If they'd get rid of region codes on games, a lot of incentive to modify consoles would go away. I modded my PlayStation so I could play some fun games that never made it here, like Persona 2: Innocent Sin, Macross VFX 2, and Gunnm: Martian Memory.
Nintendo has it right. The GBA and DS are region-free.
I'm a chemist for a company that makes formulations for the papermaking, mining, and oilfield industries, and I do a lot of work analyzing chemical patents. After reading this article, I see two cases: one full of BS and one that msy sctually be legit.
Case 1. HP suing people for violating their "cartridge design" patents. Without hearing anything else, this sounds like HP's suing people who make replacement cartridges that fit their systems (including any chipping), which sounds pretty low. We've seen this once with Lexmark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexmark_Int'l_v._Sta tic_Control_Components), but Lexmark sued on the basis of copyright and DMCA violation, not patent violation. You mechanical, electrical and computer engineers in the audience can talk about this one better than I can.
Cases 2. HP suing people for violating their ink formulations. (All that stuff about using GC, the "egg yolk" test, etc.) Here HP may not be full of BS. Inks aren't as simple as you might think -- they are highly engineered formulations that must disperse into tiny droplets for spraying by the ink jet, they must not bleed, they must not fade in light, etc. This is on my turf, so I'll lecture for a bit.
The inks are made from specific combinations of pigments and dyes, which could have been used for centuries or been made in a lab last week. The dyes and pigments are then mixed with other chemicals that will disperse them in a solution and keep them from settling over time. The pigment, dye, or dispersant can be a new chemical substance and granted a material patent. The specific combination of ingredients, including how they are mixed together, can be granted a process patent.
Unlike software patents, the patents in the paragraph above cover tangible things (pigments, dispersants, dyes, and formulations). They can be circumvented and you can prove if you are infringing or not with some straightforward lab tests. Some simplistic examples: If HP has a patent on an ink that is 25% A, 50% B, and 25% C, I can sell an ink that is 50% A, 30% B, and 20% C and not infringe. If the dye molecule in HP's material patent absorbs at 590-610 nm and the dye molecule I sell absorbs at 550-585 nm, I am not infringing. Smart companies change the competitor's formula just enough to avoid violating patents, while being able to have approximately the same performance.
HP may find people copying their patented chemicals or formulations and prosecute them to he fullest extent of the law. They may find instead competing companies coming out with similar but noninfringing products at a low price that the consumer actually likes. In that case, hopefully the market will clear things up instead of a bunch of suits.
(Of course the cynic in me thinks they'll still sue the people who are not infringing their material or process patents in the hope of intimidating them.)
NWN is the first and only PC game I've bought for a long time. My best experiences with it revolve around using it to continue playing D&D with my old friends from college. Now that we've graduated, moved, gotten jobs, gotten married, and have kids, it's a lot harder to get together.
NWN helped with all this. It also streamlined a lot of the 3rd edition stuff, which was good for most of us who never bother to learn the updated and expanded rules. Thanks to the mod community we can also change the in-game rules, as well as perform dice rolls and customize the Faerun setting to reflect our own little world. And most of it runs on Linux!
I bought a used Nintendo DS about 6 months ago, because I liked Nintendogs and I wanted to be able to play my old LucasArts games on it. Here's what I did to get things working:
Step 1. Ordered a SuperPassKey and SuperCard SD off the web. The SuperPassKey goes in the DS card slot at the top between the DS and a game. The SuperCard goes in the GBA slot in the bottom and holds an SD card up to 1 GB in size. The SD card must be FAT16, I think. You can also get an adapter for a CF card.
Step 2. Went to the SuperCard SD home page (eng.supercard.cn) and downloaded a firmware update and a program called SC that patches ROMs and other homebrew to work with the SuperCard. (Unfortunately, this step isn't mentioned in the packaging.)
Step 3. Got some homebrew working. My favorites are MoonShell (read.txt, play.mp3 and.ogg, watch videos, view images) and PocketNES (NES emulator).
Step 4. I got tired of the SuperPassKey sticking out of the top, so I downloaded FlashMe and flashed the DS. Not only do I not have to use SuperPassKey anymore, but FlashMe also gets rid of that warning screen when you boot up. This program has gotten hard to find on the net, though.
I haven't tried ScummVM DS yet, since it the current version can have some problems with SD cards. Also, I was hoping to get to play some Genesis and SNES games, but those emulators are still works-in-progress.
On the whole, the state of DS Homebrew is great from the standpoint of a user -- the hardware is easy to use, and there's a lot of useful and fun software. The online documentation for various things can be confusing, though, so beware. It helps that the DS can run programs designed for the Game Boy Advance, too. My only disappointment so far has been the Genesis and SNES emulators, but I'm sure they'll eventually work around their challenges.
According to Wikipedia, "Conspiracy is an agreement between two or more natural persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement," and this is illegal in the US. Planning to rob a bank, or planning to sell drugs. While the groups you mentioned were only in the planning stages, they were motivated and trying to learn the skills they needed and obtain the equipment they needed to accomplish their goals.
I think some better examples might be where the police have falsely identified people as terrorists based on their activities. I remember a case around 2000 where some Canadian RPG players were charged with plotting terrorist acts, and really they were just researching to make sure their game session was as realistic as possible. Sure, these were just Rifts munchkins:), but what about an author who wants to write some thriller involving a terrorist plot, or a journalist wanting to expose some more ineptitude in Homeland Security? They could potentially run afoul of the law.
Here's a listing of the degradation temperatures and melting temperatures (for those that do melt) of some high-performance plastics and components of plastic composites:
Nomex: Melts at 285 C, degrades at 371 C Kevlar: Doesn't melt, degrades at 400 C Spectra: Melts at 144 C, and I can't remember or find a degradation temperature Fiberglass: Doesn't melt, degrades at 2000 C Carbon Fiber: Doesn't melt, degrades at 3000 C
I don't know the corresponding temperatures for concrete, asphalt, or the various grades of steel, let alone the grade used in the WTC. Hopefully someone else here does.
As for environmental impact, plastics generally take much less energy to produce than their traditional counterparts. Also, they take much less energy to ship, because they weigh less. I touched on recyclability earlier (as AC).
I do share your concern about needing speciallized engineers to properly utilize these new materials. We don't need more accidents like the recent one at the Big Dig in Boston.
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They may be trying to take into account other people receiving it and spreading it around further. Kind of like a virus. Or an obnoxious chain email.
If they'd get rid of region codes on games, a lot of incentive to modify consoles would go away. I modded my PlayStation so I could play some fun games that never made it here, like Persona 2: Innocent Sin, Macross VFX 2, and Gunnm: Martian Memory.
Nintendo has it right. The GBA and DS are region-free.
I'm a chemist for a company that makes formulations for the papermaking, mining, and oilfield industries, and I do a lot of work analyzing chemical patents. After reading this article, I see two cases: one full of BS and one that msy sctually be legit.
a tic_Control_Components), but Lexmark sued on the basis of copyright and DMCA violation, not patent violation. You mechanical, electrical and computer engineers in the audience can talk about this one better than I can.
Case 1. HP suing people for violating their "cartridge design" patents. Without hearing anything else, this sounds like HP's suing people who make replacement cartridges that fit their systems (including any chipping), which sounds pretty low. We've seen this once with Lexmark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexmark_Int'l_v._St
Cases 2. HP suing people for violating their ink formulations. (All that stuff about using GC, the "egg yolk" test, etc.) Here HP may not be full of BS. Inks aren't as simple as you might think -- they are highly engineered formulations that must disperse into tiny droplets for spraying by the ink jet, they must not bleed, they must not fade in light, etc. This is on my turf, so I'll lecture for a bit.
The inks are made from specific combinations of pigments and dyes, which could have been used for centuries or been made in a lab last week. The dyes and pigments are then mixed with other chemicals that will disperse them in a solution and keep them from settling over time. The pigment, dye, or dispersant can be a new chemical substance and granted a material patent. The specific combination of ingredients, including how they are mixed together, can be granted a process patent.
Unlike software patents, the patents in the paragraph above cover tangible things (pigments, dispersants, dyes, and formulations). They can be circumvented and you can prove if you are infringing or not with some straightforward lab tests. Some simplistic examples: If HP has a patent on an ink that is 25% A, 50% B, and 25% C, I can sell an ink that is 50% A, 30% B, and 20% C and not infringe. If the dye molecule in HP's material patent absorbs at 590-610 nm and the dye molecule I sell absorbs at 550-585 nm, I am not infringing. Smart companies change the competitor's formula just enough to avoid violating patents, while being able to have approximately the same performance.
HP may find people copying their patented chemicals or formulations and prosecute them to he fullest extent of the law. They may find instead competing companies coming out with similar but noninfringing products at a low price that the consumer actually likes. In that case, hopefully the market will clear things up instead of a bunch of suits.
(Of course the cynic in me thinks they'll still sue the people who are not infringing their material or process patents in the hope of intimidating them.)
NWN is the first and only PC game I've bought for a long time. My best experiences with it revolve around using it to continue playing D&D with my old friends from college. Now that we've graduated, moved, gotten jobs, gotten married, and have kids, it's a lot harder to get together.
NWN helped with all this. It also streamlined a lot of the 3rd edition stuff, which was good for most of us who never bother to learn the updated and expanded rules. Thanks to the mod community we can also change the in-game rules, as well as perform dice rolls and customize the Faerun setting to reflect our own little world. And most of it runs on Linux!
I bought a used Nintendo DS about 6 months ago, because I liked Nintendogs and I wanted to be able to play my old LucasArts games on it. Here's what I did to get things working:
.txt, play .mp3 and .ogg, watch videos, view images) and PocketNES (NES emulator).
Step 1. Ordered a SuperPassKey and SuperCard SD off the web. The SuperPassKey goes in the DS card slot at the top between the DS and a game. The SuperCard goes in the GBA slot in the bottom and holds an SD card up to 1 GB in size. The SD card must be FAT16, I think. You can also get an adapter for a CF card.
Step 2. Went to the SuperCard SD home page (eng.supercard.cn) and downloaded a firmware update and a program called SC that patches ROMs and other homebrew to work with the SuperCard. (Unfortunately, this step isn't mentioned in the packaging.)
Step 3. Got some homebrew working. My favorites are MoonShell (read
Step 4. I got tired of the SuperPassKey sticking out of the top, so I downloaded FlashMe and flashed the DS. Not only do I not have to use SuperPassKey anymore, but FlashMe also gets rid of that warning screen when you boot up. This program has gotten hard to find on the net, though.
I haven't tried ScummVM DS yet, since it the current version can have some problems with SD cards. Also, I was hoping to get to play some Genesis and SNES games, but those emulators are still works-in-progress.
On the whole, the state of DS Homebrew is great from the standpoint of a user -- the hardware is easy to use, and there's a lot of useful and fun software. The online documentation for various things can be confusing, though, so beware. It helps that the DS can run programs designed for the Game Boy Advance, too. My only disappointment so far has been the Genesis and SNES emulators, but I'm sure they'll eventually work around their challenges.
According to Wikipedia, "Conspiracy is an agreement between two or more natural persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement," and this is illegal in the US. Planning to rob a bank, or planning to sell drugs. While the groups you mentioned were only in the planning stages, they were motivated and trying to learn the skills they needed and obtain the equipment they needed to accomplish their goals.
:), but what about an author who wants to write some thriller involving a terrorist plot, or a journalist wanting to expose some more ineptitude in Homeland Security? They could potentially run afoul of the law.
I think some better examples might be where the police have falsely identified people as terrorists based on their activities. I remember a case around 2000 where some Canadian RPG players were charged with plotting terrorist acts, and really they were just researching to make sure their game session was as realistic as possible. Sure, these were just Rifts munchkins
"A classic is something everyone wants to have played, but no one actually wants to play."
-- The other Dr. Phil
Nomex: Melts at 285 C, degrades at 371 C
Kevlar: Doesn't melt, degrades at 400 C
Spectra: Melts at 144 C, and I can't remember or find a degradation temperature
Fiberglass: Doesn't melt, degrades at 2000 C Carbon Fiber: Doesn't melt, degrades at 3000 C
I don't know the corresponding temperatures for concrete, asphalt, or the various grades of steel, let alone the grade used in the WTC.
Hopefully someone else here does.
As for environmental impact, plastics generally take much less energy to produce than their traditional counterparts. Also, they take much less energy to ship, because they weigh less. I touched on recyclability earlier (as AC).
I do share your concern about needing speciallized engineers to properly utilize these new materials. We don't need more accidents like the recent one at the Big Dig in Boston.
-- The other Dr. Phil