There is a group of people who liked the game, or at least the idea behind it.
There is another group of people who think that it was tasteless.
What's interesting about the fact that people from both groups post on Slashdot?
You say there's a double standard. If you noticed any of the same usernames posting both opinions, you'd be right. I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll find examples of that. But, trolling has been happening on Slashdot since the beginning so I still wonder, where's the interesting part?
You and your friends will probably have gigabit-per-second fiber to your premises to make those game downloads snappy, but you seem to be forgetting about the 80% of the US that's still on dial-up. Worldwide, the figures aren't much better, and the future isn't looking a whole lot brighter for the non-rich.
I wouldn't be surprised if solid-state memory became the norm again - like the cartriges of old, only smaller - but for most of the world, meshes, textures, and sounds are getting bigger faster than the pipes are getting fatter. It will be a long time before a console vendor can give up on physical media without abandoning a big chunk of their market.
The story says: "Cisco was recently granted a patent on a system and method for [triple play]." Note that's a system and method, not all systems and methods.
The headline says: "Cisco patents the triple play."
There's a world of difference between those two claims. It's like saying General Motors has patented "the automobile" because they've been granted a patent on a specific manufacturing technique. If Cisco's patent is as broad as TFA implies, it won't be enforceable. If it's not, it won't be relevant.
I mean, if the key idea is that the force at one end exceeds the force at the other end, why bother with this whole tapering idea? Just bend the tube into a U-shape so that both ends are pointing in the direction of the desired thrust, and you're good to go, with twice the efficiency.
(If that sounds dubious, you can see why I'm skeptical of the premise.)
Nobody makes significant profit selling copies of Shakespeare or Beethoven. They are commodities; anyone can make them, so profit margins are close to zero. You can sell tickets to performances at a profit, but when it comes to books or (to a lesser extent) recordings, there's no scarcity, and it is scarcity that makes profit possible.
Without profit, there is no hope of return on investment. Without that, there is no investment. Of course there will always be some hard-core enthusiasts doing this stuff until the end of time, perhaps making enough money to cover their costs (if they are lucky - it's a rare orchestra that isn't dependent on donations). But investment will flow go towards things that are scarce - that's where the business will be. An organization that doesn't make profit is usually called a charity (or sometimes, a bankruptcy).
If you want to profit from data, you have to stop thinking of your target market as customers, and start thinking of them as an audience. Sell tickets to performances, or keep your software on a server and show targeted ads to people who user your server. Those can't be pirated, but they can still be monetized.
Where:
S = number of steaks grown in vats without animals attached
e = number of ethical issues resolved by vat-steaks
B = number of brains grown in vats without animals attached
E = number of ethical issues raised by brain-in-a-jar technology
Phoning home is one thing, but even better would be to phone home and then download any little executable that it finds there. These could do a variety of things:
Upload any non-trivial IP from the laptop to the server, since that's probably the last chance you have to keep it.
Taunt your local police. ("Hi, I'm sending this email from a stolen computer and i just wanted you to know that you're never going to catch me because you're all a bunch of fat lazy slobs. Crime does pay, bitches!")
Taunt the theives' local police. ("Wanna buy a laptop? I got three more just like this one, ready to go, super cheap.")
Install a key logger, get his credentials. Post things all over the internet with the theif's ID (e.g. his next MySpace diary entry will be "so my friends and I stole some computer gear last week...")
Append random obscenities into every email that exits the computer ("P.S. I fucked your mom too.")
Random pseudo-malware "attacks" on police station web servers - nothing that would bring the server down, but enough to take the IT department's attention. It is possible that their heads are so far up there asses that nothing can reach their brains, but I think there's a fair chance that their IT depeartment can still get through to them.
To be continued...
Surely there is more to add to that list. Remember - you have plausible deniability. Your computer was stolen by an egomaniac hacker who loves to taunt police and do unspeakable things to sheep.
However I do recommend against the P2P thing suggested earlier. That might just move your computer from the theif to an evidence locker while the RIAA does their paperwork. That sounds counterproductive.
There are OLGA mirrors in Australia, Germany, Russia, and Sweden, all of which predate the latest OLGA shutdown. Presumably they are run by locals. It's probably going to be a long while before the Russians get shut down.
Fewer ads doesn't make a site better. In fact the reverse could be true, if the ads are sufficiently well targeted. The better the ads are targeted, the more likely they are to be part of the signal rather than part of the noise.
It's the poorly targeted ads that waste pixels and bandwidth. But ad targeting is getting better over time and "fewer ads" doesn't mean "fewer blinking banners about irrelevant crap" like it did a few years ago.
And if you're searching with intent to buy, ads are even more likely to be signal rather than noise, and search sites with better ads may show you what you want in less time.
On microscopic examination, the substance
was seen to consist of tiny circular particles that resembled
spores. The sample was therefore transferred to the
microbiology laboratory of the Tropical Botanic Garden and
Research Institute (TBGRI). The spores were found to grow
well in algal culture medium. The alga was identified as a
specie belonging to the genus Trentepohlia. The region in
Changanacherry from where the red rain was reported was
found to be densely vegetated with plenty of lichen on
trees, rocks and lampposts. Samples of lichen collected
from there also were cultured in the microbiology laboratory
of TBGRI. The study showed that the lichen collected from
the site gave rise to algae similar to the ones cultured from
the spores obtained from the rain water samples. The
spores in the rainwater, therefore, most probably are of
local origin.
Slashdot Mirror
There is another group of people who think that it was tasteless.
What's interesting about the fact that people from both groups post on Slashdot?
You say there's a double standard. If you noticed any of the same usernames posting both opinions, you'd be right. I'm sure if you look hard enough you'll find examples of that. But, trolling has been happening on Slashdot since the beginning so I still wonder, where's the interesting part?
But, they make that stuff out of silicon these days.
I wouldn't be surprised if solid-state memory became the norm again - like the cartriges of old, only smaller - but for most of the world, meshes, textures, and sounds are getting bigger faster than the pipes are getting fatter. It will be a long time before a console vendor can give up on physical media without abandoning a big chunk of their market.
The headline says: "Cisco patents the triple play."
There's a world of difference between those two claims. It's like saying General Motors has patented "the automobile" because they've been granted a patent on a specific manufacturing technique. If Cisco's patent is as broad as TFA implies, it won't be enforceable. If it's not, it won't be relevant.
(If that sounds dubious, you can see why I'm skeptical of the premise.)
That's the best post on this page.
...you don't want to know.
Without profit, there is no hope of return on investment. Without that, there is no investment. Of course there will always be some hard-core enthusiasts doing this stuff until the end of time, perhaps making enough money to cover their costs (if they are lucky - it's a rare orchestra that isn't dependent on donations). But investment will flow go towards things that are scarce - that's where the business will be. An organization that doesn't make profit is usually called a charity (or sometimes, a bankruptcy).
If you want to profit from data, you have to stop thinking of your target market as customers, and start thinking of them as an audience. Sell tickets to performances, or keep your software on a server and show targeted ads to people who user your server. Those can't be pirated, but they can still be monetized.
Where:
S = number of steaks grown in vats without animals attached
e = number of ethical issues resolved by vat-steaks
B = number of brains grown in vats without animals attached
E = number of ethical issues raised by brain-in-a-jar technology
- Upload any non-trivial IP from the laptop to the server, since that's probably the last chance you have to keep it.
- Taunt your local police. ("Hi, I'm sending this email from a stolen computer and i just wanted you to know that you're never going to catch me because you're all a bunch of fat lazy slobs. Crime does pay, bitches!")
- Taunt the theives' local police. ("Wanna buy a laptop? I got three more just like this one, ready to go, super cheap.")
- Install a key logger, get his credentials. Post things all over the internet with the theif's ID (e.g. his next MySpace diary entry will be "so my friends and I stole some computer gear last week...")
- Append random obscenities into every email that exits the computer ("P.S. I fucked your mom too.")
- Random pseudo-malware "attacks" on police station web servers - nothing that would bring the server down, but enough to take the IT department's attention. It is possible that their heads are so far up there asses that nothing can reach their brains, but I think there's a fair chance that their IT depeartment can still get through to them.
- To be continued...
Surely there is more to add to that list. Remember - you have plausible deniability. Your computer was stolen by an egomaniac hacker who loves to taunt police and do unspeakable things to sheep.However I do recommend against the P2P thing suggested earlier. That might just move your computer from the theif to an evidence locker while the RIAA does their paperwork. That sounds counterproductive.
There are OLGA mirrors in Australia, Germany, Russia, and Sweden, all of which predate the latest OLGA shutdown. Presumably they are run by locals. It's probably going to be a long while before the Russians get shut down.
Apparently Microsoft doesn't want anyone to download the diagnostic tool they posted on their web site. (See the next in the lower left corner.)
It's the poorly targeted ads that waste pixels and bandwidth. But ad targeting is getting better over time and "fewer ads" doesn't mean "fewer blinking banners about irrelevant crap" like it did a few years ago.
And if you're searching with intent to buy, ads are even more likely to be signal rather than noise, and search sites with better ads may show you what you want in less time.
Read the whole thing if you're interested.