How often? Well, back in the 9x days it was once every 4 months. Since I've installed Win2000 (also known as "Windows that doesn't fucking suck ass") I've only done it a few times, and that was usually to fix a driver bug from Nvidia. And of course, two reinstalls for XP - one to put it there the first time, and one to go from a cracked prerelease copy to my legal copy when I got it in December (damn slow educational licensing!)
In short, the nice thing about NT is that it doesn't degrade the way 9x did.
He shouldn't have used the restore disc. Gee, maybe if you'd try the normal products instead of what Sony sends you, you'd have better luck?
Anyway, sure, there's a lot of discs involved (my system setup routine involves 7 - one Windows, one Office, 5 Visual Studio) and there's some reboots (I think there's six.) I don't have any hardware that needs really hard-to-find or poorly packaged drivers (maybe because I let Sony stick to selling me TV's?) and my machine is a whole lot more capable after my two hours than this guy was able to get his Windows machine.
support.microsoft.com is quite nice. Or check out the developer docs; there's usually resource kits on the MSDN discs.
I've never been at a loss for info when solving a Windows problem. Hell, I tend to have too much info (I'll have five solutions to my problem, and only one of them is my real problem) and waste time fixing stuff that's not broken.
Say what you will about the stability of their software, but the documentation is superb.
Sorry. They're good sequels, and I'm enjoying GTA3 thoroughly (barely gotten started on FFX) but they're still sequels.
GTA3 does depart from its predecessors in playstyle, but is there really any difference between how you play FFVII and FFX? Sure, it's not the same as FFI or FFVI, but really, there's still many similarities that reach back that far.
As such, FFX is still very derivative of past FF games. That's just its nature.
Not that there's anything wrong with that... my point was that a derivative could be good.
I'm looking at my PS2 collection, and I see sequels.
Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec Grand Theft Auto III Final Fantasy X Metal Gear Solid 2 Twisted Metal:Black
Sequels are great, sure, but there's nothing new. Originality is a nice thing, but it's not the end-all be-all of game design. Sometimes another boring FPS is exactly what I want to play.
If you want an inventive twist on an existing genre on XBox, play Project Gotham. Granted, it's the same game as Metropolis Street Racer, but it's done right this time, and no one really noticed MSR when it came out on Dreamcast last year (most of you are probably going, "What the hell game was that?") On top of that, it's the same team, so it's not really a ripoff. The style idea really changes the way the racing game is played.
Well, I'll ignore the somewhat piss-poor judging that took place (I'm not going to surmise which country came out ahead, but it seems like everyone left SLC a little bitter.)
However, I'm sure back in the early days, it was somewhat fair.
I think it can be considered as a model for fair competition, a bad year notwithstanding. As such, I defend my use of said metaphor. You grow up.
If I was at the Olympics, and a rule wasn't being followed, you'd damn sure hear me complainig about it.
Rules are rules. If you cheat, and it's in someone else's interests to stop you, especially if they're following said rule, then they have every right to ask that it be enforced.
It seems that Microsoft is getting into the hardball tactics. Sony's just upset because no one's ever used them against the PS before.
This whole thing is juvenile, but I hardly see how this is a case of MS being unable to compete by other means. They simply chose to enforce a rule.
The XBox is hardly flopping; it's holding its own quite well. Sales of 1.5 million is enough to stay in business - just because they're not outselling Sony doesn't mean they're a failure.
I know Oracle will take raw disks... won't SQL Server 2000?
In any case, raw disk access is nothing new. The implications for IDE drivers, however, would be interesting. You'd basically have to write the driver for SQL Server and read it with direct hardware.
I don't think 7.0 does this, but I could always check.
Explain to me how 3d software engines can survive as OSS. If Carmack's toy chest were laid open for all the world in minutes instead of months, the people learning from his code would be his competitors, not just his admirers.
id makes a fair chunk of change off of each license of their engines (I believe it's a quarter of a million dollars, though I might be mistaken, plus there's a royalty percentage.) That's two million off of one engine (let's assume they made as much off of Quake III as they would have another licensed title.) Not a bad chunk of change. If they had opened their engine, I doubt they would have made nearly as much.
I think Carmack's done a great job of giving to the community, but to say that he has no need to create proprietary software is insane. No one would license an engine ever again if the best ones were available for free.
The registry was created to eliminate the exact thing you speak of! Back in the 3.1 days, you had to edit.ini files all over the place in order to get anything to run. The registry brought all that chaos into one place.
Like the DoJ and Attorneys General are going to understand source code.
All they know is that MS keeps it secret because it's vital to their business to do so. They want it because it hurts MS.
These morons have no fucking clue what to do with source code, and if they think they're going to just grab it and build Windows, they're dead wrong.
They'd pretty much have to hire a group of programmers to become their experts (which, in today's economy, is not entirely unfeasible.) A bunch of lawyers aren't going to understand C code.
How petty. If they want source code, make them open the API classes. You wouldn't even need the source for that - just a list of properties, events, and methods.
Oh well. So much for expecting my government to know something about the technology they're trying to regulate... silly me.
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Why spend the millions of dollars needed to produce a game in order to sell it to the smallest market segment? You'd lose your ass.
Hell, the Linux gaming market isn't even profitable for boxed copies of ports - you really think you're going to get an entire game?
Ever heard of Godwin's Law?
Nvidia has an ICD for the XBox, IIRC. MS didn't throw a fit about it for exactly this reason.
How often? Well, back in the 9x days it was once every 4 months. Since I've installed Win2000 (also known as "Windows that doesn't fucking suck ass") I've only done it a few times, and that was usually to fix a driver bug from Nvidia. And of course, two reinstalls for XP - one to put it there the first time, and one to go from a cracked prerelease copy to my legal copy when I got it in December (damn slow educational licensing!)
In short, the nice thing about NT is that it doesn't degrade the way 9x did.
Great. Just what we need... overclocked blowjobs.
He shouldn't have used the restore disc. Gee, maybe if you'd try the normal products instead of what Sony sends you, you'd have better luck?
Anyway, sure, there's a lot of discs involved (my system setup routine involves 7 - one Windows, one Office, 5 Visual Studio) and there's some reboots (I think there's six.) I don't have any hardware that needs really hard-to-find or poorly packaged drivers (maybe because I let Sony stick to selling me TV's?) and my machine is a whole lot more capable after my two hours than this guy was able to get his Windows machine.
Do you actually understand what kind of idiot things like M$ and XBucks make you look like? It's not clever, it's just stupid.
Making a convincing argument is a lot more than just (not-so) clever variations on names.
Microsoft needs to be destroyed.
Thank you, Captain Impartiality.
If CD Burning could make ME get pregnant... now, that would be impressive.
support.microsoft.com is quite nice. Or check out the developer docs; there's usually resource kits on the MSDN discs.
I've never been at a loss for info when solving a Windows problem. Hell, I tend to have too much info (I'll have five solutions to my problem, and only one of them is my real problem) and waste time fixing stuff that's not broken.
Say what you will about the stability of their software, but the documentation is superb.
Sorry. They're good sequels, and I'm enjoying GTA3 thoroughly (barely gotten started on FFX) but they're still sequels.
GTA3 does depart from its predecessors in playstyle, but is there really any difference between how you play FFVII and FFX? Sure, it's not the same as FFI or FFVI, but really, there's still many similarities that reach back that far.
As such, FFX is still very derivative of past FF games. That's just its nature.
Not that there's anything wrong with that... my point was that a derivative could be good.
I'm looking at my PS2 collection, and I see sequels.
Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec
Grand Theft Auto III
Final Fantasy X
Metal Gear Solid 2
Twisted Metal:Black
Sequels are great, sure, but there's nothing new. Originality is a nice thing, but it's not the end-all be-all of game design. Sometimes another boring FPS is exactly what I want to play.
If you want an inventive twist on an existing genre on XBox, play Project Gotham. Granted, it's the same game as Metropolis Street Racer, but it's done right this time, and no one really noticed MSR when it came out on Dreamcast last year (most of you are probably going, "What the hell game was that?") On top of that, it's the same team, so it's not really a ripoff. The style idea really changes the way the racing game is played.
Fuck, why did I have to run out of Mod points this morning? You deserved one of them.
Your nick just absolutely screams "bias."
Grow up. If you have a bias, don't comment on something. You'll just look like a fool.
You *DO* know that those are illegal to resell, right?
Well, I'll ignore the somewhat piss-poor judging that took place (I'm not going to surmise which country came out ahead, but it seems like everyone left SLC a little bitter.)
However, I'm sure back in the early days, it was somewhat fair.
I think it can be considered as a model for fair competition, a bad year notwithstanding. As such, I defend my use of said metaphor. You grow up.
If so, I voted. It's tied at one to one.
If I was at the Olympics, and a rule wasn't being followed, you'd damn sure hear me complainig about it.
Rules are rules. If you cheat, and it's in someone else's interests to stop you, especially if they're following said rule, then they have every right to ask that it be enforced.
It seems that Microsoft is getting into the hardball tactics. Sony's just upset because no one's ever used them against the PS before.
This whole thing is juvenile, but I hardly see how this is a case of MS being unable to compete by other means. They simply chose to enforce a rule.
The XBox is hardly flopping; it's holding its own quite well. Sales of 1.5 million is enough to stay in business - just because they're not outselling Sony doesn't mean they're a failure.
I know Oracle will take raw disks... won't SQL Server 2000?
In any case, raw disk access is nothing new. The implications for IDE drivers, however, would be interesting. You'd basically have to write the driver for SQL Server and read it with direct hardware.
I don't think 7.0 does this, but I could always check.
Explain to me how 3d software engines can survive as OSS. If Carmack's toy chest were laid open for all the world in minutes instead of months, the people learning from his code would be his competitors, not just his admirers.
id makes a fair chunk of change off of each license of their engines (I believe it's a quarter of a million dollars, though I might be mistaken, plus there's a royalty percentage.) That's two million off of one engine (let's assume they made as much off of Quake III as they would have another licensed title.) Not a bad chunk of change. If they had opened their engine, I doubt they would have made nearly as much.
I think Carmack's done a great job of giving to the community, but to say that he has no need to create proprietary software is insane. No one would license an engine ever again if the best ones were available for free.
my guess is that this man will never own a laptop
Ever heard of a .ini file?
.ini files all over the place in order to get anything to run. The registry brought all that chaos into one place.
.NET does exactly this.
The registry was created to eliminate the exact thing you speak of! Back in the 3.1 days, you had to edit
Also, on #3:
Maybe next time a little research is in order.
Like the DoJ and Attorneys General are going to understand source code.
All they know is that MS keeps it secret because it's vital to their business to do so. They want it because it hurts MS.
These morons have no fucking clue what to do with source code, and if they think they're going to just grab it and build Windows, they're dead wrong.
They'd pretty much have to hire a group of programmers to become their experts (which, in today's economy, is not entirely unfeasible.) A bunch of lawyers aren't going to understand C code.
How petty. If they want source code, make them open the API classes. You wouldn't even need the source for that - just a list of properties, events, and methods.
Oh well. So much for expecting my government to know something about the technology they're trying to regulate... silly me.
Just because it's EULA doesn't make it MS. This is some guy who was making money off of Adobe's bundle pricing.
Granted, I'm waiting for someone to yell, "It's Adobe! We're supposed to hate them too!" But this isn't MS' fight.