The only place I know that uses Jabber is work. Trillian basic is what's been working for me for years as well. Perhaps the pro version is bloated, but I never had a problem with it back on my 400mhz Celeron(ok, I had a gig of ram, but still). It was version 3.1 as well.
So far, I have Bomberman, Gradius 3, and Kirby's Adventure. Each of these are pretty demanding on timing, especially Gradius 3. I've not noticed any lag or delay in controls.
The reason Cavedog failed was because of TA: Kingdoms which was a horridly crappy game. I only wish I could have returned the thing. Their online play was very demanding on connections as well with massive numbers of bullets and other things to send. Dialup connections of the day had some troubles with that. Bonyards wasn't available right away either, and while it was a great idea, it was poorly done. Not that Starcraft was immune with de-synced games and the like, but it was way better than Boneyards. (Losing their top designers due to pointy haired bosses hurt them badly too)
Total Annihilation was our game of choice for lan parties and with good players it could take 3-4 hours in an eight player game to win. I think the relative simplicity of Starcraft was simply appealing to more players and games typically lasted less time. For many, more games played = more enjoyment.
You can argue sales numbers all day long, but does that make "The Sims" better than every other game in existance? Everything is subjective with terms like "better." I feel it's better than Starcraft, but eh, I've got them both. I enjoyed them both. I still play TA with friends. Havn't played Starcraft in years.
This wouldn't be a copyright issue. You can't copyright a style, but you can trademark it. There's still a catch there. You have actively defend your trademark or you lose it. You also have to apply for a trademark(unlike copyright where it's automatically a given). I think Apple's on the losing side of this issue. After all, you've pointed out one other example of the same idea. I'm sure it won't be hard for a decent lawyer to come up with a few more.
Honestly? I agree with your point: Apple has just given tons of free advertising to the iGasm product. Regardless of any result of the lawsuit, they'll probably have quite a few sales they wouldn't have gotten. Question is, will it pay more than the lawyer's fees.
They don't.They purchase stuff in person even if they select it online(i happen to read reviews and customers feedback before buying e.g. a sound card).
I do purchase things online. Please show me how to use cash. If you refer to Paypal, forget it. They're worse than a credit card. Debit cards also do not always come with the same protections, so check the bank policy.
>And, since you can often get things for less online than you can via bricks-n-mortar, it is often a money saver.
I don't see how cost+shipping is less then cost of product.Many online stores function as bricks and mortar stores too,and buying there in person is much better option.
I don't see how you fail to see that cost plus shipping could be less than the price of an object in a store. Example: Camera bag. I got my camera bag online for $40,+$6 shipping. Price in store? $89.99, +8.9% tax($98) Exactly where is this failure to save money? I could go on and on... If you're only shopping at a brick and mortar store's website, you're unlikely to find any savings. Try online only places or shops that don't have a local presence. Sure, it doesn't make any sense to some products buy online, but some are vastly better to purchase online.
Well,i dont see how you could purchase supermarket products online with shipping(if you do,then why you ever get out of home?).
Safeway.com. They'll deliver or allow pickup in store also. Again, not for everyone, but it works for me. I have better things to do than to wander around a grocery store for a half hour picking everything up and standing in line.
Stores don't charge more,credit companies charge for use of credit cards.
Exactly. YOU pay the same regardless. You also get hit with the same price increases whether you pay cash or not. No savings using cash there.
>If I leave my credit card someplace, I can make a single phone call and I'm at no financial liability.
The fraudster don't need much time to exploit it.And someone loses money,which meant to be yours/your bank/credit card company.The criminal wins.You encourage crime with this attitude.
When you're robbed, if you lose cash, you can't stop the crook at all. Call the card companies fast enough(don't wait!) and they can't use the cards at all. Checking accounts also don't receive the same protections and are really no safer. Lose your acct/routing # and you're out the money.
I dont have to worry about the possibility of such crime,because i'm immune.
Nobody's immune. You could still lose your identity various ways. People in your house could do it. You do reduce your risks by not doing certain things though.
That depends how much you withdraw at once(many small withdrawals are worse then one big),and storing money in your matress is silly.Most people have a safe or box designed for this.
I had a roommate that was losing $60 a month or more due to all his trips to the cash machine. He never searched for his own bank's machines, and he almost never actually just used the card. That's dumb, but it's not inherent in the card itself. Storing cash at a house with a box or safe does not guarantee much of anything. People who keep those safes get them stolen, or are forced to open them by robbers. Again, you'll likely never get that back. It's also unlikely you'll be robbed, but you'll probably never have to worry about your credit card either.
I know this might not mean much to you, but I find credit cards and shopping online to be very worthwhile for some things. Yes there's a risk, but there's a risk in everything, even cash.
Just a comparison. I am making more money than the average person for my age at $31,000 a year. My car gets ~40mpg and I drive approximately 29,000 miles a year(~25,000 for just commuting.)
Gas here is $3.40/gal. I'll exclude my personal mileage because I could probably shave off half of that if I tried. So,625 gallons a year for commute, $2125. This is 6.9% of my income. Could I move? Sure, but I'd likely lose the ability to keep my dog and my awesome landlord and room. It sucks living 50 miles from work, but I would lose any gas savings as well if I move since my rent would likely more than double(that's just $3100 a year.)
Every jury is different. Clearly you've seen some of the bad juries. The other poster has seen good juries. Also, while juries may think about the law, they're supposed to interpret the facts, not the law. T
Regardless, one cannot know that this jury will be composed of 100% old technophobes. The chance of a technically savvy juror is about the same as the population of the area the case is in. All it really takes is one jury member with the technical common sense to catch the important parts of the testimony. They don't even have to be an expert. This one person can answer any questions for others in the jury while deliberating.
Sure, that juror could misinterpret the testimony. Sure, they want to go home, but that's neither here nor there. The jury doesn't decide whether the law applies or not. They just decide if the person did or did not do it. All they have to decide is, does the testimony show that it is MORE or LESS likely that THIS person did what the RIAA says they did.
When I was selected for jury duty, I was HAPPY. I wasn't selected for a jury, but those who obviously would have been bad were not selected either. If you think juries suck, then do your jury duty when called.
Most people really just look at the selection and think: "Why should I pay $5 for another copy of a game whose broken cartridge is sitting in my attic?"
Actually, I don't mind paying the current prices on a couple of games that I know to be worth it for me. The problem of course is "risk."
When I buy a VC game, I risk being disappointed in the game for several reasons. One of course is, have my gaming tastes changed too much to enjoy something I remember fondly? Wsa the game really bad, but I remember it fondly because of nostalgia? It's worth the money to risk it for many VC titles(I eagerly awaite Contra, Double Dragon 2, and more).
However, it is EXTREMELY hard for me to risk $8 on a Genesis game that I've never played before. Even with reviews of VC games, that doesn't assure that I'll like it. I can't get a refund if I think the game sucks. I'd be more willing to pay the price if I could have say... 3 day return period where I could get my points($) back if I didn't like it.
The problem I see with that is that some people would abuse the system. We could beat many of these old VC games in 3 days or less and just get a refund. I would guess a second purchase of the game would be permanent to counter that sort of thing. Of course, knocking the price down might also do the trick for me. I might pay $5 for a Genesis title or $2/3 for a NES/TG16 title if it seems decent.
Only if they can get lasers to stop burning 10x the amount of energy that you put in to get it to fire. (I know that some are more efficient than others, but you all know there's no free lunch)
I'd be willing to bet that the massive amount of power required to cool all the air in your house would make you bankrupt in less than a year(and really piss off your power company).
The other reason is that you'd have to reliably find and sue all infringers if you ever wanted to be paid.(Not that there's a whole lot of reliability with the RIAA's current methods)
Downloaders would never have a reason to purchase something outright if they only had to pay $.99 for every song downloaded IF they got caught AND successfully sued.
Which is why you have shifts. The amount of people sitting on the phone varies throughout the day. By the time it gets to closing time, there are only ~10 people where I work, 300 during the middle of the day. Yes, we have some time between calls during holidays, but then they start asking people if they want to go home. Most of the time I have about 30 seconds between calls. No waiting for the customer, and not a lot of "down-time." Call centers managed smartly keep people busy with little customer hassle.
I would love to get DVD playback and I'd buy. I'd send my old Wii to my brother as a Bday gift or something. As long as a game doesn't REQUIRE you to get one of the new Wii versions, then I'll be fine with it.
I just spent my second weekend playing with friends I introduced to the Wii during New Years. None of them are "gamers" as we think of them. They play poker and that's about as close as it gets.
One actually went out and got a Wii and is very happy with the graphics. Non-gamers may see it as "good enough." You and I of course know that the other systems are far more powerful graphicly, but my friend wasn't about to go out and spend $700 to get a PS3 as his first game system. We had a new friend over as well. Another non-gamer. Even after I had gone to bed, they were up to 3am, playing Wii Sports Golf.
Nintendo has hit the nail on the head I think. We might see the hype die off, but the hype that goes on is word of mouth. You know, plain old conversation in real life. Not everyone's primary mode of contact is email or web bulletin boards. I think this kind of "hype" goes far further in expanding the video gaming population than any ad campaign could.
I agree with you to a point... Overlooking a tiny little symbol is easy to do. How many times has a peice of software come grinding to a halt due to one little checkbox someone didn't notice?
Copyright and trademark are different situations. To protect your trademark(logo, company name, etc) you MUST take action to protect it. If you ignore it, you may lose your trademark protection. If you license/permit the usage to a group, this is seen as a way to protect your trademark since you've considered the usage and allowed the parties to use the trademark.
If they did nothing at all, that would cause potential problems. Their response is both classy, and covers their ass.
Similar thing happened to my pro photographer friend. I had noticed his entire photoset was under Creative Commons. I mentioned it to him and he was NOT happy. His stuff was up for weeks before it was noticed. It was never intended to be under Creative Commons.
If the website has that set as default and the creator didn't check, can you argue that the creator didn't place it under the license? Is the creator SOL because of those few moments where someone might have snagged it? I don't think that one could predict the outcome in court.
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The only place I know that uses Jabber is work. Trillian basic is what's been working for me for years as well. Perhaps the pro version is bloated, but I never had a problem with it back on my 400mhz Celeron(ok, I had a gig of ram, but still). It was version 3.1 as well.
So far, I have Bomberman, Gradius 3, and Kirby's Adventure. Each of these are pretty demanding on timing, especially Gradius 3. I've not noticed any lag or delay in controls.
The reason Cavedog failed was because of TA: Kingdoms which was a horridly crappy game. I only wish I could have returned the thing. Their online play was very demanding on connections as well with massive numbers of bullets and other things to send. Dialup connections of the day had some troubles with that. Bonyards wasn't available right away either, and while it was a great idea, it was poorly done. Not that Starcraft was immune with de-synced games and the like, but it was way better than Boneyards. (Losing their top designers due to pointy haired bosses hurt them badly too)
Total Annihilation was our game of choice for lan parties and with good players it could take 3-4 hours in an eight player game to win. I think the relative simplicity of Starcraft was simply appealing to more players and games typically lasted less time. For many, more games played = more enjoyment.
You can argue sales numbers all day long, but does that make "The Sims" better than every other game in existance? Everything is subjective with terms like "better." I feel it's better than Starcraft, but eh, I've got them both. I enjoyed them both. I still play TA with friends. Havn't played Starcraft in years.
Yes, you could put something else in there, but why not be creative and put something like the name of the RIAA chairman(Mitch Bainwol)?
This wouldn't be a copyright issue. You can't copyright a style, but you can trademark it. There's still a catch there. You have actively defend your trademark or you lose it. You also have to apply for a trademark(unlike copyright where it's automatically a given). I think Apple's on the losing side of this issue. After all, you've pointed out one other example of the same idea. I'm sure it won't be hard for a decent lawyer to come up with a few more.
Honestly? I agree with your point: Apple has just given tons of free advertising to the iGasm product.
Regardless of any result of the lawsuit, they'll probably have quite a few sales they wouldn't have gotten. Question is, will it pay more than the lawyer's fees.
No joke. My landlord activates this from time to time and sounds like he is practicly screaming at people when he calls.
>Or they purchase stuff online.
They don't.They purchase stuff in person even if they select it online(i happen to read reviews and customers feedback before buying e.g. a sound card).
I do purchase things online. Please show me how to use cash. If you refer to Paypal, forget it. They're worse than a credit card. Debit cards also do not always come with the same protections, so check the bank policy.
>And, since you can often get things for less online than you can via bricks-n-mortar, it is often a money saver.
I don't see how cost+shipping is less then cost of product.Many online stores function as bricks and mortar stores too,and buying there in person is much better option.
I don't see how you fail to see that cost plus shipping could be less than the price of an object in a store. Example: Camera bag. I got my camera bag online for $40,+$6 shipping. Price in store? $89.99, +8.9% tax($98)
Exactly where is this failure to save money? I could go on and on... If you're only shopping at a brick and mortar store's website, you're unlikely to find any savings. Try online only places or shops that don't have a local presence. Sure, it doesn't make any sense to some products buy online, but some are vastly better to purchase online.
Well,i dont see how you could purchase supermarket products online with shipping(if you do,then why you ever get out of home?).
Safeway.com. They'll deliver or allow pickup in store also. Again, not for everyone, but it works for me. I have better things to do than to wander around a grocery store for a half hour picking everything up and standing in line.
Stores don't charge more,credit companies charge for use of credit cards.
Exactly. YOU pay the same regardless. You also get hit with the same price increases whether you pay cash or not. No savings using cash there.
>If I leave my credit card someplace, I can make a single phone call and I'm at no financial liability.
The fraudster don't need much time to exploit it.And someone loses money,which meant to be yours/your bank/credit card company.The criminal wins.You encourage crime with this attitude.
When you're robbed, if you lose cash, you can't stop the crook at all. Call the card companies fast enough(don't wait!) and they can't use the cards at all. Checking accounts also don't receive the same protections and are really no safer. Lose your acct/routing # and you're out the money.
I dont have to worry about the possibility of such crime,because i'm immune.
Nobody's immune. You could still lose your identity various ways. People in your house could do it. You do reduce your risks by not doing certain things though.
That depends how much you withdraw at once(many small withdrawals are worse then one big),and storing money in your matress is silly.Most people have a safe or box designed for this.
I had a roommate that was losing $60 a month or more due to all his trips to the cash machine. He never searched for his own bank's machines, and he almost never actually just used the card. That's dumb, but it's not inherent in the card itself.
Storing cash at a house with a box or safe does not guarantee much of anything. People who keep those safes get them stolen, or are forced to open them by robbers. Again, you'll likely never get that back. It's also unlikely you'll be robbed, but you'll probably never have to worry about your credit card either.
I know this might not mean much to you, but I find credit cards and shopping online to be very worthwhile for some things. Yes there's a risk, but there's a risk in everything, even cash.
Just a comparison. I am making more money than the average person for my age at $31,000 a year. My car gets ~40mpg and I drive approximately 29,000 miles a year(~25,000 for just commuting.)
Gas here is $3.40/gal. I'll exclude my personal mileage because I could probably shave off half of that if I tried. So,625 gallons a year for commute, $2125. This is 6.9% of my income. Could I move? Sure, but I'd likely lose the ability to keep my dog and my awesome landlord and room. It sucks living 50 miles from work, but I would lose any gas savings as well if I move since my rent would likely more than double(that's just $3100 a year.)
Don't be silly. By then it'll be a different shape for your new laptop and you'll need a whole new battery that's TRULY different and revolutionary.
Every jury is different. Clearly you've seen some of the bad juries. The other poster has seen good juries. Also, while juries may think about the law, they're supposed to interpret the facts, not the law. T
Regardless, one cannot know that this jury will be composed of 100% old technophobes. The chance of a technically savvy juror is about the same as the population of the area the case is in. All it really takes is one jury member with the technical common sense to catch the important parts of the testimony. They don't even have to be an expert. This one person can answer any questions for others in the jury while deliberating.
Sure, that juror could misinterpret the testimony. Sure, they want to go home, but that's neither here nor there. The jury doesn't decide whether the law applies or not. They just decide if the person did or did not do it. All they have to decide is, does the testimony show that it is MORE or LESS likely that THIS person did what the RIAA says they did.
When I was selected for jury duty, I was HAPPY. I wasn't selected for a jury, but those who obviously would have been bad were not selected either. If you think juries suck, then do your jury duty when called.
That's what it boils down to.
Actually, I don't mind paying the current prices on a couple of games that I know to be worth it for me. The problem of course is "risk."
When I buy a VC game, I risk being disappointed in the game for several reasons. One of course is, have my gaming tastes changed too much to enjoy something I remember fondly? Wsa the game really bad, but I remember it fondly because of nostalgia? It's worth the money to risk it for many VC titles(I eagerly awaite Contra, Double Dragon 2, and more).
However, it is EXTREMELY hard for me to risk $8 on a Genesis game that I've never played before. Even with reviews of VC games, that doesn't assure that I'll like it. I can't get a refund if I think the game sucks. I'd be more willing to pay the price if I could have say... 3 day return period where I could get my points($) back if I didn't like it.
The problem I see with that is that some people would abuse the system. We could beat many of these old VC games in 3 days or less and just get a refund. I would guess a second purchase of the game would be permanent to counter that sort of thing. Of course, knocking the price down might also do the trick for me. I might pay $5 for a Genesis title or $2/3 for a NES/TG16 title if it seems decent.
Only if they can get lasers to stop burning 10x the amount of energy that you put in to get it to fire.
(I know that some are more efficient than others, but you all know there's no free lunch)
I'd be willing to bet that the massive amount of power required to cool all the air in your house would make you bankrupt in less than a year(and really piss off your power company).
The deterrent effect is only part of the reason.
The other reason is that you'd have to reliably find and sue all infringers if you ever wanted to be paid.(Not that there's a whole lot of reliability with the RIAA's current methods)
Downloaders would never have a reason to purchase something outright if they only had to pay $.99 for every song downloaded IF they got caught AND successfully sued.
Which is why you have shifts. The amount of people sitting on the phone varies throughout the day. By the time it gets to closing time, there are only ~10 people where I work, 300 during the middle of the day.
Yes, we have some time between calls during holidays, but then they start asking people if they want to go home.
Most of the time I have about 30 seconds between calls. No waiting for the customer, and not a lot of "down-time." Call centers managed smartly keep people busy with little customer hassle.
Sorry, we forgot to tell you, they're already part of the RIAA.
Poor Nintendo. They sell out everytime.
They're soooooo far behind that they're ahead by about 2 million units and catching up to the Xbox360.
I'm sure they're crying all the way to the bank.
No joke. She'd kick the ass of everyone I know. :P
My top is 221 here, and average only about 160-180. Just barely enough to keep that pro rating.
Still, I seriously doubt that you or I would receive only community service sentence.
I would love to get DVD playback and I'd buy. I'd send my old Wii to my brother as a Bday gift or something. As long as a game doesn't REQUIRE you to get one of the new Wii versions, then I'll be fine with it.
I just spent my second weekend playing with friends I introduced to the Wii during New Years. None of them are "gamers" as we think of them. They play poker and that's about as close as it gets.
One actually went out and got a Wii and is very happy with the graphics. Non-gamers may see it as "good enough." You and I of course know that the other systems are far more powerful graphicly, but my friend wasn't about to go out and spend $700 to get a PS3 as his first game system. We had a new friend over as well. Another non-gamer. Even after I had gone to bed, they were up to 3am, playing Wii Sports Golf.
Nintendo has hit the nail on the head I think. We might see the hype die off, but the hype that goes on is word of mouth. You know, plain old conversation in real life. Not everyone's primary mode of contact is email or web bulletin boards. I think this kind of "hype" goes far further in expanding the video gaming population than any ad campaign could.
I agree with you to a point... Overlooking a tiny little symbol is easy to do. How many times has a peice of software come grinding to a halt due to one little checkbox someone didn't notice?
Copyright and trademark are different situations. To protect your trademark(logo, company name, etc) you MUST take action to protect it. If you ignore it, you may lose your trademark protection. If you license/permit the usage to a group, this is seen as a way to protect your trademark since you've considered the usage and allowed the parties to use the trademark.
If they did nothing at all, that would cause potential problems. Their response is both classy, and covers their ass.
Similar thing happened to my pro photographer friend. I had noticed his entire photoset was under Creative Commons. I mentioned it to him and he was NOT happy. His stuff was up for weeks before it was noticed. It was never intended to be under Creative Commons.
If the website has that set as default and the creator didn't check, can you argue that the creator didn't place it under the license? Is the creator SOL because of those few moments where someone might have snagged it? I don't think that one could predict the outcome in court.