First off, if profit is the question then Nintendo is the answer in that every one of their consoles has been profitable and, therefore, a success. Despite "losing" to the Playstation, the N64 made a nice chunk of change for the company.
Second, if you don't think the PSP is heading for problems, you don't know what you're talking about. A game that uses the full capabilities of the system will, by SONY'S OWN ADMISSION, cause the battery life to drop to around two hours (and if Sony is saying two hours, don't be surprised if it's more like 90 minutes in the real world). Battery life has been the bugaboo for portable game consoles forever, and is the most commonly cited reason for the success of the Gameboy despite the fact that it was technically inferior to such handhelds as the Sega Gamegear (I loved it but returned it when, within the first day of not nearly continuous use, I burned through two sets of batteries) and the Atari Lynx.
I'm a video game fan. I have my PS2, Gamecube and Xbox, along with several Gameboy variants. I'm a gadget freak as well (ReplayTV early adopter, HDTV in the livering room, etc.). Despite all this, I've already written off the PSP until their supposed revision with improved battery life comes out. I'm not going to carry around spare batteries (I wouldn't buy spares at Sony prices in any case) and I'm not going to carry two handhelds at a time just because I know the PSP is going to fail before I get home. Using it at home tethered to AC is just one of those things that annoys me (it's bad enough that wireless controllers still aren't standard in home video game consoles).
I'm sure the PSP will sell plenty well on the strength of the PS/PS2 and the games that will be coming out for it (Gran Turismo could be a lot of fun on that portable and I love the Hot Shots Golf series). But, amongst people who keep up with these things, Sony's already lost potential buyers of the launch version due to the battery issue alone.
You're full of shit. People don't steal from companies because they feel put upon. They steal from companies because they're greedy and they're thieves. And, guess what? If someone hasn't been caught stealing before (thus creating a criminal record), there's no way for an HR department to screen out potential thieves - even WITH a criminal record, if it's not local it might not be easily discovered.
Now, that's the last feeding you'll get from me, troll. I wouldn't have offered this morsel if it hadn't been for the fact that blaming victims and evading personal responsibility is a pet peeve.
Yep. Because setting up firewalls and proxies to secure one's network, and maybe keep employees on task instead of surfing the web for porn, is absolutely justification for stealing from a company.
To me, though, it seems that computer geeks should be the MOST interested in following security policies since they know better than most the horrors possible with an unsecured computer. Were I running such a business, I'd be far harsher dealing with security violators who know their way around PCs and networks than I would someone who doesn't know what they're doing. I would similarly mistrust someone who claims to be sneaking work out to do at home - that seems like the kind of thing for which one could ask permission, instead of evading security to get it done.
I can see making that assumption. Of course, I can also see the next assumption being that they're using that connection to transfer proprietary information from the company's network to their own computer.
Dictionary definitions aside, there is a difference between feeling intimidated and being intimidated. If a police officer stops a person for going six mph over the speed limit (maybe a slow night), that person might feel intimidated by the officer. However, the police officer is probably not trying to intimidate unless s/he unsnaps a holster or pulls a gun.
In this case, from the description of the visit, it sounds like any feeling of intimidation was prompted from within, not from without.
I get that completely. I have several criteria for judging porn actresses (what can I say, but I'm a fan of the genre) "hot or not" and being pleasing to the eye (not necessarily "perfect," whatever that means) is but one of them. But, as you yourself point out, it's fantasy. When I decide that a particular actress/model seems smart and sexy (as well as being nice to look at - criterium number one), it has nothing to do with reality since, well, I don't really know them. I can't appreciate them as a human being (which was the lofty sentiment of grandparent post) because I don't know them.
I started playing CoH about a month ago and it's a friggin' blast. Over the first two weeks, I played through the first 10 levels of five different characters and kept going back to the same places because it was just plain old fun. This afternoon, I died (or was rendered unconscious, if you prefer) several times in a mission and didn't mind because the mission itself revealed some gameplay elements I hadn't seen so far (a month in) and the battling is fun.
The reason CoH works, I think, is because they managed to craft a fun combat system - fun because you're actually DOING something all the time and because the fun stuff isn't limited to just "casters" as it often is in fantasy RPGs - and wrapped a pretty cool comic book world around it (reading the various clues and such is like reading classic comic books with yourself as the star character).
I won't be playing EQ2 or World of Warcraft because I've become bored with the fantasy thing. I played D&D as a kid and every single-player computer/console fantasy RPG (plus about six obsessive months of Everquest) I could get my hands on up until now, but I think I need a long break. I couldn't even get into Neverwinter Nights despite feeling like it was a great system.
Unless the folks at Cryptic and NCSoft actively try to ruin City of Heroes, though, I see myself playing that one for at least the next year. Maybe by that time I'll be ready to fight an orc again.
"They [nude/adult models] are very appreciative of the portion of their audience that appreciates them as human beings and not objects..."
Excuse me? You mean the portion of their audience that sends, for example, Christy Canyon letters talking about how the first beautiful thing about her they noticed was the intelligent look in her eyes and the appreciation they have for her non-sex acting ability? Give me a break. I don't even appreciate MAINSTREAM actors - the ones I like - as "human beings"; instead, I appreciate their skill at their job. When I watch porn, what bloody interest should I have in the naked women I see on the internet, in magazines and in videos APART from how hot they are?
Your post seems typical of the kind of drivel people spout in an effort to make themselves feel better about their guilty pleasures.
"Slightly better"? I know they're just screenshots available now, but the graphics upgrade looks pretty serious (and before anyone hits me with "gameplay over graphics," the jump to 3D from 2D is potentially a huge difference in gameplay). In addition, they've added a second LCD with touchscreen capability. Wireless connectivity adds yet another dimension to the beast (a shock frankly with the healthy profit margin on Nintendo's cables).
You could easily argue that the various incarnations of the monochrome Gameboy, and even the Gameboy Color, were weak upgrades. But the Gameboy Advance was a huge step and the GBA SP fixed a serious problem with the original. As above, the DS is another big change.
Short version: Your fingers are typing but your brain might not be keeping up.
Yes, exactly. Why should Microsoft be expected to keep track of specific modifications made and the intentions of said modifications? Anyone who mods their console, or buys a modded console, KNOWS, RIGHT UP FRONT, that unless they have a switch to turn off the modification and use the native Xbox BIOS they may be banned if they attempt to use Xbox Live. Note that Microsoft doesn't send some evil virus/trojan down the line to destroy the modded console, nor have they sent police to the door of someone who's logged on to Live with a modded Xbox. All they've done is barred that console from their online system.
An analogy can be drawn to an individual or company which denies internet connections from a computer suspected to be running unprotected because it might be a security risk. Said remote computer might not ever do anything bad, but if one believes it COULD be a security risk, it's perfectly reasonable and prudent to deny access. Open e-mail relays would be another example. You might warn the owner of said computer/address that they may be banned from access (as Microsoft has done many times with the modding situation), but nobody would blame a person for cutting off said open relay/unsecure computer before it has a chance to do damage or cause an inconvenience.
The bottom line is that an unmodded (either soft or hard) Xbox can't run unsigned code. The purpose of most (I don't know if there are actually mod chips which only allow region-free operation while still not running unsigned code, so I'll leave the "most") mod chips is to do exactly that. This means that, if Microsoft didn't actively try to stop it, people could insert cheats into their games and blow Xbox Live apart at the seams. Microsoft is, for once, being PROactive. I, for one, will choose to applaud them for it instead of twisting it into yet another reason to hate the company.
There isn't one psychotic thing about keeping modded consoles off Xbox Live. The bottom line is that if cheating becomes rampant, as it is with other hardware, then Xbox Live as a service is worthless. As it is, with Microsoft aggressively trying to keep cheaters off the system, it's worth the $4-5 a month (at least by the yearly fee) to subscribe for a stable, cheat-free environment.
Someone does seem a little quick on the -1 trigger. I posted two comments which I thought were vaguely amusing (here and in the solar minimum post), took off my karma bonus (because of the lack of content), and both were pounded down to zero. It's probably my fault - my sense of humor is pretty dry and often a little too mean...and maybe even not very funny.:)
(Yes, I know this will be modded offtopic - I can probably handle the hit)
Somehow you missed my point, so I'll try to make it clearer:
If it's not entertaining, "hard science" television (and this IS the term the original question used) is only for people who already have an interest in the subject matter, and sometimes only for people with GREAT interest in the subject matter. Take a look at the channels referenced in the original question and tell me that they have even a chance of entertaining a wide audience - *I* have watched them and they're often even DRIER than attending a college lecture in person (perhaps because of the lack of physical immediacy - I don't know). If those are representative of where the original submitter wants TV to go, then I (a person who watches Nova and reads Scientific American, whilst also enjoying things like CSI and Smallville) have no interest at all - I prefer to fall asleep to baseball.
Flamebait but absolutely right. TV isn't a good place to learn "hard science," anyway, unless you're doing a half-hour (or much longer) show per formula/theory (which nobody will watch). There's a reason it takes college plus several years to get a doctorate in a science (or any other) subject - because it takes time and hard work to learn. Even then, does anyone really think that, for example, someone with a doctorate in microbiology is going to be able to get a lot out of a postdoctoral lecture on string theory? If you don't, then why would anyone expect "Joe Public" (a term which automatically denotes arrogance and dismissiveness, by the way) to have an interest?
If you really have an abiding interest in "hard science," (which I take to mean the nitty-gritty details) go back to school.
The thing that bothers me most about the system, though, is the eventual anonymity of the requests. My understanding is that if it takes off, you won't just be getting e-mails from your friends, but from a friend of a friend of a friend of an acquaintance. I don't know about anyone else, but if I wanted to be Ask Jeeves, I'd change my friggin' name.
Nothing, except perhaps to the person who submitted the story. I'll admit the names are solid (I particularly like Evan Dorkin's Milk & Cheese, something I'm sure I'm not alone in) but you're right that marrying videogames and comics is nothing new. For example, Scott Kurtz (of PVP Online fame) will have a comic included in the upcoming City of Heroes reissue, and the boys at Penny Arcade have done several online comics for video games (most notably, forUbisoft.
Personally, I'll always have a soft spot for Atari Force.
You're correct that Urbz is for consoles and Sims 2 is PC. There actually IS an argument to be made, though, that Sims 2 is something of an extension of the two console Sims games (The Sims and The Sims Bustin' Out). I say this because Sims 2 took the original PC game and added a fully 3D engine (console: check), increased character customization ability (console: check) and more goal-based gameplay (console: check). They also added Sim aging which is new for the series as a whole.
As for the idea that Urbz would compete with The Sims 2 on PC, I find that extremely improbable. First, you're talking about three very different audiences: 1) The hardcore PC gamer who got some guilty pleasure out of the original Sims and is now going diguised to the videogame store to buy the new one; 2) the very casual PC gamer who might only buy one game (and its expansions) between now and the time Sims 3 hits the stores; 3) the console gamer who probably finds the PC Sims franchise TOO open-ended.
Urbz: Sims in the City is a game entirely different from the traditional Sims games. For example, they've taken out a couple of the motivation bars (one is room/environment and the other I don't recall off hand) to focus the gameplay more. They've also made it so that you're actually working your job (it's not just waiting for the Sim to get back from work) and performing tasks logical for that occupation (such as a sushi chef keeping the restaurant clean). Besides work, the gameplay is about hanging out and getting/being popular.
In short, Urbz and Sims 2 cater to different playstyles. It remains to be seen whether Urbz will be any good, of course.
Final note: EA/Maxis has had "competing" Sims products between console and PC before and certainly the PC expansions didn't suffer against the console games.
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Second, if you don't think the PSP is heading for problems, you don't know what you're talking about. A game that uses the full capabilities of the system will, by SONY'S OWN ADMISSION, cause the battery life to drop to around two hours (and if Sony is saying two hours, don't be surprised if it's more like 90 minutes in the real world). Battery life has been the bugaboo for portable game consoles forever, and is the most commonly cited reason for the success of the Gameboy despite the fact that it was technically inferior to such handhelds as the Sega Gamegear (I loved it but returned it when, within the first day of not nearly continuous use, I burned through two sets of batteries) and the Atari Lynx.
I'm a video game fan. I have my PS2, Gamecube and Xbox, along with several Gameboy variants. I'm a gadget freak as well (ReplayTV early adopter, HDTV in the livering room, etc.). Despite all this, I've already written off the PSP until their supposed revision with improved battery life comes out. I'm not going to carry around spare batteries (I wouldn't buy spares at Sony prices in any case) and I'm not going to carry two handhelds at a time just because I know the PSP is going to fail before I get home. Using it at home tethered to AC is just one of those things that annoys me (it's bad enough that wireless controllers still aren't standard in home video game consoles).
I'm sure the PSP will sell plenty well on the strength of the PS/PS2 and the games that will be coming out for it (Gran Turismo could be a lot of fun on that portable and I love the Hot Shots Golf series). But, amongst people who keep up with these things, Sony's already lost potential buyers of the launch version due to the battery issue alone.
Azureus has a similar plug-in called SafePeer.
Now, that's the last feeding you'll get from me, troll. I wouldn't have offered this morsel if it hadn't been for the fact that blaming victims and evading personal responsibility is a pet peeve.
Yep. Because setting up firewalls and proxies to secure one's network, and maybe keep employees on task instead of surfing the web for porn, is absolutely justification for stealing from a company.
To me, though, it seems that computer geeks should be the MOST interested in following security policies since they know better than most the horrors possible with an unsecured computer. Were I running such a business, I'd be far harsher dealing with security violators who know their way around PCs and networks than I would someone who doesn't know what they're doing. I would similarly mistrust someone who claims to be sneaking work out to do at home - that seems like the kind of thing for which one could ask permission, instead of evading security to get it done.
I can see making that assumption. Of course, I can also see the next assumption being that they're using that connection to transfer proprietary information from the company's network to their own computer.
In this case, from the description of the visit, it sounds like any feeling of intimidation was prompted from within, not from without.
Yeah, but unless she's peeking over a wall like Kilroy, that ain't gonna be the first set of hers you're going to notice.
I get that completely. I have several criteria for judging porn actresses (what can I say, but I'm a fan of the genre) "hot or not" and being pleasing to the eye (not necessarily "perfect," whatever that means) is but one of them. But, as you yourself point out, it's fantasy. When I decide that a particular actress/model seems smart and sexy (as well as being nice to look at - criterium number one), it has nothing to do with reality since, well, I don't really know them. I can't appreciate them as a human being (which was the lofty sentiment of grandparent post) because I don't know them.
The reason CoH works, I think, is because they managed to craft a fun combat system - fun because you're actually DOING something all the time and because the fun stuff isn't limited to just "casters" as it often is in fantasy RPGs - and wrapped a pretty cool comic book world around it (reading the various clues and such is like reading classic comic books with yourself as the star character).
I won't be playing EQ2 or World of Warcraft because I've become bored with the fantasy thing. I played D&D as a kid and every single-player computer/console fantasy RPG (plus about six obsessive months of Everquest) I could get my hands on up until now, but I think I need a long break. I couldn't even get into Neverwinter Nights despite feeling like it was a great system.
Unless the folks at Cryptic and NCSoft actively try to ruin City of Heroes, though, I see myself playing that one for at least the next year. Maybe by that time I'll be ready to fight an orc again.
My question to you: If you're going to tout NCSoft, why not tout their GOOD MMOG (City of Heroes) instead of the one that's been a mess (Lineage)?
Excuse me? You mean the portion of their audience that sends, for example, Christy Canyon letters talking about how the first beautiful thing about her they noticed was the intelligent look in her eyes and the appreciation they have for her non-sex acting ability? Give me a break. I don't even appreciate MAINSTREAM actors - the ones I like - as "human beings"; instead, I appreciate their skill at their job. When I watch porn, what bloody interest should I have in the naked women I see on the internet, in magazines and in videos APART from how hot they are?
Your post seems typical of the kind of drivel people spout in an effort to make themselves feel better about their guilty pleasures.
You could easily argue that the various incarnations of the monochrome Gameboy, and even the Gameboy Color, were weak upgrades. But the Gameboy Advance was a huge step and the GBA SP fixed a serious problem with the original. As above, the DS is another big change.
Short version: Your fingers are typing but your brain might not be keeping up.
I don't think shaving Halo 2's armpits will help with the problem.
An analogy can be drawn to an individual or company which denies internet connections from a computer suspected to be running unprotected because it might be a security risk. Said remote computer might not ever do anything bad, but if one believes it COULD be a security risk, it's perfectly reasonable and prudent to deny access. Open e-mail relays would be another example. You might warn the owner of said computer/address that they may be banned from access (as Microsoft has done many times with the modding situation), but nobody would blame a person for cutting off said open relay/unsecure computer before it has a chance to do damage or cause an inconvenience.
The bottom line is that an unmodded (either soft or hard) Xbox can't run unsigned code. The purpose of most (I don't know if there are actually mod chips which only allow region-free operation while still not running unsigned code, so I'll leave the "most") mod chips is to do exactly that. This means that, if Microsoft didn't actively try to stop it, people could insert cheats into their games and blow Xbox Live apart at the seams. Microsoft is, for once, being PROactive. I, for one, will choose to applaud them for it instead of twisting it into yet another reason to hate the company.
There isn't one psychotic thing about keeping modded consoles off Xbox Live. The bottom line is that if cheating becomes rampant, as it is with other hardware, then Xbox Live as a service is worthless. As it is, with Microsoft aggressively trying to keep cheaters off the system, it's worth the $4-5 a month (at least by the yearly fee) to subscribe for a stable, cheat-free environment.
(Yes, I know this will be modded offtopic - I can probably handle the hit)
It's probably all that pollution in our air - industry and automobiles are so evil, they're snuffing out the sun.
One does tend to find PDA use slightly less common behind the McDonald's counter.
If it's not entertaining, "hard science" television (and this IS the term the original question used) is only for people who already have an interest in the subject matter, and sometimes only for people with GREAT interest in the subject matter. Take a look at the channels referenced in the original question and tell me that they have even a chance of entertaining a wide audience - *I* have watched them and they're often even DRIER than attending a college lecture in person (perhaps because of the lack of physical immediacy - I don't know). If those are representative of where the original submitter wants TV to go, then I (a person who watches Nova and reads Scientific American, whilst also enjoying things like CSI and Smallville) have no interest at all - I prefer to fall asleep to baseball.
If you really have an abiding interest in "hard science," (which I take to mean the nitty-gritty details) go back to school.
The thing that bothers me most about the system, though, is the eventual anonymity of the requests. My understanding is that if it takes off, you won't just be getting e-mails from your friends, but from a friend of a friend of a friend of an acquaintance. I don't know about anyone else, but if I wanted to be Ask Jeeves, I'd change my friggin' name.
If Microsoft ever does include virus scanning in Windows, expect anti-trust lawsuits from Symantec, McAfee, et. al. the very same day.
Personally, I'll always have a soft spot for Atari Force.
As for the idea that Urbz would compete with The Sims 2 on PC, I find that extremely improbable. First, you're talking about three very different audiences: 1) The hardcore PC gamer who got some guilty pleasure out of the original Sims and is now going diguised to the videogame store to buy the new one; 2) the very casual PC gamer who might only buy one game (and its expansions) between now and the time Sims 3 hits the stores; 3) the console gamer who probably finds the PC Sims franchise TOO open-ended.
Urbz: Sims in the City is a game entirely different from the traditional Sims games. For example, they've taken out a couple of the motivation bars (one is room/environment and the other I don't recall off hand) to focus the gameplay more. They've also made it so that you're actually working your job (it's not just waiting for the Sim to get back from work) and performing tasks logical for that occupation (such as a sushi chef keeping the restaurant clean). Besides work, the gameplay is about hanging out and getting/being popular.
In short, Urbz and Sims 2 cater to different playstyles. It remains to be seen whether Urbz will be any good, of course.
Final note: EA/Maxis has had "competing" Sims products between console and PC before and certainly the PC expansions didn't suffer against the console games.