Tell her you spend your entire day reading slashdot and what turns you on most are pictures of Apple I kits. She will, most likely, INSTANTLY be turned off. If she does not, ask her to marry you and have your children. You will most likely never have a chance like this again in your life. If she refuses, you have earned the right to install Linux and spell Microsoft thus: "M$".
It's not PAL30. It's PAL 60. 99% of TV in the market today support it. 99% of the TVs in Europe support NTSC, as well. Basically, PAL is a superior format, resolutionwise, and has no problemwith inferior resolution NTSC video. Anyway, most DVD players convert NTSC-60 to PAL-50 flawlessly. You only there is some kind of conversion in extreme pan shots.
I don't understand why this is modded funny. It is true. I have 3 dvd players in 3 different stores. When I asked whether they were region free they all said "don't buy Sony or Pioneer" and gave me a sheet of paper with instructions on how to set the player to any region I want. Aiwa all the way, btw.
Not everyone cares for "epic scope" games. I, for example, don't want to have to invest tens of hours in a game to enjoy myself. What is wrong with simple games? I absolutely hate pretentious games like Final Fantasy as it has become, I mean, what is the point? What is the challenge?
There is something called a "cost/benefit" analysis that has to be presented every time a decision like that has to be made. It takes into account such things like the present solution, something called "cost of opportunity", and a lot more factors that are, more or less, standard in all industries. Managers have to justify their decisions to someone, and not all companies have a goal of short term cost cuts, let me assure you. Does it happen? Yes, without a doubt. Whose fault it is? The manager's superior who has blind faith in the manager's ability to solve problems creatively.
1. The Sims is NOT a game. It has mistakenly been labeled as such and you are perpetuating a myth. Please stop it. It's like calling Shakira's singing "music"
2. Trust me, most people who develop games are passionate about receiving a paycheck. There are true visionaries but they are few and far between.
I'd rather mentally block the image of GI Joe RTS games from my head, if you don't mind. I do, however, hope you get employed in something as exciting as such a venture, whatever the cost to mankind might be.
I think the point he was trying to make is that, while for every other encoding format under the sun (except perhaps the idiotic Real one), you download a codec and then you play the video using the player of your choice, not having to learn how to use a new piece of software - Windows Media Player works very well, thank you. I agree with him 100%.
Piracy means, basically, being able to buy / download counterfeit software, and play it in my console with a minimum of hassle. Running homebrew software on an emulator does not constitute piracy, I think.
First of all, if you send your kid to school for academic advancement, might I suggest you take a look at current education theory? Kids are not in school only to learn maths and English, they are there to learn how to function in society, how to form relationships with peers and superiors and how to compete in a small society. Also, you might not agree with the grandparent calling file sharing "theft", but it is has, indeed, become a weak and tired argument in slashdot. It might be theft, copyright infringement or another crime, but the fact is that the "arguments" you are offering are totally irrelevant. What the school is trying to do is teaching the pupils that what they do is not only illegal (which they would know, presumably), but also morally wrong and it hurts people who write music for a living. That is a fact. You might be hurting music companies more, but there is no doubt you are also hurting the artists. Accept it. It might, perhaps, be easier to convince yourself that you are living in a world where downloading songs of kazaa is some kind of grand resistance against the RIAA overlords, but the fact is you are costing someone their job / bonus. Let me just finish off by saying that this whole idea is as much a matter of lobbying as, say, teaching kids not to steal magazines from a newsstand. Both are illegal. You don't agree, change the law. You do live in a democratic regime, don't you? Don't be a drone, fight if you thing you are wronged. Posting irrelavant comments on slashdot does not constitute a "fight".
The USSR was a socialist entity, not a communist one. Actually, USSR stood for "Union of Socialist Soviet Republics". Lenin himself defined communism as "socialism plus electricity", whatever that means today.
Essentially, communism is a utopic regime. Realistically, socialism is as close to communist doctrins as any country has gone.
I don't play NWN on my Mac online, therefore it is possible the problem did not affect me and therefore I didn't realise it existed. However, I maintain that you harbour a certain confusion regarding the XBox. The only thing that separates the XBox from the current generation of consoles is that it has a hard drive and, therefore, it is possible to update / patch a game and / or the network components. You can be certain that when the PS2 hard drive appears in the West, games using it will be patch-able. Indeed FF-XI has been. I don't understand what the pluging of a security hole has to do with the conversation but, be certain that it was something that could be used for pirating games a-la Dreamcast. As for Nintendo, not long ago I managed to get stuck in a wall in Metroid Prime. Let me assure you, it was a software problem.
1. "Xbox aside": I have never seen a show stopping bug on an xbox game. On the other hand, the latest Tomb raider game for the ps2 was full of very, very, serious bugs, resulting in hard resets.
2."When was the last time a PS2 game had a patch that shut people out of the system?". When was the last time a PS2 game had a patch?
3. "NWN did that when they created a faulty patch for the Mac version." The Mac version entered beta in June 2003, and was released less than three weeks ago. Having played the game on my Mac, I haven't had any faulty patches. So, care to give more info?
Furthermore, I don't understand your obsession with stability. I haven't had a game crash on me for what seems like years. Last time something crashed was when I tried to replay Half Life without updating it using Direct X so, yes, I guess it might have been a problem. Modern PC games have problems and need patches but they hardly have that many stability issues - they are patched for features most of the time. And I really don't understand your comments on the Xbox, are you under the illusion that the Xbox is upgradable in the way a PC is? It is not. There is nothing upgradeable in that box except for the hard drive and even then you need a modchip and the tools to make it bootable. Hardly upgradable for an average end user.
There are A LOT of sites out there with bittorrent links. Search google. I don't really like BT,it totally saturates my bandwidth since I have a very asymetric connection...
I mean, I respect simoniker and everything, I think games.slashdot.org is a pretty good discussion forum but, seriously, get over the games / violence thing already. This is like, what, the fifth or sixth article in a short time showing a link, real or unreal, between video games and violence. True, they all have different angles and they all, arguably, provide insight to the "problem", but do we have to have more articles about video-game related violence than ones to do with SCO? I mean, if there was a new scientific study linking the two, sure, let's know about it and talk about it, but stupidly arguing for (or, as the case might be for this forum) against the idea in perpetuity gets too much. So, simoniker, can you please post a "HL2 delayed rumors" thingy instead? THEN you'll see video-games related violence, I GUARANTEE you.
I can name twice as many games that are coming out on the PC - games that are not only good, but are eagerly expected and they are coming out in the next 6 months. Xbox owners are looking forward to Halo 2, PS2 GT4 and a few other first rate games, and Gamecube owners are waiting for a miracle. Owning everything on the list, I am sincere when I say that there is NOTHING coming close to the choice PC owners will have in the next 6 months. Saying that MS is "depriving PC gaming of oxygen" is ridiculous - as a matter of fact Microsoft publish themselves some of the best strategy games. Just because a console's flagship title does not appear on the PC does not mean PC as a gaming platform is doomed - it means the company publishing it has its own plans and priorities. I mean, what next, saying PC gaming is doomed because Mario Sunshine will not appear on the PC?
Well, I'm sorry if my comment was overly sarcastic but I think it is entirely unrealistic to expect a company like Sony to, essentially, publish an open-source library to what is, without a doubt, a very complicated process. I don't think, really, they just drag and drop a couple of mp3s on the cd and burn it...
The comment on karaoke was intended to be funny, by the way, sorry if it didn't come through as such.
What do you mean by "proprietary format"? AFAIK, not exactly being a karaoke fan, you can buy karaoke cds for something like 5 euros. So, if you want "open format karaoke" get audio cds or karaoke dvds. If, however, you think the concept is good, I don't really see how the format could be "open" while it being a commercial product...
Also,
Because singing along with my stereo is SOOOO stupid
The system does not work because nobody expects prisons to be corrective facilities anymore. Everyone has resigned to seeing them as punishment. Would you, for example, hire someone who has been in prison? I know I wouldn't, even considering the post I made. Why? Because even though prison, the institution, is a corrective facility, nobody expects it to function as such. It ends up, therefore, being exactly what everyone thinks it is - punishment.
My own worldview does not have a place for prisons as they are since they provide absolutely no benefit to society except for a sense of "revenge" on the part of the wronged (be it society or an individual) and a segregation of the good and the bad.
Slashdot Mirror
Linux only costs $699.
Regards,
P Whilfumsher, Esq.
True to the slashdot way of being, one of the best comments made in this site does not get modded up. Shame on you, mods...
It's not PAL30. It's PAL 60. 99% of TV in the market today support it. 99% of the TVs in Europe support NTSC, as well. Basically, PAL is a superior format, resolutionwise, and has no problemwith inferior resolution NTSC video. Anyway, most DVD players convert NTSC-60 to PAL-50 flawlessly. You only there is some kind of conversion in extreme pan shots.
I don't understand why this is modded funny. It is true. I have 3 dvd players in 3 different stores. When I asked whether they were region free they all said "don't buy Sony or Pioneer" and gave me a sheet of paper with instructions on how to set the player to any region I want. Aiwa all the way, btw.
Not everyone cares for "epic scope" games. I, for example, don't want to have to invest tens of hours in a game to enjoy myself. What is wrong with simple games? I absolutely hate pretentious games like Final Fantasy as it has become, I mean, what is the point? What is the challenge?
There is something called a "cost/benefit" analysis that has to be presented every time a decision like that has to be made. It takes into account such things like the present solution, something called "cost of opportunity", and a lot more factors that are, more or less, standard in all industries. Managers have to justify their decisions to someone, and not all companies have a goal of short term cost cuts, let me assure you. Does it happen? Yes, without a doubt. Whose fault it is? The manager's superior who has blind faith in the manager's ability to solve problems creatively.
2. Trust me, most people who develop games are passionate about receiving a paycheck. There are true visionaries but they are few and far between.
I'd rather mentally block the image of GI Joe RTS games from my head, if you don't mind. I do, however, hope you get employed in something as exciting as such a venture, whatever the cost to mankind might be.
I think the point he was trying to make is that, while for every other encoding format under the sun (except perhaps the idiotic Real one), you download a codec and then you play the video using the player of your choice, not having to learn how to use a new piece of software - Windows Media Player works very well, thank you. I agree with him 100%.
Piracy means, basically, being able to buy / download counterfeit software, and play it in my console with a minimum of hassle. Running homebrew software on an emulator does not constitute piracy, I think.
First of all, if you send your kid to school for academic advancement, might I suggest you take a look at current education theory? Kids are not in school only to learn maths and English, they are there to learn how to function in society, how to form relationships with peers and superiors and how to compete in a small society. Also, you might not agree with the grandparent calling file sharing "theft", but it is has, indeed, become a weak and tired argument in slashdot. It might be theft, copyright infringement or another crime, but the fact is that the "arguments" you are offering are totally irrelevant. What the school is trying to do is teaching the pupils that what they do is not only illegal (which they would know, presumably), but also morally wrong and it hurts people who write music for a living. That is a fact. You might be hurting music companies more, but there is no doubt you are also hurting the artists. Accept it. It might, perhaps, be easier to convince yourself that you are living in a world where downloading songs of kazaa is some kind of grand resistance against the RIAA overlords, but the fact is you are costing someone their job / bonus. Let me just finish off by saying that this whole idea is as much a matter of lobbying as, say, teaching kids not to steal magazines from a newsstand. Both are illegal. You don't agree, change the law. You do live in a democratic regime, don't you? Don't be a drone, fight if you thing you are wronged. Posting irrelavant comments on slashdot does not constitute a "fight".
Gamecube games have not been copied. People have been able to get the data off the disks, which is a totally different thing.
Oh no! Now IRC will be suddenly full of immature people using some kind of weird form of English! Oh wait...
Essentially, communism is a utopic regime. Realistically, socialism is as close to communist doctrins as any country has gone.
I don't play NWN on my Mac online, therefore it is possible the problem did not affect me and therefore I didn't realise it existed. However, I maintain that you harbour a certain confusion regarding the XBox. The only thing that separates the XBox from the current generation of consoles is that it has a hard drive and, therefore, it is possible to update / patch a game and / or the network components. You can be certain that when the PS2 hard drive appears in the West, games using it will be patch-able. Indeed FF-XI has been. I don't understand what the pluging of a security hole has to do with the conversation but, be certain that it was something that could be used for pirating games a-la Dreamcast. As for Nintendo, not long ago I managed to get stuck in a wall in Metroid Prime. Let me assure you, it was a software problem.
... Nevermind ...
1. "Xbox aside": I have never seen a show stopping bug on an xbox game. On the other hand, the latest Tomb raider game for the ps2 was full of very, very, serious bugs, resulting in hard resets.
2."When was the last time a PS2 game had a patch that shut people out of the system?". When was the last time a PS2 game had a patch?
3. "NWN did that when they created a faulty patch for the Mac version." The Mac version entered beta in June 2003, and was released less than three weeks ago. Having played the game on my Mac, I haven't had any faulty patches. So, care to give more info?
Furthermore, I don't understand your obsession with stability. I haven't had a game crash on me for what seems like years. Last time something crashed was when I tried to replay Half Life without updating it using Direct X so, yes, I guess it might have been a problem. Modern PC games have problems and need patches but they hardly have that many stability issues - they are patched for features most of the time. And I really don't understand your comments on the Xbox, are you under the illusion that the Xbox is upgradable in the way a PC is? It is not. There is nothing upgradeable in that box except for the hard drive and even then you need a modchip and the tools to make it bootable. Hardly upgradable for an average end user.
There are A LOT of sites out there with bittorrent links. Search google. I don't really like BT,it totally saturates my bandwidth since I have a very asymetric connection...
I mean, I respect simoniker and everything, I think games.slashdot.org is a pretty good discussion forum but, seriously, get over the games / violence thing already. This is like, what, the fifth or sixth article in a short time showing a link, real or unreal, between video games and violence. True, they all have different angles and they all, arguably, provide insight to the "problem", but do we have to have more articles about video-game related violence than ones to do with SCO? I mean, if there was a new scientific study linking the two, sure, let's know about it and talk about it, but stupidly arguing for (or, as the case might be for this forum) against the idea in perpetuity gets too much. So, simoniker, can you please post a "HL2 delayed rumors" thingy instead? THEN you'll see video-games related violence, I GUARANTEE you.
Yes, but does that mean that PC gaming is dying?
Doom 3
Deusex 2
Jedi Academy
Homeworld 2
Call of duty
I can name twice as many games that are coming out on the PC - games that are not only good, but are eagerly expected and they are coming out in the next 6 months. Xbox owners are looking forward to Halo 2, PS2 GT4 and a few other first rate games, and Gamecube owners are waiting for a miracle. Owning everything on the list, I am sincere when I say that there is NOTHING coming close to the choice PC owners will have in the next 6 months. Saying that MS is "depriving PC gaming of oxygen" is ridiculous - as a matter of fact Microsoft publish themselves some of the best strategy games. Just because a console's flagship title does not appear on the PC does not mean PC as a gaming platform is doomed - it means the company publishing it has its own plans and priorities. I mean, what next, saying PC gaming is doomed because Mario Sunshine will not appear on the PC?
Really? Care to provide a link? No? Didn't think so.
The comment on karaoke was intended to be funny, by the way, sorry if it didn't come through as such.
Also,
Actually, it is.My own worldview does not have a place for prisons as they are since they provide absolutely no benefit to society except for a sense of "revenge" on the part of the wronged (be it society or an individual) and a segregation of the good and the bad.