Blizzard is probably my all-time favourite game company, I owned all the Warcraft games, Diablo games and Starcraft with all the expansions aswell. Battle.net was a huge reason for Blizzard's success IMO. Battle.net still has a ton of people playing Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft. Maybe not as much anymore as those games are a bit older, but there is still a HUGE userbase that uses Battle.net (especially with all those crazy Starcraft addicts!) =)
I haven't really seen any bugs or hacks in Call of Duty2, I think it's a great game, the singleplayer missions are awesome too. What bugs/hacks are you speaking of?
ValvE, the creators of the Half-Life series, do an excellent job communicating with their fanbase. Gabe Newell, ValvE's director, not only repsonds to fan email, but actively posts on fan forums!
Fuck Valve, what I want from Valve is LESS communicating with their fan base (via forced Steam ads). Maybe Gabe Newell should listen to their fanbase and allow people to play single player games without an internet connection or steam!
There are alot of decent companies that don't force you to have an internet connection to play single player mode, such as Oblivion and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Both San Andreas and Oblivion don't even require a cd key when installing the game, no copy protection whatsoever. And you know what, I bought both games to support those two companies since they seem to get it.
With hardware virtualization on the new Intel mobile chips, using Windows or OS X as a "bootstrap loader and device driver" for Linux is another reasonable choice.
Don't forget AMD's new socket AM2 chips support hardware virtualization.
Five hours for $20 is horrible, no way i'd pay more than $10 for it. You could buy Oblivion for $60 and get 200 hours of gameplay (not including all the mods that are coming out).
I agree, it's not like Apple actually built the store+elevator themselves, they would have hired contractors to build it. It's mildly amusing, but not Apples fault.
It's funny because it's true. I just got my old warrantied 4th 20gig ipod replaced (Went through hell for for 6 months trying to get it fixed/replaced). It was scratched to shit, I never dropped it or anything, just sliding it in and out of my jeans front pocket. My free replacement ipod was a 30gig video ipod since they didn't have my original model anymore, after a day I already noticed a few minor scuffs and scratches on the screen so I went out and bought a protective case for it. I can't believe how cheap they make these things, you'd think they'd be made a bit better for the $400 your paying.
I highly doubt that knowing Microsoft. With Windows 2000, they limit you to Windows Media Player 9, you can't upgrade to WMP10, for that you need to buy XP. Now with Vista having DirectX 10, they aren't going to release an update for Windows XP users, so they are stuck with DirectX 9. I bet it would rather trivial for WMP10 to work on Windows 2000 and DirectX 10 on Windows XP, but Microsoft wants there to be "something new" to show for their next OS. They can't release DirectX 10 on Windows XP because then what would be the point on upgrading to Vista? I hate the fact that microsoft gets away with this by forcing users to upgrade if they want a newer version of some API. I hope game developers will continue to support XP for atleast a few years after Vista comes out.
I remember right after 9/11, Bush said "we can't let the terrorists change our way of life". Well, thanks to Bush, people no longer live the same as they did "pre 911".
Amen. I play mainly violent video games and I am totally against violence of any form (in real life), whether it be against a human or animal. I've been playing first person shooters since the original wolfenstein and doom. I played the original GTA 1 & 2, and I own GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas on my PS2 aswell as the PC version of GTA: San Andreas. It pisses me off when people blame violence on violent games. When did people stop becoming responsible for their own actions?
Ya, these guys aren't too high on the intelligence scale. I think they're more of the backyard wrestling crowd that you hear about in the news all the time when some guy breaks a neck. I mean, a frying pan? Are they trying to knock each other out? (that head gear offers minimal protection).
WoW was probably the 2nd best MMO i've ever played (1st being Ultima Online way back in the day). Once you're level 60 for a while and do nothing but farming battlegrounds and MC/BWL/ZG, you quickly get bored. Leading upto lvl60 was definitely fun for me though. After that it's a huge grind for a chance to win 1 epic in your farming guild a couple nights a week.
Thats why they have pilots sitting there, incase they need to manually fly the plane. Plus i'd imagine each flight system has redundant systems as a failsafe.
I saw a documentary/story about this on the Discovery channel a couple weeks ago. It wasn't really the air traffic controllers fault, they were doing maintenance on the radar at the time and all the systems were messed up and the phone system was down. I believe the radar screens were only updating once every 2 minutes while the maintenance workers worked on the radar, a huge delay in between screen updates. Plus his co-worker took a break, so the one ATC controller had to manage his screen and planes aswell as his co-workers screen and planes. Twice the workload, while the system was undergoing maintenance. Unfortunately he told one plane to descend when that pilot should have listened to his TCAS system, a fatal error.
That accident was due to human error, I saw a show on Discovery about that accident a couple weeks ago. Here is the story link.
Here is a copy-pasted blurb from the above link:
Considering that all the 'black boxes' from both aircraft have been located in working order there is a surprising lack of factual information available in the media regarding this extraordinary collision. It has been confirmed that both the Boeing 757-200 and the Tupolev Tu-154M were equipped with the TCAS II air collision avoidance system.
Both aircraft were relatively new (the Tu-154M was, in fact, newer - manufactured in 1995 - than the Boeing cargo jet it collided with) and no reports of any technical problems aboard have surfaced so far. In fact, it has been confirmed by the German investigators that the navigation, flight control and communication equipment aboard both aircraft has been functioning properly.
Available information suggests that both aircraft were piloted by crews with substantial experience flying on international routes and well-familiar with their aircraft. Furthermore, there was no information suggesting that either aircraft has departed from its pre-planned flight path until just second before the collision.
The collision occured at 10.5 km ( 35,000 ft ) altitude with the aircraft approaching each other at a rate of about 240 meters per second ( 793 ft/s ) and a closing angle of 90-deg. The collision occured in the dark and both planes were flying with the headlights turned off, as required by the regulations at this altitude.
Some 45 seconds prior to the collision pilots of the Boeing and Tupolev, still almost 11 km apart, both received commands from their collision avoidance systems to change their altitude: Boeing was to descent and the Tupolev was to gain altitude. However, at the same instant the pilot of the Tupolev received a contradictory order from the air traffic controller (ATC) to descent.
After a few seconds of executing the ascent maneuver, as ordered by the TCAS II, and the second order from the ATC to descent Tu-154M crew decided to follow the ATC instructions instead and begun dropping altitude. At the time of the collision both aircraft were in descent: the Boeing was following TCAS II commands and the Tupolev was following ATC orders.
In the end everything boils down to two questions: why the ATC ordered Tupolev to descent and whether or not the pilot of the Tupolev was obligated to follow the TCAS II instructions instead. There is a significant 'white spot' remaining in this case: almost nothing was released by the investigation regarding the actions of the Boeing pilot and his communications with the ATC.
So, the onboard avoidance system on both planes was functioning properly, one plane was told to descend, one plane was told to gain altitude. The ATC (air traffic controller) made the error.
Raid0 offers no redundancy, it's only good for speed. If either one of the two drives dies, you're hosed. Raid1 or higher would be better. My boot time is also under 20 seconds, and I only have 1 250gig hard drive.
The thing that pisses me off is DirectX 10. Vista will use DirectX 10, and they aren't going to let Windows XP users using DirectX 9 be able to upgrade to DirectX 10 (because they want to force people to upgrade to Vista). I'm guessing when Vista comes out alot of games will be written for it, and you will have to have a "DirectX 10 compatible" video card. As a gamer, I'm more than a little bit worried about the day Vista comes out. My only hope is that game developers will continue to support Windows XP for atleast a few more years.
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Blizzard is probably my all-time favourite game company, I owned all the Warcraft games, Diablo games and Starcraft with all the expansions aswell. Battle.net was a huge reason for Blizzard's success IMO. Battle.net still has a ton of people playing Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft. Maybe not as much anymore as those games are a bit older, but there is still a HUGE userbase that uses Battle.net (especially with all those crazy Starcraft addicts!) =)
I haven't really seen any bugs or hacks in Call of Duty2, I think it's a great game, the singleplayer missions are awesome too. What bugs/hacks are you speaking of?
Valve != The entire games industry.
There are alot of decent companies that don't force you to have an internet connection to play single player mode, such as Oblivion and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Both San Andreas and Oblivion don't even require a cd key when installing the game, no copy protection whatsoever. And you know what, I bought both games to support those two companies since they seem to get it.
Don't forget AMD's new socket AM2 chips support hardware virtualization.
30 cents an hour! Can't beat that.
Five hours for $20 is horrible, no way i'd pay more than $10 for it. You could buy Oblivion for $60 and get 200 hours of gameplay (not including all the mods that are coming out).
At that point I can't see why any "normal" user would want to use Windows. Games like Oblivion, Call of Duty 2 and UT2004 to name a few.
I agree, it's not like Apple actually built the store+elevator themselves, they would have hired contractors to build it. It's mildly amusing, but not Apples fault.
ROFL....Best...joke...ever.
It's funny because it's true. I just got my old warrantied 4th 20gig ipod replaced (Went through hell for for 6 months trying to get it fixed/replaced). It was scratched to shit, I never dropped it or anything, just sliding it in and out of my jeans front pocket. My free replacement ipod was a 30gig video ipod since they didn't have my original model anymore, after a day I already noticed a few minor scuffs and scratches on the screen so I went out and bought a protective case for it. I can't believe how cheap they make these things, you'd think they'd be made a bit better for the $400 your paying.
It looks more like a white crayfish than a scorpion to me.
I highly doubt that knowing Microsoft. With Windows 2000, they limit you to Windows Media Player 9, you can't upgrade to WMP10, for that you need to buy XP. Now with Vista having DirectX 10, they aren't going to release an update for Windows XP users, so they are stuck with DirectX 9. I bet it would rather trivial for WMP10 to work on Windows 2000 and DirectX 10 on Windows XP, but Microsoft wants there to be "something new" to show for their next OS. They can't release DirectX 10 on Windows XP because then what would be the point on upgrading to Vista? I hate the fact that microsoft gets away with this by forcing users to upgrade if they want a newer version of some API. I hope game developers will continue to support XP for atleast a few years after Vista comes out.
I remember right after 9/11, Bush said "we can't let the terrorists change our way of life". Well, thanks to Bush, people no longer live the same as they did "pre 911".
Amen. I play mainly violent video games and I am totally against violence of any form (in real life), whether it be against a human or animal. I've been playing first person shooters since the original wolfenstein and doom. I played the original GTA 1 & 2, and I own GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas on my PS2 aswell as the PC version of GTA: San Andreas. It pisses me off when people blame violence on violent games. When did people stop becoming responsible for their own actions?
Ya, these guys aren't too high on the intelligence scale. I think they're more of the backyard wrestling crowd that you hear about in the news all the time when some guy breaks a neck. I mean, a frying pan? Are they trying to knock each other out? (that head gear offers minimal protection).
WoW was probably the 2nd best MMO i've ever played (1st being Ultima Online way back in the day). Once you're level 60 for a while and do nothing but farming battlegrounds and MC/BWL/ZG, you quickly get bored. Leading upto lvl60 was definitely fun for me though. After that it's a huge grind for a chance to win 1 epic in your farming guild a couple nights a week.
Thats why they have pilots sitting there, incase they need to manually fly the plane. Plus i'd imagine each flight system has redundant systems as a failsafe.
I saw a documentary/story about this on the Discovery channel a couple weeks ago. It wasn't really the air traffic controllers fault, they were doing maintenance on the radar at the time and all the systems were messed up and the phone system was down. I believe the radar screens were only updating once every 2 minutes while the maintenance workers worked on the radar, a huge delay in between screen updates. Plus his co-worker took a break, so the one ATC controller had to manage his screen and planes aswell as his co-workers screen and planes. Twice the workload, while the system was undergoing maintenance. Unfortunately he told one plane to descend when that pilot should have listened to his TCAS system, a fatal error.
Here is a copy-pasted blurb from the above link:
So, the onboard avoidance system on both planes was functioning properly, one plane was told to descend, one plane was told to gain altitude. The ATC (air traffic controller) made the error.
Raid0 offers no redundancy, it's only good for speed. If either one of the two drives dies, you're hosed. Raid1 or higher would be better. My boot time is also under 20 seconds, and I only have 1 250gig hard drive.
Yes, but none of these cases do that.
Did you even look at the article? Look at the second page.
The fans these cases use are absurdly small
Again, if you looked at the second page, you would have seen the AeroCool ExtremeEngine 3T case with a 25cm side fan and a 14cm front fan.
The thing that pisses me off is DirectX 10. Vista will use DirectX 10, and they aren't going to let Windows XP users using DirectX 9 be able to upgrade to DirectX 10 (because they want to force people to upgrade to Vista). I'm guessing when Vista comes out alot of games will be written for it, and you will have to have a "DirectX 10 compatible" video card. As a gamer, I'm more than a little bit worried about the day Vista comes out. My only hope is that game developers will continue to support Windows XP for atleast a few more years.
My condolences.