Contracts already protect carriers without unlocking
Why do they need to lock the phones in the first place? If I buy it unsubsidized I don't need a contract and can request to have it unlocked from the start.
If I buy it subsidized I have to sign a contract saying that I'll stick with them for a couple years, with penalties if I jump carriers early.
Locking the phones is a waste of resources at best and anti competitive at worst.
The only good thing I can say about it is that if I go through the hassle of getting it unlocked after the contract is up, I can resell it for more than the guy that didn't get it unlocked, and probably sell it faster too due to more demand for phones that let you do what you want.
Re: If you don't want a locked phone, don't buy one!
What phones can you get that come unlocked? I know the Nexus phones do, which work on TMobile, and maybe AT&T... but if you live in an area where those networks aren't that great, or if you have to go with one of the other carriers for other reasons (company will only pay for your plan if you are on Verizon, etc) then no pre-unlocked phone for you!
Where I really have a problem with this law is the fact that it is really unnecessary. They say that locking the phone is is important so that you stay with them long enough to earn back the money they use to subsidize the phone, but that's silly because before they will subsidize the phone I have to sign a contract saying that I will stay with them for 2 years, with heavy penalties if I jump carriers early. After the contract is up I can request that the phone be unlocked, and most of the time they will unlock it.
Also, there is more than 1 type of lock.
I got a Droid DNA, which has a locked boot loader, but is carrier unlocked out of the box. Meaning, if I want to travel internationally or put another carriers sim in I can no problem, but if I want to mod it I have to unlock it. And to be honest, I don't know if this law covers locked boot loaders or just locked carriers.
Thankfully, I got it and unlocked the boot loader just before the deadline, so either way I'm legal, but it's still kind of confusing.
I think one reason that those that pirate music buy more music is because they actually care about music.
I do not pirate music. I think the one time I downloaded a CD was when I loaned a CD to a friend in college before I had backed it up to the computer, and somewhere in the exchange it got cracked. I couldn't say it was my friends fault, so I couldn't make him buy me a new one, and I didn't have the money to buy it again, so I found a copy online and kept the cracked CD as proof that I owned it.
I can't actually remember the last time I bought a CD either, but that's because I discovered audiobooks at the library and very very rarely listen to music any more. The rare occasions when I do listen to music either the radio or online streaming work great.
That's probably what's happening in France. For most people the amount of music you can get either over the air or legally online is more than enough to satisfy.
Hardware improvements can have a huge effect on what you can and can't do with a game.
Don't believe me? I would like you to take the games that were released in 1992 and compare them with the games that were released in 2012. Computers are still computers, pushing 1's and 0's around. The only real difference is that hardware has gotten much much more advanced. Faster, more powerful, more parallel.
And where that really matters a lot is math and physics. Take Half-Life 2. The game play relied heavily on simulating real world physics. Using the gravity gun to throw something across the field to hit an enemy for instance. The math involved for that would have taken several computers a long time back in 1992 running at 66MHz.
(http://www.computerhope.com/history/1992.htm - Intel 486DX2 66MHz was the screaming fast top of the line chip)
Since we don't know much about the next series of consoles, it's hard to say what specifically they are designing the games to do. But there are, right now, modern computer games that will not run on the current consoles.
(http://www.gamespot.com/news/skyrim-dawnguard-dlc-may-never-come-to-ps3-6394066)
It's a bit like going to IKEA on a whim and then trying to fit an entertainment center in to the backseat of your sedan because for some reason you decided not to drive your minivan that day. (personal experience)
It becomes a case of "What am I willing to give up in order to get an entertainment center today. I can fit a box that is 60 inches, and that one is 80 inches long. So I need to go back upstairs and find an entertainment center that is 60 inches or less."
The decision makers at EA looked at their grand vision, looked at the next set of hardware, and then looked at the current hardware, and had to make a decision. "Do we start cutting pieces off until it will run, and make it look and play less than it's best, or do we sit on it for a little while, improve it, and wait till we have something that can do what we really want."
They could, however, start building a following for the console by releasing a PC version that makes use of modern technology. That may be to strategic for them to handle though.
tl;dr: designing games on the console RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT is a little bit like trying to get your feet into your baby shoes. Something is going to get removed to make it work. Wanting to wait for the better hardware so you can release something really impressive is not a bad idea.
tl;dr2: Release a PC version to start building the brand!
I was going to ask if the Hugo people, or the authors who were giving the speech if they could sue Vobile or Ustream to have all robots removed from the site, make them drop the ban hammer by hand, not automatically.
I supposed you could still have Vobile do the search, but instead of having ban privileges just give it flag privileges and then have a human review it if it applies.
But it also sounds like the Hugo people didn't read the fine print, so maybe it wouldn't go through.
Maybe the threat was to have all the stuff that is already in the public eye dragged together into one pile in the middle of the courtroom for the world to see how pathetic and shallow her life is.
Something like:
Old Navy: Ok, here's the deal, right now the pathetic wreckage that you made of your life is spread thinly across the world like a light dusting of ash from a crematory smokestack. We are giving you two choices. One, drop this, and we'll pull the commercial down and go our separate ways. Two, continue this and we'll pull every bad decision, every bit of dirty laundry, every closet skeleton, every bit of dirt and grime that we can find out into the open and shine a spotlight on it so bright that the world will ridicule you and the name Kardashian will become slang for shame. You know that guy you fooled around with in second grade? Yeah, he'll be up on the stand too.
I believe the word you're looking for is irony.
As in, isn't it ironic that she she might be mad that EA 'stole' the idea that she 'stole' from Dante, who probably 'stole' parts of it from Catholic literature and mythology...
The best result is the judge ordering the employees of the two companies to battle to the death...
EA will probably win, just because of numbers, and also Battlefield experience... Although Zynga has that that Mafia mojo going for it. Except that they stole that mojo, so it may not work as well.
Re: Re: Seems extremely easy to get arrested any more
What a coincidence, I'm a descendant of the First Farter!
Please send me my cut of the licensing money!
On a side note, I'm also descended from the first sneezer, who also did a lot of other bodily functions first. My lawyer will be sending the full list of things you should pay me for.
They are trying to get people to switch to IPv6, and not getting much cooperation...
"All of the sudden" law enforcement says that they can't track IPv6 addresses? Pull the other one.
It's just a ploy to try to get better IPv6 adoption.
And on a side note, I read that IPv6 has enough range to give every star in the universe an address, even if there were several billion times more stars in the universe. Why not just give every single network capable device it's own burned in IPv6 address that can't be changed no matter what. Then, all the sudden an IP address is a person, or at least a specific machine owned by a person.
Maybe the $25k is to cover the cost of getting the data recovered?
I think everyone here agrees that one copy does not a backup make, and preferably you want to have a copy as far off site as you can, either a physical media copy or a cloud copy.
However, Apple does a lot to market their products to people that don't know computers.
Not saying this guy has an excuse for not having a second backup. Or keeping a copy of everything on the computer at the very least.
I'd rather have a less expensive external HD for local backup combined with a backup service like Carbonite or Jungle Disk or one of the many other online backup options than an over priced external hard drive.
For $299 at least get one with multiple drives for redundancy.
On the post: FCC Might Investigate Whether Or Not Ban On Cell Phone Unlocking Should Have Been Allowed
Contracts already protect carriers without unlocking
If I buy it subsidized I have to sign a contract saying that I'll stick with them for a couple years, with penalties if I jump carriers early.
Locking the phones is a waste of resources at best and anti competitive at worst.
The only good thing I can say about it is that if I go through the hassle of getting it unlocked after the contract is up, I can resell it for more than the guy that didn't get it unlocked, and probably sell it faster too due to more demand for phones that let you do what you want.
On the post: FCC Might Investigate Whether Or Not Ban On Cell Phone Unlocking Should Have Been Allowed
Re: If you don't want a locked phone, don't buy one!
Where I really have a problem with this law is the fact that it is really unnecessary. They say that locking the phone is is important so that you stay with them long enough to earn back the money they use to subsidize the phone, but that's silly because before they will subsidize the phone I have to sign a contract saying that I will stay with them for 2 years, with heavy penalties if I jump carriers early. After the contract is up I can request that the phone be unlocked, and most of the time they will unlock it.
Also, there is more than 1 type of lock.
I got a Droid DNA, which has a locked boot loader, but is carrier unlocked out of the box. Meaning, if I want to travel internationally or put another carriers sim in I can no problem, but if I want to mod it I have to unlock it. And to be honest, I don't know if this law covers locked boot loaders or just locked carriers.
Thankfully, I got it and unlocked the boot loader just before the deadline, so either way I'm legal, but it's still kind of confusing.
On the post: Three Strikes May Decrease File Sharing, But If Sales Keep Dropping, Who Cares?
Re: Re: Re: Re:
I do not pirate music. I think the one time I downloaded a CD was when I loaned a CD to a friend in college before I had backed it up to the computer, and somewhere in the exchange it got cracked. I couldn't say it was my friends fault, so I couldn't make him buy me a new one, and I didn't have the money to buy it again, so I found a copy online and kept the cracked CD as proof that I owned it.
I can't actually remember the last time I bought a CD either, but that's because I discovered audiobooks at the library and very very rarely listen to music any more. The rare occasions when I do listen to music either the radio or online streaming work great.
That's probably what's happening in France. For most people the amount of music you can get either over the air or legally online is more than enough to satisfy.
On the post: What Public Domain? Why A Letter Written In 1755 Is Still Covered By US Copyright Law
Re: Re: Pre-1978 CR was a function of its time
On the post: FBI Continues To Foil Its Own Devised Terrorist Plots
Re: Brains...
Sorry, not a grammar Nazi, but it was painful to parse the first time.
On the post: Dead Authors' Estates Preventing Even The Slightest Revisions To Works
Re: Re: Thomas Babington Macauley already warned us in his 1841 speech
Fixed that for you
On the post: EA: Withholding The Next Great Videogame Franchise For The Next Console Is Good Business
Re: Re:
Don't believe me? I would like you to take the games that were released in 1992 and compare them with the games that were released in 2012. Computers are still computers, pushing 1's and 0's around. The only real difference is that hardware has gotten much much more advanced. Faster, more powerful, more parallel.
And where that really matters a lot is math and physics. Take Half-Life 2. The game play relied heavily on simulating real world physics. Using the gravity gun to throw something across the field to hit an enemy for instance. The math involved for that would have taken several computers a long time back in 1992 running at 66MHz.
(http://www.computerhope.com/history/1992.htm - Intel 486DX2 66MHz was the screaming fast top of the line chip)
Since we don't know much about the next series of consoles, it's hard to say what specifically they are designing the games to do. But there are, right now, modern computer games that will not run on the current consoles.
(http://www.gamespot.com/news/skyrim-dawnguard-dlc-may-never-come-to-ps3-6394066)
It's a bit like going to IKEA on a whim and then trying to fit an entertainment center in to the backseat of your sedan because for some reason you decided not to drive your minivan that day. (personal experience)
It becomes a case of "What am I willing to give up in order to get an entertainment center today. I can fit a box that is 60 inches, and that one is 80 inches long. So I need to go back upstairs and find an entertainment center that is 60 inches or less."
The decision makers at EA looked at their grand vision, looked at the next set of hardware, and then looked at the current hardware, and had to make a decision. "Do we start cutting pieces off until it will run, and make it look and play less than it's best, or do we sit on it for a little while, improve it, and wait till we have something that can do what we really want."
They could, however, start building a following for the console by releasing a PC version that makes use of modern technology. That may be to strategic for them to handle though.
tl;dr: designing games on the console RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT is a little bit like trying to get your feet into your baby shoes. Something is going to get removed to make it work. Wanting to wait for the better hardware so you can release something really impressive is not a bad idea.
tl;dr2: Release a PC version to start building the brand!
On the post: Copyright Enforcement Bots Seek And Destroy Hugo Awards
Kill Vobile The Robot
I supposed you could still have Vobile do the search, but instead of having ban privileges just give it flag privileges and then have a human review it if it applies.
But it also sounds like the Hugo people didn't read the fine print, so maybe it wouldn't go through.
Also, you can sue for things other than money.
On the post: Kim Kardashian & Old Navy Settle Lawsuit Over Look-A-Like
Re:
Something like:
Old Navy: Ok, here's the deal, right now the pathetic wreckage that you made of your life is spread thinly across the world like a light dusting of ash from a crematory smokestack. We are giving you two choices. One, drop this, and we'll pull the commercial down and go our separate ways. Two, continue this and we'll pull every bad decision, every bit of dirty laundry, every closet skeleton, every bit of dirt and grime that we can find out into the open and shine a spotlight on it so bright that the world will ridicule you and the name Kardashian will become slang for shame. You know that guy you fooled around with in second grade? Yeah, he'll be up on the stand too.
On the post: Why People Pirate: The Story Of Avatar
Re: Re: Re: Re: Market for 3D
On the post: Gawker Sued For Copyright Infringement For Showing Image That Inspired EA's Dante's Inferno
Re: Re:
As in, isn't it ironic that she she might be mad that EA 'stole' the idea that she 'stole' from Dante, who probably 'stole' parts of it from Catholic literature and mythology...
On the post: Back And Forth Cloning Battles With Zynga Continue With New EA Chapter
Re:
EA will probably win, just because of numbers, and also Battlefield experience... Although Zynga has that that Mafia mojo going for it. Except that they stole that mojo, so it may not work as well.
On the post: Patent Troll Claims That Showing A Video With A Static Ad Next To It Infringes
Re: Troll the Trolls
1. A system and a method for pumping air by means of moving a diaphragm.
2. A system and a method for chemically bonding oxygen to iron as a means of oxygen transportation within biological systems.
3. A system and a method for chemically releasing oxygen from a bound state to be used as an oxygen source in biological systems.
4. A system and a method for chemically breaking down organic matter into base elements and waste material.
The nice thing about number 4, is that it also covers decomposing, so that they will continue to infringe until they become dust.
On the post: More Anti-Youtube Whining: 'YouTube Complies With Our Takedown Requests Just To Make Us Look Bad'
Bee's average speed is between 12-15 mph
On the post: Author Strips Naked To Protest Book Piracy; Probably Works As Well As Anything Else
it could work...
I promise not to buy or read it either, just make it stop!
On the post: Couple Arrested For Dancing On NYC Subway Platform
Re: Re: Seems extremely easy to get arrested any more
Please send me my cut of the licensing money!
On a side note, I'm also descended from the first sneezer, who also did a lot of other bodily functions first. My lawyer will be sending the full list of things you should pay me for.
On the post: FBI & DEA Warn That IPv6 May Be Too Damn Anonymous
It's a trick?
"All of the sudden" law enforcement says that they can't track IPv6 addresses? Pull the other one.
It's just a ploy to try to get better IPv6 adoption.
And on a side note, I read that IPv6 has enough range to give every star in the universe an address, even if there were several billion times more stars in the universe. Why not just give every single network capable device it's own burned in IPv6 address that can't be changed no matter what. Then, all the sudden an IP address is a person, or at least a specific machine owned by a person.
On the post: Guy Sues Apple For $25k Because His Time Capsule Device Died
Recovery Cost?
I think everyone here agrees that one copy does not a backup make, and preferably you want to have a copy as far off site as you can, either a physical media copy or a cloud copy.
However, Apple does a lot to market their products to people that don't know computers.
Not saying this guy has an excuse for not having a second backup. Or keeping a copy of everything on the computer at the very least.
I'd rather have a less expensive external HD for local backup combined with a backup service like Carbonite or Jungle Disk or one of the many other online backup options than an over priced external hard drive.
For $299 at least get one with multiple drives for redundancy.
On the post: The Oatmeal v. Funnyjunk: How The Court Of Public Opinion Beats The Court Of Baseless Legal Threats
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Funnyjunk isn't entirely wrong
He just didn't leave office.
I don't know how that works.
On the post: Police Arrest Woman For Filming Them, Take Phone Out Of Her Bra, Claim That It Must Be Kept As 'Evidence'
Re: Windows Phones will automatically upload to Skydrive
Video is probably to large for iCloud to handle at this point...
Some day probably.
Next >>