Meh, the UK has been in the EU for as long as I've been alive, what happened in the Empire days is not really relevant. Especially as my family are relatively recent immigrants to the UK (they arrived in the 1960s). So all pre-EU movement of peoples between the UK and the Republic is a moot point.:-)
No need to go all the way to Canada. I'm looking at a place closer to home: Eire. They speak English, and are in the EU so I don't even need a passport to move there. Emigration looks more appealing every day.
They did email it; a copy arrived in my GMail inbox yesterday (19/02/07) anyway, so you might want to check your spam for any mail from team@petitions.pm.gov.uk:-)
Al petitions on the site have expiry dates; the summary was somewhat misleading. All that happened was that the petition closed because it reached it's closing date, not because anyone maliciously closed it.
Smash Brothers with online play is all it is going to take to get the hype going again. Definitely, the other system seller will be the inevitable Lucas arts release. Everyone wants a lightsaber; I can already hear the *vooom* sound coming from my wiimote's speaker. In the mean time Wii Sports, Wii Play(worth the £5 it cost) and Zelda have my attention (I haven't got round to buying monkey ball or Warioware yet)
I even enjoyed playing Golf and Baseball when I normally don't care much for those sports I have never before bought a golf game, now I can't wait for a "real" golf game to come out for the Wii. I've found myself in the strange position in looking at development and reading previews of Tiger Woods Golf; and I'm someone who can't stand golf IRL. So you're not the only one, now if you'll excuse me I have to go and work on getting my score down.;P
You know, the Ps2, Xbox, Xbox 360, and (especially) the PS3 were/are being sold at a loss, for at least the first year or two the system was/is out. Only Nintendo refrains from such behavior, selling all of their hardware at a profit.
So when Phil Harrison says that making money off of the sale of a console is "videogame hardware 101," It's obvious that there's only one game company with a passing grade in that class. But I guess saying so is "flamebait."
I wouldn't worry, you're back up as "funny" now (though that won't help your karma); I think this thread has had a Sony Fanboi moderator go through it, AnonymousSonyFanboiTroll got an "interesting" upmod.
To address your point, you're spot on, but to sell at a profit, Sony would have to sell the PS3 at around $1000, here in the UK they will be selling at around £425 (~$800) and that's still a loss as I understand it. The system is selling badly as it is, how much worse do you think it'd be seling at $1000? To be blunt, they have no choice execpt to sell at a loss if they want to sell an uber HD Blu-ray gaming machine of death. Nintendo understands this point, and says "we're not going there"
If Sony had decided not to take the Blue-ray route, they may have managed to sell at a profit some day; as it stands I doubt that the PS3 will ever sell at a profit.
As I pointed out, I was only joking, but it's good to know you're working on fixing the moderation system, little nuggets like that should be posted more often as people are always complaining about the mods and mod system. My personal "fix" is just my use of mod points, I try and upmod only; I try not to downmod anything short of a goatse or GNAA troll (then again I always read at -1 or should that be "Full", so I always see everything anyway). I hope we get to see and hear more about the work you've been doing behind the scenes in the next few weeks. IMO it's about time for another/. metadiscussion
To the first mod that sees this, feel free to mod me offtopic, as pointed out it is. I'm already posting without my Karma bonus so I ask only this: if you see something worthy of an upmod, moderate that first.
Won't this bill block the tubes deliberately? And if they're blocked, how will everything else get through, or will they use a truck?
You may laugh, but legislators in your country will probably using logic similar to that above to make law. The sad thing is my country (the UK) will probably follow suit at some point.
I thought exactly the same thing. I'd guess that many of the most important scientific breakthroughs are accompanied by "huh, what happened there, it's not supposed to do that". Genuine "Eureka!" moments are probably few and far between (though just as important).
To whichever mod modded jamie down, you just killed your karma. Modding/. staff down means you won't be getting mod points again for a very long time... I kid, I kid, of course/. employees would never abuse their positions like that.;-P
So what's the Dutch equivalent of the classic English football chant of "two world wars and one world cup"?
Actually that's a totally pointless question as I don't understand Dutch, so I think we may have to grant you an unrestricted licence on annoying the Germans over football. I'll trade it for your sane drugs laws.
To be fair we love it when anyone beats the Germans, so I think there might be grounds for some sort of copyleft licence.
True, but if you talk to the Welsh, and ask them who they dislike more, the French or the English they'll answer by uniting with their Celtic brethren; I think it's got something to do with the excess of sheep in Wales. I don't know what we English ever did to them. Their dislike of the English is nowhere near that of the Scots though, however there, as with the French, the dislike is mutual and we all hate each other happily.
To any Scots, Wesh or French reading this, or my above post, we love you really, we just can't help being so much better than you;-P
I wonder if France has figured out a way to surrender in Second Life yet. Are you English? If not cease and desist from French bashing. The English peoples claim sole rights to that activity (after we spent the best part of a millennium at war with them, we deserve it), all other peoples are prohibited and licences are no longer granted since the whole "freedom fries" fiasco proved that no one else can do the job properly. Other prohibited activities reserved for the English and\or British are winding up the Germans over the war and\or football.
Here in the UK\Europe Spore and Animal crossing would get a rating from PEGI (The Pan-European Game Information) which is the game industries self regulatory body, and not legally binding.
Most computer games are exempt from BBFCBritish Board of Film Classification, which regulates Cinema and Films here in the UK. According to their FAQ:
Under the Video Recordings Act, most video games are exempt from BBFC classification. However, they may lose this exemption - and therefore require a formal BBFC classification - if they depict, to any significant extent, gross violence against humans or animals, human sexual activity, human urinary or excretory functions or genital organs, or techniques likely to be useful in the commission of offences. In the early days of video games, the quality of graphics was so low that, even when 'human' or 'animal' characters were depicted, they were unlikely to be realistic enough to be covered by the Act. However, the increasing sophistication of computer graphics means that nowadays a number of games require classification, usually because they contain violence against realistic human figures. In some cases, games may also need to be submitted to the BBFC because they contain non-interactive video elements (eg trailers or film clips) that do not enjoy the same exemption as interactive games. So the latest GTA game will get an 18 rating and as with films cannot be legally sold to under 18s. Their statistics page shows that last year (2006) they rated 298 works (the most ever) and it seems that game companies are doing the same as film ones, and cutting material to get lower ratings (last year there were 2, one in the PG category and one in the 15 one, it doesn't list the titles).
Things like the whole "Freedom Fries" incident, may have been cute over in America, but was treated with disbelief over here in the UK. We in the UK, have decades of non-serious Antagonism with the French (though deep down, we do respect them). However, we would never as a whole do that. Absolutely right, to be precise only the English have the right to insult the French (The Welsh, Scots and Irish are all Celts like the French). No one else is allowed to do it for two reasons; fistly only the English spent the most part of the last millennium at war with the French. Secondly, as the Americans showed, no one else can do it properly.
The Germans would have a good case, but the last time we let them, they took it a bit to far. By having to prove that invasion is not an acceptable form of insult, we also gained sole rights to insult the Germans over the war.
In contrast the only people allowed to insult the English (along with the French. The Germans are still barred from the whole thing) are the ex-colonies. Unfortunately, this includes most of the rest of the world...
Exactly, I work for a local public Library here in the UK, we use Websense to stop people going to various websites; I don't know the criteria used to block sites, but a lot of social networking sites are blocked. No legislation necessary.
I hear and understand all of what you're saying, but without a positive mental attitude to go with that talent and luck (mostly luck, I agree) you're going to get nowhere. The biggest opportunity could land in your lap, but unless you have a decent attitude, you won't even notice it, let alone have the ability to take advantage of it.
I'm not American, but the phrase "the American dream" comes to mind; you can only live the dream if you try though. If you just sit back and think "I'm not ever going to do any better" you never will.
I figure when I am rich one day maybe I will eat better again
"When"? Yes, "When". I, like the GP aspire to be rich some day. Having ambition and drive is a good thing, I don't sit here thinking "I want to be stuck in some dead end job until I'm 65", I think "how can I better myself and become rich*, and how soon can I do it"
*not necessarily in monetary terms, "rich" means different things to different people.
Non-Europeans == Americans You might say that, I couldn't possibly comment.
I regard the UK as a rogue EU member state anyway with more of allegience with America (which blew up in Tony Blair's face recently:) )
That, and recent British governments like to scapegoat the EU, instead of taking political responsibility themselves are what's caused the growth of Euro-optimism's in this country. It's also why we'll never leave, the EU is always there to blame when things go wrong.
I'm from the UK, not Norway; I just pointed that out because most non-Europeans wouldn't know that Norway isn't in the EU, an it's for the very reasons you describe that I'm pro-EU in a very Euro-sceptic country. If we left we'd end up implementing 80% of EU legislation (IIRC that's about the figure Norway and Iceland and the Swiss do) without any input into what that legislation is.
Oh US beats EU big time. Over here you can pretty much return anything even months after the original purchase - no questions asked.
The only exceptions are things like computer Games and Movies, stuff that you can copy - you can return these but only unopened.
And the most interesting thing is that there are no laws or anything governing this issue - as it should be - the market itself has arrived at a solution which is more superior to the customer than anything EU laws provide for. The same thing goes here in the UK, most shops provide for returns over and above statutory rights, as long as I have the receipt I can return almost anything for any reason, and the thing about CDs isn't entirely true either, I recently returned an open CD because the second to last track didn't play. The shop assistant replaced it (asked me if I wanted a refund or replacement) no questions asked, he didn't even bother to check the CD. It makes good commercial sense because as a result shops can build up good will amongst consumers for little cost.
From experience I've found that it's much harder to return anything in Europe than it is in the US, Which European countries have you been to? Here in the UK, the shops take back goods for virtually any reason, usually the only thing they ask for is a receipt. Infact we have statutory protection that forces retailers to refund me if they supply me with faulty goods. Further if my purchase is above £100 and I bought it with a credit card, I can sue the credit card company to get my money back.
Slashdot Mirror
Meh, the UK has been in the EU for as long as I've been alive, what happened in the Empire days is not really relevant. Especially as my family are relatively recent immigrants to the UK (they arrived in the 1960s). So all pre-EU movement of peoples between the UK and the Republic is a moot point. :-)
To avoid any confusion with Northern Ireland; I could have also typed "the Republic of Ireland" but "Eire" is shorter, and easier to type.
in this context MP == Member of Parliament.
No need to go all the way to Canada. I'm looking at a place closer to home: Eire. They speak English, and are in the EU so I don't even need a passport to move there. Emigration looks more appealing every day.
They did email it; a copy arrived in my GMail inbox yesterday (19/02/07) anyway, so you might want to check your spam for any mail from team@petitions.pm.gov.uk :-)
Al petitions on the site have expiry dates; the summary was somewhat misleading. All that happened was that the petition closed because it reached it's closing date, not because anyone maliciously closed it.
No, infact there's a project trying to establish just that: the Search for Terrestrial Intelligence(STI). You can even donate part of your brain time to STI@home :P
So when Phil Harrison says that making money off of the sale of a console is "videogame hardware 101," It's obvious that there's only one game company with a passing grade in that class. But I guess saying so is "flamebait."
I wouldn't worry, you're back up as "funny" now (though that won't help your karma); I think this thread has had a Sony Fanboi moderator go through it, AnonymousSonyFanboiTroll got an "interesting" upmod.To address your point, you're spot on, but to sell at a profit, Sony would have to sell the PS3 at around $1000, here in the UK they will be selling at around £425 (~$800) and that's still a loss as I understand it. The system is selling badly as it is, how much worse do you think it'd be seling at $1000? To be blunt, they have no choice execpt to sell at a loss if they want to sell an uber HD Blu-ray gaming machine of death. Nintendo understands this point, and says "we're not going there" If Sony had decided not to take the Blue-ray route, they may have managed to sell at a profit some day; as it stands I doubt that the PS3 will ever sell at a profit.
As I pointed out, I was only joking, but it's good to know you're working on fixing the moderation system, little nuggets like that should be posted more often as people are always complaining about the mods and mod system. My personal "fix" is just my use of mod points, I try and upmod only; I try not to downmod anything short of a goatse or GNAA troll (then again I always read at -1 or should that be "Full", so I always see everything anyway). /. metadiscussion
I hope we get to see and hear more about the work you've been doing behind the scenes in the next few weeks. IMO it's about time for another
To the first mod that sees this, feel free to mod me offtopic, as pointed out it is. I'm already posting without my Karma bonus so I ask only this: if you see something worthy of an upmod, moderate that first.
Won't this bill block the tubes deliberately? And if they're blocked, how will everything else get through, or will they use a truck?
You may laugh, but legislators in your country will probably using logic similar to that above to make law. The sad thing is my country (the UK) will probably follow suit at some point.
I thought exactly the same thing. I'd guess that many of the most important scientific breakthroughs are accompanied by "huh, what happened there, it's not supposed to do that". Genuine "Eureka!" moments are probably few and far between (though just as important).
/. staff down means you won't be getting mod points again for a very long time... /. employees would never abuse their positions like that. ;-P
To whichever mod modded jamie down, you just killed your karma. Modding
I kid, I kid, of course
So what's the Dutch equivalent of the classic English football chant of "two world wars and one world cup"?
Actually that's a totally pointless question as I don't understand Dutch, so I think we may have to grant you an unrestricted licence on annoying the Germans over football. I'll trade it for your sane drugs laws.
To be fair we love it when anyone beats the Germans, so I think there might be grounds for some sort of copyleft licence.
True, but if you talk to the Welsh, and ask them who they dislike more, the French or the English they'll answer by uniting with their Celtic brethren; I think it's got something to do with the excess of sheep in Wales. I don't know what we English ever did to them. Their dislike of the English is nowhere near that of the Scots though, however there, as with the French, the dislike is mutual and we all hate each other happily.
;-P
To any Scots, Wesh or French reading this, or my above post, we love you really, we just can't help being so much better than you
Most computer games are exempt from BBFCBritish Board of Film Classification, which regulates Cinema and Films here in the UK. According to their FAQ: Under the Video Recordings Act, most video games are exempt from BBFC classification. However, they may lose this exemption - and therefore require a formal BBFC classification - if they depict, to any significant extent, gross violence against humans or animals, human sexual activity, human urinary or excretory functions or genital organs, or techniques likely to be useful in the commission of offences. In the early days of video games, the quality of graphics was so low that, even when 'human' or 'animal' characters were depicted, they were unlikely to be realistic enough to be covered by the Act. However, the increasing sophistication of computer graphics means that nowadays a number of games require classification, usually because they contain violence against realistic human figures. In some cases, games may also need to be submitted to the BBFC because they contain non-interactive video elements (eg trailers or film clips) that do not enjoy the same exemption as interactive games. So the latest GTA game will get an 18 rating and as with films cannot be legally sold to under 18s. Their statistics page shows that last year (2006) they rated 298 works (the most ever) and it seems that game companies are doing the same as film ones, and cutting material to get lower ratings (last year there were 2, one in the PG category and one in the 15 one, it doesn't list the titles).
The Germans would have a good case, but the last time we let them, they took it a bit to far. By having to prove that invasion is not an acceptable form of insult, we also gained sole rights to insult the Germans over the war.
In contrast the only people allowed to insult the English (along with the French. The Germans are still barred from the whole thing) are the ex-colonies. Unfortunately, this includes most of the rest of the world...
Exactly, I work for a local public Library here in the UK, we use Websense to stop people going to various websites; I don't know the criteria used to block sites, but a lot of social networking sites are blocked. No legislation necessary.
I hear and understand all of what you're saying, but without a positive mental attitude to go with that talent and luck (mostly luck, I agree) you're going to get nowhere. The biggest opportunity could land in your lap, but unless you have a decent attitude, you won't even notice it, let alone have the ability to take advantage of it.
I'm not American, but the phrase "the American dream" comes to mind; you can only live the dream if you try though. If you just sit back and think "I'm not ever going to do any better" you never will.
"When"? Yes, "When". I, like the GP aspire to be rich some day. Having ambition and drive is a good thing, I don't sit here thinking "I want to be stuck in some dead end job until I'm 65", I think "how can I better myself and become rich*, and how soon can I do it"
*not necessarily in monetary terms, "rich" means different things to different people.
Non-Europeans == Americans
You might say that, I couldn't possibly comment. I regard the UK as a rogue EU member state anyway with more of allegience with America (which blew up in Tony Blair's face recently
That, and recent British governments like to scapegoat the EU, instead of taking political responsibility themselves are what's caused the growth of Euro-optimism's in this country. It's also why we'll never leave, the EU is always there to blame when things go wrong.
I'm from the UK, not Norway; I just pointed that out because most non-Europeans wouldn't know that Norway isn't in the EU, an it's for the very reasons you describe that I'm pro-EU in a very Euro-sceptic country. If we left we'd end up implementing 80% of EU legislation (IIRC that's about the figure Norway and Iceland and the Swiss do) without any input into what that legislation is.
The only exceptions are things like computer Games and Movies, stuff that you can copy - you can return these but only unopened.
And the most interesting thing is that there are no laws or anything governing this issue - as it should be - the market itself has arrived at a solution which is more superior to the customer than anything EU laws provide for.
The same thing goes here in the UK, most shops provide for returns over and above statutory rights, as long as I have the receipt I can return almost anything for any reason, and the thing about CDs isn't entirely true either, I recently returned an open CD because the second to last track didn't play. The shop assistant replaced it (asked me if I wanted a refund or replacement) no questions asked, he didn't even bother to check the CD. It makes good commercial sense because as a result shops can build up good will amongst consumers for little cost.