Re:WotC could lay off because the project is done.
on
Layoffs at WotC
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· Score: 2
The only thing d20 still needs is a good set of software tools for GM's who like to run the game from their laptops, and due to the open nature of d20, I'm sure a lot of amitious hackers are going to fill that void anyway.
If you are willing to go with a mostly accurate representation of AD&D 3rd ed., check out the level constructor for Neverwinter Nights. It's in-fucking-credible, and the game is just as good. I've been playing this game, probably over 200 hours now, and i'm 1/2 way done. And I've loved every minute of it. But you can do just about anything in the Level editor, control conversation, script, macro, everything.
~Will
Re:Just because art doesn't speak to you...
on
Crushing Experience
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· Score: 2
"post-modern"
In the words of Moe Sizlak, "wierd for the sake of being wierd". Post modern isn't really a movement, it's more a collection of stuff, like that guy that cut up a cow and put it in formaldehyde and took pictures of it. It's crap.
Why do you care if XBox is secure or not ? IT'S A GAMES BOX for crying out loud.
Operating systems: Microsoft releases one every year or two. We'll say 1.5. Say people upgrade every other time (w-95 to w-Me, w-2000-w-XP), so that's one OS, bought for $150, every 3 years.
Video Game systems: Even on an off year, there are 100 titles. Chances are people will buy 6 or 8 in a year. At $50/pop, that's a lot of lost revenue they've lost in royalties over 3 years, a lot more than say operating system attrition. If people pirate games, they stand to lose more than from Operating Systems, and I'll tell you why:
A couple of key points that I've pointed out before. One: MICROSOFT does NOT CARE about individual piracy of windows. That's a fact. They care about idiots pirating it, and they care about coroprations pirating 4000 copies of it. They DO NOT CARE about the average slashdot reader pirating windows, for this reason: We are their free tech support. I pirate windows (sue me), and my dad asks me questions about how to work his computer, quote unquote. I would swear, being the "computer guru" has paid off for Microsoft more so than me, they've gotten their $200 worth out of me, in the way of I've prevented people with problems from contacting Microsoft. I have SAVED THEM MONEY, and therefore it is in their best interest to get windows, latest versions, into my hands as quickly as possible, and for free, so that I know it intimately.
Now, in the realm of games, they stand to lose money. The X-box is essentially an attempt to get into the game industry, specifically for the reasons outlined above: more people buy more video games than operating systems. More money is the bottom line to the X-box. Of course, they spent a god-damn fortune launching the thing with less than stellar titles, and competing with the PS-2's already entrenched lead and the backwards compatability of ps2-psx has proved hard. They can't stand to lose more money.
And speaking of the PS2: Sony, on the other hand, doesn't care if people pirate games for their systems. Why? They make money on the hardware. To play pirated playstation games, you first have to have a playstation. Any rumor that Sony lost money on the playstation or ps2 hardware is bull. They make the thing, and they make money on it.
Now, there once was going to be a Mod-Chip for the PS-2 that was going to eliminate the need for ANY knife trick, ANY boot disk, ANY game shark, etc etc, at the price of having 58 solder points. It was called the Messiah. There are several out there floating around as the Messiah chip, but to my knowledge, none of them actually are the origional planned chip. Sony shut the messiah chip down. Why? Why this one and not any of the others? Why not get the people that made the USB mod chip that needed the game shark? Because in order for the messiah chip to work, the programmers had to disable ALL security checks, including reagion coding for DVD's, and other DVD anti-piracy measures. Sony had too high a stake in movies, which they stood to lose quite a bit more, enough to shut the Messiah down.
So, to sum up: Microsoft cares about X-Box game piracy, not OS piracy. Sony cares about movie piracy, not Game piracy. In short, it's all about the Benjamins.
Now, what you do here is take about 5 sheets of paper, write "DON'T CANCEL FARSCAPE, WE LOVE IT" about 3 times per sheet, then feed the first sheet through, and then tape the sheets together in a circular motion.
Sit back, let fax for about 7 and a half hours.
Of course, it's long distance, but... as brody once said, "small price to pay for the smiting of one's enemies".
Yes, there are, or once were, Sun notebooks. A quick google search turned up this: email post.
As far as I could ever tell, they were very bulky. They look like an IPX, of which half is the screen. But, yes, they did exist. There are lots of Intel platforms running Solaris (why, I don't know), but this one specifically describes the 13w3 connector, which if you've ever seen is is unique to sun, and the most convoluted thing in the world. I don't think there ever was a frame buffer with a 13w3 that would work on an intel platform.
It's absolutely not true. They are loud. We have a 2U rack mount at work that has an 18 GB Seagate, and 4 73 GB Seagates in it. It sounds like a jet taking off. But the drives are working well.
By the way, if you need a setup like this, for god's sake, check out Micron. It took us forever to get the computer (1 month), but we had our own special problems with the order process. However, the rack mount case is a thing of beauty, comes with hella fans, and while loud, is frosty. It's a fantasticly designed case. And you can fit 6 half-height 80 pin scsi drives, as opposed to Dell's 2U's where you can only fit 4.
My experience with Maxtor drives failing... I'll never buy another Maxtor.
See, it's all dependant on individual results. When I first started building computers from parts instead of buying OEM, I had an 8 GB maxtor. Then, when I got to college and realized what a fat pipe does to your hard drive, I bought a 20GB WD.
The WD failed, and before it failed it was loud as all hell - sounded like a jet taking off. Never had a problem with a Maxtor.
So right now, I have a 30, a 45, and a 60 GB maxtor in my computer, all 7200, and none of them have given me a bit of problem. I'm going to continue to buy maxtor until they burn me. I'm a vindictive consumer.
Good point, you definately can't count out Toshiba. All laptop hard drives that I know (2.5 inch or whatever the standard size mini-ide) are made by Toshiba and IBM. That's a substantial chunk of the market.
Of course, this is excluding things like Sun notebooks and notebooks that cheat. I'm not sure what Apple uses.
I just wanted to say I appreciate your reasoned and articulate response, instead of flaming me. It was a pleasant read, and I really respect you for it.
I suppose I'll just have to draw a line and say that I don't understand baseball the way you (and many others) do. I'm not sure I'm willing to learn, but until recently I didn't like football - then I went to college... So mabey there's hope.
I'd imagine it was easier to pick it up earlier in the game, before it was so high priced, for tickets, for player's salaries, before there were sponsers for everything. Now, any time we can get a commercial, we do, and there isn't a surface in the stadium without a logo on it.
In the same vein, let me make a couple of comments. One: This does carry over to other sports, I know that. I can't stand watching football on ABC. They take FOREVER, TV timeouts last an age. And they're MUCH worse when you're at the game - a la Virginia Tech v. LSU on Sunday. I was at the game (I'm a Hokie), and I was in a wool uniform (I'm also in the marching band), an thus, I didn't appreciate the length of the game (while I did appreciate it's content).
Another point: I have ZERO problem with paying athletes millions of dollars. It works on a simple supply and demand scale, with the addition of skill levels. Why do you get paid $5.65 at burger king? Because, while there is a huge demand, there is a much larger supply, there are millions of people willing to do your job, and it takes no skill. Why do you get paid $60,000 to be a tech consultant? Because there is a high demand - not very, but it's higher than the supply, and that's because the skill level limits the supply.
Now, everyone sees where this is going - Why does Michael Vick get paid so much? Because the demand for his services is astronomical, and his skill level is so hard to find that the supply is almost zero. There are 150 million people in this country capable of working at Burger King, there are probably 1 million people capable of working tech sector jobs competently, but there are probably only 10 or so people in the world capable of both being a supurb scramble quarterback in the NFL *and* bringing the level of excitement that Vick brings with him wherever he is.
My problem with baseball players wanting more money is that I think they percieve their demand to be much higher than it really is. If Michael Vick wanted more money, he could probably get it. Why? Because people would demand that he is worth WHATEVER he wants to keep him on this team. If Casey Fossum really wants more money, who gives a shit. A lot less people.
Now, I also don't think that baseball players should get the standard $15/hr for their efforts. I think that there are probably players who are worth $500,000 or so per year, based on what they do for a team, and what they do monitarily for a franchise. There are a couple of players that deserve a few million a year for their presence - Bonds, McGuire, Martinez, whoever... These people are worth money because they bring money and they bring buzz, as well as good games.
They're just not worth $15 million, etc.
Thanks for reading this, if you got this far. I always read replies.
It's more that, rather than long games being what I don't like, it's just that there's nothing to move the game along. When I watch a baseball game, there just doesn't seem to be much happening. I mean, the action happens for, what, twenty seconds at a time? Guy hits the ball, every one runs like mad, in 5 seconds he's on base, and then it takes 3 or 4 minutes to throw the next pitch. Let's see, in baseball, you have 9 innings, top and bottom of both, so 18 rounds, and let's say 8 people bat per round. That's 144 at-bats, which I think is probably a fair or high number. Now, at 20 seconds each, plus another 40 seconds to get situated, and then some time for everything to switch over between sets, I'd say a baseball game should take 2.5 hours. Instead, they take upwards of 4 most of the time. Plus, in 2.5 hours, there's not more than 20 minutes of action, really. People lollygag their way to the plate. People lollygag their way down to first, etc etc.
I just don't see the intensity or intelligence that baseball requires. I don't think they're there.
And a couple more parting shots that I just thought of about how baseball sucks...
1.) Most of the people that you hear about anymore in the all-american past time aren't even American.
2.) These once-roll models for our community - according to people on the inside of the league, anywhere from 1/2 to 80% of them to steroids. And they still can't hit like Ruth.
Exactly. I have a real problem with a sport in which there is no time limit.
I was flipping over to espn to catch sports center yesterday, to see some college football scores and comments. You know what I got? 30 minutes of baseball, then I turned it off. It's so stupid - major league baseball gets so much airtime, and no one cares. If you watch highlights reels from the game, you notice that whenever someone hits a homerun, there's never anyone in the stands to catch it. I mean, these are premium seats, and the 3 people in the section are all scrambling over the chairs to get to the ball.
And they keep demanding more money. Tickets for baseball are *so* expensive, like $50. And these greedy fucks they call players want more. Well, I'll tell you how to get more. Make the game interesting, get more people into the stands. I was actually pissed off that you people didn't go on strike - Friday was a sad day. Strike = less TV converage.
Eventually we will abandon the all american past time in favor of someone else's past time that doesn't suck. I mean, think, baseball's only been here for ~100 years, mabey theres something about soccer that keeps it around for everyone else. Mabey we should check it out.
Nevermind that RENT WANTS TO BE PAID, or FOOD WANTS TO BE BOUGHT.
It's just the slashdot mentality. I *can* get it for free, therefore it should be free. It's not a physical thing, it's only software, therefore it should be free.
Re:Why not add a link to the patch as well, Slashd
on
Microsoft News Update
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· Score: 2
But I assume it's 'better' to let people suffer instead of helping them out, is it? You dont have to post links to security bulletins, but if you post a link to a DoS tool, why not supply the link to the patch as well...
Because people that are venerable to this exploit are dumb. They run an inferrior operating system that is venerable to lots of easy to use cracking tools. They choose not to update it regularly. In essence, these people have called down the thunder on themselves. Why should we be obligated to help them out? If we post links to programs that can knock their computers offline, mabey they will see the light and switch to the more secure *nix operating systems and stop bothering me with their Code Red and their Network Neighborhood. Remember, these people are so stupid that they need to be rudely awakened to the fact that the software they are using is written by a terrible, malicious company, and should be abandoned.
Yeah, everyone who is an incomming freshman has to buy a computer. The requirements are different depending on major. Science/engineers have to have a more powerful computer, music majors have to have a macintosh (to run McGamut and Finale), and business majors... well... they have to have a computer.
3 Years ago (fall 99) when I came to the university (as an engineer, i've since switched), you had to have a 400 Mhz proc, with 128 MB of ram, and a graphics card with at least 4 MB. Of course, no one checked this, but that was the requirement. They had you fill out a form when you got there. I'd imagine I have the fastest computer of absolutely everyone in the history department (my current major). No one needs an 1800+ to do what's required for history, but... Neverwinter Nights beckens. That game, for some reason, more so than first person shooters, really pushes your comptuer and graphics card.
as most schools including mine use word exclusively and students are expected to know how to use it.
My school requires all engineers, architects, and sciences majors to purchase a software pack, which includes the educational version of MS Office, so I don't think it would be a huge problem to buy a computer with word perfect. It also includes AutoCad, Mathmatecia, Matlab, and alot of other stuff. For $500, it's not a bad deal, compared to actual software costs. Insert random comment about opensource software prices here, but first find me a substitute for AutoCad or Matlab.
MS Works does *NOT* always include word. The MS Works suite, full version ($99) includes word. The pre-installed version of works on your friendly OEM Computer MAY or MAY NOT have MS Word.
Back when I worked for Best Buy a year ago, this was a big advantage of buying a sony computer. They included the full works suite. Many (read: HP / Compaq) only included the MS Works Word Processor, MS Works Spreadsheet, etc.
MS Works Word Processor is a very stripped version of MS Word. It has no spell check, no auto format, and is missing many key functions of Word. As far as I could tell, it's existance was only to whet people's tastebuds to get them to buy office, because after using Word, trying to use "MS Works Word Processor" is a joke.
I found some real gems on Napster -- stuff I'd never listen to before...
And I feel the exact opposite. Back in the day when I used to get MP3 files off of IRC and FTP Servers, I wouldn't look for one specific artist. I'd check and see what they had. And I'd see a band and say to myself "self, I'd like to have some songs from that band and get them". Nowadays, the search button napster/kazaa/direct-connect has made it next to impossible to randomly find new music. I only get on P2P networks now when i'm lookin gor something specific.
If they/have/ been making specific, non-puffery, bogus claims however, then I wouldn't mind seeing them smacked around for it, so long as the same reasoning gets applied in other cases as well.
I agree. I think the claim is more pointed at the claims about being better than their previous processors, not on Mhz. I mean, a P-4 2.2 Ghz runs at 2.2 Ghz, but it doesn't perform X percent better than a P-III. I read some reports when the P-4 first came out that for office applications, a P-II 400Mhz was faster than a 1.5 Ghz p-4. They cut off the Level 1 cache, and they use Level2 closely coupled cache cause it cuts costs. Despite the fact that the 8K of L-1 cache they left behind could be overflowed by one horizontal line on a screen at 1024X768.
But basically, Intel has won both the Mhz war and the marketing war. Think of it this way - what's their target audience? Certainly not people who research before they buy a computer with a certain processor. If it tells you anything about the target demographic, the Intel Pentium Four is the P-4 and not the P-IV because they felt that not enough people would know what IV ment, and would call it the Pentium EyeVee.
Slashdot Mirror
The only thing d20 still needs is a good set of software tools for GM's who like to run the game from their laptops, and due to the open nature of d20, I'm sure a lot of amitious hackers are going to fill that void anyway.
If you are willing to go with a mostly accurate representation of AD&D 3rd ed., check out the level constructor for Neverwinter Nights. It's in-fucking-credible, and the game is just as good. I've been playing this game, probably over 200 hours now, and i'm 1/2 way done. And I've loved every minute of it. But you can do just about anything in the Level editor, control conversation, script, macro, everything.
~Will
"post-modern"
In the words of Moe Sizlak, "wierd for the sake of being wierd". Post modern isn't really a movement, it's more a collection of stuff, like that guy that cut up a cow and put it in formaldehyde and took pictures of it. It's crap.
~Will
Why do you care if XBox is secure or not ?
IT'S A GAMES BOX for crying out loud.
Operating systems: Microsoft releases one every year or two. We'll say 1.5. Say people upgrade every other time (w-95 to w-Me, w-2000-w-XP), so that's one OS, bought for $150, every 3 years.
Video Game systems: Even on an off year, there are 100 titles. Chances are people will buy 6 or 8 in a year. At $50/pop, that's a lot of lost revenue they've lost in royalties over 3 years, a lot more than say operating system attrition. If people pirate games, they stand to lose more than from Operating Systems, and I'll tell you why:
A couple of key points that I've pointed out before. One: MICROSOFT does NOT CARE about individual piracy of windows. That's a fact. They care about idiots pirating it, and they care about coroprations pirating 4000 copies of it. They DO NOT CARE about the average slashdot reader pirating windows, for this reason: We are their free tech support. I pirate windows (sue me), and my dad asks me questions about how to work his computer, quote unquote. I would swear, being the "computer guru" has paid off for Microsoft more so than me, they've gotten their $200 worth out of me, in the way of I've prevented people with problems from contacting Microsoft. I have SAVED THEM MONEY, and therefore it is in their best interest to get windows, latest versions, into my hands as quickly as possible, and for free, so that I know it intimately.
Now, in the realm of games, they stand to lose money. The X-box is essentially an attempt to get into the game industry, specifically for the reasons outlined above: more people buy more video games than operating systems. More money is the bottom line to the X-box. Of course, they spent a god-damn fortune launching the thing with less than stellar titles, and competing with the PS-2's already entrenched lead and the backwards compatability of ps2-psx has proved hard. They can't stand to lose more money.
And speaking of the PS2: Sony, on the other hand, doesn't care if people pirate games for their systems. Why? They make money on the hardware. To play pirated playstation games, you first have to have a playstation. Any rumor that Sony lost money on the playstation or ps2 hardware is bull. They make the thing, and they make money on it.
Now, there once was going to be a Mod-Chip for the PS-2 that was going to eliminate the need for ANY knife trick, ANY boot disk, ANY game shark, etc etc, at the price of having 58 solder points. It was called the Messiah. There are several out there floating around as the Messiah chip, but to my knowledge, none of them actually are the origional planned chip. Sony shut the messiah chip down. Why? Why this one and not any of the others? Why not get the people that made the USB mod chip that needed the game shark?
Because in order for the messiah chip to work, the programmers had to disable ALL security checks, including reagion coding for DVD's, and other DVD anti-piracy measures. Sony had too high a stake in movies, which they stood to lose quite a bit more, enough to shut the Messiah down.
So, to sum up: Microsoft cares about X-Box game piracy, not OS piracy. Sony cares about movie piracy, not Game piracy. In short, it's all about the Benjamins.
~Will
"...taught inventor from Tennessee... ...all those years of being brainwashed by the Secret World Order,"
If he's from Tennessee, that's probably supposed to be the New World Order. Ya know, Nw0, wrestling, WWF (WWE)??
Hogan, Nash, Hall? Come on people, work with me here.
~Will
actually, hold on. Is a fax bomb a terrorist act?
~Will
Now, what you do here is take about 5 sheets of paper, write "DON'T CANCEL FARSCAPE, WE LOVE IT" about 3 times per sheet, then feed the first sheet through, and then tape the sheets together in a circular motion.
Sit back, let fax for about 7 and a half hours.
Of course, it's long distance, but... as brody once said, "small price to pay for the smiting of one's enemies".
~Will
Yes, there are, or once were, Sun notebooks. A quick google search turned up this:
email post.
As far as I could ever tell, they were very bulky. They look like an IPX, of which half is the screen. But, yes, they did exist. There are lots of Intel platforms running Solaris (why, I don't know), but this one specifically describes the 13w3 connector, which if you've ever seen is is unique to sun, and the most convoluted thing in the world. I don't think there ever was a frame buffer with a 13w3 that would work on an intel platform.
~Will
It's absolutely not true. They are loud. We have a 2U rack mount at work that has an 18 GB Seagate, and 4 73 GB Seagates in it. It sounds like a jet taking off. But the drives are working well.
By the way, if you need a setup like this, for god's sake, check out Micron. It took us forever to get the computer (1 month), but we had our own special problems with the order process. However, the rack mount case is a thing of beauty, comes with hella fans, and while loud, is frosty. It's a fantasticly designed case. And you can fit 6 half-height 80 pin scsi drives, as opposed to Dell's 2U's where you can only fit 4.
~Will
My experience with Maxtor drives failing... I'll never buy another Maxtor.
See, it's all dependant on individual results. When I first started building computers from parts instead of buying OEM, I had an 8 GB maxtor. Then, when I got to college and realized what a fat pipe does to your hard drive, I bought a 20GB WD.
The WD failed, and before it failed it was loud as all hell - sounded like a jet taking off. Never had a problem with a Maxtor.
So right now, I have a 30, a 45, and a 60 GB maxtor in my computer, all 7200, and none of them have given me a bit of problem. I'm going to continue to buy maxtor until they burn me. I'm a vindictive consumer.
~Will
Good point, you definately can't count out Toshiba. All laptop hard drives that I know (2.5 inch or whatever the standard size mini-ide) are made by Toshiba and IBM. That's a substantial chunk of the market.
Of course, this is excluding things like Sun notebooks and notebooks that cheat. I'm not sure what Apple uses.
~Will
I just wanted to say I appreciate your reasoned and articulate response, instead of flaming me. It was a pleasant read, and I really respect you for it.
I suppose I'll just have to draw a line and say that I don't understand baseball the way you (and many others) do. I'm not sure I'm willing to learn, but until recently I didn't like football - then I went to college... So mabey there's hope.
I'd imagine it was easier to pick it up earlier in the game, before it was so high priced, for tickets, for player's salaries, before there were sponsers for everything. Now, any time we can get a commercial, we do, and there isn't a surface in the stadium without a logo on it.
In the same vein, let me make a couple of comments. One: This does carry over to other sports, I know that. I can't stand watching football on ABC. They take FOREVER, TV timeouts last an age. And they're MUCH worse when you're at the game - a la Virginia Tech v. LSU on Sunday. I was at the game (I'm a Hokie), and I was in a wool uniform (I'm also in the marching band), an thus, I didn't appreciate the length of the game (while I did appreciate it's content).
Another point: I have ZERO problem with paying athletes millions of dollars. It works on a simple supply and demand scale, with the addition of skill levels. Why do you get paid $5.65 at burger king? Because, while there is a huge demand, there is a much larger supply, there are millions of people willing to do your job, and it takes no skill. Why do you get paid $60,000 to be a tech consultant? Because there is a high demand - not very, but it's higher than the supply, and that's because the skill level limits the supply.
Now, everyone sees where this is going - Why does Michael Vick get paid so much? Because the demand for his services is astronomical, and his skill level is so hard to find that the supply is almost zero. There are 150 million people in this country capable of working at Burger King, there are probably 1 million people capable of working tech sector jobs competently, but there are probably only 10 or so people in the world capable of both being a supurb scramble quarterback in the NFL *and* bringing the level of excitement that Vick brings with him wherever he is.
My problem with baseball players wanting more money is that I think they percieve their demand to be much higher than it really is. If Michael Vick wanted more money, he could probably get it. Why? Because people would demand that he is worth WHATEVER he wants to keep him on this team. If Casey Fossum really wants more money, who gives a shit. A lot less people.
Now, I also don't think that baseball players should get the standard $15/hr for their efforts. I think that there are probably players who are worth $500,000 or so per year, based on what they do for a team, and what they do monitarily for a franchise. There are a couple of players that deserve a few million a year for their presence - Bonds, McGuire, Martinez, whoever... These people are worth money because they bring money and they bring buzz, as well as good games.
They're just not worth $15 million, etc.
Thanks for reading this, if you got this far. I always read replies.
~Will
It's more that, rather than long games being what I don't like, it's just that there's nothing to move the game along. When I watch a baseball game, there just doesn't seem to be much happening. I mean, the action happens for, what, twenty seconds at a time? Guy hits the ball, every one runs like mad, in 5 seconds he's on base, and then it takes 3 or 4 minutes to throw the next pitch. Let's see, in baseball, you have 9 innings, top and bottom of both, so 18 rounds, and let's say 8 people bat per round. That's 144 at-bats, which I think is probably a fair or high number. Now, at 20 seconds each, plus another 40 seconds to get situated, and then some time for everything to switch over between sets, I'd say a baseball game should take 2.5 hours. Instead, they take upwards of 4 most of the time. Plus, in 2.5 hours, there's not more than 20 minutes of action, really. People lollygag their way to the plate. People lollygag their way down to first, etc etc.
I just don't see the intensity or intelligence that baseball requires. I don't think they're there.
And a couple more parting shots that I just thought of about how baseball sucks...
1.) Most of the people that you hear about anymore in the all-american past time aren't even American.
2.) These once-roll models for our community - according to people on the inside of the league, anywhere from 1/2 to 80% of them to steroids. And they still can't hit like Ruth.
~Will
Exactly. I have a real problem with a sport in which there is no time limit.
I was flipping over to espn to catch sports center yesterday, to see some college football scores and comments. You know what I got? 30 minutes of baseball, then I turned it off. It's so stupid - major league baseball gets so much airtime, and no one cares. If you watch highlights reels from the game, you notice that whenever someone hits a homerun, there's never anyone in the stands to catch it. I mean, these are premium seats, and the 3 people in the section are all scrambling over the chairs to get to the ball.
And they keep demanding more money. Tickets for baseball are *so* expensive, like $50. And these greedy fucks they call players want more. Well, I'll tell you how to get more. Make the game interesting, get more people into the stands. I was actually pissed off that you people didn't go on strike - Friday was a sad day. Strike = less TV converage.
Eventually we will abandon the all american past time in favor of someone else's past time that doesn't suck. I mean, think, baseball's only been here for ~100 years, mabey theres something about soccer that keeps it around for everyone else. Mabey we should check it out.
~Will
Don't you remember? INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FREE.
Nevermind that RENT WANTS TO BE PAID, or FOOD WANTS TO BE BOUGHT.
It's just the slashdot mentality. I *can* get it for free, therefore it should be free. It's not a physical thing, it's only software, therefore it should be free.
Does that mean that it's illegal to run zebra and BGPd? Cause those are developed by cisco, it's perfectly emulating sysco software...
Was it the oxygen sensor on the exhaust manifold?
~Will
But I assume it's 'better' to let people suffer instead of helping them out, is it? You dont have to post links to security bulletins, but if you post a link to a DoS tool, why not supply the link to the patch as well...
Because people that are venerable to this exploit are dumb. They run an inferrior operating system that is venerable to lots of easy to use cracking tools. They choose not to update it regularly. In essence, these people have called down the thunder on themselves. Why should we be obligated to help them out? If we post links to programs that can knock their computers offline, mabey they will see the light and switch to the more secure *nix operating systems and stop bothering me with their Code Red and their Network Neighborhood. Remember, these people are so stupid that they need to be rudely awakened to the fact that the software they are using is written by a terrible, malicious company, and should be abandoned.
Or so I read on slashdot.
~Will
I tell them to go home and save it again as a RTF document.
Don't you mean an RTFM document?
zing!
Yeah, everyone who is an incomming freshman has to buy a computer. The requirements are different depending on major. Science/engineers have to have a more powerful computer, music majors have to have a macintosh (to run McGamut and Finale), and business majors... well... they have to have a computer.
3 Years ago (fall 99) when I came to the university (as an engineer, i've since switched), you had to have a 400 Mhz proc, with 128 MB of ram, and a graphics card with at least 4 MB. Of course, no one checked this, but that was the requirement. They had you fill out a form when you got there.
I'd imagine I have the fastest computer of absolutely everyone in the history department (my current major). No one needs an 1800+ to do what's required for history, but... Neverwinter Nights beckens. That game, for some reason, more so than first person shooters, really pushes your comptuer and graphics card.
~Will
have not read it, it's been on my list for a while, along with childhood's end.
as most schools including mine use word exclusively and students are expected to know how to use it.
My school requires all engineers, architects, and sciences majors to purchase a software pack, which includes the educational version of MS Office, so I don't think it would be a huge problem to buy a computer with word perfect. It also includes AutoCad, Mathmatecia, Matlab, and alot of other stuff. For $500, it's not a bad deal, compared to actual software costs. Insert random comment about opensource software prices here, but first find me a substitute for AutoCad or Matlab.
~Will
MS Works does *NOT* always include word. The MS Works suite, full version ($99) includes word. The pre-installed version of works on your friendly OEM Computer MAY or MAY NOT have MS Word.
Back when I worked for Best Buy a year ago, this was a big advantage of buying a sony computer. They included the full works suite. Many (read: HP / Compaq) only included the MS Works Word Processor, MS Works Spreadsheet, etc.
MS Works Word Processor is a very stripped version of MS Word. It has no spell check, no auto format, and is missing many key functions of Word. As far as I could tell, it's existance was only to whet people's tastebuds to get them to buy office, because after using Word, trying to use "MS Works Word Processor" is a joke.
~Will
I found some real gems on Napster -- stuff I'd never listen to before...
And I feel the exact opposite. Back in the day when I used to get MP3 files off of IRC and FTP Servers, I wouldn't look for one specific artist. I'd check and see what they had. And I'd see a band and say to myself "self, I'd like to have some songs from that band and get them". Nowadays, the search button napster/kazaa/direct-connect has made it next to impossible to randomly find new music. I only get on P2P networks now when i'm lookin gor something specific.
Which means I'm not finding new music anymore...
~Will
If they /have/ been making specific, non-puffery, bogus claims however, then I wouldn't mind seeing them smacked around for it, so long as the same reasoning gets applied in other cases as well.
I agree. I think the claim is more pointed at the claims about being better than their previous processors, not on Mhz. I mean, a P-4 2.2 Ghz runs at 2.2 Ghz, but it doesn't perform X percent better than a P-III.
I read some reports when the P-4 first came out that for office applications, a P-II 400Mhz was faster than a 1.5 Ghz p-4. They cut off the Level 1 cache, and they use Level2 closely coupled cache cause it cuts costs. Despite the fact that the 8K of L-1 cache they left behind could be overflowed by one horizontal line on a screen at 1024X768.
But basically, Intel has won both the Mhz war and the marketing war. Think of it this way - what's their target audience? Certainly not people who research before they buy a computer with a certain processor. If it tells you anything about the target demographic, the Intel Pentium Four is the P-4 and not the P-IV because they felt that not enough people would know what IV ment, and would call it the Pentium EyeVee.
So, for their target audience, they nailed it.
~Will