In college I turned in the same paper on cognitive development (with a different cover sheet) for both my cognitive psychology and developmental psych courses. The only concern I had was that it was the same professor for both classes (and he was my advisor). He never said a word, and I got an 89% on one and 92% on the other.
Comcast offers other regional sports programming, so they offered partial refunds for Altitude being blacked out. But DirecTV "...would have less of an excuse than Comcast to keep charging an RSN fee while Altitude was blacked out, because AT&T itself owns the other major RSN for professional sports in Colorado. TV providers claim they need to charge customers RSN fees to cover the high carriage prices charged by regional sports networks. But when the TV provider owns the network, as AT&T does with AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, those carriage payments are simply going from one part of the company to another."
I see parallels to Jammie Thomas fighting RIAA - an unsympathetic defendant who is clearly guilty of violating the letter of the law. This won't end well for anyone (except the attorneys).
Re: Re: Re: I'll give you a hint: Less choice is seldom customer
Agreed. But my point is Valve played dirty, too. Steam got so big because Valve made its use mandatory for a game that was highly anticipated, and it was a kick in the groin for those of us who had purchased a boxed disc then discovered we could not even do single player until downloading some crapware we had never heard of and had no desire to use (bonus kicks for those of us who were still on dial-up at the time). It was not a consumer-friendly move.
Now Epic is trying something to jump-start their store, and everyone is freaking out about someone pissing on St. Steam.
Check out Playnite, "...an open source video game library manager with one simple goal: To provide a unified interface for all of your games."
Unfortunately you do still have to have those other clients installed for games requiring them. But Playnite will launch the appropriate client in the background when required when you select to play a game.
Re: I'll give you a hint: Less choice is seldom customer friendl
"... forcing people to either get what they want from a platform they otherwise wouldn't bother with or go without.."
Just like when Valve forced me to use Steam to play my boxed copy of Half-Life 2, right?
I'm just saying Epic is not the only bad guy or even the worst guy. My favorite digital distribution platform is GOG: a web page that sells DRM-free downloads I can install anywhere, anytime, without using a proprietary launcher or storefront.
Every launcher/client I mentioned above, including Steam, has been or is considered spyware by many. They do collect personal info, track what games you play and how long to play the, collect hardware info, and who knows what else they collect and report without full disclosure. That's unfortunately part of the price of the convenience of digital purchases.
I honestly don't get why people who buy games are so upset by Epic. So what if a game is exclusive to Epic or Steam or any other PC platform? There is no monetary cost to using another platform. Sure, it is annoying to have to have these and Origin and Uplay and Battle.net, but that's just a fact of 2019 digital distribution, whether or not games are exclusive. I shared, nay, wallowed in the outrage when Battlefield 3 required Origin to launch, but guess what? I got over it, and now I just enjoy the games regardless of platform.
In the end, I do not see this as being bad for consumers. I am not naive enough to think the savings will be reflected in the sales prices, or that EA or Activision will reinvest the savings into game development, but that possibility does exist for smaller and indie developers/publishers.
On a tangent, GOG Galaxy is optional, but I find myself using it anyway because it is easy to see all my GOG games in one place, and download or uninstall from there. And you can always use Playnite as a universal launcher. You still have to install those other launchers, but at least you can see all your games in one place.
The fragmentation is frustrating, but my Roku does a pretty good job of telling me what streaming services offer what I want to watch. But if that selection is not available on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, or something else I already pay for, I am not interested in paying for yet another streaming service.
Sorry, Disney, but pulling the Star Wars franchise from Netflix is not going to convince me to pay for your service. I will seek out, ahem, "alternative" methods of watching what I want to watch, and you will miss out on earning ANYTHING from my viewing. How can you have any pudding if you won't eat your meat?
"On the contrary, article 13 will indeed break fair use, leaving piracy once again as the sole convenient source of entertainment. We're basically back to the 1990's."
So moron in a hurry can distinguish between a pet food and an awards show, but said show's presumably college-educated attorneys can't? It's cheaper to be a moron, and apparently smarter.
On the post: Activision Tries To Bury Cover Art For New CoD Game Via Copyright Threat...So Let's All Look At It Together, Shall We?
I dunno...
...still looks fake to me.
On the post: What's Wrong With Students Reusing Papers?
In college I turned in the same paper on cognitive development (with a different cover sheet) for both my cognitive psychology and developmental psych courses. The only concern I had was that it was the same professor for both classes (and he was my advisor). He never said a word, and I got an 89% on one and 92% on the other.
On the post: DirectTV Forgot To Stop Charging Customers For Channels That Were Blacked Out
DirecTV just wanted to one-up Comcast customer service.
Ars had a write-up on this a couple of weeks ago: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/11/directv-kept-charging-regional-sports-fee-while-channel- was-blacked-out/
Comcast offers other regional sports programming, so they offered partial refunds for Altitude being blacked out. But DirecTV "...would have less of an excuse than Comcast to keep charging an RSN fee while Altitude was blacked out, because AT&T itself owns the other major RSN for professional sports in Colorado. TV providers claim they need to charge customers RSN fees to cover the high carriage prices charged by regional sports networks. But when the TV provider owns the network, as AT&T does with AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, those carriage payments are simply going from one part of the company to another."
On the post: RomUniverse To Attempt To Crowdfund Legal Defense, Which Isn't Going Well At All
Shades of RIAA vs. Thomas
I see parallels to Jammie Thomas fighting RIAA - an unsympathetic defendant who is clearly guilty of violating the letter of the law. This won't end well for anyone (except the attorneys).
On the post: Josh Hawley Wants To Appoint Himself Product Manager For The Internet
Missouri guy here...
*turns Mizzou shirt inside-out and covers face as I slink away in shame
On the post: No, Your Kid Isn't Growing Horns Because Of Cellphone Use
" ...Americans are (if that hadn't been made clear in recent years) immeasurably susceptible to bullshit."
Well, we're not here to fuck spiders, mate!
On the post: If Epic Vs Steam Is To Be A PR War, Epic's Boss Just Issued A Brilliant Retaliatory Strike
Re: Re: Re: I'll give you a hint: Less choice is seldom customer
Agreed. But my point is Valve played dirty, too. Steam got so big because Valve made its use mandatory for a game that was highly anticipated, and it was a kick in the groin for those of us who had purchased a boxed disc then discovered we could not even do single player until downloading some crapware we had never heard of and had no desire to use (bonus kicks for those of us who were still on dial-up at the time). It was not a consumer-friendly move.
Now Epic is trying something to jump-start their store, and everyone is freaking out about someone pissing on St. Steam.
On the post: If Epic Vs Steam Is To Be A PR War, Epic's Boss Just Issued A Brilliant Retaliatory Strike
Re: What we need on the User End...
Check out Playnite, "...an open source video game library manager with one simple goal: To provide a unified interface for all of your games."
Unfortunately you do still have to have those other clients installed for games requiring them. But Playnite will launch the appropriate client in the background when required when you select to play a game.
On the post: If Epic Vs Steam Is To Be A PR War, Epic's Boss Just Issued A Brilliant Retaliatory Strike
Re: I'll give you a hint: Less choice is seldom customer friendl
"... forcing people to either get what they want from a platform they otherwise wouldn't bother with or go without.."
Just like when Valve forced me to use Steam to play my boxed copy of Half-Life 2, right?
I'm just saying Epic is not the only bad guy or even the worst guy. My favorite digital distribution platform is GOG: a web page that sells DRM-free downloads I can install anywhere, anytime, without using a proprietary launcher or storefront.
On the post: If Epic Vs Steam Is To Be A PR War, Epic's Boss Just Issued A Brilliant Retaliatory Strike
Re: Re:
Every launcher/client I mentioned above, including Steam, has been or is considered spyware by many. They do collect personal info, track what games you play and how long to play the, collect hardware info, and who knows what else they collect and report without full disclosure. That's unfortunately part of the price of the convenience of digital purchases.
On the post: If Epic Vs Steam Is To Be A PR War, Epic's Boss Just Issued A Brilliant Retaliatory Strike
I honestly don't get why people who buy games are so upset by Epic. So what if a game is exclusive to Epic or Steam or any other PC platform? There is no monetary cost to using another platform. Sure, it is annoying to have to have these and Origin and Uplay and Battle.net, but that's just a fact of 2019 digital distribution, whether or not games are exclusive. I shared, nay, wallowed in the outrage when Battlefield 3 required Origin to launch, but guess what? I got over it, and now I just enjoy the games regardless of platform.
In the end, I do not see this as being bad for consumers. I am not naive enough to think the savings will be reflected in the sales prices, or that EA or Activision will reinvest the savings into game development, but that possibility does exist for smaller and indie developers/publishers.
On a tangent, GOG Galaxy is optional, but I find myself using it anyway because it is easy to see all my GOG games in one place, and download or uninstall from there. And you can always use Playnite as a universal launcher. You still have to install those other launchers, but at least you can see all your games in one place.
On the post: Take-Two Dismisses Its Lawsuit Against Pinkerton Agency As The Latter Runs From Its Own Cease And Desist
Damn ownership culture
Work is hard. Now everyone want money for nothin, and their chicks for free.
On the post: Ironically, Too Many Video Streaming Choices May Drive Users Back To Piracy
The exclusivity silos are where my issue lies
The fragmentation is frustrating, but my Roku does a pretty good job of telling me what streaming services offer what I want to watch. But if that selection is not available on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, or something else I already pay for, I am not interested in paying for yet another streaming service.
Sorry, Disney, but pulling the Star Wars franchise from Netflix is not going to convince me to pay for your service. I will seek out, ahem, "alternative" methods of watching what I want to watch, and you will miss out on earning ANYTHING from my viewing. How can you have any pudding if you won't eat your meat?
On the post: EU Puts An End To The Open Internet: Link Taxes And Filters Approved By Just 5 Votes
Re: Re: Re:
"On the contrary, article 13 will indeed break fair use, leaving piracy once again as the sole convenient source of entertainment. We're basically back to the 1990's."
Dibs on "Napster!"
On the post: Owner Of Harry Caray's Restaurants Finds You Can't Just Trademark A Widely Used Hashtag
Alternatives
Maybe he should try to copyright and patent it, too. Surely one of those will stick!
On the post: Monster Energy Loses Appeal On Monsta Pizza Trademark Ruling
Can Monster Energy and Monster Cable go after each other and both go broke?
On the post: Article 13 Is Back On: Germany Caves To France As EU Pushes Forward On Ruining The Internet
"...Germany Caves To France..."
Those words have never been written before, and will never be written again.
On the post: Pie Company Has A Rogue Twitter Impostor, But Decides To Be Totally Cool With It
Bravo!
On the post: The Emmys People Are Opposing A Pet Products Company Named After A Dog Named 'Emmy'
State of higher education
On the post: Where Credit's Due: Budweiser Goes The Cool And Funny Route On Microbrewery's 'Dilly Dilly' Craft IPA
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