Don't get me wrong, I like Valve, and I support Valve, I buy most of my games through Valve, but it erks me when people proclaim Valve's DRM Scheme as "How to do it right".
The only reason its the right way of distributing is because they haven't abused it for DRM purposes. One person can share a steam account as much as one can copy a CD. Multiple people can even play online should it be a non-valve game. They've tied their own titles into Steam so well that their DRM is tight for Multiplayer Valve Titles. Not that thats a bad thing, gotta protect their games and all.
I've committed to them because, as you say, they deliver a good customer experience.
But it is still completely within their power to take away every game you've purchased through Steam. When you use Steam, you agree to the EULA, which basically states that you are not buying the game, you are purchasing a license through Valve. Valve may at any time at their discretion close your steam account, or stop their servers, with no obligation to deliver you a working copy of the game. This has happened to severe hackers on their more popular titles, such as Counter Strike and Team Fortress 2.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, though I like and support Valve's online distribution method, and Valve as a whole, their implementation does leave one paranoid, since you can lose hundreds of dollars worth of games at the sole discretion of someone else.
Should something happen to cause new management at Valve, their system is set up perfectly to screw you over worse than game you could buy in store. Just saying.
I'm not suggesting that serious and fun are mutually exclusive, just that a serious game tends to turn some people off. For example, Call of Duty 4's big stink with players being told to kill civilians. While its true that its not necessary to progress the game, you can even skip the scene, it still upset people.
What you've been describing are the cliche stories where you fight against Oppression, against vulgar acts, and against injustice in general. These have been around since the 90's.
The "Serious games" the article talks about, are the ones that blur the lines, just like in the real world. At what point does a civilian casualty become acceptable? Can you afford 1 civilian for every 1 insurgent? These are the kinds of moral question brought into the eyes of soldiers the world round day after day. While no one wishes a civilian casualty, most would gladly take that life if they rationalized a greater good coming from it.
The serious games are where Success is difficult to measure, because the consequences of your actions don't always balance out to be righteous. You may take out the villian to find yourself the greater evil.
This is more or less an issue with Consoles in general than it is Microsoft. The idea is that all the server and hosting architecture is much more accessible on a PC. You can choose to set up your own server and have people find you just by IP Address alone, this basic functionality has been built into most PC games since 1996. However, with consoles, everything is built to go through their online system. You can't simply choose to host a game and give people your address. You must set up a game, have it broadcast out through live, and invite through live.
Because -everything- must go through live on a console, and that is a huge plethora of games compared to Blizzards small series, it makes sense that they'd have to decommission their old ones.
This isn't so much about Net Neutrality as it is about them not wanting the government to have control of the situation. It wouldn't matter what the government wanted to do, the Telecoms want to be the ones in charge.
Is how effective Tin foil might be at stopping the hallucinations. They haven't stopped since I started wearing my hat, I'm beginning to doubt they are hallucinations like my doctor tells me.
Theres also evidence of Ramps around a few pyramids, (though not all, and none of the great ones of Giza I believe).
I think he might have been trolling a bit, their brick wasn't just sand and water, it was a carful mixture, including wheat. A lot of preparation went into preparing the stones, so that they were so strong, which is why they are still standing to this day. Also, the way everything is assembled brick by brick, you'd wonder why the base wouldn't be one giant piece, using his theory.
Are you trying to tell me that a Private Corporation such as Google doesn't regularily consider the functionality of other companies who slam it on a regular basis, such as Scroogle?
There is a difference between Educational and Serious. I do not take Bobo the mathematical Monkey counting bananas as serious.
I do take seriously the simulation of what war is really like overseas in countries that experience the real blunt end of it. Civilian casualties, oppression, vulgar and obscene acts of violence. These are the kinds of things that have been a little taboo for video games, because the idea has always been to make a game fun, not realistic. The real world isn't fun, and now they are making games that aren't, to prepare people for the harshness.
Thats basically what they are getting at, not the whole education part.
I'm not an American Citizen (So forgive my lack of education on American Subjects) but seeing how American Foreign Politics play a bigger role than any other nation I feel compelled to express my opinion on it.
The Time Square bomber shows more or less that it's not being very effective, because it means they got lucky he didn't create a nice bomb. It shows how little the American soil is actually protected from this kind of warfare.
It seems to me that it'd simply be better if you weren't mucking around in their business. If the resources spent searching for insurgents in Middle Eastern Countries is effective over there, why wouldn't it be as effective over here? The government would rather the "Collateral Damage" be on their soil, not ours. And thats the only reason. It's not as bad if an Iraqi Civilian dies. More innocents over there have been killed than American Soldiers, and we cry when a soldier comes home wounded. Point is, neither the soldiers or innocent civilians over there would be hurt if the soldiers weren't over there. You can claim the terrorists would be more effective, but we wouldn't know that unless we tried it. I can claim that overall hostilities towards the US would decline and there would be less bombers. Neither of those arguements hold any water.
They are OUR soldiers, and it's our duty as a nation to support them, regardless of whether we support the politics that brought them to the battlefield.
I disagree. Perhaps if serving in the military were mandatory (like some european states), then I might be so inclined to agree with you. But no one is forcing them to become soldiers, though I understand most people view it as good money for lack of better options. Regardless, no one is required by law to serve in the military. As such, if someone decides to join the army, which means they've agreed to fight in whatever wars the higher ups choose to, then they are as much a supporter of the politics that bring them to the battlefield as the president or congress.
If I am opposed to any and all of their actions, because I think being in the middle east is a bad ida in the first place, I don't think I should have to pay for their injuries anymore then they should have to pay for MY health care. Since I work at a full time job I'm not as much as a constructive member of society? Somehow my country does better with people manning turrets in Afghanistan as opposed to a desk back home?
If my tax dollars are taking Shrapnel out of a wounded leg, then I also want them to cover whatever medical expenses I might incur at my job. Perhaps if I could see the benefit of having soldiers over there. There's no real tangible evidence that having jarhead in harms way is doing anything for me, besides increasing my taxes. I am not concerned with terrorists in Iraq. I'd be concerned about Terrorists in my home country. And if thats not the reason they're over there, then those soldiers need to be properly informed before putting them in someone elses crosshairs.
As someone who has a diabetic brother, its never quite as black and white as you think. All it takes is a substitute teacher who doesn't know about the student, or a new teacher, to blindly apply the rules without knowing about the kid. And it's a tricky thing to maintain blood sugar, its dependant on your exercise and eating habits of the day. More than a couple times has my brother gone into shock because his blood sugar dropped too low, and not even because someone took his snack away.
Here: 1. Create a Flash video player plug-in. 2. Put the core Flash technologies into the standards bodies. 3. Create an iPhone-certified SWF exporter for Creative Suite. 4. Explore a Flash app certification process.
Not every time. Once you get pissed off because someone beat you to choosing Oddjob, and in your Soda-fueled rage you kick the SNES into the TV, it no longer worked, and you had to reseat the cartridges a lot.
*In cases with a 3x* modifier, where a value higher than 17 is rolled, that would instantly put it inside the category, and the remaining steps can be ignored.
**In the case of KDawson submitting a story, the modifier is automatically 0x, and gets only a 50% of getting it right, since his stories can hardly be considered good to begin with.
We enjoy having new recruits at our site, slashdot. I am one of our sites many moderators, so that means I'm super important. Don't upset us or we'll downmod you. You have been warned. Back to the welcome message!
I see that you are unfamiliar with how editors handle messages at Slashdot. It's a proprietary method, since we love Microsoft, its also open source, like Linux, and it also makes no sense, like Apple. There are various categories in which a story might be filed under. When a submitter submits a story, they put in what category they believe it to be under, and other tags that might help in its placement. Slashdot editors take a look at the category, and give it a 50% chance of being filed in there. Then the editors look at the stats of the submitter. This includes Kharma, previous story entries, upmodded comments, skill in grammar, and other various related fields. They use these stats to come up with a 1x, 2x, or 3x* modifier. The Editors then roll a D-20, and multiply the value to the modifier, and add it as a percentage to the total to the previously mentioned 50%. They then create a pie chart in excel with the proper category being proportional to the new percentage. All other categories divide the remaining space. Using a random number Generator, they generate a number between 1 and 100. Where the number lands determines which category the article is placed under, based on the ranges previously defined.
And thats it! Simple right? I know, I didn't know how it worked when I first got here either, but when once someone tells you, you kind of look back at how silly you were for not seeing it before.
Before you all throw full bottles of beer at your computer screen, let me remind you of a post I made earlier today. About Valve and their steamworks software. Since they are not selling the goods, they are "Licensing" it out to you. This does mean you do not have certain rights to the product, but it also means you have certain other rights. For example, you won't have to pay Taxes. (and I've never paid taxes on any Steam Games).
So, yes, unless they are taxing you on some service, then you shouldn't be taxed at all. So make sure you read the fine print for some "Supplier services fee".
It's true. And I've actuall recieved one of these attacks on Routers before, and it ain't pretty.
So I live with 2 room mates. One of them (we'll call him A) doesn't know a lot about computers besides they play awesome video games. The other (We'll call him B) one loves computers and how he can Torrent "1080p" movies before the blu ray even comes out. He knows enough about computers to set the basic stuff up himself, and I'm sure the average user would call him good with computers, but you or I would be able to tell right away that he's just above average.
So B downloads a movie. I believe it was Sherlock Holmes. Anyways, he moves it to this external Hard Drive we have laying around, then tries it on his desktop in the living room to see if it works. Video plays, but then he starts getting pop ups. "Dang" he tells himself, tries using the BitDefender online scanner as he leaves for work. A comes home from work a couple hours later, moves the External Hard Drive to the Xbox360, notices Holmes is on there, and tries playing it. It doesn't work. So he moves it over to his desktop in his room, tries it, Hey it plays! But now he's got pop ups as well.
So I come home, and I decide I want to put on a movie. I move the external hard drive back to the 360 because its got Office Space on it, and watching that movie after a hard days work makes me feel better about not stealing from my company. Anyways, I notice Sherlock Holmes is on it, but I mean we saw it in theatres like a couple months ago so no reason to watch it again just yet. I open up B's desktop to surf the net while watching the movie. Pop ups. Well we'll clean that later. Dealt with enough stuff at work, not in the mood. So I bring out my laptop. That's odd, somethings hijacking my browser. So I boot into safe mode and run a scan on it. Nothing. That annoys the hell out of me. So grab the screw driver, rip out the hard drive, slave it, scan it from my desk top, still nothing. Well what the frack? I put everything back to normal, boot it up, look at the settings. That doesn't look like the regular DNS... though its hard to tell. Same DNS on the desktop. Try browsing the desktop, also getting highjacked.
Okay, so I log into the gateway. Telus gave us this really crappy DSL/Wireless router. I never changed the admin password (admin/telus) on it, but I put a wireless password on it, my initial premise being that should Telus need to remote in for any other issue there wouldn't be an issue, and the only way someone would get into our network was either breaking PSA2/AES or by plugging in locally. In hindsight that was a bit of a mistake. Anyways, so I look at the router and it's DNS was changed from automatically retrieve to the bad DNS.
Alright. So I change the admin password and change the DNS back, and unplug everyone but me from the router. Don't want the infected machines pushing out the DNS again. I spend the rest of the evening slaving the 2 infected Desktops and cleaning them off, and even checking the 360 hard drive (cause you never know if they've somehow managed to write a virus for that, but luckily it didn't get infected). Then putting everything back to normal. A and B were a little pissed because they were without internet, and without their computers for a little while (which just made me upset because I didn't start the problem, but I had to fix it).
After everything was working and we were done yelling at each other, we all played a game Age of Empires 2, co-operatively against computers. It's like Make up sex for nerds. But to be honest, I still get a little tired of having to deal with that kind of stuff. We're all moving out in July.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't get me wrong, I like Valve, and I support Valve, I buy most of my games through Valve, but it erks me when people proclaim Valve's DRM Scheme as "How to do it right".
The only reason its the right way of distributing is because they haven't abused it for DRM purposes. One person can share a steam account as much as one can copy a CD. Multiple people can even play online should it be a non-valve game. They've tied their own titles into Steam so well that their DRM is tight for Multiplayer Valve Titles. Not that thats a bad thing, gotta protect their games and all.
I've committed to them because, as you say, they deliver a good customer experience.
But it is still completely within their power to take away every game you've purchased through Steam. When you use Steam, you agree to the EULA, which basically states that you are not buying the game, you are purchasing a license through Valve. Valve may at any time at their discretion close your steam account, or stop their servers, with no obligation to deliver you a working copy of the game. This has happened to severe hackers on their more popular titles, such as Counter Strike and Team Fortress 2.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, though I like and support Valve's online distribution method, and Valve as a whole, their implementation does leave one paranoid, since you can lose hundreds of dollars worth of games at the sole discretion of someone else.
Should something happen to cause new management at Valve, their system is set up perfectly to screw you over worse than game you could buy in store. Just saying.
I'm not suggesting that serious and fun are mutually exclusive, just that a serious game tends to turn some people off. For example, Call of Duty 4's big stink with players being told to kill civilians. While its true that its not necessary to progress the game, you can even skip the scene, it still upset people.
What you've been describing are the cliche stories where you fight against Oppression, against vulgar acts, and against injustice in general. These have been around since the 90's.
The "Serious games" the article talks about, are the ones that blur the lines, just like in the real world. At what point does a civilian casualty become acceptable? Can you afford 1 civilian for every 1 insurgent? These are the kinds of moral question brought into the eyes of soldiers the world round day after day. While no one wishes a civilian casualty, most would gladly take that life if they rationalized a greater good coming from it.
The serious games are where Success is difficult to measure, because the consequences of your actions don't always balance out to be righteous. You may take out the villian to find yourself the greater evil.
This is more or less an issue with Consoles in general than it is Microsoft. The idea is that all the server and hosting architecture is much more accessible on a PC. You can choose to set up your own server and have people find you just by IP Address alone, this basic functionality has been built into most PC games since 1996. However, with consoles, everything is built to go through their online system. You can't simply choose to host a game and give people your address. You must set up a game, have it broadcast out through live, and invite through live.
Because -everything- must go through live on a console, and that is a huge plethora of games compared to Blizzards small series, it makes sense that they'd have to decommission their old ones.
This isn't so much about Net Neutrality as it is about them not wanting the government to have control of the situation. It wouldn't matter what the government wanted to do, the Telecoms want to be the ones in charge.
Is how effective Tin foil might be at stopping the hallucinations. They haven't stopped since I started wearing my hat, I'm beginning to doubt they are hallucinations like my doctor tells me.
Theres also evidence of Ramps around a few pyramids, (though not all, and none of the great ones of Giza I believe).
I think he might have been trolling a bit, their brick wasn't just sand and water, it was a carful mixture, including wheat. A lot of preparation went into preparing the stones, so that they were so strong, which is why they are still standing to this day. Also, the way everything is assembled brick by brick, you'd wonder why the base wouldn't be one giant piece, using his theory.
I had no idea! I'll stop Pirating immediately!
Are you trying to tell me that a Private Corporation such as Google doesn't regularily consider the functionality of other companies who slam it on a regular basis, such as Scroogle?
There is a difference between Educational and Serious. I do not take Bobo the mathematical Monkey counting bananas as serious.
I do take seriously the simulation of what war is really like overseas in countries that experience the real blunt end of it. Civilian casualties, oppression, vulgar and obscene acts of violence. These are the kinds of things that have been a little taboo for video games, because the idea has always been to make a game fun, not realistic. The real world isn't fun, and now they are making games that aren't, to prepare people for the harshness.
Thats basically what they are getting at, not the whole education part.
Modded funny but that'd actually make it a perfect solution. Because you'd know its working when it stops working.
I'm not an American Citizen (So forgive my lack of education on American Subjects) but seeing how American Foreign Politics play a bigger role than any other nation I feel compelled to express my opinion on it.
The Time Square bomber shows more or less that it's not being very effective, because it means they got lucky he didn't create a nice bomb. It shows how little the American soil is actually protected from this kind of warfare.
It seems to me that it'd simply be better if you weren't mucking around in their business. If the resources spent searching for insurgents in Middle Eastern Countries is effective over there, why wouldn't it be as effective over here? The government would rather the "Collateral Damage" be on their soil, not ours. And thats the only reason. It's not as bad if an Iraqi Civilian dies. More innocents over there have been killed than American Soldiers, and we cry when a soldier comes home wounded. Point is, neither the soldiers or innocent civilians over there would be hurt if the soldiers weren't over there. You can claim the terrorists would be more effective, but we wouldn't know that unless we tried it. I can claim that overall hostilities towards the US would decline and there would be less bombers. Neither of those arguements hold any water.
Justin Bieber is actually a secret computer hacker, breaking simple algorithms like this is cake for him.
In fact, all of his music is about IRC.
In theory, it could be any distance. In application, I have no idea how accurate our technolgy is.
They are OUR soldiers, and it's our duty as a nation to support them, regardless of whether we support the politics that brought them to the battlefield.
I disagree. Perhaps if serving in the military were mandatory (like some european states), then I might be so inclined to agree with you. But no one is forcing them to become soldiers, though I understand most people view it as good money for lack of better options. Regardless, no one is required by law to serve in the military. As such, if someone decides to join the army, which means they've agreed to fight in whatever wars the higher ups choose to, then they are as much a supporter of the politics that bring them to the battlefield as the president or congress.
If I am opposed to any and all of their actions, because I think being in the middle east is a bad ida in the first place, I don't think I should have to pay for their injuries anymore then they should have to pay for MY health care. Since I work at a full time job I'm not as much as a constructive member of society? Somehow my country does better with people manning turrets in Afghanistan as opposed to a desk back home?
If my tax dollars are taking Shrapnel out of a wounded leg, then I also want them to cover whatever medical expenses I might incur at my job. Perhaps if I could see the benefit of having soldiers over there. There's no real tangible evidence that having jarhead in harms way is doing anything for me, besides increasing my taxes. I am not concerned with terrorists in Iraq. I'd be concerned about Terrorists in my home country. And if thats not the reason they're over there, then those soldiers need to be properly informed before putting them in someone elses crosshairs.
As someone who has a diabetic brother, its never quite as black and white as you think. All it takes is a substitute teacher who doesn't know about the student, or a new teacher, to blindly apply the rules without knowing about the kid. And it's a tricky thing to maintain blood sugar, its dependant on your exercise and eating habits of the day. More than a couple times has my brother gone into shock because his blood sugar dropped too low, and not even because someone took his snack away.
Here:
1. Create a Flash video player plug-in.
2. Put the core Flash technologies into the standards bodies.
3. Create an iPhone-certified SWF exporter for Creative Suite.
4. Explore a Flash app certification process.
You could outline that plan in the summary. How many people here will RTFA?
Not every time. Once you get pissed off because someone beat you to choosing Oddjob, and in your Soda-fueled rage you kick the SNES into the TV, it no longer worked, and you had to reseat the cartridges a lot.
That didn't happen to all you guys?
Actually, they feel the net has an outdated look and feel to it. Plans next year are to upgrade to the intermesh.
Almost forgot,
*In cases with a 3x* modifier, where a value higher than 17 is rolled, that would instantly put it inside the category, and the remaining steps can be ignored.
**In the case of KDawson submitting a story, the modifier is automatically 0x, and gets only a 50% of getting it right, since his stories can hardly be considered good to begin with.
Welcome newcommer!
We enjoy having new recruits at our site, slashdot. I am one of our sites many moderators, so that means I'm super important. Don't upset us or we'll downmod you. You have been warned. Back to the welcome message!
I see that you are unfamiliar with how editors handle messages at Slashdot. It's a proprietary method, since we love Microsoft, its also open source, like Linux, and it also makes no sense, like Apple. There are various categories in which a story might be filed under. When a submitter submits a story, they put in what category they believe it to be under, and other tags that might help in its placement. Slashdot editors take a look at the category, and give it a 50% chance of being filed in there. Then the editors look at the stats of the submitter. This includes Kharma, previous story entries, upmodded comments, skill in grammar, and other various related fields. They use these stats to come up with a 1x, 2x, or 3x* modifier. The Editors then roll a D-20, and multiply the value to the modifier, and add it as a percentage to the total to the previously mentioned 50%. They then create a pie chart in excel with the proper category being proportional to the new percentage. All other categories divide the remaining space. Using a random number Generator, they generate a number between 1 and 100. Where the number lands determines which category the article is placed under, based on the ranges previously defined.
And thats it! Simple right? I know, I didn't know how it worked when I first got here either, but when once someone tells you, you kind of look back at how silly you were for not seeing it before.
Welcome to slashdot, and thank you for posting.
Before you all throw full bottles of beer at your computer screen, let me remind you of a post I made earlier today. About Valve and their steamworks software. Since they are not selling the goods, they are "Licensing" it out to you. This does mean you do not have certain rights to the product, but it also means you have certain other rights. For example, you won't have to pay Taxes. (and I've never paid taxes on any Steam Games).
So, yes, unless they are taxing you on some service, then you shouldn't be taxed at all. So make sure you read the fine print for some "Supplier services fee".
Security through Obscurity has always worked for Linux Distros.
(before you hit flamebait, I cast Mana shield! Only my Kharma points take damage)
I'd hardly consider that rubbish a language even if those aussie shielas know how to make me crack a fat.
It's true. And I've actuall recieved one of these attacks on Routers before, and it ain't pretty.
So I live with 2 room mates. One of them (we'll call him A) doesn't know a lot about computers besides they play awesome video games. The other (We'll call him B) one loves computers and how he can Torrent "1080p" movies before the blu ray even comes out. He knows enough about computers to set the basic stuff up himself, and I'm sure the average user would call him good with computers, but you or I would be able to tell right away that he's just above average.
So B downloads a movie. I believe it was Sherlock Holmes. Anyways, he moves it to this external Hard Drive we have laying around, then tries it on his desktop in the living room to see if it works. Video plays, but then he starts getting pop ups. "Dang" he tells himself, tries using the BitDefender online scanner as he leaves for work. A comes home from work a couple hours later, moves the External Hard Drive to the Xbox360, notices Holmes is on there, and tries playing it. It doesn't work. So he moves it over to his desktop in his room, tries it, Hey it plays! But now he's got pop ups as well.
So I come home, and I decide I want to put on a movie. I move the external hard drive back to the 360 because its got Office Space on it, and watching that movie after a hard days work makes me feel better about not stealing from my company. Anyways, I notice Sherlock Holmes is on it, but I mean we saw it in theatres like a couple months ago so no reason to watch it again just yet. I open up B's desktop to surf the net while watching the movie. Pop ups. Well we'll clean that later. Dealt with enough stuff at work, not in the mood. So I bring out my laptop. That's odd, somethings hijacking my browser. So I boot into safe mode and run a scan on it. Nothing. That annoys the hell out of me. So grab the screw driver, rip out the hard drive, slave it, scan it from my desk top, still nothing. Well what the frack? I put everything back to normal, boot it up, look at the settings. That doesn't look like the regular DNS... though its hard to tell. Same DNS on the desktop. Try browsing the desktop, also getting highjacked.
Okay, so I log into the gateway. Telus gave us this really crappy DSL/Wireless router. I never changed the admin password (admin/telus) on it, but I put a wireless password on it, my initial premise being that should Telus need to remote in for any other issue there wouldn't be an issue, and the only way someone would get into our network was either breaking PSA2/AES or by plugging in locally. In hindsight that was a bit of a mistake. Anyways, so I look at the router and it's DNS was changed from automatically retrieve to the bad DNS.
Alright. So I change the admin password and change the DNS back, and unplug everyone but me from the router. Don't want the infected machines pushing out the DNS again. I spend the rest of the evening slaving the 2 infected Desktops and cleaning them off, and even checking the 360 hard drive (cause you never know if they've somehow managed to write a virus for that, but luckily it didn't get infected). Then putting everything back to normal. A and B were a little pissed because they were without internet, and without their computers for a little while (which just made me upset because I didn't start the problem, but I had to fix it).
After everything was working and we were done yelling at each other, we all played a game Age of Empires 2, co-operatively against computers. It's like Make up sex for nerds. But to be honest, I still get a little tired of having to deal with that kind of stuff. We're all moving out in July.