Seriously though, if you know where all the jailbreaking phones are, why not only release games in those countries with less jailbreakers (say 10% or less)? Then, block IP's of those countries with the high jailbreakers. Sure it'd piss the pirates off in those countries, and you might lose the possibility of real customers, but you'd more likely lose more pirate bandwidth leeching. Otherwise you're like Ned Flanders giving away free parking validations at Springfield Mall.
And that is when I start seeing those cheap Chinese knockoff cases, screen protectors, and other dodads at swap meets. That means that whole huge supply force over in China has decided that there's enough demand here to make those items and ship them over here. If China doesn't care about the phone, then I doubt enough publishers have either.
I heard the rumor that most of those intricately detailed bodies in that great exhibition 'Bodies were political prisoners in china. I mean, it makes sense, as most of those figures were realtively young, and in decent shape. but it was kind of sad and funny to look at each one and think, what did this guy do wrong?
So people were jammed just hoping the peleton would come by as they were going over the bridge? That's nuts. They close the roads all day and typically most riders/team cars will fly by all around 20 minutes or so of each other (unless you're on a mountain stage, but then the towns that are passed on mountain stages are usually small hamlets w/o overpasses). What city were you in?
It was bound to happen. Wall-E was the last of the original ideas that were developed at that famous brainstorming session that came up with things like Toy Story, Monsters, and Nemo. And even though Wall-E was cool and amazing, it still seemed like they were running out of ideas. IF you just went by initial premises, Wall-E and UP are pretty different compared to before: Cars (anthropomorphizing gang of cars adventure), Nemo (anthropomorphizing buddy fish adventure), Toy Story (anthropomorphizing gang of toys adventure), Monsters Inc (anthropomorphizing buddy monster adventure).
I'm not saying different isn't bad, but it's hard to get the overwhelming masses to go see weirder and weirder premised movies. So I'm worried. I wouldn't say that it's not looking good, but it will be a great challenge to come up with some memorable movies after this.
I can't find the link now, but 2-3 years ago, I referred to a nice google-ized dark sky map that seemed to indicate the darkest area near LA (that isn't too insane of a drive) is kind of around a campsite/parking lot near Mt. Pinos (up the 5, off the Frazier Mt exit). A few friends and I drove there after work, to get a good view of the Perseids. That was amazing. The milky way, the shower, everything was cool. In California, I only recall seeing darkness like that going up the 395 to Mammoth and in a secluded camp near Big Sur. Otherwise, there is no good dark near LA. Even once I was in the Mojave Nat'l preserve and there was light pollution (some from San Bernadino, but there was still that damn glow from LA)
But as good as it was, I really wouldn't want to drive ~2 hours on a regular basis to see the milky way. It's not that I'm immobile. I would go nuts driving that much everyday.
Up until the mid 70's, people used to look upon 'Made in Japan' the same way that we look upon 'Made in China' nowadays. Things can change a lot in a generation.
Have you never avoided an accident on the highway by speeding up?
If you need to speed past 80 to avoid something, you were probably going too fast to begin with. Anyway, you'd probably need a car with over 200hp, as generally smaller engined cars do not have enough torque up there to have a significant change in acceleration at 80 (should already be your top gear, unless you're driving a ~300+ hp engined car). The Focus definitely doesn't fall into that category, so 80 seems like the right amount.
Now if they put a rev limiter (say comically low at ~3000 rpm), that would probably solve some aggressive teen driving and safe gas to boot... but that would be both lame and unsafe at the same time.
Do the young folk still watch the Simpsons? I just mentioned a quote today with some new hires (maybe it was a little arcane), and no one got it: "Some days, we don't let the line move, at all".
I tried it on a recent trip to Japan. I just wanted to see what the fuss was about. I didn't get to try the sashimi version (just a tenpura version).
Verdict: Very beefy. Soft and chewy (probably too chewy for my tastes). I tried and tried to sense if there was anything non-beefy about it, but it just seemed like a normal strip of beef that happened to be very strong tasting (strong in the way dry aged beef tastes vs regular). But it wasn't earth-shatteringly good.
From a taste standpoint, I can see why people did eat it. If there were few if any cows around, and you were tired of eating fish and tofu for protein all the time, and there were whales-a-plenty, then whale would be a 'good thing'. Fat & beefy protein for all. I can even see why they'd try the seemingly South Park Elephant-Pig inspired experiments (cows with even cheap cuts having beefier flavor? Nice.) But these days where there's Beef Bowls, Happy Burgers, Kalbi, and American food, Japan doesn't really have a real need to keep getting whales in these whale brohaha times.
I wouldn't say that the joystick was a necessity for Descent. I was lucky enough to have a keyboard that didn't lock-up after even if you pressed 5 buttons simultaneously, so I could play Descent well without a joystick. Within my LAN- playing group, the top ones were the ones with good keyboards, then the joystick users, then the keyboard users that just weren't that good, and then finally the one poor guy who couldn't even press two buttons at the same time without locking the keyboard.
Very catchy! So when you hear him cantankerously explode on Twit, you can say, "Listen to that Doob go!"
Also, this word is very fungible: DoobTube (any movie with him complaining) NoobDoob (someone pretentiously pretending to have experience about something and then proceeds to rant on it) Doobtanic (Rant gone out of control)
Ahh, the fantastic feeling of tremendous irony was so unbelievably cool when I first watched my first ~700MB avi back in 2001.
Maybe one day, someone will create a media format that is playable by all devices; phones, cameras, TVs, cars, etc. It will support infinite numbers of audio streams, video streams; support searching the web for audio or video quotes from the file you are watching/listening to; even support interactive games/chat as part of the experience. What will it be called? Obviously, the Zune format.
For the last three years, LCD 'generations' have been advancing quickly. Gen 6 and 7 allowed LCD's to start encroach on Plasma-sized screens. Now with Sharp, Sony/Samsung and the other biggies opening/starting production of Gen 8 screens, we are most likely going to seeing prices continue to drop across all flat-screen markets even through next year (when those 8th gens ship). If you've been following the steep drop of LCDs (and as a result, the Plasma and DLPs), you've seen crazy 50%-60% drop of prices in the last year. Where even 3 years ago, HD sets were only aroudn 2500 or so, now they lower end 'big screen' ones are droppign to near 1000 levels (admittedly the short-life DLPs). But you can get 40" for 1000 now.
It sounds unreal, but I'd guess that the 42" plasmas might even hit 1200 next year. Maybe not the 1080's but at least 720's might.
Based on that, parents and other buyers that haven't jumped on the HDTV bandwagon will surely switch.
And once they switch, they'll notice that systems like Wii without even 720p, their games will look like crap on their brand new affordable HDTV units. So that segment might be tempted to go with the PS3/XBox360. Premium HDTV owners, owners of the latest 7th gen 1080p $3000+ LCD screen will not notice, as not only will their screens make any resolution look good, but they will probably go with their PS3/Xbox fix anyhow.
So really, with the HDTV market dropping, the Wii might only have a small window before HD adoption will start pushing them out. And that window really seems like it's shutting (search for Samsung or Sharp on bensbargains or techbargains for a quick look, or look at something like nextag and see those bearlike prices for any flatscreen in the last few years)
Because I got tired of harping on it 3 years ago. I will never buy MS items: I run Win xp at work. Everything else is Linux at home, with my DS, PS2, GC systems.
To harp on something without provocation (if I brought it up every Xbox article) would be like beating a dead horse's gravestone. Or constantly reminding all your meat eating friends how being vegetarian helps you live healthier, longer, etc (I'm not a vege though;) )
All my email from 1994 - 2001 or so are tgz-ed. Emails that were on Netzero, my ISPs and on the yahoo hotmail etc (back when they were like 1-2 mb) are all saved and zipped and on my hard drive. Nowadays, with the large limits on yahoo etc, those are all are kept on the servers. They are sorted by how well I know them (family, good friends, acquaintances, new people), economic (bills, charges, itineraries, etc), useful listmail, and 'crap'.
My apartment on the other hand is a complete mess. Maybe if sorting real objects vs. email were easier, my place would be sorted.;)
My favorite games for the Genesis were SFII, Phantasy Star 3&4, all of the Shining series, and Shadowrun. I still remember when you interfaced with what was like their version of an internet; you'd try and break their security to disable cameras, open doors, get data, etc. That was pretty novel at the time.
You know, I never even got past the 4th level in G&G. Then lo and behold, MAME comes around and I finally finished the damn game. And even then, it was hard, as the last boss requires a certain weapon, and I saved the game AFTER the spawn point of the weapon.
As a kid, I didn't cry in that kind of situation, I was usually proud that I had made it farther than anyone else I had seen.
I only cry now at that situation, just because I value my time more than when I was 8. (Now: The game breaks my no-hitter at the last batter of the 8th? G$@ F@$*#*$ S*@*!)
Maybe I should start submitting when I see a lot of 'slownewsday' tags. I'm still 0/3.
I do havea normal comment though.
I wonder if it's just a natural tendency for Japanese to make their games that much tougher. Is that because your average Japanese boy is more patient? I mean, Everyone knows taht the Japanese Final Fantasies basically have enemies that cause more damage yet your main characters earn less EXP per kill.
Slashdot Mirror
Come on, you forgot Synergy and derivatives Synergies and Synergistic
I can't find it on tineye... That's pretty cool!
What I took away from the article:
"Pirates don't stick around" - bad fathers?
"...pirates are less qualified" - bad credit?
Seriously though, if you know where all the jailbreaking phones are, why not only release games in those countries with less jailbreakers (say 10% or less)? Then, block IP's of those countries with the high jailbreakers. Sure it'd piss the pirates off in those countries, and you might lose the possibility of real customers, but you'd more likely lose more pirate bandwidth leeching. Otherwise you're like Ned Flanders giving away free parking validations at Springfield Mall.
And that is when I start seeing those cheap Chinese knockoff cases, screen protectors, and other dodads at swap meets. That means that whole huge supply force over in China has decided that there's enough demand here to make those items and ship them over here. If China doesn't care about the phone, then I doubt enough publishers have either.
I heard the rumor that most of those intricately detailed bodies in that great exhibition 'Bodies were political prisoners in china. I mean, it makes sense, as most of those figures were realtively young, and in decent shape. but it was kind of sad and funny to look at each one and think, what did this guy do wrong?
So people were jammed just hoping the peleton would come by as they were going over the bridge? That's nuts. They close the roads all day and typically most riders/team cars will fly by all around 20 minutes or so of each other (unless you're on a mountain stage, but then the towns that are passed on mountain stages are usually small hamlets w/o overpasses). What city were you in?
It was bound to happen. Wall-E was the last of the original ideas that were developed at that famous brainstorming session that came up with things like Toy Story, Monsters, and Nemo. And even though Wall-E was cool and amazing, it still seemed like they were running out of ideas. IF you just went by initial premises, Wall-E and UP are pretty different compared to before: Cars (anthropomorphizing gang of cars adventure), Nemo (anthropomorphizing buddy fish adventure), Toy Story (anthropomorphizing gang of toys adventure), Monsters Inc (anthropomorphizing buddy monster adventure).
I'm not saying different isn't bad, but it's hard to get the overwhelming masses to go see weirder and weirder premised movies. So I'm worried. I wouldn't say that it's not looking good, but it will be a great challenge to come up with some memorable movies after this.
I can't find the link now, but 2-3 years ago, I referred to a nice google-ized dark sky map that seemed to indicate the darkest area near LA (that isn't too insane of a drive) is kind of around a campsite/parking lot near Mt. Pinos (up the 5, off the Frazier Mt exit).
A few friends and I drove there after work, to get a good view of the Perseids. That was amazing. The milky way, the shower, everything was cool. In California, I only recall seeing darkness like that going up the 395 to Mammoth and in a secluded camp near Big Sur. Otherwise, there is no good dark near LA. Even once I was in the Mojave Nat'l preserve and there was light pollution (some from San Bernadino, but there was still that damn glow from LA)
But as good as it was, I really wouldn't want to drive ~2 hours on a regular basis to see the milky way. It's not that I'm immobile. I would go nuts driving that much everyday.
is decapitation. they might work one last time while you hold it to the port, but that's usually it.
So far this is my fav today.
Side question, does lynx or some other text web browser render images as ascii?
Up until the mid 70's, people used to look upon 'Made in Japan' the same way that we look upon 'Made in China' nowadays. Things can change a lot in a generation.
Have you never avoided an accident on the highway by speeding up?
If you need to speed past 80 to avoid something, you were probably going too fast to begin with. Anyway, you'd probably need a car with over 200hp, as generally smaller engined cars do not have enough torque up there to have a significant change in acceleration at 80 (should already be your top gear, unless you're driving a ~300+ hp engined car). The Focus definitely doesn't fall into that category, so 80 seems like the right amount.
Now if they put a rev limiter (say comically low at ~3000 rpm), that would probably solve some aggressive teen driving and safe gas to boot... but that would be both lame and unsafe at the same time.
Do the young folk still watch the Simpsons? I just mentioned a quote today with some new hires (maybe it was a little arcane), and no one got it:
"Some days, we don't let the line move, at all".
Deep inside, I was a little sad.
I tried it on a recent trip to Japan. I just wanted to see what the fuss was about. I didn't get to try the sashimi version (just a tenpura version).
Verdict:
Very beefy. Soft and chewy (probably too chewy for my tastes). I tried and tried to sense if there was anything non-beefy about it, but it just seemed like a normal strip of beef that happened to be very strong tasting (strong in the way dry aged beef tastes vs regular). But it wasn't earth-shatteringly good.
From a taste standpoint, I can see why people did eat it. If there were few if any cows around, and you were tired of eating fish and tofu for protein all the time, and there were whales-a-plenty, then whale would be a 'good thing'. Fat & beefy protein for all. I can even see why they'd try the seemingly South Park Elephant-Pig inspired experiments (cows with even cheap cuts having beefier flavor? Nice.) But these days where there's Beef Bowls, Happy Burgers, Kalbi, and American food, Japan doesn't really have a real need to keep getting whales in these whale brohaha times.
I wouldn't say that the joystick was a necessity for Descent. I was lucky enough to have a keyboard that didn't lock-up after even if you pressed 5 buttons simultaneously, so I could play Descent well without a joystick. Within my LAN- playing group, the top ones were the ones with good keyboards, then the joystick users, then the keyboard users that just weren't that good, and then finally the one poor guy who couldn't even press two buttons at the same time without locking the keyboard.
Hmm, Only one word came to my mind.
Doob
Very catchy! So when you hear him cantankerously explode on Twit, you can say, "Listen to that Doob go!"
Also, this word is very fungible:
DoobTube (any movie with him complaining)
NoobDoob (someone pretentiously pretending to have experience about something and then proceeds to rant on it)
Doobtanic (Rant gone out of control)
Ahh, the fantastic feeling of tremendous irony was so unbelievably cool when I first watched my first ~700MB avi back in 2001.
Maybe one day, someone will create a media format that is playable by all devices; phones, cameras, TVs, cars, etc. It will support infinite numbers of audio streams, video streams; support searching the web for audio or video quotes from the file you are watching/listening to; even support interactive games/chat as part of the experience. What will it be called? Obviously, the Zune format.
For the last three years, LCD 'generations' have been advancing quickly. Gen 6 and 7 allowed LCD's to start encroach on Plasma-sized screens. Now with Sharp, Sony/Samsung and the other biggies opening/starting production of Gen 8 screens, we are most likely going to seeing prices continue to drop across all flat-screen markets even through next year (when those 8th gens ship). If you've been following the steep drop of LCDs (and as a result, the Plasma and DLPs), you've seen crazy 50%-60% drop of prices in the last year. Where even 3 years ago, HD sets were only aroudn 2500 or so, now they lower end 'big screen' ones are droppign to near 1000 levels (admittedly the short-life DLPs). But you can get 40" for 1000 now.
It sounds unreal, but I'd guess that the 42" plasmas might even hit 1200 next year. Maybe not the 1080's but at least 720's might.
Based on that, parents and other buyers that haven't jumped on the HDTV bandwagon will surely switch.
And once they switch, they'll notice that systems like Wii without even 720p, their games will look like crap on their brand new affordable HDTV units. So that segment might be tempted to go with the PS3/XBox360. Premium HDTV owners, owners of the latest 7th gen 1080p $3000+ LCD screen will not notice, as not only will their screens make any resolution look good, but they will probably go with their PS3/Xbox fix anyhow.
So really, with the HDTV market dropping, the Wii might only have a small window before HD adoption will start pushing them out. And that window really seems like it's shutting (search for Samsung or Sharp on bensbargains or techbargains for a quick look, or look at something like nextag and see those bearlike prices for any flatscreen in the last few years)
Because I got tired of harping on it 3 years ago. I will never buy MS items: I run Win xp at work. Everything else is Linux at home, with my DS, PS2, GC systems.
;) )
To harp on something without provocation (if I brought it up every Xbox article) would be like beating a dead horse's gravestone. Or constantly reminding all your meat eating friends how being vegetarian helps you live healthier, longer, etc (I'm not a vege though
I dunno, death usually gets censored from most media. But.. if they have 'Faces of Death: Australia' it might be seen in a few years.
Kind of true: I'm a pack rat. No doubt.
;)
All my email from 1994 - 2001 or so are tgz-ed. Emails that were on Netzero, my ISPs and on the yahoo hotmail etc (back when they were like 1-2 mb) are all saved and zipped and on my hard drive. Nowadays, with the large limits on yahoo etc, those are all are kept on the servers. They are sorted by how well I know them (family, good friends, acquaintances, new people), economic (bills, charges, itineraries, etc), useful listmail, and 'crap'.
My apartment on the other hand is a complete mess. Maybe if sorting real objects vs. email were easier, my place would be sorted.
My favorite games for the Genesis were SFII, Phantasy Star 3&4, all of the Shining series, and Shadowrun. I still remember when you interfaced with what was like their version of an internet; you'd try and break their security to disable cameras, open doors, get data, etc. That was pretty novel at the time.
80's game?!? Ken would crouching strong you in the nuts for that one. ;)
The original SF did appear in 87, but Hyper fighting is literally I, II, IICh, editions away.
You know, I never even got past the 4th level in G&G. Then lo and behold, MAME comes around and I finally finished the damn game. And even then, it was hard, as the last boss requires a certain weapon, and I saved the game AFTER the spawn point of the weapon.
As a kid, I didn't cry in that kind of situation, I was usually proud that I had made it farther than anyone else I had seen.
I only cry now at that situation, just because I value my time more than when I was 8. (Now: The game breaks my no-hitter at the last batter of the 8th? G$@ F@$*#*$ S*@*!)
Maybe I should start submitting when I see a lot of 'slownewsday' tags. I'm still 0/3.
I do havea normal comment though.
I wonder if it's just a natural tendency for Japanese to make their games that much tougher. Is that because your average Japanese boy is more patient? I mean, Everyone knows taht the Japanese Final Fantasies basically have enemies that cause more damage yet your main characters earn less EXP per kill.