That found the Sims to be totally boring? After about 10 minutes of playing it, I realized that you could build walls around the people, and kill them. That was the highlight of the game. If I want to worry about being late for work, making dinner, cleaning up, excercising, etc..., I'll just quit playing and go on with my life. Isn't the point of playing a game like that to get away from worrying about things like that?
I used to live in downtown Long Beach, Ca, and would often find guys on our porch smoking, drinking and cussing. Asking them to leave got old after a while, and wasn't really effective. We finally got a hymn CD, that worked better than anything else we tried.
To me, old systems were a lot more fun than any of the new systems. Back when they couldn't rely on good graphics to sell a game, they actually had to have good gameplay. Atari was great, as was the NES. When the Genesis & SNES came out, is when gameplay started going downhill.
I have no desire for a PS3 or XBox 360. The Revolution might be interesting, it looks like they are actually trying to innovate, and come up with something new, besides fancier graphics. We'll see though. For now, I'm sticking with my NES.
There haven't been ads in games up until recently. So why after 20+ years of ad free games do they all of a sudden "need" them? If they're that desperate for money, they need to change some of their business practices.
There are speed limits, now. When the 55MPH federal limit was repealed, the limits on interstates went to "Reasonable & prudent". A guy driving a brand new sports car was ticketed for doing around 80, and he fought the ticket on the grounds that the speed was reasonable & prudent for the conditions. The state supreme court ruled that the R & P limit was unconstitutional due to its vagueness, so until the state lawmakers could set new limits, there were none on the interstates.
Interestingly enough, during the time of no speed limits, there was not a single fatal accident on any of the roads that had no limit. Seat belt usage was far higher than the national average. Once speed limits were set again, the fatal accident rate rose 111% from when the limit was R & P.
Now, the interstate limit is typically 75, and most 2 lane roads are 65-70. Speed limits tend to be loosely enforced, due to the low amount of officers patrolling.
When I lived in CA, I was fighting a speeding ticket, and found out that it is illegal to issue a speeding ticket based on the time to travel between two points. So the tollway option that you listed here won't work in CA (Not sure about the other states, or if the law has changed since then). It made it nice for remote areas where the "Speed enforced by aircraft". They would have to catch you speeding in the aircraft, and then radio a car, and have the car catch you with radar or pace you.
Luckily, now I live in a large rural state, that only has 200 highway patrol officers for the entire state (1 officer for every 2,196 square miles if they each work an 8 hour shift every day). In my 50 mile one way commute, I go through 3 traffic signals (One turns off at night), and none of them have red light cameras.
So, there's no monitoring for me, but a whole lot of speeding:)
Harrass customer service. It is not as effective but if a lot of people start consuming customer service with calls, again this costs them a measureable amount of money and also makes the VP in charge of customer service very angry. You want angry people at the same level in the company as the ones who are putting in things like the rootkit.
I work for a company that writes software for call centers. Customer support calls cost an average of $3-$30 per call for a company. Lots of upset customers add up quickly.
I quit buying Sony crap over a decade ago. I used to buy their products more often than other brands, because they used to be higher quality. Then, I had a string of high end Sony items go bad (Usually within about a month of the warranty expiring).
I had a Sony cell phone (This was when cell phones were first starting to come out, and were about the size of a brick). It was several hundred dollars. I went through 7 of them before the warranty expired, and I finally replaced it with another brand. I had a laser disc player whose drive motor kept dying. I had a boom box whose tape drive never worked right, even after sending it in for work several times. Then I had a Sony AV receiver, that one day decided not to turn on, unless you picked it up a few inches and dropped it. After that string of bad products, that Sony wouldn't stand behind, it was easy for me to stop buying their crap.
I don't actively try to dissuade people from buying Sony stuff, but if asked my opinion, I will gladly tell people about my experience with them.
We used to do it in boy scouts. The Firestone Scout Reservation in Brea, Ca used to have a dairy right next to it. Cow tipping certainly is possible, and quite a bit of fun (For the tippers, anyways).
The difference, according to this article is that they don't allow you to search for, or download MP3s or videos over 70 minutes.
I think I'll stick to EasyNews. It's cheaper, they don't log what I download, and they have an awesome web based search taht works well with FlashGot.
Also, after reading the linked article, their CEO sounds pretty clueless. They are blocking the MP3s because the RIAA has been so agressive about enforcing copyright, but will be leaving on TV shows because "the TV guys seem to understand the Internet..." I'm giving them a month or so before they're sued into oblivion.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, Video Games Live will not be playing any of the previously scheduled shows, with the exception of Seattle and Vancouver on October 29 and October 30. Furthermore, plans are being made for additional shows in specific markets across North America for 2006.
These guys have a nice racket going. I would hope someone who bought tickets files a lawsuit.
I've never used Windows Media Center, but almost all of the problems he's complaining about sound like hardware problems, driver issues, or he chose the wrong hardware to begin with.
I have a feeling that if he had chosen his equipment better, or done a little more research before buying everything, he wouldn't have had the problems.
Besides, he's complaining about things like a broken S Video connector in his review, that is hardly Microsoft's fault.
At my previous job, WalMart was one of our biggest customers. Not only do they not have a warehouse or stockroom at any of the stores (Stuff is taken off of the truck, and almost instantly brought onto the sales floor), everything is ordered automatically. Their computer system tracks what is selling, and what isn't. Items that sell good are continued to be stocked, poor selling items are dropped automatically, without any human intervention. I'm sure that managers are able to override some things, but the vast majority of it is automatic.
And like another poster said, when you do business with WalMart, you tailor your systems to meet their specifications. We had to redo most of our computer system to match with theirs. It ended up costing the company nearly a hundred thousand dollars, but the business that it provided was well worth the cost.
On an offtopic note, has anyone ever seen the "WalMart Cheer"? They do it at all of their corporate meetings, and the store employees do it every morning at opening, and every night at closing. It's hilarious.
However, if the games aren't of the highest quality, it might be a let down for those spur-the-moment type of shoppers that may have otherwise have purchased the console had they not had opportunity to spend a few weeks in front of it to begin with.
I'm guessing that the type of people who have $399 to impulsively spend on a video game, aren't the type who would be shopping in WalMart. They're probably aiming for kids whose parents are in there shopping. They want the kids to start begging their parents for one for Christmas.
Slashdot Mirror
That found the Sims to be totally boring? After about 10 minutes of playing it, I realized that you could build walls around the people, and kill them. That was the highlight of the game. If I want to worry about being late for work, making dinner, cleaning up, excercising, etc..., I'll just quit playing and go on with my life. Isn't the point of playing a game like that to get away from worrying about things like that?
What constitutes art for one person may be a stack of scrap iron to another.
So I take it you've seen the Watts Towers?
I used to live in downtown Long Beach, Ca, and would often find guys on our porch smoking, drinking and cussing. Asking them to leave got old after a while, and wasn't really effective. We finally got a hymn CD, that worked better than anything else we tried.
Trend Micro OfficeScan caught it also.
To me, old systems were a lot more fun than any of the new systems. Back when they couldn't rely on good graphics to sell a game, they actually had to have good gameplay. Atari was great, as was the NES. When the Genesis & SNES came out, is when gameplay started going downhill.
I have no desire for a PS3 or XBox 360. The Revolution might be interesting, it looks like they are actually trying to innovate, and come up with something new, besides fancier graphics. We'll see though. For now, I'm sticking with my NES.
There haven't been ads in games up until recently. So why after 20+ years of ad free games do they all of a sudden "need" them? If they're that desperate for money, they need to change some of their business practices.
It's just another money grab.
If you bought it from Amazon...
How many people bought them at WalMart, Best Buy, Circuit City, Warehouse, etc...? Are they able to get a refund?
There are speed limits, now. When the 55MPH federal limit was repealed, the limits on interstates went to "Reasonable & prudent". A guy driving a brand new sports car was ticketed for doing around 80, and he fought the ticket on the grounds that the speed was reasonable & prudent for the conditions. The state supreme court ruled that the R & P limit was unconstitutional due to its vagueness, so until the state lawmakers could set new limits, there were none on the interstates.
m l
Interestingly enough, during the time of no speed limits, there was not a single fatal accident on any of the roads that had no limit. Seat belt usage was far higher than the national average. Once speed limits were set again, the fatal accident rate rose 111% from when the limit was R & P.
Now, the interstate limit is typically 75, and most 2 lane roads are 65-70. Speed limits tend to be loosely enforced, due to the low amount of officers patrolling.
Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limit#Montana
http://www.hwysafety.com/hwy_montana_2001.htm
http://www.motorists.com/pressreleases/montana.ht
When I lived in CA, I was fighting a speeding ticket, and found out that it is illegal to issue a speeding ticket based on the time to travel between two points. So the tollway option that you listed here won't work in CA (Not sure about the other states, or if the law has changed since then). It made it nice for remote areas where the "Speed enforced by aircraft". They would have to catch you speeding in the aircraft, and then radio a car, and have the car catch you with radar or pace you.
:)
Luckily, now I live in a large rural state, that only has 200 highway patrol officers for the entire state (1 officer for every 2,196 square miles if they each work an 8 hour shift every day). In my 50 mile one way commute, I go through 3 traffic signals (One turns off at night), and none of them have red light cameras.
So, there's no monitoring for me, but a whole lot of speeding
Harrass customer service. It is not as effective but if a lot of people start consuming customer service with calls, again this costs them a measureable amount of money and also makes the VP in charge of customer service very angry. You want angry people at the same level in the company as the ones who are putting in things like the rootkit.
I work for a company that writes software for call centers. Customer support calls cost an average of $3-$30 per call for a company. Lots of upset customers add up quickly.
I quit buying Sony crap over a decade ago. I used to buy their products more often than other brands, because they used to be higher quality. Then, I had a string of high end Sony items go bad (Usually within about a month of the warranty expiring).
I had a Sony cell phone (This was when cell phones were first starting to come out, and were about the size of a brick). It was several hundred dollars. I went through 7 of them before the warranty expired, and I finally replaced it with another brand. I had a laser disc player whose drive motor kept dying. I had a boom box whose tape drive never worked right, even after sending it in for work several times. Then I had a Sony AV receiver, that one day decided not to turn on, unless you picked it up a few inches and dropped it. After that string of bad products, that Sony wouldn't stand behind, it was easy for me to stop buying their crap.
I don't actively try to dissuade people from buying Sony stuff, but if asked my opinion, I will gladly tell people about my experience with them.
most of their customers *do* display a propensity to steal their music.
If they're customers, doesn't that mean that they're not stealing music?
Shhh, you don't want them to bring back a daily SCO story, do you?
We used to do it in boy scouts. The Firestone Scout Reservation in Brea, Ca used to have a dairy right next to it. Cow tipping certainly is possible, and quite a bit of fun (For the tippers, anyways).
Actually, I believe that he's residing in Yorba Linda, Ca these days...
The difference, according to this article is that they don't allow you to search for, or download MP3s or videos over 70 minutes.
I think I'll stick to EasyNews. It's cheaper, they don't log what I download, and they have an awesome web based search taht works well with FlashGot.
Also, after reading the linked article, their CEO sounds pretty clueless. They are blocking the MP3s because the RIAA has been so agressive about enforcing copyright, but will be leaving on TV shows because "the TV guys seem to understand the Internet..." I'm giving them a month or so before they're sued into oblivion.
$520 million is a huge amount to any company, even one as big as MS.
Was this the page you were looking for?
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/xp
From "Crazy People":
You may think phone service stinks since deregulation, but don't mess with us, because we're all you've got. In fact, if we fold, you'll have no damn phones. AT&T - we're tired of taking your crap!
A great movie, if you haven't seen it.
The difference is that you don't buy something from the store, then have the store demand that you return it, and pay a 15% restocking fee.
Even though they didn't get the "convenience fee", they canceled the show. They should pay it.
From their press release:
Due to circumstances beyond our control, Video Games Live will not be playing any of the previously scheduled shows, with the exception of Seattle and Vancouver on October 29 and October 30. Furthermore, plans are being made for additional shows in specific markets across North America for 2006.
These guys have a nice racket going. I would hope someone who bought tickets files a lawsuit.
I've never used Windows Media Center, but almost all of the problems he's complaining about sound like hardware problems, driver issues, or he chose the wrong hardware to begin with.
I have a feeling that if he had chosen his equipment better, or done a little more research before buying everything, he wouldn't have had the problems.
Besides, he's complaining about things like a broken S Video connector in his review, that is hardly Microsoft's fault.
They have just-in-time inventory
At my previous job, WalMart was one of our biggest customers. Not only do they not have a warehouse or stockroom at any of the stores (Stuff is taken off of the truck, and almost instantly brought onto the sales floor), everything is ordered automatically. Their computer system tracks what is selling, and what isn't. Items that sell good are continued to be stocked, poor selling items are dropped automatically, without any human intervention. I'm sure that managers are able to override some things, but the vast majority of it is automatic.
And like another poster said, when you do business with WalMart, you tailor your systems to meet their specifications. We had to redo most of our computer system to match with theirs. It ended up costing the company nearly a hundred thousand dollars, but the business that it provided was well worth the cost.
On an offtopic note, has anyone ever seen the "WalMart Cheer"? They do it at all of their corporate meetings, and the store employees do it every morning at opening, and every night at closing. It's hilarious.
However, if the games aren't of the highest quality, it might be a let down for those spur-the-moment type of shoppers that may have otherwise have purchased the console had they not had opportunity to spend a few weeks in front of it to begin with.
I'm guessing that the type of people who have $399 to impulsively spend on a video game, aren't the type who would be shopping in WalMart. They're probably aiming for kids whose parents are in there shopping. They want the kids to start begging their parents for one for Christmas.
This screenshot of the control panel just screams clean & uncluttered...
I'm a big fan of simple, clean GUIs, but this isn't one of them.