How long before the same fate befalls the folks who make a living working the Massively Multiplayer secondary markets?
Some people just can't handle the fantasy, and they retreat to reality; where the tax man awaits! Ha ha! Big mistake! Your magic missiles are of no use here! This is a foe beyond any of you! Fly you fools!!!
My military adventure ended in 1993. Back then I met 2 pilots that had graduated Navy fight school at the age of 17. They had been granted waivers, due to academic performance and prior ROTC. Both, however, had turned 18 by the time they graduated RAG and transfered to the fleet. Its been a while since then I guess.... but with Iraq going so bady, who knows what they're apt to do?
Pilots have a lower incidence of Post Traumatic Stress than grunts, and PSTD is the issue I should have mentioned explicitly. Many bring the combat zone home with them, and (physical wounds not withstanding) it changes the outcome of their lives.
Back in 1991 if you had told me that someday, State National Guardsmen would be pulling three and four combat tours back to back, I would have assumed it was because China had invaded. Now its happening, except its some unjustified foreign expedition started for the sole puprose of granting wartime powers (extra-constituitional authority) to the worst (most constituitionaly invasive) president in U.S. history.
Over here Drinking ages vary from state to state. Oregon has some of the more annoying drinking laws;
Drinking age is 21. Kids still get drunk, still cause trouble, still get busted.
Pubs must close (all patrons out) by 2:30AM. Exacerbates drunk driving problem.
Serving a minor: $500 fine minimum. Possible revocation of license. Selectively enforced.
OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commision) is a powerful, capricious, and expensive bureucratic feifdom.
You're right though, under reasonable or normal circumstances, my original comparison is way off. However, the political state of affairs in the U.S. right now are abyssmal, and it's hard to maintain perspective.
At the rate were going, there won't be any rights left to earn. They'll be gone. Then were all teenagers.
Except when we get in trouble. Then we will be tried as adults, and receive the maximum sentence for our heinous crimes against the ruling elite.
Seriously though, I have seen teenagers arrested, tried, (and punished) as adults for ticky tack offences you couldn't sucessfuly charge an adult for. Underage drinking (and voting) are punishable by law, but killing and dying is okay if you are in a combat zone.
But you are right; teenagers are a drain on society, along with the poor and disenfranchised.
Proof of article's April Fools-ness:
it will be possible to put the Zune 360 in to disk mode and the device will be treated like any ordinary USB storage device and will therefore be accessible from Mac and Linux machines too. Reads like one of those Nigerian phishing scams.
Animation of the cursor is just one of hundreds, possibly thousands of duties performed by the OS's graphics subsystem. Like many other peripherals, the graphics subsystem is hardware, controlled by one or more software drivers, and managed by the OS kernel in some way.
Even on Linux -n- *BSD, the graphics subsystem (X server) runs as root. CMIIW; in the case of most MS products, the graphics subsystem runs inside kernel space also. Basically, thats the highest possible privelege level possible w.r.t. software Once kernelspace is compromised, game over. The sad ancient rule of thumb here is that whole system is compromised beyond repair and its time to reinstall. That goes for Windows, Linux, *BSD, Solaris, OS X, OS/2, Plan9, Minix... virtually all possible operating systems.
They will change their business model because the shared public internet model will fail.
to allow the provider to gouge the consumer with QoS induced scarcity. You jumped the shark.
Sorry. they already exist and with the full blessing of the local municipalities they passed through.
your right... my bad. I Jumped the shark.
They didn't just string 1 pair of fiber when they did their build. They strung 24 or 48 or..
Well no s**t!!!
What I described IS playing by the rules.
Gee i feel better already.
Or are you going to make new rules that fit your idea of what they should be doing?
Who me? If *I* had that kind of power (read; money), I would do it in a second. Unfortunately, the peso got the say so. So they pay for new rules (called laws) that fit their idea of what they think *I* should be doing. I'm one of those educated poor people conservatives hate so much.
This new rule will require every private network in the country to be usable as 'Internet' infrastructure? If you make it so a business model fails and the company adapts a new business model, who is to blame?
If it was possible for *me* to make wealthy powerful people fail in business, I would have to question their business acumen. You are perpetuating the myth (Republican talk radio talking point #2813) that these poor picked on companines will FAIL unless we let them do whatever they want, whenever they want. Nobody with half a brain believes it anymore.
They are sharp, agile, and resilient. If they are not, then they will adapt or fail. In the mean time, If a company's private network is adaptable to Internetus Publicus, the extra expense in facilitating that capability is probably a tax write-off. The end result is a company asset with greater value and versatility. Especially in times of, say.. National Emergency?
Business Models succeed or fail on their own merit. I, Karl Martin, do not make business models succeed ro fail. Asking me who is to blame over (hypothical) failed, and changed business models is condecending. This is Slashdot, not some country club. If your going to be rude and presuptuous, at least use expletives while doing so.
Your idea of fair regulation will not make things better. In fact, every thing will get a lot worse.
With all due respect; no it won't.
As it becomes necessary to keep pipes closer to capacity due to business models
Stop right there! Business models have to stay in line with regulations and laws. Your bussiness model ends where my rights as a voter, taxpayer, and U.S. citizen begin. Ayn Rand mental gymnastics don't hold up in court, or on the street. In a Free Market Economy(tm) it is imperative that poorly integrated, poorly executed business models fail. They should not be granted governmental protection from failure because thats communism. If a provider oversubscribes, eventually they will wreck their own reputation unless they...
starts spending on their own 'internal' network that will carry their services at whatever priority they want and not have to deal with it.
No silver bullet there either. They still need Public RF spectrum/Right of Way to build. They already own the wire, but they depend on the patience, kindness, patronage, and tax dollar of John Q. Public in order to run that wire from point A to point B. They want desperately to reneg on the deal they made with John Q. Public, but before the shenanigans can begin, they need permission from his elected officials. This 'internal' network you speak of WILL NEVER EXIST unless stupid and|or corrupt public officials allow it to.
The vast majority of these last-mile mini-monopolies are among the most poorly run businesses in the US. Some of the exploits of these companies are the stuff of legend. They can survive incredible amounts of incompetance, ineptitude, fraud, corrupion, and malice (as only monopolies can) without going under. They get no sympathy from me at all. They don't need or deserve it.
As soon as these companies realise that they have regulations to follow and laws to obey, they will actually have to innovate, rather than retard the services they sell. Playing by the rules won't kill anyone.
What's the more important free speech from the perspective of a government funded program, your ability to create yet another academic program that does nothing but prove you can, or the person in front of you who is writing poetry and posting it to MySpace?
I'm not an instructor, I'm a student. My ability to sucessfully complete an academic program is as important to me as poetry is to a poet. Don't pit me against the dreamers and artists of the world! Its a rhetorical device and I don't buy it.
Are you the next Reiser or are they the next Whitman?
Hans Reiser? Isn't he up on murder charges? Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence. And is it really one or the other? its this another rhetorical device? A two sided coin argument? Lame. Really lame. My graduating from college will not prevent anyone from becoming the next Whitman.
What have you learned from MySpace that has any value in an educational environment?
I learned:
* introductory Web site design and examples of what not to do.
* the sociology of cliques
* the psychology of conformism and subcultures
Anyone between the ages of 6 to 124, who is logged in to myspace from either a library or a school computer lab is almost certainly screwing around -- often while others, like myself, are made to wait. (I don't own a Windows machine, and every so often, I need one because some instructors still insist on assigning homework that requires win32 only crapplets, drekware, or VB).
However, I think the bill needs to die in commitee. I have never been to a library, school, or college comp-lab that permitted IRC/Web/IM chat, MySpace, Livejournal, Linerider, etc. A couple even banned non-school related email (a stupid, unenforceable rule ignored by students and admins alike). Most colleges either block outgoing/incoming myspace traffic, or manually banish 'campers' as they are caught. It's a House Rule, and it should stay that way. Period.
Like you said, a Psych major could actually use myspace, so teachers and instructors should be able to request and be granted authorization for sites that might otherwise be blocked/filtered/firewalled. The Govt needs to stay out of it though.
I have yet to hear of any evidence, *ever* in the history of computing, where software patents were anything more than the proverbial Turd In The Swimming Pool(tm). You CAN'T polish a turd! Plate it with gold and voila -- it's STILL a turd!
As Floaters ensure that only the most discusting little kids ever use the swimming pool, Software Patents ensure that only the biggest, most amoral lawyer infested companies thrive in the tech industry.
"As for dealing with the sex issue.... good luck. Its nearly impossible to prevent people losing it one way or another over sex. It is one of those areas where our primal instincts still exist, and are nearly impossible to completely suppress or control."
It's also important to remember that these are highly-driven task-oriented people. You gotta be ready with the garden hose at ALL times, and you can't take your eyes off em for a second! As People, they are subject to the same laws of insanity that we are, except that when they finally snap (and they will, everyone does eventually) they do it in a highly-driven, task-oriented way. In this way, incredible amounts of energy are released.
I myself am a highly-disoriented task-driven person, and thus will only make the police blotter.
The thing disruptive about these technologies...
on
What to Watch for in 2007
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
is when you they decide not to work properly (if at all).
I find articles written by starry eyed techno-prognosticators are quite possibly more disruptive than anything that has come out in the past 4 years, (possibly withthe exception of DRM: a truly disruptive technology).
You will want Trig, Discrete, Physics, and at least a relevent subset of Calculus (which aids greatly in the physics area). Physics is gaming's evil conjoined twin.
Most game engines contain one or more forms of (optimized|bastardized) physics engines.
My observations from observing MMPORG rats for the last 8 years:
"The Grind" is largely a risk management strategy. Especially in games where character death could mean considerable loss of XP, items, wealth, time, etc.
The two most common reasons players inflict "The Grind" upon themselves are:
The player's character is level 28 and his/her friends are all at 34, and in order to group with them, the player needs 4 more levels. I am always amazed that some players will let guild/clan politics degrade the gaming experience.
Gaming addiction. The player is fatigued, but none the less, wants to continue playing. "The Grind" avoids any appreciable intellectual workload.
Could it be that, despite protests to the contrary, we like a well-defined achievement path, and enjoy finding efficient methods for progressing on them?
The typical gamer responses: 1)"Uh, I don't know." 2) "Whats in it for me?" 3)"Will it get me 6 levels in four hours?" 4) "Your a FAG!!!!"
This is the first time I have ever heard of a keylogger that actually broadcasts it's presence in the system tray, althought I can see how that would be useful for non-malicious purposes.
The typical keyloggers I have dealt with operate as a standard process in the background. Most do not show up on the taskbar but can be stopped from the Process Manager (the Ctrl+Alt+Del applet).
The nastier ones either replace, or patch the keyboard driver. Upon reboot, they run at all times and can only be found by AV scanner (knock on wood) and/or by the log file they create. The classic infection vector for these are rootkits, and software installation packages that have been tampered with.
They probably think that YouTube should staff a amall army of super secret psychic/magic copyright ninjas to screen incoming posts.
They will have to be magic (and psychic) in order to be able to quickly tell whether a particular video clip is either a copyrighted work posted by an unauthorized 3rd party, or the work of a very talented amature film maker/animator who owns the work (ie. is legally authorized to post said work).
Without psychic and magical powers, you can probably only hope for a screening acurracy of about 25% to 30%. Major studios would get fairly good protection, but the little guys, with their obscure works, would not.
And if you happen to be able to put out really professional looking work, you may be challenged for proof of copyright ownership.
Ultra high paid/salaried professions are much harder to break into, College degree or no. Positions are fewer, expectations are higher, and the field becomes a magnet for paycheck hounds.
Companies often fall back on HR screening, which has a history of rejecting talent in favor of new hires that don't know the difference between a signed and unsigned integer (I digress..).
Open Source creates more places at the table for people like me. The ones who can't survive the standard HR interview because the person giving it relies too heavily on internal company jargon and does not speak a word of programmer. That is, if I find the question to be legible and sensible, the interviewer is likely to be confounded by the response; which will either be indecipherable, or sound inarticulate and unprofessional.
Slashdot Mirror
Some people just can't handle the fantasy, and they retreat to reality; where the tax man awaits! Ha ha! Big mistake! Your magic missiles are of no use here! This is a foe beyond any of you! Fly you fools!!!
Pilots have a lower incidence of Post Traumatic Stress than grunts, and PSTD is the issue I should have mentioned explicitly. Many bring the combat zone home with them, and (physical wounds not withstanding) it changes the outcome of their lives.
Back in 1991 if you had told me that someday, State National Guardsmen would be pulling three and four combat tours back to back, I would have assumed it was because China had invaded. Now its happening, except its some unjustified foreign expedition started for the sole puprose of granting wartime powers (extra-constituitional authority) to the worst (most constituitionaly invasive) president in U.S. history.
Over here Drinking ages vary from state to state. Oregon has some of the more annoying drinking laws;
- Drinking age is 21. Kids still get drunk, still cause trouble, still get busted.
- Pubs must close (all patrons out) by 2:30AM. Exacerbates drunk driving problem.
- Serving a minor: $500 fine minimum. Possible revocation of license. Selectively enforced.
- OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commision) is a powerful, capricious, and expensive bureucratic feifdom.
You're right though, under reasonable or normal circumstances, my original comparison is way off. However, the political state of affairs in the U.S. right now are abyssmal, and it's hard to maintain perspective.Except when we get in trouble. Then we will be tried as adults, and receive the maximum sentence for our heinous crimes against the ruling elite.
Seriously though, I have seen teenagers arrested, tried, (and punished) as adults for ticky tack offences you couldn't sucessfuly charge an adult for. Underage drinking (and voting) are punishable by law, but killing and dying is okay if you are in a combat zone.
But you are right; teenagers are a drain on society, along with the poor and disenfranchised.
but, but.. they modded my post to INFORMATIVE!
Connection closed by foreign host. Press ALT+F4 to reconnect.
Its a game. If I can find the story that ISN'T an April Fools Joke, I win something... Right??
The name (democratssuck) kind of says it all. As I read his/her posting I heard a blood curdling scream... It was logic.. being brutally tortured.
Even on Linux -n- *BSD, the graphics subsystem (X server) runs as root. CMIIW; in the case of most MS products, the graphics subsystem runs inside kernel space also. Basically, thats the highest possible privelege level possible w.r.t. software Once kernelspace is compromised, game over. The sad ancient rule of thumb here is that whole system is compromised beyond repair and its time to reinstall. That goes for Windows, Linux, *BSD, Solaris, OS X, OS/2, Plan9, Minix... virtually all possible operating systems.
to allow the provider to gouge the consumer with QoS induced scarcity. You jumped the shark.
Sorry. they already exist and with the full blessing of the local municipalities they passed through.your right... my bad. I Jumped the shark.
They didn't just string 1 pair of fiber when they did their build. They strung 24 or 48 or..Well no s**t!!!
What I described IS playing by the rules.Gee i feel better already.
Or are you going to make new rules that fit your idea of what they should be doing?Who me? If *I* had that kind of power (read; money), I would do it in a second. Unfortunately, the peso got the say so. So they pay for new rules (called laws) that fit their idea of what they think *I* should be doing. I'm one of those educated poor people conservatives hate so much.
This new rule will require every private network in the country to be usable as 'Internet' infrastructure? If you make it so a business model fails and the company adapts a new business model, who is to blame?If it was possible for *me* to make wealthy powerful people fail in business, I would have to question their business acumen. You are perpetuating the myth (Republican talk radio talking point #2813) that these poor picked on companines will FAIL unless we let them do whatever they want, whenever they want. Nobody with half a brain believes it anymore. They are sharp, agile, and resilient. If they are not, then they will adapt or fail. In the mean time, If a company's private network is adaptable to Internetus Publicus, the extra expense in facilitating that capability is probably a tax write-off. The end result is a company asset with greater value and versatility. Especially in times of, say.. National Emergency?
Business Models succeed or fail on their own merit. I, Karl Martin, do not make business models succeed ro fail. Asking me who is to blame over (hypothical) failed, and changed business models is condecending. This is Slashdot, not some country club. If your going to be rude and presuptuous, at least use expletives while doing so.
With all due respect; no it won't.
As it becomes necessary to keep pipes closer to capacity due to business modelsStop right there! Business models have to stay in line with regulations and laws. Your bussiness model ends where my rights as a voter, taxpayer, and U.S. citizen begin. Ayn Rand mental gymnastics don't hold up in court, or on the street. In a Free Market Economy(tm) it is imperative that poorly integrated, poorly executed business models fail. They should not be granted governmental protection from failure because thats communism. If a provider oversubscribes, eventually they will wreck their own reputation unless they...
starts spending on their own 'internal' network that will carry their services at whatever priority they want and not have to deal with it.No silver bullet there either. They still need Public RF spectrum/Right of Way to build. They already own the wire, but they depend on the patience, kindness, patronage, and tax dollar of John Q. Public in order to run that wire from point A to point B. They want desperately to reneg on the deal they made with John Q. Public, but before the shenanigans can begin, they need permission from his elected officials. This 'internal' network you speak of WILL NEVER EXIST unless stupid and|or corrupt public officials allow it to.
The vast majority of these last-mile mini-monopolies are among the most poorly run businesses in the US. Some of the exploits of these companies are the stuff of legend. They can survive incredible amounts of incompetance, ineptitude, fraud, corrupion, and malice (as only monopolies can) without going under. They get no sympathy from me at all. They don't need or deserve it.
As soon as these companies realise that they have regulations to follow and laws to obey, they will actually have to innovate, rather than retard the services they sell. Playing by the rules won't kill anyone.
I'm not an instructor, I'm a student. My ability to sucessfully complete an academic program is as important to me as poetry is to a poet. Don't pit me against the dreamers and artists of the world! Its a rhetorical device and I don't buy it.
Are you the next Reiser or are they the next Whitman?Hans Reiser? Isn't he up on murder charges? Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence. And is it really one or the other? its this another rhetorical device? A two sided coin argument? Lame. Really lame. My graduating from college will not prevent anyone from becoming the next Whitman.
I learned:
* introductory Web site design and examples of what not to do.
* the sociology of cliques
* the psychology of conformism and subcultures
Anyone between the ages of 6 to 124, who is logged in to myspace from either a library or a school computer lab is almost certainly screwing around -- often while others, like myself, are made to wait. (I don't own a Windows machine, and every so often, I need one because some instructors still insist on assigning homework that requires win32 only crapplets, drekware, or VB).
However, I think the bill needs to die in commitee. I have never been to a library, school, or college comp-lab that permitted IRC/Web/IM chat, MySpace, Livejournal, Linerider, etc. A couple even banned non-school related email (a stupid, unenforceable rule ignored by students and admins alike). Most colleges either block outgoing/incoming myspace traffic, or manually banish 'campers' as they are caught. It's a House Rule, and it should stay that way. Period.
Like you said, a Psych major could actually use myspace, so teachers and instructors should be able to request and be granted authorization for sites that might otherwise be blocked/filtered/firewalled. The Govt needs to stay out of it though.
I have yet to hear of any evidence, *ever* in the history of computing, where software patents were anything more than the proverbial Turd In The Swimming Pool(tm). You CAN'T polish a turd! Plate it with gold and voila -- it's STILL a turd!
As Floaters ensure that only the most discusting little kids ever use the swimming pool, Software Patents ensure that only the biggest, most amoral lawyer infested companies thrive in the tech industry.
"As for dealing with the sex issue.... good luck. Its nearly impossible to prevent people losing it one way or another over sex. It is one of those areas where our primal instincts still exist, and are nearly impossible to completely suppress or control."
It's also important to remember that these are highly-driven task-oriented people. You gotta be ready with the garden hose at ALL times, and you can't take your eyes off em for a second! As People, they are subject to the same laws of insanity that we are, except that when they finally snap (and they will, everyone does eventually) they do it in a highly-driven, task-oriented way. In this way, incredible amounts of energy are released.
I myself am a highly-disoriented task-driven person, and thus will only make the police blotter.
is when you they decide not to work properly (if at all).
I find articles written by starry eyed techno-prognosticators are quite possibly more disruptive than anything that has come out in the past 4 years, (possibly withthe exception of DRM: a truly disruptive technology).
True. It's probably the single most important of the bunch. Overlooked it because It's easy to take for granted. :P
You will want Trig, Discrete, Physics, and at least a relevent subset of Calculus (which aids greatly in the physics area). Physics is gaming's evil conjoined twin. Most game engines contain one or more forms of (optimized|bastardized) physics engines.
My observations from observing MMPORG rats for the last 8 years:
"The Grind" is largely a risk management strategy. Especially in games where character death could mean considerable loss of XP, items, wealth, time, etc.
The two most common reasons players inflict "The Grind" upon themselves are:
The player's character is level 28 and his/her friends are all at 34, and in order to group with them, the player needs 4 more levels. I am always amazed that some players will let guild/clan politics degrade the gaming experience.
Gaming addiction. The player is fatigued, but none the less, wants to continue playing. "The Grind" avoids any appreciable intellectual workload.
Could it be that, despite protests to the contrary, we like a well-defined achievement path, and enjoy finding efficient methods for progressing on them?
The typical gamer responses:
1)"Uh, I don't know."
2) "Whats in it for me?"
3)"Will it get me 6 levels in four hours?"
4) "Your a FAG!!!!"
That is if they don't decide to drown your program in the bathtub first!
Probably DiBold.
The typical keyloggers I have dealt with operate as a standard process in the background. Most do not show up on the taskbar but can be stopped from the Process Manager (the Ctrl+Alt+Del applet).
The nastier ones either replace, or patch the keyboard driver. Upon reboot, they run at all times and can only be found by AV scanner (knock on wood) and/or by the log file they create. The classic infection vector for these are rootkits, and software installation packages that have been tampered with.
Then there is 3rd party payola (the carrot is rotten).
They will have to be magic (and psychic) in order to be able to quickly tell whether a particular video clip is either a copyrighted work posted by an unauthorized 3rd party, or the work of a very talented amature film maker/animator who owns the work (ie. is legally authorized to post said work).
Without psychic and magical powers, you can probably only hope for a screening acurracy of about 25% to 30%. Major studios would get fairly good protection, but the little guys, with their obscure works, would not.
And if you happen to be able to put out really professional looking work, you may be challenged for proof of copyright ownership.
Companies often fall back on HR screening, which has a history of rejecting talent in favor of new hires that don't know the difference between a signed and unsigned integer (I digress..).
Open Source creates more places at the table for people like me. The ones who can't survive the standard HR interview because the person giving it relies too heavily on internal company jargon and does not speak a word of programmer. That is, if I find the question to be legible and sensible, the interviewer is likely to be confounded by the response; which will either be indecipherable, or sound inarticulate and unprofessional.