I don't think quasars were designed with accurate temporal measurement in mind. Rather a pointless comparison, really.

Some say it doesn't... well at least 80% of the time (according to the (in)famous Standish Group report). ;-) I am so looking forward to seeing Bilski being told to get stuffed by the SCOTUS. I am also worried that the SCOTUS may twist this into something worse... "look on the bright side of life, da dum, da dum, da dum da dum da dum!"

Yes, such a disclaimer of warranty is in the Windows EULA that you agree to when using the product and has been since the beginning.

Okay Mr. Blizzard Troll Fanboy, I'll bite.

Blizzard (possibly the most evil gaming company to convert from awesome indie hood to 1984), will almost definitely try to do tiered access the same way they do with WoW, oh you didn't buy the expansion? Well you don't have to, but you will be the handicapped of Azeroth with no special parking, to the point that not buying the expansions means you've completely wasted all the time money you DID invest. I notice you didn't provide a link to your assertion so I'll just spout my opinion the same as you.

In addition, the most purchased game EVER, Modern Warfare 2, does and did have a $60 MSRP, and is still selling as such on Steam and probably elsewhere. No, I don't own it; nor will I.

I am an avid, long time gamer (25+ years), I supported Blizzard from Blackthorne on 3.5" floppy to WoW; never again. They've proven money is more important to them than anything else, their customer service is abysmal, their inflated monthly fees for a 5+ year old game are sad, they're pro-censorship and anti-freedom at every level. Their enormous Asian market keeps them afloat I'd wager. Yes, they have polished releases where almost no one else does. That's the one thing they have left, I wonder how long before it goes too. Once bitten twice shy? I got sick of re-buying scratched games and whatnot.

It seems like they will be milking the SC2 and Diablo III releases for as much as they can. I would rather seem them charge $80 or $100 up front and include everything than do something insidious like this which contributes to the DLC debauchery, which I think is wrong generally, as has already been posted, developers are now leaving things out on purpose to charge for them later.

I used to scoff at people who said PC gaming was dying. I've since sadly joined their ranks.

ps, fuck karma.

How long until someone comes up with a retrovirus that will change the length of your "random strings" without significantly altering the function of your genome?

If it's called DLC and you don't actually download the content then you're not buying DLC.

http://www.destructoid.com/bioshock-2-dlc-confirmed-160747.phtml

He repeatedly called it DLC and said downloadable content. The implication is clear that you are purchasing content grabbed from a server and not an unlock code.

What reason would they have to cause this confusion other than to deceive people knowing full well they would not go for it.

You can debate what the $60 buys you when you purchase the game. That's fine and I'm fine with them selling unlock codes but they should have to be completely honest and at the very least no call it DLC because it is not.

I would consider deceptive advertising and, assuming this site can be considered a valid source then yes it is deceptive marketing: http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Deceptive+marketing

There was an incredibly high quality, low budget film called The Bridge, it followed the fictional story of a young scientology member as she goes through the 'Bridge to Total Freedom'. I don't want to spoil it but it goes into a lot of detail about scientology stuff, like the 'state of clear' and how much it costs to get there, what its like working for the org, the tactics they use, the 'supressive person' thing, etc. Scientology threatened and intimidated the filmmaker, so now he basically disowns the film and downplays anything he had to do with it. you can probably find it on the web... maybe.

Quite a lot of people thought the internet was a fad. The big thing was with LANs, and there were several competing networking protocols in the LAN arena. You didn't need the internet to send global email or documents (plenty of internet gateways took care of that). It took a long time for TCP/IP to catch on, but because the protocol was open and understandable and not tied to a vendor it had plenty of opportunities to grow.

Exactly. That is, for instance, what Hidden Path Entertainment are doing for Defense Grid: The Awakening*. They've released the game, and now a free DLC*, and they'll release a paid DLC nearly two years after the original. It's like an expansion pack, only "on the internet", so it's novel, somehow. :)

* Seriously, people, go check the demo out. It doesn't really do the game justice, but it's all one can (legally) get for free. Yes, I'm shilling for them, but that's just because I've gotten 100+ hours of entertainment for €5. :D

** Stupidly named Borderlands. What were they thinking?

So the power per square meter is 250kw/(4*pi*r^2) = 8 watts / square meter. I rounded off and used 50 meters for r. Drop the factor of 4 if you want, since it's pointing at you -> 32 watts.

Now cell phone towers are about 500-1000 less powerful than these radio transmitters, as they transmit 50 miles or so.

So we are talking more around 10 mW / m^2..... before it hits the window.

I heard there's this big glowing spot in the sky, right above my house, and it's hitting my roof with 1000 watts/m^2, my god that more than 1000 times more RF than the freaking RF tower.

Then benefits of not being on the ground floor, and therefore staying away from Radon, far outweighs the cell tower.

You are assuming that any other potential buyers even notice the cell towers. I garauntee about 90% of them see that they have full bars on their phone and think no further of it.

-Steve

I beg to differ.

With free software, there's no way for a publisher to prevent users from editing the source code and inserting the equivalent of a tee(1).

"Document management" connotes access control for unpublished works within an organization, used to enforce trade secrets on machines owned by that organization. Even when used between two organizations, these organizations are still in a position to negotiate terms. "Digital restrictions management", on the other hand, connotes access control for published works, used to enforce copyrights on machines owned by members of the public, made available only under a standard form contract. It's supposed to be easier to lock down your own organization's machines than every machine in the world.

Well, he certainly suffers from an inflated ego.

Most reviled person? The most significant thing I can tell about him is he's your average paid pen who'll write anything and everything for a steady income stream, barely worth mentioning, let alone reviling. Pity maybe, then swiftly forget.

Why everyone keeps saying that tracking every single move you make on your pc is such a great feature?

Leave me alone, mind your own business and stop collecting my own usage data for your strinky marketing purposes.

When I want to tell all the world that now I'm playing a game I will do it on my own, I don't need some steamy application to make it for me.

And yes, I want to subscribe to an asocial network. You subscribe and no one cares about you. Relax. Enjoy.