I like Linux and I support it... but please get some common sense here.
The type of people they're talking about is newbies who will have trouble typing. They'll never learn 2 OS and the most common and basic OS is Windows. While you may find it easy to learn multipule OSes, these guys need to learn just 1 and stick to it.
Linux is always an option but it's like teaching a guy to fly a plane in a place where you can only drive cars. They're similar but not the same.
Care to tell me how I'd check with a live CD? I have an unbuntu CD set from just before Dapper Drake and I've just ordered a set of the latest ones, but I'm unsure how I'd check.
I'm not some paranoid freak but sorry Google, no dice. Google already have a truck load of info on more or less everyone, now I'm not saying that's a bad thing today. But sooner or later the Google guys are going to want to do new things or they're going to sell out for money. Then all this stuff will go into the highest bidders hands, now to me that means the guy who wants the data the most.. Which I'm positive is the guy I least want to have it.
So thanks for the offer Google, but no. You don't need to know where I buy my stuff from, who's blogs I have in my favourites and I sure as hell don't want you know what porn sites I bookmark. I'll just keep a floppy in my draw with a backup on and update it once every couple of weeks. That way when you get bored of your current life, I don't get screwed in mine.
Or maybe I'm still running 98 because it does everything I need and other than Doom 3 (which my PC won't run any way), I've not found any reason to update. Maybe you've got a spare £100 to waste on an OS, but as a student I don't have this sort of spare money laying around.
And no I can't switch to Linux untill I get a new modem since mines a Winmodem. Which again costs money.. So that leaves me using 98 happily or using my DS to play pictochat alone. Which do I pick now?
If you can't unlock the feature it doesn't mean it shouldn't be there. Not everyone needs a spell checker, so we should just cut them out of products right? Oh and not every place is hot so lets cut fridges out of houses too.
Just because YOU can't access it doesn't mean others don't want it. It's extra content to add to the game after you've finished the game, the same way DVD extras are there as.. GASP extras.
I WANT EVERYTHING AND I WANT IT NOW! GIMME GIMME GIMME!!
Unlockables are ment to give you an extra way to enjoy the game. Something fun to extend it after you've already finished the main game. If you want everything handed to you on the plate right at the start of the game then you're not the type of person these features are aimed at.
Unlockables are aimed at people who want to get a perfect rank in every level, who wants to finish the game only using the basic weapon and who wants to try playing HL2 through with just a crowbar and a rocket launcher. If you're not this crowd then you have to accept that some parts of the games might not be to your taste.
1. I'm glad you think so. Personally I wouldn't goto the US if you paid me. It seems to just be a consumer prison (or going that way), where if the government can't monitor you then you're evil. It seems to be full of people who can't see through the bullshit terms like "innovation" and "terrorist". Your political system seems to be a choice of "Do we fuck you in the left eye or the right eye? We're democratic so you can pick which one we do it to". Maybe it's just me here but I think your system is one of the worst in the world because the people believe they're safe from "teh evils", when infact they are just ignorant to them.
2. People always look to the bad not the good. You can't argue "oh we're not THAT bad", when you're sure as hell not good. The American culture is to do as little work/goods and sell them for as high as possible. So you have a government system very similar where instead of real people being your government you have rich playboys who will give their friends free-rides and basicly screw everyone who isn't a rich playboy.
3. Your system is corrupt. If you throw it all out and start again then you will make a whole new set of loop holes to exploit. This sucks but it gives you enough time to fix these new loop holes before they get exploited. Any system based on the current US laws will keep most of the loop holes and exploiting them will just adapt slightly. Of course this doesn't fix the major problem of American's using the TV as the ultimate resource for information. Untill they can see through the crap the politicians spout and start to seriously look at their options they'll put themselvs smack bang in this pit again.
4. Bitching is a tool for survival. It gets the stress out of you and if you bitch to the right people you change the problem too. Which is quite spiffy. You also hit the nail on the head, the corrupt are attracted to power, so they will always try and get in the White house. The only way to fix this is every so often shake the monkey tree and knock as many off as you can. They may try to climb up again but then you have to shake it again a bit later. The US system seems designed for this (4 year terms), untill you notice that the rules say "Only two monkeys on the tree at a time", when you need more a long the linea of 3-10 to have a reasonable political race.
I'm from the UK and while I'm real in my views (everythings corrupt to some degree), I don't believe the US is superior in any way shape or form. It seems to have attracted the worst of the worst and focused so much on it's ego it forgot to see it. So now it's infested with parasites, corrupt and psychotic people (in power) and needs a kick in the crotch to sort it's self out.
I bought HL2:ep1 today but whenever I try to install it on my windows box I get this error http://www.boomspeed.com/akito/Ep1errors.jpg . Anyone know how I can get round it to play (I'm on dial up, so I can't DL it before its suggested)?
But do we feel safe that we used pirate bay? It's not insane to think that the police will follow up IPs of DLing torrents and use this as "reasonable" evidence to investigate further in other countries (USA for example), then take this as far as to taking down trackers or even tracking down single IPs and sueing/arresting people.
High demand by people who buy stuff first? Who would of thought it! People who buy stuff first just to be first/cool/whatever will buy it early! Wow news there folks!
Sony's problem is they've just made a playstation Mark 3. Except the Mark 2 was a huge step up from the original, where as the third step is all but unnoticable as it is. Untill Sony break away from the "me too!" style and basic frame work of the PSX they'll stay in the same rut.
The 360 did the "me too!" thing and look where it is now. Does anyone even care any more?
How about we just throw out all the crap and use the current laws instead?
Add in HUGE fines for not sticking to the age ratings and ta dar! All problems solved.
Kids don't get content they shouldn't have, parents become responsible. Everyones happy except people with an axe to grind (Jack), but who gives a fuck about dip shits like that any way?
Rather than making an ending which is exactly "continued next episode" as a lot of HL2s episodes do, they'll have to make each episode end with an uber climax or a cliff hanger. That way people will buy to get the next part of the story.
Also people who like the way a game went will stay quiet, they have no reason to scream and shout bloody murder, where as people who didn't like it will go batshit loopy to whine and complain. That means the developers will go for this group instead of the real fans.
Also people forget games need "weak chapters". HL2 has some really slow "boring" bits, which you take your time and only get a handful of battles. Episodes just can't do this. It doesn't quite work if half the game is slowed down. People will go "ZOMG IT SUCKS!! IT WAS SO SLOW!!" and whine.
Teams will get feed back as they work. If a bunch of idiots trash the game majorly it could rape morale. That way the team goes "screw it, why even bother? They'll whine no matter what. Lets have extra time off and just rush it out the door".
Final reason. You get episodes 1-4, but 4 doesn't sell very well at all. So they discontinue the series. Who's fucked then?
Episodes have upsides but they also have major downsides. They're great for whiny little kids who want quick fixs, but they're bad for real fans who want to explore and enjoy the game for what it is.
Maybe it's just me here but does anyone really care? Sony and Microsoft don't want to make a games console. They want to sell more crap which also play games (Media centres and such). Nintendo have more or less bitch slapped the PSP and gone "And stay down n00b" with the DS. I really doubt MS can do any better, and even if they do the DS is already so big that it won't matter. People are saving for the next gen console set (360, PS3 and Wii), so won't buy another handheld for another year or two at least.
Plus lets be honest here, WTF does the Xbox have that will work on a small scale? Other than Halo the Xbox doesn't have any real killer aps or a real fanbase outside of fanboys.
This is like a guy being arrested for selling a guy a gun he knew was going to be used to kill 10 people.
Murder isn't the same as stealing some crappy video content, but it's the same deal other wise. Piratebay know what they're doing and know what will happen when they've done it. A guy going "go buy drugs here", doesn't know what them drugs will be used for or what could happen through them.
It sounds great on paper, but think about it. If you could drink without any healthy worried at all then becoming addicted to the stuff is so much easier. You may not kill yourself through drink, but you may well die in a car crash or wreck your life by waking up and needing a bottle of vodka.
People forget life has natural "warning" signs in things. When science side steps these warnings/problems, new ones arise which are more "DONT FUCK WITH ME!" rather than "hey, you can't even stand, you shouldn't of gone THIS far".
What does 18 or 17 look like? I personally couldn't look at a set of 11 balls and go "that's 11". I'd have to count them (and I probably would split them into groups of 5 too). Some people just suck with numbers, infact the best example I can give is me counting to 100. I know every number, I know exactly where they should go.. except when I get to 39 or 49 I tend to skip back to 30 or 40. I have no idea why I do this but I do.
Don't think some little brat is a genius because they're related to you. He may just suck with numbers and will never be any good with them. Accept people are human, they have faults no system can fix.
I see where you're comming from but you have to remember the layers of bullshit people have to deal with.
"We're in the top 5 schools in the whole country" sounds great right? Well if you're in the top 5 then clearly you have all the cash and such you need, hence why you're doing so well. So you get no extra cash, you're doing fine.
If you can say "We won the cup last year, so we need more money to upgrade the sports equipment, that way we can win next year too!", then the money makes sense to come to you. After all if you're winning cups you'll attract more people into sports hence the equipment will do well..
Basicly it's the usual bullshit and although most of Slashdot would LOVE to stick the boot into jocks, you have to remember a lot of politics comes into play. If you give money to the good schools the bad ones bitch and go "ZOMG GIVE ME TEH MONEY! WE CAN DO IT TOO THEN!" and if you give it to the poor schools then the rich schools degrade.
Where as if you have a trophy and a nice new stadium/swimming pool, then everyone can see the "improvements". Which new text books, slightly better teachers and new chairs just don't give the same kick.
Plus you may also forget : If people want to learn they will, saddly most people don't.
MS may make major mistakes, but they roll out so much PR they get away with it. Most people think MS = good quality and something they can trust. Most don't even have the concept of MS being evil, the same way untill recently super markets (in the UK at least), weren't thought as evil.
Untill Mum and pops stuff starts to get stream rolled by MS in a visible way (aka little shops closing and huge super markets all over the place), they won't even notice it. I'd love to see MS fall but it's like wishing for the death of a giant when the giant's always covering his mistakes and going "oh that village was full of devil worshippers and child molesters" for any he destroys.
Try growing up. There is nothing wrong with Wii what so ever. Infact I'd argue with you that it is probably one of the best names ever for a console. It's simple, it's cute and it's something no one else even comes close to having.
Maybe you're too immature to grasp it, but simple names with a decent product which just does what it says on the box tend to sell very well. Take the playstation, it came around and had some great games. The name IMO is terrible, but it did it's job and it did it well.
The Wii will do exactly the same. It'll come around and it'll open up the market to a lot of people, give us all some nice games and if Nintendo come on strong with the marketing (like they have with the DS inthe UK), then the Wii will own.
But hey lets all be shallow and go "LOL IT'S LIKE PEE!" instead of "hehe, I can just hear the adverts with some little kid going "weeeeeee" when the Nintendo logo displays".
Slashdot Mirror
I like Linux and I support it... but please get some common sense here.
The type of people they're talking about is newbies who will have trouble typing. They'll never learn 2 OS and the most common and basic OS is Windows. While you may find it easy to learn multipule OSes, these guys need to learn just 1 and stick to it.
Linux is always an option but it's like teaching a guy to fly a plane in a place where you can only drive cars. They're similar but not the same.
Care to tell me how I'd check with a live CD? I have an unbuntu CD set from just before Dapper Drake and I've just ordered a set of the latest ones, but I'm unsure how I'd check.
I'm not some paranoid freak but sorry Google, no dice. Google already have a truck load of info on more or less everyone, now I'm not saying that's a bad thing today. But sooner or later the Google guys are going to want to do new things or they're going to sell out for money. Then all this stuff will go into the highest bidders hands, now to me that means the guy who wants the data the most.. Which I'm positive is the guy I least want to have it.
So thanks for the offer Google, but no. You don't need to know where I buy my stuff from, who's blogs I have in my favourites and I sure as hell don't want you know what porn sites I bookmark. I'll just keep a floppy in my draw with a backup on and update it once every couple of weeks. That way when you get bored of your current life, I don't get screwed in mine.
Yea, but if I put American culture I'd get modded to hell.. It's.. saving my karma's ass in short.
Or maybe I'm still running 98 because it does everything I need and other than Doom 3 (which my PC won't run any way), I've not found any reason to update. Maybe you've got a spare £100 to waste on an OS, but as a student I don't have this sort of spare money laying around.
And no I can't switch to Linux untill I get a new modem since mines a Winmodem. Which again costs money.. So that leaves me using 98 happily or using my DS to play pictochat alone. Which do I pick now?
Whine whine whine is how you sound.
If you can't unlock the feature it doesn't mean it shouldn't be there. Not everyone needs a spell checker, so we should just cut them out of products right? Oh and not every place is hot so lets cut fridges out of houses too.
Just because YOU can't access it doesn't mean others don't want it. It's extra content to add to the game after you've finished the game, the same way DVD extras are there as.. GASP extras.
Is the author like 12?
I WANT EVERYTHING AND I WANT IT NOW! GIMME GIMME GIMME!!
Unlockables are ment to give you an extra way to enjoy the game. Something fun to extend it after you've already finished the main game. If you want everything handed to you on the plate right at the start of the game then you're not the type of person these features are aimed at.
Unlockables are aimed at people who want to get a perfect rank in every level, who wants to finish the game only using the basic weapon and who wants to try playing HL2 through with just a crowbar and a rocket launcher. If you're not this crowd then you have to accept that some parts of the games might not be to your taste.
May as well hop in here.
1. I'm glad you think so. Personally I wouldn't goto the US if you paid me. It seems to just be a consumer prison (or going that way), where if the government can't monitor you then you're evil. It seems to be full of people who can't see through the bullshit terms like "innovation" and "terrorist". Your political system seems to be a choice of "Do we fuck you in the left eye or the right eye? We're democratic so you can pick which one we do it to". Maybe it's just me here but I think your system is one of the worst in the world because the people believe they're safe from "teh evils", when infact they are just ignorant to them.
2. People always look to the bad not the good. You can't argue "oh we're not THAT bad", when you're sure as hell not good. The American culture is to do as little work/goods and sell them for as high as possible. So you have a government system very similar where instead of real people being your government you have rich playboys who will give their friends free-rides and basicly screw everyone who isn't a rich playboy.
3. Your system is corrupt. If you throw it all out and start again then you will make a whole new set of loop holes to exploit. This sucks but it gives you enough time to fix these new loop holes before they get exploited. Any system based on the current US laws will keep most of the loop holes and exploiting them will just adapt slightly. Of course this doesn't fix the major problem of American's using the TV as the ultimate resource for information. Untill they can see through the crap the politicians spout and start to seriously look at their options they'll put themselvs smack bang in this pit again.
4. Bitching is a tool for survival. It gets the stress out of you and if you bitch to the right people you change the problem too. Which is quite spiffy. You also hit the nail on the head, the corrupt are attracted to power, so they will always try and get in the White house. The only way to fix this is every so often shake the monkey tree and knock as many off as you can. They may try to climb up again but then you have to shake it again a bit later. The US system seems designed for this (4 year terms), untill you notice that the rules say "Only two monkeys on the tree at a time", when you need more a long the linea of 3-10 to have a reasonable political race.
I'm from the UK and while I'm real in my views (everythings corrupt to some degree), I don't believe the US is superior in any way shape or form. It seems to have attracted the worst of the worst and focused so much on it's ego it forgot to see it. So now it's infested with parasites, corrupt and psychotic people (in power) and needs a kick in the crotch to sort it's self out.
I bought HL2:ep1 today but whenever I try to install it on my windows box I get this error http://www.boomspeed.com/akito/Ep1errors.jpg . Anyone know how I can get round it to play (I'm on dial up, so I can't DL it before its suggested)?
So abuse of science, how far does that stretch?
Could I not argue that science invented weapons so the Iraq invasion is an abuse of science.
Could I argue that nuclear power was invented to save people, so using it as an excuse to pressure Iran is an abuse of science?
We could push this so far it's insane.
But do we feel safe that we used pirate bay? It's not insane to think that the police will follow up IPs of DLing torrents and use this as "reasonable" evidence to investigate further in other countries (USA for example), then take this as far as to taking down trackers or even tracking down single IPs and sueing/arresting people.
High demand by people who buy stuff first? Who would of thought it! People who buy stuff first just to be first/cool/whatever will buy it early! Wow news there folks!
Sony's problem is they've just made a playstation Mark 3. Except the Mark 2 was a huge step up from the original, where as the third step is all but unnoticable as it is. Untill Sony break away from the "me too!" style and basic frame work of the PSX they'll stay in the same rut.
The 360 did the "me too!" thing and look where it is now. Does anyone even care any more?
How about we just throw out all the crap and use the current laws instead?
Add in HUGE fines for not sticking to the age ratings and ta dar! All problems solved.
Kids don't get content they shouldn't have, parents become responsible. Everyones happy except people with an axe to grind (Jack), but who gives a fuck about dip shits like that any way?
But it could also go the other way completely.
Rather than making an ending which is exactly "continued next episode" as a lot of HL2s episodes do, they'll have to make each episode end with an uber climax or a cliff hanger. That way people will buy to get the next part of the story.
Also people who like the way a game went will stay quiet, they have no reason to scream and shout bloody murder, where as people who didn't like it will go batshit loopy to whine and complain. That means the developers will go for this group instead of the real fans.
Also people forget games need "weak chapters". HL2 has some really slow "boring" bits, which you take your time and only get a handful of battles. Episodes just can't do this. It doesn't quite work if half the game is slowed down. People will go "ZOMG IT SUCKS!! IT WAS SO SLOW!!" and whine.
Teams will get feed back as they work. If a bunch of idiots trash the game majorly it could rape morale. That way the team goes "screw it, why even bother? They'll whine no matter what. Lets have extra time off and just rush it out the door".
Final reason. You get episodes 1-4, but 4 doesn't sell very well at all. So they discontinue the series. Who's fucked then?
Episodes have upsides but they also have major downsides. They're great for whiny little kids who want quick fixs, but they're bad for real fans who want to explore and enjoy the game for what it is.
More of this please editors. It's an intresting article and was fun to read. Can we get more of this and less Sony/MS/Nintendo fanboys/rumours please?
Maybe it's just me here but does anyone really care? Sony and Microsoft don't want to make a games console. They want to sell more crap which also play games (Media centres and such). Nintendo have more or less bitch slapped the PSP and gone "And stay down n00b" with the DS. I really doubt MS can do any better, and even if they do the DS is already so big that it won't matter. People are saving for the next gen console set (360, PS3 and Wii), so won't buy another handheld for another year or two at least.
Plus lets be honest here, WTF does the Xbox have that will work on a small scale? Other than Halo the Xbox doesn't have any real killer aps or a real fanbase outside of fanboys.
A better one still would be.
This is like a guy being arrested for selling a guy a gun he knew was going to be used to kill 10 people.
Murder isn't the same as stealing some crappy video content, but it's the same deal other wise. Piratebay know what they're doing and know what will happen when they've done it. A guy going "go buy drugs here", doesn't know what them drugs will be used for or what could happen through them.
Apples and oranges.
Perfecting a martial art is very geeky. It takes a lot of time and you really have to work for it.
Kicking ten shades of shit out of someone takes nothing but getting the first good hit. Something us geeks tend to dodge and flee from.
It sounds great on paper, but think about it. If you could drink without any healthy worried at all then becoming addicted to the stuff is so much easier. You may not kill yourself through drink, but you may well die in a car crash or wreck your life by waking up and needing a bottle of vodka.
People forget life has natural "warning" signs in things. When science side steps these warnings/problems, new ones arise which are more "DONT FUCK WITH ME!" rather than "hey, you can't even stand, you shouldn't of gone THIS far".
What does 18 or 17 look like? I personally couldn't look at a set of 11 balls and go "that's 11". I'd have to count them (and I probably would split them into groups of 5 too). Some people just suck with numbers, infact the best example I can give is me counting to 100. I know every number, I know exactly where they should go.. except when I get to 39 or 49 I tend to skip back to 30 or 40. I have no idea why I do this but I do.
Don't think some little brat is a genius because they're related to you. He may just suck with numbers and will never be any good with them. Accept people are human, they have faults no system can fix.
I see where you're comming from but you have to remember the layers of bullshit people have to deal with.
"We're in the top 5 schools in the whole country" sounds great right? Well if you're in the top 5 then clearly you have all the cash and such you need, hence why you're doing so well. So you get no extra cash, you're doing fine.
If you can say "We won the cup last year, so we need more money to upgrade the sports equipment, that way we can win next year too!", then the money makes sense to come to you. After all if you're winning cups you'll attract more people into sports hence the equipment will do well..
Basicly it's the usual bullshit and although most of Slashdot would LOVE to stick the boot into jocks, you have to remember a lot of politics comes into play. If you give money to the good schools the bad ones bitch and go "ZOMG GIVE ME TEH MONEY! WE CAN DO IT TOO THEN!" and if you give it to the poor schools then the rich schools degrade.
Where as if you have a trophy and a nice new stadium/swimming pool, then everyone can see the "improvements". Which new text books, slightly better teachers and new chairs just don't give the same kick.
Plus you may also forget : If people want to learn they will, saddly most people don't.
You're living in a fantasy world.
MS may make major mistakes, but they roll out so much PR they get away with it. Most people think MS = good quality and something they can trust. Most don't even have the concept of MS being evil, the same way untill recently super markets (in the UK at least), weren't thought as evil.
Untill Mum and pops stuff starts to get stream rolled by MS in a visible way (aka little shops closing and huge super markets all over the place), they won't even notice it. I'd love to see MS fall but it's like wishing for the death of a giant when the giant's always covering his mistakes and going "oh that village was full of devil worshippers and child molesters" for any he destroys.
Then you're just an idiot, it's that simple.
Wii = Wu-e
WII = W2
How can you not grasp something so simple?
Try growing up. There is nothing wrong with Wii what so ever. Infact I'd argue with you that it is probably one of the best names ever for a console. It's simple, it's cute and it's something no one else even comes close to having.
Maybe you're too immature to grasp it, but simple names with a decent product which just does what it says on the box tend to sell very well. Take the playstation, it came around and had some great games. The name IMO is terrible, but it did it's job and it did it well.
The Wii will do exactly the same. It'll come around and it'll open up the market to a lot of people, give us all some nice games and if Nintendo come on strong with the marketing (like they have with the DS inthe UK), then the Wii will own.
But hey lets all be shallow and go "LOL IT'S LIKE PEE!" instead of "hehe, I can just hear the adverts with some little kid going "weeeeeee" when the Nintendo logo displays".
Welcome to the slashdot moderation system. If you insult anything that isn't MS/Big company/China then you're flaming someone.
:)
They always say the truth hurts, so I guess the mods just got bitch slapped with it.