Yeah, that's the thinking, and it's stupid. All cars already come with running lights. That's the notch between the "off" and "headlights on" position. Those are the orange front and sidelights and either orange or red taillights. Plenty to make your car more visible.
Headlights are solely for the vehicle driver to se what's ahead on the road. A blinding white or even more blinding blue light does nothing but make it harder for the other vehicles on the road to see yours.
I dislike people who keep their headlights on when they're not needed. I hate people who think that because the sun is up their high-beam lights won't blind me.
At night, if it weren't for all the oncoming blindingly bright lights, I wouldn't even need my headlights at all.
Another thing that gets me are the city-cowboys with their fancy big trucks with absurdly bright headlights that make my car cast a shadow in its own headlights! Who is hell is so blind they need that much light?
All organizations interested in possibly hosting a NIST Internet Time Service server are invited to contact Time and Frequency Division Chief Thomas O'Brian for more information, including a description of the equipment that the organization must have available and a discussion of the other technical qualifications necessary to host a server: obrian@boulder.nist.gov .
I've been against "software as service" (not that I called it that) since the very first maintenance Tuesday for World of Warcraft. There should be a single-player stand-alone version of the game for when the server is down, or any time that I have no network connectivity. It may not be as good as the online version, but it would be *something*, especially as most of my gameplay time is spent running solo anyway.
That's why I said "as long as they wait to capture enough evidence to prove that the crime was inevitable if they hadn't intervened." For your example of the tire wrench, having it is not the crime. If they can predict that you are planning to use it to break in and rob a store, they can be in place when you show up and nab you as you pull back to swing at the glass, before the glass is actually broken. Arresting you when you drive up and park would not be sufficient; they would have to wait until it becomes obvious that the crime will actually be committed: you're standing at the store window with the tire wrench cocked and starting to swing toward the window.
Sounds like they're working on the Pre-Crime Unit from Minority Report, but with computer analysis instead of involuntary, drugged slightly-mutant people. Overall, a good idea as long as they wait to capture enough evidence to prove that the crime was inevitable if they hadn't intervened.
The police are watching for patterns in crimes. Sure, some criminals that consistenly avoid that pattern will avoid getting caught. If enough change, then new patterns will form. It would probably take a coordinated effort of a majority of the criminals to avoid forming a new pattern. Then the police are no worse off than they were before this was developed.
The crux of the complaint here is that in order to view someone's profile on Myspace/Facebook, you need to create an account.
Correction:
The crux of the complaint here is that in order to get someone to view your profile on Myspce/Facebook, you need to get them to create an account.
If they don't already have an account, what incentive does your profile give them to make the effort to create one?
I took a year break from playing, knowing that my character would be there when I came back, if I decided to. When I did decide to come back, I would have been very upset if my character had been deleted, and would have changed my mind right then. The threat to delete my character would not keep me paying when I'm not playing; it would keep me frem returning.
That's funny. When I had some problems with a CitiBank credit card a few years ago, CitiBank's caller ID always showed up as "0". I always wondered who I would get if I used the "redial last caller" option.:)
Before looking at the picture, my first thought was that it would be Mars Rover camera showing it falling into the pit. Can you imagine being the one who programmed it's course and everyone asking how he/she missed dodging that!? I wonder what the guys at NASA would figure out to get it out of something like that.:)
We quit playing starcraft when an update broke compatibility with the last available version of bnetd. Battlenet is so crappy, my friends and I wouldn't go back to it, and we just moved on to other games, like Age of Empires II, and now WoW. Maybe I'll set that up and try SC again, and see if it lives up to my fond memories.:)
If battlenet were really that bad a moneysink, they could always hire the bnetd folks (if those guys would even consider doing anything for Blizzard now) to update and release bnetd again, to let people run their own battlenets.
It's only a pipe dream because Blizzard won't do it. What I suggested is certainly possible to implement, but Blizzard doesn't want to risk losing the monthly payments of a good portion of people who can't or won't exhibit any self-control mainly because there are no consequences to their actions. Behavior like that in real life would get them kicked out if they didn't stop and maybe even arrested if they persisted.
The guild I'm in has a rule about keeping chat clean. We have kicked people out for arguing and escalating after being reminded. We have had people leave because of the rule. Despite that, there are still over 400 people in our guild. We enforce this on our teamspeak server, too.
If only we could do the same for the world- and zone-wide channels and for yell. Leave "say" alone, because it is local and limited in scope, except maybe in high-population-density areas. As for group chat, well, I can always leave the group if it becomes too annoying, or kick them out if I'm the leader.
It would be nice to have an option to select a person's name and vote to ban them from the channel, and if enough people do it over a set amount of time, then it would happen. Start with a short duration, and increase it every time a new ban is voted in. Also, have this track on the account owner, not individually by character.
I'll defend your right to say what you want, but I won't defend doing so with a megaphone or loudspeakers, or broadcasting it on radio or TV. You may speak your opinion as long as I am not forced to listen. If you are speaking in a public area, I can usually leave. If you are speaking in my home, I can have you leave. But, if you are amplifying your voice somehow, then it becomes much harder to avoid and you are now in the wrong. There are many reasons governments require permits for large gatherings; one of them is to limit the noise disturbance to specific areas.
The same concepts should hold true for online games. "Say" what you want, except maybe in high-population-density areas, such as near the banks and auction houses. "Yell" and zone- and world-wide chat channels should be more restrictive in what is allowed.
In real-life or online, restricted to just your voice or "say", you can follow me around and keep spouting whatever you have to say. I don't object to your right to say it, but you have no right to force it upon me, and I can then complain to the police or GMs that you are harassing me.
The biggest problem I have with this is that when I work from home my boss wants proof that I am working the entire time. When I work from the office, no questions are asked. Even he commented a few times how I tended to log less work when at the office.
At the office I get a lot more interruptions from people wandering by and chatting. At home, I can actually work; it is much easier to delay response to instant messaging than face-to-face, so I can finish my current activity. I also tend to spend a lot more time away from my desk when at the office; must be that tiny cubicle closing in on me. And, as you say, the bathroom is a lot closer at home; the one at the office is like walking two laps around my house first.
The need to *prove* I'm working when telecommuting has gotten so bad that I don't do it very often lately. The really frustrating part is that since this is level 3 tech support, my work volume is largely driven by our customers. If they aren't asking for help, I don't have anything to do (well, that's not true anymore; I now have busywork to make it look like I'm doing something (creating documents that nobody but me will ever read)).
What keeps the most important and powerful communication tool since the telephone from being universally embraced?
Price - hundreds to thousands of dollars for a computer versus tens of dollars for a phone
Ease of use - I can make and complete a phone call in less time than my computer takes to boot
Ease of maintainability - virus checking, defragmentation, spyware, trojans, etc. Need I say more?
Expected lifespan - Growing up, we had the same phone for 15 years. Even the cheap phones last 5 usually. How long is it until a computer is obsolete? Two years? Unusable in four?
Blizzard allows for money back within 30 days if you haven't used the cd-key to create an account.
Since account creation is after the eula etc, this isn't a problem as such.
What does this have to do with copyright? You are still talking about contracts.
Yeah, you can get your money back if you haven't opened the package yet, which means you can't get to the license to read it. Once you open the box and can read the license, nobody will let you return it.
If you accept the license, it gives you a way to get your money back if you don't accept the license. If you don't accept the license, then the money-back clause of the license doesn't apply, now does it? So, that is a worthless offer.
If you actually take Blizzard up on the offer, you still have to pay the shipping costs to send it to Blizzard and wait a couple months for your money back, and even then you probably have to call a few times to remind them.
So, no matter what, if you don't accept a license that you cannot discover until after the purchase is complete, you are still out time and money to return it.
Account creation is NOT after the EULA. The physical act is, but that is irrelevant. At the time you purchased the software, you paid for the implied ability to use the software. The only way to use the software is to create an account using the included key. So, now you have not one but two post-sale licenses.
That's why the sweet spot for movies is ~15-20 dollars (with pirates selling them for around $5).
My sweet spot for movies is $5 on the pre-viewed rack at Blockbuster. It is not worth the extra $10-$20 to get an unopened box. Yeah, I usually have to wait an extra two to six months before it is available that way, but I have seen very, very few movies that were worth the extra cost to get them quickly. In fact, I've usually seen it on TV before finding it in the discount rack; the main reason I buy it then is to have it available when I feel like watching it and to not have commercials.
Of course, the first thing I do then is rip it with DVD Decryptor (or equivalent), delete all the ads and control-locks, and burn it to disk, then shove the original to the back of the top shelf. Now I have a nice user-friendly DVD that I am not worried about the kids scratching and that will let me go directly to the main menu when I put it in. Now, when I rent a disk, I get really frustrated at having to wait for all the ads to finish before the menu button will work, so I rent less often than I used to.
What does copyright have to do with altering anything? If I scribble in a book, that is not a copyright violation. If I white-out words and write different words over them, that is not a copyright violation. I could even sell that modified book as long as I didn't try to claim it was in new, from-the-publisher condition.
Copyright deals with copying. From what I understand of these bots, they are not copying the game from memory, they are just changing it just as I could do to a book. If I could alter the bits on the physical CD that I received when purchasing the game, that is still not a copyright violation. I could even sell that CD as long as I didn't try to claim or imply that it was in new, from-the-publisher condition.
Copyright should not even be the issue here. The only issue I see would be a contract violation, but I doubt Blizzard is ready to test the enforcability of a post-sale click-through EULA.
Honor System -- Blizzard has no understanding of the word "honor". What they implemented has no connection with "honor" at all. It would be more aptly named the "Glory System".
Battlegrounds -- a worthy addition
Dire Maul -- Isn't that an instance somewhere that Warlocks have to visit for their epic mount? Does anyone else actually go there? This was an addition? Where did Warlocks go for their mount before?
Zul'gurub -- I've been there a few times in huge parties that have wiped multiple times and given up in less time than it took to form the party. This instance is supposed to be fun??
Ahn'Qiraj -- Ah, the famous "AQ" I hear about but have never been to.
Naxxramas -- Huh? Where is this?
Darkmoon Faire -- That's a joke, right?
Talent Reviews -- What is this? I've never even heard of it.
Well, out of that list, there is one (battlegrounds) that is worthwhile enough to be considered an "expansion", but I would've been upset if I'd had to pay for it, especially considering how little I've been.
Burning Crusade is just an addition of more levels, areas, quests, and items. It doesn't really change the game play, just adds on more of the same.
A lot of the justification for monthly fees was the promise of regular infusions of new content. Burning Crusade is exactly that, except we had to pay extra for it on top of the monthly fee. The content of Burning Crusade, added a bit at a time over a year is more what I expected for my monthly fee, not the crap that you listed.
But how do they profit if I choose a competitor's phone?
Not only do they not get the sale of a new charger,
car charger, and data cable, they also do not get the
sale of a new phone! I have no brand loyalty, mainly
because I have yet to find a brand that demonstrates
any customer loyalty.
I wish we could do this in the US. It drives me crazy that I have to throw away 2 chargers (one at office and one at home), a car charger, and the PC data cable every time I have to replace my phone. Only slightly less irritating is that I have to take all that with me when I travel since I have yet to meet someone with the same model phone I have or even one where the chargers are compatible. Maybe if I could get a phone to last more than two years before going bad, I might not be so annoyed at having to replace everything each time, but I see no good reason for all the incompatibility.
Considering that on my computer (and probably most except serious gamers and artists) the video, sound, and ethernet are all built-in on the motherboard, if I should have to change the board, they all go at once. I'd get to keep the hard drive and cd/dvd drive. This should count as a new computer? Although I would hope that would never happen more than once on a given computer, why should that count as my one allowed change?
Slashdot Mirror
Headlights are solely for the vehicle driver to se what's ahead on the road. A blinding white or even more blinding blue light does nothing but make it harder for the other vehicles on the road to see yours.
I dislike people who keep their headlights on when they're not needed. I hate people who think that because the sun is up their high-beam lights won't blind me.
At night, if it weren't for all the oncoming blindingly bright lights, I wouldn't even need my headlights at all.
Another thing that gets me are the city-cowboys with their fancy big trucks with absurdly bright headlights that make my car cast a shadow in its own headlights! Who is hell is so blind they need that much light?
All organizations interested in possibly hosting a NIST Internet Time Service server are invited to contact Time and Frequency Division Chief Thomas O'Brian for more information, including a description of the equipment that the organization must have available and a discussion of the other technical qualifications necessary to host a server: obrian@boulder.nist.gov .
I've been against "software as service" (not that I called it that) since the very first maintenance Tuesday for World of Warcraft. There should be a single-player stand-alone version of the game for when the server is down, or any time that I have no network connectivity. It may not be as good as the online version, but it would be *something*, especially as most of my gameplay time is spent running solo anyway.
That's why I said "as long as they wait to capture enough evidence to prove that the crime was inevitable if they hadn't intervened." For your example of the tire wrench, having it is not the crime. If they can predict that you are planning to use it to break in and rob a store, they can be in place when you show up and nab you as you pull back to swing at the glass, before the glass is actually broken. Arresting you when you drive up and park would not be sufficient; they would have to wait until it becomes obvious that the crime will actually be committed: you're standing at the store window with the tire wrench cocked and starting to swing toward the window.
Sounds like they're working on the Pre-Crime Unit from Minority Report, but with computer analysis instead of involuntary, drugged slightly-mutant people. Overall, a good idea as long as they wait to capture enough evidence to prove that the crime was inevitable if they hadn't intervened.
The police are watching for patterns in crimes. Sure, some criminals that consistenly avoid that pattern will avoid getting caught. If enough change, then new patterns will form. It would probably take a coordinated effort of a majority of the criminals to avoid forming a new pattern. Then the police are no worse off than they were before this was developed.
They probably are, but they can't admit it, because without hard data to back it up they get criticized for "profiling".
Correction:
The crux of the complaint here is that in order to get someone to view your profile on Myspce/Facebook, you need to get them to create an account.
If they don't already have an account, what incentive does your profile give them to make the effort to create one?
I took a year break from playing, knowing that my character would be there when I came back, if I decided to. When I did decide to come back, I would have been very upset if my character had been deleted, and would have changed my mind right then. The threat to delete my character would not keep me paying when I'm not playing; it would keep me frem returning.
That's funny. When I had some problems with a CitiBank credit card a few years ago, CitiBank's caller ID always showed up as "0". I always wondered who I would get if I used the "redial last caller" option. :)
Before looking at the picture, my first thought was that it would be Mars Rover camera showing it falling into the pit. Can you imagine being the one who programmed it's course and everyone asking how he/she missed dodging that!? I wonder what the guys at NASA would figure out to get it out of something like that. :)
We quit playing starcraft when an update broke compatibility with the last available version of bnetd. Battlenet is so crappy, my friends and I wouldn't go back to it, and we just moved on to other games, like Age of Empires II, and now WoW. Maybe I'll set that up and try SC again, and see if it lives up to my fond memories. :)
If battlenet were really that bad a moneysink, they could always hire the bnetd folks (if those guys would even consider doing anything for Blizzard now) to update and release bnetd again, to let people run their own battlenets.
It's only a pipe dream because Blizzard won't do it. What I suggested is certainly possible to implement, but Blizzard doesn't want to risk losing the monthly payments of a good portion of people who can't or won't exhibit any self-control mainly because there are no consequences to their actions. Behavior like that in real life would get them kicked out if they didn't stop and maybe even arrested if they persisted.
If only we could do the same for the world- and zone-wide channels and for yell. Leave "say" alone, because it is local and limited in scope, except maybe in high-population-density areas. As for group chat, well, I can always leave the group if it becomes too annoying, or kick them out if I'm the leader.
It would be nice to have an option to select a person's name and vote to ban them from the channel, and if enough people do it over a set amount of time, then it would happen. Start with a short duration, and increase it every time a new ban is voted in. Also, have this track on the account owner, not individually by character.
The same concepts should hold true for online games. "Say" what you want, except maybe in high-population-density areas, such as near the banks and auction houses. "Yell" and zone- and world-wide chat channels should be more restrictive in what is allowed.
In real-life or online, restricted to just your voice or "say", you can follow me around and keep spouting whatever you have to say. I don't object to your right to say it, but you have no right to force it upon me, and I can then complain to the police or GMs that you are harassing me.
At the office I get a lot more interruptions from people wandering by and chatting. At home, I can actually work; it is much easier to delay response to instant messaging than face-to-face, so I can finish my current activity. I also tend to spend a lot more time away from my desk when at the office; must be that tiny cubicle closing in on me. And, as you say, the bathroom is a lot closer at home; the one at the office is like walking two laps around my house first.
The need to *prove* I'm working when telecommuting has gotten so bad that I don't do it very often lately. The really frustrating part is that since this is level 3 tech support, my work volume is largely driven by our customers. If they aren't asking for help, I don't have anything to do (well, that's not true anymore; I now have busywork to make it look like I'm doing something (creating documents that nobody but me will ever read)).
What does this have to do with copyright? You are still talking about contracts.
Yeah, you can get your money back if you haven't opened the package yet, which means you can't get to the license to read it. Once you open the box and can read the license, nobody will let you return it.
If you accept the license, it gives you a way to get your money back if you don't accept the license. If you don't accept the license, then the money-back clause of the license doesn't apply, now does it? So, that is a worthless offer.
If you actually take Blizzard up on the offer, you still have to pay the shipping costs to send it to Blizzard and wait a couple months for your money back, and even then you probably have to call a few times to remind them.
So, no matter what, if you don't accept a license that you cannot discover until after the purchase is complete, you are still out time and money to return it.
Account creation is NOT after the EULA. The physical act is, but that is irrelevant. At the time you purchased the software, you paid for the implied ability to use the software. The only way to use the software is to create an account using the included key. So, now you have not one but two post-sale licenses.
My sweet spot for movies is $5 on the pre-viewed rack at Blockbuster. It is not worth the extra $10-$20 to get an unopened box. Yeah, I usually have to wait an extra two to six months before it is available that way, but I have seen very, very few movies that were worth the extra cost to get them quickly. In fact, I've usually seen it on TV before finding it in the discount rack; the main reason I buy it then is to have it available when I feel like watching it and to not have commercials.
Of course, the first thing I do then is rip it with DVD Decryptor (or equivalent), delete all the ads and control-locks, and burn it to disk, then shove the original to the back of the top shelf. Now I have a nice user-friendly DVD that I am not worried about the kids scratching and that will let me go directly to the main menu when I put it in. Now, when I rent a disk, I get really frustrated at having to wait for all the ads to finish before the menu button will work, so I rent less often than I used to.
Copyright deals with copying. From what I understand of these bots, they are not copying the game from memory, they are just changing it just as I could do to a book. If I could alter the bits on the physical CD that I received when purchasing the game, that is still not a copyright violation. I could even sell that CD as long as I didn't try to claim or imply that it was in new, from-the-publisher condition.
Copyright should not even be the issue here. The only issue I see would be a contract violation, but I doubt Blizzard is ready to test the enforcability of a post-sale click-through EULA.
Battlegrounds -- a worthy addition
Dire Maul -- Isn't that an instance somewhere that Warlocks have to visit for their epic mount? Does anyone else actually go there? This was an addition? Where did Warlocks go for their mount before?
Zul'gurub -- I've been there a few times in huge parties that have wiped multiple times and given up in less time than it took to form the party. This instance is supposed to be fun??
Ahn'Qiraj -- Ah, the famous "AQ" I hear about but have never been to.
Naxxramas -- Huh? Where is this?
Darkmoon Faire -- That's a joke, right?
Talent Reviews -- What is this? I've never even heard of it.
Well, out of that list, there is one (battlegrounds) that is worthwhile enough to be considered an "expansion", but I would've been upset if I'd had to pay for it, especially considering how little I've been.
Burning Crusade is just an addition of more levels, areas, quests, and items. It doesn't really change the game play, just adds on more of the same.
A lot of the justification for monthly fees was the promise of regular infusions of new content. Burning Crusade is exactly that, except we had to pay extra for it on top of the monthly fee. The content of Burning Crusade, added a bit at a time over a year is more what I expected for my monthly fee, not the crap that you listed.
But how do they profit if I choose a competitor's phone? Not only do they not get the sale of a new charger, car charger, and data cable, they also do not get the sale of a new phone! I have no brand loyalty, mainly because I have yet to find a brand that demonstrates any customer loyalty.
I wish we could do this in the US. It drives me crazy that I have to throw away 2 chargers (one at office and one at home), a car charger, and the PC data cable every time I have to replace my phone. Only slightly less irritating is that I have to take all that with me when I travel since I have yet to meet someone with the same model phone I have or even one where the chargers are compatible. Maybe if I could get a phone to last more than two years before going bad, I might not be so annoyed at having to replace everything each time, but I see no good reason for all the incompatibility.
Considering that on my computer (and probably most except serious gamers and artists) the video, sound, and ethernet are all built-in on the motherboard, if I should have to change the board, they all go at once. I'd get to keep the hard drive and cd/dvd drive. This should count as a new computer? Although I would hope that would never happen more than once on a given computer, why should that count as my one allowed change?