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The Courts

Man Sues Rockstar Saying GTA:SA Is Based On His Life 124

dotarray writes "From the article: 'Rockstar Games are no strangers to legal action, but it doesn't come stranger than this. An American model, Michael Washington (known as "Shagg") is suing the publisher — as well as parent company Take Two Interactive — because they based Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on his life.'" It's a good thing Washington never learned the infinite ammo cheat.

Microsoft Demos Three Platforms Running the Same Game 196

suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from Engadget: "Microsoft's Eric Rudder, speaking at TechEd Middle East, showed off a game developed in Visual Studio as a singular project (with 90% shared code) that plays on Windows with a keyboard, a Windows Phone 7 Series prototype device with accelerometer and touch controls, and the Xbox 360 with the Xbox gamepad. Interestingly, not only is the development cross-platform friendly, but the game itself (a simple Indiana Jones platformer was demoed) saves its place and lets you resume from that spot on whichever platform you happen to pick up."

Comment Re:reasons this may not catch on in the US (Score 1) 533

I don't have a problem with cyclists who obey traffic laws.

But I would like someone to comment on this:

If, as a car driver, I pass a cyclist, and then reach a red light, why does the cyclist always ride along the right-hand side of all the cars in the line and go straight to the front of the line?

This to me seems strange. In a car, I don't try to get around the other cars in front of me at an intersection.

In the past, when I used to do my commute on a bike, I'd always maintain my correct position in line at an intersection (once a driver has successfully passed me, he or she shouldn't need to pass me again, in my opinion. To most drivers, it's actually *stressful* to pass a cyclist, because they are worried now about traffic both to their left and their right).

So, what is the recommended course of action at intersections-- should the cyclist maintain their place in line or go all the way to the front. And if the answer is to go all the way to the front-- why is that?

Image

Air Canada Ordered To Provide Nut-Free Zone 643

JamJam writes "Air Canada has been told to create a special 'buffer zone' on flights for people who are allergic to nuts. The Canadian Transportation Agency has ruled that passengers who have nut allergies should be considered disabled and accommodated by the airline. Air Canada has a month to come up with an appropriate section of seats where passengers with nut allergies would be seated. The ruling involved a complaint from Sophia Huyer, who has a severe nut allergy and travels frequently. Ms. Huyer once spent 40 minutes in the washroom during a flight while snacks were being served."

Comment Re:Obvious weird Windows comparison (Score 3, Interesting) 639

I would like to believe this, but it hasn't been my experience.

I can tell you this: Vista (!!!) appears to run smoother and with a more-responsive UI on my laptop than when I try a default ubuntu install on the thing (for example, flash just crawls when I am viewing it thru firefox in ubuntu).

It has been my experience in the past that every time I install linux, it runs slower (or at least appears to run slower) than the windows install on the same machine.

I'm not trying to troll. Maybe someone could explain this phenomenon to me. I actually *want* to switch, but I can't if the alternative is providing a degraded experience.

Comment digital distribution can be ok... (Score 4, Interesting) 371

Digital distribution is fine, as long as these guarantees are in place:

1) I can transfer my rights to the game to some 3rd party (ie, selling it on the 'used game market')
2) I can play the game without it needing to 'phone home' (so I can play it offline, and I can play it even if the activation servers go away).
3) I can play my game on any other device (eg, my wii breaks down and I buy a new one-- i should be able to play all my purchased games on the new one).
4) If the next generation console is backwards-compatible, I can transfer all my old games onto it and play them there (again, hopefully this would work even if the old activation servers no longer exist).

wrap it all up in drm if you want, but it needs to walk and talk like physical media, including all the freedoms (rights) i have now with my physical media.

Comment Re:Draconian Laws (Score 4, Insightful) 179

It is worth noting that Facebook violates privacy of more than just its members.

The summary does not mention this, but one of the things the Canadian study found was that users of Facebook can post photos and Tag the names of each person in the photo (whether they are on Facebook or not).

I believe there are good reasons why a non-Facebook user would not want their images posted, and for that matter, have a searchable Tag posted against that image.

Presently, I can't 'opt-out' of images of myself being posted by members, even though I am not on Facebook.

And on the same subject-- should I even need to 'opt-out'? Maybe they should require 'opt-in'?

Comment i owe him a lot (Score 1) 111

I feel that I owe Mr Sweeney quite a lot. I was one of the people who ordered the full version of ZZT and Super ZZT back in the golden days, and I have to say that those two 'games' had a direct impact on me.

I always thought it would be nice to have a game editor that was similar in concept to ZZT, but with graphical capabilities. So, that's what I did (http://rpgtoolkit.com).

And I wonder who else owes him the same thanks for the inspiration he sent out on those 3.5 inch disks

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