I've been saying for years that ATM machines, Credit Cards, and so on, need a 'duress' code; something that means 'help help I've a gun/knife to my head/throat and I'm being forced to take money out of my account.'
That would trigger a camera, a phone call to the cops, and a flag on the account. Maybe even dispence 'special' money that's trackable somehow...
I've said many times, build a protocol wherein phones are capable of noticing that they've entered a 'zone.'
In a theater, for example, the 'zone' would be 'vibrate only, speaker/microphone mute.' This would make their phone vibrate, obviously, and would allow them to accept the call, but not talk/listen until they got to the lobby, say.
Or, if he's on call, give him a damn vibrating pager. There's a payphone somewhere around there. Find it.
Decide how you're going to act, and DO THAT. Do NOT change policy simply because a few people start whining. This doesn't mean that you stagnate, but it does mean that you understand that no matter what you do, it's going to piss somebody off.
HH is good light space opera. It starts out as Horatio Hornblower In Space (Or, as I call it now: Mistress and Commander: Far Side of the Galaxy); turns into Tom Clancy in Space about half way through the series.
Good thing: He's not afraid to seriously fuck with his main characters. They get whomped, maimed, screwed over, generally what you'd expect in war, and in political circles.
Bad thing: He's heavy handed with the historical parallels; when you name a character Rob S. Pierre, you're going a bit far. And that's just one example.
Note also that a very famous issue (or was it a three part series?) of Spider-Man got published without the Code seal of approval, because they wanted to do an *anti-drug* story.
Back when Nintendo was the One Game Company, in the NES days, for example, they put a hard limit on how many games they'd let a publisher put out in a year; I believe it was generally five.
Fine, then you're watching 480*P* upscaled to 1080i. Yes, ffdshow and dscaler do a fantastic job, but 480 lines of data is still 480 lines of data, even when each line is displayed two or three times.
All very good points, and you're right. Look at most WW2 based movies, and you'll see the snot-nosed lieutenant crumbling, the out of touch general, and the grizzled old sergeant keeping it all together.
And seeing as how Halo is a work of fiction, dare I say, digital literature, that's where it's going to be. As I said, he's an archetype, or an ideal, if you will, and most ideals don't match the reality.
Ah, but if you look at the literature, it's the exact opposite.
That, and you're looking at a peacetime Navy. During wartime, which Halo is in, historically, military forces tend to shed their cruft pretty quickly, or lose.
Correct. Your flat annual fee lets you play any xbox live game, with all the built-in stuff (voice chat, cross-game buddy list, and so on) as well as interfacing with 'live-aware' titles, which might do any number of things; upload high scores, show you as 'online' so buddies can send you an invitation to play a different game, and so on.
Premium content, however...or do you think your monthly ISP bill should also cover your fileplanet subscription?
Master Chief isn't a 'hip modern' character; he's an archetype. He's the calm, capable, competant non-com who holds his shit together and gets done whatever needs doing.
In Rome, he'd be a Centurion. In the dark ages, he'd be a paladin. In any modern army, he'd be the career sargent major, or in the navy, obviously, a master chief.
Besides, in the PC world, they'd call it an 'expansion pack' and charge you 25 bucks extra for it.
Slightly tongue in cheek, yes. If you felt the first release was rushed, well, it probably was. But they released all sorts of extras, for free, over Xbox Live. If they now want to offer even more extras, at a VERY nominal cost, great.
One of the things I *LOVED* about the old Gold Box AD&D games was that, when facing scads of wimpy little opponents, your higher level fighters could 'sweep' and attack multiple ones at once.
So when your level 6-9 party is cleaning out the local Kobold stronghold, you'd get fifty or sixty of the little buggers ganging up on you, but your fighters would be each taking three to six out per attack, your mages would be going to town with fireball, stinking cloud, and sleep...
Don't think I've played a FRPG since that better depicts 'small band against the oncoming horde' better.
As I pointed out elsewhere, in Canadian law, there *is no such thing* as 'implicit permission.' Permission has to be explicit. So, built in something to take away all the uncertanty and guessing; an actual 'public use permission' bit that you need to jump through hoops to turn on.
Slashdot Mirror
I've been saying for years that ATM machines, Credit Cards, and so on, need a 'duress' code; something that means 'help help I've a gun/knife to my head/throat and I'm being forced to take money out of my account.'
That would trigger a camera, a phone call to the cops, and a flag on the account. Maybe even dispence 'special' money that's trackable somehow...
Or just flood the ATM booth with knockout gas...
I've said many times, build a protocol wherein phones are capable of noticing that they've entered a 'zone.'
In a theater, for example, the 'zone' would be 'vibrate only, speaker/microphone mute.' This would make their phone vibrate, obviously, and would allow them to accept the call, but not talk/listen until they got to the lobby, say.
Or, if he's on call, give him a damn vibrating pager. There's a payphone somewhere around there. Find it.
Decide how you're going to act, and DO THAT. Do NOT change policy simply because a few people start whining. This doesn't mean that you stagnate, but it does mean that you understand that no matter what you do, it's going to piss somebody off.
Simpsons Road Rage isn't a bad little game. And I dig the 70s cop show music that starts playing when the man is trying to chase you down.
HH is good light space opera. It starts out as Horatio Hornblower In Space (Or, as I call it now: Mistress and Commander: Far Side of the Galaxy); turns into Tom Clancy in Space about half way through the series.
Good thing: He's not afraid to seriously fuck with his main characters. They get whomped, maimed, screwed over, generally what you'd expect in war, and in political circles.
Bad thing: He's heavy handed with the historical parallels; when you name a character Rob S. Pierre, you're going a bit far. And that's just one example.
Still, good for a light read.
Ooops. Introducing new species into an evironment is never a good idea; introducing genetitcally modified species doubly so.
Note also that a very famous issue (or was it a three part series?) of Spider-Man got published without the Code seal of approval, because they wanted to do an *anti-drug* story.
Actually, it's more like this:
That, and when you trace the next hop to some machine in Korea, good luck getting somebody there to care.
Leeches are bad.
Actually, make computer owners responsible for what their computers do.
Nobody wants to sue Ford because Johnny Drinksalot runs his explorer off the road and plows down a gaggle of kindergarten kids.
Back when Nintendo was the One Game Company, in the NES days, for example, they put a hard limit on how many games they'd let a publisher put out in a year; I believe it was generally five.
"Well, it's either used to cast the various Bigby's Hand spells, or it's a +2 backscratcher. We're not sure, and nobody wants to test it...."
Poutine!
Fine, then you're watching 480*P* upscaled to 1080i. Yes, ffdshow and dscaler do a fantastic job, but 480 lines of data is still 480 lines of data, even when each line is displayed two or three times.
All very good points, and you're right. Look at most WW2 based movies, and you'll see the snot-nosed lieutenant crumbling, the out of touch general, and the grizzled old sergeant keeping it all together.
And seeing as how Halo is a work of fiction, dare I say, digital literature, that's where it's going to be. As I said, he's an archetype, or an ideal, if you will, and most ideals don't match the reality.
Actually, one would expect windriver's vxworks, qnx, or a custom built RTOS.
Ah, but if you look at the literature, it's the exact opposite.
That, and you're looking at a peacetime Navy. During wartime, which Halo is in, historically, military forces tend to shed their cruft pretty quickly, or lose.
My primary sound card is still an Aureal Vortex 2 based card.
Damn fine piece o' equipment.
DosBox.
Correct. Your flat annual fee lets you play any xbox live game, with all the built-in stuff (voice chat, cross-game buddy list, and so on) as well as interfacing with 'live-aware' titles, which might do any number of things; upload high scores, show you as 'online' so buddies can send you an invitation to play a different game, and so on.
Premium content, however...or do you think your monthly ISP bill should also cover your fileplanet subscription?
Master Chief isn't a 'hip modern' character; he's an archetype. He's the calm, capable, competant non-com who holds his shit together and gets done whatever needs doing.
In Rome, he'd be a Centurion. In the dark ages, he'd be a paladin. In any modern army, he'd be the career sargent major, or in the navy, obviously, a master chief.
Besides, in the PC world, they'd call it an 'expansion pack' and charge you 25 bucks extra for it.
Slightly tongue in cheek, yes. If you felt the first release was rushed, well, it probably was. But they released all sorts of extras, for free, over Xbox Live. If they now want to offer even more extras, at a VERY nominal cost, great.
One of the things I *LOVED* about the old Gold Box AD&D games was that, when facing scads of wimpy little opponents, your higher level fighters could 'sweep' and attack multiple ones at once.
So when your level 6-9 party is cleaning out the local Kobold stronghold, you'd get fifty or sixty of the little buggers ganging up on you, but your fighters would be each taking three to six out per attack, your mages would be going to town with fireball, stinking cloud, and sleep...
Don't think I've played a FRPG since that better depicts 'small band against the oncoming horde' better.
As I pointed out elsewhere, in Canadian law, there *is no such thing* as 'implicit permission.' Permission has to be explicit. So, built in something to take away all the uncertanty and guessing; an actual 'public use permission' bit that you need to jump through hoops to turn on.