Modding cases is very much like modding cars I think.
I'm a huge geek, I'm also a gearhead. Not into taking cars apart and all that (in fact I don't even own one) but I'm a HUGE racing fan, love all the techie stuff etc...
All great reasons as to why ebooks are, at best, ahead of their time (and at worst, a piss poor idea.)
Sitting within 6 feet of me, I have a Palm with several books on, and several regular books. If someone ran in and said "Dude, we gotta go, grab something to read", I wouldn't even hesitate to reach for the printed material. Sure, it's heavier (about the only benefits ebooks have) but it's just no contest.
Another plus of print: FLIPPING! Ever read a non-fiction book and wanted to find something in particular? Flipping through a book is a lot easier than "virtually flicking" through an ebook.
I use my Palm as an ebook reader. It's great, but the fact is Joe Mainstream Consumer is never going to spend more on an ebook reader than he would on a book unless it offers benefits.
I know a few people who read an insane amount of books, and I know they'd need a lot of convincing to switch to an electronic format. It's just not as satifsying. It's not as tactile.
I'm happy to admit I'm a pirate too. Doesn't take some pretentious hack "journalist" to call me on it either.
However, the fact is most, if not all of the games I emulate I PAID FOR TWENTY FUCKING YEARS AGO! How is it piracy to download the rom of, say, Activision's Starmaster, which I got for Christmas around 1983 or so?
Yes, but Codemasters do not. (Nor do Ultimate, better known now as Rare.)
If I bought, say, Alien-8 back in the 80's, I should still have the right to play the game now under emulation. There WERE no licence agreements back then. It was yours forever, and I have every right to play it now if I feel so inclined. No copyright law stipulates that I can't.
AS for Square etc... Fair play to them. Square have released their stuff on other consoles. I have no problem with them being pissed at emulation, but come on, what are the odds of Codemasters or Rare releasing their old C64 and Sinclair Spectrum titles again? You'd stand better odds of winning the lottery. They're just being pissy for the sake of it. Most developers are honored their old titles are still played, a good number have granted distribution permission, but you get these few hold out wankers who, despite no plans to re-release the original games, sic their lawyers on you for wanting to play a game you paid them for back in 1983.
Valve gave TFC away and that's it. Counterstrike was *NOT* developed by Valve. Neither were the other mods. Valve only gave away ADDON'S for games, not the actual game itself.
I fucking LOVE it when companies do this. Marketing ploy or no, I'm grabbing it. Free game I've not played, more specifically WW2 based (an age which appeals to me), YES YES YES!
He obviously caught me at a good time. Sorry, I'll try again.
"No no, you're wrong. It's the Quake 2 engine. I know, because I work for blah blah blah blah...":)
Credit where it's due. For years I believed it was the Q2 engine. Hell, magazines I read at the time said it was, but apparently it wasn't. I learnt something interesting, therefore the person deserves credit.
Hell, having someone post something that's correct on Slashdot is rare enough:)
Actually, there is one good reason. (Yes, replying to my own post.) To please the brain dead shareholders who wouldn't know an FPS from a first post.
"We're licensing (insert lame ass copy protection here) to protect your investment in our software".
Said shareholders smile knowingly then say to themselves "What's software?" and keep smiling because they laughingly believe these costs make the software safe... LOL!
Only if the crackers fuck the crack up. They learnt their lesson with Pro Race Driver, so even if it does happen, you'll only have to wait a couple more days I would think.
I use no-cd's on every game I have. I have about 15-20 games installed, not ONE needs the CD in the drive. It can't be good for the drive constantly spinning up, winding down, spinning up etc... So fuck it, I crack the lot so I don't need to juggle a pile of CD's. With a two year old son, I can't leave jewel cases laying around. If all of Macrovision's stuff is SO great, then why do companies still persist in this "must have the disk in the drive" method of protection? I mean really, if that's the case, why do MOST games require you to install the whole thing to the computer anyway when it needs the CD?
Software copy protection is an oxymoron. It prevents casual copying, which is retarded since in the 20 or so years I've been into computers, I've not known anyone who goes down the casual copy route, even when they could. They get cracked stuff from friends, or now the net. All copy protection is is a cost passed onto the end user for no good reason.
FADE does nothing of any use. Pro Race Drive/Toca Race Driver was released with this. The first two cracks weren't complete, but within a few days there was a 100% crack that works just fine. The patch came out shortly, and there were no issues with cracking that at all.
The system can be entirely subverted by using the likes of Alcohol 120%.
Marcovision are the biggest peddlers of silicon snake oil around. They're products DO NOT STOP COPYING. MOST DVD players can easily bypass it, you can bypass their VHS protection by cleaning up the signal, or as I do, merely pass it through an ancient betamax VCR (works with satellite PPV too), and their software copy protection is a joke.
I mean honestly, have the jackasses at Macrovision released ANY copy protection system that wasn't circumvented within hours?
Oh, sorry, it's "Quality Protection" isn't. Yeah, protecting the quality of their bank accounts.
Codemasters are wankers. ANY company that rattles it's sabre and threatens sites with legal action for hosting copies of their 8-bit titles from the 80's needs to be bankrupted NOW. (Of course, preventing people from playing the godawful Dizzy series is actual a public service I think.)
I went hunting for info to prove you wrong since I always believed it was the Quake 2 engine. Turns out you're absolutely right! Bugger me sideways with a blowfish!
Regardless, my point still stands.:) But thanks for being a pedant as I learned something I didn't know.
The fact it's the original Quake engine makes the longevity all the more astounding.
Except Half-Life used a modified Quake 2 engine, so ultimately I would think Id are still making money off this as well. I know Valve considerably modded the engine, but it all began life as Id's baby. (The engine, not Half-Life. I just know SOMEBODY would think I meant that...)
I wanted to get CZ, but after Valve's duplicitous behaviour with the CS 1.6 beta, and sneakily removing the bots without warning, they ain't getting a dime out of me.
Any company worth a dime in software development should NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES be running that KNOWN security risk we call Outlook. I mean really, running Outlook on a machine with sensitive data on is the equivalent of leaving a gun laying on the counter in a bank. Sooner or later, somebody will pick the gun up and use it. It's not IF, it's WHEN. There is *NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER* for running Outlook other than it's the lazy thing to do. Why the fuck weren't they using Pegasus Mail? Or Eudora? Because they were stupid.
They got 0wn3d. They deserved it for their stupidity.
Microsoft = "Bollocks! There's holes in our software. Hope nobody finds them."
Three weeks later = "Oh fuck, someone did, guess we'd better think about considering patching it.
SSH (and it's OS brethren) = "Shit, there's a hole. Better patch it ASAP."
Following day = "Bollocks! Added more holes. Better get a patch out quick.
Three weeks later = (SSH developers asleep because there job was done properly).
Specious argument dude. ALL software has security holes to differing degrees, but it's been known for YEARS now that Outlook has more holes than Dillinger's corpse, and yet people still use it.
Yes, but they obviously don't have a decent sysadmin. Using any KNOWN program with constant security holes in it, such as Outlook, on a system that should be secure.
When this was mentioned on/. originally I took a look at it. Their bold claims about what they have just seemed suspicious to me so I avoided it. They seemed to overstate what you could get on the service, and their claim of being at war seemed overblown and melodramatic so I thought something was amiss.
What's wrong with that? Well I guess I can't entice you, but personally I've enjoyed having simple games to play.
I have a Palm. If I really wanted to play games on the go, I'd buy a Gameboy. I don't expect a Gameboy to make phonecalls. I don't expect my phone to play games.
Hideous? I pay about 10-15 bucks a month more than a landline, all my long distance is free, and my phone's with me all the time.
I barely make any phonecalls. I have to have a landline installed to get DSL service (cable is not an option where I am) so a cellphone is pointless. Plus your phone being with you all the time is the biggest problem I have with cellphones. You're now a slave to a phone if that is the case. I like being able to get away from the phone.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a geek, but technology is just getting absurd. I have no desire to "wear" my computer. Nor do I have any desire to play games on my cellphone. (In fact I don't even own a cellphone because of the hideously overpriced services).
Maybe I have to hand in my geek membership card, but wearing a computer ranks right up there with wearing a refridgerator.
Maybe it's actually xenophobia in the current world climate. Like it or hate it, a LOT of people are becoming suspicious of other countries. Even if not conciously, I wonder if subconciously the market is down due to that?
Japanese games are great. In fact two of my top 3 video games of all time are Japanese (Gran Turismo 2 and Fire Pro Wrestling G).
I really don't see it as western developers developing better games though. I certainly don't perceive an increase in originality here. If anything it's still going the other way. The only originality I see these days is in Japan.
Of course, Japanese games may look to the west and think the west is where the originality is.
Yes, but if someone doesn't know them, they may think they're cheaters.
A LOT of people on Counterstrike for example admit they cheat purely because "most" other people do. I've never cheated in my life in a multiplayer game. Anyone who does is a sad bastard. I don't understand how anyone can take any joy in winning by cheating.
Slashdot Mirror
Modding cases is very much like modding cars I think.
I'm a huge geek, I'm also a gearhead. Not into taking cars apart and all that (in fact I don't even own one) but I'm a HUGE racing fan, love all the techie stuff etc...
I think there's probably a HUGE crossover.
weekly cleaning
:)
I know those two words, but don't understand what they mean when put together. Weekly cleaning?
All great reasons as to why ebooks are, at best, ahead of their time (and at worst, a piss poor idea.)
Sitting within 6 feet of me, I have a Palm with several books on, and several regular books. If someone ran in and said "Dude, we gotta go, grab something to read", I wouldn't even hesitate to reach for the printed material. Sure, it's heavier (about the only benefits ebooks have) but it's just no contest.
Another plus of print: FLIPPING! Ever read a non-fiction book and wanted to find something in particular? Flipping through a book is a lot easier than "virtually flicking" through an ebook.
I use my Palm as an ebook reader. It's great, but the fact is Joe Mainstream Consumer is never going to spend more on an ebook reader than he would on a book unless it offers benefits.
I know a few people who read an insane amount of books, and I know they'd need a lot of convincing to switch to an electronic format. It's just not as satifsying. It's not as tactile.
Notice how the guy shelled out the money BEFORE asking Atari if it was legit.
So, not only is he a nagging writer, he's an idiot for handing over money to a possibly illegal source of roms.
Dear god, they post any shit on Slashdot these days don't they...
Thanks, I'll stick to downloading games from this century:)
I'm happy to admit I'm a pirate too. Doesn't take some pretentious hack "journalist" to call me on it either.
However, the fact is most, if not all of the games I emulate I PAID FOR TWENTY FUCKING YEARS AGO! How is it piracy to download the rom of, say, Activision's Starmaster, which I got for Christmas around 1983 or so?
The article is like a nagging mother.
Yes, but Codemasters do not. (Nor do Ultimate, better known now as Rare.)
If I bought, say, Alien-8 back in the 80's, I should still have the right to play the game now under emulation. There WERE no licence agreements back then. It was yours forever, and I have every right to play it now if I feel so inclined. No copyright law stipulates that I can't.
AS for Square etc... Fair play to them. Square have released their stuff on other consoles. I have no problem with them being pissed at emulation, but come on, what are the odds of Codemasters or Rare releasing their old C64 and Sinclair Spectrum titles again? You'd stand better odds of winning the lottery. They're just being pissy for the sake of it. Most developers are honored their old titles are still played, a good number have granted distribution permission, but you get these few hold out wankers who, despite no plans to re-release the original games, sic their lawyers on you for wanting to play a game you paid them for back in 1983.
That's the plan:) I look forward to checking the game out.
Valve gave TFC away and that's it. Counterstrike was *NOT* developed by Valve. Neither were the other mods. Valve only gave away ADDON'S for games, not the actual game itself.
I fucking LOVE it when companies do this. Marketing ploy or no, I'm grabbing it. Free game I've not played, more specifically WW2 based (an age which appeals to me), YES YES YES!
He obviously caught me at a good time. Sorry, I'll try again.
:)
"No no, you're wrong. It's the Quake 2 engine. I know, because I work for blah blah blah blah..."
Credit where it's due. For years I believed it was the Q2 engine. Hell, magazines I read at the time said it was, but apparently it wasn't. I learnt something interesting, therefore the person deserves credit.
Hell, having someone post something that's correct on Slashdot is rare enough:)
Actually, there is one good reason. (Yes, replying to my own post.) To please the brain dead shareholders who wouldn't know an FPS from a first post.
"We're licensing (insert lame ass copy protection here) to protect your investment in our software".
Said shareholders smile knowingly then say to themselves "What's software?" and keep smiling because they laughingly believe these costs make the software safe... LOL!
Only if the crackers fuck the crack up. They learnt their lesson with Pro Race Driver, so even if it does happen, you'll only have to wait a couple more days I would think.
I use no-cd's on every game I have. I have about 15-20 games installed, not ONE needs the CD in the drive. It can't be good for the drive constantly spinning up, winding down, spinning up etc... So fuck it, I crack the lot so I don't need to juggle a pile of CD's. With a two year old son, I can't leave jewel cases laying around. If all of Macrovision's stuff is SO great, then why do companies still persist in this "must have the disk in the drive" method of protection? I mean really, if that's the case, why do MOST games require you to install the whole thing to the computer anyway when it needs the CD?
Software copy protection is an oxymoron. It prevents casual copying, which is retarded since in the 20 or so years I've been into computers, I've not known anyone who goes down the casual copy route, even when they could. They get cracked stuff from friends, or now the net. All copy protection is is a cost passed onto the end user for no good reason.
FADE does nothing of any use. Pro Race Drive/Toca Race Driver was released with this. The first two cracks weren't complete, but within a few days there was a 100% crack that works just fine. The patch came out shortly, and there were no issues with cracking that at all.
The system can be entirely subverted by using the likes of Alcohol 120%.
Marcovision are the biggest peddlers of silicon snake oil around. They're products DO NOT STOP COPYING. MOST DVD players can easily bypass it, you can bypass their VHS protection by cleaning up the signal, or as I do, merely pass it through an ancient betamax VCR (works with satellite PPV too), and their software copy protection is a joke.
I mean honestly, have the jackasses at Macrovision released ANY copy protection system that wasn't circumvented within hours?
Oh, sorry, it's "Quality Protection" isn't. Yeah, protecting the quality of their bank accounts.
Codemasters are wankers. ANY company that rattles it's sabre and threatens sites with legal action for hosting copies of their 8-bit titles from the 80's needs to be bankrupted NOW. (Of course, preventing people from playing the godawful Dizzy series is actual a public service I think.)
I went hunting for info to prove you wrong since I always believed it was the Quake 2 engine. Turns out you're absolutely right! Bugger me sideways with a blowfish!
Regardless, my point still stands.:) But thanks for being a pedant as I learned something I didn't know.
The fact it's the original Quake engine makes the longevity all the more astounding.
You're NOT!
It's called adding emphasis. Look it up.
Except Half-Life used a modified Quake 2 engine, so ultimately I would think Id are still making money off this as well. I know Valve considerably modded the engine, but it all began life as Id's baby. (The engine, not Half-Life. I just know SOMEBODY would think I meant that...)
I wanted to get CZ, but after Valve's duplicitous behaviour with the CS 1.6 beta, and sneakily removing the bots without warning, they ain't getting a dime out of me.
Any company worth a dime in software development should NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES be running that KNOWN security risk we call Outlook. I mean really, running Outlook on a machine with sensitive data on is the equivalent of leaving a gun laying on the counter in a bank. Sooner or later, somebody will pick the gun up and use it. It's not IF, it's WHEN. There is *NO EXCUSE WHATSOEVER* for running Outlook other than it's the lazy thing to do. Why the fuck weren't they using Pegasus Mail? Or Eudora? Because they were stupid.
They got 0wn3d. They deserved it for their stupidity.
Was gonna say this myself. 28 Days Later was fine for me, as was Freddy vs Jason.
Microsoft = "Bollocks! There's holes in our software. Hope nobody finds them."
Three weeks later = "Oh fuck, someone did, guess we'd better think about considering patching it.
SSH (and it's OS brethren) = "Shit, there's a hole. Better patch it ASAP."
Following day = "Bollocks! Added more holes. Better get a patch out quick.
Three weeks later = (SSH developers asleep because there job was done properly).
Specious argument dude. ALL software has security holes to differing degrees, but it's been known for YEARS now that Outlook has more holes than Dillinger's corpse, and yet people still use it.
Yes, but they obviously don't have a decent sysadmin. Using any KNOWN program with constant security holes in it, such as Outlook, on a system that should be secure.
Well, they got what they deserved really.
When this was mentioned on /. originally I took a look at it. Their bold claims about what they have just seemed suspicious to me so I avoided it. They seemed to overstate what you could get on the service, and their claim of being at war seemed overblown and melodramatic so I thought something was amiss.
Guess I was right.
What's wrong with that? Well I guess I can't entice you, but personally I've enjoyed having simple games to play.
I have a Palm. If I really wanted to play games on the go, I'd buy a Gameboy. I don't expect a Gameboy to make phonecalls. I don't expect my phone to play games.
Hideous? I pay about 10-15 bucks a month more than a landline, all my long distance is free, and my phone's with me all the time.
I barely make any phonecalls. I have to have a landline installed to get DSL service (cable is not an option where I am) so a cellphone is pointless. Plus your phone being with you all the time is the biggest problem I have with cellphones. You're now a slave to a phone if that is the case. I like being able to get away from the phone.
WHY would I want to wear a computer?
Don't get me wrong, I'm a geek, but technology is just getting absurd. I have no desire to "wear" my computer. Nor do I have any desire to play games on my cellphone. (In fact I don't even own a cellphone because of the hideously overpriced services).
Maybe I have to hand in my geek membership card, but wearing a computer ranks right up there with wearing a refridgerator.
Maybe it's actually xenophobia in the current world climate. Like it or hate it, a LOT of people are becoming suspicious of other countries. Even if not conciously, I wonder if subconciously the market is down due to that?
Japanese games are great. In fact two of my top 3 video games of all time are Japanese (Gran Turismo 2 and Fire Pro Wrestling G).
I really don't see it as western developers developing better games though. I certainly don't perceive an increase in originality here. If anything it's still going the other way. The only originality I see these days is in Japan.
Of course, Japanese games may look to the west and think the west is where the originality is.
Yes, but if someone doesn't know them, they may think they're cheaters.
A LOT of people on Counterstrike for example admit they cheat purely because "most" other people do. I've never cheated in my life in a multiplayer game. Anyone who does is a sad bastard. I don't understand how anyone can take any joy in winning by cheating.