And truthfully, while it was another exceptional movie for Pixar, I didn't find it all that entertaining. Give me Monsters Inc. or a Miyazaki movie any day.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you just put Monsters Inc and Miyazaki in the same sentence?
Castles in the Sky and the brilliant Spirited Away are so far above Monster's Inc. it's hard to even compare the two.
Monster's Inc. is one of the worst Pixar films (and by worst, I mean better than anything Disney's put out in the last decade, but probably one of the lowest ranking in the Pixar catalogue). Here's the entire plot of Monster's Inc: get the girl, lose the girl, get the girl, lose the girl, get the girl...
You get the idea. It was cute. It had a few funny lines. It benefited from its star power and voice work. But really, when you try to compare the magic of something like Miyazaki's work to a Pixar film, bring out the big guns. Finding Nemo is on par, so are the Toy Story films. I always thought A Bug's Life was underrated, but might not reach the same level of excellence.
Considering I help run the poor site that got the slashdotting, I figured I'd chime in with some +1 Informative info on this "Star Chamber" game thingy.
Firstly, it is a collectable card game. All cards are virtual with no real counterparts (ala Magic: The Gathering Online), and with no plans to.
Resellers are provided to sell individual cards or "Event Tickets" which let you play in tournaments. However, to play the game online with other people, you don't have to pay anything at all: however, to play ranked games, and to play in tournaments, you must make a purchase from the official Star Chamber Card Store located here. Generally, $20 will get you on your way, but $30 will get you the best all-around set to start trading and creating effective decks to play ranked games with.
Considering this game is so small, its reviews have been fantastic. It seems most of the current player set has either heard the collective praise from Gamespot's glowing review (8.8) or Tycho's Penny Arcade mentions.
However, the good reviews still pour in from GameZone and Ferrago.
I heard about this game about a month ago. Since that time, I can't fathom how much this game has endeared itself to me. As soon as I saw the lack of a good community website, I began to build one with the help of another community member with the same idea. Then I built a non-profit card store to help further the game, using osCommerce, located at scfans.net, though there are other resellers on the books, such as Gameguys and IBK, to be completely fair.
The bottom line is, in terms of pure gameplay fun, excitement, and community involvement (the developer, Paul aka Merakon, is on almost every evening, and his support in getting SCWatch.net up and running has been stellar to say the least.
If you dig a good strategy game, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
If that were the case, why not launch before christmas.
My case in point: The GBA SP
On Christmas 2002, my wife got me a GBA, Metroid Fusion, along with a light attachment. I was enthused to say the least, and enjoyed it for about two weeks...
Until Nintendo announced, on January 6th, 2003 that their Gameboy SP was coming in February, complete with the why-didn't-they-include-it-in-the-first-place backlight and rechargable battery.
To put it mildly, I was fucking upset. Who would rather have the non-backlit and AA version when you could get a smaler and better designed alternative? While it didn't make me toss the GBA (it is a great system), it certainly put me in a mindset that any sweet geek toy I'm interested in gets a few more weeks of speculation from now on before I take the plunge.
I agree, the wishlists are restricting. There are other places to do non-amazon-only wishlists, and I chose The Things I Want, whose wishlist is easy to find (based on name seach or you can give them an url to click on), and it automatically pulls pictures for them, AND allows them buttons to tell other family members if this is purchased already.
Um, excuse me. What the hell are you talking about?
Rent is paying for the use of something temporarily. Debt is being a slave to the borrower, period. You can put it in whatever PC term you choose best. If you owe someone money, they control your finances until you are relieved of this debt.
Now, if you're speaking of leases, that could be considered debt because a lease is worth the entire term of said rent. This could be considered temporary debt at best.
This guy knows his shite. He's a pro-cash guy. And while I can't go full-tilt into his scheme, it's important to realize that rent is not debt, no matter how you see it.
Rent == Eternal debt. Where do you guys come up with this garbage?
It's funny to note who actually recognizes the video game sound effects they steal, er, "use."
The Smashing Pumpkins used Doom's barrel explosion sound on their Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness release, on the song "Where Boys Fear To Tread."
Look in the liner notes and you'll find this:
"Explosion from DOOM courtesy of id Software, Inc and bobby prince Music"
Now, if you were to talk about letting one guy have the idea and having a group of people work to achieve it, I'd stand behind it. Individual creativity is far more interesting than watching decisions made because "people named Theo might be offended at the title beginning with The".
Dig that last line. Makes me think of when all of those over-sensitive people who asked P. Jackson to change the title of "The Two Towers" to something different because it "just might be offending" those who lost loved ones on 9/11.
Sometimes it's better to just let one guy take the reins and actually, you know, trust him.
This will never come to pass. There is simply too much money, marketing, and release management to allow this.
Only the largest of films, such as The Matrix or Lord of the Rings (or Spiderman 2) will have the ability to be released worldwide into the cinema.
Why is every movie released this way? Well, translations of course. And sometimes some editing, depending on the culture of where a film is being shown. For example, you may see some cuts in the US version that aren't in the british release or vice versa. Or singapore, just to pull one from the air.
The fact is that region coding allows films to be released faster and a universal region code would slow down this process considerably (just imagine the work for all of those extras to be released in their respective languages).
But perhaps that's too narrow. Let's just say we released the english version with no region codes. That's fine for huge films such as the blockbusters mentioned before, but what about smaller films, such as Jersey Girl, Kevin Smith's new picture which will come out in February but will definitely have a delay before it reaches places like Australia. Changes like this could ruin smaller films chances at box office success in other countries.
On the other side of the coin, 28 Days Later was on Region 2 DVD before it was available to be seen in US cinemas. And its good it wasn't a universal region code--the film opened to excellent and stable box office, something that would've never, ever happened if this ridiculous idea was embraced.
I think your high brow attitude to this is really uncalled for. It is not Nap2 nor iTunes fault that they do not carry live recordings or obscure artists.
One, most bootleg live recordings are awful. This alone would prevent the record company from releasing it on a pay-to-play basis. No one wants to sound bad, from the band to top exec. Jim ConcertGoer's tape recorder can't match a professionally mixed live show, such as Coldplay's new record.
Secondly, which ones? Let's just say that the record company did want to release a live recording of a show, for a discounted price (due to quality). Sally's recording is great on a few songs, but Jim's is better on the encore. Should they mix and match? This would take time and money, not to mention the money to get all of this arranged.
But it seems you've conceded this point. Now let's get to the issue of "selling the music" as you so boldly put it.
I'm sure that by that statement you don't know much about publishing rights. Everytime a song is played somewhere, the RIAA wants their due.
Not to mention the record companies and/or the people who own the publishing rights. For example, Michael Jackson (yes, that MJ) owns all of the publishing rights to the Beatles music. He's thinking of selling it to pay for his legal defense. Until Michael agrees to let iTunes or Nap2 use it, regardless of what the RIAA thinks about it, the Beatles records will never see the light of day on such services. Sure you can find covers and tributes, but the official recordings are at the bidding of their owner.
As far as obscure and/or independent music, that's where you come in. How does some obscure small label band know that its fans want their music on iTunes? They're touring most of the year, they might get some feedback from backstage fans hanging out, but if you really want their music available there, contact their record company. Their management. Their representatives. You'd be surprised how far you get by a simple letter or phone call.
Personally I'd like to see more private investment in space, but I think that there is going to have to be a core of federal money to get the ball rolling.
Haven't you ever seen Fight Club?
"The Microsoft Galaxy. Planet Starbucks..."
No, please don't let the Moon be "brought to you by Nike"
Quantum computing adds I believe, 26 different levels to the traditional "on/off", "yes/no", "1s and 0s" approach to the transistor. It doesn't use transistors in the traditional sense, however...it uses quarks, and taps into the power of the multiple universes linked to our own.
Multiple universes. Nice. You might be thinking of multiple dimensions, something that string theory deals with.
A good book to read is Timeline by Michael Crichton, if you are interested in quantum computing.
Ah yes, I take all of my scientific know-how from reading fiction.
Yes, that last line was a joke. And ironic, if read the right frame of mind.
Personally, I think this "formula" is just silly. But interesting, I suppose.
As for me, I love board games. I love the different aspects of the games, the way they keep things interesting yet simple, how much damn fun they are. Board games get a lot more favor around the holidays in my family get-together's than cards do.
I'm The Boss! looks the most promising. Freeloader is cool, and Light Speed looks like something me and a friend might wittle away time with. However, I keep drifitn back to Mystery of the Abbey, a "thinking man's Clue."
I live in TN, so maybe I can shed some light here. Well, Eastern TN anyway.
Firstly, it is a very cheap place to live. You can make a fantastic living for the amount it takes to rent a small apartment in a big city.
However, the cost of living is so low here for a few reasons.
Firstly, it simply hasn't been overrun by corporations yet. That's the most obvious answer. The other is the TVA, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the local utility here. They might be having some problems, but who knows. But according to national average, our electric/water bills are among the lowest in the nation. This is a big help.
However, even with our educational programs here (University of TN, a bunch of tech colleges, etc), we don't have the skilled workforce that a city the size of Atlanta does. With skilled workers you have high paying companies, but it's a catch-22 situation. There's a lot of waiting and seeing around here, with a company 'thinking' about moving in, then finding they can't staff said company sufficiently.
Personally, I live near Oak Ridge, aka the place the atom bomb was built. It's pretty neat to hear the air sirens being tested, blaring out in the middle of the day. I'm very close to ORNL (Oak Ridge National Labs) and the Y-12 nuclear plant, so that's interesting. These plants provide a lot of the high paying jobs, as well as some big corporations around Knoxville.
I can see how Dell would like to move their company here, for reasons stated above. Not that I like people losing their jobs or their high wages, but it makes sense from a business standpoint.
Another time I wanted to email a song to a friend -- I thought he'd like it and maybe buy the album. Of course he couldn't play it. Nice.
I think the word you're looking for is "Duh."
I don't feel this is really Apple's fault -- they've done as well as you can with DRM, but the fact is that it just sucks.
DRM is not in the shape it needs to be, but it looks like it may never be. There simply isn't a non-invasive approach that can still tell how many times you've used said goods, and where, and keeps track of it legally.
Apple has done the best they can, and it's certainly less invasive than Microsoft's own DRM.
I now realize that I paid for an _inferior_ product to what I could have gotten for free. I would rather download a bit slower, get a lower bitrate, and be able to use my damn music like I can with any other medium!
Firstly, you didn't pay for iTunes. You paid for the song(s). If you think they are an inferior product, stop buying them.
If you feel that you can jump on Kazaa and download a song, then that is your right. But you forked over your $.99 and, as a geek, you really have no room to talk as to how you were 'hoodwinked' into buying something inferior.
At this point I equate your rant to a child screaming for a piece of candy, then complaining about it when the candy got on his clothes. "They need to make better candy," the child would say.
You know, I had an ounce of respect for the guy when I read your comment, but lets face it, anyone who ends their letters in "BYEZ" needs to get a bit more maturity before I can get behind their cause.
If he runs a bash script to tie up game servers he's just an asshole, not a martyr.
Oh yeah, I remember the lense-flaring lights when the game started, and the unbelievably intense scripting of that first Skarrg (think that's the right spelling) in the elevator.
Between the graphics and the scripting of those first few levels (lets face it, the game couldn't keep pace with itself), I was hooked on the new graphical and gameplaying goodness.
Anymore, it seems as though the scripting is getting the mainstage, and maybe someday we'll reminisce on how great this or that sequence was, even if it was scripted.
Off the top of my head I can think of Unreal, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, and of course Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
I had a 3dfx Monster3d (Voodoo 1) back in Winter 1996, when it first came out. I remember the passthru cable that connected to my turbocharged 2MB video card and my overclocked P150 (to a P166, yeah baby!), and I certainly recall the brilliance of GL Quake and the absolutely gorgeous Grand Theft Auto (1!) after it supported Glide.
I also recall the controversy of transparent water in Quake and how that was considered "cheating" by en large. Those poor non-accelerated folks had to get in the water first to see anything!
Me, I'd just wait until they all jumped in the water and fire off that Lightning Gun. Sure it's suicide, but is it really suicide when you get to roast at least 5 or more people at the same time? DM3, how I miss thee.
One site that I can actually stand and is totally flash-based is triggerstreet.com, the amateur moviemaking outlet from Billy Crystal and Kevin Spacey (though neither have actual development/involvement with the site other than name).
Regardless, despite its flash-ness, it is suprisingly useful and stable. Though there are limits with such bold moves as running your whole site on such a system:
1. The search sucks
2. Script reviews are limited to 600 characters (WTF?)
I think the most interesting (and sad) thing about the MMORPG you're pimping is the fact that there are NO screenshots and/or gameplay demonstrations anywhere on the site.
If they want people to sign up and play, they need to be absolutely clear (with pictures and descriptions) as to what it is they're getting into.
To feed the trolls? Or is the new Politically Correct term "zealots"?
Anyway, a few things:
Firstly, Linux nor OpenBSD has anything remotely as advanced as Exchange. Sorry, and please spare me the links to web-based solutions. If it isn't going to integrate into Outlook, the business world as I've known it for almost a decade isn't going to buy it.
Secondly, and most importantly, Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft. In a small shop, if your the only guy who knows how to administrate a *nix box, or *nix-like box (ie, BSD), they're not going to go for it. It's called "support contracts." And most business managers know very little about Unix or BSD, and if they do they like to keep these systems to a minimum, for other things they like to add on...
Which brings me to my last point: 3rd party software. For example, my place of employment decided that we needed electronic timesheets, kept in a central database. After I put in 4-5 months of work on a custom built PHP/MySQL solution, they decided a $50k+ solution was the right thing because it ran on Windows (yes, that was actually one of the reasons), used Microsoft SQL Server, and had a Support Contract. At that point Sys Admins are downgraded into "Can you make this work?" employees, which I grumbled a positive and they bought it immediately.
Just because the advocates, zealots, and proponents of better designed and better equipped operating systems or hardware scream how great their chosen product is, OpenBSD nor Linux has enough support to fit into my area of expertise (the financial institution industry), no matter how much I want it to.
This is a firewall issue that took me days to fix.
In Norton Personal Firewall, I found that if I disabled the firewall, signed on and could see the homepage, and then turned it back on, it works just fine.
I've read that there are download sites with different IPs, but even after I put those in it didn't allow me to browse without the disable/enable thing.
Slashdot Mirror
And truthfully, while it was another exceptional movie for Pixar, I didn't find it all that entertaining. Give me Monsters Inc. or a Miyazaki movie any day.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Did you just put Monsters Inc and Miyazaki in the same sentence?
Castles in the Sky and the brilliant Spirited Away are so far above Monster's Inc. it's hard to even compare the two.
Monster's Inc. is one of the worst Pixar films (and by worst, I mean better than anything Disney's put out in the last decade, but probably one of the lowest ranking in the Pixar catalogue). Here's the entire plot of Monster's Inc: get the girl, lose the girl, get the girl, lose the girl, get the girl...
You get the idea. It was cute. It had a few funny lines. It benefited from its star power and voice work. But really, when you try to compare the magic of something like Miyazaki's work to a Pixar film, bring out the big guns. Finding Nemo is on par, so are the Toy Story films. I always thought A Bug's Life was underrated, but might not reach the same level of excellence.
Firstly, it is a collectable card game. All cards are virtual with no real counterparts (ala Magic: The Gathering Online), and with no plans to.
Resellers are provided to sell individual cards or "Event Tickets" which let you play in tournaments. However, to play the game online with other people, you don't have to pay anything at all: however, to play ranked games, and to play in tournaments, you must make a purchase from the official Star Chamber Card Store located here. Generally, $20 will get you on your way, but $30 will get you the best all-around set to start trading and creating effective decks to play ranked games with.
Considering this game is so small, its reviews have been fantastic. It seems most of the current player set has either heard the collective praise from Gamespot's glowing review (8.8) or Tycho's Penny Arcade mentions.
However, the good reviews still pour in from GameZone and Ferrago.
I heard about this game about a month ago. Since that time, I can't fathom how much this game has endeared itself to me. As soon as I saw the lack of a good community website, I began to build one with the help of another community member with the same idea. Then I built a non-profit card store to help further the game, using osCommerce, located at scfans.net, though there are other resellers on the books, such as Gameguys and IBK, to be completely fair.
The bottom line is, in terms of pure gameplay fun, excitement, and community involvement (the developer, Paul aka Merakon, is on almost every evening, and his support in getting SCWatch.net up and running has been stellar to say the least.
If you dig a good strategy game, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
If that were the case, why not launch before christmas.
My case in point: The GBA SP
On Christmas 2002, my wife got me a GBA, Metroid Fusion, along with a light attachment. I was enthused to say the least, and enjoyed it for about two weeks...
Until Nintendo announced, on January 6th, 2003 that their Gameboy SP was coming in February, complete with the why-didn't-they-include-it-in-the-first-place backlight and rechargable battery.
To put it mildly, I was fucking upset. Who would rather have the non-backlit and AA version when you could get a smaler and better designed alternative? While it didn't make me toss the GBA (it is a great system), it certainly put me in a mindset that any sweet geek toy I'm interested in gets a few more weeks of speculation from now on before I take the plunge.
I agree, the wishlists are restricting. There are other places to do non-amazon-only wishlists, and I chose The Things I Want, whose wishlist is easy to find (based on name seach or you can give them an url to click on), and it automatically pulls pictures for them, AND allows them buttons to tell other family members if this is purchased already.
It paid off very well this xmas...
Rent is debt, it's a continuing eternal debt.
Um, excuse me. What the hell are you talking about?
Rent is paying for the use of something temporarily. Debt is being a slave to the borrower, period. You can put it in whatever PC term you choose best. If you owe someone money, they control your finances until you are relieved of this debt.
Now, if you're speaking of leases, that could be considered debt because a lease is worth the entire term of said rent. This could be considered temporary debt at best.
This guy knows his shite. He's a pro-cash guy. And while I can't go full-tilt into his scheme, it's important to realize that rent is not debt, no matter how you see it.
Rent == Eternal debt. Where do you guys come up with this garbage?
It's funny to note who actually recognizes the video game sound effects they steal, er, "use."
The Smashing Pumpkins used Doom's barrel explosion sound on their Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness release, on the song "Where Boys Fear To Tread."
Look in the liner notes and you'll find this:
"Explosion from DOOM courtesy of id Software, Inc and bobby prince Music"
Finding Nemo, of course, is one of the best animated films of all time. Disney is getting better and better with those.
Just for clarity, that's Pixar's baby. Disney just distributes and merchandises their films.
Disney hasn't had a good animated film out since Lilo and Stich, and let's not get into the muddled mess of Brother Bear. Treasure Planet anyone?
Now, if you were to talk about letting one guy have the idea and having a group of people work to achieve it, I'd stand behind it. Individual creativity is far more interesting than watching decisions made because "people named Theo might be offended at the title beginning with The".
Dig that last line. Makes me think of when all of those over-sensitive people who asked P. Jackson to change the title of "The Two Towers" to something different because it "just might be offending" those who lost loved ones on 9/11.
Sometimes it's better to just let one guy take the reins and actually, you know, trust him.
This will never come to pass. There is simply too much money, marketing, and release management to allow this.
Only the largest of films, such as The Matrix or Lord of the Rings (or Spiderman 2) will have the ability to be released worldwide into the cinema.
Why is every movie released this way? Well, translations of course. And sometimes some editing, depending on the culture of where a film is being shown. For example, you may see some cuts in the US version that aren't in the british release or vice versa. Or singapore, just to pull one from the air.
The fact is that region coding allows films to be released faster and a universal region code would slow down this process considerably (just imagine the work for all of those extras to be released in their respective languages).
But perhaps that's too narrow. Let's just say we released the english version with no region codes. That's fine for huge films such as the blockbusters mentioned before, but what about smaller films, such as Jersey Girl, Kevin Smith's new picture which will come out in February but will definitely have a delay before it reaches places like Australia. Changes like this could ruin smaller films chances at box office success in other countries.
On the other side of the coin, 28 Days Later was on Region 2 DVD before it was available to be seen in US cinemas. And its good it wasn't a universal region code--the film opened to excellent and stable box office, something that would've never, ever happened if this ridiculous idea was embraced.
I think your high brow attitude to this is really uncalled for. It is not Nap2 nor iTunes fault that they do not carry live recordings or obscure artists.
One, most bootleg live recordings are awful. This alone would prevent the record company from releasing it on a pay-to-play basis. No one wants to sound bad, from the band to top exec. Jim ConcertGoer's tape recorder can't match a professionally mixed live show, such as Coldplay's new record.
Secondly, which ones? Let's just say that the record company did want to release a live recording of a show, for a discounted price (due to quality). Sally's recording is great on a few songs, but Jim's is better on the encore. Should they mix and match? This would take time and money, not to mention the money to get all of this arranged.
But it seems you've conceded this point. Now let's get to the issue of "selling the music" as you so boldly put it.
I'm sure that by that statement you don't know much about publishing rights. Everytime a song is played somewhere, the RIAA wants their due.
Not to mention the record companies and/or the people who own the publishing rights. For example, Michael Jackson (yes, that MJ) owns all of the publishing rights to the Beatles music. He's thinking of selling it to pay for his legal defense. Until Michael agrees to let iTunes or Nap2 use it, regardless of what the RIAA thinks about it, the Beatles records will never see the light of day on such services. Sure you can find covers and tributes, but the official recordings are at the bidding of their owner.
As far as obscure and/or independent music, that's where you come in. How does some obscure small label band know that its fans want their music on iTunes? They're touring most of the year, they might get some feedback from backstage fans hanging out, but if you really want their music available there, contact their record company. Their management. Their representatives. You'd be surprised how far you get by a simple letter or phone call.
Let me speak for an astounding number of IT people when I say...
"FUCK!"
Personally I'd like to see more private investment in space, but I think that there is going to have to be a core of federal money to get the ball rolling.
Haven't you ever seen Fight Club?
"The Microsoft Galaxy. Planet Starbucks..."
No, please don't let the Moon be "brought to you by Nike"
Hah, good one. You had me until this line:
Quantum computing adds I believe, 26 different levels to the traditional "on/off", "yes/no", "1s and 0s" approach to the transistor. It doesn't use transistors in the traditional sense, however...it uses quarks, and taps into the power of the multiple universes linked to our own.
Multiple universes. Nice. You might be thinking of multiple dimensions, something that string theory deals with.
A good book to read is Timeline by Michael Crichton, if you are interested in quantum computing.
Ah yes, I take all of my scientific know-how from reading fiction.
Yes, that last line was a joke. And ironic, if read the right frame of mind.
As for me, I love board games. I love the different aspects of the games, the way they keep things interesting yet simple, how much damn fun they are. Board games get a lot more favor around the holidays in my family get-together's than cards do.
I found the Top 100 Board Games of the year. Awesome stuff here.
I'm The Boss! looks the most promising. Freeloader is cool, and Light Speed looks like something me and a friend might wittle away time with. However, I keep drifitn back to Mystery of the Abbey, a "thinking man's Clue."
They're working on it. It's called Froogle.
Just FYI
I live in TN, so maybe I can shed some light here. Well, Eastern TN anyway.
Firstly, it is a very cheap place to live. You can make a fantastic living for the amount it takes to rent a small apartment in a big city.
However, the cost of living is so low here for a few reasons.
Firstly, it simply hasn't been overrun by corporations yet. That's the most obvious answer. The other is the TVA, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the local utility here. They might be having some problems, but who knows. But according to national average, our electric/water bills are among the lowest in the nation. This is a big help.
However, even with our educational programs here (University of TN, a bunch of tech colleges, etc), we don't have the skilled workforce that a city the size of Atlanta does. With skilled workers you have high paying companies, but it's a catch-22 situation. There's a lot of waiting and seeing around here, with a company 'thinking' about moving in, then finding they can't staff said company sufficiently.
Personally, I live near Oak Ridge, aka the place the atom bomb was built. It's pretty neat to hear the air sirens being tested, blaring out in the middle of the day. I'm very close to ORNL (Oak Ridge National Labs) and the Y-12 nuclear plant, so that's interesting. These plants provide a lot of the high paying jobs, as well as some big corporations around Knoxville.
I can see how Dell would like to move their company here, for reasons stated above. Not that I like people losing their jobs or their high wages, but it makes sense from a business standpoint.
Another time I wanted to email a song to a friend -- I thought he'd like it and maybe buy the album. Of course he couldn't play it. Nice.
I think the word you're looking for is "Duh."
I don't feel this is really Apple's fault -- they've done as well as you can with DRM, but the fact is that it just sucks.
DRM is not in the shape it needs to be, but it looks like it may never be. There simply isn't a non-invasive approach that can still tell how many times you've used said goods, and where, and keeps track of it legally.
Apple has done the best they can, and it's certainly less invasive than Microsoft's own DRM.
I now realize that I paid for an _inferior_ product to what I could have gotten for free. I would rather download a bit slower, get a lower bitrate, and be able to use my damn music like I can with any other medium!
Firstly, you didn't pay for iTunes. You paid for the song(s). If you think they are an inferior product, stop buying them.
If you feel that you can jump on Kazaa and download a song, then that is your right. But you forked over your $.99 and, as a geek, you really have no room to talk as to how you were 'hoodwinked' into buying something inferior.
At this point I equate your rant to a child screaming for a piece of candy, then complaining about it when the candy got on his clothes. "They need to make better candy," the child would say.
Here's a fast mirror, for those interested.
You know, I had an ounce of respect for the guy when I read your comment, but lets face it, anyone who ends their letters in "BYEZ" needs to get a bit more maturity before I can get behind their cause.
If he runs a bash script to tie up game servers he's just an asshole, not a martyr.
Oh yeah, I remember the lense-flaring lights when the game started, and the unbelievably intense scripting of that first Skarrg (think that's the right spelling) in the elevator.
Between the graphics and the scripting of those first few levels (lets face it, the game couldn't keep pace with itself), I was hooked on the new graphical and gameplaying goodness.
Anymore, it seems as though the scripting is getting the mainstage, and maybe someday we'll reminisce on how great this or that sequence was, even if it was scripted.
Off the top of my head I can think of Unreal, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, and of course Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
I had a 3dfx Monster3d (Voodoo 1) back in Winter 1996, when it first came out. I remember the passthru cable that connected to my turbocharged 2MB video card and my overclocked P150 (to a P166, yeah baby!), and I certainly recall the brilliance of GL Quake and the absolutely gorgeous Grand Theft Auto (1!) after it supported Glide.
I also recall the controversy of transparent water in Quake and how that was considered "cheating" by en large. Those poor non-accelerated folks had to get in the water first to see anything!
Me, I'd just wait until they all jumped in the water and fire off that Lightning Gun. Sure it's suicide, but is it really suicide when you get to roast at least 5 or more people at the same time? DM3, how I miss thee.
One site that I can actually stand and is totally flash-based is triggerstreet.com, the amateur moviemaking outlet from Billy Crystal and Kevin Spacey (though neither have actual development/involvement with the site other than name).
Regardless, despite its flash-ness, it is suprisingly useful and stable. Though there are limits with such bold moves as running your whole site on such a system:
1. The search sucks
2. Script reviews are limited to 600 characters (WTF?)
Other than that, its pretty spiffy.
I think the most interesting (and sad) thing about the MMORPG you're pimping is the fact that there are NO screenshots and/or gameplay demonstrations anywhere on the site.
If they want people to sign up and play, they need to be absolutely clear (with pictures and descriptions) as to what it is they're getting into.
I'd consider it...if it had such information.
No wonder they're losing business.
To feed the trolls? Or is the new Politically Correct term "zealots"?
Anyway, a few things:
Firstly, Linux nor OpenBSD has anything remotely as advanced as Exchange. Sorry, and please spare me the links to web-based solutions. If it isn't going to integrate into Outlook, the business world as I've known it for almost a decade isn't going to buy it.
Secondly, and most importantly, Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft. In a small shop, if your the only guy who knows how to administrate a *nix box, or *nix-like box (ie, BSD), they're not going to go for it. It's called "support contracts." And most business managers know very little about Unix or BSD, and if they do they like to keep these systems to a minimum, for other things they like to add on...
Which brings me to my last point: 3rd party software. For example, my place of employment decided that we needed electronic timesheets, kept in a central database. After I put in 4-5 months of work on a custom built PHP/MySQL solution, they decided a $50k+ solution was the right thing because it ran on Windows (yes, that was actually one of the reasons), used Microsoft SQL Server, and had a Support Contract. At that point Sys Admins are downgraded into "Can you make this work?" employees, which I grumbled a positive and they bought it immediately.
Just because the advocates, zealots, and proponents of better designed and better equipped operating systems or hardware scream how great their chosen product is, OpenBSD nor Linux has enough support to fit into my area of expertise (the financial institution industry), no matter how much I want it to.
And trust me, I try at every corner.
This is a firewall issue that took me days to fix.
In Norton Personal Firewall, I found that if I disabled the firewall, signed on and could see the homepage, and then turned it back on, it works just fine.
I've read that there are download sites with different IPs, but even after I put those in it didn't allow me to browse without the disable/enable thing.