Actually, there was a new demo released quite recently for the ZX-81. Find it at pouet - http://pouet.net/prod.php?which=53834 , or you can just head straight to YouTube to watch a video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X92xvLlbnVg

Except for record contracts are NOT employment contracts. The bands are not employed by the record companies, the contracts are usually for the set number of albums. By standard recording contracts, the artist in this instance is the one who's most likely right.

I think they'll go out of business first.

There's this thing they invented recently, when working with fractions it's real useful... it's called rounding. Really great stuff, makes life a lot easier.

Yeah, but the clauses that say they can change the terms on their whim have repeatedly failed to stand up in court because they are against the law. Those are there for people who don't know better and won't get a lawyer involved if they think they are screwed already.

Funny... when it comes to wanting to take away our civil liberties, I have a hard time telling either party apart.

Maybe the GameStops in your part of the world are different than the ones here, but I am unaware of anywhere that sells used PC games - for exactly the reason you quote above. This entire conversation is NOT about PC games, it's about Console games.

There's a pretty gigantic middle ground, though, between the gigantic corporations that can afford to spend a fortune on their development cycle and the open source software... a group of companies that produce software, but can't afford to pay for perfection out of the gate. It's unfortunate, but it is a direct result of the increasing complexity of software and its interactions with other parts of your system and the network in general.

I also can't get over the fact that the company who has been a patent law villain for so long is now wearing the other shoe.

An equally good question - can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these?

Make mine a crowbar, please.

WABBIT SEASON!

Note to self: When I start selling my software, refuse to sell it in Texas.

You operate under the assumption that the international courts are as likely to react in a sane manner... My gut says that the content industries will just start filing in the international equivalent of the east Texas court where they file them in the U.S.

Yeah, but see, that's what's so great about it! Now we'll be able to fuck everything up at a quantum level too!