Friday, May 31, 2013

"I have a way. Is that better than a plan?"

Dreams. The perfect hiding place. It is where anything can happen, often it is where we face our greatest fears and see our grandest dreams. We might get some chances to actively direct how the dreams progress, what happens, who we meet. They often reflect the reality, distorted as a curved mirror would. The reflection tends to be abstract, which is why we have difficulties understanding it.

They are perfect for running simulations, except that because of our inherent bias - they are *our* dreams - we cannot exactly trust them to tell the truth. That's why they are so enticing, they bedazzle us with illusions of standing, of social change, of love. The problem comes in when they try to take on the reality. Dreams change how we think about things, they reanalyze situations and possibilities, sometimes randomly throwing in variables that at first sight appear random and even at the second, improbable. They bend our resolve, make us doubt our minds. They show us a world that is either better or worse than the world we live in. If it's better, it can create fanaticism. If it's worse, paranoia. I don't know which is worse. But having dreams, something to aim for, some goal to have in your crosshair, that is good. That... is necessary.


"I am a very important man. I have a tower."


Tuesday, May 21, 2013

"The only difference between me and a mad man is that I am not mad." S.Dali

"What do you want?"
"What am I doing here?"

Apparently keeping up a habit is difficult during busy times. It is difficult to keep your head in the game when it gets rough. The hardships tempt you to succumb to surrender, but you don't. It is not your way. It is not my way.

Every action, every aim should have a meaning. It might not be easily put into words, it could be completely abstract. Most often the meaning is the result of it. The experience gained, the people met, the changes to our inner selves. Sometimes we also get a nice paper saying that we achieved what we've been striving towards, sometimes it is an inner challenge that only gives us a warm feeling inside.

By surrendering, a large portion of the meaning is lost. Sometimes all. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. If it's worth doing well, it is not worth giving up upon. By surrendering, we tend to say 'what we did, we did without reason, and we failed because we did not understand the task we undertook, we made a mistake'. It means we did something we should not have. And we wasted valuable resources, often more than just time, to do... nothing. It does not have to be this way, giving up may be the right decision. We are almost always smarter after we have experienced more. Hence, the decision to give up on something today may be wiser than out decision yesterday not to give up. It may.

So if we grow older and wiser by the day, why should we not give up when we feel like the strain put upon us by the task we've chosen is too much, or is becoming too much?

"Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting?

Do you believe you’re fighting for something? For more than your survival?

Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know?

Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace?

Could it be for love?

Illusions, Mr. Anderson! Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying deperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. [...] You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can’t win. It’s pointless to keep fighting.

Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?!"

"Because I choose to."


Friday, May 3, 2013

How did we get here?

What happens when pirates play a game development simulator and then go bankrupt because of piracy?

Apparently, they do not learn.

Piracy is not theft, nor should it be handled as such. It is a way of replicating copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright holder (the person who has the right to copy and sell/give the right for others). It is a crime of intellectual property. And it is a problem.

It is quite impossible to stop piracy as it is extremely widespread. Then again, it is so widespread because it is so easy to do. It is easy to do because if it weren't, it would cause hassles to the legitimate customers as many DRM-protected software buyers have learned the hard way - an install number limit ignores the possibility of machine upgrades and the software check technique limits usability and wastes resources. Yet as everyone knows, every DRM can be broken.

This is why large companies have slowly become reluctant to creating products that require a single payment and thus we have tons of online applications and apps that constantly advertise something buyable. It allows children to drive up their parents' bills (or people their own bills) where it isn't necessary nor productive. EA has allegedly gone to such lengths that they don't publish finished products, but sell whatever they have and demand an additional payment to get the rest of the product. Pay a bit to get the taste, pay more to keep it.

Piracy is a problem, there is no way to deny that. But it is not just a problem for publishers and programmers, it is a problem for legitimate clients. It is because of piracy that new platforms are becoming more and more limiting for the end user, see Android and iOS for examples.