It's a very common practice, called "Get a second opinion." I've even heard of people getting 3rd and 4th opinions, especially when it comes to very serious diagnoses or drugs that can be imminently harmful.
I'm not saying that giving people correct information is a bad thing. I didn't imply that at all. What I have a problem with is people prescribing using incorrect information. So many people are willing to just take anecdotal advice from their friend "Well I took this and felt better, so you should try it too." If people are willing to actually look up information in JAMA or peer-reviewed literature, power to you. But that is a lot of effort, that kind of information isn't in the first dozen results that show up on Google.
Granted, some Doctors don't stay informed. A recent news story showed that 60% of Dr's don't rat out their associates as being incompetent, even though they knew they were incompetent. I really believe that doctors should be held to standards where they are required every few years to keep taking exams that show that they keep up with new information and trends. But it doesn't make my original point invalid.
Yes, but there is a big difference. One is that people are making choices based on INCORRECT information, while the situation you described above describes people making incorrect assumptions with correct information. If I read a book and think that I might have cancer when I don't - only psychological harm done. But If I have cancer and my friend thinks that I just have toxins in me and I just need to do a colon flush or take some chinese herbal meds, then there's a huge problem. I doubt many of these videos are people just looking to increase their overall wellness. These are people who think that they shouldn't vaccinate their children! Big difference in the possible harm that can be done.
ON my medical application, I coined the new word "Google-gnosis" describing the problem with people self-diagnosing based on information found on the internet, making the point that Doctors are now going to have to make more of an effort to know what information and misinformation is out there, and how Doctors are going to have to spend more time teaching people correct information to dispel popular myths that get spread around. This is case in point for me. Maybe I should bring this up in my next interview...
1. I swear if I hear another stupid VHS/Betamax argument again I'm going to shoot someone (although it's not as bad to the stupid dumbasses who say, "The winner will be whoever the porn industry sides with!! Ignoring the fact that the porn industry played only a part in that war - it was NOT the deciding factor)
2. With everyone saying, "Oh man, a sub-100$ HD-DVD player, that's going to win the format war for sure!!" I think there is one thing that people are forgetting- HIGH-DEF is not yet for the masses. Less than half the people in the country have HDTV. That will change after Christmas, but it hasn't yet. It is a premium item. The people who do buy HDDVD/BLURAY are people who can afford the premium (typically). This HDDVD player is the "Coby"/knock-off brand of HDDVD player (Yes, I know Toshiba is not a knock-off brand..). This is a 1080i player, not 1080p. Many people can't tell the difference, but people who can afford HD typically care. Nobody spends 1000's of dollars on a system to add a 100$ player. Until HDTV's are cheaper and get near the 500-700 range for a 42" or above instead of around 1000-1400, then HD player prices will matter. This one player, (which is only going on sale for a few days, this is NOT a permanent price fix) is not going to win the format war. It will convince some people to get one and a few movies (despite that the 5 movies that come with it really suck donkey balls.) This will help the HDDVD camp for bragging rights for a few weeks, and their sales MIGHT top Bluray for a while, but this player will not "win" the format-war.
Yes, they allow you to invert the X and Y axis if you prefer. (I like my Y the same, but I have to invert X) You can change some button schemes a little in the control menu.
I bought the game at Best Buy this afternoon and played it for about 2-3 hours. There were about 5-6 times that I burst out laughing out loud. The game looks great, it is really funny, the controls are intuitive and the camera controls do a good job. I watched my brother play the ps2 ratchet & clanks for a while, but this is the first one I've ever played, and am now tempted to go get the ps2 ones. The demo is a good start, but it doesn't really give you what the game has the offer.
Just an example: On the second level, after you meet who the big bad guy is (Percival Tachyon), the planet has all these announcements over an intercom. My favorites were: - Attention citizens, today is Tachyon appreciation day. Please find your way to the nearest statue of the emperor and kneel before it. followed by -Attention citizens, due the to the popularity of Tachyon Appreciation day, it has been extended infinite days plus one.
I don't know about you guys, but I cried the first time playing through final fantasy VII after I had spent probably 6 hours leveling up Aeris to get her lvl. 4 Limit break, only to become so abruptly aware of what a waste of time it was.
It's so obvious, I don't know why they haven't done this earlier. They just need to make a HYBRID plane model! Just load it up with 5000 lbs of batteries. Silly scientists...
For those that hate remakes, I'm sorry to tell you that remakes and sequels are the way of the future. The way that games are created now has changed vastly over the past 2 decades. Take Square and their final fantasy series. The first few games for the NES - It doesn't take a lot of time to design for an 8-bit system. Sure you need the story and dialog and all that. But compare how vast the first Final Fantasy was to 4, and then to 7, and then to 10. Final Fantasy X had a budget of over 30 million. I'd bet if you dug up the numbers and accounted for inflation, Final Fantasy VI (The biggest for the SNES, and one of my personal favorites) probably had no more of a budget than 5 million.
Now, people are not satisfied with mediocrity. The standards have been set really high. Many games don't just have one music guy who plinks out the midi sequences. Many games have to hire full orchestras for some of their big theme songs. Character and world design are getting far more detailed and take way more time to develop. Have you guys seen the wire frames for some of the characters in UT3? There are literally over hundreds of thousands of polygons for one character. Compare that to the block cloud of FF7 - probably a mere 200 polygons.
So all this brings me to my point - People demand more from video games than they did 10 years ago. The internet lets people know in advance if games are good-you can download trailers and demos now. Games are far too expensive to try and reinvent a new game every time. If all it takes to release a game that they know will be a huge hit (for example, the Final Fantasy 4-6 remakes on the DS [which have a DRASTICALLY reduced development cost than the next gen systems) is some graphical updates and extensions to the story, then it's going to happen.
Combine this with the problems that the developmental cost for games had increased disproportionately to the cost of the games. 10 years ago, a SNES game would cost 30$, now games cost 60$, but the budgets to make them have more than doubled. Not to mention the problem that games are incredibly easy to pirate now. People how made mod chips and are able to burn copied games on every system (with the exception of the PS3, but give it time...) or at least dump the ROMS and emulate them on your computer.
Because of all this, characters designs are going to continue to be recycled. Stories are going to have to be extended, rather than newly created, and games that were a smash hit, will be a smash hit again with really good graphics. The market demands it is so.
In case anyone is wondering WHY, here is the official explanation from Ray McGuire, some Sony hotshot:
"As we come to our first Christmas with the PlayStation 3 there's going to be about 65 games in the marketplace, so we feel now that there's sufficient choice in the marketplace and that we're still better off using that money that we'd put into backwards compatibility in either investing in new games or using that money to help support bringing the price down so that people can get into the franchise." (From www.qj.net)
I don't know if I'm in the place to comment on how true this could possibly be, because I have no clue how difficult it is for backwards compatibility programming, because I don't program...at all.
However, if you read the lines and in between them, they are taking engineers away from backwards compatibility, which means that people who still have the SOFTWARE versions of the still BC-enabled PS3's are going to be getting less and less updates for games that still struggle to work, because they are throwing less personnel at it. So, I can truly say that this is one of the first times in History, that the early adopters didn't get screwed (at least from the BC perspective, ignoring the original high price and lack of games for the first year part of that statement....):)
Not to be a dick or anything, but it IS the active ingredient in peppers. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin, I quote "Capsaicin/kæpse.sn/ (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) is the active component of chilli,(sic) peppers, which are plants belonging to the genus Capsicum. It is an irritant for mammals, including humans, and produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact"
I actually was reading an article about capsaicin (which is also the active ingredient in pepper spray, hence the name). One doctor once recommended that oxycontin and other opiates should have capsaicin put into the pills. People who swallowed it wouldn't taste anything different, but people who take the drugs and chop them up into a powder and then snort it have a really special surprise in store for them, similar to what this guy did with wasabi.
I'd guess people would only make that mistake once though.
If some guy walks into the meeting and turns off your Surface-to-Air missiles in the middle of a joint chief of staff meeting using just his laptop and an internet connection, like in "Live Free or Die Hard", you make sure you listen to him, and don't just blow him off.
After all, you know the saying, "Those who do not learn from the history presented in movies, are bound to repeat it."
I think what people are missing is that this headband is simply just chock full of mitichlorians. It's the same one Luke Skywalker wore. "But with the blast shield down I won't be able to see!"
I love how companies don't deny your right to fair use, they just put restrictions around the device that make it illegal to even access fair use. That's like saying, "You have the right to free speech, but only at this designated microphone that can be found inside the 4th underground level at Area 51."
I remember when the PS3 first came out, the PR guy tried to spin the lack of Rumble as a good thing because it was "last generation." However, it turned out the company that they licensed the technology from would license it any longer and they finally came to terms a few months ago. PR is a funny thing.
If anything, this will be good cause it will allow me to at least get rumble back in my ps2 games, a feature that I really missed. Now just to see how long before it hits the shelves and how much it will be. I really hope that this replaces the sixaxis and they just call it "the sixaxis rumble" or something silly so they don't have to increase the price much. Any word on whether the new controllers have a significantly bigger battery, or are they simply just wired?
Parent here. Well, I realize what you are saying, but here's why I disagree. There are a lot of good games on the 360-many of these will be remade for the PC, some won't. Those games I will just have to miss out on. If money was no object I may buy one. But most importantly, the only way I can vote is with my dollars. I realize that many of the games are just developed by the game companies, and you would argue that they are losing, not Microsoft. But companies have the choice of who they develop for. If I buy the 360 game, it supports Microsoft- no other way around it.
You may argue that Sony has just as bad of a track record because of their moronic DRM schemes and the like, but Sony doesn't have a monopoly on anything. Every consumer device that they create I can choose to purchase or not to purchase. But in the business world, so many things that I need REQUIRE Windows. So many people are a slave to Windows and MSFT, and they don't treat their customers very well. People always post, "If you don't like it, don't buy it. It's that simple." It's true. It is pointless to say, I don't like MSFT, but still buy all their products. The ONLY way I can do anything to change something, as a consumer, is to buy something or not to buy it. I realize by not buying it, I will miss out, but I am willing to miss out on a few games to not support MSFT. If you are not willing to do anything about, then you have no right to complain about it.
Also, there is no way I could play all the games that you just mentioned. I have just enough time to enjoy about 5-6 games/year. And of the types of games I like, all are going to be released on either the PS3 or PC, or crossplatform for all systems.
I recall a funny statement about how GTA4 was going to be placed in an alternate universe NYC, to which some idiot congressman replied, "placing GTA in New York City is like placing Halo in Disneyland" (because New York is supposedly the safest big city). Well that got everyone thinking, "you know what? That would be the COOLEST BOARD EVER, to play in Disneyland". In a likewise fashion, I would like to make a mod for unreal tournament 3 (since they are much friendlier for user created mods than microsoft) where everybody is Jack Thompson. Who wouldn't want to have a death match of you versus 15 Jack Thompsons?? Hmmm... maybe if I could kill him in Disneyland, that would be even better!
I was really bummed out at first when I saw that this was only on the 360 because I really wanted to play this, but am not going to buy a Microsoft system for any reason. This is great that they are porting it. I love Chopin. He is my favorite classical composer by far, and has been for years. Anything to make an awakening and remember good ole classical music is a good thing. I even wrote a journal about it. I recently just downloaded his complete works from Bittorrent and am finding some little treasures I didn't know existed. Chopin is such an amazing composer. It is seriously such a tragedy that he died at 39 years old.
On another note, the game got some really good reviews, so anything to add to the PS3's sad library right now will make me really happy.
Cabnetware, a kitchen cabinet design software that also sends cutlists to CNC's and has a bunch of design tools - Purchased By Cabnetvision to help eliminate their competition. They are seriously such a bunch of bastards. I hate those guys so much.
You're right. Our program, (Cabnetworks, previously Cabnetware) was purchased by another CAD based drawing company in an attempt to eliminate the competition (they push the other drawing program instead of this one..). But they hardly offer support anymore, and new versions are a joke, almost officially making this software abandonware. They gladly take our payments to keep the dongles functioning. Half of our keys were the parallel port ones. Guess how easy it is to find a GOOD high end laptop with a parallel port now? We can upgrade to a USB key (which we have done for most) after we send one key back accompanied by 500$/key.
A friend of mine who I work with who has a legit version of AutoCAD, but he never installed it and downloads the cracked versions from P2P or Bittorrent (the ones that also doesn't require the dongle, even though he has a legit one.) While it seems obvious that many people won't pay for this software simply because it is very expensive, you can't help but think that practices like this, that don't allow you to resell you software that you don't use anymore, only contribute to people pirating software. I mean, what if he got it for a company he worked for and then the company tanked a few months later? It's a completely unrealistic expectation.
Unfortunately, we have another program requiring dongle keys that is even more expensive that isn't widespread enough for hackers to worry about, so we have to bother calling the company every 6 months to get our extra keys reactivated, as well as being locked into the software, because it was too expensive to abandon, but the learning curve is too high on this type of designing software to switch to another without a major drop in productivity and a huge initial investment.
I've put in a story a month ago about the universal PSP unbricking Jigkick battery when it first surfaced a month ago, and it's still in "pending", although all my stories submitted after that were rejected. Not really such a big story to report anymore, but it's still kind of funny.
With all the problems the music industry is having right now, a SEVEN DOLLAR 3-SINGLE/ RINGTONE COMBO (which incidently costs FOUR DOLLARS on iTunes), this is bound to be the cure that brings things around for them...
Actually with the new iPhone ringtone easy hack on engadget, it only costs 3.
This is a seriously sad attempt to drive sales. Do they not see the trend? People don't want to carry around physical media anymore! I don't want to carry 50 CD's with me, because I can use my ipod. Notice how ipod's keep going UP in capacity? It's because people want to be able to carry more music without carry around idiotic discs that can scratch. Maybe they should offer something like 3 singles and ringtones for 3 dollars and undercut itunes. They need a lesson in Econ 101 about how supply and demand only works with things that are in DEMAND.
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It's a very common practice, called "Get a second opinion." I've even heard of people getting 3rd and 4th opinions, especially when it comes to very serious diagnoses or drugs that can be imminently harmful.
I'm not saying that giving people correct information is a bad thing. I didn't imply that at all. What I have a problem with is people prescribing using incorrect information. So many people are willing to just take anecdotal advice from their friend "Well I took this and felt better, so you should try it too." If people are willing to actually look up information in JAMA or peer-reviewed literature, power to you. But that is a lot of effort, that kind of information isn't in the first dozen results that show up on Google. Granted, some Doctors don't stay informed. A recent news story showed that 60% of Dr's don't rat out their associates as being incompetent, even though they knew they were incompetent. I really believe that doctors should be held to standards where they are required every few years to keep taking exams that show that they keep up with new information and trends. But it doesn't make my original point invalid.
Yes, but there is a big difference. One is that people are making choices based on INCORRECT information, while the situation you described above describes people making incorrect assumptions with correct information. If I read a book and think that I might have cancer when I don't - only psychological harm done. But If I have cancer and my friend thinks that I just have toxins in me and I just need to do a colon flush or take some chinese herbal meds, then there's a huge problem. I doubt many of these videos are people just looking to increase their overall wellness. These are people who think that they shouldn't vaccinate their children! Big difference in the possible harm that can be done.
ON my medical application, I coined the new word "Google-gnosis" describing the problem with people self-diagnosing based on information found on the internet, making the point that Doctors are now going to have to make more of an effort to know what information and misinformation is out there, and how Doctors are going to have to spend more time teaching people correct information to dispel popular myths that get spread around. This is case in point for me. Maybe I should bring this up in my next interview...
1. I swear if I hear another stupid VHS/Betamax argument again I'm going to shoot someone (although it's not as bad to the stupid dumbasses who say, "The winner will be whoever the porn industry sides with!! Ignoring the fact that the porn industry played only a part in that war - it was NOT the deciding factor)
2. With everyone saying, "Oh man, a sub-100$ HD-DVD player, that's going to win the format war for sure!!" I think there is one thing that people are forgetting- HIGH-DEF is not yet for the masses. Less than half the people in the country have HDTV. That will change after Christmas, but it hasn't yet. It is a premium item. The people who do buy HDDVD/BLURAY are people who can afford the premium (typically). This HDDVD player is the "Coby"/knock-off brand of HDDVD player (Yes, I know Toshiba is not a knock-off brand..). This is a 1080i player, not 1080p. Many people can't tell the difference, but people who can afford HD typically care. Nobody spends 1000's of dollars on a system to add a 100$ player. Until HDTV's are cheaper and get near the 500-700 range for a 42" or above instead of around 1000-1400, then HD player prices will matter. This one player, (which is only going on sale for a few days, this is NOT a permanent price fix) is not going to win the format war. It will convince some people to get one and a few movies (despite that the 5 movies that come with it really suck donkey balls.) This will help the HDDVD camp for bragging rights for a few weeks, and their sales MIGHT top Bluray for a while, but this player will not "win" the format-war.
Yes, they allow you to invert the X and Y axis if you prefer. (I like my Y the same, but I have to invert X) You can change some button schemes a little in the control menu.
I bought the game at Best Buy this afternoon and played it for about 2-3 hours. There were about 5-6 times that I burst out laughing out loud. The game looks great, it is really funny, the controls are intuitive and the camera controls do a good job. I watched my brother play the ps2 ratchet & clanks for a while, but this is the first one I've ever played, and am now tempted to go get the ps2 ones. The demo is a good start, but it doesn't really give you what the game has the offer.
Just an example: On the second level, after you meet who the big bad guy is (Percival Tachyon), the planet has all these announcements over an intercom. My favorites were:
- Attention citizens, today is Tachyon appreciation day. Please find your way to the nearest statue of the emperor and kneel before it. followed by
-Attention citizens, due the to the popularity of Tachyon Appreciation day, it has been extended infinite days plus one.
Give it a shot. It's a good buy.
I don't know about you guys, but I cried the first time playing through final fantasy VII after I had spent probably 6 hours leveling up Aeris to get her lvl. 4 Limit break, only to become so abruptly aware of what a waste of time it was.
It's so obvious, I don't know why they haven't done this earlier. They just need to make a HYBRID plane model! Just load it up with 5000 lbs of batteries. Silly scientists...
For those that hate remakes, I'm sorry to tell you that remakes and sequels are the way of the future. The way that games are created now has changed vastly over the past 2 decades. Take Square and their final fantasy series. The first few games for the NES - It doesn't take a lot of time to design for an 8-bit system. Sure you need the story and dialog and all that. But compare how vast the first Final Fantasy was to 4, and then to 7, and then to 10. Final Fantasy X had a budget of over 30 million. I'd bet if you dug up the numbers and accounted for inflation, Final Fantasy VI (The biggest for the SNES, and one of my personal favorites) probably had no more of a budget than 5 million.
Now, people are not satisfied with mediocrity. The standards have been set really high. Many games don't just have one music guy who plinks out the midi sequences. Many games have to hire full orchestras for some of their big theme songs. Character and world design are getting far more detailed and take way more time to develop. Have you guys seen the wire frames for some of the characters in UT3? There are literally over hundreds of thousands of polygons for one character. Compare that to the block cloud of FF7 - probably a mere 200 polygons.
So all this brings me to my point - People demand more from video games than they did 10 years ago. The internet lets people know in advance if games are good-you can download trailers and demos now. Games are far too expensive to try and reinvent a new game every time. If all it takes to release a game that they know will be a huge hit (for example, the Final Fantasy 4-6 remakes on the DS [which have a DRASTICALLY reduced development cost than the next gen systems) is some graphical updates and extensions to the story, then it's going to happen.
Combine this with the problems that the developmental cost for games had increased disproportionately to the cost of the games. 10 years ago, a SNES game would cost 30$, now games cost 60$, but the budgets to make them have more than doubled. Not to mention the problem that games are incredibly easy to pirate now. People how made mod chips and are able to burn copied games on every system (with the exception of the PS3, but give it time...) or at least dump the ROMS and emulate them on your computer.
Because of all this, characters designs are going to continue to be recycled. Stories are going to have to be extended, rather than newly created, and games that were a smash hit, will be a smash hit again with really good graphics. The market demands it is so.
"As we come to our first Christmas with the PlayStation 3 there's going to be about 65 games in the marketplace, so we feel now that there's sufficient choice in the marketplace and that we're still better off using that money that we'd put into backwards compatibility in either investing in new games or using that money to help support bringing the price down so that people can get into the franchise." (From www.qj.net)
I don't know if I'm in the place to comment on how true this could possibly be, because I have no clue how difficult it is for backwards compatibility programming, because I don't program...at all.However, if you read the lines and in between them, they are taking engineers away from backwards compatibility, which means that people who still have the SOFTWARE versions of the still BC-enabled PS3's are going to be getting less and less updates for games that still struggle to work, because they are throwing less personnel at it. So, I can truly say that this is one of the first times in History, that the early adopters didn't get screwed (at least from the BC perspective, ignoring the original high price and lack of games for the first year part of that statement....) :)
Not to be a dick or anything, but it IS the active ingredient in peppers. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin, I quote "Capsaicin /kæpse.sn/ (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) is the active component of chilli,(sic) peppers, which are plants belonging to the genus Capsicum. It is an irritant for mammals, including humans, and produces a sensation of burning in any tissue with which it comes into contact"
I'd guess people would only make that mistake once though.
If some guy walks into the meeting and turns off your Surface-to-Air missiles in the middle of a joint chief of staff meeting using just his laptop and an internet connection, like in "Live Free or Die Hard", you make sure you listen to him, and don't just blow him off.
After all, you know the saying, "Those who do not learn from the history presented in movies, are bound to repeat it."
I think what people are missing is that this headband is simply just chock full of mitichlorians. It's the same one Luke Skywalker wore. "But with the blast shield down I won't be able to see!"
I love how companies don't deny your right to fair use, they just put restrictions around the device that make it illegal to even access fair use. That's like saying, "You have the right to free speech, but only at this designated microphone that can be found inside the 4th underground level at Area 51."
I remember when the PS3 first came out, the PR guy tried to spin the lack of Rumble as a good thing because it was "last generation." However, it turned out the company that they licensed the technology from would license it any longer and they finally came to terms a few months ago. PR is a funny thing. If anything, this will be good cause it will allow me to at least get rumble back in my ps2 games, a feature that I really missed. Now just to see how long before it hits the shelves and how much it will be. I really hope that this replaces the sixaxis and they just call it "the sixaxis rumble" or something silly so they don't have to increase the price much. Any word on whether the new controllers have a significantly bigger battery, or are they simply just wired?
Parent here. Well, I realize what you are saying, but here's why I disagree. There are a lot of good games on the 360-many of these will be remade for the PC, some won't. Those games I will just have to miss out on. If money was no object I may buy one. But most importantly, the only way I can vote is with my dollars. I realize that many of the games are just developed by the game companies, and you would argue that they are losing, not Microsoft. But companies have the choice of who they develop for. If I buy the 360 game, it supports Microsoft- no other way around it.
You may argue that Sony has just as bad of a track record because of their moronic DRM schemes and the like, but Sony doesn't have a monopoly on anything. Every consumer device that they create I can choose to purchase or not to purchase. But in the business world, so many things that I need REQUIRE Windows. So many people are a slave to Windows and MSFT, and they don't treat their customers very well. People always post, "If you don't like it, don't buy it. It's that simple." It's true. It is pointless to say, I don't like MSFT, but still buy all their products. The ONLY way I can do anything to change something, as a consumer, is to buy something or not to buy it. I realize by not buying it, I will miss out, but I am willing to miss out on a few games to not support MSFT. If you are not willing to do anything about, then you have no right to complain about it.
Also, there is no way I could play all the games that you just mentioned. I have just enough time to enjoy about 5-6 games/year. And of the types of games I like, all are going to be released on either the PS3 or PC, or crossplatform for all systems.
I recall a funny statement about how GTA4 was going to be placed in an alternate universe NYC, to which some idiot congressman replied, "placing GTA in New York City is like placing Halo in Disneyland" (because New York is supposedly the safest big city). Well that got everyone thinking, "you know what? That would be the COOLEST BOARD EVER, to play in Disneyland". In a likewise fashion, I would like to make a mod for unreal tournament 3 (since they are much friendlier for user created mods than microsoft) where everybody is Jack Thompson. Who wouldn't want to have a death match of you versus 15 Jack Thompsons??
Hmmm... maybe if I could kill him in Disneyland, that would be even better!
I was really bummed out at first when I saw that this was only on the 360 because I really wanted to play this, but am not going to buy a Microsoft system for any reason. This is great that they are porting it. I love Chopin. He is my favorite classical composer by far, and has been for years. Anything to make an awakening and remember good ole classical music is a good thing. I even wrote a journal about it. I recently just downloaded his complete works from Bittorrent and am finding some little treasures I didn't know existed. Chopin is such an amazing composer. It is seriously such a tragedy that he died at 39 years old.
On another note, the game got some really good reviews, so anything to add to the PS3's sad library right now will make me really happy.
Cabnetware, a kitchen cabinet design software that also sends cutlists to CNC's and has a bunch of design tools - Purchased By Cabnetvision to help eliminate their competition. They are seriously such a bunch of bastards. I hate those guys so much.
You're right. Our program, (Cabnetworks, previously Cabnetware) was purchased by another CAD based drawing company in an attempt to eliminate the competition (they push the other drawing program instead of this one..). But they hardly offer support anymore, and new versions are a joke, almost officially making this software abandonware. They gladly take our payments to keep the dongles functioning. Half of our keys were the parallel port ones. Guess how easy it is to find a GOOD high end laptop with a parallel port now? We can upgrade to a USB key (which we have done for most) after we send one key back accompanied by 500$/key.
A friend of mine who I work with who has a legit version of AutoCAD, but he never installed it and downloads the cracked versions from P2P or Bittorrent (the ones that also doesn't require the dongle, even though he has a legit one.) While it seems obvious that many people won't pay for this software simply because it is very expensive, you can't help but think that practices like this, that don't allow you to resell you software that you don't use anymore, only contribute to people pirating software. I mean, what if he got it for a company he worked for and then the company tanked a few months later? It's a completely unrealistic expectation. Unfortunately, we have another program requiring dongle keys that is even more expensive that isn't widespread enough for hackers to worry about, so we have to bother calling the company every 6 months to get our extra keys reactivated, as well as being locked into the software, because it was too expensive to abandon, but the learning curve is too high on this type of designing software to switch to another without a major drop in productivity and a huge initial investment.
I've put in a story a month ago about the universal PSP unbricking Jigkick battery when it first surfaced a month ago, and it's still in "pending", although all my stories submitted after that were rejected. Not really such a big story to report anymore, but it's still kind of funny.
With all the problems the music industry is having right now, a SEVEN DOLLAR 3-SINGLE/ RINGTONE COMBO (which incidently costs FOUR DOLLARS on iTunes), this is bound to be the cure that brings things around for them... Actually with the new iPhone ringtone easy hack on engadget, it only costs 3. This is a seriously sad attempt to drive sales. Do they not see the trend? People don't want to carry around physical media anymore! I don't want to carry 50 CD's with me, because I can use my ipod. Notice how ipod's keep going UP in capacity? It's because people want to be able to carry more music without carry around idiotic discs that can scratch. Maybe they should offer something like 3 singles and ringtones for 3 dollars and undercut itunes. They need a lesson in Econ 101 about how supply and demand only works with things that are in DEMAND.