That's it exactly. The old-school pirate mentality was "Give this out for free, but don't sell it." and it still is there to a large extent-- freeloading is one thing, and profiting from someone else's work is an entirely different thing under this mindset.
Doesn't make the former any less legal under the law, but we're talking about human reactions here anyway.
The DS is still holding its own against the PSP for the most part, especially with the battery life confirmation and pricetag foulups from Sony, but I think Sony might be able to draw an ace from its software lineup yet.
Can't count out the DS either, however, with the sheer number of preorders going on. It's going to be interesting to see how this matchup goes, and I think it'll all come down to software and to a lesser extent the price/battery life points.
In fact, I'd pretty much say that unless Sony pulls an ace out, Nintendo may wrap this one up within two years: as software hits second generation and afterwards, the strain on the hardware and battery life will be increased and Sony's having serious battery issues as it is.
What really gets me is how the Gamespot review spends over half the review glossing over the flaws and then they still give it a near-perfect score.
I admit I actually liked the original Halo-- it had a different feel and the enemies had some character to them, but the review I just read makes Halo 2 sound like they didn't even bother to work on the biggest issues of the original at all and in fact came out a lot worse in a few areas while only improving mildly here or there.
I guess the reviewers really ARE taking payoffs these days...
A fellow sufferer, huh? I worked over in ICC/PNet back in 2000 while they were shutting the program down. If you think TDMA/GSM was bad, bundled billing was a complete and utter nightmare since if something got 'stuck', you couldn't touch it at all on either the wireless or regular phone sides.
I'm guessing the level of service went WAY down after I left, though-- I and many of the other people on my team didn't run into a whole lot of really angry customers over wireless issues (but we sure did on the regular long distance...)
I actually used to work for the AT&T wireless division. Sadly, the stores are an entirely seperate division of the company from the rest of the wireless-- it was, as of the time I was there, fairly standard routine to have a phone taken to an AT&T store for a basic reprogramming if required. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that the stores knew how to do it. Some did, some didn't.
Personally, if I'd determined that the call was going to take longer than the three minute limit (AT&T talk time policies are a complete and utter bitch.. I routinely got chewed out for taking a little more time on my calls and making sure the job got done right) then I would have immediately looked into the new phone angle. I'm really surprised they didn't get it done sooner, though. How long ago did all of this happen? When I left (four years ago), they still had a very lenient credit policy when it came to crediting someone's account.
However.. you are right about the lottery thing. Some of my most vivid memories of that job was hearing some of the stuff the guy in the cube in front of me got away with. He had numerous reprimands in his file, but when I left they still hadn't fired him. Not to say they all were that bad-- many of my teammates were really good, but there were just that few that made things worse across the board.
Great question there. I'm going to say that the legal side of the question is iffy-- it might be illegal yet since you didn't get it through legal distrobution methods (read: the ROM image situation; if you didn't dump it yourself, the copy is illegal).
Morally, however, I'd say it's much less grey. It's absolutely fine, in my opinion-- you did pay for it BEFORE you downloaded it, after all. They've got their money either way, so no harm was actually commited.
Well, I don't think your neighbors would appreciate getting blasted by poisonous fumes from non-plenum grade cabling catching fire. Yet another case of the rules being there for a good reason.
You might want to take a look at gnump3d as that might cover the bases for the most part. It also has a web-interface with password protection if that's something you need. The Windows support seems to be flaky but since you'll be running it from Linux you shouldn't have TOO much trouble.
I always heard it as "Consumer Electronics" myself, since it was designed to be a very cut-down version for small electronic devices where a full Windows install would be seriously overkill.
You were doing fine, if stumbling, until that last line. I think you let your bias show too clearly. OS X having limited driver support isn't necessarily a good thing, firstly. Secondly, the 'total experience' of the platform seems to include a "Well, now where do I find *software* for the damn thing?" right out of the box as well. Thirdly any platform that can thrive despite having a flawed architecture is doing pretty well on software, hardware, and experience.
Lastly, Intel is making steps towards fixing the major architecture issues (real mode, for one thing) through a next-generation replacement for the BIOS. In a few years, we'll be past that point.
As for the rat's nest of cables, I really don't see it being as bad as you say. There are pretty much the same level of cables either way. Power, video, keyboard, mouse, audio, external devices like a USB camera. The only time the Mac had a real edge on cables was when you got the system and monitor in one, and then you're screwed if your monitor goes out.
As far as *I* am concerned, the huge price differential outweighs any 'total experience'-- since I have enough common sense to keep my XP box safe (linux-based firewall helps, as does using FireFox) the common reasons for a switch wouldn't apply to me.
"PS2 Menu"? If you're talking about the browser, if that's coming up with a disc in the drive, then you've got drive problems and it's not recognizing the disc without a struggle.
What makes you think they don't know this? It's like copy protection-- they only need to make it hard enough to discourage casual capture and printing.
Well, it all comes down to scanlines and televisions. I'm pretty much reiterating your point, but adjusting it a slight bit to the side.
When you take these prerendered images in question and display them on a TV, they're going to appear slightly darker because of the black scanlines interlaced with the images. Also, you're going to get a bit more of a blur effect (exactly as you describe) making them look just fine on a TV. Modern monitors generally don't get that effect, so they're not going to look anywhere near as good on a monitor. It doesn't help that they've been stretched to the point that even if you DID blur them, they probably wouldn't come out quite as well. Someone really ought to try running those prerendered sprites through a 2xSai filter and see..
Anyway, I digress--this guy who wrote the article REALLY doesn't know what he's talking about, and there really ought to be a lot more "IMHO"s in there. (Or at least some IMNSHOs.)
That's been brought about by the decline of the arcade industry. Game manufacturers used to create custom hardware for games, but diminishing returns make that impossible now. As far as they're concerned, it's cheaper and safer to use a console-based arcade hardware, since they can do the home port more cheaply in the end.
The 'pirating spiral' as you call it has been going on for 20+ years, and gaming has had both its ups and downs. Sooner or later there'll be another lull in the cycle, like the one that took place right after they stopped using manual protection. Sooner or later there'll be another huge step forward that brings in a new generation of players with a new style of game.
We may or may not be around then, but nevertheless no reason to take such a negative view of things, right?
Looks like they're on-time with this release date. That's a refreshing change from the usual cycle of pushbacks we've been seeing lately in the PC market (and to a lesser extent in consoles). Not that they're totally innocent-- they've pushed this one back, what, three times?
I believe it was through here-- http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=875 352&product=windowsxpsp2kb
I'm a little fuzzy on it, since the relevant list of applications that stopped working was taken off the MSDN site. An article was posted here about the list when it was first discovered, in fact. Sorry I can't do anything more, but the info seems to have dried up a bit.
'Badly written' might be taking it a bit far. As far as I understand it, SP2 totally removes or largely changes an API call that was commonly used in all sorts of applications, including a number of MS's own products-- it was an ACCEPTED PRACTICE.
I think that's probably the biggest complaint about it outright.
Well, I've already seen one that looks remarkably interesting-- Metal Gear Acid. I want to see if Kojima can pull off a decent card game, much less a decent Metal Gear and a decent card game all in one.
I'll be getting the DS, though-- probably at launch if I can manage to get my hands on one. I'm already convinced it'll be good and the price isn't THAT bad. The PSP I'm still planning to wait and see on. I could get two PS2 units for the hinted retail price they're talking about for the PSP.
Don't know how that slipped my mind, I knew it but somehow forgot completely-- must've been the long crazy weekend. I think it was about 70-30 in favor of the flash-style memory cards, in terms of use.
Talk about a surprise! I didn't expect them to put Facing Worlds on the *demo*-- that's one of the most popular maps in UT! I've already gone out and bought the full game, but I might just grab the demo to shove onto a CDR/DVDR to take for portable LAN party use.
Slashdot Mirror
That's it exactly. The old-school pirate mentality was "Give this out for free, but don't sell it." and it still is there to a large extent-- freeloading is one thing, and profiting from someone else's work is an entirely different thing under this mindset.
Doesn't make the former any less legal under the law, but we're talking about human reactions here anyway.
The DS is still holding its own against the PSP for the most part, especially with the battery life confirmation and pricetag foulups from Sony, but I think Sony might be able to draw an ace from its software lineup yet.
Can't count out the DS either, however, with the sheer number of preorders going on. It's going to be interesting to see how this matchup goes, and I think it'll all come down to software and to a lesser extent the price/battery life points.
In fact, I'd pretty much say that unless Sony pulls an ace out, Nintendo may wrap this one up within two years: as software hits second generation and afterwards, the strain on the hardware and battery life will be increased and Sony's having serious battery issues as it is.
What really gets me is how the Gamespot review spends over half the review glossing over the flaws and then they still give it a near-perfect score.
I admit I actually liked the original Halo-- it had a different feel and the enemies had some character to them, but the review I just read makes Halo 2 sound like they didn't even bother to work on the biggest issues of the original at all and in fact came out a lot worse in a few areas while only improving mildly here or there.
I guess the reviewers really ARE taking payoffs these days...
Dual Screen.
A fellow sufferer, huh? I worked over in ICC/PNet back in 2000 while they were shutting the program down. If you think TDMA/GSM was bad, bundled billing was a complete and utter nightmare since if something got 'stuck', you couldn't touch it at all on either the wireless or regular phone sides.
I'm guessing the level of service went WAY down after I left, though-- I and many of the other people on my team didn't run into a whole lot of really angry customers over wireless issues (but we sure did on the regular long distance...)
I actually used to work for the AT&T wireless division. Sadly, the stores are an entirely seperate division of the company from the rest of the wireless-- it was, as of the time I was there, fairly standard routine to have a phone taken to an AT&T store for a basic reprogramming if required. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that the stores knew how to do it. Some did, some didn't.
Personally, if I'd determined that the call was going to take longer than the three minute limit (AT&T talk time policies are a complete and utter bitch.. I routinely got chewed out for taking a little more time on my calls and making sure the job got done right) then I would have immediately looked into the new phone angle. I'm really surprised they didn't get it done sooner, though. How long ago did all of this happen? When I left (four years ago), they still had a very lenient credit policy when it came to crediting someone's account.
However.. you are right about the lottery thing. Some of my most vivid memories of that job was hearing some of the stuff the guy in the cube in front of me got away with. He had numerous reprimands in his file, but when I left they still hadn't fired him. Not to say they all were that bad-- many of my teammates were really good, but there were just that few that made things worse across the board.
Great question there. I'm going to say that the legal side of the question is iffy-- it might be illegal yet since you didn't get it through legal distrobution methods (read: the ROM image situation; if you didn't dump it yourself, the copy is illegal).
Morally, however, I'd say it's much less grey. It's absolutely fine, in my opinion-- you did pay for it BEFORE you downloaded it, after all. They've got their money either way, so no harm was actually commited.
Well, I don't think your neighbors would appreciate getting blasted by poisonous fumes from non-plenum grade cabling catching fire. Yet another case of the rules being there for a good reason.
That's a Quake 3 rocket launcher.
You might want to take a look at gnump3d as that might cover the bases for the most part. It also has a web-interface with password protection if that's something you need. The Windows support seems to be flaky but since you'll be running it from Linux you shouldn't have TOO much trouble.
I always heard it as "Consumer Electronics" myself, since it was designed to be a very cut-down version for small electronic devices where a full Windows install would be seriously overkill.
What kind of problems?
You were doing fine, if stumbling, until that last line. I think you let your bias show too clearly. OS X having limited driver support isn't necessarily a good thing, firstly. Secondly, the 'total experience' of the platform seems to include a "Well, now where do I find *software* for the damn thing?" right out of the box as well. Thirdly any platform that can thrive despite having a flawed architecture is doing pretty well on software, hardware, and experience.
Lastly, Intel is making steps towards fixing the major architecture issues (real mode, for one thing) through a next-generation replacement for the BIOS. In a few years, we'll be past that point.
As for the rat's nest of cables, I really don't see it being as bad as you say. There are pretty much the same level of cables either way. Power, video, keyboard, mouse, audio, external devices like a USB camera. The only time the Mac had a real edge on cables was when you got the system and monitor in one, and then you're screwed if your monitor goes out.
As far as *I* am concerned, the huge price differential outweighs any 'total experience'-- since I have enough common sense to keep my XP box safe (linux-based firewall helps, as does using FireFox) the common reasons for a switch wouldn't apply to me.
"PS2 Menu"? If you're talking about the browser, if that's coming up with a disc in the drive, then you've got drive problems and it's not recognizing the disc without a struggle.
What makes you think they don't know this? It's like copy protection-- they only need to make it hard enough to discourage casual capture and printing.
Well, it all comes down to scanlines and televisions. I'm pretty much reiterating your point, but adjusting it a slight bit to the side.
When you take these prerendered images in question and display them on a TV, they're going to appear slightly darker because of the black scanlines interlaced with the images. Also, you're going to get a bit more of a blur effect (exactly as you describe) making them look just fine on a TV. Modern monitors generally don't get that effect, so they're not going to look anywhere near as good on a monitor. It doesn't help that they've been stretched to the point that even if you DID blur them, they probably wouldn't come out quite as well. Someone really ought to try running those prerendered sprites through a 2xSai filter and see..
Anyway, I digress--this guy who wrote the article REALLY doesn't know what he's talking about, and there really ought to be a lot more "IMHO"s in there. (Or at least some IMNSHOs.)
Here you go!
That's been brought about by the decline of the arcade industry. Game manufacturers used to create custom hardware for games, but diminishing returns make that impossible now. As far as they're concerned, it's cheaper and safer to use a console-based arcade hardware, since they can do the home port more cheaply in the end.
The 'pirating spiral' as you call it has been going on for 20+ years, and gaming has had both its ups and downs. Sooner or later there'll be another lull in the cycle, like the one that took place right after they stopped using manual protection. Sooner or later there'll be another huge step forward that brings in a new generation of players with a new style of game.
We may or may not be around then, but nevertheless no reason to take such a negative view of things, right?
Looks like they're on-time with this release date. That's a refreshing change from the usual cycle of pushbacks we've been seeing lately in the PC market (and to a lesser extent in consoles). Not that they're totally innocent-- they've pushed this one back, what, three times?
Let's hope it meets the expectations of the fans.
I believe it was through here-- http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=875 352&product=windowsxpsp2kb
I'm a little fuzzy on it, since the relevant list of applications that stopped working was taken off the MSDN site. An article was posted here about the list when it was first discovered, in fact. Sorry I can't do anything more, but the info seems to have dried up a bit.
'Badly written' might be taking it a bit far. As far as I understand it, SP2 totally removes or largely changes an API call that was commonly used in all sorts of applications, including a number of MS's own products-- it was an ACCEPTED PRACTICE.
I think that's probably the biggest complaint about it outright.
Well, I've already seen one that looks remarkably interesting-- Metal Gear Acid. I want to see if Kojima can pull off a decent card game, much less a decent Metal Gear and a decent card game all in one.
I'll be getting the DS, though-- probably at launch if I can manage to get my hands on one. I'm already convinced it'll be good and the price isn't THAT bad. The PSP I'm still planning to wait and see on. I could get two PS2 units for the hinted retail price they're talking about for the PSP.
Don't know how that slipped my mind, I knew it but somehow forgot completely-- must've been the long crazy weekend. I think it was about 70-30 in favor of the flash-style memory cards, in terms of use.
Talk about a surprise! I didn't expect them to put Facing Worlds on the *demo*-- that's one of the most popular maps in UT! I've already gone out and bought the full game, but I might just grab the demo to shove onto a CDR/DVDR to take for portable LAN party use.