I will continue this post stating other issues with tabula.
1) They invent a fantastic language... then turn it into some kind of pokemon gimmick. 2) They make quests level-limited, but don't provide enough quests at every level to move forward. this was eventually fixed using kill xp multiplacators, but it still meant that for months people had to grind . 3) Instances could be done ONCE (cuz you wouldn't be able to obtain the quest again when completed). When they weren't broken that is. 4) Ridiculously unbalanced pvp. Only in the last month or so they release a pvp "arena", Everything else had to be organised in regular battle zones. Most ended up scrimming in bases, and that sucked horribly. 5) No difference between weapon "rarities"/power level for months... 6) No player store/trading house for months neither.
Definitly released a year before it was ready. when i bought the game, I had high hopes. after playing thru my initially bought gametime, I didn't renew, because it they obviously did not have their shit together. and it's a damn shame, because i'm a huge fan of MMOFPSes.
My best bet to the "closure" of gmail now is because Google are working on social media aspects to add to gmail.
You have to remember that social media sites like facebook have been causing a lot of problems for the iran govt. since the last "failed uprising" was all organised in a quick, chaotic way using social media. So by taking this decision now instead of later, they can cover up the closing of gmail into a "national project" before gmail becomes a problem like facebook,email and social media sites in general.
To these guys, it's all about control. Control of the population thru control of the media.
The cocksuckers at videotron saying such bullshit is up to par with the company line. you see, Videotron are part of Quebecor Media corporation, a media entity that has a solid hold on information over this province. Owning multiple newspapers, radio stations, a television channel and videotron, these bastards have made it a corporate strategy to auto-pimp everything that they do. Their newspapers will pimp their french language big brother, which will redirect to canoe.ca ( their own infotainment portal) to vote that week, etc etc.
To them, control over everything is key, so of course they don't fucking want net neutrality, cuz it would be bad for their strategy of walling everything media related in this province. Thank the Bob for the quality news of radio-canada.ca(the french cbc) and Le devoir, THE independent newspaper in this province (http://www.ledevoir.com).
Quebecor are monopolist bastards and I wish the politicians in this province would force them to sell off some of their media properties, as this is getting ridiculous.
I was an anarchy online player. I've seen how those dumbasses at funcom operate. LEt's not be coy here : AO was broken for a YEAR post release until they finally found most of the memory leaks. and i've seen the way they treated their customer base, how they fixed balance issues, and actually couldn't even be bothered to have a paid staff to do events in a MMORPG world, instead relying on free slave wage from incredible players who would become ARKS ( Player helpers ) and still had to fill petitions between trying to roleplay some kind of plot.
They are cheap bastards, used to shipping unfinished items to the market, and i really didn't think they would stop on this bullshit behavior for a new game. And while everyone was laughing at me then, look at them now. " Oh, wow just came out with an expansion, I'm going back". Yeah yeah, go kill six snow mooses now, go.
3- A lack of professionals who work with networks and computer security.
There's plenty of those people around. PLENTY of em. They're all being offered shitty frontline tech-support jobs.
The computer industry does need smart people, that is a point i will always concede. But what they WANT is warm bodies to fill positions most of the times. There is a lot of smart people that actually went in computers, only to be destroyed by an industry that always seeks to benefit from education and technical know-how.... and trying to get away ( and succeeding) with not paying them for this. So eventually they give up giving a shit.
It makes it worse when a guy that actually went ahead and got himself an education makes less an hour that most forklift operators.
Wait till you get older. People tend to think they're invincible until they get injured ( a past self included) and then suddenly realise just how humanly frail we can be.
... and they are complete utter idiots/wankers. This does not even surprise me at all coming from them. While i am sure there exists some people with clue somewhere, someplace within the thing, most of the people manning the phones are ( as per past experience, numerous comments and dealing of associates, other occasions where i've kibbitzed with people having had to deal with them):
- Insuficciently trained to deal with admins ( where a postmaster/mail line should) - Don't have enough knowledge about how email works oin the network - Limited network training - No power to do shit all to REALLY help you - Extremely bullshitty. they don't know what they're talking about, they'll just go with whatever.
This is just like their bullshit "mail report cards" they started sending back in the days. It's condescending, badly implemented ( and hence) mostly useless. ( included original rant on that lower behind supersnip). I think the whole " pay for delivery" is a dangerous slope to get onto for networked mail. At least the Sender Policy Framework makes more sense.
Shit man, it's times like these I don't miss working abuse@some.isp
==(supersnip)==
---(start idiotic message from AOL)--- Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 09:04:13 -0400 (EDT) From: postmaster@aol.com Subject: AOL email concerns for isp-where-i-work-abuse.net To: abuse@isp-where-i-work-abuse.net X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.39
Dear isp-where-i-work-abuse.net, You are receiving this message via our automated "Report Card" process (which helps analyze AOL's Internet inbound mail) because our available data indicate that isp-where-i-work-abuse has risen above the acceptable threshold for complaints:
Total number of AOL member complaints: 186
AOL takes proactive steps to contact owners of mail servers whose e-mail transmissions are impairing the functioning of AOL's proprietary e-mail system, or causing significant levels of AOL customer complaints.
AOL requests that you take immediate steps to resolve the issues identified in this AOL Report Card. In the absence of a satisfactory resolution, AOL reserves the right to take measures to protect its email network and its member goodwill from any possible damage. These measures may include declining to accept e-mail transmissions from isp-where-i-work-abuse.net through AOL's proprietary e-mail network.
AOL strives to provide the best online experience possible for our members, and we pride ourselves on being intensely focused on consumers and their needs. Email is a core feature of the AOL service, and the proper functioning of AOL's e-mail system is vital to our members' goodwill.
Please review AOL's e-mail policies and guidelines, as well as other technical details concerning e-mail on the AOL network, at http://postmaster.info.aol.com/ --(end message)--
Ooohhh, AOL's proprietary e-mail network. No information that is gonna be any use in determining WHY people are complaining at all. I guess this should not be a surprise, considering this crap is coming in from AOL! So i do the next available thing , i go to the website. Result : No information that is gonna be any use in determining WHY people are complaining at all. But there's a phone number.
Result of calling 1-888-212-5537: *dials phone* "The holding time for the next available consultant will be more than ten minutes."...( silence ) "Thank you for calling America online..." *spits water all over desk, workdesk and papers* (musak) (an hour later) "Hello, this is postmaster helpdesk, can i help you?"...And here i am explaining to the bloke on the phone the situation, namely that we are getting "Report cards" without any kind of information as to why people are complaining, with no headers or anything at all to help us. REP:"oh, that's because you don't currently have a feedback loop with us." ME : "huh? but we received your repor
Not for that small audience. Nowhere is a sponsor is gonna pay that amount for a small radio station, per month . And unless you offer "plus value" ( aka better stream quality.. which costs more money/band) forget about selling subscriptions.
--- a snip from savenetradio.org---- On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry's future.
At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 - that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters' royalties will grow exponentially!
Before this ruling was handed down, the vast majority of webcasters were barely making ends meet as Internet radio advertising revenue is just beginning to develop. Without a doubt most Internet radio services will go bankrupt and cease webcasting if this royalty rate is not reversed by the Congress, ----- end snip-----
well, lemme give you an idea, ok ?
Say that you got a small internet radio channel that handles on average 150-200 users per hours ( approx user count for all 24 hours... peaks at 500ish, 10-15 users in the wee hours... so say, for all practical purposes you ot a constant 175 users, k?) . Because you're barely making any money off this thing ( say you're "making" $100-200ish a month after paying for equipment, band, coffee, ramen, etc etc) you had the exemption that made it you paid a fraction of your revenues to the RIAA. But hey, you're still making peanuts here, so it's all good.
Suddenly the rules change. Let's run a quick and dirty calculation on what you suddenly owe the RIAA here... 175 users * 8 songs and hour * 0.0018 $ ( that's per song streamed) = 2.52$ So that's 2 bucks fifty an hour. multiply by 24 hours, times the number of days in a month ( say 30) and you get.... 1814,40$ that you owe to the RIAA... PER MONTH.
Can you say ouch ? for a guy that was barely making ends meet, and making just enough to take out his girlfriend to a fancy dinner once in a while ( if nothing breaks) you went down to actually owning money for running a small net radio station.
Now you understand why the "percentage of revenues" is something small webcasters want.
You know, i've actually had little brothers and sisters of friends come and ask me about a career in computing. And i've been extremely honest in telling them that unless they have an extremely high resistance to bullshit and doing crap jobs for a few years post graduation "so they build experience" to forget about it, and do something more constructive for society than work for the computing industry.
I'll give you a hot tip : because most of the "new" jobs are mostly trenchy and/or computer service over the phone type jobs. And while a lot of people win their lives with this stuff ( and i'm not knocking down the people working the trench, they should have their pay doubled, no questions asked ) it all comes down to quality of life. And stories of IT people going to work at K-Mart are too ingrained in our culture to make the prospect of that kind of employment a good strategy in the long term, UNLESS YOU REALLY DIG THE STUFF.
An electrician actually contributes more to society, is well paid and has a respected profession that will be in demand for most of his professional life. I'm not sure i can say the same for most of the IT profession.
I was a user of pegasus for the longest time. In fact, I switched from pegasus to thunderbird only last year when i learned i could finally manage multi-pop using thundy. I for one am going to miss the pegasus.
While this is simply the most bullshit thing i've seen in a while, i believe this time, the thing that's been having everyone on nerves about canadian politics lately could very very well work to our advantage.
By this, i mean the fact that we have a MINORITY government ( to all you Us people, this means the party ion power has less votes than the majority required to actually vote things. which means, they have to ally somehow with other parties to pass laws).
Tonight, i'm getting all the email addresses of all the people i know in the area, and i'm gonna send the first ever chain letter i'll ever send in my entire life ( because i totally hate the frikking things, they are inacurrate, and half the time fell into urban legendhood ) be, get this, WE ACTUALLY HAVE A CHANCE to have this tossed off. Tomorow, i'm gonna find out who the hell got elected in my district, and go and have a frank talk with him or her about why this is a ridiculous idea, that was essentially pushed for by corporate agenda and that it's something that Canadians don't want.
The politicians know they've got an election coming off, with the Gommery commission ending soon and all. They know they must get all the votes they can.
And right now, if we convince enough people, we can get this overturned before we egt another majority government that can do pretty much what it wants.
light DSL is usually maximally 128Kbits down, but it's ( a very gimped, usually for people that barely qualify for ) DSL.
they usually charge around 15-20ish dollards a month for that kind of DSL access up here in montreal, canada, and it would solve the always-on, cheaper for bling problem you're having.
As for me, nothing will make me part from my fixed ip 3meg adsl line for 60 canadian a month.
The main problem with those "sweatshops" is that over time, they eventually increase the chance for the in-game economy to go comepletely FUBAR.
By flooding the market for certain items, or controling drops on certain monsters , a small group of Farmers like these can effectively deny the rest of the online world's population of something that they need ( for they character's job) or simply monopolise the market on some items ( after all, they can organise shifts easely so they can camp for 24 hours at a time).
Add to the mix the fact that there is a good percentage of these people botting ( aka, having automated scripting tools that will autoattack/target rare monsters, or farm items without human action) and Eventually over time you get to the point that MONEY BECOMES WORTHLESS in the online game.
And the problem is that it keeps on getting worse and worse. The Final Fantasy XI Online economy was showing the signs of this about 5-6 months ago, and now, since then there has been about a 100% inflation on all costs in-game ( for player-sold items). It's getting so bad, the developpers are putting a tax on ALL ITEMS being bought ( so they could reduce the crazy amonts of money lying around).
Developpers don't realise how badly their economy might go down unless they start to actually monitor the online world's economy. Usually by the time they start doing that, they are already getting to the point that things are getting too crazy to be fixed.
You know what? When that dude talks about how the problem is solved, maybe he should stop pretending he's above us, and maybe start looking at the kind of system he's got.
here's a post i made in my blog about a situation that arived because of AOL's "system". Ever since that episode, i haven't been impressed at all by these people.
--------(start idiotic message from AOL)---------- Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 09:04:13 -0400 (EDT) From: postmaster@aol.com Subject: AOL email concerns for isp-where-i-work-abuse.net To: abuse@isp-where-i-work-abuse.net X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.39
Dear isp-where-i-work-abuse.net,
You are receiving this message via our automated "Report Card" process (which helps analyze AOL's Internet inbound mail) because our available data indicate that isp-where-i-work-abuse has risen above the acceptable threshold for complaints:
Total number of AOL member complaints: 186
AOL takes proactive steps to contact owners of mail servers whose e-mail transmissions are impairing the functioning of AOL's proprietary e-mail system, or causing significant levels of AOL customer complaints.
AOL requests that you take immediate steps to resolve the issues identified in this AOL Report Card. In the absence of a satisfactory resolution, AOL reserves the right to take measures to protect its email network and its member goodwill from any possible damage. These measures may include declining to accept e-mail transmissions from isp-where-i-work-abuse.net through AOL's proprietary e-mail network.
AOL strives to provide the best online experience possible for our members, and we pride ourselves on being intensely focused on consumers and their needs. Email is a core feature of the AOL service, and the proper functioning of AOL's e-mail system is vital to our members' goodwill.
Please review AOL's e-mail policies and guidelines, as well as other technical details concerning e-mail on the AOL network, at http://postmaster.info.aol.com ------------(end message)--------------
Ooohhh, AOL's proprietary e-mail network. No information that is gonna be any use in determining WHY people are complaining at all. I guess this should not be a surprise, considering this crap is coming in from AOL! So i do the next available thing , i go to the website. Result : No information that is gonna be any use in determining WHY people are complaining at all. But there's a phone number.
Result of calling 1-888-212-5537: *dials phone* "The holding time for the next available consultant will be more than ten minutes."...( silence ) "Thank you for calling America online..." *spits water all over desk, workdesk and papers* (musak) (an hour later) Hello, this is postmaster helpdesk, can i help you?...And here i am explaining to the bloke on the phone the situation, namely that we are getting "Report cards" without any kind of information as to why people are complaining, with no headers or anything at all to help us.
REP:"oh, that's because you don't currently have a feedback loop with us." ME : "huh? but we received your report cards in the abusemail box." REP:"Yes, but you don't have a feedback loop with us" ME:"You know, there are databases on the net where you can get the abuse contact information for ISPs and things like that." REP:"Yes, but we made our own database" ME:"Couldn't you have used those as a base for your own database?" REP:"I cannot comment on that"... and here are some other juicy interesting tidbits of information from this conversation...
REP: So what are your mail server's IP adresses. ME : We have several : we're an ISP. REP: Alright, then give em to me. ME : That's why we use DNS names for our mail servers : if one breaks, we change the IP to another server while we fix the previous one. REP: So you can't give me the IPs?...
Slashdot Mirror
I will continue this post stating other issues with tabula.
1) They invent a fantastic language... then turn it into some kind of pokemon gimmick.
2) They make quests level-limited, but don't provide enough quests at every level to move forward. this was eventually fixed using kill xp multiplacators, but it still meant that for months people had to grind .
3) Instances could be done ONCE (cuz you wouldn't be able to obtain the quest again when completed). When they weren't broken that is.
4) Ridiculously unbalanced pvp. Only in the last month or so they release a pvp "arena", Everything else had to be organised in regular battle zones. Most ended up scrimming in bases, and that sucked horribly.
5) No difference between weapon "rarities"/power level for months...
6) No player store/trading house for months neither.
Definitly released a year before it was ready. when i bought the game, I had high hopes. after playing thru my initially bought gametime, I didn't renew, because it they obviously did not have their shit together. and it's a damn shame, because i'm a huge fan of MMOFPSes.
My best bet to the "closure" of gmail now is because Google are working on social media aspects to add to gmail.
You have to remember that social media sites like facebook have been causing a lot of problems for the iran govt. since the last "failed uprising" was all organised in a quick, chaotic way using social media. So by taking this decision now instead of later, they can cover up the closing of gmail into a "national project" before gmail becomes a problem like facebook,email and social media sites in general.
To these guys, it's all about control. Control of the population thru control of the media.
The cocksuckers at videotron saying such bullshit is up to par with the company line. you see, Videotron are part of Quebecor Media corporation, a media entity that has a solid hold on information over this province. Owning multiple newspapers, radio stations, a television channel and videotron, these bastards have made it a corporate strategy to auto-pimp everything that they do. Their newspapers will pimp their french language big brother, which will redirect to canoe.ca ( their own infotainment portal) to vote that week, etc etc.
To them, control over everything is key, so of course they don't fucking want net neutrality, cuz it would be bad for their strategy of walling everything media related in this province. Thank the Bob for the quality news of radio-canada.ca(the french cbc) and Le devoir, THE independent newspaper in this province (http://www.ledevoir.com).
Quebecor are monopolist bastards and I wish the politicians in this province would force them to sell off some of their media properties, as this is getting ridiculous.
I was an anarchy online player. I've seen how those dumbasses at funcom operate. LEt's not be coy here : AO was broken for a YEAR post release until they finally found most of the memory leaks. and i've seen the way they treated their customer base, how they fixed balance issues, and actually couldn't even be bothered to have a paid staff to do events in a MMORPG world, instead relying on free slave wage from incredible players who would become ARKS ( Player helpers ) and still had to fill petitions between trying to roleplay some kind of plot.
They are cheap bastards, used to shipping unfinished items to the market, and i really didn't think they would stop on this bullshit behavior for a new game. And while everyone was laughing at me then, look at them now. " Oh, wow just came out with an expansion, I'm going back". Yeah yeah, go kill six snow mooses now, go.
I guess that explains the aftertaste.
There's plenty of those people around. PLENTY of em. They're all being offered shitty frontline tech-support jobs.
The computer industry does need smart people, that is a point i will always concede. But what they WANT is warm bodies to fill positions most of the times. There is a lot of smart people that actually went in computers, only to be destroyed by an industry that always seeks to benefit from education and technical know-how.... and trying to get away ( and succeeding) with not paying them for this. So eventually they give up giving a shit.
It makes it worse when a guy that actually went ahead and got himself an education makes less an hour that most forklift operators.
Wait till you get older. People tend to think they're invincible until they get injured ( a past self included) and then suddenly realise just how humanly frail we can be.
... and they are complete utter idiots/wankers. This does not even surprise me at all coming from them. While i am sure there exists some people with clue somewhere, someplace within the thing, most of the people manning the phones are ( as per past experience, numerous comments and dealing of associates, other occasions where i've kibbitzed with people having had to deal with them) :
...( silence ) ..." ...And here i am explaining to the bloke on the phone the situation, namely that we are getting "Report cards" without any kind of information as to why people are complaining, with no headers or anything at all to help us.
- Insuficciently trained to deal with admins ( where a postmaster/mail line should)
- Don't have enough knowledge about how email works oin the network
- Limited network training
- No power to do shit all to REALLY help you
- Extremely bullshitty. they don't know what they're talking about, they'll just go with whatever.
This is just like their bullshit "mail report cards" they started sending back in the days. It's condescending, badly implemented ( and hence) mostly useless. ( included original rant on that lower behind supersnip). I think the whole " pay for delivery" is a dangerous slope to get onto for networked mail. At least the Sender Policy Framework makes more sense.
Shit man, it's times like these I don't miss working abuse@some.isp
==(supersnip)==
---(start idiotic message from AOL)---
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 09:04:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: postmaster@aol.com
Subject: AOL email concerns for isp-where-i-work-abuse.net
To: abuse@isp-where-i-work-abuse.net
X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.39
Dear isp-where-i-work-abuse.net,
You are receiving this message via our automated "Report Card" process (which helps analyze AOL's Internet inbound mail) because our available data indicate that isp-where-i-work-abuse has risen above the acceptable threshold for complaints:
Total number of AOL member complaints: 186
AOL takes proactive steps to contact owners of mail servers whose e-mail transmissions are impairing the functioning of AOL's proprietary e-mail system, or causing significant levels of AOL customer complaints.
AOL requests that you take immediate steps to resolve the issues identified in this AOL Report Card. In the absence of a satisfactory resolution, AOL reserves the right to take measures to protect its email network and its member goodwill from any possible damage. These measures may include declining to accept e-mail transmissions from isp-where-i-work-abuse.net through AOL's proprietary e-mail network.
AOL strives to provide the best online experience possible for our members, and we pride ourselves on being intensely focused on consumers and their needs. Email is a core feature of the AOL service, and the proper functioning of AOL's e-mail system is vital to our members' goodwill.
Please review AOL's e-mail policies and guidelines, as well as other technical details concerning e-mail on the AOL network, at http://postmaster.info.aol.com/
--(end message)--
Ooohhh, AOL's proprietary e-mail network. No information that is gonna be any use in determining WHY people are complaining at all. I guess this should not be a surprise, considering this crap is coming in from AOL! So i do the next available thing , i go to the website. Result : No information that is gonna be any use in determining WHY people are complaining at all. But there's a phone number.
Result of calling 1-888-212-5537:
*dials phone*
"The holding time for the next available consultant will be more than ten minutes."
"Thank you for calling America online
*spits water all over desk, workdesk and papers*
(musak)
(an hour later)
"Hello, this is postmaster helpdesk, can i help you?"
REP:"oh, that's because you don't currently have a feedback loop with us."
ME : "huh? but we received your repor
Not for that small audience. Nowhere is a sponsor is gonna pay that amount for a small radio station, per month . And unless you offer "plus value" ( aka better stream quality.. which costs more money/band) forget about selling subscriptions.
woops....my bad. but yeah, this is the idea anyhow. The " collection agency" can change name however you want, the end result stays the same.
--- a snip from savenetradio.org----
On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry's future.
At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 - that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters' royalties will grow exponentially!
Before this ruling was handed down, the vast majority of webcasters were barely making ends meet as Internet radio advertising revenue is just beginning to develop. Without a doubt most Internet radio services will go bankrupt and cease webcasting if this royalty rate is not reversed by the Congress,
----- end snip-----
well, lemme give you an idea, ok ?
Say that you got a small internet radio channel that handles on average 150-200 users per hours ( approx user count for all 24 hours... peaks at 500ish, 10-15 users in the wee hours... so say, for all practical purposes you ot a constant 175 users, k?) . Because you're barely making any money off this thing ( say you're "making" $100-200ish a month after paying for equipment, band, coffee, ramen, etc etc) you had the exemption that made it you paid a fraction of your revenues to the RIAA. But hey, you're still making peanuts here, so it's all good.
Suddenly the rules change. Let's run a quick and dirty calculation on what you suddenly owe the RIAA here...
175 users * 8 songs and hour * 0.0018 $ ( that's per song streamed) = 2.52$ So that's 2 bucks fifty an hour.
multiply by 24 hours, times the number of days in a month ( say 30) and you get.... 1814,40$ that you owe to the RIAA... PER MONTH.
Can you say ouch ? for a guy that was barely making ends meet, and making just enough to take out his girlfriend to a fancy dinner once in a while ( if nothing breaks) you went down to actually owning money for running a small net radio station.
Now you understand why the "percentage of revenues" is something small webcasters want.
You know, i've actually had little brothers and sisters of friends come and ask me about a career in computing. And i've been extremely honest in telling them that unless they have an extremely high resistance to bullshit and doing crap jobs for a few years post graduation "so they build experience" to forget about it, and do something more constructive for society than work for the computing industry.
I'll give you a hot tip : because most of the "new" jobs are mostly trenchy and/or computer service over the phone type jobs. And while a lot of people win their lives with this stuff ( and i'm not knocking down the people working the trench, they should have their pay doubled, no questions asked ) it all comes down to quality of life. And stories of IT people going to work at K-Mart are too ingrained in our culture to make the prospect of that kind of employment a good strategy in the long term, UNLESS YOU REALLY DIG THE STUFF.
An electrician actually contributes more to society, is well paid and has a respected profession that will be in demand for most of his professional life. I'm not sure i can say the same for most of the IT profession.
I was a user of pegasus for the longest time. In fact, I switched from pegasus to thunderbird only last year when i learned i could finally manage multi-pop using thundy. I for one am going to miss the pegasus.
While this is simply the most bullshit thing i've seen in a while, i believe this time, the thing that's been having everyone on nerves about canadian politics lately could very very well work to our advantage.
By this, i mean the fact that we have a MINORITY government ( to all you Us people, this means the party ion power has less votes than the majority required to actually vote things. which means, they have to ally somehow with other parties to pass laws).
Tonight, i'm getting all the email addresses of all the people i know in the area, and i'm gonna send the first ever chain letter i'll ever send in my entire life ( because i totally hate the frikking things, they are inacurrate, and half the time fell into urban legendhood ) be, get this, WE ACTUALLY HAVE A CHANCE to have this tossed off. Tomorow, i'm gonna find out who the hell got elected in my district, and go and have a frank talk with him or her about why this is a ridiculous idea, that was essentially pushed for by corporate agenda and that it's something that Canadians don't want.
The politicians know they've got an election coming off, with the Gommery commission ending soon and all. They know they must get all the votes they can.
And right now, if we convince enough people, we can get this overturned before we egt another majority government that can do pretty much what it wants.
light DSL is usually maximally 128Kbits down, but it's ( a very gimped, usually for people that barely qualify for ) DSL.
they usually charge around 15-20ish dollards a month for that kind of DSL access up here in montreal, canada, and it would solve the always-on, cheaper for bling problem you're having.
As for me, nothing will make me part from my fixed ip 3meg adsl line for 60 canadian a month.
...and for us out here, I know of a sub-100 laptop vendor, and that is "The guy selling stolen laptops on the corner of the street".
ph34r!
The main problem with those "sweatshops" is that over time, they eventually increase the chance for the in-game economy to go comepletely FUBAR.
By flooding the market for certain items, or controling drops on certain monsters , a small group of Farmers like these can effectively deny the rest of the online world's population of something that they need ( for they character's job) or simply monopolise the market on some items ( after all, they can organise shifts easely so they can camp for 24 hours at a time).
Add to the mix the fact that there is a good percentage of these people botting ( aka, having automated scripting tools that will autoattack/target rare monsters, or farm items without human action) and Eventually over time you get to the point that MONEY BECOMES WORTHLESS in the online game.
And the problem is that it keeps on getting worse and worse. The Final Fantasy XI Online economy was showing the signs of this about 5-6 months ago, and now, since then there has been about a 100% inflation on all costs in-game ( for player-sold items). It's getting so bad, the developpers are putting a tax on ALL ITEMS being bought ( so they could reduce the crazy amonts of money lying around).
Developpers don't realise how badly their economy might go down unless they start to actually monitor the online world's economy. Usually by the time they start doing that, they are already getting to the point that things are getting too crazy to be fixed.
You know what? When that dude talks about how the problem is solved, maybe he should stop pretending he's above us, and maybe start looking at the kind of system he's got.
...( silence ) ..." ...And here i am explaining to the bloke on the phone the situation, namely that we are getting "Report cards" without any kind of information as to why people are complaining, with no headers or anything at all to help us.
:"You know, there are databases on the net where you can get the abuse contact information for ISPs and things like that." :"Couldn't you have used those as a base for your own database?" ... and here are some other juicy interesting tidbits of information from this conversation...
...
here's a post i made in my blog about a situation that arived because of AOL's "system". Ever since that episode, i haven't been impressed at all by these people.
--------(start idiotic message from AOL)----------
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2004 09:04:13 -0400 (EDT)
From: postmaster@aol.com
Subject: AOL email concerns for isp-where-i-work-abuse.net
To: abuse@isp-where-i-work-abuse.net
X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.39
Dear isp-where-i-work-abuse.net,
You are receiving this message via our automated "Report Card" process (which helps analyze AOL's Internet inbound mail) because our available data indicate that isp-where-i-work-abuse has risen above the acceptable threshold for complaints:
Total number of AOL member complaints: 186
AOL takes proactive steps to contact owners of mail servers whose e-mail transmissions are impairing the functioning of AOL's proprietary e-mail system, or causing significant levels of AOL customer complaints.
AOL requests that you take immediate steps to resolve the issues identified in this AOL Report Card. In the absence of a satisfactory resolution, AOL reserves the right to take measures to protect its email network and its member goodwill from any possible damage. These measures may include declining to accept e-mail transmissions from isp-where-i-work-abuse.net through AOL's proprietary e-mail network.
AOL strives to provide the best online experience possible for our members, and we pride ourselves on being intensely focused on consumers and their needs. Email is a core feature of the AOL service, and the proper functioning of AOL's e-mail system is vital to our members' goodwill.
Please review AOL's e-mail policies and guidelines, as well as other technical details concerning e-mail on the AOL network, at http://postmaster.info.aol.com
------------(end message)--------------
Ooohhh, AOL's proprietary e-mail network. No information that is gonna be any use in determining WHY people are complaining at all. I guess this should not be a surprise, considering this crap is coming in from AOL! So i do the next available thing , i go to the website. Result : No information that is gonna be any use in determining WHY people are complaining at all. But there's a phone number.
Result of calling 1-888-212-5537:
*dials phone*
"The holding time for the next available consultant will be more than ten minutes."
"Thank you for calling America online
*spits water all over desk, workdesk and papers*
(musak)
(an hour later)
Hello, this is postmaster helpdesk, can i help you?
REP:"oh, that's because you don't currently have a feedback loop with us."
ME : "huh? but we received your report cards in the abusemail box."
REP:"Yes, but you don't have a feedback loop with us"
ME
REP:"Yes, but we made our own database"
ME
REP:"I cannot comment on that"
REP: So what are your mail server's IP adresses.
ME : We have several : we're an ISP.
REP: Alright, then give em to me.
ME : That's why we use DNS names for our mail servers : if one breaks, we change the IP to another server while we fix the previous one.
REP: So you can't give me the IPs?