You're using hear-say from "professional hackers" for Mac and a mere 2 examples confined to 2 (different) Linux distributions for Linux, versus the ongoing MS "security" track record?!
"That leaves Vista, who hasn't yet had a problem."..?
I don't hate it - in fact, most posts I read here aren't usually by people who hate MS, just tech-saavy people who know a *nix-based OS is just more stable. Security highly depends on whoever set it up, but out-of-the-box? Windows can't hold a candle to an OS that was designed to be used by multiple users (and networked) like 40 years ago (a good 20-year lead on MS).
The open source aspect helps too - it's not that developers think OS X or Linux makes the app solid... hundreds of other people helping you make it solid does. Also, these developers are doing it on their spare time because they enjoy it - versus the closed-source camp who go to work because an alarm clock forced them to. This isn't to say those code monkeys suck, it's just a completely different motivation.
I'd also like to point out that every Mac and Linux user has used Windows plenty. Most MS fan boys I come across have yet to try anything other than windows.
There IS a racial slur against trolls: Trog. (but they hate that.) Trolls are people too, contrary to what the Humanis Policlub would have you believe.
But what if he wanted all the fun and visual splendor of the Warcraft dungeons without the n00bs and immature idiots? Or anyone else for that matter? You can't get an offline copy of WoW. I think he's a whiner and I love multiplayer gaming, but I see his point - it does suck to not have a choice, right? Why else would we use open source software or ignore marijuana laws?
(this is not a console war flamestarter) I WAY preferred the Genesis version to the SNES version, and would LOVE a sequel to that. Better yet, a World of Shadowrun (Warcraft MMO-like) would be most fitting for the Shadowrun universe.
I've played 5 MMOs and I've never played one that made it so easy to play (interface-wise). A granny could play WoW, but not in a way that makes it dreadful to hardcore gamers. Also, in a world where some programs' interfaces make absolutely no sense, I think WoW takes the cake on improving and polishing the best ideas from other MMOs into the "total package". Innovative? Not entirely - but none of them are, all that much (they're all just multiplayer 'Eye of the Beholder' in a way). Excels at nothing? I think it is the only MMO that excels at being an MMO. (Woah - I sounded like a fanboy there, but I really just mean that all the MMOs are the same, WoW included, but it's the only one that successfully incorporates the finest aspects of MMOs into one.)
I have been toying with this idea for some time: player-added content. Effectively turning player characters into quest givers, or simply allowing subscribers to create NPC's. Obviously the quest objective, description, and reward would need to be reviewed by a GM to keep it balanced (unless there was a formula that could regulate pay and xp automatically, but this wouldn't work for truly unique quest ideas), but at least then there would many, many ideas, and too many quests to repeat the same ones over and over. There will always be the "kill 10 sock monsters" quests, as well as the chains ending in taking down a boss in a dungeon, but both are needed to appease different tastes and styles of play. Allowing players to add quests would let guilds create their own chains to customize initiation, it would let bored people who no longer feel like leveling to still interact with the world, etc...
I hated Halo. While it may have a "large following" (re: bunch of know-no-better kids), I wouldn't go so far as to say it had "great characters". It had a bunch of faceless space marines, and the alien enemies were Lame. Lame with a capital L... they weren't scary, or even a little frightening. The sounds the most common little carebear one would make did NOT make me want to shoot it. I thought there was some sort of space marine vs impending alien DOOM as far back as.. what, 92-ish? I think it even had blood, gore, violence, and a scary aspect (if I remember correctly). While I admit Halo's 2 player while-on-the-warthog was fun for 5 minutes, it irks me every time I hear about how M$ tapped a previously unforrayed market with this rehashed garbage.
The problem with this type of dynamic world alteration is that newer characters are subject to the mercy or malice of the majority of the top-level characters. While this may not seem like huge deal, it would suck really bad if you could no longer get your whatever-thingamajig because punks destroyed the place to get it. Also, on most servers, there is a huge imbalance between the number of alliance characters vs. horde characters, so the world (in most cases) would tip toward the alliance's favor time and time again.
Inferior in the parent post refers to graphics for a lament only. When your Xbox 360 dies after a year and a half, don't be surprised. YOU chose the shoddy product.
In my experience, first gen PS2s are still running, and almost no first gen xboxes are. This study was conducted with most of my friends, and the units that lived or died are not hypothetical (re: I am not a fanboy; I own neither system but would buy a PS3 LONG before a 360).
God obviously intended to heat us up a little (maybe so future generations will have less hair). It is His plan. Obviously, therefore, a massive Sun Shield fired in pieces every 5 minutes for 10 years is also God's design.
I would highly recommend Kubuntu (the KDE version of Ubuntu) because KDE is easier to navigate and configure when you have used windows before. I find the menus more similar to windows and better laid out. There's nothing stopping them from switching to Gnome afterward, but they will never stick with Linux in general if they aren't at least somewhat comfortable getting around at first.
Actually I do! (Not sure if you were being sarcastic or not)
Basically, be original. (I'm not saying "don't do cover tunes", but if you do, it had better be signifcantly better or different from the original.) I've heard so many songs that base the whole song around one small riff in another song. For example, if you think you're writing a new song, but you're playing an Aerosmith or Zeppelin riff over and over (but they only used it for a bar or two, so you thought no one would notice), you probably won't get very far. People see through that crap more often than not.
Feel what you are writing. Any song written to appeal to an audience is pretty much pop (in attitude at least), and not something that will stand the test of time. The songs that remain in our heads, hearts, fists, or groins are always the ones that were written using the artist's emotions at the time. If you are angry, don't try writing a love song, and vice versa. Stay true to yourself and enjoy what you are writing also - nothing will kill a tune faster than hating it after you wrote it, and that will come through the music. If it means nothing to you, how can you sell it to an audience? (read: have them feel it - I didn't mean $ell it to them)
AVOID CLICHES! This is a big one. I'll puke if I hear another song with the line "If ya know what I mean" in it.
That's what I meant by worth-while stuff. Those are of course just guidelines, for if I knew for sure I wouldn't be sitting in a call center - I'd be rich. Remember: Not everyone has what it takes, contrary to what schools are attempting to teach kids these days. To quote George Carlin, "A couple of winners, a whole lot of losers." It could be that what you "feel" and "enjoy" just plain sucks. It could be a case of wrong place/wrong time (imagine if Devo tried to open for Sinatra). So many people are only in it for the money, and you can usually tell. Those people rarely churn out anything even remotely worth-while.
I have said some of the following points before, but feel they belong with this discussion, so will repeat the necessary ones.
Not all artists care if their music is downloaded. Many artists make the most from their live shows, so many want you to download away as long as you buy a ticket to the concert. Sure the record company might suffer a little, but they often screw the artists to begin with (Warner Bros vs Zappa comes to mind).
One good song does NOT make an entire album worth buying. If you suck but have a good song or two, or you're simply a one-hit-wonder, don't expect to sell a ton of records. People will most likely want to save their money for good ALBUMS while downloading your one good song. Want to sell a whole CD? Write worth-while stuff, you rehashed, tired, same-old-garbage dumbasses.
Make the CD worth owning in other ways, too. I think I may spend another $13.99 on a second copy of Beck's new "The Information" because a) the entire disc is excellent and the included DVD is great b) the stickers to create your own unique cover is genius.
If you prevent people from using Kazaa, they'll use limewire. If you prevent them from using limewire, they'll switch to bearshare. or shareaza. or iMesh, or morpheus, or.. or.. or.. get it? You can't stop them, and you're spending so much money trying that it is laughable. "Like watching a bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob." Wisen-up and use that money for CD art and packages so enticing that downloading seems dumb rather than worth it.
Most people I know can't stand the radio these days. Sitting through all those shitty songs and ads and talk for what? Most music is so devoid of any real content or originality now that people may as well use internet radio and p2p to get what they want rather than play russian-roulette with FM. Use that internet vehicle to promote the good new artists, and have ads that help generate revenue, or something. Get with it, you archaic imbeciles - people don't want the new band that sounds like Nickelback the third, but also aren't willing to sit through the overplayed garbage in the hopes a new, worthwhile band will have something played. It is difficult to discover new bands right now, and often the easiest way is through sites that have comparisons to other bands and genres. The chances of the radio Gods selecting something new that you'll like is slim, and then the chances that you haven't died of boredom while waiting for them to play it on top of that doesn't help the situation.
All in all, fighting the internet now is like fighting sliced bread. Bang rocks together, guys.
your lack of anything resembling a right to self-defense
I LOVE how "The Right To Bear Arms" (originally intended to aid you in protecting yourselves from an overly-opressive government.... hint hint... you know, like the English used to be when you left? Like your government is now?) has somehow been altered through the various devices of said government (media, movies, etc) to mean "the right to protect yourselves", as if you can't protect yourself without a gun. Now you're happy with a gun but don't use it to save yourselves from Bush and the eventual trouble his administration is getting you into with the rest of the world. Canadians and Australians alike are allowed to own guns, you moron. We just don't live in fear... and bring them to the mall in case someone tries to bum change but "it goes all wrong".
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft suffers FUD posts
Awww. Talk about "taste of their own medicine"! Hey, is their Zune software also available for mac?
*COUGH* Star Wars: Galaxies *COUGH*
You're using hear-say from "professional hackers" for Mac and a mere 2 examples confined to 2 (different) Linux distributions for Linux, versus the ongoing MS "security" track record?!
..?
"That leaves Vista, who hasn't yet had a problem."
I don't hate it - in fact, most posts I read here aren't usually by people who hate MS, just tech-saavy people who know a *nix-based OS is just more stable. Security highly depends on whoever set it up, but out-of-the-box? Windows can't hold a candle to an OS that was designed to be used by multiple users (and networked) like 40 years ago (a good 20-year lead on MS).
The open source aspect helps too - it's not that developers think OS X or Linux makes the app solid... hundreds of other people helping you make it solid does. Also, these developers are doing it on their spare time because they enjoy it - versus the closed-source camp who go to work because an alarm clock forced them to. This isn't to say those code monkeys suck, it's just a completely different motivation.
I'd also like to point out that every Mac and Linux user has used Windows plenty. Most MS fan boys I come across have yet to try anything other than windows.
You mean like OpenCL?
There IS a racial slur against trolls: Trog. (but they hate that.) Trolls are people too, contrary to what the Humanis Policlub would have you believe.
You feel the need to comment on jokes you don't get?
Pretty much what I was thinking. ANYONE studying for their physics exam by watching Speed deserves the mark they get.
Hubbard was no wacko either. He was smart - he was quoted as having said "If you want to make it rich, start a religion!"
Exactly. The answer is simple: Opening a little is a step forward, closing a little is a step back.
But what if he wanted all the fun and visual splendor of the Warcraft dungeons without the n00bs and immature idiots? Or anyone else for that matter? You can't get an offline copy of WoW. I think he's a whiner and I love multiplayer gaming, but I see his point - it does suck to not have a choice, right? Why else would we use open source software or ignore marijuana laws?
I started getting it on at 15 as well. If I wanted to send a picture of myself back then, that would have been my business. "Land of the free" my ass.
(this is not a console war flamestarter) I WAY preferred the Genesis version to the SNES version, and would LOVE a sequel to that. Better yet, a World of Shadowrun (Warcraft MMO-like) would be most fitting for the Shadowrun universe.
Excels at nothing? That's a bit harsh.
I've played 5 MMOs and I've never played one that made it so easy to play (interface-wise). A granny could play WoW, but not in a way that makes it dreadful to hardcore gamers. Also, in a world where some programs' interfaces make absolutely no sense, I think WoW takes the cake on improving and polishing the best ideas from other MMOs into the "total package". Innovative? Not entirely - but none of them are, all that much (they're all just multiplayer 'Eye of the Beholder' in a way). Excels at nothing? I think it is the only MMO that excels at being an MMO. (Woah - I sounded like a fanboy there, but I really just mean that all the MMOs are the same, WoW included, but it's the only one that successfully incorporates the finest aspects of MMOs into one.)
I have been toying with this idea for some time: player-added content. Effectively turning player characters into quest givers, or simply allowing subscribers to create NPC's. Obviously the quest objective, description, and reward would need to be reviewed by a GM to keep it balanced (unless there was a formula that could regulate pay and xp automatically, but this wouldn't work for truly unique quest ideas), but at least then there would many, many ideas, and too many quests to repeat the same ones over and over. There will always be the "kill 10 sock monsters" quests, as well as the chains ending in taking down a boss in a dungeon, but both are needed to appease different tastes and styles of play. Allowing players to add quests would let guilds create their own chains to customize initiation, it would let bored people who no longer feel like leveling to still interact with the world, etc...
I hated Halo. While it may have a "large following" (re: bunch of know-no-better kids), I wouldn't go so far as to say it had "great characters". It had a bunch of faceless space marines, and the alien enemies were Lame. Lame with a capital L... they weren't scary, or even a little frightening. The sounds the most common little carebear one would make did NOT make me want to shoot it. I thought there was some sort of space marine vs impending alien DOOM as far back as.. what, 92-ish? I think it even had blood, gore, violence, and a scary aspect (if I remember correctly). While I admit Halo's 2 player while-on-the-warthog was fun for 5 minutes, it irks me every time I hear about how M$ tapped a previously unforrayed market with this rehashed garbage.
The problem with this type of dynamic world alteration is that newer characters are subject to the mercy or malice of the majority of the top-level characters. While this may not seem like huge deal, it would suck really bad if you could no longer get your whatever-thingamajig because punks destroyed the place to get it. Also, on most servers, there is a huge imbalance between the number of alliance characters vs. horde characters, so the world (in most cases) would tip toward the alliance's favor time and time again.
Quick quick summary disclamer:
Inferior in the parent post refers to graphics for a lament only. When your Xbox 360 dies after a year and a half, don't be surprised. YOU chose the shoddy product.
In my experience, first gen PS2s are still running, and almost no first gen xboxes are. This study was conducted with most of my friends, and the units that lived or died are not hypothetical (re: I am not a fanboy; I own neither system but would buy a PS3 LONG before a 360).
Well... There goes solving the Human problem.
God obviously intended to heat us up a little (maybe so future generations will have less hair). It is His plan. Obviously, therefore, a massive Sun Shield fired in pieces every 5 minutes for 10 years is also God's design.
I would highly recommend Kubuntu (the KDE version of Ubuntu) because KDE is easier to navigate and configure when you have used windows before. I find the menus more similar to windows and better laid out. There's nothing stopping them from switching to Gnome afterward, but they will never stick with Linux in general if they aren't at least somewhat comfortable getting around at first.
Actually I do! (Not sure if you were being sarcastic or not)
Basically, be original. (I'm not saying "don't do cover tunes", but if you do, it had better be signifcantly better or different from the original.) I've heard so many songs that base the whole song around one small riff in another song. For example, if you think you're writing a new song, but you're playing an Aerosmith or Zeppelin riff over and over (but they only used it for a bar or two, so you thought no one would notice), you probably won't get very far. People see through that crap more often than not.
Feel what you are writing. Any song written to appeal to an audience is pretty much pop (in attitude at least), and not something that will stand the test of time. The songs that remain in our heads, hearts, fists, or groins are always the ones that were written using the artist's emotions at the time. If you are angry, don't try writing a love song, and vice versa. Stay true to yourself and enjoy what you are writing also - nothing will kill a tune faster than hating it after you wrote it, and that will come through the music. If it means nothing to you, how can you sell it to an audience? (read: have them feel it - I didn't mean $ell it to them)
AVOID CLICHES! This is a big one. I'll puke if I hear another song with the line "If ya know what I mean" in it.
That's what I meant by worth-while stuff. Those are of course just guidelines, for if I knew for sure I wouldn't be sitting in a call center - I'd be rich. Remember: Not everyone has what it takes, contrary to what schools are attempting to teach kids these days. To quote George Carlin, "A couple of winners, a whole lot of losers." It could be that what you "feel" and "enjoy" just plain sucks. It could be a case of wrong place/wrong time (imagine if Devo tried to open for Sinatra). So many people are only in it for the money, and you can usually tell. Those people rarely churn out anything even remotely worth-while.
It isn't against Canadian law to download files via p2p. You are correct in general though.
I have said some of the following points before, but feel they belong with this discussion, so will repeat the necessary ones.
.. or .. or .. get it? You can't stop them, and you're spending so much money trying that it is laughable. "Like watching a bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob." Wisen-up and use that money for CD art and packages so enticing that downloading seems dumb rather than worth it.
Not all artists care if their music is downloaded. Many artists make the most from their live shows, so many want you to download away as long as you buy a ticket to the concert. Sure the record company might suffer a little, but they often screw the artists to begin with (Warner Bros vs Zappa comes to mind).
One good song does NOT make an entire album worth buying. If you suck but have a good song or two, or you're simply a one-hit-wonder, don't expect to sell a ton of records. People will most likely want to save their money for good ALBUMS while downloading your one good song. Want to sell a whole CD? Write worth-while stuff, you rehashed, tired, same-old-garbage dumbasses.
Make the CD worth owning in other ways, too. I think I may spend another $13.99 on a second copy of Beck's new "The Information" because a) the entire disc is excellent and the included DVD is great b) the stickers to create your own unique cover is genius.
If you prevent people from using Kazaa, they'll use limewire. If you prevent them from using limewire, they'll switch to bearshare. or shareaza. or iMesh, or morpheus, or
Most people I know can't stand the radio these days. Sitting through all those shitty songs and ads and talk for what? Most music is so devoid of any real content or originality now that people may as well use internet radio and p2p to get what they want rather than play russian-roulette with FM. Use that internet vehicle to promote the good new artists, and have ads that help generate revenue, or something. Get with it, you archaic imbeciles - people don't want the new band that sounds like Nickelback the third, but also aren't willing to sit through the overplayed garbage in the hopes a new, worthwhile band will have something played. It is difficult to discover new bands right now, and often the easiest way is through sites that have comparisons to other bands and genres. The chances of the radio Gods selecting something new that you'll like is slim, and then the chances that you haven't died of boredom while waiting for them to play it on top of that doesn't help the situation.
All in all, fighting the internet now is like fighting sliced bread. Bang rocks together, guys.
your lack of anything resembling a right to self-defense
I LOVE how "The Right To Bear Arms" (originally intended to aid you in protecting yourselves from an overly-opressive government.... hint hint... you know, like the English used to be when you left? Like your government is now?) has somehow been altered through the various devices of said government (media, movies, etc) to mean "the right to protect yourselves", as if you can't protect yourself without a gun. Now you're happy with a gun but don't use it to save yourselves from Bush and the eventual trouble his administration is getting you into with the rest of the world. Canadians and Australians alike are allowed to own guns, you moron. We just don't live in fear... and bring them to the mall in case someone tries to bum change but "it goes all wrong".