FTS,
"The moral of this story seems to be that it is a bad idea to buy a game just before a major holiday."

Um, no the moral of this story is that DRM is beyond USELESS and only punishes the honest customers. I am sure that as usual the "pirates" are playing the game just fine.

Another moral to take away is don't give your money to people that want to treat you like a thief EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE ALREADY GIVEN THEM MONEY.

That's because the average reflects the lowering of standards. Average CS student 15-20 years ago was expected to do Pascal/Ada, C, a full-course on assembly (and not just a few weeks), Lisp/Prolog, create multi-threaded/multi-tasked applications from scratch (and if lucky to be at a good university, create a bootloader or mini-os or an embedded app from scratch as well) by the time of graduation. Some even were lucky to learn how to create primitive calculators with hardware in their computer org classes.

Average CS student now is expected to know how to create a dynamic web site in Java or whatever without ever having to learn how all of this shit works from the moment they press the "power on" button on their computers. Mind you, I do Java for a living, so it's not like I'm a C-enamored freshman bashing Java development for the heck of it.

So to say that the learning curve is too great for the average developer is just a reflection of the averages TODAY (and an indictment of our CS education nowadays.)

I'm a veteran Linux user but have moved to OSX some time ago, since it gives me the UNIX I need, and the GUI I so sorely crave.

BUT recently, I was trying to get someone's computer up and running, and Linux was the only thing that would install due to some bug or other, so I temporarily put an Ubuntu install on their computer. Decided it would be a nice experiment for a non power user, to see how well they could cope.

He hated it. He couldn't get flash going, so it wouldn't work with certain sites. He was having trouble doing basic navigation of the OS, and had no idea which programs really did what beyond the basic.

There were a host of other issues I can't really remember now, but it was a very frustrating experience for him, and he was very happy when he got his Windows 7 back.

I sat him down with my macbook and he seemed to figure out OSX handily.

The Kernel works well. The OS handles many things very well internally, but the overall user experience, while MUCH MUCH improved over how things used to be, just is not as easy to use as a Mac or Windows computer.

The real work needs to be done by UI designers with coders to support them. Even connecting to a wireless network can be a chore. God forbid a driver doesn't work or something along those lines and you need to open a terminal.

While you'd think the 'many eyeballs' thing would take care of something like that, it seems all these eyeballs and the heads behind them just want their OS to work, and for a non power user right now, I wouldn't call it ready.

Until such time as ISP's are able to uniquely identify WHO did it and not just "well this guy owns the house where the service is terminated", prosecutors and plaintiffs should not be able to meet their burden of proof on such offences.

There. FYP.

Obligatory IANAL

Now, hmmm. Consider 2 situations:

Situation A
- Bad guy cracks your WPA / WEP key and uses your network to download copyrighted material.
- You are sued (civil case), and the burden of proof required is preponderence of the evidence / balance of probabilities.
- You live in a densely populated area where there are a large number of computer-unsophisticated users who regularly use somebody else's network because they left it open
- It is introduced into evidence that you secured your network to try to ensure that only you could use your network
- The only question of fact at trial is the identity of the infringer - your defense is that somebody else may have used your network to commit the act in question

Situation B
- Bad guy uses your open wireless network to download copyrighted material.
- You are sued (civil case), and the burden of proof required is preponderence of the evidence / balance of probabilities.
- You live in a densely populated area where there are a large number of computer-unsophisticated users who regularly use your network because you left it open
- The only question of fact at trial is the identity of the infringer - your defense is that somebody else may have used your network to commit the act in question

Do you feel that it is more likely that your defense (somebody else did it) is correct under Situation A or Situation B?
In a civil case, where allegations do not have to be proven beyond reasonable doubt, how do you feel this impacts a balance of probabilities test?

"Securing" your network could put you in a worse situation. DUCY?

Sir, your youth is showing ;-)

"Standalone" (ie single function) Cheque Guarantee Cards were common back in the 1980's.

--
They're from Mars. You do the English.

Our entire front end is ExtJS. This means MUCH EASIER porting a whole web app based (SIGH) on Grails to something less craptastic like Rails, Django, or anything else that is good at emitting JSON. It's not as easy to get started with... because you're starting with high-level widgets like controls, panels, and similar.

Yes. Because the Internet has reduced the friction of communication to the point where it is impossible to make a profit selling snake oil.