That was a great interview and some very good info in there. One thing I was particularly interested in was the mention that the onboard chip is responsible for generating random numbers. Is this the answer to the dream of every computer having a hardware RNG that generates true randomness? I for one would be thrilled to see a general purpose crypto processor in every computer.
Okay, now hear this! In the "Real World" you can't randomly pull things apart and ask for a refund. Computers are not different than other products. If I buy a box of tissues and only use half of them I can't return the other half for a refund. If I buy a phone that has a caller id function but I don't subscribe to the service I can't pull the LCD and pry the caller id chips out and ask for a refund.
Damn, read the shit you type before submitting it and try to remember exactly when it was that you lost all semblence of sanity.
The thing that makes a good EverQuest player is the same thing that makes a good chess player, or football player, or Quake player. Skill. It's hard to see from the outside, and because it's a computer game people trivilize it but if you play the game for a while it quickly becomes apparent that two level 23 warriors are not always equal:)
One of the most important parts of EverQuest is grouping. You find 5 people to group up with you go adventuring, usually to gain experience. Do this for a while and it becomes readily apparent that Monk 1 can't pull for shit but Monk 2 can get a single mob out of 10. This enchanter lets the entire group die from 3 mobs while this other enchanter can manage 6 mobs in the camp and still keep everyone's buffs fresh. This warrior has aggro the second the mob is in the camp but that one lets the mob run around beating on the casters.
Now, of course if you have never played EQ or something similar you don't know what I am talking about, but that is the point. It's like saying to someone who has never played chess; "I captured his queen in the second move! HAaaaaahahahhahahahahhaa" and the blank stare that comes with it. "Isn't the queen just another piece?"
Like all game experiences it's subjective. I have been playing EQ for (counts on fingers) 3 years and a month now and I still love it. Watching over your friend's shoulder as they went from 30-60 I can understand why you wouldn't see anything new. But I bet when your friend dinged 60 (got level 60 for you non-players) (s)he was ecstatic. It would be the same way if you were playing a MUD and a friend was watching.
"It's lines of text scrolling by really fast. How is that cool?" "But 100 of us just ultra-killed the lich demon lord in two minutes!!!" "Where? I see text..."
The guild I am in raids three nights a week and once in a while we do spend time twiddling our thumbs. Usually when a dragon is sitting on our corpses and just hoping we come back for more. Times like that are boring, but I read a book until we can get moving again and if I get too bored I can always just log off.
I still find EQ to be a ton of fun, even if I am sitting there practicing a tradeskill. It's a great sense of accomplishment to get that next level, or item, or skill.
EverQuest retail, like you said, is $9. Your first month is free. The original EverQuest is all you need to get started, and really it's all you will be able to do till you gain a few levels. By then you'll know if you enjoy the game enough to buy some expansions for it. If you don't, you are still out less money than the movies and the geek talk:)
Not that you can't do both, I am just saying that for $9, if you are into RPGs at all it's worth a shot and you might just find you have stumbled on the cheapest form of entertainment known to man:)
How is open source going to pay the bandwidth bill for 80,000 people being connected at once?
"Well, we'll take paypal donations or something." "John wants X bug fixed and he donated like $500 this month. Think we could do it?" "Man, we should just make a company out of this!"
You sit down at a table with a little board with 64 squares. You choose one of two colors, white or black. Not many choices in Chess huh?
You get 6 different types of pieces and each one can move in a slightly different fashion. The goal is to capture the "King".
That, right there, is the game in a nutshell.
--
Like most games that require skill, it can be a little boring until you gain some. At level 20 you had barely opened your eyes to the game. I personally enjoyed the hell out of EQ for my first 20 levels. Seeing new places, meeting new people, getting my ass handed to me and learning how to go back and hand out a beating of my own.
EverQuest isn't for everyone, but it's not nearly as trivial a thing as the parent post would like you to think. Try it. If you don't like it, you have wasted about as much money as a movie at the theater.
Because companies like to make money, in general. While you might buy a cleaning robot you could program, and maybe a few hundred other geeks might buy one, the company would rather sell hundreds of thousands of robots to normal consumers for $200.
Why should Slashdot care about this news? Every time someone posts a site to Slashdot that uses Flash everyone just goes on about how it doesn't work with Lynx, wget, vi or emacs and it should be posted again when it uses "standard" HTML...
[under breath] Lord, I know I shouldn't troll, but did you read this? Man...
Redundant I know, but if enough people say it you might believe it. Get a lawyer. The only way to resolve the issue if it comes up is through a lawsuit and when that happens you are going to want to have an airtight case.
The way watermarking usually works is by making minor modifications to the whole of the data. It's not just a string in the middle of the file. So what happens is you get a diff that is nearly every byte of the file and you have to listen to each one and adjust it till it sounds right.
Might as well just write the music and perform it yourself:)
Why do they care if they stagnate? MS gets to pay less developers, pay less for research and release fewer revisions (saving money) and people just keep buying it like it's the best thing ever.
I guess I just treat it like SPAM. I read the subject. I read the first few lines if I have to and then I delete it if it's SPAM. The fact that I receive some SPAM doesn't reduce my pleasure at reading the good emails.
Slashdot Mirror
That was a great interview and some very good info in there. One thing I was particularly interested in was the mention that the onboard chip is responsible for generating random numbers. Is this the answer to the dream of every computer having a hardware RNG that generates true randomness? I for one would be thrilled to see a general purpose crypto processor in every computer.
You don't think hacking a 30 year old electronic toy to make "music" is News for Nerds?
I would be honoured, but please never respond to my posts with it! ;-)
Okay, now hear this! In the "Real World" you can't randomly pull things apart and ask for a refund. Computers are not different than other products. If I buy a box of tissues and only use half of them I can't return the other half for a refund.
If I buy a phone that has a caller id function but I don't subscribe to the service I can't pull the LCD and pry the caller id chips out and ask for a refund.
Damn, read the shit you type before submitting it and try to remember exactly when it was that you lost all semblence of sanity.
That's the one. Thank you :)
Wow, are you a real person?
Didn't Ben Franklin say something about giving up essential liberties? Like privacy?
If "the terrorists" are able to take our freedom and privacy from us they have already won. They just haven't buried us yet.
Since when was there anyone else... that mattered? :)
Majority rules baby. Live with it or do something to change it.
The thing that makes a good EverQuest player is the same thing that makes a good chess player, or football player, or Quake player. Skill. It's hard to see from the outside, and because it's a computer game people trivilize it but if you play the game for a while it quickly becomes apparent that two level 23 warriors are not always equal :)
One of the most important parts of EverQuest is grouping. You find 5 people to group up with you go adventuring, usually to gain experience. Do this for a while and it becomes readily apparent that Monk 1 can't pull for shit but Monk 2 can get a single mob out of 10. This enchanter lets the entire group die from 3 mobs while this other enchanter can manage 6 mobs in the camp and still keep everyone's buffs fresh. This warrior has aggro the second the mob is in the camp but that one lets the mob run around beating on the casters.
Now, of course if you have never played EQ or something similar you don't know what I am talking about, but that is the point. It's like saying to someone who has never played chess; "I captured his queen in the second move! HAaaaaahahahhahahahahhaa" and the blank stare that comes with it. "Isn't the queen just another piece?"
Like all game experiences it's subjective. I have been playing EQ for (counts on fingers) 3 years and a month now and I still love it. Watching over your friend's shoulder as they went from 30-60 I can understand why you wouldn't see anything new. But I bet when your friend dinged 60 (got level 60 for you non-players) (s)he was ecstatic. It would be the same way if you were playing a MUD and a friend was watching.
"It's lines of text scrolling by really fast. How is that cool?"
"But 100 of us just ultra-killed the lich demon lord in two minutes!!!"
"Where? I see text..."
The guild I am in raids three nights a week and once in a while we do spend time twiddling our thumbs. Usually when a dragon is sitting on our corpses and just hoping we come back for more. Times like that are boring, but I read a book until we can get moving again and if I get too bored I can always just log off.
I still find EQ to be a ton of fun, even if I am sitting there practicing a tradeskill. It's a great sense of accomplishment to get that next level, or item, or skill.
EverQuest retail, like you said, is $9. Your first month is free. The original EverQuest is all you need to get started, and really it's all you will be able to do till you gain a few levels. By then you'll know if you enjoy the game enough to buy some expansions for it. If you don't, you are still out less money than the movies and the geek talk :)
:)
Not that you can't do both, I am just saying that for $9, if you are into RPGs at all it's worth a shot and you might just find you have stumbled on the cheapest form of entertainment known to man
How is open source going to pay the bandwidth bill for 80,000 people being connected at once?
"Well, we'll take paypal donations or something."
"John wants X bug fixed and he donated like $500 this month. Think we could do it?"
"Man, we should just make a company out of this!"
You sit down at a table with a little board with 64 squares. You choose one of two colors, white or black. Not many choices in Chess huh?
You get 6 different types of pieces and each one can move in a slightly different fashion. The goal is to capture the "King".
That, right there, is the game in a nutshell.
--
Like most games that require skill, it can be a little boring until you gain some. At level 20 you had barely opened your eyes to the game. I personally enjoyed the hell out of EQ for my first 20 levels. Seeing new places, meeting new people, getting my ass handed to me and learning how to go back and hand out a beating of my own.
EverQuest isn't for everyone, but it's not nearly as trivial a thing as the parent post would like you to think. Try it. If you don't like it, you have wasted about as much money as a movie at the theater.
Damn, if it was in James Bond it must be real!
Because companies like to make money, in general. While you might buy a cleaning robot you could program, and maybe a few hundred other geeks might buy one, the company would rather sell hundreds of thousands of robots to normal consumers for $200.
Why should Slashdot care about this news? Every time someone posts a site to Slashdot that uses Flash everyone just goes on about how it doesn't work with Lynx, wget, vi or emacs and it should be posted again when it uses "standard" HTML ...
[under breath]
Lord, I know I shouldn't troll, but did you read this? Man...
It's so very easy and clear. If you don't like it, don't use it. Open Source will come through! You don't need Microsoft! Right?
That is the first time I have actually laughed out loud in like 5 years of reading Slashdot. Bravo! :)
Redundant I know, but if enough people say it you might believe it. Get a lawyer. The only way to resolve the issue if it comes up is through a lawsuit and when that happens you are going to want to have an airtight case.
Get a lawyer.
The way watermarking usually works is by making minor modifications to the whole of the data. It's not just a string in the middle of the file. So what happens is you get a diff that is nearly every byte of the file and you have to listen to each one and adjust it till it sounds right.
:)
Might as well just write the music and perform it yourself
Let me explain in hex...
B00B5
It appeals to the masses. People think this chick is super cool and want to know more about her. Why not?
Why do they care if they stagnate? MS gets to pay less developers, pay less for research and release fewer revisions (saving money) and people just keep buying it like it's the best thing ever.
I guess I just treat it like SPAM. I read the subject. I read the first few lines if I have to and then I delete it if it's SPAM. The fact that I receive some SPAM doesn't reduce my pleasure at reading the good emails.
Here's what you do...
Scroll down.
Now wasn't that easy?
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