Tivo threatened that they'd stop being hacker-friendly if the code was ever released.
Thankfully, the threats from Tivo against this hack prevented it's release. Tivo can now continue being hacker-friendly..
Can you say irony?
So, I admit it. I didn't read the article due to the registration, and no one has posted it here yet. But I have a few observations on the subscription music services. Are these true peer to peer networks? Or are all the possible songs available to download located on servers somewhere? If it is p2p, why should I have to pay a third party to simply access files on Joe Users computer if he chooses to share them?
Secondly, what format are these files being distributed in. Are they mp3's or god-awful wma's? I dont want my only source of music through the net to be locked into some proprietary format. And what about quality. Are subscription services going to guarentee a high-quality rip? I'm dont want to pay to download some shmo's chopped up and noisy version of a file. What about longlivity? You can bet that these formats will be among the first to comply with DRM and the pallidium initiative.
This is where I think OGG needs to really bust a hump to get into the mainstream music media. Imagine a whole RIAA sponsered subscription service ruined when the file format they offer becomes passe. Who's gonna want to download low quality lossy mp3s that cant be space shifted to other devices, or repeatedly burnt to cds. If the OGG format remains undefiled by all the DRM nonsense, it stands to become a VERY popular format. As soon as Joe User starts getting locked out from his usual fair-use activities, he's going to be looking for alternatives. We need to be pushing for the mass acceptance of a free, non-crippled standard right when things start to get digitally locked up. My only fear is that the RIAA will probably attempt to smack down a DMCA on technologies that attempt to empower their users.
I suppose I can understand this decision to charge fee's, i simply can't help but imagine that instead of making hordes of cash for Thomson, it will simply bring the mp3 format to a speedier death. People first starting using mp3's not only because of their relative low size and high quality, but because you could find all the tools needed to encode and enjoy your music for free. Years later, its become expected among the general populous that mp3 = free. What will happen as soon as the costs of these fees hits the general public. Will Joe-User be willing to pay to simply listen to mp3's? He doesn't seem to want to pay for the actual digital music, so why would he pay for the player? Already there are better formats for digital music that are completely free (think ogg). While perhaps this won't immediatly affect how many people listen to mp3's, newer better formats always eventualy come around. I simply hope these actions accellerate the demise of the popularity of the mp3 format and allow perhaps a better FREE format become the defacto standard.
"'It takes a lot of money to develop and market a mini-drive for devices,' Craig said." The thing is though, that in the case with flash memory, there didn't need to be marketing for the storage medium. You bought the Camera, you used flash memory. You bought the music player, you used flash memory. Consumers didn't rush out to by things that used flash memory, that rushed out to by a cool device, which at the time, flash memory was the only viable storage medium. What needs to happen is companies not saying "buy our tiny 1 gig disc medium" but "buy our digtial camera that holds 1 gig worth of images, or 1000 hours of music. Consumers will than compare these capacities to the paltry sizes of flash memory and logicall choose the bigger size. The medium itself needs not be marketed, but its applications.
God, this is the kind of new technology that makes me giddy!! Imagine the things that could benefit from tiny mass storage devices. Imagine your digital music player that holds 1000 MB instead of a paltry 64 or 128. A digital camera that holds hundreds of high-resolution photos instead of 30 or so. Sure, these aren't new ideas, but they'll be so much BETTER with this tech. Remember in MIB when he's got the enitre Elvis collection on one of those tiny disc's? That could become a reality in the not so distant future. The possibilites of a cheap, portable, mass storage medium has me drooling. I have a few questions though.
How much? Just how expensive will devices based on this technology be?
Standard? There appears to be a lot of key companies in this "Blu-Ray" group. Does that mean consumers can expect a standard medium, or are there going to be 5 different manufacturer versions that we need to check compatability agaist.
When? When will these devices become available to the public? Or, more likely, how long will it take for the 'How Much' question to be answered with 'cheap enough for your average consumer'.
Re-Writability? Are these devices write once, or can the be re-written several times over? I've been waiting for the difinitive floppy disk replacement for a long time. Zip hasnt cut it. Super-disc hasn't cut it. But cheap portable 1 gig storage? Yeah, now you got me interested.
Finally, a wake up call to the many Europeons that visit slashdot. I've seen lots of you from across the Atlantic poke fun of and jest at some of the rediculous measures being passed in the US, but unfortunatly, as we do, other countries tend to follow. So, PLEASE, PLEASE, if you're from the UK, don't just sit on your ass as many Americans have done. Write your representives! Express your concerns. Let them know how you feel about your privacy rights.
Does anyone know of any way people outside the UK can help out? Im sick of these kind of policies happening in the world as of late. There has got to be a way where we can stand up not just as citizens against our own countries policies, but as an international community againt all injustices to civil rights.
Touring doesn't HAVE to cost that much money. What really costs money is when tours include crazy pyrotechnics, excessive stage props, backup dancers and singers, etc. Most all of that doesn't matter if you're a real musician. I want to see talented musicians playing intstruments or spinning the turnbtables when I go to concerts. I don't need nor want to see Brittany and her enterouge of 20 backup dancers. I've seen better shows with a guy, his acoustic guitar, and a mic. If you're good enough, they will come. I listen to a ton of jam bands like Phish, and Phil Lesh. Their concerts had special tapers sections for god sakes. Phil Lesh has even released entire tours in.shn and.mp3 formats for FREE. Does this hurt him or his band? Hell no. People come to be live in the crowd of a one in a kind performance. People tour with the bands for whole summers, seeing upwards of 15 or more concerts in a row. These bands get payed because they're are talented and know how to put on a show, as well as how to treat their fans right.
Hey, from your name and sig, I just had to assume you're an Orb fan. Just wanted to give you a 'virtual high-five' if you will. Listening to the Orb is like giving your conscience a complete overhaul. I love em!
Yeah offtopic, so sue me. What are you going to do, mod me down? so what...
I can't believe the Sony Hype Machine is getting started already. The similar hype surrounding the PlayStation 2, which was still more than a YEAR away from release, DESTROYED the Dreamcast, probably the best, yet most unappreciated game system to be released. I for one couldn't give 2 S#its about the ps3. Sony hasn't really done ANYTHING for console gamers, simply fragmented the console market, accomplished with huge amounts of dollars spent on advertising and wooing game companies to develop. Has anyone really played any 1st party sony games?? They suck balls. While companies like Nintendo and Sega exist solely for video games, Sony sees them as just another revenue stream to keep the megacorp afloat.
HAHA. Am I the only person who found this post to be sarcastic?? The fact that it so perfectly mimics the standard piracy-speak of those large corps, it surely was meant to get a rise out of everyone. Like those fake reviews Something Awful puts out, just to get loads of flame mail so they can mock the morons who sent em in. This message could just as easly be modded Funny.
Ack, I meant to say above "just DON'T get Tipper" (think parental advisory labels. But seriously, anyone with any sense at ALL can distinguish pr0n from art. South Park is not pr0n. Catcher in the Rye is not pr0n. Anything with 'GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS' is most likely pr0n. Most pron sites convey a 'beautiful naked girls just 4 YOU' feeling to them. That is pr0n. Hell this would be so easy. Its SO obvious which of these sites are pr0n-centric and which are art. In fact, I hereby announce my candidicy for this job! Ha, I'd love to sit around and classify things as pr0n or not all day.
Most people smart enough to do those kinds of workarounds don't need to be 'protected' from adult material, they're old enough. Most adults now, much less children, have no clue what DNS is, or how IP addressing works. These are the masses that the.prn domain would help. Those wanting to block 'adult' material could just block.prn. Those searching for pr0n could just such through.prn. It makes everybody's life easier IMO.
Lets not jump to the consludion that congress wants to ban nudity on the internet. It doesn't want to ban anything. Any bill that proposes any sort of 'ban' is going to be shot down extremely quick. I think that putting all pr0n under the.prn domain would be great. Maybe they could put Commmercial entitites under.com, Non-profit orginizations under.org, government sites under.gov, schools under.edu.... oh wait, that is what generally happens now. I don't hear anyone yelling foul about the suppression of first amendment rights over this..prn would be no different. It would make it EASIER to find pr0n if you wanted it, and home users could toggle a block the.prn domain at their descretion. Sites like www.whitehouse.com would have to move to www.whitehouse.prn. No more fooling people into seeing what they didn't want. As long as noone but the user actually had the power to turn on the block, I think its a good idea. Just let let Tipper be the one to decide the difference between pr0n and art. Any one with some sense will do.
Honestly, if done right, I think these could be some of the first decent laws dealing with technology and the net that have been proposed in a while. Obviously some provisions need to be made to accomodate things such as home survalance, which someone mentioned, but that what the system is for, to sort those things out. Obviously you want to protect the right of people do do things in their own home, but I've heard of several cases of people renting apartments or condos, finding out they've been spyed on the whole time by hidden cameras located in 'kay positions' throughout the house (think bathroom, bedroom). Then they couldn't do anything about it because there wasn't any kind of law protecting them from this kind of intrusion. This is a good law when applied to this type of situation.
As for a dot pr0n domain, well, why the hell not? I think it would be a GREAT idea, as long as there is some kind of clear definition of what belongs and what doesn't. Granted your going to have some conservative congress-person try to say that some art site with a nude body must be pr0n and therefor go in the adult domain, but c'mon, most pr0n is obviously pr0n, and most art is obviously art. We could eliminate the rediculous content filters found in libraries and schools and simply block the.pr0n domain. It all sounds very reasonable.
Oh, wait a min. This is a law has to go through OUR Congres??? They're bound to screw it up. Nevermind.
Aren't these the same guys who built the Great Firewall of China? We already know they're devoid of ethical businees practices. This comes as no surprise.
...RIAA President Hillary Rosen has announced an initive to collect royalties on all dairy products sold in the US.
"Its about time something was done to combat the evil practice of 'cow milking' that millions of people and cows partake every day. We grossly overpaid one of our interns to sit in front of a cow all day and milk as much as they could. They were able to produce an astounding 10,000 squeezes. This clearly represents the actual habits of every cow user and results in Billions of dollars lost to our cherished artists. Soon we hope to lobby for legislation that requires all cows to have a milking-rights management genetically imprinted. Only then will be able to truely protect our artists and stop this most evil virus among us."
Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings plans to introduce such a bill later this week.
"Anyone who doesn't believe that the primary demographic for Nintendo is children is deluding themselves.....I will always prefer the PS2 games."
If thats not a delusional statement, I dont know what is. Sony has you brainwashed. I always prefer GOOD games, regardless of the system.
Simplistic gameplay? What ARE you talking about? I've never played a Nintendo produced game that I thought was "too simple." Is one of your criteria for a "good" game that it must have the most confusing, difficult gameplay possible? And as for the "cartoony graphics," why is this necessarily a BAD thing? I for one LOVE watching cartoon network, old school cartoons, and anime. Some people actually LIKE the cartooony look. Hell, the FF's on SNES were alot more cartoony and anime style than the current crop of games and they were undeniably better games. I'm not trying to advocate one system over another, the PS2, Cube, and even the XBox all have some top-quality games. But to simply overlook a title because of "cartoony graphics" and to say that you will ALWAYS prefer a PS2 game over a Cube one is asinine.
I'm looking forward to what Square is working on for the Cube as well, but I think that they're more interested in Game Boy Advanced development. They need cash to bail them out of their financial woes caused by an extremely expensive and disastrous FF movie, and GBA will make them loads of it. Square's probably only making a Cube game because they have to in order to get the funds from Yumachi's Choro-Q fund (called something like that), which they need to start this development. I fear that the GameCube might only receive the "Mystic Quests" of Square's offerings, simply to fill a quota for Nintendo, with most of its premier franchises going to Sony, with ports of classic Square games going to GBA. The Nintendo fanboy in me simply wishes to see a return to the days of quality Square games on the SNES. I ever since Square had the capabilities of producing FMV in their games, the quality of said games has dropped. I mean, their movie was an utter disaster. Get a clue Square!!
If you think the TENTH game in that tired old series can compare to the fun of Pikmin, Monkey Ball, or Smash Brothers, you are sorely mistaken. FFX has got to be one of the worst in the series yet (only 8 is probably worse). On a side note, I just picked up a copy of Chrono Cross for a measly 20 bucks. Now THIS is some real Square goodness.
Re:A little bit of perspective...
on
SSSCA Hearing
·
· Score: 1
"Well, on the other hand, I would rather that Congress was wasting their time on stuff like this rather than inventing new ways to take away our civil liberties..."
I REALLY hope that was sarcastic, as that is just what they're doing. You know, come to think of it, I really can't recall the last time I heard a politician ask the people "What are the isuues that you're concerned with. What do the people want?" It seems like government and big business create the issues, create the legislation, and then cram new laws down our throats while we are forced to accept it with a smile on our faces.
Slashdot Mirror
Tivo threatened that they'd stop being hacker-friendly if the code was ever released. Thankfully, the threats from Tivo against this hack prevented it's release. Tivo can now continue being hacker-friendly.. Can you say irony?
So, I admit it. I didn't read the article due to the registration, and no one has posted it here yet. But I have a few observations on the subscription music services. Are these true peer to peer networks? Or are all the possible songs available to download located on servers somewhere? If it is p2p, why should I have to pay a third party to simply access files on Joe Users computer if he chooses to share them?
Secondly, what format are these files being distributed in. Are they mp3's or god-awful wma's? I dont want my only source of music through the net to be locked into some proprietary format. And what about quality. Are subscription services going to guarentee a high-quality rip? I'm dont want to pay to download some shmo's chopped up and noisy version of a file. What about longlivity? You can bet that these formats will be among the first to comply with DRM and the pallidium initiative.
This is where I think OGG needs to really bust a hump to get into the mainstream music media. Imagine a whole RIAA sponsered subscription service ruined when the file format they offer becomes passe. Who's gonna want to download low quality lossy mp3s that cant be space shifted to other devices, or repeatedly burnt to cds. If the OGG format remains undefiled by all the DRM nonsense, it stands to become a VERY popular format. As soon as Joe User starts getting locked out from his usual fair-use activities, he's going to be looking for alternatives. We need to be pushing for the mass acceptance of a free, non-crippled standard right when things start to get digitally locked up. My only fear is that the RIAA will probably attempt to smack down a DMCA on technologies that attempt to empower their users.
I suppose I can understand this decision to charge fee's, i simply can't help but imagine that instead of making hordes of cash for Thomson, it will simply bring the mp3 format to a speedier death. People first starting using mp3's not only because of their relative low size and high quality, but because you could find all the tools needed to encode and enjoy your music for free. Years later, its become expected among the general populous that mp3 = free. What will happen as soon as the costs of these fees hits the general public. Will Joe-User be willing to pay to simply listen to mp3's? He doesn't seem to want to pay for the actual digital music, so why would he pay for the player? Already there are better formats for digital music that are completely free (think ogg). While perhaps this won't immediatly affect how many people listen to mp3's, newer better formats always eventualy come around. I simply hope these actions accellerate the demise of the popularity of the mp3 format and allow perhaps a better FREE format become the defacto standard.
"'It takes a lot of money to develop and market a mini-drive for devices,' Craig said."
The thing is though, that in the case with flash memory, there didn't need to be marketing for the storage medium. You bought the Camera, you used flash memory. You bought the music player, you used flash memory. Consumers didn't rush out to by things that used flash memory, that rushed out to by a cool device, which at the time, flash memory was the only viable storage medium. What needs to happen is companies not saying "buy our tiny 1 gig disc medium" but "buy our digtial camera that holds 1 gig worth of images, or 1000 hours of music. Consumers will than compare these capacities to the paltry sizes of flash memory and logicall choose the bigger size. The medium itself needs not be marketed, but its applications.
God, this is the kind of new technology that makes me giddy!! Imagine the things that could benefit from tiny mass storage devices. Imagine your digital music player that holds 1000 MB instead of a paltry 64 or 128. A digital camera that holds hundreds of high-resolution photos instead of 30 or so. Sure, these aren't new ideas, but they'll be so much BETTER with this tech. Remember in MIB when he's got the enitre Elvis collection on one of those tiny disc's? That could become a reality in the not so distant future. The possibilites of a cheap, portable, mass storage medium has me drooling. I have a few questions though.
How much? Just how expensive will devices based on this technology be?
Standard? There appears to be a lot of key companies in this "Blu-Ray" group. Does that mean consumers can expect a standard medium, or are there going to be 5 different manufacturer versions that we need to check compatability agaist.
When? When will these devices become available to the public? Or, more likely, how long will it take for the 'How Much' question to be answered with 'cheap enough for your average consumer'.
Re-Writability? Are these devices write once, or can the be re-written several times over? I've been waiting for the difinitive floppy disk replacement for a long time. Zip hasnt cut it. Super-disc hasn't cut it. But cheap portable 1 gig storage? Yeah, now you got me interested.
Finally, a wake up call to the many Europeons that visit slashdot. I've seen lots of you from across the Atlantic poke fun of and jest at some of the rediculous measures being passed in the US, but unfortunatly, as we do, other countries tend to follow. So, PLEASE, PLEASE, if you're from the UK, don't just sit on your ass as many Americans have done. Write your representives! Express your concerns. Let them know how you feel about your privacy rights. Does anyone know of any way people outside the UK can help out? Im sick of these kind of policies happening in the world as of late. There has got to be a way where we can stand up not just as citizens against our own countries policies, but as an international community againt all injustices to civil rights.
Touring doesn't HAVE to cost that much money. What really costs money is when tours include crazy pyrotechnics, excessive stage props, backup dancers and singers, etc. Most all of that doesn't matter if you're a real musician. I want to see talented musicians playing intstruments or spinning the turnbtables when I go to concerts. I don't need nor want to see Brittany and her enterouge of 20 backup dancers. I've seen better shows with a guy, his acoustic guitar, and a mic. If you're good enough, they will come. I listen to a ton of jam bands like Phish, and Phil Lesh. Their concerts had special tapers sections for god sakes. Phil Lesh has even released entire tours in .shn and .mp3 formats for FREE. Does this hurt him or his band? Hell no. People come to be live in the crowd of a one in a kind performance. People tour with the bands for whole summers, seeing upwards of 15 or more concerts in a row. These bands get payed because they're are talented and know how to put on a show, as well as how to treat their fans right.
You seem to have been interested enough to reply. I can't believe a simple post on a message board has got your panties in a wad. Grow up.
Hey, from your name and sig, I just had to assume you're an Orb fan. Just wanted to give you a 'virtual high-five' if you will. Listening to the Orb is like giving your conscience a complete overhaul. I love em! Yeah offtopic, so sue me. What are you going to do, mod me down? so what...
Spider-Man 2002 vs. Spider-man 1992?? They can't compare to the sheer coolness of Spider-man 2099. I'd love to see a movie based on THAT series.
Tell me I'm not the only one who misread that....
I can't believe the Sony Hype Machine is getting started already. The similar hype surrounding the PlayStation 2, which was still more than a YEAR away from release, DESTROYED the Dreamcast, probably the best, yet most unappreciated game system to be released. I for one couldn't give 2 S#its about the ps3. Sony hasn't really done ANYTHING for console gamers, simply fragmented the console market, accomplished with huge amounts of dollars spent on advertising and wooing game companies to develop. Has anyone really played any 1st party sony games?? They suck balls. While companies like Nintendo and Sega exist solely for video games, Sony sees them as just another revenue stream to keep the megacorp afloat.
Now maybe I can get a replacement Soundwave to sit on top of my like-named MP3/File Server!
HAHA. Am I the only person who found this post to be sarcastic?? The fact that it so perfectly mimics the standard piracy-speak of those large corps, it surely was meant to get a rise out of everyone. Like those fake reviews Something Awful puts out, just to get loads of flame mail so they can mock the morons who sent em in. This message could just as easly be modded Funny.
Ack, I meant to say above "just DON'T get Tipper" (think parental advisory labels. But seriously, anyone with any sense at ALL can distinguish pr0n from art. South Park is not pr0n. Catcher in the Rye is not pr0n. Anything with 'GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS' is most likely pr0n. Most pron sites convey a 'beautiful naked girls just 4 YOU' feeling to them. That is pr0n. Hell this would be so easy. Its SO obvious which of these sites are pr0n-centric and which are art. In fact, I hereby announce my candidicy for this job! Ha, I'd love to sit around and classify things as pr0n or not all day.
Most people smart enough to do those kinds of workarounds don't need to be 'protected' from adult material, they're old enough. Most adults now, much less children, have no clue what DNS is, or how IP addressing works. These are the masses that the .prn domain would help. Those wanting to block 'adult' material could just block .prn. Those searching for pr0n could just such through .prn. It makes everybody's life easier IMO.
Lets not jump to the consludion that congress wants to ban nudity on the internet. It doesn't want to ban anything. Any bill that proposes any sort of 'ban' is going to be shot down extremely quick. I think that putting all pr0n under the .prn domain would be great. Maybe they could put Commmercial entitites under .com, Non-profit orginizations under .org, government sites under .gov, schools under .edu.... oh wait, that is what generally happens now. I don't hear anyone yelling foul about the suppression of first amendment rights over this. .prn would be no different. It would make it EASIER to find pr0n if you wanted it, and home users could toggle a block the .prn domain at their descretion. Sites like www.whitehouse.com would have to move to www.whitehouse.prn. No more fooling people into seeing what they didn't want. As long as noone but the user actually had the power to turn on the block, I think its a good idea. Just let let Tipper be the one to decide the difference between pr0n and art. Any one with some sense will do.
Honestly, if done right, I think these could be some of the first decent laws dealing with technology and the net that have been proposed in a while. Obviously some provisions need to be made to accomodate things such as home survalance, which someone mentioned, but that what the system is for, to sort those things out. Obviously you want to protect the right of people do do things in their own home, but I've heard of several cases of people renting apartments or condos, finding out they've been spyed on the whole time by hidden cameras located in 'kay positions' throughout the house (think bathroom, bedroom). Then they couldn't do anything about it because there wasn't any kind of law protecting them from this kind of intrusion. This is a good law when applied to this type of situation. As for a dot pr0n domain, well, why the hell not? I think it would be a GREAT idea, as long as there is some kind of clear definition of what belongs and what doesn't. Granted your going to have some conservative congress-person try to say that some art site with a nude body must be pr0n and therefor go in the adult domain, but c'mon, most pr0n is obviously pr0n, and most art is obviously art. We could eliminate the rediculous content filters found in libraries and schools and simply block the .pr0n domain. It all sounds very reasonable.
Oh, wait a min. This is a law has to go through OUR Congres??? They're bound to screw it up. Nevermind.
Damnit maybe that was CISCO not Oracle. I don't know, I'm tired and jumped the gun.. Mods delete parent plz.
Aren't these the same guys who built the Great Firewall of China? We already know they're devoid of ethical businees practices. This comes as no surprise.
"Its about time something was done to combat the evil practice of 'cow milking' that millions of people and cows partake every day. We grossly overpaid one of our interns to sit in front of a cow all day and milk as much as they could. They were able to produce an astounding 10,000 squeezes. This clearly represents the actual habits of every cow user and results in Billions of dollars lost to our cherished artists. Soon we hope to lobby for legislation that requires all cows to have a milking-rights management genetically imprinted. Only then will be able to truely protect our artists and stop this most evil virus among us." Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings plans to introduce such a bill later this week.
"Anyone who doesn't believe that the primary demographic for Nintendo is children is deluding themselves.....I will always prefer the PS2 games." If thats not a delusional statement, I dont know what is. Sony has you brainwashed. I always prefer GOOD games, regardless of the system. Simplistic gameplay? What ARE you talking about? I've never played a Nintendo produced game that I thought was "too simple." Is one of your criteria for a "good" game that it must have the most confusing, difficult gameplay possible? And as for the "cartoony graphics," why is this necessarily a BAD thing? I for one LOVE watching cartoon network, old school cartoons, and anime. Some people actually LIKE the cartooony look. Hell, the FF's on SNES were alot more cartoony and anime style than the current crop of games and they were undeniably better games. I'm not trying to advocate one system over another, the PS2, Cube, and even the XBox all have some top-quality games. But to simply overlook a title because of "cartoony graphics" and to say that you will ALWAYS prefer a PS2 game over a Cube one is asinine.
I'm looking forward to what Square is working on for the Cube as well, but I think that they're more interested in Game Boy Advanced development. They need cash to bail them out of their financial woes caused by an extremely expensive and disastrous FF movie, and GBA will make them loads of it. Square's probably only making a Cube game because they have to in order to get the funds from Yumachi's Choro-Q fund (called something like that), which they need to start this development. I fear that the GameCube might only receive the "Mystic Quests" of Square's offerings, simply to fill a quota for Nintendo, with most of its premier franchises going to Sony, with ports of classic Square games going to GBA. The Nintendo fanboy in me simply wishes to see a return to the days of quality Square games on the SNES. I ever since Square had the capabilities of producing FMV in their games, the quality of said games has dropped. I mean, their movie was an utter disaster. Get a clue Square!!
If you think the TENTH game in that tired old series can compare to the fun of Pikmin, Monkey Ball, or Smash Brothers, you are sorely mistaken. FFX has got to be one of the worst in the series yet (only 8 is probably worse). On a side note, I just picked up a copy of Chrono Cross for a measly 20 bucks. Now THIS is some real Square goodness.
"Well, on the other hand, I would rather that Congress was wasting their time on stuff like this rather than inventing new ways to take away our civil liberties..."
I REALLY hope that was sarcastic, as that is just what they're doing. You know, come to think of it, I really can't recall the last time I heard a politician ask the people "What are the isuues that you're concerned with. What do the people want?" It seems like government and big business create the issues, create the legislation, and then cram new laws down our throats while we are forced to accept it with a smile on our faces.