Well... it used to be that I had plenty of time for games. I loved the really complex ones, especially strategy, with me sitting 12h in front of the PC.
These days - well, I come home from work and want something fast and brainless, where half an hour is okay. Something like the "Painkiller" FPS, for example. While I do have Civ, GalCiv and the like, I really hardly play them anymore....besides, programming your own games is actually more fun, even if you do need some brain time for it;)
Yes, brilliant idea. Let's build a huge half-sphere shield, nice and thick, and detonate a series of nuclear bombs underneath it. The advantage: yes, it can carry a VERY heavy load into orbit. The disadvantage: oh, I have to tell you? Perhaps I should say that Palin would like this concept and simply leave it at that.
See, I bought GalCiv II some time ago, and installed it onto my new PC. Registering and updating it, I saw that they still know that I bought GalCiv I from them, quite some time ago. So, with a simple mouseclick, I downloaded and installed that as well.
That's what I want in a company. And, um, I really don't see any DRM. To get upgrades/extensions/patches, you have to register, yes. I'm willing to do that.
Same here - I bought Galactic Civilization I and II from these guys.
Reasons, in order of importance for me:
* Very good, personal and friendly support, both email and forums. * Not too high prices for a very good game. * Needs to be registered to be updated - and they update quite a lot, making a buy definitively worth it. * Complete lack of any DRM nonsense. * Great game.
Compare this to the 'normal' games you see on the shelf... would explain why I haven't bought a shelf game in years, and I used to buy a LOT.
Personally, I believe this to be the main reason for all this moronic behavior: it is very useful to be able to snoop on foreign companies having offices in the UK. YOu'll be able to allow your own industry to outbid the competition, amongst other things.
Obviously, this is a kindergarden mentality, caused by politicians incapable of looking ahead: a lot of companies are going to leave the UK, never to return. Which will have rather negative effects, obviously.
And, hey, this has been done before: german ICE vs french IGV. The french chaps won through spying on the germans;)
*shrug* Spend a few days in jail until asked for the key, have all your hardware and email logs confiscated, and then prove that you have the rights to this film, instead of having (illegally) downloaded it from somewhere... Probably get added to the "possible terrorist" list anyway.
Giving the key does not help all that much, after all...
"What's the worst? Gitmo? I don't think so" - but I do. They'll simply claim that you're obviously a terrorist, that you probably planned some or other eeeeevil thing, and that the contents of your key might save hundreds of lives. Obviously they'll ship you to their good friends in the US, and you will very definitively remember the key. By then it's too late, of course, as you will not be let back out. Could result in bad press, you know.
I guarantee this would get ALL of you arrested. Your house would be raided, your computers confiscated, yourself dragged off into prison (to wait until a court has time for you) for a nicely long time.
Finally, after weeks of enjoying your newly-found prison life, they will accuse you of "possibly thinking about trying to start a terroristic union (as shown in deliberate attacks on gouverment projects) which might want to plan a terrorist attack", you'll be off again to a special prison, and might even get sent to The Beloved Friends to get tortured.
"You can trust the highly trustworthy, never corrupt Federal government to keep the corrupt local government's fingers out of that database and to never misuse that database itself."
And you can also trust the gouverment to keep a reeeeeal close eye on the data, and not leave it on a DVD/laptop/harddrive/USB stick in the street/subway/restaurant/train.
Well, when the mouse came out, it was for use with GUIs - made immediate, perfect sense. Did not catch on immediately, as the primary user interface back then was the text screen...
I noticed this, too. Especially, as you can get 'look-changers' for some cars, adding small metal plates to the front lights, causing your car to look more angry.
This kind of thing is simple needed by the kind of people who also buy SUV (Square Ugly Vehicle): compensation. I keep thinking of the movie "Shrek", when they see the kings huge castle for the first time: "Think he's trying to... compensate for something?".
An angry car looks much stronger, wilder, cooler, better - and if you have a rather low self-confidence, you'll obviously need it...
PS: I drive a "smart roadster" (http://breueronline.de/klaus/roadster/index.html) - seen from the front, it smiles at you;)
While this article shows an artists impression of a huge asteroid striking our planet, text like "No deaths have been reported yet." and talking about equivalency to nuclear devices.
This kind of article belongs in a bottom-of-the-line newspaper like the german "Bild" or some crappy little website, but not on Slashdot, thanks.
Yet another super-duper-racing car, of which they'll sell a couple hundred (if they're lucky), and that's that. No way will they actually make a profit from this. Probably designed so the CEO can drive it and feel cool.
I liked Far Cry. Great graphics (yes, I have a high-end PC), fun gameplay - until we met the aliens. Then it rapidly turned boring. It was exactly the same again in Crysis: great fun, nice graphics, sneaking and shooting and snipering and ramboing - nice. Until we met the aliens. Then it rapidly turned boring, even worse than Far Cry.
Now there's another game along these lines? No, thanks. Had enough of boring aliens. Especially if I see this line in the review: "Be aware that Warhead ships with the same DRM as Spore". This alone kills the whole idea stone dead for me.
However, here in Germany, you cannot return an opened computer game, plain and simple. Another reason I hardly buy any games these days. Besides, I have quite a few nice (old) games, and I find interesting Indies on the net; prefere to support these (money goes directly, 100%, to the developers).
...especially considering that Slashdot is read world-wide, and (for example) us Europeans usually do not order from the US onliners (not just the different voltage, but postage and, especially, border taxes).
Me? I found a street dealer I trust. Pay about 10% more than online, but he's really worth it.
Ummm... why don't you simply try it out? Motherboards are pretty cheap these days; try doing this, and write of your experiences. Much more interesting than simply asking "Should I do this?".
...there will be lots of comments along the lines of "Hey, I use Adblock Plus, it's good!".
I'll admit that I more or less forgot about advertising on the 'net, and was quite horrified when I saw somebody browsing without an ad blocker. The screen was crammed with idiotic messages, stupid images, blathering animations. The net actually looks completely messed-up, swamped in advertisements (most of them obviously created by waaaay-below-average-IQ people).
Sheesh, am I glad I found an ad blocker. Blocking some data actually makes the net more useful (as long as it isn't the state defining what is to be blocked).
Issues? I'll be dead. Take all you can, especially if it helps other people - I won't need it anymore. Use the remains to teach students at the university, and burn the rest.
Seriously, people who claim their bodies to be holy and untouchable after death are more than just a bit nuts. Would you prefere your body parts to remain useful, or would you rather feed maggots with them?
It's what caused East Germany (the DDR) to fall in 1989. Several million (yes, million!) people were on the streets every day, chanting the (now forgotten?) line "Wir sind das Volk!" ("We are the people!").
It happened only once so far. Let's watch the USA during its collapse, and see if it'll happen there as well.
Slashdot Mirror
Well... it used to be that I had plenty of time for games. I loved the really complex ones, especially strategy, with me sitting 12h in front of the PC.
These days - well, I come home from work and want something fast and brainless, where half an hour is okay. Something like the "Painkiller" FPS, for example. While I do have Civ, GalCiv and the like, I really hardly play them anymore. ...besides, programming your own games is actually more fun, even if you do need some brain time for it ;)
Yes, brilliant idea. Let's build a huge half-sphere shield, nice and thick, and detonate a series of nuclear bombs underneath it.
The advantage: yes, it can carry a VERY heavy load into orbit.
The disadvantage: oh, I have to tell you?
Perhaps I should say that Palin would like this concept and simply leave it at that.
Sounds... strange.
See, I bought GalCiv II some time ago, and installed it onto my new PC. Registering and updating it, I saw that they still know that I bought GalCiv I from them, quite some time ago. So, with a simple mouseclick, I downloaded and installed that as well.
That's what I want in a company. And, um, I really don't see any DRM. To get upgrades/extensions/patches, you have to register, yes. I'm willing to do that.
Same here - I bought Galactic Civilization I and II from these guys.
Reasons, in order of importance for me:
* Very good, personal and friendly support, both email and forums.
* Not too high prices for a very good game.
* Needs to be registered to be updated - and they update quite a lot, making a buy definitively worth it.
* Complete lack of any DRM nonsense.
* Great game.
Compare this to the 'normal' games you see on the shelf... would explain why I haven't bought a shelf game in years, and I used to buy a LOT.
Personally, I believe this to be the main reason for all this moronic behavior: it is very useful to be able to snoop on foreign companies having offices in the UK. YOu'll be able to allow your own industry to outbid the competition, amongst other things.
Obviously, this is a kindergarden mentality, caused by politicians incapable of looking ahead: a lot of companies are going to leave the UK, never to return. Which will have rather negative effects, obviously.
And, hey, this has been done before: german ICE vs french IGV. The french chaps won through spying on the germans ;)
*shrug* Spend a few days in jail until asked for the key, have all your hardware and email logs confiscated, and then prove that you have the rights to this film, instead of having (illegally) downloaded it from somewhere...
Probably get added to the "possible terrorist" list anyway.
Giving the key does not help all that much, after all...
And you think they'll believe you?
"What's the worst? Gitmo? I don't think so" - but I do. They'll simply claim that you're obviously a terrorist, that you probably planned some or other eeeeevil thing, and that the contents of your key might save hundreds of lives.
Obviously they'll ship you to their good friends in the US, and you will very definitively remember the key. By then it's too late, of course, as you will not be let back out. Could result in bad press, you know.
I guarantee this would get ALL of you arrested. Your house would be raided, your computers confiscated, yourself dragged off into prison (to wait until a court has time for you) for a nicely long time.
Finally, after weeks of enjoying your newly-found prison life, they will accuse you of "possibly thinking about trying to start a terroristic union (as shown in deliberate attacks on gouverment projects) which might want to plan a terrorist attack", you'll be off again to a special prison, and might even get sent to The Beloved Friends to get tortured.
Yes, I'm quite serious.
Still interested in doing this?
"You can trust the highly trustworthy, never corrupt Federal government to keep the corrupt local government's fingers out of that database and to never misuse that database itself."
And you can also trust the gouverment to keep a reeeeeal close eye on the data, and not leave it on a DVD/laptop/harddrive/USB stick in the street/subway/restaurant/train.
Trust your gouverment.
Well, when the mouse came out, it was for use with GUIs - made immediate, perfect sense.
Did not catch on immediately, as the primary user interface back then was the text screen...
I noticed this, too. Especially, as you can get 'look-changers' for some cars, adding small metal plates to the front lights, causing your car to look more angry.
This kind of thing is simple needed by the kind of people who also buy SUV (Square Ugly Vehicle): compensation. I keep thinking of the movie "Shrek", when they see the kings huge castle for the first time: "Think he's trying to... compensate for something?".
An angry car looks much stronger, wilder, cooler, better - and if you have a rather low self-confidence, you'll obviously need it...
PS: I drive a "smart roadster" (http://breueronline.de/klaus/roadster/index.html) - seen from the front, it smiles at you ;)
Yes, we know - an asteroid was tracked, blew up just as expected, and that's it. Have a look at the very nice "Bad Astronomy" site:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/06/incoming-2/
While this article shows an artists impression of a huge asteroid striking our planet, text like "No deaths have been reported yet." and talking about equivalency to nuclear devices.
This kind of article belongs in a bottom-of-the-line newspaper like the german "Bild" or some crappy little website, but not on Slashdot, thanks.
...in this whole affair is that the UK gouverment handed a UK citizen over to the USA for something he was accused of in the USA, not the UK.
The very concept of handing over your own citizens to a different country is absolutely disgusting.
...put it into the microwave for about one second.
Yup, I tried it, and it works for me - cheap red crap from the shop suddenly tastes quite a lot better; the sharp bite of cheap junk is gone :-)
*shrug*
Yet another super-duper-racing car, of which they'll sell a couple hundred (if they're lucky), and that's that. No way will they actually make a profit from this.
Probably designed so the CEO can drive it and feel cool.
> reward pharmaceutical companies financially for publishing all results
What a brilliant idea. If that actually occurs, I'll immediately buy large amounts of stock in these companies. And then read their reports:
"Report on whale pee on cancer: unsuccessful"
"Report on heavy wishing on cancer: unsuccessful"
"Report on digital watches on cancer: unsuccessful"
The three reports above will already pull in a couple of ten thousand bucks...
I liked Far Cry.
Great graphics (yes, I have a high-end PC), fun gameplay - until we met the aliens. Then it rapidly turned boring.
It was exactly the same again in Crysis: great fun, nice graphics, sneaking and shooting and snipering and ramboing - nice. Until we met the aliens. Then it rapidly turned boring, even worse than Far Cry.
Now there's another game along these lines? No, thanks. Had enough of boring aliens.
Especially if I see this line in the review: "Be aware that Warhead ships with the same DRM as Spore". This alone kills the whole idea stone dead for me.
I'd love to do this.
However, here in Germany, you cannot return an opened computer game, plain and simple.
Another reason I hardly buy any games these days. Besides, I have quite a few nice (old) games, and I find interesting Indies on the net; prefere to support these (money goes directly, 100%, to the developers).
...especially considering that Slashdot is read world-wide, and (for example) us Europeans usually do not order from the US onliners (not just the different voltage, but postage and, especially, border taxes).
Me? I found a street dealer I trust. Pay about 10% more than online, but he's really worth it.
Ummm... why don't you simply try it out? Motherboards are pretty cheap these days; try doing this, and write of your experiences. Much more interesting than simply asking "Should I do this?".
...there will be lots of comments along the lines of "Hey, I use Adblock Plus, it's good!".
I'll admit that I more or less forgot about advertising on the 'net, and was quite horrified when I saw somebody browsing without an ad blocker. The screen was crammed with idiotic messages, stupid images, blathering animations. The net actually looks completely messed-up, swamped in advertisements (most of them obviously created by waaaay-below-average-IQ people).
Sheesh, am I glad I found an ad blocker. Blocking some data actually makes the net more useful (as long as it isn't the state defining what is to be blocked).
Issues?
I'll be dead. Take all you can, especially if it helps other people - I won't need it anymore. Use the remains to teach students at the university, and burn the rest.
Seriously, people who claim their bodies to be holy and untouchable after death are more than just a bit nuts. Would you prefere your body parts to remain useful, or would you rather feed maggots with them?
Depends on the amount of people marching out.
It's what caused East Germany (the DDR) to fall in 1989. Several million (yes, million!) people were on the streets every day, chanting the (now forgotten?) line "Wir sind das Volk!" ("We are the people!").
It happened only once so far. Let's watch the USA during its collapse, and see if it'll happen there as well.
...I have no confidence in somebody who talks about " a thousand percent confident", sorry. Sounds like he's read too many cheap adverts.
Solution given: use cameras, lots of them, make sure they can see everything.
Most probably location of poster: UK.