Game market is producing some of the most astonishing virtual worlds. Since even worlds created by open source communities began catching up with large industries and because competition is tough and profit margins big, companies are trying to find new way to gain customers.
The latest method seems to be to give them more advanced interfaces. These interfaces provide better interaction with virtual worlds. At the moment most computers use keyboards and mouse for interaction with various programmes. Some use joysticks as well. Consoles use controllers to control action on the TV.
But since everyone has those already companies are inventing new things. Nintendo Wii uses sensors to track your motions across the room. Microsoft is betting on touch tables. Gesture devices are being developed. Hmm, can’t wait for mind interface.
All these interfaces bring more of the virtual worlds in our real world. They increase immersion – which became one of main selling points for various virtual environments. But as they connect us more to the virtual world they also distance us more from the real world. And it seems that the border between reality and virtual worlds is becoming more and more blurry.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Big brother really wants to have a look at your files
Are you sharing large free open source files over internet? Prepare to get banned.
Under new proposal, currently considered in EU parliament, users would be banned if they shared "illegal content". And just what is that? Well all the movies, music, games you might share with your friends. And how will they know what you are doing? They plan to tap into your download to see what you are downloading. But wait, you will say, I share encrypted files. Well then they will just check the file size and kick you off the net. So if you child is doing something illegal, you will get banned. If someone in the office did it - the whole company might get kicked off the net.
There are of course a couple of conflict areas this law is getting into. Like for example privacy. Imagine that a friend you are talking to over a phone has nice background music in his room. That would be copyright violation, because you did not pay the price for that copy and neither did he for distributing it. So you are chatting about this and that, while all this time there is someone listening to you. And if they hear the music (along with other things you talk about) they just might take your phone line away. Does that look like a repressive regime to you? Well in my opinion it is. And all that because these people can not adapt to new online market. They fail to understand that people would like to hear only one song, or to see a certain movie only once. Instead they keep selling things for multiple uses and consequentially they are more expensive.
Ironically the supporters of such drastic action seem to come from the very same people that used to despise regimes like the Soviet regime or Nazi regimes. This basically did the same with then available technology. The difference is that those regimes gained power through these means, while these corporations are counting to get some money along with it as well.
The brilliant minds still do not know how they will force you to decrypt the data - a popper encryption takes a very long time to be decoded. Perhaps they plan to use water boarding techniques - they seem to do well occasionally.
Under new proposal, currently considered in EU parliament, users would be banned if they shared "illegal content". And just what is that? Well all the movies, music, games you might share with your friends. And how will they know what you are doing? They plan to tap into your download to see what you are downloading. But wait, you will say, I share encrypted files. Well then they will just check the file size and kick you off the net. So if you child is doing something illegal, you will get banned. If someone in the office did it - the whole company might get kicked off the net.
There are of course a couple of conflict areas this law is getting into. Like for example privacy. Imagine that a friend you are talking to over a phone has nice background music in his room. That would be copyright violation, because you did not pay the price for that copy and neither did he for distributing it. So you are chatting about this and that, while all this time there is someone listening to you. And if they hear the music (along with other things you talk about) they just might take your phone line away. Does that look like a repressive regime to you? Well in my opinion it is. And all that because these people can not adapt to new online market. They fail to understand that people would like to hear only one song, or to see a certain movie only once. Instead they keep selling things for multiple uses and consequentially they are more expensive.
Ironically the supporters of such drastic action seem to come from the very same people that used to despise regimes like the Soviet regime or Nazi regimes. This basically did the same with then available technology. The difference is that those regimes gained power through these means, while these corporations are counting to get some money along with it as well.
The brilliant minds still do not know how they will force you to decrypt the data - a popper encryption takes a very long time to be decoded. Perhaps they plan to use water boarding techniques - they seem to do well occasionally.
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