The part I love most about these articles, is the money they say they lost. They assume that every downloaded song would have been purchased, which is obviously false. I doubt many people could afford their music archives if they paid a dollar a song or 10 dollars an album. I mean, the fact they have a 160GB iPod should be evidence that the industry thrives on piracy in some forms, and gets hurt by it in other ways. What ever happened to a band playing live shows to make money? I mean, the industry can put out junk, market it, and people buy it without the band every being seen live. Now they can't do that with the Internet, and it might actually be improving the quality of the music we get.
I know of records that have 2 singles and the rest sound like filler, but that seems to be going away because if the whole album is not good, people just download it. Seems like improvement to me.
But there are certain things that a reviewer can point out to allow you to avoid the game. Technical issues like crashing, camera going into walls, AI that is insanely hard or easy... These are things that are unique to games and can sometimes be reasonably objective not subjective. Movies lack this defined technical aspect (except things like the credits running 5 minutes which seems too long). Game reviews are very valuable for this type of information.
Uptime is flawless, as I've gone for 100+ days between reboots, usually because I was upgrading hardware or physically moving the PC Seems like a waste to leave a computer on for 100 straight days. In this age of environmentalism, you sir are a sinner!
It is not allowed because they price their game for the region they are in. It would be slightly unfair to make the game 45 US dollars everywhere, because in some countries people don't make that much money in a week, so they lower the price so people there could pay it. They are doing this to allow the poorer countries to play their game as well as the richer countries. If they allowed everyone to buy the game in the poor country, they would have to raise the price so they make a profit, and then those poor countries' citizen's could not afford the game. Don't be a snob, you can afford the 45 bucks, so pay for it.
Perfect dark wasn't stalled simply because the n64 had low numbers.The PS3 launch price in Canada is within $50 of the PS2 launch price. Rare was pretty much tied to Nintendo, and had no choice but to make games for the Nintendo64. They hadn't made a game for another system until they were purchased by Microsoft. Also, living in Canada, I see the launch price of the PS3 to be about 2 times higher than the PS2. I remember the PS2 being $299, while the PS3 was $599 and $699. Not sure where your information comes from, but I think its false.
The PS3 might be a technically nice machine, but it is supposed to be a gaming machine, not a complete home media solution. They shouldn't have used the name Playstation if they wanted to make an all-in-one solution. Looking at the Wii, there is no mistaking that Nintendo makes gaming machines, they don't market their machine to do other things. Do what you do well, don't try to do everything for everyone.
Maybe even prevent some crimes before they happen. I think this is at the route of what bothers me. In Britain there was talk about a keeping better track of people that were more prone to commit crimes, or at least predisposed to it. Children that display anti-social behavior or tendencies could possibly be watched in the name of public security. My problem with this is similar to the problem with the license plate reader, assume guilt and have to prove innocence. A person's first impression is crucial, and if the license plate says car thief, while the driver protests, the first impression for the cop was thief, and it takes a fair amount to change that opinion.
Your friend got a ticket when he shouldn't have. He was doing something wrong, no doubt, but it was a victimless crime and he had to pay because a computer was watching and detected something awry. The Big Brother similarities of this system are stunning, and all in the name of security and safety, so people just let it slide, but at what point do people protest. The technology already exists on cars to alert someone (police) that the vehicle is speeding. Is it so hard to believe that at some point that feature will be implemented in the name of public safety, to alert authorities if a vehicle is driving poorly? Maybe from the current state it is a far leap, but every little inch we give in the name of safety drives us closer to that kind of situation, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Surveillance in public should be severely limited, unless ordered by a judge.
What if you were the one that unfortunately was a false positive. They pull you over, remove you from your car, handcuff you, then place you in the back of their car while they verify. Hopefully it stops there and they release you and profusely apologize, but some people seem to believe computers over people, so you get dragged down to the station to sort it out there. What if this is a small town, or suburb like it sounds in the article, and people you know pass you by as you are getting arrested. That kind of tarnished image is hard to repair I think, and most people upon seeing someone you know getting handcuffed, it is hard for them to put it behind them.
I wouldn't want to be a false positive, and I'd be willing to let a few car thieves get away than risk that myself. That is why I buy insurance (and this could turn into a flame war about letting people get away with crime, but please feel free to stick to the topic)
Watch the YouTube video and you'll see that the possibilities with this system are a touch more disturbing than you believe. And the video represents what they can do now, now that they'll be able to do in even 2 more years of development and research.
it's a state-issued plate, and it's designed to be publicly viewable and even photographable in many areas (where photo blocking equipment is illegal). This is really not much different than officers looking at plats normally, just more efficient. Next up? GPS tagging plates. I feel that is a bad argument. My drivers license (from British Columbia, and I might add I am very disturbed that they are using this here and I never knew) is government property, as is my passport. I have to return it to the government if requested and I cannot destroy it. Now, should the government be allowed to RFID, or some other new technology that allows them to track their property (my license). If you believe your argument, then you must say yes.
Each freedom lost in the name of security is a freedom you will never get back, and the to the next generation, it will just be 'the norm' and they will not question it.
I dunno, I can't really put Canada in the list of countries that would contain India and the Czech Republic... The fact is, Vancouver is a more desirable place to live than Redmond, so it would be easier to get the best to move to Vancouver than to Redmond. Why else would Google and other big tech firms set up in Silicon valley instead of Alabama where everything would be cheaper?
I don't see how you can see this as bad. Now maybe you can't get fired for sending your lusty emails to your girlfriend at work, which is a good thing in my opinion (doesn't stop them from realizing you are a terrible employee however...)
I have been using Vista on some older hardware (not that old, less than 2 yrs) and the experience was not optimal. My computer wouldn't stay asleep (after upgrading I think I found the cause), performance lacked, Media Center (which is pretty kick ass if only they would add pass through functionality) was unreliable... I have just built a new computer and decided to try it again, and it seems much better this time. Getting rid of all the legacy hardware (3.5 inch floppy, IDE drives, AGP video card) things seem much better. Vista should only be sold with OEM's so they could get rid of some of the legacy hardware support that adds size and complexity to an OS. If no one uses IDE drives from this point forward (and now with the arrival of SATA DVD writers you can start to say they won't now) or AGP video cards, you can eliminate those features. Not to mention 16 bit software.
Getting rid of all that crap would slim the OS down, fix problems that have been there for a long time due to how these features were designed, and make the experience much more pleasant for the end user.
I wonder if Apple could push out as many orders as would be required for all the people buying new PC's with Vista installed or just buying Vista itself... And I also wonder if increasing your user base by 10 fold within 6 months would uncover any issues with OSX as those millions try to plug in all their devices and play their games they used to play.
Probably not.
I actually prefer having non existant advertisements. It allows the creators to be more creative with how they have an advertisement for a fake company. Makes it fun to look at the adds because they are creative. I can't remember exactly which games, but I know I have seen some hilarious ones. Duke Nukem comes to mind, but it was so long ago I can't remember.
One way to protest this would be to either write software that shuts off the network connection while playing a game (of course single player only) or just to unhook the NIC before playing. I don't imagine there would be enough people to do that to make a difference though.
Once again our government sticks to the free market fantasy that their platform is based on. Let the market figure it out. What a terrible idea. A free market only works in an absolutely free market, as in, government pays for nothing, which obviously won't work, so why try and have it half assed like they are trying to do. Regulation is best for consumers, while also is good for small players. The only companies regulation is bad for is the large dominant companies like Bell and Telus. Lack of regulation would let them monopolize the market (as if that isn't the case already) which is always bad for consumers... Time for a revolution!
Max Payne sticks out in my mind as a game that has a really fast quickload. I used it constantly. Loaded in about 2 seconds if I remember correctly. Level loads took much longer. Try using the quickload feature after you die instead of letting it load automatically.
I played through some of this game, not sure how far I got.. but it got too scary and I couldn't play it anymore. I just couldn't handle the stress of chainsaws and stuff popping up behind me!
I read all this talk about DRM and Windows Vista. Will DRM still have an effect if you don't use DRM media, and if do you DRM media, shouldn't any OS incur the same wrath when using said files? If your movies are still DVD, and your music still MP3, DRM is irrelevant, so how many users will really be hindered by Vista's extremely restrictive operation?
I have been using Windows Vista for a couple weeks, and really like it. My only issue being that Media Center won't play my xvid movies, but there is no DRM in these movies.
I was very surprised
go here, and Google will have more on this
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms692882. aspx
My app uses only standard SQL so it was no problem, but a few of the queries have to be switched (count distinct being one I had to change immediately)
I dunno what the problem is, I am running SQL Server 2005 64 bit Standard edition on Vista Ultimate RTM. Works fine. Only using it because the application I am developing uses ODBC to the Jet engine which has now been deprecated according to MS, so I had to try something else. Seems to work fine, though I don't use it too in depth yet.
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The part I love most about these articles, is the money they say they lost. They assume that every downloaded song would have been purchased, which is obviously false. I doubt many people could afford their music archives if they paid a dollar a song or 10 dollars an album. I mean, the fact they have a 160GB iPod should be evidence that the industry thrives on piracy in some forms, and gets hurt by it in other ways. What ever happened to a band playing live shows to make money? I mean, the industry can put out junk, market it, and people buy it without the band every being seen live. Now they can't do that with the Internet, and it might actually be improving the quality of the music we get. I know of records that have 2 singles and the rest sound like filler, but that seems to be going away because if the whole album is not good, people just download it. Seems like improvement to me.
Guilty until proven innocent. I love it!
But there are certain things that a reviewer can point out to allow you to avoid the game. Technical issues like crashing, camera going into walls, AI that is insanely hard or easy... These are things that are unique to games and can sometimes be reasonably objective not subjective. Movies lack this defined technical aspect (except things like the credits running 5 minutes which seems too long). Game reviews are very valuable for this type of information.
It is not allowed because they price their game for the region they are in. It would be slightly unfair to make the game 45 US dollars everywhere, because in some countries people don't make that much money in a week, so they lower the price so people there could pay it. They are doing this to allow the poorer countries to play their game as well as the richer countries. If they allowed everyone to buy the game in the poor country, they would have to raise the price so they make a profit, and then those poor countries' citizen's could not afford the game. Don't be a snob, you can afford the 45 bucks, so pay for it.
If it ain't broke...
The PS3 might be a technically nice machine, but it is supposed to be a gaming machine, not a complete home media solution. They shouldn't have used the name Playstation if they wanted to make an all-in-one solution. Looking at the Wii, there is no mistaking that Nintendo makes gaming machines, they don't market their machine to do other things. Do what you do well, don't try to do everything for everyone.
*Sigh of relief*
Your friend got a ticket when he shouldn't have. He was doing something wrong, no doubt, but it was a victimless crime and he had to pay because a computer was watching and detected something awry. The Big Brother similarities of this system are stunning, and all in the name of security and safety, so people just let it slide, but at what point do people protest. The technology already exists on cars to alert someone (police) that the vehicle is speeding. Is it so hard to believe that at some point that feature will be implemented in the name of public safety, to alert authorities if a vehicle is driving poorly? Maybe from the current state it is a far leap, but every little inch we give in the name of safety drives us closer to that kind of situation, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Surveillance in public should be severely limited, unless ordered by a judge.
What if you were the one that unfortunately was a false positive. They pull you over, remove you from your car, handcuff you, then place you in the back of their car while they verify. Hopefully it stops there and they release you and profusely apologize, but some people seem to believe computers over people, so you get dragged down to the station to sort it out there. What if this is a small town, or suburb like it sounds in the article, and people you know pass you by as you are getting arrested. That kind of tarnished image is hard to repair I think, and most people upon seeing someone you know getting handcuffed, it is hard for them to put it behind them. I wouldn't want to be a false positive, and I'd be willing to let a few car thieves get away than risk that myself. That is why I buy insurance (and this could turn into a flame war about letting people get away with crime, but please feel free to stick to the topic)
Watch the YouTube video and you'll see that the possibilities with this system are a touch more disturbing than you believe. And the video represents what they can do now, now that they'll be able to do in even 2 more years of development and research.
I dunno, I can't really put Canada in the list of countries that would contain India and the Czech Republic... The fact is, Vancouver is a more desirable place to live than Redmond, so it would be easier to get the best to move to Vancouver than to Redmond. Why else would Google and other big tech firms set up in Silicon valley instead of Alabama where everything would be cheaper?
I don't see how you can see this as bad. Now maybe you can't get fired for sending your lusty emails to your girlfriend at work, which is a good thing in my opinion (doesn't stop them from realizing you are a terrible employee however...)
I have been using Vista on some older hardware (not that old, less than 2 yrs) and the experience was not optimal. My computer wouldn't stay asleep (after upgrading I think I found the cause), performance lacked, Media Center (which is pretty kick ass if only they would add pass through functionality) was unreliable... I have just built a new computer and decided to try it again, and it seems much better this time. Getting rid of all the legacy hardware (3.5 inch floppy, IDE drives, AGP video card) things seem much better. Vista should only be sold with OEM's so they could get rid of some of the legacy hardware support that adds size and complexity to an OS. If no one uses IDE drives from this point forward (and now with the arrival of SATA DVD writers you can start to say they won't now) or AGP video cards, you can eliminate those features. Not to mention 16 bit software. Getting rid of all that crap would slim the OS down, fix problems that have been there for a long time due to how these features were designed, and make the experience much more pleasant for the end user.
I wonder if Apple could push out as many orders as would be required for all the people buying new PC's with Vista installed or just buying Vista itself... And I also wonder if increasing your user base by 10 fold within 6 months would uncover any issues with OSX as those millions try to plug in all their devices and play their games they used to play. Probably not.
I actually prefer having non existant advertisements. It allows the creators to be more creative with how they have an advertisement for a fake company. Makes it fun to look at the adds because they are creative. I can't remember exactly which games, but I know I have seen some hilarious ones. Duke Nukem comes to mind, but it was so long ago I can't remember. One way to protest this would be to either write software that shuts off the network connection while playing a game (of course single player only) or just to unhook the NIC before playing. I don't imagine there would be enough people to do that to make a difference though.
Once again our government sticks to the free market fantasy that their platform is based on. Let the market figure it out. What a terrible idea. A free market only works in an absolutely free market, as in, government pays for nothing, which obviously won't work, so why try and have it half assed like they are trying to do. Regulation is best for consumers, while also is good for small players. The only companies regulation is bad for is the large dominant companies like Bell and Telus. Lack of regulation would let them monopolize the market (as if that isn't the case already) which is always bad for consumers... Time for a revolution!
Max Payne sticks out in my mind as a game that has a really fast quickload. I used it constantly. Loaded in about 2 seconds if I remember correctly. Level loads took much longer. Try using the quickload feature after you die instead of letting it load automatically.
I played through some of this game, not sure how far I got.. but it got too scary and I couldn't play it anymore. I just couldn't handle the stress of chainsaws and stuff popping up behind me!
I read all this talk about DRM and Windows Vista. Will DRM still have an effect if you don't use DRM media, and if do you DRM media, shouldn't any OS incur the same wrath when using said files? If your movies are still DVD, and your music still MP3, DRM is irrelevant, so how many users will really be hindered by Vista's extremely restrictive operation? I have been using Windows Vista for a couple weeks, and really like it. My only issue being that Media Center won't play my xvid movies, but there is no DRM in these movies.
I was very surprised go here, and Google will have more on this http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms692882. aspx
My app uses only standard SQL so it was no problem, but a few of the queries have to be switched (count distinct being one I had to change immediately)
I dunno what the problem is, I am running SQL Server 2005 64 bit Standard edition on Vista Ultimate RTM. Works fine. Only using it because the application I am developing uses ODBC to the Jet engine which has now been deprecated according to MS, so I had to try something else. Seems to work fine, though I don't use it too in depth yet.