Slashdot Mirror

Because they are unwilling to disclose the use of these devices it is possible that
a very long list of prosecutions will be undone including this plea should the information
see the light of day.

There is some reason to believe that a court order to demand the police retain all records could be justified.
It is not clear if the records can be released but this and other actions with these tools implies the legal footing
is not clear and that the tool is astoundingly broad and effective in what it gathers.

I might note here that it has been recently disclosed that the keys to SIM card codes
have apparently been stolen by one or more TLA. http://www.ign.com/articles/20...
One article gave a four year window to this key theft perhaps more.
If these devices are sold and if these stolen keys are involved it gets interesting.

We're not even over the NSA hard drive hacks and now this?

Next you're gonna tell me Americans shove food up people's ass for freedom. Oh wait they do.

HUGE SPY PROGRAM EXPOSED: NSA has hidden software in hard drives around the world
Is the NSA Hiding in Your Hard Drive?
NSA Has Ability To Hide Spying Software Deep Within Hard Drives: Cyber Researchers
Is Your Hard Drive Hiding NSA Spyware?
The NSA hides surveillance software in hard drives
'Breakthrough' NSA spyware shows deep grasp of makers' hard drives
NSA planted surveillance software on hard drives, report says
NSA secret spying software discovered by Russian researchers
NSA Hackers Infected Hard Drives With Impossible-To-Remove Spyware
NSA Has Planted Surveillance Software Deep Within Hard Drives Since 2001: Kaspersky
NSA program is embedding secret spying software in hard drives in Russia, China, Middle East, allowing agency to eavesdrop on most of worldâ(TM)s computers: report
Destroying your hard drive is the only way to stop this super-advanced malware
Hard drives beware, the NSA is coming for you
Kaspersky fingers NSA-style Equation Group for hard drive backdoor epidemic
There's no way of knowing if the NSA's spyware is on your hard drive
The NSA's Undetectable Hard Drive Hack Was First Demonstrated a Year Ago

"hard drive" isn't even mentioned in the summary. You idiots got misdirected.

The focus should be on the fact that all hard drives from major brands can be fucked with by the NSA and there are no solutions, the focus shouldn't be on some fucking hacking group:

HUGE SPY PROGRAM EXPOSED: NSA has hidden software in hard drives around the world
Is the NSA Hiding in Your Hard Drive?
NSA Has Ability To Hide Spying Software Deep Within Hard Drives: Cyber Researchers
Is Your Hard Drive Hiding NSA Spyware?
The NSA hides surveillance software in hard drives
'Breakthrough' NSA spyware shows deep grasp of makers' hard drives
NSA planted surveillance software on hard drives, report says
NSA secret spying software discovered by Russian researchers
NSA Hackers Infected Hard Drives With Impossible-To-Remove Spyware
NSA Has Planted Surveillance Software Deep Within Hard Drives Since 2001: Kaspersky
NSA program is embedding secret spying software in hard drives in Russia, China, Middle East, allowing agency to eavesdrop on most of worldâ(TM)s computers: report
Destroying your hard drive is the only way to stop this super-advanced malware
Hard drives beware, the NSA is coming for you
Kaspersky fingers NSA-style Equation Group for hard drive backdoor epidemic
There's no way of knowing if the NSA's spyware is on your hard drive
The NSA's Undetectable Hard Drive Hack Was First Demonstrated a Year Ago

Why don't you stupid American fucks sue the NSA and all the American corporations exposed by Snowden.

You Americans idiots bitch and moan about little adware from others while ignoring the biggest exploits developed by your own people.

Fuck off.

HUGE SPY PROGRAM EXPOSED: NSA has hidden software in hard drives around the world
Is the NSA Hiding in Your Hard Drive?
NSA Has Ability To Hide Spying Software Deep Within Hard Drives: Cyber Researchers
Is Your Hard Drive Hiding NSA Spyware?
The NSA hides surveillance software in hard drives
'Breakthrough' NSA spyware shows deep grasp of makers' hard drives
NSA planted surveillance software on hard drives, report says
NSA secret spying software discovered by Russian researchers
NSA Hackers Infected Hard Drives With Impossible-To-Remove Spyware
NSA Has Planted Surveillance Software Deep Within Hard Drives Since 2001: Kaspersky
NSA program is embedding secret spying software in hard drives in Russia, China, Middle East, allowing agency to eavesdrop on most of world’s computers: report
Destroying your hard drive is the only way to stop this super-advanced malware
Hard drives beware, the NSA is coming for you
Kaspersky fingers NSA-style Equation Group for hard drive backdoor epidemic
There's no way of knowing if the NSA's spyware is on your hard drive
The NSA's Undetectable Hard Drive Hack Was First Demonstrated a Year Ago

The NSA bugs all hard drives, there are your END USERS.

Slashdot kept burying the story, while minor Chinese related news gets double exposure.

Obvious NSA American dumb down operation at work.

HUGE SPY PROGRAM EXPOSED: NSA has hidden software in hard drives around the world
Is the NSA Hiding in Your Hard Drive?
NSA Has Ability To Hide Spying Software Deep Within Hard Drives: Cyber Researchers
Is Your Hard Drive Hiding NSA Spyware?
The NSA hides surveillance software in hard drives
'Breakthrough' NSA spyware shows deep grasp of makers' hard drives
NSA planted surveillance software on hard drives, report says
NSA secret spying software discovered by Russian researchers
NSA Hackers Infected Hard Drives With Impossible-To-Remove Spyware
NSA Has Planted Surveillance Software Deep Within Hard Drives Since 2001: Kaspersky
NSA program is embedding secret spying software in hard drives in Russia, China, Middle East, allowing agency to eavesdrop on most of world’s computers: report
Destroying your hard drive is the only way to stop this super-advanced malware
Hard drives beware, the NSA is coming for you
Kaspersky fingers NSA-style Equation Group for hard drive backdoor epidemic
There's no way of knowing if the NSA's spyware is on your hard drive
The NSA's Undetectable Hard Drive Hack Was First Demonstrated a Year Ago

It's already all over the net, even non geek sites are all over it.

You call slashdot a geek site? "News for nerds, stuff that matters" my ass.

HUGE SPY PROGRAM EXPOSED: NSA has hidden software in hard drives around the world
Is the NSA Hiding in Your Hard Drive?
NSA Has Ability To Hide Spying Software Deep Within Hard Drives: Cyber Researchers
Is Your Hard Drive Hiding NSA Spyware?
The NSA hides surveillance software in hard drives
'Breakthrough' NSA spyware shows deep grasp of makers' hard drives
NSA planted surveillance software on hard drives, report says
NSA secret spying software discovered by Russian researchers
NSA Hackers Infected Hard Drives With Impossible-To-Remove Spyware
NSA Has Planted Surveillance Software Deep Within Hard Drives Since 2001: Kaspersky
NSA program is embedding secret spying software in hard drives in Russia, China, Middle East, allowing agency to eavesdrop on most of world’s computers: report
Destroying your hard drive is the only way to stop this super-advanced malware
Hard drives beware, the NSA is coming for you
Kaspersky fingers NSA-style Equation Group for hard drive backdoor epidemic
There's no way of knowing if the NSA's spyware is on your hard drive
The NSA's Undetectable Hard Drive Hack Was First Demonstrated a Year Ago

It's already all over the net, even non geek sites are all over it.

You call slashdot a geek site? "News for nerds, stuff that matters" my ass.

HUGE SPY PROGRAM EXPOSED: NSA has hidden software in hard drives around the world
Is the NSA Hiding in Your Hard Drive?
NSA Has Ability To Hide Spying Software Deep Within Hard Drives: Cyber Researchers
Is Your Hard Drive Hiding NSA Spyware?
The NSA hides surveillance software in hard drives
'Breakthrough' NSA spyware shows deep grasp of makers' hard drives
NSA planted surveillance software on hard drives, report says
NSA secret spying software discovered by Russian researchers
NSA Hackers Infected Hard Drives With Impossible-To-Remove Spyware
NSA Has Planted Surveillance Software Deep Within Hard Drives Since 2001: Kaspersky
NSA program is embedding secret spying software in hard drives in Russia, China, Middle East, allowing agency to eavesdrop on most of world’s computers: report
Destroying your hard drive is the only way to stop this super-advanced malware
Hard drives beware, the NSA is coming for you
Kaspersky fingers NSA-style Equation Group for hard drive backdoor epidemic
There's no way of knowing if the NSA's spyware is on your hard drive
The NSA's Undetectable Hard Drive Hack Was First Demonstrated a Year Ago

It's already all over the net, even non geek sites are all over it.

You call slashdot a geek site? "News for nerds, stuff that matters" my ass.

HUGE SPY PROGRAM EXPOSED: NSA has hidden software in hard drives around the world
Is the NSA Hiding in Your Hard Drive?
NSA Has Ability To Hide Spying Software Deep Within Hard Drives: Cyber Researchers
Is Your Hard Drive Hiding NSA Spyware?
The NSA hides surveillance software in hard drives
'Breakthrough' NSA spyware shows deep grasp of makers' hard drives
NSA planted surveillance software on hard drives, report says
NSA secret spying software discovered by Russian researchers
NSA Hackers Infected Hard Drives With Impossible-To-Remove Spyware
NSA Has Planted Surveillance Software Deep Within Hard Drives Since 2001: Kaspersky
NSA program is embedding secret spying software in hard drives in Russia, China, Middle East, allowing agency to eavesdrop on most of world’s computers: report
Destroying your hard drive is the only way to stop this super-advanced malware
Hard drives beware, the NSA is coming for you
Kaspersky fingers NSA-style Equation Group for hard drive backdoor epidemic
There's no way of knowing if the NSA's spyware is on your hard drive
The NSA's Undetectable Hard Drive Hack Was First Demonstrated a Year Ago

Come on slashdot, stop deleting the NSA hard drive backdoor news submissions, it's already all over the net, even non geek sites are all over it.

You call this a geek site? Stuff that matters my ass.

HUGE SPY PROGRAM EXPOSED: NSA has hidden software in hard drives around the world
Is the NSA Hiding in Your Hard Drive?
NSA Has Ability To Hide Spying Software Deep Within Hard Drives: Cyber Researchers
Is Your Hard Drive Hiding NSA Spyware?
The NSA hides surveillance software in hard drives
'Breakthrough' NSA spyware shows deep grasp of makers' hard drives
NSA planted surveillance software on hard drives, report says
NSA secret spying software discovered by Russian researchers
NSA Hackers Infected Hard Drives With Impossible-To-Remove Spyware
NSA Has Planted Surveillance Software Deep Within Hard Drives Since 2001: Kaspersky
NSA program is embedding secret spying software in hard drives in Russia, China, Middle East, allowing agency to eavesdrop on most of world’s computers: report
Destroying your hard drive is the only way to stop this super-advanced malware
Hard drives beware, the NSA is coming for you
Kaspersky fingers NSA-style Equation Group for hard drive backdoor epidemic
There's no way of knowing if the NSA's spyware is on your hard drive
The NSA's Undetectable Hard Drive Hack Was First Demonstrated a Year Ago

Otherwise, how shall developers in those countries earn the experience to be accepted into the "big boys" program?

Through another platform (like the PC).

In 2015, would a PC game intended for play on keyboard or 1-4 USB gamepads sell? Or does the market require PC multiplayer to be online? (PROTIP: PCs have VGA and HDMI out, and TVs have VGA and HDMI in.)

Though the developer would likely be breaking the local laws unless they obtained classification for their game.

Lately, some countries have recognized that requiring a separate classification for each of tens of thousands of games in each of dozens of developed countries doesn't scale, especially when the alternative is their citizens having no access to the games and their small businesses having no access to the market. So the Australian Classification Board has delegated rating of downloadable games to the IARC self-rating system that operates without charge. And in New Zealand, any game unlikely to be rated MA15 or higher (which I take as equivalent to ESRB M or high T) can be supplied without a rating label. But Microsoft stopped updating the Xbox 360 environment even before the Xbox One came out.

Use Unity.

The Unity version of Assassin's Creed was a debacle. So was the Unity version of Ubuntu Desktop. I understand those were unrelated products, but why does software naming have to be so confusing?

Who do you guys think you are?

You guys think that you are smarter than the Indians?

Don't you know that the Indians are much way smarter than all of you combined?

Take, for example --- no one in this world can link Planet Jupiter and Planet Venus to them stinky Chinese communists ! But the Indians sure can !!

Just in case you do not know what I am talking about, I am providing two links for ya ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

and

http://www.ign.com/boards/thre...

Consumer's wouldn't be very happy if business told them they couldn't resell a product at a profit just because they bought it when there was a good sale, or if they couldn't split a meal because they bought the larger dish instead of two smaller ones.

No, they aren't happy when video game publishers restrict resale of purchased games or when restaurants don't allow meal sharing. This is just another example of the business model that the RIAA pioneered - make your business model into law and let the government enforce it.

Meanwhile, Nintendo, the king of region locking, has expressed that they might consider removing it for their next consoles: http://www.ign.com/articles/20...

A little dysentery never hurt anyone^W the species.

Yes! Just like in The Fifth Element. Especially if you get to share the space with Mila Jovovich.

Stop moving the goalposts. The accusations by here boyfriend are here:

http://thezoepost.wordpress.co...

Tell me, which one of these accusations is false?

Those aren't the false accusations referred to by the article. The false accusations are the ones that suggest that she slept with Nathan Grayson in order to persuade him to write a positive review of one of her games. These accusations were quite widespread (e.g. 1, 2, 3), and appear to be completely false because nobody has pointed out a review written by Grayson of any of Quinn's games which was published after the date she's accused of sleeping with him.

Honestly, I'm not sure why anyone who doesn't know her personally would care what men she chooses to sleep with. It's not like it's actually any of our business, really. The one important accusation, that she used sex to get positive reviews for her game, turns out to be false. So let's just forget about the rest, OK?

You should learn how to read. There was never a "no selling of used games policy"

People in glass houses shouldn't call the kettle black. When Microsoft first spelled out how the One would work, they made it pretty clear (well, as clear as Microsoft legalese can be) that gamers couldn't sell their games to just anyone. Rather, gamers would only be able to sell their games to participating retailers, and even then, only if the game's publisher had opted-in to allowing resales for copies of that game (and then the publisher could optionally tack a fee onto the transaction too, thus decreasing how much money you get to take home).

Similarly, you couldn't sell it to friends or online folks. The only option would be to give it away to them, and, once again, you could only do so if the publisher had opted-in to allowing game trades between individuals. Oh, and an additional restriction was that each game could only ever be given away one time, and even then, only to people who had been on your friends list for at least 30 days. They also outright prohibited renting of games or loaning of physical copies of games to friends.

Given all of those ridiculous terms and conditions, I can see how you might have been confused and failed to realize that the One had those policies in place when it was first announced. Even so, since you read the actual articles, I'd have hoped for better.

As for the always-on requirement, sure, you can play the pedant by pointing out it only needed to phone home once a day rather than constantly, but that's pointless, since it does nothing to address why the requirement was such a source of contention. The reason it was annoying was because it immediately eliminated a number of valid and legitimate use cases in which gamers wouldn't have a regular connection to the Internet. In the armed forces? Too bad. Internet down for a few days? Too bad. Just moved? Too bad. Traveling? Too bad. Out at sea? Too bad. Vacationing in your summer cabin? Too bad. Don't want to connect devices that have no practical need to be online? Too bad. Don't think a company has any business tracking what you're doing with offline, disc-based, single-player games? Too bad.

And the OP was being kind, since he skipped over all of the indie developer controversies that were around early on after the One's announcement, such as requiring that they work with a major publisher. I also noticed that you didn't address his issues with the always-on camera and that they've since flip-flopped on that requirement as well.

The fact that Microsoft managed to make Sony look good, despite the fact that Sony was in the doghouse with virtually every gamer after all of the PSN stuff a few years back, just goes to show you how badly they messed up with the One's launch.

Disclaimer: I own all three consoles of the last gen, and none of the current gen consoles.

PoE looks promising, yes, and don't forget there is still some excellent community content being produced for the venerable NWN2 engine, which by now has had the release bugs fixed. Some of the community content is far better than what shipped with the game.

Why would games even need to be KB+M - hostile?

Because of the practical limit of one keyboard and one mouse per PC. I've read reports that few PC gamers have multiple gamepads connected to a single PC, but even fewer have multiple keyboards and multiple mice on a PC (other than the case of a laptop with a USB mouse that the user is using instead of the built-in trackpad). This means multiplayer games using keyboard and mouse are overwhelmingly played over the Internet. But there are several video game genres that don't work well over the Internet. I tried playing a fighting game over the Internet a week ago, and it was full of control lag that the game introduced because you can't dead-reckon as much in a fighting game as you can in a first-person shooter. And forget about party games; those rely on the out-of-game social interaction made possible by putting two to four players in a room. See editorials by The_Netcup and Damien McFerran.

Had the most interesting built-in "pseudo-hacking" experience for a video-game.

Even though it's nowhere close to the real deal. It did require the casual gamer to go through a command-line interface, guess a 5-digit binary code based on feedback about how many did he get right, solve a Kanji puzzle, find password in one directory and apply it to the other etc. The end result neatly tied in with the game where you could, for example, acquire a sword in the Matrix or set off an EMP.

Certainly much better than a Michael Bay fever dream.

Zenimax announced they would not be licencing the rage engine to outside studios. They also said they wouldn't be using it for Elder Scrolls titles. Very strange they didn't just give John a blank sheet to come up with an open world engine to beat Gamebryo. I guess there must have been disgreements over direction. Big missed opportunity for Zenimax, and the community. Imagine an open world tech built to Carmack quality standards, with Zenimax content.

IGN did a playthrough with John Romero, it's also on Youtube but you can find it at ign.com

It's quite long but brought back a lot of good memories and taught me a bit about his design process.

He also explains the meaning of IDSPISPOPD and the other cheat codes which is something I'd never heard before.

Pokemon X and Y have sold 4 million copies worldwide in two days.

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/10/15/pokemon-x-and-y-sales-figures-revealed

The retail price for those games is about $40.

If they license that content out to another platform, they lose a non trivial cut of that cash to the platform owner. If they release on the iPhone, I do not think the title would sell very well to an audience that expects everything to cost $1.

$40 * 4 million = $160 million in sales.

Do you think Pokemon would move 160 million paid sales on the iPhone?

Keeping that product on their own platform will give Nintendo the bulk of that profit, and it will help increase the size of the audience for other 3DS titles.

END COMMUNICATION

A great deal of the (all negative) comments are about the fixed-width design, which is horrible--especially for wide monitors. And I agree.

But I think it's more insidious than that. I think this is Dice making Slashdot available for "Wrap Ads" (my term; I've no idea what the industry term for this is.) This is an advertisement that takes up all the white space around the site content (usually including some flash ad in the regular side-bar ad space.) I've only seen these in relation to video games and movies, but that might just be because I don't visit many sites not dabbling in those categories. Some sites that do this:
-IGN (they're running one right now for Final Fantasy XIV, even! Giant flash ad at the top. Load it in a browser without NoScript/adblock to see)
-Anime News Network (and what do you know, they're also doing it right now!)
-Escapist Magazine (home to the popular Zero Punctuation series of game reviews, but they're not doing it right now.)

Just like city buses wrapped completely for advertising, I believe that Dice has created this layout--which goes against best practices (I think?), especially where nerds and news are concerned--expressly for the purpose of selling wrap-around advertising. Most of us won't feel it, since a large portion of the community uses NoScript, AdBlock, and other such add-ons/services, but it still makes the comment section a pain and that's all Slashdot is good for now. Timely news? No. Properly edited synopsis that remove extreme spin/bias? No. Editing to check for dupes, sometimes within hours of each other? No. More-intelligent-than-average internet commentary with a user-ran moderation system that helps to bring the more useful comments to the front? Yes.

And this new layout cuts the space for that by half, wrap ads or no. So when the current Slashdot layout goes, so do I.

Or he could have disrobed himself and started with 255 missiles by entering JUSTIN BAILEY for the password.

Lots of hate at GfWL ...

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/08/19/games-for-windows-live-shutting-down-in-2014

A great idea might be to corrupt save games after some point. Let them get halfway into it then corrupt all save games. Make sure your support team knows you are doing this and corrupt all the files in some very obvious way like changing them text files about the harm piracy does to gaming.

Oh, you mean like EarthBound did? It did all that and so much more: Nag screens, unbearable enemy encounter levels, and after slogging through the whole game it freezes at the final boss and deletes your save too. Epic spite.

Here's a few of the funnier ones. And then there's the supremely ironic one that Game Dev Tycoon added.

A great idea might be to corrupt save games after some point. Let them get halfway into it then corrupt all save games. Make sure your support team knows you are doing this and corrupt all the files in some very obvious way like changing them text files about the harm piracy does to gaming.

Oh, you mean like EarthBound did? It did all that and so much more: Nag screens, unbearable enemy encounter levels, and after slogging through the whole game it freezes at the final boss and deletes your save too. Epic spite.

Here's a few of the funnier ones. And then there's the supremely ironic one that Game Dev Tycoon added.

It seems that the drm will still be there in some form though.
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/07/forza-5-requires-download-before-it-can-run/

though they've been backpeddling from that too.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/18/forza-motorsport-5-install-offline-details-clarified

best case i could give them is a wait and see approach.

when i look at these factors:
the xbone fiasco.
the windows8 mess.
consumers seem to like apple now.
ms' abysmal presence on mobile devices.

it's seeming very plausible that consumers will realize there just is no good reason for microsoft to exist anymore. about the only customer they haven't alienated is the ms office user.

No that have POed the Office users too with the ribbons

It seems that the drm will still be there in some form though.
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2013/07/forza-5-requires-download-before-it-can-run/

though they've been backpeddling from that too.
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/07/18/forza-motorsport-5-install-offline-details-clarified

best case i could give them is a wait and see approach.

when i look at these factors:
the xbone fiasco.
the windows8 mess.
consumers seem to like apple now.
ms' abysmal presence on mobile devices.

it's seeming very plausible that consumers will realize there just is no good reason for microsoft to exist anymore. about the only customer they haven't alienated is the ms office user.

Being able to host competitive multiplayer on actual separate screens is a new development in console gaming.

Not entirely. The Ultimate List: Cube Connection - Get more out of your Game Boy Advance by linking it to the GameCube. (February 26, 2004)

With specially written software, game developers can make the Game Boy Advance and GameCube talk to each other. Some games require a specific GBA game inserted and booted in the handheld, while others utilize the GBA's ability to store programs into its internal memory. Using the GBA's 256K of system RAM, programmers can create miniature programs and games that can be executed on the handheld without the need for a cartridge in the slot.

But you're right, it hasn't been done on a scale where it's HD graphics and a standard part of the system. Too bad Nintendo isn't really doing it, either (5th Mar 2013):

So far, Wii U games only use a single GamePad, and only one GamePad is supplied with the console with no option to by a second one separately at retail - presumably due to the expense of a controller containing a touch screen and its many other innards (Note: multiplayer games are achieved using Wii U Pro Controllers and/or Wii Remotes). Because of this, Miyamoto plays down the viability of dual-GamePad support being a system that's fully utilised any time soon.

"In the future, perhaps when we get closer to something that, an environment where everybody or a large majority of people would have two GamePads, that might be a time where we look at how we can leverage a system of that nature."

This is, in my opinion, one of the Wii U's largest faults: giving a potentially amazing input device, and then limiting it to one. And even if they were to start supporting multi-Gamepad games, "multiple" in this case means "two". No grand four-player RPG adventure, where they take turns controlling movement in the larger area and have their own screens for battle, not to mention giving each player conversation response options and the majority wins. No massive 2-on-2 Pokemon tournament where the GamePads are used to check stats, use items, and give commands.

Asymmetric gameplay may have a lot of potential, but so far it hasn't been in big ways (the asymmetric gameplay in NSMBU is akin to using the second controller in Mario Galaxy as an assist, so even that isn't anything new.) Nintendo did pretty much everything wrong with this console, so this isn't surprising.

What timeline do you live in? Here in 2013, iOS is getting absolutely crushed by Android.

Ooh. I spy a Google cheerleader, do I get a prize.

Its odd that things have to be termed in such an adversarial manner. That there has to be a winner and a loser.

That said I suggest you look at the numbers a little closer. Its true that there are more Android phones being bought than iOS ones. However this is only the case if you look at ALL Android phones including cheap ones that are shipping with 2.3 on just good enough hardware. That was always going to happen because Apple have chosen not to play in that space.

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/02/20/apples-iphone-5-passes-samsung-galaxy-s3-in-q4-global-sales
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/analyst-samsung-galaxy-s4-sales-vs-apple-iphone-5-sales.html/?a=viewall

iOS is competitive in the market that Apple chooses to engage in. So in that sense iOS isn't being crushed at all.

I'm happy to see the competition between Android and iOS, it should mean that both continue to improve. If one were to truly crush the other then it would be worse for the everyone.

A while back Sid Meier created a program that generated music.

linkie

Or if you want to hear one of the pieces it created go here.

The SCOTUS has ruled that format shifting falls under fair use

Fair use is a defense only to copyright infringement. One can commit circumvention without infringing the copyright itself. Universal v. Reimerdes. I will confess to a crime right here: I have used VLC to rip CSS'd DVDs for private use and for inclusion of short clips in criticisms.

Or how many had to hunt for the older PS3s if they wanted backwards compatibility which isn't a problem on the PC?

Is Windows 7/8's compatibility with Windows 95 games better than the PS1 emulator in the PS3 and PS4?

I can fire up an emulator and in seconds be playing the very first game I EVER owned, Pong

When you build a PC for someone who owns a copy of Pong for Atari 2600, how do you recommend that he copy his Atari 2600 cartridges into the PC?

But with win 7 and Win 8 being the same price its really a moot point

You can't install Windows 7 OEM on a PC that you plan to use yourself; you have to get your PC builder to install it for you. This "Personal Use License" is another new feature in Windows 8.

nobody gives a rat's ass about GDDR 5, okay? NOBODY.

Thank you. For each "nobody builds an HTPC" I can cite your "nobody cares about GDDR5 as main system memory".

I can also quadruple my HDD space, add SSDs if I want

Also true of PS3 and PS4. Even the maligned Xbox One will support external HDDs and SSDs that connect through SuperSpeed USB.

As for how DRM gets in the way, did you not pay attention to the xbone? Or that Sony has a similar mechanism that devs can opt in for?

I thought that soon after Microsoft announced this originally planned antifeature of Xbox One, Sony announced that it would not implement this mechanism for disc games.

and WTF are you talking about raiding parts for?

To afford to build a console-competitive HTPC for the price of a console. Too may people see the sticker price of the system and don't want to pay 21.9% interest to borrow the money to have a local PC builder build a brand new HTPC.

Why do you just google it yourself? The A5X was faster than the Tegra 3 for gfx benchmarks but the Tegra 3 was faster for CPU benchmarks. For real world performance, the A5X was faster than the Tegra because most real world stuff is highly GPU bound rather than being strictly CPU bound like you would have in an artificial CPU benchmark. For both GPU benchmarks and real world performance, the A5X was faster than a Quad core chip because of a combination of faster CPU and a higher memory bandwidth. The more data you were processing, the less the higher clock speed and more cores helped if you were handicapped by worse bandwidth and the higher overhead of the Android operating system. I should not have to do the leg work for you. You should be able to prove or disprove my assertions with a simple set of google queries before you start challenging me on my assertions. See: http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/03/30/is-apples-a5x-more-powerful-than-nvidias-tegra-3

there are plenty of citations in the class action complaint. http://ps3movies.ign.com/ps3/document/article/108/1086720/gov.uscourts.cand.226894.1.0.pdf

The PS4 is a loss leader. You might want to put Orbis on another system, but given that Orbis is specifically tuned for the PS4 hardware and hacking it to work on another much more costly system will likely lead to nothing of great value, in the end such a project will be just for the sake of a hobby.

Sony is trying to do some steps to get rid of the "Loss Leader" thing altogether, and it will be interesting to see if they can manage to pull it: they are attempting a large scale deployement of cloud rendered gaming via Gaikai. (Do you remember Gaikai? Its competitor Onlive perhaps?)

During the 20th February show Sony made clear that with cloud based gaming it could have been possible to have a subscription to Gaikai and play demos or even full PS4 games, via cloud, on PS4, while you waited for the console to finish download (they also announced the streaming download feature which allowed you to play the game with only parts of it fully downloaded, but it's not the same thing).

At E3 the first step was detailed: making PS3 games available via cloud in 2014 to PS3 and PS4 US customers. Leaving the door open to PSVita and unspecified "further platforms".

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/02/20/playstation-cloud-revealed
This is a segment from the 10/6 E3 presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBmLGYi6fjI

I think PC was mentioned during the Feb 20, but now I can't find the videos on youtube.

It's funny you mention Square-Enix and Tomb Raider specifically (or perhaps you mentioned them for this reason), because many gamers are completely aware of how unreal their sales expectations are: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/09/square-enix-reveals-sales-expectations-for-tomb-raider

Square-Enix has revealed exactly how many copies of Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs and Hitman it expected to sell, after announcing that they all failed to hit targets last month.

Astonishingly, the publisher hoped to sell between 5 and 6 million copies of Tomb Raider in its first month, which would have placed it amongst some of the fastest-selling games ever. It managed 3.6 million, which by most standards is an extremely impressive launch.

So even in the face of amazing sales, they're "disappointed". I think that unrealistic expectations from all sides are what will kill much of the market--not all of it, I don't see another Crash coming up like we had in '85, but there will be an internal revolution in the gaming market in the next few years.

When did they forbid it?

God of War is M rated.
So is Sony's latest hit, The Last of Us.

And, considering the fact that there is clear taliban' scent in Apple's policies, here is an adult one that's more about erotic, than violence:
http://www.ign.com/games/catherine/ps3-83913

Sorry for the late reply...

According to this there's no way to disconnect Kinect on Xbox one.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/21/xbox-one-will-not-function-without-kinect-attached

Subject: Windows will always have a place...

in the hearts of people that like to play video games on the PC.

That depends on to what extent Valve is able to bring Steam to GNU/Linux through various Steam boxes. With Steam Box and Sony's opening of PlayStation platforms to more indie developers, it could very well end up that every Windows game that isn't ported to PlayStation 4 is ported to GNU/Linux.

Most of GameStop's profits come from used game sales. They make next to no profit on new games--that money goes almost wholly to the publisher.

That's what I thought, too. Then I read this today:

Interestingly, [GameStop president Tony] Bartel revealed that 70 per cent of GameStop's $1 billion market sales comes from the sale of new games rather than pre-owned ones.

I haven't found any source that has MS saying specifically that the Kinect has to be plugged in. There is a lot of misreading that says it. Here's a sample:

http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4352732/xbox-one-requires-kinect

The headline from Polygon.com is "Xbox One requires plugged-in Kinect to function." However, if you go to the Xbox.com FAQ page the question is "Why require Kinect with every Xbox One?" The question seems to be regarding making people buy a peripheral they may not want. With the 360 you don't have to have it. Neither the question nor the answer says anywhere that Kinect is required to be plugged in only that the system comes with it and there will not be an option to buy one without.

This doesn't say that the Xbox One won't require it to be plugged in, but the headline does not accurately reflect what's in the FAQ.

Here is IGN with something closer to the always plugged in statement:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/21/xbox-one-will-not-function-without-kinect-attached

The quote is "Kinect does require to be connected to Xbox One in all cases, yes." The IGN statement is then "Xbox One will not function without Kinect attached." However, again, we see an error in logic. Breaking down the statement we have X is required to be attached to Y to function. It is a logical fallacy called "affirming the consequent." That is, IGN is saying that the Kinect needs to be connected to the Xbox One to function therefore the Xbox One must be connected to the Kinect for it to function. It is not necessarily true that if X requires Y to function that Y requires X to function. IGN's headline reads the quote in reverse which may or may not be true.

The IGN headline is the one you see most. Anytime you see "Harvey Eagle says Kinect is required" or something like that they are referring to this. Eagle has never said that the Xbox One requires the Kinect only that the Kinect requires the Xbox One. That does not mean Y won't require X, only that that statement has not yet been made.

Operation: Flashpoint.

blastocyst

http://guidesmedia.ign.com/guides/059687/images/blackwhite/pokemans_009.gif

Now Google iPhone or HTC and look at the sales slump these two companies are facing. Guess their flagship phones don't come with an SD slot.

I Googled iPhone sales and saw that they've sold more this last quarter than they did in the same quarter last year. Isn't that odd?

Then I Googled iPhone 5 v Samsung Galaxy S3 sales and these were the top 3 results:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/technology/iphone-5-overtakes-samsung-galaxy-1798091

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57570235-37/iphone-5-beats-galaxy-s3-as-top-seller-says-report/

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/02/20/apples-iphone-5-passes-samsung-galaxy-s3-in-q4-global-sales

I'm trying hard to see your point but the figures just don't back it up. If the iPhone is in a slump what does that say about the Galaxy S3?

The SD card slot is a feature that appeals to a very small demographic. You may be in it, but just because its part of your decision making process doesn't mean that its part of everyone else's. Personally I don't care. I don't want to micro manage storage in this century.

Visuals are nice and all, but I'd prefer to buy a game console that actually has some fun games available for it.... *cough* unlikepsvita *cough*

Just because you're not in the target audience, doesn't mean there aren't fun games on a platform.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/03/13/vita-outsells-3ds-in-japan-strong-sales-continue

The Xbox 360 is still a flop in Japan and it debatably has some fun games available for it.

A previous IGN article has archived some extra tweets Adam made:

"Those people should definitely get with the times and get the internet. It's awesome."
"Sorry for expressing my personal opinion about what I want from the electronic devices that I pay for on Twitter. Jesus."
"The mobile reception in the area I live in is spotty and unrealiable. I will not buy a mobile phone."
"Sometimes the electricity goes out. I will not purchase a vacuum cleaner."

The average American that has internet access may not lose access for very long, unless they get hit by a strike. But what happens when it's the other end of the connection that fails? I don't want EA's or Blizzard's underestimate of demand or inability to provide sufficient server capacity to handle the early load to keep me from playing a game.

I also enjoy playing older games, and I don't want a company's decision to shut down old servers they don't want to pay to maintain to prevent me from doing that.