For the most part, China does a good job at funneling tourists and foreigners into certain areas. I haven't been to Russia, but after visiting China I can tell you that you'll be shut out of most areas simply because you look differently, ESPECIALLY if you can't speak the language/local dialect. I've been to shopping areas in the Beijing area where mini-mall sized areas sold bootleg/pirated movies, software, music and hacked video game consoles with uniformed police officers standing around these kiosks openly.
I think the parent is trying to say that, in comparison to Microsoft or Sony, Nintendo is fairly small.
Bill Gates PERSONALLY is worth in the billions of dollars. $7 billion for Microsoft is pennies, the only reason they don't outright buy Nintendo is because they're resist to the death or every major/important/notable developer/musician/designer/artist would outright leave.
Sony is also relatively large, they're in the TV business, laptops, media center industry, Walkman/CD players/mp3 players industry, digital cameras and of course theres their influence in the music industry (as seenen in their DRM efforts).
Nintendo has... the video game industry. This is basicly a David vs. Goliath fight. Nintendo can win, but only if they pick their fights wisely.
They did this because their fathers told them that the Americans had treated them very well as POWs in WWI.
Actually thats because EVERYONE within the German empire or its influence knew that the German army had been committing genocide within Russia, civilian and military alike, ON TOP OF the usual invading, killing and destroying homes. By the time the Americans were invading via Italy and France, the Russians were coming for blood. Finding the concentration camps just made things worse.
Don't forget, the U.S. was (actively) involved in WWI for less than two years. If you talk to some military historians, some would say the U.S. didn't need to actively enter the war at all. (Russia surrenders, the U.S. does NOT enter the war, the Germans launch a massive attack on France with troops previously on the Russian front, Paris is spared from much damage from the French and German unwillingness to fire/fight on/within the city, however victory is unachieved due to horrible German morale at home, a British led counter-attack cuts off supplies and reinforcements via the north and the war ends deeper on French soil when the German High Command realizes all is lost and does not want to see the war reach German soil.)
Encyclopaedias do not have comprehensive, up-to-date coverage on current political issues, which is what Wikipedia tries to provide. In this it's comparable to the mainstream media, with political analysts and the politicians themselves sounding off on TV and in the papers. You can't tell me that's "stating raw facts and ignoring political slants"!
Except encyclopedias aren't supposed to get involved in 'current political issues', they're supposed to state facts as unbias as possible, which is the problem. Encyclopedias are supposed to be sources of fact not political agendas. Thats also the problem with mainstream media today, they're so focuses on bashing the President, they ignore issues like the current status of the Department of Homeland Security (which is still undermanned), the current status of New Orleans and other areas hit by Hurricane Katryna (not good), the lack of action by the government to punish executives who secure retirement packages for themselves at the expense of pensions previously secured over decades for workers and the current state of affairs in Afghanistan (remember them?).
Therein lies the flaw of a real time, constantly updating system fueled by the masses. Give people too little time to think things through and you're guaranteed a bias, slanted personal agenda point of view. Encyclopedias aren't perfect either, but at least they give themselves a nearly a YEAR to think things through before committing themselves to a stance, if not stick with raw facts and simply be accused of being incomplete. (In which case they fall back on the infallible argument of "we're waiting to see how things turn out").
Multiple this by millions of Wikipedia readers/editors/contributors and it turns into an academia joke. Theres too much data to simply sift through and make sure all the sources and data is correct. Do it via a small group and it'd take years to complete. Do it via a large group and people would argue and debate over the selection for years. Do it using any method that doesn't specifically and individually go over each topic and each subsequent change and that sparks debate and argument as well. Etc, etc, etc. The first encyclopedia wasn't written over a mere several years you know.
Sega and Nintendo were arguably justified in their 'quality assurance' policies especially in the NES and Sega Master System days simply because there was too much crap being published by companies. Don't forget, back then a team of one could put out a game every 2 months. It would be a total piece of crap, with no gameplay, insulting graphics and be nothing more than a waste of plastic and silicon, but it was a game that took up shelf space.
These days however, Sony seems to have this crazy 'if its 2-D, people won't buy it' mentality. Don't forget Katamari Damacy was initially released in limited number in the U.S. because Sony thought it would flop (course this simply resulted in a shortage and the eventual creation of a sequel). Microsoft and the Xbox as well as Nintendo and the Gamecube don't follow this mentality as the large number of 'Atari Collection Games' and 'Sega Smash Packs' will attest to, not to mention Nintendo's 'simple is good' gaming mantra.
You can basicly boil any of those descriptions down to:
Most up-to-date computer (aka, the most tech savvy person in the house's) Two year old computer sitting in the 'office room' (aka, the backup server) Four year old computer sitting in the 'storage room' (aka, the 'turn on in the event of an emergency' computer) The five-plus year old computer 'enshrined' in the basement as a miniature table (aka, the computer Goodwill wouldn't take)
Says who? You? Great. Got any sources to back you up? If you don't then you've just proven the unlying argument against Wikipedia, information that cannot be accurately backed up either by other sources or a credible/liable/reputable reporter/poster/scientist is not worthy of being taken seriously. Multiply this by millions of different entries in Wikipedia and Wikipedia is just another example of how the internet succeeds/fails. Its free speech in its purest form, you've got geniuses, experts and educated intellectuals standing talking besides racists, uneducated adults and anarchists.
If you DO have sources, then why are entries such as George W. Bush's 'protected'? If the overall balance of 'good' will outweigh 'bad', why the need to lock these entries? Political agendas would logically cancel one another out by simply stating raw facts and ignoring political slants. Bush failed during Hurricane Katryna, true FEMA's director which Bush appointed was inadequate. Bush failed in uniting the nation post-9/11, false his approval ratings nearly reached as high as 90% approval in some polls. Bush failed to 'win' the Iraq War, to be determined.
And if your name is George W. Bush, the creator of Wikipedia locks the topic because it turns into a flame war as people flood the servers trying to keep up/take down the 'chicken fucker' statement.
If you try to "gang up" on it, odds are very good that at the very least you will be herded into a cage at gunpoint.
God bless the right to bear arms. Most people can't own RPGs, tanks or Apache attack helicopters, but two or three raids against military armories and the U.S.A. turns into Belgium circa 1944.
Or we could simply go back to maintaining state militias, thats legal. Or we arm every man, woman and (legally acceptable) child with a firearm and stockpile ammo in our basements, thats legal. Or the majority of us can take high school physics and chemistry classes so we can learn how to build homemade bombs.
Arming yourself is a joke in the modern world. If people have the time and effort to slam the government with news and information, people have time to arm themselves properly for a worst case scenario.
Anybody who thinks Wikipedia is a perfectly reliable source of unbiased information is an idiot.
And yet this one of the most commonly accepted beliefs regarding Wikipedia. Some people on Slashdot alone have gone so far as to claim that Wikipedia is public domain and have gotten modded up for it.
Its no longer about whether or not the government can control the information, its now a matter of whos controlling the spread of disinformation. If 'anyone can edit' entries, who's monitoring the monitors? At least with the government its this big huge target we can all see and gang up against. With Wikipedia, we're staring at a bunch of easily masked IP addresses, false user ID info and the complete anonymity (for anyone determined) of the internet. I'd take the lesser of two evils and stick with the big, mean, elitist, capitalist run governments.
For the record he didnt say mod he said make a game and publish and distrobute it. Those guys with the GTA mod dont count they didnt even make it right.
Actually, if you read up on it, the only reason why it failed that condition was because Jack Thompson came out and backed out on the promise after the dev team announced they were going to contact Rockstar for permission to publish and distribute it (presumably using an online model, a la Steam). Given a month or two (and with the OK and a license from Rockstar) then the game would've gone retail.
"The torture was to end with the shooting of Thompson, as in this teen's favorite games."
Whoa! Theres a game where you can shoot Jack Thompson? Why was I not told of this!?/sarcasm
"'Shoot the messenger' is the video game industry's strategy,"
"Shoot the messenger"? Jack Thompson isn't a messenger, hes the guy trying to burn down the castle. (Undermining the ESRB and backing out of a $10,000 donation to a charity if someone makes him a mod to his specifications is not going to win you any friends in the industry.)
Is it just me or are his claims getting more outrageous as time goes by?
Or became less common. Generally dragons have simply gotten less common, less used or became extremely high end monsters. Lately dragons have become to the new 'uber' monster that generally requires large numbers of players, are located in the far corners of the world and always have the best stuff.
Older video game RPGs simply overused dragons. (The Dragon Warrior/Quest and Final Fantasy series being some of the biggest offenders.) In paper-and-pencil RPGs (such as D&D), dragons were never meant to be common, or even rare. Dragons were meant to be some ultra-rare, near impossible to beat, usually only appearing during storyline related moments monster.
Really, was Neil Diamond's latest really destined for anything more than 1 week in the top 10?
Maybe not Neil Diamond, but generally products (or in this case, music) released just before the Thanksgiving/Christmas season tend to maintain high sales until the end of the season. To go from the top 10 to mid-50s is a huge drop considering decreases in sales are generally in gradual. Say 5 to 9 to 15 to 25 and so on. Not 10 (the lowest possible start point) to 25 ("mid 50's").
Is the intro to Wind Waker really about Ocarina of Time?
No, Wind Waker is really about Majora's Mask and (eventually) Twilight Princess. MM doesn't even take in Hyrule (and yes, this means no Zelda, no Triforce, no Ganon), so the intro to Wind Waker saying 'the hero left the land' (or something similiar) is true. And the Hero of Time not returning? Thats because he dies (according to this theory) and thus never returns home to 'save the day' again. Someone casts a 'flood the world' spell to stop Ganon from capturing the Master Sword, and fast forward several hundred/thousand years and you have Wind Waker. (Humanity survives and regrows, the Ruto race evolves into existance/appears in prominance due to superior mobility between islands, the Master Sword and the Triforce are lost due to the sheer depth of the water.)
Actually, in Zelda 64: Majora's Mask it was HEAVILY implied that it was a direct sequel to Zelda 64:OoT complete with the same Link. Rewatch the ending and imagine Zelda sends Link on a mission to find 'someone' and cue Zelda 64:MM. It fits in perfectly since history was changed yet Link still visits Zelda. And then theres the fact that Epona, the Gorons, Zoras and Dekus race all reappear.
if there is increasing militarism, could it be the result of decades of seeds planted by KGB/CIA competition? How would one know?
North Korea is threatening South Korea, again, militarily with nuclear weapons. The KGB/CIA had little to do with the Korean War, nor the subseqent situation. We know because the KGB was never heavily involved in the Korean War (it was mostly the Chinese) and the CIA was never heavily focused in Asia until the late '60s during the Vietnam War.
You're just trying to pass the blame on whoever is in power now. Last time the U.S. got the fuck out of a major conflict after it ended, a second one started and now every historian bitches about how it could have been prevented if the U.S. had stayed in. (World War II with the League of Nations)
Oh and way to ignore my statement with the genecide in Darfur. Militarism lives even without the interference of the U.S. (Cause the U.S. is too busy uprooting Iraqis citizens)
Slow out the gate? Wtf? Slow out the gate is having your console selling game released 6 months AFTER the system is released. Having a PS2 port come out a YEAR after the system is released is trying to breath life into the dead.
Sony just plain mismanaged the PSP. The movies offer little that DVDs don't outmatch, let alone the bonuses. The games are few, far and are often times nothing more than ports. Online capabilities is a joke, and trying to stop the PSP hackers has more or less alienated the PSP as a portable hackable Xbox.
In Africa, in the Darfur region, genecide is being committed against the people by militia groups supported by the government. The U.N. refuses to take action in this region, instead spending its time yelling at the U.S. over something thats already been done. Oh, and China veto's any resolution that would endanger the oil in that area. And obviously regional countries won't do a thing on account of lacking military power/political unity/afraid of being seen as an aggressor.
In India and Pakistan, the two countries (continue) to point nuclear weapons at one another while having troops stand out in the desert pointing guns at each other, a la Cold War. Border conflicts constantly plague the civilians in the area, and only recently, due to the earthquake, is development and aid being sent to the mountainous region.
China and North Korea continue (as usual) to censor the press/media/internet.
France recently had the street riots, so its in no moral position to tell the U.S. not to oppress Muslims.
Britain is frying Tony Blair for supporting the U.S. in the Iraq war/invasion, and a while ago there was talk about him possibly recieving a vote of no confidence.
Russia's (and for the most part, the rest of the former East Bloc) economy is still in shambles.
South Africa continues to be a mess ever since the minority, rich white elites returned power to the majority black Africans. Countries such as the Congo and Somalia continue to fight internal wars.
Need I go on? Saying that countries should focus on their own problems before international problems, and then singling out the U.S. is extremely ignorant.
Some people who have only driven automatic cars can't even figure out how to drive a stick shift car, let alone something more alien such as a boat or a tank. Or something vastly more complicated such as an aircraft. Heck, the idea of driving a motorcycle scares some people.
Computer systems are scary, complicated, cumbersome devices compared to devices of the past.
Call me an idealist, call me a purist, but if we rewarded technology for the sake of technology, not for how many people it can accurately kill, then maybe people wouldn't want to attack the U.S.
Whoa whoa whoa, slow down here... Are you saying that if all countries ceased military research, development and maintenance we would magically end all warfare? What a great idea! You put down your weapons first. Don't worry, I'll be right behind you.
as well as (and not just) a moral compass, then do you think that country would be the target of attacks?
Last time I checked it wasn't morally correct to LEGALLY degrade women. (More or less all of the Middle East) Or to censor the freedom of speech. (China) Or to kill someone based on ethnicity. (Darfur) The list goes on, and yet the list of non-benevolent countries (besides the U.S.) fails to shrink.
if enough gamers ask for the feature, Big S will add text capabilities to the existing streaming audio enclosure functionality. Way to go Sony, but why the heck not just do it anyway?
Lets see:
1. They'll add text capabilities for the audio enclosure. This is not 'full-fledged RSS support'. 2. Why now? Why wait until hackers cracked their firmware in no less than 3 major instances AND after their huge DRM fiasco. This just says 'we need to rebuild our street cred.' 3. Fans had to 'beg' for Sony to CONSIDER allowing limited RSS support. Last time I checked, I didn't have to 'beg' Ford for permission to install a new sound system into my car.
This is just Sony throwing one life preserver to a thousands of drowning people. Limited support is crap and everyone knows it, after the DRM fiasco no one is gonna trust a Sony audio related product and be honest here. Only the most hardcore fans 'begs' a company for anything. You have to sink pretty low to cause someone to use that kind of language.
Slashdot Mirror
For the most part, China does a good job at funneling tourists and foreigners into certain areas. I haven't been to Russia, but after visiting China I can tell you that you'll be shut out of most areas simply because you look differently, ESPECIALLY if you can't speak the language/local dialect. I've been to shopping areas in the Beijing area where mini-mall sized areas sold bootleg/pirated movies, software, music and hacked video game consoles with uniformed police officers standing around these kiosks openly.
Bill Gates PERSONALLY is worth in the billions of dollars. $7 billion for Microsoft is pennies, the only reason they don't outright buy Nintendo is because they're resist to the death or every major/important/notable developer/musician/designer/artist would outright leave.
Sony is also relatively large, they're in the TV business, laptops, media center industry, Walkman/CD players/mp3 players industry, digital cameras and of course theres their influence in the music industry (as seenen in their DRM efforts).
Nintendo has... the video game industry. This is basicly a David vs. Goliath fight. Nintendo can win, but only if they pick their fights wisely.
Actually thats because EVERYONE within the German empire or its influence knew that the German army had been committing genocide within Russia, civilian and military alike, ON TOP OF the usual invading, killing and destroying homes. By the time the Americans were invading via Italy and France, the Russians were coming for blood. Finding the concentration camps just made things worse.
Don't forget, the U.S. was (actively) involved in WWI for less than two years. If you talk to some military historians, some would say the U.S. didn't need to actively enter the war at all. (Russia surrenders, the U.S. does NOT enter the war, the Germans launch a massive attack on France with troops previously on the Russian front, Paris is spared from much damage from the French and German unwillingness to fire/fight on/within the city, however victory is unachieved due to horrible German morale at home, a British led counter-attack cuts off supplies and reinforcements via the north and the war ends deeper on French soil when the German High Command realizes all is lost and does not want to see the war reach German soil.)
Except encyclopedias aren't supposed to get involved in 'current political issues', they're supposed to state facts as unbias as possible, which is the problem. Encyclopedias are supposed to be sources of fact not political agendas. Thats also the problem with mainstream media today, they're so focuses on bashing the President, they ignore issues like the current status of the Department of Homeland Security (which is still undermanned), the current status of New Orleans and other areas hit by Hurricane Katryna (not good), the lack of action by the government to punish executives who secure retirement packages for themselves at the expense of pensions previously secured over decades for workers and the current state of affairs in Afghanistan (remember them?).
Therein lies the flaw of a real time, constantly updating system fueled by the masses. Give people too little time to think things through and you're guaranteed a bias, slanted personal agenda point of view. Encyclopedias aren't perfect either, but at least they give themselves a nearly a YEAR to think things through before committing themselves to a stance, if not stick with raw facts and simply be accused of being incomplete. (In which case they fall back on the infallible argument of "we're waiting to see how things turn out").
Multiple this by millions of Wikipedia readers/editors/contributors and it turns into an academia joke. Theres too much data to simply sift through and make sure all the sources and data is correct. Do it via a small group and it'd take years to complete. Do it via a large group and people would argue and debate over the selection for years. Do it using any method that doesn't specifically and individually go over each topic and each subsequent change and that sparks debate and argument as well. Etc, etc, etc. The first encyclopedia wasn't written over a mere several years you know.
These days however, Sony seems to have this crazy 'if its 2-D, people won't buy it' mentality. Don't forget Katamari Damacy was initially released in limited number in the U.S. because Sony thought it would flop (course this simply resulted in a shortage and the eventual creation of a sequel). Microsoft and the Xbox as well as Nintendo and the Gamecube don't follow this mentality as the large number of 'Atari Collection Games' and 'Sega Smash Packs' will attest to, not to mention Nintendo's 'simple is good' gaming mantra.
Most up-to-date computer (aka, the most tech savvy person in the house's)
Two year old computer sitting in the 'office room' (aka, the backup server)
Four year old computer sitting in the 'storage room' (aka, the 'turn on in the event of an emergency' computer)
The five-plus year old computer 'enshrined' in the basement as a miniature table (aka, the computer Goodwill wouldn't take)
Says who? You? Great. Got any sources to back you up? If you don't then you've just proven the unlying argument against Wikipedia, information that cannot be accurately backed up either by other sources or a credible/liable/reputable reporter/poster/scientist is not worthy of being taken seriously. Multiply this by millions of different entries in Wikipedia and Wikipedia is just another example of how the internet succeeds/fails. Its free speech in its purest form, you've got geniuses, experts and educated intellectuals standing talking besides racists, uneducated adults and anarchists.
If you DO have sources, then why are entries such as George W. Bush's 'protected'? If the overall balance of 'good' will outweigh 'bad', why the need to lock these entries? Political agendas would logically cancel one another out by simply stating raw facts and ignoring political slants. Bush failed during Hurricane Katryna, true FEMA's director which Bush appointed was inadequate. Bush failed in uniting the nation post-9/11, false his approval ratings nearly reached as high as 90% approval in some polls. Bush failed to 'win' the Iraq War, to be determined.
And if your name is George W. Bush, the creator of Wikipedia locks the topic because it turns into a flame war as people flood the servers trying to keep up/take down the 'chicken fucker' statement.
If you try to "gang up" on it, odds are very good that at the very least you will be herded into a cage at gunpoint.
God bless the right to bear arms. Most people can't own RPGs, tanks or Apache attack helicopters, but two or three raids against military armories and the U.S.A. turns into Belgium circa 1944.
Or we could simply go back to maintaining state militias, thats legal.
Or we arm every man, woman and (legally acceptable) child with a firearm and stockpile ammo in our basements, thats legal.
Or the majority of us can take high school physics and chemistry classes so we can learn how to build homemade bombs.
Arming yourself is a joke in the modern world. If people have the time and effort to slam the government with news and information, people have time to arm themselves properly for a worst case scenario.
And yet this one of the most commonly accepted beliefs regarding Wikipedia. Some people on Slashdot alone have gone so far as to claim that Wikipedia is public domain and have gotten modded up for it.
Its no longer about whether or not the government can control the information, its now a matter of whos controlling the spread of disinformation. If 'anyone can edit' entries, who's monitoring the monitors? At least with the government its this big huge target we can all see and gang up against. With Wikipedia, we're staring at a bunch of easily masked IP addresses, false user ID info and the complete anonymity (for anyone determined) of the internet. I'd take the lesser of two evils and stick with the big, mean, elitist, capitalist run governments.
Actually, if you read up on it, the only reason why it failed that condition was because Jack Thompson came out and backed out on the promise after the dev team announced they were going to contact Rockstar for permission to publish and distribute it (presumably using an online model, a la Steam). Given a month or two (and with the OK and a license from Rockstar) then the game would've gone retail.
Whoa! Theres a game where you can shoot Jack Thompson? Why was I not told of this!? /sarcasm
"'Shoot the messenger' is the video game industry's strategy,"
"Shoot the messenger"? Jack Thompson isn't a messenger, hes the guy trying to burn down the castle. (Undermining the ESRB and backing out of a $10,000 donation to a charity if someone makes him a mod to his specifications is not going to win you any friends in the industry.)
Is it just me or are his claims getting more outrageous as time goes by?
I stopped reading after that.
A graphical updated version of a 4 year old mod (Beta 1 came out January 2001) is 'arguably the best multiplayer World War II shooter around'? Wth?
Older video game RPGs simply overused dragons. (The Dragon Warrior/Quest and Final Fantasy series being some of the biggest offenders.) In paper-and-pencil RPGs (such as D&D), dragons were never meant to be common, or even rare. Dragons were meant to be some ultra-rare, near impossible to beat, usually only appearing during storyline related moments monster.
Maybe not Neil Diamond, but generally products (or in this case, music) released just before the Thanksgiving/Christmas season tend to maintain high sales until the end of the season. To go from the top 10 to mid-50s is a huge drop considering decreases in sales are generally in gradual. Say 5 to 9 to 15 to 25 and so on. Not 10 (the lowest possible start point) to 25 ("mid 50's").
No, Wind Waker is really about Majora's Mask and (eventually) Twilight Princess. MM doesn't even take in Hyrule (and yes, this means no Zelda, no Triforce, no Ganon), so the intro to Wind Waker saying 'the hero left the land' (or something similiar) is true. And the Hero of Time not returning? Thats because he dies (according to this theory) and thus never returns home to 'save the day' again. Someone casts a 'flood the world' spell to stop Ganon from capturing the Master Sword, and fast forward several hundred/thousand years and you have Wind Waker. (Humanity survives and regrows, the Ruto race evolves into existance/appears in prominance due to superior mobility between islands, the Master Sword and the Triforce are lost due to the sheer depth of the water.)
Actually, in Zelda 64: Majora's Mask it was HEAVILY implied that it was a direct sequel to Zelda 64:OoT complete with the same Link. Rewatch the ending and imagine Zelda sends Link on a mission to find 'someone' and cue Zelda 64:MM. It fits in perfectly since history was changed yet Link still visits Zelda. And then theres the fact that Epona, the Gorons, Zoras and Dekus race all reappear.
I'm pretty sure someone is checking the lists to make sure games like GTA:SA or Doom 3 aren't being donated.
North Korea is threatening South Korea, again, militarily with nuclear weapons. The KGB/CIA had little to do with the Korean War, nor the subseqent situation. We know because the KGB was never heavily involved in the Korean War (it was mostly the Chinese) and the CIA was never heavily focused in Asia until the late '60s during the Vietnam War.
You're just trying to pass the blame on whoever is in power now. Last time the U.S. got the fuck out of a major conflict after it ended, a second one started and now every historian bitches about how it could have been prevented if the U.S. had stayed in. (World War II with the League of Nations)
Oh and way to ignore my statement with the genecide in Darfur. Militarism lives even without the interference of the U.S. (Cause the U.S. is too busy uprooting Iraqis citizens)
Slow out the gate? Wtf? Slow out the gate is having your console selling game released 6 months AFTER the system is released. Having a PS2 port come out a YEAR after the system is released is trying to breath life into the dead.
Sony just plain mismanaged the PSP. The movies offer little that DVDs don't outmatch, let alone the bonuses. The games are few, far and are often times nothing more than ports. Online capabilities is a joke, and trying to stop the PSP hackers has more or less alienated the PSP as a portable hackable Xbox.
An overly large corporation with the media power to bring a government to its knees?
Or...
Anonymous Coward blogging whatever the hell he wants with the ability to 'disappear' from the government?
In Africa, in the Darfur region, genecide is being committed against the people by militia groups supported by the government. The U.N. refuses to take action in this region, instead spending its time yelling at the U.S. over something thats already been done. Oh, and China veto's any resolution that would endanger the oil in that area. And obviously regional countries won't do a thing on account of lacking military power/political unity/afraid of being seen as an aggressor.
In India and Pakistan, the two countries (continue) to point nuclear weapons at one another while having troops stand out in the desert pointing guns at each other, a la Cold War. Border conflicts constantly plague the civilians in the area, and only recently, due to the earthquake, is development and aid being sent to the mountainous region.
China and North Korea continue (as usual) to censor the press/media/internet.
France recently had the street riots, so its in no moral position to tell the U.S. not to oppress Muslims.
Britain is frying Tony Blair for supporting the U.S. in the Iraq war/invasion, and a while ago there was talk about him possibly recieving a vote of no confidence.
Russia's (and for the most part, the rest of the former East Bloc) economy is still in shambles.
South Africa continues to be a mess ever since the minority, rich white elites returned power to the majority black Africans. Countries such as the Congo and Somalia continue to fight internal wars.
Need I go on? Saying that countries should focus on their own problems before international problems, and then singling out the U.S. is extremely ignorant.
Computer systems are scary, complicated, cumbersome devices compared to devices of the past.
Whoa whoa whoa, slow down here... Are you saying that if all countries ceased military research, development and maintenance we would magically end all warfare? What a great idea! You put down your weapons first. Don't worry, I'll be right behind you.
as well as (and not just) a moral compass, then do you think that country would be the target of attacks?
Last time I checked it wasn't morally correct to LEGALLY degrade women. (More or less all of the Middle East) Or to censor the freedom of speech. (China) Or to kill someone based on ethnicity. (Darfur) The list goes on, and yet the list of non-benevolent countries (besides the U.S.) fails to shrink.
Lets see:
1. They'll add text capabilities for the audio enclosure. This is not 'full-fledged RSS support'.
2. Why now? Why wait until hackers cracked their firmware in no less than 3 major instances AND after their huge DRM fiasco. This just says 'we need to rebuild our street cred.'
3. Fans had to 'beg' for Sony to CONSIDER allowing limited RSS support. Last time I checked, I didn't have to 'beg' Ford for permission to install a new sound system into my car.
This is just Sony throwing one life preserver to a thousands of drowning people. Limited support is crap and everyone knows it, after the DRM fiasco no one is gonna trust a Sony audio related product and be honest here. Only the most hardcore fans 'begs' a company for anything. You have to sink pretty low to cause someone to use that kind of language.
Great... basicly they'll go from 'consider' to 'actually implement' if we sell our souls to them. I'll be over here playing my DS.