If there had been a massive voter fraud conspiracy in 2004, we'd have known about it by now.
Sounds like you weren't looking hard enough. After the '04 election, there was a complete blackout in the mainstream media on election fraud. But if you had dug around online, like, at all, you would've found in a few minutes tons of articles on all the irregularities and outright nastiness that took place.
Anyone remember the dilemma of "what if Linus Torvalds gets hit by a bus"? I do, and I'm sure pissed off that we wasted all our resources on one guy. Holding together a big chunk of the FOSS comms infrastructure is a very important task, and I want to tell myself that if we had only worried about lilo instead, maybe this wouldn't have happened.
I feel a really strange disconnect about this whole event. One aspect that hits me is the fact that I've never met this guy (online or off), and I've only ever read about him online. It's really odd to think that your only knowledge of a real-life person is through second-hand ASCII flying around the net, and suddenly they're gone.
The other aspect I feel is that of a math/computer person. We generally feel that everything has a perfect solution, and we can prevent failure by designing our systems correctly. Then something like this comes along, and it really just seems kind of strange in comparison. If only we could write an exception to handle a ton of steel hurtling at a person.
we... tend to support the artists that we like by getting their whole CD.
This is a really bad reason to buy CDs instead of digital files (and it has nothing to do with DRM). Buying anything from the "Big Four" (and even many indie companies) does not really support the musicians who made the music. I'd suggest reading the classic essay "Some of Your Friends are Already this Fucked".
From best to worst: analog audio (tape, vinyl, etc) ---> digital audio (WAV/AIFF/etc) ---> lossy digital audio (MP3/AAC/etc).
This statement is not true. There is no consensus on whether or not analog recordings are really "better" than digital ones. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, and making a blanket statement that "analog is better than digital" is completely preposterous.
What the fuck? Sony's game business is one of its most profitable divisions. And this may be a newsflash to some of you, but Sony has never sold a console at a loss:
There was a big lead up to what the price point would be, and when it would be launched. Finally, the president of Sony walked out slowly on stage and a silence fell upon the room. We all awaited his words, and finally he spoke.
"Two hundred ninety-nine dollars."
...
Everyone was in awe. Sony was bringing the super console known as the PlayStation to America for almost half the price it was selling for in Japan.
This brought force claims of dumping by Atari. Atari swore that they would have the PlayStation stopped before it came out at that price "because itwas being sold below cost and that's dumping!"
The myth was born.
Oh and if you think the PS2 was different...
Then we look at Sony's stock report for Oct-Dec 2000, and there is an interesting little blurb. It said that had Sony been able to meet demand with another 1 million PS2 units, they would have pocketed $175 million in profits.
So if I commit a crime and then leave a state, they have no way to haul me into court? Um, no. At this point, another state or the federal government gets involved. In the case of international flight, a foreign or international agency will come into play (treaties, extradition, etc).
Let me get this straight. If I have some Creative Commons files and I encrypt my hard drive or transfer them via SSH, I've broken the license. Oh wait, you forgot something:
The FCC's job is entirely based on the need for a central registry for radio broadcasters, so sufficiently powerful signals don't interfere with each other. Along the way that leverage in denying access to the "public airwaves" turned into government control of broadcasters.
Exactly. If any agency is to be regulating who can own what, it should be the Federal Trade Commission, the purpose of which is to eliminate monopolistic practices.
Um, right. So basically you have no overarching argument. Instead you opt to make random statements that are either not true or irrelevent. Good job. I suppose you think I'm just "snarking", so I guess I'll have to painstakingly spell out everything.
With a little over 3 million consoles in the US, that means a third of all 360 owners has COD2. The only other game with that kind of attach rate is Halo.
This is so false it isn't even funny. For one example, take the Gamecube, which has (as of July) sold 21 million units worldwide. Super Smash Bros. Melee and Mario Kart: DD have each sold over 6 million. There are many other examples. The really funny thing is, there are two other 360 games that invalidate your argument (GRAW and Oblivion).
And yes, Halo 2 is the most played title of any platform.
I'm pretty sure The Sims and Tetris are a bit more popular. And yes, I realize you said "platform", which is really just a bullshit way to artificially limit valid comparisons. If you're truly so big on "what platform", you should probably realize that Halo 2 is played on two different "platforms", and this basically cuts its popularity in half, according to your distinction.
The rest of your post either irrelevant or opinion. Congrats on that.
There is no fundamental right to purchase anything free of conditions,
I sincerely hope that you are not an American. Why? Well, it sounds like you haven't read a little document that was rather important:
When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness....
Even if you are not an American, many other countries have laws that stem from this idea. For example, another poster mentioned the EU.
[Apple doesn't] have a choice if they want to sell music.
Oh really? Companies like Emusic (and bands like They Might Be Giants) are doing just fine, and they don't sell infected files. In fact, the only companies that are really big on DRM are those who are already entrenched and have a nice little oligopoly going. Hmm.
Perhaps as a father I'll start being the "sacrificial nerd" and running games for my kids. I am an accomplished GM, voice-actor, story-writer, and story-teller, and good enough illustrator.... I think it's time to start telling my own stories
The thing is, you don't need to be "good" at telling stories to do this. I'm not knocking people who are, rather giving hope to those who aren't. My parents aren't really storytellers, yet they would always tell us stories at bedtime. Kids don't require something like The Odyssey to be entertained or challenged.
So Xfire is not owned by Sony, right? This is interesting because there is the very real possibility of this deal entangling Sony with a foreign entity[1]. We saw this during the last console cycle when Microsoft and Nvidia disagreed on chip pricing.
Worse, if the relationship goes sour, several bad things would happen. Depending on how the online service is implemented, old games could stop working. Players might also be forced to sign up for a new service, and hassling with learning how to use it and setting everything up again. Or Sony could go with another system for the PS4, leaving gamers with Xfire accounts for PS3 and something else for PS4. Contrast this with Xbox Live, where the whole service is done in-house, and these problems basically do not exist. Of course, you're still locked down to Microsoft, but that's another discussion.
But to me, the most interesting element here is due to Xfire recently being bought by Viacom. Viacom is a very large and powerful media conglomerate. Sony, while more diversified, also owns a lot of media holdings. I wouldn't be surprised if some collusion[2] happens because of this deal. Maybe Sony throws some Paramount trailers up on the PS3 download service, or perhaps PS3s start showing up on Viacom-owned TV networks. This could also be an interesting angle if any disputes arise.
Of course, all my speculation here could turn out to be total BS. Despite Internet forums and "market analysts" predicting PS3 DOOOOM, Sony has a pretty good record so far of being forward-looking when it comes to consoles.
[1] By "foreign" I mean "outside the company". [2] Collusion is illegal, so they'll call it something like "cross-promotion".
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, and whether or not it will involve First Amendment issues. Obviously groups like Hezbollah are bad, but this literally is goverment censorship. When the only legal sources of information are those "trusted" by the government, we run into a really scary situation.
More importantly, what will the next chips be called? The Core 2 Octo? I smell (heh) a tie-in with sushi restaurants! And don't get me started on the Core 3 Hexadeka...
I like an escalator because an escalator can never break. It can only become stairs. You would never see an "Escalator temporarily out-of-order" sign. Just "Escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience. We apologize for the fact that you can still get up there." --Mitch Hedberg
Nintendo doesn't own the rights to 3rd party games
Thank you very much for pointing this out. Despite Slashdot constantly covering topics like Free Software, copyright infringement, and fair use, it's really sad that we still get posts like the OP. They loudly proclaim their sage advice while displaying complete ignorance of the subject at hand.
The sad part is that the source of this phenomenon is really the lack of a good grasp of logic. It seems that many people build up towering, convoluted structures of reasoning over time, and never bother to check if anything is inconsistent. Even worse, pretty much all of these posts have a logical semi-equivalent that sounds ridiculous to pretty much everybody (by "everybody" I mean "everybody on Slashdot"). For example, I doubt that a story about DVD licensing would garner a reply claiming MPEG holds the copyright to all movies released on DVD. Of course, now I'll get a reply that links to just such a post.
Slashdot Mirror
If there had been a massive voter fraud conspiracy in 2004, we'd have known about it by now.
Sounds like you weren't looking hard enough. After the '04 election, there was a complete blackout in the mainstream media on election fraud. But if you had dug around online, like, at all, you would've found in a few minutes tons of articles on all the irregularities and outright nastiness that took place.
Suppose you were to actually address the actual issue I raised?
Anyone remember the dilemma of "what if Linus Torvalds gets hit by a bus"? I do, and I'm sure pissed off that we wasted all our resources on one guy. Holding together a big chunk of the FOSS comms infrastructure is a very important task, and I want to tell myself that if we had only worried about lilo instead, maybe this wouldn't have happened.
I feel a really strange disconnect about this whole event. One aspect that hits me is the fact that I've never met this guy (online or off), and I've only ever read about him online. It's really odd to think that your only knowledge of a real-life person is through second-hand ASCII flying around the net, and suddenly they're gone.
The other aspect I feel is that of a math/computer person. We generally feel that everything has a perfect solution, and we can prevent failure by designing our systems correctly. Then something like this comes along, and it really just seems kind of strange in comparison. If only we could write an exception to handle a ton of steel hurtling at a person.
we ... tend to support the artists that we like by getting their whole CD.
This is a really bad reason to buy CDs instead of digital files (and it has nothing to do with DRM). Buying anything from the "Big Four" (and even many indie companies) does not really support the musicians who made the music. I'd suggest reading the classic essay "Some of Your Friends are Already this Fucked".
From best to worst: analog audio (tape, vinyl, etc) ---> digital audio (WAV/AIFF/etc) ---> lossy digital audio (MP3/AAC/etc).
This statement is not true. There is no consensus on whether or not analog recordings are really "better" than digital ones. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, and making a blanket statement that "analog is better than digital" is completely preposterous.
Oh and if you think the PS2 was different...
So if I commit a crime and then leave a state, they have no way to haul me into court? Um, no. At this point, another state or the federal government gets involved. In the case of international flight, a foreign or international agency will come into play (treaties, extradition, etc).
[Design] isn't a sequential process
I didn't realize that designs came into existence fully-formed. Thanks for enlightening a poor non-designer peon.
Let me get this straight. If I have some Creative Commons files and I encrypt my hard drive or transfer them via SSH, I've broken the license. Oh wait, you forgot something:
ENCRYPTION AND DRM ARE NOT THE SAME THING.
Yeah, I can imagine it now: a 6 hour movie, the first 3 of which are spent just getting to Ringworld. Dear lord that was a boring book.
The FCC's job is entirely based on the need for a central registry for radio broadcasters, so sufficiently powerful signals don't interfere with each other. Along the way that leverage in denying access to the "public airwaves" turned into government control of broadcasters.
Exactly. If any agency is to be regulating who can own what, it should be the Federal Trade Commission, the purpose of which is to eliminate monopolistic practices.
There is exactly one person in Washington who represents your district in the House of Representatives. If he's a Democrat, his vote does not count.
My Representative voted against both versions of USA PATRIOT. That sure as hell counts for something, at least in my book.
Um, right. So basically you have no overarching argument. Instead you opt to make random statements that are either not true or irrelevent. Good job. I suppose you think I'm just "snarking", so I guess I'll have to painstakingly spell out everything.
With a little over 3 million consoles in the US, that means a third of all 360 owners has COD2. The only other game with that kind of attach rate is Halo.
This is so false it isn't even funny. For one example, take the Gamecube, which has (as of July) sold 21 million units worldwide. Super Smash Bros. Melee and Mario Kart: DD have each sold over 6 million. There are many other examples. The really funny thing is, there are two other 360 games that invalidate your argument (GRAW and Oblivion).
And yes, Halo 2 is the most played title of any platform.
I'm pretty sure The Sims and Tetris are a bit more popular. And yes, I realize you said "platform", which is really just a bullshit way to artificially limit valid comparisons. If you're truly so big on "what platform", you should probably realize that Halo 2 is played on two different "platforms", and this basically cuts its popularity in half, according to your distinction.
The rest of your post either irrelevant or opinion. Congrats on that.
I suggest reading all of my post first. Thanks.
I sincerely hope that you are not an American. Why? Well, it sounds like you haven't read a little document that was rather important:
Even if you are not an American, many other countries have laws that stem from this idea. For example, another poster mentioned the EU.
[Apple doesn't] have a choice if they want to sell music.
Oh really? Companies like Emusic (and bands like They Might Be Giants) are doing just fine, and they don't sell infected files. In fact, the only companies that are really big on DRM are those who are already entrenched and have a nice little oligopoly going. Hmm.
Perhaps as a father I'll start being the "sacrificial nerd" and running games for my kids. I am an accomplished GM, voice-actor, story-writer, and story-teller, and good enough illustrator. ... I think it's time to start telling my own stories
The thing is, you don't need to be "good" at telling stories to do this. I'm not knocking people who are, rather giving hope to those who aren't. My parents aren't really storytellers, yet they would always tell us stories at bedtime. Kids don't require something like The Odyssey to be entertained or challenged.
So Xfire is not owned by Sony, right? This is interesting because there is the very real possibility of this deal entangling Sony with a foreign entity[1]. We saw this during the last console cycle when Microsoft and Nvidia disagreed on chip pricing.
Worse, if the relationship goes sour, several bad things would happen. Depending on how the online service is implemented, old games could stop working. Players might also be forced to sign up for a new service, and hassling with learning how to use it and setting everything up again. Or Sony could go with another system for the PS4, leaving gamers with Xfire accounts for PS3 and something else for PS4. Contrast this with Xbox Live, where the whole service is done in-house, and these problems basically do not exist. Of course, you're still locked down to Microsoft, but that's another discussion.
But to me, the most interesting element here is due to Xfire recently being bought by Viacom. Viacom is a very large and powerful media conglomerate. Sony, while more diversified, also owns a lot of media holdings. I wouldn't be surprised if some collusion[2] happens because of this deal. Maybe Sony throws some Paramount trailers up on the PS3 download service, or perhaps PS3s start showing up on Viacom-owned TV networks. This could also be an interesting angle if any disputes arise.
Of course, all my speculation here could turn out to be total BS. Despite Internet forums and "market analysts" predicting PS3 DOOOOM, Sony has a pretty good record so far of being forward-looking when it comes to consoles.
[1] By "foreign" I mean "outside the company".
[2] Collusion is illegal, so they'll call it something like "cross-promotion".
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, and whether or not it will involve First Amendment issues. Obviously groups like Hezbollah are bad, but this literally is goverment censorship. When the only legal sources of information are those "trusted" by the government, we run into a really scary situation.
More importantly, what will the next chips be called? The Core 2 Octo? I smell (heh) a tie-in with sushi restaurants! And don't get me started on the Core 3 Hexadeka...
Um, right.
I think that the Nunchaku can also sense motion, so that's an idea as well.
Nintendo doesn't own the rights to 3rd party games
Thank you very much for pointing this out. Despite Slashdot constantly covering topics like Free Software, copyright infringement, and fair use, it's really sad that we still get posts like the OP. They loudly proclaim their sage advice while displaying complete ignorance of the subject at hand.
The sad part is that the source of this phenomenon is really the lack of a good grasp of logic. It seems that many people build up towering, convoluted structures of reasoning over time, and never bother to check if anything is inconsistent. Even worse, pretty much all of these posts have a logical semi-equivalent that sounds ridiculous to pretty much everybody (by "everybody" I mean "everybody on Slashdot"). For example, I doubt that a story about DVD licensing would garner a reply claiming MPEG holds the copyright to all movies released on DVD. Of course, now I'll get a reply that links to just such a post.
So like, if you submit this post to the appropriate court, they'd totally jail this guy right? Oh wait, you're full of shit.
This is the best troll I've seen in a long time. Congrats.