The one thing that stops me from registering any shareware (apps or games) is the price. I don't wanna flame, but I thought the whole fscking point of cutting out the middleman was to lower the price of your software, while keeping a larger amount for yourself.
Case in point: Avernum. They've been going some good advertising for that game, and I'm really interested, but there's no way I'm going to pay 25 bucks for it when I see games RETAILING on store shelves for $10 to $20 all the time. And $40 for Opera? Yeesh. Blah blah I'm a cheap bastard yadda yadda, but I still wanna know where all that purchase price is going if there's no big monolithic publisher involved. Nobody's buying? Try lowering your price to increase volume. I know I'd pay five bucks for either of these programs right now if I could. But no, they have to play hard-to-get. Well fine, two can play at that game.
> Not much to say now, as you've heeded the call, and joined the dark side.
A little lying doesn't mean we've joined the Dark Side, as long we don't get carried away.
As you're so apt to point out, people are behaving like animals right now. Or more specifically, like a herd of rampaging buffalo. Animals aren't people, and can't be treated as such. When you bring your dog to the vet, and it doesn't want to hold still for it's shots, do you calmly explain to the dog the importance of regular immunizations? Can you? No, it gets restrained, distracted, or tranquilized.
I know the notion of treating people like animals is very unpopular, but if they're going to act like animals then that's how they should be treated. If you could tell a few lies and keep the herd of general populace from trampling their own rights, wouldn't you? It's for their own good, and maybe even the only humane thing to do.
Fighting FUD with FUD is fair game. This is one of those rare cases where the ends justify the means (and I know that's been said before, but in this case it really might be true.) Of course, this whole facial-recognition-for-drivers-license thing doesn't seem like that big a deal, but it hints at a larger trend.
No offense, you're a bright guy, but why must people like you always point out when humans are acting like animals, but then balk at the idea that they be treated as such? I'm no Social Psychologist, but that seems counter-productive.
What a diatribe. Well, I feel admonished, but how are we going to come up with arguments that sound pro-safety? The best we've come up with so far is pointing out the fact that these new gestapo-like measures won't actually increase our safety.
Hey, I've got it. We're being too honest. The other side - Congress, the FBI, etc. - aren't afraid to bend the truth a bit to set their arguments in a pro-safety light. We should be just as dishonest and sensationalist right back at them.
I can just see it now: "Terrorists tracking us with our faces!" "Criminals using government backdoors to steal your identity!" Don't get all high and mighty on me, it'd work.
I can just see it now: Clueless newbies installing "Lycoris" over and over again just to play more solitaire. And all the while they'll be saying, "I thought this Linux thing was supposed to be more efficient than Windows."
Think I'm kidding? Never underestimate the resourcefulness of the average idiot.
> I wonder when the word "privacy" will altogether disappear from English dictionaries....
Of course it'll always be there. See:
Privacy \Pri"va*cy\, n.; pl. Privacies. [See Private.]
1. The state of acting in secret in order to plot a terrorist activity. "The terrorist needed privacy so nobody could see the bomb he was preparing."
2. A dubious cause that various underground bodies like the ACLU (American Criminal Liberties Union) and the EFF (Electronic Fear Foundation) rally around.
3. (slang) General descriptor of something which threatens security and freedom. "That new bill Senator Jones is introducing is horrible. It's a privacy!" or "Encryption is a privacy to all we hold dear."
> "The AU1100 also adds two Secure Digital (SD) controllers for small storage devices"
Wait, secure as in the "keep-bad-guys-from-getting-in" way, or the "keep-me-from-performing-basic -functionality-because-I'm-presumed-to-be-a-crimin al" way?
Can the Palm (or other handheld PCs) become actual contenders in the portable gaming markets? I've noticed more and more people (John Romero, Tom Hall, SEGA) developing commercial games for the Palm or PocketPC. Good ones, I've heard. How big is the market for this sort of thing?
The only thing that concerns me is game control. Handhelds are not designed to be gaming-conducive. Heck, I hear some models won't let you press two buttons at once. But using the pen might make for some interesting games. I could easily see an RTS working like that. Or a Bezerk-like shooter where your character fires at the location your pen is pointing at, while you move him around with the directional pad. Lots of possibilities.
...one big adventure game. You know, like Myst or Monkey Island. It's getting to the point that you can't even go to the toilet without figuring out some kind of logic puzzle.
I guess it could be worse, it could be turning into a big platform game. Watch out for those spinning blades!
Erm, it's not hypocrisy. Taco is just telling us loyal Slashdotters about a neat up-and-coming game that we should pirate. It's ridiculous to think he'd be telling us to BUY it, because it's from Disney.
Of course he can't explicitly tell us to pirate it or else he'd get sued, but did you see him tell us to buy it either? No. Plus I'd say that the/. crowd is, on the whole, technically competent enough to copy PS2 games, as opposed to the rest of the general populace.
Not to sound like a flame, but do you need everything spelled out for you?
You know your business venture is going to fail when it's entirely based on limiting the basic functionality of a computer. And yet you'd be hard pressed to an internet business model that doesn't involve that. (Besides simple ordering and shipping of hard goods)
It looks like this will be useless for creating your own PS2 games, what with the VM and all that copy-protection built in. Why in the world are they restricing access to the memory card anyway? And what's up with all that monitor bullshit?
Making halfway-decent games on the PS2 requires direct hardware access in order to take advantage of their kooky architecture. Can we even stream data off the hard drive to the video memory during gameplay? Probably not.
And of course we can't read CDR's with it, just in case we actually make something useful and want to easily share it with our friends. I understand the piracy issues, but in light of all the lockdowns they put in place, I need to ask: Why did they bother porting Linux to the PS2 anyway?
So when the Russians are thrifty and practical there's no end to the praise they get, but if an American company chooses to be thrifty and practical (by using a pre-existing engine, why re-invent the wheel?) then suddenly the whole U.S. is forty years behind Russia when it comes to rocketry? Sure.
Slashdot Mirror
The one thing that stops me from registering any shareware (apps or games) is the price. I don't wanna flame, but I thought the whole fscking point of cutting out the middleman was to lower the price of your software, while keeping a larger amount for yourself.
Case in point: Avernum. They've been going some good advertising for that game, and I'm really interested, but there's no way I'm going to pay 25 bucks for it when I see games RETAILING on store shelves for $10 to $20 all the time. And $40 for Opera? Yeesh. Blah blah I'm a cheap bastard yadda yadda, but I still wanna know where all that purchase price is going if there's no big monolithic publisher involved. Nobody's buying? Try lowering your price to increase volume. I know I'd pay five bucks for either of these programs right now if I could. But no, they have to play hard-to-get. Well fine, two can play at that game.
Tycho Brahe has laser eyes.
RUN.
I know that, and you know that, but do they know that? ::motions toward the rest of the Internet populace::
The true users of this software will be:
A) Self-appointed vigilantes with nothing better to do.
B) Immature little warez kiddies turning in sites that belong to "opposing" warez groups.
As a side note, how many times do you think The Underdogs will be turned in per day?
I thought it said that it'd put an 'F' button on my keyboard. I must be getting old.
> Not much to say now, as you've heeded the call, and joined the dark side.
A little lying doesn't mean we've joined the Dark Side, as long we don't get carried away.
As you're so apt to point out, people are behaving like animals right now. Or more specifically, like a herd of rampaging buffalo. Animals aren't people, and can't be treated as such. When you bring your dog to the vet, and it doesn't want to hold still for it's shots, do you calmly explain to the dog the importance of regular immunizations? Can you? No, it gets restrained, distracted, or tranquilized.
I know the notion of treating people like animals is very unpopular, but if they're going to act like animals then that's how they should be treated. If you could tell a few lies and keep the herd of general populace from trampling their own rights, wouldn't you? It's for their own good, and maybe even the only humane thing to do.
Fighting FUD with FUD is fair game. This is one of those rare cases where the ends justify the means (and I know that's been said before, but in this case it really might be true.) Of course, this whole facial-recognition-for-drivers-license thing doesn't seem like that big a deal, but it hints at a larger trend.
No offense, you're a bright guy, but why must people like you always point out when humans are acting like animals, but then balk at the idea that they be treated as such? I'm no Social Psychologist, but that seems counter-productive.
What a diatribe. Well, I feel admonished, but how are we going to come up with arguments that sound pro-safety? The best we've come up with so far is pointing out the fact that these new gestapo-like measures won't actually increase our safety.
Hey, I've got it. We're being too honest. The other side - Congress, the FBI, etc. - aren't afraid to bend the truth a bit to set their arguments in a pro-safety light. We should be just as dishonest and sensationalist right back at them.
I can just see it now: "Terrorists tracking us with our faces!" "Criminals using government backdoors to steal your identity!" Don't get all high and mighty on me, it'd work.
I can just see it now: Clueless newbies installing "Lycoris" over and over again just to play more solitaire. And all the while they'll be saying, "I thought this Linux thing was supposed to be more efficient than Windows."
Think I'm kidding? Never underestimate the resourcefulness of the average idiot.
> I wonder when the word "privacy" will altogether disappear from English dictionaries....
Of course it'll always be there. See:
Privacy \Pri"va*cy\, n.; pl. Privacies. [See Private.]
1. The state of acting in secret in order to plot a terrorist activity. "The terrorist needed privacy so nobody could see the bomb he was preparing."
2. A dubious cause that various underground bodies like the ACLU (American Criminal Liberties Union) and the EFF (Electronic Fear Foundation) rally around.
3. (slang) General descriptor of something which threatens security and freedom. "That new bill Senator Jones is introducing is horrible. It's a privacy!" or "Encryption is a privacy to all we hold dear."
Thanks to everyone who pointed out that "Secure Digital" is a company. I feel dumb.
> "The AU1100 also adds two Secure Digital (SD) controllers for small storage devices"
n al" way?
Wait, secure as in the "keep-bad-guys-from-getting-in" way, or the "keep-me-from-performing-basic -functionality-because-I'm-presumed-to-be-a-crimi
It's a shame I have to ask that.
Who saw the headline and thought that they had finally invented giant EMP-bombs, a-la science fiction?
> The people they are going after aren't their customers to begin with...
The Warcraft 3 beta is for sale??
Yet another case of percieved damages working against good PR.
FYI:
We like them Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
We love them Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
And we alternate Sundays.
Get with the program.
Can the Palm (or other handheld PCs) become actual contenders in the portable gaming markets? I've noticed more and more people (John Romero, Tom Hall, SEGA) developing commercial games for the Palm or PocketPC. Good ones, I've heard. How big is the market for this sort of thing?
The only thing that concerns me is game control. Handhelds are not designed to be gaming-conducive. Heck, I hear some models won't let you press two buttons at once. But using the pen might make for some interesting games. I could easily see an RTS working like that. Or a Bezerk-like shooter where your character fires at the location your pen is pointing at, while you move him around with the directional pad. Lots of possibilities.
...one big adventure game. You know, like Myst or Monkey Island. It's getting to the point that you can't even go to the toilet without figuring out some kind of logic puzzle.
I guess it could be worse, it could be turning into a big platform game. Watch out for those spinning blades!
Erm, it's not hypocrisy. Taco is just telling us loyal Slashdotters about a neat up-and-coming game that we should pirate. It's ridiculous to think he'd be telling us to BUY it, because it's from Disney.
/. crowd is, on the whole, technically competent enough to copy PS2 games, as opposed to the rest of the general populace.
Of course he can't explicitly tell us to pirate it or else he'd get sued, but did you see him tell us to buy it either? No. Plus I'd say that the
Not to sound like a flame, but do you need everything spelled out for you?
FYI:
We like them Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
We hate them Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
And we alternate Sundays.
Get with the program.
> Is there any juristdiction about this in america which can block parts of the world on internet from being viewed by americans?
They'll probably propose a law like that in a few months, in order to "protect" us from "terrorist propoganda sites" and "terrorist radio."
You know your business venture is going to fail when it's entirely based on limiting the basic functionality of a computer. And yet you'd be hard pressed to an internet business model that doesn't involve that. (Besides simple ordering and shipping of hard goods)
It looks like this will be useless for creating your own PS2 games, what with the VM and all that copy-protection built in. Why in the world are they restricing access to the memory card anyway? And what's up with all that monitor bullshit?
Making halfway-decent games on the PS2 requires direct hardware access in order to take advantage of their kooky architecture. Can we even stream data off the hard drive to the video memory during gameplay? Probably not.
And of course we can't read CDR's with it, just in case we actually make something useful and want to easily share it with our friends. I understand the piracy issues, but in light of all the lockdowns they put in place, I need to ask: Why did they bother porting Linux to the PS2 anyway?
So when the Russians are thrifty and practical there's no end to the praise they get, but if an American company chooses to be thrifty and practical (by using a pre-existing engine, why re-invent the wheel?) then suddenly the whole U.S. is forty years behind Russia when it comes to rocketry? Sure.
how else are the developers supposed to make money?
Any... other... way... possible.
But I keep getting redirected to ZDnet somehow!
No matter what you do, some sick, twisted perverts are going to get to Texas somehow.