Back when they invented steampower, what happened wasn't that the aristocrats partied joyously with the peasants and everyone had easier, richer lives. What happened was the immediate discarding of tens of thousands from the employment markets, followed by economic migrancy, social and political unrest, the rise of communism, and a lot more besides.
Clearly a dumb move, but when have greedy power-elites ever been any different?
Now I for one would welcome our new robot overlords, if I could only be sure that the vampires (like, the IMF) overseeing the new order would just share the wealth and let people get on with the things they really want to do with their lives. Travelling, art, education, exploring inner and outer space, a lot more besides.
Why should anyone have to work for a decent standard of living anymore? It's the goddamn 21st century already!
(Hmm... just realised that we could be looking at a robot-apocalypse engineered by vampires. I gotta go talk to a publisher.)
Anyway look, go and read this guy.
(http://www.rushkoff.com/blog/2011/9/7/cnncom-are-jobs-obsolete.html)
I've seen for a while now how optical media is dying. For years we've had double-layer drives in our machines (another feature for the salesman to pitch) but the price of double-layer discs has always been kept artificially high. So high, that no-one reaIly uses that function. In a store near me I can buy 25 DVD-Rs for €15, or 5 double-layer DVD-Rs for €30. Clearly, a last gasp attempt by big media to stave off DVD movie copying. But at least I can still do that. Physical copies are always better than the cloud and walled garden approved software but try telling that to someone who only sees in "new shiny-vision" and treats hardware releases like new season fashion collections.
I had a massive rant one night at a party at a developer from an Irish 'app' (totally totally hate that term but anyway) studio who kept gushing on and on about Apple's App Store. I swear, I wanted to punch him.
Only a moron would go into business with Apple, who control everything that goes through their store like the Stasi approving your grocery shopping. Their business rates are completely locked in and totally uncompetitive but guys like him are in a trance because they think they're in some kind of special club.
Bollox. It's a cult. Call the Germans and tell them to shut it down.
Well I know most Slashdotters know this already. The thing is, while walled gardens have been around for a long time (ISPs are notorious for using them), Apple's Sith Empire-like success has legitimised the practice in the eyes of many businesses and politicians. It's an extension of the evil safety culture that wants us to remain indoors, and keep shopping.
Support free, open software and look into buying a DVD pressing machine.
...not online. Not an agency or just through friends. I turned around to ask a girl if she knew of a cigarette machine and 2 hours later, we were still talking. 4 hours later, we were weaving our way up Camden Street groping each other and giving tongue.
3 months later, I still love this gal. Our texts to each other are like this:
Me: Hey, how was your day in the foreign intelligence agency? I'm going to pick you up outside the embassy (when are you going to tell me what you really do there?
Her: Ya had nice day all went well wit sbjct X actualy hav evening 2 mself, tidying! lol. Hav 2 meet boss contct 2m so hav 2 prtend am tidy no strngs etc. PsykWrfr101. Will B @ rndvu usual plce. XXX
Guys (and girls), how could I resist a woman with such sweet charms? She texts like a poetess. Should I ask her to marry me now or when we meet her parents in Tel Aviv?
Looking at EA over the years, it seems they're not in the business of making games either. Rather, they believe their business is in making entertainment product labelled 'games'.
Let's not forget either that it was EA executives who tried to strongarm DICE into making Mirror's Edge a shooter, but DICE quietly refused to comply.
I'm seeing an awful lot of comments about games that were obviously badly written and badly thought through.
What about when game designers make a conscious decision to make the player responsible for his/her failures without making the cause of failure something needlessly beyond the player's control?
For example:
Alien VS Predator had a mechanism by which the player was allowed only three saves per level. Three. No more. The player was never told how long the missions were going to be or what kind of enemy he/she was up against. If the player died on the last save - tough. Game over, man. Game over.
Naturally, gamers whined and whined until Rebellion caved and released a patch allowing unlimited saves.
Ironically, years later gamers would whine and whine about games like Bioshock removing all consequences of failure entirely.
Fuck the whiners. Take responsibility for your actions (good or bad) and prepare yourself for the consequences. That's what real heroes and heroines do.
I've been a PC gamer since the early '90s and I've lived through all the years when PC gamers became ever more reliant on hackers to defend their rights to make backups and sell to a third-party.
When Ubisoft announced this last DRM scheme of theirs, I simply boycotted them. Why should they get a cent of my hard earned money if they're going to treat me like a criminal before the shrinkwrap has even been removed the box?
Well you all know that Ubisoft aren't the first to treat us this way but in my case, I also had a dodgy unreliable internet connection. So it occurred to me that Ubisoft had invented another way to victimise me and blame me for it in the process.
So I said: 'Fuck Them'. The rest was easy. I don't care how 'awesome' anyone thinks their games are. I couldn't give a flying fuck how many webcomics are being so topical about their games. I could possibly piss on the reviewers who've stopped trying to be objective and factual.
If Ubisoft want another cent from me, they must reveal the names of those who came up with this idea in the first place, sack their entire upper management and publicly pledge to abandon all forms of DRM while the company exists.
Repeat this statement 1000 times and you know they'll start listening.
We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts. -- Patrick Moynihan