Despite the theory and the public service broadcasting rhetoric, not only does the BBC carry a huge amount of advertising for it's own products and services (every other song on the BBC radio stations will be broken by a 30 second trail for another radio/TV program, just as annoying over time as the ads on commercial radio - I swear if I hear the trail for Russell Brand's stand-up gig tonight one more time it's going through the window) but it also has a very lax attitiude towards product placement. A recent, notorious, example was "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" a bloody awful (I only know because my mum insisted on having it on while I was visiting) reality show to find a "normal" person to understudy for the role of Maria in a London stage revival of the Sound of Music which was nothing more than a 10 week advert for the production (complete with premium rate phone lines). And last night Newsnight, which I had thought was the last serious political new programme in the UK, was mostly taken up with a puff piece for Madonna.
I wish the BBC would accept money for putting on shows like that, maybe then they could reduce the license fee.
1930's germany was way ahead of most other countries economically.
A lot of people think that and it really isn't true. I've just finished the excellent "The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy" by Adam Tooze which, amongst other things, tackles this myth. Certainly a few well connected industrialists (especially those in steel, coal and synthetic chemistry) did all right (although not as well as some people believe - there were swingeing taxes on "excess" corporate profits made from government contracts) but the ordinary Germans did not see much benefit. They were certainly better off than they were in the twenties, but that's not saying much, and, the book argues, as the European economy picked up the Nazis ensured that all the growth in the German economy was concentrated on increased military production rather than consumer goods. This was exacerbated by Germany's balance of payments problems which led to the banning of all non-essential (i.e. non-military) goods. There was, therefore, very little for Germans to buy, even if they were (for example) working in the armaments industry and notionally had more money (to avoid another Inflation saving was strongly encouraged or mandated, these saving were used to buy German government bonds and that, ultimately, is how the Nazi state financed a huge increase in state spending without raising taxes).
Also I'd be interested to know where you got the information about Nazi TV as I've never heard that before. Obviously I'm familiar with Goebbels "Peoples Radio" project which was designed to provide Germans with cheap, mass produced radios in order to better enable them to listen to Nazi propaganda and, even then, the cost of these radios was still more than the average family's monthly disposable income. Given the average German family's inability to afford even a radio in the 30s I'd always assumed there were, essentially, no TVs.
In my own experience and I recently suffered a very serious depressive episode which resulted in my being absent from work for two months. It went on, seemingly endlessly, with the pills I was presecribed and the counselling making no noticable difference. Until a friend of mine, who had seen the above mentioned study, offered me a line of k. I had only ever taken k once before, about 4 years previously, and thoroughly enjoyed it. So I snorted it and had my trip which enabled me to look into myself and see my problems from an entirely new angle, get some perspective on them and do a proper mental inventory. The next morning I woke up for the first time in weeks not feeling tearful or suicidal and, in the two months or so since I took the k, my recovery has been consistent and marked. Of course, it could just be a coincidence and other peoples' mileage may vary, but I firmly believe that just one line of k (I didn't take any more) made a real and lasting contribution towards treating my depression and psychiatrists should be open to trying it (which I would imagine the drug companies would hate, given the prices they charge for proprietary anti-depressants).
Re:I have a document they all should read there...
on
Blair Bullied Over Bully
·
· Score: 2, Informative
The strange thing is that that the statutory British Board of Film Censorhip (or Classification, as they prefer to cal themselves these days) who, amongst other things, have legal responsibility for age ratings for video games HAVE played Bully and rated it as a 15, meaning they really don't find it that bad.
Yes, the Space Treaty 1967 deals with this. Article II states "Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means."
Yeah, £50 (let alone more) is just too much for a game. The price of the software is the main reason I've not bought a 360, I just can't justify it to myself, especially as all the games for it I'm interested in are available far more cheaply on the PC. The industry, though, seems convinved that the public are just crying out for the opportunity to pay 50%+ more for the privilege of having shinier graphics on the same old franchises. Personally, I don't think that £50 is a supportable price point in the medium term, but would love to see the results of the market research Sony and MS have presumably done which convinced them £50 is their profit maximising price point (although they act so irrationally sometimes I wouldn't be at all surprised if they just realised that production budgets are going up by about 50% so decided to raise prices by a similar amount and hope for the best...) It's going to be interesting to see where the market's at in a year's time.
I bought and watched the Region 2 version yesterday and thought it looked pretty good. No noise or dirt that I remember seeing and the special effects really do not look dated at all. The sound's only pro-logic 2.0, but at least that's how they were originally released. Anamorphic widescreen would be nice but it still beats hell out of my old VHS copy. I doubt I'll ever watch the special edition disc though.
A couple of months ago $100 was probably the going rate. A quick look around internet retailers puts the current average around $75 for a 2GB memory stick. By way of comparison 2GB SD cards go for $50 or less.
Yes it could make sense, and does in some industries (the De Beers diamond cartel, for example, operates in this way by restricting supply of certain types of stone). The problem with applying this sort of strategy to the console industry is that the majority of profit comes from the sales of software. Whatever effect a deliberate restriction on supply may have on the perceived value of your product (and I think the positive effect of this is highly debatable in the context of mass market consumer electronics rather than luxury goods) what it undeniably does do is put an upper cap on the number of units of software that can be sold while this restriction is in place. Given that there will only be 400,000 PS3s for North America this year and budgets for games in the $10-20 million range it seems it's going to be very difficult for developers of the first generation of software to make a profit (especially as early software for consoles tends to date very quickly as developers get to grips with the machine and better games emerge), and that can't be good for anyone.
The DS pause on close also seems to need the game to be compatible. It doesn't work with Animal Crossing, for example (I'm guessing because of the way the environment changes over time), although that's the only one I've come across.
Generally speaking in the EU consumer contracts must be governed by the laws of, and jurisdiction in respect of disputes granted to, the jurisdiction in which the consumer resides. This is to prevent forum shopping by companies looking for countries with the weakest consumer protection laws and purporting to take advantage of those in other countries. A huge number of software and tech companies seem unaware of this (assuming that choice of law and jurisdiction in clauses work in the same way in the EU as in the US) and, presumably, don't want the expense of hiring local lawyers to check this sort of thing for them. My personal favourite was the license for the EU edition of the XBOX version of Doom 3, which purported to be governed by the laws of Texas...
Nice interpretation, I've not seen that one before. And I had always thought Gordan didn't say anything because of the huge quantities of morphine flowing through his veins (at least the way I played...)
We were, perhaps, in the 80s and early 90s - which were the glory days of the EU competition (anti-trust, if you must) directorate attacking state monopolies and imposing (and enforcing) serious fines against member states for illegal state aid. I would argue that, post Maastricht and the eastern enlargement, the priority shifted towards a "social" Europe (whatever that is supposed to mean) with competition and free movement of goods taking a back seat (notwithstanding that these elements of the Treaty of Rome, and their enforcment, were, I believe, the EU's most important contribution to Europe's post-war posterity).
As the recent events in France show, the European population still believe the state is obliged to take care of them and no European politicians have the guts to stand up and explain that this simply is not possible.
The second season saw David Tenant replacing Christopher Ecclestone (and, after some concerns in the first episode doing a damn fine job of it). Media over here have been reporting that Ecclestone is signed up for a second season so there won't be any more regenerations for at least another year.
I had an 256MB X800 (note lack of suffix) which was passively cooled (made by Gigabyte, doubt they make it anymore but old samples may still be around). Coped very well with all modern games (including Oblivion at 1024*768 with bloom lighting and the view distances maxed out and F.E.A.R. at a similar resolution), cost about £130 and I was very happy with it. Unfortunately (and this may or may not have had anything to do with the 20 sessions of Oblvion it was forced to undergo on the weekend before its demise) it died exactly a week after its warranty expired.
I wouldn't. For all its whining about US cultural imperialism when it comes to IP law the EU will, I believe, ultimately always follow the US's lead. Since once it's passed in the US it's much easier for the IP companies to lobby and demand that the EU needs similar measures in the name of "harmonisation" and "a level playing field", and the more Americaphile member's of the EU (like Blair) are lobbied by US officials directly.
Sure, the constitution's dead (for now, I'm sure once the French domestic situation has calmed down a bit they'll get it through somehow) but that doesn't stop our equivalent of the DCMA, the IP directive passed last year being in full force and effect. While the EU may be reeling from the blows of last year it's still very powerful and, because of the lack of democratic accountability, it's far easier for lobbyists to get their own way in Brussels even when individual nations may strongly reject specific proposals.
Indeed. It's a huge pity that US companies were never more willing to put their shareholders' interests above the country's narrow national interest to assist the Soviet Union in improving its controls over its citizens freedom of thought and expression. There was a lot money to be made there and, perhaps, the communist system could have lasted a little longer.
Seriously, the US recognises China as a major potential threat (banning all arms sales and getting very irritated with the EU when we were talking about lifting the embargo) yet it allows its companies to support the institutions and technology which help maintain the China as a single party dictatorship in ways which would have brought howls of treason had the same companies done the same things in the USSR. I've never understood why. Sure, there's the money but doesn't national security usually trump that, even in the US?
Nothing to do with the D-Pad. It happens when you're using the stylus in your left hand. You (or at least some people) tend to rest your hand on the left side of the DS and it sometimes catches the power switch. Not a major problem but still very irritating when it happens.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the original DS design.
Other than the positioning of the power button if you're a left hander. It takes real effort to avoid accidentally turning the thing off while using the stylus (or maybe that's just me...)
Not so much a trial just an extradition hearing under the new treaty (negotiated between George and Tony and with no reciprocity in relation to the extradition by the UK of US nationals - because when America says jump we say "Yes sir. How high?") which prevents the UK courts from considering the merits.
His complaint is that he won't get a fair trial in the states and just be dumped in Guantanamo.
It's funny. I think that all of your criticisms are valid (the terrible voice acting and dialogue drive me especially insane) yet I still put in 30 hours over the weekend and consider it the best PC game I've purchased in quite some time. It seems to be a lot easier to overlook the problems when actually playing the game than when you think about it afterwards...
What did people do before email?
Sent faxes and hard copies (either by courier if external or office messenger if internal - all our office messengers were made redundant a long time ago...)
In some ways it was better as you could get a document out the door and know nobody would be getting anything back to you for at least a few days (electronic copies by email allow them start reviewing instantly and they can get back to you in hours) and in some ways worse (I remember, 10 years ago when I was a junior in our Amsterdam office hanging around until 4 a.m. several days running trying to fax 150 page documents to various places in Russia when the line would not stay connected for more than 3 minutes at a time).
Actually I'm surprised it hasn't happened already.
I've just finished reading Simon Reynolds' very interesting history of the British post-punk scene "Rip It Up And Start Again". There are sections in there discussing the indie labels like Rough Trade, Mute, Stiff and others which were set up and funded by enthusiasts. This was a world where music could only be distributed physically on casette or vinyl which presented huge barriers to entry. Yet these people not only overcame them they ushered in arguably the most creative period for British music since the 60s and created a few big stars along the way (whom they gave a fair share of the royalties to, no advances with profits being split 50/50 after the cost of pressing the records had been recovered).
How much easier would it be to set up something similar today when semi-pro and even pro quality recording equipment is so much cheaper and physical distribution is almost irrelevant? Yet, as least so far as I can tell, no one is trying this? Why is there no equivalent of the Rough Trade shop on-line entering into pure distribution deals with new bands to allow them to sell downloads without a record deal and enriching our lives by introducing us to stuff we probably wouldn't have heard otherwise? Not to mention encouraging (and possibly making commercially viable) the sort of experimentation which history has shown time and again is the best way for music to evolve both artistically and commercially.
Slashdot Mirror
I wish the BBC would accept money for putting on shows like that, maybe then they could reduce the license fee.
A lot of people think that and it really isn't true. I've just finished the excellent "The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy" by Adam Tooze which, amongst other things, tackles this myth. Certainly a few well connected industrialists (especially those in steel, coal and synthetic chemistry) did all right (although not as well as some people believe - there were swingeing taxes on "excess" corporate profits made from government contracts) but the ordinary Germans did not see much benefit. They were certainly better off than they were in the twenties, but that's not saying much, and, the book argues, as the European economy picked up the Nazis ensured that all the growth in the German economy was concentrated on increased military production rather than consumer goods. This was exacerbated by Germany's balance of payments problems which led to the banning of all non-essential (i.e. non-military) goods. There was, therefore, very little for Germans to buy, even if they were (for example) working in the armaments industry and notionally had more money (to avoid another Inflation saving was strongly encouraged or mandated, these saving were used to buy German government bonds and that, ultimately, is how the Nazi state financed a huge increase in state spending without raising taxes).
Also I'd be interested to know where you got the information about Nazi TV as I've never heard that before. Obviously I'm familiar with Goebbels "Peoples Radio" project which was designed to provide Germans with cheap, mass produced radios in order to better enable them to listen to Nazi propaganda and, even then, the cost of these radios was still more than the average family's monthly disposable income. Given the average German family's inability to afford even a radio in the 30s I'd always assumed there were, essentially, no TVs.
In my own experience and I recently suffered a very serious depressive episode which resulted in my being absent from work for two months. It went on, seemingly endlessly, with the pills I was presecribed and the counselling making no noticable difference. Until a friend of mine, who had seen the above mentioned study, offered me a line of k. I had only ever taken k once before, about 4 years previously, and thoroughly enjoyed it. So I snorted it and had my trip which enabled me to look into myself and see my problems from an entirely new angle, get some perspective on them and do a proper mental inventory. The next morning I woke up for the first time in weeks not feeling tearful or suicidal and, in the two months or so since I took the k, my recovery has been consistent and marked. Of course, it could just be a coincidence and other peoples' mileage may vary, but I firmly believe that just one line of k (I didn't take any more) made a real and lasting contribution towards treating my depression and psychiatrists should be open to trying it (which I would imagine the drug companies would hate, given the prices they charge for proprietary anti-depressants).
The strange thing is that that the statutory British Board of Film Censorhip (or Classification, as they prefer to cal themselves these days) who, amongst other things, have legal responsibility for age ratings for video games HAVE played Bully and rated it as a 15, meaning they really don't find it that bad.
The US is a party to this.
Yeah, £50 (let alone more) is just too much for a game. The price of the software is the main reason I've not bought a 360, I just can't justify it to myself, especially as all the games for it I'm interested in are available far more cheaply on the PC. The industry, though, seems convinved that the public are just crying out for the opportunity to pay 50%+ more for the privilege of having shinier graphics on the same old franchises. Personally, I don't think that £50 is a supportable price point in the medium term, but would love to see the results of the market research Sony and MS have presumably done which convinced them £50 is their profit maximising price point (although they act so irrationally sometimes I wouldn't be at all surprised if they just realised that production budgets are going up by about 50% so decided to raise prices by a similar amount and hope for the best...) It's going to be interesting to see where the market's at in a year's time.
Not that they have any in stock...
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=48Q N&CategorySelectedId=11137&NavigationKey=11137
I bought and watched the Region 2 version yesterday and thought it looked pretty good. No noise or dirt that I remember seeing and the special effects really do not look dated at all. The sound's only pro-logic 2.0, but at least that's how they were originally released. Anamorphic widescreen would be nice but it still beats hell out of my old VHS copy. I doubt I'll ever watch the special edition disc though.
A couple of months ago $100 was probably the going rate. A quick look around internet retailers puts the current average around $75 for a 2GB memory stick. By way of comparison 2GB SD cards go for $50 or less.
Yes it could make sense, and does in some industries (the De Beers diamond cartel, for example, operates in this way by restricting supply of certain types of stone). The problem with applying this sort of strategy to the console industry is that the majority of profit comes from the sales of software. Whatever effect a deliberate restriction on supply may have on the perceived value of your product (and I think the positive effect of this is highly debatable in the context of mass market consumer electronics rather than luxury goods) what it undeniably does do is put an upper cap on the number of units of software that can be sold while this restriction is in place. Given that there will only be 400,000 PS3s for North America this year and budgets for games in the $10-20 million range it seems it's going to be very difficult for developers of the first generation of software to make a profit (especially as early software for consoles tends to date very quickly as developers get to grips with the machine and better games emerge), and that can't be good for anyone.
The DS pause on close also seems to need the game to be compatible. It doesn't work with Animal Crossing, for example (I'm guessing because of the way the environment changes over time), although that's the only one I've come across.
Generally speaking in the EU consumer contracts must be governed by the laws of, and jurisdiction in respect of disputes granted to, the jurisdiction in which the consumer resides. This is to prevent forum shopping by companies looking for countries with the weakest consumer protection laws and purporting to take advantage of those in other countries. A huge number of software and tech companies seem unaware of this (assuming that choice of law and jurisdiction in clauses work in the same way in the EU as in the US) and, presumably, don't want the expense of hiring local lawyers to check this sort of thing for them. My personal favourite was the license for the EU edition of the XBOX version of Doom 3, which purported to be governed by the laws of Texas...
Nice interpretation, I've not seen that one before. And I had always thought Gordan didn't say anything because of the huge quantities of morphine flowing through his veins (at least the way I played...)
As the recent events in France show, the European population still believe the state is obliged to take care of them and no European politicians have the guts to stand up and explain that this simply is not possible.
The second season saw David Tenant replacing Christopher Ecclestone (and, after some concerns in the first episode doing a damn fine job of it). Media over here have been reporting that Ecclestone is signed up for a second season so there won't be any more regenerations for at least another year.
I had an 256MB X800 (note lack of suffix) which was passively cooled (made by Gigabyte, doubt they make it anymore but old samples may still be around). Coped very well with all modern games (including Oblivion at 1024*768 with bloom lighting and the view distances maxed out and F.E.A.R. at a similar resolution), cost about £130 and I was very happy with it. Unfortunately (and this may or may not have had anything to do with the 20 sessions of Oblvion it was forced to undergo on the weekend before its demise) it died exactly a week after its warranty expired.
Sure, the constitution's dead (for now, I'm sure once the French domestic situation has calmed down a bit they'll get it through somehow) but that doesn't stop our equivalent of the DCMA, the IP directive passed last year being in full force and effect. While the EU may be reeling from the blows of last year it's still very powerful and, because of the lack of democratic accountability, it's far easier for lobbyists to get their own way in Brussels even when individual nations may strongly reject specific proposals.
Seriously, the US recognises China as a major potential threat (banning all arms sales and getting very irritated with the EU when we were talking about lifting the embargo) yet it allows its companies to support the institutions and technology which help maintain the China as a single party dictatorship in ways which would have brought howls of treason had the same companies done the same things in the USSR. I've never understood why. Sure, there's the money but doesn't national security usually trump that, even in the US?
Nothing to do with the D-Pad. It happens when you're using the stylus in your left hand. You (or at least some people) tend to rest your hand on the left side of the DS and it sometimes catches the power switch. Not a major problem but still very irritating when it happens.
Other than the positioning of the power button if you're a left hander. It takes real effort to avoid accidentally turning the thing off while using the stylus (or maybe that's just me...)
His complaint is that he won't get a fair trial in the states and just be dumped in Guantanamo.
It's funny. I think that all of your criticisms are valid (the terrible voice acting and dialogue drive me especially insane) yet I still put in 30 hours over the weekend and consider it the best PC game I've purchased in quite some time. It seems to be a lot easier to overlook the problems when actually playing the game than when you think about it afterwards...
He didn't get rich by writing a lot of cheques...
In some ways it was better as you could get a document out the door and know nobody would be getting anything back to you for at least a few days (electronic copies by email allow them start reviewing instantly and they can get back to you in hours) and in some ways worse (I remember, 10 years ago when I was a junior in our Amsterdam office hanging around until 4 a.m. several days running trying to fax 150 page documents to various places in Russia when the line would not stay connected for more than 3 minutes at a time).
I've just finished reading Simon Reynolds' very interesting history of the British post-punk scene "Rip It Up And Start Again". There are sections in there discussing the indie labels like Rough Trade, Mute, Stiff and others which were set up and funded by enthusiasts. This was a world where music could only be distributed physically on casette or vinyl which presented huge barriers to entry. Yet these people not only overcame them they ushered in arguably the most creative period for British music since the 60s and created a few big stars along the way (whom they gave a fair share of the royalties to, no advances with profits being split 50/50 after the cost of pressing the records had been recovered).
How much easier would it be to set up something similar today when semi-pro and even pro quality recording equipment is so much cheaper and physical distribution is almost irrelevant? Yet, as least so far as I can tell, no one is trying this? Why is there no equivalent of the Rough Trade shop on-line entering into pure distribution deals with new bands to allow them to sell downloads without a record deal and enriching our lives by introducing us to stuff we probably wouldn't have heard otherwise? Not to mention encouraging (and possibly making commercially viable) the sort of experimentation which history has shown time and again is the best way for music to evolve both artistically and commercially.