The bigger problem with this, the way I see it, is that before we even get to comparing men vs. women, we need to define what "intelligence" is and how to measure it.
You might find the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory interesting/relevant.
As I said before, Valve tapped fans to do a project, and it was very successful. If it's not in a company's interest to generate revenue, then I don't know what is.
Because Square is quite capable of making their own damn games, maybe?
Ooh, a fanboy. Sorry I offended you.
Even so, that's a matter of opinion. And since we're speaking of opinions, if you ask me, Square Enix's recent offerings have been pure crap.
I'm talking about this from a business perspective. A remake of a game with as large a subscribership as Chrono Trigger is sure to draw sales. And considering the fact that a good portion of the devlopment has already been done for free, Square Enix has a nice opportunity in front of them. They could probably finish production on the cheap, since it doesn't look like the people developing this were looking to make money in the first place. It was just a fan project. Unless Square Enix has something better up its sleeve that they haven't announced yet, it would be foolish to pass this one up, their *questionable* ability to make "their own damn games" aside.
Why wouldn't Square Enix want to tap these people to develop the game for them? Didn't Valve do something similar with the team developing the Team Fortress mod for Half Life?
It seems like this way they could still protect their IP and cash in on sales of the game. While I can't speak for every fan of the original game, I know my mouth was watering when I watched the trailer.
Nor do I like the assumption that the government has the right to know what I'm doing and how I'm driving.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when you are driving in your car. If you're a hazard on the road, that's my problem just as much as it is yours. You should not expect a right to privacy when you're cruising down the highway.
On the other hand, you should expect a right to justice if you get slammed by a bad driver. Black boxes eliminate subjective accounts of car accidents.
Perhaps you should look at the Tom's review then. While it is true that the cards are all about the same at low resolutions with FSAA turned off, NV40 generally gets quite a lead at 1600x1200 with FSAA at 4x, for example.
I think you're stressing the importance of this story.
Granted, this *is* more important than any of the trash that has hence come out SCO's dirty mouths, but take a step back for a minute. Not *everyone* here uses Linux or free software. Even some who do simply don't want to take one word that comes from SCO says at face value.
That being said, I do use linux, and do like free software, and I am interested in this particular story, I just think your conception about the readers of Slashdot are inaccurate.
As far as an immersive 3D game, it doesn't get any better than System Shock 2 for me. I enjoyed the first one, but 2 has a much needed graphics boost to truly create the environment I was looking for. Whenever I played system shock 2 it felt to me as if I was in that game. It may be the one PC game that has ever really managed to frighten me.
We've been over this...Linux ALSO gives kernel access to its drivers. I have on more than one occasion been forced to reboot Linux (not restart X, mind you, but give the machine a hard reboot) because drivers shit the bed while playing a game or something. The Alt SysRq's didn't work or anything, complete loss of control.
Let's do a little research before we start mindlessly bashing something--Ooops, sorry, I forgot where I was for a moment.
I work at a company who has lots of money in Microsoft's products. They're pervasive in our infrastructure for better or worse.
As I'm sure everyone on/. can imagine, we need to open a LOT of tickets with Microsoft when shit hits the fan and we can't figure out why.
It may come as a shock to many, but my dealings with Microsoft's front line technical support has been, even to my surprise, a good one. They make sure and get things going in a timely manner. This may be because their products comprise 90-some% of our infrastructure.
But even my personal dealings with their support were not bad. As you all know, XP pro requires activation. I have a legal license and activated the product. Since then I have rebuilt my system several times and reactivated windows with the same key. Finally, after enough rebuilds and enough hardware configuration changes, windows got upset and told me I couldn't use my key anymore, and to contact microsoft blah blah blah.
I'm thinking, "Great, I purchased this license and they still treat me like a pirate. I'm going to have to jump through all kinds of hoops to prove to these people that I'm not stealing their software." Surprisingly, I had an activated copy of windows within minutes, and didn't have to prove a thing.
Maybe I got lucky, maybe not. But not all support is bad just because consumer reports notices a trend.
Congratulations. You may have just made the dumbest post I have seen in a message board.
In any case, its Friday, I'm sure you'll be going to a happy hour, if you're not there already, picking up chicks. Unless by picking up chicks, you really meant going to the newstand and picking up a copy of Hustler.
For many, the debate is moot. I used to move my xbox around a lot, by bringing it over to friends' houses, and moving it to the dorm and back.
I'm not really complaining about the form factor of the xbox per se, but the gamecube is small, quiet, stays cool, and is generally efficient, and I always like to see that.
Big or small, I just throw everything in a bag and go, so its not really even a matter of convenience.
Don't get me wrong, the xbox is big due in no small part to its included hard drive. I love the hard drive, and hate buying/keeping track of/losing memory cards.
I guess what I'm saying is, yes, I agree with you that form factor doesn't really play a big part in the operation of a console system. For me, its more of a "neat, they fit all that shit in a little cube" feature than anything else. It's never affected my decision to purchase a system. At the end of the day, if it does its job, I'm a happy customer.
You're right, this debate is pretty unimportant, and people who use that as a major reason to bash a system are just grabbing at air.
I forked over 300 bucks for the xbox when it came out. I am pleased with it, but its not without its flaws. I like the hard drive, but it makes the thing massive. Plus, I'm one of numerous people who have troulbe getting the thing to read games every once in a while, due to a dirty laser lens.
Conversely, I picked up a Gamecube about a month ago, and I couldn't be happier with it, even given the unclear future of the system. The price was quite nice and with metroid prime for free, you can't go wrong. I love the small form factor.
While the xbox IS more powerful, its all about how you use what you've got, and as you said Gamecube does have the best games.
I have used windows my entire life. (Aside from a brief go with Slackware that I found unsatisfactory). Gentoo is the distro that finally broke that trend. I still use Windows for games, but I use Gentoo now just as much. I learned linux on a Gentoo system, and I'll probably be using it for as long as it stays around.
The only problem I've had with it is that recently I rebuilt my computer from the ground up. I formatted everything and wanted to rebuild Gentoo using the 1.4 rc4 LiveCD, but the kernel they load wouldn't pick up my Integrated GigE controller. I was too lazy to get a kernel working, so I just waited for 1.4 Final. THankfully, my NIC was detected and as we speak my stage-1 installation is compiling happily away.
I'm glad I can alleviate your guilt over downloading movies for free. Let's take a look at how these people get their money. I'm not sure exactly where royalties go, but lets put that aside for the moment. The people you mentioned above are hired to make the movie, and, as such, are paid for making the movie. Actors are paid for the talent, as are directors and cinematographers. Writers are paid for their scripts, key grips and other production staff are most likely union, so they're definitely getting paid during production of the movie. Special effects and the like are often contracted out, so, no money, no contract.
Where does all this money come from? Paramount, Columbia/TriStar, etc. It's up to these huge companies to make this up with movie sales, which is usually accomplished at the box office, and DVD sales. Even if they don't, it's their loss. The people involved in making the movie still get paid.
On a personal note, I love movies. I have hundreds of DVDs that I have legally purchased. But I won't often throw my money at crap. I want to see the movie before I purchase it. I suppose I could go to a theater, but that costs $9.25 where I live, and I have to sit through 20 minutes of commercials (and that's BEFORE the previews even start). I'd rather just download the movie to preview it. If it's any good, they'll have my money. If not, serves them right, I hope they learned a lesson.
Sorry if this is kind of rambling. It's early in the morning on Monday, and I'm stuck at work. Also, I always like to know when I've been misinformed.
Just because one thing happens when another thing happens does not mean one is causing the other."
While it is usually true that correlation does not necessarily imply causality, I think it's pretty clear that Napster's peak did cause CD sales to rise.
Napster at its peak was immensely popular at its peak. People who barely knew how to use computers could log on and search for music to download and listen to.
Many of these people may not have known how to burn the mp3s to an audio cd for play in their home stereos, so, upon liking their new music, went out and purchased the cd so they could listen in their car, or another area of their house.
It seems to me that the RIAA didn't much care about P2P at this point, and why should they have? Sales were up--They were making more money. I posit that if asked during this period what they thought of P2P, many in the RIAA would have been indifferent.
It is only once CD sales started to drop that the RIAA started looking for someone to blame. Forget about the mediocre music available these days, or the high CD prices. The ones at fault MUST be the people sharing their music. To this day, they have not provided any solid evidence that P2P is wrecking their sales, and I'd be surprised if they ever did.
Linux is coming and nobody can stop it from getting here. It looks as if even Microsoft is willing to acknowledge this.
Maybe now I can finally convince my rabid pro-MS/anti-open-source boss to see this. They're the ones that actually buy the technology. The fact that microsoft is seriously looking at Linux as competition may show him that it's something to look into...
"If you like trading music and are about to get broadband, which company would *you* sign up with?"
I'd sign up with Comcast. In my area, SBC's DSL is plagued with outages, slow peak usage hours, downtime, etc. No matter what I did (even switching modems and routers a couple of times) I couldn't convince them that the problem was on their end. That's why I switched to Comcast in the first place. Since that, I've had to reset my modem and router ONCE. (Due to a small power surge, which the router didn't seem to like.)
Perhaps SBC should focus a little less on PR, and a little more on providing a solid service to their existing customers. If they had, they'd probably still be getting my money. I'm not even sure other people have this problem, but they do in my area (I think the DSL rollout around here was pretty rushed--they were under pressure.)
Anyway, I'll take a risk here, and say I value performance more than I value my "privacy". Brought to you in quotes thanks to the DMCA, for making the concept so elusive in the first place, and because I don't think SBC has much of a chance of stopping it.
"You had a number of choices. 1) You could've kept it, downloaded the songs, and listened to them. At least then you would've paid for music, which is the legal thing to do. 2) You could've returned it, explained why you were returning it, written a letter to the music company explain what you did, and then chosen to not buy any more copy protected CDs."
These are hardly choices. What if someone is on a 56k connection? They certain won't be downloading legal copies of the mp3s in any sort of timely fashion.
Ok, so we'll write a letter. Do you believe that the record companies will abandon their beloved protection because they get a few letters from people who can't play the CD? Think again.
This is unacceptable. If I pay money for a CD, I should be able to play it, regardless of what operating system I am using, and regardless of how old my stereo equipment is. I don't have the time or the patience to write a polite letter to the record company explaining that I am very displeased with them. There is nothing worse than forking over some cash, only to be treated like a pirate even after doing so.
Slashdot Mirror
The bigger problem with this, the way I see it, is that before we even get to comparing men vs. women, we need to define what "intelligence" is and how to measure it.
You might find the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) Theory interesting/relevant.
http://www.iapsych.com/CHCPP/CHCPP.html
http://www.iapsych.com/hornmod.htm
As I said before, Valve tapped fans to do a project, and it was very successful. If it's not in a company's interest to generate revenue, then I don't know what is.
Because Square is quite capable of making their own damn games, maybe?
Ooh, a fanboy. Sorry I offended you.
Even so, that's a matter of opinion. And since we're speaking of opinions, if you ask me, Square Enix's recent offerings have been pure crap.
I'm talking about this from a business perspective. A remake of a game with as large a subscribership as Chrono Trigger is sure to draw sales. And considering the fact that a good portion of the devlopment has already been done for free, Square Enix has a nice opportunity in front of them. They could probably finish production on the cheap, since it doesn't look like the people developing this were looking to make money in the first place. It was just a fan project. Unless Square Enix has something better up its sleeve that they haven't announced yet, it would be foolish to pass this one up, their *questionable* ability to make "their own damn games" aside.
Why wouldn't Square Enix want to tap these people to develop the game for them? Didn't Valve do something similar with the team developing the Team Fortress mod for Half Life?
It seems like this way they could still protect their IP and cash in on sales of the game. While I can't speak for every fan of the original game, I know my mouth was watering when I watched the trailer.
--
Nor do I like the assumption that the government has the right to know what I'm doing and how I'm driving.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy when you are driving in your car. If you're a hazard on the road, that's my problem just as much as it is yours. You should not expect a right to privacy when you're cruising down the highway.
On the other hand, you should expect a right to justice if you get slammed by a bad driver. Black boxes eliminate subjective accounts of car accidents.
Perhaps you should look at the Tom's review then. While it is true that the cards are all about the same at low resolutions with FSAA turned off, NV40 generally gets quite a lead at 1600x1200 with FSAA at 4x, for example.
don't want to take one word that comes from SCO says at face value.
I should mention that I don't have time to worry about how I use the English language.
I think you're stressing the importance of this story.
Granted, this *is* more important than any of the trash that has hence come out SCO's dirty mouths, but take a step back for a minute. Not *everyone* here uses Linux or free software. Even some who do simply don't want to take one word that comes from SCO says at face value.
That being said, I do use linux, and do like free software, and I am interested in this particular story, I just think your conception about the readers of Slashdot are inaccurate.
As far as an immersive 3D game, it doesn't get any better than System Shock 2 for me. I enjoyed the first one, but 2 has a much needed graphics boost to truly create the environment I was looking for. Whenever I played system shock 2 it felt to me as if I was in that game. It may be the one PC game that has ever really managed to frighten me.
How this got modded "Insightful" I'll never know.
We've been over this...Linux ALSO gives kernel access to its drivers. I have on more than one occasion been forced to reboot Linux (not restart X, mind you, but give the machine a hard reboot) because drivers shit the bed while playing a game or something. The Alt SysRq's didn't work or anything, complete loss of control.
Let's do a little research before we start mindlessly bashing something--Ooops, sorry, I forgot where I was for a moment.
I work at a company who has lots of money in Microsoft's products. They're pervasive in our infrastructure for better or worse.
/. can imagine, we need to open a LOT of tickets with Microsoft when shit hits the fan and we can't figure out why.
As I'm sure everyone on
It may come as a shock to many, but my dealings with Microsoft's front line technical support has been, even to my surprise, a good one. They make sure and get things going in a timely manner. This may be because their products comprise 90-some% of our infrastructure.
But even my personal dealings with their support were not bad. As you all know, XP pro requires activation. I have a legal license and activated the product. Since then I have rebuilt my system several times and reactivated windows with the same key. Finally, after enough rebuilds and enough hardware configuration changes, windows got upset and told me I couldn't use my key anymore, and to contact microsoft blah blah blah.
I'm thinking, "Great, I purchased this license and they still treat me like a pirate. I'm going to have to jump through all kinds of hoops to prove to these people that I'm not stealing their software." Surprisingly, I had an activated copy of windows within minutes, and didn't have to prove a thing.
Maybe I got lucky, maybe not. But not all support is bad just because consumer reports notices a trend.
Congratulations. You may have just made the dumbest post I have seen in a message board.
In any case, its Friday, I'm sure you'll be going to a happy hour, if you're not there already, picking up chicks. Unless by picking up chicks, you really meant going to the newstand and picking up a copy of Hustler.
Does anyone know what her IQ is anyway?
Mine is.
But I think its just a rather large coincidence.
You get dvd menu support if you use xine with the dvdnav plugin. I'm not sure about other players, as this is the first one I've used.
For many, the debate is moot. I used to move my xbox around a lot, by bringing it over to friends' houses, and moving it to the dorm and back.
I'm not really complaining about the form factor of the xbox per se, but the gamecube is small, quiet, stays cool, and is generally efficient, and I always like to see that.
Big or small, I just throw everything in a bag and go, so its not really even a matter of convenience.
Don't get me wrong, the xbox is big due in no small part to its included hard drive. I love the hard drive, and hate buying/keeping track of/losing memory cards.
I guess what I'm saying is, yes, I agree with you that form factor doesn't really play a big part in the operation of a console system. For me, its more of a "neat, they fit all that shit in a little cube" feature than anything else. It's never affected my decision to purchase a system. At the end of the day, if it does its job, I'm a happy customer.
You're right, this debate is pretty unimportant, and people who use that as a major reason to bash a system are just grabbing at air.
I must say I have to agree with you.
I forked over 300 bucks for the xbox when it came out. I am pleased with it, but its not without its flaws. I like the hard drive, but it makes the thing massive. Plus, I'm one of numerous people who have troulbe getting the thing to read games every once in a while, due to a dirty laser lens.
Conversely, I picked up a Gamecube about a month ago, and I couldn't be happier with it, even given the unclear future of the system. The price was quite nice and with metroid prime for free, you can't go wrong. I love the small form factor.
While the xbox IS more powerful, its all about how you use what you've got, and as you said Gamecube does have the best games.
I have used windows my entire life. (Aside from a brief go with Slackware that I found unsatisfactory). Gentoo is the distro that finally broke that trend. I still use Windows for games, but I use Gentoo now just as much. I learned linux on a Gentoo system, and I'll probably be using it for as long as it stays around.
:)
The only problem I've had with it is that recently I rebuilt my computer from the ground up. I formatted everything and wanted to rebuild Gentoo using the 1.4 rc4 LiveCD, but the kernel they load wouldn't pick up my Integrated GigE controller. I was too lazy to get a kernel working, so I just waited for 1.4 Final. THankfully, my NIC was detected and as we speak my stage-1 installation is compiling happily away.
I'll probably also spring for the pressed CDs
This society isn't going anywhere--This is slashdot. The rules of society don't apply here.
From what I can tell there are only two rules:
If you in any way try to infringe on constitutional rights (which are interpreted very loosely here) you are EVIL.
If you are in any way trying to stop this infringment of rights, you are GOOD.
My theory...
So SCO wants to charge $699 for Linux, thus making it more epxensive than Microsoft Windows.
In a related story, Bill Gates was recently appointed to join SCO's board of directors effective yesterday.
I mean, that HAS to be the explanation. That, or SCO has gone completely fucking BONKERS.
I'm glad I can alleviate your guilt over downloading movies for free. Let's take a look at how these people get their money. I'm not sure exactly where royalties go, but lets put that aside for the moment. The people you mentioned above are hired to make the movie, and, as such, are paid for making the movie. Actors are paid for the talent, as are directors and cinematographers. Writers are paid for their scripts, key grips and other production staff are most likely union, so they're definitely getting paid during production of the movie. Special effects and the like are often contracted out, so, no money, no contract.
Where does all this money come from? Paramount, Columbia/TriStar, etc. It's up to these huge companies to make this up with movie sales, which is usually accomplished at the box office, and DVD sales. Even if they don't, it's their loss. The people involved in making the movie still get paid.
On a personal note, I love movies. I have hundreds of DVDs that I have legally purchased. But I won't often throw my money at crap. I want to see the movie before I purchase it. I suppose I could go to a theater, but that costs $9.25 where I live, and I have to sit through 20 minutes of commercials (and that's BEFORE the previews even start). I'd rather just download the movie to preview it. If it's any good, they'll have my money. If not, serves them right, I hope they learned a lesson.
Sorry if this is kind of rambling. It's early in the morning on Monday, and I'm stuck at work. Also, I always like to know when I've been misinformed.
Just because one thing happens when another thing happens does not mean one is causing the other."
While it is usually true that correlation does not necessarily imply causality, I think it's pretty clear that Napster's peak did cause CD sales to rise.
Napster at its peak was immensely popular at its peak. People who barely knew how to use computers could log on and search for music to download and listen to.
Many of these people may not have known how to burn the mp3s to an audio cd for play in their home stereos, so, upon liking their new music, went out and purchased the cd so they could listen in their car, or another area of their house.
It seems to me that the RIAA didn't much care about P2P at this point, and why should they have? Sales were up--They were making more money. I posit that if asked during this period what they thought of P2P, many in the RIAA would have been indifferent.
It is only once CD sales started to drop that the RIAA started looking for someone to blame. Forget about the mediocre music available these days, or the high CD prices. The ones at fault MUST be the people sharing their music. To this day, they have not provided any solid evidence that P2P is wrecking their sales, and I'd be surprised if they ever did.
Linux is coming and nobody can stop it from getting here. It looks as if even Microsoft is willing to acknowledge this.
Maybe now I can finally convince my rabid pro-MS/anti-open-source boss to see this. They're the ones that actually buy the technology. The fact that microsoft is seriously looking at Linux as competition may show him that it's something to look into...
"If you like trading music and are about to get broadband, which company would *you* sign up with?"
I'd sign up with Comcast. In my area, SBC's DSL is plagued with outages, slow peak usage hours, downtime, etc. No matter what I did (even switching modems and routers a couple of times) I couldn't convince them that the problem was on their end. That's why I switched to Comcast in the first place. Since that, I've had to reset my modem and router ONCE. (Due to a small power surge, which the router didn't seem to like.)
Perhaps SBC should focus a little less on PR, and a little more on providing a solid service to their existing customers. If they had, they'd probably still be getting my money. I'm not even sure other people have this problem, but they do in my area (I think the DSL rollout around here was pretty rushed--they were under pressure.)
Anyway, I'll take a risk here, and say I value performance more than I value my "privacy". Brought to you in quotes thanks to the DMCA, for making the concept so elusive in the first place, and because I don't think SBC has much of a chance of stopping it.
"You had a number of choices. 1) You could've kept it, downloaded the songs, and listened to them. At least then you would've paid for music, which is the legal thing to do. 2) You could've returned it, explained why you were returning it, written a letter to the music company explain what you did, and then chosen to not buy any more copy protected CDs."
These are hardly choices. What if someone is on a 56k connection? They certain won't be downloading legal copies of the mp3s in any sort of timely fashion.
Ok, so we'll write a letter. Do you believe that the record companies will abandon their beloved protection because they get a few letters from people who can't play the CD? Think again.
This is unacceptable. If I pay money for a CD, I should be able to play it, regardless of what operating system I am using, and regardless of how old my stereo equipment is. I don't have the time or the patience to write a polite letter to the record company explaining that I am very displeased with them. There is nothing worse than forking over some cash, only to be treated like a pirate even after doing so.