Posts by Andre Alessi
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
So to calculate the worth of their idea (as opposed to the implementation) you'd take the median revenue of any commercial attempt to implement virtual worlds?
That'd be a nice round figure.
That's what makes me think the whole thing is being driven by greed even if the basis of the lawsuit is legitimate. Given that Worlds.com's client list gives the impression of a once-up-an-coming company now struggling to find work, I can't say I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
-
One of my team members is still having difficulty hearing normal conversations after the AC/DC concert. I did have a bit of fun at his expense though (as is to be expected, since I took my girlfriend to the much lovelier Cologne New Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra concert at the Holy Trinity church in Devonport last night and had to act suitably snobby as a result-there's a show on at St Matthew's in the City tonight, which I thoroughly recommend!)
Me: How was it?
Co-worker: Great! There was this one bit, where they played this song...it has a rockin' guitar solo in it, what's that song?
Me: Um...all of them?
Co-worker: Anyway, it was a really good song.The Men-At-Work thing sounds even more tenuous than Worlds.Com suing MMO companies because they patented "virtual 3D worlds" first (Worlds.com is also apparently going after World of Warcraft and Second Life too.)* It's a shame that companies like this are being supported by the courts, as it means that genuine products being used by consumers already are suddenly threatened with unbearable financial demands from third parties.
* - To be fair, there is some debate as to whether or not Worlds.com is an actual patent troll or whether there is some merit to their claims. I saw a reply to an article on MMORPG.com from a lawyer who specialised in games where he linked to a blog post of his that laid out pretty convincing arguments why the lawsuit was legit, but I can't seem to find it now.
EDIT: Found it. Contains a link to the original MMORPG.com article. Not exactly a slamdunk, but a good bit of perspective on the typical MMO-player's dismissal of any lawsuit.
-
What's been running through my mind most since I heard the news was the fact that he was a 40 year old father of five. It just seems too young, no matter who you are, and to leave five kids without a dad. I'm not often moved by the tragedies of people I never knew at a personal level, but this time, yeah, it hits hard.
It's funny talking to my American friends too, to realise that many of them remember "How Bizarre" as part of the soundtrack to their college years. That a song that felt so completely Kiwi could be adopted by other people in a completely different cultural context without losing its essential element (fun) is pretty ka pai in my books.
-
Great post, Philip.
I'm trying to compose my thought about this issue but every time I put something down, it just turns into a long rambling paean to family carers without much in the way of insightful analysis. Ever since I read of the government's decision to appeal I've been turning this one over in my head.
I worked as a teacher aide at a school for kids with cerebral palsy for six months, and subsequent to that experience I can't think of a group more deserving of government support (especially of the monetary kind) than the parents and families of people with severe disabilities.
The argument that family carers are just "doing what's expected", so don't need to be paid as non-family carers are is so breathtakingly ignorant and morally wrong, I simply don't understand how it was ever justified. Noone who's ever seen what these people do would think that this is equivalent to "normal" parenting (which isn't exactly easy either).
More than anything though, the MoH should be viewing family carers as an integral part of the health strategy for disabled people. Supported and resourced, these people can have a profoundly positive effect on the quality of life of disabled individuals-surely that's not something we should be being stingy about?
-
Experiences differ on that. My mate was showing off his amazing new iPhone to me so I got him to plug it in in my car, and he couldn't find any of the music he wanted to play, and we got stuck with random play in the end. He reckoned it took him about 6 hours to work out how to use the player. If you've already bought into the metaphor years ago, maybe it's easier. The same most likely goes for your negative experiences with Blackberry.
Certainly people will buy something that is slickly marketed, simple in design and light on power for $, like the iPod was and still is. I'm as bemused by that phenomenon as I always have been.
My flatmate, a teacher in her fifties, bought an iPhone a few months ago (to go with her Powerbook naturally.) She can just barely make phonecalls on it, and I've learned to hide in my room when she tries to download a new app or apply an update. I don't believe she's ever successfully used the camera.
-
Me too. I also don't feel the need to be able to carry my entire library around - it's a very different situation to when it became possible to mobilise your music collection, for example, but it seems that that solution is being applied as being automatically desirable for books also.
I enjoy hardcopy books, and I certainly don't plan on giving up my weekend visits to the secondhand bookstores down the road, but at the same time, I don't want to be limited just to the stores within easy travelling distance of my house. I read a lot of obscure (read: crappy) fantasy and scifi, and sometimes there's just no way to source a copy of part 4 of a 17 part series without ordering from out of town.
I also read an awful lot, awful fast. I read a couple of novels a week on the bus too and from work, and get twitchy if I don't have something to read while I'm travelling. Being able to get my fix without having to take my lunchtime off to go and pick something up, or without having to carry half a dozen 1,000 page epics in my backpack is quite appealing to me. I don't think it's just that e-readers are a solution looking for a problem-there are benefits to these services that will have a tangible impact on my enjoyment of literature (or pulpy trash, YMMV.)
But then I'm the sort of person who still sneers at people who have to keep their cellphones on everywhere "in case Child X has an accident" so I'm probably not the most even-handed judge of these things.
-
This is the part I'm interested in. Why read books on this and not actual books? The newspaper part I understand. iPods, ditto. I'm not trolling or trying to start an argument, just curious. Sorry if it seems unenlightened.
A couple of reasons. First-you can carry around a virtual library in one device. Second-you don't have to physically visit a store to buy the books you want. You might be at a cafe somewhere and decide you want to start reading a new book you just saw reviewed in your morning newspaper before you finish your flat white.
Those might seem like fairly trivial reasons to spend a chunk of money on a new piece of hardware, but remember back when mobile phones were unnecessary because everyone could use landlines and payphones?
Also, I'm told by some folks that the ability to magnify text on screen is a boon to their failing eyesight.
Can you loan a book you download? Can you resell it?
No, and no. And of course there really are serious questions about who exactly owns the book in your device which haven't been properly settled. (The way Amazon dealt with the improper licensing of 1984 and other books is a spooky hint of where this whole thing could go.) But this isn't a one-way conversation, and as we've seen often enough over the last fifteen years, content publishers understand now that they either make some allowances for their customers' concerns or they lose them altogether.
-
What IS it with this site. The second post in a row that managed to include menstrual cycle accessories.
It's a liberal failing, allowing the womenfolk to talk about their disgusting biological deviance. On real men's blogs (i.e. anything to the right of Michael Lhaws) only penises may be displayed with pride, in true heterosexual fashion.
-
I'm enjoying watching people on the internet declare how outraged and disappointed they are.
Interestingly, Mac fanboys of my acquaintance seem most disappointed, while PC folks like myself seem generally happy.
A guy I work with who is practically married to his iPhone proceeded to read out an "8 reasons why the iPad sucks" article to us, while I listed all the things I liked about it-number one being the big screen (I have never felt comfortable with smaller screens, but this seems perfect for me for anything less than full-blown gaming.)
-
What I'm really waiting to see is whether devices like this manage to realise the promise of cloud computing, at least in a limited sense. I'd love to have multiple devices that easily and quickly sync up without too much input from me-if I add a contact into my cellphone, it should appear in my desktop's mail address book at the same time, or if I take a picture on my phone, it should be available on my laptop immediately.
Most of these things can be accomplished by using third party applications manually, or by using web-based apps or multiple devices from the same manufacturer, but what'd be great if that level of hassle was taken out of the equation, and I was able to disassociate the hardware I was using from the location the data was stored.