Agree about BSG, but does it strike anyone else as odd that all of the ships in the Colonial fleet (as well as Vipers and Cylon raiders inbound for an attack) all seem to agree on which direction is up?
Certainly, we are not without sin, but the current rift is more complex than you portray. At the very least, it is due in part to a clash of cultures and religions that are almost diametrically opposed to one another. Freedom of speech, expression and, yes, religion are basic tenets of American society. We have grown so used to these basic freedoms that we assume that they are universally true...and they are not...regardless of how much we (or others) would like them to be.
I am not attempting to flame, but I think that it is fair to say that some societies (especially some of those in the Mid-East) hold a specific religious dogma to be of principal importance to their society. All other laws and rules of behavior flow from that religious dogma...or, at the very least, cannot conflict with it. I think that it is also fair to say that the level of tolerance for conflicting beliefs is fairly low. Doubt it? Try carrying a stack of bibles into Saudi Arabia and see how far you get through customs. I'll tell you how far - to the line that leads to jail:
In America, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I worked in Japan for some time and realized that a somewhat similar Japanese phrase crystallizes the difference between our two cultures - the nail that sticks up gets hit. The clash of philosophies between Islam and the West make the differences between the US and Japan look trivial.
I was a very early adopter of MP3s. I converted much of my collection in the mid to late 90s when conversion took place at 0.5x real time on standard home PC. That said, I have never bought one track online. Why? DRM. Funny thing is, I hardly buy CDs anymore either.
DRM-free music may actually motivate me to get excited about buying music again. It may also, however, hasten the death of CD-based commercial music sales. Ability to rip from a CD and yield DRM-free content seems to be one of the few remaining advantages of this format. Why the heck would I drop $14.99 for a CD now if I can just grab the one or two tracks that I like for a fraction of that price? Sure, I may not discover deep tracks that do not enjoy radio play, but this still does sound like a major advantage to me. How many of us have CDs that seem like a collection of marginal tracks surrounding the one or two that we actually like?
Interseting point, but I personally think that you are taking quite a leap equating the proprietary video format supported by the PSP with the BluRay format supported by the PS3.
Most consumers had no idea what a PSP even was...let alone know much about its video playback features...or being able to relate those capabilities to their expensive investment in their home theater. In contrast, most consumers are painfully aware of the PS3, BluRay, and HDTV.
Sales of HDTV-capable are rising exponentially, yet most owners still do not have an HDTV feed. "Of the world's 48.2 million HD households, only 16.4 million have sets with an integrated HD tuner or a HD set top box." (http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9498/1085/)
Many, like myself, view an HD-capable disk player as a very attractive first step to be able to view HDTV content at home. While I do not disagree that many will hold off until less expensive players are available, many others have been waiting (literally) for years for an HDTV feed for their existing television...and they may bite early. In fact, everyone who bought a PS3 already has. Sure, those numbers are small, but they allow Sony to show 3:1 sales ratios of BluRay disks vs. HD DVD disks and declare victory. Such incremental marketing measures create a general consumer perception...and perception is reality to many. Perception also often ends up fostering an environment in which that general perception actually becomes reality.
Inexpensive players require economies of scale...OR vendors willing to take a loss, which is what Sony did. I just don't see that happening on the HD DVD side...and I am not sure that we will.
Of course, whoever gets an exclusive deal with Vivid Entertainment will probably win the war.
Quality will not decide this format war - the PS3 will.
Betamax was superior to VHS...and the MacOS was superior to Windows (at least for some time...let's avoid the flame war on the current state of affairs). They were both beaten by superior positioning of technically inferior competitors...and the PS3 has been a huge success for Sony in one regard - it got a lot of BluRay players in the hands of consumers...and the sales of BluRay titles are dwarfing those of HD DVD correspondingly.
Will the trend continue? Who knows, but I'd rather have momentum than not have it...so I'm not betting against Sony yet. The posted article may be interesting for some, but I am disinterested in any discussion of quality or features until the market settles. I do not have the discretionary income to buy an expensive player that will be obsolete before it is useful...regardless of any perceived quality difference. Early adopters may disagree, but Joe Sixpack and I are sticking with our standard DVD players and HD over cable/satellite until we see who wins this war.
In my environment, the answer is this - who cares? (at least from the IT group's position)
They will come for your machine and if they cannot fix it easily, they will reimage it...or replace it. If you lost your data, too bad. In fact, they now require hard drive level encryption so many problems MUST now be solved by reimaging since traditional attempts to resolve likely issues (or at least the easier ones) have now been rendered useless.
It takes them about fifteen minutes to reimage the disk...as opposed to hours of analysis to attempt to solve the problem or rescue files. If you didn't store your files on the network files servers, then that is your problem...and frankly, they find users that have technical knowledge annoying at the least and threatening at the worst. They'd rather deal with preschoolers locked in a playpen.
We are not all morons...and yes, some of us CAN actually configure a router...including this non-IT dept member who has a BSEE, writes software for external clients, has done so for nearly two decades, and maintains numerous production systems for these external clients.
I feel some of these posters' pain. I am also suffering as a developer in a large corporation. I have been building production systems for 17 years...and my team has experts in h/w, s/w, networking, and a range of other areas (CM, test, reqts, etc)...yet the internal IT department treats us the same as every other group of employees (HR, non-engineers, etc.). I recently attempted to place four new servers on our internal network for development purposes...and was shutdown for seven weeks. The issue - they came from Dell with the R2 version of Windows Server 2003. "R2? We have never approved that...and won't now either!"
To get this answer I had to fill out four separate forms, exchange countless email messages, and hold four meetings with four of the five groups that must approve such a radical idea - the general IT group, the Network Design Review group, the Server Design Review group, the Information Security Team, and the Internal Infrastructure group...each of whom could veto. I filled out waivers and researched R2...and the same folks who told me to fill out the waivers then informed me that they intended to also deny the waivers.
R2. Vanilla Dell PowerEdge Servers with R2. What a threat. I asked them what was it about R2? I bought it because that is what Dell sells. That release has been out for over a year...and these are development servers. I provided info explaining what was in R2...and even offered to disable any services that concerned them. I also demonstrated that the servers had AV and AntiSpyware software installed and the latest windows patches...and gave them admin access to the servers...and also stated that they could install the Altris monitoring and configuration software that we use internally...but no dice. R2 is scary...and unapproved...and they haven't even started to look at it yet. I only managed to get the servers on to the physical network after agreeing to place the servers in a DMZ that has the following limitations:
- Only select developer workstations can access the servers...and only on pre-negotiated ports - The servers cannot initiate traffic out of the DMZ to the developer workstations...so much for my critical UDP application spitting packets to our visualization workstations...or socket logging to LogFactor5 or Chainsaw - The servers cannot see the internet...so much for AV or OS updates...without the aid of a CD...and I cannot even access the internal update servers.
Yes, I could setup tunneling...and most likely be fired for it. Our internet filtering blocks all access to sites that offer such software.
Seven weeks to get a crippled configuration because of a policy based on absolutes rather than reason. We must have 500 people assigned to one of these five groups...and the corporate flexibility is inversely proportional to their mass...due, of course, to the fact that the size of their paranoia (i.e., the number of people thinking of bad things that we could be doing) grows with each new member of the group.
I am reasonable...and I understand the threat many apparently benign applications pose. I also understand that we need to safeguard our networks and data...but please...the climate of absolutes is Draconian and, frankly, just plain lazy. My team build systems for external clients, which we field and maintain...so we are also aware of security threats and are willing to be reasonable, but consistently slam into a wall constructed from policies. The irony is that my company earns revenue from one source - my labor. We only bill clients for time...with a large multiplier...out of which all of our overhead functions are budgeted...including these five groups.
Interesting side note - my corporation has identified my current client a
Well...I should have Googled first. Looks like Halo 3 may be exclusively for a console...so I apologize for offering advice that does not apply to the specific game being discussed That said, the discussion above may still be useful for cavemen like me who still prefer PC-based gaming. Feel free to mute me now.
My gaming group does not use the built-in chat functions for any of the games that we host. Instead, we use Ventrilo. This approach allows us much finer grained control over chat functions, including the ability to establish multiple channels, G- and R-rated channels, and password-protected channels. Our RCONs also have the ability to ban someone from the voice chat channels without banning them from the game (AND the ban applies to all supported games).
Non-admin players also enjoy a much richer array of configuration options, including fine-grained control over input and output audio settings...and, yes, the ability to mute a player. One can also download the "voice overlay" shareware program so that they can monitor who is speaking without leaving the game. I'm sure that Teamspeak (another popular PC-based chat client) has similar functions.
I suppose the in-game chat option is the path of least resistance and requires the least setup for a new player, but taking the time to adopt and configure one of the external programs is usually worth the effort. Of course, this advice applies to PC-based gaming only (as opposed to consoles).
Did people want plumbers hurling turtles? A happy face eating dots and running from ghosts? Sure, two older examples, but what people want generally falls into one of two categories:
- Mindless fun that you can start and stop at any time - Epic quests that reward you for having no life
Me? I want to shoot things. Plot? I need only need this - it moved, so shoot it. Sure, I'll expand that preference to TDM, CTF, Search & Destroy, etc. versions of FPS, but I really just want mindless carnage. I'm a guy, and most of my ilk want to experience a testosterone-filled thrill ride - cars, guns, planes, etc. Basically, the opportunity to be tough perhaps, clever maybe, but superior...definitely. Plot? Perhaps that's what you need to bring in female gamers.
No new innovation? Uh, I believe a game came out in the not too distant past where you get paid for dropping a hooker off at a party...and it sells like hotcakes. Not my thing, but someone is thinking out of the standard game box.
That last line is just a collection of words (and word fragments) that were left over after I constructed my post...not unlike the items that I have left over when I reassemble almost anything else. Feel free to use them in your posts. They are spares.
I do not begrudge MS their licensing fees. They deserve them. I just would prefer that a Windows OS purchase of any kind was treated similarly to that of most consumer software purchases - buy a version and you can install that software on a single PC. Feel free to move the same version of that software to a new PC as long as you remove it from the first PC.
Most consumers are not attorneys. When they buy a PC that "includes Windows", they don't necessarily infer that they received a lesser, non-transferable version of Windows than one that they could have purchased elsewhere. They most likely assume that they bought Windows. The computer also came with a keyboard...and it isn't limited to being used on just that computer in the future.
It seems that the law abiding citizen is bearing the brunt of privacy...since they are most affected by Draconian licensing policies meant to address same. Of course, one cannot downplay Microsoft's preference to also get all of us to pay them an OS tax as frequently as possible.
I typically build my own systems for home. My motivation is not expense - I want a system configured the way I want...with (for the most part) non-OEM components...so i can get (for example) drivers directly from the manufacturer...rather than ATI tell me, "Oh, that video card is really an OEM ATI card for Dell...and you must get the drivers from them." This debacle just reinforces that preference. of course, I bought an OEM version of win XP from newegg for my last build.;-)
I built an entirely new PC after a motherboard fried on an older HP Pavilion. I attempted to use the license key stuck on the side of the fried HP, but the OS would not activate. I called the telephone number that the OS presented on the activation failure screen and was connected to tech support in India, who were very helpful. I simply needed to tell them that the OS was no longer on the old PC and they issued me a new activation key over the phone.
BTW, I did not tell them that it was a new PC...I stated that I just replaced the motherboard since I wasn't sure how they would react, but honestly, I had the license and it was no longer in use so I felt that the request for the new key was justified. In fact, I think MS agrees...which is why the have a NEW policy for Vista - you are allowed to transfer the OS to a new PC (or motherboard) once...and then you are done...time for a new license. Blech. One of the many reasons to stick with XP as long as possible.
Okay...that's just a cut and paste...but DAMN it's funny. Someone please mod that up. I had 5 points, but I decided to trade them for a little wagon wheel that lives next to the stone wall. Oh look, I think some flowers are starting to grow around it!
I must agree. I wish that I had read that post before taking the time to download the Treo 650 versions of Opera Mini and the IBM VM...since I experience the exact same behavior. In contrast, Blazer is as solid as a rock. Can't say that i love it's features, but stability is pretty much a trump card. Perhaps a nice meta-moderator will fix that issue.
Is anyone aware of an attractive alternative to Blazer on a Treo 650?
Sold online by one company for $69 (US). Valid industrial purposes exist. Company is fairly sketchy and the owner claimed 20 years ago that he once worked on alien spaceships on a secret military base in Nevada - presumably a US military base, but the article was not specific so I suppose that it could have also been an alien base.
Regardless, expect Uncle Sam to land on him like a ton of bricks fairly soon. I hope that his forcefield dome is active.
Ditto this comment. When I rip out a simple system, I definitely lean toward Postgres by default...but when I need a system with any of the following qualities:
- clustering / high-availability failover
- robust WAN replication
- maximized performance
- ability to hire experts that can tweak every ounce of performance out of the servers
- extensive and complete documentation
...as well as range of other esoteric functions required for enterprise applications, I default to Oracle. Of course, this decision is also almost never an issue since each one of my clients is almost always already in possession of an enterprise-wide license agreement for the full Oracle product suite...because of Oracle's bulldog sales force. The downside to those licenses are, however, that I then have to explain why I would rather use JBoss than OAS.
Also, do not downplay the sheer number of people that you can hire that are Oracle DBA and PL/SQL experts. Licenses are cheap compared to the cost of a failed development program...at least in my world.
Ditto this comment. When I rip out a simple system, I definitely lean toward Postgres by default...but when I need a system with any of the following qualities:
- clustering / high-availability failover
- robust WAN replication
- maximized performance
- ability to hire experts that can tweak every ounce of performance out of the servers
- extensive and complete documentation...as well as range of other esoteric functions required for enterprise applications, I default to Oracle. Of course, this decision is also almost never an issue since each one of my clients is almost always already in possession of an enterprise-wide license agreement for the full Oracle product suite...because of Oracle's bulldog sales force. The downside to those licenses are, however, that I then have to explain why I would rather use JBoss than OAS.
Also, do not downplay the sheer number of people that you can hire that are Oracle DBA and PL/SQL experts. Licenses are cheap compared to the cost of a failed development program...at least in my world.
...build a man a fire and he will be warm for the night. Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
Seriously though, the $100 laptop idea seems well-intentioned, but it also seems to be based on a world view that is not very realistic. The amount that many Americans spend at Starbucks each year exceeds the GNI per capita of the world's least developed nations. These folks lack the basics - clean disease-free water, adequate food, medicine, and medical care - and their national infrastructures are a mess. Couple that situation with the African AIDS pandemic and a free laptop seems like a cruel joke.
The laptop may be a fine idea for some developing nations, but I personally believe that the associated hype has created a false impression that we are addressing a real problem...and the associated back clapping seems to overshadow the actual dire issues that these nations face.
...which may explain how AMD has managed to keep their costs low over the years. Word of mouth is compelling...even to the point that many folks that I know are now biased against Intel...even though we are at a unique point where AMD's advantage has eroded...at least for the moment.
They claim that some of their lasers are powerful enough for "star pointing" applications. Great...now we will be blinding pilots flying around distant planets. As if sending television broadcasts of America's Funniest Home Videos wasn't bad enough.
It's been said before, but Linux also shoots itself in its collective foot with program naming. Sure, putting a G in front of its version of AIM, NotePad/TextEdit, etc. is cute...but it doesn't exactly telegraph their purpose to a new user.
PaintShopPro and PhotoShop are a quite a bit more intuitively named than GIMP. If you are a new user, the name Internet Explorer also helps reflect its intended purpose more than Konqueror, Opera, Epiphany, or Galeon. Ditto Windows Media Player, Real Player, PowerDVD, etc. vs. Helix, Xine, Ogle, Noatun, XMMS, or Totem.
My 76 year-old mother can learn how to use UBuntu just as easily as she can learn how to use Windows, but let's not forget some of these other stumbling blocks...which we may no longer be able to see since we are so familiar with the OS and its application suites. Sure, I still remember why it makes sense to drag a floppy disk icon to the trash on a Mac to eject it (I had one before hard disks when ghost disk images on the Mac desktop were valuable)...and never even questioned how counterintuitive this operation was until I tried to explain the procedure to a Windows user.
Slashdot Mirror
Agree about BSG, but does it strike anyone else as odd that all of the ships in the Colonial fleet (as well as Vipers and Cylon raiders inbound for an attack) all seem to agree on which direction is up?
I do not agree...at all.
0 001 012.html
Certainly, we are not without sin, but the current rift is more complex than you portray. At the very least, it is due in part to a clash of cultures and religions that are almost diametrically opposed to one another. Freedom of speech, expression and, yes, religion are basic tenets of American society. We have grown so used to these basic freedoms that we assume that they are universally true...and they are not...regardless of how much we (or others) would like them to be.
I am not attempting to flame, but I think that it is fair to say that some societies (especially some of those in the Mid-East) hold a specific religious dogma to be of principal importance to their society. All other laws and rules of behavior flow from that religious dogma...or, at the very least, cannot conflict with it. I think that it is also fair to say that the level of tolerance for conflicting beliefs is fairly low. Doubt it? Try carrying a stack of bibles into Saudi Arabia and see how far you get through customs. I'll tell you how far - to the line that leads to jail:
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGMDE230022
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_
In America, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I worked in Japan for some time and realized that a somewhat similar Japanese phrase crystallizes the difference between our two cultures - the nail that sticks up gets hit. The clash of philosophies between Islam and the West make the differences between the US and Japan look trivial.
I was a very early adopter of MP3s. I converted much of my collection in the mid to late 90s when conversion took place at 0.5x real time on standard home PC. That said, I have never bought one track online. Why? DRM. Funny thing is, I hardly buy CDs anymore either.
DRM-free music may actually motivate me to get excited about buying music again. It may also, however, hasten the death of CD-based commercial music sales. Ability to rip from a CD and yield DRM-free content seems to be one of the few remaining advantages of this format. Why the heck would I drop $14.99 for a CD now if I can just grab the one or two tracks that I like for a fraction of that price? Sure, I may not discover deep tracks that do not enjoy radio play, but this still does sound like a major advantage to me. How many of us have CDs that seem like a collection of marginal tracks surrounding the one or two that we actually like?
Interseting point, but I personally think that you are taking quite a leap equating the proprietary video format supported by the PSP with the BluRay format supported by the PS3.
)
Most consumers had no idea what a PSP even was...let alone know much about its video playback features...or being able to relate those capabilities to their expensive investment in their home theater. In contrast, most consumers are painfully aware of the PS3, BluRay, and HDTV.
Sales of HDTV-capable are rising exponentially, yet most owners still do not have an HDTV feed. "Of the world's 48.2 million HD households, only 16.4 million have sets with an integrated HD tuner or a HD set top box." (http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/9498/1085/
Many, like myself, view an HD-capable disk player as a very attractive first step to be able to view HDTV content at home. While I do not disagree that many will hold off until less expensive players are available, many others have been waiting (literally) for years for an HDTV feed for their existing television...and they may bite early. In fact, everyone who bought a PS3 already has. Sure, those numbers are small, but they allow Sony to show 3:1 sales ratios of BluRay disks vs. HD DVD disks and declare victory. Such incremental marketing measures create a general consumer perception...and perception is reality to many. Perception also often ends up fostering an environment in which that general perception actually becomes reality.
Inexpensive players require economies of scale...OR vendors willing to take a loss, which is what Sony did. I just don't see that happening on the HD DVD side...and I am not sure that we will.
Of course, whoever gets an exclusive deal with Vivid Entertainment will probably win the war.
Quality will not decide this format war - the PS3 will.
Betamax was superior to VHS...and the MacOS was superior to Windows (at least for some time...let's avoid the flame war on the current state of affairs). They were both beaten by superior positioning of technically inferior competitors...and the PS3 has been a huge success for Sony in one regard - it got a lot of BluRay players in the hands of consumers...and the sales of BluRay titles are dwarfing those of HD DVD correspondingly.
Will the trend continue? Who knows, but I'd rather have momentum than not have it...so I'm not betting against Sony yet. The posted article may be interesting for some, but I am disinterested in any discussion of quality or features until the market settles. I do not have the discretionary income to buy an expensive player that will be obsolete before it is useful...regardless of any perceived quality difference. Early adopters may disagree, but Joe Sixpack and I are sticking with our standard DVD players and HD over cable/satellite until we see who wins this war.
Your mileage may vary.
In my environment, the answer is this - who cares? (at least from the IT group's position)
They will come for your machine and if they cannot fix it easily, they will reimage it...or replace it. If you lost your data, too bad. In fact, they now require hard drive level encryption so many problems MUST now be solved by reimaging since traditional attempts to resolve likely issues (or at least the easier ones) have now been rendered useless.
It takes them about fifteen minutes to reimage the disk...as opposed to hours of analysis to attempt to solve the problem or rescue files. If you didn't store your files on the network files servers, then that is your problem...and frankly, they find users that have technical knowledge annoying at the least and threatening at the worst. They'd rather deal with preschoolers locked in a playpen.
Not a flame...just the facts.
We are not all morons...and yes, some of us CAN actually configure a router...including this non-IT dept member who has a BSEE, writes software for external clients, has done so for nearly two decades, and maintains numerous production systems for these external clients.
I feel some of these posters' pain. I am also suffering as a developer in a large corporation. I have been building production systems for 17 years...and my team has experts in h/w, s/w, networking, and a range of other areas (CM, test, reqts, etc)...yet the internal IT department treats us the same as every other group of employees (HR, non-engineers, etc.). I recently attempted to place four new servers on our internal network for development purposes...and was shutdown for seven weeks. The issue - they came from Dell with the R2 version of Windows Server 2003. "R2? We have never approved that...and won't now either!"
To get this answer I had to fill out four separate forms, exchange countless email messages, and hold four meetings with four of the five groups that must approve such a radical idea - the general IT group, the Network Design Review group, the Server Design Review group, the Information Security Team, and the Internal Infrastructure group...each of whom could veto. I filled out waivers and researched R2...and the same folks who told me to fill out the waivers then informed me that they intended to also deny the waivers.
R2. Vanilla Dell PowerEdge Servers with R2. What a threat. I asked them what was it about R2? I bought it because that is what Dell sells. That release has been out for over a year...and these are development servers. I provided info explaining what was in R2...and even offered to disable any services that concerned them. I also demonstrated that the servers had AV and AntiSpyware software installed and the latest windows patches...and gave them admin access to the servers...and also stated that they could install the Altris monitoring and configuration software that we use internally...but no dice. R2 is scary...and unapproved...and they haven't even started to look at it yet. I only managed to get the servers on to the physical network after agreeing to place the servers in a DMZ that has the following limitations:
- Only select developer workstations can access the servers...and only on pre-negotiated ports
- The servers cannot initiate traffic out of the DMZ to the developer workstations...so much for my critical UDP application spitting packets to our visualization workstations...or socket logging to LogFactor5 or Chainsaw
- The servers cannot see the internet...so much for AV or OS updates...without the aid of a CD...and I cannot even access the internal update servers.
Yes, I could setup tunneling...and most likely be fired for it. Our internet filtering blocks all access to sites that offer such software.
Seven weeks to get a crippled configuration because of a policy based on absolutes rather than reason. We must have 500 people assigned to one of these five groups...and the corporate flexibility is inversely proportional to their mass...due, of course, to the fact that the size of their paranoia (i.e., the number of people thinking of bad things that we could be doing) grows with each new member of the group.
I am reasonable...and I understand the threat many apparently benign applications pose. I also understand that we need to safeguard our networks and data...but please...the climate of absolutes is Draconian and, frankly, just plain lazy. My team build systems for external clients, which we field and maintain...so we are also aware of security threats and are willing to be reasonable, but consistently slam into a wall constructed from policies. The irony is that my company earns revenue from one source - my labor. We only bill clients for time...with a large multiplier...out of which all of our overhead functions are budgeted...including these five groups.
Interesting side note - my corporation has identified my current client a
Well...I should have Googled first. Looks like Halo 3 may be exclusively for a console...so I apologize for offering advice that does not apply to the specific game being discussed That said, the discussion above may still be useful for cavemen like me who still prefer PC-based gaming. Feel free to mute me now.
...with Ventrilo (http://www.ventrilo.com).
My gaming group does not use the built-in chat functions for any of the games that we host. Instead, we use Ventrilo. This approach allows us much finer grained control over chat functions, including the ability to establish multiple channels, G- and R-rated channels, and password-protected channels. Our RCONs also have the ability to ban someone from the voice chat channels without banning them from the game (AND the ban applies to all supported games).
Non-admin players also enjoy a much richer array of configuration options, including fine-grained control over input and output audio settings...and, yes, the ability to mute a player. One can also download the "voice overlay" shareware program so that they can monitor who is speaking without leaving the game. I'm sure that Teamspeak (another popular PC-based chat client) has similar functions.
I suppose the in-game chat option is the path of least resistance and requires the least setup for a new player, but taking the time to adopt and configure one of the external programs is usually worth the effort. Of course, this advice applies to PC-based gaming only (as opposed to consoles).
Got to give Bungie credit for the effort though.
Did people want plumbers hurling turtles? A happy face eating dots and running from ghosts? Sure, two older examples, but what people want generally falls into one of two categories:
- Mindless fun that you can start and stop at any time
- Epic quests that reward you for having no life
Me? I want to shoot things. Plot? I need only need this - it moved, so shoot it. Sure, I'll expand that preference to TDM, CTF, Search & Destroy, etc. versions of FPS, but I really just want mindless carnage. I'm a guy, and most of my ilk want to experience a testosterone-filled thrill ride - cars, guns, planes, etc. Basically, the opportunity to be tough perhaps, clever maybe, but superior...definitely. Plot? Perhaps that's what you need to bring in female gamers.
No new innovation? Uh, I believe a game came out in the not too distant past where you get paid for dropping a hooker off at a party...and it sells like hotcakes. Not my thing, but someone is thinking out of the standard game box.
Your mileage may vary.
That last line is just a collection of words (and word fragments) that were left over after I constructed my post...not unlike the items that I have left over when I reassemble almost anything else. Feel free to use them in your posts. They are spares.
Well then, looks like I got lucky. ;-)
;-)
I do not begrudge MS their licensing fees. They deserve them. I just would prefer that a Windows OS purchase of any kind was treated similarly to that of most consumer software purchases - buy a version and you can install that software on a single PC. Feel free to move the same version of that software to a new PC as long as you remove it from the first PC.
Most consumers are not attorneys. When they buy a PC that "includes Windows", they don't necessarily infer that they received a lesser, non-transferable version of Windows than one that they could have purchased elsewhere. They most likely assume that they bought Windows. The computer also came with a keyboard...and it isn't limited to being used on just that computer in the future.
It seems that the law abiding citizen is bearing the brunt of privacy...since they are most affected by Draconian licensing policies meant to address same. Of course, one cannot downplay Microsoft's preference to also get all of us to pay them an OS tax as frequently as possible.
I typically build my own systems for home. My motivation is not expense - I want a system configured the way I want...with (for the most part) non-OEM components...so i can get (for example) drivers directly from the manufacturer...rather than ATI tell me, "Oh, that video card is really an OEM ATI card for Dell...and you must get the drivers from them." This debacle just reinforces that preference. of course, I bought an OEM version of win XP from newegg for my last build.
BTW, thanks for the info.
on a PC, they assu
I built an entirely new PC after a motherboard fried on an older HP Pavilion. I attempted to use the license key stuck on the side of the fried HP, but the OS would not activate. I called the telephone number that the OS presented on the activation failure screen and was connected to tech support in India, who were very helpful. I simply needed to tell them that the OS was no longer on the old PC and they issued me a new activation key over the phone.
BTW, I did not tell them that it was a new PC...I stated that I just replaced the motherboard since I wasn't sure how they would react, but honestly, I had the license and it was no longer in use so I felt that the request for the new key was justified. In fact, I think MS agrees...which is why the have a NEW policy for Vista - you are allowed to transfer the OS to a new PC (or motherboard) once...and then you are done...time for a new license. Blech. One of the many reasons to stick with XP as long as possible.
Okay...that's just a cut and paste...but DAMN it's funny. Someone please mod that up. I had 5 points, but I decided to trade them for a little wagon wheel that lives next to the stone wall. Oh look, I think some flowers are starting to grow around it!
I must agree. I wish that I had read that post before taking the time to download the Treo 650 versions of Opera Mini and the IBM VM...since I experience the exact same behavior. In contrast, Blazer is as solid as a rock. Can't say that i love it's features, but stability is pretty much a trump card. Perhaps a nice meta-moderator will fix that issue.
Is anyone aware of an attractive alternative to Blazer on a Treo 650?
Sold online by one company for $69 (US). Valid industrial purposes exist. Company is fairly sketchy and the owner claimed 20 years ago that he once worked on alien spaceships on a secret military base in Nevada - presumably a US military base, but the article was not specific so I suppose that it could have also been an alien base.
Regardless, expect Uncle Sam to land on him like a ton of bricks fairly soon. I hope that his forcefield dome is active.
"Brace for impact!"
Ditto this comment. When I rip out a simple system, I definitely lean toward Postgres by default...but when I need a system with any of the following qualities:
...as well as range of other esoteric functions required for enterprise applications, I default to Oracle. Of course, this decision is also almost never an issue since each one of my clients is almost always already in possession of an enterprise-wide license agreement for the full Oracle product suite...because of Oracle's bulldog sales force. The downside to those licenses are, however, that I then have to explain why I would rather use JBoss than OAS.
- clustering / high-availability failover
- robust WAN replication
- maximized performance
- ability to hire experts that can tweak every ounce of performance out of the servers
- extensive and complete documentation
Also, do not downplay the sheer number of people that you can hire that are Oracle DBA and PL/SQL experts. Licenses are cheap compared to the cost of a failed development program...at least in my world.
Ditto this comment. When I rip out a simple system, I definitely lean toward Postgres by default...but when I need a system with any of the following qualities: - clustering / high-availability failover - robust WAN replication - maximized performance - ability to hire experts that can tweak every ounce of performance out of the servers - extensive and complete documentation ...as well as range of other esoteric functions required for enterprise applications, I default to Oracle. Of course, this decision is also almost never an issue since each one of my clients is almost always already in possession of an enterprise-wide license agreement for the full Oracle product suite...because of Oracle's bulldog sales force. The downside to those licenses are, however, that I then have to explain why I would rather use JBoss than OAS.
Also, do not downplay the sheer number of people that you can hire that are Oracle DBA and PL/SQL experts. Licenses are cheap compared to the cost of a failed development program...at least in my world.
...build a man a fire and he will be warm for the night. Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
Seriously though, the $100 laptop idea seems well-intentioned, but it also seems to be based on a world view that is not very realistic. The amount that many Americans spend at Starbucks each year exceeds the GNI per capita of the world's least developed nations. These folks lack the basics - clean disease-free water, adequate food, medicine, and medical care - and their national infrastructures are a mess. Couple that situation with the African AIDS pandemic and a free laptop seems like a cruel joke.
The laptop may be a fine idea for some developing nations, but I personally believe that the associated hype has created a false impression that we are addressing a real problem...and the associated back clapping seems to overshadow the actual dire issues that these nations face.
...Spirit's attitude improved:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54360
Seriously, the last message that it sent ('OVERPRICED SPACE-ROOMBA AWAITING MORE BULLSHIT ORDERS') was really uncalled for.
...which may explain how AMD has managed to keep their costs low over the years. Word of mouth is compelling...even to the point that many folks that I know are now biased against Intel...even though we are at a unique point where AMD's advantage has eroded...at least for the moment.
They claim that some of their lasers are powerful enough for "star pointing" applications. Great...now we will be blinding pilots flying around distant planets. As if sending television broadcasts of America's Funniest Home Videos wasn't bad enough.
It's been said before, but Linux also shoots itself in its collective foot with program naming. Sure, putting a G in front of its version of AIM, NotePad/TextEdit, etc. is cute...but it doesn't exactly telegraph their purpose to a new user.
PaintShopPro and PhotoShop are a quite a bit more intuitively named than GIMP. If you are a new user, the name Internet Explorer also helps reflect its intended purpose more than Konqueror, Opera, Epiphany, or Galeon. Ditto Windows Media Player, Real Player, PowerDVD, etc. vs. Helix, Xine, Ogle, Noatun, XMMS, or Totem.
My 76 year-old mother can learn how to use UBuntu just as easily as she can learn how to use Windows, but let's not forget some of these other stumbling blocks...which we may no longer be able to see since we are so familiar with the OS and its application suites. Sure, I still remember why it makes sense to drag a floppy disk icon to the trash on a Mac to eject it (I had one before hard disks when ghost disk images on the Mac desktop were valuable)...and never even questioned how counterintuitive this operation was until I tried to explain the procedure to a Windows user.
Forest. Trees. Step back.
...an integrated spell checker for all HTML text form fields.
Plus, it's a relatively trim download, so cheers to the dev team for that.
I am looking for a new and challenging development position...do you know anyone at Google?