But the point is that the majority of Slate readers don't live in China or Sudan. They live in America. "See things are worse in other countries" doesn't really help me feel better about the things that are being done in my country. It is a lot easier for Americans to do something about what is happening in American than it is to do something about some other country.
Also, as bad as things are in some other countries at least the people living there know what will get them taken away in the middle of the night. Our government keeps changing the rules without telling its citizens. Who knows what the next American citizen who gets thrown in a military jail for years without being charged with a crime and repeatedly denied access to a lawyer will be said to have done that was deserving of such treatment.
Exactly. This isn't about open vs. closed source. THis is about the fact that the judge has mad a decision which in effect states that "trade secrets" and business trumps democracy. That is just wrong.
I just bought a Dell Axim and I like it. I got tired of carrying around my laptop and with a stowaway keyboard the axim does everything my laptop does but doesn't kill my back when I carry it around. I can even plug it into a projector for presentations. If I had a cell phone that did that, then I might use that instead, but I have an old phone.
I'm a customer, not a stockholder. Therefore, the fact that they convinced the government to allow them to screw over customers should be disconcerting.
Has there ever been a class action lawsuit where the company didn't get off easy, the consumers got anything more than a token kickback and the lawyers didn't get rich?
I suppose this result is marginally better than most because in a large number of the class action lawsuits the individuals only get coupons or something lame.
However, $1.5 million is nothing for a company as large as Sony. According to the article each state involved gets $750,000. However, the article also says that in California 450,000 of these disks were sold. So Sony is giving back less than $2 per disk -- they made more than that on each disk! So they still made money on this deal.
I've not heard that. However, that case isn't much different than movie theaters refusing to book NC-17 movies. It is censorship by proxy which we in the USA have tons of.
In the USA, NO ratings on media are government enforced. Film ratings are volentary just like game ratings. Even the "X" rating is not a real rating, but rather something the porn industry has used. So the problem is, government enforced ratings for games is singling out that medium. In order for laws regulating games to be constitutional, there would have to be overwhelming evidence that games were different than films, music, or television. There is no such evidence.
If there were government enforced ratings on other media, then it wouldn't be a problem. But as it is, it is nothing more than a moral panic perpetuated by people who don't understand gaming.
The summary says, "employees from Ritual Entertainment confirm that SiN Episodes is finished," which it totally untrue. This is just a group of editors from the magazine speculating. Sin Episodes may or may not be canceled, but these guys are just gossiping based on the fact that a lot of people have left Ritual. It might be or it might not be canceled. No one from Ritual has made a comment yet.
I agree the Sin Episode 1 wasn't very good. However, the Arena mode that they added afterwards is quite fun. ratchet down the difficulty and it is quite fun to run around a map killing bots until the time runs out.
Why does Scoble keep bringing up Halo? Overlooking the fact that Bungie was well into making it before Microsoft even bought them, what is so innovative about Halo?
Scoble wrote"But, when you see things like Photosynth, you realize Microsoft can come back and be innovative." Funny, when I go to Photosynth, and attempt to use it I get, "This version of the Photosynth Technology Preview runs only on Internet Explorer 6 and 7." That's some innovation you got there boys...
"back then Microsoft hadn't invented the word processor, or the spreadsheet, or the database program, nor the presentation package, but today Microsoft Office is the dominant office suite of applications around."
What exactly is so innovative about MS Office?
"But, I didn't realize that Google built a game console." WTF? X-Box live might be nice, but what is so innovative about either version of the xbox? It plays games just like every game system since the first cartridge-based consoles came out. At least Nintendo is trying a new type of controller...
"Would YouTube have gotten purchased for more than a billion if Microsoft wasn't threatening Google?" and MS is threatening Google how???
I subscribe to the PC-centric gaming mags because I'm doing a dissertation on PC Gaming, so I'm keeping the magazines for possible research. However, I might be pretty rare in that regard.
Another reason is that with subscriptions on ebay being so cheap, it isn't that big of a deal to subscribe to them. I think I got 3 years of PC Gamer for $9.99. That's basically 30 cents an issue. At that price, why not?
The section on cell phone gaming WAS an ad, if I remember correctly. That doesn't mean it was any less crappy, but at least it means that it was the advertising department's fault it was there instead of the editorial department's.
Because in the USA, NO ratings on entertainments are government enforced. From videogames to film, they are all voluntary systems that the industries enforce. Because of this, singling out videogames is simply a moral panic like previous ones over rock and roll and other things. Because no other ratings for entertainment are government enforced, to single out games would require a mountain of incontravertable evidence which simply doesn't exist.
I would just be happy if they made the seats big enough and with enough leg room so that I wouldn't feel like I'm packed in like a sardine. Anything else is just a way to distract us from thinking about how much flying sucks.
At my university the bookstore sells XP Pro for $10. You can download Office Pro off of the website for free. Do you think MS is doing that to support higher education? I doubt it. I'm more certain that they see it as a cheap way of indoctrinating people to use MS products so that when they get out of college they are so used to using MS, that they don't even stop to think of anything else existing.
I agree. I used to live in a small, rural area. In the last mid-term election 4 years ago there were NINE people running unopposed. I didn't bother to vote for them. In two other categories the incumbent was wildly expected to win (and did) so I got some satisfaction out of voting for the libertarian or green party candidates.
That was the main rumor about the zune before it was officially unveiled. Either it was total wishful thinking by someone or it was something they were interested in trying but couldn't get the legalities and contracts worked out.
I've more or less just sworn off buying music period. The last time I went to buy a cd, I spent ten minutes examining the small print to make sure it wasn't broken with copy protection of its own.
Call me crazy but I don't want to feel like an untrusted criminal for BUYING music. Treat me like a criminal, then I might as well act like one.
Let's assume that everything that people say about global warming is wrong. Let's say that humanity isn't changing the climate. So what's the downside of acting on the assumption that we need to stop using as many fossil fuels and stop polluting as much? So we have to spend a bunch of money making cleaner cars, factories, appliances, etc. Isn't spending money supposed to be good for the economy? It creates new jobs and new businesses that lead to hiring people in order to do these things. I'll admit I'm no expert on the environment or economics, so maybe there's something more to it than there seems to be.
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But the point is that the majority of Slate readers don't live in China or Sudan. They live in America. "See things are worse in other countries" doesn't really help me feel better about the things that are being done in my country. It is a lot easier for Americans to do something about what is happening in American than it is to do something about some other country.
Also, as bad as things are in some other countries at least the people living there know what will get them taken away in the middle of the night. Our government keeps changing the rules without telling its citizens. Who knows what the next American citizen who gets thrown in a military jail for years without being charged with a crime and repeatedly denied access to a lawyer will be said to have done that was deserving of such treatment.
They skipped something like 10 years
actually it was much closer to 10 months than 10 years.
I'll trade you getting Battlestar Galactica at the same time as the USA for getting Doctor Who at the same time as the UK.
Exactly. This isn't about open vs. closed source. THis is about the fact that the judge has mad a decision which in effect states that "trade secrets" and business trumps democracy. That is just wrong.
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Or just calling things like MTV or HBO "networks" when they aren't television "networks" of any kind.
I just bought a Dell Axim and I like it. I got tired of carrying around my laptop and with a stowaway keyboard the axim does everything my laptop does but doesn't kill my back when I carry it around. I can even plug it into a projector for presentations. If I had a cell phone that did that, then I might use that instead, but I have an old phone.
I'm a customer, not a stockholder. Therefore, the fact that they convinced the government to allow them to screw over customers should be disconcerting.
Has there ever been a class action lawsuit where the company didn't get off easy, the consumers got anything more than a token kickback and the lawyers didn't get rich?
I suppose this result is marginally better than most because in a large number of the class action lawsuits the individuals only get coupons or something lame.
However, $1.5 million is nothing for a company as large as Sony. According to the article each state involved gets $750,000. However, the article also says that in California 450,000 of these disks were sold. So Sony is giving back less than $2 per disk -- they made more than that on each disk! So they still made money on this deal.
I've not heard that. However, that case isn't much different than movie theaters refusing to book NC-17 movies. It is censorship by proxy which we in the USA have tons of.
Yeah, I knew that, but I didn't want to bother explaining it. Laziness trumps accuracy every time!
In the USA, NO ratings on media are government enforced. Film ratings are volentary just like game ratings. Even the "X" rating is not a real rating, but rather something the porn industry has used. So the problem is, government enforced ratings for games is singling out that medium. In order for laws regulating games to be constitutional, there would have to be overwhelming evidence that games were different than films, music, or television. There is no such evidence.
If there were government enforced ratings on other media, then it wouldn't be a problem. But as it is, it is nothing more than a moral panic perpetuated by people who don't understand gaming.
The summary says, "employees from Ritual Entertainment confirm that SiN Episodes is finished," which it totally untrue. This is just a group of editors from the magazine speculating. Sin Episodes may or may not be canceled, but these guys are just gossiping based on the fact that a lot of people have left Ritual. It might be or it might not be canceled. No one from Ritual has made a comment yet.
I agree the Sin Episode 1 wasn't very good. However, the Arena mode that they added afterwards is quite fun. ratchet down the difficulty and it is quite fun to run around a map killing bots until the time runs out.
Why does Scoble keep bringing up Halo? Overlooking the fact that Bungie was well into making it before Microsoft even bought them, what is so innovative about Halo?
Scoble wrote"But, when you see things like Photosynth, you realize Microsoft can come back and be innovative."
Funny, when I go to Photosynth, and attempt to use it I get, "This version of the Photosynth Technology Preview runs only on Internet Explorer 6 and 7." That's some innovation you got there boys...
"back then Microsoft hadn't invented the word processor, or the spreadsheet, or the database program, nor the presentation package, but today Microsoft Office is the dominant office suite of applications around."
What exactly is so innovative about MS Office?
"But, I didn't realize that Google built a game console." WTF? X-Box live might be nice, but what is so innovative about either version of the xbox? It plays games just like every game system since the first cartridge-based consoles came out. At least Nintendo is trying a new type of controller...
"Would YouTube have gotten purchased for more than a billion if Microsoft wasn't threatening Google?" and MS is threatening Google how???
I subscribe to the PC-centric gaming mags because I'm doing a dissertation on PC Gaming, so I'm keeping the magazines for possible research. However, I might be pretty rare in that regard.
Another reason is that with subscriptions on ebay being so cheap, it isn't that big of a deal to subscribe to them. I think I got 3 years of PC Gamer for $9.99. That's basically 30 cents an issue. At that price, why not?
The section on cell phone gaming WAS an ad, if I remember correctly. That doesn't mean it was any less crappy, but at least it means that it was the advertising department's fault it was there instead of the editorial department's.
Because in the USA, NO ratings on entertainments are government enforced. From videogames to film, they are all voluntary systems that the industries enforce. Because of this, singling out videogames is simply a moral panic like previous ones over rock and roll and other things. Because no other ratings for entertainment are government enforced, to single out games would require a mountain of incontravertable evidence which simply doesn't exist.
I would just be happy if they made the seats big enough and with enough leg room so that I wouldn't feel like I'm packed in like a sardine. Anything else is just a way to distract us from thinking about how much flying sucks.
At my university the bookstore sells XP Pro for $10. You can download Office Pro off of the website for free.
Do you think MS is doing that to support higher education? I doubt it. I'm more certain that they see it as a cheap way of indoctrinating people to use MS products so that when they get out of college they are so used to using MS, that they don't even stop to think of anything else existing.
Your right the American's won't get it.
... guess that shows how EFFECTIVE our education is over here.
Please tell me "your" trying to test us by using "your!"
I agree. I used to live in a small, rural area. In the last mid-term election 4 years ago there were NINE people running unopposed. I didn't bother to vote for them. In two other categories the incumbent was wildly expected to win (and did) so I got some satisfaction out of voting for the libertarian or green party candidates.
That was the main rumor about the zune before it was officially unveiled. Either it was total wishful thinking by someone or it was something they were interested in trying but couldn't get the legalities and contracts worked out.
I've more or less just sworn off buying music period. The last time I went to buy a cd, I spent ten minutes examining the small print to make sure it wasn't broken with copy protection of its own.
Call me crazy but I don't want to feel like an untrusted criminal for BUYING music. Treat me like a criminal, then I might as well act like one.
Let's assume that everything that people say about global warming is wrong. Let's say that humanity isn't changing the climate. So what's the downside of acting on the assumption that we need to stop using as many fossil fuels and stop polluting as much?
So we have to spend a bunch of money making cleaner cars, factories, appliances, etc. Isn't spending money supposed to be good for the economy? It creates new jobs and new businesses that lead to hiring people in order to do these things.
I'll admit I'm no expert on the environment or economics, so maybe there's something more to it than there seems to be.