That's fair enough. I just couldn't think of anything because I am admittely not up-to-date on anything ethically questionably that major companies are up to. I just couldn't come up with a good reason for Sony BMG to exist, is all:-) and yes I have been on Slashdot for too long.
LOL I see your point of course but on a tangent, anyone who sees a modern-day nuclear power plant as a Chernobyl waiting to happen really isn't worth the air he/she breathes. Nuclear power's only real drawback is the waste, and if that is properly handled there shouldn't be any issues. Greenpeace's alarmist and apocalyptic campaign against nuclear power really tarnishes their otherwise noble mission, IMO.
Anyway, from the point of view of how many people benefit vs. how many suffer, and to what degree, I don't expect the foundation to take an "objective" approach. I expect them to look at it from the point of view of the foundation's main goals. If they are biased, that's fine, but at least their decisions can make sense to *them.* I would find that better than just throwing their hands up and giving up. Providing incentives for companies to strive for better energy use, better treatment of workers, etc. -- those are things the foundation can definitely practice.
I'm sure the foundation could still put together some sort of panel to at least check off the companies invested in as "not 100% harmful" (or something along those lines). I'm sure some decisions regarding whether a company is doing enough good to outweigh the bad are too complex to bother with. But I do think some might not be too complex, and at the very least may reaffirm that the foundation's investments are admirable enough. Some companies, like BP, aren't pure evil. Some, like Sony BMG, totally are. (I don't actually know what companies the foundation invests in because I'm irresponsible like that.)
$8000 for a bug report seems like a lot but I wonder if Microsoft's QA folks don't end up earning at least as much for any serious bugs they manage to uncover towards the end of development (salary:bugs ratio, that is). And at this point, it should take a very serious amount of effort to uncover a big vulnerability (well, hopefully), perhaps such that $8000 isn't even worth the time for some.
By the way it would not be that great of an idea for MS employees to go around submitting bugs to VeriSign, particularly if they get published and traced back to some feature those employees were working on;-) So, yeah haha big plot by Microsoft to get billions from VeriSign, but not really. The only people that will profit from this IMO are poor computer hackers or IT folks who somehow happened to be using a buggy feature in Vista during work and noticed it.
If Sony plans to have *shipped 6 million units by the end of 2007* then just how bad they are going to get their butts kicked by Nintendo and Microsoft is beyond anything I can even imagine. Assuming they even sell all 6 million, they will be so far behind in market saturation that I don't see any developers sticking exclusively with them if they want to make any profit. At this point Microsoft should consider luring over Square-Enix because a Final Fantasy XIII released for 360 might not only help the Xbox a ton in Japan but on top of that will sell loads in North America and Europe.
If it weren't for the PS2 keeping Sony's gaming arm afloat (sorta), I bet the PS3 would have been a different animal altogether. Lower spec, lower price.
Micro Center has been offering a $100 rebate on Xbox 360 units since early Autumn, if not before that. I got my 360 premium system for $300 sometime in September I think. Anyway this was definitely not a case of increasing incentives in time for the holiday season or in response to a sudden desperate need to meet some projected numbers.
So, there was no "BIGGER" loss. It was the same as usual, Micro Center just increased its advertising during the holiday season, much like everyone else.
Forty miles? You've gotta be friggin kidding me. So, if run continuously it will go for a while, but if you drive around like a normal person then 20 miles becomes a point-of-no-return? Yeah, I rather buy a car that gets 8 miles per gallon because then I might actually drive it sometimes.
Granted on average people tend to drive less than 40 miles per day, but unless you charge your car daily that is a completely moot point. Even that silly electric Saturn that GM made a while back had a range of 80 miles. And that failed miserably like it was supposed to.
I had a couple of sites I made that worked fine in IE6, Firefox, and Opera (as in, exactly the way I expected them to), but are now totally borked in IE7. Flash isn't showing up properly, divs are misaligned, etc. Basically it's 100% illegible. I've been too busy to look into what's wrong, hopefully just the Javascript is being screwy, but honestly that wasn't something I expected to happen. I do still believe that if it works as expected in Firefox and Opera then it ought to be good-to-go:-/ So, yeah, IE7 might well end up being a total nightmare for me, especially if I'm trying to keep my site IE6-friendly, since that means using hacks that IE7 may be displeased with.
I understand exactly what you're saying. However, I don't think it's necessary to think of my version of Achievements as being "worth money." Rather, they are worth "old Nintendo games." In a lot of ways, you'd be trading nothing for nothing (Nintendo probably doesn't really lose money uploading a 1-2 meg game to your Wii I figure.)
Nintendo was, for a time. I totally registered some games on their site for a free GCN disc of the old Zelda games. There we go, I just saved idk how much money on Virtual Console Zelda games. Then there was the bonus "Ocarina Master Quest" disc that they gave away along with Wind Waker (I forget the circumstances, maybe a preorder or something).
Considering having folks download old games is probably costing Nintendo next to nothing, it wouldn't have been any worse for them than Xbox's system. On top of that, they could have sold "Achievement Point" cards at retail stores that came with 5000 pts. For instance, and folks could enter the code on these cards to redeem for games as well. So you would have the option of playing a lot or spending money instead.
As for what system will make Nintendo more money, well I don't know how hugely successful the Virtual Console is going to become, but if Xbox's useless Achievement Points are helping them out then I imagine useful ones would help even more.
In any case, if I were Nintendo that's what I would have done:-)
Ok, I just wanted to throw this out there because otherwise I'll forget it. Personally, I was put off by Nintendo's pricing for its virtual console games for Wii. Way too high for me since I already have most of the games I'd want to play on the original cartridges and they still work. Anyway, Xbox 360's Achievements gave me an idea. Rather than paying $5-10 for a game title, players should be able to redeem a Nintendo equivalent of "Achievement Points." And the service would track what achievements were redeemed so players could only use them once. This way, in order to get more virtual console titles players would need to buy/play more games on the Wii. Nintendo still makes money, and gamers don't get the "I'm spending money on nothingness" feeling. Naturally this would require some tweaking so players can get a reasonable number of titles per however-many Achievement points, but I think it could work quite well.
Imagine if Microsoft had a similar service (well, ok, imagine it had Nintendo's old games available on it) and had you redeem something like 1000 pts (random value) for a game download? I think that would be awesome, and would likely sell a lot of consoles.
Well, nothing can really justify the claim that AllOfMP3.com is responsible for $1.65 trillion in damages. But I do agree that in general by making their profits more public they will have a tougher time making outrageous claims of losses to piracy.
Actually it's not a *theory* as far as the scientific community is concerned. There isn't sufficient evidence, no peer review, etc. It seems to draw about as much concern from the scientific community as Creationism, if not less since it's nowhere near as prominent in the public eye.
I hadn't even been exposed to it until now; just passing along what I gathered.
I don't want to spoil anything for folks who haven't seen it but my whole point was I found it *highly disappointing* for a number of reasons as a result. For one, the movie isn't standalone at all, and there is merit in having something not make you feel like you paid for, literally, half of a product and are now committed to buying the other half in order to justify the first.
We have "episodic nature of games" to thank for some of the most unfulfilling ending sequences ever. And to say it works everywhere so it should work in video games is rubbish, because it doesn't always work everywhere (I cite the ending of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which IMO was reminiscent of Halo 2's ending in terms of closure and satisfaction).
Well, okay, given that Nintendo was happy with the deal (after all, that's a lot of money and I agree Rare was not having great relations with Nintendo at that point in time), how does that contradict what I figured of Microsoft's intentions? Whether or not Nintendo saw Rare as a lost cause, it still doesn't make sense to say MS was actually thinking of profiting with them.
I stand by my thinking that Rare would have done more for Nintendo than they have done for Microsoft. (Star Fox Adventures notwithstanding.)
Frankly I don't think Rare has had the vision for a KI3 for some time now. I have these really faint hopes of someone actually getting clever enough to purchase that license from them and develop a proper, worthy title. But it will never happen. Also, I can't think of a reliable enough development house.. maybe Team Ninja (they took Ninja Gaiden to a whole new level, maybe they can show KI as much respect). They'd have to be careful not to put DOA mechanics in there, but since NG has none I wouldn't be concerned with that, heh.
I seriously doubt Microsoft bought Rare with the intention of making huge profits off them. For a game company to make back $375 million they have to throw a pretty good number of big titles out there (3 Halo 2-sized ones or so). No way Microsoft expected that. I think it was more than anything part of their "we have so much money to burn let's just do it now and then bet on profits in the next console generation" plan, which involved hamstringing Nintendo by taking away their most important developer.
After all, if not for Rare, N64 would not have had half of the game lineup that it did. Banjo 1 and 2, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Jet Force Gemini, Killer Instinct Gold, DK 64. A monster list, really. And they also made the SNES's final two years great with DKC, DKC2, and KI. Microsoft likely wanted to deprive a major competitor of such a game lineup more than anything else.
Rare was worked hard by Nintendo. They released something like 2 games per year. Microsoft hasn't done that to them at all. In fact, the first game Rare released after Microsoft acquired them was for the Game Boy Advance (that silly Banjo game).
Granted, it wasn't the same Rare anymore at that point anyway, and of course some time had to be taken to get used to writing for the Xbox rather than Nintendo's systems, but IMO nothing points at Microsoft expecting a profit from their purchase of Rare any time soon (if ever).
There is no "debate" between Creationism and the theory of evolution. And to bring that into the scope of the article discussed does it an injustice. The article, by the way, did no treat the "chicken or egg" question as a philosophical/rhetorical one, but as a scientific one.
There's another sentence in there that starts well: "The research focused on great tits in ten major European cities, including London, Paris, Amsterdam and Prague..."
Reminds me of the vacation I took this past August.
Ok maybe I have super-intellect or something but some of those things I knew last year. "The egg came first"... how the heck is that news? Dinosaurs laid them well before chickens were running around... ugh idiocy.
There's also Archos. Their players aren't small by any standard, so if you're looking for a *music* player look elsewhere. But if you want *multimedia* and a lot of functionality (including proper wi-fi) then Archos is from the research I've done a very good choice. Their flagship product (the 604 Wifi) is about the same size as the Creative Zen Vision W (widescreen) but has a bit more capability.
Though an Archos is more of a "Sharper Image gadget for rich folks" than it is a mainstream player. Nevertheless, because I don't carry around a music player with me 24/7 and just need something I can throw in a backpack and place on my desk at work/home or have lyin around in a car on long distance trips, I think my next player will be an Archos.
Haha.. the reason I said the latter is because we've already seen him in a torture scene. I could've mentioned Cruise from MI:III because he gets shocked a lot in a torture scene there. Basically folks who people look at and think "oh he's hardcore" and aren't as responsive to that subject's pleas/responses as a result. Heh I hope that makes sense.
Slashdot Mirror
Shouldn't it be disavowed like any self-respectable spy? If you lose James Bond, he never existed, right?
That's fair enough. I just couldn't think of anything because I am admittely not up-to-date on anything ethically questionably that major companies are up to. I just couldn't come up with a good reason for Sony BMG to exist, is all :-) and yes I have been on Slashdot for too long.
LOL I see your point of course but on a tangent, anyone who sees a modern-day nuclear power plant as a Chernobyl waiting to happen really isn't worth the air he/she breathes. Nuclear power's only real drawback is the waste, and if that is properly handled there shouldn't be any issues. Greenpeace's alarmist and apocalyptic campaign against nuclear power really tarnishes their otherwise noble mission, IMO.
Anyway, from the point of view of how many people benefit vs. how many suffer, and to what degree, I don't expect the foundation to take an "objective" approach. I expect them to look at it from the point of view of the foundation's main goals. If they are biased, that's fine, but at least their decisions can make sense to *them.* I would find that better than just throwing their hands up and giving up. Providing incentives for companies to strive for better energy use, better treatment of workers, etc. -- those are things the foundation can definitely practice.
I'm sure the foundation could still put together some sort of panel to at least check off the companies invested in as "not 100% harmful" (or something along those lines). I'm sure some decisions regarding whether a company is doing enough good to outweigh the bad are too complex to bother with. But I do think some might not be too complex, and at the very least may reaffirm that the foundation's investments are admirable enough. Some companies, like BP, aren't pure evil. Some, like Sony BMG, totally are. (I don't actually know what companies the foundation invests in because I'm irresponsible like that.)
$8000 for a bug report seems like a lot but I wonder if Microsoft's QA folks don't end up earning at least as much for any serious bugs they manage to uncover towards the end of development (salary:bugs ratio, that is). And at this point, it should take a very serious amount of effort to uncover a big vulnerability (well, hopefully), perhaps such that $8000 isn't even worth the time for some.
;-) So, yeah haha big plot by Microsoft to get billions from VeriSign, but not really. The only people that will profit from this IMO are poor computer hackers or IT folks who somehow happened to be using a buggy feature in Vista during work and noticed it.
By the way it would not be that great of an idea for MS employees to go around submitting bugs to VeriSign, particularly if they get published and traced back to some feature those employees were working on
Sorry I can't. Games category is filtered :-P Though given Sony's current pace it may be that I'll end up being right after all! ^_^
If Sony plans to have *shipped 6 million units by the end of 2007* then just how bad they are going to get their butts kicked by Nintendo and Microsoft is beyond anything I can even imagine. Assuming they even sell all 6 million, they will be so far behind in market saturation that I don't see any developers sticking exclusively with them if they want to make any profit. At this point Microsoft should consider luring over Square-Enix because a Final Fantasy XIII released for 360 might not only help the Xbox a ton in Japan but on top of that will sell loads in North America and Europe.
If it weren't for the PS2 keeping Sony's gaming arm afloat (sorta), I bet the PS3 would have been a different animal altogether. Lower spec, lower price.
Micro Center has been offering a $100 rebate on Xbox 360 units since early Autumn, if not before that. I got my 360 premium system for $300 sometime in September I think. Anyway this was definitely not a case of increasing incentives in time for the holiday season or in response to a sudden desperate need to meet some projected numbers.
So, there was no "BIGGER" loss. It was the same as usual, Micro Center just increased its advertising during the holiday season, much like everyone else.
Forty miles? You've gotta be friggin kidding me. So, if run continuously it will go for a while, but if you drive around like a normal person then 20 miles becomes a point-of-no-return? Yeah, I rather buy a car that gets 8 miles per gallon because then I might actually drive it sometimes.
Granted on average people tend to drive less than 40 miles per day, but unless you charge your car daily that is a completely moot point. Even that silly electric Saturn that GM made a while back had a range of 80 miles. And that failed miserably like it was supposed to.
I had a couple of sites I made that worked fine in IE6, Firefox, and Opera (as in, exactly the way I expected them to), but are now totally borked in IE7. Flash isn't showing up properly, divs are misaligned, etc. Basically it's 100% illegible. I've been too busy to look into what's wrong, hopefully just the Javascript is being screwy, but honestly that wasn't something I expected to happen. I do still believe that if it works as expected in Firefox and Opera then it ought to be good-to-go :-/ So, yeah, IE7 might well end up being a total nightmare for me, especially if I'm trying to keep my site IE6-friendly, since that means using hacks that IE7 may be displeased with.
I understand exactly what you're saying. However, I don't think it's necessary to think of my version of Achievements as being "worth money." Rather, they are worth "old Nintendo games." In a lot of ways, you'd be trading nothing for nothing (Nintendo probably doesn't really lose money uploading a 1-2 meg game to your Wii I figure.)
Nintendo was, for a time. I totally registered some games on their site for a free GCN disc of the old Zelda games. There we go, I just saved idk how much money on Virtual Console Zelda games. Then there was the bonus "Ocarina Master Quest" disc that they gave away along with Wind Waker (I forget the circumstances, maybe a preorder or something). Considering having folks download old games is probably costing Nintendo next to nothing, it wouldn't have been any worse for them than Xbox's system. On top of that, they could have sold "Achievement Point" cards at retail stores that came with 5000 pts. For instance, and folks could enter the code on these cards to redeem for games as well. So you would have the option of playing a lot or spending money instead. As for what system will make Nintendo more money, well I don't know how hugely successful the Virtual Console is going to become, but if Xbox's useless Achievement Points are helping them out then I imagine useful ones would help even more. In any case, if I were Nintendo that's what I would have done :-)
Ok, I just wanted to throw this out there because otherwise I'll forget it. Personally, I was put off by Nintendo's pricing for its virtual console games for Wii. Way too high for me since I already have most of the games I'd want to play on the original cartridges and they still work. Anyway, Xbox 360's Achievements gave me an idea. Rather than paying $5-10 for a game title, players should be able to redeem a Nintendo equivalent of "Achievement Points." And the service would track what achievements were redeemed so players could only use them once. This way, in order to get more virtual console titles players would need to buy/play more games on the Wii. Nintendo still makes money, and gamers don't get the "I'm spending money on nothingness" feeling. Naturally this would require some tweaking so players can get a reasonable number of titles per however-many Achievement points, but I think it could work quite well.
Imagine if Microsoft had a similar service (well, ok, imagine it had Nintendo's old games available on it) and had you redeem something like 1000 pts (random value) for a game download? I think that would be awesome, and would likely sell a lot of consoles.
Well, nothing can really justify the claim that AllOfMP3.com is responsible for $1.65 trillion in damages. But I do agree that in general by making their profits more public they will have a tougher time making outrageous claims of losses to piracy.
Actually it's not a *theory* as far as the scientific community is concerned. There isn't sufficient evidence, no peer review, etc. It seems to draw about as much concern from the scientific community as Creationism, if not less since it's nowhere near as prominent in the public eye. I hadn't even been exposed to it until now; just passing along what I gathered.
I never said they did it by accident T_T
I don't want to spoil anything for folks who haven't seen it but my whole point was I found it *highly disappointing* for a number of reasons as a result. For one, the movie isn't standalone at all, and there is merit in having something not make you feel like you paid for, literally, half of a product and are now committed to buying the other half in order to justify the first.
We have "episodic nature of games" to thank for some of the most unfulfilling ending sequences ever. And to say it works everywhere so it should work in video games is rubbish, because it doesn't always work everywhere (I cite the ending of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, which IMO was reminiscent of Halo 2's ending in terms of closure and satisfaction).
Well, okay, given that Nintendo was happy with the deal (after all, that's a lot of money and I agree Rare was not having great relations with Nintendo at that point in time), how does that contradict what I figured of Microsoft's intentions? Whether or not Nintendo saw Rare as a lost cause, it still doesn't make sense to say MS was actually thinking of profiting with them. I stand by my thinking that Rare would have done more for Nintendo than they have done for Microsoft. (Star Fox Adventures notwithstanding.)
Frankly I don't think Rare has had the vision for a KI3 for some time now. I have these really faint hopes of someone actually getting clever enough to purchase that license from them and develop a proper, worthy title. But it will never happen. Also, I can't think of a reliable enough development house.. maybe Team Ninja (they took Ninja Gaiden to a whole new level, maybe they can show KI as much respect). They'd have to be careful not to put DOA mechanics in there, but since NG has none I wouldn't be concerned with that, heh.
I seriously doubt Microsoft bought Rare with the intention of making huge profits off them. For a game company to make back $375 million they have to throw a pretty good number of big titles out there (3 Halo 2-sized ones or so). No way Microsoft expected that. I think it was more than anything part of their "we have so much money to burn let's just do it now and then bet on profits in the next console generation" plan, which involved hamstringing Nintendo by taking away their most important developer.
After all, if not for Rare, N64 would not have had half of the game lineup that it did. Banjo 1 and 2, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Diddy Kong Racing, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Jet Force Gemini, Killer Instinct Gold, DK 64. A monster list, really. And they also made the SNES's final two years great with DKC, DKC2, and KI. Microsoft likely wanted to deprive a major competitor of such a game lineup more than anything else.
Rare was worked hard by Nintendo. They released something like 2 games per year. Microsoft hasn't done that to them at all. In fact, the first game Rare released after Microsoft acquired them was for the Game Boy Advance (that silly Banjo game).
Granted, it wasn't the same Rare anymore at that point anyway, and of course some time had to be taken to get used to writing for the Xbox rather than Nintendo's systems, but IMO nothing points at Microsoft expecting a profit from their purchase of Rare any time soon (if ever).
There is no "debate" between Creationism and the theory of evolution. And to bring that into the scope of the article discussed does it an injustice. The article, by the way, did no treat the "chicken or egg" question as a philosophical/rhetorical one, but as a scientific one.
There's another sentence in there that starts well: "The research focused on great tits in ten major European cities, including London, Paris, Amsterdam and Prague..."
Reminds me of the vacation I took this past August.
Ok maybe I have super-intellect or something but some of those things I knew last year. "The egg came first" ... how the heck is that news? Dinosaurs laid them well before chickens were running around... ugh idiocy.
There's also Archos. Their players aren't small by any standard, so if you're looking for a *music* player look elsewhere. But if you want *multimedia* and a lot of functionality (including proper wi-fi) then Archos is from the research I've done a very good choice. Their flagship product (the 604 Wifi) is about the same size as the Creative Zen Vision W (widescreen) but has a bit more capability. Though an Archos is more of a "Sharper Image gadget for rich folks" than it is a mainstream player. Nevertheless, because I don't carry around a music player with me 24/7 and just need something I can throw in a backpack and place on my desk at work/home or have lyin around in a car on long distance trips, I think my next player will be an Archos.
Haha .. the reason I said the latter is because we've already seen him in a torture scene. I could've mentioned Cruise from MI:III because he gets shocked a lot in a torture scene there. Basically folks who people look at and think "oh he's hardcore" and aren't as responsive to that subject's pleas/responses as a result. Heh I hope that makes sense.