Google has never been a fan of the patent wars. If Google sets up a search engine for prior art, they will be providing a resource with which many patents can be invalidated. Competitors will fear bias in that the prior art database may give results that are in Google's favor, and perhaps start providing resources that index prior art themselves. Hopefully the whole thing will snowball and show the failure of the current system. However if doubt would be cast on the quality and validity of the results then perhaps nobody will pay attention to this initiative.
So to be competitive, hardware manufacturers may have to provide their driver source? Perhaps at least to the developers. But that could be anyone really, and the next Minecraft may run better on Intel graphics hardware than any other because some amateur developer was able to wring performance out of it that much more easily.
But at the level that AMD/ATI and nVidia are competing with each other, perhaps the one to take the edge will be the one that provides open source drivers.
Right, which forces developers to build MS's tablet app ecosystem for them. And you're right, they are fucking over businesses. But are businesses going to stop buying MS software and support? Not likely. Maybe the next version of Windows will come quickly and offer the option to allow you to boot to a traditional desktops. MS will still get their upgrade money, and they will still have their tablet app ecosystem. Or maybe once enough tablet-capable apps are built, MS will release a service pack that enables this. 3rd parties can even step in and offer stop-gap solutions. So where do they lose?
You're arguing that users are going to lose out in this, and you're right. But what are they going to do about it? Nothing. So again, I ask, why shouldn't MS do this? If you were to walk into a board meeting, what would you tell them that would actually make them agree with you?
The reason for the start page is to make the desktop look scary. Average users don't want to drop to the command line for any reason, the black box with cryptic commands looks scary and isn't intuitive to them. MS is introducing another layer on top of the desktop that really simplifies things. When an average user launches a traditional app, they will be dropped to the desktop, which will seem scary to them, the apps that run in that "mode" aren't as simple as they're used to, there's menus on top and tons of toolbar buttons instead of a dumbed down phone interface. This will force developers to adapt, because users will no longer want to run traditional desktop apps anymore, it'll seem too complicated.
Previously, users were forced to learn this stuff, but now that they know there's a simpler alternative, they won't want to, just like the command line. This benefits MS in that there will be a ton of new apps that work perfectly on their tablet. This gives an incentive to app developers; They will now have a reason to sell you the latest version. It benefits the Windows platform in general because the new users that are attracted won't be able to cope with a traditional desktop interface, and other OSes will look scary. More experienced users will know how to get around this stuff and run traditional apps, and won't be bothered too much.
Yeah, it seems really stupid to most of us, but we won't use it, but there are many business reasons for MS to force this start page and tablet interface onto users, it feeds into their new tablet strategy and throws developers a bone, and gives them a reason to focus on MS's tablet platform the way they do on iOS even without a large pre-existing userbase, simply because now average desktop users will be demanding apps in this format. So why shouldn't they do this?
The game does stand out. Its coin concept is great. Coins are used to lure you towards rewards, traps, secrets, many things trigger them and it just adds another goal on top of everything (gather 1,000,000 coins) that gives you an excuse to do a little more hunting in each level and have fun collecting something that was starting to get less and less important in the series. The coin block head never stops being fun, and Golden Mario lets you blow up tons of bricks and turn them into coins, very satisfying.
Apart from that, getting to use classic Raccoon Mario is great and really made me smile.
No, these players don't want to pay for and download additional content. They just want games to be longer in general, i.e. for the content to be included in the original release. I guess that means a significant group of people consider recent games to be incomplete or lacking in certain areas. But I guess they wouldn't want to spin it that way.
RE: Revelations is the killer app. It's one of the best games I've played in a while on any system. Super Mario 3D Land is addictive as well, and the 3D remakes of Kid Icarus and Kirby are great for killing 5 minutes here and there.
There are plenty of free game engines out there, we don't need all of them to be free. The assets will never be free either, and that's the product in the end, that's what the game is all about.
The engine being free would make supporting the games in the future easier, but with the underlying architecture of the platform being open and well documented, it isn't impossible.
This is why I stay offline on the 360. I never saw a reason to pay if they're displaying ads. The only time I connect is for title updates and for XBLA games I can't find on PSN. And yes, I'm waiting a year+ for FEZ because of this crap.
On a side note, the fact that the UI keeps changing on the 360 just makes me turn on the "boot to game disc" option. I really can't stand navigating the "dashboard." I feel like I'm going back to a supermarket that constantly rearranges their displays and products. I wouldn't stand for this on my PC's OS, nor within an application, and it's incredibly annoying to have to put up with it on a console's. I'm glad the PS3 and Wii's have stayed the same during their lifetime.
To me, a console is just a game machine and that's what I want it for. It can do other things, but let me customize the UI so I can ignore that stuff, otherwise I just won't buy it and I'll stick to the competition. I'm sure at least the Wii U won't be doing this kind of BS, and if that's the last console I own, so be it.
Well, the trap is that they could be mislabeling infringing content, there could be content you own that you're uploading/downloading to a cloud service they're unaware of that they could flag, they don't know who's using the computer at the time, nor the IP address really. Could be automated by a trojan for all they know.
...until developers got angry that they couldn't run native code. However, this might require that apps are only usable online and would prevent useful apps on an iPod Touch like device, not that RIM cares though.
If a lighter gets too hot it'll explode in your hand, especially risky if you hold it at an angle to burn something on the ground. Maybe use a BBQ lighter or better yet acetylene torch.
Skyrim seems to have all kinds of accents, many of them American, and they don't use "old english" tropes like "thee" and "thou". It seems to draw influence from norse mythology as well, although there is still plenty of LotR (I guess you can't escape it). It's refreshing compared to the rest.
While I can get nostalgic about the picture of a CRT, I don't miss the constant high-pitched sound it made while on. I could hear it even when I was a few rooms away. It gave me headaches. When LCD displays became affordable, I got one and at the same time rid myself of my TV in favor of watching through a capture card.
If you think the only reason to drink it is to get caffeine, why don't you just take caffeine pills? I like the taste of coffee, but caffeine makes me anxious.
Developers used to start off with high resolution models and have to pare down the triangle count and adjust textures to meet memory and processing requirements. In the future, they won't have to do all of that tweaking and will be able to use full resolution models, so it will probably be cheaper.
Also, not all games aim for realistic depictions, many (most?) are stylized, and won't necessarily need to be highly detailed. The extra processing power could go to effects, deformation, physics, etc.
Maybe those platforms created gamers out of those who didn't play games before, but I don't think there are that many gamers that were lost to iOS and Android.
I just think it's 50 cents off a $15 purchase I never would have made. I still don't want to spend the $14.50. It's like buying stuff in a grocery store just because it's on sale, I won't buy something I don't need just because the price is lower. That's idiotic.
On a side note, I also don't buy the slightly cheaper store brand just to save money. It's inferior quality, and once sales drop for the good quality brands, they stop ordering it and it disappears from shelves, and guess what? They just raise the price for the store brand since there's nothing else to compete. I don't want those oily cheeses, tasteless water-filled low-grade canned products, or disgusting modified/replacement ingredient everything else.
It's easier to turn a machine against its original purposes by fooling it, hacking it, or other such methods. It's harder to turn entire swaths of human soldiers.
Slashdot Mirror
Google has never been a fan of the patent wars. If Google sets up a search engine for prior art, they will be providing a resource with which many patents can be invalidated. Competitors will fear bias in that the prior art database may give results that are in Google's favor, and perhaps start providing resources that index prior art themselves. Hopefully the whole thing will snowball and show the failure of the current system. However if doubt would be cast on the quality and validity of the results then perhaps nobody will pay attention to this initiative.
So to be competitive, hardware manufacturers may have to provide their driver source? Perhaps at least to the developers. But that could be anyone really, and the next Minecraft may run better on Intel graphics hardware than any other because some amateur developer was able to wring performance out of it that much more easily.
But at the level that AMD/ATI and nVidia are competing with each other, perhaps the one to take the edge will be the one that provides open source drivers.
I'm still using my iFeel mouse that I got for $15 in a bargain bin 10 years ago. Too bad nothing actually makes use of the rumble feature.
Because it takes away choices
Right, which forces developers to build MS's tablet app ecosystem for them. And you're right, they are fucking over businesses. But are businesses going to stop buying MS software and support? Not likely. Maybe the next version of Windows will come quickly and offer the option to allow you to boot to a traditional desktops. MS will still get their upgrade money, and they will still have their tablet app ecosystem. Or maybe once enough tablet-capable apps are built, MS will release a service pack that enables this. 3rd parties can even step in and offer stop-gap solutions. So where do they lose?
You're arguing that users are going to lose out in this, and you're right. But what are they going to do about it? Nothing. So again, I ask, why shouldn't MS do this? If you were to walk into a board meeting, what would you tell them that would actually make them agree with you?
The reason for the start page is to make the desktop look scary. Average users don't want to drop to the command line for any reason, the black box with cryptic commands looks scary and isn't intuitive to them. MS is introducing another layer on top of the desktop that really simplifies things. When an average user launches a traditional app, they will be dropped to the desktop, which will seem scary to them, the apps that run in that "mode" aren't as simple as they're used to, there's menus on top and tons of toolbar buttons instead of a dumbed down phone interface. This will force developers to adapt, because users will no longer want to run traditional desktop apps anymore, it'll seem too complicated.
Previously, users were forced to learn this stuff, but now that they know there's a simpler alternative, they won't want to, just like the command line. This benefits MS in that there will be a ton of new apps that work perfectly on their tablet. This gives an incentive to app developers; They will now have a reason to sell you the latest version. It benefits the Windows platform in general because the new users that are attracted won't be able to cope with a traditional desktop interface, and other OSes will look scary. More experienced users will know how to get around this stuff and run traditional apps, and won't be bothered too much.
Yeah, it seems really stupid to most of us, but we won't use it, but there are many business reasons for MS to force this start page and tablet interface onto users, it feeds into their new tablet strategy and throws developers a bone, and gives them a reason to focus on MS's tablet platform the way they do on iOS even without a large pre-existing userbase, simply because now average desktop users will be demanding apps in this format. So why shouldn't they do this?
The game does stand out. Its coin concept is great. Coins are used to lure you towards rewards, traps, secrets, many things trigger them and it just adds another goal on top of everything (gather 1,000,000 coins) that gives you an excuse to do a little more hunting in each level and have fun collecting something that was starting to get less and less important in the series. The coin block head never stops being fun, and Golden Mario lets you blow up tons of bricks and turn them into coins, very satisfying.
Apart from that, getting to use classic Raccoon Mario is great and really made me smile.
No, these players don't want to pay for and download additional content. They just want games to be longer in general, i.e. for the content to be included in the original release. I guess that means a significant group of people consider recent games to be incomplete or lacking in certain areas. But I guess they wouldn't want to spin it that way.
A great OS is even greater with great hardware. I run Linux on a MacBook Pro because I like the hardware. I wouldn't want any other laptop.
RE: Revelations is the killer app. It's one of the best games I've played in a while on any system. Super Mario 3D Land is addictive as well, and the 3D remakes of Kid Icarus and Kirby are great for killing 5 minutes here and there.
There are plenty of free game engines out there, we don't need all of them to be free. The assets will never be free either, and that's the product in the end, that's what the game is all about.
The engine being free would make supporting the games in the future easier, but with the underlying architecture of the platform being open and well documented, it isn't impossible.
This is why I stay offline on the 360. I never saw a reason to pay if they're displaying ads. The only time I connect is for title updates and for XBLA games I can't find on PSN. And yes, I'm waiting a year+ for FEZ because of this crap.
On a side note, the fact that the UI keeps changing on the 360 just makes me turn on the "boot to game disc" option. I really can't stand navigating the "dashboard." I feel like I'm going back to a supermarket that constantly rearranges their displays and products. I wouldn't stand for this on my PC's OS, nor within an application, and it's incredibly annoying to have to put up with it on a console's. I'm glad the PS3 and Wii's have stayed the same during their lifetime.
To me, a console is just a game machine and that's what I want it for. It can do other things, but let me customize the UI so I can ignore that stuff, otherwise I just won't buy it and I'll stick to the competition. I'm sure at least the Wii U won't be doing this kind of BS, and if that's the last console I own, so be it.
Rosegarden and Buzztard are great for such purposes, and are both open source.
Well, the trap is that they could be mislabeling infringing content, there could be content you own that you're uploading/downloading to a cloud service they're unaware of that they could flag, they don't know who's using the computer at the time, nor the IP address really. Could be automated by a trojan for all they know.
...until developers got angry that they couldn't run native code. However, this might require that apps are only usable online and would prevent useful apps on an iPod Touch like device, not that RIM cares though.
So it's replication, not teleportation?
If a lighter gets too hot it'll explode in your hand, especially risky if you hold it at an angle to burn something on the ground. Maybe use a BBQ lighter or better yet acetylene torch.
Skyrim seems to have all kinds of accents, many of them American, and they don't use "old english" tropes like "thee" and "thou". It seems to draw influence from norse mythology as well, although there is still plenty of LotR (I guess you can't escape it). It's refreshing compared to the rest.
While I can get nostalgic about the picture of a CRT, I don't miss the constant high-pitched sound it made while on. I could hear it even when I was a few rooms away. It gave me headaches. When LCD displays became affordable, I got one and at the same time rid myself of my TV in favor of watching through a capture card.
They're just a criminal. If they're a cyborg committing a crime, that makes them a "cybercriminal."
If you think the only reason to drink it is to get caffeine, why don't you just take caffeine pills? I like the taste of coffee, but caffeine makes me anxious.
Now Microsoft gets to sell you twice as much Windows. The one your computer comes with, and the one you'll buy to replace it.
Developers used to start off with high resolution models and have to pare down the triangle count and adjust textures to meet memory and processing requirements. In the future, they won't have to do all of that tweaking and will be able to use full resolution models, so it will probably be cheaper.
Also, not all games aim for realistic depictions, many (most?) are stylized, and won't necessarily need to be highly detailed. The extra processing power could go to effects, deformation, physics, etc.
Maybe those platforms created gamers out of those who didn't play games before, but I don't think there are that many gamers that were lost to iOS and Android.
I just think it's 50 cents off a $15 purchase I never would have made. I still don't want to spend the $14.50. It's like buying stuff in a grocery store just because it's on sale, I won't buy something I don't need just because the price is lower. That's idiotic.
On a side note, I also don't buy the slightly cheaper store brand just to save money. It's inferior quality, and once sales drop for the good quality brands, they stop ordering it and it disappears from shelves, and guess what? They just raise the price for the store brand since there's nothing else to compete. I don't want those oily cheeses, tasteless water-filled low-grade canned products, or disgusting modified/replacement ingredient everything else.
It's easier to turn a machine against its original purposes by fooling it, hacking it, or other such methods. It's harder to turn entire swaths of human soldiers.