Okay, I'll admit that I wasn't expecting that. So is Amazon taking the loss, I wonder, or is the publisher dissing Steam by letting them sell the licenses?
Steam guarantees that I'll have those games available to me no matter what happens to my computer
Unless you have the unmitigated gall to object to any change they might decide to shove into their TOS. If that's the case, well then fuck you, peasant. Eat it, or kiss your library goodbye.
Steam is certainly "DRM done right," as so many love to parrot: You do what they say, or they take your games away. That's what DRM is supposed to do, after all.
If they're just re-packaging steam crap, why waste the time and effort? If someone is willing to buy indie games off Steam, they will. Steam is hardly an unknown at this point. And it's no good to anyone who isn't willing to deal with Steam, either.
So basically, they want to be yet another middle-man.
Sure ipods now are a lot better than they were back then but they're still no better than the competition and more expensive.
Sadly, that's not even true anymore. To my knowledge, the iPod classic is the only hard-drive based music player (not media player) available anymore, and I've been looking. Everything else has either gone to flash, which is all the rage but gives significantly less storage for the price, or the "media player" route, with oversized screens and controls even less suited for eyes-free use than the thumbwheel thing (that I still loathe).
It's a strange, scary world when Apple is wins in "bang-for-the-buck" in anything.
The left in America claims to believe in abortion rights, gay marriage, social and racial justice, legalizing drugs, social safety nets, taxing the rich, limiting corporate power, restricting corporate executive pay, and many other of the planks in the international leftist movement. In practice, there is no discernible difference, as evidenced by little to no progress in any of those areas, even during periods of "Left" supermajority.
That idiotic right-hand-hidden toolbar thing, whatever they call it, frequently takes several attempts before it popped up.
It's ridiculous to have to go into "settings" to shut down the goddamn computer.
The "search" pane that I have to use to launch programs I don't want pinned to the taskbar (which is how I know what's actually RUNNING) sucks.
The little "Device" management panel is a nightmare.
I don't care if they squeezed an extra 5% performance boost out of the backend when their braindead UI leads to a 20% loss of productivity because the stupid tablet interface gets in my way far more than it assists me.
And I don't think that 7% figure is accurate... it's more like 0.7% of the population getting married any given year, and 0.3% per year getting divorced. At that rate, more people are dying (0.8%/year overall, assume 0.4% for married people who make up half the population) than getting divorced.
By that rate, more people are also dying than getting MARRIED.
So either the account has been sold or otherwise ended up in the hands of some scumbag "reputation management" firm, or you're as mentally deficient as the "UX" jerkoffs that think a tablet interface on a desktop is anything other than the most brain-meltingly stupid "innovation" of the last decade.
It's exactly the Court's purpose (or was, when the concept was conceived) to restrict the ability of the Executive AND the Legislature to do things that are abusive under the constitution.
That was my thought, but Dr. Girlfriend pointed out a small hole in that theory: Everybody knows about the genocide committed to end the Time War, but the finale hinted at some kind of big deep secret.
Which led to some interesting discussion on what would be so bad that a guy that cops to double genocide thinks needs to be buried: The Doctor's a brony.
Dammit, O'Neill, we told you not to use that damn thing during Solar Flare activities. And tell Carter that the kitschy iron-bead jewelry is NOT part of her uniform!
I do, in fact, and while things are more than a little clusterfucked here, I've yet to see anyone brought up on anything for using NoScript or Adblock.
Standardising on this should mean someone with a Netflix account will get to stream videos on not just Windows (hopefully without Silverlight) but also their standards compliant Linux desktop, Mac and possibly phone and tablet all via the browser.
It will not mean that. At all.
You might want to actually get the details about what you're speaking out in favor of, before you actually put your support behind it.
Basically all they're saying is that a website should tell you if you're entitled to use something like Greasemonkey to replace their javascript with your own clean version
Why should I need the website to tell me that? Of course I'm permitted to do that. They might not WANT me to, and might think they can TRY to tell me I'm not, but that's hardly the same thing.
Is this a different product than the mainline Opera browser, or are they going to be basing future versions on Chromium, and just decided to stop using the clear and understandable "beta?" It's not all that clear to me, but if the latter, at least it's one fewer browser I have to keep installed for testing.
Except that I don't think "casuals" abandoning consoles is much of a change. I've said elsewhere and for years that "casual gamers" are a fickle market and that consoles trying to cater to them is a mistake, in the long run. Paying $60 for a 5-10 hour game isn't something casual gamers do, and neither is paying $60 for 6-12 months of online play.
Even before all the odious crap of the new generation, the iPads and Androids have been eating the casual market out from under the Wii (the only really 'casual focused' console of the last generation) for a long time now. I don't think we can count on them driving much change in the console space, other than maybe a shift back to focusing on "core" gamers.
Evil Overlord List #65: "If I must have computer systems with publically available terminals, the maps they display of my complex will have a room clearly marked as the Main Control Room. That room will be the Execution Chamber. The actual main control room will be marked as Sewage Overflow Containment."
That isn't a description of a game or a console that I can "own". This will filter down into the public perception, given the inevitable "geek rage" from early adopters. The "rent a game that we can switch off any time" business model will bite them hard, and the perceived worth of a games disc will plummet. Once non-hardcore gamers stop paying $60 for Call of Duty 16, the console industry as we know it is finished.
I was right with you up until this part. The sad fact of the matter is that gamers, regardless of platform (yes, even the great PCMR), have shown time and again that they're more than willing, even happy, to eat any shit sandwich placed before them, provided it has the right brand-tribe stamp on it.
Even Nintendo might be able to get over their NIH gimmick crap if the alternative is going hungry, and I say that as one whose money (or whose parents' money) they got for nearly 30 years. It's not surprising that they're feeling the pinch now, though. They're learning the hard way what I, and others, said years ago when Reggie basically told all the old-school fans "The Wii isn't for you": The "casual gamer" is fickle, cheap, and has a truckload of options. They're not a "niche" market.
Slashdot Mirror
Okay, I'll admit that I wasn't expecting that. So is Amazon taking the loss, I wonder, or is the publisher dissing Steam by letting them sell the licenses?
Interesting.
Steam guarantees that I'll have those games available to me no matter what happens to my computer
Unless you have the unmitigated gall to object to any change they might decide to shove into their TOS. If that's the case, well then fuck you, peasant. Eat it, or kiss your library goodbye.
Steam is certainly "DRM done right," as so many love to parrot: You do what they say, or they take your games away. That's what DRM is supposed to do, after all.
Not usually, no. You don't often see Sweetbay going to Publix and buying up all their store-brand Cheerios to put on their own shelves.
If they were setting up an ALTERNATIVE to Steam, your comparison might be more apt.
and published by large publishers
I think that's stretching the definition of "indie" unto meaninglessness.
If they're just re-packaging steam crap, why waste the time and effort? If someone is willing to buy indie games off Steam, they will. Steam is hardly an unknown at this point. And it's no good to anyone who isn't willing to deal with Steam, either.
So basically, they want to be yet another middle-man.
It's actually happened...
Now Chinese are outsourcing to us
Sure ipods now are a lot better than they were back then but they're still no better than the competition and more expensive.
Sadly, that's not even true anymore. To my knowledge, the iPod classic is the only hard-drive based music player (not media player) available anymore, and I've been looking. Everything else has either gone to flash, which is all the rage but gives significantly less storage for the price, or the "media player" route, with oversized screens and controls even less suited for eyes-free use than the thumbwheel thing (that I still loathe).
It's a strange, scary world when Apple is wins in "bang-for-the-buck" in anything.
The left in America claims to believe in abortion rights, gay marriage, social and racial justice, legalizing drugs, social safety nets, taxing the rich, limiting corporate power, restricting corporate executive pay, and many other of the planks in the international leftist movement. In practice, there is no discernible difference, as evidenced by little to no progress in any of those areas, even during periods of "Left" supermajority.
FTFY.
Yes, I have.
I don't care if they squeezed an extra 5% performance boost out of the backend when their braindead UI leads to a 20% loss of productivity because the stupid tablet interface gets in my way far more than it assists me.
And I don't think that 7% figure is accurate ... it's more like 0.7% of the population getting married any given year, and 0.3% per year getting divorced. At that rate, more people are dying (0.8%/year overall, assume 0.4% for married people who make up half the population) than getting divorced.
By that rate, more people are also dying than getting MARRIED.
"Better dead than wed," indeed.
First and only post since June 2011, eh?
So either the account has been sold or otherwise ended up in the hands of some scumbag "reputation management" firm, or you're as mentally deficient as the "UX" jerkoffs that think a tablet interface on a desktop is anything other than the most brain-meltingly stupid "innovation" of the last decade.
What the...?
It's exactly the Court's purpose (or was, when the concept was conceived) to restrict the ability of the Executive AND the Legislature to do things that are abusive under the constitution.
That was my thought, but Dr. Girlfriend pointed out a small hole in that theory: Everybody knows about the genocide committed to end the Time War, but the finale hinted at some kind of big deep secret.
Which led to some interesting discussion on what would be so bad that a guy that cops to double genocide thinks needs to be buried: The Doctor's a brony.
Dammit, O'Neill, we told you not to use that damn thing during Solar Flare activities. And tell Carter that the kitschy iron-bead jewelry is NOT part of her uniform!
I do, in fact, and while things are more than a little clusterfucked here, I've yet to see anyone brought up on anything for using NoScript or Adblock.
Standardising on this should mean someone with a Netflix account will get to stream videos on not just Windows (hopefully without Silverlight) but also their standards compliant Linux desktop, Mac and possibly phone and tablet all via the browser.
It will not mean that. At all.
You might want to actually get the details about what you're speaking out in favor of, before you actually put your support behind it.
This is anything but unified DRM.
Basically all they're saying is that a website should tell you if you're entitled to use something like Greasemonkey to replace their javascript with your own clean version
Why should I need the website to tell me that? Of course I'm permitted to do that. They might not WANT me to, and might think they can TRY to tell me I'm not, but that's hardly the same thing.
And people thought early the CDRs with little/no buffer invented that problem. ;)
Damn kids...
Thanks
Probably, but your first instance of "in" was certainly redundant! ;)
Is this a different product than the mainline Opera browser, or are they going to be basing future versions on Chromium, and just decided to stop using the clear and understandable "beta?" It's not all that clear to me, but if the latter, at least it's one fewer browser I have to keep installed for testing.
Except that I don't think "casuals" abandoning consoles is much of a change. I've said elsewhere and for years that "casual gamers" are a fickle market and that consoles trying to cater to them is a mistake, in the long run. Paying $60 for a 5-10 hour game isn't something casual gamers do, and neither is paying $60 for 6-12 months of online play.
Even before all the odious crap of the new generation, the iPads and Androids have been eating the casual market out from under the Wii (the only really 'casual focused' console of the last generation) for a long time now. I don't think we can count on them driving much change in the console space, other than maybe a shift back to focusing on "core" gamers.
Evil Overlord List #65: "If I must have computer systems with publically available terminals, the maps they display of my complex will have a room clearly marked as the Main Control Room. That room will be the Execution Chamber. The actual main control room will be marked as Sewage Overflow Containment."
That isn't a description of a game or a console that I can "own". This will filter down into the public perception, given the inevitable "geek rage" from early adopters. The "rent a game that we can switch off any time" business model will bite them hard, and the perceived worth of a games disc will plummet. Once non-hardcore gamers stop paying $60 for Call of Duty 16, the console industry as we know it is finished.
I was right with you up until this part. The sad fact of the matter is that gamers, regardless of platform (yes, even the great PCMR), have shown time and again that they're more than willing, even happy, to eat any shit sandwich placed before them, provided it has the right brand-tribe stamp on it.
Even Nintendo might be able to get over their NIH gimmick crap if the alternative is going hungry, and I say that as one whose money (or whose parents' money) they got for nearly 30 years. It's not surprising that they're feeling the pinch now, though. They're learning the hard way what I, and others, said years ago when Reggie basically told all the old-school fans "The Wii isn't for you": The "casual gamer" is fickle, cheap, and has a truckload of options. They're not a "niche" market.