Why does TFA say "If you are a web developer..."? If you are a web developer, the only reason I can think of that you might care about the.NET Framework is if you intend on using Silverlight. But if you intend on using Silverlight in conjunction with most of.NET, then you probably aren't actually a web developer, or if you are, you don't consider most of Silverlight relevant to that portion of your portfolio.
I'd like to see how they do the chapter on anti-matter. 'Now John, don't drop that containment unit of' BOOM! There goes Toronto. Diagnosis: too much Dan Brown.
Remedy: See 'Free In-Class Resource for Science Teachers
Well, I started using Linux a while back, and now I'm addicted... I don't want to use anything else ever again... every time there's a new kernel, I must have it... a thousand curses on Linus, who has enslaved me to his operating system... I have learned so much since I started, that I am no longer ignorant - Linux isn't free - it costs you your bliss.
The sheer elation that you get from the freedom provided is definitely not worth the ignorance lost. So remember folks, don't use free stuff because you might learn something, and that would be terrible.
Nevertheless, if the story were in essence reversed and it was about a faceless company suing an unrepresented guy and getting a hefty award of damages for some relatively minor IP infringement, we'd get a bunch of bearded geek hippies rambling on about how "information wants to be free" and "I don't believe in imaginary property" and so on. True, but in the same scenario, the legal branch of a large company would likely have:
Sued for millions in punitive damages, rather than mere thousands
Sued the phone book for the same
Attempted to get an injunction preventing further distribution of said phone book
Attempted to force recall of all phone books actively out there
Sued Michael Zubitsky, just in case he actually did sign an agreement for them.
What I meant was, suppose I have a character that gets fatigued and shaken. Do I need to manually update the character sheet on various points to reflect this? What about hits from various spells that have effects, like bane? Will I be able to do something like PCGen, whereby I just click a button saying I'm hit with bane, and my stats are updated accordingly? Or is it still the gamer's responsibility?
For anyone wanting an explanation of what the 'open specification promise' entails it's quite easy. It's a 'promise' from a corporation that barely complies with legal restraints, and only reluctantly operates within the limits of the law. So for what it's worth they might as well have published a blank page. Except then the non-lawyers would probably also conclude it was useless. IANAL, but from reading that page, it's clear that any non-required parts of the standard are not covered under this Promise.
In other words, if it's a part of an ISO standard, but not specifically required by said standard, they can sue you.. So in other words, they can standardize some extension, except mark it as non-necessary, and sue the heck out of anyone who tries to implement it (or more likely, sue the heck out of someone who has used it for years, such that they are no longer able to provide that feature and the victim's customers only have one place to turn).
Wikipedia notes:
The IOC distributes approximately 92% of Olympic marketing revenue to organisations throughout the Olympic Movement to support the staging of the Olympic Games and to promote the worldwide development of sport. The IOC retains approximately 8% of Olympic marketing revenue for the operational and administrative costs of governing the Olympic Movement. That's good for sport in general. Athletes spending it on <secular censorship board has removed this word> knows what is not.
I love this bit: "Also, athletes cannot use their blogs for commercial gain."
Never mind that the modern Olympics has become rife with corporate sponsorship and bribery allegations. Just as long as the people who are supposed to count in all this - the athletes - don't make any money! Blech. The IOC does it's very best to keep the Olympics non-commercial. As an example, you will see zero corporate logos on athlete equipment - it's completely forbidden at the the Olympics, though this form of sponsorship is quite common anywhere else. Preventing the athletes from commercializing their experiences at the games is important - it's true to the founding ideals of the games, and keeps it a competition, rather then "I got to the Olympics, so now I'm going to make $2 million writing about it."
Look at the entertainment industry. It's sick and disgusting how much anyone in any form of entertainment (including professional sports) gets paid. They can go say how great some random product is, and they'll get paid millions for that endorsement. Imagine what would happen if athletes could use blogs in the same way: "I got up this morning to eat my Kellog's Corn Flakes Cereal because I really enjoy it and it helps me compete" and then get a massive dumping of money. The IOC is correct in banning commercial gain.
I agree to a lesser extent as to the other policies - it makes sense to say that the athletes can't say stuff about each other, because blogs tend to be much more personal than interviews, and so some sexist or racist comments or drug accusations or whatnot might slip through, and the backlash would be much worse than these restrictions are.
Downloading copyrighted material is theft under the law. Regardless of what the MPAA and RIAA attempt to inform you of, it isn't. Downloading of copyrighted material is copyright infringement. There is a distinction under just about every legal code in the world.
As much as we like to bitch about how draconian current copyright laws are, they are still the laws. We should not be astonished when laws are enforced. The laws are not being properly enforced here.
Nobody has the legal right to download "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" without paying the copyright holders for it. I live in Canada. According to a Supreme Court ruling, I do.
But that's just what PirateBay and others help people to do. Sure enough. But in Sweden, what they're doing is illegal if and only if they receive monetary gain.
Violating the laws to try to get them change- as some people promote- is a stupid strategy. It's happened before; it will happen again.
All it does is harden the positions of copyright holders, lawmakers and courts against such actions. People like PirateBay are not freedom fighters. The problem is not whether file sharing should be legal. I think that it would be naive to say that most file sharers believe that what they are doing is truly correct. However, the fundamental problem is that society cannot correctly regulate it. Example: prohibition of alcohol. (in the US) It didn't work. It was too difficult to enforce, and it was causing massive problems. It was eventually repealed. The fundamental issue is not that filesharing is right, it's the people who think they can stop it.
Copyright law- particularly in the US- has been stretched out of all reasonable proportion with significant cost to the public wellbeing. Part of this is due to the prevailing right-wing belief that there are no public goods, only private goods, and a belief in the values of private opulence and public squalor as J Kenneth Galbraith put it. Too true.
If we want to overcome this and get the laws changed to something reasonable, we're not going to do it by breaking the laws. Showing that something is broken is the best way to get it fixed. To use a cliché: the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
We have to do what the copyright holders did: make our case in a clear and convincing fashion to the people who write the laws. They have not made their case clear. They've used underhanded tactics, overstated their losses, and gone to great pains to ensure that world governments cooperate with them. This is not tenable in the long run - the RIAA are lobbying so hard that they are alienating the very people who will someday be in the government, making the laws.
The Pirate Bay also hosts many legal files. Just as it is unreasonable for a government to require ISPs to require filtering of the content that passes through them, it is unreasonable for them to expect a website to properly filter what passes through them. All that COPPA did was make it so that 11-year olds need to click a button saying that they're 13 to use the Internet - regulation will fail. The RIAA, the MPAA, and most governments of the world fail to realize this. That is what the TPB people are trying to change.
Of course! The wiretapping telecoms are merely acting as private news outlets to the federal government, so they should be perfectly allowed to wiretap without any warrant!
However, I would add a second caveat, which is that in order to qualify for the proceeds from the levy, music must be distributed in a fairer system. It shouldn't be like the blank media levy, which works something like this:
People are stealing are music
They are using blank CDs to do so
So let's charge everyone who wants a blank CD, because people are using them to get free music
But despite the fact that we acknowledge and accept this free music, it should still cost the same.
In other words, if I am buying a CD, I'm paying for the music. So shouldn't I get it free any ways? This should not be seen as a reactive measure - it needs to apply only to those willing to condone the free distribution of music.
If that happens, I'm all for it. But if the industry starts taxing everyone and telling us we're still wrong, that's just hypocritical.
However, it's important to realize that he does NOT own the copyright to any patches he may have accepted. As a result, he IS bound by the recursive nature of the GPL on those patches, and any derivative works. I know of one project that's moved from the MPL to a private repository (DROD) they had to get permission from every contributor, and they removed the code written by non-consenting contributors from the codebase.
The source code is still released under the MPL, but it's developed on a private repository. The original announcement of this can be found on the SourceForge page.
Furthermore, in any country in which the GPL is enforceable as a contract (not Canada, by the way. All copyright licenses in Canada must be signed by the copyright holder), the GPL has no termination clause, so he cannot simply 'revoke' the license and state that all uses have been invalid (unless he's Canadian, in which case the GPL never was a copyright license in the first place).
'incdlue($_GET['module']."/index.php");' is quite simply the most security-improving spelling error I have ever witnessed.
That's why you don't spellcheck, kids. It protects your machines, just like 'for interface in `netstat -i | egrep -o "eth[0-9]+"`; { ifdown $interface; }' does.
I just ran through a customization option at Dell, and here's what I ended up with:
Components:
PROCESSOR: Intel® Core(TM) 2 Duo T5450 (2MB cache/1.66GHz/667Mhz FSB), English
OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition, English
SYSTEM COLOUR: Alpine White
LCD AND CAMERA: Standard Display with 2.0 Megapixel Webcam
MEMORY: 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
HARD DRIVE: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
GRAPHICS CARD: Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
OPTICAL DRIVE: 8X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW Drive)
Essentials:
PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE: Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD, English
WIRELESS CARD: Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card
INTERNET ACCESS: Please contact me with more details
SECURITY SOFTWARE: Trend Micro Internet Security 15-months
BLUETOOTH: Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
ONLINE DATA STORAGE: Dell DataSafe 2.0 Online, 10GB for 1 Year (included with price)
HARDWARE SERVICES: 3 Year Next Business Day Onsite/In Home Service, CompleteCare, Tech Support with Lojack
BATTERY OPTIONS: 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)
SOUND OPTIONS: High Definition Audio 2.0
Accessories:
FINGERPRINT READER: No Fingerprint Reader
Price quote? $1658 CAD = $1641 USD. And that's with what I call the "hammer warranty" - they will replace your computer if you so much as hit it with a hammer!
NOTE: I picked this specific model because it was the lightest, according to Dell. I put minimal upgrades on it, and, IMHO, this totally smokes the MBA in terms of value. And Dell actually puts ports on their computer. 1 USB port is just not enough for anyone. Unfortunately, this particular model does not, IIRC, come with a mouse nib. I personally want to kill whoever decided that people don't use mouse nibs. Trackpads are unusable, and external mice don't work in many places. I can play any FPS or RTS or other game on my mouse nib. I have yet to meet someone who can play similar games on a trackpad. Moreover, I wouldn't pay for half this stuff, but it comes standard (it's too hard to find somewhere where you can just buy a computer nowadays. It's either "make it yourself" or "here's all the software you don't need".
We know that you are providing a tool for editing character sheets on your computer, although you have not specified anything else. An editable PDF sheet seems likely. However, there have been many popular tools (e.g. PCGen) that can update many aspects of data automatically based on game events, rather than numbers. Example: You are the target of eagle's grace (assuming it still exists and has the same function). You have a +2 cloak of Charisma (once again making assumptions). You simply enter the fact that you are affected by that spell and tool automatically increases your Charisma score by 2, and also makes all relevant modifications elsewhere (save DCs, skill modifiers, etc.)
Will the suite of digital tools released with 4th Edition include a tool that can maintain a character sheet that can be updated based on effects and modifications, rather than simple numeric input? If so, will it be extensible with published supplements/user-provided data?
Well, if the effectiveness of takedown notices need to be reviewed, then clearly they are a good thing. In fact, they must be so good that they can be applied to other branches of law! Let's introduce the DMCA (Dumbass Millenial Contract Act) that allows people to send people notices informing them of breach of contract!
Example:
Guy A: I want to buy this for ten bucks.
Guy B: Okay, sounds good.
*Guy A fiddles around in his wallet for a minute, trying to find the money*
Guy B: On second thought, that doesn't sound so hot. Sorry, no deal.
Guy A: Well then, I'll serve you with a DMCA contract enforcement notice, alerting you that you are in violation of the DMCA and that you are hereby obligated by said DMCA to immediately fulfill your part of the contract and sell me that object for ten bucks.
Guy B:...
Guy B: Nope, still not selling.
*Guy A sues for a million bucks, wins, and is awarded another billion in punitive damages*
Ignoring the fact that Dion has been giving everything short of a press release regarding a spring election, the copyright bill would be the perfect thing to defeat. It makes them look good. I mean, if there's this nasty nasty bill that no one wants, and it takes the opposition to knock it down, the advantage would be huge. A bill this restrictive is a great thing to defeat if you need a boost going into an election.
And that's not saying anything about the fact that the government will get sued over the Charter of Rights and Freedoms if this goes through.
This won't get through. If the Conservatives try to actually pass the bill, the other parties will not pass up the opportunity. The Liberals want an election, and what better to do it with than a bill that everyone hates? Neither the NDP nor the Bloc will pass the opportunity either. If the Conservatives actually try to play this bill out, I would definitely not pass this bill.
More likely than not, the Conservatives are hoping that this bill will still be on the table when they fall (and I don't doubt that they will at some point in the near future).
And so the number of sales is indicative how?
I'd say that when you've got three consoles that were sold out immediately after release, you've made the transition. The market may not have been able to accomodate the demand, but three consecutive sell-outs - especially when followed continuously by extremely strong sales for the Wii and 360 - indicates that the transition to next-gen has been made.
I mean, two years to decide that developing for the 360 is a good idea?
In my experience, voice recognition is overrated. I'll be impressed when someone develops software that can isolate and identify any single person's voice.
Mind you, whoever designs that software will make billions.
Imagine the potential uses...
*Taps chest twice.* "Computer! Red alert!"
It's also worth remembering that the ESRB is still quite subjective. They strive to ensure that their ratings are very consistent that the raters don't let personal issues provide an undue influence to them, but the ratings standard are largely based on whatever society thinks. A lot of the raters are mothers. They are rating the games partially on whether they'd want their children playing those games. So while the ESRB always tries to be consistent, the organization does not have specific, objective criteria to rate games by. And our entire society views guns as always being excessive violence, but generally, the opinion is that consentual brawls are okay.
Also, it depends largely on graphic representation. An '@' beating the crap out of that 'f' with a longsword and dagger isn't considered very violent, but if you made smooth video of the 'f' being disemboweled, the rating would shoot up.
Slashdot Mirror
Why does TFA say "If you are a web developer..."? If you are a web developer, the only reason I can think of that you might care about the .NET Framework is if you intend on using Silverlight. But if you intend on using Silverlight in conjunction with most of .NET, then you probably aren't actually a web developer, or if you are, you don't consider most of Silverlight relevant to that portion of your portfolio.
Remedy: See 'Free In-Class Resource for Science Teachers
Well, I started using Linux a while back, and now I'm addicted... I don't want to use anything else ever again... every time there's a new kernel, I must have it... a thousand curses on Linus, who has enslaved me to his operating system... I have learned so much since I started, that I am no longer ignorant - Linux isn't free - it costs you your bliss.
The sheer elation that you get from the freedom provided is definitely not worth the ignorance lost. So remember folks, don't use free stuff because you might learn something, and that would be terrible.
My question wasn't really answered :/.
What I meant was, suppose I have a character that gets fatigued and shaken. Do I need to manually update the character sheet on various points to reflect this? What about hits from various spells that have effects, like bane ? Will I be able to do something like PCGen, whereby I just click a button saying I'm hit with bane, and my stats are updated accordingly? Or is it still the gamer's responsibility?
I went for the TPB route... still waiting on the second one, though I thought that the first was quite aptly priced.
But I am NOT paying for this kind of stuff, end of story.
As much as we like to bitch about how draconian current copyright laws are, they are still the laws. We should not be astonished when laws are enforced. The laws are not being properly enforced here.
Nobody has the legal right to download "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" without paying the copyright holders for it. I live in Canada. According to a Supreme Court ruling, I do.
But that's just what PirateBay and others help people to do. Sure enough. But in Sweden, what they're doing is illegal if and only if they receive monetary gain.
Violating the laws to try to get them change- as some people promote- is a stupid strategy. It's happened before; it will happen again.
All it does is harden the positions of copyright holders, lawmakers and courts against such actions. People like PirateBay are not freedom fighters. The problem is not whether file sharing should be legal. I think that it would be naive to say that most file sharers believe that what they are doing is truly correct. However, the fundamental problem is that society cannot correctly regulate it. Example: prohibition of alcohol. (in the US) It didn't work. It was too difficult to enforce, and it was causing massive problems. It was eventually repealed. The fundamental issue is not that filesharing is right, it's the people who think they can stop it.
Copyright law- particularly in the US- has been stretched out of all reasonable proportion with significant cost to the public wellbeing. Part of this is due to the prevailing right-wing belief that there are no public goods, only private goods, and a belief in the values of private opulence and public squalor as J Kenneth Galbraith put it. Too true.
If we want to overcome this and get the laws changed to something reasonable, we're not going to do it by breaking the laws. Showing that something is broken is the best way to get it fixed. To use a cliché: the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
We have to do what the copyright holders did: make our case in a clear and convincing fashion to the people who write the laws. They have not made their case clear. They've used underhanded tactics, overstated their losses, and gone to great pains to ensure that world governments cooperate with them. This is not tenable in the long run - the RIAA are lobbying so hard that they are alienating the very people who will someday be in the government, making the laws.
The Pirate Bay also hosts many legal files. Just as it is unreasonable for a government to require ISPs to require filtering of the content that passes through them, it is unreasonable for them to expect a website to properly filter what passes through them. All that COPPA did was make it so that 11-year olds need to click a button saying that they're 13 to use the Internet - regulation will fail. The RIAA, the MPAA, and most governments of the world fail to realize this. That is what the TPB people are trying to change.
Of course! The wiretapping telecoms are merely acting as private news outlets to the federal government, so they should be perfectly allowed to wiretap without any warrant!
I strongly agree with what you're saying.
However, I would add a second caveat, which is that in order to qualify for the proceeds from the levy, music must be distributed in a fairer system. It shouldn't be like the blank media levy, which works something like this:
People are stealing are music
They are using blank CDs to do so
So let's charge everyone who wants a blank CD, because people are using them to get free music
But despite the fact that we acknowledge and accept this free music, it should still cost the same.
In other words, if I am buying a CD, I'm paying for the music. So shouldn't I get it free any ways? This should not be seen as a reactive measure - it needs to apply only to those willing to condone the free distribution of music.
If that happens, I'm all for it. But if the industry starts taxing everyone and telling us we're still wrong, that's just hypocritical.
However, it's important to realize that he does NOT own the copyright to any patches he may have accepted. As a result, he IS bound by the recursive nature of the GPL on those patches, and any derivative works. I know of one project that's moved from the MPL to a private repository (DROD) they had to get permission from every contributor, and they removed the code written by non-consenting contributors from the codebase.
The source code is still released under the MPL, but it's developed on a private repository. The original announcement of this can be found on the SourceForge page.
Furthermore, in any country in which the GPL is enforceable as a contract (not Canada, by the way. All copyright licenses in Canada must be signed by the copyright holder), the GPL has no termination clause, so he cannot simply 'revoke' the license and state that all uses have been invalid (unless he's Canadian, in which case the GPL never was a copyright license in the first place).
Disclaimer: IANAL.
'incdlue($_GET['module']."/index.php");' is quite simply the most security-improving spelling error I have ever witnessed. That's why you don't spellcheck, kids. It protects your machines, just like 'for interface in `netstat -i | egrep -o "eth[0-9]+"`; { ifdown $interface; }' does.
No DRM outside of iTunes... once you get it running on your HP computer, that is.
Microsoft supports only one kind of cross-platform-compatible application, it seems:
#include <stdio.h>
int main() { printf("%d", 1/0); return EXIT_SUCCESS; }
I just ran through a customization option at Dell, and here's what I ended up with:
Components:
PROCESSOR: Intel® Core(TM) 2 Duo T5450 (2MB cache/1.66GHz/667Mhz FSB), English
OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition, English
SYSTEM COLOUR: Alpine White
LCD AND CAMERA: Standard Display with 2.0 Megapixel Webcam
MEMORY: 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
HARD DRIVE: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
GRAPHICS CARD: Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
OPTICAL DRIVE: 8X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW Drive)
Essentials:
PRODUCTIVITY SOFTWARE: Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD, English
WIRELESS CARD: Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card
INTERNET ACCESS: Please contact me with more details
SECURITY SOFTWARE: Trend Micro Internet Security 15-months
BLUETOOTH: Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
ONLINE DATA STORAGE: Dell DataSafe 2.0 Online, 10GB for 1 Year (included with price)
HARDWARE SERVICES: 3 Year Next Business Day Onsite/In Home Service, CompleteCare, Tech Support with Lojack
BATTERY OPTIONS: 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)
SOUND OPTIONS: High Definition Audio 2.0
Accessories:
FINGERPRINT READER: No Fingerprint Reader
Price quote? $1658 CAD = $1641 USD. And that's with what I call the "hammer warranty" - they will replace your computer if you so much as hit it with a hammer!
NOTE: I picked this specific model because it was the lightest, according to Dell. I put minimal upgrades on it, and, IMHO, this totally smokes the MBA in terms of value. And Dell actually puts ports on their computer. 1 USB port is just not enough for anyone. Unfortunately, this particular model does not, IIRC, come with a mouse nib. I personally want to kill whoever decided that people don't use mouse nibs. Trackpads are unusable, and external mice don't work in many places. I can play any FPS or RTS or other game on my mouse nib. I have yet to meet someone who can play similar games on a trackpad. Moreover, I wouldn't pay for half this stuff, but it comes standard (it's too hard to find somewhere where you can just buy a computer nowadays. It's either "make it yourself" or "here's all the software you don't need".
We know that you are providing a tool for editing character sheets on your computer, although you have not specified anything else. An editable PDF sheet seems likely. However, there have been many popular tools (e.g. PCGen) that can update many aspects of data automatically based on game events, rather than numbers. Example: You are the target of eagle's grace (assuming it still exists and has the same function). You have a +2 cloak of Charisma (once again making assumptions). You simply enter the fact that you are affected by that spell and tool automatically increases your Charisma score by 2, and also makes all relevant modifications elsewhere (save DCs, skill modifiers, etc.) Will the suite of digital tools released with 4th Edition include a tool that can maintain a character sheet that can be updated based on effects and modifications, rather than simple numeric input? If so, will it be extensible with published supplements/user-provided data?
Well, if the effectiveness of takedown notices need to be reviewed, then clearly they are a good thing. In fact, they must be so good that they can be applied to other branches of law! Let's introduce the DMCA (Dumbass Millenial Contract Act) that allows people to send people notices informing them of breach of contract!
...
Example:
Guy A: I want to buy this for ten bucks.
Guy B: Okay, sounds good.
*Guy A fiddles around in his wallet for a minute, trying to find the money*
Guy B: On second thought, that doesn't sound so hot. Sorry, no deal.
Guy A: Well then, I'll serve you with a DMCA contract enforcement notice, alerting you that you are in violation of the DMCA and that you are hereby obligated by said DMCA to immediately fulfill your part of the contract and sell me that object for ten bucks.
Guy B:
Guy B: Nope, still not selling.
*Guy A sues for a million bucks, wins, and is awarded another billion in punitive damages*
- We are getting closer and closer to functional AI.
- Humans are a source of energy.
- I will enjoy watching you die, Mr. Anderson
Wait... that's not how it was supposed to happen!Ignoring the fact that Dion has been giving everything short of a press release regarding a spring election, the copyright bill would be the perfect thing to defeat. It makes them look good. I mean, if there's this nasty nasty bill that no one wants, and it takes the opposition to knock it down, the advantage would be huge. A bill this restrictive is a great thing to defeat if you need a boost going into an election. And that's not saying anything about the fact that the government will get sued over the Charter of Rights and Freedoms if this goes through.
This won't get through. If the Conservatives try to actually pass the bill, the other parties will not pass up the opportunity. The Liberals want an election, and what better to do it with than a bill that everyone hates? Neither the NDP nor the Bloc will pass the opportunity either. If the Conservatives actually try to play this bill out, I would definitely not pass this bill. More likely than not, the Conservatives are hoping that this bill will still be on the table when they fall (and I don't doubt that they will at some point in the near future).
And so the number of sales is indicative how? I'd say that when you've got three consoles that were sold out immediately after release, you've made the transition. The market may not have been able to accomodate the demand, but three consecutive sell-outs - especially when followed continuously by extremely strong sales for the Wii and 360 - indicates that the transition to next-gen has been made. I mean, two years to decide that developing for the 360 is a good idea?
In my experience, voice recognition is overrated. I'll be impressed when someone develops software that can isolate and identify any single person's voice. Mind you, whoever designs that software will make billions. Imagine the potential uses... *Taps chest twice.* "Computer! Red alert!"
It's also worth remembering that the ESRB is still quite subjective. They strive to ensure that their ratings are very consistent that the raters don't let personal issues provide an undue influence to them, but the ratings standard are largely based on whatever society thinks. A lot of the raters are mothers. They are rating the games partially on whether they'd want their children playing those games. So while the ESRB always tries to be consistent, the organization does not have specific, objective criteria to rate games by. And our entire society views guns as always being excessive violence, but generally, the opinion is that consentual brawls are okay.
Also, it depends largely on graphic representation. An '@' beating the crap out of that 'f' with a longsword and dagger isn't considered very violent, but if you made smooth video of the 'f' being disemboweled, the rating would shoot up.