Gather ’round, children, and let me tell you a story about the old bugaboo we used to call DRM. Digital Rights Management was the beast under every gamer’s bed in the mid-2000s, an invisible bit of software baked into game discs that dictated and tracked player behavior under the guise of preventing piracy. DRM software, like SecuROM, limited the times a game could be downloaded and forced players to regularly connect to the internet for authentication checks, at a time when less than half of American adults had reliable broadband connections. DRM features soured the releases of BioShock, Mass Effect and Spore, and by 2010, anti-piracy software had rendered Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter-Cell: Conviction unplayable. When Microsoft attempted to release the Xbox One with always-on DRM features in 2013, intense vitriol from fans forced the company to reverse its plans at the 11th hour. There were lawsuits. DRM was a curse word. Meanwhile, Valve was building out Steam. When it landed in 2003, the digital PC storefront was designed to streamline the patch process for games like Counter-Strike and make it easier for Valve to implement anti-piracy and anti-cheat measures. Steam was made to be a DRM machine. In 2004, with the release of Half-Life 2, Valve made Steam a requirement for every player, and even those who’d purchased new, physical copies of the game had to boot up the launcher first. There was some low-level grumbling, but PC players were used to being lab rats, and... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2024-03-04 16:30:21 UTC ]
First published in 1977, Usborne’s The World of the Unknown: Ghosts was among the most treasured books (and anecdotally, the most stolen) in school libraries of the late 70s and 80s. Many of my friends—a disproportionate number of whom are writers and artists—remember poring over the pages of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-29 09:48:13 UTC ]
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ON HALLOWEEN 2016, former Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren tweeted, “Colleges should stop building vanity projects like huge libraries and billing students–full libraries are on our smartphones!” At the time, this statement sounded like garden-variety know-nothingism, ideological in the sense... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-01-28 13:30:27 UTC ]
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Ten libraries could be closed across Hampshire with others having their opening hours reduced after the local authority announced plans to slash £1.76m from the service’s budget. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-10 01:00:51 UTC ]
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Rakuten OverDrive, a platform for digital books (used by more than 43,000 libraries and schools worldwide), has released a list of its most-borrowed ebooks and audiobooks in 2019. There are no real surprises on the list, besides maybe the fact that so many people want to listen to a woman tell... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-01-08 19:19:19 UTC ]
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When libraries help people in cold weather, they become a critical service for teens, the elderly, and unsheltered people. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2020-01-07 11:35:59 UTC ]
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Darlington Borough Council will pay £2.9m to keep one of its libraries open after abandoning plans to close it. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-01-05 21:59:32 UTC ]
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Some Linux gamers who are using Wine to play Battlefield V are finding themselves permanently banned from the game. Player using the DXVK package are falling foul of Electronic Arts' anti-cheat system, seemingly because the DXVK Direct3D DLLs -- used to render 3D scenes in Wine -- are detected,... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2020-01-04 10:03:20 UTC ]
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Plans for Essex libraries by the county council have sent “alarm bells ringing” about increased commercialisation of the service, a campaign group has said. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-24 02:02:07 UTC ]
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The head of Essex's libraries has branded the county's current library IT system "clunky and out of date", as she hails the opportunity to invest in the service. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-23 00:45:10 UTC ]
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The best way to end the e-book standoff between publishers and libraries is to use data. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-20 05:00:00 UTC ]
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A daily roundup of the most interesting and awesome bookish links from around the web! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-12-18 11:30:11 UTC ]
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Library association CILIP says the library service needs up to £250m investment and has called for action from Boris Johnson’s government to secure its own future. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-18 08:39:06 UTC ]
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Bedbugs in public libraries are becoming routine. Luckily, there are a few things that librarians can do to stop them...starting with preparation. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-12-17 11:32:47 UTC ]
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Libraries Connected is using a £150,000 Arts Council England grant for a training and mentoring programme helping services develop funding strategies. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-17 04:51:52 UTC ]
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One reader takes a trip through their neighborhood of East Rogers Park in Chicago and explores the Little Free Libraries. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2019-12-14 11:33:25 UTC ]
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L.A. city officials cancel library fines, which some believe discourage working families from taking advantage of books and other library offerings. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-12-13 18:32:41 UTC ]
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If the recent Chrome Dev Summit was evidence of what Google thinks is hot in web development, then frameworks were one of the clear winners. More specifically, client-side frameworks and libraries like Angular, Vue and React, and larger web frameworks like Next.js. We spoke to Tim Neutkens, lead... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2019-12-13 14:35:38 UTC ]
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Guy LeCharles Gonzalez argues that everyone would benefit from a collaborative, good-faith, and transparent effort to effectively measure the impact of libraries on book discovery, author brand development, and consumer sales. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-13 05:00:00 UTC ]
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As librarians gather in Philadelphia for the 2020 ALA Midwinter Meeting, the future of digital content in libraries remains uncertain. Librarians must stay engaged. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-12-13 05:00:00 UTC ]
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In our digital age, libraries are spaces for community and connection. The new State Library Victoria proves libaries have an exciting future. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2019-12-08 18:49:50 UTC ]
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