In my limited personal experience, game pirating is getting less and less prevalent. When I was a kid, with an Apple ][, I had copies of, say, 300 games. I had legit copies of, I think, 3 games.
Compare that to today, where the last 5-10 games I've played, I've also been legally licensed. I'm older. I'm waaay richer. And I actually care to be within the law.
So if the game companies are going to blame falling profits on rising piracy, I think they're inverting the historical trend.
> Why is it the most ignorant posts get modded funny? I think the key is a witty tagline, ala "putting the lid on the fishbowl after the horses have escaped."
I tried making well-reasoned, well-researched posts. Nobody ever read them. You have to mix in a good 30% underresearched crap in order to get noticed.
Sega Dreamcast: The first of the next-generation 3D consoles to come to market. For the year or so it was the most powerful mainstream system on the market.
N-Gage: Underpowered. Underengineered. Lame.
Saying "go buy an N-gage because Dreamcast was cool" is putting the lid on the fishbowl after the horses have escaped.
If your TV is so ancient that it only has a RF input, that is hardly the DVD player's fault. Most people that buy DVD players also have TVs that were made in the last 30 years and have a composite input, at the very least.
Lets take the most boring game in the galaxy: GOLF. Now lets virtualize it, to remove the last few molecules of spontanaity: GOLDEN TEE GOLF. Now lets write a Sunday slashdot article about it: GOLDEN BORING ARTICLE!
Who's really being the dumbshit? To rewind a tape I press the big button marked REWIND. To flash the DVD I have to do net research and basically hack. There's a qualitative difference there. If I'm going to hack something to get it to work, it better have been free.
To everyone who replied, essentially: "your TV and VCR both suck, no wonder you hate DVD" my response is: my TV is a fine TV, it does what TVs are supposed to do. My VCR is a fine VCR, it does what its supposed to do. I blame DVD players for not interfacing to legacy equipment sanely. They're the new kids on the block, and they're the one flouting the old protocols. Well they I say they suck.
I don't want to have to buy a new vcr to use a dvd. I already have a working vcr, and a working tv, and the right jacks, except for their damn encryption bullshit. Fool me once, shame on [MPAA]. Fool me twice, shame on me. That's why I'll not be buying new video entertainment hardware for a few years.
2) Discs usually have mandatory, can't-fast-forward-through-them FBI warnings at the beginning of disks. By jove, when I buy a movie, I want to see a MOVIE, not some goddammed threatening legalese from the MPAA!
This is where all the research you did before buying pays off and you flash the DVD player with firmware that enables UOP (which allows you to fast forward through all that.
Heh, or I just use my VCR, which doens't require flashing, whizzing on, or doing other obscene things - just stick it in and watch yer damn movie.;)
Oh god. Now someone's going to point out I said "just stick it in". Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, people!
Like the original poster, I have a lot of problems with the DVD format.
DVD sucks because: 1) It goes out of its way to screw you over by refusing to route video signal through a VCR, thus rendering it inoperable with most legacy TVs. 2) Discs usually have mandatory, can't-fast-forward-through-them FBI warnings at the beginning of disks. By jove, when I buy a movie, I want to see a MOVIE, not some goddammed threatening legalese from the MPAA! 3) artifacts. DVD players (or at least the Sony my sister lent me) can't seem to keep the most basic artifacts suppressed. I remember seeing a white-painted wall, and noticing that the paint "crawled" like white noise as action elsewhere in the frame caused a wacky encoding of a simple signal. Call me back when you can film white walls. 4) compatibility issues. One in twelve DVDs I rent doen't work on my player, in which case I have to watch it on a laptop. (Unless THAT also doesn't work.) Yes VHS tapes get eaten, but not at that high a rate. VHS is more reliable. 5) Skipping. Usually have to endure this once or twice per film on rentals. Lame. 6) Frilly menus. Please less ghay animation, more do-what-I-want.
For these reasons I continue to prefer VHS to DVD. Yes, I use trolly language here, and for that I apologise, but I'm bitter everyone else has been so suckered by this crap technology. (And yes I had a Betamax way back when, and Yes, I'm bitter about that losing too).
Space.com has a quick article in their astronotes section about the X-Prize committee's idea of an X-Prize competition. Apparently they are thinking about having a 'X-Prize Cup' where 'teams would compete for cash prizes, attempting to set new records.'
So... the X-prize would give away prizes for going into space? What's next? Olympics-olimpiad? Monopolyopoly?
Is this a question? If it is a question, then my point is: Its so bleedingly obvious (to THEM) that Dohs2k3 is gaining market share that they don't even have to say that it is! I'm suprised that its that much of a foregone conclusion.
Are you comapring versions of OS's or OS's? Win2k3 is the same as Win2K and WinNT.
That is quite odd. Once you've gone to the trouble to set up a linux site, why tear it down and install a propriatary time-bomb... er... excuse me... "solution".
You really like being made a fool of! Well, I'll keep responding to your sillyness, no matter how much you spew.
And everyone knows WarCraft 3 is a flop. My geographic distribution? The entire Internet, pal.
Sarcasm is not an answer. Your sampling is not statistically valid. You lose again!
>>Not that its relevant >It's not. >>but I'm getting married in October. >Looks like you think it's relevant.
Then why did you bring it up? Are we, in fact, in fifth grade? Because that's the last time I remember someone confusing who you date with whatever-the-topic-at-hand is. No, we're not! You lose again!
According to this guy, you're actually the loser you're describing me as. Not that I trust an AC, but, uh, if its true I think you should seek out a psychologist. Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, it often stems from chemical imbalances. Your self-denigrating behavior is indicitive of a mind with some potentially serious problems. (IANAP)
Indeed it [FreeBSD] is the only
other operating system that is gaining, rather than losing share
Only other than what? It turns out, if you follow links, that Win2k3 server is the other gaining OS. They go on to say this:
Comparing the sites which are now hosted on Windows 2003 with their operating system in December 2002 shows over 42% of these to be new sites, 43% (68K) to be upgrades from other Windows platforms (mainly Windows 2000), 5% (8K) to be migrations from Linux and 1% from other operating systems.
Microsoft will take some considerable encouragement at the number of sites that have switched from Linux.
Woo, 1/20th of their new sales come from previously linux sites. *Makes hand-wank gesture*
If I'm repeating anything, it's what every other real-time strategy gamer is saying about the flop that is WarCraft 3.
Ah, a pollster. What's your sample size? What's the percentage error. What's the geographic distribution? Oh, you just overheard a guy in line at the cafeteria.
Have you ever even been with a woman? Do you live in a basement?
Not that its relevant, but I'm getting married in October. And I live on the second floor of my own house. Methinks it is YOU that should get a life.
There was an argument where in about 15 different posts you tried to pursuade me that there was no strategy to warcraft. You have since given up, and claimed you were taking an deliberately non-sensical position in order to stimulate discussion. Personally I suspect you're repeating something you heard someone else say. Apperantly you thought they were pretty correct though, cuz you sure repeated what you were told plenty of times. Good little simpleton!
2.) WarCraft 3 is considered the scourge of real-time gaming. It is a huge flop, and everyone went back to StarCraft already.
Your first sentance is an opinion, and as much as anyone is entitled to their own, you are entitled to yours. Your second sentance asserts that "everyone" has stopped playing Warcraft, which is obviously absurd. Doubtless some people have stopped. Perhaps even most people have. But clearly not "everyone". Duh. Bang the rocks together, man.
Re:the make replacement is (drumroll please): sh
on
Make Out with SCons
·
· Score: 1
Hm, I guess I shrug and say I like my eggs inside my chickens, instead of my chickens inside my eggs. Its perfectly easy to get timestamps from within sh. And there's no tab-versus-space confusion or millions of compatibility headaches.
(well, OK, time for complete honesty. I do use really bash, and I do occassionally have a bug on windows from windows' non-unixy filenames. There, that's off my chest.:)
the make replacement is (drumroll please): sh
on
Make Out with SCons
·
· Score: 1
[rant-on] make's syntax is so incredibly baroque. Its basically only to do one thing, but over the years its gotten so much crap stapled onto it that its a time trap. Add to that automake, which has to be layered on top just to keep make doing its job. Stop the madness! [rant-off]
Nowadays I just write my build scripts in sh. Its on every platform. It takes less time in the long run because its a real programming language.
For example, in make when you want to do arcane-thing-X, you have to dig through the manual to figure out what feature is there to help you, then fret about whether you're only supporting GNU make, blah blah blah.
With sh you already know how to do anything since its a general purpose computing language with good support for groping files.
Slashdot Mirror
In my limited personal experience, game pirating is getting less and less prevalent. When I was a kid, with an Apple ][, I had copies of, say, 300 games. I had legit copies of, I think, 3 games.
Compare that to today, where the last 5-10 games I've played, I've also been legally licensed. I'm older. I'm waaay richer. And I actually care to be within the law.
So if the game companies are going to blame falling profits on rising piracy, I think they're inverting the historical trend.
> Why is it the most ignorant posts get modded funny?
I think the key is a witty tagline, ala "putting the lid on the fishbowl after the horses have escaped."
I tried making well-reasoned, well-researched posts. Nobody ever read them. You have to mix in a good 30% underresearched crap in order to get noticed.
The analogy seems totally hollow.
Sega Dreamcast: The first of the next-generation 3D consoles to come to market. For the year or so it was the most powerful mainstream system on the market.
N-Gage: Underpowered. Underengineered. Lame.
Saying "go buy an N-gage because Dreamcast was cool" is putting the lid on the fishbowl after the horses have escaped.
Yeah, 2002, really ancient there.
Oooh, face! LoL.
: )
Lets take the most boring game in the galaxy: GOLF.
Now lets virtualize it, to remove the last few molecules of spontanaity: GOLDEN TEE GOLF.
Now lets write a Sunday slashdot article about it: GOLDEN BORING ARTICLE!
Who's really being the dumbshit? To rewind a tape I press the big button marked REWIND. To flash the DVD I have to do net research and basically hack. There's a qualitative difference there. If I'm going to hack something to get it to work, it better have been free.
To everyone who replied, essentially: "your TV and VCR both suck, no wonder you hate DVD" my response is: my TV is a fine TV, it does what TVs are supposed to do. My VCR is a fine VCR, it does what its supposed to do. I blame DVD players for not interfacing to legacy equipment sanely. They're the new kids on the block, and they're the one flouting the old protocols. Well they I say they suck.
I don't want to have to buy a new vcr to use a dvd. I already have a working vcr, and a working tv, and the right jacks, except for their damn encryption bullshit. Fool me once, shame on [MPAA]. Fool me twice, shame on me. That's why I'll not be buying new video entertainment hardware for a few years.
Oh god. Now someone's going to point out I said "just stick it in". Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, people!
Like the original poster, I have a lot of problems with the DVD format.
DVD sucks because:
1) It goes out of its way to screw you over by refusing to route video signal through a VCR, thus rendering it inoperable with most legacy TVs.
2) Discs usually have mandatory, can't-fast-forward-through-them FBI warnings at the beginning of disks. By jove, when I buy a movie, I want to see a MOVIE, not some goddammed threatening legalese from the MPAA!
3) artifacts. DVD players (or at least the Sony my sister lent me) can't seem to keep the most basic artifacts suppressed. I remember seeing a white-painted wall, and noticing that the paint "crawled" like white noise as action elsewhere in the frame caused a wacky encoding of a simple signal. Call me back when you can film white walls.
4) compatibility issues. One in twelve DVDs I rent doen't work on my player, in which case I have to watch it on a laptop. (Unless THAT also doesn't work.) Yes VHS tapes get eaten, but not at that high a rate. VHS is more reliable.
5) Skipping. Usually have to endure this once or twice per film on rentals. Lame.
6) Frilly menus. Please less ghay animation, more do-what-I-want.
For these reasons I continue to prefer VHS to DVD. Yes, I use trolly language here, and for that I apologise, but I'm bitter everyone else has been so suckered by this crap technology. (And yes I had a Betamax way back when, and Yes, I'm bitter about that losing too).
Its war, baby!
So
What is your point.
Is this a question? If it is a question, then my point is: Its so bleedingly obvious (to THEM) that Dohs2k3 is gaining market share that they don't even have to say that it is! I'm suprised that its that much of a foregone conclusion.
Are you comapring versions of OS's or OS's? Win2k3 is the same as Win2K and WinNT.
True enough, they're doing apples-to-oranges.
That is quite odd. Once you've gone to the trouble to set up a linux site, why tear it down and install a propriatary time-bomb ... er ... excuse me ... "solution".
Sarcasm is not an answer. Your sampling is not statistically valid. You lose again!
>>Not that its relevant
>It's not.
>>but I'm getting married in October.
>Looks like you think it's relevant.
Then why did you bring it up? Are we, in fact, in fifth grade? Because that's the last time I remember someone confusing who you date with whatever-the-topic-at-hand is. No, we're not! You lose again!
According to this guy, you're actually the loser you're describing me as. Not that I trust an AC, but, uh, if its true I think you should seek out a psychologist. Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, it often stems from chemical imbalances. Your self-denigrating behavior is indicitive of a mind with some potentially serious problems. (IANAP)
Only other than what? It turns out, if you follow links, that Win2k3 server is the other gaining OS. They go on to say this:
Woo, 1/20th of their new sales come from previously linux sites.
*Makes hand-wank gesture*
Ah, a pollster. What's your sample size? What's the percentage error. What's the geographic distribution? Oh, you just overheard a guy in line at the cafeteria.
Not that its relevant, but I'm getting married in October. And I live on the second floor of my own house. Methinks it is YOU that should get a life.
There was an argument where in about 15 different posts you tried to pursuade me that there was no strategy to warcraft. You have since given up, and claimed you were taking an deliberately non-sensical position in order to stimulate discussion. Personally I suspect you're repeating something you heard someone else say. Apperantly you thought they were pretty correct though, cuz you sure repeated what you were told plenty of times. Good little simpleton!
Your first sentance is an opinion, and as much as anyone is entitled to their own, you are entitled to yours. Your second sentance asserts that "everyone" has stopped playing Warcraft, which is obviously absurd. Doubtless some people have stopped. Perhaps even most people have. But clearly not "everyone". Duh. Bang the rocks together, man.
I'd come up with something witty to say to this ... except ... the baby needs a bottle. :{
Eh, I don't care if you were trolling. I do care that I won the "argument". As they say in pre-school: "neener neener!".
Personally, I don't care for blizzard and will never buy any of their stuff. That's not to say I haven't bought their stuff in the past.
I personally like trashing trolls. Its my hobby. Ha ha. You lose.
Hm, I guess I shrug and say I like my eggs inside my chickens, instead of my chickens inside my eggs. Its perfectly easy to get timestamps from within sh. And there's no tab-versus-space confusion or millions of compatibility headaches.
:)
(well, OK, time for complete honesty. I do use really bash, and I do occassionally have a bug on windows from windows' non-unixy filenames. There, that's off my chest.
[rant-on]
make's syntax is so incredibly baroque. Its basically only to do one thing, but over the years its gotten so much crap stapled onto it that its a time trap. Add to that automake, which has to be layered on top just to keep make doing its job. Stop the madness!
[rant-off]
Nowadays I just write my build scripts in sh. Its on every platform. It takes less time in the long run because its a real programming language.
For example, in make when you want to do arcane-thing-X, you have to dig through the manual to figure out what feature is there to help you, then fret about whether you're only supporting GNU make, blah blah blah.
With sh you already know how to do anything since its a general purpose computing language with good support for groping files.