When there was only the iPod as a really good portable player, iTunes was the only game in town. Now when you can get decent quality alternatives, interoperability is becoming a much bigger issue and DRM is like a doorstop not letting anyone in.
And when people can't get into a particular venue, they'll look elsewhere. And science bless the internet, there's a lot to choose from these days.
For me programming is not an ideal, it's an ends to a goal.
I didn't have any formal education, when I was younger, there were certain aspects of the computer that bothered me, and I decided to write small programs to do small things that would make the computing experience more friendly (to me and me alone).
As years gone by, the programs grew bigger and eventually they were good enough that I thought other people may want to use them as well. And that was that.
Also, the internet is just great at problem solving. Usually you wouldn't look at a whole project when starting out as it will overwhelm you. However, if you have a specific code problem, there are a lot of sites that explain how to do small & specific things which help your code move along and evolve.
U.S. residents only: The country field on the registration page only gives a U.S. option.
Refunding doesn't refund you the 20 cents transaction fee: If you refund payment, they keep the 20 cents (you get back the 2%).
Support is purchase-centric: As a seller, trying to use the "contact us" link, even from the seller sign-up pages transfers you to a purchase contact-us page. This is misleading.
Chargeback Protection: Google say they will fight for you on chargeback fraud (stolen credit cards used to purchase your products, or just people being a-holes and saying they didn't buy your product, which can be a piece of software and may not actually contain any physical trace).
Comment: I'm really surprised about the "U.S. Only" thing, we use Google's AdSense on our pages and google sends out a check every month no-problem (we're not U.S. based), I don't see why it's any problem appending the sale revenue to the ad revenue check. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.
Apple making the iPhone and instead of having numbers, they'd design it all cool so you'd use the mouse wheel as a rotary dial and you'll get hi-def surround "grrrringg" sound chirping out of the phone's spaker as you do it.
I would like to see an automatic pricing system where the song price may range from 10c to $2 and the price fluxates automatically according to the number of buyers. A "little" like the stock exchange, but with caps on the bottom/top prices.
That way, the really popular songs (as decided by the users themselves) would inflate in price and the more obscure songs will lower in price, which could give them more exposure which may then raise the price back up.
This could work well if Apple would expose the system used to calculate the pricing and the stats for each track downloaded. It would make things interesting.
Why not put the funds toward a refurbish center that will evaluate which hardware is still functional and give it away to people who may use it to better their life (a 300mhz machine can still connect to the internet and do simple tasks such as eMail, Web and IM).
Any left-over junk should be gotten rid of in an orderly fashion as best fit current disposal technology.
Sometimes when I'm searching for some new event that "just happened now" and may not be a world worthy event to get onto the news pages, I would like it if search engines would have a slider to let me choose the importance of the date in the search.
If you're going to track them, do it like every other cheesy Sci-Fi show did by using a necklace with explosives that goes off the moment they veer too far off.
I for one would like to see some of these technologies start to mature already, we've been hearing about new display technologies for at least 5 years now, but nothing serious has come into the mass-market except for postage stamp sized devices. Which while may be good for digital cameras and cell phones are not practical for TV sets.
Currently the two ruling flatscreen TV technologies plainly suck. LCDs have horrible viewing angles, images smear or are aliased due to slow rates while Plasma have degrading brightness (usual plasmas can lose half its brightness in around 6 years and die in 12) and are way too expensive.
I'm hoping that they come out with decent DRM, one that lets you burn a copy of the content onto a DVD-R or similar device (while maintaining the DRM), so that we actually get to OWN a copy of the content we buy with no further online authentication.
The few experiments of consistant online authentication (requiring you to be online to play the content) pretty much failed (original DIVX, a few WMV DRM such as T2:UE).
If they made it smart, let you download a disc image, along with printable covers with a DRM that is self authenticating, I think they would have a lot of business, as lets face it... people want contant NOW, like right now. Even 24h shipping is too much for some.
People keep saying that bandwidth cost is a major issue. It simply isn't. Currently, hosting my site, I pay under $100 for over 1000gb. This is on a reputable major hosting solution.
So if $1 = 10gb (it's actually a little cheaper), why do they even need the bandwidth?
If it costs them 10 cents to send you a movie in high quality MPEG4, without the need for P2P networks, I simply don't see any bandwidth issues.
I'm sure that they will charge at least $5/movie, 10 cents is transfer costs is nothing. And it's only going to get cheaper as the infastructure continues to evolve.
Secure content is just part of their forumla. They are also introducing encrypted transport systems that will ensure that the data will remain encrypted all the way from the source material to the display device.
Might not make it into this generation if they plan to release content in the next 2 years, but that is their end-goal, complete control over every aspect.
The only way to bypass anything like this is to find chinks in their encryption or use a hardware mod, such as ones used in console devices sold today to bypass various artificial restrictions.
This is a beta, so take with a pinch of salt as things may improve.
Stability: I was able to crash it within 30 seconds by simply opening the config dialog (the in-game one) and pressing the "X" at the top-right section of the dialog in order to close it.
I managed to crash it a few more times in the next 10 minutes just by playing around with the various interfaces.
The User Interface: The difference between a good game and a great game is by how intuative the user interface is. The user interface here is awful. Everything from the character creation to actual gameplay is unintuative. I know it's far from complete, but we're talking basic stuff here. There's no way to easily understand what part of the user interface is active or not (i.e. mouse highlighting). This is very apparent on the character creation screen.
Game Engine: The graphics are pretty good all considering. The polygon count on the characters is good, but the landscape is pretty low. Character movement is smooth, but doesn't seem connected to the actual surface they are walking on (when the character walks, it appears as if they are gliding over the surface while their legs are shuffling).
There are frequent mini-freezes as you turn around and walking down long staircases could make you dizzy as the screen jumps so much.
Camera pans are ok, but you can pan right through objects which appears odd.
Conclusion: I'd give it several more months to mature, especially in the user interface department.
Slashdot Mirror
When there was only the iPod as a really good portable player, iTunes was the only game in town. Now when you can get decent quality alternatives, interoperability is becoming a much bigger issue and DRM is like a doorstop not letting anyone in.
And when people can't get into a particular venue, they'll look elsewhere. And science bless the internet, there's a lot to choose from these days.
For me programming is not an ideal, it's an ends to a goal.
I didn't have any formal education, when I was younger, there were certain aspects of the computer that bothered me, and I decided to write small programs to do small things that would make the computing experience more friendly (to me and me alone).
As years gone by, the programs grew bigger and eventually they were good enough that I thought other people may want to use them as well. And that was that.
Also, the internet is just great at problem solving. Usually you wouldn't look at a whole project when starting out as it will overwhelm you. However, if you have a specific code problem, there are a lot of sites that explain how to do small & specific things which help your code move along and evolve.
There are quite a few issues:
U.S. residents only:
The country field on the registration page only gives a U.S. option.
Refunding doesn't refund you the 20 cents transaction fee:
If you refund payment, they keep the 20 cents (you get back the 2%).
Support is purchase-centric:
As a seller, trying to use the "contact us" link, even from the seller sign-up pages transfers you to a purchase contact-us page. This is misleading.
Chargeback Protection:
Google say they will fight for you on chargeback fraud (stolen credit cards used to purchase your products, or just people being a-holes and saying they didn't buy your product, which can be a piece of software and may not actually contain any physical trace).
Comment:
I'm really surprised about the "U.S. Only" thing, we use Google's AdSense on our pages and google sends out a check every month no-problem (we're not U.S. based), I don't see why it's any problem appending the sale revenue to the ad revenue check. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.
NWO? Really?
Apple making the iPhone and instead of having numbers, they'd design it all cool so you'd use the mouse wheel as a rotary dial and you'll get hi-def surround "grrrringg" sound chirping out of the phone's spaker as you do it.
There have been rumors that Google is contemplating an internet alternative, buying darknet fibers.
Perhaps this is just another step in their effort to put up an alternative to the Internet itself.
I would like to see an automatic pricing system where the song price may range from 10c to $2 and the price fluxates automatically according to the number of buyers. A "little" like the stock exchange, but with caps on the bottom/top prices.
That way, the really popular songs (as decided by the users themselves) would inflate in price and the more obscure songs will lower in price, which could give them more exposure which may then raise the price back up.
This could work well if Apple would expose the system used to calculate the pricing and the stats for each track downloaded. It would make things interesting.
Let free-market rule!
Think of the children!
At least for international areas, the maps don't seem to be as detailed as google's.
Also, the interface doesn't seem to be reactive to me, might be slashdotted, but at least with google you can see it's doing something.
I guess it's a bit early, should probably check again in a few days.
Why not put the funds toward a refurbish center that will evaluate which hardware is still functional and give it away to people who may use it to better their life (a 300mhz machine can still connect to the internet and do simple tasks such as eMail, Web and IM).
Any left-over junk should be gotten rid of in an orderly fashion as best fit current disposal technology.
Sometimes when I'm searching for some new event that "just happened now" and may not be a world worthy event to get onto the news pages, I would like it if search engines would have a slider to let me choose the importance of the date in the search.
If you're going to track them, do it like every other cheesy Sci-Fi show did by using a necklace with explosives that goes off the moment they veer too far off.
I for one would like to see some of these technologies start to mature already, we've been hearing about new display technologies for at least 5 years now, but nothing serious has come into the mass-market except for postage stamp sized devices. Which while may be good for digital cameras and cell phones are not practical for TV sets.
Currently the two ruling flatscreen TV technologies plainly suck. LCDs have horrible viewing angles, images smear or are aliased due to slow rates while Plasma have degrading brightness (usual plasmas can lose half its brightness in around 6 years and die in 12) and are way too expensive.
I for one would like to see google bankroll X-Prize type programs that will advance the human race as a whole.
Competition is very good for innovation and if you put several millions into something, that could help to shine a light on a problem.
Not to mention that the paltry prizes offered by NASA are pretty much pointless.
I'm hoping that they come out with decent DRM, one that lets you burn a copy of the content onto a DVD-R or similar device (while maintaining the DRM), so that we actually get to OWN a copy of the content we buy with no further online authentication. The few experiments of consistant online authentication (requiring you to be online to play the content) pretty much failed (original DIVX, a few WMV DRM such as T2:UE). If they made it smart, let you download a disc image, along with printable covers with a DRM that is self authenticating, I think they would have a lot of business, as lets face it... people want contant NOW, like right now. Even 24h shipping is too much for some.
I followed your logic, searched for this term and google brought up this article! Now i'm trapped in an endless loop, help!
People keep saying that bandwidth cost is a major issue. It simply isn't. Currently, hosting my site, I pay under $100 for over 1000gb. This is on a reputable major hosting solution. So if $1 = 10gb (it's actually a little cheaper), why do they even need the bandwidth? If it costs them 10 cents to send you a movie in high quality MPEG4, without the need for P2P networks, I simply don't see any bandwidth issues. I'm sure that they will charge at least $5/movie, 10 cents is transfer costs is nothing. And it's only going to get cheaper as the infastructure continues to evolve.
Secure content is just part of their forumla. They are also introducing encrypted transport systems that will ensure that the data will remain encrypted all the way from the source material to the display device. Might not make it into this generation if they plan to release content in the next 2 years, but that is their end-goal, complete control over every aspect. The only way to bypass anything like this is to find chinks in their encryption or use a hardware mod, such as ones used in console devices sold today to bypass various artificial restrictions.
This is a beta, so take with a pinch of salt as things may improve.
Stability:
I was able to crash it within 30 seconds by simply opening the config dialog (the in-game one) and pressing the "X" at the top-right section of the dialog in order to close it.
I managed to crash it a few more times in the next 10 minutes just by playing around with the various interfaces.
The User Interface:
The difference between a good game and a great game is by how intuative the user interface is. The user interface here is awful. Everything from the character creation to actual gameplay is unintuative. I know it's far from complete, but we're talking basic stuff here. There's no way to easily understand what part of the user interface is active or not (i.e. mouse highlighting). This is very apparent on the character creation screen.
Game Engine:
The graphics are pretty good all considering. The polygon count on the characters is good, but the landscape is pretty low. Character movement is smooth, but doesn't seem connected to the actual surface they are walking on (when the character walks, it appears as if they are gliding over the surface while their legs are shuffling).
There are frequent mini-freezes as you turn around and walking down long staircases could make you dizzy as the screen jumps so much.
Camera pans are ok, but you can pan right through objects which appears odd.
Conclusion:
I'd give it several more months to mature, especially in the user interface department.