I always hated these, because to me it makes no sense to read but not do steps 1-4, and then to read and execute step 5 or 6. Therefore after reading them, you SHOULD go back and start executing the steps in order, 2-4 occur before they are negated, the 5 tells you to stop, and then you finish.
Of course, I get the point of the test. But it's like some guy on the internet playing teacher correcting your spelling while making god awful grammatical errors.
Article is horribly misrepresenting the Korean supreme court ruling.
It claimed such an exchange was not criminal. It did not: -Create any kind of exchange between virtual/real currencies. -Create any kind of obligation on gaming companies to be accountable to player's virtual bank accounts. -Negate the EULAs of the majority of games which state RMT is a violation of your use of their services and will result in your account being banned from their servers.
In other words, Bliz can continue to cancel your WOW account, they just can't arrest you. In Korea.
1. Passengers are babied all to hell: no sharp objects, no guns, nothing remotely close to looking like an explosive. Stick an air marshall or two on board to keep the peace or prevent some kung fu Al Qeada guy from stealing the plane.
2. F-all: let the passengers carry on board their guns, toothpaste, and laptops. Inform them ahead of time that the airplane will be equiped with a fail safe that can be remote detonated if the plane becomes hijacked and on board personel are unable to regain control.
2+: Get 20 Al Qeada cells to simultaneously hijack the same plane, and be sure to youtube it before detonating the device in 2.
I think the scare is that, upon seeing enough tests or real notifications of emergencies, a child may be more likely to perceive an in-game alert/scenario as real.
This will only be compounded by the fact that video game makers somehow insist on the doctrine of realism, so once we get a standardized alert message/sound/format you bet your ass they'll copy it as close as legally possible for in game alerts.
I have to agree: its fair. By the time the casino has determined you're counting cards, you've already gone home with some of their money.
It'd be no different than if you were really good at those crane operator games, and after 10 or 15 animals the vendor came over and asked you to give it a rest. The costs to play are balanced against not everyone winning: if he has to account for you winning everytime then he's got to charge people at least the cost of the prize for each play, or go out of business.
Similarly, for casinos to allow card counting and maintain blackjack as a profitable game, they would have to find some other way to create profit: start only playing 90% of winnings, give the dealer more leeway on choosing to hit/stand, etc. Casino's don't want to do that and penalize the people there to play for fun, they'd rather just remove the small portion of the crowd that could feasibly and predictably milk money off them.
I know in Virginia laws were passed recently making this illegal as well, though I'm not sure the same stiff penalties are put into place. But the point's the same: if you can't be bothered to keep your hands on the wheel while driving a car, you don't deserve to drive; further if you hurt someone through such reckless irresponsibility, the consequences should be no different than recklessly shooting a gun in a public area.
I'd say that's a perfect example. 50+ % failure should be unacceptible. Its why back in the days of choosing between a SNES and a Sega Genesis, I went with the genesis: years of NES cartiges and units that would perpetually fail turned me off to their entire franchise all the way to the Wii.
And even now, they are SELLING an attachment that attempts to fix the crap motion sensor in the WiiMote.
And it's why I'll not buy a Ford or a Dodge product anytime soon.
And get them to actually send correspondence there. (That's the office of the FCC, and my first choice anytime a spammer would like my mailing address.)
Are you sure there are no patents on this "string" technology? It's not immediately obvious where you'd tie it to. Perhaps we could emulate this by just leaving the thing connected to its wall charger, which kind of anchors it to the wall. But that never stops my kids from finding it.
While I agree that part of DRM should include such provisions to be fair to its users, in reality we see DVDs and game code released to pirates/torrent sites even before the release of the retail product. I cannot image Blizzard successfully developing such a code and it not immediately becoming available to anyone with a torrent stream, at which point you hit the brick wall of "The pirates get a better game than the customers".
What we learn from this I think is that although the DO NOT CALL registry is a nice gesture, it's completely lacking in teeth. It should not take two years to catch up to these guys, not in an age where we pretty much get to put up with the NSA spying on anyone they want. An 11,000 dollar fine is not a deterent to a group that believes they are going to take the money and flee the country or otherwise evade prosecution.
The structure is supported by blowing air through it, and extends all the way into space?
Won't the aliens swoop by years from now laughing that our planet self annihilated not through proliferation of nuclear weapons, but because some idiot blew all the air out a straw?
Unfortunately, this isn't always true with package deals. For example, Valve had a promo running for 9.99 for the complete orange box, but it contained the caveat that only the HL2 elements could be regifted. I would have paid it just for portal, but on principle think they're just being cheap bastards at that point. Would have liked to be able to regift the TF2 piece since I already own that.
I'm disappointed with their decision to launch into l4d 2 so quickly - the original game is a blast, but with only 4 campaigns I would have assumed a 50 dollar title (now 40) would have enjoyed more expansion similar to TF2. Now it's pretty obvious with the sequel less than a year away that original l4d players have been flagshipped - sold a product on the promise of expasion, then left in the dust once the corporation has their money.
This makes no sense. Why not pay the 20 bucks for an instant find, instead of what was clearly more than 20 bucks for several police officers to meandor about trying to find him?
Not sure how I feel about Verizon on this one - it's no less reasonable to expect police to pay for an account to turn it on than if the police had come in and requested a phone for themselves. But the police themselves in this case were idiots.
This is true, and they remain blameless up until the point they either
1. Pay lobbyists andor Congress to advocate laws creating those tax loopholes, or 2. Write open letters to Congress QQing that they no longer get to enjoy a 2.3% tax rate while the rest of us donate a third or more to uncle sam.
In my opinion, companies sending jobs overseas (that includes military and reconstruction ventures) are the root cause of the US economy being in the shitter. The housing bubble is just speculation and good marketing managing to hide the ugly truth for a couple years. If you circulate all you money within your own economy, someone still has dollars to spend and the cycle continues. When we send it all overseas, the country piggy bank dries up. I therefore have no pity for companies that claim they won't be able to make it if we levy on them the same taxes every US based company currently operates under. They can adapt, or get the **ck out - there's plenty of other companies that would love to take the market share.
My personal rationalization is that I'm undermining the video game industry in the hopes of contributing to its eventual demise, so that my children will of their own accord once more see the light of day.
Actually, most of what I "pirate" gets deleted within 72 hours of installation, because the game sucks.
I'm glad to see the FO franchise moving again (lets not forget how much crying happened for FO3 after the successful but unfollowed FO2). But isn't it kind of stifling to creativity to just push out a sequel 2 years later that already is promising to be more of the same?
Yea, I realise plot wise the game jumps the shark too early to really continue the story of that main character, and kudos for not trying (many a bad movie/game have been the result of thinking success = must need a sequel). But I really don't see myself playing another 10-20 hours of VATS. Unless they finally make a multiplayer option (and good luck incorporating VATS into that).
"So, even then, Government is too easily corrupted. Unfortunately, I don't have a better idea."
I do. You have to take the law back to principles, rather than specifics. Here's a few many of you are familiar with:
THOU SHALT NOT KILL. THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.
Therefore, undisclosed mercury in Tuna and defrauding an energy subsidy as a paper mill would be considered BREAKING THE LAW.
While we're at it, I have another recommendation. Since waterboarding is simply "enhanced interrigation", I'd suggest it should be a viable questioning technique for these types of white collar crimes. I have a strange belief system where if someone elses' countrymen are trying to kill me, I can at least see they were raised and taught that way. When my OWN countryman are trying to kill me, they should be punished ten times worse.
"In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy,... Many types of unsecured debt are legally discharged by the bankruptcy proceeding, but there are various types of debt that are not discharged in a Chapter 7. Common exceptions to discharge include... fines and restitution imposed by a court for any crimes committed by the debtor...." - Wikipedia, the same article you cited...
IANAL, but I'd recommend reconsidering your legal strategy.
Re:Steam pricing is the weak point
on
The Age of Steam
·
· Score: 1
1. Production costs do influence how much an item is sold for. It's what makes software piracy rampant - what makes it work. Short of the arbitrary copyright laws, the sheer means to reproduce software is readily available to every computer user and effectively costs nothing. The only game titles that have managed to score more than 50-60 dollars a copy are the subscription based MMOs which, because they maintain massive server banks to sustain the persistent world, have higher production costs.
2. Demand plays an equal role in pricing. People will pay for convenience - indeed it's what makes business work. I recently paid 5 bucks for a key instead of 1.50, so that the guy would make the key for me. Ultimately the time he saved me was worth more than the 3.50. Likewise, if steam can save me a 30 minute trip to the store, and insure my purchase against loss if my hardware fails / physical media is lost/damaged, it'd be worth an extra buck or two. And often times, if you're patient, they run sales like any retailer.
The only real danger with Steam is that if your computer is compromised, it's one more pain in the ass thing someone may be able to steal from you. But TBH, if my computer is compromised I'm more worried about my bank info then my copy of TF2.
"For the past several months, Microsoft has engaged in an extended public mea culpa about Vista..."
An extended public mea culpa would look like this:
"We realise Vista didn't live up to expectations, and as a result we're offering all Vista users a free upgrade to Windows 7, where we plan to deliver on the promises we tied to Vista."
Instead, what we got was basically the exact same acknowledgement that the current version had some ugly flaws, followed by a shameless self plug for the next iteration of software. Windows ME/XP anyone? You don't have to follow MS very long to find the pattern.
The biggest problem I have with Vista though is scalability. It runs FANTASTIC on my laptop with 4 gigs of ram. It blew chunks on my wife's laptop with 1 gig of ram. And there's no option to just say "Give me what I had with XP, that's what I have hardware enough to run". At least not one that works.
From what I've heard of the story, that 6 year old made it 9 miles before wrecking the car. I have to grant kudos - my first learning drive at 15 I whacked a mirror within less than 9 miles.
To be honest, you can't ask much more of a video game for giving your kid a fighting chance.
Slashdot Mirror
I always hated these, because to me it makes no sense to read but not do steps 1-4, and then to read and execute step 5 or 6. Therefore after reading them, you SHOULD go back and start executing the steps in order, 2-4 occur before they are negated, the 5 tells you to stop, and then you finish.
Of course, I get the point of the test. But it's like some guy on the internet playing teacher correcting your spelling while making god awful grammatical errors.
In conclusion, pedantic lessons suck.
Article is horribly misrepresenting the Korean supreme court ruling.
It claimed such an exchange was not criminal.
It did not:
-Create any kind of exchange between virtual/real currencies.
-Create any kind of obligation on gaming companies to be accountable to player's virtual bank accounts.
-Negate the EULAs of the majority of games which state RMT is a violation of your use of their services and will result in your account being banned from their servers.
In other words, Bliz can continue to cancel your WOW account, they just can't arrest you. In Korea.
-.-
Offer two kinds of flights.
1. Passengers are babied all to hell: no sharp objects, no guns, nothing remotely close to looking like an explosive. Stick an air marshall or two on board to keep the peace or prevent some kung fu Al Qeada guy from stealing the plane.
2. F-all: let the passengers carry on board their guns, toothpaste, and laptops. Inform them ahead of time that the airplane will be equiped with a fail safe that can be remote detonated if the plane becomes hijacked and on board personel are unable to regain control.
2+: Get 20 Al Qeada cells to simultaneously hijack the same plane, and be sure to youtube it before detonating the device in 2.
1980s: Damnit people, stop fucking. We have too many damn people!
2009: Damnit people, stop whacking off. We need more people!
Make up your damn mind, China.
I think the scare is that, upon seeing enough tests or real notifications of emergencies, a child may be more likely to perceive an in-game alert/scenario as real.
This will only be compounded by the fact that video game makers somehow insist on the doctrine of realism, so once we get a standardized alert message/sound/format you bet your ass they'll copy it as close as legally possible for in game alerts.
Is it any wonder why people can steal, deny profits, violate copyrights, or whatever else you want to call it: and people just don't care?
I have to agree: its fair. By the time the casino has determined you're counting cards, you've already gone home with some of their money.
It'd be no different than if you were really good at those crane operator games, and after 10 or 15 animals the vendor came over and asked you to give it a rest. The costs to play are balanced against not everyone winning: if he has to account for you winning everytime then he's got to charge people at least the cost of the prize for each play, or go out of business.
Similarly, for casinos to allow card counting and maintain blackjack as a profitable game, they would have to find some other way to create profit: start only playing 90% of winnings, give the dealer more leeway on choosing to hit/stand, etc. Casino's don't want to do that and penalize the people there to play for fun, they'd rather just remove the small portion of the crowd that could feasibly and predictably milk money off them.
I know in Virginia laws were passed recently making this illegal as well, though I'm not sure the same stiff penalties are put into place. But the point's the same: if you can't be bothered to keep your hands on the wheel while driving a car, you don't deserve to drive; further if you hurt someone through such reckless irresponsibility, the consequences should be no different than recklessly shooting a gun in a public area.
I'd say that's a perfect example. 50+ % failure should be unacceptible. Its why back in the days of choosing between a SNES and a Sega Genesis, I went with the genesis: years of NES cartiges and units that would perpetually fail turned me off to their entire franchise all the way to the Wii.
And even now, they are SELLING an attachment that attempts to fix the crap motion sensor in the WiiMote.
And it's why I'll not buy a Ford or a Dodge product anytime soon.
Ten points if your tell them your address is
445 12th Street SW
Washington, DC 20554
And get them to actually send correspondence there.
(That's the office of the FCC, and my first choice anytime a spammer would like my mailing address.)
Are you sure there are no patents on this "string" technology? It's not immediately obvious where you'd tie it to. Perhaps we could emulate this by just leaving the thing connected to its wall charger, which kind of anchors it to the wall. But that never stops my kids from finding it.
While I agree that part of DRM should include such provisions to be fair to its users, in reality we see DVDs and game code released to pirates/torrent sites even before the release of the retail product. I cannot image Blizzard successfully developing such a code and it not immediately becoming available to anyone with a torrent stream, at which point you hit the brick wall of "The pirates get a better game than the customers".
What we learn from this I think is that although the DO NOT CALL registry is a nice gesture, it's completely lacking in teeth. It should not take two years to catch up to these guys, not in an age where we pretty much get to put up with the NSA spying on anyone they want. An 11,000 dollar fine is not a deterent to a group that believes they are going to take the money and flee the country or otherwise evade prosecution.
Alright, lemme get this straight:
The structure is supported by blowing air through it, and extends all the way into space?
Won't the aliens swoop by years from now laughing that our planet self annihilated not through proliferation of nuclear weapons, but because some idiot blew all the air out a straw?
Unfortunately, this isn't always true with package deals. For example, Valve had a promo running for 9.99 for the complete orange box, but it contained the caveat that only the HL2 elements could be regifted. I would have paid it just for portal, but on principle think they're just being cheap bastards at that point. Would have liked to be able to regift the TF2 piece since I already own that.
I'm disappointed with their decision to launch into l4d 2 so quickly - the original game is a blast, but with only 4 campaigns I would have assumed a 50 dollar title (now 40) would have enjoyed more expansion similar to TF2. Now it's pretty obvious with the sequel less than a year away that original l4d players have been flagshipped - sold a product on the promise of expasion, then left in the dust once the corporation has their money.
This makes no sense. Why not pay the 20 bucks for an instant find, instead of what was clearly more than 20 bucks for several police officers to meandor about trying to find him?
Not sure how I feel about Verizon on this one - it's no less reasonable to expect police to pay for an account to turn it on than if the police had come in and requested a phone for themselves. But the police themselves in this case were idiots.
This is true, and they remain blameless up until the point they either
1. Pay lobbyists andor Congress to advocate laws creating those tax loopholes, or
2. Write open letters to Congress QQing that they no longer get to enjoy a 2.3% tax rate while the rest of us donate a third or more to uncle sam.
In my opinion, companies sending jobs overseas (that includes military and reconstruction ventures) are the root cause of the US economy being in the shitter. The housing bubble is just speculation and good marketing managing to hide the ugly truth for a couple years. If you circulate all you money within your own economy, someone still has dollars to spend and the cycle continues. When we send it all overseas, the country piggy bank dries up. I therefore have no pity for companies that claim they won't be able to make it if we levy on them the same taxes every US based company currently operates under. They can adapt, or get the **ck out - there's plenty of other companies that would love to take the market share.
Selling's legal.
Fucking's legal.
Why isn't selling fucking legal?
Thank you internets, for bringing this time old question back in yet a new way.
Brutally correct.
My personal rationalization is that I'm undermining the video game industry in the hopes of contributing to its eventual demise, so that my children will of their own accord once more see the light of day.
Actually, most of what I "pirate" gets deleted within 72 hours of installation, because the game sucks.
"Lost sale"? Sure. Hard feelings? None.
I'm glad to see the FO franchise moving again (lets not forget how much crying happened for FO3 after the successful but unfollowed FO2). But isn't it kind of stifling to creativity to just push out a sequel 2 years later that already is promising to be more of the same?
Yea, I realise plot wise the game jumps the shark too early to really continue the story of that main character, and kudos for not trying (many a bad movie/game have been the result of thinking success = must need a sequel). But I really don't see myself playing another 10-20 hours of VATS. Unless they finally make a multiplayer option (and good luck incorporating VATS into that).
"So, even then, Government is too easily corrupted. Unfortunately, I don't have a better idea."
I do. You have to take the law back to principles, rather than specifics. Here's a few many of you are familiar with:
THOU SHALT NOT KILL.
THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.
Therefore, undisclosed mercury in Tuna and defrauding an energy subsidy as a paper mill would be considered BREAKING THE LAW.
While we're at it, I have another recommendation. Since waterboarding is simply "enhanced interrigation", I'd suggest it should be a viable questioning technique for these types of white collar crimes. I have a strange belief system where if someone elses' countrymen are trying to kill me, I can at least see they were raised and taught that way. When my OWN countryman are trying to kill me, they should be punished ten times worse.
"In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, ... Many types of unsecured debt are legally discharged by the bankruptcy proceeding, but there are various types of debt that are not discharged in a Chapter 7. Common exceptions to discharge include ... fines and restitution imposed by a court for any crimes committed by the debtor. ..." - Wikipedia, the same article you cited...
IANAL, but I'd recommend reconsidering your legal strategy.
1. Production costs do influence how much an item is sold for. It's what makes software piracy rampant - what makes it work. Short of the arbitrary copyright laws, the sheer means to reproduce software is readily available to every computer user and effectively costs nothing. The only game titles that have managed to score more than 50-60 dollars a copy are the subscription based MMOs which, because they maintain massive server banks to sustain the persistent world, have higher production costs.
2. Demand plays an equal role in pricing. People will pay for convenience - indeed it's what makes business work. I recently paid 5 bucks for a key instead of 1.50, so that the guy would make the key for me. Ultimately the time he saved me was worth more than the 3.50. Likewise, if steam can save me a 30 minute trip to the store, and insure my purchase against loss if my hardware fails / physical media is lost/damaged, it'd be worth an extra buck or two. And often times, if you're patient, they run sales like any retailer.
The only real danger with Steam is that if your computer is compromised, it's one more pain in the ass thing someone may be able to steal from you. But TBH, if my computer is compromised I'm more worried about my bank info then my copy of TF2.
"For the past several months, Microsoft has engaged in an extended public mea culpa about Vista..."
An extended public mea culpa would look like this:
"We realise Vista didn't live up to expectations, and as a result we're offering all Vista users a free upgrade to Windows 7, where we plan to deliver on the promises we tied to Vista."
Instead, what we got was basically the exact same acknowledgement that the current version had some ugly flaws, followed by a shameless self plug for the next iteration of software. Windows ME/XP anyone? You don't have to follow MS very long to find the pattern.
The biggest problem I have with Vista though is scalability. It runs FANTASTIC on my laptop with 4 gigs of ram. It blew chunks on my wife's laptop with 1 gig of ram. And there's no option to just say "Give me what I had with XP, that's what I have hardware enough to run". At least not one that works.
From what I've heard of the story, that 6 year old made it 9 miles before wrecking the car. I have to grant kudos - my first learning drive at 15 I whacked a mirror within less than 9 miles.
To be honest, you can't ask much more of a video game for giving your kid a fighting chance.