Duke Nukem Forever, anybody?

So. Get this.

---Slashdot:
Duke Nukem Forever Update [Slashdot]

About time, I say! Hey, (possibly) released sometime this decade? Excellent! Now that they have decided to say that the underlying tech is all stable, maybe we could..like...Get a tech demo?

Awww, who am I kidding. I'd certainly like to play Duke Nukem Forever, although considering I have yet to play the full version of Duke 3D..meh, oh well. I'll go back to playing Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, thank you very much.

---Other link of interest:
List of Fictional Cities, A-M [WikiPedia]

Now this list is seriously cool. It is amazing to see how many fictional cities have been dreamed up for various things. And yes, there is even one or more Final Fantasy cities listed, among others. When you look through just the 'A' portion of the list, you notice that quite a few are based off real places. There is even one in there that is located exactly 14 miles from another author's fictional city.

Awesome creativity, I say.

---Slashdot:
Boot Camp and You: Mac OS Don't Boot No Mores?! [Slashdot]

So...it seems quite a few Apple users are up in arms over a piece of software that Apple told them would be unsupported, and that was beta software.

Forgive me for not feeling sorry for you, Apple-ites. There was a reason that Apple told you to create a Firmware Restoration Disk and to backup all yo' data. It is what you are supposed to do under MS Windows as well (with the exception of the Firmware Restore, of course..).

There have been some jokes going around about how everybody should blame Google, seeing as how most of their current products are still. Well. BETA products. If you actually think you should blame Google for this, go read about software in development> [Wikipedia]. That link points directly to the 'Beta' portion of the article.

Now, it so far seems that this problem isn't a big one, but enough people are clamoring to set off other geek's attentions. And most of us will just laugh, telling them to use this for a reminder as to what 'beta' and 'no support' mean in the future. Apple is releasing Boot Camp because they want to make it easier for their people, not because they have to.

Slashdot:
400 Year Old British Law and You: Signatures? [Slashdot]

You've probably noticed my titles have been following a pattern. It may be clichéd, but I do rather like it.

Anyway: A British court has supposedly ruled that an e-mail signature that says any information is confidential must be followed, by virtue of the 1677 Statute of Frauds. And, because the United States' legal system is based quite extensively around British Common Law, the same may hold in our courts. Who woulda thunk it?

Now, the signatures that are being mentioned are those along the lines of "This e-mail is only intended for the recipient, any copying or dissemination of the information herein is a blah blah blah." Most people's memories are jogged by half of what I have typed, but putting most of it down is still nice to have (for you cut and paste jockeys out there).

I find this ruling rather interesting, as it implies that a disclaimer of that sort means you must be entering into a contract without your consent. Now, that doesn't seem quite right...of course, the actual case is over the fact that, as no signature was included in the e-mail in the case, it can not be definitively pinned down on who would be hoped to be the writer under prosecution. But the Manchester High Court judge made a statement that could apply for other things.

How can one be forced into a contract in such a manner? I don't believe that can hold up. The only way I can see such happening is the event where a relay system was set up. The originating system sends an e-mail saying "Do you agree not to blah blah blah, no dissemination, blah blah blah." You reply back with a 'yes' as the message body with the message title left intact, and then the system can finally forward on the e-mail. Is there such a system in use for that type of thing? This would be consenting to enter a contract, but the fact that you are receiving an e-mail: does that legally make you part a binding contract without consent?

I doubt receiving e-mail counts as your legal assent to the 'contract.' Ah well, IANAL.

See this post for help with the acronyms.


Until next time
~Washii