You're so wrong, moron. I was alive, and I do remember the controversy. Iraq was in Kuwait for 6 months before the U.S. decided to lift a fucking finger. Up till that time, we had supplied Saddam with money, weapons, and support.
It's ignorant fuckers like you who have given our country one black eye after another. The world hates us, we produce nothing, our economy is based on fictional assets. Congratulations, we're perfectly fucked.
Did you pull all these numbers out of your ass? There's already a lot of BD devices on the market in Japan - not the final BD specs that will be the basis of standalone BD players and the PS3, but basically the same hardware. I'm pretty sure they're not running $1,000 per unit.
Violent video games are in no way analogous to shows like CSI. CSI is presented as a being an accurate portrayal of forensic science. Games like GTA are not presented as being accurate portrayals of gang life(or whatever).
More importantly, the types of influence in the case of violent video games and inaccurate television programming are completely different. It is easy to misinform a person. To do so, you simply lie. Given a lack of evidence to the contrary, many all too trusting people will believe you. That is not the same as turning someone into a killer.
The comparison is outrageous. It is shocking that it has been deemed by the mods to warrant a +5.
You're an ignorant piece of shit. The people of Iraq are not being given any sort of opportunity with us there. They were a prosperous country under Saddam's oppressive rule during the 80s. In fact, "we" helped fucking put him there. We weren't even concerned when he attacked his neighbors; we only stepped in when the U.N. decided not to allow it.
We fucking paid him to invade Iran. We turned a blind eye when he invaded Kuwait. Up to that time, most Iraqis had a very reasonable standard of living. Sure, there were those that were seriously oppressed. But the United fucking States didn't give a flying fuck. Then George Bush Sr. turned on _his business partner_ when the U.N. decided that Saddam shouldn't be there, and to save face, Bush went along with it.
And now, all we've done is cause further damage in Iraq. We can't get out of there without the situation descending into civil war. And as long as we stay we're complicit in the unending violence there, violence with absolutely no end in sight. Violence that we initiated.
We're the ones who created this whole situation. After all these years, we're still not helping to fix it, and instead increasing the level of violence. But I'm sure Fox News tells a different story.
Indeed, we are a country of hypocritical nitwits and warmongers. If you think the government is being altruistic when it sends thousands of barely-adults to far off lands to kill and die, just look at the rest of our foreign policy to see just how altruistic "we" are.
Just what the fuck do we even do to better humanity anymore? We bring absolutely nothing to the table anymore. Our largest export these days is violence and ridiculous law and trade practices. Even as an American myself, I can see that the world may be better off without us. This nation is so fucked...
Noone has a right to be heard. And now you are judging peoples' speech and deciding who has a right to free speech. Being annoying and drowing out other peoples' discussion is not akin to yelling "fire" in a crowded theatre.
But, since it's Amazon's site, they are free to do as they will. They are under no obligation to anyone. If they don't mind that particular book listing being "deface" with pagefulls of bullshit, that's their right to leave it alone.
Jack "mouth spew" Thompson has no standing to sue.
So you are all in favor of censorship then? You do not have a right to be well liked. You do not have a right to not be ridiculed. If someone wants to express their opinion with pictures of puke... well... I don't see how you have a right to stop them.
Do you have an agreement with Amazon.com that prohibits them from allowing other people to express their opinion of you with pictures of puke? I doubt it. And unless you have complete control of distribution of your works, you also cannot prevent them from acquiring copies to sell... and possibly deface.
That's the real price of freedom, BTW. You have it, but so does everyone else. You can say what you want, and so can they. Deal with it.
Really, you're like the folks who want to ban flag burning.
Your own argument works against you. Personal attacks and Amazon hijinks against Jack Thompson deserve just as much respect as any speech made by Jack Thompson, or anyone else for that matter.
Freedom of speech is freedom of speech. People will say things you don't like. Deal with it. These fine folks are dealing with it by making personal attacks and being vulgar. That is their way. If that offends you, well, tough. You don't have the right to not be offended.
Being disrespectful of a person's speech does not equate to disrespecting said person's right to speak it.
Furthermore, arguments such as this only serve to push the real issue out of the way. That is, in fact, how Jack operates. He publicly makes an ass of himself, and then proceeds in attempts to shut up all opposition by attacking the more vulgar responses. He is, in fact, far more offensive than those he seeks to silence, as his attacks often come from Jack Thompson the Lawyer, not Jack Thompson the concerned citizen/author/whiny fucking jerk.
But in the end, it's Amazon's site. They can do as they will.
It proves nothing. Trash talk is trash talk. There isn't a single group of people in the world that doesn't engage in it. From priests to scientists, there are those that are vocal, those that are a little too vocal, and those who simply spew. In fact, it's just human nature, and hardly important. We are, afterall, emotional creatures.
Shame on you for saying that 50 million people on this planet, ranging from 1 to 100, haven't "the maturity to cross the street alone."
There are damn few public forums where gamers have a chance to break through to a larger audience. Amazon isn't obliged to provide you that platform.
But that's the point, no? Amazon is obliged to do fuck all. Thompson is the one threatening Amazon unless they do what he demands, not gamers.
I don't have time to look for it right now, but wasn't there a story a few weeks ago about Microsoft scaling back production of the 360? And then the following week, the supposed "shortages" started being reported on?
Hey, I got news for you. Slashdot has always been like that. We're nerds, geeks and losers. We like these things. We like updating kernels, playing with the latest bleeding edge cool software, especially when it's something as big as FF, etc.
This is one of my "favorite" annoyances with windowing systems in general these days. I think there's actually tools to prevent apps from stealing each other's focus* - I dunno, I haven't really used Windows for other than gaming in a long while, so I don't bother dicking around with it much - on 'doze and Mac. But, like FF, many apps automatically shift their own focus at inopportune times.
That drives me even more insane than usual. There is absolutely nothing like cancelling a long download or initiating a time-consuming update, or hell, REBOOTING THE FUCKING SYSTEM, because of that.
* Actually, I think TweakUI might do just that. I may even have it installed with that option set on my Windows box. It's just a bit too long in the tooth to play the latest games, so I haven't used it lately.
Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you? With a whole lot of other people too, even. Is your memory that short or are you just really fucking stupid?
Next time MS or Nintendo pulls something, are you going to forget about what Sony did?
There were quite a number of console FPSes available long before Halo. There were a bunch on N64, not just Goldeneye, several of which switched to the better control scheme, quite similar to what's in use on console FPSes currently. There was, IIRC, Half-Life on PS2, Deus Ex on PS2, a bunch of Turok games on N64 and PS2, etc.
Oh, and the folks behind HD-DVD are *SO* much more honest and ethical.
Not that I like Sony or anything. Basically, I despise them. But, quite frankly, I despise MS a lot more. At least Sony has to actually compete, whereas MS just throws its 800 lbs around to get its way. Every single new product they put out, they burn billions of dollars in an attempt to corner the market. Year after year, they just burn cash by the billions, not even looking ahead to profitability, just intent on cornering the entire market. Office and Windows just subsidise everything.
I'd love to say that I'll never support either company again. But I'll be honest, I'm a fucking media-whore. I love video games and movies and music.
Interestingly, ok, and offtopic:), in the case of music, if I can't copy it somehow, it's entirely worthless to me. So, they can only go so far before I *do* stop supporting them. I'm not going to buy something I can't even *use*.
My mistake. I was thinking that the DMCA or similar overreaching legislation might apply, but I see this is really just about their EULA.
EULAs are a whole other can of worms. Obviously, EULAs should not be able to stop you from exercising fair use, but EULAs are still on shaky enough legal ground that anything could happen in court.
From the summary: While they are certainly not the first to do so, it is interesting that companies still take this approach.
That's what you get when copyright laws are as draconian as they have become. Technically, they have every right to prevent others from examining their software.
What the hell? That's the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard. You allow root access, but you want to "protect" code running on the machine? What the fuck?
You're as bad as all the damn proprietary software vendors who try to prevent people from examining their compiled code in a hex editor or decompiling it.
Why do you want to do this? Is the code proprietary? Does the code contain security sensitive information?
If the latter, then jeez, that's just plain piss poor design. In the case of the former, just put a license warning in the code. It's impossible to "protect" overall design and algorithms anyway.
You can obfuscate the code of course, but really, that's just an exercise in futility.
DIE! DIE! FUCKING DIE! FUCKING DIE MOTHERFUCKERS! DIE! DIE! DIE!
That's the only response I could come up with. When the whole world's gone crazy, how does one respond rationally?
Seriously, purveyors of spyware should be brought up on charges in criminal court. We do the same for virus writers, how is malware any different? Can you imagine the courts allowing a virus writer to sue AV firms?:)
And a perfect example of this is the AC post above. Fucking unbelievable. Doesn't even take one goddamn thing you said into consideration, and just spouts some bullshit mantra, ignoring the facts of the situation in question.
It's as bad as religion, just fucking blindly believing something because it sounds good.
To have such concrete beliefs is, IMNSHO, always harmful. One's understanding of things, all things, must be mutable, to take new facts and information into consideration.
Of course, you are perfectly right. It's not an all or nothing game, as reality seldom is. But most people will continue shouting one mantra or the other, in vain attempts to force the complexities of the real world into an easily summarisable ideology from which all morals and ethics, and government, business, and personal decisions can be derived.
That is simply false. The NVIDIA drivers are the *only* decent 3D drivers available for Linux at the moment. No other drivers even come close in terms of features, performance and stability with 3D applications.
Sure, it takes NVIDIA some time to catch up to the latest kernel changes, but they do a damn decent job considering the kernel is a moving target. If that were not the case, their drivers, which are already the best available, would be even better.
Many hardware manufacturers are not in a position to open up their drivers. It's unfortunate, but that's the reality of the market.
And also, there's no reason we have to accept shoddy drivers if we allow binary-only drivers. Microsoft put an end to that big mess on Windows, and there's no reason we couldn't use similar policies to ensure stability, and we could be even more strict about it. If we had a concerted effort, we could easily pressure hardware companies to fix bugs in their drivers. And for really important drivers, I'm sure there's plenty of folks who'd be willing to sign NDAs in order to get access to the drivers for improving them.
Of course, it's not my call. If the key devs don't want it, it won't happen. Depending on their goals, though, they may be shooting themselves in the foot.
For example, Andrew Knight drafted and is currently prosecuting the patent application on a novel internet business method utilized by Sniplit.com. Sniplit.com is the first website of its kind to allow sellers in a local marketplace to: a) post a wealth of information about an item for sale, including photographs; b) choose his own unique web address; and c) advertise that self-chosen web address in local advertising media. For example, a person selling an antique couch may use Sniplit.com to avoid the high cost and limited description allowed by a typical classified ad, and may instead post photographs and a detailed description at the Sniplit.com website and place the following short, inexpensive classified ad: Tampa -- Antique Couch, $250, see www.sniplit.com/couch.
I... ah... I can't even... Nevermind. Must. Suppress. Rage.
Slashdot Mirror
It's ignorant fuckers like you who have given our country one black eye after another. The world hates us, we produce nothing, our economy is based on fictional assets. Congratulations, we're perfectly fucked.
More importantly, the types of influence in the case of violent video games and inaccurate television programming are completely different. It is easy to misinform a person. To do so, you simply lie. Given a lack of evidence to the contrary, many all too trusting people will believe you. That is not the same as turning someone into a killer.
The comparison is outrageous. It is shocking that it has been deemed by the mods to warrant a +5.
We fucking paid him to invade Iran. We turned a blind eye when he invaded Kuwait. Up to that time, most Iraqis had a very reasonable standard of living. Sure, there were those that were seriously oppressed. But the United fucking States didn't give a flying fuck. Then George Bush Sr. turned on _his business partner_ when the U.N. decided that Saddam shouldn't be there, and to save face, Bush went along with it.
And now, all we've done is cause further damage in Iraq. We can't get out of there without the situation descending into civil war. And as long as we stay we're complicit in the unending violence there, violence with absolutely no end in sight. Violence that we initiated.
We're the ones who created this whole situation. After all these years, we're still not helping to fix it, and instead increasing the level of violence. But I'm sure Fox News tells a different story.
Just what the fuck do we even do to better humanity anymore? We bring absolutely nothing to the table anymore. Our largest export these days is violence and ridiculous law and trade practices. Even as an American myself, I can see that the world may be better off without us. This nation is so fucked...
But, since it's Amazon's site, they are free to do as they will. They are under no obligation to anyone. If they don't mind that particular book listing being "deface" with pagefulls of bullshit, that's their right to leave it alone.
Jack "mouth spew" Thompson has no standing to sue.
Do you have an agreement with Amazon.com that prohibits them from allowing other people to express their opinion of you with pictures of puke? I doubt it. And unless you have complete control of distribution of your works, you also cannot prevent them from acquiring copies to sell... and possibly deface.
That's the real price of freedom, BTW. You have it, but so does everyone else. You can say what you want, and so can they. Deal with it.
Really, you're like the folks who want to ban flag burning.
Freedom of speech is freedom of speech. People will say things you don't like. Deal with it. These fine folks are dealing with it by making personal attacks and being vulgar. That is their way. If that offends you, well, tough. You don't have the right to not be offended.
Being disrespectful of a person's speech does not equate to disrespecting said person's right to speak it.
Furthermore, arguments such as this only serve to push the real issue out of the way. That is, in fact, how Jack operates. He publicly makes an ass of himself, and then proceeds in attempts to shut up all opposition by attacking the more vulgar responses. He is, in fact, far more offensive than those he seeks to silence, as his attacks often come from Jack Thompson the Lawyer, not Jack Thompson the concerned citizen/author/whiny fucking jerk.
But in the end, it's Amazon's site. They can do as they will.
Shame on you for saying that 50 million people on this planet, ranging from 1 to 100, haven't "the maturity to cross the street alone."
There are damn few public forums where gamers have a chance to break through to a larger audience. Amazon isn't obliged to provide you that platform.
But that's the point, no? Amazon is obliged to do fuck all. Thompson is the one threatening Amazon unless they do what he demands, not gamers.
So fuck off.
That drives me even more insane than usual. There is absolutely nothing like cancelling a long download or initiating a time-consuming update, or hell, REBOOTING THE FUCKING SYSTEM, because of that.
* Actually, I think TweakUI might do just that. I may even have it installed with that option set on my Windows box. It's just a bit too long in the tooth to play the latest games, so I haven't used it lately.
Next time MS or Nintendo pulls something, are you going to forget about what Sony did?
How do you roll your eyes in a /. post?
Please don't rewrite history, it's not nice.
Not that I like Sony or anything. Basically, I despise them. But, quite frankly, I despise MS a lot more. At least Sony has to actually compete, whereas MS just throws its 800 lbs around to get its way. Every single new product they put out, they burn billions of dollars in an attempt to corner the market. Year after year, they just burn cash by the billions, not even looking ahead to profitability, just intent on cornering the entire market. Office and Windows just subsidise everything.
I'd love to say that I'll never support either company again. But I'll be honest, I'm a fucking media-whore. I love video games and movies and music.
Interestingly, ok, and offtopic :), in the case of music, if I can't copy it somehow, it's entirely worthless to me. So, they can only go so far before I *do* stop supporting them. I'm not going to buy something I can't even *use*.
EULAs are a whole other can of worms. Obviously, EULAs should not be able to stop you from exercising fair use, but EULAs are still on shaky enough legal ground that anything could happen in court.
That's what you get when copyright laws are as draconian as they have become. Technically, they have every right to prevent others from examining their software.
You're as bad as all the damn proprietary software vendors who try to prevent people from examining their compiled code in a hex editor or decompiling it.
Why do you want to do this? Is the code proprietary? Does the code contain security sensitive information?
If the latter, then jeez, that's just plain piss poor design. In the case of the former, just put a license warning in the code. It's impossible to "protect" overall design and algorithms anyway.
You can obfuscate the code of course, but really, that's just an exercise in futility.
That's the only response I could come up with. When the whole world's gone crazy, how does one respond rationally?
Seriously, purveyors of spyware should be brought up on charges in criminal court. We do the same for virus writers, how is malware any different? Can you imagine the courts allowing a virus writer to sue AV firms? :)
Well, that'd be a surefire way to get Microsoft to succeed in Japan :)
MmMmmm... math cake.
It's as bad as religion, just fucking blindly believing something because it sounds good.
To have such concrete beliefs is, IMNSHO, always harmful. One's understanding of things, all things, must be mutable, to take new facts and information into consideration.
It's fucking pathetic.
Sure, it takes NVIDIA some time to catch up to the latest kernel changes, but they do a damn decent job considering the kernel is a moving target. If that were not the case, their drivers, which are already the best available, would be even better.
Many hardware manufacturers are not in a position to open up their drivers. It's unfortunate, but that's the reality of the market.
And also, there's no reason we have to accept shoddy drivers if we allow binary-only drivers. Microsoft put an end to that big mess on Windows, and there's no reason we couldn't use similar policies to ensure stability, and we could be even more strict about it. If we had a concerted effort, we could easily pressure hardware companies to fix bugs in their drivers. And for really important drivers, I'm sure there's plenty of folks who'd be willing to sign NDAs in order to get access to the drivers for improving them.
Of course, it's not my call. If the key devs don't want it, it won't happen. Depending on their goals, though, they may be shooting themselves in the foot.
I... ah... I can't even... Nevermind. Must. Suppress. Rage.