I think it's important to note why the adaptations are loose: PK Dick wrote short stories. Very, very good stories, but short. The main idea in the story is told in few words, but well.
A movie also has an obligation to fill 90 minutes of screen time, at least. Some of the actual concepts can be described in under a minute. The rest of the time in the short story or movie is spent exploring the concept.
PK Dick is definitely one of my top 5 favorite authors.
If you're seeing used copies maintain a price, but not selling new copies, guess what people are buying? -You- may not see any of the sales from piracy, but the used booksellers might be.
It sounds like people are willing to pay the used price, but not the new one. (But then, who would, when the product is just as good? It's not like you're a world-famous author and having a shiny never-been-opened copy increases the worth of their library all by itself.)
Having run my own mail server, and used mail servers run by companies I work for, I'll -gladly- take GMail's track record for reliability. Even with no 'guarantee', it's been a hell of a lot better than anything else I've experienced.
And what's -really- the difference between a server going down locally that affects you and a server going down globally that affects you? Nothing.
When Firefox (or any other browser) gains enough market share, the trend of corporations requiring IE will switch to that the new top browser instead. Yes, it's an artificial barrier now, but it's not something that's insurmountable.
They've not only not cried foul, they definitely know about it because the site owner has contacted them about it.
And even ignoring the CDs posted online, the free library at Baen is amazing. I've now bought many, many books from the non-free section thanks to how many good ones I found in the free section. For the record, the good-to-bad ratio seems to be about the same for both sections.
And even if they hadn't, passports are hackable anyhow. They can change all that information on both the paper and the chip.
Also, how much work is it to keep thousands of brain scanners all calibrated the same?
And finally, what about false positives/negatives? Sure, fingerprints are 'unique', but we only sample a few points... It's actually possible to be wrong. Same with DNA, etc etc. Why is this any different? In fact, it's worse... Brains CHANGE over time.
Or maybe they really did just find out about it. I'm an avid gamer and identify as a 'core gamer' and 'RPG fanatic', yet I'd never heard of this project or group. Is it really that hard to believe they hadn't heard about it either?
Don't forget that the longer a project has existed, and the closer it gets to completion, the more noise is made about it. Fans start talking more, devs start showing it off, etc, etc.
Besides the 'they are annoying' reason, it takes -my- bandwidth to download those ads. And there are quite a few 'ad companies' that are actually just malware.
No, if I really like a site, and the ads aren't insane, I'll whitelist them in adblock and turn on javascript. Otherwise, it's -my- computer they want to appear on. If they want to guarantee money, they can go pay-only and they'll only succeed if they're worth the money they think they deserve.
There's an old saying for this, I think... Something about 'throwing out the baby with the bathwater'. Don't reject all your users simply because a few aren't as wonderful as you'd like.
I caught the 10:30am IMAX showing here Saturday and it was filled to the brim. That showing is usually about 1/3 filled on the biggest films and sometimes it's just the 2 of us on the lesser ones, but this time there were no seats left over at the top (I saw people splitting up and not sitting near each other) and the front row had 2 seats free, not next to each other. There were probably a few more seats in the first few rows.
I see a lot of 'The RIAA will cheat if they get to pick!' posts. But the order says a 'forensics expert' and not just any random person the RIAA picks. I would -hope- this means someone with a license that can be revoked if they are found to be corrupt. If so, it doesn't really matter who the RIAA picks because the person would soon be out of work if they didn't hold to the law.
Books with graphics get to be rather large. Books with markup tend to get rather large as well.
And just like MP3 players, you want to carry your whole collection around with you... 3GB is a lot until you start to really use the device, and then it's not enough.
I've tried Cygwin before, but the downfall was always the same:
What do you use for a decent console app?!
Admittedly, I haven't tried it since KDE4 came to Windows, so maybe Konsole works... But everything else I've tried has been horrid under windows. Especially cmd.
Inanimate objects cannot sign anything! It's like asking if a sock-puppet can sign a contract. Try signing a real contract with a puppet on your hand and see if they sue you or the puppet.
An avatar is not a sentient being and cannot sign for anything. It can, however, be your extension and you can sign through it.
Now, as to whether a contract signed in a virtual reality world is a valid, binding contract or not is a different story. Personally, I feel it's as binding as the world's administration makes it. If they refuse to settle disputes at all, the contracts are worthless. (Yes, the admins running the servers are the government in this case.)
I was picking something far enough out that I knew it would be true, but near enough that the example given was appropriate as well.
I don't know what the actual distance would be, but it would interesting to know. A few Google searches didn't turn anything up for me, which is unusual...
This got modded 'funny', but I think 'insightful' would have been a lot better mod.
Seriously, the 'you can't sell the game' argument falls apart for so many reasons.
1) If it's a good game, you aren't going to sell it anyhow. At that point, Steam's easy and free replacement policy (just redownload it!) is much better than a physical CD.
2) Even if you -can- resell it, you won't get the original price. You'll be lucky to get 1/4 of the price simply because you took the game out of the store.
3) How many people have sold a used PC game lately? No stores will buy them back to resell because it doesn't work for PC gamers like it does for console gamers. That leaves other gamers via EBay or Craigslist. Personally, that's such a bloody hassle that I'd rather just lose the 1/4 of the cost I might get back from it.
Outsource means to get someone 'out'side your company to do your work, usually for money. Crowdsource means to get a 'crowd' of random people to do your work, usually for free.
Exactly. I was a little worried about how well this 'virtual xp' thing would work, but then I realized: I have no intention to use it unless I absolutely have to. Chances are, I won't be using it at all.
If Vista hadn't been between XP and 7, I think it would be a lot more hassle. Vista has given us a few years to force developers into better practices that will work right on Win7. There should be few to none new XP-based programs at this point. (And if anyone is still making 16-bit apps, they're crazy.)
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I agree... I've heard the name once before, and have no idea what the music sounds like, but I'm very tempted to buy this.
I think it's important to note why the adaptations are loose: PK Dick wrote short stories. Very, very good stories, but short. The main idea in the story is told in few words, but well.
A movie also has an obligation to fill 90 minutes of screen time, at least. Some of the actual concepts can be described in under a minute. The rest of the time in the short story or movie is spent exploring the concept.
PK Dick is definitely one of my top 5 favorite authors.
If you're seeing used copies maintain a price, but not selling new copies, guess what people are buying? -You- may not see any of the sales from piracy, but the used booksellers might be.
It sounds like people are willing to pay the used price, but not the new one. (But then, who would, when the product is just as good? It's not like you're a world-famous author and having a shiny never-been-opened copy increases the worth of their library all by itself.)
Having run my own mail server, and used mail servers run by companies I work for, I'll -gladly- take GMail's track record for reliability. Even with no 'guarantee', it's been a hell of a lot better than anything else I've experienced.
And what's -really- the difference between a server going down locally that affects you and a server going down globally that affects you? Nothing.
When Firefox (or any other browser) gains enough market share, the trend of corporations requiring IE will switch to that the new top browser instead. Yes, it's an artificial barrier now, but it's not something that's insurmountable.
They've not only not cried foul, they definitely know about it because the site owner has contacted them about it.
And even ignoring the CDs posted online, the free library at Baen is amazing. I've now bought many, many books from the non-free section thanks to how many good ones I found in the free section. For the record, the good-to-bad ratio seems to be about the same for both sections.
You could attach a metal handle and call them 'wedges' a la Dollhouse.
The scene where he 'saves' the wedge from calling, they show the back of the drive and they're SATA. Hehe.
And even if they hadn't, passports are hackable anyhow. They can change all that information on both the paper and the chip.
Also, how much work is it to keep thousands of brain scanners all calibrated the same?
And finally, what about false positives/negatives? Sure, fingerprints are 'unique', but we only sample a few points... It's actually possible to be wrong. Same with DNA, etc etc. Why is this any different? In fact, it's worse... Brains CHANGE over time.
Or maybe they really did just find out about it. I'm an avid gamer and identify as a 'core gamer' and 'RPG fanatic', yet I'd never heard of this project or group. Is it really that hard to believe they hadn't heard about it either?
Don't forget that the longer a project has existed, and the closer it gets to completion, the more noise is made about it. Fans start talking more, devs start showing it off, etc, etc.
Besides the 'they are annoying' reason, it takes -my- bandwidth to download those ads. And there are quite a few 'ad companies' that are actually just malware.
No, if I really like a site, and the ads aren't insane, I'll whitelist them in adblock and turn on javascript. Otherwise, it's -my- computer they want to appear on. If they want to guarantee money, they can go pay-only and they'll only succeed if they're worth the money they think they deserve.
There's an old saying for this, I think... Something about 'throwing out the baby with the bathwater'. Don't reject all your users simply because a few aren't as wonderful as you'd like.
I caught the 10:30am IMAX showing here Saturday and it was filled to the brim. That showing is usually about 1/3 filled on the biggest films and sometimes it's just the 2 of us on the lesser ones, but this time there were no seats left over at the top (I saw people splitting up and not sitting near each other) and the front row had 2 seats free, not next to each other. There were probably a few more seats in the first few rows.
At least they didn't measure it in Libraries of Congress per second.
I see a lot of 'The RIAA will cheat if they get to pick!' posts. But the order says a 'forensics expert' and not just any random person the RIAA picks. I would -hope- this means someone with a license that can be revoked if they are found to be corrupt. If so, it doesn't really matter who the RIAA picks because the person would soon be out of work if they didn't hold to the law.
Books with graphics get to be rather large. Books with markup tend to get rather large as well.
And just like MP3 players, you want to carry your whole collection around with you... 3GB is a lot until you start to really use the device, and then it's not enough.
I've tried Cygwin before, but the downfall was always the same:
What do you use for a decent console app?!
Admittedly, I haven't tried it since KDE4 came to Windows, so maybe Konsole works... But everything else I've tried has been horrid under windows. Especially cmd.
128, at least, assuming UTF8. And the Japanese can say things a lot more compactly than we can:
èããY - I woke up.
åå¾OEãé£Yãã¾ã--ãY - I ate in the afternoon.
éf½éYã®åé"ãé話ã'ã--ã¾ã(TM) - I am talking on the telephone with my friend in Tokyo.
(Of course, the above won't come through correctly on Slashdot, but they are about half the characters of the English phrases.)
You didn't buy the game through Steam. You bought the physical CD, then it installs Steam.
Buying a CD of a Steam game does indeed hurt the buyer, since it's the worst of both worlds.
Inanimate objects cannot sign anything! It's like asking if a sock-puppet can sign a contract. Try signing a real contract with a puppet on your hand and see if they sue you or the puppet.
An avatar is not a sentient being and cannot sign for anything. It can, however, be your extension and you can sign through it.
Now, as to whether a contract signed in a virtual reality world is a valid, binding contract or not is a different story. Personally, I feel it's as binding as the world's administration makes it. If they refuse to settle disputes at all, the contracts are worthless. (Yes, the admins running the servers are the government in this case.)
I was picking something far enough out that I knew it would be true, but near enough that the example given was appropriate as well.
I don't know what the actual distance would be, but it would interesting to know. A few Google searches didn't turn anything up for me, which is unusual...
This got modded 'funny', but I think 'insightful' would have been a lot better mod.
Seriously, the 'you can't sell the game' argument falls apart for so many reasons.
1) If it's a good game, you aren't going to sell it anyhow. At that point, Steam's easy and free replacement policy (just redownload it!) is much better than a physical CD.
2) Even if you -can- resell it, you won't get the original price. You'll be lucky to get 1/4 of the price simply because you took the game out of the store.
3) How many people have sold a used PC game lately? No stores will buy them back to resell because it doesn't work for PC gamers like it does for console gamers. That leaves other gamers via EBay or Craigslist. Personally, that's such a bloody hassle that I'd rather just lose the 1/4 of the cost I might get back from it.
Outsource means to get someone 'out'side your company to do your work, usually for money.
Crowdsource means to get a 'crowd' of random people to do your work, usually for free.
Exactly. I was a little worried about how well this 'virtual xp' thing would work, but then I realized: I have no intention to use it unless I absolutely have to. Chances are, I won't be using it at all.
If Vista hadn't been between XP and 7, I think it would be a lot more hassle. Vista has given us a few years to force developers into better practices that will work right on Win7. There should be few to none new XP-based programs at this point. (And if anyone is still making 16-bit apps, they're crazy.)
Even though people will understand what you are saying, taken literally it is a negative number.
Take 10 as an example. 50x 10 = 500. So 500 less than 10 is -490. 50x less than 10 is -490.
Similarly, 50x more than 10 is 510, not 500.
If you are talking about something technical, you might as well be completely correct in what you are saying.
"Storing porn /IN/ porn? Imagine the potential!"
Sup dawg. I heard you like sex...
The 'and's are optional and 'not under 10 words' would '10 words or more'.