>Yet Mac software is pirated disproportionally less than software for Windows
You know, I am a long-time and avid Apple user -- but apparantly not an Apple News reader because I've never heard this before. Are we talking numbers? Percentages? Do you have anything to back this up?
Bungie has always had a release policy of "when it's done, it's done", even back in the old Marthon (original) days. A sideways comment like "may or may not be released..." is not atypical for Bungie, either. (They have announced suspected release times before then pushed it back, especially with Marathon 2.)
I don't know about the BorgBungie, but pre-X-Box days the Bungie fellows were always pragmatic and forward about this. It looks like their view of taking their time, at least, has not changed.
Cyan (now CyanWorlds) had a similar philosophy with Riven, much to their publisher's ire. I'm sure some other game makers have this attitude, but none are so vocal or public as Bungie.
"Information Polution" isn't a new thing, we're just mainstreaming an old problem. I certainly don't want to put up with billboards, telemarketers, sidewalk evangelists or any of the advertising that comes up in my mailbox every day. I'm sure people used to complain at length about the illegitimacy of newspapers or magazines. (Okay, so they still do.)
Nowadays we don't have just a few dozen channels for information at any given time, but literally thousands, possibly more, arranged and biased exactly the way you want it. If Mr. Nielson can't handle the two he's most concerned about -- and he's more concerned about workflow than personal use -- there are existing options. Email not fast enough? Pick up the phone. IM causing worker inattention? Block it.
Small "Internet Control Panels" exist, in limited-information capacities. I have no idea how many "e-bay tracker" applications there are out there, but my guess of "a lot" would probably be an understatement. And the message-filtering abilities of many modern e-mail clients means you could easily sort everything into the locale you want. (I'm not talking spam-filtering, but scripts to filter mail from a general pool into folders.)
E-mail is hardly dead, or sick, or dying. It's abused, and like many things that are abused people will either abandon it or find a way to change it into usefulness. Both are proper social reactions. People use and adapt to the most useful channels of communication.
Mr. Nielson appears to be so far behind the issue that he probably thinks he's ahead.
Power companies (and transmission holding companies) stand to make a healthy profit leasing these lines to other companies who want to push power over their grid. There is a rather detailed system in place to assure this.
Find out more about the power industry for a good laugh, a good cry and a good scare. It's more frightening than you might realize.
And yet, it seems easier to fight technology than the mass media. I hate to go the way of the "lesser of two evils", but in this instance I'll happily comply.
That doesn't mean I'll stop fighting for the individuals' rights when the tech does the same things. Sometimes, you just have to pick your battles.
Until these companies start listening to the consumers, they'll continue to write their own stories explaining the industries problems that allow them to justify witch-hunts (remember the RIAA seeking authority to hack computers suspected of carrying illegal media?).
I can't think of a better reason to explain why companies don't listen to customers. Very recently a corporation (too tired to remember who) tried to defend their false earnings reports as being legal. Who or how doesn't matter, the outcome is the same: Many companies attempt to create hype in order to invent demand and justification for inflating prices to the consumers.
Restricting consumer options must (to their perception) be working else it wouldn't be worth for them to continue this trend. Those board members CEOs and VPs getting big fat bonuses every year probably don't want to risk the unknown.
Space Mountain - Brought to you by FedEX. Star Tours - brought to you by Energizer.
I feel the same way about the bowl games, these days. Even the halftime shows are heavily sponsored. What a ripoff. I'm never paying to go to the Superbowl ever again!
The point I made, and will make again, is that I already can spend more money to get an advantage. Better computer, better character, the idea of spending real money for imaginary goods is already here and already fairly common.
The other point I made, and will make again, is that because people have already found their own "money-to-fun" economics, it will be harder (and possibly pointless, though time will show) to convince people to work into a different, less beneficial system. (I can play basically MMORPGs for free, so I've yet to find a pay-to-play that's worth my cash. People against this "degrading economy" system sounds like a similar argument.)
Points Not Made (but since I'm here):
I didn't think anyone actually had to say, "If you don't enjoy it, don't play it." Are there people who actually play games they don't enjoy? Barring Q/A.
I also didn't think anyone actually had to say, "You can't buy skill." Well, not until we get all our cyberware worked out. That doesn't rule out the truth that better, newer, faster equipment helps, and that costs cash, and that factors into the amount of money you spend on the ability to play, and be good at, a game. Part of the factor in PvP games is your equipment against theirs.
Okay, I made that point last post, but apparantly I wasn't clear enough.
Most gamers would get real tired of having to shell out tons of money just to have a powerful character, and having to put up with little shits with too much money and attitude ruining it for everyone else.
And this is different from all networked gaming... how, exactly?
Because I can't buy a Level 99 Bufu Extreme with ten million plat and all the cyberware for $550 on ebay? Wait, I can.
Because I can't get my panzy kiester handed to me by someone with the latest CPU, graphics card, and network connection their parent's money can buy? Wait, they do.
Money is already a factor in these games, even in "Quake, UT or the like". As a life-long owner of inferior gaming machines, I can tell you how much better player I am with simply a better frame rate or higher resolution or more ergonomic game controller.
I agree that this won't catch on, but not because people won't pay money for a better gaming experience. They very obviously have and will continue. It's because somebody has already spent cash for gear that gives them "the edge", or are creating their own free-market mindset by seeing how much someone is willing to pay for their kick-ass sword online, so why on Earth should they or anybody spend even more money?
This isn't much different, though more dramatic, than the switch from OS 6 to OS 7. Do you remember the "System 7 Savvy" stickers over everything?
There was much better backward compatability, but there were your inevitable programs which simply would not run in OS 7. Back then, Apple's answer was "Upgrade your programs".
There are reportedly ways to fake out the system into booting to OS 9. There was a post even here on Slashdot, but bugger me if I can find it.
[i]Why did Apple distribute the old and buggy BIND version 8 with their OS when version 9 was already out at the time they released?[/i]
In that case, why doesn't this recent update install Bind version 9? (It installs 8.3.4.) My guess is that Apple does internal QA to make sure the build doesn't break any other functionality, probably in attempt to keep the "it just works" philosophy going. That they put in an insecure Bind is probably more a "whups".
Re:There is one main problem with mobile gaming
on
Mobile vs. Desktop Gaming
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Yeah, but though I'm an Apple user, Apples are still not a great solution for gamers. This kind of thing in the laptop is probably more for the 3-D development end that Apple likes (Maya, for instance). Getting game companies to develop for Apple can only help Apple, though, so a top-of-the-line mobile graphics chip is doubly important.
As a Powerbook (g4) owner, though, I have to agree with the person who said that the LCD is a larger issue than the chip. LCDs (at least on laptops) are not optimal for gaming, yet.
Yeah, getting attention is good, but the ads come off as an unserious effort to me. TV spots are expensive, even without the production value (and if there was a production budget for these ads, I'd be interested to know how much). Even with low-rent equipment, these ads could have had a cohesive look and feel or even a decent white-balance.
I don't mean to complain; I am a huge Farscape fan and will be doing my part to get as many TVs tuned in later this year, even in households where people plan to be absent during the show. I just... wish they spent their money in other attention-getting ways. Of that I wasn't joking.
It's all 20/20 hindsight, though, and I hope I'm wrong and these ads do pique much corporate interest -- which is, even if indirectly, what they are out to accomplish. I really do hope so.
Personally, I wish these people could have saved the money in advertising costs to bribe a UPN exec. From looking at the commercials, it'd have to be a lower exec, maybe a kid in the mail room, but I think the money could have been better spent.
Why not get a small LCD monitor (you know and external tablet (of the drawing variety) and just put your laptop out of the way? It sounds like a cheaper, but no-less-slick solution.
Then let them put me on some list of potential terrorists. When enough* people do this, it will become obvious to the senators (who are in fact concerned about being voted in -- even if it's to collect those big checks from major companies) that the system is flawed. And since it is always easier to keep something from happening than to change it back, I'd rather shout out now and encourage other people to be as visible as possible. At least in countries where this tactic works; the list of countries where it doesn't matter makes projects like Freenet important.
Don't get me wrong, I think the Freenet project is a great idea, but I don't think it would be a good idea, to those of us living in countries where a mass movement of people can make a difference, to go into hiding.
Slashdot Mirror
>Yet Mac software is pirated disproportionally less than software for Windows
You know, I am a long-time and avid Apple user -- but apparantly not an Apple News reader because I've never heard this before. Are we talking numbers? Percentages? Do you have anything to back this up?
I'm not trolling, I'm sincerely curious.
>That would be incorrect. The number of genomes in the human genome is 1.
Does that mean instead of being slashed, the number of genomes has been dotted?
(its 238 pages and I didn't find who was going to pay for the changes)
It's YOU, the CONSUMER. Who else pays for the changes? You're also paying for all the RTOs and ISOs. And you thought that was going to lower costs.
Maybe in a few decades.
Bungie has always had a release policy of "when it's done, it's done", even back in the old Marthon (original) days. A sideways comment like "may or may not be released ..." is not atypical for Bungie, either. (They have announced suspected release times before then pushed it back, especially with Marathon 2.)
I don't know about the BorgBungie, but pre-X-Box days the Bungie fellows were always pragmatic and forward about this. It looks like their view of taking their time, at least, has not changed.
Cyan (now CyanWorlds) had a similar philosophy with Riven, much to their publisher's ire. I'm sure some other game makers have this attitude, but none are so vocal or public as Bungie.
"Information Polution" isn't a new thing, we're just mainstreaming an old problem. I certainly don't want to put up with billboards, telemarketers, sidewalk evangelists or any of the advertising that comes up in my mailbox every day. I'm sure people used to complain at length about the illegitimacy of newspapers or magazines. (Okay, so they still do.)
Nowadays we don't have just a few dozen channels for information at any given time, but literally thousands, possibly more, arranged and biased exactly the way you want it. If Mr. Nielson can't handle the two he's most concerned about -- and he's more concerned about workflow than personal use -- there are existing options. Email not fast enough? Pick up the phone. IM causing worker inattention? Block it.
Small "Internet Control Panels" exist, in limited-information capacities. I have no idea how many "e-bay tracker" applications there are out there, but my guess of "a lot" would probably be an understatement. And the message-filtering abilities of many modern e-mail clients means you could easily sort everything into the locale you want. (I'm not talking spam-filtering, but scripts to filter mail from a general pool into folders.)
E-mail is hardly dead, or sick, or dying. It's abused, and like many things that are abused people will either abandon it or find a way to change it into usefulness. Both are proper social reactions. People use and adapt to the most useful channels of communication.
Mr. Nielson appears to be so far behind the issue that he probably thinks he's ahead.
> With iTunes you're locked into the iPod
I shall have to wonder how I keep loading up my Creative Nomad II from iTunes. It could be that I'm on a Mac and not on a PC.
Power companies (and transmission holding companies) stand to make a healthy profit leasing these lines to other companies who want to push power over their grid. There is a rather detailed system in place to assure this.
Find out more about the power industry for a good laugh, a good cry and a good scare. It's more frightening than you might realize.
(p.s. Yes, I work for a power company.)
Why not use Firewire, which is more common for A/V devices?
And yet, it seems easier to fight technology than the mass media. I hate to go the way of the "lesser of two evils", but in this instance I'll happily comply.
That doesn't mean I'll stop fighting for the individuals' rights when the tech does the same things. Sometimes, you just have to pick your battles.
I'm going 50/50 between "extortion" and "graft".
Until these companies start listening to the consumers, they'll continue to write their own stories explaining the industries problems that allow them to justify witch-hunts (remember the RIAA seeking authority to hack computers suspected of carrying illegal media?).
I can't think of a better reason to explain why companies don't listen to customers. Very recently a corporation (too tired to remember who) tried to defend their false earnings reports as being legal. Who or how doesn't matter, the outcome is the same: Many companies attempt to create hype in order to invent demand and justification for inflating prices to the consumers.
Restricting consumer options must (to their perception) be working else it wouldn't be worth for them to continue this trend. Those board members CEOs and VPs getting big fat bonuses every year probably don't want to risk the unknown.
Actually, "creeping featurism" is an actual term.
And here you thought you were being funny.
But it's not a complete duplicate! Last time it was in the Apple section and not an Apple topic. This makes it different, right? Right?
Space Mountain - Brought to you by FedEX.
Star Tours - brought to you by Energizer.
I feel the same way about the bowl games, these days. Even the halftime shows are heavily sponsored. What a ripoff. I'm never paying to go to the Superbowl ever again!
The point I made, and will make again, is that I already can spend more money to get an advantage. Better computer, better character, the idea of spending real money for imaginary goods is already here and already fairly common.
The other point I made, and will make again, is that because people have already found their own "money-to-fun" economics, it will be harder (and possibly pointless, though time will show) to convince people to work into a different, less beneficial system. (I can play basically MMORPGs for free, so I've yet to find a pay-to-play that's worth my cash. People against this "degrading economy" system sounds like a similar argument.)
Points Not Made (but since I'm here):
I didn't think anyone actually had to say, "If you don't enjoy it, don't play it." Are there people who actually play games they don't enjoy? Barring Q/A.
I also didn't think anyone actually had to say, "You can't buy skill." Well, not until we get all our cyberware worked out. That doesn't rule out the truth that better, newer, faster equipment helps, and that costs cash, and that factors into the amount of money you spend on the ability to play, and be good at, a game. Part of the factor in PvP games is your equipment against theirs.
Okay, I made that point last post, but apparantly I wasn't clear enough.
Most gamers would get real tired of having to shell out tons of money just to have a powerful character, and having to put up with little shits with too much money and attitude ruining it for everyone else.
... how, exactly?
And this is different from all networked gaming
Because I can't buy a Level 99 Bufu Extreme with ten million plat and all the cyberware for $550 on ebay? Wait, I can.
Because I can't get my panzy kiester handed to me by someone with the latest CPU, graphics card, and network connection their parent's money can buy? Wait, they do.
Money is already a factor in these games, even in "Quake, UT or the like". As a life-long owner of inferior gaming machines, I can tell you how much better player I am with simply a better frame rate or higher resolution or more ergonomic game controller.
I agree that this won't catch on, but not because people won't pay money for a better gaming experience. They very obviously have and will continue. It's because somebody has already spent cash for gear that gives them "the edge", or are creating their own free-market mindset by seeing how much someone is willing to pay for their kick-ass sword online, so why on Earth should they or anybody spend even more money?
In spite of the bad mojo of replying to yourself, I found the recent (though ancient in Slashdot terms) discussion of this.
I can't find the specific "trick", but I can't do everything for you.
This isn't much different, though more dramatic, than the switch from OS 6 to OS 7. Do you remember the "System 7 Savvy" stickers over everything?
There was much better backward compatability, but there were your inevitable programs which simply would not run in OS 7. Back then, Apple's answer was "Upgrade your programs".
There are reportedly ways to fake out the system into booting to OS 9. There was a post even here on Slashdot, but bugger me if I can find it.
You could always down your favorite platform's nightly build. Or wait a few days, if the uncertainty of a bleeding edge isn't for you.
[i]Why did Apple distribute the old and buggy BIND version 8 with their OS when version 9 was already out at the time they released?[/i]
In that case, why doesn't this recent update install Bind version 9? (It installs 8.3.4.) My guess is that Apple does internal QA to make sure the build doesn't break any other functionality, probably in attempt to keep the "it just works" philosophy going. That they put in an insecure Bind is probably more a "whups".
Yeah, but though I'm an Apple user, Apples are still not a great solution for gamers. This kind of thing in the laptop is probably more for the 3-D development end that Apple likes (Maya, for instance). Getting game companies to develop for Apple can only help Apple, though, so a top-of-the-line mobile graphics chip is doubly important.
As a Powerbook (g4) owner, though, I have to agree with the person who said that the LCD is a larger issue than the chip. LCDs (at least on laptops) are not optimal for gaming, yet.
Yeah, getting attention is good, but the ads come off as an unserious effort to me. TV spots are expensive, even without the production value (and if there was a production budget for these ads, I'd be interested to know how much). Even with low-rent equipment, these ads could have had a cohesive look and feel or even a decent white-balance.
... wish they spent their money in other attention-getting ways. Of that I wasn't joking.
I don't mean to complain; I am a huge Farscape fan and will be doing my part to get as many TVs tuned in later this year, even in households where people plan to be absent during the show. I just
It's all 20/20 hindsight, though, and I hope I'm wrong and these ads do pique much corporate interest -- which is, even if indirectly, what they are out to accomplish. I really do hope so.
Personally, I wish these people could have saved the money in advertising costs to bribe a UPN exec. From looking at the commercials, it'd have to be a lower exec, maybe a kid in the mail room, but I think the money could have been better spent.
Why not get a small LCD monitor (you know and external tablet (of the drawing variety) and just put your laptop out of the way? It sounds like a cheaper, but no-less-slick solution.
Then let them put me on some list of potential terrorists. When enough* people do this, it will become obvious to the senators (who are in fact concerned about being voted in -- even if it's to collect those big checks from major companies) that the system is flawed. And since it is always easier to keep something from happening than to change it back, I'd rather shout out now and encourage other people to be as visible as possible. At least in countries where this tactic works; the list of countries where it doesn't matter makes projects like Freenet important.
Don't get me wrong, I think the Freenet project is a great idea, but I don't think it would be a good idea, to those of us living in countries where a mass movement of people can make a difference, to go into hiding.