BT was my first RPG ever. It is amazing how, 16 years after publication, it still has a 'brand name'. I have to say, even if I saw "Bard's Tale 2004" in stores next year, I'd have a hard time not buying it just based on the original. I still remember picking up my copy for the C64 from a computer expo.
It's easy to say 'frickin elitists', but the fact is that there's an insane amount of really awful code out there, some public, some private, and a disproportionate amount comes from people who try to 'program' simply by trying to learn HOW to do something, and never WHY. Now, if you're doing it as a hobby, do whatever you like and have fun. But it will be a lot harder to UNLEARN bad habits you start off with than it would be to simply learn better in the first place.
If you're writing software even quasi-professionally, then you should understand something deeper than what is required for syntactically correct and functional code, because that's not enough for good code.
If you're learning PHP as a first language, I think it's safe to say you're destined for ineptness. This just has to do with the fact that PHP is too loose in what it permits, and there are so many 'wrong' solutions for every right one. If I had a friend who started programming, I'd start them on 'teach yourself C in 21 days', and then get them to read Knuth. Then, maybe, try some PHP.
If you've programmed before, I don't think there's a better way to start than just going right to the docs and reading from the top all the way down until where the function reference begins. Then read that section again.
Maybe you were checking for your online php docs at d00dzIhavePHPd0cs.org instead of php.net, because php.net has fantastic documentation. It is incredibly authoritative, and I've solved more little problems by reading user comments attached to the docs than I'd solve reading a dozen books. The comments are far more likely to be relevent, much easier to search than a bunch of books, and the php.net website is always up to date with the latest version -- even if you're using CVS php, you can often find the docs, which are marked with changes by version.
Moreover, for quick reference, you can't beat typing in php.net/[searchterm] for an instant lookup shortcut.
Don't go applying to php what can (and often does) apply to other languages, because you're sending people after second-best solutions that cost money when the best choice is free.
This isn't to say a book doesn't have its place, but for php+mysql, that place is as a guide to design and development, not as a function or language reference.
I don't think I own a single PHP book. What I do for a living right now is code PHP+Mysql (specifically, e-commerce engine customization).
I never had a problem with stuff not working, but I did do a lot of things in ways that could have been done better. For example, not realizing at first that you could declare php functions with optional arguments (ie, function foo($x, $y=1) {}) cost me a lot of headache I didn't need. Puzzling my way through the behavior of php classes took some time, as these aren't particularly well documented (particularly variable scope in classes and methods, and the interaction between session tracking and classes).
In other words, I could have used a good 'tips and tricks' sort of book. Not basic syntax, but the sort of things you'd miss even if you got fairly far using the online docs.
The good and bad thing about PHP+Mysql is that it is a very powerful and flexible platform to develop on. But because it is SO flexible, it lets you make a LOT of mistakes. There's a big difference between a functional app, and a GOOD app.
I've had 2 linksys wireless routers now (although I suppose I could note they ran as bridges on my network). The first failed catastrophically -- it was up, but dead. RMA, and the second one needs to be powercycled ever 12-24 hours on average to keep it running. Not a big deal, since this is usually just about 8 steps away, but it would be irritating if this was an office, or say, a coffee shop. (Where they have a dlink which I was sad to find did not run 802.11a or g, just b)
Instead of trying to figure out how to 'practically' control spam, just put the weight of the law on the right side first.
(1) Spam is unequivocably illegal. Commercial email requires that you be able to tell exactly where your address was acquired and under what terms. A single communication to that party or their designated substitute must eliminate you from all emailings associated with that acquisition point (even if you once agreed to receive email) within X hours (I'd say 72). This prevents 'opt-in' abuse. (Most of those who claim this are full of it anyhow, so you must maintain records of how the person opted in -- form data they filled out, the IP they came from, the date and time, the site they were on, etc, before you can even claim opt-in, aside from the above limitations)
(2) No cause of action can be brought against an ISP for terminating a client's services for UCE sending. The burden is on the client to prove their use is fully legal, and if they send to addresses without a record to justify the sending, they can and should be terminated. But the law supercedes any and all contracts.
(3) RBL lists are recognized in law as lists of people who have chosen to opt out of email based on certain criteria. Because use of an RBL is voluntary, legal action against an RBL for providing RBL services is barred. This includes any claims against an RBL provider on the grounds of slander (insofar as an entry on the list is not considered to be slander or libel) or negligence. In other words, an RBL simply becomes speech, and placing people on a list is presumptively considered to be not libel or defamation or slander unless a claimant can conclusively prove false statements, in which case the only remediation becomes removal from the list in question. Monetary damages for placement on an RBL completely disappear.
The only thing left on my wishlist is a way to make the beneficiaries of spam liable even if they didn't send it. The problem then becomes with people who advertise maliciously in order to create penalties for an innocent company.
One this is in place, we start working on enforcement treaties with other countries. Ultimately, the rule of thumb becomes: if you're going to connect someone to the Internet, you need to have enough information from them to identify them after the fact if evidence is presented that implicates them in spam-sending.
To put it another way, if you use dialup, you quintupled your cost, or more, because of this tax. A 500-1000% tax on your service costs? Never mind enforcement for the moment, I say. Just make using spam unequivocably illegal first.
I'd have to go with Street Fighter II and its sequels, up to Super Street Fighter II: Turbo. That series just got better, between those two releases, if you ask me, with the sole exception being the SF2: Hyper Fighting, which was Turbo done wrong.
It seems like I made half my friends playing this game. One of my best friends and I met playing that game, and more than 10 years laters, we're still very close. I met a roommate in college (we went on to pay for school running a business selling magic cards).
It's funny how games bring people together. I was an avid player of the Carrion Fields MUD, also, and while it didn't necessarily change ME all that much, it did change several people I came in contact with, because they met me there. Two people I met playing that MUD who later went on to start Avendar with me I later recruited to work with me at Exodus, long before it was devoured by C&W. (One of them subsequently recruited a fourth mudder, too) Since neither was part of the industry to begin with (one was doing post-graduate math, the other a substitute teacher in Alaska), and yet both remain gainfully employed in IT to this day (it's been around 4-6 years now since I got them to sign up).
I agree with your disagreement. I tend to agree with some critics that some of Keanu's Neo dialogue was bad -- although I don't think it comes down to 'woah', but Fishburne and Weaving turned in great performances which were -- like the movie -- every so slightly over the top, and brilliant in their own way. Moss was also a solid performer.
I don't know anyone who didn't like the matrix. My mother, in 50s, rarely goes to the movies for anything, generally dislikes computers, and yet she is looking forward to the sequel!
I'm not going to be even slightly surprised when Reloaded becomes the highest grossing rated-R movie of all time.
The real question is why do people release their code open source. I agree that most of the projects really do start as scratching one's own itch. When you've got someone worthy of release, then you think: wow, I've gotten so much elite software, it would be awesome to give something out myself. That's what motivated me to do it -- and I'd already written everything for a specific purpose, and really had nothing to gain.
What he's missing when he discusses a CLI version is that it works for Linux and unix because it is elegantly simple. I remember a long time ago reading Microsoft's comparison of NT to Unix. And they listed a bullet point that went something like: "Unix stores its configuration is flat text files in random locations in the filesystem. Windows stores all configuration data in one central repository called a 'Registry'". Whereas from my perspective it could have been more aptly described: "Unix stores definitive configuration information is precisely defined and well documented locations, discrete for each application, where NT stores all configuration information in a poorly understand, unauditable, unstable single point of failure called a 'Registry'."
Like many so call 'innovations', Windows continues to be built for different reasons than Linux, at least from my perspective. Windows is built for ease of use, ease of administration, and ease of development -- I'd say performance, but I think in most cases the 'performance' it is built for is benchmarks. Unix (linux especially) is built for performance, reliability, and control. Yes, control. It is the design decisions which yield as much control as possible to the user, administrator, and developer which make the CLI naturally effective. Not that Windows couldn't have an improved CLI, but he seems to think that a CLI is the ease of use, whereas really, the CLI is merely a reflection of the design, and ease of use is something you get when you give the user and admin more power at the expense of a higher learning curve.
I think you've missed the point. Security through obscurity doesn't work because it is possible to find holes -- especially php/mysql website holes -- without access to the source. If your code is auditable, then those holes become very public knowledge -- and you can fix them. If you do not, it's much more likely that the person who took the time to find the hole will not share it, and it will be exploited silently.
So it becomes a question of what you'd prefer. A public change to see the error pointed out and to fix it, or a private use of your error for nefarious purposes.
No one saw it because world spread like wildfire that it sucked. And it sucked. Sci-fi horror has this incredibly bad habit of just putting people in space and then making shit up.
Along those lines, if you like Supernova, try Event Horizon. Plan 9 has nothing on this. Go into space to investigate a ship that passed into and back out of a wormhole, and... Lo and behold, it was really back FROM HELL! What a shame. Even calling is Sci-Fi is a joke. Someone is not Sci-Fi because it is set in space.
You can't eat virtual food, sleep in a virtual bed, live in a virtual house. Your virtual personas may be able to, but you can't. Thus, I tend to view the point at which virtual items enter the real world economy as the sale of entertainment value. You are, through your effort of 'producing' a virtual item, creating an entertainment value, which you can sell in the real world.
It's a bit arbitrary, since by making this distinction, I'm saying, "It's not 'real' because if everyone produced virtual things, we'd all die." That's true for cars and boats, but they're tangible.
That said, you can definitely make a thriving living in the real world. I have one friend making $100k/yr+ selling diablo 2 items, and he has 2 employees now to keep up. However, part of the problem is that the trade in D2 items relies on bugs. The marginal value to an item you can acquire with a certain amount of time is FAR too low. But if you can produce a hundred copies of an otherwise $80-value item in only a few hours of exploiting server software, you've made substantial money, and that's how the virtual sales economy works - at least with respect to D2.
It does lead to a lot of funny thoughts. Virtual world muggings to acquire (and sell) virtual currency to real world people? Virtual world territory wars?
Moreover, as supply catches up with demand in virtual worlds where there is no wealth attrition (no maintenance costs, as it were), new worlds open and provide budding markets for our virtual world entrepreneurs.
One interestin question is: would producing virtual items out of thin air wreck the 'integrity' of 'honestly earned' items? In a world where software developers sometimes claim it is hard to keep a business afloat, will we see things far more aggressive than what EQ has done? Will we see outright sale of virtual things? The game creators will always have the ability to undercut people who have to produce what they sell. By thoroughly monopolizing the market, they might even force competition out any time it rises, then return to a higher pricing model. Or imagine a developer who uses a restrictive license to confiscate virtual items of known sellers/harvesters, bans them from the world, essentially disenfranchising them of their virtual wealth, in order to eliminate the competition.
Certainly an interesting trend, and already a profitable business for a few.
There are a lot of sites gearing up to do exactly this. Sites like Mailrazor are doing spam-blocking with tools like spamassassin and such, as well as adding things like whitelisting/opt-in. (IE, you might be able to allow in things which pass draconian spamasassin/RBL filters, then force suspected spam to opt in). Meanwhile, if the user sends out an email to an address, it whitelists automatically and even if it sends a 'suspicious' email it will be autowhitelisted. With confiruable behavior, of course.
Your friends will change their minds once the government starts prosecuting them. It isn't going to take more than a few people going to jail before 99% of the proud pirates drop the behavior.
I'm happy to pay for artists. I just don't generally enjoy paying $15 for what stuff I mostly listen to once. That's why about the only thing I still buy is Dave Matthews -- because I can typically listen to his whole CD and enjoy almost every song. This means that $15 is only around $1.20 a song, media included. Almost any other artist, that's no good.
I've said since about when this all started that I'd happily pay $40/mo for the service most people are clamoring for -- high bitrate mp3 downloads of any artist, any song, any time. If not, screw it. I can listen to the radio and my older music. I had my eyes opened to the future; there's no going back. And that is why the RIAA can't put the genie back, not because they can't stop pirates. They can stop pirating, but they can't make me go back to buying CDs.
Basically, the way to go is to go with a combination of manual and automatic whitelisting. Here's how:
When you get an email, check black and whitelist. Blacklist: delete (or bounce). Whitelist: deliver.
If email is not in either list, send an automatic response back to sender. Force them to visit website to confirm their humanity using a character recognition system where they look at an image and type in the word/characters/etc pictured.
If they respond, add them to the whitelist and deliver queued mail
Mail not handled by either list or verified queues up for a certain amount of time, during which the mail user can go and flag specific addresses as whitelisted (allowing them to pass through things when they do things like sign up for mailing lists or accounts or other things which generate automatic email)
After a certain number of days queued up, drop/reject queued email.
This means that the vast majority of a typical person's email -- communicating with people they know -- is unaffected at all. Giving their email out to new people is risk-free.
Using the commercial version of this service that I know of -- Spam Arrest -- is $3/mo if you pay for a year. Only about $2.25 if you pay for 2. If I was looking for an ISP that I used for email, I'd expect this to be part of their mail system (albeit perhaps optional).
From my perspective, the reason people shop at my wife's online store (Scrap Stop), is because:
They can do it any time. B&M scrapbooking stores are often only open until 5 or 7. Moms want to shop after the kids are asleep.
The moms in question, her main market, are able to shop with the kids playing in the house, where as taking kids to the scrapbook store is a major affair -- let alone if they're young and the sort who can't help but grab and destroy everything in sight.
Easier to browse/wider selection. We make far more efficient use of space since we don't need a retail display. So we can stock more, and it's easier to find. B&M stores do not have a search box.
None of this will change with sales tax. Many, many types of products still have markups of 50-200% or more to the retail consumer. Try comparison shopping amazon and their free shipping against barnes and noble -- or B&N.com against their retail store, even! Amazon < B&N.com < B&N, is what I've seen on most products, and with free shipping for a measly $25 order, you're still saving money.
Of course, I still visit B&N because I like to take my child to the children's book section and let her paw through them and try to find something she likes.
Never mind some things. Try comparing a diamond from a place like Jewelryzone to a retail store. You'll find that Jewelryzone is getting like an 8% markup over wholesale, maybe 10-12% on some stuff, whereas the store in the mall is getting like 50% or more. You think sales tax will change that? No way.
Okay, that's a pretty extremist view, but think about the situation we had 10 or 15 years ago - copy-protection? inability to create legal backups? paying a tax to cover alleged piracy as reported by an organisation that can't count CD burners? Where will it end?
It isn't that shocking that CD sales are being taxed. In 1992, President Bush Sr. signed into law the Audio Home Recording Act, which included royalty payments by digital audio equipment and media manufacturers. So this has actually been reality for some time.
The RIAA is only the be-all and end-all because people don't get off their asses and go vote. It's very simple. Write your congresspeople, senators, etc, and tell them that the RIAA makes you sick. You don't care WHAT the legislation is, you just want to see the RIAA and MPAA eat it. You tell your congressperson that if they vote for anything you remotely interpret as pro-RIAA or pro-MPAA, that you will vote against them in the next election cycle. If you donate to political causes, note that your donations go with your vote. Then follow through. Register, vote against them, and donate to the other guy if he'll pledge to take a stand.
Next time political causes come up, mention the mickey mouse copyright extension act, or the home recording act, and tell other people how congress gets bought off by the music and movie industry, and how they should express their dissatisfaction with their representatives.
George R.R. Martin is the best Fantasy I have ever read, bar none. It reminds me most of Katherine Kurtz's Deryni books in its ability to portray medieval political intrigue, but has absolutely fascinating characters, a riveting plot, and excellent writing. The books are substantial in size, but do not waste pages and pages repeating cliched hair pulling or descriptions of ageless faces.
According to his website, however, the 4th is entitled A Feast For Crows.
Anyhow, this book should be required reading for anyone who enjoys fantasy novels at all. If you dabbled in the genre but found it juvenile after reading more widely, then this might bring you back. I think by the time the series is complete, GRRM may well supplant Jordan as Fantasy's reigning king.
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BT was my first RPG ever. It is amazing how, 16 years after publication, it still has a 'brand name'. I have to say, even if I saw "Bard's Tale 2004" in stores next year, I'd have a hard time not buying it just based on the original. I still remember picking up my copy for the C64 from a computer expo.
It's easy to say 'frickin elitists', but the fact is that there's an insane amount of really awful code out there, some public, some private, and a disproportionate amount comes from people who try to 'program' simply by trying to learn HOW to do something, and never WHY. Now, if you're doing it as a hobby, do whatever you like and have fun. But it will be a lot harder to UNLEARN bad habits you start off with than it would be to simply learn better in the first place.
If you're writing software even quasi-professionally, then you should understand something deeper than what is required for syntactically correct and functional code, because that's not enough for good code.
If you're learning PHP as a first language, I think it's safe to say you're destined for ineptness. This just has to do with the fact that PHP is too loose in what it permits, and there are so many 'wrong' solutions for every right one. If I had a friend who started programming, I'd start them on 'teach yourself C in 21 days', and then get them to read Knuth. Then, maybe, try some PHP.
If you've programmed before, I don't think there's a better way to start than just going right to the docs and reading from the top all the way down until where the function reference begins. Then read that section again.
I don't know if the book does, but you can take a look at this PDF:
http://ny1.php.net/introtophp5.pdf.
It'll give you an idea about some of the things you can expect, like being about to introduce private methods.
Maybe you were checking for your online php docs at d00dzIhavePHPd0cs.org instead of php.net, because php.net has fantastic documentation. It is incredibly authoritative, and I've solved more little problems by reading user comments attached to the docs than I'd solve reading a dozen books. The comments are far more likely to be relevent, much easier to search than a bunch of books, and the php.net website is always up to date with the latest version -- even if you're using CVS php, you can often find the docs, which are marked with changes by version.
Moreover, for quick reference, you can't beat typing in php.net/[searchterm] for an instant lookup shortcut.
Don't go applying to php what can (and often does) apply to other languages, because you're sending people after second-best solutions that cost money when the best choice is free.
This isn't to say a book doesn't have its place, but for php+mysql, that place is as a guide to design and development, not as a function or language reference.
I don't think I own a single PHP book. What I do for a living right now is code PHP+Mysql (specifically, e-commerce engine customization).
I never had a problem with stuff not working, but I did do a lot of things in ways that could have been done better. For example, not realizing at first that you could declare php functions with optional arguments (ie, function foo($x, $y=1) {}) cost me a lot of headache I didn't need. Puzzling my way through the behavior of php classes took some time, as these aren't particularly well documented (particularly variable scope in classes and methods, and the interaction between session tracking and classes).
In other words, I could have used a good 'tips and tricks' sort of book. Not basic syntax, but the sort of things you'd miss even if you got fairly far using the online docs.
The good and bad thing about PHP+Mysql is that it is a very powerful and flexible platform to develop on. But because it is SO flexible, it lets you make a LOT of mistakes. There's a big difference between a functional app, and a GOOD app.
I've had 2 linksys wireless routers now (although I suppose I could note they ran as bridges on my network). The first failed catastrophically -- it was up, but dead. RMA, and the second one needs to be powercycled ever 12-24 hours on average to keep it running. Not a big deal, since this is usually just about 8 steps away, but it would be irritating if this was an office, or say, a coffee shop. (Where they have a dlink which I was sad to find did not run 802.11a or g, just b)
It only takes one line of mistyped code in what will always be a beta release.
That's right. Better to have never tried at all than to try and fail, I always say.
Instead of trying to figure out how to 'practically' control spam, just put the weight of the law on the right side first.
(1) Spam is unequivocably illegal. Commercial email requires that you be able to tell exactly where your address was acquired and under what terms. A single communication to that party or their designated substitute must eliminate you from all emailings associated with that acquisition point (even if you once agreed to receive email) within X hours (I'd say 72). This prevents 'opt-in' abuse. (Most of those who claim this are full of it anyhow, so you must maintain records of how the person opted in -- form data they filled out, the IP they came from, the date and time, the site they were on, etc, before you can even claim opt-in, aside from the above limitations)
(2) No cause of action can be brought against an ISP for terminating a client's services for UCE sending. The burden is on the client to prove their use is fully legal, and if they send to addresses without a record to justify the sending, they can and should be terminated. But the law supercedes any and all contracts.
(3) RBL lists are recognized in law as lists of people who have chosen to opt out of email based on certain criteria. Because use of an RBL is voluntary, legal action against an RBL for providing RBL services is barred. This includes any claims against an RBL provider on the grounds of slander (insofar as an entry on the list is not considered to be slander or libel) or negligence. In other words, an RBL simply becomes speech, and placing people on a list is presumptively considered to be not libel or defamation or slander unless a claimant can conclusively prove false statements, in which case the only remediation becomes removal from the list in question. Monetary damages for placement on an RBL completely disappear.
The only thing left on my wishlist is a way to make the beneficiaries of spam liable even if they didn't send it. The problem then becomes with people who advertise maliciously in order to create penalties for an innocent company.
One this is in place, we start working on enforcement treaties with other countries. Ultimately, the rule of thumb becomes: if you're going to connect someone to the Internet, you need to have enough information from them to identify them after the fact if evidence is presented that implicates them in spam-sending.
To put it another way, if you use dialup, you quintupled your cost, or more, because of this tax. A 500-1000% tax on your service costs? Never mind enforcement for the moment, I say. Just make using spam unequivocably illegal first.
I'd have to go with Street Fighter II and its sequels, up to Super Street Fighter II: Turbo. That series just got better, between those two releases, if you ask me, with the sole exception being the SF2: Hyper Fighting, which was Turbo done wrong.
It seems like I made half my friends playing this game. One of my best friends and I met playing that game, and more than 10 years laters, we're still very close. I met a roommate in college (we went on to pay for school running a business selling magic cards).
It's funny how games bring people together. I was an avid player of the Carrion Fields MUD, also, and while it didn't necessarily change ME all that much, it did change several people I came in contact with, because they met me there. Two people I met playing that MUD who later went on to start Avendar with me I later recruited to work with me at Exodus, long before it was devoured by C&W. (One of them subsequently recruited a fourth mudder, too) Since neither was part of the industry to begin with (one was doing post-graduate math, the other a substitute teacher in Alaska), and yet both remain gainfully employed in IT to this day (it's been around 4-6 years now since I got them to sign up).
I agree with your disagreement. I tend to agree with some critics that some of Keanu's Neo dialogue was bad -- although I don't think it comes down to 'woah', but Fishburne and Weaving turned in great performances which were -- like the movie -- every so slightly over the top, and brilliant in their own way. Moss was also a solid performer.
I don't know anyone who didn't like the matrix. My mother, in 50s, rarely goes to the movies for anything, generally dislikes computers, and yet she is looking forward to the sequel!
I'm not going to be even slightly surprised when Reloaded becomes the highest grossing rated-R movie of all time.
The real question is why do people release their code open source. I agree that most of the projects really do start as scratching one's own itch. When you've got someone worthy of release, then you think: wow, I've gotten so much elite software, it would be awesome to give something out myself. That's what motivated me to do it -- and I'd already written everything for a specific purpose, and really had nothing to gain.
What he's missing when he discusses a CLI version is that it works for Linux and unix because it is elegantly simple. I remember a long time ago reading Microsoft's comparison of NT to Unix. And they listed a bullet point that went something like: "Unix stores its configuration is flat text files in random locations in the filesystem. Windows stores all configuration data in one central repository called a 'Registry'". Whereas from my perspective it could have been more aptly described: "Unix stores definitive configuration information is precisely defined and well documented locations, discrete for each application, where NT stores all configuration information in a poorly understand, unauditable, unstable single point of failure called a 'Registry'."
Like many so call 'innovations', Windows continues to be built for different reasons than Linux, at least from my perspective. Windows is built for ease of use, ease of administration, and ease of development -- I'd say performance, but I think in most cases the 'performance' it is built for is benchmarks. Unix (linux especially) is built for performance, reliability, and control. Yes, control. It is the design decisions which yield as much control as possible to the user, administrator, and developer which make the CLI naturally effective. Not that Windows couldn't have an improved CLI, but he seems to think that a CLI is the ease of use, whereas really, the CLI is merely a reflection of the design, and ease of use is something you get when you give the user and admin more power at the expense of a higher learning curve.
Where to play?
City of Arabel.
That's where my time goes.
I think you've missed the point. Security through obscurity doesn't work because it is possible to find holes -- especially php/mysql website holes -- without access to the source. If your code is auditable, then those holes become very public knowledge -- and you can fix them. If you do not, it's much more likely that the person who took the time to find the hole will not share it, and it will be exploited silently.
So it becomes a question of what you'd prefer. A public change to see the error pointed out and to fix it, or a private use of your error for nefarious purposes.
No one saw it because world spread like wildfire that it sucked. And it sucked. Sci-fi horror has this incredibly bad habit of just putting people in space and then making shit up.
Along those lines, if you like Supernova, try Event Horizon. Plan 9 has nothing on this. Go into space to investigate a ship that passed into and back out of a wormhole, and... Lo and behold, it was really back FROM HELL! What a shame. Even calling is Sci-Fi is a joke. Someone is not Sci-Fi because it is set in space.
You can't eat virtual food, sleep in a virtual bed, live in a virtual house. Your virtual personas may be able to, but you can't. Thus, I tend to view the point at which virtual items enter the real world economy as the sale of entertainment value. You are, through your effort of 'producing' a virtual item, creating an entertainment value, which you can sell in the real world.
It's a bit arbitrary, since by making this distinction, I'm saying, "It's not 'real' because if everyone produced virtual things, we'd all die." That's true for cars and boats, but they're tangible.
That said, you can definitely make a thriving living in the real world. I have one friend making $100k/yr+ selling diablo 2 items, and he has 2 employees now to keep up. However, part of the problem is that the trade in D2 items relies on bugs. The marginal value to an item you can acquire with a certain amount of time is FAR too low. But if you can produce a hundred copies of an otherwise $80-value item in only a few hours of exploiting server software, you've made substantial money, and that's how the virtual sales economy works - at least with respect to D2.
It does lead to a lot of funny thoughts. Virtual world muggings to acquire (and sell) virtual currency to real world people? Virtual world territory wars?
Moreover, as supply catches up with demand in virtual worlds where there is no wealth attrition (no maintenance costs, as it were), new worlds open and provide budding markets for our virtual world entrepreneurs.
One interestin question is: would producing virtual items out of thin air wreck the 'integrity' of 'honestly earned' items? In a world where software developers sometimes claim it is hard to keep a business afloat, will we see things far more aggressive than what EQ has done? Will we see outright sale of virtual things? The game creators will always have the ability to undercut people who have to produce what they sell. By thoroughly monopolizing the market, they might even force competition out any time it rises, then return to a higher pricing model. Or imagine a developer who uses a restrictive license to confiscate virtual items of known sellers/harvesters, bans them from the world, essentially disenfranchising them of their virtual wealth, in order to eliminate the competition.
Certainly an interesting trend, and already a profitable business for a few.
There are a lot of sites gearing up to do exactly this. Sites like Mailrazor are doing spam-blocking with tools like spamassassin and such, as well as adding things like whitelisting/opt-in. (IE, you might be able to allow in things which pass draconian spamasassin/RBL filters, then force suspected spam to opt in). Meanwhile, if the user sends out an email to an address, it whitelists automatically and even if it sends a 'suspicious' email it will be autowhitelisted. With confiruable behavior, of course.
Sorry, Sci-Fi channel. Don't mess with Alias. You just lose.
Your friends will change their minds once the government starts prosecuting them. It isn't going to take more than a few people going to jail before 99% of the proud pirates drop the behavior.
I'm happy to pay for artists. I just don't generally enjoy paying $15 for what stuff I mostly listen to once. That's why about the only thing I still buy is Dave Matthews -- because I can typically listen to his whole CD and enjoy almost every song. This means that $15 is only around $1.20 a song, media included. Almost any other artist, that's no good.
I've said since about when this all started that I'd happily pay $40/mo for the service most people are clamoring for -- high bitrate mp3 downloads of any artist, any song, any time. If not, screw it. I can listen to the radio and my older music. I had my eyes opened to the future; there's no going back. And that is why the RIAA can't put the genie back, not because they can't stop pirates. They can stop pirating, but they can't make me go back to buying CDs.
This means that the vast majority of a typical person's email -- communicating with people they know -- is unaffected at all. Giving their email out to new people is risk-free.
Using the commercial version of this service that I know of -- Spam Arrest -- is $3/mo if you pay for a year. Only about $2.25 if you pay for 2. If I was looking for an ISP that I used for email, I'd expect this to be part of their mail system (albeit perhaps optional).
None of this will change with sales tax. Many, many types of products still have markups of 50-200% or more to the retail consumer. Try comparison shopping amazon and their free shipping against barnes and noble -- or B&N.com against their retail store, even! Amazon < B&N.com < B&N, is what I've seen on most products, and with free shipping for a measly $25 order, you're still saving money.
Of course, I still visit B&N because I like to take my child to the children's book section and let her paw through them and try to find something she likes.
Never mind some things. Try comparing a diamond from a place like Jewelryzone to a retail store. You'll find that Jewelryzone is getting like an 8% markup over wholesale, maybe 10-12% on some stuff, whereas the store in the mall is getting like 50% or more. You think sales tax will change that? No way.
Okay, that's a pretty extremist view, but think about the situation we had 10 or 15 years ago - copy-protection? inability to create legal backups? paying a tax to cover alleged piracy as reported by an organisation that can't count CD burners? Where will it end?
It isn't that shocking that CD sales are being taxed. In 1992, President Bush Sr. signed into law the Audio Home Recording Act, which included royalty payments by digital audio equipment and media manufacturers. So this has actually been reality for some time.
The RIAA is only the be-all and end-all because people don't get off their asses and go vote. It's very simple. Write your congresspeople, senators, etc, and tell them that the RIAA makes you sick. You don't care WHAT the legislation is, you just want to see the RIAA and MPAA eat it. You tell your congressperson that if they vote for anything you remotely interpret as pro-RIAA or pro-MPAA, that you will vote against them in the next election cycle. If you donate to political causes, note that your donations go with your vote. Then follow through. Register, vote against them, and donate to the other guy if he'll pledge to take a stand.
Next time political causes come up, mention the mickey mouse copyright extension act, or the home recording act, and tell other people how congress gets bought off by the music and movie industry, and how they should express their dissatisfaction with their representatives.
George R.R. Martin is the best Fantasy I have ever read, bar none. It reminds me most of Katherine Kurtz's Deryni books in its ability to portray medieval political intrigue, but has absolutely fascinating characters, a riveting plot, and excellent writing. The books are substantial in size, but do not waste pages and pages repeating cliched hair pulling or descriptions of ageless faces.
According to his website, however, the 4th is entitled A Feast For Crows.
Anyhow, this book should be required reading for anyone who enjoys fantasy novels at all. If you dabbled in the genre but found it juvenile after reading more widely, then this might bring you back. I think by the time the series is complete, GRRM may well supplant Jordan as Fantasy's reigning king.