I wholeheartedly agree. Having worked for 10 years in the US and now happily back in the UK, the lack of meaningful time off is stressful and damaging. And don't get me started on the unpaid overtime culture in the US that appears to be protected by statute - in IT anyway.
What sound app? I've looked all through my Applications folder and I can't find one (somebody prove me wrong please).
If you got your OS X through buying some Apple hardware, you have GarageBand though - I'll certainly be happy to compare that to the Windows Sound app.:-)
I do miss MacPaint. About time for a revival I think.
I think at least part of the difference is that, for most people anyway, iPod, iTunes and iTMS are a very good solution. If any part of the holy trinity were really bad, and we were stuck with it because of the current effective monopoly (Internet Explorer pre-Firefox for example), then you'd see a more vociferous movement.
I had LASIK done about 5 years ago and I'm still 20/20 with no problems, halos, signs of weakening eyes, scratches and all the other standard horror stories.
According to an estimate from SoundScan, overall sales of recorded music are down about 4.5%, if one considers 10 individual tracks the equivalent of an album.
Well that's bollocks for a start... the point of a la carte music purchasing is you don't have to buy the crap filler songs on an album along with the one or two you actually want to listen to. Perhaps the shortfall represents the fluff people never wanted in the first place.
After the many late nights I've spent sweating over a PM 7100 in a previous life, I'd say it was definitely an insult to associate the man with that horrible thing. Not one of Apple's better designs.
Where are you buying your games? Tesco for example routinely has brand new releases for £29.95->£32.95 including VAT. Even the big rip-off shops like GAME sell them for £35. I even saw Far Cry Instincts for the Xbox for twenty quid at GAME last week. Just a matter of shopping around.
Understand what you're saying, but I think we have to be careful not to lose the simplicity of gmail that makes it such a joy to use. If we put in feature a) because you want it, and feature b) because that's the way I work, pretty soon we've got another Outlook and I have to spend hours customizing the damn thing to work the way I want it to.
Sometimes it's nice just to not have to worry about it.
I ran into this same thing the other day. First time I've had to use Windows in anger for a while. I was looking for a small app to display two time zones at once on my screen for quick reference whilst I'm doing some work for a US company (I'm in the UK). With KDE, I can just add a second clock to the panel and select a different time zone. Not so in Windows. All the Windows apps I found that are capable of doing this are shareware products, and they want anywhere between 20-30 GBP. For a clock! Insane.
I bought a couple of Logitech Precision Xbox controllers to replace my broken original Microsoft ones, and you know, I think they're better designed and better built, and were less than half the price. IMHO of course.
Third-party products aren't always going to be cheap tat. It'd still be nice for the consumer to have the choice.
Agreed wrt GameSpot. I've been a GameSpot Complete subscriber for a couple of years and I've been very satisfied with the depth and integrity of the coverage and the available content, including their patch and demo download service, DLX.
I've never seen evidence of corporate back-handers influencing a review, even on high-profile games. Certainly I do occasionally disagree with a particular point, or sometimes a review in its entirity, but it's always for pragmatic reasons.
But would the increased demands on quality and functionality prevent the third-party manufacturer from being able to offer their product at a significantly lower cost than the official Apple product?
It helps that the PS2 face buttons X/O etc. are all analog, based on how hard you push them. I've been an avid Gran Turismo guy in the past and I was able to easily modulate the throttle and brakes to the degree that I wanted with the PS2's Dual-Shock controller. In driving games that didn't support the analog nature of the PS2 buttons, I found it much harder.
I've had an XBox for a few months now, and just got a copy of Forza Motorsport and although I find the triggers very useable with an automatic gearbox setting, if I switch to manual shifting I have a very hard time smoothly braking with my left trigger finger and keeping the car in a straight line at the same time with the same hand. In the PS2 scenario I have one hand adjusting the brake and one hand adjusting the steering and it's much easier for me.
Forza can switch to a Gran Turismo-style layout, but I don't find the face buttons nearly as sensitive to pressure as the dual-shock, so I've had to adapt to the triggers.
Did you also note that they gave it a 5.9? A horrible score for a game to get by GameSpot's standards. If EA is paying them for favourable reviews, apparently it's not working.
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Can open. Worms everywhere.
Intelligent first post. Bravo sir.
I wholeheartedly agree. Having worked for 10 years in the US and now happily back in the UK, the lack of meaningful time off is stressful and damaging. And don't get me started on the unpaid overtime culture in the US that appears to be protected by statute - in IT anyway.
What sound app? I've looked all through my Applications folder and I can't find one (somebody prove me wrong please).
:-)
If you got your OS X through buying some Apple hardware, you have GarageBand though - I'll certainly be happy to compare that to the Windows Sound app.
I do miss MacPaint. About time for a revival I think.
I'm a Mac owner and a Volkswagen owner and I have no hair. D'oh.
Ah, I finally get to put my sig to good use.
Dvorak, is that you? Seriously mate, you could write for PC Magazine.
I think at least part of the difference is that, for most people anyway, iPod, iTunes and iTMS are a very good solution. If any part of the holy trinity were really bad, and we were stuck with it because of the current effective monopoly (Internet Explorer pre-Firefox for example), then you'd see a more vociferous movement.
No, there's two of us. Wanna write a book to help all these poor befuddled people out?
Just my 2p,
I had LASIK done about 5 years ago and I'm still 20/20 with no problems, halos, signs of weakening eyes, scratches and all the other standard horror stories.
YMMV of course.
w.r.t. your sig. I'm not sure about pretty... I always thought of XP as more of a butterface.
According to an estimate from SoundScan, overall sales of recorded music are down about 4.5%, if one considers 10 individual tracks the equivalent of an album.
Well that's bollocks for a start... the point of a la carte music purchasing is you don't have to buy the crap filler songs on an album along with the one or two you actually want to listen to. Perhaps the shortfall represents the fluff people never wanted in the first place.
Never put the screws back in the case until you've tested your new hardware is working.
After the many late nights I've spent sweating over a PM 7100 in a previous life, I'd say it was definitely an insult to associate the man with that horrible thing. Not one of Apple's better designs.
Not really... it's nigh on impossible to get anything other than full retail of $49.99 for AAA releases anywhere in my experience.
In the interests of full disclosure, I'm a Brit but lived in the US for 10 years until last year.
Where are you buying your games? Tesco for example routinely has brand new releases for £29.95->£32.95 including VAT. Even the big rip-off shops like GAME sell them for £35. I even saw Far Cry Instincts for the Xbox for twenty quid at GAME last week. Just a matter of shopping around.
Understand what you're saying, but I think we have to be careful not to lose the simplicity of gmail that makes it such a joy to use. If we put in feature a) because you want it, and feature b) because that's the way I work, pretty soon we've got another Outlook and I have to spend hours customizing the damn thing to work the way I want it to.
Sometimes it's nice just to not have to worry about it.
I ran into this same thing the other day. First time I've had to use Windows in anger for a while. I was looking for a small app to display two time zones at once on my screen for quick reference whilst I'm doing some work for a US company (I'm in the UK). With KDE, I can just add a second clock to the panel and select a different time zone. Not so in Windows. All the Windows apps I found that are capable of doing this are shareware products, and they want anywhere between 20-30 GBP. For a clock! Insane.
What makes you think you won't need to buy new hardware for Vista?
I bought a couple of Logitech Precision Xbox controllers to replace my broken original Microsoft ones, and you know, I think they're better designed and better built, and were less than half the price. IMHO of course.
Third-party products aren't always going to be cheap tat. It'd still be nice for the consumer to have the choice.
if it was a quality control issue they wouldn't allow third-parties to release crappy bug-ridden games either.
There's always one sanctimonious asshole.
Agreed wrt GameSpot. I've been a GameSpot Complete subscriber for a couple of years and I've been very satisfied with the depth and integrity of the coverage and the available content, including their patch and demo download service, DLX.
I've never seen evidence of corporate back-handers influencing a review, even on high-profile games. Certainly I do occasionally disagree with a particular point, or sometimes a review in its entirity, but it's always for pragmatic reasons.
But would the increased demands on quality and functionality prevent the third-party manufacturer from being able to offer their product at a significantly lower cost than the official Apple product?
It helps that the PS2 face buttons X/O etc. are all analog, based on how hard you push them. I've been an avid Gran Turismo guy in the past and I was able to easily modulate the throttle and brakes to the degree that I wanted with the PS2's Dual-Shock controller. In driving games that didn't support the analog nature of the PS2 buttons, I found it much harder.
I've had an XBox for a few months now, and just got a copy of Forza Motorsport and although I find the triggers very useable with an automatic gearbox setting, if I switch to manual shifting I have a very hard time smoothly braking with my left trigger finger and keeping the car in a straight line at the same time with the same hand. In the PS2 scenario I have one hand adjusting the brake and one hand adjusting the steering and it's much easier for me.
Forza can switch to a Gran Turismo-style layout, but I don't find the face buttons nearly as sensitive to pressure as the dual-shock, so I've had to adapt to the triggers.
Just my 2 pence. Your mileage may of course vary.
Did you also note that they gave it a 5.9? A horrible score for a game to get by GameSpot's standards. If EA is paying them for favourable reviews, apparently it's not working.