I fear this is simply Ridley wanting to make a quick buck, he's not getting any younger. Had he passionately believed in creating a franchise out of Alien, I don't believe he would've walked away from it so quickly, nor would he have waited 30 years to pick the reigns out of the cesspit. Reality is the series, that should never have been, has hit rock bottom and the suits, that control Genericwood, offered Ridley sufficient lewt to commit him to wiping the slate clean, so they can milk it a bit longer. It's hugely depressing that even a talent such as Ridley Scott can't escape the "Sequel, Prequel or Reboot" bubble they've got going on, but I digress...
As much as I adore Cameron's film (it's in my top 10), it didn't do anything to add to the original work and departed from the original's artistic vision completely. For all intents and purposes Aliens didn't need Alien. Cameron could have done the same film, with really quite minor changes under it's own banner (and probably wished he had when Alien 3 came along and torpedoed *his* plans for the series, he didn't try to hide his rage either). Indeed, Aliens was simply the result of him wanting to do a big budget war film, but being unable to get funding to do it and Fox wanting to milk the success of Alien (concieved as a one-off). Hitching up his idea to Fox's moneytrain was the result
Cameron was decent enough not to openly shit all over Scott's work, but he never really intended to follow with the original vision. Aliens was all about him hi-jacking the brand, for his own purposes (for better or worse). He sidelined Giger completely, despite Giger being keen to get involved, having been a key creative element on the original (his involvement went beyond scultping the Alien). Cameron redesigned the xenomorphs and invented the new queen and hive, without consulting Giger. He threw the whole bio-mechanical vision Giger had drawn up for Alien out the window, the "perfect biomechanical stalker" xenomorph went out of the window infavor of "hivemind bug/fodder", Ripley also changed, a lot, etc.
I won't bother to go into Alien 3 and the abomination that was Ressurection, but they pretty much cement the fact that Alien, the franchise, is pretty much whatever the active director/writer/studios wants it to be, and thus as a series is worthless. Put simply: Unless films (or books, for that matter) are designed, from the outset, to be a series, with a well defined roadmap and the original creative team involved at some level, they really shouldn't get follow ups, particularly not gravedigs decades later. As to wanting to know what how the derelict came to be, etc, whatever happend to having a bit of imagination?
I'm sure most people have theories as to how events unfolded. This prequel won't reveal the "absolute truth", just some hack's interpretation of what happened, crafted to flog tickets, rather than being what makes sense, or originally intended (original writers aren't involved). For those that lack imagination (the shame): The Dark Horse comics/novels, which had some input from the original writers, dealt with the "Space Jockey" issue decades ago. Their interpretation is no less legit than whatever they cook up for this, imo. 'Canon' means jackshit when a franchise has no firm base and is made up on the fly, by whoever happens to get their dirty fingers on the IP.
I don't think religion really has any bearing, Babylon 5 had a lot of veiled references to religion and prophecy, yet I'd venture it's probably one of the highest rated series by the/. crowd. Many of the classic sci-fi books also deal with religion to some extent.
The problem with BSG from season 2 to 3 has been the more episodic nature and general lack of forward planning by the creators. Take the Pegasus setup - great intro, but then suddenly for about 3 episodes after it was "Who will captain the Pegasus today!", then there were episodes like those dealing with the striking miners, love triangles, abortions, medical malpractice, that just didn't gel with the general theme of the show, reaked of filler and could have been copy/pasted from any daytime soap opera.
I hope with Caprica they crib card every episode before filming even begins, it will let them know how many episodes they need to cut on filler and making planning/budgeting easier.
For the politicians to do anything, they need to think it will get them votes (i.e have popular support) or alternatively be of benefit to them (shares in industries, backhanders etc). Scientology is very unprofitable for anyone to deal with.
The mainstream media for the most part give them a wide berth, leading to a lack of public awareness. Out of interest I asked some older people I know what they thought the CoS was; a lot thought it was a Christian spin-off with a scientific tilt. The BBC have not yet even noted the fact 500 protestors gathered in London (let alone the fact ~8000 mobilised simulatenously around the world). Sure there were more important stories, but the fact is they managed to find far less notable filler stories to tell the world. My guess is it's a taboo subject they don't want to go near after the CoS's attack on informative Panorama investigation. Same applied with many other major media outlets who dodged it or downplayed it.
Still at least here in the UK the London Police supported the Anons, I distinctly heard one officer (after being harassed to do something by a Cultist) walk off to another and say 'fucking freaks'.
Hopefully the media will have no choice but to approach the subject as more people get involved in the movement against the crazy cult. Once they get onboard you can guarantee the Politicians will begin to notice.
"If we were planning on attacking them, it's best to keep them confused as long as possible."
I doubt a lack of internet access will confuse the average Iranian, nor their military infrastructue. If news (of significance) relating to a brewing conflict is to be spilled, chances are it will be on CNN and beamed to the world. Failing that, I'm pretty sure comrade KGB would let the Iranians know what's happening. Iran will know just as well without the net what's going on - Digg, Slashdot and Youtube are not their primary information sources;)
Given the very low level of net access there, I can't see it having any impact on the day to day lives of the average Iranian either.
Crap for gaming. With a screen that size/shape you can't see the extremities without physically turning your head quite a bit. In FPS games you really need to have your whole FOV in view to be competitive. If you move further back (to get the whole screen in your field of vision) you defeat the point of the screen being curved and may as well be looking at a conventional panel. In terms of enhancing gaming it's right up there with fancy LED's on Heatsinks.
A big problem with nearly every open game project I've followed is that their designed as open source projects, not games. Gameplay seems to take a back seat in the design process, getting tacked on at the end. Gameplay really should be the nucleus around which the project is designed and built, even the guys/girls you get involved should (ideally) be chosen based on their compatibility and commitment to the vision of the game, not just their commitment to "open source".
From the Apricot website it's rather apparent that once again gameplay is taking a back seat. 95% of the blurb is promoting it's openness - I frankly don't give a shit. I want to know what's going to set it apart from a billion and one other games? What innovative gameplay elements will feature? These are what I want to know. From their brief description, all they know is it will have furry critters, that's it. Rest to be decided later.
Open source is the perfect vehicle to play with innovative ideas, free of the chains of publishers/marketing.. yet it seems to constantly get squandered on half baked 'we can do it too!' projects. Indie (closed source) games, like Aquarius and Armageddon Empires, have shown what can be done by small teams (and one man bands) who have a passion for gaming and a clear design vision. It's about time the open scene caught on and stopped turning out half assed clones of popular games that are outclassed by ancient abandonware.
I hope something good comes of this, but won't hold my breath...
A lot got cut in translation due to the publisher not wanting to fork out for voice acting, you can unlock the cut dialogue, including some cut audio, with a simple registry hack though (compatible with all savegames).
See here: http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=21829
Can't see them getting it right here, I live near a big land based farm in Wales and we have the same problem. In the 10 years I've lived here, on any given day, at least half are out of service and non functioning. The fuel used to get big cranes and 4x4's up to them probably uses more power than they actually generate. When they were built they had to destroy a largish wooded area to make room and build an access road too.
The whole manned space program is still experimental, it's purpose is to push the limits of our capabilities and expose problems/weaknesses so they can be overcome. Sooner or later were going to need to step off this rock and expand out, ISS is valuable stepping stone and research tool on that path.
You can only simulate so much in the labs, practical experience is what counts. Finding and fixing leaks, whilst annoying (and I dare-say worrying to those onboard), will provide a lot of valuable data, vital for future long duration space-flight missions. Better to learn these things in Earth orbit where they are 'just' a Soyuz drop away from home, than in a Martian orbit... months out.
I'd have thought he'd learnt his Lesson with Fox.
on
Joss Whedon Back on TV
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
Whilst i'm glad Joss is back, I'd have thought he'd learnt his lesson with Fox.
Even if this new series is good, it will probably get fucked over by the suits faster than you can say 'Firefly'. From the fallout over that show I'd got the distinct impression he was 'done' altogether with the current model.... a seven episode order sounds like they've got cold feet already.... perhaps he should've looked at straight to DVD/Download or something instead?
Not jaded at all, infact, I only this last year got around to playing Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment. The contrast in quality (and vision) between them and recent games I had played (and enjoyed) just prior was massive. I never stated games ceased being fun, I said they died in terms of gameplay, vision & originality. Gameplay has become shallower, less detailed and to be frank - dumber, designed to appeal to every type of gamer. Back in the 90's there were people who played FPS games, people who played RPG's games and so on, a lot of the time it was exclusively. Now every game is a hybrid of sorts, the gameplay mechanics underneath are watered down to do so. To the casual gamer this may not be an issue, but to us gamers with a preference in genres, it is a big issue.
If you find games fun, fine, but not all us appreciate the industry's one-size fits all approach. Same problem exists in the music and film industries. Would I be jaded for stating engineered pop bands designed to appeal to everyone don't work for me? I like Classical music and Ambient Electronica, am I wrong for not going with the 'norm'?
You say 'ever increasing', many of that increasing number never played old games. They will never know what the old games offered (and most will be unwilling to look beyond the now pixelated graphics to see). Take for instance Oblivion, it's a big hit at present, many lauded the fact you could ride horses and it had a a whole country in it. Daggerfall (its grandparent) offered a whole continent with hundreds of countries and tens of thousands of towns (literally). Not only did it also feature horses, it offered mounted combat too! There's a reason Starcraft and Total Annihilation are still more popular online than more recent games, despite being a decade old....
I don't know about 'since pong', but in my view PC gaming (in terms of game play, vision & originality) has been in a massive decline, in pretty much every genre, since the late 90's. The decline seemed to kick in when the bubble burst and the 'by gamers, for gamers' mantra of most development studios turned into 'by talentless suits, for $$$'... I've got many ties to the industry and many of the veterans I know have walked, not out of boredom, but out of despair. The whole concept of 'niche gaming' has gone out the window, every game now has to have mass market appeal and appeal to the lowest common denominator. Originality is frowned upon, games are designed by committee. In the past team members would share ideas, junior artists would contribute gameplay ideas and so on, now it's 'shut up and work'.
Gaming journals are bought out by the large publishers/devs, shills populate all the big forums (like SA) creating a distortion field, promoting the notion that 'gaming is getting better' - and it's working. People (at large) now only care about graphics, games are rated on how demanding they are (the more it thrashes your PC, the more next gen it must be!).
I'm a big fan of RPG games. The decline has been felt massively in this sector. Instead of great games full of choice/consequence, interesting dialogue and meaningful stats/combat (Like Planescape, Fallout, Daggerfall, BG2) we have been inundated with dull action-adventures (like Oblivion) masquerading as RPGs. There is some light on the horizon in the form of Obsidian (and smaller indie devs, like Iron Tower Studios), but the media is making sure they don't get the credit they deserve. Mask-of-the-Betrayer (for example) felt very old school, yet sadly got average(ish) scores. In one review it was ailed as "the best RPG in a decade", yet the reviewer only gave it 7/10 because; "it had limited mass market appeal". Niche gaming is now a flaw?
The shuttle wasn't designed for building space stations, it was designed to service satellites (read spy birds) and bring them back down to perform maintenance if necessary (this was later found to be uneconomical and dropped). The Russians built Mir fine without a shuttle, the only real benefit of the shuttle is the additional crew and arm for space walks.. but there's no reason why they couldn't put 2 Soyuz's in orbit if needed (to beef the ISS crew up), or develop a more advanced orbital module for the role of constructor.
You have a point, but your assuming fear and self-preservation to some extent don't creep into the officers minds.
Here in the UK there was a case of an innocent carrying a table leg in a carrier bag being shot dead by a SWAT team after someone thought it was a gun and dialled 999. The innocent turned when shouted, because he wasn't doing anything wrong (and didn't know what the hell was going on) and got shot by an officer believing his life was in danger. 'Drop the weapon' shouts are rather meaningless to someone not carrying a weapon.
Then there's the fact officers may fear other peoples lives are in danger from the off, two words, suicide bomber.
Take the Brazilian shot dead in the UK after the London bombing, intel mistakenly said he was a terrorist, the officers on the ground worked on that assumption and swung into a different more lethal gear, a gear where warning the suspect doesn't apply and shoot-to-kill is the order of the day.
You can't order a SWAT team to kill someone, but by sending them to a location you are dramatically increasing the chances that there could be a lethal outcome.
I'm pleased they are apparently throwing the book at this cnut.
I've often wondered with the slow Vista uptake whether MS would torpedo XP via updates that actually degrade performance or break things deliberately. It's weird, I have a number of XP boxes with very good reliablity, but in the last 3 months I have had a number of software related failures on nearly all of them - most requiring re-installs. The drivers haven't changed, usage hasn't changed, the only thing that has changed is the MS updates. No hard evidence, but many fellow admins I know have seen similar oddities occur (esp after the stealth update)...
It could just be coincidence as it would be a very dangerous move by MS, yet I wouldn't put it past them. Users who are having to fuck around are surely more likely to consider switching OS. For the bulk of desktop users that would be Vista.
The best fastest way to get people out a building is to set it on fire...
They should replace Kirk with Pirk and get Samuli Torssonen and his crew on-board.
Star Wreck was better in every way that matters: Better Battles, Better Humour, Better Plot and most importantly prettier girls. The acting was about equal as well.
It will probably follow the trend in recent indigenous Japanese aircraft I.E. Over weight, more expensive, less capable, shorter ranged, outdated clones of established US/EU aircraft. (See their F16 alike and SPECAT Jaguar clone).
Speaking as an artist, you really only need a few select tools to do most jobs. I rarely (if ever) use 90% of Photoshop's so called features, or Bloat.
For the majority of artists/users, with the possible exception of those who wish to print directly from the app, GIMP has more than enough power to deal with their demands. The problem with it's low adoption is threefold; learning curve, advertising and name. The learning curve is a big problem. The UI is even more awful than PS's (which is saying something) and this is compounded by the lack good training material or training courses available. Advertising speaks for itself, Adobe can afford it, gimp can't. The name is also a factor here. I recently got quizzed on software by an 'older' artist wishing to go from film to digital. I mentioned GIMP and got a dirty look, trying to make him see past the name was a big issue and in the end he went for Photoshop, 'cos of the brand name. I suspect this is an even bigger problem with the suits in the corporate environ.... this is a wider open-source issue too.
Personally, I use Paint Shop Pro, it's dirt cheap and the designers actually bothered to make a UI that enables a degree of efficiency. It's quite surprising how many people use it (and others) in the industry, yet hide behind Photoshop when discussing editors, almost as if they are afraid to admit they aren't using the industry standard. Yet the work they produce is just as good and usually produced faster... Adobe has built a mythos that their overpriced product is the be-all and end-all for graphics work. It's bullshit. They have the monopoly, that is all. There are many, often cheaper or free, programs just as capable (and more-so in some areas of work). A lot of these programs also support PS plugins just fine.
It's funny, there's been a government report recently that accused parents/adults of sheltering their kids too much; not letting them outside, not letting them make mistakes (to learn from) and generally making them unable to function without a safety net. Now we hear the government is wanting to deal with cyber-bullying for us? Doesn't this fly in the face of the report?
I was bullied at school both physically and mentally, was it un-pleasant - yes. But it toughened me up, looking back I can see why I was picked on. I was weak. Bullying (to an extent)is part of our development process. Psychologically weak individuals don't usually make it far in the real world. If some kid cries and panics when someone sends them an abusive email, calling them a 'cnut' (or whatever constitutes cyber-bullying), how the hell will they cope when they miss a deadline at work and the boss walks in demanding answers, are they going to run off and cry in a corner?
Seems like we are not only dumbing down tomorrows generation, were turning them into cry babies reliant on big brother. Same way were no longer allowed to deal with trouble makers on our own - 20 years ago if someone threw a rock through your window, you could give them a hiding they wouldn't forget (and the police wouldn't bat an eyelid). Nowadays, you get done - they walk.
This isn't about the 'well being of kids', it's all about turning us into a nation of pussies unable to think, or act for ourselves. But hey, Big brother will always be there for us - right?
Slashdot Mirror
I fear this is simply Ridley wanting to make a quick buck, he's not getting any younger. Had he passionately believed in creating a franchise out of Alien, I don't believe he would've walked away from it so quickly, nor would he have waited 30 years to pick the reigns out of the cesspit. Reality is the series, that should never have been, has hit rock bottom and the suits, that control Genericwood, offered Ridley sufficient lewt to commit him to wiping the slate clean, so they can milk it a bit longer. It's hugely depressing that even a talent such as Ridley Scott can't escape the "Sequel, Prequel or Reboot" bubble they've got going on, but I digress...
As much as I adore Cameron's film (it's in my top 10), it didn't do anything to add to the original work and departed from the original's artistic vision completely. For all intents and purposes Aliens didn't need Alien. Cameron could have done the same film, with really quite minor changes under it's own banner (and probably wished he had when Alien 3 came along and torpedoed *his* plans for the series, he didn't try to hide his rage either). Indeed, Aliens was simply the result of him wanting to do a big budget war film, but being unable to get funding to do it and Fox wanting to milk the success of Alien (concieved as a one-off). Hitching up his idea to Fox's moneytrain was the result
Cameron was decent enough not to openly shit all over Scott's work, but he never really intended to follow with the original vision. Aliens was all about him hi-jacking the brand, for his own purposes (for better or worse). He sidelined Giger completely, despite Giger being keen to get involved, having been a key creative element on the original (his involvement went beyond scultping the Alien). Cameron redesigned the xenomorphs and invented the new queen and hive, without consulting Giger. He threw the whole bio-mechanical vision Giger had drawn up for Alien out the window, the "perfect biomechanical stalker" xenomorph went out of the window infavor of "hivemind bug/fodder", Ripley also changed, a lot, etc.
I won't bother to go into Alien 3 and the abomination that was Ressurection, but they pretty much cement the fact that Alien, the franchise, is pretty much whatever the active director/writer/studios wants it to be, and thus as a series is worthless. Put simply: Unless films (or books, for that matter) are designed, from the outset, to be a series, with a well defined roadmap and the original creative team involved at some level, they really shouldn't get follow ups, particularly not gravedigs decades later. As to wanting to know what how the derelict came to be, etc, whatever happend to having a bit of imagination?
I'm sure most people have theories as to how events unfolded. This prequel won't reveal the "absolute truth", just some hack's interpretation of what happened, crafted to flog tickets, rather than being what makes sense, or originally intended (original writers aren't involved). For those that lack imagination (the shame): The Dark Horse comics/novels, which had some input from the original writers, dealt with the "Space Jockey" issue decades ago. Their interpretation is no less legit than whatever they cook up for this, imo. 'Canon' means jackshit when a franchise has no firm base and is made up on the fly, by whoever happens to get their dirty fingers on the IP.
...but what about the dopefish?
I don't think religion really has any bearing, Babylon 5 had a lot of veiled references to religion and prophecy, yet I'd venture it's probably one of the highest rated series by the /. crowd. Many of the classic sci-fi books also deal with religion to some extent.
The problem with BSG from season 2 to 3 has been the more episodic nature and general lack of forward planning by the creators. Take the Pegasus setup - great intro, but then suddenly for about 3 episodes after it was "Who will captain the Pegasus today!", then there were episodes like those dealing with the striking miners, love triangles, abortions, medical malpractice, that just didn't gel with the general theme of the show, reaked of filler and could have been copy/pasted from any daytime soap opera.
I hope with Caprica they crib card every episode before filming even begins, it will let them know how many episodes they need to cut on filler and making planning/budgeting easier.
Dragons count as monsters do they not?
For the politicians to do anything, they need to think it will get them votes (i.e have popular support) or alternatively be of benefit to them (shares in industries, backhanders etc). Scientology is very unprofitable for anyone to deal with.
The mainstream media for the most part give them a wide berth, leading to a lack of public awareness. Out of interest I asked some older people I know what they thought the CoS was; a lot thought it was a Christian spin-off with a scientific tilt. The BBC have not yet even noted the fact 500 protestors gathered in London (let alone the fact ~8000 mobilised simulatenously around the world). Sure there were more important stories, but the fact is they managed to find far less notable filler stories to tell the world. My guess is it's a taboo subject they don't want to go near after the CoS's attack on informative Panorama investigation. Same applied with many other major media outlets who dodged it or downplayed it.
Still at least here in the UK the London Police supported the Anons, I distinctly heard one officer (after being harassed to do something by a Cultist) walk off to another and say 'fucking freaks'.
Hopefully the media will have no choice but to approach the subject as more people get involved in the movement against the crazy cult. Once they get onboard you can guarantee the Politicians will begin to notice.
"If we were planning on attacking them, it's best to keep them confused as long as possible."
;)
I doubt a lack of internet access will confuse the average Iranian, nor their military infrastructue. If news (of significance) relating to a brewing conflict is to be spilled, chances are it will be on CNN and beamed to the world. Failing that, I'm pretty sure comrade KGB would let the Iranians know what's happening. Iran will know just as well without the net what's going on - Digg, Slashdot and Youtube are not their primary information sources
Given the very low level of net access there, I can't see it having any impact on the day to day lives of the average Iranian either.
If only Doom 3's flashlight had been that effective!
Crap for gaming. With a screen that size/shape you can't see the extremities without physically turning your head quite a bit. In FPS games you really need to have your whole FOV in view to be competitive. If you move further back (to get the whole screen in your field of vision) you defeat the point of the screen being curved and may as well be looking at a conventional panel. In terms of enhancing gaming it's right up there with fancy LED's on Heatsinks.
A big problem with nearly every open game project I've followed is that their designed as open source projects, not games. Gameplay seems to take a back seat in the design process, getting tacked on at the end. Gameplay really should be the nucleus around which the project is designed and built, even the guys/girls you get involved should (ideally) be chosen based on their compatibility and commitment to the vision of the game, not just their commitment to "open source".
From the Apricot website it's rather apparent that once again gameplay is taking a back seat. 95% of the blurb is promoting it's openness - I frankly don't give a shit. I want to know what's going to set it apart from a billion and one other games? What innovative gameplay elements will feature? These are what I want to know. From their brief description, all they know is it will have furry critters, that's it. Rest to be decided later.
Open source is the perfect vehicle to play with innovative ideas, free of the chains of publishers/marketing.. yet it seems to constantly get squandered on half baked 'we can do it too!' projects. Indie (closed source) games, like Aquarius and Armageddon Empires, have shown what can be done by small teams (and one man bands) who have a passion for gaming and a clear design vision. It's about time the open scene caught on and stopped turning out half assed clones of popular games that are outclassed by ancient abandonware.
I hope something good comes of this, but won't hold my breath...
A lot got cut in translation due to the publisher not wanting to fork out for voice acting, you can unlock the cut dialogue, including some cut audio, with a simple registry hack though (compatible with all savegames). See here: http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=21829
Can't see them getting it right here, I live near a big land based farm in Wales and we have the same problem. In the 10 years I've lived here, on any given day, at least half are out of service and non functioning. The fuel used to get big cranes and 4x4's up to them probably uses more power than they actually generate. When they were built they had to destroy a largish wooded area to make room and build an access road too.
The whole manned space program is still experimental, it's purpose is to push the limits of our capabilities and expose problems/weaknesses so they can be overcome. Sooner or later were going to need to step off this rock and expand out, ISS is valuable stepping stone and research tool on that path.
You can only simulate so much in the labs, practical experience is what counts. Finding and fixing leaks, whilst annoying (and I dare-say worrying to those onboard), will provide a lot of valuable data, vital for future long duration space-flight missions. Better to learn these things in Earth orbit where they are 'just' a Soyuz drop away from home, than in a Martian orbit... months out.
Whilst i'm glad Joss is back, I'd have thought he'd learnt his lesson with Fox.
Even if this new series is good, it will probably get fucked over by the suits faster than you can say 'Firefly'. From the fallout over that show I'd got the distinct impression he was 'done' altogether with the current model.... a seven episode order sounds like they've got cold feet already.... perhaps he should've looked at straight to DVD/Download or something instead?
Not jaded at all, infact, I only this last year got around to playing Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment. The contrast in quality (and vision) between them and recent games I had played (and enjoyed) just prior was massive. I never stated games ceased being fun, I said they died in terms of gameplay, vision & originality. Gameplay has become shallower, less detailed and to be frank - dumber, designed to appeal to every type of gamer. Back in the 90's there were people who played FPS games, people who played RPG's games and so on, a lot of the time it was exclusively. Now every game is a hybrid of sorts, the gameplay mechanics underneath are watered down to do so. To the casual gamer this may not be an issue, but to us gamers with a preference in genres, it is a big issue.
If you find games fun, fine, but not all us appreciate the industry's one-size fits all approach. Same problem exists in the music and film industries. Would I be jaded for stating engineered pop bands designed to appeal to everyone don't work for me? I like Classical music and Ambient Electronica, am I wrong for not going with the 'norm'?
You say 'ever increasing', many of that increasing number never played old games. They will never know what the old games offered (and most will be unwilling to look beyond the now pixelated graphics to see). Take for instance Oblivion, it's a big hit at present, many lauded the fact you could ride horses and it had a a whole country in it. Daggerfall (its grandparent) offered a whole continent with hundreds of countries and tens of thousands of towns (literally). Not only did it also feature horses, it offered mounted combat too! There's a reason Starcraft and Total Annihilation are still more popular online than more recent games, despite being a decade old....
I don't know about 'since pong', but in my view PC gaming (in terms of game play, vision & originality) has been in a massive decline, in pretty much every genre, since the late 90's. The decline seemed to kick in when the bubble burst and the 'by gamers, for gamers' mantra of most development studios turned into 'by talentless suits, for $$$'... I've got many ties to the industry and many of the veterans I know have walked, not out of boredom, but out of despair. The whole concept of 'niche gaming' has gone out the window, every game now has to have mass market appeal and appeal to the lowest common denominator. Originality is frowned upon, games are designed by committee. In the past team members would share ideas, junior artists would contribute gameplay ideas and so on, now it's 'shut up and work'.
Gaming journals are bought out by the large publishers/devs, shills populate all the big forums (like SA) creating a distortion field, promoting the notion that 'gaming is getting better' - and it's working. People (at large) now only care about graphics, games are rated on how demanding they are (the more it thrashes your PC, the more next gen it must be!).
I'm a big fan of RPG games. The decline has been felt massively in this sector. Instead of great games full of choice/consequence, interesting dialogue and meaningful stats/combat (Like Planescape, Fallout, Daggerfall, BG2) we have been inundated with dull action-adventures (like Oblivion) masquerading as RPGs. There is some light on the horizon in the form of Obsidian (and smaller indie devs, like Iron Tower Studios), but the media is making sure they don't get the credit they deserve. Mask-of-the-Betrayer (for example) felt very old school, yet sadly got average(ish) scores. In one review it was ailed as "the best RPG in a decade", yet the reviewer only gave it 7/10 because; "it had limited mass market appeal". Niche gaming is now a flaw?
The shuttle wasn't designed for building space stations, it was designed to service satellites (read spy birds) and bring them back down to perform maintenance if necessary (this was later found to be uneconomical and dropped). The Russians built Mir fine without a shuttle, the only real benefit of the shuttle is the additional crew and arm for space walks.. but there's no reason why they couldn't put 2 Soyuz's in orbit if needed (to beef the ISS crew up), or develop a more advanced orbital module for the role of constructor.
You have a point, but your assuming fear and self-preservation to some extent don't creep into the officers minds.
Here in the UK there was a case of an innocent carrying a table leg in a carrier bag being shot dead by a SWAT team after someone thought it was a gun and dialled 999. The innocent turned when shouted, because he wasn't doing anything wrong (and didn't know what the hell was going on) and got shot by an officer believing his life was in danger. 'Drop the weapon' shouts are rather meaningless to someone not carrying a weapon.
Then there's the fact officers may fear other peoples lives are in danger from the off, two words, suicide bomber.
Take the Brazilian shot dead in the UK after the London bombing, intel mistakenly said he was a terrorist, the officers on the ground worked on that assumption and swung into a different more lethal gear, a gear where warning the suspect doesn't apply and shoot-to-kill is the order of the day.
You can't order a SWAT team to kill someone, but by sending them to a location you are dramatically increasing the chances that there could be a lethal outcome.
I'm pleased they are apparently throwing the book at this cnut.
I've often wondered with the slow Vista uptake whether MS would torpedo XP via updates that actually degrade performance or break things deliberately. It's weird, I have a number of XP boxes with very good reliablity, but in the last 3 months I have had a number of software related failures on nearly all of them - most requiring re-installs. The drivers haven't changed, usage hasn't changed, the only thing that has changed is the MS updates. No hard evidence, but many fellow admins I know have seen similar oddities occur (esp after the stealth update)...
It could just be coincidence as it would be a very dangerous move by MS, yet I wouldn't put it past them. Users who are having to fuck around are surely more likely to consider switching OS. For the bulk of desktop users that would be Vista.
The best fastest way to get people out a building is to set it on fire...
They say it's for power, but we all know they plan to use it as a space based beam weapon. :)
They should replace Kirk with Pirk and get Samuli Torssonen and his crew on-board.
Star Wreck was better in every way that matters: Better Battles, Better Humour, Better Plot and most importantly prettier girls. The acting was about equal as well.
Imagine what they could do with a budget?
It will probably follow the trend in recent indigenous Japanese aircraft I.E. Over weight, more expensive, less capable, shorter ranged, outdated clones of established US/EU aircraft. (See their F16 alike and SPECAT Jaguar clone).
:P
Plus, it's not like their copying the F23!
Speaking as an artist, you really only need a few select tools to do most jobs. I rarely (if ever) use 90% of Photoshop's so called features, or Bloat.
For the majority of artists/users, with the possible exception of those who wish to print directly from the app, GIMP has more than enough power to deal with their demands. The problem with it's low adoption is threefold; learning curve, advertising and name. The learning curve is a big problem. The UI is even more awful than PS's (which is saying something) and this is compounded by the lack good training material or training courses available. Advertising speaks for itself, Adobe can afford it, gimp can't. The name is also a factor here. I recently got quizzed on software by an 'older' artist wishing to go from film to digital. I mentioned GIMP and got a dirty look, trying to make him see past the name was a big issue and in the end he went for Photoshop, 'cos of the brand name. I suspect this is an even bigger problem with the suits in the corporate environ.... this is a wider open-source issue too.
Personally, I use Paint Shop Pro, it's dirt cheap and the designers actually bothered to make a UI that enables a degree of efficiency. It's quite surprising how many people use it (and others) in the industry, yet hide behind Photoshop when discussing editors, almost as if they are afraid to admit they aren't using the industry standard. Yet the work they produce is just as good and usually produced faster... Adobe has built a mythos that their overpriced product is the be-all and end-all for graphics work. It's bullshit. They have the monopoly, that is all. There are many, often cheaper or free, programs just as capable (and more-so in some areas of work). A lot of these programs also support PS plugins just fine.
Bloody Vorlons - playing with things they shouldn't..
It's funny, there's been a government report recently that accused parents/adults of sheltering their kids too much; not letting them outside, not letting them make mistakes (to learn from) and generally making them unable to function without a safety net. Now we hear the government is wanting to deal with cyber-bullying for us? Doesn't this fly in the face of the report?
I was bullied at school both physically and mentally, was it un-pleasant - yes. But it toughened me up, looking back I can see why I was picked on. I was weak. Bullying (to an extent)is part of our development process. Psychologically weak individuals don't usually make it far in the real world. If some kid cries and panics when someone sends them an abusive email, calling them a 'cnut' (or whatever constitutes cyber-bullying), how the hell will they cope when they miss a deadline at work and the boss walks in demanding answers, are they going to run off and cry in a corner?
Seems like we are not only dumbing down tomorrows generation, were turning them into cry babies reliant on big brother. Same way were no longer allowed to deal with trouble makers on our own - 20 years ago if someone threw a rock through your window, you could give them a hiding they wouldn't forget (and the police wouldn't bat an eyelid). Nowadays, you get done - they walk.
This isn't about the 'well being of kids', it's all about turning us into a nation of pussies unable to think, or act for ourselves. But hey, Big brother will always be there for us - right?
As if this will stop the likes of Hugo Drax!