Again, how is "their new XML is as poorly defined as any of their formats"?
You have pointed out that there are a few, legacy, parts of the specification that aren't defined. What we have for XML is several thousand pages of detailed specifications, compared to close to nothing before. How is that not better?
What do you mean "as poorly defined"? With the binary formats there was basically no documentation: now we have detailed vendor-supplied documentation of virtually the entire XML format. How is that not an improvement?
You have to define what a game being art means. Videogames are an art form of their own, you can't judge them by the same standards as films or music. Personally, I think there is art in, for example, Mario64's level design and its perfect blend of challenge, reward and novelty.
Exactly, I'm not sure why the GP is modded so high: is this how low expectations are of linux? You could do most of the functions he describes on a decent PDA.
The problem for Linux is that, even if it can provide 90% of the functionality, it's the remaining 10% that's going to annoy people - the webcam that won't work, the lack of a large base of commercial software, the lack of syncing software for PDAs/phones etc.
That's just not true IME (UK). Every business person I know/see has a smartphone: something like a SE P910, Blackberry, Nokia N73 etc. I see huge numbers of people with SE K800i/K750's, which are close to being smartphones, or one of the SE Walkman phones. The feature phone/smartphone market is huge these days.
It's a games console. It's meant to be a device like a DVD player: you stick it under your TV, plug it in and off you go. No worrying about cooling, no patches, no crashes, no maintenance tasks. Otherwise you might as well game on a PC.
That's assuming sales continue at the same rate, hasn't the 360 just had several system-seller games released (Gears of War, Lost Planet, Blue Dragon) which could have given it a short-term spike? Wii's sales are limited by production at the moment, and the system-selling titles aren't even out yet (Mario, Metroid etc.).
There's no such direct democracy in the UK (do many countries have that level of direct democracy, in fact?). The petition site was set up by the government so that people can make their own petitions like this, but they have no power at all. Even if they get over a million signatures, as has happened recently with the anti-road-pricing petition.
Some cynics say that the main reason for the existence of the site is to harvest emails: you have to give your email address in order to 'sign' a petition, and the government is the permitted to send you 2 emails explaining why your point of view is wrong.
In what way is the PS2 a good platform? It won the last generation based on advertising, licensing agreements and by building up a huge game library. It had the worst graphics and controller of the last generation and long load times.
How much more sense does it make to watch a movie in these 90 minutes? It is basically like watching a movie anyways, but with interaction!
If you seriously think randomly wandering around completing fetch/kill X monster quests is as engaging as a good movie, there is something very wrong with you.
As I understand it, UK law has an "in good faith" pricing clause to cover pricing errors - if the incorrect price could 'reasonably' be seen as the price of the item, then the company must honour it. I think you're right that it doesn't work retroactively once you've sent the goods out.
You probably should have packed your bags earlier, then. David Mitchell has done voiceover work for adverts in the past: poppadoms and mouth ulcer cream are two I remember off the top of my head.
I read the article, not sure I understand it properly (not that that generally seems to stop a lot of people commenting)
It seems to be suggesting that SL is a pyramid scheme because the only way to get your in-game profits out of the game into US dollars is to sell your Linden Dollars to someone. However, as most of the money is controlled by Linden, unless there are lots of people willing to buy Linden Dollars, it's very hard to sell them. So in order to make money, you'd have to have a constant stream of people joining the game and buying Linden dollars, which makes it look like a pyramid scheme.
Does that seem an accurate summary?
Agreed, the new UI makes it much easier to find functions and to discover those you didn't even know about before. Plus the new file format is smaller and far better documented than the old binary format.
I guess I must be imagining the damp, mould, leaks, draughts and appalling noise insulation in my "designed for the local climate" Victorian terrace then.
Slashdot Mirror
Again, how is "their new XML is as poorly defined as any of their formats"? You have pointed out that there are a few, legacy, parts of the specification that aren't defined. What we have for XML is several thousand pages of detailed specifications, compared to close to nothing before. How is that not better?
What do you mean "as poorly defined"? With the binary formats there was basically no documentation: now we have detailed vendor-supplied documentation of virtually the entire XML format. How is that not an improvement?
Maybe they only count PalmOS as half an OS?
You have to define what a game being art means. Videogames are an art form of their own, you can't judge them by the same standards as films or music. Personally, I think there is art in, for example, Mario64's level design and its perfect blend of challenge, reward and novelty.
Looks like we've hit the Linux Fault Threshold.
Exactly, I'm not sure why the GP is modded so high: is this how low expectations are of linux? You could do most of the functions he describes on a decent PDA. The problem for Linux is that, even if it can provide 90% of the functionality, it's the remaining 10% that's going to annoy people - the webcam that won't work, the lack of a large base of commercial software, the lack of syncing software for PDAs/phones etc.
I've done it several times using iDVD. Things like hacking together a DVD show reel for an actress friend.
That's just not true IME (UK). Every business person I know/see has a smartphone: something like a SE P910, Blackberry, Nokia N73 etc. I see huge numbers of people with SE K800i/K750's, which are close to being smartphones, or one of the SE Walkman phones. The feature phone/smartphone market is huge these days.
It's a games console. It's meant to be a device like a DVD player: you stick it under your TV, plug it in and off you go. No worrying about cooling, no patches, no crashes, no maintenance tasks. Otherwise you might as well game on a PC.
That's assuming sales continue at the same rate, hasn't the 360 just had several system-seller games released (Gears of War, Lost Planet, Blue Dragon) which could have given it a short-term spike? Wii's sales are limited by production at the moment, and the system-selling titles aren't even out yet (Mario, Metroid etc.).
There's no such direct democracy in the UK (do many countries have that level of direct democracy, in fact?). The petition site was set up by the government so that people can make their own petitions like this, but they have no power at all. Even if they get over a million signatures, as has happened recently with the anti-road-pricing petition. Some cynics say that the main reason for the existence of the site is to harvest emails: you have to give your email address in order to 'sign' a petition, and the government is the permitted to send you 2 emails explaining why your point of view is wrong.
In what way is the PS2 a good platform? It won the last generation based on advertising, licensing agreements and by building up a huge game library. It had the worst graphics and controller of the last generation and long load times.
How much more sense does it make to watch a movie in these 90 minutes? It is basically like watching a movie anyways, but with interaction! If you seriously think randomly wandering around completing fetch/kill X monster quests is as engaging as a good movie, there is something very wrong with you.
As I understand it, UK law has an "in good faith" pricing clause to cover pricing errors - if the incorrect price could 'reasonably' be seen as the price of the item, then the company must honour it. I think you're right that it doesn't work retroactively once you've sent the goods out.
That's the problem with all Symbian phones in my experience.
You probably should have packed your bags earlier, then. David Mitchell has done voiceover work for adverts in the past: poppadoms and mouth ulcer cream are two I remember off the top of my head.
If they can get us to brush our tongues, they can get us to buy a Mac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlbSMclD6H8
I read the article, not sure I understand it properly (not that that generally seems to stop a lot of people commenting) It seems to be suggesting that SL is a pyramid scheme because the only way to get your in-game profits out of the game into US dollars is to sell your Linden Dollars to someone. However, as most of the money is controlled by Linden, unless there are lots of people willing to buy Linden Dollars, it's very hard to sell them. So in order to make money, you'd have to have a constant stream of people joining the game and buying Linden dollars, which makes it look like a pyramid scheme. Does that seem an accurate summary?
A day for a level in Mario? Perhaps if you're blind and playing by audio description, otherwise I'd say more like 10-30 minutes per level.
Agreed, the new UI makes it much easier to find functions and to discover those you didn't even know about before. Plus the new file format is smaller and far better documented than the old binary format.
I guess I must be imagining the damp, mould, leaks, draughts and appalling noise insulation in my "designed for the local climate" Victorian terrace then.