Maybe I'm over reading the emotion (though certainly there are others here who show it), but why get so angry about it?
Do people feel left out of society because they can't access content that others are experiencing? I truly don't understand the direct vitriol of "having" to subscribe to multiple services.
Personally, I hated bundled cable, and I like the choices of services now.
This is one of the best cases that I see for a Universal Basic Income (UBI). Although most on the right think recipients of 'free' money wouldn't work, we don't have the data to support that supposition. Sure some people wouldn't work, but some would contribute their time to things like OSS without needing to worry about working a 'real' job for basic survival.
If anyone wants to read more about this, the book "Trekonomics" has made a good case for how a society could be built with this in mind using some relevent examples of things like Reddit and Youtube.
I'm not familure with Asimov's works, but I have to say that in this instance The Matrix is a bad thing to look at. In the Matrix, the world is so totally experienced by its participants that it !IS! real. If you experience any environment with all your senses in crisp detail then its real to you. If two people experience the same reality then that reality is real.
I am actually believe that when the graphics of games improve, they will eventually become more than real. Its an odd concept, but our reality is limited to what our eyes can see, our ears can hear, and our skin can feel. In a virtual reality connected directly to the brain, we can experience the virtual reality without being encombered by our human limitations.
As an example of this, in TES4:Oblivion I've been able to see Vistas that are impossible to see in reality. This isn't really due to enhanced graphics, but is because of an art style that isn't possible with real world physics.
which I guess brings up the point that we are also limited to what we can experience in reality by the laws of physics.
Anyway, as in the Matrix, if we could breed through some automated system, then we wouldn't have to even worry about phsyical contact.
He does have a very good point that there should be no reason why we can't transfer our license to another person. Xest is correct that it is illegal (or dodgy at best) to make it illegal to sell your license.
If I buy a copy of software, you don't own the software, but you do own a license of it in the same way that you own a book. It is legal for me to transfer my license to another person (either as a gift or as a sale or even temporarily) as long as I uninstall the software completely there is nothing illegal about it.
It should be trivial for Valve to setup a sharing system on Steam. If I get done playing Bioshock and want my friend to be able to play it, normally I would uninstall it from my computer, hand him the CD, then he would install it and play it. When he was done, he would uninstall it and give it back. On Steam I should be able to right click the game, say "trade" or "give", then enter their SteamID, and it removes my ability to play the game and gives it to them. The beauty of this system is that I don't even have to uninstall the game because it prevents me from even playing it until I have the License back.
I don't think anyone's ignoring the DRM nature of Steam, we're just saying that its a compromise between us and the publishers. They want some control and we want some features and playability. I can't speak for everyone, but I've come to accept Steam as the best DRM. For the reasons that Shrike82 stated above and I've decided that the reasons that you've mentioned aren't important to me.
Usually I buy games from Steam on the 'rotten rack' (eg for half the normal price or less). I've actually been introduced to lots of Indy games that I would never had considered getting until they were 5$ and easy to download and play right away. So its easy marketing for companies too.
The games that I've bought at full price are Steam games anyway so they're required to use Steam to activate. The Spore DRM was the same way though, so I'm really incapable of avoiding DRM if I ever want to play games again. (well I didn't buy or play Spore because of the DRM so I'm going to say voice your opinion with your money.)
Does this mean that you wouldn't buy games thru XBox Live either?
Summary: Compromise is the key to every relationship. If you don't want to compromise on a point, then don't buy and tell them. Thats what I do and I'm happy.
Except that the 3 places that I've worked, there were plenty of people that were given AMAZING references with the hopes that they would be hired somewhere else and finally leave.
The problem is the methodologies used to study other galaxies and solar systems is different than that used to study locations nearby. We also know more granular pieces of information about our own system than the distant ones. Only recently have we been able to tell if there is a gas giant orbiting a star, but we can say how many planets are in our system.
As for the number of planets in our solar system, the problem isn't that we discovered new information about Pluto that declassified it, the problem is that when it was discovered the scientific community didn't have any guidelines setup as to what size a celestial body had to be to be considered a planet. Once a standard was set and guidelines enacted, they realized that Pluto no longer had the characteristics that we now use to define a planet. Most of this confusion is just because since we discovered Pluto, we then discovered many other objects that we didn't classify as planets but that shared more characteristics with Pluto than Pluto did with the rest of the planets.
I assume we missed a tiny ring of debris around Saturn's moon for so long because its so small. I think a majority of what we know about the moons of the outer planets is from the Voyager space probes which were kind of limited to a linear path.
I also want to say your post doesn't deserve a -1 rating since you have a good point just need some information.
I really do hate to reference Star Trek because people get sick of me referencing it all the time.:p And despite being fictional / out of touch it does present us with a situation that we can ponder solutions which help answer our problem.
You've also proved my point though, in that while measurement of time is static (from the same point of reference, as someone pointed out) our labeling of those time units is totally arbitrary.
I think we're all confusing an important distinction here. Any point in time has no predefined label. When dealing with measurements it is important that a meter is always the same length and that a second is the same length, but what we call any particular second doesn't matter because it's just a handy way for us to keep an organized life.
Maybe I can explain what I mean... So, the label of "04-March-2008 7:57am" is just a label applied to this moment in time; it's not some undeniable fact of the universe. Since we're naming it we can name it whatever we want. On another planet this same moment in time is labeled entirely different. On a planet with 30 hour days maybe this moment in time is "27:36".
Heck on that note, why do we even make a distinction between the AM and PM? Why doesn't everyone just use 24 hour time?
I hate to reference Star Trek, but this is the reason why a Stardate was created, so that planets, spaceships, and other interstellar outposts could all have the same time reference. A Stardate would be defined somehow so that regardless of local time all clocks throught the Federation are standardized, just like a second is standardized.
Bravo. You're totally right. As campy as it sounds, when I have a moral question to ask I just remember SpiderMan. -"With great power comes great responsibility."
((And I realize that it isn't originally from Spiderman, it just gives me a modern reference))
Basically, you're blaming a victim for not being computer-savvy enough to avoid being targeted.... Most people don't have the technical background to secure their computer/data against a local attack
I'm not blaming them for not being tech savvy (not everyone is, i get that) but i'm blaming them for being stupid and having something that they know they can't protect.
I can't ensure that people wont go snooping around my physical space, so I don't keep anything I wouldn't want someone to see in the physical world. And I know i can't protect everything on my computer, so even the stuff i keep there is worse than the physical stuff, but still not as bad as what I don't have documented anywhere.
I still don't see the problem. Maybe I'm too young or too socialist, but if you want something private, don't put it in an accessible area.
I refuse to have anything in the physical world that I wouldn't take responsibility for. On my computer, I keep things encrypted and out of the normal way of things so that people who might stumble onto my desk wont see it.
If it's a simple search for *.avi that they did, then I don't see a problem. If they were to have gone to the effort to sector by sector reconstitute data from a broken hard drive, then I would say the effort they put into it makes it a problem.
A simple thing like what I think was described in the article is really more of a result of boredom of the techs and incompetency of any potential victims. I put this crime up there with egging someone's car or TPing a house; yes it is a crime, but it's a little laid back.
You aren't hurting anyone else, only risking your own life.
You do have autonomy, however, it is the job of Public Servants to protect the public, even from themselves. This is why it's illegal to commit suicide and, regardless of what some people may think, it is illegal to use controlled substances as well as, very quickly, use tobacco.
>"Why doesn't Slashdot report all the good news? Like the PATRIOT Act, and the USA Act (I am no lawyer so I haven't read them, >but the names really tell me all I need to know). I am sick of people acting as if politicians don't always look after my best interests."
I can't tell if your trying to be funny, so in the case you're a f---tard, the PATRIOT act is one of the WORST laws to ever be conceived.
Yay, lets "detain" people and send them away to a federal jail in Cuba without listing the charges against them... oh... wait... that sounds familiar... Can we say 'Internment Camps for the Japanese in WW2'? It's ridiculous that our society lives in such fear of everything, from litigation to terrorism, that we can not even learn from history. If something wasn't right in WW2, it's not going to be right now.
>>If I have kids, I'm gonna make sure there tough as nails <<
And then your neighbors will report you to Social Services for child abuse and they will come and take your kids away.
This crazy society we live in drives me insane. I work in a high school now and I always feel like if I talk to or even look at the students in the wrong way then I will get sued and thrown in jail. I seriously have never been so afraid of my environment before.
At least I'm getting good at avoiding contact with kids and getting my work done before and after the school day starts.
"Do you see Scholastic or Rowling coming down on all the fan-fiction out there?"
With the way the MPAA and the RIAA have been going at it, i would say lets just wait for a BPAA (Book Publishing Association of America). Then we can start watching people get sued left and right for even hinting that a work might be based on the IP of another author.
I dont know about other geek groups, but my friends and I all have a 'hand-me-down' system between us. When one of us gets a new part, our old one goes/sells to someone else down the chain, then they hand/sell their's off to the next guy down. Then by the time the last guy has it, it either goes into 'new' box to serve up a dedicated server for our yearly LAN game. When it's done there, the parts have either died/become unusable or it is just too old to give to someone in good conscious and goes to the recycling.
It's a great system that has worked for us since high school.
Why can't ISPs just do bandwith caps? I know that the speeds of cable internet is often time faster than what is advertised if no one in your neighborhood is on. But why can't someone just pay for 3Mb service and then your downloads are caped at that speed.
I remember when one of my friends had Satilite Internet through DirectTV, they had some kind of hourly amount that he could download, when he reached that, which he always did, they had him capped to like 25Kb durring like a probationary period, which lasted 6 hours i think, and then he had unlimited download again. How is it not better just cap his speed in the first place so he doesn't overrun the system??
As a side note, I think I heard someone say that Satilite Internet does not do this system anymore, but I've not confirmed it.
---...but in a world of computer viruses and worms, that does not seem very consumer freindly.---
Actually, it would. This would keep people interested in the health of their computer so that they weren't charged large amounts. I know that I always keep an eye on my little network icon in the taskbar and I can tell when it's doing something that it shouldn't. I bet most home users would be able to tell that too if everytime the little blue screens flashing meant it was costing them money.
I think Devorak might have used this point when he was writing about computer use driver's licenses.
I have always believed that there are two types of TechGuys, the good ones and the evil ones. The good ones listen curdiously to a user's problems, offer solutions, and know when to say they need to ask for more help. Evil techs assume they know things, offer explinations for problems but no solutions, and try to shrug off problems until people give up asking for help.
Which, granted I've done my fair share of, but it's still not something I do on a regular basis and I realize that it is a bad thing.
I have to say that I totally agree with you here. I say this all the time, in fact i say exactly: "Hmm, interesting, I am not quite sure what is going on there, I will look into it." Or I say that I'll ask around and see what I can find out. My users love me too, I get all kinds of e-mails to my bosses saying how great I am to have around.
Your list should also probibly have 'was honest and truthful to them'. You cover that anyway, but it's good to say. Tell them when you dont know, but you can find out, or be willing to ask someone with more knowledge for help; be honest about what the problem was (even if it was something they did ((you can often lighten it as a joke kinda thing, then say that you do something simmilar often))); and I try to explain things clear and without technobabble, but I dont think I actually am able to do that. Something I also do is to try to explain how they can avoid the problem next time. And if i can't fix it, I try to come up with a work around at least.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe I'm over reading the emotion (though certainly there are others here who show it), but why get so angry about it?
Do people feel left out of society because they can't access content that others are experiencing? I truly don't understand the direct vitriol of "having" to subscribe to multiple services.
Personally, I hated bundled cable, and I like the choices of services now.
This is one of the best cases that I see for a Universal Basic Income (UBI). Although most on the right think recipients of 'free' money wouldn't work, we don't have the data to support that supposition. Sure some people wouldn't work, but some would contribute their time to things like OSS without needing to worry about working a 'real' job for basic survival.
If anyone wants to read more about this, the book "Trekonomics" has made a good case for how a society could be built with this in mind using some relevent examples of things like Reddit and Youtube.
I'm not familure with Asimov's works, but I have to say that in this instance The Matrix is a bad thing to look at. In the Matrix, the world is so totally experienced by its participants that it !IS! real. If you experience any environment with all your senses in crisp detail then its real to you. If two people experience the same reality then that reality is real.
I am actually believe that when the graphics of games improve, they will eventually become more than real. Its an odd concept, but our reality is limited to what our eyes can see, our ears can hear, and our skin can feel. In a virtual reality connected directly to the brain, we can experience the virtual reality without being encombered by our human limitations.
As an example of this, in TES4:Oblivion I've been able to see Vistas that are impossible to see in reality. This isn't really due to enhanced graphics, but is because of an art style that isn't possible with real world physics.
which I guess brings up the point that we are also limited to what we can experience in reality by the laws of physics.
Anyway, as in the Matrix, if we could breed through some automated system, then we wouldn't have to even worry about phsyical contact.
He does have a very good point that there should be no reason why we can't transfer our license to another person. Xest is correct that it is illegal (or dodgy at best) to make it illegal to sell your license.
If I buy a copy of software, you don't own the software, but you do own a license of it in the same way that you own a book. It is legal for me to transfer my license to another person (either as a gift or as a sale or even temporarily) as long as I uninstall the software completely there is nothing illegal about it.
It should be trivial for Valve to setup a sharing system on Steam. If I get done playing Bioshock and want my friend to be able to play it, normally I would uninstall it from my computer, hand him the CD, then he would install it and play it. When he was done, he would uninstall it and give it back. On Steam I should be able to right click the game, say "trade" or "give", then enter their SteamID, and it removes my ability to play the game and gives it to them. The beauty of this system is that I don't even have to uninstall the game because it prevents me from even playing it until I have the License back.
I don't think anyone's ignoring the DRM nature of Steam, we're just saying that its a compromise between us and the publishers. They want some control and we want some features and playability. I can't speak for everyone, but I've come to accept Steam as the best DRM. For the reasons that Shrike82 stated above and I've decided that the reasons that you've mentioned aren't important to me.
Usually I buy games from Steam on the 'rotten rack' (eg for half the normal price or less). I've actually been introduced to lots of Indy games that I would never had considered getting until they were 5$ and easy to download and play right away. So its easy marketing for companies too.
The games that I've bought at full price are Steam games anyway so they're required to use Steam to activate. The Spore DRM was the same way though, so I'm really incapable of avoiding DRM if I ever want to play games again. (well I didn't buy or play Spore because of the DRM so I'm going to say voice your opinion with your money.)
Does this mean that you wouldn't buy games thru XBox Live either?
Summary: Compromise is the key to every relationship. If you don't want to compromise on a point, then don't buy and tell them. Thats what I do and I'm happy.
Except that the 3 places that I've worked, there were plenty of people that were given AMAZING references with the hopes that they would be hired somewhere else and finally leave.
The problem is the methodologies used to study other galaxies and solar systems is different than that used to study locations nearby. We also know more granular pieces of information about our own system than the distant ones. Only recently have we been able to tell if there is a gas giant orbiting a star, but we can say how many planets are in our system.
As for the number of planets in our solar system, the problem isn't that we discovered new information about Pluto that declassified it, the problem is that when it was discovered the scientific community didn't have any guidelines setup as to what size a celestial body had to be to be considered a planet. Once a standard was set and guidelines enacted, they realized that Pluto no longer had the characteristics that we now use to define a planet. Most of this confusion is just because since we discovered Pluto, we then discovered many other objects that we didn't classify as planets but that shared more characteristics with Pluto than Pluto did with the rest of the planets.
I assume we missed a tiny ring of debris around Saturn's moon for so long because its so small. I think a majority of what we know about the moons of the outer planets is from the Voyager space probes which were kind of limited to a linear path.
I also want to say your post doesn't deserve a -1 rating since you have a good point just need some information.
I really do hate to reference Star Trek because people get sick of me referencing it all the time. :p
And despite being fictional / out of touch it does present us with a situation that we can ponder solutions which help answer our problem.
You've also proved my point though, in that while measurement of time is static (from the same point of reference, as someone pointed out) our labeling of those time units is totally arbitrary.
I think we're all confusing an important distinction here. Any point in time has no predefined label. When dealing with measurements it is important that a meter is always the same length and that a second is the same length, but what we call any particular second doesn't matter because it's just a handy way for us to keep an organized life.
Maybe I can explain what I mean... So, the label of "04-March-2008 7:57am" is just a label applied to this moment in time; it's not some undeniable fact of the universe. Since we're naming it we can name it whatever we want. On another planet this same moment in time is labeled entirely different. On a planet with 30 hour days maybe this moment in time is "27:36".
Heck on that note, why do we even make a distinction between the AM and PM? Why doesn't everyone just use 24 hour time?
I hate to reference Star Trek, but this is the reason why a Stardate was created, so that planets, spaceships, and other interstellar outposts could all have the same time reference. A Stardate would be defined somehow so that regardless of local time all clocks throught the Federation are standardized, just like a second is standardized.
I don't think he was referring to it, but by mental damage someone else could have been referring to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Bravo. You're totally right.
As campy as it sounds, when I have a moral question to ask I just remember SpiderMan.
-"With great power comes great responsibility."
((And I realize that it isn't originally from Spiderman, it just gives me a modern reference))
Basically, you're blaming a victim for not being computer-savvy enough to avoid being targeted.... Most people don't have the technical background to secure their computer/data against a local attack
I'm not blaming them for not being tech savvy (not everyone is, i get that) but i'm blaming them for being stupid and having something that they know they can't protect.
I can't ensure that people wont go snooping around my physical space, so I don't keep anything I wouldn't want someone to see in the physical world. And I know i can't protect everything on my computer, so even the stuff i keep there is worse than the physical stuff, but still not as bad as what I don't have documented anywhere.
I still don't see the problem. Maybe I'm too young or too socialist, but if you want something private, don't put it in an accessible area.
I refuse to have anything in the physical world that I wouldn't take responsibility for. On my computer, I keep things encrypted and out of the normal way of things so that people who might stumble onto my desk wont see it.
If it's a simple search for *.avi that they did, then I don't see a problem. If they were to have gone to the effort to sector by sector reconstitute data from a broken hard drive, then I would say the effort they put into it makes it a problem.
A simple thing like what I think was described in the article is really more of a result of boredom of the techs and incompetency of any potential victims. I put this crime up there with egging someone's car or TPing a house; yes it is a crime, but it's a little laid back.
You do have autonomy, however, it is the job of Public Servants to protect the public, even from themselves. This is why it's illegal to commit suicide and, regardless of what some people may think, it is illegal to use controlled substances as well as, very quickly, use tobacco.
>"Why doesn't Slashdot report all the good news? Like the PATRIOT Act, and the USA Act (I am no lawyer so I haven't read them,
... wait... that sounds familiar...
>but the names really tell me all I need to know). I am sick of people acting as if politicians don't always look after my best interests."
I can't tell if your trying to be funny, so in the case you're a f---tard, the PATRIOT act is one of the WORST laws to ever be conceived.
Yay, lets "detain" people and send them away to a federal jail in Cuba without listing the charges against them... oh
Can we say 'Internment Camps for the Japanese in WW2'? It's ridiculous that our society lives in such fear of everything, from litigation to terrorism, that we can not even learn from history. If something wasn't right in WW2, it's not going to be right now.
I thought it would be interesting to remind everyone about Microsoft's team of professionals entitled 'Evangelists'.
>>If I have kids, I'm gonna make sure there tough as nails <<
And then your neighbors will report you to Social Services for child abuse and they will come and take your kids away.
This crazy society we live in drives me insane. I work in a high school now and I always feel like if I talk to or even look at the students in the wrong way then I will get sued and thrown in jail. I seriously have never been so afraid of my environment before.
At least I'm getting good at avoiding contact with kids and getting my work done before and after the school day starts.
"Do you see Scholastic or Rowling coming down on all the fan-fiction out there?"
With the way the MPAA and the RIAA have been going at it, i would say lets just wait for a BPAA (Book Publishing Association of America). Then we can start watching people get sued left and right for even hinting that a work might be based on the IP of another author.
I dont know about other geek groups, but my friends and I all have a 'hand-me-down' system between us. When one of us gets a new part, our old one goes/sells to someone else down the chain, then they hand/sell their's off to the next guy down. Then by the time the last guy has it, it either goes into 'new' box to serve up a dedicated server for our yearly LAN game. When it's done there, the parts have either died/become unusable or it is just too old to give to someone in good conscious and goes to the recycling.
It's a great system that has worked for us since high school.
Why can't ISPs just do bandwith caps? I know that the speeds of cable internet is often time faster than what is advertised if no one in your neighborhood is on. But why can't someone just pay for 3Mb service and then your downloads are caped at that speed.
I remember when one of my friends had Satilite Internet through DirectTV, they had some kind of hourly amount that he could download, when he reached that, which he always did, they had him capped to like 25Kb durring like a probationary period, which lasted 6 hours i think, and then he had unlimited download again. How is it not better just cap his speed in the first place so he doesn't overrun the system??
As a side note, I think I heard someone say that Satilite Internet does not do this system anymore, but I've not confirmed it.
---...but in a world of computer viruses and worms, that does not seem very consumer freindly.---
Actually, it would. This would keep people interested in the health of their computer so that they weren't charged large amounts. I know that I always keep an eye on my little network icon in the taskbar and I can tell when it's doing something that it shouldn't. I bet most home users would be able to tell that too if everytime the little blue screens flashing meant it was costing them money.
I think Devorak might have used this point when he was writing about computer use driver's licenses.
--Imagine the swath of bandwidth that now opens.--
/cry
I'm imagining and it's so beutiful...
Except now AOL is charging the same amount for Dialup as they are for their broadband internet and I am expecting others to start doing the same.
Well maybe not Walmart...
I have always believed that there are two types of TechGuys, the good ones and the evil ones. The good ones listen curdiously to a user's problems, offer solutions, and know when to say they need to ask for more help. Evil techs assume they know things, offer explinations for problems but no solutions, and try to shrug off problems until people give up asking for help.
Which, granted I've done my fair share of, but it's still not something I do on a regular basis and I realize that it is a bad thing.
I have to say that I totally agree with you here. I say this all the time, in fact i say exactly: "Hmm, interesting, I am not quite sure what is going on there, I will look into it." Or I say that I'll ask around and see what I can find out. My users love me too, I get all kinds of e-mails to my bosses saying how great I am to have around.
Your list should also probibly have 'was honest and truthful to them'. You cover that anyway, but it's good to say. Tell them when you dont know, but you can find out, or be willing to ask someone with more knowledge for help; be honest about what the problem was (even if it was something they did ((you can often lighten it as a joke kinda thing, then say that you do something simmilar often))); and I try to explain things clear and without technobabble, but I dont think I actually am able to do that. Something I also do is to try to explain how they can avoid the problem next time. And if i can't fix it, I try to come up with a work around at least.