Because it made more sense to the person doing it than heading back down to the control centre to take another photo after the screens had been turned on? Seriously. They may well have taken the shot, then someone pointed out that if they posted an image with blank screens everyone would be up in arms about them doing nothing, they took some other images from computers taken at the same place and time and combined them (really this is no more misleading than going back and arranging the image as you want it).
Geometry wars isn't a game where you can work towards beating it in the same sense as Mirrors Edge. The wax on/wax off achievement just added an additional challenge to a game of challenges, they could have extended the idea a little and made it a new 'game mode'. Personally, I enjoy achievements that encourage me to get something different but enjoyable out of a game (like GW2) and ones that motivate me to replay content for new challenges (the skulls in halo 2-3 being a good example).
We pay for the BBC because it's a legal requirement of owning a TV set.
It's a requirement of receiving live broadcast tv. As the owner of two tv's and a regular user of iPlayer (no live broadcast) to watch BBC shows I am getting on perfectly well and legally without a license.
The word pray doesn't make sense in either of the places that he put 'pry'. I'm pretty certain it was intended to mean 'probably'. Even if he did mean pray is his religion really relevant enough for your post not to be redundant?
You're working under the assumption that saving failed businesses doesn't pretty preclude the American, UK or most other western economies from actually being capitalist. I don't mean they're socialists either, just that most countries exist somewhere in the shades fo grey not at the ends of the spectrum.
You've failed to note one thing: The 6% of the playerbase they are elected by are the 6% that CARE. If the others cared, they could vote, too. They CHOSE not to.
The other 94% will care if they don't like changes that are made. When it comes to RL elections, if I don't vote in the election and don't like the resulting government I need to emigrate (major PitA). If I don't vote for my representative in an online game and don't like the changes they choose it's nowhere near as much trouble to leave.
If I made a game where 94% of players views were effectively being ignored I'd be worried about making changes that they didn't want without realising it.
I'm not generally a fan of DRM, game expansions etc specifically because they limit my ability to continue to use a product in the future. But calling it fruad is little better than FUD.
It's like DRM: When the server is gone, your "money" is gone. (Yes, technically it's still fraud
I have no issue paying for something with a limited lifespan. In fact, if I could pay a reasonable monthly rate to download and play games of my choice on my console I'd do that rather than buying (generally 2nd hand games). The problem isn't that computer games are moving from physical media with effectively unlimited lifespans to digital media with limited lifespans. The problem is that prices aren't decreasing with it.
At the moment the digital distribution option is normally more expensive, and comes with downsides. Sadly, this doesn't seem to stop people from using it:(
[blockquote]He didn't just make a mistake. He left a prototype in a bar while out drinking.[/blockquote]
A prototype mobile phone which, assuming he was given it to test, there will always be a risk of losing. If my employer asked me to road test a phone, but I'd be fired if I lost it then I'd pass. If apple couldn't afford the risk of letting the device be lost, why did they give it to someone who has a chance of losing it in a public place?
Aside from your silly implication that there's a federal property tax, of course it costs more to protect 1,000 acres. I mean, it's not like the homeless guy's land can catch on fire.
Actually, I think he's probably about right that the cost to the state of someone with a 1,000 acre home and a homeless person aren't massively different. The chance of a crime being committed against the land owner probably isn't higher, especially given the number of assaults etc that the homeless endure. The land owner can likely afford private healthcare, whereas the the homeless person will be reliant on the state. A land owner is massively less likely to end up in prison, due partly to the fact that if he does commit a crime he can afford decent representation.
Does this mean that the wealthy are taxed too heavily? Not in my opinion. It does however point out that taxing people based on how many government services they use and how often would generally harm the poor more than it helps.
It costs $50 million for a movie because some actors demand $20 million just to be in the movie.
They pay actors $20 million because famous names increase the gross of the film. I'm no fan of the movie industry, but they're not in the habit of spending big money on things they don't think will pay back.
The reason some games are costing this kind of money? Because the return on big hits like Modern Warfare 2, Halo, Gran Turismo etc are seen to justify the initial outlay. Can indie labels and cheap games do well? Absolutely, plenty of examples like Castle Crashers and Plants vs Zombies show that. Does this mean the big game industry is doomed? I'm still planning on getting Splinter Cell: Conviction, Mass Effect 2, Forza 3 and looking at the sales plenty of other people are.
That said, I'm not there target market. I'll buy these games when they get to around £15, I've got a near endless back-catalogue to get through so I don't see the point in buying games at release to leave them in a box 3 months.
Who cares about China. Seriously. What happens there with Google affects most of us absolutely not at all....
What direction is the censorship, privacy, and IP situation in the UK going?
Firstly, how hard would it have been to not click the title that clearly shows this is about Google in China if you don't care?
Secondly, many people feel developments like this are important. It's incredibly hard to predict with any accuracy what will be important geopolitically any distance into the future, but the belief that China will play an increasingly prominant role is pretty well founded.
You're suggesting that there is some intrinsic or natural reason for people to lay claim to ideas. So... prove it.
Generally if I'm claiming there is either an intrinsic or natural reason for something I would I dunno... say that.
I think intellectual property is neither of these things, I do however feel that a limited amount of protection for ideas fosters greater innovation and is thus is beneficial. If something is intrinsic and natural it by definition wouldn't need laws to exist, in fact plenty of things that are 'natural' are discouraged by law, for examples see murder, rape and theft so I fail to see your point.
In the meantime it simply means a lot of people are going to made into criminals for making use of maths.
Anything bar a physical entity can be replicated as a number (if others have a means to interpret it) including novels, music, blueprints and medical formulas. The entire premise that limiting the unauthorised distribution of anything without a physical form is punishing people for using maths is pure and utter nonsense.
If you don't think people should have a right to control anything other than a physical entity then cut out the amateur debating of a dubious premise and get to that point.
Personally I have no issue with granting people this right but feel these rights should be sufficient not excessive.
I think the biggest thing holding it back will be its competitors. Given that Google has broken into the Smartphone market with the Droid and all that - I doubt Apple is going to approve any apps that let you update your Buzz.
You think Apple are going to combat the Google Droid by intentionally blocking the ability of the iPhone to do something people who buy it may want? If I was Apple I would want to ensure that updating Buzz on the iPhone was better than doing it on the Droid;)
Pro-tip: writing pro-tip just makes you look silly. Additionally, their is a limited number of times anything will work before it fails, we simply define consumables based on the quantity of use being sufficiently/entirely limited. A car isn't generally considered to be a consumable, but they don't have a lifespan beyond the useful lifetime of a CD-RW (depending of course on how you use both).
And playing D&D while your incarcerated isn't going to make the whole experience enjoyable. Do you really think anyone might of been sat there thinking "Man, now that I can play D&D in prison I'm not sufficiently put off trying to rob this bank?".
There is no one specific reason for putting people in prison, although generally people see it as being for protection of others and punishment of criminals (some would add to discourage other criminals). Personally I think protecting others is the most important of these reasons, and if letting the inmates play D&D in anyway improves the generally negative prison enviroment Ive got no issue with it.
1. ISPs have to have a contract with the cloud gaming provider, and to use QoS to make sure the gaming packets are not delayed in any way. The FTC might stupidly call for "net neutrality" that would make this impossible.
Net neutrality is about treating packets fairly regardless of whose software is producing it. I don't see how blocking a major ISP from prioritising packets from one cloud game company while disadvantaging those of its competitors is a good thing?
QoS isn't anti-net neutrality it's just prioritising data for uses that require low-latency, which should be fine as long as it is done in a way that doesn't disadvantage individual service providers. Ergo, an internet provider would have no issue with the FTC or anyone else for giving VoiP priority over FTP as long as they give all VoiP that priority.
My guess is, given the economic conditions, THEY CAN'T FIND BETTER JOBS..... Do you know how hard it is to live off of 11 an hour?
I imagine it's a lot easier than not having a job which given these economic conditions is what would happen if you made Amazon pay 30% more and limit hours to say 9-5. Think someone like Amazon couldn't manage this kind of operation out of say Mexico?
Without government subsidy or protectionism people won't be paid sufficient wages to live 1st world lifestyles if they are no more skilled than 3rd world labour, personally I'd rather the government supported self-improvement instead of subsidising people in box packing jobs.
Do people really have such a simplistic view of sales and construction. Sales is not just about volume of sales, on the simplest level profit margin is important and on a slightly more heuristic level things like how the volumes of different products fit within the business are important. A salesman who sells 50% of capacity at no profit is prodigious but probably useless, a salesman who sells 1,000 widgets produced on a production line already operating at capacity is a twat (And I've seen salesmen do both due to poor target setting).
Ditto builders, although I suppose on the simplest building work quantity (at sufficient quality) is the main metric.
If you are measuring your staff based on a single quantity based metric you're a fool, set well planned objectives and monitor those.
+ $600 for HD TV + $50 for an additional controller + $30 x 2 for chatpads
Did your PC monitor (in your $1200 rig) cost you $600? Is it as good as or better than gaming on a $600 HDTV? Even ignoring the fact that most people don't need to buy an additional $600 TV just to game I doubt your costing that correctly.
Did your gaming rig come with everything required to allow two+ people to play major titles together or online with friends? If not why are you costing additions to the console which add this functionality.
Buying a complete computer setup that will provide you with ability to play all games released over a ~5 year period will cost more than doing the same with a games console even factoring in other costs, although not by nearly as much as many people argue. Personally, I console game because I find it more convienant, although I still have fond memories of wasted days PC gaming on CounterStike and StarCraft.
If some some one sells you a car with defective locks, aren't they somewhat liable?
By defective do you mean impossible to bypass? Or just hard to bypass? I don't know anyone who succesfully sued their car manufacturer because their car was broken into, and I've never heard of Ford paying for the replacement of things that were in the car when stolen.
As it is the car manufacturer's (not the governments) job to stop people breaking into your car, should the police now refuse to deal with this? Is the same true of houses?
I'm pretty sure the French Resistance did both. So did the IRA.
The IRA also set off bombs in major city centres and other high profile purely civilian targets, for some reason this wasn't enough to prove to many Americans they were terrorists, but a bunch of fundamentalist muslims making an unrelated attack in September 2001 somehow changed their minds... (I don't want to tar all or even most Americans with this brush, but the high level of IRA funding that came from the US is openly accepted).
Moral of the story? Regardless of what definition you want to use, most people use the defition Terrorist = someone we don't like or fighting those we do, Freedom fighter = someone we like or fighting those we don't.
The issue isn't helped by the fact Terrorism is used to cover attacks on civilians regardless of the reason behind them, but seen as being universally evil. Someone fighting against a more powerful aggressor and targetting civilians is a terrorist, but you may feel they are justified.
At a guess because being sweet, attractive, friendly and caring although great values may not make up for the difficulty in sharing conversation over a lifetime. I talk to my partner massively more than anyone else, and I can't abide small talk for long, if I was going out with someone who I couldn't have an informed discussion about 'cognitive dissonance', 'quantative easing' or some other subject that catches our attention then this link would be weaker.
Though having not gone out with a sexy dumb blonde, I may not know what I am missing.
The fact that it shares the same price point doesn't imply price fixing or stop it being beneficial to consumers. Firstly, if the B&N device is 'better' it is effectively cheaper than the Kindle. Secondly, if both devices are exactly even then sales should begin to spread between the two, this will encourage one of the parties to drop the price in order to gain the others market share.
Factor in other benefits like removing some dominance from Amazon's position as ebook superpower, which will hopefully add competition to book pricing and limit anti-consumer licensing/limitations and this seems (as it should) like a good thing for us little people.
Slashdot Mirror
Because it made more sense to the person doing it than heading back down to the control centre to take another photo after the screens had been turned on? Seriously. They may well have taken the shot, then someone pointed out that if they posted an image with blank screens everyone would be up in arms about them doing nothing, they took some other images from computers taken at the same place and time and combined them (really this is no more misleading than going back and arranging the image as you want it).
Geometry wars isn't a game where you can work towards beating it in the same sense as Mirrors Edge. The wax on/wax off achievement just added an additional challenge to a game of challenges, they could have extended the idea a little and made it a new 'game mode'. Personally, I enjoy achievements that encourage me to get something different but enjoyable out of a game (like GW2) and ones that motivate me to replay content for new challenges (the skulls in halo 2-3 being a good example).
We pay for the BBC because it's a legal requirement of owning a TV set.
It's a requirement of receiving live broadcast tv. As the owner of two tv's and a regular user of iPlayer (no live broadcast) to watch BBC shows I am getting on perfectly well and legally without a license.
The word pray doesn't make sense in either of the places that he put 'pry'. I'm pretty certain it was intended to mean 'probably'. Even if he did mean pray is his religion really relevant enough for your post not to be redundant?
You're working under the assumption that saving failed businesses doesn't pretty preclude the American, UK or most other western economies from actually being capitalist. I don't mean they're socialists either, just that most countries exist somewhere in the shades fo grey not at the ends of the spectrum.
The other 94% will care if they don't like changes that are made. When it comes to RL elections, if I don't vote in the election and don't like the resulting government I need to emigrate (major PitA). If I don't vote for my representative in an online game and don't like the changes they choose it's nowhere near as much trouble to leave.
If I made a game where 94% of players views were effectively being ignored I'd be worried about making changes that they didn't want without realising it.
I'm not generally a fan of DRM, game expansions etc specifically because they limit my ability to continue to use a product in the future. But calling it fruad is little better than FUD.
I have no issue paying for something with a limited lifespan. In fact, if I could pay a reasonable monthly rate to download and play games of my choice on my console I'd do that rather than buying (generally 2nd hand games). The problem isn't that computer games are moving from physical media with effectively unlimited lifespans to digital media with limited lifespans. The problem is that prices aren't decreasing with it.
At the moment the digital distribution option is normally more expensive, and comes with downsides. Sadly, this doesn't seem to stop people from using it :(
[blockquote]He didn't just make a mistake. He left a prototype in a bar while out drinking.[/blockquote]
A prototype mobile phone which, assuming he was given it to test, there will always be a risk of losing. If my employer asked me to road test a phone, but I'd be fired if I lost it then I'd pass. If apple couldn't afford the risk of letting the device be lost, why did they give it to someone who has a chance of losing it in a public place?
Actually, I think he's probably about right that the cost to the state of someone with a 1,000 acre home and a homeless person aren't massively different. The chance of a crime being committed against the land owner probably isn't higher, especially given the number of assaults etc that the homeless endure. The land owner can likely afford private healthcare, whereas the the homeless person will be reliant on the state. A land owner is massively less likely to end up in prison, due partly to the fact that if he does commit a crime he can afford decent representation.
Does this mean that the wealthy are taxed too heavily? Not in my opinion. It does however point out that taxing people based on how many government services they use and how often would generally harm the poor more than it helps.
Offering someone a service, which they are free to refuse I haven't heard lately...
They pay actors $20 million because famous names increase the gross of the film. I'm no fan of the movie industry, but they're not in the habit of spending big money on things they don't think will pay back.
The reason some games are costing this kind of money? Because the return on big hits like Modern Warfare 2, Halo, Gran Turismo etc are seen to justify the initial outlay. Can indie labels and cheap games do well? Absolutely, plenty of examples like Castle Crashers and Plants vs Zombies show that. Does this mean the big game industry is doomed? I'm still planning on getting Splinter Cell: Conviction, Mass Effect 2, Forza 3 and looking at the sales plenty of other people are.
That said, I'm not there target market. I'll buy these games when they get to around £15, I've got a near endless back-catalogue to get through so I don't see the point in buying games at release to leave them in a box 3 months.
Firstly, how hard would it have been to not click the title that clearly shows this is about Google in China if you don't care?
Secondly, many people feel developments like this are important. It's incredibly hard to predict with any accuracy what will be important geopolitically any distance into the future, but the belief that China will play an increasingly prominant role is pretty well founded.
Generally if I'm claiming there is either an intrinsic or natural reason for something I would I dunno... say that.
I think intellectual property is neither of these things, I do however feel that a limited amount of protection for ideas fosters greater innovation and is thus is beneficial. If something is intrinsic and natural it by definition wouldn't need laws to exist, in fact plenty of things that are 'natural' are discouraged by law, for examples see murder, rape and theft so I fail to see your point.
Anything bar a physical entity can be replicated as a number (if others have a means to interpret it) including novels, music, blueprints and medical formulas. The entire premise that limiting the unauthorised distribution of anything without a physical form is punishing people for using maths is pure and utter nonsense.
If you don't think people should have a right to control anything other than a physical entity then cut out the amateur debating of a dubious premise and get to that point.
Personally I have no issue with granting people this right but feel these rights should be sufficient not excessive.
I think the biggest thing holding it back will be its competitors. Given that Google has broken into the Smartphone market with the Droid and all that - I doubt Apple is going to approve any apps that let you update your Buzz.
You think Apple are going to combat the Google Droid by intentionally blocking the ability of the iPhone to do something people who buy it may want? If I was Apple I would want to ensure that updating Buzz on the iPhone was better than doing it on the Droid ;)
Pro-tip: writing pro-tip just makes you look silly. Additionally, their is a limited number of times anything will work before it fails, we simply define consumables based on the quantity of use being sufficiently/entirely limited. A car isn't generally considered to be a consumable, but they don't have a lifespan beyond the useful lifetime of a CD-RW (depending of course on how you use both).
And playing D&D while your incarcerated isn't going to make the whole experience enjoyable. Do you really think anyone might of been sat there thinking "Man, now that I can play D&D in prison I'm not sufficiently put off trying to rob this bank?".
There is no one specific reason for putting people in prison, although generally people see it as being for protection of others and punishment of criminals (some would add to discourage other criminals). Personally I think protecting others is the most important of these reasons, and if letting the inmates play D&D in anyway improves the generally negative prison enviroment Ive got no issue with it.
Net neutrality is about treating packets fairly regardless of whose software is producing it. I don't see how blocking a major ISP from prioritising packets from one cloud game company while disadvantaging those of its competitors is a good thing?
QoS isn't anti-net neutrality it's just prioritising data for uses that require low-latency, which should be fine as long as it is done in a way that doesn't disadvantage individual service providers. Ergo, an internet provider would have no issue with the FTC or anyone else for giving VoiP priority over FTP as long as they give all VoiP that priority.
I imagine it's a lot easier than not having a job which given these economic conditions is what would happen if you made Amazon pay 30% more and limit hours to say 9-5. Think someone like Amazon couldn't manage this kind of operation out of say Mexico?
Without government subsidy or protectionism people won't be paid sufficient wages to live 1st world lifestyles if they are no more skilled than 3rd world labour, personally I'd rather the government supported self-improvement instead of subsidising people in box packing jobs.
Do people really have such a simplistic view of sales and construction. Sales is not just about volume of sales, on the simplest level profit margin is important and on a slightly more heuristic level things like how the volumes of different products fit within the business are important. A salesman who sells 50% of capacity at no profit is prodigious but probably useless, a salesman who sells 1,000 widgets produced on a production line already operating at capacity is a twat (And I've seen salesmen do both due to poor target setting).
Ditto builders, although I suppose on the simplest building work quantity (at sufficient quality) is the main metric.
If you are measuring your staff based on a single quantity based metric you're a fool, set well planned objectives and monitor those.
Did your PC monitor (in your $1200 rig) cost you $600? Is it as good as or better than gaming on a $600 HDTV? Even ignoring the fact that most people don't need to buy an additional $600 TV just to game I doubt your costing that correctly.
Did your gaming rig come with everything required to allow two+ people to play major titles together or online with friends? If not why are you costing additions to the console which add this functionality.
Buying a complete computer setup that will provide you with ability to play all games released over a ~5 year period will cost more than doing the same with a games console even factoring in other costs, although not by nearly as much as many people argue. Personally, I console game because I find it more convienant, although I still have fond memories of wasted days PC gaming on CounterStike and StarCraft.
By defective do you mean impossible to bypass? Or just hard to bypass? I don't know anyone who succesfully sued their car manufacturer because their car was broken into, and I've never heard of Ford paying for the replacement of things that were in the car when stolen.
As it is the car manufacturer's (not the governments) job to stop people breaking into your car, should the police now refuse to deal with this? Is the same true of houses?
The IRA also set off bombs in major city centres and other high profile purely civilian targets, for some reason this wasn't enough to prove to many Americans they were terrorists, but a bunch of fundamentalist muslims making an unrelated attack in September 2001 somehow changed their minds... (I don't want to tar all or even most Americans with this brush, but the high level of IRA funding that came from the US is openly accepted).
Moral of the story? Regardless of what definition you want to use, most people use the defition Terrorist = someone we don't like or fighting those we do, Freedom fighter = someone we like or fighting those we don't.
The issue isn't helped by the fact Terrorism is used to cover attacks on civilians regardless of the reason behind them, but seen as being universally evil. Someone fighting against a more powerful aggressor and targetting civilians is a terrorist, but you may feel they are justified.
At a guess because being sweet, attractive, friendly and caring although great values may not make up for the difficulty in sharing conversation over a lifetime. I talk to my partner massively more than anyone else, and I can't abide small talk for long, if I was going out with someone who I couldn't have an informed discussion about 'cognitive dissonance', 'quantative easing' or some other subject that catches our attention then this link would be weaker.
Though having not gone out with a sexy dumb blonde, I may not know what I am missing.
The fact that it shares the same price point doesn't imply price fixing or stop it being beneficial to consumers. Firstly, if the B&N device is 'better' it is effectively cheaper than the Kindle. Secondly, if both devices are exactly even then sales should begin to spread between the two, this will encourage one of the parties to drop the price in order to gain the others market share.
Factor in other benefits like removing some dominance from Amazon's position as ebook superpower, which will hopefully add competition to book pricing and limit anti-consumer licensing/limitations and this seems (as it should) like a good thing for us little people.