I have to agree. I had stopped buying games years ago. Not playing them entirely, but stopped buying them entirely.
Steam, despite the misgivings I shared with many others, has turned out to be a great service. I have now bought a metric shitload of games (by jumping on the sales, the $2.99 deals, etc.)
I'd sworn publishers would never get another cent of my money especially if there was DRM, but I have TONS of steam games because it's so easy, and CHEAP (provided you wait for sales... which, for top titles, can take a year or two. Year or two? Big deal. I'm middle aged now - two years is nothing. I've got t-shirts ten times that old.
My other reason for cutting it all off was that I have exceptionally oily skin and it's much easier to get all the sebaceous cysts cut out with short hair, and I get a bunch of cool scars:)
FINALLY! I thought a thread related to sexual function was bound to have some sexy anecdotes, but it took until this to find one.
"I bet the school board had lawyers review the actions."
Really?
I was suspended from school many times. The FIRST time I was suspended it was for skipping a class led by an ACTUAL pedophile in order to avoid said pedophile because I was his chosen target. There was no "investigation" whatsoever. Teacher made claims, I was suspended. End of story.
Another time I was suspended was because my schedule on the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL was screwed up, and I went to the wrong last period class. Realizing what had happened, with the school day over, I went home thinking "first thing in the morning I'll go to the office and get this straightened out."
Well, first thing in the morning I WAS in the office, having been called down right from homeroom. I politely tried to explain what happened, expecting that the helpful school staff would assist in getting my schedule corrected.
Nope. The moment I opened my mouth, before I even had 5 words out, the principal said "Oh we have a debater here huh? Well, not for long!" and I was immediately suspended. Second day of school.
THAT was what made me walk away from the whole damned thing. Never went back in that building.
Exactly. People ask me why my desktop is cluttered. It's cluttered because it's kind of a weigh station. Shit I've downloaded, files I've copied off a thumb drive, a PDF I'm working on, etc., all go on the desktop because I use a file manager and saving to dektop is a lot quicker and easier than navigating through a shitload of folders with single clicks for each step of the way just to save something where I want it.
Save it to the desktop, no clicks required. Then in a file manager, drag the files when done to appropriate folders - no multiple clicks through menus needed - just drag the file to the folder in the appropriate branch of the tree.
Desktop functions sort of like a root folder, but better. "Shit I'm working on."
Who cares if the fucking desktop is cluttered. I don't LOOK at the DESKTOP... I mean seriously, who the fuck other than my 71 year old mother opens files by clicking an icon on a fucking desktop?
Sure, if you're only using a comp for iTunes and Facebook.
If you're actually doing WORK, the desktop as a visual metaphor is indeed stupid. But it makes a fantastic "in box" to for all the shit you need to do before sending the files off elsewhere.
Much easier to access than fucking around through menus in a dialog box to save a file to "My Vacation Photos, Edited Version." etc.
I use EEEbuntu on my netbook. Do you know of a distro with KDE desktop that has been optimized for netbooks? If dropping features I use isn't enough reason to dump software, arrogant designers make up for that and give me more than enough reason.
I hate that kind of shit. Firefox morons dropping the status bar in 4.0, etc.
Ok fine then. Other than web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, photo editing, video editing, Tweetdeck, gaming, and a few other categories, there's really no reason anyone needs their app maximized.
Everyone knows that all comps are really good for is instant messaging anyway.
Ya know what would be REALLY bold? Replace the keyboard.
A radical departure would be a wall hanging with little pictures on it. Now, the unimaginitive would likely want the pictures to represent actions and things a computer would do. NO. That's too microsoft. A BOLD wall-hanging device would use pictures that DON'T correspond to actions. Like, a cartoon of a dog is what you hit to delete files. But here's the fun part - there are TWO pictures of dogs, both hidden behind blank tiles. When you uncover one, it shows the dog for a few seconds and then goes blank. You have to remember where that is and then find the SECOND dog to complete the action.
I know what you're thinking- "That's not innovative, I've played that game before!" oh no, not THIS bold game you haven't. THIS one changes the position of all of the pictures under the blank tiles every time you open one. So you CAN'T memorize where the 1st dog was to find the second one.
Plus you can't use fingers. Nope. You use BEANBAGS. A sensor makes sure you're at least ten feet from the control, and you have to peg the tiles in the right order, throwing blindly, to complete the action. And these are not just ANY beanbags, they're special RFID beanbags. Don't lose any, though, they are expensive and demand is outstripping production so the wait for replacements is about 6 months.
Studies have shown that people LOVE bean bag toss games. This will make the computer using experience MUCH more enjoyable.
We also have a contract with Adobe. They have hired us to make Photoshop more user friendly. Currently we're looking at the bold move of replacing the entire Photoshop paradigm with something entirely different. The final decision hasn't been made. but the current favorite concept is to replace the entire Photoshop Suite with MKV files of Underdog cartoons. (MKV, not AVI. MKV is more fresh and innovative!)
Our internal studies show people in an office would rather watch Underdog than do photo editing anyway.
So what you're saying is that the trend is going from "this works well for my needs" to "ooooh! Shiny!!"
I hardly see this as a good thing.
I've just invented a new bread machine. You know those old ones, that used a metal flipper paddle to roll and knead bread? They look so pedestrian, definitely not cool anymore. And a FLIPPER for making bread? Decidedly unsexy.
My new bread machine has the latest in high tech styling. SERIOUSLY hi-tech - no buttons whatsoever, just like the iPhone. (There will also be a limited edition $10000 Steampunk version, looks like Jules Vernes' bread machine)
NO BUTTONS. Why no buttons? It's all touch sensitive. Touch the machine anywhere and it works - control is THAT SIMPLE. One touch and it does everything. Everything being of course that it lights up a light which says "knead bread."
No more stupid looking little padles rolling a ball of dough around. Studies I have conducted of 5 six-year olds show that they LOVE to knead play-doh. And my grandma says the movement is good for her arthritis. Clearly hand-kneading dough a is a much more enjoyable experience and reduces stress.
So when my machine is touched, it says "knead dough," which you then do by hand on your counter. Later, in case you forget to put the dough in a pan and bake the bread in your oven, the display on my machine changes to say "Hey did you remember to bake your bread?"
I have studied the law, and I personally have examined over 250,000 trademark applications. But other than that I guess I dunno shit.
I was talking about what the law, when drafted, intended. You're talking about the current state of belief of those benefiting from use of the law and abuse of the law. It's not surprising that someone "working in the industry" would view the distortions as the way things are supposed to be, a lot like how copyright has been distorted out of all meaning, and patents to a somewhat lesser degree.
Trademarks to WHAT? Did Tolkein sell a line of buttons also so that this is likely to cause confusion in the minds of consumers who thought they were buying a genuine Tolkein button when in fact they aren't?
I mean, that was after all the reason and justification for ALLOWING trademarks (notice I said allowing not recognizing. This is not a right being recognized by law, it is a privilege granted by law given certain provisos)
Trademarks are supposed to be limited to a type of industry. That's why Apple Computers and Apple Records and Apple Rubber Company can co-exist and it was only when Apple Computer got into the music business that Apple Records had any complaints.
Seriously. The guy wrote books, and therefore his estate should be allowed a blanket trademark on ANYTHING bearing the name Tolkein? Even cultural references? No, that's nonsense. And it's also nonsense that the law requires them to complain. The law requires them to complain about INFRINGEMENT, meaning someone selling a competing product using their TM or passing something off as made by them OR liable to cause confusion. NOT anything that simply MENTIONS the name.
It used to be a tradition in the US middle class (and if not a tradition achieved, at least a tradition aspired to...) to buy a new car every year. Later it got to be maybe 18 months.
I knew a guy in the 1970s who worked as a part time school guidance counselor, and moonlighted doing accounting at a gas station, so just middle class. He bought a new Lincoln Continental every year - in a custom color. GAVE AWAY his one-year old car to a friend or relative each year. One year his chosen custom color, gold, suddenly became a standard color and so he had to give his away and get a new one.
Friends thought he was only very slightly tending to buy new cars quickly... nothing major. For most people the only odd thing was giving the old car away - most traded in for a new car every year.
New features aren't needed? Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!?!?!
How the hell do you expect me to get anything worthwhile done if I have to go back to using a PC where the open windows' title bars aren't even transparent, let alone slowly shimmering!!!
The place where I worked opened a day care center right in the front of the building for children of employees. They built a playground in part of where the parking lot used to be, in front of the entrance. They also had picnic tables for employees who didn;t want to be ramped in the depressing cafeterias during lunch on nice days.
I like kids. I have 6 nieces and a nephew, had a large part in raising my eldest niece, and what it more pleasant and stress reducing than watching a playground full of happy kids? I should add here that I worked for - A TOY COMPANY.
We made toys, we needed to understand kids, we made products for them, needed to see how they interacted with them. And it would be pretty good if you're working at making kids' toys that you - ya'know, kinda LIKE kids, care about them, understand them, be able to see through their eyes, etc. All of that. Would be hard to work for a toy company and not have an understanding of kids.
So I sat out there one day at a picnic table eating my lunch, looking around, sometimes watching the kids play. I was maybe 26 and was also hoping to be a dad someday, I think I would have made a good dad.
The looks I got from people - that was enough, I never went outside for lunch by myself ever again.
For fuck's sake, I was an employee of a toy company on lunch break, and people gave me strange looks for watching the other employee's kids play in the company playground.
There's something wrong when a male of child-rearing age cannot even say "I like kids" without that coming across as creepy to a lot of people.
Slashdot Mirror
He's a TSA agent, airport annoyance specialist style.
A relative by marriage, I hasten to point out.
He's a fat lazy idiot and was incompetent at his other jobs. And he's now a TSA agent.
I'm not saying these two things are related, necessarily.
succinctly put.
Yeah, I check this site:
http://www.steamgamesales.com/stores.php
Got the same kinds of deals you have. I don't think I've paid more than ten bucks for a game, and that's unusually high.
I have to agree.
I had stopped buying games years ago. Not playing them entirely, but stopped buying them entirely.
Steam, despite the misgivings I shared with many others, has turned out to be a great service. I have now bought a metric shitload of games (by jumping on the sales, the $2.99 deals, etc.)
I'd sworn publishers would never get another cent of my money especially if there was DRM, but I have TONS of steam games because it's so easy, and CHEAP (provided you wait for sales... which, for top titles, can take a year or two. Year or two? Big deal. I'm middle aged now - two years is nothing. I've got t-shirts ten times that old.
Shit, a 2 year old game is "new" to me.
It's sad that in this country, 8 years is seen as "long term."
My other reason for cutting it all off was that I have exceptionally oily skin and it's much easier to get all the sebaceous cysts cut out with short hair, and I get a bunch of cool scars :)
FINALLY! I thought a thread related to sexual function was bound to have some sexy anecdotes, but it took until this to find one.
Unfortunately it only grows pubic hair. Would have been a hit in the 70s, but these days...
It makes you laugh, because all of the people dying of radiation exposure have high, funny-pitched voices.
Humor is the best medicine.
I'm not worried, because anyone that stalks me is bound to find out that I'm creepier than they are.
I never realized that "good" was a synonym for "buggy, bloated, restrictive piece of shit."
better look into the same for uranium miners, then.
And oil well workers.
Exactly. The power lines are all set up for fission electrons. You can't just go pumping fusion electrons through them!
"I bet the school board had lawyers review the actions."
Really?
I was suspended from school many times. The FIRST time I was suspended it was for skipping a class led by an ACTUAL pedophile in order to avoid said pedophile because I was his chosen target. There was no "investigation" whatsoever. Teacher made claims, I was suspended. End of story.
Another time I was suspended was because my schedule on the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL was screwed up, and I went to the wrong last period class. Realizing what had happened, with the school day over, I went home thinking "first thing in the morning I'll go to the office and get this straightened out."
Well, first thing in the morning I WAS in the office, having been called down right from homeroom. I politely tried to explain what happened, expecting that the helpful school staff would assist in getting my schedule corrected.
Nope. The moment I opened my mouth, before I even had 5 words out, the principal said "Oh we have a debater here huh? Well, not for long!" and I was immediately suspended. Second day of school.
THAT was what made me walk away from the whole damned thing. Never went back in that building.
Exactly. People ask me why my desktop is cluttered.
It's cluttered because it's kind of a weigh station. Shit I've downloaded, files I've copied off a thumb drive, a PDF I'm working on, etc., all go on the desktop because I use a file manager and saving to dektop is a lot quicker and easier than navigating through a shitload of folders with single clicks for each step of the way just to save something where I want it.
Save it to the desktop, no clicks required. Then in a file manager, drag the files when done to appropriate folders - no multiple clicks through menus needed - just drag the file to the folder in the appropriate branch of the tree.
Desktop functions sort of like a root folder, but better. "Shit I'm working on."
Who cares if the fucking desktop is cluttered. I don't LOOK at the DESKTOP... I mean seriously, who the fuck other than my 71 year old mother opens files by clicking an icon on a fucking desktop?
Sure, if you're only using a comp for iTunes and Facebook.
If you're actually doing WORK, the desktop as a visual metaphor is indeed stupid. But it makes a fantastic "in box" to for all the shit you need to do before sending the files off elsewhere.
Much easier to access than fucking around through menus in a dialog box to save a file to "My Vacation Photos, Edited Version." etc.
I use EEEbuntu on my netbook.
Do you know of a distro with KDE desktop that has been optimized for netbooks? If dropping features I use isn't enough reason to dump software, arrogant designers make up for that and give me more than enough reason.
I hate that kind of shit. Firefox morons dropping the status bar in 4.0, etc.
Ok fine then. Other than web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, photo editing, video editing, Tweetdeck, gaming, and a few other categories, there's really no reason anyone needs their app maximized.
Everyone knows that all comps are really good for is instant messaging anyway.
Ya know what would be REALLY bold? Replace the keyboard.
A radical departure would be a wall hanging with little pictures on it. Now, the unimaginitive would likely want the pictures to represent actions and things a computer would do. NO. That's too microsoft. A BOLD wall-hanging device would use pictures that DON'T correspond to actions. Like, a cartoon of a dog is what you hit to delete files.
But here's the fun part - there are TWO pictures of dogs, both hidden behind blank tiles. When you uncover one, it shows the dog for a few seconds and then goes blank. You have to remember where that is and then find the SECOND dog to complete the action.
I know what you're thinking- "That's not innovative, I've played that game before!" oh no, not THIS bold game you haven't. THIS one changes the position of all of the pictures under the blank tiles every time you open one. So you CAN'T memorize where the 1st dog was to find the second one.
Plus you can't use fingers. Nope. You use BEANBAGS. A sensor makes sure you're at least ten feet from the control, and you have to peg the tiles in the right order, throwing blindly, to complete the action. And these are not just ANY beanbags, they're special RFID beanbags. Don't lose any, though, they are expensive and demand is outstripping production so the wait for replacements is about 6 months.
Studies have shown that people LOVE bean bag toss games. This will make the computer using experience MUCH more enjoyable.
We also have a contract with Adobe. They have hired us to make Photoshop more user friendly. Currently we're looking at the bold move of replacing the entire Photoshop paradigm with something entirely different. The final decision hasn't been made. but the current favorite concept is to replace the entire Photoshop Suite with MKV files of Underdog cartoons. (MKV, not AVI. MKV is more fresh and innovative!)
Our internal studies show people in an office would rather watch Underdog than do photo editing anyway.
So what you're saying is that the trend is going from "this works well for my needs" to "ooooh! Shiny!!"
I hardly see this as a good thing.
I've just invented a new bread machine. You know those old ones, that used a metal flipper paddle to roll and knead bread?
They look so pedestrian, definitely not cool anymore. And a FLIPPER for making bread? Decidedly unsexy.
My new bread machine has the latest in high tech styling. SERIOUSLY hi-tech - no buttons whatsoever, just like the iPhone.
(There will also be a limited edition $10000 Steampunk version, looks like Jules Vernes' bread machine)
NO BUTTONS. Why no buttons? It's all touch sensitive. Touch the machine anywhere and it works - control is THAT SIMPLE. One touch and it does everything.
Everything being of course that it lights up a light which says "knead bread."
No more stupid looking little padles rolling a ball of dough around. Studies I have conducted of 5 six-year olds show that they LOVE to knead play-doh. And my grandma says the movement is good for her arthritis. Clearly hand-kneading dough a is a much more enjoyable experience and reduces stress.
So when my machine is touched, it says "knead dough," which you then do by hand on your counter. Later, in case you forget to put the dough in a pan and bake the bread in your oven, the display on my machine changes to say "Hey did you remember to bake your bread?"
VERY user friendly!
I have studied the law, and I personally have examined over 250,000 trademark applications. But other than that I guess I dunno shit.
I was talking about what the law, when drafted, intended. You're talking about the current state of belief of those benefiting from use of the law and abuse of the law. It's not surprising that someone "working in the industry" would view the distortions as the way things are supposed to be, a lot like how copyright has been distorted out of all meaning, and patents to a somewhat lesser degree.
Trademarks to WHAT?
Did Tolkein sell a line of buttons also so that this is likely to cause confusion in the minds of consumers who thought they were buying a genuine Tolkein button when in fact they aren't?
I mean, that was after all the reason and justification for ALLOWING trademarks (notice I said allowing not recognizing. This is not a right being recognized by law, it is a privilege granted by law given certain provisos)
Trademarks are supposed to be limited to a type of industry. That's why Apple Computers and Apple Records and Apple Rubber Company can co-exist and it was only when Apple Computer got into the music business that Apple Records had any complaints.
Seriously. The guy wrote books, and therefore his estate should be allowed a blanket trademark on ANYTHING bearing the name Tolkein? Even cultural references? No, that's nonsense.
And it's also nonsense that the law requires them to complain. The law requires them to complain about INFRINGEMENT, meaning someone selling a competing product using their TM or passing something off as made by them OR liable to cause confusion. NOT anything that simply MENTIONS the name.
It used to be a tradition in the US middle class (and if not a tradition achieved, at least a tradition aspired to...) to buy a new car every year. Later it got to be maybe 18 months.
I knew a guy in the 1970s who worked as a part time school guidance counselor, and moonlighted doing accounting at a gas station, so just middle class.
He bought a new Lincoln Continental every year - in a custom color. GAVE AWAY his one-year old car to a friend or relative each year.
One year his chosen custom color, gold, suddenly became a standard color and so he had to give his away and get a new one.
Friends thought he was only very slightly tending to buy new cars quickly... nothing major.
For most people the only odd thing was giving the old car away - most traded in for a new car every year.
New features aren't needed?
Are you freaking KIDDING ME?!?!?!
How the hell do you expect me to get anything worthwhile done if I have to go back to using a PC where the open windows' title bars aren't even transparent, let alone slowly shimmering!!!
The place where I worked opened a day care center right in the front of the building for children of employees.
They built a playground in part of where the parking lot used to be, in front of the entrance.
They also had picnic tables for employees who didn;t want to be ramped in the depressing cafeterias during lunch on nice days.
I like kids. I have 6 nieces and a nephew, had a large part in raising my eldest niece, and what it more pleasant and stress reducing than watching a playground full of happy kids? I should add here that I worked for - A TOY COMPANY.
We made toys, we needed to understand kids, we made products for them, needed to see how they interacted with them. And it would be pretty good if you're working at making kids' toys that you - ya'know, kinda LIKE kids, care about them, understand them, be able to see through their eyes, etc. All of that. Would be hard to work for a toy company and not have an understanding of kids.
So I sat out there one day at a picnic table eating my lunch, looking around, sometimes watching the kids play. I was maybe 26 and was also hoping to be a dad someday, I think I would have made a good dad.
The looks I got from people - that was enough, I never went outside for lunch by myself ever again.
For fuck's sake, I was an employee of a toy company on lunch break, and people gave me strange looks for watching the other employee's kids play in the company playground.
There's something wrong when a male of child-rearing age cannot even say "I like kids" without that coming across as creepy to a lot of people.
You mean, like the metal calcium?
Check your periodic table. It IS a metal.
Their hardware is good, but their drivers suck.