I still keep an xp box so I can play games and troubleshoot problems with my clients who all run windows. My normal websurfing and daily use pc is running Ubuntu. I have already decided that XP will be my last MS Operating System, I am just not very interested in Vista. I think MS is severely underestimating the need and interest in Vista. I have already had one client ask me about alternatives, I am now "evaluating" desktopBSD as a possible solution for them. Another expressed concern about Microsoft requiring hardware upgrades so they can use Vista but felt the need to upgrade anyway. I explained that they can run it stripped down and it would work just like XP to which he responded "If its just like XP then why do we need it?" I didnt have an answer. The next couple of years can be a real time of opportunity for the Linux community, the question is can the community step up to the plate and put aside l33tness for the common good or will we squander it.
If I subscribe to a RBL it means I dont want the junk no matter who is on the list. It means that opt out or opt in doesnt really matter to me. Im really tired of companies arrogant enough to think that my happening to hit their website once constitutes permission to spam the crap out of me on a daily basis. Here's another clue, the folks you are objecting to are the ones who you dont have a snowballs chance in hell of selling a product to. If we are smart enough to know what a RBL is we are smart enough not to read the crap your sending. At least with paper junk mail I know that it cost them something to get the crap to me and I can throw it out or burn it, spam is the only situation I know of where I have to pay for someone else to annoy me.
I really think the idea of white lists or per email fees is starting to come due. Yep its a hassle and the idea of paying for email kind of sucks but if done right it would have little effect on the average user but really make spammers accountable. I'd like to see a monthly or weekly cap over that and you pay. I also would like to see the Icann or someone rule that non working or non existant opt out's result in an immediate revocation of ALL domains owned by the offender.
Anyone else as excited as I am of having consoles that will likely require patches. Sounds to me that the "upgradability" discussed is just a big opening for same sorts of problems that affect pc games. I guess the good news is that horrible bugs can be patched.
I predict that symantec will magically find the first ps3 and wii viruses about a week after launch..if not before. Luckily with the online stores for all 3 vendors we can buy and download our "virus protection" for a small fee from the convenience of our gamepads.
If the trojan can be installed it can be sniffed out and discovered. I give it at tops a week of deployment before someone figures out what it is how it works and backwards engineers it into instant maymem for all the black hats.
I'm a huge Nintendo fan but that looks like something from one of those goofy Nickelodeon game shows from the 80's. I would love to see a 3d interactive mario adventure but that aint it. It did make me think about how cool a truly VR mario or sonic experience could be. Maybe something like one of the rides at Universal or better yet one of those VR domes that has been discussed here before.
Why not go back to the days of looking up phrases in the manual or code wheels. Yep they are a pain in the neck but not nearly as much as having to have the cd in the drive when you would rather listen to music or having contact phone home and starforce type protections bogging down your system. I would have to think that the old school methods were at least as effective as the new ones and a heck of alot cheaper. Print a manual in a low contrast color scheme to make it hard to copy and integrate the protection into the games storyline. Spending millions on methods that actually result in easier pirating makes no sense. At least with the manual lookup you would have to find a way to copy and print out the entire book, today with the current methods all you have to do is download a crack.
Just because the facts seem to get ignored on both sides of this issue:
A brief history of the area now known as Israel...
The Cannanites were there first and were defeated by the Israelites
The Israelites were defeated by the Babylonian empire
The Persian empire under Cyrus the Great(which by the way was not Muslim) then defeated the Babylonians
Alexandet the Great and the Greek army then took the land from the Persians
The Greeks then gave Israel back to the Israelites
The Romans then conquered Israel
The Byzantines are given Israel when the Roman Empire is divided
The Arabs of Arabia drive out the Byzantines
The Turks then ruled on behalf of the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad
The European Crusaders then took the land from the Turks
The Ayyubi dynasty took the land from the Europeans
The Mamluks who by the way dont exist anymore had it until the Ottoman Turks took it
The British took it from the Turks and had Soverinty over it until the League of Nations established Israel.
So if you want to be specific there was never a sovereign Palestinian nation, and if the argument is based on some random usurper then the land that is currently Israel should belong to Turkey.
Really? When did self booting backups come out for the ps1? I know they had modchips and the swap tricks (which for many just resulted in replacement purchases) but didnt realize there were easily made bootable backups.
Did I say I didnt like the Dreamcast? I have two of them...imported the first one (black dreamcasts werent available here in the states until the sports edition right before it died, I own a real copy of both Bangai-Oh! and Ikaruga along with around 50 other originals. The problem with the dreamcast and making games for it is that any idiot with a burner could just pirate the crap out of their games. Sega was dumb enough to launch a console that was even on paper weaker than the competition a full year before the others with very little hype about the actual games (showing someone doing something like watching tv or cooking than screaming sega loudly is not promotion). Sega screwed up and pretty much died for it.
"Idol" obsession is nothing new in that part of the world. When I lived there it was nutty the people and things that would suddenly become popular, but its really fleeting...think Andy Warhol's definition and halve that. If someone made a tv show about accountants you can be sure that the day after the first show there would be a fan club. Professional gaming is gaining popularity but you can bet that the worlds best frisbee golfer will make the cover of sports Illustrated before some deathmatch winner will. Remember this is the country where people die from sleep deprivation and starvation from playing games...its a totally different culture.
Gaming is just another form of entertainment, like every other activity it has started relatively small and has gained acceptance and mass appeal over time. The PC market and lately Nintendo seem to get that. They are doing a good job of appealing to people who like games but dont obsess over them while still offering the depth that attracts the "hardcore" gamer. As time progresses I think we will see more "casual" games as more people accept video games as a "pastime". I agree with Sony's president that the generation after this may not even have store bought media, all 3 are positioning themselves for this already with Xbox live, Virtual Arcades and Consoles. Downloads of small time wasting games will IMHO become very popular with the casual crowd, look what popcap did on the PC, everyone I know over the age of 3 has at least one of their games because they are cheap, easy to play and above all fun.
Thats the main reason I really believe that Nintendo is in a position to win this generation, even if the hardware is more last generation. There are far more casual gamers and game curious people out there than hardcore gamers and they are going directly after that market. My father even asked if I had seen anything about a game that lets you play tennis and golf with a remote control, he said he read about it in a magazine, he only subscribes to stull like Time and Newsweek so evidently the message is getting out. Casual gamers wont shell out the big bucks if they dont know whether or not they will ever play it enough to get their money out of it, which is where Nintendo has a huge advantage. Yes, I know that with all the accessories the Wii leans alot closer to 360 pricing but a casual gamer will buy the cheap one, try it out then feel completely justified in buying accessories like extra controllers because they will by then know that it was worth the investment.
Sony and Microsoft wont fail either imho, the market for "hardcore" gamers is clearly large enough to support a console, but I think I new breed of gamer is being created that is even larger.
My daughter actually told me that mySpace is for "old people and loosers" I guess they have all moved on to a new site that is more of the same but fits this weeks definition of cool and edgy. Nothing new here, remember being in college when it was cool to like a band until other people did...then they were sell outs regardless of whether the music changed or not.
But based on that shouldnt we then forgive George for the Star Wars movies as well? He stated many times in interviews that what he was creating was a modern version of the old SciFi serials he enjoyed as a kid, in fact Cloud City, the underwater city in episode 1 and even the design of the title crawls are all borrowed from Flash Gordon and the bad guy's ships in Buck Rodgers were called Imperial Crusiers. Im not trying to be a Lucasfilm applogist (well maybe I am) but I think people get so hung up on how they percieved them as a kid that they are unable to view the originals as what they are and are horrified that the new ones were just more of the same.
I'll agree with that, as technology has advanced George's reliance on it has decreased his abililty to direct. American Graffiti and even the first Star Wars show that he has capablity, but with so much reliance on an environment an actor has to pretend is around him makes getting convincing performances out of them extremely difficult. Total reliance on CG has yet to produce a really good film. Look at Sky Captain, its one of my favorites just based on content but I will readily admit that the acting is total camp. Sin City was probably the best example of a CGI blend that works.
Still, I would like to see what he can do if he has to limit the budget and can rely on good writers (I'd love to see him team up with Phillip Kaufman again) I think he could bring a quality to SciFi tv that would Rival B5 and BG. Here's an idea, could you imagine George and Joss working together...that would cause complete geekgasms.
Most of this argument is based on getting a system that supports Aero, most companies I work with wont even allow their users to run XP with the XP desktop and require the "classic" mode. Why would a business invest in thousands per user just so their desktops looks pretty?
Your kidding right? You would seriously rather see Manquito or KillerCroc than something that is actually SciFi? The best SciFi original I have seen was still Ed Wood or Roger Corman worthy, i'd love to see Lucas try to up the standard. Lucas's biggest weakness is his writing, but visually I havent seen anything from him that wasnt top notch.
I have my kids playing the School House Rock and Jumpstart games, it combines the "academics" with the fun of video games. When they get home they have 1 hour where they are to either do homework or if they have none (and we check with teachers so they know not to lie about it) then after that they each get an hour of computer time redeemable before bed. Most of the time they are either playing an educational game or surfing their rather limited access of websites. They also rotate computer usage and console gaming getting to swap with their siblings to play mindless console games for an hour as well. Normally they choose to go outside rather than play the console games but during the winter they play them pretty regularly. So far the lowest grade any of them has brought home was a B, their reading lexiles have been in the top 10%, math skills are decent and one is actually skipping a grade this year.
Its all in moderation and monitoring, if you are involved in your kids lives and guide their activities while still giving them enough freedom to feel like they are able to make a choice for themselves they will generally be fine.
What astounds me is that with the criminal backgrounds and the way things were being run they still actually managed to create a product. The phantom console people had none of that and still have produced nothing but vapor...pretty amazing IMHO.
wow really, they do a crappy job around here then. I've seen one store (the local target) with an actual console for anything its a nintendo DS one with a download station. Most other stores here just have consoles locked in plexiglass boxes with the controllers sticking out.
The first shipments of the Wii will be going to the "hardcore" gamers and the pseudo-enteprenuers looking to rip people off on ebay. None of them are going to care about an in store kiosk. Has anyone ever been in a store like Best Buy or Target and found a Kiosk actually open to test out, every time I see them they are crowded by small children who's parents found the video game department to be a babysitter for them. Toys R Us, Best Buy and others are going to be free to setup their own consoles, most do that already.
On a side note, at least in store kiosks can be concidered a "reward" to Gamestop suckers, I mean customers, for their willingness to be overcharged and ripped off on trade ins over the years.
If they are being traied based on counterstrike drone AI then doesnt that work in our favor...assuming our soldiers can think independently and aim straight.
I havent found reliability going down, actually I have found just the opposite. I have had one in the past 5-6 years. In the past my clients would have at least a couple a year.
Im rather fond of Samsung they have a longer warranty than any other drive manufacturer at the moment and its pretty much no questions asked.
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I still keep an xp box so I can play games and troubleshoot problems with my clients who all run windows. My normal websurfing and daily use pc is running Ubuntu. I have already decided that XP will be my last MS Operating System, I am just not very interested in Vista. I think MS is severely underestimating the need and interest in Vista. I have already had one client ask me about alternatives, I am now "evaluating" desktopBSD as a possible solution for them. Another expressed concern about Microsoft requiring hardware upgrades so they can use Vista but felt the need to upgrade anyway. I explained that they can run it stripped down and it would work just like XP to which he responded "If its just like XP then why do we need it?" I didnt have an answer. The next couple of years can be a real time of opportunity for the Linux community, the question is can the community step up to the plate and put aside l33tness for the common good or will we squander it.
If I subscribe to a RBL it means I dont want the junk no matter who is on the list. It means that opt out or opt in doesnt really matter to me. Im really tired of companies arrogant enough to think that my happening to hit their website once constitutes permission to spam the crap out of me on a daily basis. Here's another clue, the folks you are objecting to are the ones who you dont have a snowballs chance in hell of selling a product to. If we are smart enough to know what a RBL is we are smart enough not to read the crap your sending. At least with paper junk mail I know that it cost them something to get the crap to me and I can throw it out or burn it, spam is the only situation I know of where I have to pay for someone else to annoy me.
I really think the idea of white lists or per email fees is starting to come due. Yep its a hassle and the idea of paying for email kind of sucks but if done right it would have little effect on the average user but really make spammers accountable. I'd like to see a monthly or weekly cap over that and you pay. I also would like to see the Icann or someone rule that non working or non existant opt out's result in an immediate revocation of ALL domains owned by the offender.
This guy does it much better:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/video/mariolive
Anyone else as excited as I am of having consoles that will likely require patches. Sounds to me that the "upgradability" discussed is just a big opening for same sorts of problems that affect pc games. I guess the good news is that horrible bugs can be patched.
I predict that symantec will magically find the first ps3 and wii viruses about a week after launch..if not before. Luckily with the online stores for all 3 vendors we can buy and download our "virus protection" for a small fee from the convenience of our gamepads.
If the trojan can be installed it can be sniffed out and discovered. I give it at tops a week of deployment before someone figures out what it is how it works and backwards engineers it into instant maymem for all the black hats.
I'm a huge Nintendo fan but that looks like something from one of those goofy Nickelodeon game shows from the 80's. I would love to see a 3d interactive mario adventure but that aint it. It did make me think about how cool a truly VR mario or sonic experience could be. Maybe something like one of the rides at Universal or better yet one of those VR domes that has been discussed here before.
Why not go back to the days of looking up phrases in the manual or code wheels. Yep they are a pain in the neck but not nearly as much as having to have the cd in the drive when you would rather listen to music or having contact phone home and starforce type protections bogging down your system. I would have to think that the old school methods were at least as effective as the new ones and a heck of alot cheaper. Print a manual in a low contrast color scheme to make it hard to copy and integrate the protection into the games storyline. Spending millions on methods that actually result in easier pirating makes no sense. At least with the manual lookup you would have to find a way to copy and print out the entire book, today with the current methods all you have to do is download a crack.
Just because the facts seem to get ignored on both sides of this issue:
A brief history of the area now known as Israel...
The Cannanites were there first and were defeated by the Israelites
The Israelites were defeated by the Babylonian empire
The Persian empire under Cyrus the Great(which by the way was not Muslim) then defeated the Babylonians
Alexandet the Great and the Greek army then took the land from the Persians
The Greeks then gave Israel back to the Israelites
The Romans then conquered Israel
The Byzantines are given Israel when the Roman Empire is divided
The Arabs of Arabia drive out the Byzantines
The Turks then ruled on behalf of the Abbasid Caliphate of Baghdad
The European Crusaders then took the land from the Turks
The Ayyubi dynasty took the land from the Europeans
The Mamluks who by the way dont exist anymore had it until the Ottoman Turks took it
The British took it from the Turks and had Soverinty over it until the League of Nations established Israel.
So if you want to be specific there was never a sovereign Palestinian nation, and if the argument is based on some random usurper then the land that is currently Israel should belong to Turkey.
Really? When did self booting backups come out for the ps1? I know they had modchips and the swap tricks (which for many just resulted in replacement purchases) but didnt realize there were easily made bootable backups.
Did I say I didnt like the Dreamcast? I have two of them...imported the first one (black dreamcasts werent available here in the states until the sports edition right before it died, I own a real copy of both Bangai-Oh! and Ikaruga along with around 50 other originals. The problem with the dreamcast and making games for it is that any idiot with a burner could just pirate the crap out of their games. Sega was dumb enough to launch a console that was even on paper weaker than the competition a full year before the others with very little hype about the actual games (showing someone doing something like watching tv or cooking than screaming sega loudly is not promotion). Sega screwed up and pretty much died for it.
Because no one wants to be the developer of the next dreamcast.
"Idol" obsession is nothing new in that part of the world. When I lived there it was nutty the people and things that would suddenly become popular, but its really fleeting...think Andy Warhol's definition and halve that. If someone made a tv show about accountants you can be sure that the day after the first show there would be a fan club. Professional gaming is gaining popularity but you can bet that the worlds best frisbee golfer will make the cover of sports Illustrated before some deathmatch winner will. Remember this is the country where people die from sleep deprivation and starvation from playing games...its a totally different culture.
Gaming is just another form of entertainment, like every other activity it has started relatively small and has gained acceptance and mass appeal over time. The PC market and lately Nintendo seem to get that. They are doing a good job of appealing to people who like games but dont obsess over them while still offering the depth that attracts the "hardcore" gamer. As time progresses I think we will see more "casual" games as more people accept video games as a "pastime". I agree with Sony's president that the generation after this may not even have store bought media, all 3 are positioning themselves for this already with Xbox live, Virtual Arcades and Consoles. Downloads of small time wasting games will IMHO become very popular with the casual crowd, look what popcap did on the PC, everyone I know over the age of 3 has at least one of their games because they are cheap, easy to play and above all fun.
Thats the main reason I really believe that Nintendo is in a position to win this generation, even if the hardware is more last generation. There are far more casual gamers and game curious people out there than hardcore gamers and they are going directly after that market. My father even asked if I had seen anything about a game that lets you play tennis and golf with a remote control, he said he read about it in a magazine, he only subscribes to stull like Time and Newsweek so evidently the message is getting out. Casual gamers wont shell out the big bucks if they dont know whether or not they will ever play it enough to get their money out of it, which is where Nintendo has a huge advantage. Yes, I know that with all the accessories the Wii leans alot closer to 360 pricing but a casual gamer will buy the cheap one, try it out then feel completely justified in buying accessories like extra controllers because they will by then know that it was worth the investment.
Sony and Microsoft wont fail either imho, the market for "hardcore" gamers is clearly large enough to support a console, but I think I new breed of gamer is being created that is even larger.
My daughter actually told me that mySpace is for "old people and loosers" I guess they have all moved on to a new site that is more of the same but fits this weeks definition of cool and edgy. Nothing new here, remember being in college when it was cool to like a band until other people did...then they were sell outs regardless of whether the music changed or not.
But based on that shouldnt we then forgive George for the Star Wars movies as well? He stated many times in interviews that what he was creating was a modern version of the old SciFi serials he enjoyed as a kid, in fact Cloud City, the underwater city in episode 1 and even the design of the title crawls are all borrowed from Flash Gordon and the bad guy's ships in Buck Rodgers were called Imperial Crusiers. Im not trying to be a Lucasfilm applogist (well maybe I am) but I think people get so hung up on how they percieved them as a kid that they are unable to view the originals as what they are and are horrified that the new ones were just more of the same.
I'll agree with that, as technology has advanced George's reliance on it has decreased his abililty to direct. American Graffiti and even the first Star Wars show that he has capablity, but with so much reliance on an environment an actor has to pretend is around him makes getting convincing performances out of them extremely difficult. Total reliance on CG has yet to produce a really good film. Look at Sky Captain, its one of my favorites just based on content but I will readily admit that the acting is total camp. Sin City was probably the best example of a CGI blend that works.
Still, I would like to see what he can do if he has to limit the budget and can rely on good writers (I'd love to see him team up with Phillip Kaufman again) I think he could bring a quality to SciFi tv that would Rival B5 and BG. Here's an idea, could you imagine George and Joss working together...that would cause complete geekgasms.
Most of this argument is based on getting a system that supports Aero, most companies I work with wont even allow their users to run XP with the XP desktop and require the "classic" mode. Why would a business invest in thousands per user just so their desktops looks pretty?
Your kidding right? You would seriously rather see Manquito or KillerCroc than something that is actually SciFi? The best SciFi original I have seen was still Ed Wood or Roger Corman worthy, i'd love to see Lucas try to up the standard. Lucas's biggest weakness is his writing, but visually I havent seen anything from him that wasnt top notch.
I have my kids playing the School House Rock and Jumpstart games, it combines the "academics" with the fun of video games. When they get home they have 1 hour where they are to either do homework or if they have none (and we check with teachers so they know not to lie about it) then after that they each get an hour of computer time redeemable before bed. Most of the time they are either playing an educational game or surfing their rather limited access of websites. They also rotate computer usage and console gaming getting to swap with their siblings to play mindless console games for an hour as well. Normally they choose to go outside rather than play the console games but during the winter they play them pretty regularly. So far the lowest grade any of them has brought home was a B, their reading lexiles have been in the top 10%, math skills are decent and one is actually skipping a grade this year.
Its all in moderation and monitoring, if you are involved in your kids lives and guide their activities while still giving them enough freedom to feel like they are able to make a choice for themselves they will generally be fine.
What astounds me is that with the criminal backgrounds and the way things were being run they still actually managed to create a product. The phantom console people had none of that and still have produced nothing but vapor...pretty amazing IMHO.
wow really, they do a crappy job around here then. I've seen one store (the local target) with an actual console for anything its a nintendo DS one with a download station. Most other stores here just have consoles locked in plexiglass boxes with the controllers sticking out.
The first shipments of the Wii will be going to the "hardcore" gamers and the pseudo-enteprenuers looking to rip people off on ebay. None of them are going to care about an in store kiosk. Has anyone ever been in a store like Best Buy or Target and found a Kiosk actually open to test out, every time I see them they are crowded by small children who's parents found the video game department to be a babysitter for them. Toys R Us, Best Buy and others are going to be free to setup their own consoles, most do that already.
On a side note, at least in store kiosks can be concidered a "reward" to Gamestop suckers, I mean customers, for their willingness to be overcharged and ripped off on trade ins over the years.
If they are being traied based on counterstrike drone AI then doesnt that work in our favor...assuming our soldiers can think independently and aim straight.
I havent found reliability going down, actually I have found just the opposite. I have had one in the past 5-6 years. In the past my clients would have at least a couple a year.
Im rather fond of Samsung they have a longer warranty than any other drive manufacturer at the moment and its pretty much no questions asked.
Thanks for that...very funny!