Er... Rome and Greece were, arguably, the two most important cultures in Western history... We owe pretty much most of our thought and science, and a lot of our current cultural identity to them. I wouldn't really call them anecdotes, when they support my point that our (America's, not the rest of the Western world's as much) attitude towards sex is the anecdote, not the rule. Attitudes towards sex are subjective, and temporary, and in no way objective.
Does the fact that Israel exists as a Jewish state today means that persecution of Jews was a historical rarity?
But this is pretty much the point that the AC was making.
Seriously, though, I understand. I was hoping that the Great Pointless OS Wars would eventually die off, but thanks to the power of cognitive dissonance it never will. I have used all of the Big Three (Win, OS X, and various *nix flavors), and really have a hard time picking sides. I know, at the moment, Windows 7 works for me, or at least it is more convenient to my needs than the others. But at various points other operating systems have been my #1, depending on where I was in life, and what I wanted from a computer. When I was a young nerd I hopped between DOS, Windows 3.11, and Linux. I was learning, I wanted a "toy". Later I pretty much stuck to Windows since I wanted to do video games. A little later I moved back to Linux for the amount of control I needed for some projects, and also as a learning experience. In college I moved to OS X, because I got sick of monkeying with my PC and wanted to just do homework, Photoshop, and watch movies, config files and hardware issues became a distraction. Then I used all three at the same time, for different purposes around the house. Then I pruined of Linux (still needs some work to be good on HTPCs, and really needs a good media player, and the Unity/Gnomehell thing annoyed me), then OS X (to expensive to maintain and upgrade, plus Apple made some boneheaded decisions), and now I'm back to Windows. After this PC dies, I'm not sure what I'll move on to. Probably not Windows 8, or Linux (I need Lightroom and Photoshop too much), and at this point OS X doesn't look much better.
I don't really understand personally, and emotionally, investing in any of them. Sure, if your a code contributor to Linux, or an app developer for a single platform, I can see. That platform equals money in your pocket. But as a consumer, who cares? I don't have a horse in any of these races. Same with gadgets... Who really cares if you have a Blackberry (ha!), Android, or iOS device? Its not like any of these giant, monolithic, corporations give two shits about you.
If the iPhone or iPad fit my needs more than my current Android devices, I'd jump ship in a heart beat. Same with my iPod, if something better comes along at the end of its life, I'll grab it without a second thought.
Er... you realize that through vast swath of world history being gay (or bisexual, or not-strictly hetero) was perfectly fine and normal? Maybe you should go look up some history, and learn about Greece and Rome, two of the most important and influential societies in Western history. Learn about the fact that some of the people who were the basis of all of our values and most of our philosophies probably liked to have sex with men from time to time... The horror the horror. Actually, one of the men whose ideas are the basis of most of Christianity liked men (Plato).
Sexual values are as mutable as any other values... In time people will look back at today and scratch their heads, just like we look back at any other era and do the same. Just like we look back at much of our history and wonder why we were such assholes to everyone else (women, Jews, blacks).
In the end, I really don't get why anyone cares. What people do in their bedrooms is their business.
I personally don't want to give my money to hate-mongers and bigots. Thats why. And I generally advocate that no one else should support assholes as well.
This appreciation day thing is creepy, since its supporting them just because they are run by an asshole. I'm glad that hatred can make you the money here in America, for no reason but for the fact that you hate someone who someone else hates. I find this depressing as hell.
I post as AC now because Slashdot moderation and post quotas are retarded, making it less efficient to challenge the masses as a registered user, especially if your karma is below 0.
So working as intended, you mean?
So, I used Apple products, I owned several, I still own a couple, may I dislike their products without offending you now. Or being a Nazi... (wow). You don't see a problem with your racism comparison do you? Racism hurts people, it kills people, it leads to atrocities... Hating Apple products leads to... pretty much nothing. Hating Apple is like hating a flavor of ice-cream or a brand/style of clothing. It isn't a big deal, and no one but over-invested zealots give two shits.
Who? Almost all of the things on my PC are from 3rd party vendors. It is trivial to instal almost any file I find on the internet on my two Android products, indeed I have purchases from alternative app stores, as well as installers found floating about in the wild. I suppose most of the files on my Linux box are from a single source, but that is somewhat different (its open, and I'm not actually restricted to using it). The only device I owned that is as locked down as an iOS device was an old dumb-phone from Verizon (you can only get ringtones from us, you can only get apps from us, you can only get games from us, and no, you can't uninstall that crapware).
Perhaps you should elaborate here...
I'm not arguing that anyone is better than Apple, or Apple is worse than anyone. I just think that your specific point was a bit weak. Apple is the king of the restricted walled garden, with heavy, and often arbitrary, restriction on playing.
Also, Apple's lawsuits are dumber than everyone elses, since they aren't based on function, but on silly design crap. Oh no, icons in a grid. Oh no, rounded rectangles! The horror, the horror. And Mr. Job's acting like the other Steve (Balmer), and acting out of the motivation of "burying the compition", and not anything with external merit. If Apple wins, it is good for them, but not really good for me (the customer). If they lose, it isn't good for them, but good for everyone else. They deserve to be trounced, badly.
Hell, if you want a novel experience, I'll complain about them for you, for the low low price of free.
I don't like Apple products. I, and my household, have owned several OS X devices (MacMini, iBook, MacBook, iPod's, etc...), and I'm not a fan of any of them, hence selling them all off. Except the iPods, I don't like them, but they really are the least-worse, and once they kill the Classic, I won't be buying more. I hated how OS X updates, including silly service pack things, which are often free from 3rd parties, and minor API bits which basically channel 3rd party devs into closing backwards support. You have to buy every service pack, or you're going to be deprived of updates. I didn't like how consistent their UI was either, every Apple app had to have a unique look (Ooh this one is grey, this one is brushed metal, this one is wood, this on is... pinstrip?), which broke their own holy design standards. I didn't like the fact that they bloated everything in expectation that I'd only own "I" devices. I really dislike the rounded corner (used cough-drop) aesthetic that their UI and hardware has. It was nice when everything was a beige box, but we've moved on, they haven't. I really dislike their hardcore fans, much more annoying than other annoying fanboys. I don't like the fact that every Apple product I owned has died before the non-Apple equivelent, and are often completely non-user-serviceable. Stock iPod headphones are terrible.
*deep breath*
I hate the walled garden approach of the various iOS devices. I dislike the amount of kludge introduced to keep them only having one button, for the sake of having one button. It reminds of their stupid insistence on having the worst, least useful, mice in the industry for years, for no reason but one guy's version of aesthetics. Aesthetics are fine, until you gimp usability and utility for their sake. Aesthetics are a means to an end, not an end to itself. I dislike the iPhone upgrade cycle (a new phone every year, two year average contract be damned, if you don't like it we'll artificially gimp upgrades!), I dislike the aesthetics of the thing (its ugly). I dislike the disconnect from their image and the reality of their manufacture. I dislike the cultish hipsterism of their marketing and consumer direction. I dislike how iOS, and their gadget demographic, has killed the whole "Apple is for artists" thing, and dumbed down ALL of their products for the casual, hipster, "me too!" demographic.
I could go on. But I won't.
And, again, I owned several Apple products, I still own some. I don't actually hate them, or think that all their products suck. They work for some people, and that is fine. You liking Apple doesn't affect me in the slightest, the same with my not really being a fan of them. I was very fond of them for some time (my girlfriend was a lifelong cult-of-Mac type, until some bad experiences and my corruption). I, sometimes, really miss my MacMini, it was a much better HTPC than pretty much anything else I've owned. I also don't really think that much of the competition is much better, they just feel a bit more honest. I don't mean literally honest, but they feel more substantial, more WYSIWG...
Depending on price, I'd grab an x86 Surface in a second. The ARM version... I'm not sure yet. I really dislike Win8 on desktops, but I think it might be far superior to iOS and Android on tablets. I think (subjective) aesthetics are much nicer than Android or iOS, I like the fact that it (in theory) can interoperate with my desktop, and share apps. I like the fact that it is a full OS, and not a toy OS like Android or iOS.
Obviously this all depends on factors, how is the ecosystem, how is the support, how much does it cost, how Microsofty is Microsoft going to be with it. How popular also plays a role, since it ensures further development, and more apps.
Right now I'm happy with my Transformer, and wouldn't trade it for an iPad, or pretty much anything else. I like the Nexus 7, it looks solid, but its too damn small for my needs. Perhaps I might get one for my girlfriend, though she loves her netbook (easier to do homework on), so probably not. If they made a "full size" one for a bit more, I'd probably grab it when I feel the limitations on my current tablet (hasn't happened yet).
I'm not an MS fan boy, but I'm not frightened to admit that they do somethings right. I can see myself sticking Win8 on my HTPC (not my desktop, ever), and I can see their tablet being brilliant. Hell, I'm one of the few people who really wanted a Zune to replace my aging iPod Classic, but the fact that I had to use WMP, and the that I could find an iPod with much larger capacity cheaper stopped me. Hell, I even liked the brown one, I'm sick of glossy white and silver, or glossy black and silver gadgets, with rounded corners, obviously. That was one thing that made my love my Transformer... Its brown, and looks nothing like an iPad/iPhone/iPod/iWhatever. Apple is fashion that really should die, their devices just don't look very good (to me). The only product design of theirs that I like is the MacMini, the rest are kind of blah and dated looking.
It find it sad that most manufacturers of Android devices have to follow the Apple-look-a-like mold. Do something different, differentiate yourself, make your own goddamn design!
Sometimes I wonder, since most public sales rankings don't include digital downloads (what a redundant term), and right now the aging current generation of consoles can't hold a candle to PCs for size of selection or quality of graphics. I have pretty old, moderately priced, video card, and my hardware is hardly new or exciting (AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black, ATI/AMD 5770, 6GB of DDR2), and pretty much every game I play looks better than it would on a console, with better FPS, textures, shading, FOV, etc... If I was a console gamer (I have a forgotten, forlorn, Wii) I'd probably be thinking of trying PC gaming. Especially since the barrier to entry is pretty low right now (you have a moderate computer from the last 2-3 years? Have $100-200 to throw at a video card? Poof, new console that you can also use for more than a paperweight when your not gaming).
Sadly the sales figures won't tell us if this is happening, since they only count retail. I have a feeling that the majority of PC games are now bought through digital distributors like Steam, GOG, or Desura.
I wonder what would happen to sales figures if they suddenly added Steam's statistics to them...
Also, Valve isn't anything special, they aren't terribly "techie". I don't see what would make them so either, you download a client, you hand them your credit card, and games automagically appear on your computer, with no (ideally) setup, mucking with registries, or anything else of a technical nature. Using Steam is about as simple as using a console, sans the time to download the game. Click a button, you're playing. Nothing remotely technical. If you were talking about GOG, then sure... you might have a point... but not Steam.
Odd... unless something has changes, it isn't that hard. My girlfriend had a MacBook, and all it took to change the disk was removing the battery and two screws... A little bit more complicated than changing my old HP Pavillion's HDD (one screw and a pull-tab), but doable in around 3 minutes just the same. Much easier than when I upgraded a MacMini (new HDD, RAM, and CPU... ouch.).
But then again my older iBook had some issues with its HDD (odd issues, since OS X wouldn't boot or install, but Yellow Dog Linux ran just fine, albeit without sound or wifi); and there was basically no way to swap it out.
Luckily Apple products have a pretty good resale value. So when they die (something common), you can still get good money. My girlfriends MacBook with a burnt out motherboard (and smelling somewhat of Belgian ale) sold for around 60% of what she paid for it two years previous. My franken-MacMini sold for about 75%, and my dead iBook for around 40%. I'm actually sad that we're a Mac free household now, just because of the nice money you can fleece from Apple people when they break.
And a lot of us refuse to mod up AC posts, even if they deserve it. Fair trade off, you get to be anonymous, and people who aren't get the karma. You should feel lucky that people actually read it, some of us generally screen out AC posts (much higher level of noise to signal than non-AC posts).
I guess I don't understand your sig then. This is a serious reply and I would sincerely like your opinion on the following quotes.
The quote, and the thoughts of Edward Abbey as a whole, are more towards an esoteric idea of country, the land and the people. I suppose it is a simpler idea, or a vastly more complex idea than expressed in those quotes. In more classic terms, Mr. Abbey wasn't very concerned with the polis or demos, but with country in the grand and literal sense.
All of those quotes are probably valid sentiments, but sadly they are often used as ammo to promote agendas, and force ideologies on others. There is some irony there. Actually, the closest to the truth (or how I see it) is Mr. Orwell's quote. It sums up American politics very well, and pretty much, in a neat capsule, attacks whatever political beliefs either of us probably hold sacred.
The comment I was replying to, was stupid, and offtopic. Taking the Obama's words, and completely twisting them to support a subjective partisan ideology is pointless, and meaningless. Obama was talking about infrastructure, and the general bits of government that allow business. This is pretty valid (though he said it pretty idiotically). Whether you agree with him on broad issues or not, the statement has a fair bit of truth. Without government, there is no freedom. Yes, we can argue about the degree of this, or where government goes to far and freedom starts to diminish again, but that doesn't invalidate the central premise. It isn't controversial, and Obama didn't think of it (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and yes, Jefferson, spoke about it first).
As for being offtopic... What does it have to do with a rumor of a third Hobbit movie... I wasn't aware that Peter Jackson, or the LoTR franchise had the desire to curtail my freedom.
And how would that make them, or anyone else, money?
Most of the non-nerds I know are inherently biased against Linux (if they have even heard of it in the first place). It's hard to use. Its overly nerdy. Nothing runs on it. Its ugly and intuitive. "Hackers" use it. I can't learn it. I don't want to use command lines for everything. Etc... I'm sure we're all familiar with these statements or preconceptions. If Google made the best Android/desktop killer app in the world, it probably wouldn't get people to hop over to Linux, they would just bitch that it isn't on Windows.
But then again I've never understood the Linux domination thing... Who cares if everyone uses it? Hell, if everyone did, everyone would complain about how dumb the users have gotten, and how being a Linux guy used to be somehow superior to what it is now.
I think it is just individual cops. I've been on both sides of the legal fence, and have met some very nice officers and some terrible assholes. Hell, I've met cops who were terrible to me, as a victim, and cops who really wanted to help me, as a criminal. Cops are people.
I don't know why I'm feeding the polititrolls, but...
You realize that most large cities are generally more liberal and progressive than smaller cities and towns, right? That means there would be more cases in general, completely regardless of political slant. There probably is more violent crime in these cities as well. But then you realize that the 7 largest cities in the U.S. all have Democrats as mayor (well, Bloomberg isn't one, but he was). Actually there is one a single Republican mayor in the ten largest cities in the U.S. Thats 21 million people, excluding San Diego (the only town I've ever been to where I've seen an audience of people was cheering on a man assaulting a bum, classy) under the insidious rule of liberals. Obviously there will be more cases of asshole police, since they have more police and people the most other places.
The problem is that, if you have 2 of them, they don't pass through the intestine like the other stuff kids swallow.
So, I, an adult without any children and none planned, am not allowed to own them for this?
That makes sense...
How many children die from accidental gunshots in households where parents are too stupid to secure their weapons, but I can buy guns at the local Walmart? Oh, can't ban those... Shucks.
This is a stupid ban, no matter HOW nasty they are inside children. I feel bad for the kids, really, but there is no need to punish everyone else for it.
I can see Zucker being cross-examined: "You did know that several children had died from swallowing these buckeyballs, didn't you?"
So people would have the same reaction to any firearm manufacture right? I can picture P. James Debney (CEO of Smith and Wesson) in court "You did know several children have been accidentally shot, didn't you?".
My house has around 1000 things that are very dangerous to children (cleaners, knives, airsoft weapons, small parts and screws, cactuses, poisonous plants, solvents, magnets!, outlets, glass objects, plastic bags, gasoline, cigarettes, booze, lighters, other flammable liquids, R rated movies, metal music, a chainsaw, three or four machetes, a weed wacker, atheist propaganda, a Koran, the Communist Manifesto, and the complete works of Socrates/Plato), should I be expecting the police to swing by and arrest me for being "dangerous" soon?
As for the game Tera, I find the combat to be a refreshing change, and generally enjoyable enough to ignore the (valid) criticism of shallow questing. I don't spend nearly the amount of time playing it as I did WoW, I generally play for maybe a couple hours per week, so maybe that in itself is telling.
I loved the combat in Tera, but the grind killed me. After playing a bit of that, and a bit of Aion and Lineage, I've come the conclusion that there is a fairly large East/West divide in what we want from MMOs, and games in general. Asians (not to generalize too much, this could be wrong) are more happy with grinding. The biggest franchise in Japan is Monster Hunter, which to my western eyes is the worst bits of MMOs distilled into a single player experience. Compare Final Fantasy XXVI-4(or wherever they are at now) to Skyrim or Fallout. We're influenced by DnD, they're influenced by the NES. Same with aesthetics. I can't really stand the overly Asian styled games now, I just can't get into them. This is one reason I like Guild Wars 2, its very western, and not terribly grindy.
Or maybe I've just grown up a little.
I don't know if I could ever justify doing the subscription thing again, for the same reason. I don't have time, towards the end of my WoW tenure, when I got out of college, I actually felt guilty for not playing it more, since I was burning money. But I had to balance work, a bit of continued studies, a real social life, and a serious relationship with WoW. WoW, needless to say, lost. I like being able to dip into games now, not as a casual, but small bouts of serious gaming. I have some free time this weekend (hypothetically, I doubt this is true, but it would be very nice), so I'm going to spend six hours playing Civ. I might not be able to devote more than 30 minutes every other day for a couple weeks after that though... It makes it really hard to justify $15 a month.
Pay-as-you-go would be nice, though. Blizzard should just have a flat per minute/hour system, along with subscriptions. I might still be playing then. Same with Tera, if it was a dollar an hour, or such, I might actually play it.
My name in Omestes, I'm an Ares. Now we know each other, so your statement is false.
Sorry. Need more coffee (or less).
It isn't the second coming, it isn't a WoW killer, but it is a very fun game. It's 60 dollars, with no subscription. The GW2 fanboys did make some pretty silly and unrealistic expectations for it though. It is more of an evolution of the genre, than the revolution the fanboys were hyping. That, obviously, is superficially disappointing (every new thing is, as well). I'm definitely going to get my $60 worth though. There is something very nice about the combat of a couple of the classes (I love the Guardian). The World vs. World vs. World combat is also nice... But then again I loved WoW battlegrounds more than I loved anything else in endgame. During BC me and a couple friends did nothing but non-Arena PVP, we even had speadsheets set up to keep track of w/l ratios and honor/time, sadly Blizzard sucked all the fun out of it in WoLK (no pvp weapons except for arena, really... oh.. the HARDCORE didn't want their imaginary achievements lessened... sorry). GW will scratch that itch, which makes it worth the cost to me.
I also like an MMO where they aren't frightened of repeatedly killing players. No hand holding, no instructions... Just fight and die until you learn how to play. Then die some more.
Er... I've got 3 level 80s, and I haven't given Blizzard any money in a long time. They don't delete your characters for not paying them. If I decided to start giving them money again, all my old characters are magically available to me again.
I played a bit in the Tera beta... it was shallow, but the combat was fun...
I refused to give them money just because the game was pedobear approved. Why the hell would I play any game capitalizing on sexy 8 year old girls? I'm guessing its trying for a very different demographic than me (people who like the whole creepy cute "uguu" japanese thing), but there still is something very distasteful about it. Same with the female wardrobes, they took a very annoying trend, and made it more so. Its about a step away from making all female characters completely naked, and the only customization you get is color and material of their merkin and pasties.
I'm a guy, I'm not a feminist (in the modern sense), I'm not a PC-at-all-costs type. But there is a line. I can stand chain-mail bikinis, but Tera goes way beyond that line. The game is designed for 14 year old boys. The aesthetics distract from the game, and doesn't add to it one bit.
Further, the game was more grindy than WoW, and much less engaging. Sure combat was nice, but that doesn't hold my interest for long, since eventually it gets really repetitive (basically 1-2-3-roll-4-1-2-3-roll-4-6. Repeat.), meanwhile you need 12 board spleens. Not worth $15/mo AND a subscription. But then again I doubt I'll ever partake in the old MMO buy/sub model ever again. GW2 and Planetside have it right. And both of them will get my money (GW2 already has my money).
Slashdot Mirror
Er... Rome and Greece were, arguably, the two most important cultures in Western history... We owe pretty much most of our thought and science, and a lot of our current cultural identity to them. I wouldn't really call them anecdotes, when they support my point that our (America's, not the rest of the Western world's as much) attitude towards sex is the anecdote, not the rule. Attitudes towards sex are subjective, and temporary, and in no way objective.
Does the fact that Israel exists as a Jewish state today means that persecution of Jews was a historical rarity?
But this is pretty much the point that the AC was making.
And I ruined that for him.
Seriously, though, I understand. I was hoping that the Great Pointless OS Wars would eventually die off, but thanks to the power of cognitive dissonance it never will. I have used all of the Big Three (Win, OS X, and various *nix flavors), and really have a hard time picking sides. I know, at the moment, Windows 7 works for me, or at least it is more convenient to my needs than the others. But at various points other operating systems have been my #1, depending on where I was in life, and what I wanted from a computer. When I was a young nerd I hopped between DOS, Windows 3.11, and Linux. I was learning, I wanted a "toy". Later I pretty much stuck to Windows since I wanted to do video games. A little later I moved back to Linux for the amount of control I needed for some projects, and also as a learning experience. In college I moved to OS X, because I got sick of monkeying with my PC and wanted to just do homework, Photoshop, and watch movies, config files and hardware issues became a distraction. Then I used all three at the same time, for different purposes around the house. Then I pruined of Linux (still needs some work to be good on HTPCs, and really needs a good media player, and the Unity/Gnomehell thing annoyed me), then OS X (to expensive to maintain and upgrade, plus Apple made some boneheaded decisions), and now I'm back to Windows. After this PC dies, I'm not sure what I'll move on to. Probably not Windows 8, or Linux (I need Lightroom and Photoshop too much), and at this point OS X doesn't look much better.
I don't really understand personally, and emotionally, investing in any of them. Sure, if your a code contributor to Linux, or an app developer for a single platform, I can see. That platform equals money in your pocket. But as a consumer, who cares? I don't have a horse in any of these races. Same with gadgets... Who really cares if you have a Blackberry (ha!), Android, or iOS device? Its not like any of these giant, monolithic, corporations give two shits about you.
If the iPhone or iPad fit my needs more than my current Android devices, I'd jump ship in a heart beat. Same with my iPod, if something better comes along at the end of its life, I'll grab it without a second thought.
Er... you realize that through vast swath of world history being gay (or bisexual, or not-strictly hetero) was perfectly fine and normal? Maybe you should go look up some history, and learn about Greece and Rome, two of the most important and influential societies in Western history. Learn about the fact that some of the people who were the basis of all of our values and most of our philosophies probably liked to have sex with men from time to time... The horror the horror. Actually, one of the men whose ideas are the basis of most of Christianity liked men (Plato).
Sexual values are as mutable as any other values... In time people will look back at today and scratch their heads, just like we look back at any other era and do the same. Just like we look back at much of our history and wonder why we were such assholes to everyone else (women, Jews, blacks).
In the end, I really don't get why anyone cares. What people do in their bedrooms is their business.
I personally don't want to give my money to hate-mongers and bigots. Thats why. And I generally advocate that no one else should support assholes as well.
This appreciation day thing is creepy, since its supporting them just because they are run by an asshole. I'm glad that hatred can make you the money here in America, for no reason but for the fact that you hate someone who someone else hates. I find this depressing as hell.
I post as AC now because Slashdot moderation and post quotas are retarded, making it less efficient to challenge the masses as a registered user, especially if your karma is below 0.
So working as intended, you mean?
So, I used Apple products, I owned several, I still own a couple, may I dislike their products without offending you now. Or being a Nazi... (wow). You don't see a problem with your racism comparison do you? Racism hurts people, it kills people, it leads to atrocities... Hating Apple products leads to... pretty much nothing. Hating Apple is like hating a flavor of ice-cream or a brand/style of clothing. It isn't a big deal, and no one but over-invested zealots give two shits.
All companies that build platforms do that.
Who? Almost all of the things on my PC are from 3rd party vendors. It is trivial to instal almost any file I find on the internet on my two Android products, indeed I have purchases from alternative app stores, as well as installers found floating about in the wild. I suppose most of the files on my Linux box are from a single source, but that is somewhat different (its open, and I'm not actually restricted to using it). The only device I owned that is as locked down as an iOS device was an old dumb-phone from Verizon (you can only get ringtones from us, you can only get apps from us, you can only get games from us, and no, you can't uninstall that crapware).
Perhaps you should elaborate here...
I'm not arguing that anyone is better than Apple, or Apple is worse than anyone. I just think that your specific point was a bit weak. Apple is the king of the restricted walled garden, with heavy, and often arbitrary, restriction on playing.
Also, Apple's lawsuits are dumber than everyone elses, since they aren't based on function, but on silly design crap. Oh no, icons in a grid. Oh no, rounded rectangles! The horror, the horror. And Mr. Job's acting like the other Steve (Balmer), and acting out of the motivation of "burying the compition", and not anything with external merit. If Apple wins, it is good for them, but not really good for me (the customer). If they lose, it isn't good for them, but good for everyone else. They deserve to be trounced, badly.
I have never heard someone complain about them.
And you're on Slashdot?
Hell, if you want a novel experience, I'll complain about them for you, for the low low price of free.
I don't like Apple products. I, and my household, have owned several OS X devices (MacMini, iBook, MacBook, iPod's, etc...), and I'm not a fan of any of them, hence selling them all off. Except the iPods, I don't like them, but they really are the least-worse, and once they kill the Classic, I won't be buying more. I hated how OS X updates, including silly service pack things, which are often free from 3rd parties, and minor API bits which basically channel 3rd party devs into closing backwards support. You have to buy every service pack, or you're going to be deprived of updates. I didn't like how consistent their UI was either, every Apple app had to have a unique look (Ooh this one is grey, this one is brushed metal, this one is wood, this on is... pinstrip?), which broke their own holy design standards. I didn't like the fact that they bloated everything in expectation that I'd only own "I" devices. I really dislike the rounded corner (used cough-drop) aesthetic that their UI and hardware has. It was nice when everything was a beige box, but we've moved on, they haven't. I really dislike their hardcore fans, much more annoying than other annoying fanboys. I don't like the fact that every Apple product I owned has died before the non-Apple equivelent, and are often completely non-user-serviceable. Stock iPod headphones are terrible.
*deep breath*
I hate the walled garden approach of the various iOS devices. I dislike the amount of kludge introduced to keep them only having one button, for the sake of having one button. It reminds of their stupid insistence on having the worst, least useful, mice in the industry for years, for no reason but one guy's version of aesthetics. Aesthetics are fine, until you gimp usability and utility for their sake. Aesthetics are a means to an end, not an end to itself. I dislike the iPhone upgrade cycle (a new phone every year, two year average contract be damned, if you don't like it we'll artificially gimp upgrades!), I dislike the aesthetics of the thing (its ugly). I dislike the disconnect from their image and the reality of their manufacture. I dislike the cultish hipsterism of their marketing and consumer direction. I dislike how iOS, and their gadget demographic, has killed the whole "Apple is for artists" thing, and dumbed down ALL of their products for the casual, hipster, "me too!" demographic.
I could go on. But I won't.
And, again, I owned several Apple products, I still own some. I don't actually hate them, or think that all their products suck. They work for some people, and that is fine. You liking Apple doesn't affect me in the slightest, the same with my not really being a fan of them. I was very fond of them for some time (my girlfriend was a lifelong cult-of-Mac type, until some bad experiences and my corruption). I, sometimes, really miss my MacMini, it was a much better HTPC than pretty much anything else I've owned. I also don't really think that much of the competition is much better, they just feel a bit more honest. I don't mean literally honest, but they feel more substantial, more WYSIWG...
Come see the new iSnip, now with rounded corners!
I'm a lefty, I use the arrow keys (which I think is a bit better, better spacing for my monkey fingers, no chance of mishit keys). Take that.
When I don't use the arrow keys, I use ESDF, since it makes a bit more sense, and it doesn't feel as cramped.
Depending on price, I'd grab an x86 Surface in a second. The ARM version... I'm not sure yet. I really dislike Win8 on desktops, but I think it might be far superior to iOS and Android on tablets. I think (subjective) aesthetics are much nicer than Android or iOS, I like the fact that it (in theory) can interoperate with my desktop, and share apps. I like the fact that it is a full OS, and not a toy OS like Android or iOS.
Obviously this all depends on factors, how is the ecosystem, how is the support, how much does it cost, how Microsofty is Microsoft going to be with it. How popular also plays a role, since it ensures further development, and more apps.
Right now I'm happy with my Transformer, and wouldn't trade it for an iPad, or pretty much anything else. I like the Nexus 7, it looks solid, but its too damn small for my needs. Perhaps I might get one for my girlfriend, though she loves her netbook (easier to do homework on), so probably not. If they made a "full size" one for a bit more, I'd probably grab it when I feel the limitations on my current tablet (hasn't happened yet).
I'm not an MS fan boy, but I'm not frightened to admit that they do somethings right. I can see myself sticking Win8 on my HTPC (not my desktop, ever), and I can see their tablet being brilliant. Hell, I'm one of the few people who really wanted a Zune to replace my aging iPod Classic, but the fact that I had to use WMP, and the that I could find an iPod with much larger capacity cheaper stopped me. Hell, I even liked the brown one, I'm sick of glossy white and silver, or glossy black and silver gadgets, with rounded corners, obviously. That was one thing that made my love my Transformer... Its brown, and looks nothing like an iPad/iPhone/iPod/iWhatever. Apple is fashion that really should die, their devices just don't look very good (to me). The only product design of theirs that I like is the MacMini, the rest are kind of blah and dated looking.
It find it sad that most manufacturers of Android devices have to follow the Apple-look-a-like mold. Do something different, differentiate yourself, make your own goddamn design!
Are they not true Scotsmen as well?
Sometimes I wonder, since most public sales rankings don't include digital downloads (what a redundant term), and right now the aging current generation of consoles can't hold a candle to PCs for size of selection or quality of graphics. I have pretty old, moderately priced, video card, and my hardware is hardly new or exciting (AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black, ATI/AMD 5770, 6GB of DDR2), and pretty much every game I play looks better than it would on a console, with better FPS, textures, shading, FOV, etc... If I was a console gamer (I have a forgotten, forlorn, Wii) I'd probably be thinking of trying PC gaming. Especially since the barrier to entry is pretty low right now (you have a moderate computer from the last 2-3 years? Have $100-200 to throw at a video card? Poof, new console that you can also use for more than a paperweight when your not gaming).
Sadly the sales figures won't tell us if this is happening, since they only count retail. I have a feeling that the majority of PC games are now bought through digital distributors like Steam, GOG, or Desura.
I wonder what would happen to sales figures if they suddenly added Steam's statistics to them...
Also, Valve isn't anything special, they aren't terribly "techie". I don't see what would make them so either, you download a client, you hand them your credit card, and games automagically appear on your computer, with no (ideally) setup, mucking with registries, or anything else of a technical nature. Using Steam is about as simple as using a console, sans the time to download the game. Click a button, you're playing. Nothing remotely technical. If you were talking about GOG, then sure... you might have a point... but not Steam.
Odd... unless something has changes, it isn't that hard. My girlfriend had a MacBook, and all it took to change the disk was removing the battery and two screws... A little bit more complicated than changing my old HP Pavillion's HDD (one screw and a pull-tab), but doable in around 3 minutes just the same. Much easier than when I upgraded a MacMini (new HDD, RAM, and CPU... ouch.).
But then again my older iBook had some issues with its HDD (odd issues, since OS X wouldn't boot or install, but Yellow Dog Linux ran just fine, albeit without sound or wifi); and there was basically no way to swap it out.
Luckily Apple products have a pretty good resale value. So when they die (something common), you can still get good money. My girlfriends MacBook with a burnt out motherboard (and smelling somewhat of Belgian ale) sold for around 60% of what she paid for it two years previous. My franken-MacMini sold for about 75%, and my dead iBook for around 40%. I'm actually sad that we're a Mac free household now, just because of the nice money you can fleece from Apple people when they break.
And a lot of us refuse to mod up AC posts, even if they deserve it. Fair trade off, you get to be anonymous, and people who aren't get the karma. You should feel lucky that people actually read it, some of us generally screen out AC posts (much higher level of noise to signal than non-AC posts).
I guess I don't understand your sig then. This is a serious reply and I would sincerely like your opinion on the following quotes.
The quote, and the thoughts of Edward Abbey as a whole, are more towards an esoteric idea of country, the land and the people. I suppose it is a simpler idea, or a vastly more complex idea than expressed in those quotes. In more classic terms, Mr. Abbey wasn't very concerned with the polis or demos, but with country in the grand and literal sense.
All of those quotes are probably valid sentiments, but sadly they are often used as ammo to promote agendas, and force ideologies on others. There is some irony there. Actually, the closest to the truth (or how I see it) is Mr. Orwell's quote. It sums up American politics very well, and pretty much, in a neat capsule, attacks whatever political beliefs either of us probably hold sacred.
The comment I was replying to, was stupid, and offtopic. Taking the Obama's words, and completely twisting them to support a subjective partisan ideology is pointless, and meaningless. Obama was talking about infrastructure, and the general bits of government that allow business. This is pretty valid (though he said it pretty idiotically). Whether you agree with him on broad issues or not, the statement has a fair bit of truth. Without government, there is no freedom. Yes, we can argue about the degree of this, or where government goes to far and freedom starts to diminish again, but that doesn't invalidate the central premise. It isn't controversial, and Obama didn't think of it (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and yes, Jefferson, spoke about it first).
As for being offtopic... What does it have to do with a rumor of a third Hobbit movie... I wasn't aware that Peter Jackson, or the LoTR franchise had the desire to curtail my freedom.
Yay, more offtopic politics... Woohoo!
Good, I'm glad you like your guy more than others like their guy. Sadly, your guy cares about as much about you, as their guy does. Not at all.
Either of them win, and nothing changes. Nothing ever changes.
And how would that make them, or anyone else, money?
Most of the non-nerds I know are inherently biased against Linux (if they have even heard of it in the first place). It's hard to use. Its overly nerdy. Nothing runs on it. Its ugly and intuitive. "Hackers" use it. I can't learn it. I don't want to use command lines for everything. Etc... I'm sure we're all familiar with these statements or preconceptions. If Google made the best Android/desktop killer app in the world, it probably wouldn't get people to hop over to Linux, they would just bitch that it isn't on Windows.
But then again I've never understood the Linux domination thing... Who cares if everyone uses it? Hell, if everyone did, everyone would complain about how dumb the users have gotten, and how being a Linux guy used to be somehow superior to what it is now.
I think it is just individual cops. I've been on both sides of the legal fence, and have met some very nice officers and some terrible assholes. Hell, I've met cops who were terrible to me, as a victim, and cops who really wanted to help me, as a criminal. Cops are people.
I don't know why I'm feeding the polititrolls, but...
You realize that most large cities are generally more liberal and progressive than smaller cities and towns, right? That means there would be more cases in general, completely regardless of political slant. There probably is more violent crime in these cities as well. But then you realize that the 7 largest cities in the U.S. all have Democrats as mayor (well, Bloomberg isn't one, but he was). Actually there is one a single Republican mayor in the ten largest cities in the U.S. Thats 21 million people, excluding San Diego (the only town I've ever been to where I've seen an audience of people was cheering on a man assaulting a bum, classy) under the insidious rule of liberals. Obviously there will be more cases of asshole police, since they have more police and people the most other places.
Statistics, they are fun.
But not as fun as moronic political cheerleading.
We are less terrified of pornography than the US though.
Which shows, with your vastly higher levels of sex crime... oh... nevermind.
The problem is that, if you have 2 of them, they don't pass through the intestine like the other stuff kids swallow.
So, I, an adult without any children and none planned, am not allowed to own them for this?
That makes sense...
How many children die from accidental gunshots in households where parents are too stupid to secure their weapons, but I can buy guns at the local Walmart? Oh, can't ban those... Shucks.
This is a stupid ban, no matter HOW nasty they are inside children. I feel bad for the kids, really, but there is no need to punish everyone else for it.
I can see Zucker being cross-examined: "You did know that several children had died from swallowing these buckeyballs, didn't you?"
So people would have the same reaction to any firearm manufacture right? I can picture P. James Debney (CEO of Smith and Wesson) in court "You did know several children have been accidentally shot, didn't you?".
My house has around 1000 things that are very dangerous to children (cleaners, knives, airsoft weapons, small parts and screws, cactuses, poisonous plants, solvents, magnets!, outlets, glass objects, plastic bags, gasoline, cigarettes, booze, lighters, other flammable liquids, R rated movies, metal music, a chainsaw, three or four machetes, a weed wacker, atheist propaganda, a Koran, the Communist Manifesto, and the complete works of Socrates/Plato), should I be expecting the police to swing by and arrest me for being "dangerous" soon?
EVERYTHING IS DANGEROUS. Ban it all.
As for the game Tera, I find the combat to be a refreshing change, and generally enjoyable enough to ignore the (valid) criticism of shallow questing. I don't spend nearly the amount of time playing it as I did WoW, I generally play for maybe a couple hours per week, so maybe that in itself is telling.
I loved the combat in Tera, but the grind killed me. After playing a bit of that, and a bit of Aion and Lineage, I've come the conclusion that there is a fairly large East/West divide in what we want from MMOs, and games in general. Asians (not to generalize too much, this could be wrong) are more happy with grinding. The biggest franchise in Japan is Monster Hunter, which to my western eyes is the worst bits of MMOs distilled into a single player experience. Compare Final Fantasy XXVI-4(or wherever they are at now) to Skyrim or Fallout. We're influenced by DnD, they're influenced by the NES. Same with aesthetics. I can't really stand the overly Asian styled games now, I just can't get into them. This is one reason I like Guild Wars 2, its very western, and not terribly grindy.
Or maybe I've just grown up a little.
I don't know if I could ever justify doing the subscription thing again, for the same reason. I don't have time, towards the end of my WoW tenure, when I got out of college, I actually felt guilty for not playing it more, since I was burning money. But I had to balance work, a bit of continued studies, a real social life, and a serious relationship with WoW. WoW, needless to say, lost. I like being able to dip into games now, not as a casual, but small bouts of serious gaming. I have some free time this weekend (hypothetically, I doubt this is true, but it would be very nice), so I'm going to spend six hours playing Civ. I might not be able to devote more than 30 minutes every other day for a couple weeks after that though... It makes it really hard to justify $15 a month.
Pay-as-you-go would be nice, though. Blizzard should just have a flat per minute/hour system, along with subscriptions. I might still be playing then. Same with Tera, if it was a dollar an hour, or such, I might actually play it.
I played the beta, I'm still excited.
My name in Omestes, I'm an Ares. Now we know each other, so your statement is false.
Sorry. Need more coffee (or less).
It isn't the second coming, it isn't a WoW killer, but it is a very fun game. It's 60 dollars, with no subscription. The GW2 fanboys did make some pretty silly and unrealistic expectations for it though. It is more of an evolution of the genre, than the revolution the fanboys were hyping. That, obviously, is superficially disappointing (every new thing is, as well). I'm definitely going to get my $60 worth though. There is something very nice about the combat of a couple of the classes (I love the Guardian). The World vs. World vs. World combat is also nice... But then again I loved WoW battlegrounds more than I loved anything else in endgame. During BC me and a couple friends did nothing but non-Arena PVP, we even had speadsheets set up to keep track of w/l ratios and honor/time, sadly Blizzard sucked all the fun out of it in WoLK (no pvp weapons except for arena, really... oh.. the HARDCORE didn't want their imaginary achievements lessened... sorry). GW will scratch that itch, which makes it worth the cost to me.
I also like an MMO where they aren't frightened of repeatedly killing players. No hand holding, no instructions... Just fight and die until you learn how to play. Then die some more.
Er... I've got 3 level 80s, and I haven't given Blizzard any money in a long time. They don't delete your characters for not paying them. If I decided to start giving them money again, all my old characters are magically available to me again.
Way to jump to conclusions!
I played a bit in the Tera beta... it was shallow, but the combat was fun...
I refused to give them money just because the game was pedobear approved. Why the hell would I play any game capitalizing on sexy 8 year old girls? I'm guessing its trying for a very different demographic than me (people who like the whole creepy cute "uguu" japanese thing), but there still is something very distasteful about it. Same with the female wardrobes, they took a very annoying trend, and made it more so. Its about a step away from making all female characters completely naked, and the only customization you get is color and material of their merkin and pasties.
I'm a guy, I'm not a feminist (in the modern sense), I'm not a PC-at-all-costs type. But there is a line. I can stand chain-mail bikinis, but Tera goes way beyond that line. The game is designed for 14 year old boys. The aesthetics distract from the game, and doesn't add to it one bit.
Further, the game was more grindy than WoW, and much less engaging. Sure combat was nice, but that doesn't hold my interest for long, since eventually it gets really repetitive (basically 1-2-3-roll-4-1-2-3-roll-4-6. Repeat.), meanwhile you need 12 board spleens. Not worth $15/mo AND a subscription. But then again I doubt I'll ever partake in the old MMO buy/sub model ever again. GW2 and Planetside have it right. And both of them will get my money (GW2 already has my money).