The guy logged in using credentials 'borrowed' from an authorised beta tester,....
I know most people take Beta/OpenBeta NDAs as just 'who cares' documents, but there is a reason they exist, and assuming they were signed and stuff, they are (IANAL) binding.
I'd be surprised if "PC Perspective" didn't get a C&D already..
BS. The author is bemoaning the fact that games currently suck.
I call BS on your BS.
Maybe the Author needs to stop following the mainstream games market and buying whatever EA shovels them year after year.. there are games that don't suck, but most are being put out by smaller companies that don't release for 4 platforms, have for-pay DLC, and aren't capable of having a 2-minute advert during the superbowl.
Also, some of the best gameplay I've had on games are not the game as intended.. hell the only reason I bought some games were for mods that got released for them.. I think I've probably clocked under 10 hours of UT2004 proper.. but likely hundreds of hours on various mods for game.
I guess now I'm dont my pointless rant on the articles pointless rant.
Never underestimate the ability of upper level management to hose up even the best gameplan for a title.... remember what EA did to Origin.. they can do the same to Bioware.. I mean.. they already own them anyway.
I heard a rumor from a long ago time that upon a mountain high in the Himalayas, there existed a man that could be interested in 5 or 6 things at once.
Well actually the main reason I disable SSID is to prevent curious neighbors from even seeing it.. they might be inclined to ask me 'hey I see you have Wireless.. can I use it?'.
I agree that it's very easy to spoof a MAC and to sniff out a non-advertised SSIDs, and that a rotating-key WPA is the best and just a good WPA policy will keep your network secure, but I also want to 'hide' it from nosy, but not technically savvy, neighbors.
When I was in Frankfurt last year, i found a nice cafe near our Pension/hotel.. it was basic WEP keyed, but it was the sorta combination some idiot would use on their luggage.
Anyway.. point being, just because it's "not open" doesn't mean it's "secure". They 'secured' thier Wifi as a point of precaution, but all I had to do was ask for the key and I got it in two different languages, and they were very helpful.. nor did they rotate the key out or anything during the few days I was there. True, I was a paying customer (indiciently, best non-hands-eating burrito I've ever had was in FFM? go figure..), so they wanted to be helped.
If you're legitimately trying to prevent access, putting a weak WEP password on your AP is almost worse then leaving it open because it generates a false sense of security for your network. Now if you had a low-timer rotating WPA-PSK key, MAC filtered, and didn't advert SSID, then that's a reasonable amount of security (but still not full proof, but the amount of effort goes up to breach it).
Re: the 2-hour rule.. sounds great.. for cube-jockeys or other 'white collar' jobs.. when I worked in a machine-shop, 2 hours of 'actual work' however would be both very noticeable, and very bad. The fact of the matter was there was a tangible product that had to be processed..
Sure we shot the shit and occasionally pranked fellow coworkers, but often we did it -while- working.. lets face it, some of the tasks of a machine shop/factory can be done w/o 'thinking' about it (since there's a repetition of action, you can learn to do it while actually doing something else.. much as when I first got into the white-collar world working in ISP tech support (if you reinstall TCP/IP on enough windows 95 boxen, you can be in the middle of Dungeon Destard fighting PK guilds at the same time).
Damn.. I never got Free Coffee at my job.. of course the workers made a communal coffee pool I could buy into if I wanted too.. basic coffee at like $2/mo or so.
You get the fluff channels because the cable companies get paid to carry them. That's why you always get the home shopping networks if you only get the basic cable service.
Also, many of the networks opt for a 'carry one, carry all' sorta mentality.. if you carry MTV (which you better), then you also have to carry VH1, MTV2, Nick, Spike, and about 20 other channels that no one watches but you better carry.
Also, I'm alittle personally annoyed I get some channels that other people thing are popular. (ESPN/Sunshine Network, I'm looking at you).
I agree, I as a consumer, want ala carte networks. But you have to convince the cable providers to go all IP (and the consumer to upgrade their TV/cable box again), which they aren't ready to do yet.
Your choice is to goto Dish/DirecTV.. but they have their own ways of screwing their consumers too.
Also, since it's been brought up before, there are 2 reasons my MySQL is as popular as it is in the webhosting world: 1- it's free 2- it worked easily/well enough when the whole Virtual-Server thing started taking off (I mean in Apache terms: 1 IP, 1+ web sites, not VMware terms:] )
If MySQL dies, then web hosts will (slowly I'm sure) start migrating to using something else like PostgreSQL. Issues with either MySQL/Pgsql will be developed around, new management tools will emerge to fill the needs, and/or a new alternative will show it's head (someone mentioned a n existing fork of MySQL already).
Dear Monty; Perhaps you overstate your usefulness. Pray I do no alter the deal any further... or something.
If MySQL dies, it won't be the end of the Internet (I could only pray for so much to happen!).. I'm sure someone like Google would step in and offer consolidate database solutions.. does Gears or whatever already do that?
Either they turned them back on really quick, or the article itself is hoax-ad-ware? or something.. i'm sure there's some pre-ordained term for this from the Elders of the Internet
I'll take my God of War and Bayonetta before "more realsitic" graphics.
I dunno, compared to games 10 or 20 years ago, those two titles look comparatively realistic as you define it (better art/animation). I mean.. it's definitely more realistic then WarCraft (the original one) or even the original street fighters or MKs or whatever.
I'll second this and say that those people who want realistic games are a stupid minority who don't understand game design.
I think what you're trying to say is 'Games should be fun'.
Some people enjoy crunchy rule/game systems. The fun in those is generally not the button mashing of a console game, but rather mastering the system and out-thinking your opponent more then just out clicking him/her.
Based on your statement, you're calling everyone stupid who ever played games like Supremacy(tm) (with the expansions), or the likes of Advanced Squad Leader.
Different people measure/gauge Fun in different ways.
I guess the difference is I do realize not everyone wants 'realism' (in the many ways it's defined or measured), nor am I going to make other people play games that are only realistic. Hell I enjoy a wide gabmit of games, from Red Ochestra on the 'realistic FPS' side to Evil Genius on the slap-stick RTS side, to Crayon Physics on the casual side; and alot in between.
1- What is their PvP model? Will it only be PvE? If only PvE how are they gonna get all the Guildwars guys? 2- Is it skill or level (or hybrid) based character advancements? 3- Are the classes limited to 'Ex-military Pilot', 'Ex-school teacher' and 'Scientist'? Will there be an expansion for Retired Game Developer'?
I heard it's going to be a Grind fest and a full of PKs/Gankers, and once they open up player housing, the moon will be covered by moon houses and moon towers.
Ya, I concur, the PhD candidate should probably continue to read some more Mil-SciFi like Weber/Ringo, etc. given I Baen actually bothers to try and be a good vendor and puts some of thier stuff online for free ( http://www.baen.com/library/ ), there's no excuse.:]
From the summary, since I'm to lazy to look it up since it was claimed to be behind a paywall: "children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. And the Medicaid children are more likely to receive the drugs for less severe conditions than their middle-class counterparts"
'middle class' != 'rich'.
(Since you have the free time to hang on/. and internet access to do it, plus a computing device that enables you, I'm willing to bet you're middle class, but not willing to bet that you're rich)
As for the causality of the topic, I'm willing to speculate it's a factor of a many possible things:
1- I'd wager that 'poor' (whatever that really means btw) persons are more likely to take the recommendation of a single medical professional. This is largely because it would cost extra resources (time/money/travel/whatever) to get a second opinion. 2- Upper and Middle class parents may be scared of the stigma of having their children on drugs of that nature. (I have a friend that teaches in a private school that has to argue with parents about the development of their child, often they refuse what the person that actually spends time with their kid tells them) 3- Private insurers may be less willing to cover those medications, whereby Medicare might have this nature of drugs 'whitelisted'? (ya, dunno here) 4- Upper/Middle class parents might be able to instead take their child to a head-shrink. (also, see #1 above) 5- Medical Professionals that service the 'poor' might be more willing to just script for meds since it'll likely fix the symptoms and it's known that it's covered under Medicare. ('Quickest fix to get to the next patient')
3. Usually if she gets called in, someone is dying. I would rarely, if ever, classify an IT emergency anywhere near as important as that.
True, most of the life-dependency IT stuff (usually) have not-as-tech-oriented backups in place, but don't believe that all IT screw-ups are mundane..
If the billing system batch doesn't run for a job, it's very unlikely that someone will die as a direct result; however if the 911 call center system crashes, that could result in degraded performance that could directly result in injury or a fatality.
It sorta just depends on what specifically you do in IT. It's possible I could affect something like a tele-surgery if I botch a route.. who knows (I try not to presume the importance of my customer's data).
As we further incorporate computing/IT into our daily work, you can expect the people that run those systems to become more and more responsible for actual life-and-limb.
--- As for the Org topic, yes, I'm pro-retainer sort of setup. it sounds like the " Dazed and Confused" is getting the short end of the stick.
My biggest problem with being on call is that it interferes with what I might be doing anyway, so I feel I should be compensated because I'm not able to go camping or get drunk. (that is, if I'm on-call, I'm expected to have a reasonable response time and of a reasonable mind to correct said issue). At my current employer we have an informal on-call pool of myself and a few other coworkers. So if something hits the fan, they pretty much dial someone at random. Luckily we spend most of our regular work-hours being able to make sure there aren't many issues and we've been able to add redunancy to the effect that alot of things can 'wait until morning'. If I do end up working a call at weird hours, unless there was a scheduled meeting or something, it's pretty much ok to flex out that time (I just gotta let my super know what's going on).
Slashdot Mirror
The guy logged in using credentials 'borrowed' from an authorised beta tester,....
I know most people take Beta/OpenBeta NDAs as just 'who cares' documents, but there is a reason they exist, and assuming they were signed and stuff, they are (IANAL) binding.
I'd be surprised if "PC Perspective" didn't get a C&D already..
nah.. forget OSHA.. take this to the airlines :]
They need to make some room on the Dreamliner for a 'romper room' so all passengers can get some time to move around.
BS.
The author is bemoaning the fact that games currently suck.
I call BS on your BS.
Maybe the Author needs to stop following the mainstream games market and buying whatever EA shovels them year after year.. there are games that don't suck, but most are being put out by smaller companies that don't release for 4 platforms, have for-pay DLC, and aren't capable of having a 2-minute advert during the superbowl.
Also, some of the best gameplay I've had on games are not the game as intended.. hell the only reason I bought some games were for mods that got released for them.. I think I've probably clocked under 10 hours of UT2004 proper.. but likely hundreds of hours on various mods for game.
I guess now I'm dont my pointless rant on the articles pointless rant.
Wow.. someone that RTFA?! You must be new here.
Mod parent up.
For the ADHD, you can skip to this:
http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm#headingA3
and
http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm#headingA4
For the sake of accuracy:
Hostgator moved from to Houston over 3 years ago..
I dunno who Robert McMillan is.. but he needs to do a tiny bit updating his fact-checking database.
Never underestimate the ability of upper level management to hose up even the best gameplan for a title.... remember what EA did to Origin.. they can do the same to Bioware.. I mean.. they already own them anyway.
I heard a rumor from a long ago time that upon a mountain high in the Himalayas, there existed a man that could be interested in 5 or 6 things at once.
Um... Don't all universities use students as free/cheap labor?
There fixed that for you.
Well actually the main reason I disable SSID is to prevent curious neighbors from even seeing it.. they might be inclined to ask me 'hey I see you have Wireless.. can I use it?'.
I agree that it's very easy to spoof a MAC and to sniff out a non-advertised SSIDs, and that a rotating-key WPA is the best and just a good WPA policy will keep your network secure, but I also want to 'hide' it from nosy, but not technically savvy, neighbors.
When I was in Frankfurt last year, i found a nice cafe near our Pension/hotel.. it was basic WEP keyed, but it was the sorta combination some idiot would use on their luggage.
[ unfortunately, I can't see any YouTube iwth the full combination 'skit' in FMV, so here's the audio clip with someones art ]
Anyway.. point being, just because it's "not open" doesn't mean it's "secure". They 'secured' thier Wifi as a point of precaution, but all I had to do was ask for the key and I got it in two different languages, and they were very helpful.. nor did they rotate the key out or anything during the few days I was there. True, I was a paying customer (indiciently, best non-hands-eating burrito I've ever had was in FFM? go figure..), so they wanted to be helped.
If you're legitimately trying to prevent access, putting a weak WEP password on your AP is almost worse then leaving it open because it generates a false sense of security for your network. Now if you had a low-timer rotating WPA-PSK key, MAC filtered, and didn't advert SSID, then that's a reasonable amount of security (but still not full proof, but the amount of effort goes up to breach it).
Re: the 2-hour rule.. sounds great.. for cube-jockeys or other 'white collar' jobs.. when I worked in a machine-shop, 2 hours of 'actual work' however would be both very noticeable, and very bad. The fact of the matter was there was a tangible product that had to be processed..
Sure we shot the shit and occasionally pranked fellow coworkers, but often we did it -while- working.. lets face it, some of the tasks of a machine shop/factory can be done w/o 'thinking' about it (since there's a repetition of action, you can learn to do it while actually doing something else.. much as when I first got into the white-collar world working in ISP tech support (if you reinstall TCP/IP on enough windows 95 boxen, you can be in the middle of Dungeon Destard fighting PK guilds at the same time).
Damn.. I never got Free Coffee at my job.. of course the workers made a communal coffee pool I could buy into if I wanted too.. basic coffee at like $2/mo or so.
You get the fluff channels because the cable companies get paid to carry them.
That's why you always get the home shopping networks if you only get the basic cable service.
Also, many of the networks opt for a 'carry one, carry all' sorta mentality.. if you carry MTV (which you better), then you also have to carry VH1, MTV2, Nick, Spike, and about 20 other channels that no one watches but you better carry.
Also, I'm alittle personally annoyed I get some channels that other people thing are popular. (ESPN/Sunshine Network, I'm looking at you).
I agree, I as a consumer, want ala carte networks. But you have to convince the cable providers to go all IP (and the consumer to upgrade their TV/cable box again), which they aren't ready to do yet.
Your choice is to goto Dish/DirecTV.. but they have their own ways of screwing their consumers too.
Also, since it's been brought up before, there are 2 reasons my MySQL is as popular as it is in the webhosting world: :] )
1- it's free
2- it worked easily/well enough when the whole Virtual-Server thing started taking off (I mean in Apache terms: 1 IP, 1+ web sites, not VMware terms
If MySQL dies, then web hosts will (slowly I'm sure) start migrating to using something else like PostgreSQL. Issues with either MySQL/Pgsql will be developed around, new management tools will emerge to fill the needs, and/or a new alternative will show it's head (someone mentioned a n existing fork of MySQL already).
Dear Monty; Perhaps you overstate your usefulness. Pray I do no alter the deal any further. .. or something.
If MySQL dies, it won't be the end of the Internet (I could only pray for so much to happen!).. I'm sure someone like Google would step in and offer consolidate database solutions.. does Gears or whatever already do that?
Ditto.
Either they turned them back on really quick, or the article itself is hoax-ad-ware? or something.. i'm sure there's some pre-ordained term for this from the Elders of the Internet
I'll take my God of War and Bayonetta before "more realsitic" graphics.
I dunno, compared to games 10 or 20 years ago, those two titles look comparatively realistic as you define it (better art/animation). I mean.. it's definitely more realistic then WarCraft (the original one) or even the original street fighters or MKs or whatever.
I'll second this and say that those people who want realistic games are a stupid minority who don't understand game design.
I think what you're trying to say is 'Games should be fun'.
Some people enjoy crunchy rule/game systems. The fun in those is generally not the button mashing of a console game, but rather mastering the system and out-thinking your opponent more then just out clicking him/her.
Based on your statement, you're calling everyone stupid who ever played games like Supremacy(tm) (with the expansions), or the likes of Advanced Squad Leader.
Different people measure/gauge Fun in different ways.
I guess the difference is I do realize not everyone wants 'realism' (in the many ways it's defined or measured), nor am I going to make other people play games that are only realistic. Hell I enjoy a wide gabmit of games, from Red Ochestra on the 'realistic FPS' side to Evil Genius on the slap-stick RTS side, to Crayon Physics on the casual side; and alot in between.
I per Sieves to Grates.
My questions are:
1- What is their PvP model? Will it only be PvE? If only PvE how are they gonna get all the Guildwars guys?
2- Is it skill or level (or hybrid) based character advancements?
3- Are the classes limited to 'Ex-military Pilot', 'Ex-school teacher' and 'Scientist'? Will there be an expansion for Retired Game Developer'?
I heard it's going to be a Grind fest and a full of PKs/Gankers, and once they open up player housing, the moon will be covered by moon houses and moon towers.
Ya, I concur, the PhD candidate should probably continue to read some more Mil-SciFi like Weber/Ringo, etc. given I Baen actually bothers to try and be a good vendor and puts some of thier stuff online for free ( http://www.baen.com/library/ ), there's no excuse. :]
A 'Thank you' letter from your local power company? :]
From the summary, since I'm to lazy to look it up since it was claimed to be behind a paywall:
"children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. And the Medicaid children are more likely to receive the drugs for less severe conditions than their middle-class counterparts"
'middle class' != 'rich'.
(Since you have the free time to hang on /. and internet access to do it, plus a computing device that enables you, I'm willing to bet you're middle class, but not willing to bet that you're rich)
As for the causality of the topic, I'm willing to speculate it's a factor of a many possible things:
1- I'd wager that 'poor' (whatever that really means btw) persons are more likely to take the recommendation of a single medical professional. This is largely because it would cost extra resources (time/money/travel/whatever) to get a second opinion.
2- Upper and Middle class parents may be scared of the stigma of having their children on drugs of that nature. (I have a friend that teaches in a private school that has to argue with parents about the development of their child, often they refuse what the person that actually spends time with their kid tells them)
3- Private insurers may be less willing to cover those medications, whereby Medicare might have this nature of drugs 'whitelisted'? (ya, dunno here)
4- Upper/Middle class parents might be able to instead take their child to a head-shrink. (also, see #1 above)
5- Medical Professionals that service the 'poor' might be more willing to just script for meds since it'll likely fix the symptoms and it's known that it's covered under Medicare. ('Quickest fix to get to the next patient')
No, they just flock to your datacenter.
The most interesting part is where does one get the magma in Iron Mountain they use to kill off thier nobles^H^H^H^H^H^Hmanagers?
Also I saw a definite lack of levers in the photographs. I'm guessing they don't show them so that way you don't know where the traps are.
I think both are a glorified version of.. um.. actually farming.
But that's just me.
I personally get paid by the government to NOT play farm ville, so I don't raise any more crops and flood the market.
woot.
I don't think it's called "How to serve man".. but nice try :]
Yeap.. it's probably some background work for an early Italian role-playing-game written in the old equivalent version of 'Klingon'...
3. Usually if she gets called in, someone is dying. I would rarely, if ever, classify an IT emergency anywhere near as important as that.
True, most of the life-dependency IT stuff (usually) have not-as-tech-oriented backups in place, but don't believe that all IT screw-ups are mundane..
If the billing system batch doesn't run for a job, it's very unlikely that someone will die as a direct result; however if the 911 call center system crashes, that could result in degraded performance that could directly result in injury or a fatality.
It sorta just depends on what specifically you do in IT. It's possible I could affect something like a tele-surgery if I botch a route.. who knows (I try not to presume the importance of my customer's data).
As we further incorporate computing/IT into our daily work, you can expect the people that run those systems to become more and more responsible for actual life-and-limb.
---
As for the Org topic, yes, I'm pro-retainer sort of setup. it sounds like the " Dazed and Confused" is getting the short end of the stick.
My biggest problem with being on call is that it interferes with what I might be doing anyway, so I feel I should be compensated because I'm not able to go camping or get drunk. (that is, if I'm on-call, I'm expected to have a reasonable response time and of a reasonable mind to correct said issue).
At my current employer we have an informal on-call pool of myself and a few other coworkers. So if something hits the fan, they pretty much dial someone at random. Luckily we spend most of our regular work-hours being able to make sure there aren't many issues and we've been able to add redunancy to the effect that alot of things can 'wait until morning'. If I do end up working a call at weird hours, unless there was a scheduled meeting or something, it's pretty much ok to flex out that time (I just gotta let my super know what's going on).