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Comment Re:first? (Score 1) 178

by NightRain (#26494659) Attached to: Do Game Demos Have an Adverse Effect On Sales?

Whereas for me, I though Mirrors edge sounded interesting, downloaded the demo and realised I was mistaken. After working out how to move and jump, I realised that the game was going to consist of nothing but more of this, and that simply wasn't compelling enough to make it worth the purchase. Though to be fair, this is a game I was unlikely to buy /unless/ the demo blew me away.

Since getting my 360 recently, and having quota free content downloads from it with my ISP, I just grab any demo that looks vaguely interesting, and that has already made several sales and will be making several more. The thing they all had going for them though was gameplay that hit my sweet spot when I played the demo.
Music

iTunes DRM-Free Files Contain Personal Info 693

Posted by kdawson from the musical-steganography dept.
r2k writes "Apple's iTunes Plus files are DRM-free, but sharing the files on P2P networks may be an extremely bad idea. A report published by CNet highlights the fact that the account information and email address of the iTunes account holder is hidden inside each and every DRM-free download. I checked, and I found I couldn't access the information using an ID3 tag editor, but using Notepad I found my email address stored inside the audio file itself."
Games

Fallout 3 DLC Detailed 137

Posted by Soulskill from the ninjas-out-of-nowhere dept.
Eurogamer spoke with Bethesda's Jeff Gardiner about the upcoming downloadable content for Fallout 3. The new gameplay will be bundled into three different segments, the first of which is due this month. The last segment will raise the game's level cap to 30. Gardiner had this to say about how the Strike Teams would work: "The player will be able to choose, from a limited resource pool, what type of team members will accompany him or her on several missions within the simulations. These choices include different troop types like snipers or heavy weapons troops. They'll also be able to make tactical decisions on how to deploy these troops in certain situations. The Chinese Stealth Suit was what I was hinting at last week — it works similar to stealth boy every time you crouch!"
Space

Milky Way Heavier Than Thought, and Spinning Faster 285

Posted by kdawson from the bulking-up dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Milky Way is spinning much faster and has 50 per cent more mass than previously believed. This means the Milky Way is equivalent in size to our neighbor Andromeda — instead of being the little sister in the local galaxy group, as had been believed. One implication of this new finding is that we may collide with Andromeda sooner than we had thought, in 2 or 3 billion years instead of 5."
Games

Is the Gaming PC Dead? 417

Posted by Soulskill from the no-way-dude-check-out-my-$8000-alienware dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Rahul Sood, HP's CTO of gaming, argues that the days of a market that wants PCs running three $500 GPUs is history; he argues that it's really a tough or impossible sell. '... let's face it, high-end hardware has delivered diminishing returns in terms of value. This is why you don't see ridiculous offerings like Quad SLI and 2-kilowatt power supplies coming from our company.' But don't the ideas of customization and market pricing for components tend to undercut that? Is the gaming PC dead?"

Comment Re:*sigh* (Score 1) 674

by NightRain (#26208577) Attached to: Australia To Block BitTorrent

Yet again you are incorrect in that you can chose a second choice and third and so on in the AU system so if your candidate is eliminated then you vote is counted for your next best choice

So I'm meant to have meaningful input in the relative rankings of 40+ candidates? That's not entirely realistic. You may have answers that are /technically/ correct in regards to the issues I've raised, but in no way do they do much to actually address the frustration I feel with the system, because even if I do it and don't make a mistake invalidating my entire vote, it's still really just a vote for one of the major parties. Having the ability to technically do something does not ease my frustration when the results of doing it are nothing but a drain on my own time and resources without any other tangible changes.

Comment Re:*sigh* (Score 1) 674

by NightRain (#26207643) Attached to: Australia To Block BitTorrent

Here you are incorrect currently one alternative(the greens) has the power to and is blocking this bill in my understanding that THAT IS RELEVANT

Sure, in this once instance, it might be technically relevant. But in general they are an irrelevancy, as are the independants and other minor parties. If they're lucky enough to get the balance of power, they can block things they don't like, but they can't drive policy even then.

Yes you do vote for an independent or small party in the senate that supports some of your issues and a party or independent the supports other issues in the house of reps

And as long as we have an entrenched two party system, it will continue to be as useless as it is now. I vote for someone who doesn't get in, my vote is wasted and I'm lumped with one of the two parties, or I can suck it up and vote for one of the two options that I dislike the least as that's the only realistic way my vote will have any influence on the outcome.

Comment Re:*sigh* (Score 1) 674

by NightRain (#26204487) Attached to: Australia To Block BitTorrent

The real problem here is that people become disenfranchised because they don't involve. After all why should I care about you because all you do is complain, whine, etc.

Not really. We have an institutionalised two party system in Australia. People become disenfranchised because they're left choosing between two options they don't want, or wasting their vote on an alternative that will never get in to a position relevancy.

Personally, the last government did nothing but undercut and take away things I care about. The new government, whilst being generally one I prefer, has this little bombshell, which ensures they won't get my vote in spite of otherwise being inline with my desires.

There are no other meaningful alternatives, and I have no way of effectively voting to show my support for some of the current policies of the government and my strong displeasure at others

That is disenfranchising
Television

Octopuses Have No Personalities and Enjoy HDTV 482

Posted by kdawson from the or-was-that-redundant dept.
Whiteox writes about an Australian researcher named Renata Pronk, who has discovered that octopuses prefer HDTV. She recruited 32 gloomy octopuses from the waters of Chowder Bay. Previously, researchers have reported little success when showing video to octopuses. Miss Pronk's insight was that the octopus eye is so refined that it might see standard PAL video, at 25 fps, as a series of stills. She tried HDTV (50 fps) and her subjects reacted to the videos of a crab, another octopus, or a swinging bottle on the end of a string. A further discovery is that octopuses show no trait of individual personalities, even though they exhibit a high level of intelligence. It would certainly be possible to quibble about the definition of "personality" employed, and whether Miss Pronk had successfully measured it.
Media

New Contest Will Seek the Best "I'm Linux" Video 460

Posted by kdawson from the dust-off-directors'-chairs-and-hats dept.
LinuxScribe writes "From Apple's ubiquitous 'I'm a Mac,' to Jerry Seinfeld, to Microsoft's 'I'm a PC' retort, operating system commercials have been flooding the airways. Except that Linux is the one OS that has been notably absent. Now the Linux Foundation is launching a video contest on their new video site to fill this void. The winner gets a trip to Tokyo next year to participate in the Linux Foundation Japan Linux Symposium, and some serious geek cred." The contest doesn't officially open until late January; the blog post has an email address to contact if you want to get a head start.
PC Games (Games)

An In-Depth Look At Game Piracy 504

Posted by Soulskill from the share-and-share-alike dept.
TweakGuides is running a detailed examination of PC game piracy. The author begins with a look at the legal, moral, and monetary issues behind copyright infringement, and goes on to measure the scale of game piracy and how it affects developers and publishers. He also discusses some of the intended solutions to piracy. He provides examples of copy protection and DRM schemes that have perhaps done more harm than good, as well as less intrusive measures which are enjoying more success. The author criticizes the "culture of piracy" that has developed, saying. "Fast forward to the 21st century, and piracy has apparently somehow become a political struggle, a fight against greedy corporations and evil copy protection, and in some cases, I've even seen some people refer to the rise of piracy as a 'revolution.' What an absolute farce. ... Piracy is the result of human nature: when faced with the option of getting something for free or paying for it, and in the absence of any significant risks, you don't need complex economic studies to show you that most people will opt for the free route."

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