Because no one takes the ESRB ratings seriously. The only issue is that an M/AO rating can keep a title out of the big market stores (IE Walmart), hurting sales. If you're pushing the envelope, you don't necessarily want your game there anyway. If you make it good enough people will get it anyway.
On that note, does anyone know steam's policy on M/AO games?
My wife just completed her B. Ed. and apparently it's not just almost impossible to fail someone, it's completely impossible. There's no "F" anymore. The report card reflects that they're below what they need to be at, but they go on to the next grade anyway. And the worst part is, the kids know this. Between that and not being able to discipline kids at all we're a 1/2 step away from having tie dyed shirts as uniforms and classes on hugging. I'm (hopefully) going to be a parent in the not too distant future. I hope all the lava lamp lickers in our education system have come to their senses by then.
We have/had something similar here, except more broad. There were 3 tracks:
1) Advanced - Going to University
2) General - Going to community college
3) Basic - I like soup
That was in the mid/late 90s and they've since made the names a little more "PC". Each was geared to get the student what they needed for after highschool, without pigeonholing them into a specific field. Also, it was on a course by course basis so that people weak in certain areas but strong in others could tailor their classes along those lines.
It's a good system, except that because students who should have been in basic math wanted to be in general and general in advanced they would dumb down classes. All because teachers/councilors didn't have the balls to tell students, "You really should be in general/basic." So the students who should be there suffer from the progress being held back. This has rolled over into the community colleges where we have students entering Journalism who don't have a basic grasp of the English language and students entering Computer Programming who've never turned on a computer. Again they lower the bar so that people's feelings don't get hurt, and the people who really should be there suffer for it.
Sorry for the slight tangent. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine.
can someone explain a situation where a computer would need to have its firewall dropped totally merely to transfer data from one system to another? A) Laziness (didn't want to set up a VPN or just open the necessary ports)
B) PEBKAC (didn't know how to do the above, or at least do it properly)
C) ID Ten T (knew how to do it, but didn't think it was a "big deal")
D) Some combination of A, B and C
Unfortunately? I think it's fortunate. The record companies are the ones bankrolling the RIAA. It's better that they're held responsible then some shadow company they've created to shield themselves from the public.
Java is a nice toy programming language, for those people who can't afford a 'real' compiler, Like Borland, or Even Microsoft. Hell, even GCC does a better job than most java interpreters. That's just golden.
No, not really. In this case Microsoft is pushing a format that is apparently decent and even has advantages over the competition. In the case of ODF/OOXML they're pushing an "open" format that is not truly open that could cause interoperability problems with other software (which goes against the entire point of an open file format).
That puts us right back where we started. The idea, at least from the consumers, was that having linux pre-installed -should- be cheaper (or at the very least the same price) and that could bring people who otherwise wouldn't go to linux.
Dell appears to be trying to make it even less attractive to try linux. Not only do you pay the same even though the OS is free, but you get inferior hardware. Where do I sign up? -.-
There's a difference between having nothing to hide and having nothing illegal to hide. I'm a fairly law abiding citizen, but there's still legal things I do that I don't want people to know about. Should the government be able to subpoena my cable company to find out I watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer?... I hope not.
You may want to consider Apple. They have the means (money). Destabilizing MS will cause some customers to look elsewhere, and the logical places for them to look are Mac and Linux giving motive (market share). Give them opportunity with MS being in violation of GPLv3 licensing and I think we have our suspect.
Example, I downloaded Apache back when it was covered by GPL2. I can make changes to it and distribute those changes under v2 or v3 if I want to. The people who made Apache cannot force me to upgrade to v3. However, now that v3 is out, Apache will be distributed under v3. If I now download Apache, I'm stuck in version 3. Exactly. They can put developers to work keeping old v2 code updated themselves (IE their own fork of the software), which is going to hurt them. Or they can follow the OSS community in adopting v3, which they obviously don't want to do. There's no good option for them. Their declaration that v3 doesn't apply to them is them realizing this and saying, "Oh $&^%!"
Because no one takes the ESRB ratings seriously. The only issue is that an M/AO rating can keep a title out of the big market stores (IE Walmart), hurting sales. If you're pushing the envelope, you don't necessarily want your game there anyway. If you make it good enough people will get it anyway.
On that note, does anyone know steam's policy on M/AO games?
People here constantly say MS is full of shit. If you're right, we'll get to see if they're full of piss too.
My wife just completed her B. Ed. and apparently it's not just almost impossible to fail someone, it's completely impossible. There's no "F" anymore. The report card reflects that they're below what they need to be at, but they go on to the next grade anyway. And the worst part is, the kids know this. Between that and not being able to discipline kids at all we're a 1/2 step away from having tie dyed shirts as uniforms and classes on hugging. I'm (hopefully) going to be a parent in the not too distant future. I hope all the lava lamp lickers in our education system have come to their senses by then.
We have/had something similar here, except more broad. There were 3 tracks:
1) Advanced - Going to University
2) General - Going to community college
3) Basic - I like soup
That was in the mid/late 90s and they've since made the names a little more "PC". Each was geared to get the student what they needed for after highschool, without pigeonholing them into a specific field. Also, it was on a course by course basis so that people weak in certain areas but strong in others could tailor their classes along those lines.
It's a good system, except that because students who should have been in basic math wanted to be in general and general in advanced they would dumb down classes. All because teachers/councilors didn't have the balls to tell students, "You really should be in general/basic." So the students who should be there suffer from the progress being held back. This has rolled over into the community colleges where we have students entering Journalism who don't have a basic grasp of the English language and students entering Computer Programming who've never turned on a computer. Again they lower the bar so that people's feelings don't get hurt, and the people who really should be there suffer for it.
Sorry for the slight tangent. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine.
B) PEBKAC (didn't know how to do the above, or at least do it properly)
C) ID Ten T (knew how to do it, but didn't think it was a "big deal")
D) Some combination of A, B and C
Unfortunately? I think it's fortunate. The record companies are the ones bankrolling the RIAA. It's better that they're held responsible then some shadow company they've created to shield themselves from the public.
It was just a jab/joke at MS's expense. I hadn't seen the full clip though, just the shorter edited one. Thanks.
Cancel or Allow?
I'm not sure Microsoft should be gaging text->voice software with their track record with voice->text software. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Y_Jp6PxsSQ
"Imagine a Beowulf clust... oh wait."
No, not really. In this case Microsoft is pushing a format that is apparently decent and even has advantages over the competition. In the case of ODF/OOXML they're pushing an "open" format that is not truly open that could cause interoperability problems with other software (which goes against the entire point of an open file format).
Or counter-strike. God help us if they figure out that running with their knives out is faster.
Jihadist's PoM Pyroblast crits an M1A1 for 13,000 HP M1A1 assplodes Think of the children.
Along with plants, actresses will donate large amounts of the cellulose too be processed.
That puts us right back where we started. The idea, at least from the consumers, was that having linux pre-installed -should- be cheaper (or at the very least the same price) and that could bring people who otherwise wouldn't go to linux. Dell appears to be trying to make it even less attractive to try linux. Not only do you pay the same even though the OS is free, but you get inferior hardware. Where do I sign up? -.-
There's a difference between having nothing to hide and having nothing illegal to hide. I'm a fairly law abiding citizen, but there's still legal things I do that I don't want people to know about. Should the government be able to subpoena my cable company to find out I watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer?... I hope not.
See, that's why you should be like everyone else and not RTFA.
Considering how many /.ers don't bother to RTFA, I think this crowd may be biased...
You may want to consider Apple. They have the means (money). Destabilizing MS will cause some customers to look elsewhere, and the logical places for them to look are Mac and Linux giving motive (market share). Give them opportunity with MS being in violation of GPLv3 licensing and I think we have our suspect.
Sweet Jesus. Why didn't he moon them while he's at it?
The issue being brought up is if they used tactics that took the decision -away- from the customer.
Unfortunately the Necronomicon is hidden in a humidor somewhere in Canada. Bruce went to get it, but customs won't let him bring it back.
Sounds like someone needs a hug.