Very well put. I appreciate this explanation. I do not pretend to be up on my geography OR geo-politics, so your response was very helpful for my understanding of the situation. Thank you.
Can someone explain to me what it is that gives such a small country that has comparably weak military (they are ranked number 28 in the world according to http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.asp) and pretty much zero chance of surviving a week in a real war the balls to be so dickish and war-hungry?
Are they really THAT brainwashed and misinformed (or uninformed) as to believe that they can just threaten nuclear war every time they don't get their way? It's like a little kid threatening to run away every time he has to eat his broccoli.
The only scary thing here is that sometimes, very rarely, the little kid DOES run away for an hour or so. Well, I hope for the sake of any innocent people in North Korea that this little boy doesn't run away, and instead learns to shut the fuck up and eat his broccoli.
I took a look at the panorama and it is indeed awesome. But I found myself immediately trying to identify "objects" and patterns. Not because I believe that there are non-natural artifacts there, but because my brain started saying "Ok, let's see what kind of ridiculous things Richard C. Doucheland will claim as proof of aliens".
I like the guys enthusiasm, and I share a very small percent of his views, but I honestly cannot take him seriously at all. I've never seen someone so intelligent be so purposefully stupid. "Oh and look what we have here ladies and gentlemen. Rectilinear geometry. You can see it plain as day. All you have to do is look. See? I zoomed this low resolution jpeg by 2500% and you can start to see all sorts of lines and squares...where there should be none! It looks...like....a pyramid, people!"
Sometimes I think he's actually a reverse psychology experiment. The government uses him to discredit his own theories by having him use the most ridiculous "proof" possible, "proof" that even a middle school kid can see is absolute hogwash.
I pretty much agree 100% with TFA. Especially about the use of a mouse and having easier configuration of a game.
I recently reinstalled Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2, as I wanted to do two full playthroughs of each, one as a good guy and one as a dick. I have all the DLC for both games, and am currently enjoying the bad guy playthrough on ME2.
After reading this article, I realized I had been thinking many of the same things it points out. Especially because of ME2.
For example, in ME2 there are areas where you cannot save. These are usually missions, and it can be frustrating if you suddenly realize you have to leave for work or some other engagement, but your less than halfway through getting Jack from Purgatory station. You either have to lose your progress or be late for work.
The worst offense of ME2 (in my opinion) is how ridiculously difficult it is to customize your graphical and quality experience with the game. With ME1, you had several.ini files that you could scan through and change this or that to suit your needs. Easy tutorials and guides exist to let you know what all the settings do and their effects on the game. With ME2, they have all these.ini files boxed into one file called coalesced.ini, and it's not standard text style. There is an editor you can download called coalescededitor, and it does a good job of seperating everything out so you can make sense of it, and even includes a section of jump lists to get you to the most common settings to change. Such as disabling mouse acceleration. But, why should the community have to be the ones to implement a user friendly way to make the game experience better and more well suited to your system? Would it really have been so difficult for the company who HAS the code and the devs to have just put an extra menu in the config program that allows you to make these changes in a simple and efficient manner?
This leads into what is probably my biggest gripe about modern games (modern, to me, being roughly 2006-ish and up), and that is texture quality. This is a simplification of the issue, however, but still valid and indicitive of inherent issues with dumbed-down configurability. Lets take Mass Effect 2 for example, since it's still fresh on my mind. This is a beautiful game. Great color variety, awesome level designs, cool architecture through out, and some of the best looking character models of any game ever made. The animations (mostly suit-capture), the decent AI, and the storyline are just awesome. But, this game suffers from a very VERY common problem that virtually every game exhibits - garbage textures.
Now, don't get me wrong. The majority of the textures in ME2 are very good or even surprisingly realstic and superb. Take Zaeed for instance. His head and face texture is probably the best looking character texture I've ever seen in a game, even better than Crysis or Crysis 2 characters. Every time I see his face in the game, I seriously think "Man, that is friggin awesome work they did there."
But then I see Jack's body texture (normal costume, not alternate) and think, "Why the hell does her tattoo texture look so damn muddy and blurry? Why wouldn't they try to make a damned TATTOO'D body texture look super detailed and crisp?" And I look a the floor beneath my character. Muddled and blurry. I walk up to a wall. Muddled and blurry. I watch a cut scene with a close up of a mech. Muddled and blurry.
I understand the technical side of this issue. Higher rez textures use more memory and take longer to render and all that jazz. Blah blah cry me a river. This isn't 1998, and I don't have an 8Mb 3dFX card. I have a relatively cutting edge 560Ti 1Gb card. It can handle textures above 512 resolution. So stop hardcoding texture limits, and instead allow us gamers to use 4096 or 8192 textures if we wish. If your still using a Geforce 5600, well, time to upgrade anyway.
I also realize that using texture sizes of 8192 won't always fix a muddy looking wa
Did no one see this coming? Every time one of these customer-raping companies says they have achieved new levels of DRM-Uncrackableness, they are proven wrong within 24 hours. How stupid are these people to continue to waste millions of dollars trying to secure their software from being pirated, only to have their efforts shown for naught within a day, three days at the most? And how do they not fucking understand that all they are truly doing is pissing off customers and running their company name into the ground? Every time I hear about a company pulling this crap I get more disgusted with software companies. Oh, I know they have a right to protect their properties and profits and all that jazz. But, damnit, consumers have a right to expect a certain level of quality and usability WITHOUT draconian restrictions and double talk and non-ownership-of-a-product-you-paid-to-own type bullshit. This is EXACTLY the reason I choose to pirate a large amount of the games I play. I paid for Mass Effect because of the outstanding (to me) gameplay and story/graphics. Same goes for Dragon Age : Origins, The Witcher, Boderlands, and Divinity II : Ego Draconis. Yes, there is a bit of DRM to those games, but it isn't anywere near as retarded, insulting, lame, fucked up, and basically fucking illegal (or at least it SHOULD be illegal) as forcing me to be connected to the internet to play a god damned single player game that, other than the fucking DRM, has abso-fucking-lutley no reason to connect to the internet. Fuck Ubi and I hope with all seriuosness that Assassin's Creed 2 gets cracked and becomes the most pirated game in history while simultaneously becoming the biggest financial failure in the history of video games. Maybe then these companies will stop with the DRM and find a mutally agreeable way to protect their work without screwing over their customers.
Betrayal at Krondor/Return to Krondor, the old floppy disk D&D games like Eye of the Beholder and so on, Journeyman Project, Oregon Trail (this could be an epic game), Messiah, Black & White, Final Fantasy TOTAL AND COMPLETE REBOOT FROM THE BEGINNING, Baldur's Gate series, and many more.
If I had the money and resources (and time), I'd love to create a game so massive, open, dynamic, and interactive that just the written dialogue for on-screen captions would take a full DVD. I'm talking Crysis meets GTA (all of them) meets Freelancer meets Red Faction meets Star Wars KOTOR meets Fallout (all of them) meets The Sims meets Warcraft meets Fable. A single player game that makes World of Warcraft, EVE, Everquest et al look like a short javascript game. A seemless world. I mean that literally. A fully fleshed out WORLD to play through. Full conitinents, oceans, cities, roads, everything. All populated with like a billion inhabitants. Neverending supply of random quests, and a main quest that would take like 2000 hours of play to complete. It'd have functional politics, functional economy, you could buy houses, cars, bikes, furniture, etc. It would literally be the most ambitious MMO incorporating every gameplay mechanic and feature of the best games, but it would be single player. It would have online capabilities, like other inhabitants would be other players, and you could do some MMO stuff like race, rob a bank together, be partners in a business venture, own a store to sell stuff to other players and what not, but the core gameplay would be single player.
Unfortunately, I've envisioned that this game would be so huge and complex, it would require its own multi-terabyte hard drive to run from (and to be packaged on) and would cost upwards of 300 million or more to make properly. By the time it went to market it would cost like $300.00 to buy it, and thus would not sell well enough to be worth it (at this time).
I can always dream, though.
It doesn't really work. You can't really sit there and do a direct compare between the price of the Apple OS vs. Win7. Here's why:
A Mac Pro configured to the tits on the Apple Store site costs $18,075.00 and includes the following : 2.93Ghz Intel Xeon Quad-core processors X2, 32Gb (8x4Gb) of DDR3 1066 RAM, Mac Pro RAID card, 1TB 7200RPM SATA drive X4, Nvidia Geforce GT 120 512Mb video card X4, 18X superdrive (optical drive) X2, Apple Cinema HD 30" LCD display X2, Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse, Apple Wireless Keyboard, Airport Extreme Wifi card, Apple Mini Display Port to DVI Adapter. Also obviously includes the standard case/powersupply/motherboard/sound card that you aren't allowed to change/choose during purchase. All this for a fucking HUGE $18,075.00!
A PC configured on NewEgg, with equivalent or better parts (except the optical superdrive, of which I didn't find any @ 18X), including the following : Antec 1200 Black Steel Case, ASUS Z8PE-D12X Mobo, XFX GX295NHHFF Geforce GTX 295 1795Mb 896-bit GDDR3 viedo card X4, ABS Tagan BX1300 1300W Modular Active PFC power supply, Intel Xeon W5580 Nehalem 3.2Ghz Quad Core processor X2, Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200RPM SATA 32Mb cache SATA drive X4, Logitech MX 5500 Revolution Wireless Keyboard/Mouse Combo, HP LP3065 30" LCD monitor X2, LG Super Multi-drive X2, Creative Sound-Blaster XFi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro sound card PCI-X, Encore ENLWI-N Wifi N adapter, Noctua NH-U12P CPU cooler. All that for $10,017.79. Add another $200.00 or so for shipping, another $299.00 for Win7, and another maybe $30.00 for thermal paste/a cable here or there/whatever, and your topping out at less than $10,600.00 for a BETTER system.
The way I see it, I'd rather pay %100 for my computer and $120.00 to upgrade to Win7 than pay %180 for a computer AND $30.00 to upgrade my OS.
Now, to be fair, I only made the comparison on the extreme high end. At the average consumer level, the Apple premium is closer to %170.
First let me say the I'm not anti-Linux. Any competition to MS is good, as it (you'd think) makes them strive to make better software with better features and reliability. And I have no animosity towards Linux supporters/users.
However, I do have a hard time understanding why many Linux Lovers have such a hatred of Windows, and why they continually claim that Linux is better and can do EVERYTHING that Windows can do and more.
I'm sorry to say this, and I'm really not trying to be a troll (even though I'll most likely be modded as such), but Linux is worthless to a LARGE amount of end users for simple reasons (whether or not the end user is simple themselves doesn't really matter):
A) Installation IS a pain in the ass for anyone who isn't a geek with a decent amount of experience. Hell its a pain in the ass for those who DO have a decent amount of experience, especially when trying a new distro for the first time that has a wholly different install experience.
B) Driver support sucks. Oh, sure, a lot of the big hw companies have usable drivers for Linux. But does that driver work well with your distro? Do all the features work with your distro? And what about the non-juggernaut hw companies. A vast majority of them don't have native Linux drivers, making it a super-headache to get the item to work in Linux.
C) Software selection leaves a lot to be desired. As pointed out in TFA, Open Office vs MS Office is just one of many instances where FOSS really takes a back seat. And most of the industry-standard software either doesn't run on Linux at all or works partially and only in a VM (which kind of defeats the purpose of using Linux).
D) Games. I don't think I really need to expound upon this one. We all know (even if some of you can't seem to admit it) that gaming on Linux SUCKS ASS because most games don't work on Linux.
Ok. Now I know that some of what I touched upon can be band-aided by using Wine and such, but come on. That's cheating. If the OS can't natively run the software, and has to do so in a virtual-Windows environment, why not just use Windows?
Oh, I already know what a lot of the answers to that question will be. "Windows has viruses and isn't secure!" or "Windows doesn't have good driver support either!" or even "Because MS is EEEEVVIILLLLLLLLL!!!!" Well, guess what. Windows SHIPS insecure, but once installed by any competent person who knows how to tweak the system, Windows can be as secure as any other OS out there. I've used almost every iteration of Windows, and starting with XP have never had a virus infection or security breach (and I download a LOT of crap from unreliable sources). That's not to say that a virus has never actually physically been on my system. Just that I've never had to format, reinstall, repair, or anything. Just delete the offending file, and maybe a registry entry or two. And I've had some virii show up that could have screwed me over royally. But because I tune my system the way I do, not much damage can be done, even if I intentionally download a virus (which I have tested several times). Now, I'm not saying I'm invulnerable. I know my system can get FUBAR'd by this or that virus or breach. But it's a safe bet that I'm more secure than any Linux distro out there (which I've proven via a friend who runs Debian, by betting his system would get FUBAR'd before mine after 3 consecutive days of surfing and downloading from some very disreputable sites. His system was tanked in two days, mine never got touched.)
Now, that whole paragraph above leads to the main point I'm trying to make. An average end user will not understand/like/want to go through the massive learning curve of Linux. Nor will they be happy with the horrible compatability. At the same time, they will not be happy with the virus-fest and crash-athon of Windows. But they will put up with Windows because 95% (I'm guessing) of software works with Windows, as well as 99.99% of games (not taking into consideration that many games don't work when shipped due
That seems like a pretty good improvement in earthquake prediction. If this guy can consistantly predict earthquakes with a +/- of one week, I'd say he's doing something right, and should be listened to. But he has to do it consistantly. One out of one is a good start.
I'm kind of surprised at how everyone latched onto the video games, and completely ignored the rest of my post. I don't play video games all day everyday. And when I do play them, I get as much enjoyment from them as I do when I read a good book, watch a good movie, go to a car show, or go to the park. The point of my post is that price versus compatability/versatility is my biggest deciding factor when building a system. As it is for a lot of people.
I would buy Apple if their prices matched what I can build myself for less money and more versatility. No where did I say that I hate Apple or that Microsoft is god. Nor did I say that I am a troglodyte who lives in his moms basement and subsists on Hot Pockets and WOW. When it comes down to it, a lot of people prefer to have the ability to play 99% of the games on the market, use 90% of the software available, and have better control over what hardware they are using for considerably less money, versus 40% of the games, 75% of the software, and limited control over what hardware they are using for more money and a logo. A lot of people prefer to buy Apple or use Linux/etc. for their own reasons, not the least of which is percieved security (meaning that Apple has its own share of security issues, just not enough user base for the exploiters to care) and/or open source. (The preceding numbers are a quick estimation after browsing NewEgg, Amazon, and a couple of gaming sites)
Neither group is wrong and neither is right. Both have their ups and downs, pros and cons, wins and losses. In todays economy, I would not be surprised at all if Apples prices become a major loss for them. But I'm not an oracle, and I don't play the market, so I have no real idea how the whole thing will play out. I was simply stating my personal feelings and opinions. But, I forgot that this is Slashdot, where opinions are treated as heresy, and the way one person feels about something is immediately set upon by everyone whose view differs in the slightest. My bad. If you are offended by any of what I just said, sorry. Theres no reason to BE offended, but if you ARE offended, then I think the problem lies not with what I've put on the table, but rather with your inability to accept that other people don't see things the same way you do
Well, I'd rather pay $100.00 for the Microsoft logo and whatever I choose to spend on hardware that I put together and be able to play every game I want to play than pay $500 dollars for a logo and be limited to canned hardware configurations and nominal game and software titles.
Not trying to be anti-Apple or pro-Microsoft here. He just has a bit of a point. In today's economy Apple has to be feeling the sting. It's there own fault for being overpriced on pretty much every level.
That said, I'd love to have a Macbook. But I can't afford even a Netbook right now.
I don't have much problem with memory on my Vista system. I run idle with 150 MB of total Kernel Memory, and 645 MB of total physical memory used. This includes 44 processes. Also includes background tasks of Incredimail, Truecrypt, Logitech drivers, Spybot-SD Resident, Nvidia driver stuff, and a couple of other small things. That's not really a big deal with 2GB of DDR2 800 running @ 4-4-4-10.
What a lot of people on here don't seem to realize is that while Vista is bloated by default, you can unbloat it quite a lot. Turning off services, disabling or un-installing unneeded features, and general tweaking make a huge difference with Vista.
I suppose that if I was doing a lot of heavy video/audio/photo editing/creation, it would be a noticeable issue. But then, if I were doing all that, I wouldn't be using Vista either.
I was one of the people who said "I'll never install Vista on my machine." until I got it as a gift from someone. It sat on a shelf for about 2 months, and I finally decided to try it just for the heck of it. Well, it's been almost a year, and I can readily say I'll never go back to XP. Sure, XP was slimmer and a slight bit faster (compared to the way I install and configure Vista), but Vista is much cooler to use and has more features that I like, and is actually more stable in my experience. I've never had a blue screen with Vista, and only one reboot-requiring crash. And that crash was because of a motherboard problem, not a Vista problem.
In fact, the only complaint I have about Vista is because of the version I have. Home Premium. You can't access/use gpedit.msc in Vista Home Premium. This miffed me a bit. But, other than that, no problems at all. And no, I don't work for Microsoft or spread FUD for them. I just haven't had a problem with Vista, and thought I'd share that with everyone.
I think Mattel would disagree as well. They shipped their billionth Hot Wheel car a while ago. Here is a quote from an article regarding a special car they made to commemorate it:
Hot Wheels® today announced its year-long plans to celebrate the brand's 40-year heritage at the 105th American International Toy Fair®. Anniversary activities were kicked off with the unveiling of a custom jeweled 1:64-scale Hot Wheels® car, designed by celebrity jeweler Jason of Beverly Hills. This one-of-a-kind car, the most expensive in Hot Wheels® history, was made to commemorate the production of the four-billionth Hot Wheels® vehicle.
I think Logitech just got over excited. Still a billion of anything is a lot.
I haven't bought many games over the last 5 or 6 years. Largely due to the fact that these days developers simply release crappy, half finished, incoherent and generally not fun games. It seems to be the rule rather than the exception of late. The only games I have actually paid for in the last, say, 3 years are Mass Effect, The Witcher, Battlefield 2142, and Spore Galactic Edition. Well, I played a pirated version of Mass Effect and Spore before purchasing them. Mass Effect was so well done that it deserved my money. The Witcher was a leap of faith, and it paid off as it is an excellent game. Battlefield 2142 sucked ass. Spore...well, Spore has been a mixed bag. A bag full mostly of crap. Horrible DRM restrictions, major graphics issues, lots of BSOD and CTD's, and a completely dumbed down, lowest-common-denominator mentality. Fallout 3 is the next game I'm going to spend money on. I played it for about 15 hours, and absolutely LOVE it. That is the way games should be made. AWESOME attention to detail, fantastic story lines, great dialog, cutting edge graphics/physics, and way above average replayability.
But, back to the point. Had I known about the DRM problems with Spore before purchasing it, I would never have bought it. I made the mistake of not reading the forums and what not first. For me, it's the install limits that make me want to boycott EA. I haven't yet experienced a crash related directly to the DRM scheme, but I hate DRM on principal. Not to mention the fact that the DRM was installed without my knowledge (and it's NEVER installed by ANY game with my consent). However, my girlfriend has had a DVD burner ruined from DRM being installed on her computer. She installed a game that had DRM on it, and then her DVD drive suddenly had trouble reading discs. Then it simply failed to read ANY disc at all. Formatting and reinstalling everything had no effect. So we put a new drive in from a different manufacturer. As soon as she installed the game again, the new drive started to fail. I realized what was happening and immediately re-wiped and reinstalled her system, before any permanent damage to the new drive. She has since thrown the game away without having ever played it. That is just plain bullshit. She has never even heard of a torrent and the only mp3's she has are ones she bought from Rhapsody and ITunes. So, you may be asking yourself, "Well, the title of his response says the most people just plain hate DRM, but how does he know this?" Well, it's not exactly the most scientific thing in the world, but I made a poll on EA's Spore forums, and here are the results:
Does DRM bother you AT ALL, either morally, philosophically, or by messing up your computer? (269 votes so far)
Yes, I hate it, it needs to die. 62% [168]
No, no problems here. 19% [51]
What is DRM? If I knew what it was, I could say yes or no. 4% [12]
I'd not be bothered by unobtrusive/stable/non-damaging DRM that doesn't restrict legal users. 14% [38]
I made this poll in response to the article with the EA guy that said 99.8% of users care about DRM. As I said, this poll is NOT the best gauge in the world, but it still speaks pretty loudly to the fact the current DRM is just garbage and of no benefit to anyone. In fact, the only people who seem to really be affect by DRM are the legal users who actually paid for the games that have DRM schemes. They are the ones who have install errors, incompatibility errors, install limits, bloatware, ruined DVD drives, etc. Treating a paying customer like a criminal is just fucking retarded. And annoying. Why should I pay for something that is possibly going to break my computer, cause massive amounts of headache, and make me feel like I got ripped off? Most games I download copies of aren't worth the money I would have to pay to play test them otherwise. Here are some examples of games that I saved money on by pirating them first : Legend Hand of God (utter boring tripe), So Blonde (wow, just lame), Lost Via Domus (horrible voice
The only problem with stories like this is that we either don't actually do it, or we DO do it and get results that tell us nothing useful (as far as the question of E.T. life). Why can't they just:
1. Design and build rover/robot/probe whose sole task is to find and identify life on another planet/moon/whatever.
2. Deploy said rover/robot/probe.
3. Get definitive answer - Yes there is/yes there was actual life here, or No there isn't/no there wasn't actual life here.
4. Rinse and repeat.
Wow. I really like how everyone knows me just by reading my post. And how people want to call me a racist for relating MY EXPERIENCE IN COLLEGE. I DID go to college, and I DID have to get a loan. I stopped going because the college I stupidly chose to go to was a waste of time, and I would have been better served buying a fake on-line degree. But the three Sudanese guys I tutored didn't have to pay anything. And they all lived together, and each had jobs that paid the same or better than I did. At least two of the African Americans in my field of study that I talked to were free ride as well, with one being in the exact same pay bracket as me and a GED, and the other making about.75 cents an hour more than me and barely graduated high school. Both were single and lived by themselves, just like me. I don't want everything handed to me. I know I have to work for what I want, and I DO work for what I want. Everything I own was paid for with money I earned, either breaking my back in construction or delivering pizzas for minimum wage. And I don't spend my money on crap. I pay my bills and buy my groceries. Whatever is left over gets me maybe 2 DVD's a month, a video game here or there. That's about it. I don't pay 100 dollars a month for a cell phone. I pay 10 through my parents family plan. I don't pay for a private school for my toddler because I don't have a toddler, and a I only eat out once a week if I'm lucky. I buy some stuff that I collect now and again, too. If I have the extra money. I don't even know why I'm wasting my time explaining my financial habits to anyone. It's not like it's anyone else's business anyway. I just get pissed when some uppity deusche bag decides to deride my comments to make himself feel like he isn't THAT much of a loser. P.S. - I don't think there's anything wrong with welfare. I think it's a great thing. I also think it's fucked up how many people take advantage of the system and ruin it for others who actually need it. My ex girlfriend has two kids (not mine, thank god) and raises them by herself. She works part time, because she can't afford to get daycare. She gets maybe 150 a month in food stamps, and that's it. Nothing else. They tell her that she makes to much. She makes roughly 450 bucks a month, raising two kids by herself, and she makes TOO MUCH to get any other assistance than 150 a month in food stamps. Yet her neighbor, who is a legal Mexican immigrant, works as a waitress and her husband is in construction. They have one kid. They get 250 in food stamps, energy assistance, rent assistance, AND they got a check for $2000.00 from the state to put down on a new vehicle. I'm not racist. But the system sure as fuck is. Call me whatever the fuck you want to call me. But I KNOW what I see and what I've experienced. I'm all for whoever can get help with food, college, rent, etc. Black, Mexican, African, Middle Eastern, I don't care. But don't sit there and call ME racist just because I'm not fucking afraid to call shit for what it is. If your white, the majority of the time your needs take a back seat to every other color/race/whatever, because the state and federal offices don't want a lawsuit on their hands for being racist. Don't believe me? Too fucking bad.
then I won't notice a thing. I am lower middle class, barely making ends meet. I usually get a refund at tax time, but not much. I've never come anywhere NEAR the FDIC cap in my bank account, and even if my bank went under, big deal. I'd be out less than 200 bucks. But the FDIC would cover it, so no loss. The only thing that the government could do to "bail" me out of rough times would be to:
Lower my income tax
Regulate fuel prices to a reasonable level
Give me free health care
Give me free college just like the African Americans and Latinos and Single Moms and Sudanese and pretty much everyone who isn't a white male/female with no kids
Other than that, big deal. 700 billion dollars that I basically receive no real benefit from, while people who are already rich just get richer. Yay America.
I totally agree with what you have said in your post. I came across a situation of words at work about a week ago. A girl who works there is a white (overweight) bi-sexual, and has a white (ugly as sin) lesbian ex-girlfriend stalker. The bi-sexual girl slept with an african American male that also works there. The ex found out about it and started harassing both her and the dude. All three of these persons are still in the 18-19 age range. The ex somehow got the dudes cell phone number and began texting him with rude messages, which he showed to me.
Now, let me first explain that this "dude" is a young black guy, with stereo-typical accents to his speech, slang usage, baggy sagged pants, bling, etc. He is, however, a-typically intelligent and responsible when he wishes to be (a-typically for the stereo-type, not for a black person).
The texts that the ex sent went generally like this : "Stay away from her, you fucking nigger!" and "I hate all you stupid smelly niggers!".
Yes, that is exact wording. Now, when he showed this to me, I was a bit taken aback. I haven't seen a white person use the word nigger towards a black person "in person" before. I say "in person" because she was sitting outside of the building, in full view of us, texting him these messages as he showed them to me. I felt a bit bad for him, and a little ashamed to be in the same racial group as the ex. But then something happened that made me forget the shame, racial guilt, and made me feel even worse for him. He got another text, read it, and before showing it to me, he said, and I quote, "Hey nigga, look at dis shit. That bitch sent me anotha one, nigga. Can you believe this shit, nigga?"
I blinked at him, and said, "Uh, did you just call me the n word?"
He gave me a blank stare for a minute, then sheepishly smiled and said, "Yeah, I guess I did. I didn't even think about it. I'm just so used to calling my homies "nigga" that I don't think about the fact that I'm really calling them "nigger". It ain't the same tho. I say "nigga" with the meaning of homie or friend, she says it with the meaning of whatever the fuck "nigger" means."
That's when I said the word "nigger" in front of a black person for the first time in my life. "You mean you don't know the meaning of the word "nigger", yet you use a form of it all the time just because you don't mean it in a bad way? Well, the word means black. That's it. That's all it means. It's only durogatory to blacks because a bunch of non-blacks used it in a bad way towards blacks. It's just a word. The bad comes from the person speaking it, not the word itself."
He reflected on it for a minute then smiled at me. "That's good to know, man. I'ma text this bitch back."
You know what he texted back to her? I'll tell you : "Sorry you hate the color black. But I'm a person, not part of the color spectrum. TTYL nigga!"
You bring up an interesting point about perspective. I've been using Windows since 3.11 for Workgroups. I've used 95, 95a, 95b, NT 4.0, 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, and am now using Vista.
I'd have to say that I'm the least happy with Vista OVERALL (ME doesn't count in my book), but in some ways (that are enough for me to keep using it instead of downgrading to XP) I really dig it.
You may have never lost a motherboard - otherwise you would have experienced the painful fight-the-bluescreen vs reinstall decision.
I myself have lost a few motherboards over the years, and I always choose to reinstall. I can fix BSOD's and other nasties 9 times out of ten, but it's usually a lot simpler and faster to just wipe and go.
You may not have used IE 4 (or 5, or 6) as suggested by Windows - otherwise the pop-ups and spyware would have created a mess you would have had to clean up by now.
I've used every iteration of IE, and am very happy with IE 7. No problems with popups or spyware, mostly due to all the tweaking and configuring I do to my installs BEFORE I log on to the internets.
You may not have automatic updates turned on - otherwise you would have been forced to do an undesired reboot at least once by now.
I have Automatic Updates on, but only because I'm tired of having to go into Services to turn it on when I want to use Update. That is a bit of a peeve for me. If I want to do manual updates, WHY THE FUCK do I need AU turned on?
You may have disabled UAC, or never used Vista at all - otherwise you would have been prompted as many as four times to approve the same action.
Disabling UAC is the FIRST thing I do on a fresh install. FIRST.
You may not ever Alt+Tab in Vista - otherwise you would have seen 'Explorer is not responding' at least once by now...
I Alt+Tab every so often, but haven't run into a problem with it yet.
Now, the following is where I disagree wholeheartedly -
Actually, yes, you really could blame Windows that using this driver resulted in a crash.
A BETA driver crashing on Windows does NOT mean that Windows caused the crash. There are plenty of companies that write HORRIBLE drivers for EVERY OS that they program for. Creative is a big one. Their drivers are among the worst pieces of crap on the planet. This is not the fault of Windows.
Having said all of the above, I am somewhat skew-viewed and biased towards Windows, due to my heavy experience with MS products, and my knowledge of how to make things work and work better. I always pimp MS to my friends when they ask about new products to use and what not. Not because MS is the ONLY solution or even always the BEST solution. But because it's the most readily available and most widely supported, with the best chance of being easy to use.
My friends and family also solicit my services to safety-fy their systems for them. This is where my views get biased and skewed. Because I have my system set up the way I like it, and hardened to the point that even an intentionally downloaded virus or malware does little or no damage to my setup ( and yes I tested this statement a year ago ), I get flabbergasted when I sit in front of other peoples systems. I've noticed myself being a bit of a jerk to my brother or a buddy when going through their system and changing stuff around, berating their lack of experience or knowledge on how to secure their system. Then I stop and remember that not everyone is a geek, and not everyone cares enough to learn all the crap I've taught myself and learned from others who know more than I do.
Anyway, I'm not even sure where I'm going with all this. I'm still half awake, and haven't had my morning Dr. Pepper and Marlboro Menthol Blue 72 yet.
That's the problem with companies today. They "lease" you the equipment, with hidden terms and rules, and bullshit marketing that omits important facts that relate directly to your decision to purchase (lease) their product. Cell phone companies are one of the worst for this.
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Will they also build a Battle School? If so, I wanna go.
Well, actually It is 11:15 pm, April 1st 2013 as I type this (Central Time Zone, USA.) So, you are incorrect.
Very well put. I appreciate this explanation. I do not pretend to be up on my geography OR geo-politics, so your response was very helpful for my understanding of the situation. Thank you.
Can someone explain to me what it is that gives such a small country that has comparably weak military (they are ranked number 28 in the world according to http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.asp) and pretty much zero chance of surviving a week in a real war the balls to be so dickish and war-hungry?
Are they really THAT brainwashed and misinformed (or uninformed) as to believe that they can just threaten nuclear war every time they don't get their way? It's like a little kid threatening to run away every time he has to eat his broccoli.
The only scary thing here is that sometimes, very rarely, the little kid DOES run away for an hour or so. Well, I hope for the sake of any innocent people in North Korea that this little boy doesn't run away, and instead learns to shut the fuck up and eat his broccoli.
I took a look at the panorama and it is indeed awesome. But I found myself immediately trying to identify "objects" and patterns. Not because I believe that there are non-natural artifacts there, but because my brain started saying "Ok, let's see what kind of ridiculous things Richard C. Doucheland will claim as proof of aliens".
I like the guys enthusiasm, and I share a very small percent of his views, but I honestly cannot take him seriously at all. I've never seen someone so intelligent be so purposefully stupid. "Oh and look what we have here ladies and gentlemen. Rectilinear geometry. You can see it plain as day. All you have to do is look. See? I zoomed this low resolution jpeg by 2500% and you can start to see all sorts of lines and squares...where there should be none! It looks...like....a pyramid, people!"
Sometimes I think he's actually a reverse psychology experiment. The government uses him to discredit his own theories by having him use the most ridiculous "proof" possible, "proof" that even a middle school kid can see is absolute hogwash.
I pretty much agree 100% with TFA. Especially about the use of a mouse and having easier configuration of a game.
.ini files that you could scan through and change this or that to suit your needs. Easy tutorials and guides exist to let you know what all the settings do and their effects on the game. With ME2, they have all these .ini files boxed into one file called coalesced.ini, and it's not standard text style. There is an editor you can download called coalescededitor, and it does a good job of seperating everything out so you can make sense of it, and even includes a section of jump lists to get you to the most common settings to change. Such as disabling mouse acceleration. But, why should the community have to be the ones to implement a user friendly way to make the game experience better and more well suited to your system? Would it really have been so difficult for the company who HAS the code and the devs to have just put an extra menu in the config program that allows you to make these changes in a simple and efficient manner?
I recently reinstalled Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2, as I wanted to do two full playthroughs of each, one as a good guy and one as a dick. I have all the DLC for both games, and am currently enjoying the bad guy playthrough on ME2.
After reading this article, I realized I had been thinking many of the same things it points out. Especially because of ME2.
For example, in ME2 there are areas where you cannot save. These are usually missions, and it can be frustrating if you suddenly realize you have to leave for work or some other engagement, but your less than halfway through getting Jack from Purgatory station. You either have to lose your progress or be late for work.
The worst offense of ME2 (in my opinion) is how ridiculously difficult it is to customize your graphical and quality experience with the game. With ME1, you had several
This leads into what is probably my biggest gripe about modern games (modern, to me, being roughly 2006-ish and up), and that is texture quality. This is a simplification of the issue, however, but still valid and indicitive of inherent issues with dumbed-down configurability. Lets take Mass Effect 2 for example, since it's still fresh on my mind. This is a beautiful game. Great color variety, awesome level designs, cool architecture through out, and some of the best looking character models of any game ever made. The animations (mostly suit-capture), the decent AI, and the storyline are just awesome. But, this game suffers from a very VERY common problem that virtually every game exhibits - garbage textures.
Now, don't get me wrong. The majority of the textures in ME2 are very good or even surprisingly realstic and superb. Take Zaeed for instance. His head and face texture is probably the best looking character texture I've ever seen in a game, even better than Crysis or Crysis 2 characters. Every time I see his face in the game, I seriously think "Man, that is friggin awesome work they did there."
But then I see Jack's body texture (normal costume, not alternate) and think, "Why the hell does her tattoo texture look so damn muddy and blurry? Why wouldn't they try to make a damned TATTOO'D body texture look super detailed and crisp?" And I look a the floor beneath my character. Muddled and blurry. I walk up to a wall. Muddled and blurry. I watch a cut scene with a close up of a mech. Muddled and blurry.
I understand the technical side of this issue. Higher rez textures use more memory and take longer to render and all that jazz. Blah blah cry me a river. This isn't 1998, and I don't have an 8Mb 3dFX card. I have a relatively cutting edge 560Ti 1Gb card. It can handle textures above 512 resolution. So stop hardcoding texture limits, and instead allow us gamers to use 4096 or 8192 textures if we wish. If your still using a Geforce 5600, well, time to upgrade anyway.
I also realize that using texture sizes of 8192 won't always fix a muddy looking wa
Did no one see this coming? Every time one of these customer-raping companies says they have achieved new levels of DRM-Uncrackableness, they are proven wrong within 24 hours. How stupid are these people to continue to waste millions of dollars trying to secure their software from being pirated, only to have their efforts shown for naught within a day, three days at the most? And how do they not fucking understand that all they are truly doing is pissing off customers and running their company name into the ground? Every time I hear about a company pulling this crap I get more disgusted with software companies. Oh, I know they have a right to protect their properties and profits and all that jazz. But, damnit, consumers have a right to expect a certain level of quality and usability WITHOUT draconian restrictions and double talk and non-ownership-of-a-product-you-paid-to-own type bullshit. This is EXACTLY the reason I choose to pirate a large amount of the games I play. I paid for Mass Effect because of the outstanding (to me) gameplay and story/graphics. Same goes for Dragon Age : Origins, The Witcher, Boderlands, and Divinity II : Ego Draconis. Yes, there is a bit of DRM to those games, but it isn't anywere near as retarded, insulting, lame, fucked up, and basically fucking illegal (or at least it SHOULD be illegal) as forcing me to be connected to the internet to play a god damned single player game that, other than the fucking DRM, has abso-fucking-lutley no reason to connect to the internet. Fuck Ubi and I hope with all seriuosness that Assassin's Creed 2 gets cracked and becomes the most pirated game in history while simultaneously becoming the biggest financial failure in the history of video games. Maybe then these companies will stop with the DRM and find a mutally agreeable way to protect their work without screwing over their customers.
Betrayal at Krondor/Return to Krondor, the old floppy disk D&D games like Eye of the Beholder and so on, Journeyman Project, Oregon Trail (this could be an epic game), Messiah, Black & White, Final Fantasy TOTAL AND COMPLETE REBOOT FROM THE BEGINNING, Baldur's Gate series, and many more. If I had the money and resources (and time), I'd love to create a game so massive, open, dynamic, and interactive that just the written dialogue for on-screen captions would take a full DVD. I'm talking Crysis meets GTA (all of them) meets Freelancer meets Red Faction meets Star Wars KOTOR meets Fallout (all of them) meets The Sims meets Warcraft meets Fable. A single player game that makes World of Warcraft, EVE, Everquest et al look like a short javascript game. A seemless world. I mean that literally. A fully fleshed out WORLD to play through. Full conitinents, oceans, cities, roads, everything. All populated with like a billion inhabitants. Neverending supply of random quests, and a main quest that would take like 2000 hours of play to complete. It'd have functional politics, functional economy, you could buy houses, cars, bikes, furniture, etc. It would literally be the most ambitious MMO incorporating every gameplay mechanic and feature of the best games, but it would be single player. It would have online capabilities, like other inhabitants would be other players, and you could do some MMO stuff like race, rob a bank together, be partners in a business venture, own a store to sell stuff to other players and what not, but the core gameplay would be single player. Unfortunately, I've envisioned that this game would be so huge and complex, it would require its own multi-terabyte hard drive to run from (and to be packaged on) and would cost upwards of 300 million or more to make properly. By the time it went to market it would cost like $300.00 to buy it, and thus would not sell well enough to be worth it (at this time). I can always dream, though.
It doesn't really work. You can't really sit there and do a direct compare between the price of the Apple OS vs. Win7. Here's why :
A Mac Pro configured to the tits on the Apple Store site costs $18,075.00 and includes the following : 2.93Ghz Intel Xeon Quad-core processors X2, 32Gb (8x4Gb) of DDR3 1066 RAM, Mac Pro RAID card, 1TB 7200RPM SATA drive X4, Nvidia Geforce GT 120 512Mb video card X4, 18X superdrive (optical drive) X2, Apple Cinema HD 30" LCD display X2, Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse, Apple Wireless Keyboard, Airport Extreme Wifi card, Apple Mini Display Port to DVI Adapter. Also obviously includes the standard case/powersupply/motherboard/sound card that you aren't allowed to change/choose during purchase. All this for a fucking HUGE $18,075.00!
A PC configured on NewEgg, with equivalent or better parts (except the optical superdrive, of which I didn't find any @ 18X), including the following : Antec 1200 Black Steel Case, ASUS Z8PE-D12X Mobo, XFX GX295NHHFF Geforce GTX 295 1795Mb 896-bit GDDR3 viedo card X4, ABS Tagan BX1300 1300W Modular Active PFC power supply, Intel Xeon W5580 Nehalem 3.2Ghz Quad Core processor X2, Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 7200RPM SATA 32Mb cache SATA drive X4, Logitech MX 5500 Revolution Wireless Keyboard/Mouse Combo, HP LP3065 30" LCD monitor X2, LG Super Multi-drive X2, Creative Sound-Blaster XFi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro sound card PCI-X, Encore ENLWI-N Wifi N adapter, Noctua NH-U12P CPU cooler. All that for $10,017.79. Add another $200.00 or so for shipping, another $299.00 for Win7, and another maybe $30.00 for thermal paste/a cable here or there/whatever, and your topping out at less than $10,600.00 for a BETTER system.
The way I see it, I'd rather pay %100 for my computer and $120.00 to upgrade to Win7 than pay %180 for a computer AND $30.00 to upgrade my OS.
Now, to be fair, I only made the comparison on the extreme high end. At the average consumer level, the Apple premium is closer to %170.
However, I do have a hard time understanding why many Linux Lovers have such a hatred of Windows, and why they continually claim that Linux is better and can do EVERYTHING that Windows can do and more.
I'm sorry to say this, and I'm really not trying to be a troll (even though I'll most likely be modded as such), but Linux is worthless to a LARGE amount of end users for simple reasons (whether or not the end user is simple themselves doesn't really matter) :
A) Installation IS a pain in the ass for anyone who isn't a geek with a decent amount of experience. Hell its a pain in the ass for those who DO have a decent amount of experience, especially when trying a new distro for the first time that has a wholly different install experience.
B) Driver support sucks. Oh, sure, a lot of the big hw companies have usable drivers for Linux. But does that driver work well with your distro? Do all the features work with your distro? And what about the non-juggernaut hw companies. A vast majority of them don't have native Linux drivers, making it a super-headache to get the item to work in Linux.
C) Software selection leaves a lot to be desired. As pointed out in TFA, Open Office vs MS Office is just one of many instances where FOSS really takes a back seat. And most of the industry-standard software either doesn't run on Linux at all or works partially and only in a VM (which kind of defeats the purpose of using Linux).
D) Games. I don't think I really need to expound upon this one. We all know (even if some of you can't seem to admit it) that gaming on Linux SUCKS ASS because most games don't work on Linux.
Ok. Now I know that some of what I touched upon can be band-aided by using Wine and such, but come on. That's cheating. If the OS can't natively run the software, and has to do so in a virtual-Windows environment, why not just use Windows?
Oh, I already know what a lot of the answers to that question will be. "Windows has viruses and isn't secure!" or "Windows doesn't have good driver support either!" or even "Because MS is EEEEVVIILLLLLLLLL!!!!" Well, guess what. Windows SHIPS insecure, but once installed by any competent person who knows how to tweak the system, Windows can be as secure as any other OS out there. I've used almost every iteration of Windows, and starting with XP have never had a virus infection or security breach (and I download a LOT of crap from unreliable sources). That's not to say that a virus has never actually physically been on my system. Just that I've never had to format, reinstall, repair, or anything. Just delete the offending file, and maybe a registry entry or two. And I've had some virii show up that could have screwed me over royally. But because I tune my system the way I do, not much damage can be done, even if I intentionally download a virus (which I have tested several times). Now, I'm not saying I'm invulnerable. I know my system can get FUBAR'd by this or that virus or breach. But it's a safe bet that I'm more secure than any Linux distro out there (which I've proven via a friend who runs Debian, by betting his system would get FUBAR'd before mine after 3 consecutive days of surfing and downloading from some very disreputable sites. His system was tanked in two days, mine never got touched.)
Now, that whole paragraph above leads to the main point I'm trying to make. An average end user will not understand/like/want to go through the massive learning curve of Linux. Nor will they be happy with the horrible compatability. At the same time, they will not be happy with the virus-fest and crash-athon of Windows. But they will put up with Windows because 95% (I'm guessing) of software works with Windows, as well as 99.99% of games (not taking into consideration that many games don't work when shipped due
That seems like a pretty good improvement in earthquake prediction. If this guy can consistantly predict earthquakes with a +/- of one week, I'd say he's doing something right, and should be listened to. But he has to do it consistantly. One out of one is a good start.
There. Fixed that for ya!
It certainly would be an interesting feature, if it actually stays after today.
I'm kind of surprised at how everyone latched onto the video games, and completely ignored the rest of my post. I don't play video games all day everyday. And when I do play them, I get as much enjoyment from them as I do when I read a good book, watch a good movie, go to a car show, or go to the park. The point of my post is that price versus compatability/versatility is my biggest deciding factor when building a system. As it is for a lot of people.
I would buy Apple if their prices matched what I can build myself for less money and more versatility. No where did I say that I hate Apple or that Microsoft is god. Nor did I say that I am a troglodyte who lives in his moms basement and subsists on Hot Pockets and WOW. When it comes down to it, a lot of people prefer to have the ability to play 99% of the games on the market, use 90% of the software available, and have better control over what hardware they are using for considerably less money, versus 40% of the games, 75% of the software, and limited control over what hardware they are using for more money and a logo. A lot of people prefer to buy Apple or use Linux/etc. for their own reasons, not the least of which is percieved security (meaning that Apple has its own share of security issues, just not enough user base for the exploiters to care) and/or open source. (The preceding numbers are a quick estimation after browsing NewEgg, Amazon, and a couple of gaming sites)
Neither group is wrong and neither is right. Both have their ups and downs, pros and cons, wins and losses. In todays economy, I would not be surprised at all if Apples prices become a major loss for them. But I'm not an oracle, and I don't play the market, so I have no real idea how the whole thing will play out. I was simply stating my personal feelings and opinions. But, I forgot that this is Slashdot, where opinions are treated as heresy, and the way one person feels about something is immediately set upon by everyone whose view differs in the slightest. My bad. If you are offended by any of what I just said, sorry. Theres no reason to BE offended, but if you ARE offended, then I think the problem lies not with what I've put on the table, but rather with your inability to accept that other people don't see things the same way you do
Well, I'd rather pay $100.00 for the Microsoft logo and whatever I choose to spend on hardware that I put together and be able to play every game I want to play than pay $500 dollars for a logo and be limited to canned hardware configurations and nominal game and software titles. Not trying to be anti-Apple or pro-Microsoft here. He just has a bit of a point. In today's economy Apple has to be feeling the sting. It's there own fault for being overpriced on pretty much every level. That said, I'd love to have a Macbook. But I can't afford even a Netbook right now.
I don't have much problem with memory on my Vista system. I run idle with 150 MB of total Kernel Memory, and 645 MB of total physical memory used. This includes 44 processes. Also includes background tasks of Incredimail, Truecrypt, Logitech drivers, Spybot-SD Resident, Nvidia driver stuff, and a couple of other small things. That's not really a big deal with 2GB of DDR2 800 running @ 4-4-4-10.
What a lot of people on here don't seem to realize is that while Vista is bloated by default, you can unbloat it quite a lot. Turning off services, disabling or un-installing unneeded features, and general tweaking make a huge difference with Vista.
I suppose that if I was doing a lot of heavy video/audio/photo editing/creation, it would be a noticeable issue. But then, if I were doing all that, I wouldn't be using Vista either.
I was one of the people who said "I'll never install Vista on my machine." until I got it as a gift from someone. It sat on a shelf for about 2 months, and I finally decided to try it just for the heck of it. Well, it's been almost a year, and I can readily say I'll never go back to XP. Sure, XP was slimmer and a slight bit faster (compared to the way I install and configure Vista), but Vista is much cooler to use and has more features that I like, and is actually more stable in my experience. I've never had a blue screen with Vista, and only one reboot-requiring crash. And that crash was because of a motherboard problem, not a Vista problem.
In fact, the only complaint I have about Vista is because of the version I have. Home Premium. You can't access/use gpedit.msc in Vista Home Premium. This miffed me a bit. But, other than that, no problems at all. And no, I don't work for Microsoft or spread FUD for them. I just haven't had a problem with Vista, and thought I'd share that with everyone.
Hot Wheels® today announced its year-long plans to celebrate the brand's 40-year heritage at the 105th American International Toy Fair®. Anniversary activities were kicked off with the unveiling of a custom jeweled 1:64-scale Hot Wheels® car, designed by celebrity jeweler Jason of Beverly Hills. This one-of-a-kind car, the most expensive in Hot Wheels® history, was made to commemorate the production of the four-billionth Hot Wheels® vehicle.
I think Logitech just got over excited. Still a billion of anything is a lot.
I haven't bought many games over the last 5 or 6 years. Largely due to the fact that these days developers simply release crappy, half finished, incoherent and generally not fun games. It seems to be the rule rather than the exception of late. The only games I have actually paid for in the last, say, 3 years are Mass Effect, The Witcher, Battlefield 2142, and Spore Galactic Edition. Well, I played a pirated version of Mass Effect and Spore before purchasing them. Mass Effect was so well done that it deserved my money. The Witcher was a leap of faith, and it paid off as it is an excellent game. Battlefield 2142 sucked ass. Spore...well, Spore has been a mixed bag. A bag full mostly of crap. Horrible DRM restrictions, major graphics issues, lots of BSOD and CTD's, and a completely dumbed down, lowest-common-denominator mentality. Fallout 3 is the next game I'm going to spend money on. I played it for about 15 hours, and absolutely LOVE it. That is the way games should be made. AWESOME attention to detail, fantastic story lines, great dialog, cutting edge graphics/physics, and way above average replayability.
But, back to the point. Had I known about the DRM problems with Spore before purchasing it, I would never have bought it. I made the mistake of not reading the forums and what not first. For me, it's the install limits that make me want to boycott EA. I haven't yet experienced a crash related directly to the DRM scheme, but I hate DRM on principal. Not to mention the fact that the DRM was installed without my knowledge (and it's NEVER installed by ANY game with my consent). However, my girlfriend has had a DVD burner ruined from DRM being installed on her computer. She installed a game that had DRM on it, and then her DVD drive suddenly had trouble reading discs. Then it simply failed to read ANY disc at all. Formatting and reinstalling everything had no effect. So we put a new drive in from a different manufacturer. As soon as she installed the game again, the new drive started to fail. I realized what was happening and immediately re-wiped and reinstalled her system, before any permanent damage to the new drive. She has since thrown the game away without having ever played it. That is just plain bullshit. She has never even heard of a torrent and the only mp3's she has are ones she bought from Rhapsody and ITunes. So, you may be asking yourself, "Well, the title of his response says the most people just plain hate DRM, but how does he know this?" Well, it's not exactly the most scientific thing in the world, but I made a poll on EA's Spore forums, and here are the results :
Does DRM bother you AT ALL, either morally, philosophically, or by messing up your computer? (269 votes so far)
Yes, I hate it, it needs to die. 62% [168]
No, no problems here. 19% [51]
What is DRM? If I knew what it was, I could say yes or no. 4% [12]
I'd not be bothered by unobtrusive/stable/non-damaging DRM that doesn't restrict legal users. 14% [38]
I made this poll in response to the article with the EA guy that said 99.8% of users care about DRM. As I said, this poll is NOT the best gauge in the world, but it still speaks pretty loudly to the fact the current DRM is just garbage and of no benefit to anyone. In fact, the only people who seem to really be affect by DRM are the legal users who actually paid for the games that have DRM schemes. They are the ones who have install errors, incompatibility errors, install limits, bloatware, ruined DVD drives, etc. Treating a paying customer like a criminal is just fucking retarded. And annoying. Why should I pay for something that is possibly going to break my computer, cause massive amounts of headache, and make me feel like I got ripped off? Most games I download copies of aren't worth the money I would have to pay to play test them otherwise. Here are some examples of games that I saved money on by pirating them first : Legend Hand of God (utter boring tripe), So Blonde (wow, just lame), Lost Via Domus (horrible voice
Whoa. Troll? Really? For an on-topic post? Wow. That's just awesome.
The only problem with stories like this is that we either don't actually do it, or we DO do it and get results that tell us nothing useful (as far as the question of E.T. life). Why can't they just :
1. Design and build rover/robot/probe whose sole task is to find and identify life on another planet/moon/whatever.
2. Deploy said rover/robot/probe.
3. Get definitive answer - Yes there is/yes there was actual life here, or No there isn't/no there wasn't actual life here.
4. Rinse and repeat.
Seriously, why is that so hard?
Wow. I really like how everyone knows me just by reading my post. And how people want to call me a racist for relating MY EXPERIENCE IN COLLEGE. I DID go to college, and I DID have to get a loan. I stopped going because the college I stupidly chose to go to was a waste of time, and I would have been better served buying a fake on-line degree. But the three Sudanese guys I tutored didn't have to pay anything. And they all lived together, and each had jobs that paid the same or better than I did. At least two of the African Americans in my field of study that I talked to were free ride as well, with one being in the exact same pay bracket as me and a GED, and the other making about .75 cents an hour more than me and barely graduated high school. Both were single and lived by themselves, just like me.
I don't want everything handed to me. I know I have to work for what I want, and I DO work for what I want. Everything I own was paid for with money I earned, either breaking my back in construction or delivering pizzas for minimum wage. And I don't spend my money on crap. I pay my bills and buy my groceries. Whatever is left over gets me maybe 2 DVD's a month, a video game here or there. That's about it. I don't pay 100 dollars a month for a cell phone. I pay 10 through my parents family plan. I don't pay for a private school for my toddler because I don't have a toddler, and a I only eat out once a week if I'm lucky. I buy some stuff that I collect now and again, too. If I have the extra money.
I don't even know why I'm wasting my time explaining my financial habits to anyone. It's not like it's anyone else's business anyway. I just get pissed when some uppity deusche bag decides to deride my comments to make himself feel like he isn't THAT much of a loser.
P.S. - I don't think there's anything wrong with welfare. I think it's a great thing. I also think it's fucked up how many people take advantage of the system and ruin it for others who actually need it. My ex girlfriend has two kids (not mine, thank god) and raises them by herself. She works part time, because she can't afford to get daycare. She gets maybe 150 a month in food stamps, and that's it. Nothing else. They tell her that she makes to much. She makes roughly 450 bucks a month, raising two kids by herself, and she makes TOO MUCH to get any other assistance than 150 a month in food stamps. Yet her neighbor, who is a legal Mexican immigrant, works as a waitress and her husband is in construction. They have one kid. They get 250 in food stamps, energy assistance, rent assistance, AND they got a check for $2000.00 from the state to put down on a new vehicle.
I'm not racist. But the system sure as fuck is. Call me whatever the fuck you want to call me. But I KNOW what I see and what I've experienced. I'm all for whoever can get help with food, college, rent, etc. Black, Mexican, African, Middle Eastern, I don't care. But don't sit there and call ME racist just because I'm not fucking afraid to call shit for what it is. If your white, the majority of the time your needs take a back seat to every other color/race/whatever, because the state and federal offices don't want a lawsuit on their hands for being racist. Don't believe me? Too fucking bad.
then I won't notice a thing. I am lower middle class, barely making ends meet. I usually get a refund at tax time, but not much. I've never come anywhere NEAR the FDIC cap in my bank account, and even if my bank went under, big deal. I'd be out less than 200 bucks. But the FDIC would cover it, so no loss. The only thing that the government could do to "bail" me out of rough times would be to:
Lower my income tax
Regulate fuel prices to a reasonable level
Give me free health care
Give me free college just like the African Americans and Latinos and Single Moms and Sudanese and pretty much everyone who isn't a white male/female with no kids
Other than that, big deal. 700 billion dollars that I basically receive no real benefit from, while people who are already rich just get richer. Yay America.
I totally agree with what you have said in your post. I came across a situation of words at work about a week ago. A girl who works there is a white (overweight) bi-sexual, and has a white (ugly as sin) lesbian ex-girlfriend stalker. The bi-sexual girl slept with an african American male that also works there. The ex found out about it and started harassing both her and the dude. All three of these persons are still in the 18-19 age range. The ex somehow got the dudes cell phone number and began texting him with rude messages, which he showed to me.
Now, let me first explain that this "dude" is a young black guy, with stereo-typical accents to his speech, slang usage, baggy sagged pants, bling, etc. He is, however, a-typically intelligent and responsible when he wishes to be (a-typically for the stereo-type, not for a black person).
The texts that the ex sent went generally like this : "Stay away from her, you fucking nigger!" and "I hate all you stupid smelly niggers!".
Yes, that is exact wording. Now, when he showed this to me, I was a bit taken aback. I haven't seen a white person use the word nigger towards a black person "in person" before. I say "in person" because she was sitting outside of the building, in full view of us, texting him these messages as he showed them to me. I felt a bit bad for him, and a little ashamed to be in the same racial group as the ex. But then something happened that made me forget the shame, racial guilt, and made me feel even worse for him. He got another text, read it, and before showing it to me, he said, and I quote, "Hey nigga, look at dis shit. That bitch sent me anotha one, nigga. Can you believe this shit, nigga?"
I blinked at him, and said, "Uh, did you just call me the n word?"
He gave me a blank stare for a minute, then sheepishly smiled and said, "Yeah, I guess I did. I didn't even think about it. I'm just so used to calling my homies "nigga" that I don't think about the fact that I'm really calling them "nigger". It ain't the same tho. I say "nigga" with the meaning of homie or friend, she says it with the meaning of whatever the fuck "nigger" means."
That's when I said the word "nigger" in front of a black person for the first time in my life. "You mean you don't know the meaning of the word "nigger", yet you use a form of it all the time just because you don't mean it in a bad way? Well, the word means black. That's it. That's all it means. It's only durogatory to blacks because a bunch of non-blacks used it in a bad way towards blacks. It's just a word. The bad comes from the person speaking it, not the word itself."
He reflected on it for a minute then smiled at me. "That's good to know, man. I'ma text this bitch back."
You know what he texted back to her? I'll tell you : "Sorry you hate the color black. But I'm a person, not part of the color spectrum. TTYL nigga!"
I went home later with a warm fuzzy feeling.
You bring up an interesting point about perspective. I've been using Windows since 3.11 for Workgroups. I've used 95, 95a, 95b, NT 4.0, 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, and am now using Vista.
You may have never lost a motherboard - otherwise you would have experienced the painful fight-the-bluescreen vs reinstall decision.I'd have to say that I'm the least happy with Vista OVERALL (ME doesn't count in my book), but in some ways (that are enough for me to keep using it instead of downgrading to XP) I really dig it.
I myself have lost a few motherboards over the years, and I always choose to reinstall. I can fix BSOD's and other nasties 9 times out of ten, but it's usually a lot simpler and faster to just wipe and go.
You may not have used IE 4 (or 5, or 6) as suggested by Windows - otherwise the pop-ups and spyware would have created a mess you would have had to clean up by now.
I've used every iteration of IE, and am very happy with IE 7. No problems with popups or spyware, mostly due to all the tweaking and configuring I do to my installs BEFORE I log on to the internets.
You may not have automatic updates turned on - otherwise you would have been forced to do an undesired reboot at least once by now.
I have Automatic Updates on, but only because I'm tired of having to go into Services to turn it on when I want to use Update. That is a bit of a peeve for me. If I want to do manual updates, WHY THE FUCK do I need AU turned on?
You may have disabled UAC, or never used Vista at all - otherwise you would have been prompted as many as four times to approve the same action.
Disabling UAC is the FIRST thing I do on a fresh install. FIRST.
You may not ever Alt+Tab in Vista - otherwise you would have seen 'Explorer is not responding' at least once by now...
I Alt+Tab every so often, but haven't run into a problem with it yet.
Now, the following is where I disagree wholeheartedly -
Actually, yes, you really could blame Windows that using this driver resulted in a crash.
A BETA driver crashing on Windows does NOT mean that Windows caused the crash. There are plenty of companies that write HORRIBLE drivers for EVERY OS that they program for. Creative is a big one. Their drivers are among the worst pieces of crap on the planet. This is not the fault of Windows.
Having said all of the above, I am somewhat skew-viewed and biased towards Windows, due to my heavy experience with MS products, and my knowledge of how to make things work and work better. I always pimp MS to my friends when they ask about new products to use and what not. Not because MS is the ONLY solution or even always the BEST solution. But because it's the most readily available and most widely supported, with the best chance of being easy to use.
My friends and family also solicit my services to safety-fy their systems for them. This is where my views get biased and skewed. Because I have my system set up the way I like it, and hardened to the point that even an intentionally downloaded virus or malware does little or no damage to my setup ( and yes I tested this statement a year ago ), I get flabbergasted when I sit in front of other peoples systems. I've noticed myself being a bit of a jerk to my brother or a buddy when going through their system and changing stuff around, berating their lack of experience or knowledge on how to secure their system. Then I stop and remember that not everyone is a geek, and not everyone cares enough to learn all the crap I've taught myself and learned from others who know more than I do.
Anyway, I'm not even sure where I'm going with all this. I'm still half awake, and haven't had my morning Dr. Pepper and Marlboro Menthol Blue 72 yet.
That's the problem with companies today. They "lease" you the equipment, with hidden terms and rules, and bullshit marketing that omits important facts that relate directly to your decision to purchase (lease) their product. Cell phone companies are one of the worst for this.