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Slashback: Armed, Cracked, Cables

Slashback this holiday evening with just a few quick updates and follow-ups (below) -- I hope those to whom the Fourth of July is a significant holiday are out (responsibly) making things explode.

Nearly anything is better than ribbon cables. aibrahim writes "In the recent /. article about Serial ATA some people wanted to know where SCSI was going, and if Serial ATA could deal with some higher end workstation and low end server requirements. Apparently it has been decided that Serial ATA 2 (pdf doc) and Serial Attached SCSI are the answers."

Because being an American is all about first-person shooters. and i starve writes: "For any of you FPS fans out there who have been champing at the bit to see the newest product of our very own government's attempt at a multiplayer video game since Marine Doom your day has final come. America's Army, which utilizes the Unreal Warfare engine was created and designed by the United States Army and is TOTALLY FREE! go grab it off of File Planet right now!"

Before you hit your "JINGO" button, though, An anonymous reader cautions "In typical Army fashion the release of America's Army is a bust. All the servers are either full or down and the way it's set up, you can't play past the basic training without completing some of the training online. Since you can't connect to any of the servers to complete that training you basically can't play the game at all. What a waste of taxpayer money."

Nobody needs to make any cracks about this. Anonymous Coward writes "According to this CNN Article, [some cracks were] found on Space Shuttle Columbia this week, possibly delaying missions for the remainder of the year. This crack is similar to the crack found on Columbia's sister ships, Atlantis and Discovery. "

Worst pun in relation to this gets no prize.

29 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Check out the rules of engagement by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The load will lighten up eventually. Check out the rules of engagement on their site. Will it stop cheating? Not a chance. But maybe they could knock one or two doors down, just for show.

    1. Re:Check out the rules of engagement by Patrick13 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Any and all threats against the server, including attempts to hack, crash, or flood a server, actual or implied, are instant grounds for removal and can result in legal action. Come on, this is the U.S. Army you're messing with! Be smart.

      this made me laugh out loud.

      --
      ::.. check out some Cell Phone Reviews
    2. Re:Check out the rules of engagement by Animats · · Score: 4, Funny
      You think they're kidding?
      • Q: Why do I keep getting sent to a prison cell?

        A: You have committed a serious ROE (Rules of Engagement) violation. You have been sent to the United States Military Prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. This violation will go on your permanent record. Repeated ROE violations of this degree will result in a player account being temporarily or permanently banned from official servers.

      • Q: What does ROE mean?

        A: ROE stands for Rules of Engagement, which all soldiers must learn and obey while in hostile situations. For America's Army, ROE means not firing upon your fellow U.S. Soldiers, and not attempting to destroy or kill an objective which you are assigned to protect. Every incident of friendly fire will be recorded in your ROE score, including non-fatal shots and grenade damage. If you accumulate an ROE score of over 400 during a single match, you will be kicked off of the server and sent to Leavenworth Prison. Repeated ROE violations will result in your player account being temporarily or permanently banned.

      For those of you who don't realize it, America's Army is operated by U.S. Army Recruiting. If you play it well, you'll probably be hearing from them.

    3. Re:Check out the rules of engagement by jeti · · Score: 3, Funny

      Doesn't an attack at a US commercial or governmental
      server make you a terrorist anyway?

      Maybe trying to cheat can give you total immersion to
      this military camp thing.

  2. Heh. by Skreech · · Score: 5, Funny

    Crack found in third space shuttle

    You'd think they were getting high enough already...

    1. Re:Heh. by gusnz · · Score: 4, Funny

      And since when did they start sending moderators into space anyway? :)

    2. Re:Heh. by Megane · · Score: 3, Funny
      Well, it is the space shuttle Columbia.

      FWIW, when I first saw the CNN article, that was the first thing that popped into my head. I guess that's the best way to smuggle it onto the space station.

      --
      #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  3. Ribbon cables and the like by ObviousGuy · · Score: 3, Flamebait

    I have to commend Apple on one thing, it isn't their crap for kernel OSX nor is it their candy-coated, not meant for serious use user interface. The thing that really stands out about Apples is the case design.

    The problem with PC cases is that it is difficult to get into and install components, at least more difficult than it has to be. Apples have the nice fold-out side panel so that opening the box means having all the components open for review right away. All cables are nicely laid so that there isn't the twisting, jumbled, leaning against the CPU and slowly melting ribbon cable problem that afflicts poorly designed PC cases.

    I'm sure that such cases are available for non-Apples, but having been component shopping this past weekend, I can attest to their dearth. Why must PC cases be stuck so far in the past? Can't we learn anything from our friends (not the software people) in Mt. View?

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  4. Government learning from industry .... by reaper20 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "In typical Army fashion the release of America's Army is a bust. All the servers are either full or down and the way it's set up, you can't play past the basic training without completing some of the training online. Since you can't connect to any of the servers to complete that training you basically can't play the game at all. What a waste of taxpayer money."

    Wow! I applaud the Army's foray into online gaming, they've cloned every aspect of online gaming, kudos! Tomorrow, there will be a patch, the next day, another one, but that one will break your savegames, but that won't matter, because the master server will still be down....

    (Still pissed I can't find a decent roleplaying NWN server....)

  5. Army Game Fix... by Skuld-Chan · · Score: 5, Informative

    look in the install dir /system/tours.ini

    make sure the following sections look like this,

    Dependency(0)=-1
    Dependency(1)=-1
    Dependency(2)=-1
    Dependency(3)=-1
    Dependency(4)=-1
    Dependency(5)=-1
    Dependency(6)=-1
    Dependency(7)=-1
    Dependency(8)=-1

    (farther down)

    TourSeq(0)=0
    TourSeq(1)=0
    TourSeq(2)=0
    TourSeq(3)=0
    TourSeq(4)=0
    TourSeq(5)=0
    TourSeq(6)=0
    TourSeq(7)=0
    TourSeq(8)=0

    There - now you can do all the training offline :)

  6. US Army == 666 by krs-one · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://www.pcgameworld.com/company.php/id/666

    If you go to that link now, you will find that that is the information about the Army game developers. Conviently, it also has the number 666 as its ID in the database.

    Coincidence? I think not! :)

    -Vic

    1. Re:US Army == 666 by Col.+Klink+(retired) · · Score: 3, Funny


      U 85
      n 110
      i 105
      t 116
      e 101
      d 100
      32
      S 83
      t 116
      a 97
      t 116
      e 101
      s 115
      32
      A 65
      r 114
      m 109
      y 121
      +85+110+105+116+101+100+32+83+116+97-116+101- 115+3 2-65+114-109-121 = 666
      Coincidence? I think not!

      --

      -- Don't Tase me, bro!

  7. America's Army links, taken from bluesnews.com by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those who hate fileplanet, click here for Mirrors.

    3dgamers has it here

  8. OK by GigsVT · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apparently it has been decided that Serial ATA 2 (pdf doc) and Serial Attached SCSI are the answers."

    I'm usually a supporter of ATA hard disks in all but the most high end servers, due to the outrageous cost benefits they offer, but this is just stupid.

    SCSI is a far superior technology, there is no denying that. ATA is a hack ontop of a hack, just barely "good enough" in most cases. Only recently have large ATA RAIDs been available, through people like AXUS, Promise, and 3ware, by placing one controller per disk. Another hack on top of a hack, but very cost effective, and it works well.

    If we are going to change our interface anyway, why not get rid of the SCSI vs ATA argument completely and just stick with one or the other?

    I see no need for a serial SCSI and a serial ATA except for reasons of price descrimination against people who think SCSI is more reliable due to supersitions and tech mythology. The HDAs have been the same in many cases for a long time.

    So why not ditch Serial ATA, or ditch serial SCSI, or ditch both and use a mature technology like Fibre Channel (which is already basically serial SCSI).

    I don't see what this fragmentation gets us.

    --
    I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
    1. Re:OK by LoRdTAW · · Score: 3, Informative

      here the hell do you get that fibre channel is more mature then SCSI when SCSI is about 8-10 years older then it? True Fibre channel is very flexible allowing 127 devices and speeds of 2Gbps but SCSI is more mature and much more a standard then FC. IDE was actually derived from SCSI back in the day to make a cheaper consumer version of scsi (The ATA protocal is also taken from SCSI as well.) Yes FC is a more flexible and competitive solution to scsi but it was never really accepted as a direct interface to the device itself, instead relying on FC-scsi raid bridges to chain multiple tape and raid systems to single or multiple servers.
      FC disks work in a loop or ring topoligy like token ring. Each drives tx port is connected to the next disks rx port creating a non redundent ring (FL-AL uses a double loop for redundency) so if data in a 10 disk system has to be sent from the host adapter then it has to pass through each disk until it reaches the final drive also if one disk is sending allot of data along the bus then other disks will have to fight for bandwidth. so yea 127 devices sounds great but take into concideration all 127 have to fight for 100 or 200mbytes a sec then it isnt so cool anymore. Serial ATA gives you one dedicated 1500Mbps connection which is said to have a top speed of 150Mbytes/sec. Take that into concideration and create an accelerated raid controller with 8 or more of those disks and you easily could have yourself over 100Mbytes of read/write preformance, maybe even close to 200!

      -not edited for grammer or spelling.

    2. Re:OK by ivan256 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes FC is a more flexible and competitive solution to scsi but it was never really accepted as a direct interface to the device itself, instead relying on FC-scsi raid bridges to chain multiple tape and raid systems to single or multiple servers.

      The fibre channel protocol for storage is basically SCSI. SCSI commands are encapsulated in a fibre channel frame. The only reason that Fibre Channel isn't used as a direct interface to the device is that there really aren't many devices out there with Fibre Channel on them. This is likely because Fibre Channel has so many features that the interface is very expensive, and since it's just encapsulated SCSI anyway, it's much cheaper to have a single interface bridge. This is why we have serial ATA for cheap systems instead of just using (serial) Fibre Channel.

      FC disks work in a loop or ring topoligy like token ring. Each drives tx port is connected to the next disks rx port creating a non redundent ring (FL-AL uses a double loop for redundency) so if data in a 10 disk system has to be sent from the host adapter...

      Nobody does this. There are three topologies for Fibre Channel: Arbitrated Loop, Point to Point, and Fabric/Switched. Even if people did use the arbitrated loop topology, it doesn't quite work how you described. There is no fighting for bandwidth (That's what the "arbitrated" part is for), and there is no proceesing of other devices data from the loop. It's basically just repeated. In real life, however, only the point to point and switched topologies are used.

      127 devices sounds great but take into concideration all 127 have to fight for 100 or 200mbytes a sec then it isnt so cool anymore.

      First of all, in switched mode, there are considerably more then 127 devices supported. The device ID on the fabric is 16 bits, and each storage unit is speaking SCSI, so there can be 256 LUNs per device. That's alot of disks. Secondly, most fibrechannel switches have way more then 2Gb/s backplane bandwidth. so you're only fighting for that 100-200MB/s if multiple machines on the storage network are trying to access the same storage. Third, in a single system situation, you're not going to have hundreds of disks, and finally, if you did you'd have the same problem with serial ATA.

  9. Been playing the Army Ops from morning by cOdEgUru · · Score: 4, Funny

    Its commmendable that they got it out pretty early, rather than making us wait for years (Duke Nukem). But there are a couple of things which are a bit funny.

    After picking up your rifle, if I head off straight to the firing range, boom, the game brings me back in to face the seargeant. After this has happened a couple of times, I kinda loitered around the place after picking up my rifle, And bingo!, the Seargent asks me to move my butt, and I am placed in front of the firing range.

    Interestingly, if you pick up your rifle, load up a clip and decide to get rid of the snappy sergeant, then you still could. But a moment later, you are in a 4x4 cell with a cot and a couple of books and could pretty much hear some one playing some musical instrument in the next cell. I guess there were others who tried the same thing.

    So there are a couple of issues like the server being unresponsive (thousands of wannabe soldiers trying to connect) and the game not being as colorful as the unreal series. But hey, the realism of the game is what gets me. That and the fact that I scored 36 out of 40 in the Test Firing range. Do you think the US Army would hire sharpshooters based on this score ? :)

  10. where's the patch for the Peace Corps simulation? by js7a · · Score: 4, Funny
    There - now you can do all the training offline :)

    Great, so, where's the patch that turns it into a The Sims-style system for the Army Corps of Engineers, where you go around installing solar roofs and handing out educational systems to disadvantaged third-world nations?

    The only way to win is to not breed the festering terrorists that the marines have to shoot at in the first place.

  11. Just how realistic is it? by flacco · · Score: 5, Funny

    For example, will I be able to shoot myself in the foot and get off the front line if I get scared?

    --
    pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
  12. America's Army... by I+Want+GNU! · · Score: 3, Funny

    The government of the United States presents this great first person shooter to you, bundled with your own personalized version of Magic Lantern! I mean, all you're doing is going around shooting people, it's not like they'd want to spy all over your computer. Just don't tell Osama, I hope he downloads it and they catch him!

  13. Not that I endorse it by SirSlud · · Score: 3, Funny

    > words such "gay" or "jew" will not be tolerated

    This is going to be weird for most FPS fans. From personal experience, thats like, 90% of the vocabulary used in Quake 3 online.

    Where are the parents? Or maybe they dont care. :(

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  14. Re:Who cares about 4th July? by flacco · · Score: 4, Funny
    It's strange that most usa people (which, btw, love to claim they're 'americans' by all means) think someone outside the usa care about the fake 4th july thing.

    Whatever gave you the idea that we give a shit what you or anyone else thinks?

    (bonus points - be sure to use the words "arrogant" and "cowboys" in your reply)

    --
    pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
  15. It's ok... the army is allowed to do that by SailorFrag · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I find this an interesting contrast to the past few years where people have tried various things ranging from restricting sales of violent games (especially FPSs) to banning them outright, with claims that they were causing kids to want to kill each other.

    So the US Army comes along and makes a violent FPS. Why aren't they complaining? Apparently it's bad if Id does it, but it's alright for the army.

    Who are they expecting needs to be faught against, anyway?

  16. Re:We already have Serial SCSI... by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 3

    it's called Fibre Channel [cinonic.com]

    Fibre channel? I don't think so. Fibre channel is dying out, and is being replaced by GigE and Gig10E. Fibre channel suffers tremendously from lack of standards, low production volume and high costs.

  17. Army HW Support by Jeepsta · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ok so now I cant even play this game b/c my voodoo card is unsupported. Seems you cant use any voodoo 1/2/3 cards....bullshit! So I guess i wont try it out.

  18. Re:Who cares about 4th July? by flacco · · Score: 5, Funny
    You boorish, colonial cowboys are far too arrogant.

    We have a winner :-)

    --
    pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
  19. More about the art director... by writermike · · Score: 5, Informative

    For what it's worth, I know the art director on the Army Game project very well. Luke Ahearn is a real class act and will listen to any concerns you guys have.

    I used to work with him several years ago when he ran Goldtree Enterprises. They created Cylindrix and Dead Reckoning. They also released a number of FRPG utilities to help GMs run games. The web site is still online.

    Review of Cylindrix

    Review of Dead Reckoning

    It's really a pleasure to see the fruits of labor finally. Army Game has been pretty hush-hush since Luke left New Orleans for the project.

    --
    If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
  20. Re:Who cares about 4th July? by istartedi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If "graceful" includes the Revolutionary war, impressment of US sailors, and the war of 1812 in which they marched on our capital and burned the White House, I'd hate to see what "grudgingly" looks like.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  21. Good point but... by ObviousGuy · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you fear bin Laden or Al Queda I think you're taking the threat a little too seriously. Since the attack on Tora Bora there simply haven't been any new bin Laden videos with actual new footage of the man himself.

    On the other hand, America's enemies are not simply limited to crazy Arabic peoples bitter about America's hegemony. They include a very wary China, a not quite mentally stable North Korea, and a beaten but not cowed Iraq. The thing is, though, that they likely already have our secrets. So basically, it's way too late to worry about the possibility that this game is going to give away military secrets.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.