My registrar let me put the thing on 'auto-renewal.' Is that unusual? They just charge me once a year, and if I wanted it gone, I'd have to tell them to make it gone.
While they aren't perfect, I think saying that it's not impressive is a bit harsh.
One thing I noticed on one of them. It would be terribly frustrating for me to see one of these objects and not be able to look around the hidden corners.
There's one image where you come to the beginning of a wall and you're forced to go only on one side of it.
I guess some of you actually use it, so maybe it does do some legit service, but from the description of the thing it sounds like a great "honey-pot" to me.
1. Present yourself as a way to keep secrets from people.
2. Sell/Give those secrets to the people directly.
Software, specifically games, but other things as well. (Windows comes to mind) is this way as well.
It's slightly different because the 'copy' IS a 'copy' not a 'clone' but the rest holds. One has all sorts of limitations, restrictions, (requires CD in drive, has 'non-skip' advertising, etc) (or WGA/WPA). The other has all that stuff stripped out to make the experience better for the consumer.
I think it's hilarious and dreadfully ironic that I'll buy a copy of some software, and put it on my shelf while using the downloaded version because it 'works better.'
I often get asked by managers and other IT people what languages I know. My answer, "They are all the same, I just haven't used some of them yet." I will tell them the ones I'm most familiar with, but explain to them that not knowing a specific language is only a minor hurdle, and can often be off-set if the new language is more suited to the application.
Almost every class in my CS study used a different language. I had classes using Perl, Lisp, Pascal, C, C++, Java..... They didn't do that on purpose, they were just inconsistent, and liked to choose the 'flavor of the month.' It worked out to be a good thing though.
(Although, my "Unix" teacher got reprimanded for actively teaching Perl. heh)
I work in a large support department where we support custom software. We actually support it, not just read from a script. We used to hire CS majors, but stopped because they asked for too much information. Now we hire IT majors.
As the last CS person to get hired, it's quite amazing to me how much more I know than the rest of the guys. They all had 'some' programming classes required by their major, but they don't remember a single bit of it. They can't read the Perl scripts, let along manually trace through the C code.
Now, they aren't required to do that. We have programmers in the company, but it makes me SO much better at my job that I don't know how I'd function without the ability to 'find out' exactly what's going on.
No, they don't have to travel as far. They bounce back and forth MORE.
I think smaller columns makes it simpler to find the next line. It also makes short copy seems longer, and allows for more stories to have equivalent page positioning. (ie. keeps headlines higher on the page.)
Newspapers are so wide that a MOST of their paragraphs would be a single line if they covered the whole page.
This is what made TF different from CTF. It wasn't just that something always spawns in the same place. The point is that you have a base. You have a barracks. You have an armory. You start in the barracks. You get your weapons from the armory.
It doesn't make sense in the 'base' mentality to have all the stuff spread randomly around the level.
Also, TF was never just 'deathmatch with flags' like CTF was. It was about specific classes with specific abilities doing specific jobs. It's not about who can stumble upon the best weapon. It's about knowing your class, and playing it.
I'd imagine the only reason that everyone doesn't just start out fully loaded is so there is a certain possibility of vulnerability. If you kill someone and it just means that they spawn right next to you fully-loaded, then it's not a good idea to kill them. However, if they start with just partial armor and empty magazines, then the attacker has still got a fighting chance.
One of the choices of the map makers were to have 'infinite supply' packs where people could always get a full charge, or just a pile of packs and ammo where sometimes there wasn't anything left when you spawned. Once again, this is a balancing issue since the defense gets free health when they die. If your attacking force kills their whole defense...then they will be short on supplies.
TF isn't just another flavor of CTF. It was a completely different breed with different strategies and skills.
And once again, (also mentioned in a previous post) DRM has bitten the legitimate customer, but the "pirates" haven't even been slowed down, (or in this case, they didn't notice at all.)
What it HAS done, is forced the legitimate customer to turn to the 'black market' to get access to the material that they payed for.
"I bought this movie, and I can't play it, but it doesn't matter because I was able to grab a rip off the Internet that same day and burn a new one."
That's what I was thinking as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sony reps didn't lead him down the wrong road.
Reading the comments at Amazon and the blog, it sounds like it's just certain NEW models of players that aren't working. So instead of saying "It's our new copy protection and we won't fix it, but you can update your machine,' they should have said, "There's a bug in these models of players and they need a PATCH, which we are working on."
I guess they need to tell the truth (hah hah hah) but it seems unlikely that it could be the players and not the disks.
However, I guess if it's a relatively SMALL set of disks that have problems on these players....
I don't know. I still vote that there's nothing changed about the DISKs, and it's just a flaw with the devices.
When this happens with CD's, didn't Phillips (or whoever owns the CD format) threaten to revoke the license, so this 'not working' CD's couldn't be called CD's anymore? Could the same thing happen with this. The owner of the DVD format would just have to say, "If it doesn't play in "such and such" reference machine then it's illegal for you to call it a DVD?
If someone is already familiar with the concept, then it makes sense. However, for most people, the explanation was an annoyance and a confusion one time when they logged in, and the rest of the time it's just an extra click before they can enter their password.
I have two banks that use that scheme for authentication. On both of them, one day they just popped up a picture and said, "what is this picture?" So you make a guess as to what is shown in the picture, and hope you guessed right.
On subsequent logins, they fill in your guess for you, so it seems ridiculous that they are asking what that picture every time.
Since the explanation was lost on most users, it's not surprising that they don't care that it's different.
Infact...if you just make a site that popped up a random picture and asked them to name it, I'd expect everyone would fall for it.
This isn't about customers being lazy or stupid, (well not always.) It's about the SiteKey deployment being inadequate and there being insufficient explanation for something that customers have never heard of before.
Whether MS had anything to do with that or not...you've got to admit that it makes LOVELY, Grade A conpsiracy fodder. It's the kind of thing where the timing couldn't have been worse.
Slashdot Mirror
My registrar let me put the thing on 'auto-renewal.' Is that unusual? They just charge me once a year, and if I wanted it gone, I'd have to tell them to make it gone.
I'm paying $10/year.
Are you suggesting that I pay $100/year, or $100 registration fee, and then $10/year 'upkeep' fee?
The former would price me out of the market (personal vanity domain), the latter I could probably deal with.
While they aren't perfect, I think saying that it's not impressive is a bit harsh.
One thing I noticed on one of them. It would be terribly frustrating for me to see one of these objects and not be able to look around the hidden corners.
There's one image where you come to the beginning of a wall and you're forced to go only on one side of it.
I guess some of you actually use it, so maybe it does do some legit service, but from the description of the thing it sounds like a great "honey-pot" to me.
1. Present yourself as a way to keep secrets from people.
2. Sell/Give those secrets to the people directly.
And ever since then the custom has expected fixes to take about half-n-hour, because he's seen you do it.
I've gotten official commendations from one side and official reprimands from the other side for the same bit of 'cleverness.'
Well, he was suspected of committing a crime. Of course, it was more like, "It was suspected that a crime was committed by him." Is that good enough?
"anxiously awaiting the arrival of its cousin: The Pay-Phone."
That's gonna make escaping Agent Smith just THAT much harder.
At least every child will quickly learn the material lessons behind the term "Least Common Denominator."
So, when does it hit Earth? Have they made the movie yet?
Software, specifically games, but other things as well. (Windows comes to mind) is this way as well.
It's slightly different because the 'copy' IS a 'copy' not a 'clone' but the rest holds. One has all sorts of limitations, restrictions, (requires CD in drive, has 'non-skip' advertising, etc) (or WGA/WPA). The other has all that stuff stripped out to make the experience better for the consumer.
I think it's hilarious and dreadfully ironic that I'll buy a copy of some software, and put it on my shelf while using the downloaded version because it 'works better.'
I often get asked by managers and other IT people what languages I know. My answer, "They are all the same, I just haven't used some of them yet." I will tell them the ones I'm most familiar with, but explain to them that not knowing a specific language is only a minor hurdle, and can often be off-set if the new language is more suited to the application.
Almost every class in my CS study used a different language. I had classes using Perl, Lisp, Pascal, C, C++, Java..... They didn't do that on purpose, they were just inconsistent, and liked to choose the 'flavor of the month.' It worked out to be a good thing though.
(Although, my "Unix" teacher got reprimanded for actively teaching Perl. heh)
I work in a large support department where we support custom software. We actually support it, not just read from a script. We used to hire CS majors, but stopped because they asked for too much information. Now we hire IT majors.
As the last CS person to get hired, it's quite amazing to me how much more I know than the rest of the guys. They all had 'some' programming classes required by their major, but they don't remember a single bit of it. They can't read the Perl scripts, let along manually trace through the C code.
Now, they aren't required to do that. We have programmers in the company, but it makes me SO much better at my job that I don't know how I'd function without the ability to 'find out' exactly what's going on.
Short version. A CS major makes IT jobs easy.
They have both sides of USB connectors. Could you just chain them by plugging them into each other?
What kind of Chess are you playing? My set only has 32 objects.
No, they don't have to travel as far. They bounce back and forth MORE.
I think smaller columns makes it simpler to find the next line. It also makes short copy seems longer, and allows for more stories to have equivalent page positioning. (ie. keeps headlines higher on the page.)
Newspapers are so wide that a MOST of their paragraphs would be a single line if they covered the whole page.
This is what made TF different from CTF. It wasn't just that something always spawns in the same place. The point is that you have a base. You have a barracks. You have an armory. You start in the barracks. You get your weapons from the armory.
It doesn't make sense in the 'base' mentality to have all the stuff spread randomly around the level.
Also, TF was never just 'deathmatch with flags' like CTF was. It was about specific classes with specific abilities doing specific jobs. It's not about who can stumble upon the best weapon. It's about knowing your class, and playing it.
I'd imagine the only reason that everyone doesn't just start out fully loaded is so there is a certain possibility of vulnerability. If you kill someone and it just means that they spawn right next to you fully-loaded, then it's not a good idea to kill them. However, if they start with just partial armor and empty magazines, then the attacker has still got a fighting chance.
One of the choices of the map makers were to have 'infinite supply' packs where people could always get a full charge, or just a pile of packs and ammo where sometimes there wasn't anything left when you spawned. Once again, this is a balancing issue since the defense gets free health when they die. If your attacking force kills their whole defense...then they will be short on supplies.
TF isn't just another flavor of CTF. It was a completely different breed with different strategies and skills.
And once again, (also mentioned in a previous post) DRM has bitten the legitimate customer, but the "pirates" haven't even been slowed down, (or in this case, they didn't notice at all.)
What it HAS done, is forced the legitimate customer to turn to the 'black market' to get access to the material that they payed for.
"I bought this movie, and I can't play it, but it doesn't matter because I was able to grab a rip off the Internet that same day and burn a new one."
That's what I was thinking as well. I wouldn't be surprised if the Sony reps didn't lead him down the wrong road.
Reading the comments at Amazon and the blog, it sounds like it's just certain NEW models of players that aren't working. So instead of saying "It's our new copy protection and we won't fix it, but you can update your machine,' they should have said, "There's a bug in these models of players and they need a PATCH, which we are working on."
I guess they need to tell the truth (hah hah hah) but it seems unlikely that it could be the players and not the disks.
However, I guess if it's a relatively SMALL set of disks that have problems on these players....
I don't know. I still vote that there's nothing changed about the DISKs, and it's just a flaw with the devices.
When this happens with CD's, didn't Phillips (or whoever owns the CD format) threaten to revoke the license, so this 'not working' CD's couldn't be called CD's anymore? Could the same thing happen with this. The owner of the DVD format would just have to say, "If it doesn't play in "such and such" reference machine then it's illegal for you to call it a DVD?
This is an intuitive way to monitor the processes on your system. It's just "point and click"...I mean "point and shoot."
http://psdoom.sourceforge.net/
Does the concept of TCO exist in other industries? I mean...do they talk about it in the same way?
Do the 'food service' people say, "The TCO of this Gold Spoon is lower than the Silver Spoon because the gold spoon doesn't tarnish."
Is IT special in that regard? Is the whole concept of TCO just FUD made up by the makers of expensive systems?
The problem is that it wasn't introduced well.
If someone is already familiar with the concept, then it makes sense. However, for most people, the explanation was an annoyance and a confusion one time when they logged in, and the rest of the time it's just an extra click before they can enter their password.
I have two banks that use that scheme for authentication. On both of them, one day they just popped up a picture and said, "what is this picture?" So you make a guess as to what is shown in the picture, and hope you guessed right.
On subsequent logins, they fill in your guess for you, so it seems ridiculous that they are asking what that picture every time.
Since the explanation was lost on most users, it's not surprising that they don't care that it's different.
Infact...if you just make a site that popped up a random picture and asked them to name it, I'd expect everyone would fall for it.
This isn't about customers being lazy or stupid, (well not always.) It's about the SiteKey deployment being inadequate and there being insufficient explanation for something that customers have never heard of before.
Whether MS had anything to do with that or not...you've got to admit that it makes LOVELY, Grade A conpsiracy fodder. It's the kind of thing where the timing couldn't have been worse.
RE:
Excellent!
(Score:2)
by The-Bus (138060) Only we're not fishing, just eating chips with bubbling hot, delicious all-natural cheese.
----------------
Wensleydale?
Ha!, just laughing at your sig.
I would try to tell that joke to my friends, but it would require too much exposition.