Comment Re:Revenue Collection (Score 0, Flamebait) 297
Or you could stop running red lights.
Comment Re:Not Sony: Closed; Yes Nintendo: Open (Score 2, Informative) 182
Sony may like its systems closed, but Nintendo has as long a history of locked-down, anti-piracy measures and closed systems. The Wii does not play DVDs. Homebrew (slash piracy...) cartridges for DS are banned. Online is a joke. As far back as the NES and as recently as the DSi (no transferring downloadable games between systems), Nintendo is all about proprietary.
Comment Re:The important part (Score 1) 276
A lot of the people who buy from them do so out of a feeling they are protesting against DRM and big corporations, that they are helping out a `little guy'.
A very corporation-esque stunt like this MIGHT serve to turn off some of their fanbase.
Comment Re:My numbers are different (Score 1) 630
Do graduate students use the system? At my university, roughly 20-30 percent of 'staff' are actually postgrads and a hig percentage of those use Apple stuff and smartphones. The dusty old crones in the permanent staff do not.
The Best Video Games On Awful Systems 272
Buffalo55 writes "For the most part, classic games manage to reappear on different systems. Just look at Nintendo. The publisher has done an excellent job bringing NES, SNES, Genesis and even old school Neo Geo titles to the Wii's Virtual Console, while Microsoft's Game Room brings the best of Atari's 2600 into the living room. Of course, not every console was a success. The '90s, in particular, saw quite a few flops from companies like Panasonic, Sega and Atari. Just because a system is a failure, though, doesn't mean all of its games suck. On the contrary, most of these machines have a few gems that fell between the cracks once the console croaked."
What overlooked game on a failed platform would you like to see revived?
Microsoft Unveils New Xbox 360 Wireless Controller 150
adeelarshad82 writes "Microsoft unveiled a new wireless Xbox 360 controller, which features a revamped D-pad that transforms from a plus to a disc. The new D-pad was developed to address complaints from users. Other new features include: A, B, X, and Y buttons that are gray instead of the standard red, green, yellow, and blue; and a matte silver color. The controller includes 2.4-GHz wireless technology with a 30-foot range."
School District Drops 'D' Grades 617
Students in one New Jersey school district will no longer be able to squeak by in class after the Morris County School Board approved dropping the D grade. Beginning in the fall students who don't get a C or higher will get an F on their report card. "I'm tired of kids coming to school and not learning and getting credit for it," said Superintendent Larrie Reynolds in a Daily Record report.
Comment Re:Other Paralells (Score 1) 780
This is better than driving the SUV and not recycling the beer cans. Morally bankrupt is a bit of a stretch - I suppose you've never been even slightly hypocritical? I forgot that despite dying 13 years ago, Mother Theresa can still post on
The Proton Just Got Smaller 289
inflame writes "A new paper published in Nature has said that the proton may be smaller than we previously thought. The article states 'The difference is so infinitesimal that it might defy belief that anyone, even physicists, would care. But the new measurements could mean that there is a gap in existing theories of quantum mechanics. "It's a very serious discrepancy," says Ingo Sick, a physicist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, who has tried to reconcile the finding with four decades of previous measurements. "There is really something seriously wrong someplace."' Would this indicate new physics if proven?"
Comment Re:HUD (Score 1) 228
I'm not trying to say there aren't times when realistic health works great; only that in plenty of cases (I'd argue in the overwhelming majority) it isn't ideal.
Comment HUD (Score 2, Insightful) 228
This is the problem with a HUD. Health bars look dumb, and remind you that you're not playing a person but some abstraction of a person. Magic bars, too. It's unfortunate that the real-world mechanics of death are no fun to play, and so we have to create an unreal world, but hiding this is an important aspect of design in *SOME* games.
On the other hand, the current crop of games trying to 'go no HUD' are often worse. Putting the health bar on the player's back doesn't make it less of a health bar, and serves only to remind me that they're trying to fool me. HUD is at worst a necessary evil, and at best a useful tool.
Comment not alwaysssss (Score 1) 18
Not if It's my name.
Comment Re:Before you do it (Score 1) 1186
If inscribed on a sphere, it's still 2-dimensional. You're looking for Euclidean.
Comment Re:Bloodless? (Score 1) 419
mod this insightful not funny
Comment Re:"BUT SHe'S UNELLECTED!! BLAAAAHH!!11!!!!!!" (Score 1) 419
Like it or not, the political process as it stands right now is structured in such a way that we, the people, did in fact vote for Kevin Rudd.
You can kick and scream and say 'you voted for a party', but you're being ridiculous. I could take your reduction one step further and say that you voted for a representative in your own electorate, and not a party. It just *happens* they're a member of a party.
You know as well as I do that the Labor campaign was about Rudd. Was their slogan "Labor 07"? No, it was Kevin Rudd versus John Howard, no matter how reductive you want to be, there's a presumption that Rudd will remain in office for 3 years. That's why succession was such a big issue when it was Howard-Costello.
Knowing a technical detail doesn't change the fact, and the fact is that this succession has proved Labor's claims at the 2007 election disingenuous. It's the ultimate broken election promise.
