Those are rationalizations, I'll give you that. But...
If region coding did exist, nobody would give up the potentially huge royalties from a hit video game just to screw the incredibly small game import scene. This wouldn't change even if region coding didn't exist, because localization issues would prevent all but the most hardcore (who already import games anyway) from going to the trouble.
Games cost pretty much the same no matter what. Right now that's $50-60, it'll probably go up with the next generation of games. With rare exceptions -- games that include large numbers of addins: special controllers, DVDs, and such; or games that are deliberately bargain basement -- games cost the same no matter what has to be licensed. There's no competition on price in console gaming. At least, not for the games themselves.
Game company support for their games is trivial-to-nonexistant. In many cases you pay per incident. If you have trouble with a game you're infinitely more likely to ask a more knowledgeable neighbor than hold on the phone for 3 hours with Ubisoft (to pick on a random gaming behemoth). Even if you're willing to go to the trouble, they'll just tell you you have the wrong version of the game and hang up.
You've got valid reasons, but they're not the real reasons. The real reason is so that they can fix prices in each region as high as they want, even if you could theoretically save money by paying the considerable cost of finding and moving a game halfway around the world to your living room. Kind of sad, really.
I was wondering that, as well. I've seen so many articles describing it, but nobody's ever actually provided an example. I understand the desire not to give these people more exposure, but the more it's mentioned without an example the more I think it's just an urban legend.
If anyone has an example, I'd love to be proven wrong, because it seems viable enough.
No matter if you're a MySQL supporter or someone who thinks that everyone should use a "real" RDBMS, having all these new features available to MySQL developers is a good thing. There's quite a few apps, I'm sure, that don't use these features in databases where they're available simply because they're aiming for the lowest common denominator that was MySQL's feature set.
Anyway, not trying to start an argument about the relative merits of any particular RDBMS, but this is a good thing all the way around. I look forward to taking it for a spin.
Because the mini wasn't out when I bought the full sized version, but I liked it better, so I bought it. The nano wasn't out when I bought the mini, but I liked it better, so I bought it. Ostensibly I was buying the mini for the gym, but that was just the practical reason I gave myself to get something I felt like buying.
Knowing what I know now I'd probably just own a nano, but I didn't have the benefit of knowing the future when I made the first two purchases, so here we are. Simple, no?
Because we do want those features, we just want them executed properly. In consumer electronics, as in everywhere else, the first few iterations of any new product are almost universally shit.
I'd drop my RAZR's camera in a second if it'd mean a smaller and lighter phone, but only because the camera on it sucks so badly I end up carrying around my little Canon S505 most everywhere. When they put 3+MP cameras with decent AF in phones, I won't do that anymore, and we'll be one step closer to convergence.
Likewise, when they give me a 20+gig PDA with the size and style of an iPod, with a large screen, the horsepower to play movies, and that lasts 8+ hours on a single charge, I'll be all over it.
Add to this that they're pretty much universally ugly (note that the iPod sells millions while Rios rot on the shelves), and that I have yet to see one with decent capacity (outside of carrying around a pocket full of CF cards).
Dell has deals on their Axims that put them down into the same price range as the iPods, and the WIFI and GPS features (on top of intrinsic hackability of the systems themselves) appeal to me greatly. I still don't own one, though, and I have 3 iPods (regular, mini, nano).
720p is required, 1080i is optional (see? or here?; and the console itself is going to cost you almost as much as the equivalent PC, sans display. That pretty effectively wipes out the whole "video cards are too expensive compared to consoles" point I was responding to.
The Xbox 360 doesn't look like a particularly bad console, though. Once you can actually buy it (not anytime soon) outside of a $2000(!) system bundle, I'll probably pick one up. Dunno if I'll kick in a monthly fee to Microsoft in addition to my ISP to play online, though, my PC lets me do that for free. The extra $50 per controller stings, too, as does the extra $40 per memory card. Actually, maybe I'll stick with PC gaming... it's cheaper.
... and play at 1/6-1/4 the resolution. I play at 1900x1200 with anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, and other goodies with a midrange PC; while console fanboys are getting all wet about the next gen systems doing 720p if they're lucky.
Throw in the control advantages of a mouse and keyboard, the connectivity advantages of a real computer, and the fact that I'd have to buy a nice PC anyway to work, and the PC just keeps looking better and better.
Because it's not something you can address very well in any modern system. Even if they deleted everything they know about you there'd probably still be something lurking on a backup tape in a closet somewhere. If they made any promises to you re: data retention that'd be enough to nail them, most likely.
I know the ins and outs of my employer's backup system as well as anyone I'd wager, and conclusively deleting a single file, much less any data about a person would probably be days of work going through our disks, backup disks, tapes, and offsite tapes (which I'd have to request from Iron Mountain). Depending on when the data first entered our systems it could be stored in dozens of places including employee desktops (ever made a backup copy of a file on your PC while changing something, just in case?).
Now realize that we're a traditional shop, and that Google would likely have a much harder time doing this than even we would given their use of interchangeable white-box PCs that have probably been swapped all over the place.
Even if they're willing to make a best effort to get rid of your data, that's not something they're going to promise you because in their eyes they'd just be asking for it. Data is surprisingly resiliant, no matter how much you want it to go away.
I presume, by marking messages in your email inbox the way you do for spam filtering, you could weed out which messages are important enough to, e.g., pop up an alert on your desktop. A Bayesian filter (or whatever they're using these days) could then "learn" to give similar messages the same treatment, while the rest can sit around until you're ready to read them.
I'd be very surprised if someone hadn't done something similar already; or at least pointed out why it wouldn't work.
What kind of people honestly go out and spend almost 1,000$ USD on a card every year?
Me. But it's more like $500+ twice a year.
New cards make the games I play (basically just WoW and occasionally CS:Source now) run more smoothly and let me crank up the resolution to my LCD's native res (1900x1200) with all the eye candy on without turning into a slideshow. Other than that, I don't really think about it that much.
My gaming PC is on about a (unintentional, I just get the itch about the same time) 6 month upgrade cycle. I figure it ends up costing me somewhere in the neighborhood of $2k/yr to keep it up (since cases, power supplies, displays, and hard drives live through several cycles), which isn't too terribly bad compared to many other hobbies and the hand-me-downs make for nice boxes for me to actually do work on. The video cards end up being the majority of that price, which is fine since they have the biggest impact on the performance of the games.
Once a machine falls off the end of the ol' upgrade queue (I have 4 right now including my Powerbook, that's enough...) I usually end up packing it up and shipping it off to someone I know who needs a computer.
There's probably a dozen pay grades between me and the company's CEO. I didn't even remember his name until I looked it up, and I'm sure he doesn't know mine since we've never met. We don't work in the same state, we've never been in the same room, and in 3 years working here I have, in fact, never seen him in person once.
I already wanted to see the movie, but didn't have the motivation to drag my less geeky friends out with me. Now I definitely do. What would have been even better is if you would have offered me the rest of the movie in H.264, XviD, or Theora for $20 or so. I would have bitten without a second thought and I'm sure my friends would have done the same after they each watched the trailer from the link I'll IM.
Maybe he's just comparing himself to young girls too much. Most of the people I know who I would consider 'plugged in' don't do most of the things he mentioned, either.
My little sister (who can barely work the iPod I got her for Christmas) and her pack of 15 year old friends all do, though.
Slashdot Mirror
You've got valid reasons, but they're not the real reasons. The real reason is so that they can fix prices in each region as high as they want, even if you could theoretically save money by paying the considerable cost of finding and moving a game halfway around the world to your living room. Kind of sad, really.
I was wondering that, as well. I've seen so many articles describing it, but nobody's ever actually provided an example. I understand the desire not to give these people more exposure, but the more it's mentioned without an example the more I think it's just an urban legend.
If anyone has an example, I'd love to be proven wrong, because it seems viable enough.
No matter if you're a MySQL supporter or someone who thinks that everyone should use a "real" RDBMS, having all these new features available to MySQL developers is a good thing. There's quite a few apps, I'm sure, that don't use these features in databases where they're available simply because they're aiming for the lowest common denominator that was MySQL's feature set.
Anyway, not trying to start an argument about the relative merits of any particular RDBMS, but this is a good thing all the way around. I look forward to taking it for a spin.
Nobody. But that hasn't stopped a zealot yet.
Man, that thing looks nice. Wish there were somewhere to check them out in meatspace nearby...
Because the mini wasn't out when I bought the full sized version, but I liked it better, so I bought it. The nano wasn't out when I bought the mini, but I liked it better, so I bought it. Ostensibly I was buying the mini for the gym, but that was just the practical reason I gave myself to get something I felt like buying.
Knowing what I know now I'd probably just own a nano, but I didn't have the benefit of knowing the future when I made the first two purchases, so here we are. Simple, no?
Because we do want those features, we just want them executed properly. In consumer electronics, as in everywhere else, the first few iterations of any new product are almost universally shit.
I'd drop my RAZR's camera in a second if it'd mean a smaller and lighter phone, but only because the camera on it sucks so badly I end up carrying around my little Canon S505 most everywhere. When they put 3+MP cameras with decent AF in phones, I won't do that anymore, and we'll be one step closer to convergence.
Likewise, when they give me a 20+gig PDA with the size and style of an iPod, with a large screen, the horsepower to play movies, and that lasts 8+ hours on a single charge, I'll be all over it.
Add to this that they're pretty much universally ugly (note that the iPod sells millions while Rios rot on the shelves), and that I have yet to see one with decent capacity (outside of carrying around a pocket full of CF cards).
Dell has deals on their Axims that put them down into the same price range as the iPods, and the WIFI and GPS features (on top of intrinsic hackability of the systems themselves) appeal to me greatly. I still don't own one, though, and I have 3 iPods (regular, mini, nano).
I like using the word "piracy", makes me feel like a dashing swashbuckler. It's much more manly than "sharing".
The free music and movies are nice, too.
720p is required, 1080i is optional (see? or here?; and the console itself is going to cost you almost as much as the equivalent PC, sans display. That pretty effectively wipes out the whole "video cards are too expensive compared to consoles" point I was responding to.
The Xbox 360 doesn't look like a particularly bad console, though. Once you can actually buy it (not anytime soon) outside of a $2000(!) system bundle, I'll probably pick one up. Dunno if I'll kick in a monthly fee to Microsoft in addition to my ISP to play online, though, my PC lets me do that for free. The extra $50 per controller stings, too, as does the extra $40 per memory card. Actually, maybe I'll stick with PC gaming... it's cheaper.
... and play at 1/6-1/4 the resolution. I play at 1900x1200 with anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering, and other goodies with a midrange PC; while console fanboys are getting all wet about the next gen systems doing 720p if they're lucky.
Throw in the control advantages of a mouse and keyboard, the connectivity advantages of a real computer, and the fact that I'd have to buy a nice PC anyway to work, and the PC just keeps looking better and better.
And yet the pasty white video game kids are too much for them.
Because it's not something you can address very well in any modern system. Even if they deleted everything they know about you there'd probably still be something lurking on a backup tape in a closet somewhere. If they made any promises to you re: data retention that'd be enough to nail them, most likely.
I know the ins and outs of my employer's backup system as well as anyone I'd wager, and conclusively deleting a single file, much less any data about a person would probably be days of work going through our disks, backup disks, tapes, and offsite tapes (which I'd have to request from Iron Mountain). Depending on when the data first entered our systems it could be stored in dozens of places including employee desktops (ever made a backup copy of a file on your PC while changing something, just in case?).
Now realize that we're a traditional shop, and that Google would likely have a much harder time doing this than even we would given their use of interchangeable white-box PCs that have probably been swapped all over the place.
Even if they're willing to make a best effort to get rid of your data, that's not something they're going to promise you because in their eyes they'd just be asking for it. Data is surprisingly resiliant, no matter how much you want it to go away.
Isn't this just C-V? Seems to work for me in stock Vim. Not really on topic, I guess. Sue me :(.
Emacs running inside Eclipse...
I think I'm going to need a bigger boat^W^Wmore memory.
I presume, by marking messages in your email inbox the way you do for spam filtering, you could weed out which messages are important enough to, e.g., pop up an alert on your desktop. A Bayesian filter (or whatever they're using these days) could then "learn" to give similar messages the same treatment, while the rest can sit around until you're ready to read them.
I'd be very surprised if someone hadn't done something similar already; or at least pointed out why it wouldn't work.
What kind of people honestly go out and spend almost 1,000$ USD on a card every year?
Me. But it's more like $500+ twice a year.
New cards make the games I play (basically just WoW and occasionally CS:Source now) run more smoothly and let me crank up the resolution to my LCD's native res (1900x1200) with all the eye candy on without turning into a slideshow. Other than that, I don't really think about it that much.
My gaming PC is on about a (unintentional, I just get the itch about the same time) 6 month upgrade cycle. I figure it ends up costing me somewhere in the neighborhood of $2k/yr to keep it up (since cases, power supplies, displays, and hard drives live through several cycles), which isn't too terribly bad compared to many other hobbies and the hand-me-downs make for nice boxes for me to actually do work on. The video cards end up being the majority of that price, which is fine since they have the biggest impact on the performance of the games.
Once a machine falls off the end of the ol' upgrade queue (I have 4 right now including my Powerbook, that's enough...) I usually end up packing it up and shipping it off to someone I know who needs a computer.
That is a nearly flawless impression of Bill O'Reilly. Or a transcript.
I like watching "The Factor." I don't yell at my TV enough otherwise.
Shh! Don't let the foreign devils in on it!
There's probably a dozen pay grades between me and the company's CEO. I didn't even remember his name until I looked it up, and I'm sure he doesn't know mine since we've never met. We don't work in the same state, we've never been in the same room, and in 3 years working here I have, in fact, never seen him in person once.
Who cares if he reads his email?
I miss actually getting paid for my time :(.
/me goes back to being on call all weekend, something our contractors never have to do.
Stupid salary.
I already wanted to see the movie, but didn't have the motivation to drag my less geeky friends out with me. Now I definitely do. What would have been even better is if you would have offered me the rest of the movie in H.264, XviD, or Theora for $20 or so. I would have bitten without a second thought and I'm sure my friends would have done the same after they each watched the trailer from the link I'll IM.
Ain't that sweet of 'em?
Not really. I just steal whatever music I want. The RIAA and friends don't cross my mind much.
Maybe he's just comparing himself to young girls too much. Most of the people I know who I would consider 'plugged in' don't do most of the things he mentioned, either.
My little sister (who can barely work the iPod I got her for Christmas) and her pack of 15 year old friends all do, though.