There are some modern games still being produced in ASCII, like Dwarf Fortress.
What people tend to forget is that using ASCII as game graphics, you can do a lot more in-depth gaming without having your game look like crap.
It's kinda like the difference between a book and a movie. Books tend to draw you in more because you get to use your imagination to fill in the scenery. This gives the power to a mediocre book to still be quite good. However, the current state of special effects in movies and CG means that if your movie uses technology from even a few years back, the movie looks like crap and will probably not be received well. And as with movies, the latest technology requires a lot of money and man-power.
And of course, ASCII gives you a lot more CPU power for AI and other neat things. And it doesn't have to exclude the use of the mouse, sound effects, music, mulitplayer and other niceties that we get in full 3D games.
Here's some good advice for anybody who does anything creative, be it programming,art, writing a story, anything...
Do _not_ create something and then expect the masses upon which you bestow your baby to be happy.
I've seen tons of open source coders quit because their public was only complaining about features and bugs. So don't start out with such expectations. You should create something because _you_ want to make something. If anybody praises you afterward then count your lucky stars. But the only way how you can remain a creative person is by doing it for yourself in the first place.
I'm sure some of my code/programs are being used in the wild. And that makes me happy. I haven't gotten a lot of positive feedback, but that's ok. I'm happy because writing it made me happy.
It doesn't matter
on
R.I.P. FTP
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Look, if your machine is infected by malware, it's not going to make any difference if you use FTP or SFTP or god know what else.
Either your passwords are stored on your harddisk or you're going to have to type them in at a later point. In both cases software is going to be able to get your passwords. And they have that they can get in without a problem, regardless of protocol used.
So instead of this looooong article, some more vigilance online to avoid the infection to begin with would be more helpful.
I don't think the Chinese government cares at all about "checks and balances".. The whole Chinese culture is about getting the cheapest product possible.
Remember the flash games for the Olympics website that were re-skinned ripoffs?
Remember the babies that died from the milk that had a whitening substance in it so they could water it down?
This is the countrie that sells fake eggs. It's like a sausage.. This is the country that sells cardboard with fat and food coloring as hotdogs.
For a 'communist' nation they're pretty hardcore capitalistic.
Or they're just using DLL's.. I mean you can just call the functions inside them without too much trouble..
And even if you _do_ do some reverse engineering.. You don't have to fully reverse everything to get stuff to work.. I mean as long as you get a chuck of opcodes and you know where the entry point is and what parameters you have to push into them, then you can run code without doing much reverse engineering at all.
I thought it was common knowledge by now... There's two departments you never fuck with in your company, payroll and IT. Because things can go wrong... or missing..
And if you ever surfed to that naughty website during working hours, IT know about it.
Being feared is so much better then being respected;)
The most recent version of Ubuntu has a guest account that will let people do some web browsing and such, and after that person logs off, everything should be wiped clean automatically again.
So that seems like it could work..
Then again, you could just tell them to get their own toys.:)
I think that any language that allows such obfuscation is NOT a good language. A programming language should be brief, powerful but still readable in all circumstances.
3. "So if they go out of business, and I upgrade to a new computer, I lose the games I bought." and here you lost me, at least on technical grounds.
If at point 3 you can no longer play the game from point 2, could you still play the game from point 1?
I bought the game as an electronic download. I also bought the expansion packs via electronic download. This all goes through the Stardock package manager.
At some point the protection was added (I don't know at exactly what date). Since it wasn't announced and no permission was asked, I have lost the version without copyright protection.
I also believe the expansions require a certain patch-level of the main game, so if I had a backup of the main game somewhere, I still be locked out of playing my expansions.
The point is, part of the reason why I _bought_ the games was the lack of any DRM. In their current FAQ about this issue it's stated somewhere along the lines "Aw c'mon.. it's not like we're asking a bloodsample or something. Our DRM is non-intrusive and easy. C'mon guy!". But my point in losing my games in care of bankruptcy is still valid as long as they keep using DRM.
Though more and more it seems that an implied part of the cost of purchasing a game is the 'privilege' to download major bugfix patches, often through some major gaming portal that will ditch that patch after a year or so and you have to hunt around to find the patch elsewhere.
This is an interesting point. However, most games only release bug fixes. Usually any substantial real content is released as a pay-for expansion.
Combine this with the attitude of most software companies that the user is now a glorified beta-tester, ("Aw, we'll fix it in a patch, lets release now and start raking in the cash."), and suddenly the argument of expecting free bug-fixes seems very reasonable indeed.
As a sidepoint. I also bought "King's Bounty: The Legend" because I loved the old "Might and Magic Heroes" games..
The damn disc won't even read in my computer! My laptop's drive reads it ok but lacks the hardware to run it. The disc it not scrathed or anything but it's the damn DRM they're using that locks me out. I had to wait for a crack to be release to play it because on the official forums the advice was "Your DVD drive is broken, go buy a new one", which is bullshit because all other discs I own read just fine. It's not even an obscure brand drive.
In short DRM is evil incarnate. I don't buy any games with DRM that is too restrictive. The fact that Stardock snuck it in later sucks balls.
Take Unreal Tournament as an example. After a reasonable time, they release unprotected executables via the regular patches.
I dunno, I'm still annoyed. I bought GalCiv and all the expansion packs because 1) they are great games and 2) because they were not copyprotected.
Later on they snuck online-hardware authentication into the game. So if they go out of business, and I upgrade to a new computer, I lose the games I bought.
That pisses me off to no end since this exactly the reason why I've still not played games like BioShock (due to the DRM).
So StarDock is in no way the champion that they were in earlier days.
>that is definitely a step in the right direction.
I'm no fan of autoplay. But to call this a step in the right direction is stupid.
They're doing this because of the failing security model of Windows, not to be more userfriendly. If Windows was more secure then this would not have been a problem to begin with. Obnoxious yes, problem no.
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't this just in time for the new season of the show Big Bang Theory, where Sheldon is on an expedition to find magnetic monopoles? :)
Anybody remember Blockout? That was a lot more challenging with it being in 3D. :) Aww the days of yore..
If you make a good game, they will come..
The worlds tiniest violin, let me play a sad tune for you..
TFA states that they stopped doing it. He screencapped his results, but it's not surprising that you don't see it now.
At least.. for now.. with those search queries..
But can you trust them to give honest results later on when the heat is off again?
Say what you will, and I agree this is not a viable system with current operating systems, but the method on itself doesn't seem stupid.
Why does shutting down a computer mean you lose all the programs states? Why should a shutdown not be a suspend?
Think out of the box :)
(Yeah I understand current OS's need to be rebooted now and then for updates and such, but why should the user be bothered with this anyway?)
I believe step 3 here is
3. Maintain that Windows is more secure then other operating systems because bugs are fixed really quick.
So.. it sounds like the premise of the Sci-Fi series 'Alient Nation'.. which was a very good series.
There are some modern games still being produced in ASCII, like Dwarf Fortress.
What people tend to forget is that using ASCII as game graphics, you can do a lot more in-depth gaming without having your game look like crap.
It's kinda like the difference between a book and a movie. Books tend to draw you in more because you get to use your imagination to fill in the scenery. This gives the power to a mediocre book to still be quite good. However, the current state of special effects in movies and CG means that if your movie uses technology from even a few years back, the movie looks like crap and will probably not be received well. And as with movies, the latest technology requires a lot of money and man-power.
And of course, ASCII gives you a lot more CPU power for AI and other neat things. And it doesn't have to exclude the use of the mouse, sound effects, music, mulitplayer and other niceties that we get in full 3D games.
Here's some good advice for anybody who does anything creative, be it programming,art, writing a story, anything...
Do _not_ create something and then expect the masses upon which you bestow your baby to be happy.
I've seen tons of open source coders quit because their public was only complaining about features and bugs. So don't start out with such expectations. You should create something because _you_ want to make something. If anybody praises you afterward then count your lucky stars. But the only way how you can remain a creative person is by doing it for yourself in the first place.
I'm sure some of my code/programs are being used in the wild. And that makes me happy. I haven't gotten a lot of positive feedback, but that's ok. I'm happy because writing it made me happy.
Look, if your machine is infected by malware, it's not going to make any difference if you use FTP or SFTP or god know what else.
Either your passwords are stored on your harddisk or you're going to have to type them in at a later point. In both cases software is going to be able to get your passwords. And they have that they can get in without a problem, regardless of protocol used.
So instead of this looooong article, some more vigilance online to avoid the infection to begin with would be more helpful.
And if you _have_ to use MSIE, use SandboxIE.
What
the hell
is
going on
here?
Who made this horrible post?
The only poetically correct thing to do is to send porn via the updates. :)
I don't think the Chinese government cares at all about "checks and balances".. The whole Chinese culture is about getting the cheapest product possible.
Remember the flash games for the Olympics website that were re-skinned ripoffs?
Remember the babies that died from the milk that had a whitening substance in it so they could water it down?
This is the countrie that sells fake eggs. It's like a sausage.. This is the country that sells cardboard with fat and food coloring as hotdogs.
For a 'communist' nation they're pretty hardcore capitalistic.
Or they're just using DLL's.. I mean you can just call the functions inside them without too much trouble..
And even if you _do_ do some reverse engineering.. You don't have to fully reverse everything to get stuff to work.. I mean as long as you get a chuck of opcodes and you know where the entry point is and what parameters you have to push into them, then you can run code without doing much reverse engineering at all.
I thought it was common knowledge by now... There's two departments you never fuck with in your company, payroll and IT. Because things can go wrong... or missing..
And if you ever surfed to that naughty website during working hours, IT know about it.
Being feared is so much better then being respected ;)
People are talking about DRM and how it will be expensive and such..
Why doesn't the government commission the creation of new electronic text books and then give these out for free?
_That_ would be a cheap solution.
Well, there's the
candidate[x]++;
that should be going on inside..
Other then then, no math..
Seems somebody is not following the K.I.S.S. method..
The most recent version of Ubuntu has a guest account that will let people do some web browsing and such, and after that person logs off, everything should be wiped clean automatically again.
So that seems like it could work..
Then again, you could just tell them to get their own toys. :)
I think that any language that allows such obfuscation is NOT a good language. A programming language should be brief, powerful but still readable in all circumstances.
I'm still unhappy with Google's conversion engine..
I still can't get it to convert FMDs to Libraries of Congress.
3. "So if they go out of business, and I upgrade to a new computer, I lose the games I bought."
and here you lost me, at least on technical grounds.
If at point 3 you can no longer play the game from point 2, could you still play the game from point 1?
I bought the game as an electronic download. I also bought the expansion packs via electronic download. This all goes through the Stardock package manager.
At some point the protection was added (I don't know at exactly what date). Since it wasn't announced and no permission was asked, I have lost the version without copyright protection.
I also believe the expansions require a certain patch-level of the main game, so if I had a backup of the main game somewhere, I still be locked out of playing my expansions.
The point is, part of the reason why I _bought_ the games was the lack of any DRM. In their current FAQ about this issue it's stated somewhere along the lines "Aw c'mon.. it's not like we're asking a bloodsample or something. Our DRM is non-intrusive and easy. C'mon guy!". But my point in losing my games in care of bankruptcy is still valid as long as they keep using DRM.
Though more and more it seems that an implied part of the cost of purchasing a game is the 'privilege' to download major bugfix patches, often through some major gaming portal that will ditch that patch after a year or so and you have to hunt around to find the patch elsewhere.
This is an interesting point. However, most games only release bug fixes. Usually any substantial real content is released as a pay-for expansion.
Combine this with the attitude of most software companies that the user is now a glorified beta-tester, ("Aw, we'll fix it in a patch, lets release now and start raking in the cash."), and suddenly the argument of expecting free bug-fixes seems very reasonable indeed.
As a sidepoint. I also bought "King's Bounty: The Legend" because I loved the old "Might and Magic Heroes" games..
The damn disc won't even read in my computer! My laptop's drive reads it ok but lacks the hardware to run it. The disc it not scrathed or anything but it's the damn DRM they're using that locks me out. I had to wait for a crack to be release to play it because on the official forums the advice was "Your DVD drive is broken, go buy a new one", which is bullshit because all other discs I own read just fine. It's not even an obscure brand drive.
In short DRM is evil incarnate. I don't buy any games with DRM that is too restrictive. The fact that Stardock snuck it in later sucks balls.
Take Unreal Tournament as an example. After a reasonable time, they release unprotected executables via the regular patches.
I dunno, I'm still annoyed. I bought GalCiv and all the expansion packs because 1) they are great games and 2) because they were not copyprotected.
Later on they snuck online-hardware authentication into the game. So if they go out of business, and I upgrade to a new computer, I lose the games I bought.
That pisses me off to no end since this exactly the reason why I've still not played games like BioShock (due to the DRM).
So StarDock is in no way the champion that they were in earlier days.
I think this is one of the most justified uses of the 'brokenbydesign' tag ;)
>that is definitely a step in the right direction.
I'm no fan of autoplay. But to call this a step in the right direction is stupid.
They're doing this because of the failing security model of Windows, not to be more userfriendly. If Windows was more secure then this would not have been a problem to begin with. Obnoxious yes, problem no.