Show me statistics that people are using bnetd legitimately. You can't? Okay. Then I'll show you thousands of people playing the Warcraft III beta illegally, thanks to bnetd. Now, as I said before, this isn't such a big deal. Blizzard isn't losing any money from this. And they're probably not losing much from people using bnetd to play Starcraft, or Warcraft II, or Diablo I/II (though I would wager that a few people are using bnetd to play illegal versions of these games, too).
However, Warcraft III is coming out soon. And people are going to use bnetd to steal it. Sure, you can tell me all about bnetd's legitimate uses. On a somewhat unrelated note, you can also tell me that emulators are for educational use only, and that no one actually plays games with them. I'm not buying that either.
Justify it all you will, once Warcraft III comes out, bnetd will primarily become a tool for piracy. Why do you refuse to see that?
Fine. What you're saying is all well and good. In an ideal world, bnetd is a great program. I can agree with you on that. In an ideal world, there would be no crime.
But we're not living in an ideal world. In this stinky, rotten world we're living in, people are going to use bnetd for piracy. A lot of people. How can you deny that? Yes, maybe without bnetd some computer savvy people will still be able to play Warcraft III online. But with it, every cheapo who doesn't feel like paying for stuff can play a fully functional version of Warcraft III.
It doesn't matter how many people use bnetd for the right reason (and I would still bet that this is a very small percentage of Blizzard's customers). More people are going to use it for piracy.
And anyway, if bnetd is such an honourable program with noble intentions, why would it possibly want to circumvent Battle.net's CD-key check? Hmmm, what a mystery! Couldn't possibly be for piracy. No, not for that!
And your comparison of bnetd to extra levels and addons is tenuous, at best. Bnetd doesn't really add anything significant to the game that wasn't there before. It's not like it makes any enhancements to the gameplay itself. As for reducing cheating: if Blizzard can't control the cheating on their servers, what makes you think that people running bnetd servers can?
Yes, bnetd can be used for legitimate purposes. But I would bet that a very small percentage of its users are using it legitimatly. Everyone else is using it to play the "warez" version of the Warcraft III beta. Now, this isn't such a big problem. Blizzard doesn't really lose anything because of that (though that's arguable).
However, Warcraft III will be hitting store shelves soon. And now, through the help of bnetd, the pirates will not only be able to play the single player missions, but multiplayer too.
So yes, a few people are going to use bnetd for the right reasons. But the rest are going to use it to steal Blizzard's product.
If you can explain to me how this is the best thing to ever happen to Blizzard, I'd really like to hear it.
Yes, but the program is being used to steal Blizzard's product. Sure, the bnetd people supposedly didn't write the program with that in mind (yeah, right...). But that's the only real application of their program.
I know, people will say "well, you could use a baseball bat to smash up people's windows, but we don't make those illegal!" True, but if someone made a baseball bat which could only smash Walmart's windows, you could bet it would be illegal.
Bnetd is a baseball bat made to smash Blizzard's windows.
Is it just me or is Laurence Fishburne's delivery of the line "it is our destiny" awfully similar to Darth Vader's delivery of the line "it is your destiny" in ESB?
Remember that toilet from the episode where the Simpsons go to Japan?
"Welcome. I am honored to accept your waste."
I want a toilet like THAT. The toilet-cam is questionable, though.
Re:Doesn't it say something about society?
on
AdCritic To Return
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· Score: 1
Have you ever seen that commercial for Orange Juice with Robert Loggia?
This kid is sitting at the table with his parents, and they're trying to get him to drink his orange juice. He refuses. So they ask if there's anyone who could convince him to drink the orange juice. Hesitantly, he replies: "Robert Loggia?"
So then Robert Loggia actually shows up at the door, wearing a black mafioso-esque suit, and tells him, "Drink your orange juice, kid!"
Now if that's not genius, you tell me what is. I would pay money to see that ad again.
Sure, you're intelligent. You know how to be considerate and leave the theater if you have an important phone call. But I'd be willing to make a bet that at least 90% of movie-goers aren't.
I don't think it's such a big deal that one or two smart people in the theater are mildly inconvienced to save the other hundred or so people the aggravation of hearing some clueless moron blather on inconsiderately on his cell phone.
This is a sensitive issue for me... I go to the movies a lot. And I've seen my fair share of idiots with cell phones.
No, I disagree. I think if someone is inconsiderate enough to bring a cell-phone into a movie theater (and leave it on) they deserve to have their phone crushed into a cube, and then to have the cube thrown at their forehead.
There is absolutely no reason to have to bring a cell phone into a movie theater. Expecting an important call? Don't go to the freakin' movies. And who, may I ask, is so important that the world can't go a couple of hours without talking to them?
Not the average moron who brings a phone into a theater, I'll tell you that.
Oh yes, Apple has been Slashdotted. That's gotta be it. Because, god knows, no one knew about this obscure little trailer before Slashdot brought it to the attention of the masses.
Could this be my saviour?
on
Peek-a-Boo(ty)
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· Score: 1
My university has an agonizingly frustrating download limit of 500 megs per week. Could this program possibly circumvent my limit? I'd try it now, but I'm at home (reading week).
Actually, those bastards also block out morpheus. Could this program get around that, too?
Yeah, but watching something taped off TNN means you have to deal with that damn dirty black bar at the bottom. I don't know who thought that was a good idea, but they should be shot. They ruined a perfectly good source of Star Trek episodes.
I think the Gamecube looks awesome, but has anyone seen the ads they've been running? They're confusing and pretentious, and they only feature about five seconds of actual gameplay. And when they do, it's filmed off a screen. Why not show us how good these games look, instead of these arty pieces of crap? They had the same problem with the ads for the GBA.
Someone needs to fire whoever they've got making ads for Nintendo.
***mild spoiler alert**...That has the main character screaming his own name when defeating the bad guy.
If there's anything cooler than that, I'd like to hear it.
What is this, the 58th time we've heard that Mir is going down? I think I'll believe this when I see it it (and even then, I'll be somewhat skeptical, what with the computer special-effects they have these days).
I was also expecting that
when he gets rescued and finally return home that he would be a very different man, that his whole life
would have changed because of this experience.
He wasn't? I thought he was. Before he got stuck on the island he was somewhat of a workaholic. He cared about getting packages there on time and little else. When he returned he seemed much more quiet than before, and he had a new outlook on life. He didn't go back to Fed Ex; he knew that his life would never be the same as it had before.
First of all, let me warn everyone about What Women Want, since it seems to me that none of the critics are doing so. The trailer and commercials make this movie seem like a wacky comedy straight out of the 80's. It is most certainly not. While it undoubtably has some funny parts, it is just as much a drama as it is a comedy, and isn't really wacky at all. Plus, it's over two hours, which is just too long for a movie like this. I would not recommend it.
John Katz didn't mention it, but I just saw Miss Congeniality, and I was very surprised. You wouldn't think much of it from the trailers, but this turned out to be a very enjoyable movie. Yes, it's silly, and it's light, and you pretty much know what's going to happen all throughout the movie. However, this doesn't make it any less enjoyable. I even laughed out loud a few times, which is certainly something I wasn't expecting. I highly recommend this movie if you're looking for a movie where you can have fun without overusing the ol' noggin.
As for Cast Away, I don't have much to say about it, and I don't want to give anything away anyway. But it is a great movie. Go see it.
And of course, Unbreakable is great, if a little slow. So is Vertical Limit (but Cliffhanger is better). But let me warn you now: Stay away from Dude Where's my Car. FAR away. It is painfully unfunny, and not even very entertaining. Ughhhh...
Hopefully soon I'll be seeing Traffic. Now that looks good.
I've never, *ever* watched any anime before. Sure I watch cartoons. Looney Tunes, the Simpsons, Futurama, Ren & Stimpy, GI Joe... The list goes on. But I've never even seen two seconds of anime.
Yes, after we have indoor plumbing, electricity, and other such essential needs, it may seem that technology stagnates. On one level, that may be true. But let's think about it for a second. What do I spend the most time doing? I:
Surf the 'net (Slashdot)
Play videogames (computer or console
Watch movies (DVD or VCR)
Listen to music (CD)
These all seem like very shallow and unnecessary things. They probably are. But they happen to take up a large chunk of my time. Just try to tell the average Slashdotter that he can't have his computer, his Palm Pilot, his Cell Phone -- see how he reacts. Yes, perhaps these things aren't necessary. But for the average upper-middle class citizen, they're a way of life. So don't tell me that you could take me back 50 years in a time machine, and my life would essentially be the same. It wouldn't.
It seems like a waste of a 20 gig HD. I mean, I can't even see why you'd even need six gigs of mp3s on the go, let alone 20. A discman and a CD burner seems like a far more sensable alternative.
Does anyone even know 20 gigs worth of songs? That's a hell of a lot of music.
This is one of the silliest things I've ever heard of. First of all, how exactly do they plan on enforcing these rules? Aside from tapping people's phones and monitoring their computers, they'll never know what people do outside of eBay. Second of all, eBay is a community of sorts. So what if it brings people together outside of eBay? How much money could eBay really lose?
Between this, and that ridiculous patent, I'm starting to lose quite a bit of respect for eBay. What's next?
Slashdot Mirror
However, Warcraft III is coming out soon. And people are going to use bnetd to steal it. Sure, you can tell me all about bnetd's legitimate uses. On a somewhat unrelated note, you can also tell me that emulators are for educational use only, and that no one actually plays games with them. I'm not buying that either.
Justify it all you will, once Warcraft III comes out, bnetd will primarily become a tool for piracy. Why do you refuse to see that?
Fine. What you're saying is all well and good. In an ideal world, bnetd is a great program. I can agree with you on that. In an ideal world, there would be no crime.
But we're not living in an ideal world. In this stinky, rotten world we're living in, people are going to use bnetd for piracy. A lot of people. How can you deny that? Yes, maybe without bnetd some computer savvy people will still be able to play Warcraft III online. But with it, every cheapo who doesn't feel like paying for stuff can play a fully functional version of Warcraft III.
It doesn't matter how many people use bnetd for the right reason (and I would still bet that this is a very small percentage of Blizzard's customers). More people are going to use it for piracy.
And anyway, if bnetd is such an honourable program with noble intentions, why would it possibly want to circumvent Battle.net's CD-key check? Hmmm, what a mystery! Couldn't possibly be for piracy. No, not for that!
And your comparison of bnetd to extra levels and addons is tenuous, at best. Bnetd doesn't really add anything significant to the game that wasn't there before. It's not like it makes any enhancements to the gameplay itself. As for reducing cheating: if Blizzard can't control the cheating on their servers, what makes you think that people running bnetd servers can?
However, Warcraft III will be hitting store shelves soon. And now, through the help of bnetd, the pirates will not only be able to play the single player missions, but multiplayer too.
So yes, a few people are going to use bnetd for the right reasons. But the rest are going to use it to steal Blizzard's product.
If you can explain to me how this is the best thing to ever happen to Blizzard, I'd really like to hear it.
Yes, but the program is being used to steal Blizzard's product. Sure, the bnetd people supposedly didn't write the program with that in mind (yeah, right...). But that's the only real application of their program.
I know, people will say "well, you could use a baseball bat to smash up people's windows, but we don't make those illegal!" True, but if someone made a baseball bat which could only smash Walmart's windows, you could bet it would be illegal.
Bnetd is a baseball bat made to smash Blizzard's windows.
Yes, I've seen the trilogy way too many times.
Remember that toilet from the episode where the Simpsons go to Japan?
"Welcome. I am honored to accept your waste."
I want a toilet like THAT. The toilet-cam is questionable, though.
Have you ever seen that commercial for Orange Juice with Robert Loggia?
This kid is sitting at the table with his parents, and they're trying to get him to drink his orange juice. He refuses. So they ask if there's anyone who could convince him to drink the orange juice. Hesitantly, he replies: "Robert Loggia?"
So then Robert Loggia actually shows up at the door, wearing a black mafioso-esque suit, and tells him, "Drink your orange juice, kid!"
Now if that's not genius, you tell me what is. I would pay money to see that ad again.
Sure, you're intelligent. You know how to be considerate and leave the theater if you have an important phone call. But I'd be willing to make a bet that at least 90% of movie-goers aren't. I don't think it's such a big deal that one or two smart people in the theater are mildly inconvienced to save the other hundred or so people the aggravation of hearing some clueless moron blather on inconsiderately on his cell phone. This is a sensitive issue for me... I go to the movies a lot. And I've seen my fair share of idiots with cell phones.
No, I disagree. I think if someone is inconsiderate enough to bring a cell-phone into a movie theater (and leave it on) they deserve to have their phone crushed into a cube, and then to have the cube thrown at their forehead.
There is absolutely no reason to have to bring a cell phone into a movie theater. Expecting an important call? Don't go to the freakin' movies. And who, may I ask, is so important that the world can't go a couple of hours without talking to them?
Not the average moron who brings a phone into a theater, I'll tell you that.
Oh yes, Apple has been Slashdotted. That's gotta be it. Because, god knows, no one knew about this obscure little trailer before Slashdot brought it to the attention of the masses.
My university has an agonizingly frustrating download limit of 500 megs per week. Could this program possibly circumvent my limit? I'd try it now, but I'm at home (reading week).
Actually, those bastards also block out morpheus. Could this program get around that, too?
Yeah, but watching something taped off TNN means you have to deal with that damn dirty black bar at the bottom. I don't know who thought that was a good idea, but they should be shot. They ruined a perfectly good source of Star Trek episodes.
I think the Gamecube looks awesome, but has anyone seen the ads they've been running? They're confusing and pretentious, and they only feature about five seconds of actual gameplay. And when they do, it's filmed off a screen. Why not show us how good these games look, instead of these arty pieces of crap? They had the same problem with the ads for the GBA.
Someone needs to fire whoever they've got making ads for Nintendo.
Wow, what's with that one "nay" guy? Reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons. Simpsons fans know what I'm talking about.
"Who keeps saying that?"
"It was him. Let's get him, fellas!"
***mild spoiler alert** ...That has the main character screaming his own name when defeating the bad guy.
If there's anything cooler than that, I'd like to hear it.
That movie was ahead of its time, talking about the internet and stuff before the internet was even close to the lumbering giant it is today.
What is this, the 58th time we've heard that Mir is going down? I think I'll believe this when I see it it (and even then, I'll be somewhat skeptical, what with the computer special-effects they have these days).
I just saw Dracula 2000. Never before have I been so tempted to boo a movie. Avoid this stinker like the plague.
He wasn't? I thought he was. Before he got stuck on the island he was somewhat of a workaholic. He cared about getting packages there on time and little else. When he returned he seemed much more quiet than before, and he had a new outlook on life. He didn't go back to Fed Ex; he knew that his life would never be the same as it had before.
John Katz didn't mention it, but I just saw Miss Congeniality, and I was very surprised. You wouldn't think much of it from the trailers, but this turned out to be a very enjoyable movie. Yes, it's silly, and it's light, and you pretty much know what's going to happen all throughout the movie. However, this doesn't make it any less enjoyable. I even laughed out loud a few times, which is certainly something I wasn't expecting. I highly recommend this movie if you're looking for a movie where you can have fun without overusing the ol' noggin.
As for Cast Away, I don't have much to say about it, and I don't want to give anything away anyway. But it is a great movie. Go see it.
And of course, Unbreakable is great, if a little slow. So is Vertical Limit (but Cliffhanger is better). But let me warn you now: Stay away from Dude Where's my Car. FAR away. It is painfully unfunny, and not even very entertaining. Ughhhh...
Hopefully soon I'll be seeing Traffic. Now that looks good.
Does that make me a bad person?
SHIELD: A Comprehensive Earth Protection System
Biologically Inspired Robot for Space Operations (Data?)
Self-Organized Navigation Control for Manned and Unmanned Vehicles in Space Colonies
Development of Self-Sustaining Mars Colonies Utilizing the North Polar Cap and the Martian Atmosphere (Really?)
Yeah... I think I will believe this when I see it. I suppose these must be some really long term studies.
Surf the 'net (Slashdot)
Play videogames (computer or console
Watch movies (DVD or VCR)
Listen to music (CD)
These all seem like very shallow and unnecessary things. They probably are. But they happen to take up a large chunk of my time. Just try to tell the average Slashdotter that he can't have his computer, his Palm Pilot, his Cell Phone -- see how he reacts. Yes, perhaps these things aren't necessary. But for the average upper-middle class citizen, they're a way of life. So don't tell me that you could take me back 50 years in a time machine, and my life would essentially be the same. It wouldn't.
And neither would yours, methinks.
Does anyone even know 20 gigs worth of songs? That's a hell of a lot of music.
Between this, and that ridiculous patent, I'm starting to lose quite a bit of respect for eBay. What's next?