When friends and co-workers tap for for advice on how to fix their Windows 8 problems, I encourage them to uninstall it and revert to Win7. Not a unique phenomenon to you.:)
We at the NSA mock the idea of tension and turf-fights with our sister agencies. There is not, and never has been any rivalry between us and the other three letter entities, who by the way can keep their damned dirty ape paws off of our databases.
Log Snort through Ethereal, or another network protocol analyzer of your choice, and you've just created a free version of what all these companies want to sell you.
Not to worry. Megavirus had to be outdone by Pandoravirus. The next genus of virus will have to outdo the last, and so on.
I forsee the following names for future virus discoveries, in this order:
Megavirus
Pandoravirus -Epicvirus -Gigantivirus -Galactavirus (who later becomes a galaxy spanning super villian virus and renames himself Galactavus, or Galactus) -Universalvirus -Gigantovirus -OMGWTFITSHUGEvirus -Omegavirus And the final genus to be discovered will be named "Tiddlywinks." Yep.
I'm not against the closing of this bug; however, the closed status should be something like "Can't Fix" [0]. While, technically speaking, Microsoft doesn't have the majority of the marketshare anymore, the originally prescribed goal of this bug was:
A majority of the PCs for sale should include only free software.
Note that *even if* we count Android/Linux, and also count every type of device like mobile phones and tables, nearly all of those devices -- even those running Android/Linux or Ubuntu -- include proprietary software (Many Android/Linux devices include *mostly* proprietary software, since nearly all the applications are proprietary). Thus, it's just not accurate at this time to argue "Fix Released" for the key issue that this bug was supposed to be about: namely, "most devices in use today are running mostly proprietary software". It'll probably be generations before we close that bug, and that's why I'd argue the problem probably can't be fixed as part of the lifecycle of Ubuntu itself. Thus "Can't Fix" is the right bug-close status.
[0] "Won't Fix" isn't right because that would presupose Ubuntu actually had the ability to fix the problem and chose not to. Sadly, I don't think it was ever really within the power of the Ubuntu project to fix the problem in the first place. Nevertheless, I thank Ubuntu for the early years (i.e., pre-UbuntuOne: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntuone-servers/+bug/375272 ) when Ubuntu truly tried to close Bug 1. It's a tough job to give software freedom to the majority of users, but we should all keep trying to do it.
1. The government of a state works for the citizens of that state - who pay their salary. Not for non-state residents. 2. Information that is freely available online or at a clerk's office does not need to be provided through a FOIA request. 3. You do not have the right to treat the government of another state like a slave.
My wife pre-ordered Diablo III. SC2 was annoying with the log-in requirements, but given everything I had read about the Zero Day issues, I asked her to send it back, unopened.
I'm not really a fan of game piracy. I keep all my PC games; dating from the mid-90s, I've got 500-700 PC titles tucked away into binders upon binders upon binders. Once upon a time I had the brilliant idea of putting all the activation codes into an excel file so that I could get rid of the boxes and manuals, but I lost that a decade ago - from time to time I've had to visit Megagames or other sites for a crack over the years, but I never felt bad about it because I always owned the game.
I think this is where I finally draw the line on piracy. When a game is unplayable in single player mode because of DRM, regardless of reason, temporary nature....I think that crosses a line. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow...but one day soon there will be a pirated, DRM free version of Diablo III. If people will build Everquest or WoW servers....if random would-be customers will donate money to an indie developer to recreate Asheron's Call 2 from the ground up years after the game shut down with no hope of Turbine releasing the code for it...then I imagine someone or a team of someones will muster up the energy to give us a version of Diablo III that we can play offline in single player mode.
Blizzard lost a $60 sale from me. The game is being returned, un-opened today. In the not too distant future, Usenet is going to get $20 from me.
And what happens when all the frivolous lawsuits that people love tossing around get used like a DoS attack against unpopular people, or people that someone has a vendetta against?
What happens when 10,000 anti-war activists all file individual suits against the president? He's supposed to put out of pocket to defend himself?
And if I'm the CEO of Apple, and someone doesn't like their iPhone and can't get a refund because they're past the purchase date allowance, if they sue me because they feel wronged, do I pay for it myself?
I can't help but sit here shaking my head in some disbelief at the comments I've read on this thread. Slashdotters are a technologically savvy community for the most part, and I lost track of the number of times that I saw something to the effect of "The government probably has means/software/tools/hacks to get your info."
Now, I've done extensive work *for* the government in the realm of computer forensics, which is as far as I'll elaborate, and the tools we use are commercially available. Were anyone so inclined, you could even attend or get notes on FBI or DoD taught digital forensics classes.
There's nothing wrong with some good old fashioned suspicion or conspiracy theory, but the *one* area that slashdotters should be mostly competent and knowledgeable on has more of those wild ideas than anywhere else.
My wife and I both want(ed) to play Little Big Planet.
With that said, there's no way in the ninth circle of hell that we're going to invest in a PS3 to do so. Proprietary consoles can suck a fattie. Now, I wonder how many other potential non-consumers there are out there in my shoes? At least Square Enix is shaping up; Sony doesn't get a stranglehold on Final Fantasy anymore. I hope that turns into other a *lot* of other developers abandoning one-console contracts. Metal Gear, Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy as multi-console releases? =)
I'd like to see a warning label affixed to every ballot that says:
"WARNING: Electing politicians has been linked to recession, higher taxes, and war."
These kind of stories swing both ways, and we've had literally dozens of "Finally the pendulum swings the other way moments" that have amounted to nothing more than blips across the radar...
But I can't help but optimistically wonder if this is the start of a trend fighting back against corporate abuse of us, the customer? For several years now, I (and probably you) have been inured to new stories about corporation X doing new thing Y to screw customer z, and the news story hasn't even batted an eyelash because we're not surprised.
Now the RIAA is backpedaling, and DRM is getting an appropriate scrutinizing. =) Its a good start to 2009!
I don't pirate music; I don't even really listen to music...but I feel like I need to chime in here.:)
I think that debating piracy of music is irrelevant until someone comes up with an arbitrary "value" of a song. How much is a song worth?
The reason I ask - when you steal a song, nothing was lost. You can no more steal a song than you can steal a quote from someone else, or steal a melody that you heard someone whistling.
Stealing involves taking something from someone else, and depriving them of it, such that you have it now and they don't. Physical property. I simply don't believe that downloading an.mp3 is stealing unless it deprives someone else of it.
I don't think its stealing from record labels either. Its file sharing, not file stealing. When you download an.mp3, the record labels still have it. You have it now too, but you didn't take it away from them. They've been deprived of potential profit, but again, that's not stealing. That happens every day, thousands and millions of times in corporate America. People are deprived of potential profit because a competitor did it first or better; or because your proposal wasn't good enough, or a countless number of reasons.
That's a matter of life; stealing isn't involved until you're deprived of something that is rightfully yours. So again...how much is a song worth? It can't be limitless. How much money does a song need to generate? I know that its relevant, but I can't seem to communicate what I'm trying to say here very well. >
I suppose what I'm trying to communicate is that without some arbitrary number to decide what a song is worth, its worthless, and taking it isn't stealing, since you're still not depriving anyone of it. And that arbitrary number *surely* isn't the $0.99 or whatever shown; that means once its purchased by someone, it should no longer be available to sell to someone else. I don't believe in leasing a song. *shrugs* I hope I've communicated my point.
I think the newest album I have is Mr. Ozio from 2000, and haven't had much interest in anything that's come out since; although I'll listen to something on youtube from time to time, and even used fetchmp3.com to rip a couple from youtube to try making a karaoke track.
But if I did listen to music, I'd download it instead of buying it. Music should be free to listen to. Its free on the radio, its free outdoors, its free in restaurants, elevators, stores, mariachi bands...just that if you happen to *like* the music you hear, you can tip the mariachi band. Or buy tickets to the concert of group X. And now its free on the internet too. So?
I'm going to take part in protesting the RIAA's mafia tactics!
Once upon a time, I might have considered buying some CDs and then burning them in a symbolic gesture of apathy, but with today's technology, I'm going to instead repeatedly download bunches of songs, just so that I can delete them!! Ha! Take that RIAA! Not only am I pirating your junk, but I'm trashing it too!
I live and breath for RTS games...at the point where you're going to stick it on a console, you lost me. You can spout bull**** all day long about how an X-Box controller is better than a mouse + 70 keys on my keyboard, but I don't buy it, and I don't believe anyone else would either.
And when you're going to boldly announce for your game "Halo Wars" that you've developed a bunch of content that you're not going to release with the game, and hold off on releasing it until later? That's some serious anti-consumer behavior. That's half the reason Spore flopped (DRM being the other half). EA released a half-done game, and kept all the things *NEEDED* to make the game decent out of the release so that they could sell it as "expansions."
Great model that they're following on this one. I hope it flops just as badly. Lets see...releasing an RTS for a console (traditional fail) by hyping up how much better it will be than any PC RTS control system (asking for a let down here) and promising potential customers that not only are you going to not let them use it on the system and controller (Mouse+keyboard) that is most sought after to play RTS games on, but that you're ALSO not going to give your customers half the content you made for the game...instead you're going to hold it in reserve and ask them for more money later on.
Brilliant business plan! I look forward to saying "I told you so."
You've hit the nail on the head. I'm *really* tired of seeing unprofessionally done surveys and studies and irrelevant comparisons make the news.
In other news, consumers are spending FAR more money at McDonalds than at Burger King. I sampled two groups.
The first group told me how much money they spend on average at Burger King per month.
The second group told me how much they spend on average at McDonalds per month. They also included how much their gas bill was, the cost of their car, and a dollar value for the opportunity cost in time that they spent going to McDonalds.
Can you believe it? McDonalds is more popular! *sigh* I feel that my own completely made up survey has about as much credibility as the last few surveys that have made their way onto the Slashdot boards.
When a community of people talk about DRM, I find it interesting that Steam has a unique role; people are quick to slam EA for the debacle of Spore or its various other IPs, (and now Epic for their own anti-PC gamer shenanigans).
Yet it seems like Valve is consistently viewed with the attitude of, "Well, their DRM isn't so bad."
Personally, the only time I used Steam was when I bought the Orange Box, and then only because it literally forced me to - I found that to be quite annoying, but then again, I didn't get them for the multiplayer aspect. Egads! No TF2 for me.
It would be fantastic if the EAs and Epic studios of the industry would STOP blaming pirates for lost revenue (when the problem is really the crap that they're releasing and expecting us to buy)and using it as an excuse to stop developing PC games or stuff DRM down our throats.
Instead, they could look at the companies who *are* being successful - Valve primary among them - and use them as case studies for their own business practices.
I want to see specs. Purpose-built machines are already flooding the market. Want a gaming machine? Try Alienware, Zeus-PC, Powernotebokes, Hyperion, one of the bunches of companies that already make custom built gaming machines.
Unless Commodore has some ingenious plans for publishing proprietary content that can only be played on their custom PC....can you think of any reason why someone would want to buy one of their computers?
-----
Thought begets heresy; Heresy begets Retribution.
WhisperJeff, you may not understand how the game works. Turning on your afterburner and flying somewhere DOES take hours. That's not what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to warp somewhere, not fly there. =p
Travelling across an entire region takes....10 minutes? Travelling across the entire galaxy from one end to the other (lets say 80 jumps) will take you an hour or so, maybe a little more. Warp to 0km, jump, load the next system, warp to 0km (next gate) rinse and repeat.
Perhaps you should explore the game a bit more?
The recent scandal involving a CCP Developer(s) abusing game mechanics to benefit an in-game alliance shook the gaming community, not only because of its ramifications to the company itself, but because the "whistleblower" was banned for revealing a developer's in-game identity -- despite the fact that his identity was already selectively known to an in-game alliance.
Many feel that the issue needs closure -- that scandal was quietly swept away, and that CCP's punitive measures were misdirected.
What steps does CCP plan to take in the future to keep from discouraging players from revealing illegal activity by others, and does CCP intend to bring closure to the Eve community on this game-breaking issue?
Slashdot Mirror
When friends and co-workers tap for for advice on how to fix their Windows 8 problems, I encourage them to uninstall it and revert to Win7. Not a unique phenomenon to you. :)
We at the NSA mock the idea of tension and turf-fights with our sister agencies. There is not, and never has been any rivalry between us and the other three letter entities, who by the way can keep their damned dirty ape paws off of our databases.
*cough* Forever War.
Yes...Snort is an IDS, not an IPS.
Log Snort through Ethereal, or another network protocol analyzer of your choice, and you've just created a free version of what all these companies want to sell you.
Not to worry. Megavirus had to be outdone by Pandoravirus. The next genus of virus will have to outdo the last, and so on.
I forsee the following names for future virus discoveries, in this order:
Megavirus
Pandoravirus
-Epicvirus
-Gigantivirus
-Galactavirus (who later becomes a galaxy spanning super villian virus and renames himself Galactavus, or Galactus)
-Universalvirus
-Gigantovirus
-OMGWTFITSHUGEvirus
-Omegavirus
And the final genus to be discovered will be named "Tiddlywinks." Yep.
Have you ever been to Defcon? If you spot the fed, and you're right, you get a T-shirt that says so.
I still have my "I am the Fed" shirt from 2005. Fond memories. :)
I'm not against the closing of this bug; however, the closed status should be something like "Can't Fix" [0]. While, technically speaking, Microsoft doesn't have the majority of the marketshare anymore, the originally prescribed goal of this bug was:
A majority of the PCs for sale should include only free software.
Note that *even if* we count Android/Linux, and also count every type of device like mobile phones and tables, nearly all of those devices -- even those running Android/Linux or Ubuntu -- include proprietary software (Many Android/Linux devices include *mostly* proprietary software, since
nearly all the applications are proprietary). Thus, it's just not accurate at this time to argue "Fix Released" for the key issue that this bug was supposed to be about: namely, "most devices in use today are running mostly proprietary software". It'll probably be generations before we close that bug, and that's why I'd
argue the problem probably can't be fixed as part of the lifecycle of Ubuntu itself. Thus "Can't Fix" is the right bug-close status.
[0] "Won't Fix" isn't right because that would presupose Ubuntu actually had the ability to fix the problem and chose not to. Sadly, I don't think it was ever really within the power of the Ubuntu project to fix the problem in the first place. Nevertheless, I thank Ubuntu for the early years (i.e., pre-UbuntuOne: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntuone-servers/+bug/375272 ) when Ubuntu truly tried to close Bug 1. It's a tough job to give software freedom to the majority of users, but we should all keep trying to do it.
FTFA.....
Summing up what the court had to say:
1. The government of a state works for the citizens of that state - who pay their salary. Not for non-state residents.
2. Information that is freely available online or at a clerk's office does not need to be provided through a FOIA request.
3. You do not have the right to treat the government of another state like a slave.
My wife pre-ordered Diablo III. SC2 was annoying with the log-in requirements, but given everything I had read about the Zero Day issues, I asked her to send it back, unopened.
I'm not really a fan of game piracy. I keep all my PC games; dating from the mid-90s, I've got 500-700 PC titles tucked away into binders upon binders upon binders. Once upon a time I had the brilliant idea of putting all the activation codes into an excel file so that I could get rid of the boxes and manuals, but I lost that a decade ago - from time to time I've had to visit Megagames or other sites for a crack over the years, but I never felt bad about it because I always owned the game.
I think this is where I finally draw the line on piracy. When a game is unplayable in single player mode because of DRM, regardless of reason, temporary nature....I think that crosses a line. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow...but one day soon there will be a pirated, DRM free version of Diablo III. If people will build Everquest or WoW servers....if random would-be customers will donate money to an indie developer to recreate Asheron's Call 2 from the ground up years after the game shut down with no hope of Turbine releasing the code for it...then I imagine someone or a team of someones will muster up the energy to give us a version of Diablo III that we can play offline in single player mode.
Blizzard lost a $60 sale from me. The game is being returned, un-opened today. In the not too distant future, Usenet is going to get $20 from me.
That's a horrible idea.
And what happens when all the frivolous lawsuits that people love tossing around get used like a DoS attack against unpopular people, or people that someone has a vendetta against?
What happens when 10,000 anti-war activists all file individual suits against the president? He's supposed to put out of pocket to defend himself?
And if I'm the CEO of Apple, and someone doesn't like their iPhone and can't get a refund because they're past the purchase date allowance, if they sue me because they feel wronged, do I pay for it myself?
Unreasonable plan.
The tagline is inverted.
In Soviet Russia, cybercrime shames YOU!
I can't help but sit here shaking my head in some disbelief at the comments I've read on this thread. Slashdotters are a technologically savvy community for the most part, and I lost track of the number of times that I saw something to the effect of "The government probably has means/software/tools/hacks to get your info."
Now, I've done extensive work *for* the government in the realm of computer forensics, which is as far as I'll elaborate, and the tools we use are commercially available. Were anyone so inclined, you could even attend or get notes on FBI or DoD taught digital forensics classes.
There's nothing wrong with some good old fashioned suspicion or conspiracy theory, but the *one* area that slashdotters should be mostly competent and knowledgeable on has more of those wild ideas than anywhere else.
My wife and I both want(ed) to play Little Big Planet. With that said, there's no way in the ninth circle of hell that we're going to invest in a PS3 to do so. Proprietary consoles can suck a fattie. Now, I wonder how many other potential non-consumers there are out there in my shoes? At least Square Enix is shaping up; Sony doesn't get a stranglehold on Final Fantasy anymore. I hope that turns into other a *lot* of other developers abandoning one-console contracts. Metal Gear, Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy as multi-console releases? =)
I'd like to see a warning label affixed to every ballot that says: "WARNING: Electing politicians has been linked to recession, higher taxes, and war."
These kind of stories swing both ways, and we've had literally dozens of "Finally the pendulum swings the other way moments" that have amounted to nothing more than blips across the radar... But I can't help but optimistically wonder if this is the start of a trend fighting back against corporate abuse of us, the customer? For several years now, I (and probably you) have been inured to new stories about corporation X doing new thing Y to screw customer z, and the news story hasn't even batted an eyelash because we're not surprised. Now the RIAA is backpedaling, and DRM is getting an appropriate scrutinizing. =) Its a good start to 2009!
Everyone knows that if you overphish a stream, there's no phish left for everyone else. Its a classic case of resource depletion!
I don't pirate music; I don't even really listen to music...but I feel like I need to chime in here. :)
I think that debating piracy of music is irrelevant until someone comes up with an arbitrary "value" of a song. How much is a song worth?
The reason I ask - when you steal a song, nothing was lost. You can no more steal a song than you can steal a quote from someone else, or steal a melody that you heard someone whistling.
Stealing involves taking something from someone else, and depriving them of it, such that you have it now and they don't. Physical property. I simply don't believe that downloading an .mp3 is stealing unless it deprives someone else of it.
I don't think its stealing from record labels either. Its file sharing, not file stealing. When you download an .mp3, the record labels still have it. You have it now too, but you didn't take it away from them. They've been deprived of potential profit, but again, that's not stealing. That happens every day, thousands and millions of times in corporate America. People are deprived of potential profit because a competitor did it first or better; or because your proposal wasn't good enough, or a countless number of reasons.
That's a matter of life; stealing isn't involved until you're deprived of something that is rightfully yours. So again...how much is a song worth? It can't be limitless. How much money does a song need to generate? I know that its relevant, but I can't seem to communicate what I'm trying to say here very well. >
I suppose what I'm trying to communicate is that without some arbitrary number to decide what a song is worth, its worthless, and taking it isn't stealing, since you're still not depriving anyone of it. And that arbitrary number *surely* isn't the $0.99 or whatever shown; that means once its purchased by someone, it should no longer be available to sell to someone else. I don't believe in leasing a song. *shrugs* I hope I've communicated my point.
I think the newest album I have is Mr. Ozio from 2000, and haven't had much interest in anything that's come out since; although I'll listen to something on youtube from time to time, and even used fetchmp3.com to rip a couple from youtube to try making a karaoke track.
But if I did listen to music, I'd download it instead of buying it. Music should be free to listen to. Its free on the radio, its free outdoors, its free in restaurants, elevators, stores, mariachi bands...just that if you happen to *like* the music you hear, you can tip the mariachi band. Or buy tickets to the concert of group X. And now its free on the internet too. So?
I'm going to take part in protesting the RIAA's mafia tactics! Once upon a time, I might have considered buying some CDs and then burning them in a symbolic gesture of apathy, but with today's technology, I'm going to instead repeatedly download bunches of songs, just so that I can delete them!! Ha! Take that RIAA! Not only am I pirating your junk, but I'm trashing it too!
I live and breath for RTS games...at the point where you're going to stick it on a console, you lost me. You can spout bull**** all day long about how an X-Box controller is better than a mouse + 70 keys on my keyboard, but I don't buy it, and I don't believe anyone else would either. And when you're going to boldly announce for your game "Halo Wars" that you've developed a bunch of content that you're not going to release with the game, and hold off on releasing it until later? That's some serious anti-consumer behavior. That's half the reason Spore flopped (DRM being the other half). EA released a half-done game, and kept all the things *NEEDED* to make the game decent out of the release so that they could sell it as "expansions." Great model that they're following on this one. I hope it flops just as badly. Lets see...releasing an RTS for a console (traditional fail) by hyping up how much better it will be than any PC RTS control system (asking for a let down here) and promising potential customers that not only are you going to not let them use it on the system and controller (Mouse+keyboard) that is most sought after to play RTS games on, but that you're ALSO not going to give your customers half the content you made for the game...instead you're going to hold it in reserve and ask them for more money later on. Brilliant business plan! I look forward to saying "I told you so."
You've hit the nail on the head. I'm *really* tired of seeing unprofessionally done surveys and studies and irrelevant comparisons make the news. In other news, consumers are spending FAR more money at McDonalds than at Burger King. I sampled two groups. The first group told me how much money they spend on average at Burger King per month. The second group told me how much they spend on average at McDonalds per month. They also included how much their gas bill was, the cost of their car, and a dollar value for the opportunity cost in time that they spent going to McDonalds. Can you believe it? McDonalds is more popular! *sigh* I feel that my own completely made up survey has about as much credibility as the last few surveys that have made their way onto the Slashdot boards.
When a community of people talk about DRM, I find it interesting that Steam has a unique role; people are quick to slam EA for the debacle of Spore or its various other IPs, (and now Epic for their own anti-PC gamer shenanigans). Yet it seems like Valve is consistently viewed with the attitude of, "Well, their DRM isn't so bad." Personally, the only time I used Steam was when I bought the Orange Box, and then only because it literally forced me to - I found that to be quite annoying, but then again, I didn't get them for the multiplayer aspect. Egads! No TF2 for me. It would be fantastic if the EAs and Epic studios of the industry would STOP blaming pirates for lost revenue (when the problem is really the crap that they're releasing and expecting us to buy)and using it as an excuse to stop developing PC games or stuff DRM down our throats. Instead, they could look at the companies who *are* being successful - Valve primary among them - and use them as case studies for their own business practices.
I want to see specs. Purpose-built machines are already flooding the market. Want a gaming machine? Try Alienware, Zeus-PC, Powernotebokes, Hyperion, one of the bunches of companies that already make custom built gaming machines. Unless Commodore has some ingenious plans for publishing proprietary content that can only be played on their custom PC....can you think of any reason why someone would want to buy one of their computers? ----- Thought begets heresy; Heresy begets Retribution.
WhisperJeff, you may not understand how the game works. Turning on your afterburner and flying somewhere DOES take hours. That's not what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to warp somewhere, not fly there. =p Travelling across an entire region takes....10 minutes? Travelling across the entire galaxy from one end to the other (lets say 80 jumps) will take you an hour or so, maybe a little more. Warp to 0km, jump, load the next system, warp to 0km (next gate) rinse and repeat. Perhaps you should explore the game a bit more?
The recent scandal involving a CCP Developer(s) abusing game mechanics to benefit an in-game alliance shook the gaming community, not only because of its ramifications to the company itself, but because the "whistleblower" was banned for revealing a developer's in-game identity -- despite the fact that his identity was already selectively known to an in-game alliance. Many feel that the issue needs closure -- that scandal was quietly swept away, and that CCP's punitive measures were misdirected. What steps does CCP plan to take in the future to keep from discouraging players from revealing illegal activity by others, and does CCP intend to bring closure to the Eve community on this game-breaking issue?