On my Nintendo add-on scale of 1 to Power Glove, this gets a -3.
I'm a little confused by your scale. Does it assume that the Power Glove is the best Nintendo add-on that has ever or will ever exist? Or is "Power Glove" a negative score, and 1 the highest rating available?
I've only seen the first season so far, but it seems to me like the Cylons may be in direct two-way communication with the being they call "God." Perhaps it's a particularly powerful (in terms of computing power) Cylon that's gone a bit nutty?
If you accept strict biological determinism, then a sufficiently advanced Cylon with sufficient data about the current state of the universe could be manipulating everything subtly towards some long-term goal. This goal may be best-served by claiming to be God.
There may be something in season 2 that makes my whole theory seem crazy, but it would explain why a toaster would come up with a deity.
I don't know if it was your intention, but you make it sound like this is all Nettwerk's doing, and the artists mentioned are just kind of half-heartedly going along with it. I saw one of the guys from BNL being interviewed on TV the other day, and he was actually passionate about this. He seemed pretty upset that the CRIA wanted to sue music fans, and worse, that they claimed to be representing the artists (like him) when doing it.
He said that the people sharing music are "music lovers," and those are the last people the music industry should want to hurt.
Anyway, you may be right about someone else initiating this, but at least one of the artists seems to feel very strongly on the subject.
Yeah, a lot of people seem to be upset about this. Perhaps I should clarify. They had this on Star Trek. If the story was "Apple invents warp drive" or "Apple invents replicators," would everyone still be getting upset?
Ok then, it's a sequepisode. An epiquel. A sepiquelisode. Whatever. It's less significant than a full sequel (which would be full length, higher priced, and would typically have a new engine), but it's (apparently, according to you) more significant than an episode, or has the wrong release schedule for an episode, or something.
And my guess is that this news story was comissioned by Nintendo. They were hoping to increase DS sales in the pedophile market, where the numbers aren't currently as high as they'd like. So, naturally, she ignored information that didn't fit what she was being paid to say.
Also, they have an arrangement with Gyration to use their gyroscopes in the Revolution controller. What you describe is exactly how Gyration's "air mouse" products work, so it's not much of a stretch to assume that Nintendo might use the same system.
I think Nintendo's opinion is that if they tried to compete with Sony and Microsoft on the same level and with the same features, everyone would lose, because it's just not a good feature set.
I'm not saying they're right... it sounds to me like the 360 is doing some pretty good stuff with Live, and I have to assume that Sony has something up their sleeves that just hasn't been mentioned yet (er... at least, hasn't been mentioned on Slashdot, so I haven't heard about it).
But regardless of the merits of the MS/Sony approach, it's better for the industry and better for consumers if there are different options out there, rather than 3 brands of exactly the same thing.
While I'm sure there are things that aren't being told, there are still fairly clear reasons for them to not implement this fix unless it's absolutely necessary.
In order for it to work, both the clients and the servers need to be updated with a patch. This is a manual process. If they say "roll it out now!" then all of a sudden, everyone who uses a blackberry is suddenly cut off until they AND their local server have applied a patch. And realize, the average blackberry user is at the executive level, and not the sort of person who applies patches.;)
Interrupting blackberry service is something that I suspect they'd really really like to avoid.
The point of a "..." or "????" step is that it's not clear how to get from the previous step to the following one. In this case, there's no "..." step. There's just proft.
The current video iPods are just pale imitators. This new one is as close to the pure platonic form of a "video iPod" as is possible in the real world.
As the parent said, another player with will step in to meet those needs.
Will they, though? Will they really? The other day, here on Slashdot, some guy was flipping out at me about how terrible Steam was because "bandwidth isn't free" and "what if you use up your bandwidth for the month?"
So, this is someone in a country developed enough that he can get modern video games, and yet the best internet service he can find has both a monthly bandwidth limit and charges by usage. I find it difficult to believe that consumers are so happy with this arrangement that there's no point in someone setting up a competing service. So your magical free market is breaking down somewhere in there.
It's working out ok where I live. The cable guys and the phone company (ADSL) compete with each other enough that you can get pretty high-speed unlimited-use internet for a decent price. It sounds to me, though, like there are other places (presumably still with a "Free Market") where nobody is stepping in to provide the services people are looking for.
See, now... I'm actually willing to pay more for a new game, even if it's available used. I went to buy Soul Calibur 3 a month or so after it came out, and I had a hard time convincing the EB guy that I really did want to pay $10 more to have it in the original shrink wrap and without the annoying EB stickers.
But from the retailer's perspective, I can definitely see the allure. They get to profit on one copy of a game, twice! It's like magic money. And most people aren't like me; as long as it works, they'd rather pay less for something. So I guess the video game industry may have a good reason to worry.
I was watching the morning news the other day, and their tech guy was showing off something that sounds a lot like what was described in the summary. It was a little handheld gizmo with no fancy motors or mysterious CCD sensors (whatever those might be). It used GPS and gyroscopes to figure out what star it was looking at, and it'd tell the user. From what the guy on the news said, it seemed like a device that would sell for under $2000 CAD. Possibly less than $1000, depending on how big of an operation was manufacturing them, and the quality of the parts.
I think it depends on what your content is. If you're running a movie theatre and you post your show times on the web, then having an easily-accessible mobile version of that is going to do wonders. Note: easily accessible! No several-links-deep crap. Mobile browsing is way too slow for that. Users need to be able to set a bookmark on their phone that goes right to the page with the movie times.
On the other hand, if your web site advertises your car dealership or something, it may be less important. You could still find good uses for a mobile site, but it would be used much less frequently.
Basically, if you expect that a large number of people will often want to check a small amount of frequently-changing information on your site, I think it's stupid NOT to make a mobile version of that. Otherwise, there may be benefits, but they'll likely be minor and may not be worth the effort.
Why exactly do you think that "episodic content" means "as soon as the first one ceases to entertain me, the next one should be ready"? Nothing else works like that.
The word "episode" is most commonly associated with TV shows. One of those lasts an hour at most, and then you have to wait a whole week (or more) for another one.
A series of novels is also "episodic content." You've heard of Harry Potter? Most people who read that finish one novel several months before the next one comes out. Many people are done one years before the next one. But they still want to read the next one when it's available. Weird.
Also, many video games are already episodic to some degree. Half-Life 2 was like a second "episode" to Half-Life. Did everybody say, "What? I finished Half-Life years ago! Why would I want more of that crap now?"
No. They didn't say that. They bought the game in droves.
These guys are just talking about making smaller games and pumping out sequels faster. Possibly even planning for the sequels in advance, which would be kind of fantastic. It's a cool idea.
Well, yeah. That's exactly what we're looking at. Somebody at Blizzard has come up with the idea that if they don't let you talk about your sexual orientation, nobody will persecute you for it... so they don't have to worry about dealing with the fallout later.
I assume that the way they're looking at it goes something like, "If someone started a 'heterosexual-friendly' guild, we wouldn't allow that under our harrassment policy, so how is this different?"
And, of course, you want to say that it's different because the GLBT community (is it really only 4 letters now?) are the ones being persecuted, and Blizzard is, in a way, persecuting them to prevent their future persecution. Which is clearly crazy.
Personally, I look at the whole thing, and I can see why everyone's doing everything they're doing, and I just wish that the world was such that the GLBT people didn't feel like they needed a special guild where they'd feel safe.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a little confused by your scale. Does it assume that the Power Glove is the best Nintendo add-on that has ever or will ever exist? Or is "Power Glove" a negative score, and 1 the highest rating available?
I've only seen the first season so far, but it seems to me like the Cylons may be in direct two-way communication with the being they call "God." Perhaps it's a particularly powerful (in terms of computing power) Cylon that's gone a bit nutty?
If you accept strict biological determinism, then a sufficiently advanced Cylon with sufficient data about the current state of the universe could be manipulating everything subtly towards some long-term goal. This goal may be best-served by claiming to be God.
There may be something in season 2 that makes my whole theory seem crazy, but it would explain why a toaster would come up with a deity.
I don't know if it was your intention, but you make it sound like this is all Nettwerk's doing, and the artists mentioned are just kind of half-heartedly going along with it. I saw one of the guys from BNL being interviewed on TV the other day, and he was actually passionate about this. He seemed pretty upset that the CRIA wanted to sue music fans, and worse, that they claimed to be representing the artists (like him) when doing it.
He said that the people sharing music are "music lovers," and those are the last people the music industry should want to hurt.
Anyway, you may be right about someone else initiating this, but at least one of the artists seems to feel very strongly on the subject.
Yeah, a lot of people seem to be upset about this. Perhaps I should clarify. They had this on Star Trek. If the story was "Apple invents warp drive" or "Apple invents replicators," would everyone still be getting upset?
The claimed security hole is that it is not removed if it's sent from Yahoo mail. Removing the code is the desired behaviour.
Ok then, it's a sequepisode. An epiquel. A sepiquelisode. Whatever. It's less significant than a full sequel (which would be full length, higher priced, and would typically have a new engine), but it's (apparently, according to you) more significant than an episode, or has the wrong release schedule for an episode, or something.
Or one of those mechanical pencils that lights up! Maybe it could make little noises too, just for the heck of it.
And my guess is that this news story was comissioned by Nintendo. They were hoping to increase DS sales in the pedophile market, where the numbers aren't currently as high as they'd like. So, naturally, she ignored information that didn't fit what she was being paid to say.
Also, they have an arrangement with Gyration to use their gyroscopes in the Revolution controller. What you describe is exactly how Gyration's "air mouse" products work, so it's not much of a stretch to assume that Nintendo might use the same system.
No, you're right. Firefox does this, and it has a memory leak.
I think Nintendo's opinion is that if they tried to compete with Sony and Microsoft on the same level and with the same features, everyone would lose, because it's just not a good feature set.
I'm not saying they're right... it sounds to me like the 360 is doing some pretty good stuff with Live, and I have to assume that Sony has something up their sleeves that just hasn't been mentioned yet (er... at least, hasn't been mentioned on Slashdot, so I haven't heard about it).
But regardless of the merits of the MS/Sony approach, it's better for the industry and better for consumers if there are different options out there, rather than 3 brands of exactly the same thing.
While I'm sure there are things that aren't being told, there are still fairly clear reasons for them to not implement this fix unless it's absolutely necessary.
;)
In order for it to work, both the clients and the servers need to be updated with a patch. This is a manual process. If they say "roll it out now!" then all of a sudden, everyone who uses a blackberry is suddenly cut off until they AND their local server have applied a patch. And realize, the average blackberry user is at the executive level, and not the sort of person who applies patches.
Interrupting blackberry service is something that I suspect they'd really really like to avoid.
I think it would just make it more subtle. But perhaps you're right. I'll stop nitpicking now. ;)
The point of a "..." or "????" step is that it's not clear how to get from the previous step to the following one. In this case, there's no "..." step. There's just proft.
The current video iPods are just pale imitators. This new one is as close to the pure platonic form of a "video iPod" as is possible in the real world.
Clearly.
So, just to clarify... what you're decribing is a fantastic way to be second best? ;)
Will they, though? Will they really? The other day, here on Slashdot, some guy was flipping out at me about how terrible Steam was because "bandwidth isn't free" and "what if you use up your bandwidth for the month?"
So, this is someone in a country developed enough that he can get modern video games, and yet the best internet service he can find has both a monthly bandwidth limit and charges by usage. I find it difficult to believe that consumers are so happy with this arrangement that there's no point in someone setting up a competing service. So your magical free market is breaking down somewhere in there.
It's working out ok where I live. The cable guys and the phone company (ADSL) compete with each other enough that you can get pretty high-speed unlimited-use internet for a decent price. It sounds to me, though, like there are other places (presumably still with a "Free Market") where nobody is stepping in to provide the services people are looking for.
See, now... I'm actually willing to pay more for a new game, even if it's available used. I went to buy Soul Calibur 3 a month or so after it came out, and I had a hard time convincing the EB guy that I really did want to pay $10 more to have it in the original shrink wrap and without the annoying EB stickers.
But from the retailer's perspective, I can definitely see the allure. They get to profit on one copy of a game, twice! It's like magic money. And most people aren't like me; as long as it works, they'd rather pay less for something. So I guess the video game industry may have a good reason to worry.
I was watching the morning news the other day, and their tech guy was showing off something that sounds a lot like what was described in the summary. It was a little handheld gizmo with no fancy motors or mysterious CCD sensors (whatever those might be). It used GPS and gyroscopes to figure out what star it was looking at, and it'd tell the user. From what the guy on the news said, it seemed like a device that would sell for under $2000 CAD. Possibly less than $1000, depending on how big of an operation was manufacturing them, and the quality of the parts.
If you have broadband, it's faster than installing from CDs. It's certainly more convenient.
Also, this is nowhere near the point, but most gamers have surprisingly large amounts of free time.
Yeah. The "bullshit" he's talking about consists of "clicking on the game" and "waiting." It's highly technical and complex.
This is the recording industry. "Distributing the money fairly" isn't a huge concern of theirs.
I think it depends on what your content is. If you're running a movie theatre and you post your show times on the web, then having an easily-accessible mobile version of that is going to do wonders. Note: easily accessible! No several-links-deep crap. Mobile browsing is way too slow for that. Users need to be able to set a bookmark on their phone that goes right to the page with the movie times.
On the other hand, if your web site advertises your car dealership or something, it may be less important. You could still find good uses for a mobile site, but it would be used much less frequently.
Basically, if you expect that a large number of people will often want to check a small amount of frequently-changing information on your site, I think it's stupid NOT to make a mobile version of that. Otherwise, there may be benefits, but they'll likely be minor and may not be worth the effort.
Why exactly do you think that "episodic content" means "as soon as the first one ceases to entertain me, the next one should be ready"? Nothing else works like that.
The word "episode" is most commonly associated with TV shows. One of those lasts an hour at most, and then you have to wait a whole week (or more) for another one.
A series of novels is also "episodic content." You've heard of Harry Potter? Most people who read that finish one novel several months before the next one comes out. Many people are done one years before the next one. But they still want to read the next one when it's available. Weird.
Also, many video games are already episodic to some degree. Half-Life 2 was like a second "episode" to Half-Life. Did everybody say, "What? I finished Half-Life years ago! Why would I want more of that crap now?"
No. They didn't say that. They bought the game in droves.
These guys are just talking about making smaller games and pumping out sequels faster. Possibly even planning for the sequels in advance, which would be kind of fantastic. It's a cool idea.
Well, yeah. That's exactly what we're looking at. Somebody at Blizzard has come up with the idea that if they don't let you talk about your sexual orientation, nobody will persecute you for it... so they don't have to worry about dealing with the fallout later.
I assume that the way they're looking at it goes something like, "If someone started a 'heterosexual-friendly' guild, we wouldn't allow that under our harrassment policy, so how is this different?"
And, of course, you want to say that it's different because the GLBT community (is it really only 4 letters now?) are the ones being persecuted, and Blizzard is, in a way, persecuting them to prevent their future persecution. Which is clearly crazy.
Personally, I look at the whole thing, and I can see why everyone's doing everything they're doing, and I just wish that the world was such that the GLBT people didn't feel like they needed a special guild where they'd feel safe.