim's PC, malware grabbing files, or other users of the PC sharing files. It's all the problems of filesharing but one more psudoproof the purchaser is the copyright infringer.
It seems to me this would just deter purchasing music as a download. This may, in fact, be their goal. However, it still takes one purchaser somewhere who buys a CD via cash, or a anonymous credit card shipped to a drop box from Amazon or whoever. They rip the CD as has been normal and bam.
Actually, I have to ask - are they doing this to CDs, or just to iTunes et al? I can't see how they could do what you suggest with CDs. Are they going to require you purchase CDs with a credit card? Or provide your drivers license number + address? What about used CD sales? Or someone could risk lots less jail time or fines, and just *steal* one and avoid giving any info to the store.
Every time I can come up with several ways to "beat" a "system", I figure we either 1) Have no idea what it's actually supposed to do, or 2) the developers are milking some large company for lots of money for a system that doesn't work.
I agree, but it's not even a lack of knowledge per se after college, it's a lack of specific knowledge. For instance (in an IT program with concentrations on System and Network administration), even at a pretty good regional tech school (RIT), we learned how to build a Linux DNS server and Mail server, how to install it, how to do imaging and basic programming etc. We knew how to install Windows 2k etc.
But we never really touched NT Domains or AD (this being in 2000), or NIS on the Linux side etc. Never talked about remote control solutions or service ticket management. Not a lot of time spent on priortization of projects. So you have these huge gaps in knowledge for network management or systems management in the real world. We learned lots about switching, routing, using packet sniffers and Cisco routers + basic IOS etc.
We didn't learn anything about SNMP...
I have to wonder, WTF?
Finally, though, even assuming you do get all that now, and more, you haven't learned Zenoss or HP Openview or Tivioli for your network generation, nor Novell ZenWorks or OCSNG for inventory and deployment. You haven't learned your package builder, or the server setup etc. When I went to work collections, we spent a week training on their customer info application. When I worked retail, we spent several days training on the registers and customer info application.
For some reason, when you start work in IT proper, they just assume you know all programs everywhere, ever in existance. Well, you don't. Oh, you know Word, Excel, Outlook etc. But when I started my current position, I thought Opera was a web browser (that I like and use), but they meant Opera 3D, a simulatior for physics problems.
Any new employee will need some on the job training. It just is a requirement. Heck, even the coffee intern needs to be shown where the coffee pot is in *this* office.
Yea, but you should see the hell Opera devs get for document.all etc from Asa etc. For reasons unknown to me, Mozilla seems to be fully against those sorts of things.
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Baen found a way around that, give stuff away that isn't in print
Not really. The David Weber books, including At Basilisk Station, are on the free library, and also in print. You can buy the paperback new from Amazon. I know, because I did.
Yea, I haven't really read anything from the Baen Library, but when I was recommended Honor Harrington, when I saw it was published by Baen, I bought the first book just to support the company as being one that isn't an adversarial company. Sort of to reward the company. Anyway, since then, I've bought all the Honor Harrington books so far and enjoyed them a great deal. I will admit I bought several used however.
I think it's also a perception problem. We've never had music rentals before, while everyone is ok with, and at a gut level, understands video/game rentals from Blockbuster, Netflix and back 20 + years of stuff. Music has always been a "buy" transaction, and people just think of it like that.
OTOH, the big deal here is that DRM gets in the way of freely competing rental companies, you can't buy a "music player de jure" like a Walkman or a CD player and get music from anywhere like you could with a VHS deck and blockbuster, Video King, Hollywood Video *or* the local shop.
I think for rental to take off, you'll need to be able to mix and match, and enable smaller locales to rent if they want to get into that. With the same sort of purchase mechanism as rental DVDs, not some really expensive up front costs.
I've always wondered, how do you know if someone needs antibiotics? Several times I've been really sick with something like a flu/cold, gone to see a doctor and been prescrived antibiotics. A week later and I'm cured - but would I just have gotten better anyway if I waited?
I'm one of those people who likes to avoid the doctor and medicines both because I want any bactiera to not be the resistant kind if I really need something, and because it's 50/50 whether the doctors advice is just rest + soup, but I get to pay several hundred dollars for that (and I like to keep my money for more fun stuff).
Why the hell would Adobe Reader require UAC to be on? One more reason never to use it again!
Well, the hardware and software works fine in XP and in Ubuntu. The problem seems to be in Vista.
Generally, if you have XP, you can get the same functionality with Find and Run Robot and Locate32. Oh, and locate32 only indexes when you tell it to/schedule it to. Both are free.
The problem isn't so much Vista's features as it is a big meh vs what everyone who cared already has in XP with free or cheap 3rd party add ons.
For me, Vista's big problem isn't that it's slow. It's that it's slow for me to operate because MS, like every time before, decided to *MOVE EVERY DAMN* setting location so I can't find anything. Oh, and lots of hardware doesn't work because manufacturers suck with the drivers. Not MS fault, but there it is (same as it isn't Linux's fault, but doesn't matter, I can't use it without buying new crap).
So I'm still left with, what do I get? New Features? Not really, I can skin XP if I fell like I need eye candy. I've got indexed search that doesn't kill the PC. I've got keyboard find as you type access to the start menu. I've got breadcrumbs via Directory Opus, and way the hell more of a file manager in general. I've got CDBurnerXP for DVD and CD Burning. I've got Comodo Firewall for a actually USEFUL HIPS (and 2 way firewall) vs UAC which is just a PITA that has to be turned off (for me anyway).
Vista isn't more stable than XP. Vista isn't more secure than the above setup. Software still comes out for XP, and it doesn't look like it's stopping.
I build my own PCs, so I'd have to get the retail version of Vista if I want to be legal (if I do understand their licensing, which is kind of confusing). They aren't selling me on Vista like they did with XP over 98SE. Now with new PCs, bought in the store, it's half and half if people want Vista or XP. Lots want XP because of familiarity. I really think MS just want's to make it harder on itself... otherwise, why is the UI for Vista about as similar to XP as KDE is?
I actually have done something like this but fleshed it out a little more - and I think it makes things pretty fun. Not too imbalincing in 3e anyway.
1) Cantrips are non prepared, cast like a sorcerer.
2) You take your spells and figure out how many you have and divide it into the 1 hr the PHB says it takes to prepare spells in the morning. Specifically, add up all the spell levels of spells you get: 3 level wizard might get 3 1st and 1 2nd, so (3x1) + (1x2) = 5 spell levels. So 60/5 = 12 minutes per level. So 12 minutes for a first level spell, 24 for a second level. As you get higher level, easier spells get faster. Do this PITA once per level or new magic item that changes things and bam.
3) You can do this as much as you want, but you have to make an increasing DC to keep going. I forget the exact mechanics, but it's something like DC of 10 + cumulative spell level that you're trying to re-prepare. So in the above, the caster decided he's going to prepare the 2nd level first, then each 1st level:
So, he needs 24 minutes, and needs to roll a 10 + 2 = 12DC to re-prepare the 2nd level spell.
Then he needs an additional 12 minutes for the 1st level spell, so 12(old DC today) + 1 = 13DC. Go until fails a check. Can be separate rest stops. Reset when you rest for 8 hours. If you fail the check, cannot try again until you rest for 8 hours.
4) Somewhat related, metamagic feats can be applied on the fly to spells with a DC check. It was some wacky formula that I forget, but have written down in my house rules + a table I hand out to spell casters. Makes metamagic worthwhile IMO. Not easy to do and burns the spell if you fail, so not really overbalanced.
Clerics can also pray for spells as much as they want. This is primarily a roleplaying call - how good are they in with their god? One that is well though of or is doing something their god wants done might get several refreshes in a day if it's not constant. One on a critical mission for their God might get a divine stream of power... One that has strayed might never get a refill. I sort of use an old book from WoTC about divine beings and Primal Energy (name escapes me), just to get a feel for how much power a god might have to send out to the clerics, so if the god has more primal than stuff to do, he'll be free with the spells, if just to get more followers and hence more primal to use, one who's in hard times might be much more frugal with spells.
Well, the things I've done is something like the 4E rules, though I dislike the idea of there being defined roles for combat by class. That is, allow more spell memorizations without the 8 hour rest. But have an increasing DC to keep it from being to crazy.
One thing of course is whether you want some level of "fantasy realism" or just high fantasy. Don't you think fighters start to get a little tired after 2 hours straight of life and death combat swinging a sword around and being thumped? So I allow wizards to spend X amount of time (it's somewhat complicated as I *like* rules) to re-prepare spells. Only if they fail the DC do they then have to rest 8 hours.
Likewise, I think roleplaying wise, they might want to give the fighters 10 minutes to take a breather.
Finally, I've found that wizards work better if you spend some of your loot or time making scrolls/wands so for the fireball, MM, etc combat spells aren't coming off your prepared spell list.
Also, I tend to minimize Dungeons as they just don't lend themselves to roleplaying much - for me they are usually unbelievable. So if you're fighting overland, or in an urban area or just about anywhere but in a dungeon, you can find a place to rest. Finally there is the "panic room" senario where they just barricade themselves in one of those rooms, and get all ready to blast the hell out of anyone who decides to nicely line up outside the door.
Some of the roleplaying should have mechanics also if you want Charisma etc to mean anything.
Personally, the reason I like rule sets is so that the players can have a consistent expectation as to how likely they are going to be able to do something, that also "feels right" at a gut level for reality.
That is, am I strong enough to open that door? In a rules lite system, there's no way to reason it out like you might in real life. GM Fiat. And if the GM doesn't know, he's just got to flip a mental coin. This leads to a lack of fun IMO - you end up with all sorts of plot holes etc. Sort of the world revolves around the story. I would find it hard to have the same level of detachment, and never the situation where I set up an encounter and it starts to go badly for the players, even against my expectations. No tense moments that suprise everyone, even the GM. I'd feel much more like I ought to just write a book as I know even more what's going to happen.
That said, the rules have to *work* also. In d20 modern, the rules don't seem to work as well - maybe because we didn't want a "Matrix" style where you can run up behind someone, shoot them with a shotgun at 1 foot range, and have them just keep fighting like they weren't hurt. I don't know why high adventure works so well with swords and sorcery but not with modern day - probably because we wanted something closer to reality in a story that is like real life. We don't really relate to sword battles.
I've never liked the idea of defined roles however. I don't like much of what I've heard about the "striker" etc in 4E, does sound too WoWish. I much prefer the characters deciding what they want to be. Someone can train to do something they are really bad at. I had a lot of fun playing a rogue who wanted to be a ninja. Not a striker at all, much more a confused person. Plus, I think defined roles will lead more than before to every fighter being the tank, every rogue being some combat role? But rogues really aren't about combat so much - and it looks like 4E is figuring that the classes are only about combat. I mean, what's wrong with a wizard being about divination? Or is a rogue who is geared towards, IDK, cat burgurly not as valid as one who is a sneak attack machine?
Generally I find that Obama is closer to my principles of the major Democratic candidates.
Specifically, I find that he seems younger and more in touch with the tech issues. He also has less of a censor "bad" videogames stance. I also prefer his stronger "get out of Iraq" stance, though this might make it harder in the general election. Finally, his position on more involvement by interested individuals, and more info on the internet re government spending is exciting to me as well.
Indeed. While there is no way I'd ever pay to go see "Meet the Spartans" based on the reviews all over the net, nor would I likely pay to rent it from blockbuster, I might well queue it up on netflix if I can't find anything else more interesting to put there. I also might grab it from the local library or borrow it from a friend.
Specifically, "Meet the Spartans" is more entertaining that starting at my wall. If I have nothing else to do, I would enjoy it over contemplating my navel.
What I find really annoying however is that there is no rental for CDs/music. We finally got something like Netflix via Rhaposody and the new Napster, but you have the PITA that is DRM. I can't just drop the CD in my car to go to work for a week, then cycle it for something new. But I can download it and make a CD... Rhaposody style products CANNOT work for CDs, but mailing out a CD might - at least you have to take a positive step to copy the CD, vs a positive step to destroy your CD-R when you're cycling it out.
I think that's often true. As long as you're not trying to intrude on me in some way, I really don't care what you believe. Actually, it's not so much that I care that you believe you have to convert me or kill me, or supress evolution or base foreign policy on faith. It's you trying to convert me or trying to kill me etc.
Exactly! They believe (in the affirmative sense) that no gods exist without feeling the need for proof, i.e., they have faith in the non-existence of god(s) in exactly the same way that religious people have faith in the existence of them.
I am atheistic/agnostic, and I've wavered between the two. Mostly because of what level of rigiourous logic is being used.
I disbelieve in god in the way I disbelieve in alien abductions. There just isn't any (to me) credible evidence either is happening, and enough credibility issues for enough proponents that I remain skeptical.
I don't see any reason to think, as suggested, that either example is unknowable however. A D&D style avatar could appear one day, heal and damn people and otherwise give pretty good proof for the existance of *a* god, though maybe not the one anyone expected. Priests could obtain the ability to create food, convert water into wine, and lay on hands to heal sicknesses medicine cannot. If studied scientifically and shown to both not be "magic tricks" in the david copperfield sense, and widely reported in various non-affiliated news sources, then good evidence for the existance of god would appear.
I don't, in the way religious people often describe, hold any *faith* that god doesn't exist. My faith in the non-existance of god is the same as my faith that cold-fusion doesn't exist.
I don't think lack of belief is the same as belief, and this idea that both are equally based of faith would be a somewhat differnt definition of faith than normally used.
I'm sorry, we see this frequently, and it's just not true. I'll address each point:
1. Obtain information from your ISP giving more information on how your account was tied to the copyright violation. Maybe they made a mistake, or perhaps the telephone line (heh) used was not tied to you in any way.
Well, we've already had *several* highly publicized ISP errors in this process. ISPs have LOTS of old info, telephone companies often have worse info. At least several years ago when I worked for a contractor for one, often we'd have "open" accounts for people who migrated their number YEARS ago. I mean, something like one every other day. That's thousands and thousands open...
2. Perhaps you left your WAP open, in which case it should be possible to determine whether it's possible to actually use a guest computer to run a file distributor program. It probably isn't, but if it is, you at least have something to go on.
Why wouldn't it be possible? Hell, did you not read the several recent reports of websites using flash to open ports in routers via UPnP, and several Linksys and other popular brands in certain models you *can't even turn it off*! I don't know specifically about bittorrent, but it's certainly possible to distribute files if you can connect to "supernodes" so you can "push" the files past your router. You might also configure various DMZs incorrectly.
3. See if your computer has been hacked. It probably hasn't been, as there's no earthly reason to plant file distributor clients on innocent people's computers.
I'm close to being rude. Of course there is a reason to do this. It depends on lots of factors, but if you were running an FTP dumpsite, why would't you put the files on somebody else's computer and network connections? Especially if they have FIOS or other highspeed? Spammers use botnets, might not scriptkiddies do the same for their warez?
Also, what about TOR?
4. Have an extremely frank chat with the other people who you know have used your account.
Sure, this might help. This will depend on a lot of factors, but it's entirely possible it's a friend of your kid's laptop that got caught one day. I mean, is the RIAA actually looking for a pattern of sharing, or is it just, one time there were files on that IP? How many people are going to be doing some sort of policy based checks of every laptop that might walk through their house and so and so want's to check GMAIL?
The final issue with this whole thing is let's say it's #4. You still end up going to court, spending money trying to prove it's friend Pirate, and then the **AA tries to pin you with some liability anyway.
I'm trying to read the http://www.zeldman.com/2008/01/22/in-defense-of-version-targeting/ page, but get error 400?
http://www.webdevout.net/browser-support
Generally shows that Opera is much closer to firefox that IE7 in terms of standards support. They haven't tested webkit yet, so I can't comment there.
Mac only. Is it similar to Copernic Agent?
The biggest problem I have always had with copyright, especially as it is incredibly long now, is that it seems fundamentally unfair for content producers to somehow be due money ad infinitum for work they did once. I don't get paid every day for work I did in my last job... When I moved on, they stopped paying me.
But if I wrote a book with one publisher, and then later switched to another, the payments keep coming in.
I understand writing is hard. I understand it can take time to get published. Well, I don't find my job super easy - and it took me years to get it. I was rejected by lots of employers. Creating content is not special IMO - it's just another job, something that some people are good at and others suck at. Like most other jobs. But only content creators expect to get paid *over and over* for the same work as their due.
I don't know what the right answer is, but I do think this:
You don't have a right to make money. You can try to make money at what you do - and if it fails, well, that happens to lots of people.
I still think that as we go more and more digital, we're looking at lots of people making money in different ways. Several online comics provide the whole comic online, but still can sell books - see megatokyo for instance. Several software projects have "bug bounties" where interested parties donate money to getting bugs fixed, or to get features coded. Look at the amount of money raised to try and continue Star Trek Enterprise - it was in the millions. Look at Baen Books subscriptions. Sure, it's trivial to copy the partial books, but you want to read the ending of the story... Or you want the hardcover, or you want the author to write a sequel. Radiohead is a good example of music working without enforced copyright.
I still like the idea of various organizations providing some services, but not like the publishers etc of today. First, there could well be reviewers like the Consumer Reports of free media (there's a lot, what's good?). You pay a fee for an easy feed, or Amazon provides it as part of Amazon Prime to entice you to purchase hardcopys from them or whatever. There are consumer escrow companies to safely take pre-payments to help produce various seasons etc. Advertisers work much like today. Agents get paid from bands etc to promote them, PR firms work for the big acts etc.
You might have to get big by playing local venues and asking people to mod you up on myspace or whatever - you might give away some tracks and run an easy paypal escrow that says when you get $100 you'll be able to record a second song to pass out, etc. You could still have loans etc.
I think it might be different - but rather than trying to force people to stop doing things, this is actually having people do things they want to do. Look at the guy who came up with the $1 million pixil page. You do something unique that people want to see more of, you will get money.
The worst part is, this isn't just DRM. The whole legal system of licensing, the crappy license management software, the node locking etc imposes *huge* costs on anyone trying to do "the right thing".
In software:
First, you have to figure out which of several licenses is the right one for you. Then you have to fight with various vendors to get a quote - I've had to get quotes from companies like Acronis for $44 to continue maitenence on 2 license of TIW + UR. Why did they take that off their website? From Altiris I have to get a quote for 5 licenses of SVS ~$150. Why? Why isn't small numbers of licenses available for purchase on a website?
Then you've got crappy license management stuff like FlexLM for Matlab or ANSYS - which just serves to try and force you to do manual installs... Why can't I package for deployment? I have the licenses, why does it need to be node locked. Why do you care on the network licensed ones (that is, license is install anywhere on network, so many can be used at once)? If I want to update, they want me to go to each system manually and run the installer... How is this supposed to be done on 30 systems across several sites? Why do I have to waste time?
I could go on, but the point I'm making is if I just ignored the licensing or cracked it, I'd be able to do my job faster and spend more time on things that need more of an IT background than clicking next a lot, or waiting for PDFs so I can submit a payment!
On the media industries, we already see that CDs are a better deal for most users than digital music with DRM - better quality, less or no copy protection, will work or can be converted to any player.
Netflix is a great example - I can rent DVDs and pretty much watch them anywhere (though I might have to still break the license/law to watch on Linux), why would I want to use a streaming service that has crappy quality, requires Windows *and* IE?
eBooks pretty much continue to kill any possible market through stupid policies of locked formats, prices higher than paperbacks and the other issue of really expensive readers or lesser quality print.
Anyway,the above question is why do I have to pay all those costs? Why don't I get discounts on the media and devices if I have to spend so much time, effort, etc.
Digital watermarks fail as well. They do not address the concept of physical theft of a victim's PC, malware grabbing files, or other users of the PC sharing files. It's all the problems of filesharing but one more psudoproof the purchaser is the copyright infringer.
It seems to me this would just deter purchasing music as a download. This may, in fact, be their goal. However, it still takes one purchaser somewhere who buys a CD via cash, or a anonymous credit card shipped to a drop box from Amazon or whoever. They rip the CD as has been normal and bam.
Actually, I have to ask - are they doing this to CDs, or just to iTunes et al? I can't see how they could do what you suggest with CDs. Are they going to require you purchase CDs with a credit card? Or provide your drivers license number + address? What about used CD sales? Or someone could risk lots less jail time or fines, and just *steal* one and avoid giving any info to the store.
Every time I can come up with several ways to "beat" a "system", I figure we either 1) Have no idea what it's actually supposed to do, or 2) the developers are milking some large company for lots of money for a system that doesn't work.
I agree, but it's not even a lack of knowledge per se after college, it's a lack of specific knowledge. For instance (in an IT program with concentrations on System and Network administration), even at a pretty good regional tech school (RIT), we learned how to build a Linux DNS server and Mail server, how to install it, how to do imaging and basic programming etc. We knew how to install Windows 2k etc.
But we never really touched NT Domains or AD (this being in 2000), or NIS on the Linux side etc. Never talked about remote control solutions or service ticket management. Not a lot of time spent on priortization of projects. So you have these huge gaps in knowledge for network management or systems management in the real world. We learned lots about switching, routing, using packet sniffers and Cisco routers + basic IOS etc.
We didn't learn anything about SNMP...
I have to wonder, WTF?
Finally, though, even assuming you do get all that now, and more, you haven't learned Zenoss or HP Openview or Tivioli for your network generation, nor Novell ZenWorks or OCSNG for inventory and deployment. You haven't learned your package builder, or the server setup etc. When I went to work collections, we spent a week training on their customer info application. When I worked retail, we spent several days training on the registers and customer info application.
For some reason, when you start work in IT proper, they just assume you know all programs everywhere, ever in existance. Well, you don't. Oh, you know Word, Excel, Outlook etc. But when I started my current position, I thought Opera was a web browser (that I like and use), but they meant Opera 3D, a simulatior for physics problems.
Any new employee will need some on the job training. It just is a requirement. Heck, even the coffee intern needs to be shown where the coffee pot is in *this* office.
Yea, but you should see the hell Opera devs get for document.all etc from Asa etc. For reasons unknown to me, Mozilla seems to be fully against those sorts of things.
I don't know about FF, but you could ask to try other browsers with the feature and see if they work better for you.
Actually, just giving users write permissions to the Firefox directory lets the built in patcher work - no need for admin users.