The problem with telling people to wait is that there's a certain number that have already waited quite a bit. Even aside from new operating systems and service packs you'll always get a better computer for your $x00.00 if you buy a few months from now than if you buy now. Computer components keep improving and prices keep going down. But sooner or later the buyer has to bite the bullet and decide to act on a given sale.
I think there's a certain significant number of people who feel they are ready for and/or NEED a better computer than what they currently have and are only postponing because they've heard bad things about Vista and that Win7 is on the horizon. But tell those people who have already waited a year or more for this reason that they ought to wait a vague but significant amount of time more for a service pack or two to be released and they'll decide it's not worth the wait anymore. Their experience already IS poor. They are running ancient RAM that is pricey to upgrade. They don't have the processing power to play the games they want. Some component is on the verge of biting the dust or perhaps it already has. The number of people who have been waiting and waiting to buy that computer they would have long since bought if not for Vista are likely to flood to new computers once 7 is released. Perhaps not the day of release but just long enough to get some good reviews back and a decent sale to appear.
Sure, there will be a number of people whose computers aren't nearing their end of life just yet that can hold off until SP1 or even SP2 but telling someone who really is ready for a new computer now to wait that long is not very reasonable.
Yeah, it throws out all kinds of stuff. However, if you click on the 19.5km it'll show you its source a few words to show its context. If you go to the source you'll find the heights of various mountain peaks in that area. You could probably type in the names of those mountain peaks and get some heights. Or you could manually enter heights for the ones that it didn't salvage out of the pdf properly. I still find it useful (though it is very far from perfect). It's certainly better in some cases than just googling it normally.
I never played Robotron but from your description of it, I never saw all that many of those types of games for the 7800 either. *shrug* I can totally believe what you're saying but from my perspective, the 7800 didn't really play to its strengths if that was indeed what its strengths were.
As for the difference between 2600 and Intellivision, I agree with you 100%. Certain games were just better for the 2600. That said, while Intellivision was definitely harder for some, I had no problem with it and tended to enjoy them better.
There are a handful of games that I loved on the Intellivision and never much cared for on any other platform (including future ones, like the NES). For instance, Bump N' Jump was REALLY fun on the Intellivision but I've never seen it play as well on anything else and I have no idea why as it isn't a particularly advanced game as far as I could tell. Burger Time was another that my siblings and I loved but could never find something that worked quite as well on anything else. Even when they came out with Intellivision emulators that had 8 or so Intellivision games in a single controller, the control just...sucked. Burger Time was practically unplayable. It's particularly odd because the Intellivision controller really wasn't that great...the side buttons were particularly hard to press...but even with that disadvantage, I enjoyed it more on the Intellivision than on the NES.
There are a lot of games that don't get ported to the Wii because they are designed around a classic controller instead of a wiimote. With all three systems having a similar control system now, I'll bet we see more cross platform games come to the Wii that intelligently use the wiimote instead of having it tacked on or simply not made at all.
If we're just looking at what's on the screen, NES blew away anything that I had on the 7800. No contest. I remember really coveting the NES (didn't have any friends with the SMS). The NES felt like next generation compared to 7800. As for the 2600 vs. Intellivision, I had both and I felt the vast majority of Intellivision games were far better than the 2600 games. While I might concede that later 2600 games got a lot better, it was too late by then.
It's true that it's a tough sell with all that's available on the internet. I think they'd do better if they had more of the things that are inconvenient to use from the internet. Maps. Smaller but graphical walk-through guides. Codes. Anything that I'd want while I'm playing games. I'd rather have a fold-out map from a magazine sitting next to me while playing a game than having a laptop to zoom in on and scroll to the side every once in a while.
The reviews are nice but if I'm looking to buy a game I'll most likely do a search on the net to get multiple reviews and possibly even purchase the game online while I'm at it. Give me more large images from within the game as well as some descriptions of some of the tougher scenarios that game offers and I'll be more likely to buy that game (and possibly even a strategy guide). Offer game companies a chance to give a multi-page ad that would be useful to gamers and they may actually go back to it and find some use out of it. I know I'd be more likely to buy a game with something like that than a one page splash ad or even a couple page "review".
You can charge the game companies more because they'll have a greater rate of return for what you have to offer. With reviews you have to make an effort to maintain some sense of impartiality. With a multi-page ad spotlighting the coolest or toughest parts of the game that offers a map or two and maybe occasionally some cheat codes gives more value to gamers and advertisers alike and you can charge both of them likewise.
Plenty of people don't want or need a full-fledged strategy guide for every game they buy. Having something that could be a slight assist but not a total spoiler for multiple games that you could pull out and lay on your lap while you play if needed is something I think there could be a real market for. A website has a hard time competing with that.
So when can I get a free subscription? Seriously, EGM seemed to be giving out free subscriptions left and right. I never paid for a single issue. That would probably explain the plethora of ads. That must have nearly been their sole source of income. I guess ad rates weren't able to keep them alive so hopefully they can find a better balance in the future.
Shipping costs, shipping time and return policies. Not to mention the value in being able to see the quality and try out the product before you buy it.
Don't get me wrong. I buy most of my electronics online. I can usually find much better deals there than in brick and mortar stores. That said, there are some times when I am very glad to have a physical store to go to.
You know, I'm pretty sure I've experienced both (starting automatically and not) on different computers of mine in the past. Is it possible that it varies based on settings in your BIOS?
Much like Apple they do earn money using software and sell hardware as loss
I have a hard time believing Apple sells hardware at a loss. Do you have anything to back that up? Are you talking about the iphone and its associated phone contracts as I don't think that'd really qualify for what you're saying?
I thought most computers nowadays aren't even sold with a disc...they come with software to help you burn a backup disc of your own but the vast majority of people never even bother to do it.
If you like it, but don't want to pay for it, just pirate it. You'll be better off, and so may many others when they don't have to worry about your compromised box congesting their network, because it was exploited by a flaw MS has no intention of fixing in pre-release code.
Yeah, because pirated software has no chance of being compromised.
Too bad they aren't making it for the Wii. If they were, I'd buy it. My kids and I loved it on the Dreamcast. If they made it four player using a similar control scheme to SSBB it'd be even better.
So how do we encourage a dying creator to create more? Well, if the creator is concerned about his children's financial well-being then guaranteeing that the children can be taken care of for some time by the profits of his final Magnum Opus may encourage him to put the effort into creating it (and making it great enough to be profitable for some time).
Without the guarantee that those he love will profit from his efforts, why would a great creator spend his last few days, months, or two or three years before croaking creating more? He won't have time to spend it. In fact, he might not be able to find a publisher in time to even work with him. Why would people bother getting their dead relative's manuscript published (beyond honoring their name) if there's no profit in it (and possibly even a non-trivial amount of expenses)?
I bought something a while back from TigerDirect and got on their mailing list. Later I entered a contest at CompUSA and inadvertently got on their mailing list.
Guess what? They send the same exact stuff (except different names at the top) with the same prices and catch lines, etc. One sends out their emails an hour or so later (can't remember which sends first).
A judge in Utah once ruled in favor of a school that suspended a student for wearing a t-shirt with the word 'Vegan'. (Do you think the judge would have made the same ruling if the student's t-shirt had said 'Christian'?)
While I think I disagree with the judges ruling, the incident occurred because of a "gang" problem. It's less about banning the word vegan and more closely related to banning gang symbols. There's a group in Salt Lake City (and other places as well) called the Straight Edge movement. They encourage the vegan lifestyle among other things but at least in that area they were using violence to promote their ethical stand.
School administrators went overboard but I don't think it's fair to compare banning a particular vegan sweatshirt to banning a tshirt that says Christian. If the local community was having a gang problem that used a particular cross symbol on their sweatshirts I'm not sure that same community wouldn't have tried to ban that sweatshirt. (I still think they'd be going about fighting the problem the wrong way and that they'd be in the wrong, but I wouldn't outright dismiss the possibility of them acting that way as absurd).
It's not like they were just going around banning shirts that support causes they disagree with. If they had a list of banned items that included "Vegan", "Environmentalism", "Obama", etc. I'd be much more in agreement with the rhetorical question used.
Slashdot Mirror
The problem with telling people to wait is that there's a certain number that have already waited quite a bit. Even aside from new operating systems and service packs you'll always get a better computer for your $x00.00 if you buy a few months from now than if you buy now. Computer components keep improving and prices keep going down. But sooner or later the buyer has to bite the bullet and decide to act on a given sale.
I think there's a certain significant number of people who feel they are ready for and/or NEED a better computer than what they currently have and are only postponing because they've heard bad things about Vista and that Win7 is on the horizon. But tell those people who have already waited a year or more for this reason that they ought to wait a vague but significant amount of time more for a service pack or two to be released and they'll decide it's not worth the wait anymore. Their experience already IS poor. They are running ancient RAM that is pricey to upgrade. They don't have the processing power to play the games they want. Some component is on the verge of biting the dust or perhaps it already has. The number of people who have been waiting and waiting to buy that computer they would have long since bought if not for Vista are likely to flood to new computers once 7 is released. Perhaps not the day of release but just long enough to get some good reviews back and a decent sale to appear.
Sure, there will be a number of people whose computers aren't nearing their end of life just yet that can hold off until SP1 or even SP2 but telling someone who really is ready for a new computer now to wait that long is not very reasonable.
Yeah, it could definitely be better. At least it displayed it in gray (everything in gray is of "Low Confidence").
Yeah, it throws out all kinds of stuff. However, if you click on the 19.5km it'll show you its source a few words to show its context. If you go to the source you'll find the heights of various mountain peaks in that area. You could probably type in the names of those mountain peaks and get some heights. Or you could manually enter heights for the ones that it didn't salvage out of the pdf properly. I still find it useful (though it is very far from perfect). It's certainly better in some cases than just googling it normally.
Is Wolfram Alpha always this slow or has it been slashdotted?
This will take google bombing to the next level.
While I wouldn't bother doing what he proposes myself it's an interesting nerdy suggestion.
I never played Robotron but from your description of it, I never saw all that many of those types of games for the 7800 either. *shrug* I can totally believe what you're saying but from my perspective, the 7800 didn't really play to its strengths if that was indeed what its strengths were.
As for the difference between 2600 and Intellivision, I agree with you 100%. Certain games were just better for the 2600. That said, while Intellivision was definitely harder for some, I had no problem with it and tended to enjoy them better.
There are a handful of games that I loved on the Intellivision and never much cared for on any other platform (including future ones, like the NES). For instance, Bump N' Jump was REALLY fun on the Intellivision but I've never seen it play as well on anything else and I have no idea why as it isn't a particularly advanced game as far as I could tell. Burger Time was another that my siblings and I loved but could never find something that worked quite as well on anything else. Even when they came out with Intellivision emulators that had 8 or so Intellivision games in a single controller, the control just...sucked. Burger Time was practically unplayable. It's particularly odd because the Intellivision controller really wasn't that great...the side buttons were particularly hard to press...but even with that disadvantage, I enjoyed it more on the Intellivision than on the NES.
There are a lot of games that don't get ported to the Wii because they are designed around a classic controller instead of a wiimote. With all three systems having a similar control system now, I'll bet we see more cross platform games come to the Wii that intelligently use the wiimote instead of having it tacked on or simply not made at all.
If we're just looking at what's on the screen, NES blew away anything that I had on the 7800. No contest. I remember really coveting the NES (didn't have any friends with the SMS). The NES felt like next generation compared to 7800. As for the 2600 vs. Intellivision, I had both and I felt the vast majority of Intellivision games were far better than the 2600 games. While I might concede that later 2600 games got a lot better, it was too late by then.
SP3 only came out in May of last year so maybe he got the computers before then.
How long until they're forced to offer options of different operating systems at startup?
Are they required to pick popular browsers as alternatives?
Which browser would you like to use? Internet Explorer, Lynx, or xBrowser?
It's true that it's a tough sell with all that's available on the internet. I think they'd do better if they had more of the things that are inconvenient to use from the internet. Maps. Smaller but graphical walk-through guides. Codes. Anything that I'd want while I'm playing games. I'd rather have a fold-out map from a magazine sitting next to me while playing a game than having a laptop to zoom in on and scroll to the side every once in a while.
The reviews are nice but if I'm looking to buy a game I'll most likely do a search on the net to get multiple reviews and possibly even purchase the game online while I'm at it. Give me more large images from within the game as well as some descriptions of some of the tougher scenarios that game offers and I'll be more likely to buy that game (and possibly even a strategy guide). Offer game companies a chance to give a multi-page ad that would be useful to gamers and they may actually go back to it and find some use out of it. I know I'd be more likely to buy a game with something like that than a one page splash ad or even a couple page "review".
You can charge the game companies more because they'll have a greater rate of return for what you have to offer. With reviews you have to make an effort to maintain some sense of impartiality. With a multi-page ad spotlighting the coolest or toughest parts of the game that offers a map or two and maybe occasionally some cheat codes gives more value to gamers and advertisers alike and you can charge both of them likewise.
Plenty of people don't want or need a full-fledged strategy guide for every game they buy. Having something that could be a slight assist but not a total spoiler for multiple games that you could pull out and lay on your lap while you play if needed is something I think there could be a real market for. A website has a hard time competing with that.
So when can I get a free subscription? Seriously, EGM seemed to be giving out free subscriptions left and right. I never paid for a single issue. That would probably explain the plethora of ads. That must have nearly been their sole source of income. I guess ad rates weren't able to keep them alive so hopefully they can find a better balance in the future.
Shipping costs, shipping time and return policies. Not to mention the value in being able to see the quality and try out the product before you buy it.
Don't get me wrong. I buy most of my electronics online. I can usually find much better deals there than in brick and mortar stores. That said, there are some times when I am very glad to have a physical store to go to.
You know, I'm pretty sure I've experienced both (starting automatically and not) on different computers of mine in the past. Is it possible that it varies based on settings in your BIOS?
I have a hard time believing Apple sells hardware at a loss. Do you have anything to back that up? Are you talking about the iphone and its associated phone contracts as I don't think that'd really qualify for what you're saying?
I thought most computers nowadays aren't even sold with a disc...they come with software to help you burn a backup disc of your own but the vast majority of people never even bother to do it.
Yeah, because pirated software has no chance of being compromised.
Too bad they aren't making it for the Wii. If they were, I'd buy it. My kids and I loved it on the Dreamcast. If they made it four player using a similar control scheme to SSBB it'd be even better.
So how do we encourage a dying creator to create more? Well, if the creator is concerned about his children's financial well-being then guaranteeing that the children can be taken care of for some time by the profits of his final Magnum Opus may encourage him to put the effort into creating it (and making it great enough to be profitable for some time).
Without the guarantee that those he love will profit from his efforts, why would a great creator spend his last few days, months, or two or three years before croaking creating more? He won't have time to spend it. In fact, he might not be able to find a publisher in time to even work with him. Why would people bother getting their dead relative's manuscript published (beyond honoring their name) if there's no profit in it (and possibly even a non-trivial amount of expenses)?
I bought something a while back from TigerDirect and got on their mailing list. Later I entered a contest at CompUSA and inadvertently got on their mailing list.
Guess what? They send the same exact stuff (except different names at the top) with the same prices and catch lines, etc. One sends out their emails an hour or so later (can't remember which sends first).
Can I buy it off you cheap?
While I think I disagree with the judges ruling, the incident occurred because of a "gang" problem. It's less about banning the word vegan and more closely related to banning gang symbols. There's a group in Salt Lake City (and other places as well) called the Straight Edge movement. They encourage the vegan lifestyle among other things but at least in that area they were using violence to promote their ethical stand.
School administrators went overboard but I don't think it's fair to compare banning a particular vegan sweatshirt to banning a tshirt that says Christian. If the local community was having a gang problem that used a particular cross symbol on their sweatshirts I'm not sure that same community wouldn't have tried to ban that sweatshirt. (I still think they'd be going about fighting the problem the wrong way and that they'd be in the wrong, but I wouldn't outright dismiss the possibility of them acting that way as absurd).
It's not like they were just going around banning shirts that support causes they disagree with. If they had a list of banned items that included "Vegan", "Environmentalism", "Obama", etc. I'd be much more in agreement with the rhetorical question used.
If accurate it is very insightful.
Ah, what you're looking for is an ambulance. Let me call a "cab" for you. *Whack*