Have you ever sent one of those error reports? I know I didn't for the longest time, but they're actually just looking into the microsoft database and telling you what's the problem. If you knew what the hell it actually did, you'd know that sending it would GIVE you that "error message" that you so wanted. Plus it helps less tech savvy people who can't understand anything of the inner workings of a computer by showing exactly (most of the time) what the problem is.
This is the basic idea that get me confused. How the heck is he supposed to screen such people in the first place? The only possible thing he could screen is the corporate office's IP addresses, which he did. It's not like there's anything he can do face to face.
Random incoming applicant: Hi, I'd like to join your forums. Website owner: Are you a DirecTV employee? Applicant: (Bold-Faced Lie) No. Website owner: Welcome!
The hell was he supposed to do for screening? Ask for an entire background check?
I don't know if the rest of you are bothered by this, but....
Runescape beating out every other MMO on that chart aside from WoW and Lineage is a little disturbing.
Hokay. Before you even talk about people dropping maybe a dime into internet game rooms to try out WoW and then never touching it again, you should see the phenomenom firsthand.
Basically it's this.
Everyone and their MOM plays WoW.
I'm not talking about lvl 5 Shamans who think, "Oh screw it, I'm gonna play something else." No. I walk into a Net cafe and 90% of the people there are playing WoW, and have lvl 60 chars, or are playing with their friends who HAVE lvl 60 chars and are tanking for them. It's basically a national phenomenom. At the office I worked at, some of the workers were even playing WoW in their break times. Trust me, the percentage of people who signed up and then dropped WoW is highly unlikely to be enough to screw the numbers by any large margin.
Personally, I think there's a little bit of discrepancy between US and China's gaming markets
We're talking about online casual games. This means the equivalent of something like Yahoo! Games (or basically an assortment of minigames), or online RPGS only. In US, I think that's a really tiny market, since more people play traditional buy-up-front no more paying games. In China, or Asia in general, most games are on subscription basis or a micropayment system where people play for free, and pay for extras.
On the whole, these subscriptions or extras are overall cheaper than your average US equivalents. A WoW subscription over in the US costs $15, whereas it costs maybe around $5-10 in China. Western games released over there also have a major price drop, selling for around $10-15 dollars(non-pirated even), when it was $40 over here. And these casual games are on the cheap for maybe a couple bucks giving you several premium items.
Finally, there's the issue of the average income for the middle class. That's a huge difference between here and China. The average gamer in China has a lot less money to spend than in US.
Concurrent services has nothing to do with this topic (the manual I mean). The product being sold is really just a sort of face-value product, what you see is what you get, no updates no nada. I mean, sure, there are reasons why we buy real copies instead of fake copies (i.e. we buy real copies of games for cd-keys, so we can play online). But this topic is dwelving into that area, whereas the announcement is leaning towards the legality of making money by making a derivative work off of a current work.
Personally, I think that selling such a manual is wrong in two ways:
1) For the simple fact that it's unauthorized.
2) There are probably much better guides online, and it's probably a ripoff.
But in reality, I think that the guide is still legal in the sense that it's a guide that provides support to unknowledgeable people. It's just like CompUSA providing Tech Support for your Windows comp. They basically act as support for a product (while being a ripoff). Though, I don't know exactly if MS gave these guys green lights for doing such a thing.
It can be set for other substances
on
Cocaine Biosensor
·
· Score: 1
I'm a current UCSB student and I read about this in the school newspaper a couple weeks ago. The biosensor can actually be set to be used for other things than cocaine, but the article stated that cocaine was just a material that they used to test it on. *cough cough* A convient material. *cough cough* So it has many other uses than just cocaine testing.
But in other things..... GO GAUCHOS! TAKE THAT UCBerkeley! You don't see UCB on Slashdot now do you!
Having lived in China for a bit of time (~ 3-4 years), I've experienced Chinese Web access for a long time. A lot of websites just aren't accessible, since ISPs block a ton of stuff. ISPs in general are governed by the government, and pretty much actively block anything that has to deal with sensitive information. I mean, for a long period of time, geocities.com was blocked. GEOCITIES PEOPLE!
Here's a real example: If you searched something sensitive, around 50-70% of the time, that site would be banned within the next 5 minutes. No, not the site that you got in your search results. Your SEARCH engine would be banned. This has happened on several occasions, where my google just got blocked and couldn't use it for the rest of the day. Honestly, from what I've seen in Google's response, this "bowing to Beijing" just makes it a whole lot easier for the rest of us living there.
Honestly, the amount that google blocks is probably just the remainder of stuff that gets past the ISP filters already in place. It's sad and it sucks that the congressmen make such a big deal of this, when it's much more convenient than before.
You guys should go read the patent application itself. It states a method for generating an emoticon through the use of an emoticon key, a physical key provided for on the phone. It's not something people should worry about on their current phones. It's more of a gimmick I think, that they'll try to sell to cellphone makers. It's not that hot of a story if you think about it.
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Have you ever sent one of those error reports? I know I didn't for the longest time, but they're actually just looking into the microsoft database and telling you what's the problem. If you knew what the hell it actually did, you'd know that sending it would GIVE you that "error message" that you so wanted. Plus it helps less tech savvy people who can't understand anything of the inner workings of a computer by showing exactly (most of the time) what the problem is.
Please, just try it out. You may find it useful.
You mean a lot of flashy mileage out of two buttons. Jump. Attack. And maybe the random reaction command.
Hmm... If they trained on one all day, they could theoretically pick up the world. Nothing could stop one that can wield such a large item with ease.
This is the basic idea that get me confused. How the heck is he supposed to screen such people in the first place? The only possible thing he could screen is the corporate office's IP addresses, which he did. It's not like there's anything he can do face to face.
Random incoming applicant: Hi, I'd like to join your forums.
Website owner: Are you a DirecTV employee?
Applicant: (Bold-Faced Lie) No.
Website owner: Welcome!
The hell was he supposed to do for screening? Ask for an entire background check?
I don't know if the rest of you are bothered by this, but.... Runescape beating out every other MMO on that chart aside from WoW and Lineage is a little disturbing.
Hokay. Before you even talk about people dropping maybe a dime into internet game rooms to try out WoW and then never touching it again, you should see the phenomenom firsthand.
Basically it's this.
Everyone and their MOM plays WoW.
I'm not talking about lvl 5 Shamans who think, "Oh screw it, I'm gonna play something else." No. I walk into a Net cafe and 90% of the people there are playing WoW, and have lvl 60 chars, or are playing with their friends who HAVE lvl 60 chars and are tanking for them. It's basically a national phenomenom. At the office I worked at, some of the workers were even playing WoW in their break times. Trust me, the percentage of people who signed up and then dropped WoW is highly unlikely to be enough to screw the numbers by any large margin.
Personally, I think there's a little bit of discrepancy between US and China's gaming markets
We're talking about online casual games. This means the equivalent of something like Yahoo! Games (or basically an assortment of minigames), or online RPGS only. In US, I think that's a really tiny market, since more people play traditional buy-up-front no more paying games. In China, or Asia in general, most games are on subscription basis or a micropayment system where people play for free, and pay for extras.
On the whole, these subscriptions or extras are overall cheaper than your average US equivalents. A WoW subscription over in the US costs $15, whereas it costs maybe around $5-10 in China. Western games released over there also have a major price drop, selling for around $10-15 dollars(non-pirated even), when it was $40 over here. And these casual games are on the cheap for maybe a couple bucks giving you several premium items.
Finally, there's the issue of the average income for the middle class. That's a huge difference between here and China. The average gamer in China has a lot less money to spend than in US.
Concurrent services has nothing to do with this topic (the manual I mean). The product being sold is really just a sort of face-value product, what you see is what you get, no updates no nada. I mean, sure, there are reasons why we buy real copies instead of fake copies (i.e. we buy real copies of games for cd-keys, so we can play online). But this topic is dwelving into that area, whereas the announcement is leaning towards the legality of making money by making a derivative work off of a current work. Personally, I think that selling such a manual is wrong in two ways: 1) For the simple fact that it's unauthorized. 2) There are probably much better guides online, and it's probably a ripoff. But in reality, I think that the guide is still legal in the sense that it's a guide that provides support to unknowledgeable people. It's just like CompUSA providing Tech Support for your Windows comp. They basically act as support for a product (while being a ripoff). Though, I don't know exactly if MS gave these guys green lights for doing such a thing.
I'm a current UCSB student and I read about this in the school newspaper a couple weeks ago. The biosensor can actually be set to be used for other things than cocaine, but the article stated that cocaine was just a material that they used to test it on. *cough cough* A convient material. *cough cough* So it has many other uses than just cocaine testing. But in other things..... GO GAUCHOS! TAKE THAT UCBerkeley! You don't see UCB on Slashdot now do you!
Having lived in China for a bit of time (~ 3-4 years), I've experienced Chinese Web access for a long time. A lot of websites just aren't accessible, since ISPs block a ton of stuff. ISPs in general are governed by the government, and pretty much actively block anything that has to deal with sensitive information. I mean, for a long period of time, geocities.com was blocked. GEOCITIES PEOPLE!
Here's a real example: If you searched something sensitive, around 50-70% of the time, that site would be banned within the next 5 minutes. No, not the site that you got in your search results. Your SEARCH engine would be banned. This has happened on several occasions, where my google just got blocked and couldn't use it for the rest of the day. Honestly, from what I've seen in Google's response, this "bowing to Beijing" just makes it a whole lot easier for the rest of us living there.
Honestly, the amount that google blocks is probably just the remainder of stuff that gets past the ISP filters already in place. It's sad and it sucks that the congressmen make such a big deal of this, when it's much more convenient than before.
You guys should go read the patent application itself. It states a method for generating an emoticon through the use of an emoticon key, a physical key provided for on the phone. It's not something people should worry about on their current phones. It's more of a gimmick I think, that they'll try to sell to cellphone makers. It's not that hot of a story if you think about it.