There's really NOT very much Half Life 2 does that is meant to be truly difficult in terms of player control. When it comes to navigating the world, I never found a crouch jump needed, I never had to jump from a ladder to another area, all the things that generally make an FPS difficultly repetitive are really not present.
The curve essentially boils down to two things:
Learning where you actually need to go - their level design can be a little ambiguous at first, as you're not sure which direction to go when you enter a big room.
And understanding their puzzles that are present. Yes, it COULD be difficult to control Freeman on this slippery surface while there are a bunch of barnacles on the cieling just drooling to get a piece of you. However, if you took a moment to look around, you'll notice they place a bunch of junk items that you can pick up and throw to tie up the barnacles to get past them. It's really up to you on how you play it, but there IS always an easy solution if you look for it.
Perhaps you are having difficulty because you are trying to get somewhere the developers did not intend, or because you are missing something crucial to completing that part.
This is where I don't follow you. You mentioned in a lower post about "things the developer didn't intend" and Portal has quite a few of those things listed in there.
You can watch the commentary where they mention the "ninja solution" to a particular level. It was something that one of their beta testers discovered, and rather than fixing it, they let it stand for other people to discover. There's also a few bugs that have been used for speed-runs, such as portal bumping.
I just don't follow what you mean by "interactive world" - since they all seem the same to me. In just about every game I can think of there is a way to break free and do something the developer does not intend. Perhaps when it comes to Valve games, it's just a little tougher to find them.
This same "theory" has been made countless times before, and it's BS. [...] "well, I don't get it now, but I'm not going to be the idiot who raises his hand and asks questions..."
You just put forth the perfect evidence to SUPPORT that theory. The fact that a bunch of people getting together makes a person seperate from the logical process of asking for more information.
You mean its not for the endless jokes about living in the basement, not having a girlfriend, no social life, or the strong usage of the soviet russia meme?
I believe a soon to be classic movie explained it best.
Edwards: Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.
Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
Just in general, there seems to be a bunch of book reviews on Slashdot lately about really niche subjects with no explanations as to what they are.
Well, thats because they are usually either the next gen (I want to say 4th level...?) languages or systems that haven't really caught on fully yet, and it sometimes takes a book to help push the product.
For example, you may or may not be familiar with PHP. I think its safe to say you've at least heard of it, possibly even used it, if you are as well versed in the universe of tehnology as you think. Have you heard of Joomla? It may have crossed your ears a few times, but have you used it? It's another Open Source Content Management system, built on PHP. I haven't used it myself but I think I've seen a few book reviews on it here on slashdot. When I look into these kinds of things, its kind of like how Assembly is to C - You understand C a lot more when you know Assembly but its not necessary to write code. You don't need to know PHP to use Joomla, but you'll be a better developer for it.
So, Plone is along those lines, the next step in development, except its in Python, not PHP.
No, I think the percentages are kind of irrelevant.
Basically what you are asking for is a census of the internet. And what qualifies as a porn site and what qualifies as a non-porn site can reeeaaaallly blur the lines. Suppose Break is used to showing off hot Swimsuit models? Pornographic? Probably not. They show a Pic of a spring break girl flashing? Ehhh it's hard to call it pornography even though theres nudity.
I think it generally boils down to what sites can you trust vs what sites you can't trust. And that just cums with experience.
Damnit I almost made it through the whole post without a pun...
People in the porn business are in it to make money. For the most part, they work together. Ever notice how they all link/ad/popup to more sites all within their clique?
There's more money in repeat subscriptions than regular joe getting infected with Malware.
Mod this up - I found this to be an issue as well. Last night I was fiddling around with the idea of monitoring all traffic going in and out of my local network, specifically the ability to monitor any of the smaller devices using the wifi. The general idea being that once I move into my new place, I might leave the WiFi unsecure and snoop on anyone who decides to drop in.
No matter what I did, I couldn't grab any real info on what the iPad was browsing. I eventually tried ARP poisoning with Cain and while that allowed me to monitor what pages were being served by monitoring my own local interface, it would sometimes cause various HTTPS requests to fail, because of the fake certs generated. I know on most windows machines it just gives you that warning "This site might not be secure" and most users continue anyways. I'm not really interested in pulling off the real dangerous MITM attacks, I just want to know whats going in and out.
Is that just a thing with Apple products (their whole being more secure thing) or is it mobile devices in general, or just iDevices? Or am I just a total Noob who needs to do more learning before trying to tackle this stuff? (I did just start this like 2 days ago.
As a non Apple Fanboy - I had assumed it was already on Verizon because I heard the news a couple years ago that it might be on Verizon soon and I figured I missed the news article saying it was released on Verizon.
I don't know of any company that has managed to do that though. In most cases, they are aware of the exploit at least a day before patching it. I mean, I can't imagine finding a solution, implementing it, and fully testing it in under 24 hours. I CAN imagine finding a solution, implementing it, and pushing it out, but that's dangerous.
I have used my ubuntu machine at home to look at several questionable flash based websites in the last few weeks
Well... Umm... You see, this fix has nothing to do with Flash, it's entirely in Adobe Reader...
But... Perhaps you should do a scan just in case. I'm not sure how questionable the sites you visit actually are, but if they are half as questionable as the sites I visit, you probably caught Erectile Dysfunction or something from just looking at it.
Some people would rather sign up for a service to get an episode of a show that is of the current season than put forth the effort of not only setting up torrent or filesharing but also having to find someone who has the latest episode already ripped and on their computer and set up to share.
Don't get me wrong, a fair number of Canadians do enjoy downloading older seasons of television shows, but there isn't anything in place to keep us up to date.
While I agree that it's better to have more than one case to back up your findings, I think it's a little different in that these are medical professionals that are looking at cells, using an imaging device, like any other used to do the task.
It's a little more like saying a $400 surveying tool can detect water when operated by a well engineer. What matters is the folse positive and false negative rate.
All in all, it's kind of a cool story, but I have to wonder - what inspired them to even try this? Could it then be possible with cheaper $300 cameras based on some similar specs but less features perhaps?
I've seen a Loonie* land on its side and roll into a desk, bump, and stop, sitting there upright.
*It's a Canadian Dollar. Don't ask about the name, its supposed to be after The Common Loon, which is the bird on the coin, and not about a mental case... We were probably drunk, you know how these things go.
Your error is that the proposed problem is worded in such a way that they are not actually dependant on each other. It's like the old "I have two coins in my pocket, which add up to 10 cents. One of them is a nickel. What is the other coin?" They are both Nickels, even though they make it sound like the other one could not be a nickel, it doesn't actually say that.
It is entirely possible for them both to be boys born on a Tuesday. The proposed question does not disallow that at all.
Now you can argue that she could have done this pre-social networking site era - but she couldn't simple because she is not in physical contact with 99.5% of people in my building. Social networking makes ones dis-empowerment that much more pervasive.
She could have submitted it online and it could have gone viral and you could be embarassed by 99.5% of the people in your building and every job opportunity you come across for the rest of your life. But I digress
Your issue isn't so much about facebook as it is just the internet in general. It's actually more about your sister, whom if you don't like her sharing embarrasing photos, don't have her share them. Like everyone on Slashdot has said before, anything posted on Facebook is like putting it up on a bulletin board. Now - you yourself didn't put it up there, your sister did. But thats no different than your sister putting it up on a bulletin board, which is also out of your control.
Social Networking sites just make the kinds of behavior you don't like more efficient, thats all.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps you are under-estimating how much evidence there really is. If you were to print it off, you probably COULD climb it AND have a picnic on it.
It is there, it has been presented. If you don't want to read it, how is the burden of proof still on us?
Actually, you CAN, but it's something they are trying to cover up.
There's really NOT very much Half Life 2 does that is meant to be truly difficult in terms of player control. When it comes to navigating the world, I never found a crouch jump needed, I never had to jump from a ladder to another area, all the things that generally make an FPS difficultly repetitive are really not present.
The curve essentially boils down to two things:
Learning where you actually need to go - their level design can be a little ambiguous at first, as you're not sure which direction to go when you enter a big room.
And understanding their puzzles that are present. Yes, it COULD be difficult to control Freeman on this slippery surface while there are a bunch of barnacles on the cieling just drooling to get a piece of you. However, if you took a moment to look around, you'll notice they place a bunch of junk items that you can pick up and throw to tie up the barnacles to get past them. It's really up to you on how you play it, but there IS always an easy solution if you look for it.
Perhaps you are having difficulty because you are trying to get somewhere the developers did not intend, or because you are missing something crucial to completing that part.
This is where I don't follow you. You mentioned in a lower post about "things the developer didn't intend" and Portal has quite a few of those things listed in there.
You can watch the commentary where they mention the "ninja solution" to a particular level. It was something that one of their beta testers discovered, and rather than fixing it, they let it stand for other people to discover. There's also a few bugs that have been used for speed-runs, such as portal bumping.
I just don't follow what you mean by "interactive world" - since they all seem the same to me. In just about every game I can think of there is a way to break free and do something the developer does not intend. Perhaps when it comes to Valve games, it's just a little tougher to find them.
This same "theory" has been made countless times before, and it's BS.
[...]
"well, I don't get it now, but I'm not going to be the idiot who raises his hand and asks questions..."
You just put forth the perfect evidence to SUPPORT that theory. The fact that a bunch of people getting together makes a person seperate from the logical process of asking for more information.
Poking fun at one self is still a joke, no matter how true it may be.
In fact, some of the best jokes out there are the `Funny but true' jokes.
That's why I keep coming back here.
You mean its not for the endless jokes about living in the basement, not having a girlfriend, no social life, or the strong usage of the soviet russia meme?
I believe a soon to be classic movie explained it best.
Edwards: Why the big secret? People are smart. They can handle it.
Kay: A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
These guys like walls.
"Wolololo"
Okay, that one made me laugh.
Just in general, there seems to be a bunch of book reviews on Slashdot lately about really niche subjects with no explanations as to what they are.
Well, thats because they are usually either the next gen (I want to say 4th level...?) languages or systems that haven't really caught on fully yet, and it sometimes takes a book to help push the product.
For example, you may or may not be familiar with PHP. I think its safe to say you've at least heard of it, possibly even used it, if you are as well versed in the universe of tehnology as you think. Have you heard of Joomla? It may have crossed your ears a few times, but have you used it? It's another Open Source Content Management system, built on PHP. I haven't used it myself but I think I've seen a few book reviews on it here on slashdot. When I look into these kinds of things, its kind of like how Assembly is to C - You understand C a lot more when you know Assembly but its not necessary to write code. You don't need to know PHP to use Joomla, but you'll be a better developer for it.
So, Plone is along those lines, the next step in development, except its in Python, not PHP.
"illegal because it could allow operators to connect to the Internet."
Surfing the web is a crime in France?
No, I think the percentages are kind of irrelevant.
Basically what you are asking for is a census of the internet. And what qualifies as a porn site and what qualifies as a non-porn site can reeeaaaallly blur the lines. Suppose Break is used to showing off hot Swimsuit models? Pornographic? Probably not. They show a Pic of a spring break girl flashing? Ehhh it's hard to call it pornography even though theres nudity.
I think it generally boils down to what sites can you trust vs what sites you can't trust. And that just cums with experience.
Damnit I almost made it through the whole post without a pun...
People in the porn business are in it to make money. For the most part, they work together. Ever notice how they all link/ad/popup to more sites all within their clique?
There's more money in repeat subscriptions than regular joe getting infected with Malware.
Open Source Content Management System.
PLONE.
Can't you figure out simple acronyms? Yeesh.
Mod this up - I found this to be an issue as well. Last night I was fiddling around with the idea of monitoring all traffic going in and out of my local network, specifically the ability to monitor any of the smaller devices using the wifi. The general idea being that once I move into my new place, I might leave the WiFi unsecure and snoop on anyone who decides to drop in.
No matter what I did, I couldn't grab any real info on what the iPad was browsing. I eventually tried ARP poisoning with Cain and while that allowed me to monitor what pages were being served by monitoring my own local interface, it would sometimes cause various HTTPS requests to fail, because of the fake certs generated. I know on most windows machines it just gives you that warning "This site might not be secure" and most users continue anyways. I'm not really interested in pulling off the real dangerous MITM attacks, I just want to know whats going in and out.
Is that just a thing with Apple products (their whole being more secure thing) or is it mobile devices in general, or just iDevices? Or am I just a total Noob who needs to do more learning before trying to tackle this stuff? (I did just start this like 2 days ago.
As a non Apple Fanboy - I had assumed it was already on Verizon because I heard the news a couple years ago that it might be on Verizon soon and I figured I missed the news article saying it was released on Verizon.
Apparently I've been had.
I don't know of any company that has managed to do that though. In most cases, they are aware of the exploit at least a day before patching it. I mean, I can't imagine finding a solution, implementing it, and fully testing it in under 24 hours. I CAN imagine finding a solution, implementing it, and pushing it out, but that's dangerous.
I have used my ubuntu machine at home to look at several questionable flash based websites in the last few weeks
Well... Umm... You see, this fix has nothing to do with Flash, it's entirely in Adobe Reader...
But... Perhaps you should do a scan just in case. I'm not sure how questionable the sites you visit actually are, but if they are half as questionable as the sites I visit, you probably caught Erectile Dysfunction or something from just looking at it.
If a company patches 0-day exploits, their dev team is really on top of shit.
Or bumbling GENIUSES. Since the definition of a 0-day exploit is a vulnerability the developers don't know about.
Pirating != Streaming
Some people would rather sign up for a service to get an episode of a show that is of the current season than put forth the effort of not only setting up torrent or filesharing but also having to find someone who has the latest episode already ripped and on their computer and set up to share.
Don't get me wrong, a fair number of Canadians do enjoy downloading older seasons of television shows, but there isn't anything in place to keep us up to date.
While I agree that it's better to have more than one case to back up your findings, I think it's a little different in that these are medical professionals that are looking at cells, using an imaging device, like any other used to do the task.
It's a little more like saying a $400 surveying tool can detect water when operated by a well engineer. What matters is the folse positive and false negative rate.
All in all, it's kind of a cool story, but I have to wonder - what inspired them to even try this? Could it then be possible with cheaper $300 cameras based on some similar specs but less features perhaps?
I've seen a Loonie* land on its side and roll into a desk, bump, and stop, sitting there upright.
*It's a Canadian Dollar. Don't ask about the name, its supposed to be after The Common Loon, which is the bird on the coin, and not about a mental case... We were probably drunk, you know how these things go.
Your error is that the proposed problem is worded in such a way that they are not actually dependant on each other. It's like the old "I have two coins in my pocket, which add up to 10 cents. One of them is a nickel. What is the other coin?" They are both Nickels, even though they make it sound like the other one could not be a nickel, it doesn't actually say that.
It is entirely possible for them both to be boys born on a Tuesday. The proposed question does not disallow that at all.
Now you can argue that she could have done this pre-social networking site era - but she couldn't simple because she is not in physical contact with 99.5% of people in my building. Social networking makes ones dis-empowerment that much more pervasive.
She could have submitted it online and it could have gone viral and you could be embarassed by 99.5% of the people in your building and every job opportunity you come across for the rest of your life. But I digress
Your issue isn't so much about facebook as it is just the internet in general. It's actually more about your sister, whom if you don't like her sharing embarrasing photos, don't have her share them. Like everyone on Slashdot has said before, anything posted on Facebook is like putting it up on a bulletin board. Now - you yourself didn't put it up there, your sister did. But thats no different than your sister putting it up on a bulletin board, which is also out of your control.
Social Networking sites just make the kinds of behavior you don't like more efficient, thats all.