Price protection very rarely applies to one-time- only discounts or clearance items. I dug around for the scoop at the Best Buy website, but it said "see store for details" instead of giving me the nitty gritty. I doubt, though, that they will do it.
A competitor will be even less likely to price match, given the sales category of these items.
"If they like many of us see Linux as the biggest credible threat out there, they might resort to fighting dirty."
This has been a long time coming, from the looks of it--Many of you are probably familiar with the Halloween documents, "an internal strategy memorandum on Microsoft's possible responses to the Linux/Open Source phenomenon." This was back in 1998. MS verified the documents as authentic but claimed it was "a mere engineering study that does not define Microsoft policy."
They've probably been building up a case for a long time. But as Linux is systematically sound, they've apparently been forced to find specific, technical problems since their Ominously Vague Murmurs don't seem to be taking. The problem for them is whatever they pick is, by definition, fixable and not an element that defines Linux as Linux.
Additionally, if you find 50 holes in Linux and 25 in, say, Windows Server 2003, that's not nearly as relevant as the average lifespan of the hole. With all the Linux distros, there may be dozens of holes at any given time, but there is only one Windows Server 2003. I challenge them to focus on one major distro.
Lastly, MS is has been coming off increasingly hostile and banging the "Linux BAD!" drum so obsessively, that they run the risk of sounding like they're accusing corporate Linux licensees of incompetence, rather than trying to merely educate them.
Keep this phrase in mind. I've owned nVidia cards back to the GeForce2 MX (although I'm sure many of you go back farther than that), but the point is, I'm no fanboy when I have negative things to say about NV30+ architecture. It just doesn't have the DX9 horsepower.
The high-end cards score quite well in 3DMark03 despite this, which I cannot account for without making shaky claims. However, NV30+ simply falls on its face when forced to do pure DX9 gaming environment instructions, particularly with the latest Lara Croft game, Max Payne 2, and Half-Life 2.
I hope the NV40 line turns the tables, because we've been waiting a long time for a definitive answer to the 9700 Pro, which even ATI has not clearly toppled, IMO.
But I would not count nVidia out. Recall where ATI was shortly before the 9700 Pro: nowhere important. nVidia has huge R&D behind them, and once they've managed to move the slow beast on their manpower in the right direction, you better look out. This is the company that made the Ti4200, which stood as the best band for the buck for a long, long time and can still manage most games with aplomb.
Don't know why this is so controversial...
on
Hackers On Atkins
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
...Atkins discussions for some reason seem to draw out more urban legend, second-hand, and bad information than any hot topic I've ever come across, including politics and religion. There are many reasons for this:
1. People who don't read the book and try eating meat and cheese to lose weight. They suffer and end up badmouthing the diet.
2. People who watch the above suffer and assume the diet is bad...and go around badmouthing it.
3. People who've "heard of" vaguely ominous scientific studies but can't provide concrete rebuttals.
4. People who say Atkins is BS because all you need to do is exercise and "eat right." Well, according to Atkins, his diet *is* "eating right."
Low-fat diet+exercise will simply not work for a significant percentage of the population. Some people will simply not lose weight with the traditional exercise and diet route. The human body is a complex and often uncooperative machine.
In conclusion, read the material. No, really. Actually read the book. Just one chapter, even. Don't skim. At least focus on one chapter. I garantee you wouldn't be so hard on the diet if you just did a little homework.
Hollywood comments on the world around us? Some movies do, most of them not made by Hollywood or made by directors who work outside the schmooze-fest circuit. If you want socially conscious entertainment, you will have to look to late 60's to late 70's science fiction, starting with Harlan Ellison and Philip K. Dick. That was social awareness with a vengeance. I think what she's referring to is observational humor, something that was in standup comedy long before TV picked it up. For now, you will not find socially aware games entertainment outside of, say, Deus Ex or Grand Theft Auto. As for treating a console as a cultural object like the TV, it is only a matter of encroaching ubiquity. Soon enough you will all be as tired of the "idiot machine" as you are of the "idiot box."
Baby steps, man. Yeah, there isn't much impressive acreage outside of Earth, in the solar system. But perhaps you underestimate human ingenuity. Pulse detonated nuclear propulsion will get you within a very respectable stone's-throw of light speed, effectively greatly extending the human lifespan during an interstellar voyage. Combine that with ramscoops, and this baby will go a long, long way, even by interstellar standards. For me, the important thing is not getting out there and doing boring research or tedious terraforming, but looking for other intelligent species. We may be stuck on earth, and might not ever hear back from our nuclear-powered astronauts, but they will benefit from time dilation and extend the reach of the human race.
Because this fucking rock is going downhill fast.
He who has the gold makes the rules.
Sure, why provide a free client when you can end up migrating MS webmail to a fee-only structure? That's where things are heading: no free HTTP mail.
Their confrontational, ad hominem approach has failed and they're merely characterizing their previous approach (FUD) as a new direction, albeit one that now has an official deparmtent. They will return to the same arguments as described in the story above. What's important here is that they are now specifically and officially targeting open source.
I wasn't going to respond to this, but it got modded +5 Insightful. No offense, but the overwhelming majority of games are released when the devs run out of funding, without any mention of "when it's done." It is a very, very select few who can actually finish a product at their own pace. Perhaps you are tired of hearing this phrase because it come from prominent dev houses who use the phrase a lot. But I assure you it is not "software companies" in general.
Additionally, those very few who have used the WID phrase issued a product that was indeed relatively bug-free and feature complete. Or, in the case of DNF, they haven't issued it at all.
As for wholly unsubstantiated... the Atkins diet has only been in widespread practice a short while and doesn't lend itself to clinical trials well... but for the kidney stone reference there was an article on page 3 of Monday's Times (reputable UK newspaper) refering to a recent university study. This has been the first clinical trial.
Respectfully, the Aktins diet experienced resurgence over ten years ago, hence the title, "The *New* Atkins Diet Revolution." His nutritional approach was originally published over thirty years ago. The NADR is chock-full of clinical trials and research--all of which has been done independently and without any support from Atkins or any affiliates of his--because he was a licensed practitioner, not a researcher. This is not the first clinical trial with regards to kidneys and low-carb diets, although it may be the first that specifically targets the Atkins approach. Not one published trial has linked Atkins to kidney problems.
I invite you check out the book, if only to skim over the introduction at the bookstore, which wouldn't cost you a penny. If I can reverse just one person's misinformation, they can go on to correct others, who usually see it as the "high fat diet."
Those are great prices, but 25ms response time and no DVI port explain the cost reduction. And huge white borders around the LCD, while designed to give the illusion of a brighter display, also serve to make it feel smaller. Huge borders also make for less practical multi-monitor setups.
Still, for those who have to reclaim desktop space, reduce electric bills and ambient temperatures (say in a corporate environment where the aggregrate of dozens of LCDs can save mucho in utilities bills over the long run) those are serviceable picks. Just don't scroll your text too fast.
Kyle @ HardOCP suggests that if you give Futuremark more $$$, they will 'optimize' their benchmark to help out your video card's score.
Great theory, except for the fact that nVidia dropped out of 3DMark's developer program last fall. I doubt they're ponying up anything.
I think it's also been firmly established as well that nVidia BS'd its way through build 330 by way of straight-up cheating, not by paying any one off.
And your numbers are generally irrelevant. Smaller core means cheaper, means lower temperature, but by does not really translate to *faster*. Neither do the frequencies. 850MHz is the *DDR* speed, so the first comparison is actually 450/425, so we can toss that one out. Second one is equally useless because nVidia core vs. ATI core is apples to oranges. Two very different ways of getting to the same point, so you can't use MHz as a rule of thumb. Those bandwidth limits are also purely theoretical and both companies use slightly different math to get there.
Lastly, how are UT2k3, Quake 3, et al considired "real-world" benchmarks, while 3DMark flythroughs are not? Is someone under the impression that the benchmark is basically going through some kind of special video clip? No. Every one of 3DMark's flythroughs is operating in a complete, three-dimensional environment. Those with the developer version of 3DMark can attest to this, as they are free to move the camera around the environment as they please.
The flythroughs are not "synthetic." The multitexturing tests, the image quality test, the CPU tests--yes, all synthetic. But those don't factor into the damn score anyway. Timedemos are effectively identical--and just as prone to fiddling. Get informed, people. There's nothing sacred about any of your benchmarks.
As I understand it, our ancestors during this time were primarily scavengers. The brain is overwhelmingly left intact while the rest of the body is ravaged by lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). The brain of any mammal also contains a very high amount of protein. All it takes is a creature smart enough to remember the brain is nutritious and smart enough to know how to get at it after the other animals have eaten the flesh.
I hope you weren't eating while you read that...
What's to say that there haven't been lots of civs and lots of apocolypses?
Lots of nonexistant ruins made of materials assumed to be completely unavailable, for the most part. After that, bodies wearing clothing consisting of materials assumed to be unknown at the time. After that, vehicles far too complex for the period. After that, mysterious geographical anomalies revealed by satellite, on a global scale...I doubt there's any mystery or conspiracy here. Just a whole lot of nothing at all.
Come on now, think this one through. You're overestimating the observational skills and research interest of those who make up the bulk of home computer purchase (and a large percentage of corporate buyers, unfortunately). GHz *does* count to Joe Consumer when he wants to be a new, fast computer. The rigs pimped by CompUSA, Best Buy, etc., are approximately a hundred times faster than he'll ever need--I agree with you there--but that's what those stores are pimping the most, and the boxes with about as much speed as Joe will need have been off the market for years.
Besides, Joe likes the *possibility* of screaming along at 3 GHz, even though he has no idea that he'll never use more than a fraction of the chip's muscle. Email, spreadsheets, word processing, and maybe "some games."
So he'll immediately gravitate towards the higher number. If that wasn't true, AMD wouldn't have to push it's performance ratings so hard. Bigger and faster automatically means better, just like it does for any other male-oriented power toy.
They also like paying about half as much, even though the average PC lifespan doesn't come close to a Mac. Again, it's that research thing: People are lazy and won't do their homework. Actual performance is irrelevant to the uninformed herd mentality.
UT2K3 has always felt quite deathmatch-oriented (as opposed to team deathmatch, CTF, etc.) which makes for great fun for about ten minutes. I know there is a vocal minority who could play nothing but DM for hours on end, and more power to them. But for most other people, deathmatch is a dated concept, once you get over the novelty of playing against real, live people from all over the 'Net. Once that's done, I like the advanced tactical and strategic possibilities available with more team-oriented combat.
I think UT2K3 is also a bit underwhelming because many of the maps prioritize beauty and uniqueness over gameflow. I don't want the map itself to be the focus. Sometimes it's like trying to frag in a 3D Escher painting. I this is largely why BF1942 is more compelling. Familiarity with the environment creates faster immersion.
Also, UT2K3 doesn't significantly improve upon the rock-solid gameplay of its predessesor, and even took away a very popular and unique multiplayer mode (although you can add it with a 3rd-party mod). I understand a recent patch even included specific instructions for making gameplay more like the previous installment.
Oh well. I hope they push an envelope or two with UT2k4. Because it's looking like Sierra will have DoD, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike running on the Source engine come spring 2004. That will be Uber. Everyone's filling their piggy banks for these, plus Doom3, Deus Ex 2, and a few other high-profile, long-awaited titles. I just don't see how UT2k4 will create a viable niche.
I don't think so. Ownership by the *State* is the central tenet of Communism. Everything owned by the government. What you're talking about is corporate monopoly, not a form of government.
How does this kind of Just Plain Bad Information get modded up so high?
That ten bucks a month isn't just for a pretty front page. Did you read the press release? You get to stream any song in the catalog--the entire song--and create customizable radio stations. You could just stream the songs and use the radio until you get burned out on listening to the track, which is what most people will do anyway.
Being able to stream a whole song on-demand makes the service cheaper because you dont have to cough up a dollar for the privelege of listening to and keeping the entire song. Statistically, fewer people will buy separate tracks on Rhapsody because you can stream the whole thing.
Your math is right, but your grasp of human behavior might need some tweakage 8).
Primarily because a mixtape will be shared with maybe a dozen people, while you can put an mp3 in a shared Kazaa folder and have 100 downloads in the course of the next 24 hours. Those 100 downloads are further distributed, as all Kazaa downloads are shared by default. What you get is exponential distrobution.
Although only 100 people have downloaded from you in that 24 hour space, multiply that by the distrobution rate and the result is staggering. (I'm not an opponent or proponent here, just attempting to explain part of the controversy.)
Plus, while tapes degrade and take a while to make a copy of, MP3's last indefinitely, for all intents and purposes, and can be copied from one storage medium to another in a matter of seconds. And entire album can be no more than 50MB, an easy download for anyone with broadband.
79 cents sounds fairly decent for burning tracks, but if "on demand," i.e. streaming, requires that horrid Real One player, you can count me out. That damn app is too intrusive, IMO. I just want something that can play a file, but they turn it into a braying "push content" mechanism that makes me want to punch a hole in the monitor. No thanks.
And I can listen to Internet radio on Shoutcast et al...No wonder the RIAA was so adamant about getting rid of free Internet radio. The puzzle pieces are coming together, aren't they?
...More often than not, it's all those System Restore points that are using up gigabytes of space (unless you're uber and have that service disabled). Just about every time you update a driver, XP will make a restore point for you, even if you don't ask for one. Thankfully, you can make XP get rid of all but the most recent:
Go to My Computer, right-click on your XP drive/partition, click Properties, click the Disk Cleanup button to the bottom right of the pie chart, click the More Options tab, click the bottom "Clean up" button and click OK. I do that about once a week and free up at least 100MB each time.
The disk cleanup applet will take care of the majority of system cruft. I don't know why people wipe and reinstall so often, it's really not necessary. When people talk to me about "random.DLLs and junk files" they sound like someone extolling the virtue of the Intel chip because it's more "compatible and stable" than an AMD chip. I.e., locked into stale notions of a computer's capabilities. I would recommend Norton's system cleaning utilites before I recommend a full wipe.
Mostly, the gradual system slowdown people experience as they add programs over time is due to excess baggage like startup programs and unneccesary services. Check your system tray, hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and check your services list. You don't need WinAmp Agent, Mozilla QuickStart, or anything that automatically starts up anyway when you click on a multimedia file.
And check out This excellent page for getting rid of half of the services you never use anyway.
And use BootVis. It will clean up your boot time. Maybe a lot.
I think sites like these are the future of info dissemination. I don't have the time to check out the separate game review and movie review watering holes. I have my local paper bookmarked, and BBC News, but all other news comes from Google. So on down the list. These meta-sites save a buttload of time and research.
When I do my online shopping, I always look for customer ratings. Now, I don't have to. Instead of the opinions of fifty average joes, I have the opinions of fifty paid professionals. Now, before you come at me and say that those reviewers might be paid to say something good, I can say from experience that bought opinions aren't as prevalent as you think and least come without a slew of spelling and grammar mistakes.
It's the wave of the future, like it or not. ve3d.com is fast becoming the unofficial hub of gaming news, despite the fact that you could fit its in-house content in a thimble and their admins' lack of journalistic ability is exposed on a daily basis.
And honestly, how many of you have/. as your primary info source? It's great, don't get me wrong, but it's another example of a meta-site...one where many people don't even take the time to RTFA. Content is not king once you realize the threshold of human consumption. You just end up bowling people over with sound and fury.
I don't have a cell phone, pager, or use IM, but I'm still overloaded by email. I have my primary email, my site registration email, my new primary since the old primary's shot through with spam, my work email, a website email, an alias for that website email...Then there are stock tickers, weather reports, sports scores, online banking...
I think, however, that the worst element is spam. Not just unsolicited email, but telemarketing calls, junk mail, door-to-door, etc. Then there are TV commercials, radio commercials, print media commercials. It's advertising that kills. Something like 80% of all email in the US is unsolicited. How many dinners have you completed without a sales call? How many days have you gone without another credit card in the mail? Yadda, yadda, yadda, and I wonder how many even read this far.
Slashdot Mirror
No, it doesn't. *Anyone* can stuff the voting box at IGN.
Price protection very rarely applies to one-time- only discounts or clearance items. I dug around for the scoop at the Best Buy website, but it said "see store for details" instead of giving me the nitty gritty. I doubt, though, that they will do it. A competitor will be even less likely to price match, given the sales category of these items.
This has been a long time coming, from the looks of it--Many of you are probably familiar with the Halloween documents, "an internal strategy memorandum on Microsoft's possible responses to the Linux/Open Source phenomenon." This was back in 1998. MS verified the documents as authentic but claimed it was "a mere engineering study that does not define Microsoft policy."
They've probably been building up a case for a long time. But as Linux is systematically sound, they've apparently been forced to find specific, technical problems since their Ominously Vague Murmurs don't seem to be taking. The problem for them is whatever they pick is, by definition, fixable and not an element that defines Linux as Linux. Additionally, if you find 50 holes in Linux and 25 in, say, Windows Server 2003, that's not nearly as relevant as the average lifespan of the hole. With all the Linux distros, there may be dozens of holes at any given time, but there is only one Windows Server 2003. I challenge them to focus on one major distro.
Lastly, MS is has been coming off increasingly hostile and banging the "Linux BAD!" drum so obsessively, that they run the risk of sounding like they're accusing corporate Linux licensees of incompetence, rather than trying to merely educate them.
Keep this phrase in mind. I've owned nVidia cards back to the GeForce2 MX (although I'm sure many of you go back farther than that), but the point is, I'm no fanboy when I have negative things to say about NV30+ architecture. It just doesn't have the DX9 horsepower. The high-end cards score quite well in 3DMark03 despite this, which I cannot account for without making shaky claims. However, NV30+ simply falls on its face when forced to do pure DX9 gaming environment instructions, particularly with the latest Lara Croft game, Max Payne 2, and Half-Life 2. I hope the NV40 line turns the tables, because we've been waiting a long time for a definitive answer to the 9700 Pro, which even ATI has not clearly toppled, IMO. But I would not count nVidia out. Recall where ATI was shortly before the 9700 Pro: nowhere important. nVidia has huge R&D behind them, and once they've managed to move the slow beast on their manpower in the right direction, you better look out. This is the company that made the Ti4200, which stood as the best band for the buck for a long, long time and can still manage most games with aplomb.
1. People who don't read the book and try eating meat and cheese to lose weight. They suffer and end up badmouthing the diet.
2. People who watch the above suffer and assume the diet is bad...and go around badmouthing it.
3. People who've "heard of" vaguely ominous scientific studies but can't provide concrete rebuttals.
4. People who say Atkins is BS because all you need to do is exercise and "eat right." Well, according to Atkins, his diet *is* "eating right."
Low-fat diet+exercise will simply not work for a significant percentage of the population. Some people will simply not lose weight with the traditional exercise and diet route. The human body is a complex and often uncooperative machine.
In conclusion, read the material. No, really. Actually read the book. Just one chapter, even. Don't skim. At least focus on one chapter. I garantee you wouldn't be so hard on the diet if you just did a little homework.
Hollywood comments on the world around us? Some movies do, most of them not made by Hollywood or made by directors who work outside the schmooze-fest circuit. If you want socially conscious entertainment, you will have to look to late 60's to late 70's science fiction, starting with Harlan Ellison and Philip K. Dick. That was social awareness with a vengeance. I think what she's referring to is observational humor, something that was in standup comedy long before TV picked it up. For now, you will not find socially aware games entertainment outside of, say, Deus Ex or Grand Theft Auto. As for treating a console as a cultural object like the TV, it is only a matter of encroaching ubiquity. Soon enough you will all be as tired of the "idiot machine" as you are of the "idiot box."
Baby steps, man. Yeah, there isn't much impressive acreage outside of Earth, in the solar system. But perhaps you underestimate human ingenuity. Pulse detonated nuclear propulsion will get you within a very respectable stone's-throw of light speed, effectively greatly extending the human lifespan during an interstellar voyage. Combine that with ramscoops, and this baby will go a long, long way, even by interstellar standards. For me, the important thing is not getting out there and doing boring research or tedious terraforming, but looking for other intelligent species. We may be stuck on earth, and might not ever hear back from our nuclear-powered astronauts, but they will benefit from time dilation and extend the reach of the human race. Because this fucking rock is going downhill fast.
He who has the gold makes the rules. Sure, why provide a free client when you can end up migrating MS webmail to a fee-only structure? That's where things are heading: no free HTTP mail.
Their confrontational, ad hominem approach has failed and they're merely characterizing their previous approach (FUD) as a new direction, albeit one that now has an official deparmtent. They will return to the same arguments as described in the story above. What's important here is that they are now specifically and officially targeting open source.
I personally prefer the Oxford KJV with apocrypha. Beautiful language, with the apocrypha to bridge the gaps of language and cultural nuance.
I wasn't going to respond to this, but it got modded +5 Insightful. No offense, but the overwhelming majority of games are released when the devs run out of funding, without any mention of "when it's done." It is a very, very select few who can actually finish a product at their own pace. Perhaps you are tired of hearing this phrase because it come from prominent dev houses who use the phrase a lot. But I assure you it is not "software companies" in general. Additionally, those very few who have used the WID phrase issued a product that was indeed relatively bug-free and feature complete. Or, in the case of DNF, they haven't issued it at all.
Respectfully, the Aktins diet experienced resurgence over ten years ago, hence the title, "The *New* Atkins Diet Revolution." His nutritional approach was originally published over thirty years ago. The NADR is chock-full of clinical trials and research--all of which has been done independently and without any support from Atkins or any affiliates of his--because he was a licensed practitioner, not a researcher. This is not the first clinical trial with regards to kidneys and low-carb diets, although it may be the first that specifically targets the Atkins approach. Not one published trial has linked Atkins to kidney problems.
I invite you check out the book, if only to skim over the introduction at the bookstore, which wouldn't cost you a penny. If I can reverse just one person's misinformation, they can go on to correct others, who usually see it as the "high fat diet."
Still, for those who have to reclaim desktop space, reduce electric bills and ambient temperatures (say in a corporate environment where the aggregrate of dozens of LCDs can save mucho in utilities bills over the long run) those are serviceable picks. Just don't scroll your text too fast.
Great theory, except for the fact that nVidia dropped out of 3DMark's developer program last fall. I doubt they're ponying up anything.
I think it's also been firmly established as well that nVidia BS'd its way through build 330 by way of straight-up cheating, not by paying any one off.
And your numbers are generally irrelevant. Smaller core means cheaper, means lower temperature, but by does not really translate to *faster*. Neither do the frequencies. 850MHz is the *DDR* speed, so the first comparison is actually 450/425, so we can toss that one out. Second one is equally useless because nVidia core vs. ATI core is apples to oranges. Two very different ways of getting to the same point, so you can't use MHz as a rule of thumb. Those bandwidth limits are also purely theoretical and both companies use slightly different math to get there.
Lastly, how are UT2k3, Quake 3, et al considired "real-world" benchmarks, while 3DMark flythroughs are not? Is someone under the impression that the benchmark is basically going through some kind of special video clip? No. Every one of 3DMark's flythroughs is operating in a complete, three-dimensional environment. Those with the developer version of 3DMark can attest to this, as they are free to move the camera around the environment as they please.
The flythroughs are not "synthetic." The multitexturing tests, the image quality test, the CPU tests--yes, all synthetic. But those don't factor into the damn score anyway. Timedemos are effectively identical--and just as prone to fiddling. Get informed, people. There's nothing sacred about any of your benchmarks.
As I understand it, our ancestors during this time were primarily scavengers. The brain is overwhelmingly left intact while the rest of the body is ravaged by lions, tigers and bears (oh my!). The brain of any mammal also contains a very high amount of protein. All it takes is a creature smart enough to remember the brain is nutritious and smart enough to know how to get at it after the other animals have eaten the flesh. I hope you weren't eating while you read that...
Lots of nonexistant ruins made of materials assumed to be completely unavailable, for the most part. After that, bodies wearing clothing consisting of materials assumed to be unknown at the time. After that, vehicles far too complex for the period. After that, mysterious geographical anomalies revealed by satellite, on a global scale...I doubt there's any mystery or conspiracy here. Just a whole lot of nothing at all.
Come on now, think this one through. You're overestimating the observational skills and research interest of those who make up the bulk of home computer purchase (and a large percentage of corporate buyers, unfortunately). GHz *does* count to Joe Consumer when he wants to be a new, fast computer. The rigs pimped by CompUSA, Best Buy, etc., are approximately a hundred times faster than he'll ever need--I agree with you there--but that's what those stores are pimping the most, and the boxes with about as much speed as Joe will need have been off the market for years.
Besides, Joe likes the *possibility* of screaming along at 3 GHz, even though he has no idea that he'll never use more than a fraction of the chip's muscle. Email, spreadsheets, word processing, and maybe "some games."
So he'll immediately gravitate towards the higher number. If that wasn't true, AMD wouldn't have to push it's performance ratings so hard. Bigger and faster automatically means better, just like it does for any other male-oriented power toy.
They also like paying about half as much, even though the average PC lifespan doesn't come close to a Mac. Again, it's that research thing: People are lazy and won't do their homework. Actual performance is irrelevant to the uninformed herd mentality.
People still play this game a lot?
UT2K3 has always felt quite deathmatch-oriented (as opposed to team deathmatch, CTF, etc.) which makes for great fun for about ten minutes. I know there is a vocal minority who could play nothing but DM for hours on end, and more power to them. But for most other people, deathmatch is a dated concept, once you get over the novelty of playing against real, live people from all over the 'Net. Once that's done, I like the advanced tactical and strategic possibilities available with more team-oriented combat.
I think UT2K3 is also a bit underwhelming because many of the maps prioritize beauty and uniqueness over gameflow. I don't want the map itself to be the focus. Sometimes it's like trying to frag in a 3D Escher painting. I this is largely why BF1942 is more compelling. Familiarity with the environment creates faster immersion.
Also, UT2K3 doesn't significantly improve upon the rock-solid gameplay of its predessesor, and even took away a very popular and unique multiplayer mode (although you can add it with a 3rd-party mod). I understand a recent patch even included specific instructions for making gameplay more like the previous installment.
Oh well. I hope they push an envelope or two with UT2k4. Because it's looking like Sierra will have DoD, Team Fortress and Counter-Strike running on the Source engine come spring 2004. That will be Uber. Everyone's filling their piggy banks for these, plus Doom3, Deus Ex 2, and a few other high-profile, long-awaited titles. I just don't see how UT2k4 will create a viable niche.
I don't think so. Ownership by the *State* is the central tenet of Communism. Everything owned by the government. What you're talking about is corporate monopoly, not a form of government.
How does this kind of Just Plain Bad Information get modded up so high?
Being able to stream a whole song on-demand makes the service cheaper because you dont have to cough up a dollar for the privelege of listening to and keeping the entire song. Statistically, fewer people will buy separate tracks on Rhapsody because you can stream the whole thing.
Your math is right, but your grasp of human behavior might need some tweakage 8).
Primarily because a mixtape will be shared with maybe a dozen people, while you can put an mp3 in a shared Kazaa folder and have 100 downloads in the course of the next 24 hours. Those 100 downloads are further distributed, as all Kazaa downloads are shared by default. What you get is exponential distrobution.
Although only 100 people have downloaded from you in that 24 hour space, multiply that by the distrobution rate and the result is staggering. (I'm not an opponent or proponent here, just attempting to explain part of the controversy.)
Plus, while tapes degrade and take a while to make a copy of, MP3's last indefinitely, for all intents and purposes, and can be copied from one storage medium to another in a matter of seconds. And entire album can be no more than 50MB, an easy download for anyone with broadband.
Hope that helps.
79 cents sounds fairly decent for burning tracks, but if "on demand," i.e. streaming, requires that horrid Real One player, you can count me out. That damn app is too intrusive, IMO. I just want something that can play a file, but they turn it into a braying "push content" mechanism that makes me want to punch a hole in the monitor. No thanks.
And I can listen to Internet radio on Shoutcast et al...No wonder the RIAA was so adamant about getting rid of free Internet radio. The puzzle pieces are coming together, aren't they?
I should clarify that BootVis doesn't work with Windows ME (as far as I know). Only works with XP.
...More often than not, it's all those System Restore points that are using up gigabytes of space (unless you're uber and have that service disabled). Just about every time you update a driver, XP will make a restore point for you, even if you don't ask for one. Thankfully, you can make XP get rid of all but the most recent:
.DLLs and junk files" they sound like someone extolling the virtue of the Intel chip because it's more "compatible and stable" than an AMD chip. I.e., locked into stale notions of a computer's capabilities. I would recommend Norton's system cleaning utilites before I recommend a full wipe.
Go to My Computer, right-click on your XP drive/partition, click Properties, click the Disk Cleanup button to the bottom right of the pie chart, click the More Options tab, click the bottom "Clean up" button and click OK. I do that about once a week and free up at least 100MB each time.
The disk cleanup applet will take care of the majority of system cruft. I don't know why people wipe and reinstall so often, it's really not necessary. When people talk to me about "random
Mostly, the gradual system slowdown people experience as they add programs over time is due to excess baggage like startup programs and unneccesary services. Check your system tray, hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and check your services list. You don't need WinAmp Agent, Mozilla QuickStart, or anything that automatically starts up anyway when you click on a multimedia file.
And check out This excellent page for getting rid of half of the services you never use anyway.
And use BootVis. It will clean up your boot time. Maybe a lot.
Google News
Game Rankings
GameTab
I think sites like these are the future of info dissemination. I don't have the time to check out the separate game review and movie review watering holes. I have my local paper bookmarked, and BBC News, but all other news comes from Google. So on down the list. These meta-sites save a buttload of time and research.
When I do my online shopping, I always look for customer ratings. Now, I don't have to. Instead of the opinions of fifty average joes, I have the opinions of fifty paid professionals. Now, before you come at me and say that those reviewers might be paid to say something good, I can say from experience that bought opinions aren't as prevalent as you think and least come without a slew of spelling and grammar mistakes.
It's the wave of the future, like it or not. ve3d.com is fast becoming the unofficial hub of gaming news, despite the fact that you could fit its in-house content in a thimble and their admins' lack of journalistic ability is exposed on a daily basis.
And honestly, how many of you have /. as your primary info source? It's great, don't get me wrong, but it's another example of a meta-site...one where many people don't even take the time to RTFA. Content is not king once you realize the threshold of human consumption. You just end up bowling people over with sound and fury.
I don't have a cell phone, pager, or use IM, but I'm still overloaded by email. I have my primary email, my site registration email, my new primary since the old primary's shot through with spam, my work email, a website email, an alias for that website email...Then there are stock tickers, weather reports, sports scores, online banking...
I think, however, that the worst element is spam. Not just unsolicited email, but telemarketing calls, junk mail, door-to-door, etc. Then there are TV commercials, radio commercials, print media commercials. It's advertising that kills. Something like 80% of all email in the US is unsolicited. How many dinners have you completed without a sales call? How many days have you gone without another credit card in the mail? Yadda, yadda, yadda, and I wonder how many even read this far.