One reason I hate modern Set Top Boxes is that changing channels is TOO OBVIOUS! Remember the old days when changing a channel was a quick flick and there you were, from one commercial to another?
Now days the box is slow -- you change channels and there's a screen for of momentary garbage, a horrible sound, and if you're really unlucky, a few moments worth of delay before the next channel appears, then it takes it's sweet time drawing the menu options and crap to the TV.
It's pure, crap. I stopped watching TV around the time CD-Based Video Game Systems had better load times.
And don't blame it all on "Old Set Top Boxes" because from what I've seen the newer they get the worse they get, the more crap they pump onto your screen, and the more BS you have to sort through just to watch something.
I firmly believe I'm better off without television.
That maybe Ogg would take off much better if the name weren't stupid?
It is. Just listen to it? And I'm not joking. Asthetics in some things wins over a greater majority of the time vs functionality.
Maybe if the file format was called something like OVM or something, then we would actually have a cool file-format name that is cool to say, even cooler than MP3 (which just sounds cool and high tech.)
Imagine...
Person: "Man, I was listening to those OVMs, this weekend... they sound really good!"
Person 2: "OVMs? I've seen those, are they cool?"
Person 3: "Are you guys talking about thos OVUMs?"
Person: "The wuh?"
Person 3: "Those OVUMs... I keep seeing them when I do web-searches for MP3s, they keep popping up instead."
er... well... maybe a little more thought should be put into a name. Heh. OGG... "Did you download any Eggs this weekend?" You know -- there --IS-- more to a file format than the technical specs.
If you think the above post was a bad attempt at humor, put good taste aside for a moment and concentrate on the point.
people like Adobe write their own tab controls, but people like Creative and whoever wrote BlackIce discard the standard interface
While I certainly AGREE that standard UIs are a generally GOOD thing, and I agree sometimes the ability to deviate leads to some horrendous efforts, for the bad examples mentioned there are an equal number of really GOOD non-standard interfaces.
Can anybody honestly tell me that they don't like WinAMP 2.X? I know 3.x gives skinners even more power to deviate -- but even still, some applications really do well to have non-standard interfaces.
I love Trillian, one of the best Windows messengers around. It's choice of skins as excellent, even if I do tend to use XPSilver most of the time I like the fact that I chose that look, and wasn't forced into it.
In short, I think having a broad and standard UI is a great thing. But I think being able to deviate from time to time is just as much a good thing.
what about my right to make a backup copy of my software? Nobody's ever described a CD as durable.
You have that right. They also have the right to try to PREVENT you.
This is basically a race, and I WELCOME this before I welcome litigation.
Let them make schemes to keep us from copying their work. As long as we're allowed legally to reverse engineer these schemes so that we can either provider ourselves with working backups OR make the software compatible with our systems (suppose the copy protection breaks the software on my system?) then I'm not at all against them attempted to stop copies from being made. It won't do any good -- but far be it from me to try and take away a software developers right to protect their investments.
Now where I have the biggest problem is that with the DMCA it --IS-- illegal to try and circumvent this sort of scheme, and that is one law that should have never been allowed to come about.
Army investigators had been made aware of the intrusions at Fort Hood weeks earlier and had been looking into the situation when ForensicTec made public what it found, one government official said.
I bet the military admins didn't have a clue anything was going on. I've met MANY Army IT workers and most of them are your average old PC user that knows a little about Windows (sometimes). And while not EVERYONE in the Army is incompetant, I think it's safe to assume that even if the intrusions HAD been detected, those involved in the "Investigation" would have just written it off as a "system anomaly" and nothing would have ever come with it.
If they hadn't boasted about what they had done, they wouldn't have been busted, I'm quite sure.
Boasting = Busted. Simple case and matter.
So what we've all learned from this, is that next time you have some fun with those easily rooted Government Boxen, just keep it to yourself afterwards. You can bet this happens all the time, you just don't hear about it because those involved don't talk about it. And they don't get caught (normally.)
For starters -- this has been done AGES ago in games --
Take THE SECRET OF MANA for example, where they called it a "RADIAL" menu, which makes more sense.
Also, it's been done now in Neverwinter Nights.
Now, bitching about the name aside, I love Radial menus. Once you get used to the location of the various icons you can ZIP through nested menus quickly.
Am I the only one that absolutely HATES playing an FPS on a console?
You arne't the only person, but that doesn't mean there aren't people who do happen to prefer game pads.
Fighting, Driving, and other types, you can keep your rotten mouse and keyboard. They absolutely without exception SUCK for many types of games. You just happen to be "used" to them for FPS games. Being used to something doesn't make it better, ask anyone who uses a non-qwerty keyboard.
I think the biggest thing to understand is not all First Person Shooters on consoles have the controls mapped out in a usable way, and few of them let you map them out in a way that can be made usable.
Since Halo, Golden Eye, and a few other excellent console first person shooters were CREATED for game-pads, they generally tend to play VERY WELL there. I personally don't think I could get used to Halo with anything but an XBox controller. Likewise, I would have to use way too many keyboard keys to do all of the things I get with my 8+ buttons laid out in front of me on the gamepad, and unlike most PC FPSs, you actually need those buttons.
Enjoy that one while it lasts. When they over-turn Fair-Use, you're freedom of expression will soon follow.
I fully understand the need for copyright laws, but here's the basis for my fair use argument.
When I purchase some form of information on a media, I'm normally told I'm not "Buying the media, I'm buying the right to use/have access to/perceive/whatever" the information contained.
That being said, if I buy a CD, I've paid for my right to listen to it. If I wish to transfer it to a casette tape, my computer (as MP3), or to my MP3 car stereo, why has my right to listen to it suddenly disappeared?
The media, in this case, a CD (though it could very well be anything) is not what I purchased. I purchased the "RIGHT". These were the arguments the recording industry (as well as everyone else) has been screaming for years. In fact the very people out to protect their "copyrights" have been INSISTING upon this for years. Now, suddenly, when it's no longer convinient for them to do so, they want to do a 180 and take away my right to access the content and instead shift my ownership over to the medium it's self. In fact, they would like nothing more than they set things up so that everytime I listened to a song or read a book I had to pay. (DivX tried to do this with movies but failed.)
Okay, so I don't own rights anymore, and I just own the media once again. Okay. I could almost swallow this... except... CDs were SUPPOSED to be superior, yet a hairline scratch can ruin an entire disc (which oddly enough is an inconsistant occurance since I've got CDs I couldn't give a damned about covered in gashing marks that still play flawlessly - but that is beside the point). And while it's not reasonable to assume that a CD should be able to surive torture, it IS more than reasonable to expect a CD to withstand minor things such as accidently putting a tiny scratch in it, or accidently dropping it on the basement floor, or or or any number of other things that don't damage other things, such as books. (Too bad I don't read music, huh?)
Also, why should I be forced to change between 10 different CDs. I don't have a CD changer in my car, and I'd be rather peeved at the music industry if they told me I had to get one in order to have some music variety. I should very much so have the right to select and arrange the music I wish to hear.
Thus I burn my discs. These rights are common sense things that the law should in no way be able to take away from me. While I agree the rights of the artists to own and profit from their work definately hold important, the general public's right to do what they want with the things they've paid for is even more so important. (Here's a concept -- Copyright owners are ALSO copyright consumers...)
If you don't agree with that, then you're going to be perfectly happy in 1984.
But for some crazy reason, since your stuff is on a CD, suddenly you think you have the right to identical duplicate copies, as many as you want?
I'm sorry, but the crap idea that I should have to buy a new CD just because the one I have stopped working totally violates my fair usage rights. A right to personal backups was already won in the court of law, and it is a right that was used to defend the use of "Dual Casette Recorders".
Your argument is just plain stupid, and is complete proof that you don't mind losing your rights.
I have several games that will not play due to scratches.
Please explain to my what legal right Sony has to keep me from playing the games I bought.
If my game console allowed me to play backed-up copies, my original copies would be tucked away in a box somewhere and my backups would be scratched all to hell.
Instead, now I have $50 coasters. In fact, I have several. For many platforms, even. Sony's copyrights are protected but I got pretty fucked.
I should have bought a mod chip while they were legal.
Does anybody else remember the old days when floppy disc packaging recommended making backups and storing the originals away for safe keeping?
I bought a new Sony Vvega and it's never shown a Commercial (really) since I've owned it.
It doesn't get HBO, or even the local channels. It doesn't get anything but Playstation 2, XBox, Gamecube, Dreamcast, N64, Saturn, Turbo Graphics 16, SNES, Genesis -- and -- uh -- sometimes my Laptop.
So, you see, my television doesn't really show commercials, unless you count the radio commercials in Grand Theft Auto 3.
I used to be hardcore beyond Sony as far as their CD-RW drives went. At one time if you bought a Sony CD-RW you could bank on it writing all of the many disc formats, everything from SUBCODE to CD+G and even some more obscure stuff.
Now, because piracy is such a big issue with them, they've intentionally removed the ability from their drives to write sub-code, CD+G, and no telling what else. (Though I'm certain you can forget about copying Playstation (PS1) games...)
It's not just Sony either, other CD-RW drive manufacturers have gone this route, too.
Plextor at least still understands there is more to burning discs than Windows backups and pictures for Grandma...
P.S. get that SUV. Nice rides, and useful if you have a boat or actually use it for something other than a UAV. (Urban Assualt Vehicle)
I disagree. They REALLY aren't that nice, they handle like a cow, they accelerate like a brick wall, they stop like a falling piano, and they soak up gasoline like a sponge. Does that make them unuseful? No. Not at all. Granted, they're VERY useful if you tow a boat. Most people don't have boats. SOME of them have wonderful offroad capabilities, most don't. Esspecially not the really big luxury variety, which tend to do the worst off of the road. They only win awards for reasons like space for fitting your kids and groceries or number of televisions for the passengers, and not stuff like ground clearance or horsepower at the wheels. They can't be winning awards for those things, because if they WERE then the ones that would be winning you will strangely find are the ones that seem the least luxurious (the ones that have been around the longest).
You see, you say "GET THE SUV" assuming everyone is going to use it the way you do. Here's a bit of reality that I'm going to stick in your eye like a hot stick sharped to a point. ALMOST NOBODY will use it the way you do. Almost everyone WILL use it as an Urban Assult Vehicle.
I live in an area where people actually NEED these kinds of vehicles, and they STILL treat them like minivans.
It makes me sick right up until I see that one with 6 feet of ground clearance, 4 foot tall tires, a ladder to climb into the cabin, and an inch of mud all over the entire thing. Then I can't help but smile.
As a guy... who has seen the scientific measurements YES
Bullshit and bullshit. Care to back that up with some proof, coward boy? If you were who you say, you wouldn't be an A/C. And you haven't seen shit unless Canada is THAT fucked up. One of the points of having a car's emissions checked and maintained is to prevent the very thing that emission tests are supposed to detect. If the cars fail the tests in their district they aren't supposed to be on the road.
Should we instead be blaming Canada? I refuse to believe the whole country has their shit as fucked up as you do.
Does an unmodded Xbox contain a list or some other sort of checking mechanism that only allows certain programs to run on it?
Something I haven't seen anybody mention, but something that I've read and only partially understand, is that each disc contains bootable information that is encoded in some special way. Making custom software encoded in the same way might would not be so difficult, but I believe it would make such software a violation of the DMCA, just another crutch Microsoft can fall back on if they have to.
So, in a way, yes, the XBox DOES contain some such other checking mechanism that only allows certain programs to run.
Most gamers remap their keys anyway. And if the game doesn't support remapping, it should be shoved down the developers throat, preferably coated in cyanide.
Agreed, and Agreed.
Most gamers do modify the game key layouts at least a little, if not entirely.
The best sign of good game design is totally configurable control, AND a very nice and usable DEFAULT setting. If the defaults are perfect, more power to the developer. If they aren't, I had BETTER be able to change them.
I personally have grown so used to Qwerty I'm not sure I could change even if it were for the better, but I'd be willing to try it if someone could convince me that I would notice an increase in speed very quickly. If I don't see results in more than a few weeks the time invested just isn't worth it to me. I type fine as it is and I've found that good posture keeps my hands from hurting unless I'm just at the keys for waaaaaaaay too long.
The hack for the original Amiga to create higher fidelity stereo playback uses the 8 bit sound samples and 6 bit volume in conjunction with each other to simulate "14 bit" sound. It's not truely that high quality, but it does sound much better than simply 8 bit.
It is true that it does cut you down to just 2 channels, though. Left and Right. For playing back sound samples, that's all you need. For playing back anything else, such as MODs or OctaMEDs, it doesn't help you in the least bit -- but...
I've actually used the hi-fi sound hack, whatever it was called and I was very impressed. I don't think it was exactly practical, but it did allow me to listen to 16 bit WAV files which was all I really needed to do at the time anyway.
Oh, and it ran fine on all three of my Amigas without any modification. An A2000, an A1200, and an A4000.
Slashdot Mirror
Durring a Channel Change?
ARE YOU KIDDING?
One reason I hate modern Set Top Boxes is that changing channels is TOO OBVIOUS! Remember the old days when changing a channel was a quick flick and there you were, from one commercial to another?
Now days the box is slow -- you change channels and there's a screen for of momentary garbage, a horrible sound, and if you're really unlucky, a few moments worth of delay before the next channel appears, then it takes it's sweet time drawing the menu options and crap to the TV.
It's pure, crap. I stopped watching TV around the time CD-Based Video Game Systems had better load times.
And don't blame it all on "Old Set Top Boxes" because from what I've seen the newer they get the worse they get, the more crap they pump onto your screen, and the more BS you have to sort through just to watch something.
I firmly believe I'm better off without television.
That maybe Ogg would take off much better if the name weren't stupid?
It is. Just listen to it? And I'm not joking. Asthetics in some things wins over a greater majority of the time vs functionality.
Maybe if the file format was called something like OVM or something, then we would actually have a cool file-format name that is cool to say, even cooler than MP3 (which just sounds cool and high tech.)
Imagine...
Person: "Man, I was listening to those OVMs, this weekend... they sound really good!"
Person 2: "OVMs? I've seen those, are they cool?"
Person 3: "Are you guys talking about thos OVUMs?"
Person: "The wuh?"
Person 3: "Those OVUMs... I keep seeing them when I do web-searches for MP3s, they keep popping up instead."
er... well... maybe a little more thought should be put into a name. Heh. OGG... "Did you download any Eggs this weekend?" You know -- there --IS-- more to a file format than the technical specs.
If you think the above post was a bad attempt at humor, put good taste aside for a moment and concentrate on the point.
Ogg just sounds stupid.
people like Adobe write their own tab controls, but people like Creative and whoever wrote BlackIce discard the standard interface
While I certainly AGREE that standard UIs are a generally GOOD thing, and I agree sometimes the ability to deviate leads to some horrendous efforts, for the bad examples mentioned there are an equal number of really GOOD non-standard interfaces.
Can anybody honestly tell me that they don't like WinAMP 2.X? I know 3.x gives skinners even more power to deviate -- but even still, some applications really do well to have non-standard interfaces.
I love Trillian, one of the best Windows messengers around. It's choice of skins as excellent, even if I do tend to use XPSilver most of the time I like the fact that I chose that look, and wasn't forced into it.
In short, I think having a broad and standard UI is a great thing. But I think being able to deviate from time to time is just as much a good thing.
Otherwise, as long as one has two eyes, I see a problem.
So we poke out one of the viewers eyes. Problem solved.
what about my right to make a backup copy of my software? Nobody's ever described a CD as durable.
You have that right. They also have the right to try to PREVENT you.
This is basically a race, and I WELCOME this before I welcome litigation.
Let them make schemes to keep us from copying their work. As long as we're allowed legally to reverse engineer these schemes so that we can either provider ourselves with working backups OR make the software compatible with our systems (suppose the copy protection breaks the software on my system?) then I'm not at all against them attempted to stop copies from being made. It won't do any good -- but far be it from me to try and take away a software developers right to protect their investments.
Now where I have the biggest problem is that with the DMCA it --IS-- illegal to try and circumvent this sort of scheme, and that is one law that should have never been allowed to come about.
Army investigators had been made aware of the intrusions at Fort Hood weeks earlier and had been looking into the situation when ForensicTec made public what it found, one government official said.
I bet the military admins didn't have a clue anything was going on. I've met MANY Army IT workers and most of them are your average old PC user that knows a little about Windows (sometimes). And while not EVERYONE in the Army is incompetant, I think it's safe to assume that even if the intrusions HAD been detected, those involved in the "Investigation" would have just written it off as a "system anomaly" and nothing would have ever come with it.
If they hadn't boasted about what they had done, they wouldn't have been busted, I'm quite sure.
Boasting = Busted. Simple case and matter.
So what we've all learned from this, is that next time you have some fun with those easily rooted Government Boxen, just keep it to yourself afterwards. You can bet this happens all the time, you just don't hear about it because those involved don't talk about it. And they don't get caught (normally.)
For starters -- this has been done AGES ago in games --
Take THE SECRET OF MANA for example, where they called it a "RADIAL" menu, which makes more sense.
Also, it's been done now in Neverwinter Nights.
Now, bitching about the name aside, I love Radial menus. Once you get used to the location of the various icons you can ZIP through nested menus quickly.
Am I the only one that absolutely HATES playing an FPS on a console?
You arne't the only person, but that doesn't mean there aren't people who do happen to prefer game pads.
Fighting, Driving, and other types, you can keep your rotten mouse and keyboard. They absolutely without exception SUCK for many types of games. You just happen to be "used" to them for FPS games. Being used to something doesn't make it better, ask anyone who uses a non-qwerty keyboard.
I think the biggest thing to understand is not all First Person Shooters on consoles have the controls mapped out in a usable way, and few of them let you map them out in a way that can be made usable.
Since Halo, Golden Eye, and a few other excellent console first person shooters were CREATED for game-pads, they generally tend to play VERY WELL there. I personally don't think I could get used to Halo with anything but an XBox controller. Likewise, I would have to use way too many keyboard keys to do all of the things I get with my 8+ buttons laid out in front of me on the gamepad, and unlike most PC FPSs, you actually need those buttons.
I'll keep exercising my right to self expression
Enjoy that one while it lasts. When they over-turn Fair-Use, you're freedom of expression will soon follow.
I fully understand the need for copyright laws, but here's the basis for my fair use argument.
When I purchase some form of information on a media, I'm normally told I'm not "Buying the media, I'm buying the right to use/have access to/perceive/whatever" the information contained.
That being said, if I buy a CD, I've paid for my right to listen to it. If I wish to transfer it to a casette tape, my computer (as MP3), or to my MP3 car stereo, why has my right to listen to it suddenly disappeared?
The media, in this case, a CD (though it could very well be anything) is not what I purchased. I purchased the "RIGHT". These were the arguments the recording industry (as well as everyone else) has been screaming for years. In fact the very people out to protect their "copyrights" have been INSISTING upon this for years. Now, suddenly, when it's no longer convinient for them to do so, they want to do a 180 and take away my right to access the content and instead shift my ownership over to the medium it's self. In fact, they would like nothing more than they set things up so that everytime I listened to a song or read a book I had to pay. (DivX tried to do this with movies but failed.)
Okay, so I don't own rights anymore, and I just own the media once again. Okay. I could almost swallow this... except... CDs were SUPPOSED to be superior, yet a hairline scratch can ruin an entire disc (which oddly enough is an inconsistant occurance since I've got CDs I couldn't give a damned about covered in gashing marks that still play flawlessly - but that is beside the point). And while it's not reasonable to assume that a CD should be able to surive torture, it IS more than reasonable to expect a CD to withstand minor things such as accidently putting a tiny scratch in it, or accidently dropping it on the basement floor, or or or any number of other things that don't damage other things, such as books. (Too bad I don't read music, huh?)
Also, why should I be forced to change between 10 different CDs. I don't have a CD changer in my car, and I'd be rather peeved at the music industry if they told me I had to get one in order to have some music variety. I should very much so have the right to select and arrange the music I wish to hear.
Thus I burn my discs. These rights are common sense things that the law should in no way be able to take away from me. While I agree the rights of the artists to own and profit from their work definately hold important, the general public's right to do what they want with the things they've paid for is even more so important. (Here's a concept -- Copyright owners are ALSO copyright consumers...)
If you don't agree with that, then you're going to be perfectly happy in 1984.
But for some crazy reason, since your stuff is on a CD, suddenly you think you have the right to identical duplicate copies, as many as you want?
I'm sorry, but the crap idea that I should have to buy a new CD just because the one I have stopped working totally violates my fair usage rights. A right to personal backups was already won in the court of law, and it is a right that was used to defend the use of "Dual Casette Recorders".
Your argument is just plain stupid, and is complete proof that you don't mind losing your rights.
I have several games that will not play due to scratches.
Please explain to my what legal right Sony has to keep me from playing the games I bought.
If my game console allowed me to play backed-up copies, my original copies would be tucked away in a box somewhere and my backups would be scratched all to hell.
Instead, now I have $50 coasters. In fact, I have several. For many platforms, even. Sony's copyrights are protected but I got pretty fucked.
I should have bought a mod chip while they were legal.
Does anybody else remember the old days when floppy disc packaging recommended making backups and storing the originals away for safe keeping?
Getting away from city lights may be the hardest part, though.
Getting away from city lights is easy.
Leave the city. The lights won't follow you, I promise.
I bought a new Sony Vvega and it's never shown a Commercial (really) since I've owned it.
It doesn't get HBO, or even the local channels. It doesn't get anything but Playstation 2, XBox, Gamecube, Dreamcast, N64, Saturn, Turbo Graphics 16, SNES, Genesis -- and -- uh -- sometimes my Laptop.
So, you see, my television doesn't really show commercials, unless you count the radio commercials in Grand Theft Auto 3.
For that matter, why buy anything Sony?
I used to be hardcore beyond Sony as far as their CD-RW drives went. At one time if you bought a Sony CD-RW you could bank on it writing all of the many disc formats, everything from SUBCODE to CD+G and even some more obscure stuff.
Now, because piracy is such a big issue with them, they've intentionally removed the ability from their drives to write sub-code, CD+G, and no telling what else. (Though I'm certain you can forget about copying Playstation (PS1) games...)
It's not just Sony either, other CD-RW drive manufacturers have gone this route, too.
Plextor at least still understands there is more to burning discs than Windows backups and pictures for Grandma...
It's MAIL ORDER MONSTERS!
(do a google search)
You're missing the point. That's still far more difficult than Windows - run the installer and reboot.
:(
"You have moved your mouse. Windows must restart before these changes will take effect. Would you like to restart now?"
Heheh.
Actually -- I use XP and FreeBSD. They get equal periods of uptime. They go up and stay up until the power goes out.
Superman does crap doesn't he?
Yeah, it's called Kraptonite.
They refer to AIR throughout the article as if the air around us were some unique element on the periodic table.
Are their experiments with Oxygen? Nitrogen? Helium? Hydrogen?
This article really doesn't explain anything, and I'm wondering if their chips aren't the only things full of air.
P.S. get that SUV. Nice rides, and useful if you have a boat or actually use it for something other than a UAV. (Urban Assualt Vehicle)
I disagree. They REALLY aren't that nice, they handle like a cow, they accelerate like a brick wall, they stop like a falling piano, and they soak up gasoline like a sponge. Does that make them unuseful? No. Not at all. Granted, they're VERY useful if you tow a boat. Most people don't have boats. SOME of them have wonderful offroad capabilities, most don't. Esspecially not the really big luxury variety, which tend to do the worst off of the road. They only win awards for reasons like space for fitting your kids and groceries or number of televisions for the passengers, and not stuff like ground clearance or horsepower at the wheels. They can't be winning awards for those things, because if they WERE then the ones that would be winning you will strangely find are the ones that seem the least luxurious (the ones that have been around the longest).
You see, you say "GET THE SUV" assuming everyone is going to use it the way you do. Here's a bit of reality that I'm going to stick in your eye like a hot stick sharped to a point. ALMOST NOBODY will use it the way you do. Almost everyone WILL use it as an Urban Assult Vehicle.
I live in an area where people actually NEED these kinds of vehicles, and they STILL treat them like minivans.
It makes me sick right up until I see that one with 6 feet of ground clearance, 4 foot tall tires, a ladder to climb into the cabin, and an inch of mud all over the entire thing. Then I can't help but smile.
As a guy ... who has seen the scientific measurements
YES
Bullshit and bullshit. Care to back that up with some proof, coward boy? If you were who you say, you wouldn't be an A/C. And you haven't seen shit unless Canada is THAT fucked up. One of the points of having a car's emissions checked and maintained is to prevent the very thing that emission tests are supposed to detect. If the cars fail the tests in their district they aren't supposed to be on the road.
Should we instead be blaming Canada? I refuse to believe the whole country has their shit as fucked up as you do.
Does an unmodded Xbox contain a list or some other sort of checking mechanism that only allows certain programs to run on it?
Something I haven't seen anybody mention, but something that I've read and only partially understand, is that each disc contains bootable information that is encoded in some special way. Making custom software encoded in the same way might would not be so difficult, but I believe it would make such software a violation of the DMCA, just another crutch Microsoft can fall back on if they have to.
So, in a way, yes, the XBox DOES contain some such other checking mechanism that only allows certain programs to run.
Most gamers remap their keys anyway. And if the game doesn't support remapping, it should be shoved down the developers throat, preferably coated in cyanide.
Agreed, and Agreed.
Most gamers do modify the game key layouts at least a little, if not entirely.
The best sign of good game design is totally configurable control, AND a very nice and usable DEFAULT setting. If the defaults are perfect, more power to the developer. If they aren't, I had BETTER be able to change them.
I personally have grown so used to Qwerty I'm not sure I could change even if it were for the better, but I'd be willing to try it if someone could convince me that I would notice an increase in speed very quickly. If I don't see results in more than a few weeks the time invested just isn't worth it to me. I type fine as it is and I've found that good posture keeps my hands from hurting unless I'm just at the keys for waaaaaaaay too long.
I'm starting to get the impression that none of us are speaking the same languge.
The hack for the original Amiga to create higher fidelity stereo playback uses the 8 bit sound samples and 6 bit volume in conjunction with each other to simulate "14 bit" sound. It's not truely that high quality, but it does sound much better than simply 8 bit.
...
It is true that it does cut you down to just 2 channels, though. Left and Right. For playing back sound samples, that's all you need. For playing back anything else, such as MODs or OctaMEDs, it doesn't help you in the least bit -- but
I've actually used the hi-fi sound hack, whatever it was called and I was very impressed. I don't think it was exactly practical, but it did allow me to listen to 16 bit WAV files which was all I really needed to do at the time anyway.
Oh, and it ran fine on all three of my Amigas without any modification. An A2000, an A1200, and an A4000.
before you go off shouting
Ack. I didn't mean to come off as shouting. Adding a bit, perhaps.
Really, I think the original sentence says everything I meant to say.
"Doesn't that qualify as a home?"