Comment: Re:Well, these ought to be interesting pictures... (Score 1) 272
Scroll down to the bottom. The last picture resembles a lifeform. The speech bubble clinches it: "Destroy Dan Dare!"
Former Exec Says Electronic Arts "Is In the Wrong Business" 180
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the inspiring-internet-outrage-is-a-bad-business-model dept.
from the inspiring-internet-outrage-is-a-bad-business-model dept.
Mitch Lasky was the executive vice president of Mobile and Online at Electronic Arts until leaving the publisher to work at an investment firm. He now has some harsh things to say about how EA has been run over the past several years, in particular criticizing the decisions of CEO John Riccitiello. Quoting:
"EA is in the wrong business, with the wrong cost structure and the wrong team, but somehow they seem to think that it is going to be a smooth, two-year transition from packaged goods to digital. Think again. ... by far the greatest failure of Riccitiello's strategy has been the EA Games division. JR bet his tenure on EA's ability to 'grow their way through the transition' to digital/online with hit packaged goods titles. They honestly believed that they had a decade to make this transition (I think it's more like 2-3 years). Since the recurring-revenue sports titles were already 'booked' (i.e., fully accounted for in the Wall Street estimates) it fell to EA Games to make hits that could move the needle. It's been a very ugly scene, indeed. From Spore, to Dead Space, to Mirror's Edge, to Need for Speed: Undercover, it's been one expensive commercial disappointment for EA Games after another. Not to mention the shut-down of Pandemic, half of the justification for EA's $850MM acquisition of Bioware-Pandemic. And don't think that Dante's Inferno, or Knights of the Old Republic, is going to make it all better. It's a bankrupt strategy."
Comment: Re:pffffttt.. (Score 1) 246
I forgot my combo wall/car charger in a hotel, you insensitive clod!
Comment: Re:Would the smartass approach work? (Score 1) 767
How(ie) Long is a former football player for the Raiders and current commentator for Fox Sports. He doesn't look Chinese at all. In fact, his Wikipedia entry says he was born in Massachusetts.
Are you referring to someone else?
Comment: Re:How amusing (Score 1) 209
Actually, based on demand for the story, she has no moral right to leave it unwritten. The courts should compel her to write the next sequel!
I think there was such a contract (not moral, but contractual) on The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, between his stints as Prince and as Prince. Seems his albums started sucking around that time...
Comment: Re:suddenoutbreakofcommonsense (Score 2, Interesting) 366
Yes. If you are interested, this book has more info on the concept.
Comment: Re:Just think about ENFORCEMENT. (Score 1) 1235
Let me guess...this 'friend' is really you?
I once had a friend who evaded the cops by extinguishing his lights during night pursuits. I -- uh, he(!) -- has yet to die from a shootout, though.
Comment: Re:summary misses the interesting point of coorbit (Score 2, Interesting) 157
So it doesn't sound like it's going to solve our energy crisis by giving us a lot of kinetic energy that we don't have already. Er, I mean 'end' our energy crisis.
Seriously, though, it intuitively seems like the danger from rogue asteroids comes from an intersecting orbit, with a high closure velocity prior to impact. This one may cause problems if it enters our atmosphere, but if it's already in a similar orbit, the energy dissipated would be mainly that associated with falling into our gravity well. How much energy is needed to cause Armageddon in this manner? (As distinct from the LHC manner of Armageddon, which seems more efficient, in theory...)
Comment: Re:Let's land on it. (Score 1) 157
Comment: Law and Order: SVU (Score 1) 395
A recent episode of SVU had them determine that a Jane Doe had been to Ukraine 6 months ago because of the levels and proportions of some isotope in her hair. You see, the water in Ukraine has a particular isotope signature, so by analyzing the hair the cops could determine that she'd been there. That led to a Ukrainian pimp, who, for a deportation in lieu of US prison, gave them the identity of the girl. Isotopes. Huh...