In Australia, from what I vaguely recall, its accepted that you need to obtain a license to play music in public for your business. But from what little I understand its a flat yearly fee that I think is meant to be reasonably priced, though I have no idea what it is.
Given all the stores that play music, I imagine this setup works quite well. Music producers get compensated for the musics use, business get to use it to attract/entertain customers in their stores.
Every now and then a store does gets busted for not licensing the music correctly.
I know it's microsoft and as such we are required to hate it, but please try to keep an open mind.
I don't particularly mind these types of marketing campaigns, as I have the incredible ability to be cynical and just look at something else, without getting all riled up or looking for grand conspiricies. If something worth watching happens at ilovebees.com then I might go and have a look, otherwise I'll just move myself along.
If there was anything in this that would upset me, it would be the orginal location of the theatrical trailer MSN Entertainment. If anything about microsoft should be attacked it should be the total contempt that this site has for its visitors, shoving unrelated ads down a visitors throat (in the actual Halo Theatrical Trailer stream itself) for the mere priviledge of watching said trailer. Coupled with the arrogant assumption that I would have to watch it in IE6 with Windows Media Player. Wrong Microsoft! Once again, technology saves me.:)
One thing I forgot to add, is that I hope that PC game companies do not get entrenched into a video card camp so far, that their game will only run well on a particular card. That I hope, would be bad business.
"NVIDIA has told us more than once that the 6800 series was "designed to play DOOM 3," and the truth of that statement is now glaringly obvious. "
For Doom 3 the Nvidia cards do look to be a better choice, but the cards themselves are biased for Doom 3, no doubt because Nvidia expects there to be many people waiting to upgrade for D3. HL2 performance may very well differ as from what I recall HL2 is in ATI's camp.
Cards have biases in how they work and some do some things well and other things poorly. It really depends on what you wan't to play as to what influence the games will have on your hardware purchasing decision. The best that I hope for is that things will work out to be about even in the wash...
Thats why these types of firewalls, are trainable and learn which processes require network access and which ones don't, so you don't have to click a button everytime a process uses a connection.
Because of the user interaction, its quite a nice way to learn, which processes are trying to phone home without you knowing. Of course you can set them up so that they block without any user prompts whatsoever, and you add the programs that you wan't to have network access manually. Its really up to the user how they want to use the firewall.
This is a good point, because for Joe Average they maybe able to use their computers, but they certainly do not understand how they work. And to keep a computer running well, you need to understand how they work, or have someone close to them that knows how they work to maintain them. When it comes to firewalls and such, a more advanced computing topic, its hard enough for Joe Average understand why its desirable to have one let alone how to configure one effectivly to protect them on the internet.
I know there are products like ZoneAlarm and such to try and make it easier for non technical users to use them, but Joe Average people will be baffled by them since they don't understand how networks work and everything that goes with that.
There is research into making computers self maintainable and repair themselves and such but its a long way away from making the Joe Average safe to use a computer on the internet. Alot more work needs to go into transparent computer adminstration systems that free Joe Average (and their administrators, family computer lackeys etc) from having to deal with computer problems that could be solved or avoided, with what we would consider common sense.
We shouldn't forget that competitive products can also bring down the price. There have been a number of beat ups between DB2 and Oracle for instance, so all we need is a competitor to significantly undercut Oracle on per processor licensing and have customers switch to a different database platform.
Losing money, normally gets a companies attention, that perhaps their customers think that their licensing is getting too expensive for them to consider Oracle.
I havn't looked into database pricing for a long time (ignoring MySql type "free" databases), but from what I remember, Oracle was one of the more expensive ones. Is it so now?
2) Flash is bad because it springs music on people without warning.
That is bad. So is any other technology that plays music on a website. I love music, but its annoying an unapropriate on a webpage.
Things are getting far worse than music however. Some flash ads are talking when your mouse moves over them, like that very annoying Tina person telling you about how flash based ads can talk if you wan't them to. Wired ran these ads and I very quickly sent back a rant email to them on their rant page that they have, that if they ever subjected me to an ad like that again I woulnd't ever visit their site again. Knee-jerk reaction? Why yes, but I don't think anyone should be subjeted to an ad that was that annoying, period.
Then I immediately wen't and installed the Adblock extension into my Mozilla and have never looked back.
I'm looking forward to the game, and I do need a PC upgrade, but I may wait for XBox version
I had thought about getting it for XBOX as well, but when you look at the fact that many more mods and extensionns will be made to the PC D3 vs the XBOX D3, then the PC version will end up being a bigger bang for your buck (after ignoring the PC hardware platform requirements that is). Think of it as a bigger play time for your buck...
From what I remember of Id development on previous engines and all, the engines can basically handle a variety of different optimizations on different hardware platforms as appropriate.
However my vague memory of such things may be a little faulty to say the least.
I am about due for an upgrade to my graphics card. Its 1.5 years old, Egad! I'm fully expecting there to be a huge batch of D3 benchmarks coming out comparing different graphics cards and their relative performance. I will probably base my decision on what card to buy on that. I don't normally buy hardware for games, but I do wan't to upgrade my graphics card because its starting to chug a bit here and there, and I think D3 might be a good benchmark to use on where to go.
I'm most curious about the performance difference between Nvidia and ATI cards as I am most firmly entrenched on the ATI side of things at the moment.
Should I wait for HL2 before making the final choice? I probably wont:)
At least I don't need to upgrade my video card - Rad(e)on 9600
I don't want to burst your bubble, but a Radeon 9600, isn't going to give you the best graphical performance for D3. Of course if you will settle for the revolutionary ground breaking gameplay of D3 and its new original storyline and all, then you should be satisfied.
Please insert the correct use of sarcasm and sense of humor as appropriate.
Microsoft will use any tactics at their disposal to stop Open Source. We have already seen their tactics with Baystar. My guess is that Microsoft would use a similar tactic to attack open source.
However there is a powerful patent holder that has put some big stakes into Linux, and that is IBM (could they be our White Knight as stated in the story?). I do not know if they are holding patents that could be used to put Microsoft into a more concilitory position on the patent issue, but I wouldn't be suprised if IBM has one or 2 things in its patent holdings that could be used to defend Linux from these types of attacks. Or whether such a thing, is legally possible.
I have vague memories of IBM holding patents that are not enforced for the public good to ensure others do not try to patent such things and cause problems.
Right now, I hold no great fear that MS will attack open source with its patents... yet. From what stories I have seen on the MS patent issue so far they seem to be trying to limit others from being compatible with Windows in certain key areas of its products, (or compatible with a price).
so what you are saying is you cant get excited about this game on your own, so you need some slick sales guy to butter it up and tell you how much you love the game.
No I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that ID and Activision themselves should be promoting D3 right now, rather than relying on other people to do it for them.
I myself don't believe hype either, I prefer to go on unbiased reviews, demos and track records of games/companies.
My comments are solely related to how D3 and Activision are marketing D3 through the D3 website, and that in my opinion, is poorly.
I was actually thinking about the Big O Anime series which I have enjoyed very much just recently.
It totally eclipsed my knowledge of big Oh notation (given that I am a computer programmer) with its fancy opening theme song and all. I guess I'm just not as big a geek as I used to be.:)
for whom 'big O' is NOT oracle but something else;-)
Aye, Big O does mean something else to me as well, but perhaps its different from what you are thinking about, or perhaps part of the same... Paradigm.
Sorry, but I think their marketers are probably doing their job...
<rant>
If this is their idea of doing their job, then I would fire them. Its a few weeks till launch and all we have on the official website, is 3 wallpapers, some screenshots and a single demo movie (quite pretty), and a pre-order link.
Now is the time that D3 should be getting hyped, and being shoved down out throats at every opportunity. The official website should be a showcase for the game, getting us revved up and excited for its release, giving us the lowdown on everything that anyone would wan't to know. It certainly doesn't live up to my exepectations on what an official website should be.
Perhaps, they are relying on other websites to do their job for them, or are just trading on the id and Doom 3 name knowing that its just going to be selling like hotcakes anyway. But at the end of the day, at this point in D3 development I think the website should be more than this.
Yes, there certainly isn't enough changes to worth posting a Slashdot story about this. It still has the same desktops, only one of which I downloaded last January.
Please, wake me up when there is something actaully worth seeing. I looked at the site last week and it certainly hasn't changed since then.
Never be partway through the stargate when it closes...
Ahh this is one rule where epidodes contradict. In the pilot, or following episode of Season 1 there was that officer taken over by a Gu'old, who had his head sliced off by the Stargate to kill him.
Subsequently a few seasons later (where O'Neil hunts down the NIS alien artifact thieves with the help of the Tolen and Asgard) it was established that transmissions, and Colonel O'Neils arm could be used to keep the gate open using the Ancients Stargate safety lock to stop these types of accidents happening.
Ahh farewell continuity, you were gone before your time... I can quite easily overlook these types of discrepencies as I really like SG-1 and I have hopes for SG-A.
A games popularity affects the number of cheaters that come onboard for it. CS since its one of the worlds most popular online games gets alot of cheaters because its popularity makes it a good target for hackers to show off. Tribes on the otherhand (despite the fact that I love it heaps) just didn't get the same kind of following that CS did, hence the lack of hacks for it.
I'd say that it means that whoever posted this article got a little hyped up over the bill. The bill doesn't outlaw P2P apps.
Its enabling those that induce people to steal to be sued. No doubt the law will be abused, due to its broad definitions, to shut P2P down, but it certainly doesn't outlaw it. Though I'm sure that will be the end effect anyway if this bill manages to get into motion.
Don't get me wrong, this bill is very bad and has obviously been bought by the RIAA, MPAA and other related businesses. It needs to be fought, but please lets not get hysterical. Focus bravo!
Slashdot Mirror
Given all the stores that play music, I imagine this setup works quite well. Music producers get compensated for the musics use, business get to use it to attract/entertain customers in their stores.
Every now and then a store does gets busted for not licensing the music correctly.
I don't particularly mind these types of marketing campaigns, as I have the incredible ability to be cynical and just look at something else, without getting all riled up or looking for grand conspiricies. If something worth watching happens at ilovebees.com then I might go and have a look, otherwise I'll just move myself along.
If there was anything in this that would upset me, it would be the orginal location of the theatrical trailer MSN Entertainment. If anything about microsoft should be attacked it should be the total contempt that this site has for its visitors, shoving unrelated ads down a visitors throat (in the actual Halo Theatrical Trailer stream itself) for the mere priviledge of watching said trailer. Coupled with the arrogant assumption that I would have to watch it in IE6 with Windows Media Player. Wrong Microsoft! Once again, technology saves me. :)
One thing I forgot to add, is that I hope that PC game companies do not get entrenched into a video card camp so far, that their game will only run well on a particular card. That I hope, would be bad business.
"NVIDIA has told us more than once that the 6800 series was "designed to play DOOM 3," and the truth of that statement is now glaringly obvious. "
For Doom 3 the Nvidia cards do look to be a better choice, but the cards themselves are biased for Doom 3, no doubt because Nvidia expects there to be many people waiting to upgrade for D3. HL2 performance may very well differ as from what I recall HL2 is in ATI's camp.
Cards have biases in how they work and some do some things well and other things poorly. It really depends on what you wan't to play as to what influence the games will have on your hardware purchasing decision. The best that I hope for is that things will work out to be about even in the wash...
Aye, in that we have something in common :)
Because of the user interaction, its quite a nice way to learn, which processes are trying to phone home without you knowing. Of course you can set them up so that they block without any user prompts whatsoever, and you add the programs that you wan't to have network access manually. Its really up to the user how they want to use the firewall.
I know there are products like ZoneAlarm and such to try and make it easier for non technical users to use them, but Joe Average people will be baffled by them since they don't understand how networks work and everything that goes with that.
There is research into making computers self maintainable and repair themselves and such but its a long way away from making the Joe Average safe to use a computer on the internet. Alot more work needs to go into transparent computer adminstration systems that free Joe Average (and their administrators, family computer lackeys etc) from having to deal with computer problems that could be solved or avoided, with what we would consider common sense.
Losing money, normally gets a companies attention, that perhaps their customers think that their licensing is getting too expensive for them to consider Oracle.
I havn't looked into database pricing for a long time (ignoring MySql type "free" databases), but from what I remember, Oracle was one of the more expensive ones. Is it so now?
That is bad. So is any other technology that plays music on a website. I love music, but its annoying an unapropriate on a webpage.
Things are getting far worse than music however. Some flash ads are talking when your mouse moves over them, like that very annoying Tina person telling you about how flash based ads can talk if you wan't them to. Wired ran these ads and I very quickly sent back a rant email to them on their rant page that they have, that if they ever subjected me to an ad like that again I woulnd't ever visit their site again. Knee-jerk reaction? Why yes, but I don't think anyone should be subjeted to an ad that was that annoying, period.
Then I immediately wen't and installed the Adblock extension into my Mozilla and have never looked back.
I had thought about getting it for XBOX as well, but when you look at the fact that many more mods and extensionns will be made to the PC D3 vs the XBOX D3, then the PC version will end up being a bigger bang for your buck (after ignoring the PC hardware platform requirements that is). Think of it as a bigger play time for your buck...
However my vague memory of such things may be a little faulty to say the least.
I'm most curious about the performance difference between Nvidia and ATI cards as I am most firmly entrenched on the ATI side of things at the moment.
Should I wait for HL2 before making the final choice? I probably wont :)
I don't want to burst your bubble, but a Radeon 9600, isn't going to give you the best graphical performance for D3. Of course if you will settle for the revolutionary ground breaking gameplay of D3 and its new original storyline and all, then you should be satisfied.
Please insert the correct use of sarcasm and sense of humor as appropriate.
However there is a powerful patent holder that has put some big stakes into Linux, and that is IBM (could they be our White Knight as stated in the story?). I do not know if they are holding patents that could be used to put Microsoft into a more concilitory position on the patent issue, but I wouldn't be suprised if IBM has one or 2 things in its patent holdings that could be used to defend Linux from these types of attacks. Or whether such a thing, is legally possible.
I have vague memories of IBM holding patents that are not enforced for the public good to ensure others do not try to patent such things and cause problems.
Right now, I hold no great fear that MS will attack open source with its patents... yet. From what stories I have seen on the MS patent issue so far they seem to be trying to limit others from being compatible with Windows in certain key areas of its products, (or compatible with a price).
No I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying that ID and Activision themselves should be promoting D3 right now, rather than relying on other people to do it for them.
I myself don't believe hype either, I prefer to go on unbiased reviews, demos and track records of games/companies.
My comments are solely related to how D3 and Activision are marketing D3 through the D3 website, and that in my opinion, is poorly.
It totally eclipsed my knowledge of big Oh notation (given that I am a computer programmer) with its fancy opening theme song and all. I guess I'm just not as big a geek as I used to be. :)
Aye, Big O does mean something else to me as well, but perhaps its different from what you are thinking about, or perhaps part of the same... Paradigm.
If this is their idea of doing their job, then I would fire them. Its a few weeks till launch and all we have on the official website, is 3 wallpapers, some screenshots and a single demo movie (quite pretty), and a pre-order link.
Now is the time that D3 should be getting hyped, and being shoved down out throats at every opportunity. The official website should be a showcase for the game, getting us revved up and excited for its release, giving us the lowdown on everything that anyone would wan't to know. It certainly doesn't live up to my exepectations on what an official website should be.
Perhaps, they are relying on other websites to do their job for them, or are just trading on the id and Doom 3 name knowing that its just going to be selling like hotcakes anyway. But at the end of the day, at this point in D3 development I think the website should be more than this.
Please, wake me up when there is something actaully worth seeing. I looked at the site last week and it certainly hasn't changed since then.
Ahh this is one rule where epidodes contradict. In the pilot, or following episode of Season 1 there was that officer taken over by a Gu'old, who had his head sliced off by the Stargate to kill him.
Subsequently a few seasons later (where O'Neil hunts down the NIS alien artifact thieves with the help of the Tolen and Asgard) it was established that transmissions, and Colonel O'Neils arm could be used to keep the gate open using the Ancients Stargate safety lock to stop these types of accidents happening.
Ahh farewell continuity, you were gone before your time... I can quite easily overlook these types of discrepencies as I really like SG-1 and I have hopes for SG-A.
Ho! We must of watched different pilot episodes! :)
I mean I wasn't exactly expecting full frontal female nudity in the SG-1 Pilot, but its what we certainly got, at least in Australia...
Ahh, the ever present trap of trying to apply logic to the English language... Both the result and answer can be seen above lol... :)
Tribes Vengeance I am looking forward to.
Any system that solely relies on software, software that is in the users hands, to combat cheating is going to fail. Its only a matter of time.
Its enabling those that induce people to steal to be sued. No doubt the law will be abused, due to its broad definitions, to shut P2P down, but it certainly doesn't outlaw it. Though I'm sure that will be the end effect anyway if this bill manages to get into motion.
Don't get me wrong, this bill is very bad and has obviously been bought by the RIAA, MPAA and other related businesses. It needs to be fought, but please lets not get hysterical. Focus bravo!