Then designing a consumer electronics device with a li-ion battery that can't be replaced by the user is a sign of either stupidity or disregard for the customer. Would this be acceptable if it were a camera or a mobile phone?
It's called 'planned obsolescence' Chester.
By making purposely disposable devices the company is engineering a recurring profit stream. 'bricked' batteries are only the most obvious aspect of this, but almost everything we buy now is designed to have a carefully limited lifespan. Even large ticket items are designed this way. Ever try and buy OEM parts for an older car? If they're even available the prices will be absurd...because you guessed it, someone wants you to scrap it and buy a new one.
With your reasoning it is perfectly reasonable to claim that sex doesn't matter as well, because after all it is natural and everyone does it, yes even 14 year olds, Oh my gosh!!!
Personally, I believe this has a lot to do with the aging of America. The same dorks that were getting wasted and making babies in the 60's are now called Senator and/or Mr. President. Bush talking about the evils of drug abuse sounds about as believable to me as Shwartzenager talking about the evils of steroid abuse.
Not quite. While I agree that this class of vehicle is more dangerous in itself (not colliding with other cars), the thing is that in a collision between a Hummer and a car, the car will still suffer most of the damage. Vehicles like that and even "regular" SUVs are a real danger on the roads. The whole thing has become a sort of arms race about whoever can feel the safest by knowing they'll "win" in the event of a collision.
I feel the safest when I can use my steering wheel to avoid things without tipping my car over.
Instead of regulating cars, how about we consider the true problem...retards who think a green flashing light on their dashboard means they are low on oil.
Since plain ol solar will never meet our energy needs,..
I wouldn't say that. Point enough satellites with solar arrays at that freaky thing we call 'The Sun', and you've got tons of energy. The problem is finding a long enough extension cord...
Yes, the PS2 is not being sold at a loss _now_. That's not so impressive considering it's been on the market for five or six years. Nintendo has profited from every GameCube sold since its inception, yet Sony lost money on every PS2 unit sold for several years. It can't be denied that Nintendo is the only truly solvent console maker. Sony and Microsoft support their console costs with their other businesses.
So the short answer=consoles intended to play 8-bit NES retreads don't cost a lot? Wow, stop the presses.
But the Revolution contoller is about immersion as much as it is about enjoyment. Instead of sending an instruction to your character to swing the sword (passive second person) you actually move your arm to swing the sword (active first person), which will make people much more interested if they actually play the game instead of watch it.
Which is great, but I suspect that a few years down the line you will a Lancet study on a whole slew of Revolution related injuries - RSI, bruises and fractures etc. - caused by a system that requires someone to wave a controller around, possibly quite forcefully.
So you're saying the same dumb fighting game where 2 guys whale on each other will take on whole new levels of 'interaction'?
You're just thinking of making the experience harder to avoid. The real solution is forthcoming: an ad agency for the Asian firm Zik-Zak is developing one-second advertisements that embed themselves in your mind. Some argue that there is a slight risk of explosion, but this has been played down.
What exactly is innovative about the Revolution? It's a GameCube with better graphics (although, poorer graphics than either the PS3 or the X-Box 360), and a motion-sensor controller, which frankly reminds me way too much of the mercury-switch joystick I once had for my C-64.
The best general-purpose console controller is one which has very little unusual about it. Buttons and directional controls are not sexy, but they are adaptable. You can drive a car in Grand Theft Auto, or make Kasume do her little thighs-around-the-head hold in Dead or Alive with equal ease. It's pretty much the only part of game consoles which didn't need much improvement.
Actually, I would say general-purpose console controllers are one of the things that have actually gotten worse, not better. Xbox controllers have all the grace and usability of the original Dreamcast ones (ie. none at all) and Sony has replaced the most excellent dual-shock with some sort of retarded joystick/boomerang hybrid.
The revolution controller seems gimmicky but a similar design worked really well for Sony's PSX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeGcon (the NeGcon). Personally I'm looking forward to seeing it in the flesh, even if I have to put up with yet another round of recycled NES ports in place of 'real' release titles.
Art Form? Games? WTF???
Let's see:
GTA vs. the Pieta
Halo vs. Romeo and Juliet
Myst (remember that?) vs. the Sistine Chapel....
Yes, lets see. Myst..retail price $10.99, Sistine Chapel...right. There are plenty of great games written by people that cared, that you as Joe consumer can actually own, instead of possibly visit once or twice on $6k european vacations.
Sure there's plenty of crap, but that's true of art in general. Compare Picasso's early work to the crap he painted in the 1970's. For a game reference, compare Radiant Silvergun to this...http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html? SoftwareLabelID=157
Heck... Why don't you encourage a person with an MMOG addiction to meet more players like him at game conventions (like dragon con or penny arcade con) so that maybe he can meet other people that also have the same problem and he can go "Geez.. That guy is really addicted to that game... Oh wait..."
Indeed, once he meets other like minded people he'll be able to join a power guild and whore himself out for raid DKP. Not staying till 4am to finish clearing Ahn'Qiraj=not a team player?
The best part is once he loses his day job he can finally focus on what's important...item farming for rent money between raids.
In Afghanistan, the successor to the Taliban government is about to punish Abdul Rahman for the "crime" of converting from Islam to a non-Islamic religion.
I propose a swap. We exchange the spammer for Abdul Rahman.
Thoughts, anyone?
And this is somehow different from other muslim run countries? Even our buddies the Saudis do this.
Don't you think that's a bit trivial? The impact of the ability to manipulate gravity is enormous. Your comment reminds me of the guy who posted that he was looking forward to teleportation reducing his commute time.
New from the Victoria's Secret Dream Angel collection, a push up bra with embedded 'DOA' gravity controls.
I have to disagree on this one point. Too many models with those kinds of proportions...and too many girls that I see with those kinds of proportions tomake the above statement true. Is it the majority of women, no (what a shame), but there are plenty of women who fit this body mold. Nothing is wrong with it. It has always been the case - a minority of the population have a certain look that everyone drools over, and others in the population want to degrade that because they do not have it.
Luke is the last character we wanna see as an adolescent. C'mon, he was a farmer on a desert planet, snore. Even leia would be more interesting. Her dad was a senetor in the imperial senate. And anyone whos read the illustrated starwars universe knows how kickass alderran is. The character that me, and im sure everyone else would like to see grow up between epIII and IV... Boba Fett. C'mon, his father gets killed in front of him, thats gonna make for an extra angsty teen. From kid to the biggest badass in the universe. Now that would be a cool show. Not Dawsons Creek with landspeeders and Jawas like this is gonna be.
Which is cheaper? Armies of blue screen techs simulating a 'high culture' planet, or 2 camera guys following Dawson around a quarry while he pines away for his latest love interest. Right.
...What worries me much more is the obvious environmental impact. Society has made some progress over the last decade to be more "environmentally friendly" yet new directions like this one just push us ever further towards a fully "disposable society."
No, not really. In the last decade we've just moved the environmental impact to someone else's country. Every day tons of cheaply made electronics arrive by container ship, and quite a bit of our electronic 'waste' goes back the same way. Environmental legislation makes it impractical to recycle it here, but back in China thats a profitable business.
If the poor can't bootstrap themselves into being technicallay literate, then who will the Indians be able to outsource their IT work to when the time comes?
Vietnam or Korea most likely. Tough to beat $4k/year for trained IT grads, no matter what continent you're shopping on. Ethiopian kids with $100 laptops aren't even in the running.
Saturn was poorly timed and rather expensive, but mostly it was just not marketed properly outside of Japan. The Saturn was easily the best 2D performer of it's day but many of it's best titles never made it to america, including arguably the best shooter of all time. What were you thinking Sega USA?
...are animal freedom fighters! (ALF, supporters including PETA, USE TERROR TACTICS to fight for their cause... they're not labeled 'terrorists' because they're domestic not foreign?)
No company selling PVRs will ever make it easier to avoid commercials. It would be equivalent to committing corporate Hari-Kari. You cannot look the big money in the eye and stab them in the back at the same time.
In the future that may not matter as much as you think. Now that digital effects have become dirt cheap networks are supplementing their commercials with popup advertising during the show. TNT is even dubbing in sound. If it becomes simple enough for the average consumer to block the full screen commercials, you know what is coming next.
Furthermore, why aren't EVERYONE buying ferraris/lambo/porsche/etc? I mean, they want the fastest car possible right? Or why aren't every car makers putting V12 in their cars? Oh yeah, price, gas, normal usage, etc. all come into play. If you only drive to work, a ferrari isn't very useful. Sure, a speed freak/track racer might want to have the ferrari more than a ford, but then again, they are the hardcore gamers of the automotive world.
V12+Mini=death sled.
"looks like a fish, moves like a fish, steers like a cow"
Does it change the finance of the game in an undesiriable way? Certainly. Does that affect other players? Without a doubt. In a bad way? Duh. Did it require someone to modify the game's code to produce otherwise-unattainable results? No.
By that definition item duping,exploiting pathing,etc. aren't cheating either. Do you by any chance work for Blizzard/Sony?
If it wasn't cheating, Blizzard would have sold the gold to you themselves.
It's clear buying gold is not within the spirit or the intent of the game.
Conclusion:it's cheating.
It's cheating, but compared to armies of 13 year olds with hacked crossbows and 100% magic resistance(ie. Ultima Online) I'd say it's effect on the other players is pretty mild.
Why convert it at all? natural gas has been selling like hotcakes for quite some time now, it's fairly clean burning, and we use a lot of it in the wintertime.
Slashdot Mirror
It's called 'planned obsolescence' Chester.
By making purposely disposable devices the company is engineering a recurring profit stream. 'bricked' batteries are only the most obvious aspect of this, but almost everything we buy now is designed to have a carefully limited lifespan. Even large ticket items are designed this way. Ever try and buy OEM parts for an older car? If they're even available the prices will be absurd...because you guessed it, someone wants you to scrap it and buy a new one.
Personally, I believe this has a lot to do with the aging of America. The same dorks that were getting wasted and making babies in the 60's are now called Senator and/or Mr. President. Bush talking about the evils of drug abuse sounds about as believable to me as Shwartzenager talking about the evils of steroid abuse.
"I'm not in there all the time!" "Yes you are! That thing has a lifetime guarantee and you have worn it out in under 3 weeks!"
I feel the safest when I can use my steering wheel to avoid things without tipping my car over.
Instead of regulating cars, how about we consider the true problem...retards who think a green flashing light on their dashboard means they are low on oil.
I wouldn't say that. Point enough satellites with solar arrays at that freaky thing we call 'The Sun', and you've got tons of energy. The problem is finding a long enough extension cord...
So the short answer=consoles intended to play 8-bit NES retreads don't cost a lot? Wow, stop the presses.
So you're saying the same dumb fighting game where 2 guys whale on each other will take on whole new levels of 'interaction'?
In Soviet Russia the Blip-Verts watch you?
Actually, I would say general-purpose console controllers are one of the things that have actually gotten worse, not better. Xbox controllers have all the grace and usability of the original Dreamcast ones (ie. none at all) and Sony has replaced the most excellent dual-shock with some sort of retarded joystick/boomerang hybrid.
The revolution controller seems gimmicky but a similar design worked really well for Sony's PSX http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeGcon (the NeGcon). Personally I'm looking forward to seeing it in the flesh, even if I have to put up with yet another round of recycled NES ports in place of 'real' release titles.
Yes, lets see. Myst..retail price $10.99, Sistine Chapel...right. There are plenty of great games written by people that cared, that you as Joe consumer can actually own, instead of possibly visit once or twice on $6k european vacations. Sure there's plenty of crap, but that's true of art in general. Compare Picasso's early work to the crap he painted in the 1970's. For a game reference, compare Radiant Silvergun to this...http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html
Of course. Hey, aren't you part of the IRA too?
Indeed, once he meets other like minded people he'll be able to join a power guild and whore himself out for raid DKP. Not staying till 4am to finish clearing Ahn'Qiraj=not a team player?
The best part is once he loses his day job he can finally focus on what's important...item farming for rent money between raids.
And this is somehow different from other muslim run countries?
Even our buddies the Saudis do this.
New from the Victoria's Secret Dream Angel collection, a push up bra with embedded 'DOA' gravity controls.
Strange, I'm more used to seeing girls with these kinds of proportions...
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/35258
Saturn was poorly timed and rather expensive, but mostly it was just not marketed properly outside of Japan. The Saturn was easily the best 2D performer of it's day but many of it's best titles never made it to america, including arguably the best shooter of all time. What were you thinking Sega USA?
Eat
Tasy
Animals?
Why convert it at all? natural gas has been selling like hotcakes for quite some time now, it's fairly clean burning, and we use a lot of it in the wintertime.