I really hate to be an annoying terminology pendant -- but "all that gnu software" should really be called free software, not lumped together with the "open source movement". The free software movement was around first, after all, and IMHO have certainly earned the right to be called by their preferred name. There is a difference, and I think that both camps can see the benefit of using the appropriate terminology. The FSF obviously appreciates the distinctiveness, and people who prefer the open source terminology, in my experience, often want to distance themselves from the ideology of the free software movement.
Ah, but what happens when you want to use your powerful graphics card for an app that needs it, and it's power is being hogged just to draw windows and menus?
I don't think that's how spammers make money -- most of them are contract workers, not hawking stuff themselves. They make money by convincing companies that e-mail is an effective "marketing tool" -- it is irrelevant if it actually generates sales, as long as there are enough suckers out there who think it does.
Another source of profit is selling software, e-mail lists, etc to other spammers. I suspect it's a lot like the gold rush -- the people getting rich aren't the prospectors, but the people who own the shops.
Heh, I figured as much, and as I said, living in Montreal, I can definitely sympathize! But there are people out there who don't really think these things through. I've heard sentiments not dissimilar from yours spoken in all seriousness before.
Being a Canadian in Montreal, I can sympathize with your sentiment -- but it's wrong. Canada most definitely *not* want to get any warmer. Global warming is already having disasterous effects on northern wildlife (such as polar bears) as well as the lifestyles of Inuit and other northerners.
I think the point is that games wouldn't be *completely* free -- only the engines would. This might -- might! -- be workable. As many people have pointed out here, developing a game engine from scratch -- or licensing one -- is very, very expensive, and adds a helluva lotta time to the development cycle. Let's say a few companies get together to develop a libre engine that they will share, and it catches on, building a community of developers. They could conceivably get a solid engine for much less than the cost to develop it purely in-house or to license one, focusing their development cycle on (still proprietary!) art, story, etc. The companies get a shortened and much cheaper dev cycle (allowing either higher profits or a lower price point) and the community gets a good engine that will allow for high quality indy games.
From the consumers point of view, the lowered barrier to entry would be a great thing, but might be what would scare off existing companies from participating. But they'd probably be able to keep indy games, even of a high quality, restricted to a niche market due to their superior marketing muscle and ability to invest in things like "name" voice talent, more artists, professional writers, etc.
Hmm, you got moderated +1, Wishful Thinking. I hope you're right, but even without as big a target to sue, this could surely have a chilling effect on Firefox, other browsers (I use Konqueror), and how the Web works.
You reminded me that one of the best/most popular sites on the net, Homestarrunner, has NO ads.
I'm sick of people telling me I have some sort of duty to watch ads. If I change a channel on TV when ads come on, is that immoral? If I don't study each and every billboard as I'm walking down the street, is that immoral? These advertising bastards are trying to consume every centimetre of the mental landscape, trying to permeate every aspect of social life. Fuck them, I want some space to think, goddamnit.
I agree with you that this is risky, but I'll tell you where I draw the line: the network should only attack in self defence, ie, only attack what attacks it. I think that spam is an attack on the Internet, which is fundamentally built on cooperation. They use that cooperative nature to take without giving back. They suck bandwidth. They've hurt anonymity on the net by making open servers risky propositions.
The rest of the net should do what it can to cut the fuckers off, in self defence.
This should also remind people that there is a helluva lot more to participatory government than voting once every four years. Democracy should be about people participating in the decision making process, not simply rubber stamping decisions made by the elites.
In a lot of ways, Democracy is what we all make of it. Which, when you look at the state of it in much of the West, is actually pretty sad.
Obviously it wasn't a huge market or anything but it did exist.
Actually, it *was* a pretty huge market (even considering the much smaller population at the turn of the century). Tin Pan Alley was big business, and big hits would sell millions of copies (back in the day, having a piano -- and having at least one member of the family able to play it -- was the sign of virtually every middle class household). Tin Pan Alley also spawned ASCAP (American Society for Composers, Authors, and Publishers), which is still with us.
Sid Meier founded Firaxis, which made CivIII and is currently developing CivIV. This sale was only the rights to the name and publishing, and since development has been going on for some time already, chances are Firaxis will get to continue developing it -- just under a different publisher. Some are speculating that Firaxis actually bought the rights -- they already bought some older Microplay properties from Atari last year.
You're missing the point. The US government had previously argued that keyboard logging was NOT a wiretap -- that way they could do it easily, without any judicial oversight. If the judge had ruled otherwise in this case, it would have effectively given your government the power to use keyboard loggers against others, while receiving protections from it unavaible to you. With any luck, a ruling like this may force Congress to actually address the issue directly -- this is, in fact, the whole point of his judgement, which basically says "Existing laws don't really cover this, if you want there to be go talk to the lawmakers!" This may perhaps even limit the government's ability to use keyloggers arbitrarily (perhaps I'm being overly optimistic there...). Anyways, this ruling is good.
How much of the market will complain about MS's latest DRM scheme? How much of the market complains about the RIAA's tactics? How much of the market complains about spyware disguised as weather information? Sometimes it's the idea itself that is noxious, regardless of the amount of people it actually impacts.
Perhaps because the ending of AoD isn't the ending as it was originally intended by Raimi and Campbell -- it was supposed to end with Ash stuck all alone in prehistory. Maybe they think making a 4 set in the contemporary world would be like capitulating to the studio that forced them to give the movie a happy ending?
France has always disliked Americans. At least that is the impression that I get.
This is what is wrong with US politics: a complete lack of history. I suppose you know nothing about the crucial help and support that France gave the US during the Revolutionary War. I suppose you don't know who built and gave you the goddamn Statue of Liberty.
Slashdot Mirror
I really hate to be an annoying terminology pendant -- but "all that gnu software" should really be called free software, not lumped together with the "open source movement". The free software movement was around first, after all, and IMHO have certainly earned the right to be called by their preferred name. There is a difference, and I think that both camps can see the benefit of using the appropriate terminology. The FSF obviously appreciates the distinctiveness, and people who prefer the open source terminology, in my experience, often want to distance themselves from the ideology of the free software movement.
Ah, but what happens when you want to use your powerful graphics card for an app that needs it, and it's power is being hogged just to draw windows and menus?
Another source of profit is selling software, e-mail lists, etc to other spammers. I suspect it's a lot like the gold rush -- the people getting rich aren't the prospectors, but the people who own the shops.
Heh, I figured as much, and as I said, living in Montreal, I can definitely sympathize! But there are people out there who don't really think these things through. I've heard sentiments not dissimilar from yours spoken in all seriousness before.
Being a Canadian in Montreal, I can sympathize with your sentiment -- but it's wrong. Canada most definitely *not* want to get any warmer. Global warming is already having disasterous effects on northern wildlife (such as polar bears) as well as the lifestyles of Inuit and other northerners.
From the consumers point of view, the lowered barrier to entry would be a great thing, but might be what would scare off existing companies from participating. But they'd probably be able to keep indy games, even of a high quality, restricted to a niche market due to their superior marketing muscle and ability to invest in things like "name" voice talent, more artists, professional writers, etc.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Software Patents. They're like patenting "A vehicle that moves on four wheels" instead of a specific engine design.
Hmm, you got moderated +1, Wishful Thinking. I hope you're right, but even without as big a target to sue, this could surely have a chilling effect on Firefox, other browsers (I use Konqueror), and how the Web works.
I don't think AOL qualifies.
No. I got on the net in 94, and it was a joke then, too. The Endless September had already begun.
And before then, wasn't it just another Compuserve or Prodigy?
Welcome to the Pax Americana. *Everything* is their business.
I'm sick of people telling me I have some sort of duty to watch ads. If I change a channel on TV when ads come on, is that immoral? If I don't study each and every billboard as I'm walking down the street, is that immoral? These advertising bastards are trying to consume every centimetre of the mental landscape, trying to permeate every aspect of social life. Fuck them, I want some space to think, goddamnit.
/trying to think like a marketer
Resident Evil Twove...? I can see the billboards already...
I agree, but would add "Also don't believe any legal fictions that tries to give corporations legal personhood."
The rest of the net should do what it can to cut the fuckers off, in self defence.
In a lot of ways, Democracy is what we all make of it. Which, when you look at the state of it in much of the West, is actually pretty sad.
Lousy Plato, he was right the whole time!
Actually, it *was* a pretty huge market (even considering the much smaller population at the turn of the century). Tin Pan Alley was big business, and big hits would sell millions of copies (back in the day, having a piano -- and having at least one member of the family able to play it -- was the sign of virtually every middle class household). Tin Pan Alley also spawned ASCAP (American Society for Composers, Authors, and Publishers), which is still with us.
Sid Meier founded Firaxis, which made CivIII and is currently developing CivIV. This sale was only the rights to the name and publishing, and since development has been going on for some time already, chances are Firaxis will get to continue developing it -- just under a different publisher. Some are speculating that Firaxis actually bought the rights -- they already bought some older Microplay properties from Atari last year.
You're missing the point. The US government had previously argued that keyboard logging was NOT a wiretap -- that way they could do it easily, without any judicial oversight. If the judge had ruled otherwise in this case, it would have effectively given your government the power to use keyboard loggers against others, while receiving protections from it unavaible to you. With any luck, a ruling like this may force Congress to actually address the issue directly -- this is, in fact, the whole point of his judgement, which basically says "Existing laws don't really cover this, if you want there to be go talk to the lawmakers!" This may perhaps even limit the government's ability to use keyloggers arbitrarily (perhaps I'm being overly optimistic there...). Anyways, this ruling is good.
How much of the market will complain about MS's latest DRM scheme? How much of the market complains about the RIAA's tactics? How much of the market complains about spyware disguised as weather information? Sometimes it's the idea itself that is noxious, regardless of the amount of people it actually impacts.
Dude, if you're jerking off to Slashdot, maybe there is something to this addiction thing...
Perhaps because the ending of AoD isn't the ending as it was originally intended by Raimi and Campbell -- it was supposed to end with Ash stuck all alone in prehistory. Maybe they think making a 4 set in the contemporary world would be like capitulating to the studio that forced them to give the movie a happy ending?
France has always disliked Americans. At least that is the impression that I get. This is what is wrong with US politics: a complete lack of history. I suppose you know nothing about the crucial help and support that France gave the US during the Revolutionary War. I suppose you don't know who built and gave you the goddamn Statue of Liberty.