Can this technology be scaled up? (Obviously using more nanotubes rather than larger ones!) Could this ever be used on an industrial scale for the power grid? If so it would mean that renewable energy sources such as wind and solar become much more viable because the energy could be stored with little loss to cover periods of low wind and darkness respectively.
Sadly it's probably not that scalable and too costly but does anyone know different?
IANA(Russian)L but I can see that Russian law has evolved under much different circumstances than most western nations.
There are calls for Russia to tighten the law up before being admitted to the World Trade Organisation. Plus the ultimate sanction would be to block the site(s) at the ISP level I guess, although this would rapidly become a game of Tag, with the site changing it's address, then being blocked, changing... etc.
The main problem with most downloaded music like most CD sales is the percentage taken by the record company and all the middlemen. I would have thought that it was in the interests of the artists to get together and launch a site independently. It would not take many big names behind it to be successful - once they had completed their contracts with the record companies of course!
I am not up to speed on the production part of the music industry but there must be a performers union like there is for actors. They should organise something - prices could be cheaper than what the current online prices tend to be and the artists would still make more per sale.
I have downloaded the Harvey Danger album "Little by little" from their website and made a fair contribution. Maybe not everyone's choice of listening but a very good idea. http://harveydanger.com/
Simple solution - no "local" presence. Use a.com address based in the USA and charge in US Dollars. Forget about.se,.co.uk,.fr or any other nationality - if you buy from a US site you buy on their terms or not at all. Other countries can do the same.
I have purchased DVDs, software, car engine parts and much more from around the world. I paid in the currency of whatever country I purchased from using a credit card (so no currency problems).
Sure being digital there are issues about your local country not being able to tax you this way (what a shame) but this is addressed by the wider balance of trade when foreign buyers purchase from your national sites.
Would need more mass (fuel) and velocity for this added mass? Perhaps it comes down to the launcher device for plasma packets (what would you call plasma rounds?) - either some form of gauss gun (a bit too sci-fi) or using compressed air - a really nasty surprise for your opponents if you took it paintballing!
We seem to want to spend a fortune on developing new ways of killing each other when there are plenty of tried and tested methods - guess that's where the research money tends to be although I would prefer civil applications for most technology myself.
Here's a case of good (or should it be bad) timing. I had a phone call from my father last night to say that his copy of XP Home is coming up with a message when it starts saying that it is an illegal copy.
I know full well that it is legit because I bought it with him, will probably end up reinstalling it - PITA!
"imagine if the EULA had a clause that stated, in legalese, "...and I further agree to only run Microsoft Operating Systems on this PC from this point forward". You know, all in the name of allowing Microsoft to provide better support, etc. No reason not to add a clause like that, really..."
They can add any wording they like to the EULA. They could state that by you accepting the agreement they have the right to harvest your body's organs, that yours kids become their slaves and they have the right to eat your pets!
But most countries laws prevent that kind of thing - not too sure about US contract law, give it a couple of years...
"As it so happens, a friend's boyfriend was served by the MPAA last year over one movie he shared on Kazaa. I haven't seen either of them in awhile, so I do not know how it turned out."
My God, you mean they just disappeared! Were they taken or are they on the run?
My money is on the following scenario:
This couple escaped to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as file sharers of fortune. If you need a torrent, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the MP3-Team.
Ask yourselves how many laws you have broken today.
You will probably say none (except you file sharers, yes you know who you are, you're destroying society dammit!). But did you break any speed limits, park illegally, smoke in the wrong place, then drop that cigarette butt in the wrong place too - all minor stuff but increasingly you will be caught and fined.
Between this and political correctness is society better? I don't think so!
They can be "simulations" of real life or they can be simplified or fantasy versions. All the different genres of game show this too - today I might want to play an RPG, tomorrow it may be some kind of sport or racing, FPS, strategy, etc.
But I agree, poor AI by in-game characters can spoil an otherwise good game, but maybe in the game the guard is an authentic simulation of an idiot.
"I believe, in order to gain sure-footing in the market, the PS3 will need not only quality games, but exclusive ones."
You are right. If the PS3 has at least one "kick ass must have" exclusive game then it will sell. If they have a good edition to the Gran Tourismo series ready on launch and some cool RPGs it will sell.
But at the likely price point for the console, games that are just good will not cut it. The games must be great.
I am willing to give Sony a chance and spend the money if they can deliver, I'm sure that we will get a better idea closer to launch.
Would be cool if they could you a chip as a "relay" for nerve impulses with spinal cord injuries. So rather than just adding bits to people we could improve the quality of life of those with affected with spinal injuries. Now that would be really useful.
It is just so damn vague. Reminds me of when I was trying to pad out essays to meet the word count when I was back in college (that didn't get me many good reviews either!).
Assuming he could structure a sentence, his first point could be valid - but doesn't a rating system already do that?!
His second point is too subjective but if well written could be valid - but yet again ratings cover this!
His third point is just stupid, if you applied that to any and every subject in society (tody video games, tomorrow the world!) then kids would just be "seen and not heard" (actually after suffering a noisey brat in the cinema last week that ain't so bad!).
What is needed is common sense rather than this troll shouting "look at me" "look at me" "I'm saving America's youth". I'm sure that America's youth don't want to be saved by the likes of him and would rather have fun instead!
You have to pay for membership of libraries though or they may be funded by government (so funded by all the tax payers).
Do libraries have to pay for a general license? I know that in the UK at least College libraries pay the CLA (Copyright Licensing Agency) so you can photocopy portions of books for study (one chapter or 5%, whichever is longer).
But I am not sure if they have to pay for a "library license". Is there a librarian in the house? (Another phrase to add to the list of things I'd never thought I'd say).
"You assume everyone is going to be buying a new PC in 2007. Most Joe Average's already have a PC. MS will end support for XP two years after Vista is available. XP has been getting more and more stable since its release. You act as if software rots, and more and more bugs will be introduced into a system where they weren't before."
Sure not everyone will buy a PC at this time true, but new PCs will be sold with Vista and with PCs becoming a consumer item the speed at which they are replaced seems to be increasing (from my experience with friends, family, colleagues, etc - may be bucking the trend?). Software does not rot although exploits if discovered can make it less reliable. Graphics cards and other replacement hardware may have less drivers for older systems as time goes on. Slightly off topic, I only recently retired a PC running Win 3.11 that was running a simple monitoring program off the network, not because it could no longer do the job but because the job was no longer needed - if you don't intend to change any software a PC will work until it dies.
"This is true, but I'm willing to bet that 95% of games that run on XP will run on Vista. Do you also slam MS when they don't break backward compatiabilty because of a security hole?"
I hope that you are right, but until we see Vista unveiled I guess neither of us will know. Very good point - at what point does it become too costly (mainly in terms of time as Vista is delayed already) to implement a new way of doing something with backwards compatibility rather than losing some of the capatibility but being a more secure system. Security must come first, to me anyway. If this is the cause of some incompatibility then fair enough.
"If a game didn't sell well, why would they support it very long?"
Oh, I don't know, maybe loyalty to their consumers. Sorry this is the real world I know! No one expects everything to work but no one wants to have to buy all their software again either. Ideally allowing 3rd party access to source so someone could do it if they wanted would be cool but totally unlikely with regard to IP (can't blame them either but it would be nice!).
"Um, the 360 hasn't been out that long, has it? And why would a game studio add support for the 360 when they know people still have the original Xbox which they can play the game on. You're blaming MS because companies aren't re-releasing the same old crap on the newer platfrom, which requires them (I'm inferring from your statement) to update the code? What a shock!"
Probably because the 360 used code while the PS2 used hardwear to do the same thing. How many consoles do people want to have under the TV? It makes sense to be backward compatible so then at least you only have one from each manufacturer (if you must have them all that is). Realistically yes this is a pretty short term issue, how many PS1 games do people still play on their PS2s rather than a newer release in the same series? The PC's strong point over consoles has always traditionally been that you don't have to scrap your games when you buy another machine.
"You start off by telling us MS will only release DX10 on Vista to force gamers to upgrade. Then you tell us that MS doesn't care about gaming on the PC. Which is it? DX isn't going anywhere anytime soon; they are continuting to release a managed DX API so that.Net programmers can use DX. They wouldn't put all that effort in if they didn't care about gaming on the PC. Its odd they they've already commited to Halo 2 (or was it 3?) on the PC (for Vista only), but they don't care about gaming on the PC."
In terms of where Microsoft seem to be going I stand by that point. The 360 is where Microsoft are concentrating their efforts - not surprisingly because it is their hardware unlike the PC. In terms of numbers more people buy games for consoles than PCs so they wanted a part of that market. The PC is still there so developers are free to write games for it. But MS will write software for the
Apart from not being such a huge leap over DVD that DVD was over VHS.
The high pricing may put a lot off people off who would otherwise take the "logical" step up from their PS2. While the selling point of BluRay won't cut much ice with the videophiles who spend that type of money on a player because they may be put off by the jack of all trades approach.
By trying to engineer a product that will do something for everyone the price always rises risking alienating much of the market you tried to capture.
Early adopters and die hard Sony fans will love it - I'll wait until the price has fallen a looong way and there are plenty of good games for it, or I may just get a Nintendo and a BluRay/HD-DVD player instead.
We all know that when Joe Average buys his new Dell/HP/Whatever sometime in 2007 it will come preinstalled with Vista. Plus MS will cease support for XP forcing upgrades as it gets more bug prone than ever.
Not all old games will work on Vista, a few new/popular ones will be patched after launch if there are more sales to be had or if there isn't a sequel planned for release soon. Pretty much the same story as on the 360 (not many games been added to their backward compatibility list since it first appeared - most of them new games with support written in from day one).
Microsoft lost interest in you playing games on your PC when they came up with the XBOX. Apart from a few niche games that wouldn't translate to the format - Flight Sim, Age of Empires, etc.
You must be talking about the "European" Europeans NOT the British - we don't get that much time off work unless we're fired!
Also after 6:30pm here and I'll be at work for at least another hour maybe two (not slacking - just posting while waiting for software installations to finish).
To me the problem with DRM isn't so much what it stops you from doing but the fact that it is there at all.
Let me explain - piracy happens, it always will just accept it as fact. It is just a matter of move and counter move (another form of protection, another crack).
People also like to buy things (when they are not overpriced), I have over 300 legally purchased DVD movies and too much music CDs for me to count.
I am not that likely to copy disks, I don't even take a backup but I object to someone trying to stop me (even if I don't want to anyway).
Region coding (easy to get around but still a PITA), good ol' macrovision and new DRM coding are just causing problems for legitimate users rather than stopping determined pirates.
Unfortunately my company does. Dell PCs are not too bad to be fair but they are nothing to write home about either.
Google toolbar and other Google software is great if you want to install it yourself but I don't want it forced on me - especially as I have to uninstall it all or else our DMS software will not work.
Without real backwards compatibility on the 360 there is no reason why an Xbox owner is tied into that upgrade path. The PS2 did so well partly because you could run your PS1 games if you wanted to. So a big library on day one and no need for two consoles under the TV.
If most Xbox games don't work/work well then you may as well choose which next gen to buy based on the console itself not it's predecessors back catalog. That approach may force an "upgrade" but not necessarily an MS console.
Slashdot Mirror
Can this technology be scaled up? (Obviously using more nanotubes rather than larger ones!) Could this ever be used on an industrial scale for the power grid? If so it would mean that renewable energy sources such as wind and solar become much more viable because the energy could be stored with little loss to cover periods of low wind and darkness respectively.
Sadly it's probably not that scalable and too costly but does anyone know different?
I for one will be welcoming the new PS3 Viao console!
Good point.
IANA(Russian)L but I can see that Russian law has evolved under much different circumstances than most western nations.
There are calls for Russia to tighten the law up before being admitted to the World Trade Organisation. Plus the ultimate sanction would be to block the site(s) at the ISP level I guess, although this would rapidly become a game of Tag, with the site changing it's address, then being blocked, changing... etc.
The main problem with most downloaded music like most CD sales is the percentage taken by the record company and all the middlemen. I would have thought that it was in the interests of the artists to get together and launch a site independently. It would not take many big names behind it to be successful - once they had completed their contracts with the record companies of course!
I am not up to speed on the production part of the music industry but there must be a performers union like there is for actors. They should organise something - prices could be cheaper than what the current online prices tend to be and the artists would still make more per sale.
I have downloaded the Harvey Danger album "Little by little" from their website and made a fair contribution. Maybe not everyone's choice of listening but a very good idea. http://harveydanger.com/
Just a thought.
Not if the property (in this case data but could just as well be physical) is not theirs to sell.
That is a completely different argument. Not just the sale but the ownership of the property, thus their right to sell (or not).
Simple solution - no "local" presence. Use a .com address based in the USA and charge in US Dollars. Forget about .se, .co.uk, .fr or any other nationality - if you buy from a US site you buy on their terms or not at all. Other countries can do the same.
I have purchased DVDs, software, car engine parts and much more from around the world. I paid in the currency of whatever country I purchased from using a credit card (so no currency problems).
Sure being digital there are issues about your local country not being able to tax you this way (what a shame) but this is addressed by the wider balance of trade when foreign buyers purchase from your national sites.
Would need more mass (fuel) and velocity for this added mass? Perhaps it comes down to the launcher device for plasma packets (what would you call plasma rounds?) - either some form of gauss gun (a bit too sci-fi) or using compressed air - a really nasty surprise for your opponents if you took it paintballing!
We seem to want to spend a fortune on developing new ways of killing each other when there are plenty of tried and tested methods - guess that's where the research money tends to be although I would prefer civil applications for most technology myself.
Here's a case of good (or should it be bad) timing. I had a phone call from my father last night to say that his copy of XP Home is coming up with a message when it starts saying that it is an illegal copy.
I know full well that it is legit because I bought it with him, will probably end up reinstalling it - PITA!
"imagine if the EULA had a clause that stated, in legalese, "...and I further agree to only run Microsoft Operating Systems on this PC from this point forward". You know, all in the name of allowing Microsoft to provide better support, etc. No reason not to add a clause like that, really..."
They can add any wording they like to the EULA. They could state that by you accepting the agreement they have the right to harvest your body's organs, that yours kids become their slaves and they have the right to eat your pets!
But most countries laws prevent that kind of thing - not too sure about US contract law, give it a couple of years...
--
"We've come for your liver"
"As it so happens, a friend's boyfriend was served by the MPAA last year over one movie he shared on Kazaa. I haven't seen either of them in awhile, so I do not know how it turned out."
My God, you mean they just disappeared! Were they taken or are they on the run?
My money is on the following scenario:
This couple escaped to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as file sharers of fortune. If you need a torrent, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the MP3-Team.
Ask yourselves how many laws you have broken today.
You will probably say none (except you file sharers, yes you know who you are, you're destroying society dammit!). But did you break any speed limits, park illegally, smoke in the wrong place, then drop that cigarette butt in the wrong place too - all minor stuff but increasingly you will be caught and fined.
Between this and political correctness is society better? I don't think so!
Games by their nature are escapist.
They can be "simulations" of real life or they can be simplified or fantasy versions. All the different genres of game show this too - today I might want to play an RPG, tomorrow it may be some kind of sport or racing, FPS, strategy, etc.
But I agree, poor AI by in-game characters can spoil an otherwise good game, but maybe in the game the guard is an authentic simulation of an idiot.
"I believe, in order to gain sure-footing in the market, the PS3 will need not only quality games, but exclusive ones."
You are right. If the PS3 has at least one "kick ass must have" exclusive game then it will sell. If they have a good edition to the Gran Tourismo series ready on launch and some cool RPGs it will sell.
But at the likely price point for the console, games that are just good will not cut it. The games must be great.
I am willing to give Sony a chance and spend the money if they can deliver, I'm sure that we will get a better idea closer to launch.
Would be cool if they could you a chip as a "relay" for nerve impulses with spinal cord injuries. So rather than just adding bits to people we could improve the quality of life of those with affected with spinal injuries. Now that would be really useful.
So to sum up:
:-P
"THEY MOVED THE MENUS!!!! I LIKED THEM WHERE THEY WERE!!!!!"
And "This BETA version has bugs too, so there"
Are we missing anything?
Just put it into classic version and get on with it.
It is just so damn vague. Reminds me of when I was trying to pad out essays to meet the word count when I was back in college (that didn't get me many good reviews either!).
Assuming he could structure a sentence, his first point could be valid - but doesn't a rating system already do that?!
His second point is too subjective but if well written could be valid - but yet again ratings cover this!
His third point is just stupid, if you applied that to any and every subject in society (tody video games, tomorrow the world!) then kids would just be "seen and not heard" (actually after suffering a noisey brat in the cinema last week that ain't so bad!).
What is needed is common sense rather than this troll shouting "look at me" "look at me" "I'm saving America's youth". I'm sure that America's youth don't want to be saved by the likes of him and would rather have fun instead!
You have to pay for membership of libraries though or they may be funded by government (so funded by all the tax payers).
Do libraries have to pay for a general license? I know that in the UK at least College libraries pay the CLA (Copyright Licensing Agency) so you can photocopy portions of books for study (one chapter or 5%, whichever is longer).
But I am not sure if they have to pay for a "library license". Is there a librarian in the house? (Another phrase to add to the list of things I'd never thought I'd say).
"You assume everyone is going to be buying a new PC in 2007. Most Joe Average's already have a PC. MS will end support for XP two years after Vista is available. XP has been getting more and more stable since its release. You act as if software rots, and more and more bugs will be introduced into a system where they weren't before."
.Net programmers can use DX. They wouldn't put all that effort in if they didn't care about gaming on the PC. Its odd they they've already commited to Halo 2 (or was it 3?) on the PC (for Vista only), but they don't care about gaming on the PC."
Sure not everyone will buy a PC at this time true, but new PCs will be sold with Vista and with PCs becoming a consumer item the speed at which they are replaced seems to be increasing (from my experience with friends, family, colleagues, etc - may be bucking the trend?). Software does not rot although exploits if discovered can make it less reliable. Graphics cards and other replacement hardware may have less drivers for older systems as time goes on. Slightly off topic, I only recently retired a PC running Win 3.11 that was running a simple monitoring program off the network, not because it could no longer do the job but because the job was no longer needed - if you don't intend to change any software a PC will work until it dies.
"This is true, but I'm willing to bet that 95% of games that run on XP will run on Vista. Do you also slam MS when they don't break backward compatiabilty because of a security hole?"
I hope that you are right, but until we see Vista unveiled I guess neither of us will know.
Very good point - at what point does it become too costly (mainly in terms of time as Vista is delayed already) to implement a new way of doing something with backwards compatibility rather than losing some of the capatibility but being a more secure system. Security must come first, to me anyway. If this is the cause of some incompatibility then fair enough.
"If a game didn't sell well, why would they support it very long?"
Oh, I don't know, maybe loyalty to their consumers. Sorry this is the real world I know! No one expects everything to work but no one wants to have to buy all their software again either. Ideally allowing 3rd party access to source so someone could do it if they wanted would be cool but totally unlikely with regard to IP (can't blame them either but it would be nice!).
"Um, the 360 hasn't been out that long, has it? And why would a game studio add support for the 360 when they know people still have the original Xbox which they can play the game on. You're blaming MS because companies aren't re-releasing the same old crap on the newer platfrom, which requires them (I'm inferring from your statement) to update the code? What a shock!"
Probably because the 360 used code while the PS2 used hardwear to do the same thing. How many consoles do people want to have under the TV? It makes sense to be backward compatible so then at least you only have one from each manufacturer (if you must have them all that is). Realistically yes this is a pretty short term issue, how many PS1 games do people still play on their PS2s rather than a newer release in the same series? The PC's strong point over consoles has always traditionally been that you don't have to scrap your games when you buy another machine.
"You start off by telling us MS will only release DX10 on Vista to force gamers to upgrade. Then you tell us that MS doesn't care about gaming on the PC. Which is it? DX isn't going anywhere anytime soon; they are continuting to release a managed DX API so that
In terms of where Microsoft seem to be going I stand by that point. The 360 is where Microsoft are concentrating their efforts - not surprisingly because it is their hardware unlike the PC. In terms of numbers more people buy games for consoles than PCs so they wanted a part of that market. The PC is still there so developers are free to write games for it. But MS will write software for the
Useful if you have a writer yes.
But if you only have a player it will not make much odds unless the system backing the lower capacity disk has really sloppy bloated coding.
Er, doesn't Microsoft's XBox360 use the smaller capacity disk...
Apart from not being such a huge leap over DVD that DVD was over VHS.
The high pricing may put a lot off people off who would otherwise take the "logical" step up from their PS2. While the selling point of BluRay won't cut much ice with the videophiles who spend that type of money on a player because they may be put off by the jack of all trades approach.
By trying to engineer a product that will do something for everyone the price always rises risking alienating much of the market you tried to capture.
Early adopters and die hard Sony fans will love it - I'll wait until the price has fallen a looong way and there are plenty of good games for it, or I may just get a Nintendo and a BluRay/HD-DVD player instead.
We all know that when Joe Average buys his new Dell/HP/Whatever sometime in 2007 it will come preinstalled with Vista. Plus MS will cease support for XP forcing upgrades as it gets more bug prone than ever.
Not all old games will work on Vista, a few new/popular ones will be patched after launch if there are more sales to be had or if there isn't a sequel planned for release soon. Pretty much the same story as on the 360 (not many games been added to their backward compatibility list since it first appeared - most of them new games with support written in from day one).
Microsoft lost interest in you playing games on your PC when they came up with the XBOX. Apart from a few niche games that wouldn't translate to the format - Flight Sim, Age of Empires, etc.
You must be talking about the "European" Europeans NOT the British - we don't get that much time off work unless we're fired!
Also after 6:30pm here and I'll be at work for at least another hour maybe two (not slacking - just posting while waiting for software installations to finish).
To me the problem with DRM isn't so much what it stops you from doing but the fact that it is there at all.
Let me explain - piracy happens, it always will just accept it as fact. It is just a matter of move and counter move (another form of protection, another crack).
People also like to buy things (when they are not overpriced), I have over 300 legally purchased DVD movies and too much music CDs for me to count.
I am not that likely to copy disks, I don't even take a backup but I object to someone trying to stop me (even if I don't want to anyway).
Region coding (easy to get around but still a PITA), good ol' macrovision and new DRM coding are just causing problems for legitimate users rather than stopping determined pirates.
Who HASN'T heard that conspiracy theory? No really I'm interested, I might even get a grant for a study.
Unfortunately my company does. Dell PCs are not too bad to be fair but they are nothing to write home about either.
Google toolbar and other Google software is great if you want to install it yourself but I don't want it forced on me - especially as I have to uninstall it all or else our DMS software will not work.
Without real backwards compatibility on the 360 there is no reason why an Xbox owner is tied into that upgrade path. The PS2 did so well partly because you could run your PS1 games if you wanted to. So a big library on day one and no need for two consoles under the TV.
If most Xbox games don't work/work well then you may as well choose which next gen to buy based on the console itself not it's predecessors back catalog. That approach may force an "upgrade" but not necessarily an MS console.