Comment Re:whom the gods would destroy they first make mad (Score 1) 258
Not disagreeing with you, but every episode of South Park is available to stream on their website.
Comment Re:Advertisement? (Score 1) 215
Valve managed to effectively decapitate that boycott group by flying the two leaders of the group out to Bellevue, WA for a tour of the Valve offices and a look at the game.
Who knows whether or not it'll actually affect the boycott, though.
Who knows whether or not it'll actually affect the boycott, though.
Comment Re:Had to be said (Score 1) 507
Have you seen the recent sequel to that video?
Ugh.
Comment Re:How about releasing the code? (Score 1) 52
Some of my own speculation of why they aren't releasing the mod-source for both TF2 and L4D are: - The stats/achievement thing: I can imagine someone with access to the source would be able to make a certain mod which can fool the stats/achievement system, and as such someone can 'cheat': For myself, I don't put too much pleasure in unlocking them that way, but I can see how people would to cheat with enhancing their E-peen (so imo, a half-valid option). - Afraid of people actually creating new content that can rival their next product: This is especially the case with L4D, whereas I can see that some of the things they're talking about in releasing in L4D2, has been stuff that me and a couple of my mates have been planning to actually do with L4D (but got severely disappointed at not seeing the source released). If this is one of their motivations behind this move... I can only be very disappointed. - Valve considering the HL2-source to be enough to release to the public, as in the end, simply said, TF2 and L4D are only enhanced modifications of the Source-engine. Again, if this would be the case, I severely disagree, as L4D has several components which are fairly unique to that game, but beg to be enhanced/explored in modifications.
I think #2 gets closest to what I consider to be the reason behind this - mods to multiplayer online games such as TF2, L4D and CS:S would fracture the player base.
Comment Re:YES! Cheaper video cards at last! (Score 1) 186
On the PC side, I can't remember the last good RTS or RPG that came out that played exclusively/best on PC.
This is the only part I have to disagree with, at least as far as RTS games are concerned. I can't think of a single console RTS game that performs as well on a console as it would on PC because consoles lack a decent control scheme.
Two recent, somewhat well-received console RTS games that come to mind are Tom Clancy's End War (which made use of voice-activated commands on Xbox 360) and Halo Wars (ugh). Either one would have benefited from a better control scheme. You mention mouse and keyboard support for the current console generation, and for all I know these games may have support for KB/mouse...I just think the average console user wouldn't bother.
Comment Re:The sample size / method is absolutely retarded (Score 1) 81
Well, it would have to be a bit smaller, as the Wii only has 512MB storage (512 minus space for saves and previously downloaded games).
The largest files would probably be WiiWare titles (other than Mega Man X), or N64 games.
The largest files would probably be WiiWare titles (other than Mega Man X), or N64 games.
Comment Re:Looks like Clearwire paid the bigger bribe. B-) (Score 1) 438
I don't disagree that the connections to Clearwire and WiMAX smells fishy, but important to note here is that Verizon has changed its original stance and is now supporting a DTV delay, so maybe the LTE rollout wasn't as ready as they'd have hoped.
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/01/verizon-does-180-says-it-now-supports-a-dtv-delay.ars
Personally, I think the bandaid just needs to be ripped off. The same idiots that aren't ready, won't be ready.
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/01/verizon-does-180-says-it-now-supports-a-dtv-delay.ars
Personally, I think the bandaid just needs to be ripped off. The same idiots that aren't ready, won't be ready.
Monster Cables Pushes Around the Wrong Small Company 572
Alien54 writes "Audioholics has a fun read regarding a recent legal dustup involving Monster Cables. The well-known (some might say notorious) cabling company sent a cease and desist letter to Blue Jeans Cable over a supposed patent violation. What the Monster folks couldn't have known was that Blue Jeans president Kurt Denke used to be a lawyer. His response is as humorous as it is thorough. ' Let me begin by stating, without equivocation, that I have no interest whatsoever in infringing upon any intellectual property belonging to Monster Cable. Indeed, the less my customers think my products resemble Monster's, in form or in function, the better ... If there is more than one such connector design in actual use by Monster Cable as to which appropriation of trade dress is alleged, of course, I will require this information for each and every such design. On the basis of what I have seen, both in the USPTO documents you have sent and the actual appearance of Monster Cable connectors which I have observed in use in commerce, it does not appear to me that Monster Cable is in a position to advance a nonfrivolous claim for infringement of these marks.'"
NIN's Music Experiment Sells Big Numbers 452
An anonymous reader writes "It looks like Trent Reznor's new Nine Inch Nails album experiment is a success. Among the various options he gave fans, the most expensive was the $300 Limited Edition Ultra Deluxe Package. It took just over a day for that package to completely sell out, earning Reznor $750,000 in revenue from just that option alone."
Submission + - HDNet's Mark Cuban Supports Comcast P2P Blocking
Mark Chisholm writes: HDNet Chairman and Dallas Maverick owner Mark Cuban wrote in support of Comcast's P2P Blocking on his blog:
"BLOCK P2P TRAFFIC , PLEASE. As a consumer, I want my internet experience to be as fast as possible. The last thing I want slowing my internet service down are P2P freeloaders. Thats right, P2P content distributors are nothing more than freeloaders. The only person/organization that benefits from P2P usage are those that are trying to distribute content and want to distribute it on someone else's bandwidth dime."
"BLOCK P2P TRAFFIC , PLEASE. As a consumer, I want my internet experience to be as fast as possible. The last thing I want slowing my internet service down are P2P freeloaders. Thats right, P2P content distributors are nothing more than freeloaders. The only person/organization that benefits from P2P usage are those that are trying to distribute content and want to distribute it on someone else's bandwidth dime."
Submission + - Ron Paul sets record $4.3 M in online fundraising
rebmaster writes: "Sure, Ron Paul stories tend to be over-submitted (and occasionally over-hyped). But this is real, BIG news.
In one day (Nov. 5th) — Ron Paul has raised over $4,200,000.00 — mostly by online direct donations from over 37,000 individual donors. (These are not "pledges" — it is "money in the bank.")
Paul's total deposed Mitt Romney as the all-time single-day fundraising record holder in the Republican presidential field.
There's a lot of Internet major media news postings about it, but they tend to be inaccurate and/or biased. (Typical!)
The AP story is one of the more accurate."
In one day (Nov. 5th) — Ron Paul has raised over $4,200,000.00 — mostly by online direct donations from over 37,000 individual donors. (These are not "pledges" — it is "money in the bank.")
Paul's total deposed Mitt Romney as the all-time single-day fundraising record holder in the Republican presidential field.
There's a lot of Internet major media news postings about it, but they tend to be inaccurate and/or biased. (Typical!)
The AP story is one of the more accurate."
Submission + - Former Enron Broadband CEO sentenced
maximus1 writes: The former CEO of Enron Broadband, Kenneth Rice, was sentenced to more than two years in prison and ordered to cough up about $15 million, according to this article. Rice pleaded guilty in July 2004 to a securities fraud charge, and the $15 million will go to victims of the fraud at Enron Corp.
Submission + - MS attempts to challenge Adobe's Web design suite (computerworld.com)
PetManimal writes: "Computerworld has published an analysis of Microsoft's challenge to Adobe's suite of Web-design and development software. The MS products are part of the $600 Expression Studio, which includes a bunch of different tools such as the successor to FrontPage (Expression Web) and a competitor to Adobe Illustrator (Expression Design). The reviewer found the functionality of the individual tools to be "not bad", and the price is great, but pointed to two major shortcomings: A lack of an image editing program and the failure of the Expression Studio products to really work together:
The review also notes that these programs support Silverlight, the partially open-source technology that is meant to go up against Flash."It's hard not to see Expression Studio as less a true 'suite' than a collection of products that have been co-branded after the fact — partly because Microsoft's other suite, Office, is so tightly knit in comparison. It's tough to see how the products in Expression Studio fit into a single integrated workflow or how they can all be used together, aside from creating XAML applications for Web sites.
Submission + - EBay pulls from Google AdWords (infoworld.com)
InfoWorldMike writes: "EBay has pulled all of its paid search ads from Google AdWords network in the U.S in an eyebrow-raising move likely to be interpreted in the industry as a sign of deteriorating relations between the two Internet giants. An eBay spokesman characterized the decision to pull the U.S. Google ads as an instance in a continued experiment eBay does to determine the best allocation of its advertising and marketing budget. But a source familiar with the situation said the move is an angry reaction by eBay's management to Google's decision to hold a protest party concurrent with the start of eBay Live, the company's annual conference for merchants."
Submission + - Yahoo censors Flickr images in Germany (flickr.com)
janoc writes: Apparently not only China is censoring Flickr. Flickr has recently introduced filters to filter out images deemed inappropriate. Unfortunately, the filters are now forced also on the German users (together with Singaporeans and Korean users). Photos marked "moderate" or "restricted" are invisible even to their own authors if they happen to be in one of the restricted countries. However, users from elsewhere can still see them just fine if they disable the "Safe search" feature in preferences — this option is not available to Germans anymore. There is a large discussion about this issue going on here: link.
