No "call home" DRM even if the game was great.
on
Review: Spore
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I am not 12 years old anymore. I don't have to have any game. By accounts of actual reviews this is an OK game, not a must have.
But in this case it is an ok game with egregious DRM. They are renting you the game with 3 installs for $50. You don't think that is an incredibly steep price for a rental?
This has to be fought vigorously. Ignore this game, move along. If you are insatiably curious, visit the Torrent networks, it is widely available,obviously this DRM does nothing to reign that in.
We have to fight this as this strips everything from the consumer. Make no mistake this is not aimed at "pirates", it is aimed at the honest paying customer.
It stops the paying customer from selling his game used. The next great evil the game companies are chasing. Honest folks selling their games. Now if you buy a game that you don't like, you can't return it and you can't even sell it.
It stops the honest paying customer from playing his old games. I have a lot of old games and I still like to play them, part nostalgia, partly because they were great games and still are (Total Annihilation, Baldurs Gate 2). Do you really think game DRM servers will be running in 10 years. How long did yahoo music DRM servers keep going. Not to mention the support to staff for you to convince when your 3 activations are up.
I am not even getting into what else the DRM installs/does/messes up on your computer, I am just completely offended by this shift to a rental model. Don't take this lying down. Don't give them money for this. You are giving them the right to veto your playing of a game you purchased. Why would you do that.
I am more comfortable wtih Reloaded, than EA.
on
Review: Spore
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Pirated version Secure. You bet.
These days Reloaded is a more trusted brand than EA.
Bottom line a forced phone home install is bad, very bad. I won't buy any product that does this. Because this is a rental, not a purchase, you are using your product at the whim of the publisher and if the publisher in future decides the game is past profitable, no more installs for you.
If you only play games as the flavor of the moment, this might not be an issue for you. If you actually like to play your old games sometime, it is a show stopper.
I have Total Annihilation installed on my computer. I bought this 10 years ago and Cavedog is defunct. If it had Phone Home DRM, it would be a dead game. I also played Baldurs Gate 2 again last year. The company is still in business, but what are the odds they would still be supporting the DRM server on this one too?
Just look at Yahoo/Microsoft and their music DRM servers. Trying to shut them down even though they are still in business.
Phone home DRM is a plague. It should be fought on all fronts.
NWN2 had a lot bad buzz when released, so I never went near it. It doesn't have the modules or the online presence of NWN1. I might pick it up in a bargain bin someday, but even then, I won't if it is infected with Virulent DRM.
I don't care about Spore. But I won't buy a game with call home DRM. When the servers aren't working someday, you can't play your game. No thanks. Just look at Microsoft and Yahoo music services to get a clue how long these servers will run.
So if the game I am waiting for actually has this crap. I won't buy it. This is after buying BG1, BG2, NWN and all expansions, plus KOTOR. I love Bioware games. But I will not buy into this kind of DRM nonsense.
And you know what. It will still get busted and copied, they are just alienating the purchasing customer. Or soon to be former purchasing customer.
But hey it's OK, I still have NWN and 10000 mods for my RPG fix if these guys don't want my money.
I see terrible behavior from FF at work (some old RHEL) It freezes up constantly, but at home on windows it is rock solid. I also run Kubuntu at home and it is much better than at work, but perhaps not as good as windows version. If I rate them. Windows version 9.5, Kubuntu 9, RHEL 2. Just to give you some extent of the problem. I don't really consider it a FF problem, but the crappy Linux installation foisted on us, but our IT department.
I consider this a "would be nice" feature. FF is rock stable for me and guess what. It is just a browser. If it did have a problem, I would restart it.
Chrome OTOH is missing several "must have" features.
I tally it as Chrome up by one "would be nice" and behind by several "must haves" and the all important killer feature: Extensions. Not only the ability to use extensions, but massive library of them here now.
Chrome is not really a browser. It is a tech demo.
I downloaded Chrome, then was confused by the hype because I didn't notice any big speed increase and the browser was basically featureless. Uninstalled and sent my comments to Google.
The one big feature of Chrome (other than the speed I never saw) is the per process tabs. This might be an issue, if Firefox wasn't rock stable for me (but it is) or I had to surf for 8 hours straight and was never allowed to restart the browser and memory fragmentation became a problem, but I don't do this and if I did. The browser is just a browser. I would restart it. But I have never seen this happen.
If Chrome catches up on everything else I might give it another shot for the per process tabs as a would be nice feature.
I have never heard of a Gas powered golf getting 44mpg so you must mean diesel.
In which case your argument doesn't make that much sense.
In the worse case he is getting the same mileage as you with less expensive more readily available gas. So he is already doing better. If you drive in the city it only tilts more in his favor as you acknowledge your mileage gets worse and his gets better.
Bottom line is I fail to see how matching him in your best case vs his worse case when you burn more expensive fuel makes his outcome the worse.
Re:No standard window behavior for Chrome either.
on
Google Chrome, Day 2
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· Score: 1
"Works for me..."
Does it work on WinXP or Vista? I have tried on two computers with completely different configurations. The only common element was Windows XP.
Click on windows bar at the bottom and select tile windows vertically/horizontally or cascade. None of these has any effect on Chrome on either machine.
I have to assume you are thinking of something else or are not using XP.
Nice Tech demo. Features in a real browser when?
on
Google Chrome, Day 2
·
· Score: 1
By todays standards, Chrome just can't compete as a browser. It lacks configuration ability,features, add-ons.
The two nice things I see in the tech demo are:
V8 - the fast javascript engine, and per process tabs. That is all.
I place my bet on seeing those in real browsers, before seeing this beta fleshed out to become a real workable browser.
I did my own testing and instead of running javascript benchmarks. I just visited the same set of my web favorites with Chrome/Opera/FF.
Once or twice I might have noticed the tiniest speed difference. I am talking perhaps 1/10th of a second. Where are people seeing the big speedups? Are they just running benchmarks? BTW Chrome always used the most memory.
I don't get the hype over an infinitesimal real world speed increase on a feature-less browser.
The two nice features might be a big deal if I felt FF was slow or unstable. Neither of which is true. I use it at home (Kubuntu/winXP) and at work (some old red hat release). It is rock stable at home, flaky at work, but I don't blame the browser, I blame our useless IT department for the crappy RedHat release from years ago. I'll take those features when they are free, but I am not giving up any functionality for it.
As far as usage stats. Wait a month until eveyone is done trying it. I know mine is getting deleted later today. Tech demos peak fast when the novelty wears off.
No standard window behavior for Chrome either.
on
Google Chrome, Day 2
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· Score: 1
The first thing I did with chrome was to open it and FF and tell windows to tile vertically.
Guess What. Chrome doesn't tile. It's presence doesn't even seem to be recognized.
The killer feature for me is the built in task manager for the processes.
But I won't be using this browser even for 5 minutes without a flash blocker.
It is a very nice beta, but missing functionality many people won't live without. (flash/ad blocking).
It is more like a tech demo at the moment. I am shutting it down and going back to FF to do some actual browsing. Minus stupid dancing flash adverts. If this takes off and actually gets some features/extensions, I will have another look, but for now, I consider this unusable in its current form.
This seems extremely flawed. If you are comparing longevity among those who already reached 60, the first question I would ask is what are the numbers for everyone? I am betting they are reversed when you include all those who didn't make it to 60.
First many of these countries identified are probably harsher environments, then you create additional pressures by having polygamy, which means much higher mate competition pressures. If one guy has 4 wives, 3 guys get no wives.
So you have a survival of the fittest regime, that is likely killing off a lot of the weaker samples early. Then you compare the 60+ year old survivors to average 60 year olds in non polygamous societies (likely the west) where most of those weaker individuals make it to 60.
Check the top 20 Blu rays: They are $14 - $25 Most are under $20. These are not garbage titles. Batman begins is #1 BR for $17.95.
Right now there is typically only a small premium for the Blu Ray. Soon it will be negligible. Why they heck wouldn't you get blu ray when the price is more or less equivalent?
## Not enough quality difference.
Seriously is everyone blind? I can see the difference on my 20" computer monitor. On really big screens DVDs show serious issues. Actually compare the back to back is astounding. People used to watch VHS and think it was fine too.
I don't have a BR yet, but I think buy a DVD at this point is silly when the price is so close for a much better source. A year from now the prices will probably be equal and we will still see posts railing about $35 blu rays.
Synergy is one of those terms used in business that I usually hate, but with Apple, it really makes sense.
Invariably, these stories always bring out the responses that Apple would do much better letting everyone build closes. But really they wouldn't. Ditching HW sales won't turn Apple into a Windows competitor on the open market, they will just lose HW sales.
IMO: Apple hardware helped OSX get it's market position. OSX helped Apple Hardware get it's market position.
It is is the slick combination of OS and hardware together that has Apple still producing their computers and OS's.
Numerous OS contenders (BeOS, OS/2, Linux, Solaris) have blipped on the radar, often they were much better than the various versions of MacOS at the time. But none made the headway that MacOS in various incarnations had, because they lacked a HW vendor that stuck with it through thick and thin.
A Mac is not just OSX, and a Mac is not just a stylish PC.
It is the synergy of matched hardware and software, that creates a somewhat unique consistent experience.
I say the above as PC owner who choses every single component in all my PCs. I considered a Mac last time, but they lacked a decent Midtower for a decent price, so I don't think they have everything right, but they have a unique product and I think it should stay that way or risk disappearing.
So sue they should to maintain the only model that can work in the current market.
We really need to rethink the rules to allow and even encourage vehicles like this. Regardless of the motive technology we are facing an energy crunch going forward so we need the most efficient vehicles for personal transport in terms of Joules/KM. It doesn't matter if you use fossil fuels directly or electricity to power the vehicle, it will still need to be efficient.
This is obviously the design of a very efficient vehicle and a sign of things to come.
Naysayers worrying about being hit by SUVs need to remember that people already drive motorcycles/scooters and even an SUV won't protect you when hit by a Semi. Also as gas hits $10/gallon, your chances of being hit by an SUV will decrease dramatically.
Matching brightness to ambient lighting is much more important than color scheme (unless you are going nuts with red on blue or something). I have been working as a coder for 12+ years now with a lot of 14 hour+ days...
I never had much problem with CRTs. I prefer white backgrounds (standard VIM with syntax highlighting) with the brightness toned down to near paper levels for easy viewing.
Most of the bigger LCDs I have tried lack the range of brightness control as they fight for supremacy in the specification wars. I have purchased LCDs of all three types (VA/TN/IPS) and in sizes ranging from 17" to 30".
Eye comfort has correlated most strongly with how low you can modulate the brightness. On most big panels this modulation is quite poor when they aim for 400-500 cd/m2 which is insanely bright and hurt my eyes instantly regardless of color scheme (bright on dark or dark on bright both hurt). Even when these beasts are at ZERO brightness they are still often over 200cd/m2 which is completely nuts in a normal home lighting. You next have to resort to using the blocking characteristic of the LCD panel to lower it further which results in contrast going down the drain. Or set up more lighting which seems like a waste in terms of energy if nothing else.
After all my purchases I have ended up with lower brightness cheap TN panels. These modulate to the dim end very nicely and tend to have fairly clear screen anti-glare coatings for nice clean text with a paper in light level brightness achievable.
I recommend something like the Benq G2400W with it's nice 250cd/m2 max brightness (and therefore very good lower light performance).
Slashdot Mirror
I am not 12 years old anymore. I don't have to have any game. By accounts of actual reviews this is an OK game, not a must have.
But in this case it is an ok game with egregious DRM. They are renting you the game with 3 installs for $50. You don't think that is an incredibly steep price for a rental?
This has to be fought vigorously. Ignore this game, move along. If you are insatiably curious, visit the Torrent networks, it is widely available ,obviously this DRM does nothing to reign that in.
We have to fight this as this strips everything from the consumer. Make no mistake this is not aimed at "pirates", it is aimed at the honest paying customer.
It stops the paying customer from selling his game used. The next great evil the game companies are chasing. Honest folks selling their games. Now if you buy a game that you don't like, you can't return it and you can't even sell it.
It stops the honest paying customer from playing his old games. I have a lot of old games and I still like to play them, part nostalgia, partly because they were great games and still are (Total Annihilation, Baldurs Gate 2). Do you really think game DRM servers will be running in 10 years. How long did yahoo music DRM servers keep going. Not to mention the support to staff for you to convince when your 3 activations are up.
I am not even getting into what else the DRM installs/does/messes up on your computer, I am just completely offended by this shift to a rental model. Don't take this lying down. Don't give them money for this. You are giving them the right to veto your playing of a game you purchased. Why would you do that.
Pirated version Secure. You bet.
These days Reloaded is a more trusted brand than EA.
Bottom line a forced phone home install is bad, very bad. I won't buy any product that does this. Because this is a rental, not a purchase, you are using your product at the whim of the publisher and if the publisher in future decides the game is past profitable, no more installs for you.
If you only play games as the flavor of the moment, this might not be an issue for you. If you actually like to play your old games sometime, it is a show stopper.
I have Total Annihilation installed on my computer. I bought this 10 years ago and Cavedog is defunct. If it had Phone Home DRM, it would be a dead game. I also played Baldurs Gate 2 again last year. The company is still in business, but what are the odds they would still be supporting the DRM server on this one too?
Just look at Yahoo/Microsoft and their music DRM servers. Trying to shut them down even though they are still in business.
Phone home DRM is a plague. It should be fought on all fronts.
NWN2 had a lot bad buzz when released, so I never went near it. It doesn't have the modules or the online presence of NWN1. I might pick it up in a bargain bin someday, but even then, I won't if it is infected with Virulent DRM.
I don't care about Spore. But I won't buy a game with call home DRM. When the servers aren't working someday, you can't play your game. No thanks. Just look at Microsoft and Yahoo music services to get a clue how long these servers will run.
So if the game I am waiting for actually has this crap. I won't buy it. This is after buying BG1, BG2, NWN and all expansions, plus KOTOR. I love Bioware games. But I will not buy into this kind of DRM nonsense.
And you know what. It will still get busted and copied, they are just alienating the purchasing customer. Or soon to be former purchasing customer.
But hey it's OK, I still have NWN and 10000 mods for my RPG fix if these guys don't want my money.
I see terrible behavior from FF at work (some old RHEL) It freezes up constantly, but at home on windows it is rock solid. I also run Kubuntu at home and it is much better than at work, but perhaps not as good as windows version. If I rate them. Windows version 9.5, Kubuntu 9, RHEL 2. Just to give you some extent of the problem. I don't really consider it a FF problem, but the crappy Linux installation foisted on us, but our IT department.
I consider this a "would be nice" feature. FF is rock stable for me and guess what. It is just a browser. If it did have a problem, I would restart it.
Chrome OTOH is missing several "must have" features.
I tally it as Chrome up by one "would be nice" and behind by several "must haves" and the all important killer feature: Extensions. Not only the ability to use extensions, but massive library of them here now.
Chrome is not really a browser. It is a tech demo.
I downloaded Chrome, then was confused by the hype because I didn't notice any big speed increase and the browser was basically featureless. Uninstalled and sent my comments to Google.
The one big feature of Chrome (other than the speed I never saw) is the per process tabs. This might be an issue, if Firefox wasn't rock stable for me (but it is) or I had to surf for 8 hours straight and was never allowed to restart the browser and memory fragmentation became a problem, but I don't do this and if I did. The browser is just a browser. I would restart it. But I have never seen this happen.
If Chrome catches up on everything else I might give it another shot for the per process tabs as a would be nice feature.
The first ad doesn't need to convey any real information. I thought it was reasonably amusing.
I expect the meat is further down the road.
That said I don't really care about adverstising, but the 300 Million toward getting a better windows 7 out the door sooner.
$10000 difference? This cars projected price is $19K. So you must have went with something cost in $9K. What would that be?
The only thing close seems to be stripped down Chevy Aveo.
I have never heard of a Gas powered golf getting 44mpg so you must mean diesel.
In which case your argument doesn't make that much sense.
In the worse case he is getting the same mileage as you with less expensive more readily available gas. So he is already doing better. If you drive in the city it only tilts more in his favor as you acknowledge your mileage gets worse and his gets better.
Bottom line is I fail to see how matching him in your best case vs his worse case when you burn more expensive fuel makes his outcome the worse.
"Works for me..."
Does it work on WinXP or Vista? I have tried on two computers with completely different configurations. The only common element was Windows XP.
Click on windows bar at the bottom and select tile windows vertically/horizontally or cascade. None of these has any effect on Chrome on either machine.
I have to assume you are thinking of something else or are not using XP.
By todays standards, Chrome just can't compete as a browser. It lacks configuration ability,features, add-ons.
The two nice things I see in the tech demo are:
V8 - the fast javascript engine, and per process tabs. That is all.
I place my bet on seeing those in real browsers, before seeing this beta fleshed out to become a real workable browser.
I did my own testing and instead of running javascript benchmarks. I just visited the same set of my web favorites with Chrome/Opera/FF.
Once or twice I might have noticed the tiniest speed difference. I am talking perhaps 1/10th of a second. Where are people seeing the big speedups? Are they just running benchmarks? BTW Chrome always used the most memory.
I don't get the hype over an infinitesimal real world speed increase on a feature-less browser.
The two nice features might be a big deal if I felt FF was slow or unstable. Neither of which is true. I use it at home (Kubuntu/winXP) and at work (some old red hat release). It is rock stable at home, flaky at work, but I don't blame the browser, I blame our useless IT department for the crappy RedHat release from years ago. I'll take those features when they are free, but I am not giving up any functionality for it.
As far as usage stats. Wait a month until eveyone is done trying it. I know mine is getting deleted later today. Tech demos peak fast when the novelty wears off.
The first thing I did with chrome was to open it and FF and tell windows to tile vertically.
Guess What. Chrome doesn't tile. It's presence doesn't even seem to be recognized.
The killer feature for me is the built in task manager for the processes.
But I won't be using this browser even for 5 minutes without a flash blocker.
It is a very nice beta, but missing functionality many people won't live without. (flash/ad blocking).
It is more like a tech demo at the moment. I am shutting it down and going back to FF to do some actual browsing. Minus stupid dancing flash adverts. If this takes off and actually gets some features/extensions, I will have another look, but for now, I consider this unusable in its current form.
It only seems like they will get the very naive pirates with this.
This seems extremely flawed. If you are comparing longevity among those who already reached 60, the first question I would ask is what are the numbers for everyone? I am betting they are reversed when you include all those who didn't make it to 60.
First many of these countries identified are probably harsher environments, then you create additional pressures by having polygamy, which means much higher mate competition pressures. If one guy has 4 wives, 3 guys get no wives.
So you have a survival of the fittest regime, that is likely killing off a lot of the weaker samples early. Then you compare the 60+ year old survivors to average 60 year olds in non polygamous societies (likely the west) where most of those weaker individuals make it to 60.
Can we have a: "Well Duh!"
Someone got paid for this?
People must have the same tired replies in a file and don't bother updating them.
## $30-$35 disk prices?
http://www.eproductwars.com/dvd/
Check the top 20 Blu rays: They are $14 - $25 Most are under $20. These are not garbage titles. Batman begins is #1 BR for $17.95.
Right now there is typically only a small premium for the Blu Ray. Soon it will be negligible. Why they heck wouldn't you get blu ray when the price is more or less equivalent?
## Not enough quality difference.
Seriously is everyone blind? I can see the difference on my 20" computer monitor. On really big screens DVDs show serious issues. Actually compare the back to back is astounding. People used to watch VHS and think it was fine too.
I don't have a BR yet, but I think buy a DVD at this point is silly when the price is so close for a much better source. A year from now the prices will probably be equal and we will still see posts railing about $35 blu rays.
"In the vein of this article, maybe you should make a Hackintosh."
A Hackintosh kind of defeats the point of a well integrated software-hardware that "Just works".
Synergy is one of those terms used in business that I usually hate, but with Apple, it really makes sense.
Invariably, these stories always bring out the responses that Apple would do much better letting everyone build closes. But really they wouldn't. Ditching HW sales won't turn Apple into a Windows competitor on the open market, they will just lose HW sales.
IMO:
Apple hardware helped OSX get it's market position.
OSX helped Apple Hardware get it's market position.
It is is the slick combination of OS and hardware together that has Apple still producing their computers and OS's.
Numerous OS contenders (BeOS, OS/2, Linux, Solaris) have blipped on the radar, often they were much better than the various versions of MacOS at the time. But none made the headway that MacOS in various incarnations had, because they lacked a HW vendor that stuck with it through thick and thin.
A Mac is not just OSX, and a Mac is not just a stylish PC.
It is the synergy of matched hardware and software, that creates a somewhat unique consistent experience.
I say the above as PC owner who choses every single component in all my PCs. I considered a Mac last time, but they lacked a decent Midtower for a decent price, so I don't think they have everything right, but they have a unique product and I think it should stay that way or risk disappearing.
So sue they should to maintain the only model that can work in the current market.
Get back to us when it is more than blog spam because this makes no sense at all.
Mercedes big money in fossil fuel burning engines that probably will just be coming on the market in that time frame.
Look into DiesOtto for one.
We really need to rethink the rules to allow and even encourage vehicles like this. Regardless of the motive technology we are facing an energy crunch going forward so we need the most efficient vehicles for personal transport in terms of Joules/KM. It doesn't matter if you use fossil fuels directly or electricity to power the vehicle, it will still need to be efficient.
This is obviously the design of a very efficient vehicle and a sign of things to come.
Naysayers worrying about being hit by SUVs need to remember that people already drive motorcycles/scooters and even an SUV won't protect you when hit by a Semi. Also as gas hits $10/gallon, your chances of being hit by an SUV will decrease dramatically.
Matching brightness to ambient lighting is much more important than color scheme (unless you are going nuts with red on blue or something). I have been working as a coder for 12+ years now with a lot of 14 hour+ days...
I never had much problem with CRTs. I prefer white backgrounds (standard VIM with syntax highlighting) with the brightness toned down to near paper levels for easy viewing.
Most of the bigger LCDs I have tried lack the range of brightness control as they fight for supremacy in the specification wars. I have purchased LCDs of all three types (VA/TN/IPS) and in sizes ranging from 17" to 30".
Eye comfort has correlated most strongly with how low you can modulate the brightness. On most big panels this modulation is quite poor when they aim for 400-500 cd/m2 which is insanely bright and hurt my eyes instantly regardless of color scheme (bright on dark or dark on bright both hurt). Even when these beasts are at ZERO brightness they are still often over 200cd/m2 which is completely nuts in a normal home lighting. You next have to resort to using the blocking characteristic of the LCD panel to lower it further which results in contrast going down the drain. Or set up more lighting which seems like a waste in terms of energy if nothing else.
After all my purchases I have ended up with lower brightness cheap TN panels. These modulate to the dim end very nicely and tend to have fairly clear screen anti-glare coatings for nice clean text with a paper in light level brightness achievable.
I recommend something like the Benq G2400W with it's nice 250cd/m2 max brightness (and therefore very good lower light performance).
YMMV.
Bell crossed the line, throttling my third party ISP. I canceled my DSL and told them why, and then switched to cable (Speed is now MUCH faster).
I canceled my Bell land line and told their call center droid why about 5 times.
I am now Bell free, and my internet speed is 4 times faster (was peak 1.6Mbps, now peak 7.0Mbps).
Send the message with your wallet.
Sorry, I thought Will was a Mass Effect, thus Bioware guy, given the subject. Disregard the above comment as I now realize he is the Spore guy.