Xander C 's BestNetTech Comments

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  • On the post: Escapist Website Mass Bans (Then Unbans And Guilts) Users Who Mention Adblock

    Xander C ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2010 @ 04:43pm

    A little silver lining and more hardships

    As a member on that site, I checked the rules and found that this was resolved around the 25th of March. I remember this was around the same time that Arc was going though their fits as well, but it looks like things have changed since then.

    Just last week, TheEscapist started adding more distracting ads to their site, but also started offering up a Ad-free paid version with a nice discount for members to upgrade on. It leaves me feeling a bit on the edge since the new ads are worthy of blocking, but impossible to. (since they open up with the video, killing the ability to just click and play instantly), but the price is just right. (20$ a year for ad-free viewing, and 10$ for the first year.)

    I jumped on the plan, even though it might not of been for the best of intentions.

  • On the post: CNN Dusts Off Ancient Moral Panic Over Out Of Print Game That Was Banned A While Back

    Xander C ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2010 @ 11:02am

    Unsettleing coninquesnces...

    Unfortunately, because of the Rapelay scandal, lots of really good JP artist that tend to dip into possible nude images have blocked their ports to Westerners, or have closed off their sites to avoid being the next one on the cross.

    This sword does go both ways.

  • On the post: Japanese Video Game Guru Says Console Days Are Numbered

    Xander C ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2010 @ 09:32am

    The hint of truth in the matter...

    By and large, the Console has had one of the weirdest lifespans of devices to date. If you think back to Pong Machines and going up from there, much like the automobile industry, there's been waves of megers and splits and everything in between. Back in the 80's before the meltdown, there was more choices in consoles, but little in the way of standards and quality control. After the meltdown though, we now have the big names that compete against each other, with smaller knock-offs that truly prove it's not just innovation, but exaction which determines what lives and dies in the market.

    With that said, the future looks cloudy for consoles push towards being a "All-it-can-be" device. We're on the possible brink of another meltdown as there's new competitors coming in soon, pushing for cloud-based gaming (LiveOn for example), and the original juggernauts are looking to capture on the Wii's success with implements that might not be innovative enough to justify their price-tag. Add to that the 60$ game for Triple-A budgets and the consolidation of companies that produce the games...

    It's too difficult to tell where everything is going, but sooner or later, the same indy developers that started working on PC games will get a boost if there is another crash on the gaming world.

  • On the post: Encyclopedia Dramatica Owner May Face Charges Down Under… Despite Not Being In Australia

    Xander C ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2010 @ 04:30pm

    Re: Encyclopedia Dramatica

    "They worship me in a fucking creepy way."
    ~ Oscar Wilde on Uncyclopedia and ED

  • On the post: Analysis Of Google And Viacom's Arguments Over YouTube: A Lot Of He Said/She Said

    Xander C ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2010 @ 04:20pm

    Re: Re: Re: Rights and Ownership

    YouTube may not have the full rights, but they reserve a few based on the ToS that has to be confirmed by the uploading party. They (YouTube/Google) assume the rights to reproduce your works with your selected permissions since you (as the uploader) are saying , "Yes, this is my creation, I agree to make a deal between you and myself over this content."

    If the ToS of YouTube is broken by the uploader, then YouTube proceeds to make right of the situation. (Remove content, ban account, de-audio filter) All these actions place YouTube well and reasonably protected by DMCA. Any Ads shown during the time the content was presumed to be legal should have no bearance on the fact that the guilty party was the user, and not the service.

    Liken this to a full McDonald's restaurant during the height of lunchtime, and some patron is choking on their food in the back of the building. The McD servers and workers are not accountable for the choking patron, but if they see it happening, they need to act immediately on it. Likewise, the cashiers are not accountable for all the meals and lunch sold at the same time of the person choking.

    I know the analogy is a bit of a stretch, but the general consensus is that YouTube is a service, and that service cannot give individual attention to every single uploaded file without the entire system becoming unusable.

  • On the post: Encyclopedia Dramatica Owner May Face Charges Down Under… Despite Not Being In Australia

    Xander C ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2010 @ 04:02pm

    Next time on Action 10 News

    Those crazy Aussies are at it again, Rick Astley gets sued by some group in AU for never following though with his promise to "never give you up", or "never let you down".

  • On the post: Yes, Google Will Even Delete Its Own Employees' Sites From Google Index If They Screw Up

    Xander C ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2010 @ 03:11pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Ministry of Truth

    My bad G, you didn't get the memo?

    All the cool people use Like, Python now when coding. It's kinda like, python, but it's Like, Python! Ya know?

    Here here, just this freshness out:
    #!usr/bin/python
    # My first Like, Python script!
    yo just print like "hello world" bro

    See that? E.Z.

  • On the post: Yes, Google Will Even Delete Its Own Employees' Sites From Google Index If They Screw Up

    Xander C ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2010 @ 11:20am

    Re: Ministry of Truth

    His blog didn't disappear, it's just the relevance of his blog that disappeared when the crawlers kept returning home empty handed.

    Any other search engine may or may-not of found him, but on Google, he was positively falling down the ranks because of the issue. A quick review of Google's own Webmaster Tools pinpointed the issue, and as a result, it took him all of 20minutes to fix everything up.

    By the next day, he was king of the interwebs once more.

  • On the post: Reminder: You Don't Compete With Piracy By Being Lame, The DVD Edition

    Xander C ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 02:46pm

    Found the Author

    Mike!

    I've found the author of this picture to be Kevin Marks, as reported on his TwitterFeed and reported by Lifehacker.

    http://twitter.com/kevinmarks/status/9346783422

    http://twitter.com/kevinmarks

  • On the post: Does It Make Sense To Ban Players From Xbox Live Just For Using A Glitch?

    Xander C ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2009 @ 11:37am

    Are Glitches part of game design?

    Mike! I think you may enjoy this site if you wish to learn more about game design and the ecology of player communities:
    http://www.sirlin.net/

    I agree with William though, MS's take on the issue with full day bans are overboard for a developer's hindsight of testing.

    On the other hand, there has to be some repercussion to disrupting play with a game-breaking glitch. Most "glitches" tend to sort themselves out as people will find a counter to the glitch, an then a counter to the counter and so on. But when you reach a point where there's no counter outside of full cheating exploit, then something is wrong that needs to be fixed.

    It should also be noted, that banning moves and glitches should be rare, and only for things that can be out-right pointed out. For example, what if it's illegal to stall a fight, or to run away for longer then 30seconds? If it's a very useful tactic, people would try to stall for 29 seconds to avoid the ban. (As silly as it sounds) But what if someone isn't stalling, but their strategy just takes 31 seconds to implement? This is why most competitive games will not have a full out-right ban.

    In this case though, the ban is justified for something that can be pointed out.

  • On the post: Does It Make Sense To Ban Players From Xbox Live Just For Using A Glitch?

    Xander C ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2009 @ 07:47am

    Re: Lots of people missing the point

    Game. Set. Match.

    Good Write up William!

  • On the post: Shooting Victim Sues Google Over Search Results On His Name

    Xander C ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2009 @ 03:14pm

    How ironic that the news of him suing Google will only place him on the spotlight he was trying to avoid.

    (ie, What a strange game, the only winning move is not to play)

  • On the post: Information Should Not Be Free… Says InfoWorld Columnist That You Can Read For Free

    Xander C ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2009 @ 10:29am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    touche, even the sample itself shown it wasn't worth the investment of your time.

  • On the post: Information Should Not Be Free… Says InfoWorld Columnist That You Can Read For Free

    Xander C ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2009 @ 09:41am

    Re: Coase Theorem

    That theory would be technically true if we only had one form of news source, but these days, we have an infinantial number of ways to get "news" out to the public, and just as many different ways to return the invested time into some form of currency and/or service.

  • On the post: Glenn Beck Not Allowed To Rape And Murder An Internet Meme

    Xander C ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2009 @ 07:52am

    Re:

    (Wow, this crap writes itself! I wonder if GB needs a another writer in his staff?)

  • On the post: Glenn Beck Not Allowed To Rape And Murder An Internet Meme

    Xander C ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2009 @ 07:51am

    Now I'm not saying that Glenn Beck may be an asshole, but why hasn't he come out already to dispute this claim that many people have been making?

    To anyone that have heard about this "rumor" that Mr. Beck is not only an asshole, but also keeps his secret stash of "pedobear favorites" with him at all times to "use" during his commercial breaks, I assure you that I do not believe it might be true. I also don't think it might be true that Glenn B might of ran over 20 cats and laughed with sheer glee and pleasure while getting a "quick-fix" special from a very drugged up clown that he slipped roofies two not much an hour ago.

    All I'm saying is that, if he comes out and admits none of this happened, then we can drop the questions and rumors.

  • On the post: Peter Sunde Brings Criminal Charges Against BREIN, Claims They Falsified Documents Against The Pirate Bay

    Xander C ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2009 @ 03:13pm

    Re: Forged docs ok

    Obvious troll is very obvious.

  • On the post: What To Do When Artists Who Otherwise 'Get It' Freak Out Over 'Piracy'

    Xander C ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2009 @ 08:36am

    Hold up, I'll let you finish.... But Obama had the best responce against a dick of all time!

    It was a knee-jerk reaction, but when the King of Geekdom denounces you as being a dick, then you kinda deserved it for one reason or another...

    Just saying.

  • On the post: Why Fining People Can Actually Increase That Activity… An Economics Lesson

    Xander C ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2009 @ 02:35pm

    Makes sense... If being late is going to cost you, then it makes no difference if you are 1 minute late or 1 hour late. You "pay" your late fee, so there's no intensive anymore to hurry up.

    The funny part though, is if you fix this by increasing fees, or increasing the interval of fees, then people will stop using the service all-at-once.

    As Anon #2 stated, maybe it would make a better business model to offer extra time, or an insurance of fees?

  • On the post: Win Or Lose, This Video Game Deletes Files On Your Computer

    Xander C ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2009 @ 11:36am

    I created a virtual machine to play this game, and I have to say that it's definitely a work of art.

    Everything about it says "game", and the different types of enemies created based on your file types sets you as the player into the same king of "survival" mode.

    But...

    As the author states, Lose/Lose is more about the implications of one's actions. You are presented with a game, where the only outcome of victory is subjective. There's no "you win" screen, but rather are you going for points (which costs you your entire file system), or are you going to "lose" and keep everything intact?

    Anyway, if there's someone that should get attention, it's this guy: http://www.quelsolaar.com/

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