It's pretty well-documented that Disney told Moore at least a year ago that they wouldn't distribute it. And no one at Disney tried to suppress it. Moore knew what the deal was, he had plenty of time to make other arrangements, and he was free to do so. As to their reasons for not distributing it, I'm prepared to admit anything could be possible, but still... that's their decision to make as long as there's nothing illegal going on.
On his website, Moore says that what happened was: Disney says a year ago that they wouldn't distribute it. But Miramax says to ignore it. Disney continues to fund the movie for $6 million. It wasn't until the week he announced it that Disney (Eisner) said that they really really weren't going to distribute it. Since finding a new distributor in that year would have meant finding new funding, Moore kept on like before.
Disney did the same thing with the Insane Clown Posse - funding their album to the tune of a million dollars only to pull it from stores on release day due to pressure on Eisner from Southern Baptist groups. They then held the album hostage until ICP could find a label willing to foot the bill (though they were able to argue it down to half). It could almost be sumised that Disney allowed the movie to be made so that it could hold it hostage and not see it released (though I think it's really that Eisner is out of touch with whomever signs the checks).
I never thought this movie would do good at the box office - for all of BfC's controversy it only ever saw $20M - but it's looking to top $20M this weekend alone. Perhaps this coupled with the Pixar loss will finally get Eisner out of control.
Kerry will stop this offshoring nonsense!
oh wait, his wife's companies are offshoring as much as anyone else.
Kerry's wife owns a minority share in Heinz, as a result of being the widow of a founding member of Heinz. Heinz does not "outsource" per se - they have manufacuring facilities in other countries to produce products to be sold in those countries. Since Ketchup and other products don't stay fresh indefinitely and shipping costs from one central location are prohibitive, this isn't the outsourcing at issue.
Website turns desperate and runs ads counter-intuitive to what it promotes
Guy who is opposed to ads on formerly his website asks people to boycott website until they stop running the ads which aim to hurt their own cause
What's next, boycott leading to lost revenue from unsold ads and then website closes? Does he really want the website to go out of business rather than serve offensive ads?
And what does it say that Microsoft are the only ones willing to run Linux related ads? By boycotting Linux Today and ensuring it closes (which it probably will since thanks to less readers no one else will want to advertise there) won't people just be hurting the cause they aim to achieve?
And doesn't this guy realize that by this kind of outburst he's just promoting the "Linux Terrorist/Zealot" image?
is afraid to go in new directions that might initially hurt the bottom line
Yes, since the XBox was and still is such a sure bet that it was only something they ventured into once they were certian it would make money. And no way is it costing them billions, it's producing revenue. And those $40 copies of Microsoft Money with $30 rebates are pure cash. And remember their Photoshop-killer, Photowhatever some years back.
Microsoft innovates all the time. Microsoft has the cash to do it. True, unlike Sony, Microsoft stays in the techie field (I don't see them owning record labels or making fax machines anytime soon) but so what?
here's an idea - how about MS makes an.iso image of this CD and updates it as soon as possible. Then they make this.iso available via BitTorrent (hey, they've been contributing to SourceForge - it could happen!) and seed it with several servers. Then they'd get more support right? I'd download all the updates but I always miss several.
Well it's more than that - in the Nemo trailers they didn't mention Bug's Life either. Perhaps Bug's Life is in that situation where it's both not their most recognized brand and it's also not their most recent bankable work. Too bad really.
Also Disney gets the rights to any sequels for these films, if Pixar refuses to make sequels for them. (Like Toy Story 3)
But it's even more fun than that - Disney owns the rights to the characters in Toy Story, but Pixar owns the rights to the new characters introduced in Toy Story 2, so none of them will be in a Pixar-less Toy Story 3.
Also, does anyone else think it's odd from the trailer that it's like Pixar wants to disown A Bug's Life?
Well, go back and see what people said about TiVo back in the day (as in the device or the generic PVR concept). IIRC, the iPod was the first to use a hard drive and people thought they were crazy - it wasn't until widespread use that the whole brilliance behind the concept became apparent.
The initial release of Quake 3 for Linux was that overpriced tin box edition
Quake 3 was released in that "limited" tin box for Windows, as well as a cardboard box. Both on Windows cost the same. People stated they wanted the tin box for Linux, so Loki came through. Either the port of Quake 3 was going to be that expensive either way, or Loki had to pay extra for the same thing. I don't think they survived long enough to do the cardboard box.
You're getting Indrema mixed up with Infinium. Indrema was the name of the company coming out with a Linux based console, also called the Indrema. Their VC pulled out and they went out of business before delivering on their console. This is a different company than Infinium, makers of the Phantom.
For what it's worth, every time I heard about Infinium for a while I thought they were referring to Indrema making a comeback, so it's an easy mistake to make.
The flaw in that idea is this - the movie for Grapes of Wrath, IIRC, actually has a happy ending and ends on an up note. The book, however, does not - it ends much worse than it starts.
Seeing the movie without reading the book is more akin to saying you read Starship Troopers when in fact you've only seen the movie.
Thing that gets me is this - who is it that's going to go buy a Pepsi for a free song? $1.29 for a bottlecap with a 33% of a 99-cent song. Doesn't add up. So the only people who would get the songs in the first place were the ones who drink Pepsi to begin with - but most of them drink it in cans. If every cap had a free song then I would see Pepsi sales shoot up - but that's not good for Pepsi to eat 99-cents of whatever they get from the $1.29 sale.
I'd say the only ones who benefit from this deal is Apple, but that credit card requirement scared away most people. So, other than more awareness, Apple didn't gain much from this.
Every game that someone can make for the GBA doing something like this is a game that Nintendo doesn't make money off of
A valid point, but this is the e-Reader we're talking about here. One strip on one side of one card is 2.2KB of information. Ten of these constitute a first generation NES game, or a very small GBA game (notice how the "games" with SNES-level graphics are incredibly simple affairs). Also, I think the e-Reader itself doesn't have much memory to begin with.
No, I see this being used for stuff like this - tiny games and possibly some "demos" (think C64 days). If Nintendo does try and persue this, I forsee something akin to the CueCat thing where the info gets out and mirrored enough that persual is pointless - especially for an abandoned niche device that didn't sell well to begin with.
How long till nintendo has this place shut down under the DMCA!
I could be wrong, but I don't see Nintendo giving a damn about this. I finally picked one of these e-Readers up a few months back, only to find out Nintendo has essentially abandoned the thing. Those 13 NES games small enough to fit on five cards are the only ones being released. Most e-Reader cards are trite gimmicks, and the one release that looks rather interesting, the Game & Watch series, has been postponed so many times it looks like it'll never be released. Couple that with the fact that Nintendo is re-releasing some of the e-Reader NES games on GBA cartridges this summer and I don't think they'll give a damn that someone reverse engineered code that anyone can see.
What I find interesting is how these things are to be printed or used. I was always on the impression that the information was too tiny to be reproduced except by high-end printers and scanners, making "piracy" a rare thing. Oh well, I guess I'll print some out on cardstock at work and see this afternoon...
Yeah, I'm suprised it's not some april fools joke.
It's sorta an April Fool's joke. The joke is that it's a "port" - this joke is supported by the notion that the game pulls some tricks like it's the GLQuake console, and the website implies that you need the PAK files from a shareware or registered Quake. You don't. It's not a port at all - it doesn't use Quake code or use any Quake resources.
What it really is is just damn clever. It would be interesting to see if this provokes a more mainstream interest in interactive fiction.
So we have an established monopoly with $50b in cash in the bank now selling their product way below cost to steal market share.
how is this NOT dumping? if Sony or Hitachi did this with TV's they would be prosecuted.
It's not dumping if you do it everywhere. If Nintendo dropped their US price and not their Japanese price, then it's dumping. So what companies do is sell it high to the Japanese and then drop the price in Japan right before releasing it elsewhere.
I think the real reason that people are so pro-Google is because here is a search engine that works and makes life better. Search engines used to be these sorta-neato things that tried to help us find things but we had to work with and accept poor results. Google changed all of that - think of how many programmers run into an issue and Google Groups save their butter. Google made the web useful.
As a result, we're protective over Google. We don't want to see them become what came of Yahoo. We hope that, since now the dot-com bubble has burst, Google won't fall into the same traps as Yahoo and the failed search engines. That being said, if someone comes along tommorow hands-down better than Google we'll go there.
To the extreme, this is what Apple zealots do. When Apple does what other companies get criticized for, the Apple zealots defend them to the bitter end. Sometimes it's that they don't want to believe that Apple could be an evil company, other times it's that they don't have a predisposed blind rage towards the company (see: Microsoft) and are more able to see that sometimes a business decision is just that - a business decision.
Well G4 is in more homes than Comcast cable is - so Comcast is at the very least letting other cable providers carry the channel.
Remember that Comcast is bound by physical proximity, so while G4/TechTV could be seen as "incentive" to do Comcast instead of Dish, in places where there is no Comcast, there's no reason not to let those cable networks take the channel.
Besides, the way a network works is to charge advertisers money. The more homes you can say you're in the more you can charge. It's not in Comcast's best interests to take it out of homes.
The one thing that keeps Nintendo alive (other than diehards like me) is that their games are exclusive to their console. In a discussion the other day I couldn't point out one must-have (non-sports) Xbox game that was exclusive to that system. Splinter Cell? It's on everything. MS put Halo on the PC themselves. MGS2 and GTA are PS2 leftovers. Now MS is making it easier to cross-develop? I mean Xbox PC has always been sensical, but does it make sense logistically for MS?
At the risk of Karma or Attention Whoring, I'm going to point to my own article again.
The answer to your question in a nutshell though is that the ".NET Platform" is still alive and well (I know, I work with it every day for a living), but.NET as a blanket, obscure marketing term attached to everything is pretty much dead in the water. The things you describe (C#, VB.NET, SOAP based web services) are all part of the original platform and unimportant to anyone who's not a programmer.
The Passport idea and the "My Services" ideas are separate ones, though the plan was to make "My Services" tie into Passport at some point, but "My Services" has been shelved for some time now.
oh, I don't think MS should go out of business - hell, their technology is the reason I have a job. I was just quoting the Daily Show when MS was hit with that $1M/day fine until they fixed somethingorother - the quote was "At the rate of a million dollars a day they should go out of business.... NEVER!"
id Software has nothing to worry about. Valve has nothing to worry about. Games are a much more creative process and there's always going to be room for the American development houses.
What we've got here is something different though. The Average American Consumer, the kind that shops at Wal-Mart picking through bins of $5.50 DVD's willing to put up with a movie because it's cheap and not because they actually like it, is willing to spend $10-$15 on some piece of tripe to play when they get home (like that Big Rigs game - tell me that's not aimed at redneck consumers). These are the people who gave us that Deer Hunter trend. These are the people who made the Dukes of Hazzard game a success. These people have a demand for cheap games and they're not as concerned about quality as serious gamers are.
That's what's being outsourced - verse/chorus/verse games. You think EA would outsource a LOTR game? Not on your life.
APEX provides the Wal-Martians with cheap DVD players (and I should know - I have three in my house). But do you see Sony going out of business with their high-end DVD players? No. So do you think outsourcing of the crap games is going to put id/Valve/Epic/Dice out of business? No way - people still upgrade their hardware to play id Games.
going to force Microsoft to spend more time on security and stability, and less time on adding new features
I think MS' focus on security is going to annoy many, which may be why they held off on it for so long. For example, last night I opened up an Access 2000 database I created like four years ago. Access 2003 asked me three times if I really wanted to open it since it may have security issues (I don't recall what the issue was). Of course I opened it anyway - I did it four years ago and I'm pretty sure I'm not malicious against myself. In fact, I know I've opened this one in Access 2003 before with no problem, so I think this is related to the latest critical patches for Jet.
The funny thing is, it really annoyed me. Not the being asked part, the being asked three times thing. But then I reminded myself that the alternative is insecurity.
So whereas Linux, et al, has focused on security, Microsoft focused on adding new features. MS is now in the dominant position (always was, really) and now will drag the consumer into security. Linux meanwhile wrestles with TCO, which is a result of Windows dominance, again due to lack of security.
Slashdot Mirror
Disney did the same thing with the Insane Clown Posse - funding their album to the tune of a million dollars only to pull it from stores on release day due to pressure on Eisner from Southern Baptist groups. They then held the album hostage until ICP could find a label willing to foot the bill (though they were able to argue it down to half). It could almost be sumised that Disney allowed the movie to be made so that it could hold it hostage and not see it released (though I think it's really that Eisner is out of touch with whomever signs the checks).
I never thought this movie would do good at the box office - for all of BfC's controversy it only ever saw $20M - but it's looking to top $20M this weekend alone. Perhaps this coupled with the Pixar loss will finally get Eisner out of control.
More info here
- Guy creates website
- Guy raises website
- Guy sells website/leaves/whatever
- Website runs into trouble staying afloat
- Website turns desperate and runs ads counter-intuitive to what it promotes
- Guy who is opposed to ads on formerly his website asks people to boycott website until they stop running the ads which aim to hurt their own cause
What's next, boycott leading to lost revenue from unsold ads and then website closes? Does he really want the website to go out of business rather than serve offensive ads?And what does it say that Microsoft are the only ones willing to run Linux related ads? By boycotting Linux Today and ensuring it closes (which it probably will since thanks to less readers no one else will want to advertise there) won't people just be hurting the cause they aim to achieve?
And doesn't this guy realize that by this kind of outburst he's just promoting the "Linux Terrorist/Zealot" image?
Yes, since the XBox was and still is such a sure bet that it was only something they ventured into once they were certian it would make money. And no way is it costing them billions, it's producing revenue. And those $40 copies of Microsoft Money with $30 rebates are pure cash. And remember their Photoshop-killer, Photowhatever some years back.
Microsoft innovates all the time. Microsoft has the cash to do it. True, unlike Sony, Microsoft stays in the techie field (I don't see them owning record labels or making fax machines anytime soon) but so what?
here's an idea - how about MS makes an .iso image of this CD and updates it as soon as possible. Then they make this .iso available via BitTorrent (hey, they've been contributing to SourceForge - it could happen!) and seed it with several servers. Then they'd get more support right? I'd download all the updates but I always miss several.
Well it's more than that - in the Nemo trailers they didn't mention Bug's Life either. Perhaps Bug's Life is in that situation where it's both not their most recognized brand and it's also not their most recent bankable work. Too bad really.
Also, does anyone else think it's odd from the trailer that it's like Pixar wants to disown A Bug's Life?
Well, go back and see what people said about TiVo back in the day (as in the device or the generic PVR concept). IIRC, the iPod was the first to use a hard drive and people thought they were crazy - it wasn't until widespread use that the whole brilliance behind the concept became apparent.
For what it's worth, every time I heard about Infinium for a while I thought they were referring to Indrema making a comeback, so it's an easy mistake to make.
Seeing the movie without reading the book is more akin to saying you read Starship Troopers when in fact you've only seen the movie.
I'd say the only ones who benefit from this deal is Apple, but that credit card requirement scared away most people. So, other than more awareness, Apple didn't gain much from this.
I had to reinstall XP last week for the first time in over a year and a half. This marks the first time I had to pay to renew NAV Definitions as well.
No, I see this being used for stuff like this - tiny games and possibly some "demos" (think C64 days). If Nintendo does try and persue this, I forsee something akin to the CueCat thing where the info gets out and mirrored enough that persual is pointless - especially for an abandoned niche device that didn't sell well to begin with.
What I find interesting is how these things are to be printed or used. I was always on the impression that the information was too tiny to be reproduced except by high-end printers and scanners, making "piracy" a rare thing. Oh well, I guess I'll print some out on cardstock at work and see this afternoon...
What it really is is just damn clever. It would be interesting to see if this provokes a more mainstream interest in interactive fiction.
As a result, we're protective over Google. We don't want to see them become what came of Yahoo. We hope that, since now the dot-com bubble has burst, Google won't fall into the same traps as Yahoo and the failed search engines. That being said, if someone comes along tommorow hands-down better than Google we'll go there.
To the extreme, this is what Apple zealots do. When Apple does what other companies get criticized for, the Apple zealots defend them to the bitter end. Sometimes it's that they don't want to believe that Apple could be an evil company, other times it's that they don't have a predisposed blind rage towards the company (see: Microsoft) and are more able to see that sometimes a business decision is just that - a business decision.
Remember that Comcast is bound by physical proximity, so while G4/TechTV could be seen as "incentive" to do Comcast instead of Dish, in places where there is no Comcast, there's no reason not to let those cable networks take the channel.
Besides, the way a network works is to charge advertisers money. The more homes you can say you're in the more you can charge. It's not in Comcast's best interests to take it out of homes.
The one thing that keeps Nintendo alive (other than diehards like me) is that their games are exclusive to their console. In a discussion the other day I couldn't point out one must-have (non-sports) Xbox game that was exclusive to that system. Splinter Cell? It's on everything. MS put Halo on the PC themselves. MGS2 and GTA are PS2 leftovers. Now MS is making it easier to cross-develop? I mean Xbox PC has always been sensical, but does it make sense logistically for MS?
The answer to your question in a nutshell though is that the ".NET Platform" is still alive and well (I know, I work with it every day for a living), but .NET as a blanket, obscure marketing term attached to everything is pretty much dead in the water. The things you describe (C#, VB.NET, SOAP based web services) are all part of the original platform and unimportant to anyone who's not a programmer.
The Passport idea and the "My Services" ideas are separate ones, though the plan was to make "My Services" tie into Passport at some point, but "My Services" has been shelved for some time now.
oh, I don't think MS should go out of business - hell, their technology is the reason I have a job. I was just quoting the Daily Show when MS was hit with that $1M/day fine until they fixed somethingorother - the quote was "At the rate of a million dollars a day they should go out of business.... NEVER!"
At this rate Microsoft should go out business.... never!
What we've got here is something different though. The Average American Consumer, the kind that shops at Wal-Mart picking through bins of $5.50 DVD's willing to put up with a movie because it's cheap and not because they actually like it, is willing to spend $10-$15 on some piece of tripe to play when they get home (like that Big Rigs game - tell me that's not aimed at redneck consumers). These are the people who gave us that Deer Hunter trend. These are the people who made the Dukes of Hazzard game a success. These people have a demand for cheap games and they're not as concerned about quality as serious gamers are.
That's what's being outsourced - verse/chorus/verse games. You think EA would outsource a LOTR game? Not on your life.
APEX provides the Wal-Martians with cheap DVD players (and I should know - I have three in my house). But do you see Sony going out of business with their high-end DVD players? No. So do you think outsourcing of the crap games is going to put id/Valve/Epic/Dice out of business? No way - people still upgrade their hardware to play id Games.
The funny thing is, it really annoyed me. Not the being asked part, the being asked three times thing. But then I reminded myself that the alternative is insecurity.
So whereas Linux, et al, has focused on security, Microsoft focused on adding new features. MS is now in the dominant position (always was, really) and now will drag the consumer into security. Linux meanwhile wrestles with TCO, which is a result of Windows dominance, again due to lack of security.