And you know there's only going to be so many second-chances before Apple blows it permanently and people start realizing that other companies make mp3 players, too.
What's really odd is that he thinks such a game a) doesn't already exist or b) won't come to exist unless he (lies when he says he) puts $10,000 down for it.
While the handful of vehement activists always grabs the headlines, this, as in all other media wars, has the greatest affect not on what Jack Thompson does, but on how the reports and the counter-comments affect the public. Obviously the gaming contingent of the public are pretty outraged and dismayed with Jack (although I'm still disgusted by particularly violent games, I don't think they should be censored), but the middle-dwellers are what matters. Thus far, I think the response has generally one-upped Jack in most of its rejoinders, but it has the makings of a huge mess up if gamers get too aggressive and ruin their own position.
Sometimes I find myself missing the pre-internet-boom days of floppy-disk-distributed shareware that hardly made a blip on the news media. That, and 500kb free disk space system requirements.
Very good point - But I, as I'm sure many others, am increasingly irked when I can't get the advertised price without giving them my name and address just for a card. On the other hand, I've gotten more than a few bonuses because of it - free coupons that automatically deduct, etc.
While it is no doubt important to protect your privacy, I for one am generally not only open but also proud of what I do, what information I seek and what I buy. I've never been investigated for treason, so I'm sure that makes me more open than many who have had shady run-ins with the men in black vans, but it's sort of a double-edged sword: The more you try to protect the fact that you're searching for, say, conspiracy theories or counter-reports on governmental activity, the more you give license for it to be something forced into the fringe of social discourse. But if you let it all hang out, it starts to push the envelope to include more things that are acceptable in public discussion.
My views in this situation are obviously biased towards activism-esque activity, which I think is frequently sensitive ground to tread in terms of online privacy. But I feel it's pretty applicable to almost all (reasonable) forms of online tracking.
In all fairness, yeah, most programs don't require Windows to reboot. But anything that touches start up registry values or has some sort of scheduled component requires a reboot, in my experience. And maybe my computer just needs more alone time, but it has to reboot with every windows update I get. *shrug*
Also, I meant Unix as in my Sparc workstation box - I don't have much experience with the myriad linux distros, but Solaris 8/9 has been running on a few of my boxes for months with no rebooting (except the time I dropped it pretty hard - I think it hiccupped the disk drive and the power supply, so it just kind of passed out:P).
So I'm not saying Windows loses the least-reboot competition (although I'd say it's trailing pretty far), but I am saying that some systems have been doing it for years already, and Windows needs to catch up fast if it's supposed to be a stable, robust operating system on which servers and enterprise computers can rely without fear.
The business model, at least for ABC, is to draw the *largest viewership possible* and make them sit through ads. TiVo is almost as much of a threat as bittorrent because of the capabilities of skipping commercials (although with TiVo you actually learn the commercials because you're trying to time your fastforwarding:P you're still not *as* receptive to the marketing, though).
What ABC really should do is release Lost and every other program they have in a dozen different formats and qualities and keep their commercials in it. The simplicity (they might not even use bittorent, just a straight download) and the reliability would far outweigh issue of the tiny percentage of people who download it and clip the commercials out.
Or, and I really don't like this one, keep it up with those damn annoying ads that pop up at the bottom of the screen in the middle of the show. Then you can't speed by them because it's imprinted on the content. Sleazy, but a solution nonetheless.
My conclusion? Yay for ABC, but I'm still waiting for the real progress to begin.
Agreed, but perhaps that's the Unix background peeking through. Windows in general needs too much rebooting, I say. More time should be spent on making it more dynamic and flexible so you don't have to restart your computer every time you uninstall a program or update windows.
Re:hats off to Bram, Bill Joy, and ATT
on
Vim 6.4 Released
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· Score: 1
Agreed. I am a little embarassed to say it was only about a month ago I started using ViM as opposed to vi, but I do love me a good ViM-tweaking session. Very gratifying:)
And yet, the number one feature, to me, has always been the, well, vi commands. The escape mode and the hjkl navigation. I would use any IDE or editor in a minute if it would offer just the absolute basic vi features.
Just because it doesn't get out to millions doesn't mean it's not valuable - take fiction writing, slam poetry (live, not televised), or street music/theatre performers. There are huge industries around each of those media, but I don't think you're going to walk up to someone who's making their living in a creative art and tell her she's a failure because some people are making way more money than she is.
If you're looking to make a programmer's salary, you have to be disciplined, but there's no reason an indie game that does OK won't suit you for a year when you only have to pay yourself. Maybe marketing makes it more likely that the game will sell, but word of mouth is a powerful thing - and free, to boot. So I don't think it's a competition with the big companies and their marketing, it's a completely different avenue of business.
NPR's coverage of the avian flu spreading in Asia and Europe. Granted, food is only part of the issue (the other being influenza epidemic a la 1918), but pretty massive amounts of rural chickens needed to be killed. Not such an issue for commercial chicken raisers (as they keep a closer eye on their stock), but that's exactly what an RFID tag would be good for - making sure the chicken was born and raised at one of the large, well-controlled centers.
PETA's support (and, for that matter, many animal-focused organizations') support for microchipping generally is so that lost cats and dogs can be identified. And, much like a Diabetes bracelet, if an animal has an illness and needs medicine, that can be determined immediately.
The Seeing-Eye, for one, likes to microchip their dogs because they are so valuable. It's a little bit of loss-protection so the owner can be found, but it's also a bit of theft-protection; as horrible as it sounds, stolen dog guides would be rather valuable as they are so well-trained.
Although this story seems to lean toward microchipping as a way of identifying the owner in a case of neglect (if you left your alligator out to eat people, then you're in trouble, for instance). It's not a cruelty thing at all, then, for whatever reason it's done.
True, but they said it *probably* wouldn't affect individuals selling their own items. Given the money eBay has been making off of sellers, I wouldn't be surprised if both the federal and/or local governments got in on the money - tighter tax laws, similar auction/small business requirements, etc.
And all the other pieces of game design? I feel like video games need to focus their attention (in addition to, not only on) the other factors of game design - story, character and dialogue (all explored in other media) - and on things unique to games, like you mentioned, gameplay.
The obsession with graphics and photorealism is sort of like writing a novel obsessed with finding the perfect illustration for the chapter's first page - it's appropriate in some books, like children's books or young adult books, but it's simply not important in many other cases. Or like the rules of voice leading for Bach-period music harmonizations - every chord is perfect, which is why it's sort of bland once you've heard a dozen of the same pieces.
I'll be glad once it's done, and we have some grand photorealistic engine that works as well as anyone can hope, and then we can move on to more important features, like AI characters who live in the world realistically, instead of as stationary or dumb sprites.
Slashdot Mirror
And you know there's only going to be so many second-chances before Apple blows it permanently and people start realizing that other companies make mp3 players, too.
What's really odd is that he thinks such a game a) doesn't already exist or b) won't come to exist unless he (lies when he says he) puts $10,000 down for it.
While the handful of vehement activists always grabs the headlines, this, as in all other media wars, has the greatest affect not on what Jack Thompson does, but on how the reports and the counter-comments affect the public. Obviously the gaming contingent of the public are pretty outraged and dismayed with Jack (although I'm still disgusted by particularly violent games, I don't think they should be censored), but the middle-dwellers are what matters. Thus far, I think the response has generally one-upped Jack in most of its rejoinders, but it has the makings of a huge mess up if gamers get too aggressive and ruin their own position.
Sometimes I find myself missing the pre-internet-boom days of floppy-disk-distributed shareware that hardly made a blip on the news media. That, and 500kb free disk space system requirements.
Very good point - But I, as I'm sure many others, am increasingly irked when I can't get the advertised price without giving them my name and address just for a card. On the other hand, I've gotten more than a few bonuses because of it - free coupons that automatically deduct, etc.
While it is no doubt important to protect your privacy, I for one am generally not only open but also proud of what I do, what information I seek and what I buy. I've never been investigated for treason, so I'm sure that makes me more open than many who have had shady run-ins with the men in black vans, but it's sort of a double-edged sword: The more you try to protect the fact that you're searching for, say, conspiracy theories or counter-reports on governmental activity, the more you give license for it to be something forced into the fringe of social discourse. But if you let it all hang out, it starts to push the envelope to include more things that are acceptable in public discussion.
My views in this situation are obviously biased towards activism-esque activity, which I think is frequently sensitive ground to tread in terms of online privacy. But I feel it's pretty applicable to almost all (reasonable) forms of online tracking.
In all fairness, yeah, most programs don't require Windows to reboot. But anything that touches start up registry values or has some sort of scheduled component requires a reboot, in my experience. And maybe my computer just needs more alone time, but it has to reboot with every windows update I get. *shrug*
Also, I meant Unix as in my Sparc workstation box - I don't have much experience with the myriad linux distros, but Solaris 8/9 has been running on a few of my boxes for months with no rebooting (except the time I dropped it pretty hard - I think it hiccupped the disk drive and the power supply, so it just kind of passed out :P).
So I'm not saying Windows loses the least-reboot competition (although I'd say it's trailing pretty far), but I am saying that some systems have been doing it for years already, and Windows needs to catch up fast if it's supposed to be a stable, robust operating system on which servers and enterprise computers can rely without fear.
The business model, at least for ABC, is to draw the *largest viewership possible* and make them sit through ads. TiVo is almost as much of a threat as bittorrent because of the capabilities of skipping commercials (although with TiVo you actually learn the commercials because you're trying to time your fastforwarding :P you're still not *as* receptive to the marketing, though).
What ABC really should do is release Lost and every other program they have in a dozen different formats and qualities and keep their commercials in it. The simplicity (they might not even use bittorent, just a straight download) and the reliability would far outweigh issue of the tiny percentage of people who download it and clip the commercials out.
Or, and I really don't like this one, keep it up with those damn annoying ads that pop up at the bottom of the screen in the middle of the show. Then you can't speed by them because it's imprinted on the content. Sleazy, but a solution nonetheless.
My conclusion? Yay for ABC, but I'm still waiting for the real progress to begin.
Agreed, but perhaps that's the Unix background peeking through. Windows in general needs too much rebooting, I say. More time should be spent on making it more dynamic and flexible so you don't have to restart your computer every time you uninstall a program or update windows.
Agreed. I am a little embarassed to say it was only about a month ago I started using ViM as opposed to vi, but I do love me a good ViM-tweaking session. Very gratifying :)
And yet, the number one feature, to me, has always been the, well, vi commands. The escape mode and the hjkl navigation. I would use any IDE or editor in a minute if it would offer just the absolute basic vi features.
Just because it doesn't get out to millions doesn't mean it's not valuable - take fiction writing, slam poetry (live, not televised), or street music/theatre performers. There are huge industries around each of those media, but I don't think you're going to walk up to someone who's making their living in a creative art and tell her she's a failure because some people are making way more money than she is. If you're looking to make a programmer's salary, you have to be disciplined, but there's no reason an indie game that does OK won't suit you for a year when you only have to pay yourself. Maybe marketing makes it more likely that the game will sell, but word of mouth is a powerful thing - and free, to boot. So I don't think it's a competition with the big companies and their marketing, it's a completely different avenue of business.
NPR's coverage of the avian flu spreading in Asia and Europe. Granted, food is only part of the issue (the other being influenza epidemic a la 1918), but pretty massive amounts of rural chickens needed to be killed. Not such an issue for commercial chicken raisers (as they keep a closer eye on their stock), but that's exactly what an RFID tag would be good for - making sure the chicken was born and raised at one of the large, well-controlled centers.
PETA's support (and, for that matter, many animal-focused organizations') support for microchipping generally is so that lost cats and dogs can be identified. And, much like a Diabetes bracelet, if an animal has an illness and needs medicine, that can be determined immediately. The Seeing-Eye, for one, likes to microchip their dogs because they are so valuable. It's a little bit of loss-protection so the owner can be found, but it's also a bit of theft-protection; as horrible as it sounds, stolen dog guides would be rather valuable as they are so well-trained. Although this story seems to lean toward microchipping as a way of identifying the owner in a case of neglect (if you left your alligator out to eat people, then you're in trouble, for instance). It's not a cruelty thing at all, then, for whatever reason it's done.
True, but they said it *probably* wouldn't affect individuals selling their own items. Given the money eBay has been making off of sellers, I wouldn't be surprised if both the federal and/or local governments got in on the money - tighter tax laws, similar auction/small business requirements, etc.
And all the other pieces of game design? I feel like video games need to focus their attention (in addition to, not only on) the other factors of game design - story, character and dialogue (all explored in other media) - and on things unique to games, like you mentioned, gameplay.
The obsession with graphics and photorealism is sort of like writing a novel obsessed with finding the perfect illustration for the chapter's first page - it's appropriate in some books, like children's books or young adult books, but it's simply not important in many other cases. Or like the rules of voice leading for Bach-period music harmonizations - every chord is perfect, which is why it's sort of bland once you've heard a dozen of the same pieces.
I'll be glad once it's done, and we have some grand photorealistic engine that works as well as anyone can hope, and then we can move on to more important features, like AI characters who live in the world realistically, instead of as stationary or dumb sprites.