Skype is noisy - period. If you listen to most podcasts that try to carry on "phone interviews" over Skype, you'll soon realize that they're all noisy, too.
Try downloading a copy of Ventrilo and running a small server and allowing your guests to log into that. It's a little less convenient than Skype, but the audio quality is limited only by the quality of your equipment.
Some MMORPG friends and myself use Ventrilo as our voice chat method. We tried using Skype the other night and not only is it adversely affected by the presence of other net traffic and high CPU use, it was N-O-I-S-Y, and so after about 3 minutes we switched back to Ventrilo and it was blissful.
I was at Fry's Electronics in Indianapolis this weekend and they had at least a dozen Refurbished 512MB iPod Shuffles for $59 each - that's tough to beat.
I'm sorry if you expected that. Eve is VERY focused on player interaction, not PvE content.
You're right, Eve has virtually no PvE content, so there isn't much to do if you're not the social type.
I highly encourage anyone new to Eve to find a corporation to work with. It completely changes the game.
I tried joining a corporation. I was told "go out by yourself and mine more ore (so we can build a great big ship that you'll never get to actually fly)". It reminded me of the times growing up when my next-door neighbor would invite me over to watch him play with his new toys. "Oh, goodie... I'm paying a monthly fee for this?"
The graphics are nothing short of stunning. The UI is a little different than most games, but I picked up on it in no time.
I played for the one free month that came with the game and I was done. I spent 30 days flying between a space station and random asteroids so I could mine ore and return it to the space station to sell and upgrade my equipment so I could spend less time travelling and mine more efficiently. But that was it. There were no quests, no adventures, no dungeons, nothing to keep my interest beyond mining, and fending off the occassional space pirate.
The game has a HUGE amount of potential, but ends up being very boring and empty once you get into it.
I wish I had mod points - at least I can thank you for saving me from having to point out the exact same thing. I had to read the original post a couple of times and still couldn't get my brain to accept "10 million, billion, billionths" as valid input...
I agree with what you're saying, but at the same time I have to stop and think - "How much sleep am I going to lose if it takes significantly more effort for these dipsticks to 'legally' send out spam?"
I think I can safely say the answer to that is "not much"
What about the schools email addresses, do you think the state should have the ability to stop people from sending marketing to students at public schools?
When it comes to email concerning alcohol, pornograpy, prescription drugs, and other items of an adult nature then the answer is "YES".
Ideally I would like one big law that prohibits all spamming of everyone, but that isn't going to happen, so I'll happily settle for small laws that do no harm and help protect children.
It was me and my significant other - we each gave up 4 hours of our 7 day vacation in exchange for $110+ worth of Disney tickets *and* a free lunch. The lunch was part of the 4 hours, so we were really only giving up 3 hours of time.
Maybe your vacation time is more valuable that mine, but if we hadn't been there we would have been out shopping, so I probably saved even more money by not spending those 4 hours shopping...
If you're good at saying "No", then those can be a great deal. I've attended several and they really aren't very pushy. I did buy one timeshare several years back because I got a good deal on it, and now when I attend new sales presentations I just tell them "thanks, but I've already got one and my job doesn't leave me with more vacation time".
In a lot of places like Orlando or Vegas you can get free tickets (to a big show or a theme park) for attending. First time we used one of these 'deals' we went to Daytona for 3 days then Orlando for 4 more for $99. While in Orlando, we attended another 4 hour presentation to get free tickets for Disney. Disney is nice, but it's not worth the $55+ per person per day, but it was worth 4 hours of my time which included a nice lunch buffet.
Re:My C64 floppy could do that!
on
Scanjet Music
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· Score: 4, Funny
The drive head on the 1541 gets out of alignment fairly easily, particularly when playing "music" by banging it repeatedly against the the end of the track it was on.... (only a screw to adjust, but it was a real pain to deal with)
Ye Gods, but that brings back memories. I worked part time at a computer store in Virginia. One of my co-workers was a Navy Master Chief named Bob. I remember a father and son bringing in a 1541 floppy drive for alignment and Bob, with a very serious face, asked the son if the drive was out of alignment from playing games with copy protected discs - or from copying games with copy protected discs - "it takes a different kind of alignment process, don't ya know...". I thought the kid was going to burst into tears right there rather than admit to piracy in front of his father.
That Bob was a funny guy. He would straighten out a paperclip and drive it lengthwise down the center of a cigarette so the ash wouldn't fall off while he was smoking - then he would walk around the store and demo all the different types of computers we sold (Leading Edge brand PC clones, Commodore 64, Commodore 128 and Commodore Amigas!) the whole time with this cigarette ash getting longer and longer...
He's also the guy who taught me the trick for people who work in high-security areas. If you work where people wear an ID badge on a lanyard around their neck - and it's magnetically encoded (hey, this was a long time ago - long before RFID badges became common), you can go down to the local craft store and buy a long roll of magnetic craft tape the same width as the thickness of a desktop surface, and then run a length of magnetic craft tape down the whole front edge of someone's desk and every couple of days they'll find their ID badge has stopped working - again!
Bob worked at the Navy Research Labs in Washington D.C. and one of his co-workers there asked him to take advantage of his computer store discount and buy him a copy of The Haley's Project, an educational astronomy program that was similar to "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?". The manual was made up to look like an important government document, complete with fake "TOP SECRET" stamps on most of the pages. Problem was, they worked in a secure government laboratory and the security guards weren't too keen on Bob's coworker trying to take home a manual stamped "TOP SECRET". Last I heard, he ended up having to stuff it in his underwear to sneak it out of the building... Oh, that Bob...
Only if you actually go to the post office and pick it up. If you simply ignore the little slip of paper in your mail box that lets you know it's waiting at the post office for you long enough, then it gets returned to the sender and thus - You Were Never Notified.
Of course, if they're serious enough, they'll send the Sheriff out to attach the notice to your door, at which time you have to hope and pray for a windstorm or rowdy neighborhood children to make the notice disappear...
Poster is spot on. I've played a LOT of MMORPGS and never once got to what is considered "end game" simply due to the fact that it takes a lot of effort, a lot of time and a tremendous amount of patience.
I was able to get to lvl 60 in WoW without a lot of effort, nor a lot of time, and no need for a lot of patience. I played a non-Shadow Priest for the first 40 levels which is probably the single toughest class to play solo and switched over to Shadow to speed up my leveling. Now that I'm lvl 60, there really isn't that much to do except go through the same dungeons over and over again. Yippee...
Same sort of thing happened to me when I tried to buy a PCMCIA TV tuner/capture card. The auction ended early in the morning and I was the winner at a price of around $50. The same seller had numerous other auctions for the same item, including several Buy-It-Now options at $75. I went ahead and paid using PayPal, since I'm a responsible ebayer, and was surprised several hours to receive a notice to let me know the item was no longer in stock, and it would be so long before they were that they were just going to refund my money - thanks for playing.
I replied and asked them to immediately cancel all of their other auctions for the same item and they replied and told me that they used an automated software system to handle their auctions and they couldn't cancel their auctions, but they assured me they wouldn't start any new auctions for that item until they were back in stock
That's been 6 months ago now, and they still list the same item for the same Buy-It-Now price and still start their auctions at ridiculously low prices like $0.99. To the best of my knowledge there hasn't been a day since then that you couldn't buy that item from them at their price.
I sent an e-mail to ebay about the lack-of-sale, and included all the previous correspondence, and asked them to please cancel all the auctions of that item by that seller and I received a generic "thanks for writing, we'll look into it" e-mail in response.
how are they to know an idea they comeup with has has already been patented?
There are these things called "Patent Libraries" that contain (now follow me here, it gets tricky) "patent information"...
Where I used to work, we had a site license that allowed everyone to conduct searches against an online Patent Library - you could type in a few keywords and within seconds it would show you patents related to your keywords.
I had a boss who was obsessed with getting his name on a patent, even if it had nothing to do with the companies core competencies, so any time anyone would blurt out something during a brainstorming session, he'd do a quick patent search and say "nope, someone already owns that idea".
Putting on reruns of "The Man Show" just renforces the stereotype that all gamers are overwieght, lonely males with acne problems and the social skills of a brick.
Hey - I happen to love the Man Show... and I don't have acne...
I had to pay an extra $5.99 per month to watch TechTV as it fell into the "Premium Digital Sports" package on my cable system. I watch the Super Bowl each year (for the commercials) and that's it when it comes to sports - but I was willing to pay the extra money just for TechTV.
Maybe they could bring it back as a premium channel with a similarly low cost.
so wait... we've got a Microsoft operating system (whatever the Xbox 360 OS is) running on what is commonly considered Apple-type processors *and* we'll soon have an Apple OS running on top of what is commonly considered Microsoft-type processors?
Slashdot Mirror
Skype is noisy - period. If you listen to most podcasts that try to carry on "phone interviews" over Skype, you'll soon realize that they're all noisy, too.
Try downloading a copy of Ventrilo and running a small server and allowing your guests to log into that. It's a little less convenient than Skype, but the audio quality is limited only by the quality of your equipment.
Some MMORPG friends and myself use Ventrilo as our voice chat method. We tried using Skype the other night and not only is it adversely affected by the presence of other net traffic and high CPU use, it was N-O-I-S-Y, and so after about 3 minutes we switched back to Ventrilo and it was blissful.
I was at Fry's Electronics in Indianapolis this weekend and they had at least a dozen Refurbished 512MB iPod Shuffles for $59 each - that's tough to beat.
Try reading this book Disney: The Mouse Betrayed for a good idea of some of the evil that goes on under the name of Disney.
I'm sorry if you expected that. Eve is VERY focused on player interaction, not PvE content.
You're right, Eve has virtually no PvE content, so there isn't much to do if you're not the social type.
I highly encourage anyone new to Eve to find a corporation to work with. It completely changes the game.
I tried joining a corporation. I was told "go out by yourself and mine more ore (so we can build a great big ship that you'll never get to actually fly)". It reminded me of the times growing up when my next-door neighbor would invite me over to watch him play with his new toys. "Oh, goodie... I'm paying a monthly fee for this?"
I tried Eve Online before I ever played WoW.
The graphics are nothing short of stunning. The UI is a little different than most games, but I picked up on it in no time.
I played for the one free month that came with the game and I was done. I spent 30 days flying between a space station and random asteroids so I could mine ore and return it to the space station to sell and upgrade my equipment so I could spend less time travelling and mine more efficiently. But that was it. There were no quests, no adventures, no dungeons, nothing to keep my interest beyond mining, and fending off the occassional space pirate.
The game has a HUGE amount of potential, but ends up being very boring and empty once you get into it.
Twice a year? Who's got that kind of time?
There is always time for you to say "oh sh*t/f*ck/d*mn/darn/snap/etc./!" - don't you watch cheesey movies and bad sci-fi TV?
I wish I had mod points - at least I can thank you for saving me from having to point out the exact same thing. I had to read the original post a couple of times and still couldn't get my brain to accept "10 million, billion, billionths" as valid input...
I agree with what you're saying, but at the same time I have to stop and think - "How much sleep am I going to lose if it takes significantly more effort for these dipsticks to 'legally' send out spam?"
I think I can safely say the answer to that is "not much"
What about the schools email addresses, do you think the state should have the ability to stop people from sending marketing to students at public schools?
When it comes to email concerning alcohol, pornograpy, prescription drugs, and other items of an adult nature then the answer is "YES".
Ideally I would like one big law that prohibits all spamming of everyone, but that isn't going to happen, so I'll happily settle for small laws that do no harm and help protect children.
It was me and my significant other - we each gave up 4 hours of our 7 day vacation in exchange for $110+ worth of Disney tickets *and* a free lunch. The lunch was part of the 4 hours, so we were really only giving up 3 hours of time.
Maybe your vacation time is more valuable that mine, but if we hadn't been there we would have been out shopping, so I probably saved even more money by not spending those 4 hours shopping...
If you're good at saying "No", then those can be a great deal. I've attended several and they really aren't very pushy. I did buy one timeshare several years back because I got a good deal on it, and now when I attend new sales presentations I just tell them "thanks, but I've already got one and my job doesn't leave me with more vacation time".
In a lot of places like Orlando or Vegas you can get free tickets (to a big show or a theme park) for attending. First time we used one of these 'deals' we went to Daytona for 3 days then Orlando for 4 more for $99. While in Orlando, we attended another 4 hour presentation to get free tickets for Disney. Disney is nice, but it's not worth the $55+ per person per day, but it was worth 4 hours of my time which included a nice lunch buffet.
The drive head on the 1541 gets out of alignment fairly easily, particularly when playing "music" by banging it repeatedly against the the end of the track it was on.... (only a screw to adjust, but it was a real pain to deal with)
Ye Gods, but that brings back memories. I worked part time at a computer store in Virginia. One of my co-workers was a Navy Master Chief named Bob. I remember a father and son bringing in a 1541 floppy drive for alignment and Bob, with a very serious face, asked the son if the drive was out of alignment from playing games with copy protected discs - or from copying games with copy protected discs - "it takes a different kind of alignment process, don't ya know...". I thought the kid was going to burst into tears right there rather than admit to piracy in front of his father.
That Bob was a funny guy. He would straighten out a paperclip and drive it lengthwise down the center of a cigarette so the ash wouldn't fall off while he was smoking - then he would walk around the store and demo all the different types of computers we sold (Leading Edge brand PC clones, Commodore 64, Commodore 128 and Commodore Amigas!) the whole time with this cigarette ash getting longer and longer...
He's also the guy who taught me the trick for people who work in high-security areas. If you work where people wear an ID badge on a lanyard around their neck - and it's magnetically encoded (hey, this was a long time ago - long before RFID badges became common), you can go down to the local craft store and buy a long roll of magnetic craft tape the same width as the thickness of a desktop surface, and then run a length of magnetic craft tape down the whole front edge of someone's desk and every couple of days they'll find their ID badge has stopped working - again!
Bob worked at the Navy Research Labs in Washington D.C. and one of his co-workers there asked him to take advantage of his computer store discount and buy him a copy of The Haley's Project, an educational astronomy program that was similar to "Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?". The manual was made up to look like an important government document, complete with fake "TOP SECRET" stamps on most of the pages. Problem was, they worked in a secure government laboratory and the security guards weren't too keen on Bob's coworker trying to take home a manual stamped "TOP SECRET". Last I heard, he ended up having to stuff it in his underwear to sneak it out of the building... Oh, that Bob...
Only if you actually go to the post office and pick it up. If you simply ignore the little slip of paper in your mail box that lets you know it's waiting at the post office for you long enough, then it gets returned to the sender and thus - You Were Never Notified.
Of course, if they're serious enough, they'll send the Sheriff out to attach the notice to your door, at which time you have to hope and pray for a windstorm or rowdy neighborhood children to make the notice disappear...
Poster is spot on. I've played a LOT of MMORPGS and never once got to what is considered "end game" simply due to the fact that it takes a lot of effort, a lot of time and a tremendous amount of patience.
I was able to get to lvl 60 in WoW without a lot of effort, nor a lot of time, and no need for a lot of patience. I played a non-Shadow Priest for the first 40 levels which is probably the single toughest class to play solo and switched over to Shadow to speed up my leveling. Now that I'm lvl 60, there really isn't that much to do except go through the same dungeons over and over again. Yippee...
Same sort of thing happened to me when I tried to buy a PCMCIA TV tuner/capture card. The auction ended early in the morning and I was the winner at a price of around $50. The same seller had numerous other auctions for the same item, including several Buy-It-Now options at $75. I went ahead and paid using PayPal, since I'm a responsible ebayer, and was surprised several hours to receive a notice to let me know the item was no longer in stock, and it would be so long before they were that they were just going to refund my money - thanks for playing.
I replied and asked them to immediately cancel all of their other auctions for the same item and they replied and told me that they used an automated software system to handle their auctions and they couldn't cancel their auctions, but they assured me they wouldn't start any new auctions for that item until they were back in stock
That's been 6 months ago now, and they still list the same item for the same Buy-It-Now price and still start their auctions at ridiculously low prices like $0.99. To the best of my knowledge there hasn't been a day since then that you couldn't buy that item from them at their price.
I sent an e-mail to ebay about the lack-of-sale, and included all the previous correspondence, and asked them to please cancel all the auctions of that item by that seller and I received a generic "thanks for writing, we'll look into it" e-mail in response.
how are they to know an idea they comeup with has has already been patented?
There are these things called "Patent Libraries" that contain (now follow me here, it gets tricky) "patent information"...
Where I used to work, we had a site license that allowed everyone to conduct searches against an online Patent Library - you could type in a few keywords and within seconds it would show you patents related to your keywords.
I had a boss who was obsessed with getting his name on a patent, even if it had nothing to do with the companies core competencies, so any time anyone would blurt out something during a brainstorming session, he'd do a quick patent search and say "nope, someone already owns that idea".
"Better yet (and less of a legal gray area), pay your 8-year old nephew $0.25 per disc to rip your music for you."
Because we all know slashdotters don't get laid enough to have kids.
Maybe my family tree is wrong - but I don't see where I need to have kids to have a nephew?
Noone wants to buy an Xbox 360 now if they know a better one is coming soon...
Putting on reruns of "The Man Show" just renforces the stereotype that all gamers are overwieght, lonely males with acne problems and the social skills of a brick.
Hey - I happen to love the Man Show... and I don't have acne...
I had to pay an extra $5.99 per month to watch TechTV as it fell into the "Premium Digital Sports" package on my cable system. I watch the Super Bowl each year (for the commercials) and that's it when it comes to sports - but I was willing to pay the extra money just for TechTV.
Maybe they could bring it back as a premium channel with a similarly low cost.
How many people would be willing to pay for that?
so wait... we've got a Microsoft operating system (whatever the Xbox 360 OS is) running on what is commonly considered Apple-type processors *and* we'll soon have an Apple OS running on top of what is commonly considered Microsoft-type processors?
What's next, dogs and cats living together?
Ferengi rule of aquisition #193:
If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.
you mean when I download a program from the CD to my computer?
Don't be silly... everyone knows you upload from the CD to the computer - you download from the computer to the CD...
"Will Solid Snake be perpetually looking up as well since my controller is raised 45 degrees?"
No, but it will look like he's *very* happy to see you...