Well, if you heard the movie was made with C3 Construction Blocks, would you be as intrigued as if you heard LEGOS?
Honestly, to the average joe, C3 Construction Blocks could be little slaps of pressure treated wood that they use in designing models.
As usual, it's all marketing.
I was thinking the same thing. It sounds too much like lazy programmers. They didn't bother to balance the game properly, so they just gave other players an unfair advantage.
If Mario Kart were a single-player only game, the equivalent would be allowing the CPU players to cheat, i.e. giving them extra weapons, extra stats, etc.
Not only that, but unlike the home version, you have to pay every time you climb into the driver's seat. This is like rigging a carnival game. I think it's horrible.
How many other arcade racers use tactics like these?
Post people in the industry recognize the three directions that the three main console producers seem to be pushing.
Nintendo is out to take gaming in new directions, changing the way people interact with their games and reaching out to a larger user base. Hence, the DS with its dual screens, the GBA with its universal audience, and the revolutionary controllers it seems to introduce with every console generation.
Sony wants game console synonymous with entertainments systems, and wants every high-end home theater system hooked up with a PlayStation. If you need proof of this, just look at the PSX (the media center, not the original PlayStation that often used those initials as a code name).
Microsoft, on the other hand, seems to have entered the gaming industry because they recognized it as a profitable venture. Without turning this into a flame war, just sit the PS2, the Cube, and the Xbox side-by-side. The PS2 is a sleek, slim, well-designed piece of electronics. The Gamecube is a tiny, uninvasive "toy" that screames accessibility.
The Xbox is a fridge.
Honestly, the "ideals" behind the Xbox are already obsolete. In the days of Media Center PC's, a game console based on PC hardware and running Windows CE is no longer impressive. Xbox Next seems to be sidestepping the "budget PC" architecture, with all this hooplah over Cell processors and next-generation gaming. But still... Microsoft's mission statement remains unchanged, and their values are equally static.
If they do release it in 2005, they have less than 10 months to come up with a Halo-calibre killer app, or they're going to be laughed out of the industry.
First does not always equal success. Dreamcast, anyone?
When I'm at home, I work at my town's Probate Court with a bunch of old ladies who equate operating a computer to launching the space shuttle. Naturally, between my normal administrative duties, I'm the reigning lord of tech support. As a result, my name started to filter out to a number of lawyers in the community, and I found my services to be somewhat sought after.
The clerks at my court basically chose my wages for me, without my even knowing. It turns out they were telling all the lawyers that I charge $25/hour, and that my fees would double the moment I graduate. (I'm currently in my senior year studying Computer Engineering.) Time was actually on my side. People scrambled to find something for me to do in the short windows when I'm at home working, dreading the day when I get my diploma and they lose one of their most reliable technicians.
To be honest, I'm a person that feels guilty very easily, and I feel like $25/hour is even a little too much. 75% of the work I do involves watching a progress bar, and many times, I'm honest and offer them a discount. The majority of them are so grateful for my services, they don't accept it. Though throughout all the people I've helped, I've only had one job where my training actually came in handy and I earned every cent of my wage. It involved some renegade program - undetected by virus software or spyware killers - that would eat up system resources until it crashed. After two hours of sifting through the registry, I found the offending program and eliminated it.
The only people that get free tech support are my personal friends, my parents, and the clerks at my court. Though in the latter case, it's included in my "balloon wage", so to speak.
As sad as it sounds, I don't think the DOJ would care about a video game trust suit, since the gaming industry gets about as much respect as Anna Nicole Smith at a cookie factory.
If Microsoft is so "concerned" about security in Service Pack 2 and a firm like Heise Security is so quick to not only discover the flaws, but announce them as well...
Wouldn't it make sense for Microsoft to submit their major updates to a security firm before making it available to the public, and suffering the subsequent criticism?
This is not going to be the most specific post in the world because I don't have the original source nearby, but...
In the most recent issue of Maximum PC, an experienced programmer wrote in to defend a recent tutorial on how to program in Visual Basic. He said that with the emergence of the.NET framework, the difference in performance from one programming language to another is negligable at best. Hopefully, someone else out there read the magazine and can elaborate on his statements, but I think it's an interesting point nonetheless.
One of my most beloved systems ever was an old 386 that my uncle gave to me when I was 11. The thing was ancient. All it had was a 30 MB hard drive and a 5" floppy. I decided to add a CD-ROM to it, because CD-ROM's were the new fangled doodads of the day (it was rated 2x, just for the record).
Of course, the thing didn't work when I hooked it up. I know today it was because my motherboard didn't have an IDE connector (just a generic "hard drive" port), but I tried desperately to hook it up. I referred to tech support numbers in the manual, and got to talk to somebody. He asked what kind of a computer I had, what OS I was running, and recommended I call somebody at IBM and ask them about the problem.
So I called IBM, and told them I was trying to upgrade to a CD-ROM drive. The first question they asked was what computer I was using, and I told them it was a Datatech. The woman on the other end practically screamed at me: "The DATATECH is not an IBM machine!" And me, in my eleven-year-old glory screamed back: "Well, then, why'd he tell me to call you?"
For about four years, I was afraid to call tech support because I thought people would take advantage of me since I was so young. Now, I just solve the problem myself.
I don't think I'm in favor of letting people have cell phones on flights unless there's a designated "cell phone" lounge like they have on some trains. I don't want to be stuck on a 12-hour international flight with some teeny bopper screeching random nothings from the seat in front of me.
Plus, I would hate to see what a pack of terrorists would do with that sort of technology enabled.
If you want my opinion, take all that energy and use it to put a WiFi network on a plane. That would be money well spent.
Slashdot Mirror
I always wanted to name my daughter Aeris, personally.
I just hope it doesn't mean she's destined to die by the hand of a 20-foot-long katana...
I'd just like to point out that "The Vinegar Saga" on that site is worth risking an Offtopic mod just to point out.
http://customerssuck.com/cs/?m=show&id=1020
Honestly, did he confuse malt vinegar with malt liquor? That's the only justification I can think of....
Well, if you heard the movie was made with C3 Construction Blocks, would you be as intrigued as if you heard LEGOS? Honestly, to the average joe, C3 Construction Blocks could be little slaps of pressure treated wood that they use in designing models. As usual, it's all marketing.
The music industry loses all credibility the moment it says "Apple may become too powerful."
Oh, so now Apple is trying to take over the world?
What next? The Salvation Army?
To help in the phasing-out process of swipable cards, why not create cards that have the contactless chips inside them as well as magnetic stripes?
In communist Russia, legislative protection cracks you.
I was thinking the same thing. It sounds too much like lazy programmers. They didn't bother to balance the game properly, so they just gave other players an unfair advantage.
If Mario Kart were a single-player only game, the equivalent would be allowing the CPU players to cheat, i.e. giving them extra weapons, extra stats, etc.
Not only that, but unlike the home version, you have to pay every time you climb into the driver's seat. This is like rigging a carnival game. I think it's horrible.
How many other arcade racers use tactics like these?
Next stop: iTunes (It'll never happen, but it'll be funny to watch them try...)
Post people in the industry recognize the three directions that the three main console producers seem to be pushing.
Nintendo is out to take gaming in new directions, changing the way people interact with their games and reaching out to a larger user base. Hence, the DS with its dual screens, the GBA with its universal audience, and the revolutionary controllers it seems to introduce with every console generation.
Sony wants game console synonymous with entertainments systems, and wants every high-end home theater system hooked up with a PlayStation. If you need proof of this, just look at the PSX (the media center, not the original PlayStation that often used those initials as a code name).
Microsoft, on the other hand, seems to have entered the gaming industry because they recognized it as a profitable venture. Without turning this into a flame war, just sit the PS2, the Cube, and the Xbox side-by-side. The PS2 is a sleek, slim, well-designed piece of electronics. The Gamecube is a tiny, uninvasive "toy" that screames accessibility.
The Xbox is a fridge.
Honestly, the "ideals" behind the Xbox are already obsolete. In the days of Media Center PC's, a game console based on PC hardware and running Windows CE is no longer impressive. Xbox Next seems to be sidestepping the "budget PC" architecture, with all this hooplah over Cell processors and next-generation gaming. But still... Microsoft's mission statement remains unchanged, and their values are equally static.
If they do release it in 2005, they have less than 10 months to come up with a Halo-calibre killer app, or they're going to be laughed out of the industry.
First does not always equal success. Dreamcast, anyone?
When I'm at home, I work at my town's Probate Court with a bunch of old ladies who equate operating a computer to launching the space shuttle. Naturally, between my normal administrative duties, I'm the reigning lord of tech support. As a result, my name started to filter out to a number of lawyers in the community, and I found my services to be somewhat sought after.
The clerks at my court basically chose my wages for me, without my even knowing. It turns out they were telling all the lawyers that I charge $25/hour, and that my fees would double the moment I graduate. (I'm currently in my senior year studying Computer Engineering.) Time was actually on my side. People scrambled to find something for me to do in the short windows when I'm at home working, dreading the day when I get my diploma and they lose one of their most reliable technicians.
To be honest, I'm a person that feels guilty very easily, and I feel like $25/hour is even a little too much. 75% of the work I do involves watching a progress bar, and many times, I'm honest and offer them a discount. The majority of them are so grateful for my services, they don't accept it. Though throughout all the people I've helped, I've only had one job where my training actually came in handy and I earned every cent of my wage. It involved some renegade program - undetected by virus software or spyware killers - that would eat up system resources until it crashed. After two hours of sifting through the registry, I found the offending program and eliminated it.
The only people that get free tech support are my personal friends, my parents, and the clerks at my court. Though in the latter case, it's included in my "balloon wage", so to speak.
As sad as it sounds, I don't think the DOJ would care about a video game trust suit, since the gaming industry gets about as much respect as Anna Nicole Smith at a cookie factory.
If Microsoft is so "concerned" about security in Service Pack 2 and a firm like Heise Security is so quick to not only discover the flaws, but announce them as well... Wouldn't it make sense for Microsoft to submit their major updates to a security firm before making it available to the public, and suffering the subsequent criticism?
This is not going to be the most specific post in the world because I don't have the original source nearby, but...
.NET framework, the difference in performance from one programming language to another is negligable at best. Hopefully, someone else out there read the magazine and can elaborate on his statements, but I think it's an interesting point nonetheless.
In the most recent issue of Maximum PC, an experienced programmer wrote in to defend a recent tutorial on how to program in Visual Basic. He said that with the emergence of the
With that much bandwidth, I'd make my own Internet.
I think I'd call it... Internet Reloaded....
One of my most beloved systems ever was an old 386 that my uncle gave to me when I was 11. The thing was ancient. All it had was a 30 MB hard drive and a 5" floppy. I decided to add a CD-ROM to it, because CD-ROM's were the new fangled doodads of the day (it was rated 2x, just for the record). Of course, the thing didn't work when I hooked it up. I know today it was because my motherboard didn't have an IDE connector (just a generic "hard drive" port), but I tried desperately to hook it up. I referred to tech support numbers in the manual, and got to talk to somebody. He asked what kind of a computer I had, what OS I was running, and recommended I call somebody at IBM and ask them about the problem. So I called IBM, and told them I was trying to upgrade to a CD-ROM drive. The first question they asked was what computer I was using, and I told them it was a Datatech. The woman on the other end practically screamed at me: "The DATATECH is not an IBM machine!" And me, in my eleven-year-old glory screamed back: "Well, then, why'd he tell me to call you?" For about four years, I was afraid to call tech support because I thought people would take advantage of me since I was so young. Now, I just solve the problem myself.
I don't think I'm in favor of letting people have cell phones on flights unless there's a designated "cell phone" lounge like they have on some trains. I don't want to be stuck on a 12-hour international flight with some teeny bopper screeching random nothings from the seat in front of me. Plus, I would hate to see what a pack of terrorists would do with that sort of technology enabled. If you want my opinion, take all that energy and use it to put a WiFi network on a plane. That would be money well spent.