I signed up for a free month trial and while the service works as advertised, the content leaves something to be desired. Simply put they need more games and more popular ones. They may have over a hundred or whatever number they are quoting, but many of them are lame like Hoyle poker or games that I've never heard of like games for the C64 which I never owned or there are text adventure games which are easilly available online. Their selection of computer games is pretty slim outside of the aformentioned card games and some edugames. Unfortunately, I've reformated before cancelling and i've been forgetting to reinstall the thing so i can find out how to cancel now that my 30 day free trial is up -- which is how most of these subscription-based things stay afloat. Get people to subscribe and then hope they forget to unsubscribe! The service is sound and works as advertised. If they could get more games that I find desireable, then it would be a nice service. Your milage may vary.
I know that here at Slashdot I'm not the only one that whenever I download a Microsoft "security upgrade," the first thing I do is turn off all the crap that Microsoft puts in as "security."
Putting in things that pop up on your screen asking you if you really want to do this, or if you noticed that it did something, or that you haven't turned on something or you haven't updated something is not my definition of security.
My definition of security is to fix the problem, not put up caution tape and flashing lights around the problem.
It is no wonder I find myself using Linux more and more often these days...
It isn't necessarilly about privacy, but anonymity. In the past, if there was crowd of people and a police officer watching the crowd you didn't have any privacy, but you were more or less anonymous.
With computers, there is a constant record. In the pas tthere was no way that police would check and record every single licence plate on every single car. Now they can. And they can track it back to you. So although you aren't doing anything wrong, you aren't anonymous.
As a teenager I had no privacy, but I didn't want my parents looking over my shoulder every minute of every day. I didn't want them monitoring my every moment. I wanted them to trust me. Why can't we expect the same from our government?
I would imagine that the REAL problem is Microsoft. BestBuy bundling stuff makes BestBuy more money, but Microsoft probably is more concerned with getting the machines sold as soon as possible. Especially if Best Buy is bundling in crap that isn't made by Microsoft,then there would really be some pressure from Microsoft.
If you want non-English language programming or local programming, there is still tons of stuff being broadcast for free from satellites. Satellite Guys is one of the best sources for info. Check out their forums, specifically the Free to Air one.
Here's a list of what is available up there for free.
WOXY is the answer to many of the ills of US radio. They have live DJs M-F during the day and evening (US East Coast Time) that aren't fake sounding and that beg for requests. They are commercial free. They are independently owned and operated. They don't play songs to death. They don't play Top 40 stuff.
I used to listen to them back when they were a terrestrial radio station and when the company sold the terrestrial signal, they went away for a few months and that was the worst musical time in my life. I had a text file full of the stream urls of other internet broadcasters from KEXP to radio xy and nearly a dozen more. While they were good, none of them had the spirit and quality of WOXY. Then they came back internet only and it was great.
Sure there are alternatives online and via satelite, but I subscribed the day they announced it. So give them a listen. They are keeping the free low quality streams around (use the aac+ stream if possible. it sounds the best) so try them out.
Well, taste is subjective, but WOXY is the best station around in my opinion
2. The music is the same playlist shuffled differently for each new day
While WOXY does have songs in heavy rotation, heavy for them is like twice a day. They have a selection of thousands of songs and are not afraid to play them.
3. There are no deejays that will actually play obscure requests
WOXY has live DJ's M-F during the day and evening (US East Coast Time) that not only plays requests, they often ask listeners to send in obscure requests.
4. Too many annoying commercials / fake deejays
WOXY is commercial free and some of the most sincere DJs I've ever heard.
5. Too many stations are owned by the same companies
WOXY is independently owned and operated.
6. Companies have been doing 'pay to play' illegally - big surprise
If WOXY did that they certainly wouldn't be asking for listeners to support them!
7. I buy my own music to hear the artists I enjoy - I am in control
OK, I admit that WOXY can't compete with that, but I am willing to bet if you listen to it for an hour you will hear at least one band you have never heard before which would expose you to new music.
A9 also uses Google search results. At the bottom of the search results it says, "Search results enhanced by Google. Results also provided by a9.com and Alexa."
From that, however, it isn't entirely clear if A9 is just using google's search results or if they actually are doing some of their own search voodoo. I did one search on both and it looked like they both gave the same results in the same order, but one example doesn't prove anything.
To be fair, in America, there are still very few PC videogames released on DVD -- and when they are, it is usually as a more expensive "collector's edition" while the regular version is still released on CDs.
I just read this the other night. Its going to be in the latest issue of PCGamer. It says "Interview with Carmack!" on the cover. It is fairly short. Basically says that he's still developing games. The only big surprize is that he says that id is bacically primarilly developing for the 360 rather than the PC.
Most of the comments here talk about horrible reviews, but is reviewing really journalism? Is Roger Ebert a journalist? Not to degrade reviewers. But do people really 100% trust one videogame review?
While I like reading reviews, I read videogame reviews the same way I read film reviews: with a grain of salt.
Maybe it is because of my research interests, but I'm a lot more interested in the non-review journalism such as articles that talk about trends in gaming or gaming culture. That is more of what I think of when I think about journalism instead of reviews.
The context of the comment in PC Gamer about the perception of their ratings was that they were adjusting them. So it was an attempt to do something about the perception their readers have.
Since the original site seems to be really slow and split into a billion pages, those who aren't aware of it might want to look at MaximumCompression since it has tests for several file formats and also has a multiple file compression test that is sorted by efficiency. A program called SBC does the best, but the much more common WinRAR comes in a respectable third.
According to Maximum Compression, which is basically the best site for compression testing, Stuffit's new version is the best for lossless jpeg compression. I've got it and I can confirm that it does a much better job on jpegs than anything else I've tried. Unfortunately, it is only effective on jpegs not gifs, pngs, or even pdfs which seem to use jpeg compression. And, outside of the mac world, it is kind of rare.
I would imagine that Matrix online or Sims Online will go down before Star Wars. At least with Star Wars they appear to be actively developing it. When is the last time you heard anything about Matrix or Sims Online development?
While many have mentioned lots of good serves, I didn't see anyone mention Audio Lunchbox which not only sells mp3s, but also sells you both mp3s and ogg files. Not either BOTH. For 99 cents you can download the song in both mp3 as well as ogg if you want to.
As others have noted, in America, movie ratings are voluntary, just like videogame ratings. There is no national or state law preventing a minor from going into an R-rated movie. The studios enforce these policies themselves.
I know that the cash registers of many stores ask for an age when a customer tries to buy an M-rated game. Do they ask for ages when buying an R-rated film? What about the very common "unrated" editions of films that were PG-13 when they were in the theaters? I'm certain the local videostores didn't back when I was 17 and my friends and I would rent the movie that promiced to show the most skin ond/or blood as possible.
As far as the Playboy game is concerned, unless parents watch their kid's computer usage 24-7, I think they are much more likely to fine nudity online than in a videogame and if they ARE watching their kid's computer usage 24-7, well then they would know if they were playing Playboy: the Mansion anyway...
The fact that people assume movie ratings in America are legally enforced is one of the reasons why people think that any videogame regulation is sensible. I firmly beleive that any law that applies only to videogames is wrong. If the videogame insustry doesn't want these alws, they will need to follow the MPAA's lead and make sure that retailers are enforcing the ratings guidelines.
Gator becomes Claria, Philip Morris becomes Altria, a con man changes the address of his scam mail order company. They still put out the same crap they always did, just preying on people who aren't aware that they changed their name...
Does that mean I should submit a newstory everytime i update my blog now? Or do the storys only get greenlit when the blog is corporate owned and ran by ex-slashdoters?
Maybe I'm just cheap, but I can't remember the last time I paid more than $30 for a game. Sure I have to wait a while to get some games, but I don't mind.
Slashdot Mirror
I signed up for a free month trial and while the service works as advertised, the content leaves something to be desired. Simply put they need more games and more popular ones. They may have over a hundred or whatever number they are quoting, but many of them are lame like Hoyle poker or games that I've never heard of like games for the C64 which I never owned or there are text adventure games which are easilly available online. Their selection of computer games is pretty slim outside of the aformentioned card games and some edugames.
Unfortunately, I've reformated before cancelling and i've been forgetting to reinstall the thing so i can find out how to cancel now that my 30 day free trial is up -- which is how most of these subscription-based things stay afloat. Get people to subscribe and then hope they forget to unsubscribe!
The service is sound and works as advertised. If they could get more games that I find desireable, then it would be a nice service. Your milage may vary.
I know that here at Slashdot I'm not the only one that whenever I download a Microsoft "security upgrade," the first thing I do is turn off all the crap that Microsoft puts in as "security."
Putting in things that pop up on your screen asking you if you really want to do this, or if you noticed that it did something, or that you haven't turned on something or you haven't updated something is not my definition of security.
My definition of security is to fix the problem, not put up caution tape and flashing lights around the problem.
It is no wonder I find myself using Linux more and more often these days...
No, I've never used any version of Quicken. I was just curious as to why the mac version wouldn't work.
Is there a reason why Quicken for Mac won't work???
It isn't necessarilly about privacy, but anonymity. In the past, if there was crowd of people and a police officer watching the crowd you didn't have any privacy, but you were more or less anonymous.
With computers, there is a constant record. In the pas tthere was no way that police would check and record every single licence plate on every single car. Now they can. And they can track it back to you. So although you aren't doing anything wrong, you aren't anonymous.
As a teenager I had no privacy, but I didn't want my parents looking over my shoulder every minute of every day. I didn't want them monitoring my every moment. I wanted them to trust me. Why can't we expect the same from our government?
I would imagine that the REAL problem is Microsoft. BestBuy bundling stuff makes BestBuy more money, but Microsoft probably is more concerned with getting the machines sold as soon as possible. Especially if Best Buy is bundling in crap that isn't made by Microsoft,then there would really be some pressure from Microsoft.
If you want non-English language programming or local programming, there is still tons of stuff being broadcast for free from satellites. Satellite Guys is one of the best sources for info. Check out their forums, specifically the Free to Air one. Here's a list of what is available up there for free.
WOXY is the answer to many of the ills of US radio. They have live DJs M-F during the day and evening (US East Coast Time) that aren't fake sounding and that beg for requests. They are commercial free. They are independently owned and operated. They don't play songs to death. They don't play Top 40 stuff.
I used to listen to them back when they were a terrestrial radio station and when the company sold the terrestrial signal, they went away for a few months and that was the worst musical time in my life. I had a text file full of the stream urls of other internet broadcasters from KEXP to radio xy and nearly a dozen more. While they were good, none of them had the spirit and quality of WOXY. Then they came back internet only and it was great.
Sure there are alternatives online and via satelite, but I subscribed the day they announced it. So give them a listen. They are keeping the free low quality streams around (use the aac+ stream if possible. it sounds the best) so try them out.
1. The music is usually bad
Well, taste is subjective, but WOXY is the best station around in my opinion
2. The music is the same playlist shuffled differently for each new day
While WOXY does have songs in heavy rotation, heavy for them is like twice a day. They have a selection of thousands of songs and are not afraid to play them.
3. There are no deejays that will actually play obscure requests
WOXY has live DJ's M-F during the day and evening (US East Coast Time) that not only plays requests, they often ask listeners to send in obscure requests.
4. Too many annoying commercials / fake deejays
WOXY is commercial free and some of the most sincere DJs I've ever heard.
5. Too many stations are owned by the same companies
WOXY is independently owned and operated.
6. Companies have been doing 'pay to play' illegally - big surprise
If WOXY did that they certainly wouldn't be asking for listeners to support them!
7. I buy my own music to hear the artists I enjoy - I am in control
OK, I admit that WOXY can't compete with that, but I am willing to bet if you listen to it for an hour you will hear at least one band you have never heard before which would expose you to new music.
A9 also uses Google search results. At the bottom of the search results it says, "Search results enhanced by Google. Results also provided by a9.com and Alexa."
From that, however, it isn't entirely clear if A9 is just using google's search results or if they actually are doing some of their own search voodoo. I did one search on both and it looked like they both gave the same results in the same order, but one example doesn't prove anything.
To be fair, in America, there are still very few PC videogames released on DVD -- and when they are, it is usually as a more expensive "collector's edition" while the regular version is still released on CDs.
I just read this the other night. Its going to be in the latest issue of PCGamer. It says "Interview with Carmack!" on the cover. It is fairly short. Basically says that he's still developing games. The only big surprize is that he says that id is bacically primarilly developing for the 360 rather than the PC.
When they changed the elevators at the Marriott Marquis Times Square, not everyone was impressed.
Most of the comments here talk about horrible reviews, but is reviewing really journalism? Is Roger Ebert a journalist? Not to degrade reviewers. But do people really 100% trust one videogame review?
While I like reading reviews, I read videogame reviews the same way I read film reviews: with a grain of salt.
Maybe it is because of my research interests, but I'm a lot more interested in the non-review journalism such as articles that talk about trends in gaming or gaming culture. That is more of what I think of when I think about journalism instead of reviews.
The context of the comment in PC Gamer about the perception of their ratings was that they were adjusting them. So it was an attempt to do something about the perception their readers have.
Duke Nukem Forever still won't ship.
Too obvious???
I've seen those occasionally, but typically only in expensive places. Telling the bartender to count to four is a lot cheaper than buying equipment.
Since the original site seems to be really slow and split into a billion pages, those who aren't aware of it might want to look at MaximumCompression since it has tests for several file formats and also has a multiple file compression test that is sorted by efficiency. A program called SBC does the best, but the much more common WinRAR comes in a respectable third.
According to Maximum Compression, which is basically the best site for compression testing, Stuffit's new version is the best for lossless jpeg compression. I've got it and I can confirm that it does a much better job on jpegs than anything else I've tried. Unfortunately, it is only effective on jpegs not gifs, pngs, or even pdfs which seem to use jpeg compression. And, outside of the mac world, it is kind of rare.
I would imagine that Matrix online or Sims Online will go down before Star Wars. At least with Star Wars they appear to be actively developing it. When is the last time you heard anything about Matrix or Sims Online development?
While many have mentioned lots of good serves, I didn't see anyone mention Audio Lunchbox which not only sells mp3s, but also sells you both mp3s and ogg files. Not either BOTH. For 99 cents you can download the song in both mp3 as well as ogg if you want to.
As others have noted, in America, movie ratings are voluntary, just like videogame ratings. There is no national or state law preventing a minor from going into an R-rated movie. The studios enforce these policies themselves.
I know that the cash registers of many stores ask for an age when a customer tries to buy an M-rated game. Do they ask for ages when buying an R-rated film? What about the very common "unrated" editions of films that were PG-13 when they were in the theaters? I'm certain the local videostores didn't back when I was 17 and my friends and I would rent the movie that promiced to show the most skin ond/or blood as possible.
As far as the Playboy game is concerned, unless parents watch their kid's computer usage 24-7, I think they are much more likely to fine nudity online than in a videogame and if they ARE watching their kid's computer usage 24-7, well then they would know if they were playing Playboy: the Mansion anyway...
The fact that people assume movie ratings in America are legally enforced is one of the reasons why people think that any videogame regulation is sensible. I firmly beleive that any law that applies only to videogames is wrong. If the videogame insustry doesn't want these alws, they will need to follow the MPAA's lead and make sure that retailers are enforcing the ratings guidelines.
Gator becomes Claria, Philip Morris becomes Altria, a con man changes the address of his scam mail order company. They still put out the same crap they always did, just preying on people who aren't aware that they changed their name...
Does that mean I should submit a newstory everytime i update my blog now? Or do the storys only get greenlit when the blog is corporate owned and ran by ex-slashdoters?
Maybe I'm just cheap, but I can't remember the last time I paid more than $30 for a game. Sure I have to wait a while to get some games, but I don't mind.