Up until a couple weeks ago, I would visit Slashdot at least 4-5 times per day. I read almost every article, participated in moderation, meta-moderation, etc. Truth be told, I've never cared much for Zonk, but once he started posting anti-PS3 "stories" (i.e., hearsay, blog entries) almost exclusively - which BTW weren't even based on user submissions - I deleted my Slashdot bookmark and moved on.
I have no desire to visit a site where:
Zonk is involved in any way.
The managing editors see nothing wrong with the level of bias shown in Zonk's article selection.
I don't watch FoxNews because I'm not interested in only hearing one side of every story. Now I don't read Slashdot for that very same reason. That, my friends, is fucking sad.
note: the only reason I noticed this article is because it's linked from antislash.
If the trailer's graphics are not representative of the graphics then upgrade your display to HD. You need to use the component cables, switch the setting on the cable from Standard Def to High Def, then go into the console and choose a HD resolution like 720p or 1080p.
I'm using a 50" plasma TV that displays in 720p. I'm not saying the graphics are bad -- I'm just saying they don't look as nice as the trailer (hint: if I didn't have a working 720p display, how could I spot good graphics in the trailer?). The trailer was clearly rendered on a machine with a lot more horsepower than a 360 is capable of sustaining in real-time.
As for the combat system.. I'll give it another try, but I'm not sure if my opinion will change. On the other hand, after playing the Lost Planet online demo, I definitely like what they've done. Perhaps it's the additional possibilities associated with that grappling hook.. not sure. Either way, to me - that's more fun than Gears of War.
I personally don't see what's so special about Gears of War. When I first saw the trailer for it, I thought the actual game would look like that (and I was impressed). Then, I bought the game and noticed that the graphics are nowhere near as detailed as the trailer. No big deal.. but then I played it, and discovered that it really isn't all that fun (IMHO).
For a game like that to hold my attention, there needs to be a somewhat elegant/clever combat system, but the combat system used in Gears of War is one-dimensional. I do like the realism they added to the process of reloading weapons, but that alone doesn't make or break a game in my mind.
Personally, I found The Godfather to be all-around more fun than GoW.. and for an example of the "perfect" third person action game, I'd point to Ninja Gaiden for the original Xbox.
You're absolutely wrong that it doesn't involve me. It most certainly does involve all of us when significantly bad things happen to such an important sector of our economy. It certainly does involve all of us when substantial funds that could have been used to develop useful goods and services that might help us maintain our competitive edge are dissipated or end up lining some corporate con artist's pockets, and thus aren't available for more viable technology companies. One that might want to hire me, for example.
You have some serious misconceptions about how that whole process works. You're assuming that the "corporate con artists" set out to defraud investors from the start. Aside from Enron, can you provide a solid example of when this has happened? Remember - ultimately, the investors are the ones who decided it was a good idea to sink their money into a non-profitable company. Investors like Warren Buffet were not impacted at all, and neither were qualified workers. The people who were impacted were the ones who invested (and lost) lots of money, and the unemployed technology workers who weren't really qualified (and only had tech jobs because of the insanely high demand). Sorry, I don't see how you can blame the company (as you clearly did with your "corporate con artist" comment) -- we witnessed a "correction" on all fronts.
Additionally, would you like someone else telling you how to spend your disposable income? Probably not, and that's why it's pointless to argue about how other people spend their disposable income. They earned it, and they can (literally) flush it down the toilet for all I care.
I don't recall saying that government intervention was needed.
Hmm, you're right. In fact, you haven't really offered any sort of practical (aka constitutional) suggestion as to how to address this "problem". There's an awful lot of complaining, but no suggestions or proposed solutions.
Every time something big comes along a bunch of idiots with money say "I have a great idea! Let's give a bunch of buzzword-laden high-school dropouts billions of dollars of our hard-earned money in the faint hope they have the slightest idea what they're talking about!". This invariably attracts millions of additional idiots, who cry "Brilliant!" in unison, and proceed to hand over all of their disposable income. In rare cases that works, somewhat (see: Apple Computer) but in most it simply results in vast funds disappearing like smoke up a chimney.
..and what exactly is wrong with what you just described? It doesn't involve you at all - just these "idiots" and their money. If they go through life making poor financial decisions, they'll quickly find themselves without any money left. It's not a mistake that most people can make over and over again.. but even if they could, so what?
So are you suggesting that we outlaw investing as a whole, or just "bad" investments?
but I think he pretty much nails what very MMOG player really wants out of a game.
"what very MMOG player"? What the very fuck does that mean?
Zonk, it takes about six seconds to re-read the portion of the article you were responsible for writing. Maybe you could spend that extra time to at least give the illusion that you aren't typing with an Xbox360 controller in your other hand all the time..?
Do you know why I don't post anonymously? Because I don't care if I get modded down -- I have no problem accepting responsibility for my comments.
I think it's funny (but mostly depressing) that not only are you posting anonymous insults on/., but you actually come back and check for replies. Do yourself a favor - step outside and get some air. Make some new friends. Go get some exercise. Seriously.
Go find a cliff or a bridge somewhere, then take your entire fucktarded family.
Have all of them jump off to their deaths, and after that jump to yours.
You really want me to throw you and your mom off a cliff?
BTW - anonymously posting retreaded insults in response to anything but other anonymously posted comments places you at the lowest rung of society -- right next to adults who cheat in games against children, and Nigerian 419 scam artists. Well done.
The keen observer will note that this "story" didn't come from a submission; instead, Zonk found & posted it on his own.
How many article submissions do you think are waiting to be looked at (and possibly posted) right now? How about duplicate articles that were submitted by 10 or more readers?..20 or more? Dare I say.. 40?
I don't know the answers to those questions, but I do know that at least one of them is greater than zero, making it pretty damn hard for me to understand how Zonk found it appropriate to service his own personal agenda (whatever it is) by posting an article that exactly zero readers submitted?
Zonk, maybe you could explain. Were the submissions for this obscure two-minute-old article just not rolling in fast enough?..or were they lacking enough anti-Sony commentary for your taste? Why didn't you just submit the article as AC like you typically do with comments?
-- Zonkdot: "News for Zonk; stuff that will piss you off (hopefully)."
what's more likely is that the naysayers will say that they were right all along, except Sony deceived everyone and their superior marketing and name brand influenced the ignorant masses.
Don't forget the subset of folks who will find something (anything) wrong with the Wii or Xbox360 as justification for jumping over to the PS3 camp.
"I still feel that the 360 is the best machine, but.. Xbox Live kicked me offline right in the middle of a game, so it's obvious that Microsoft isn't committed to world class service. I gave them every chance, but I just can't deal with constant online instability like that."
"The new Wii controller aggravated an old tennis injury.. Doc' says I should give the PS3 a try, since it only involves finger & wrist movements. Believe me, it kills me to sell my Wii since it's clearly the better overall system.. but how can I argue with an MD? I was going to just move the Wii down to the basement, but the kids aren't interested in it.. so I might as well sell now and put the $45 towards a new PS3 game."
News flash: if the press misreports the result of an election, it doesn't actually change the result. It just means that people are misinformed for a short period of time.
The press isn't capable of "rigging" an election unless they use the same method the Republicans use.
What a wonderful election! Two more years and we won't have to deal with ANY Republicans with any sort of power.. can't wait. Unless, of course, they rig the election again..
Like I said, I wish I lived in the fantasy world you call 'reality'.. but then again, does a caged animal have a good life, assuming it's never experienced life outside the cage? Nope (but the animal doesn't know that).
Notice the difference between these two. They are both individual decisions, but one was just a poor choice of words (Diebold's comments). Yet, and ironically, you give more credence to the Diebold comment when nothing was actually done.
What's ironic about that? Their CEO did deliver the Ohio electoral votes, amid controversy:
Officials there purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by Democratic voter drives, shortchanged Democratic precincts when they allocated voting machines and illegally derailed a recount that could have given Kerry the presidency.
Oh, and the situation with the Diebold CEO wasn't a poor choice of words in the sense that he mis-worded his statement. Even Diebold went on record saying, "our CEO lets his personal beliefs influence his business decisions", and apologized.
So given all of those facts, how can you possibly rule out any wrongdoing? What you do know that nobody else does? And where do you get enough nerve to suggest that two attempts to influence no more than 30 or 40 votes is a bigger problem than the 350,000 voters who were denied in Ohio? And I'm the "wacko"?
Choosing to turn a blind eye to certain facts and/or events doesn't mean they didn't happen. Notice how I fully acknowledge the two incidents you mentioned - be a man and do the same.
It's pretty clear that both incidents were poor individual decisions, as opposed to an order that came down from the Democratic party (e.g., "Kerry just called, he wants us to slash the tires on a couple GOP vans. Let's move."). The guilty parties were subject to due process of law and received the appropriate punishments, so the system worked. Are you trying to say that those two incidents are indicative of general Democrat behavior?
Remember when the CEO of Diebold wrote a fund raising letter promising to "deliver Ohio to Bush"? That seems a little bit more important than those 20-30 votes (that were never actually cast) referenced in the two articles you linked.
That's like an NFL referee, right before the SuperBowl, sending a letter to one of the team fan clubs saying, "we promise to deliver a victory for your team".
The real wackos think someone might actually rig the voting machines. As if a political party would have so much stake in one election/candidate they would be willing to risk destruction of the entire party. Jeez.
I really hope you're a troll, and I just stupidly took the bait.. unfortunately, I suspect that you're 100% serious.
Election fraud is not limited to "rigging the voting machines"; in fact, the most likely fraud scenarios take place after the votes have been cast. It sounds like you're assuming that election fraud would have to be coordinated by an entire political party, but that's unlikely for obvious reasons.
I don't see much of an opportunity for tampering with vote totals once the votes hit the state-level, but do you know how many opportunities (and how easy it is) to tamper with vote totals before they reach the state-level? Do you realize that the same people who have those opportunities also have an opinion, one way or the other, on how the election should turn out? Would you blindly trust each and every one of those people (the ones who voted differently than you) to fill out & submit your absentee ballot? Didn't think so - and that's why people like you scare the shit out of me.
I would explain in greater detail, but since you've obviously chosen to ignore anything outside the pretty picture painted for you by the media, I would just be wasting (more of) my time.
In some ways, I wish I lived in your utopian dreamworld where people and events are always just how the media portrays them. Then I wouldn't have to worry about what's really going on, simply dismissing alternative points of view as coming from "wackos".
Stupid fucks will mod me a troll - the wise will listen to the last prophecy that ever mattered, and will make their plans accordingly.
That's funny.. because I was just about to mod as "Troll", but instead I decided to interpret your message as a prophecy and then started making plans accordingly. How nutty!
95% is pretty good, and I suspect that the remaining 5% would quickly taper off, because people can't "click" on obfuscated links, making them next to useless.
1080i Broadcast. I can see the difference, BUT it's not worth 1000 dollars for the difference in DVD vs. Blu-Ray. DVD is FINE not the SAME.
Since 480p is FINE, you could have saved close to $1000 (depending on the size of your TV) by going with an EDTV (480p) as opposed to a full HDTV. Then you would have enough money to buy a PS3..
It wasn't my 'logic'.. that's why I said, "Using your logic [...]".
I don't know what you mean by artificial pricing, but that sort of thing is governed by supply and demand. With regard to Blu-Ray players, nobody knows what either the supply or the demand will be one year from now, making it impossible to say that the price will go down.
I'm not doubting that it probably will, but that's an opinion (not a fact, like it's being stated). Yes, I understand how things have worked in the past - it's certainly very likely to go down in price, but nobody knows for sure.
Slashdot Mirror
I have no desire to visit a site where:
- Zonk is involved in any way.
- The managing editors see nothing wrong with the level of bias shown in Zonk's article selection.
I don't watch FoxNews because I'm not interested in only hearing one side of every story. Now I don't read Slashdot for that very same reason. That, my friends, is fucking sad.note: the only reason I noticed this article is because it's linked from antislash.
As for the combat system.. I'll give it another try, but I'm not sure if my opinion will change. On the other hand, after playing the Lost Planet online demo, I definitely like what they've done. Perhaps it's the additional possibilities associated with that grappling hook.. not sure. Either way, to me - that's more fun than Gears of War.
I personally don't see what's so special about Gears of War. When I first saw the trailer for it, I thought the actual game would look like that (and I was impressed). Then, I bought the game and noticed that the graphics are nowhere near as detailed as the trailer. No big deal.. but then I played it, and discovered that it really isn't all that fun (IMHO).
For a game like that to hold my attention, there needs to be a somewhat elegant/clever combat system, but the combat system used in Gears of War is one-dimensional. I do like the realism they added to the process of reloading weapons, but that alone doesn't make or break a game in my mind.
Personally, I found The Godfather to be all-around more fun than GoW.. and for an example of the "perfect" third person action game, I'd point to Ninja Gaiden for the original Xbox.
Really? Never would have guessed..
Additionally, would you like someone else telling you how to spend your disposable income? Probably not, and that's why it's pointless to argue about how other people spend their disposable income. They earned it, and they can (literally) flush it down the toilet for all I care.
Hmm, you're right. In fact, you haven't really offered any sort of practical (aka constitutional) suggestion as to how to address this "problem". There's an awful lot of complaining, but no suggestions or proposed solutions.
So are you suggesting that we outlaw investing as a whole, or just "bad" investments?
Zonk, it takes about six seconds to re-read the portion of the article you were responsible for writing. Maybe you could spend that extra time to at least give the illusion that you aren't typing with an Xbox360 controller in your other hand all the time..?
Do you know why I don't post anonymously? Because I don't care if I get modded down -- I have no problem accepting responsibility for my comments.
/., but you actually come back and check for replies. Do yourself a favor - step outside and get some air. Make some new friends. Go get some exercise. Seriously.
I think it's funny (but mostly depressing) that not only are you posting anonymous insults on
BTW - anonymously posting retreaded insults in response to anything but other anonymously posted comments places you at the lowest rung of society -- right next to adults who cheat in games against children, and Nigerian 419 scam artists. Well done.
The keen observer will note that this "story" didn't come from a submission; instead, Zonk found & posted it on his own.
..20 or more? Dare I say.. 40?
..or were they lacking enough anti-Sony commentary for your taste? Why didn't you just submit the article as AC like you typically do with comments?
How many article submissions do you think are waiting to be looked at (and possibly posted) right now? How about duplicate articles that were submitted by 10 or more readers?
I don't know the answers to those questions, but I do know that at least one of them is greater than zero, making it pretty damn hard for me to understand how Zonk found it appropriate to service his own personal agenda (whatever it is) by posting an article that exactly zero readers submitted?
Zonk, maybe you could explain. Were the submissions for this obscure two-minute-old article just not rolling in fast enough?
--
Zonkdot: "News for Zonk; stuff that will piss you off (hopefully)."
FRIST POST
"I still feel that the 360 is the best machine, but.. Xbox Live kicked me offline right in the middle of a game, so it's obvious that Microsoft isn't committed to world class service. I gave them every chance, but I just can't deal with constant online instability like that."
"The new Wii controller aggravated an old tennis injury.. Doc' says I should give the PS3 a try, since it only involves finger & wrist movements. Believe me, it kills me to sell my Wii since it's clearly the better overall system.. but how can I argue with an MD? I was going to just move the Wii down to the basement, but the kids aren't interested in it.. so I might as well sell now and put the $45 towards a new PS3 game."
News flash: if the press misreports the result of an election, it doesn't actually change the result. It just means that people are misinformed for a short period of time.
The press isn't capable of "rigging" an election unless they use the same method the Republicans use.
What a wonderful election! Two more years and we won't have to deal with ANY Republicans with any sort of power.. can't wait. Unless, of course, they rig the election again..
They're the ones funding Republican candidates and rigging elections for them. Sort of a chicken/egg relationship.
Like I said, I wish I lived in the fantasy world you call 'reality'.. but then again, does a caged animal have a good life, assuming it's never experienced life outside the cage? Nope (but the animal doesn't know that).
Have fun in your cage.
Officials there purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by Democratic voter drives, shortchanged Democratic precincts when they allocated voting machines and illegally derailed a recount that could have given Kerry the presidency.
Oh, and the situation with the Diebold CEO wasn't a poor choice of words in the sense that he mis-worded his statement. Even Diebold went on record saying, "our CEO lets his personal beliefs influence his business decisions", and apologized.
So given all of those facts, how can you possibly rule out any wrongdoing? What you do know that nobody else does? And where do you get enough nerve to suggest that two attempts to influence no more than 30 or 40 votes is a bigger problem than the 350,000 voters who were denied in Ohio? And I'm the "wacko"?
Choosing to turn a blind eye to certain facts and/or events doesn't mean they didn't happen. Notice how I fully acknowledge the two incidents you mentioned - be a man and do the same.
It's pretty clear that both incidents were poor individual decisions, as opposed to an order that came down from the Democratic party (e.g., "Kerry just called, he wants us to slash the tires on a couple GOP vans. Let's move."). The guilty parties were subject to due process of law and received the appropriate punishments, so the system worked. Are you trying to say that those two incidents are indicative of general Democrat behavior?
Remember when the CEO of Diebold wrote a fund raising letter promising to "deliver Ohio to Bush"? That seems a little bit more important than those 20-30 votes (that were never actually cast) referenced in the two articles you linked.
That's like an NFL referee, right before the SuperBowl, sending a letter to one of the team fan clubs saying, "we promise to deliver a victory for your team".
Election fraud is not limited to "rigging the voting machines"; in fact, the most likely fraud scenarios take place after the votes have been cast. It sounds like you're assuming that election fraud would have to be coordinated by an entire political party, but that's unlikely for obvious reasons.
I don't see much of an opportunity for tampering with vote totals once the votes hit the state-level, but do you know how many opportunities (and how easy it is) to tamper with vote totals before they reach the state-level? Do you realize that the same people who have those opportunities also have an opinion, one way or the other, on how the election should turn out? Would you blindly trust each and every one of those people (the ones who voted differently than you) to fill out & submit your absentee ballot? Didn't think so - and that's why people like you scare the shit out of me.
I would explain in greater detail, but since you've obviously chosen to ignore anything outside the pretty picture painted for you by the media, I would just be wasting (more of) my time.
In some ways, I wish I lived in your utopian dreamworld where people and events are always just how the media portrays them. Then I wouldn't have to worry about what's really going on, simply dismissing alternative points of view as coming from "wackos".
95% is pretty good, and I suspect that the remaining 5% would quickly taper off, because people can't "click" on obfuscated links, making them next to useless.
Don't let anonymous users post links to other websites.
I don't know what you mean by artificial pricing, but that sort of thing is governed by supply and demand. With regard to Blu-Ray players, nobody knows what either the supply or the demand will be one year from now, making it impossible to say that the price will go down.
I'm not doubting that it probably will, but that's an opinion (not a fact, like it's being stated). Yes, I understand how things have worked in the past - it's certainly very likely to go down in price, but nobody knows for sure.