I think the mini games are a sign of the amount of time that is being spent exploring the possibilities of the new controller. A lot of game ideas that couldn't have been proven (or not) without a lot of R&D are now obviously feasible or not based on a single mini game.
I also think that most people are ignoring the majority of games for the Wii due to gaming preferences... If you only like sports and zelda then youre missing out on quite a few driving/racing games.
IMHO, when online play starts working and/or when NDS integration happens is when we will really start to see the Wii flourish.
Punish ACTUAL bullying, at its source: Poor parenting.
Cyber-bullying is only a problem because it leads to verbal bullying and that leads to physical bullying. I could not care less about kids calling me names when I was in school. That sort of "bullying" means nothing. What I had a problem with was being pushed, tripped, pinched, punched, and kicked. When one kid assaults another kid, $500 fine to their parents. I guarantee that will solve the problem damn quick.
Insulate the fucker. 1kW is more than I use to keep my entire apartment heated (an 800W space heater with a thermostat, plus a fan). Try 100W or less to heat a space the size of a car, assuming you put a little extra money into some decent glass (insulating the non-glass parts is trivial).
BBC has *tons* of great programming. Forget that their educational and science programming rivals the best private channels in the USA (Discovery, History, etc). Their entertainment programming is great. Check out BBC America for some BBC-originated programming that you can get on most cable systems here in the states, including classic favorites as well as plenty of original new programming. The intrinsic differences in british acting and american acting aside, I thoroughly enjoy(ed), in no particular order, Life on Mars (just starting season 2), Hex, Touching Evil, Bromwell High, most of Eddie Izzard's stand up comedy, Mile High, Whose Line, and Weakest Link. On the main BBC stations (including Prime), we have Spooks, Eastenders, Mad About Alice, Kiss Me Kate, and a slew of other good shows that I watch on occassion.
PBS sucking is just another example showing that american's suck at providing good social services. We don't want the government to help us, at all.
For the record, I sold gold. And Everquest plat. Made a lot of people happier, and me quite a bit wealthier.
Some people actually enjoy WoW raiding, or PVP. Most people do not enjoy grinding. The intersection is where gold buyers come from, or even account buyers.
As to the sudoku... It's cheating if you tell your friends that you have finished a sudoku. It's not cheating if you tell your friends that you have a finished sudoku.
A sort of 'litmus test' I like to use for game cheating... If training your pet monkey to do something for you isn't cheating, then accomplishing the same something any other way is also not cheating. This applies to botting, buying gold, etc.
When I say we are going to have a race in the park, the race is the competition. How you get there isnt. Paying someone to drive you there instead of running to the race is not cheating.
The game has two distinct parts. The unfun part, which is artificially long to keep the people with lots of free time occupied long enough to pay another $15 next month, and the fun part. Paying to get to the fun part is only cheating if it gives you some sort of advantage in the context of the competition, which it doesnt. The only way buying gold could be cheating is if you consider the competitive parts of the game to be a measure of how much time people have invested in the game. If you want to know how good someone is at the fun part of the game, how they got there doesn't matter.
No, you can NOT make the steroids analogy, because steroids give advantages that you cant get through normal exercise, and the context of physical competitions makes the exercise PART of the competition.
I believe you are incorrect. I cannot cite any specific precedents one way or the other, but the letter of the law is quite clear on the subject:
(a) Making of Additional Copy or Adaptation by Owner of Copy.-- Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program provided: (1) that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and that it is used in no other manner, or
In short... if making a copy is required to use the software, then making that copy without permission isnt a violation of copyright.
What I don't get is how software patents affect *USERS* at all? If you patent a mechanical device and someone infringes on your patent to sell me a knockoff, you can sue them and make them stop selling it, but you can't sue me and make me stop using the one that I bought. How is it different with software patents? Assuming their patents are completely legit, they could sue the linux distro and developers, but why do companies using the software need licenses?
That might be funny if linux native games didnt run faster over 90% of the time, and even emulated windows games run faster in some cases (WoW and BF1942 spring to mind). I know many a WoW player who has switched to Linux *JUST* to get a 20% framerate boost in the only game they play.
DX10 seems to be mostly a marketing trick to cheat WinXP users out of Shader Model 4.0 functionality in their cards. That should be trivial to get working in wine and cedega. Just calling the appropriate matching opengl functions. *FAR* less complex than the real work involved in getting "original" directx functionality working like directplay.
I have bought CFLs once in my life, a 'variety' pack of 8 in different sizes (4 "100W", 2 "60W", 2 "40W"). That was just over 5 years ago, when I got my first apartment. 1 bulb blew that day, and I returned it for a replacement (never seen a CFL with less than a 2 year warranty, where do you shop?). 1 got broken in a move a few years ago. And I am still using 7 of them today. They cost me $20, and I expect they have saved at least $100 in electricity over that time.
Preface... I buy and sell both real and virtual property on ebay, and moved my Everquest buying an selling (to the tune of USD10k/mo) to PlayerAuctions.com after ebay banned that particular game many years ago.
That said, there is a certain amount of risk in doing any business online. Person-to-person transactions increase the risk. Transactions outside the bounds of the site's protection policies (which are mostly useless, but of measurably non-zero value) like unconfirmable virtual deliveries increase the risk significantly.
There are many ways to decrease the risk. Only do business proportional to someone's feedback, or your own previous experience with them. Use legitimate (read: used by real auction companies) escrow services for large transactions. Follow a site's protection policy requirements to the letter.
And, in closing... if you are waiting 3 months for packages from overseas, you're being scammed AND naive. I have never had a package take more than 2 weeks to get to me from anywhere in the world, including two trips through customs.
Would you love for your kid to be able to spend this $0.50 on demand?
I have always pegged permanent "1 hour" episode value at $1, so $.25 seems a lot more plausible for a very short term copy, less for "half hour" shows. And if asked your question for $.25 or $.10... Absolutely. The kids would have a budget for TV shows as part of their allowance, and my cablebox/tivo/mythtvbox/whatever would manage it. Instead of paying $60/mo for 300 channels where my kids are only allowed to watch 20 of them, I increase each child's allowance by $20/mo (on top of the $5-10/wk that I already give them). That comes out to 80 "hours" of tv shows, about 2 real hours per day if its spread out. Kills at least three birds with one stone. I spend less, the kids watch less TV, and the kids learn something about budgeting for luxuries.
This is why the imports business is so lucrative. Company A buys a "license" to sell the song in Japan. Company B buys the discs in Japan and ships them to the USA to resell at 100%+ markup. The same goes for video games and movies in many cases too.
erm, every variation of your search term? anything with a space in it isnt a domain and should go directly to a search engine (for you, already does for me). as to things without spaces, thats a matter of preference. i dont ever want "foo" to go to "foo.com/.net/.org/...", i want it to attempt to resolve "foo" in DNS and if that fails then go to google.com/search?q=foo. period. no exceptions. do not pass go, do not collect 5 second delay.
any sensible browser configuration doesnt need a search bar. anything in the address bar thats not a domain name goes to a search engine. how hard is that? saves a lot of screen real estate (that google search box isnt small), and makes things easier all around.
Only 30000 BTUs if its all converted immediately to heat. I think the goal of this device is to convert as much of the power as possible into kinetic energy. Some of THAT will turn into heat in the air, which fortunately can cool itself (global warming jokes aside), but most of will still be kinetic energy when it hits something, at which point a little more becomes heat and most of it is expended breaking atomic bonds (and thereby causing damage).
It would be interesting to see the efficiency of a railgun. If it's 10% then youre right, shitload of heat to dissipate. If it's 80%, not nearly as much, esp considering that a naval ship has just a *bit* more than a quarter ton worth of water to work with:)
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I think the mini games are a sign of the amount of time that is being spent exploring the possibilities of the new controller. A lot of game ideas that couldn't have been proven (or not) without a lot of R&D are now obviously feasible or not based on a single mini game.
I also think that most people are ignoring the majority of games for the Wii due to gaming preferences... If you only like sports and zelda then youre missing out on quite a few driving/racing games.
IMHO, when online play starts working and/or when NDS integration happens is when we will really start to see the Wii flourish.
Punish ACTUAL bullying, at its source: Poor parenting.
Cyber-bullying is only a problem because it leads to verbal bullying and that leads to physical bullying. I could not care less about kids calling me names when I was in school. That sort of "bullying" means nothing. What I had a problem with was being pushed, tripped, pinched, punched, and kicked. When one kid assaults another kid, $500 fine to their parents. I guarantee that will solve the problem damn quick.
Insulate the fucker. 1kW is more than I use to keep my entire apartment heated (an 800W space heater with a thermostat, plus a fan). Try 100W or less to heat a space the size of a car, assuming you put a little extra money into some decent glass (insulating the non-glass parts is trivial).
BBC has *tons* of great programming. Forget that their educational and science programming rivals the best private channels in the USA (Discovery, History, etc). Their entertainment programming is great. Check out BBC America for some BBC-originated programming that you can get on most cable systems here in the states, including classic favorites as well as plenty of original new programming. The intrinsic differences in british acting and american acting aside, I thoroughly enjoy(ed), in no particular order, Life on Mars (just starting season 2), Hex, Touching Evil, Bromwell High, most of Eddie Izzard's stand up comedy, Mile High, Whose Line, and Weakest Link. On the main BBC stations (including Prime), we have Spooks, Eastenders, Mad About Alice, Kiss Me Kate, and a slew of other good shows that I watch on occassion.
PBS sucking is just another example showing that american's suck at providing good social services. We don't want the government to help us, at all.
But it is unlikely that the non-kernel parts of the TiVo operating system are important enough to protect.
mod parent up, best point so far.
unless the customers paid for shipping, which i doubt.
For the record, I sold gold. And Everquest plat. Made a lot of people happier, and me quite a bit wealthier.
Some people actually enjoy WoW raiding, or PVP. Most people do not enjoy grinding. The intersection is where gold buyers come from, or even account buyers.
As to the sudoku... It's cheating if you tell your friends that you have finished a sudoku. It's not cheating if you tell your friends that you have a finished sudoku.
A sort of 'litmus test' I like to use for game cheating... If training your pet monkey to do something for you isn't cheating, then accomplishing the same something any other way is also not cheating. This applies to botting, buying gold, etc.
When I say we are going to have a race in the park, the race is the competition. How you get there isnt. Paying someone to drive you there instead of running to the race is not cheating.
The game has two distinct parts. The unfun part, which is artificially long to keep the people with lots of free time occupied long enough to pay another $15 next month, and the fun part. Paying to get to the fun part is only cheating if it gives you some sort of advantage in the context of the competition, which it doesnt. The only way buying gold could be cheating is if you consider the competitive parts of the game to be a measure of how much time people have invested in the game. If you want to know how good someone is at the fun part of the game, how they got there doesn't matter.
No, you can NOT make the steroids analogy, because steroids give advantages that you cant get through normal exercise, and the context of physical competitions makes the exercise PART of the competition.
Uhm, duh? How is that not obvious, or at all relevant?
How did the other company remove machines from their customers?
What I don't get is how software patents affect *USERS* at all? If you patent a mechanical device and someone infringes on your patent to sell me a knockoff, you can sue them and make them stop selling it, but you can't sue me and make me stop using the one that I bought. How is it different with software patents? Assuming their patents are completely legit, they could sue the linux distro and developers, but why do companies using the software need licenses?
That might be funny if linux native games didnt run faster over 90% of the time, and even emulated windows games run faster in some cases (WoW and BF1942 spring to mind). I know many a WoW player who has switched to Linux *JUST* to get a 20% framerate boost in the only game they play.
DX10 seems to be mostly a marketing trick to cheat WinXP users out of Shader Model 4.0 functionality in their cards. That should be trivial to get working in wine and cedega. Just calling the appropriate matching opengl functions. *FAR* less complex than the real work involved in getting "original" directx functionality working like directplay.
Too bad fast user switching is disabled when joined to a domain. I would save at least 2 hours a week at work if not for that un-feature.
OK, I have to counter this with another anecdote.
I have bought CFLs once in my life, a 'variety' pack of 8 in different sizes (4 "100W", 2 "60W", 2 "40W"). That was just over 5 years ago, when I got my first apartment. 1 bulb blew that day, and I returned it for a replacement (never seen a CFL with less than a 2 year warranty, where do you shop?). 1 got broken in a move a few years ago. And I am still using 7 of them today. They cost me $20, and I expect they have saved at least $100 in electricity over that time.
Preface... I buy and sell both real and virtual property on ebay, and moved my Everquest buying an selling (to the tune of USD10k/mo) to PlayerAuctions.com after ebay banned that particular game many years ago.
That said, there is a certain amount of risk in doing any business online. Person-to-person transactions increase the risk. Transactions outside the bounds of the site's protection policies (which are mostly useless, but of measurably non-zero value) like unconfirmable virtual deliveries increase the risk significantly.
There are many ways to decrease the risk. Only do business proportional to someone's feedback, or your own previous experience with them. Use legitimate (read: used by real auction companies) escrow services for large transactions. Follow a site's protection policy requirements to the letter.
And, in closing... if you are waiting 3 months for packages from overseas, you're being scammed AND naive. I have never had a package take more than 2 weeks to get to me from anywhere in the world, including two trips through customs.
This is why the imports business is so lucrative. Company A buys a "license" to sell the song in Japan. Company B buys the discs in Japan and ships them to the USA to resell at 100%+ markup. The same goes for video games and movies in many cases too.
erm, every variation of your search term? anything with a space in it isnt a domain and should go directly to a search engine (for you, already does for me). as to things without spaces, thats a matter of preference. i dont ever want "foo" to go to "foo.com/.net/.org/...", i want it to attempt to resolve "foo" in DNS and if that fails then go to google.com/search?q=foo. period. no exceptions. do not pass go, do not collect 5 second delay.
any sensible browser configuration doesnt need a search bar. anything in the address bar thats not a domain name goes to a search engine. how hard is that? saves a lot of screen real estate (that google search box isnt small), and makes things easier all around.
Only 30000 BTUs if its all converted immediately to heat. I think the goal of this device is to convert as much of the power as possible into kinetic energy. Some of THAT will turn into heat in the air, which fortunately can cool itself (global warming jokes aside), but most of will still be kinetic energy when it hits something, at which point a little more becomes heat and most of it is expended breaking atomic bonds (and thereby causing damage).
:)
It would be interesting to see the efficiency of a railgun. If it's 10% then youre right, shitload of heat to dissipate. If it's 80%, not nearly as much, esp considering that a naval ship has just a *bit* more than a quarter ton worth of water to work with
I would contend that you then have, in fact, a 4Mbps down cable modem (connection).
2TB in a home PC is about... the length of my keyboard cable away.
two arms is base 4. one arm would be binary.