So you know what to do? You do a search for what you're after (eg. Office) and sort by number of seeders. You then examine the first torrent that matches what you want and contains the highest number of seeders, and read the comments. You then download it, scan it via anti-virus or whatever, then install and run it. Private trackers have an even higher level of scrutiny with such things, so odds are that things which exist on private trackers are clean too.
In MOST cases this is enough. Sure that's not 100% of the time, but once you get used to doing this enough you develop an ability to pick out the jewels from the crud. Plus of course, once you've obtained all the software you need, you don't really need to seek it out anymore so once you know it's a good torrent, you're worries are over, and you've your nice and shiny software that runs rings around Open Source in terms of presentation and functionality.
You make it sound as though pirated software cannot be obtained securely. Whatever.
And yet, if it were an obvious conclusion, the statement preceding it wouldn't have obtained (as of this post) a "Score:4, Interesting" moderating would it now?
Put simply (very simply) - WW2 games are tolerated without outrage because it's an OLD war, a long-gone war that doesn't have any resonance with most people these days. It doesn't get portrayed in the media every day because, unlike the Iraq war, it's over and done with. There's very little for people to associate with in WW2 because we're not continually reminded of it in our daily lives, or when we read/watch the news.
Games set in unresolved warzones are a tricky subject simply because the fight hasn't finished. They're still way too raw among people's minds, whereas WW2 is condemned to the history books and a decreasing pool of veterans. Once the war in Iraq is finished, and enough time has passed for reflection and consideration about how it went, a game released about the war probably wouldn't result in as much outrage. "Time heals all wounds" might not hold up so well with people, but it works well enough for video games.
It's annoying because the zealots will be happy that their "phone" (which isn't even a good phone to begin with) will still be around. We need an actual product that you won't be embarrassed showing to non-geek folk. Now all we'll get are smug idiots.
Assuming they aren't prepared to get MS Office the torrent way (which works beautifully if you know how I might add), why didn't you recommend the It's Not Stealing promotion Microsoft likes to run which offers 2007 Ultimate for a relatively low price to students at least?
"Running fine" is largely dependent on what settings you've used. It's a lot easier to configure ScummVM to work at its best than it is DOSBox, particularly when it comes to the sound working perfectly without any breakups.
How so? 90% of users wouldn't know what a torrent was, and of the remainder how many would know how to configure their router so they could use it? Use WinRAR, VLC etc.? Even know how to install them?
And even then you've done that mess it's not streaming.. you've got to download first. Screw that. Open browser, goto www.hulu.com, watch show. Torrent just can't compete with that.
Laziness is never rewarded. Learning a minimal set of details such as what programs to use to unpack torrented shows and setting up uTorrent empowers that person, because it enables them to find and view content far superior to what they knew existed. Hell they don't even need to mess around in their router, just enable UPnP in the client. Forwarding ports? Bah!
Knowledge is empowering - there's nothing wrong with learning just a LITTLE to get what you want. We're not expecting them to know everything, but assuming they already have a basic understanding of how to download/install programs and click on checkboxes, they can be shown and can learn if the results are shown to be fruitful.
I didn't even know you could get 15.4" displays that ran at such a res.
I'd prefer not to have to deal with the eyestrain though. Unless everything has been scaled up to a reasonable size of course, otherwise I can't help but thing you're doing massive long term eye damage that you aren't aware of just yet.:)
How can you form any kind of social bonding in a company when your worth is distilled down to the results of some fucking mathematical formula? I'm not naive to think there's any concept of loyalty or trust in the modern business, but man, things just keep getting worse.
Forget even referring to us by name anymore, just give us numbers if you're gonna stop treating us as human fucking beings.
I'm a geek who believes in moving forward, not backwards. Forget emulators, we should be working towards full utilisation of hardware and not pine for nostalgic. It isn't necessary to get task A to work on product B just because we can.
I'm also not your regular geek like the Slashdot crowd are. I have found the geek lifestyle to be very empty and unfulfilling. Get away from fiddling with computers for the hell of it; they're just tools. Using a PS3 to run old-school emulators is a waste of hardware.
How's that 3D support for Linux on the PS3 coming along?
The PS3 is a powerhouse of hardware and people want to run old-school emulators on it? Do you have any idea how embarrassing that'll look compared to someone running MSG4? Give us proper use of the PS3 already!
Online activation: Another good reason not to buy, which is why I don't buy Steam-only (i.e. Valve) games even on disk.
Shame, Valve games are some of the best around.
But then again you're more interested in your principles than having fun, so whatever. Some people are too principled to compromise, which is annoying. Glad I'm not you! Whooo FUN!!!!
At what point will the ease of immediate downloads outweigh a manual and a box to stick on your shelf (if it doesn't already)?
At the point where I can download a DRM-less installer or ISO and do whatever the hell I want with it.
Anything short of that, and I'll keep buying physical media.
I don't understand. Your position doesn't make sense anymore.
Games distributed via physical media these days don't make it easy create a one-to-one copy, due to deliberate errors in manufacturing and other protections, so that advantage is gone. Furthermore, a lot of games these days require activation even when purchased in physical form, so the resale advantage is gone too. Even good physical manuals are becoming extinct, replaced by PDFs on the discs.
If a "document" wants to _do_ anything, then it is not a document, and should be given the same trust as other programs. The Microsoftification of the world must stop.
If we followed your logic, we'd never have web apps.
Not to mention from what I can see, its pretty much a repackaged free version of Quake III with new maps. But the lack of Mac support just kills it for me, Im not running emulation just to play a FPS when there are plenty of free and maintained FPS out there of the Quake and UT variety. Interesting concept but crappy execution.
Slashdot is a really weird place at times. It's full of people who actually think Linux is mainstream enough now to warrant priority support from commercial vendors.
*shakes head*
FFS people, Linux is not a priority for most companies. You're lucky if they even bother with a release after time as passed. Of COURSE they're gonna focus on the primary operating system - Windows. Mac? Maybe sometime later. But please, don't keep getting disappointed whenever high-profile software is released and doesn't have a Linux version. You'll become exhausted very quickly.
For what it's worth, I've been buying DRM free music from Amazon using Ubuntu for a while now. They even offer a handy downloader for Linux.
That's nice.
Of course, if you live anyone outside of the US, the Amazon store doesn't even fucking work! So it's no surprise iTunes+iStore gets the attention they deserve - it works in far more locations around the world than Amazon.
I dunno, I actually enjoy news articles like this sometimes. It's a welcome surprise from all the Linux zealotry/Microsoft bashing this site is used to.
Which version of 64-bit Windows though, XP or Vista?
Windows XP 64-bit is considered to be pretty crap, but Vista 64-bit is quite nice. For the record, every device on my laptop has a 64-bit driver providing exactly the same features and capabilities as the 32-bit ones, which was nice when I made the jump to 64-bit.
But what do I know, apart from how to use computers. Heh.
Sure, Windows has more third-party drivers than Linux, but Windows drivers are not quality, not at all.
God I get really angry sometimes at comments like this. People assume that their own experiences are all that counts.
My experiences:
* My Intel X3100 (965GM) graphics chipset runs faster and supports OpenGL 2 in Windows instead of running far slower and only OpenGL 1.4 in Linux. So, it's faster and more capable. I can even do things like force aspect ration when running at a lower resolution, something I can't do with these drivers in Linux.
* My old Canon inkjet printer provides more information in Windows. I can bring up a window showing the ink levels so I can have a rough estimate as to when I should go out to get more cartridges. I can also force a manual clean of the heads if necessary, something I cannot do with the generic drivers in Linux.
* My Realtek HD audio audio chipset has a really dodgy volume ramp-up in Linux. From about 0% to 50% it is fairly steady, but quiet. From 50% onwards it seems to change the amount of volume that is increased per each percentage tick. It's not linear. Very annoying since I end up lacking the fine-grained volume control that I can get with the drivers in Windows. A change in a volume tick in Windows at the higher levels is subtle, but in Linux it's much more noticeable. Might not sound like a big issue but it is when the volume doesn't work like your brain thinks it should!
* My webcam in Windows has additional controls such as horizontal mirroring of the image, automatic gain control, etc. I am not presented with such functions in Linux due to the primitive development of webcam drivers.
So in short - if you ignore what DOESN'T work very well in Linux, well then no wonder a lot of people try it, find it lacking and go back to Windows. Things will never improve in ignorance.
If you're going to be developing a new Internet, allow me to propose you incorporate the Aquinas Protocol. It'll allow me to monit.... eh, enjoy seeing all the wondrous new benefits this provides to our users.
I also recommend routing the entire network to a certain locale in Nevada, just for kicks.
Slashdot Mirror
So you know what to do? You do a search for what you're after (eg. Office) and sort by number of seeders. You then examine the first torrent that matches what you want and contains the highest number of seeders, and read the comments. You then download it, scan it via anti-virus or whatever, then install and run it. Private trackers have an even higher level of scrutiny with such things, so odds are that things which exist on private trackers are clean too.
In MOST cases this is enough. Sure that's not 100% of the time, but once you get used to doing this enough you develop an ability to pick out the jewels from the crud. Plus of course, once you've obtained all the software you need, you don't really need to seek it out anymore so once you know it's a good torrent, you're worries are over, and you've your nice and shiny software that runs rings around Open Source in terms of presentation and functionality.
You make it sound as though pirated software cannot be obtained securely. Whatever.
At some point, I think most people grow up and tune out this kinda of shit. It's really tiring to see folks root for one corporation over another.
And yet, if it were an obvious conclusion, the statement preceding it wouldn't have obtained (as of this post) a "Score:4, Interesting" moderating would it now?
Q.E.D. via logic bitch.
Put simply (very simply) - WW2 games are tolerated without outrage because it's an OLD war, a long-gone war that doesn't have any resonance with most people these days. It doesn't get portrayed in the media every day because, unlike the Iraq war, it's over and done with. There's very little for people to associate with in WW2 because we're not continually reminded of it in our daily lives, or when we read/watch the news.
Games set in unresolved warzones are a tricky subject simply because the fight hasn't finished. They're still way too raw among people's minds, whereas WW2 is condemned to the history books and a decreasing pool of veterans. Once the war in Iraq is finished, and enough time has passed for reflection and consideration about how it went, a game released about the war probably wouldn't result in as much outrage. "Time heals all wounds" might not hold up so well with people, but it works well enough for video games.
It's annoying because the zealots will be happy that their "phone" (which isn't even a good phone to begin with) will still be around. We need an actual product that you won't be embarrassed showing to non-geek folk. Now all we'll get are smug idiots.
What's this "rest of the world" thing people like to mention every now and then? I've never heard of it.
This makes me angry! Seems like I can't go anywhere without being tricked by some stupid trick.
Ahhh, at least I can view my cat videos on YouTube without any prob....
qnno no up
No, strike that - fucking overzealous DA.
He was willing to ruin the lives of these kids, and for what?
It's shit like this that makes the rest of the world shake their heads with pity at the US.
Assuming they aren't prepared to get MS Office the torrent way (which works beautifully if you know how I might add), why didn't you recommend the It's Not Stealing promotion Microsoft likes to run which offers 2007 Ultimate for a relatively low price to students at least?
http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/itsnotcheating/default.aspx
(fyi. not a shrill, but it is a nice offer and 2007 is a very nice package in any case).
"Running fine" is largely dependent on what settings you've used. It's a lot easier to configure ScummVM to work at its best than it is DOSBox, particularly when it comes to the sound working perfectly without any breakups.
Laziness is never rewarded. Learning a minimal set of details such as what programs to use to unpack torrented shows and setting up uTorrent empowers that person, because it enables them to find and view content far superior to what they knew existed. Hell they don't even need to mess around in their router, just enable UPnP in the client. Forwarding ports? Bah!
Knowledge is empowering - there's nothing wrong with learning just a LITTLE to get what you want. We're not expecting them to know everything, but assuming they already have a basic understanding of how to download/install programs and click on checkboxes, they can be shown and can learn if the results are shown to be fruitful.
I didn't even know you could get 15.4" displays that ran at such a res.
I'd prefer not to have to deal with the eyestrain though. Unless everything has been scaled up to a reasonable size of course, otherwise I can't help but thing you're doing massive long term eye damage that you aren't aware of just yet. :)
How can you form any kind of social bonding in a company when your worth is distilled down to the results of some fucking mathematical formula? I'm not naive to think there's any concept of loyalty or trust in the modern business, but man, things just keep getting worse.
Forget even referring to us by name anymore, just give us numbers if you're gonna stop treating us as human fucking beings.
I'm a geek who believes in moving forward, not backwards. Forget emulators, we should be working towards full utilisation of hardware and not pine for nostalgic. It isn't necessary to get task A to work on product B just because we can.
I'm also not your regular geek like the Slashdot crowd are. I have found the geek lifestyle to be very empty and unfulfilling. Get away from fiddling with computers for the hell of it; they're just tools. Using a PS3 to run old-school emulators is a waste of hardware.
How's that 3D support for Linux on the PS3 coming along?
The PS3 is a powerhouse of hardware and people want to run old-school emulators on it? Do you have any idea how embarrassing that'll look compared to someone running MSG4? Give us proper use of the PS3 already!
Shame, Valve games are some of the best around.
But then again you're more interested in your principles than having fun, so whatever. Some people are too principled to compromise, which is annoying. Glad I'm not you! Whooo FUN!!!!
I don't understand. Your position doesn't make sense anymore.
Games distributed via physical media these days don't make it easy create a one-to-one copy, due to deliberate errors in manufacturing and other protections, so that advantage is gone. Furthermore, a lot of games these days require activation even when purchased in physical form, so the resale advantage is gone too. Even good physical manuals are becoming extinct, replaced by PDFs on the discs.
So again, what do you gain from physical media?
If we followed your logic, we'd never have web apps.
Slashdot is a really weird place at times. It's full of people who actually think Linux is mainstream enough now to warrant priority support from commercial vendors.
*shakes head*
FFS people, Linux is not a priority for most companies. You're lucky if they even bother with a release after time as passed. Of COURSE they're gonna focus on the primary operating system - Windows. Mac? Maybe sometime later. But please, don't keep getting disappointed whenever high-profile software is released and doesn't have a Linux version. You'll become exhausted very quickly.
That's nice.
Of course, if you live anyone outside of the US, the Amazon store doesn't even fucking work! So it's no surprise iTunes+iStore gets the attention they deserve - it works in far more locations around the world than Amazon.
Ditto Hulu.
I dunno, I actually enjoy news articles like this sometimes. It's a welcome surprise from all the Linux zealotry/Microsoft bashing this site is used to.
Which version of 64-bit Windows though, XP or Vista?
Windows XP 64-bit is considered to be pretty crap, but Vista 64-bit is quite nice. For the record, every device on my laptop has a 64-bit driver providing exactly the same features and capabilities as the 32-bit ones, which was nice when I made the jump to 64-bit.
But what do I know, apart from how to use computers. Heh.
God I get really angry sometimes at comments like this. People assume that their own experiences are all that counts.
My experiences:
* My Intel X3100 (965GM) graphics chipset runs faster and supports OpenGL 2 in Windows instead of running far slower and only OpenGL 1.4 in Linux. So, it's faster and more capable. I can even do things like force aspect ration when running at a lower resolution, something I can't do with these drivers in Linux.
* My old Canon inkjet printer provides more information in Windows. I can bring up a window showing the ink levels so I can have a rough estimate as to when I should go out to get more cartridges. I can also force a manual clean of the heads if necessary, something I cannot do with the generic drivers in Linux.
* My Realtek HD audio audio chipset has a really dodgy volume ramp-up in Linux. From about 0% to 50% it is fairly steady, but quiet. From 50% onwards it seems to change the amount of volume that is increased per each percentage tick. It's not linear. Very annoying since I end up lacking the fine-grained volume control that I can get with the drivers in Windows. A change in a volume tick in Windows at the higher levels is subtle, but in Linux it's much more noticeable. Might not sound like a big issue but it is when the volume doesn't work like your brain thinks it should!
* My webcam in Windows has additional controls such as horizontal mirroring of the image, automatic gain control, etc. I am not presented with such functions in Linux due to the primitive development of webcam drivers.
So in short - if you ignore what DOESN'T work very well in Linux, well then no wonder a lot of people try it, find it lacking and go back to Windows. Things will never improve in ignorance.
Seems as though the law thinks otherwise these days. It's safer to consider the EULA a contract if you're worried.
If you're going to be developing a new Internet, allow me to propose you incorporate the Aquinas Protocol. It'll allow me to monit.... eh, enjoy seeing all the wondrous new benefits this provides to our users.
I also recommend routing the entire network to a certain locale in Nevada, just for kicks.
Ta,
Bob Page.
Oh by the way... MJ12 represent! Oops, sorry.