If I were to see the death of PC gaming, it would be with the continued poliferation of HDTV. Currently penatration is too low.
Over an extended period of time, say 10 years, it might be that HDTV is as common as normal TV was. If that is the case, then that may signal the demise of the PC. On the other hand however, a lot can change between now and then, PC prices have gone down, and who knows what gaming for the PC will look like in 10 Years?
Hell Duke Nukem Forever might be out by then, spuring everyone to switch back to PC's! (ya ya it would be a multi platform port I know if ever)
#1) A gaming PC has ALWAYS been substantially more expensive than a console. #2) PC games have always had driver and compatibility problems. #3) Many PC games have always launched in a buggy state #4) lol! Yes the Wii, the best selling console is certainly a powerhouse!
Seriously though, yes the 360 and the PS3 have raised the bar a bit performance wise for consoles. However neither is close to being as powerful as even a mid-range computer let alone a high end gaming machine.
Honestly also if you are trying to compare apples to apples you really should include the price of the 1500$ HD TV you need to hook up to your PS3 or 360 to take advantage of the graphics. So 2000$ for your system. Sure you can use the TV as a TV, but I can also use mine as a Computer, so there.:P (if you are using on your crappy TV well, then you are getting what, 640 x 480 resolution, its a joke, you might as well hook it up to your PSP other small screened device). Never mind all the other stuff a PC can do over a console than just game.
Not to mention that the best RTS are all PC, and the best FPS are all PC, and the best MMPRPG, I can keep writing letters together all day... I can also emulate only console games on my PC if I really want to. I can also play older games. I know both the 360 and PS3 has some backwards compatibility, but not nearly as much.
I am not even going to get into the red button of 360 death, or the lack of games for the PS3.
I know last year I was faced with a decision, PC or 360, and I went PC and haven't looked back. I had an xbox, and it was kinda fun but really it ended up being a Halo 2 playing device that could also run DVD's. Then it was done. Now it plays DVD's (badly).
Don't get me wrong, some day it may happen, where gaming on the PC is dead, just not any time soon.
Personally I thought the Clone War Animated Series was better than the real thing. I am not sure if Lucus had anything to do with that one though, so who knows what this new one will look like.
Um depending on what you classify as "Older", I believe that intersection has passed sometime ago.
I am 30 years old, and still play video games. So do most people I know. I grew up in the Nintendo generation, (really all console and computer gaming really from C-64 to present. Thats Celceo vision, Atari, Nintendo, 64, Cube, Wii, Neo-Geo, Turbo Grafix 16, Sega Gennsis, Saturn, Dreamcast, X-box, x-box360, TRS-80, 086, 286, 486, Pentium, 1,2,3,4, AMD equivalents, 64bit, Dual Core). If I actually tried to list games I would be hear a long time. Seeing all this, I think my generation has probably wasted more time playing vids than any other to date!
Also as to quality of games. A good game is a good game period. Better graphics can certainly help, but it is not everything. I have an modified version of Masters of Orion 2 on my Vista box when I need a fix. I got really excited when I heard you could play Catan on the Xbox360. AI is getting better, but playing against people is still king. The best enhancement in my view over the last 10 years is the advancement and ease of playing online (there wasn't even online (anyone remember TEN and how much it sucked)when I was playing - Get off my lawn!) games now. In the beginning folks were limited to playing with friends (usually 4 or less) at home. Then came direct connections via cable or modem, then some networks, then some online gaming services, then some online games, private and publicly hosted servers, Massive Multi playing, Persistent universe, you don't know how good you got it today! These days I mostly just play Quake Wars and WOW, mostly because I lack the time to play more.
Of course this might have to do with Monopoly being created and sold about a million years before (1935 vs 1995, 60 years head start?) either of those two other games were released. It could also be due to the marketing done for Monopoly, or the fact that Monopoly is sold everywhere, and the other two in niche stores and markets. Only now is Catan and Axis and Allies starting to become somewhat mainstream, but they still have a ways to go. I know I would never play Monopoly now, nor would I buy a copy. If I had kids they would probably grow up playing Catan etc... and then in 10 years you would see Catan on all the shelves.
Anyway the point is it isn't a fair comparison, and you shouldn't make conclusions based on those assumptions. It doesn't mean in order to be successful that you need to target the lowest common denominator (though in many cases you can see some parallels in the film industry). There is some truth in what you say, a game like Axis and Allies isn't for everyone due to length and complexity, so you are limiting your audience in that respect.
Also Candy Land and Life suck and complex Avalon hill games do not!
In all seriousness there are plenty of simple, fun, shorter games out there that no one knows about. I have a buddy that is a board game collector, and has something like over 250 games, most of which are "Euros", many of which you cannot get outside of Germany or where ever.
If you don't believe me check out www.boardgamegeek.com and see how many you recognize, also see how games like Monopoly are rated. I will give you a hint.... "not good". However they are American, and American companies own the rights to produce them, and we live in an American market. It is not the consumers that are making these marketing decisions, but the corporations. Given choice there is no contest.
Also another hole in your argument.... there are about a BILLION version of monopoly... I am barely exaggerating (around 300 by my count). Check it out. Catan (Connected Water Version, Knights and Cities, Seafarers, 6 player Expansion) I think has 4 that I know about (not including language versions, card game or space game which isn't even the same game). So that is kind of like a horrible comparison eh?
Not to dispute your claim or call you an idiot, but it could be due to the fact that there are others like myself, who have noticed some issues with Vista, but nothing like what you claim.
I suspect if you are running a Quad Xeon with 8GB and it takes 20min to move 17MB file, there is more going on than just "Vista".
I am running a piddly 1.8Ghz C2D with 2GB and I have copied Gigs with of data in that time. I would suggest something is seriously wrong with your system, and not just the default install of Vista. While simply blaming Vista of all your ills is fun, it is not all that useful.
I know my biggest beef that ticked me off was Media Player after the last update started having a lag between movies, and music. Serious lag. Like 14 seconds per song, and like 27 seconds per movie, both of with occurred at startup of media as well. The solution was to switch to an alternative. After a couple of days Vista seemed to "fix" itself, be it by another update, or it had finished some task it was doing in the background (DRM bs I presume).
So anyway while I am certainly not a fan of Vista, I use it, and for the most part it works fine. Blaming all your problems on Vista isn't always valid, and if you think XP is going to be supported forever, well you might want to think twice. Also for those that think Windows 7 will be the miracle cure, I am not sure what MS has done in the past to give anyone certainty about that outcome.
As much as I hate to say it the more people who start using Vista the better. That way both MS and third party's can concentrate and focus on developing software for one OS. Meaning better drivers, compatibility, and general improvement of the OS over time. To expect a home run out of the box is unrealistic (though it would be nice).
Also I just realized you must be running Vista 64 which is a different beast than your standard Vista 32 Home Premium Edition. I have heard bad things about 64, which is why I went 32. I did a lot of reading before deciding on 32, and the reason was 64 was flaky particularly with drivers, and had some serious compatibility issues. You are essentially running beta software. If you are serious about performance and getting the most out of your Quad +8Gb you might want to look to a more established OS like Linux or *nix, Solarius or something. If you want Windows compatibility and 64 bit, well quit bitchin' as that is all there is. If it bothers you too much, just set up a dual boot system with 32.
Yes I remember playing some old video games. As to which one was first I am not really that sure, it was a long time ago.
I remember my dad trying to get games to run on our TRS-80... which didn't really work.
I also remember playing pong on this device with dials you hooked up to your TV. It was probably my first disappointment as well, as it had a number of different setting, one of which was hockey. To my dismay, it was pong with like 5 paddles on each side all of which moved together.
I had friends that had Coleaco and Atari systems, and I remember playing those... they mostly sucked also.
I had a friend with a Commodore 64, and I remember spending a lot of time at his place playing pitfall and the like. It was pretty fun.
I also later got a 286, which I played a lot of BBS door games (if you don't know what that is, get off my lawn!) like tw2002,and crappy games like wolf3d or curse of the azure bonds, or take your pick of side scrollers or adventure games like king/police quest etc...
After that was the original Nintendo with good 'ole Mario, Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, etc... tons of games.
Several consoles and computers later (Warcraft 2, Duke3d, Doom 2, Starcraft, and other goodies), etc..
I have an xbox (which I don't use for anything by DVD's now) and a nice computer now (which I primarily play WOW, some Quake Wars, a bit of ET, and a sprinkle of MOO2 when I am in the mood). I couldn't bring myself to buy either the 360 or the PS3 or the Wii.
There was a post on slashdot I think in the past year on this subject.
Where scientists found a black hole seemingly larger than it was possible to be.
I think the difference is, while it is postulated that there are super massives at the center of every galaxy, what is not known is how they are formed.
As is commonly accepted, a normal black hole is formed by a collapsing star, and that stars have a finite size, that any black hole formed in this manner is restricted.
If I remember correctly there was also a threshold to which a black hole could eat up matter and grow, but at a certain point it could not any more for some reason (either due to loss somehow equaling the gain, or a change would occur).
I think it was thought that the super massives are formed through some other method not yet understood, and as I recall the largest possible normal black hole was some magnitude of 8 or 16 of something (I know that is not very helpful), and the one in question was like 16.7 or something like that.
Anyway I am positive that it was on slashdot, so if someone wants to search it out and post it, be my guest. My mind is a black hole, nothing escapes!
Different camera phone I know, but I have a 2MP camera phone (Nokia 6275i), and while it takes awesome photos outdoors in bright sunshine, If however you are indoors, it is overcast, dark, etc it sucks. It comes with a flash that doesn't work really and a night mode that doesn't really work either. While better than any camera phone I have ever had, not a real replacement as yet.
Does yours work in the dark? I know mine I typically want to use it at the bar, which is indoors and at night.
Mordor Jewelers is not responsible for ring getting current owner killed, nor will there be any responsibility for alteration of the owner to a gollum like appearance.
Ring may also bind to other rings in darkness. Also may find other rings and rule over them. Not responsible for types of other rings, nor of the of ruling of the afore mentioned rings.
Ring is used, and did have prior owner, the "Dark Lord" who of course sits on a "Dark Throne". Mordor Jewelers is in no way associated withe the Dark Lord or his Dark Throne.
When caring for your ring, it is suggested that you avoid places like Mordor, and melting may occur if dropped into magma in Mt. Doom. Loss of ring in this manner is not the fault of Mordor Jewelers, nor will any reimbursement be merited.
Mordor is also not at fault if husband starts ignoring you, and you feel like he doesn't even see you anymore. Last but not least, one size fits all.
Other than possibly create a few more zombies (and I am sure there are easier ways to do that) who cares?
Folks with real and/or sensitive data will have a password, and likely even more security.
Those that don't likely have little to offer any hacker or anybody else. A hacker may desire your cycles for zombified attacks, and the RIAA might like to look at your MP3 list. Maybe someone might go through the trouble of trying to data mine for identity theft, but again there are much easier ways to accomplish this goal.
If someone wants to brute force my password a million times, be my guest, you will probably find it not worth the time. Those that don't change their default passwords, well, ye get what ye deserve. Call it a stupid tax.
This reminds me of a past post or other news article I read, about two kids in Florida I believe that made a sex tape of themselves. From the story they were long time boyfriend and girlfriend, and at the time the guy was like a half year or a year older. Anyway because where their ages fell, he got changed with making child porn. I forget the circumstances of how it all came out, but to my mind you have to have some common sense at some point.
Just for perspective, I remember when I first started college, I was 18. I had an ex-girlfriend who was a year younger than I come up to visit me. It was her birthday that week. I always thought it was funny that I got her into a bar (I had fake id), while I was underage at 18, and she only 16 (due to her birthday being later on that week). Thinking that really means anything because the birthday falls on such and such a day is stupid. I know with the law you have to draw a line somewhere, but you have to be flexible when considering this sort of thing, and take it with context. Otherwise pretty much everyone (unless their high school partner was the exact same age) has committed that crime to some degree.
What I don't get about this whole mess is the governments complete and utter trust in the industry's claims. Either they don't want to know, or they don't care (and I am speaking to both US and Canadian). The industry will have some study done, or simple just say "we lost 18 billion" due to piracy, and it is believed. Even though it is fairly easy to check, and they have been caught lying about it so many times in the past. Tell me in what other industry this would happen?
Here is my idea of how it goes down:
RIAA: WAAA WAAA WAAA! We lose money!
Gov: Whats wrong?
RIAA: Evil piracy make us lose money!
Gov: OH NOES! How much did you lose?
RIAA: 89 Kajillion Bakillion dollars!
Gov: You know that isn't a real number.
RIAA: 18 Billion dollars (evil pinky to corner of mouth)!
Yes, that is exactly what explosions need more of, heat. Surely that will help protect us more. So rather than being filled with holes, we can be cooked instead.
Yes yes, I know insulate the thing... I am just being a jerk.
Though like any armour, protection at the cost of mobility, and what ratio are you realistically looking at to be effective.
This reminds me of something that happened in Canada not too long ago (well maybe 5 years or so anyway). There was a punter (politician) named Stockwell Day (who ironically enough is now our Minister of Foreign Affairs I think). Anyway back then he was the Leader of the Alliance Party(which used to be called the Reform Party, and in the end combined with the Progressive Conservative Party to form the Conservative Party who is currently elected, which is as close to the Republicans you get up this way).
Anyway part of his platform that he ran on was some referendum reform. His idea was that if 10% of Canada's population thought there should be a referendum, then there would be one. It was pointed out this was a bad idea, for two reasons, one is that they are very expensive, and we don't want to be having one for every quandary we find ourselves involved with, and also there is a reason why people are elected to represent the people.
This was illustrated by one of my favorite comics and political satirist Rick Mercer (Similar to John Daily in some respects), on the fake news show "This Hour has 22 Minutes". They urged people to visit their website and sign a petition to hold a referendum. The Question on the referendum would be "Should Stockwell Day be renamed Doris Day" (or something to that effect). Sure enough more than enough (350,000+) people signed up, and during the broadcast, it was announced that as soon as the Alliance won that would be the first order of business.
Of course they lost the election and the rest is history. Anyway it was pretty damn funny back then, and this reminded me of the same thing.
Slashdot Mirror
I am 30. So I suppose that makes me a Gen X or NeXt or whatever label should be associated with me.
Anyway we are just better at hiding all the crap we install.
If I were to see the death of PC gaming, it would be with the continued poliferation of HDTV. Currently penatration is too low.
Over an extended period of time, say 10 years, it might be that HDTV is as common as normal TV was. If that is the case, then that may signal the demise of the PC. On the other hand however, a lot can change between now and then, PC prices have gone down, and who knows what gaming for the PC will look like in 10 Years?
Hell Duke Nukem Forever might be out by then, spuring everyone to switch back to PC's! (ya ya it would be a multi platform port I know if ever)
I hear this every other year and its complete BS.
:P (if you are using on your crappy TV well, then you are getting what, 640 x 480 resolution, its a joke, you might as well hook it up to your PSP other small screened device). Never mind all the other stuff a PC can do over a console than just game.
#1) A gaming PC has ALWAYS been substantially more expensive than a console.
#2) PC games have always had driver and compatibility problems.
#3) Many PC games have always launched in a buggy state
#4) lol! Yes the Wii, the best selling console is certainly a powerhouse!
Seriously though, yes the 360 and the PS3 have raised the bar a bit performance wise for consoles. However neither is close to being as powerful as even a mid-range computer let alone a high end gaming machine.
Honestly also if you are trying to compare apples to apples you really should include the price of the 1500$ HD TV you need to hook up to your PS3 or 360 to take advantage of the graphics. So 2000$ for your system. Sure you can use the TV as a TV, but I can also use mine as a Computer, so there.
Not to mention that the best RTS are all PC, and the best FPS are all PC, and the best MMPRPG, I can keep writing letters together all day... I can also emulate only console games on my PC if I really want to. I can also play older games. I know both the 360 and PS3 has some backwards compatibility, but not nearly as much.
I am not even going to get into the red button of 360 death, or the lack of games for the PS3.
I know last year I was faced with a decision, PC or 360, and I went PC and haven't looked back. I had an xbox, and it was kinda fun but really it ended up being a Halo 2 playing device that could also run DVD's. Then it was done. Now it plays DVD's (badly).
Don't get me wrong, some day it may happen, where gaming on the PC is dead, just not any time soon.
Of course I like dying! Thats why I have holes in my drywall next to my computer and fist shaped indentations on my desk!
Of course I keep coming back for more, so you never know...
Personally I thought the Clone War Animated Series was better than the real thing. I am not sure if Lucus had anything to do with that one though, so who knows what this new one will look like.
I heard they are going to package it together with Duke Nukem Forever! Hooray!
Bring on the vaporware!
Um depending on what you classify as "Older", I believe that intersection has passed sometime ago.
I am 30 years old, and still play video games. So do most people I know. I grew up in the Nintendo generation, (really all console and computer gaming really from C-64 to present. Thats Celceo vision, Atari, Nintendo, 64, Cube, Wii, Neo-Geo, Turbo Grafix 16, Sega Gennsis, Saturn, Dreamcast, X-box, x-box360, TRS-80, 086, 286, 486, Pentium, 1,2,3,4, AMD equivalents, 64bit, Dual Core). If I actually tried to list games I would be hear a long time. Seeing all this, I think my generation has probably wasted more time playing vids than any other to date!
Also as to quality of games. A good game is a good game period. Better graphics can certainly help, but it is not everything. I have an modified version of Masters of Orion 2 on my Vista box when I need a fix. I got really excited when I heard you could play Catan on the Xbox360. AI is getting better, but playing against people is still king. The best enhancement in my view over the last 10 years is the advancement and ease of playing online (there wasn't even online (anyone remember TEN and how much it sucked)when I was playing - Get off my lawn!) games now. In the beginning folks were limited to playing with friends (usually 4 or less) at home. Then came direct connections via cable or modem, then some networks, then some online gaming services, then some online games, private and publicly hosted servers, Massive Multi playing, Persistent universe, you don't know how good you got it today! These days I mostly just play Quake Wars and WOW, mostly because I lack the time to play more.
Of course this might have to do with Monopoly being created and sold about a million years before (1935 vs 1995, 60 years head start?) either of those two other games were released. It could also be due to the marketing done for Monopoly, or the fact that Monopoly is sold everywhere, and the other two in niche stores and markets. Only now is Catan and Axis and Allies starting to become somewhat mainstream, but they still have a ways to go. I know I would never play Monopoly now, nor would I buy a copy. If I had kids they would probably grow up playing Catan etc... and then in 10 years you would see Catan on all the shelves.
Anyway the point is it isn't a fair comparison, and you shouldn't make conclusions based on those assumptions. It doesn't mean in order to be successful that you need to target the lowest common denominator (though in many cases you can see some parallels in the film industry). There is some truth in what you say, a game like Axis and Allies isn't for everyone due to length and complexity, so you are limiting your audience in that respect.
Also Candy Land and Life suck and complex Avalon hill games do not!
In all seriousness there are plenty of simple, fun, shorter games out there that no one knows about. I have a buddy that is a board game collector, and has something like over 250 games, most of which are "Euros", many of which you cannot get outside of Germany or where ever.
If you don't believe me check out www.boardgamegeek.com and see how many you recognize, also see how games like Monopoly are rated. I will give you a hint.... "not good". However they are American, and American companies own the rights to produce them, and we live in an American market. It is not the consumers that are making these marketing decisions, but the corporations. Given choice there is no contest.
Also another hole in your argument.... there are about a BILLION version of monopoly... I am barely exaggerating (around 300 by my count). Check it out. Catan (Connected Water Version, Knights and Cities, Seafarers, 6 player Expansion) I think has 4 that I know about (not including language versions, card game or space game which isn't even the same game). So that is kind of like a horrible comparison eh?
Not to dispute your claim or call you an idiot, but it could be due to the fact that there are others like myself, who have noticed some issues with Vista, but nothing like what you claim.
I suspect if you are running a Quad Xeon with 8GB and it takes 20min to move 17MB file, there is more going on than just "Vista".
I am running a piddly 1.8Ghz C2D with 2GB and I have copied Gigs with of data in that time. I would suggest something is seriously wrong with your system, and not just the default install of Vista. While simply blaming Vista of all your ills is fun, it is not all that useful.
I know my biggest beef that ticked me off was Media Player after the last update started having a lag between movies, and music. Serious lag. Like 14 seconds per song, and like 27 seconds per movie, both of with occurred at startup of media as well. The solution was to switch to an alternative. After a couple of days Vista seemed to "fix" itself, be it by another update, or it had finished some task it was doing in the background (DRM bs I presume).
So anyway while I am certainly not a fan of Vista, I use it, and for the most part it works fine. Blaming all your problems on Vista isn't always valid, and if you think XP is going to be supported forever, well you might want to think twice. Also for those that think Windows 7 will be the miracle cure, I am not sure what MS has done in the past to give anyone certainty about that outcome.
As much as I hate to say it the more people who start using Vista the better. That way both MS and third party's can concentrate and focus on developing software for one OS. Meaning better drivers, compatibility, and general improvement of the OS over time. To expect a home run out of the box is unrealistic (though it would be nice).
Also I just realized you must be running Vista 64 which is a different beast than your standard Vista 32 Home Premium Edition. I have heard bad things about 64, which is why I went 32. I did a lot of reading before deciding on 32, and the reason was 64 was flaky particularly with drivers, and had some serious compatibility issues. You are essentially running beta software. If you are serious about performance and getting the most out of your Quad +8Gb you might want to look to a more established OS like Linux or *nix, Solarius or something. If you want Windows compatibility and 64 bit, well quit bitchin' as that is all there is. If it bothers you too much, just set up a dual boot system with 32.
I hate Scrabulous! Everyone stop requesting games, I can't spell you insensitive clods!
Yes I remember playing some old video games. As to which one was first I am not really that sure, it was a long time ago.
I remember my dad trying to get games to run on our TRS-80... which didn't really work.
I also remember playing pong on this device with dials you hooked up to your TV. It was probably my first disappointment as well, as it had a number of different setting, one of which was hockey. To my dismay, it was pong with like 5 paddles on each side all of which moved together.
I had friends that had Coleaco and Atari systems, and I remember playing those... they mostly sucked also.
I had a friend with a Commodore 64, and I remember spending a lot of time at his place playing pitfall and the like. It was pretty fun.
I also later got a 286, which I played a lot of BBS door games (if you don't know what that is, get off my lawn!) like tw2002,and crappy games like wolf3d or curse of the azure bonds, or take your pick of side scrollers or adventure games like king/police quest etc...
After that was the original Nintendo with good 'ole Mario, Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior, etc... tons of games.
Several consoles and computers later (Warcraft 2, Duke3d, Doom 2, Starcraft, and other goodies), etc..
I have an xbox (which I don't use for anything by DVD's now) and a nice computer now (which I primarily play WOW, some Quake Wars, a bit of ET, and a sprinkle of MOO2 when I am in the mood). I couldn't bring myself to buy either the 360 or the PS3 or the Wii.
Wonder how I became President of the US as a Canadian Citizen.
:)
Annex the USA into Canada, creating the new province of "South Canada".
Wake up and realize that wasn't such a good idea.
Sell South Canada... to say... the Russians!
Profit!!!
I know it is bad form to answer your own post, but I was curious if I was losing my mind. Anyway here are the links.
Slashdot:
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/17/2257234
Article:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/071017-monster-bhole.html
I was pretty close.
There was a post on slashdot I think in the past year on this subject.
Where scientists found a black hole seemingly larger than it was possible to be.
I think the difference is, while it is postulated that there are super massives at the center of every galaxy, what is not known is how they are formed.
As is commonly accepted, a normal black hole is formed by a collapsing star, and that stars have a finite size, that any black hole formed in this manner is restricted.
If I remember correctly there was also a threshold to which a black hole could eat up matter and grow, but at a certain point it could not any more for some reason (either due to loss somehow equaling the gain, or a change would occur).
I think it was thought that the super massives are formed through some other method not yet understood, and as I recall the largest possible normal black hole was some magnitude of 8 or 16 of something (I know that is not very helpful), and the one in question was like 16.7 or something like that.
Anyway I am positive that it was on slashdot, so if someone wants to search it out and post it, be my guest. My mind is a black hole, nothing escapes!
This coming from a guy with:
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
in his sig.
nunchuck skills, bowhunting skills, computer hacking skills...
He also thought Canada's National Igloo was melting...
Its not really a lie when you are too stupid and just believe anything anyone tells you.
Different camera phone I know, but I have a 2MP camera phone (Nokia 6275i), and while it takes awesome photos outdoors in bright sunshine, If however you are indoors, it is overcast, dark, etc it sucks. It comes with a flash that doesn't work really and a night mode that doesn't really work either. While better than any camera phone I have ever had, not a real replacement as yet.
Does yours work in the dark? I know mine I typically want to use it at the bar, which is indoors and at night.
Mordor Jewelers is not responsible for ring getting current owner killed, nor will there be any responsibility for alteration of the owner to a gollum like appearance.
Ring may also bind to other rings in darkness. Also may find other rings and rule over them. Not responsible for types of other rings, nor of the of ruling of the afore mentioned rings.
Ring is used, and did have prior owner, the "Dark Lord" who of course sits on a "Dark Throne". Mordor Jewelers is in no way associated withe the Dark Lord or his Dark Throne.
When caring for your ring, it is suggested that you avoid places like Mordor, and melting may occur if dropped into magma in Mt. Doom. Loss of ring in this manner is not the fault of Mordor Jewelers, nor will any reimbursement be merited.
Mordor is also not at fault if husband starts ignoring you, and you feel like he doesn't even see you anymore. Last but not least, one size fits all.
Sauron, Saruman, and Smeagol Solicitors
Other than possibly create a few more zombies (and I am sure there are easier ways to do that) who cares?
Folks with real and/or sensitive data will have a password, and likely even more security.
Those that don't likely have little to offer any hacker or anybody else. A hacker may desire your cycles for zombified attacks, and the RIAA might like to look at your MP3 list. Maybe someone might go through the trouble of trying to data mine for identity theft, but again there are much easier ways to accomplish this goal.
If someone wants to brute force my password a million times, be my guest, you will probably find it not worth the time.
Those that don't change their default passwords, well, ye get what ye deserve. Call it a stupid tax.
This reminds me of a past post or other news article I read, about two kids in Florida I believe that made a sex tape of themselves. From the story they were long time boyfriend and girlfriend, and at the time the guy was like a half year or a year older. Anyway because where their ages fell, he got changed with making child porn. I forget the circumstances of how it all came out, but to my mind you have to have some common sense at some point.
Just for perspective, I remember when I first started college, I was 18. I had an ex-girlfriend who was a year younger than I come up to visit me. It was her birthday that week. I always thought it was funny that I got her into a bar (I had fake id), while I was underage at 18, and she only 16 (due to her birthday being later on that week). Thinking that really means anything because the birthday falls on such and such a day is stupid. I know with the law you have to draw a line somewhere, but you have to be flexible when considering this sort of thing, and take it with context. Otherwise pretty much everyone (unless their high school partner was the exact same age) has committed that crime to some degree.
What I don't get about this whole mess is the governments complete and utter trust in the industry's claims. Either they don't want to know, or they don't care (and I am speaking to both US and Canadian). The industry will have some study done, or simple just say "we lost 18 billion" due to piracy, and it is believed. Even though it is fairly easy to check, and they have been caught lying about it so many times in the past. Tell me in what other industry this would happen?
Here is my idea of how it goes down:
RIAA: WAAA WAAA WAAA! We lose money!
Gov: Whats wrong?
RIAA: Evil piracy make us lose money!
Gov: OH NOES! How much did you lose?
RIAA: 89 Kajillion Bakillion dollars!
Gov: You know that isn't a real number.
RIAA: 18 Billion dollars (evil pinky to corner of mouth)!
Gov: NO NOES! Lets make crazy laws!
RIAA: YEA!
....converted to heat....
Yes, that is exactly what explosions need more of, heat. Surely that will help protect us more. So rather than being filled with holes, we can be cooked instead.
Yes yes, I know insulate the thing... I am just being a jerk.
Though like any armour, protection at the cost of mobility, and what ratio are you realistically looking at to be effective.
Try and make me run on a treadmill for 6 hours and I would be pretty aggressive too.
This reminds me of something that happened in Canada not too long ago (well maybe 5 years or so anyway). There was a punter (politician) named Stockwell Day (who ironically enough is now our Minister of Foreign Affairs I think). Anyway back then he was the Leader of the Alliance Party(which used to be called the Reform Party, and in the end combined with the Progressive Conservative Party to form the Conservative Party who is currently elected, which is as close to the Republicans you get up this way).
Anyway part of his platform that he ran on was some referendum reform. His idea was that if 10% of Canada's population thought there should be a referendum, then there would be one. It was pointed out this was a bad idea, for two reasons, one is that they are very expensive, and we don't want to be having one for every quandary we find ourselves involved with, and also there is a reason why people are elected to represent the people.
This was illustrated by one of my favorite comics and political satirist Rick Mercer (Similar to John Daily in some respects), on the fake news show "This Hour has 22 Minutes". They urged people to visit their website and sign a petition to hold a referendum. The Question on the referendum would be "Should Stockwell Day be renamed Doris Day" (or something to that effect). Sure enough more than enough (350,000+) people signed up, and during the broadcast, it was announced that as soon as the Alliance won that would be the first order of business.
Of course they lost the election and the rest is history. Anyway it was pretty damn funny back then, and this reminded me of the same thing.