In my own opinion is that it's just not very good. I don't know how much my company pays for it, but especially in the focus area that I'm interested in, it's not worth it. Having worked in the past for a company that had Gartner products, some Magic, some not... I can say companies are very proud of those Magic things...
As far as I can tell, the researchers at Gartner are over-paid whiny "thinkers", and NOT "doers". I would suspect that a large number of them haven't been on a real deployment of product in 10 years. Save your money. Do some research yourself.
The user of the camera is guilty, and if I own the camera, and you use it, you're guilty too, because I made it available to you to use the infringing tech.
That said, the venues do not (except for maybe in the case of the Lakers) own the system, the band/touring company own the system. But it's doubtful that they own them - merely have leased them.
Framerates and lag times are compensated for with "tick rates", the speed that the server pushes the information to you. You can crank your frame rates and have the fastest connection in the world, but you are only going to get that chunk of data from or to the server at, lets say for the sake of argument, 5 times a second, or whatever the game server operator has determined as best for their server and for their server population. When you're attached to a server, the server has control over things, like max FOV, tickrates, etc. Most games still allow you to "set" them on your side, but they don't have any effect in a server-attached game. Apparently, you've never run a dedicated server. All IW has done is remove the capacity for you to "think" you controlled it when attached to a server.
So, what about you people with 2 monitors? Goody for you. Go buy 2 more and then you can still have a 4:3 ratio (if the original two are 4:3). And yes, *all* versions of MW2 are locked to a 65FOV. Consoles (even those attached to HDTVs!)and PCs alike. Why? Because this game wasn't built for PCs. It was built for consoles, many of which are still running on 4:3 ratio screens. PC work (look at all the things that they put into the PC version - Mouse, chat, interactive menus and the ability to choose a chapter? Ooooh!) was an afterthought. This game is simply about consoles.
Just because one has a widescreen doesn't give one the "right" to run a bigger FOV. My response to widescreen whiners as a game server admin that has control over those things has always been to "scale your monitor if you want". That way it fills to the side edges, but guess what, you lose some of the top and bottom edge views. Not everyone has a widescreen, and so therefore, there should be no reason to allow you an unfair advantage.
That said, there are plenty of other servers out there. You'll find one that may even announce an expanded FOV. Or, hey... YOU COULD TAKE ON THE COST YOURSELF.
Apparently, you've never used Azureus, which does ask you if it can scan your drive for files to share... If you say yes, then it goes off and starts building torrents.
"Sony was rightly criticized when it engaged in the rootkit "game". How is it different in any meaningful degree if a software provider distributes a program prepared in such a manner that it may cause users to unintentionally expose to the world the entirety of their data files?"
A rootkit, installed surreptitiously by a "reputable" company like Sony, so that a person may listen to a CD that they have bought and paid for is a far cry from a P2P program downloaded and installed. Isn't it? I mean, come on, if you can't see the difference, you're a bit daft and shouldn't be making such long-winded arguments.
Just to ensure you do understand:
In the rootkit case, I want to listen to this kickass new CD. I pop it in the CD drive on my PC, plug in my headphones, click "I agree" on some window that pops up, thinking "who really reads these things - they're too damned long!" (and it wasn't even buried in the EULA, if I remember correctly), and rock out. And now, my machine is kitted. Open to Sony (and the world!) to see. There has been nothing plainly stated that I'm opening myself up.
In the case of a P2P application, things are just a smidge different. I go out and willingly download a P2P client, like Azureus, uTorrent, Kazaa, etc. I then install it. After the install, a wizard pops up that says "I can scan your drive for files and folders to share. Would you like me to do that?", to which I can answer yes or no.
Your example would have been correct if Sony had said upon install "Would you like me to rootkit your PC so everything you do and have on it can be accessed from the internet?" But, they didn't. I hope you see the difference. It's about choice. I chose to install the P2P client, and Sony just hijacked my PC.
Most of you need to RTFA. The estate of JRRT is what sold those rights back in the day, which were then transferred, to New Line which was then transferred to Warner.
17USC304 says that length of copyright for Tolkien's work published in '54-55 is 28 years (if copyright not renewed) or 95 years after publication for works published 1923-1963 (Copyrights prior to 1923 have expired.)
The copyrights are still owned by the estate, and they don't disappear after death, they disappear after publication date. Newer works (since '78) do go 95 years after death.
And if, you look further down, you can see that the trustees take a very nominal stipend from it. Not the millions the estate takes in. Ya'll need to do some damn research.
AT&T (and Cingular before) has some of the worst tower to tower handoff I've ever experienced. I continuously drop a call, have a single bar signal, then immediately get a five bar signal. I can only assume that's a tower handoff, but...
You people are killing me!!!! How can you blame the intern? What justification can you have for that? As an intern at one time, let me explain how these things work...
"Hey Joe, take this thing home with you tonight."
"Sure, Mac, what is it?"
"Just some backups. We like to have a couple copies off-site every night. I'm taking one too. I would have given yours to Sam, but he's already left."
"I'm not so comfortable with that - what if something happens?"
"What's gonna happen? Just throw the thing in your car and bring it back in tomorrow. Besides, it's policy that two different people have backups. You wouldn't want to get fired for refusing to follow policy, would ya?"
I love geniuses that pass the buck onto an intern that just wants to do his internship, without hassle, so that he gets a reference.
To the best of my knowledge, this is the first success for the Game Industry and I couldn't help but notice that the chip firm in question was specifically providing tools for breaking copyright. IANAL, but that looks like a crime to me with my limited understanding of intent.
Thank god you aren't a lawyer... We'd all be in trouble then. But those tools that they were providing? Sure, they can be used for ill. From TFA:
The defendants had apparently violated the DMCA by trafficking mod chips and the HDLoader software application that enables users to copy whole video games to a hard drive's console. Once the entire video game file is on the console's hard drive it probably isn't too difficult for a hacker to transfer it to his PC and then illegally distribute it on the web. Mod chips then can be used to allow a console to play illegally obtained/pirated games. Both the mod chips and HDLoader application therefore circumvent the copyright protection technology built into video game consoles and video game software and are in direct violation of the DMCA.
Just because the can be used the way described doesn't mean that they are. I chipped my box and use the HDLoader tool as well... ANd I put a huge HD in as well. All my games load from HD. I bought them all too. Why? The read from HD is much faster (about 8x faster!) than read from disc.
Now, are people using them improperly? Sure. But people are using the Internet improperly too. Maybe I should sue Verizon. Oh, wait, they got protection somehow for people using their tubes illegally.
And while you spout the standard right-wing garbage, the rest of us can just go on knowing that what the president was wrong, because the spying was far more widespread than just people talking to known terrorists. As far as the WMDs? The containers found were over 8 years old. Quit hanging on to a failing administration. One day, you'll look back on your post and laugh, saying "Damn, was I dumb back then."
Soon to be a niche market by Aidan
Satellite Radio will fade away to a niche market for people who live or drive in areas without cellular data services. In a couple of years we'll be using our cellphone accounts to listen to net radio - in our cars, while we're jogging, wherever.
Last time I checked, the EVDO/EDGE networks really only surrounded the top 200 or so population areas. We're talking less than a tenth of the US here. Can you get mobile Internet elsewhere? Sure. DirecPC. But you're going to pay more.
Sat Radio will be owned by terrestrial soon by P Ness
What is finally going to happen is that these radio companies will figure out that instead of having to fight for ad revenue, being a free service to compete with a paid service and all, they are going to go HD radio and start to figure out how to charge for the service.
So then I'll have to pay for a custom HD radio receiver that knows how to bill me for the time or on a monthly basis for the station I listen to? I doubt it. It will operate exactly like HDTV does. I get 3 channels of HD from my local Fox affiliate, none of which I have to pay for, and the FCC won't allow them to charge me. Additionally, how would design a system that wouldallow you to pay for such a thing? I'd subscribe my radio to one stream from one company and another from another company? That's a cumbersome and unworkable business model.
Lastly, to Lisa... It still has definite merit in NYC if you want to listen to top 40. You can listen to top 40 unencumbered by ads. I certainly don't miss ads. Nothing like listening to 38 minutes of music in an hour, the rest of which is filled by ads for local restaurants, megastores, etc. When I want to listen to music, I want to listen to music. And my iPod? Sure it's good quality. And yes, I have a lot of great music on it... But I'm not going to get exposed to new music listening to my iPod.
Are there other services out there that "compete" with satellite radio? Mmmm.... Kinda, but not really.
iTunes/iPod? Well, if you buy every piece of music you are ever going to listen to, then fine.
Launch/Pandora? Great services, but they aren't really available to me in my car... BTW... I love Pandora. I've bought more music recently because of them, than I have in the last two years. My wife wishes I'd never found the service. :)
Internet Radio - Again, can't play it in my car...
Terrestrial radio - Not even close to competition, unless you only listen to talk radio. The music stations on satellite are unencumbered by ads, something that makes the subscription fee more than acceptable to me.
That being said, my house has both systems... I'm a subscriber to Sirius, and the wife subs to XM. I prefer Sirius, as I think that they have a far better selection of music than XM, and the wife tends to agree. But the plain and simple fact that we can listen to a station as we drive from town to town, state to state kicks butt.
Is there competition out there for sat radio? Sure. But once you get it into a mobile environment, and add in the variety of music that you don't have on your iPod... Then that competition melts away to simply terrestrial radio. Add in the no-ads feature on music stations, you're down to no competition.
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Re: (as Kingster)
Yeah, I'm still not quite sure how Craigslist can't get out of the charges based on safe harbor rules...
Gartner's Research (as Kingster)
In my own opinion is that it's just not very good. I don't know how much my company pays for it, but especially in the focus area that I'm interested in, it's not worth it. Having worked in the past for a company that had Gartner products, some Magic, some not... I can say companies are very proud of those Magic things...
As far as I can tell, the researchers at Gartner are over-paid whiny "thinkers", and NOT "doers". I would suspect that a large number of them haven't been on a real deployment of product in 10 years. Save your money. Do some research yourself.
Re: Re: Re: Re: That's the law (as Kingster)
The user of the camera is guilty, and if I own the camera, and you use it, you're guilty too, because I made it available to you to use the infringing tech.
That said, the venues do not (except for maybe in the case of the Lakers) own the system, the band/touring company own the system. But it's doubtful that they own them - merely have leased them.
All that said, it's still stupid.
Re: Re: (as Kingster)
^^ This. +1.
AC, you think anyone would have turned off anything if Sony hadn't complained? Doubtful.
So, I just wish you could add 2 and 2 to get 4.
Re: Re: That's the law (as Kingster)
Check out that stupid rule here:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/documents/appxl_35_U_S_C_271.htm
It's not only the manufacturer and end-user... It's all the middle-men too. Frigging whacked.
Re: (as Kingster)
Poo-ass? Huh. That's a new adjective to add to my Techdirt dictionary.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: [widescreen/FOV] (as Kingster)
Framerates and lag times are compensated for with "tick rates", the speed that the server pushes the information to you. You can crank your frame rates and have the fastest connection in the world, but you are only going to get that chunk of data from or to the server at, lets say for the sake of argument, 5 times a second, or whatever the game server operator has determined as best for their server and for their server population. When you're attached to a server, the server has control over things, like max FOV, tickrates, etc. Most games still allow you to "set" them on your side, but they don't have any effect in a server-attached game. Apparently, you've never run a dedicated server. All IW has done is remove the capacity for you to "think" you controlled it when attached to a server.
So, what about you people with 2 monitors? Goody for you. Go buy 2 more and then you can still have a 4:3 ratio (if the original two are 4:3). And yes, *all* versions of MW2 are locked to a 65FOV. Consoles (even those attached to HDTVs!)and PCs alike. Why? Because this game wasn't built for PCs. It was built for consoles, many of which are still running on 4:3 ratio screens. PC work (look at all the things that they put into the PC version - Mouse, chat, interactive menus and the ability to choose a chapter? Ooooh!) was an afterthought. This game is simply about consoles.
Re: Re: [widescreen/FOV] (as Kingster)
Just because one has a widescreen doesn't give one the "right" to run a bigger FOV. My response to widescreen whiners as a game server admin that has control over those things has always been to "scale your monitor if you want". That way it fills to the side edges, but guess what, you lose some of the top and bottom edge views. Not everyone has a widescreen, and so therefore, there should be no reason to allow you an unfair advantage.
That said, there are plenty of other servers out there. You'll find one that may even announce an expanded FOV. Or, hey... YOU COULD TAKE ON THE COST YOURSELF.
Re: Bittorrent. (as Kingster)
Apparently, you've never used Azureus, which does ask you if it can scan your drive for files to share... If you say yes, then it goes off and starts building torrents.
Re: (as Andy)
"Sony was rightly criticized when it engaged in the rootkit "game". How is it different in any meaningful degree if a software provider distributes a program prepared in such a manner that it may cause users to unintentionally expose to the world the entirety of their data files?"
A rootkit, installed surreptitiously by a "reputable" company like Sony, so that a person may listen to a CD that they have bought and paid for is a far cry from a P2P program downloaded and installed. Isn't it? I mean, come on, if you can't see the difference, you're a bit daft and shouldn't be making such long-winded arguments.
Just to ensure you do understand:
In the rootkit case, I want to listen to this kickass new CD. I pop it in the CD drive on my PC, plug in my headphones, click "I agree" on some window that pops up, thinking "who really reads these things - they're too damned long!" (and it wasn't even buried in the EULA, if I remember correctly), and rock out. And now, my machine is kitted. Open to Sony (and the world!) to see. There has been nothing plainly stated that I'm opening myself up.
In the case of a P2P application, things are just a smidge different. I go out and willingly download a P2P client, like Azureus, uTorrent, Kazaa, etc. I then install it. After the install, a wizard pops up that says "I can scan your drive for files and folders to share. Would you like me to do that?", to which I can answer yes or no.
Your example would have been correct if Sony had said upon install "Would you like me to rootkit your PC so everything you do and have on it can be accessed from the internet?" But, they didn't. I hope you see the difference. It's about choice. I chose to install the P2P client, and Sony just hijacked my PC.
Big difference, don't you think?
It's the estate... (as Kingster)
Most of you need to RTFA. The estate of JRRT is what sold those rights back in the day, which were then transferred, to New Line which was then transferred to Warner.
17USC304 says that length of copyright for Tolkien's work published in '54-55 is 28 years (if copyright not renewed) or 95 years after publication for works published 1923-1963 (Copyrights prior to 1923 have expired.)
The copyrights are still owned by the estate, and they don't disappear after death, they disappear after publication date. Newer works (since '78) do go 95 years after death.
Point is, the estate has every right to nail Warner to a wall. They still own the copyright, they still had a signed contract, entitling them to 7.5%. They'll get it. And then, they'll disburse it to needy organizations: http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/ShowCharity.asp?RegNo=273615
Look starting on page 11:
http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/ScannedAccounts%5CEnds15%5C0000273615_ ac_20070405_e_c.pdf
And if, you look further down, you can see that the trustees take a very nominal stipend from it. Not the millions the estate takes in. Ya'll need to do some damn research.
Worst hand-off in my experience... (as Andy)
AT&T (and Cingular before) has some of the worst tower to tower handoff I've ever experienced. I continuously drop a call, have a single bar signal, then immediately get a five bar signal. I can only assume that's a tower handoff, but...
Whatever it is, it sucks.
How can people blame the intern??? (as AK)
You people are killing me!!!! How can you blame the intern? What justification can you have for that? As an intern at one time, let me explain how these things work...
"Hey Joe, take this thing home with you tonight."
"Sure, Mac, what is it?"
"Just some backups. We like to have a couple copies off-site every night. I'm taking one too. I would have given yours to Sam, but he's already left."
"I'm not so comfortable with that - what if something happens?"
"What's gonna happen? Just throw the thing in your car and bring it back in tomorrow. Besides, it's policy that two different people have backups. You wouldn't want to get fired for refusing to follow policy, would ya?"
I love geniuses that pass the buck onto an intern that just wants to do his internship, without hassle, so that he gets a reference.
Ah hah! (as Andy)
I figured it out... You know... What NTP really stands for... No Tangible Patents... Or maybe it is No True Proof... Whichever it is, they're asses.
Re: Re: Yeah, right! (as Andy)
Speaking of high and mighty... You state:
Thank god you aren't a lawyer... We'd all be in trouble then. But those tools that they were providing? Sure, they can be used for ill. From TFA:
Just because the can be used the way described doesn't mean that they are. I chipped my box and use the HDLoader tool as well... ANd I put a huge HD in as well. All my games load from HD. I bought them all too. Why? The read from HD is much faster (about 8x faster!) than read from disc.
Now, are people using them improperly? Sure. But people are using the Internet improperly too. Maybe I should sue Verizon. Oh, wait, they got protection somehow for people using their tubes illegally.
And while you spout the standard right-wing garbage, the rest of us can just go on knowing that what the president was wrong, because the spying was far more widespread than just people talking to known terrorists. As far as the WMDs? The containers found were over 8 years old. Quit hanging on to a failing administration. One day, you'll look back on your post and laugh, saying "Damn, was I dumb back then."
(as Andy)
So then I'll have to pay for a custom HD radio receiver that knows how to bill me for the time or on a monthly basis for the station I listen to? I doubt it. It will operate exactly like HDTV does. I get 3 channels of HD from my local Fox affiliate, none of which I have to pay for, and the FCC won't allow them to charge me. Additionally, how would design a system that wouldallow you to pay for such a thing? I'd subscribe my radio to one stream from one company and another from another company? That's a cumbersome and unworkable business model.
Lastly, to Lisa... It still has definite merit in NYC if you want to listen to top 40. You can listen to top 40 unencumbered by ads. I certainly don't miss ads. Nothing like listening to 38 minutes of music in an hour, the rest of which is filled by ads for local restaurants, megastores, etc. When I want to listen to music, I want to listen to music. And my iPod? Sure it's good quality. And yes, I have a lot of great music on it... But I'm not going to get exposed to new music listening to my iPod.
I think I have to agree with Mel... (as Andy)
Are there other services out there that "compete" with satellite radio? Mmmm.... Kinda, but not really.
iTunes/iPod? Well, if you buy every piece of music you are ever going to listen to, then fine.
Launch/Pandora? Great services, but they aren't really available to me in my car... BTW... I love Pandora. I've bought more music recently because of them, than I have in the last two years. My wife wishes I'd never found the service. :)
Internet Radio - Again, can't play it in my car...
Terrestrial radio - Not even close to competition, unless you only listen to talk radio. The music stations on satellite are unencumbered by ads, something that makes the subscription fee more than acceptable to me.
That being said, my house has both systems... I'm a subscriber to Sirius, and the wife subs to XM. I prefer Sirius, as I think that they have a far better selection of music than XM, and the wife tends to agree. But the plain and simple fact that we can listen to a station as we drive from town to town, state to state kicks butt.
Is there competition out there for sat radio? Sure. But once you get it into a mobile environment, and add in the variety of music that you don't have on your iPod... Then that competition melts away to simply terrestrial radio. Add in the no-ads feature on music stations, you're down to no competition.