Safe harbor provisions are fairly standard in this type of legislation and are eminently reasonable; otherwise, the threat of a vexatious lawsuit would render the entire piece of legislation without teeth. The important thing to remember is that the safe harbor provision only applies if the theater owner only detains the suspicious person "in a reasonable manner and for a reasonable time." The worst-case scenarios often entertained on/. would not pass any test of reasonableness and thus would not fall under safe harbor.
One thing I haven't seen is consideration that $60 for a game might actually be a bargain. If I buy a $60 game, I realistically expect to get at least 50 hours of entertainment out of it, either through campaign play (Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), online multiplayer (Gears of War) or through exceptional replay value (Marvel: Ultimate Alliance). In some cases, I might even get considerably more value out of it.
Compared to a great many other entertainment options, on a pure hour-per-dollar basis, videogames are a pretty good deal. (Still doesn't stack up to an afternoon at your local fine art museum, though.)
I'm not at all surprised that they work. Remember, the average Slashdot reader is not the typical gamer/Internet user/consumer. Think for a moment about spam. The reason spam is so common is that it works. Clueless clods actually buy the crap they're selling, which leads to more spammers and more spam. And everyone hates spam! The same logic holds for in-game advertising. Maybe 95% of gamers won't be influenced by in-game ads (or will be negatively influenced), but a small but significant number will go out and buy the product being advertised because they associate it with a game they were playing.
Local commercial radio stations are hardly irrelevant. They're the most convenient source of local traffic, weather and information... at least when you're driving. Personally, I still also rely on broadcast radio for music and news. I refuse to pay a satellite radio provider for content I essentially get for free living in a major metropolitan area.
Senator Coburn has a long-standing record of fighting against pork barrel spending (aka the "earmarks" referenced in TFA). I can certainly understand how he would have approved spending for development of a videogame that is essentially a marketing tool for the military (and which ultimately paid for itself) while opposing the 21CSI project, which, as I understand it, has no clearly defined value whatsoever.
I don't support Coburn's position on a great many issues, but as a porkbuster, he's virtually unrivaled in the Senate.
So this is what you get. Banks are large beauracratic organisations filled with incompetent people who like to sweep things under the rug and are too stupid to both think outside of the box or pass even a trouble report over to someone who might be responsible for dealing with it.
You had a problem with your bank (which, from the tone of your rant probably had more to do with your poor attitide than your message), so all backs are full of stupid, incompetent people? Congratulations, you've committed the fallacy of converse accident. Nice work!
If you haven't already, you should probably move your accounts to another bank. You and the bank will probably both be happier.
Mod +1. I was going to make the same point. I grew up in Contra Costa (Moraga specifically) back when it was a reasonable place to live. The crummy little ranch-style house I grew up in, which my parents sold in 1974 for about $60,000, is not worth (according to zillow.com) about a million dollars.
Technically, Gears of War isn't a FPS, but a "TPS" (Third-Person Shooter), since it utilizes an over-the-shoulder camera. But I'm jst being picky. Parent makes all good points.
Single-player RPGs may not be threatened by MMOs creatively, but they are threatened by them economically. In fact, I would venture that all non-massive titles are threatened by MMOs in that sense. I personally eschew MMos, but a friend of mine -- who used to buy a new PC title every couple of months -- now plays WoW pretty much exclusively. I suspect he is not unique in this.
Couching it in pro-gamer language about defeating cheaters is disingenuous.
From TFA:
We have stated in the past that customers can only enjoy access to the Xbox LIVE community through the use of a genuine, unmodified, Xbox console and we will continue to enforce this rule to ensure the integrity of our service, the protection of our partners and the benefits of our users.
Speaking as the former IT manager of a small community bank, I can say conclusively that banks would not love to pay $50,000 to register a domain. Certainly, the cost wouldn't affect the huge money center institutions, but $50,000 is a huge expense for a de novo. Especially when you consider that financial institutions register multiple domain names to avoid confusion. First State Bank might register the domains firststatebank.bank, firststate.bank and maybe even 1ststate.bank.
And even after the bank has jumped through the hoops and paid the exorbitant registration fees, as others have pointed out, consumers who fall for phishing schemes tend to be less sophisticated Internet users and are probably not paying attention to the link they're clicking on anyways.
Every fax machine I've ever owned has had a very reliable blocking mechanism: an on/off switch. If you're using your fax machine to receive signed legal documents only (which, presumably, you're expecting) only switch it on when you know you need it. It shouldn't take too long for your correspondents to get used to calling when they're sending you a legitimate document.
Freedom has already been redefined. Personal responsibility used to be implicit in the very concept of freedom. That sense of responsibility has been replaced with a sense of entitlement. It's no longer "ask what you can do for your country" or even "ask what your country can do for you"; it's "demand what you want from your country (and sue if you don't get it)."
Unfortunately, what the people are demanding is security, which is impossible. But you can't even create the illusion of security without opening the door to totalitarianism. Tell me that's not what's going on even as we speak (er, type) within schools and universities in the US.
I'm still confused as to how you can make something colder by adding energy to it (i.e. firing a laser into it). I suspect I'm about one graduate degree away from understanding how this doesn't break thermodynamics.
WebSense only blocks what you tell it to. If for some reason you choose to block the "Information Technology" category, then WebSense will block mozilla.org. If you feel strongly about allowing access to the mozilla.org site and want to block access to all other sites in the "Information Technology" category, you can create a rule for that too.
BTW, blocking "Information Technology" also blocks microsoft.com. So much for the conspiracy crackpots.
Why should they drop the price? They're already selling out almost everything they send out.
Only if you believe Sony's corporate double-speak. Every electronics retailer I've visited recently has surpluses of them in-store and as of right now they're in-stock and available online at Amazon, Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart (albeit only as part of a bundle) and GameStop - every e-tailer I can be bothered to check.
My understanding is that Microsot has been providing the packaging and a shipping label for mail-in repairs, so it probably won't even cost you that. My 360 is still working fine (knock wood) so I have no direct experience either way.
Slashdot Mirror
Safe harbor provisions are fairly standard in this type of legislation and are eminently reasonable; otherwise, the threat of a vexatious lawsuit would render the entire piece of legislation without teeth. The important thing to remember is that the safe harbor provision only applies if the theater owner only detains the suspicious person "in a reasonable manner and for a reasonable time." The worst-case scenarios often entertained on /. would not pass any test of reasonableness and thus would not fall under safe harbor.
He's just bitter he wasn't invited to Comic-Con.
One thing I haven't seen is consideration that $60 for a game might actually be a bargain. If I buy a $60 game, I realistically expect to get at least 50 hours of entertainment out of it, either through campaign play (Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), online multiplayer (Gears of War) or through exceptional replay value (Marvel: Ultimate Alliance). In some cases, I might even get considerably more value out of it.
Compared to a great many other entertainment options, on a pure hour-per-dollar basis, videogames are a pretty good deal. (Still doesn't stack up to an afternoon at your local fine art museum, though.)
Xbox 360 Platinum Hits
Like it or not, advertising works.
Local commercial radio stations are hardly irrelevant. They're the most convenient source of local traffic, weather and information... at least when you're driving. Personally, I still also rely on broadcast radio for music and news. I refuse to pay a satellite radio provider for content I essentially get for free living in a major metropolitan area.
I don't support Coburn's position on a great many issues, but as a porkbuster, he's virtually unrivaled in the Senate.
You had a problem with your bank (which, from the tone of your rant probably had more to do with your poor attitide than your message), so all backs are full of stupid, incompetent people? Congratulations, you've committed the fallacy of converse accident. Nice work!
If you haven't already, you should probably move your accounts to another bank. You and the bank will probably both be happier.
I think you have Bioware confused with Square-Enix.
I'm sure they can scrape up the money somewhere.
Technically, Gears of War isn't a FPS, but a "TPS" (Third-Person Shooter), since it utilizes an over-the-shoulder camera. But I'm jst being picky. Parent makes all good points.
Single-player RPGs may not be threatened by MMOs creatively, but they are threatened by them economically. In fact, I would venture that all non-massive titles are threatened by MMOs in that sense. I personally eschew MMos, but a friend of mine -- who used to buy a new PC title every couple of months -- now plays WoW pretty much exclusively. I suspect he is not unique in this.
From TFA: (Bold added for emphasis.)
Sounds like PR speak for "fight piracy" to me.
It doesn't. There have already been real-world man-in-the-middle exploits of this type of system.
Speaking as the former IT manager of a small community bank, I can say conclusively that banks would not love to pay $50,000 to register a domain. Certainly, the cost wouldn't affect the huge money center institutions, but $50,000 is a huge expense for a de novo. Especially when you consider that financial institutions register multiple domain names to avoid confusion. First State Bank might register the domains firststatebank.bank, firststate.bank and maybe even 1ststate.bank.
And even after the bank has jumped through the hoops and paid the exorbitant registration fees, as others have pointed out, consumers who fall for phishing schemes tend to be less sophisticated Internet users and are probably not paying attention to the link they're clicking on anyways.
Every fax machine I've ever owned has had a very reliable blocking mechanism: an on/off switch. If you're using your fax machine to receive signed legal documents only (which, presumably, you're expecting) only switch it on when you know you need it. It shouldn't take too long for your correspondents to get used to calling when they're sending you a legitimate document.
Freedom has already been redefined. Personal responsibility used to be implicit in the very concept of freedom. That sense of responsibility has been replaced with a sense of entitlement. It's no longer "ask what you can do for your country" or even "ask what your country can do for you"; it's "demand what you want from your country (and sue if you don't get it)."
Unfortunately, what the people are demanding is security, which is impossible. But you can't even create the illusion of security without opening the door to totalitarianism. Tell me that's not what's going on even as we speak (er, type) within schools and universities in the US.
Morrowind was barely compatible with the Xbox. Making it compatible for the 360 may well prove impossible.
I'm still confused as to how you can make something colder by adding energy to it (i.e. firing a laser into it). I suspect I'm about one graduate degree away from understanding how this doesn't break thermodynamics.
If you don't care about HDMI (or paying separately for the larger drive), then there is effectively no advantage to buying the Elite SKU.
BTW, blocking "Information Technology" also blocks microsoft.com. So much for the conspiracy crackpots.
Only if you believe Sony's corporate double-speak. Every electronics retailer I've visited recently has surpluses of them in-store and as of right now they're in-stock and available online at Amazon, Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart (albeit only as part of a bundle) and GameStop - every e-tailer I can be bothered to check.
Honestly, to me it read like an infomercial. I hope IGN was well compensated by Square-Enix for that piece.
My understanding is that Microsot has been providing the packaging and a shipping label for mail-in repairs, so it probably won't even cost you that. My 360 is still working fine (knock wood) so I have no direct experience either way.