AFAIK they've said you'll likely have to pay a small fee to access PDFs of books you buy, but you do not need to be a subscriber to access the PDFs you've "unlocked."
On a similar note, they've said that subscribers will be able to make characters with rules from any book, but will only have the full text available if they've unlocked the book. For example, you can always grab the "Beating Monkey" feat from Complete Splat, but if you've unlocked Complete Splat then you can see the full text of that feat from your character sheet instead of having to look at a book.
Consoles have always had one major advantage over PCs as a gaming platform: consistent hardware. An Xbox is an Xbox is an Xbox. When producing a game for a console, you don't need to test every possible combination of a dozen video cards, a dozen processors, a dozen motherboards, etc. You test it on an Xbox. It works on your Xbox? It works on your customer's Xbox.
I'm worried about the possibility of fragmentation that may occur here, if other companies are allowed to make their own Xboxes. Even if there are a set of standards, there's nothing stopping them from skimping on parts, or even using slightly different architectures which throw the whole thing out of whack.
Indeed, but I haven't seen these problems persisting for the past 61 days, as the parent complained.
Particularly vexing is that my fiancée and I have been trying to watch a show encoded in DivX... For some stupid reason, the freely-available DivX updated doesn't work unless you're signed in to Xbox Live. Now that's just stupid.
All the news media in recent times has become, frankly, a laughing stock, but newspapers it seems have held onto the most integrity (not that that's saying much). More importantly, we need someone who can pay reporters to investigate the government, and bloggers just aren't going to cut it.
And that's why newspapers will survive. We need paid people that are going to do the legwork and investigation. Close, but you're missing the point a bit... That is not why newspapers will survive, that is why they must survive.
Unfortunately, while hard-hitting investigative journalism is very necessary to the continued functioning of society, it is not something which is profitable. Since it is not profitable, it doesn't seem likely that it will survive.
You and I may think it's worth paying for that, but by and large Americans do not. They're perfectly happy to sit and watch entertainment programs like their local Faux News, where they can hear about the puppy that was rescued from a burning building by a cat. Meanwhile, since it's got "news" in the title, they feel like they're actually learning about what's going on in the world without having to do any of that "reading" thing the teachers kept trying to cram down their throats in school.
Make no mistake, I agree with you that newspapers are important, but I don't think that they're going to be able to survive.
On the one hand, the newspaper's days are numbered. Who wants to go outside and dig their paper out of the snow to read yesterday's news when they can go online and get what's happening right now?
On the other hand, that's a damn shame. All the news media in recent times has become, frankly, a laughing stock, but newspapers it seems have held onto the most integrity (not that that's saying much). More importantly, we need someone who can pay reporters to investigate the government, and bloggers just aren't going to cut it.
I fear living in a world where the only things a government has to worry about are citizen journalists and internal leaks.
You're correct, of course, but we also don't know what technology and, perhaps more importantly, algorithms the NSA might have at its disposal.
All we can say is that given the level of technology known to be available and the algorithms and strategies we have for cracking a particular form of encryption, it is not computationally feasible to do so.
However, it is specifically the NSA's business to have technology and knowledge that the world in general does not. For example, see public key cryptography, which was invented by British intelligence several years before it was coincidentally invented by a couple researchers.
In other words, for all we know there's some huge, gaping hole that's not publicly known, but is known to the NSA.
The value of your opinion is definitely greater than 0, so you make a valid point. However, as far as I know, there's no easy way to monetize that value... It's kind of like having this giant diamond in your basement. Worth a lot of money, but impossible to sell because you can't get it up the stairs.
Like I said, most everything.:) For what it's worth, I had completely forgot about Visual Studio, which I use at work, at school, and the express edition at home.
Not that I'm doubting you, but could you provide a reference to back that up? I didn't see anything suggesting that. Of course, I also didn't see anything saying that you'd get the software which the summary claims you will, so I'm obviously missing something.:)
I don't know why I'm bothering to reply to you, since it's obvious you didn't read a damn word I said except for the capitalized ones.
You're right that being expensive does not equate to being desired or necessary, and I never said it did.
All I said was that many people do need or want Microsoft software, and the expense of that software is thus a salient point to make.
Also, as mentioned, they are offering you options, and you're not required to use their monitoring software to participate.
Now, if you'd like to have an intelligent discussion about the issue, that's wonderful. Otherwise, please go return to your hole and both me no longer.
Glad to see that you guys don't let facts get in the way of a good MS bash.
Anyways, just in the in case there's anyone actually curious about this and not just interested in kneejerk reactions about poorly-written, inflammatory summary.
I've actually RTFA (and a page linked off of it) and here's something the summary completely neglects to mention:
The automated data collection is one of two different options you can pick; the other is to be asked to fill out a survey not more often than once every two weeks. It sounds like you can pick either option.
Now, that all said, there's also one more big thing: They're giving away FREE copies of EXPENSIVE software* which many people NEED** or WANT with a perfectly reasonable caveat. They're being open and honest, and they're providing both a manual and an automatic method of data collection. The latter is particularly appealing to many, because it basically means they can just forget about it. Those who are worried about their privacy can take the surveys.
Disclaimer: I am a fanboy of many things, including Xbox 360, but not Microsoft in general. I like Windows XP and hate most everything that MS has put out which isn't an OS (i.e. office, internet explorer, etc). I'll definitely not be participating simply because I'm not interested in any of the offerings.
*Expensive for a typical end user, I don't care how much your company paid for its graphics design software **Again, typical end user who doesn't know what OpenOffice is and just wants to be able to open their files at work without thinking about converting file types.
I don't know what the situation is in Canada, but the fact is government just doesn't work, especially when it comes to matters of the internet. Maybe in 10 or 20 years when more politicians than not have actually seen a computer before, but for now it just doesn't.
It sucks, but frankly the only way for regular people to actually fight big business is through the courts.
There should be no ambiguity here. They have no right to modify that information. What they are doing is tantamount to forgery, perjury and impersonation. Sue the hell out of them until they stop or go bankrupt.
I think the point is more about when a phone is dialed accidentally... For example, I used to have a phone which would dial 911 if you held down the 1 key for a couple seconds, and there was no way to change that.
There's this concept of an "uncanny valley" where basically, something that's too close to human just looks totally off-putting.
The name is based on a graph of "likability" vs. how realistic something looks... You see that things get more likable as they get closer to being indistinguishable from real, and then all of a sudden when they get very close, but not perfect, it suddenly dips down. As an example, many people find dolls creepy because they look very human-like.
Slashdot Mirror
AFAIK they've said you'll likely have to pay a small fee to access PDFs of books you buy, but you do not need to be a subscriber to access the PDFs you've "unlocked."
On a similar note, they've said that subscribers will be able to make characters with rules from any book, but will only have the full text available if they've unlocked the book. For example, you can always grab the "Beating Monkey" feat from Complete Splat, but if you've unlocked Complete Splat then you can see the full text of that feat from your character sheet instead of having to look at a book.
Consoles have always had one major advantage over PCs as a gaming platform: consistent hardware. An Xbox is an Xbox is an Xbox. When producing a game for a console, you don't need to test every possible combination of a dozen video cards, a dozen processors, a dozen motherboards, etc. You test it on an Xbox. It works on your Xbox? It works on your customer's Xbox.
I'm worried about the possibility of fragmentation that may occur here, if other companies are allowed to make their own Xboxes. Even if there are a set of standards, there's nothing stopping them from skimping on parts, or even using slightly different architectures which throw the whole thing out of whack.
Indeed, but I haven't seen these problems persisting for the past 61 days, as the parent complained.
Particularly vexing is that my fiancée and I have been trying to watch a show encoded in DivX... For some stupid reason, the freely-available DivX updated doesn't work unless you're signed in to Xbox Live. Now that's just stupid.
How did you lose your content?
DRM sucks, but I haven't had such an onerous problem with DRM and I'm on my 3rd or 4th Xbox.
As long as you still have access to the gamertag used to purchase the content, as long as that gamertag's signed in you should be able to use it.
All the news media in recent times has become, frankly, a laughing stock, but newspapers it seems have held onto the most integrity (not that that's saying much). More importantly, we need someone who can pay reporters to investigate the government, and bloggers just aren't going to cut it.
And that's why newspapers will survive. We need paid people that are going to do the legwork and investigation. Close, but you're missing the point a bit... That is not why newspapers will survive, that is why they must survive.
Unfortunately, while hard-hitting investigative journalism is very necessary to the continued functioning of society, it is not something which is profitable. Since it is not profitable, it doesn't seem likely that it will survive.
You and I may think it's worth paying for that, but by and large Americans do not. They're perfectly happy to sit and watch entertainment programs like their local Faux News, where they can hear about the puppy that was rescued from a burning building by a cat. Meanwhile, since it's got "news" in the title, they feel like they're actually learning about what's going on in the world without having to do any of that "reading" thing the teachers kept trying to cram down their throats in school.
Make no mistake, I agree with you that newspapers are important, but I don't think that they're going to be able to survive.
On the one hand, the newspaper's days are numbered. Who wants to go outside and dig their paper out of the snow to read yesterday's news when they can go online and get what's happening right now?
On the other hand, that's a damn shame. All the news media in recent times has become, frankly, a laughing stock, but newspapers it seems have held onto the most integrity (not that that's saying much). More importantly, we need someone who can pay reporters to investigate the government, and bloggers just aren't going to cut it.
I fear living in a world where the only things a government has to worry about are citizen journalists and internal leaks.
Really? You don't have Halo 3 or any other games for the 360 which were published by MS? :p
Nit picky, perhaps.
You're correct, of course, but we also don't know what technology and, perhaps more importantly, algorithms the NSA might have at its disposal.
All we can say is that given the level of technology known to be available and the algorithms and strategies we have for cracking a particular form of encryption, it is not computationally feasible to do so.
However, it is specifically the NSA's business to have technology and knowledge that the world in general does not. For example, see public key cryptography, which was invented by British intelligence several years before it was coincidentally invented by a couple researchers.
In other words, for all we know there's some huge, gaping hole that's not publicly known, but is known to the NSA.
The value of your opinion is definitely greater than 0, so you make a valid point. However, as far as I know, there's no easy way to monetize that value... It's kind of like having this giant diamond in your basement. Worth a lot of money, but impossible to sell because you can't get it up the stairs.
Like I said, most everything. :) For what it's worth, I had completely forgot about Visual Studio, which I use at work, at school, and the express edition at home.
It never even occurred to me that someone might accuse me of being an astroturfer.
Very well, I am also in absolutely no way associated with Microsoft.
Not that I'm doubting you, but could you provide a reference to back that up? I didn't see anything suggesting that. Of course, I also didn't see anything saying that you'd get the software which the summary claims you will, so I'm obviously missing something. :)
I don't know why I'm bothering to reply to you, since it's obvious you didn't read a damn word I said except for the capitalized ones.
You're right that being expensive does not equate to being desired or necessary, and I never said it did.
All I said was that many people do need or want Microsoft software, and the expense of that software is thus a salient point to make.
Also, as mentioned, they are offering you options, and you're not required to use their monitoring software to participate.
Now, if you'd like to have an intelligent discussion about the issue, that's wonderful. Otherwise, please go return to your hole and both me no longer.
Glad to see that you guys don't let facts get in the way of a good MS bash.
Anyways, just in the in case there's anyone actually curious about this and not just interested in kneejerk reactions about poorly-written, inflammatory summary.
I've actually RTFA (and a page linked off of it) and here's something the summary completely neglects to mention:
The automated data collection is one of two different options you can pick; the other is to be asked to fill out a survey not more often than once every two weeks. It sounds like you can pick either option.
Now, that all said, there's also one more big thing: They're giving away FREE copies of EXPENSIVE software* which many people NEED** or WANT with a perfectly reasonable caveat. They're being open and honest, and they're providing both a manual and an automatic method of data collection. The latter is particularly appealing to many, because it basically means they can just forget about it. Those who are worried about their privacy can take the surveys.
Disclaimer: I am a fanboy of many things, including Xbox 360, but not Microsoft in general. I like Windows XP and hate most everything that MS has put out which isn't an OS (i.e. office, internet explorer, etc). I'll definitely not be participating simply because I'm not interested in any of the offerings.
*Expensive for a typical end user, I don't care how much your company paid for its graphics design software
**Again, typical end user who doesn't know what OpenOffice is and just wants to be able to open their files at work without thinking about converting file types.
I don't know what the situation is in Canada, but the fact is government just doesn't work, especially when it comes to matters of the internet. Maybe in 10 or 20 years when more politicians than not have actually seen a computer before, but for now it just doesn't.
It sucks, but frankly the only way for regular people to actually fight big business is through the courts.
There should be no ambiguity here. They have no right to modify that information. What they are doing is tantamount to forgery, perjury and impersonation. Sue the hell out of them until they stop or go bankrupt.
Because the public doesn't think "Man, IE sucks at rendering XYZ Corp's webpage! Maybe I should switch to Firefox."
The public thinks "Man, XYZ Corp's webpage sucks! Maybe I should switch to ZYX Corp," and then ZYX Corp firs you.
Wait...
So tech is bad because it didn't work and so the troops weren't efficient killing machines...
But tech is bad because we don't want the troops to be efficient killing machines.
Is that about the gist of it?
That's what my current phone does.
IIRC, the offending phone was a Kyocera smartphone, though I could be wrong. Basically it was one of those early palm/phone hybrids.
I think the point is more about when a phone is dialed accidentally... For example, I used to have a phone which would dial 911 if you held down the 1 key for a couple seconds, and there was no way to change that.
I remember having a TV tuner for my game gear a long time ago.
Worked like shit, ut it worked.
Oblig: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
And he didn't even need a PHD.
There's this concept of an "uncanny valley" where basically, something that's too close to human just looks totally off-putting.
The name is based on a graph of "likability" vs. how realistic something looks... You see that things get more likable as they get closer to being indistinguishable from real, and then all of a sudden when they get very close, but not perfect, it suddenly dips down. As an example, many people find dolls creepy because they look very human-like.
As always, Wikipedia has more on the subject and probably does a better job explaining it than I do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley
It's not just you, you just happen to be the one I replied to.
Curve? What curve? I don't remember Euclid's first postulate saying a curve could be drawn between any two points. :p