If I can play DRM'd music when I want, and where I want, and on the devices I want, including making my own backup copies, sure, I have no problem with it: it hasn't restricted my rights.
But we know that isn't what either RIAA or the DRM vendors would call interoperable.
Really? Because they were called that in the games themselves.
FF6, for example, wasn't properly turn-based: each character had a timer on when their next action could be done. if you sat and did nothing, the mobs would still attack, while each of your characters was ready.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Time_Battle and note that this was even used in ChronoTrigger, another SNES title.
This has been in most of the numbered FF's since FF4. Even FFXI is basically the same thing, though you don't need to choose 'Attack' specifically, the concept of attack speed and delay is integral to the mechanics.
Admittedly FF1-3 were turn based, but FF4 did start a "long tradition" of Active Battle System.
I'm sorry, but please, if you want to pretend you have actually played a game long enough to analyze the good and bad in it; if you want to give any sort of criticism beyond "c00l" or "sux0rs, dude"...
Well, the interesting thing to me is these two quotes:
The Whitedust staff decline to comment at all on the question of if Wal-Mart are actually guilty of editing their own Wikipedia page.
Now, that implies a that they can't actually prove their contentions. Follow it with this one:
According to our latest poll, at time of writing 74% of Whitedust readers believe that Wal-Mart have manipulated Wiki.
So, "we can't prove it, but hey, we convinced 74% of our readers that it's true, so it must be!"
We now consider this matter closed.
Right, why actually respond to a reasonable, polite and friendly letter? Better to flame him and insist that you're right because 74% of the readers of your site believe you're right without any sort of evidence.
Yes, it's simple and rote... I'd even say most of the time it's very very easy.
OTOH, I see that as being 'good gameplay'... there are so many side-quests that it's easy to find something you want to do at any given point. Want a space-shooter thing? Fly around in a gummi ship and blow stuff up on a few dozen courses. Want a platformer? There are plenty of those in Winnie-the-Pooh: find one you like. Skateboarding? Sure, do that in a half dozen courses...
It really is as simple as 'Hit X mindlessly, and hit Triangle when it tells you to' -- but if you boil down most of the really addictive video games (the classic being Tetris): gameplay is mindlessly easy and more varied than in most games.
The fact that you can buttonmash through the game is actually part of why I like it.
And, yes, the Disney stories are well done, the main story of Sora is well done... but... button mashing is fun!
Re:The BBC's Website
on
On The BBC 2.0
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Well, my browser window is almost always less than 1024....
But then, I see very little reason to make windows take up the whole screen.... I usually have 2 or 3 that i'm watching in the background and I want some of them visible.
This is why static sized pages of any sort suck. Fix a narrow column or two, let the browser size the rest based on how much is left. It's not that hard.
You should. And you should also tell the people in most other recovery programs that it doesn't work: virtually every rehab program works in exactly the same way that AA works.
The key to AA working is simple: you have to realize you have a problem and need help.
If you don't, it won't work. Nor will any other rehab program.
The numbers on AA proper can be misleading, because many drunk drivers are sentenced to 'diversion' programs that mandate AA attendance. Without the actual acceptance that one has a problem, this part of the sentence is completely pointless. For-money treatment has lower recidivism rate for the simple fact that people usually actually want treatment. (Most are paying through insurance, but depending on copay and deductible on your insurance that does weed out a lot of people who are just going through the motions to appease a judge.)
AA doesn't require the 'Higher Power' be God or a god. It can be whatever you want it to be, as long as you accept that the world doesn't revolve around your own self-interests. Make it Humanity and they'll have no qualms with that.
Guns have legitimate self-protection uses, but they are used for murder and other crimes far more often than they are used for self-defense.
Surely, if people don't want guns banned, maybe they should, you know, do something about all the people using them for illegal purposes?
If people use a technology, whether hammers (people have been killed with hammers -many- times), guns, napster, bittorrent or whatever, as long as there is a valid non-criminal use of that technology, the fault isn't in the technology, it's in the people.
Heck, if I wanted to be even more obvious with your flawed logic, s/guns/email/ and think about the spam problem. Around here, 80-90% of mail touching my servers is spam.
Therefore, mail is bad, and the legit mailers better "do something" or we'll just lump all mail as spam and they will only have themselves to blame for not stopping the spammers.
Indeed, the last few torrents I've downloaded were "bootlegs" of King Crimson concerts.
Never mind that I got them from DGMLive, which is owned by Fripp amongst others and that I paid for them. So not real 'bootlegs'.
It was easier and faster than ordering CD's from the KC Collector's Club.
Only 'bad' thing is I wish they'd include a 400x400 or so 'cover.jpg' instead of making me crop it out of the pdf file they supply for making your own covers (including front back and spine..).
It wasn't theft, it wasn't illegal, it was, in fact, the recommended way of transfering a dozen files that I paid for; ensuring data integrity, a complete download and continuation if interrupted.
So the $575M Operating Income made last quarter is a loss?
Please: Sony certainly has financial woes, but the Playstation2 has propped up the rest of the company for the past few years. It is an enormous cash cow.
They even profit on the hardware, not to mention the games.
Microsoft has lost money on the hardware, and the game revenue is not enough to offset that.
Again, it's about the games, not the hardware. Who wins the console wars has nothing to do with "My system has better specs!" It is about which system ends up with the most popular games.
That chart shows the Canon Optura 600 as having USB2 but does not mention 1394. One might assume that means it does not have 1394 support, and if I'm reading your reply correctly, you did assume that.
However, checking Canon's site shows that the Optura 600 does have 1394 support.
So, clearly, just because Steve's Digicams doesn't show 1394 support, that doesn't mean it's not there.
I'll leave checking the other cameras for you, but please rely on something a bit more accurate than that page, as it is demonstrably incomplete and inconsistent on feature lists.
Under their existing policies, 1 piece of email is bulk.
(I'm not kidding: I've had this runaround with them when an AOL user clicked "this is spam" on a personalized mail with pictures of a wedding... 1 piece of mail if it generates a complaint, is not only spam, it's "bulk".)
id3v2 supports lyrics (even synced) [the USLT tag for unsynced lyrics], cover art [APIC], performer names [TIPL, TMCL, TPE1-4], composers [TCOM for composer, TEXT for lyricsist]...
The problem is that very little software supports most of that other than cover art.
Perhaps you should look at id3.org: see the id3v2.4 specs.
The problem isn't the tagging methods, it's the lack of software support.
(That said: obligatory plug -- slimserver supports lyrics, cover art, performer names and composers.... perhaps you need a Squeezebox.)
Why on earth would you want to use id3v1? id3v1 has the goofy single-byte genres. id3v2 supports strings of arbitrary length. Some software (like Slimserver) lets you have multiple genres per track, using the delimiter of choice.
The real catch is defining your genre set, but that gets very tricky to do in a way that you'll be satisfied with.
If they don't show up on MusicBrainz, then import them from FreeDB if they are there, and then add the record to MusicBrainz. This is how their database grows and gets more accurate.
Certainly MusicBrainz isn't perfect: I periodically find duplicates, but it is editable, and there are procedures for combining duplicates into one record.
I'm not sure if your example of why you are at a 'disadvantage' is because of your race, or, quite simply (and this is said with respect, of course:)), you're a geek.
The people you're conversing with will vary in their geekiness: some will insist that They Have A Better Idea (usually they don't), some will think "duh, I should have thought of that, so obvious now that you said it," and some will be in the middle and think "maybe -- go for it." Some will just be confused and tell you to go do it because they have no idea at all what you're talking about.
It's just that geeks (including you, and probably most of the people in your example) are not exactly known for tact or good in-person communications (see Asperger's Syndrome). You say what you believe, which is fine and dandy, but it will also annoy the hell out of people sometimes.
Just because you're black doesn't mean that all the bias against you is from race: there is plenty of pressure from neurotypicals, and geeks are sometimes just as hard on other geeks as NTs are.
Slashdot Mirror
The catch is who defines "interoperable".
If I can play DRM'd music when I want, and where I want, and on the devices I want, including making my own backup copies, sure, I have no problem with it: it hasn't restricted my rights.
But we know that isn't what either RIAA or the DRM vendors would call interoperable.
Really? Because they were called that in the games themselves.
FF6, for example, wasn't properly turn-based: each character had a timer on when their next action could be done. if you sat and did nothing, the mobs would still attack, while each of your characters was ready.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Time_Battle and note that this was even used in ChronoTrigger, another SNES title.
This has been in most of the numbered FF's since FF4. Even FFXI is basically the same thing, though you don't need to choose 'Attack' specifically, the concept of attack speed and delay is integral to the mechanics.
Admittedly FF1-3 were turn based, but FF4 did start a "long tradition" of Active Battle System.
You left out that FASA, makers of Shadowrun, are also owned by Microsoft.
...
So this is like the head of the Windows Vista team saying, "Wow, Office 2007 is great!"
damn it, I thought I turned my web cam off.
I'm sorry, but please, if you want to pretend you have actually played a game long enough to analyze the good and bad in it; if you want to give any sort of criticism beyond "c00l" or "sux0rs, dude"...
Then at least learn how to spell city names....
That depends on your player. :P
I use a mysql database for mine, but then, I'm using Slimserver and Squeezeboxes to play music (and Softsqueeze at work).
Well, the interesting thing to me is these two quotes:
The Whitedust staff decline to comment at all on the question of if Wal-Mart are actually guilty of editing their own Wikipedia page.
Now, that implies a that they can't actually prove their contentions. Follow it with this one:
According to our latest poll, at time of writing 74% of Whitedust readers believe that Wal-Mart have manipulated Wiki.
So, "we can't prove it, but hey, we convinced 74% of our readers that it's true, so it must be!"
We now consider this matter closed.
Right, why actually respond to a reasonable, polite and friendly letter? Better to flame him and insist that you're right because 74% of the readers of your site believe you're right without any sort of evidence.
Yes, it's simple and rote ... I'd even say most of the time it's very very easy.
... there are so many side-quests that it's easy to find something you want to do at any given point. Want a space-shooter thing? Fly around in a gummi ship and blow stuff up on a few dozen courses. Want a platformer? There are plenty of those in Winnie-the-Pooh: find one you like. Skateboarding? Sure, do that in a half dozen courses...
OTOH, I see that as being 'good gameplay'
It really is as simple as 'Hit X mindlessly, and hit Triangle when it tells you to' -- but if you boil down most of the really addictive video games (the classic being Tetris): gameplay is mindlessly easy and more varied than in most games.
The fact that you can buttonmash through the game is actually part of why I like it.
And, yes, the Disney stories are well done, the main story of Sora is well done... but... button mashing is fun!
Well, my browser window is almost always less than 1024....
But then, I see very little reason to make windows take up the whole screen.... I usually have 2 or 3 that i'm watching in the background and I want some of them visible.
This is why static sized pages of any sort suck. Fix a narrow column or two, let the browser size the rest based on how much is left. It's not that hard.
Oh, my.
It really is as lame as reported: disabling or changing SSID's is not security.
"I changed my house number from 8903 to 8309! Hah! Now the burglars won't find my house!"
or "I took the house number off my house, now it isn't even visible! No one will know it's there!"
Those are almost exact analogies to the amount of security difference changing SSID or disabling broadcast gives.
You should. And you should also tell the people in most other recovery programs that it doesn't work: virtually every rehab program works in exactly the same way that AA works.
The key to AA working is simple: you have to realize you have a problem and need help.
If you don't, it won't work. Nor will any other rehab program.
The numbers on AA proper can be misleading, because many drunk drivers are sentenced to 'diversion' programs that mandate AA attendance. Without the actual acceptance that one has a problem, this part of the sentence is completely pointless. For-money treatment has lower recidivism rate for the simple fact that people usually actually want treatment. (Most are paying through insurance, but depending on copay and deductible on your insurance that does weed out a lot of people who are just going through the motions to appease a judge.)
AA doesn't require the 'Higher Power' be God or a god. It can be whatever you want it to be, as long as you accept that the world doesn't revolve around your own self-interests. Make it Humanity and they'll have no qualms with that.
They also can't start with 0 or 1, which is another 2M numbers.
I win.
postfix and qmail have been around for 1/10th the time of sendmail?
I guess if '10' is binary you're close.
If you mean ten decimal... you're way off.
Did I wake up wrong or something?
Aren't all the dates on this "news" story from 2004?
Fallacy.
Guns have legitimate self-protection uses, but they are used for murder and other crimes far more often than they are used for self-defense.
Surely, if people don't want guns banned, maybe they should, you know, do something about all the people using them for illegal purposes?
If people use a technology, whether hammers (people have been killed with hammers -many- times), guns, napster, bittorrent or whatever, as long as there is a valid non-criminal use of that technology, the fault isn't in the technology, it's in the people.
Heck, if I wanted to be even more obvious with your flawed logic, s/guns/email/ and think about the spam problem. Around here, 80-90% of mail touching my servers is spam.
Therefore, mail is bad, and the legit mailers better "do something" or we'll just lump all mail as spam and they will only have themselves to blame for not stopping the spammers.
Indeed, the last few torrents I've downloaded were "bootlegs" of King Crimson concerts.
Never mind that I got them from DGMLive, which is owned by Fripp amongst others and that I paid for them. So not real 'bootlegs'.
It was easier and faster than ordering CD's from the KC Collector's Club.
Only 'bad' thing is I wish they'd include a 400x400 or so 'cover.jpg' instead of making me crop it out of the pdf file they supply for making your own covers (including front back and spine..).
It wasn't theft, it wasn't illegal, it was, in fact, the recommended way of transfering a dozen files that I paid for; ensuring data integrity, a complete download and continuation if interrupted.
Well, I had an offline life, but I found it worth more on ebay than holding onto it.
I'm starting a new life now, and once I get a few more levels, I'll powerlevel people in real life for gold.
So the $575M Operating Income made last quarter is a loss?
Please: Sony certainly has financial woes, but the Playstation2 has propped up the rest of the company for the past few years. It is an enormous cash cow.
They even profit on the hardware, not to mention the games.
Microsoft has lost money on the hardware, and the game revenue is not enough to offset that.
Again, it's about the games, not the hardware. Who wins the console wars has nothing to do with "My system has better specs!" It is about which system ends up with the most popular games.
Cool hardware doesn't sell systems.
Games do.
And the PS2 did "blow the doors off the xbox."
Sony made billions on PS2. Microsoft lost billions on Xbox.
Be careful of jumping to conclusions.
That chart shows the Canon Optura 600 as having USB2 but does not mention 1394. One might assume that means it does not have 1394 support, and if I'm reading your reply correctly, you did assume that.
However, checking Canon's site shows that the Optura 600 does have 1394 support.
So, clearly, just because Steve's Digicams doesn't show 1394 support, that doesn't mean it's not there.
I'll leave checking the other cameras for you, but please rely on something a bit more accurate than that page, as it is demonstrably incomplete and inconsistent on feature lists.
Under their existing policies, 1 piece of email is bulk.
(I'm not kidding: I've had this runaround with them when an AOL user clicked "this is spam" on a personalized mail with pictures of a wedding... 1 piece of mail if it generates a complaint, is not only spam, it's "bulk".)
id3v2 supports lyrics (even synced) [the USLT tag for unsynced lyrics], cover art [APIC], performer names [TIPL, TMCL, TPE1-4], composers [TCOM for composer, TEXT for lyricsist]...
The problem is that very little software supports most of that other than cover art.
Perhaps you should look at id3.org: see the id3v2.4 specs.
The problem isn't the tagging methods, it's the lack of software support.
(That said: obligatory plug -- slimserver supports lyrics, cover art, performer names and composers.... perhaps you need a Squeezebox.)
Why on earth would you want to use id3v1? id3v1 has the goofy single-byte genres. id3v2 supports strings of arbitrary length. Some software (like Slimserver) lets you have multiple genres per track, using the delimiter of choice.
The real catch is defining your genre set, but that gets very tricky to do in a way that you'll be satisfied with.
If they don't show up on MusicBrainz, then import them from FreeDB if they are there, and then add the record to MusicBrainz. This is how their database grows and gets more accurate.
Certainly MusicBrainz isn't perfect: I periodically find duplicates, but it is editable, and there are procedures for combining duplicates into one record.
I'm not sure if your example of why you are at a 'disadvantage' is because of your race, or, quite simply (and this is said with respect, of course :)), you're a geek.
The people you're conversing with will vary in their geekiness: some will insist that They Have A Better Idea (usually they don't), some will think "duh, I should have thought of that, so obvious now that you said it," and some will be in the middle and think "maybe -- go for it." Some will just be confused and tell you to go do it because they have no idea at all what you're talking about.
It's just that geeks (including you, and probably most of the people in your example) are not exactly known for tact or good in-person communications (see Asperger's Syndrome). You say what you believe, which is fine and dandy, but it will also annoy the hell out of people sometimes.
Just because you're black doesn't mean that all the bias against you is from race: there is plenty of pressure from neurotypicals, and geeks are sometimes just as hard on other geeks as NTs are.