SWBgHz - Slashdot User

Tales From the Tech Trenches 99

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 29, 2010 @07:33PM from the try-plugging-it-in dept.

GMGruman writes "Anyone in IT has a story or two involving stupid users, crazy co-workers, kludgy technology, and airhead managers. Lisa Blackwelder has collected top tales of the tech trenches, covering user antics, office politics, and unusual technical challenges that IT pros faced (usually) with aplomb, insight, and savvy."

EA Shutting Down Video Game Servers Prematurely 341

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday January 06, 2010 @07:42AM from the sixty-dollar-yearly-fee dept.

Spacezilla writes "EA is dropping the bomb on a number of their video game servers, shutting down the online fun for many of their Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3 games. Not only is the inclusion of PS3 and Xbox 360 titles odd, the date the games were released is even more surprising. Yes, Madden 07 and 08 are included in the shutdown... but Madden 09 on all consoles as well?"

EA Flip-Flops On Battlefield: Heroes Pricing, Fans Angry 221

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday December 02, 2009 @07:50AM from the put-your-money-where-your-gun-is dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ben Kuchera from Ars Technica is reporting that EA/DICE has substantially changed the game model of Battlefield: Heroes, increasing the cost of weapons in Valor Points (the in-game currency that you earn by playing) to levels that even hardcore players cannot afford, and making them available in BattleFunds (the in-game currency that you buy with real money). Other consumables in the game, such as bandages to heal the players, suffered the same fate, turning the game into a subscription or pay-to-play model if players want to remain competitive. This goes against the creators' earlier stated objectives of not providing combat advantage to paying customers. Ben Cousins, from EA/DICE, argued, 'We also frankly wanted to make buying Battlefunds more appealing. We have wages to pay here in the Heroes team and in order to keep a team large enough to make new free content like maps and other game features we need to increase the amount of BF that people buy. Battlefield Heroes is a business at the end of the day and for a company like EA who recently laid off 16% of their workforce, we need to keep an eye on the accounts and make sure we are doing our bit for the company.' The official forums discussion thread is full of angry responses from upset users, who feel this change is a betrayal of the original stated objectives of the game."

Comment Re:Machines arn't even remotely comparable (Score 1) 688

by SWBgHz on Tuesday September 01, 2009 @09:55PM (#29280799) Attached to: OS Performance — Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and Ubuntu 9.10

Please, pure drivel. Like Apple wouldn't brick computers if they had the piracy issues that Windows does. Apple VS Windows is no comparison, Apple is a closed platform with very few options and a steep premium for software and hardware. Windows is not perfect but allows users infinitely more freedom and choice than does Apple and does so while working with more software and hardware and at a lower cost.

Comment Re:Machines arn't even remotely comparable (Score 1) 688

by SWBgHz on Monday August 31, 2009 @08:43PM (#29268569) Attached to: OS Performance — Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and Ubuntu 9.10

Cite the programs that have no Mac equivelent other than the programs that have no Mac equivelent, pretty typical answer from Mac folks. EVERYTHING applies as everything works on Windows and has many, many choices whereas on Apple you get either no option or very few. Windows is about options for consumers, Mac is about using a computer tha way Apple sees fit - if that works for you then great, have at it - but don't try to pass off Macs as a legitimately comparable to Windows in terms of price, software choice, or hardware choice as Apple is not even in the same ballpark.

Comment Re:Machines arn't even remotely comparable (Score 1) 688

by SWBgHz on Monday August 31, 2009 @06:27PM (#29267469) Attached to: OS Performance — Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and Ubuntu 9.10

Cite what? Cite that there is infanitely more software and hardware available on Windows than Mac? if you need a citation for that you are truly uninformed and not worth the effort it would take to inform you. Add in an iLife and .Mac subscription for many of the more popular Mac features and the more sparse, though not as bad as in the past, choices in software and hardware and the need to still have Windows unless you are just not going to do the many things that you still need a Windows computer for and the false price of a $29 upgrade is pretty apparent.

Comment Re:Machines arn't even remotely comparable (Score 1) 688

by SWBgHz on Monday August 31, 2009 @05:38PM (#29266901) Attached to: OS Performance — Snow Leopard, Windows 7, and Ubuntu 9.10

What a useless waste of font, let's review Snow Leapord verse Windows 7 with the Windows 7 PC getting inferior hardware for the test. Typical Apple fanboy dribble. The talk about the $29 upgrade but fail to mention the serious investment in other software, Apple and otherwise, just to get what Windows comes with or is easily available with the vast array of free Windows software.

Comment Enough with the irational MS/Vista hate... (Score 1) 273

by SWBgHz on Friday July 24, 2009 @08:32PM (#28814955) Attached to: Microsoft Exec Says, "You'll Miss Vista"

I think he might have said it wrong but I believe his meaning is correct. Vista's only 'real' problem (aside from poor third party support and the inevitable issues of some of the beneficial and necessary changes) was the change from an unusually long standing XP. With Windows 7 being only an evolution of Vista the bad blood will be set aside and it will be appreciated for being a good improvement over XP (which is what Vista is as well). And as adoption occurs over time there are lots of things that we will all appreciate and that will be rightly attributable to Vista even if they only fully come to fruition with Windows 7 (security improvements, better administration, better interface, accessible 64 bit computing, and more). While Windows 7 is a change form Vista the 'big' things that are different over XP are possible, and less painful, because of Vista.

Slashdot Top Deals