"proper security measures shall be taken to protect against malicious software and remote attacks."
Define 'proper' in this context. Windows has come with built in firewall software for years, since XP SP2 IIRC. Is that 'proper' enough? What about the most up-to-date patched Windows 7 system? Where do you draw the line?
UNIX firewalls might be the best in the world today, but tomorrow someone might discover a critical flaw that opens up every Linux box to all kinds of nasties. Similarly, saying "Install Norton/Mcaffee/whatever" is susceptible to a similar flaw. It might be the recommended A/V product, but tomorrow some hax0rs might find a vulnerability with it and every computer in Australia is vulnerable to it.
Buying virtual currency is no different to buying credit tokens in an old-fashioned arcade. It's no different to buying chips at a casino. It's not quite the 'scam' you claim it to be.
Social games need their user's money to survive. Companies won't (and can't) make games for free. The traditional "you buy a game, then you play the game" business model doesn't work on social networks. People are used to games on the web being free. So the only way to make money from the free games is to offer special content that you have to part with real money for. Social games companies now have a "you play the game, then you buy stuff to play the game more/better" business model because it works. Facebook already make a lot of money off the back of 3rd party app developers. Do you think so many people would stick around on facebook if there weren't games to idly pass the time? Of course not. The apps keep people on facebook for longer, giving facebook more ad-time. Asking 30% of developers only source of income is very cheeky in my opinion.
How/why I know what I do;
I work for a games company, and I develop most of the company's social games (with other people, of course). Trust me when I say it's very expensive to not only develop and host the games - but to keep them working. Facebook & other social networks move their goal posts a LOT. We have to be on top of all their changes so our games keep working. Unlike console games, for example, we can't just release a social game and leave it.
HTML 5 isn't just going to be the same in every browser. It's taken years to get/nearly/ respectable CSS support in popular browsers. Even bleeding edge browsers render the same CSS differently to rival bleed-edge browsers.
Flash might be a pain/slow/propriety/..., but at least it's consistent.
I couldn't get on the article linked in the summary, but I found this in google which is probably the same thing. It's nearly 2 months old, but that's not reason enough for it not to be on./
You'll probably need twice the hardware for equal performance.
Maybe it'll give nvidia & ATI a shove in the right direction when they realise that people might actually make games for the linux platform now.
But they don't consider 15-17 year olds children in China (I don't pretend to know about Chinese law - just putting the idea out there). Also, if $0.65/hour is just enough to live on - so be it. Factory workers here (UK) are paid 'just enough to live on' too. $0.65 isn't a lot by western standards, but if it can shelter, feed and clothe them over there, it's enough for them.
Considering that factory has employees - it's most likely the best work those people can get in that area. If Microsoft & others decided to pack up and stop 'exploiting' - where would all those workers go? Probably to some other factory that pays even less.
Your post clearly says more about the general health of your computer than it does about the state of the game. I had it running on my Win Mobile HTC phone a while ago with absolutely no performance issues whatsoever.
Other than moving your fingers closer together or further apart to zoom in or out of various 2D and 3D images - what use is a multi touch mouse? Personally, I don't understand the point.
Microsoft's table technology looks more intriguing to me because unlike a mouse, you can have more than 1 person using it at once.
Because despite it being slower, having longer queues, only being open at specific times and any money raised from that booth goes to "the man" - it's the legal route. So while it would certainly be easier, better, more convenient and arguably more morally just to go to any of the 49 other lanes - legally, you'd be in the wrong if you did. So unless "the man" says it's OK to use the free routes, wear a balaclava as you speed past the losers who obey the law.
"The kids need to be taken away" philosophy simply doesn't work. Once you've taken these kids away, what do you do with them? I for one don't want to be a foster parent for someone else's ungrateful, chavvy brat of a child and I'm sure a lot of other people would rather not either. Chavvy kids are unwanted by society - very very few people would be willing to adopt them to try and change them.
That problem could be solved by taking the kids away at a young enough age, before they're permanently scarred by chav culture - but then we have the issue of, how do we know the parents are doing a bad job before they've done it? On paper, when I was a baby, my parents weren't wealthy, we were living in a rough area in a council house, my mum was unemployed (to look after me and my brother) and my dad was working in the lowly ranks of BT. On paper, they didn't look particularly good. But as I got older and eventually left home, my parents are both doing very well for themselves (mum's a solicitor, dad has his own business) and they have 2 uni educated kids; 1 an accountant and 1 working out of a web development firm in London. For parents where only 1 of them worked and lived in a bad area, they didn't do a bad job.
My point is, the government can't decide who to take young kids from, and for older kids, it's too late - nobody wants them.
Libraries anyone?
During my 2nd year at uni (I didn't think of it for my first) I just got all the text books I needed from the library. Most of them were 4 week loans and could be renewed on the internet - so it wasn't really that much of a hassle.
Considering the rising sizes of games and the "traffic management" policies that all the major ISPs have now, it's not very practical for digital-only releases.
For example, GTA IV was the best part of 15-16GB. Even if ISPs didn't cap people's downloads, even if the digital distributors didn't crumble on release day, even if "upto 32Meg" broadband got close to those speeds, even if the game actually worked on PC (beside the point) - it would still take absolutely ages for me to download on my 2Meg connection. While I'm well aware of the fact that 2Meg isn't the fastest, I'm a student. I don't have the money to spend on 50Meg broadband. But similarly, because I'm a student, I have nothing better to do with my time than post./ comments and play video games.
I've learned from my digitally distributed mistake, and in future I will;
Not buy another GTA game for PC
Just pre-order the physical copy - sometimes you actually get that the day before release.
Actually, that's where you could be wrong. It depends on your university/college/school's small print that you agreed to when you enrolled on the course. At the university I go to, the university claims ownership of any work you create there, eg, coursework, essays, notes, projects etc. By enrolling to the course, I effectively gave the university rights to use any of my work how they please (even profit from it).
When our head of department was confronted on this, she said that it is true, the university does take legal ownership for everyone's work - but most of the time, the uni doesn't care. So, if you create an amazing piece of software for a coursework and want to sell it afterwards - the uni won't really care. Legally, they are allowed to stop you or force you to pay royalties to the uni though.
tl;dr, read the small print. You'll probably find your answer there.
Having recently tried to bump start my car, but misjudged it and hit a Chelsea tractor square in the side - I don't believe this automatic braking lark would help if the engine isn't on (as in my case).
It's amusing that these guys seem to count slick mouse software as a plus. I bet most of us would rather have a mouse that doesn't need any additional software. Wireless devices don't make any sense to me either, unless you're talking about a media PC. Isn't a mouse/KB that can run out of batteries just additional complication with no benefit? And isn't a charging pad a waste of desk space?
I quite like having a wireless mouse and keyboard. Fortunately, my mouse has a docking-station-type charger, so it never goes flat because I just pop it in that whenever I leave my computer. The keyboard's battery life is phenomenally long so that is also a non-issue. The keyboard not having a wire is more useful than the mouse not having a wire. If I'm leaning back in my chair with the keyboard on my lap, a wired one will probably end up getting tangled around my legs (knowing my clumsy self) so having it wireless avoids this. It just means, there isn't a cable that'll stop it smashing into the floor when it inevitably slides off my lap.
Actually, my mouse is the best mouse in the world ever. Simply because, it's wireless, rechargable, has a scroll wheel that acts like a 3rd button. Also, I only paid 13 quid for it, and that was about 8 years ago. I challenge any of those mice listed to beat mine in value for money. Of course, I'm sure those mice have extra 'worthwhile' features...like...wait...what exactly is there on those mice that actually has substance? I mean the rubbish like "UBER LAZOR IS SO REALLY REALLY PRECISE" is utter marketing drivel and I'm very sure that 99.9% of the entire technically literate world would not be able to notice the difference in 'precision' of a $90 laser mouse compared with my 8 year old £13 mouse. Is there actually any features on those mice that actually justify their price tags? I mean, sure, some of them have a couple of extra buttons, but from past experience of using mice with extra buttons stuck on the side - they're really rather pointless and didn't really catch on (like the Welsh language [reference to a show Rob Brydon did recently, I can't remember what it's called, but I'm not being racist]). Ok, so it makes skipping forwards and backwards in your browser that little bit quicker. But hitting the buttons on your browser's navigation bar doesn't exactly take much time. Neither does hitting backspace for going back or hitting whatever the button is for going forward, for going forward.
Slashdot Mirror
"proper security measures shall be taken to protect against malicious software and remote attacks."
Define 'proper' in this context. Windows has come with built in firewall software for years, since XP SP2 IIRC. Is that 'proper' enough? What about the most up-to-date patched Windows 7 system? Where do you draw the line?
UNIX firewalls might be the best in the world today, but tomorrow someone might discover a critical flaw that opens up every Linux box to all kinds of nasties. Similarly, saying "Install Norton/Mcaffee/whatever" is susceptible to a similar flaw. It might be the recommended A/V product, but tomorrow some hax0rs might find a vulnerability with it and every computer in Australia is vulnerable to it.
They'll probably response by not trying to use it to play games.
Buying virtual currency is no different to buying credit tokens in an old-fashioned arcade. It's no different to buying chips at a casino. It's not quite the 'scam' you claim it to be.
Social games need their user's money to survive. Companies won't (and can't) make games for free. The traditional "you buy a game, then you play the game" business model doesn't work on social networks. People are used to games on the web being free. So the only way to make money from the free games is to offer special content that you have to part with real money for. Social games companies now have a "you play the game, then you buy stuff to play the game more/better" business model because it works. Facebook already make a lot of money off the back of 3rd party app developers. Do you think so many people would stick around on facebook if there weren't games to idly pass the time? Of course not. The apps keep people on facebook for longer, giving facebook more ad-time. Asking 30% of developers only source of income is very cheeky in my opinion.
How/why I know what I do;
I work for a games company, and I develop most of the company's social games (with other people, of course). Trust me when I say it's very expensive to not only develop and host the games - but to keep them working. Facebook & other social networks move their goal posts a LOT. We have to be on top of all their changes so our games keep working. Unlike console games, for example, we can't just release a social game and leave it.
For those who are interested
Then we'd need another bulldozer satellite for when the 1st bulldozer fails and another one for when that one fails.
Reminds me somewhat of this.
mod parent up.
/nearly/ respectable CSS support in popular browsers. Even bleeding edge browsers render the same CSS differently to rival bleed-edge browsers.
HTML 5 isn't just going to be the same in every browser. It's taken years to get
Flash might be a pain/slow/propriety/..., but at least it's consistent.
Click
./
I couldn't get on the article linked in the summary, but I found this in google which is probably the same thing. It's nearly 2 months old, but that's not reason enough for it not to be on
EULAs aren't the most legally bind 'agreements' at the best of times. But one that applies retroactively is ridiculous even by EULA standards.
You'll probably need twice the hardware for equal performance. Maybe it'll give nvidia & ATI a shove in the right direction when they realise that people might actually make games for the linux platform now.
But they don't consider 15-17 year olds children in China (I don't pretend to know about Chinese law - just putting the idea out there). Also, if $0.65/hour is just enough to live on - so be it. Factory workers here (UK) are paid 'just enough to live on' too. $0.65 isn't a lot by western standards, but if it can shelter, feed and clothe them over there, it's enough for them. Considering that factory has employees - it's most likely the best work those people can get in that area. If Microsoft & others decided to pack up and stop 'exploiting' - where would all those workers go? Probably to some other factory that pays even less.
Your post clearly says more about the general health of your computer than it does about the state of the game. I had it running on my Win Mobile HTC phone a while ago with absolutely no performance issues whatsoever.
...Your best hope is to find a cave in the mountains. Not a home in suburbia...
Actually, even a cave in the mountains probably wouldn't be as radio-free as you might hope. Many rocks are naturally radio-active.
JavaSript? I thought Microsoft would have learnt from Active X's failings that propriety technologies don't catch on too well.
If it were moldable, maybe you could throttle it.
Other than moving your fingers closer together or further apart to zoom in or out of various 2D and 3D images - what use is a multi touch mouse? Personally, I don't understand the point.
Microsoft's table technology looks more intriguing to me because unlike a mouse, you can have more than 1 person using it at once.
Because despite it being slower, having longer queues, only being open at specific times and any money raised from that booth goes to "the man" - it's the legal route. So while it would certainly be easier, better, more convenient and arguably more morally just to go to any of the 49 other lanes - legally, you'd be in the wrong if you did. So unless "the man" says it's OK to use the free routes, wear a balaclava as you speed past the losers who obey the law.
Oh please, GTA 4 wasn't even ported to PC/Windows properly. What chance do they have with Macs?
"The kids need to be taken away" philosophy simply doesn't work. Once you've taken these kids away, what do you do with them? I for one don't want to be a foster parent for someone else's ungrateful, chavvy brat of a child and I'm sure a lot of other people would rather not either. Chavvy kids are unwanted by society - very very few people would be willing to adopt them to try and change them.
That problem could be solved by taking the kids away at a young enough age, before they're permanently scarred by chav culture - but then we have the issue of, how do we know the parents are doing a bad job before they've done it? On paper, when I was a baby, my parents weren't wealthy, we were living in a rough area in a council house, my mum was unemployed (to look after me and my brother) and my dad was working in the lowly ranks of BT. On paper, they didn't look particularly good. But as I got older and eventually left home, my parents are both doing very well for themselves (mum's a solicitor, dad has his own business) and they have 2 uni educated kids; 1 an accountant and 1 working out of a web development firm in London. For parents where only 1 of them worked and lived in a bad area, they didn't do a bad job.
My point is, the government can't decide who to take young kids from, and for older kids, it's too late - nobody wants them.
From TFA:
The robot takes a step every 340ms and has no contact with the ground for 100ms of that.
In the slo-mo, it looks like both feet are off the ground to me. Check again at 0.52-0.53.
Libraries anyone? During my 2nd year at uni (I didn't think of it for my first) I just got all the text books I needed from the library. Most of them were 4 week loans and could be renewed on the internet - so it wasn't really that much of a hassle.
Considering the rising sizes of games and the "traffic management" policies that all the major ISPs have now, it's not very practical for digital-only releases.
For example, GTA IV was the best part of 15-16GB. Even if ISPs didn't cap people's downloads, even if the digital distributors didn't crumble on release day, even if "upto 32Meg" broadband got close to those speeds, even if the game actually worked on PC (beside the point) - it would still take absolutely ages for me to download on my 2Meg connection. While I'm well aware of the fact that 2Meg isn't the fastest, I'm a student. I don't have the money to spend on 50Meg broadband. But similarly, because I'm a student, I have nothing better to do with my time than post ./ comments and play video games.
I've learned from my digitally distributed mistake, and in future I will;
Not buy another GTA game for PC
Just pre-order the physical copy - sometimes you actually get that the day before release.
Actually, that's where you could be wrong. It depends on your university/college/school's small print that you agreed to when you enrolled on the course. At the university I go to, the university claims ownership of any work you create there, eg, coursework, essays, notes, projects etc. By enrolling to the course, I effectively gave the university rights to use any of my work how they please (even profit from it).
When our head of department was confronted on this, she said that it is true, the university does take legal ownership for everyone's work - but most of the time, the uni doesn't care. So, if you create an amazing piece of software for a coursework and want to sell it afterwards - the uni won't really care. Legally, they are allowed to stop you or force you to pay royalties to the uni though.
tl;dr, read the small print. You'll probably find your answer there.
Having recently tried to bump start my car, but misjudged it and hit a Chelsea tractor square in the side - I don't believe this automatic braking lark would help if the engine isn't on (as in my case).
It's amusing that these guys seem to count slick mouse software as a plus. I bet most of us would rather have a mouse that doesn't need any additional software. Wireless devices don't make any sense to me either, unless you're talking about a media PC. Isn't a mouse/KB that can run out of batteries just additional complication with no benefit? And isn't a charging pad a waste of desk space?
I quite like having a wireless mouse and keyboard. Fortunately, my mouse has a docking-station-type charger, so it never goes flat because I just pop it in that whenever I leave my computer. The keyboard's battery life is phenomenally long so that is also a non-issue. The keyboard not having a wire is more useful than the mouse not having a wire. If I'm leaning back in my chair with the keyboard on my lap, a wired one will probably end up getting tangled around my legs (knowing my clumsy self) so having it wireless avoids this. It just means, there isn't a cable that'll stop it smashing into the floor when it inevitably slides off my lap.
Actually, my mouse is the best mouse in the world ever. Simply because, it's wireless, rechargable, has a scroll wheel that acts like a 3rd button. Also, I only paid 13 quid for it, and that was about 8 years ago. I challenge any of those mice listed to beat mine in value for money. Of course, I'm sure those mice have extra 'worthwhile' features...like...wait...what exactly is there on those mice that actually has substance? I mean the rubbish like "UBER LAZOR IS SO REALLY REALLY PRECISE" is utter marketing drivel and I'm very sure that 99.9% of the entire technically literate world would not be able to notice the difference in 'precision' of a $90 laser mouse compared with my 8 year old £13 mouse. Is there actually any features on those mice that actually justify their price tags? I mean, sure, some of them have a couple of extra buttons, but from past experience of using mice with extra buttons stuck on the side - they're really rather pointless and didn't really catch on (like the Welsh language [reference to a show Rob Brydon did recently, I can't remember what it's called, but I'm not being racist]). Ok, so it makes skipping forwards and backwards in your browser that little bit quicker. But hitting the buttons on your browser's navigation bar doesn't exactly take much time. Neither does hitting backspace for going back or hitting whatever the button is for going forward, for going forward.