agreed, although it has little to do with this issue. Due to a faulty graphics board my view of second life has been limited to the character creation and customization parts, but as my replacement gets shipped, I'll be eager to take in the rest of it.
And you realize of course that guided tours is a business idea that people could charge a buck or two for. Of course, from what I've learned already, there is always people willing to guide and help, if you just ask.
How could they do more than their best, thats the issue here... At the time they opened up, there probably was no green powersuppliers, and that means there is no physical possibility for every piece of machinery in their plants to be made from 100% environmental friendly stuff.
Does this mean its no use? No of course not... You go for the lesser of two weevils.
100% green IS a realistic goal - bit not for yesterday, only for the future. Now that we have a green powerplant, the next one can use green power when they build. So it's a chain reaction.
You, are obviously not interested in being part of that chain. But let us that will do so.
Seriously... No pics, no details, no blueprints or guides or anything... It's like saying "Well ya, I've got this car, and I've been thinking.... touch screens. Yeah. Gonna control everything."
Gah. Get over it. This is not news. It's being done all over. RV's and trailers with extensive electronics is omething you can just go to the nearest dealer to experience. If you think I meant RV-dealer, that will work, and if you think i meant drugdealer, then that woudl work too, because the DEA outside would have one of them trailers.
No, give me an article that shows pics of all these cool gadgets, writes about what OS they use, how they program it, how the computers are clustered, how many Megaflops they can do and how many MP3's they fit on their in-house entertainment system. Because this... this is nothing.
AFAIK you can set your land as a "no-fly zone". So make that step 1. Step 2, program your game so that only YOUR cars are tracked on the racetrack. Make it possible to rent out a "tracker" if residents wants to test their homebrews against each other. Make sure the tracker goes on a separate channel, and you can have homebuilt vehicles and your own on the track at the same time, without any mixups.
But... I guess you are too set on seeing the limitations instead of the possibilities. Which is quite opposite to Second Life...
first of all, some games do allow players the full ownership of their "bits". For instance, Second Life from Linden Labs. The game in question here though I cant say, I was at their page, and it seems the game has not yet passed Beta.
Either way... the people saying that piracy is a crime has forever said that it is Theft, and nothing else. Then this must be as well. It is the stealing of another persons virtual property, or immaterial property, or potential cashflow, or whatever.
These particular bits where apparently worth a lot of green, so it had a value for the player beyond the bits it was composed of. So wheter or not an actual object was stolen, the player was robbed of a potential income.
Then we can of course forever keep on discussing the similarities to copyright and stuff, but it falls slightly off the topic here. Suffice to say that this loss of income is no less real than what the RIAA gets to rodger a lot of filesharers over, so it should be handled just as much as a crime.
I have heard that argument many times to all types of biometrics, and RFID identification. But seriously, hacking limbs off is something much less people would do than stealing a couple of keys. So you have drastically reduced chanse of crime.
Not to mention they must have the opportunity to do so, which also is less likely than the opportunity to swipe some keys.
So in the end, this is not likely to happen. Especially with RFID tags. If anyone was this set on getting yur stuff, they would most likely just knock you out and drag you to the door, or perhaps cut out the chip. Either way, not much harm done.
I'm the reason america is so fat? Wow. All my friends here in Sweden will love me for it, cause none of them is too fond of america.
Still, I do see your point, as I am overweight myself. I spent a few years living in a small oneroom apartement in the middle of the city, never had to go more than about 100 yards max for whatever I ever wanted... That causes some severe overweight after a while. Now I live on a farm instead, take long walks with the dog every day, and of course the kilos just keep dropping.
But I must say, that turnign keys and flipping lightswitches is not exactly the kind of exercize that would help people loose wight, or stay slim.
Its taking thr stairs instead of the elevator, walking the two miles to the shop instead of taking the car, and then carrying your groceries home the same distance... These things will help anyone loose weight. Flicking the light on and off wont...
I've been thinking about that actually. It could be cool to have teh house "recognize" its owner and automatically tuirn on and off lighting and heat and alarms and stuff. and unlock doors.
Lots of cool appliances.
Now I just need an RFID tag, and that "do it yourself surgeon" kit.
The weirdest dead pixel I ever encountered was on a CRT screen. Nobody believed me until i dragged the screen to the shop, had them plug it in, and showed it to them. A little black pixel about an inch from the left side and two inches from the bottom edge. Helluva annoyance, and I did get it on my warranty, although they had no idea what they where going to mark it as.
no really... at this time in life I have never had any data that I would want to keep for more than a decade. There are several reasons:
Within a decade there will be new technology out that will require me to transfer everything anyways. Example given: all my old VHS tapes met the scrapheap as soon as I got a DVD-burner.
Within a decade I most likely will not be listening to the same music... Example given: The 80s. or most any decade. For golden oldies you still prefer, see the above point.
Any thing I wrote a decade ago is either published, or crap, or both. Anything to be kept for emotional purposes, see point one.
And finally, any program I liked a deacade ago, most likely wont play on my new computer. If it does, I can always keep a copy in whatever format is popular at the time.
Well, maybe there is one more reason... If ANYTHING is THAT important to me after more than a decade, for gods sake, smack me, I'm living in the past. For any exceptions to this, again... see exampe one about transfer.
So who the friggin heck needs this anyways? I have a bunch of 5.1/4 floppys that work just fine, but seriously, what use are they to me?
(I'll answer that one myself... Decoration and shooting targets.)
a) any items value is not determined by what it is worth when you get it, but how much a sucker is willign to pay for it.
b) it was NOT given away... I quote the article: "Qiu and a friend jointly won their weapon last February, and lent it to Zhu who then sold it"
it was not given away, but lent to a friend. Suppose I drop by your house when you are on vacation, because you lent it to me. If I sold it, would you be pissed?
What is worse however is also in the article...
"Qui went to the police to report the "theft" but was told the weapon was not real property protected by law."
I think this is an issue that should never be able to arise. I mean, that sword is just as much real property as the latest copy of Quake 3 or Windows XP... just bits, right? just virtual property... not worth the fuzz, not anything to be protected by silly laws or anything.
So ownership established, HIS virtual property was sold by another person without consent, for real money.
But thanks for the heads up. If I show up at your house with a lovely Katana sword, you'll know I'm leaving with the sword, or a shitload of not so virtual cash.
Thats a rather stupid way to look at it. If you read the article you clearly note that this is not an argument over a game per se, but an argument over a guy who sold something (virtual possesion) that belonged to another guy. This was not just over something lost in a virtual world, this was over what the dead guy gained in the real world from what he borrowed in the virtual one.
I mean seriously.. consider the money in your bank account. For most people these days, its numbers on a screen. Following your logic, if I took say 50% of those numbers and transfered into my account, you have no right to be upset?
Sure, games can be addictive, as can the internet, sex, gambling, pencils, sunlight, post-it notes, and obsessove slashdot commenting... but this is one article that could not have less to do with addiction...
the guy was ROBBED for about $800... and you say he is an addict for reacting?
hmmm... a DVD-rip of 8 gigs... what compression... UUENCODE?
I mean seriously... either he was talking about a DVD-R, in which case previewing is out of the case, or he just doesnt know anything about downloading in the first place.
Nah, what really bothers me about downloading is all that gay porn that I cant find because it is named "teletubbies go out" or "operah talks back episode 666"
Seriously, you need to let life loose a bit, eh? not be so controlling. Not be so rushed and stressed.
This is how you do it: Day one, watch what ever is downloaded, spend half an hour filling up downloadlist in emule and start the latest movies on download in bit-torrent.
Day two, watch the movie you downloaded from bit-torrent, check for better sources for some of the emule stuff. Start another torrent download.
Day three, watch the movie you downloaded by torrent, cancel half your emule downloads because you no longer feel like seeing them, swear at the gay porn that for some reason is very available and downloaded in five minutes, and add another list of downloads. Start two new torrent downloads, because friends will be over tomorrow.
Day four, never mind checking the mule, your friends might see the gay porn you just KNOW is in that last file completed. Just watch the two torrents.
Now, this could go on forever. If you replace emule with kazaa its the same thing, only you'll have to run an antivirus scan every day as well.
Emule brings stuff down slow but steady, torrent brings stuff down until the next day. The video store still means you have to get off your ass, go down there, spend money, and then go back if there is any problem with the disc or vhs. It's not that difficult... just need to get into the rhythm.
Oh yeah, and in sweden video stores dont have flat rates and stuff. it's generraly around... $2-3 per movie per day, or two for $5-6. That way downloading is really the only viable alternative... although I still rent movies some times when I visit friends. Unless I just throw a disc in the burner and fry whatever I got.
might want to add that is the '71 Vanishing Point.
The beta however did add an image of Viggo Mortensen from the '97 made for TV remake that is entirely different and looses a lot of points. (Gains some new ones, but thats an other issue.)
Heh, okay, I must have misunderstood you about the "record company argument."
When it comes to universal right though: in all societies, Murder is not only acceptable, but give the highest reward possible.. as long as the reasons is good. Or should we say, killing is accepted, murder is not. Murder thereby implying an own agenda, while killing is for the general good of teh group, or whatever.
So, this means that kiling being wrong is not dependant on any type of morals, but of the situation and whatever the current government decides... yet another proof that ethics is not universal, or in effect: there is no universal Rights......
Trust me, any thing you say is right or wrong, I can come up with an example of a time, place or situation where it would be considered acceptable. Well, almost, at least. Say for instance rape would be locally accepted in a group during war-situations, but not socially accepted if it got out. Still the humans involved accepts it, the group of soldiers around teh perpetrator accepts it with their silence, so obviously this is not either a universal right or wrong...
Seriously, I've been through this ethics thing a lot. Its interesting, but still just imaginary.
I purposely dod not mention any ethic definition of "Rights" in my post, because in my view ethics and morals is not absolute truths, and can differ from person to person. So I try not to discuss them to much.
But all you really say is that if the musician had teh right to their music, record companies would not exist. Since this is not the case, and you made clear that the consumer have no right to the music, this would mean that te record company have the only rights?
Nah, doesn't fly.
As I said, Ethics and morals are hypothetical things - in most cases they just complicate questions easy enough to see through ithout philosophy.
Not to mention.. there is no such thing as universal right.
Okay Hairy Nutsack, listen up... (got your attention? good. No hard feelings, I know nothing about your nutsack, just wanted to open this up in the same sort of overly aggreavted tone you started in, so that you feel right at home.)
I believe I am entitled to anything that is legal to do, and I will fight tooth and nail for any right I enjoy that is being taken from me. I would fight just as hard for the freedom of speech of that was being threatened, or the freedom to urinate in nature, or the freedom to fart in your general direction.
A "right" as you say, is simply anything that is not forbidden. So yes, there is - at least in sweden - an inherent RIGHT to download copyrighted music without compensating teh artists. This RIGHT will be taken from us, because not enough people listen to what the artists think, and what the general populace thinks, and way to many people listen to what the MAJOR CORPORATIONS thinks...
Now my idea on this is that teh major corporations should either change their business model or just collapse and die. They say they loose tons of money - fine, I am very happy. In this age the major corporations that have been between artists and consumers is no longer needed, any artist can easily create music with computer aid and justa s easily sell it or give it away for free. They can book shows and make ads for themselves, and no corporations are needed.
So, they say they go bankrupt due to our pirating... GREAT. I have never been happier. I just wish the governments would stop making new laws only aimed at restricting new technology so that major corporations can still make money the "old way" instead of changing.
Now when it comes to Doom 3 or the GPL, what you are suggesting is not legal, and therefore not a right. It's a crime.
Okay, look at it like this... we pay tax for health care, so it is not free (as some people already mentioned.)
Still, there is a queue for operations that can be months long. My mother who recently died of cancer was RUSHED to treatment... yeah... it only took TWO MONTHS after it was discovered that she was in extreme need of immediate care.
That is why a lot of people is startign to take health care insurance, which makes sure you get QUICK healthcare, from better doctors than some of those that work for the swedish health care system.
So, here we have a situation where we effectivly pay for a sub-standard service, and have to pay for it again if we want it to be any good.
Nah, I'd rather have low taxes and pay my own dang insurance just as I have to anyways.
Slashdot Mirror
agreed, although it has little to do with this issue. Due to a faulty graphics board my view of second life has been limited to the character creation and customization parts, but as my replacement gets shipped, I'll be eager to take in the rest of it.
And you realize of course that guided tours is a business idea that people could charge a buck or two for. Of course, from what I've learned already, there is always people willing to guide and help, if you just ask.
Now thats just being rediculous..
How could they do more than their best, thats the issue here... At the time they opened up, there probably was no green powersuppliers, and that means there is no physical possibility for every piece of machinery in their plants to be made from 100% environmental friendly stuff.
Does this mean its no use? No of course not... You go for the lesser of two weevils.
100% green IS a realistic goal - bit not for yesterday, only for the future. Now that we have a green powerplant, the next one can use green power when they build. So it's a chain reaction.
You, are obviously not interested in being part of that chain. But let us that will do so.
Seriously... No pics, no details, no blueprints or guides or anything... It's like saying "Well ya, I've got this car, and I've been thinking.... touch screens. Yeah. Gonna control everything."
Gah. Get over it. This is not news. It's being done all over. RV's and trailers with extensive electronics is omething you can just go to the nearest dealer to experience. If you think I meant RV-dealer, that will work, and if you think i meant drugdealer, then that woudl work too, because the DEA outside would have one of them trailers.
No, give me an article that shows pics of all these cool gadgets, writes about what OS they use, how they program it, how the computers are clustered, how many Megaflops they can do and how many MP3's they fit on their in-house entertainment system. Because this... this is nothing.
AFAIK you can set your land as a "no-fly zone". So make that step 1. Step 2, program your game so that only YOUR cars are tracked on the racetrack. Make it possible to rent out a "tracker" if residents wants to test their homebrews against each other. Make sure the tracker goes on a separate channel, and you can have homebuilt vehicles and your own on the track at the same time, without any mixups.
But... I guess you are too set on seeing the limitations instead of the possibilities. Which is quite opposite to Second Life...
first of all, some games do allow players the full ownership of their "bits". For instance, Second Life from Linden Labs. The game in question here though I cant say, I was at their page, and it seems the game has not yet passed Beta.
Either way... the people saying that piracy is a crime has forever said that it is Theft, and nothing else. Then this must be as well. It is the stealing of another persons virtual property, or immaterial property, or potential cashflow, or whatever.
These particular bits where apparently worth a lot of green, so it had a value for the player beyond the bits it was composed of. So wheter or not an actual object was stolen, the player was robbed of a potential income.
Then we can of course forever keep on discussing the similarities to copyright and stuff, but it falls slightly off the topic here. Suffice to say that this loss of income is no less real than what the RIAA gets to rodger a lot of filesharers over, so it should be handled just as much as a crime.
I have heard that argument many times to all types of biometrics, and RFID identification. But seriously, hacking limbs off is something much less people would do than stealing a couple of keys. So you have drastically reduced chanse of crime.
Not to mention they must have the opportunity to do so, which also is less likely than the opportunity to swipe some keys.
So in the end, this is not likely to happen. Especially with RFID tags. If anyone was this set on getting yur stuff, they would most likely just knock you out and drag you to the door, or perhaps cut out the chip. Either way, not much harm done.
lets remember that if you count long enough, and look hard enough, you'll find any number in any place you look.
Just as many as someone with piercings or a cellphone or keys, or...
I'm the reason america is so fat? Wow. All my friends here in Sweden will love me for it, cause none of them is too fond of america.
Still, I do see your point, as I am overweight myself. I spent a few years living in a small oneroom apartement in the middle of the city, never had to go more than about 100 yards max for whatever I ever wanted... That causes some severe overweight after a while. Now I live on a farm instead, take long walks with the dog every day, and of course the kilos just keep dropping.
But I must say, that turnign keys and flipping lightswitches is not exactly the kind of exercize that would help people loose wight, or stay slim.
Its taking thr stairs instead of the elevator, walking the two miles to the shop instead of taking the car, and then carrying your groceries home the same distance... These things will help anyone loose weight. Flicking the light on and off wont...
I've been thinking about that actually. It could be cool to have teh house "recognize" its owner and automatically tuirn on and off lighting and heat and alarms and stuff. and unlock doors.
Lots of cool appliances.
Now I just need an RFID tag, and that "do it yourself surgeon" kit.
The weirdest dead pixel I ever encountered was on a CRT screen. Nobody believed me until i dragged the screen to the shop, had them plug it in, and showed it to them. A little black pixel about an inch from the left side and two inches from the bottom edge. Helluva annoyance, and I did get it on my warranty, although they had no idea what they where going to mark it as.
no really... at this time in life I have never had any data that I would want to keep for more than a decade. There are several reasons:
Within a decade there will be new technology out that will require me to transfer everything anyways. Example given: all my old VHS tapes met the scrapheap as soon as I got a DVD-burner.
Within a decade I most likely will not be listening to the same music... Example given: The 80s. or most any decade. For golden oldies you still prefer, see the above point.
Any thing I wrote a decade ago is either published, or crap, or both. Anything to be kept for emotional purposes, see point one.
And finally, any program I liked a deacade ago, most likely wont play on my new computer. If it does, I can always keep a copy in whatever format is popular at the time.
Well, maybe there is one more reason...
If ANYTHING is THAT important to me after more than a decade, for gods sake, smack me, I'm living in the past. For any exceptions to this, again... see exampe one about transfer.
So who the friggin heck needs this anyways?
I have a bunch of 5.1/4 floppys that work just fine, but seriously, what use are they to me?
(I'll answer that one myself... Decoration and shooting targets.)
I fart in your general direction.
a) any items value is not determined by what it is worth when you get it, but how much a sucker is willign to pay for it.
b) it was NOT given away... I quote the article: "Qiu and a friend jointly won their weapon last February, and lent it to Zhu who then sold it"
it was not given away, but lent to a friend. Suppose I drop by your house when you are on vacation, because you lent it to me. If I sold it, would you be pissed?
What is worse however is also in the article...
"Qui went to the police to report the "theft" but was told the weapon was not real property protected by law."
I think this is an issue that should never be able to arise. I mean, that sword is just as much real property as the latest copy of Quake 3 or Windows XP... just bits, right? just virtual property... not worth the fuzz, not anything to be protected by silly laws or anything.
So ownership established, HIS virtual property was sold by another person without consent, for real money.
But thanks for the heads up. If I show up at your house with a lovely Katana sword, you'll know I'm leaving with the sword, or a shitload of not so virtual cash.
Thats a rather stupid way to look at it. If you read the article you clearly note that this is not an argument over a game per se, but an argument over a guy who sold something (virtual possesion) that belonged to another guy. This was not just over something lost in a virtual world, this was over what the dead guy gained in the real world from what he borrowed in the virtual one.
I mean seriously.. consider the money in your bank account. For most people these days, its numbers on a screen. Following your logic, if I took say 50% of those numbers and transfered into my account, you have no right to be upset?
Sure, games can be addictive, as can the internet, sex, gambling, pencils, sunlight, post-it notes, and obsessove slashdot commenting... but this is one article that could not have less to do with addiction...
the guy was ROBBED for about $800... and you say he is an addict for reacting?
hmmm... a DVD-rip of 8 gigs... what compression... UUENCODE?
I mean seriously... either he was talking about a DVD-R, in which case previewing is out of the case, or he just doesnt know anything about downloading in the first place.
Nah, what really bothers me about downloading is all that gay porn that I cant find because it is named "teletubbies go out" or "operah talks back episode 666"
Very annoying.
Interesting post... but...
Seriously, you need to let life loose a bit, eh? not be so controlling. Not be so rushed and stressed.
This is how you do it:
Day one, watch what ever is downloaded, spend half an hour filling up downloadlist in emule and start the latest movies on download in bit-torrent.
Day two, watch the movie you downloaded from bit-torrent, check for better sources for some of the emule stuff. Start another torrent download.
Day three, watch the movie you downloaded by torrent, cancel half your emule downloads because you no longer feel like seeing them, swear at the gay porn that for some reason is very available and downloaded in five minutes, and add another list of downloads. Start two new torrent downloads, because friends will be over tomorrow.
Day four, never mind checking the mule, your friends might see the gay porn you just KNOW is in that last file completed. Just watch the two torrents.
Now, this could go on forever. If you replace emule with kazaa its the same thing, only you'll have to run an antivirus scan every day as well.
Emule brings stuff down slow but steady, torrent brings stuff down until the next day. The video store still means you have to get off your ass, go down there, spend money, and then go back if there is any problem with the disc or vhs. It's not that difficult... just need to get into the rhythm.
Oh yeah, and in sweden video stores dont have flat rates and stuff. it's generraly around... $2-3 per movie per day, or two for $5-6. That way downloading is really the only viable alternative... although I still rent movies some times when I visit friends. Unless I just throw a disc in the burner and fry whatever I got.
hopefully not gay porn.
might want to add that is the '71 Vanishing Point.
The beta however did add an image of Viggo Mortensen from the '97 made for TV remake that is entirely different and looses a lot of points. (Gains some new ones, but thats an other issue.)
Heh, okay, I must have misunderstood you about the "record company argument."
When it comes to universal right though: in all societies, Murder is not only acceptable, but give the highest reward possible.. as long as the reasons is good. Or should we say, killing is accepted, murder is not. Murder thereby implying an own agenda, while killing is for the general good of teh group, or whatever.
So, this means that kiling being wrong is not dependant on any type of morals, but of the situation and whatever the current government decides... yet another proof that ethics is not universal, or in effect: there is no universal Rights......
Trust me, any thing you say is right or wrong, I can come up with an example of a time, place or situation where it would be considered acceptable. Well, almost, at least. Say for instance rape would be locally accepted in a group during war-situations, but not socially accepted if it got out. Still the humans involved accepts it, the group of soldiers around teh perpetrator accepts it with their silence, so obviously this is not either a universal right or wrong...
Seriously, I've been through this ethics thing a lot. Its interesting, but still just imaginary.
Very interesting post.
I purposely dod not mention any ethic definition of "Rights" in my post, because in my view ethics and morals is not absolute truths, and can differ from person to person. So I try not to discuss them to much.
But all you really say is that if the musician had teh right to their music, record companies would not exist. Since this is not the case, and you made clear that the consumer have no right to the music, this would mean that te record company have the only rights?
Nah, doesn't fly.
As I said, Ethics and morals are hypothetical things - in most cases they just complicate questions easy enough to see through ithout philosophy.
Not to mention.. there is no such thing as universal right.
Wow, spammail via comment-reply..
But this sounds cool, I think I'll be the one in ten to check this out.
Okay, so consider me a sucker. =P
Yeah, I've listened to it. Good clip, and a view I do share - good for artists is not the same as good for music companies.
Okay Hairy Nutsack, listen up... (got your attention? good. No hard feelings, I know nothing about your nutsack, just wanted to open this up in the same sort of overly aggreavted tone you started in, so that you feel right at home.)
I believe I am entitled to anything that is legal to do, and I will fight tooth and nail for any right I enjoy that is being taken from me. I would fight just as hard for the freedom of speech of that was being threatened, or the freedom to urinate in nature, or the freedom to fart in your general direction.
A "right" as you say, is simply anything that is not forbidden. So yes, there is - at least in sweden - an inherent RIGHT to download copyrighted music without compensating teh artists. This RIGHT will be taken from us, because not enough people listen to what the artists think, and what the general populace thinks, and way to many people listen to what the MAJOR CORPORATIONS thinks...
Now my idea on this is that teh major corporations should either change their business model or just collapse and die. They say they loose tons of money - fine, I am very happy. In this age the major corporations that have been between artists and consumers is no longer needed, any artist can easily create music with computer aid and justa s easily sell it or give it away for free. They can book shows and make ads for themselves, and no corporations are needed.
So, they say they go bankrupt due to our pirating... GREAT. I have never been happier. I just wish the governments would stop making new laws only aimed at restricting new technology so that major corporations can still make money the "old way" instead of changing.
Now when it comes to Doom 3 or the GPL, what you are suggesting is not legal, and therefore not a right. It's a crime.
Please keep yoru facts straight.
Now if only someone ever listened to what the artists said...
Or to indie artists in general.
Yes, you are right... I feel sorry for you.
But not for your low taxes. More for the "being american" part.
Okay, look at it like this... we pay tax for health care, so it is not free (as some people already mentioned.)
Still, there is a queue for operations that can be months long. My mother who recently died of cancer was RUSHED to treatment... yeah... it only took TWO MONTHS after it was discovered that she was in extreme need of immediate care.
That is why a lot of people is startign to take health care insurance, which makes sure you get QUICK healthcare, from better doctors than some of those that work for the swedish health care system.
So, here we have a situation where we effectivly pay for a sub-standard service, and have to pay for it again if we want it to be any good.
Nah, I'd rather have low taxes and pay my own dang insurance just as I have to anyways.