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 ]
As the saying goes, you know you’ve fucked up when the librarians start protesting—and while New York City makes a sport out of hating its mayors, current problematic mayor Eric Adams really stepped in it when he announced cuts to the city’s libraries in the mid-year budget last fall. As we... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-06-28 14:01:00 UTC ]
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Mayor Eric Adams’ administration has reached a deal with the City Council on a budget that undoes at least some of the cuts he had previously imposed and adds new funding for housing construction, according to City Hall and a person familiar with negotiations.The mayor’s office announced... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2024-06-27 23:09:36 UTC ]
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Months after Apple opened the App Store to game-streaming apps, the iPhone is about to get its first one. Retro gaming platform Antstream will arrive on iOS on June 27. Cult of Mac first reported on the news. Antstream Arcade offers over 1,300 retro games from old-school platforms like Atari... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-06-21 20:46:18 UTC ]
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New York City’s improving fiscal situation seemed to foretell an easier path to passing the coming year’s budget, but the City Council and Mayor Eric Adams still disagree on key issues with days left before the deadline to reach a deal.The council’s push to reverse cuts to cultural institutions,... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2024-06-21 17:26:40 UTC ]
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If you search for translated books all of them won’t come up in a library catalogue search. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2024-06-11 17:09:25 UTC ]
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Amid ongoing attacks on libraries and the freedom to read, a strong professional program and an excellent slate of speakers will showcase the power of libraries. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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It's a book in a library that helps a young girl break free of the repressive and conservative world her parents raise her in. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-06-07 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Comics Plus and other digital lending platforms are a growing area for the discovery and circulation of graphic novels in libraries. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-06-07 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Which of these easy ways to support our libraries are you knocking off the list first? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-06-05 11:30:00 UTC ]
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As Qualcomm-powered Windows on Arm PCs begin appearing here at Computex, ushering in a generation of AI-infused Copilot+ laptops, it seemed appropriate to interview a major player in the push. No, not Qualcomm. (We’ve already spoken to them.) Instead, I mean Arm, the semiconductor... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2024-06-03 18:35:42 UTC ]
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I spent a few days in DC over the long weekend for a wedding. Walking around leafy and well-appointed Capital Hill, I overheard a conversation between two older folks, as their dogs warily sniffed each other, about how people were taking and selling books from the little free libraries around... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-30 18:46:20 UTC ]
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Last week, Sony published a seemingly innocuous round of interviews that centered the company’s nebulous “creative entertainment vision”. Neil Druckmann, head of the Sony-owned game studio Naughty Dog, was one of those — but his interview wasn’t quite what it seemed. Druckmann, who headed the... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-05-30 11:15:49 UTC ]
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Arm has confirmed that it will be offering its next-gen Arm compute platform, called Arm CSS for Client, at Android smartphones. Executives also mentioned that they could be used for PCs as well. The announcement follows an earlier report that indicated that Arm might expand its... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2024-05-29 22:44:57 UTC ]
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If you couldn't access the Internet Archive and its Wayback Machine over the past few days, that's because the website has been under attack. In fact, the nonprofit organization has announced that it's currently in its "third day of warding off an intermittent DDoS cyber-attack" in a blog post.... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2024-05-29 03:59:50 UTC ]
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Disney's logo and branding are a tale as old as time--but even classic stories need a new chapter every now and again. In March, Disney+ unveiled its full Hulu integration for bundle subscribers, combining the Disney+ and Hulu libraries in one application. This came with... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2024-05-28 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Today is a double anniversary in New York City. On May 23, 1845, the New York Police Department was founded, and 50 years later on May 23, 1895, the New York Public Library was established. Today, over a century and a half later, these two city institutions are not getting equal slices of their... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-23 16:59:57 UTC ]
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Microsoft Surface was the brand of devices Microsoft launched to lead the way into the PC market, showing its PC partners what could work in new categories of devices. Now it’s evolving into a new generation, led by AI and Copilot+ laptops. So what does this mean for Microsoft, Surface,... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2024-05-23 14:14:58 UTC ]
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House Bill 4567 expands protections for libraries and library workers by making those threaten libraries with violence subject to the same enhanced penalties as individuals who threaten schools. The measure also creates a grant program to support improved library security. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-23 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Want to know what the best youth poets in America are thinking? Literary Hub is pleased to exclusively share a poem, collaboratively written by Scholastic’s 2023 National Student Poets, along with new data from the Scholastic Kids & Family Reading Report™ that underscores the importance of... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-21 14:00:54 UTC ]
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Donnelly Public Library will be for adults only beginning July 1, as a result of a bill in the state that would allow parents to sue libraries with "inappropriate material." Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-05-20 15:07:54 UTC ]
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