Not really. I have several friends who run gaming stores. D&D books still outsell all other RPGs.
As to bit torrent and similar, many people simply do not want to download copyrighted material illegally while others use it to simply preview things before they buy it.
I love the idea of D&D 4 offering physical and PDF. However, you should get both for the cost of the book (not "plus a small access fee"). And DRM is a terrible idea (watermarks are much better).
Version 1 was pretty good Version 2 was pretty bad Version 3 was pretty good (though very different from 1&2) Version 3.5 was a little better (though I didn't like a few of the changes) Version 4 (from what I've heard so far) will be terrible
Eberron is by far my favorite of the campaign settings TSR/WotC has ever produced (Dark Sun being my second favorite and FR my third). I loved that they set DDO in Eberron. However, Turbine killed DDO by not listening to alpha&beta testers - each and every patch during beta made it less and less like D&D (their one selling point).
WotC probably does understand they're customer base better than this. However, Hasbro is now calling the shots and they definitely don't understand games outside their core (eg all of the family board games they've produced for years).
3.5 definitely has issues but, from the sound of it, they will lose many many players with 4.0 (due to it being so simplified and less realistic than any previous edition).
Yes. People do play D&D in tournaments. Each year at GenCon, there is the RPGA D&D Open where hundreds (thousands?) of players compete while playing D&D. You could also consider the official "campaigns" as tournaments as well (Living Greyhawk, Living Arcanis (no longer WotC's), X'endrik Expeditions, etc).
I'd never heard this before and can't find any evidence of it (though it may be true). The first boxed set of D&D was published in 1974 which means the brown books pre-date that. RuneQuest (Chaosium's first game) wasn't published until 1978.
Personally, I started role-playing in 1981 or 1982 but I find it unlikely that TSR could usurp the name completely in less than a decade (I never heard the term D&D used for anything besides the actual D&D game).
If you want a very different keyboard/mouse, I'd suggest DataHand. It is terrible for playing games (primarily due to 8-directional mouse) but it's unlikely you'll be playing computer games if you have RSI. You only use thumbs for mode shifts and most of those can be locked on. Furthermore, you can reprogram the keys if you buy the Pro model.
I am a Libertarian but I'm also a realist. Many corporations have lost site of actually providing valuable service to the customer and have become only about making money (RIAA/MPAA, telcos, cable, etc). The only limiter on telcos and cable cos has been their inability to arbitrarily charge for access and inability to completely stifle competition.
No, companies can not be allowed to charge what and how they want for internet.
The problem is the internet is essential for many people around the world. I work from home over VPN (over the internet). I need to commonly use Google for work (plus use Gmail and GCalendar personally). I (could) have Vonage for phone service (although I don't).
If my ISP (Time Warner) throttles any of those into near uselessness (they will - at a minimum, they offer a (crappier) service in direct competition to Vonage), I'll be pissed. However, what options do I have? None.
Everything would be fine if everyone had a choice of broadband ISP (the choice between the telco and the cable co is not really choice). The problem is that most people have little or no choice of broadband ISP. I have a choice of Time Warner Cable or expensive overpriced DSL - Qworst offers DSL service but keeps telling me I can only get IDSL even though there is a DSLAM about a mile from my house. Northpoint went out of business several years ago and Covad and Rhythms pulled out of the area around the same time. Satellite latency is too long so that's not an option.
> I hear that the receiver of an SMS has to pay to receive text messages too - is this true?
Yep. I used to have AT&T Wireless and I could receive messages free ($0.10 to send a msg). Unfortunately, AT&T Wireless was acquired by Cingular and I was very annoyed when I found that it cost $0.10 to receive a message (as well as send one).
The hypocrises of the Patriot Act and the like are why US politics are now so despised among Americans who pay attention and understand the founding ideas of our country.
US politics no longer serve the people. It is a self-sustaining system of perception and lies designed to help the politicians and their "friends" (lately big business).
Very well said. Even after 9/11, America has suffered far fewer casualties to terrorism than many countries yet we are shoveling our rights away faster than anyone else.
I fully believe in and support Ben Franklin's quote. Liberties are worth far more than a little (mostly illusory) security.
At the current rate of change, I give it about a decade before China and the US switch places (with China being the democracy and the US being the fascist state).
Americans should take a good look at their 2-party system, and ponder what democracy is supposed to be about, and consider the difference between the two. It's a huge gap, and it's increasing at an alarming rate. Thank God the US hasn't been so successful at exporting their brand of democracy to the rest of the world.
I have been looking at our 2-party system for years. It sucks. It does a lousy job of representing "the people". It means that candidates from other parties which should have a chance don't. It means that lots of bad legislation passes (ok, that's more due to our "news" coverage and the average apathetic modern American).
I still love the 200+ page bill (can't remember which one now) that was delivered to the congressional offices (House I think but it might have been Senate) after 5pm for a floor vote the next day. Did any of the "representatives" read it? I highly doubt it.
Are there bugs in Firefox 1.5? Yep. Are the CPU hogging and memory usage bugs happening to everybody? Nope.
I have never, under any version of Firefox, seen the CPU hog bug. CPU usage on Firefox goes up to 100% when starting it up (at least partially due to the large number of Addons I have including SessionSaver) and then drops to almost 0% and never goes above 3-4% unless I am actively doing something.
I commonly have two Firefox windows open with 20ish tabs in one and 5ish in the other. Memory usage tends to be around 250-300MB. Regardless of the number of tabs open, I don't think I've ever seen Firefox use more than 350MB of memory.
I typically leave my desktop on all the time and suspend my laptop (Firefox on laptop usually has fewer tabs open) each night. I leave Firefox running for months at a time (on the laptop anyway - something usually crashes on the desktop system long before that (Firefox crashing or WoW locking up the system or EVE causing blue-screen).
The patent being limited to portable media players is really irrelevant. Using hierchical menus for navigation and what organization to use to store files on a media player are trivial and obvious extensions of existing technology (ie non-patentable). Using them on a media player is no different than using them on a computer (after all, what is a portable media player? it's a special-purpose computer) and there is nothing in the Zen or iPod navigation systems or file storage systems that hasn't been in computers for 10-20 years (or more).
That was my immediate thought upon reading the article. We have no grasp of how the global weather patterns work - heck, we don't even really understand how local weather patterns work (we see the effects and can predict based on past behaviors). Until we have a good understanding of the "purpose" of hurricanes on a global weather level (and the likely effects of changing it), we shouldn't even consider mucking with it.
Most databases don't support case-insensitive string comparisons in a speedy fashion. You either use "lc(col) = xxx" or "col like '[Xx][Xx][Xx]'" - both of which mean you are not using any indexes on col.
I know this is true in Sybase and Oracle at a minimum. Oracle may have recently changed in this regard but I doubt it (it's been a few years since I've used Oracle).
Probably the least compatible feature in a database is Sybase's support for multiple return sets (might also be in MS SQL-Server since it originated from Sybase).
select * from foo select * from bar go
is perfectly legal in Sybase. Personally, I think this is a bad thing since no other database I know of supports it (makes porting Sybase programs to anything else really hard unless the coder intentionally avoided this).
GalCiv. I've been waiting years for MOO3 and pre-ordered it almost a year ago. I'm disappointed in MOO3 and will be buying GalCiv.
My problems with MOO3:
Lousy interface. The screens I need to check regularly are the various queues. To cycle through the queues and look at what's going on (not change anything) takes 11 clicks per planet.
Stupid AI (in some ways). I've had colonies starving and the AI keeps building mining improvements instead of farming improvements.
Lack of control. There are some things in the game that are impossible to control. You can over-ride the AI on building ships, planetary improvements, and DEA (farms, mines, etc) but you can't control what improvements get built on DEAs (which have a huge game impact).
Bugs. The game kept getting delayed because they were going to release it "bug free". Yeah, right. Sometimes, you lose keyboard or mouse until you exit the game (rarely you lose both). If anything else grabs focus, you will probably get a Direct X Surface Error that crashes the game (or if you alt-Tab out of the game). SecuROM copy protection causes problems for lots of people (on my system, I have to reboot and run MOO3 as the first program I run or the game won't start and my DVD-ROM disappears). Bulk Freight Modules are supposed to increase income from Spaceports but they decrease it heavily (from 140 to 17 in one case for me) and you can't stop them from being built (they are DEA improvements). Etc.
Can someone please explain to me the moral or ethical mandate that supports/justifies this sort of vigilante thinking?
Because if it's not done this way, then the large corporation ignore the security flaw and leave all of their users open. Go back and read articles about computer security disclosures in the early 90s and how the current practice (what w00w00 did) came about. Basically, it was proven time and again that the large software corporations don't care about security, but they do care about public perceptions so the only way to get them to fix security flaws is to publish information about the flaw and how to exploit it (otherwise, the corps claim it is only theoretical and doesn't really exist and (again) don't fix it).
Perl attempts to be all things to all people and ends up being second-rate at everything.Perl is widely known as the "duct tape of the internet", and it performs superbly in this role. However, just as you cannot build a house out of duct tape alone, so attempting to turn a language that was originally developed for scrpiting brief, handy utilities into a do-all, be-all programming language will only result in the buggy, bloated, "write-only" mess that Perl has become.
Sorry to disappoint you but you are completely and utterly wrong. I work for a financial data company and almost all of our server-side jobs are written in Perl. We were recently purchased by another company and they opted to use our system written in Perl over their own system written in C++.
It is possible to write bad programs in Perl just like in C or any other language. It is also possible to write efficient and maintainable programs in Perl.
In June of 2000, I bought the components to make a new computer. Every arrived in good condition (motherboard was DOA but that wasn't UPS fault) EXCEPT the CASE. UPS managed to destroy a metal box properly packed by the manufacturer. When I claimed damages, I was told the product had to be shipped back to the UPS office of the sender before the package could be inspected and the claim processed (technically the sender insured it). I got a replacement case in 2-3 weeks only because 3DCool sent a new case before UPS finished the insurance claim.
Airborne Express claims "signature required" for delivery and policy says they won't deliver without it. EVERY time I've received shipments from Airborne Express I've been home waiting for the package and it was left (without signature) somewhere vaguely nearby (one time I lived in an apartment and the moderately expensive video card was left downstairs near the mailboxes and not even at my door).
I would if I could. Qwest (formerly US West), tells me that DSL isn't available because I live too far from the CO. Gee, well then, why did Northpoint, Covad, and Rhythms all say they could deliver DSL? I had Northpoint and am supposed to be getting switched to Rhythms (by Telocity) -- of course, I've been down about 3 weeks now and haven't heard a reconnect date. I'm seriously considering cable now which makes having a server harder (lack of static IP).
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Not really. I have several friends who run gaming stores. D&D books still outsell all other RPGs.
As to bit torrent and similar, many people simply do not want to download copyrighted material illegally while others use it to simply preview things before they buy it.
I love the idea of D&D 4 offering physical and PDF. However, you should get both for the cost of the book (not "plus a small access fee"). And DRM is a terrible idea (watermarks are much better).
To me, I'd say D&D has followed this progression:
Version 1 was pretty good
Version 2 was pretty bad
Version 3 was pretty good (though very different from 1&2)
Version 3.5 was a little better (though I didn't like a few of the changes)
Version 4 (from what I've heard so far) will be terrible
Eberron is by far my favorite of the campaign settings TSR/WotC has ever produced (Dark Sun being my second favorite and FR my third). I loved that they set DDO in Eberron. However, Turbine killed DDO by not listening to alpha&beta testers - each and every patch during beta made it less and less like D&D (their one selling point).
WotC probably does understand they're customer base better than this. However, Hasbro is now calling the shots and they definitely don't understand games outside their core (eg all of the family board games they've produced for years).
3.5 definitely has issues but, from the sound of it, they will lose many many players with 4.0 (due to it being so simplified and less realistic than any previous edition).
Yes. People do play D&D in tournaments. Each year at GenCon, there is the RPGA D&D Open where hundreds (thousands?) of players compete while playing D&D. You could also consider the official "campaigns" as tournaments as well (Living Greyhawk, Living Arcanis (no longer WotC's), X'endrik Expeditions, etc).
I'd never heard this before and can't find any evidence of it (though it may be true). The first boxed set of D&D was published in 1974 which means the brown books pre-date that. RuneQuest (Chaosium's first game) wasn't published until 1978.
Personally, I started role-playing in 1981 or 1982 but I find it unlikely that TSR could usurp the name completely in less than a decade (I never heard the term D&D used for anything besides the actual D&D game).
If you want a very different keyboard/mouse, I'd suggest DataHand. It is terrible for playing games (primarily due to 8-directional mouse) but it's unlikely you'll be playing computer games if you have RSI. You only use thumbs for mode shifts and most of those can be locked on. Furthermore, you can reprogram the keys if you buy the Pro model.
I am a Libertarian but I'm also a realist. Many corporations have lost site of actually providing valuable service to the customer and have become only about making money (RIAA/MPAA, telcos, cable, etc). The only limiter on telcos and cable cos has been their inability to arbitrarily charge for access and inability to completely stifle competition.
No, companies can not be allowed to charge what and how they want for internet.
The problem is the internet is essential for many people around the world. I work from home over VPN (over the internet). I need to commonly use Google for work (plus use Gmail and GCalendar personally). I (could) have Vonage for phone service (although I don't).
If my ISP (Time Warner) throttles any of those into near uselessness (they will - at a minimum, they offer a (crappier) service in direct competition to Vonage), I'll be pissed. However, what options do I have? None.
Everything would be fine if everyone had a choice of broadband ISP (the choice between the telco and the cable co is not really choice). The problem is that most people have little or no choice of broadband ISP. I have a choice of Time Warner Cable or expensive overpriced DSL - Qworst offers DSL service but keeps telling me I can only get IDSL even though there is a DSLAM about a mile from my house. Northpoint went out of business several years ago and Covad and Rhythms pulled out of the area around the same time. Satellite latency is too long so that's not an option.
I fall somewhere in between. I really want a full-featured phone.
:(
I want support for quad-band GSM (for when I travel in Europe), Bluetooth (I love my wireless headset), a nice address book, and a long battery life.
I do not want downloadable ringtones, games, camera, web browsing, color screen (decreases battery life), or even messaging (SMS or IM).
Is that too much to ask? Apparently, it is in the US at least.
> I hear that the receiver of an SMS has to pay to receive text messages too - is this true?
Yep. I used to have AT&T Wireless and I could receive messages free ($0.10 to send a msg). Unfortunately, AT&T Wireless was acquired by Cingular and I was very annoyed when I found that it cost $0.10 to receive a message (as well as send one).
The hypocrises of the Patriot Act and the like are why US politics are now so despised among Americans who pay attention and understand the founding ideas of our country.
US politics no longer serve the people. It is a self-sustaining system of perception and lies designed to help the politicians and their "friends" (lately big business).
Very well said. Even after 9/11, America has suffered far fewer casualties to terrorism than many countries yet we are shoveling our rights away faster than anyone else.
I fully believe in and support Ben Franklin's quote. Liberties are worth far more than a little (mostly illusory) security.
At the current rate of change, I give it about a decade before China and the US switch places (with China being the democracy and the US being the fascist state).
Americans should take a good look at their 2-party system, and ponder what democracy is supposed to be about, and consider the difference between the two. It's a huge gap, and it's increasing at an alarming rate. Thank God the US hasn't been so successful at exporting their brand of democracy to the rest of the world.
I have been looking at our 2-party system for years. It sucks. It does a lousy job of representing "the people". It means that candidates from other parties which should have a chance don't. It means that lots of bad legislation passes (ok, that's more due to our "news" coverage and the average apathetic modern American).
I still love the 200+ page bill (can't remember which one now) that was delivered to the congressional offices (House I think but it might have been Senate) after 5pm for a floor vote the next day. Did any of the "representatives" read it? I highly doubt it.
Are there bugs in Firefox 1.5? Yep.
Are the CPU hogging and memory usage bugs happening to everybody? Nope.
I have never, under any version of Firefox, seen the CPU hog bug. CPU usage on Firefox goes up to 100% when starting it up (at least partially due to the large number of Addons I have including SessionSaver) and then drops to almost 0% and never goes above 3-4% unless I am actively doing something.
I commonly have two Firefox windows open with 20ish tabs in one and 5ish in the other. Memory usage tends to be around 250-300MB. Regardless of the number of tabs open, I don't think I've ever seen Firefox use more than 350MB of memory.
I typically leave my desktop on all the time and suspend my laptop (Firefox on laptop usually has fewer tabs open) each night. I leave Firefox running for months at a time (on the laptop anyway - something usually crashes on the desktop system long before that (Firefox crashing or WoW locking up the system or EVE causing blue-screen).
The patent being limited to portable media players is really irrelevant. Using hierchical menus for navigation and what organization to use to store files on a media player are trivial and obvious extensions of existing technology (ie non-patentable). Using them on a media player is no different than using them on a computer (after all, what is a portable media player? it's a special-purpose computer) and there is nothing in the Zen or iPod navigation systems or file storage systems that hasn't been in computers for 10-20 years (or more).
I vote and write letters to my congressmen/senators (usually when there is a particularly good or (more often) horrible bill going through).
:(
Unfortunately, Congress seems to have decided to leave the patent office alone.
That was my immediate thought upon reading the article. We have no grasp of how the global weather patterns work - heck, we don't even really understand how local weather patterns work (we see the effects and can predict based on past behaviors). Until we have a good understanding of the "purpose" of hurricanes on a global weather level (and the likely effects of changing it), we shouldn't even consider mucking with it.
Most databases don't support case-insensitive string comparisons in a speedy fashion. You either use "lc(col) = xxx" or "col like '[Xx][Xx][Xx]'" - both of which mean you are not using any indexes on col.
I know this is true in Sybase and Oracle at a minimum. Oracle may have recently changed in this regard but I doubt it (it's been a few years since I've used Oracle).
Probably the least compatible feature in a database is Sybase's support for multiple return sets (might also be in MS SQL-Server since it originated from Sybase).
select * from foo
select * from bar
go
is perfectly legal in Sybase. Personally, I think this is a bad thing since no other database I know of supports it (makes porting Sybase programs to anything else really hard unless the coder intentionally avoided this).
It is possible to write bad programs in Perl just like in C or any other language. It is also possible to write efficient and maintainable programs in Perl.
I've had problems with Airborne Express and UPS.
In June of 2000, I bought the components to make a new computer. Every arrived in good condition (motherboard was DOA but that wasn't UPS fault) EXCEPT the CASE. UPS managed to destroy a metal box properly packed by the manufacturer. When I claimed damages, I was told the product had to be shipped back to the UPS office of the sender before the package could be inspected and the claim processed (technically the sender insured it). I got a replacement case in 2-3 weeks only because 3DCool sent a new case before UPS finished the insurance claim.
Airborne Express claims "signature required" for delivery and policy says they won't deliver without it. EVERY time I've received shipments from Airborne Express I've been home waiting for the package and it was left (without signature) somewhere vaguely nearby (one time I lived in an apartment and the moderately expensive video card was left downstairs near the mailboxes and not even at my door).
I would if I could. Qwest (formerly US West), tells me that DSL isn't available because I live too far from the CO. Gee, well then, why did Northpoint, Covad, and Rhythms all say they could deliver DSL? I had Northpoint and am supposed to be getting switched to Rhythms (by Telocity) -- of course, I've been down about 3 weeks now and haven't heard a reconnect date. I'm seriously considering cable now which makes having a server harder (lack of static IP).