I bought the game, but only paid a dollar. Not because it was what I could afford though. I played the demo and it was pretty good but not something I'd likely play much. So I figured I'd donate a dollar and have a game lying around if I ever get stuck somewhere and need something to do to kill some time. For 20.00 there is no way I'd have bought it, but for only a dollar I'll shelve it for some day in the future and they get a dollar (minus fees) regardless of whether or not I actually ever do play it.
Couldn't whoever is being sued for any Warner Music use this case as a defense for how the hell are they supposed to follow everything right, when Warner themselves is stealing and SELLING it for PROFIT.
Tor was doing this with some of their books, and it actually got me and my family to buy several.
I don't know why they stopped, as it was a really good tool to get people interested in a series or author, such as:
Brandon Sanderson Mistborn, they gave away book 1 and people who follow fantasy also know he will be writing the last book in the wheel of time series, so I had lots of incentive to see how he wrote
Another one was Robin Hobb, I did get the first one for free from Tor and then bought the next two, however I have held off from buying her other two trilogies, because I believe personally she is wrong about a lot of things. She is completely against fan fiction and other appreciation of her work, because she thinks people will confuse it with her work or think she endorses it.
That would maybe be true if it actually worked. Give it a few months and the login will be cracked, and their will be pirate battle.net servers just like WOW servers.
Most people don't use the pirate WOW server because its an MMO so you want a lot of people, however starcraft matches are at most 4v4 so this isn't going to stop anything. It'll piss off real people that buy the game or stop others, like me, from buying/playing the game, but others will get the cracked version when it comes out and connect to their own pirate battle.nets
I may be wrong, but I don't think he means to say that the OS has to be open at all. Thus you are making an argument that Mike isn't objecting too.
I believe he is talking about an open vs a closed ecosystem as a whole. Apple has sole control of the devices and applications on the iPhone, and they control the hardware for their OS.
Microsoft, like linux, doesn't care what hardware you use as long as it meets minimum specs. They just make the common OS that everyone else codes to. Thus you have HP, Toshibia, Dell, custom built, etc machines that are cheaper and compete with each other in hardware.
This is what Google, and Microsoft are doing with the mobile market. Again, they let you run whatever hardware you want that can support the phone OS. Thus you have more opportunity for customers, and no restrictions on applications. If you can write it then it can be run. They don't say well you can run X but not X+Y because Y duplicates functionality or we just don't feel like it.
Granted MS hasn't done a good job yet with the mobile OS, they are getting better though, and google is just getting started, but they are out there and competeing with apple. Once people get tired of Apple saying no to applications because today is a Tuesday or whatever logic they use, they will go to other platforms. Perhaps they will go to MS, google, RIM, or some new comer, but people are getting tired of having their apps randomly rejected.
Actually if you want to compare this directly to a google technology it is much more like YouTube than AdWords.
YouTube has user uploaded content that is legal/illegal which google allows you to search and use.
The main difference is that under UNITED STATES law if infringing content is found Google has to take it down. This does not appear to be the case in Sweden.
perhaps people who play violent games have more aggressive personalities
From what I saw this study used largely self-reporting and doesn't really have a good control group.
Perhaps the explanation is more corollary and not causation. Perhaps the personalities of people who enjoy, say violent video games, lend themselves toward aggressive behavior. Much in the same way people who are alcoholics tend to be more additive with other things like spending and gambling.
Re: The Reailities of helping people in Third Worl
using a laptop and picking up the gameboy are in no way related. One was created to be easily pickedup and enjoyed by everyone. Laptops do not have such a specific purpose. They can be used for research, programming, games, homework, and a lot of other things.
And actually this is in no way different than giving food and other stuff, because for the most part these are to be sold to the same corrupt governments in batches of 100,000 units. Then the few that get given to potential "schools to be worked into the curriculum will mostly never get properly utilized.
How many teachers in this country have computers in their class rooms? I know throughout my high school and siblings middle schools it was almost every single one and almost no teacher actually used them as part of the curriculum. The teachers aren't trained how to properly utilize them or given good things to do with them.
So most sit there and the teacher plays online while the students take tests or they enter grades on them. Nothing really better or different then before they got them.
So how are they going to get utilitzed over there when schools and schoolrooms are hard enough to find and who is going to train those teachers on good ways to integrate the computers into the teaching?
"Dr Igwe Aja-Nwachuku said: 'What is the essence of introducing One Laptop per Child when they don't have seats to sit down and learn; when they don't have uniforms to go to school in, where they don't have facilities?' " http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7094695.stm
However, I think the bbc misses the point, its not politics getting in the way, its the practicality/usefullness of this project. Just having a computer doesn't magically make you smarter or more able to learn. If there is no place to learn and no one to teach them what good is a laptop other than an expensive toy?
A lot of these kids are poor, starving, and have horrible medical care shouldn't these things be more of a priority than a stupid laptop? What good is an education if they die of malnutrition or an easy to cure disease.
It's a good idea, but rather than focus on third world countries where they could end up getting pawned for basic necessites why don't they send money there for those and start off with poor inner-city schools throughout the world where the schools can't really afford computers?
I had prime and was considering keeping it, however I realized I was not going to be ordering things anymore like I had been. So about a month into the program I had not yet used it. I contacted amazon about canceling it and maybe getting it pro-rated or something, they said since I've never used it since going to the full year they would give me a full refund.
On the post: World Of Goo Tries A Donation Model, Publishes Results
On the post: Edwyn Collins Can't Give Away His Music Thanks To MySpace, Warner Music
Defense in next RIAA lawsuit
On the post: Publishers Succeeding With Free eBooks Driving Sales For Other Books
Tor did this for a while
I don't know why they stopped, as it was a really good tool to get people interested in a series or author, such as:
Brandon Sanderson Mistborn, they gave away book 1 and people who follow fantasy also know he will be writing the last book in the wheel of time series, so I had lots of incentive to see how he wrote
Another one was Robin Hobb, I did get the first one for free from Tor and then bought the next two, however I have held off from buying her other two trilogies, because I believe personally she is wrong about a lot of things. She is completely against fan fiction and other appreciation of her work, because she thinks people will confuse it with her work or think she endorses it.
On the post: Blizzard To Korean Video Game Sports Assocation: How Dare You Promote StarCraft Without Paying Us!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: their game; their money
Most people don't use the pirate WOW server because its an MMO so you want a lot of people, however starcraft matches are at most 4v4 so this isn't going to stop anything. It'll piss off real people that buy the game or stop others, like me, from buying/playing the game, but others will get the cracked version when it comes out and connect to their own pirate battle.nets
On the post: From Closed To Open: iPhone App Developer Skepticism Highlights Platform Trajectory
Re: Long run?
I believe he is talking about an open vs a closed ecosystem as a whole. Apple has sole control of the devices and applications on the iPhone, and they control the hardware for their OS.
Microsoft, like linux, doesn't care what hardware you use as long as it meets minimum specs. They just make the common OS that everyone else codes to. Thus you have HP, Toshibia, Dell, custom built, etc machines that are cheaper and compete with each other in hardware.
This is what Google, and Microsoft are doing with the mobile market. Again, they let you run whatever hardware you want that can support the phone OS. Thus you have more opportunity for customers, and no restrictions on applications. If you can write it then it can be run. They don't say well you can run X but not X+Y because Y duplicates functionality or we just don't feel like it.
Granted MS hasn't done a good job yet with the mobile OS, they are getting better though, and google is just getting started, but they are out there and competeing with apple. Once people get tired of Apple saying no to applications because today is a Tuesday or whatever logic they use, they will go to other platforms. Perhaps they will go to MS, google, RIM, or some new comer, but people are getting tired of having their apps randomly rejected.
On the post: Pandora: If We're Getting Taxed So Heavily By SoundExchange, Radio Should Be Too
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Pandora: If We're Getting Taxed So Heavily By SoundExchange, Radio Should Be Too
Re:
Pandora was a great service, I'm sorry it's gone down this way.
On the post: Prosecutors Change Pirate Bay Charges Again; Weak Evidence Exposed
Re: I'm actually writing a paper on this...
YouTube has user uploaded content that is legal/illegal which google allows you to search and use.
The main difference is that under UNITED STATES law if infringing content is found Google has to take it down. This does not appear to be the case in Sweden.
On the post: Latest Study On Violent Video Games Shows More Aggressive Behavior
perhaps people who play violent games have more aggressive personalities
Perhaps the explanation is more corollary and not causation. Perhaps the personalities of people who enjoy, say violent video games, lend themselves toward aggressive behavior. Much in the same way people who are alcoholics tend to be more additive with other things like spending and gambling.
On the post: 'Give One Get One' Is a Hit, So OLPC Wants To Kill It
Re: The Reailities of helping people in Third Worl
And actually this is in no way different than giving food and other stuff, because for the most part these are to be sold to the same corrupt governments in batches of 100,000 units. Then the few that get given to potential "schools to be worked into the curriculum will mostly never get properly utilized.
How many teachers in this country have computers in their class rooms? I know throughout my high school and siblings middle schools it was almost every single one and almost no teacher actually used them as part of the curriculum. The teachers aren't trained how to properly utilize them or given good things to do with them.
So most sit there and the teacher plays online while the students take tests or they enter grades on them. Nothing really better or different then before they got them.
So how are they going to get utilitzed over there when schools and schoolrooms are hard enough to find and who is going to train those teachers on good ways to integrate the computers into the teaching?
On the post: 'Give One Get One' Is a Hit, So OLPC Wants To Kill It
Re: How about some food
"Dr Igwe Aja-Nwachuku said: 'What is the essence of introducing One Laptop per Child when they don't have seats to sit down and learn; when they don't have uniforms to go to school in, where they don't have facilities?' "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7094695.stm
However, I think the bbc misses the point, its not politics getting in the way, its the practicality/usefullness of this project. Just having a computer doesn't magically make you smarter or more able to learn. If there is no place to learn and no one to teach them what good is a laptop other than an expensive toy?
On the post: 'Give One Get One' Is a Hit, So OLPC Wants To Kill It
How about some food
It's a good idea, but rather than focus on third world countries where they could end up getting pawned for basic necessites why don't they send money there for those and start off with poor inner-city schools throughout the world where the schools can't really afford computers?
On the post: An Open Letter To Jeff Bezos: Please Stop Pissing Off People Over Amazon Prime
Canceling Prime is easy
It sure was really easy for me.
Next >>