The problem isn't with the ESRB ratings, or the responsible parents. If it bleeds, it leads. Thus, video games don't figure into media reports until an M-rated game is found on some 13-year-old shooter's shelf.
And it doesn't matter if the inevitable lawsuit is won, lost, or dismissed by a clueful judge: The lawyers still get paid.
Their next song will proably be something along the lines of RATM's "renegades of funk"... a total joke.
The title track to Hypnotize is already getting airplay around here. They namedrop Tiananmen Square in the first line. They aren't going soft on us yet.
What I'm worried about is that Sony will pull a sort of bait-and-switch on Mesmerize/Hypnotize: Release Mesmerize clean, then drop the rootkit on Hypnotize. If I'm Serj or Daron, I'm rattling cages at Sony to make sure that doesn't happen. If it does, I think Serj will become the anti-Lars Ulrich.
(And let's just agree to disagree on "Renegades of Funk", shall we?)
For typical console purposes, standard definition is 640x480.
Microsoft has been advising X360 devs to target 16:9 720p (1280x720), and downsample to 480i for non-HD TVs. I have a feeling 1080i will be supported on X360 about as well as it was on the original XBox. (Do we really need X360's power for another Dragon's Lair title?)
I agree that, with a kick-ass PC, the X360 version would be a waste. As long as they learn from the mistakes of Deus Ex: Invisible War, and not dumb down the PC version to the console's level. (Maybe that's addressed in TFA. I can't read it through the blankety-blank filters at work.)
Oops. I meant to say that Qt 3 was never released under an OSI-compliant license for Windows. The X11 and Mac OS X versions were released under the GPL.
Well, that's not quite true anymore. KDE 3.x is based on Qt 3. Version 3 was never released under an OSI-compliant license, so there was no legal way to port it, short of porting the Linux/GPL version of Qt 3. That was in progress for a while.
Trolltech has since released Qt 4 for Windows under the GPL. That means that there are no longer any licensing issues preventing anyone from developing a Windows port of KDE 4. The core KDE libraries would have to be ported, but the underlying Qt libraries are already available and Free.
Methinks Mr. Szulik is jealous that a high-profile rival found a sugar daddy. I don't recall if Novell had their own distro before acquiring SuSE, but if it was that unmemorable, it was probably no great loss.
How about Best Buy, wanting to see if Halo2 is going to sell "well" or "break all records" from the initial feel? How about other developers, who want to see the competition? It's a HUGE place, and making 1 of the 3 days as media-only cuts the others' days by 33%.
(Oh, cripes, a car analogy...) Have you ever seen the schedule for the North American International Auto Show? Every January, the entire automotive world converges on Cobo Hall in Detroit. (Yeah, Detroit in January. It sucks every bit as bad as it sounds.) The schedule for the first week goes a little something like this:
Tuesday: All-day press conferences, media only.
Wednesday: All-day press conferences, media only.
Thursday: All-day press conferences, media only.
Friday: Big-money, black tie Charity Preview night.
Saturday: Open to the public. First day of two weeks of people deciding that the huge crowds and tight quarters in the way-too-small Cobo Hall is better than the crappy weather outside.
So, of course, I drive up there every year, weather permitting. (Weather not permitting, I wait until February and fly to Chicago. Mmmm, Gibson's...)
So why can't E3 do the same thing? Extend it to a fourth day, for industry insiders (devs, media, retailer reps) only? Well, yeah, there's that whole "paying to rent the convention center out for one more day" thing, but that's a perfectly valid reason. Better than "gee, I never thought of that", at least.
These remarks were made by another panelist, Kenneth Hertz, partner at Goldring Hertz and Lichtenstein LLP, a law firm representing major recording industry artists.
*: I say apparently because after viewing it once, I got a registration page, and it's too late on a Friday to bother with BugMeNot.
The problem is one of lockin. MS depricated ALL of the C standard library. Every strlen() is now a compile error. Best of all the only documented way to enable the old functionality (some obscure #pragma) was broken.
Are you sure that wasn't just early-beta cruft? Microsoft has been making a push for C and C++ standards compliance with VS2k3 and 2k5. And if functions like strlen() are failing, I doubt Microsoft would be able to use the compiler as dogfood.
You need to make up your mind. Here, you're complaining that Microsoft doesn't provide any bundled games, and that you have to buy one to "uncripple" your $400 purchase. But in this post, you complain about how retailer bundles include games you don't want. Goes to show that you can't please all of the people all of the time.
A few more points:
Those big $1000 4-games-and-extra-accessories bundles are from the retailer, not Microsoft. In fact, I'm not sure Microsoft can do anything about it without running afoul of price-fixing laws. (Besides, those bundles are a scam that makes it look like there's a shortage, when you'll be able to walk into any random Target and pick up exactly what you want, and nothing more.)
Sony and Nintendo do the same thing. The box, one controller, and lowest common denominator AV pack. That's how I bought my XBox, that's how I bought my PlayStation 2. Of course, given the difference in cost between the XBox360 bundle and the XBox360 core + hard drive + wireless controller + etc., well, Gabe and Tycho have it right.
I have yet to buy a DVD player, at any price, that included the latest top selling Michael Bay explosion-fest, or a CD player that included a new saccharine pop artist.
So then why did INETA accept the application for a slot? If they didn't think it was appropriate, why not simply reject the request for a slot, instead of trying to act like it didn't happen?
Exactly! Miguel was led to believe that his BOF made it on the ballot on merit, without having to call in any favors at Microsoft.
This was not an official presentation that was supposed to be approved and sanctioned by Microsoft as part of PDC. This was an after-hours BOF session operated by the independent International.NET Association (INETA). At least, they were independent, until they proved with this ballot snafu that they cower under Microsoft's whip hand.
(And I can't stress this enough) INETA LIED TO MIGUEL DE ICAZA. He got two confirmations that his BOF session proposal was accepted, which means that it should have been on the ballot. After that, he heard deafening silence, before finally getting a rejection on the day accept/reject notices went out. Only then did he find out that INETA deceived him, and his BOF wasn't on the ballot in the first place.
What about the 970 low-power line (13-16W) that EVERYBODY KNOWS?
You don't think Apple had access to the new 970s? I seriously doubt that Apple would go through such a wholesale change in technology without running a benchmark or two. It's a good bet that the new 970s don't perform as well as the new Pentiums clock-for-clock, or else Apple would have stuck with PowerPC.
[Intel's] performance per watt numbers are the worst of the whole desktop industry.
RTFA. This isn't just about desktops. In mobile performance, Pentium M mops the floor with AMD's mobile Athlons.
And then intel promises apple CPUs which give 5x more "performance per watt". Yeah - that's nice when you consider that they get that "5x" number when they compare it with the current intel chips - which, as everybody knows, they're the worst at performance/watt.
Yes, I know Intel is going to release centrino-based CPUs which will be much better. I love Intel in fact. But heck, I absolutely hate how most of apple zealots just don't think - they repeat everything which Jobs tell them. Some months ago intel CPUs where the worst, G5s were the best CPUs. Then, Jobs speaks, and suddenly everything changes. Guys, Intel CPUs today SUCK today, get over it.
Yes, yes, we get it. Today's Pentium desktop chips are hot, power-hungry underperformers. Good thing Apple isn't using today's Pentium desktop chips. (Developer Preview loaners excepted, of course.)
Show me an example of true revisionist history, and you may have a point. But the people you derisively refer to as "Apple zealots" are anticipating the new, lower-power Pentiums that Intel announced at IDF just as much as Windows and Linux users.
I just grabbed one of the high-res press photos. Good news:
THERE'S NO F-LOCK! WOO HOO! No F-Lock button, no indicator LED. No strange glyphs on the F-keys themselves.
In fact, this is the first Logitech (or Microsoft) keyboard in a long time that doesn't fool around with the standard layout. There's no fancy arrow key design, double-sized Delete key, or "hunt the Insert key" shenanigans. Just an unmolested 104-key layout.
In fact, with the programmable G-keys, on-the-fly macros (the M1-3 and MR buttons in the upper left corner), and built-in screen, this could make a pretty kick-ass programmer's board. They're publishing the API for the screen, so I could easily see it being used for variable watches or process statistics. And there are some unmarked buttons between the screen and the media player controls that might be used for controlling the screen itself.
BTW, if you get the high-res photo, zoom in on the 9 key on the numeric pad. Instead of reading "Pg Up", it's "Pp Up", and the extra 'p' looks like it's been scraped at. Um, Logitech, I think you'd be forgiven if you got caught Photoshopping a typo on a press release photo.:-)
"Finally, after increasingly aggressive phone calls to the site's outside publicity firm, here we were, talking at last. It was hard to believe that we would have many of [eHarmony.com founder Neil Clark] Warren's 29 dimensions of compatibility to work with. I am a pagan, single 30-year-old feminist with strong suspicions about the ever-creeping tentacles of the religious right. Warren is a married psychologist grandpa with a divinity degree, a Californian by way of rural Iowa; he has three daughters, nine grandchildren and strong suspicions about the liberal press. But we wound up talking for two hours straight."
If you don't feel like wading through the entire thing, skip ahead to page 3. There, the whole "refusing atheists" urban myth is explained:
"It's not that eHarmony was 'restricted' in the country club sense of the word. But it was definitely self-selected."
How did Microsoft kill PC gaming? By playing second fiddle to Playstation 2? Has there been a mass exodus from World of Warcraft to Fusion Frenzy that I somehow missed? Is Microsoft paying game magazines and web sites to obsess over the FPS of the month, instead of game types that are better suited to PCs than consoles?
Slashdot Mirror
You can not truly appreciate Shakespeare until you've read him in the original COBOL.
The problem isn't with the ESRB ratings, or the responsible parents. If it bleeds, it leads. Thus, video games don't figure into media reports until an M-rated game is found on some 13-year-old shooter's shelf.
And it doesn't matter if the inevitable lawsuit is won, lost, or dismissed by a clueful judge: The lawyers still get paid.
The title track to Hypnotize is already getting airplay around here. They namedrop Tiananmen Square in the first line. They aren't going soft on us yet.
What I'm worried about is that Sony will pull a sort of bait-and-switch on Mesmerize/Hypnotize: Release Mesmerize clean, then drop the rootkit on Hypnotize. If I'm Serj or Daron, I'm rattling cages at Sony to make sure that doesn't happen. If it does, I think Serj will become the anti-Lars Ulrich.
(And let's just agree to disagree on "Renegades of Funk", shall we?)
For typical console purposes, standard definition is 640x480.
Microsoft has been advising X360 devs to target 16:9 720p (1280x720), and downsample to 480i for non-HD TVs. I have a feeling 1080i will be supported on X360 about as well as it was on the original XBox. (Do we really need X360's power for another Dragon's Lair title?)
I agree that, with a kick-ass PC, the X360 version would be a waste. As long as they learn from the mistakes of Deus Ex: Invisible War, and not dumb down the PC version to the console's level. (Maybe that's addressed in TFA. I can't read it through the blankety-blank filters at work.)
Oh, that's an Elder Scrolls tradition. Or have we forgotten Daggerfall Of The Perpetual Patch?
Oops. I meant to say that Qt 3 was never released under an OSI-compliant license for Windows. The X11 and Mac OS X versions were released under the GPL.
SD is an abbreviation for Secure Digital. The remaining irony is left as an excercise to the reader.
Well, that's not quite true anymore. KDE 3.x is based on Qt 3. Version 3 was never released under an OSI-compliant license, so there was no legal way to port it, short of porting the Linux/GPL version of Qt 3. That was in progress for a while.
Trolltech has since released Qt 4 for Windows under the GPL. That means that there are no longer any licensing issues preventing anyone from developing a Windows port of KDE 4. The core KDE libraries would have to be ported, but the underlying Qt libraries are already available and Free.
Methinks Mr. Szulik is jealous that a high-profile rival found a sugar daddy. I don't recall if Novell had their own distro before acquiring SuSE, but if it was that unmemorable, it was probably no great loss.
(Oh, cripes, a car analogy...) Have you ever seen the schedule for the North American International Auto Show? Every January, the entire automotive world converges on Cobo Hall in Detroit. (Yeah, Detroit in January. It sucks every bit as bad as it sounds.) The schedule for the first week goes a little something like this:
Tuesday: All-day press conferences, media only.
Wednesday: All-day press conferences, media only.
Thursday: All-day press conferences, media only.
Friday: Big-money, black tie Charity Preview night.
Saturday: Open to the public. First day of two weeks of people deciding that the huge crowds and tight quarters in the way-too-small Cobo Hall is better than the crappy weather outside.
So, of course, I drive up there every year, weather permitting. (Weather not permitting, I wait until February and fly to Chicago. Mmmm, Gibson's...)
So why can't E3 do the same thing? Extend it to a fourth day, for industry insiders (devs, media, retailer reps) only? Well, yeah, there's that whole "paying to rent the convention center out for one more day" thing, but that's a perfectly valid reason. Better than "gee, I never thought of that", at least.
The PCPro article is apparently* citing an article on The Register that was later corrected. The Register's correction is here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/29/warner_mus ic_sorry/
*: I say apparently because after viewing it once, I got a registration page, and it's too late on a Friday to bother with BugMeNot.
Are you sure that wasn't just early-beta cruft? Microsoft has been making a push for C and C++ standards compliance with VS2k3 and 2k5. And if functions like strlen() are failing, I doubt Microsoft would be able to use the compiler as dogfood.
Or to other Slashdot interviews. Ask for a WoW developer, get a marketing droid. Ask for a CoH dev, get Statesman himself.
You need to make up your mind. Here, you're complaining that Microsoft doesn't provide any bundled games, and that you have to buy one to "uncripple" your $400 purchase. But in this post, you complain about how retailer bundles include games you don't want. Goes to show that you can't please all of the people all of the time.
A few more points:
Get a fucking life, you sad, sorry little pawn.
Exactly! Miguel was led to believe that his BOF made it on the ballot on merit, without having to call in any favors at Microsoft.
You're missing two important points:
You don't think Apple had access to the new 970s? I seriously doubt that Apple would go through such a wholesale change in technology without running a benchmark or two. It's a good bet that the new 970s don't perform as well as the new Pentiums clock-for-clock, or else Apple would have stuck with PowerPC.
RTFA. This isn't just about desktops. In mobile performance, Pentium M mops the floor with AMD's mobile Athlons.
Yes, yes, we get it. Today's Pentium desktop chips are hot, power-hungry underperformers. Good thing Apple isn't using today's Pentium desktop chips. (Developer Preview loaners excepted, of course.)
Show me an example of true revisionist history, and you may have a point. But the people you derisively refer to as "Apple zealots" are anticipating the new, lower-power Pentiums that Intel announced at IDF just as much as Windows and Linux users.
Do you have any sense of scale? It's a fucking .zip utility.
Wow. Elitism, nationalist puffery, and a scathing indictment of the free-market economy, all in one post. Well done.
I know I'd rather scoot around town in one of those new 159s than a crappy little electric golf cart.
No way. Get outta town.
Really? An advertisement?
Damn. Who'da thunk it. Right there on the internets and everything. Wow.
I just grabbed one of the high-res press photos. Good news:
THERE'S NO F-LOCK! WOO HOO! No F-Lock button, no indicator LED. No strange glyphs on the F-keys themselves.
In fact, this is the first Logitech (or Microsoft) keyboard in a long time that doesn't fool around with the standard layout. There's no fancy arrow key design, double-sized Delete key, or "hunt the Insert key" shenanigans. Just an unmolested 104-key layout.
In fact, with the programmable G-keys, on-the-fly macros (the M1-3 and MR buttons in the upper left corner), and built-in screen, this could make a pretty kick-ass programmer's board. They're publishing the API for the screen, so I could easily see it being used for variable watches or process statistics. And there are some unmarked buttons between the screen and the media player controls that might be used for controlling the screen itself.
BTW, if you get the high-res photo, zoom in on the 9 key on the numeric pad. Instead of reading "Pg Up", it's "Pp Up", and the extra 'p' looks like it's been scraped at. Um, Logitech, I think you'd be forgiven if you got caught Photoshopping a typo on a press release photo. :-)
Tolerate the day pass to read this article at Salon:
If you don't feel like wading through the entire thing, skip ahead to page 3. There, the whole "refusing atheists" urban myth is explained:
Huh?
How did Microsoft kill PC gaming? By playing second fiddle to Playstation 2? Has there been a mass exodus from World of Warcraft to Fusion Frenzy that I somehow missed? Is Microsoft paying game magazines and web sites to obsess over the FPS of the month, instead of game types that are better suited to PCs than consoles?