Just a guess but maybe a game engine has only so many good years ahead of it before it is obsolete?
While I agree that there's nothing weird about having three games or so in a series and then having new series become more popular (duh?!?) - it's not really the engine - Doom 3 for example was not based on the same engine as Doom 1 and 2... ditto for Return to Wolfenstein and others...
I wonder how many people are aware that 'gypped' is a racial slur. Might as well just say jewed or chinked or niggered. Your doing the same thing. Associating an ethnic group with a negative stereo type. Maybe you should just say "not feeling ripped off" or "feeling they got their moneys worth". I am not of that ethnic group but I find it offensive when someone says "jewed" or calls me "slanty eyed".
While I get this (and myself became aware this was a slur only a few years ago after having heard the term since childhood) but... just how many gypsies are there today? "roving wanderes"? Do they still exist? We get to use slurs against cultures which haven't existed for a long time - oh, say, cavemen in certain TV commercials, right?
Re:Read between the lines
on
Halo 3 Review
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· Score: 1
Well, isn't that the fault of the marketing department?
Since when is being incredibly successful at what you were tasked with doing described with the word "fault"? Unless you're saying that they wasted their money and that they aren't going to make it back in sales and brand visibility. I find that, umm, extremely unlikely.
That's probably around one Ubuntu DVD per day, or a couple of movies per day, neither of which seems totally unreasonable.
You download an Ubuntu DVD every day? There's a dialog that pops up in IE when you download a file that offers "Run/Save/Cancel". You might want to consider the "Save" button next time.
So what did I learn out of this: Only when she switched to natural birth control (taking temperature combined with some other factors), which I believed to be a fraud because "science" always told us so, did the problem go away and oh boy did it go away... Oh and she's without a baby and she's actually in her eighth month with the NFP method.
No doctor in their right mind would call the Rhythm Method (what you are referring to) a fraud. It just isn't nearly as effective as the pill, or virtually any other common method of contraception. All published statistics on birth control effectiveness refer to the liklihood of a woman getting pregnant over the course of a year - your anecdotal story doesn't even provide a single year - and it's a single data point - which is to say, it's completely worthless for the purposes of evaluation of effectiveness.
All hormonal birth control methods are outrageously more effective than all non-hormonal methods (leaving out abstinance for the purposes of this discussion). This includes the pill, implants, vaginal rings, shots, and some IUDs. They also have very real side effects (bad: blood clots, mood swings, good: prevents cervical cancer, prevents ovarian cysts), though different dosages, delivery mechanisms and drug combinations impact this. Do what works for you, but don't try to sell the rest of the world about how "the pill is unnecessary" or "natural birth control is just as good" because that's a load of crap.
Just a heads up: After you do have a child and are trying to prevent another immediately your wife (a hypochondriac perhaps?) will likely tell you about how breast feeding for a long duration (multiple years) can be an effective form of birth control. It is in fact documented to be 'effective' in the third world, and can be effective here.
There are also side effects to this, the regularity of feeding required to maintain the necessary hormone levels will impact her sex drive - and for many people is completely impractical in the first world (if, for example, she works for a living.) There's that and the fact that 'effective' in this case still means less effective than every 'normal' form of birth control available.
Now, on the general issue of 'natural medecine'. There are TONS of natural medicines that work REALLY well. We identify them, purify them, and they become drugs, at which point some people decide they are no longer 'natural'. (what, because we know why they work?). The rest of the commonly known herbal remedies you can buy today have not become drugs because they don't work.
Where is there a LAW that says that a mouse click or ripping some plastic wrapping constitutes an agreement?
Shrink wrap, I agree - that's not a contract. Clicking "I agree" right below the legal agreement - ok, it could be stronger if it said "type your name here" but it sure seems valid to me, because if that's not valid then clicking "purchase" at amazon is not valid and that can't be right - or the entire concept of purchasing online falls apart. Are you going to go back to your credit card company after and say "I didn't sign a paper document saying I would pay for this so I want the charges reversed"?
Paper signatures suck anyway because they are easy to reproduce or forge - they're not much better than keeping track of the fact that you clicked "I agree" on a particular dialog when using a particular computer.
Universal digital identity with a secured signature system would be best, but when it comes down to the details plenty of people will be jumping up and down about the privacy implications, destruction of anonymity on the internet, security implementation details, and ownership of the system (including me, on all fronts, it's no easy problem to solve.)
In theory, this mode of failure should be still under warranty because on a docking station a laptop operates at full blast (no power savings) and with the lid closed.
While this is getting seriously OT and has nothing to do with the warranty, that's not really true. Vista will lower the CPU speed and take other power management actions even when on AC power (unless you configure it not to). The default 'balanced' power management profile assumes you have at least some interest in keeping a modest power bill.
It's a confusing topic - teflon is still being used in cookware and gore-tex (and similar products, effectively perforated teflon layered with vinyl or nylon), yet there have been recalls of teflon based products like scotchgard. It's hard to make out whether it's just a manufacturing byproduct issue or if the actual products themselves are dangerous. It's also unclear whether this is dangerous internally, gastrointestinally, or only when inhaled (like asbestos).
These vehicles are heavily subsidized by the states where you may sell them, and they're interested in getting their investment back. California lays out wads of cash for some cleaner vehicles, so California wants them driven in California (for example; there are several other states involved). The automakers are not allowed to sell them anywhere else. It's that simple.
There should be a way to mod a post up to the top of the list. I hate having to read through fifty-odd comments before getting to this - the real, rational, and understandable reason for the restriction.
They get a license to use your work as they choose, but it's non-exclusive and you retain copyright. There's nothing there which permits use of your clip by any entity other than YT (and its affiliates). It goes on to say YT users are granted a license to stream the video but only from YT themselves.
Actually - from the terms of use:
>> sublicenseable and transferable >> in any media formats and through any media channels.
The question is, did YouTube sublicense this? Do they have a general agreement allowing such sublicensing? Do they even need to do this 'beforehand' or can they OK it after the fact?
I think the idea that Viacom can use his content yet he can't use their content which is specifically in reply to his content is extremely lame - however, sadly, it may actually be the way the agreements work out.
Er.. what is "legally" doing in there? The main problem with Vista isn't that you can't legally play back these formats in full resolution. The problem is that you can't do it illegally either! Instead of just popping up a box that says "You may be violating the law if you continue! Are you sure you want to risk it?", Vista prevents you from even trying.
Actually, you can play back the content (HD-DVD/BluRay) illegally on Vista - if you can manage to write the software to do it and get yourself a playback key from the MPAA*. Vista doesn't even have softare to play back either of these formats, it has a secure video path which 3rd parties who write protected media playback software use. They don't have to use the secure path, but if they don't the'll get sued into the ground by the MPAA. Microsoft is merely providing an OS level facility which the 3rd parties can use to write software that conforms to the MPAA demands. Vista itself (DirectShow I guess) uses this secure path for playback of WMDRM content (though the down-res issue does not apply to WMDRM content.)
*MPAA used as a placeholder for the appropriate media bullying organization.
Trust me, you cannot tell the difference between a 320kbps mp3 and a CD.
Seriously, the people who say they can tell the difference would never pull it off in a blind comparison. They convince themselves that they can tell the difference. Heck at 500kbps or so you can have lossless - and the music industry would still claim you're only getting 50% of the music on the CD because it suits their interests to make that claim.
I'd like to see an mp3-type format encoded against 24/96 source material. Odds are that even at ~256kbps you can get better-than-CD quality if you use better-than-CD source material. Sure, the 24/96 source sounds better, but you can't actually buy that anywhere so it's a moot point.
Vista will down-res DRM protected content that it is required to down-res. I hate it, you hate it, we all hate it - but the alternative is for it to not be able to play that content at all. The content that is being down-res'd is content that you simply can't play on any system without down-resing or 'breaking the law'.
Yes, the laws are rediculous - going so far as to allow, for example, resampled and up-resed DVD (normal) playback over VGA but not over component despite the fact that both connections are analog and have the same level of security (i.e. none). The only difference is that VGA is viewed as a PC monitor connection and HDMI is viewed as a TV connection.
This issue of course pre-dates the current concern for BluRay and HD-DVD playback which require a secure path to the display for full res playback. When you find another OS that can legally playback these formats over an insecure channel in full res then you can start complaining about Vista, but until you do you should restrict your complaints in this area to the media cartel that is creating these rules and the government that supports and enforces this type of behavior.
Or you can just accept, as I have, that the winner of the BluRay vs. HD-DVD war will actually be downloaded movies and normal DVDs and ignore any weird playback behaviors in BluRay and HD-DVD.
Employer sponsored health plans are thoroughly capitalist entities. They exist because there is market demand for them. You are free to opt in or out of them. And when you do opt out, you do not pay for them.
No, the amount of money my employer will give me if I completely opt out of health insurance is no where near what they pay for health insurance. They tell me what they pay for me and my family, and what they'd give me if I dropped it - it's on the order of 'it costs us $1000/mo, we'd give you $85/mo'.
Further, I don't think there is such a huge distinction between the meaning of 'state' and 'very large employer'. They both offer services to their members, and 'states' exist at many levels, the UN, the US Govt, your state, your county, your city, your planned community with it's own set of rules, requirements, taxes ("fees"), and benefits. I don't think employers are all that different - they have rules, they offer benefits, they request something from you (work).
Assuming Apple doesn't take steps in a subsequent update to actively disable third party applications, this could provide a channel for showing (or not) that third party applications doesn't automatically mean disruption of the provider network.
There is no way that 'network disruption' is the real reason for blocking 3rd party apps. There are plenty of windows mobile phones out there and they all allow the user to install whatever 3rd party apps they want. I don't know why Apple and/or AT&T wants to block 3rd party apps but the stability of their cell network is most definitely not the real issue.
The "400 charges" thing isn't any 400 charges; partial charges are just that: partial. This lithium ion battery is no different from any other.
Lithium batteries last approximatelly three years from their date of manufacture until their internal resistance seriously degrades their capacity. The number of times you charge them is fairly irrelevant to their livespan. Repeated partial charges without topping out or bottoming out will make it difficult for the battery to track how much power it has left, but this is restored by fully charging the battery again.
He left MS for EA!? Wow. Things must be really bad at Microsoft these days. This is the company that got hit with that class action lawsuit by its employees for overworking them without overtime pay.
And just which side of the class-action suit do you think he's being hired into - the group who sued or the group who got sued?
Anyone who reads Microsoft employee discussion boards knows that the Xbox has become the company's most hated product and the calls for heads to roll after the shocking billion dollar repair bill were loud and clear from everyone.
Interesting? This is a troll. XBox is one of the most loved products internally at Microsoft. It creates excitement, it's one of the few things that makes Microsoft look at all "cool" these days. Sure, people know that Office and Windows make the majority of the money, but XBox, mobile, media center, and even Zune are actually exciting (ignoring Zune's lack of success thus far, they are trying new things, they are competing head on with Apple, they are taking risks, and thats exciting even if it doesn't rake in the dollars).
Will XBox ever end up with a net gain financially? I certainly can't say, but I'm also not entirely sure it matters. Think of it as general Microsoft brand-awareness marketing expenses - with the possibility of profit in the long run.
Well, that and DVDs, unlike CDs, are priced decently. You can do a lot of DVD buying and still not go over $10 a piece, whereas you need to shell out $20 easy for a CD. can't believe the RIAA hasn't figured this out yet.
Ok, well first of all in my experience the average price for a DVD of a movie I like is a few dollars higher than the average price for a CD I like (and I don't think my tastes for either are terribly strange).
Leaving that completely aside, I don't think DVDs are priced reasonably at all given their intrinsic value. Every CD that I enjoy has significan replay value. Very, very few movies I've seen have any replay value (kids movies aside, kids seem to be willing to watch the same thing over and over and over and over). A good CD provides perhaps 100 hours of entertainment, and that entertainment can be enjoyed on it's own or in conjunction with other activities (work, running, etc). A good movie still provides about 2 hours of entertainment - there are very few movies I've watched more than once, mostly because watching a movie is a 100% attention task and for that I expect to see something I haven't seen before. The real question is 'what is it worth to the average consumer' not 'what did it cost to make'.
All good mainstream movies and musicians (and/or their publishers) make a very significant profit so this isn't a matter of pricing to cover your costs, it's a matter of pricing for maximum profits. I'll start buying movies when they cost about the same as a movie ticket (let's say $7 - $9), that's about what they are worth to me - I might pay more than that for just released (as in just released in theaters) movies since I could watch them with friends and as long as the per-person cost is comprable to watching the movie in a theater that's worth it to me.
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While I agree that there's nothing weird about having three games or so in a series and then having new series become more popular (duh?!?) - it's not really the engine - Doom 3 for example was not based on the same engine as Doom 1 and 2
While I get this (and myself became aware this was a slur only a few years ago after having heard the term since childhood) but
Since when is being incredibly successful at what you were tasked with doing described with the word "fault"? Unless you're saying that they wasted their money and that they aren't going to make it back in sales and brand visibility. I find that, umm, extremely unlikely.
You download an Ubuntu DVD every day? There's a dialog that pops up in IE when you download a file that offers "Run/Save/Cancel". You might want to consider the "Save" button next time.
No doctor in their right mind would call the Rhythm Method (what you are referring to) a fraud. It just isn't nearly as effective as the pill, or virtually any other common method of contraception. All published statistics on birth control effectiveness refer to the liklihood of a woman getting pregnant over the course of a year - your anecdotal story doesn't even provide a single year - and it's a single data point - which is to say, it's completely worthless for the purposes of evaluation of effectiveness.
All hormonal birth control methods are outrageously more effective than all non-hormonal methods (leaving out abstinance for the purposes of this discussion). This includes the pill, implants, vaginal rings, shots, and some IUDs. They also have very real side effects (bad: blood clots, mood swings, good: prevents cervical cancer, prevents ovarian cysts), though different dosages, delivery mechanisms and drug combinations impact this. Do what works for you, but don't try to sell the rest of the world about how "the pill is unnecessary" or "natural birth control is just as good" because that's a load of crap.
Just a heads up: After you do have a child and are trying to prevent another immediately your wife (a hypochondriac perhaps?) will likely tell you about how breast feeding for a long duration (multiple years) can be an effective form of birth control. It is in fact documented to be 'effective' in the third world, and can be effective here.
There are also side effects to this, the regularity of feeding required to maintain the necessary hormone levels will impact her sex drive - and for many people is completely impractical in the first world (if, for example, she works for a living.) There's that and the fact that 'effective' in this case still means less effective than every 'normal' form of birth control available.
Now, on the general issue of 'natural medecine'. There are TONS of natural medicines that work REALLY well. We identify them, purify them, and they become drugs, at which point some people decide they are no longer 'natural'. (what, because we know why they work?). The rest of the commonly known herbal remedies you can buy today have not become drugs because they don't work.
Shrink wrap, I agree - that's not a contract. Clicking "I agree" right below the legal agreement - ok, it could be stronger if it said "type your name here" but it sure seems valid to me, because if that's not valid then clicking "purchase" at amazon is not valid and that can't be right - or the entire concept of purchasing online falls apart. Are you going to go back to your credit card company after and say "I didn't sign a paper document saying I would pay for this so I want the charges reversed"?
Paper signatures suck anyway because they are easy to reproduce or forge - they're not much better than keeping track of the fact that you clicked "I agree" on a particular dialog when using a particular computer.
Universal digital identity with a secured signature system would be best, but when it comes down to the details plenty of people will be jumping up and down about the privacy implications, destruction of anonymity on the internet, security implementation details, and ownership of the system (including me, on all fronts, it's no easy problem to solve.)
While this is getting seriously OT and has nothing to do with the warranty, that's not really true. Vista will lower the CPU speed and take other power management actions even when on AC power (unless you configure it not to). The default 'balanced' power management profile assumes you have at least some interest in keeping a modest power bill.
Apparently the final product is not as clean as one might hope:
http://www.care2.com/news/member/504097294/405059
http://teflonrecall.com/
It's a confusing topic - teflon is still being used in cookware and gore-tex (and similar products, effectively perforated teflon layered with vinyl or nylon), yet there have been recalls of teflon based products like scotchgard. It's hard to make out whether it's just a manufacturing byproduct issue or if the actual products themselves are dangerous. It's also unclear whether this is dangerous internally, gastrointestinally, or only when inhaled (like asbestos).
Every electomagnetic reciever is also inherently a transmitter. This is the reason (excuse) why you can't use a radio on an airplane.
Actually, teflon is considered a 'likely carcinogen'.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=teflon+carci
There should be a way to mod a post up to the top of the list. I hate having to read through fifty-odd comments before getting to this - the real, rational, and understandable reason for the restriction.
My Prius (2007) says PZEV. I am in Washington State.
Actually - from the terms of use:
>> sublicenseable and transferable
>> in any media formats and through any media channels.
The question is, did YouTube sublicense this? Do they have a general agreement allowing such sublicensing? Do they even need to do this 'beforehand' or can they OK it after the fact?
I think the idea that Viacom can use his content yet he can't use their content which is specifically in reply to his content is extremely lame - however, sadly, it may actually be the way the agreements work out.
Actually, you can play back the content (HD-DVD/BluRay) illegally on Vista - if you can manage to write the software to do it and get yourself a playback key from the MPAA*. Vista doesn't even have softare to play back either of these formats, it has a secure video path which 3rd parties who write protected media playback software use. They don't have to use the secure path, but if they don't the'll get sued into the ground by the MPAA. Microsoft is merely providing an OS level facility which the 3rd parties can use to write software that conforms to the MPAA demands. Vista itself (DirectShow I guess) uses this secure path for playback of WMDRM content (though the down-res issue does not apply to WMDRM content.)
*MPAA used as a placeholder for the appropriate media bullying organization.
Seriously, the people who say they can tell the difference would never pull it off in a blind comparison. They convince themselves that they can tell the difference. Heck at 500kbps or so you can have lossless - and the music industry would still claim you're only getting 50% of the music on the CD because it suits their interests to make that claim.
I'd like to see an mp3-type format encoded against 24/96 source material. Odds are that even at ~256kbps you can get better-than-CD quality if you use better-than-CD source material. Sure, the 24/96 source sounds better, but you can't actually buy that anywhere so it's a moot point.
Vista will down-res DRM protected content that it is required to down-res. I hate it, you hate it, we all hate it - but the alternative is for it to not be able to play that content at all. The content that is being down-res'd is content that you simply can't play on any system without down-resing or 'breaking the law'.
Yes, the laws are rediculous - going so far as to allow, for example, resampled and up-resed DVD (normal) playback over VGA but not over component despite the fact that both connections are analog and have the same level of security (i.e. none). The only difference is that VGA is viewed as a PC monitor connection and HDMI is viewed as a TV connection.
This issue of course pre-dates the current concern for BluRay and HD-DVD playback which require a secure path to the display for full res playback. When you find another OS that can legally playback these formats over an insecure channel in full res then you can start complaining about Vista, but until you do you should restrict your complaints in this area to the media cartel that is creating these rules and the government that supports and enforces this type of behavior.
Or you can just accept, as I have, that the winner of the BluRay vs. HD-DVD war will actually be downloaded movies and normal DVDs and ignore any weird playback behaviors in BluRay and HD-DVD.
Do you seriously think Microsoft needs the cash from preorders to finance the marketing of Halo 3?
There IS NO DRM on a music CD.
Does that clear up the difference?
No, the amount of money my employer will give me if I completely opt out of health insurance is no where near what they pay for health insurance. They tell me what they pay for me and my family, and what they'd give me if I dropped it - it's on the order of 'it costs us $1000/mo, we'd give you $85/mo'.
Further, I don't think there is such a huge distinction between the meaning of 'state' and 'very large employer'. They both offer services to their members, and 'states' exist at many levels, the UN, the US Govt, your state, your county, your city, your planned community with it's own set of rules, requirements, taxes ("fees"), and benefits. I don't think employers are all that different - they have rules, they offer benefits, they request something from you (work).
There is no way that 'network disruption' is the real reason for blocking 3rd party apps. There are plenty of windows mobile phones out there and they all allow the user to install whatever 3rd party apps they want. I don't know why Apple and/or AT&T wants to block 3rd party apps but the stability of their cell network is most definitely not the real issue.
Lithium batteries last approximatelly three years from their date of manufacture until their internal resistance seriously degrades their capacity. The number of times you charge them is fairly irrelevant to their livespan. Repeated partial charges without topping out or bottoming out will make it difficult for the battery to track how much power it has left, but this is restored by fully charging the battery again.
And just which side of the class-action suit do you think he's being hired into - the group who sued or the group who got sued?
Interesting? This is a troll. XBox is one of the most loved products internally at Microsoft. It creates excitement, it's one of the few things that makes Microsoft look at all "cool" these days. Sure, people know that Office and Windows make the majority of the money, but XBox, mobile, media center, and even Zune are actually exciting (ignoring Zune's lack of success thus far, they are trying new things, they are competing head on with Apple, they are taking risks, and thats exciting even if it doesn't rake in the dollars).
Will XBox ever end up with a net gain financially? I certainly can't say, but I'm also not entirely sure it matters. Think of it as general Microsoft brand-awareness marketing expenses - with the possibility of profit in the long run.
Ok, well first of all in my experience the average price for a DVD of a movie I like is a few dollars higher than the average price for a CD I like (and I don't think my tastes for either are terribly strange).
Leaving that completely aside, I don't think DVDs are priced reasonably at all given their intrinsic value. Every CD that I enjoy has significan replay value. Very, very few movies I've seen have any replay value (kids movies aside, kids seem to be willing to watch the same thing over and over and over and over). A good CD provides perhaps 100 hours of entertainment, and that entertainment can be enjoyed on it's own or in conjunction with other activities (work, running, etc). A good movie still provides about 2 hours of entertainment - there are very few movies I've watched more than once, mostly because watching a movie is a 100% attention task and for that I expect to see something I haven't seen before. The real question is 'what is it worth to the average consumer' not 'what did it cost to make'.
All good mainstream movies and musicians (and/or their publishers) make a very significant profit so this isn't a matter of pricing to cover your costs, it's a matter of pricing for maximum profits. I'll start buying movies when they cost about the same as a movie ticket (let's say $7 - $9), that's about what they are worth to me - I might pay more than that for just released (as in just released in theaters) movies since I could watch them with friends and as long as the per-person cost is comprable to watching the movie in a theater that's worth it to me.