I preferred the Genesis game. Practically every aspect of that game was handled better- combat, conversation, equipment, Matrix runs, etc.
Plus it had a mission-generation system that nicely fit the mercenary theme of Shadowrun.
I swear, all these Slashdot articles on software patents in Europe are blending together to the point where I start to think I'm reading Fark. Might as well title all future articles like this:
"European software patents, formerly dead, then not dead, dead again, buried, ressurected, now dead yet again. Pope sucks. Duke surrenders. Still no cure for kitttens."
At a guess (and God knows how valuable the legal guesswork of a random non-lawyer on Slashdot is), I'd say the employee probably wouldn't have a case, but Google might if they found out and decided to make an issue of it.
1. You're probably just trolling, but what the hell.
2. The flood happened in the morning ours ofafter Christmas.
3. It's a safe bet that there are some Christians among the dead.
4. Any god that would kill thousands of people for worshipping another (or in the case of Muslims, calling him another name) is simply evil.
4a. Make that evil and stupid, since history shows that you cannot wipe out a religion by murdering its followers.
Ha, ha, remember when Clinton lied about sex? That was pretty funny when the conservatives went into hysterics over it and it was funny when they couldn't understand why the rest of the country didn't give a shit.
Yes. Yes, it was. But really, now. You have in front of you a whole smorgasboard of examples of the right's overpowering fear of freedom and personal responsibility, and the only thing you can come up with is the non-issue of Monica Lewinsky?
Ha, ha, remember when Bush lied about war? That was pretty funny when the liberals went into hysterics over it and it was funny when they couldn't understand why the rest of the country didn't give a shit.
Bah. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. And having blundered into a semi-lucid position on this particular issue does not excuse the left of the hypocrisy in which it engages with the same vigor and regularity as the right.
Besides, most of the liberal arguments against the war are just as weak as the conservative arguments supporting it.
Left and right are identical in practice. Both seek to use the government as a tool for social engineering, and both are perfectly willing to run roughshod over the Constitution to achieve their goals.
Fifty-one percent hardly qualifies as a "smashing victory".
Mind you, you're still right about the entertainment value of liberal histrionics. Every bit as funny as the antics of conservatives during the Clinton administration.
That's all that liberals and conservatives are really good for anyway.
As a former phone monkey, I can assure you that silly threats such as this will get you less help, not more. Maybe if the monkey in question is on his first day on the job you'll get somewhere, but anybody who's been on the phone for more than a couple of weeks will know that nothing you can do will get them in the slightest amount of trouble.
Oh, the monkey will play your game all right. They'll let you have your illusions of being in control. But you never are, not for a moment. For better or for worse, you are at the monkey's mercy, no matter how obseqious he seems.
Oh, and managers? From the perspective of the customer, they don't exist. Ask/demand to speak to a manager, and if you get anyone else, it's just going to be another monkey. Any help that you get from this new monkey is exactly what the original monkey was going to do anyway, although of course they'll do their best to make it sound like you're getting the red carpet.
Bottom line: If Monkey 1 isn't cooperating, make an excuse to leave, call back, and hope that Monkey 2 is more inclined to help you. I say "make an excuse to leave" because if you just hang up, Monkey 1 will leave a note on your account saying what a punk you are, earning you two strikes with Monkey 2 before you even get to talk to him. Whether you deserve this note or not is immaterial.
I recall reading a couple of years ago that you didn't want CoH to use a class system. But with "archetypes" that define the powersets available to a character, that's essentially what happened. What made you feel this system was necessary, rather than a more freeform system where players could simply choose their powersets from all those available in the game?
Re: " IIRC the explanation for the dark place on Dagobah was a cloned Jedi that had gone nuts."
There was no real "explanation" that settled this matter. Luke postulated that a powerful Dark Jedi had died in that place, and from there inferred that he was killed by Yoda. But none of that was confirmed, and even if it's true it only proves that the Jedi in question was dark, not that he was a clone or that he was insane.
Re: "Given that the stormtroopers are themselves clones, it seemed kind of odd that Thrawn would need all that force damnpning gear to make his own set of clones - given that he already had lots of clones in his storm trooper legions."
Though I'm not too well read on the expanded-universe stuff, I've never seen anything that even suggests, much less proves, that the stormtroopers were clones. Cloning technology was illegal under the Empire- even the Emperor kept it locked away unused (not that he cared about legality, it's just that cloning was considered to be that dangerous). Furthermore, the references made by various characters to frequent conscription of civilians on Imperial worlds give a pretty good idea of where stormtroopers come from. Also, recall the scene at the end of Dark Force Rising where Luke and Han are looking at the dead troopers and going "Holy crap, they're clones!". Surely this would not come as a surprise if cloned troopers were routine for the Empire.
Re: "Although I agree that Mara somewhat developed (at least she dealt with her impulse to kill Luke)..."
And she dealt with it gradually, in a thoroughly believable manner. She didn't have some sudden contrived epiphany, she followed a realistic progression from venomous hatred to genuine friendship, with every step in between flowing logically to the next. It's my opinion that Mara is the real protagonist of the series.
Re: "I didn't feel that Kaarde was much more than a two dimensional character. I'm also not sure about Joruus - he just kinda seemed nuts the whole time."
I disagree here as well, but I also don't want to argue the point.
"But I'm amused that whenever a Star Wars thread pops up on Slashdot, someone responds 'they should make the Zahn books'. I think that most people that make this comment really don't remember what was in the Zahn books other than that they enjoyed them when they came out in the early 1990's before the Prequels were announced."
I think it's more that they don't realize that what works fantastically well in one medium often fails dismally in another. Even in the best cross-medium translations (LOTR for example), sacrifices must be made.
Re:incorporate zahn's books
on
Star Wars TV Show
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Re: "Face it - none of the characters really grow in the Zahn books. Luke is pretty much the same at the start as he is at the end. The same as Han and Leia."
Yes and no. The preexisting characters (Luke, Han, Leia, etc) don't grow all that much over the course of the books. Some, but not a lot.
Zahn's own characters are another matter entirely. Mara Jade, Talon Kardde, Joruus C'Baoth- all of them grow immensely as characters throughout the series.
Re: "Also - in Zahn's books the clone wars were Jedis being cloned and going nuts rather than the pre-cursors to the Stormtroopers."
No, the clones were not Jedi. I think you were a bit confused by the explanation. Zahn's reasoning for the clones' insanity is that genetically identical beings create some kind of resonance in the Force that slowly drives them insane. The clones didn't have to be Jedi or other Force-sensitive types to be affected this way, or else Thrawn wouldn't have needed ysalimiri in the cloning chambers to clone soldiers and pilots. Good fucking Christ, I am such a geek.
These points aside, I do agree that the Thrawn series would not work as a third movie trilogy. The pacing is completely different from what's appropriate for a two-hour film, for starters. Furthermore, the plot is much more complicated, and couldn't be sufficiently simplified without gutting many great subplots and axing a lot of characters. Aves and Niles Ferrier would likely end up sharing an unmarked grave with Tom Bombadil.
You could make a pretty good miniseries out of the Thrawn books, were it not for two things:
1. The original actors are far too old (or too dead) and probably wouldn't want to reprise these roles anyway.
2. Few Star Wars fans would accept any replacements no matter how good they might be. Even if they did a better job than the original actors, they'd be vilified for having the nerve, the sheer audacity not to be the original actors. And how many actors would want to face the liklihood of being labeled "not as good as Mark Hamill"?
You must be new here ("here" being the box office). It's like Congress passed a law in 1999 requiring Lunatic Calm's Leave You Far Behind to appear on the soundtrack of every action movie released for the next ten years.
Re: "Tech support is horrible because the customers are letting it get horrible."
Not merely "letting". Customers are actively making it horrible.
Re: Complain. Often, constantly, daily. Write letters, not email, call every day.
Letters and phone calls are as easy to ignore as emails, and less likely to be seen in the first place.
Re: "Tie up their support phone lines to the point where nothing gets done."
Yes, because your chance to rave fruitlessly at yet another phone lackey is so much more important than the other guy's chance to actually get his problem solved. Fuck the next guy on hold, you need the illusion of being in control, and you need it now, dammit!
Re: "Tie up their sales lines as well"
Sit on hold for 15+ minutes to talk to someone who'll transfer me to tech in 15 seconds? Yeah, that's stickin' it to The Man all right.
Re: "Demand to speak to the president of the company."
(laughs hysterically for five minutes)
No matter how many times I hear it, it's still funny when someone thinks they're going to accomplish something with a ludicrous demand like that. Why not save time and just say, "Hello. I am an egotistical cretin with an overblown sense of my own importance. Please feel free to marginalize and ignore me."?
Re: "File complaints with every consumer group you can find."
At last, a tactic with a somewhat reasonable chance at eventual success. I knew you'd hit on one eventually.
Re: "Write to magazines, tell them how horrible the support is, tell them you hate the products."
A given magazine typically publishes one, perhaps two, such letters in a month. Better make yours really good, unless you're blowing the editor or something.
Re: "If the company has 12,000 unresolved complaints filed with the BBB in a 2 month period, what do you think will happen to their customer service?"
Here's what will happen: They'll find a few scapegoats, make a haphazard round or two of random firings, pick a new (and equally meaningless) internal slogan, shuffle around departmental responsibilities a trifling amount, and then congratulate themselves on their l337 consumer-relations skillz. In other words, nothing.
Re: "More important to them, what do you think will happen to their stock price?"
Still nothing. Investors care about how much scratch the company makes, not how long its customers spend on hold. And very few of them see a connection between the two.
Sprint PCS started doing this about six months ago. Everyone you talk to, whether they're in billing or one of the various tech-support queues, is required to pitch long-distance service and additional crap that doesn't work.
They emphasize that more than they do the actual fixing of problems, and it's already taking its toll in both customer relations and the ability of the average tech (as good techs get pissed off and leave, and the newbies get drilled on salesmanship instead of problem-solving).
Fortunately I managed to weasel out of that requirement by getting over to another department where the upselling bullshit isn't required.
Slashdot Mirror
I preferred the Genesis game. Practically every aspect of that game was handled better- combat, conversation, equipment, Matrix runs, etc. Plus it had a mission-generation system that nicely fit the mercenary theme of Shadowrun.
"European software patents, formerly dead, then not dead, dead again, buried, ressurected, now dead yet again. Pope sucks. Duke surrenders. Still no cure for kitttens."
"To bad 99% of liberals are the exact opposite of that. They're the most bigoted, least tolerant people you'll likely ever meet."
In other words, they are exactly like conservatives. No surprise there.
"When was the last time any liberal proposed anything but their way."
When was the last time a conservative did that? Or a moderate? Or anyone in the history of mankind?
"Just look at how they responded to Bushs landslide election."
Pretty poorly, yeah. Exactly the same way as conservatives responded to Clinton's reelection. And by the way, 51% is not a "landslide".
"They have no desire to work with the majority of the country, they want things their way regardless of the fact that most people don't."
Yes. In other words, liberals are conservatives. Two sides of the same worthless coin.
At a guess (and God knows how valuable the legal guesswork of a random non-lawyer on Slashdot is), I'd say the employee probably wouldn't have a case, but Google might if they found out and decided to make an issue of it.
A few. We call them Protestants.
2. The flood happened in the morning ours ofafter Christmas.
3. It's a safe bet that there are some Christians among the dead.
4. Any god that would kill thousands of people for worshipping another (or in the case of Muslims, calling him another name) is simply evil.
4a. Make that evil and stupid, since history shows that you cannot wipe out a religion by murdering its followers.
Hey, you're either with us or you're with the tsunamis.
Yes. Yes, it was. But really, now. You have in front of you a whole smorgasboard of examples of the right's overpowering fear of freedom and personal responsibility, and the only thing you can come up with is the non-issue of Monica Lewinsky?
Ha, ha, remember when Bush lied about war? That was pretty funny when the liberals went into hysterics over it and it was funny when they couldn't understand why the rest of the country didn't give a shit.
Bah. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. And having blundered into a semi-lucid position on this particular issue does not excuse the left of the hypocrisy in which it engages with the same vigor and regularity as the right.
Besides, most of the liberal arguments against the war are just as weak as the conservative arguments supporting it.
Left and right are identical in practice. Both seek to use the government as a tool for social engineering, and both are perfectly willing to run roughshod over the Constitution to achieve their goals.
Mind you, you're still right about the entertainment value of liberal histrionics. Every bit as funny as the antics of conservatives during the Clinton administration.
That's all that liberals and conservatives are really good for anyway.
Oh, the monkey will play your game all right. They'll let you have your illusions of being in control. But you never are, not for a moment. For better or for worse, you are at the monkey's mercy, no matter how obseqious he seems.
Oh, and managers? From the perspective of the customer, they don't exist. Ask/demand to speak to a manager, and if you get anyone else, it's just going to be another monkey. Any help that you get from this new monkey is exactly what the original monkey was going to do anyway, although of course they'll do their best to make it sound like you're getting the red carpet.
Bottom line: If Monkey 1 isn't cooperating, make an excuse to leave, call back, and hope that Monkey 2 is more inclined to help you. I say "make an excuse to leave" because if you just hang up, Monkey 1 will leave a note on your account saying what a punk you are, earning you two strikes with Monkey 2 before you even get to talk to him. Whether you deserve this note or not is immaterial.
I recall reading a couple of years ago that you didn't want CoH to use a class system. But with "archetypes" that define the powersets available to a character, that's essentially what happened. What made you feel this system was necessary, rather than a more freeform system where players could simply choose their powersets from all those available in the game?
So, Statesman...has Magneto asked for his helmet back yet?
You're implying that we didn't? Where were you in 2000?
Re: " IIRC the explanation for the dark place on Dagobah was a cloned Jedi that had gone nuts."
There was no real "explanation" that settled this matter. Luke postulated that a powerful Dark Jedi had died in that place, and from there inferred that he was killed by Yoda. But none of that was confirmed, and even if it's true it only proves that the Jedi in question was dark, not that he was a clone or that he was insane.
Re: "Given that the stormtroopers are themselves clones, it seemed kind of odd that Thrawn would need all that force damnpning gear to make his own set of clones - given that he already had lots of clones in his storm trooper legions."
Though I'm not too well read on the expanded-universe stuff, I've never seen anything that even suggests, much less proves, that the stormtroopers were clones. Cloning technology was illegal under the Empire- even the Emperor kept it locked away unused (not that he cared about legality, it's just that cloning was considered to be that dangerous). Furthermore, the references made by various characters to frequent conscription of civilians on Imperial worlds give a pretty good idea of where stormtroopers come from. Also, recall the scene at the end of Dark Force Rising where Luke and Han are looking at the dead troopers and going "Holy crap, they're clones!". Surely this would not come as a surprise if cloned troopers were routine for the Empire.
Re: "Although I agree that Mara somewhat developed (at least she dealt with her impulse to kill Luke)..."
And she dealt with it gradually, in a thoroughly believable manner. She didn't have some sudden contrived epiphany, she followed a realistic progression from venomous hatred to genuine friendship, with every step in between flowing logically to the next. It's my opinion that Mara is the real protagonist of the series.
Re: "I didn't feel that Kaarde was much more than a two dimensional character. I'm also not sure about Joruus - he just kinda seemed nuts the whole time."
I disagree here as well, but I also don't want to argue the point.
"But I'm amused that whenever a Star Wars thread pops up on Slashdot, someone responds 'they should make the Zahn books'. I think that most people that make this comment really don't remember what was in the Zahn books other than that they enjoyed them when they came out in the early 1990's before the Prequels were announced."
I think it's more that they don't realize that what works fantastically well in one medium often fails dismally in another. Even in the best cross-medium translations (LOTR for example), sacrifices must be made.
Yes and no. The preexisting characters (Luke, Han, Leia, etc) don't grow all that much over the course of the books. Some, but not a lot.
Zahn's own characters are another matter entirely. Mara Jade, Talon Kardde, Joruus C'Baoth- all of them grow immensely as characters throughout the series.
Re: "Also - in Zahn's books the clone wars were Jedis being cloned and going nuts rather than the pre-cursors to the Stormtroopers."
No, the clones were not Jedi. I think you were a bit confused by the explanation. Zahn's reasoning for the clones' insanity is that genetically identical beings create some kind of resonance in the Force that slowly drives them insane. The clones didn't have to be Jedi or other Force-sensitive types to be affected this way, or else Thrawn wouldn't have needed ysalimiri in the cloning chambers to clone soldiers and pilots. Good fucking Christ, I am such a geek.
These points aside, I do agree that the Thrawn series would not work as a third movie trilogy. The pacing is completely different from what's appropriate for a two-hour film, for starters. Furthermore, the plot is much more complicated, and couldn't be sufficiently simplified without gutting many great subplots and axing a lot of characters. Aves and Niles Ferrier would likely end up sharing an unmarked grave with Tom Bombadil.
You could make a pretty good miniseries out of the Thrawn books, were it not for two things:
1. The original actors are far too old (or too dead) and probably wouldn't want to reprise these roles anyway.
2. Few Star Wars fans would accept any replacements no matter how good they might be. Even if they did a better job than the original actors, they'd be vilified for having the nerve, the sheer audacity not to be the original actors. And how many actors would want to face the liklihood of being labeled "not as good as Mark Hamill"?
So, the debate champion of the Libertarian party is a guy who can't be bothered to quote his sources?
How sad for the Libertarians. Sadder still that I'd call him the best Presidential candidate I've yet seen.
First one to suggest Jack Black gets a good sharp kick in the throat.
Are you sure it isn't how many Beowulf clusters of those we'd have to imagine?
Or if you're in Soviet Russia, how many Beowulf clusters of those would have to imagine you?
You must be new here ("here" being the box office). It's like Congress passed a law in 1999 requiring Lunatic Calm's Leave You Far Behind to appear on the soundtrack of every action movie released for the next ten years.
The smothering of OSS is a small price to pay if I can arbitrarily deny someone the ability to access the Internet forever, even if only once.
As would all songs by Metallica, KMFDM, AC/DC, and all Aerosmith songs recorded after 1990.
Kinda like how you can't hijack a plane with a boxknife?
A computer you use for a few days and then throw away? Hell, Dell's like twenty years ahead in that market.
Not merely "letting". Customers are actively making it horrible.
Re: Complain. Often, constantly, daily. Write letters, not email, call every day.
Letters and phone calls are as easy to ignore as emails, and less likely to be seen in the first place.
Re: "Tie up their support phone lines to the point where nothing gets done."
Yes, because your chance to rave fruitlessly at yet another phone lackey is so much more important than the other guy's chance to actually get his problem solved. Fuck the next guy on hold, you need the illusion of being in control, and you need it now, dammit!
Re: "Tie up their sales lines as well"
Sit on hold for 15+ minutes to talk to someone who'll transfer me to tech in 15 seconds? Yeah, that's stickin' it to The Man all right.
Re: "Demand to speak to the president of the company."
(laughs hysterically for five minutes)
No matter how many times I hear it, it's still funny when someone thinks they're going to accomplish something with a ludicrous demand like that. Why not save time and just say, "Hello. I am an egotistical cretin with an overblown sense of my own importance. Please feel free to marginalize and ignore me."?
Re: "File complaints with every consumer group you can find."
At last, a tactic with a somewhat reasonable chance at eventual success. I knew you'd hit on one eventually.
Re: "Write to magazines, tell them how horrible the support is, tell them you hate the products."
A given magazine typically publishes one, perhaps two, such letters in a month. Better make yours really good, unless you're blowing the editor or something.
Re: "If the company has 12,000 unresolved complaints filed with the BBB in a 2 month period, what do you think will happen to their customer service?"
Here's what will happen: They'll find a few scapegoats, make a haphazard round or two of random firings, pick a new (and equally meaningless) internal slogan, shuffle around departmental responsibilities a trifling amount, and then congratulate themselves on their l337 consumer-relations skillz. In other words, nothing.
Re: "More important to them, what do you think will happen to their stock price?"
Still nothing. Investors care about how much scratch the company makes, not how long its customers spend on hold. And very few of them see a connection between the two.
They emphasize that more than they do the actual fixing of problems, and it's already taking its toll in both customer relations and the ability of the average tech (as good techs get pissed off and leave, and the newbies get drilled on salesmanship instead of problem-solving).
Fortunately I managed to weasel out of that requirement by getting over to another department where the upselling bullshit isn't required.