Not a huge fortune 500 computer company. Why WOULD you need an IT department for a train station? Sure if you're talking about Grand Central Station or some huge hub similar, but for most who cares? Most train stations have to skimp on seating, lighting, cleaning (trains in the U.S. are a pathetic sight compared to European or Japanese counterparts) and other much more important aspects over than hiring an IT professional to run a computer network thats probably smaller than one most/. readers have.
There's a weird disconnect in the West that says that, because the goal was social justice, we should overlook the "excesses" of Communism and not regard their crimes the way Naziism or Apartheid or the genocide in Rwanda is regarded. I think it's this willing amnesia that is at the heart of the problem--we can avoid the messy questions that someone in South Africa or Rwanda has to live with on a daily basis if we all pretend it was a gigantic comedy of errors or a period of simply unskillful government.
I'm not saying the U.S. is perfect when it comes to foreign affairs (far from it), but why is it that whenever theres an international crisis whether its genocide, terrorism or humanitarian crimes; why does everyone always yell at the U.S. or the 'West' for ignoring these actions? Why can't the 'East' such as Russia, Japan or China deal with these issues instead of bitching when the U.S. is SENT to deal with the issue (North Korea's nuclear weapons? India and Pakistan? Maybe stretch over and deal with Iran?)
I'm not the one who modded your post down but any heres my reply.
Obviously video games are not 'kids' toys' anymore if only because of the sheer amount of money they make. HOWEVER, the problem video games have is their image. Board games for example are a HUGE business. You may think after the 20th or 30th version of monopoly Milton Bradley would go out of business, but they don't. The same thing happens with Nintendo; you'd THINK they'd go out of business with their 'kiddie games' image but no, every year, every generation they teach their competitors on how to survive in the dog-eat-dog-then-feed-remains-to-vultures video game market.
What the video game industry suffers as a whole is the IMAGE of being aimed at children. Oh sure, theres press about GTA3/VC, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, maybe a couple commericals for some big name games, but for the most part movies DEMOLISH the video game industry when it comes to marketing and image. Sure people can identify Mario, the Master Chief or Link, but how many people do you know can identify or know about Luigi, Samus or the Fire Emblem series? Compared to movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Sean Connery, and Tom Hanks, and the video game industry is still an after-thought to the masses.
Just look at commercials for the iPod: you've got cool looking people, dancing to the beat of cool music, with a cool looking device. End result : "Its gotta be cool!" Can you image what a PSP commerical would be like? Maybe show a few clips of the PSP at work, zoom out and then show logo? Lame! People would just assume, "It's a handheld! It couldn't be as nice looking as in the commerical."
[We haven't decided] whether we will show the real machine, videos, or unveil the concept.... We want to receive some level of evaluation, but releasing too much information is also another issue. We don't have the slightest intention of making a machine that follows the same path as conventional game hardware. Right now, we are thinking of how we can accurately convey to people at E3 the different path that the Revolution will take and how it will change the way that games will be enjoyed."
In other words : 'We're gonna wait and see what Sony and Microsoft do and say before we do or say anything. So far we're waiting for some definative information on whats going on between the DS and the PSP as well. Finally, the days of the D-pad are gone. Look forward to new and innovative controllers in the next generation of video games.'
Or in a nutshell : 'We're playing it safe for now.'
People are willing to spend $250-400 on an iPod because its : A) looks cool, B) is cakewalk to use compared to other mp3 players and C) because you don't look like an idiot for staring at a 6 inch screen trying to select the right playlist. Compared to the PSP which : A) looks like the GBA (not SP) hence looks like a toy, B) plays video games (again childish) and C) plays movies? Whos gonna hold the screen upright to eyesight level for 90-120 minutes at a time? This isn't a portable DVD player where you can tilt the screen or a TV thats generally unmoved.
Right now, today, PC games are still blessed with much better graphics (HDTV consoles aren't here yet, are they?) and better interfaces for certain types of games (the mouse still rules the FPS and the RTS, for example. Has any console since the Dreamcast offered a mouse?)
There are HDTV capable consoles (Xbox and Gamecube) but you have to buy the HD plugs and obviously have a HDTV. Whether the keyboard/mouse combo is better for FPSs is debatable as well as based on personal preferance. Also the Playstation 1 has a mouse but it was used for like 2 games, an early showing of Sony's commitment to add-on parts (remember how the PS2 was supposed to connect to external Zip drives?)
... except that PC games are already doing better than HDTV resolution, so even HDTV won't `wipe out' the graphical superiority. If consoles want resolutions as high as PCs, they'll need to use PC monitors -- which may very well happen.
True, but this is more of a hardware and pricing problem over software and console designing. A top-of-the-line video card will cost at LEAST $300 if you bargain hunt/search online/etc, thats more than any console and thats not counting processor, RAM, etc. Unless you can convince Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft to build and support a $500+ to produce console (a low end pre-built ready to go Dell computer goes for around $600 so I'm being generous here), consoles will NEVER catch up to PC level graphics.
Not quite. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can write a PC game. But to write a console game, you need to get a development kit from the console maker, and pay them royalties on every game made.
True, but how many PC games do you think are 'copy-cat' games? And don't say Halo and Halo 2 are copy-cat games because then we can rule out every PC FPS excluding Doom, Half-Life and Unreal Tournament as 'copy-cat' FPS games. Gaming started on the PC, but gaming sure as hell left the crib.
As for consoles not getting RTSs is a matter of RTS games being TOO complex for the general gamer. Joe Average doesn't care about upgrading his troops (Warcraft), setting up ambushes (Starcraft), making aerial flanking manuevers (C&C:Generals), planning out a huge overall strategy that requires early planning (Rome Total War) or have to deal with individual units that cannot be easily sacrificed (Silent Storm). PC gaming is for people who love to twist and tweak every piece of software and hardware they can get their hands on (Gravity gun only with 1 life servers with custom skins, models, sounds, maps and HUD anyone?) Consoles eliminate all that and simplify it for the Joe Averages of the world.
According to your statistics, 1/4 of $3 billion revenue were for GTA. 1/4 of $3 billion is $750 million dollars. Assuming each copy was sold for $50 each, GTA sold 15 MILLION copies. The Final Fantasy SERIES from the original NES 1, to the most recent FFX-2 and FFXI expansion, sold more or less 25 million with FFXII soon to be released and FFXIII no doubt in development as well. Are you trying to tell me a series less than 10 years old is halfway towards outselling a series thats over 15 years old? Way to pull numbers out of your ass.
Terrorists have neither the ability nor the desire to destroy all life on this planet (as a full blown nuclear war would have). The Bush administration would like to make the case that terrorism is the gravest threat the US has ever faced, but it simply isn't.
Actually, terrorists are even WORSE than a full blown nuclear war. At least during the Cold War both sides were smart enough to realize 'if I nuke them, they'll nuke me' and therefore never did it. (Or 'if you shoot me, fuck it I'm gonna make sure we BOTH go down.')
In terrorism you have people who are training/telling/preaching that the western world, capitalism and democracy is this 'big bad evil' that soldiers of Allah must fight. Now its no longer the 'young teenage kids' who have to fight and die that people protest about, its all about the 7-13 year old kids who have to fight and die now. Why? Shock effect, 9 year old kids wielding AK-47s and RPGs? No way right? Media effect, American soldiers shooting bombladen children running towards their barracks? We have to pull out! The fact that the leadership doesn't give a shit about what happens to their people? Thats so immoral, that'd NEVER happen so all those news reports MUST be false!
If you watch/read any small/grassroots/extreme liberal news channel/newspaper, theres a LOT of crazy shit most Americans don't know about, let alone consider the existance of. Genocide? Yup, Baton Rouge. Biological weapons being used? Of course, Japan. Kidnapping? We've all heard the stories from South America. Roadside bombs? England had a couple a few years back by the Sinn Finn. The list goes on, terrorism is EVERYWHERE. You just don't hear about it because theres too damned much to report. That and not every terrorist in the world is willing to get interviewed or not put a 3/4 inch hole in a foreigner's head.
Anyone can make a High poly game that requires excessive processing power.
And yet no one else did it (UT2k4 wasn't too high-end and Half-Life 2 came afterwards). Its like making fun of the first guy to buy an automobile on the block. Everyone else who has a horse-and-buggy will laugh at the guy pointing out its flaws. 20 years in the future, everyone will be saying 'well I WOULD have done it sooner, I just didn't want to.'
The big picture doesn't always matter
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The Hundred-Buck PC
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Every one of your laundry list of things that people need, are either predicated on, or at the very least made much more efficient by: The efficient and timely flow of information. In other words, IT.
Actually when you get right down to it, you don't need computers to manage anything. Need clean water? Simply divert the river/dig a well(s)/or create an aquaduct if you need water over a large area. Vaccinations? Setup a few shops in the most populated areas and work your way out, quit trying to save everyone at the same time (since you obviously won't succeed). They certainly don't need education when 99% of their futures and full-time jobs will be along the lines of 'farmer'.
At an early stage of development you don't need huge storage rooms full of paperwork, you don't need 'accountability' either. What good is a government if the people aren't going to follow it? People aren't going to follow you either unless you do things down on the ground that they can see, understand and trust. Giving them computers and tell them that a demographic will let them dig a well for a region 6 months later, assuming things go 'according to plan', does not win trust.
When did it become the #1 fasting selling game?
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· Score: 2, Informative
They've sold 1.7 million units so far,
Um, Halo 2 sold over 1.4 million units since launch, on the larger audience console market, and with advertisement that rivaled movies. Where the HELL did you pull 1.7 million units for Half-Life 2 from? Final Fantasy 7 sold like over 4 million units TO DATE, and you're telling me a PC game is halfway to outdoing the most fan acclaimed RPG? Yeah, RIGHT.
(2) that such new copy or adaptation is for archival purposes only and that all archival copies are destroyed in the event that continued possession of the computer program should cease to be rightful
Try this analogy : If all newspaper and printed documents were under this same law, you would not be allowed to use any back up copy unless all original copies were destroyed. By that logic, we should be passing the original copy of the Declaration of Independence since we would not be allowed to use any copy of it as long as the original existed. Not very logical is it?
are not good ways of gauging a final product. A beta developer's DS? Whoopie, you do know that developer versions often come with flaws just because they haven't even decided on what color to paint it right? Hell just look at beta PC games, sometimes they don't even release the cover of the final product until a few weeks before launch and you expect companies to have the HARDWARE nailed down MONTHS before launch? You have to be pretty gullible to take your friend's word that quickly.
This is serious stuff because its a serious company. When the largest company in a certain area starts laying people off despite higher profits for the quarter, you have to start questioning them.
Either A) why didn't you fire them sooner if they're bad at their job(s)? (Most logical answer : Bad management, which means there needs to be shakedowns), B) why fire them when you can afford to keep them on payroll? (Most logical answer : They weren't satisfied by sales, corporate greed is at hand here) or C) why not just shuffle them around if they don't/didn't get along? (Most logical answer : It was a bad idea/design from the start and they needed a scapegoat(s).)
Anyway you look at it, layoffs during a good quarter ALWAYS means something is wrong with the company. Its simple corporate business logic. If these layoffs occured during a BAD quarter, they could justify it with trying to save money or something, but a GOOD quarter? Uh uh.
I agree with you, inmates in prison should spend their time reading books instead of watching TV, playing video games or spending way, way too much time lifting weights on sitting doing nothing in their cells. BUT, education isn't 100% the solution either. You'd be hard-pressed to find teachers willing to educate inmates (read : high paying salaries) and chances are most of them won't go along with the program (read : destroyed books and supplies). It COULD work but on a macro level (state or nationwide), it would just be seen as a waste of government money.
Sure it didn't. And when the NYSE revoked al-Jazeera's press credentials, that was also purely a business decision
Sure it was. When 99% of your clients are complaining about insanely bias news stories everyday and the other news stations are reporting other things, you begin to question the bias news station. If BBC suddenly started airing nothing but anti-Bush demonstrations, Iraqi anti-American riots and Cuban anti-torture gatherings you start to question whether BBC is really acting in the interest as a news station or if their just out to cash in on anti-American sentiments.
You wanna show a few images of dead Americans or anti-Bush riots? Fine, go ahead. You do it daily without focusing on other topics? You're not a news reporter anymore, your just an anti-American reporter out to cash in. The Middle East is a big region, don't try saying theres nothing else to report in the area.
If you want to attack a government, go attack China. They censor the internet. Freedom of press? North Korea censors the press, go yell at them. Torture prisoners? Go protest about Russian gulags. People who are bewildered as to why the world doesn't love them? Lets see, the Iraqis are hated by the Iranians and vice versa, North Korea and South Korea are still at each other's throats, England and the EU still argue over the Euro, Saudi Arabia keeps getting yelled at about terrorist training camps by the world, and everyone but the U.S. has a bone to pick with Israel. The U.S. isn't the only 'hated' country in the world. I didn't barely touched Asia (theres still Vietnam, India, Cambodia...) and I didn't even mention Africa (Somolia, South Africa, Congo...)
True but thats because of supply and demand. Every self-proclaimed Linux supporter hosts a Linux distro somehow, sometime, somway in the day/week/month because its easy and the files are generally small (unlike warezed PC games which have been breaking the 5000 megs mark recently).
Compared to mp3s, Divx rips or pr0n, which are generally transferred uncompressed (why do people host songs individually?) come in varying qualities, files names or different hosts making it impossible to tell if a file is a duplicate without actually downloading and checking it.
The end results are simple, you have trillions of pr0n, mp3 or divx rips all over the web, most of which are duplicates yet everyone is trying to download them all in fear of missing one or two 'gems' (hence the analogy : the internet is a pile of crap with a few gems hidden inside). While Linux distros, Windows updates and other legitmate/hardly downloaded software (ie. digital copies of books, their around but you don't hear any news reports about them) remain incredably low when it comes to download stats.
It is a $14 a month service for unlimited entertainment,
Holy shit! Where do I sign up for unlimited entertainment a month?!
Last time I checked, you still had to walk/ride a boat/fly to your destination, you still had to spend time doing menial quests only to recieve a shitty reward and no matter how many days I play without sleep theres always some asshole out there with better gear than me and will rub it in my face. My boss at work does that to me and I get PAID to do it. I'm sure as hell not going to PAY someone to give me shit.
Penny-Arcade doesn't force me to pay to read their comics so they can shovel all the crap they want onto me. Bring it on I say as long as you keep it FREE. They have crappy forums? Who cares, the only time I've supported them was when I got a Penny-Arcade T-shirt from a friend. What did you do to give you the right to compare them to a MMORPG running company? ALL MMORPG launch at a loss. Its the same way with car companies, medicine companies, government projects and many other INVESTMENTS. The idea is to make money AFTER you complete and release the fruits of your efforts.
Sony - 8 PS2's - 9 PSOnes btw. Libraries are ridiculous. Multiple copies of Everything - notable: MGS 1-3, Madden, FF 8-11. Titles I have never heard of, imports, the whole gamut. A linux PS2 Dev kit:-)
Yeah I can see it now...
"Hey lemme play MGS-whatever." "Screw you I was here first playing/staring at FF10-2." "Up yours, I'm gonna get my own PS2." "Go play on that messed up PS2 system, Bill said it runs Linux so its probably as stupid as you." (Fistfight breaks out)
The school is protecting themselves from possible litigation and some possible embarassment.
We're not talking about a huge city like New York City, San Francisco or Los Angeles where you can't say the word 'God' without offending 5 different religions. This is Puyallup, Washington. Not a large, metropolis where no one knows your name and no one cares enough to bother knowing your name. Just look at the article:
But the boys remind us that the district canceled Halloween celebrations because they were insensitive to the Wiccan religion.
No Halloween? What next? No Thanksgiving because it offends Native Americans? No Christmas cause Jews don't believe in Jesus? No New Year's vacation because the Chinese follow their own Lunar Calendar? Wiccan religion?! Comon! There are probably more Buddists in the city of LA than there are Wiccans in Washington state! Block the event on grounds of violence? Fine, but when you cancel a holiday just 3 months eariler, you're asking for trouble.
Why should the police change to more expensive, less effective ammo just because some guy gets shot accidently? In the U.S. people bitch, complain and demand legislation when some kid buys a M-rated game and becomes violent. But when thousands of people die from genocide, when chemical weapons are used or when building collapse on hundreds of people in a foreign country, we don't even make them footnotes in the foreign news sections of our newspapers.
If Americans are that ignorant, what makes you think poorer (unarguably), less moral (child labor?), less ethical (read the article) countries are going to care if one or two people die from a stray bullet?
Really now, do you want military-sized, wasteful, beurocratic budgets to spend time tracking down people who cheat in a video game?
Did we (American taxpayers) want a military-based, largely unnecessary computer game to be developed without us even being asked? For the most part, no we didn't want money being spend on America's Army. But since its already done, we might as well continue to support and work with it instead of just dropping it, bitching about the lost money and not getting anything productive out of the project.
Worst case scenario : Politicians claim the government is taking a pro-active stance against those who break EULAs. Lawyers make more money.
Best case scenario : Happy gamers equal happy citizens. Cheaters are offered fines/jail time/military service time making happy armed forces. Politicians claim the government has a strong presence on the internet with the ability to arrest people online. Lawyers make more money.
The question must be asked. Why don't more game developers reap the benefits of this technology?
Simple, because there are too many servers with nothing besides a CD-key authication system in between them all. Take Counter-Strike for example (PC version since the Xbox version would be different due to Xbox Live). There are thousands and thousands of different servers running different maps, with different mods (we've all seen low-grav/restricted weapons servers) with seemingly differently selected opponents. How are you supposed to track such a cluster of unorganized, uncoodinately, unrestricted servers fairly? Don't say you'll create a central system either cause that would basicly be a free Xbox Live system which no company would host due to bandwidth and data storage costs.
The problem is "reckless endangerment", "malicious mischief", and "interfering with an aircrew" are still broad charges. If I suddenly run out of the woods waving a flashlight at a car possibly causing the driver to panic and crash, is that "reckless endangerment"? Is writing the word 'anthrax' on a paper bag full of sugar and leaving it outside a retirement home "malicious mischief"? Does complaining so loudly that the flight crew onboard an airplane can hear me count as "interfering with an aircrew"?
Ultimately this comes down to the judge to decide, but at face value, yes this can count as "terrorism". If I did "reckless endangerment" to a truck full of explosive materials, you bet I'd get the book slammed at me. Bag of 'anthrax' outside a courthouse? Definately. Complaining on an airplane? Well, this is more grey but you get the idea.
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Not a huge fortune 500 computer company. Why WOULD you need an IT department for a train station? Sure if you're talking about Grand Central Station or some huge hub similar, but for most who cares? Most train stations have to skimp on seating, lighting, cleaning (trains in the U.S. are a pathetic sight compared to European or Japanese counterparts) and other much more important aspects over than hiring an IT professional to run a computer network thats probably smaller than one most /. readers have.
I'm not saying the U.S. is perfect when it comes to foreign affairs (far from it), but why is it that whenever theres an international crisis whether its genocide, terrorism or humanitarian crimes; why does everyone always yell at the U.S. or the 'West' for ignoring these actions? Why can't the 'East' such as Russia, Japan or China deal with these issues instead of bitching when the U.S. is SENT to deal with the issue (North Korea's nuclear weapons? India and Pakistan? Maybe stretch over and deal with Iran?)
Obviously video games are not 'kids' toys' anymore if only because of the sheer amount of money they make. HOWEVER, the problem video games have is their image. Board games for example are a HUGE business. You may think after the 20th or 30th version of monopoly Milton Bradley would go out of business, but they don't. The same thing happens with Nintendo; you'd THINK they'd go out of business with their 'kiddie games' image but no, every year, every generation they teach their competitors on how to survive in the dog-eat-dog-then-feed-remains-to-vultures video game market.
What the video game industry suffers as a whole is the IMAGE of being aimed at children. Oh sure, theres press about GTA3/VC, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, maybe a couple commericals for some big name games, but for the most part movies DEMOLISH the video game industry when it comes to marketing and image. Sure people can identify Mario, the Master Chief or Link, but how many people do you know can identify or know about Luigi, Samus or the Fire Emblem series? Compared to movie stars such as Marilyn Monroe, Sean Connery, and Tom Hanks, and the video game industry is still an after-thought to the masses.
Just look at commercials for the iPod: you've got cool looking people, dancing to the beat of cool music, with a cool looking device. End result : "Its gotta be cool!" Can you image what a PSP commerical would be like? Maybe show a few clips of the PSP at work, zoom out and then show logo? Lame! People would just assume, "It's a handheld! It couldn't be as nice looking as in the commerical."
In other words : 'We're gonna wait and see what Sony and Microsoft do and say before we do or say anything. So far we're waiting for some definative information on whats going on between the DS and the PSP as well. Finally, the days of the D-pad are gone. Look forward to new and innovative controllers in the next generation of video games.'
Or in a nutshell : 'We're playing it safe for now.'
People are willing to spend $250-400 on an iPod because its : A) looks cool, B) is cakewalk to use compared to other mp3 players and C) because you don't look like an idiot for staring at a 6 inch screen trying to select the right playlist. Compared to the PSP which : A) looks like the GBA (not SP) hence looks like a toy, B) plays video games (again childish) and C) plays movies? Whos gonna hold the screen upright to eyesight level for 90-120 minutes at a time? This isn't a portable DVD player where you can tilt the screen or a TV thats generally unmoved.
There are HDTV capable consoles (Xbox and Gamecube) but you have to buy the HD plugs and obviously have a HDTV. Whether the keyboard/mouse combo is better for FPSs is debatable as well as based on personal preferance. Also the Playstation 1 has a mouse but it was used for like 2 games, an early showing of Sony's commitment to add-on parts (remember how the PS2 was supposed to connect to external Zip drives?)
True, but this is more of a hardware and pricing problem over software and console designing. A top-of-the-line video card will cost at LEAST $300 if you bargain hunt/search online/etc, thats more than any console and thats not counting processor, RAM, etc. Unless you can convince Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft to build and support a $500+ to produce console (a low end pre-built ready to go Dell computer goes for around $600 so I'm being generous here), consoles will NEVER catch up to PC level graphics.
Not quite. Any Tom, Dick or Harry can write a PC game. But to write a console game, you need to get a development kit from the console maker, and pay them royalties on every game made.
True, but how many PC games do you think are 'copy-cat' games? And don't say Halo and Halo 2 are copy-cat games because then we can rule out every PC FPS excluding Doom, Half-Life and Unreal Tournament as 'copy-cat' FPS games. Gaming started on the PC, but gaming sure as hell left the crib.
As for consoles not getting RTSs is a matter of RTS games being TOO complex for the general gamer. Joe Average doesn't care about upgrading his troops (Warcraft), setting up ambushes (Starcraft), making aerial flanking manuevers (C&C:Generals), planning out a huge overall strategy that requires early planning (Rome Total War) or have to deal with individual units that cannot be easily sacrificed (Silent Storm). PC gaming is for people who love to twist and tweak every piece of software and hardware they can get their hands on (Gravity gun only with 1 life servers with custom skins, models, sounds, maps and HUD anyone?) Consoles eliminate all that and simplify it for the Joe Averages of the world.
According to your statistics, 1/4 of $3 billion revenue were for GTA. 1/4 of $3 billion is $750 million dollars. Assuming each copy was sold for $50 each, GTA sold 15 MILLION copies. The Final Fantasy SERIES from the original NES 1, to the most recent FFX-2 and FFXI expansion, sold more or less 25 million with FFXII soon to be released and FFXIII no doubt in development as well. Are you trying to tell me a series less than 10 years old is halfway towards outselling a series thats over 15 years old? Way to pull numbers out of your ass.
Actually, terrorists are even WORSE than a full blown nuclear war. At least during the Cold War both sides were smart enough to realize 'if I nuke them, they'll nuke me' and therefore never did it. (Or 'if you shoot me, fuck it I'm gonna make sure we BOTH go down.')
In terrorism you have people who are training/telling/preaching that the western world, capitalism and democracy is this 'big bad evil' that soldiers of Allah must fight. Now its no longer the 'young teenage kids' who have to fight and die that people protest about, its all about the 7-13 year old kids who have to fight and die now. Why? Shock effect, 9 year old kids wielding AK-47s and RPGs? No way right? Media effect, American soldiers shooting bombladen children running towards their barracks? We have to pull out! The fact that the leadership doesn't give a shit about what happens to their people? Thats so immoral, that'd NEVER happen so all those news reports MUST be false!
If you watch/read any small/grassroots/extreme liberal news channel/newspaper, theres a LOT of crazy shit most Americans don't know about, let alone consider the existance of. Genocide? Yup, Baton Rouge. Biological weapons being used? Of course, Japan. Kidnapping? We've all heard the stories from South America. Roadside bombs? England had a couple a few years back by the Sinn Finn. The list goes on, terrorism is EVERYWHERE. You just don't hear about it because theres too damned much to report. That and not every terrorist in the world is willing to get interviewed or not put a 3/4 inch hole in a foreigner's head.
And yet no one else did it (UT2k4 wasn't too high-end and Half-Life 2 came afterwards). Its like making fun of the first guy to buy an automobile on the block. Everyone else who has a horse-and-buggy will laugh at the guy pointing out its flaws. 20 years in the future, everyone will be saying 'well I WOULD have done it sooner, I just didn't want to.'
Actually when you get right down to it, you don't need computers to manage anything. Need clean water? Simply divert the river/dig a well(s)/or create an aquaduct if you need water over a large area. Vaccinations? Setup a few shops in the most populated areas and work your way out, quit trying to save everyone at the same time (since you obviously won't succeed). They certainly don't need education when 99% of their futures and full-time jobs will be along the lines of 'farmer'.
At an early stage of development you don't need huge storage rooms full of paperwork, you don't need 'accountability' either. What good is a government if the people aren't going to follow it? People aren't going to follow you either unless you do things down on the ground that they can see, understand and trust. Giving them computers and tell them that a demographic will let them dig a well for a region 6 months later, assuming things go 'according to plan', does not win trust.
Um, Halo 2 sold over 1.4 million units since launch, on the larger audience console market, and with advertisement that rivaled movies. Where the HELL did you pull 1.7 million units for Half-Life 2 from? Final Fantasy 7 sold like over 4 million units TO DATE, and you're telling me a PC game is halfway to outdoing the most fan acclaimed RPG? Yeah, RIGHT.
Try this analogy : If all newspaper and printed documents were under this same law, you would not be allowed to use any back up copy unless all original copies were destroyed. By that logic, we should be passing the original copy of the Declaration of Independence since we would not be allowed to use any copy of it as long as the original existed. Not very logical is it?
are not good ways of gauging a final product. A beta developer's DS? Whoopie, you do know that developer versions often come with flaws just because they haven't even decided on what color to paint it right? Hell just look at beta PC games, sometimes they don't even release the cover of the final product until a few weeks before launch and you expect companies to have the HARDWARE nailed down MONTHS before launch? You have to be pretty gullible to take your friend's word that quickly.
Either A) why didn't you fire them sooner if they're bad at their job(s)? (Most logical answer : Bad management, which means there needs to be shakedowns), B) why fire them when you can afford to keep them on payroll? (Most logical answer : They weren't satisfied by sales, corporate greed is at hand here) or C) why not just shuffle them around if they don't/didn't get along? (Most logical answer : It was a bad idea/design from the start and they needed a scapegoat(s).)
Anyway you look at it, layoffs during a good quarter ALWAYS means something is wrong with the company. Its simple corporate business logic. If these layoffs occured during a BAD quarter, they could justify it with trying to save money or something, but a GOOD quarter? Uh uh.
I agree with you, inmates in prison should spend their time reading books instead of watching TV, playing video games or spending way, way too much time lifting weights on sitting doing nothing in their cells. BUT, education isn't 100% the solution either. You'd be hard-pressed to find teachers willing to educate inmates (read : high paying salaries) and chances are most of them won't go along with the program (read : destroyed books and supplies). It COULD work but on a macro level (state or nationwide), it would just be seen as a waste of government money.
Sure it was. When 99% of your clients are complaining about insanely bias news stories everyday and the other news stations are reporting other things, you begin to question the bias news station. If BBC suddenly started airing nothing but anti-Bush demonstrations, Iraqi anti-American riots and Cuban anti-torture gatherings you start to question whether BBC is really acting in the interest as a news station or if their just out to cash in on anti-American sentiments.
You wanna show a few images of dead Americans or anti-Bush riots? Fine, go ahead. You do it daily without focusing on other topics? You're not a news reporter anymore, your just an anti-American reporter out to cash in. The Middle East is a big region, don't try saying theres nothing else to report in the area.
If you want to attack a government, go attack China. They censor the internet. Freedom of press? North Korea censors the press, go yell at them. Torture prisoners? Go protest about Russian gulags. People who are bewildered as to why the world doesn't love them? Lets see, the Iraqis are hated by the Iranians and vice versa, North Korea and South Korea are still at each other's throats, England and the EU still argue over the Euro, Saudi Arabia keeps getting yelled at about terrorist training camps by the world, and everyone but the U.S. has a bone to pick with Israel. The U.S. isn't the only 'hated' country in the world. I didn't barely touched Asia (theres still Vietnam, India, Cambodia...) and I didn't even mention Africa (Somolia, South Africa, Congo...)
Compared to mp3s, Divx rips or pr0n, which are generally transferred uncompressed (why do people host songs individually?) come in varying qualities, files names or different hosts making it impossible to tell if a file is a duplicate without actually downloading and checking it.
The end results are simple, you have trillions of pr0n, mp3 or divx rips all over the web, most of which are duplicates yet everyone is trying to download them all in fear of missing one or two 'gems' (hence the analogy : the internet is a pile of crap with a few gems hidden inside). While Linux distros, Windows updates and other legitmate/hardly downloaded software (ie. digital copies of books, their around but you don't hear any news reports about them) remain incredably low when it comes to download stats.
Holy shit! Where do I sign up for unlimited entertainment a month?!
Last time I checked, you still had to walk/ride a boat/fly to your destination, you still had to spend time doing menial quests only to recieve a shitty reward and no matter how many days I play without sleep theres always some asshole out there with better gear than me and will rub it in my face. My boss at work does that to me and I get PAID to do it. I'm sure as hell not going to PAY someone to give me shit.
Penny-Arcade doesn't force me to pay to read their comics so they can shovel all the crap they want onto me. Bring it on I say as long as you keep it FREE. They have crappy forums? Who cares, the only time I've supported them was when I got a Penny-Arcade T-shirt from a friend. What did you do to give you the right to compare them to a MMORPG running company? ALL MMORPG launch at a loss. Its the same way with car companies, medicine companies, government projects and many other INVESTMENTS. The idea is to make money AFTER you complete and release the fruits of your efforts.
Yeah I can see it now...
"Hey lemme play MGS-whatever." "Screw you I was here first playing/staring at FF10-2." "Up yours, I'm gonna get my own PS2." "Go play on that messed up PS2 system, Bill said it runs Linux so its probably as stupid as you." (Fistfight breaks out)
We're not talking about a huge city like New York City, San Francisco or Los Angeles where you can't say the word 'God' without offending 5 different religions. This is Puyallup, Washington. Not a large, metropolis where no one knows your name and no one cares enough to bother knowing your name. Just look at the article :
But the boys remind us that the district canceled Halloween celebrations because they were insensitive to the Wiccan religion.
No Halloween? What next? No Thanksgiving because it offends Native Americans? No Christmas cause Jews don't believe in Jesus? No New Year's vacation because the Chinese follow their own Lunar Calendar? Wiccan religion?! Comon! There are probably more Buddists in the city of LA than there are Wiccans in Washington state! Block the event on grounds of violence? Fine, but when you cancel a holiday just 3 months eariler, you're asking for trouble.
And who is this 'us'? And what percentage do 'you' represent out of the millions of users who use Linux?
If Americans are that ignorant, what makes you think poorer (unarguably), less moral (child labor?), less ethical (read the article) countries are going to care if one or two people die from a stray bullet?
Did we (American taxpayers) want a military-based, largely unnecessary computer game to be developed without us even being asked? For the most part, no we didn't want money being spend on America's Army. But since its already done, we might as well continue to support and work with it instead of just dropping it, bitching about the lost money and not getting anything productive out of the project.
Worst case scenario : Politicians claim the government is taking a pro-active stance against those who break EULAs. Lawyers make more money.
Best case scenario : Happy gamers equal happy citizens. Cheaters are offered fines/jail time/military service time making happy armed forces. Politicians claim the government has a strong presence on the internet with the ability to arrest people online. Lawyers make more money.
Simple, because there are too many servers with nothing besides a CD-key authication system in between them all. Take Counter-Strike for example (PC version since the Xbox version would be different due to Xbox Live). There are thousands and thousands of different servers running different maps, with different mods (we've all seen low-grav/restricted weapons servers) with seemingly differently selected opponents. How are you supposed to track such a cluster of unorganized, uncoodinately, unrestricted servers fairly? Don't say you'll create a central system either cause that would basicly be a free Xbox Live system which no company would host due to bandwidth and data storage costs.
Ultimately this comes down to the judge to decide, but at face value, yes this can count as "terrorism". If I did "reckless endangerment" to a truck full of explosive materials, you bet I'd get the book slammed at me. Bag of 'anthrax' outside a courthouse? Definately. Complaining on an airplane? Well, this is more grey but you get the idea.