...HL 2 or Sin Episodes as stated previously. In addition, the same model is being applied, at least in principle, to Oblivion when users are paying for new and exiting things, like horse armor.
You might as well prepare yourself for more of the same, because if this business model succeeds, the industry as a whole will jump on board.
If you ignore him, the uninformed people of the world will continue to listen to him. If you argue with him, you bring him more into the public eye and more uninformed people will begin to listen to him.
I personally think the best thing to do is give Jack enough rope and he will eventually hang himself. At least one family advocate group has not only distanced itself from Jack, it flat out told him to never reference them again. Of course Jack's stance on that whole deal is that the National Institute on Media and the Family didn't really want to make a difference and that they were actually in bed with the games industry.
Jack has proven time and again that he isn't particularly intelligent and I'm sure he will prove it again. The primary reason the National Institute on Media and the Family distanced itself from Jack is the statement he made in the letter referenced in the above article:
Walsh's letter comes just days after Thompson issued an open letter to the videogames industry in which he outlined his idea for a game where the CEO of fictional company Take This, Paula Eibel, is murdered along with her husband and children. Should any developer agree to make the game, Thompson will donate $10,000 to the charity of choice of Paul Eibeler, the CEO of Take Two.
The interesting thing was when the gamer community made exactly what Jack asked for, he refused to pony up with the $10 large. So, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (Penny Arcade for those living under a rock)donated the $10,000 that Jack wouldn't...in Jack Thomspon's name! You can see the the scans of the letter that Jack subsequently sent to Gabe and Tycho demanding they be arrested for harrassment here AND the check that Gabe and Tycho wrote to the ESA. Make special note of the memo on the check.
...creationism and evolution. The book of Genesis describes how God created the world in seven days. However, few seem to understand that seven current days COULD actually be shorter than when the heavens and earth were created.
I had this exact conversation with my former Pastor (Baptist) and he readily concedes that there is no reference to length of days anywhere in Genesis. I have argued this point until I'm blue in the face with hardcore Bible Thumpers who argue that the Bible says a day in Genesis = 24 hours. My reply is, "I'm from Missoura...show me!" Guess what, they can't!
It isn't necessarily an American thing so much as it is certain narrow-minded "Christians" who take the Word in the Bible and twist it to fit their own agendas. People will believe what they believe and you are unlikely to change those peoples' minds.
Remember...David Koresh and Jim Jones were "Christians" too...
As a testament to this comment, I can use an an example from a previous life.
I used to build semi-trailers back in the day. The manufacturer I worked for built a light-weight trailer that used aluminum crossmembers in the middle of the frame. The engineers gave specific instructions on how these crossmemebers needed to be drilled and how to handle them if someone inadvertently drilled a hole off the edge of the flange.
The long and the short of it was that the engineers specifically indicated that if there was an instance outside of these parameters, the crossmember needed to be scrapped. The floor supervisors repeatedly would send trailers down the line with crossmembers that were outside of the specs...gotta save on scrap.
It seems to me that what Steve describes is inherent with the system the recording industry has in place. The system is structured so the people at the top can rake in tons of money. If a few big time artists would head to indie labels, it might start a trend and before you know it the RIAA and MPAA wouldn't have the money to cause death by DRM...
Not a troll...just a realist. Did you just compare OS X to Win 98 and Win Me? If that's what you are basing your whole OS X / Windows argument on, there is your problem. No self respecting Windows user would be caught dead using an OS that old. It would be like running Mandrake 2.x or something. Why would you bother?
You are right that there is quite a bit of Apache out there and it is a spectacular web server (I have a couple of websites hosted on Apache). However, you make it sound like there has never been a security vulnerability in Linux/OS X/Apache.
Oh, and by the way, you smell like one of those people who hate Microsoft just because it's a popular OS. I'll be the first to admit that it isn't perfect and that Microsoft does things (or don't do things, as the case may be) that are truly mind boggling. However, whether you like it or not, computers are as accessible as they are largely because of Microsoft and not because of *nix or Apple.
Congratulations on your stand against Windows! Yet another naieve Mac user. You believe that because you are a Mac user that you are immune from spyware/malware/viruses.
The fact of the matter is that you and two other people own Macs. Writing the above for your three users would be akin to Al Qaeda launching a large-scale terrorist attack in the middle of a corn field in Kansas. Sure...it's a terrorist attack, but who cares? Nobody was there to see it!
Make no mistake about it...if there were more than three Mac users in the world, all Windows users would be bashing Steve Jobs and not Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates.
Good luck with your Mac and the two games you play. But hey, you got pong, right?
DRM at its best?
I'm not sure that a EULA forbidding anyone from reverse engineering/detecting/removing their crapware would hold up in court. I imagine that the Sony/BMG rootkit deal will end up in court somewhere and that will tell us all just how far gone our rights are in this regard.
What Mr. Kern says may be true in his particular case. A large portion of a person's experience in college will be dependent upon the professors they have. Case in point:
I am an Undergrad at a local university just a couple of credit hours away from my Bachelors of Science in Business Administration, Management Information Systems with a GPA of 3.93.
One of the required MIS courses I was looking forward to was a basic HTML course. I am not a great web designer, but I certainly know enough to be able to do well in a basic HTML course...who knows, I might even learn some new stuff.
My first clue that the class may not go well was the text book...HTML For Dummies (no joke). The instructor (I have a tough time calling him a professor) was a complete idiot. Every week he would hand out the answers to the test in a packet of Xeroxed papers about 1/4 " thick. All I had to do was memorize everything in that packet and I would get a good grade on the test, right? Wrong! The tests consisted of things like:
A w_____ p_____ is what you see when you type a URL in your address.
The above example is not an extreme example of the tests, it is a typcial example...nay, an example of one of the easier questions on the test. At times there would be a whole paragraph with every other word missing (except the first letter of the answer). After the second exam, even the most dedicated students quit studying. You were just as likely to get a passing grade by NOT studying as you were by studying.
Everyone in that class tried to get the instructor to change his testing style...flat out calling it absurd, but he refused and even defended his teaching/testing method. On the end of course evaluation I made comments demanding my money back (hyeah, like tha would ever happen).
So, before you judge Mr. Kern, remember, your mileage may vary...
Well, I don't know the full details of this "change". However, the U.S. has ALWAYS reserved the right to first use of nuclear weapons...ALWAYS! I suspect you are a bit too young to remember the good ol' days of mutually assured destruction during the Cold War, but that was the way of life back then. We didn't preemptively use nukes then and I seriously doubt we will use them first now...unless there is a dire need to.
Let the flaming begin...
Anyone who has ever played any amount of EA games can probably testify that the games usually feel like the people that make them don't play them (IMHO). One of my favorite EA features are the "you can't get there from here" menus.
Tiger Woods 2K3 is a perfect example of this. If you want to play the challenges the menu system works against you. After finishing a challenge, you MUST go back out to the main menu and go through the whole process of setting up the challenges again. If you fail a challenge and want to replay it, same thing.
When I read the story about the near-slave-labor conditions at EA, a light went on...hmmm, THAT explains a LOT.
Slashdot Mirror
I hear Jack Thompson will make a guest appearance as a Mac gamer...
...HL 2 or Sin Episodes as stated previously. In addition, the same model is being applied, at least in principle, to Oblivion when users are paying for new and exiting things, like horse armor.
You might as well prepare yourself for more of the same, because if this business model succeeds, the industry as a whole will jump on board.
Well said.
EA or M$, give it to Wal-mart. You can buy and Xbox Live card...with cash...pretty much anywhere.
I have read tons of reviews on this very subject. For every pro plasma article I read, I can find an opposing viewpoint for LCD.
Personally I'm hoping for OLED...
If you ignore him, the uninformed people of the world will continue to listen to him. If you argue with him, you bring him more into the public eye and more uninformed people will begin to listen to him.
I personally think the best thing to do is give Jack enough rope and he will eventually hang himself. At least one family advocate group has not only distanced itself from Jack, it flat out told him to never reference them again. Of course Jack's stance on that whole deal is that the National Institute on Media and the Family didn't really want to make a difference and that they were actually in bed with the games industry.
Jack has proven time and again that he isn't particularly intelligent and I'm sure he will prove it again. The primary reason the National Institute on Media and the Family distanced itself from Jack is the statement he made in the letter referenced in the above article:
The interesting thing was when the gamer community made exactly what Jack asked for, he refused to pony up with the $10 large. So, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins (Penny Arcade for those living under a rock)donated the $10,000 that Jack wouldn't...in Jack Thomspon's name! You can see the the scans of the letter that Jack subsequently sent to Gabe and Tycho demanding they be arrested for harrassment here AND the check that Gabe and Tycho wrote to the ESA. Make special note of the memo on the check.
...creationism and evolution. The book of Genesis describes how God created the world in seven days. However, few seem to understand that seven current days COULD actually be shorter than when the heavens and earth were created.
I had this exact conversation with my former Pastor (Baptist) and he readily concedes that there is no reference to length of days anywhere in Genesis. I have argued this point until I'm blue in the face with hardcore Bible Thumpers who argue that the Bible says a day in Genesis = 24 hours. My reply is, "I'm from Missoura...show me!" Guess what, they can't!
It isn't necessarily an American thing so much as it is certain narrow-minded "Christians" who take the Word in the Bible and twist it to fit their own agendas. People will believe what they believe and you are unlikely to change those peoples' minds.
Remember...David Koresh and Jim Jones were "Christians" too...
As a testament to this comment, I can use an an example from a previous life.
I used to build semi-trailers back in the day. The manufacturer I worked for built a light-weight trailer that used aluminum crossmembers in the middle of the frame. The engineers gave specific instructions on how these crossmemebers needed to be drilled and how to handle them if someone inadvertently drilled a hole off the edge of the flange.
The long and the short of it was that the engineers specifically indicated that if there was an instance outside of these parameters, the crossmember needed to be scrapped. The floor supervisors repeatedly would send trailers down the line with crossmembers that were outside of the specs...gotta save on scrap.
Daikatana
It seems to me that what Steve describes is inherent with the system the recording industry has in place. The system is structured so the people at the top can rake in tons of money. If a few big time artists would head to indie labels, it might start a trend and before you know it the RIAA and MPAA wouldn't have the money to cause death by DRM...
Not a troll...just a realist. Did you just compare OS X to Win 98 and Win Me? If that's what you are basing your whole OS X / Windows argument on, there is your problem. No self respecting Windows user would be caught dead using an OS that old. It would be like running Mandrake 2.x or something. Why would you bother?
You are right that there is quite a bit of Apache out there and it is a spectacular web server (I have a couple of websites hosted on Apache). However, you make it sound like there has never been a security vulnerability in Linux/OS X/Apache.
Oh, and by the way, you smell like one of those people who hate Microsoft just because it's a popular OS. I'll be the first to admit that it isn't perfect and that Microsoft does things (or don't do things, as the case may be) that are truly mind boggling. However, whether you like it or not, computers are as accessible as they are largely because of Microsoft and not because of *nix or Apple.
Congratulations on your stand against Windows! Yet another naieve Mac user. You believe that because you are a Mac user that you are immune from spyware/malware/viruses. The fact of the matter is that you and two other people own Macs. Writing the above for your three users would be akin to Al Qaeda launching a large-scale terrorist attack in the middle of a corn field in Kansas. Sure...it's a terrorist attack, but who cares? Nobody was there to see it! Make no mistake about it...if there were more than three Mac users in the world, all Windows users would be bashing Steve Jobs and not Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates. Good luck with your Mac and the two games you play. But hey, you got pong, right?
DRM at its best? I'm not sure that a EULA forbidding anyone from reverse engineering/detecting/removing their crapware would hold up in court. I imagine that the Sony/BMG rootkit deal will end up in court somewhere and that will tell us all just how far gone our rights are in this regard.
What Mr. Kern says may be true in his particular case. A large portion of a person's experience in college will be dependent upon the professors they have. Case in point: I am an Undergrad at a local university just a couple of credit hours away from my Bachelors of Science in Business Administration, Management Information Systems with a GPA of 3.93. One of the required MIS courses I was looking forward to was a basic HTML course. I am not a great web designer, but I certainly know enough to be able to do well in a basic HTML course...who knows, I might even learn some new stuff. My first clue that the class may not go well was the text book...HTML For Dummies (no joke). The instructor (I have a tough time calling him a professor) was a complete idiot. Every week he would hand out the answers to the test in a packet of Xeroxed papers about 1/4 " thick. All I had to do was memorize everything in that packet and I would get a good grade on the test, right? Wrong! The tests consisted of things like: A w_____ p_____ is what you see when you type a URL in your address. The above example is not an extreme example of the tests, it is a typcial example...nay, an example of one of the easier questions on the test. At times there would be a whole paragraph with every other word missing (except the first letter of the answer). After the second exam, even the most dedicated students quit studying. You were just as likely to get a passing grade by NOT studying as you were by studying. Everyone in that class tried to get the instructor to change his testing style...flat out calling it absurd, but he refused and even defended his teaching/testing method. On the end of course evaluation I made comments demanding my money back (hyeah, like tha would ever happen). So, before you judge Mr. Kern, remember, your mileage may vary...
Well, I don't know the full details of this "change". However, the U.S. has ALWAYS reserved the right to first use of nuclear weapons...ALWAYS! I suspect you are a bit too young to remember the good ol' days of mutually assured destruction during the Cold War, but that was the way of life back then. We didn't preemptively use nukes then and I seriously doubt we will use them first now...unless there is a dire need to. Let the flaming begin...
http://penny-arcade.com/view.php?date=2005-01-26
Nuff said...
Anyone who has ever played any amount of EA games can probably testify that the games usually feel like the people that make them don't play them (IMHO). One of my favorite EA features are the "you can't get there from here" menus.
Tiger Woods 2K3 is a perfect example of this. If you want to play the challenges the menu system works against you. After finishing a challenge, you MUST go back out to the main menu and go through the whole process of setting up the challenges again. If you fail a challenge and want to replay it, same thing.
When I read the story about the near-slave-labor conditions at EA, a light went on...hmmm, THAT explains a LOT.