You'd think they'd learn from their Virtual Boy mistakes.
Well one of the things about the Virtual Boy was - it was supposed to be a replacement for the Game Boy. At the time the GB was pretty much played out and since Grumpei Yokoi, the GB creator, came up with the VB, it made sense to try and phase out the GB in favor of something new. It was only in the ensuing years after the VB's death that we saw the advent of Pokemon, the Game Boy Color, and the Game Boy Advance.
So as long as they don't try to position this Nintendo DS system as a GBA/GC replacement (and I'm pretty sure they're not) then they'll have learned their lesson. Besides, it's no stupider than scanning cards to play games - and that went over pretty well.
Needless to say, people in Oklahoma drive like maniacs, with a very slight improvement once you cross into Texas
Well remember that Texas has miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles. People here are often used to speeding down highways with nothing but cornfields all around. Problem comes when Jethro doesn't change that attitude when he gets into cities.
And before you call me stereotypical, remember that I live here and work next door to a Jethro.
How odd - I worked at a Babbage's a few years back (Babbage's/Software Etc./GameStop - all the same company, owned by Barnes & Noble) and we'd refund anyone's preorder - in fact we often did it as $10 towards a different (shipped) game.
They could always play Secret Service: Security Breach which, besides being appropriately titled, shipped in October as probably the first game to attempt to use lots of DOOM 3's tricks, like bump mapping and per-pixel-kablooey, thanks to the AMP 2 engine.
Microsoft was going after a 17 year olds part time business
I responded to this email saying that I was not ready to give up my domain name since I had put so much time and effort into establishing my name, getting my business cards out and posting my services on the Internet. If I were to give up my domain, I would lose all the time and effort I had put into it. I requested that they offer me a settlement of some sort to help with me losing my business.
This is going to be the real downfall of this kid. It would be one thing if it was just a vanity blog page (which it might mostly be - I got this quip from someone who posted the text of the page above), but it sounds like this kid was trying to run a business that had a name that sounded the same as Microsoft. If my name was Mick Don tried to come out with a restaraunt that went by the name "MickDonAlds", McDonald's would sue me into oblivion. If this kid had a website, "MikeRoweStinks.com", then he'd probably be fine. But come on now, he's trying to start a business by mimmicking the sound of another company. Maybe he can use the excuse of being young/ignorant, but he's in the wrong here.
Don't do like LOTR though and release a 'normal' DVD and hold out the good one for a month or two. We like that about as much as we adore Jar Jar
Hold on there - we're all complaining that Lucas won't put out the original Star Wars movies on DVD, just the special editions. However, Peter Jackson puts out the original and extended editions of the LOTR movies and we shit on him? Plus, we're told in advance about the extended editions, they're not sprung on us years later.
Use your influence and $$$ to get us completely digital theaters.
Buy a $100K projector for each of the 3,000+ screens he wants to show it on? That alone would cost $300 million at least.
I seem to recall that in 1997 or so, Sister Machine Gun released every song from every one of his (their?) albums on their website in CD quality Real Audio format. I remember thinking that this wasn't terribly bright, but in the days before MP3 became a household name and CD burners were slow and expensive I thought "I guess no one really wants to listen to music on their PC's".
These poorer countries/businesses(US as well) simply can't afford to upgrade
Plus, let's be honest, Windows 98 doesn't come with Product Activation. Windows ME added a bunch of unneccessary crap but Windows 98 can be placed on 10,000 machines with no difficulty (though possibly a violation of the EULA). Sure, there's a Windows XP corporate edition which doesn't require actibation, but if you're a business hurting for money (and can't afford that option) and you don't want to bleed out cash for however long it takes you go get up to speed with Linux, Windows 98 looks like a pretty good option.
Besides, Windows 98 works for what they want. That makes switching to anything, especially Linux, unneccessary.
Well, and if you think about it - they're right. Windows has a lower TCO than Linux. Sure, you save money by not having to buy Windows and Office, but you have to retrain everyone, relearn everything, things are not generally as easy to configure, etc.
Flip the tables, Linux is the norm and Windows is the underdog - then Linux has a lower TCO (especially if it was all still free). But today and for the forseeable future, Windows has a lower TCO. And this is all the people who spend money care about, really.
Re:27% of google users use windows 98
on
Windows 98 Phased Out
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· Score: 2, Interesting
For that matter, I figured there's a much higher percentage of Linux users who use Google than the percentage of Windows users - and only 1% of Google's users run Linux?
but I have a feeling that "so these stupid pollsters don't call and pester me" is one of the leading reasons.
No, one of the leading reasons is "so these stupid telemarketers don't call and pester me". The key difference is that a telemarketer wants to sell you something and is willing to harrass you endlessly to do so. A pollster just wants to know what you think on something, and in some cases is willing to give you incentive to do so.
Also pollsters give up when you don't want to cooperate. A response from someone who is not interested is worthless. Badgering some poor soul into subscribing to your newspaper is worth a lot.
And some people want to take polls. Pollsters give people a way to make their opinion heard. Telemarketers keep talking after you give them your opinion.
I honestly have never been able to understand why someone would choose a career they have no great intrest in simply because they could make fairly good money.
I see your point but you answered your own question. My Old Man was a Chemical Engineer for thirty years - never liked or had any real interest in Chemistry, but he did it - because it was a job that would pay well. Hell, I never paid a dime in College, so that says something. The generation before us had that ethic: do the damn job, doesn't matter if you like it - you have responsibilities. Lots of people I knew in College went into fields where they had no interest and took jobs that no one dreams of growing up - they just wanted a career path with money. This is not to say that that's wrong - there are certianly worse things in life than being wealthy - but it does explain motivation.
But I wonder - what are they considering programmers? Are people who do drag-and-drop VB6 and don't code and won't move to VB.NET programmers? Are people who can handle data efficiently in Office considered programmers? I know that the COBOL programmer population is supposed to decline by 15% over the next four years due to retirement and death, how many other "programmers" will cease to be because they themselves cease to be or the need for their position (read: not outsourced, just not neccessary) ceases to be.
Actually, there's another point - a lot of people are VB6 programmers - 3+ million of them last count. There are VB6 badasses out there, don't get me wrong, but there's bound to be a large number of them who are simply put not programmer types and can't hang with newer stuff like VB.NET so they won't upgrade and at some point they'll have to change career paths. 235,000 out of 3 million isn't all that much.
And wait a minute. Quoth the article: 235,396 fewer... This is a 25% reduction. Is the article saying that there are only 941,584 programmers today? At all? That's crazy - there's like 90,000 COBOL programmers alone. These numbers don't make sense.
Undercut the opposition by pennies. You always feel so smart for saving so much at Wal-Mart, but you burned that much money in gas trying to make it through their parking lot.
Of course, Wal-Mart the store has all these crazy rules on what they will and won't sell - like no stickered albums, but guns and ammo. So does this mean their songs will be censored?
For that matter, I think I remember overhearing that the last digit on a Wal-Mart price says something, like if it's $19.92, the "2" means it's been returned, or something like that. Does anyone out there know the method to this madness?
Well if this becomes the case then it spells the end of the popup market.
Hear me out - if you make it to where there are more popups, then basically your entire advertising market is based off of the notion of annoying people. People are already annoyed by popups, but now they'll be really annoying since even grandma now knows she's not supposed to be getting them. Ergo, no way are they clicking on them. I'll get to the point where the average person thinks the same way most of us do - they won't click on a popup out of spite.
Remember pop-under ads? I don't remember the last time I saw one of those (actually with my popup blocker, I don't see any) but that should be a clue - that people don't want to see popup ads, so let's make them popup under what page they're on.
So now there'll be exponentially more popup ads. Now, if they hit with spammer mentality then they see this as a good thing, but most advertising companies want a good click-through rate (not the.005% spam gets) so when they see a low click-through rate (since the popups are not being blocked or clicked on), they'll bail.
copy protection only hurts and inconveniences legitimate users
Yes, but the key word there is inconvenience. If there were no barriers at all in place, then everyone would copy ad infinitum, at will. Hell, be glad it's something small and defeatable like region coding and DeCSS. Without them we would have more rampant piracy and the MPAA's tactics would be more like the RIAA's (which they're not - by a long shot).
have been available on both Playstations for years with drum and guitar controllers included. Granted, mainly as imports from Asia but popular ones, at that
Is it just me or does it seem like most of the really cool crap never makes it outside of Asia? Or Japan, really. My best theory has been that with fewer people (or at least fewer stores) in Japan it's easier to distribute something and not lose your ass if it doesn't sell. If you distribute guitar controllers to every Wal-Mart in America and they don't sell you're screwed. Anyone thing I'm close or way off?
Fallout was intentionally designed as a sequel to Wasteland, but I guess Interplay didn't have the rights to the name
Actually, Fallout was orginally going to be a GURPS-licensed game, but creative differences severed those ties. Probably one of the few cases where ditching the license helped things.
Mercedes (automobiles) vs you making Mercedes Perfume without using the mercedes car symbol. undecided... i tend to think that this would be infringement, since mercedes is a well known luxury brand, automobile or not.
Everyone's favorite rock group, Metallica, sued Victoria's Secret (I think) for making a nail polish color called... Metallica. Metallica (the group) won. Consider this the Napster warning shot. It's ironic since Lars stole the name Metallica anyway (a friend of his had a list of potential magazine names - Lars suggested a different one and kept "Metallica" for himself).
In other news, Ford has recently demanded that Microsoft stop using the name "Explorer", as in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer. Ford cites the 1990 introduction of the Explorer as evidence that they had the name first.
A valid comparison - if Microsoft made cars (and no, that's not the intro to a joke). If Microsoft made a car called the Lexplorer (or if Lexus did) yes they'd get the pants sued off of them. If Lindows changed their name to Led Hat, then Red Hat would sue them. You make a product and name it one letter different from the competitor you want to emulate and yeah, you're asking for it.
Besides, I think most would agree that Lindows is a stupid name whose point is no longer valid (Lindows is moving away from the Windows compatibility claim) and they should rename it in order to survive. Now they'll look like they renamed it because they were sued.
I totally missed my prediction that DOOM 3 would ship today, on the 10th anniversary of shareware DOOM (give or take a day).
Plus, in years past this December 9/10th thing was the ship date for other id Games - Quake 2, Quake 3: Arena, Quake 3: Team Arena, etc. It's enough before Christmas to make it a hot holiday item, but late enough to maximize development time.
Knowles designed the site on his laptop in 1996 or so when he was in the hospital. It's pretty much been unchanged ever since. His forums are ultra-low-tech and tend to attract the lowest of life, and the whole thing's powered by inefficent CGI scripts so when something popular drops (like his early review of Episode 2), the site's unreachable for days.
In short his site is indicative of eight-year-old design sensibilities.
Slashdot Mirror
you laugh, but you should have seen my Mother-In-Law's reaction when we told her that in the car on the way back from Episode I...
So as long as they don't try to position this Nintendo DS system as a GBA/GC replacement (and I'm pretty sure they're not) then they'll have learned their lesson. Besides, it's no stupider than scanning cards to play games - and that went over pretty well.
And before you call me stereotypical, remember that I live here and work next door to a Jethro.
How odd - I worked at a Babbage's a few years back (Babbage's/Software Etc./GameStop - all the same company, owned by Barnes & Noble) and we'd refund anyone's preorder - in fact we often did it as $10 towards a different (shipped) game.
Kinda weak on the game side though.
They didn't stay there for long.
Picture "It was made from the ribcage of a Stegosaurus!" in a Scottish accent.
Besides, Windows 98 works for what they want. That makes switching to anything, especially Linux, unneccessary.
Flip the tables, Linux is the norm and Windows is the underdog - then Linux has a lower TCO (especially if it was all still free). But today and for the forseeable future, Windows has a lower TCO. And this is all the people who spend money care about, really.
Very sad.
Also pollsters give up when you don't want to cooperate. A response from someone who is not interested is worthless. Badgering some poor soul into subscribing to your newspaper is worth a lot.
And some people want to take polls. Pollsters give people a way to make their opinion heard. Telemarketers keep talking after you give them your opinion.
no, I like Wal-Mart - I'm a cheap bastard. I just won't buy CD's from there and I'm amused by their ethics.
But I wonder - what are they considering programmers? Are people who do drag-and-drop VB6 and don't code and won't move to VB.NET programmers? Are people who can handle data efficiently in Office considered programmers? I know that the COBOL programmer population is supposed to decline by 15% over the next four years due to retirement and death, how many other "programmers" will cease to be because they themselves cease to be or the need for their position (read: not outsourced, just not neccessary) ceases to be.
Actually, there's another point - a lot of people are VB6 programmers - 3+ million of them last count. There are VB6 badasses out there, don't get me wrong, but there's bound to be a large number of them who are simply put not programmer types and can't hang with newer stuff like VB.NET so they won't upgrade and at some point they'll have to change career paths. 235,000 out of 3 million isn't all that much.
And wait a minute. Quoth the article: 235,396 fewer ... This is a 25% reduction. Is the article saying that there are only 941,584 programmers today? At all? That's crazy - there's like 90,000 COBOL programmers alone. These numbers don't make sense.
Of course, Wal-Mart the store has all these crazy rules on what they will and won't sell - like no stickered albums, but guns and ammo. So does this mean their songs will be censored?
For that matter, I think I remember overhearing that the last digit on a Wal-Mart price says something, like if it's $19.92, the "2" means it's been returned, or something like that. Does anyone out there know the method to this madness?
Hear me out - if you make it to where there are more popups, then basically your entire advertising market is based off of the notion of annoying people. People are already annoyed by popups, but now they'll be really annoying since even grandma now knows she's not supposed to be getting them. Ergo, no way are they clicking on them. I'll get to the point where the average person thinks the same way most of us do - they won't click on a popup out of spite.
Remember pop-under ads? I don't remember the last time I saw one of those (actually with my popup blocker, I don't see any) but that should be a clue - that people don't want to see popup ads, so let's make them popup under what page they're on.
So now there'll be exponentially more popup ads. Now, if they hit with spammer mentality then they see this as a good thing, but most advertising companies want a good click-through rate (not the .005% spam gets) so when they see a low click-through rate (since the popups are not being blocked or clicked on), they'll bail.
Hence, the end of most popups. Crazy?
Anyway, here's Wasteland
Besides, I think most would agree that Lindows is a stupid name whose point is no longer valid (Lindows is moving away from the Windows compatibility claim) and they should rename it in order to survive. Now they'll look like they renamed it because they were sued.
Plus, in years past this December 9/10th thing was the ship date for other id Games - Quake 2, Quake 3: Arena, Quake 3: Team Arena, etc. It's enough before Christmas to make it a hot holiday item, but late enough to maximize development time.
In short his site is indicative of eight-year-old design sensibilities.