Well, we will always have more pressing problems. If let this be a reason (excuse) not to solve the less pressing ones, then as a society we will stop achieving anything.
But resurrections are not unknown in the world of comics, and Marvel Entertainment editor in chief Joe Quesada said a Captain America comeback wasn't impossible."
I think what he meant to say was, "You know, guys, why don't you all fans out there buy whatever copies of the comics you can get, and maybe we'll see so much profit that we'll decide to bring the thing back..."
Why would you cancel something if you intend to make it come back? To generate attention, I guess.
- WinDVD did its best to protect its device key
- It's impossible to protect a device key in a program that people can reverse-engineer [true]
- We'd better not allow any software to read AACS-protected content
This is wonderful. If software players are gone, this means either of two things:
a) The HD formats take off, we get to watch them only in hardware, and all the DRM shit is removed from Vista and much more importantly PC hardware, so we end up with hardware that can at least theoretically have open specifications. -> GOOD
b) More likely, the HD formats don't take off, nobody bothers as we download all our HD content in annoying Windows/Apple-based DRM which we break to watch movies on Linux. Ideally, DRM is dropped altogether, and we get the outcome of a) plus the added benefit of watching movies with no hassle. -> BETTER
Both cases are better than the default scenario: closed hardware, manufacturers using DRM as an excuse to keep specs and open drivers to themselves, DRM shit on all content, and potentially a very strong Microsoft/Apple lock-in, if nothing else is able to play movies conveniently.
First, I was replaying NWN recently, trying to go trough the whole story and build an uber-character, as intended. The problem with that was, when I had to make decisions such as how to level up from 4 to 5 or so, I couldn't know which ones were right... and I could discover I wasted those skill points or whatever only 25 hours of gameplay later. Oops, no way to go back! Even if I did keep periodic savegames, I don't want to get through the same 25 hours again. So I would really like an RPG that either 1) allowed you to be come an uber-character quickly enough as to not regret it if your character is not that cool the first time, OR 2) even better, allowed you to reconsider all those choices each time you level up... so you can go back and reassign points for previous levels as well. Does such a game exist?
Second, and this is more of a question: Since I've got behind on the gaming scene (old hardware), can anyone recommend a good cross between an RPG and an FPS? FPS with levelling, if you will. I tried a couple, but they were obscure and technically very buggy. Is there a good and popular one? Bonus points if it runs on Linux.
Give young students a sufficiently motivating introduction to computers with an open transparent system they can easily tinker with, and are allowed to tinker with. You already know which one.
Back at my high school we had a bunch of 20 MHz Macs, later replaced with Windows 2000 systems. The rules were: don't touch anything you dno't know, don't access at all outside class, don't do anything that could possibly ever be dangerous, don't tinker so that you don't break it, and no, you can't change your screen resolution because we don't want you to and we locked down the sytem to make it impossible... you get the idea.
At the same time, we were taught Word, Excel, basic Photoshop (that one was good), block diagrams, and a ridiculous subset of C++ (no pointers!). Oh yea. Inspiring.
Thank god I already knew the difference between schools and computing in the real world already then.
If there is a consensus, it's that Intel is 6 or more months ahead for the next generation. IBM vigorously disputes this, saying that they and AMD are simply working in a different part of the processor market
Didn't read TFA, but is it possible to have a consensus with one party vigorously disputing it?
Apple does not sell DRM-enabled tracks because they have to, or to reduce sharing. Apple does it in order to make switching away from iPods more difficult, and sue any interoperable compentition out of existence via DMCA.
Fuck Apple. Suing iPhone skin makers is simply stupid, because Apple is popupar enough so that any teenage kid with too much money to spend on nonsense will want to buy the real thing, the original, and will know the difference from a skin.
But suing bloggers for reporting, now that's just wrong, and way above my corporate tolerance limit. Fuck you, Apple, once again!
No software players? That might actually be a good thing!
In the now famous Windows Vista content protection cost analysis, the author stated something along the lines that if he wanted HD video, he'd buy a standalone player when it's cheap enough. He wouldn't use an expensive computer. Thus, with no software players, Microsoft would not have a reason to cripple hardware (encryption on the bus, driver secrecy, tilt bits, etc.), which would make all our PCs better.
Finally, as long we have drivers that physically read the media, there's the hope that someone would actually write a free software player. Thus we would have non-crippled PCs and we'd play HD video in Linux (as well as Windows) over all outputs. Obtaining title keys will be tougher, yes, but I think it's worth it. Maybe that way the DRM formats will die too, as we stick to practically-DRMless DVDs.
I did actually take my first (successful) steps with Gentoo. One day I woke up fed up with Windows, and bought the first Linux distro I could find around - a Mandrake 7.1. It was very easy to install, even with my somewhat limited knowledge back then, but was incredibly difficult for me to work with. I was a Windows power user after all, with a lot to unlearn. So a week-long try to use the thing resulted in me hating Linux for the next month or so.
But then the scratch appeared again. I got a Red Hat whatever version this time. Installed almost as easily*, but was just as difficult to use efficiently. Sure, I could browse the web and check my e-mail, but everything else was a pain. I didn't understand the system, and I had no idea what going on down there. I was persistent, too, spending almost 3 weeks struggling.
I was so frustrated that I never wanted to look at a Linux system again for as much as an year and half after this. Then, once I had enough force of will to try yet again, I decided to take a different approach. I wanted to know as much of the system as possible, in order to customize it and configure it properly. I would even build it myself if I had to. I don't even know if Gentoo existed at the time, but I certainly didn't know about it. The only distro sort of covering my goal was, [dramatic pause], Linux From Scratch! So I followed the detailed, but not well explained instructions, and had a blazing fast booting system that could do essentially nothing. After a short-lived unsuccessful attempt to install X, I admitted defeat.
I had given up all hope until I randomly stumbled against Gentoo in 2004. I read about it, looked at the documentation, and decided to give Linux a final try. I spent a month almost exclusively working for that goal. Long story short, it's been the primary OS on all my machines ever since. The documentation and community as well as pure technical power of Gentoo are unmatched**.
Today, most distributions are far, far beyond the Mandrake 7.1 days in terms of usability, and my experience would probably be better had I started now. Still, when someone approaches me for assitance in making the Linux switch, I ask them what they want from their system. Do you want a shiny system that will install easily, work immediately, and be mostly good enough? There's Kubuntu. Do you want to learn a lot about your system, understand how everything works, and have the ultimate Linux experience, even at a large initial investment of effort? Or maybe you're serious about computer science and know a little about computers in general already? Here, try Gentoo. Obviously I would never recommend the latter to my grandmother, but for intelligent people who are not afraid to learn and like to play with technology, Gentoo just might be the ultimate operating system.
* Mandriva has (maybe) the best installer of all distributions, even today.
** BSD folks I know often tout the high customizability, flexibility, and power of their ports package system over anything Linux distros have to offer. I got familiar with FreeBSD a few months back, and guess what - Gentoo's portage is in fact inspired by ports, has the same philosophy, and is more powerful (USE flags), even if significantly slower. It gives you one of the best features of BSD on Linux, with added bonuses:)
Clearly, if Linux is unable to reproduce a third of Firefox's end user uptake over a much longer time-frame, there are deficiencies with the direction the GNU/Linux/X/Gnome/KDE system has taken.
Nonsense. Firefox is a drop-in replacement for IE: 1. Remove IE (yeah right:P), 2. Install Firefox, 3. Work as before. Linux is a completely different world. "So it doesn't have C: and D:... can it use my hard disk then?"... The direction taken by GNU/Linux/X/Gnome/KDE is wonderful.
Besides, Linux is not a monoculture. The kernel, sure. But the entire system has distributions. My Gentoo is a lot different than the millions of Ubuntu desktops there are.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe someone should try?
Heh, good job. I wish I were able to pull off such a thing :P
"when the initial cartridge runs out, toss the printer and get a new one." So much for being friendly to the environment...
Heh, I got a good one: how about.... IceWeasel!!!
Well, we will always have more pressing problems. If let this be a reason (excuse) not to solve the less pressing ones, then as a society we will stop achieving anything.
What, now licenses have security holes too? Who would've thought?! Good to see the FSF are quick to release a patch!
Disclaimer: I'm joking.
But resurrections are not unknown in the world of comics, and Marvel Entertainment editor in chief Joe Quesada said a Captain America comeback wasn't impossible."
I think what he meant to say was, "You know, guys, why don't you all fans out there buy whatever copies of the comics you can get, and maybe we'll see so much profit that we'll decide to bring the thing back..."
Why would you cancel something if you intend to make it come back? To generate attention, I guess.
- WinDVD did its best to protect its device key
- It's impossible to protect a device key in a program that people can reverse-engineer [true]
- We'd better not allow any software to read AACS-protected content
This is wonderful. If software players are gone, this means either of two things:
a) The HD formats take off, we get to watch them only in hardware, and all the DRM shit is removed from Vista and much more importantly PC hardware, so we end up with hardware that can at least theoretically have open specifications. -> GOOD
b) More likely, the HD formats don't take off, nobody bothers as we download all our HD content in annoying Windows/Apple-based DRM which we break to watch movies on Linux. Ideally, DRM is dropped altogether, and we get the outcome of a) plus the added benefit of watching movies with no hassle. -> BETTER
Both cases are better than the default scenario: closed hardware, manufacturers using DRM as an excuse to keep specs and open drivers to themselves, DRM shit on all content, and potentially a very strong Microsoft/Apple lock-in, if nothing else is able to play movies conveniently.
First, I was replaying NWN recently, trying to go trough the whole story and build an uber-character, as intended. The problem with that was, when I had to make decisions such as how to level up from 4 to 5 or so, I couldn't know which ones were right... and I could discover I wasted those skill points or whatever only 25 hours of gameplay later. Oops, no way to go back! Even if I did keep periodic savegames, I don't want to get through the same 25 hours again. So I would really like an RPG that either 1) allowed you to be come an uber-character quickly enough as to not regret it if your character is not that cool the first time, OR 2) even better, allowed you to reconsider all those choices each time you level up... so you can go back and reassign points for previous levels as well. Does such a game exist?
Second, and this is more of a question: Since I've got behind on the gaming scene (old hardware), can anyone recommend a good cross between an RPG and an FPS? FPS with levelling, if you will. I tried a couple, but they were obscure and technically very buggy. Is there a good and popular one? Bonus points if it runs on Linux.
There's also Konqueror, the best of them all. And Safari is just Konqueror with a new interface.
Give young students a sufficiently motivating introduction to computers with an open transparent system they can easily tinker with, and are allowed to tinker with. You already know which one.
Back at my high school we had a bunch of 20 MHz Macs, later replaced with Windows 2000 systems. The rules were: don't touch anything you dno't know, don't access at all outside class, don't do anything that could possibly ever be dangerous, don't tinker so that you don't break it, and no, you can't change your screen resolution because we don't want you to and we locked down the sytem to make it impossible... you get the idea.
At the same time, we were taught Word, Excel, basic Photoshop (that one was good), block diagrams, and a ridiculous subset of C++ (no pointers!). Oh yea. Inspiring.
Thank god I already knew the difference between schools and computing in the real world already then.
Does anyone else hear an incessant whisper chanting "GPLv3, GLPv3, GLPv3..."?
Think what you will, but here's the One True Statement when it comes to Net Neutrality:
The Internet is not something you just dump something on! IT'S NOT A BIG TRUCK! IT'S A SERIES OF TUBES!
If there is a consensus, it's that Intel is 6 or more months ahead for the next generation. IBM vigorously disputes this, saying that they and AMD are simply working in a different part of the processor market
Didn't read TFA, but is it possible to have a consensus with one party vigorously disputing it?
Apple does not sell DRM-enabled tracks because they have to, or to reduce sharing. Apple does it in order to make switching away from iPods more difficult, and sue any interoperable compentition out of existence via DMCA.
Fuck Apple. Suing iPhone skin makers is simply stupid, because Apple is popupar enough so that any teenage kid with too much money to spend on nonsense will want to buy the real thing, the original, and will know the difference from a skin.
But suing bloggers for reporting, now that's just wrong, and way above my corporate tolerance limit. Fuck you, Apple, once again!
Free? Free as in what? Not that I care, I won't run Windows.
...so let me ask it out loud: What kind of person does one have to be to leave IBM and join Microsoft?
Wrong. Apple is now using DRM on music from labels that do not require it.
That Apple's software allows you to put iTunes-purchased songs on CDs is a coincidance. You fail to see the bigger picture.
No software players? That might actually be a good thing!
In the now famous Windows Vista content protection cost analysis, the author stated something along the lines that if he wanted HD video, he'd buy a standalone player when it's cheap enough. He wouldn't use an expensive computer. Thus, with no software players, Microsoft would not have a reason to cripple hardware (encryption on the bus, driver secrecy, tilt bits, etc.), which would make all our PCs better.
Finally, as long we have drivers that physically read the media, there's the hope that someone would actually write a free software player. Thus we would have non-crippled PCs and we'd play HD video in Linux (as well as Windows) over all outputs. Obtaining title keys will be tougher, yes, but I think it's worth it. Maybe that way the DRM formats will die too, as we stick to practically-DRMless DVDs.
I say, to hell with software players!
Could you maybe provide some information on the stuff you just mentioned? I've never heard of it, but I'm interested. Some links maybe? Thank you.
In other words, a marketing term. That is, it means nothing. :)
I also think the abbreviation means concent rights management (the same as DRM), though I don't think TFA is about that (didn't read it).
I did actually take my first (successful) steps with Gentoo. One day I woke up fed up with Windows, and bought the first Linux distro I could find around - a Mandrake 7.1. It was very easy to install, even with my somewhat limited knowledge back then, but was incredibly difficult for me to work with. I was a Windows power user after all, with a lot to unlearn. So a week-long try to use the thing resulted in me hating Linux for the next month or so.
:)
But then the scratch appeared again. I got a Red Hat whatever version this time. Installed almost as easily*, but was just as difficult to use efficiently. Sure, I could browse the web and check my e-mail, but everything else was a pain. I didn't understand the system, and I had no idea what going on down there. I was persistent, too, spending almost 3 weeks struggling.
I was so frustrated that I never wanted to look at a Linux system again for as much as an year and half after this. Then, once I had enough force of will to try yet again, I decided to take a different approach. I wanted to know as much of the system as possible, in order to customize it and configure it properly. I would even build it myself if I had to. I don't even know if Gentoo existed at the time, but I certainly didn't know about it. The only distro sort of covering my goal was, [dramatic pause], Linux From Scratch! So I followed the detailed, but not well explained instructions, and had a blazing fast booting system that could do essentially nothing. After a short-lived unsuccessful attempt to install X, I admitted defeat.
I had given up all hope until I randomly stumbled against Gentoo in 2004. I read about it, looked at the documentation, and decided to give Linux a final try. I spent a month almost exclusively working for that goal. Long story short, it's been the primary OS on all my machines ever since. The documentation and community as well as pure technical power of Gentoo are unmatched**.
Today, most distributions are far, far beyond the Mandrake 7.1 days in terms of usability, and my experience would probably be better had I started now. Still, when someone approaches me for assitance in making the Linux switch, I ask them what they want from their system. Do you want a shiny system that will install easily, work immediately, and be mostly good enough? There's Kubuntu. Do you want to learn a lot about your system, understand how everything works, and have the ultimate Linux experience, even at a large initial investment of effort? Or maybe you're serious about computer science and know a little about computers in general already? Here, try Gentoo. Obviously I would never recommend the latter to my grandmother, but for intelligent people who are not afraid to learn and like to play with technology, Gentoo just might be the ultimate operating system.
* Mandriva has (maybe) the best installer of all distributions, even today.
** BSD folks I know often tout the high customizability, flexibility, and power of their ports package system over anything Linux distros have to offer. I got familiar with FreeBSD a few months back, and guess what - Gentoo's portage is in fact inspired by ports, has the same philosophy, and is more powerful (USE flags), even if significantly slower. It gives you one of the best features of BSD on Linux, with added bonuses
Clearly, if Linux is unable to reproduce a third of Firefox's end user uptake over a much longer time-frame, there are deficiencies with the direction the GNU/Linux/X/Gnome/KDE system has taken.
:P), 2. Install Firefox, 3. Work as before. Linux is a completely different world. "So it doesn't have C: and D:... can it use my hard disk then?"... The direction taken by GNU/Linux/X/Gnome/KDE is wonderful.
Nonsense. Firefox is a drop-in replacement for IE: 1. Remove IE (yeah right
Besides, Linux is not a monoculture. The kernel, sure. But the entire system has distributions. My Gentoo is a lot different than the millions of Ubuntu desktops there are.
It seems to me that someone needs to read this: http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm