jqubed
@jqubed@lemmy.world
- Comment on Streets of SimCity 27 Years Later: An LGR Retrospective 23 hours ago:
I always wanted to get that and drive my cities but never did
- Comment on Ivan Outs Himself 3 days ago:
But the flag on the comment says he’s American! Surely that can’t be faked!
- Comment on Did the premise of an entity approaching you only when it's not being viewed originate with Doctor Who's Weeping Angels? 1 week ago:
That one did work in Mlem
- Comment on Did the premise of an entity approaching you only when it's not being viewed originate with Doctor Who's Weeping Angels? 1 week ago:
Neither link is working for me in Mlem
- Comment on Favourite controllers 1 week ago:
I don’t see it mentioned often, but basically my favorite has been the GameCube controller. Massive primary button with the secondary button the same shape but smaller and next to it, with the alternate (X/Y) buttons a different shape that flow around the primary, all in easy reach but all different to the touch. Especially when I’m playing the Xbox or Switch for a while and then switch to playing the other I’m messed up on the controllers for a little while since Nintendo and Microsoft swap the A and B buttons but both keep A as the primary button (I think a legacy of the original NES/Famicom putting the A button closer to the right hand and the B button farther in, to the left of the A).
I’d prefer the right thumb stick to be the same shape as the left, and it needs a left shoulder button, but beyond that I’d pretty much keep the layout as-is, maybe a slightly different size/shape to better fit in hands. I’ve seen a few third-party controllers like that for the Switch but haven’t looked into them enough to buy one.
- Comment on According to the 2024 Q1 report, physical media sales continue to decline in US, but it's the third consecutive quarter of growth for the 4K UHD Blu-ray format. 1 week ago:
You mean DVD is getting less popular?
- Comment on Anon shows off Linux in class 2 weeks ago:
This is literally the greentext community; where else is the content supposed to come from?
- Comment on Atari Revives Infogames As A Publishing Label 2 weeks ago:
Maybe Chris Sawyer will release a new game again
- Comment on Anon wants to buy a game 2 weeks ago:
It’s a bunch of purported prank calls of people calling the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas (of the TV show Pawn Stars fame) late at night and asking for the game Battletoads.
- Comment on Anon wants to buy a game 2 weeks ago:
Do you like prank calls?
- Comment on Anon wants to buy a game 2 weeks ago:
Ain’t no way the owner’s working overnight shifts now that he’s on TV, it’s definitely some low level employee they’re harassing
- Comment on Guardian of Rocky Shores 2 weeks ago:
Reminds me a lot of the Heceta Head Light in Oregon, except that it’s disconnected from the shore.
- Comment on I just want to play my game... 3 weeks ago:
There are two different ownerships that are being conflated here. When you buy a book, let’s say it’s a new book, just released, and rapidly becoming a best seller. You own your copy of the book, you can read it, you can make notes in it, you can lend it to a friend but while your friend has the book you can’t read that book yourself, or you can sell the book again but once you sell it you won’t be able to read it anymore until you purchase another copy or go to the library. What you’re not allowed to do just because you have the book is make copies of it to sell or give away (which is somewhat challenging to do anyway with a physical book that has hundreds of pages), you’re not allowed to make and sell an audiobook recording of the book, you’re not allowed to go and make a movie based on the book. You’re not allowed to take the characters and write a sequel to the book and sell it. The author still owns the rights to the contents of the book.
In the early days of books, especially the 19th century as books became easier to produce and more people could read, a lot of this started to become problems. People with printing presses would see a book people like, get a copy, and start printing and selling copies on their own. They made translations and sold copies in other countries. People would produce plays based on the books, and depending on where it was performed the author might never know about it. This was all usually done without the involvement of the author and the author often was not paid from these. A surprising number of highly regarded and top selling authors wound up making very little money from their books because they weren’t being paid for most of the copies being sold. Many died poor. This led to the development of the concept of copyright and various other associated rights.
These rights became more complicated as media progressed. With audio recordings there are multiple rights involved: the person who wrote the song has a copyright on the actual music and lyrics, and the person who performed the song has a copyright to the recording of their performance. Sometimes these are the same person, sometimes they’re different.
The laws kept getting more complicated. With software, the developer or publisher owned the software, often because the developer was working under contract to the publisher or sold the software to the publisher. It’s kind of rare to sell the actual software to a customer, and is usually done only for corporate or government clients. In that case the entire rights to the software are transferred and the publisher/developer can’t sell another copy to someone else. Much more commonly only a license to the software is sold to many different customers, and what exactly that license involves can vary widely in the legal terms of that license (which most people never read). Some are very restrictive. It used to be that a lot of licenses specifically tied the copy that you purchased to the hardware you first installed it on. If that hardware died or you purchased a new model, too bad, you’re now supposed to buy a new copy. Some licenses said you’re not allowed to change the code of the software, some licenses allow it. Ten or fifteen years ago people didn’t really think about the idea of streaming gameplay and creating a video from a game was considered a derivative work and not allowed, like making a movie from a book. Now a lot of licenses explicitly allow streaming gameplay, but some older games that weren’t planning for it might not have the rights to stream the music from the game.
If you violated those rights in the past, the terms technically said those rights ended and you were supposed to stop using the license. In practice this was on the honor system and the licensor would rarely know about it, unless they sent an auditor to check compliance, which was usually only worth doing at large companies. With the internet, companies now have the ability to actually access your computer and monitor your use of the software you’ve licensed. They can even disable your access to this software. Unfortunately, of course, a lot of companies have gone the greedy route and used this to their own advantage and at cost to the customer. Not everyone does, though. It’s really important to know what the terms of the license say. If they say they can delete the game you’ve bought and not refund you, don’t buy from them. Don’t give them money for this crap. Let the game flop, even if it otherwise looked great. Support the developers and publishers who want to support the customers. Read the terms on your software; you should always have the option to say you don’t agree and get your money back if you don’t go through with installation. And the laws that allow bad licenses don’t have to stay as they are; some jurisdictions are friendlier to consumers than others.
- Comment on Paramount will be releasing "ANCHORMAN: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY" on 4K UHD for its' 20th anniversary on July 2. 3 weeks ago:
I worked in local TV news for a decade and this was much more realistic than I expected. Not sure what benefit 4K brings over HD, other than a resolution preference.
Having worked around the time of news transitioning from SD to HD, more resolution wasn’t always better for anchors. I remember one saying she started using less makeup because it looked too thick and fake in HD.
- Comment on Anon has a dream 4 weeks ago:
I once had a dream where eventually the “camera” pulled back and up like it was on a crane/jib and credits started rolling with music playing. I woke up but still heard the music, which was coming from my alarm clock.
- Comment on Anon launches a space program 4 weeks ago:
That’s the point. OP is trying to find a way to reduce costs and make it more viable, which could lower the rate for a stay and expand the market for it. Disney’s idea sounded interesting to me, but I don’t have the kind of money they were charging for it. I’m still sorry I missed it.
- Comment on Anon finds his people 5 weeks ago:
Is he talking literally about toasters or using it as a slang for robots/androids?
- Comment on How does this math work? 2 months ago:
“I am your father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate”
- Comment on Why do people wear shoes inside the house? 2 months ago:
My dog refuses to wear shoes outside so she’s already tracking dirt (visible or not) in several times a day. I’m always wearing either my outdoor shoes or slippers to keep from exposing my feet. If we did not have a dog than it would make sense to remove shoes as soon as we come inside.
- Comment on i was fourth author in a mdpi paper and now i'm drowning in spam please help 2 months ago:
What kind of AI-generated horror is that picture?
- Comment on Silent Iron Man 3 months ago:
Wow, that just straight-up made the Iron Man mask. I wonder when the Disney lawyers get involved?