People don't mention that for the simple reason that it isn't even remotely true. I wouldn't believe a figure of 20%-30% either.
Novell, Red Hat, Mandriva...All distribute versions of Linux. Many almost assuredly do some level of Open Source development. I will also guarantee that they pay their employees. Heck, even Ubuntu lists an employment section and the word employment generally implies payment. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if IBM has some Open Source devs. Oh, and we know Google will pay too. Does the figure sound a bit more reasonable now? Even those who do not get paid by a company are often making money. Remember when the Windows build of X-Chat no longer became free? (Which was rectified by other people porting it.)
So, while his number might be a bit bloated, a lot of development is done for pay. People do finance this development for a variety of reasons.
Um, I think you need to read more on Quartz. So, here. Making PDFs isn't the problem. Microsoft is trying to introduce a new "standard" that will of course be proprietary and attempt to stifle competition and PDF. Remember you can create PDFs freely with dozens of free tools and OpenOffice.
Your argument is horribly flawed. Yes, let's all refuse to buy Vista. How many desktops do we account for? 10% maybe. Most people are going to buy from Dell and HP/Compaq (or heaven forbid, Gateway). The fact is they will get Vista and use it because that is what they are provided with. This sort of inclusion of tools forces out competition by creating a competing product that doesn't require the user to think for 10 seconds to install and abuses the monopoly that Microsoft has over computer systems.
Remember this is the same kind of shit that has gotten them in trouble in the past over that web browser and the fact that it is really non-removable. Before, you jump back on Apple, remember that in the PC market their market share is nothing like that of Microsoft's share.
Symantecs OS invading suite of crappy tools just sucks.
You expect a Microsoft provided anti-virus or spyware removal tool to be any better? The fact is that it is anti-competitive to the n-th degree. This sort of lock-in is what has gotten Microsoft in trouble in the past by providing users with their own solutions for things and making them embedded into the system. The EU is the only one who has thus far proven to have the balls to actually make them do anything about it or pay for it.
Integrating PDF generation into applications and office suites ist also a MUST.
Microsoft is not just talking about integrating PDF generation. We are talking about tools to create a new document format. PDF creation as part of the system is already included in OpenOffice and many programs are freely available to create PDF printers for use with any document. The fact is that Microsoft is trying to introduce a tool that like the aforementioned tool is anti-competitive in a very much similar manner.
And before you start pointing to Linux (I really hate when people do that shit.), almost every distro in the world allows you to customize your packages and programs and none of the items are embedded into the OS or included as some sort of system preferred default.
You shouldn't. If you can handle XP, I highly recommend sticking with it. Otherwise, there is always Win 2K and Linux. All of these can do as much as Vista and one of them, Linux, comes 100% guaranteed free of this sort of BS, now and in the future. 99% of people only need internet access and office utilities, both of which are fully available in Linux (and for you people who like sites with Flash, FP9 is being developed for Linux). The other percentage that wants more games just need to use Wine.
Sure, many games in Wine usually have to be a bit older to be playable, but from my understanding, HL2, WoW and several others are quite playable indeed. I know several games even have native linux support. This includes about every game from id, Unreal Tournament (pretty sure all of them), NWN, and others. The support isn't as bad as you'd think. For other games, I would start recommending consoles. Granted they are becoming another cost unto themselves, but until the console makers (mostly Microsoft and Sony) find a way to make DRM infect my Linux machine over the network, they are not a bad option. Oh and Linux will run on much older hardware, without having to upgrade every time a new version comes out (unlike Windows).
I agree. I only had a single professor who was able to teach the material at an acceptable level, and she just happened to be the one teacher at my high school with a PhD. For AP Chemistry, my teacher was worthless. I actually had a college professor at the local university, who I knew pretty well, help me study for the exam with regular study sessions during his office hours. (Since, students never use those things anyway. Seriously, I never saw a single student come looking for him.)
Alas, we cannot really regulate "smut." I mean porn is an art form, or I am sure a great many would argue. I do know it is an instructional video for many a teenagers and college students.
If they are corporate running Win 98 or Win ME, then their IT department is in a really sore state. At the worst, they should have NT and probably 2000. Home OS in a corporate environment is a huge mistake, though I wouldn't be surprise to see it has happened before.
Erasmus: Actually, wikipedia seems to indicate he is from the Netherlands. He is considered Dutch, which last I checked is generally considered Netherlands.
Descartes: If you are talking about Rene Descartes, he was French.
Van Dyck: Score, you 1, me 2.
Lemaitre: You tied the score...good job.
Spaak: I really should deduct points for you not knowing how to spell his name.
Mercator: Can I deduct you two here? Nicholas was born in France and did work across Europe including Netherlands, again not Belgium. Gerardus was born in Flanders, technically Belgium, to parents who were from what is now a town in Germany. So, maybe we can give you a half-point afterall.
Jacques Brel: Oooh, you got another.
Janssen: Can I dock you another point for spelling?
Damiaan: So does that mean like two of your choices are Catholic priests? Interesting...
Seriously, two of yours were downright wrong, a third was sketchy, and several others fame outside of Belgium could seriously be questioned.
Actually, there isn't much more they could do about those digitally. I think they are just going to find a body double to re-shoot scenes and digital paste Shatner's head on it...at least the waist line will be taken care of...
People say the it is old and will look grainy, but I do not buy it. Unless there is terrible damage to the film, most movies can stand the test of time. I have seen movies that are almost 20 years older on HDTV and they have done a good job of cleaning the films. It takes a lot of work, and honestly, this is work that Lucas doesn't want to do because he really doesn't want to release the originals in a form people will like. I suspect we will see Blu-Ray versions next year with the 30th anniversary and also the Star Wars 3D. While I might be interested in seeing it in 3D if the experience is good, I really will not be able to bring myself to spend even more money on the series. (Though, I am not buying into any of the HD formats until someone is a clear winner or until a dual format player is available, which isn't as impossible as they want you to think.)
WHY IS ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS USING A BLOODY COMPUTER TO DO THIS? I don't care if it's open source or closed source software on it, running on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, whatever. All of these are harder to verify (if not impossible) that no tampering was done than SIMPLE PIECES OF PAPER.
Actually, both systems would have their flaws and a determined individual could probably mess with either system if they truly desired to do so. Your statement though, seems to show me you definitely are not developing in a cryptography or security related field. I could think of several dozen methods off the top of my head to verify each vote is legitimate and that no one did illegally altering of any of the votes that had been cast.
There are also several ways to secure the machines physically, which as I recall was the way someone attacked a machine in the past to demonstrate the flaws with the system. The fact of the matter is that both methods are flawed. You would think voting is a simple process, but places with punch ballots (I am looking at you Florida) had a huge time deciding what was considered a vote, and whether that dimple was a punch or if the hanging chad was one too.
As for no technology in voting, this could pose a problem too. Some degree of tracking has to be performed at some level. There were great debacles back in the day of voting fraud, so the thought that technology is some new fangled problem is ridiculous. The pen and paper approach has caused just as much, if not more, problems then the technology has. I still think a well designed, properly secured electronic system would beat a paper system any day. The problem is, I do not think the systems thus far have proven to be either well designed or properly secured.
before the big asteroid or comet comes. Or the sun goes red giant. Or the sun shoots off enough matter to defeat the ozone and expose us all to radiation. (Yes, I have heard this one.) Oh, or Yellowstone goes all explosion on us and brings about a second ice age or something. (There was a Docu-drama on this one.) Oh, or maybe the moon can be partially destroyed and threaten to crash into earth. (Reference to a ABC Family comedy or in some ways to Cowboy Bebop). Oh, or nuclear winter. I am sure I forgot some.
You do know 7 million subscribers is less than the number of copies Blizzard has sold with Diablo2 and with Starcraft right?
I call partial BS. I will give you Starcraft and the 9 million copies. The numbers here may be a bit old, but you will have a hard time, without a valid updated sales number, proving that they managed to sell another 3 million copies of D2. Don't forget this platform also has The Sims at nearly 20 million. I would hardly call this a niche market yet.
The number of dollars saved from having to test and develop for endless combinations of CPU/GPU/OS/etc is enormous. That extra time/money is spent enhancing the game rather than just making it work.
I call BIG BS on this one. I do not think there is nearly as much combination testing as you think. Also, this notion they are spending more time and money to enhance the game is laughable. One of the biggest complaints about the industry has been a repetition of gameplay with only graphics getting better. Don't forget your PC has more storage for a) better graphics, b) more levels, and c) more gameplay/extras. I do not buy this notion that less testing somehow equals more work on the game. Remeber for PC, you have an unlimited beta community. You can do pre-release betas and thanks to the patching (which apparently consoles are slowly catching onto) you can fix the bugs you didn't catch in Betas.
1. It's cheaper.
This is hard to argue with, but as the saying goes, "You get what you pay for." Despite what they are trying to turn consoles into, you still can do more things besides gaming with a PC. (And they are not all boring things like typing papers and doing spreadsheets.)
2. Every game is guaranteed to work.
Um, not quite true. I have known a few games because of defects that would not work right out. Granted these were manufacturing errors and nothing else. Also, if you are truly PC gaming, the odds of running into a game that will not work are low. You will likely have a system meant to run the games you play. Also, the return statement is a bit off. Some places will take back open items and those that don't often won't take back your open console game either, so this point is sort of moot.
3. You needn't tweak, optimize, or otherwise fiddle with a console game to make it look good.
How many games have I had to overly tweak or specialize....maybe two. The settings allow more PCs to play games, and it doesn't take rocket science to figure out. Most games implement the Bad, Better, Best system of setting for the real dim witted ones. And as for the articles, you get what is advertised with a console game, this is not true. I simply point to the PS2 debacle. You know, when they were not clear pre-launch about shots being in-game.
4. Lots of console exclusives to choose from.
This is becoming a bit rarer. If those are the games you want, fine. If they are not, this point is, well, pointless.
5. Xbox Live.
Well, let's see. Free online play (except for a few games). The point about chatting while watching a movie, I point you to Steam (so every Valve game, which happen to have the highest online numbers short the MMOs). Oh, and don't forget the extremely high number of people paying to play MMOs. There is a business making money hand-over-fist.
6. Backwards compatibility.
You are joking right? The Xbox 360 has half-assed backwards compatibility. We shall see what the PS3 brings. The Dreamcast, as much as I loved it, never had backwards compat to the Saturn. Then there is that time we switched Nintendo consoles, how many of those were backwards compat, unless they sold add-ons. Of course, nothing was backwards compat with the Cube, cause well we went from Cart to CD. These examples sort of shoot the Win98SE to XP argument, which can be resolved with various tools and emulators, which are legal. So there goes that idea.
7. Virus, adware, and spyware free.
This is a point? Users only have themselves to blame for viruses, adware or spyware. With a few exceptions, this shit has to be installed by the user in the end. Most PC gamers are savvy enough to know how to avoid this stuff. And don't think that with online connectivity, people will not find a way to add viruses to the mix with consoles. (Or possibly spyware or adware for that matter.)
8. Games look better in high-def...from the couch.
So can a PC. Remember, that cards are coming out (and many sub-$400) that are being designed for HDCP output, which means they should work with TVs fairly well, and will be able to play HD-DVD or Blu-Ray (or both) once PC drives are available. Your other next gen consoles currently will have Blu-Ray (PS3), HD-DVD (360 w/ add-on), and neither (the Wii). So tell me who wins this one. The guy who can have both formats.
9. Controllers are more comfortable than gaming with a keyboard and mouse.
HAHA. You can buy controllers for a PC. Controllers still have some use in the PC game world, but you play an FPS between a gamer with controllers and one with Keyboard/Mouse, and you will see the controller boy get slaughtered. It is this separation that keeps most developers from allowing the console and PC versions to be played together.
10. Controller innovation.
Again, you are kidding right. You think they h
1. The US wants to make money on the fines allowed by the Federal Wire Act. I mean they have a great potential source of income here, and if you can stretch the definition of the law then why not try. (This is their opinion, not mine.) I will note, the people they have gone after are sports betting sites, though they have said they want to expand it. I do not think the courts are going to let that fly.
2. There has probably been a lot of money thrown at the government by casino owners to enforce this law. (They probably also want the broadened interpretation.) Right now, the number of places you can legally gamble in the US are very few and far between. Many places have made it illegal and some won't even allow lotteries. The casinos worry about losing money because people are moving to online poker sites for their gambling needs.
I believe that this is insane. Gambling itself is a rather harmless vice. This law was obviously created for one reason and one reason only. It was an attempt to take out organized crime. The government always had a hard time making charges stick. A lot of sports betting was handled by phone, and this law made it very easy to arrest and charge the people taking bets. I really just wish that the US would look at revising the laws instead of going the opposite direction and broadening the laws and trying to enforce them beyond the intended scope.
If you are truly concerned about the validity of cryptography provided by the vendor, then try to find products that have been certified under the FIPS 140-2 standard. The only problem might be that a lot of those products are usually commercial grade items meant for use by government agencies; however, some of the items that have received approval are reasonably available to consumers. The products are reviewed by independent labs, and then the CMVP reviews the labs results. (The site was down earlier this morning.)
These products have been reviewed by independent labs, who review their implementation to verify that cryptographic mechanisms are implemented properly. This includes reviewing source code and/or hardware designs. Just a thought for anyone who is truly concerned that their hardware or software be compliant. (Note: If you want a "secure" operating system, look into CC Evaluation.)
Let us look at the definitions of upstart from Princeton Wordnet:
1. an arrogant or presumptuous person (Sounds more like Microsoft then Google, I cannot attest for Apple.)
2. a person who has suddenly risen to a higher economic status but has not gained social acceptance of others in that class (Apple is almost as old as Microsoft and unless my mind fails me, they had a graphical OS first. Google might be closer, but look at Google's core tech. They are considered the top, ahead of Microsoft, and have gained social acceptance.)
That handles the nouns. Now since they used it as an adjective:
1. characteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new position.
Seriously, a horrible use of the word. If anyone lacks the social skills appropriate for their position it is Microsoft. We all know their tactics are less than admirable, and there are plenty of jokes about their social skills with regards to chairs. I just wish people would stop acting like Microsoft is some untouchable entity. I can only hope that I get to see the day they have a great fall.
Actually, I think the NYT would have a pretty strong case against any suit against the government. Unless the NYT has some sort of permanent position in the UK (e.g. a remote newsroom or UK based hosting servers), it would be very hard to apply another countries laws on a US media company with no ties to said country. This is rather unlike MS who almost assuredly has offices in the EU and around the world, making them much more open to attack of this sort.
In reality, I think if the NYT wanted to stand up for free press, they would tell the UK to shove it or block them their own damn selves and not make the NYT bow to them. Remember, we fought a revolutionary war to be free from the UK's tyranny.
This will be like the special editions. The people that really want something like TOS DVD's will end up with a mutilated product that isn't quite what they wanted. TOS episodes are a more niche market than SW movies.
Except, TOS already has a DVD product, and from what I know, it is unaltered.
This might actually not be a horrible thing. The effects in the original were bad at times and I am willing to except that; however, Star Trek is turning 40 and with that age come a great many people who have probably never seen all of the Original Series (or maybe not even parts of it). The only Trek even fewer may know is those two most recent atrocities. Instead of complaining, this about how this could possibly turn Star Trek on to a whole new generation of people.
So long as the effects changes have no real impact of the story or the idea of the show I do not see a huge problem here. If the shows old film is getting cleaned up too, then that is also something to cheer about. I personally would feel better knowing that they are actually caring for the old film and not letting it just rot in some warehouse.
Psst. The USPTO is one of the few, if not only, government office that, get this, MAKE MONEY. All the money funding the PTO comes from fees collected by the PTO. Actually, Congress doles out only part of those fees back to the PTO and spends the money for other agencies. The freeing of this fund solely to the PTO has been a point of contention in the past, since the PTO obviously needs more money.
So do not worry. Your money does not currently and probably never will fund the US Patent and Trademark Office. (As for my credentials, I was a patent examiner. So I think I can provide some insight in this matter.)
If enough people are using your free Open Source tool, then yes you might get sued for infringement. You might not be making money, but in the eyes of the patent holder you are costing them money.
Slashdot Mirror
People don't mention that for the simple reason that it isn't even remotely true. I wouldn't believe a figure of 20%-30% either.
Novell, Red Hat, Mandriva...All distribute versions of Linux. Many almost assuredly do some level of Open Source development. I will also guarantee that they pay their employees. Heck, even Ubuntu lists an employment section and the word employment generally implies payment. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if IBM has some Open Source devs. Oh, and we know Google will pay too. Does the figure sound a bit more reasonable now? Even those who do not get paid by a company are often making money. Remember when the Windows build of X-Chat no longer became free? (Which was rectified by other people porting it.)
So, while his number might be a bit bloated, a lot of development is done for pay. People do finance this development for a variety of reasons.
Um, I think you need to read more on Quartz. So, here. Making PDFs isn't the problem. Microsoft is trying to introduce a new "standard" that will of course be proprietary and attempt to stifle competition and PDF. Remember you can create PDFs freely with dozens of free tools and OpenOffice.
Your argument is horribly flawed. Yes, let's all refuse to buy Vista. How many desktops do we account for? 10% maybe. Most people are going to buy from Dell and HP/Compaq (or heaven forbid, Gateway). The fact is they will get Vista and use it because that is what they are provided with. This sort of inclusion of tools forces out competition by creating a competing product that doesn't require the user to think for 10 seconds to install and abuses the monopoly that Microsoft has over computer systems.
Remember this is the same kind of shit that has gotten them in trouble in the past over that web browser and the fact that it is really non-removable. Before, you jump back on Apple, remember that in the PC market their market share is nothing like that of Microsoft's share.
Symantecs OS invading suite of crappy tools just sucks.
You expect a Microsoft provided anti-virus or spyware removal tool to be any better? The fact is that it is anti-competitive to the n-th degree. This sort of lock-in is what has gotten Microsoft in trouble in the past by providing users with their own solutions for things and making them embedded into the system. The EU is the only one who has thus far proven to have the balls to actually make them do anything about it or pay for it.
Integrating PDF generation into applications and office suites ist also a MUST.
Microsoft is not just talking about integrating PDF generation. We are talking about tools to create a new document format. PDF creation as part of the system is already included in OpenOffice and many programs are freely available to create PDF printers for use with any document. The fact is that Microsoft is trying to introduce a tool that like the aforementioned tool is anti-competitive in a very much similar manner.
And before you start pointing to Linux (I really hate when people do that shit.), almost every distro in the world allows you to customize your packages and programs and none of the items are embedded into the OS or included as some sort of system preferred default.
You shouldn't. If you can handle XP, I highly recommend sticking with it. Otherwise, there is always Win 2K and Linux. All of these can do as much as Vista and one of them, Linux, comes 100% guaranteed free of this sort of BS, now and in the future. 99% of people only need internet access and office utilities, both of which are fully available in Linux (and for you people who like sites with Flash, FP9 is being developed for Linux). The other percentage that wants more games just need to use Wine.
Sure, many games in Wine usually have to be a bit older to be playable, but from my understanding, HL2, WoW and several others are quite playable indeed. I know several games even have native linux support. This includes about every game from id, Unreal Tournament (pretty sure all of them), NWN, and others. The support isn't as bad as you'd think. For other games, I would start recommending consoles. Granted they are becoming another cost unto themselves, but until the console makers (mostly Microsoft and Sony) find a way to make DRM infect my Linux machine over the network, they are not a bad option. Oh and Linux will run on much older hardware, without having to upgrade every time a new version comes out (unlike Windows).
I agree. I only had a single professor who was able to teach the material at an acceptable level, and she just happened to be the one teacher at my high school with a PhD. For AP Chemistry, my teacher was worthless. I actually had a college professor at the local university, who I knew pretty well, help me study for the exam with regular study sessions during his office hours. (Since, students never use those things anyway. Seriously, I never saw a single student come looking for him.)
Alas, we cannot really regulate "smut." I mean porn is an art form, or I am sure a great many would argue. I do know it is an instructional video for many a teenagers and college students.
yes, well point-of-sale, piece of sh$t...you decide...
If they are corporate running Win 98 or Win ME, then their IT department is in a really sore state. At the worst, they should have NT and probably 2000. Home OS in a corporate environment is a huge mistake, though I wouldn't be surprise to see it has happened before.
Same deal with Descartes (and I'm talking about the cartographer). He was definatly Belgian, you can even visit the house he was born here.
He is so famous in fact, everyone who read that first thought of Rene Descartes, who is arguably much more famous and very much not from Belgium.
Erasmus: Actually, wikipedia seems to indicate he is from the Netherlands. He is considered Dutch, which last I checked is generally considered Netherlands.
Descartes: If you are talking about Rene Descartes, he was French.
Van Dyck: Score, you 1, me 2.
Lemaitre: You tied the score...good job.
Spaak: I really should deduct points for you not knowing how to spell his name.
Mercator: Can I deduct you two here? Nicholas was born in France and did work across Europe including Netherlands, again not Belgium. Gerardus was born in Flanders, technically Belgium, to parents who were from what is now a town in Germany. So, maybe we can give you a half-point afterall.
Jacques Brel: Oooh, you got another.
Janssen: Can I dock you another point for spelling?
Damiaan: So does that mean like two of your choices are Catholic priests? Interesting...
Seriously, two of yours were downright wrong, a third was sketchy, and several others fame outside of Belgium could seriously be questioned.
Actually, there isn't much more they could do about those digitally. I think they are just going to find a body double to re-shoot scenes and digital paste Shatner's head on it...at least the waist line will be taken care of...
People say the it is old and will look grainy, but I do not buy it. Unless there is terrible damage to the film, most movies can stand the test of time. I have seen movies that are almost 20 years older on HDTV and they have done a good job of cleaning the films. It takes a lot of work, and honestly, this is work that Lucas doesn't want to do because he really doesn't want to release the originals in a form people will like. I suspect we will see Blu-Ray versions next year with the 30th anniversary and also the Star Wars 3D. While I might be interested in seeing it in 3D if the experience is good, I really will not be able to bring myself to spend even more money on the series. (Though, I am not buying into any of the HD formats until someone is a clear winner or until a dual format player is available, which isn't as impossible as they want you to think.)
WHY IS ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS USING A BLOODY COMPUTER TO DO THIS? I don't care if it's open source or closed source software on it, running on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, whatever. All of these are harder to verify (if not impossible) that no tampering was done than SIMPLE PIECES OF PAPER.
Actually, both systems would have their flaws and a determined individual could probably mess with either system if they truly desired to do so. Your statement though, seems to show me you definitely are not developing in a cryptography or security related field. I could think of several dozen methods off the top of my head to verify each vote is legitimate and that no one did illegally altering of any of the votes that had been cast.
There are also several ways to secure the machines physically, which as I recall was the way someone attacked a machine in the past to demonstrate the flaws with the system. The fact of the matter is that both methods are flawed. You would think voting is a simple process, but places with punch ballots (I am looking at you Florida) had a huge time deciding what was considered a vote, and whether that dimple was a punch or if the hanging chad was one too.
As for no technology in voting, this could pose a problem too. Some degree of tracking has to be performed at some level. There were great debacles back in the day of voting fraud, so the thought that technology is some new fangled problem is ridiculous. The pen and paper approach has caused just as much, if not more, problems then the technology has. I still think a well designed, properly secured electronic system would beat a paper system any day. The problem is, I do not think the systems thus far have proven to be either well designed or properly secured.
I guess I forgot that we would be the cause of Nuclear Winter...foil hat is a bit tight today I guess.
before the big asteroid or comet comes. Or the sun goes red giant. Or the sun shoots off enough matter to defeat the ozone and expose us all to radiation. (Yes, I have heard this one.) Oh, or Yellowstone goes all explosion on us and brings about a second ice age or something. (There was a Docu-drama on this one.) Oh, or maybe the moon can be partially destroyed and threaten to crash into earth. (Reference to a ABC Family comedy or in some ways to Cowboy Bebop). Oh, or nuclear winter. I am sure I forgot some.
But better us then nature!
You do know 7 million subscribers is less than the number of copies Blizzard has sold with Diablo2 and with Starcraft right?
I call partial BS. I will give you Starcraft and the 9 million copies. The numbers here may be a bit old, but you will have a hard time, without a valid updated sales number, proving that they managed to sell another 3 million copies of D2. Don't forget this platform also has The Sims at nearly 20 million. I would hardly call this a niche market yet.
The number of dollars saved from having to test and develop for endless combinations of CPU/GPU/OS/etc is enormous. That extra time/money is spent enhancing the game rather than just making it work.
I call BIG BS on this one. I do not think there is nearly as much combination testing as you think. Also, this notion they are spending more time and money to enhance the game is laughable. One of the biggest complaints about the industry has been a repetition of gameplay with only graphics getting better. Don't forget your PC has more storage for a) better graphics, b) more levels, and c) more gameplay/extras. I do not buy this notion that less testing somehow equals more work on the game. Remeber for PC, you have an unlimited beta community. You can do pre-release betas and thanks to the patching (which apparently consoles are slowly catching onto) you can fix the bugs you didn't catch in Betas.
1. It's cheaper.
This is hard to argue with, but as the saying goes, "You get what you pay for." Despite what they are trying to turn consoles into, you still can do more things besides gaming with a PC. (And they are not all boring things like typing papers and doing spreadsheets.)
2. Every game is guaranteed to work.
Um, not quite true. I have known a few games because of defects that would not work right out. Granted these were manufacturing errors and nothing else. Also, if you are truly PC gaming, the odds of running into a game that will not work are low. You will likely have a system meant to run the games you play. Also, the return statement is a bit off. Some places will take back open items and those that don't often won't take back your open console game either, so this point is sort of moot.
3. You needn't tweak, optimize, or otherwise fiddle with a console game to make it look good.
How many games have I had to overly tweak or specialize....maybe two. The settings allow more PCs to play games, and it doesn't take rocket science to figure out. Most games implement the Bad, Better, Best system of setting for the real dim witted ones. And as for the articles, you get what is advertised with a console game, this is not true. I simply point to the PS2 debacle. You know, when they were not clear pre-launch about shots being in-game.
4. Lots of console exclusives to choose from.
This is becoming a bit rarer. If those are the games you want, fine. If they are not, this point is, well, pointless.
5. Xbox Live.
Well, let's see. Free online play (except for a few games). The point about chatting while watching a movie, I point you to Steam (so every Valve game, which happen to have the highest online numbers short the MMOs). Oh, and don't forget the extremely high number of people paying to play MMOs. There is a business making money hand-over-fist.
6. Backwards compatibility.
You are joking right? The Xbox 360 has half-assed backwards compatibility. We shall see what the PS3 brings. The Dreamcast, as much as I loved it, never had backwards compat to the Saturn. Then there is that time we switched Nintendo consoles, how many of those were backwards compat, unless they sold add-ons. Of course, nothing was backwards compat with the Cube, cause well we went from Cart to CD. These examples sort of shoot the Win98SE to XP argument, which can be resolved with various tools and emulators, which are legal. So there goes that idea.
7. Virus, adware, and spyware free.
This is a point? Users only have themselves to blame for viruses, adware or spyware. With a few exceptions, this shit has to be installed by the user in the end. Most PC gamers are savvy enough to know how to avoid this stuff. And don't think that with online connectivity, people will not find a way to add viruses to the mix with consoles. (Or possibly spyware or adware for that matter.)
8. Games look better in high-def...from the couch.
So can a PC. Remember, that cards are coming out (and many sub-$400) that are being designed for HDCP output, which means they should work with TVs fairly well, and will be able to play HD-DVD or Blu-Ray (or both) once PC drives are available. Your other next gen consoles currently will have Blu-Ray (PS3), HD-DVD (360 w/ add-on), and neither (the Wii). So tell me who wins this one. The guy who can have both formats.
9. Controllers are more comfortable than gaming with a keyboard and mouse.
HAHA. You can buy controllers for a PC. Controllers still have some use in the PC game world, but you play an FPS between a gamer with controllers and one with Keyboard/Mouse, and you will see the controller boy get slaughtered. It is this separation that keeps most developers from allowing the console and PC versions to be played together.
10. Controller innovation.
Again, you are kidding right. You think they h
1. The US wants to make money on the fines allowed by the Federal Wire Act. I mean they have a great potential source of income here, and if you can stretch the definition of the law then why not try. (This is their opinion, not mine.) I will note, the people they have gone after are sports betting sites, though they have said they want to expand it. I do not think the courts are going to let that fly.
2. There has probably been a lot of money thrown at the government by casino owners to enforce this law. (They probably also want the broadened interpretation.) Right now, the number of places you can legally gamble in the US are very few and far between. Many places have made it illegal and some won't even allow lotteries. The casinos worry about losing money because people are moving to online poker sites for their gambling needs.
I believe that this is insane. Gambling itself is a rather harmless vice. This law was obviously created for one reason and one reason only. It was an attempt to take out organized crime. The government always had a hard time making charges stick. A lot of sports betting was handled by phone, and this law made it very easy to arrest and charge the people taking bets. I really just wish that the US would look at revising the laws instead of going the opposite direction and broadening the laws and trying to enforce them beyond the intended scope.
If you are truly concerned about the validity of cryptography provided by the vendor, then try to find products that have been certified under the FIPS 140-2 standard. The only problem might be that a lot of those products are usually commercial grade items meant for use by government agencies; however, some of the items that have received approval are reasonably available to consumers. The products are reviewed by independent labs, and then the CMVP reviews the labs results. (The site was down earlier this morning.)
These products have been reviewed by independent labs, who review their implementation to verify that cryptographic mechanisms are implemented properly. This includes reviewing source code and/or hardware designs. Just a thought for anyone who is truly concerned that their hardware or software be compliant. (Note: If you want a "secure" operating system, look into CC Evaluation.)
two upstart powerhouses
Let us look at the definitions of upstart from Princeton Wordnet:
1. an arrogant or presumptuous person (Sounds more like Microsoft then Google, I cannot attest for Apple.)
2. a person who has suddenly risen to a higher economic status but has not gained social acceptance of others in that class (Apple is almost as old as Microsoft and unless my mind fails me, they had a graphical OS first. Google might be closer, but look at Google's core tech. They are considered the top, ahead of Microsoft, and have gained social acceptance.)
That handles the nouns. Now since they used it as an adjective:
1. characteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new position.
Seriously, a horrible use of the word. If anyone lacks the social skills appropriate for their position it is Microsoft. We all know their tactics are less than admirable, and there are plenty of jokes about their social skills with regards to chairs. I just wish people would stop acting like Microsoft is some untouchable entity. I can only hope that I get to see the day they have a great fall.
Actually, I think the NYT would have a pretty strong case against any suit against the government. Unless the NYT has some sort of permanent position in the UK (e.g. a remote newsroom or UK based hosting servers), it would be very hard to apply another countries laws on a US media company with no ties to said country. This is rather unlike MS who almost assuredly has offices in the EU and around the world, making them much more open to attack of this sort.
In reality, I think if the NYT wanted to stand up for free press, they would tell the UK to shove it or block them their own damn selves and not make the NYT bow to them. Remember, we fought a revolutionary war to be free from the UK's tyranny.
This will be like the special editions. The people that really want something like TOS DVD's will end up with a mutilated product that isn't quite what they wanted. TOS episodes are a more niche market than SW movies.
Except, TOS already has a DVD product, and from what I know, it is unaltered.
This might actually not be a horrible thing. The effects in the original were bad at times and I am willing to except that; however, Star Trek is turning 40 and with that age come a great many people who have probably never seen all of the Original Series (or maybe not even parts of it). The only Trek even fewer may know is those two most recent atrocities. Instead of complaining, this about how this could possibly turn Star Trek on to a whole new generation of people.
So long as the effects changes have no real impact of the story or the idea of the show I do not see a huge problem here. If the shows old film is getting cleaned up too, then that is also something to cheer about. I personally would feel better knowing that they are actually caring for the old film and not letting it just rot in some warehouse.
Psst. The USPTO is one of the few, if not only, government office that, get this, MAKE MONEY. All the money funding the PTO comes from fees collected by the PTO. Actually, Congress doles out only part of those fees back to the PTO and spends the money for other agencies. The freeing of this fund solely to the PTO has been a point of contention in the past, since the PTO obviously needs more money.
So do not worry. Your money does not currently and probably never will fund the US Patent and Trademark Office. (As for my credentials, I was a patent examiner. So I think I can provide some insight in this matter.)
If enough people are using your free Open Source tool, then yes you might get sued for infringement. You might not be making money, but in the eyes of the patent holder you are costing them money.