"Supporters of Linux on the server may argue that these are similar traits enjoyed by -- if not pioneered by -- Linux. Nevertheless, Brack said there are already plans to upgrade to Solaris 10 in the near future."
As I'm writing, this article has received 151 replies, mostly from gamers 25 - 40. Many of the responses seem to indicate that this group of people is intersted in an online community tailored to the interests of adult gamers, but dislikes the insinuation that being over 25 makes them "too old" to play games. That's what I've gotten out of the posts I've read, which isn't all of them.
If we assume that no one posted more than one reply, then 150 users are on this thread -- a group equal to 5% of your current membership (3000, according to the interview). A decent/. thread can pick up 500-600 responses, so this figure could grow to 18%-20% of your membership. And I would venture to say that the vast majority of this group is right in your target demographic -- and probably not regular users of your website.
So my question to you is: if you really want to grow to 10,000 users,rather than being "disappointed with the bitching" wouldn't it make more sense to listen?
...was the fact that part of the ruling prohibits this guy from accessing the Internet for three years. Is it just me or does that seem light? Five years is more like it.
I think this is actually the key to the punishment. The $11B would only go to the ISP, but keeping this guy offline is good for the end-users as well. Not that there won't be others to take his place, but if we start seeing more of these rulings, more and more spammers could be prohibited from the net.
There's no doubt about the lower wages, but I think the difference is negated in other ways.
This is an anecdotal example, but Canon moved it's high-end manufacturing back to Japan after attempting to set up in Malaysia. Malaysian wages were lower, but employee turnover was significantly higher than what it was in Japan. This led to increased training expenses, and lower productivity over the long term.
My impression is the the lower-cost countries can be a great way to save money on manufacturing relatively simple items with well-established production techniques, but for newer technologies and R&D, a more highly skilled workforce is necessary.
...there was a program that ran on Windows, that changed the world. Despite being named for it's creator's goofy nickname, people figured out pretty quickly that they could use it to find and download music free of charge. It was hugely popular until it crumbled beneath the weight of legal pressure, but it's impact is still felt.
What was the program? Napster.
If the software is easy enough to use and allows people to do something new and fun, they'll figure it out.
It's interesting that the idea didn't catch on until much later, when Benz and others got the idea working with gasoline combustion. Cugnot's vehicle was really just a very early proof of concept.
Another interesting note is that Stanley Steamers were much faster than the road-going gasoline cars of the same era.
You mentioned Person A copied the files using Roxio... I'm not terribly familiar with that program specifically, but if I were doing this the first thing I'd do is dig around Roxio, and see if it stores some record of the jobs it ran, and what files were included. That could save a lot of trouble.
Back in the day, game companies used to pack in games for free as an incentive to buy the hardware (Super Mario, Sonic, etc)... now the retailers use the appeal of the hardware as a way to force consumers to buy games/accessories they don't necessarily want. Interesting how things have changed.
"I honestly believe that the biggest problem with the PSP is that they typical handheld developer doesn't really know what to do with it."
I think Capcom is doing two things absolutely right with this platform: 1) leveraging existing IP, and 2) addressing the game play demands of the mobile gamer.
If dev costs are rising as much as you say they are on this platform, then it makes excellent financial sense to recycle old IP, especially when Sony is marketing this platform to people who grew up with Street Fighter 2.
My opinion is that the old arcade games translate well to current handhelds. The old games had to grab your attention with a quarter's ($.25) worth of action; gamers had to be able to pick up the game and hav fun with it immediately. When you think about where/when people are likely to be playing PSP games -- on the train/bus, waiting for a friend, on a lunchbreak -- it makes sense that that audience would want something similiar. When I'm looking for a quick break, I'd much rather rip through a few stages of Final Fight than try and figure out some obscure mission in Splinter Cell.
I don't think anyone's mentioned http://www.idsoftware.com/games/vintage/catacomb/ Catacomb 3D, which was one of ID Software's first games. It was their first FPS, pre-dating Wolfenstein, which of course led to Doom, Quake, and Hexen. The other stuff that ID was making at the time provided no hint of what was to come (I also had Commander Keen), but Catacomb gave a little glimpse of the future. I had no idea at the time though, I thought it was easier and more fun than Wing Commander.
"There was no vector Return of the Jedi game. You're probably thinking of simply "Star Wars", based on the first movie. It let you fight TIEs in open space, attack towers and bunkers on the Death Star surface, and ended a round with the final trench run."
Ahh, yes, you're exactly right. It was based on the first movie. That game had some voice sampling in it as well, didn't it? "The force will be with you. Always."
I've only ever seen the Empire Strikes Back Vector in magazines. Is it good? I remember the raster Return of the Jedi game. I thought it could've been great, but it was hard to control.
"Name me one movie-specific Star Wars game that's been good, besides the old SNES games. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Pod Racer, Obi-Wan? Yech. All the games you list (TIE Fighter, X-Wing, etc.) are great, because they don't tie themselves down to a single film. Star Wars games that use the universe as a backdrop are terrific. Jedi Knight II is still one of my favorite FPS titles *ever*, for the incredible sense of power you gain as you become one with the force."
Off the top of my head, I can think of two movie-specific Star Wars games that didn't suck:
The old vector graphics Return of the Jedi game was one of the best arcade games from it's era, and still a blast to play. It let you play out the Death Star scene that ended the series, and the vector graphics looked like the X-Wing's computer in the movie.
The is more of a stretch, but there was an Empire Strikes Back game on the Nintendo 64 a while back that let you play out the snow planet scene in the movie, where the rebels are flying around tripping up those huge AT walker things. That part of the game was awesome, but the rest sucked.
That's 1.5.
Slashdot Mirror
And just one sentence after that:
"Supporters of Linux on the server may argue that these are similar traits enjoyed by -- if not pioneered by -- Linux. Nevertheless, Brack said there are already plans to upgrade to Solaris 10 in the near future."
As I'm writing, this article has received 151 replies, mostly from gamers 25 - 40. Many of the responses seem to indicate that this group of people is intersted in an online community tailored to the interests of adult gamers, but dislikes the insinuation that being over 25 makes them "too old" to play games. That's what I've gotten out of the posts I've read, which isn't all of them.
/. thread can pick up 500-600 responses, so this figure could grow to 18%-20% of your membership. And I would venture to say that the vast majority of this group is right in your target demographic -- and probably not regular users of your website.
If we assume that no one posted more than one reply, then 150 users are on this thread -- a group equal to 5% of your current membership (3000, according to the interview). A decent
So my question to you is: if you really want to grow to 10,000 users,rather than being "disappointed with the bitching" wouldn't it make more sense to listen?
How about rockers Urge Overkill?
...was the fact that part of the ruling prohibits this guy from accessing the Internet for three years. Is it just me or does that seem light? Five years is more like it.
I think this is actually the key to the punishment. The $11B would only go to the ISP, but keeping this guy offline is good for the end-users as well. Not that there won't be others to take his place, but if we start seeing more of these rulings, more and more spammers could be prohibited from the net.
There's no doubt about the lower wages, but I think the difference is negated in other ways.
This is an anecdotal example, but Canon moved it's high-end manufacturing back to Japan after attempting to set up in Malaysia. Malaysian wages were lower, but employee turnover was significantly higher than what it was in Japan. This led to increased training expenses, and lower productivity over the long term.
My impression is the the lower-cost countries can be a great way to save money on manufacturing relatively simple items with well-established production techniques, but for newer technologies and R&D, a more highly skilled workforce is necessary.
...there was a program that ran on Windows, that changed the world. Despite being named for it's creator's goofy nickname, people figured out pretty quickly that they could use it to find and download music free of charge. It was hugely popular until it crumbled beneath the weight of legal pressure, but it's impact is still felt.
What was the program? Napster.
If the software is easy enough to use and allows people to do something new and fun, they'll figure it out.
It was even done before that. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot completed the first self-propelled car using a steam engine in 1771. This page http://www.arts-et-metiers.net/nofm/nofm.php?lang= fra&domnum=7&epok=2&obj=2 is in French, but it has a picture of (I think) the original vehicle.
It's interesting that the idea didn't catch on until much later, when Benz and others got the idea working with gasoline combustion. Cugnot's vehicle was really just a very early proof of concept.
Another interesting note is that Stanley Steamers were much faster than the road-going gasoline cars of the same era.
You mentioned Person A copied the files using Roxio... I'm not terribly familiar with that program specifically, but if I were doing this the first thing I'd do is dig around Roxio, and see if it stores some record of the jobs it ran, and what files were included. That could save a lot of trouble.
Truth #11: When something goes wrong, even the most low level intern is suddenly your boss.
3,000,000/200,000 = 15 -- about once every other day on average. That sounds reasonable. Plus they said "nearly" 3,000,000.
Back in the day, game companies used to pack in games for free as an incentive to buy the hardware (Super Mario, Sonic, etc)... now the retailers use the appeal of the hardware as a way to force consumers to buy games/accessories they don't necessarily want. Interesting how things have changed.
Bill's XBox froze when he demoed it at CES earlier this year, but I can't remember if that was an original XBox or a pre-production 360.
I guess that was an accurate sign of things to come.
Here's a thought: have 360 owners tried blowing on the games?
"I gotta work with this crazy foo'!?!"
"I honestly believe that the biggest problem with the PSP is that they typical handheld developer doesn't really know what to do with it."
I think Capcom is doing two things absolutely right with this platform: 1) leveraging existing IP, and 2) addressing the game play demands of the mobile gamer.
If dev costs are rising as much as you say they are on this platform, then it makes excellent financial sense to recycle old IP, especially when Sony is marketing this platform to people who grew up with Street Fighter 2.
My opinion is that the old arcade games translate well to current handhelds. The old games had to grab your attention with a quarter's ($.25) worth of action; gamers had to be able to pick up the game and hav fun with it immediately. When you think about where/when people are likely to be playing PSP games -- on the train/bus, waiting for a friend, on a lunchbreak -- it makes sense that that audience would want something similiar. When I'm looking for a quick break, I'd much rather rip through a few stages of Final Fight than try and figure out some obscure mission in Splinter Cell.
I don't think anyone's mentioned http://www.idsoftware.com/games/vintage/catacomb/ Catacomb 3D, which was one of ID Software's first games. It was their first FPS, pre-dating Wolfenstein, which of course led to Doom, Quake, and Hexen. The other stuff that ID was making at the time provided no hint of what was to come (I also had Commander Keen), but Catacomb gave a little glimpse of the future. I had no idea at the time though, I thought it was easier and more fun than Wing Commander.
"There was no vector Return of the Jedi game. You're probably thinking of simply "Star Wars", based on the first movie. It let you fight TIEs in open space, attack towers and bunkers on the Death Star surface, and ended a round with the final trench run."
Ahh, yes, you're exactly right. It was based on the first movie. That game had some voice sampling in it as well, didn't it? "The force will be with you. Always."
I've only ever seen the Empire Strikes Back Vector in magazines. Is it good? I remember the raster Return of the Jedi game. I thought it could've been great, but it was hard to control.
"Name me one movie-specific Star Wars game that's been good, besides the old SNES games. Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Pod Racer, Obi-Wan? Yech. All the games you list (TIE Fighter, X-Wing, etc.) are great, because they don't tie themselves down to a single film. Star Wars games that use the universe as a backdrop are terrific. Jedi Knight II is still one of my favorite FPS titles *ever*, for the incredible sense of power you gain as you become one with the force." Off the top of my head, I can think of two movie-specific Star Wars games that didn't suck: The old vector graphics Return of the Jedi game was one of the best arcade games from it's era, and still a blast to play. It let you play out the Death Star scene that ended the series, and the vector graphics looked like the X-Wing's computer in the movie. The is more of a stretch, but there was an Empire Strikes Back game on the Nintendo 64 a while back that let you play out the snow planet scene in the movie, where the rebels are flying around tripping up those huge AT walker things. That part of the game was awesome, but the rest sucked. That's 1.5.
It's called the "Green Illusion", which is odd because it looks blue to me. I guess that's why it's an illusion.
The tag on that drink says "osusume" (oh-sue-sue-may), which just means "recommended". What was the original url?