If piracy is the worst crime going on in your city, town, country, etc. Count yourself lucky. I think places like those nations on the list have bigger things to worry about than copyright infringements of american movies.
And from a sociological point of view the studios should take the blame anyways. They're like drug dealers who create such a user/supplier model that is hard to break [for most] then make the prices prohibitive. People aren't going to resort to staring at the walls, they want to watch movies and listen to audio.
You can either work with the economy, or try and work above it and reap what you sow. I imagine if you could buy movies for an appropriate price in those nations that people wouldn't be so hard up to do so. In fact, even in north america, $25 for a movie is too much for many people, especially the target demographic for most movies since they're college bound and poor.
Truth is hollywood is a victim of it's own design. Ever more expensive movies [to make] end with the customers paying more . Eventually they just say enough is enough and stop playing the game. nobody forces studios to pay $20 million for an "A list" actor. They can hire cheaper equally capable talent anywhere else.
ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.... *walks away*... and ever and ever...
Let me fill you in on the scoop, Patricia, at the end of the day, it's just some stupid web 2.ohhh my god make it stop, gimmick. Until we see what can be done with it, that truly can't be done before, and really ought to be done anyways, it's just handwaving and gesturing the likes of which can be topped only by the special gals down at the corner, you know the ones, your mom hangs with them, oh yeah, hookers.
So why not join the winning team for a change, grow a pair of balls and stop kissing ass to the satan worshiping msft hordes who promise nothing but a quick fix for the technologically adolescent flashy addicted lunatics that run around like chickens with their heads cut off spouting "it's a new paradigm! It's a new a paradigm!"
You do realize that in most [not all] of these countries the people make in a year what most of us make in a month [or two]? right? Buying a 25$ movie may be nothing to people in the states or Canada, but is a big deal for many else.
Unless the mafiaa is willing to sell movies and CDs for dirt cheap they should expect piracy. let's see, I make about 70K and am willing to spend 25$ on a movie [if it's really good, otherwise I hover around $10]. These people make $7-10K so how about charge them $3 for the same movie. No? Ok, expect piracy.
And frankly if you stake your financial security on nations where the average income is $200 a month, chances are you should rethink your business plan.
Hey tell me Nancy, what part of OMG I don't care didn't you get? Cuz I'd really like to sort this out for the next time one of you newbie spawns of whatever deity I pissed off comes around toting the virtues of the morally corrupt.
Until MSFT starts making their wonderful stuff available for other platforms I'm just gonna have to go ahead and ignore everything you types have to say, for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and...
I can't speak to the Wii as I don't have one [stupid low stock] and my friend who has one only has two games [cheap bastard]. I don't think Wii sports is a rehash of anything they put out before. But yeah there are already rehash games out there [e.g. zelda, medal of honour, etc...].
But part of the appeal of the Wii is that you're using a new interface to play the games. i like the idea of getting off the couch to play Wii games. Much more fun than just sitting there with a 360 controller.
No sluh. People using MSFT tech are the types who are easily impressed and afraid of change. I don't see what the world gains from yet another flash type scripting thingy, but now MSFT can split up yet another market by virtue of it running on Windows.
Being an unfan of Flash anyways makes me not really care what MSFT is doing to hurt/help that market. But it's sad to know that MSFT just will never change.
I guess it depends on where you go. As I've met quite a few comp.sci grads who didn't know their arse from a semi-colon to save their life. They'd end up doing some coding job and just end up regurgitating the last two years of classes wherever possible. [e.g. shit code that looks nice on paper but doesn't do shit all in reality].
Having completed an associates degree in comp.sci I guess my experience was different, I had plenty of time for OSS and took advantage of it. Sure I wasn't a straight A student [or GPA 4.0 whatever] but I did write some software that was just barely important enough to get me noticed and a decent job in Ottawa. Score one for the good guys, whaddya say?
OMG SHUT UP shut up why the hell aren't you shutting up?
Tone generator might as well be FM Synth for all the rats ass I don't care. It went beep beep blip boop beep. Good enough for the average 6 year old, or for peeps like me who are basically six years old no matter how old we get:-)
Potential? I bought the PSP because I thought it would sport some really kick ass games, but the launch sucked and I lost interest. I was also making decent coin at the time so it wasn't a huge investment.
My first PSP had about 35 dead pixels all over. Circuit City refused to replace it since it was still "playable." I had to mail it off to Sony Canada for a replacement, which had about 7 dead pixels. I just gave up at that point and put up with it. I was hardly the only one with that problem.
As for the rest I guess it's a matter of opinion. For the most part I really don't give a rats ass for the new games. Aside from Wii most games I've seen for the new consoles are just shinier rehashes of last seasons games. SMB1 is 22 years old and I still play it. Will you still play burnout revenge in 22 years?
4. Really limited games (no legacy library to pull from)
5. Big shiny screen, totally exposed for the scratching when put in a bag
6. Costs more than a DS
7. No homebrew, or not as well supported as GBA/DS homebrew
8. Lack of insight to use Pro memory stick slot for games [e.g. no need to spin up UMD], etc...
Sure the graphics are better than the DS, but so what? I don't spend enough time going "WOW MARIOS ASS IS SHINY" to care. I usually only play handhelds when I'm stuck somewhere [re: airports] and have absolutely nothing else to do, and eyeing the jailbait has gotten boring.
The GB LCD *controller* runs at the same rate as the one from the GBA, that is 59.97Hz or whatever approximation thereof it is.
That said, the LCD itself updated about half that if that. But I think you just get used to it. I used to play SMB1/2 for the GB back when it was a big deal to rent a game [e.g. 17-18 years ago]. Me parents would take me to the shop once in a while to rent a game, usually for the weekend.
The NES was generally more apt for flashy graphics though, aside from being in colour, the screen was bigger and sound was more FM-tastic.
Hehehe, mmm nostalgia. I still remember my padded case I got the GB with the slots for the individually packaged carts [remember the see through plastic cases for the games?]. Had like 16 games or so at one point. OMGBBQ!!! hehehe
Of course nowadays I'm usually playing SMB1 for NES or RCR when I get super bored.
To be honest, the cartridge makes more sense for portables. They take less power, less prone to breaking, load faster, etc. Sure they cost more to produce but in the end the value is higher.
Also why I play my SP more than my PSP even though various PSP games are teh fun.
Beige offices are annoying and are what lead people to extremes in their off hours. If you have just a normal comfortable place to work, you can be serious and goofy all throughout the day, then when you leave it's like you left a friends place or something.
The real companies know that in essence, you work to live, not the other way around. You can both be a serious professional, and a lighthearted goof during the span of a work day and get things done.
Besides, we know all the tight-ass execs who want the neutral beige offices are doing blow off a hookers ass during lunch anyways...:-)
having owned a GB, GBA, SP, DS, GameGear and PSP, I've played my SP the most, DS second most, and PSP distant third.
I like the instant on of the SP, makes a quick gaming break more timely. Of course I'm usually playing NES games via pocketnes on the thing... was a big fan of the GB when I was a kid. Used to do a lot of car trips so games like Final Fantasy kept me occupied.
The GBA sucked only because it lacked a light. I liked the shape. Though the SP folding is nice nad the light works well.
I think we learned the same lesson. Except I'm 25 and I was only at the megacorp (tm) for about 8 months. I are an quick learners yes I's am.
It's very true how you stop really caring about what the company is doing, especially if you have a sciences background. Don't get me wrong, I get the purpose of fluff and marketing, but when you spend more hours a day prepping something that has no lasting value [e.g. fluff] instead of real work, you just kinda go through the motions to get paid.
hahahaha you said rimjob.... shut up. I didn't apply for it. An employee found me and was tasked to interview me during their trip to Ottawa. I didn't even score a free lunch out of the deal.
It might have been a decent place to work if it wasn't for the "OMG I'M IMPRESSED WITH MYSELF" attitude I got off the guy. I mean, he wrote the first blackberry calculator, the guy is a genius [and yes, he bragged about it during the interview].
Point is, I'd trust a cert more if I knew it had the businesses license #, contact info, etc. Then if I get screwed by them I could go after them. The two problems against that is that businesses are all over the legal roadmap [e.g. not all in one jurisdiction], and there is no legal requirement for certs to contain meaningful information.
Strictly speaking DNS doesn't matter, that is, so long as the real entity doesn't give out their private cert. If you redirect me from the store to your website, and try to pass off a fake cert, the browser will warn me and I won't use the site.
I strongly think that just having a degree or not should not be a show stopper. A lot of smart people I know don't have PhDs (and our regular submitters and published in first tier journals). That's why I made the portfolio comment. If you can see that someone is capable of not only developing a quality piece of OSS, but documenting, supporting, and maintaining it, that speaks volumes more than someone who merely went through the motions to get a degree.
Army service is hard to judge because we're afraid to talk down, for fear of being unpatriotic. Sure they're brave, but are they actually smart enough to work a comp.sci job? And not everyone who is discharged from service is for positive reasons. Not trying to talk smack [here I go... see!] about service folk, as I have some in my family too. But I wouldn't hire someone just because they had service experience. It's what they actually did in the service that I'd want to know about.
When I worked at AMD I always kinda smirked at the contrasts between the IBM campus [where I was a liason] and the AMD home office [in sunnyvale where I went for meetings]. IBM had all sorts of "earth tones", waterfalls, lounge areas, and darker lighting [with personal lights in the cubicles]. AMD on the other hand was a fluorescent wasteland of equal sized cubicles and green paint on the walls. Don't get me wrong, the OUTSIDE of the buildings looked nice, but the inside was very sterile and boring.
AMD would have been a bit nicer to work for if they had catered to the out of towners. Nothing like flying 3000 miles to then have to pay for the hotel and food out of pocket [expenses for out of country employees took 6 weeks to get at the least].:-(
Where I work now it's fairly sterile too. We have a few posters up on the wall, but mostly it's a sea of beige and fluorescents. Fortunately, there is a pub just behind the office so I can sneak into there for a quick bite to eat when I get a case of the Mondays. That and we're tastefully colourful during lunch hour discussions [e.g. not PC-centric] so we can act like adults.
Slashdot Mirror
Try this, "Dude, Ubuntu a Dell!"
Tom
If piracy is the worst crime going on in your city, town, country, etc. Count yourself lucky. I think places like those nations on the list have bigger things to worry about than copyright infringements of american movies.
And from a sociological point of view the studios should take the blame anyways. They're like drug dealers who create such a user/supplier model that is hard to break [for most] then make the prices prohibitive. People aren't going to resort to staring at the walls, they want to watch movies and listen to audio.
You can either work with the economy, or try and work above it and reap what you sow. I imagine if you could buy movies for an appropriate price in those nations that people wouldn't be so hard up to do so. In fact, even in north america, $25 for a movie is too much for many people, especially the target demographic for most movies since they're college bound and poor.
Truth is hollywood is a victim of it's own design. Ever more expensive movies [to make] end with the customers paying more . Eventually they just say enough is enough and stop playing the game. nobody forces studios to pay $20 million for an "A list" actor. They can hire cheaper equally capable talent anywhere else.
Tom
Who still has two thumbs and doesn't care?
*points at self*
Hi, I believe we've met. Tom St Denis. How ya doing?
ever and ever and ever and ever and ever .... *walks away* ... and ever and ever ...
Let me fill you in on the scoop, Patricia, at the end of the day, it's just some stupid web 2.ohhh my god make it stop, gimmick. Until we see what can be done with it, that truly can't be done before, and really ought to be done anyways, it's just handwaving and gesturing the likes of which can be topped only by the special gals down at the corner, you know the ones, your mom hangs with them, oh yeah, hookers.
So why not join the winning team for a change, grow a pair of balls and stop kissing ass to the satan worshiping msft hordes who promise nothing but a quick fix for the technologically adolescent flashy addicted lunatics that run around like chickens with their heads cut off spouting "it's a new paradigm! It's a new a paradigm!"
Tom
You do realize that in most [not all] of these countries the people make in a year what most of us make in a month [or two]? right? Buying a 25$ movie may be nothing to people in the states or Canada, but is a big deal for many else.
Unless the mafiaa is willing to sell movies and CDs for dirt cheap they should expect piracy. let's see, I make about 70K and am willing to spend 25$ on a movie [if it's really good, otherwise I hover around $10]. These people make $7-10K so how about charge them $3 for the same movie. No? Ok, expect piracy.
And frankly if you stake your financial security on nations where the average income is $200 a month, chances are you should rethink your business plan.
Tom
Hey tell me Nancy, what part of OMG I don't care didn't you get? Cuz I'd really like to sort this out for the next time one of you newbie spawns of whatever deity I pissed off comes around toting the virtues of the morally corrupt.
...
Until MSFT starts making their wonderful stuff available for other platforms I'm just gonna have to go ahead and ignore everything you types have to say, for ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and
I can't speak to the Wii as I don't have one [stupid low stock] and my friend who has one only has two games [cheap bastard]. I don't think Wii sports is a rehash of anything they put out before. But yeah there are already rehash games out there [e.g. zelda, medal of honour, etc...].
But part of the appeal of the Wii is that you're using a new interface to play the games. i like the idea of getting off the couch to play Wii games. Much more fun than just sitting there with a 360 controller.
Tom
No sluh. People using MSFT tech are the types who are easily impressed and afraid of change. I don't see what the world gains from yet another flash type scripting thingy, but now MSFT can split up yet another market by virtue of it running on Windows.
Being an unfan of Flash anyways makes me not really care what MSFT is doing to hurt/help that market. But it's sad to know that MSFT just will never change.
Oh well.
Tom
Who's got two thumbs and doesn't care?
*points to self*
Hey, I'm Tom St Denis, please to meet you. Now get out of my face.
Gotta stop watching scrubs box sets....
Tom
Jailbait gets boring when one of the following occurs:
1. She hooks up with her BF
2. She hooks up with parents, unless mother is hot too, who's with me? MENTAL HIGH FIVE! SNAP!
3. She turns into a he.
4. She notices and points you out to security. Unless, security is hot too, yeah boyyyyy HIGH FIVE!
5. You're not a pathetic loser and have your own GF or SO who fulfills the needs thus making Jailbait both inappropriate and redundant.
Tom
I guess it depends on where you go. As I've met quite a few comp.sci grads who didn't know their arse from a semi-colon to save their life. They'd end up doing some coding job and just end up regurgitating the last two years of classes wherever possible. [e.g. shit code that looks nice on paper but doesn't do shit all in reality].
Having completed an associates degree in comp.sci I guess my experience was different, I had plenty of time for OSS and took advantage of it. Sure I wasn't a straight A student [or GPA 4.0 whatever] but I did write some software that was just barely important enough to get me noticed and a decent job in Ottawa. Score one for the good guys, whaddya say?
Tom
OMG SHUT UP shut up why the hell aren't you shutting up?
:-)
Tone generator might as well be FM Synth for all the rats ass I don't care. It went beep beep blip boop beep. Good enough for the average 6 year old, or for peeps like me who are basically six years old no matter how old we get
Tom
Potential? I bought the PSP because I thought it would sport some really kick ass games, but the launch sucked and I lost interest. I was also making decent coin at the time so it wasn't a huge investment.
Tom
My first PSP had about 35 dead pixels all over. Circuit City refused to replace it since it was still "playable." I had to mail it off to Sony Canada for a replacement, which had about 7 dead pixels. I just gave up at that point and put up with it. I was hardly the only one with that problem.
As for the rest I guess it's a matter of opinion. For the most part I really don't give a rats ass for the new games. Aside from Wii most games I've seen for the new consoles are just shinier rehashes of last seasons games. SMB1 is 22 years old and I still play it. Will you still play burnout revenge in 22 years?
Tom
1. Shorter battery life.
2. Load times
3. Dead pixel fiasco
4. Really limited games (no legacy library to pull from)
5. Big shiny screen, totally exposed for the scratching when put in a bag
6. Costs more than a DS
7. No homebrew, or not as well supported as GBA/DS homebrew
8. Lack of insight to use Pro memory stick slot for games [e.g. no need to spin up UMD], etc...
Sure the graphics are better than the DS, but so what? I don't spend enough time going "WOW MARIOS ASS IS SHINY" to care. I usually only play handhelds when I'm stuck somewhere [re: airports] and have absolutely nothing else to do, and eyeing the jailbait has gotten boring.
Tom
The GB LCD *controller* runs at the same rate as the one from the GBA, that is 59.97Hz or whatever approximation thereof it is.
That said, the LCD itself updated about half that if that. But I think you just get used to it. I used to play SMB1/2 for the GB back when it was a big deal to rent a game [e.g. 17-18 years ago]. Me parents would take me to the shop once in a while to rent a game, usually for the weekend.
The NES was generally more apt for flashy graphics though, aside from being in colour, the screen was bigger and sound was more FM-tastic.
Hehehe, mmm nostalgia. I still remember my padded case I got the GB with the slots for the individually packaged carts [remember the see through plastic cases for the games?]. Had like 16 games or so at one point. OMGBBQ!!! hehehe
Of course nowadays I'm usually playing SMB1 for NES or RCR when I get super bored.
Tom
PocketNES allows me to play the large library of legitimately acquired NES games on my GBA. :-)
Tom
To be honest, the cartridge makes more sense for portables. They take less power, less prone to breaking, load faster, etc. Sure they cost more to produce but in the end the value is higher.
Also why I play my SP more than my PSP even though various PSP games are teh fun.
Tom
Work from home :-)
:-)
Beige offices are annoying and are what lead people to extremes in their off hours. If you have just a normal comfortable place to work, you can be serious and goofy all throughout the day, then when you leave it's like you left a friends place or something.
The real companies know that in essence, you work to live, not the other way around. You can both be a serious professional, and a lighthearted goof during the span of a work day and get things done.
Besides, we know all the tight-ass execs who want the neutral beige offices are doing blow off a hookers ass during lunch anyways...
Tom
having owned a GB, GBA, SP, DS, GameGear and PSP, I've played my SP the most, DS second most, and PSP distant third.
I like the instant on of the SP, makes a quick gaming break more timely. Of course I'm usually playing NES games via pocketnes on the thing... was a big fan of the GB when I was a kid. Used to do a lot of car trips so games like Final Fantasy kept me occupied.
The GBA sucked only because it lacked a light. I liked the shape. Though the SP folding is nice nad the light works well.
Tom
I think we learned the same lesson. Except I'm 25 and I was only at the megacorp (tm) for about 8 months. I are an quick learners yes I's am.
It's very true how you stop really caring about what the company is doing, especially if you have a sciences background. Don't get me wrong, I get the purpose of fluff and marketing, but when you spend more hours a day prepping something that has no lasting value [e.g. fluff] instead of real work, you just kinda go through the motions to get paid.
Tom
hahahaha you said rimjob.... shut up. I didn't apply for it. An employee found me and was tasked to interview me during their trip to Ottawa. I didn't even score a free lunch out of the deal.
It might have been a decent place to work if it wasn't for the "OMG I'M IMPRESSED WITH MYSELF" attitude I got off the guy. I mean, he wrote the first blackberry calculator, the guy is a genius [and yes, he bragged about it during the interview].
Tom
Point is, I'd trust a cert more if I knew it had the businesses license #, contact info, etc. Then if I get screwed by them I could go after them. The two problems against that is that businesses are all over the legal roadmap [e.g. not all in one jurisdiction], and there is no legal requirement for certs to contain meaningful information.
Strictly speaking DNS doesn't matter, that is, so long as the real entity doesn't give out their private cert. If you redirect me from the store to your website, and try to pass off a fake cert, the browser will warn me and I won't use the site.
Tom
I strongly think that just having a degree or not should not be a show stopper. A lot of smart people I know don't have PhDs (and our regular submitters and published in first tier journals). That's why I made the portfolio comment. If you can see that someone is capable of not only developing a quality piece of OSS, but documenting, supporting, and maintaining it, that speaks volumes more than someone who merely went through the motions to get a degree.
... see!] about service folk, as I have some in my family too. But I wouldn't hire someone just because they had service experience. It's what they actually did in the service that I'd want to know about.
Army service is hard to judge because we're afraid to talk down, for fear of being unpatriotic. Sure they're brave, but are they actually smart enough to work a comp.sci job? And not everyone who is discharged from service is for positive reasons. Not trying to talk smack [here I go
Tom
When I worked at AMD I always kinda smirked at the contrasts between the IBM campus [where I was a liason] and the AMD home office [in sunnyvale where I went for meetings]. IBM had all sorts of "earth tones", waterfalls, lounge areas, and darker lighting [with personal lights in the cubicles]. AMD on the other hand was a fluorescent wasteland of equal sized cubicles and green paint on the walls. Don't get me wrong, the OUTSIDE of the buildings looked nice, but the inside was very sterile and boring.
:-(
AMD would have been a bit nicer to work for if they had catered to the out of towners. Nothing like flying 3000 miles to then have to pay for the hotel and food out of pocket [expenses for out of country employees took 6 weeks to get at the least].
Where I work now it's fairly sterile too. We have a few posters up on the wall, but mostly it's a sea of beige and fluorescents. Fortunately, there is a pub just behind the office so I can sneak into there for a quick bite to eat when I get a case of the Mondays. That and we're tastefully colourful during lunch hour discussions [e.g. not PC-centric] so we can act like adults.
Tom