I'm not really surprised to see this here on Slashdot, but I find it interesting that rather than taking the criticism to heart, and finding ways to fix the problems that are listed, most of the replies so far are accusatory or dismissing.
Instead of taking the information and using it to improve future products, many advocates here seem to just be shouting "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!" You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as the saying goes...
As a Canadian living in Norway, I can definitively say it's because the laws are stricter here regarding price/competition, and the requirements of infrastructure are much greater on the carriers.
It is important to note that the skills (ie: muscle memory) involved in gaming are different from real life. Getting good at Guitar hero just means you have the skill for strumming/timing along with pressing 4 buttons. The muscle memory and training to go from 4 buttons to a real guitar is very different.
Pfff, you're obviously still on MEDIUM. I've graduated to ALL FIVE buttons which I'm told is EXACTLY like playing a REAL GUITAR.
As a Canadian who's lived in Oslo for a little over 2 years I can tell you that it meets 4/5 of your requirements.
You can buy your tickets online for the exact same price as you'd get them in the cinema. All seats are assigned, and there's usually only 2-3 trailers. Unfortunately there's still the barrage of ads before the trailers, but since your seats are guaranteed, you can simply show up 5-10 minutes after the start time and avoid all of that:)
I know that it's in Norwegian, but head over to www.oslokino.no and see what it looks like. Use the menu on the left to choose a movie or date or cinema.
sorry to be rude, but not all countries adhere to the crazy copyright laws that the USA does. according to my interpretation of current Canadian law (which could very well be incorrect) the levies i pay on blank media go to the riaa/mpaa/canadian equivalents and i am allowed to download as much as i want. this doesn't mean i'm allowed to distribute as much as i want, but with a centralized server which is download only, that's not the problem that it would be with bittorrent, in which you're required to both send and receive.
not too mention that rapidshare et. al have an air of legitimacy, as they take down any files which are reported to contain content they aren't legally allowed to distribute. of course, "they don't have the resources to check every single file that is uploaded to their servers," only the ones that are reported. And the only reason rapidshare does that is because they are a German-owned company (if i recall correctly). some countries, like Colombia and Egypt don't adhere to any copyright law. presumably a company owned and operated in a place like that would be virtually immune to any information requests from the MAFIAA and their ilk.
it surprises me, given the invention and popularity of the internet, how many americans still struggle to think globally, and still assume that the rest of the world on their terms. this is not intended to be a troll or flamebait or personal insult, it's merely my own stated opinion.
Are you American? Because Americans aren't the only ones who use dollars for their currency. It's very possible the grandparent is Canadian or Australian. As a Canadian myself, I remember most new games being around the $60 price-point, even in the NES days...
The only problem I see here is that me and my friends will whoop your ass at L4D because you don't know the maps the way we do since we've been playing from November. Sure you'll be fine against a group of no-mics, but me and my 3 friends will beat you and your 3 friends, hands down, every time, for the next few months...
It's the same reason I wouldn't get into WoW now...I don't know what any of the shit does or how to effectively use it...
For anyone interested in getting involved, check out the forum at http://www.piratepartyofcanada.com - Doesn't look like there's much going on yet, but hopefully that will change shortly...
Totally agree with you. Especially because as soon as you upload anything to the internet you've pretty much waived any of your content rights you had.
Now when I say that I don't mean it in the legal sense but in the realistic practical sense. Anything digital is pirated and shared.
We even have karma whores that copy & paste other peoples insightful comments.
--
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
You are correct, however there are still many ways to get files without participating in the distribution of them (rapidshare, newsgroups for example).
And it's really only Western/industrialized countries that forbid the distribution of copyrighted content. Places like Egypt and Colombia (IIRC) have no copyright laws whatsoever so if the uploader and host are in such places, no law is broken. That said, those are big "If's" -- but welcome to the problems of information technology in a globalized society...
Slashdot Mirror
...nobody but the Americans and the bad guys...
I thought they were one in the same?
I'm not really surprised to see this here on Slashdot, but I find it interesting that rather than taking the criticism to heart, and finding ways to fix the problems that are listed, most of the replies so far are accusatory or dismissing.
Instead of taking the information and using it to improve future products, many advocates here seem to just be shouting "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!" You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, as the saying goes...
Comment of the entire fucking YEAR right here. Bravo good sir/madam, bravo.
Norway and Canada have roughly the same population density yet Norway has nearly double the number of mobile phones per capita that Canada does.
As a Canadian living in Norway, I can definitively say it's because the laws are stricter here regarding price/competition, and the requirements of infrastructure are much greater on the carriers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_state_massacre
I believe that's what the poster is referring to....
This is exactly what I thought when I saw the headline. Imagine my disappointment. Well, I guess you don't really have to...
It is important to note that the skills (ie: muscle memory) involved in gaming are different from real life. Getting good at Guitar hero just means you have the skill for strumming/timing along with pressing 4 buttons. The muscle memory and training to go from 4 buttons to a real guitar is very different.
Pfff, you're obviously still on MEDIUM. I've graduated to ALL FIVE buttons which I'm told is EXACTLY like playing a REAL GUITAR.
As a Canadian who's lived in Oslo for a little over 2 years I can tell you that it meets 4/5 of your requirements.
You can buy your tickets online for the exact same price as you'd get them in the cinema. All seats are assigned, and there's usually only 2-3 trailers. Unfortunately there's still the barrage of ads before the trailers, but since your seats are guaranteed, you can simply show up 5-10 minutes after the start time and avoid all of that :)
I know that it's in Norwegian, but head over to www.oslokino.no and see what it looks like. Use the menu on the left to choose a movie or date or cinema.
sorry to be rude, but not all countries adhere to the crazy copyright laws that the USA does. according to my interpretation of current Canadian law (which could very well be incorrect) the levies i pay on blank media go to the riaa/mpaa/canadian equivalents and i am allowed to download as much as i want. this doesn't mean i'm allowed to distribute as much as i want, but with a centralized server which is download only, that's not the problem that it would be with bittorrent, in which you're required to both send and receive.
not too mention that rapidshare et. al have an air of legitimacy, as they take down any files which are reported to contain content they aren't legally allowed to distribute. of course, "they don't have the resources to check every single file that is uploaded to their servers," only the ones that are reported. And the only reason rapidshare does that is because they are a German-owned company (if i recall correctly). some countries, like Colombia and Egypt don't adhere to any copyright law. presumably a company owned and operated in a place like that would be virtually immune to any information requests from the MAFIAA and their ilk.
it surprises me, given the invention and popularity of the internet, how many americans still struggle to think globally, and still assume that the rest of the world on their terms. this is not intended to be a troll or flamebait or personal insult, it's merely my own stated opinion.
Are you American? Because Americans aren't the only ones who use dollars for their currency. It's very possible the grandparent is Canadian or Australian. As a Canadian myself, I remember most new games being around the $60 price-point, even in the NES days...
ditto.
The only problem I see here is that me and my friends will whoop your ass at L4D because you don't know the maps the way we do since we've been playing from November. Sure you'll be fine against a group of no-mics, but me and my 3 friends will beat you and your 3 friends, hands down, every time, for the next few months... It's the same reason I wouldn't get into WoW now...I don't know what any of the shit does or how to effectively use it...
Here's the Facebook group too. Sorry for the double post, there's no edit button...
For anyone interested in getting involved, check out the forum at http://www.piratepartyofcanada.com - Doesn't look like there's much going on yet, but hopefully that will change shortly...
No, but there is such a moderation choice as "Funny." Given the tone of your reply, I'm not entirely surprised that you missed that one...
As someone pointed out in the last article about this asshat, he used to be the CEO of AOL Europe
same here...wish i had some mod points for you.
Every person I know says "March fourteenth two thousand nine", not "fourteenth March two thousand nine".
This means that every person you know speaks English. This is not the case in Europe...
"If you want to take 5 minutes to eat a sandwich before taking the train home, make sure you show up at SandwichShop on platform 3 at 16:55!"
or some such...
...I wish we got this published, but we were somewhat paranoid about someone coming after us...
After smoking a lot of pot? You don't say...
Seagate does not own Western Digital. You are likely thinking of Maxtor.
Maxtor doesn't own Western Digital either ;)
...it's still not enough for him!
Totally agree with you. Especially because as soon as you upload anything to the internet you've pretty much waived any of your content rights you had.
Now when I say that I don't mean it in the legal sense but in the realistic practical sense. Anything digital is pirated and shared.
We even have karma whores that copy & paste other peoples insightful comments.
--
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those that can keep their train of thought,
I've been reading too much slashdot lately. I saw the title and immediately my brain said 'automagically.'
ugh.
You are correct, however there are still many ways to get files without participating in the distribution of them (rapidshare, newsgroups for example).
And it's really only Western/industrialized countries that forbid the distribution of copyrighted content. Places like Egypt and Colombia (IIRC) have no copyright laws whatsoever so if the uploader and host are in such places, no law is broken. That said, those are big "If's" -- but welcome to the problems of information technology in a globalized society...