Yes, but who buys just one game? If I had $10 times every console game I've ever bought, I'd have a pile of money. $10 a game times the 10-20 titles the average gamer might own and it starts adding up. I think this is a move to make the Gamecube a better value than the other consoles. More and more games are coming out on all three and this makes it more difficult to justify the higher prices of the other two. It's also a smart move when Mom and Dad are buying for someone else because of the lower price and Nintendo's kid-friendly appearance (nevermind Eternal Darkness, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, etc.).
Expect MS to start paying serious money to get X-Box exclusives on highly anticipated games as it appears they've already started doing. Exclusive titles are the one thing the lack ('cept Halo, but not for long) and they are the least competitive in price.
While cheating on the X-Box Live is possible, it's not going to be easy or probably very widespread. Punk Buster works for now and there is essentially an arms race between the it and those trying to hack. However unless PC prices come down dramatically or are subsidized by the gaming industry (as the X-box essentially is) I think we'll see decreasing development of PC games and increasing development of online console games. The console game market continues to grow and the costs of developing a console game are probably cheaper as you don't have to design and test it to run on many types of hardware/software configurations and then release patches every month.
I don't think $50.00/year is unreasonable for hack/cheat-free online gaming, something you don't get on the PC. Additionally if you look at the economics of it from a non-PC owner perspective, (You mean I have to spend $1200 on a PC to play Half-Life 2 online but after that it's free?) the X-Box is a pretty good deal (especially after the upcoming price drop).
There is practically no motivation for someone who doesn't own a PC to purchase one just to game as opposed to a console. I've really enjoyed PC gaming but the upgrade cycle is can be pretty steep. I've been very tempted to purchase an X-Box, it'll be cheaper than my last video card and a lot cheaper than the upgrades my older PC would need to keep up with the system requirements of some of the newer games.
I think a key to any case you would attempt against the dentist would depend on whether or how he explained the risks of the procedure to you before you consented. In order for you to make an "informed consent" to a procedure the practicioner must explain the major risks/poss. complications of a procedure. If he didn't do this than you will be able to argue that you may not have consented to the procedure had you been fully informed of the risks and in fact were not able to give "informed consent". The burden of ensuring consent is informed is on the dentist, not the patient. "Informed consent" is the legal standard required prior to any procedure, especially elective ones.
This argument of course is usually facetious as most people would have consented even if the risks would have been explained (blah, blah, blah, sign the form, get it over with). All the same you should talk to a lawyer but you probably have a good case that'll never make it to court (they'll settle).
On whether it was an honest mistake our bad practice would require some research. Go to a college library and look in some dental manuals, medical texts, journal articles, etc. and see if there was any way to prevent this and how often it happens. If it was an honest mistake that sometimes just happens you may think twice about suing, if the dentists was neglectful stick it to him.
How the hell could they say puzzle games are dead. When I go to work that's all my co-workers do, mindlessly click little web-based puzzle games like Bejeweled. More people probably play these games than any other type. A) they're free B)there's no learning curve for non-gamers
Why did this get modded down to 0 when the posters above it obviously didn't take time to read the original post. Yet they end up with +1 and +2 and this guy, who actually read the article and explains it in VERY SIMPLE TERMS for the above morons gets modded down.
Re:Tile damage vs autopilot software error.
on
Columbia Coverage
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· Score: 1
I thought that crossed my mind is that the crew may have second-guessed the auto-pilot and corrected the roll the shuttle was going into to correct for the increased drag on the left wing. I've also wondered if the sensors controlling the left elevon weren't damaged causing bad data to be sent to the auto-pilot. Mere idle speculation but maybe a possibility.
These bandages might seem great but as far as saving many lives I don't really see it happening, especially in the military.
Soldiers injured in combat generally suffer penetrating trauma whether from bullets or shell fragments. So when a bullet or fragment passes through you it's only going to kill you (immediately) if it hits your head, chest, abdomen or a major artery of an extremity. These bandages will help with none of those things. The damage is all on the inside, sealing the external wound does really nothing for fixing the person as they are still bleeding into internal body cavities. The only treatment for this is rapid evacuation to a surgical unit. Bullets (particularly steel-jacketed military rounds) travelling at high velocity will usually leave small entrance/exit wounds but do tremendous internal damage due to cavitation. Cavitation being the large area of tissue disrupted by the shockwaves from the bullet travelling through your body.
This would help stop the bleeding on large lacerations but those can usually be controlled by direct pressure, pressure points, etc. To think that applying these to major arterial bleed to stop it is ridiculous. Unless there is a amputation(and clean amputations will often stop bleeding much on their own after a few minutes) or massive flayed open wound your won't be able to see the artery directly, even then your would have to clamp it or posssibly cauter it.
"deployed in Europe, South Korea, Guam, and the United States from 1964-1989"
Guam?!? Yeah, never know when those Soviet tanks are going to roll on Guam. This is such g-damn stupid idea, how many of these things could you afford to deploy, you can't just put one or two out, they could be there for years. They would be damn easy to find with a Geiger Counter. And you are going to risk WWIII by setting of a nuclear device to take out a couple tanks.
These measures will in no way prevent another 9/11. Anyone serious and able to perform terrorist operation like 9/11 is not going to allow themselves to fall prey to blanket security restrictions such as this. Sleeper cell attacks such as 9/11 are not going to be stopped by your government scanning your e-mail and internet connection for words like "bomb" and "explosion". A properly planted cell will already have its goal established upon arrival to the US and will be triggered by a very inane signal that would be designed not to arouse suspicion.
What monitoring everyone all the time does is make everyone a suspect, thus in the eyes of law enforcement a criminal. Everyone's Internet usage is automatically monitored regardless of probable cause. Blanket surveillance regardless of guilt or cause is the foundation for the police state that Bush, Ashcroft, Poindexter, etal. wish so desperately to establish.
Reading the responses of most people I don't understand why most people are hung up on the storage issue. Maybe it will cost them lots of money, maybe it won't, at the same time we're ignoring the gameplay issues that I think are core to SOE's decision.
The people who are screaming the loudest about this are the Everquest and other MMPORPG power players. They want SWG to be Everquest in the Star Wars universe. They want muling so they can store huge amount of accumulated loot. They want to be able to twink new characters with the latest and greatest stuff.
In order to build a complex or powerful item in SWG requires multiple skills that a single person can't have. This makes sense. Most of us can't build a car from scratch, much less a VCR or telephone. I'm not talking about assembling them from pre-made parts, I'm talking about building every individual component themselves. By requiring users to depend on each other to get the things they want requires interaction between the players and discourages being an a-hole to everyone you meet. If you can have 10 characters per server than you won't need anybody you can build it all yourself, no interdependency, no socialization.
I honestly believe that the reason that SOE is using one character per server is to improve gameplay and interaction. Having played several other MMPORPGs this is something that desperately needs improvement. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't, but I believe it's worth a try. For those who want to twink, mule and grief, keep your EQ accounts.
Uh....Two of the main heavy rockets NASA and the Air Force use to this day for satellites are direct descendants from ICBMs. Both the Titan and the Atlas were ICBMs before being used for space exploration.
That maybe true, maybe not, if they can get a federal court to grant an injunction against the site by trying to charge them with DMCA again they will be required to take the prices down. If they settle with FatWallet this year the case will not enter case law as there is no judgement and they may still be able to get an injunction on the same grounds as the subpoena this year. Even if they don't get an injunction any site that is threatened by Wal-Mart and their huge legal department may be advised by their own lawyers to take down the info until the case is settled. And Wal-Mart wins again.
Hopefully you are right and someone stands up to them next year, we'll see.
Why did you have to post this? I posted almost the same thing further down in the discussion. I started on the post right as the story came up. Now I'll get modded down "redundant". You probably have lots of karma, I don't have much, now even less.
One wonders if Wal-Mart's bluff on this was simply a ploy to have the prices taken down before the sale and while planning all along to back down later. Obviously they accomplished their goal, getting the prices taken down from the site before the sale, and even if FatWallet hadn't fired back they would have no reason to expend legal effort and expense of pursuing their copyright claim any further. Obviously the information in question is no longer of any use to anyone.
It would probably cost Wal-Mart less to just pay FatWallet's legal costs rather than go to court. In the end it seems even if FatWallet wins the legal battle they still have lost the war. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Wal-Mart does the same thing next year supposing FatWallet posts their sale prices early again.
A "Fall of the Federation" series could be interesting if done correctly. Maybe have the Federation imploding into civil war with all the other factions (Romulans, klingons,etc) taking and changing sides. It helps that FX technology has improved dramatically. I like TNG but a lot of the lame episodes (holodeck episodes for example) seemed to come at the end of a season when the FX budget was running dry. I also liked the idea of Enterprise but detest Bakula as the captain.
Slashdot Mirror
Well at least we know now Valve's "Steam" service can be useful downloading at least one thing. It's pretty damn useless for anything else.
"parallels with Nintendo's model are startling."
Except Nintendo is making big money at it and Microsoft's X-Box unit is hemorraging money.
Never mind that the GameBoy Adavnce is currently outselling the PS2 in the States. Or that they actually make a profit of off each one sold.
Just waiting for the Apocalypse Now mod, I get to play the tiger.
It stems from Decoration Day, originally a Confederate holiday during which the graves of those fallen in combat were visited and decorated.
Expect MS to start paying serious money to get X-Box exclusives on highly anticipated games as it appears they've already started doing. Exclusive titles are the one thing the lack ('cept Halo, but not for long) and they are the least competitive in price.
Yeah it should be out sometime just on this side of 2008.
While cheating on the X-Box Live is possible, it's not going to be easy or probably very widespread. Punk Buster works for now and there is essentially an arms race between the it and those trying to hack. However unless PC prices come down dramatically or are subsidized by the gaming industry (as the X-box essentially is) I think we'll see decreasing development of PC games and increasing development of online console games. The console game market continues to grow and the costs of developing a console game are probably cheaper as you don't have to design and test it to run on many types of hardware/software configurations and then release patches every month.
I don't think $50.00/year is unreasonable for hack/cheat-free online gaming, something you don't get on the PC. Additionally if you look at the economics of it from a non-PC owner perspective, (You mean I have to spend $1200 on a PC to play Half-Life 2 online but after that it's free?) the X-Box is a pretty good deal (especially after the upcoming price drop). There is practically no motivation for someone who doesn't own a PC to purchase one just to game as opposed to a console. I've really enjoyed PC gaming but the upgrade cycle is can be pretty steep. I've been very tempted to purchase an X-Box, it'll be cheaper than my last video card and a lot cheaper than the upgrades my older PC would need to keep up with the system requirements of some of the newer games.
I think a key to any case you would attempt against the dentist would depend on whether or how he explained the risks of the procedure to you before you consented. In order for you to make an "informed consent" to a procedure the practicioner must explain the major risks/poss. complications of a procedure. If he didn't do this than you will be able to argue that you may not have consented to the procedure had you been fully informed of the risks and in fact were not able to give "informed consent". The burden of ensuring consent is informed is on the dentist, not the patient. "Informed consent" is the legal standard required prior to any procedure, especially elective ones. This argument of course is usually facetious as most people would have consented even if the risks would have been explained (blah, blah, blah, sign the form, get it over with). All the same you should talk to a lawyer but you probably have a good case that'll never make it to court (they'll settle). On whether it was an honest mistake our bad practice would require some research. Go to a college library and look in some dental manuals, medical texts, journal articles, etc. and see if there was any way to prevent this and how often it happens. If it was an honest mistake that sometimes just happens you may think twice about suing, if the dentists was neglectful stick it to him.
How the hell could they say puzzle games are dead. When I go to work that's all my co-workers do, mindlessly click little web-based puzzle games like Bejeweled. More people probably play these games than any other type. A) they're free B)there's no learning curve for non-gamers
Why is it true that the aesthetic value of new cell phones is inversely proportional to the number of features. T68i UGLY, Nokia 7250 FUGLY.
Why did this get modded down to 0 when the posters above it obviously didn't take time to read the original post. Yet they end up with +1 and +2 and this guy, who actually read the article and explains it in VERY SIMPLE TERMS for the above morons gets modded down.
I thought that crossed my mind is that the crew may have second-guessed the auto-pilot and corrected the roll the shuttle was going into to correct for the increased drag on the left wing. I've also wondered if the sensors controlling the left elevon weren't damaged causing bad data to be sent to the auto-pilot. Mere idle speculation but maybe a possibility.
Soldiers injured in combat generally suffer penetrating trauma whether from bullets or shell fragments. So when a bullet or fragment passes through you it's only going to kill you (immediately) if it hits your head, chest, abdomen or a major artery of an extremity. These bandages will help with none of those things. The damage is all on the inside, sealing the external wound does really nothing for fixing the person as they are still bleeding into internal body cavities. The only treatment for this is rapid evacuation to a surgical unit. Bullets (particularly steel-jacketed military rounds) travelling at high velocity will usually leave small entrance/exit wounds but do tremendous internal damage due to cavitation. Cavitation being the large area of tissue disrupted by the shockwaves from the bullet travelling through your body.
This would help stop the bleeding on large lacerations but those can usually be controlled by direct pressure, pressure points, etc. To think that applying these to major arterial bleed to stop it is ridiculous. Unless there is a amputation(and clean amputations will often stop bleeding much on their own after a few minutes) or massive flayed open wound your won't be able to see the artery directly, even then your would have to clamp it or posssibly cauter it.
http://www.brook.edu/dybdocroot/FP/projects/nucwco st/madm.htm
"deployed in Europe, South Korea, Guam, and the United States from 1964-1989"
Guam?!? Yeah, never know when those Soviet tanks are going to roll on Guam. This is such g-damn stupid idea, how many of these things could you afford to deploy, you can't just put one or two out, they could be there for years. They would be damn easy to find with a Geiger Counter. And you are going to risk WWIII by setting of a nuclear device to take out a couple tanks.
I think the "Megaton" announcement refers to the new Gameboy Advance coming out in March.
What monitoring everyone all the time does is make everyone a suspect, thus in the eyes of law enforcement a criminal. Everyone's Internet usage is automatically monitored regardless of probable cause. Blanket surveillance regardless of guilt or cause is the foundation for the police state that Bush, Ashcroft, Poindexter, etal. wish so desperately to establish.
Reading the responses of most people I don't understand why most people are hung up on the storage issue. Maybe it will cost them lots of money, maybe it won't, at the same time we're ignoring the gameplay issues that I think are core to SOE's decision. The people who are screaming the loudest about this are the Everquest and other MMPORPG power players. They want SWG to be Everquest in the Star Wars universe. They want muling so they can store huge amount of accumulated loot. They want to be able to twink new characters with the latest and greatest stuff. In order to build a complex or powerful item in SWG requires multiple skills that a single person can't have. This makes sense. Most of us can't build a car from scratch, much less a VCR or telephone. I'm not talking about assembling them from pre-made parts, I'm talking about building every individual component themselves. By requiring users to depend on each other to get the things they want requires interaction between the players and discourages being an a-hole to everyone you meet. If you can have 10 characters per server than you won't need anybody you can build it all yourself, no interdependency, no socialization. I honestly believe that the reason that SOE is using one character per server is to improve gameplay and interaction. Having played several other MMPORPGs this is something that desperately needs improvement. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't, but I believe it's worth a try. For those who want to twink, mule and grief, keep your EQ accounts.
Uh....Two of the main heavy rockets NASA and the Air Force use to this day for satellites are direct descendants from ICBMs. Both the Titan and the Atlas were ICBMs before being used for space exploration.
Up next...the Slashdot-safe domain...
Hopefully you are right and someone stands up to them next year, we'll see.
Can't you type any slower?
Please, it's the holidays.
It would probably cost Wal-Mart less to just pay FatWallet's legal costs rather than go to court. In the end it seems even if FatWallet wins the legal battle they still have lost the war. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Wal-Mart does the same thing next year supposing FatWallet posts their sale prices early again.
A "Fall of the Federation" series could be interesting if done correctly. Maybe have the Federation imploding into civil war with all the other factions (Romulans, klingons,etc) taking and changing sides. It helps that FX technology has improved dramatically. I like TNG but a lot of the lame episodes (holodeck episodes for example) seemed to come at the end of a season when the FX budget was running dry. I also liked the idea of Enterprise but detest Bakula as the captain.