Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical (
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In article <1127906458.216790.33090@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
eddysterckx@hotmail.com says...
> > My first question is, can anyone name a *non-digital* means of
> > distributing computer software?
>
> Oh, damn - you just ruined my ongoing little game with Briarroot
> [Google +"digital download" +analog +briarroot for earlier rounds]
>
> But, to answer your question : I think it's to differentiate between
> online buying of the software (remote retail ?) where you get a box
> delivered through the mail and the online buying of software where your
> purchase comes down the wire. Or else because Digital Download has such
> a nice acronym
"Online Buying" is a better term, even. Simple, succinct, and entirely
expressive. This was another article where I had to read several
paragraphs before it became 100% clear that they were talking about OB,
"Digital Distribution" being entirely applicable to a CD, DVD, Floppy
Disk, ThumbDrive, 40GB DAT, etc.
> > Secondly, why do web designers insist on breaking a tiny little article
> > like this into five separate pages that a reader must clicket-clickety-
> > click on through? Just make one long document; we know how to scroll.
>
> Advertisements & page-clicks ...
As if anyone ever looks at that bullshit my proxy-server dikes out.
> > Thirdly, is it just me, or did anyone else find this article studiously
> > avoiding any discussion of The Elephant In The Living Room? That
> > pachyderm, of course, is piracy - more accurately, the staggering
> > restrictions that some distributors will place on software to avoid the
> > terrible thought that someone, somewhere, might be <gasp!> playing their
> > little game without paying for it!
>
> Well, it's the first article in a series - I'm hoping the "journalist"
> will ask the above and other uncomfortable questions like "monthly
> subscription systems yes/no", "real ownership or just renting software"
> and other questions in the follow-up articles.
I wasn't finding much "journalism" in this mess either; more like a
series of self-plumping industry press-releases explaining how bright
the digital future is.
And our area of the software world is probably going to lean towards the
Matrix-model of minimally-intrusive copy protection schemes. I've been
sorta keeping an eye peeled for serialz or crackz to online-distributed
wargames at the usual sites, and thus far <touches wood> not a single
file. Of course, I'm not looking very hard, but one has to practically
shovel the DOOM3 crackz out of the way to navigate through some of these
red-light districts.
[And who is "Lindsay Lohan," and why do so many people want me to look
at images of her naked? Is she the new Helen of Troy or something?]
--
Giftzwerg
***
"The media's breathless tabulation of casualties in Iraq - now, over
1,800 deaths - is generally devoid of context. Here's some context:
between 1983 and 1996, 18,006 American military personnel died
accidentally in the service of their country. That death rate of 1,286
per year exceeds the rate of combat deaths in Iraq by a ratio of nearly
two to one."
- John Hinderaker