it’s like the first person invent a way to make the pop cap for your travel coffee mug. Like, anyone could have come up with that idea, right? compare to screw cap we used to have. We do have plenty of examples where the patent aren’t really popular until after it is expired or irrelevant.
Like, yeah, in a heatlhy competition env, it is way better for consumer in the beginning. But because of how capital works, eventually without patent it all goes to the bigger corps.
for practical physical good, some times a patent just means I did this first doesn’t mean it’s hard to do or replicate. ie. like the umbrella wedge/spring to make it open automatically. That’s the part of ingenuity. And why I think the mini game during loading screen worth the patent.
I don’t like algorithm patent because ultimately, it was there, if original sha hash wasn’t developed, someone would come up with a different method that doing roughly the same. It’s the math and other prior foundation in computer hasing/data processing provides the idea and how you can process and get the hash fast. so your newer arrangement of faster version(like different sorting algorithm) would not be possible without those other research.
ie. for my own example, my thesis involves doing polygon culling strategy, my base algorithm is totally base on math prediction as to what’s the optimum I can achieve minimum culling checks. BUT, that algorithm is actually slower than when you implement the checks base on how GPU is doing the render plus cache efficiency. If I did not know or not aware how computer works from prior study, I can’t figure out why my “optimum” algorithm is actually slower than sub-optimum checking strategy.
Say, what if SHA or whatever algorithms is implemented, and is actually very impactful to other application, which can be proven that anyone can naturally come to this conclusion by doing their own research, simply grant that patent impedes future development. Another computer graphic patent is the Joe Alter hair distribution, it has nothing to do with ingenuity and just because his dad is a good patent lawyer, it blocks any healthy competition from selling CG hair grooming product in US. If you check the patent itself, that was like trying to patent a math distribution over surface.
You should not patent algorithms as it’s a “discovery” not an invention.
There are 2 main category in software patents that mimics real life production, that I think is fairly acceptable.
The throwing ball to capture creature I think is more copyright than patent.
If you are a software company, like valve, but to publish phone app. They have to go through Google store since that’s how you get that “verified” thing and you don’t have to enable developer mode. And for user that’s a peace of mind.
Is there a phishing website on PC, yeah, and how do you know? Usually it’s going through search engine or your bookmark and then check the HTTPS icons on your browser. There are also signed cert if you download and the windows exe launcher will check that with 3rd party cert. These alternative methods are not readily available on a phone, and that’s intentionally implemented so software developer will funnel back to the play store.
You can’t really open a android store unless you make phone and ship with your own store. Like Samsung one, it’s listed in the play store contract, almost all forms of paying developer directly is not allowed. There are many conditions/steps and warnings if you tried to install apps off the play store, some of them waive your warranty. You also open the phones to potential scammer to have identical looking website and instruct users to install app that steal identity.
Feb 28th, 2025
I am fine with electric car that have software to monitor battery/motor efficiency and gives feedback for the driver/owner. But have it controls almost everything and can remote brick your vehicle is like you never really own the car.
so they embeded a separate launcher?? welp, it’s also not necessary, the EOS backend does not need the Epic launcher. As far as I know, the only cross platform/cross play back end is EOS. Sony have their own PC/PSN cross play in example of Helldivers 2. Capcom have their backend and the up coming Monster Hunter Wild is their first title to support cross play. (it was always separated in their past games.) Some big Chinese/Korean dev have their proprietary cross platform backend to support their mobile/console/PC games. (like Genshin)
If you do know any 3rd party cross play back end service please let me know.
Steam backend are not cross play ready for consoles, EOS backend can.
Thanks for letting me know about this logic table thing, that explains my question when younger why some old computers had massive array of same components put together.
ps. my first computer was a 80286 knock off. By the time I get to high school(basically 80386 era) that have a computer tech club where member bring their old computer parts to share, they are mostly no longer functional. I basically donated my old 80286’s 20MB hard drive for tear down and that’s first time me and other member see what it looks like inside a hard drive.
not necessary FPGA but can be re-writable: see
I am not good in that hardware emu branch but my guess is that they pick something that can drive and matches original clock speed as the old programmable rom was no longer produced. (the antique people would buy old broken ones and rip parts off them or try to restore them.)
From look at the board, basically it looks like they did the “hardware” emu approach. But people I know that enjoy retro stuff they either want the look(original or replica case/keyboard, but internal is more modern that runs software emu) or they want the antique(functional original). It’s pretty rare to see these kinda of hardware emu where they bundle chips as close to old ones while trying to replicate how the old hardware work and then drive with another modern board for the input/output.
I will wait until they fixed some issues DF mentioned before I’ll buy it. (also currently busy with other games.)
One of the old Indy adventure game(Last Crusade) have that branch where you can shoot, fight or work around the airship boxing champ.
maybe the AstroBot game next month.
As long as they are still sending out flyers with stuff you buy you are okay. Also, if you already knew the price range of your regularly shopped goods, you know something is off. Superstore is already using digital tags. And you can just pull out your phone and take pictures.
Lastly, it should be put into law so you can’t increase price during the day. Going down is fine, but no going down and then going up again for peak hour. Stores can set whatever price they want to sell before opening. (for those non-regulated things)
Sorry, I stand corrected. I thought they went public but after checking again Epic is not.
“Giving away free games seems counterintuitive as a strategy, but companies spend money to acquire users into games,” said Sweeney. "For about a quarter of the price that it costs to acquire users through Facebook ads or Google Search Ads, we can pay a game developer a lot of money for the right to distribute their game to our users, and we can bring in new users to the Epic Games Store at a very economical rate.
Good for Epic.
“And you might think that this would hurt the sales prospects of games on the Epic Game Store, but developers who give away free games actually see an upsurge in the sale of their paid games on the store, just because their free game raises awareness. And it’s so much that often developers, when they’re about to launch a new game, come with us wanting to work closely on a timed release of a free game, just to drive user awareness of their next game. That’s been an awesome thing. And it’s been by far the most cost effective aspect of the Epic Games Store.”
Good for developers, that have decent enough games.
“We spent a lot of money on exclusives,” said Sweeney. “A few of them worked extremely well. A lot of them were not good investments, but the free games program has been just magical.”
Exclusives, of course this is the expected result, because that how game publishing/marketing works. People in this thread talking like publishers make a lot of money on 80% of their released games. (<-- it’s not, in case you did not get it. ) I think it’s just Tim Sweeney’s way of saying, we will adjust our approach in the future, like what any publicly traded CEO would do.
It’s the end point modem+router. It’s like saying removing the landline phone from people’s house without destroy the exchange boxes would cripple communication. It’s not cause they are easily replaced.
The Namco(which I wrongly attribute to Konami) thing “is” very specific. Remember during that time there are not a lot multi core processors. It requires clever scheduling to allow running both the mini-game AND checking loading status to seamlessly transition into game. It’s really not just a simple “concept” but ingenuity to arrange your loading I/O wait time into running their past game at the same time. That’s in PS1 era where loading wait time because of CD-ROM and later DVD was very significant.