Don't get me wrong; I'm not advocating piracy. I don't think you should be able to use a single seat license on multiple computers at the same time. Microsoft has every right to their buck when selling the operating system.
However, I do have a problem with the erosion of fair use. I don't think I should have to give Microsoft a call every time I want to change a piece of hardware on my machine and I think the whole "activation" setup is like planned obsolescence. I do realize that very few hardware installs will actually have this effect, and I understand there's a way to get around having to reactivate Windows by saving your previous activation files. From my perspective, though, these are unacceptable.
I should also point out the fact that I have never, ever pirated Windows XP. I have two licenses of Windows XP; one with my decrepit, 5 year old laptop and one with the system I built myself. The laptop itself was marginally functional at the time I built my system; I wanted to tranfer the license to my new machine, and recycle (as in install Linux or trash) the old computer. I was unable to use what I fairly purchased, and it irked me quite a bit. My consternation did not save me the fee of obtaining another license, though. As for successfully transferring an OEM license, I am referring to a machine my employer bought to be used as a Linux server; Windows XP was unwanted, but came pre-installed only to be wiped out immediately upon arrival. Later on, there was a machine that had to run a special piece of software, and only under Windows XP Home/Pro for support reasons; this machine originally had "Media Center" preloaded on it. Instead of shelling out the $200 to a local Office Max for the privilege of "downgrading", I transferred the UNUSED license from the other machine. I'm sure there are plenty of things in a EULA that make this "wrong", but how is that not fair use? Furthermore, the academic institute that employs me is still stuck holding an unwanted Media Center license.
I don't know, perhaps my thinking is wrongheaded on this, but I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. I'm not selling, pirating, or illegally copying anything; I'm just trying to use what has been paid for.
Not entirely true, unfortunately. I've been on both sides of the fence; successful transfers of OEM license to a different computer, as well as getting shut down by the representative.
I remember back in 2001 or so when I purchased a Dell laptop with OEM XP Home. Activation was pretty painless of course, except I was in Japan without an internet connection and had to reinstall Windows. Try talking to one of these reps in a language you barely speak, but I digress... Fast forwrd to 2003 when I built a desktop, and successfully transferred the license over with no problem whatsoever (maybe because I activated it in Japan?). After a failure of some sort, I had to reinstall Windows XP again and called the activation hotline. I let drop the fact that I had transfered the license from my laptop, which got me into an argument with the rep, who ended by saying, "You shouldn't have been able to activate it in the first place; it was a fluke". I believe my product key was flagged as well; I vaguely recall attempting to call once more with no luck. I had mistakenly thought the license I had purchased was actually mine. Ah, the folly of youth...
Basically, it seems that the person you get to talk to has full control of whether your system activates or not. Luckily, much like the McDonald's cook you mention, the activation reps really don't care about their job; they aren't getting bonuses for customer service nor for helping Microsoft milk a few more licenses out of you. By not volunteering certain information, you can get it to successfully activate, but often if you honestly explain the situation, it will generally go in Microsoft's favor; you paying more money for another license you don't really own.
Teaches me to attempt to comment before my morning coffee...^_^ I meant to write "Are you using an original, non-pirated/copied version of the software", but it got lost somewhere between my brain and the keyboard.
One thing is, the people in India handling the activation really don't care too much, and, as long as you don't volunteer certain information, will happily hand out the magic 42 digit number that makes everything work. I've even used this to transfer an XP OEM license to an entirely different computer (shhh!).
However, it sounds like the problem is coming from the install media; perhaps a partition on the drive that copies over a disk image, or maybe an OEM install that checks for the correct hardware? I think the best thing to do would be to go download/find/borrow a real Windows XP disk of the correct "flavor"; probably Home, possibly Media Center, etc. If he does have the actual disk, he could try creating a pre-install environment using BartPE and then adding in the extra drivers for his mobo, but it's probably better to just find a disk.
Once he actually gets it installed, he'll probably have trouble activating it, which will involve calling Microsoft and going through the following song and dance: 1. Give the computer your product key. 2. It will fail, and transfer you to a representative. 3. They ask for the last 6 digits you gave to the automated system; give it to them and state you are reinstalling Windows XP. 4. They will ask you several questsions, answer as follows: a) Is it installed only on this computer? Yes. b) Did you pirate the software or (sometimes) are you using the same OEM disk? Yes. c) Are you reinstalling Windows XP? Yes.
Usually at this point they will give you the magic 42 digit number to make your computer yours again. Occasionally, they will ask about hardware upgrades, in which case you have two options: 1) tell them the truth and don't get your copy to activate, or 2) outright lie. If your scruples won't let you do the latter, you can tell the representative you have something else to go do (probably true), and call back later, hoping for a less diligent employee. As I stated above, I've used this process to switch Windows XP Home OEM licenses to computers with entirely different hardware, so I can't imagine a motherboard giving you too much trouble.
I think it may well be a MMO Diablo game; it shares more in common with World of Warcraft than Starcraft does, and it seems that Sci-Fi based MMOs as a whole haven't gone over as well as Fantasy based ones.
Of course, you could be right, it could be a Universe of Starcraft and possibly Planetside-esque. Everquest->WoW, Planetside->UoS; another chance to beat SOE at their own game, no pun intended. ^_^ It would also explain the whole Starcraft:Ghost fiasco; UoS wouldn't look nearly so innovative if that game came out...
Well, I believe it may have something to do with the ability to upgrade the HDD; that $100 could easily buy you a 120GB hard drive, if you're willing to forego the features you mentioned.
I'm not really sure what kind of purpose this would serve at the moment, but maybe people are hoping that the PS3 will soon be hacked like the PSP was...? ^_^
Thanks, I'll give this a try. The last time I tried, I did use the patch and got it to run, but it would crash at seemingly random intervals of a couple minutes. I hadn't heard about the command line switches, or the "safe_texture_manager" in the.cfg file though; maybe that will fix the problem. ^_^
I guess I should give another go at trying to get the first one properly setup as well.
I concur wholeheartedly; a true System Shock sequel would be wonderful. Bioshock looks good, but it seems to be quite a different experience. I would even settle for a re-hash of the first two; my current system doesn't play nice with either of them, despite trying several emulation solutions like VDMSound and DosBox. -_-
In the same vein, I would love to see a GOOD Deus Ex sequel/update. Invisible War just seemed to be lacking what made the original so great; the customization, the many approaches to the same situation, the substance abuse...^_^
Just another one of Zonk's oddly worded summaries; 687k is how much the Xbox 360 sold in December 2005, at which point it was available in North America, Europe, and Japan. I think Zonk is trying to compare launch performance; the 360 launched during November in North America, and was followed closely with Europe and Japan launches in December, whereas the Wii had a simultaneous launch (I think...) in the beginning of December.
For the December 2006, Microsoft sold 1.1 million Xbox 360 consoles, following along with the Wii. Although, it should be noted that the Wii is probably still experiencing supply shortages.
Don't get me wrong; I love American cars. I have a 68 Cutlass Supreme that I'm trying to restore, and a a 63 Mercury Comet. They're the kind of cars my grandparents drove, during the nostalgic 60s when gas prices were low, and economic expansion high. However, I wouldn't want to drive them on a road in Japan. ^_^ I also mostly drive my 89 Nissan Sentra now since gas is a bit more expensive than it was in the 60s. And that's the main problem I was driving at; America does make good cars, but they're good cars for America, not necessarily elsewhere. America enjoys its SUVs and pickups, which just aren't going to fly overseas. Not to hype on only Japan, you can see a more light hearted explanation here (this one's from Europe!). I can't confirm this other than my empirical observations during many trips to Japan, but I don't think you can actually get a Toyota Tacoma in Japan, where it's known as a Hilux; they don't want them. Sure, you can get a Hilux Surf (read Forerunner), but in Japan, the only thing a pickup would be used for is work, and they have vehicles better suited to this utility.
I think you're right, though; it's turning around. America is producing good cars; the engineering and designs are there. However, they're still being engineered/designed under this "one world" philosophy; that everything is the same everywhere as it is here. If American automotive makers recognize this and start designing cars to target an area, they'll start seeing success in foreign markets.
As for the jobs, it is sad to see, but its indicative of overall change in the US. We have moved out of the industrial age into an intellectual one. We no longer produce tangible goods, we produce IP. We design hardware to be manufactured elsewhere, design software to be used around the world, create entertainment franchises to be exported to all sorts of countries. It used to be you could have a good, family-supporting, lifelong job with a high school education; now you almost need a bachelor's or even master's degree. Is this a "good" or "bad" thing? It's not that simple. I enjoy my software development job, to be honest. Sometimes I feel like throwing out my keyboard and mouse in favor of a wrench and hammer, but most days when I come in to work, I'm glad to have a computer waiting for me at my desk. ^_^
I don't get where this perceived foreign discrimination in Japanese buying habbits comes from. Having spent a lot of time in Japan, I can tell you that it's patently not the case. Furthermore, it often operates in the opposite direction: Japanese consumers find American products cooler than Japanese ones, when they're practical. You'll see more iPods than any other music player nowadays, there's Coca-cola in every vending machine, and you'd be hard pressed to find a McDonald's that isn't packed during mealtimes.
A case that is always trotted out is American cars; why don't the Japanese buy them? It's pretty simple, really: they are not feasible in Japan. Have you ever been on a street in a major area of Tokyo? Except for major thoroughfares, most roads are a single lane, with a small green strip marked for pedestrians; these single lanes are only a bit bigger than half a lane on a standard American side street. It doesn't matter if America is making the best cars in the world; if it doesn't fit on the road, it's worthless. Something people usually ignore is the sales of other foreign auto manufacturers in Japan; you won't have any trouble at all finding a Mercedes Benz, a Volkswagen, a Volvo, a BWM, or a Mini in Japan. It's a hard pill to swallow, but it's true: our product is inferior; it ignores the conditions of the market.
Another case is the XBox; it had a fundamental design flaw in that there was no battery to maintain clock time, so if there was a power outtage or it was unplugged, it lost it's date/time settings. Not a big deal, right? Who unplugs their consoles when they're not in use? The Japanese do: they do this with most appliances to save electricity, and usually store video game consoles away when they're not being played. What seems to be a small issue suddenly becomes incredibly frustrating; how would you like it if everytime you want to play a game, an "Enter the date and time" screen pops up?
If American companies are going to become internationally viable, they have to get over this idea that we're the only ones in the world. We need to continue to innovate, even if we are already the leader in a field. We need to be more culturally understanding of other nations, and not try to force our mindset on them just because it works for us. Actually, maybe our overall foreign policy should incroporate these ideas too. ^_^
Tell me when you write a "simple" (non-AJAX) webpage that implements the same functionality as vi, and then we'll talk. ^_^
We're well into the 21st century, and I see as many text based facilities as at the end of the 20th century. Like it or not, the console is not going away.
If by "inferior by design" you mean "designed for different things".
It seems like you have a strong World of Warcraft bias, but I wouldn't completely disregard Guild Wars. Don't get me wrong, I love both Guild Wars and World of Warcraft, but they are definitely geared towards different play experiences.
Contrary to your post, Guild Wars is quite expertly designed. It's system allows for players to get into engaging gameplay without being a huge time sink, even down to its implementation of patching. What you list as its flaws are actually it's greatest features; it's instancing prevents things such as griefing, camping spawn points, and allows for fast travel. It focuses on careful choice of skills and weapons vs. level and equipment. In doing so, it sheds some of WoW's most grievous points, but also loses some of what makes WoW special. It largely depends on what kind of experience you want.
WoW allows for a large and vibrant world; you can run around in raids of 40 members, even if it's just to destroy a town of the opposing faction. You can participate in long, epic PvP struggles. In order to do this, though, you will have to join up with a serious guild, and commit a large portion of your time. In Guild Wars, you can jump in, and do most missions in around an hour, and if you don't want to bother forming a party, you can hire AI mercenaries. If you are interested in PvP, you can instantly create a max level character for that purpose. Guild Wars attempts to offered a more stream-lined experience, whereas World of Warcraft attempts an everything and the kitchen sink approach.
I think it is ignorant to say Guild Wars is the "inferior" game; it is just a different experience that World of Warcraft.
Posts like this really make me sad. While I do believe in a free society, and as such you are entitled to your opinion, it troubles me greatly to see such a failure of logic.
Who cares if there is evidence or not?
Our legal system cares; it is the basis of our free society that a person is innocent until proven guilty. To me, this is analogous to saying "the constitution is just a piece of paper", and breakdowns in reasoning such as these are what has led to the Patriot Act.
We don't need years of studies to determine if artificial kiddie porn is detrimental. The lack of it isn't going to cause global warming, mass killings, or cute furry kittens to die.
Fair enough; why don't we ban rap music, action movies, and violent video games while we're at it? According to your reasoning, since they have some small, unprovable possibility of inciting violence in a miniscule amount of people, and since it won't cause global warming or dead kitties, it's alright. We should also ban speech against the government as it might incite riots. See how easy this goes?
the person looking for this material is a victim
Or a potential victimizer. One thing that is always true is that people always want what they can't have. Actual pedophiles probably don't care about this one way or the other; they're going to be pedophiles anyway, and they need medical help. Banning this sort of synthesized pedophilic porn won't do a lick of good for them. For others, I would rather that people out to "satisfy their curiosity" would be able to use this instead of actual child pornography. I personally find it detestable, and would rather it didn't exist, but part of having a free society is the tolerance of others and their rights. I'd rather the KKK didn't exist as well, but as long as they operate within legal limits, they are entitled to their beliefs as well.
That's the really hard part about a discussion of a truly free society; it means you have to be tolerant of others thoughts and opinions, even when they drastically conflict with your own. I don't know about other countries, but I believe America has a long ways to go if it wants to become an actual free society.
Or we can succumb to fear and hatred rather than reasoning and tolerance; it's certainly a lot easier, isn't it?
Personally, I've always used m0n0wall since it can be run from a CD/floppy/flash drive, and the only experience I've ever had with IPCop was a bad one. I was working on a small project with a tight deadline, and it just completely failed at a crucial moment and I didn't give it a second look. Admittedly, it was configured by an idiot, so I am wondering:
What does IPCop offer that other options (m0n0wall, Smoothwall) don't?
What is the most barebones setup you can manage with it? By that I mean the smallest system requirements to get decent performance?
Personally, I'm wondering if Cohen's departure has anything to do with his position on the Novell/Microsoft deal? (look at the section labeled "Good for the Open Source Community")
While I enjoy imaginations of Linus giving Stuart Cohen the metaphorical/physical boot, I think the realistic interpretation of "leaving to pursue other open source opportunities" means "huge bed of cash to land on from Novell/Microsoft deal". After all, work with Novell is still considered "open source" in letter if not spirit. Perhaps he has a new job coinciding with Novell's plan to add support for Microsoft's OpenXML document type to Open Office?
DVD didnt fail because you had to buy a dongle to watch them on the Xbox, and the add-on-ness of the 360 hd player wont cause HD-DVD to fail. I think there's quite a difference between a $20 dongle and a $200 add-on, external unit.
I think a large part of what determines "good graphics" is seeing something done better than the games before it. It's sort of the "newness" that makes good graphics. Now, don't get me wrong, graphics comes way down on my list of priorities when I'm choosing a game, but I do appreciate well done graphics in consoles and PC games, especially since being a programmer myself, I have an appreciation for how hard it is to do. That aside, I have to say that when I look at the games from the original Playstation era that I once thought were visually amazing, I have to say they look quite a bit duller now. Back then my reaction was "Ooh, transperency!" whereas now I think to myself "Was there a time when this was cutting edge?".
I subscribe to the philosophy that video games are art, and as such, their beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Certainly some games have a timeless quality to their graphics, such as the oft sited Lucasarts adventure games. However, that doesn't mean that everyone will appreciate their charms like I do. Afterall, how many people do you know of now who would appreciate a Rembrandt or a Titian?
First Life is okay, but there's too much grinding for my taste. I spend 40+ hours a week farming money to support my weekend raids of the movie theatre, mall, and beach. Don't get me started on my food / pots / repair costs for just farming! Plus, my '89 Nissan Sentra mount costs me money every week in the form of gas.
Although, I will admit, First Life's, uh, "software" and "wetware"...excellent.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't get me wrong; I'm not advocating piracy. I don't think you should be able to use a single seat license on multiple computers at the same time. Microsoft has every right to their buck when selling the operating system.
However, I do have a problem with the erosion of fair use. I don't think I should have to give Microsoft a call every time I want to change a piece of hardware on my machine and I think the whole "activation" setup is like planned obsolescence. I do realize that very few hardware installs will actually have this effect, and I understand there's a way to get around having to reactivate Windows by saving your previous activation files. From my perspective, though, these are unacceptable.
I should also point out the fact that I have never, ever pirated Windows XP. I have two licenses of Windows XP; one with my decrepit, 5 year old laptop and one with the system I built myself. The laptop itself was marginally functional at the time I built my system; I wanted to tranfer the license to my new machine, and recycle (as in install Linux or trash) the old computer. I was unable to use what I fairly purchased, and it irked me quite a bit. My consternation did not save me the fee of obtaining another license, though. As for successfully transferring an OEM license, I am referring to a machine my employer bought to be used as a Linux server; Windows XP was unwanted, but came pre-installed only to be wiped out immediately upon arrival. Later on, there was a machine that had to run a special piece of software, and only under Windows XP Home/Pro for support reasons; this machine originally had "Media Center" preloaded on it. Instead of shelling out the $200 to a local Office Max for the privilege of "downgrading", I transferred the UNUSED license from the other machine. I'm sure there are plenty of things in a EULA that make this "wrong", but how is that not fair use? Furthermore, the academic institute that employs me is still stuck holding an unwanted Media Center license.
I don't know, perhaps my thinking is wrongheaded on this, but I don't think I'm doing anything wrong. I'm not selling, pirating, or illegally copying anything; I'm just trying to use what has been paid for.
Not entirely true, unfortunately. I've been on both sides of the fence; successful transfers of OEM license to a different computer, as well as getting shut down by the representative.
I remember back in 2001 or so when I purchased a Dell laptop with OEM XP Home. Activation was pretty painless of course, except I was in Japan without an internet connection and had to reinstall Windows. Try talking to one of these reps in a language you barely speak, but I digress... Fast forwrd to 2003 when I built a desktop, and successfully transferred the license over with no problem whatsoever (maybe because I activated it in Japan?). After a failure of some sort, I had to reinstall Windows XP again and called the activation hotline. I let drop the fact that I had transfered the license from my laptop, which got me into an argument with the rep, who ended by saying, "You shouldn't have been able to activate it in the first place; it was a fluke". I believe my product key was flagged as well; I vaguely recall attempting to call once more with no luck. I had mistakenly thought the license I had purchased was actually mine. Ah, the folly of youth...
Basically, it seems that the person you get to talk to has full control of whether your system activates or not. Luckily, much like the McDonald's cook you mention, the activation reps really don't care about their job; they aren't getting bonuses for customer service nor for helping Microsoft milk a few more licenses out of you. By not volunteering certain information, you can get it to successfully activate, but often if you honestly explain the situation, it will generally go in Microsoft's favor; you paying more money for another license you don't really own.
Teaches me to attempt to comment before my morning coffee...^_^ I meant to write "Are you using an original, non-pirated/copied version of the software", but it got lost somewhere between my brain and the keyboard.
One thing is, the people in India handling the activation really don't care too much, and, as long as you don't volunteer certain information, will happily hand out the magic 42 digit number that makes everything work. I've even used this to transfer an XP OEM license to an entirely different computer (shhh!).
However, it sounds like the problem is coming from the install media; perhaps a partition on the drive that copies over a disk image, or maybe an OEM install that checks for the correct hardware? I think the best thing to do would be to go download/find/borrow a real Windows XP disk of the correct "flavor"; probably Home, possibly Media Center, etc. If he does have the actual disk, he could try creating a pre-install environment using BartPE and then adding in the extra drivers for his mobo, but it's probably better to just find a disk.
Once he actually gets it installed, he'll probably have trouble activating it, which will involve calling Microsoft and going through the following song and dance:
1. Give the computer your product key.
2. It will fail, and transfer you to a representative.
3. They ask for the last 6 digits you gave to the automated system; give it to them and state you are reinstalling Windows XP.
4. They will ask you several questsions, answer as follows:
a) Is it installed only on this computer? Yes.
b) Did you pirate the software or (sometimes) are you using the same OEM disk? Yes.
c) Are you reinstalling Windows XP? Yes.
Usually at this point they will give you the magic 42 digit number to make your computer yours again. Occasionally, they will ask about hardware upgrades, in which case you have two options: 1) tell them the truth and don't get your copy to activate, or 2) outright lie. If your scruples won't let you do the latter, you can tell the representative you have something else to go do (probably true), and call back later, hoping for a less diligent employee. As I stated above, I've used this process to switch Windows XP Home OEM licenses to computers with entirely different hardware, so I can't imagine a motherboard giving you too much trouble.
I made it all the way through my CS degree without a graphing calculator. I had to think about what I was doing a little more, but it was fine.
Also, I got to keep it on a lot more tests than the graphing calculator people...^_^
I think it may well be a MMO Diablo game; it shares more in common with World of Warcraft than Starcraft does, and it seems that Sci-Fi based MMOs as a whole haven't gone over as well as Fantasy based ones.
Of course, you could be right, it could be a Universe of Starcraft and possibly Planetside-esque. Everquest->WoW, Planetside->UoS; another chance to beat SOE at their own game, no pun intended. ^_^ It would also explain the whole Starcraft:Ghost fiasco; UoS wouldn't look nearly so innovative if that game came out...
Well, I believe it may have something to do with the ability to upgrade the HDD; that $100 could easily buy you a 120GB hard drive, if you're willing to forego the features you mentioned.
I'm not really sure what kind of purpose this would serve at the moment, but maybe people are hoping that the PS3 will soon be hacked like the PSP was...? ^_^
Thanks, I'll give this a try. The last time I tried, I did use the patch and got it to run, but it would crash at seemingly random intervals of a couple minutes. I hadn't heard about the command line switches, or the "safe_texture_manager" in the .cfg file though; maybe that will fix the problem. ^_^
I guess I should give another go at trying to get the first one properly setup as well.
Cheer up guys; I've got a good feeling about Duke Nukem Forever.
This is gonna be the year!
I concur wholeheartedly; a true System Shock sequel would be wonderful. Bioshock looks good, but it seems to be quite a different experience. I would even settle for a re-hash of the first two; my current system doesn't play nice with either of them, despite trying several emulation solutions like VDMSound and DosBox. -_-
In the same vein, I would love to see a GOOD Deus Ex sequel/update. Invisible War just seemed to be lacking what made the original so great; the customization, the many approaches to the same situation, the substance abuse...^_^
Oops, nevermind; 607k Xbox 360s were sold in 2005, 687k PS3s, so the OP was referring to PS3s... Obligatory foot is in mouth. ^_^
I have to concur with the OP though; 400k consoles is not "close" at all.
Just another one of Zonk's oddly worded summaries; 687k is how much the Xbox 360 sold in December 2005, at which point it was available in North America, Europe, and Japan. I think Zonk is trying to compare launch performance; the 360 launched during November in North America, and was followed closely with Europe and Japan launches in December, whereas the Wii had a simultaneous launch (I think...) in the beginning of December.
For the December 2006, Microsoft sold 1.1 million Xbox 360 consoles, following along with the Wii. Although, it should be noted that the Wii is probably still experiencing supply shortages.
Double entendre intended Acutally, I'm pretty sure that's a single one.
Something like "Sony's blues: an HD-DVD hit below the belt"; now there's a double entendre!
Don't get me wrong; I love American cars. I have a 68 Cutlass Supreme that I'm trying to restore, and a a 63 Mercury Comet. They're the kind of cars my grandparents drove, during the nostalgic 60s when gas prices were low, and economic expansion high. However, I wouldn't want to drive them on a road in Japan. ^_^ I also mostly drive my 89 Nissan Sentra now since gas is a bit more expensive than it was in the 60s. And that's the main problem I was driving at; America does make good cars, but they're good cars for America, not necessarily elsewhere. America enjoys its SUVs and pickups, which just aren't going to fly overseas. Not to hype on only Japan, you can see a more light hearted explanation here (this one's from Europe!). I can't confirm this other than my empirical observations during many trips to Japan, but I don't think you can actually get a Toyota Tacoma in Japan, where it's known as a Hilux; they don't want them. Sure, you can get a Hilux Surf (read Forerunner), but in Japan, the only thing a pickup would be used for is work, and they have vehicles better suited to this utility.
I think you're right, though; it's turning around. America is producing good cars; the engineering and designs are there. However, they're still being engineered/designed under this "one world" philosophy; that everything is the same everywhere as it is here. If American automotive makers recognize this and start designing cars to target an area, they'll start seeing success in foreign markets.
As for the jobs, it is sad to see, but its indicative of overall change in the US. We have moved out of the industrial age into an intellectual one. We no longer produce tangible goods, we produce IP. We design hardware to be manufactured elsewhere, design software to be used around the world, create entertainment franchises to be exported to all sorts of countries. It used to be you could have a good, family-supporting, lifelong job with a high school education; now you almost need a bachelor's or even master's degree. Is this a "good" or "bad" thing? It's not that simple. I enjoy my software development job, to be honest. Sometimes I feel like throwing out my keyboard and mouse in favor of a wrench and hammer, but most days when I come in to work, I'm glad to have a computer waiting for me at my desk. ^_^
I don't get where this perceived foreign discrimination in Japanese buying habbits comes from. Having spent a lot of time in Japan, I can tell you that it's patently not the case. Furthermore, it often operates in the opposite direction: Japanese consumers find American products cooler than Japanese ones, when they're practical. You'll see more iPods than any other music player nowadays, there's Coca-cola in every vending machine, and you'd be hard pressed to find a McDonald's that isn't packed during mealtimes.
A case that is always trotted out is American cars; why don't the Japanese buy them? It's pretty simple, really: they are not feasible in Japan. Have you ever been on a street in a major area of Tokyo? Except for major thoroughfares, most roads are a single lane, with a small green strip marked for pedestrians; these single lanes are only a bit bigger than half a lane on a standard American side street. It doesn't matter if America is making the best cars in the world; if it doesn't fit on the road, it's worthless. Something people usually ignore is the sales of other foreign auto manufacturers in Japan; you won't have any trouble at all finding a Mercedes Benz, a Volkswagen, a Volvo, a BWM, or a Mini in Japan. It's a hard pill to swallow, but it's true: our product is inferior; it ignores the conditions of the market.
Another case is the XBox; it had a fundamental design flaw in that there was no battery to maintain clock time, so if there was a power outtage or it was unplugged, it lost it's date/time settings. Not a big deal, right? Who unplugs their consoles when they're not in use? The Japanese do: they do this with most appliances to save electricity, and usually store video game consoles away when they're not being played. What seems to be a small issue suddenly becomes incredibly frustrating; how would you like it if everytime you want to play a game, an "Enter the date and time" screen pops up?
If American companies are going to become internationally viable, they have to get over this idea that we're the only ones in the world. We need to continue to innovate, even if we are already the leader in a field. We need to be more culturally understanding of other nations, and not try to force our mindset on them just because it works for us. Actually, maybe our overall foreign policy should incroporate these ideas too. ^_^
Tell me when you write a "simple" (non-AJAX) webpage that implements the same functionality as vi, and then we'll talk. ^_^
We're well into the 21st century, and I see as many text based facilities as at the end of the 20th century. Like it or not, the console is not going away.
If by "inferior by design" you mean "designed for different things".
It seems like you have a strong World of Warcraft bias, but I wouldn't completely disregard Guild Wars. Don't get me wrong, I love both Guild Wars and World of Warcraft, but they are definitely geared towards different play experiences.
Contrary to your post, Guild Wars is quite expertly designed. It's system allows for players to get into engaging gameplay without being a huge time sink, even down to its implementation of patching. What you list as its flaws are actually it's greatest features; it's instancing prevents things such as griefing, camping spawn points, and allows for fast travel. It focuses on careful choice of skills and weapons vs. level and equipment. In doing so, it sheds some of WoW's most grievous points, but also loses some of what makes WoW special. It largely depends on what kind of experience you want.
WoW allows for a large and vibrant world; you can run around in raids of 40 members, even if it's just to destroy a town of the opposing faction. You can participate in long, epic PvP struggles. In order to do this, though, you will have to join up with a serious guild, and commit a large portion of your time. In Guild Wars, you can jump in, and do most missions in around an hour, and if you don't want to bother forming a party, you can hire AI mercenaries. If you are interested in PvP, you can instantly create a max level character for that purpose. Guild Wars attempts to offered a more stream-lined experience, whereas World of Warcraft attempts an everything and the kitchen sink approach.
I think it is ignorant to say Guild Wars is the "inferior" game; it is just a different experience that World of Warcraft.
Mod parent up for on topic Hackers quote. ^_^
Our legal system cares; it is the basis of our free society that a person is innocent until proven guilty. To me, this is analogous to saying "the constitution is just a piece of paper", and breakdowns in reasoning such as these are what has led to the Patriot Act.
Fair enough; why don't we ban rap music, action movies, and violent video games while we're at it? According to your reasoning, since they have some small, unprovable possibility of inciting violence in a miniscule amount of people, and since it won't cause global warming or dead kitties, it's alright. We should also ban speech against the government as it might incite riots. See how easy this goes?
Or a potential victimizer. One thing that is always true is that people always want what they can't have. Actual pedophiles probably don't care about this one way or the other; they're going to be pedophiles anyway, and they need medical help. Banning this sort of synthesized pedophilic porn won't do a lick of good for them. For others, I would rather that people out to "satisfy their curiosity" would be able to use this instead of actual child pornography. I personally find it detestable, and would rather it didn't exist, but part of having a free society is the tolerance of others and their rights. I'd rather the KKK didn't exist as well, but as long as they operate within legal limits, they are entitled to their beliefs as well.
That's the really hard part about a discussion of a truly free society; it means you have to be tolerant of others thoughts and opinions, even when they drastically conflict with your own. I don't know about other countries, but I believe America has a long ways to go if it wants to become an actual free society.
Or we can succumb to fear and hatred rather than reasoning and tolerance; it's certainly a lot easier, isn't it?
Personally, I've always used m0n0wall since it can be run from a CD/floppy/flash drive, and the only experience I've ever had with IPCop was a bad one. I was working on a small project with a tight deadline, and it just completely failed at a crucial moment and I didn't give it a second look. Admittedly, it was configured by an idiot, so I am wondering:
What does IPCop offer that other options (m0n0wall, Smoothwall) don't?
What is the most barebones setup you can manage with it? By that I mean the smallest system requirements to get decent performance?
Personally, I'm wondering if Cohen's departure has anything to do with his position on the Novell/Microsoft deal? (look at the section labeled "Good for the Open Source Community")
While I enjoy imaginations of Linus giving Stuart Cohen the metaphorical/physical boot, I think the realistic interpretation of "leaving to pursue other open source opportunities" means "huge bed of cash to land on from Novell/Microsoft deal". After all, work with Novell is still considered "open source" in letter if not spirit. Perhaps he has a new job coinciding with Novell's plan to add support for Microsoft's OpenXML document type to Open Office?
Something about it smells fishy to me...
It already exits.
I think a large part of what determines "good graphics" is seeing something done better than the games before it. It's sort of the "newness" that makes good graphics. Now, don't get me wrong, graphics comes way down on my list of priorities when I'm choosing a game, but I do appreciate well done graphics in consoles and PC games, especially since being a programmer myself, I have an appreciation for how hard it is to do. That aside, I have to say that when I look at the games from the original Playstation era that I once thought were visually amazing, I have to say they look quite a bit duller now. Back then my reaction was "Ooh, transperency!" whereas now I think to myself "Was there a time when this was cutting edge?".
I subscribe to the philosophy that video games are art, and as such, their beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Certainly some games have a timeless quality to their graphics, such as the oft sited Lucasarts adventure games. However, that doesn't mean that everyone will appreciate their charms like I do. Afterall, how many people do you know of now who would appreciate a Rembrandt or a Titian?
First Life is okay, but there's too much grinding for my taste. I spend 40+ hours a week farming money to support my weekend raids of the movie theatre, mall, and beach. Don't get me started on my food / pots / repair costs for just farming! Plus, my '89 Nissan Sentra mount costs me money every week in the form of gas.
Although, I will admit, First Life's, uh, "software" and "wetware"...excellent.