I doubt it would be Amtrak. I say let Amtrak die. Let a new company with new vision and an eye towards the future of transportation develop a high tech train system in America. We don't need old companies to make a new train system.
Exactly. WordPerfect lacks "Clippy" and Word Macro Virus attacks.
WordPerfect had many of the features office does (many of which Microsoft probably claims is "innovative" on their part) BEFORE MS office had them. I personally prefer Corel's office software to Microsoft Office for this reason.
I'm sure Microsoft would say that WordPerfect lacks many features that MS Word has, but these features that WordPerfect lacks probably only relate to integration with other MS Office programs, or with Outlook Express.
Corel's software is also just as easy to learn as MS Office. Joe User probably wouldn't even tell the difference aside from the name.
Right. I know that the GBA backup systems are used to make copies of games (or at least from what I understand). Not everyone who buys a GBA backup system is going to make a homebrew game. That's obvious.
What I'm saying is that _I believe_ that those who make homebrew GBA apps are probably people who LIKE the GBA a lot, and also buy GBA games in stores.
I might be wrong about that. I'm extrapolating my thought from the fact that the people I know who develop games for platform systems also buy a lot of platform games for the systems they develop for (and other systems).
They simply like games a lot, and are happy to pay money for a good game.
I'm also saying that Nintendo might do well by accomidating the people who make homebrew apps. If Nintendo released their own development kits (like Sony did for PS1 and PS2) for commercial use, then homebrew app developers could tinker with the system they love without having to worry about the tools they need getting shut off from them due to claims that these tools are only of use to "pirates."
I knew that Sony and Nintendo were against modchips from the start, so it doesn't really surprise me to find out that they were part of this as well. Microsoft was still the big stick in this case, it seems. It is pretty strange that this happeend soon after people got Linux working on the X-Box.
Apparently the tools that you need to develop homebrew GBA apps are also gone, however. I don't think that Nintendo needed to do that. The ability to create homebrew apps ADDS VALUE to systems.
Not only is there a good selection of GBA games out there that I would be happy to go to the store and purchace, the fact that people have made tools that allow you to tinker with development make it an even cooler thing to have.
I'd wager that the majority of people who make homebrew GBA apps also buy GBA games and are longtime Nintendo fans.
At the very least, Sony provided a Linux kit to those who wanted to tinker with their Playstation 2 consoles. It might not be what everyone really wants, but it is still cool that Sony is at least meeting people half-way on the idea.
Nintendo and Microsoft could benefit by following Sony's lead. By providing development kits for their systems, they could make some money by selling the kits, and increase interest in their system by featuring "fan made" games online that could be played and offering the added value of homebrew app development.
AOL is an obstacle for Microsoft in the terms that "Joe User" will go with AOL rather than MSN currently. If AOL goes away, MSN will probably fill the void rather quickly, as it will be the only "internet access" icon on the desktop of most Windows based PCs out of the box.
Heck, Windows XP already tries to force MSN Messenger and Passport Accounts on you.
I'm a Time Warner Cable RoadRunner cable subscriber, and the AOL presence is almost entirely unfelt. While this is a good thing to me, AOL could try to use Time Warner's infrastructure for a broadband version of AOL. They could probably do this without interfering with those who want to keep their RoadRunner connections as is right now.
It really makes me embarassed as an American to see our government trying bully other countries into making their laws more like ours. I'm glad Taiwan is resisting this.
They are still using Sun machines at UCSD for most of the programming assignments. However, there is a distrubing trend at campus that seems to point that UCSD is moving away from UNIX development using GCC.
I'm not sure when you graduated, but Microsoft "donated" a whole lab's worth of Windows PCs a few years back. Microsoft also began "donating" Windows machines to CSE faculty. They have student reps giving out insane prizes (ranging from game consoles to $10,000) at school events, as well as free MS software in an attempt to win over the students.
Java (not C or C++) is the most prominent language on campus now. Students are no longer allowed to use C/C++ on the Compiler Project (CSE131A/B) starting this year. They _must_ use Java. While they still use the UNIX machines for the Java assignments, students often set up Java on Windows instead and just FTP the files over to the Sun machines to turn them in.
There is actually no need to use UNIX for most of the programming assignments now. They could theoretically switch to Windows machines and it wouldn't change anything.
While Microsoft doesn't like Java, it works pretty much the same on both Windows and UNIX... so students are less likely to learn about setting up development environments in a flavor of UNIX (such as Linux) on their own machines if it is less work just to install the stuff on Windows.
There are also classes in which students must use the Windows lab to do the work. Some classes now use Visual C++ rather than GCC (and thus work is done in the Windows Lab).
From my experience it seems the only classes that really still emphesize strong development knowledge in UNIX are CSE30, and CSE120 (Depending on the Professor).
Microsoft is actively trying to slowly worm their way into campus and convince the school to move more things to a Windows-based development enviroment. The MS Student rep once flat out told our group that "Things are going to change very soon on campus." He was referring to a change from a UNIX environment to a Windows environment. The fact that many professors don't like Microsoft is the only thing that is really in the way of that. Microsoft seems to be pumping money to get what they want, and the student rep seemed confident that eventually MS would have its way with our campus... just like they have with other campuses.
Now, that doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of students who use Linux and other operating systems, and are fully knowledgeable about UNIX development. There are plenty of people who know tons about development with GNU tools and so forth. Microsoft is trying hard to change that, however. They clearly want most UNIX development OUT of Universities.
I just feel that there is now less of a reason for students to seriously learn about UNIX development past the point of invoking "javac" from a command line. Certainly there is less of a need now than there was 2-4 years ago.
Hmn. I didn't know that the version of SecuROM included with NWN did all of that... that is a bit on the edge of the extreme.
I didn't have any trouble playing the game from the game disc even with a CD-R and some virtual drive software installed from the beginning, I just thought it checked for the legit disc.
Though it is now much nicer to be able to keep my original game disc safely tucked away with the check gone.
Maybe it is just me, but if I set something up in a share, I sure as hell mean for it to be accessed by anyone one the network.
I might be mistaken, but it is pretty obvious what you are doing when you click "SHARE" on a drive or folder, or when you put something into the "SHARED DOCUMENTS" folder.
Late Comment - But whose fault is it? Not GenX!
on
Generation Wrecked
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Why is it that Generation X is being called a bunch of slackers? I know GenX-ers (older than me) who work longer hours than my parents ever did. Meanwhile, the company they work for allows executives (members of the Boomers) to do things like spend $500 on "dinner with a client" or take a day off of work to play a round at an exclusive country club AND EXPENSE IT.
It is members of the Boomers who get to fly around in the company jet, get to stay in fancy hotels in business trips (which the company pays for), and so forth.
Then the GenX-ers at the company are asked to work more than 8 hours a day, plus weekends... and are called slackers for wanting to do things like "spend time with their families."
To top it off, it is members of the Boomers who are "cooking the books" to give themselves fat paychecks. Who suffers when the company goes bankrupt? The GenX-ers who were working at the company.
And it isn't looking very great for people who are graduating from college now. Not only do we have to compete with LAID OFF Generation X members with Masters Degrees and PHDs who are being forced down into what would normally be entry level positions, but some of us face even greater debt from school. (I'm luck that I don't have any debt from school, but plenty of my friends have tons...)
The government is _encouraging_ the GenX-ers to go into debt by "going shopping" to fight terrorism at the same time. Great idea!!
I talked with someone from the DEPRESSION generation a few months ago at a picnic. The economy entered the discussion.
They said that they don't understand how younger people can even survive today with the damage that the _Baby Boomers_ are doing.
The.com thing was a scam, yes... but the Generation X CEOs who were part of the scam were being strung along by venture capitilists... who were mostly (surprise)... Baby Boomers.
I'm not trying to bash all Boomers here. I know plenty of Baby Boomers who are having just as much trouble as the Generation X people are. But it is just really kinda messed up when Generation X is being called a generation of "slackers," when most of the damage is being done by people from the Boomer Generation who are purposefully doing things that are hurting the economy and hurting the Generation X people so that they can get more money that they don't even need.
Actually, Bioware removed the Copy Protection from NWN mainly because it was causing a lot of problems for some people with certain CD-Rom drives.
Then again, they did wait until far after the release date to release the patch that removed the checking (I believe that it was patch 1.22 where they removed the check).
I just installed Red Hat 8.0 on my laptop. I had some issues.
Somehow, someway the GRAPHICAL installer messed up on the configuration for X. Go figure that one out. It more than likely has something to do with my crappy video adaptor, though. I don't think it is a universal problem. At least I hope not.
Then I discover KDE has been messed with. That's okay, since I like to tweak my KDE a bit anyways no matter what. As far as everything else, the Bluecurve KDE theme is nice looking and probably will be welcomed by new users.
I agree on the apt-rpm bit. That would have been nice to have with the distribution. It is a very useful tool for getting the stuff Red Hat neglected to put in.
At UCSD, the Microsoft Assimila... err Microsoft Student Rep essentially crashed our "Linux Setup Day" event a couple years ago and handed out free copies of Windows 2000.
The MS student rep would give out free copies of Windows, Visual Studio, Office, etc. on campus, and I'm sure that Microsoft is giving out free copies of WinXP, Visual Studio.net, etc. right now on campus.
The thing is that Microsoft did NOT do this sort of thing on such a wide scale until Linux grew in popularity on campus.
MS is obviously trying very hard to keep CS students from learning to seriously develop software outside of a Microsoft Environment. By providing students with MS software for free, they hope to stop students from using open source development tools.
If Windows is all programmers know, that is all they'll develop for.
There should NOT be very much international law. We already have too much. The fact that Bush wants everyone else to follow it, but doesn't want the US to be accountable to it is only an illustration of the very problem with international law. Every country has different values and societies.
It is too hard to enforce, first of all. Second of all, it imposes the values of (mainly) the West on every country in the world.
If Afganistan wants to make heroin and opium until the cows come home, let them.
If Malasyans want to copy CDs and burn them, let them.
Creating international "bully forces" to impose Western values on other countries isn't going to do anything but cause more people worldwide to become "terrorists" who are out to "kill the West."
International law should be stripped down to cover war crimes like genocide. It shouldn't have any place outside the of things like that.
Microsoft doesn't want people to have the right to do what they wish with the products they buy.
Yes, these modchips facilitate piracy. But they also have legitimate uses on every console they exist for. Not to mention that people should be able to use the modchip for "copied" games so long as those are backup copies.
Lik Sang offered plenty of legitimate products for people who enjoy modding their consoles, tinkering, homebrew developmenet, etc. Of course, Microsoft doesn't want people to tinker and mod for ANY reason, because this undermines the next step in MS's business plan.
Microsoft is trying very hard to establish a sense that you don't own your X-Box, but they do. With Palladium, they are going to extend that idea to the PC... you don't own your computer... MS does.
Microsoft is going to use their money and power to take out any companies like Lik Sang in the future that give people the ability to mod their X-Box, or mod their PC's hardware after Palladium is released.
I agree. Nintendo is still around because it continues to produce great games that focus on gameplay. They are able to make nice looking games without trying to turn themselves into Hollywood. Even though Nintendo uses its same characters and series (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc.) over and over they still manage to produce awesome games every time.
I'm happier with my GameCube than my PS2 because of Nintendo's games.
Come on, this is obviously all about selling new software to freshmen from the campus bookstore. UC schools (and probably other schools) pull stuff like this. They feed off the ignorance of most computer users to make a quick buck.
When I was an incoming freshman at UCSD (in 1998), many students did not have network cards. The campus resnet handout they gave us said that students needed a network card to use the net connection in the reshalls. Fair enough. But then it STRONGLY SUGGESTED that students buy the network cards that they sold in the bookstore, "just to be safe so that they could connect to the network."
Not surprisingly, the they sold ethernet cards at a staggering markup in the bookstore (I think it was about $80 for a card that you could buy for $40 at Fry's). They also apparently were marking up the patch cables quite a bit!
I was very shocked when my suitemates came in first week complaining about how much they had to spend to get onto the network at the bookstore!
While there are still some great games, many of them with "cinematic" effects, the Hollywood-ization of the game industries are causing us to see lots of crappy games that are flashy, but also lack gameplay depth and especially challenge.
The Sega CD bombed back in the 90s, not because of the lack of system capabilities, but because Sega focused on crappy FMV-based games and hyped them as "interactive movies" rather than good games.
Agreed. While the concept of being able to have my own custom black mage running around is intriguing, I have yet to find an MMORPG that I really enjoyed and didn't require me to treat it like a part time job to advance.
I would have rather seen another traditional FF game taking the spot of FF11. Another game like 9 would have been great. Oh well.
I hadn't even heard about this, but last year (and apparently over the course of the summer), UCSD's administration has also been trying to silence the free speech of the Koala, a student run publication.
The Koala is kind of a raunchy publication, and I believe that the administration wants to "silence" the Koala so that the campus looks "cleaner." No matter the reason it is wrong.
A few years ago there was an office mishap between a publication, The Voz Fronterizia, and the student chapter of the ACM (of which I was a member). The ACM was pretty much an innocent bystander in what happened. We filled out an application for office space, and were given the office that the Voz occupied during the previous school year. APPARENTLY, the Voz failed to turn in their paperwork for the office, and thus lost it.
The Voz, on the other hand, claimed that they had turned in their forms by the deadline and that the Administration was trying to get rid of them by denying them an office.
At the time, we (ACM) believed what the administration was telling us. However, recent action by UCSD's administration makes me begin to believe the Voz's side of the story.
The Voz is a fairly out-there publication, with some extreme views. One of its views even seems to be that California is unrightfully "occupied" by the United States, and that the border between the US and Mexico should be demolished. I completely disagree with the publication... but I also completely disagree that there is a need to silence them.
After the office dispute, the University allegedly tried to cut their funding because they published in Spanish. The University has also been trying to get rid of the CheCafe for some time now.
UCSD is trying to maintain a very conservative environment on campus. So it is only natural that they want to "clean up" the campus by getting rid of leftist and anarchist publications. The administration also often tries to schmooze with big software, technology, and medical companies on a regular basis. Qualcomm, and recently Microsoft, have a pretty big presence on campus.
Yeah, I've read just about everything by Bill Schnoebelen. He wrote a couple of the articles that say D&D is Satanic. He purports that he helped TSR make magic in D&D "authentic" when he was a Wiccan.
This seems highly doubtful since he seems to know almost nothing about the game except what he might have learned through skimming a rule book once or twice.
This stuff is actually pretty amusing to read because his grasp of the game is so poor that it does beg the question if he really exists at all, or if he is just someone "made up" by Chick Publications.
For a really funny read, check out the Dark Dungeons comic that Jack Chick wrote in 1984 It involves a teenager plays D&D, and then joins a Satanic cult. But then her friend commits suicide (because of D&D), and she discovers how bad D&D _really_ is!!!! http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0 046_01.a sp
Interestingly enough, I've read that Jack Chick and his company make millions a year selling their literature. Not surprising, considering the blatant sensationalism they hype their stuff up with.
Technically, you are probably right about this. Someone with normal computer proficiency could hire a 17 year old high school kid to help install software for them... having them click "I agree." In California, at least, this should not be legally binding unless a parent is also present and agrees (it'd probably better to do this with somone else's kid, not your own).
Unfortunately, the software company you try this on probably has better lawyers in larger quantities than you have access to. But if you were to luck out and get the right judge... it might hold in court. Until someone buys a law that says anyone who USES the software is bound to the EULA, even if they don't see the EULA's terms. -_-
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I doubt it would be Amtrak. I say let Amtrak die.
Let a new company with new vision and an eye towards the future of transportation develop a high tech train system in America. We don't need old companies to make a new train system.
Exactly. WordPerfect lacks "Clippy" and Word Macro Virus attacks.
WordPerfect had many of the features office does (many of which Microsoft probably claims is "innovative" on their part) BEFORE MS office had them. I personally prefer Corel's office software to Microsoft Office for this reason.
I'm sure Microsoft would say that WordPerfect lacks many features that MS Word has, but these features that WordPerfect lacks probably only relate to integration with other MS Office programs, or with Outlook Express.
Corel's software is also just as easy to learn as MS Office. Joe User probably wouldn't even tell the difference aside from the name.
Right. I know that the GBA backup systems are used to make copies of games (or at least from what I understand). Not everyone who buys a GBA backup system is going to make a homebrew game. That's obvious.
What I'm saying is that _I believe_ that those who make homebrew GBA apps are probably people who LIKE the GBA a lot, and also buy GBA games in stores.
I might be wrong about that. I'm extrapolating my thought from the fact that the people I know who develop games for platform systems also buy a lot of platform games for the systems they develop for (and other systems).
They simply like games a lot, and are happy to pay money for a good game.
I'm also saying that Nintendo might do well by accomidating the people who make homebrew apps. If Nintendo released their own development kits (like Sony did for PS1 and PS2) for commercial use, then homebrew app developers could tinker with the system they love without having to worry about the tools they need getting shut off from them due to claims that these tools are only of use to "pirates."
I knew that Sony and Nintendo were against modchips from the start, so it doesn't really surprise me to find out that they were part of this as well. Microsoft was still the big stick in this case, it seems. It is pretty strange that this happeend soon after people got Linux working on the X-Box.
Apparently the tools that you need to develop homebrew GBA apps are also gone, however. I don't think that Nintendo needed to do that. The ability to create homebrew apps ADDS VALUE to systems.
Not only is there a good selection of GBA games out there that I would be happy to go to the store and purchace, the fact that people have made tools that allow you to tinker with development make it an even cooler thing to have.
I'd wager that the majority of people who make homebrew GBA apps also buy GBA games and are longtime Nintendo fans.
At the very least, Sony provided a Linux kit to those who wanted to tinker with their Playstation 2 consoles. It might not be what everyone really wants, but it is still cool that Sony is at least meeting people half-way on the idea.
Nintendo and Microsoft could benefit by following Sony's lead. By providing development kits for their systems, they could make some money by selling the kits, and increase interest in their system by featuring "fan made" games online that could be played and offering the added value of homebrew app development.
AOL is an obstacle for Microsoft in the terms that "Joe User" will go with AOL rather than MSN currently. If AOL goes away, MSN will probably fill the void rather quickly, as it will be the only "internet access" icon on the desktop of most Windows based PCs out of the box.
Heck, Windows XP already tries to force MSN Messenger and Passport Accounts on you.
I'm a Time Warner Cable RoadRunner cable subscriber, and the AOL presence is almost entirely unfelt. While this is a good thing to me, AOL could try to use Time Warner's infrastructure for a broadband version of AOL.
They could probably do this without interfering with those who want to keep their RoadRunner connections as is right now.
It really makes me embarassed as an American to see our government trying bully other countries into making their laws more like ours. I'm glad Taiwan is resisting this.
1.25 is also so bugged that it seems most people aren't even installing it. Wonder what we'll see in 1.26 though?
They are still using Sun machines at UCSD for most of the programming assignments. However, there is a distrubing trend at campus that seems to point that UCSD is moving away from UNIX development using GCC.
I'm not sure when you graduated, but Microsoft "donated" a whole lab's worth of Windows PCs a few years back. Microsoft also began "donating" Windows machines to CSE faculty. They have student reps giving out insane prizes (ranging from game consoles to $10,000) at school events,
as well as free MS software in an attempt to win over the students.
Java (not C or C++) is the most prominent language on campus now. Students are no longer allowed to use C/C++ on the Compiler Project (CSE131A/B) starting this year. They _must_ use Java. While they still use the UNIX machines for the Java assignments, students often set up Java on Windows instead and just FTP the files over to the Sun machines to turn them in.
There is actually no need to use UNIX for most of the programming assignments now. They could theoretically switch to Windows machines and it wouldn't change anything.
While Microsoft doesn't like Java, it works pretty much the same on both Windows and UNIX... so students are less likely to learn about setting up development environments in a flavor of UNIX (such as Linux) on their own machines if it is less work just to install the stuff on Windows.
There are also classes in which students must use the Windows lab to do the work. Some classes now use Visual C++ rather than GCC (and thus work is done in the Windows Lab).
From my experience it seems the only classes that really still emphesize strong development knowledge in UNIX are CSE30, and CSE120 (Depending on the Professor).
Microsoft is actively trying to slowly worm their way into campus and convince the school to move more things to a Windows-based development enviroment. The MS Student rep once flat out told our group that "Things are going to change very soon on campus." He was referring to a change from a UNIX environment to a Windows environment.
The fact that many professors don't like Microsoft is the only thing that is really in the way of that. Microsoft seems to be pumping money to get what they want, and the student rep seemed confident that eventually MS would have its way with our campus... just like they have with other campuses.
Now, that doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of students who use Linux and other operating systems, and are fully knowledgeable about UNIX development. There are plenty of people who know tons about development with GNU tools and so forth. Microsoft is trying hard to change that, however. They clearly want most UNIX development OUT of Universities.
I just feel that there is now less of a reason for students to seriously learn about UNIX development past the point of invoking "javac" from a command line. Certainly there is less of a need now than there was 2-4 years ago.
Hmn. I didn't know that the version of SecuROM included with NWN did all of that... that is a bit on the edge of the extreme.
I didn't have any trouble playing the game from the game disc even with a CD-R and some virtual drive software installed from the beginning, I just thought it checked for the legit disc.
Though it is now much nicer to be able to keep my original game disc safely tucked away with the check gone.
Maybe it is just me, but if I set something up in a share, I sure as hell mean for it to be accessed by anyone one the network.
I might be mistaken, but it is pretty obvious what you are doing when you click "SHARE" on a drive or folder, or when you put something into the "SHARED DOCUMENTS" folder.
Why is it that Generation X is being called a bunch of slackers? I know GenX-ers (older than me) who work longer hours than my parents ever did. Meanwhile, the company they work for allows executives (members of the Boomers) to do things like spend $500 on "dinner with a client" or take a day off of work to play a round at an exclusive country club AND EXPENSE IT.
.com thing was a scam, yes... but the Generation X CEOs who were part of the scam were being strung along by venture capitilists... who were mostly (surprise)... Baby Boomers.
It is members of the Boomers who get to fly around in the company jet, get to stay in fancy hotels in business trips (which the company pays for), and so forth.
Then the GenX-ers at the company are asked to work more than 8 hours a day, plus weekends... and are called slackers for wanting to do things like "spend time with their families."
To top it off, it is members of the Boomers who are "cooking the books" to give themselves fat paychecks. Who suffers when the company goes bankrupt? The GenX-ers who were working at the company.
And it isn't looking very great for people who are graduating from college now. Not only do we have to compete with LAID OFF Generation X members with Masters Degrees and PHDs who are being forced down into what would normally be entry level positions, but some of us face even greater debt from school.
(I'm luck that I don't have any debt from school, but plenty of my friends have tons...)
The government is _encouraging_ the GenX-ers to go into debt by "going shopping" to fight terrorism at the same time. Great idea!!
I talked with someone from the DEPRESSION generation a few months ago at a picnic.
The economy entered the discussion.
They said that they don't understand how younger people can even survive today with the damage that the _Baby Boomers_ are doing.
The
I'm not trying to bash all Boomers here. I know plenty of Baby Boomers who are having just as much trouble as the Generation X people are. But it is just really kinda messed up when Generation X is being called a generation of "slackers," when most of the damage is being done by people from the Boomer Generation who are purposefully doing things that are hurting the economy and hurting the Generation X people so that they can get more money that they don't even need.
Actually, Bioware removed the Copy Protection from NWN mainly because it was causing a lot of problems for some people with certain CD-Rom drives.
Then again, they did wait until far after the release date to release the patch that removed the checking (I believe that it was patch 1.22 where they removed the check).
I just installed Red Hat 8.0 on my laptop. I had some issues.
Somehow, someway the GRAPHICAL installer messed up on the configuration for X. Go figure that one out. It more than likely has something to do with my crappy video adaptor, though. I don't think it is a universal problem. At least I hope not.
Then I discover KDE has been messed with. That's okay, since I like to tweak my KDE a bit anyways no matter what. As far as everything else, the Bluecurve KDE theme is nice looking and probably will be welcomed by new users.
I agree on the apt-rpm bit. That would have been nice to have with the distribution. It is a very useful tool for getting the stuff Red Hat neglected to put in.
At UCSD, the Microsoft Assimila... err Microsoft Student Rep essentially crashed our "Linux Setup Day" event a couple years ago and handed out free copies of Windows 2000.
.net, etc. right now on campus.
The MS student rep would give out free copies of Windows, Visual Studio, Office, etc. on campus, and I'm sure that Microsoft is giving out free copies of WinXP, Visual Studio
The thing is that Microsoft did NOT do this sort of thing on such a wide scale until Linux grew in popularity on campus.
MS is obviously trying very hard to keep CS students from learning to seriously develop software outside of a Microsoft Environment.
By providing students with MS software for free, they hope to stop students from using open source development tools.
If Windows is all programmers know, that is all they'll develop for.
There should NOT be very much international law. We already have too much. The fact that Bush wants everyone else to follow it, but doesn't want the US to be accountable to it is only an illustration of the very problem with international law. Every country has different values and societies.
It is too hard to enforce, first of all. Second of all, it imposes the values of (mainly) the West on every country in the world.
If Afganistan wants to make heroin and opium until the cows come home, let them.
If Malasyans want to copy CDs and burn them, let them.
Creating international "bully forces" to impose Western values on other countries isn't going to do anything but cause more people worldwide to become "terrorists" who are out to "kill the West."
International law should be stripped down to cover war crimes like genocide. It shouldn't have any place outside the of things like that.
Darn it! I hate both the RIAA as well as Verizon!
Who am I supposed to root for?
Microsoft doesn't want people to have the right to do what they wish with the products they buy.
Yes, these modchips facilitate piracy. But they also have legitimate uses on every console they exist for. Not to mention that people should be able to use the modchip for "copied" games so long as those are backup copies.
Lik Sang offered plenty of legitimate products for people who enjoy modding their consoles, tinkering, homebrew developmenet, etc. Of course, Microsoft doesn't want people to tinker and mod for ANY reason, because this undermines the next step in MS's business plan.
Microsoft is trying very hard to establish a sense that you don't own your X-Box, but they do. With Palladium, they are going to extend that idea to the PC... you don't own your computer... MS does.
Microsoft is going to use their money and power to take out any companies like Lik Sang in the future that give people the ability to mod their X-Box, or mod their PC's hardware after Palladium is released.
I agree. Nintendo is still around because it continues to produce great games that focus on gameplay. They are able to make nice looking games without trying to turn themselves into Hollywood. Even though Nintendo uses its same characters and series (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc.) over and over they still manage to produce awesome games every time.
I'm happier with my GameCube than my PS2 because of Nintendo's games.
Come on, this is obviously all about selling new software to freshmen from the campus bookstore. UC schools (and probably other schools) pull stuff like this. They feed off the ignorance of most computer users to make a quick buck.
When I was an incoming freshman at UCSD (in 1998), many students did not have network cards. The campus resnet handout they gave us said that students needed a network card to use the net connection in the reshalls. Fair enough. But then it STRONGLY SUGGESTED that students buy the network cards that they sold in the bookstore, "just to be safe so that they could connect to the network."
Not surprisingly, the they sold ethernet cards at a staggering markup in the bookstore (I think it was about $80 for a card that you could buy for $40 at Fry's). They also apparently were marking up the patch cables quite a bit!
I was very shocked when my suitemates came in first week complaining about how much they had to spend to get onto the network at the bookstore!
While there are still some great games, many of them with "cinematic" effects, the Hollywood-ization of the game industries are causing us to see lots of crappy games that are flashy, but also lack gameplay depth and especially challenge.
The Sega CD bombed back in the 90s, not because of the lack of system capabilities, but because Sega focused on crappy FMV-based games and hyped them as "interactive movies" rather than good games.
Agreed. While the concept of being able to have my own custom black mage running around is intriguing, I have yet to find an MMORPG that I really enjoyed and didn't require me to treat it like a part time job to advance.
I would have rather seen another traditional FF game taking the spot of FF11. Another game like 9 would have been great. Oh well.
The Koala is kind of a raunchy publication, and I believe that the administration wants to "silence" the Koala so that the campus looks "cleaner." No matter the reason it is wrong.
A few years ago there was an office mishap between a publication, The Voz Fronterizia, and the student chapter of the ACM (of which I was a member). The ACM was pretty much an innocent bystander in what happened. We filled out an application for office space, and were given the office that the Voz occupied during the previous school year. APPARENTLY, the Voz failed to turn in their paperwork for the office, and thus lost it.
The Voz, on the other hand, claimed that they had turned in their forms by the deadline and that the Administration was trying to get rid of them by denying them an office.
At the time, we (ACM) believed what the administration was telling us. However, recent action by UCSD's administration makes me begin to believe the Voz's side of the story.
The Voz is a fairly out-there publication, with some extreme views. One of its views even seems to be that California is unrightfully "occupied" by the United States, and that the border between the US and Mexico should be demolished. I completely disagree with the publication... but I also completely disagree that there is a need to silence them.
After the office dispute, the University allegedly tried to cut their funding because they published in Spanish. The University has also been trying to get rid of the CheCafe for some time now.
UCSD is trying to maintain a very conservative environment on campus. So it is only natural that they want to "clean up" the campus by getting rid of leftist and anarchist publications.
The administration also often tries to schmooze with big software, technology, and medical companies on a regular basis. Qualcomm, and recently Microsoft, have a pretty big presence on campus.
Yeah, I've read just about everything by Bill Schnoebelen. He wrote a couple of the articles that say D&D is Satanic. He purports that he helped TSR make magic in D&D "authentic" when he was a Wiccan.
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This seems highly doubtful since he seems to know almost nothing about the game except what he might have learned through skimming a rule book once or twice.
This stuff is actually pretty amusing to read because his grasp of the game is so poor that it does beg the question if he really exists at all, or if he is just someone "made up" by Chick Publications.
For a really funny read, check out the Dark Dungeons comic that Jack Chick wrote in 1984 It involves a teenager plays D&D, and then joins a Satanic cult. But then her friend commits suicide (because of D&D), and she discovers how bad D&D _really_ is!!!!
http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/
Interestingly enough, I've read that Jack Chick and his company make millions a year selling their literature. Not surprising, considering the blatant sensationalism they hype their stuff up with.
Scene 1 - the player talks to a Freeport guard for information...
Player: Hail!
Guard: Hail, Welcome to Freeport! Be sure to check out the new Burger King next to the Mercenary Guild!
Scene 2 - the player is running low on food and water...
Message: You are low on food and water. You could really go for Col. Sander's original recipe chicken, accompanied with an ice cold Pepsi!
Scene 3 - weapon and armor are replaced with namebrand apparel...
PlayerA Auctions: WTB Gap Jeans. Will pay 50PP.
PlayerB Auctions: WTS Old Navy Performance Fleece!
10PP or Express Jacket wanted!
Technically, you are probably right about this. Someone with normal computer proficiency could hire a 17 year old high school kid to help install software for them... having them click "I agree." In California, at least, this should not be legally binding unless a parent is also present and agrees (it'd probably better to do this with somone else's kid, not your own).
Unfortunately, the software company you try this on probably has better lawyers in larger quantities than you have access to. But if you were to luck out and get the right judge... it might hold in court. Until someone buys a law that says anyone who USES the software is bound to the EULA, even if they don't see the EULA's terms. -_-