I can think of one way for Nintendo to get some credibility with the hardcore FPS crowd that dismisses Nintendo as "just for kids". Organise a contest on a serious FPS between gamers with the Revolution controller and gamers with a standard "two thumbs" console controller. Or better yet, if this thing is really good, make the contest between Revolution controller and keyboard/mice gamers.
If the Revolution gamers win... Just imagine.
I know I laugh everytime people tell me that the PC as a gaming platform is dead. I play FPSes and I can't imagine going without my keyboard ans mouse. Prove me wrong and I will stop buying 500$ video cards and start buying 500$ consoles!
In world of warcraft, you often group with other people and then head to a quest zone. In these occasion, you can just click on another member of your party and choose to "follow". Since I always get lost, I just tag on other people a lot.
The other day, while on the freeway, I was following a car, and mentally tried to tag that car so that I could just "Follow" it... Needless to say, I don't intend to play Carmaggedon anytime soon now...
Answer: 80/20 rule. Stop the 20% sellers that sell 80% of the stuff and the problem becomes marginal and can probably be ignored.
How can we live in society with murder and rape? We try to catch as many wrong-doers as we can and convince others that they have more to lose from breaking the rules than from obeying them. We can't eradicate crime, but we can try to control it.
> Germans aren't BRD'ians, Brits aren't UK'ians, so please don't call me a US'ian.
Germans and Brits haven't hijacked their continent's name. You know, there are more than just the United States in America... really!
While this is well and good for the state of public awarness to Linux, how many of these PCs will end up wiped clean and with an illegitimate copy of Windows installed?
As I've always said, the day piracy stops is the day Linux and OSS will completely pick up for Joe Average.
As such, I encourage Microsoft and all the Software Publishers to do a massive RIAA like crack down on software pirates. The day my mom has to pay hundreds of dollars to check her email and type her cooking recipes is the day she'll have Linux and Open Office on her computer.
Classic case of have not RTFA;)
They do give the numbers in the article:
Oberholzer-Gee and his colleague, University of North Carolina's Koleman Strumpf, also said that their "most pessimistic" statistical model showed that illegal file sharing would have accounted for only 2 million fewer compact discs sales in 2002, whereas CD sales declined by 139 million units between 2000 and 2002.
"From a statistical point of view, what this means is that there is no effect between downloading and sales," said Oberholzer-Gee.
The way I understand it, they make their money by creating the multiplayer part of ID's games. That is where their money is. Now, giving away the source code to ET will only create great mods, great community feelings and positive publicity.
The cost? An aging engine. They are working on DOOM 3... Unlikely that they (Splash) will be selling any more games based on the old engine. This is a win(the community)-win(splash for free publicity)-win(splash for possibly finding new talent in the community a la CounterStrike) situation.
This is not an idea about specific courses but more about how they should be related to each others. Even in the same "branch" (ie:101, 201, 301), courses often had little relations to each other.
Have a course on algorithms make you build a hashmap and then a course on GUIs - two semesters later - use it to build something useful. This kind of interdependance would help students learn to write reusable documented code. Then have them write a program using some other student's old modules... that will teach them how to integrate and maintain crappy buggy code from someone who left the company 3 years ago.
Hummm... Let's see... 5 employees x the suggested 1500$ bonus = 7500$
If he's going out of buisness, I doubt 7500$ will bail him out of it.
Good point for a larger company though.
In my area I have access to both DSL and Cable. Both were uncapped, both got capped, and now, guess what? They are starting to uncap!
Ma Bell found out people would switch over to them if they actually offered uncapped service. Most people won't even download near the cap they had set up anyway. Users who actually do bust the cap are usually a little more at ease with computers... Which means that when their low-tech friends ask which service to subscribe to, they'll suggest the uncapped one *they* are using.
Anyway, I think the capping will eventually go away if there is competition. Pray you have competition in your area!
Many big paintball sites (both indoors and outdoors) spend a lot of time thinking out layouts that are both playable and fun. If this experiment proves successful, maybe some of them will consider taking a cue from layouts that have seen literally thousands of hours of playtesting.
What remains to be seen is if a layout that is suitable for playing electronically really is as fun when "in the flesh".
I could imagine having to remain alive pressing a button on a wall for 30 seconds to actually get it to open (ENG. planting dynamite anyone?) or having to follow an armored buggy on a terrain to complete objectives (à la Enemy Territory fuel_dump).
Shivers... I'd actually have a chance at becoming *fit*!
None of those reviews are Official. They are user opinions, many of them from people who haven't even played the game yet (!).
The lack of any real reviews is disturbing though. I'm used to having reviews before I can even see the game on the shelves...
Our site denies software installations of any type through Windows policies for anyone but power users (ie.: programmers and not even all of them). Sure there were complaints and groaning... But they weren't for crashing computers anymore.
You'd be surprised of the kind of sh*t some cute screen savers (TM) install. DLL messups, preferences mangling!
So while firewalling might prevent some of the symptoms of spyware (ie.: call homes) good policies both technically enforced and "socially" enforced go a long way.
Slashdot Mirror
I can think of one way for Nintendo to get some credibility with the hardcore FPS crowd that dismisses Nintendo as "just for kids". Organise a contest on a serious FPS between gamers with the Revolution controller and gamers with a standard "two thumbs" console controller. Or better yet, if this thing is really good, make the contest between Revolution controller and keyboard/mice gamers.
If the Revolution gamers win... Just imagine.
I know I laugh everytime people tell me that the PC as a gaming platform is dead. I play FPSes and I can't imagine going without my keyboard ans mouse. Prove me wrong and I will stop buying 500$ video cards and start buying 500$ consoles!
We are really sorry we beat you, eh?
That was not very polite.
Maybe, next time we invite you over here in the north and we let you win, eh?
In world of warcraft, you often group with other people and then head to a quest zone. In these occasion, you can just click on another member of your party and choose to "follow". Since I always get lost, I just tag on other people a lot.
The other day, while on the freeway, I was following a car, and mentally tried to tag that car so that I could just "Follow" it... Needless to say, I don't intend to play Carmaggedon anytime soon now...
Answer: 80/20 rule. Stop the 20% sellers that sell 80% of the stuff and the problem becomes marginal and can probably be ignored. How can we live in society with murder and rape? We try to catch as many wrong-doers as we can and convince others that they have more to lose from breaking the rules than from obeying them. We can't eradicate crime, but we can try to control it.
> Germans aren't BRD'ians, Brits aren't UK'ians, so please don't call me a US'ian. Germans and Brits haven't hijacked their continent's name. You know, there are more than just the United States in America... really!
While this is well and good for the state of public awarness to Linux, how many of these PCs will end up wiped clean and with an illegitimate copy of Windows installed?
As I've always said, the day piracy stops is the day Linux and OSS will completely pick up for Joe Average.
As such, I encourage Microsoft and all the Software Publishers to do a massive RIAA like crack down on software pirates. The day my mom has to pay hundreds of dollars to check her email and type her cooking recipes is the day she'll have Linux and Open Office on her computer.
Classic case of have not RTFA ;)
They do give the numbers in the article:
Oberholzer-Gee and his colleague, University of North Carolina's Koleman Strumpf, also said that their "most pessimistic" statistical model showed that illegal file sharing would have accounted for only 2 million fewer compact discs sales in 2002, whereas CD sales declined by 139 million units between 2000 and 2002.
"From a statistical point of view, what this means is that there is no effect between downloading and sales," said Oberholzer-Gee.
The way I understand it, they make their money by creating the multiplayer part of ID's games. That is where their money is. Now, giving away the source code to ET will only create great mods, great community feelings and positive publicity.
The cost? An aging engine. They are working on DOOM 3... Unlikely that they (Splash) will be selling any more games based on the old engine. This is a win(the community)-win(splash for free publicity)-win(splash for possibly finding new talent in the community a la CounterStrike) situation.
> IBM has GPFS I'd stay away from a product named after a Microsoft bug.
This is not an idea about specific courses but more about how they should be related to each others. Even in the same "branch" (ie:101, 201, 301), courses often had little relations to each other.
Have a course on algorithms make you build a hashmap and then a course on GUIs - two semesters later - use it to build something useful. This kind of interdependance would help students learn to write reusable documented code. Then have them write a program using some other student's old modules... that will teach them how to integrate and maintain crappy buggy code from someone who left the company 3 years ago.
Hummm... Let's see... 5 employees x the suggested 1500$ bonus = 7500$ If he's going out of buisness, I doubt 7500$ will bail him out of it. Good point for a larger company though.
In my area I have access to both DSL and Cable. Both were uncapped, both got capped, and now, guess what? They are starting to uncap!
Ma Bell found out people would switch over to them if they actually offered uncapped service. Most people won't even download near the cap they had set up anyway. Users who actually do bust the cap are usually a little more at ease with computers... Which means that when their low-tech friends ask which service to subscribe to, they'll suggest the uncapped one *they* are using.
Anyway, I think the capping will eventually go away if there is competition. Pray you have competition in your area!
Many big paintball sites (both indoors and outdoors) spend a lot of time thinking out layouts that are both playable and fun. If this experiment proves successful, maybe some of them will consider taking a cue from layouts that have seen literally thousands of hours of playtesting. What remains to be seen is if a layout that is suitable for playing electronically really is as fun when "in the flesh". I could imagine having to remain alive pressing a button on a wall for 30 seconds to actually get it to open (ENG. planting dynamite anyone?) or having to follow an armored buggy on a terrain to complete objectives (à la Enemy Territory fuel_dump). Shivers... I'd actually have a chance at becoming *fit*!
None of those reviews are Official. They are user opinions, many of them from people who haven't even played the game yet (!). The lack of any real reviews is disturbing though. I'm used to having reviews before I can even see the game on the shelves...
Our site denies software installations of any type through Windows policies for anyone but power users (ie.: programmers and not even all of them). Sure there were complaints and groaning... But they weren't for crashing computers anymore. You'd be surprised of the kind of sh*t some cute screen savers (TM) install. DLL messups, preferences mangling! So while firewalling might prevent some of the symptoms of spyware (ie.: call homes) good policies both technically enforced and "socially" enforced go a long way.