Im surprised by how many are upset over this. Think about it for a minute, the vast majority are still clueless when it comes to the actions of the Music Industry, Pandora no doubt sees this as an opportunity to bring awareness to the masses of an archaic system thats time has passed.
My clients are increasingly irritated by the high resolutions of newer monitors. I'd be happy if I could still buy new 1024x768 lcd's unfortunately at least near me there are none to be found. As a result most of my clients have "fuzzy" screens and trying to explain to them why is a futile effort.
Spam and scams originating from Gmail has been so bad lately that several clients of mine have actually requested that I block gmail entirely. I have been tempted to do so with my home account as well since its rendered craigslist all but unusable. When do they plan to address that...but then what could they really do??
Maybe I'm just a simpleton but shouldn't fines exceed the amount of money a person profits in a scam? Ralsky supposedly made over $4 million in less than 18 months. Not that I'm surprised the same thing happens with corrupt CEO's and their ilk. The idea that someone looses a fraction of their ill gotten gains, spends a couple years in jail then gets to live out the rest of their life in relative comfort with the rest of the fortune they managed to gain through their illegal activities does nothing but make the idea seem relatively attractive to those willing to give away a couple of years of their life in exchange for riches.
Excited about it but there are still problems
on
Why Natal Is a Big Deal
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Im really looking forward to Natal, I think its one step closer to total immersion, however its not without problems. A wand or some sort of controller is still going to be needed to effectively "walk" in a game the only other way to do it would be to use some sort of gesture to glide the player along or to walk in place, neither of which is very practical. Using a gesture to walk forward in an FPS or RPG for instance would not only be awkward but would also completely destroy the "immersion" they are going for and anyone who has played Final Fantasy would balk at the idea of having to "moonwalk" your way across the map.
I can easily see it working in conjunction with a controller for those types of situations though and would still make the game more fun. The gesture recognition has me thinking about Fable 3, especially with Lionhead already playing with the technology. Fable 3 used a gesture menu that caused NPC's to react differently and say different things based on the "mood" or jesture your character portrayed. Just thinking about being able to talk (even with a limited amount of things be able to say) to the npc's, or to be able to sneer, growl or smile and get a reaction sounds extremely fun. I still see this as being a rather long way off but its undeniable that its a leap forward.
I had the pleasure of playing with a Z-Cam at last years CES, Natal is supposedly based partially on that and partially on something MS has been developing for years, the Z-Cam was already impressive, if with the melding of technology this is actually an improvement its going to be something to behold.
All this means is that Apple will do some sort of firmware check next time around rendering itunes worthless on the Pre which will in turn piss off tons of customers causing backlash at Palm.
That might be a valid argument if they were developed by the same team, but the first one was developed on the PC by the Valve aquired Turtle Rock studios and by Certain Affinity on the 360.
geez how about a valium? Its a freakin toy...who cares. You talk about damage control but have been ranting like a jilted lover. Its a MGS game and its going to be on everything...so what?
The key phrase there is "go to the movies". Around me movies are around $10-$12 a ticket, any food you buy is going end up costing more than the ticket to get in. For two people one and a half to two hours of entertainment is going to set you back at least $50 most of the time. For that same money I can buy a new game (yea technically for the 360 and PS3 they are $60 but someone always has them on sale the week of release) and get 2-3x more entertainment per dollar at a minimum and 10x more on average. Worse yet most theatres are a lousy experience at any cost. I took in Star Trek a couple weeks back and sat in a fairly crowded theatre while people around kept text messaging or talking, the near-sighted projectionist left the film slightly out of focus for the entire movie and I had to watch 20 minutes worth of commercial not including the credits before the movie even started. It was a quick reminder of why I go to the movies about once a year which is about how long it evidently takes me to forget how bad the last experience was. On the other hand I rent and buy a ton of DVD's, its cheaper and a better experience.
Kind of interesting that someone who had a bestseller a year ago is more open to the idea of digital publishing than an author that hasn't written much worthwhile since the 70's. Don't get me wrong Le Guin is far more prolific writer but if part of the crowd that grew up without the technology we have today and have refused to embrace the times.
The irony will be that as online publishing and ebooks become more and more prevalent the technology frightened authors like Le Guin will disappear into obscurity by their own efforts to protect themselves and you can bet they will whine about that too.
If things continue as they are a huge gap of world literature from the "copyright reform" era will simply vanish.
I do think its rather sad that in a genre like science fiction and fantasy there are people without the foresight to see a day when dead tree's will no longer be practical reading material.
I spent the first half of the movie seething over certain major events that "changed" the Star Trek universe...but it was explained well and with the explanation it doesn't damage my inner trekker. By the time it was over I wasnt only accepting of what happened but really looking forward to the next adventure.
Without giving anything away...the fact that the old man exists at the end is enough to assure the most ardent Trekker that the canon is still intact.
If anything the new movie makes Star Trek accessible to anyone for the first time since the '60's. My kids never understood Star Trek now they are all eager to see the next one and have even asked to see this one again.
I do think this film will do much better in the long run than Wolverine. Wolverine managed to alienate many of the comic fans by taking too many liberties with the origin to the point that many refuse to see it at all (myself included). Bad reviews have just made it easier to avoid. Star Trek so far has had great reviews and curiosity will make it much harder to avoid. I went into the theatre quite jaded and left with a feeling I have not felt from a Star Trek movie since the first time I saw the Enterprise on a big screen back in '78.
While things work fine for the casual market, for deeper and more complex games that the hardcore crowd will actually want they are going to have to add some buttons. Though its great not having a stylus to loose, the type of screen the current iPhone and Touch use is simply not accurate enough for heavy gaming. The gyros are nice but games that use them are mostly a one trick pony so far. I know Apple is all about slick and elegant but practical would do them alot of good. I'd love to see the iPhone/Touch as a viable gaming platfom, its specs are better than any handheld on the market but its interface cripples it.
Well remember MS continued to offer Millenium until 2003 even though XP launched in 2001. Offering and actually selling are two different things, I know I never heard of anyone buying Millenium after XP shipped.
While the idea of replacing traditional newspaper with an ereader is a good idea, the news conglomerates themselves will assure its failure. Scrips, Tribune, Gannet, etc will simply not let go of the desire for control long enough to agree on a universal reader. The result will be a half dozen readers, most likley not subsidized and all likely locked out from repurposing.
A large portion of print media's market are those that are still afraid of technology, convincing them to use "magic paper" is going to be an uphill battle without the cost of a reader, explaining that they are going to have to pay an upfront cost of several hundred dollars in addition to a subscription fee just isnt going to fly. For the rest of us, many dont feel the need to pay for yesterdays news anyway so there is little incentive beyond the cool gadget.
The days of the newspaper are numbered but after a century of empire building, I have my doubts that most will have the intestinal fortitude to let go of enough to control to work together and actually save each other.
Concidering that Lithium is used to treat a number of mental illnesses like bipolar and depression that should be expected. Here in the US there are many living with undiagnosed depression and we are seen as a tollerant and accepting society in regards to mental health. In Japan there is far less social acceptance (at least when I lived there, maybe its changed) so I would expect and even higher percentage of non treated people.
Who would be their target audience...the anti-war crowd would be out because they would claim it was glorifying the role of a soldier, the pro-war crowd is out because its too soon and the war is still going on. That leaves the indifferent who couldnt even be counted on to buy "Blood In The Sand" despite good reviews. The chances of recouping development costs were slim to none while the chances of creating enough ill will to damage Konami's reputation long after the game was relased were high. Canceling the game and probably firing the idiot who thought it was a good idea to start with is really the only option they have.
When will governments figure out that pushing big brother tactics on their constituents doesnt help them find the badguys in fact all it does is make the law abiding masses paranoid and pushes the ones they are after further underground into darknets, and other more nefarious methods.
In the end the only thing this will be used for successfully is kowtowing to corporate interests and eroding the rights of citizens.
Anyone look at the specs of this thing? They mention its not ment to compete with the PS3 and 360 but in reality it can barely compete with the original playstation. Its basically a vastly overpriced cell phone game player for your tv...I sense an epic failure in the making.
Cable faces the predicament of being next in line behind print newspapers only for them the situation is even more awkward since they themselve provide the very service that they fear will lead to their demise. They push watching streaming video and music, faster download speeds and a "better" internet experience but dont really want you to use it. Its a rough spot they put themeselves into and the only way cable providers can fight the inevitable is to limit usage and hope the customer base is incapable of finding better alternatives.
The Opt Out "feature" is simply a way spammers can discover if the addresses on their list are active. The spamed can then be moved to a premium "active" list so the email harvester can make more money selling the address again.
Im no windows fan but I'd love to put this on a couple of my clients workstations. At least once a day I get a call saying how "slow" their computer and network are. They are too cheap to spring for more memory or faster machines but want 50 windows opened at a time.
But if there is no known example how is buying into symantec or macaffe going to protect you from something that doesnt exist. The best an anti-virus product can do is protect you from whats already out there or new variations of whats already there. Truely new stuff usually takes days and sometimes weeks to get "protection".
In my experience most of the users I support that have virus problems are the ones who are the most diligent about buying their yearly symantec licence...most of them see it as a license to be completely carefree in their surfing and downloading habits. What I cant get them to understand when they blame me or their anti-virus software is that Malware doesnt get blocked because their dumbass has to allow it to be infected in most cases. Its amazing how many people will just click on anything if given the appearance of a choice...yes or no buttons seem to make many users completely stupid. IMHO money spent on retail anti-virus solutions would be better spent on educating users on how to use the internet intelligently.
Indie games are already a difficult sell due to limitations in production and advertising budgets increasing prices will do nothing but throw them further into obscurity. Take the authors own company as an example, I concider myself a fairly knowledgeable gamer but I have never even heard of anything they have done.
The author seems a bit confused about XNA as well, the entire purpose of the XNA Creators Club is to give hobbyists and amateur game devs a chance at exposure. Incidently neither of his examples Braid nor World of Goo were created with XNA.
Perhaps I am alone in this but I will pay far more for imaginative and fresh titles regardless of publisher, both Braid and World of Goo fit that yet the author says they are both shallow and not worth more than the asking price. Meanwhile, at least on the suface the author appears to have recreated Ultima VII 12 times so far yet wonders why he cant sell more?
I had a job with a major telco where whenever there was a problem with the wireless broadband service they didnt trust us to actually fix the bsd servers via remote, during the winter that ment an 8 hour drive in a snow cat up the mountain, spending the night in the head end while debugging perl scripts and freezing my ass off.
One of my current clients has me troubleshooting in a literal closet with no chair but its a luxury compared to what I had to do before.
Slashdot Mirror
Im surprised by how many are upset over this. Think about it for a minute, the vast majority are still clueless when it comes to the actions of the Music Industry, Pandora no doubt sees this as an opportunity to bring awareness to the masses of an archaic system thats time has passed.
My clients are increasingly irritated by the high resolutions of newer monitors. I'd be happy if I could still buy new 1024x768 lcd's unfortunately at least near me there are none to be found. As a result most of my clients have "fuzzy" screens and trying to explain to them why is a futile effort.
Spam and scams originating from Gmail has been so bad lately that several clients of mine have actually requested that I block gmail entirely. I have been tempted to do so with my home account as well since its rendered craigslist all but unusable. When do they plan to address that...but then what could they really do??
Maybe I'm just a simpleton but shouldn't fines exceed the amount of money a person profits in a scam? Ralsky supposedly made over $4 million in less than 18 months. Not that I'm surprised the same thing happens with corrupt CEO's and their ilk. The idea that someone looses a fraction of their ill gotten gains, spends a couple years in jail then gets to live out the rest of their life in relative comfort with the rest of the fortune they managed to gain through their illegal activities does nothing but make the idea seem relatively attractive to those willing to give away a couple of years of their life in exchange for riches.
Im really looking forward to Natal, I think its one step closer to total immersion, however its not without problems. A wand or some sort of controller is still going to be needed to effectively "walk" in a game the only other way to do it would be to use some sort of gesture to glide the player along or to walk in place, neither of which is very practical. Using a gesture to walk forward in an FPS or RPG for instance would not only be awkward but would also completely destroy the "immersion" they are going for and anyone who has played Final Fantasy would balk at the idea of having to "moonwalk" your way across the map.
I can easily see it working in conjunction with a controller for those types of situations though and would still make the game more fun. The gesture recognition has me thinking about Fable 3, especially with Lionhead already playing with the technology. Fable 3 used a gesture menu that caused NPC's to react differently and say different things based on the "mood" or jesture your character portrayed. Just thinking about being able to talk (even with a limited amount of things be able to say) to the npc's, or to be able to sneer, growl or smile and get a reaction sounds extremely fun. I still see this as being a rather long way off but its undeniable that its a leap forward.
I had the pleasure of playing with a Z-Cam at last years CES, Natal is supposedly based partially on that and partially on something MS has been developing for years, the Z-Cam was already impressive, if with the melding of technology this is actually an improvement its going to be something to behold.
All this means is that Apple will do some sort of firmware check next time around rendering itunes worthless on the Pre which will in turn piss off tons of customers causing backlash at Palm.
That might be a valid argument if they were developed by the same team, but the first one was developed on the PC by the Valve aquired Turtle Rock studios and by Certain Affinity on the 360.
geez how about a valium? Its a freakin toy...who cares. You talk about damage control but have been ranting like a jilted lover. Its a MGS game and its going to be on everything...so what?
The key phrase there is "go to the movies". Around me movies are around $10-$12 a ticket, any food you buy is going end up costing more than the ticket to get in. For two people one and a half to two hours of entertainment is going to set you back at least $50 most of the time. For that same money I can buy a new game (yea technically for the 360 and PS3 they are $60 but someone always has them on sale the week of release) and get 2-3x more entertainment per dollar at a minimum and 10x more on average. Worse yet most theatres are a lousy experience at any cost. I took in Star Trek a couple weeks back and sat in a fairly crowded theatre while people around kept text messaging or talking, the near-sighted projectionist left the film slightly out of focus for the entire movie and I had to watch 20 minutes worth of commercial not including the credits before the movie even started. It was a quick reminder of why I go to the movies about once a year which is about how long it evidently takes me to forget how bad the last experience was. On the other hand I rent and buy a ton of DVD's, its cheaper and a better experience.
Kind of interesting that someone who had a bestseller a year ago is more open to the idea of digital publishing than an author that hasn't written much worthwhile since the 70's. Don't get me wrong Le Guin is far more prolific writer but if part of the crowd that grew up without the technology we have today and have refused to embrace the times.
The irony will be that as online publishing and ebooks become more and more prevalent the technology frightened authors like Le Guin will disappear into obscurity by their own efforts to protect themselves and you can bet they will whine about that too.
If things continue as they are a huge gap of world literature from the "copyright reform" era will simply vanish.
I do think its rather sad that in a genre like science fiction and fantasy there are people without the foresight to see a day when dead tree's will no longer be practical reading material.
I spent the first half of the movie seething over certain major events that "changed" the Star Trek universe...but it was explained well and with the explanation it doesn't damage my inner trekker. By the time it was over I wasnt only accepting of what happened but really looking forward to the next adventure.
Without giving anything away...the fact that the old man exists at the end is enough to assure the most ardent Trekker that the canon is still intact.
If anything the new movie makes Star Trek accessible to anyone for the first time since the '60's. My kids never understood Star Trek now they are all eager to see the next one and have even asked to see this one again.
I do think this film will do much better in the long run than Wolverine. Wolverine managed to alienate many of the comic fans by taking too many liberties with the origin to the point that many refuse to see it at all (myself included). Bad reviews have just made it easier to avoid. Star Trek so far has had great reviews and curiosity will make it much harder to avoid. I went into the theatre quite jaded and left with a feeling I have not felt from a Star Trek movie since the first time I saw the Enterprise on a big screen back in '78.
Now I know what that guy was doing behind me while I was watching Star Trek yesterday. He was just making a clip for fair use.
While things work fine for the casual market, for deeper and more complex games that the hardcore crowd will actually want they are going to have to add some buttons. Though its great not having a stylus to loose, the type of screen the current iPhone and Touch use is simply not accurate enough for heavy gaming. The gyros are nice but games that use them are mostly a one trick pony so far. I know Apple is all about slick and elegant but practical would do them alot of good. I'd love to see the iPhone/Touch as a viable gaming platfom, its specs are better than any handheld on the market but its interface cripples it.
Well remember MS continued to offer Millenium until 2003 even though XP launched in 2001. Offering and actually selling are two different things, I know I never heard of anyone buying Millenium after XP shipped.
While the idea of replacing traditional newspaper with an ereader is a good idea, the news conglomerates themselves will assure its failure. Scrips, Tribune, Gannet, etc will simply not let go of the desire for control long enough to agree on a universal reader. The result will be a half dozen readers, most likley not subsidized and all likely locked out from repurposing.
A large portion of print media's market are those that are still afraid of technology, convincing them to use "magic paper" is going to be an uphill battle without the cost of a reader, explaining that they are going to have to pay an upfront cost of several hundred dollars in addition to a subscription fee just isnt going to fly. For the rest of us, many dont feel the need to pay for yesterdays news anyway so there is little incentive beyond the cool gadget.
The days of the newspaper are numbered but after a century of empire building, I have my doubts that most will have the intestinal fortitude to let go of enough to control to work together and actually save each other.
Concidering that Lithium is used to treat a number of mental illnesses like bipolar and depression that should be expected. Here in the US there are many living with undiagnosed depression and we are seen as a tollerant and accepting society in regards to mental health. In Japan there is far less social acceptance (at least when I lived there, maybe its changed) so I would expect and even higher percentage of non treated people.
Who would be their target audience...the anti-war crowd would be out because they would claim it was glorifying the role of a soldier, the pro-war crowd is out because its too soon and the war is still going on. That leaves the indifferent who couldnt even be counted on to buy "Blood In The Sand" despite good reviews. The chances of recouping development costs were slim to none while the chances of creating enough ill will to damage Konami's reputation long after the game was relased were high. Canceling the game and probably firing the idiot who thought it was a good idea to start with is really the only option they have.
When will governments figure out that pushing big brother tactics on their constituents doesnt help them find the badguys in fact all it does is make the law abiding masses paranoid and pushes the ones they are after further underground into darknets, and other more nefarious methods.
In the end the only thing this will be used for successfully is kowtowing to corporate interests and eroding the rights of citizens.
Anyone look at the specs of this thing? They mention its not ment to compete with the PS3 and 360 but in reality it can barely compete with the original playstation. Its basically a vastly overpriced cell phone game player for your tv...I sense an epic failure in the making.
Cable faces the predicament of being next in line behind print newspapers only for them the situation is even more awkward since they themselve provide the very service that they fear will lead to their demise. They push watching streaming video and music, faster download speeds and a "better" internet experience but dont really want you to use it. Its a rough spot they put themeselves into and the only way cable providers can fight the inevitable is to limit usage and hope the customer base is incapable of finding better alternatives.
The Opt Out "feature" is simply a way spammers can discover if the addresses on their list are active. The spamed can then be moved to a premium "active" list so the email harvester can make more money selling the address again.
Im no windows fan but I'd love to put this on a couple of my clients workstations. At least once a day I get a call saying how "slow" their computer and network are. They are too cheap to spring for more memory or faster machines but want 50 windows opened at a time.
But if there is no known example how is buying into symantec or macaffe going to protect you from something that doesnt exist. The best an anti-virus product can do is protect you from whats already out there or new variations of whats already there. Truely new stuff usually takes days and sometimes weeks to get "protection".
In my experience most of the users I support that have virus problems are the ones who are the most diligent about buying their yearly symantec licence...most of them see it as a license to be completely carefree in their surfing and downloading habits. What I cant get them to understand when they blame me or their anti-virus software is that Malware doesnt get blocked because their dumbass has to allow it to be infected in most cases. Its amazing how many people will just click on anything if given the appearance of a choice...yes or no buttons seem to make many users completely stupid. IMHO money spent on retail anti-virus solutions would be better spent on educating users on how to use the internet intelligently.
Indie games are already a difficult sell due to limitations in production and advertising budgets increasing prices will do nothing but throw them further into obscurity. Take the authors own company as an example, I concider myself a fairly knowledgeable gamer but I have never even heard of anything they have done.
The author seems a bit confused about XNA as well, the entire purpose of the XNA Creators Club is to give hobbyists and amateur game devs a chance at exposure. Incidently neither of his examples Braid nor World of Goo were created with XNA.
Perhaps I am alone in this but I will pay far more for imaginative and fresh titles regardless of publisher, both Braid and World of Goo fit that yet the author says they are both shallow and not worth more than the asking price. Meanwhile, at least on the suface the author appears to have recreated Ultima VII 12 times so far yet wonders why he cant sell more?
I had a job with a major telco where whenever there was a problem with the wireless broadband service they didnt trust us to actually fix the bsd servers via remote, during the winter that ment an 8 hour drive in a snow cat up the mountain, spending the night in the head end while debugging perl scripts and freezing my ass off.
One of my current clients has me troubleshooting in a literal closet with no chair but its a luxury compared to what I had to do before.