Then rent from Netflix or Blockbuster. They usually don't offer any bonus discs for rent (via mail, anyway), and because of their pricing structure you're paying for the service, not the discs themselves, and you don't own anything that they send to you.
Next time, try to use an example that's not no ridiculous. Then again, you're AC. I shouldn't have such high expectations of you.
You might as well just remove the "Democratic" part. Democrat. Republican. Pot. Kettle. Black.
A politician by any other name still stinks of corruption, special interests, and selfishness to get through to the next election. When they have a few spare seconds not stuffing themselves with pork, maybe they'll do a few things for the taxpayers, like fund an Alaskan bridge to nowhere. I'm waiting for the TransPacific-California-Hawaiian Railroad next.
Really important issues such as wars are sometimes decided with something called a referendum .
You need to brush up on U.S. politics. There might not be referrendums at the federal level, but there sure as hell are at the state level. How do I know? I just cast my vote for one less than 20 minutes ago!
Contrary to popular overseas opinion, each state is relatively autonomous, free to dictate laws that affect only their citizens. Interstate or country-wide matters are in the jurisdiction of the U.S. government. Because the U.S. military is just that -- the U.S. military -- that falls into the jurisdiction of the Executive branch of the U.S. government. Although each state has its own military, they are specifically under the jursdiction of each state. In fact, the President requires permission from each state's governor in order to utilize them. In fact, one state's governor recently declined permission to use their troops to go on Mexico-border assignments.
But, hey, if you feel better now that you've had a chance to rant, then I'm glad to have been the shoulder that you apparently needed.
Hell, we've had that option even with the paper ballots for a few decades. Fill in one oval to pick all of the representatives for that party and hand the ballot in.
If you vote Democrat, you get a ham sandwich with lots of pork and useless filler that is then taken away from you and given to someone else who is more deserving.
If you vote Republican, you get a small amount of fat taken out but it's covered in our special Sanctimonious Sauce(TM) - unless you're gay, in which case you get nothing.
While listening to the radio this morning on the way to work, a number of people called in with problems all over south-central PA. Some voters had to be turned away because the machines wouldn't work at all. The majority of them reported pressing to vote for their party, but all of the selections for the other party became highlighted. (For those who are ready to decry evil republicans for rigging the devices, the people who called in wanted to vote party-line republican but all of the democrat candidates highlighted instead - even after multiple attempts.) Some called in to say that they had no problems, but they were few and far between.
This whole notion of going electronic for the sake of going electronic, which is what it feels like, is bullshit. For almost two decades I've been using the "fill in the oval" voting method and it's worked fine. Sometimes change for the sake of change is not necessarily a good idea.
And of course all of these even assumes that the Iraqi court and Iraqi people even give a shit about the U.S. elections!
At what point did the courts and civilians of any particular country suddenly become required to take the relatively insignificant matters of a foreign body into consideration for what happens within their own country?
But, hey, don't let that stop you from adding even more mud to what been getting thrown around with these elections.
I posed the question with TellTale some time ago about using OpenGL instead of DirectX and porting their software to a native Linux binary. Although I was told that some of the developers would love to do that, they simply don't have the in-house knowledge and resources at this point. Unfortunately for those who don't want to run a Windows environment, an emulator or Windows VM is probably the only way to do it at this point.
Although... it probably wouldn't hurt if these game companies tried to make sure their products are compatible with WINE/Cedega and said so on their web site or software boxes. If anything it would at least give them a small bit of credibility in the Linux world.
Honestly, when it comes to story-driven games, I don't understand why the game publishers are criticized. This sort of thing at only $9 per episode and it has direct influence from Steve Purcell himself... this needs to be criticized why?? It also allows the game companies to get immediate feedback on the game, not only froma story but also a technical standpoint.
For example... All of the episodes are going to use the same engine. So if there's a problem in the first episode that they didn't catch, which is very possible because of the huge number of combinations of hardware out there, they can quickly make engine adjustments for the next episode. In some respects that might be the same thing as a "patch", but considering the negative connotation that the word "patch" includes, this is probably a better solution from a public relations frame of mind.
Additionally, it gives them immediate feedback that can be applied in the next episode. What if people play the first episode then make great game comments about "It would be great if they did such and such in the next episode based on this particular occurrence in the first episode!" If it's a really good idea, it could be written into the next episode, which is only a few weeks away. If this was a complete game, there'd be no opportunity to work it into the story.
Similarly, it gives the writers more opportunity to expand the breadth of the story for future episodes, which is something that could not be done with a complete game. Maybe a sequel would work, but it could be years until a sequel comes out; and the sequel might have a storyline that is not compatible with ideas that were thought of before the prequel was finished.
I am the kind who does not like episodic games. I admit it. But when it comes to games where the strength is the storyline, I can see where episodic releases would be a wise idea. And at least this way, I get the whole game for about 1/2 the cost of a new, "big company" release and I don't have to opportunity to blow through the whole thing in a few days then say, "Okay. I'm done. What's next?" Sometimes a forced anticipation isn't that bad, especially when we're only talking about five or six weeks between episodes.
Nintendo is focusing on what they've always focused: the family. Microsoft and Sony are targeting the power user who are easily blinded by the "ooh and ahh" factor.
The power users are the ones who need the bragging rights of "more power" and are the ones who put emphasis on flash over function.
The family only cares about having fun together as a family. My daughter and I still have fun with Diddy Kong Racing on our oh-so-dreadfully-inferior {/SARCASM} Nintendo 64. We don't care that it doesn't look nearly as good as the newest PC game on a high-end video card. We have fun with the game together because the game is fun. That's what really counts. We don't give a shit that it's a 10-year-old, Nintendo 64. Hell, we sometime go back and play Commodore 64 games through an emulator! Why? Because the games are fun!
The people who put such a ridiculous focus on graphic prowess clearly have no concept of what a game console is supposed to be all about.
HP used to be a great name for all kinds of hardware before Carly took the reigns. She then came up with these wonderous ideas that got rid of good ideas and filled them with more and more sh!t. It takes a while for that to be cleaned up.
I wish they'd just to back to what they were good at. My pre-Carly LaserJets are still cranking out pages that are as good as if they were brand new. I couldn't wait to get rid of my post-Carly Athlon PC because it kept breaking (needed four parts replacements in three years), I had to threaten a lawsuit in order to get recovery discs, and their customer support was anything but, particularly because I couldn't understand the representatives most of the time.
Just remember -- it only takes a day for a fire to obliterate a forest. It could take decades for the forest to fully recover.
If you REALLY believe this, then you've never actually built a PC on your own. Out of all of the dozens of PCs that I've owned, either as a new setup or as an upgrade from a previous configuration, I've only ever bought FOUR - my first 12MHz, 286 PC; a Texas Instruments, 25MHz, 486SX laptop; a Gateway of some kind of speed for my wife; and an HP, Athlon 1.4GHz. All of the other dozens of different PCs that I've owned over the past 17 years are my own builds, so I have full confidence in saying that you're full of it.
My current PC took one day to get it all put together, and that includes the installation of three additional fans, two of which required drilling new holes in the case. A plain-Jane PC, regardless of its speed, can be put together in an hour once you have all of the parts ready to go. It takes no more than 5-10 minutes to install any one part - CPU, fan, PSU, motherboard, RAM, hard drive(s), add-on cards, etc. If you use a Shuttle-style, micro-ATX case, okay, I'll give you a few more hours because there's less space to work with. But if you have a full-tower case ready to go, you have no excuse to not have it put together in less than an hour.
Now, of course, those who are smart you would have already downloaded all of the BIOS upgrades, drives, and application upgrades onto another PC or an external hard drive. So, if you're including the time needed to download those in your "time spent wanking around" excuse, that's your own fault. Same thing with the personal data that would be migrated over.
Linux or Windows XP install. 1 hour tops -- TOPS!!
Get the drivers installed, let Windows update itself, get your games installed, get any other apps installed, transfer your data from your existing PC or external hard drive... No, there is no reason why the new PC wouldn't be completely ready to go within a full Saturday or Sunday.
As for tweaking, I find that to be seriously overrated. I take the safe route and pay a bit more for additional power in order to avoid the need for overclocking. My system can play any game out there and play it WELL for less than $1,000 with all-new parts including a dual-core AMD, GeForce 7600GT, 2 GB dual-channel RAM, dual hard drives, dual optical drives, in a microATX case with five fans keeping it at a nice, cool 45C under full load. No overclocking, no tweaking necessary -- in one day.
If you are going to get so uptight about losing one day of gaming to build your own PC, then you clearly have no appreciation for the satisfaction of building a killer PC by yourself.
Oh, I see. So, if news comes from CNN, MSNBC, or other mass media outlet, it's the absolute truth and we have to believe every bit of it as being all-inclusive of what is going on with respect to the U.S. military with absolutely no bias. But if the military believes that they're being shafted by the media and decides to put out its own stream of information, here come all of the "Big Brother" and propaganda accusations with the tin foil hat brigade in full force.
I've heard the stories from a lot of soldiers (yes, "from", not "of") directly from their mouths and without a doubt the most common theme is their disgust for what they deem as ridiculously biased news accounts of what is going on in their particular part of the world. I've heard parents with both sorrow and pride in their voices that thier son or daughter went back to the Middle East voluntarily to continue their work attempting to rebuild that area. I've heard marines who have finished their tours of duty state that they want to go back because they want to help the people and continue to rebuild their schools, roads, and infrastructures, as well as stand next to their comrades-in-arms, not that you hear anything about construction going on through the major news outlets.
Personally, I'll take the word of one of our soldiers who actually was there in the thick of battle, putting their life on the line every day as opposed to some egotistical talking head on a newscast who gets to make judgement calls in their cushy office far away from the various bits of hell that are going on in the world today, regardless of why those bits of hell are there. If this gives the soldiers the ability to have their stories told instead of being highly filtered through the the mass media or being isolated to local radio stations who support the troops, then so be it. Whether or not this new stream of information gains my trust, however, is yet to be seen, but at least I'm open minded enough to give them a fair chance.
But, hey, this is Slashdot. Don't show support for the evil "war machine" or give any branch of the government any kind of benefit of the doubt, or else you're just a Fox News-loving, right-wing extremist and war monger, right?
Yeah, yeah, I actually support our men and women in uniform but I have no stomach for the mass media (Fox News included). So that means it's automatically flamebait or troll moderation territory for me. So be it. That doesn't make what I've said less true just because most of Slashdot won't agree with it.
Brand new games. The team who WAS working on the Sam and Max sequel at LucasArts before they got canned wnet off to form TellTale. They got nothign from LucasArts, who still holds the rights to both the released game and the almost-released game. So, TellTale had to come up with a completely new story and graphics engine, but this time Steve Purcell is very active with the writing and overall direction of the game.
Personally, I wonder what the author's excuse is for those kids who do their homework as soon as they get home from school. Let's say that their bedtime is at 9 PM but their homework is done by 6 PM every night, and they always stuy until 8 PM if there is an upcoming test. Exactly how are those remaining hours of gaming going to be so devastating to their educational endeavors? I'm sorry but I have to call at least partial shenanigans here.
Was this study sanctioned by Jack Thompson by some chance?
I posed the question with them some time ago about using OpenGL instead of DirectX and porting their software to a native Linux binary. Although I was told that some of the developers would love to do that, they simply don't have the in-house knowledge and resources at this point. Unfortunately for those who don't want to run a Windows environment, an emulator or Windows VM is probably the only way to do it at this point.
It also allows the game companies to get immediate feedback on the game, not only froma story but also a technical standpoint.
For example... All of the episodes are going to use the same engine. So if there's a problem in the first episode that they didn't catch, which is very possible because of the huge number of combinations of hardware out there, they can quickly make engine adjustments for the next episode. In some respects that might be the same thing as a "patch", but considering the negative connotation that the word "patch" includes, this is probably a better solution from a public relations frame of mind.
Additionally, it gives them immediate feedback that can be allpied in the next episode. What if people play the first episode then make great game comments about "Would that be great if they did such and such in the next episode based on this particular occurrence in the first episode?" If it's a really good idea, it could be written into the next episode. If this was a complete game, there'd be no opportunity to work it into the story.
On a similar tangent, it gives the writers more opportunity to expand the breadth of the story for future episodes, which is something that could not be done with a complete. That most likely could not be done with a sequel not only because it could be years until a sequel comes out but also because the sequal might have a storyline that is not compatible with ideas that were thought of before the prequel was finished.
I am the kind who does not like episodic games. I admit it. Imagine is a game like "Battlefield 2" went episodic where you got one map every month. That's unacceptable. But when it comes to games where the strength is the storyline, I can see where episodic releases would be a wise idea.
Hell, they've had a price tag for years! My copy of "The Collected Sam & Max: Surfin' The Highway" clearly states that it's $12.95 on the back cover! Boy, talk about old news!:)
Sorry, but that's an asinine question, even if it was meant with a genuine desire for understanding. If you have to ask, then nothing that we say will make you understand.
Laugh all you want. You think this is outrageous? I've been getting what others would declare as "crap" PCs for a long time. 500, maybe 600 MHz celerons, some with memory, some without, none with hard drives. An old employer would just leave them out for anytone to take, rather than pay to have someone haul it all out. I must have sold over 50 of them over the span of a year, giving them a slight refurbish to the point where they are stable, throw Linux on a measly 4 or 6 GB drive that I bought in lots from eBay, and put it back for sale. All of them sold at a profit - even after taking the purchases of memory and used hard drives into account.
Consider also that most 500 MHz motherboards could be upgraded to 733 or 800, depending on the manufacturer. If you had an old 800 MHz CPU around and the 500 on eBay didn't work, $25 is less than taking a faulty PC to a diagnosis center. If the problem was just a bad CPU and you had enough parts around to make diagnosing easy, $25 is a steal.
There's more of a market for 500 MHz systems than you can imagine - even ones that don't boot. Hell, the case alone is probably worth that if you have the parts to build a beefier system laying around.
Hey, a U.S. senator actually did something good while sticking to his principles! Don't knock us if we get a bit over-excited! This is a rare occurrence in the history of U.S. politics!:)
Why is this being treated like it's a new issue? It's been known for years that keeping yourself active mentally keeps your alertness level up. Video games have been the subject of a lot of reports that the continual hand/eye coordination and continual exposure to numerous stimuli, like video, audio, reaction times, puzzle solutions, and so forth, keep the brain active and responsive. There are studies that eldery people who play things like crossword puzzles on a regular basis are generally more alert and have a better mental capacity than others their age who don't engage in such behaviors.
For crying out loud! Even Ronald Reagan thought during his presidency that the continual hand/eye coordination and quick thinking that were necessary with video games were good at keeping kids mentally alert! That fact that this dates back to RR means that this is 20 year old information. (Yeah, yeah, I know that he was a republican and therefore a target for knee-jerk, Slashdot ridicule, but no comments about ketchup or alzhimers, all right?)
I've wondered about this for quite some time now. I realize that a Wine/Cedega-compatible game isn't the same as a genuine Linux release, but would it really be difficult to make games that are tested to be compatible with Wine/Cedega? Yes, I know that the die-hard Linux users would prefer a true, Linux binary for their games -- and I understand that completely. (Chances are that the game would run better anyway, but I digress...)
Wouldn't these game companies at least be increasing their market share, even slightly, by going the extra effort to make their games Wine/Cedega compatible if they've already determined that they won't release the game with native, Linux binaries? I would think that a "cetification" logo on the game box would go a long way to at least gaining a segment of Linux gamers...or is there already such a thing but I just don't see it because too few game companies do this?
The DIVX stupidity was based on electronic DRM. It required (for those who don't know) a special DVD player that was authorized to play an triple-DES-encrypted disc for up to 48 hours for a fee. After that, additional 48 hours periods could be purchased electronically. The main key is that you bought the disc, which gave you 48 hours from the start, but after that you would pay and play for another 48 hours as often as you wanted.
Disney's abomination was a format called EZ-DVD. These were regular DVDs that were coated with a special chemical that darkened after approximately 24-48 hours once it was exposed to oxygen after breaking the seal of the disc case, rendering the disc unplayable. It would then have to be trashed or "recycled", but the customer had to pay for the recycling postage and I sincerely doubt that it would have been truly recyclable anyway. Because it was priced to be about half that of its "normal" DVD counterpart, it made little to no sense to pay 1/2 the cost of the real thing but get only two days of playability.
Both had their benefits and drawbacks, but the overall consensus is that both formats had far more negatives than positives, which is why both formats failed miserably; however, I'd love to get my hands on an unopened EZ-DVD, open it while submerged in clear polyeurethane, take it out, wait until it dries, then see if the coating still darkened.:)
Slashdot Mirror
Then rent from Netflix or Blockbuster. They usually don't offer any bonus discs for rent (via mail, anyway), and because of their pricing structure you're paying for the service, not the discs themselves, and you don't own anything that they send to you.
Next time, try to use an example that's not no ridiculous. Then again, you're AC. I shouldn't have such high expectations of you.
You might as well just remove the "Democratic" part. Democrat. Republican. Pot. Kettle. Black.
A politician by any other name still stinks of corruption, special interests, and selfishness to get through to the next election. When they have a few spare seconds not stuffing themselves with pork, maybe they'll do a few things for the taxpayers, like fund an Alaskan bridge to nowhere. I'm waiting for the TransPacific-California-Hawaiian Railroad next.
Really important issues such as wars are sometimes decided with something called a referendum .
You need to brush up on U.S. politics. There might not be referrendums at the federal level, but there sure as hell are at the state level. How do I know? I just cast my vote for one less than 20 minutes ago!
Contrary to popular overseas opinion, each state is relatively autonomous, free to dictate laws that affect only their citizens. Interstate or country-wide matters are in the jurisdiction of the U.S. government. Because the U.S. military is just that -- the U.S. military -- that falls into the jurisdiction of the Executive branch of the U.S. government. Although each state has its own military, they are specifically under the jursdiction of each state. In fact, the President requires permission from each state's governor in order to utilize them. In fact, one state's governor recently declined permission to use their troops to go on Mexico-border assignments.
But, hey, if you feel better now that you've had a chance to rant, then I'm glad to have been the shoulder that you apparently needed.
Hell, we've had that option even with the paper ballots for a few decades. Fill in one oval to pick all of the representatives for that party and hand the ballot in.
Now, THAT'S an awesome idea!
If you vote Democrat, you get a ham sandwich with lots of pork and useless filler that is then taken away from you and given to someone else who is more deserving.
If you vote Republican, you get a small amount of fat taken out but it's covered in our special Sanctimonious Sauce(TM) - unless you're gay, in which case you get nothing.
While listening to the radio this morning on the way to work, a number of people called in with problems all over south-central PA. Some voters had to be turned away because the machines wouldn't work at all. The majority of them reported pressing to vote for their party, but all of the selections for the other party became highlighted. (For those who are ready to decry evil republicans for rigging the devices, the people who called in wanted to vote party-line republican but all of the democrat candidates highlighted instead - even after multiple attempts.) Some called in to say that they had no problems, but they were few and far between.
This whole notion of going electronic for the sake of going electronic, which is what it feels like, is bullshit. For almost two decades I've been using the "fill in the oval" voting method and it's worked fine. Sometimes change for the sake of change is not necessarily a good idea.
And of course all of these even assumes that the Iraqi court and Iraqi people even give a shit about the U.S. elections!
At what point did the courts and civilians of any particular country suddenly become required to take the relatively insignificant matters of a foreign body into consideration for what happens within their own country?
But, hey, don't let that stop you from adding even more mud to what been getting thrown around with these elections.
I posed the question with TellTale some time ago about using OpenGL instead of DirectX and porting their software to a native Linux binary. Although I was told that some of the developers would love to do that, they simply don't have the in-house knowledge and resources at this point. Unfortunately for those who don't want to run a Windows environment, an emulator or Windows VM is probably the only way to do it at this point.
... it probably wouldn't hurt if these game companies tried to make sure their products are compatible with WINE/Cedega and said so on their web site or software boxes. If anything it would at least give them a small bit of credibility in the Linux world.
Although
Honestly, when it comes to story-driven games, I don't understand why the game publishers are criticized. This sort of thing at only $9 per episode and it has direct influence from Steve Purcell himself ... this needs to be criticized why?? It also allows the game companies to get immediate feedback on the game, not only froma story but also a technical standpoint.
... All of the episodes are going to use the same engine. So if there's a problem in the first episode that they didn't catch, which is very possible because of the huge number of combinations of hardware out there, they can quickly make engine adjustments for the next episode. In some respects that might be the same thing as a "patch", but considering the negative connotation that the word "patch" includes, this is probably a better solution from a public relations frame of mind.
For example
Additionally, it gives them immediate feedback that can be applied in the next episode. What if people play the first episode then make great game comments about "It would be great if they did such and such in the next episode based on this particular occurrence in the first episode!" If it's a really good idea, it could be written into the next episode, which is only a few weeks away. If this was a complete game, there'd be no opportunity to work it into the story.
Similarly, it gives the writers more opportunity to expand the breadth of the story for future episodes, which is something that could not be done with a complete game. Maybe a sequel would work, but it could be years until a sequel comes out; and the sequel might have a storyline that is not compatible with ideas that were thought of before the prequel was finished.
I am the kind who does not like episodic games. I admit it. But when it comes to games where the strength is the storyline, I can see where episodic releases would be a wise idea. And at least this way, I get the whole game for about 1/2 the cost of a new, "big company" release and I don't have to opportunity to blow through the whole thing in a few days then say, "Okay. I'm done. What's next?" Sometimes a forced anticipation isn't that bad, especially when we're only talking about five or six weeks between episodes.
Nintendo is focusing on what they've always focused: the family. Microsoft and Sony are targeting the power user who are easily blinded by the "ooh and ahh" factor.
The power users are the ones who need the bragging rights of "more power" and are the ones who put emphasis on flash over function.
The family only cares about having fun together as a family. My daughter and I still have fun with Diddy Kong Racing on our oh-so-dreadfully-inferior {/SARCASM} Nintendo 64. We don't care that it doesn't look nearly as good as the newest PC game on a high-end video card. We have fun with the game together because the game is fun. That's what really counts. We don't give a shit that it's a 10-year-old, Nintendo 64. Hell, we sometime go back and play Commodore 64 games through an emulator! Why? Because the games are fun!
The people who put such a ridiculous focus on graphic prowess clearly have no concept of what a game console is supposed to be all about.
HP used to be a great name for all kinds of hardware before Carly took the reigns. She then came up with these wonderous ideas that got rid of good ideas and filled them with more and more sh!t. It takes a while for that to be cleaned up.
I wish they'd just to back to what they were good at. My pre-Carly LaserJets are still cranking out pages that are as good as if they were brand new. I couldn't wait to get rid of my post-Carly Athlon PC because it kept breaking (needed four parts replacements in three years), I had to threaten a lawsuit in order to get recovery discs, and their customer support was anything but, particularly because I couldn't understand the representatives most of the time.
Just remember -- it only takes a day for a fire to obliterate a forest. It could take decades for the forest to fully recover.
If you REALLY believe this, then you've never actually built a PC on your own. Out of all of the dozens of PCs that I've owned, either as a new setup or as an upgrade from a previous configuration, I've only ever bought FOUR - my first 12MHz, 286 PC; a Texas Instruments, 25MHz, 486SX laptop; a Gateway of some kind of speed for my wife; and an HP, Athlon 1.4GHz. All of the other dozens of different PCs that I've owned over the past 17 years are my own builds, so I have full confidence in saying that you're full of it.
My current PC took one day to get it all put together, and that includes the installation of three additional fans, two of which required drilling new holes in the case. A plain-Jane PC, regardless of its speed, can be put together in an hour once you have all of the parts ready to go. It takes no more than 5-10 minutes to install any one part - CPU, fan, PSU, motherboard, RAM, hard drive(s), add-on cards, etc. If you use a Shuttle-style, micro-ATX case, okay, I'll give you a few more hours because there's less space to work with. But if you have a full-tower case ready to go, you have no excuse to not have it put together in less than an hour.
Now, of course, those who are smart you would have already downloaded all of the BIOS upgrades, drives, and application upgrades onto another PC or an external hard drive. So, if you're including the time needed to download those in your "time spent wanking around" excuse, that's your own fault. Same thing with the personal data that would be migrated over.
Linux or Windows XP install. 1 hour tops -- TOPS!!
Get the drivers installed, let Windows update itself, get your games installed, get any other apps installed, transfer your data from your existing PC or external hard drive... No, there is no reason why the new PC wouldn't be completely ready to go within a full Saturday or Sunday.
As for tweaking, I find that to be seriously overrated. I take the safe route and pay a bit more for additional power in order to avoid the need for overclocking. My system can play any game out there and play it WELL for less than $1,000 with all-new parts including a dual-core AMD, GeForce 7600GT, 2 GB dual-channel RAM, dual hard drives, dual optical drives, in a microATX case with five fans keeping it at a nice, cool 45C under full load. No overclocking, no tweaking necessary -- in one day.
If you are going to get so uptight about losing one day of gaming to build your own PC, then you clearly have no appreciation for the satisfaction of building a killer PC by yourself.
Oh, I see. So, if news comes from CNN, MSNBC, or other mass media outlet, it's the absolute truth and we have to believe every bit of it as being all-inclusive of what is going on with respect to the U.S. military with absolutely no bias. But if the military believes that they're being shafted by the media and decides to put out its own stream of information, here come all of the "Big Brother" and propaganda accusations with the tin foil hat brigade in full force.
I've heard the stories from a lot of soldiers (yes, "from", not "of") directly from their mouths and without a doubt the most common theme is their disgust for what they deem as ridiculously biased news accounts of what is going on in their particular part of the world. I've heard parents with both sorrow and pride in their voices that thier son or daughter went back to the Middle East voluntarily to continue their work attempting to rebuild that area. I've heard marines who have finished their tours of duty state that they want to go back because they want to help the people and continue to rebuild their schools, roads, and infrastructures, as well as stand next to their comrades-in-arms, not that you hear anything about construction going on through the major news outlets.
Personally, I'll take the word of one of our soldiers who actually was there in the thick of battle, putting their life on the line every day as opposed to some egotistical talking head on a newscast who gets to make judgement calls in their cushy office far away from the various bits of hell that are going on in the world today, regardless of why those bits of hell are there. If this gives the soldiers the ability to have their stories told instead of being highly filtered through the the mass media or being isolated to local radio stations who support the troops, then so be it. Whether or not this new stream of information gains my trust, however, is yet to be seen, but at least I'm open minded enough to give them a fair chance.
But, hey, this is Slashdot. Don't show support for the evil "war machine" or give any branch of the government any kind of benefit of the doubt, or else you're just a Fox News-loving, right-wing extremist and war monger, right?
Yeah, yeah, I actually support our men and women in uniform but I have no stomach for the mass media (Fox News included). So that means it's automatically flamebait or troll moderation territory for me. So be it. That doesn't make what I've said less true just because most of Slashdot won't agree with it.
Brand new games. The team who WAS working on the Sam and Max sequel at LucasArts before they got canned wnet off to form TellTale. They got nothign from LucasArts, who still holds the rights to both the released game and the almost-released game. So, TellTale had to come up with a completely new story and graphics engine, but this time Steve Purcell is very active with the writing and overall direction of the game.
Personally, I wonder what the author's excuse is for those kids who do their homework as soon as they get home from school. Let's say that their bedtime is at 9 PM but their homework is done by 6 PM every night, and they always stuy until 8 PM if there is an upcoming test. Exactly how are those remaining hours of gaming going to be so devastating to their educational endeavors? I'm sorry but I have to call at least partial shenanigans here.
Was this study sanctioned by Jack Thompson by some chance?
I posed the question with them some time ago about using OpenGL instead of DirectX and porting their software to a native Linux binary. Although I was told that some of the developers would love to do that, they simply don't have the in-house knowledge and resources at this point. Unfortunately for those who don't want to run a Windows environment, an emulator or Windows VM is probably the only way to do it at this point.
It also allows the game companies to get immediate feedback on the game, not only froma story but also a technical standpoint.
... All of the episodes are going to use the same engine. So if there's a problem in the first episode that they didn't catch, which is very possible because of the huge number of combinations of hardware out there, they can quickly make engine adjustments for the next episode. In some respects that might be the same thing as a "patch", but considering the negative connotation that the word "patch" includes, this is probably a better solution from a public relations frame of mind.
For example
Additionally, it gives them immediate feedback that can be allpied in the next episode. What if people play the first episode then make great game comments about "Would that be great if they did such and such in the next episode based on this particular occurrence in the first episode?" If it's a really good idea, it could be written into the next episode. If this was a complete game, there'd be no opportunity to work it into the story.
On a similar tangent, it gives the writers more opportunity to expand the breadth of the story for future episodes, which is something that could not be done with a complete. That most likely could not be done with a sequel not only because it could be years until a sequel comes out but also because the sequal might have a storyline that is not compatible with ideas that were thought of before the prequel was finished.
I am the kind who does not like episodic games. I admit it. Imagine is a game like "Battlefield 2" went episodic where you got one map every month. That's unacceptable. But when it comes to games where the strength is the storyline, I can see where episodic releases would be a wise idea.
Hell, they've had a price tag for years! My copy of "The Collected Sam & Max: Surfin' The Highway" clearly states that it's $12.95 on the back cover! Boy, talk about old news! :)
Sorry, but that's an asinine question, even if it was meant with a genuine desire for understanding. If you have to ask, then nothing that we say will make you understand.
Laugh all you want. You think this is outrageous? I've been getting what others would declare as "crap" PCs for a long time. 500, maybe 600 MHz celerons, some with memory, some without, none with hard drives. An old employer would just leave them out for anytone to take, rather than pay to have someone haul it all out. I must have sold over 50 of them over the span of a year, giving them a slight refurbish to the point where they are stable, throw Linux on a measly 4 or 6 GB drive that I bought in lots from eBay, and put it back for sale. All of them sold at a profit - even after taking the purchases of memory and used hard drives into account.
Consider also that most 500 MHz motherboards could be upgraded to 733 or 800, depending on the manufacturer. If you had an old 800 MHz CPU around and the 500 on eBay didn't work, $25 is less than taking a faulty PC to a diagnosis center. If the problem was just a bad CPU and you had enough parts around to make diagnosing easy, $25 is a steal.
There's more of a market for 500 MHz systems than you can imagine - even ones that don't boot. Hell, the case alone is probably worth that if you have the parts to build a beefier system laying around.
Hey, a U.S. senator actually did something good while sticking to his principles! Don't knock us if we get a bit over-excited! This is a rare occurrence in the history of U.S. politics! :)
Why is this being treated like it's a new issue? It's been known for years that keeping yourself active mentally keeps your alertness level up. Video games have been the subject of a lot of reports that the continual hand/eye coordination and continual exposure to numerous stimuli, like video, audio, reaction times, puzzle solutions, and so forth, keep the brain active and responsive. There are studies that eldery people who play things like crossword puzzles on a regular basis are generally more alert and have a better mental capacity than others their age who don't engage in such behaviors.
.. oh why .. is this news to anyone?
For crying out loud! Even Ronald Reagan thought during his presidency that the continual hand/eye coordination and quick thinking that were necessary with video games were good at keeping kids mentally alert! That fact that this dates back to RR means that this is 20 year old information. (Yeah, yeah, I know that he was a republican and therefore a target for knee-jerk, Slashdot ridicule, but no comments about ketchup or alzhimers, all right?)
Why
I've wondered about this for quite some time now. I realize that a Wine/Cedega-compatible game isn't the same as a genuine Linux release, but would it really be difficult to make games that are tested to be compatible with Wine/Cedega? Yes, I know that the die-hard Linux users would prefer a true, Linux binary for their games -- and I understand that completely. (Chances are that the game would run better anyway, but I digress...)
Wouldn't these game companies at least be increasing their market share, even slightly, by going the extra effort to make their games Wine/Cedega compatible if they've already determined that they won't release the game with native, Linux binaries? I would think that a "cetification" logo on the game box would go a long way to at least gaining a segment of Linux gamers...or is there already such a thing but I just don't see it because too few game companies do this?
They're not quite the same.
:)
The DIVX stupidity was based on electronic DRM. It required (for those who don't know) a special DVD player that was authorized to play an triple-DES-encrypted disc for up to 48 hours for a fee. After that, additional 48 hours periods could be purchased electronically. The main key is that you bought the disc, which gave you 48 hours from the start, but after that you would pay and play for another 48 hours as often as you wanted.
Disney's abomination was a format called EZ-DVD. These were regular DVDs that were coated with a special chemical that darkened after approximately 24-48 hours once it was exposed to oxygen after breaking the seal of the disc case, rendering the disc unplayable. It would then have to be trashed or "recycled", but the customer had to pay for the recycling postage and I sincerely doubt that it would have been truly recyclable anyway. Because it was priced to be about half that of its "normal" DVD counterpart, it made little to no sense to pay 1/2 the cost of the real thing but get only two days of playability.
Both had their benefits and drawbacks, but the overall consensus is that both formats had far more negatives than positives, which is why both formats failed miserably; however, I'd love to get my hands on an unopened EZ-DVD, open it while submerged in clear polyeurethane, take it out, wait until it dries, then see if the coating still darkened.
Depends on whether we are talking about Ethernet frames per second or datagram fragments per second. :)