What exactly are you protesting in here about? You don't like the way people are being kindly reminded that they've already spent money on a product and don't need to buy it twice?
I ain't say'n nothin' till I see the prices of the cartidges. So the print head's in the printer, now, instead of on the cartridge. This supposedly will reduce the cost of the cartridges...(which have been the money-maker behind the printing business for the past decade). I'm not holding my breath, though. If I do, I'll probably wind up efixiated and broke.
1) Would they need to? If they created crappy code for AMD, and their strategy was to screw AMD and favor Intel, why would they need to know how to fully optimize code for the AMD chips? All they need is something that functions at that point.
2) And if it was just a publicity stunt, it can only go good or bad for AMD, and...how would you know?
You want to test-drive a car, so you go steal it, drive it around, and bring it back, and everything's okay? No. This is why car dealerships have sales people ready so you can ask for a test-drive and cruise around.
Companies offer demos so you can legally try their products. The fact that you CAN steal the program, doesn't mean you're supposed to. If you try the demo and it doesn't answer your questions, that's when you're supposed to contact their sales department and start chatting. That's what they're there fore. The demo is to give you a DEMO of the product, as an icebreaker. If you like it, you buy. If you don't, you don't. If you're not sure, the sales people are there to help you decide.
This goes hand-in-hand with the fact that you can't honestly tell me that everyone who steals a program to "just try it out" and ends up liking it, ditches the stollen copy and buys it legally. That's crap.
Just because something is created in 1's and 0's, doesn't make any difference. Someone constructed that program from 1's and 0's the same way a carpenter constructs a chair from wood and nails.
Welcome to the digital age, where not all creations are tangible objects.
Someone had to sit down and work with the 1's and 0's to create an end result product, the same way that a jeweler makes a ring from a bit of gold, or a writer makes a story from ink and paper. The question about whether or not these are real products should not factor at all.
The toys in the toy-store have a price not just for ownership, but for play. You pay to play. As soon as you start playing with it, you're crossing the line. Given, in a toy-store, most toys can be played with before purchase, but there's a line between the two.
From a moral standpoint, regardless of money and crime, these things shouldn't be done. Morality and ethics are personal controls that all mature people should have, which, in the event of such choices, should lead people away from wrong, not towards it. The legality may be completely a non-factor, but morality remains. To steal or not to steal.
Technically, it's wrong. However, you've hit on some key problems the world is facing right now (and no, I'm not pointing the finger at MS).
MS doesn't support nor sell Win98 anymore, so if you steal it, is it okay? Well, not really. However, if your efforts are for charity, I'd be willing to bet that you could call up MS, tell them what you plan to do, and you'd be fine. Believe it or not, but MS isn't so evil, and they are well known charity contributors. They already have programs like this, too.
But lets stay on topic. Stealing the software, for whatever reason, is still stealing. You've hit one of the problems we're facing today, which is essentially "what do we do with outdated software that can't be bought?" It is clear that there needs to be a drive to address these problems.
And think about what you stand to lose by doing so? If you steal the software, and MS finds out, you can be sure they're not going to be so happy then (vs if you had worked with them beforehand). You'd be a criminal facing charges and fines, and in all likelyhood all those old people would have the computers taken away...because you DID commit a crime by letter of the law.
So, wait...the government is supposed to fight crime, but if they do anything, it's a conspiracy?
Personally, I find it hard to believe that this constitutes the government being in the pocket of anyone. For little to no media coverage, and barely a drop-in-a-bucket impact, doesn't seem like the corporations got much of a deal.
(this comment is not specifically directed towards anyone)
Having worked in the gaming industry, I can understand clearly that the "big corporations" are a bad thing and money hogs. However, it should be made clear that the actual game developers are NOT big corporations but small companies under those big corporations. They not only do all the work making the game, but they run on a tight budget that demands profit, otherwise they quite literally collapse and die.
Those little companies may only be getting a small fraction of the total sale, true, but when you do the math, you can easily see how much damage is done.
Let's say you own Company X, which is the average gaming making company under the corporation. You -must have- $200,000 in profits to make all ends meet (developement costs, staff pay, etc). And let's say that in your marketing partnership with Sierra (dreaded corporation) your profit from sales of your game is 14-percent. That means your game must sell about $1,428,571 to make ends meet. Okay?
Now what happens when people start stealing the game and profits go down? In our example, lets say sales only rake in $900,000, instead of the 1.4-million. 14-Percent of $900 Grand is only $126,000. Ooooh. Too short. Your company is at a $74,000 loss. Maybe you'll make it up in the next game, right? Hopefully your team can survive another year or two and things will look up. Otherwise, yer gone. Just like Legend Entertainment, or Impressions. Not enough money, not enough for yer company.
The bottom line is that sure, the piracy probably doesn't hurt the corporation so much, but it certainly hurts the little guys making the games. Fighting the corporations by stealing the software, essentially, only serves to hurt the people you don't want to hurt.
I'm sure the goal of the people protesting the corporations is not to destroy gaming. There are legal ways to protest that are also moral and ethical. Why destroy the little guy and one's personal integrity? Stealing the software does nothing good for anyone.
Yeah, I have to agree with you there. I'm a huge advocate of anti-piracy stuff, but sometimes there are no alternatives. Like you said, if you want an old game (like Yar's Revenge, for instance) you're pretty much stuck with two options: eBay, or download it.
Personally, though, if I want something old and can't find it on eBay, or through a legal download means, I usually give up. I'd rather just keep poking around eBay and yard sales at random than mess with the viruses, spam, etc, involved in downloading software.
Looking at the one screenshot showing the routes, it says the game lasted 14 minutes. That's a heck of a long route the one guy made (outer track) for only 14 minutes! LOL. I'm probably missing something, though...wutever.
AutoCAD has a demo, if you want to try it, you download the demo and try it. If there is no demo for a product, the company's lack of foresight is not a basis for the destruction of one's personal morals and ethics.
You can always talk to a company and ask about a demo (if you don't see one). There's usually a good reason why they don't have a demo, such as a certain client base, or lack of funding.
NASA is already working on a number of robotics programs, several of which are aimed towards doing just this. However, I wouldn't want to wait till 2015-20 for them to get close to being successful with those projects before we got back into space, especially when in the mean-time humans can do the tasks.
As for the ISS, repairing broken tiles on the space-shuttle is not a matter of where the shuttle is. Whether it's docked to the ISS or on its own orbit is of little concern.
Perhaps, though I know many people who switch over minor problems. It's one thing to have multiple major problems and choose to switch. It's another to just have a short attention span and not endevour to solve the problems that exist. Most problems I hear people complain about are fixable, they just don't take the time to learn what the problem is and fix it.
I often have to wonder what people do to their Windows systems, to. I mean, I have two Windows boxes at home, both connected to the Internet, and I use them for just about everything (programming, gaming, writing, editing, surfing, etc)...and I haven't had a single crash on either box (save for once when I overloaded a buffer while compiling a map).
And of all the dozens and dozens of machines I've owned and used, and use each day, I've never had one just blow up for no reason, and I've never had one die from viruses 5 minutes after connecting to the net, etc, etc.
Listening to bad Windows stories is kinda like listening to the evening news. All one hears is the bad stuff...and since all one hears is bad, one thinks all is bad.
What's that smell? Smells like a zombie infestation in here. Bunch of anti-MS whiner zombies mixed in with generous helping of Linux-elitists zombies....If there's an ounce of valid and worthy conversation in here, I'd be surprised.
I'm not sure you can really classify this thing as a "kids do screw up" thing. I mean, kids doing stupid stuff is like backing up over the mailbox or not wearing a helmet and stuff like that. Spending time developing a virus and working with the collected data, is less of an "opps, didn't know that would happen" and more of a "where were his parents and doesn't this kid know right from wrong?" thing.
It's too bad they didn't decide to do something more, like put it on his permanent record or something.
I think it has need for a lot of improvement. A lot of improvement.
Besides, the basic concept they've done isn't so difficult to work through. I'll be impressed when they build one that can do slides, or have enough finnese to give it feeling.
Economically, this tactic hasn't worked too well. In the US, terrorists completely destroyed the WTT, one of our biggest economic centers, and life has gone on with little a hitch. In the UK, despite destruction of a segment of the transit system, life will go on. As the military steps-up further, more money will flow into the economy from the purchase and manufacture of weapons and equipment.
As for the resolve, the British resolve to defend themselves against terrorism has been further bolstered. The people, refreshed of the reality of the situation, are more likely to push for further protections and/or investigations.
Aside from this all, perhaps our further "risk" from terrorists is due to our "modern" notion of diplomacy. I liked the older version better, where if someone messes with you, you charge back ten-fold and wipe them from the face of the Earth.
In several of the below threads, people are talking about piracy, and the movie industry, with regards to the news in this topic. My post is in response to that.
Retention policies don't factor in. Company's are required by law to be able to put a hold on their documents as needed, regardless of the company's retention policies. If there's an automatic retention schedule going on, and the courts say "no shredding", someone stops the retention schedule. Failure to do so results in legal consequences (such as "destruction of potentially incriminating data").
You know, terrorists are pretty stupid people. No really, they have to be some of the dumbest folks I've ever known. Let's examine the facts, shall we?
1. The populace might be scared, but the powers-that-be aren't. Blowing up a subway, though tragic for the citizens, does nothing to effect the British military...which is now further in action due to an angry government. Good job.
2. What, in all domains of intelligence and common sense, would make a terrorist think that the British would yeild to this kind of action? For starters, the British are known for being some of the most stubborn people in Europe!
3. Scare tactics and violence don't effect the British. If suffering massive casualties and leveling their cities is the terrorist's plan for getting the British to listen, someone needs to point them to the nearest WWII documentery.
4. Blowing up a subway and a bus, will hardly do anything to make the British back down. If anything, it will only achieve making the British tighten their security, heighten their awareness, and step-up their efforts against the terrorists....I didn't know the terrorist objective was to make things harder for themselves. Idiots.
So, though I am not British nor am I in the UK, I say have a good day, put the kettle on, and get a broom. Hopefully one day the terrorist dorks will get a clue.
Slashdot Mirror
This is kinda like that 80-million dollar study that was done back in 2002 to figure out "why convicts want to escape prison."
LOL
What exactly are you protesting in here about? You don't like the way people are being kindly reminded that they've already spent money on a product and don't need to buy it twice?
I ain't say'n nothin' till I see the prices of the cartidges. So the print head's in the printer, now, instead of on the cartridge. This supposedly will reduce the cost of the cartridges...(which have been the money-maker behind the printing business for the past decade). I'm not holding my breath, though. If I do, I'll probably wind up efixiated and broke.
1) Would they need to? If they created crappy code for AMD, and their strategy was to screw AMD and favor Intel, why would they need to know how to fully optimize code for the AMD chips? All they need is something that functions at that point.
2) And if it was just a publicity stunt, it can only go good or bad for AMD, and...how would you know?
You want to test-drive a car, so you go steal it, drive it around, and bring it back, and everything's okay? No. This is why car dealerships have sales people ready so you can ask for a test-drive and cruise around.
Companies offer demos so you can legally try their products. The fact that you CAN steal the program, doesn't mean you're supposed to. If you try the demo and it doesn't answer your questions, that's when you're supposed to contact their sales department and start chatting. That's what they're there fore. The demo is to give you a DEMO of the product, as an icebreaker. If you like it, you buy. If you don't, you don't. If you're not sure, the sales people are there to help you decide.
This goes hand-in-hand with the fact that you can't honestly tell me that everyone who steals a program to "just try it out" and ends up liking it, ditches the stollen copy and buys it legally. That's crap.
Just because something is created in 1's and 0's, doesn't make any difference. Someone constructed that program from 1's and 0's the same way a carpenter constructs a chair from wood and nails.
Welcome to the digital age, where not all creations are tangible objects.
Someone had to sit down and work with the 1's and 0's to create an end result product, the same way that a jeweler makes a ring from a bit of gold, or a writer makes a story from ink and paper. The question about whether or not these are real products should not factor at all.
So instead of trying to control the piracy by attacking the servers, you want the government to control the public's mentality?
And here I was just thinking I'd never hear someone say that!...LOL
The toys in the toy-store have a price not just for ownership, but for play. You pay to play. As soon as you start playing with it, you're crossing the line. Given, in a toy-store, most toys can be played with before purchase, but there's a line between the two.
From a moral standpoint, regardless of money and crime, these things shouldn't be done. Morality and ethics are personal controls that all mature people should have, which, in the event of such choices, should lead people away from wrong, not towards it. The legality may be completely a non-factor, but morality remains. To steal or not to steal.
Technically, it's wrong. However, you've hit on some key problems the world is facing right now (and no, I'm not pointing the finger at MS).
MS doesn't support nor sell Win98 anymore, so if you steal it, is it okay? Well, not really. However, if your efforts are for charity, I'd be willing to bet that you could call up MS, tell them what you plan to do, and you'd be fine. Believe it or not, but MS isn't so evil, and they are well known charity contributors. They already have programs like this, too.
But lets stay on topic. Stealing the software, for whatever reason, is still stealing. You've hit one of the problems we're facing today, which is essentially "what do we do with outdated software that can't be bought?" It is clear that there needs to be a drive to address these problems.
And think about what you stand to lose by doing so? If you steal the software, and MS finds out, you can be sure they're not going to be so happy then (vs if you had worked with them beforehand). You'd be a criminal facing charges and fines, and in all likelyhood all those old people would have the computers taken away...because you DID commit a crime by letter of the law.
Tell that to the guy who spent 4 months in a cubicle programming for a paycheck.
So, wait...the government is supposed to fight crime, but if they do anything, it's a conspiracy?
Personally, I find it hard to believe that this constitutes the government being in the pocket of anyone. For little to no media coverage, and barely a drop-in-a-bucket impact, doesn't seem like the corporations got much of a deal.
Hunting down virus writers is a bit harder than tracking down a warez server.
Besdies, they've had some hits on the virus ring too this year. They just tried and sentenced the dork who created the saser virus.
(this comment is not specifically directed towards anyone)
Having worked in the gaming industry, I can understand clearly that the "big corporations" are a bad thing and money hogs. However, it should be made clear that the actual game developers are NOT big corporations but small companies under those big corporations. They not only do all the work making the game, but they run on a tight budget that demands profit, otherwise they quite literally collapse and die.
Those little companies may only be getting a small fraction of the total sale, true, but when you do the math, you can easily see how much damage is done.
Let's say you own Company X, which is the average gaming making company under the corporation. You -must have- $200,000 in profits to make all ends meet (developement costs, staff pay, etc). And let's say that in your marketing partnership with Sierra (dreaded corporation) your profit from sales of your game is 14-percent. That means your game must sell about $1,428,571 to make ends meet. Okay?
Now what happens when people start stealing the game and profits go down? In our example, lets say sales only rake in $900,000, instead of the 1.4-million. 14-Percent of $900 Grand is only $126,000. Ooooh. Too short. Your company is at a $74,000 loss. Maybe you'll make it up in the next game, right? Hopefully your team can survive another year or two and things will look up. Otherwise, yer gone. Just like Legend Entertainment, or Impressions. Not enough money, not enough for yer company.
The bottom line is that sure, the piracy probably doesn't hurt the corporation so much, but it certainly hurts the little guys making the games. Fighting the corporations by stealing the software, essentially, only serves to hurt the people you don't want to hurt.
I'm sure the goal of the people protesting the corporations is not to destroy gaming. There are legal ways to protest that are also moral and ethical. Why destroy the little guy and one's personal integrity? Stealing the software does nothing good for anyone.
Yeah, I have to agree with you there. I'm a huge advocate of anti-piracy stuff, but sometimes there are no alternatives. Like you said, if you want an old game (like Yar's Revenge, for instance) you're pretty much stuck with two options: eBay, or download it.
Personally, though, if I want something old and can't find it on eBay, or through a legal download means, I usually give up. I'd rather just keep poking around eBay and yard sales at random than mess with the viruses, spam, etc, involved in downloading software.
Looking at the one screenshot showing the routes, it says the game lasted 14 minutes. That's a heck of a long route the one guy made (outer track) for only 14 minutes! LOL. I'm probably missing something, though...wutever.
AutoCAD has a demo, if you want to try it, you download the demo and try it. If there is no demo for a product, the company's lack of foresight is not a basis for the destruction of one's personal morals and ethics.
You can always talk to a company and ask about a demo (if you don't see one). There's usually a good reason why they don't have a demo, such as a certain client base, or lack of funding.
NASA is already working on a number of robotics programs, several of which are aimed towards doing just this. However, I wouldn't want to wait till 2015-20 for them to get close to being successful with those projects before we got back into space, especially when in the mean-time humans can do the tasks.
As for the ISS, repairing broken tiles on the space-shuttle is not a matter of where the shuttle is. Whether it's docked to the ISS or on its own orbit is of little concern.
Perhaps, though I know many people who switch over minor problems. It's one thing to have multiple major problems and choose to switch. It's another to just have a short attention span and not endevour to solve the problems that exist. Most problems I hear people complain about are fixable, they just don't take the time to learn what the problem is and fix it.
I often have to wonder what people do to their Windows systems, to. I mean, I have two Windows boxes at home, both connected to the Internet, and I use them for just about everything (programming, gaming, writing, editing, surfing, etc)...and I haven't had a single crash on either box (save for once when I overloaded a buffer while compiling a map).
And of all the dozens and dozens of machines I've owned and used, and use each day, I've never had one just blow up for no reason, and I've never had one die from viruses 5 minutes after connecting to the net, etc, etc.
Listening to bad Windows stories is kinda like listening to the evening news. All one hears is the bad stuff...and since all one hears is bad, one thinks all is bad.
What's that smell? Smells like a zombie infestation in here. Bunch of anti-MS whiner zombies mixed in with generous helping of Linux-elitists zombies....If there's an ounce of valid and worthy conversation in here, I'd be surprised.
I'm not sure you can really classify this thing as a "kids do screw up" thing. I mean, kids doing stupid stuff is like backing up over the mailbox or not wearing a helmet and stuff like that. Spending time developing a virus and working with the collected data, is less of an "opps, didn't know that would happen" and more of a "where were his parents and doesn't this kid know right from wrong?" thing.
It's too bad they didn't decide to do something more, like put it on his permanent record or something.
I think it has need for a lot of improvement. A lot of improvement.
Besides, the basic concept they've done isn't so difficult to work through. I'll be impressed when they build one that can do slides, or have enough finnese to give it feeling.
Economically, this tactic hasn't worked too well. In the US, terrorists completely destroyed the WTT, one of our biggest economic centers, and life has gone on with little a hitch. In the UK, despite destruction of a segment of the transit system, life will go on. As the military steps-up further, more money will flow into the economy from the purchase and manufacture of weapons and equipment.
As for the resolve, the British resolve to defend themselves against terrorism has been further bolstered. The people, refreshed of the reality of the situation, are more likely to push for further protections and/or investigations.
Aside from this all, perhaps our further "risk" from terrorists is due to our "modern" notion of diplomacy. I liked the older version better, where if someone messes with you, you charge back ten-fold and wipe them from the face of the Earth.
In several of the below threads, people are talking about piracy, and the movie industry, with regards to the news in this topic. My post is in response to that.
Pththt!!!
Retention policies don't factor in. Company's are required by law to be able to put a hold on their documents as needed, regardless of the company's retention policies. If there's an automatic retention schedule going on, and the courts say "no shredding", someone stops the retention schedule. Failure to do so results in legal consequences (such as "destruction of potentially incriminating data").
You know, terrorists are pretty stupid people. No really, they have to be some of the dumbest folks I've ever known. Let's examine the facts, shall we?
...I didn't know the terrorist objective was to make things harder for themselves. Idiots.
1. The populace might be scared, but the powers-that-be aren't. Blowing up a subway, though tragic for the citizens, does nothing to effect the British military...which is now further in action due to an angry government. Good job.
2. What, in all domains of intelligence and common sense, would make a terrorist think that the British would yeild to this kind of action? For starters, the British are known for being some of the most stubborn people in Europe!
3. Scare tactics and violence don't effect the British. If suffering massive casualties and leveling their cities is the terrorist's plan for getting the British to listen, someone needs to point them to the nearest WWII documentery.
4. Blowing up a subway and a bus, will hardly do anything to make the British back down. If anything, it will only achieve making the British tighten their security, heighten their awareness, and step-up their efforts against the terrorists.
So, though I am not British nor am I in the UK, I say have a good day, put the kettle on, and get a broom. Hopefully one day the terrorist dorks will get a clue.