Well when you can start making an exact working copy of your car from your car over and over, you might have to start that exercise program you've been putting off.
The reason is because they have to get the publishers permission to do it, they can't just say "Hey Activision, we're doing a free weekend for CoD:WoW"
Why do you need to "predownload" something before you buy it. If you are going to buy the game after the download finishes, it's the same thing as buying and then downloading it. Unless you are wanting to predownload it and then buy it later when you can afford it. Beyond that one scenario I don't see the value in predownloading it.
Well I would say that is your mistake for buying a retail copy. Steam usually sells the game for cheaper anyway not to mention weekend deals and all that fun stuff. The reason why I've heard is because of KeyGens.
I disagree. The entire point of Steam is not having to worry about physical media and keys, not having to download patches and hope it installs correctly or using another system to find servers. The point is all the tools you need are built and/or automatically done for you. Get a new computer, go to a friends house, need more HDD space, no problem. The games can be downloaded with the latest patches and installed for you in less then an hour or two (depending on connection and such) without having to worry about damaged media and lost keys.
So, yeah, you're right. No benefit what so ever.
There is a good reason why the broadband companies are opposed this. It will bankrupt them. Once everybody had free internet, the only people wh will want it to be faster are the torrenters,
...
Gamers and people would stream media would be paying to. And that's just residential customers. You are forgetting all the businesses who are not ISP but require broadband internet connection.
Your commercial lines aren't always being run by Comcast or Timewarner or anything, but they certainly aren't going to use the free service and they also use the most bandwidth. So no, not everyone is going to hop onto the free network. I certainly would not use it, but I'm all for it for people who would be willing to use it.
First all, the people who use the most bandwidth won't be the ones using the free service. They will be the ones paying for their connection. Secondly, I'm willing to bet the majority of people on the free service would not be constantly using their bandwidth like I thought a lot of us/.ers do. I really don't see a huge problem with this.
I have always said I would pay double or triple my current cable bill if I could watch without commercials or dvr/tivo. Many people on the other hand feel the opposite. I myself are willing to pay higher service cost for better quality service, but by allowing the people who aren't in my group to switch over to the free internet and free up current networks, I'm all for it.
It was for people in rural areas where the lines are already setup for other services. Also the people who pay 15/7 wouldn't care about the filters. Also I myself pay 75/m for 16mb connection and a service that I could purchase for 15/month would not meet my needs as I'm sure the same goes for a lot of people on/. This connection would be for the non-technophiles. I'm all for it. Get grandma off my current node so it frees up more of the bandwidth.
Actually no, that's not true. If you save your account credentials (by going to file>settings and un-checking "Don't save account credentials on this computer" you can login under offline mode and launch and game. You just would not have access to the Steam community. The only thing the Steam Community is used for is friends, stat tracking and server finding in Valve games. Other games like CoD4 don't use the Steam Community for server finding and you could still/connect in console on your CS to connect to a server. For finding a server for CS or Valve game, there are tons of websites that track that. Also, as far as I know Valve doesn't make a practice of spying on your game usage and probably doesn't really care except to get other companies to sign on. "We have x amount of users playing x amount of hours per week on game x, you should sign up with us as more people buy games via Steam then they do by going into their local Wal-Mart or GameStop for PC Gaming." The only downfall(and it's not really a downfall) is VAC(Valve Anti-Cheat). Once you're banned, your banned for life (the current policy) and have to jump through a million hoops to reverse that. Although they were instances of False Positives, but the accounts affected by that were reversed. Also Internet Cafe's or Lans use a different version of Valve so if someone somehow put hacks on a computer and all users who logged in on that computer were VAC banned, then it's a different story. Overall though, it's great that I can buy/download/install a game in less then 3 hours (CoD4 took 2 hours from buying to playing) and have the game for life and play from any computer in the world. Considering Steam was also running a special the weekend I purchased CoD4 I got it cheaper then if I had purchased it from the store. Also no waiting in lines (which if you go to wal-mart you'll likely wait in line for at least an hour, if they have it, and most GameStops and EB Games selection of PC games is quite pathetic) So yes, Steam is the superior way to purchase PC Games (consider they have Most big titles, GTA, CoD, Crysis, Raindbow6, etc etc.)
On my resume I only list relevant jobs and explain what I did at the previous company that made it relevant to the current position they are looking to fill. No one wants to know you worked at McDonald's when you were 16 when you applying for an entry level DBA position.
I agree. I'm in the IT industry and have tried a few different places. If you can demonstrate to a smaller company you know what you are talking about and that your only hurdle will be their proprietary software, most will give you 90 days at entry level position. Also after the 90 days, you can usually push for a higher position or more responsibility. Also after 90 days, if you are not digging the job, they will not hold it against you to give them 2 weeks referral and usually will give you a good reference.
The only thing is when giving them your two weeks if after 90 days your don't believe it is the right company for you, sit down and talk with your supervisor and explain that you enjoyed the experience, but you feel you want to pursue another company. Basically, leave on good terms.
And always always be professional, but don't hesitate to try to connect with the interviewer on a personal level. For instance, if you notice the interviewer has quite a few (which I've seen) World of Warcraft figurines on their desk, make a joke or ask them about it when you have a pause after you answer a question and before they ask you a new one. This will make them feel more connected with you and will lighten the mood and make the interview more lax where you can really talk in detail about questions without trying to tell them "what they want to hear".
Remember you have to prove to them that you are worth that salary and better then the next guy coming in.
One of my job interviews, I was less qualified with the other candidate at the time, but I was able to answer the two questions no other candidate had ever answer correctly before. One was a picture of the Safari Browser logo and you had to answer what program it was, and the other question I think had something to do with file archiving or compressing(it's been awhile).
0.45% of famous programmers are transsexuals. Which 1% would be 2 out of 200 and.50% would be 1. So part of 1 programmer who is famous is transsexual.
Also I find it funny that it's Danielle Bunten Barry and she is known for the M.U.L.E. multiplayer video game written in 1983. A Mule being a sterile species (most of the time.)
Hey now, not everyone is a basement dweller who plays WoW. Second Life on the other hand was a great idea at first, now it's just virtual sex services.
One provider I like for obscure tracks is beatport.com(for "Techno") and beatsource.com(for "urban"). They supply DRM tracks and let you download in three formats. MP3 (320 Kbps CBR), WAV (1411 kbps), and MP4 (192 Kbps VBR). I usually download in WAV as I can take this high bit rate and covert down to a smaller more universal format such as MP3 at 192 kbps for my iPod or any format I prefer since it's the high quality version.
So basically it takes a lot of little snaps of objects in the distance that are effected by the "heat wave effect thing(like I said I just woke up and I haven't started the coffee yet)" and then pieces together what the object actually is?
The funny thing about those three tiers are this. If you hired a handful of highly skilled individuals who were personally responsible for customers. You would have happier customers and cheaper labor cost and the customer would feel much more special. Let me explain
I call a company and instead of getting an automated system, or 100 different people every time I call, I get one guy who I am familiar with and who is familiar with the services or products I have purchased from the company. This one person knows everything about my account and the products and fixes the problem himself instead of passing it off to a higher tier support, who may then pass it off to an even higher tier support. So you pay this person a reasonable salary (depending on area 50k to 100k) instead of paying those 100 people 20k - 30k and then the techs above them 30k - 45k. You could effectively cut your cost by thousands and keep customers much much happier instead of overall the customer feeling frustrated and ripped off as the majority of the time every one of those unskilled 100 customer services agents will have no idea what the other 99 even talked to you about, told you and did to fix the problem. Also it would cut down on customer service agents lying to you to get you off the phone or telling your some bs story so they don't have to deal with it as the Skilled worker is now responsible for fixing the problem.
A great ISP that does this is speakeasy. You have one tech you call for all your problems who handles is from start to finish. If that person is not available you are sent to the next available CSA who does the same and calls you back upon finding a solution to the problem. Speakeasy (when I dealt with them) would even call you if they discovered a problem with your service (such as packet loss, port sniffing, etc) before you even had a chance to call the CSA and would guide you through fixing the problem on your end if the problem required this.
Unfortunately most companies do not realize the benefits of this and simply hire thousands of cheap unskilled workers who's sole job is to click a button on their screen and hope it fixes the problem. The non-fanatical support system also has a very high turn over rate, and the company usually has a high number of complaints, unsatisfied customers, and customers who leave to try a different company with the same results.
I think the majority of consumers would not mind paying slightly more for a service is the support was great.
I agree. Most fighting games have a lot of depth to them. Someone mentioned Tekken, but I think a better one to site would be Soul Calibur. Any new player can easily pick up the game and kickly learn the basics on attack horizontal (for side stepping opponents), vertical (for quick strikes), and kicks (for an extra mix of quick or devastating attacks). But the further you go into the game you find you can also parry and dodge attacks and that certain moves will leave opponents open long enough to do powerful moves. You can also chain combos together differently to mess up an opponent who thinks you going to attack high, when you attack low very simply by pressing in the directions you want to attack. This is where the depth or complexity occurs. When playing with friends who are well versed in the game (at the arcade or at home) our fights last much longer as we are familiar with the characters and the attack patterns and can anticipate moves and then think several moves ahead for several different outcomes. For instance my friend will try to bait me in, I know he is doing it, but I take a chance and dash in and sidestep out. If he attacks horizontally it will most likely be mid level and a simple block or parry will give me the upper hand for a few quick attacks before I have to retreat to a save distance as my combo will leave me open. Almost all fighting games have this sort of paper, rock, scissors equation to them, and its recognizing it and being able to manipulate this formula that makes a good player.
Also the people commenting below must not be very good gamers as all games, rpg, fps, rts, tbs, (except MMO's) have tons of strategy to them. I excluded MMO's because take wow for example: During a raid, all you must know is the specific timing and what to do for each raid and it's incredibly simple and quite easy. PVP is a bit different, as you have less time to react to situations and the situations is rarely the same. Even simple games like tetris and simular gam,es (read peggle and bedazzled) have strategy. Should you take out the pieces now, or risk letting them accumulate in hopes of getting the pieces you need for an even higher score.
I would go as far to say the majority of games (including video, board, and card games) have quite a bit of strategy and depth to them to any gamer who digs deeper into the system.
I'm sorry, but the RIAA could care lees about the artist and it's only interest is in the labels and distribution. They view the artist simply as corporate assets.
Taken from their website about piracy
"Our goal with all these anti-piracy efforts is to protect the ability of the recording industry to invest in new bands and new music and, in the digital space, to give legal online services a chance to flourish."
I agree. Ok Go http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ok_go would not be as popular as they are if they had not gone behind Capitol Records back and released their internet video. On their own, for less then 10 dollars, they made their own fame via the internet.
Slashdot Mirror
Well when you can start making an exact working copy of your car from your car over and over, you might have to start that exercise program you've been putting off.
The reason is because they have to get the publishers permission to do it, they can't just say "Hey Activision, we're doing a free weekend for CoD:WoW"
Why do you need to "predownload" something before you buy it. If you are going to buy the game after the download finishes, it's the same thing as buying and then downloading it. Unless you are wanting to predownload it and then buy it later when you can afford it. Beyond that one scenario I don't see the value in predownloading it.
Well I would say that is your mistake for buying a retail copy. Steam usually sells the game for cheaper anyway not to mention weekend deals and all that fun stuff. The reason why I've heard is because of KeyGens.
I disagree. The entire point of Steam is not having to worry about physical media and keys, not having to download patches and hope it installs correctly or using another system to find servers. The point is all the tools you need are built and/or automatically done for you. Get a new computer, go to a friends house, need more HDD space, no problem. The games can be downloaded with the latest patches and installed for you in less then an hour or two (depending on connection and such) without having to worry about damaged media and lost keys. So, yeah, you're right. No benefit what so ever.
There is a good reason why the broadband companies are opposed this. It will bankrupt them. Once everybody had free internet, the only people wh will want it to be faster are the torrenters,
... Gamers and people would stream media would be paying to. And that's just residential customers. You are forgetting all the businesses who are not ISP but require broadband internet connection. Your commercial lines aren't always being run by Comcast or Timewarner or anything, but they certainly aren't going to use the free service and they also use the most bandwidth. So no, not everyone is going to hop onto the free network. I certainly would not use it, but I'm all for it for people who would be willing to use it.
First all, the people who use the most bandwidth won't be the ones using the free service. They will be the ones paying for their connection. Secondly, I'm willing to bet the majority of people on the free service would not be constantly using their bandwidth like I thought a lot of us /.ers do. I really don't see a huge problem with this.
I have always said I would pay double or triple my current cable bill if I could watch without commercials or dvr/tivo. Many people on the other hand feel the opposite. I myself are willing to pay higher service cost for better quality service, but by allowing the people who aren't in my group to switch over to the free internet and free up current networks, I'm all for it.
It was for people in rural areas where the lines are already setup for other services. Also the people who pay 15/7 wouldn't care about the filters. Also I myself pay 75/m for 16mb connection and a service that I could purchase for 15/month would not meet my needs as I'm sure the same goes for a lot of people on /. This connection would be for the non-technophiles. I'm all for it. Get grandma off my current node so it frees up more of the bandwidth.
Google is top because it's a very quick and robust search engine and has always had the policy of keeping users privacy a one of their top priorities.
Dystopia was fun. I initially kept thinking about dinosaurs for some weird reason when I started playing.
Actually no, that's not true. If you save your account credentials (by going to file>settings and un-checking "Don't save account credentials on this computer" you can login under offline mode and launch and game. You just would not have access to the Steam community. The only thing the Steam Community is used for is friends, stat tracking and server finding in Valve games. Other games like CoD4 don't use the Steam Community for server finding and you could still /connect in console on your CS to connect to a server. For finding a server for CS or Valve game, there are tons of websites that track that. Also, as far as I know Valve doesn't make a practice of spying on your game usage and probably doesn't really care except to get other companies to sign on. "We have x amount of users playing x amount of hours per week on game x, you should sign up with us as more people buy games via Steam then they do by going into their local Wal-Mart or GameStop for PC Gaming." The only downfall(and it's not really a downfall) is VAC(Valve Anti-Cheat). Once you're banned, your banned for life (the current policy) and have to jump through a million hoops to reverse that. Although they were instances of False Positives, but the accounts affected by that were reversed. Also Internet Cafe's or Lans use a different version of Valve so if someone somehow put hacks on a computer and all users who logged in on that computer were VAC banned, then it's a different story. Overall though, it's great that I can buy/download/install a game in less then 3 hours (CoD4 took 2 hours from buying to playing) and have the game for life and play from any computer in the world. Considering Steam was also running a special the weekend I purchased CoD4 I got it cheaper then if I had purchased it from the store. Also no waiting in lines (which if you go to wal-mart you'll likely wait in line for at least an hour, if they have it, and most GameStops and EB Games selection of PC games is quite pathetic) So yes, Steam is the superior way to purchase PC Games (consider they have Most big titles, GTA, CoD, Crysis, Raindbow6, etc etc.)
On my resume I only list relevant jobs and explain what I did at the previous company that made it relevant to the current position they are looking to fill. No one wants to know you worked at McDonald's when you were 16 when you applying for an entry level DBA position.
The only thing is when giving them your two weeks if after 90 days your don't believe it is the right company for you, sit down and talk with your supervisor and explain that you enjoyed the experience, but you feel you want to pursue another company. Basically, leave on good terms.
And always always be professional, but don't hesitate to try to connect with the interviewer on a personal level. For instance, if you notice the interviewer has quite a few (which I've seen) World of Warcraft figurines on their desk, make a joke or ask them about it when you have a pause after you answer a question and before they ask you a new one. This will make them feel more connected with you and will lighten the mood and make the interview more lax where you can really talk in detail about questions without trying to tell them "what they want to hear".
Remember you have to prove to them that you are worth that salary and better then the next guy coming in.
One of my job interviews, I was less qualified with the other candidate at the time, but I was able to answer the two questions no other candidate had ever answer correctly before. One was a picture of the Safari Browser logo and you had to answer what program it was, and the other question I think had something to do with file archiving or compressing(it's been awhile).
0.45% of famous programmers are transsexuals. Which 1% would be 2 out of 200 and .50% would be 1. So part of 1 programmer who is famous is transsexual.
Also I find it funny that it's Danielle Bunten Barry and she is known for the M.U.L.E. multiplayer video game written in 1983. A Mule being a sterile species (most of the time.)
If the Russians can give a strait answer, surely the US can.
Hey now, not everyone is a basement dweller who plays WoW. Second Life on the other hand was a great idea at first, now it's just virtual sex services.
One provider I like for obscure tracks is beatport.com(for "Techno") and beatsource.com(for "urban"). They supply DRM tracks and let you download in three formats. MP3 (320 Kbps CBR), WAV (1411 kbps), and MP4 (192 Kbps VBR). I usually download in WAV as I can take this high bit rate and covert down to a smaller more universal format such as MP3 at 192 kbps for my iPod or any format I prefer since it's the high quality version.
So basically it takes a lot of little snaps of objects in the distance that are effected by the "heat wave effect thing(like I said I just woke up and I haven't started the coffee yet)" and then pieces together what the object actually is?
The system has been programmed to differentiate people by their clothing.
I knew Microsoft stereotyped consumers!
The funny thing about those three tiers are this. If you hired a handful of highly skilled individuals who were personally responsible for customers. You would have happier customers and cheaper labor cost and the customer would feel much more special. Let me explain
I call a company and instead of getting an automated system, or 100 different people every time I call, I get one guy who I am familiar with and who is familiar with the services or products I have purchased from the company. This one person knows everything about my account and the products and fixes the problem himself instead of passing it off to a higher tier support, who may then pass it off to an even higher tier support. So you pay this person a reasonable salary (depending on area 50k to 100k) instead of paying those 100 people 20k - 30k and then the techs above them 30k - 45k. You could effectively cut your cost by thousands and keep customers much much happier instead of overall the customer feeling frustrated and ripped off as the majority of the time every one of those unskilled 100 customer services agents will have no idea what the other 99 even talked to you about, told you and did to fix the problem. Also it would cut down on customer service agents lying to you to get you off the phone or telling your some bs story so they don't have to deal with it as the Skilled worker is now responsible for fixing the problem.
A great ISP that does this is speakeasy. You have one tech you call for all your problems who handles is from start to finish. If that person is not available you are sent to the next available CSA who does the same and calls you back upon finding a solution to the problem. Speakeasy (when I dealt with them) would even call you if they discovered a problem with your service (such as packet loss, port sniffing, etc) before you even had a chance to call the CSA and would guide you through fixing the problem on your end if the problem required this.
Unfortunately most companies do not realize the benefits of this and simply hire thousands of cheap unskilled workers who's sole job is to click a button on their screen and hope it fixes the problem. The non-fanatical support system also has a very high turn over rate, and the company usually has a high number of complaints, unsatisfied customers, and customers who leave to try a different company with the same results.
I think the majority of consumers would not mind paying slightly more for a service is the support was great.
I agree. Most fighting games have a lot of depth to them. Someone mentioned Tekken, but I think a better one to site would be Soul Calibur. Any new player can easily pick up the game and kickly learn the basics on attack horizontal (for side stepping opponents), vertical (for quick strikes), and kicks (for an extra mix of quick or devastating attacks). But the further you go into the game you find you can also parry and dodge attacks and that certain moves will leave opponents open long enough to do powerful moves. You can also chain combos together differently to mess up an opponent who thinks you going to attack high, when you attack low very simply by pressing in the directions you want to attack. This is where the depth or complexity occurs. When playing with friends who are well versed in the game (at the arcade or at home) our fights last much longer as we are familiar with the characters and the attack patterns and can anticipate moves and then think several moves ahead for several different outcomes. For instance my friend will try to bait me in, I know he is doing it, but I take a chance and dash in and sidestep out. If he attacks horizontally it will most likely be mid level and a simple block or parry will give me the upper hand for a few quick attacks before I have to retreat to a save distance as my combo will leave me open. Almost all fighting games have this sort of paper, rock, scissors equation to them, and its recognizing it and being able to manipulate this formula that makes a good player.
Also the people commenting below must not be very good gamers as all games, rpg, fps, rts, tbs, (except MMO's) have tons of strategy to them. I excluded MMO's because take wow for example: During a raid, all you must know is the specific timing and what to do for each raid and it's incredibly simple and quite easy. PVP is a bit different, as you have less time to react to situations and the situations is rarely the same. Even simple games like tetris and simular gam,es (read peggle and bedazzled) have strategy. Should you take out the pieces now, or risk letting them accumulate in hopes of getting the pieces you need for an even higher score.
I would go as far to say the majority of games (including video, board, and card games) have quite a bit of strategy and depth to them to any gamer who digs deeper into the system.
I'm sorry, but the RIAA could care lees about the artist and it's only interest is in the labels and distribution. They view the artist simply as corporate assets. Taken from their website about piracy "Our goal with all these anti-piracy efforts is to protect the ability of the recording industry to invest in new bands and new music and, in the digital space, to give legal online services a chance to flourish."
I agree. Ok Go http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ok_go would not be as popular as they are if they had not gone behind Capitol Records back and released their internet video. On their own, for less then 10 dollars, they made their own fame via the internet.
I think he meant the real money FOR THE ARTIST is in concerts. the Record industry makes more off cd sales then the artist themselves do.