Yes, multiple sets suck, but some companies will put out shitty versions first or decide to come out with new versions for promotional reasons. Think about how many versions of Star Wars have come out over the years? Off the top of my head they're come out with the original releases, the THX remastered releases, the Special Edition releases, and the new set that came out a few years ago with some extra promo footage. Considering that the last 3 sets came out in both widescreen and pan and scan (a shame to see this crap coming to DVD... but that's another rant) that's at least 10 different sets. Sooner or (more likely) later we're going to have the DVD releases and there might very well be regular and special edition releases of both... not to mention the actual special edition releases to follow that.
Terminator 2 has had two releases so far with another one on the way (can't have anything to do with the third movie now can it) to oust the previous so-called "Ultimate edition". Stargate has been out in 4 editions on DVD alone with another one coming out soon as well.
For whatever reason you'll have extra editions for reasons good (LOTR needed time to produce the special features and compose the music and such) and bad. Think of the excellent newer version of Seven, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Sometimes though they don't even get the new version right (the new version of Reservoir Dogs is misframed and has color problems, but the old one had terrible video quality and sound) and it's worth it to come out with something better.
The bottom line is to look around before buying something in case a new version might be on the way, no matter how long (Goodfellas has been in production for a while). If the current version is a bit weak on features or poorly made and a fairly big film... wait. The new version will probably come around eventually.
But what about the thousands of people who played games back in the days when if you wanted to game you used DOS? How many people posting here learned a damn good bit about their system by making boot disks, adjusting memory managers, editing config.sys and autoexec.bat and messing about with drivers and hardware? What about the people who just learned enough to type in "a: , install, cd c:\games\doom , doom"?
It may be in vogue to bash anything command line, but face it, at one time people used it all the time, tons of college students used it (in this case often Pine) as recently as 3 years ago on a regular basis. The problem isn't that it's hard to learn, it's that end users have gotten lazy and refuse to learn or do even the slightest thing that they've become convinced is hard, even if they did it every day a few years ago without any problem at all. This isn't replacing your mule with a tractor and commenting on the savings in labor, it's typing a few words.
Interestingly enough the reason that Kuro5hin is better than Slashdot is because it has less users.
Building off of your comment more people go to Slashdot because more people go to Slashdot. This is a very reasonable assumption and it follows that the opposite is true: less people go to Kuro5hin because less people go to Kuro5hin. Due to the greater number of users it can be assumed that the more users you have, the greater the possibility of trolls, poorly-informed rants, me toos, first posts, etc. Thus due to having fewer members Kuro5hin will be the superior site since everyone knows that Slashdot is better.
Popularity, at least in this form, can be shown (poorly and with irregular and spurious logic) to degrade the quality and produce an inferior product while still maintaining the idea that it is superior.
It's definitely an interesting concept, but I think one of the fundamental problems is actually one of language use. The term "better" is terribly overloaded and is being used in two different manners at the same time: 1)as a value judgement (i.e. VHS has more value to the consumer than Betamax) and 2)as a standard of quality (Betamax is a technically superior format).
In this article the author is trying to claim that the percieved wisdom of Betamax being "better" (instance #2) is wrong, which makes for a decent opening, but is still incorrect. On the grounds that they have chosen to disprove Betamax is still better, as it is the superior technical format. All they have done is claimed that VHS has added value to the consumer that makes it more desirable and thus "better" (instance #1). Not exactly a complex argument that requires more than a few sentences.
Interestingly enough what it really attempts to do is prove the same form of common wisdom that the article is so intent on claiming is true. Afterall, who hasn't known that VHS succeeded because it had more tapes available to rent and held more?
Oddly I find that Nintendo tends to have a greater proliferation of crap games. I don't currently own any "modern" console. The latest console I bought (and still play on a daily basis) is my SNES. These days though Nintendo has a lot of terrible licensed games primarily designed to appeal to children. Any time some crappy tv show takes off a bit or someone thinks that kids really want a new Scooby Doo game it seems like it'll come out on Nintendo. Game Boy really seems to have a glut of these with the GBA being about the only thing to bring back interesting games.
Sure Nintendo has some interesting games (Eternal Darkness looks great) they've also been messing with classic franchises enough to potentially turn off new buyers (FPS Metroid, ugly (IMHO) cel shaded Zelda, 3d everything whether it makes sense or not) as well as trying to make almost all titles more child-friendly (Mario Sunshine may be a great game, but it's more childish than any of the previous ones).
Everything about the Gamecube and N64 before it seems to be oriented towards kids rather than in the olden days when they just focused on making great games and hardware for kids and adults.
"But let's face it, Sony can afford to do this. They have the PS2, MiniDisc, a reputation as a maker of top-quality stereo equipment... I don't think they'd be too worried about losing CRT sales. And CRT sales are declining - it's not a growth market. In fact, in five years time you may not be able to buy brand-new CRTs any more. Why would you want to hang around in such a market?"
Minidisc!?! Why on Earth would Sony want to hang around in market like that. I mean... they've been around for years without catching on. I see more reel-to-reel setups than I do minidiscs. Sometimes they do wonderful, amazing things - their Wega line is one of the best direct-view, 3:4, non-big screen lines out there - but sometimes they try to push stupid things that people don't really want and just keep on pushing when anyone else would have called it quits.
Sony may not make quality audiophile-level equipment. But I still wouldn't put them at the same level as Bose. Compared to the low-level, consumer-grade stuff you'll find at Best Buy and Circuit City they tend to be one of the better brands to buy from store clerks that have never heard of (let alone heard) Onkyo, Marantz, Denon, or even Outlaw.
Sony products (at least in my experience) do tend to be rather reliable and hold up to heavy use longer than other brands.
College students also tend to play a lot of games. Considering that an LCD monitor is less than desirable for gaming (small, portable size is nice for LAN parties though) due to blur for fast movement I think that college students might not be the best LCD market either. Not to mention that students tend not to have much money. But we couldn't afford 17" Sony CRTs to begin with so no real loss.
As a dorm-living college student I still have a small desk, but I'm easily able to accomodate a 19" monitor, keyboard, various peripherals, speakers, and still have space for books and notes (if you move the keyboard out of the way).
I disagree. Certainly you make a good point as most technical gift probably won't be exactly what you want, but that's not all there is.
A good wishlist can easily alleviate many of these problems and allow you to give the geeks in your life the expensive toys that they can't otherwise afford. If they know you want the 10G iPod for Windows, a Logitech MX700 wireless optical mouse, or a Klipsch 6.1 THX speaker system (I can dream can't I?) there isn't a great deal of extra options or work to go into.
I think the important thing here is not to give tech gifts randomly. Check up first to be certain you're getting what they want.
When you tag along at the stores while they drool over hardware start asking some questions, most geeks will gladly gush about what features they like on this model or go into a holy war diatribe about this implementation or such. Just don't pick up something off the shelf thinking "it's computer stuff, they'll like it" and you'll be fine.
About the only stress I get around this time of year is from finals.
Considering that I'm an atheist to begin with and never spent holidays with family (my mother's is across the country and I don't even really know my father's side of the family) the entire point of Mythmas is getting presents. It's fun to shop and recieve gifts and without family there aren't that many people to shop for. Sure I might spend two weeks or so looking for the perfect gift for my girlfriend, but when I find something that really is perfect it's worth it no matter how poor I am.
I got a week full of tests, papers, projects and general work. Not only do I not get a party or a bonus I don't even get paid. I have to pay the school for the privilege of being able to get more work.
I understand the resentment at having to pay for parking to attend some worthless company party and recieve tacky, self-serving gifts. I'd feel the same way. Students don't even get that chance though. We're busting our asses right now to study for finals and finish up projects. Feel free to complain, but don't forget that some of us (unemployed and/or college students) are even worse off than you are.
Then again, most of us probably couldn't even afford the parking.
Actually I don't think that would be especially deceptive. If you see a billboard on the side of the road in standard billboard format with a large stop sign saying "STOP... for Waffles! Next Exit" you wouldn't immediately slam on the brakes. You certainly recognize the symbology used and associate it with the ad, but you do not associate the context. Traffic signs are never put up on billboards a few feet high and as such a reasonable person can tell the difference and not be misled.
These ads are about the same. Yes, they're annoying, inaccurate, and as another poster mentioned more or less fradulant as far as the text is concerned. I do not however see how someone could view them as legitimate errors. Even in Windows system errors are not pop-ups in web browsers nor do they often appear blinking embedded in a web site. This is an attempt to create a mental link in order to drive the desired effect (this is IMPORTANT and my computer is in some sort of percieved danger) and possibly cause dumb people to click on it because it mimics common UI elements (buttons, scroll-bars, radio buttons, etc.) all seen in many other ads.
Pulling my SNES out of the closet?!? It's the only console connected to my tv! Combine one part poor college student, one part computer gamer (not saying either is better... they're seperate and better at different things), and one part SNES diehard and that's what you get. Personally I think it's quite possibly the best console system developed. Back before everything was heavily split into exclusive titles or released for three systems at once. Back when Nintendo really dominated the industry aside from some pretty good Sega titles. It has one of the best selections of games, a simple, yet powerful controller that puts recent controllers to shame... camera buttons?!? an analog stick too small to have any real range of motion? Need I even mention the "I can't press all the buttons with my hands like this" N64 controller?. Sure I've played games on N64 and the various Playstations occasionally, but nothing tops when the SNES was king.
Combine this with a large game library and a Super Metroid-lovin' girlfriend and you've got plenty of fun for a hell of a lot less. Not that I don't lust after the PS2 every so often...:)
These are completely different in so many ways it almost makes me feel physical pain.
Essentially the point in those games is to add to the experience in some way. People want to imagine themselves piloting beating the hell out of Ewoks, playing as their favorite sports players or teams, driving accurate cars on the same tracks they've seen before, and hearing "Billie Jean" on the radio and remembering when Michael Jackson was black. These are all fantasy situations where realism helps to extend the fantasy by adding realistic or familiar elements aiding the suspension of disbelief.
The Sims is about fantasy real life though. The world is made uncomforably real by the addition of these things. Instead of helping to suspend disbelief we recall the last time we ate a greasy, disgusting (why do they have to put ketchup and mustard on burgers by default? It's like enabling messenger to auto by default... who would really do that normally?) food product. Hell... maybe you like them, but do you want your Sim to be able to do the exact same things you could be doing right now? Probably not. You want your sim to be getting into interesting and exotic situations far away from reality. By incorporating reality you destroy part of the illusion that they're doing something fun and make them a reflection of yourself... not the fantasy you, but the real you.
So on one hand advertisements and licensing can benefit games by adding reality to a fantastic situation more firmly cementing you in the fantasy. On the other hand it can detract from the fantasy by reminding you of reality. Compare what Kubrick did in "2001" (paying to use PanAm and other current brands to lend realism) to product placement in "Die Another Day" where the companies pay to plug products and remove the fantastic into the realm of the mundane.
I agree... GTA is highly disturbing. After beating a few random pedestrians to death with my bare hands outside the police station after being released and then dispatching some cops in the same manner I'm not able to pop open their skulls and eat their brains like a zombie. What's the point if games refuse to allow me to engage in the virtual cannibalism of my preference?
At the risk of taking an off-hand comment further off-topic...
It doesn't matter how he got the money... he has it and it rather helps to finance his activities. Get someone to sponsor you, put up a paypal donation button, inherit the money, rob the criminals... whatever. The point is that... ok, there really wasn't a point, just a pedantic need to point out that an example used was not correct despite it not having a hell of of a lot to do with the discussion as a whole.
They've been using RFID with a database of forbidden ids and it gives false positives? Any idea how? I don't see how you can have the same id show up twice considering it's supposedly a unique system with a rather large address range. I mean... yeah the magenetic stuff fails often, but this is part of the point in getting rid of that by only going after things that are specifically forbidden... despite what common sense in security would tell us otherwise.
Batman a fraud? Hardly... spend the time training, find a way to get the money, and get a strong enough drive to want to do so and you can be Batman! This is something I've always felt made him a well-liked character... he doesn't have any super-powers, he's just an above-average person who pushes himself and has a bit of a problem with street crime.
I find possible shoplifting applications interesting as well. Since we're dealing with unique ids it ought to be possible to keep a database of all the items in the store. When you legitimately purchase an item the id gets removed from the database. However, when you try to remove an item from the store that is still in the database the readers by the doors pick up on it and trigger that you're taking away an unverified item.
This would lead to a system far less prone to false positives than current magenetic systems as well as not being at all dangerous to magnetically sensitive objects. It wouldn't pick up on any objects you bring in or bought and wouldn't require anyone to nullify or remove anything creating a transparent system.
I'm willing to bet that given the size of most security camera operations (Wal-Mart especially) that following something like this shoplifters might start having bills show up at their homes...:)
... learning, programmable, touch-screen remotes have been around for years in the consumer market. This one is just another that doesn't seem as programmable as many of the others (most of the "buttons" look to merely be on an on/off toggle rather than truly modular) and tends to be a bit cheaper as a result (Radio Shack lists it for $99 IIRC). Check out Remote Central or most A/V sites and you'll find a mess of other remotes.
The article clearly mentions X2, the Hulk, and Daredevil, but no mention is made of the first X-Men film. Did Lee ever recieve his royalties from this? If so wouldn't this seem to be a precedent in his favor... it didn't do as well as Spider-Man, but it did do rather well nonetheless. If he didn't recieve his well-deserved 10% then why has he waited until now to file suit over it?
Off-hand I'd say it would be more dangerous due to the level of gene transfer involved. The possibility that the resitant strains manage to crowd out the non-resistant seems far less likely to me. Then again, I'm merely a microbiology undergrad and I tend to focus more or molecular genetics than pathogenic microbiology, but I've had at least one dedicated pathogenic course.
Censored R-rated films? Hardly. They definitely censor cds, but not film. Sure some of the dvds lack slipcases and such in some bizzare move that has nothing to do with censorship, but they're not changed in any way. When I picked up a copy of Return of the Living Dead there a few weeks ago due to an excellent price it still had plenty of zombie action and full-frontal nudity.
Hey now! Troma is nowhere near as bad as a some of the crap Acclaim puts out. Not to mention being very aware of making silly, cheesy B-movies. It's not about the money so much as it is about the fact that people want it.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, multiple sets suck, but some companies will put out shitty versions first or decide to come out with new versions for promotional reasons. Think about how many versions of Star Wars have come out over the years? Off the top of my head they're come out with the original releases, the THX remastered releases, the Special Edition releases, and the new set that came out a few years ago with some extra promo footage. Considering that the last 3 sets came out in both widescreen and pan and scan (a shame to see this crap coming to DVD... but that's another rant) that's at least 10 different sets. Sooner or (more likely) later we're going to have the DVD releases and there might very well be regular and special edition releases of both... not to mention the actual special edition releases to follow that.
Terminator 2 has had two releases so far with another one on the way (can't have anything to do with the third movie now can it) to oust the previous so-called "Ultimate edition". Stargate has been out in 4 editions on DVD alone with another one coming out soon as well.
For whatever reason you'll have extra editions for reasons good (LOTR needed time to produce the special features and compose the music and such) and bad. Think of the excellent newer version of Seven, or Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Sometimes though they don't even get the new version right (the new version of Reservoir Dogs is misframed and has color problems, but the old one had terrible video quality and sound) and it's worth it to come out with something better.
The bottom line is to look around before buying something in case a new version might be on the way, no matter how long (Goodfellas has been in production for a while). If the current version is a bit weak on features or poorly made and a fairly big film... wait. The new version will probably come around eventually.
But what about the thousands of people who played games back in the days when if you wanted to game you used DOS? How many people posting here learned a damn good bit about their system by making boot disks, adjusting memory managers, editing config.sys and autoexec.bat and messing about with drivers and hardware? What about the people who just learned enough to type in "a: , install, cd c:\games\doom , doom"?
It may be in vogue to bash anything command line, but face it, at one time people used it all the time, tons of college students used it (in this case often Pine) as recently as 3 years ago on a regular basis. The problem isn't that it's hard to learn, it's that end users have gotten lazy and refuse to learn or do even the slightest thing that they've become convinced is hard, even if they did it every day a few years ago without any problem at all. This isn't replacing your mule with a tractor and commenting on the savings in labor, it's typing a few words.
Interestingly enough the reason that Kuro5hin is better than Slashdot is because it has less users.
Building off of your comment more people go to Slashdot because more people go to Slashdot. This is a very reasonable assumption and it follows that the opposite is true: less people go to Kuro5hin because less people go to Kuro5hin. Due to the greater number of users it can be assumed that the more users you have, the greater the possibility of trolls, poorly-informed rants, me toos, first posts, etc. Thus due to having fewer members Kuro5hin will be the superior site since everyone knows that Slashdot is better.
Popularity, at least in this form, can be shown (poorly and with irregular and spurious logic) to degrade the quality and produce an inferior product while still maintaining the idea that it is superior.
It's definitely an interesting concept, but I think one of the fundamental problems is actually one of language use. The term "better" is terribly overloaded and is being used in two different manners at the same time: 1)as a value judgement (i.e. VHS has more value to the consumer than Betamax) and 2)as a standard of quality (Betamax is a technically superior format).
In this article the author is trying to claim that the percieved wisdom of Betamax being "better" (instance #2) is wrong, which makes for a decent opening, but is still incorrect. On the grounds that they have chosen to disprove Betamax is still better, as it is the superior technical format. All they have done is claimed that VHS has added value to the consumer that makes it more desirable and thus "better" (instance #1). Not exactly a complex argument that requires more than a few sentences.
Interestingly enough what it really attempts to do is prove the same form of common wisdom that the article is so intent on claiming is true. Afterall, who hasn't known that VHS succeeded because it had more tapes available to rent and held more?
Oddly I find that Nintendo tends to have a greater proliferation of crap games. I don't currently own any "modern" console. The latest console I bought (and still play on a daily basis) is my SNES. These days though Nintendo has a lot of terrible licensed games primarily designed to appeal to children. Any time some crappy tv show takes off a bit or someone thinks that kids really want a new Scooby Doo game it seems like it'll come out on Nintendo. Game Boy really seems to have a glut of these with the GBA being about the only thing to bring back interesting games.
Sure Nintendo has some interesting games (Eternal Darkness looks great) they've also been messing with classic franchises enough to potentially turn off new buyers (FPS Metroid, ugly (IMHO) cel shaded Zelda, 3d everything whether it makes sense or not) as well as trying to make almost all titles more child-friendly (Mario Sunshine may be a great game, but it's more childish than any of the previous ones).
Everything about the Gamecube and N64 before it seems to be oriented towards kids rather than in the olden days when they just focused on making great games and hardware for kids and adults.
Minidisc!?! Why on Earth would Sony want to hang around in market like that. I mean... they've been around for years without catching on. I see more reel-to-reel setups than I do minidiscs. Sometimes they do wonderful, amazing things - their Wega line is one of the best direct-view, 3:4, non-big screen lines out there - but sometimes they try to push stupid things that people don't really want and just keep on pushing when anyone else would have called it quits.
Sony may not make quality audiophile-level equipment. But I still wouldn't put them at the same level as Bose. Compared to the low-level, consumer-grade stuff you'll find at Best Buy and Circuit City they tend to be one of the better brands to buy from store clerks that have never heard of (let alone heard) Onkyo, Marantz, Denon, or even Outlaw.
Sony products (at least in my experience) do tend to be rather reliable and hold up to heavy use longer than other brands.
College students also tend to play a lot of games. Considering that an LCD monitor is less than desirable for gaming (small, portable size is nice for LAN parties though) due to blur for fast movement I think that college students might not be the best LCD market either. Not to mention that students tend not to have much money. But we couldn't afford 17" Sony CRTs to begin with so no real loss.
As a dorm-living college student I still have a small desk, but I'm easily able to accomodate a 19" monitor, keyboard, various peripherals, speakers, and still have space for books and notes (if you move the keyboard out of the way).
I disagree. Certainly you make a good point as most technical gift probably won't be exactly what you want, but that's not all there is.
A good wishlist can easily alleviate many of these problems and allow you to give the geeks in your life the expensive toys that they can't otherwise afford. If they know you want the 10G iPod for Windows, a Logitech MX700 wireless optical mouse, or a Klipsch 6.1 THX speaker system (I can dream can't I?) there isn't a great deal of extra options or work to go into.
I think the important thing here is not to give tech gifts randomly. Check up first to be certain you're getting what they want.
When you tag along at the stores while they drool over hardware start asking some questions, most geeks will gladly gush about what features they like on this model or go into a holy war diatribe about this implementation or such. Just don't pick up something off the shelf thinking "it's computer stuff, they'll like it" and you'll be fine.
About the only stress I get around this time of year is from finals.
Considering that I'm an atheist to begin with and never spent holidays with family (my mother's is across the country and I don't even really know my father's side of the family) the entire point of Mythmas is getting presents. It's fun to shop and recieve gifts and without family there aren't that many people to shop for. Sure I might spend two weeks or so looking for the perfect gift for my girlfriend, but when I find something that really is perfect it's worth it no matter how poor I am.
I got a week full of tests, papers, projects and general work. Not only do I not get a party or a bonus I don't even get paid. I have to pay the school for the privilege of being able to get more work.
I understand the resentment at having to pay for parking to attend some worthless company party and recieve tacky, self-serving gifts. I'd feel the same way. Students don't even get that chance though. We're busting our asses right now to study for finals and finish up projects. Feel free to complain, but don't forget that some of us (unemployed and/or college students) are even worse off than you are.
Then again, most of us probably couldn't even afford the parking.
Actually I don't think that would be especially deceptive. If you see a billboard on the side of the road in standard billboard format with a large stop sign saying "STOP ... for Waffles! Next Exit" you wouldn't immediately slam on the brakes. You certainly recognize the symbology used and associate it with the ad, but you do not associate the context. Traffic signs are never put up on billboards a few feet high and as such a reasonable person can tell the difference and not be misled.
These ads are about the same. Yes, they're annoying, inaccurate, and as another poster mentioned more or less fradulant as far as the text is concerned. I do not however see how someone could view them as legitimate errors. Even in Windows system errors are not pop-ups in web browsers nor do they often appear blinking embedded in a web site. This is an attempt to create a mental link in order to drive the desired effect (this is IMPORTANT and my computer is in some sort of percieved danger) and possibly cause dumb people to click on it because it mimics common UI elements (buttons, scroll-bars, radio buttons, etc.) all seen in many other ads.
AV switches!?!? Are we living in the dark ages? Every home theater reciever ought to have at least a good start on working as a plug box.
Pulling my SNES out of the closet?!? It's the only console connected to my tv! Combine one part poor college student, one part computer gamer (not saying either is better... they're seperate and better at different things), and one part SNES diehard and that's what you get. Personally I think it's quite possibly the best console system developed. Back before everything was heavily split into exclusive titles or released for three systems at once. Back when Nintendo really dominated the industry aside from some pretty good Sega titles. It has one of the best selections of games, a simple, yet powerful controller that puts recent controllers to shame... camera buttons?!? an analog stick too small to have any real range of motion? Need I even mention the "I can't press all the buttons with my hands like this" N64 controller?. Sure I've played games on N64 and the various Playstations occasionally, but nothing tops when the SNES was king.
:)
Combine this with a large game library and a Super Metroid-lovin' girlfriend and you've got plenty of fun for a hell of a lot less. Not that I don't lust after the PS2 every so often...
These are completely different in so many ways it almost makes me feel physical pain.
Essentially the point in those games is to add to the experience in some way. People want to imagine themselves piloting beating the hell out of Ewoks, playing as their favorite sports players or teams, driving accurate cars on the same tracks they've seen before, and hearing "Billie Jean" on the radio and remembering when Michael Jackson was black. These are all fantasy situations where realism helps to extend the fantasy by adding realistic or familiar elements aiding the suspension of disbelief.
The Sims is about fantasy real life though. The world is made uncomforably real by the addition of these things. Instead of helping to suspend disbelief we recall the last time we ate a greasy, disgusting (why do they have to put ketchup and mustard on burgers by default? It's like enabling messenger to auto by default... who would really do that normally?) food product. Hell... maybe you like them, but do you want your Sim to be able to do the exact same things you could be doing right now? Probably not. You want your sim to be getting into interesting and exotic situations far away from reality. By incorporating reality you destroy part of the illusion that they're doing something fun and make them a reflection of yourself... not the fantasy you, but the real you.
So on one hand advertisements and licensing can benefit games by adding reality to a fantastic situation more firmly cementing you in the fantasy. On the other hand it can detract from the fantasy by reminding you of reality. Compare what Kubrick did in "2001" (paying to use PanAm and other current brands to lend realism) to product placement in "Die Another Day" where the companies pay to plug products and remove the fantastic into the realm of the mundane.
I agree... GTA is highly disturbing. After beating a few random pedestrians to death with my bare hands outside the police station after being released and then dispatching some cops in the same manner I'm not able to pop open their skulls and eat their brains like a zombie. What's the point if games refuse to allow me to engage in the virtual cannibalism of my preference?
At the risk of taking an off-hand comment further off-topic...
It doesn't matter how he got the money... he has it and it rather helps to finance his activities. Get someone to sponsor you, put up a paypal donation button, inherit the money, rob the criminals... whatever. The point is that... ok, there really wasn't a point, just a pedantic need to point out that an example used was not correct despite it not having a hell of of a lot to do with the discussion as a whole.
They've been using RFID with a database of forbidden ids and it gives false positives? Any idea how? I don't see how you can have the same id show up twice considering it's supposedly a unique system with a rather large address range. I mean... yeah the magenetic stuff fails often, but this is part of the point in getting rid of that by only going after things that are specifically forbidden... despite what common sense in security would tell us otherwise.
Batman a fraud? Hardly... spend the time training, find a way to get the money, and get a strong enough drive to want to do so and you can be Batman! This is something I've always felt made him a well-liked character... he doesn't have any super-powers, he's just an above-average person who pushes himself and has a bit of a problem with street crime.
I find possible shoplifting applications interesting as well. Since we're dealing with unique ids it ought to be possible to keep a database of all the items in the store. When you legitimately purchase an item the id gets removed from the database. However, when you try to remove an item from the store that is still in the database the readers by the doors pick up on it and trigger that you're taking away an unverified item.
:)
This would lead to a system far less prone to false positives than current magenetic systems as well as not being at all dangerous to magnetically sensitive objects. It wouldn't pick up on any objects you bring in or bought and wouldn't require anyone to nullify or remove anything creating a transparent system.
I'm willing to bet that given the size of most security camera operations (Wal-Mart especially) that following something like this shoplifters might start having bills show up at their homes...
... learning, programmable, touch-screen remotes have been around for years in the consumer market. This one is just another that doesn't seem as programmable as many of the others (most of the "buttons" look to merely be on an on/off toggle rather than truly modular) and tends to be a bit cheaper as a result (Radio Shack lists it for $99 IIRC). Check out Remote Central or most A/V sites and you'll find a mess of other remotes.
The article clearly mentions X2, the Hulk, and Daredevil, but no mention is made of the first X-Men film. Did Lee ever recieve his royalties from this? If so wouldn't this seem to be a precedent in his favor... it didn't do as well as Spider-Man, but it did do rather well nonetheless. If he didn't recieve his well-deserved 10% then why has he waited until now to file suit over it?
Off-hand I'd say it would be more dangerous due to the level of gene transfer involved. The possibility that the resitant strains manage to crowd out the non-resistant seems far less likely to me. Then again, I'm merely a microbiology undergrad and I tend to focus more or molecular genetics than pathogenic microbiology, but I've had at least one dedicated pathogenic course.
Censored R-rated films? Hardly. They definitely censor cds, but not film. Sure some of the dvds lack slipcases and such in some bizzare move that has nothing to do with censorship, but they're not changed in any way. When I picked up a copy of Return of the Living Dead there a few weeks ago due to an excellent price it still had plenty of zombie action and full-frontal nudity.
Hey now! Troma is nowhere near as bad as a some of the crap Acclaim puts out. Not to mention being very aware of making silly, cheesy B-movies. It's not about the money so much as it is about the fact that people want it.