Ok, a while back Maximum Linux magazine (remember them) offered a special treat for fans, a SEGA Genesis emulator and two SEGA Genesis roms. They were legitimately allowed to include the roms because the obscure Japanese game publisher had given permission to the magazine to include the roms. For whatever reason, this particular third party felt it was in their business interest to provide ROMS of their obscure 16-bit Sega Genesis games.
The fact is, Nintendo isn't acting in your best interests. They are a ruthlessly competitive business with their eyes on their own profits. They politically sabotaged SEGA back during the 16-bit wars by sending materials to congress that led to video games being subjected to committee hearings and congressional grandstanding. You can expect them to use whatever dirty or underhanded method to gain advantages over their competitors and suppliers. They were well matched with Sony, of course, who are just as ruthless. (Microsoft, oddly, are pikers when it comes to this... mostly because they are used to operating in the PC environment. Microsoft's PC platform is so open it puts Sony and Nintendo to shame.)
You know, my Dad is a retired police captain, and even he doesn't take that position.
Are you a very old man who grew up in the Third Reich? If so, I hope you'll learn correct usage of "lose," "outmanned," and "set up."
If you are supposedly an American, do yourself a favor and move to one of the many authoritarian or totalitarian regimes in the world where your position represents the "rule of law." You'll be happier and we'll be happier.
You know in Japan they did a Shadowrun RPG for the Sega CD. It got bumped in the US, obvioulsy, likely for Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch: Make My Music Video.
I miss Sega's consoles, but I can't say they didn't deserve their fate.
Ah, I can remember back to the days when I was working in my local community college computer lab and some adjunct professor had forgotten her password and wanted me to "hack" into her account for her.
"I'm sorry, but I really doubt I could do that."
"But your supposed to be good at computers, don't you read Wired magazine."
"I'm sorry Ma'am I can't say that I do." (I didn't bring up that I had read the odd issue of 2600)
"Well, you really should work harder and learn more about computers and read Wired magazine."
"I'll keep that in mind, Ma'am, sorry I couldn't help you."
What did this conversation tell me? This person believed:
1. Everyone who is good at computers can break into other people's password protected accounts at will.
2. All such people read Wired magazine.
So, Hacker == Good At Computers == Someone who can break into computers.
The big console makers are sort of Tivo-ization to the Nth degree. They give (or rather sell) you these neat computers and then tell you, "Don't worry your pretty little head about them, We will tell you (or rather, sell you) what you can and can't run on them."
Sony was trying to leverage Linux because they are enemies of Microsoft now. They are also enemies of Free Software, though, so it was a half-hearted "we'll just see what happens if we let people do this," situation. Even though they are selling these great, powerful computers, they still insist on controlling the content on them. That hasn't changed, and won't change because the console model requires it.
So, the whole thing where people would rave about Linux on the PS3 didn't make a lot of sense to me. I feel that as far as making use of a console, the SEGA decision to allow the Dreamcast to boot ordinary CDs was a far bigger deal.
The problem is, the hardware from Sony (and Microsoft, and Nintendo) is all locked down to prevent the power user/hacker/programmer from doing what they want with it. The fact that the might allow some locked down version of Linux on there is beside the point.
Back in the days of the Super Nintendo (incidentally, one of the things I do know about South America is they tend to be way behind the US technologically and things like SNESs and Genesiss were still selling well there...) I worked in a Software, Etc.
Well, one day this woman, a "soccer mom"-type came in, and she was seething with pent-up rage. She felt angry that her son wanted a "Nintendo," which she considered violent and evil. She said, "I don't want him playing this garbage" and pointed at a copy of Sonic Blastman that happened to catch her eye on a nearby shelf.
Well, I said, "Do you have a computer?" She indicated that she did. I said "Well here, just get him Mario Teaches Typing" or maybe it was Mario is Missing, I forget, and ushered her out of the store...
Now, imagine that woman as a South American Dictator....
What even "Red Alert III?" Say it ain't so Hugo, say it ain't so.
On the plus side, these kinds of Social Controls never work, and will ultimately lead to the collapse of the Venezualan state. It's akin to the Soviet Union outlawing "decadent Western culture," and shows Hugo Chavez to be the petty tin-plated tyrant his critics had always painted him as.
Originally, when the first space operas were written, they were based on certain assumptions based on the then current level of scientific knowledge about how space travel would work in the future. They were Science Fiction adventure stories, but they didn't totally lack credibility.
In fact, there are two important distinctions in Science Fiction that we need to get out of the way. Fantastic stories that use speculative science to add credibility to their fantastic stories are one type of science fiction, and stories that are explorations of scientific trends are another, and there isn't a clear distinction between them.
Anyway, Space Opera, in time, became a popular meta-setting for stories. Science moved beyond Space Opera, but it had proven a popular setting, it didn't get let go of just because FTL travel seems a bit impossible at the moment. So, while it occaisionally gets a fresh coat of paint and some new spark plugs, the fact that it is no longer a scientifically probably setting is not a reason not to write, read and enjoy the odd space opera.
Some of those that you haven't qualified need to be qualified with "In the U. S." though.
J. K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter while she was on the dole. I think in the U. S. she would have had to take up pole dancing or something to make ends meet.
Obviously, India is still giving free college to their students.
You could cover a lot by saying, "American's have always lived in the inky black shadow of Ronald Reagan."
I'm in semi-permanent crunch mode at work (thanks recession!) and I am expected to put in 60 hour weeks with no end in sight. In my down time (what's that?) I find I tend to play games that I like and that are familiar to me.
In fact I like tower defense games (Plants versus Zombies), platformers (Sonic the Hedgehog 2) and traditional Real Time Strategy (Red Alert III). I like these games because I either played them a lot before crunch time started, um, crunching me, or because they are very similary to games I played a lot in the past (Red Alert III isn't really that different from Red Alert II). So mainly, I don't want to learn a bunch of new stuff, just play the same old thing that I was used to playing before. I also don't want to play games that are work.
Of course, I have to do a lot of other things in my "free time" too, so I don't get to play video games as much as I would like. If my vacation isn't stolen away from me this year, I'll probably split it between quality time with my girlfriend, friends, family and playing video games until my eyes fall out.
Had Apple won the PC wars of the 80's they'd be a far greater satan than Microsoft ever tried to be.
That's one of those "What if's" I don't even think is theoretically possible, for Apple to be Apple, they have to be a niche product that appeals to elitists and runs on closed hardware. For Microsoft to be Microsoft, they have to run on every commodity machine that meets a minimum spec.
Ok, now, I'm going to be getting grief from the latte-sipping, black-turtleneck wearing denizens of the "Apple Won!" alternate universe...
I've often wondered if in Japan there is a greater acceptance of intelligent robots than in the west because of tsukumogami: which "originate from items or artifacts that have reached their 100th birthday and thus become alive and aware."
Perhaps for Senshan it would have been better to let him endure his cruel affliction instead of having his parents pay over $1,000 to have him beaten to death?
Perhaps, but would it have been as profitable? It's profits over people in the PRC, nowadays, until that worm turns again....
(Although, "the Shack" has been an unfriendly sales environment for years, it was always a great place to buy electronic doodads... just remember the guy selling you the extended service plan is not your friend...)
Why, when even attempts were made post-9/11 to understand Arab anger (feeble though they were), does America refuse to even try understanding Columbine? Why do they continue to blame cheap, easy suspects like video games, the internet, lax morals and the NRA, when the most obvious suspect - Columbine, and every other school like it - is sitting right in front of them? Because that would be tantamount to suspecting that something is genuinely hateful about Middle America.
Actually, in the American model, the taxes are a subsidy for Goldman Sachs.
The new carboncredit market is a virtual repeat of the commodities-market casino that's been kind to Goldman, except it has one delicious new wrinkle: If the plan goes forward as expected, the rise in prices will be government-mandated. Goldman won't even have to rig the game. It will be rigged in advance.
Here's how it works: If the bill passes, there will be limits for coal plants, utilities, natural-gas distributors and numerous other industries on the amount of carbon emissions (a.k.a. greenhouse gases) they can produce per year. If the companies go over their allotment, they will be able to buy "allocations" or credits from other companies that have managed to produce fewer emissions. President Obama conservatively estimates that about $646 billion worth of carbon credits will be auctioned in the first seven years; one of his top economic aides speculates that the real number might be twice or even three times that amount.
The feature of this plan that has special appeal to speculators is that the "cap" on carbon will be continually lowered by the government, which means that carbon credits will become more and more scarce with each passing year. Which means that this is a brand new commodities market where the main commodity to be traded is guaranteed to rise in price over time. The volume of this new market will be upwards of a trillion dollars annually; for comparison's sake, the annual combined revenues of all electricity suppliers in the U.S. total $320 billion.
Slashdot Mirror
Ok, a while back Maximum Linux magazine (remember them) offered a special treat for fans, a SEGA Genesis emulator and two SEGA Genesis roms. They were legitimately allowed to include the roms because the obscure Japanese game publisher had given permission to the magazine to include the roms. For whatever reason, this particular third party felt it was in their business interest to provide ROMS of their obscure 16-bit Sega Genesis games.
The fact is, Nintendo isn't acting in your best interests. They are a ruthlessly competitive business with their eyes on their own profits. They politically sabotaged SEGA back during the 16-bit wars by sending materials to congress that led to video games being subjected to committee hearings and congressional grandstanding. You can expect them to use whatever dirty or underhanded method to gain advantages over their competitors and suppliers. They were well matched with Sony, of course, who are just as ruthless. (Microsoft, oddly, are pikers when it comes to this... mostly because they are used to operating in the PC environment. Microsoft's PC platform is so open it puts Sony and Nintendo to shame.)
Old Soviet saying, "In America, every profession has its own Mafia."
I'm going to quote from Sacrifice here, "I don't know why, but I slaughtered all the villagers."
Got a nice bonus from Charnel out of it, though....
You know, my Dad is a retired police captain, and even he doesn't take that position.
Are you a very old man who grew up in the Third Reich? If so, I hope you'll learn correct usage of "lose," "outmanned," and "set up."
If you are supposedly an American, do yourself a favor and move to one of the many authoritarian or totalitarian regimes in the world where your position represents the "rule of law." You'll be happier and we'll be happier.
Well, we'll be happier anyway.
You know in Japan they did a Shadowrun RPG for the Sega CD. It got bumped in the US, obvioulsy, likely for Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch: Make My Music Video.
I miss Sega's consoles, but I can't say they didn't deserve their fate.
Ah, I can remember back to the days when I was working in my local community college computer lab and some adjunct professor had forgotten her password and wanted me to "hack" into her account for her.
"I'm sorry, but I really doubt I could do that."
"But your supposed to be good at computers, don't you read Wired magazine."
"I'm sorry Ma'am I can't say that I do." (I didn't bring up that I had read the odd issue of 2600)
"Well, you really should work harder and learn more about computers and read Wired magazine."
"I'll keep that in mind, Ma'am, sorry I couldn't help you."
What did this conversation tell me? This person believed:
1. Everyone who is good at computers can break into other people's password protected accounts at will.
2. All such people read Wired magazine.
So, Hacker == Good At Computers == Someone who can break into computers.
The big console makers are sort of Tivo-ization to the Nth degree. They give (or rather sell) you these neat computers and then tell you, "Don't worry your pretty little head about them, We will tell you (or rather, sell you) what you can and can't run on them."
Sony was trying to leverage Linux because they are enemies of Microsoft now. They are also enemies of Free Software, though, so it was a half-hearted "we'll just see what happens if we let people do this," situation. Even though they are selling these great, powerful computers, they still insist on controlling the content on them. That hasn't changed, and won't change because the console model requires it.
So, the whole thing where people would rave about Linux on the PS3 didn't make a lot of sense to me. I feel that as far as making use of a console, the SEGA decision to allow the Dreamcast to boot ordinary CDs was a far bigger deal.
The problem is, the hardware from Sony (and Microsoft, and Nintendo) is all locked down to prevent the power user/hacker/programmer from doing what they want with it. The fact that the might allow some locked down version of Linux on there is beside the point.
Back in the days of the Super Nintendo (incidentally, one of the things I do know about South America is they tend to be way behind the US technologically and things like SNESs and Genesiss were still selling well there...) I worked in a Software, Etc.
Well, one day this woman, a "soccer mom"-type came in, and she was seething with pent-up rage. She felt angry that her son wanted a "Nintendo," which she considered violent and evil. She said, "I don't want him playing this garbage" and pointed at a copy of Sonic Blastman that happened to catch her eye on a nearby shelf.
Well, I said, "Do you have a computer?" She indicated that she did. I said "Well here, just get him Mario Teaches Typing" or maybe it was Mario is Missing, I forget, and ushered her out of the store...
Now, imagine that woman as a South American Dictator....
What even "Red Alert III?" Say it ain't so Hugo, say it ain't so.
On the plus side, these kinds of Social Controls never work, and will ultimately lead to the collapse of the Venezualan state. It's akin to the Soviet Union outlawing "decadent Western culture," and shows Hugo Chavez to be the petty tin-plated tyrant his critics had always painted him as.
Space Opera, an important term.
Originally, when the first space operas were written, they were based on certain assumptions based on the then current level of scientific knowledge about how space travel would work in the future. They were Science Fiction adventure stories, but they didn't totally lack credibility.
In fact, there are two important distinctions in Science Fiction that we need to get out of the way. Fantastic stories that use speculative science to add credibility to their fantastic stories are one type of science fiction, and stories that are explorations of scientific trends are another, and there isn't a clear distinction between them.
Anyway, Space Opera, in time, became a popular meta-setting for stories. Science moved beyond Space Opera, but it had proven a popular setting, it didn't get let go of just because FTL travel seems a bit impossible at the moment. So, while it occaisionally gets a fresh coat of paint and some new spark plugs, the fact that it is no longer a scientifically probably setting is not a reason not to write, read and enjoy the odd space opera.
Some of those that you haven't qualified need to be qualified with "In the U. S." though.
J. K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter while she was on the dole. I think in the U. S. she would have had to take up pole dancing or something to make ends meet.
Obviously, India is still giving free college to their students.
You could cover a lot by saying, "American's have always lived in the inky black shadow of Ronald Reagan."
I prefer to think of it as "Jim Henson died, but his creatures live on."
Rygel will never die!
Yes, I was never sure if the previous president liked to snort or inject, but I guess neither of those things is inhaling.
I'm in semi-permanent crunch mode at work (thanks recession!) and I am expected to put in 60 hour weeks with no end in sight. In my down time (what's that?) I find I tend to play games that I like and that are familiar to me.
In fact I like tower defense games (Plants versus Zombies), platformers (Sonic the Hedgehog 2) and traditional Real Time Strategy (Red Alert III). I like these games because I either played them a lot before crunch time started, um, crunching me, or because they are very similary to games I played a lot in the past (Red Alert III isn't really that different from Red Alert II). So mainly, I don't want to learn a bunch of new stuff, just play the same old thing that I was used to playing before. I also don't want to play games that are work.
Of course, I have to do a lot of other things in my "free time" too, so I don't get to play video games as much as I would like. If my vacation isn't stolen away from me this year, I'll probably split it between quality time with my girlfriend, friends, family and playing video games until my eyes fall out.
Um... this has been done:
The Movies
That's one of those "What if's" I don't even think is theoretically possible, for Apple to be Apple, they have to be a niche product that appeals to elitists and runs on closed hardware. For Microsoft to be Microsoft, they have to run on every commodity machine that meets a minimum spec.
Ok, now, I'm going to be getting grief from the latte-sipping, black-turtleneck wearing denizens of the "Apple Won!" alternate universe...
I've often wondered if in Japan there is a greater acceptance of intelligent robots than in the west because of tsukumogami: which "originate from items or artifacts that have reached their 100th birthday and thus become alive and aware."
Professor Layton And The Perpetual Torment
Perhaps, but would it have been as profitable? It's profits over people in the PRC, nowadays, until that worm turns again....
Why, you've just described my idea of Heaven!
But if we don't ever get it up and running, how would we ever kill the Pope?
Will they show "syfy" on TVs at "the Shack?"
(Although, "the Shack" has been an unfriendly sales environment for years, it was always a great place to buy electronic doodads... just remember the guy selling you the extended service plan is not your friend...)
This is part of some new anti-geek backlash?
Well, I knew that when China banned Death Note.
Although in that case, I think it might have been government bureacrats having a hard time distinguishing fantasy from reality!
Dreading Columbine by Mark Ames:
Actually, in the American model, the taxes are a subsidy for Goldman Sachs.