Actually one of the things we share with chimps is the competition and agression. We're not quite sure if chimps are self-aware or not, they can't really tell us as their brains lack an area to synthesize speech. Just as our brains lack the function to smell a banana at a hundred feet. Though, their brains do lack the inhibitors that keep us from throwing our poo at someone..
I guarantee that even if SCO wins this lawsuit in the US, it'll have little implication for Linux. The EU will basically tell SCO to fuck off (though probably in some weird language they don't understand) and Linux will still exist in the other 170-odd countries of the world. Remember, Linux wasn't created in the US and most of the developers do not live in the US. Us Americans aren't the center of the world, and we seem to forget that quite often because our economic and military dominance makes it seem that way. But the US military isn't going to invade France (though I'm sure they REALLY want to) because the French ignore SCO's claim on Linux altogether.
Antitrust? MS really only wants to make this lawsuit drag on as long as possible. Key to this is SCO's statement that they'll be going after end users. This means businesses. Businesses try to avoid being sued at all costs. Microsoft is hoping that the longer this thing drags on, businesses will start to be more hesitant about deploying Linux because of the uncertainty about its legality. "If we deploy Linux, we could get sued later or have to pay whatever SCO demands."
In business, uncertainty is almost worse than bad news. Microsoft is hoping that driving customers away from Linux will drive them towards Windows, which, while it's expensive, is pretty much in the free and clear legally, and that's better for businesses than free but legally fuzzy. MS is lending some credibility to SCO as well as money.
This troubles me. Why? Because essentially this is a proxy suit by Microsoft to sue Linux out of existence. MS has no grounds to sue anyone over anything on Linux, so they find someone who does, then pay them gobs of money to do it. Sure, they could just buy the company and the IP and sue themselves, but the DoJ probably wouldn't like that too much. So they just funnel the money through a company like SCO and get their way anyway. Eventually, the DoJ will bust Microsoft. It's gotta happen, they obviously didn't learn their lesson (and who can blame them, nothing happened.) But it will probably get so flagrant in the future that the DoJ will have no choice but to take action. Let's just hope MS doesn't find a way to fuck everyone else over before then.
One simple reason: Licensing Unix from SCO strengthen's SCO's claim to Linux. Microsoft has pretty much publicly declared war on Linux (in as much as that is possible) and I don't think it's coincidence that this announcement comes days after SCO announced their plans to sue Linux out of existence. By licensing the offending code, Microsoft is essentially backing SCO up here by saying "They have a legitimate claim on this code and should be paid licensing fees." The fees are inconsequential to Microsoft, it's the implications of paying them that they want.
Does anyone else find it funny that you care enough about your job to point out that you work for ATI but still have a link to your resume in your sig?:)
Actually if you're sick going to a vet isn't such a bad idea:) Supposedly special forces units on clandestine missions will do this, as going to a local vet and paying him off doesn't raise eyebrows (or leave a paper trail) like a hospital or doctor's visit would. Don't know how true that is, could be total baloney, but this post is WAY offtopic anyway:)
It's not supposed to be nor does anyone claim it to be. But it does offload some of that windowing code to the GPU, which leaves the CPU open to do other things.
Re:Probably it will always stay...
on
BitTorrent Guide
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Uh, there are lots of porn torrents out there. The only thing now is instead of short video clips or pictures, it's entire porn film DVD rips. Usually DivX or SVCD encoded. Unless it's 100 megs, it's usually not worth making a.torrent out of.
BitTorrent is too perfect for warez
on
BitTorrent Guide
·
· Score: 0
KaZaA and the like (this includes pretty much every P2P program out there) suck for downloading large files. There are a limited number of users who have it, and those who have a highly desired file are probably queueing it to 10 people at once. BT gives everyone a fast speed by at least watering down the effect of leechers. Most warez files are rather large.
Movies are a perfect example. BitTorrent was adopted almost overnight by the various anime fansub groups and movie pirates. It's perfect for getting large files to a large number of people. Unfortunately, it's still easier to just go to the store and buy a copy of the legit software than it is to download it, even from BT. So in essence, there are very few "legal" files of the size that makes BT really useful (also keep in mind with BT you have to hit a "critical mass" before it starts to work really well.) The only thing I can think of are Linux distros and large game patches (a la counterstrike.) While we can all dream, the P2P distribution model is only really feasable for... you guessed it, pirating things.
I'm gonna have to second that. I'm gonna try and return the PC version for a copy of the PS2 version. It seems like it would control much better with a gamepad. Would probably also get rid of a lot of the graphical problems as the hardware is standardized.
I bought the PC version the day it came out. It's probably one of the most disappointing purchases I've ever made. Why? It essentially boils down to the fact that it's a Max Payne ripoff, except it doesn't play nearly as well as Max Payne. Some of the levels are ridiculously difficult (anyone who's played the Chinatown levels knows what I mean) while others are really easy.
The sad part is this game could have been so much cooler. As it is, it's riddled with bugs, graphical glitches, and a really annoying sync bug that makes the audio go WAY out of sync during some of the rendered cutscenes. This is not a finished game, which is surprising because it's been in development for almost 2 years. One would think they would have had enough time to finish it.
That said, the game is a must-play for devout fans of the Matrix. The game follows the path of Ghost and Niobe and takes place during the Matrix Reloaded. The plot intersects with the movie over various parts of the game, and stuff IS made more clear through playing the game. In short, the story is pretty much an essential part of the Matrix saga, at least as much so as the Animatrix.
They've even included a "Hacking" game, which is a relatively short and easy CLI puzzle where you have to "hack" the Matrix, but it can give you some nice goodies like weapon drop points, cheat codes, and a secret level. It's relatively amusing, though unfortunately it's not totally finished yet. The game redirects you to search a few websites to find some information, but it seems as though those sites aren't up yet. One of them (which now redirects to the game's official homepage) even sported a "This domain has been registered by: " temp page.
In short, this game was obviously rushed out the door before it was finished. The fact that there were patches available the day after release is a testament to that. No game should be released with this many bugs or a control system this flawed. The PC version of the game seems like it was an afterthought, a port of the console versions that wasn't quite given the care that it should have been. Which is disappointing, because it turned what could have been a spectacular game into simply a mediocre one.
Actually it's probably closer to the year 3000 than 2199. Why is this? Because it's been 100 years since 'this' Zion has been created. There were about 5 others before that, presumably lasting about the same period of time (the architect states that the cycle of "The One" is predictable.) Then before that were the failed matrices, and before that was the war to end all wars. In the first movie, Morpheus believes it is 2199 because he has no idea there were other Matrices before the current one. I imagine we'll find out in the next movie, Reloaded raised many more questions than it answered.
This isn't "enforced antivirus," the Fizzer Task Force is run by a bunch of IRC operators from many different networks. IRC operators just so happen to overall be a very clever bunch, and what with this virus wreaking havoc on a lot of the smaller networks, something had to be done. Plus, the virus already has the capability to update itself. All the antivirus does is exploit a weakness in the virus that can be used to castrate it. And the difference here between anti-virus and anti-everything else is that viruses are not good. Never. And in this case, the virus was extensively analyzed before any action was taken against it. This isn't the antivirus eqivalent of the RIAA's "research," rather the virus was disassembled and and researched to make sure that this worked. I personally think it's an elegant solution to a nasty problem.
My guess is the fizzer people talked to geocities to gain control of the account. I'd imagine geocities' security is pretty solid, it's NOT hard to secure a box if you REALLY want to. 99.999% of security breaches are from default daemons left on and never updated so the vulnerabilities persist. If you update your software and check your CGIs (the other 0.001% of system breakins come from bad CGIs) for vulnerabilities (as I'm sure geocities has) then you're fine.
You're absolutely right, diligence is not the issue here. The issue is (as the poster a few levels up pointed out) that by offering their own linux distro, they thus GPLed (what they claim to be) their code. Sure, they still own it, but it's under the GPL so they can't realistically enforce copyright claims (if the GPL stands up in court that is.) So to the linux community it doesn't matter WHO owns it. It's like if a Linux developer (someone who submits stuff to the kernel) decided he was going to start suing people for using his code. The GPL is a totally viral license, in that once something is GPL'ed, it's GPL'ed forever.
I think what the previous posters mean by "diligence" is that SCO didn't do their homework to see if they possibly had any conflicting IP in the Linux kernek before jumping on the bandwagon themselves and offering their own distro. In that case, it's their own damn fault; even if there is offending code in the kernel, it is now legal to have because the people owning the copyright placed it under the GPL by selling linux with the accompanying license. It's sort of a "you may be right, but tough shit" situation for SCO here.
SCO needs to lay off the lawyermongering, it does nothing but piss potential customers off (seeing as they're going after end users who might have bought something else SCO makes) and it'll probably eventually bankrupt them because they don't really have any ground to stand on. It kind of seems like a last-ditch attempt to save a failing company, but I think they picked the wrong fight.
You use 3ghz P4s because you want to test the video card, not the entire setup. There's way too much variation in platforms and chipsets as well, a card might perform better on an nforce2 board than a KT400 board. Most sites that post benchmarks are fan/enthusiast sites without the cash to test the cards on every imaginable setup (not to mention it would clutter the data and make it hard to see which card is REALLY better.) If you want CPU benchmarks, then don't look at video card benchmarks.;)
All I've gotta say is.. Mac OS X:) the icons are scalable, and you can increase the size easily on higher res displays. I imagine Longhorn will include this as well, MS always seems to see what Apple does and copy it..
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, but you look like less of a fag in a pinto.
Actually one of the things we share with chimps is the competition and agression. We're not quite sure if chimps are self-aware or not, they can't really tell us as their brains lack an area to synthesize speech. Just as our brains lack the function to smell a banana at a hundred feet. Though, their brains do lack the inhibitors that keep us from throwing our poo at someone..
That RMS is the next Osama bin Laden? In that case, he's already got the foot-long beard down.. Now all he needs is a turban.
Marathon! Hell yeah! That game was awesome :) You're gonna make me bust out my Marathon Infinity CDs...
Nothing stops a reseller from selling the system ready to go with a copy of OS X though.
But I agree, this will probably never turn into anything.
Not with all the bugs in the PC version. I have the NTPAD XP drivers actually, it's just that the PC version of EtM is.. incomplete.
I guarantee that even if SCO wins this lawsuit in the US, it'll have little implication for Linux. The EU will basically tell SCO to fuck off (though probably in some weird language they don't understand) and Linux will still exist in the other 170-odd countries of the world. Remember, Linux wasn't created in the US and most of the developers do not live in the US. Us Americans aren't the center of the world, and we seem to forget that quite often because our economic and military dominance makes it seem that way. But the US military isn't going to invade France (though I'm sure they REALLY want to) because the French ignore SCO's claim on Linux altogether.
Antitrust? MS really only wants to make this lawsuit drag on as long as possible. Key to this is SCO's statement that they'll be going after end users. This means businesses. Businesses try to avoid being sued at all costs. Microsoft is hoping that the longer this thing drags on, businesses will start to be more hesitant about deploying Linux because of the uncertainty about its legality. "If we deploy Linux, we could get sued later or have to pay whatever SCO demands."
In business, uncertainty is almost worse than bad news. Microsoft is hoping that driving customers away from Linux will drive them towards Windows, which, while it's expensive, is pretty much in the free and clear legally, and that's better for businesses than free but legally fuzzy. MS is lending some credibility to SCO as well as money.
This troubles me. Why? Because essentially this is a proxy suit by Microsoft to sue Linux out of existence. MS has no grounds to sue anyone over anything on Linux, so they find someone who does, then pay them gobs of money to do it. Sure, they could just buy the company and the IP and sue themselves, but the DoJ probably wouldn't like that too much. So they just funnel the money through a company like SCO and get their way anyway. Eventually, the DoJ will bust Microsoft. It's gotta happen, they obviously didn't learn their lesson (and who can blame them, nothing happened.) But it will probably get so flagrant in the future that the DoJ will have no choice but to take action. Let's just hope MS doesn't find a way to fuck everyone else over before then.
One simple reason: Licensing Unix from SCO strengthen's SCO's claim to Linux. Microsoft has pretty much publicly declared war on Linux (in as much as that is possible) and I don't think it's coincidence that this announcement comes days after SCO announced their plans to sue Linux out of existence. By licensing the offending code, Microsoft is essentially backing SCO up here by saying "They have a legitimate claim on this code and should be paid licensing fees." The fees are inconsequential to Microsoft, it's the implications of paying them that they want.
Does anyone else find it funny that you care enough about your job to point out that you work for ATI but still have a link to your resume in your sig? :)
Actually if you're sick going to a vet isn't such a bad idea :) Supposedly special forces units on clandestine missions will do this, as going to a local vet and paying him off doesn't raise eyebrows (or leave a paper trail) like a hospital or doctor's visit would. Don't know how true that is, could be total baloney, but this post is WAY offtopic anyway :)
It's not supposed to be nor does anyone claim it to be. But it does offload some of that windowing code to the GPU, which leaves the CPU open to do other things.
Uh, there are lots of porn torrents out there. The only thing now is instead of short video clips or pictures, it's entire porn film DVD rips. Usually DivX or SVCD encoded. Unless it's 100 megs, it's usually not worth making a .torrent out of.
KaZaA and the like (this includes pretty much every P2P program out there) suck for downloading large files. There are a limited number of users who have it, and those who have a highly desired file are probably queueing it to 10 people at once. BT gives everyone a fast speed by at least watering down the effect of leechers. Most warez files are rather large.
Movies are a perfect example. BitTorrent was adopted almost overnight by the various anime fansub groups and movie pirates. It's perfect for getting large files to a large number of people. Unfortunately, it's still easier to just go to the store and buy a copy of the legit software than it is to download it, even from BT. So in essence, there are very few "legal" files of the size that makes BT really useful (also keep in mind with BT you have to hit a "critical mass" before it starts to work really well.) The only thing I can think of are Linux distros and large game patches (a la counterstrike.) While we can all dream, the P2P distribution model is only really feasable for... you guessed it, pirating things.
I'm gonna have to second that. I'm gonna try and return the PC version for a copy of the PS2 version. It seems like it would control much better with a gamepad. Would probably also get rid of a lot of the graphical problems as the hardware is standardized.
I bought the PC version the day it came out. It's probably one of the most disappointing purchases I've ever made. Why? It essentially boils down to the fact that it's a Max Payne ripoff, except it doesn't play nearly as well as Max Payne. Some of the levels are ridiculously difficult (anyone who's played the Chinatown levels knows what I mean) while others are really easy.
The sad part is this game could have been so much cooler. As it is, it's riddled with bugs, graphical glitches, and a really annoying sync bug that makes the audio go WAY out of sync during some of the rendered cutscenes. This is not a finished game, which is surprising because it's been in development for almost 2 years. One would think they would have had enough time to finish it.
That said, the game is a must-play for devout fans of the Matrix. The game follows the path of Ghost and Niobe and takes place during the Matrix Reloaded. The plot intersects with the movie over various parts of the game, and stuff IS made more clear through playing the game. In short, the story is pretty much an essential part of the Matrix saga, at least as much so as the Animatrix.
They've even included a "Hacking" game, which is a relatively short and easy CLI puzzle where you have to "hack" the Matrix, but it can give you some nice goodies like weapon drop points, cheat codes, and a secret level. It's relatively amusing, though unfortunately it's not totally finished yet. The game redirects you to search a few websites to find some information, but it seems as though those sites aren't up yet. One of them (which now redirects to the game's official homepage) even sported a "This domain has been registered by: " temp page.
In short, this game was obviously rushed out the door before it was finished. The fact that there were patches available the day after release is a testament to that. No game should be released with this many bugs or a control system this flawed. The PC version of the game seems like it was an afterthought, a port of the console versions that wasn't quite given the care that it should have been. Which is disappointing, because it turned what could have been a spectacular game into simply a mediocre one.
of comparable specs costs $199. Really, can someone tell me why people are so obsessed about hacking the xbox?
Have you ever seen Swedish chicks? That would have been the best job in the world.
Actually it's probably closer to the year 3000 than 2199. Why is this? Because it's been 100 years since 'this' Zion has been created. There were about 5 others before that, presumably lasting about the same period of time (the architect states that the cycle of "The One" is predictable.) Then before that were the failed matrices, and before that was the war to end all wars. In the first movie, Morpheus believes it is 2199 because he has no idea there were other Matrices before the current one. I imagine we'll find out in the next movie, Reloaded raised many more questions than it answered.
They don't do this already? Except I thought it was around 30,000 miles...
This isn't "enforced antivirus," the Fizzer Task Force is run by a bunch of IRC operators from many different networks. IRC operators just so happen to overall be a very clever bunch, and what with this virus wreaking havoc on a lot of the smaller networks, something had to be done. Plus, the virus already has the capability to update itself. All the antivirus does is exploit a weakness in the virus that can be used to castrate it. And the difference here between anti-virus and anti-everything else is that viruses are not good. Never. And in this case, the virus was extensively analyzed before any action was taken against it. This isn't the antivirus eqivalent of the RIAA's "research," rather the virus was disassembled and and researched to make sure that this worked. I personally think it's an elegant solution to a nasty problem.
My guess is the fizzer people talked to geocities to gain control of the account. I'd imagine geocities' security is pretty solid, it's NOT hard to secure a box if you REALLY want to. 99.999% of security breaches are from default daemons left on and never updated so the vulnerabilities persist. If you update your software and check your CGIs (the other 0.001% of system breakins come from bad CGIs) for vulnerabilities (as I'm sure geocities has) then you're fine.
You're absolutely right, diligence is not the issue here. The issue is (as the poster a few levels up pointed out) that by offering their own linux distro, they thus GPLed (what they claim to be) their code. Sure, they still own it, but it's under the GPL so they can't realistically enforce copyright claims (if the GPL stands up in court that is.) So to the linux community it doesn't matter WHO owns it. It's like if a Linux developer (someone who submits stuff to the kernel) decided he was going to start suing people for using his code. The GPL is a totally viral license, in that once something is GPL'ed, it's GPL'ed forever.
I think what the previous posters mean by "diligence" is that SCO didn't do their homework to see if they possibly had any conflicting IP in the Linux kernek before jumping on the bandwagon themselves and offering their own distro. In that case, it's their own damn fault; even if there is offending code in the kernel, it is now legal to have because the people owning the copyright placed it under the GPL by selling linux with the accompanying license. It's sort of a "you may be right, but tough shit" situation for SCO here.
SCO needs to lay off the lawyermongering, it does nothing but piss potential customers off (seeing as they're going after end users who might have bought something else SCO makes) and it'll probably eventually bankrupt them because they don't really have any ground to stand on. It kind of seems like a last-ditch attempt to save a failing company, but I think they picked the wrong fight.
You use 3ghz P4s because you want to test the video card, not the entire setup. There's way too much variation in platforms and chipsets as well, a card might perform better on an nforce2 board than a KT400 board. Most sites that post benchmarks are fan/enthusiast sites without the cash to test the cards on every imaginable setup (not to mention it would clutter the data and make it hard to see which card is REALLY better.) If you want CPU benchmarks, then don't look at video card benchmarks. ;)
All I've gotta say is.. Mac OS X :) the icons are scalable, and you can increase the size easily on higher res displays. I imagine Longhorn will include this as well, MS always seems to see what Apple does and copy it..