This doesn't mean Republicans hate clean air and throw caution about potential global warming concerns to the wind.
Out of curousity, what exactly has the Republican executive branch done in regards to global warming (or as they refer to it "climate change") in the past 4 years and what are they proposing to do in the next 4 years?
And in a month, none of those people who complained will care one bit.
Honestly, the brouhaha over Steam and validation on day 1 is ridiculous. Yes, if you bought the game on Tuesday you likely had problems for a few hours trying to validate. Yeah, that's a pisser. However, once you did get it validated you were able to play without any sort of online interaction (unless you were playing online, of course).
These same server problems affect every MMORPG on day 1. They affect every popular game that has online content (e.g., every Blizzard game). Its the nature of the beast. Sure, its a bitch, but a half day of inconvenience for 5 years of gameplay is something most people will overlook. Anyone who was faintly familiar with how HL2 validation was going to be done, especially the geeks at slashdot, should have known that day 1 was going to be validation hell. I knew it, and I'm waiting a few extra days before I buy the game, simply because I don't want that hassle.
Out of curousity, how good is halo 2's AI? The first game I noticed that had decent enemy AI was the original halflife. The enemy marines were quite clever in how they handled situations, and the way the sonic doggies would run around like puppies chasing train cars seemed realistic. How advanced are we these days?
Based on this, one could surmise you would have told Tolkien to stop writing after the Hobbit came out, because that was a darn good story, and he would just ruin it by writing anything else? There's nothing inherently wrong with a sequel if it is well done and enjoyable. While crappy sequels tarnish a reputation; I fail to see how quality, crafted sequels do anything but provide enjoyment (and strengthen a franchise).
the idea behind simultaneous worldwide release is to combat piracy. i didn't really give it a thought until around the time Alpha Centauri was coming out, and was reading the forums regarding the worldwide release (and how SE Asia was a hotbed of pirated games owing mainly to much delayed release times). Game comes out, pirates immediately start selling copies in regions that don't get official release for weeks/months later. Seriously cuts into profit margin of company. Thus, the push to release the game at the same time worldwide. Yes, it won't stop all piracy, but it will stop the fan (who isn't normally inclined to break the law) from buying the $5 copy of the game, when an actual retail version is available.
the original civilization (if not civ 2) had a replay at the end of the game, with a minimap showing power influence over the course of the game. you had zero control over the replay and didn't even see any action, other than the map changing color depending on cities springing up and who owned them, but it was nice watching your color slowly branch out and take over the world. (for some reason i think this feature got taken out of later releases in the franchise.)
push prices? The GBA SP is now down to $79.99. The gamecube holiday pack, which includes a game (mario kart, IIRC) is going for $99.99. Prices are outstanding at the moment.
unfortunately the blurb links to a homepage, which links to another page, which links to a forum posting, which finally links to a pictorial. go here for the final design, and begin the pictorial here.
that's some serious effort and artistic skill involved in this. the only problem with extreme case modding is that your project is obsolete by the time you finish it. (that and i wouldn't ever want to use the keyboard/mouse, those must feel awful)
Why isn't protection for open source software and limitation of intelectual property law a political issue?
Once we've finished with the war, fixed the medical system, social security, homeland security, the environment, etc., then maybe we can talk about open source software. Open source software issues are only on the minds of an incredibly tiny portion of the US population, so why should a politician who has limited time talk about it? Health care and social security affect everyone, so you're going to focus about those issues.
besides, I highly doubt Bush/Kerry/just about all politicians have much insight into open source software, or even software in general...
at least in that game, someone told me i needed to get the blue pages. i can't figure out what's the point of of this site. it took me about 10 clicks before i finally found some real text that said something. and that music. i half expected mario to pipe up with "welcome to zombo com... you can touch anything at zombo com"
I don't think it's designed such that it can measure consecutive numbers, rather the optimal ruler for a given number of marks simply has the most unique number of measurements possible. at least that's what i gather looking at the ogr 24...
except in this case, the punishment is more for the fraud they committed, rather than just the presence of unsolicited junk mail. you advertise a product for $X and hundreds of people buy your product and it doesn't do Y as you promised, that's fraud. And that's probably why the punishments are as harsh as they are.
so a portable with batteries that will last 2 hours. that's less than just about any air travel time. no thank you. the GBA, with its 10 hour battery life, has spoiled me.
the people that would do starcraft 2 are not the people working on WoW. They've got 2 main teams at Blizzard Irvine. one the RTS, the other the MMORPG. presumably the RTS people are working on something. probably'll be a year or so before they announce anything.
no idea what Blizz North is doing, since they lost a huge number of employees a couple years back...
Doom 3 may have gotten the early spotlight, but the real question, is "1 year from now, which game will still be played, and still selling for near full retail price?"
The fact that at any given time the total number of people playing HL and it's various mods often exceeds the total number of people playing all other FPS games online is amazing. What's absolutely insane is that it's a game that's 5 years old. And it's still taking up retail shelf space and selling for near full value (granted that's a boxed version including various mods, expansions).
HL2 is shipping with an updated version of the single most popular multiplayer FPS. (while Doom3's is multiplayer is lacking) I'd be surprised if even with it's late start HL2 doesn't sell more total copies than Doom3 by Christmas.
I imagine they will have something similar, at least in terms of the premium content EQ2 is offering. For War3, Blizz implemented a fairly slick ranking system with web-based searches for an insane amount of detail (which race does player use most often, which hero, how many times has a player played an arranged team game on a certain map and how long did it take them to win, etc.) They've already built an excellent tool for the task and modifying it for WoW shouldn't be much of a problem. The real question is whether Blizzard trumps SOE by releasing it for free...
so the DS presales are outselling the redesigned PS2 presales. perhaps that's because everyone already owns the PS2 and would prefer to pre-order something totally new over something that's just an update? (at least among first adopters.) here's the article that has the statistics. (can't seem to find the original gamespot story that is referred to)
I love the fact that the GBA, which already has an update to it, is selling at about 3 times the rate of the XBOX. I wonder where the IQue would fit on this list...
I think a just as interesting, if not more interesting story is the fact that a Gamecube + Mario Kart bundle will be coming out this holiday season for only $99.99. That's the same price just the console is selling for now.
I absolutely agree that the Economist letter isn't the be all and end all of the discussion (I did notice it was informal and had a fairly low response rate). But the idea that Bush has 360 economists on his side is laughable. No where in the letter does it say the 360 endorse Bush's plan. Chances are many would be against it as well. (or you could easily turn up just as many different economists who are against it)
My point was that no matter what one side says, within 30 seconds one can find a somewhat credible opposing view using google.
shouldn't the link be to the actual letter; rather than an analysis by a former assistant of VP Cheney?
And who cares. A quick google search turned up a poll conducted by The Economist, where academics gave just the opposite opinion: low marks for Bush and high marks for Kerry.
Same here. My father worked at a water treatment plant in Los Angeles, and he had the fish tank in his lab maybe 20 years ago. As I recall, the idea wasn't to test for instantaneous water quality problems, but rather long term toxicity of the water. My father was generally opposed to the idea, as the fish were in really small boxes maybe 6" on a side and kept in the dark until someone opened the lid and checked on 'em.
it appears the the Urbz is console only, while Sims 2 is a pc based game (not sure if there's a console version yet). I think Urbz is aimed at teens who want to do cool things like go to a club or eat sushi, or strip down motorcycles, rather than have cocktail parties... (hence the console release)
kinda like the difference between an oldsmobile and an acura.
This is what people lament about copyright. Lucas will probably successfully destroy all the known copies of the original movie. That's like losing the original manuscripts to Shakespear.
This is an interesting analogy. There really isn't such a thing as an original manuscript (we only have 3 original pages that Shakespeare wrote, apparently). At best we have various transcriptions from actors or Shakespeare or editors who put things together posthumously. So there is no such thing as an original Shakespeare. Its all just our best guess based on various different versions available. This isn't all too different from the various different versions of Star Wars we seem to be subjected to...
But in 1977, there was no movie ratings, but now we do have them.
ummm... the ratings system was introduced in November 1, 1968. That's 9 years before Star Wars came out. At the time of Star Wars, however, there was no PG-13. Perhaps that is what you are thinking of.
I don't see that these quotes strongly support the idea that its about money and ego. While, yes the money quote does list piracy as a readson to release sooner; to combat that all Lucas would have to do is a quick transfer to DVD and put it out. Rather than do that, he went back and did a lot of work cleaning up the quality (color, scratches, noise, etc.) of the film as well as adding/adjusting various special effects. That wasn't free, and likely was done because he wanted to best quality movie available.
As for ego, well, sure, it's his movie so he should have his way. If he couldn't so the effects he wanted in the 70s and 80s and can do them now and insert them, how is that just ego, and not an artist finally fulfilling his vision?
Yes, he may be greedy and very ego driven, but the amount of work that he's put into these movies over the years (even if many fans don't agree with it) indicates his degree of passion.
Slashdot Mirror
This doesn't mean Republicans hate clean air and throw caution about potential global warming concerns to the wind.
Out of curousity, what exactly has the Republican executive branch done in regards to global warming (or as they refer to it "climate change") in the past 4 years and what are they proposing to do in the next 4 years?
And in a month, none of those people who complained will care one bit.
Honestly, the brouhaha over Steam and validation on day 1 is ridiculous. Yes, if you bought the game on Tuesday you likely had problems for a few hours trying to validate. Yeah, that's a pisser. However, once you did get it validated you were able to play without any sort of online interaction (unless you were playing online, of course).
These same server problems affect every MMORPG on day 1. They affect every popular game that has online content (e.g., every Blizzard game). Its the nature of the beast. Sure, its a bitch, but a half day of inconvenience for 5 years of gameplay is something most people will overlook. Anyone who was faintly familiar with how HL2 validation was going to be done, especially the geeks at slashdot, should have known that day 1 was going to be validation hell. I knew it, and I'm waiting a few extra days before I buy the game, simply because I don't want that hassle.
watching a CSI episode you notice the box of Diamond Evolution One gloves on the bench and think "good choice, those are my favorites, as well..."
I love the CSI, although I came to in way late. Nice thing is that Spike TV shows 2 reruns back to back at 7 each night.
Out of curousity, how good is halo 2's AI? The first game I noticed that had decent enemy AI was the original halflife. The enemy marines were quite clever in how they handled situations, and the way the sonic doggies would run around like puppies chasing train cars seemed realistic. How advanced are we these days?
How about "if it isn't broken, make a sequel?"
Based on this, one could surmise you would have told Tolkien to stop writing after the Hobbit came out, because that was a darn good story, and he would just ruin it by writing anything else? There's nothing inherently wrong with a sequel if it is well done and enjoyable. While crappy sequels tarnish a reputation; I fail to see how quality, crafted sequels do anything but provide enjoyment (and strengthen a franchise).
the idea behind simultaneous worldwide release is to combat piracy. i didn't really give it a thought until around the time Alpha Centauri was coming out, and was reading the forums regarding the worldwide release (and how SE Asia was a hotbed of pirated games owing mainly to much delayed release times). Game comes out, pirates immediately start selling copies in regions that don't get official release for weeks/months later. Seriously cuts into profit margin of company. Thus, the push to release the game at the same time worldwide. Yes, it won't stop all piracy, but it will stop the fan (who isn't normally inclined to break the law) from buying the $5 copy of the game, when an actual retail version is available.
the original civilization (if not civ 2) had a replay at the end of the game, with a minimap showing power influence over the course of the game. you had zero control over the replay and didn't even see any action, other than the map changing color depending on cities springing up and who owned them, but it was nice watching your color slowly branch out and take over the world. (for some reason i think this feature got taken out of later releases in the franchise.)
push prices? The GBA SP is now down to $79.99. The gamecube holiday pack, which includes a game (mario kart, IIRC) is going for $99.99. Prices are outstanding at the moment.
if you like nintendo, that is...
unfortunately the blurb links to a homepage, which links to another page, which links to a forum posting, which finally links to a pictorial. go here for the final design, and begin the pictorial here.
that's some serious effort and artistic skill involved in this. the only problem with extreme case modding is that your project is obsolete by the time you finish it. (that and i wouldn't ever want to use the keyboard/mouse, those must feel awful)
Why isn't protection for open source software and limitation of intelectual property law a political issue?
Once we've finished with the war, fixed the medical system, social security, homeland security, the environment, etc., then maybe we can talk about open source software. Open source software issues are only on the minds of an incredibly tiny portion of the US population, so why should a politician who has limited time talk about it? Health care and social security affect everyone, so you're going to focus about those issues.
besides, I highly doubt Bush/Kerry/just about all politicians have much insight into open source software, or even software in general...
at least in that game, someone told me i needed to get the blue pages. i can't figure out what's the point of of this site. it took me about 10 clicks before i finally found some real text that said something. and that music. i half expected mario to pipe up with "welcome to zombo com... you can touch anything at zombo com"
I don't think it's designed such that it can measure consecutive numbers, rather the optimal ruler for a given number of marks simply has the most unique number of measurements possible. at least that's what i gather looking at the ogr 24...
except in this case, the punishment is more for the fraud they committed, rather than just the presence of unsolicited junk mail. you advertise a product for $X and hundreds of people buy your product and it doesn't do Y as you promised, that's fraud. And that's probably why the punishments are as harsh as they are.
so a portable with batteries that will last 2 hours. that's less than just about any air travel time. no thank you. the GBA, with its 10 hour battery life, has spoiled me.
the people that would do starcraft 2 are not the people working on WoW. They've got 2 main teams at Blizzard Irvine. one the RTS, the other the MMORPG. presumably the RTS people are working on something. probably'll be a year or so before they announce anything.
no idea what Blizz North is doing, since they lost a huge number of employees a couple years back...
Doom 3 may have gotten the early spotlight, but the real question, is "1 year from now, which game will still be played, and still selling for near full retail price?"
The fact that at any given time the total number of people playing HL and it's various mods often exceeds the total number of people playing all other FPS games online is amazing. What's absolutely insane is that it's a game that's 5 years old. And it's still taking up retail shelf space and selling for near full value (granted that's a boxed version including various mods, expansions).
HL2 is shipping with an updated version of the single most popular multiplayer FPS. (while Doom3's is multiplayer is lacking) I'd be surprised if even with it's late start HL2 doesn't sell more total copies than Doom3 by Christmas.
I hope WoW will offer a competitive service.
I imagine they will have something similar, at least in terms of the premium content EQ2 is offering. For War3, Blizz implemented a fairly slick ranking system with web-based searches for an insane amount of detail (which race does player use most often, which hero, how many times has a player played an arranged team game on a certain map and how long did it take them to win, etc.) They've already built an excellent tool for the task and modifying it for WoW shouldn't be much of a problem. The real question is whether Blizzard trumps SOE by releasing it for free...
so the DS presales are outselling the redesigned PS2 presales. perhaps that's because everyone already owns the PS2 and would prefer to pre-order something totally new over something that's just an update? (at least among first adopters.) here's the article that has the statistics. (can't seem to find the original gamespot story that is referred to)
I love the fact that the GBA, which already has an update to it, is selling at about 3 times the rate of the XBOX. I wonder where the IQue would fit on this list...
I think a just as interesting, if not more interesting story is the fact that a Gamecube + Mario Kart bundle will be coming out this holiday season for only $99.99. That's the same price just the console is selling for now.
I absolutely agree that the Economist letter isn't the be all and end all of the discussion (I did notice it was informal and had a fairly low response rate). But the idea that Bush has 360 economists on his side is laughable. No where in the letter does it say the 360 endorse Bush's plan. Chances are many would be against it as well. (or you could easily turn up just as many different economists who are against it)
My point was that no matter what one side says, within 30 seconds one can find a somewhat credible opposing view using google.
shouldn't the link be to the actual letter; rather than an analysis by a former assistant of VP Cheney?
And who cares. A quick google search turned up a poll conducted by The Economist, where academics gave just the opposite opinion: low marks for Bush and high marks for Kerry.
Same here. My father worked at a water treatment plant in Los Angeles, and he had the fish tank in his lab maybe 20 years ago. As I recall, the idea wasn't to test for instantaneous water quality problems, but rather long term toxicity of the water. My father was generally opposed to the idea, as the fish were in really small boxes maybe 6" on a side and kept in the dark until someone opened the lid and checked on 'em.
it appears the the Urbz is console only, while Sims 2 is a pc based game (not sure if there's a console version yet). I think Urbz is aimed at teens who want to do cool things like go to a club or eat sushi, or strip down motorcycles, rather than have cocktail parties... (hence the console release)
kinda like the difference between an oldsmobile and an acura.
This is what people lament about copyright. Lucas will probably successfully destroy all the known copies of the original movie. That's like losing the original manuscripts to Shakespear.
This is an interesting analogy. There really isn't such a thing as an original manuscript (we only have 3 original pages that Shakespeare wrote, apparently). At best we have various transcriptions from actors or Shakespeare or editors who put things together posthumously. So there is no such thing as an original Shakespeare. Its all just our best guess based on various different versions available. This isn't all too different from the various different versions of Star Wars we seem to be subjected to...
But in 1977, there was no movie ratings, but now we do have them.
ummm... the ratings system was introduced in November 1, 1968. That's 9 years before Star Wars came out. At the time of Star Wars, however, there was no PG-13. Perhaps that is what you are thinking of.
I don't see that these quotes strongly support the idea that its about money and ego. While, yes the money quote does list piracy as a readson to release sooner; to combat that all Lucas would have to do is a quick transfer to DVD and put it out. Rather than do that, he went back and did a lot of work cleaning up the quality (color, scratches, noise, etc.) of the film as well as adding/adjusting various special effects. That wasn't free, and likely was done because he wanted to best quality movie available.
As for ego, well, sure, it's his movie so he should have his way. If he couldn't so the effects he wanted in the 70s and 80s and can do them now and insert them, how is that just ego, and not an artist finally fulfilling his vision?
Yes, he may be greedy and very ego driven, but the amount of work that he's put into these movies over the years (even if many fans don't agree with it) indicates his degree of passion.