You do not take chances with classified data. It's just not done. Every media ever labeled anything other than unclassified is destroyed once it has served it's purpose.
Also, "Premium Ammo" is by design absurdly expensive to the point that it's very rarely used except in clan battles. We're talking 10 cents per shot at the top tier. Also premium ammo only changes penetration, not damage. It CAN affect the outcome. Yeah I've had my Tiger 2 penetrated by a KV with gold ammo - ONCE in over 2,000 battles. I'm not butthurt over it.
Premium tanks aren't actually better than their counter parts - the Hotchkiss is the only exception being a Tier 2 tank with Tier 3 armor. People whine about the Lowe, but as a Tier 8 tank it's not as good as the Tiger 2 or the IS-3, admittedly it's better than the T32 but only because of the change to gun depression on the T32. So in short, Lowe is the 2nd worst Tier 8 tank due to being slow and poorly armored in comparison to other Tier 8s.
Why do people drive Premium Tanks? Because Premium Tanks have a bonus to income. So my Tiger 2 makes 50k while a Lowe in the same battle walks home with 70k and lower repair costs.
WoT does a fantastic job keeping the game free to play and yet balanced. Yes you can pay for faster advancement, but it only affects you. Yes you can pay for a bigger tank, but that just means you get in games with bigger tanks - not that you'll drive around in your pwnmobile oneshotting helpless newbies.
Either way, the reason Americas Army is the way it is has nothing to do with what you are implying.
If you could play as a terrorist in AA, there would be articles in newspapers about how US tax payers money was spent on making a "murder simulator" where you take the role of a terrorist and kill American Soldiers.
LinkedIn may have a "valuable user base" but does it have an active one? How much time do people spend on LinkedIn? I have a LinkedIn account and I log in maybe once every few months to accept invitations. It's a resume with references attached. It's invaluable when you're searching for jobs, but it's not a true social site.
My point is that yes, you could use the information you have for me to direct highly effective advertisements at me - but only when I'm logged in.
Facebook, people are logged in every waking second it seems like. It's their email, their IM, their message board - it's their life, not just their resume.
No. I'd rather you not put "violent games and movies" and "porn" into the "vice" category up there with drugs and prostitution.
Vice taxes are idiotic because they imply that some one decides what is and isn't a vice. I think organized religion is a vice, would you be ok with taxing all church attendance? Yeah....
What you want is a VAT tax. I'm ok with a VAT tax on games, not a "vice" tax.
You clearly know very little about tires and treadwear.
All this would do is make me use UTQG 800+ tires that do not grip well but will outlast the car - even if run under/over pressure and driven aggressively.
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. My mazda ECU has a VIN sticker on the plastic enclosure, but I could swap out the entire board if I was so inclined and keep the enclosure. Honda ECUs on the other hand are identical and carry no indication of which VIN they belong to. To be fair this is all very manufacturer specific...
See what you do is this: Use OEM ECU 1 month out of the year. Replace with spare, use car as normal for remaining 11 months. Put OEM back in. Go get odometer read.
Never mind that with access to a factory ECU computer you can change the "encrypted" values which includes the odometer readings. And before you ask, no there is no way for anyone to know if you have or have not edited the ECU, at least not with Mazda, Honda or Nissan. ECUs are pretty dumb and in general contain only the bare minimum they need to function. Being tamper proof is in general pretty low on the list of ECU requirements.
That's not really what Excise Taxes have been about. (At least not in spirit) Yes - but they've never been applied to media. You put excise taxes on drugs, alcohol, prostitution, gambling etc and use the revenue to handle drug rehab, STD clinics, and gambling helplines.
You don't tax "violent movies" because "gasp" they're violent!
Because the odometer is the easiest thing to cheat in the world. Especially on modern cars where in some the value is easily editable with just the dealer computer.
Which you can buy yourself, in general for around $1-3k. A lot of money for you and me, but think of how much money you could make with access to one and charging $15 to reset the odometer to a new value?
Simpler solutions to modern cars: Spare ECU - $300.
Most modern cars store the millage in the ECU memory. You can buy a new ECU for most cars for around $300 - $500 and for far less used. Assuming you keep the tune the same, you can swap them at your hearts content. Often they are easily accessible through the glove box, or under the drivers seat etc.
The problem with SS isn't that it's 'too expensive' - it's that it's an unmaintainable ponzi scheme. The money needs to be invested. Into what you may wonder - well look at Norway. They invest their gov money into corporations that offer public services.
Imagine how well SS would do if it had invested the money into apple or microsoft or even simpler things like public utilities like water.
How much do you know about Norway and their social programs? They are probably the most socialist 1st world country around - and the most democratic, despite "outrageous", by US standards, taxes
I don't give a fuck if Bill Gates moves to Brazil. You really think he isn't dodging taxes? The rich can all move to the Isle of Man but unless they can take all their assets with them it's not really an option.
Log in one one machine. Install game. Put steam in Offline mode. Play game on multiple PCs at same time.
Personally, I couldn't care less about loaning games or selling them. To me the convenience of not having to care about physical media and having every single game I own available anywhere that I have an internet connection is worth it.
Ultimately many physical games today have DRM that prevents sales, loans etc due to the limited number of installations, one time use keys bound to online accounts etc. This means there are no upsides to owning physical media anyway.
The product is the license. He was GIVEN the license. He HAD it and was entitled to use it UNTIL the breached the terms of the license and lost the license.
He is owed nothing.
He did not "buy a widget" he bought the RIGHT TO USE widget as long as he followed the agreement. He did NOT follow the agreement and LOST the right to use the widget.
Events: 1. User buys license entitling him to use software.
2. User breaches agreement and loses license to use the software.
The fact that he did not use the software in the time period between him purchasing the license and losing it due to the breach of it's terms is irrelevant. They cannot be sued for anything and owe him nothing. They are acting within their rights.
Once again, I am not saying that what they are doing is not morally wrong, but it is legal.
He paid to license the game and was bound by the terms of the agreement which I fear had a line about EA being able to take his license if he was being a giant dong in their community.
You are not eligible for a refund when you breach the terms of the agreement.
I am not saying that EA was right, just that they don't owe him anything.
Your ignorance and know it all attitude is appalling.
Digital purchases offer many advantages that physical media does not have.
I own over 200 games on Steam. I can play any one of them anytime. I have purchased well over 1000 games over the course of my life - except I can't find majority of them, the rest have scratched up disks, lost CDkeys, lost manuals and hard to find patches.
I can go on travel bring nothing but my laptop and play any game I own from the hotel room.
I have reached the point where I REFUSE to buy physical media because of the inconvenience of actually using it. Need the disk to play, need to carry disks with me for every game I may wish to play, need to manually patch everything.
Slashdot Mirror
Thier ignorance is their problem.
You do not take chances with classified data. It's just not done. Every media ever labeled anything other than unclassified is destroyed once it has served it's purpose.
Also, "Premium Ammo" is by design absurdly expensive to the point that it's very rarely used except in clan battles. We're talking 10 cents per shot at the top tier. Also premium ammo only changes penetration, not damage. It CAN affect the outcome. Yeah I've had my Tiger 2 penetrated by a KV with gold ammo - ONCE in over 2,000 battles. I'm not butthurt over it.
Premium tanks aren't actually better than their counter parts - the Hotchkiss is the only exception being a Tier 2 tank with Tier 3 armor. People whine about the Lowe, but as a Tier 8 tank it's not as good as the Tiger 2 or the IS-3, admittedly it's better than the T32 but only because of the change to gun depression on the T32. So in short, Lowe is the 2nd worst Tier 8 tank due to being slow and poorly armored in comparison to other Tier 8s.
Why do people drive Premium Tanks? Because Premium Tanks have a bonus to income. So my Tiger 2 makes 50k while a Lowe in the same battle walks home with 70k and lower repair costs.
WoT does a fantastic job keeping the game free to play and yet balanced. Yes you can pay for faster advancement, but it only affects you. Yes you can pay for a bigger tank, but that just means you get in games with bigger tanks - not that you'll drive around in your pwnmobile oneshotting helpless newbies.
Middle east != Chinese.
Either way, the reason Americas Army is the way it is has nothing to do with what you are implying.
If you could play as a terrorist in AA, there would be articles in newspapers about how US tax payers money was spent on making a "murder simulator" where you take the role of a terrorist and kill American Soldiers.
LinkedIn may have a "valuable user base" but does it have an active one? How much time do people spend on LinkedIn? I have a LinkedIn account and I log in maybe once every few months to accept invitations. It's a resume with references attached. It's invaluable when you're searching for jobs, but it's not a true social site.
My point is that yes, you could use the information you have for me to direct highly effective advertisements at me - but only when I'm logged in.
Facebook, people are logged in every waking second it seems like. It's their email, their IM, their message board - it's their life, not just their resume.
No. I'd rather you not put "violent games and movies" and "porn" into the "vice" category up there with drugs and prostitution.
Vice taxes are idiotic because they imply that some one decides what is and isn't a vice. I think organized religion is a vice, would you be ok with taxing all church attendance? Yeah....
What you want is a VAT tax. I'm ok with a VAT tax on games, not a "vice" tax.
Who cares? We're talking about the vehicles of today. Also I'm pretty sure that the ECU is going to be easier to crack than say a PS3.
You clearly know very little about tires and treadwear.
All this would do is make me use UTQG 800+ tires that do not grip well but will outlast the car - even if run under/over pressure and driven aggressively.
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. My mazda ECU has a VIN sticker on the plastic enclosure, but I could swap out the entire board if I was so inclined and keep the enclosure. Honda ECUs on the other hand are identical and carry no indication of which VIN they belong to. To be fair this is all very manufacturer specific...
See what you do is this:
Use OEM ECU 1 month out of the year.
Replace with spare, use car as normal for remaining 11 months.
Put OEM back in. Go get odometer read.
Never mind that with access to a factory ECU computer you can change the "encrypted" values which includes the odometer readings. And before you ask, no there is no way for anyone to know if you have or have not edited the ECU, at least not with Mazda, Honda or Nissan. ECUs are pretty dumb and in general contain only the bare minimum they need to function. Being tamper proof is in general pretty low on the list of ECU requirements.
That's not really what Excise Taxes have been about. (At least not in spirit)
Yes - but they've never been applied to media. You put excise taxes on drugs, alcohol, prostitution, gambling etc and use the revenue to handle drug rehab, STD clinics, and gambling helplines.
You don't tax "violent movies" because "gasp" they're violent!
You missed the point. Why should a violent computer game cost less than a non violent one? Who suddenly gets to be the morality police?
Because the odometer is the easiest thing to cheat in the world. Especially on modern cars where in some the value is easily editable with just the dealer computer.
Which you can buy yourself, in general for around $1-3k. A lot of money for you and me, but think of how much money you could make with access to one and charging $15 to reset the odometer to a new value?
Simpler solutions to modern cars:
Spare ECU - $300.
Most modern cars store the millage in the ECU memory. You can buy a new ECU for most cars for around $300 - $500 and for far less used. Assuming you keep the tune the same, you can swap them at your hearts content. Often they are easily accessible through the glove box, or under the drivers seat etc.
Please disabling the speedo is so...boorish.
Just run a way larger size tire than OEM.
"Then it can be specialized, so that violent games or movies are taxed more for example."
Why? Since when should taxes be used to essentially create a form of censorship through price fixing?
Eh with you except for the social security bit.
The problem with SS isn't that it's 'too expensive' - it's that it's an unmaintainable ponzi scheme. The money needs to be invested. Into what you may wonder - well look at Norway. They invest their gov money into corporations that offer public services.
Imagine how well SS would do if it had invested the money into apple or microsoft or even simpler things like public utilities like water.
Are you serious this retarded or just delusional? Do you even know what democracy is about?
Here is the Democracy Index: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index
Notice how at the very top is Norway.
How much do you know about Norway and their social programs? They are probably the most socialist 1st world country around - and the most democratic, despite "outrageous", by US standards, taxes
I don't give a fuck if Bill Gates moves to Brazil. You really think he isn't dodging taxes? The rich can all move to the Isle of Man but unless they can take all their assets with them it's not really an option.
Well - not by Steams terms. But yes to both.
Log in one one machine. Install game. Put steam in Offline mode. Play game on multiple PCs at same time.
Personally, I couldn't care less about loaning games or selling them. To me the convenience of not having to care about physical media and having every single game I own available anywhere that I have an internet connection is worth it.
Ultimately many physical games today have DRM that prevents sales, loans etc due to the limited number of installations, one time use keys bound to online accounts etc. This means there are no upsides to owning physical media anyway.
He agreed to the terms when:
1. He created an EA account.
2. He posted on the forums.
3. He bought the game in the EA store.
During all those points he agreed to the terms EA had.
Once again, they may have been unfair, immoral - but he did agree to them.
You really don't get it do you?
The product is the license. He was GIVEN the license. He HAD it and was entitled to use it UNTIL the breached the terms of the license and lost the license.
He is owed nothing.
He did not "buy a widget" he bought the RIGHT TO USE widget as long as he followed the agreement. He did NOT follow the agreement and LOST the right to use the widget.
Welcome to software licensing 101.
Well the court would have to settle that wouldn't they?
He has every right to take EA to small claims court over the $60 game. I wish him the best.
Yes - if you do it on their private forums. You can post that EA sucks and that Bioware sold out all you want, just not on their site.
It's kinda like walking into someone's living room and taking a shit, you can't expect them to like it.
I've never been surprised to see "official" forums delete criticism posts. Official forums are there to help sell the game. Nothing more.
You want to bitch and moan about EA, do it here or on some game forum. Not on EA's forums with an EA owned account.
He is not entitled to a refund.
Events:
1. User buys license entitling him to use software.
2. User breaches agreement and loses license to use the software.
The fact that he did not use the software in the time period between him purchasing the license and losing it due to the breach of it's terms is irrelevant. They cannot be sued for anything and owe him nothing. They are acting within their rights.
Once again, I am not saying that what they are doing is not morally wrong, but it is legal.
He paid to license the game and was bound by the terms of the agreement which I fear had a line about EA being able to take his license if he was being a giant dong in their community.
You are not eligible for a refund when you breach the terms of the agreement.
I am not saying that EA was right, just that they don't owe him anything.
Your ignorance and know it all attitude is appalling.
Digital purchases offer many advantages that physical media does not have.
I own over 200 games on Steam. I can play any one of them anytime. I have purchased well over 1000 games over the course of my life - except I can't find majority of them, the rest have scratched up disks, lost CDkeys, lost manuals and hard to find patches.
I can go on travel bring nothing but my laptop and play any game I own from the hotel room.
I have reached the point where I REFUSE to buy physical media because of the inconvenience of actually using it. Need the disk to play, need to carry disks with me for every game I may wish to play, need to manually patch everything.