Given that this is probably much different than what the final release of the thing will look like, I'm not too impressed with the desktop so far. There really isn't anything very new or useful there. Most of it clutters the screen.
XP was really the same way, and that is why I disabled just about everything... causing my desktop to look indistinguishable from Windows 2000.
On the other hand, there hasn't been that much innovative and useful that is brand new to desktops in any Window manager that has come out in the last few years.
I have a 1.2 GHz Athlon and a GeForce 2 Pro, and this runs everything well, including every game I play. The only reason I'm even considering an upgrade is Doom 3, and I'll probably hold out on that until Doom 3 is closer to a release, at which point I'll probably just replace the Motherboard, Processor, and Video Card rather than making a whole new PC.
Yes, Nintendo is a fine example of an American company. Red blooded Americans like Shigeru Miyamoto and Hiroshi Yamauchi have created many quality, American games from their headquarters in Tokyo, USA.
Sure, the censorware doesn't work very well at all and will probably prevent people from accessing necessary information that contains words that could be used in a "naughty" context.
Sure, people who want to access porn will probably still find a way to do so, rendering this software useless.
Sure, censoring information for any reason is one of the first steps to becoming a facist state.
I was with Verizon for a few months. Midway through my service contract they suddenly, without warning, changed my plan on me. Mysteriously my "Nationwide Roaming" suddenly changed to "Roaming in California Only." Mysteriously my roaming charges, and charges for going over the monthly limit of minutes went from.15 and.10 respectively to something like.88 and.55 cents respectively. Mysteriously my 1000 mobile to mobile minutes with other Verizon customers seemed to go away.
After I discovered what happened (after I recieved an exorbidant phone bill one month that I travelled outside of California extensively), I checked my service agreement that I signed.
First of all, I had no barganing power on that service contract. Cell phone companies can put whatever they want there, and you have to sign it if you want a cell phone. Every company has a similar agreement. Even so, Verizon STILL seemed to break their contract with me.
Interestingly enough, it said that Verizon had to give me notice if they planned on altering the contract. They gave me no notice whatsoever. I opened every single piece of mail they sent to me, and never once did I recieve such notice.
I couldn't get a straight answer from Verizon WHY my plan was changed on me, except that the plan I signed up for no longer existed. I wasn't sure exactly what plan I had been placed on, either, even from reading my bills and looking over every single one of their plans. On more than one occasion I was hung up on by Verizon's service representatives.
I cancelled my service and was billed $200 for early termination, even though my service agreement said I'd be billed $150. (Despite that fact, paying through the end of my contract would have still cost me more).
Instead of paying, I followed the proper instructions and immediately reported and challenged the high bills as well as the early termination fee to the Public Utilities Commission. I sent the entire contested amount to the Commission, as instructed, so that Verizon would be paid if they declined my request.
I properly informed Verizon that I was doing such as instructed so that I would not be considered late with my payments.
Along with the contested fees, I sent the Commission a copy of my service contract and a full explanation of why I believed Verizon broke its part of the service contract by not properly informing me that they were altering my service, and that I should not be subject to any early termination fees because they essentially breached their contract.
In the end the Public Utilities Commission declined my request. It took about a month. The kicker is that even though Verizon was payed by the Commission, they charged me LATE FEES since it came to them a month later due to the whole ordeal.
I've checked a few web sites and other people's stories, and apparently similar things have happened to other Verizon customers, while it is rare. Many more complaints were made about their DSL service and landline telephone service on the east coast, however.
In one case Verizon overbilled a business DSL customer. Verizon dragged their feet for several months, and did not return the $700 or so they owed him.
If a customer owed $700 dollars to Verizon and then didn't pay for a few months, Verizon would no doubt have collection agencies on their ass.
My experiences and things conveyed to me by others who have been screwed by Verizon have convinced me that...
1) Verizion is comprised of bloodsuckers who use their service contracts as a right to screw anyone as they see fit.
2) Verizon's customer service representatives are either highly incompetent, don't care, or are ordered to seem that way. It can be tough to get information from them.
3) Appealing to the proper government authorities rarely does anything. I don't know why. Perhaps they view people who complain as being "slackers who don't want to pay their bills." Perhaps they are just too bogged down that they don't even read complaints. Perhaps they don't do anything since public officials recieve brib^H^H^H^H contributions from companies like Verizon.
Corporate status is completely messed up, actually. Corporations have the "same rights" as a person because of this (incorrect, IMHO) Supreme Court decision, however their massive money supplies give them the ability to excersize their rights on a much grander scale than that of a person.
On the weird flipside, a corporation often falls under different tax laws (shouldn't it be exactly the same as a person because of this decision?), and corporations are often denied what would be considered due process, especially when forfeiture comes into play...
If you put something on the web, you have put it up for the world to see. The whole point of putting information on the web is making that information available to lots of people.
What the Internet Archive is doing is no different than libraries storing old copies of newspapers and magazines. With an increasing amount of things being published online, we need an archive of those things.
Years from now archives of web pages will be quite useful for those doing research on the events of today.
Say you are a student in the year 2050 and are doing a report on the "history of the web." Wouldn't it be nice to have copies of the web pages from the 1990s to show how the "early" web looked like?
Due Process went out of the door when the Government decided to start the "War on Drugs." They are expanding this even further with the "War on Terrorism."
Anybody with an IQ over 100 and a copy of the Constitution can tell you that law enforcement agencies should not be able to do something like this. Yet they do it all the time, even when they have absolutely no intention of pressing charges againt the people they do it to.
If you are suspected of being a drug dealer, you are in danger of having property such as your car or house being seized by police and auctioned off to the highest bidder, even if you are never officially charged.
There are some links to info at the LP homepage, I believe (http://www.lp.org).
You know, I really have not seen such a debate get as bad as the whole Vi vs. Emacs thing. Infact, Pine contributes positively to the Vi/Emacs debate because it also comes with Pico.... something Vi and Emacs users can unite together to hate. Heh...
Anyway, I personally use Pine for email and Vi for editing. ^_^;
THERE HAVE BEEN UPDATES TO OFFICE 2005, PRESS OKAY TO UPDATE OR CANCEL TO EXIT OFFICE
Microsoft has integrated changes to office in Windows Update before, IIRC. The ability for live updates is probably there in Office 2000 and Office 2002. I don't see this as a problem for MS. The next time Office runs after the update it could run a "one time" conversion program on all the.doc files it finds on your hard drive.
MS Office is "King" because components of it often comes bundled with Windows on computers from Dell, Gateway, Compaq, etc. It has nothing to do with how good or bad it is. Most PCs come with at least Word on them. That is enough for MS.
Even if the rest of your argument is true, which I don't feel it is (I feel that Corel's office suite for Linux was better than MS Office at the time they launched it), Word is not something that is easily replaced. Word is the most used component of MS Office by the average person. The word processor component in any suite will likely be the first thing someone tries to use, and the ability to open all document types is key.
Most people save in the.doc format by default. MS knows this, and all can leverage this to their advantage.
If another company releases an office suite that blows MS Office away, all MS has to do to kill it is "tweak" the MS Word file format in a "bug fix" just to break compatability before this new suite has a chance to take hold. Even if there is a workaround, this small incompatability will turn people away from the new Office Suite.
Three years ago people were DROPPING OUT of school to join companies that promised them 65k a year plus a new car as a signing bonus. Jobs would come to students who didn't even try. This was not good, because it lead us to where we are today. Now we have the other extreme.
HR departments are now looking for a lot of people with specific experience that is hard to come by, or impossible to come by. They are trying to find people who can do the jobs of two or three people or someone they don't have to train at all.
I saw one job listing that wanted a person who had 5+ years of experience with.net and Windows XP. To get it you have to lie on your resume.
I saw another that wanted someone who knew HTML, JavaScript, Perl, etc... but also wanted the person to have experience using mainframe systems left over from the 70s and 80s.
I don't think that sale prices fall under the DMCA. I don't see how a price can even be copyrighted.
Furthermore, if retailers don't want their sale prices going public, why do they make huge newspaper inserts?
Obviously, sites that post this information making it "too easy" for consumers to find the cheapest prices. Stores probably count on consumers to be too lazy to find the cheapest price, and this makes it easier to do just that.
However, this is all publicly available information. Anyone with a couple hours on their hands (which many people have on Thanksgiving Day) can go through all the ads and find the cheapest prices in their area.
Nintendo is not growing with the gaming industry? Why? Because they release an GBA adaptor to play good 2D games on your TV? Because they still make great games that are fun for both youngsters and adults?
What should Nintendo be doing? Should Miyamoto ditch his emphasis on gameplay and enjoyability and instead fill his games with T&A or tons of blood? I don't think so.
It is quite obvious that Miyamoto could make a better game with an abacus than Microsoft can with an X-Box.
The new Zelda looks 100% sweet. It is definately done in the tradition of the original NES Zelda: A fun game set in a fantasy world that will captivate both children and adults. I don't see anything wrong with that approach at all. The cell shaded animation looks great, IMHO.
The Game Cube may not be doing the best in sales, but it and the GameBoy Advance has the most enjoyable games out there.
As for me and Link, we will be doing some serious princess rescuing this upcoming spring.
Sorry, but I have karma to burn and had to say it.
Related News: Check out this EQ2 press release!
on
Organizing Sim Protests
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· Score: 5, Funny
11/18/2002 Sony/Verant has announced their partnership with several companies to produce an extensive sponsorship program in their upcoming online RPG, EverQuest 2.
Players will now be able to interact with several name brands they can associate with in the World of Norrath.
Verant has released a preliminary list of the new features of EQ2 as follows:
All armor will be replaced with namebrand apparel. All towns in EQ2 will have an OLD NAVY store instead of local merchants, where players will be able to buy normal clothes. Additionally, apparel designed by several top fasion designers will appear in the game. Only the most uber players will be able to obtain Versace threads.
PEPSI products have replaced the mundane food and water of EQ1. Players will have to go to the in-game KFC, Taco Bell, or Pizza Hut locations to refill on rations. The in-game stores will also provide Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Mountain Dew rather than normal water.
Players can now earn extra experience by slaying monsters with brandname weapons. There will be a distinct advantage using a CRAFTSMAN Power-Sword Deluxe, rather than a regular sword.
"We feel that these imrpovements add to the game," said a Verant spokesman. "In EQ1, players had a hard time identifing with the normal items in the game. In EQ2 we are bringing players into a world that is full of the brand names they can identify with. We hope to promote a lifestyle where players can consume high quality goods from companies like OLD NAVY, PEPSICO, and many others both online AND offline!"
EverQuest 2 is slated for release for fall of next year. Players will certainly be pleased to pay the full MSRP of $60.00 for the game on top of the monthy $17.99 fee with such improvements.
This is not what console games are supposed to be about. Console systems have always been about producing great single player games and games that are enjoyable in small groups.
Honestly, what would you rather play? These online console games or Metroid Prime? I think most of the people who have played console games for a long time would say that they'd rather play Metroid Prime or other good single player games like Metal Gear Solid, Zelda, etc.
Microsoft has effectively repackaged a PC and is now selling you the ability to play games online with it for $10 a month!
I already pay a monthly fee for my cable modem. I can play games online for free on my PC, with the exception of MMORPG games (though I'm sure the MMORPG type games for X-Box will have an additional fee on top of MS's fee...). What is so attractive about playing console games online in the same manner, especially if it involves an extra fee?
I don't see what is so big about X-Box live, or the online adaptors for any other console... we've had the ability to play online with out PCs for YEARS, for FREE.
Once again, Microsoft has innovated nothing, yet is claiming they have, and is charging a premium for it.
Well, if the media became cheap, it would be great to have all your music on one disc if it were somehow easily navigated.
If your car is broken into, would you rather have them steal the one disc backup, or the originals?
Plus, the ability to back up the hard drive of a server or two on one disc like you mentioned is good. Very good.
Re:Does anyone remember the Fourth Ammendment?
on
HomeSec In the News
·
· Score: 2
A very good observation.
The Bush administration and political allies may very well become the "Nazi Regime of the 21st. Century."
Surveys show that more people than ever support barring free speech when it comes to criticizing the government during a war. This is because Bush & Co. have taken such advantage of 9/11 that it scares them that those who critique the government might be terrorists themselves.
Even in the wake that there was some prior knowledge of 9/11 and that it might have been prevented with our EXISTING security infrastructure, people still believe that the government really will protect them from terrorists and other nasty things.
The many people who ARE disgusted with the two republicrat candidates in a given election stay home instead of voting for a 3rd. party candidate. They are buying the media lie that 3rd. party candidates have no chance.
Our rights to privacy, property, legal council, etc. are under attack. If Bush appoints people to the Supreme Court, these people will probably never strike down obviously unconstitutional laws such as the Patriot Act, Homeland Security Act, and DMCA.
Heck, the Supreme Court AS IT IS pretty much ELECTED Bush. We'll probably never know who REALLY won the 2000 Election, thanks to the shoddy ballot systems and counting put in place by the two major parties.
If you go to the Libertarian Party homepage http://www.lp.org you'll see a scary example of people losing their property to a corrupt government system. The New York Times, has made a deal with the State of New York. The state is going to size the homes and businesses of common New Yorkers on one city block, tear everything down, and then build a new building for the Times. Then the Times is going to get a "tax break" from the state as part of the deal. Basically, the state is siezing property for a private company!! The LP article quotes a German-born resident of the area who is going to lose the apartment complex he owns. He says that this action reminds him of the Nazi party.
The scariest thing is that it is happening in my own country.
I'm not trying to single out Bush and the Republicans, either. The Democrats would have done the same stuff, but would have just gone about doing it a different way. The bickering between the two parties is mainly out of rivalry. Neither group really cares about citizens or their rights at large.
My worst fear is that Bush will purposefully start a large scale war in the middle east, not just a war limited to Iraq. This will be both a grab for control of oil and US. I fear that he might try to use this war as an excuse to indefinately "postpone" the 2004 elections. He has the government the way he likes it after these last elections, afterall. That, and people might start to catch on to what he's doing by then.
That's right. I mistrust Bush THAT MUCH! Let's pray I'm just being extremely paranoid.
There is a difference between writing a security patch that happens to break an application, and a security patch that is designed to break an application.
A security patch on any OS could potentially cause problems with software that runs on it. However, it wouldn't put it past me for Microsoft to purposefully make sure that competing products are broken.
At best case, MS isn't going to purposefully break anything. This is a legitimate attempt to fix security.
At worst case, this might Microsoft's first step in "testing" the strength of the court to see if they'll notice/tolerate them purposefully breaking applications and then claiming they can't release the fixes to the application maker because it is part of Windows "security."
Uh, mame.dk might have been a really easy way to get roms, but anyone who was relying on it being up forever was kidding themselves. When I first saw it I thought it was too good to be true, and it was.
Roms can be obtained through other channels.
But seriously, if copyright holders actually released their old games in a format accessible to PC users, there would be no need for MAME.
The reason I use MAME is not to get free games, it is to play old arcade games that I can't play anyomore. The once-in-a-while arcade compilation for Playstation doesn't account for the multitude of games out there.
Slashdot Mirror
Given that this is probably much different than what the final release of the thing will look like, I'm not too impressed with the desktop so far. There really isn't anything very new or useful there. Most of it clutters the screen.
XP was really the same way, and that is why I disabled just about everything... causing my desktop to look indistinguishable from Windows 2000.
On the other hand, there hasn't been that much innovative and useful that is brand new to desktops in any Window manager that has come out in the last few years.
I have a 1.2 GHz Athlon and a GeForce 2 Pro, and this runs everything well, including every game I play. The only reason I'm even considering an upgrade is Doom 3, and I'll probably hold out on that until Doom 3 is closer to a release, at which point I'll probably just replace the Motherboard, Processor, and Video Card rather than making a whole new PC.
Yes, Nintendo is a fine example of an American company. Red blooded Americans like Shigeru Miyamoto and Hiroshi Yamauchi have created many quality, American games from their headquarters in Tokyo, USA.
Interesting observations.
Sega was tried to give away free games with the Saturn to try to sell it... and we all know what happened with that.
Sure, the censorware doesn't work very well at all and will probably prevent people from accessing necessary information that contains words that could be used in a "naughty" context.
Sure, people who want to access porn will probably still find a way to do so, rendering this software useless.
Sure, censoring information for any reason is one of the first steps to becoming a facist state.
BUT THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!!!!!
I was with Verizon for a few months. Midway through my service contract they suddenly, without warning, changed my plan on me. Mysteriously my "Nationwide Roaming" suddenly changed to "Roaming in California Only." Mysteriously my roaming charges, and charges for going over the monthly limit of minutes went from .15 and .10 respectively to something like .88 and .55 cents respectively. Mysteriously my 1000 mobile to mobile minutes with other Verizon customers seemed to go away.
After I discovered what happened (after I recieved an exorbidant phone bill one month that I travelled outside of California extensively), I checked my service agreement that I signed.
First of all, I had no barganing power on that service contract. Cell phone companies can put whatever they want there, and you have to sign it if you want a cell phone. Every company has a similar agreement. Even so, Verizon STILL seemed to break their contract with me.
Interestingly enough, it said that Verizon had to give me notice if they planned on altering the contract. They gave me no notice whatsoever.
I opened every single piece of mail they sent to me, and never once did I recieve such notice.
I couldn't get a straight answer from Verizon WHY my plan was changed on me, except that the plan I signed up for no longer existed. I wasn't sure exactly what plan I had been placed on, either, even from reading my bills and looking over every single one of their plans. On more than one occasion I was hung up on by Verizon's service representatives.
I cancelled my service and was billed $200 for early termination, even though my service agreement said I'd be billed $150. (Despite that fact, paying through the end of my contract would have still cost me more).
Instead of paying, I followed the proper instructions and immediately reported and challenged the high bills as well as the early termination fee to the Public Utilities Commission. I sent the entire contested amount to the Commission, as instructed, so that Verizon would be paid if they declined my request.
I properly informed Verizon that I was doing such as instructed so that I would not be considered late with my payments.
Along with the contested fees, I sent the Commission a copy of my service contract and a full explanation of why I believed Verizon broke its part of the service contract by not properly informing me that they were altering my service, and that I should not be subject to any early termination fees because they essentially breached their contract.
In the end the Public Utilities Commission declined my request. It took about a month.
The kicker is that even though Verizon was payed by the Commission, they charged me LATE FEES since it came to them a month later due to the whole ordeal.
I've checked a few web sites and other people's stories, and apparently similar things have happened to other Verizon customers, while it is rare. Many more complaints were made about their DSL service and landline telephone service on the east coast, however.
In one case Verizon overbilled a business DSL customer. Verizon dragged their feet for several months, and did not return the $700 or so they owed him.
If a customer owed $700 dollars to Verizon and then didn't pay for a few months, Verizon would no doubt have collection agencies on their ass.
My experiences and things conveyed to me by others who have been screwed by Verizon have convinced me that...
1) Verizion is comprised of bloodsuckers who use their service contracts as a right to screw anyone as they see fit.
2) Verizon's customer service representatives are either highly incompetent, don't care, or are ordered to seem that way. It can be tough to get information from them.
3) Appealing to the proper government authorities rarely does anything. I don't know why. Perhaps they view people who complain as being "slackers who don't want to pay their bills." Perhaps they are just too bogged down that they don't even read complaints. Perhaps they don't do anything since public officials recieve brib^H^H^H^H contributions from companies like Verizon.
Corporate status is completely messed up, actually. Corporations have the "same rights" as a person because of this (incorrect, IMHO) Supreme Court decision, however their massive money supplies give them the ability to excersize their rights on a much grander scale than that of a person.
On the weird flipside, a corporation often falls under different tax laws (shouldn't it be exactly the same as a person because of this decision?), and corporations are often denied what would be considered due process, especially when forfeiture comes into play...
I disagree completely.
If you put something on the web, you have put it up for the world to see. The whole point of putting information on the web is making that information available to lots of people.
What the Internet Archive is doing is no different than libraries storing old copies of newspapers and magazines. With an increasing amount of things being published online, we need an archive of those things.
Years from now archives of web pages will be quite useful for those doing research on the events of today.
Say you are a student in the year 2050 and are doing a report on the "history of the web." Wouldn't it be nice to have copies of the web pages from the 1990s to show how the "early" web looked like?
Due Process went out of the door when the Government decided to start the "War on Drugs." They are expanding this even further with the "War on Terrorism."
Anybody with an IQ over 100 and a copy of the Constitution can tell you that law enforcement agencies should not be able to do something like this. Yet they do it all the time, even when they have absolutely no intention of pressing charges againt the people they do it to.
If you are suspected of being a drug dealer, you are in danger of having property such as your car or house being seized by police and auctioned off to the highest bidder, even if you are never officially charged.
There are some links to info at the LP homepage, I believe (http://www.lp.org).
You know, I really have not seen such a debate get as bad as the whole Vi vs. Emacs thing. Infact, Pine contributes positively to the Vi/Emacs debate because it also comes with Pico.... something Vi and Emacs users can unite together to hate. Heh...
Anyway, I personally use Pine for email and Vi for editing. ^_^;
THERE HAVE BEEN UPDATES TO OFFICE 2005, PRESS OKAY TO UPDATE OR CANCEL TO EXIT OFFICE
.doc files it finds on your hard drive.
Microsoft has integrated changes to office in Windows Update before, IIRC. The ability for live updates is probably there in Office 2000 and Office 2002. I don't see this as a problem for MS. The next time Office runs after the update it could run a "one time" conversion program on all the
Dealer: Want to buy an MMORPG subscription?
Obi-Wan: You don't want to sell me an MMORPG subscription.
Dealer: I don't want to sell you an MMORPG subscription.
Obi-Wan: You want to go home and rethink your life.
Dealer: I want to go home and rethink my life.
MS Office is "King" because components of it often comes bundled with Windows on computers from Dell, Gateway, Compaq, etc. It has nothing to do with how good or bad it is. Most PCs come with at least Word on them. That is enough for MS.
.doc format by default. MS knows this, and all can leverage this to their advantage.
Even if the rest of your argument is true, which I don't feel it is (I feel that Corel's office suite for Linux was better than MS Office at the time they launched it), Word is not something that is easily replaced. Word is the most used component of MS Office by the average person. The word processor component in any suite will likely be the first thing someone tries to use, and the ability to open all document types is key.
Most people save in the
If another company releases an office suite that blows MS Office away, all MS has to do to kill it is "tweak" the MS Word file format in a "bug fix" just to break compatability before this new suite has a chance to take hold. Even if there is a workaround, this small incompatability will turn people away from the new Office Suite.
Three years ago people were DROPPING OUT of school to join companies that promised them 65k a year plus a new car as a signing bonus. Jobs would come to students who didn't even try. This was not good, because it lead us to where we are today.
.net and Windows XP. To get it you have to lie on your resume.
Now we have the other extreme.
HR departments are now looking for a lot of people with specific experience that is hard to come by, or impossible to come by. They are trying to find people who can do the jobs of two or three people or someone they don't have to train at all.
I saw one job listing that wanted a person who had 5+ years of experience with
I saw another that wanted someone who knew HTML, JavaScript, Perl, etc... but also wanted the person to have experience using mainframe systems left over from the 70s and 80s.
I don't think that sale prices fall under the DMCA.
I don't see how a price can even be copyrighted.
Furthermore, if retailers don't want their sale prices going public, why do they make huge newspaper inserts?
Obviously, sites that post this information making it "too easy" for consumers to find the cheapest prices. Stores probably count on consumers to be too lazy to find the cheapest price, and this makes it easier to do just that.
However, this is all publicly available information. Anyone with a couple hours on their hands (which many people have on Thanksgiving Day) can go through all the ads and find the cheapest prices in their area.
Fox CEO says tech should do what the media wants, and consumers should suffer in the process!
Nintendo is not growing with the gaming industry?
Why? Because they release an GBA adaptor to play good 2D games on your TV? Because they still make great games that are fun for both youngsters and adults?
What should Nintendo be doing? Should Miyamoto ditch his emphasis on gameplay and enjoyability and instead fill his games with T&A or tons of blood? I don't think so.
It is quite obvious that Miyamoto could make a better game with an abacus than Microsoft can with an X-Box.
The new Zelda looks 100% sweet. It is definately done in the tradition of the original NES Zelda:
A fun game set in a fantasy world that will captivate both children and adults. I don't see anything wrong with that approach at all. The cell shaded animation looks great, IMHO.
The Game Cube may not be doing the best in sales, but it and the GameBoy Advance has the most enjoyable games out there.
As for me and Link, we will be doing some serious princess rescuing this upcoming spring.
Good thing that some companies still make game consoles.
Sorry, but I have karma to burn and had to say it.
11/18/2002
Sony/Verant has announced their partnership with several companies to produce an extensive sponsorship program in their upcoming online RPG, EverQuest 2.
Players will now be able to interact with several name brands they can associate with in the World of Norrath.
Verant has released a preliminary list of the new features of EQ2 as follows:
All armor will be replaced with namebrand apparel. All towns in EQ2 will have an OLD NAVY store instead of local merchants, where players will be able to buy normal clothes. Additionally, apparel designed by several top fasion designers will appear in the game. Only the most uber players will be able to obtain Versace threads.
PEPSI products have replaced the mundane food and water of EQ1. Players will have to go to the in-game KFC, Taco Bell, or Pizza Hut locations to refill on rations. The in-game stores will also provide Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, and Mountain Dew rather than normal water.
Players can now earn extra experience by slaying monsters with brandname weapons.
There will be a distinct advantage using a CRAFTSMAN Power-Sword Deluxe, rather than a regular sword.
"We feel that these imrpovements add to the game," said a Verant spokesman. "In EQ1, players had a hard time identifing with the normal items in the game. In EQ2 we are bringing players into a world that is full of the brand names they can identify with. We hope to promote a lifestyle where players can consume high quality goods from companies like OLD NAVY, PEPSICO, and many others both online AND offline!"
EverQuest 2 is slated for release for fall of next year. Players will certainly be pleased to pay the full MSRP of $60.00 for the game on top of the monthy $17.99 fee with such improvements.
This is not what console games are supposed to be about. Console systems have always been about producing great single player games and games that are enjoyable in small groups.
Honestly, what would you rather play? These online console games or Metroid Prime? I think most of the people who have played console games for a long time would say that they'd rather play Metroid Prime or other good single player games like Metal Gear Solid, Zelda, etc.
Microsoft has effectively repackaged a PC and is now selling you the ability to play games online with it for $10 a month!
I already pay a monthly fee for my cable modem. I can play games online for free on my PC, with the exception of MMORPG games (though I'm sure the MMORPG type games for X-Box will have an additional fee on top of MS's fee...). What is so attractive about playing console games online in the same manner, especially if it involves an extra fee?
I don't see what is so big about X-Box live, or the online adaptors for any other console... we've had the ability to play online with out PCs for YEARS, for FREE.
Once again, Microsoft has innovated nothing, yet is claiming they have, and is charging a premium for it.
I like the ability to block images from a server, but it'd also be nice to have a similar feature for plugins and Java applets.
A lot of ad companies are now using really annoying flash. Blocking images doesn't stop these.
Well, if the media became cheap, it would be great to have all your music on one disc if it were somehow easily navigated.
If your car is broken into, would you rather have them steal the one disc backup, or the originals?
Plus, the ability to back up the hard drive of a server or two on one disc like you mentioned is good. Very good.
A very good observation.
The Bush administration and political allies may very well become the "Nazi Regime of the 21st. Century."
Surveys show that more people than ever support barring free speech when it comes to criticizing the government during a war. This is because Bush & Co. have taken such advantage of 9/11 that it scares them that those who critique the government might be terrorists themselves.
Even in the wake that there was some prior knowledge of 9/11 and that it might have been prevented with our EXISTING security infrastructure, people still believe that the
government really will protect them from
terrorists and other nasty things.
The many people who ARE disgusted with the two republicrat candidates in a given election stay home instead of voting for a 3rd. party candidate. They are buying the media lie that 3rd. party candidates have no chance.
Our rights to privacy, property, legal council, etc. are under attack. If Bush appoints
people to the Supreme Court, these people will
probably never strike down obviously unconstitutional laws such as the Patriot Act, Homeland Security Act, and DMCA.
Heck, the Supreme Court AS IT IS pretty much ELECTED Bush. We'll probably never know who
REALLY won the 2000 Election, thanks to the
shoddy ballot systems and counting put in
place by the two major parties.
If you go to the Libertarian Party homepage http://www.lp.org
you'll see a scary example of people losing their property to a corrupt government system.
The New York Times, has made a deal with the State of New York. The state is going to size the homes and businesses of common New Yorkers on one
city block, tear everything down, and then build a new building for the Times. Then the Times is going to get a "tax break" from the state as part of the deal. Basically, the state is siezing
property for a private company!!
The LP article quotes a German-born resident of the area who is going to lose the apartment complex he owns. He says that this action reminds him of the Nazi party.
The scariest thing is that it is happening in my own country.
I'm not trying to single out Bush and the Republicans, either. The Democrats would have done the same stuff, but would have just gone about doing it a different way. The bickering between the two parties is mainly out of rivalry. Neither group really cares about citizens or their rights at large.
My worst fear is that Bush will purposefully start a large scale war in the middle east, not just a war limited to Iraq. This will be both a grab for control of oil and US. I fear that he might try to use this war as an excuse to indefinately "postpone" the 2004 elections. He has the government the way he likes it after these last elections, afterall. That, and people might start to catch on to what he's doing by then.
That's right. I mistrust Bush THAT MUCH!
Let's pray I'm just being extremely paranoid.
There is a difference between writing a security patch that happens to break an application, and a security patch that is designed to break an application.
A security patch on any OS could potentially cause problems with software that runs on it. However, it wouldn't put it past me for Microsoft to purposefully make sure that competing products are broken.
At best case, MS isn't going to purposefully break anything. This is a legitimate attempt to fix security.
At worst case, this might Microsoft's first step in "testing" the strength of the court to see if they'll notice/tolerate them purposefully breaking applications and then claiming they can't release the fixes to the application maker because it is part of Windows "security."
Uh, mame.dk might have been a really easy way to get roms, but anyone who was relying on it being up forever was kidding themselves. When I first saw it I thought it was too good to be true, and it was.
Roms can be obtained through other channels.
But seriously, if copyright holders actually released their old games in a format accessible to PC users, there would be no need for MAME.
The reason I use MAME is not to get free games, it is to play old arcade games that I can't play anyomore. The once-in-a-while arcade compilation for Playstation doesn't account for the multitude of games out there.