If they "don't really mean gay people" then it's certainly not "clear homophobia". The words gay and fag have, like it or not, become generic insults that really have nothing to do with sexual orientation.
If it plays everything, what's the version number doing stuck at 0.6?
They didn't say it plays everything, just that it supports all LucasArts/LucasFilm SCUMM games. There may be games by other companies that aren't supported, and the ones that are supported might still have some problems.
I'm almost positive that this has *nothing* to do with technical/time constraints and almost everything to do with a big fat check from Microsoft.
I don't know about that... given what Carmack's attitude seems to be (support of OpenGL, linux, etc.), it seems unlikely that he'd be willing to sell out to Microsoft.
I think the explanation is more likely that id thinks that PC co-op play comes in a distant third to deathmatch and single player, and so has devoted their resources to improving those rather than implementing co-op. The console market seems to be different however, with co-op being a major mode of play, so the decision to implement co-op on the X-box makes sense.
Which is it? Dialogue is completely separate from plot.
I've seen them with each and both, and I'm not just talking about dubs. Not to say all anime movies are like this of course, but I've certainly seen quite a few (Sturgeon's Law is in effect).
Aside from the comment about "Way too much exposition," I didn't catch any reference in this review to how the story was- all they talked about was the animation and music. I'm taking this as a bad sign... I've seen lots of anime that had amazing visuals and great music but was painful to watch because of the horrible dialogue/plot.
You have 15 seconds. Tell me the non-911 way to report an emergency to the fire department where you are presently located.
Like I said, you program the fire department into auto-dial. If VoIP lets them trace the call, they can do so as easily as if you called 911. If not, you tell them your address just like 911.
Sorry, that's not how we do emergency services in this country. You don't get to opt out of emergency services to save a few pennies because you never know when you or somebody around you will need it.
Ok, point taken- others may be affected by the lack of emergency service.
It's not like 911 is the only way to get in touch with the police. On your home VoIP phone I assume you can just program the local police/fire/hospital numbers into auto-dial.
A 911 service might be useful for portables though, since you might not know the local numbers when you're traveling. Still, this seems like something that might be better left to companies to provide as an option rather than having government regulations require it be provided to everyone. If consumers want it, they can pay for it- if not, they shouldn't have to.
The problem is that the authors, by not identify themselves as such, are implicitly claiming to be normal, unbiased readers, and are thus being deceptive.
Firstly, and most simply, age-restriction ratings on video games are having little actual effect. Either they are not being observed by retailers, or they are circumvented very easily in all the traditional ways. How they could be made more effective, or even if they should, is another question.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought videogame ratings were supposed to be for informational purposes only- they weren't meant to be enforced, just to let parents know what they were buying for their kids.
Well, just from reading the 80+ comments on Blue's News, I'd say the initial feedback is overwhelmingly negative. Some of the issues people have with it can apparently be fixed by tweaking the.ini files (One entry contained a comment saying the current value was for the X-box, not the PC, and offered an alternate value. Why this wasn't set as the default, I have no idea.). Some changes apparently aren't sticking though as the.ini files are installed as read-only (which can of course be changed). It will be interesting to see what Ion Storm has to say about this.
There's actually quite a story behind Princess Maker 2. You can read all about it here, but here it is in a nutshell: an English translation of the game was being created, but after a series of problems (companies going bankrupt, etc.), the (DOS based) game became too dated to do well commercially, and development of it was stopped.
The partially translated version (lacking only some of the endings) was being distributed on abandonware sites (such as here), but has since been pulled at the request of the US license holder, as there is apparently still some chance of the game having a US release (a graphically updated version perhaps?).
Stories like this make me wonder if worms like nachi might actually be a good idea. Yeah, they can cause some network clogging when they spread, but maybe that would be a reasonable price to pay to wipe out the armies of zombie PCs that can be used for this kind of attack.
This reminds me of the claims of dropping CD sales (here and
here).
Maybe this has the same cause as the drop in TV viewing? A lot of the same potential reasons seem to apply, at least.
It makes you think though that the dispute would then be between Ford and Toyota, not Toyota and the medium that Ford used to place the questionable ad.
Exactly. If something like this happened, it should be Ford that is at fault for trademark infringement, not Google. Using someone else's trademark to refer to your product (of the same type) is trademark infringement. Providing a service that allows someone to do this is not.
Should a hardware store be sued because it provided hammers that someone used to break windows? No, and neither should Google be sued for providing a service that allowed a company to infringe on a trademark. The company performed the illegal action, not Google.
Slashdot Mirror
If they "don't really mean gay people" then it's certainly not "clear homophobia". The words gay and fag have, like it or not, become generic insults that really have nothing to do with sexual orientation.
This works in Fallout (or was it Fallout 2). Girls could sleep with the girls, guys with the guys... I think you could even have same sex marriages.
If it plays everything, what's the version number doing stuck at 0.6?
They didn't say it plays everything, just that it supports all LucasArts/LucasFilm SCUMM games. There may be games by other companies that aren't supported, and the ones that are supported might still have some problems.
I'm almost positive that this has *nothing* to do with technical/time constraints and almost everything to do with a big fat check from Microsoft.
I don't know about that... given what Carmack's attitude seems to be (support of OpenGL, linux, etc.), it seems unlikely that he'd be willing to sell out to Microsoft.
I think the explanation is more likely that id thinks that PC co-op play comes in a distant third to deathmatch and single player, and so has devoted their resources to improving those rather than implementing co-op. The console market seems to be different however, with co-op being a major mode of play, so the decision to implement co-op on the X-box makes sense.
because of the horrible dialogue/plot.
Which is it? Dialogue is completely separate from plot.
I've seen them with each and both, and I'm not just talking about dubs. Not to say all anime movies are like this of course, but I've certainly seen quite a few (Sturgeon's Law is in effect).
Aside from the comment about "Way too much exposition," I didn't catch any reference in this review to how the story was- all they talked about was the animation and music. I'm taking this as a bad sign... I've seen lots of anime that had amazing visuals and great music but was painful to watch because of the horrible dialogue/plot.
although only if you don't know the Chewbacca is Luke's true biological mother
No. Luke, I am your mother.
No, that's not true. That's impossible! NO!!!!!
Search your feelings, Luke. You know it's true.
You have 15 seconds. Tell me the non-911 way to report an emergency to the fire department where you are presently located.
Like I said, you program the fire department into auto-dial. If VoIP lets them trace the call, they can do so as easily as if you called 911. If not, you tell them your address just like 911.
Sorry, that's not how we do emergency services in this country. You don't get to opt out of emergency services to save a few pennies because you never know when you or somebody around you will need it.
Ok, point taken- others may be affected by the lack of emergency service.
It's not like 911 is the only way to get in touch with the police. On your home VoIP phone I assume you can just program the local police/fire/hospital numbers into auto-dial.
A 911 service might be useful for portables though, since you might not know the local numbers when you're traveling. Still, this seems like something that might be better left to companies to provide as an option rather than having government regulations require it be provided to everyone. If consumers want it, they can pay for it- if not, they shouldn't have to.
A short interview with one of the developers is available here.
This is only a technology demo, but it looks like it could turn out pretty cool.
The problem is that the authors, by not identify themselves as such, are implicitly claiming to be normal, unbiased readers, and are thus being deceptive.
It is slightly outdated and probably not available in English but you could try to tranlate it via Babelfish and correct the mistakes.
Heh, sometimes when reading linux docs I get the feeling that they were created using this very method!
isnt this ..... illegal??
False advertising perhaps?
Firstly, and most simply, age-restriction ratings on video games are having little actual effect. Either they are not being observed by retailers, or they are circumvented very easily in all the traditional ways. How they could be made more effective, or even if they should, is another question.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought videogame ratings were supposed to be for informational purposes only- they weren't meant to be enforced, just to let parents know what they were buying for their kids.
That's not too surprising when you consider that there's one Penny Arcade's Child's Play but thousands of violent video games.
Well, just from reading the 80+ comments on Blue's News, I'd say the initial feedback is overwhelmingly negative. Some of the issues people have with it can apparently be fixed by tweaking the .ini files (One entry contained a comment saying the current value was for the X-box, not the PC, and offered an alternate value. Why this wasn't set as the default, I have no idea.). Some changes apparently aren't sticking though as the .ini files are installed as read-only (which can of course be changed). It will be interesting to see what Ion Storm has to say about this.
There's actually quite a story behind Princess Maker 2. You can read all about it here, but here it is in a nutshell: an English translation of the game was being created, but after a series of problems (companies going bankrupt, etc.), the (DOS based) game became too dated to do well commercially, and development of it was stopped.
The partially translated version (lacking only some of the endings) was being distributed on abandonware sites (such as here), but has since been pulled at the request of the US license holder, as there is apparently still some chance of the game having a US release (a graphically updated version perhaps?).
Stories like this make me wonder if worms like nachi might actually be a good idea. Yeah, they can cause some network clogging when they spread, but maybe that would be a reasonable price to pay to wipe out the armies of zombie PCs that can be used for this kind of attack.
This reminds me of the claims of dropping CD sales (here and here). Maybe this has the same cause as the drop in TV viewing? A lot of the same potential reasons seem to apply, at least.
It makes you think though that the dispute would then be between Ford and Toyota, not Toyota and the medium that Ford used to place the questionable ad.
Exactly. If something like this happened, it should be Ford that is at fault for trademark infringement, not Google. Using someone else's trademark to refer to your product (of the same type) is trademark infringement. Providing a service that allows someone to do this is not.
Should a hardware store be sued because it provided hammers that someone used to break windows? No, and neither should Google be sued for providing a service that allowed a company to infringe on a trademark. The company performed the illegal action, not Google.