Each satellite transmits its location (ephemeris) as well as the exact time in each 30 second message. This means that the GPS device does not need to calculate the location. Though the ephemeris updates every 2 hours, a value is considered valid for 4 hours.
The Almanac, a list of the status and rough location for each satellite, is also part of the message and takes over 12 minutes for complete transmission (25 messages). It is used to help determine which satellites to look for on acquisition amongst other things, though this is not essential with modern equipment.
This means that the date is not used to adjust the position information as that is part of the message itself. The alert is nothing to do with general GPS stopping working, but rather anything that depends upon the GPS signal to get the UTC time being at risk (an operation requiring the Almanac).
An interesting NHK World documentary about Japanese calculator culture and the history of calculators in Japan. I generally watch these at speed = 1.5.
There is a problem with PC vs. Console development that means whilst there will continue to be PC game development the economics will push the developers to concentrate on consoles.
Prices for a AAA game (and even A and B games) on a console are more stable and stay higher much longer. Therefore the return is more predictable. The bargin bucket syndrome does not hit as fast or as hard as for PC games.
The developer is writing for a stable and known platform so that they are coding the core engine and program rather than sorting out support for XXXs latest bit twiddler card.
As part of the development process for console games they are tested to a high degree for problems.
The console marketplace sells more games per unit than the PC. So particularly for the AAA games there is a fairly captive marketplace.
The fact that console gamers in general do not continue to play a single game for a prolonged period of time means there is more opportunity to sell new products.
I believe that the people with the money also see the console market as more stable. And they after all in the end call the shots.
Whilst there is a hardcore of players who want the latest and greatest the majority of even PC games sales are not run on cutting edge hardware. This is of course even more true of consoles (as there has not been a release for several years).
Whilst as a PC gamer I do not necessarily like these facts I can see that they are what encourage studios such as Bioware and Ion Storm (Austin) to develop at least some of their titles with a strong view to the console.
It looks like Microsoft's new XNS API may exacerpate this with concentration on standardisation of Input to the lowest common denominator of the Console's capabilities.
I'm not sure if it counts as preaching a methodology (or just giving lots of good advice) but the book that I still find useful (and reread every year or two) is "Writing Solid Code" by Steve Maguire.
Even though it is written by an ex-MS programmer and from MS Press it is a very good book. Maguire worked for them before they tried to take over the world. His "Debugging the Development Process" is a bit more preachy and less useful (but still a good read).
No DIRECT revenue. But as it is considered part of the WarCraft 3 package it definitely contributes to the sales (and therefore the revenue) of that. As well as to the community's goodwill towards Blizzard.
I don't think bnetd checks for keys
Our entire conversation is about Blizzard jumping on bnetd over WarCraft 3 and its letting unchecked/cracked clients run (these are clients that have not contributing to the revenue mentioned above). And whether Blizzard should let bnetd continue but authenticate using Blizzard's resources. At which point an open source project that could be taken and modified to run without authentication would be available
You don't think they could figure out the keyserver authentication parts (to contact)?
To be totally blunt and honest, compared to the number who could write a bulk searcher against a published API, no. It's not about making it impossible (after all anything like this can be broken with enough time and application). It's about not making it easier than it has to be.
The key authentication conversation you are talking about would (a) be embedded within an ongoing login process (b) not contain the key in an unmangled form (or it could be simply captured).
A significant proportion of the problem in the keyspace search is finding the hashing/encrypting/mangling process to prepare the key for presentation. It may even be split over multiple packets (including dummy/redundant) with additional information required to reassemble them (it's not as if it happens often enough to severely impact performance). It may even include challenge/response aspects. This is the information that publishing an authentication service would give.
The old ACT Apricot PC had six function buttons on the keyboard which were labelled with an LCD microscreen. Applications could change these labels and functions of these as they saw fit. Unfortunately the Apricot was killed by the standardisation on the IBM PC.
What about blocking an IP for 24 hours after x requests?
Requires them to modify and enhance/complicate their system as well as track, log, and analyse the requests to a much higher degree. This would not come free. Then again how often is too often? (the requests are coming from the servers). Also just wait until someone starts getting servers banned by hitting them with enough duff connect requests.
I am not a cryptographer, but I have a feeling this can be fixed cryptographically.
Again not without potentially significant resource to support a source of no revenue.
As an aside IIRC the bnetd project was open source. What would prevent someone from taking the source, stubbing out the authentication code, and making their own server not requiring CD Keys?
Opening up a service to validate keys provides a possiblity for someone else to use that service (whose calling protocol would be in the source code) to do a keyspace search for valid keys.
Also there is the possiblity of a DOS/request swamping attack making the service unavailable.
Finally if the service requests can be intercepted (with documentation of the protocol) then there is a not insignificant possiblity of key capture (for which of course Blizzard would be blamed).
This was a completely no win situtation for Blizzard.
Have you not seen the "personalities" on a lot of the female characters in superhero comics (particularly the Image/Wildstorm lines). Also in a number of cases they look like their costumes are simply painted on.
This does not seem to improve the popularity of these comics outside the central demographic of teenage boys.
A point that you missed (which is related to your point 2) is that in the main the ownership of the material in a Manga title is with the author. The rights and publication model used by Manga is much closer to that of the book publishing industry with the magazines buying publication rights (and providing editors to help polish/direct the material) but with the final control being in the hands of the author.
This is why stories can grow and develop... and finish. The creator(s) are interested in telling a story not normally in creating a franchise (there are exceptions). Unfortunately without self-publishing it is not at all easy to reach this point in the US market.
I feel the need to point out that dismissing Manga based upon the fact that you didn't like Ranma 1/2 is a bit like saying.
"I didn't like the Simpsons and so I believe that television as a whole is awful and unwatchable"
For the record I like the Simpsons and own the first two seasons on DVD. I used it as a series of similar (maybe somewhat more general) popularity to Ranma.
The article was not about the few the Manga titles that get imported to the USA from Japan. But rather the state of the industry in Japan and how ubiquitous comics are in Japan. Also the fact that the majority of manga is in very thick, low quality, cheap volumes that are read and disposed of (like a newspapers or cheap paperbacks) rather than the expensive pamphlets of the US (oops my WEF roots are showing).
Also you're dismissal of the entire Manga industry on the basis of Ranma 1/2 is the equivalent of dismissing the publishing industry based upon romance novels, or the film industry based upon childrens movies like "Home Alone" and "Free Willy". If you don't like one example it's not a case for condeming the entire medium. But then I guess straw men are much easier than real opponents to knock down.
The success of Cerebus is actually similar to that of Manga in that it is the collected volumes not the original comics that are the final repository. Also Dave Sim has control of his creation which is a very rare thing in the US comic industry. His story also has a specific goal and will finish soon. This is extreemly rare in the US industry and more than anything leads to the repetition and unenven quality which is why a large number of people stop reading comics after a certain time.
In Japan Rumiko Takahashi, responsible (you may prefer culpable) for Ranma, has created 4 major series the first three of which reached conclusions and stopped (the fourth is still ongoing). Rather than the concept becoming stale and repetitive she finished and started another new story. Also her stories are about the characters. Whilst the situations provide the background for the drama and conflict it is the characters which make people want to read them.
Whilst the best of American comics may reach this level sometimes it is normally in only one small area (superheroes) which do not appeal to a great number of people. In Japan the breadth of the subjects of manga are those of any literature and so most people can find subjects that are interesting to them. So whilst areas of this may go through peaks and troughs as a while it continues in strength.
I realise this is off-topic but feel the need to point out that considered opinion these days blames the Hindenberg Disaster not on the Hydrogen but rather on the outer skin paint that bore a passing resemblance to the fuel used in the Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters (see here).
The meal that Serpentine gives to the group was filmed on the actual platform of an abandonded station (can't remember which one). The things going past in the background are real tube trains. I believe that Mr. Gaiman always wondered what any passengers looking out thought of the scene.
Also the station mentioned at the start of Mr. Williams article (British Museum - which was the first one I noticed) was another station mentioned in Neverwhere (though I'm not certain that they actually filmed there). Door uses it to gain access to the museum whilst looking for the Angelus.
This is very different from the cheating in online games that the article is about. The kid is playing the game for enjoyment and if his enjoyment is from shooting the deer rather than stalking them then that is his decision and he's not hurting anyone (unless of course he then goes off to boast about his Deer Hunter prowess).
Cheating only results from the breaking of rules and in the cases you cite I would not describe what you talk about as cheating (as long as people don't then misrepresent how they achieved those things). They simply allow those people to avoid the things they don't enjoy to spend more time on those they do. You could of course argue they are cheating themselves but I doubt they'd see it that way.
When I read a newspaper for enjoyment no one tells me I have to read the sports section, or fasion, or travel. And when I play a solo game it's my decision if I play on lowest difficulty, or use cheat codes, or even just sit there staring at the CD. I paid for the game and I simply want to have an enjoyable experience. I have also on occasions used FAQs to get me over sticky points in games.
It's only when I come to play with others that I have the obligation to observe an accepted set of rules. When I jog on my own I can run wherever I like, but when I run in a race I have to stick to the course. Similarly in games it is in the multi-player modes that cheats are frowned upon/objected to by the other players (I've not noticed the enemies in Quake complaining about cheat usage).
In fact one problem I have with a number of games developers is that they seem to think that it's their job to restrict player options in single player games (the worst are onerous saving restrictions). They want the player to play in exactly the way they think is correct. This is often counter productive as the most successful single player games are normally those that are the most open to being played however the user likes.
The way a lot of these projects start and a way to get a good discussion of the limits and requirements of a project is to start threads in relevant news groups. Of course the high signal to noise ratio and explosion of groups can cause problems but you can get a good core of feedback and suggestions.
This discussion can then move to IRC and mailing lists. However regular updates in news groups can keep attracting new blood and fresh information.
The problem is that Contentville want to control the right to copy their content (the basis of copyright laws). They wish to charge money and restrict access to the information that they "control". This is totally different from the other two sites you mention who to my knowledge do not charge money nor restrict access to the information (beyond simple registration).
I suggest that you yourself give up the habit of setting up Straw Men (use of inconsistant, irrelevant, or just plain untrue information) to try and justify your arguments. If you can't prove your argument legitimately then maybe you are wrong.
I first heard about Contentville when a writers news letter Inklings in their latest editorial mentioned that a large number of magazines etc. had been selling their articles without further author compensation to intermediaries who were then selling rights on to Contentville. It seems to me from the comments they report that Steve Brill's opinion is that it's alright as long as the author doesn't find out.
I find it a bit rich anyway to think of Brill as a Watchdog as at least in the UK any official Watchdog or Ombudsman would be expected not to actually operate commercially in the business area that he is meant to be overseeing. So at best he is a business leader.
It seems to me that commercial and intellectual property laws in the US are being seriously undermined from the point of view of the actual creator of any content. They are being biased to favour large companies who can afford to gather everyones work together and then litigate the little guy into oblivion.
The original specification for DVD did not include region coding or any such feature. Because of this the major publishers of video material took one look at it and said "We are not publishing material on this medium". The manufacturers then had to go back and re-engineer the DVD Video standard to include the region coding idea (so that the video publishers could maintain their segmented markets). This actually delayed its release by over a year.
If someone were to come out with another unregioned standard then the publishers would simply refuse to publish to it and it would die. Remember until the death of DIVX a lot of companies (such as Disney) were not going to publish a lot of their material on DVD at all.
I just find it very interesting that according to the date/time stamp on this article (which is what has caused it to appear in the old news section) it actually predates the Yahoo article by some 17 hours.
I'm presuming that when posting it CmdrTaco tried to give it the same date/time as the Yahoo article. However he translated 01:16 PM EDT into 01:16 UDT (24 hour clock). The correct value would have been 18:16 UDT (+12 +5). There is however the question of why do this at all and not just use the actual posting time (any conspiracy nuts out there?).
Of course I could be wrong and the title of this article could be accurate. Maybe Yahoo failed to credit the Slashdot article (Chronal Recursion - the bane of all time travelling civilisations).
Slashdot Mirror
Each satellite transmits its location (ephemeris) as well as the exact time in each 30 second message. This means that the GPS device does not need to calculate the location. Though the ephemeris updates every 2 hours, a value is considered valid for 4 hours.
The Almanac, a list of the status and rough location for each satellite, is also part of the message and takes over 12 minutes for complete transmission (25 messages). It is used to help determine which satellites to look for on acquisition amongst other things, though this is not essential with modern equipment.
This means that the date is not used to adjust the position information as that is part of the message itself. The alert is nothing to do with general GPS stopping working, but rather anything that depends upon the GPS signal to get the UTC time being at risk (an operation requiring the Almanac).
The information is from the Navigation Message section of the Wikipedia article on GPS Signals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_signals#Navigation_message), which is very detailed.
But will it run on a NAVI?
An interesting NHK World documentary about Japanese calculator culture and the history of calculators in Japan. I generally watch these at speed = 1.5.
Begin Japanology (13 June 2013) - Calculators
Does this mean surgeons are going to place screen shots of their high-scores next to their Diplomas on the Wall?
Whilst as a PC gamer I do not necessarily like these facts I can see that they are what encourage studios such as Bioware and Ion Storm (Austin) to develop at least some of their titles with a strong view to the console.
It looks like Microsoft's new XNS API may exacerpate this with concentration on standardisation of Input to the lowest common denominator of the Console's capabilities.
Even though it is written by an ex-MS programmer and from MS Press it is a very good book. Maguire worked for them before they tried to take over the world. His "Debugging the Development Process" is a bit more preachy and less useful (but still a good read).
Is this because you hold copyright on no Spectrum games (and that is the number of your Spectrum games that are up there)?
This post reads very like a troll attempt. Anonymous posting of unsubstantiated claims against the main flow of a Slashdot discussion.
The fact that 6 * 9 is 42 in base 13 implies a very strange number of digits for the ultimate lifeform in Douglas Adams' HHG universe.
No DIRECT revenue. But as it is considered part of the WarCraft 3 package it definitely contributes to the sales (and therefore the revenue) of that. As well as to the community's goodwill towards Blizzard.
I don't think bnetd checks for keys
Our entire conversation is about Blizzard jumping on bnetd over WarCraft 3 and its letting unchecked/cracked clients run (these are clients that have not contributing to the revenue mentioned above). And whether Blizzard should let bnetd continue but authenticate using Blizzard's resources. At which point an open source project that could be taken and modified to run without authentication would be available
You don't think they could figure out the keyserver authentication parts (to contact)?
To be totally blunt and honest, compared to the number who could write a bulk searcher against a published API, no. It's not about making it impossible (after all anything like this can be broken with enough time and application). It's about not making it easier than it has to be.
The key authentication conversation you are talking about would (a) be embedded within an ongoing login process (b) not contain the key in an unmangled form (or it could be simply captured).
A significant proportion of the problem in the keyspace search is finding the hashing/encrypting/mangling process to prepare the key for presentation. It may even be split over multiple packets (including dummy/redundant) with additional information required to reassemble them (it's not as if it happens often enough to severely impact performance). It may even include challenge/response aspects. This is the information that publishing an authentication service would give.
The old ACT Apricot PC had six function buttons on the keyboard which were labelled with an LCD microscreen. Applications could change these labels and functions of these as they saw fit. Unfortunately the Apricot was killed by the standardisation on the IBM PC.
Requires them to modify and enhance/complicate their system as well as track, log, and analyse the requests to a much higher degree. This would not come free. Then again how often is too often? (the requests are coming from the servers). Also just wait until someone starts getting servers banned by hitting them with enough duff connect requests.
I am not a cryptographer, but I have a feeling this can be fixed cryptographically.
Again not without potentially significant resource to support a source of no revenue.
As an aside IIRC the bnetd project was open source. What would prevent someone from taking the source, stubbing out the authentication code, and making their own server not requiring CD Keys?
Opening up a service to validate keys provides a possiblity for someone else to use that service (whose calling protocol would be in the source code) to do a keyspace search for valid keys.
Also there is the possiblity of a DOS/request swamping attack making the service unavailable.
Finally if the service requests can be intercepted (with documentation of the protocol) then there is a not insignificant possiblity of key capture (for which of course Blizzard would be blamed).
This was a completely no win situtation for Blizzard.
Have you not seen the "personalities" on a lot of the female characters in superhero comics (particularly the Image/Wildstorm lines). Also in a number of cases they look like their costumes are simply painted on.
This does not seem to improve the popularity of these comics outside the central demographic of teenage boys.
A point that you missed (which is related to your point 2) is that in the main the ownership of the material in a Manga title is with the author. The rights and publication model used by Manga is much closer to that of the book publishing industry with the magazines buying publication rights (and providing editors to help polish/direct the material) but with the final control being in the hands of the author.
... and finish. The creator(s) are interested in telling a story not normally in creating a franchise (there are exceptions). Unfortunately without self-publishing it is not at all easy to reach this point in the US market.
This is why stories can grow and develop
I feel the need to point out that dismissing Manga based upon the fact that you didn't like Ranma 1/2 is a bit like saying.
"I didn't like the Simpsons and so I believe that television as a whole is awful and unwatchable"
For the record I like the Simpsons and own the first two seasons on DVD. I used it as a series of similar (maybe somewhat more general) popularity to Ranma.
The article was not about the few the Manga titles that get imported to the USA from Japan. But rather the state of the industry in Japan and how ubiquitous comics are in Japan. Also the fact that the majority of manga is in very thick, low quality, cheap volumes that are read and disposed of (like a newspapers or cheap paperbacks) rather than the expensive pamphlets of the US (oops my WEF roots are showing).
Also you're dismissal of the entire Manga industry on the basis of Ranma 1/2 is the equivalent of dismissing the publishing industry based upon romance novels, or the film industry based upon childrens movies like "Home Alone" and "Free Willy". If you don't like one example it's not a case for condeming the entire medium. But then I guess straw men are much easier than real opponents to knock down.
The success of Cerebus is actually similar to that of Manga in that it is the collected volumes not the original comics that are the final repository. Also Dave Sim has control of his creation which is a very rare thing in the US comic industry. His story also has a specific goal and will finish soon. This is extreemly rare in the US industry and more than anything leads to the repetition and unenven quality which is why a large number of people stop reading comics after a certain time.
In Japan Rumiko Takahashi, responsible (you may prefer culpable) for Ranma, has created 4 major series the first three of which reached conclusions and stopped (the fourth is still ongoing). Rather than the concept becoming stale and repetitive she finished and started another new story. Also her stories are about the characters. Whilst the situations provide the background for the drama and conflict it is the characters which make people want to read them.
Whilst the best of American comics may reach this level sometimes it is normally in only one small area (superheroes) which do not appeal to a great number of people. In Japan the breadth of the subjects of manga are those of any literature and so most people can find subjects that are interesting to them. So whilst areas of this may go through peaks and troughs as a while it continues in strength.
In this case Scott "Big Papa Pump" Steiner (and a number of other wrestlers) just can't be human.
I realise this is off-topic but feel the need to point out that considered opinion these days blames the Hindenberg Disaster not on the Hydrogen but rather on the outer skin paint that bore a passing resemblance to the fuel used in the Shuttle's Solid Rocket Boosters (see here).
The meal that Serpentine gives to the group was filmed on the actual platform of an abandonded station (can't remember which one). The things going past in the background are real tube trains. I believe that Mr. Gaiman always wondered what any passengers looking out thought of the scene.
Also the station mentioned at the start of Mr. Williams article (British Museum - which was the first one I noticed) was another station mentioned in Neverwhere (though I'm not certain that they actually filmed there). Door uses it to gain access to the museum whilst looking for the Angelus.
Cheating only results from the breaking of rules and in the cases you cite I would not describe what you talk about as cheating (as long as people don't then misrepresent how they achieved those things). They simply allow those people to avoid the things they don't enjoy to spend more time on those they do. You could of course argue they are cheating themselves but I doubt they'd see it that way.
When I read a newspaper for enjoyment no one tells me I have to read the sports section, or fasion, or travel. And when I play a solo game it's my decision if I play on lowest difficulty, or use cheat codes, or even just sit there staring at the CD. I paid for the game and I simply want to have an enjoyable experience. I have also on occasions used FAQs to get me over sticky points in games.
It's only when I come to play with others that I have the obligation to observe an accepted set of rules. When I jog on my own I can run wherever I like, but when I run in a race I have to stick to the course. Similarly in games it is in the multi-player modes that cheats are frowned upon/objected to by the other players (I've not noticed the enemies in Quake complaining about cheat usage).
In fact one problem I have with a number of games developers is that they seem to think that it's their job to restrict player options in single player games (the worst are onerous saving restrictions). They want the player to play in exactly the way they think is correct. This is often counter productive as the most successful single player games are normally those that are the most open to being played however the user likes.
The way a lot of these projects start and a way to get a good discussion of the limits and requirements of a project is to start threads in relevant news groups. Of course the high signal to noise ratio and explosion of groups can cause problems but you can get a good core of feedback and suggestions.
This discussion can then move to IRC and mailing lists. However regular updates in news groups can keep attracting new blood and fresh information.
I suggest that you yourself give up the habit of setting up Straw Men (use of inconsistant, irrelevant, or just plain untrue information) to try and justify your arguments. If you can't prove your argument legitimately then maybe you are wrong.
I find it a bit rich anyway to think of Brill as a Watchdog as at least in the UK any official Watchdog or Ombudsman would be expected not to actually operate commercially in the business area that he is meant to be overseeing. So at best he is a business leader.
It seems to me that commercial and intellectual property laws in the US are being seriously undermined from the point of view of the actual creator of any content. They are being biased to favour large companies who can afford to gather everyones work together and then litigate the little guy into oblivion.
If someone were to come out with another unregioned standard then the publishers would simply refuse to publish to it and it would die. Remember until the death of DIVX a lot of companies (such as Disney) were not going to publish a lot of their material on DVD at all.
I'm presuming that when posting it CmdrTaco tried to give it the same date/time as the Yahoo article. However he translated 01:16 PM EDT into 01:16 UDT (24 hour clock). The correct value would have been 18:16 UDT (+12 +5). There is however the question of why do this at all and not just use the actual posting time (any conspiracy nuts out there?).
Of course I could be wrong and the title of this article could be accurate. Maybe Yahoo failed to credit the Slashdot article (Chronal Recursion - the bane of all time travelling civilisations).