And in a few more generations of computing, everyone will have thin clients running software-as-a-service provided by Microsoft at a monthly fee, with a TPM stopping them from running any alternative software, and the MAFIAA will have convinced the government that only pirates and hackers (hackers in the evil h4xx0r sense) would ever want to run their own software anyway.
It will become illegal for anything more powerful than a microcontroller to be sold without a TPM built-in. The Internet will disappear except for the sites that can afford the Tubes Tax, which will all be controlled by big corporations. Sound recording devices will be banned altogether to remove the analog hole, and no one will be able to make music unless they have a contract with Sony.
The information apocalypse will be nigh.
The big corporations will realise too late that they have taken their quest for control too far. Computers will become almost useless. The monopolies will collapse as the Joe Sixpacks of the world rise up in rebellion. The governments, in league with the MAFIAA, will feel the threat to their power, and send out the army to crush the rebellion with unreasonable and disproportionate force. Society collapses.
When the dust settles, the few survivors will crawl out of the rubble and begin to rebuild. They will learn from the lessons of the past. There will be no more corporations, no more "intellectual property" rights, no more closed source, no more DRM. Linux will spread throughout the world, and we shall all be saved.
I agree. Games don't need better graphics. Especially when marginally better graphics need a GPU 3 times more expensive, which will be obsolete within months of being released.
When I moved my Win98 hard drive from one box to another, it booted up, detected a new IDE bus chipset, and tried to install drivers for it, from the IDE CD-ROM drive, which was on the IDE bus, which it didn't have drivers for.
Obviously in a virtual environment, everything is a copy, so having an original as a collector's item isn't really an option.
An "original" item in a virtual world would be just as valuable as an "original" Picasso painting in a world where it was possible to create an exact molecule-by-molecule copy of the painting. The situation is not "completely different", it's exactly the same.
I've had no experience with new computer technology, but I thought the BIOS was pretty much an essential part of the computer. Could someone please explain how a new computer can 'not have a BIOS'?
You can search for which process has a particular file/object/registry key/etc. open, then forcibly close the handle, without having to kill the process.
How many of the typical desktop OS users actually automate a task? The same demographic above (i.e. most desktop users) certainly don't.
And the reason for this is because it can't be done easily on Windows. The average user doesn't sit there dragging 1000 icons back and forth because they enjoy it, they do it because it's too hard to do it any other way on Windows.
I have talked to people on Windows Live Messenger who, for example, set up a stupid animated smiley to replace the word 'ok'. Then every time they type a word with the letters 'ok' in it, it gets replaced by a stupid animated smiley, making the word unreadable.
Sometimes when I talk to people I have to keep a Notepad window open for me to copy and paste stuff into to make it appear in a readable form.
3. Someone can "invalidate" your passport remotely, by burning out the chip with high-powered RF. How do you convince the Homeland Security folks that you really DO have a valid passport, despite the fact that the "secure" chip is apparently missing?
I doubt you ever complained that magnetic stripe cards could be erased remotely by EMP, or that your mobile phone could be fried remotely by high-powered microwaves.
They'll just introduce some new content, or write a new book, and then next year that'll be the required text.
If a free online textbook becomes available, I don't see why it wouldn't become the required text instead. Just because the publishing companies keep making new editions doesn't mean people have to use them.
I wonder how long it will be until they make Windows versions that do magically stop working, though. It's entirely possible that in 2013 or so they'll push out an 'update' to Vista that stops it from working and forces people to buy Windows Vienna or whatever the latest version of Windows is at that point.
At 41, I get asked regularly. Ironic that you need a Driver's License to buy alcohol. And I had to show it to buy a cold remedy just two days ago.
It also makes things difficult for adults who don't have a driver's license. I know one person who can't get a driver's license because of a problem with his eyesight. Because of this, he can't get access to some things because he can't show a driver's license for identification.
Slashdot Mirror
Linus doesn't own the copyright though. IANAL, but wouldn't everyone who authored part of Linux have some rights to it?
It will become illegal for anything more powerful than a microcontroller to be sold without a TPM built-in. The Internet will disappear except for the sites that can afford the Tubes Tax, which will all be controlled by big corporations. Sound recording devices will be banned altogether to remove the analog hole, and no one will be able to make music unless they have a contract with Sony.
The information apocalypse will be nigh.
The big corporations will realise too late that they have taken their quest for control too far. Computers will become almost useless. The monopolies will collapse as the Joe Sixpacks of the world rise up in rebellion. The governments, in league with the MAFIAA, will feel the threat to their power, and send out the army to crush the rebellion with unreasonable and disproportionate force. Society collapses.
When the dust settles, the few survivors will crawl out of the rubble and begin to rebuild. They will learn from the lessons of the past. There will be no more corporations, no more "intellectual property" rights, no more closed source, no more DRM. Linux will spread throughout the world, and we shall all be saved.
Should it not be "pwnies"?
I agree. Games don't need better graphics. Especially when marginally better graphics need a GPU 3 times more expensive, which will be obsolete within months of being released.
When I moved my Win98 hard drive from one box to another, it booted up, detected a new IDE bus chipset, and tried to install drivers for it, from the IDE CD-ROM drive, which was on the IDE bus, which it didn't have drivers for.
Exactly the point. Get the corporate edition and you have essentially circumvented the entire activation procedure without having to do anything.
But intellectual masturbation is what Slashdot is for!
No it couldn't have been avoided, any more than the designers of the Web could have avoided people saving websites to their hard drives.
An "original" item in a virtual world would be just as valuable as an "original" Picasso painting in a world where it was possible to create an exact molecule-by-molecule copy of the painting. The situation is not "completely different", it's exactly the same.
The code has to be sent to the client for the client to be able to display the item, though.
I've had no experience with new computer technology, but I thought the BIOS was pretty much an essential part of the computer. Could someone please explain how a new computer can 'not have a BIOS'?
You can search for which process has a particular file/object/registry key/etc. open, then forcibly close the handle, without having to kill the process.
And the reason for this is because it can't be done easily on Windows. The average user doesn't sit there dragging 1000 icons back and forth because they enjoy it, they do it because it's too hard to do it any other way on Windows.
I didn't even notice it was scrambled until i started consciously looking at the letters.
I have talked to people on Windows Live Messenger who, for example, set up a stupid animated smiley to replace the word 'ok'. Then every time they type a word with the letters 'ok' in it, it gets replaced by a stupid animated smiley, making the word unreadable.
Sometimes when I talk to people I have to keep a Notepad window open for me to copy and paste stuff into to make it appear in a readable form.
Didn't Microsoft patent the double click?
Well then no software is truly "open", because they don't allow people to add trojans to official releases.
The middle click doesn't seem to work on my Linux box though.
I doubt you ever complained that magnetic stripe cards could be erased remotely by EMP, or that your mobile phone could be fried remotely by high-powered microwaves.
At my school I have also seen many PSPs and I don't think i've ever seen anyone at school with a DS.
If a free online textbook becomes available, I don't see why it wouldn't become the required text instead. Just because the publishing companies keep making new editions doesn't mean people have to use them.
I wonder how long it will be until they make Windows versions that do magically stop working, though.
It's entirely possible that in 2013 or so they'll push out an 'update' to Vista that stops it from working and forces people to buy Windows Vienna or whatever the latest version of Windows is at that point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_%22Vienna%22
It also makes things difficult for adults who don't have a driver's license. I know one person who can't get a driver's license because of a problem with his eyesight. Because of this, he can't get access to some things because he can't show a driver's license for identification.
I don't understand what's news about it. Google.org has existed for years. The article says it was formed by the end of 2004.