What's interesting and different about the 407 ETR though is that it is NOT owned OR operated by the government, but is owned and operated by a consortium of private companies.
This consortium consists of Spanish company Grupo Ferrovial and its subsidiary Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, SNC-Lavalin, and Capital d'Amerique CDPQ, a subsidiary of the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec. It was sold by the province of Ontario in 1999 to the tune of 3.107 billion dollars.
If they have rhythmic gymnastics, they should have professional dance. Seriously.
Well, no, there is no requirement that the Olympics have everything that qualifies as a "sport" under whatever definition applies.
That aside, Ice Dancing. Seriously.
Seriously, as a nationally ranked Ice Dancer for several years myself (yes and a regular slashdot reader for many years) I can say that there is a ton of athleticism involved in Ice Dance. It's not the same as the timed sports or sports where a score is kept, but it's a sport all the same. It requires massive amounts of talent, training and physical ability. That being said, just because these gymnasts can't bench press 400 pounds does not mean they are not athletes.
I work at a large national electronics retailer and I can say that HP and Compaq are already shipping systems with Lightscribe enabled drives however we don't yet have the media to take advantage of that yet.
The Compaq SR1350NX and I *believe* that HP A820N both have the Lightscribe enabled drives, but I know only of the Compaq for sure.
The "experiment" that gabe newell was referring to was with regards to the fact that people were able to use a bit of an exploit to download HL2 from steam and unlock it with an invalid cdkey. Now anyone who uses an already banned cdkey will have their account banned essentially.
I don't understand why everyone thinks valve released a warez version.
Cost is not simply the cost of the item from the manufacturer. The "cost" of an item in a store comes from many factors including shipping costs, costs for the lease on the building and all associated utilities, and stuff in that line. Also direct cost of items from manufacturers is usually based on how much volume you're purchasing so generally the overall cost per unit will be lower for a company moving more volume.
I'm an employee at a large electronics retailer in Canada and I can say that the reason large retailers can offer better prices than brand based specialty shops is simply because they move more volume. Because they have more choice as far as brand goes, more people shop there and more people will buy there as a result. Our cost on sony products is far below that of cost at the Sony Store and therefore we can offer better prices.
So what you just said was true, I'm just backing it up;-)
How many companies that cater exclusively to hardcore gamers have done themselves in financially in recent times? Quite a few as far as I can remember. SSI, which made quite a few war games as well as some others. (OK SSI isn't that recent) Looking Glass studios made some pretty hardcore and long games, but frankly was set to be one of the more promising game developer studios around. And I'm sure there are others I'm failing to mention here.
The proof, unfortunately for hardcore gamers, is in the numbers. Where games like The Sims, Grand Theft Auto (Which was a long game, but it was a game that had action right from the get go and could be played in short spurts) and games that cater to broader crowds such as sports games, are king. And unfortunately, developers and publishers need money to keep going.
This is not to say that games intended for the hardcore crowds cannot survive at all, epic games like Baldur's Gate and Final Fantasy series games sell like hotcakes, but when every game tries to be a huge epic like the aforementioned RPG's, people run out of time, and start to lose interest because an epic game is no longer a special thing.
So essentially developers and publishers need to focus mainly on games that can be enjoyed in short action packed or intriguing spurts (The actual length of the game may not matter now that I think of it, but the minimum length of time needed to fully enjoy a playing session.) but occasionally develop a huge epic wonderful game that the hardcore gamers and the occasional casual gamer will eat up, because frankly, not every game can be an epic sort of game.
When you use Netzero or Juno's free dialup, do you not agree to a terms of service contract that clearly outlines what is legal and what is not? Given those terms of service, hasn't Netzero or Juno done their duty by "not allowing" it on their network, and if something happens beyond their control, then it is not their fault.
No such forced terms of service exist for open WAPs that I know of unfortunately, and try explaining to your ISP that you just wanted to share your line with anyone who felt like driving by. Somehow I don't think that'll work too well.
Regardless, the majority of people who have unsecured WAPs are people who simply haven't a clue, and that is their own responsibility to know the technology they are working with and how to keep it secure. Hence why virus removal by hand is generally not free and internet service providers are more than capable of cutting off the service of troublesome users, whether those users know what their actions are or not.
Cut down on the length and price of games, and maybe up the fun factor and uniqueness of the gameplay and such. (The unique gameplay is a bit more intangible than length, but hey, humans have been coming up with crazy ideas like flying and going to outer space and robots and stuff for eons. Maybe we can figure out some new ways to entertain ourselves!)
The big problem with games these days, is they take far too much time to really get into the *good* parts of a game. Much like a book that starts off slow and doesn't get exciting until halfway through. Games however, cost a lot more, and frankly are much more repetitive and leave much less to the imagination than a book.
Your average, casual gamer, does not have a whole crapload of time in one sitting to spend getting into a game. In my opinion if a game cannot draw a person in within the first hour, that person probably will not be anywhere near as motivated to play it again.
My solution to this, keep games short, sweet, unique, and appropriately priced. Development times would probably be shorter, development *costs* would probably be shorter, and hell, people might actually get a decent variety of games that they can actually finish in one hour spurts throughout their hectic lives.
Unfortunately computers and WiFi tend to fall under slightly different terms than phone lines in my opinion.
For starters, phone lines are not your responsibility, they are the responsibility of the phone company, including all security and problems arising from tapping a phone line.
Along that same line, computers and a WiFi router, are the responsibility of whoever sets them up. If you setup a WiFi router, and *willingly* leave it open to promote free WiFi net access, any infraction noted by your service provider will immediately be your fault. There is no disputing that.
Secondly, with WiFi, and any technology that a user sets up themselves, "I didn't know" simply isn't an option. In an extreme hypothetical, if someone was downloading child pornography and was arrested, yet claimed "I didn't know it was illegal", I don't think that would make a difference.
Open WiFi spots simply are the problem of the user or admin who sets them up, and nobody else. If you leave a WiFi access point wide open, you better have a damn good system in place to prevent abuse, or some damn good lawyers.
Ok so one thing stuck out at me the second I read it.
""Games are crap so often I don't want to get ripped off" - try reading reviews and playing demos. Besides, good luck getting a car dealership to refund you your money after you so much as signed the contract, never mind drove the car. Not all that many goods can be used and returned for your money back."
Actually I do believe Saturn, at least here in Canada, offers a no questions asked 30 day period where you can return the car. I remember a commercial where a lady had lost her job and could no longer afford the car so she returned it to the dealership, but in the end wound up buying a Saturn again because of their great customer service.
Anyways, that's beside the point. Frankly, reviews and demos aren't always the best indicator of how "buy-worthy" a game is. There's several factors you cannot determine from a demo. You cannot tell the length of the game for example, or if it would have any replay value whatsoever. You also can't really tell, through a short demo, whether the game is overly repetitive for the entire length of the game or not. Reviews also are not a great indicator. There have been games entirely trashed by the industry for having less than stellar graphics and poor sound, but even though the gameplay was absolutely stellar, it still got a crappy review. It's very hard to find a review(er) that will exactly match your personal tastes.
I'm not condoning piracy, or stealing money from the developers, but frankly, the prices of games are too ridiculously high for a casual gamer, which is a vast majority of the market. Maybe publishers need to take a back seat to the developers and let the developers actually have a good chunk of the profit earned from game sales. After all, it is their work, and maybe if the publishers weren't so damn greedy, they'd earn a bit more money from it.
Last I checked, Canada has both.
Considering you apparently don't LIVE in Canada, I think you should probably not assume one case from Quebec of all places (Frankly the most un-Canadian part of Canada IMO) constitutes that we are unable to swear or express our opinions freely.
And to tell the truth I think we can all do without the hate mongering and groups like the KKK, which covers the hate speech part of that whole thing.
I'm not saying they're surprised. Simply that consultants that I personally know have now taken a 50% paycut over what their yearly salary was at PWC, and that warrants quitting and finding a better job. Period. I don't think any of the PWC employees were all that surprised, just pissed off when it actually happened.
It's not necessarily just IBM's fault either, it's partially the fault of how sales targets are tracked/sales granted. Sales that were facilitated 90% by the project manager were entirely credited to the "salesperson" that played a very tiny role in the actual sale. Thus the project manager doesn't make his sales targets, and the person in sales gets a nice fat bonus.
That's corporate justice for ya.
Not only has IBM laid off employees but they have a habit of making bad choices that all but nullify their acquisitions of human resource based takeovers. When IBM purchased PriceWaterhouseCooper's consulting firms, everything was all good, until about a month or two ago when these former PWC employees found out they were not going to recieve any of their yearly bonus (~50% of yearly earnings for many of these consultants) because IBM "didn't make enough money"
It'll be interesting to see what happens with this one, whether it becomes another PWC or whether they actually take care of the employees.
It's quite hard to believe that after all the years of "royalty based" software as stated in the article that Microsoft is all of a sudden not claiming the rights to something that allows their product to be more compatible with rival products.
Although it obviously was a collaboration, it's surprising to see that MS has not attempted to claim that they are now interoperable with other operating systems, instead of saying what they are now, being that the OS'es are now all more interoperable with each other. Does this mark a change in business tactics for Microsoft? Highly unlikely. I guarantee there's *some* sort of motive behind this move, they wouldn't do anything that would result in loss of business.
...so I can start up my new macadamia nut shell recycling business! Seriously, I'll make a killing! I'll take away macadamia nut shells for a nominal fee every week and sell them to the plant. I mean come on, how hard can it be to cart 1680 kilograms of macadamia nut shells every hour?
I'll be rich I tell ya... rich like the planters peanut guy and such, although I hope they don't turn me into a macadamia nut... I don't think my monacle and top hat would fit me anymore. (Come on... everyone knows the planters peanut guy was the original creator of ridiculously priced tins of super salty peanuts and was genetically modified into a giant peanut snob)
So if you order say, a vegetarian or kosher meal, does that make you a terrorist? I'm sure they could save even just a little bit of money if they eliminated the completely *useless* "possible special meals" part. I mean really, who the hell cares what Osama eats?
Really, any true linux gamer jumps at the chance to buy any half decent game when it either supports linux through downloads such as Neverwinter Nights, or supports linux right off the cd. But how many true linux gamers are there due to the fact that so few games are actually available for it?
I remember after I bought Neverwinter Nights (about 2 days after its release) there was talk about the upcoming linux client, and although there was a bit of excitement and apparently a lot of forum posts from the linux users, when you look at it realistically, these users were simply a tiny percentage of the population who purchased or planned to purchase Neverwinter Nights.
Unfortunately, linux supporters who are also extremely avid gamers don't have much choice when it comes to a gaming platform. If I ran linux on my gaming machine, I simply would not have the wide variety and choice of games that I do when I run windows, and yes, people crave choice. I personally don't want to be stuck playing the same 2 or 3 FPS games when I also enjoy racing games and sports games. I have yet to see a retail port of *any* big title racing or sports game for linux.
Why don't developers/publishers spend money on developing linux versions? Because there simply are not enough users to make it worthwhile. And that is the unfortunate truth when cost > benefit, however I don't see this as a "linux users don't have the money or aren't willing to spend it" kind of issue. If linux was a truly viable gaming platform (If games of all sorts were developed for it) I guarantee you more people would either run linux because they can play the games they purchased on it, or the linux guys would buy the games because they now have an option.
Just a quick clarification as the article was actually a bit misleading to me and everyone else on the amount of levy we pay on media. I found this over at the Government of Canada website.
"Both "ordinary" CD-Rs and CD-RWs and their "Audio" counterparts can be used to copy music. Having said this, most CDs used to copy music are "ordinary" CD-Rs and CD-RWs (for which the levy is 21), not "Audio" products (for which the levy is 77)."
Run the risk of promising not to share anymore while paying a few thousand dollar sum of money to the RIAA and not actually being guaranteed freedom from future prosecution from the RIAA through their falsely presented "amnesty" program and/or owing millions upon millions for a modest "illegal" music collection by refusing this false amnesty,
OR,
Paying a small tax on burnable/recordable media that so far has resulted in a TOTAL of 70 million dollars going to the recording industry? (Note that some of the potential cases by the RIAA have been valued at over 60 million at their ludicrous per song value)
I'm a proud Canadian and I'm more than happy to pay a 77 cent levy on burnable media (Although when I buy cd's at about 60 cents per cd I start to wonder about the enforcement of this levy.) Instead of paying the ridiculous prices that many brand new or even older cd's carry. Let's not even get into the disgusting import prices.
All in all, even if it is "out of sight, out of mind" and we are still paying out to "the man" I'd rather at least minimize my own risk than be seen as the rebel who now owes more money than he will ever earn in his lifetime to a corporate behemoth.
Benchmarks may not be faked necessarily, but the current run of benchmarking tests are *certainly* leaning towards helping the newer cards or a certain feature on a certain card succeed more than another.
Take the latest 3DMark for example, I have heard that on more than one occasion a radeon 9700 beats out a GeForce FX in more than one category. Now this may be due in part that the GeForce FX is a partially inferior card, however the only REAL benchmark people should be using for 3d cards is games themselves. Not many people buy cards based on what they perform like in the future when games start using such and such a feature of the card. People buy cards based on what they can do now and how it will run their games. Benchmarks are only useful when trying to show off who can squeeze an extra 0.1 fps out of a test that is always bias towards newer technologies. If it doesn't make my games look any better or run any faster, I don't give a damn.
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What's interesting and different about the 407 ETR though is that it is NOT owned OR operated by the government, but is owned and operated by a consortium of private companies.
This consortium consists of Spanish company Grupo Ferrovial and its subsidiary Cintra Concesiones de Infraestructuras de Transporte, SNC-Lavalin, and Capital d'Amerique CDPQ, a subsidiary of the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec. It was sold by the province of Ontario in 1999 to the tune of 3.107 billion dollars.
Well, no, there is no requirement that the Olympics have everything that qualifies as a "sport" under whatever definition applies.
That aside, Ice Dancing. Seriously.
Seriously, as a nationally ranked Ice Dancer for several years myself (yes and a regular slashdot reader for many years) I can say that there is a ton of athleticism involved in Ice Dance. It's not the same as the timed sports or sports where a score is kept, but it's a sport all the same. It requires massive amounts of talent, training and physical ability. That being said, just because these gymnasts can't bench press 400 pounds does not mean they are not athletes.
I work at a large national electronics retailer and I can say that HP and Compaq are already shipping systems with Lightscribe enabled drives however we don't yet have the media to take advantage of that yet.
The Compaq SR1350NX and I *believe* that HP A820N both have the Lightscribe enabled drives, but I know only of the Compaq for sure.
The "experiment" that gabe newell was referring to was with regards to the fact that people were able to use a bit of an exploit to download HL2 from steam and unlock it with an invalid cdkey. Now anyone who uses an already banned cdkey will have their account banned essentially. I don't understand why everyone thinks valve released a warez version.
Cost is not simply the cost of the item from the manufacturer. The "cost" of an item in a store comes from many factors including shipping costs, costs for the lease on the building and all associated utilities, and stuff in that line. Also direct cost of items from manufacturers is usually based on how much volume you're purchasing so generally the overall cost per unit will be lower for a company moving more volume.
I'm an employee at a large electronics retailer in Canada and I can say that the reason large retailers can offer better prices than brand based specialty shops is simply because they move more volume. Because they have more choice as far as brand goes, more people shop there and more people will buy there as a result. Our cost on sony products is far below that of cost at the Sony Store and therefore we can offer better prices.
So what you just said was true, I'm just backing it up ;-)
How many companies that cater exclusively to hardcore gamers have done themselves in financially in recent times? Quite a few as far as I can remember. SSI, which made quite a few war games as well as some others. (OK SSI isn't that recent) Looking Glass studios made some pretty hardcore and long games, but frankly was set to be one of the more promising game developer studios around. And I'm sure there are others I'm failing to mention here.
The proof, unfortunately for hardcore gamers, is in the numbers. Where games like The Sims, Grand Theft Auto (Which was a long game, but it was a game that had action right from the get go and could be played in short spurts) and games that cater to broader crowds such as sports games, are king. And unfortunately, developers and publishers need money to keep going.
This is not to say that games intended for the hardcore crowds cannot survive at all, epic games like Baldur's Gate and Final Fantasy series games sell like hotcakes, but when every game tries to be a huge epic like the aforementioned RPG's, people run out of time, and start to lose interest because an epic game is no longer a special thing.
So essentially developers and publishers need to focus mainly on games that can be enjoyed in short action packed or intriguing spurts (The actual length of the game may not matter now that I think of it, but the minimum length of time needed to fully enjoy a playing session.) but occasionally develop a huge epic wonderful game that the hardcore gamers and the occasional casual gamer will eat up, because frankly, not every game can be an epic sort of game.
When you use Netzero or Juno's free dialup, do you not agree to a terms of service contract that clearly outlines what is legal and what is not? Given those terms of service, hasn't Netzero or Juno done their duty by "not allowing" it on their network, and if something happens beyond their control, then it is not their fault.
No such forced terms of service exist for open WAPs that I know of unfortunately, and try explaining to your ISP that you just wanted to share your line with anyone who felt like driving by. Somehow I don't think that'll work too well.
Regardless, the majority of people who have unsecured WAPs are people who simply haven't a clue, and that is their own responsibility to know the technology they are working with and how to keep it secure. Hence why virus removal by hand is generally not free and internet service providers are more than capable of cutting off the service of troublesome users, whether those users know what their actions are or not.
Hence why I said "appropriately priced" ;-)
Cut down on the length and price of games, and maybe up the fun factor and uniqueness of the gameplay and such. (The unique gameplay is a bit more intangible than length, but hey, humans have been coming up with crazy ideas like flying and going to outer space and robots and stuff for eons. Maybe we can figure out some new ways to entertain ourselves!)
The big problem with games these days, is they take far too much time to really get into the *good* parts of a game. Much like a book that starts off slow and doesn't get exciting until halfway through. Games however, cost a lot more, and frankly are much more repetitive and leave much less to the imagination than a book.
Your average, casual gamer, does not have a whole crapload of time in one sitting to spend getting into a game. In my opinion if a game cannot draw a person in within the first hour, that person probably will not be anywhere near as motivated to play it again.
My solution to this, keep games short, sweet, unique, and appropriately priced. Development times would probably be shorter, development *costs* would probably be shorter, and hell, people might actually get a decent variety of games that they can actually finish in one hour spurts throughout their hectic lives.
Unfortunately computers and WiFi tend to fall under slightly different terms than phone lines in my opinion.
For starters, phone lines are not your responsibility, they are the responsibility of the phone company, including all security and problems arising from tapping a phone line.
Along that same line, computers and a WiFi router, are the responsibility of whoever sets them up. If you setup a WiFi router, and *willingly* leave it open to promote free WiFi net access, any infraction noted by your service provider will immediately be your fault. There is no disputing that.
Secondly, with WiFi, and any technology that a user sets up themselves, "I didn't know" simply isn't an option. In an extreme hypothetical, if someone was downloading child pornography and was arrested, yet claimed "I didn't know it was illegal", I don't think that would make a difference.
Open WiFi spots simply are the problem of the user or admin who sets them up, and nobody else. If you leave a WiFi access point wide open, you better have a damn good system in place to prevent abuse, or some damn good lawyers.
Ok so one thing stuck out at me the second I read it.
""Games are crap so often I don't want to get ripped off" - try reading reviews and playing demos. Besides, good luck getting a car dealership to refund you your money after you so much as signed the contract, never mind drove the car. Not all that many goods can be used and returned for your money back."
Actually I do believe Saturn, at least here in Canada, offers a no questions asked 30 day period where you can return the car. I remember a commercial where a lady had lost her job and could no longer afford the car so she returned it to the dealership, but in the end wound up buying a Saturn again because of their great customer service.
Anyways, that's beside the point. Frankly, reviews and demos aren't always the best indicator of how "buy-worthy" a game is. There's several factors you cannot determine from a demo. You cannot tell the length of the game for example, or if it would have any replay value whatsoever. You also can't really tell, through a short demo, whether the game is overly repetitive for the entire length of the game or not. Reviews also are not a great indicator. There have been games entirely trashed by the industry for having less than stellar graphics and poor sound, but even though the gameplay was absolutely stellar, it still got a crappy review. It's very hard to find a review(er) that will exactly match your personal tastes.
I'm not condoning piracy, or stealing money from the developers, but frankly, the prices of games are too ridiculously high for a casual gamer, which is a vast majority of the market. Maybe publishers need to take a back seat to the developers and let the developers actually have a good chunk of the profit earned from game sales. After all, it is their work, and maybe if the publishers weren't so damn greedy, they'd earn a bit more money from it.
Last I checked, Canada has both. Considering you apparently don't LIVE in Canada, I think you should probably not assume one case from Quebec of all places (Frankly the most un-Canadian part of Canada IMO) constitutes that we are unable to swear or express our opinions freely. And to tell the truth I think we can all do without the hate mongering and groups like the KKK, which covers the hate speech part of that whole thing.
I'm not saying they're surprised. Simply that consultants that I personally know have now taken a 50% paycut over what their yearly salary was at PWC, and that warrants quitting and finding a better job. Period. I don't think any of the PWC employees were all that surprised, just pissed off when it actually happened. It's not necessarily just IBM's fault either, it's partially the fault of how sales targets are tracked/sales granted. Sales that were facilitated 90% by the project manager were entirely credited to the "salesperson" that played a very tiny role in the actual sale. Thus the project manager doesn't make his sales targets, and the person in sales gets a nice fat bonus. That's corporate justice for ya.
Not only has IBM laid off employees but they have a habit of making bad choices that all but nullify their acquisitions of human resource based takeovers. When IBM purchased PriceWaterhouseCooper's consulting firms, everything was all good, until about a month or two ago when these former PWC employees found out they were not going to recieve any of their yearly bonus (~50% of yearly earnings for many of these consultants) because IBM "didn't make enough money" It'll be interesting to see what happens with this one, whether it becomes another PWC or whether they actually take care of the employees.
It's quite hard to believe that after all the years of "royalty based" software as stated in the article that Microsoft is all of a sudden not claiming the rights to something that allows their product to be more compatible with rival products.
Although it obviously was a collaboration, it's surprising to see that MS has not attempted to claim that they are now interoperable with other operating systems, instead of saying what they are now, being that the OS'es are now all more interoperable with each other. Does this mark a change in business tactics for Microsoft? Highly unlikely. I guarantee there's *some* sort of motive behind this move, they wouldn't do anything that would result in loss of business.
...so I can start up my new macadamia nut shell recycling business! Seriously, I'll make a killing! I'll take away macadamia nut shells for a nominal fee every week and sell them to the plant. I mean come on, how hard can it be to cart 1680 kilograms of macadamia nut shells every hour?
I'll be rich I tell ya... rich like the planters peanut guy and such, although I hope they don't turn me into a macadamia nut... I don't think my monacle and top hat would fit me anymore. (Come on... everyone knows the planters peanut guy was the original creator of ridiculously priced tins of super salty peanuts and was genetically modified into a giant peanut snob)
So if you order say, a vegetarian or kosher meal, does that make you a terrorist? I'm sure they could save even just a little bit of money if they eliminated the completely *useless* "possible special meals" part. I mean really, who the hell cares what Osama eats?
Really, any true linux gamer jumps at the chance to buy any half decent game when it either supports linux through downloads such as Neverwinter Nights, or supports linux right off the cd. But how many true linux gamers are there due to the fact that so few games are actually available for it?
I remember after I bought Neverwinter Nights (about 2 days after its release) there was talk about the upcoming linux client, and although there was a bit of excitement and apparently a lot of forum posts from the linux users, when you look at it realistically, these users were simply a tiny percentage of the population who purchased or planned to purchase Neverwinter Nights.
Unfortunately, linux supporters who are also extremely avid gamers don't have much choice when it comes to a gaming platform. If I ran linux on my gaming machine, I simply would not have the wide variety and choice of games that I do when I run windows, and yes, people crave choice. I personally don't want to be stuck playing the same 2 or 3 FPS games when I also enjoy racing games and sports games. I have yet to see a retail port of *any* big title racing or sports game for linux.
Why don't developers/publishers spend money on developing linux versions? Because there simply are not enough users to make it worthwhile. And that is the unfortunate truth when cost > benefit, however I don't see this as a "linux users don't have the money or aren't willing to spend it" kind of issue. If linux was a truly viable gaming platform (If games of all sorts were developed for it) I guarantee you more people would either run linux because they can play the games they purchased on it, or the linux guys would buy the games because they now have an option.
"Both "ordinary" CD-Rs and CD-RWs and their "Audio" counterparts can be used to copy music. Having said this, most CDs used to copy music are "ordinary" CD-Rs and CD-RWs (for which the levy is 21), not "Audio" products (for which the levy is 77)."
Truthfully, what's cheaper for the end user?
Run the risk of promising not to share anymore while paying a few thousand dollar sum of money to the RIAA and not actually being guaranteed freedom from future prosecution from the RIAA through their falsely presented "amnesty" program and/or owing millions upon millions for a modest "illegal" music collection by refusing this false amnesty,
OR,
Paying a small tax on burnable/recordable media that so far has resulted in a TOTAL of 70 million dollars going to the recording industry? (Note that some of the potential cases by the RIAA have been valued at over 60 million at their ludicrous per song value)
I'm a proud Canadian and I'm more than happy to pay a 77 cent levy on burnable media (Although when I buy cd's at about 60 cents per cd I start to wonder about the enforcement of this levy.) Instead of paying the ridiculous prices that many brand new or even older cd's carry. Let's not even get into the disgusting import prices.
All in all, even if it is "out of sight, out of mind" and we are still paying out to "the man" I'd rather at least minimize my own risk than be seen as the rebel who now owes more money than he will ever earn in his lifetime to a corporate behemoth.
Benchmarks may not be faked necessarily, but the current run of benchmarking tests are *certainly* leaning towards helping the newer cards or a certain feature on a certain card succeed more than another.
Take the latest 3DMark for example, I have heard that on more than one occasion a radeon 9700 beats out a GeForce FX in more than one category. Now this may be due in part that the GeForce FX is a partially inferior card, however the only REAL benchmark people should be using for 3d cards is games themselves. Not many people buy cards based on what they perform like in the future when games start using such and such a feature of the card. People buy cards based on what they can do now and how it will run their games. Benchmarks are only useful when trying to show off who can squeeze an extra 0.1 fps out of a test that is always bias towards newer technologies. If it doesn't make my games look any better or run any faster, I don't give a damn.