Plenty of people would be willing to pay to download legitimate copies of music. You're argument is predicated on the belief that everyone is essentially a thief at heart. Whereas I believe that most people are basically honest, and they pirate music because of the absense of legitimate and reasonable alternatives. The key word there being "reasonable".
The story was decent although derivative of many other works (Ringworld obviously to name one). The overall production was very good. Excellent voice acting, good artwork, interesting story with a couple of twists to keep things fresh towards the middle. etc. etc.
Gameplay was fun, yada, yada... what everyone else said.
My complaints: 1) The auto-aim feature -- although it helps make the joystick suck a lot less in the beginning, I found that once I learned to get the feel of the joystick, the auto-aim feature became a big pain in the ass. I read reviews that said the cursor slows down when it passes over an enemy, effectively attenuating your input. This is not true, the cursor actually tracks enemies that are near it. Here's how to prove it. Find a sleeping grunt, aim at him and then run towards him. You will see that your view tips forward thus tracking the grunt. If it were truly an attenuation, then attenuating a zero input should still result in a zero output and your view should not move. Auto-aim starts to suck when you're trying to send a rocket into the back of the troops and the auto-aim keeps pulling you off, trying to track a grunt in the foreground. You can actually be pushing the stick slightly to the left and have your view tracking to the right, this is just plain wrong. During battles with multiple enemies, the responsiveness of the joystick changes rapidly depending on what's near the center of the field of view. They should have provided an option to turn auto-aim off.
2) AI -- Ok, the enemies had some good tactics but my squad was dumb as dirt. Soldiers never reload their weapons after a battle -- instead they charge into the next battle with 1 bullet in their clip. Also, it was damn annoying when my squad would blow my cover on the sniper missions by cutting loose with automatic fire instead of lying low. And why does the soldier with 1 health point always jump into gunners seat when there are healthier marines around?
Considering that, it was still a very good game. I look forward to playing it on my PC with a mouse, as god intended the FPS to be played.
"...under Clinton and these are the results: publicly built resources are being sold to the highest bidder to rape the public."
And under the current administration, public resources (ANWR) will be given over to private companies which will then graciously agree to sell those resources back to the public at a hefty profit. I agree that its all very unamerican.
"The Democrats have a strong belief... that the government "runs" the economy. The Republicans think that most of that is an illusion..."
Except of course when it comes to the republican "Economic Stimulus" package. Then they'll have you believe that they can turn the economy around with a wave of the magic legisilation wand. Fact is the package is mostly snake oil designed to provide cover for some campaign kickbacks. The best control the govt. has over the economy is the Fed's interest rate knob and even that control has a minimal impact, the rest is just wishful thinking and self delusion. The economy rolls on with little regard to the governments attempts to control it.
"Democrats and leftists assume that the Bush Justice Dept. is just in the pocket of Big Business..."
That may be. Personally I believe Republicans and Democrats are equally in the pocket of Big Money. Calling something simplistic doesn't make it invalid. In this case it seems pretty transparent to me. Companies put millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of politicians. Why? Because they expect something in return. They expect that they'll receive benefits of much greater value than the money they've invested. Maybe you believe that these companies are simply good citizens and that they honestly just have the public's best interst in mind. I would not call that a simplistic view, I would call it alarmingly naive.
"...last time I checked, "markets" were not constitutionally protected, and neither were coporate profits or business models."
This here is the U.S. we're talking about. The whole system is designed to protect monied interests above all else, even above civil liberties. Remeber President Bush's motto, "What's good for business, is good for America." And what's bad for business...
America isn't about the people anymore - hasn't been for a long time. America is all about business.
Its true that the people's interests aren't ignored all of the time but all too often the interests of business take precedence over the interests of the people. Its human nature, the plutocracy protects itself.
Apple has always put premium hardware in their machines. They were a leader in graphics for a long time. They missed out on the first generation of 3d cards because game developers mostly ignored the Mac. They caught up harware-wise a few years later but the problem is that the game choices on the Mac are severely limited when compared to the Win platform. The gForce cards are mainly for gaming and if you're going to spend that much money for a gaming card then why would you put it in a machine with a very limited choice of games?
Actually the web page he referred to is well known amongst free energy debunkers. The author, Eric Krieg is offering $10,000 to anyone who can pass his test and demonstrate a working free energy machine. From memory the author is a EE and his test requirements looked quite practical and reasonable. His $10k prize has been offered for several years and of course no one has yet been able to claim it.
But its plainly obvious that you don't have so much a point to make as an axe to grind.
I agree that science holds many mysteries still but this claim holds all the hallmarks of a hoax. The 4 car batteries are an obvious tip off.
Inconsistent claims such as this: ``Perpetual motion is impossible. This is a self-sustaining unit which at the same time provides surplus electrical energy,'' he (the inventor) said
So the inventor claims that a perpetual motion (break even) machine is impossible but one that supplies surplus energy, well that's easy.
I want to see this guys electricity bills for the last 17 months.
Changes and evolution of the format would be necessary. Each iteration of the format should be locked down and disclosed ahead of time to 3rd party developers. "Ahead of time" meaning well before MS releases the matching iteration of Word or whatever. This gives 3rd party developers the chance to compete head to head instead of playing catch up through reverse engineering.
I cancelled my account after they refused to stop spamming me. The account had opt out options for spam but they seemed to ignore my settings/wishes. After several ignored emails to customer service I just said forget it and cancelled the account. I get enough unsolicited spam, I sure as hell don't need it from a company when I'm actually paying for their service.
Yes, developers do look at the installed base but they also look at sales figures for the top titles and especially sales figures of titles in the same genre as their own product. Your assertion that this "will increase their dominance in the gaming market" is a supposition that looks at the issue from only one angle. There's much more to it than that.
This is an excellent game and hasn't been mentioned much is this thread. Max Payne is probably the best game I've played so far this year. I definitely put this on the "must have" list. Not recommended for young kids of course. Download the demo and give it a spin.
I think its as simple as this. What makes a group close knit? Chemistry. You either have it or you don't. I don't think you can create it. Every case I've seen, it just happens. You get the right people together at the right time on the right project and sparks just fly. Its great when it happens.
Last group I was in had it bigtime. We were unstoppable for a while until management doused the reaction with a bucket of cold water. Within a period 4 months, 7 out of 8 SW engineers became so discouraged that they left the project. Now both the product and the replacement group are floundering badly. The managers are trying in vain to create some sort of team spirit but they have no idea really how to go about it, and like I said chemistry isn't something you can create even if you wanted to.
I'm not going to lay out my whole sob story but suffice it to say, that when you have a group that is performing exceptionally well... don't F--- with it!
Here are a couple of things about our group that I think shows how special we were. Several times we got together on weekends for water skiing or sailing on the bay or just a BBQ. Twice we left work in the middle of the day to go water skiing. With boss in tow no less. (No, our work was not neglected and our products performance proved that.) We worked hard and trusted one another. We usually had lunch together. We had birthday celebrations, beer and pizza after work etc. And none of these activities felt contrived in any way. Indeed I don't think there was any one person who was the organizer. The group more or less self organized! And that was what made it special, its the chemistry. I can't explain it any better than that. Our chemistry was so good that even though the group is now scattered around at different companies, we still stay in touch and even get together for lunch several times a year. So that's my story. The bottom line again is, when the chemistry is working, don't mess with it. If you stop the reaction you very likely won't be able to start it again.
Slashdot Mirror
Plenty of people would be willing to pay to download legitimate copies of music. You're argument is predicated on the belief that everyone is essentially a thief at heart. Whereas I believe that most people are basically honest, and they pirate music because of the absense of legitimate and reasonable alternatives. The key word there being "reasonable".
The story was decent although derivative of many other works (Ringworld obviously to name one). The overall production was very good. Excellent voice acting, good artwork, interesting story with a couple of twists to keep things fresh towards the middle. etc. etc.
Gameplay was fun, yada, yada... what everyone else said.
My complaints:
1) The auto-aim feature -- although it helps make the joystick suck a lot less in the beginning, I found that once I learned to get the feel of the joystick, the auto-aim feature became a big pain in the ass. I read reviews that said the cursor slows down when it passes over an enemy, effectively attenuating your input. This is not true, the cursor actually tracks enemies that are near it. Here's how to prove it. Find a sleeping grunt, aim at him and then run towards him. You will see that your view tips forward thus tracking the grunt. If it were truly an attenuation, then attenuating a zero input should still result in a zero output and your view should not move. Auto-aim starts to suck when you're trying to send a rocket into the back of the troops and the auto-aim keeps pulling you off, trying to track a grunt in the foreground. You can actually be pushing the stick slightly to the left and have your view tracking to the right, this is just plain wrong. During battles with multiple enemies, the responsiveness of the joystick changes rapidly depending on what's near the center of the field of view. They should have provided an option to turn auto-aim off.
2) AI -- Ok, the enemies had some good tactics but my squad was dumb as dirt. Soldiers never reload their weapons after a battle -- instead they charge into the next battle with 1 bullet in their clip. Also, it was damn annoying when my squad would blow my cover on the sniper missions by cutting loose with automatic fire instead of lying low. And why does the soldier with 1 health point always jump into gunners seat when there are healthier marines around?
Considering that, it was still a very good game. I look forward to playing it on my PC with a mouse, as god intended the FPS to be played.
"...under Clinton and these are the results: publicly built resources are being sold to the highest bidder to rape the public."
And under the current administration, public resources (ANWR) will be given over to private companies which will then graciously agree to sell those resources back to the public at a hefty profit. I agree that its all very unamerican.
"The Democrats have a strong belief ... that the government "runs" the economy. The Republicans think that most of that is an illusion..."
Except of course when it comes to the republican "Economic Stimulus" package. Then they'll have you believe that they can turn the economy around with a wave of the magic legisilation wand. Fact is the package is mostly snake oil designed to provide cover for some campaign kickbacks. The best control the govt. has over the economy is the Fed's interest rate knob and even that control has a minimal impact, the rest is just wishful thinking and self delusion. The economy rolls on with little regard to the governments attempts to control it.
"Democrats and leftists assume that the Bush Justice Dept. is just in the pocket of Big Business..."
That may be. Personally I believe Republicans and Democrats are equally in the pocket of Big Money. Calling something simplistic doesn't make it invalid. In this case it seems pretty transparent to me. Companies put millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of politicians. Why? Because they expect something in return. They expect that they'll receive benefits of much greater value than the money they've invested. Maybe you believe that these companies are simply good citizens and that they honestly just have the public's best interst in mind. I would not call that a simplistic view, I would call it alarmingly naive.
"...last time I checked, "markets" were not constitutionally protected, and neither were coporate profits or business models."
This here is the U.S. we're talking about. The whole system is designed to protect monied interests above all else, even above civil liberties. Remeber President Bush's motto, "What's good for business, is good for America." And what's bad for business...
America isn't about the people anymore - hasn't been for a long time. America is all about business.
Its true that the people's interests aren't ignored all of the time but all too often the interests of business take precedence over the interests of the people. Its human nature, the plutocracy protects itself.
Apple has always put premium hardware in their machines. They were a leader in graphics for a long time. They missed out on the first generation of 3d cards because game developers mostly ignored the Mac. They caught up harware-wise a few years later but the problem is that the game choices on the Mac are severely limited when compared to the Win platform. The gForce cards are mainly for gaming and if you're going to spend that much money for a gaming card then why would you put it in a machine with a very limited choice of games?
Actually the web page he referred to is well known amongst free energy debunkers. The author, Eric Krieg is offering $10,000 to anyone who can pass his test and demonstrate a working free energy machine. From memory the author is a EE and his test requirements looked quite practical and reasonable. His $10k prize has been offered for several years and of course no one has yet been able to claim it.
But its plainly obvious that you don't have so much a point to make as an axe to grind.
I agree that science holds many mysteries still but this claim holds all the hallmarks of a hoax. The 4 car batteries are an obvious tip off.
Inconsistent claims such as this: ``Perpetual motion is impossible. This is a self-sustaining unit which at the same time provides surplus electrical energy,'' he (the inventor) said
So the inventor claims that a perpetual motion (break even) machine is impossible but one that supplies surplus energy, well that's easy.
I want to see this guys electricity bills for the last 17 months.
It wasn't Microsoft's proposal, it came from the plaintiffs.
From the original article: "The school-software proposal came from one of the lead plaintiffs' lawyers in the case, Michael Hausfeld..."
Its unbelievable how this misinformation keeps spiraling out of control. Even the Slashdot editors have now bought into it.
I have the feeling I'm responding to a troll but wtf.
1st off, Nali Healing Fruits were from the game Unreal not Daikatana. I have to wonder if you actually *did* play Daikatana.
2nd, you praise innovative games but you were "really pissed" that Max Payne wasn't 1st person? Can you only appreciate innovation retroactively?
Changes and evolution of the format would be necessary. Each iteration of the format should be locked down and disclosed ahead of time to 3rd party developers. "Ahead of time" meaning well before MS releases the matching iteration of Word or whatever. This gives 3rd party developers the chance to compete head to head instead of playing catch up through reverse engineering.
"Only successful capitalists have time to create things which do not contribute to their survival."
You probably want to re-think that one.
I cancelled my account after they refused to stop spamming me. The account had opt out options for spam but they seemed to ignore my settings/wishes. After several ignored emails to customer service I just said forget it and cancelled the account. I get enough unsolicited spam, I sure as hell don't need it from a company when I'm actually paying for their service.
Yes, developers do look at the installed base but they also look at sales figures for the top titles and especially sales figures of titles in the same genre as their own product. Your assertion that this "will increase their dominance in the gaming market" is a supposition that looks at the issue from only one angle. There's much more to it than that.
This is an excellent game and hasn't been mentioned much is this thread. Max Payne is probably the best game I've played so far this year. I definitely put this on the "must have" list. Not recommended for young kids of course. Download the demo and give it a spin.
I think its as simple as this. What makes a group close knit? Chemistry. You either have it or you don't. I don't think you can create it. Every case I've seen, it just happens. You get the right people together at the right time on the right project and sparks just fly. Its great when it happens.
Last group I was in had it bigtime. We were unstoppable for a while until management doused the reaction with a bucket of cold water. Within a period 4 months, 7 out of 8 SW engineers became so discouraged that they left the project. Now both the product and the replacement group are floundering badly. The managers are trying in vain to create some sort of team spirit but they have no idea really how to go about it, and like I said chemistry isn't something you can create even if you wanted to.
I'm not going to lay out my whole sob story but suffice it to say, that when you have a group that is performing exceptionally well... don't F--- with it!
Here are a couple of things about our group that I think shows how special we were. Several times we got together on weekends for water skiing or sailing on the bay or just a BBQ. Twice we left work in the middle of the day to go water skiing. With boss in tow no less. (No, our work was not neglected and our products performance proved that.) We worked hard and trusted one another. We usually had lunch together. We had birthday celebrations, beer and pizza after work etc. And none of these activities felt contrived in any way. Indeed I don't think there was any one person who was the organizer. The group more or less self organized! And that was what made it special, its the chemistry. I can't explain it any better than that. Our chemistry was so good that even though the group is now scattered around at different companies, we still stay in touch and even get together for lunch several times a year. So that's my story. The bottom line again is, when the chemistry is working, don't mess with it. If you stop the reaction you very likely won't be able to start it again.