There was, several years ago, a Dilbert strip series where Dilbert goes to sales person training. The class started with the teacher saying somthing like 'I can't legally tell you to lie to customers, but it's really the only way to make quota.'
The problem with DVRs is that you skip the commercials.
So, if you have the most popular damn show on the planet, but it costs (pulling a random number out of my ass) $500,000 per episode, but no advertiser will buy time during it's timeslot as everybody just DVRs it, it's going to get cancelled.
This is one of the appeals of 'reality' television; you want to see it live to watch the train wreck, or so you can discuss it around the water cooler. And even shows like American Idol build advertising right into it; Ford, Coke glasses on the judge's table, and so on.
And that's what we'll see more of if the trend continues.
Sarah John, we need to get out of here. NOW. Reese (standing beside a window, back to the wall, peering out) Metal's coming! Sarah NOW, John! John Mom, I know, but first I need to finish these delicious Dorito's chips! Dorito's really has the flavour to let me contemplate facing the end of the world. Cameron (holding up a bottle of 7-up, and speaking in the Terminator unblinking monotone) John, why don't you wash that down with this delicious 7-Up? Humans need hydration and refreshment, which this drink provides. John (takes the drink and chugs) Thanks, Cameron. Ok, Mom, let's go!
It's a different world, nowadays. You're not worried about T-80s streaming across the Fulda Gap, you're not worried about Bears and Backfires taking out your strategic assets, you're worried about four assholes, willing to die for the cause, silently slipping up to your boat in a zodiac and sticking something boomy onto your stuff.
I'm sure at least some of them are trying to protect themselves from self-diagnosed yahoos who demand whatever drug they saw advertised during Biggest Loser the night before, and go off on the poor doctor who refuses to validate their delusions of medical competence through watching House.
However, I don't think anyone expects that Pluto would be able to support life--too too cold.
Why make assumptions? 'Extremeophiles' are found damn near everywhere. Bactiera surviving on equipment left on the Moon for years, entire ecosystems around deep-water volcanos that everybody knows could never exist due to a) extreme temperature, and b) lack of sunlight...
I have to admit, I'd kind of assumed he'd wanted to download one of the better-engineered versions that aren't compressed to hell and gone like the retail CD.
Hey, I still remember the awesome Hulk TV movies, including 'The Trial of the Incredible Hulk' which utterly and unamibiously ended that particular series.
Oh, definately. But 'running a successful gaming store' does not translate into 'understands the ins and outs of Sony's business decisions at a corporate level.'
Hell, 'Come back! I haven't set you on fire yet!' still makes it's way into casual conversation, lo these many years later, amoungst certain friends.
Gord is funny as hell, but doesn't know alot about what he talks about. For example, he goes on a lot about how the PS1 was never sold at a loss. Meanwhile, Sony's on book on the development of the PS1 clearly states that it was priced, at a loss, to undercut the Saturn.
Oh sure, there's always politics and what not. It's that behaviour that Sony took advantage of to win with the PS1, and Microsoft then took advantage of to win with the 360.
Depends on the game, depends on the audience, depends on the feature set. Right tool for the right job and all that.
For example, there's a game that just recently came out on Xbox Live called Interpol or some such. The idea is, you're presented with a static scene, a list of clues. Your cursor is a magnifying glass.
This game just screams out 'DS!' But it's on Xbox, and it's stupid.
Or take Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: My Life As King on WiiWare. This game does exactly one thing with the Wiimote: you shake the Wiimote like a bell to summon Chime. Otherwise, this game could have been on Xbox Live and functioned exactly the same.
Just because you and I happen to be open minded on the matter doesn't mean everyone is.
Oh, and not to belabour the point, but I'm not accepting of the concept of homosexuality because I'm 'open-minded,' I'm accepting of the concept of homosexuality in the same way I'm accepting of the concept of nighttime, or gravity; because *it is.*
It's a subtle difference, and perhaps even one that never really matters in practice.
A straight pride parade? Well, I don't really see how any of that is relevant to the issues. They aren't getting persecuted for their sexual orientation, they aren't getting denied jobs, homes etc. over their sexual orientation.
Pride is pride. And as the GP pointed out, it is, these days, less about bringing to light the concept, and more about being almost militant about it. The Xbox Live account was't banned because MS is secretly anti-gay; it was banned for having a gamertag containing a sexual reference. Period. What that reference was is completely irrelevant.
Gay parades were created to show that homosexuality is not a small minority, preventing discrimination against them. Some homosexuals believe they should 'parade' themselves all the time for this reason.
There would be Human Rights complaints if you organized a Straight Pride parade. "We're straight, and that's great!"
Of course, because hetrosexuality is considered the 'default' sexuality, so you wouldn't need to.
See, that's the problem right there. Hetro isn't the 'default' sexuality, it's *a* sexuality. Classifying it as 'default,' or 'normal', is classifying everything else as 'abnormal.' It's like saying 'male' or 'female' is the 'default.' Nope.
This is why there are so few (if any) good third-party games on the Wii.
All of the platforms have diverged to the point where you can't simply port and sell. If you're developing a Wii game, you damn well better be designing around the controls. If you're developing a DS game, you damn well better be designing around touch screen, and two screens. If you're developing for the PC, you damn well better be taking advantage of the mouse and keyboard. If you're developing for the PS3, you damn well better be taking advantage of the blu-ray storage and the wacky architecture.
And in any of these cases, you've already ruled out porting without re-writing, or you've developed something so damn generic it's not going to sell on any platform anyway.
It hasn't been about the graphics language since Quake. And even Carmack dropped that argument a very long time ago.
Bah. Any sane court would throw this out on it's ear. In America, though, who knows?
Probably it would boil down to 'care and control.' Is it your computer? Are you the one using the software? Then I don't care if your cat hit the Enter key, you agreed. And you get the court bill for wasting all of our time.
Doesn't upset me, particularly. At least, not the advertisments. The main problem is when they cut the feed in late, or chop it early. Usually when the American show is timed to end at, say, 9:02 to fark up PVRs, but the Canadian feed switches to a new show right at 10. Like say Global is playing House from Fox at 8 PM, then 24 from NBC at 9 PM.
Usually the dead giveaway is either a) the station bug changing from Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS or whatever to CTV, CBC or Global, and b) the commercials all magically becoming Canadian.
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If he's somewhere cable isn't an option, he's probably no going to find easy high-cap links for himself.
There was, several years ago, a Dilbert strip series where Dilbert goes to sales person training. The class started with the teacher saying somthing like 'I can't legally tell you to lie to customers, but it's really the only way to make quota.'
The problem with DVRs is that you skip the commercials.
So, if you have the most popular damn show on the planet, but it costs (pulling a random number out of my ass) $500,000 per episode, but no advertiser will buy time during it's timeslot as everybody just DVRs it, it's going to get cancelled.
This is one of the appeals of 'reality' television; you want to see it live to watch the train wreck, or so you can discuss it around the water cooler. And even shows like American Idol build advertising right into it; Ford, Coke glasses on the judge's table, and so on.
And that's what we'll see more of if the trend continues.
Sarah John, we need to get out of here. NOW.
Reese (standing beside a window, back to the wall, peering out) Metal's coming!
Sarah NOW, John!
John Mom, I know, but first I need to finish these delicious Dorito's chips! Dorito's really has the flavour to let me contemplate facing the end of the world.
Cameron (holding up a bottle of 7-up, and speaking in the Terminator unblinking monotone) John, why don't you wash that down with this delicious 7-Up? Humans need hydration and refreshment, which this drink provides.
John (takes the drink and chugs) Thanks, Cameron. Ok, Mom, let's go!
It's a different world, nowadays. You're not worried about T-80s streaming across the Fulda Gap, you're not worried about Bears and Backfires taking out your strategic assets, you're worried about four assholes, willing to die for the cause, silently slipping up to your boat in a zodiac and sticking something boomy onto your stuff.
I'm sure at least some of them are trying to protect themselves from self-diagnosed yahoos who demand whatever drug they saw advertised during Biggest Loser the night before, and go off on the poor doctor who refuses to validate their delusions of medical competence through watching House.
Why make assumptions? 'Extremeophiles' are found damn near everywhere. Bactiera surviving on equipment left on the Moon for years, entire ecosystems around deep-water volcanos that everybody knows could never exist due to a) extreme temperature, and b) lack of sunlight...
I have to admit, I'd kind of assumed he'd wanted to download one of the better-engineered versions that aren't compressed to hell and gone like the retail CD.
To be fair, shouldn't the labels be on their knees, thanking Jeebus that somebody actually *wants* to pay money for entire albums from the 80s?
Hey, I still remember the awesome Hulk TV movies, including 'The Trial of the Incredible Hulk' which utterly and unamibiously ended that particular series.
Oh, definately. But 'running a successful gaming store' does not translate into 'understands the ins and outs of Sony's business decisions at a corporate level.'
Hell, 'Come back! I haven't set you on fire yet!' still makes it's way into casual conversation, lo these many years later, amoungst certain friends.
Gord is funny as hell, but doesn't know alot about what he talks about. For example, he goes on a lot about how the PS1 was never sold at a loss. Meanwhile, Sony's on book on the development of the PS1 clearly states that it was priced, at a loss, to undercut the Saturn.
The PS2 came out after the (superior in every way, IMHO) DreamCast.
Heterosexuality might be prevalent; it might be the most common sexuality, but it isn't the 'default.'
Let me ask you this. Which is the 'default' diruanl state of, say, Rio de Janero? Day, or night?
Oh sure, there's always politics and what not. It's that behaviour that Sony took advantage of to win with the PS1, and Microsoft then took advantage of to win with the 360.
Depends on the game, depends on the audience, depends on the feature set. Right tool for the right job and all that.
For example, there's a game that just recently came out on Xbox Live called Interpol or some such. The idea is, you're presented with a static scene, a list of clues. Your cursor is a magnifying glass.
This game just screams out 'DS!' But it's on Xbox, and it's stupid.
Or take Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: My Life As King on WiiWare. This game does exactly one thing with the Wiimote: you shake the Wiimote like a bell to summon Chime. Otherwise, this game could have been on Xbox Live and functioned exactly the same.
Oh, and not to belabour the point, but I'm not accepting of the concept of homosexuality because I'm 'open-minded,' I'm accepting of the concept of homosexuality in the same way I'm accepting of the concept of nighttime, or gravity; because *it is.*
It's a subtle difference, and perhaps even one that never really matters in practice.
Pride is pride. And as the GP pointed out, it is, these days, less about bringing to light the concept, and more about being almost militant about it. The Xbox Live account was't banned because MS is secretly anti-gay; it was banned for having a gamertag containing a sexual reference. Period. What that reference was is completely irrelevant.
There would be Human Rights complaints if you organized a Straight Pride parade. "We're straight, and that's great!"
See, that's the problem right there. Hetro isn't the 'default' sexuality, it's *a* sexuality. Classifying it as 'default,' or 'normal', is classifying everything else as 'abnormal.' It's like saying 'male' or 'female' is the 'default.' Nope.
This is why there are so few (if any) good third-party games on the Wii.
All of the platforms have diverged to the point where you can't simply port and sell. If you're developing a Wii game, you damn well better be designing around the controls. If you're developing a DS game, you damn well better be designing around touch screen, and two screens. If you're developing for the PC, you damn well better be taking advantage of the mouse and keyboard. If you're developing for the PS3, you damn well better be taking advantage of the blu-ray storage and the wacky architecture.
And in any of these cases, you've already ruled out porting without re-writing, or you've developed something so damn generic it's not going to sell on any platform anyway.
It hasn't been about the graphics language since Quake. And even Carmack dropped that argument a very long time ago.
$30 in 1982 would be about $65 in 2009.
Can you name me even one discipline method that isn't violent in some way or another? Imposing your will on another, by definition, is violent.
Bah. Any sane court would throw this out on it's ear. In America, though, who knows?
Probably it would boil down to 'care and control.' Is it your computer? Are you the one using the software? Then I don't care if your cat hit the Enter key, you agreed. And you get the court bill for wasting all of our time.
Doesn't upset me, particularly. At least, not the advertisments. The main problem is when they cut the feed in late, or chop it early. Usually when the American show is timed to end at, say, 9:02 to fark up PVRs, but the Canadian feed switches to a new show right at 10. Like say Global is playing House from Fox at 8 PM, then 24 from NBC at 9 PM.
Usually the dead giveaway is either a) the station bug changing from Fox, ABC, NBC, CBS or whatever to CTV, CBC or Global, and b) the commercials all magically becoming Canadian.
Na ba la wa zu Enki da.