No doubt the software can be run with any device that shows up as a game controller in Windows.
But a wheel-and-pedals controller will likely be far easier to learn than using a joystick and keyboard combo...
I'm currently flying helicopter sims so I don't crash a $500 RC heli, and the one sim that allows you to map controls to the keyboard was completely unflyable in that configuration. A two stick game pad was better, but still nothing like a purpose-made controller that mimics the RC controller.
If the software is aiming for as much realism as possible, there won't be any fudging to account for people trying to use something other than the "correct" controller. And if I'm buying in to the service, I'd like to know that ahead of time. And most their target market -- hard core race {sim,game} players -- probably have 3 sets of wheel/pedal controllers already. (The first one -- it's cheap and gets me in. The second because the first one broke, or doesn't have the right features, and the third because it has to be top-end.)
It involves parading the carcass overhead while parading through the streets with umbrellas, dancing, music, food, and good times.
I was at the funeral, and it had all of those things, umbrellas included.
The event was (as it was intended to be) tongue-in-cheek, and was a great way to celebrate what was unquestionably the end (for good or bad) of a computing era here at the UofM.
Years ago I had a friend make a (completely unworkable) suggestion for cars -- an "Asshole Button". Some jerk cuts you off? Point the remote at his car and push the button, and a light turns on on his license plate -- and yours. The cops would be allowed to ticket (and reset the lights) of anyone with 5 lights lit. Fun, but it would never work in real life. Online, however, it becomes very possible.
It could be very workable in a MMORPG, though. Tagging someone with one "asshole" point could cost your avatar 5 points. Points could diminish at a rate of 1 per hour in-game. Anyone accumulating more than 25 points has an automatic 3 day suspension (or other punishment) applied to their account.
Yeah, it could be abused somewhat, but your gang of 25 griefers could punt a total of 5 people before needing to take a break.
What exactly is the estimated capacity for "all the world's [media]".
Interesting question... IMDB currently has records on:
363,000 movies released theatrically. (Average of 2 hrs)
367,000 TV episodes. (Average of 30 minutes)
57,000 made for TV movies. (Average of 90 minutes)
51,000 direct to video movies. (Average of 2 hours)
5,300 mini seris. (Average of 3.5 hours)
Averages are wild-assed (but somewhat reasonable) guesses. Given that the MPEG2 encoding used by DVDs runs at about 25MB/minute or 1.5GB/hour this works out to about 2,000 terabytes for all current known video.
Assuming storage capacity continues to double every 18 months (big assumption!), and that we currently have 500G drives commercially available, we can expect to see this capacity in a single drive in less than 20 years.
How much of this can be attributed to people using a 3rd party installer, that has a "Paste the distribution license here" field when they build the distribution package?
That's always been my assumption when I've seen the GPL in a click-through....
Wasn't the point of electronic voting to save time tallying the votes? Without a paper trail, of course, there can be no recount, so that certainly speeds things up. But if there WERE a paper trail, everyone would be clamoring for a manual recount anyway.
There is a simple solution to this.
Assuming a paper trail, everything goes as normal, the polls close, and the machine spits out results -- Candidate X - nnnn votes. Candidate Y - mmmm votes, etc. These are passed up the line, however they are supposed to be.
Next, the worker in charge of the operation of that poll rolls a die 3 times. If it comes up 6 all three times, the vote box is opened and a manual check of the paper records is done. This means there is a random check of about 0.5% of the machines, which verifies the integrity of the voting machines. If there has been any widespread tampering, it will show up here. If the totals are tampered with higher up, there is the opportunity to compare the numbers published at the polls with the final totals.
But again, without a paper record, there is no way of verifying anything.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons to use a lot of bandwidth.
Then pay for it yourself.
My connection gets used for surfing and a VOIP connection, and I've yet to hit 2G (up plus down) usage in a month. Why should I subsidize your use? You certainly don't need to seed ISOs, it's your choice. If you're going to use 10X or 100X as much bandwidth as I do, why shouldn't you pay for the privlege?
Sure, you signed up for "Unlimited internet use". Wah wah wah. Something has to change. Bandwidth metering is probably fairest for everyone.
I can: wanting to get no-cd cracks so as to be able to play all your computer games on your laptop without having to lug 50 CDs around.
Which is not a legitimate use.
Not in the same category as using a no-cd crack to play a warez copy of a game, I'll admit. But I bet the EULA and/or license for the game forbids you from using such software.
A crack or a keygen may make it much easier for you to run software that you are entitled to use, and using one in such a situation might not (and probably will not) result in litigation, but that does not mean it's a legitimate use.
yes, they can throttly me at the speed it states in my contract.
Well, my contract says I'm entitled to 60G per month, which is a lot of ISOs.
Here is one, don't sell more bandwidth then you have. Pretty much stops the problem now, doesn't it?
Sure. And and a 5M up/down dedicated pipe (which would work out to about a 1000G per month of total transfer) would cost how much? $200 - $300?
So by the contract, I'm getting about 1/16th the bandwidth for 1/6th the price. That doesn't seem totally unreasonable, given that the bandwidth is shared.
Don't use more bandwidth than your $40 has paid for, and there isn't much of a problem either.
While the article makes some guesses (which may or may not be accurate) as to why ISPs are attacking BT traffic, the why really isn't too relevant.
The simple fact is that ISPs must do something to block or throttle BT, or it will simply take over their networks completely. The legality of the content is secondary. They simply can't afford the strain that this traffic is putting on their pipes. And adding more capacity isn't a solution, because BT will soak up as much bandwidth as you can throw at it.
ISPs have started to throttle, and the client developers have responded by encrypting the stream. Want to know what will come next? Transfer limits. I just hope that they drop the throttling or blocking when they bring in (or start to enforce) these caps.
A few $200.00 internet bills will have people re-thinking how much they need to download the latest "Survivor" episode.
A linux box is easy to install. Much harder to maintain one that is safe and secure.
They should know how to protect the system from disaster and attack. Tips on hardening should include:
Hardening a new install with the Bastille Linux scripts. What these are and what they do.
IP tables configuration. What IP tables is, why it's important, and how to configure it. This may or may not be in relation to Bastille.
Tripwire. A PITA to configure, but *really* useful in knowing what is happening on the server.
Kernel options. Do you need loadable modules on a production server? Disable them if not. Do you need USB or CDROM access? Remove them from the kernel. If it's not needed, don't include it.
Kernel upgrades. When and why. Just because the latest 2.6.87 kernel has been released is no reason to put it in. However, if there is a remote root 'sploit posted to Bugtraq for the current kernel, everything else is a lower priority.
BugTraq and other security lists. What they are and why they should be monitored.
Application security patches. Like kernel upgrades, guidelines on why and when production apps should or should not (or must) be upgraded.
Also important would be a good understanding of how to set up a backup regime. This should include topics like:
tar, and it's more esoteric options, such as multi-volume tarfiles, dump levels, etc.
Rotation schemes. What is Grandfather, Father, Son? Why is it important to do this? What is the difference between a differential and an incremental backup?
Backup media. Redundant hard drive? CDR? DVD-R? Tape? Onsite vs offsite?
Recovery procedures. Ok, you've got a backup. What do you do if you need it? You have tested the tapes, right?:)
Some thought on a disaster plan might be a good idea too.
They have been all along. This is the concept of a "golden" number, the ability to request your number's last four digits so you're sure it spells the word you want it to. The phone company charges a monthly fee for this service... however, if the word you want has already been randomly assigned in all the exchanges local to you, you're just plain out of luck.
Not always. Just make sure you talk to a real person, and have a list of numbers that you'd like. I'm a scuba diver, and I've had two cell phone numbers over the last few years. The first time, there were no exchanges that worked, so I asked for (and got) "955-DIVR". The last time I was in the market for a number, I got lucky for the exchange -- my phone number is "CYL-DIVR". Very easy mnemonic.
All it took was a bit of research to determine the exchanges used in my area and then actually talk to a person on the phone... "Which excanges are you assigning numbers to right now, for the local calling area?" "227, 229 and 295? Ok." Scan the list of numbers with those exchanges you've already prepared.... "Ok, Can you do a quick check -- I'd like one of 227-6663, 227-8273, or 295-3487, if it's possible." "Thanks!"
The guy you're talking to probably doesn't care -- he's paid by the hour, and probably told to do everything to make the customer happy.
Slashdot Mirror
welcome our new water-based, plastic overlords!
Yeah, I agree!
I mean, at very least, he should have plugged it in to a secure network, and sniffed it a bit to see if it phoned home, or something.
Oh, wait...
No doubt the software can be run with any device that shows up as a game controller in Windows.
But a wheel-and-pedals controller will likely be far easier to learn than using a joystick and keyboard combo...
I'm currently flying helicopter sims so I don't crash a $500 RC heli, and the one sim that allows you to map controls to the keyboard was completely unflyable in that configuration. A two stick game pad was better, but still nothing like a purpose-made controller that mimics the RC controller.
If the software is aiming for as much realism as possible, there won't be any fudging to account for people trying to use something other than the "correct" controller. And if I'm buying in to the service, I'd like to know that ahead of time. And most their target market -- hard core race {sim,game} players -- probably have 3 sets of wheel/pedal controllers already. (The first one -- it's cheap and gets me in. The second because the first one broke, or doesn't have the right features, and the third because it has to be top-end.)
grnbrg.
Domain Name: LAUGHINGNOW.COM
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com/
Name Server: NS1.ACTIVEAUDIENCE.COM
Name Server: NS2.ACTIVEAUDIENCE.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientRenewProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 06-aug-2008
Creation Date: 11-mar-2005
Expiration Date: 11-mar-2009
You DO NOT talk about Fight Club!
I was at the funeral, and it had all of those things, umbrellas included.
The event was (as it was intended to be) tongue-in-cheek, and was a great way to celebrate what was unquestionably the end (for good or bad) of a computing era here at the UofM.
grnbrg.
It could be very workable in a MMORPG, though. Tagging someone with one "asshole" point could cost your avatar 5 points. Points could diminish at a rate of 1 per hour in-game. Anyone accumulating more than 25 points has an automatic 3 day suspension (or other punishment) applied to their account.
Yeah, it could be abused somewhat, but your gang of 25 griefers could punt a total of 5 people before needing to take a break.
User based moderation, with an attached cost.
What, again?
Maybe he'll stay dead this time....
grnbrg.
Interesting question... IMDB currently has records on:
- 363,000 movies released theatrically. (Average of 2 hrs)
- 367,000 TV episodes. (Average of 30 minutes)
- 57,000 made for TV movies. (Average of 90 minutes)
- 51,000 direct to video movies. (Average of 2 hours)
- 5,300 mini seris. (Average of 3.5 hours)
Averages are wild-assed (but somewhat reasonable) guesses. Given that the MPEG2 encoding used by DVDs runs at about 25MB/minute or 1.5GB/hour this works out to about 2,000 terabytes for all current known video.Assuming storage capacity continues to double every 18 months ( big assumption!), and that we currently have 500G drives commercially available, we can expect to see this capacity in a single drive in less than 20 years.
grnbrg.
How much of this can be attributed to people using a 3rd party installer, that has a "Paste the distribution license here" field when they build the distribution package?
That's always been my assumption when I've seen the GPL in a click-through....
grnbrg.
There is a simple solution to this.
Assuming a paper trail, everything goes as normal, the polls close, and the machine spits out results -- Candidate X - nnnn votes. Candidate Y - mmmm votes, etc. These are passed up the line, however they are supposed to be.
Next, the worker in charge of the operation of that poll rolls a die 3 times. If it comes up 6 all three times, the vote box is opened and a manual check of the paper records is done. This means there is a random check of about 0.5% of the machines, which verifies the integrity of the voting machines. If there has been any widespread tampering, it will show up here. If the totals are tampered with higher up, there is the opportunity to compare the numbers published at the polls with the final totals.
But again, without a paper record, there is no way of verifying anything .
grnbrg.
Hence the term "cracking" a code. -- grnbrg.
Then pay for it yourself.
My connection gets used for surfing and a VOIP connection, and I've yet to hit 2G (up plus down) usage in a month. Why should I subsidize your use? You certainly don't need to seed ISOs, it's your choice. If you're going to use 10X or 100X as much bandwidth as I do, why shouldn't you pay for the privlege?
Sure, you signed up for "Unlimited internet use". Wah wah wah. Something has to change. Bandwidth metering is probably fairest for everyone.
grnbrg.
Did I sign to agree to any games' EULA? No.
Was I even given the opportunity to read and accept/deny a EULA before purchasing a game? No.
Was there even any mention of a EULA on the box? No.
Will wherever I bought the game allow it to be returned after I open the box, try to install the game, see the EULA, and not accept it? No.
So, since you haven't agreed otherwise, it would also be legitimate to burn copies of the game to CD and sell them for $5 each on E-bay?
If your defence for considering crack or keygen use 'legitimate' involves arguments like "I didn't agree to any EULA!" then it's on shakey ground.
grnbrg.
Which is not a legitimate use.
Not in the same category as using a no-cd crack to play a warez copy of a game, I'll admit. But I bet the EULA and/or license for the game forbids you from using such software.
A crack or a keygen may make it much easier for you to run software that you are entitled to use, and using one in such a situation might not (and probably will not) result in litigation, but that does not mean it's a legitimate use.
grnbrg.
Well, my contract says I'm entitled to 60G per month, which is a lot of ISOs.
Here is one, don't sell more bandwidth then you have. Pretty much stops the problem now, doesn't it?
Sure. And and a 5M up/down dedicated pipe (which would work out to about a 1000G per month of total transfer) would cost how much? $200 - $300?
So by the contract, I'm getting about 1/16th the bandwidth for 1/6th the price. That doesn't seem totally unreasonable, given that the bandwidth is shared.
Don't use more bandwidth than your $40 has paid for, and there isn't much of a problem either.
grnbrg.
The simple fact is that ISPs must do something to block or throttle BT, or it will simply take over their networks completely. The legality of the content is secondary. They simply can't afford the strain that this traffic is putting on their pipes. And adding more capacity isn't a solution, because BT will soak up as much bandwidth as you can throw at it.
ISPs have started to throttle, and the client developers have responded by encrypting the stream. Want to know what will come next? Transfer limits. I just hope that they drop the throttling or blocking when they bring in (or start to enforce) these caps.
A few $200.00 internet bills will have people re-thinking how much they need to download the latest "Survivor" episode.
grnbrg.
"I suggest a new strategy, R2. Let the wookie win." :)
grnbrg.
Great. The one day I get mod points, and the first comment I see worthy of a +1 Funny is a reply to my own post. /me pouts.
grnbrg.
On my kettle. It boils *real* quick! :)
grnbrg.
The first rule of turning in papers is "You do not talk about turning in papers!".
They should know how to protect the system from disaster and attack. Tips on hardening should include:
- Hardening a new install with the Bastille Linux scripts. What these are and what they do.
- IP tables configuration. What IP tables is, why it's important, and how to configure it. This may or may not be in relation to Bastille.
- Tripwire. A PITA to configure, but *really* useful in knowing what is happening on the server.
- Kernel options. Do you need loadable modules on a production server? Disable them if not. Do you need USB or CDROM access? Remove them from the kernel. If it's not needed, don't include it.
- Kernel upgrades. When and why. Just because the latest 2.6.87 kernel has been released is no reason to put it in. However, if there is a remote root 'sploit posted to Bugtraq for the current kernel, everything else is a lower priority.
- BugTraq and other security lists. What they are and why they should be monitored.
- Application security patches. Like kernel upgrades, guidelines on why and when production apps should or should not (or must) be upgraded.
Also important would be a good understanding of how to set up a backup regime. This should include topics like:- tar, and it's more esoteric options, such as multi-volume tarfiles, dump levels, etc.
- Rotation schemes. What is Grandfather, Father, Son? Why is it important to do this? What is the difference between a differential and an incremental backup?
- Backup media. Redundant hard drive? CDR? DVD-R? Tape? Onsite vs offsite?
- Recovery procedures. Ok, you've got a backup. What do you do if you need it? You have tested the tapes, right?
:)
Some thought on a disaster plan might be a good idea too.grnbrg.
"Filling non-approved containers is illegal!"
"The computers 'catch up' at 1, 5 and 10 gallons!"
Well, DUH.
Now if the pump claims 6.83 gallons, and you only measured 6.27 gallons, you can get excited.
This isn't rocket science. It's stoichiometry.
--
grnbrg
Not always. Just make sure you talk to a real person, and have a list of numbers that you'd like. I'm a scuba diver, and I've had two cell phone numbers over the last few years. The first time, there were no exchanges that worked, so I asked for (and got) "955-DIVR". The last time I was in the market for a number, I got lucky for the exchange -- my phone number is "CYL-DIVR". Very easy mnemonic.
All it took was a bit of research to determine the exchanges used in my area and then actually talk to a person on the phone... "Which excanges are you assigning numbers to right now, for the local calling area?" "227, 229 and 295? Ok." Scan the list of numbers with those exchanges you've already prepared.... "Ok, Can you do a quick check -- I'd like one of 227-6663, 227-8273, or 295-3487, if it's possible." "Thanks!"
The guy you're talking to probably doesn't care -- he's paid by the hour, and probably told to do everything to make the customer happy.
grnbrg