I know you were kidding, but it's probably also got a grain of truth to it - IPv6 will always be only months away up until the point where we really do need it (no more IPv4!), in which case those months will be the big switch-over period (and of course there'll be a fair amount of bug fixing afterwards).
I think the benefits of the system are that, theoretically, you can take it with you anywhere, you never have to buy a system again but benefit from hardware upgrades, etc. Those are all advtanges over the current model, but ultimately if the experience suffers I still think you're right and it won't work.
Aren't Google and Apple in the same situation? Without knowing the intricacies of Mozilla's funding (and it's possible they might attract less donations if they start licensing commercial products) or the costs involved in licensing, I don't know how realistic this is but it must apply to them all (and if everyone can piggy back on this, why don't FF piggy back on Chrome?).
That's a very good point, and while there are still so many non-HTML 5 enabled browsers (various versions of IE, I'm looking at you) lurking around out there, the big players will have to continue to offer at least this level of dual support.
It wouldn't be too hard to administer, you just transfer the burden to the estate, say after 25 years it automatically expires unless the heirs meet your criteria and they fill out the relevant forms annually. If they're getting an income based on someone else's work, the least they can do is fill out a form to prove their entitlement, plus this will help works which nobody wants to protect enter the public domain sooner.
Maybe that's not a bad thing, if it gets used against some big studios maybe they'll be able to do something about getting it reversed - they certainly have deeper pockets/more immediate vested interest than the average Joe.
It's probably more of an issue to developers than end-users. It's fairly trivial as an end-user to switch browsers if one doesn't work, the main reason standards are important is that they prevent companies pouring money down the drain implementing the same thing on 5 (if you're lucky) different platforms. Wins which can then be passed on to the consumer.
It's easy to support proportional representation when you've got a snowball's chance in hell of getting into power and would be one of the major benefactors of such a system. I'd be interested to see if they did a quick u-turn if they ever become one of the big two parties.
Charlie also indicated that he intended to release Toast free for download under a creative commons download on his blog last year. Unfortunately I couldn't find any further info on this so not sure if it ever happened, but I can highly recommend his books (and his blog).
Of course it depends on your point of view - remember that over the course of the previous few hundred years the Catholics were both the oppressed AND the oppressors at various times all across Europe, and they certainly gave as good as they got. I was part of the same educational system that taught GP and this was what I was taught.
Exactly, the point that is often missed when talking about "rights" in the UK is that, while we don't have a written constitution, we do have several hundred years of legal precedent and enacted laws (and these are subjected to certain checks and balances, albeit these seem to be eroded over time).
The important thing here is whether the person you use the threat towards could reasonably be expected to believe he/she was in danger. This also takes into account the characteristics of the victim (i.e. saying it to a big guy he's less likely to suffer harm than if you said it to a little old lady, or shouting it to someone who just cut up your car versus shouting it through someone's letter box in the dead of night).
I guess there's a non-zero chance they decided to come down harsh on the guy to prevent future occurances - it might only be a couple of hours of some cops time to check out the validity if *this* threat, but if it becomes an internet meme it's going to waste a hell of a lot more in the future (that, or they ignore it and a genuine threat does go unnoticed). In that case it pays to alert people to the consequences.
According to TFBlog, that's what they're doing (returning 403s), but it's still a nuisance as it's filling up the log file with thousands of requests per hour (I don't know if there's a way to prevent this being logged, I'm just relaying what they're saying).
You're forgetting pirates don't spend their loot, they store it in big chests in sea caves.
Seriously though, if I had some points you'd get them - I'm constantly hearing how much piracy costs the UK economy and don't believe that figure (whatever it may actually be) is even close to quantifiable, since it only costs the economy if you then go on to purchase foreign goods/services with that same pot of cash.
Working in web development a pattern I see repeatedly is that designers pirate Photoshop when they're young, play with it out of curiosity and go on to have a career using it which means big, legitimate sales to companies. No kid/student can afford to splash out several hundred pounds on a piece of software out of mere curiosity, this cycle directly drives the steady influx of designers who demand Photoshop in the workplace, if they locked it down and made it impossible to pirate, it might take a few years to reverse the trend and see a competitor take over, but I have no doubt it would happen.
The main issue with this as far as I can tell (as a user and an interested observer) is the massive number of available platforms. It seems when an app or game is written for mobile devices, it tends to officially support only a subset of the most current (and some of the more popular older) handsets, I don't know if this is a calculated move on the part of the developers to force users to buy new versions every 18 - 24 months when they switch phone, or if it's a result of the fast pace of handset evolution. Either way it makes it incredibly difficult to have an "app store for everyone" approach, just supporting all those users with diverse devices and multiple software versions would soon become a nightmare.
What Apple have done is the same thing they did in the computer market, take control over the hardware in order to provide a relatively stable platform for software development - sure they're still adding features and functionality, but storage size aside, there are 3 major iPhone versions (okay and the iPod too but I guess cell phone aside the underlying technology is similar) compared to many thousands of other handsets. In that environment it's much simpler to create an app store where users can easily find the right software version and be reasonably sure that it will run without issue.
I thought the same thing - if that's the case then a 75% rate seems unusually high, are that many iPhones really jailbroken, and if so, why not just open the bloody things up to everyone? I'm not sure if the far-eastern iPhone clones work with these apps though, maybe that's the source of this, but if so then it's still ridiculous to claim that anything like 100% of those pirated apps would have been legitimately purchased if there was no other choice, more likely they'd just not bother with it.
A feature I love on the 360 is the ability to install the game to the HDD - for one thing it negates my biggest gripe with the console, that INCREDIBLY noisy DVD drive that seems to be spinning constantly whenever you're playing, even if the game's doing nothing that should require disk activity (just idling in a menu, etc), then there's also some speed benefit, etc. but even with the limit of DVD they burn through the disk space fast, with blu-ray the problem would be even greater - my original XBOX has 20gb and with all the NXE updates, a few themes, game saves, etc I had just over 11gb of actual usable space, just space for one game, two at a push, 16GB wouldn't cut it and I don't want to be juggling memory cards every time I want to switch games.
I now have 250gb, which should be ample for the time being, but throw in stored music and HD movies and again you're going to hit the space issue pretty soon, and as the console manufacturers want us more and more to use them as rich media devices this becomes more of a problem.
That's slightly different - they actually wanted people to buy the new console in preference to the old one and all console manufacturers do this (the worst thing in the world would have been for everyone to buy original the original XBOX just before the 360 hit and then decide, "I'll stick with this now and see what the PS3 can do", they would have totally wasted their first-to-market advantage). However, if all you are doing is adding functionality to an existing console but not making that console obsolete in the process (such as when the 360s got HDMI, or the Elite with a bigger HDD), then you definitely keep that under wraps for as long as possible because it will hurt current sales and there's a chance those customers won't go on to buy the newer version.
That kinda illustrates the GP's point about stories - by all means give us the same games so long as there's a strong narrative behind them so that there's some interest beyond "press X when Y appears, repeat ad nauseum", but narrative seems to be the thing most lacking in Wii games (or I've not seen the right games, but it certainly seems the ones that are in the charts all the time follow this rule). Run around collecting stars and save a princess, or play some sports, or driving around collecting stars... not particularly engaging. Obviously the narrative isn't the only thing that can engage, and innovative gameplay is just as important, but how many Wii games are truly innovative, and how often does their innovation just get rehashed over and over and over.
I'm all for a stable platform and giving developers the chance to make the most out of it, and truth be told some of the best games on previous platforms have been released at the end of the product's life cycle when its successor is already shipping, but you have to admit that the Wii's success is based largely on appealing to the widest possible audience, which in turn often results in a slightly bland product. Just look at Hollywood movies, or the X-Factor/Pop Idol trash music - it does well financially by being bland enough that a wider audience can watch/listen without being confused/offended, but huge sales do not automatically mean a quality product. For people who are happy with that type of product, I'm sure it's great.
My experience is pretty similar - we got a Wii the Christmas before last (well it was a gift to my other half, even though I was pretty sure she wouldn't play on it but I thought at least I might get some use out of it). We played it for a couple of days over Christmas while all the family was together but already after a few hours I was bored, and in terms of tactile response the controller felt cheap and uncomfortable to use for prolonged periods - we've not touched it since then (I was half tempted to try the new Motion Plus, but until the killer game comes along I think I'll pass).
Meanwhile I play my 360 regularly - I'd say the biggest difference is that the Wii bridges the gap between the non-gamer and the hard core gamer and lets them play together, but coming from the hard-core gamer end of that spectrum, playing the Wii solo just wouldn't be a rewarding experience for me. Playing it with the family slightly increases the fun quotient, but no more than, say, playing a board game together (and a lot more expensive in that case).
Having said that, I'm sure a lot of other people love the Wii (the sales figures seem to suggest that's the case), my biggest concern is that the more hardcore gaming console manufactures are looking at that much bigger pie and wondering how they can get a slice, I'd hate to not at least have the choice of a more "serious" gaming machine (other than going back to the configuration hell of PC gaming which, frankly, I don't have the time or stamina for these days).
And the fact that they removed the wider cartridge slot from the DSi, so anyone who had the old cartridges (or more recently, the Guitar Hero add-on that fits into the slot) suddenly finds that tech redundant.
I think AC's talking about the weaponry the enemy will have to deploy to negate the resilience of the bots. Not entirely sure how readily available that level of weaponry is to third world guerillas though (I know there is a lot of it around, but enough to equip every tropp who might encounter a killbot seems unlikely).
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I know you were kidding, but it's probably also got a grain of truth to it - IPv6 will always be only months away up until the point where we really do need it (no more IPv4!), in which case those months will be the big switch-over period (and of course there'll be a fair amount of bug fixing afterwards).
I think the benefits of the system are that, theoretically, you can take it with you anywhere, you never have to buy a system again but benefit from hardware upgrades, etc. Those are all advtanges over the current model, but ultimately if the experience suffers I still think you're right and it won't work.
Aren't Google and Apple in the same situation? Without knowing the intricacies of Mozilla's funding (and it's possible they might attract less donations if they start licensing commercial products) or the costs involved in licensing, I don't know how realistic this is but it must apply to them all (and if everyone can piggy back on this, why don't FF piggy back on Chrome?).
That's a very good point, and while there are still so many non-HTML 5 enabled browsers (various versions of IE, I'm looking at you) lurking around out there, the big players will have to continue to offer at least this level of dual support.
It wouldn't be too hard to administer, you just transfer the burden to the estate, say after 25 years it automatically expires unless the heirs meet your criteria and they fill out the relevant forms annually. If they're getting an income based on someone else's work, the least they can do is fill out a form to prove their entitlement, plus this will help works which nobody wants to protect enter the public domain sooner.
Maybe that's not a bad thing, if it gets used against some big studios maybe they'll be able to do something about getting it reversed - they certainly have deeper pockets/more immediate vested interest than the average Joe.
It's probably more of an issue to developers than end-users. It's fairly trivial as an end-user to switch browsers if one doesn't work, the main reason standards are important is that they prevent companies pouring money down the drain implementing the same thing on 5 (if you're lucky) different platforms. Wins which can then be passed on to the consumer.
It's easy to support proportional representation when you've got a snowball's chance in hell of getting into power and would be one of the major benefactors of such a system. I'd be interested to see if they did a quick u-turn if they ever become one of the big two parties.
Charlie also indicated that he intended to release Toast free for download under a creative commons download on his blog last year. Unfortunately I couldn't find any further info on this so not sure if it ever happened, but I can highly recommend his books (and his blog).
Of course it depends on your point of view - remember that over the course of the previous few hundred years the Catholics were both the oppressed AND the oppressors at various times all across Europe, and they certainly gave as good as they got. I was part of the same educational system that taught GP and this was what I was taught.
Exactly, the point that is often missed when talking about "rights" in the UK is that, while we don't have a written constitution, we do have several hundred years of legal precedent and enacted laws (and these are subjected to certain checks and balances, albeit these seem to be eroded over time).
The important thing here is whether the person you use the threat towards could reasonably be expected to believe he/she was in danger. This also takes into account the characteristics of the victim (i.e. saying it to a big guy he's less likely to suffer harm than if you said it to a little old lady, or shouting it to someone who just cut up your car versus shouting it through someone's letter box in the dead of night).
I guess there's a non-zero chance they decided to come down harsh on the guy to prevent future occurances - it might only be a couple of hours of some cops time to check out the validity if *this* threat, but if it becomes an internet meme it's going to waste a hell of a lot more in the future (that, or they ignore it and a genuine threat does go unnoticed). In that case it pays to alert people to the consequences.
According to TFBlog, that's what they're doing (returning 403s), but it's still a nuisance as it's filling up the log file with thousands of requests per hour (I don't know if there's a way to prevent this being logged, I'm just relaying what they're saying).
You're forgetting pirates don't spend their loot, they store it in big chests in sea caves.
Seriously though, if I had some points you'd get them - I'm constantly hearing how much piracy costs the UK economy and don't believe that figure (whatever it may actually be) is even close to quantifiable, since it only costs the economy if you then go on to purchase foreign goods/services with that same pot of cash.
I'd say this is almost always the case. The time to worry is when people are not pirating your app.
Working in web development a pattern I see repeatedly is that designers pirate Photoshop when they're young, play with it out of curiosity and go on to have a career using it which means big, legitimate sales to companies. No kid/student can afford to splash out several hundred pounds on a piece of software out of mere curiosity, this cycle directly drives the steady influx of designers who demand Photoshop in the workplace, if they locked it down and made it impossible to pirate, it might take a few years to reverse the trend and see a competitor take over, but I have no doubt it would happen.
The main issue with this as far as I can tell (as a user and an interested observer) is the massive number of available platforms. It seems when an app or game is written for mobile devices, it tends to officially support only a subset of the most current (and some of the more popular older) handsets, I don't know if this is a calculated move on the part of the developers to force users to buy new versions every 18 - 24 months when they switch phone, or if it's a result of the fast pace of handset evolution. Either way it makes it incredibly difficult to have an "app store for everyone" approach, just supporting all those users with diverse devices and multiple software versions would soon become a nightmare.
What Apple have done is the same thing they did in the computer market, take control over the hardware in order to provide a relatively stable platform for software development - sure they're still adding features and functionality, but storage size aside, there are 3 major iPhone versions (okay and the iPod too but I guess cell phone aside the underlying technology is similar) compared to many thousands of other handsets. In that environment it's much simpler to create an app store where users can easily find the right software version and be reasonably sure that it will run without issue.
I thought the same thing - if that's the case then a 75% rate seems unusually high, are that many iPhones really jailbroken, and if so, why not just open the bloody things up to everyone? I'm not sure if the far-eastern iPhone clones work with these apps though, maybe that's the source of this, but if so then it's still ridiculous to claim that anything like 100% of those pirated apps would have been legitimately purchased if there was no other choice, more likely they'd just not bother with it.
A feature I love on the 360 is the ability to install the game to the HDD - for one thing it negates my biggest gripe with the console, that INCREDIBLY noisy DVD drive that seems to be spinning constantly whenever you're playing, even if the game's doing nothing that should require disk activity (just idling in a menu, etc), then there's also some speed benefit, etc. but even with the limit of DVD they burn through the disk space fast, with blu-ray the problem would be even greater - my original XBOX has 20gb and with all the NXE updates, a few themes, game saves, etc I had just over 11gb of actual usable space, just space for one game, two at a push, 16GB wouldn't cut it and I don't want to be juggling memory cards every time I want to switch games.
I now have 250gb, which should be ample for the time being, but throw in stored music and HD movies and again you're going to hit the space issue pretty soon, and as the console manufacturers want us more and more to use them as rich media devices this becomes more of a problem.
That's slightly different - they actually wanted people to buy the new console in preference to the old one and all console manufacturers do this (the worst thing in the world would have been for everyone to buy original the original XBOX just before the 360 hit and then decide, "I'll stick with this now and see what the PS3 can do", they would have totally wasted their first-to-market advantage). However, if all you are doing is adding functionality to an existing console but not making that console obsolete in the process (such as when the 360s got HDMI, or the Elite with a bigger HDD), then you definitely keep that under wraps for as long as possible because it will hurt current sales and there's a chance those customers won't go on to buy the newer version.
That kinda illustrates the GP's point about stories - by all means give us the same games so long as there's a strong narrative behind them so that there's some interest beyond "press X when Y appears, repeat ad nauseum", but narrative seems to be the thing most lacking in Wii games (or I've not seen the right games, but it certainly seems the ones that are in the charts all the time follow this rule). Run around collecting stars and save a princess, or play some sports, or driving around collecting stars... not particularly engaging. Obviously the narrative isn't the only thing that can engage, and innovative gameplay is just as important, but how many Wii games are truly innovative, and how often does their innovation just get rehashed over and over and over.
I'm all for a stable platform and giving developers the chance to make the most out of it, and truth be told some of the best games on previous platforms have been released at the end of the product's life cycle when its successor is already shipping, but you have to admit that the Wii's success is based largely on appealing to the widest possible audience, which in turn often results in a slightly bland product. Just look at Hollywood movies, or the X-Factor/Pop Idol trash music - it does well financially by being bland enough that a wider audience can watch/listen without being confused/offended, but huge sales do not automatically mean a quality product. For people who are happy with that type of product, I'm sure it's great.
My experience is pretty similar - we got a Wii the Christmas before last (well it was a gift to my other half, even though I was pretty sure she wouldn't play on it but I thought at least I might get some use out of it). We played it for a couple of days over Christmas while all the family was together but already after a few hours I was bored, and in terms of tactile response the controller felt cheap and uncomfortable to use for prolonged periods - we've not touched it since then (I was half tempted to try the new Motion Plus, but until the killer game comes along I think I'll pass).
Meanwhile I play my 360 regularly - I'd say the biggest difference is that the Wii bridges the gap between the non-gamer and the hard core gamer and lets them play together, but coming from the hard-core gamer end of that spectrum, playing the Wii solo just wouldn't be a rewarding experience for me. Playing it with the family slightly increases the fun quotient, but no more than, say, playing a board game together (and a lot more expensive in that case).
Having said that, I'm sure a lot of other people love the Wii (the sales figures seem to suggest that's the case), my biggest concern is that the more hardcore gaming console manufactures are looking at that much bigger pie and wondering how they can get a slice, I'd hate to not at least have the choice of a more "serious" gaming machine (other than going back to the configuration hell of PC gaming which, frankly, I don't have the time or stamina for these days).
And the fact that they removed the wider cartridge slot from the DSi, so anyone who had the old cartridges (or more recently, the Guitar Hero add-on that fits into the slot) suddenly finds that tech redundant.
I think AC's talking about the weaponry the enemy will have to deploy to negate the resilience of the bots. Not entirely sure how readily available that level of weaponry is to third world guerillas though (I know there is a lot of it around, but enough to equip every tropp who might encounter a killbot seems unlikely).