So if our government didn't exist, you still think you would have this right? Does one have this right in China? What about other socialist states? I think you are confusing what our government gives you (because it furthers their own economy) with the so-called natural born rights.
Semantics aside, copyright was not enacted to make money. It was created to encourage the creation of content- money was just the carrot.
I think you need to educate yourself on what a 'right' truly is. Despite what you might think, a right isn't something you are granted or born with. It's something you fight to attain, and afterward, fight to protect. A creator has no more natural rights to charge money for his creation as I do to destroy the creation because it would humor me.
Copyright was created to encourage creation of works, not to stifle or ensure "fairness". That came later when people realized how much more money they could be making if they could stifle other people.
I think some people would not only give-up privacy, but also choose Serfdom, if they lived under a beneficent lord or king or dictator. Trading freedom for security & ease-of-life. In fact that's pretty much how Romans lived from 50BC through 500 AD, and it seemed to have worked.
There is a broad spectrum of this, with anarchy on one end, and 1984 on the other. Many of us choose to give up certain freedoms to make our lives easier. For instance, I signed away certain rights so I could borrow money for a house. The simple act of having a job to get paid, paying taxes for shared infrastructure & protection, and even getting married (or similar long-term relationship) in exchange for a more stable life are all examples of giving up freedoms in exchange for happiness and ease of life. We're all doing it constantly, and have been since humans first started to band together for protection.
Philosophically speaking, it's an interesting question.
Artificial Intelligence != Artificial Human. Although some may be experimenting with creating artificial emotion, it's not the same.
I say this with the obvious disclaimer that AI hasn't truly been invented (that we know of) and it may indeed come to pass that you cannot have true AI without emotion. But logic (and not just ST:TNG episodes with Data) dictates that a computer could learn to recognize patterns without the need for emotion, assuming it is possible at all.
You do realize you can uninstall the flash module, right? In fact, it's easier than uninstalling it on the PC- it's just like any other app that you can install and uninstall at a moment's notice. Not only that, but some browsers have the ability to turn it on and off on the fly.
I don't see how having the *option* to use flash can be anything other than a win.
Setting aside outright propaganda or distortion, every reporter (whether a journalist or historian) writes from a perspective. Even if he does his best to be objective, avoid commentary, and just stick to the facts his perspective will influence which facts he finds relevant.
Is it that hard to simply state "both sides of the issue" and let the readers make up their own minds? I don't think it is; I do it all the time in my research papers.
Yes journalists should report on a topic they don't care about. It's called a "job" for a reason. If they feel a topic is too close to their hearts and they would find it hard to be objective, they should pass on the story if possible, or perhaps disclose their viewpoint at the start of the article.
Various scientists go through this every day. Its just that we require published scientific papers to be of a higher caliber than what Fox publishes.
I'll gladly get paid $200 an hour to tell your bosses that they are stupid and should listen to their more knowledgeable employees. Where do I sign up?
If we have multiple personal railways it would alleviate your concerns about commercial rails and right of way. You could dedicate some railways as been one way only. That way you don't have to worry so much about head on collisions and more about distance between trains. Putting in multiple points where a train could pull off to a maintenance track would help as well.
I think somebody has played too much Transport Tycoon. Not that I don't agree with you- it just reminded me of the intricate rail systems I would build in that game as a kid.
Guess what would happen if we magically had this huge railway infrastructure tomorrow and trains moving 250mph across the US? The Terrorists!
So tired of seeing this pop up.
OK, so terrorists exist in the world, and they may or may not target this project. Is that an excuse to stop building / improving our infrastructure? If so, we should probably also stop building bridges, power stations, etc because they could also be targets! Yes, I realize that Terrorists will usually opt for the more 'flashy' acts, but there are so many better targets out there.
Terrorizers would come out of the woodwork with ample targets at any point along the tracks to sabotage the infrastructure requiring us to absorb billion dollar costs to pay some military industrial complex behemoth to secure the infrastructure and I would still need my nutsack groped and inspected to get on a train that moves at half the speed of a plane.
We've been hearing warning reports of terrorists targeting power plants for years now. And except for some slightly stricter NERC requirements, there hasn't been the insanity you mention. Also, our current train system is already just as vulnerable as this new one, has been targeted with some nasty results, but I don't get my sack fondled when I get on a train.
As far as costs, replacing the track itself would be cheap. The cost of replacing a couple hundred yards of track and a train would still be only a fraction of the cost of say, rebuilding the twin towers (and the planes).
This would turn the Matrix series into something like Fight Club- where the true genius of it can only be realized after you watch it in its entirety and then re-watch it.
If done right, they might actually be able to salvage some of the second and third movies. I have my doubts, but as a big fan of the first I'm not so spiteful that I don't want to see the series make sense.
There is any number of projects like this I could point to. But they, like the one you pointed to, aren't popular enough to garner their attention.
The mod this article was written about made the complete rounds yesterday- it was posted on every gaming blog known to man, slashdot, and likely made the rounds on the social networks too. Blizzard would have to have been blind to not notice it.
Companies don't take action against projects that aren't popular; it's not worth their time / money. Much better to let their competitors waste their resources before they squash them.
You would be saying the same thing if somebody got a C&D after making a Lost Vikings mod for SC2.
Titan may or may not be World of Starcraft, but you won't find much info in their lawyer's kneejerk reactions. Somebody stepped on one of their trademarks, and even had the nerve to garner a following- that's all we know.
Have you actually RTFA? Because the gizmo there _isn't_ attached to the face, and is a verbatim repeat of everything that was wrong and stupid with the ones that failed, including basically all the factors I've listed, from lag to being unable to get rid of the previously produced smells.
So, sorry, my assessment that it's yet another idiot who thinks he's the first to do the same stupidity, is still very much true. Or to quote everyone's favourite wisecracker, Bejamin Franklin, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
Yes, maybe someone else can do it right, but these particular ass-clowns aren't it.
Yes, I have read the article, and you are correct in your points. However, I typed my reply because it seemed more like you were attacking the idea itself, rather than this particular product.
I think the idea has applications, but you're right about this particular implementation- its useless.
#1 - "Everything has already been done, no need in trying to improve anything." Bollocks. We tried 3D once before, it failed. And while it's very possible the current 3D trend will also fail, I can easily see a time when true 3D without glasses will hit like a storm. Technology advances, new ideas are born, improvements are made.
#2 - Almost all of your downsides could easily be worked around if the delivery device was attached to the face / nose. As far as allergies go, I'd say epilepsy is pretty close to your "allergy of light" you mentioned. And just like people with that condition, I'd imaging anybody that finds out they have an allergy would simply not wear it. Which brings me to the rest of #2- most games won't require this device to function, and could easily be played without it. Yes, there will be some that use it in a gimmicky way that the entire plot revolves around, but these will be few, likely.
Case in point- there are many people who cannot play many Wii games due to physical impairments. There are many more who cannot play Kinect games because their living room is too small. Still, those are succeeding. You don't need 100% acceptance.
#3 - Some people might find that appealing. I grew up watching Ren & Stimpy, which was basically one big goatse / fart joke, albeit toned down for kids. Think of a kids game (or even guys in a frathouse) where you can cause fart smells to erupt in your friend's noses. You make it sound like children are going to have this device implanted in their brains and random internet trolls will suddenly inject the savory smell of ass into your nose without your consent.
Again, If you don't like it- take it off, turn it down, or don't play those games.
I think if this were done right, it could provide some great immersion. Everybody jokes about the sewer level making it sound like this will inject shit directly into your nose. An extremely faint smell, over a few seconds is probably all that is needed for the brain to register "oh man, this sewer stinks. I want to get out of here." After that, the game can let immersion take over and no further smells will likely be needed for a while.
I am confused by your post. If you're implying that, because you are subjected to stereotypes that I should be as well, I will kindly inform you to go dunk your head in something cold.
For accusing him of being a troll, your reply sure smacks of a troll, itself. Although for the record, I don't think either of you are. It's an interesting discussion though, and think it should be continued... just with less name-calling on your side.
If you're still reading this, know that we are not our government. And there's not one culture, either. People talk of what it is to be American, and I laugh because the state where I'm from, Michigan, has a fairly large gap between cultures itself. The difference between the west of the state, is wholy different from the middle, which is itself entirely different from the east. And then we have the north, which is again, different. One state, many cultures. And that's not even getting to the culture differences between the states- comparing Michigan to Texas, for instance.
Americans that have a clue already know the 'american dream' is dead, to be largely replaced with the lottery it seems. In fact, most inventors only want to be popular enough so they can get bought out by Google or some other mega-corporation. Not exactly noble-sounding to me, but to each their own.
I don't condone our war-mongering attitude. Nor do I like the fact our government is run by corporations. Most of all, I hate being grouped with those people simply because I was born in the US. THAT is not MY culture. I didn't invade another country, and even if I voted for the guy that did, I don't get to vote on the decisions he makes.
Second, I can't help but feel you're comparing apples to oranges here. Hollywood cutting the cost of their movies is easier- there is little to no "product" to store, ship, or manufacture. Even before the advent of digital projectors they use in theaters now, creating and shipping ONE reel is pretty cheap when compared to the profit to be made. Compare this to games and consoles, where an actual product has to be first manufactured, then shipped, then stored somewhere. By the sounds of it, there isn't enough potential profit to be made for them to risk it, especially if they feel the pirates will only undercut them anyway.
Don't get me wrong, I understand your plight. It's just that while I'm sure greed factors into the equation, I don't think that's the only variable.
Also, how do you know those movies in the theater aren't pirated?
Isn't this easier to detect than the compromised key of PS3 ?
The compromised key is not enough to play pirated games. You will also need modified firmware, and while modified firmware can hide that it's modified, it’s not entirely trivial. Sony will probably be looking into ways of detecting modified firmware.
I have to wonder how they will detect an updated firmware. It seems that the only method Sony has of detecting a modified console is looking at logs the console may send to their servers. And anything the console may send could easily be emulated by a homebrew firmware.
The only solution I could think of would be if the console sent the firmware's checksum (or likely some other hash, a simple version check won't be enough as that is easily spoofed) to their servers. This code would have to not only be stored in ROM, but would have to run before the modifiable firmware booted. However, I highly doubt this would be the case; even for the overly-hyped cell processor, calculating the firmware's hash every time on boot would introduce a very noticeable startup lag... and it would have to be a non-trivial hash to prevent the hackers from just making their firmware have the same one. Which means they would cache the hash somewhere writable, and then we're back full-circle again.
Please, if you think I'm wrong or have other ideas on how Sony could detect modified firmware in a method that couldn't just be emulated by the hacked firmware, let me know. It's an interesting thought experiment.
Slashdot Mirror
So if our government didn't exist, you still think you would have this right? Does one have this right in China? What about other socialist states? I think you are confusing what our government gives you (because it furthers their own economy) with the so-called natural born rights.
Semantics aside, copyright was not enacted to make money. It was created to encourage the creation of content- money was just the carrot.
I think you need to educate yourself on what a 'right' truly is. Despite what you might think, a right isn't something you are granted or born with. It's something you fight to attain, and afterward, fight to protect. A creator has no more natural rights to charge money for his creation as I do to destroy the creation because it would humor me.
Copyright was created to encourage creation of works, not to stifle or ensure "fairness". That came later when people realized how much more money they could be making if they could stifle other people.
I think some people would not only give-up privacy, but also choose Serfdom, if they lived under a beneficent lord or king or dictator. Trading freedom for security & ease-of-life. In fact that's pretty much how Romans lived from 50BC through 500 AD, and it seemed to have worked.
There is a broad spectrum of this, with anarchy on one end, and 1984 on the other. Many of us choose to give up certain freedoms to make our lives easier. For instance, I signed away certain rights so I could borrow money for a house. The simple act of having a job to get paid, paying taxes for shared infrastructure & protection, and even getting married (or similar long-term relationship) in exchange for a more stable life are all examples of giving up freedoms in exchange for happiness and ease of life. We're all doing it constantly, and have been since humans first started to band together for protection.
Philosophically speaking, it's an interesting question.
Artificial Intelligence != Artificial Human. Although some may be experimenting with creating artificial emotion, it's not the same.
I say this with the obvious disclaimer that AI hasn't truly been invented (that we know of) and it may indeed come to pass that you cannot have true AI without emotion. But logic (and not just ST:TNG episodes with Data) dictates that a computer could learn to recognize patterns without the need for emotion, assuming it is possible at all.
And a pool is just a stupidly oversized bathtub. No difference in use cases.
I bet you're really in shape from swimming all those laps in your bathtub.
You do realize you can uninstall the flash module, right? In fact, it's easier than uninstalling it on the PC- it's just like any other app that you can install and uninstall at a moment's notice. Not only that, but some browsers have the ability to turn it on and off on the fly.
I don't see how having the *option* to use flash can be anything other than a win.
Setting aside outright propaganda or distortion, every reporter (whether a journalist or historian) writes from a perspective.
Even if he does his best to be objective, avoid commentary, and just stick to the facts his perspective will influence which facts he finds relevant.
Is it that hard to simply state "both sides of the issue" and let the readers make up their own minds? I don't think it is; I do it all the time in my research papers.
Yes journalists should report on a topic they don't care about. It's called a "job" for a reason. If they feel a topic is too close to their hearts and they would find it hard to be objective, they should pass on the story if possible, or perhaps disclose their viewpoint at the start of the article.
Various scientists go through this every day. Its just that we require published scientific papers to be of a higher caliber than what Fox publishes.
I'll gladly get paid $200 an hour to tell your bosses that they are stupid and should listen to their more knowledgeable employees. Where do I sign up?
Simple. We just use our Apple Newtons to hack into a couple satellites and leave them plugged in.
If Steven Seagal can do it, I'm sure anybody on Slashdot could.
If we have multiple personal railways it would alleviate your concerns about commercial rails and right of way. You could dedicate some railways as been one way only. That way you don't have to worry so much about head on collisions and more about distance between trains. Putting in multiple points where a train could pull off to a maintenance track would help as well.
I think somebody has played too much Transport Tycoon. Not that I don't agree with you- it just reminded me of the intricate rail systems I would build in that game as a kid.
Guess what would happen if we magically had this huge railway infrastructure tomorrow and trains moving 250mph across the US? The Terrorists!
So tired of seeing this pop up.
OK, so terrorists exist in the world, and they may or may not target this project. Is that an excuse to stop building / improving our infrastructure? If so, we should probably also stop building bridges, power stations, etc because they could also be targets! Yes, I realize that Terrorists will usually opt for the more 'flashy' acts, but there are so many better targets out there.
Terrorizers would come out of the woodwork with ample targets at any point along the tracks to sabotage the infrastructure requiring us to absorb billion dollar costs to pay some military industrial complex behemoth to secure the infrastructure and I would still need my nutsack groped and inspected to get on a train that moves at half the speed of a plane.
We've been hearing warning reports of terrorists targeting power plants for years now. And except for some slightly stricter NERC requirements, there hasn't been the insanity you mention. Also, our current train system is already just as vulnerable as this new one, has been targeted with some nasty results, but I don't get my sack fondled when I get on a train.
As far as costs, replacing the track itself would be cheap. The cost of replacing a couple hundred yards of track and a train would still be only a fraction of the cost of say, rebuilding the twin towers (and the planes).
Back when I had dial-up, I would normally get ~6KB/s. My current Verizon 3G service usually gets ~70KB/s.
YMMV
Perhaps it's time to get a smartphone? Tethering to your phone in 3G areas is at least 10 times faster than your dialup, too.
I don't know how any of you people are hoping to receive phone calls when you're not posting your number.
I would heartily welcome it.
This would turn the Matrix series into something like Fight Club- where the true genius of it can only be realized after you watch it in its entirety and then re-watch it.
If done right, they might actually be able to salvage some of the second and third movies. I have my doubts, but as a big fan of the first I'm not so spiteful that I don't want to see the series make sense.
At first I figured you were obviously trolling ... but now I gotta ask: why, exactly, would you classify "these people" as "idiots"?
Because they are not like him.
There is any number of projects like this I could point to. But they, like the one you pointed to, aren't popular enough to garner their attention.
The mod this article was written about made the complete rounds yesterday- it was posted on every gaming blog known to man, slashdot, and likely made the rounds on the social networks too. Blizzard would have to have been blind to not notice it.
Companies don't take action against projects that aren't popular; it's not worth their time / money. Much better to let their competitors waste their resources before they squash them.
You would be saying the same thing if somebody got a C&D after making a Lost Vikings mod for SC2.
Titan may or may not be World of Starcraft, but you won't find much info in their lawyer's kneejerk reactions. Somebody stepped on one of their trademarks, and even had the nerve to garner a following- that's all we know.
Have you actually RTFA? Because the gizmo there _isn't_ attached to the face, and is a verbatim repeat of everything that was wrong and stupid with the ones that failed, including basically all the factors I've listed, from lag to being unable to get rid of the previously produced smells.
So, sorry, my assessment that it's yet another idiot who thinks he's the first to do the same stupidity, is still very much true. Or to quote everyone's favourite wisecracker, Bejamin Franklin, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
Yes, maybe someone else can do it right, but these particular ass-clowns aren't it.
Yes, I have read the article, and you are correct in your points. However, I typed my reply because it seemed more like you were attacking the idea itself, rather than this particular product.
I think the idea has applications, but you're right about this particular implementation- its useless.
#1 - "Everything has already been done, no need in trying to improve anything." Bollocks. We tried 3D once before, it failed. And while it's very possible the current 3D trend will also fail, I can easily see a time when true 3D without glasses will hit like a storm. Technology advances, new ideas are born, improvements are made.
#2 - Almost all of your downsides could easily be worked around if the delivery device was attached to the face / nose. As far as allergies go, I'd say epilepsy is pretty close to your "allergy of light" you mentioned. And just like people with that condition, I'd imaging anybody that finds out they have an allergy would simply not wear it. Which brings me to the rest of #2- most games won't require this device to function, and could easily be played without it. Yes, there will be some that use it in a gimmicky way that the entire plot revolves around, but these will be few, likely.
Case in point- there are many people who cannot play many Wii games due to physical impairments. There are many more who cannot play Kinect games because their living room is too small. Still, those are succeeding. You don't need 100% acceptance.
#3 - Some people might find that appealing. I grew up watching Ren & Stimpy, which was basically one big goatse / fart joke, albeit toned down for kids. Think of a kids game (or even guys in a frathouse) where you can cause fart smells to erupt in your friend's noses. You make it sound like children are going to have this device implanted in their brains and random internet trolls will suddenly inject the savory smell of ass into your nose without your consent.
Again, If you don't like it- take it off, turn it down, or don't play those games.
I think if this were done right, it could provide some great immersion. Everybody jokes about the sewer level making it sound like this will inject shit directly into your nose. An extremely faint smell, over a few seconds is probably all that is needed for the brain to register "oh man, this sewer stinks. I want to get out of here." After that, the game can let immersion take over and no further smells will likely be needed for a while.
He has more money than god. If a cure exists for whatever ails him, you can be sure he'll receive it.
I am confused by your post. If you're implying that, because you are subjected to stereotypes that I should be as well, I will kindly inform you to go dunk your head in something cold.
For accusing him of being a troll, your reply sure smacks of a troll, itself. Although for the record, I don't think either of you are. It's an interesting discussion though, and think it should be continued... just with less name-calling on your side.
If you're still reading this, know that we are not our government. And there's not one culture, either. People talk of what it is to be American, and I laugh because the state where I'm from, Michigan, has a fairly large gap between cultures itself. The difference between the west of the state, is wholy different from the middle, which is itself entirely different from the east. And then we have the north, which is again, different. One state, many cultures. And that's not even getting to the culture differences between the states- comparing Michigan to Texas, for instance.
Americans that have a clue already know the 'american dream' is dead, to be largely replaced with the lottery it seems. In fact, most inventors only want to be popular enough so they can get bought out by Google or some other mega-corporation. Not exactly noble-sounding to me, but to each their own.
I don't condone our war-mongering attitude. Nor do I like the fact our government is run by corporations. Most of all, I hate being grouped with those people simply because I was born in the US. THAT is not MY culture. I didn't invade another country, and even if I voted for the guy that did, I don't get to vote on the decisions he makes.
First, PS3's are US $300, not $200.
Second, I can't help but feel you're comparing apples to oranges here. Hollywood cutting the cost of their movies is easier- there is little to no "product" to store, ship, or manufacture. Even before the advent of digital projectors they use in theaters now, creating and shipping ONE reel is pretty cheap when compared to the profit to be made. Compare this to games and consoles, where an actual product has to be first manufactured, then shipped, then stored somewhere. By the sounds of it, there isn't enough potential profit to be made for them to risk it, especially if they feel the pirates will only undercut them anyway.
Don't get me wrong, I understand your plight. It's just that while I'm sure greed factors into the equation, I don't think that's the only variable.
Also, how do you know those movies in the theater aren't pirated?
Isn't this easier to detect than the compromised key of PS3 ?
The compromised key is not enough to play pirated games. You will also need modified firmware, and while modified firmware can hide that it's modified, it’s not entirely trivial. Sony will probably be looking into ways of detecting modified firmware.
I have to wonder how they will detect an updated firmware. It seems that the only method Sony has of detecting a modified console is looking at logs the console may send to their servers. And anything the console may send could easily be emulated by a homebrew firmware.
The only solution I could think of would be if the console sent the firmware's checksum (or likely some other hash, a simple version check won't be enough as that is easily spoofed) to their servers. This code would have to not only be stored in ROM, but would have to run before the modifiable firmware booted. However, I highly doubt this would be the case; even for the overly-hyped cell processor, calculating the firmware's hash every time on boot would introduce a very noticeable startup lag... and it would have to be a non-trivial hash to prevent the hackers from just making their firmware have the same one. Which means they would cache the hash somewhere writable, and then we're back full-circle again.
Please, if you think I'm wrong or have other ideas on how Sony could detect modified firmware in a method that couldn't just be emulated by the hacked firmware, let me know. It's an interesting thought experiment.
Well life doesn't feature unicorn, for one thing...
But it does feature kitchen sinks and trolls...
Two out of three ain't bad.