Recent content by odd function

But the CBO reported that Obama's healthcare plan will ultimately reduce costs. It is part of the irony of the Republican controlled house making a rule that any bill that increases spending should be matched with cuts elsewhere and immediately bailing on that rule when passing their healthcare...

This "review" makes me realize that consolification is not something made up by whiny PC fanboys, but is something to be feared and despised. It reminds me of a humor video froma while back for Super Mario Bros. which included pop up instruction for how to jump and how to kill enemies. I'm...

Regarding Chell's probable youth and lack of education. In our everyday lives we see instances where someone young is better able to adapt than someone older. The most obvious example that you ought to recognize is watching your parents play video games. The Escapist even linked to a series of...

This is not true. I have worked at a company that does just this. It is calculated automatically according to the billing address. I can verify that it did this for states, but I can't verify that it also handled county and city sales taxes even though the software had fields for them, since I...

You explained it much better than I ever could. I would like to the obvious example of large sales != quality. McDonald's. Nobody would claim they make quality food, in general what they make is good enough. When somebody is said to have good taste, it means that they recognize and appreciate...

The trouble is not only the whole captive audience angle, but also the fact that schools do their best to create a group identity for the students. They call it a variety of things like school pride, but ultimately they creating a members/non-members environment in the school and clearly...

I admit that this was poorly phrased, and the fact that I brought it up in regards to Halo hints that it was poorly thought out. The idea I was trying to relate was that hype/marketing easily drown out reasoned discussion about what games are good and why (we can call it word of mouth). Offered...

I don't think they are hated because they are popular, it is because some people (like myself) see people rave about these games for inexplicable reasons while passing over actual good and stellar games. It doesn't help that most fans dismiss criticism- -rather than entertain the idea that...

Your friend sounds lame. The only possible concession I could make for his viewpoint is that a game shouldn't handicap itself in order to get a more marketable rating. That said, for the sake of brainstorming, rated M: Portal = Chell is naked and most surfaces a reflective Kirby = swears...

I played the beta for an hour or two and this is a definite no. I wouldn't pay a dollar for it. From my experience it is an uninspired Diablo clone with a on the fly character switching a la Trine. I felt more temptation to buy Torchlight at $10. That said I only bothered to beat Diablo once...

Maybe if you read one of the many articles that went into detail about this subject earlier (http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/04/how-apple-tracks-your-location-without-your-consent-and-why-it-matters.ars) you could speak from a position other than ignorance. Because I wouldn't dare to...

This is coming from Sony themselves. http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/27/qa-1-for-playstation-network-and-qriocity-services/

Unfortunately we know for certain that your alternate scenario is represented here. Your personal data (possibly including your password) was stored as plain text. Your password was stored in their database (instead of a hash, salted or not). These two pieces of info by themselves mean that Sony...

So all you guys blaming GeoHot agree that Sony PSN was put together by a bunch of incompetents? Because that is clearly what you believe. Think about what you are saying: 1) PSN security depended almost entirely on the security of the consoles. 2) Sony sold these to millions of people...

I've only read a few pages of this discussion, but it is mind boggling how much people (here and apparently at Sony) don't know about even the basics of network security and responsibility. While it is easy to blame the thieves. You generally will be regarded as having had it coming if you...