It takes around 2-3 minutes to start playing a game on XBox after console startup, disk loading, and going through the game menus. Since it takes that long to start, a person will probably be playing for at least 10 minutes. That's 13 minutes already gone when a person decides to play. This will cause people who work to either not use the console at all, or maybe once a week, or it would cause too much time being wasted. It's lose-lose. Especially since the people playing know you're monitoring their usage.
The best bet is to have an employee lounge where they could play on one console together. I've worked at a game company, and we didn't have consoles at each desk, and the lounge where we played games brought everyone together better.
"the biggest problem with DRM is people have implemented it badly. Make DRM invisible and people will use it."
That's not quite right. Yes, the biggest problem with DRM is people have implemented it badly. The solution, though, is to make DRM out in the forefront of the feature list and make the DRM HELPFUL and CONVENIENT to users. Making it invisible will show that the companies are trying to hide something. Steam is always brought up as an example of good DRM. People know there's DRM on it but nobody minds because it's actually useful and makes it easy to transfer the games you've bought over to other computers quicker and easier than if you had an actual disk. Make is useful and people will use it.
I think Apple's thought process is that if they get rid of the firewire from the low end laptops, people who need it are going to upgrade to Macbook Pros. Which probably isn't that far off. If you require firewire for your work and you're accustomed to FCP, then chances are you're not going to get a Win laptop and Hackintosh it, you're just gonna put in the money to get the one with firewire.
Revolutions are started by a small group of people and spread through the masses because they make the message clear. It doesn't matter if it's 10% or.2% of the gaming community that cares about the DRM, that community has flooded the Amazon reviews with negative responses to DRM and will continue to do so. 99.8% of gamers might not care about DRM now because they either haven't heard of it or they don't know the details, but once a person who does comes along and actually explains it to them, that's another person for their movement. DRM is an intrinsically odorous concept and is only put there to help companies and take away consumer rights. The only way to get widespread acceptance of it is to make it supply a benefit for it instead of limitations. This is why Steam is doing so well. People actually LIKE Steam's DRM because it makes it a lot easier to transfer games between computers.
There is a choice. They could opt to get the iPod Touch which doesn't require any extra service. On top of that, they're building an infrastructure to have WiFi everywhere, which means that everyone will be able to use the resources that they're going to create for classes.
How can you read slashdot and not know about this little movement called "Open Source?" There are tons of projects out there that require programming help, and it's the best way to build your resume up. I'm a 3D Animator and it's somewhat the same hiring circumstance as programming. Nobody will hire you unless you've done something, and the only way to do something is to do it yourself. As a lead, I would never hire an animator who has nothing on their demo reel. All of the demo reel material that people come up with out of school is from projects they've worked on in their spare time. Why would it be different for programming jobs?
Everyone's saying this is a waste of money, but with tuition as much as it is, this is a drop in the bucket compared to what the students will be paying for their degrees. Do you think anybody will notice if their tuition went up 300 bucks over 4 years to cover the cost of these devices, that may have many benefits for their classes, such as easy class lookup and registration, online syllabus and course notes that are available with you all the time, and so on and so forth. When the teachers could rely on everybody having access to this stuff instead of just a few students, teachers can actually use the devices to improve their classes.
On Windows, Chrome is already my default browser. There's some issues like the flash issue, but other than that I like using it a lot more than firefox. It just feels a lot more responsive. I'm disappointed though, that they don't have a Mac version, as that's my primary machine, which is a shame since Mac Firefox is the program most responsible for freezing my machine.
So I don't really understand if you're trying to put a good or bad spin on our dependence on foreign import/export. WalMart and Monsanto are considered the bad guys - the epitome of the evil, unethical corporation that only cares about profit at the expense of the people. Would it be bad if we stopped relying on sweatshop goods from WalMart that only brings American dollars overseas? Wouldn't these companies now have to create their goods in the US, even if the sweaters are now more expensive? While Microsoft and Hollywood get more money from overseas markets, that wouldn't change. Aren't Microsoft and Hollywood representative of what America should be focusing on? American made products that the rest of the world wants to buy? Insert the "Nobody wants MS" and "Hollywood's out of ideas" comments here, but at least those are actually American-made products that bring money into the US.
It's OK for baldness because everything else you mentioned is on the table too. Should we stop looking for genes that affect how we look and act? Get rid of the genome projects altogether? There might be a gene for black skin or white skin that's found at some point, and I guarantee that there will be a time when somebody will want to find a way to change their skin color genetically; people are already doing it chemically (spray tan) and mechanically (tanning booth). Some people just aren't happy with the body they're born with. Why do we have breast implants? Small breasts aren't a disease. Big noses aren't a disease. But those are all things that people want changed about themselves. Baldness is on the table, as is skin color. Research into "bald cures" is big business. Rogaine, Hair Club for Men, these are treatments that men with baldness are willing to try to "cure" them of it.
How have Apple managed to persuade people this is what passes for "it just works" in this day and age?
Because not everybody needs to do it so "it just works?" I've had several iPods over the years (bought updated ones and gave the old ones to friends and family), my friends have iPods, and nobody has ever had to replace a battery on them.
Doesn't puncuated equilibrium say that once a species has achieved equilibrium with the environment, evolution slows down? The human species is thriving in terms of reproduction, so it would make sense that evolution will "slow down" or "stop". We also have invented ways of beating the effects of climate change, by constructing houses and clothes, and shipping food, so that humans can thrive in pretty much any climate. I'm currently reading The Blind Watchmaker and I just got to the chapter on punctuated equilibrium so I wish I could elaborate further on it.
Since when have kids listened to their parents? If this avoids 1 death, then it was worth it. Chances are it will save a lot more than that. Also, it's up to the parents to use it or not, so there is no breach of ethics or privacy. Where's the problem?
Nintendo might have used this as a chance to beef up the security against homebrewpiracy through a combination of digitally signing new DS titles and whitelisting old titles.
There, fixed that for you. Seriously. The homebrew community is so tiny, that it's silly to think that homebrew is what they're going after.
How is it flamebait to ask valid questions that the media should be asking? All of those are completely relevant. The only change I'd make is to the last one - "What kind of man, living today, uses the term trollop in everyday conversation, let alone in reference to his wife?"
You're allowed to have a personal account, sure, but she conducted government business with her personal account. That's the real issue, not that she sends family photos around.
Science and religion can easily live side by side, and have done for hundreds of years.
Sure, when there isn't really a choice in the matter. It's like saying "Religion has brought us all this amazing art over the history of humanity!" Well, yes... but it kinda was the only game in town for the time.
Slashdot Mirror
It takes around 2-3 minutes to start playing a game on XBox after console startup, disk loading, and going through the game menus. Since it takes that long to start, a person will probably be playing for at least 10 minutes. That's 13 minutes already gone when a person decides to play. This will cause people who work to either not use the console at all, or maybe once a week, or it would cause too much time being wasted. It's lose-lose. Especially since the people playing know you're monitoring their usage.
The best bet is to have an employee lounge where they could play on one console together. I've worked at a game company, and we didn't have consoles at each desk, and the lounge where we played games brought everyone together better.
That's not quite right. Yes, the biggest problem with DRM is people have implemented it badly. The solution, though, is to make DRM out in the forefront of the feature list and make the DRM HELPFUL and CONVENIENT to users. Making it invisible will show that the companies are trying to hide something. Steam is always brought up as an example of good DRM. People know there's DRM on it but nobody minds because it's actually useful and makes it easy to transfer the games you've bought over to other computers quicker and easier than if you had an actual disk. Make is useful and people will use it.
I think Apple's thought process is that if they get rid of the firewire from the low end laptops, people who need it are going to upgrade to Macbook Pros. Which probably isn't that far off. If you require firewire for your work and you're accustomed to FCP, then chances are you're not going to get a Win laptop and Hackintosh it, you're just gonna put in the money to get the one with firewire.
The Obama Hope poster on the wall is also a dead giveaway that you're in a liberal's den.
Revolutions are started by a small group of people and spread through the masses because they make the message clear. It doesn't matter if it's 10% or .2% of the gaming community that cares about the DRM, that community has flooded the Amazon reviews with negative responses to DRM and will continue to do so. 99.8% of gamers might not care about DRM now because they either haven't heard of it or they don't know the details, but once a person who does comes along and actually explains it to them, that's another person for their movement. DRM is an intrinsically odorous concept and is only put there to help companies and take away consumer rights. The only way to get widespread acceptance of it is to make it supply a benefit for it instead of limitations. This is why Steam is doing so well. People actually LIKE Steam's DRM because it makes it a lot easier to transfer games between computers.
There is a choice. They could opt to get the iPod Touch which doesn't require any extra service. On top of that, they're building an infrastructure to have WiFi everywhere, which means that everyone will be able to use the resources that they're going to create for classes.
How can you read slashdot and not know about this little movement called "Open Source?" There are tons of projects out there that require programming help, and it's the best way to build your resume up. I'm a 3D Animator and it's somewhat the same hiring circumstance as programming. Nobody will hire you unless you've done something, and the only way to do something is to do it yourself. As a lead, I would never hire an animator who has nothing on their demo reel. All of the demo reel material that people come up with out of school is from projects they've worked on in their spare time. Why would it be different for programming jobs?
Everyone's saying this is a waste of money, but with tuition as much as it is, this is a drop in the bucket compared to what the students will be paying for their degrees. Do you think anybody will notice if their tuition went up 300 bucks over 4 years to cover the cost of these devices, that may have many benefits for their classes, such as easy class lookup and registration, online syllabus and course notes that are available with you all the time, and so on and so forth. When the teachers could rely on everybody having access to this stuff instead of just a few students, teachers can actually use the devices to improve their classes.
On Windows, Chrome is already my default browser. There's some issues like the flash issue, but other than that I like using it a lot more than firefox. It just feels a lot more responsive. I'm disappointed though, that they don't have a Mac version, as that's my primary machine, which is a shame since Mac Firefox is the program most responsible for freezing my machine.
So I don't really understand if you're trying to put a good or bad spin on our dependence on foreign import/export. WalMart and Monsanto are considered the bad guys - the epitome of the evil, unethical corporation that only cares about profit at the expense of the people. Would it be bad if we stopped relying on sweatshop goods from WalMart that only brings American dollars overseas? Wouldn't these companies now have to create their goods in the US, even if the sweaters are now more expensive? While Microsoft and Hollywood get more money from overseas markets, that wouldn't change. Aren't Microsoft and Hollywood representative of what America should be focusing on? American made products that the rest of the world wants to buy? Insert the "Nobody wants MS" and "Hollywood's out of ideas" comments here, but at least those are actually American-made products that bring money into the US.
It's OK for baldness because everything else you mentioned is on the table too. Should we stop looking for genes that affect how we look and act? Get rid of the genome projects altogether? There might be a gene for black skin or white skin that's found at some point, and I guarantee that there will be a time when somebody will want to find a way to change their skin color genetically; people are already doing it chemically (spray tan) and mechanically (tanning booth). Some people just aren't happy with the body they're born with. Why do we have breast implants? Small breasts aren't a disease. Big noses aren't a disease. But those are all things that people want changed about themselves. Baldness is on the table, as is skin color. Research into "bald cures" is big business. Rogaine, Hair Club for Men, these are treatments that men with baldness are willing to try to "cure" them of it.
That was the subtlest Godwin I've ever seen. Alright everyone, thread over. Move along.
Because not everybody needs to do it so "it just works?" I've had several iPods over the years (bought updated ones and gave the old ones to friends and family), my friends have iPods, and nobody has ever had to replace a battery on them.
Doesn't puncuated equilibrium say that once a species has achieved equilibrium with the environment, evolution slows down? The human species is thriving in terms of reproduction, so it would make sense that evolution will "slow down" or "stop". We also have invented ways of beating the effects of climate change, by constructing houses and clothes, and shipping food, so that humans can thrive in pretty much any climate. I'm currently reading The Blind Watchmaker and I just got to the chapter on punctuated equilibrium so I wish I could elaborate further on it.
Since when have kids listened to their parents? If this avoids 1 death, then it was worth it. Chances are it will save a lot more than that. Also, it's up to the parents to use it or not, so there is no breach of ethics or privacy. Where's the problem?
Nintendo might have used this as a chance to beef up the security against homebrewpiracy through a combination of digitally signing new DS titles and whitelisting old titles.
There, fixed that for you. Seriously. The homebrew community is so tiny, that it's silly to think that homebrew is what they're going after.
Eh, if they were relevant, they'd be owned by Google.
You forgot "Now get off my lawn!"
How is it flamebait to ask valid questions that the media should be asking? All of those are completely relevant. The only change I'd make is to the last one - "What kind of man, living today, uses the term trollop in everyday conversation, let alone in reference to his wife?"
I also hear Duke Nukem Forever went gold today!
Check out the Search Engine Rap Battle. It's hilarious!
You're allowed to have a personal account, sure, but she conducted government business with her personal account. That's the real issue, not that she sends family photos around.
You can't be sued for false advertising if your advertisement doesn't actually say anything.
Why? Cause people offshore don't use web resources to learn new languages?
Sure, when there isn't really a choice in the matter. It's like saying "Religion has brought us all this amazing art over the history of humanity!" Well, yes... but it kinda was the only game in town for the time.