For one thing, you aren't paying for the items, you're paying to play the game and to pay the company's bills, and hopefully they will use some of the left over profits to make new content for you to play, so you will keep subscribed and pay them more money.
Technically, your items are nothing more than records in a database, owned by the company. All MMORPG companies likely can legally do whatever they want with this "property", from giving their employee game accounts every "super-rare" item for free, and lots of money for nothing, to messing with random players' items and stats to deleting random accounts to the whole database. Of course these would all upset players, leading to less money income as players leave. It's all about the money, so for now they will protect your virtual goods for you because it's in their best interest... but they're not really yours.
At least, that answers your question of who else could own them. I suppose it's still a matter of perspective, and EULAs.
However can you really "own" something that has no context whatsoever outside of that company's property (the game servers)? The database records in question would just be a bunch of strings and integers. Useless to you on their own without the game giving them context and meaning.
Other examples that come to mind... I can say I own the files on my computer because I own the computer, plus they still are useful when removed from my computer to other computers (note what this says about DRM). I can say that documents I create with Google Docs I own, because although I don't own the servers I created them on, it's trivial for me to print them out or download them in formats I can use locally.
"Though SSL has been around for years, most sites still don't use it by default"
Isn't Apache still used on the majority of web servers? And doesn't Apache have a huge bug (or design flaw, whatever) where VirtualHosts don't work through SSL (IE: an Apache server can only serve ONE HTTPS site, and infinite HTTP sites)?
Try opening device manager, finding the procmon driver name, doing "sc.exe stop <name>". If it succeeds, you can then do "sc.exe delete <name>" (although it will probably already be marked for deletion so the second probably won't be necessary). Boom, unloaded.
Worst that could happen (theoretically) is Windows simply refuses to stop the driver. Although I suppose some badly coded drivers could bluescreen.
Whichever poor soul coded the effect probably took the lazy route and used an existing "dump screen to disk" API and then loaded it back into memory instead of modifying it to capture to memory.
Or probably it doesn't use standard USB Mass Storage drivers to talk to the iPod and it needs its own driver, which likely has a bug causing this BSoD. I don't run iTunes and I don't have an iPod, that's just my guess.
Problem: Application crashes the OS.
Blame: Probably a driver somewhere. In my personal case I'd blame nVidia, although I'd also be mad at MS for having a "Log OS crashes to the event log" option which does absolutely nothing.
Problem: Application crashes.
Blame: The application writer for not testing their application thoroughly. The only time I'd blame the OS writer is if the latest version of the app came out BEFORE the version of the OS I'm running, in which case it is the OS writer's responsibility to provide compatibility (which is the #1 priority with new Windows releases it seems).
Also programmers still use undocumented interfaces. In fact most anti-virus software used to patch several kernel function call tables to intercept Registry and File API calls which meant the Windows team couldn't update those internal, not-meant-for-public-use tables in their new OSs without totally breaking those apps! It was such a big problem that in x64 Windows now, Windows bluescreens if it sees an app trying to do that. AV writers were all complaining that they wouldn't be able to make their apps Vista compatible (despite the fact that Microsoft's own Windows Live Anti-Virus was running fine on Vista at the time). AV writers are now forced to use proper APIs.
This doesn't add any fuel to that particular fire. We're still talking about dates in the millions of years, while creationists will insist the earth isn't that old.
Chrome does have problems if you load a large number of sites at once, and specific sites it seems to load very slowly with high CPU usage. These are issues I am sure will be addressed over time.
For me the switch to Chrome was a no-brainer. Chrome starts up and closes instantly, while Firefox takes a few minutes to start up, and a few minutes to close after I close the window. It's probably due to my wealth of extensions, but darnnit, it's 2008, I want the web MY way, AdBlock, NoScript, Stylish, and Greasemonkey at LEAST. I try to "trim down" my extensions but Firefox still loads very very slowly. Even Firefox safe-mode (with no extensions) took longer to start up than it took me to type this sentence. Chrome starts up before I can type a letter.
this (money losing) price reduction natural re-adjusted back up.
Not possible. If it was, they'd REALLY be losing money with the higher-bandwidth voice calls which are cheaper. No, they're making almost pure profit from SMS.
There will probably be a homebrew solution for backing up and restoring channels before Nintendo introduces their solution, if not already.
Of course Nintendo will probably not like it, since you know... piracy. Though
the channels are probably encrypted or tied to the console or something like that.
The router should be a better option than the wifi dongle. That thing was a bit invasive. I don't like having 1000 network connections in my Network Connections dialog that I only use rarely. VMWare, Bluetooth, Hamachi... I'd also like it if my protocols would reappear in network connection properties so I could set my DNS servers, and I'd really like it if my old nVidia drivers would stop BSoDing, or the new ones wouldn't completely break OpenGL, and if TF2 would stop randomly disconnecting me from servers with an error code noone seems to know how to fix. We all have our dreams.
Oh yeah, I really didn't like how the dongle forced ICS on. That seemed unnecessary (and it was... I got it working with ICS off when I bridged the dongle's network with my LAN).
Slashdot Mirror
Or even ELinks!
I see what you did there: Twice nothing is still nothing! Genius!
For one thing, you aren't paying for the items, you're paying to play the game and to pay the company's bills, and hopefully they will use some of the left over profits to make new content for you to play, so you will keep subscribed and pay them more money.
Technically, your items are nothing more than records in a database, owned by the company. All MMORPG companies likely can legally do whatever they want with this "property", from giving their employee game accounts every "super-rare" item for free, and lots of money for nothing, to messing with random players' items and stats to deleting random accounts to the whole database. Of course these would all upset players, leading to less money income as players leave. It's all about the money, so for now they will protect your virtual goods for you because it's in their best interest... but they're not really yours.
At least, that answers your question of who else could own them. I suppose it's still a matter of perspective, and EULAs.
However can you really "own" something that has no context whatsoever outside of that company's property (the game servers)? The database records in question would just be a bunch of strings and integers. Useless to you on their own without the game giving them context and meaning.
Other examples that come to mind... I can say I own the files on my computer because I own the computer, plus they still are useful when removed from my computer to other computers (note what this says about DRM). I can say that documents I create with Google Docs I own, because although I don't own the servers I created them on, it's trivial for me to print them out or download them in formats I can use locally.
Not to mention that if farmers tried that, the /. community would switch to breathing air from wild forests etc.
It simplifies to 0 = 1. See? That wasn't so hard!
"Though SSL has been around for years, most sites still don't use it by default"
Isn't Apache still used on the majority of web servers? And doesn't Apache have a huge bug (or design flaw, whatever) where VirtualHosts don't work through SSL (IE: an Apache server can only serve ONE HTTPS site, and infinite HTTP sites)?
Oh yeah in Device Manager you gotta show hidden devices to see these software drivers, and then look under Non-Plug and Play Drivers.
Try opening device manager, finding the procmon driver name, doing "sc.exe stop <name>". If it succeeds, you can then do "sc.exe delete <name>" (although it will probably already be marked for deletion so the second probably won't be necessary). Boom, unloaded.
Worst that could happen (theoretically) is Windows simply refuses to stop the driver. Although I suppose some badly coded drivers could bluescreen.
psst... IQs are scaled so the average is always 100.
Aha, but we will always have C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Because Microsoft focuses on application compatibility above all else, and removing hosts would probably break five 10 year old apps.
Can we say this is bad because it is a patent on a software concept that has massive prior art?
This filters out a good chunk of them.
Whichever poor soul coded the effect probably took the lazy route and used an existing "dump screen to disk" API and then loaded it back into memory instead of modifying it to capture to memory.
You don't even need to turn off JavaScript.
Or probably it doesn't use standard USB Mass Storage drivers to talk to the iPod and it needs its own driver, which likely has a bug causing this BSoD. I don't run iTunes and I don't have an iPod, that's just my guess.
Actually I disagree with you on one bit.
Problem: Application crashes the OS.
Blame: Probably a driver somewhere. In my personal case I'd blame nVidia, although I'd also be mad at MS for having a "Log OS crashes to the event log" option which does absolutely nothing.
Problem: Application crashes.
Blame: The application writer for not testing their application thoroughly. The only time I'd blame the OS writer is if the latest version of the app came out BEFORE the version of the OS I'm running, in which case it is the OS writer's responsibility to provide compatibility (which is the #1 priority with new Windows releases it seems).
Also programmers still use undocumented interfaces. In fact most anti-virus software used to patch several kernel function call tables to intercept Registry and File API calls which meant the Windows team couldn't update those internal, not-meant-for-public-use tables in their new OSs without totally breaking those apps! It was such a big problem that in x64 Windows now, Windows bluescreens if it sees an app trying to do that. AV writers were all complaining that they wouldn't be able to make their apps Vista compatible (despite the fact that Microsoft's own Windows Live Anti-Virus was running fine on Vista at the time). AV writers are now forced to use proper APIs.
Triangulation?
But YOU care enough to post about them, apparently? I'm confused.
This doesn't add any fuel to that particular fire. We're still talking about dates in the millions of years, while creationists will insist the earth isn't that old.
Chrome does have problems if you load a large number of sites at once, and specific sites it seems to load very slowly with high CPU usage. These are issues I am sure will be addressed over time.
For me the switch to Chrome was a no-brainer. Chrome starts up and closes instantly, while Firefox takes a few minutes to start up, and a few minutes to close after I close the window. It's probably due to my wealth of extensions, but darnnit, it's 2008, I want the web MY way, AdBlock, NoScript, Stylish, and Greasemonkey at LEAST. I try to "trim down" my extensions but Firefox still loads very very slowly. Even Firefox safe-mode (with no extensions) took longer to start up than it took me to type this sentence. Chrome starts up before I can type a letter.
this (money losing) price reduction natural re-adjusted back up.
Not possible. If it was, they'd REALLY be losing money with the higher-bandwidth voice calls which are cheaper. No, they're making almost pure profit from SMS.
I never would have guessed that 9.04 (IE 04/2009) would be coming next April.
There will probably be a homebrew solution for backing up and restoring channels before Nintendo introduces their solution, if not already.
Of course Nintendo will probably not like it, since you know... piracy. Though the channels are probably encrypted or tied to the console or something like that.
The router should be a better option than the wifi dongle. That thing was a bit invasive. I don't like having 1000 network connections in my Network Connections dialog that I only use rarely. VMWare, Bluetooth, Hamachi... I'd also like it if my protocols would reappear in network connection properties so I could set my DNS servers, and I'd really like it if my old nVidia drivers would stop BSoDing, or the new ones wouldn't completely break OpenGL, and if TF2 would stop randomly disconnecting me from servers with an error code noone seems to know how to fix. We all have our dreams.
Oh yeah, I really didn't like how the dongle forced ICS on. That seemed unnecessary (and it was... I got it working with ICS off when I bridged the dongle's network with my LAN).
You fixed the wiki link... right?
It uses DRM. No way can it be simple.