I'm surprised someone else hasn't submitted this yet. Do any of you remember a spoof program named "Microshaft Winblows"? It was released back in January 1998 by Parroty Interactive (who, it looks like, has been out business for quite some time). They also released a program called Pyst (as you've probably guesed, it was a Myst spoof).
As far as I can tell "Microshaft Winblows" is the closest name to "Microsoft Windows" ever used for a non-MS piece of software. You can find an old review for the app here: http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/reviews/ pc/jan98/winblows.html . Check out how close the artwork is to the MS stuff (which makes sense since it was intended to be a parody)
Actually, the point that has been made many times in other posts is that MS is selling the hardware _at_a_loss_ much like the other sonsole makers do with their game systems. In other words, it costs MS more to produce each X-box than they sell them for. The standard way console makers make money is throught royalties payed by the game makers for each game sold.
So...if you really don't like MS then it would make more sense to promote the idea of buying lots of X-boxes and using them for some non-game related purpose. Every X-box used this way hits MS where it hurts the most, the wallet.
-GameMaster
Its also an issue of tech support. People that buy Everquest items off Ebay and get ripped off for one reason or another (ex. someone buys a high level account that turns out to be universally hated throughtout the server) have a high tendency to go running to Verant demanding that they fix the problem. Verant doesn't want to have to hire the extra tech support people they'd need to cover all those extra complaints. So, instead, they ban all sales items and accounts for the Everquest game. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if people would take responsibility for their own actions.
-GameMaster
Silicon ships are vulnerable to thingsl ike EM interference and other things. Thats why we have ECC (error correcting code) memory. It tries to cut down on the number of mistakes for situations like 24/7 servers that can't afford to corrupt over time. Even so, these chips still aren't _perfectly_ error proof. So, as long as the probability of failure for the QC is about the same as the probability of failure for a cilicon ship then its all good.
Someone else might have posted this earlier in the discussion (or in one of the previous Metallica discussions), but there is a hilarious spoof on the whole Metallica Napster issue here: http://www.joecartoon.com/buddies/chaos/index.html Its funny as hell, but you'll need Macromedia Flash to see it. P.S. - Theres a whole lot of other funny, non-napster related, stuff on the main page ( http://www.joecartoon.com ) for anyone interested.
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-GameMaster
I'm surprised someone else hasn't submitted this yet. Do any of you remember a spoof program named "Microshaft Winblows"? It was released back in January 1998 by Parroty Interactive (who, it looks like, has been out business for quite some time). They also released a program called Pyst (as you've probably guesed, it was a Myst spoof).
/ pc/jan98/winblows.html . Check out how close the artwork is to the MS stuff (which makes sense since it was intended to be a parody)
As far as I can tell "Microshaft Winblows" is the closest name to "Microsoft Windows" ever used for a non-MS piece of software. You can find an old review for the app here: http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/reviews
-GameMaster
Actually, the point that has been made many times in other posts is that MS is selling the hardware _at_a_loss_ much like the other sonsole makers do with their game systems. In other words, it costs MS more to produce each X-box than they sell them for. The standard way console makers make money is throught royalties payed by the game makers for each game sold. So...if you really don't like MS then it would make more sense to promote the idea of buying lots of X-boxes and using them for some non-game related purpose. Every X-box used this way hits MS where it hurts the most, the wallet. -GameMaster
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#1 - The DM is always right.
Its also an issue of tech support. People that buy Everquest items off Ebay and get ripped off for one reason or another (ex. someone buys a high level account that turns out to be universally hated throughtout the server) have a high tendency to go running to Verant demanding that they fix the problem. Verant doesn't want to have to hire the extra tech support people they'd need to cover all those extra complaints. So, instead, they ban all sales items and accounts for the Everquest game. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if people would take responsibility for their own actions. -GameMaster
Silicon ships are vulnerable to thingsl ike EM interference and other things. Thats why we have ECC (error correcting code) memory. It tries to cut down on the number of mistakes for situations like 24/7 servers that can't afford to corrupt over time. Even so, these chips still aren't _perfectly_ error proof. So, as long as the probability of failure for the QC is about the same as the probability of failure for a cilicon ship then its all good.
Someone else might have posted this earlier in the discussion (or in one of the previous Metallica discussions), but there is a hilarious spoof on the whole Metallica Napster issue here: http://www.joecartoon.com/buddies/chaos/index.html Its funny as hell, but you'll need Macromedia Flash to see it. P.S. - Theres a whole lot of other funny, non-napster related, stuff on the main page ( http://www.joecartoon.com ) for anyone interested.