You should definitely buy a PS2 and a Gamecube. You will then quickly find out that neither of them is any more able to play imported games than the Xbox.
I'm aware, I just hate Microsoft.;-)
Hell, you can even play your games online if you choose (at least games with the system link option) via the Gamespy Tunnel.
Ahh, I was not aware of that. Cool.
Therefore, if someone blew $50 on Xbox Live, they were, in my opinion, taking a risk and Microsoft bears no responsibility for any loss incurred doing so when they couldn't get on XBL.
Oh, absolutely. My point was wouldn't it be nice if this was accomodated for, i.e. doesnt' matter if your system is modded as long as you are playing a valid, licensed game?
Microsoft implements a disk checksuming feature which ensures the copy of the game you are playing on your modded X-Box is authentic according to their database. Also included is a detection feature such as the one currently employed to detect the mod chips. If the checksuming hardware has been modified, deny the user. If the mod doesnt' affect checksumming and the validity of the games can be confirmed, allow the user to play. Everyone is happy.
The way it really is:
MS doesn't want to piss of content providers by allowing region coding to be broken. Nor is it willing to show that it will tollerate bending the rules of the DMCA, for any reason, valid or otherwise. Nor is MS smart enough to come up with a good plan the first time and by the time anyone realizes, it's way too late.
The way it should be:
Microsoft should work with those interested in using their device to do other things than play video games. For once there is actual geek intrest in a Microsoft product (a hardware one at that), and especially interesting is there is intrest from the Linux community. This is their chance to make some bucks of the people they fear are going to run them into the ground. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Microsoft should also make changes to accomodate those who wish to import content from other areas of the world for their own use, and usually pay top dollar to do so. Seriously, what exactly IS the big deal with me playing some awsome video game which was only released in Japan?
Wrapping a towel around your head and hoping the problem goes away will not work, ever.
However, not purchasing a video game due to intrusive advertising will work. The ads alone won't pay the bills, so I doubt the company will go that route again. Besides, what advertiser would want to have their ad be the one that pops up and annoys the crap out of some poor gamer? Or, better yet, what advertiser will want to buy ad space once they see that no one buys a game loaded with ads?
Non-intrusive advertising is fine. "Oh, here's a McDonalds in The Sims Online, neato. BTW, your monthly subscription fee is so conviniently low now because McDonalds pays for part of it." If a game brought me to the last level and showed me an ad before allowing me to fight the final boss or what have you, I would return it to the store. If the store wouldnt take it, I'd mail it back the manufacturer with a note demanding a refund. (Well, I'd probably call them first...)
I dont' think that game developers themselves would like a game with intrusive ads like that in it, and therefore realize it wouldnt' entertain their customers much, either.
(Just you wait, Sims online will get rid of the McDonalds thing, and the price will climb up. And everyone will complain about the high price. Be careful what you wish, you just might get it.)
Everyone is talking about how SVG makes for a nice interactive site and will replace Flash/etc. as a nice defined standard. But what about audio? I didnt' see it mentioned in the specs... Of course SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics, but what will be done to handle synchronized audio on a web site? Will the old DOM and JavaScript take care of this? What about if I want an SVG-pure page?
Or am I missing something blatantly obvious in the specs?
Re:No, give ME a break.
on
Film Gimp
·
· Score: 2, Funny
LOL.
Well, it's be good for secret corporate documents, or millitary stuff, or say, using FTJ through an SSH tunnel to send the nightly backups across the globe without fear (well, reduced fear) of interception.
Or when i forward around my secret plans to hack into CowboyNeal's toaster and BURN HIS BREAKFAST. Or something.
Re:Answers to slews of dumb responses
on
Review: EyeTV
·
· Score: 2
Well you're right, but the MSAL (Most-Significant Acronym Letter) is still correct.
Worst-case senario:
Low-Speed USB 1.1: 1,500,000 bits per second. (1.5Mbps * 1,000,000 bps)
VideoCD data stream: 1,228,800 bits per second. (150KBps * 1024 bytes per KB * 8 bits per byte)
I'm sorry, did you READ the comment you replied to? No?
Probably for the same reason you bought an Intel Pro USB Camera?
No, give ME a break.
on
Film Gimp
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I am so sick of hearing this argument about DRM. DRM as it is now envisioned will NOT stop anyone from writing an OS to work with any platform. It will not prevent Linux from running on x86. It will not make Microsoft the One OS Provider (although, they'd like it too).
First let's go over what DRM is going to be:
X86 CPU manufacturers are (in the most likely senario) going to add instruction opcodes, or more likely, additional BIOS interupts, which are used for isolating a segment of memory from all but a "trusted" source, a process of some sort, be it a driver, application, whatever. It will be authenticated by a key, yadda yadda. The point is, the HARDWARE will lock-out access to this memory block by all other processes on the machine. Therefore, program A cannot read, write, touch, smell, send a love letter too, or call program B's protected memory block on the phone to say hello. To the rest of the machine, sans program A, this block does not and never did exist.
Microsoft is implementing "Palladium" as the software end to this scheme. It will be a system in Windows which does the work of authenticating the use of these features as an abstraction layer in the Windows API. Windows Media Player, for example, might download encyrpted content from the 'net into a protected memory zone, so other programs would be unable to rip it for saving & possible later re-distrobution. It could also be used to completely isolate processes from each other in hardware, which would also prevent many types of viral activity (but not all, imagine a process is taken over by some network exploit and code is saved to the disk, it woudl work in any isolated segement it is loaded into...), and improve general security of sensitive e-mail, documents, data in general.
The way I see it, this scheme offers ADVANTAGES for Linux. For one, Linux won't impose the pay-for-use services I can envision Microsoft and MPAA/RIAA types pushing for (i.e. imagine the MPAA strikes a deal with MS, and each time you watch a DVD in your computer, you are charged a $0.05 fee, with no way around it, in addition to not being able to rip the DVD [well, using the standard driver, anyways:-D] ). People will be sick of yet MORE "Windows bullshit" on their computers, and perhaps attempt to make the jump to Linux as their operating system. This process will be accellerated as some Linux distros become more and more user friendly. This very thing is already working for the Macintosh, and DRM isn't even bothering Joe Homeuser or Grandma E-Mail yet! Secondly, Linux could utilize these new opcodes/BIOS features in it's own implementation (remember: Palladium is part of Windows only) for security use. Imagine recieving an PGP-encrypted e-mail which is loaded straight into hardware locked memory. How's THAT for secure? The usual other advantages apply, such as better protection of memory because the hardware forces it, etc. Who knows, this might even solve many of the buffer overflow problems seen in recent years, just make a small protected block as a buffer. It's hardware isolated, it can't overflow anywhere! (Well, as long as the hardware implementation is decent, which has yet to be seen.)
Then there is always the "YEAH RIGHT" crowd, those who insist this is root of all evil and I should remove my head from my ass and smell the reality. Most would also claim the smell before I took my head out of my ass would match this particular reality, but I'm not quite so sure (heh). Think about it, if DRM is going to cripple hardware to the point where it will destroy the open source community, a community which has proven time and again its methods work and its craftsmanship is that of quality - a community which the government (of both the US and foreign nations) has begun to take notice of and actually embrace - a community which competes directly with Microsoft; do you really think they'd get away with it? The NSA has their own Linux distro. Suddenly Microsoft and Intel create a system which only allows Windows to run on previously open hardware?
The DOJ would flush them both down the toilet for extreme monopolistic practices before it would even be reported on Slashdot. The recent court desision also left a somewhat open end for amendments to the settlement, I'm sure that would "get in on the action too".
I really wasn't a big fan of the whole DRM idea when I first heard it, but the Slashdot crowd tends to get a little over-excited at times. Between seeing what this whole DRM project has evolved into, and given the current state of the technology world (and for that matter, the world as a whole), I dont' see how it wouldn't be complete suicide for DRM-supporting companies to lock out potential 3rd-party developers of any kind. The system is meant to protect content, not monopolies.
Unless it's a monopoly on content. But that is a different discussion...
I've never tried another office suite on the Mac, but I warn you: if you decide to go directly with Microsoft Office, it carries a hefty pricetag, and sometimes files that move from Mac to Windows Office and back have problems (especially with graphics on Word documents, it's what's kept me from handing in any lab reports in my Digital Circuits class so far this semester, between a non-working printer here and Windows machines at school).
Ahhh Microsoft Office: A format so odd, even Microsoft THEMSELVES can't read it.
Yes, and according to the DMCA, copying my CDs into my computer can be considered an act of Copyright Violation...and Theft.
The Patriot Act is as full of shit as half the new laws passed in recent years. Not that we dont' need to protect against terroism, but dont' call a crime "terrorism" when it isn't. Hacking a US Millitary network is a pretty Bad Thing to be doing, but I wouldn't put it in the same catagory as strapping a bomb to your chest and diving through a resteraunt window.
The US Government is too easily excited by hype and buzzwords like that...
Ahhh, yes under XDarwin or Linux is a different story...I was under the impresion that you meant you'd rather use your Linux machine (well actually, you would;-) )...In an emergency though, this would be nice to have. I do remember under LinuxPPC I had XFree86 configured so that F1 and F2 where middle- and right-click respectively, but that acted as the buttons themselves, i.e. I didn't have to click the mouse button as well, the FKey acted as a click on it's own, which is a Big GUI No-No. Then again, at least the functionality was there, and Linux and X-Windows aren't exactly taylored for newbies (or at least, was to a much lesser extent in 2000).
I'd imagine chording could be implemented under XDarwin for the Mac, but it would be up to the XFree86 developers, not Apple. Toss them a line about it, maybe they'll throw it into the next release (and I'd actually start using it again;-) )
For the really bold, how about modding an iBook/TiBook to have three buttons? Lots of close-call mobo soddering, and a bit of Dremel work I'd imagine. THAT would be impressive.
A little known feature of Mac OS X is the Full Keyboard Access function - it's in the System Preferences, Keyboard pane, under the "Full Keyboard Access" tab.
Asside from the Ctrl-Click contexual menus, you can completely control Mac OS X from the keyboard. the default behavior is for the F-Keys (F1, F2, etc) to highlight keyboard focus on various on screen elements, including any properly API-created Aqua control.
Basically, you can run the computer almost completely without a mouse. Or CLI. With your own custom key layout if you desire. Awsome.
Oh, and my $20 Logitech Optical mouse works great with my G4. Right-click functions as-Windows-expected. Users of OS X and above also enjoy the scroll-wheel goodness, and 10.2 even introduces the "Copy & Paste Files" concept to the Mac for the first time, availible contexualy got all those adjusting Windows users.
Even better is my sister's Logitech Wireless Optical mouse, connected to her TiBook. $40 too expensive? Get the cord version. TiBooks have USB ports, you know.
...one of those annoying "HOST YOUR PAGE" pop-ups with all the "Click your intrest!!!" links, which some web-hosting companies use when you get a 404. The focus of the page isn't on the "Search" aspect, it's a "Browse our portal" type thing. This is exactly why Google is the best. It's the only "Search" left on the Internet. Everything else got hyped up into being a Web Portal, but Google just wants to find you stuff.
Of course, I always used WebCrawler *shrug* so I dont' really remember the "old" Altavista when it was popular...
Slashdot Mirror
Alright, I'll buy an X-Box instead. No denying THAT money would go to a much more worthy corporate entity.
Troll.
You should definitely buy a PS2 and a Gamecube. You will then quickly find out that neither of them is any more able to play imported games than the Xbox.
;-)
I'm aware, I just hate Microsoft.
Hell, you can even play your games online if you choose (at least games with the system link option) via the Gamespy Tunnel.
Ahh, I was not aware of that. Cool.
Therefore, if someone blew $50 on Xbox Live, they were, in my opinion, taking a risk and Microsoft bears no responsibility for any loss incurred doing so when they couldn't get on XBL.
Oh, absolutely. My point was wouldn't it be nice if this was accomodated for, i.e. doesnt' matter if your system is modded as long as you are playing a valid, licensed game?
...here's a stretch, but what about "homebrew" developer kits?
You threw the moderators a fast one. Congrats!
Slackware is for newbies like jock itch is for fun.
By the way, nice troll in there....
You must be wrong if you wrap towels around your head and try to make your problems go away, you TERRORIST!
;-)
Wrapping a towel around your head and hoping the problem goes away will not work, ever.
However, not purchasing a video game due to intrusive advertising will work. The ads alone won't pay the bills, so I doubt the company will go that route again. Besides, what advertiser would want to have their ad be the one that pops up and annoys the crap out of some poor gamer? Or, better yet, what advertiser will want to buy ad space once they see that no one buys a game loaded with ads?
Non-intrusive advertising is fine. "Oh, here's a McDonalds in The Sims Online, neato. BTW, your monthly subscription fee is so conviniently low now because McDonalds pays for part of it." If a game brought me to the last level and showed me an ad before allowing me to fight the final boss or what have you, I would return it to the store. If the store wouldnt take it, I'd mail it back the manufacturer with a note demanding a refund. (Well, I'd probably call them first...)
I dont' think that game developers themselves would like a game with intrusive ads like that in it, and therefore realize it wouldnt' entertain their customers much, either.
(Just you wait, Sims online will get rid of the McDonalds thing, and the price will climb up. And everyone will complain about the high price. Be careful what you wish, you just might get it.)
Nope, Mass is clouded over/fogged over as well. :-(
I missed it last year because of my bitch ex-girlfriend, and this year cuz of weather. Oh well, I'll have to live until I'm 54 then.
...because your water-resistant watch was designed to take pressures of up to 150 feet underwater?
I've never seen a shower that's 50M deep.
Exactly, so then you shouldn't have a problem, should you?
...or it's marketing-speak for a vitrual "Mirror" of your PC...
Nah, I'm with you on this one.
Yea yea, you know, since the rest of the world is so small compared to us.
</SARCASM>
Everyone is talking about how SVG makes for a nice interactive site and will replace Flash/etc. as a nice defined standard. But what about audio? I didnt' see it mentioned in the specs... Of course SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphics, but what will be done to handle synchronized audio on a web site? Will the old DOM and JavaScript take care of this? What about if I want an SVG-pure page?
Or am I missing something blatantly obvious in the specs?
...then imagine a Beowulf cluster of these.
*ducks and runs*
LOL.
Well, it's be good for secret corporate documents, or millitary stuff, or say, using FTJ through an SSH tunnel to send the nightly backups across the globe without fear (well, reduced fear) of interception.
Or when i forward around my secret plans to hack into CowboyNeal's toaster and BURN HIS BREAKFAST. Or something.
- Worst-case senario:
- Low-Speed USB 1.1: 1,500,000 bits per second. (1.5Mbps * 1,000,000 bps)
- VideoCD data stream: 1,228,800 bits per second. (150KBps * 1024 bytes per KB * 8 bits per byte)
Woohoo! It works!I'm sorry, did you READ the comment you replied to? No?
Probably for the same reason you bought an Intel Pro USB Camera?
First let's go over what DRM is going to be:
- X86 CPU manufacturers are (in the most likely senario) going to add instruction opcodes, or more likely, additional BIOS interupts, which are used for isolating a segment of memory from all but a "trusted" source, a process of some sort, be it a driver, application, whatever. It will be authenticated by a key, yadda yadda. The point is, the HARDWARE will lock-out access to this memory block by all other processes on the machine. Therefore, program A cannot read, write, touch, smell, send a love letter too, or call program B's protected memory block on the phone to say hello. To the rest of the machine, sans program A, this block does not and never did exist.
- Microsoft is implementing "Palladium" as the software end to this scheme. It will be a system in Windows which does the work of authenticating the use of these features as an abstraction layer in the Windows API. Windows Media Player, for example, might download encyrpted content from the 'net into a protected memory zone, so other programs would be unable to rip it for saving & possible later re-distrobution. It could also be used to completely isolate processes from each other in hardware, which would also prevent many types of viral activity (but not all, imagine a process is taken over by some network exploit and code is saved to the disk, it woudl work in any isolated segement it is loaded into...), and improve general security of sensitive e-mail, documents, data in general.
The way I see it, this scheme offers ADVANTAGES for Linux. For one, Linux won't impose the pay-for-use services I can envision Microsoft and MPAA/RIAA types pushing for (i.e. imagine the MPAA strikes a deal with MS, and each time you watch a DVD in your computer, you are charged a $0.05 fee, with no way around it, in addition to not being able to rip the DVD [well, using the standard driver, anywaysThen there is always the "YEAH RIGHT" crowd, those who insist this is root of all evil and I should remove my head from my ass and smell the reality. Most would also claim the smell before I took my head out of my ass would match this particular reality, but I'm not quite so sure (heh). Think about it, if DRM is going to cripple hardware to the point where it will destroy the open source community, a community which has proven time and again its methods work and its craftsmanship is that of quality - a community which the government (of both the US and foreign nations) has begun to take notice of and actually embrace - a community which competes directly with Microsoft; do you really think they'd get away with it? The NSA has their own Linux distro. Suddenly Microsoft and Intel create a system which only allows Windows to run on previously open hardware?
The DOJ would flush them both down the toilet for extreme monopolistic practices before it would even be reported on Slashdot. The recent court desision also left a somewhat open end for amendments to the settlement, I'm sure that would "get in on the action too".
I really wasn't a big fan of the whole DRM idea when I first heard it, but the Slashdot crowd tends to get a little over-excited at times. Between seeing what this whole DRM project has evolved into, and given the current state of the technology world (and for that matter, the world as a whole), I dont' see how it wouldn't be complete suicide for DRM-supporting companies to lock out potential 3rd-party developers of any kind. The system is meant to protect content, not monopolies.
Unless it's a monopoly on content. But that is a different discussion...
I've never tried another office suite on the Mac, but I warn you: if you decide to go directly with Microsoft Office, it carries a hefty pricetag, and sometimes files that move from Mac to Windows Office and back have problems (especially with graphics on Word documents, it's what's kept me from handing in any lab reports in my Digital Circuits class so far this semester, between a non-working printer here and Windows machines at school).
Ahhh Microsoft Office: A format so odd, even Microsoft THEMSELVES can't read it.
That's fine. I do that too.
But if a Mac (or any computer system) doesn't strive to be versitile, what good is it?
The great thing about the Mac is the same thing that makes Perl hated by many: TMTOWTDI: There's More Than One Way To Do It.
No, they could tell us how much they learned and how easy it was to learn it. Or not, depending on the book.
It would be nice to see a review from an expert as well, however, commenting on the efficiency and accuracy of the methods taught in the book.
Yes, and according to the DMCA, copying my CDs into my computer can be considered an act of Copyright Violation...and Theft.
The Patriot Act is as full of shit as half the new laws passed in recent years. Not that we dont' need to protect against terroism, but dont' call a crime "terrorism" when it isn't. Hacking a US Millitary network is a pretty Bad Thing to be doing, but I wouldn't put it in the same catagory as strapping a bomb to your chest and diving through a resteraunt window.
The US Government is too easily excited by hype and buzzwords like that...
Ahhh, yes under XDarwin or Linux is a different story...I was under the impresion that you meant you'd rather use your Linux machine (well actually, you would ;-) )...In an emergency though, this would be nice to have. I do remember under LinuxPPC I had XFree86 configured so that F1 and F2 where middle- and right-click respectively, but that acted as the buttons themselves, i.e. I didn't have to click the mouse button as well, the FKey acted as a click on it's own, which is a Big GUI No-No. Then again, at least the functionality was there, and Linux and X-Windows aren't exactly taylored for newbies (or at least, was to a much lesser extent in 2000).
;-) )
I'd imagine chording could be implemented under XDarwin for the Mac, but it would be up to the XFree86 developers, not Apple. Toss them a line about it, maybe they'll throw it into the next release (and I'd actually start using it again
For the really bold, how about modding an iBook/TiBook to have three buttons? Lots of close-call mobo soddering, and a bit of Dremel work I'd imagine. THAT would be impressive.
A little known feature of Mac OS X is the Full Keyboard Access function - it's in the System Preferences, Keyboard pane, under the "Full Keyboard Access" tab.
Asside from the Ctrl-Click contexual menus, you can completely control Mac OS X from the keyboard. the default behavior is for the F-Keys (F1, F2, etc) to highlight keyboard focus on various on screen elements, including any properly API-created Aqua control.
Basically, you can run the computer almost completely without a mouse. Or CLI. With your own custom key layout if you desire. Awsome.
Oh, and my $20 Logitech Optical mouse works great with my G4. Right-click functions as-Windows-expected. Users of OS X and above also enjoy the scroll-wheel goodness, and 10.2 even introduces the "Copy & Paste Files" concept to the Mac for the first time, availible contexualy got all those adjusting Windows users.
Even better is my sister's Logitech Wireless Optical mouse, connected to her TiBook. $40 too expensive? Get the cord version. TiBooks have USB ports, you know.
...one of those annoying "HOST YOUR PAGE" pop-ups with all the "Click your intrest!!!" links, which some web-hosting companies use when you get a 404. The focus of the page isn't on the "Search" aspect, it's a "Browse our portal" type thing. This is exactly why Google is the best. It's the only "Search" left on the Internet. Everything else got hyped up into being a Web Portal, but Google just wants to find you stuff.
Of course, I always used WebCrawler *shrug* so I dont' really remember the "old" Altavista when it was popular...
Simba: What's that mean, anyways?
Rafikii: It means "You're a baboon...and I'm not!"
Yes, he was. Rafiki the mongoose? Ummm....