Don't forget the lack of third party software. Why doesn't Jobs understand that hardware is merely an orifice to stick software?
And the idea that Apple has so much clout is laughable. The carriers will sell whatever Nokia gives them. Apple is just the first willing to accept the risk and expense of reimplementing voicemail, which is why they had no choice but to start with a single carrier.
When did it stop being acceptable to hate the religion and not the religious? What kind of double-standard are you trying to apply here?
There are billions of decent honest people who believe in a religion. There are also billions infected with some form of communicable disease. Does the desire to eradicate the diseases necessarily imply a desire to eradicate the carriers? Does these infection somehow invalidate anything the infected achieve?
> For traditional materialistic evolution to work correctly we have to be just another chance occurrence with a "nothing to see here, move right along" sign tacked to our foreheads.
It also you means your grandfather throws his own poo.
Yeah, not many games make explicit connections to real politics (though there is one set in Venezuela that's ruffling feathers), but there is the assumption in most real-world military simulations that the other side is evil while our side is innocent. The absence of any moral justification for these pretend wars against real countries is worse than any polemic. If the ideology or agenda of some games is overt (and possibly even offensive), then maybe more people might start questioning games (and politics) in general. And it might even make them more fun.
Besides, it's not like the existence of talk radio makes it any harder to find real political discussion, so why would it be the same with games?
Funny you mention Ender's Game, my first post originally referenced Card's Empire as an example of a real polemic that I still found enjoyable. Stupid beliefs and strawman characters don't necessarily result in boring plot and dumb dialog.
I attack the messenger, and you hen-peck my message. The point is most real-worldish plots are already polemic. Your argument is null in a world already populated with the likes of Splinter Cell and Rainbow 6. If you don't see the politics inherent in any real or imagined conflict, you're exactly the sort of namby-pamby audience who ruins games I might otherwise enjoy.
Too many people are afraid of being offended, going out of their way to avoid anything that frames a reality different their own. And what's wrong with games that do cater to your preconceptions? What is more gratifying than defeating something that embodies people and concepts for which you hold real contempt? Are games supposed to be some sort of emotionless intellectual exercise?
There is an alternative - create a story with a clear and obvious moral conclusion, but frame it in such a way to provoke outrage or self-reflection.
I've always wanted to play alternate history games where you assume the role of victims of American tyranny, such as a slave or a native American, and then turn the tables on your oppressors.
The church of global warming can't be real because God would not allow it? The church of global warming can't be real because humanity is not as powerful as nature? The church of global warming is not a problem because technology will save us?
It takes far more faith to dismiss the risk of global warming than it does to recognize it.
It wasn't that the attacked global warming. It's that he attacked global warming with a ridiculously stupid book full of straw men and inane moralizing. He's got this anti-environmentalist chip on his shoulder which is completely at odds with the "don't play god" theme prevalent in many of his other books.
This is what I learned from State of Fear: mankind can't possibly be causing global warming, because nature is too good at achieving equilibrium for the whole of human industry to affect it. That's why a few dozen hippies with some mining equipment have to create tsunamis to make it seem real, utilizing the principle that nature is fragile and subtle changes can have widespread effects. Wait, what..?
Which reminds me of the other pet "debunking" of people like Crichton: all the Malthusian predictions of catastrophe caused by population explosion where chicken little nonsense, because the "green revolution" gave us the means to feed them all, and for that, the scientists are heroes for saving millions of lives, you know, because people would have otherwise starved (because of the population explosion).
It's not political correctness to be afraid of your ass getting bombed. Muslims are fucking ka-ka-KRAZY!
One more thing - by the powers vested in me as a member of the Anglo-Saxon master race, I hereby give all members of the lesser races permission to ridicule the white man, especially those right-wing wankers who whine about it.
And when was the last time a Flash application did something useful? As much as they are trying to repurpose themselves, Flash is still a toy for games and marketing.
Java was slow and clunky because it is a general purpose language and bytecode that runs on a virtual machine that runs on anything and enforces the same security model everywhere.
ActiveX was as fast as any native application, and runs on 90% of the world's desktop PCs without having to install a runtime, and it lets a 12-year-old root your box.
So AJAX wins, not because it is better, but because it has none of these flaws.
Wow, there are enough people in North America whose interest in the PS3 is just high enough that they're willing to wait to buy it at a discount without sales tax. That's a powerful testament to the popularity of the platform you got there, mister.
Which is why people are foolish to dismiss the N-Gage based on the failures of the first two. Nokia is clearly learning from past mistakes.
Granted, I think the finest PDA ever made was the Tapwave Zodiac, and look how that turned out. Kick-ass portable computer does not equal kick-ass portable game console.
Linux is largely irrelevant to most of us, because we don't speak Chinese. In North America, Symbian is largely irrelevant, because BlackBerry, Treo, and Windows Mobile command the majority of the market. And, of course, you can never trust these sorts of numbers, because the market groups that come up with them tend to choose definitions that flatter their sponsors. Kind of like how Rogerborg was intentionally ignoring the "smart" in the word smartphone.
Yes, it is. So ridiculously so that I'm shocked that people are stupid enough to fall for this propaganda.
When, and if, Apple quits using security as the excuse for the closed platform, and opens development using the code signing model they're already developing for Leopard, you'll need to pay the certificate racket just as well.
I could ridicule your crippled definition of "smartphone", arguing semantics like beating a dead horse, but I don't have to. There is one important thing a smartphone does that the iPhone does not do: allow business to write customized applications that are deployed in-house. After email, this is the market driving BlackBerry, Treo, and Nokia E-Series sales. These phones are tools for real business, while the iPhone is a consumer luxury toy.
The WinCE API is Win32, though a subset. Given the distinctiveness of the iPhone user interface, I imagine the porting effort will be vastly more involved going from traditional OS X to iPhone than traditional Windows to Windows Mobile.
Indeed. When you discover an exploit, you should sell it to the highest bidder. It keeps your hands clean, and it punishes the people who would otherwise punish you.
Why do people keep pointing out he was escorted out of the building? Most companies do that as policy for anyone getting sacked.
This sounds like nothing more than someone with authority getting pissy when he discovered the guy was leaving for a competitor, and a bitchy sales guy talking some smack that could get his own ass fired. There is plenty of room in this world for tactless and reckless idiots to rise to positions of responsibility.
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Don't forget the lack of third party software. Why doesn't Jobs understand that hardware is merely an orifice to stick software?
And the idea that Apple has so much clout is laughable. The carriers will sell whatever Nokia gives them. Apple is just the first willing to accept the risk and expense of reimplementing voicemail, which is why they had no choice but to start with a single carrier.
Unlocked GSM phones work perfectly well on T-Mobile.
When did it stop being acceptable to hate the religion and not the religious? What kind of double-standard are you trying to apply here?
There are billions of decent honest people who believe in a religion. There are also billions infected with some form of communicable disease. Does the desire to eradicate the diseases necessarily imply a desire to eradicate the carriers? Does these infection somehow invalidate anything the infected achieve?
> For traditional materialistic evolution to work correctly we have to be just another chance occurrence with a "nothing to see here, move right along" sign tacked to our foreheads.
It also you means your grandfather throws his own poo.
When is a Guild Wars scandal going to shut you guys up? It's so nice not to see people hawking EVE anymore.
Comparing GW graphics to WoW is like saying The Polar Express looked better than The Incredibles.
Yeah, not many games make explicit connections to real politics (though there is one set in Venezuela that's ruffling feathers), but there is the assumption in most real-world military simulations that the other side is evil while our side is innocent. The absence of any moral justification for these pretend wars against real countries is worse than any polemic. If the ideology or agenda of some games is overt (and possibly even offensive), then maybe more people might start questioning games (and politics) in general. And it might even make them more fun.
Besides, it's not like the existence of talk radio makes it any harder to find real political discussion, so why would it be the same with games?
Funny you mention Ender's Game, my first post originally referenced Card's Empire as an example of a real polemic that I still found enjoyable. Stupid beliefs and strawman characters don't necessarily result in boring plot and dumb dialog.
I attack the messenger, and you hen-peck my message. The point is most real-worldish plots are already polemic. Your argument is null in a world already populated with the likes of Splinter Cell and Rainbow 6. If you don't see the politics inherent in any real or imagined conflict, you're exactly the sort of namby-pamby audience who ruins games I might otherwise enjoy.
Too many people are afraid of being offended, going out of their way to avoid anything that frames a reality different their own. And what's wrong with games that do cater to your preconceptions? What is more gratifying than defeating something that embodies people and concepts for which you hold real contempt? Are games supposed to be some sort of emotionless intellectual exercise?
There is an alternative - create a story with a clear and obvious moral conclusion, but frame it in such a way to provoke outrage or self-reflection.
I've always wanted to play alternate history games where you assume the role of victims of American tyranny, such as a slave or a native American, and then turn the tables on your oppressors.
You're whining that a game called "Area 51" is using a standard X-Files plot device because it is too "polemic"?
Have you ever read a book? Do ideas threaten you? Even cartoonish strawmen repudiations of your beliefs?
Maybe you should stick to Left Behind: Eternal Forces. There is a rebellious subtext to most video games that will make you uncomfortable.
So which church do you belong to?
The church of global warming can't be real because God would not allow it?
The church of global warming can't be real because humanity is not as powerful as nature?
The church of global warming is not a problem because technology will save us?
It takes far more faith to dismiss the risk of global warming than it does to recognize it.
It wasn't that the attacked global warming. It's that he attacked global warming with a ridiculously stupid book full of straw men and inane moralizing. He's got this anti-environmentalist chip on his shoulder which is completely at odds with the "don't play god" theme prevalent in many of his other books.
This is what I learned from State of Fear: mankind can't possibly be causing global warming, because nature is too good at achieving equilibrium for the whole of human industry to affect it. That's why a few dozen hippies with some mining equipment have to create tsunamis to make it seem real, utilizing the principle that nature is fragile and subtle changes can have widespread effects. Wait, what..?
Which reminds me of the other pet "debunking" of people like Crichton: all the Malthusian predictions of catastrophe caused by population explosion where chicken little nonsense, because the "green revolution" gave us the means to feed them all, and for that, the scientists are heroes for saving millions of lives, you know, because people would have otherwise starved (because of the population explosion).
I don't care about whether it is ethical or moral to pirate - this is only my opinion and I refuse to change it
You choose to be poor and irrelevant forever? That's quite an ideology you got there.
It's not political correctness to be afraid of your ass getting bombed. Muslims are fucking ka-ka-KRAZY!
One more thing - by the powers vested in me as a member of the Anglo-Saxon master race, I hereby give all members of the lesser races permission to ridicule the white man, especially those right-wing wankers who whine about it.
You, sir, are a troll. The moderator said so.
Hecubus is the coolest entity on Earth. Apple is the most evil.
And when was the last time a Flash application did something useful? As much as they are trying to repurpose themselves, Flash is still a toy for games and marketing.
Java was slow and clunky because it is a general purpose language and bytecode that runs on a virtual machine that runs on anything and enforces the same security model everywhere.
ActiveX was as fast as any native application, and runs on 90% of the world's desktop PCs without having to install a runtime, and it lets a 12-year-old root your box.
So AJAX wins, not because it is better, but because it has none of these flaws.
But a Mars mission doesn't have the payload capacity for rum and lashes.
Why are people modding a joke insightful? You're making a joke, right?
Wow, there are enough people in North America whose interest in the PS3 is just high enough that they're willing to wait to buy it at a discount without sales tax. That's a powerful testament to the popularity of the platform you got there, mister.
Which is why people are foolish to dismiss the N-Gage based on the failures of the first two. Nokia is clearly learning from past mistakes.
Granted, I think the finest PDA ever made was the Tapwave Zodiac, and look how that turned out. Kick-ass portable computer does not equal kick-ass portable game console.
Linux is largely irrelevant to most of us, because we don't speak Chinese. In North America, Symbian is largely irrelevant, because BlackBerry, Treo, and Windows Mobile command the majority of the market. And, of course, you can never trust these sorts of numbers, because the market groups that come up with them tend to choose definitions that flatter their sponsors. Kind of like how Rogerborg was intentionally ignoring the "smart" in the word smartphone.
Sure, that's SO MUCH more open.
Yes, it is. So ridiculously so that I'm shocked that people are stupid enough to fall for this propaganda.
When, and if, Apple quits using security as the excuse for the closed platform, and opens development using the code signing model they're already developing for Leopard, you'll need to pay the certificate racket just as well.
I could ridicule your crippled definition of "smartphone", arguing semantics like beating a dead horse, but I don't have to. There is one important thing a smartphone does that the iPhone does not do: allow business to write customized applications that are deployed in-house. After email, this is the market driving BlackBerry, Treo, and Nokia E-Series sales. These phones are tools for real business, while the iPhone is a consumer luxury toy.
The WinCE API is Win32, though a subset. Given the distinctiveness of the iPhone user interface, I imagine the porting effort will be vastly more involved going from traditional OS X to iPhone than traditional Windows to Windows Mobile.
Stop writing malicious scripts.
Indeed. When you discover an exploit, you should sell it to the highest bidder. It keeps your hands clean, and it punishes the people who would otherwise punish you.
Why do people keep pointing out he was escorted out of the building? Most companies do that as policy for anyone getting sacked.
This sounds like nothing more than someone with authority getting pissy when he discovered the guy was leaving for a competitor, and a bitchy sales guy talking some smack that could get his own ass fired. There is plenty of room in this world for tactless and reckless idiots to rise to positions of responsibility.