Through the 90s? My PC BIOS, on a motherboard manufactured in 2007 (and purchased here in Australia), STILL has the Energy Star logo on it:)
There wouldn't be a geek in Australia that wasn't familiar with that logo. Every Award BIOS has it.
However I, like most Australians, didn't realise until now that it was a US Government thing. Actually I'd never given it a second though - didn't have a clue what it was. So now I know:)
Well think of it this way. In the mobile space, there are data caps to prevent a few users leeching 24/7 and completely saturating the available spectrum and ruining the service for everyone else. It gives network operators some predictability of utilisation and allows them to plan and provision their networks better as a result.
That hasn't been as necessary in the fixed line/wired space (in the US) because there is more bandwidth available, and most content that is accessed is domestic. There are dozens/hundreds of routes and networks an ISP can use to get the few hundred or thousands of miles to the remote hosts that the users are usually accessing. The amount of an ISPs traffic that needs to leave the ISPs domestic network or immediate peers is fairly small.
Australia and New Zealand on the other hand are English speaking countries, 15,000 km from where most English content is hosted. 90% of the content Australians access is hosted in North America (or the UK). But there are only a handful of large capacity pipes to the US. They are expensive to lay and maintain. And they aren't owned by the ISPs themselves. The pipes themselves aren't lacking in bandwidth, per se (there's plenty of spare capacity in SXC and PPC1 which are the two main AU-US routes), but that bandwidth is more expensive in the first place.
Not only that, but from the ISPs perspective, 95% of their damn traffic has to be pulled from the other side of the planet, and from OUTSIDE their domestic network. This is why AU/NZ is different than say, Korea or Japan (who have lightning fast Internet, but are accessing 99% domestic content!). In the US, an ISP with a decent domestic network has most of its traffic remaining inside that network, or passing cheaply to other US domestic carriers. In Australia virtually ALL traffic has to get routed outside the ISPs own network and on to the US via a handful of expensive 10,000 km long cables. Data caps allow AU and NZ ISPs to stay in business and not instantly go bankrupt (or unless you want to be paying $500 a month for service!).
Also yeah, 10 GB is ridiculous but it's fine for someone like my mother who just checks her email once a day (in fact she uses under 1 GB per month). Besides, it's not like higher caps aren't available (10 GB would be an entry level plan only!). I'm on 60 GB/month and it suits my needs fine. And I can upgrade if I need to.
One other thing - metered access also has a silver lining: net neutrality issues like you have in the US aren't a concern. It also means ISPs don't have to do QoS/deep packet inspection/slowing your torrents, since again, you pay for what you use.
Wikipedia does not need to be corrected. A blacklist that can be used in filtering software (that you install on an end-user PC) is not the same as a blacklist that is mandatory and enforced at an ISP or backbone level.
ACMA maintains a blacklist, yes. That blacklist can be included in third party internet filtering software that consumers can use at their own discretion (net nanny-type software). Such commercial filter software is available in every country. But use of this software is not mandatory in Australia, no different than in the US. It's mostly for schools and libraries and stuff.
ACMA also places restrictions on content hosted ~within~ Australia, yes (or specifically, requires content hosted in Australia to be classified just like movies, books etc).
But neither of those represents a national 'filter' of the type I thought you were talking about. I apologise if I have misunderstood you, but the tone of your post indicated you thought that there was some compulsory, all-encompassing filter ala China.
Yeah true. There are multiple ways it could be done from a political and economic perspective and I don't doubt that the NBN isn't one of the more expensive options. And I'm not a Labor voter so I agree with you that the management of the rollout is almost certain to be stuffed up in some way or another!
I was looking at it more from the high level technical perspective and the need for SOMETHING to be done. Wasn't making a comment on the merits (or not) of Rudd's particular scheme. I think from a technology perspective the NBN is an excellent plan (and beats trying to 'patch up' the existing Telstra network). But yeah, I don't trust the current Government to manage and run the bloody thing;)
Australia does not have any internet filtering. There is only a PROPOSAL for doing so (mostly driven by a particular few senators). It hasn't even been introduced as a Bill into Parliament yet. Hell, the legislation hasn't even been ~drafted~ yet. And isn't likely to be, given that this is an election year and the filter is incredibly unpopular.
OTOH, New Zealand already has a live, functioning Internet filter much like the one being proposed in Australia. So your argument about not routing through Australia kinda doesn't make much sense.
If you want bandwidth through to Singapore from NZ, going through Australia makes sense. We already have plenty of capacity up that way (and a buttload more to Guam then onwards to Asia via the new PPC1). But the thing is, 95% of the content we access from AU and NZ is US-based and going the long way around the Pacific Rim sucks (especially in terms of latency... the difference between ~200 ms direct and ~400 ms via Singapore is a killer for some applications).
I hate the Australian game censorship problem as much as you do, but to be fair:
- That should be changing quite soon. Michael Atkinson has retired as South Australian Attorney-General. He was the only AG holding back an R18+ game rating in AU. So the wheels are in motion to amend the classification legislation to bring games into line with movies/books etc. Of course, being a slow, political process, it could still be a few years off. But I firmly believe it will happen.
- On the internet filtering side of things, it's not like NZ is any different than Australia in this area. At least our filter is still only a (very unpopular) proposal - nothing has actually gone live as it has in NZ.:( But either way... it sucks I agree.
To be fair, Southern Cross Cable is a pretty nice cable. It's recently had a major upgrade (new wavelengths lit up) and has plenty of spare capacity, so your international bandwidth doesn't *have* to be 'piss poor' - it all depends on how much capacity on it your telcos purchase.
Having said that, I agree that the quality of that link is fairly irrelevant if there's only one link (i.e. a monopoly). That'll never get costs down. We were in a similar situation in Australia of course up until quite recently (Southern Cross, up until last year, was by far the biggest pipe in/out of Australia... but PPC1 turning on in October made a massive difference - within weeks, quotas on my ISP almost doubled for the same price!).
Yep it appears to be modeled at least partly on the Australian National Broadband Network, although it will no doubt be modified somewhat to suit the NZ telecommunications market, geography and requirements.
Incidentally, actual consumer plans on the new (Australian) network (which has several trial areas already wired up) have just been announced in the last week or two. And they are better value than comparable DSL plans (in terms of download quota), despite the far greater speeds. This will come as a pleasant surprise to those that feared that new, faster tech would also mean more expense.
Taking a look at one ISPs NBN offerings, initial launch speeds are 25/2, 50/4 and 100/8 Mbit (downstream/upstream), with a choice of quotas from 15 GB (entry level) to 200 GB. And these prices will almost certainly come down further once the NBN is available in more than just a handful of trial areas and more ISPs come on board. I actually suspect we'll eventually see true unlimited plans becoming common (some ISPs such as TPG and AAPT are offer this now, albeit expensively!)
I suspect though that NZers will get their network completed before Australia does due to their smaller land area though (and potentially less political infighting!). Good to see it happening on both sides of the Tasman. Copper POTS networks are on their way out. They have served well for ~100 years, but everyone knows replacing them with fibre is inevitable. Might as well start the job now.
Seems like they wanted to take a summer trip and figured out a way to get someone else to pay for it. Not a bad deal.
Haha - suckers. Someone forgot to inform them that it is, in fact, winter down here in the southern hemisphere (so only the first half of their trip will be 'summer');)
Very good point. Of course Australia has Federal and State governments as well. But the division of power is quite different - it's like a blacklist rather than a whitelist.
That is, in the US, the US Consitution explicitly grants certain powers to the Federal govt. and leaves the rest in the hands of States. In Australia, the Constitution essentially says that, upon formation of the Federation, all power is vested in the Federal Government, but that then specific powers are given back to the States (mostly: health, education, infrastructure). The net result is that States have relatively more heads of power in the US than in Australia. Taxation is a good example - US States can impose different local (e.g. sales) taxes. In Australia taxation is SOLELY the reserve of the Federal Govt.
Indeed, from time to time in Australia, a proposal to completely abolish the States comes up. The argument being that State governments have various levels of incompetency, and that having 9 separate legislative bodies (Federal, 6 States, 2 Territories) for a population of only 23 million is redundant/overkill. The idea has a lot of of support in urban areas but it's really those living in remote areas that don't like the idea - their concerns wouldn't be heard at a Federal level as much as they would be heard at a local/State level.
The iTunes Music Store is still insanely popular, even more than it was when it was new. Not sure what your point about it is. It provides cheap (and now, DRM-free) music downloads. I prefer it to pirating (unless what I'm looking for isn't on iTunes). Mostly because you get consistent quality and ID3/metadata that is all correct (which you usually don't from pirated copies).
I'd like to use Amazon's music service too, but it's unavailable outside the US. (As an aside, unavailability outside the US is KILLING most legal alternatives to pirating. ITunes is about the only player outside the US. Things like Hulu though don't work outside the US, so it's back to torrenting for TV shows etc).
Well yeah, obviously every farmer has a gun or two. But Australia these days is incredibly urbanised. Over 90% of the population live in the five largest cities. We simply don't have many people in rural parts (as a percentage, far less than in the US).
Australia used to have that pioneering culture in the 19th century. But pick a random Australian today and they are likely to be a politically moderate, cappuccino-sipping urban dweller. Like abortion, guns are an issue that we are vaguely aware is Big In America, but which don't even register on the radar here, really. OTOH, things like workers' conditions and rights, education reform etc. pop up almost every election here, but seem less discussed in the US.
Actually with the opening of PPC1 last year, and upgrades to SXC currently in progress, we have plenty of bandwidth to the US and Asia. International capacity is no longer the problem. The problems are:
1) RIMs with insufficient backhaul and Telstra having no real incentive to upgrade them; 2) Inter-city connections - plenty of bandwidth there too but overpriced thanks to the monopoly/duopoly for many routes
If you're lucky enough to be somewhere with a direct copper line to the exchange and non-Telstra DSLAMs, things are pretty decent. Due to the massive increase in international capacity in the last few years, quotas have doubled or tripled for the same price (e.g. I was paying $60 for 25 GB 2 years ago, now I'm paying $40 for 50 GB). But that's a big 'if'. It's a real geographical lucky dip and if you are unfortunate to be in Telstra's RIM hell then yeah, Australian internet is like the third world. Hopefully the NBN will level the playing field a bit...
I have to agree. How is this news? Here in Australia like every freaking where else, we can connect any router we want to our connections now. Why on earth would anyone think this would change when the NBN rolls out? O.o
Yeah I agree. To include Canada alongside China and Russia is ridiculous. I mean, where's all the south-east Asian countries? Much like China, you can pick up a vast array of pirated DVDs on any street corner for $1 in any of those.
That is true. But again, unless you have some kind of commercial quantity of the stuff sitting completely on physical media in your luggage, you aren't even going to get searched in the first place. Take a trip here and see what I mean - customs is really only interested in making sure you aren't bringing in food that could be harbouring pests and disease that we don't have on this continent. They don't have the time to care about this kind of stuff. Hell, they barely even enforce the import duty/duty free allowances.
I agree with your post, but I just wanted to point out that Australian never really had a gun culture in the first place. Noone 'took away' our guns because very few people ever even had guns. I've never even touched a gun. Actually for that matter, I have never even ~seen one~ except for those holstered on cops' belts. And you can still own a firearm in Australia if you really want to and are properly licensed. They just make you jump through some fairly strict legislative requirements. But really, noone* wants a gun. The culture is just completely different over here. I never truly understood that until I became a dual US/Australian citizen (a few years ago now - I married an American).
* OK so obviously not literally 'noone'. But a fraction of a tiny proportion of the population.
Besides, Australia really isn't the example that should be being used here. There is VERY significant opposition to the proposed net filter. So much so that realistically, it isn't going to happen. People stood up, and the Government is taking notice. The Government saw it was wildly unpopular and so it's on the backburner for now. It hasn't even been introduced as a Bill in Parliament, because they know that the Greens (and possibly Libs) will block it in the Senate. Democracy at work. Slashdot just tends to hype 'OMG Australia is doing crazy thing x' all the time, based on attention-grabbing headlines in the media, without mentioning fairly important stuff like "yeah this is just a proposal and has about 2% chance of occurring" or "this is just one random politicians opinion" etc.
Yes because it is just so easy to move to another country. Countries all over the world just issue you permanent residence visas without ANY reason or justification.../sarcasm
It's VERY difficult to (permanently) move to another (first world) country unless you have family there or your employer is willing to sponsor you.
TFA is a bit of a beat-up. Basically, it's just clarifying that customs officers have the right to search your laptop. Just as they do in most other countries (including the US).
The justification in this case is twofold:
- Child porn (yes the old 'think of the children'); - Commercial quantities of regular porn (porn is legal to own and view in Australia, but it is illegal to sell it outside of specific areas and circumstances)
So this is targeted at people bringing in 50 shrinkwrapped XXX DVDs or child porn, rather than average joe who took some nude shots of his wife while on vacation overseas. You don't honestly think Customs has the time or resources to search everyone's laptop. I mean, EVERYONE travels with one these days. Half the time if you don't look suspicious and haven't declared anything they don't even bother putting you through the scanner... they just say "go on through".
Another case of Australia seeming to have scary laws on paper, but which in reality will have no real effect. They are just there so that there's a legal justification for a search of a laptop in extreme cases (previously I don't think there was a justification for this since the Customs laws hadn't been updated in a while).
The reason you need to be referred by an existing player is so that currency farmers don't just sign up for the free trials by the thousands to run their bots. It seems to work too. After an initial wave of bots at launch, NC cracked down pretty hard and you don't really see any now. Maybe one in a noob zone every now and again but that's it.
You have got to be kidding. Aion would have to be one of the least grindy MMOs out there. Remember WoW is not the norm, it is the exception, the outlier, when it comes to quick and easy progression. On the other hand we have the TRUE grindy MMOs like Lineage 1 and 2, FFXI, and various other (mostly Asian) MMOs.
Aion is a compromise. It is an eastern style MMO (in terms of lore, graphical style etc) with a dash of western-style questing and story thrown in. The grind factor is somewhere between 'grindy' and 'WoW-like easiness, although to be honest it's closer to the less grindy side of the spectrum. An average player (i.e. just plays for a couple of hours every couple of days) should be able to hit the max level in Aion in approximately 6 months (less after the 1.9 patch goes in). Compare that to WoW where max level is achievable in mere days or weeks. And compare again to, say, Lineage 2 where max level even for a regular player is at least 4-5 years, and a casual player will never reach it. So yeah, I think cutting the grind by '75%' in Aion would be ridiculous. It's already fairly quick to level, and the 1.9 patch reduces that further.
The other thing is - what is with the mad rush to level up anyway? I enjoy the content at the low and mid levels just as much as at high levels. It's only a 'grind' if you want it to be and you are dead set on getting to max level ASAP at any cost. I never understood that mentality though. Enjoy the path, not just the destination. Personally I like MMOs that are a bit tougher (or require more time to achieve things, whether that be level or gear or whatever). Otherwise you end up with everyone walking around at the max level, with the best gear. All virtually identical. What's the point of that?
Oh and one final thing regarding the article generally (this is not directed specifically at the parent post) - the server mergers are basically necessary because, at launch, there were such serious server login queues that NCSoft rushed a couple of extra servers in to meet demand. So it's not like the game is dying. Even if they merge 4 or 5 or 6 servers, it will just be back to the number of servers they planned at launch anyway. A game does not have to be as popular as WoW with its hundreds of servers to be successful - it just has to turn a tidy profit. And Aion will continue to do so. It's not a game for everyone (due to the fact that, as mentioned, it IS a compromise between eastern and western elements). But I think it's the best new MMO out there right now, and it will tide me over until Diablo 3 comes out at least (yes, I know D3 isn't an MMO... but it's the next major game I'm hanging for).
The three year replacement cycle for PCs certainly used to be true (and is still prevalent in the corporate world). But I honestly think the pace of change has slowed to the point that it's a good 4-5 years now - on par with a Mac.
The machine I'm using now is almost 3 years old. Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (3.0 Ghz), 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, Nvidia GT8800 graphics. Running XP. Still runs anything pretty damn fast. Even games are fine, to be honest. Might have to put the graphics on 'medium' settings rather than maxing everything out for some games, but that's about it.
I can't see me replacing this machine yet, even though its 3rd birthday will be in a couple of months. It'll probably be late 2011 before I get a new one.
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Through the 90s? My PC BIOS, on a motherboard manufactured in 2007 (and purchased here in Australia), STILL has the Energy Star logo on it :)
There wouldn't be a geek in Australia that wasn't familiar with that logo. Every Award BIOS has it.
However I, like most Australians, didn't realise until now that it was a US Government thing. Actually I'd never given it a second though - didn't have a clue what it was. So now I know :)
Well think of it this way. In the mobile space, there are data caps to prevent a few users leeching 24/7 and completely saturating the available spectrum and ruining the service for everyone else. It gives network operators some predictability of utilisation and allows them to plan and provision their networks better as a result.
That hasn't been as necessary in the fixed line/wired space (in the US) because there is more bandwidth available, and most content that is accessed is domestic. There are dozens/hundreds of routes and networks an ISP can use to get the few hundred or thousands of miles to the remote hosts that the users are usually accessing. The amount of an ISPs traffic that needs to leave the ISPs domestic network or immediate peers is fairly small.
Australia and New Zealand on the other hand are English speaking countries, 15,000 km from where most English content is hosted. 90% of the content Australians access is hosted in North America (or the UK). But there are only a handful of large capacity pipes to the US. They are expensive to lay and maintain. And they aren't owned by the ISPs themselves. The pipes themselves aren't lacking in bandwidth, per se (there's plenty of spare capacity in SXC and PPC1 which are the two main AU-US routes), but that bandwidth is more expensive in the first place.
Not only that, but from the ISPs perspective, 95% of their damn traffic has to be pulled from the other side of the planet, and from OUTSIDE their domestic network. This is why AU/NZ is different than say, Korea or Japan (who have lightning fast Internet, but are accessing 99% domestic content!). In the US, an ISP with a decent domestic network has most of its traffic remaining inside that network, or passing cheaply to other US domestic carriers. In Australia virtually ALL traffic has to get routed outside the ISPs own network and on to the US via a handful of expensive 10,000 km long cables. Data caps allow AU and NZ ISPs to stay in business and not instantly go bankrupt (or unless you want to be paying $500 a month for service!).
Also yeah, 10 GB is ridiculous but it's fine for someone like my mother who just checks her email once a day (in fact she uses under 1 GB per month). Besides, it's not like higher caps aren't available (10 GB would be an entry level plan only!). I'm on 60 GB/month and it suits my needs fine. And I can upgrade if I need to.
One other thing - metered access also has a silver lining: net neutrality issues like you have in the US aren't a concern. It also means ISPs don't have to do QoS/deep packet inspection/slowing your torrents, since again, you pay for what you use.
Wikipedia does not need to be corrected. A blacklist that can be used in filtering software (that you install on an end-user PC) is not the same as a blacklist that is mandatory and enforced at an ISP or backbone level.
ACMA maintains a blacklist, yes. That blacklist can be included in third party internet filtering software that consumers can use at their own discretion (net nanny-type software). Such commercial filter software is available in every country. But use of this software is not mandatory in Australia, no different than in the US. It's mostly for schools and libraries and stuff.
ACMA also places restrictions on content hosted ~within~ Australia, yes (or specifically, requires content hosted in Australia to be classified just like movies, books etc).
But neither of those represents a national 'filter' of the type I thought you were talking about. I apologise if I have misunderstood you, but the tone of your post indicated you thought that there was some compulsory, all-encompassing filter ala China.
Yeah true. There are multiple ways it could be done from a political and economic perspective and I don't doubt that the NBN isn't one of the more expensive options. And I'm not a Labor voter so I agree with you that the management of the rollout is almost certain to be stuffed up in some way or another!
I was looking at it more from the high level technical perspective and the need for SOMETHING to be done. Wasn't making a comment on the merits (or not) of Rudd's particular scheme. I think from a technology perspective the NBN is an excellent plan (and beats trying to 'patch up' the existing Telstra network). But yeah, I don't trust the current Government to manage and run the bloody thing ;)
I am sick of correcting this!
Australia does not have any internet filtering. There is only a PROPOSAL for doing so (mostly driven by a particular few senators). It hasn't even been introduced as a Bill into Parliament yet. Hell, the legislation hasn't even been ~drafted~ yet. And isn't likely to be, given that this is an election year and the filter is incredibly unpopular.
OTOH, New Zealand already has a live, functioning Internet filter much like the one being proposed in Australia. So your argument about not routing through Australia kinda doesn't make much sense.
If you want bandwidth through to Singapore from NZ, going through Australia makes sense. We already have plenty of capacity up that way (and a buttload more to Guam then onwards to Asia via the new PPC1). But the thing is, 95% of the content we access from AU and NZ is US-based and going the long way around the Pacific Rim sucks (especially in terms of latency ... the difference between ~200 ms direct and ~400 ms via Singapore is a killer for some applications).
I hate the Australian game censorship problem as much as you do, but to be fair:
- That should be changing quite soon. Michael Atkinson has retired as South Australian Attorney-General. He was the only AG holding back an R18+ game rating in AU. So the wheels are in motion to amend the classification legislation to bring games into line with movies/books etc. Of course, being a slow, political process, it could still be a few years off. But I firmly believe it will happen.
- On the internet filtering side of things, it's not like NZ is any different than Australia in this area. At least our filter is still only a (very unpopular) proposal - nothing has actually gone live as it has in NZ. :( But either way ... it sucks I agree.
To be fair, Southern Cross Cable is a pretty nice cable. It's recently had a major upgrade (new wavelengths lit up) and has plenty of spare capacity, so your international bandwidth doesn't *have* to be 'piss poor' - it all depends on how much capacity on it your telcos purchase.
Having said that, I agree that the quality of that link is fairly irrelevant if there's only one link (i.e. a monopoly). That'll never get costs down. We were in a similar situation in Australia of course up until quite recently (Southern Cross, up until last year, was by far the biggest pipe in/out of Australia ... but PPC1 turning on in October made a massive difference - within weeks, quotas on my ISP almost doubled for the same price!).
Yep it appears to be modeled at least partly on the Australian National Broadband Network, although it will no doubt be modified somewhat to suit the NZ telecommunications market, geography and requirements.
Incidentally, actual consumer plans on the new (Australian) network (which has several trial areas already wired up) have just been announced in the last week or two. And they are better value than comparable DSL plans (in terms of download quota), despite the far greater speeds. This will come as a pleasant surprise to those that feared that new, faster tech would also mean more expense.
Taking a look at one ISPs NBN offerings, initial launch speeds are 25/2, 50/4 and 100/8 Mbit (downstream/upstream), with a choice of quotas from 15 GB (entry level) to 200 GB. And these prices will almost certainly come down further once the NBN is available in more than just a handful of trial areas and more ISPs come on board. I actually suspect we'll eventually see true unlimited plans becoming common (some ISPs such as TPG and AAPT are offer this now, albeit expensively!)
I suspect though that NZers will get their network completed before Australia does due to their smaller land area though (and potentially less political infighting!). Good to see it happening on both sides of the Tasman. Copper POTS networks are on their way out. They have served well for ~100 years, but everyone knows replacing them with fibre is inevitable. Might as well start the job now.
Seems like they wanted to take a summer trip and figured out a way to get someone else to pay for it. Not a bad deal.
Haha - suckers. Someone forgot to inform them that it is, in fact, winter down here in the southern hemisphere (so only the first half of their trip will be 'summer') ;)
Ditto in most of Australia (although only in urban areas - longer haul/remote areas will tend to use good old fashioned diesel fuel).
Very good point. Of course Australia has Federal and State governments as well. But the division of power is quite different - it's like a blacklist rather than a whitelist.
That is, in the US, the US Consitution explicitly grants certain powers to the Federal govt. and leaves the rest in the hands of States. In Australia, the Constitution essentially says that, upon formation of the Federation, all power is vested in the Federal Government, but that then specific powers are given back to the States (mostly: health, education, infrastructure). The net result is that States have relatively more heads of power in the US than in Australia. Taxation is a good example - US States can impose different local (e.g. sales) taxes. In Australia taxation is SOLELY the reserve of the Federal Govt.
Indeed, from time to time in Australia, a proposal to completely abolish the States comes up. The argument being that State governments have various levels of incompetency, and that having 9 separate legislative bodies (Federal, 6 States, 2 Territories) for a population of only 23 million is redundant/overkill. The idea has a lot of of support in urban areas but it's really those living in remote areas that don't like the idea - their concerns wouldn't be heard at a Federal level as much as they would be heard at a local/State level.
The iTunes Music Store is still insanely popular, even more than it was when it was new. Not sure what your point about it is. It provides cheap (and now, DRM-free) music downloads. I prefer it to pirating (unless what I'm looking for isn't on iTunes). Mostly because you get consistent quality and ID3/metadata that is all correct (which you usually don't from pirated copies).
I'd like to use Amazon's music service too, but it's unavailable outside the US. (As an aside, unavailability outside the US is KILLING most legal alternatives to pirating. ITunes is about the only player outside the US. Things like Hulu though don't work outside the US, so it's back to torrenting for TV shows etc).
Shhhh! First rule of usenet!
Well yeah, obviously every farmer has a gun or two. But Australia these days is incredibly urbanised. Over 90% of the population live in the five largest cities. We simply don't have many people in rural parts (as a percentage, far less than in the US).
Australia used to have that pioneering culture in the 19th century. But pick a random Australian today and they are likely to be a politically moderate, cappuccino-sipping urban dweller. Like abortion, guns are an issue that we are vaguely aware is Big In America, but which don't even register on the radar here, really. OTOH, things like workers' conditions and rights, education reform etc. pop up almost every election here, but seem less discussed in the US.
Actually with the opening of PPC1 last year, and upgrades to SXC currently in progress, we have plenty of bandwidth to the US and Asia. International capacity is no longer the problem. The problems are:
1) RIMs with insufficient backhaul and Telstra having no real incentive to upgrade them;
2) Inter-city connections - plenty of bandwidth there too but overpriced thanks to the monopoly/duopoly for many routes
If you're lucky enough to be somewhere with a direct copper line to the exchange and non-Telstra DSLAMs, things are pretty decent. Due to the massive increase in international capacity in the last few years, quotas have doubled or tripled for the same price (e.g. I was paying $60 for 25 GB 2 years ago, now I'm paying $40 for 50 GB). But that's a big 'if'. It's a real geographical lucky dip and if you are unfortunate to be in Telstra's RIM hell then yeah, Australian internet is like the third world. Hopefully the NBN will level the playing field a bit...
I have to agree. How is this news? Here in Australia like every freaking where else, we can connect any router we want to our connections now. Why on earth would anyone think this would change when the NBN rolls out? O.o
Yeah I agree. To include Canada alongside China and Russia is ridiculous. I mean, where's all the south-east Asian countries? Much like China, you can pick up a vast array of pirated DVDs on any street corner for $1 in any of those.
Haha, WTB mod points.
That is true. But again, unless you have some kind of commercial quantity of the stuff sitting completely on physical media in your luggage, you aren't even going to get searched in the first place. Take a trip here and see what I mean - customs is really only interested in making sure you aren't bringing in food that could be harbouring pests and disease that we don't have on this continent. They don't have the time to care about this kind of stuff. Hell, they barely even enforce the import duty/duty free allowances.
I agree with your post, but I just wanted to point out that Australian never really had a gun culture in the first place. Noone 'took away' our guns because very few people ever even had guns. I've never even touched a gun. Actually for that matter, I have never even ~seen one~ except for those holstered on cops' belts. And you can still own a firearm in Australia if you really want to and are properly licensed. They just make you jump through some fairly strict legislative requirements. But really, noone* wants a gun. The culture is just completely different over here. I never truly understood that until I became a dual US/Australian citizen (a few years ago now - I married an American).
* OK so obviously not literally 'noone'. But a fraction of a tiny proportion of the population.
Besides, Australia really isn't the example that should be being used here. There is VERY significant opposition to the proposed net filter. So much so that realistically, it isn't going to happen. People stood up, and the Government is taking notice. The Government saw it was wildly unpopular and so it's on the backburner for now. It hasn't even been introduced as a Bill in Parliament, because they know that the Greens (and possibly Libs) will block it in the Senate. Democracy at work. Slashdot just tends to hype 'OMG Australia is doing crazy thing x' all the time, based on attention-grabbing headlines in the media, without mentioning fairly important stuff like "yeah this is just a proposal and has about 2% chance of occurring" or "this is just one random politicians opinion" etc.
Yes because it is just so easy to move to another country. Countries all over the world just issue you permanent residence visas without ANY reason or justification... /sarcasm
It's VERY difficult to (permanently) move to another (first world) country unless you have family there or your employer is willing to sponsor you.
TFA is a bit of a beat-up. Basically, it's just clarifying that customs officers have the right to search your laptop. Just as they do in most other countries (including the US).
The justification in this case is twofold:
- Child porn (yes the old 'think of the children');
- Commercial quantities of regular porn (porn is legal to own and view in Australia, but it is illegal to sell it outside of specific areas and circumstances)
So this is targeted at people bringing in 50 shrinkwrapped XXX DVDs or child porn, rather than average joe who took some nude shots of his wife while on vacation overseas. You don't honestly think Customs has the time or resources to search everyone's laptop. I mean, EVERYONE travels with one these days. Half the time if you don't look suspicious and haven't declared anything they don't even bother putting you through the scanner ... they just say "go on through".
Another case of Australia seeming to have scary laws on paper, but which in reality will have no real effect. They are just there so that there's a legal justification for a search of a laptop in extreme cases (previously I don't think there was a justification for this since the Customs laws hadn't been updated in a while).
The reason you need to be referred by an existing player is so that currency farmers don't just sign up for the free trials by the thousands to run their bots. It seems to work too. After an initial wave of bots at launch, NC cracked down pretty hard and you don't really see any now. Maybe one in a noob zone every now and again but that's it.
You have got to be kidding. Aion would have to be one of the least grindy MMOs out there. Remember WoW is not the norm, it is the exception, the outlier, when it comes to quick and easy progression. On the other hand we have the TRUE grindy MMOs like Lineage 1 and 2, FFXI, and various other (mostly Asian) MMOs.
Aion is a compromise. It is an eastern style MMO (in terms of lore, graphical style etc) with a dash of western-style questing and story thrown in. The grind factor is somewhere between 'grindy' and 'WoW-like easiness, although to be honest it's closer to the less grindy side of the spectrum. An average player (i.e. just plays for a couple of hours every couple of days) should be able to hit the max level in Aion in approximately 6 months (less after the 1.9 patch goes in). Compare that to WoW where max level is achievable in mere days or weeks. And compare again to, say, Lineage 2 where max level even for a regular player is at least 4-5 years, and a casual player will never reach it. So yeah, I think cutting the grind by '75%' in Aion would be ridiculous. It's already fairly quick to level, and the 1.9 patch reduces that further.
The other thing is - what is with the mad rush to level up anyway? I enjoy the content at the low and mid levels just as much as at high levels. It's only a 'grind' if you want it to be and you are dead set on getting to max level ASAP at any cost. I never understood that mentality though. Enjoy the path, not just the destination. Personally I like MMOs that are a bit tougher (or require more time to achieve things, whether that be level or gear or whatever). Otherwise you end up with everyone walking around at the max level, with the best gear. All virtually identical. What's the point of that?
Oh and one final thing regarding the article generally (this is not directed specifically at the parent post) - the server mergers are basically necessary because, at launch, there were such serious server login queues that NCSoft rushed a couple of extra servers in to meet demand. So it's not like the game is dying. Even if they merge 4 or 5 or 6 servers, it will just be back to the number of servers they planned at launch anyway. A game does not have to be as popular as WoW with its hundreds of servers to be successful - it just has to turn a tidy profit. And Aion will continue to do so. It's not a game for everyone (due to the fact that, as mentioned, it IS a compromise between eastern and western elements). But I think it's the best new MMO out there right now, and it will tide me over until Diablo 3 comes out at least (yes, I know D3 isn't an MMO ... but it's the next major game I'm hanging for).
The three year replacement cycle for PCs certainly used to be true (and is still prevalent in the corporate world). But I honestly think the pace of change has slowed to the point that it's a good 4-5 years now - on par with a Mac.
The machine I'm using now is almost 3 years old. Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 (3.0 Ghz), 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, Nvidia GT8800 graphics. Running XP. Still runs anything pretty damn fast. Even games are fine, to be honest. Might have to put the graphics on 'medium' settings rather than maxing everything out for some games, but that's about it.
I can't see me replacing this machine yet, even though its 3rd birthday will be in a couple of months. It'll probably be late 2011 before I get a new one.