Boy... I REALLY hope we don't have to live through the period when all Free-Coders are hunted down and exterminated, before the Death Star blows up and the Emperor gets tossed down onto the power core.
[waves at BSA Storm Trooper] Hi! (voice gets mono-tone) I'm not the Coder you're looking for.
The approach taken in several European countries is simply to not give any benefits to registered "religions" if the organizations aren't charitable. In the case of Scientology, several countries have refused to consider them charitable because they can't show audited accounts that clearly show they are not channeling profits anywhere.
Great idea!
I hope this is one of those laws which sweeps the E.U. and gets forced onto the rest of the world (including the U.S.A.)
To be precise, you'd spend about half a million to get to the point where they spring the space opera story on you. Once you've been suckered that far, there's a very strong psychological incentive to keep believing them, rather like the suckers who've fallen for the 419 scams.
Blizzard, take heed and adjust your price plans accordingly.
Blizzard Executive: I see the "Stars of Starcraft" pricing model taking place in my head.
Granted, the Wii is fun, but who plays Wii sports at home by themselves?
Normal people have "off-line" friends.
yes, but how many of your "off-line friends" will show up at your house every night (or every other night), for half an hour or an hour of gaming?
On-line matchmaking is one of the things I've been enjoying about the PS3, as well as some of the fun multiplayer Arcade games that have been showing up regularly on the PlayStationNetwork. Calling-All-Cars just came out this week for $10. MK II is still popping up as a "most downloaded" title.
Also, the on-line store has really started to come on-line nicely. Super Rub-A-Dub has got a lot of wives and kids clamoring for their turn in front of the PS3, and the recent PS3 firmware update lets you play PS1 games (downloaded on the PSN), on either the PSP or PS3 (you can even move your saved game file back and forth). (most are in the 7$-10$ range).
I imagine the 360 has similar offerings (I don't have one, but I hear that "Live! Arcade" is pretty populated with titles, and the prices are supposed to be reasonable).
So far the major use of the Wii's networking capabilities that I've heard of has been to ask the user questions, swap Mii's, look at your weather, and download classic games (which as far as I know, haven't even been updated to include network play). Anything new in the pipeline?
Standardize online play, humm, lets think, what company has already done this?
Yeah, thats right, Steam and Stardock both have these features (well, ok, not voice chat, but the other things). Both are free, cross-platform, and supported by many, many developers.
Congrats M$, for entering a market where not only do you have two strong competetors, but you offer a clearly inferior service for vast amounts more money.
Yeah... except:
1) Everyone knows who MS is, and anyone interested in gaming has probably heard about Live! (as well as anyone with even basic familiarity of an XBox 360). While Steam may have the same sort of recognition, Stardock doesn't (even though its a great system).
2) Vista will probably have the Live! starter pushed down as a required update (like IE7 was for XP), and/or require its inclusion and support for a "Games For Windows" logo. Next thing you know its the de-facto standard, and even Stardock and Steam will probably have to play "catch up", or support Live! in some way.
Its amazing what having a monopoly will let you do in a marketplace, and MS certainly has a monopoly in the desktop arena. Of course if I was Stardock and Steam, I would be pushing for court orders to require Live! to be optional based on illegal tie-ing. That won't actually STOP MS (unless a court officer decides they need to spin off the games division... an interesting choice and one that could work), but it MIGHT slow them down a little.
Uhm who cares? How is this news, are you also going to announce every update for any other game? No?
But... but... this is Zonk! You expect him to be Objective?
You're forgetting that the boards are overrun with 360 lovers.
It'll be interesting to see if an article pops up covering R:FoM's update expected this month (expanded purchased content, to go the free game tweak and mode enhancements made in the past).
There is a third solution that is even less palatable than multiple DVDs...
Use lower res textures/sounds, less "music" available, etc. In other words lower the size of the assets you have to fit.
This is a problem because: 1) If they do it across the board, all their users will be angry (PS3 and 360 alike) 2) If the just "dumb down" the XBox360 version, then they might tick off MS (which could put the Vista approved version in jeopardy) since it will be seen as an easy example of why the PS3 is "better" than the 360.
Requiring a hard drive is a much easier out than this choice (and I'm sure MS would love big games to push the hard-drive requirement so they can rack up the $$$ on the proprietary attachment).
On the other hand, maybe they've already figured out a different/better solution and all this is moot.:)
I imagine it's because the PS3's problems are just difficulty in programming, which programmers work hard at and get done. Whereas not having enough space to make your game is an obstacle that you can't really overcome with a little elbow grease.
Probably true. That I suppose is the real difference between the consoles this generation.
Nintendo: Interesting hardware that has "low" graphic limits, but has interesting interface possibilities. "Small" Optical Media (but not pushed because of "low" graphic limits). MicroSoft: "High" graphic limits. "Easy" to program for. "Small" Optical Media. No Guaranteed Hard-Drive. (the last two become possible constraining factors based on the first item). Sony: "High" graphic limits. "More Difficult" to program for. Guaranteed Hard-Drive. "Large" Optical Media.
Based on these, I see Nintendo and Sony providing more consistent platforms, while MS has to release a new console sooner, or risk obsoleteness.
Why, when the only evolutionary advantage human beings have is large and complex brains, do people insist on having children and raising them as idiots?
I imagine because sex is cheap enjoyment, and there are no compulsory education or licensing required to have a child and raise it, however there is often government assistance available just for having it around.
Greenpeace may have responded to Steve Jobs' response but they failed reading comprehension:
From Apples Release:
It is generally not Apple's policy to trumpet our plans for the future; we tend to talk about the things we have just accomplished. Unfortunately this policy has left our customers, shareholders, employees and the industry in the dark about Apple's desires and plans to become greener. Our stakeholders deserve and expect more from us, and they're right to do so. They want us to be a leader in this area, just as we are in the other areas of our business. So today we're changing our policy.
From the Greenpeace response:
Today we saw something we've all been waiting for: the words "A Greener Apple" on the front page of Apple's site, with a message from Steve Jobs saying, "Today we're changing our policy."
You're the consumers of Apple's products, and you've proven you make a real difference. You convinced one of the world's most cutting edge companies to peel the toxic ingredients out of the products they sell.
Umm... Greenpeace, I hate to say it, but the policy you "forced" Apple to change was the "It is generally not Apple's policy to trumpet our plans for the future; we tend to talk about the things we have just accomplished."
Way to go making it seem like you're important, having an impact, and therefore worthy of large $$$ donations.
[A fellow student] said, "If somebody can make a map like that of the whole school, I mean, it does kind of scare me a little bit, and make me wonder, you know, what else they could do."
Yeah... I mean... they could make a 3D model of a rocket launcher or something, and then we'll all be in serious trouble.::roll eyes::
They are only now going to begin to discover the loss to there credibility, which could potentially be very damaging.
Well... I think "we" should all help them figure out just how much they may have damaged their credibility.
If you're a MySpace user, after clicking on http://www.myspace.com/barackobama feel free to click on "Send Message" and let him know how you feel.:) (remember to keep things clean and expletive free). Hey, he's even "On Line Now!" so he might reply.;)
Also, whether you Are or Are Not a MySpace user, feel free to click on "Block User". I'm sure those metrics might make their way to his attention (or at least the mainstream media's).
I'm even more surprised that nobody has filed a Class Action Law Suit against MS re: the XBox 360 failure rates. Of course that might be because MS extended the warranty so that they would replace the box, so less people have an "unheeded" grievance.
Well, there were the Wii system update failures that bricked the systems early on, and the reports of PS3 kiosk failures.... Also, there has been no mainstream news of the 360 issues...
True, the Wii update failures appeared early on, but they resolved those pretty quick (along with shipping out refurbished units, but I suppose in that case the Wii's success could have overwhelmed any continuing Wii refurb issues), but the PS3 Kiosk issues are hardly unique to the PS3. Previous generations have also had issues with console's overheating in Kiosks where airflow is minimal. I would be more concerned if there were the same level of reports as the XBox 360 had when it was released.
Anecdotally, I know somebody who has been through 3 Warrantied PS3s so far, and has been cut off from additional replacements by Sony. He's also killed a few 360s, and went through several PS2s though, so I think he just treats his consoles like shit though.
I'd say those consoles just aren't getting enough airflow, and he must be hard on them. Of course I had a friend who went through about 3 SNES's in the time, so yes, some people are just naturally hard on electronics.
The trick is for the colonists to invest their money in a corporation back home, that can then purchase and outfit the follow-on expedition that can arrive ahead of them and take care of thing. Take this as the Manticore Gambit:)
The reason behind this is simple. If you were going to sue someone over patent infringement would you rather sue Microsoft with its billions of dollars in the bank and millions of customers that rely on every misfeature in its product, or would you rather sue the Mono project which has less money than your average chess club and would happily remove features rather than risk going to court.
The "professional" name attached to this state of being penniless is "Judgement-proof":)
No, I enjoyed it also. It wasn't a bad movie, the problem was that it was over-hyped, and the differing level of detail between the different characters (Principles, Secondary, Background) was sometimes a bit jarring.
Thanks for reminding me about it. I'm going to have to pull out the DVD and watch it at home.:)
Haven't tried this (for obvious reasons), but I imagine you could order the merchandise and have them shipped to your home via the slowest possible UPS service, then, once its shipped and on its way, pay the extra $5 to have it rerouted to a different drop point.
Some shippers will not allow packages to be rerouted, some will. I imagine someone with more experience in these matters could shed more light.
Also, about needing a physical card, my understanding is that these can be relatively easily created now. Card blanks and mag-stripe writers have been used to clone physical cards for a while, I imagine creating the clone with just the information should be relatively straightforward also.
Not to mention even if they WERE going to have a price cut, denying it is "standard practice".
Take a look at Nintendo (who everyone seems enamored with at the moment), and remember what happened when they had the last round of price cuts on their handheld... and denied any price cuts were about to happen when asked about the week before?
Look. Suck it up. Price cuts WILL happen at some point. If you want to wait for whenever that will be, then wait. If you don't, then don't. I agree that once the games start rolling this Summer and Fall things will start looking up, and I also wouldn't be surprised by a price drop before the holidays.
mod parent up. I don't trust anything done by the Chinese government. Beware the red dragon.
True, the Red, Blue, Green and Black ones (as well as all the Chromatic Dragons) are Evil.
You can probably trust the Brass, Copper, Bronze, Silver and Gold varieties though, since the Metallic dragons are Good (although Chaotic Good in quite a few cases).
I suppose it depends on your DM interprets alignment though.
Yes/No. I stated something to the best of knowledge and responded when someone pointed out an incorrect fact. There are lots of people who seem to spread false information on a regular basis, and yet they seem unable to admit they are wrong. Someone pointed that out to me already, and I merely said where I had gotten my information, I was NOT trying to imply they were wrong.
I'm glad to hear the 360 can use the extra storage, I was surprised when I had heard it couldn't, and I'm glad that information was wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
Boy
[waves at BSA Storm Trooper] Hi! (voice gets mono-tone) I'm not the Coder you're looking for.
Great idea!
I hope this is one of those laws which sweeps the E.U. and gets forced onto the rest of the world (including the U.S.A.)
Blizzard Executive: I see the "Stars of Starcraft" pricing model taking place in my head.
Exactly.
:( ).
Kinda like the SciFi series "The Invisible Man" (which I wish they would re-air
It ran a few seasons, and then came to an end. As far as I know it wasn't killed (way too much of the last season was spent wrapping up loose ends).
It had just run its course, and, like most good stories, had reached the end of the tale.
(not to say that sometimes there is more story to tell, but thats true of all books also)
yes, but how many of your "off-line friends" will show up at your house every night (or every other night), for half an hour or an hour of gaming?
On-line matchmaking is one of the things I've been enjoying about the PS3, as well as some of the fun multiplayer Arcade games that have been showing up regularly on the PlayStationNetwork. Calling-All-Cars just came out this week for $10. MK II is still popping up as a "most downloaded" title.
Also, the on-line store has really started to come on-line nicely. Super Rub-A-Dub has got a lot of wives and kids clamoring for their turn in front of the PS3, and the recent PS3 firmware update lets you play PS1 games (downloaded on the PSN), on either the PSP or PS3 (you can even move your saved game file back and forth). (most are in the 7$-10$ range).
I imagine the 360 has similar offerings (I don't have one, but I hear that "Live! Arcade" is pretty populated with titles, and the prices are supposed to be reasonable).
So far the major use of the Wii's networking capabilities that I've heard of has been to ask the user questions, swap Mii's, look at your weather, and download classic games (which as far as I know, haven't even been updated to include network play). Anything new in the pipeline?
Yeah
1) Everyone knows who MS is, and anyone interested in gaming has probably heard about Live! (as well as anyone with even basic familiarity of an XBox 360). While Steam may have the same sort of recognition, Stardock doesn't (even though its a great system).
2) Vista will probably have the Live! starter pushed down as a required update (like IE7 was for XP), and/or require its inclusion and support for a "Games For Windows" logo. Next thing you know its the de-facto standard, and even Stardock and Steam will probably have to play "catch up", or support Live! in some way.
Its amazing what having a monopoly will let you do in a marketplace, and MS certainly has a monopoly in the desktop arena. Of course if I was Stardock and Steam, I would be pushing for court orders to require Live! to be optional based on illegal tie-ing. That won't actually STOP MS (unless a court officer decides they need to spin off the games division
Which of course leads to the boatload of crappy titles that either have come out, or are now scheduled to come out for the Wii.
(and the fallback position of lots of "retro" games being released to try to tide people over)
But
You're forgetting that the boards are overrun with 360 lovers.
It'll be interesting to see if an article pops up covering R:FoM's update expected this month (expanded purchased content, to go the free game tweak and mode enhancements made in the past).
There is a third solution that is even less palatable than multiple DVDs ...
:)
Use lower res textures/sounds, less "music" available, etc. In other words lower the size of the assets you have to fit.
This is a problem because:
1) If they do it across the board, all their users will be angry (PS3 and 360 alike)
2) If the just "dumb down" the XBox360 version, then they might tick off MS (which could put the Vista approved version in jeopardy) since it will be seen as an easy example of why the PS3 is "better" than the 360.
Requiring a hard drive is a much easier out than this choice (and I'm sure MS would love big games to push the hard-drive requirement so they can rack up the $$$ on the proprietary attachment).
On the other hand, maybe they've already figured out a different/better solution and all this is moot.
Probably true. That I suppose is the real difference between the consoles this generation.
Nintendo: Interesting hardware that has "low" graphic limits, but has interesting interface possibilities. "Small" Optical Media (but not pushed because of "low" graphic limits).
MicroSoft: "High" graphic limits. "Easy" to program for. "Small" Optical Media. No Guaranteed Hard-Drive. (the last two become possible constraining factors based on the first item).
Sony: "High" graphic limits. "More Difficult" to program for. Guaranteed Hard-Drive. "Large" Optical Media.
Based on these, I see Nintendo and Sony providing more consistent platforms, while MS has to release a new console sooner, or risk obsoleteness.
I imagine because sex is cheap enjoyment, and there are no compulsory education or licensing required to have a child and raise it, however there is often government assistance available just for having it around.
From Apples Release:
From the Greenpeace response:
Umm
Way to go making it seem like you're important, having an impact, and therefore worthy of large $$$ donations.
Yeah
Vonage addressing the courts about the obviousness of the patents:
Verizon: We object!
Well
If you're a MySpace user, after clicking on http://www.myspace.com/barackobama feel free to click on "Send Message" and let him know how you feel.
Also, whether you Are or Are Not a MySpace user, feel free to click on "Block User". I'm sure those metrics might make their way to his attention (or at least the mainstream media's).
I'm even more surprised that nobody has filed a Class Action Law Suit against MS re: the XBox 360 failure rates. Of course that might be because MS extended the warranty so that they would replace the box, so less people have an "unheeded" grievance.
True, the Wii update failures appeared early on, but they resolved those pretty quick (along with shipping out refurbished units, but I suppose in that case the Wii's success could have overwhelmed any continuing Wii refurb issues), but the PS3 Kiosk issues are hardly unique to the PS3. Previous generations have also had issues with console's overheating in Kiosks where airflow is minimal. I would be more concerned if there were the same level of reports as the XBox 360 had when it was released.
I'd say those consoles just aren't getting enough airflow, and he must be hard on them. Of course I had a friend who went through about 3 SNES's in the time, so yes, some people are just naturally hard on electronics.
The trick is for the colonists to invest their money in a corporation back home, that can then purchase and outfit the follow-on expedition that can arrive ahead of them and take care of thing. Take this as the Manticore Gambit :)
The "professional" name attached to this state of being penniless is "Judgement-proof"
No, I enjoyed it also. It wasn't a bad movie, the problem was that it was over-hyped, and the differing level of detail between the different characters (Principles, Secondary, Background) was sometimes a bit jarring.
:)
Thanks for reminding me about it. I'm going to have to pull out the DVD and watch it at home.
Haven't tried this (for obvious reasons), but I imagine you could order the merchandise and have them shipped to your home via the slowest possible UPS service, then, once its shipped and on its way, pay the extra $5 to have it rerouted to a different drop point.
Some shippers will not allow packages to be rerouted, some will. I imagine someone with more experience in these matters could shed more light.
Also, about needing a physical card, my understanding is that these can be relatively easily created now. Card blanks and mag-stripe writers have been used to clone physical cards for a while, I imagine creating the clone with just the information should be relatively straightforward also.
Not to mention even if they WERE going to have a price cut, denying it is "standard practice".
... and denied any price cuts were about to happen when asked about the week before?
Take a look at Nintendo (who everyone seems enamored with at the moment), and remember what happened when they had the last round of price cuts on their handheld
Look. Suck it up. Price cuts WILL happen at some point. If you want to wait for whenever that will be, then wait. If you don't, then don't. I agree that once the games start rolling this Summer and Fall things will start looking up, and I also wouldn't be surprised by a price drop before the holidays.
True, the Red, Blue, Green and Black ones (as well as all the Chromatic Dragons) are Evil.
You can probably trust the Brass, Copper, Bronze, Silver and Gold varieties though, since the Metallic dragons are Good (although Chaotic Good in quite a few cases).
I suppose it depends on your DM interprets alignment though.
Yes/No. I stated something to the best of knowledge and responded when someone pointed out an incorrect fact. There are lots of people who seem to spread false information on a regular basis, and yet they seem unable to admit they are wrong. Someone pointed that out to me already, and I merely said where I had gotten my information, I was NOT trying to imply they were wrong.
I'm glad to hear the 360 can use the extra storage, I was surprised when I had heard it couldn't, and I'm glad that information was wrong.