Mastercard's website may have been unreachable, but their credit processing facilities were just fine, as I demonstrated with my own card several times over the past few days.
Yes, but the web services were needed for the 3D Secure functionality for online shopping. I work for a gift card processing company, and one of our UK clients was complaining about 3D Secure being down yesterday. MasterCard said they were having global outages, so it seems to have affected their 3D Secure processing at least, and that is used by many online merchants.
I was informed from one of our managers that Visa and MC are both experiencing "world-wide outages" in payment processing today. Looks like it is at least having some kind of effect, though I question whether it will ultimately have any lasting impact.
I'm sorry, but I can't handle 8800GT-era graphics anymore. The 360 used to look nice, but it's definitely aging, and Microsoft seems intent on going down the casual-gamer road. I started buying more titles on PC than console last year, and I've only purchased a handful this year. I know that I'm in the minority, but this supposed "10-year cycle" is just not for me.
I'm of the mind that we're definitely at the point of "good enough" when it comes to graphics. I'm personally quite tired of this strive for realism, though I do appreciate that it results in advances in graphics technology that do benefit the simpler, more stylized games I'm a big fan of.
To be fair, they did say about five years. It's more about the fact that nobody is even talking about successors at this point. Five years into any previous console generation, and they were winding it down and hyping the next one.
Yes, the meaning of symbols change, but the meaning of this particular symbol for millions of people hasn't yet changed. It probably never will in our lifetimes. That means, for right now, the symbol is offensive to a great many people.
Seriously. People seem to forget that the 9/11 hijackers used bloody razors to hijack the planes. The only reason that worked is because people had become so ingrained with the idea of "Just let them take the plane and do what they want. They'll just fly it somewhere, and then we'll all go home, at worst." They never thought that they would actually be trying to crash the planes. The idea of a suicide pilot just didn't occur to them. The passengers could have easily overpowered them without getting seriously injured. Once the people on the fourth flight knew what was going on, that's exactly what happened. Granted, by that point, it had the effect of causing the plane to crash because the pilots were incapacitated, but if they had risen up as soon as they tried to take control, it never would have gotten to that point. Now that this has happened once, I guarantee you it will never, ever happen again. The second somebody tries to hijack a plane with a gorram razor, they'll be torn to shreds.
The leaderboard issue, maybe. The problem is that we don't know how tied to the internal Xbox Live mechanisms this is. Would MS allow them to "freeze" the old leaderboards and keep a copy of them around to be viewed? If the only alternative is wiping them, people would freak.
As for the other stuff, uh, no. No, it cannot just be done in a patch. First of all, it would have to be a free forced upgrade. Adding new engine support for the keyboards, plus the insane amount of R&D that went into developing the pro guitar mode? That is not going to be free. If it's a paid patch, then it's technically a DLC addon, and that means it's optional. Now you have new DLC which supports the new features and doesn't work with the old "non-patched" version of the game, but it's still all the same game in the DLC marketplace? That is just insanely confusing. No, a new disc release is the only sensible way to handle that.
Rock Band 2, maybe. However, there were tweaks to the core engine and scoring that would invalidate the leaderboard scores, and fairly major interface changes that were much welcomed in RB2. RB3 though, I don't see how you can argue that a new game wasn't necessary. The interface is literally completely different in every conceivable way, an entirely new instrument was added (keyboards) and an entirely new mode based around getting as close to a real instrument as possible within the game was created. That stuff could simply not have been done with a simple patch.
That's because Nintendo's policy on updating Wii games via patches is to simply not allow it. Good, in that in should help ensure quality if companies don't get to patch their buggy-ass game later to save themselves, but bad when something like this happens.
The motive in those cases is not what matters. It's the circumstances of the crime. Accidentally killing someone in a car accident is different than killing someone in the heat of passion (manslaughter) which is in turn different from premeditated murder.
Exactly. I think the "age of mass consumption of music" was more referring to only being able to hear whatever the major labels put on the radio stations and on the retail shelves. So I guess it's more the age of mass-produced music that's supposedly ending, although I'm not sure I agree with that either...
Maybe you can't recommend specific bands, but can you recommend any particular site/service/method for finding said bands? You know, "I like band X, particularly this album and stuff that sounds like it. What can you recommend?"
I know I'm the minority when I say that I am satisfied with current DVD resolution and am okay with buying into DVDs but the price difference is unreal -- especially used discs.
I don't think you're the minority at all. I think a lot of people feel this way, myself included.
Ah, now we come to the crux of the issue. Jailbreaking your phone is specifically itemized by the DMCA, and not the more general jailbreaking any hardware. This truly is one of the worst laws of our time...
If the Wii is hooked up to the same TV as the PS3 (which is likely if they're testing this in-office) then it would appear to be the Move system. We'll have to get more reports to see if this is a common complaint. Maybe it's just that particular game that has response issues.
You're missing the point. No other medium is legally restricted like this. California is arguing that games are different from TV, movies, comic books, and everything else by saying that they're actually harmful and need to be regulated by the government like alcohol and cigarettes. If the government starts mandating what games are and aren't okay, developers will have less incentive to actually produce games that adults want to play.
You're pretty right there, but actually I find that makes a big difference. I used to use Fedora at work and Ubuntu at home. Starting with Fedora 11 I believe, they had some issues with their internal ATI drivers that caused freezing on the Radeon 2400 in my iMac at work. Now ATI's Linux support sucks in general, but basically I couldn't install the proprietary ATI drivers because their drivers didn't support the current version of the Xorg server in use on the latest version of Fedora. And you have to install them yourself because Fedora is absolute about "no proprietary crap included".
Ubuntu is just more pragmatic when it comes to things like graphics drivers, and ditto on the Flash plugin for Firefox. I installed the proprietary ATI drivers for my card, the Flash plugin, and even proprietary wireless drivers for the iMac Wifi card right from the Restricted Drivers GUI in Ubuntu, and it Just Worked (TM). I have wireless networking now, and I never had that out of the box in Fedora. I've had basically zero issues since I switched to Ubuntu on my work PC, and other devs in our company are starting to do the same.
I'm sure my experience isn't universal, but I've had a better time with Ubuntu "Just Working" than any other Linux distro. I love it personally.
Because that makes your entire set of normal rules pointless. If any rule can be superseded by a being existing outside of those rules, then the entire basis for our understanding of the universe falls apart. You can explain any inconsistency in our theories by "act of God". Scientific knowledge is completely untrustworthy at that point.
So if I read this correctly, instead of selling the copy used to recoup your losses, the publisher of the software is actually supposed to give you back your money and you send the software back to them? I'm unaware of any software publisher that has such a policy or program.
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One could argue that labelling 256k "broadband" was a joke to begin with, and thus you never had broadband in the first place.
Mastercard's website may have been unreachable, but their credit processing facilities were just fine, as I demonstrated with my own card several times over the past few days.
Yes, but the web services were needed for the 3D Secure functionality for online shopping. I work for a gift card processing company, and one of our UK clients was complaining about 3D Secure being down yesterday. MasterCard said they were having global outages, so it seems to have affected their 3D Secure processing at least, and that is used by many online merchants.
I was informed from one of our managers that Visa and MC are both experiencing "world-wide outages" in payment processing today. Looks like it is at least having some kind of effect, though I question whether it will ultimately have any lasting impact.
Really? We trashed Saudi Arabia? Since when?
I'm sorry, but I can't handle 8800GT-era graphics anymore. The 360 used to look nice, but it's definitely aging, and Microsoft seems intent on going down the casual-gamer road. I started buying more titles on PC than console last year, and I've only purchased a handful this year. I know that I'm in the minority, but this supposed "10-year cycle" is just not for me.
I'm of the mind that we're definitely at the point of "good enough" when it comes to graphics. I'm personally quite tired of this strive for realism, though I do appreciate that it results in advances in graphics technology that do benefit the simpler, more stylized games I'm a big fan of.
To be fair, they did say about five years. It's more about the fact that nobody is even talking about successors at this point. Five years into any previous console generation, and they were winding it down and hyping the next one.
What mean "we", kemosabe?
Yes, the meaning of symbols change, but the meaning of this particular symbol for millions of people hasn't yet changed. It probably never will in our lifetimes. That means, for right now, the symbol is offensive to a great many people.
Seriously. People seem to forget that the 9/11 hijackers used bloody razors to hijack the planes. The only reason that worked is because people had become so ingrained with the idea of "Just let them take the plane and do what they want. They'll just fly it somewhere, and then we'll all go home, at worst." They never thought that they would actually be trying to crash the planes. The idea of a suicide pilot just didn't occur to them. The passengers could have easily overpowered them without getting seriously injured. Once the people on the fourth flight knew what was going on, that's exactly what happened. Granted, by that point, it had the effect of causing the plane to crash because the pilots were incapacitated, but if they had risen up as soon as they tried to take control, it never would have gotten to that point. Now that this has happened once, I guarantee you it will never, ever happen again. The second somebody tries to hijack a plane with a gorram razor, they'll be torn to shreds.
Oh yes, as I said in my original post, RB2 you could argue that point. But RB3 is absolutely justified being a new disc release.
The leaderboard issue, maybe. The problem is that we don't know how tied to the internal Xbox Live mechanisms this is. Would MS allow them to "freeze" the old leaderboards and keep a copy of them around to be viewed? If the only alternative is wiping them, people would freak.
As for the other stuff, uh, no. No, it cannot just be done in a patch. First of all, it would have to be a free forced upgrade. Adding new engine support for the keyboards, plus the insane amount of R&D that went into developing the pro guitar mode? That is not going to be free. If it's a paid patch, then it's technically a DLC addon, and that means it's optional. Now you have new DLC which supports the new features and doesn't work with the old "non-patched" version of the game, but it's still all the same game in the DLC marketplace? That is just insanely confusing. No, a new disc release is the only sensible way to handle that.
Rock Band 2, maybe. However, there were tweaks to the core engine and scoring that would invalidate the leaderboard scores, and fairly major interface changes that were much welcomed in RB2. RB3 though, I don't see how you can argue that a new game wasn't necessary. The interface is literally completely different in every conceivable way, an entirely new instrument was added (keyboards) and an entirely new mode based around getting as close to a real instrument as possible within the game was created. That stuff could simply not have been done with a simple patch.
That's because Nintendo's policy on updating Wii games via patches is to simply not allow it. Good, in that in should help ensure quality if companies don't get to patch their buggy-ass game later to save themselves, but bad when something like this happens.
The motive in those cases is not what matters. It's the circumstances of the crime. Accidentally killing someone in a car accident is different than killing someone in the heat of passion (manslaughter) which is in turn different from premeditated murder.
He's certainly no stranger to monetizing anything and everything he can.
Sir, I represent Officer Bubbles and am hereby serving you notice of your inclusion in this lawsuit for the above comment.
Exactly. I think the "age of mass consumption of music" was more referring to only being able to hear whatever the major labels put on the radio stations and on the retail shelves. So I guess it's more the age of mass-produced music that's supposedly ending, although I'm not sure I agree with that either...
Maybe you can't recommend specific bands, but can you recommend any particular site/service/method for finding said bands? You know, "I like band X, particularly this album and stuff that sounds like it. What can you recommend?"
I know I'm the minority when I say that I am satisfied with current DVD resolution and am okay with buying into DVDs but the price difference is unreal -- especially used discs.
I don't think you're the minority at all. I think a lot of people feel this way, myself included.
Ah, now we come to the crux of the issue. Jailbreaking your phone is specifically itemized by the DMCA, and not the more general jailbreaking any hardware. This truly is one of the worst laws of our time...
If the Wii is hooked up to the same TV as the PS3 (which is likely if they're testing this in-office) then it would appear to be the Move system. We'll have to get more reports to see if this is a common complaint. Maybe it's just that particular game that has response issues.
You're missing the point. No other medium is legally restricted like this. California is arguing that games are different from TV, movies, comic books, and everything else by saying that they're actually harmful and need to be regulated by the government like alcohol and cigarettes. If the government starts mandating what games are and aren't okay, developers will have less incentive to actually produce games that adults want to play.
You're pretty right there, but actually I find that makes a big difference. I used to use Fedora at work and Ubuntu at home. Starting with Fedora 11 I believe, they had some issues with their internal ATI drivers that caused freezing on the Radeon 2400 in my iMac at work. Now ATI's Linux support sucks in general, but basically I couldn't install the proprietary ATI drivers because their drivers didn't support the current version of the Xorg server in use on the latest version of Fedora. And you have to install them yourself because Fedora is absolute about "no proprietary crap included".
Ubuntu is just more pragmatic when it comes to things like graphics drivers, and ditto on the Flash plugin for Firefox. I installed the proprietary ATI drivers for my card, the Flash plugin, and even proprietary wireless drivers for the iMac Wifi card right from the Restricted Drivers GUI in Ubuntu, and it Just Worked (TM). I have wireless networking now, and I never had that out of the box in Fedora. I've had basically zero issues since I switched to Ubuntu on my work PC, and other devs in our company are starting to do the same.
I'm sure my experience isn't universal, but I've had a better time with Ubuntu "Just Working" than any other Linux distro. I love it personally.
Because that makes your entire set of normal rules pointless. If any rule can be superseded by a being existing outside of those rules, then the entire basis for our understanding of the universe falls apart. You can explain any inconsistency in our theories by "act of God". Scientific knowledge is completely untrustworthy at that point.
So if I read this correctly, instead of selling the copy used to recoup your losses, the publisher of the software is actually supposed to give you back your money and you send the software back to them? I'm unaware of any software publisher that has such a policy or program.