"They don't answer to you. They do whatever the hell they want with it. Are you really that naïve? Now leave these guys alone; they make a product, that's all. It's nothing to them what happens afterward."
Attitudes like this guy's are dangerous.
I interpreted it differently. He's not saying that they only make a product, and that should be OK -- rather, he's saying that the NSA/CIA/etc don't _care_ about what happens after, because they see themselves as being harmless, as just making a product.
No doubt they need that, so they must have gotten it.
That's like saying, "No doubt they need warrants for the wiretaps, so they must have gotten them". It doesn't logically follow. We'd LIKE it to be, and it's necessary for them to be LEGAL, but it doesn't mean it necessarily happened that way.
Note: I'm not saying that the swedish police did NOT have warrants, I expect that they did as well. I'm jsut saying be careful what you assume. The occurrence of a search or wiretap does not logically imply the existence of a warrant (or the legal equivalent in $Country).
Which, IMO, is peftectly fine. I'm in the same boat. Hell, I haven't even beaten half the games I/do/ have (and i have like... 4...;)) for my gamecube.
Not trying to be pedantic, but XP doesn't come with DVD support either, unless your OEM pre-loads an MPEG2 codec onto the PC, such as WinDVD, PowerDVD etc. MPEG2 codecs aren't free on Windows.
The thing is, for Joe User, when they buy a PC with DVD player, the OEM already HAS installed all the drivers, codecs, and player tools for that hardware. Yes, drivers have to be installed, and he'll hate doing it if he reinstalls Windows himself... but most users never see that, because the OEM does it for them.. and often has a recovery CD/partition that will do it over again, too.
The hurdle for Linux is that moving to a new OS is a PAIN, whether it's windows or linux (OK no comments about OSX, hehe...), if you have to install drivers. On the whole, LInux is actually very good -- MANY things are auto-detected, and work well. However, it's the big ticket items (MP3 playing, video codecs, video card DRIVERS, wireless networking) which everyone sees, and which are immediately noticeable when they don't work right.
Yes, it's not fair that this is a hurdle for linux adoption... but that doesn't make it any less true.
What if I also include a helper script that automatically installs the modules when the user runs it?
This is certainly a violation.
And what if this script is a boot script?
Again, a certain violation.
Why are these violations? I'm reading the GPL again, so that it's fresh in my mind, but I haven't yet seen anything that these violate. I'll list the major points of the GPL and maybe that will help clarify which would be violated.
(Attribution: The following are cribbed from the GNU GPL. I trust we all have a copy handy.)
1 - " You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it..."
Since the program in question is the Kernel (right?), they are surely releasing the source code for what they received, with licenses.
2- "You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it... " 2B - "b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License."
OK, 2b looks like it could be a sticking point. However, it really seems as if the line between "copy the file off of the same CD" and "download it for you from the internet" is very thin, and I'm not sure what the conceptual difference is. Do we need to engage pedant-mode to see this? (I'm not trying to be a wiseass, really.)
However, the end of section two says, "[M]ere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License."
This seems to indicate that putting the nVidia binaries (or other closed source binaries) on the same LiveCD would NOT be a violation of the GPL, because it appears to explicitly make such an exception. If we assume that the nvidia binaries don't violate the kernel's license (and I assume they don't, or I'd have heard about it before on Slashdot;)), then including these on a CD that says, "Hey, you want me to install these for you?" seems like it shouldn't violate it either.
It seemed (to me) that what Kororaa's done is twofold. First, they included non-GPL binaries on the same CD as a GPL'ed system. This is explicitly allowed by the GPL. Secondly, they rebuild the kernel (I assume, as that is I think what I've had to do to install them? It's been a while.), modifying the GPLed kernel to link to a non-GPL driver. The result of this is a new kernel, which is GPLed. There appears tp not be any violation in this, if this is what they are doing. (Am I wrong here?)
The GPL requires that, if A is GPLed, and B is not, then A+B must be GPLed. There's no restriction that B must be GPL as well, since all concern is with the license of A. (Whether B's license is violated is a different matter.)
If I have a helper script that downloads and installs these drivers, that's not a violation of the GPL, as the result (a new kernel) can still be GPLed. (Again, we'd have heard a lot of noise if this were NOT the case.) If I have said helper script, it doesn't matter whether the origin of the non-GPLed drivers are on the same media (CD) or different (internet), per the exception in GPL section 2.
If I make the boot script, that does NOT change the licenseability of it. It can still do its work, and include licenses where needed, etc. After all, we don't get shown the licenses for everything we install or run on a LiveCD, why would this be any different?......
Now, this all depends on the result of installing a non-GPLed driver still being considered GPL-able. Now that I think about that assumption more, I might be wrong -- if a user installs it on his own system, the GPL doesn't even apply since he isn't distributing it... so I guess the question is whether the GPL can apply to the kernel after it's been rebuilt to include the non-GPL drivers. I don't see anything in the GPL that indicates that it COULDN'T be considered GPLed... what's the license of the nVidia drivers say about that?
Wow. That seems like a stunningly good idea. Wish I still had points to mod you up.
My only question is... could it have any down sides? If the class of people to distribute to is large enough, would the lawyers be able to fund themselves properly? (Probably;))
The game itself may not appeal to kids, or those who prefer nonviolence (or less violence) in videogames. That's OK. It shouldn't affect the console's sales.
Nintendo will surely be advertising the next harry potter game, or animal-crossing-ish games, etc, for other demographics.
I would love to see someone roll their own fencing simulator for the Wii.;)
6) Advanced technologically to a city based civilization 7) Interact with other civilizations on your homeworld 8) Advance to space faring race 9) Colonize and terraform other worlds
It's amazing how difficult progressing past 7 seems to be for the residents of this planet.:-( Well, sad, but maybe not surprising.
What he means was, any revolutionary will be branded by the government against which it is rebelling as a terrorist.
No government wants to publically acknowledge that someone might have a valid reason (or even a crackpot reason) for revolting. "Terrorist" is a nice big blanket term that makes people immediately think "bad guy" and "Oh, I don't want to be one of them!". It short-circuits thought.
This is actually similar to what Orwell wrote about via the "newspeak" term: By using a word incorrectly, but deliberately, we corrupt peoples' perception of the concept under discussion. (OK, that's not really all of what Orwell meant.)
For example, the RIAA calls downloading musc from other people "piracy" or "theft", when what it really is is "copyright infringement". There are no armed men with guns taking over your boat, and you are not taking away someone else's copy of their music.
Please, don't get me wrong. There are many terrorists that are exactly that. But, it's not coincidence that what one side calls "freedom fighters", the other often calls "terrorists". c.f. our support of insurgents in Afghanistan when it was allied with the Soviet Union, and we were afraid they'd turn communist.
There are now so many laws that it is literally impossible for a citizen to be 100% law-abiding. This didn't happen by chance; it's by design. The more laws (especially laws which target peaceful, non-violent individuals), the more revenue, control, and power available to those who wield the law for their own benefit.
I would love to see the parent modded up, preferably as insightful.:D If I hadn't squandered yesterday's points, I'd have done it myself...
I'm pretty certain that using slave labor was very much in the spirit of old mayan culture.;) While the egyptian pyramids were (according to some documentary I saw, lol) primarily a well funded public works project, complete with relatively advanced medical care (e.g., bone setting and surgery), I don't think that applies to the pyramids across the pond.
It would be interesting if they made it a wall of sheep (like at Defcon), but I imagine the backlash from said sheep (administration, professors, etc) would be significant.
Lisp is only useful if you're a geek or a mathemetician? Even though I'm not a lisp hacker, my first reaction is, "Awww, someone never learned how to wrap their brain around Lisp...".;) But, flames aside, let's talk about that.
Lisp is able to represent some solutions in ways that are radically different from many other languages; being able to re-write the language itself via macros sounds like it would really make describing the problem (and solving it) easier to understand and maintain.
Sure, Lisp isn't the perfect tool for everything. But, I'll assert that it's good for more than simply mathematics or pure AI research. People have build web-based applications with it, even.
I even use a lisp-derived language at work for engineering analysis, and it seems to work pretty well.
So according to that site every single jewish man must suffer from one or some of: sexual inadequacy, feelings of powerlessness, emotional states similar to rape victims, etc etc due to having been circumsized? What a crock.
Circumcision is not always done at birth for Jewish men. It is sometimes done done near the bar mitzvah, or at the time of their conversion to Judaism. As such, circumcision (for many Jews) is (or can be) a choice. While pretty much required by the religion, they do have the option to say "whoa, forget that, I'd like to keep my penis intact".
A baby has no ability to make such a choice. The "harm" that is done is that significant parts of their body are being CUT OFF, for no valid reason. It used to be that "cleanliness" was the reason -- but now that we shower every day, and actually know how to use soap, it's not a big issue.
If a religion required that they cut off the pinkie toe (who cares? it's useless anyways!), and the members started doing that to their babies, would you feel at all uncomfortable about that? How is that different from cutting off bits of sexual organs?
men who were circumcised at birth still lead normal healthy lives and still enjoy sex. Your greatest argument here seems to be about loss of some pleasurable stimulation and lubrication enhancement during sex.
From everything I've read, uncircumcised men enjoy sex more. "Loss of some pleasurable sensation" is not something that I would willingly give up, had I been given the choice. I suspect many men feel similarly.
You suggest that because the trauma was early in the baby's life, and they won't remember it, that it isn't harmful. That's similar to saying that because you beat the baby with a stick or pulled out its hairs one by one, yet it won't remember it, it's not harmful. (At least, I believe this is a similar line of reasoning, and a similar enough analogy.)
When I have children, I will make sure that they are not circumcised. Part of this is due to my mother's vivid recollection of my screams from several rooms away when I was circumcised as a baby, and her extraction of a promise not to put my kids through that. The other reason is that I see no reason to make that choice for my child. If they want to amputate parts of their penis, they are welcome to... but I'm pretty sure they will not.
And thus my proof that remembering arbitary buttons is hard for me.:D
I don't remember it as the "Y" button, for example, but rather the button I use to cast that one spell in Eternal Darkness. (OK, actually I use the D pad for most of the spells I use...;)) I remember things based on what I use them for, not based on their name or the shape of the glyph on them.
Made playing the songs in FF7 more difficult.;) (Esp since my controller had no markings on it;))
I wasn't confident enough to make such a claim, as I only own a 'Cube.:)
The only times I've played with an XBox controller was in a James Bond game... and the triggers were very intuitive, and seemed more so than the GCs. That said, in Zelda and Eternal Darkness (and even Soul Calibur II), the GC's controls felt just fine.
I haven't had extensive playtime with the PS2 controller, except for several hours with it playing Robotech, and a few hours here and there of other things my friend had (like GTA). Good, but... meh. I kept feeling lost.
I think it's mainly a game design thing. The GC games (well, not SC2;)) seem to embrace the controller more, and expect that the user is a noob for whom the controller is not yet the Extension of Will that most of the PS2 games seem to expect or require. Even the button assignment ability (such as when assigning spells in ED, or controls in NFS Underground) on the GC games usually showed an annotated diagram of either the entire controller, or of the bindable buttons. I really like this, and consider it a big usability issue not to do it.
I'd still like to play Halo on an XBox, though, and see what the hype about the controls. I'm so used to PCs though, heh... might be problematic.
I mean, like, it is sooo gay to actually point a gun-like device and shoot shit!
Please don't use "gay" as an adjective used to describe something as lame, bad, or otherwise udesireable. It dilutes the true meaning of the word. While I'm not gay, I understand that it hurts their feelings rather deeply to have themselves linked in such a way.
As a form of contrast, let me paraphrase your sentence, but also mis-use other adjectives in a similar way:
That's so gay, why would you do that? That's so gay, why would you do that? That's so blonde, why would you do that? That's so pregnant, why would you do that? That's so left-handed, why would you do that? That's so white, why would you do that? That's so balding, why would you do that? That's so long-haired, why would you do that? That's so $Religion, why would you do that? That's so $Nationality, why would you do that?
All of these represent either choices someone has made, or a state of being which is not always in the majority. Just because it's different, doesn't mean it's bad, and should NOT be used as an adjective.
Astute readers will realize that "sinister" comes from the same roots as "left handed" does, in Latin. In fact, "sinister" just means bad. It used to be that minorities such as left-handed people or redheads were feared and hated. Don't stoop to that level and use "gay" as a negative adjective.
I imagine that this post may upset some people who believe that homosexuality is a bad/immoral/unnatural choice. Regardless of whether it is, it's not the right adjective to use in this case.
Most of us abuse adjectives in this way, without really thinking about it. My mother might claim to have a "blonde moment". All I ask is that we actually think about the meanings of such things, and what they imply we believe, and then re-word accordingly.
If you have such a bad spatial sense [as to not remember where the X button is], you're probably a very bad gamer. You're probably the kind of person that have to watch the keyboard while typing.
That's a cop-out.
Once you've played with a system for long enough, you can learn where things are via muscle memory. However, for newer gamers, or those who are unfamiliar with the controller (new to that console), having buttons that are distinguishable by touch (via having different shapes or textures) can be VERY helpful in the process of training that muscle memory.
I was very happy that nearly every time WindWaker showed me a "Push this button!" dialog, it showed the shape and relative position of the botton. I couldn't remember which of the two kidney-shaped buttons was X and which was Y (well, X is the left one I think...) in the heat of the moment, it was really nice to just see, "Oh, that one".
I've played PS1 games, and FF7 on a clone PC controller (Gravis); I'd love to have had buttons that were actually different shapes, in addition to position/color differentiation.
To resort to the defense of, "If you don't have the muscle memory yet, learn to play" is to be elitist. Not everyone's played a console since they were six years old, or twelve, or twenty. "Bad gamer" is a poor choice of words. "Untrained console gamer" is probably better.
Considering "&" comes from the ligature for "et", this translates to "Howe et Ser" (howitzer). Kudos to the hackers for such excellent choice of names.
For the money you spend on the game you can buy real paint and brushes give it to your kid then depending how old they are take the leftover money and pay someone to clean up the mess
Virtual painting on the DS (or on a tablet PC, whatever) has several advantages:
- you can paint in the car - you can paint on an airplane - you can paint at grandma's house - there's no need to prepare a work area - there's no need to clean up
The fact that it's a zero-mess, completely portable solution makes it a VERY viable idea as a play option for children. Unless you want them setting up an easel in your SUV while you drive down the road...
Slashdot Mirror
"They don't answer to you. They do whatever the hell they want with it. Are you really that naïve? Now leave these guys alone; they make a product, that's all. It's nothing to them what happens afterward."
Attitudes like this guy's are dangerous.
I interpreted it differently. He's not saying that they only make a product, and that should be OK -- rather, he's saying that the NSA/CIA/etc don't _care_ about what happens after, because they see themselves as being harmless, as just making a product.
He may be right -- they might believe that.
No doubt they need that, so they must have gotten it.
That's like saying, "No doubt they need warrants for the wiretaps, so they must have gotten them". It doesn't logically follow. We'd LIKE it to be, and it's necessary for them to be LEGAL, but it doesn't mean it necessarily happened that way.
Note: I'm not saying that the swedish police did NOT have warrants, I expect that they did as well. I'm jsut saying be careful what you assume. The occurrence of a search or wiretap does not logically imply the existence of a warrant (or the legal equivalent in $Country).
Which, IMO, is peftectly fine. I'm in the same boat. Hell, I haven't even beaten half the games I /do/ have (and i have like ... 4 ... ;)) for my gamecube.
...until the prices for the new generation of consoles come down to somewhere not approaching ridiculous.
;)
For me, this translates to, "I'll be waiting a REALLY long time..."
Forget congress. Has anyone been in a Wal-Mart (or any other major store) recently!? I swear, I feel like a parody of the sixth sense.
..."
"I see fat people
You forgot to throw in the backdoor keyphrase: "child porn" ;)
... and could mod you up. Thanks.
Not trying to be pedantic, but XP doesn't come with DVD support either, unless your OEM pre-loads an MPEG2 codec onto the PC, such as WinDVD, PowerDVD etc. MPEG2 codecs aren't free on Windows.
... but most users never see that, because the OEM does it for them .. and often has a recovery CD/partition that will do it over again, too.
... but that doesn't make it any less true.
The thing is, for Joe User, when they buy a PC with DVD player, the OEM already HAS installed all the drivers, codecs, and player tools for that hardware. Yes, drivers have to be installed, and he'll hate doing it if he reinstalls Windows himself
The hurdle for Linux is that moving to a new OS is a PAIN, whether it's windows or linux (OK no comments about OSX, hehe...), if you have to install drivers. On the whole, LInux is actually very good -- MANY things are auto-detected, and work well. However, it's the big ticket items (MP3 playing, video codecs, video card DRIVERS, wireless networking) which everyone sees, and which are immediately noticeable when they don't work right.
Yes, it's not fair that this is a hurdle for linux adoption
What if I also include a helper script that automatically installs the modules when the user runs it?
;)), then including these on a CD that says, "Hey, you want me to install these for you?" seems like it shouldn't violate it either.
... ...
This is certainly a violation.
And what if this script is a boot script?
Again, a certain violation.
Why are these violations? I'm reading the GPL again, so that it's fresh in my mind, but I haven't yet seen anything that these violate. I'll list the major points of the GPL and maybe that will help clarify which would be violated.
(Attribution: The following are cribbed from the GNU GPL. I trust we all have a copy handy.)
1 - " You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's source code as you receive it..."
Since the program in question is the Kernel (right?), they are surely releasing the source code for what they received, with licenses.
2- "You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it... "
2B - "b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License."
OK, 2b looks like it could be a sticking point. However, it really seems as if the line between "copy the file off of the same CD" and "download it for you from the internet" is very thin, and I'm not sure what the conceptual difference is. Do we need to engage pedant-mode to see this? (I'm not trying to be a wiseass, really.)
However, the end of section two says, "[M]ere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License."
This seems to indicate that putting the nVidia binaries (or other closed source binaries) on the same LiveCD would NOT be a violation of the GPL, because it appears to explicitly make such an exception. If we assume that the nvidia binaries don't violate the kernel's license (and I assume they don't, or I'd have heard about it before on Slashdot
It seemed (to me) that what Kororaa's done is twofold. First, they included non-GPL binaries on the same CD as a GPL'ed system. This is explicitly allowed by the GPL. Secondly, they rebuild the kernel (I assume, as that is I think what I've had to do to install them? It's been a while.), modifying the GPLed kernel to link to a non-GPL driver. The result of this is a new kernel, which is GPLed. There appears tp not be any violation in this, if this is what they are doing. (Am I wrong here?)
The GPL requires that, if A is GPLed, and B is not, then A+B must be GPLed. There's no restriction that B must be GPL as well, since all concern is with the license of A. (Whether B's license is violated is a different matter.)
If I have a helper script that downloads and installs these drivers, that's not a violation of the GPL, as the result (a new kernel) can still be GPLed. (Again, we'd have heard a lot of noise if this were NOT the case.) If I have said helper script, it doesn't matter whether the origin of the non-GPLed drivers are on the same media (CD) or different (internet), per the exception in GPL section 2.
If I make the boot script, that does NOT change the licenseability of it. It can still do its work, and include licenses where needed, etc. After all, we don't get shown the licenses for everything we install or run on a LiveCD, why would this be any different?
Now, this all depends on the result of installing a non-GPLed driver still being considered GPL-able. Now that I think about that assumption more, I might be wrong -- if a user installs it on his own system, the GPL doesn't even apply since he isn't distributing it... so I guess the question is whether the GPL can apply to the kernel after it's been rebuilt to include the non-GPL drivers. I don't see anything in the GPL that indicates that it COULDN'T be considered GPLed... what's the license of the nVidia drivers say about that?
I was going to say that I needed your e-mail address first, but then I saw your website and realized that I no longer had that excuse.
:)
Damn. I was looking forward to buying lunch today. =/ Oh well, I appreciate your generosity.
Wow. That seems like a stunningly good idea. Wish I still had points to mod you up.
... could it have any down sides? If the class of people to distribute to is large enough, would the lawyers be able to fund themselves properly? (Probably ;))
My only question is
The game itself may not appeal to kids, or those who prefer nonviolence (or less violence) in videogames. That's OK. It shouldn't affect the console's sales.
;)
Nintendo will surely be advertising the next harry potter game, or animal-crossing-ish games, etc, for other demographics.
I would love to see someone roll their own fencing simulator for the Wii.
6) Advanced technologically to a city based civilization
:-( Well, sad, but maybe not surprising.
7) Interact with other civilizations on your homeworld
8) Advance to space faring race
9) Colonize and terraform other worlds
It's amazing how difficult progressing past 7 seems to be for the residents of this planet.
What he means was, any revolutionary will be branded by the government against which it is rebelling as a terrorist.
No government wants to publically acknowledge that someone might have a valid reason (or even a crackpot reason) for revolting. "Terrorist" is a nice big blanket term that makes people immediately think "bad guy" and "Oh, I don't want to be one of them!". It short-circuits thought.
This is actually similar to what Orwell wrote about via the "newspeak" term: By using a word incorrectly, but deliberately, we corrupt peoples' perception of the concept under discussion. (OK, that's not really all of what Orwell meant.)
For example, the RIAA calls downloading musc from other people "piracy" or "theft", when what it really is is "copyright infringement". There are no armed men with guns taking over your boat, and you are not taking away someone else's copy of their music.
Please, don't get me wrong. There are many terrorists that are exactly that. But, it's not coincidence that what one side calls "freedom fighters", the other often calls "terrorists". c.f. our support of insurgents in Afghanistan when it was allied with the Soviet Union, and we were afraid they'd turn communist.
There are now so many laws that it is literally impossible for a citizen to be 100% law-abiding. This didn't happen by chance; it's by design. The more laws (especially laws which target peaceful, non-violent individuals), the more revenue, control, and power available to those who wield the law for their own benefit.
:D If I hadn't squandered yesterday's points, I'd have done it myself ...
I would love to see the parent modded up, preferably as insightful.
I'm pretty certain that using slave labor was very much in the spirit of old mayan culture. ;) While the egyptian pyramids were (according to some documentary I saw, lol) primarily a well funded public works project, complete with relatively advanced medical care (e.g., bone setting and surgery), I don't think that applies to the pyramids across the pond.
It would be interesting if they made it a wall of sheep (like at Defcon), but I imagine the backlash from said sheep (administration, professors, etc) would be significant.
Lisp is only useful if you're a geek or a mathemetician? Even though I'm not a lisp hacker, my first reaction is, "Awww, someone never learned how to wrap their brain around Lisp...". ;) But, flames aside, let's talk about that.
Lisp is able to represent some solutions in ways that are radically different from many other languages; being able to re-write the language itself via macros sounds like it would really make describing the problem (and solving it) easier to understand and maintain.
Sure, Lisp isn't the perfect tool for everything. But, I'll assert that it's good for more than simply mathematics or pure AI research. People have build web-based applications with it, even.
I even use a lisp-derived language at work for engineering analysis, and it seems to work pretty well.
So according to that site every single jewish man must suffer from one or some of: sexual inadequacy, feelings of powerlessness, emotional states similar to rape victims, etc etc due to having been circumsized? What a crock.
Circumcision is not always done at birth for Jewish men. It is sometimes done done near the bar mitzvah, or at the time of their conversion to Judaism. As such, circumcision (for many Jews) is (or can be) a choice. While pretty much required by the religion, they do have the option to say "whoa, forget that, I'd like to keep my penis intact".
A baby has no ability to make such a choice. The "harm" that is done is that significant parts of their body are being CUT OFF, for no valid reason. It used to be that "cleanliness" was the reason -- but now that we shower every day, and actually know how to use soap, it's not a big issue.
If a religion required that they cut off the pinkie toe (who cares? it's useless anyways!), and the members started doing that to their babies, would you feel at all uncomfortable about that? How is that different from cutting off bits of sexual organs?
men who were circumcised at birth still lead normal healthy lives and still enjoy sex. Your greatest argument here seems to be about loss of some pleasurable stimulation and lubrication enhancement during sex.
From everything I've read, uncircumcised men enjoy sex more. "Loss of some pleasurable sensation" is not something that I would willingly give up, had I been given the choice. I suspect many men feel similarly.
You suggest that because the trauma was early in the baby's life, and they won't remember it, that it isn't harmful. That's similar to saying that because you beat the baby with a stick or pulled out its hairs one by one, yet it won't remember it, it's not harmful. (At least, I believe this is a similar line of reasoning, and a similar enough analogy.)
When I have children, I will make sure that they are not circumcised. Part of this is due to my mother's vivid recollection of my screams from several rooms away when I was circumcised as a baby, and her extraction of a promise not to put my kids through that. The other reason is that I see no reason to make that choice for my child. If they want to amputate parts of their penis, they are welcome to... but I'm pretty sure they will not.
And thus my proof that remembering arbitary buttons is hard for me. :D
... ;)) I remember things based on what I use them for, not based on their name or the shape of the glyph on them.
;) (Esp since my controller had no markings on it ;))
I don't remember it as the "Y" button, for example, but rather the button I use to cast that one spell in Eternal Darkness. (OK, actually I use the D pad for most of the spells I use
Made playing the songs in FF7 more difficult.
I wasn't confident enough to make such a claim, as I only own a 'Cube. :)
... and the triggers were very intuitive, and seemed more so than the GCs. That said, in Zelda and Eternal Darkness (and even Soul Calibur II), the GC's controls felt just fine.
... meh. I kept feeling lost.
;)) seem to embrace the controller more, and expect that the user is a noob for whom the controller is not yet the Extension of Will that most of the PS2 games seem to expect or require. Even the button assignment ability (such as when assigning spells in ED, or controls in NFS Underground) on the GC games usually showed an annotated diagram of either the entire controller, or of the bindable buttons. I really like this, and consider it a big usability issue not to do it.
... might be problematic.
The only times I've played with an XBox controller was in a James Bond game
I haven't had extensive playtime with the PS2 controller, except for several hours with it playing Robotech, and a few hours here and there of other things my friend had (like GTA). Good, but
I think it's mainly a game design thing. The GC games (well, not SC2
I'd still like to play Halo on an XBox, though, and see what the hype about the controls. I'm so used to PCs though, heh
I mean, like, it is sooo gay to actually point a gun-like device and shoot shit!
Please don't use "gay" as an adjective used to describe something as lame, bad, or otherwise udesireable. It dilutes the true meaning of the word. While I'm not gay, I understand that it hurts their feelings rather deeply to have themselves linked in such a way.
As a form of contrast, let me paraphrase your sentence, but also mis-use other adjectives in a similar way:
That's so gay, why would you do that?
That's so gay, why would you do that?
That's so blonde, why would you do that?
That's so pregnant, why would you do that?
That's so left-handed, why would you do that?
That's so white, why would you do that?
That's so balding, why would you do that?
That's so long-haired, why would you do that?
That's so $Religion, why would you do that?
That's so $Nationality, why would you do that?
All of these represent either choices someone has made, or a state of being which is not always in the majority. Just because it's different, doesn't mean it's bad, and should NOT be used as an adjective.
Astute readers will realize that "sinister" comes from the same roots as "left handed" does, in Latin. In fact, "sinister" just means bad. It used to be that minorities such as left-handed people or redheads were feared and hated. Don't stoop to that level and use "gay" as a negative adjective.
I imagine that this post may upset some people who believe that homosexuality is a bad/immoral/unnatural choice. Regardless of whether it is, it's not the right adjective to use in this case.
Most of us abuse adjectives in this way, without really thinking about it. My mother might claim to have a "blonde moment". All I ask is that we actually think about the meanings of such things, and what they imply we believe, and then re-word accordingly.
To do otherwise would just be left-handed.
If you have such a bad spatial sense [as to not remember where the X button is], you're probably a very bad gamer. You're probably the kind of person that have to watch the keyboard while typing.
That's a cop-out.
Once you've played with a system for long enough, you can learn where things are via muscle memory. However, for newer gamers, or those who are unfamiliar with the controller (new to that console), having buttons that are distinguishable by touch (via having different shapes or textures) can be VERY helpful in the process of training that muscle memory.
I was very happy that nearly every time WindWaker showed me a "Push this button!" dialog, it showed the shape and relative position of the botton. I couldn't remember which of the two kidney-shaped buttons was X and which was Y (well, X is the left one I think...) in the heat of the moment, it was really nice to just see, "Oh, that one".
I've played PS1 games, and FF7 on a clone PC controller (Gravis); I'd love to have had buttons that were actually different shapes, in addition to position/color differentiation.
To resort to the defense of, "If you don't have the muscle memory yet, learn to play" is to be elitist. Not everyone's played a console since they were six years old, or twelve, or twenty. "Bad gamer" is a poor choice of words. "Untrained console gamer" is probably better.
Considering "&" comes from the ligature for "et", this translates to "Howe et Ser" (howitzer). Kudos to the hackers for such excellent choice of names.
For the money you spend on the game you can buy real paint and brushes give it to your kid then depending how old they are take the leftover money and pay someone to clean up the mess
...
Virtual painting on the DS (or on a tablet PC, whatever) has several advantages:
- you can paint in the car
- you can paint on an airplane
- you can paint at grandma's house
- there's no need to prepare a work area
- there's no need to clean up
The fact that it's a zero-mess, completely portable solution makes it a VERY viable idea as a play option for children. Unless you want them setting up an easel in your SUV while you drive down the road