Yeah... and you could have every single gaming company write drivers for different video cards, and you get pissed when your $600 Turtle Beach card doesn't play sounds in Doom III. You also get to reset your computer every single time you want to play.
Do people multitask while playing games like Doom III? HELL YEAH! I can't remember how many times I've 'windowed' UT or TO:AoT to tweak my TeamSpeak settings. Or how often I take a break while woring (I work at home) to let off some steam lobbing grenades or rushing SF with my trusty AK.
Besides, Doom III is as much a proof of concept as it is a game. By developing the engine in a console-like enviroment you're limiting it's 'real world' parameters, you're not letting it get tested. Let's not kid ourselves, in 2-3 years time there's going to a *lot* of games toting the Doom III Engine badge.
Anyway, we've been in this situation before - praying your game can detect your video and sound card. This is why DirectX and OpenGL are popular - they provide a much needed interface and abstraction layer to your sound and graphics. This is one of the promises of a modern OS - set up an interface to differnet devices. Configure it once and you're set! The lack of this was one of the worst things about DOS, and I don't really want to go back there.
There's quite a lively online gaming scene in Poland, but the internet infrastructure is - for the most part - monopoly run by the state telco. One of the telco's largest competitor's (Internet Partners) has been building their own network, and have set it up very well with lots of crossovers to the telco's network.
Anyway, one active scene member managed to hook up 'the scene' (in general) with a place for 2 machines in one of IP's server rooms. The only problem was, how to meet the demand of all of the scene members. Different games, different servers, different loads. The solution was to put together 4 dual processor motherboards into two cases. This let them set up something like 30 different servers for 3-4 different games.
I'll try to find the link to the article (with photos)... I know I had it arround here somewhere.
I *definately* recommend you get linky. I actually don't browse porn as much as graffiti, but the 'open all image links in one new tab' feature is a KILLER, and it'll probably be even more so for you.
Of course, try phoenix. It takes up less than 5% (22mb on a 512mb system) of my RAM even though I have like 5 windows with 15 tabs each open. Hm... actually, thanks to the fact that I actually checked, I see that emule is an another ram rampage... time to upgrade.
Plain and simple, people will treat you how you allow them to treat you.
Look at relationships: when two people meet, they both usually understand some basic cultural rules we have concering social interaction. Things like don't touch the other person, don't shout at the other person, keep tabs on flatuance, etc... you get the drift. As the relationship progresses, people test bounds. One party will put their hand on the other's arm. The other party doesn't flinch. Right there, the boundary has been expanded: 'it's ok for me to put your hand on my arm'. He brushes her neck, she giggles - another boundary. All forms of interaction: Touching, cuddling, kissing, sex, intimate conversation, etc. All of these things are things people don't do *unless* they've given each other permission, they've set bounds.
This is how we train dogs, it is how we train each other. You know all those relationships where the guy's a total sweetheart, while the girl is a total slut. He's being hurt all the time, but he doesn't break up with her. Or the girl who's relationship with her 'boyfriend' involves him comming over twice a week to fuck her? While it's not completely their 'fault' their partners are assholes, they're responsible for having them still be their partners.
If someone is down with his 'clique', and they're treating him like shit, picking on him, beating him up, etc. then he's partially to blame for his own problems. Sure, it may not be easy for them to lose their 'friends', but sometimes, you just have to do what has to be done. This is a basic tenent of 'taking care of yourself'. When people treat you like shit, you stop socializing with them. When somebody hits you, you hit back - wether directly or indirectly.
Hell, I think it's better kids learn this stuff in school, in a controled enviroment. In school there's almost always an 'out', even if the final out is changing schools. In real life, the place kids go after school, you don't have those outs.
Universities (and higher education in general) are havens for piracy. File/application swapping among stundents is the norm, but that's been going on for years and I don't think it's what anti-piracy groups have a problem with. They fear one thing: bandwidth.
The concern is two-pronged:
1. Students come to school and suddenly get hooked up to a fat pipe. Megabit-speed internet connectivity in dorms and computer labs. Little Johnny freshman sets up a couple of movies to download on edonkey and leaves for the weekend. During that weekend his 1mbps/1mbps pipe is almost saturated uploading. Johnny gets his movies and, before watching and deleting them, manages to share them with 200 other users.
Home users are usually much more aware of what's going on, maybe even more ignorant of their options. It's hard to stay ignorant when your dorm buddy's always finding new ways to download stuff.
2. Students working in computer science deparments setting up pirate sites. While P2P piracy is huge, traditional 'warez scene' piracy - while reaching less people directly - is probably just as big. It's hard to run a warez site from a private company, people are going to wonder where all the bandwidth is going. But slip that site into a university network, with it's goverment subisidized pipes and it's terabyte-class monthly transfers and it's just a pebble in a pond. With full access to the equipment, students can reroute traffic, shape other traffic to give their 'users' maximum transfers. They can make systems disapear to all faculty computers, or even all on-campus computers, just to cover their tracks.
Almost all of the top warez distribution sites I know (I'm talking WHQ and regional HQs for major groups) are run on university pipes. The rest are hidden among other major bandwidth hogs. (VoIP companies and the like)
Note that last time I tried was a couple of months ago and I'm back on my FreeBSD machine at the moment and cannot test to see if they've fixed their broken site.
They obviously have, except for one little thing (miscolored text in one spot) the site displays just fine.
Whats more, each frame is shown 3 times, so the actual flicker is 72hz + motion blending + reflected light. People, stop making yourselves look like asses by comparing computer monitors (avg distance away from screen 2-3 feet, static frames, generated light) to movie screens (30-100 feet, motion blur, reflected light). They are *totally* not the same thing. Even a TV doesn't run at 25/30 frames, it runs at 50/60 half-frames + it's motion blured.
I think that the major difference is that it's not tied to you, or to anyone. A debit card leaves a papertrail a mile long, and stores pay a margin to the debit card co., so it's not quite the same.
Damn... I have a limit of 15GB on one ISP (512/384) and no limit on the other one (128/128). I actually use the 1st ISP until it caps me off, then switch and use the 2nd one till the end of the month.
Then add on top of that the fact that while both floppies and CD-RW's allow re-writes, CD-RW's can't handle nearly as many rewrites as a floppy can.
Shows how much you've been using floppies lately. When I burn a CD, I burn a CD. I burn stuff to a subdir, and it's there. I use different quality CDs for different chores (like TDK Reflex for photo backups, no-name shit for temp file transport) and always have a couple of open session, multisession CDs around for transport. They cost pennies and, unless I've been mishandling the disc, are extremely reliable - even the no-name-piece-of-shit CDs. I burn my stuf once, I transport it to whereever it needs to go and I have no problems reading the data off the disk.
On the other hand, the floppy plan is a bit different, especially when I need to transfer a critical document. I make two copies of the document on each of the two floppies. This is so that if a speck of dust hit the floppy in the place I wrote my file, the other file might be usable. Of course, the entire floppy might be busted, so that's why I have the second one.
Last year I helped a friend pick out a new machine, he opted to get it with no floppy. Heck, the only reason I have a floppy is because it was in the used computer I got in 2001. I didn't even bother hooking it up after swapping motherboards last summer. I might hook it up, as I don't feel like making a DOS boot image on a CD to flash my MB Bios, but that's the only use I can find for it.
Matrix was also a work print - I remember sound not being dubbed in at a few points.
Poor translation seems to be a chronic disorder all over the world, I'm a native speaker of both english and polish (born in Poland, grew up in the US) and I've seen *A LOT* of bad translations. Everything from idioms and metaphors being translated directly, to simple mistakes, like mistaking college for high school. I feel really uneasy watching a movie (or even a tv show) and not understanding the original, especially when I know how many mistakes are made.
As for piracy... well... Piracy seems to have *no* effect on movie ticket prices here, they still cost up to 25PLN ($6-7US), especially in urban areas, which is crazy - the avg sallary is aprox. 2500PLN ($600-700). Sure, there are cheap days (tickets for 10-12PLN) and there are special offers, etc. But to get into a blockbuster on the weekend, you're putting down at least 20PLN. Prices used to be a lot lower, the multiplexes pushed them up and the rest of the cinemas just went along.
(I wrote most of this up for the LOTR:TTT fake pirate DVD thread, but had problems posting. I meated it out to be on topic)
Movie Piracy, a quick primer.
There exist two distribution networks for movies. One is the classical movie theater => dvd/vhs => pay-per-view => premium cable => network model, where movies first go to bigger markets and eventually (or not) trickle down to the smaller, foreign markets. The other is a underground model that taps at each of these sources and offers world wide distribution within a week.
As a movie is produced, it goes through a couple basic steps: planning, filming, post production. One of the things studios use to view movies before they are completed is called a 'work reel'. It's a beta-version, if you will, of the movie, that studios show execs and backers before finishing the final copy. Pirate work reels are pretty rare, altough I recall 'Jay and Silent Bob' came out as a work reel.
When the movie is completed, a few things happen: studios organize early screenings for critics - this is where 'cams' (pirate copies recorded on a DV camera off the screen) sometimes come from. A lot of movie theaters have to get the prints in at least a day or two before the premiere (just in case), a lot of them will have screenings for cinema staff at that time. Or the staff will just watch a movie while no one is looking.
Most movie critics don't really want to be bothered to go to a cinema 5-10 times a week (or however many movies come out) so the studio sends them screeners. Screeners are usually VHS tapes, and the movies almost always have 'THIS MOVIE IS PROPERTY OF STUDIO XXX'. This is the source of a *lot* of movies, especially now that a lot of studios are releasing DVDs as screeners, knowing that a lot of reviewers prefer DVDs, hoping that it might get them a better rating.
Even if all these holes have been plugged, and security was tight enough that no copies were leaked out till opening day, you still have opening day. As soon as the movie hits nationwide distribution you will have a pirate copy. Wether it's a kid in the audience with a camera or an employee who stays late and make a telesync (camera on tripod set at screen, sound pumped directly - via cable - from the sound system) a copy will get out.
DVD's that come out early are usually leaked by magazine staff, or other reviewers, that get them in early. They can also be stolen out of a warehouse by staff there, whatever, there's a 100 different ways to get that DVD before it's offical release date.
A lot of the 'professional' pirates pirate for money. These aren't kids ripping MP3s, this isn't my friend making divxes from his DVDs so he can keep them online to watch at any time. As soon as the DV (usually, a cam is the first thing to come out) is made, it's passed on to someone who converts it to VCD and ftps it to Asia where it is translated, subbed and produced. I wouldn't be surprised if the turnaround on a VCD is under 36 hours. And the screeners and cams that warez-scene groups release? They get 'em off the streets in Asia.
Everyone here gets paid, from the guy with the DV camera, through the CD production plants, the vendor on the street and the corrupt cop who gets a little extra for not bugging the vendor. It's business, it's easy money. The supply chain is there, it's an industry. You can close down all the street vendors, go after all the factories. They'll do what multinational corporations do - move across borders, find new routes. The cost of destroying these operations far exceedes additional profits they will generate. Nobody in Asia's going to be paying $20-30 for a DVD 2 years after the movie was released in the states and no ammount of copy protection is going to stop it.
A major problem with this model is that quality suffers, as location is to real estate, speed is to piracy. The bigger the production, the more pressure pirates are to get the movie out. I've seen all sorts of crazy stuff, these subtitles aren't actually that bad (you can turn them off). Pirates sell cams on DVDs, voice-over translations on dubbed movies (movie dubbed to german and voice over in russian), 'home made' voice overs (is that a kettle whistle in the background?), mislabled movies (classic), movies on VHS recorded over other movies, etc.
The studios are in some kind of magical dreamland, thinking that they can force everyone to tap to their tune. They can't, it's not going to happen. Asia's market - 2.5-3 BILLION people - is huge compared to the US - 300 mln. Russia and eastern europe - where people are starting to afford the equipment and media - area always at least a few weeks behind. The premiere of LOTR:TTT in Warsaw was yesterday, only *six* weeks after the 'world wide premiere'. In that time, at least 3/4 of the die hard LOTR fans I know got the DVD screener (or divx made from it) and already saw it.
There needs to be a new distribution model, just like in the music industry. Studios want control? Fine, they'll always be able to control the theaters (too much money) but I can't imagine a model in which they will destroy piracy. Hell, the only reason pirate DVDs are making the rounds so early these days is because of the studio's greed, sucking up to reviewers and Academy members is a business decission. I think most people watch movies because it's convinient, especially the DVD/VHS crowd. Protection of this kind of content will only come about with restrictions that will reduce convinience, and it'll make less people watch movies. It's a no win situation, the studios should quit their bullshit politics and make movies people will want to see, movies that'll make people want to get out of the house and go to the movies, instead of most of what's comming out now.
Re:Linux games vs. shareware stuff for Win
on
25 Best Linux Games
·
· Score: 1
Mines are placed before you click, but a mine will 'escape' to an adjacent square if it's your first click. The only way you can get a mine on the first cilck is if you hit a square where the mine is blocked.
Anyway, what are peoples' best times on minesweeper? I only play Expert (30w x 16h x 99mines) and I'm down to about 112s.
I'll fess up: I only download group DVD releases. Those releases are actually held up to certain standards that define acceptible levels of compression, resolution, etc. I rarely get a movie where the quality is *anywhere* near VHS, it's usually equal to DVD or just shy.
My friends in NYC are renting a big apt. When they started figuring out how much it would cost to cable their apt, it came out to like 2x as much as setting up a wireless network. 95% of what they do is internet sharing so the economics panned out great.
This isn't just a theory, my friend was flying through Helsinki during the christmas season, so he pulled out his notebook waiting for the plane and *boom*, three different wireless networks. All of them charged, all of them cut you off after 5 minutes if you didn't give up a credit card number.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah... and you could have every single gaming company write drivers for different video cards, and you get pissed when your $600 Turtle Beach card doesn't play sounds in Doom III. You also get to reset your computer every single time you want to play.
Do people multitask while playing games like Doom III? HELL YEAH! I can't remember how many times I've 'windowed' UT or TO:AoT to tweak my TeamSpeak settings. Or how often I take a break while woring (I work at home) to let off some steam lobbing grenades or rushing SF with my trusty AK.
Besides, Doom III is as much a proof of concept as it is a game. By developing the engine in a console-like enviroment you're limiting it's 'real world' parameters, you're not letting it get tested. Let's not kid ourselves, in 2-3 years time there's going to a *lot* of games toting the Doom III Engine badge.
Anyway, we've been in this situation before - praying your game can detect your video and sound card. This is why DirectX and OpenGL are popular - they provide a much needed interface and abstraction layer to your sound and graphics. This is one of the promises of a modern OS - set up an interface to differnet devices. Configure it once and you're set! The lack of this was one of the worst things about DOS, and I don't really want to go back there.
There's quite a lively online gaming scene in Poland, but the internet infrastructure is - for the most part - monopoly run by the state telco. One of the telco's largest competitor's (Internet Partners) has been building their own network, and have set it up very well with lots of crossovers to the telco's network.
Anyway, one active scene member managed to hook up 'the scene' (in general) with a place for 2 machines in one of IP's server rooms. The only problem was, how to meet the demand of all of the scene members. Different games, different servers, different loads. The solution was to put together 4 dual processor motherboards into two cases. This let them set up something like 30 different servers for 3-4 different games.
I'll try to find the link to the article (with photos)... I know I had it arround here somewhere.
I *definately* recommend you get linky. I actually don't browse porn as much as graffiti, but the 'open all image links in one new tab' feature is a KILLER, and it'll probably be even more so for you.
Of course, try phoenix. It takes up less than 5% (22mb on a 512mb system) of my RAM even though I have like 5 windows with 15 tabs each open. Hm... actually, thanks to the fact that I actually checked, I see that emule is an another ram rampage... time to upgrade.
Look at Clinton. Almost certainly committed perjury.
It pretty much came to this:
Prosecutor: did you fuck around?
Clinton: (looks at wife) uhh... no.
Like it's been said before, I don't want a president who's stupid enough to say 'yes' when someone asks him that.
I'm totally playing the devil's advocate right now but...
Maybe this is one of the ways that society/humankind 'thins the ranks'. An example of the darwinian process of natural selection?
I'm not trolling here, it's a valid question.
Plain and simple, people will treat you how you allow them to treat you.
Look at relationships: when two people meet, they both usually understand some basic cultural rules we have concering social interaction. Things like don't touch the other person, don't shout at the other person, keep tabs on flatuance, etc... you get the drift. As the relationship progresses, people test bounds. One party will put their hand on the other's arm. The other party doesn't flinch. Right there, the boundary has been expanded: 'it's ok for me to put your hand on my arm'. He brushes her neck, she giggles - another boundary. All forms of interaction: Touching, cuddling, kissing, sex, intimate conversation, etc. All of these things are things people don't do *unless* they've given each other permission, they've set bounds.
This is how we train dogs, it is how we train each other. You know all those relationships where the guy's a total sweetheart, while the girl is a total slut. He's being hurt all the time, but he doesn't break up with her. Or the girl who's relationship with her 'boyfriend' involves him comming over twice a week to fuck her? While it's not completely their 'fault' their partners are assholes, they're responsible for having them still be their partners.
If someone is down with his 'clique', and they're treating him like shit, picking on him, beating him up, etc. then he's partially to blame for his own problems. Sure, it may not be easy for them to lose their 'friends', but sometimes, you just have to do what has to be done. This is a basic tenent of 'taking care of yourself'. When people treat you like shit, you stop socializing with them. When somebody hits you, you hit back - wether directly or indirectly.
Hell, I think it's better kids learn this stuff in school, in a controled enviroment. In school there's almost always an 'out', even if the final out is changing schools. In real life, the place kids go after school, you don't have those outs.
I'm probably gonna get slammed for this, too bad.
Universities (and higher education in general) are havens for piracy. File/application swapping among stundents is the norm, but that's been going on for years and I don't think it's what anti-piracy groups have a problem with. They fear one thing: bandwidth.
The concern is two-pronged:
1. Students come to school and suddenly get hooked up to a fat pipe. Megabit-speed internet connectivity in dorms and computer labs. Little Johnny freshman sets up a couple of movies to download on edonkey and leaves for the weekend. During that weekend his 1mbps/1mbps pipe is almost saturated uploading. Johnny gets his movies and, before watching and deleting them, manages to share them with 200 other users.
Home users are usually much more aware of what's going on, maybe even more ignorant of their options. It's hard to stay ignorant when your dorm buddy's always finding new ways to download stuff.
2. Students working in computer science deparments setting up pirate sites. While P2P piracy is huge, traditional 'warez scene' piracy - while reaching less people directly - is probably just as big. It's hard to run a warez site from a private company, people are going to wonder where all the bandwidth is going. But slip that site into a university network, with it's goverment subisidized pipes and it's terabyte-class monthly transfers and it's just a pebble in a pond. With full access to the equipment, students can reroute traffic, shape other traffic to give their 'users' maximum transfers. They can make systems disapear to all faculty computers, or even all on-campus computers, just to cover their tracks.
Almost all of the top warez distribution sites I know (I'm talking WHQ and regional HQs for major groups) are run on university pipes. The rest are hidden among other major bandwidth hogs. (VoIP companies and the like)
Or, maybe the anti-piracy posse is just paranoid.
Note that last time I tried was a couple of months ago and I'm back on my FreeBSD machine at the moment and cannot test to see if they've fixed their broken site.
They obviously have, except for one little thing (miscolored text in one spot) the site displays just fine.
I use dots. Since google treats all whitespace the same: a.cool.search == "a cool search".
Whats more, each frame is shown 3 times, so the actual flicker is 72hz + motion blending + reflected light. People, stop making yourselves look like asses by comparing computer monitors (avg distance away from screen 2-3 feet, static frames, generated light) to movie screens (30-100 feet, motion blur, reflected light). They are *totally* not the same thing. Even a TV doesn't run at 25/30 frames, it runs at 50/60 half-frames + it's motion blured.
I think that the major difference is that it's not tied to you, or to anyone. A debit card leaves a papertrail a mile long, and stores pay a margin to the debit card co., so it's not quite the same.
Generally the BSA gets what it wants: a "settlement" in which they are paid not to "report" to federal authorities and/or file a questionable lawsuit.
If I'm not wrong, they would then be guilty of failing to not report a crime/felony. Bastards.
Damn... I have a limit of 15GB on one ISP (512/384) and no limit on the other one (128/128). I actually use the 1st ISP until it caps me off, then switch and use the 2nd one till the end of the month.
Then add on top of that the fact that while both floppies and CD-RW's allow re-writes, CD-RW's can't handle nearly as many rewrites as a floppy can.
Shows how much you've been using floppies lately. When I burn a CD, I burn a CD. I burn stuff to a subdir, and it's there. I use different quality CDs for different chores (like TDK Reflex for photo backups, no-name shit for temp file transport) and always have a couple of open session, multisession CDs around for transport. They cost pennies and, unless I've been mishandling the disc, are extremely reliable - even the no-name-piece-of-shit CDs. I burn my stuf once, I transport it to whereever it needs to go and I have no problems reading the data off the disk.
On the other hand, the floppy plan is a bit different, especially when I need to transfer a critical document. I make two copies of the document on each of the two floppies. This is so that if a speck of dust hit the floppy in the place I wrote my file, the other file might be usable. Of course, the entire floppy might be busted, so that's why I have the second one.
Last year I helped a friend pick out a new machine, he opted to get it with no floppy. Heck, the only reason I have a floppy is because it was in the used computer I got in 2001. I didn't even bother hooking it up after swapping motherboards last summer. I might hook it up, as I don't feel like making a DOS boot image on a CD to flash my MB Bios, but that's the only use I can find for it.
Yesterday, I couldn't fall asleep so... got up, took a shit, slept like a baby.
Matrix was also a work print - I remember sound not being dubbed in at a few points.
Poor translation seems to be a chronic disorder all over the world, I'm a native speaker of both english and polish (born in Poland, grew up in the US) and I've seen *A LOT* of bad translations. Everything from idioms and metaphors being translated directly, to simple mistakes, like mistaking college for high school. I feel really uneasy watching a movie (or even a tv show) and not understanding the original, especially when I know how many mistakes are made.
As for piracy... well... Piracy seems to have *no* effect on movie ticket prices here, they still cost up to 25PLN ($6-7US), especially in urban areas, which is crazy - the avg sallary is aprox. 2500PLN ($600-700). Sure, there are cheap days (tickets for 10-12PLN) and there are special offers, etc. But to get into a blockbuster on the weekend, you're putting down at least 20PLN. Prices used to be a lot lower, the multiplexes pushed them up and the rest of the cinemas just went along.
(I wrote most of this up for the LOTR:TTT fake pirate DVD thread, but had problems posting. I meated it out to be on topic)
Movie Piracy, a quick primer.
There exist two distribution networks for movies. One is the classical movie theater => dvd/vhs => pay-per-view => premium cable => network model, where movies first go to bigger markets and eventually (or not) trickle down to the smaller, foreign markets. The other is a underground model that taps at each of these sources and offers world wide distribution within a week.
As a movie is produced, it goes through a couple basic steps: planning, filming, post production. One of the things studios use to view movies before they are completed is called a 'work reel'. It's a beta-version, if you will, of the movie, that studios show execs and backers before finishing the final copy. Pirate work reels are pretty rare, altough I recall 'Jay and Silent Bob' came out as a work reel.
When the movie is completed, a few things happen: studios organize early screenings for critics - this is where 'cams' (pirate copies recorded on a DV camera off the screen) sometimes come from. A lot of movie theaters have to get the prints in at least a day or two before the premiere (just in case), a lot of them will have screenings for cinema staff at that time. Or the staff will just watch a movie while no one is looking.
Most movie critics don't really want to be bothered to go to a cinema 5-10 times a week (or however many movies come out) so the studio sends them screeners. Screeners are usually VHS tapes, and the movies almost always have 'THIS MOVIE IS PROPERTY OF STUDIO XXX'. This is the source of a *lot* of movies, especially now that a lot of studios are releasing DVDs as screeners, knowing that a lot of reviewers prefer DVDs, hoping that it might get them a better rating.
Even if all these holes have been plugged, and security was tight enough that no copies were leaked out till opening day, you still have opening day. As soon as the movie hits nationwide distribution you will have a pirate copy. Wether it's a kid in the audience with a camera or an employee who stays late and make a telesync (camera on tripod set at screen, sound pumped directly - via cable - from the sound system) a copy will get out.
DVD's that come out early are usually leaked by magazine staff, or other reviewers, that get them in early. They can also be stolen out of a warehouse by staff there, whatever, there's a 100 different ways to get that DVD before it's offical release date.
A lot of the 'professional' pirates pirate for money. These aren't kids ripping MP3s, this isn't my friend making divxes from his DVDs so he can keep them online to watch at any time. As soon as the DV (usually, a cam is the first thing to come out) is made, it's passed on to someone who converts it to VCD and ftps it to Asia where it is translated, subbed and produced. I wouldn't be surprised if the turnaround on a VCD is under 36 hours. And the screeners and cams that warez-scene groups release? They get 'em off the streets in Asia.
Everyone here gets paid, from the guy with the DV camera, through the CD production plants, the vendor on the street and the corrupt cop who gets a little extra for not bugging the vendor. It's business, it's easy money. The supply chain is there, it's an industry. You can close down all the street vendors, go after all the factories. They'll do what multinational corporations do - move across borders, find new routes. The cost of destroying these operations far exceedes additional profits they will generate. Nobody in Asia's going to be paying $20-30 for a DVD 2 years after the movie was released in the states and no ammount of copy protection is going to stop it.
A major problem with this model is that quality suffers, as location is to real estate, speed is to piracy. The bigger the production, the more pressure pirates are to get the movie out. I've seen all sorts of crazy stuff, these subtitles aren't actually that bad (you can turn them off). Pirates sell cams on DVDs, voice-over translations on dubbed movies (movie dubbed to german and voice over in russian), 'home made' voice overs (is that a kettle whistle in the background?), mislabled movies (classic), movies on VHS recorded over other movies, etc.
The studios are in some kind of magical dreamland, thinking that they can force everyone to tap to their tune. They can't, it's not going to happen. Asia's market - 2.5-3 BILLION people - is huge compared to the US - 300 mln. Russia and eastern europe - where people are starting to afford the equipment and media - area always at least a few weeks behind. The premiere of LOTR:TTT in Warsaw was yesterday, only *six* weeks after the 'world wide premiere'. In that time, at least 3/4 of the die hard LOTR fans I know got the DVD screener (or divx made from it) and already saw it.
There needs to be a new distribution model, just like in the music industry. Studios want control? Fine, they'll always be able to control the theaters (too much money) but I can't imagine a model in which they will destroy piracy. Hell, the only reason pirate DVDs are making the rounds so early these days is because of the studio's greed, sucking up to reviewers and Academy members is a business decission. I think most people watch movies because it's convinient, especially the DVD/VHS crowd. Protection of this kind of content will only come about with restrictions that will reduce convinience, and it'll make less people watch movies. It's a no win situation, the studios should quit their bullshit politics and make movies people will want to see, movies that'll make people want to get out of the house and go to the movies, instead of most of what's comming out now.
Mines are placed before you click, but a mine will 'escape' to an adjacent square if it's your first click. The only way you can get a mine on the first cilck is if you hit a square where the mine is blocked.
Anyway, what are peoples' best times on minesweeper? I only play Expert (30w x 16h x 99mines) and I'm down to about 112s.
Found them: http://moviestrator.com/tdx2k2.nfo
I'll fess up: I only download group DVD releases. Those releases are actually held up to certain standards that define acceptible levels of compression, resolution, etc. I rarely get a movie where the quality is *anywhere* near VHS, it's usually equal to DVD or just shy.
Exactly... hell, half the stuff I download is ripped from vinyl.
Note to record execs: vinyl's can't be ripped digitaly!
See, if you lived in europe you'd know that it's enough to keep your phone with you, just swap cards.
My friends in NYC are renting a big apt. When they started figuring out how much it would cost to cable their apt, it came out to like 2x as much as setting up a wireless network. 95% of what they do is internet sharing so the economics panned out great.
This isn't just a theory, my friend was flying through Helsinki during the christmas season, so he pulled out his notebook waiting for the plane and *boom*, three different wireless networks. All of them charged, all of them cut you off after 5 minutes if you didn't give up a credit card number.
Still, good stuff.