Apart from this one article about copyrights, his other view I have a real problem with. I just thought I could invoke the 'Orson Scott' card one last time...;)
Same goes for me... I bought my Quake 1 years ago... and my home got broken in to and plundered by some local criminals. I can get the game freely, no problem, but I want the NIN soundrack that was on the original CD! Thus the pirate scene preserved this treasure... after all... it is covered by fair use, no? But now I'm a victim twice...
Those "out of print" games are not supposed to dwindle away into obscurity and only be owned by those elise few who had the money to buy them at the time.
This is copyright protection, after the authors don't exist anymore (companies died) the copyright is not protecting anyone anymore... kinda like artists' right to make money on their creations?
Perhaps read something Orson Scott Card wrote on this subject once and you would change your mind.
A collector will still strive to own the game... but I'm more interested in the art of it, than in it's physical manifestation.
I'm still interested in buying it if I can... but not on e-bay or in a way that will not benifit the original authors.
The author is just plain silly...:P
Then again... this is from someone who has 3 legal copies of NWN and Quake 3.... -grin-
I've had my eyes done about 6 years ago now... and was unable to read numberplates even 5 paces away...
Now I have a DELL Inspiron 9100 Laptop with 1920x1200 resolution and I can read the normal (small) font from 2 meters away (As far as I usually lean back at times)
I've got near perfect vision still in both eyes. Wonderful stuff.
I find that eye strain tends to degrade my vision slightly, and I need to rest to have it restored again... a reason to go hiking and mountain climbing!:))
The slight margin that OGG and Musepack beat ACC with is about equal to the difference in kb/s of the codecs... consider that AAC and WMA were both at 128 and OGG was at 135. My music concerns do not stop there... I seem to have enough tools to edit and retag MP3 and AAC, and encoding of AAC is SUPER fast and decoding is not so CPU intensive...
Also, AAC was used from the inferior iTunes 4.2 instead of Nero at the time. I stick to iTunes and know about the sound quality problems in 4.5... something I'm sure Apple will fix soon.
Also, at the time I started to encode my music, AAC was better than Vorbis over time (and not just the past couple of months). AAC has still had a consistently good average. (The same arguments count for MP3 pro.
-shrug-
I'll stick to one format for the next year... I do not switch to the flavour of the month. For now AAC looks to be the most consistent and well supported. I dabbled in OGG a while ago, and was willing to live with it's quality problems at the time, but eventually ended up wiping and re-ripping in MP3 out of frustration.
Exactly what I said in my original port... you get Insightfull and I get double Troll.
I guess that should teach me for speaking the truth in the first line on my post.
My comment bas based on blind listening tests... AAC is native in iTunes and I use win32 and Apple for media. iTunes rip about 10x faster than CDEX with less errors, and the auto-tagging is of a higher quality.
My point exactly... yet my original post got modded Troll twice.
My losless format is CD... My G5 iTunes encodes CDs in 4 minutes... what else do I need? (Tagging isn't a problem... it's pretty automated with iTunes)
Isn't it marvelous that what I said was in fact true.
OGG is worse then MP3(pro) (but better then old normal MP3). Actually I've read up extensively and followed many blind listening tests. (64kb/s, 128kb/s) I will never re-encode any compressed music files (the worst thing you can do!). Thus I need to find a good codec and stick to it.
I'm a Linux/OS X fanatic but use win32 as well. (Run Debian unstable/OS X at home and RedHat/Fedora at work).
But when I actually give a comment that states the (sad) truth, I get moderated Troll... twice!
-grin-
Fortunately I'm maxed out on Karma anyway... -chuckle-
I think I have a Journal entry about music encoding which also states my opinions more clearly...
When it comes to music I would sell my soul for good quality/bitrate.
OGG although free does not compete with MP3 (PRO) which in turn does not compete with AAC.
I'll go for Dolby AAC any day.
For some reason there has also been speculation regarding the processing power required to play OGG, although I think "they" say that the new 4th gen one should have no problem. (Although OGG creator maintains that even the older iPods should have been able to...)
In my opinion the old mac operating systems were inferior to windows and unix.
Now that has changed. OS X was my first Apple OS.
The thing is that the G5 PC and 17" Powerbook are rated as under top 5 gaming platforms... something that has not ever happened in the recent past. So this trend of PC-only-for-gaming is about to change.
But for now, perhaps you are right, and I'll stick to my PC just a little longer (until my next upgrade), then I will make my Apple the primary machine...
... who wrote "... no substitute for a media that cost cents."... can he possibly be wrong? Dunno, but let's post that in the story heading anyway!
Well, for one thing a GPRS connection to my Google(tm) 1 Gig storage would be MUCH cheaper...
The point is I will have a large personal repository someplace on the net, and never need to use any media whatsoever... for I see a golden wireless future...
Practice the physics perhaps? For me freestyling helped in Quake 3... granted the Q3A bots are braindead, but when I stared playing Q3A they were challenging. -shrug- At least they help you improve your aim... (a bit)
(Last night I got my highest average rail accuracy againt a real (but weaker) opponent... 48% -grin-)
That may be true, but for people who appreciate technically superior rendering, there is nothing near to Doom 3 yet. Prettier, yes, but not better.
Insofar gameplay, yes, Farcry is awesome. But I still like the 'feel' of Quake 3 above much newer games. Somehow Id's games have laways felt 'solid' When you are in the game it feels as if the walls are more solid (barring level design mistakes). In all the other games (Farcry included to a lesser degree) it feels as if I'm walking on a paper-thing polygon and walls (and other objects) are made of stretched plastic film.
I'll reserve judgement until I play the final release.
Actually the point was that it would be cheaper than a Xeon.
Don't own a G5 myself. But I'm a balanced computer user. Have 2 kick-ass P4 machines with all the latest specs and stuff (1Gb 400 DC, P4 3Ghz, Geforce Ti4600, SATA, 6.1 sound+speakers, LCD displays). I run XP and Debian on them. Both have their places when it comes to games/work.
I have an iBook for my mail and internet (and I use it for NWN/Quake3/WC3 LANing when I'm lazy.
(Not to mention my Amiga and Sun boxes)
I guess I am a "drooling MacTard" simply because I'm an acomplished gamer and programmer that know all these systems and many more.
I admit my hardeware knowlwedge concerning the G5 may be lacking, so excuse the slip.
This does not mean that the G5 is not a good target for future game tweakers...
I'm fortunate in that most of the titles I play are available on all three platforms, even though the OS X version of NWN was a bit slow in coming out.
But I'm looking at the next-gen. games that will be coming out, and G5/OS X has proven to be quite a monster when it comes to performance. But alas, the games are not that available. (X^2: The Threat is not supported and Morrowind has limited WineX and Corossover support).
But I see a new generation of Linux power-gamer in the future... I'm getting ready for it by starting to sharpen up on my Linux gaming.
I've bought both the Linux and windows version of Quake3 (I liked the Loki box) and I also bought both the Mac and windows versions of NWN. Warcraft 3 was out and working for the Mac at the same time as the PC (Kudos to Blizzard!)
The only game I'm looking forward to is Doom 3 however, and I'm certain that will not lag in Linux and Mac versions!
As a non-US Slashdot poster, I don't see Mizhael Moore as someone who tries to make money off the current dissatisfaction with the ruling administration in America. I see him as someone who tries to encourage foreigners to see that not all Americans are idiots.
He should be made a national hero for calling attiontion to certain facts and promoting the American people and culture.
The fact that he can get his film shown, has made me realise that America may truly still have (some) freedom left after all! (But perhaps it's just because Moore is so persistant?)
Kudos to Moore. Hurrah!
(Perhaps he is just doing this for the money, but it certainly is not doing America any harm! Retrospect and introspection has never been painless, but has always been healing.)
Can't wait to see the movie in sub-Saharan Africa... where we have more freedom of speech than the USA currently has... tsk, tsk.
Hmm... I think it's all to do with the presentation.
I agree, but I know it can be different.
Kinda imagine the two teams in a sound-proofed boxing arena (tables and PCs and all..) imaging the map view and each players screen som some large overhead display. I'd find that more exciting than most sports.
For one thing you need a good commentator and a excellent spectator view...
I'm more a Quake3 kinda person... 1v1 is more a skill thing for me. I prefer watching 1v1 to TDM and FFA. And I know how it makes me feel watching replays of some awesome top (cash-prize deciding) games.:)
What about Rugby and Soccer? Same thing, boring! Yet those are popular?
The problem is that if the spectator has no clue and has never really played anything relatively well, thus it will be dull and they will not appreciate it.
I have never played sport, thus I find most sports dull and drab and awfully boring. Whereas I've played a bit of counterstrike and can thus appreciate it and the tactics in the game.
When the video game kids of today become the paying, watching customer of tomorrow, then this may change.
Realistically Quake has only been out for 8 years... that would make the time perfect now for the next game to make a killing. (Half-Life 2 etc...)
I've played Competitive Quake 3... not as much money in it as CS, but I know there are the select few who can make it a lucrative career.
Slashdot Mirror
Yup, I agree with you there.
;)
Apart from this one article about copyrights, his other view I have a real problem with. I just thought I could invoke the 'Orson Scott' card one last time...
Same goes for me... I bought my Quake 1 years ago... and my home got broken in to and plundered by some local criminals. I can get the game freely, no problem, but I want the NIN soundrack that was on the original CD! Thus the pirate scene preserved this treasure... after all... it is covered by fair use, no? But now I'm a victim twice...
-smile-
Orson Scott Card article.
Those "out of print" games are not supposed to dwindle away into obscurity and only be owned by those elise few who had the money to buy them at the time.
:P
This is copyright protection, after the authors don't exist anymore (companies died) the copyright is not protecting anyone anymore... kinda like artists' right to make money on their creations?
Perhaps read something Orson Scott Card wrote on this subject once and you would change your mind.
A collector will still strive to own the game... but I'm more interested in the art of it, than in it's physical manifestation.
I'm still interested in buying it if I can... but not on e-bay or in a way that will not benifit the original authors.
The author is just plain silly...
Then again... this is from someone who has 3 legal copies of NWN and Quake 3....
-grin-
I've had my eyes done about 6 years ago now... and was unable to read numberplates even 5 paces away...
:))
Now I have a DELL Inspiron 9100 Laptop with 1920x1200 resolution and I can read the normal (small) font from 2 meters away (As far as I usually lean back at times)
I've got near perfect vision still in both eyes. Wonderful stuff.
I find that eye strain tends to degrade my vision slightly, and I need to rest to have it restored again... a reason to go hiking and mountain climbing!
The slight margin that OGG and Musepack beat ACC with is about equal to the difference in kb/s of the codecs... consider that AAC and WMA were both at 128 and OGG was at 135. My music concerns do not stop there... I seem to have enough tools to edit and retag MP3 and AAC, and encoding of AAC is SUPER fast and decoding is not so CPU intensive...
Also, AAC was used from the inferior iTunes 4.2 instead of Nero at the time. I stick to iTunes and know about the sound quality problems in 4.5... something I'm sure Apple will fix soon.
Also, at the time I started to encode my music, AAC was better than Vorbis over time (and not just the past couple of months). AAC has still had a consistently good average. (The same arguments count for MP3 pro.
-shrug-
I'll stick to one format for the next year... I do not switch to the flavour of the month. For now AAC looks to be the most consistent and well supported. I dabbled in OGG a while ago, and was willing to live with it's quality problems at the time, but eventually ended up wiping and re-ripping in MP3 out of frustration.
Exactly what I said in my original port... you get Insightfull and I get double Troll.
I guess that should teach me for speaking the truth in the first line on my post.
My comment bas based on blind listening tests... AAC is native in iTunes and I use win32 and Apple for media. iTunes rip about 10x faster than CDEX with less errors, and the auto-tagging is of a higher quality.
My point exactly... yet my original post got modded Troll twice.
My losless format is CD... My G5 iTunes encodes CDs in 4 minutes... what else do I need? (Tagging isn't a problem... it's pretty automated with iTunes)
-shrug-
Isn't it marvelous that what I said was in fact true.
OGG is worse then MP3(pro) (but better then old normal MP3). Actually I've read up extensively and followed many blind listening tests. (64kb/s, 128kb/s) I will never re-encode any compressed music files (the worst thing you can do!). Thus I need to find a good codec and stick to it.
I'm a Linux/OS X fanatic but use win32 as well. (Run Debian unstable/OS X at home and RedHat/Fedora at work).
But when I actually give a comment that states the (sad) truth, I get moderated Troll... twice!
-grin-
Fortunately I'm maxed out on Karma anyway... -chuckle-
I think I have a Journal entry about music encoding which also states my opinions more clearly...
When it comes to music I would sell my soul for good quality/bitrate.
OGG although free does not compete with MP3 (PRO) which in turn does not compete with AAC.
I'll go for Dolby AAC any day.
For some reason there has also been speculation regarding the processing power required to play OGG, although I think "they" say that the new 4th gen one should have no problem. (Although OGG creator maintains that even the older iPods should have been able to...)
I've been a PC user for basically ever.
In my opinion the old mac operating systems were inferior to windows and unix.
Now that has changed. OS X was my first Apple OS.
The thing is that the G5 PC and 17" Powerbook are rated as under top 5 gaming platforms... something that has not ever happened in the recent past. So this trend of PC-only-for-gaming is about to change.
But for now, perhaps you are right, and I'll stick to my PC just a little longer (until my next upgrade), then I will make my Apple the primary machine...
... who wrote "... no substitute for a media that cost cents." ... can he possibly be wrong?
Dunno, but let's post that in the story heading anyway!
Well, for one thing a GPRS connection to my Google(tm) 1 Gig storage would be MUCH cheaper...
The point is I will have a large personal repository someplace on the net, and never need to use any media whatsoever... for I see a golden wireless future...
I'll be living in the nothern hemisphere... going home now to turn my world map upside-down to get used to it that way... (north always up?)
Me.
Practice the physics perhaps? For me freestyling helped in Quake 3... granted the Q3A bots are braindead, but when I stared playing Q3A they were challenging. -shrug- At least they help you improve your aim... (a bit)
(Last night I got my highest average rail accuracy againt a real (but weaker) opponent... 48% -grin-)
That may be true, but for people who appreciate technically superior rendering, there is nothing near to Doom 3 yet. Prettier, yes, but not better.
Insofar gameplay, yes, Farcry is awesome. But I still like the 'feel' of Quake 3 above much newer games. Somehow Id's games have laways felt 'solid' When you are in the game it feels as if the walls are more solid (barring level design mistakes). In all the other games (Farcry included to a lesser degree) it feels as if I'm walking on a paper-thing polygon and walls (and other objects) are made of stretched plastic film.
I'll reserve judgement until I play the final release.
And what about a copyright notice on Virii in future? Could MacAfee be sued for reverse-engineering a virus?
-grin-
Point taken. It was, after all, I who started this thread. :P
The same for America's Army!
Um... Heck, who cares! As long as I can shoot my teammates!
-grin-
That would be single 1.6GHz as the low end then...
:P
The Dual only comes with the 1.8, 2.0 and 2.5 machines.
Actually the point was that it would be cheaper than a Xeon.
Don't own a G5 myself. But I'm a balanced computer user. Have 2 kick-ass P4 machines with all the latest specs and stuff (1Gb 400 DC, P4 3Ghz, Geforce Ti4600, SATA, 6.1 sound+speakers, LCD displays). I run XP and Debian on them. Both have their places when it comes to games/work.
I have an iBook for my mail and internet (and I use it for NWN/Quake3/WC3 LANing when I'm lazy.
(Not to mention my Amiga and Sun boxes)
I guess I am a "drooling MacTard" simply because I'm an acomplished gamer and programmer that know all these systems and many more.
I admit my hardeware knowlwedge concerning the G5 may be lacking, so excuse the slip.
This does not mean that the G5 is not a good target for future game tweakers...
-shrug-
Agreed.
I've got a Mac, Debian unstable and XP machine.
I'm an avid gamer.
I'm fortunate in that most of the titles I play are available on all three platforms, even though the OS X version of NWN was a bit slow in coming out.
But I'm looking at the next-gen. games that will be coming out, and G5/OS X has proven to be quite a monster when it comes to performance. But alas, the games are not that available. (X^2: The Threat is not supported and Morrowind has limited WineX and Corossover support).
But I see a new generation of Linux power-gamer in the future... I'm getting ready for it by starting to sharpen up on my Linux gaming.
I've bought both the Linux and windows version of Quake3 (I liked the Loki box) and I also bought both the Mac and windows versions of NWN. Warcraft 3 was out and working for the Mac at the same time as the PC (Kudos to Blizzard!)
The only game I'm looking forward to is Doom 3 however, and I'm certain that will not lag in Linux and Mac versions!
The G5s come with PCI-X slots, and will prolly run Doom 3.
:)
Usually the cost of G5s are a bit too steep, but compared to Xeon they are an absolute steal!
And you get a cool machine/OS to boot!
As a non-US Slashdot poster, I don't see Mizhael Moore as someone who tries to make money off the current dissatisfaction with the ruling administration in America. I see him as someone who tries to encourage foreigners to see that not all Americans are idiots.
He should be made a national hero for calling attiontion to certain facts and promoting the American people and culture.
The fact that he can get his film shown, has made me realise that America may truly still have (some) freedom left after all! (But perhaps it's just because Moore is so persistant?)
Kudos to Moore. Hurrah!
(Perhaps he is just doing this for the money, but it certainly is not doing America any harm! Retrospect and introspection has never been painless, but has always been healing.)
Can't wait to see the movie in sub-Saharan Africa... where we have more freedom of speech than the USA currently has... tsk, tsk.
Hmm... I think it's all to do with the presentation.
:)
I agree, but I know it can be different.
Kinda imagine the two teams in a sound-proofed boxing arena (tables and PCs and all..) imaging the map view and each players screen som some large overhead display. I'd find that more exciting than most sports.
For one thing you need a good commentator and a excellent spectator view...
I'm more a Quake3 kinda person... 1v1 is more a skill thing for me. I prefer watching 1v1 to TDM and FFA. And I know how it makes me feel watching replays of some awesome top (cash-prize deciding) games.
What about Rugby and Soccer? Same thing, boring! Yet those are popular?
The problem is that if the spectator has no clue and has never really played anything relatively well, thus it will be dull and they will not appreciate it.
I have never played sport, thus I find most sports dull and drab and awfully boring. Whereas I've played a bit of counterstrike and can thus appreciate it and the tactics in the game.
When the video game kids of today become the paying, watching customer of tomorrow, then this may change.
Realistically Quake has only been out for 8 years... that would make the time perfect now for the next game to make a killing. (Half-Life 2 etc...)
I've played Competitive Quake 3... not as much money in it as CS, but I know there are the select few who can make it a lucrative career.