Purely anecdotal, but I had heard people say that Fox's rights to a TV series expired after a few years, so the plan was to keep doing movies until the TV rights expired, then Universal would help do more TV. This, of course, assumes that the movie does well enough, and they wanted the franchise to return to the small screen.
So, does anyone with facts (hopefully in the form of some kind of link) care to chime in?:)
The thing to consider is that the HR departments at most companies act as the first level of filtering of resumes. So, they'll usually scan a resume for certain keywords. It's entirely possible that even though someone is a perfectly qualified candidate, they might not be able to pass this first level of filtering. It's not entirely logical, but that's unfortunately how most of the world works.
So, you might argue just put the MS products on your resume, even if you don't really "know" them. Well, then your resume is technically inaccurate, and this could get you into trouble (either any interviews will question your honesty, or you could be dismissed from your new job when it's discovered that you didn't know of a particular quirk in Excel '97).
Just giving a counterpoint. In general, I think it's much better for people to be flexible and quick learners, rather than mindless automatons.:)
Compared with his alternative in the 2000 election, I'd hardly consider this to be an issue.
Thanks for fully demonstrating my last point!:) Just because GWB has poor communication skills, we should never be critical of anyone else, as long as they are better than GWB! At least that's how things work when you have a view that certain people are always right, and other people are always wrong (I'm overgeneralizing, but I figure since it's OK for you, I'll allow myself this guilty pleasure).
During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.
Not that it matters, but here are my problems with the statement.
He doesn't flat out say that he invented the internet, but the wording of his statement is at best awkward and at worst misleading. Consider this, he's a politician, someone who is supposed to have a firmer grasp of the language and better communication skills than the typical person, especially geeks (never mind all of the classic political quotes).
The particular part of the above statement that causes problems is, "I took the initiative in creating the Internet." With my understanding of grammar, that statement says that he took the initiative and ultimately created the internet [insert flame asserting the my understanding of grammar is piss-poor]. I suppose another interpretation could be that he was the initiator in the process that created the internet, but my initial interpretation of the statement is what I listed first (also, I'm not sure if I would really believe that he was the true initiator, but perhaps more of someone who helped it along the way). Anyway, he does try to clarify what he meant, but, in some eyes, the damage has already been done. I would have much preferred if he simply never said the statement that draws so much attention and had focused on the latter part of the above. Why couldn't he have stressed how he was a part of a group of people that all helped bring about what we currently consider the internet?
In my eyes, this is similar to if my boss went around telling people how he made some piece of functionality on company site. It wasn't a single person, but a group working together.
One criticism I've heard of Gore is he seems like a very intelligent person, but perhaps to the point of being too smart. To clarify, some people have the perception that he has issues with delegation. Whether this is true or not, I'm not sure, but that's the perception for some folks. So, you get this vision of a micro-manager who wants to have his hands in everything. Don't get me wrong, while there's a time for delegation, you also want someone intelligent who knows what should be delgated and what should not, one of the criticisms (among many) of the current President.
Anyway, this quote, to me, seems to ring with the idea that he isn't much of a delegator, and is constantly focusing on himself. Again, this might or might not be true, but that's at least the perception.
The only other thing I'd say about this issue, that's it a classic example of the sad nature of politics. A lot of folks (not all), simply view the above statement based on their political affiliations. Everyone is either "HE SAYS HE'S THE INTERNET'S DADDY!!! LIAR!!!" or "HIS ENGLISH IS GOODER THAN YURZ!!! HIS GRAMMER IS TEH GOODEST!!" or "don't hear what he said, hear what he meant!"
The stories are from FilmForce. They are IGN's movie site. So, of course, they'll do this story around the time of the release of the movie, as opposed to when the author originally passed away. Not every site is like Slashdot, where anything and everything gets posted, no matter how irrelevant.:)
Please note that I am Korean. You'll understand why I am saying this when you read the rest of my post.
Actually, the character of "Harry Kim" was supposed to be Korean (at least going by the character's last name). But he was played by a Chinese person (Well, I'll admit I'm guessing based on the actor's last name - "Wang" - [insert joke here]).
Anyway, I just wanted to point out that lots of Asian people get really annoyed when they use a person of one ethnicity to play a person of another ethnicity. While you could make the argument that these are just actors and that only a racist would think that way, it does make a difference. For instance, some people can tell someone else's ethnicity based purely on physical appearance (that person is Korean, Vietnamese, etc.) So, for some Asians, it almost seems like the casting agents say to themselves, "well, this person has slanty eyes, so he can play the part!"
Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive on this issue, but I know there are quite a few people who feel similarly to me, and I wonder how people from other ethnic groups feel about some of these casting practices?
Plus 5-6 good content mods. Something you will not achieve on console for a long time (if ever).
Actually, there have been a few games on Xbox that have already done content upgrades. I know that one of the DOA games allowed you to add extra costumes via a demo disc (costumes were copied to the HD). Also from Tecmo, there has been at least 1 content update for Ninja Gaiden. I believe they added a new weapon, changed some moves, and perhaps added some additional difficulty? Anyway, with consoles getting online + HD/memory issues being handled in a more PC-like fashion, the differences between the two platforms will get smaller and smaller.
One immutable obstacle: the guild-like nature of the U.S. legal profession. Government regulations mandate that only lawyers who are licensed in the U.S. can give legal advice on American law. That effectively means India-trained lawyers who are not registered to practice anywhere in the U.S. are severely restricted in the types of legal work they can perform.
There are, of course, ways to get around the limits. General Electric, for instance, has U.S.-licensed lawyers review the legal work its India-based arm produces, an added measure that experts say could be enough to comply with the law.
So, in some ways, it seems similar to what the tech field is going through. A lot of the grunt work gets sent overseas, and then there might be someone here who is responsible for pulling it all together. But obviously with retraining, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, these people can once again become contributing members of our society!
On the other hand, lawyers are the grease of the economy -- nothing much happens without them. When things go well, you need lawyers. And, when things go poorly, you need lawyers. Not too many legal jobs being outsourced to Bangalore.
I was going to mod you up until I got to the last line of your comment. Legal work is actually starting to get outsourced in this country (the US, since this is a US site, blah, blah...):
A number of U.S. companies, including members of the Fortune 500 and some of the country's largest law firms, are now embracing the idea of outsourcing routine legal work to India, South Korea, Australia and other locales with far lower labor costs.
The article mentions that lawyers have more protections for them than the average tech worker (unions, anyone?), but there is still some outsourcing happening in this area. Whether this picks up steam or not, we'll have to wait and see...
Sorry, you might have missed my point because I touched on military action. My intended point was that I'm not so convinced this supposed cultural spread throughout the world is really happening as you are envisioning. Yes, the end of the Cold War was primarily cultural (although some like to point out the failure of the USSR in Afghanistan - there I go, bringing up military action again). But anyway, I want to simply point out that Eastern Europe and the Middle East are very culturally different. Some of the negative sentiment that the US has in the Middle East is exactly because of this cultural encroachment. The simple fact is that the entire world doesn't want to adopt US culture. Some people absolutely hate it.
The main reason I brought up some of those other incidents was to show that perhaps the spread of culture wasn't as successful as you were stating. I admit, then, that I got a little side-tracked by bringing up the military angle. While you point out there has been steady progress, I feel that 9/11 shows that there isn't as much progress as you are saying. Granted, the attacks were not carried out by a large number of people, but there seems to be a considerable number of people that generally supported them, or at the very least understood why they did what they did. The images of those people cheering in the streets, holding up their hands with the "V" sign will be burned into my memory for the rest of my life. Another possibility is that there is success in some regions, but not in others. I think this is probably one area where we will just continue to disagree (which is fine, I think we're both entitled to our opinions on something that seems to me hard to prove conclusively).
And ultimately, if some of these countries/regions do become "modernized," there's still no guarantee that this modernization translates to good will towards the US. Hopefully, it would reduce things like acts of terrorism, but we've seen in countries who are supposedly moderns acts meant to kill large amounts of innocent people (Oklahoma City in the US, subway gassing in Japan, there are probably more).
The only one I dont get is "pwned", that just looks stupid.
Assuming when you say "don't get" you mean you don't understand... This is just my opinion of "pwned." But my guess is that it arose primarily from online gaming. Lots of people like saying that someone was "owned," but there are also tons of people who can't type, therefore "pwned" arose from this. It's not too different from "the" becoming "teh."
If you meant you just don't see the humor in it, then different strokes for different folks.:)
We were so well on the way to westernizing the world.
We were so well along the way, that people decided to hijack planes, fly them into buildings, and when the buildings collapsed, killing thousands of people, people across the world were actually seen cheering on the streets. Yup, we were just inches away...
And keep in mind, before September 11th, there was a previous attempt to topple the WTC. I believe the bombing (which I believe was under the Clinton administration) was supposed to cause one building to collapse into the other.
Some people like to point out that the relative inaction by the US government after some of the terrorist attacks prior to September 11th (US Embassy attacks, the USS Cole), emboldened the terrorist groups and allowed them to make bigger plans. I think that interpretation is open to debate, but that is one train of thought for some of the military action taken. And ignoring Iraq for the moment (which is definitely hard to do), do you feel the military action in Afghanistan was uncalled for or justified? My general impression is that most people supported action against Afghanistan, but when Iraq was brought into the picture is when the general solidarity fell apart.
All I want to point out is that while there is some level of modernization in all parts of the world, there are still plenty of people that don't like the US. Whether this hatred is rational or not probably varies from case to case, but, deserved or not, a lot of people like to make the US out to be the great devil of the world. And another thing to consider is that simply because a society is "modern" doesn't necessarily mean they'd like us. Many examples of this.:)
Just wait. It has yet to get really bad.
I agree with you. In a lot of ways, I'm very surprised that there have been no incidents in the US. Whether it's that other attempts have been foiled by the government, or there are grander plans being made, only a few know...
I think you're really missing the actual argument made. The argument that it's not theft does not mean it's not bad.
You know, I think I'm being guilty of oversimplification, too. Perhaps I'm being overly critical of people, but the majority of the time when I see people post about "it's not stealing," right or wrong, I get the impression from them that they want to argue "it's not stealing, no one is really hurt, so it's not wrong." While I still believe there's a sizeable segment of people with this mentality (no real proof, just more of a gut feeling), I'll keep in mind that there are folks that are a bit more realistic of the situation. Thanks for pointing that out.:)
1- People who will never buy the movie or go see it. These people can download all they want (or not) they will simply not pay the money for it.
[snip]
MPAA has nothing to worry about category 1, since they shouldn't expect any profit from them anyway. I am in that category. Same for software. Sure, I use Photoshop, but I could never afford to pay for it, even if I had the money I wouldn't buy it.
Actually, the MPAA does have something to worry about with group 1. Group 1 can influence other groups, and people can slowly shift into group 1 (as you brought up as a possibility), no longer paying for anything. As p2p has risen, more and more people have gone the route of no longer buying anything, just because it's an option to them, now. Granted, there are definitely people who buy more stuff since p2p, but you cannot deny that there are those who just consume and consume and consume (all without paying).
You're correct in that the MPAA and RIAA like to blame all of their problems on piracy, but you can't deny that it is an issue for them. And I think it's unrealistic for anyone to try to figure out how many people are in the respective groups. I'd guess that most people's judgment is based on their own personal experiences and their circles of friends.
Anyway, one final thing. Everyone likes to argue that downloading stuff from p2p isn't theft, because the original still exists. Lots of folks then rationalize that since it's not theft (by their definition), it's not bad. But what about all of these software licenses that people on Slashdot are so high and mighty about? If someone grabbed some open source code, didn't bother to follow the license instructions, told the original writers to fuck off, and argued that they (the original writers) were no worse off, Slashdotters would be screaming bloody murder. And this looks like a similar situation to me. I just wish that the people who argued it wasn't theft would admit that there is still some morality issue tied into what they are doing. And, yes, I have more respect for someone that freely admits they are doing something that some people would deem morally questionable, but they'll do it anyway. At least you are not in denial.
North Korea doesn't, for instance, operate a huge network of sweatshops all around the world to supply its uncaring citizens with cheap clothing. It doesn't sell its citizens massively fattening foods and mindless TV that attempts to turn the whole country into a giant farm of happy, mindless, fat cash cows for a few select billionaires to milk dry. The US (specifically, its businesses, with the tacit approval-- or at least complete lack of viable disapproval-- of its government) does those things, however.
North Korea however does have prison/concentration camps to deal with people deemed "unloyal" to the state. On 60 Minutes, there were reports of people being fed poisoned cabbage in captivity. These people were then studied as they died from the poison. There are many stories of people trying to escape to other countries, notably China. There are so many stories about the awful conditions that people live under, that it's almost impossible to imagine in this day and age.
So many people on Slashdot like to talk about how the US has become the government depicted in 1984, but you're just deluding yourselves. North Korea is a living, breathing 1984. They have government propaganda playing at the start and end of every day. They've almost deified their leader. People are oppressed, starving to death, and sent away to prison camps.
It always bothers me when people make extreme remarks. There are folks in the US who like to think that they are so enlightened, and they see how the US is becoming the worst place on Earth. That's far from the truth, and I feel that when people speak in these extreme terms, they are just making their own arguments weaker.
On a final note, the last living relative of Anne Frank was interviewed on 60 minutes. He allows governments the right to distribute her diary, based on a pretty minimal fee. He was approached by the North Korean government, and agreed to allow them to use the book. Now, you'd think, "hey, great. This government that's always accused to being isolationist is allowing it's people to learn more about history outside of it's country." Well, it turns out that the government used the book as another propaganda tool. They wanted to prepare North Korean children for what would happen to them if the Evil American Empire came to invade their country. Oh, wait, but that makes sense, though, since as everyone knows, George W. Bush is the second coming of Hitler!
A friend of mine in high school liked to rag on early seasons of TNG. He especially like making fun of Counselor Troi's vague dialogue, e.g., "I sense... fear!"
I wonder what Marina Sirtis' webserver was feeling after this article was posted? Anyway, I feel a bit icky having Slashdotted her server with, well, Slashdotters. The only thing ickier would be if it had been Natalie Portman's site.;)
But now I can't think why I honestly care about this. I don't like sports games at all. I don't play physical sports outside, why would I want to be subjected to them on the computer as well?
I kind of find it amusing that you point out that since you don't engage in an activity in real life, you wouldn't enjoy it on a computer. But prior to that, you talk about Grand Theft Auto! We can assume some combination of the following:
It's only a matter of time before you are featured in a Slashdot article where you blame GTA for your criminal activity.
You overlooked something.
I'm an ass.
Let's assume number 2 (and ignore number 3;). Some people like video games as an escape tool/disconnect from reality. This can range from experiences that are fairly realistic to far fantasy/sci-fi. For example, I really like basketball games, but it's been years since I played basketball in real life. I haven't played because I stink, none of my close friends really like it, and I stink. Pop in a video game, and all of the sudden, I can dunk the ball from the free throw line. In another game, I can be a space marine fighting the minions of hell. I'm sure there are plenty of games out there that involve activity we wouldn't be too interested in real life, but somehow work in a video game (dancing, playing bongos, doing favors for whiny strangers, etc).
I agree to an extent about this being an opportunity for a developer with a unique vision on various sports to step in, but will this actually happen? We've got to consider certain things. Some sports nuts are just that - sports nuts. They play these games to run their teams, and they are huge stat trackers. Besides the yearly roster updates, some of these sports games have periodic in-season updates on players, stats, and rosters. So, there is a demand for real info out there. And I'd wager it's pretty big.
The other issue is that, IMO, a lot of these "unique-takes-on-sports" games will probably be niche titles, unless something phenomenal comes along. Niche to me says that it won't make a lot of money. So, that'll make companies less likely to experiment. And, as much as we might want to deny it, companies exist to make money. These yearly sports titles are nice for companies because there's a steady demand for them, and they are pretty dependable revenue generators. Now, these dependable revenue streams are being snatched up by the biggest companies. I think these developments are pretty sad, and overall bad for the industry.
I'm paying the same price as everyone else to play and I really don't understand the hostility a lot of folks have. Its a freaking game! I've already got my worth out of it for this month. If I didn't play at all the rest of the month I wouldn't care. I've been able to pretty much play whenever I wanted to.
I think you're going on the assumption that everyone is exactly like you. You say that you've already gotten your worth out of the game this month, but that concept is drastically different for each person. I'm not sure how WoW handles its subscription fees, but going on the assumption that it's a monthly fee, everyone does indeed pay the same price, but they probably have vastly different expectations. Some probably plan on playing only a few hours a month, while others want to play a few hours a day. For the hardcore players, these downtime issues are affecting their enjoyment of the game (assuming they are on the affected servers).
Obviously, you feel that this isn't a big deal, but the "pay-to-play" issue is one of the biggest roadblocks for MMORPGS. Most people just do not like the idea of paying recurring fees to play something. If you suddenly tell them that there are stability issues, and they might not be able to play whenever they want, it makes the game (and genre) even less attractive, as they are getting less value (perceived or real) for their money.
I want more than FPS 17: This Sequal Requires DirectX 12. I want more than MMORPG: The Quest To Pay Us Money. And I want more than Super Mario Branded Piss Poor Game Remake and Zelda: We Are Whoring This Franchise Out For the Money.
While I agree with you that the FPS and MMORPG genres are a bit lacking in terms of revolutionary gameplay, there are plenty of other games which have changed drastically.
To just use the two games you pointed out, Mario has gone from a side-scrolling action game, to be one of the first truly 3D games. Super Mario 64 inspired a generation of console games. Eventually we got Mario Sunshine. I personally haven't played it, and I've heard mixed reviews about the water hose thingy's affect on gameplay (you can tell I haven't played it, based on my scientific explanation of the device in the game), but it is adding some variety to the traditional gameplay.
The Zelda franchise has gone through similar changes. Overhead view -> Side scrolling -> Full 3D with target-locking -> Cell-shaded water adventure, with more complicated environments and Gameboy Advance integration.
You can argue that these are piss-poor remakes and whoring of the franchise, but others look at these games as breaths of fresh air and solid games made with very likeable characters.
If you look at the links I provided, most of the players feature WinAMP-compatible(TM) skinning.
I'll admit that the feature I have loved the most over the years with Winamp has been the user-created skins. It's nice to see support for Winamp skins from some of these other players. Just out of curiosity, do you have any opinions on any of these other players? I know ultimately I should test each one out if I decide to give up on Winamp, but it never hurts to go in with some info beforehand. Thanks!:)
So, basically.. your telling me that I should drop out of the Computer Science program at my school and pick up a degree in MIS, so I can make crappy webpages the rest of my life?
I have an advanced degree in computer science. Trust me, there's nothing stopping you from getting your degree and having a future filled with making crappy webpages.:)
The biggest tipoff is when it starts off with "Dear Paypal user" or something like that. Most companies go to the trouble of putting your actual name in there, so if whoever is sending you the email doesn't even know your name...well, you figure it out. This tactic even worked in the example quiz! It's a great first pass (the second pass is of course to mouseover any URLs (or check the source) and see exactly where they're sending you.
I've recently been getting some spam that has my name and some address info in the subject line. It's obviously spam, and someone trying to rip me off. I've also been getting a lot more 419 spam, and that usually has my name (although they always refer to me by my last name *sigh*). But I just wanted to point out that we all probably have a lot of info about us out there ready to be used against us. As you say, it's a good "first pass" test, but nothing more than that.
I hate to say this, but "open source," will become the hot new buzzword (if it already hasn't). Think back to the glorious dot-com days, where we learned such great words as "synergies," "i-this," "e-that." Someone I know (with no coding experience) had a coding problem which was most likely JavaScript-related. The first thing out of his mouth, "Can open source help us fix this?" Kind of frustrating.
Anyway, as bad as a tech sector is, there are still plenty of people who want a piece of the action. A lot of people look at IT knowledge as a way to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Not from the crowd of other IT guys, but from the crowds of people in management, government, law, etc.
Anyway, it's great to see open source getting more attention, but prepare for some more growing pains.:)
But based on the amount of time I could actually dedicate to another MMORPG? I might be persuaded to pay $5 a month. I'd probably log in four or five times a week, kill a few monsters, make a friend or two, then get stuck behind a term paper and come back to find all my friends are leveled past me and I'm no longer interested in what's going on.
City of Heroes has a nice solution for this - Sidekicking. A player level 11 or higher can sidekick another player, as long as that player is at least 3 levels lower. Once sidekicked, the sidekick fights as if he/she were one level lower than the mentor. You miss out on all of the powers you would have gained over the course of your leveling, but this allows you to play with some of your more dedicated friends and not simply be a leech/tag-along. The only restriction is that you have to be within a reasonable distance of your mentor (I believe 100-200 yards?).
Of course, this doesn't help you if superheroes aren't your thing.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Purely anecdotal, but I had heard people say that Fox's rights to a TV series expired after a few years, so the plan was to keep doing movies until the TV rights expired, then Universal would help do more TV. This, of course, assumes that the movie does well enough, and they wanted the franchise to return to the small screen.
So, does anyone with facts (hopefully in the form of some kind of link) care to chime in? :)
The thing to consider is that the HR departments at most companies act as the first level of filtering of resumes. So, they'll usually scan a resume for certain keywords. It's entirely possible that even though someone is a perfectly qualified candidate, they might not be able to pass this first level of filtering. It's not entirely logical, but that's unfortunately how most of the world works.
So, you might argue just put the MS products on your resume, even if you don't really "know" them. Well, then your resume is technically inaccurate, and this could get you into trouble (either any interviews will question your honesty, or you could be dismissed from your new job when it's discovered that you didn't know of a particular quirk in Excel '97).
Just giving a counterpoint. In general, I think it's much better for people to be flexible and quick learners, rather than mindless automatons. :)
Thanks for fully demonstrating my last point! :) Just because GWB has poor communication skills, we should never be critical of anyone else, as long as they are better than GWB! At least that's how things work when you have a view that certain people are always right, and other people are always wrong (I'm overgeneralizing, but I figure since it's OK for you, I'll allow myself this guilty pleasure).
Not that it matters, but here are my problems with the statement.
He doesn't flat out say that he invented the internet, but the wording of his statement is at best awkward and at worst misleading. Consider this, he's a politician, someone who is supposed to have a firmer grasp of the language and better communication skills than the typical person, especially geeks (never mind all of the classic political quotes).
The particular part of the above statement that causes problems is, "I took the initiative in creating the Internet." With my understanding of grammar, that statement says that he took the initiative and ultimately created the internet [insert flame asserting the my understanding of grammar is piss-poor]. I suppose another interpretation could be that he was the initiator in the process that created the internet, but my initial interpretation of the statement is what I listed first (also, I'm not sure if I would really believe that he was the true initiator, but perhaps more of someone who helped it along the way). Anyway, he does try to clarify what he meant, but, in some eyes, the damage has already been done. I would have much preferred if he simply never said the statement that draws so much attention and had focused on the latter part of the above. Why couldn't he have stressed how he was a part of a group of people that all helped bring about what we currently consider the internet?
In my eyes, this is similar to if my boss went around telling people how he made some piece of functionality on company site. It wasn't a single person, but a group working together.
One criticism I've heard of Gore is he seems like a very intelligent person, but perhaps to the point of being too smart. To clarify, some people have the perception that he has issues with delegation. Whether this is true or not, I'm not sure, but that's the perception for some folks. So, you get this vision of a micro-manager who wants to have his hands in everything. Don't get me wrong, while there's a time for delegation, you also want someone intelligent who knows what should be delgated and what should not, one of the criticisms (among many) of the current President.
Anyway, this quote, to me, seems to ring with the idea that he isn't much of a delegator, and is constantly focusing on himself. Again, this might or might not be true, but that's at least the perception.
The only other thing I'd say about this issue, that's it a classic example of the sad nature of politics. A lot of folks (not all), simply view the above statement based on their political affiliations. Everyone is either "HE SAYS HE'S THE INTERNET'S DADDY!!! LIAR!!!" or "HIS ENGLISH IS GOODER THAN YURZ!!! HIS GRAMMER IS TEH GOODEST!!" or "don't hear what he said, hear what he meant!"
The stories are from FilmForce. They are IGN's movie site. So, of course, they'll do this story around the time of the release of the movie, as opposed to when the author originally passed away. Not every site is like Slashdot, where anything and everything gets posted, no matter how irrelevant. :)
Please note that I am Korean. You'll understand why I am saying this when you read the rest of my post.
Actually, the character of "Harry Kim" was supposed to be Korean (at least going by the character's last name). But he was played by a Chinese person (Well, I'll admit I'm guessing based on the actor's last name - "Wang" - [insert joke here]).
Anyway, I just wanted to point out that lots of Asian people get really annoyed when they use a person of one ethnicity to play a person of another ethnicity. While you could make the argument that these are just actors and that only a racist would think that way, it does make a difference. For instance, some people can tell someone else's ethnicity based purely on physical appearance (that person is Korean, Vietnamese, etc.) So, for some Asians, it almost seems like the casting agents say to themselves, "well, this person has slanty eyes, so he can play the part!"
Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive on this issue, but I know there are quite a few people who feel similarly to me, and I wonder how people from other ethnic groups feel about some of these casting practices?
Actually, there have been a few games on Xbox that have already done content upgrades. I know that one of the DOA games allowed you to add extra costumes via a demo disc (costumes were copied to the HD). Also from Tecmo, there has been at least 1 content update for Ninja Gaiden. I believe they added a new weapon, changed some moves, and perhaps added some additional difficulty? Anyway, with consoles getting online + HD/memory issues being handled in a more PC-like fashion, the differences between the two platforms will get smaller and smaller.
So, in some ways, it seems similar to what the tech field is going through. A lot of the grunt work gets sent overseas, and then there might be someone here who is responsible for pulling it all together. But obviously with retraining, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, these people can once again become contributing members of our society!
I was going to mod you up until I got to the last line of your comment. Legal work is actually starting to get outsourced in this country (the US, since this is a US site, blah, blah...):
http://money.cnn.com/2004/10/14/news/economy/lawye r_outsourcing/?cnn=yes
The article mentions that lawyers have more protections for them than the average tech worker (unions, anyone?), but there is still some outsourcing happening in this area. Whether this picks up steam or not, we'll have to wait and see...
Sorry, you might have missed my point because I touched on military action. My intended point was that I'm not so convinced this supposed cultural spread throughout the world is really happening as you are envisioning. Yes, the end of the Cold War was primarily cultural (although some like to point out the failure of the USSR in Afghanistan - there I go, bringing up military action again). But anyway, I want to simply point out that Eastern Europe and the Middle East are very culturally different. Some of the negative sentiment that the US has in the Middle East is exactly because of this cultural encroachment. The simple fact is that the entire world doesn't want to adopt US culture. Some people absolutely hate it.
The main reason I brought up some of those other incidents was to show that perhaps the spread of culture wasn't as successful as you were stating. I admit, then, that I got a little side-tracked by bringing up the military angle. While you point out there has been steady progress, I feel that 9/11 shows that there isn't as much progress as you are saying. Granted, the attacks were not carried out by a large number of people, but there seems to be a considerable number of people that generally supported them, or at the very least understood why they did what they did. The images of those people cheering in the streets, holding up their hands with the "V" sign will be burned into my memory for the rest of my life. Another possibility is that there is success in some regions, but not in others. I think this is probably one area where we will just continue to disagree (which is fine, I think we're both entitled to our opinions on something that seems to me hard to prove conclusively).
And ultimately, if some of these countries/regions do become "modernized," there's still no guarantee that this modernization translates to good will towards the US. Hopefully, it would reduce things like acts of terrorism, but we've seen in countries who are supposedly moderns acts meant to kill large amounts of innocent people (Oklahoma City in the US, subway gassing in Japan, there are probably more).
Assuming when you say "don't get" you mean you don't understand... This is just my opinion of "pwned." But my guess is that it arose primarily from online gaming. Lots of people like saying that someone was "owned," but there are also tons of people who can't type, therefore "pwned" arose from this. It's not too different from "the" becoming "teh."
If you meant you just don't see the humor in it, then different strokes for different folks. :)
We were so well along the way, that people decided to hijack planes, fly them into buildings, and when the buildings collapsed, killing thousands of people, people across the world were actually seen cheering on the streets. Yup, we were just inches away...
And keep in mind, before September 11th, there was a previous attempt to topple the WTC. I believe the bombing (which I believe was under the Clinton administration) was supposed to cause one building to collapse into the other.
Some people like to point out that the relative inaction by the US government after some of the terrorist attacks prior to September 11th (US Embassy attacks, the USS Cole), emboldened the terrorist groups and allowed them to make bigger plans. I think that interpretation is open to debate, but that is one train of thought for some of the military action taken. And ignoring Iraq for the moment (which is definitely hard to do), do you feel the military action in Afghanistan was uncalled for or justified? My general impression is that most people supported action against Afghanistan, but when Iraq was brought into the picture is when the general solidarity fell apart.
All I want to point out is that while there is some level of modernization in all parts of the world, there are still plenty of people that don't like the US. Whether this hatred is rational or not probably varies from case to case, but, deserved or not, a lot of people like to make the US out to be the great devil of the world. And another thing to consider is that simply because a society is "modern" doesn't necessarily mean they'd like us. Many examples of this. :)
I agree with you. In a lot of ways, I'm very surprised that there have been no incidents in the US. Whether it's that other attempts have been foiled by the government, or there are grander plans being made, only a few know...
You know, I think I'm being guilty of oversimplification, too. Perhaps I'm being overly critical of people, but the majority of the time when I see people post about "it's not stealing," right or wrong, I get the impression from them that they want to argue "it's not stealing, no one is really hurt, so it's not wrong." While I still believe there's a sizeable segment of people with this mentality (no real proof, just more of a gut feeling), I'll keep in mind that there are folks that are a bit more realistic of the situation. Thanks for pointing that out. :)
Actually, the MPAA does have something to worry about with group 1. Group 1 can influence other groups, and people can slowly shift into group 1 (as you brought up as a possibility), no longer paying for anything. As p2p has risen, more and more people have gone the route of no longer buying anything, just because it's an option to them, now. Granted, there are definitely people who buy more stuff since p2p, but you cannot deny that there are those who just consume and consume and consume (all without paying).
You're correct in that the MPAA and RIAA like to blame all of their problems on piracy, but you can't deny that it is an issue for them. And I think it's unrealistic for anyone to try to figure out how many people are in the respective groups. I'd guess that most people's judgment is based on their own personal experiences and their circles of friends.
Anyway, one final thing. Everyone likes to argue that downloading stuff from p2p isn't theft, because the original still exists. Lots of folks then rationalize that since it's not theft (by their definition), it's not bad. But what about all of these software licenses that people on Slashdot are so high and mighty about? If someone grabbed some open source code, didn't bother to follow the license instructions, told the original writers to fuck off, and argued that they (the original writers) were no worse off, Slashdotters would be screaming bloody murder. And this looks like a similar situation to me. I just wish that the people who argued it wasn't theft would admit that there is still some morality issue tied into what they are doing. And, yes, I have more respect for someone that freely admits they are doing something that some people would deem morally questionable, but they'll do it anyway. At least you are not in denial.
North Korea however does have prison/concentration camps to deal with people deemed "unloyal" to the state. On 60 Minutes, there were reports of people being fed poisoned cabbage in captivity. These people were then studied as they died from the poison. There are many stories of people trying to escape to other countries, notably China. There are so many stories about the awful conditions that people live under, that it's almost impossible to imagine in this day and age.
So many people on Slashdot like to talk about how the US has become the government depicted in 1984, but you're just deluding yourselves. North Korea is a living, breathing 1984. They have government propaganda playing at the start and end of every day. They've almost deified their leader. People are oppressed, starving to death, and sent away to prison camps.
It always bothers me when people make extreme remarks. There are folks in the US who like to think that they are so enlightened, and they see how the US is becoming the worst place on Earth. That's far from the truth, and I feel that when people speak in these extreme terms, they are just making their own arguments weaker.
On a final note, the last living relative of Anne Frank was interviewed on 60 minutes. He allows governments the right to distribute her diary, based on a pretty minimal fee. He was approached by the North Korean government, and agreed to allow them to use the book. Now, you'd think, "hey, great. This government that's always accused to being isolationist is allowing it's people to learn more about history outside of it's country." Well, it turns out that the government used the book as another propaganda tool. They wanted to prepare North Korean children for what would happen to them if the Evil American Empire came to invade their country. Oh, wait, but that makes sense, though, since as everyone knows, George W. Bush is the second coming of Hitler!
/sarcasm
I wonder what Marina Sirtis' webserver was feeling after this article was posted? Anyway, I feel a bit icky having Slashdotted her server with, well, Slashdotters. The only thing ickier would be if it had been Natalie Portman's site. ;)
I kind of find it amusing that you point out that since you don't engage in an activity in real life, you wouldn't enjoy it on a computer. But prior to that, you talk about Grand Theft Auto! We can assume some combination of the following:
Let's assume number 2 (and ignore number 3 ;). Some people like video games as an escape tool/disconnect from reality. This can range from experiences that are fairly realistic to far fantasy/sci-fi. For example, I really like basketball games, but it's been years since I played basketball in real life. I haven't played because I stink, none of my close friends really like it, and I stink. Pop in a video game, and all of the sudden, I can dunk the ball from the free throw line. In another game, I can be a space marine fighting the minions of hell. I'm sure there are plenty of games out there that involve activity we wouldn't be too interested in real life, but somehow work in a video game (dancing, playing bongos, doing favors for whiny strangers, etc).
I agree to an extent about this being an opportunity for a developer with a unique vision on various sports to step in, but will this actually happen? We've got to consider certain things. Some sports nuts are just that - sports nuts. They play these games to run their teams, and they are huge stat trackers. Besides the yearly roster updates, some of these sports games have periodic in-season updates on players, stats, and rosters. So, there is a demand for real info out there. And I'd wager it's pretty big.
The other issue is that, IMO, a lot of these "unique-takes-on-sports" games will probably be niche titles, unless something phenomenal comes along. Niche to me says that it won't make a lot of money. So, that'll make companies less likely to experiment. And, as much as we might want to deny it, companies exist to make money. These yearly sports titles are nice for companies because there's a steady demand for them, and they are pretty dependable revenue generators. Now, these dependable revenue streams are being snatched up by the biggest companies. I think these developments are pretty sad, and overall bad for the industry.
I suddenly have an image of the US South under British rule... :)
"Bloody hell, Cleetus, I think this boy is biting his thumb at me!"
I think you're going on the assumption that everyone is exactly like you. You say that you've already gotten your worth out of the game this month, but that concept is drastically different for each person. I'm not sure how WoW handles its subscription fees, but going on the assumption that it's a monthly fee, everyone does indeed pay the same price, but they probably have vastly different expectations. Some probably plan on playing only a few hours a month, while others want to play a few hours a day. For the hardcore players, these downtime issues are affecting their enjoyment of the game (assuming they are on the affected servers).
Obviously, you feel that this isn't a big deal, but the "pay-to-play" issue is one of the biggest roadblocks for MMORPGS. Most people just do not like the idea of paying recurring fees to play something. If you suddenly tell them that there are stability issues, and they might not be able to play whenever they want, it makes the game (and genre) even less attractive, as they are getting less value (perceived or real) for their money.
While I agree with you that the FPS and MMORPG genres are a bit lacking in terms of revolutionary gameplay, there are plenty of other games which have changed drastically.
To just use the two games you pointed out, Mario has gone from a side-scrolling action game, to be one of the first truly 3D games. Super Mario 64 inspired a generation of console games. Eventually we got Mario Sunshine. I personally haven't played it, and I've heard mixed reviews about the water hose thingy's affect on gameplay (you can tell I haven't played it, based on my scientific explanation of the device in the game), but it is adding some variety to the traditional gameplay.
The Zelda franchise has gone through similar changes. Overhead view -> Side scrolling -> Full 3D with target-locking -> Cell-shaded water adventure, with more complicated environments and Gameboy Advance integration.
You can argue that these are piss-poor remakes and whoring of the franchise, but others look at these games as breaths of fresh air and solid games made with very likeable characters.
Anyway, to each his own. :)
I'll admit that the feature I have loved the most over the years with Winamp has been the user-created skins. It's nice to see support for Winamp skins from some of these other players. Just out of curiosity, do you have any opinions on any of these other players? I know ultimately I should test each one out if I decide to give up on Winamp, but it never hurts to go in with some info beforehand. Thanks! :)
I have an advanced degree in computer science. Trust me, there's nothing stopping you from getting your degree and having a future filled with making crappy webpages. :)
I've recently been getting some spam that has my name and some address info in the subject line. It's obviously spam, and someone trying to rip me off. I've also been getting a lot more 419 spam, and that usually has my name (although they always refer to me by my last name *sigh*). But I just wanted to point out that we all probably have a lot of info about us out there ready to be used against us. As you say, it's a good "first pass" test, but nothing more than that.
I hate to say this, but "open source," will become the hot new buzzword (if it already hasn't). Think back to the glorious dot-com days, where we learned such great words as "synergies," "i-this," "e-that." Someone I know (with no coding experience) had a coding problem which was most likely JavaScript-related. The first thing out of his mouth, "Can open source help us fix this?" Kind of frustrating.
Anyway, as bad as a tech sector is, there are still plenty of people who want a piece of the action. A lot of people look at IT knowledge as a way to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Not from the crowd of other IT guys, but from the crowds of people in management, government, law, etc.
Anyway, it's great to see open source getting more attention, but prepare for some more growing pains. :)
And look, there's an option for "open-source" in the Web Bullshit Generator!
City of Heroes has a nice solution for this - Sidekicking. A player level 11 or higher can sidekick another player, as long as that player is at least 3 levels lower. Once sidekicked, the sidekick fights as if he/she were one level lower than the mentor. You miss out on all of the powers you would have gained over the course of your leveling, but this allows you to play with some of your more dedicated friends and not simply be a leech/tag-along. The only restriction is that you have to be within a reasonable distance of your mentor (I believe 100-200 yards?).
Of course, this doesn't help you if superheroes aren't your thing. :)