I guess this kind of get's into the whole "Common Sense vs. Law" debate.
If I spill hot coffee on myself at McDonalds and burn my lap, common sense tells me that I should slap my head and go to the doctor. The Law, however, tells me that I can sue McDonalds for not telling me that coffee might be hot.
Likewise, if I leave my computer logged onto RoadRunner night and day, and Joe Scriptkiddie hacks it and DOS's CNN, common sense tells me that when RoadRunner cancels my account because CNN has flooded my box with packets, I should slap my head and read up on security while looking for another ISP. The Law, however, says that I can probably blame CNN for violating my civil rights, and blame RoadRunner for not making me aware that such dangers exist.
You leave your car unlocked and running in front of a bank to go cash a check. While in the bank, a bank robber robs the bank, comes out and steals your car to make his get-away. The police, in their pursuit of said robber, shoot out the tires of your car, and otherwise trash it while bringing the robber to justice. Can you, as owner of the car, hold the police responsible for damaging your vehicle that you left unattended?
The analogy is not perfect, I realize, but my point is this: Why should a company under attack from zombies be worried about crashing an "innocent bystanders" computer? There's a reason that zombie is there in the first place: the computer was left wide open by the owner.
. I want a NEW GAME. I don't want to play the SAME GAME except for the requirement of a NEW VIDEO CARD.
Then go buy Alpha Centauri or The Sims.
id does one thing very well: produce First Person Shooters. It can be argued that others are now doing it better (Valve, whoever makes Unreal), but it's undeniable that id still produces quality FPS's.
Personally, I don't see anything wrong with sticking to one genre of games. Microprose used to dominate the turn-based strategy field with games like X-Com and Master of Orion. EA is the undisputed king of sports games. You want variety, buy from someone else. But don't demand that a game company produce something different simply for the sake of being different.
One of the main (and IMHO, the best) features of DOOM and DOOM2 were the sheer number of monsters you had to fight. Walk into a room, you'd be likely to find anywhere from 5 to a few dozen baddies, with about 45 health and 12 shotgun shells. Uh, can you say, Run?;)
Today, however, with the emphasis on higher-quality graphics, it's tough to pack that many objects in one place without seeing a performance hit. The result is fewer monsters who simply have more hit points and guns (Half-Life), or worse yet, no monsters at all (Quake3, Unreal Tournament).
Don't get me wrong, Half-Life and Q3 are great games, but their gameplay emphasis is on limited-number encounters and multiplayer, respectively. Here's hoping Doom3 can bring us back to the glory days of mowing down legions of Imps with reckless abandon. Between this and the new Wolfenstien coming out, it's starting to pay to be an old-school gamer!
Aparently it would be fast enough that you'd get your results before you even entered the problem. Sort of re-defines the term "reverse engineering", doesn't it?
Bravo, sir! I for one didn't go in expecting the English Patient or American Beauty. I mean come on: we all know John Woo isn't exactly Martin Scorcese or anything. Still, his movies, big-budget, -explosion, -action flicks do the job, and do it well.
Still, the first MI was a little more cereberal, and it's not unreasonable to expect more of the same going into the sequel, so I can see where some might be disappointed. Once you get past the plot holes, however, and accept the movie for what it is, it entertains thouroughly.
Not true. A standard MP3 recorded as 128KBs/44Mhz weighs in at about 3-4 meg for an average song (easily withing download range for 56k users). Yes, there is a difference between it and a CD version: the sound is degraded. The degredation, however, is not noticable to the human ear, except perhaps on the highest quality sound systems.
You don't really start to hear the difference until MP3's dip to about 96 KBs. There are some MP3's out there of this nature (and lower), but the vast majority are at least 128, with many now reaching 160 and higher. Metallica is right to be concerned about this issue: it is possible to get digital, CD-perfect songs for free, or at least as perfect as most users will ever need.
I would like to take this opportunity to announce my intention to patent the intellectual idea of both patents and copyrights. For far to long, people have been using my idea of patents and copyrights to protect their work, it's time that I also made money for doing nothing more than filling out a form.
I would also like to patent the English language, oak trees, and cockroaches. No longer will the blatent theft of my property go unpunished.
Someone needs to teach lawyers how to play Quake or something, so they have something else to do with their free time...
Ouch, my brain hurts just looking at the descriptions of those problems. Funny thing is, though, that despite my total lack of of theoreticaly math knowledge, I probably have a better chance at solving one of these than hitting the lottery.
Seriously, though, how tough are these problems? Obviously hard, if their offering a million dollars, but anyone out there in-the-know care to comment on whether these are feasible? How many people in the world would have a legitimate shot at solving one?
I think the article makes a good point about Linuxcare being too soon into the support-only market. Right now, Linux is being used in a lot of shops in various roles, and it's usage can only grow. But I imagine at most places that do use Linux, they look for support from 3 sources:
- Existing Unix/other guru's they may have on staff.
- Hiring 1 or 2 new people to handle it for them.
- Many distributors like RedHat and Caldera would like to sell you support options as well. If a business deals with Redhat, they're more likely to go to Redhat to get their support if they need it.
Consider how this sort of thing working in the Windows world. Only in the past few of years did the concept of outsourcing your support needs to a major company become widely used. Before that, support was taken care of in-house. It's not unreasonable to think that Linux will go through a similar "in-house only" phase.
Eventually, however, the proliferation of Linux on desktops and servers throughout the business world will reach a critical mass, where it will make sense for a business to hire someone like a Linuxcare to come in and save the day. Here's hoping companies like Linuxcare can survive the rough times and prosper later on.
So by that logic, it's OK to walk into Borders and steal "I, Robot" by Asimov if you then go out and purchase other Asimov books?
Napster does indeed introduce new music to people who otherwise might not have heard it. And undoutbedly, some have purchased CD's based on what they heard from their Napster downloads. However, I would imagine there are a lot of Napster users out there who log on, download every song they can think of they like, burn the tracks to CD, and say to themselves "Screw the artists, they make to much money anyway". Is this fair to recording artists? It may not hurt Metallica or Dre, but what about those artists out there who don't sell 30 million albums?
If we acknowledge that a good number (perhaps even the majority?) of Napster users illegally download music, then you cannot justify this illegal activity by pointing to the legal use.
God, no kidding, who was the dumbass that modded this as informative. I guess the trolls are right: moderators really are smoking $3 crack. Or maybe they just eat too many potatoe chips...
Why is it that everytime some big company gives some money to a worthy cause, people start with this "It's nothing compared to their total value" junk. Christ, it's still $70k. I bet the EFF was thrilled to get that check. If nothing else, $70k is a years salary for 2 or 3 secretarial staff.
As of Friday's close, RHAT had a valuation of almost $3,000,000,000
And you think they've just got that in cash lying around? Yes, RH has an interest in seeing the open source movement continue lawsuit free, but that doesn't mean they should dump half their companies value into the defense fund. Right now, they're barely making a profit, if they are making profit at all (don't have RH's quarterly report in front of me).
I tell you what, though: I've dealt with a lot of computer manufacturers, and IMHO, Dell's support easily blows away everyone else. Granted, they are probably on average the most expensive of the Big Name companies, but I'll gladly spend a little more on the front end if it get's me superior service down the road.
Still, I wouldn't mind seeing some AMD's in Dell systems, and I don't see why it hasn't happened yet. I don't think Intel's in any position to say to Dell, "Stick with our chips or we'll pull them all" like they used to back in the day.
This game seems to have slipped in under my new release radar, I haven't heard/read much about it. Are we talking "persistent universe" like Everquest persistent universe? Is this an on-line only, monthly fee sort of game?
Also, they talk about this being developed specifically for Linux: will there be a Windows version as well? Not the kind of information the average/. reader cares about, I realize, but if there was a Windows version, it would help increase the popularity of the game.
Jeff makes a good point about entry pages not chewing up much bandwidth like FascDot originally said, and about it being a temporary placeholder, but personally I find them utterly annoying. I don't know if they're a "cardinal sin", since I'm not the Web Pope, but IMHO it's one stupid web trick that should be discouraged in most situations.
It's also nice to see the Slashdot guys forwarding some questions in an interview that didn't follow the "Gee, we love your work, what do you think about this?" department.
Re:E-Commerce Collapse?
on
Boo No More
·
· Score: 2
Everytime a furniture store has "going out of business" commercials on TV, does that signify the collapse of normal retail stores?
True, but furniture stores and traditional retail stores are old, established business models. No one goes into panic mode when one closes down.
Online retailers, however, are new, untested business models. Major on-line vendors are watched closer than any other businesses, and when one fails, there are plenty of Internet pundits waiting in the wings with their "See, I told you, the E-commerce bubble is bursting" articles (read, ZD-Net).
Obviously one failing business isn't going to drag the whole economy down with it, but it does get people talking, and eventually has an effect. Personally, I think the e-commerce and internet stock market are due for a "correction": the whole E-Commerce field has been growing too far, too fast. Many businesses will fall by the wayside no doubt, but when it's all said and done, you'll have a collection of businesses that have weathered the storm, and will be financially stronger because of it. And that's when e-commerce will start to become trusted by Average Joe, and really start to take off.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess this kind of get's into the whole "Common Sense vs. Law" debate.
If I spill hot coffee on myself at McDonalds and burn my lap, common sense tells me that I should slap my head and go to the doctor. The Law, however, tells me that I can sue McDonalds for not telling me that coffee might be hot.
Likewise, if I leave my computer logged onto RoadRunner night and day, and Joe Scriptkiddie hacks it and DOS's CNN, common sense tells me that when RoadRunner cancels my account because CNN has flooded my box with packets, I should slap my head and read up on security while looking for another ISP. The Law, however, says that I can probably blame CNN for violating my civil rights, and blame RoadRunner for not making me aware that such dangers exist.
Point well taken, but look at it another way:
You leave your car unlocked and running in front of a bank to go cash a check. While in the bank, a bank robber robs the bank, comes out and steals your car to make his get-away. The police, in their pursuit of said robber, shoot out the tires of your car, and otherwise trash it while bringing the robber to justice. Can you, as owner of the car, hold the police responsible for damaging your vehicle that you left unattended?
The analogy is not perfect, I realize, but my point is this: Why should a company under attack from zombies be worried about crashing an "innocent bystanders" computer? There's a reason that zombie is there in the first place: the computer was left wide open by the owner.
People like CmdrTaco have an inside track and it seems like they can post whatever they want
Well, it is his site, after all. I should think he'd get first dibs on what does and doesn't go up.
Plus, they get, what, like 200 story submissions a day? With volume like that, of course some things are going to slip through the cracks.
. I want a NEW GAME. I don't want to play the SAME GAME except for the requirement of a NEW VIDEO CARD.
Then go buy Alpha Centauri or The Sims.
id does one thing very well: produce First Person Shooters. It can be argued that others are now doing it better (Valve, whoever makes Unreal), but it's undeniable that id still produces quality FPS's.
Personally, I don't see anything wrong with sticking to one genre of games. Microprose used to dominate the turn-based strategy field with games like X-Com and Master of Orion. EA is the undisputed king of sports games. You want variety, buy from someone else. But don't demand that a game company produce something different simply for the sake of being different.
One of the main (and IMHO, the best) features of DOOM and DOOM2 were the sheer number of monsters you had to fight. Walk into a room, you'd be likely to find anywhere from 5 to a few dozen baddies, with about 45 health and 12 shotgun shells. Uh, can you say, Run? ;)
Today, however, with the emphasis on higher-quality graphics, it's tough to pack that many objects in one place without seeing a performance hit. The result is fewer monsters who simply have more hit points and guns (Half-Life), or worse yet, no monsters at all (Quake3, Unreal Tournament).
Don't get me wrong, Half-Life and Q3 are great games, but their gameplay emphasis is on limited-number encounters and multiplayer, respectively. Here's hoping Doom3 can bring us back to the glory days of mowing down legions of Imps with reckless abandon. Between this and the new Wolfenstien coming out, it's starting to pay to be an old-school gamer!
"You blow my cover! I kill you all!" - Quaid
Sorry, couldn't resist. Greatest Arnold quote ever.
A quick check of this "Steve Woston"'s User Info page should give us all the info we need:
:) Sure, this guy is trollin, and making moderators look like fools, but at least he's original!
"I have worked on many ground-breaking products within the industry, including Spork II, Star Trek: The Fillament Legacy, and Pitfall for Nokia 5125"
Hehe, Pitfall for Nokia 5125
a Beowul....Oh, wait a minute, never mind ;)
Aparently it would be fast enough that you'd get your results before you even entered the problem. Sort of re-defines the term "reverse engineering", doesn't it?
Somehow I doubt _Battlefield Earth_ will be aired on the classic movies channel in 2035.
If there's any justice in the universe, it will, but on Mystery Science Theatere 4000.
Bravo, sir! I for one didn't go in expecting the English Patient or American Beauty. I mean come on: we all know John Woo isn't exactly Martin Scorcese or anything. Still, his movies, big-budget, -explosion, -action flicks do the job, and do it well.
Still, the first MI was a little more cereberal, and it's not unreasonable to expect more of the same going into the sequel, so I can see where some might be disappointed. Once you get past the plot holes, however, and accept the movie for what it is, it entertains thouroughly.
Not true. A standard MP3 recorded as 128KBs/44Mhz weighs in at about 3-4 meg for an average song (easily withing download range for 56k users). Yes, there is a difference between it and a CD version: the sound is degraded. The degredation, however, is not noticable to the human ear, except perhaps on the highest quality sound systems.
You don't really start to hear the difference until MP3's dip to about 96 KBs. There are some MP3's out there of this nature (and lower), but the vast majority are at least 128, with many now reaching 160 and higher. Metallica is right to be concerned about this issue: it is possible to get digital, CD-perfect songs for free, or at least as perfect as most users will ever need.
I would like to take this opportunity to announce my intention to patent the intellectual idea of both patents and copyrights. For far to long, people have been using my idea of patents and copyrights to protect their work, it's time that I also made money for doing nothing more than filling out a form.
I would also like to patent the English language, oak trees, and cockroaches. No longer will the blatent theft of my property go unpunished.
Someone needs to teach lawyers how to play Quake or something, so they have something else to do with their free time...
Ouch, my brain hurts just looking at the descriptions of those problems. Funny thing is, though, that despite my total lack of of theoreticaly math knowledge, I probably have a better chance at solving one of these than hitting the lottery.
Seriously, though, how tough are these problems? Obviously hard, if their offering a million dollars, but anyone out there in-the-know care to comment on whether these are feasible? How many people in the world would have a legitimate shot at solving one?
I think the article makes a good point about Linuxcare being too soon into the support-only market. Right now, Linux is being used in a lot of shops in various roles, and it's usage can only grow. But I imagine at most places that do use Linux, they look for support from 3 sources:
- Existing Unix/other guru's they may have on staff.
- Hiring 1 or 2 new people to handle it for them.
- Many distributors like RedHat and Caldera would like to sell you support options as well. If a business deals with Redhat, they're more likely to go to Redhat to get their support if they need it.
Consider how this sort of thing working in the Windows world. Only in the past few of years did the concept of outsourcing your support needs to a major company become widely used. Before that, support was taken care of in-house. It's not unreasonable to think that Linux will go through a similar "in-house only" phase.
Eventually, however, the proliferation of Linux on desktops and servers throughout the business world will reach a critical mass, where it will make sense for a business to hire someone like a Linuxcare to come in and save the day. Here's hoping companies like Linuxcare can survive the rough times and prosper later on.
So by that logic, it's OK to walk into Borders and steal "I, Robot" by Asimov if you then go out and purchase other Asimov books?
Napster does indeed introduce new music to people who otherwise might not have heard it. And undoutbedly, some have purchased CD's based on what they heard from their Napster downloads. However, I would imagine there are a lot of Napster users out there who log on, download every song they can think of they like, burn the tracks to CD, and say to themselves "Screw the artists, they make to much money anyway". Is this fair to recording artists? It may not hurt Metallica or Dre, but what about those artists out there who don't sell 30 million albums?
If we acknowledge that a good number (perhaps even the majority?) of Napster users illegally download music, then you cannot justify this illegal activity by pointing to the legal use.
God, no kidding, who was the dumbass that modded this as informative. I guess the trolls are right: moderators really are smoking $3 crack. Or maybe they just eat too many potatoe chips...
Why is it that everytime some big company gives some money to a worthy cause, people start with this "It's nothing compared to their total value" junk. Christ, it's still $70k. I bet the EFF was thrilled to get that check. If nothing else, $70k is a years salary for 2 or 3 secretarial staff.
As of Friday's close, RHAT had a valuation of almost $3,000,000,000
And you think they've just got that in cash lying around? Yes, RH has an interest in seeing the open source movement continue lawsuit free, but that doesn't mean they should dump half their companies value into the defense fund. Right now, they're barely making a profit, if they are making profit at all (don't have RH's quarterly report in front of me).
I tell you what, though: I've dealt with a lot of computer manufacturers, and IMHO, Dell's support easily blows away everyone else. Granted, they are probably on average the most expensive of the Big Name companies, but I'll gladly spend a little more on the front end if it get's me superior service down the road.
Still, I wouldn't mind seeing some AMD's in Dell systems, and I don't see why it hasn't happened yet. I don't think Intel's in any position to say to Dell, "Stick with our chips or we'll pull them all" like they used to back in the day.
"Wow, is it long! And talk about a preachy book! According to this book, everyone is a sinner! Except for this one guy..." ;)
Disclaimer: Bible review blatantly plagerized from the infinite wisdom of Homer Simpson.
This game seems to have slipped in under my new release radar, I haven't heard/read much about it. Are we talking "persistent universe" like Everquest persistent universe? Is this an on-line only, monthly fee sort of game?
/. reader cares about, I realize, but if there was a Windows version, it would help increase the popularity of the game.
Also, they talk about this being developed specifically for Linux: will there be a Windows version as well? Not the kind of information the average
I know you guys will, but please please please post the reply, if Microsoft has the balls to reply. I can just see it now...
1. How can Microsoft claim proprietary protections for enhancement to an open standard protocol?
We are Microsoft. We care not for open standards. We take what we will. Tremble in fear of our harsh words peasant!
2. How can Microsoft use the Kerberos name, which signifies an open standard protocol, in connection with a proprietary protocol?
Are you not listening, puny human? We are Microsoft! The protocol is ours, now and forever, so says us.
Repeat ad nauseum.
Jeff makes a good point about entry pages not chewing up much bandwidth like FascDot originally said, and about it being a temporary placeholder, but personally I find them utterly annoying. I don't know if they're a "cardinal sin", since I'm not the Web Pope, but IMHO it's one stupid web trick that should be discouraged in most situations.
It's also nice to see the Slashdot guys forwarding some questions in an interview that didn't follow the "Gee, we love your work, what do you think about this?" department.
Everytime a furniture store has "going out of business" commercials on TV, does that signify the collapse of normal retail stores?
True, but furniture stores and traditional retail stores are old, established business models. No one goes into panic mode when one closes down.
Online retailers, however, are new, untested business models. Major on-line vendors are watched closer than any other businesses, and when one fails, there are plenty of Internet pundits waiting in the wings with their "See, I told you, the E-commerce bubble is bursting" articles (read, ZD-Net).
Obviously one failing business isn't going to drag the whole economy down with it, but it does get people talking, and eventually has an effect. Personally, I think the e-commerce and internet stock market are due for a "correction": the whole E-Commerce field has been growing too far, too fast. Many businesses will fall by the wayside no doubt, but when it's all said and done, you'll have a collection of businesses that have weathered the storm, and will be financially stronger because of it. And that's when e-commerce will start to become trusted by Average Joe, and really start to take off.
New for 2001: Microsoft Office Assistant, powered by Ask Jeeves!
;)
"Jeeves, how can I create columns in Word?"
"808 The She Creature" Word Find - Mystery Science Theater 3000".
If nothing else, it would make tech support MUCH more interesting