Bear in mind that, for that $5/month, you get access to play all Xbox Live-enabled games, not just Halo 2. That means things like Project Gotham Racing 2, MechAssault, ESPN NHL 2K5, Tetris Worlds Live, and World Championship Poker (to use examples from my own game collection), all for one price.
Pretty good deal, if you ask me...and, the more games you have that are Live-enabled, the better a deal it is.
OK, that's the basic info, but looks like there will be more details later. Good deal. (Apparently, they're doing more than just integrating the new maps into the existing playlists...they'll be adding a new 2-on-2 playlist, among other things.)
Sounds reasonable to me (and a good reason for me to go ahead and get the new maps right away), but I'm hoping to see some confirmation of this soon on bungie.net.
(Of course, I still pretty much suck at multiplayer Halo 2, so whom am I kidding?:-) )
Also, in order to use the new maps in online matchmaking play (i.e. ranked games or training games), Bungie would have to add gametypes that use the new maps to the default playlists. Which I gather they won't do until they're pretty sure the new maps are in wide distribution. News is forthcoming "shortly" on the update of the matchmaking playlists.
It sounded even better on a real wavetable synth card like the Sound Blaster AWE32. Most evocative, I think, was the music from E2M7 and E3M7, supposedly entitled, "Waltz of the Demons." (see this WP article).
You've got that right. I tried loading the OXM demo for Chaos Theory and running through the "tutorial" videos. All they did was confuse me, and I wound up quitting without launching the actual demo game. I mean, would it have killed them to put some actual text captions on those videos, saying "PRESS (A) TO JUMP" or whatever?
Another reason to think they failed their own test:
"But I probably did get docked for forgetting to send an attachment with the e-mail as required by the test question."
Haven't the ETS people learned yet? Sending an unsolicited attachment with your E-mail message is the best way of ensuring that said message hits the bit-bucket unread. (At least, if your recipient has enough brains to hit the floor with their hat...)
Ricochet gives you bandwidth anywhere from 128K to 400K, depending on conditions. I used to use it before we outgrew it (they have a 1 Gb/week download maximum, and, if you exceed it, they can cut you off) and switched to a Comcast cable modem, but I still think it's a good solution. Ricochet does work well with Linux, once you set up the kernel drivers correctly.
This municipal wireless network thing would be interesting (perhaps as a backup to the cable modem), but I haven't been able to use my 802.11b card with my notebook ever since I upgraded to FC2 and a 2.6 kernel.
I doubt we'll ever know an answer to that question...but, for a plausible account, nothing I've ever read beats the account at the end of Bill Whittle's essay COURAGE. The whole essay itself is decidedly worth your time to read it, so go there now.
As for me...I'll continue to muse on Tom Hanks' line at the end of Apollo 13:
"I look up at the moon, and I wonder: When will we be going back? And who will that be?"
That's not what I meant at all. I received unsolicited commercial E-mail advertising Netflix, and I have never been a customer of theirs. And, unless I see some proof that they no longer use such means to advertise their service, I will never be their customer, and I will encourage everyone I can to avoid them as well.
No, that's not what I meant at all. I have never used Netflix's service and I got spammed by them. (Of course, this was a couple of years ago; they may have forsaken the use of spam by now. But I'd like to see some proof that they've quit spamming...)
I decided not to do business with Netflix a while back, because they send spam. (That's not my page, but the guy who posted it apparently got the same spam messages I did.) I encourage everybody to avoid doing business with them until they stop abusing our inboxes.
Damn! I spotted the Slashdot headline and my jaw dropped as I thought, "Holy crap! My prayers have been answered!" Ah well, should have known it was too good to be true...for now, anyway.
But still, my Action Item Number One for Star Trek is "Fire Rick Berman and Brannon Braga immediately, and make sure they never have anything to do with Star Trek again." Paramount could still do that without involving JMS...but then again, I think a year or two off first is probably for the best, too.
So, it's "engineering good, sales & marketing bad?" Sounds like most companies out there (pretty much the Dilbert stereotype). Of course, MS' size magnifies the effects of both.
Well, all I can say is, if Microsoft were completely populated, or even majority-populated, by people like Mr. Taylor, Robert Scoble, and Raymond Chen, I would have substantially more hope that "peaceful coexistence" between Microsoft and the open-source community would be in fact possible. I thought Taylor sounded open-minded and willing to listen and learn, not just launch missiles of Redmond rhetoric. Good job for all concerned!
I'm not even sure whether the NHL will still exist in anything like its present form in another year. Of course, it may be replaced by some new league consisting of, say, the top dozen current NHL teams (in terms the money they make), in which case, I wouldn't be surprised if EA looks to line up a deal with them.
Pity. I enjoy Sega's ESPN NHL 2K5. Maybe Sega can work exclusive deals with the National Lacrosse League and Fox Sports Net.
Your story brought a tear to my eye. My condolences on your loss.
Odd how we'd choose the same two words in commemoration, from the same episode of the same series, one on an occasion of great joy, one on an occasion of great sorrow. The series speaks to each of us in so many different ways.
Slashdot Mirror
No need. It just froze over. Don't believe me? Ask those flying pigs over there.
How much did Microsoft pay you to say that? Approximate dollar figures will do...
Year 2015:
Liz: "Is Dilbert available?"
Dogbert: "He's been in the holodeck since March."
Pretty good deal, if you ask me...and, the more games you have that are Live-enabled, the better a deal it is.
OK, that's the basic info, but looks like there will be more details later. Good deal. (Apparently, they're doing more than just integrating the new maps into the existing playlists...they'll be adding a new 2-on-2 playlist, among other things.)
(Of course, I still pretty much suck at multiplayer Halo 2, so whom am I kidding? :-) )
Also, in order to use the new maps in online matchmaking play (i.e. ranked games or training games), Bungie would have to add gametypes that use the new maps to the default playlists. Which I gather they won't do until they're pretty sure the new maps are in wide distribution. News is forthcoming "shortly" on the update of the matchmaking playlists.
It sounded even better on a real wavetable synth card like the Sound Blaster AWE32. Most evocative, I think, was the music from E2M7 and E3M7, supposedly entitled, "Waltz of the Demons." (see this WP article).
Or, in other words, "Payback's a bitch, ain't it?"
You've got that right. I tried loading the OXM demo for Chaos Theory and running through the "tutorial" videos. All they did was confuse me, and I wound up quitting without launching the actual demo game. I mean, would it have killed them to put some actual text captions on those videos, saying "PRESS (A) TO JUMP" or whatever?
I'm hoping they'll wheel out Freedom and Independence, the X-71s. :-)
"But I probably did get docked for forgetting to send an attachment with the e-mail as required by the test question."
Haven't the ETS people learned yet? Sending an unsolicited attachment with your E-mail message is the best way of ensuring that said message hits the bit-bucket unread. (At least, if your recipient has enough brains to hit the floor with their hat...)
The reporter passed the test. ETS flunks.
This municipal wireless network thing would be interesting (perhaps as a backup to the cable modem), but I haven't been able to use my 802.11b card with my notebook ever since I upgraded to FC2 and a 2.6 kernel.
Fortunately, WFS got turned down...someone at Paramount must have had a sudden onset of senile sanity.
As for me...I'll continue to muse on Tom Hanks' line at the end of Apollo 13:
"I look up at the moon, and I wonder: When will we be going back? And who will that be?"
Also, in poker (specifically Texas Hold'em), "Ajax" is slang for the hole cards Ace-Jack. (This hand is sometimes also called "Blackjack.")
That's not what I meant at all. I received unsolicited commercial E-mail advertising Netflix, and I have never been a customer of theirs. And, unless I see some proof that they no longer use such means to advertise their service, I will never be their customer, and I will encourage everyone I can to avoid them as well.
No, that's not what I meant at all. I have never used Netflix's service and I got spammed by them. (Of course, this was a couple of years ago; they may have forsaken the use of spam by now. But I'd like to see some proof that they've quit spamming...)
I decided not to do business with Netflix a while back, because they send spam. (That's not my page, but the guy who posted it apparently got the same spam messages I did.) I encourage everybody to avoid doing business with them until they stop abusing our inboxes.
But still, my Action Item Number One for Star Trek is "Fire Rick Berman and Brannon Braga immediately, and make sure they never have anything to do with Star Trek again." Paramount could still do that without involving JMS...but then again, I think a year or two off first is probably for the best, too.
So, it's "engineering good, sales & marketing bad?" Sounds like most companies out there (pretty much the Dilbert stereotype). Of course, MS' size magnifies the effects of both.
Well, all I can say is, if Microsoft were completely populated, or even majority-populated, by people like Mr. Taylor, Robert Scoble, and Raymond Chen, I would have substantially more hope that "peaceful coexistence" between Microsoft and the open-source community would be in fact possible. I thought Taylor sounded open-minded and willing to listen and learn, not just launch missiles of Redmond rhetoric. Good job for all concerned!
Should also be one step closer to the wristwatch phone...or, if you prefer, the Star Trek combadge.
Pity. I enjoy Sega's ESPN NHL 2K5. Maybe Sega can work exclusive deals with the National Lacrosse League and Fox Sports Net.
Odd how we'd choose the same two words in commemoration, from the same episode of the same series, one on an occasion of great joy, one on an occasion of great sorrow. The series speaks to each of us in so many different ways.