Zonk is a pretty anti-ps3 fanboy, but this just makes me think he just got a boat load of money because this is nothing but fanboy gushing.
This is an awesome feature, if it was flawless at launch, coming 1 year after the fact as well as not everyone will support it and the cost of the servers, oh they won't be players funded, they will be developer funded, which means the developers will raise prices, and the players will still foot the bill.
In the end this sounds like a lot of promises with no possible way to follow through, and in the end will just continue to bastardize the concept of the Playstation until it's no longer a game console, and if blu-ray fails it'll just be a social networking device.
This is just going to be a monumental build up (for those of us buying in, which is still not a huge amount of us) which will end up turning around and becoming another flop. Great idea, but it's not something most of us will use more than once or twice a month. At the same time a good working voice chat, and message system while in game would go far farther and yet they continue to be unable to implement these things. The fact they are taking up more memory for the OS and giving the developers less support and the gamers less features hasn't gone unnoticed inside the industry either.
If we all wanted a system like this we'd be playing second life, or WoW for the social interaction, the Ps3 is a console, and until Sony learns how to develop a consoles for developers (which the Ps3 is still not a developer friendly platform) for the fans (600 bucks and constantly fighting home brew, as well as weak games) rather then for their megalomaniac desires (blu-ray and sony's other business) they will continue to have a hard road ahead of them.
Ok so someone creates a version of linux, I get that version of linux under the GPL (v1 v2 or v3). The next day the author decides that they want to use the next version of linux. They can redistribute it under the GPL v2 but unless there's a provision that says the creator can change the terms of the license at a moment's notice. Last I heard (or didn't hear) no such provision is made, and no one would accept it if it was. If I got the GPL v2 version of the software then I'm required to only use it as specified in GPL v2. If GPL v2 said I can share that code as long as I share it's source and the license then anyone can take it from me. So from that perspective the version of software Novell and Microsoft are discussing is theirs they have no fear from GPLv3.
On the other hand if they are going to incorporate new parts there's a problem, however just from the last 6 months, I've heard numerous people who will flat out not support GPLv3, which tells me that GPLv3 is going to have issues if not be down right thrown out. Unless everyone supports it (namely the people coding the kernel of linux is going to be a big factor) then it's going to screw everything up.
This is part of the problem with the FSF, they want their license to succeed but to do so they kinda steamroll over problems like this and the semi viral nature of GPL (if you use our code your code must be GPL). GPL has issues and the solution isn't a new version that creates new problems, if anything a lot of these problems make me want to avoid GPL more than try to embrace it.
The public that I speak is the people who won't read a review, but just look at a score. These are the reason reviews can even be considered "obsolete". The fact that when people say "how is XXX" and you tell them, they are getting a review is lost on them. Instead from a review most times they look for a number and so on.
Personally I choose to read IGN's reviews because they not only have numbers but they're willing to show you where their 9.1 came from, then you can decide if those are factors you care or don't care enough about to get the game.
But because of those people who only care about the 9.1 or the 8.5 or the 5.0 is why reviews seem worthless.
The other problem is people who don't realize 5.0 is NOT an average score. If I give a 9.1 and 8.5 and a 5.0 to three different games the 8.5 is closer to an average score. http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/sites.asp gives the average scores for publications, yet most people don't even look at this. There's always someone who claims a 7.0 is a good score because it's above the average score and it just shows how little people think when they read a review.
According to Armageddon yes.. yes it does. But only if we can get Bruce Willis to stop it.
On the other hand Deep Impact informed us we should start digging large underground caves so we have them in time.
So it's up to the government to either fund NASA or some excavation crew, either way we need a little more dough.
The problem with the game. Why microsoft loves it.
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Crackdown Review
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· Score: 1
I've played about 10-20 hours of the game, so I gotta say I know a little about this game. I've beat it completely and I'm done.
There's a few problem that just stick out. The biggest is the game is not fun alone, and it doesn't mesh well with co-op. You never have to do anything together so why is there co-op? On the other hand the co-op is why the game excels, the game is just not that interesting solo.
The only way to play co-op is system link (over a lan) or to pay for Xbox live. So now you're paying Microsoft money to get onto Xbox live. Now Xbox live is great, I use it all the time, but the fact that to have the true game experience you have to have Xbox live is a sad thing.
Well let me explain that, the game is "fun" for the first playthrough. When you've beat the 21st boss, you have NOTHING to do with the world but hunt for the 800 orbs, if you get all 800 orbs you officially have nothing to do. You can turn on "random crime" but the random crime is nothing more than a murder simulator. There's races that are moderate at best, there's stunts that are just annoying to do. There's just not enough optional content or ways to replay the mission. Time trial is about all the fun there is after the game is over.
The only way to start the game over is to delete you're save file. That's not fun either! It's just an uncool way of doing gameplay. At least give us two save files, or a new game+. Forcing the player to only be able to play through the game once is just a poor suggestion.
There's a reason GTA is a classic and crackdown is poor. There's supposed to be DLC to improve the game... Where is it? They should have hung on to the game and put the DLC on the disc. Even the fact that there's only 910 achievement points hurts the game because you know it's an incomplete game. This might be a good game but after the first week or so you realize that it's a poor version of the sandbox game. Mercenaries worked, Storyless crackdown didn't.
GDC is similar to what E3 was supposed to be, private. It works that way because of the price of the show, it costs almost 1K to do anything worth while. However at the same time GDC is slowly going the way of E3. The focus isn't on the game developers as much any more as the focus is now on the big names and what they will bring.
We have Sony going all out to start a pissing contest in the Expo room (something that will likely come up next year when EA, Activision, and Microsoft jump on that bandwagon and then the year after when all four of them bitch about spending so much money. Nintendo will probably have a bigger presence at some point but It's likely the other group that will cause the annoyance).
The sad thing is that no one is going to buy Sony's BS, everyone knows exactly where they stand with Sony, but the other guys will have to try to keep up. This is just going to turn the entire expo part of the conference into an E3esque problem, however the remainder of the conference (the lectures) are going to remain pretty much the same.
Let's see, DS Lite almost always sold out in Japan. America has a low amount of handhelds that stay on the shelf. Wii is impossible to find in both countries with out a LONG wait outside.
Yeah, they should produce more games because the hype about the system and the titles they already have released and are releasing this year are a amazing. Barren? OH that's right when you compare it to the 360 or Ps3 it's.... wait it's still not barren it just has a lot less of the average crap on it. Yet the games that came out so far are really impressive.
Hmm yeah, Nintendo let's see you crank out the million of lackluster titles the other guys are producing, because I sure rather have a huge boat load of games that all play the same than innovative gameplay. It's obvious your console and handheld isn't already selling on it's own. Come on.
The problem with this argument is Nintendo likely worked on it far before then. Avatars aren't something new either so I'm sure you can look back to find others who have had it. However they didn't deem it worthy enough to do at launch? Why not?
Remember a little game called Animal crossing. This sounds a hell of a lot like that. That's at least 3 years old, plus achievements which are at least a year old.
Sony actually came out and said Achievements and Miis are stupid, or something similar to it, that it doesn't enhance the experience, now they think they are a good idea?
They might not have ripped off miis but they are definitely not being original with this idea. Someone found the patent, and apparently it's more of a social networking thing (with the ability to download music) than this, but I'm almost definite they are going to be including some form of this.
There's two schools of thought. This idea is so amazingly better then their announcement this weekend that it screwed Sony. Or that it's exactly what it is and it makes people realizing they are ripping off the other two consoles.
Either way it's Sony doing what Sony does, finding new ways to create bad press. They wanted bloggers and grass roots stuff happening for them, hell they paid for a couple blogs through advertising, but they don't realize bloggers are gamers, not just the press and they'll give stories to gamers and not put up with Sony telling them not to publish a rumor that they might have.
Now Kotaku is NOT 100 percent right here.... well wait, yes they are, they got a rumor, went to sony for a comment, got none worth publishing other then Sony telling them not to publish it, and then published it. Perfectly fine. But Sony is right to black ball them. However instead of telling them they are blackballed, they should have done it subtly, not talked to them, never grant interviews to them and so on. Doing this just produces a PR nightmare that is added to the list of nightmares that they have to deal with.
On the other hand because of all the other hell Sony has caused themselves, this is a relatively minor problem.
They have easily won multiple cases against people, so yeah if they are actually suing you take it seriously. The burden of proof doesn't seem to be on them as much as it would be on the DA in a murder trial.
I guess justice assume your innocent unless it's about pirating music.
Let's ignore the attacks on the USS Cole, and the bombing of the Embassy in Kenya and Tanzania, those don't count because they were under the Clinton Administration? Or are we just forgetting them because they happened more then 6 years ago? Terrorism has always been a problem in the world yet now we are looking for it and it's just not there.
The fact is we have had terrorism all along, just because it's dropped off after 9/11 doesn't mean there wasn't attacks before. And from the sound of their own recordings they'd like nothing more to strike us again on American soil. So if it is so easy to get across the borders like everyone says... what gives? Apparently Homeland security IS working at some level.
The simple answer is to claim the lions rock idea, which does make sense, but you probably don't live next door to a zoo, do you? Statistically you can predict that we should have been attacked in the last six years if we took no precaution, so that means in all likely hood the DHS works.
Allow me to make an alternate example. Assume I live in a city with another person called Joe. Joe is a murderer and a thief. I own a lot of expensive items, however I also am careful and carry a handgun on me at all time, and have a security system at home that can't be broken into. So one day after 10 years of peaceful living, I think to myself, well I've never been murdered or robbed, why don't I get rid of my gun and security system? Joe finds this out. Do you think I'm going to be safe the next day?
This doesn't mean I SHOULD have a gun and a security system, or that it's the best way to handle this. However it was effective in avoiding the problems with Joe, just as the DHS is one solution to solving terrorism.
I love when someone claims that a policy doesn't work. I don't know where the synopsis gets this but from the sound of it it was never used, that's called untested, not "doesn't work."
Why is it that there seems to be two responses from these anti-Bush/anti-patriot act groups? "Terror laws don't work" where as the last full scale terror attack on our country was 5 years ago. The second response is usually "Well the world hates us" and you look again and there hasn't been an attack on US soil since 9/11. So why hasn't terrorism reigned supreme here if everyone hates us and Homeland security isn't working? We aren't fighting the three stogies here.
I would pay extra money for Windows Vista Ninja, the version that makes it look like it's still XP. At least I'd be ok with that until I realize that it's just Windows XP with a change bitmap.
Simple and direct. Let's ask ourselves why do we care about their websites? Because they are massively funded? Why not compare Oracle, Sun, and Microsoft then? These are political candidates. If you're even thinking of voting for one of them because of a website YOU have a problem. Look at their issues, their voting record, their choices. Not "who has a prettier site". Hell this is below "who looks most appealing in debates" and that is pretty pathetic that people vote that way (and they do).
I'm all for a more professional looking internet but why should we care what candidates are doing. This is just a way to try to get open ended politics into slashdot and a way to recommend one candidate over another.
To be honest, this is the best advice. What's going to happen? Microsoft will prove exactly where linux violates it (which we'd know if it actually violated it) or they'll find minor stuff that's vague enough to get everyone confused. The winner in this situation is Microsoft pure and simple. If you ignore their minor complaints they sue, if you do what they say, they have made you jump, they win.
This advice basically tells Linux to demand Microsoft proving they are at fault. Even if they don't prove this, Linux will continue to look less than professional, if the business world teaches one thing it is NEVER even imply you could be at fault for something, because no matter what it'll bite you in the ass.
If there's anything Linux MUST do is unify itself under someone (Linus, or others) get a core group who have standrds for Linux distros that everyone follows (nothing extreme just programs that should be marked as compliant. Hell just make it so a single linux program will run easily on all the distros) build this up, prove they are a centralized group in linux (not a distro or an offshoot) and then when you have a true unified linux group, have them talk to Microsoft. Have a single well spoken person (think "steve Jobs" look. He knows technology but he's someone people want to talk to.) stand up and say to Balmer to show them any problems.
But of course we know that's not going to happen. Linux users will continue to fight among themselves, or they will do something like this and someone will get a little too into it and Microsoft will put the hammer down. The bottom line is a mob of Linux users trying to attack Microsoft will make the mob look stupid. I look at protest groups of idiots who shout for someone to do this or that, and every time I see one I shake my head because they always look like complete idiots, where as a well dressed (notice, not a zany with bad hair) guy talking on multiple news shows can do much much more.
The problem with the new mac ads is it doesn't show the OS, the system or anything useful. Even worse most of what they say is blantantly false. Yeah a Windows machine is a full work system and has no entertainment value, that's why 90 percent of computer games are still available on the PC. When mom and pa see the commercial and see "mac is fun, PC is work" they think about their system and realize it's not that much work. Adopting a mac would be more expensive to them, be more work and they don't want to spend 1000-2000 for a mid level system.
You can lie your ass off to a consumer but the minute they realize what you said isn't the whole truth you're screwed. What Mac has said in their last round of commercials has hurt it because people started smelling the BS, and because people looked into it and see the problems.
Hell their switch ads tried to bandwagon people on with famous faces. However looking back at them I can tell you. I only knew one or two of them. Bandwagoning commercials slowly faded away in the 90s. There's a reason for that, it stopped working so well... except in politics of course, when you're forced to choose if you're going to vote.
As for Linux the steady trickle I've seen going to Linux won't matter, it's still too small, and I still see people returning to windows, most people will continue to use XP. I'm all for using Linux as a back bone to coporate systems, but it's still not good enough to be a platform for business/work, nor one for productivity. People still don't want to do everything by hand, they want the comfort of Windows, and XP has given them a perfect surrounding. The minute you can't run program X from linux, it fails in people's minds. You can start by saying "well you can just run it under...." Stop. Realize that people don't use dos based systems any more because they don't want to do that, running 1-2 programs just to get a third working isn't cool, and won't work for most people unless Microsoft disappears, and from the look of it Microsoft is going to be here to stay.
When the suckitude as you put it (and I like that word) involves the bill it's generally seen as a problem with the provider not local. When 611 also gets you suckitude we're talking more about an all over suckitude.
Seriously I had AT&T, they were bad with random charges, then cingular took them over and they had tons more random charges, they were worse, then I tried to quit... there was a 3 month battle over this, and then 3 more monthes of bills before it was finally over. Overall this is not an isolated instance. Their service is poor and their billing standards.... well let's just say they leave something to be desired.
In other news Suckitude has just become my favorite overused word.
It's been seen time and time again, freedom of speech is NOT absolute freedom. Threatening someone still is a crime. Going up to people and saying "I'm going to kill you" will still get you put in jail.
Slander and Libel shouldn't be possible if we have true freedom of speech, but of course just because you've the freedom of speech, doesn't mean your speech should take away other's rights or make them fearful.
I thought in this case it's business as usual for Micrsoft? Malware and software to stop malware? 98, essentially a patch to 95. The Xbox 360, so different from the Xbox it's like two 180s in a row!
True story, I called up Microsoft, they wanted to register my xbox, I said, no. They said but we have to, I said no. Long story short they finally said ok, but still took a little information. They didn't solve my problem, at the end of the call I was annoyed but I wanted to check on this. I ask the supervisor "I want to make sure my xbox was not registered" "oh well, it was I can't help you with that" After bitching and screaming I got the following facts out of them.
No one is able to delete my entry. The IT department does not accept calls. The legal department doesn't have a phone number and apparently doesn't respond to email (found out after two attempts at corrospondance with them) The database doesn't have a way for them to delete my entry at all. I'm wrong for thinking it does There's no one above her, she's the highest level of support I can reach.
This is coming from someone who has a thick indian accent, the first service representative has one too so we got the stink of outsourcing as well. The moral of this story is the intellegent user is just a boob you can lie to and tell them that the business doesn't allow you access to what they want access to as long as everyone is on the same page. Unfortunatly I work at a company that does business with microsoft (and the games department in particular) and I'm not willing to risk my employement and future employment by taking them to court, however even if I was who knows if I'd win.
I've yet to need an updated version of office except for when they added version complient formats, personally I've not gotten.doc files except for ones that I can use in word pad so I should be fine. I've yet to see a Directx 10 only game in addition, I'm still using Media player 8 or 9 (when I even NEED media player) and MSIE... snicker. The only uses for that are stuff that are XP dependant like updates, when the update server needs a new version of IE then Xp will support it.
It's true in the future we may NEED vista, but currently we don't which is my point. It's not the type of change from 2000 to Xp where you're getting a completely new kernel (and even there it screwed people like me because now we have to use Dosbox, as the DOS system is pretty much gone forever). It's the change for cosmetic sake and pretending to give better tools, tools that you can get from other companies at a combined cost of half the cost for the upgrade.
An hour off is critical, however financial firms have something called compliance officers who the instant this thing was stated should have started trying to fix it. Microsoft has released patches for it, so now we should be set.
Basically this is only going to be a critical bug if people ignore it just as Y2K was going to be a critical bug if people ignored it. Overall we should all be fine, but if you're in IT it's worth checking to see if your taking adequate precautions about now. Not later.
Btw if you're running a server farm and having figured out a way to apply microsoft patches (which should solve most of your problems, you ARE running stuff off a system clock and you are syncronizing that system clock, arn't you? If you're using anything else it should more precise than the system clock.) in a near automatic that's your problem, not the fact you have a 15 minute patch.
Xp actually is proficient at what it does. If it isn't proficient in the last 5 years someone has produced an add on to it. Let's not pretend Vista is doing better or worse on it's own merits. The PS3 sold out the first week so even if something is flawed it can sell X amount of copies if the need is there. There was a need for 98, 2000, XP, you can even argue there was a need for ME (that wasn't filled). But there is yet to be a need for Vista.
No I pointed out I seem to like Asian characters, but it's because the roles they stereotypically play. Just because it's a stereotypical role doesn't mean I can't enjoy it. If I like gang members I'm not going to hate it when a black guy is a gang member. If I like mobsters I'm not going to hate them for putting up an Italian for it.
The problem is that every time an Asian guy is seen in a game he's not wearing giant samurai armor. He's not a ninja.
My statement is that I enjoy these roles so I mentally think "I like Asian characters" but the fact is I like the roles these roles Asian characters play, not the Asian characters race or anything else.
I'm saying asian characters I've played are mostly ninjas samurais and cool stuff that american developers think of them as. I love that shit, so in my mind I love playing as asian characters, but if you swap out the lead character in with a asian character it doesn't mean I want to play as an asian character or play that game. I was merely pointing out the reason I like asian characters is because of the roles typically associated with them, not the race itself.
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Zonk is a pretty anti-ps3 fanboy, but this just makes me think he just got a boat load of money because this is nothing but fanboy gushing.
This is an awesome feature, if it was flawless at launch, coming 1 year after the fact as well as not everyone will support it and the cost of the servers, oh they won't be players funded, they will be developer funded, which means the developers will raise prices, and the players will still foot the bill.
In the end this sounds like a lot of promises with no possible way to follow through, and in the end will just continue to bastardize the concept of the Playstation until it's no longer a game console, and if blu-ray fails it'll just be a social networking device.
This is just going to be a monumental build up (for those of us buying in, which is still not a huge amount of us) which will end up turning around and becoming another flop. Great idea, but it's not something most of us will use more than once or twice a month. At the same time a good working voice chat, and message system while in game would go far farther and yet they continue to be unable to implement these things. The fact they are taking up more memory for the OS and giving the developers less support and the gamers less features hasn't gone unnoticed inside the industry either.
If we all wanted a system like this we'd be playing second life, or WoW for the social interaction, the Ps3 is a console, and until Sony learns how to develop a consoles for developers (which the Ps3 is still not a developer friendly platform) for the fans (600 bucks and constantly fighting home brew, as well as weak games) rather then for their megalomaniac desires (blu-ray and sony's other business) they will continue to have a hard road ahead of them.
Ok so someone creates a version of linux, I get that version of linux under the GPL (v1 v2 or v3). The next day the author decides that they want to use the next version of linux. They can redistribute it under the GPL v2 but unless there's a provision that says the creator can change the terms of the license at a moment's notice. Last I heard (or didn't hear) no such provision is made, and no one would accept it if it was. If I got the GPL v2 version of the software then I'm required to only use it as specified in GPL v2. If GPL v2 said I can share that code as long as I share it's source and the license then anyone can take it from me. So from that perspective the version of software Novell and Microsoft are discussing is theirs they have no fear from GPLv3.
On the other hand if they are going to incorporate new parts there's a problem, however just from the last 6 months, I've heard numerous people who will flat out not support GPLv3, which tells me that GPLv3 is going to have issues if not be down right thrown out. Unless everyone supports it (namely the people coding the kernel of linux is going to be a big factor) then it's going to screw everything up.
This is part of the problem with the FSF, they want their license to succeed but to do so they kinda steamroll over problems like this and the semi viral nature of GPL (if you use our code your code must be GPL). GPL has issues and the solution isn't a new version that creates new problems, if anything a lot of these problems make me want to avoid GPL more than try to embrace it.
The public that I speak is the people who won't read a review, but just look at a score. These are the reason reviews can even be considered "obsolete". The fact that when people say "how is XXX" and you tell them, they are getting a review is lost on them. Instead from a review most times they look for a number and so on.
p gives the average scores for publications, yet most people don't even look at this. There's always someone who claims a 7.0 is a good score because it's above the average score and it just shows how little people think when they read a review.
Personally I choose to read IGN's reviews because they not only have numbers but they're willing to show you where their 9.1 came from, then you can decide if those are factors you care or don't care enough about to get the game.
But because of those people who only care about the 9.1 or the 8.5 or the 5.0 is why reviews seem worthless.
The other problem is people who don't realize 5.0 is NOT an average score. If I give a 9.1 and 8.5 and a 5.0 to three different games the 8.5 is closer to an average score. http://www.gamerankings.com/itemrankings/sites.as
According to Armageddon yes.. yes it does. But only if we can get Bruce Willis to stop it.
On the other hand Deep Impact informed us we should start digging large underground caves so we have them in time.
So it's up to the government to either fund NASA or some excavation crew, either way we need a little more dough.
I've played about 10-20 hours of the game, so I gotta say I know a little about this game. I've beat it completely and I'm done.
There's a few problem that just stick out. The biggest is the game is not fun alone, and it doesn't mesh well with co-op. You never have to do anything together so why is there co-op? On the other hand the co-op is why the game excels, the game is just not that interesting solo.
The only way to play co-op is system link (over a lan) or to pay for Xbox live. So now you're paying Microsoft money to get onto Xbox live. Now Xbox live is great, I use it all the time, but the fact that to have the true game experience you have to have Xbox live is a sad thing.
Well let me explain that, the game is "fun" for the first playthrough. When you've beat the 21st boss, you have NOTHING to do with the world but hunt for the 800 orbs, if you get all 800 orbs you officially have nothing to do. You can turn on "random crime" but the random crime is nothing more than a murder simulator. There's races that are moderate at best, there's stunts that are just annoying to do. There's just not enough optional content or ways to replay the mission. Time trial is about all the fun there is after the game is over.
The only way to start the game over is to delete you're save file. That's not fun either! It's just an uncool way of doing gameplay. At least give us two save files, or a new game+. Forcing the player to only be able to play through the game once is just a poor suggestion.
There's a reason GTA is a classic and crackdown is poor. There's supposed to be DLC to improve the game... Where is it? They should have hung on to the game and put the DLC on the disc. Even the fact that there's only 910 achievement points hurts the game because you know it's an incomplete game. This might be a good game but after the first week or so you realize that it's a poor version of the sandbox game. Mercenaries worked, Storyless crackdown didn't.
GDC is similar to what E3 was supposed to be, private. It works that way because of the price of the show, it costs almost 1K to do anything worth while. However at the same time GDC is slowly going the way of E3. The focus isn't on the game developers as much any more as the focus is now on the big names and what they will bring.
We have Sony going all out to start a pissing contest in the Expo room (something that will likely come up next year when EA, Activision, and Microsoft jump on that bandwagon and then the year after when all four of them bitch about spending so much money. Nintendo will probably have a bigger presence at some point but It's likely the other group that will cause the annoyance).
The sad thing is that no one is going to buy Sony's BS, everyone knows exactly where they stand with Sony, but the other guys will have to try to keep up. This is just going to turn the entire expo part of the conference into an E3esque problem, however the remainder of the conference (the lectures) are going to remain pretty much the same.
Let's see, DS Lite almost always sold out in Japan. America has a low amount of handhelds that stay on the shelf. Wii is impossible to find in both countries with out a LONG wait outside.
Yeah, they should produce more games because the hype about the system and the titles they already have released and are releasing this year are a amazing. Barren? OH that's right when you compare it to the 360 or Ps3 it's.... wait it's still not barren it just has a lot less of the average crap on it. Yet the games that came out so far are really impressive.
Hmm yeah, Nintendo let's see you crank out the million of lackluster titles the other guys are producing, because I sure rather have a huge boat load of games that all play the same than innovative gameplay. It's obvious your console and handheld isn't already selling on it's own. Come on.
The problem with this argument is Nintendo likely worked on it far before then. Avatars aren't something new either so I'm sure you can look back to find others who have had it. However they didn't deem it worthy enough to do at launch? Why not?
Remember a little game called Animal crossing. This sounds a hell of a lot like that. That's at least 3 years old, plus achievements which are at least a year old.
Sony actually came out and said Achievements and Miis are stupid, or something similar to it, that it doesn't enhance the experience, now they think they are a good idea?
They might not have ripped off miis but they are definitely not being original with this idea. Someone found the patent, and apparently it's more of a social networking thing (with the ability to download music) than this, but I'm almost definite they are going to be including some form of this.
There's two schools of thought. This idea is so amazingly better then their announcement this weekend that it screwed Sony. Or that it's exactly what it is and it makes people realizing they are ripping off the other two consoles.
Either way it's Sony doing what Sony does, finding new ways to create bad press. They wanted bloggers and grass roots stuff happening for them, hell they paid for a couple blogs through advertising, but they don't realize bloggers are gamers, not just the press and they'll give stories to gamers and not put up with Sony telling them not to publish a rumor that they might have.
Now Kotaku is NOT 100 percent right here.... well wait, yes they are, they got a rumor, went to sony for a comment, got none worth publishing other then Sony telling them not to publish it, and then published it. Perfectly fine. But Sony is right to black ball them. However instead of telling them they are blackballed, they should have done it subtly, not talked to them, never grant interviews to them and so on. Doing this just produces a PR nightmare that is added to the list of nightmares that they have to deal with.
On the other hand because of all the other hell Sony has caused themselves, this is a relatively minor problem.
They have easily won multiple cases against people, so yeah if they are actually suing you take it seriously. The burden of proof doesn't seem to be on them as much as it would be on the DA in a murder trial.
I guess justice assume your innocent unless it's about pirating music.
Let's ignore the attacks on the USS Cole, and the bombing of the Embassy in Kenya and Tanzania, those don't count because they were under the Clinton Administration? Or are we just forgetting them because they happened more then 6 years ago? Terrorism has always been a problem in the world yet now we are looking for it and it's just not there.
The fact is we have had terrorism all along, just because it's dropped off after 9/11 doesn't mean there wasn't attacks before. And from the sound of their own recordings they'd like nothing more to strike us again on American soil. So if it is so easy to get across the borders like everyone says... what gives? Apparently Homeland security IS working at some level.
The simple answer is to claim the lions rock idea, which does make sense, but you probably don't live next door to a zoo, do you? Statistically you can predict that we should have been attacked in the last six years if we took no precaution, so that means in all likely hood the DHS works.
Allow me to make an alternate example. Assume I live in a city with another person called Joe. Joe is a murderer and a thief. I own a lot of expensive items, however I also am careful and carry a handgun on me at all time, and have a security system at home that can't be broken into. So one day after 10 years of peaceful living, I think to myself, well I've never been murdered or robbed, why don't I get rid of my gun and security system? Joe finds this out. Do you think I'm going to be safe the next day?
This doesn't mean I SHOULD have a gun and a security system, or that it's the best way to handle this. However it was effective in avoiding the problems with Joe, just as the DHS is one solution to solving terrorism.
"The anti-terror laws have never been used"
I love when someone claims that a policy doesn't work. I don't know where the synopsis gets this but from the sound of it it was never used, that's called untested, not "doesn't work."
Why is it that there seems to be two responses from these anti-Bush/anti-patriot act groups? "Terror laws don't work" where as the last full scale terror attack on our country was 5 years ago. The second response is usually "Well the world hates us" and you look again and there hasn't been an attack on US soil since 9/11. So why hasn't terrorism reigned supreme here if everyone hates us and Homeland security isn't working? We aren't fighting the three stogies here.
I would pay extra money for Windows Vista Ninja, the version that makes it look like it's still XP. At least I'd be ok with that until I realize that it's just Windows XP with a change bitmap.
Damn, ninjas are just awesome.
WHO GIVES A SHIT!
Simple and direct. Let's ask ourselves why do we care about their websites? Because they are massively funded? Why not compare Oracle, Sun, and Microsoft then? These are political candidates. If you're even thinking of voting for one of them because of a website YOU have a problem. Look at their issues, their voting record, their choices. Not "who has a prettier site". Hell this is below "who looks most appealing in debates" and that is pretty pathetic that people vote that way (and they do).
I'm all for a more professional looking internet but why should we care what candidates are doing. This is just a way to try to get open ended politics into slashdot and a way to recommend one candidate over another.
To be honest, this is the best advice. What's going to happen? Microsoft will prove exactly where linux violates it (which we'd know if it actually violated it) or they'll find minor stuff that's vague enough to get everyone confused. The winner in this situation is Microsoft pure and simple. If you ignore their minor complaints they sue, if you do what they say, they have made you jump, they win.
This advice basically tells Linux to demand Microsoft proving they are at fault. Even if they don't prove this, Linux will continue to look less than professional, if the business world teaches one thing it is NEVER even imply you could be at fault for something, because no matter what it'll bite you in the ass.
If there's anything Linux MUST do is unify itself under someone (Linus, or others) get a core group who have standrds for Linux distros that everyone follows (nothing extreme just programs that should be marked as compliant. Hell just make it so a single linux program will run easily on all the distros) build this up, prove they are a centralized group in linux (not a distro or an offshoot) and then when you have a true unified linux group, have them talk to Microsoft. Have a single well spoken person (think "steve Jobs" look. He knows technology but he's someone people want to talk to.) stand up and say to Balmer to show them any problems.
But of course we know that's not going to happen. Linux users will continue to fight among themselves, or they will do something like this and someone will get a little too into it and Microsoft will put the hammer down. The bottom line is a mob of Linux users trying to attack Microsoft will make the mob look stupid. I look at protest groups of idiots who shout for someone to do this or that, and every time I see one I shake my head because they always look like complete idiots, where as a well dressed (notice, not a zany with bad hair) guy talking on multiple news shows can do much much more.
The problem with the new mac ads is it doesn't show the OS, the system or anything useful. Even worse most of what they say is blantantly false. Yeah a Windows machine is a full work system and has no entertainment value, that's why 90 percent of computer games are still available on the PC. When mom and pa see the commercial and see "mac is fun, PC is work" they think about their system and realize it's not that much work. Adopting a mac would be more expensive to them, be more work and they don't want to spend 1000-2000 for a mid level system.
...." Stop. Realize that people don't use dos based systems any more because they don't want to do that, running 1-2 programs just to get a third working isn't cool, and won't work for most people unless Microsoft disappears, and from the look of it Microsoft is going to be here to stay.
You can lie your ass off to a consumer but the minute they realize what you said isn't the whole truth you're screwed. What Mac has said in their last round of commercials has hurt it because people started smelling the BS, and because people looked into it and see the problems.
Hell their switch ads tried to bandwagon people on with famous faces. However looking back at them I can tell you. I only knew one or two of them. Bandwagoning commercials slowly faded away in the 90s. There's a reason for that, it stopped working so well... except in politics of course, when you're forced to choose if you're going to vote.
As for Linux the steady trickle I've seen going to Linux won't matter, it's still too small, and I still see people returning to windows, most people will continue to use XP. I'm all for using Linux as a back bone to coporate systems, but it's still not good enough to be a platform for business/work, nor one for productivity. People still don't want to do everything by hand, they want the comfort of Windows, and XP has given them a perfect surrounding. The minute you can't run program X from linux, it fails in people's minds. You can start by saying "well you can just run it under
When the suckitude as you put it (and I like that word) involves the bill it's generally seen as a problem with the provider not local. When 611 also gets you suckitude we're talking more about an all over suckitude.
Seriously I had AT&T, they were bad with random charges, then cingular took them over and they had tons more random charges, they were worse, then I tried to quit... there was a 3 month battle over this, and then 3 more monthes of bills before it was finally over. Overall this is not an isolated instance. Their service is poor and their billing standards.... well let's just say they leave something to be desired.
In other news Suckitude has just become my favorite overused word.
It's been seen time and time again, freedom of speech is NOT absolute freedom. Threatening someone still is a crime. Going up to people and saying "I'm going to kill you" will still get you put in jail.
Slander and Libel shouldn't be possible if we have true freedom of speech, but of course just because you've the freedom of speech, doesn't mean your speech should take away other's rights or make them fearful.
I thought in this case it's business as usual for Micrsoft? Malware and software to stop malware? 98, essentially a patch to 95. The Xbox 360, so different from the Xbox it's like two 180s in a row!
True story, I called up Microsoft, they wanted to register my xbox, I said, no. They said but we have to, I said no. Long story short they finally said ok, but still took a little information. They didn't solve my problem, at the end of the call I was annoyed but I wanted to check on this. I ask the supervisor "I want to make sure my xbox was not registered" "oh well, it was I can't help you with that" After bitching and screaming I got the following facts out of them.
No one is able to delete my entry.
The IT department does not accept calls.
The legal department doesn't have a phone number and apparently doesn't respond to email (found out after two attempts at corrospondance with them)
The database doesn't have a way for them to delete my entry at all.
I'm wrong for thinking it does
There's no one above her, she's the highest level of support I can reach.
This is coming from someone who has a thick indian accent, the first service representative has one too so we got the stink of outsourcing as well. The moral of this story is the intellegent user is just a boob you can lie to and tell them that the business doesn't allow you access to what they want access to as long as everyone is on the same page. Unfortunatly I work at a company that does business with microsoft (and the games department in particular) and I'm not willing to risk my employement and future employment by taking them to court, however even if I was who knows if I'd win.
I've yet to need an updated version of office except for when they added version complient formats, personally I've not gotten .doc files except for ones that I can use in word pad so I should be fine. I've yet to see a Directx 10 only game in addition, I'm still using Media player 8 or 9 (when I even NEED media player) and MSIE... snicker. The only uses for that are stuff that are XP dependant like updates, when the update server needs a new version of IE then Xp will support it.
It's true in the future we may NEED vista, but currently we don't which is my point. It's not the type of change from 2000 to Xp where you're getting a completely new kernel (and even there it screwed people like me because now we have to use Dosbox, as the DOS system is pretty much gone forever). It's the change for cosmetic sake and pretending to give better tools, tools that you can get from other companies at a combined cost of half the cost for the upgrade.
An hour off is critical, however financial firms have something called compliance officers who the instant this thing was stated should have started trying to fix it. Microsoft has released patches for it, so now we should be set.
Basically this is only going to be a critical bug if people ignore it just as Y2K was going to be a critical bug if people ignored it. Overall we should all be fine, but if you're in IT it's worth checking to see if your taking adequate precautions about now. Not later.
Btw if you're running a server farm and having figured out a way to apply microsoft patches (which should solve most of your problems, you ARE running stuff off a system clock and you are syncronizing that system clock, arn't you? If you're using anything else it should more precise than the system clock.) in a near automatic that's your problem, not the fact you have a 15 minute patch.
Xp actually is proficient at what it does. If it isn't proficient in the last 5 years someone has produced an add on to it. Let's not pretend Vista is doing better or worse on it's own merits. The PS3 sold out the first week so even if something is flawed it can sell X amount of copies if the need is there. There was a need for 98, 2000, XP, you can even argue there was a need for ME (that wasn't filled). But there is yet to be a need for Vista.
No I pointed out I seem to like Asian characters, but it's because the roles they stereotypically play. Just because it's a stereotypical role doesn't mean I can't enjoy it. If I like gang members I'm not going to hate it when a black guy is a gang member. If I like mobsters I'm not going to hate them for putting up an Italian for it.
The problem is that every time an Asian guy is seen in a game he's not wearing giant samurai armor. He's not a ninja.
My statement is that I enjoy these roles so I mentally think "I like Asian characters" but the fact is I like the roles these roles Asian characters play, not the Asian characters race or anything else.
I'm saying asian characters I've played are mostly ninjas samurais and cool stuff that american developers think of them as. I love that shit, so in my mind I love playing as asian characters, but if you swap out the lead character in with a asian character it doesn't mean I want to play as an asian character or play that game. I was merely pointing out the reason I like asian characters is because of the roles typically associated with them, not the race itself.