RE: My Thoughts on Digital Distribution
This is a response to this blog post. Go and read it first otherwise this one will make no sense at all.
Removal of Consumer Rights
I absolutely understand not wanting to lose this control. If I want a friend to borrow a a game all I have to do is lend them the cd, they play, give it back when they are done.
Instead, if I want someone to play my game I’d have to give them access to my entire account and I won’t be able to play these game myself at the time. Not to mention I don’t think steam would take this nicely.
However, on used game sales, I have sold maybe two PC games over the last 10 or so years I’ve been playing them for. It is not a big loss to me at all. Read the rest of this entry »
Another First Week of School
Another first week of school started this week. I’m doing something new this term, using the wiki at http://www.michaelhartog.com/wiki/ (no, you can’t see log in to see anything) to keep track of my class notes. It’s much faster to type notes on my laptop (and much more legible) although it comes with some weird issues. For my CS courses, everything is fine since that is normally done on the computer. But in linguistics and math I have other issues.
In linguistics we have to write all of those crazy symbols they use in the dictionary to tell you how to pronounce the word. Luckily, I very quickly found how to write them through the IPA website with simple html codes.
Math, on the other hand, is a little more complex. There are a few ways to write math for browsers, however, they aren’t supported across browsers. The other option is some scripts that will take input and then it will create a images. I still have to figure out how to implement it, but I think I’m going to go with the image option.
The Idle Thumbs podcast ended last month and I’ve taken some of my spare time to listen to it from the beginning.
I’ve also picked up Bored to Death and Modern Family as two new TV shows to watch. No, I haven’t finished Buffy, get off my back!
And with a week off, steam shows what one week of vacation can do for me:
99 Steam Games
I have 99 steam games. That is significantly larger than I have physical games. There are two reasons for that:
- Steam offers me many, many deals, especially on older but still relevant games.
- Steam offers large packs of games at discounted prices.
I began using steam back in 2004 when they were throwing around Half-Life 2 with every video card, but before it came out you could play the older games. And a $10 upgrade got me Day of Defeat: Source and I could keep the back catalog. $10 for Half-Life and all associated mods PLUS a new game that I was waiting for? Sign me up. Read the rest of this entry »
Add This to the Bookshelf
I bought a few new books. Or at least it started as just a few new books. I wanted to catch up on classic sci-fi books that I had never read. And then it turned into some classic fantasy as well. And then a few classic cyberpunk books. And after that I had to get some random fantasy to try out something new. And then a few classic books. Oh and a graphic novel.
