I guess "Honing Content" is doublespeak for "gaming the system" which means it just raises the bar so that smaller publishers won't be as visible. I guess these publishers are upset because they're on equal footing. What customers want is a product without all the marketing, but what these greedy entities are trying to do is make a lot of marketing with no product.
What is the compromise? Do we come up with a standard way of ranking that can be exploited much faster than we can update the standard to prevent this? I think here, the product that Google is giving customers is the method that they are aggregating content. Perhaps these publishers would be better off going to a competitor, but if customers don't prefer the competitor's method of aggregating content, they will come back to Google, which is a sign that Google is doing things right.
I don't think publishers should have a say on the method that Google presents its index, because Google does not have a monopoly on indexes. I think they are just targeting Google because it is popular (and not by any anti-competitive practices, correct me if I'm wrong), and they are not able to increase their ROI without unfairly gaining an advantage. These publishers really do seem to be whining.
Pay for lessons, pay for a license, pay for a car, pay for insurance, pay for fuel, pay for parking, perhaps pay for security and GPS, any way you look at it, vehicles are too expensive.
Many people will choose to buy another 360, especially if someone on the help hotline leads them to believe they can't repair their system under warranty. As some with RRoD issues have noted, it can be difficult to convince the person on the other end that your console falls under extended coverage.
If you own a library of 10 or so favorite games, it can be difficult to part with the platform. If your console breaks, it's probably cheaper to buy another one of the same kind than to buy another brand, trade in your games, and buy the same games for the new console. It can be a harder choice to make if you have downloaded games or expansion packs that are tied to the platform. You can't trade those in to get the equivalent on another system, you've lost your investment in that case.
Anything can be done in excess, or can be neglected. Either to the point where we become dependent on the activity, or afraid of a situation, is bad because we change our lives to fit that to the detriment of our regular lives, had it not been affected by the activity. Therefore the activity controls us, and not the other way around. This can be done with anything, not just the internet, drugs, food, TV, and collecting garbage apparently. People who let it get to a certain point are too messed up emotionally to think rationally about it. They have become habituated and dependent on it. These people need help, no matter what the activity. It's unfortunate that it's so expensive and so specialized, hopefully eventually we will move on.
Developers are starting to omit game content just to sell it back to you after the original purchase, increasing the total cost for the full experience. This also allows for deceptive pricing tactics.
If a political group or special interest group exists, it's a sign that an idea is being taken to an extreme, since it means that people aren't willing to accept the existence of an alternative in certain areas. That type of insistence will always cloud judgment and understanding in certain areas so it can be dangerous once a very strong unifying mandate or manifesto has been decided. All types of groups are guilty of this.
Somehow I don't think they're going to try to win any hard core Linux enthusiasts that are loyal to a certain distro. They're going for the people who are using Windows and trying to win them over, then the hard core Linux enthusiasts may or may not follow. Either way, if they are improving GNU/Linux, they are helping Google.
Not a huge market wants to play PC games because they prefer the living room experience, and you can't use proprietary console controllers (guns, dance mats, motion controllers, etc), so consoles are out.
I don't give a shit, I want to know what ALL words mean, not just some of them. And as always, "words are only as offensive as the context in which they are used" - Dave Chappelle
It used to pay, when businesses just made devices, not services, and when they sold their devices, the hacks/uses that their customers came up with would only make their product sell more.
Now, devices are pushing proprietary formats, proprietary software, proprietary services, all of which cannot inter-operate with other devices. One thing that is clear: businesses want to sell wallet leashes.
Protip: patent your ideas before demonstrating them to Microsoft, that's probably the only way you'll make any real money. $2,000 for the winner of such an idea is a pittance, and if your idea is not chosen, you will get nothing, even though the idea may still be used later on.
The DualShock 2 for the PlayStation 2 could sense pressure with every button except L3, R3, Start, and Select, but was never really used for much. In MGS2 it was used; you could ease your finger off the "fire" button to avoid shooting a weapon. It would seem to make a difference in racing games, however, users that wanted the sensitivity preferred acceleration/brake on the right thumbstick in racing games because you had more of a sense of how far you were pushing the stick.
On a keyboard it would seem to matter even less for gamers... If you want that much sensitivity in the FPS genre, just use a joystick/mouse combo.
So the web browser, in the end, will just be one big common runtime environment? That's one way to get compatibility across OSes I guess. If proprietary plugins were to be written to run entirely in a W3C compatible environment, then we'd be better off.
But it still seems like there will always be some sort of proprietary extension that one group will try and control. Businesses will want to set up tollbooths just for the sake of a "guaranteed revenue stream". What this really means is a tax that doesn't benefit anyone else. How can we stop rewarding these groups? Is the only way to prevent such tollbooths from being viable and desirable? If so, how?
For example: A standard gets defined, then tools become available to produce content which includes a proprietary method of achieving a result, but this fragments the audience. Why do sites and users put up with this?
I already bought Wipeout HD, but if I had heard of this happening prior, I wouldn't have. Now, I won't update my version and I'm not going on PSN anymore so my disc-based games can't try and grab ads themselves. I'm not buying any PSN games anymore. Games with ads is just something I don't want to experience.
TV with ads is something I don't want to experience so I rip all my DVDs without trailers to a video jukebox, and I don't have cable or watch broadcast. Songs with ads is something I don't want to experience so I don't listen to the radio.
I just hate the feeling of constantly being pitched to. I avoid those guys on the sales floor at stores because of this too, and I don't want to be constantly bombarded with it in my own home. I wear shirts with no logos and I use shopping bags with no trademarks or logos. No ads!!! Get it Sony and everyone else?
Mega Man, Jumping Flash, Star Fox, Gargoyle's Quest, Sonic, Streets of Rage, Road Rash, Turrican, Space Quest, Maniac Mansion, Wonder Boy, Strider, Goemon, Blaster Master, Zone of the Enders, Bonk, and Battletoads. I'd really be interested to see a new take on these series.
Part of OLPC had always been that the entire software stack could be modified, and that users could learn about it and share ideas to make their own platform better.
Canada doesn't need any new laws, copyright law is already established, making illegal copies is already illegal. Why do we need any new laws? If anything, Canada should not have the kind of copyright extensions that we have seen in Europe and USA.
I don't want to buy another plastic instrument bundle, or pay $60 for effectively a song pack. The important thing for Guitar Hero and Rock Band was to distribute their product to the market, so that they could use those products as a store front to sell you more "DownLoadable Content" (add-on songs). Retail packages may be on the decline, but it's always fun to pick up a few new songs now and then. The concept of Rock Band or Guitar Hero don't really get boring unless you run out of songs you like, or over-saturate yourself with the various different editions of each game.
Online backup solutions are only as safe as the administrators make it, and they have to rely on a trusted method. What method do they use, and why is it any better than one we use ourselves (i.e. a redundant backup in a different location using said method)? What's more, online backup solutions could put our data at risk in other ways.
But by the same token it seems like citizens are demanding more and more protection from themselves, because when something bad happens to them, it doesn't matter if it's their own fault, they blame it on other people and sue until people are forced to stop people from exploiting the situation to absolve themselves and make others pay for what they have ruined for themselves. In short, people seem to practically beg for harsh reprimands, and less responsibility, and less control, because these are the most effective short-term solutions to implement to placate those who demand immediate satisfaction.
Will interest wane in WoW simply because it seems like just an extension to the treadmill? Are people getting tired of the aesthetic? These are questions from someone who doesn't see the attraction in the first place.
Even if it doesn't help people program, maybe it can help the less technically inclined to get a better idea about how software works. I got interested in programming because of games. When I saw games glitch, and saw programming limits showing through and tried to figure out why they couldn't achieve what they wanted, it gave me insight on how things worked. Through observation, I knew enough about making games that it made learning programming theory easier, and I was quickly able to achieve what I wanted because I could picture clearly how it should work. YMMV.
Space Quest 3, Leisure Suit Larry, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Katamari Damacy, Psychonauts, Ratchet & Clank, Super Mario RPG, these games have lots of humor in a wide variety of ways. Humor's always been there and done right, it's just that not a lot of people bother since they're trying to provide a visceral experience and not one that is simply just entertaining. It depends on the type of game you want, but you can definitely find it.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess "Honing Content" is doublespeak for "gaming the system" which means it just raises the bar so that smaller publishers won't be as visible. I guess these publishers are upset because they're on equal footing. What customers want is a product without all the marketing, but what these greedy entities are trying to do is make a lot of marketing with no product.
What is the compromise? Do we come up with a standard way of ranking that can be exploited much faster than we can update the standard to prevent this? I think here, the product that Google is giving customers is the method that they are aggregating content. Perhaps these publishers would be better off going to a competitor, but if customers don't prefer the competitor's method of aggregating content, they will come back to Google, which is a sign that Google is doing things right.
I don't think publishers should have a say on the method that Google presents its index, because Google does not have a monopoly on indexes. I think they are just targeting Google because it is popular (and not by any anti-competitive practices, correct me if I'm wrong), and they are not able to increase their ROI without unfairly gaining an advantage. These publishers really do seem to be whining.
Pay for lessons, pay for a license, pay for a car, pay for insurance, pay for fuel, pay for parking, perhaps pay for security and GPS, any way you look at it, vehicles are too expensive.
Many people will choose to buy another 360, especially if someone on the help hotline leads them to believe they can't repair their system under warranty. As some with RRoD issues have noted, it can be difficult to convince the person on the other end that your console falls under extended coverage.
If you own a library of 10 or so favorite games, it can be difficult to part with the platform. If your console breaks, it's probably cheaper to buy another one of the same kind than to buy another brand, trade in your games, and buy the same games for the new console. It can be a harder choice to make if you have downloaded games or expansion packs that are tied to the platform. You can't trade those in to get the equivalent on another system, you've lost your investment in that case.
Anything can be done in excess, or can be neglected. Either to the point where we become dependent on the activity, or afraid of a situation, is bad because we change our lives to fit that to the detriment of our regular lives, had it not been affected by the activity. Therefore the activity controls us, and not the other way around. This can be done with anything, not just the internet, drugs, food, TV, and collecting garbage apparently. People who let it get to a certain point are too messed up emotionally to think rationally about it. They have become habituated and dependent on it. These people need help, no matter what the activity. It's unfortunate that it's so expensive and so specialized, hopefully eventually we will move on.
Developers are starting to omit game content just to sell it back to you after the original purchase, increasing the total cost for the full experience. This also allows for deceptive pricing tactics.
If a political group or special interest group exists, it's a sign that an idea is being taken to an extreme, since it means that people aren't willing to accept the existence of an alternative in certain areas. That type of insistence will always cloud judgment and understanding in certain areas so it can be dangerous once a very strong unifying mandate or manifesto has been decided. All types of groups are guilty of this.
Somehow I don't think they're going to try to win any hard core Linux enthusiasts that are loyal to a certain distro. They're going for the people who are using Windows and trying to win them over, then the hard core Linux enthusiasts may or may not follow. Either way, if they are improving GNU/Linux, they are helping Google.
Not a huge market wants to play PC games because they prefer the living room experience, and you can't use proprietary console controllers (guns, dance mats, motion controllers, etc), so consoles are out.
Misquoted, that was Chris Rock obviously.
I don't give a shit, I want to know what ALL words mean, not just some of them. And as always, "words are only as offensive as the context in which they are used" - Dave Chappelle
It used to pay, when businesses just made devices, not services, and when they sold their devices, the hacks/uses that their customers came up with would only make their product sell more.
Now, devices are pushing proprietary formats, proprietary software, proprietary services, all of which cannot inter-operate with other devices. One thing that is clear: businesses want to sell wallet leashes.
Protip: patent your ideas before demonstrating them to Microsoft, that's probably the only way you'll make any real money. $2,000 for the winner of such an idea is a pittance, and if your idea is not chosen, you will get nothing, even though the idea may still be used later on.
The DualShock 2 for the PlayStation 2 could sense pressure with every button except L3, R3, Start, and Select, but was never really used for much. In MGS2 it was used; you could ease your finger off the "fire" button to avoid shooting a weapon. It would seem to make a difference in racing games, however, users that wanted the sensitivity preferred acceleration/brake on the right thumbstick in racing games because you had more of a sense of how far you were pushing the stick.
On a keyboard it would seem to matter even less for gamers... If you want that much sensitivity in the FPS genre, just use a joystick/mouse combo.
So the web browser, in the end, will just be one big common runtime environment? That's one way to get compatibility across OSes I guess. If proprietary plugins were to be written to run entirely in a W3C compatible environment, then we'd be better off.
But it still seems like there will always be some sort of proprietary extension that one group will try and control. Businesses will want to set up tollbooths just for the sake of a "guaranteed revenue stream". What this really means is a tax that doesn't benefit anyone else. How can we stop rewarding these groups? Is the only way to prevent such tollbooths from being viable and desirable? If so, how?
For example: A standard gets defined, then tools become available to produce content which includes a proprietary method of achieving a result, but this fragments the audience. Why do sites and users put up with this?
I already bought Wipeout HD, but if I had heard of this happening prior, I wouldn't have. Now, I won't update my version and I'm not going on PSN anymore so my disc-based games can't try and grab ads themselves. I'm not buying any PSN games anymore. Games with ads is just something I don't want to experience.
TV with ads is something I don't want to experience so I rip all my DVDs without trailers to a video jukebox, and I don't have cable or watch broadcast. Songs with ads is something I don't want to experience so I don't listen to the radio.
I just hate the feeling of constantly being pitched to. I avoid those guys on the sales floor at stores because of this too, and I don't want to be constantly bombarded with it in my own home. I wear shirts with no logos and I use shopping bags with no trademarks or logos. No ads!!! Get it Sony and everyone else?
Mega Man, Jumping Flash, Star Fox, Gargoyle's Quest, Sonic, Streets of Rage, Road Rash, Turrican, Space Quest, Maniac Mansion, Wonder Boy, Strider, Goemon, Blaster Master, Zone of the Enders, Bonk, and Battletoads. I'd really be interested to see a new take on these series.
Part of OLPC had always been that the entire software stack could be modified, and that users could learn about it and share ideas to make their own platform better.
But then, many devices also want their own USB cable interface...
Canada doesn't need any new laws, copyright law is already established, making illegal copies is already illegal. Why do we need any new laws? If anything, Canada should not have the kind of copyright extensions that we have seen in Europe and USA.
I don't want to buy another plastic instrument bundle, or pay $60 for effectively a song pack. The important thing for Guitar Hero and Rock Band was to distribute their product to the market, so that they could use those products as a store front to sell you more "DownLoadable Content" (add-on songs). Retail packages may be on the decline, but it's always fun to pick up a few new songs now and then. The concept of Rock Band or Guitar Hero don't really get boring unless you run out of songs you like, or over-saturate yourself with the various different editions of each game.
Then again, I can't wait for The Beatles game.
Try out .kkreiger from farbrausch/.theprodukkt. It's a first person shooter in 96k.
Online backup solutions are only as safe as the administrators make it, and they have to rely on a trusted method. What method do they use, and why is it any better than one we use ourselves (i.e. a redundant backup in a different location using said method)? What's more, online backup solutions could put our data at risk in other ways.
But by the same token it seems like citizens are demanding more and more protection from themselves, because when something bad happens to them, it doesn't matter if it's their own fault, they blame it on other people and sue until people are forced to stop people from exploiting the situation to absolve themselves and make others pay for what they have ruined for themselves. In short, people seem to practically beg for harsh reprimands, and less responsibility, and less control, because these are the most effective short-term solutions to implement to placate those who demand immediate satisfaction.
Will interest wane in WoW simply because it seems like just an extension to the treadmill? Are people getting tired of the aesthetic? These are questions from someone who doesn't see the attraction in the first place.
Even if it doesn't help people program, maybe it can help the less technically inclined to get a better idea about how software works. I got interested in programming because of games. When I saw games glitch, and saw programming limits showing through and tried to figure out why they couldn't achieve what they wanted, it gave me insight on how things worked. Through observation, I knew enough about making games that it made learning programming theory easier, and I was quickly able to achieve what I wanted because I could picture clearly how it should work. YMMV.
Space Quest 3, Leisure Suit Larry, Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Katamari Damacy, Psychonauts, Ratchet & Clank, Super Mario RPG, these games have lots of humor in a wide variety of ways. Humor's always been there and done right, it's just that not a lot of people bother since they're trying to provide a visceral experience and not one that is simply just entertaining. It depends on the type of game you want, but you can definitely find it.