For a man's man, Kim sure feels the need to censor himself quite a ####### lot. What the #### is up with that? Either find an eloquent way to say what you're trying to say, or just fucking say it, but having all these ####'s in place of fucks and shits makes him look like an uneducated pussy.
Pardon my ####'s, but what the fuck is this:
When women got the vote, it was inevitable that government was going to become more powerful, more intrusive, and more "protective" (ie. more coddling), because women are hard-wired to treasure security more than uncertainty and danger.
I am supposed to believe that the women voters in this country are to blame for our heavy handed, civil rights trampling, fear mongering, war-hawking government? That all the men voted to live dangerously and with uncertainty, and the women were all like, "No, we need a large, over powered, fascist government to protect us".
Well that and this:
Speaking of rap music, do you want to know why more White boys buy that crap than Black boys do? You know why rape is such a problem on college campuses? Why binge drinking is a problem among college freshmen?
It's a reaction: a reaction against being pussified. And I understand it, completely. Young males are aggressive, they do fight amongst themselves, they are destructive, and all this does happen for a purpose.
Is he seriously trying to rationalize rape and alcohol abuse by saying those actions are simply unavoidable, natural expressions of the human male? What about self-control, integrity, and discipline?
Oh, and:
Donald Rumsfeld... He's a Real Man. No wonder the Euros hate and fear him... We'd better get more like him, we'd better become more like him, because if we don't, men will become a footnote to history.
Umm...what? I'm sorry but the argument that being assertive and aggressive is an appropriate replacement for being intelligent and diplomatic does not hold water with me. You can't use Rumsfeld as an example of what people should be like until you can prove that Rumsfeld isn't a complete idiot. People fear Rumsfeld because he is irrational and has the world's most powerful military at his disposal. So many people have died unnecessarily as the direct result of this man's actions and we're supposed to be more like him?
I actually think this is a good idea. For a long time I've felt that really the only thing holding the US back is a total lack of communication between its citizens. Without getting too political, I see a few things happening here:
The US government is fucking up
The best interests of the voting public of the US require change
People in the US are resistent to politics (we can smell bullshit, we're Americans)
Americans are not presented with any form of truly open discussion
Assumption: Given enough time and a sufficiently open forum, the American people can fix our country
So a political wiki could be a good thing supposing it is executed correctly. We all know the major issues with most web forums, but we have also seen large, popular web forums frequented by the socially inept moderated properly (ahem). Aside from the question of whether or not Wales will get it right, can we all at least agree that if done right, a political forum open to the public and free from lies would be a boon to American "politics" and more importantly society in general? Isn't the whole problem the fact that ordinary people who hold the vast majority of the world population and actually have the same beliefs don't communicate or coordinate-- but the psychos and crooks do? Isn't it the fact that governments can control what we see and hear that prevents any political change?
Ok so we've already established that iterative programming isn't the next big thing, it is simply what most programmers do. Iterative programming is simply a name for how most developers build projects. You write code, test the code, move on to the next code. Not being a game developer, I can't say from personal experience, but I'll bet thats how most games were made anyway.
Someone even touched on unit testing and continuous integration as game development methods. Saying unit testing can't cover 100% of a game's code may be accurate, may be not, I'm not a game developer. But the big complicated problems that can't be caught with unit testing can at least be narrowed down by unit testing. Ok, so you can't test everything that will happen in a big game, but you can test all the little things. Knowing that all the little things work helps make debugging the big things easier. If you can't test how an AI will move through a map in certain circumstances, you can at least test how the AI recognizes the map, recognizes objects in the map, and the ability of it to move and navigate. So on specific map A, the AI can't get around this crate. Well, can the AI recognize the map around the crate? Can the AI recognize crates? Can the AI navigate? All questions unit tests are meant to answer. Though I must say, I've been through crazy complicated business "ill-logic" , and I have yet to run into something that can't be unit test besides users.
But ok, what about the other aspects of agile development? Most of what has been left out is more on the human side of development. Aside from iterative development and TDD, what about pair programming? What about daily stand ups? What about 'no code ownership'? Without these, it isn't agile, it just iterative development or TDD. Agile development by name pertains as much to the people and how they are organized and managed as it does to the code itself.
"Will there be wireless internet access for attendees to bring their own computers? BlizzCon will include a LAN area with over 300+ computers, but there will be no wireless internet access. Attendees cannot bring their own computers into the show, but some of the local hotels offer internet capabilities in their hotel rooms if you choose to bring your own computer."
What kind of convention is this then? The whole point of a gaming convention is gaming. If you can't bring your own computer, you won't be doing as much gaming. This sounds like more of a tradeshow with 300+ demo machines setup than it does a gaming convention with unlimited LAN access for anyone to plug in their machine and play how they please. Otherwise its going to be people coming from all over the world to do what in a hotel room they could have done at home: sit alone in a small, dimly lit room playing WoW.
He's just saying what we've all been thinking for years. Even back during the first incarnation of Napster I was saying things like, "yea sure you could get free on Napster, but if its a band I like and music I enjoy I will buy it" and "being able to download songs online instantly is so much better than going to the music store, I would pay money for this!"
Way to back track RIAA! What happened to piracy and iTunes stealing your profits? Oh, you mean piracy isn't a threat and iTunes does good business? Well I could have told you that years ago and saved you so much money on legal fees!
But still I agree with the sentiment that it isn't like they could do anything about digital music sales or piracy to begin with and are just admitting defeat at this point by saying, "well, it wasn't such a big deal after all, let's just pretend we didn't try to sue 12 year olds to stop it"
Well, I think we should note that a copy of Windows which can be installed on a machine other than the one it was purchased with costs an extra $100. So Apple isn't entirely alone in this practice; by far the majority of operating system software purchased is tied to a specific computer. Many people don't realize that it's illegal to move that OEM copy of Windows to a different machine but it is.
Right, but if I go to Staples and buy a retail copy of WinXP, I can take that and install it on a machine from any vendor. Apple ties you down to their hardware. While I can understand why they do this, they're a hardware vendor first and foremost, it is also the single example of DRM from Apple that really ticks me off. I was all set to buy OSX until I found out I would have to buy a Mac to run it on.
I'm not aware of any protections on any Apple hardware which prevent the installation of a non-Apple OS. Early Intel Macs came with an EFI-based firmware which Windows doesn't support, but that was a technical restriction, not a DRM one.
Thanks for clarifying. I knew Windows wouldn't run on the new Intel Macs, but was clear on why. I was under the impression this was something intentionally done on Apple's part.
I thought in initial designs this thing was supposed to have a hand crank to generate power for people in areas with no electicity. Is it gone or is it tucked away somewhere in the laptop and wasn't be shown in the pictures?
Is this protest really all about ITunes or are they also concerned with the DRM protections in OSX that prevent you from installing OSX on non-Apple hardware. Or how about the protections in Apple hardware to prevent you from installing a non-Apple OS on it? I actually forget there's DRM in ITunes because it is so weak and easily ignored, but what they've done with Macs and OSX is neither weak nor easily ignored. If you have a license to OSX, why should Apple decide what you install on it? If you own a Mac, why should Apple decide what you install on it?
Overall, the company doesnt have to give you a finished product, and you pay more for it. Oh, and 5 hours game play is far too generous. Try 2. 10 bucks an hour!
No, its not 2 hours; you're not counting the commentary (which is enjoyable) or the new multiplayer modes. And Episode one is a very finished product. Everything is polished and I didn't come across a single bug.
But that's not the point. The point is that EP1 is a good game. If it was like any other FPS out there, I would be pissed about the price, but I think that in this case it was worth the money. You're too used to get cheap deals on shitty games. Well this isn't a shitty game and is worth the money. Maybe not your money, you don't seem to be the type to appreciate quality workmanship but for the rest of us out there who are tired of the same old bullshit shooters, it is nice to have a company like Valve releasing a quality product.
Besides, it is only a third of what you're calling a "finished product". The trilogy will be the complete product, so why don't you just wait until they're done before you complain about the $64 you haven't spent yet?
And anyway, after playing games from the guys at Valve (from before they were Valve, team fortress anyone) I happy about their turn towards episodic content. Valve takes a long time in releasing anything because of their attention to detail and quality. I am happy to play a third of the game every 12 months as opposed to waiting 3 or 4 years for the whole thing. They've shortened the development cycle on their engine and they've streamlined content production. Episodic content seems to me to be the perfect way for a company like this to put out a quality product in a shorter amount of time. And like I said, I am happy they are.
Oh yea, another question just occured to me, have you even played it yet?:P
When I read articles like this, besides giving me a good chuckle, it makes me wonder. If big business is really going through all these lengths to find out more about all of us, are they really doing it to know who to target ads to? Is it really that hard to figure out who to show the life insurance ads to and who to show the ads for the new rock album to? If that is the case, I find it pretty sad. That's a problem Google figured out years ago.
Conspiracy theories aside (I could cook up a few but I'm fresh out of the stinky green), it really sounds like big business is trying to figure us out for a larger purpose than just which ads to show us. It sounds more like they're out of ideas for new products and are examining the needs of the public to figure out what we want that doesn't already exist as opposed to what we want that they already have to sell. I think its fairly obvious that MySpace is the equivilant of 1,000,000 monkies typing at 1,000,000 typewriters with Murdoch hoping that one day a monkey will come up with the next Seinfeld, Friends, Simpsons, American Idol etc. which he instantly has the rights to.
I guess its because I'm not as out of touch with reality as these rich ass execs in buying up all these web apps, but is it really hard to tell what the American public likes? And if not, why is that information so valuable?
At the end of the day the real problem here is China, not any of the US companies operating there. The letter from Yahoo! points out the obvious, if you're there you have comply with the local law, they had no choice at the time. As for whether or not any US company chooses to operate in china, what difference does it make with regards to human rights there in China? At the very least, a US company operating in China has the ability to pay a decent wage and give their Chinese employees good benefits but beyond that how could they possibly change China's human rights policies?
While I respect the views of NUJ, I also respectfully disagree with who they are choosing to boycott here. They disagree with China's politics so they boycott a US company? What exactly is that supposed to prove or accomplish? If you want to bring about any sort of change within China through a boycott, then for Christ's sake, boycott all of the crappy sweatshop goods that come out of China!
Anyone going into this game just looking to kill time with 'yet another shooter' is going to be disappointed. That is because they will be expecting something this game is not. It is an installment of a great, interactive story. If all you want is mindless shooting, save your money and get some been-there-done-that FPS. If you're interested in immersive, interactive entertainment, get this game. This is the beginning of a whole new level of entertainment folks. Would you spend $20 for an interactive movie that was 5 hours long?
This just in: While searching a murder suspects home police have come across various boxes containing data discs. These boxes are covered with violent imagery and words like "Hitman, Grand Theft Auto, and True Crime". While authorities have declined to comment on any connection, we here at the Associated Press feel that without the help of one Jack Thompson, the police officers would have completely overlooked such obscure and truly puzzling pieces of evidence and would have never drawn any connection between them and the suspects alleged violent behavior.
Also from TFA: "I think (the murder) goes beyond video games, but who's to say?," Dilworth commented, adding that the question of whether video games lead to youth violence might be "more of a debate for the living room rather than the courtroom."
Doesn't sound like the local police are too amused with Jack Thompson's "theories". Once again, this isn't news because the games that were siezed will play no role in the murder trial. The cops are like, "Yea we found M-rated video games, who cares? The kid confessed."
Jack Thompson is a crackpot and the only reason he gets any attention at all is because people see his name in an article and suddenly its a top story.
"Nobody shoots anybody in the face unless you're a hitman or a videogamer."
Is this a comment on similar mentalities between hitmen and videogamers or is Jack trying to say they're the only people with good enough aim to hit consistent head shots?
Seriously though, how is this news? If the police are building any sort of murder case against anyone, they are going to sieze everything remotely related to murder and killing. Whether it be videogames, music, movies, books, etc. anything that helps the DA say, "this person has murder on the mind, and here is what I have to back that up."
I remember getting into the Lone Wolf series as a kid. The first few books were a good time, but after a while I got bored with it and started cheating by faking my stats and doing "save games" often and seeing what each path would lead to before I picked one. I think there were a total of almost 30 books in the series, I definitely didn't make it that far and lost interest.
While I'm sure there's a "warm fuzzy" factor with bring back CYOA books, in the end isn't this a dead concept? Are people still going to be interested with having only a handful of choices in these books where there are newer forms of interactive media (video games) out these days that are drastically more open ended? What if I don't like choice A, B, and C and want to go for choice R, stab the mofo in the eye with my dagger, steal everything he owns and forget about the whole quest?
I'm in favor of scientific studies which I am 100% positive these will not be. "Let's conduct a study to see who has the largest, most powerful lobby. The video game industry or the various right wing, family values coalitions."
What does this even mean? Electronic media is SO broad! They intend to study the effects of television, motion pictures, music, video games, and the interweb on children? What meaningful research could possibly come from this? That kids like electronic media more than the anolog alternatives?
Law enforcement officials say they have no interest in reading people's genetic secrets. The U.S. profiling system focuses on just 13 small regions of the DNA molecule -- regions that do not code for any known biological or behavioral traits but vary enough to give everyone who is not an identical twin a unique 52-digit number.
This is nothing more then authentication for matching parts that came from you to you yourself. I think it is unreasonable for anyone to believe that the US government is intent on storing the complete genetic profile all 300 million US citizens much less being able to do anything useful with that information. Besides, 99.9% of all of those profiles would be more or less identical and a total waste to store!
With every new technology there is both a potential for abuse and a potential for doing a great amount of good. Obviously you have all covered the (extreme) cases of potential abuse, but what about the benefits of such a system? All the talk about this being a civil rights violation is pure rhetoric. If you consider the efficiency and elimination of possible false convictions that will arise from having such a system, it starts to sound more and more like a good thing. The ability to identify a murderer/rapist/terrorist in a split second? The ability to automatically rule out all the innocent people as possible suspects in a split second? The ability to eliminate the need for massive amounts of investigative work that comes with building a murder case with a quick SQL query? You guys can be paranoid all you want to, but I would actually be more relieved to know that for once our government is putting science and technology to good use. When the FBI starts praying to God in order to crack cases and find suspects, then I'll be worried. Until then, I have faith in science and technology.
When it comes down to it such a system is an innevitability and I think the true concern is whether or not it is done right. This sounds to me like they're doing it right using DNA as a biometric identifier as opposed to genetic profiling. I call FUD.
What is this advantage people speak of? I don't understand what it needs other than an ethernet card. Did it need a built in ethernet card?
Well, yea a built in ethernet card would have helped, but I'm talking more about infrastructure. The online capabilities of the PS2 is basically as good or as bad as the companies developing the games and the service they are willing to provide on their own. Basically, yea you can get online with the PS2, but your online experience is entirely up to the individual developers. What this means is that fewer developers are going to add online multiplayer capabilities to a game if it is going to cause them more cost to develop and more cost through the life of the game to provide the online service.
XBox live on the other hand provides that service, so the developers can concentrate more on the game, and less on what they themselves will have to do to actually provide the online multiplayer service.
From one PC Gamer to another, this doesn't seem like a big deal when you think about a lot of the online multiplayer games where it is up to the end users to provide the service (run their own servers). Of course it is an entirely different story with massively multiplayer games, where it takes a server farm (and a lot of bandwidth) to provide the online service, but this is beside the point. In the universe of PC gaming, the end users also create their own communities and really do an excellent job of it. However, they have the advantage because they are already in control of that online multiplayer platform that we call the internet. When you're talking more about consoles, there is less there for people to work with on the console itself. For PC users this isn't an issue because you have your PC to turn to for creating that online community and for running game servers like Halo. For the console owners out there that don't have PC's already, there is no ability for them to create any sort of community or provide any sort of service on their own. Any console maker interested in the casual gamer market, and they all are, needs to keep in mind that their users could be relying entirely on the abilities of the console for their online experience. This means a little more than just the connection is required, you need to provide no only the game server, but an easy way for communities to form and grow. The PS2 does not provide this at all really, but XBox live does. You not only get the online gaming service, but you also get very accessible modes of communication between all of the players. This is important for an online multiplayer game to succeed because most of the fun of online multiplayer is the fact you're playing with so many people. You need an easy way to meet them, play with them, and talk to them outside of the game.
Side note, I do not own an XBox and am not an XBox live user. I'm in now way trying to sell the XBox as the better console. I speak from my own experiences with online PC gaming and the communities that I have been a part of that grow around the games I have played. Largely, it either the accessibility of the game or the community that keeps me coming back to a game. Some games with online multiplayer force you to have to know the other parties you're playing with in order to start a game. I don't play much of those. Other games with online multiplayer feature user runnable servers that are easily browsable and always have people playing whether I know them or not. I play a lot of these. And finally some games have such a fanatical following and strong communities grow from them and people actually get together, organize among themselves, and from that organization add a deeper level of gameplay that only the players themselves can provide and developers can only dream of. These are the games I play for years and years without tiring of them. They are what online multiplayer is all about, and from my first post, they are what the future of gaming will be all about.
Sony must clearly also address its relative weakness in online, where Microsoft has a substantial lead.
The future of gaming is online multiplayer (not better graphics) because online multiplayer affects the core of gaming, which is gameplay. This is a big reason PC gaming isn't dead and the reason why any of the major consoles who don't make this leap will be left behind. Of course, this means way more than having an internet ready gaming console. The GameCube and PS2 are internet ready (though adapters are required). Microsoft has XBox live, which is more than internet connectivity, it is a online multiplayer/gaming community platform. What XBox live provides is an easy, well managed solution for developers who are looking for a console to make their online multiplayer games for. Even if Sony were to bring SOE to the PS3, it still falls short of providing any kind of method for third party developers to build online multiplayer games for the PS3. IMHO, for Sony to redeem the PS3, they need to not only bring SOE to the console (and fix the problems with SOE), but also allow third party developers access to its capabilities.
Re:and the seller...
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Online Revenge
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· Score: 2, Interesting
What law was broken here? Is the buyer personally threatening the seller or something? Because if not, I can't see how the buyer did anything wrong. The seller sold the laptop, hardware and all (read: software/data). I don't see why the buyer does not have the right to do what he pleases with all of the seller's personal information. The seller put his personal life on the laptop up for bid. The buyer bought it all, so why doesn't the buyer have the right the information and the right to post all of it online if he/she pleases?
Apple tries so hard to make their hardware look nice and seemless that when it comes to simple little fixes like checking to make sure you're hard drive is plugged in, most people end sending it away for 4 weeks for 5 minutes of labor.
Dr. Lynn Miller is one of the minds behind the Interactive Sex Project, an interactive video designed to reduce HIV risk behaviors by allowing players to make critical decisions on a virtual date such as where to go, whether to bring a condom, and how to respond to an opportunity to take drugs. Players are allowed to make up their own minds and are presented with the consequences of their actions. If you are not sure what to do, the video's hosts are always there to offer advice. The project currently uses footage of real actors but Dr. Miller hopes to employ virtual characters in the future.
Isn't the whole idea of making "interactive, educational games" to have a piece of software that people want to use because its fun regardless of any educational value? Who is going to want to play a game where you win by not doing the fun things in the game? I thought the whole point of the virtual experience was to live the life that you can't in reality. Why would I want to be boring in my real life and my virtual life?
This is why there are violent, adult, non-educational video games. People want to have sex with that dirty hooker, and do drugs, and kill people, because in their real lives most won't do any of those things! Virtual Prude 2k6 gets a 1... out of 5.
Apologies if someone has already mentioned this. And I know this point has been made in previous posts.
American's are simply over-worked. It isn't that we can't do a good job and it isn't that we just want to be lazy. It is the fact that we're killing ourselves by working too much. Some of the more progressive countries (European countries) allow at least 4 weeks of vacation a year and in return their workers are sharper when they are actually on the job. American's on the other hand know they're over-worked and feel the stress associated with that. Whether it is a concious decision or not, it leads to slacking off. Not because "we're just lazy", but because we have no choice. If you're over-worked and stressed out, sometimes you can't do anything BUT slack off, and the feeling that you're doing something wrong by resting that brian, those eyes, and them wrists, only adds to stress.
Basically the bottom line is this, American's don't need to slack off more, we slack off just enough. The business behind the American workers need to realize that Americans need more slack time and actually provide it as more personal days or more vacation time. We're going to do it one way or the other, so it might as well be recognized as a true need of the American worker to have more down time.
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For a man's man, Kim sure feels the need to censor himself quite a ####### lot. What the #### is up with that? Either find an eloquent way to say what you're trying to say, or just fucking say it, but having all these ####'s in place of fucks and shits makes him look like an uneducated pussy.
Pardon my ####'s, but what the fuck is this: I am supposed to believe that the women voters in this country are to blame for our heavy handed, civil rights trampling, fear mongering, war-hawking government? That all the men voted to live dangerously and with uncertainty, and the women were all like, "No, we need a large, over powered, fascist government to protect us".
Well that and this:
Is he seriously trying to rationalize rape and alcohol abuse by saying those actions are simply unavoidable, natural expressions of the human male? What about self-control, integrity, and discipline?
Oh, and: Umm...what? I'm sorry but the argument that being assertive and aggressive is an appropriate replacement for being intelligent and diplomatic does not hold water with me. You can't use Rumsfeld as an example of what people should be like until you can prove that Rumsfeld isn't a complete idiot. People fear Rumsfeld because he is irrational and has the world's most powerful military at his disposal. So many people have died unnecessarily as the direct result of this man's actions and we're supposed to be more like him?
So a political wiki could be a good thing supposing it is executed correctly. We all know the major issues with most web forums, but we have also seen large, popular web forums frequented by the socially inept moderated properly (ahem). Aside from the question of whether or not Wales will get it right, can we all at least agree that if done right, a political forum open to the public and free from lies would be a boon to American "politics" and more importantly society in general? Isn't the whole problem the fact that ordinary people who hold the vast majority of the world population and actually have the same beliefs don't communicate or coordinate-- but the psychos and crooks do? Isn't it the fact that governments can control what we see and hear that prevents any political change?
Imagine if politics was moderated like
Ok so we've already established that iterative programming isn't the next big thing, it is simply what most programmers do. Iterative programming is simply a name for how most developers build projects. You write code, test the code, move on to the next code. Not being a game developer, I can't say from personal experience, but I'll bet thats how most games were made anyway.
Someone even touched on unit testing and continuous integration as game development methods. Saying unit testing can't cover 100% of a game's code may be accurate, may be not, I'm not a game developer. But the big complicated problems that can't be caught with unit testing can at least be narrowed down by unit testing. Ok, so you can't test everything that will happen in a big game, but you can test all the little things. Knowing that all the little things work helps make debugging the big things easier. If you can't test how an AI will move through a map in certain circumstances, you can at least test how the AI recognizes the map, recognizes objects in the map, and the ability of it to move and navigate. So on specific map A, the AI can't get around this crate. Well, can the AI recognize the map around the crate? Can the AI recognize crates? Can the AI navigate? All questions unit tests are meant to answer. Though I must say, I've been through crazy complicated business "ill-logic" , and I have yet to run into something that can't be unit test besides users.
But ok, what about the other aspects of agile development? Most of what has been left out is more on the human side of development. Aside from iterative development and TDD, what about pair programming? What about daily stand ups? What about 'no code ownership'? Without these, it isn't agile, it just iterative development or TDD. Agile development by name pertains as much to the people and how they are organized and managed as it does to the code itself.
"Will there be wireless internet access for attendees to bring their own computers? BlizzCon will include a LAN area with over 300+ computers, but there will be no wireless internet access. Attendees cannot bring their own computers into the show, but some of the local hotels offer internet capabilities in their hotel rooms if you choose to bring your own computer."
What kind of convention is this then? The whole point of a gaming convention is gaming. If you can't bring your own computer, you won't be doing as much gaming. This sounds like more of a tradeshow with 300+ demo machines setup than it does a gaming convention with unlimited LAN access for anyone to plug in their machine and play how they please. Otherwise its going to be people coming from all over the world to do what in a hotel room they could have done at home: sit alone in a small, dimly lit room playing WoW.
He's just saying what we've all been thinking for years. Even back during the first incarnation of Napster I was saying things like, "yea sure you could get free on Napster, but if its a band I like and music I enjoy I will buy it" and "being able to download songs online instantly is so much better than going to the music store, I would pay money for this!"
Way to back track RIAA! What happened to piracy and iTunes stealing your profits? Oh, you mean piracy isn't a threat and iTunes does good business? Well I could have told you that years ago and saved you so much money on legal fees!
But still I agree with the sentiment that it isn't like they could do anything about digital music sales or piracy to begin with and are just admitting defeat at this point by saying, "well, it wasn't such a big deal after all, let's just pretend we didn't try to sue 12 year olds to stop it"
Well, I think we should note that a copy of Windows which can be installed on a machine other than the one it was purchased with costs an extra $100. So Apple isn't entirely alone in this practice; by far the majority of operating system software purchased is tied to a specific computer. Many people don't realize that it's illegal to move that OEM copy of Windows to a different machine but it is.
Right, but if I go to Staples and buy a retail copy of WinXP, I can take that and install it on a machine from any vendor. Apple ties you down to their hardware. While I can understand why they do this, they're a hardware vendor first and foremost, it is also the single example of DRM from Apple that really ticks me off. I was all set to buy OSX until I found out I would have to buy a Mac to run it on.
I'm not aware of any protections on any Apple hardware which prevent the installation of a non-Apple OS. Early Intel Macs came with an EFI-based firmware which Windows doesn't support, but that was a technical restriction, not a DRM one.
Thanks for clarifying. I knew Windows wouldn't run on the new Intel Macs, but was clear on why. I was under the impression this was something intentionally done on Apple's part.
I thought in initial designs this thing was supposed to have a hand crank to generate power for people in areas with no electicity. Is it gone or is it tucked away somewhere in the laptop and wasn't be shown in the pictures?
Is this protest really all about ITunes or are they also concerned with the DRM protections in OSX that prevent you from installing OSX on non-Apple hardware. Or how about the protections in Apple hardware to prevent you from installing a non-Apple OS on it? I actually forget there's DRM in ITunes because it is so weak and easily ignored, but what they've done with Macs and OSX is neither weak nor easily ignored. If you have a license to OSX, why should Apple decide what you install on it? If you own a Mac, why should Apple decide what you install on it?
Overall, the company doesnt have to give you a finished product, and you pay more for it. Oh, and 5 hours game play is far too generous. Try 2. 10 bucks an hour!
:P
No, its not 2 hours; you're not counting the commentary (which is enjoyable) or the new multiplayer modes. And Episode one is a very finished product. Everything is polished and I didn't come across a single bug.
But that's not the point. The point is that EP1 is a good game. If it was like any other FPS out there, I would be pissed about the price, but I think that in this case it was worth the money. You're too used to get cheap deals on shitty games. Well this isn't a shitty game and is worth the money. Maybe not your money, you don't seem to be the type to appreciate quality workmanship but for the rest of us out there who are tired of the same old bullshit shooters, it is nice to have a company like Valve releasing a quality product.
Besides, it is only a third of what you're calling a "finished product". The trilogy will be the complete product, so why don't you just wait until they're done before you complain about the $64 you haven't spent yet?
And anyway, after playing games from the guys at Valve (from before they were Valve, team fortress anyone) I happy about their turn towards episodic content. Valve takes a long time in releasing anything because of their attention to detail and quality. I am happy to play a third of the game every 12 months as opposed to waiting 3 or 4 years for the whole thing. They've shortened the development cycle on their engine and they've streamlined content production. Episodic content seems to me to be the perfect way for a company like this to put out a quality product in a shorter amount of time. And like I said, I am happy they are.
Oh yea, another question just occured to me, have you even played it yet?
When I read articles like this, besides giving me a good chuckle, it makes me wonder. If big business is really going through all these lengths to find out more about all of us, are they really doing it to know who to target ads to? Is it really that hard to figure out who to show the life insurance ads to and who to show the ads for the new rock album to? If that is the case, I find it pretty sad. That's a problem Google figured out years ago.
Conspiracy theories aside (I could cook up a few but I'm fresh out of the stinky green), it really sounds like big business is trying to figure us out for a larger purpose than just which ads to show us. It sounds more like they're out of ideas for new products and are examining the needs of the public to figure out what we want that doesn't already exist as opposed to what we want that they already have to sell. I think its fairly obvious that MySpace is the equivilant of 1,000,000 monkies typing at 1,000,000 typewriters with Murdoch hoping that one day a monkey will come up with the next Seinfeld, Friends, Simpsons, American Idol etc. which he instantly has the rights to.
I guess its because I'm not as out of touch with reality as these rich ass execs in buying up all these web apps, but is it really hard to tell what the American public likes? And if not, why is that information so valuable?
At the end of the day the real problem here is China, not any of the US companies operating there. The letter from Yahoo! points out the obvious, if you're there you have comply with the local law, they had no choice at the time. As for whether or not any US company chooses to operate in china, what difference does it make with regards to human rights there in China? At the very least, a US company operating in China has the ability to pay a decent wage and give their Chinese employees good benefits but beyond that how could they possibly change China's human rights policies?
While I respect the views of NUJ, I also respectfully disagree with who they are choosing to boycott here. They disagree with China's politics so they boycott a US company? What exactly is that supposed to prove or accomplish? If you want to bring about any sort of change within China through a boycott, then for Christ's sake, boycott all of the crappy sweatshop goods that come out of China!
Anyone going into this game just looking to kill time with 'yet another shooter' is going to be disappointed. That is because they will be expecting something this game is not. It is an installment of a great, interactive story. If all you want is mindless shooting, save your money and get some been-there-done-that FPS. If you're interested in immersive, interactive entertainment, get this game. This is the beginning of a whole new level of entertainment folks. Would you spend $20 for an interactive movie that was 5 hours long?
This just in: While searching a murder suspects home police have come across various boxes containing data discs. These boxes are covered with violent imagery and words like "Hitman, Grand Theft Auto, and True Crime". While authorities have declined to comment on any connection, we here at the Associated Press feel that without the help of one Jack Thompson, the police officers would have completely overlooked such obscure and truly puzzling pieces of evidence and would have never drawn any connection between them and the suspects alleged violent behavior.
Also from TFA: "I think (the murder) goes beyond video games, but who's to say?," Dilworth commented, adding that the question of whether video games lead to youth violence might be "more of a debate for the living room rather than the courtroom."
Doesn't sound like the local police are too amused with Jack Thompson's "theories". Once again, this isn't news because the games that were siezed will play no role in the murder trial. The cops are like, "Yea we found M-rated video games, who cares? The kid confessed."
Jack Thompson is a crackpot and the only reason he gets any attention at all is because people see his name in an article and suddenly its a top story.
"Nobody shoots anybody in the face unless you're a hitman or a videogamer."
Is this a comment on similar mentalities between hitmen and videogamers or is Jack trying to say they're the only people with good enough aim to hit consistent head shots?
Seriously though, how is this news? If the police are building any sort of murder case against anyone, they are going to sieze everything remotely related to murder and killing. Whether it be videogames, music, movies, books, etc. anything that helps the DA say, "this person has murder on the mind, and here is what I have to back that up."
I remember getting into the Lone Wolf series as a kid. The first few books were a good time, but after a while I got bored with it and started cheating by faking my stats and doing "save games" often and seeing what each path would lead to before I picked one. I think there were a total of almost 30 books in the series, I definitely didn't make it that far and lost interest.
While I'm sure there's a "warm fuzzy" factor with bring back CYOA books, in the end isn't this a dead concept? Are people still going to be interested with having only a handful of choices in these books where there are newer forms of interactive media (video games) out these days that are drastically more open ended? What if I don't like choice A, B, and C and want to go for choice R, stab the mofo in the eye with my dagger, steal everything he owns and forget about the whole quest?
I'm 100% in favor of the studies
I'm in favor of scientific studies which I am 100% positive these will not be. "Let's conduct a study to see who has the largest, most powerful lobby. The video game industry or the various right wing, family values coalitions."
study "the effect of electronic media on youths."
What does this even mean? Electronic media is SO broad! They intend to study the effects of television, motion pictures, music, video games, and the interweb on children? What meaningful research could possibly come from this? That kids like electronic media more than the anolog alternatives?
FTA:
Law enforcement officials say they have no interest in reading people's genetic secrets. The U.S. profiling system focuses on just 13 small regions of the DNA molecule -- regions that do not code for any known biological or behavioral traits but vary enough to give everyone who is not an identical twin a unique 52-digit number.
This is nothing more then authentication for matching parts that came from you to you yourself. I think it is unreasonable for anyone to believe that the US government is intent on storing the complete genetic profile all 300 million US citizens much less being able to do anything useful with that information. Besides, 99.9% of all of those profiles would be more or less identical and a total waste to store!
With every new technology there is both a potential for abuse and a potential for doing a great amount of good. Obviously you have all covered the (extreme) cases of potential abuse, but what about the benefits of such a system? All the talk about this being a civil rights violation is pure rhetoric. If you consider the efficiency and elimination of possible false convictions that will arise from having such a system, it starts to sound more and more like a good thing. The ability to identify a murderer/rapist/terrorist in a split second? The ability to automatically rule out all the innocent people as possible suspects in a split second? The ability to eliminate the need for massive amounts of investigative work that comes with building a murder case with a quick SQL query? You guys can be paranoid all you want to, but I would actually be more relieved to know that for once our government is putting science and technology to good use. When the FBI starts praying to God in order to crack cases and find suspects, then I'll be worried. Until then, I have faith in science and technology.
When it comes down to it such a system is an innevitability and I think the true concern is whether or not it is done right. This sounds to me like they're doing it right using DNA as a biometric identifier as opposed to genetic profiling. I call FUD.
Wife must always "joyfully submit" to husband
I think you just inadvertently made a believer out of me!
What is this advantage people speak of? I don't understand what it needs other than an ethernet card. Did it need a built in ethernet card?
Well, yea a built in ethernet card would have helped, but I'm talking more about infrastructure. The online capabilities of the PS2 is basically as good or as bad as the companies developing the games and the service they are willing to provide on their own. Basically, yea you can get online with the PS2, but your online experience is entirely up to the individual developers. What this means is that fewer developers are going to add online multiplayer capabilities to a game if it is going to cause them more cost to develop and more cost through the life of the game to provide the online service.
XBox live on the other hand provides that service, so the developers can concentrate more on the game, and less on what they themselves will have to do to actually provide the online multiplayer service.
From one PC Gamer to another, this doesn't seem like a big deal when you think about a lot of the online multiplayer games where it is up to the end users to provide the service (run their own servers). Of course it is an entirely different story with massively multiplayer games, where it takes a server farm (and a lot of bandwidth) to provide the online service, but this is beside the point. In the universe of PC gaming, the end users also create their own communities and really do an excellent job of it. However, they have the advantage because they are already in control of that online multiplayer platform that we call the internet. When you're talking more about consoles, there is less there for people to work with on the console itself. For PC users this isn't an issue because you have your PC to turn to for creating that online community and for running game servers like Halo. For the console owners out there that don't have PC's already, there is no ability for them to create any sort of community or provide any sort of service on their own. Any console maker interested in the casual gamer market, and they all are, needs to keep in mind that their users could be relying entirely on the abilities of the console for their online experience. This means a little more than just the connection is required, you need to provide no only the game server, but an easy way for communities to form and grow. The PS2 does not provide this at all really, but XBox live does. You not only get the online gaming service, but you also get very accessible modes of communication between all of the players. This is important for an online multiplayer game to succeed because most of the fun of online multiplayer is the fact you're playing with so many people. You need an easy way to meet them, play with them, and talk to them outside of the game.
Side note, I do not own an XBox and am not an XBox live user. I'm in now way trying to sell the XBox as the better console. I speak from my own experiences with online PC gaming and the communities that I have been a part of that grow around the games I have played. Largely, it either the accessibility of the game or the community that keeps me coming back to a game. Some games with online multiplayer force you to have to know the other parties you're playing with in order to start a game. I don't play much of those. Other games with online multiplayer feature user runnable servers that are easily browsable and always have people playing whether I know them or not. I play a lot of these. And finally some games have such a fanatical following and strong communities grow from them and people actually get together, organize among themselves, and from that organization add a deeper level of gameplay that only the players themselves can provide and developers can only dream of. These are the games I play for years and years without tiring of them. They are what online multiplayer is all about, and from my first post, they are what the future of gaming will be all about.
Sony must clearly also address its relative weakness in online, where Microsoft has a substantial lead.
The future of gaming is online multiplayer (not better graphics) because online multiplayer affects the core of gaming, which is gameplay. This is a big reason PC gaming isn't dead and the reason why any of the major consoles who don't make this leap will be left behind. Of course, this means way more than having an internet ready gaming console. The GameCube and PS2 are internet ready (though adapters are required). Microsoft has XBox live, which is more than internet connectivity, it is a online multiplayer/gaming community platform. What XBox live provides is an easy, well managed solution for developers who are looking for a console to make their online multiplayer games for. Even if Sony were to bring SOE to the PS3, it still falls short of providing any kind of method for third party developers to build online multiplayer games for the PS3. IMHO, for Sony to redeem the PS3, they need to not only bring SOE to the console (and fix the problems with SOE), but also allow third party developers access to its capabilities.
What law was broken here? Is the buyer personally threatening the seller or something? Because if not, I can't see how the buyer did anything wrong. The seller sold the laptop, hardware and all (read: software/data). I don't see why the buyer does not have the right to do what he pleases with all of the seller's personal information. The seller put his personal life on the laptop up for bid. The buyer bought it all, so why doesn't the buyer have the right the information and the right to post all of it online if he/she pleases?
Apple tries so hard to make their hardware look nice and seemless that when it comes to simple little fixes like checking to make sure you're hard drive is plugged in, most people end sending it away for 4 weeks for 5 minutes of labor.
FTA:
Dr. Lynn Miller is one of the minds behind the Interactive Sex Project, an interactive video designed to reduce HIV risk behaviors by allowing players to make critical decisions on a virtual date such as where to go, whether to bring a condom, and how to respond to an opportunity to take drugs. Players are allowed to make up their own minds and are presented with the consequences of their actions. If you are not sure what to do, the video's hosts are always there to offer advice. The project currently uses footage of real actors but Dr. Miller hopes to employ virtual characters in the future.
Isn't the whole idea of making "interactive, educational games" to have a piece of software that people want to use because its fun regardless of any educational value? Who is going to want to play a game where you win by not doing the fun things in the game? I thought the whole point of the virtual experience was to live the life that you can't in reality. Why would I want to be boring in my real life and my virtual life?
This is why there are violent, adult, non-educational video games. People want to have sex with that dirty hooker, and do drugs, and kill people, because in their real lives most won't do any of those things! Virtual Prude 2k6 gets a 1... out of 5.
Apologies if someone has already mentioned this. And I know this point has been made in previous posts.
American's are simply over-worked. It isn't that we can't do a good job and it isn't that we just want to be lazy. It is the fact that we're killing ourselves by working too much. Some of the more progressive countries (European countries) allow at least 4 weeks of vacation a year and in return their workers are sharper when they are actually on the job. American's on the other hand know they're over-worked and feel the stress associated with that. Whether it is a concious decision or not, it leads to slacking off. Not because "we're just lazy", but because we have no choice. If you're over-worked and stressed out, sometimes you can't do anything BUT slack off, and the feeling that you're doing something wrong by resting that brian, those eyes, and them wrists, only adds to stress.
Basically the bottom line is this, American's don't need to slack off more, we slack off just enough. The business behind the American workers need to realize that Americans need more slack time and actually provide it as more personal days or more vacation time. We're going to do it one way or the other, so it might as well be recognized as a true need of the American worker to have more down time.