I'm glad somebody said this. Usenet may be long past its heyday (at least as a source of information; it still has more nefarious uses) but at its height it was both a valuable resource and an entertaining community.

Google shouldn't have a monopoly on this information; if the LoC considers tweets worth saving, then (non-binary) Usenet should definitely be included in their archives.

I've always preferred jozxyqk myself. Erm, I mean, I prefer to use it in Scrabble. I'd hate to have to use it in real life.

It's a perfectly valid word. It's the sound you get when you get your sexual organs trapped in something. I saw it used on TV so it must be real!

It's not my blog but I think it is a nice counterpoint to the assertion that PC gaming is dying:

Games of 2010

It lists over 150 games exclusives to the PC platform, spanning a variety of genres and game-styles. Admittedly, not all of these are big-budget commercial titles (most are) but most of them look very good. And this doesn't include any of the multi-platform titles, of which there are a great number.

Many games which are multi-platform are designed that way from the beginning; it's not as if the PC's are getting scraps grudingly scraped off the overfull plate of console gaming. Games are designed to be multiplatform from the start because they are so expensive and publishers need to target gamers regardless of what hardware they play on to recoup the costs. Fewer PC exclusives is less an indictment of the PC platform as it is of the skyrocketing costs of game development. But as evidenced by the link above, PC gaming is still going very strong.

Ultimately, you may be correct in that some publishers are more interested in killing the PC gaming market rather than finding a solution to the piracy issue. You may also be correct that publishers may further try to circumvent the market through legislation rather than actually providing a product the customer wants.

Nonetheless, my argument still stands. The grand-parent made the claim that onerous DRM justified piracy. It does not. Piracy in this case may be emotionally satisfying but legally and ethically it in no way helps solve the problem.

The only thing that will convince them to drop DRM is to hurt them enough financially so that the expense of the copy-protection no longer is worth it, but at the same time still offer them a way to make a profit (e.g., support non-DRM protected games). Pirating does the former; it does nothing for the latter.

Look, I am not lecturing against piracy. If that's what a person chooses to do, so be it; that's on their own conscious. They are probably aware of the risks they run and should be aware of the consequences not only to themselves but to the software industry. But I can't stand these false justifications people make in support of their piracy habit. If a person is going to steal, just admit you are stealing and stop trying to make it sound as they are part of some noble cause.

As far as the updating goes... Every game I've got has an option to control how the game is updated. I can tell it to only update manually if I want to. Yes, the default is to update automatically.

Except when you first install (or reinstall) the game, the update is mandatory before you play. You can turn off updates AFTER that is completed, but you have to endure that initial download.

Since there are some mods that only worked with certain versions (and were never updated) this feature has been a continuous annoyance. Furthermore, you can't chose which version you want; if you want to upgrade from version 1.0 to version 1.4, but the latest version is v1.5, you are getting v1.5.

I have no objection automatic updates for those who want it, but they need to make it so you can completely opt out and stick with the original release version if you want, or manually select the patch version you specify.

But who am I kidding? Giving customers control of the product they paid for? That'll never fly.

As funny as it may be, EA got burnt early and hard (see: Spore) and thus slowly, but surely starts to wise up regarding DRM, and it's just a matter of time until other publishers follow. The DRM war is over. We've won.

Then again, maybe not.

Using just EA as an example, all you have to do is look at the next Command & Conquer 4 game; it will require an always-on internet connection to play, even with the single-player game. Although they tout this as a benefit to the customer (it will prevent cheating) it is still DRM.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft is moving in the same direction, although at least they aren't trying to pretend it's anything but an onerous copy-protection mechanism. Valve has been using this tactic for years (their "offline mode" notwithstanding as it still requires initial authentication and then occassional access to the net to reverify) and I expect the other publishers to follow suit.

Furthermore, online DRM offers publishers so many other advantages beyond preventing piracy that it is unlikely that it will ever be dropped. It kills those pesky sales of used copies, may require users to buy additional copies for extra machines (not so much an issue with games yet, but already taking effect in operating systems), can provide a channel to gather valuable demographic information and force advertisements down the throat of customers, and ultimately may reduce the publisher's dependence on the retail channel for delivering the product.

Short of a major community uprising against DRM (which does not include a three-month gripe-fest and then buying it anyway, or pirating the game in some vain hope this will convince the publisher's of the error of their ways), I don't see a victory for the consumer in the future.

Which is a completely bullshit argument to make.

You aren't *fighting* DRM that way; you are completely justifying the need for it. The way to fight DRM is to a) not buy the game and b) let the publisher know why you are boycotting the product.

You don't have a right to play the games just because you do not like the copy-protection.

Simply stealing the product will only encourage publishers to either: a) add more DRM (either in some vain hope it will actually stymie the pirates or in an attempt to do prove to their shareholders that they are trying to do SOMETHING to protect their investment) or, b) convince them to drop the PC platform entirely.

If you want to encouraging publishers to use no or consumer-friendly forms of DRM then only buy products that meet your requirements. Stop trying to justify piracy with the fallacious argument that it will somehow teach the publishers a lesson if you pirate the game.

Another issue with adverts that seems not to be covered here is the idea that advertisers can (and are) using internet advertisments to build profiles on users. For instance, if I were a visitor to Ars Technica, they might know I have an interest in nvidia video cards and open source software based on the articles I read. However, they wouldn't know that my other interests might include doggie porn (does that exist?) or sewing frilly pink dresses as a hobby*, because I go to other websites to fulfilll those needs.

Unfortunately, advertisers can do this very thing. It is quite likely that the same advertiser who sells impressions on Ars Technica may also sell impressions on NaughtyPooch.Com or PrettyInPink.Org. All of a sudden, simply by visiting sites I might enjoy, a single company can build up a detailed picture of me.

Of course, nothing you do on the Internet is truly private; just by browsing the web I am leaving a trail of information behind me. But I've no desire to help companies compile this information into a big profile about me. Thus, I block all advertisements in order to help reduce this likelihood. Maybe this is all wasted effort. Perhaps, as they say, privacy may be dead, but I've no inclination to shovel dirt onto its corpse.

* disclaimer for the humor impaired: no, I'm really not interested in any of these things. Please do not forward me interesting links to raunchy mutts in pink dresses

This reminds of when Salon decided to put all their content behind a paywall; it seemed to make economic sense to them at the time. Unfortunately when the users hit the paywall, many of them decided the content wasn't worth their money and left for greener (and freer pastures). Not only did they stop visiting the website directly, but whenever they saw a Salon link, they did not click it because they knew there was an intervening paywall.

Some time later, Salon decided to revist the issue of paywalls and decided making their content only available to paying customers was not the best way of doing things after all. Down came the paywall. But the people they lost *still* avoided the site because -as far as they knew- the content was still only available for a fee and therefore they continued to avoid Salon entirely.

Although the paywall arguably was necessary for Salon to survive an economic rough spot, it took them years to recover (in terms of numbers of readership) from that decision. I wonder if Ars Technica may suffer the same fate; users with ad-blockers will not be able to see the content, and decide to write off the site entirely. Should Ars Technica revisit their policy, those users will have no way of knowing, since they aren't going to the website and won't hear about the change.

And let's face it: most readers of Ars Technica are more technically-inclined than the rest of the Internet, and are thus more likely to be using ad-blockers. If they follow through with this policy, this could have some severe blowback.

Possibly you are thinking about the FADE, used first in Operation Flashpoint.

http://www.gameburnworld.com/protections_fade.shtml (first link on Google)

Like most DRM, it apparently has been circumvented.

And when the hell did straight edge have anything to do with being vegan? One can be one and not the other, or one can be both. Neither group is violent, if anything they're likely to be LESS violent than the jocks and hiphop kids.

I'm not in the least bit familiar with the Straight Edge movement (I'd not even heard of it until this discussion), but if we are to believe Wikipedia:

"By the early 1990s, militant Straight Edge was a well-known presence in the scene—the term militant meaning someone who is dedicated and outspoken, but also believed to be narrow-minded, judgmental, and potentially violent. The militant Straight Edger was characterized by less tolerance for non-straight-edge people, more outward pride in being Straight Edge, more outspokenness, and the willingness to resort to violence in order to promote clean living."

Apparently the group became less "militant" after the turn of the century, but since the case in question revolved around an event that occurred in 1999, I can imagine school officials being worried about "dangerous" followers of Straight Edge and felt the steps they took were necessary for the safety of their students. It's an indefensible position (don't teachers talk to kids anymore?), but I can imagine that being the train of logic that they followed.

This is likely to be the first game I will "obtain for free" for several years. Like you I liked AC1 and like you I was going to buy AC2 but fuck that noise, my net connection regularly goes down and I am NOT going to be denied an offline gaming experience because of it.

I hear this argument used frequently by pirates. I'm not sure that is how you intended it, but I'm going to use it as a starting point for a counter-argument.

It sounds like you are only going to justify Ubisoft's need for DRM. Just because you disagree with the copy-protection methods does not entitle you to a full copy of the game gratis.

Unless, of course, you intend to buy the game and then download a usable pirated version. That's slightly more acceptable, although that method is also counter-productive as it only encourages Ubisoft into releasing games with more DRM.

It does this in two ways: first, by reassuring them that customers will buy games with onerous copy-protection. Second, by increasing the number of pirate copies in circulation. After all, you don't really think the publishers take work-arounds like the above that into consideration when counting pirated downloads, do you? A pirated copy is a pirated copy to them, no matter if a customer actually paid for the game and is just trying to get a working product. More piracy justifies more more DRM, after all.

The only way to win this game -legally, morally and economically- is simply not to play. If you don't like the product, don't buy it, don't play it, don't do anything with it except avoid it.

DRM never justifies piracy. It definitely isn't going to "teach Ubisoft a lesson" (or if it does, they are going to learn an entirely different lesson than you intended). The only thing DRM justifies is a reason not to use that product.

It amused me that when I clicked on the link to the blog, I was returned a "503: Service Not Available" page.

I guess they are being hammered by Slashdot traffic right now, but I thought it also was a curiously coincidental comment on Apple's own response to their app.

Kindle sales may have played some part, in that Amazon sold a bazillion of them last quarter.

It's a bit of a digression, but...

Supposedly only 1.5 million Kindles have been sold (but there is a lot of guesswork being used in that blog, so take that number with a grain of salt).

I doubt it's enough to make up for the supposed losses claimed by the publishers. Anyway, Amazon isn't using cheap ebooks as a way to sell Kindles; rather, it's the other way around. Or it should be.

Now, back to the main topic...

Thanks for the interesting link. I was particularly intrigued by the chart indicating how much temperature has an effect on charge level. I'd wager that this is a major cause of a lot of these reported Windows 7 battery problems.

After all, Windows 7 is more resource intensive than XP, especially if you are using Aero Glass. Not only does that mean that CPU usage may be up, but also that the platform it is running on will be using more powerful CPUs. Both of these things result in more waste heat which can leak into the battery. XP, on the other hand, won't be heavily taxing the CPU/GPU under "ordinary use" (e.g., non-game) circumstances, and can run on less-powerful (and thus cooler-running) processors.