I think a better solution would be to write a cross-platform competitor to Directx. It could be based on the x86 instruction set which will most likely replace proprietary GPU instruction sets in the future. This would solve 2 problems at once, namely poor driver support in Linux (as GPUs that use x86 would not need drivers that convert OGL/DX calls to proprietary GPU instructions) and the Directx problem.
Games these days are becoming so crappy that I actually read user reviews before deciding if I want to *pirate* a game! And even though I do that I still end up downloading doozies like NWN2. Not even brand loyalty helps nowadays, with Bioware putting out games like Mass Effect.
I mean seriously, what's the point in a "role"-playing game where the role you play is predetermined and the only control you have over the plot is what your character says? And even then all the other characters ignore everything you say and continue on their predetermined plotlines. No wonder they put lots of enemies in the games to kill, because the player will be pretty pissed after being treated like nothing in all of the dialogue!
Another problem with games today is their level of difficulty. I don't know if kids today have low esteem or something and need to complete a game on the first try, but it doesn't really give a sense of accomplishment to win in games where the difficulty comes from keeping yourself from falling asleep.
You are correct, in-house distribution is defined as "propagation" which does not require the source to be distributed. The "conveying" mentioned in the page is the word that the GPLv3 uses for distribution, as distribution had varying legal meanings in other countries. Also, even if an employee gets their hands on the source code, they do not have the right to distribute it unless the company has officially published the software.
Oh come on. Comparing the U.S. to Nazi Germany just weakens your cause. I don`t think that the U.S. is after world domination. At least not consciously.
Eh? What planet do you hail from, the US has been dominating the world for a while now. It's not called the "American century" because Brazil is running the show!
Unless you meant that the US isn't planning on conquering the world in which case the analogy breaks down, as Nazi Germany wasn't planning on conquering the world either.
All is not lost, remember the share in the company? Well if it only costs $$$ to run a service that $$$$ is being charged, then the owners receive a dividend at the end of the year! Whee.
I might be missing something, but doesn't the government tax that extra $ as it is profit?
That only happens when Google is the referer. See for example this question which is the first result for this google query. When visiting the link from slashdot the answers are hidden.
Such a scheme would indeed be a privacy nightmare, but I'm guessing that robocars will also be owned by private citizens and pretty much behave as automatic versions of the cars of today.
You either PvP or Raid else you don't get the shiny stuff. No long drawn out quests compete with raiding epics or welfare epics.
AFAIK there will be three different levels of raiding epics (heroic, 10-man, 25-man) with their own tier progression so it should be possible to get nice gear with casual gaming in lich king. I'm also guessing that the rating changes in season 4 are a sign of things to come, so the pvp/arena in lich king will require good ratings for epics. I.e. no more welfare epics.
P2P downloading isn't random. One should always read the comments on a torrent to see if it is a fake/virus before downloading. This is of course only possible if you use bittorrent and reliable sites, downloading executables from other P2P networks is just asking for trouble.
That said, there is always some risk involved in any kind of communication to/from your computer. There have even been cases of pre-formatted disks and usb sticks that have been infected at the factory!
So never trust anything, regardless of the source, and always back up important data as today could be the day your system is fubared.
The GP says that if we treated toxic waste the same way we treat much more dangerous pollutants we would burn the stuff. Then he chides the public for their ignorance. After which you appear and ask him to die for his "proposal" which is a strawman set up by you.
Sometimes I think calling the public "ignorant" is too kind...
Sure, it would be nice, but would you rather pay a couple of hundred quid or just look after the computer in the first place?
It's not really a matter of looking after the computer in the first place. There is demand for a rugged computer that can be manhandled without it breaking apart. When I come home I want to toss my computer on my desk like I do with my keys and wallet. After I've surfed a while I want to toss my computer on the coffee table like I do with magazines. The whole "holy laptop" approach where you have to carry it around on a silk cushion and press the keys one at a time so as not to hurt its feelings is the reason I've never bothered buying one.
You are both depriving the producer of revenue AND making use of their product without paying for ownership. It's much like 'stealing' wifi access from your neighbor. The only physical aspect of the theft involves electrons/impulses/etc...
Who owns the electrons?
What I find amusing about all this copyright baloney is the lopsidedness of it all. Why are the digital copiers singled out? Just today, I reminisced about a movie I once saw. Surely I must have deprived the filmmaker of at least 5 dollars by "watching" the illegal copy I had in my brain!
Now he has to support all the things Hillery wanted done, while making sure that he seems Conservative enough to attract some of the republicans that don't like McCain. If Obama tries to be different, he risks alienating long-time democrat supporters, if he tries to be the same he risks alienating all the people who want to vote for him for change.
That sucks. If he's pandering to everyone, then how can one know what his real views are? Even if he says something that one happens to agree with, how does one know that it isn't just pandering?
There are some that would prefer to live to 75, 50, 20 instead of the 100ish years humans live with current technology. Multiplying the numbers shouldn't change anything.
The thing with any such side effects is that they have an easy, permanent solution which returns a multi-hundred years old person to the status quo called death. Therefore it seems premature to worry about such things, as surely being alive and crazy is a better alternative than being dead?
After reading your post I was surprised to see that you didn't mention agent orange; for some reason I was expecting it. After looking at your post more closely I noticed that the words "agent" from the second sentence and "orange" from the last sentence align perfectly on the particular resolution my monitor uses.
I must have glanced over your post and subconsciously read the words. Funny, that.
That's ridiculous. The copyright industry is the most blatant example of the futility of command economies. It doesn't matter how much you try to bolster their monopoly through legislation, the markets will find other ways to reach their competitors. Copying has been going on since man invented writing and it will be going on until the universe ends.
Slashdot Mirror
I think a better solution would be to write a cross-platform competitor to Directx. It could be based on the x86 instruction set which will most likely replace proprietary GPU instruction sets in the future. This would solve 2 problems at once, namely poor driver support in Linux (as GPUs that use x86 would not need drivers that convert OGL/DX calls to proprietary GPU instructions) and the Directx problem.
Games these days are becoming so crappy that I actually read user reviews before deciding if I want to *pirate* a game! And even though I do that I still end up downloading doozies like NWN2. Not even brand loyalty helps nowadays, with Bioware putting out games like Mass Effect.
I mean seriously, what's the point in a "role"-playing game where the role you play is predetermined and the only control you have over the plot is what your character says? And even then all the other characters ignore everything you say and continue on their predetermined plotlines. No wonder they put lots of enemies in the games to kill, because the player will be pretty pissed after being treated like nothing in all of the dialogue!
Another problem with games today is their level of difficulty. I don't know if kids today have low esteem or something and need to complete a game on the first try, but it doesn't really give a sense of accomplishment to win in games where the difficulty comes from keeping yourself from falling asleep.
You are correct, in-house distribution is defined as "propagation" which does not require the source to be distributed. The "conveying" mentioned in the page is the word that the GPLv3 uses for distribution, as distribution had varying legal meanings in other countries. Also, even if an employee gets their hands on the source code, they do not have the right to distribute it unless the company has officially published the software.
Calling them popular is a bit of an overstatement, at least compared to real-time networked games. :)
Eh? What planet do you hail from, the US has been dominating the world for a while now. It's not called the "American century" because Brazil is running the show!
Unless you meant that the US isn't planning on conquering the world in which case the analogy breaks down, as Nazi Germany wasn't planning on conquering the world either.
I might be missing something, but doesn't the government tax that extra $ as it is profit?
We are the knights who say GNU! We demand that you bring us a shrubbery!
That only happens when Google is the referer. See for example this question which is the first result for this google query. When visiting the link from slashdot the answers are hidden.
Such a scheme would indeed be a privacy nightmare, but I'm guessing that robocars will also be owned by private citizens and pretty much behave as automatic versions of the cars of today.
Sounds like you've never played an MMO...
Services like thottbot are what makes the crappy quests tolerable.
AFAIK there will be three different levels of raiding epics (heroic, 10-man, 25-man) with their own tier progression so it should be possible to get nice gear with casual gaming in lich king. I'm also guessing that the rating changes in season 4 are a sign of things to come, so the pvp/arena in lich king will require good ratings for epics. I.e. no more welfare epics.
P2P downloading isn't random. One should always read the comments on a torrent to see if it is a fake/virus before downloading. This is of course only possible if you use bittorrent and reliable sites, downloading executables from other P2P networks is just asking for trouble.
That said, there is always some risk involved in any kind of communication to/from your computer. There have even been cases of pre-formatted disks and usb sticks that have been infected at the factory!
So never trust anything, regardless of the source, and always back up important data as today could be the day your system is fubared.
The GP says that if we treated toxic waste the same way we treat much more dangerous pollutants we would burn the stuff. Then he chides the public for their ignorance. After which you appear and ask him to die for his "proposal" which is a strawman set up by you.
Sometimes I think calling the public "ignorant" is too kind...
It's not really a matter of looking after the computer in the first place. There is demand for a rugged computer that can be manhandled without it breaking apart. When I come home I want to toss my computer on my desk like I do with my keys and wallet. After I've surfed a while I want to toss my computer on the coffee table like I do with magazines. The whole "holy laptop" approach where you have to carry it around on a silk cushion and press the keys one at a time so as not to hurt its feelings is the reason I've never bothered buying one.
1. Build a dry dock in Earth orbit.
2. Attach ISS to the dry dock.
3. ISS has now been refitted to a dry dock!
4. ???
5. Profit!
Where there is demand, someone will supply. Regardless of government attempts to intervene.
In other words, they don't have faith in their own game?
Who owns the electrons?
What I find amusing about all this copyright baloney is the lopsidedness of it all. Why are the digital copiers singled out? Just today, I reminisced about a movie I once saw. Surely I must have deprived the filmmaker of at least 5 dollars by "watching" the illegal copy I had in my brain!
That sucks. If he's pandering to everyone, then how can one know what his real views are? Even if he says something that one happens to agree with, how does one know that it isn't just pandering?
May as well flip a coin instead of voting.
There are some that would prefer to live to 75, 50, 20 instead of the 100ish years humans live with current technology. Multiplying the numbers shouldn't change anything.
The thing with any such side effects is that they have an easy, permanent solution which returns a multi-hundred years old person to the status quo called death. Therefore it seems premature to worry about such things, as surely being alive and crazy is a better alternative than being dead?
You seem to have read the GPs post but failed to understand it.
I urge you to re-read it.
After reading your post I was surprised to see that you didn't mention agent orange; for some reason I was expecting it. After looking at your post more closely I noticed that the words "agent" from the second sentence and "orange" from the last sentence align perfectly on the particular resolution my monitor uses.
I must have glanced over your post and subconsciously read the words. Funny, that.
getting weirder every time, my deja-vus are...
That's ridiculous. The copyright industry is the most blatant example of the futility of command economies. It doesn't matter how much you try to bolster their monopoly through legislation, the markets will find other ways to reach their competitors. Copying has been going on since man invented writing and it will be going on until the universe ends.