I don't blame Sega for not making their servers public after shutting them down! Look at how bad that one game suffered from a completely open server, what was it, Quake?
All servers were completely compromised by hacks and cheats. Nobody ever improved on any security, and to make things worse, they weren't able to sell any copies of Quake II or Quake III because people were too happy playing Quake!
What a crock. Sega should release the server code when they shut down their games. I'd really like to play some Dreamcast Bomberman Online and I'd be happy to run a server to do so. It doesn't keep me from buying their new product either.
Vector hackers should check out the Zektor ZVG. They've recently hacked MAME to run all the available vector games through it, but what I'm looking forward to is new software.
After TiVo sold their DirecTivo unit to DirecTV, I received a letter from them regarding their new and improved privacy policy. It stated that I had to opt-out to DTV if I didn't want my viewing data collected. This in spite of the fact that I had already done so with TiVo Corp.
I called the number on the DTV letter to opt-out and was told that I needed to call another number. I called the other number, and was told that I needed to provide written notice. I wrote the written notice and asked for confirmation, which I never received.
In addition, the boolean variable in the TiVo software that controlled whether data was uploaded mysteriously disappeared after the box got the DTV update. This means that not only does the DTV software not have the facility for stopping the upload, but DTV has no control over whether it happens or not. It always happens.
Draw your own conclusions. I'm glad I've got TiVo net so I can copy a choice JPEG over my logfile to upload to those lying bastards on a nightly basis.
Linux itself is a clone of an operating system that is 20-plus years old. That's what it is. That is what you can get today, a clone of a 20-year-old system. I'm not saying that it doesn't have some place for some customers, but that is not an innovative proposition.
The press release is very specific about streaming music and photos to and from the TiVo. It says nothing about remote viewing of shows. Every TiVo hacker wishes something like this was "built-in." However, it appears that television executives have more sway with TiVo than their customers.
This kind of crap happened all the time in the arcade and pinball market. Games like Marble Madness 2 and the most excellent Capcom pinball
Big Bang Bar are just a pair of examples of finished games that hit the prototype stage after much work and design only to be killed by marketing departments.
Midway (who bought Atari arcade) is still guarding the rights to Marble Madness 2, so it seems you won't be seeing ROMs for it anytime soon. Fully designed games that only a lucky few people can play. Sad.
Wanking around with s-video and the more expensive component video doesn't make a lot of sense when RGB picture quality on a monitor with 15khz horizontal scan beats them all.
You can either use an old Amiga monitor for this, or find a multimedia presentation monitor like my Viewsonic 29GA. If it has S-Video and VGA in, it will handle 15khz.
You can either hack your own cable for about $10 with instructions from GamesX. Or buy a Redant VGA box for PS2 and use it on any modern monitor.
You should also bounce them into Vipul's Razor so the hash of the body can be used against future spam via the VR client and SpamAssassin.
For the last week I've been seeding the net with bogus addresses that all pump into the Razor. Its quite entertaining making newsgroup posts and web pages that you know are like sugar-candy for the spammer email harvesters.
The majority of the comments above are of the nature, "Books and paper are much more convenient than my lousy electronic display!" However, the article referenced argues this as well. The point they are trying to make is that researchers are working on making e-paper indistinguishable from paper. The only difference is that e-paper is dynamic rather than static print.
I suppose everyone rushed to comment on the "demise of books" statement rather than take the time to read the actual article.
I went to the trouble of hacking an RGB cable from my PSX to my Viewsonic 29GA. It gives a brilliant lovely picture, even though it is still the 15khz scan rate.
Sony did it right and kept the same A/V port from the PSX to the PS2. You just need to change to "RGB" in the display options of the box, and you get a beautiful rock solid picture. Unless...
YOU STICK IN A DVD!
Then it switches to the lame-o "component" video which uses the same leads as the RGB does. However, since my monitor isn't expecting "component" I get a rather ugly green tinted version of the picture. Needless to say, I won't be using my PS2 to watch DVDs until someone hacks this "feature" out of it. I presume they have to go to "component" to offer me the lovely required Macrovision, a 25-year old copy protection that can be broken with a $20 box. Get real Sony and the MPAA. RGB limitations on DVDs do nothing but punish your customers.
Rummaging through "Thomas" (The US Legislative website), I found a couple of instances of bills to eliminate the electoral collage, but it looks like they never even got out of committee. No doubt the representatives from lopsided states didn't want to encourage any other parties to get out the vote.
The other problem with the electoral college is the speed at which information travels today. The eastern polls close long before the western polls, and it is possible that voters watching the tube in the western states won't vote once they see the results from the east. The electoral college seems to have been designed around the pony express. Now that we get information instantly from coast to coast, its time to go to a popular vote.
What planet do you live on? "Negativland thing was U2's label?" Negativland has nothing do with U2 other than being forced to delete their "U2" single by the band and Island records because it had a "confusing" cover.
Read this to see how your darling band crushed the small guy who stepped on their copyrighted toes.
Most Usenet admins either pray for the day that a viable substitute for smashing binaries down the Usenet pipe comes, or they don't bother with binaries at all. More power to distributed file-sharing programs like these. This kind of distribution is going to happen whether we like it or not. The only consolation is that it happens in an intelligent and efficient manner.
It appears that the "component video" is RGB. Although it probably isn't VGA frequency, but rather the same scan rate as NTSC. Sony will however, most likely match the Dreamcast VGA output box with some similar method or cable.
Here's good page on hacking RGB out of your PSX in case anyone is interested.
Slashdot Mirror
If you wanted to be able to dictate what happened with mp3.com, you shouldn't have sold it to someone else.
There is a version of Marble Man that uses trackballs.
I don't blame Sega for not making their servers public after shutting them down! Look at how bad that one game suffered from a completely open server, what was it, Quake?
All servers were completely compromised by hacks and cheats. Nobody ever improved on any security, and to make things worse, they weren't able to sell any copies of Quake II or Quake III because people were too happy playing Quake!
What a crock. Sega should release the server code when they shut down their games. I'd really like to play some Dreamcast Bomberman Online and I'd be happy to run a server to do so. It doesn't keep me from buying their new product either.
Vector hackers should check out the Zektor ZVG. They've recently hacked MAME to run all the available vector games through it, but what I'm looking forward to is new software.
I called the number on the DTV letter to opt-out and was told that I needed to call another number. I called the other number, and was told that I needed to provide written notice. I wrote the written notice and asked for confirmation, which I never received.
In addition, the boolean variable in the TiVo software that controlled whether data was uploaded mysteriously disappeared after the box got the DTV update. This means that not only does the DTV software not have the facility for stopping the upload, but DTV has no control over whether it happens or not. It always happens.
Draw your own conclusions. I'm glad I've got TiVo net so I can copy a choice JPEG over my logfile to upload to those lying bastards on a nightly basis.
Then in response to the XBox,
Remember, we brought Windows 1 out in 1983...
I love interviews with Balmer.
The press release is very specific about streaming music and photos to and from the TiVo. It says nothing about remote viewing of shows. Every TiVo hacker wishes something like this was "built-in." However, it appears that television executives have more sway with TiVo than their customers.
Midway (who bought Atari arcade) is still guarding the rights to Marble Madness 2, so it seems you won't be seeing ROMs for it anytime soon. Fully designed games that only a lucky few people can play. Sad.
Wanking around with s-video and the more expensive component video doesn't make a lot of sense when RGB picture quality on a monitor with 15khz horizontal scan beats them all.
You can either use an old Amiga monitor for this, or find a multimedia presentation monitor like my Viewsonic 29GA. If it has S-Video and VGA in, it will handle 15khz.
You can either hack your own cable for about $10 with instructions from GamesX. Or buy a Redant VGA box for PS2 and use it on any modern monitor.
You should also bounce them into Vipul's Razor so the hash of the body can be used against future spam via the VR client and SpamAssassin.
For the last week I've been seeding the net with bogus addresses that all pump into the Razor. Its quite entertaining making newsgroup posts and web pages that you know are like sugar-candy for the spammer email harvesters.
Who cares about a backlit GBA? Bring on the OLED version!
The majority of the comments above are of the nature, "Books and paper are much more convenient than my lousy electronic display!" However, the article referenced argues this as well. The point they are trying to make is that researchers are working on making e-paper indistinguishable from paper. The only difference is that e-paper is dynamic rather than static print.
I suppose everyone rushed to comment on the "demise of books" statement rather than take the time to read the actual article.
Sony did it right and kept the same A/V port from the PSX to the PS2. You just need to change to "RGB" in the display options of the box, and you get a beautiful rock solid picture. Unless...
YOU STICK IN A DVD!
Then it switches to the lame-o "component" video which uses the same leads as the RGB does. However, since my monitor isn't expecting "component" I get a rather ugly green tinted version of the picture. Needless to say, I won't be using my PS2 to watch DVDs until someone hacks this "feature" out of it. I presume they have to go to "component" to offer me the lovely required Macrovision, a 25-year old copy protection that can be broken with a $20 box. Get real Sony and the MPAA. RGB limitations on DVDs do nothing but punish your customers.
Rummaging through "Thomas" (The US Legislative website), I found a couple of instances of bills to eliminate the electoral collage, but it looks like they never even got out of committee. No doubt the representatives from lopsided states didn't want to encourage any other parties to get out the vote.
The other problem with the electoral college is the speed at which information travels today. The eastern polls close long before the western polls, and it is possible that voters watching the tube in the western states won't vote once they see the results from the east. The electoral college seems to have been designed around the pony express. Now that we get information instantly from coast to coast, its time to go to a popular vote.
Read this to see how your darling band crushed the small guy who stepped on their copyrighted toes.
How soon people forget.
That sure is a cute and trendy thing for Bono to say. Does he remember a band named "Negativland"?
Why vote republicrat when you can vote for Ralph Nader. The last person in Washington with any balls left.
Most Usenet admins either pray for the day that a viable substitute for smashing binaries down the Usenet pipe comes, or they don't bother with binaries at all. More power to distributed file-sharing programs like these. This kind of distribution is going to happen whether we like it or not. The only consolation is that it happens in an intelligent and efficient manner.
Here's good page on hacking RGB out of your PSX in case anyone is interested.
Thank you Jon Katz, for yet another article about stuff that doesn't matter. I eagerly await your Slashdot "ShowBiz" column.