The roads around New York City are complete and utter garbage. I suppose part of the problem is the heavy usage in addition to harsh winters. Nevertheless, I can't help but think that the city is extremely negligent in road maintenance. And that's not to mentioned that I think whoever designed those roads was mentally challenged.
A good portion of I95 through most of Connecticut was paved not too long ago, within the last 10 or 15 years and there are already ruts being formed because of the bigger trucks. Everyone knows this region is heavily travelled yet they cut corners and use low grade materials. In Fairfield county they spend years upgrading the highway and when it's not quite done they go and tear up the road again for new construction.
Then there's the big dig in Boston which other than bConsidering the way they speing absurdly over-budget and far behind schedule also seems to have increased traffic congestion, or at least it hasn't helped much at all. And those roads there are crap despite being new.
These states seem to have no consistent policy on road maintenance. They're poorly organized and they don't spend money wisely. They constantly let themselves be screwed by construction companies. Then there's the problem with unions, a bunch of guys sitting on their asses doing not much of anything. Every time I pass a construction zone every time I see someone working I see two to three other guys standing around watching them.
Up in Massachusets near New Hampshire some company was upgrading a stretch of highway. The work never ended because the company was trying to squeeze as much money out of the project as possible. The state finally wised up and threatened to fine them if they didn't complete by a certain date. What they should have done is fired the company and striped them of ther construction license.
You should see the roads in Japan. Smooth as glass and the road markings are all fairly pristine. And in areas of heavy snow there are actually spots where the road is heated to prevent ice buildup. Not only do they have a clear policy for road maintenance but they also have guidelines for snow removal.
We have to deal with a bunch of inept idiots in the US. And what's appalling is how they handle budgets, at least in Connecticut. The state assigns a budget for the year and if a locality doesn't use up that money they are penalized meaning they get even less than they spent the following year. Essentially the government is encouraged to throw money away. Although that's rarely a problem. Even when we get a considerably milder winter than expected somehow most towns manage to go signficantly over-budget.
It's depressing. I don't think there's much to celebrate given how pathetic the highway system is in many parts of the country.
As awesome as that is, from a visual standpoint I can't help but think it's nothing more than a gimmick. One of the big reasons I see for GUIs and other computer interfaces is specifically to avoid the clutter a user gets from a physical desktop. Users manage to make a huge mess of desktops even today, now imagine building a mess in 3D.
I can't identify any individual icon. All I see in that demo are piles of nameless PDFs. So I can group them into a neat stack, how has that helped productivity? The next time I need to access one of those files I'm going to have to tear down that tower to find the file I want. It's not like anyone spends nearly that much time on the desktop anyway.
There's a reason some people still use a command prompt. A keyboard is still more efficient than a mouse. I have an application running on my Mac at work called Quicksilver. I hit the appropriate F-key, and up comes a window with a with a prompt. I start typing the name of the application I want, hit enter and that applications opens right up. It's quicker than any alternative I've used this far.
If you're going to exploit 3D at least do something truly innovative. Don't confine yourselfs to the limitations of existing interfaces. I don't want to go on a voyage when I browse through my files. I want something that responds instantaneous, organizes things logically, and is intuitive. If it works better in 2D then make it 2D.
These guys need to stop thinking of the GUI like a game. And they need to get past the traditional layout. It seems like everyone working with 3D is obsessed with mimicing real life. Eye candy is great, but there's already too much of it out there. I want something that works.
Regardless of what Apple's marketing team tries to imply that camera is clearly build into the shell with the lens peaking through an opening above the monitor.
I know Apple likes to make their technology sound like it's more advanced than it really is, but rest assured that the display itself doesn't have a camera built in.
Clearly someone at Microsoft severely fucked up if people are finding it necessary to modify their XBox 360's just so they don't overheat.
Just because someone did the mod doesn't mean that it was necessary. Look at all the effort people put into things that are completely unnecessary. People have modified Nintendo consoles as well, does it mean they also screwed up?
A key problem here was how Microsoft handled the marketing. This was essentially an effort by Microsoft to create acceptance for small tablet PCs. This is basically round 2 in the marketing effort. But they sold it like it was going to be something new and innovative, which it certainly wasn't.
I recently got a used Sony Vaio U70, through work. The thing is essentially identical to these current Origami PCs. It has a 1ghz Pentium M processor, 512mb of RAM and a basic Intel 3D card. I get about hour and a half of battery life if I'm using the thing continuously.
I think these devices are great. I like having what is essentially a complete PC I can easily carry around anywhere. However, there are a few glaring issues.
The first is the screen. Everyone who's seen it is shocked by how tiny everything looks. The display is 5 inches diagonally, but its running at 800x600. The real culprit is Windows, which isn't really designed to accomodate these displays. I suppose Origami was supposed to help, but I doesn't seem like it has.
The second problem is text input. A seperate keyboard is cumbersome; it can't be used with the device anywhere other than on a desk. Integrated keyboards are better, but still too small to be used quickly and reliably. Then there's handwriting which is decent, but I think too slow compared to typing.
One other thing is battery life. I agree that these devices should be able to run a good eight hours. Maybe the newer units have improved, but mine won't go very far on a long flight. Although, even three hours isn't very good. It's fine for a commute, but not for travelling at least not until you're at your destination.
Ultimately, the problem is that these things are useless for the majority of the population. If you commute via public transportation or travel a lot I do think these devices are ideal. They're more portable than laptops and are powerful enough to do anything most people need them for. They wont run the latest games, but that's about the only drawback.
To become a realistic desktop replacement I they need to be significantly more powerful. But I do think it's very appealing to be able to disconnect the PC from it's docking bay and easily carry it around the house, or stuff it in a small backpack and take it with me. The thing is small enough that I barely notice it.
I think the technology just needs time to be refined.
On, the other hand, I believe the 360 has at this point sold ~3.5 million units. That's 1.75 million gallons of gas a year. That is a lot of gas, no matter how you look at it. Now, fast forward a year after the PS3 has come out. Say, 15 million units sold between them. 7.5 million gallons of gas is worth noticing.
It certainly is worth noting. However, electricity normally isn't generated using gasoline or even petroleum. Although I agree that these systems should be more energy efficient electricity is generated from a multitude of resources, many of which are generally clean and renewable.
It's safe to assume these DS Lite's won't be showing up on eBay. And if they do, these guys aren't stupid, they'll be selling them from various nations around southeast Asia. It's also very likely the units have been sent back into China as well and are being sold through local markets. Unless someone makes the mistake of drawing too much attention to themselves it's not too likely they'll be discovered. I'd be surprised if the units were still in Hong Kong.
I read a story quite a few years ago about car thefts in Hong Kong. Thieves would steal high end cars, load them up on speedboats the same night and ship them off to clients. By the time the owner discovered the car was missing the car was already in another country, assuming it hadn't been cut to peices for parts.
If they put that much effort into a legitimate business I have to imagine they'd be quite successful.
They might as well rename the damn game Duke Nukem Never. The only reason I can think of why this freaking game is still being worked on is because it's someone's pet. The rest of the team doesn't want to touch the game but they need to keep someone in management happy.
What interest there was in the Duke Nukem brand has long since evaporated. The game likely wont sell on name alone, and if the graphics are outdated which they're likely to be given all the delays it will almost certainly fail.
Either that or we're looking at the best kept secret in the game industry ever. When the game is finally released its going to blow our pants off.
Its creators wanted a site to share photographs. Why should they have to accomodate anyone who doesn't want to use the site as intended? There are countless other options for sharing images other than photographs.
If I go into your house and start using your bedroom as a toilet should you be forced to accommodate me? Of course not. I'm in your house, I should abide by your rules. It's essentially the same situation here
According to the article, the mouse is not really distinguishable from previous mice by the same manufacturer, and probably not from $1 mice by $TAIWANESE_SWEATSHOP either, even though the review doesn't mention this.
Taiwan doesn't have sweatshops and they haven't had them for a few decades now. China and southeast Asia does. Get your facts straight.
Having lived there a few years makes me sensitive to these stupid comments. I don't know why people still have this impression of Taiwan. I don't see anyone referring to Korean sweatshops. Taiwan is at least as well off if not better off economically than Korea, and in terms of social responsibility they're ahead of most of Asia.
This is no surprise at all. The reality is that almost everything the developed world buys is manufactured in third world nations under generally deplorable conditions.
People want to pay as little as possible for their products and companies what to make as much profit as possible. Companies like Apple, Nike, etc. who charge a premium for their products I see as even more exploitive because they could afford to pay their workers better but apparently refuse or don't care to do so.
$150 for a sneaker that barely cost $10 to make? $3000 for a computer that costs a few hundred dollars to manufacture and is essentially no different than a PC which costs a fraction of the price. What justifies the price? The logo on the product? A designer spent a bit of extra time designing the product and someone put a little more effort into overseeing the manufacturing process.
Of course this means that Apple must have a good idea of the working conditions at the manufacturing facilities. Because they are a bit more meticulous with product development someone must have been at the factories making sure they were doing things right.
But they don't care. Why should they? The consumers don't care and they don't even want to hear about it. Even worse, in some cases people try to rationalize it. Companies will only change their habits when consumers do.
I can't help but think that if this weren't Apple people here would have been far more critical. I'm sure if it were Microsoft we were talking about no one would be showing them any mercy.
I thought I read somewhere that Sony made the same claims with the PS2 and that a big motivation behind the move was to avoid a certain type of taxation on the console in Europe.
If that's the case I can't say I blame them. It's absurd how heavily everything in Europe is taxed. It's bad enough in the US; I don't even know how people in Europe survive. And on top of that, they're constantly cutting back social services.
Ha! When was the last time Apple reduced prices on anything? Apple is still charging full price for their Power Mac G5's despite the impending introduction of Intel-based Power Macs. And they'll be the same price right up to the very last day they're sold.
I don't understand how people can be so absurdly loyal to a company that so clearly demonstrates how little it cares for its customers.
I think it's time to put the Final Fantasy series to rest. This one is going to be more of the same with fancier graphics. But it's still got the same tired gameplay, the same kind of over-used storyline and the same types of whiny, troubled characters.
The Final Fantasy games were good, but not after having been redone for the hundredth time.
They should just do one spectacular finale and leave it at that. Call it The True Final Fantasy.
A couple of weeks ago I actually sat down and really played Halo for the first time. The story was suprisingly better than I expected, but it certainly wasn't a triumph of science fiction literature. It's still a bit contrived.
What kept coming into my mind while I played the game, however, was how much better the game would have been if it weren't an FPS. The game would have been far superior presented as an adventure game with minimal gunplay. Instead a fairly simple story is drawn out and interrupted by protracted gunfights. There's little attachement to the story because most of what happens involves blowing apart anything that moves. I'm guessing it's far easier to develop an FPS than it is to have gameplay that's intertwined with a strong storyline.
It looks to me like the gaming industry is turning into the movie industry in a big way. It's only a matter of time before game developers start blaming us for poor sales claiming we're all pirates.
So video is talking about an up-coming game. A game. But instead of discussing the most integral part of a game, gameplay, not a single word is mentioned and instead they go on and on about the damn graphics. It's almost like a parody of developers today.
"Marvel at the detailed battle scars on the Master Chief's armor!"
Great, I'm sure that will comfort me when I discover that a bowel movement is more entertaining than playing this game.
The reality of the situation here is that these European nations are coming down on Apple because it's a foreign company. If Apple were European they would be happy to allow the company to conduct business as it sees fit.
However, it's an American company, and more importantly it's a popular and successful one at the expense of European competitors. Europeans want a free market, until it becomes a detriment to European companies. Then they expect their government to shield them from that same free market.
If the Europeans don't like Apple's service why doesn't someone start their own? It's as simple as that. Apple isn't forcing anyone to use iTunes.
These people really need some perspective. Let's say games contribute to a few murders every year. Of all the murders committed in the US in a year, what percentage of those were motivated by games assuming there's even a clear link? I'd venture to say it isn't even as high as 1%.
But we have this stupid jerk who's gone on a personal crusade against games. He'd better serve the public by going after crime in general. But I guess that wouldn't grab the headlines quite like his vendetta against games.
As for the police seizing games for evidence, I think thats perfectly reasonable. I expect the police to leave no stone unturned in any murder investigation.
I guess the guy needs to make comments like that in order to justify the price of the PS3. If he sincerely believes what he's saying he's deluded at best and mentally challenged at worst. Current high end PCs already outperform anything this next generation of consoles has to offer. Within a couple of years PCs will be on a whole other level. I cant even imagine what the capabilities of PCs will be at the end of the PS3's supposed 8-year lifespan.
Consoles really have turned into stripped down PCs. It's getting to the point where they're becoming irrelevant. I'm convinced that at some point there will be convergence when PCs turn into more ubiquitous, intuitive machines. It will be a general media platform and at that point a gaming console and a PC will be one and the same. I think the future for the consoles as a seperate device will be portability, like the DS. In fact, I think consoles would have disappeared long ago if it weren't for Japan.
I love how when Apple forces an upgrade on people it's called progress and considered a good thing that it doesn't have legacy support. When Microsoft does the same thing it's called anti-competitive and market manipulation.
And that's not to mention that a.1 upgrade on a Mac, comparable to me getting Service Pack 2 in XP, for free, requires I go out and purchase a new copy of Mac OS. But Apple throws in enough eye candy that people somehow feel justified in spending the money for little substance. And the worst part is that these.1 upgrades cause compatibility problems. Sooner or later you're forced to upgrade.
Apple my control a small portion of the market in comparison to Windows, but it still has a big impact. I use Macs almost exclusively at work and PCs exclusively at home. I've been forced to upgrade my Macs far more often than my Windows PCs. And I'll add that as far as stability is concerned my PCs have been more stable than my Macs and I generally use both for the same kinds of work. I've always built my own PCs, I've never been one to buy from Dell or anyone else, I don't know if that gives me an advantage, but in theory I should be more at risk for stability problems.
It's no surprise that DirectX 10 will require Vista to run given all the new features being introduced. I don't like being forced to upgrade often, but this certainly isn't a new thing. Considering that Vista is the first new OS from Microsoft in quite few years these kinds of changes aren't surprising.
What I find more troubling, and what I'm surprised no one is complaining are the increasingly absurd system requirements for the latest games. As good as Oblivion looks, I find it ridiculous that even fairly new systems struggle to run that game at a consistent framerate. It's like developers want their games to have subpar performance on current systems so that they can be perceived as next-generation games and so that they show up on benchmarks everywhere. That's a good bit of consistent, free advertising. Regardless of how good the game is, if it becomes a defining game in testing the limits of your hardware it's going to be mentioned everywhere for at least a few months.
Then there's the whole issue of developers investing all this effort into graphics and neglecting every other aspect of game developement. Oblivion looks amazing. I'll give it that. However, it also completely and utterly lacks any soul. It's obvious they created a game world based on a series of photographs. The end result is a game that has no character, no sense of creativity because they were so obsessed with just mimicking real life.
Flip through Nvidia's promotional materials and a good 75% of upcoming PC games featured are damn FPS games. And it's the same old crap too. Most of the rest are RTS with maybe a small sampling of fantasy RPGs. And with the attention Oblivion has gotten every halfwit developer out there is going to try recreate the same lush forests in their games.
People here generally love to dump on Microsoft. However Vista is nothing more than the another step in the evolution of Windows. It looks promising, but its also entirely possible it will be a disappointment. The point is that people are criticizing the system unreasonably and really missing the root of the problem here given that we're talking specifically about gaming.
Isn't the Origami just a small tablet PC running a variation of Windows XP? I have a Sony Vaio U70 from a couple of years ago that's essentially the same thing as these Origami computers and that thing has Halo installed on it. It runs quite well, I might add, except for the fact it doesn't run with some of the more advanced visual effects.
Maybe you were making a joke and I completely missed it.
The winner looks almost like the existing site but with little more than a gradient applied to the tabs. The runner up was a superior design and a more fitting evolution of the site.
In game advertising is garbage. It's nothing but yet another scheme to squeeze out every last penny from our pockets.
Companies have realized that the time is right for introducing this sort of scheme because consumers are generally the biggest suckers out there and are willing to accept anything. It's like they can't throw away their money quickly enough.
We all know that crappy ads thrust in your face every 15 seconds makes a game more immersive. I suppose some people could rationalize getting hit in the head by a baseball bat because it would make a game more immersive. Just wait until developers have to adjust content to satisfy the advertisers. "This headshot brought to you by Tampax tampons!"
People time and again forget that these people have few scruples and don't give a damn about immersion or gameplay quality. They care about one thing, revenue. When a company puts greed above all else the end result is invariably a low quality product.
I'm very pleased to see someone thinks differently. Certainly Nintendo is looking for success, but it's clear that they place great value in what they create. There's a reason why Nintendo has a very loyal fanbase.
I have one of those solar powered chargers and while I applaud the attempt at alternative energy the thing is crap.
It takes the thing 8 hours of direct sunlight to fully charge the internal battery. It requires intense sunlight and the manufacturer even recommends not putting it behind glass because it reduces efficiency.
I don't get 8 hours of direct sunlight in the winter and even when I do the light isn't sufficiently intense; it takes a good two or three days to charge the thing. And am I supposed to leave this thing sitting outside? I'm better off plugging it into an outlet and charging it that way.
There's a reason why a lot of these alternatives haven't been adopted in any significant numbers. Certainly the research must continue, but a lot of it is still quite a way off from being practical.
With all this talk of the Wii's motion sensing controller it looks like people have neglected the fact that the console will also have a conventional control pad.
And what's interesting is how closely that control pad mirrors the layout of the Playstation controller, except that it seems to be a bit more compact and certainly faithful to the look of the Wii.
One thing I've noticed about the wand is how it seems to be a bit small and some of those buttons are placed so far back on the handle that they certainly can't be easily accessed by one hand but have the chance of being pressed accidentally by the palm. Regardless, I predict the majority of Wii's games will use this controller, not the wand.
Slashdot Mirror
The roads around New York City are complete and utter garbage. I suppose part of the problem is the heavy usage in addition to harsh winters. Nevertheless, I can't help but think that the city is extremely negligent in road maintenance. And that's not to mentioned that I think whoever designed those roads was mentally challenged.
A good portion of I95 through most of Connecticut was paved not too long ago, within the last 10 or 15 years and there are already ruts being formed because of the bigger trucks. Everyone knows this region is heavily travelled yet they cut corners and use low grade materials. In Fairfield county they spend years upgrading the highway and when it's not quite done they go and tear up the road again for new construction.
Then there's the big dig in Boston which other than bConsidering the way they speing absurdly over-budget and far behind schedule also seems to have increased traffic congestion, or at least it hasn't helped much at all. And those roads there are crap despite being new.
These states seem to have no consistent policy on road maintenance. They're poorly organized and they don't spend money wisely. They constantly let themselves be screwed by construction companies. Then there's the problem with unions, a bunch of guys sitting on their asses doing not much of anything. Every time I pass a construction zone every time I see someone working I see two to three other guys standing around watching them.
Up in Massachusets near New Hampshire some company was upgrading a stretch of highway. The work never ended because the company was trying to squeeze as much money out of the project as possible. The state finally wised up and threatened to fine them if they didn't complete by a certain date. What they should have done is fired the company and striped them of ther construction license.
You should see the roads in Japan. Smooth as glass and the road markings are all fairly pristine. And in areas of heavy snow there are actually spots where the road is heated to prevent ice buildup. Not only do they have a clear policy for road maintenance but they also have guidelines for snow removal.
We have to deal with a bunch of inept idiots in the US. And what's appalling is how they handle budgets, at least in Connecticut. The state assigns a budget for the year and if a locality doesn't use up that money they are penalized meaning they get even less than they spent the following year. Essentially the government is encouraged to throw money away. Although that's rarely a problem. Even when we get a considerably milder winter than expected somehow most towns manage to go signficantly over-budget.
It's depressing. I don't think there's much to celebrate given how pathetic the highway system is in many parts of the country.
As awesome as that is, from a visual standpoint I can't help but think it's nothing more than a gimmick. One of the big reasons I see for GUIs and other computer interfaces is specifically to avoid the clutter a user gets from a physical desktop. Users manage to make a huge mess of desktops even today, now imagine building a mess in 3D.
I can't identify any individual icon. All I see in that demo are piles of nameless PDFs. So I can group them into a neat stack, how has that helped productivity? The next time I need to access one of those files I'm going to have to tear down that tower to find the file I want. It's not like anyone spends nearly that much time on the desktop anyway.
There's a reason some people still use a command prompt. A keyboard is still more efficient than a mouse. I have an application running on my Mac at work called Quicksilver. I hit the appropriate F-key, and up comes a window with a with a prompt. I start typing the name of the application I want, hit enter and that applications opens right up. It's quicker than any alternative I've used this far.
If you're going to exploit 3D at least do something truly innovative. Don't confine yourselfs to the limitations of existing interfaces. I don't want to go on a voyage when I browse through my files. I want something that responds instantaneous, organizes things logically, and is intuitive. If it works better in 2D then make it 2D.
These guys need to stop thinking of the GUI like a game. And they need to get past the traditional layout. It seems like everyone working with 3D is obsessed with mimicing real life. Eye candy is great, but there's already too much of it out there. I want something that works.
Considering the way that thing went off I'd be worried about my face.
I don't look forward to the day one explodes on a plane. I'm sure the day that happens laptops will be forever banned from airlines.
What?!
Regardless of what Apple's marketing team tries to imply that camera is clearly build into the shell with the lens peaking through an opening above the monitor.
I know Apple likes to make their technology sound like it's more advanced than it really is, but rest assured that the display itself doesn't have a camera built in.
Clearly someone at Microsoft severely fucked up if people are finding it necessary to modify their XBox 360's just so they don't overheat.
Just because someone did the mod doesn't mean that it was necessary. Look at all the effort people put into things that are completely unnecessary. People have modified Nintendo consoles as well, does it mean they also screwed up?
A key problem here was how Microsoft handled the marketing. This was essentially an effort by Microsoft to create acceptance for small tablet PCs. This is basically round 2 in the marketing effort. But they sold it like it was going to be something new and innovative, which it certainly wasn't.
I recently got a used Sony Vaio U70, through work. The thing is essentially identical to these current Origami PCs. It has a 1ghz Pentium M processor, 512mb of RAM and a basic Intel 3D card. I get about hour and a half of battery life if I'm using the thing continuously.
I think these devices are great. I like having what is essentially a complete PC I can easily carry around anywhere. However, there are a few glaring issues.
The first is the screen. Everyone who's seen it is shocked by how tiny everything looks. The display is 5 inches diagonally, but its running at 800x600. The real culprit is Windows, which isn't really designed to accomodate these displays. I suppose Origami was supposed to help, but I doesn't seem like it has.
The second problem is text input. A seperate keyboard is cumbersome; it can't be used with the device anywhere other than on a desk. Integrated keyboards are better, but still too small to be used quickly and reliably. Then there's handwriting which is decent, but I think too slow compared to typing.
One other thing is battery life. I agree that these devices should be able to run a good eight hours. Maybe the newer units have improved, but mine won't go very far on a long flight. Although, even three hours isn't very good. It's fine for a commute, but not for travelling at least not until you're at your destination.
Ultimately, the problem is that these things are useless for the majority of the population. If you commute via public transportation or travel a lot I do think these devices are ideal. They're more portable than laptops and are powerful enough to do anything most people need them for. They wont run the latest games, but that's about the only drawback.
To become a realistic desktop replacement I they need to be significantly more powerful. But I do think it's very appealing to be able to disconnect the PC from it's docking bay and easily carry it around the house, or stuff it in a small backpack and take it with me. The thing is small enough that I barely notice it.
I think the technology just needs time to be refined.
On, the other hand, I believe the 360 has at this point sold ~3.5 million units.
That's 1.75 million gallons of gas a year. That is a lot of gas, no matter how you look at it.
Now, fast forward a year after the PS3 has come out. Say, 15 million units sold between them. 7.5 million gallons of gas is worth noticing.
It certainly is worth noting. However, electricity normally isn't generated using gasoline or even petroleum. Although I agree that these systems should be more energy efficient electricity is generated from a multitude of resources, many of which are generally clean and renewable.
It's safe to assume these DS Lite's won't be showing up on eBay. And if they do, these guys aren't stupid, they'll be selling them from various nations around southeast Asia. It's also very likely the units have been sent back into China as well and are being sold through local markets. Unless someone makes the mistake of drawing too much attention to themselves it's not too likely they'll be discovered. I'd be surprised if the units were still in Hong Kong.
I read a story quite a few years ago about car thefts in Hong Kong. Thieves would steal high end cars, load them up on speedboats the same night and ship them off to clients. By the time the owner discovered the car was missing the car was already in another country, assuming it hadn't been cut to peices for parts.
If they put that much effort into a legitimate business I have to imagine they'd be quite successful.
They might as well rename the damn game Duke Nukem Never. The only reason I can think of why this freaking game is still being worked on is because it's someone's pet. The rest of the team doesn't want to touch the game but they need to keep someone in management happy.
What interest there was in the Duke Nukem brand has long since evaporated. The game likely wont sell on name alone, and if the graphics are outdated which they're likely to be given all the delays it will almost certainly fail.
Either that or we're looking at the best kept secret in the game industry ever. When the game is finally released its going to blow our pants off.
3D Realms needs to shit or get off the pot.
Why should flickr change their policy?
Its creators wanted a site to share photographs. Why should they have to accomodate anyone who doesn't want to use the site as intended? There are countless other options for sharing images other than photographs.
If I go into your house and start using your bedroom as a toilet should you be forced to accommodate me? Of course not. I'm in your house, I should abide by your rules. It's essentially the same situation here
According to the article, the mouse is not really distinguishable from previous mice by the same manufacturer, and probably not from $1 mice by $TAIWANESE_SWEATSHOP either, even though the review doesn't mention this.
Taiwan doesn't have sweatshops and they haven't had them for a few decades now. China and southeast Asia does. Get your facts straight.
Having lived there a few years makes me sensitive to these stupid comments. I don't know why people still have this impression of Taiwan. I don't see anyone referring to Korean sweatshops. Taiwan is at least as well off if not better off economically than Korea, and in terms of social responsibility they're ahead of most of Asia.
Just trying to set things straight.
This is no surprise at all. The reality is that almost everything the developed world buys is manufactured in third world nations under generally deplorable conditions.
People want to pay as little as possible for their products and companies what to make as much profit as possible. Companies like Apple, Nike, etc. who charge a premium for their products I see as even more exploitive because they could afford to pay their workers better but apparently refuse or don't care to do so.
$150 for a sneaker that barely cost $10 to make? $3000 for a computer that costs a few hundred dollars to manufacture and is essentially no different than a PC which costs a fraction of the price. What justifies the price? The logo on the product? A designer spent a bit of extra time designing the product and someone put a little more effort into overseeing the manufacturing process.
Of course this means that Apple must have a good idea of the working conditions at the manufacturing facilities. Because they are a bit more meticulous with product development someone must have been at the factories making sure they were doing things right.
But they don't care. Why should they? The consumers don't care and they don't even want to hear about it. Even worse, in some cases people try to rationalize it. Companies will only change their habits when consumers do.
I can't help but think that if this weren't Apple people here would have been far more critical. I'm sure if it were Microsoft we were talking about no one would be showing them any mercy.
I thought I read somewhere that Sony made the same claims with the PS2 and that a big motivation behind the move was to avoid a certain type of taxation on the console in Europe.
If that's the case I can't say I blame them. It's absurd how heavily everything in Europe is taxed. It's bad enough in the US; I don't even know how people in Europe survive. And on top of that, they're constantly cutting back social services.
Ha! When was the last time Apple reduced prices on anything? Apple is still charging full price for their Power Mac G5's despite the impending introduction of Intel-based Power Macs. And they'll be the same price right up to the very last day they're sold.
I don't understand how people can be so absurdly loyal to a company that so clearly demonstrates how little it cares for its customers.
I think it's time to put the Final Fantasy series to rest. This one is going to be more of the same with fancier graphics. But it's still got the same tired gameplay, the same kind of over-used storyline and the same types of whiny, troubled characters.
The Final Fantasy games were good, but not after having been redone for the hundredth time.
They should just do one spectacular finale and leave it at that. Call it The True Final Fantasy.
A couple of weeks ago I actually sat down and really played Halo for the first time. The story was suprisingly better than I expected, but it certainly wasn't a triumph of science fiction literature. It's still a bit contrived.
What kept coming into my mind while I played the game, however, was how much better the game would have been if it weren't an FPS. The game would have been far superior presented as an adventure game with minimal gunplay. Instead a fairly simple story is drawn out and interrupted by protracted gunfights. There's little attachement to the story because most of what happens involves blowing apart anything that moves. I'm guessing it's far easier to develop an FPS than it is to have gameplay that's intertwined with a strong storyline.
It looks to me like the gaming industry is turning into the movie industry in a big way. It's only a matter of time before game developers start blaming us for poor sales claiming we're all pirates.
So video is talking about an up-coming game. A game. But instead of discussing the most integral part of a game, gameplay, not a single word is mentioned and instead they go on and on about the damn graphics. It's almost like a parody of developers today.
"Marvel at the detailed battle scars on the Master Chief's armor!"
Great, I'm sure that will comfort me when I discover that a bowel movement is more entertaining than playing this game.
The reality of the situation here is that these European nations are coming down on Apple because it's a foreign company. If Apple were European they would be happy to allow the company to conduct business as it sees fit.
However, it's an American company, and more importantly it's a popular and successful one at the expense of European competitors. Europeans want a free market, until it becomes a detriment to European companies. Then they expect their government to shield them from that same free market.
If the Europeans don't like Apple's service why doesn't someone start their own? It's as simple as that. Apple isn't forcing anyone to use iTunes.
These people really need some perspective. Let's say games contribute to a few murders every year. Of all the murders committed in the US in a year, what percentage of those were motivated by games assuming there's even a clear link? I'd venture to say it isn't even as high as 1%.
But we have this stupid jerk who's gone on a personal crusade against games. He'd better serve the public by going after crime in general. But I guess that wouldn't grab the headlines quite like his vendetta against games.
As for the police seizing games for evidence, I think thats perfectly reasonable. I expect the police to leave no stone unturned in any murder investigation.
I guess the guy needs to make comments like that in order to justify the price of the PS3. If he sincerely believes what he's saying he's deluded at best and mentally challenged at worst. Current high end PCs already outperform anything this next generation of consoles has to offer. Within a couple of years PCs will be on a whole other level. I cant even imagine what the capabilities of PCs will be at the end of the PS3's supposed 8-year lifespan.
Consoles really have turned into stripped down PCs. It's getting to the point where they're becoming irrelevant. I'm convinced that at some point there will be convergence when PCs turn into more ubiquitous, intuitive machines. It will be a general media platform and at that point a gaming console and a PC will be one and the same. I think the future for the consoles as a seperate device will be portability, like the DS. In fact, I think consoles would have disappeared long ago if it weren't for Japan.
I love how when Apple forces an upgrade on people it's called progress and considered a good thing that it doesn't have legacy support. When Microsoft does the same thing it's called anti-competitive and market manipulation.
.1 upgrade on a Mac, comparable to me getting Service Pack 2 in XP, for free, requires I go out and purchase a new copy of Mac OS. But Apple throws in enough eye candy that people somehow feel justified in spending the money for little substance. And the worst part is that these .1 upgrades cause compatibility problems. Sooner or later you're forced to upgrade.
And that's not to mention that a
Apple my control a small portion of the market in comparison to Windows, but it still has a big impact. I use Macs almost exclusively at work and PCs exclusively at home. I've been forced to upgrade my Macs far more often than my Windows PCs. And I'll add that as far as stability is concerned my PCs have been more stable than my Macs and I generally use both for the same kinds of work. I've always built my own PCs, I've never been one to buy from Dell or anyone else, I don't know if that gives me an advantage, but in theory I should be more at risk for stability problems.
It's no surprise that DirectX 10 will require Vista to run given all the new features being introduced. I don't like being forced to upgrade often, but this certainly isn't a new thing. Considering that Vista is the first new OS from Microsoft in quite few years these kinds of changes aren't surprising.
What I find more troubling, and what I'm surprised no one is complaining are the increasingly absurd system requirements for the latest games. As good as Oblivion looks, I find it ridiculous that even fairly new systems struggle to run that game at a consistent framerate. It's like developers want their games to have subpar performance on current systems so that they can be perceived as next-generation games and so that they show up on benchmarks everywhere. That's a good bit of consistent, free advertising. Regardless of how good the game is, if it becomes a defining game in testing the limits of your hardware it's going to be mentioned everywhere for at least a few months.
Then there's the whole issue of developers investing all this effort into graphics and neglecting every other aspect of game developement. Oblivion looks amazing. I'll give it that. However, it also completely and utterly lacks any soul. It's obvious they created a game world based on a series of photographs. The end result is a game that has no character, no sense of creativity because they were so obsessed with just mimicking real life.
Flip through Nvidia's promotional materials and a good 75% of upcoming PC games featured are damn FPS games. And it's the same old crap too. Most of the rest are RTS with maybe a small sampling of fantasy RPGs. And with the attention Oblivion has gotten every halfwit developer out there is going to try recreate the same lush forests in their games.
People here generally love to dump on Microsoft. However Vista is nothing more than the another step in the evolution of Windows. It looks promising, but its also entirely possible it will be a disappointment. The point is that people are criticizing the system unreasonably and really missing the root of the problem here given that we're talking specifically about gaming.
Isn't the Origami just a small tablet PC running a variation of Windows XP? I have a Sony Vaio U70 from a couple of years ago that's essentially the same thing as these Origami computers and that thing has Halo installed on it. It runs quite well, I might add, except for the fact it doesn't run with some of the more advanced visual effects.
Maybe you were making a joke and I completely missed it.
The winner looks almost like the existing site but with little more than a gradient applied to the tabs. The runner up was a superior design and a more fitting evolution of the site.
In game advertising is garbage. It's nothing but yet another scheme to squeeze out every last penny from our pockets.
Companies have realized that the time is right for introducing this sort of scheme because consumers are generally the biggest suckers out there and are willing to accept anything. It's like they can't throw away their money quickly enough.
We all know that crappy ads thrust in your face every 15 seconds makes a game more immersive. I suppose some people could rationalize getting hit in the head by a baseball bat because it would make a game more immersive. Just wait until developers have to adjust content to satisfy the advertisers. "This headshot brought to you by Tampax tampons!"
People time and again forget that these people have few scruples and don't give a damn about immersion or gameplay quality. They care about one thing, revenue. When a company puts greed above all else the end result is invariably a low quality product.
I'm very pleased to see someone thinks differently. Certainly Nintendo is looking for success, but it's clear that they place great value in what they create. There's a reason why Nintendo has a very loyal fanbase.
I have one of those solar powered chargers and while I applaud the attempt at alternative energy the thing is crap.
It takes the thing 8 hours of direct sunlight to fully charge the internal battery. It requires intense sunlight and the manufacturer even recommends not putting it behind glass because it reduces efficiency.
I don't get 8 hours of direct sunlight in the winter and even when I do the light isn't sufficiently intense; it takes a good two or three days to charge the thing. And am I supposed to leave this thing sitting outside? I'm better off plugging it into an outlet and charging it that way.
There's a reason why a lot of these alternatives haven't been adopted in any significant numbers. Certainly the research must continue, but a lot of it is still quite a way off from being practical.
With all this talk of the Wii's motion sensing controller it looks like people have neglected the fact that the console will also have a conventional control pad.
And what's interesting is how closely that control pad mirrors the layout of the Playstation controller, except that it seems to be a bit more compact and certainly faithful to the look of the Wii.
One thing I've noticed about the wand is how it seems to be a bit small and some of those buttons are placed so far back on the handle that they certainly can't be easily accessed by one hand but have the chance of being pressed accidentally by the palm. Regardless, I predict the majority of Wii's games will use this controller, not the wand.