It's less a matter of benefits and more a matter of staying power. In 50 years, do you think people will still be listening to Britney Spears, or that her music will be use in movies/TV shows?
If her albums are still being sold new, they'll see, what, maybe a thousand sales a year? At that rate, the theoretical public good would be better served by putting them into the public domain and letting people remix them freely.
About 6 months ago, my credit card was falsely billed for around $500 from Tiger Direct. It was the third time that it had happened. I hadn't ordered anything that large from them, and my last order had been a few months ago, had been very small (RAM or something), and had been completed successfully.
TD is the only online retailer I've ever had this problem with. No one tries to use my credit card at Newegg. No one tries to use it at Amazon. All three times (over the course of about 4 years), it was used at TD.
My suspicion is that TD doesn't do as much card/address validation, and so it's a better target for identity thieves. It's pretty irritating, and frankly, it makes me wish I could blacklist businesses from my credit card.
From my own experience, I'd say that part of this trend (that is, the increase in casual gamers, not a decrease in hardcore gamers) is from the Nintendo Generation growing up, getting jobs, married, families, etc.
I used to be a hardcore gamer. Video games were my life. They filled most of my non-school hours. But nowadays, I just don't have the time. This is partially because I've chosen to use my time in other ways (spending time with the wife) and partially because I have more of my time taken up making a living (I work much more of my time than I devoted to schooling.) Casual gaming helps me get my gaming fix without requiring that I devote hours per day to it.
If anything, though, it's Flash games that have taken over for me, not the Wii. We do own a Wii, but it doesn't get nearly as much play as tower defense Flash games (or what I like to call, RTS-lite.)
I doubt very seriously that the M+ is going to be worth it. If many games even take advantage of it, most of them will also certainly be designed to function well enough without it (or else the developer is cutting out a large portion of their market.)
But that said, you have to wonder how long the Wii would have been delayed had they chosen to include these capabilities from the start. Even if it only added $20 to the system, it could have added months of development and testing. Timing on the release of the Wii was intentional, so this could have really changed their game.
Furthermore, Nintendo was taking a pretty big chance on the Wii. They knew that they were basically making Gamecube 1.5 (in terms of power) and that they'd be relying on the unique control mechanism to sell the unit. Getting it out early with a less precise sensor really made a lot of sense. If they'd waited 6 months to release it (or more likely a year to get a Christmastime release date), they'd be competing with 18-24 months of Xbox360 and 6-12 months of PS3 in the market, rather than competing with a fledgling PS3 which had very few games (and fewer still which were highly regarded.) Releasing the console late with better controls would have been a fairly large risk, and it could have backfired. I doubt very seriously that the backlash that they're suffering now will cost them anywhere near what they made by timing the release of the Wii as they did.
In short, there are plenty of legitimate reasons for releasing the M+ late that have nothing to do with wanting to squeeze a little extra money out of their customers. My hunch is that the Wii would have completely tanked had they delayed the release long enough to incorporate the gyroscope.
the resolution of the conflict with the Taurans is tantamount to magic, which I found disappointing.
Well, you know what Clarke said about sufficiently advanced technology....
I agree on the point that The Forever War was more satisfying than Starship Troopers, but I think it was mostly the characters and the realistic portrayal of faster-than-light travel. The ending didn't really bother me--I expected an outright deux ex machina ending once I got about halfway through--that, or the two cultures would destroy each other.
If the operating system was as safe as the crazy fanboys claim, it wouldnt have been able to install malware in the first place.
Which is disingenuous.
Furthermore, the activex part is true only if the user did, in fact, allow them. IE has had many, many vulnerabilities which allowed a malicious site to install ActiveX controls without user intervention (just like Safari has had remote execution flaws which allowed it to be compromised.)
I'm glad you mentioned that. Too many people have the wrong idea about the Kindle's ability to use un-DRM content.
That said, the vast majority of legal e-books are going to be locked with DRM. And that means that whatever reader you use must support that DRM. As far as I know, the Kindle only supports the DRM from Amazon (please correct me if I'm wrong here). That means that disabling your account locks you out of the vast majority of e-books that people are going to be buying the Kindle for in the first place.
Which, once again, means that the Kindle is a horrible choice. But then, with the DRM, everyone should know that. It's really a shame that the other content industries (books, movies) haven't copied the music industry in releasing non-DRM products. I've spent more on MP3s (including albums) since Amazon started distributing them free of DRM than I bought in the 10 years prior to that--primarily because of the convenience. Most were impulse buys that I never would have made offline or if I wasn't going to get the instant gratification of listening immediately.
Before that, I didn't buy DRM music. Now, with one single exception, I don't buy DRM movies/TV shows. Maybe one day they'll get it, though.
DLC-like packs have been around for a long, long time. Before the Internet, though, the only way to get the packs was through normal distribution channels.
Take Ultima 7. Pretty popular game in its time. It had an expansion pack (The Forge of Virtue) which added an entirely new island to the game. They maintained the illusion of a story by saying that it rose out from the depths, oh, and here's a ship to go check it out (in case you don't have a ship yet.) And the island integrated well with the mythology of the series, so it wasn't even particularly out of place.
Ultima 7 Part 2: Serpent Isle took a similar tack. There were in-game teleporters to move throughout the world. If you installed the expansion, The Silver Seed, then a character in the game presents you with a recently found artifact which seems to relate to the teleporters. Go to a teleporter, use the artifact, and you're transported to the new content. It's not as seemless or elegant as the expansion for part 1, but it still works well, and I think it's a creative balance between putting a locked door somewhere (making you wonder how to get the key) and making a door appear from nowhere once you install the new content.
I seem to recall upgrade versions of Windows being just fine to install fresh--though it would ask you to insert the previous version's disc to ensure that you possessed a copy.
The original request said that it shouldn't support outside protocols, not outside servers. Finding a pre-written IM protocol that doesn't support an outside server is simply not going to happen. What you'd really want is to be able to use policies or some other technological means to restrict people from connecting to anything but the company server. They're dealing with HIPPA already, so they should have a fairly strict firewall that would take care of this. If they don't, it seems like they should be looking at fixing their infrastructure before implementing IM.
It should also take a lot less time and fewer resources for companies smaller than Google--or at least, with a smaller web presence.
That's the rub, though. Companies with a large web presence have more incentive to enable IPV6. Companies that aren't technologically-oriented will be easier to migrate, but will be less likely to do so soon. It parallels the emergence of the web, to some degree.
I'd like to know why, too. Drastic changes in performance may mean that faster ways to do a thing were discovered. It may also mean that codepaths are being skipped that are essential to things functioning correctly. Remember the Debian OpenSSL bug?
That's why I'd like to know why SSL signing is so much faster under the new kernel. Seeing a 2x improvement makes me wonder if something's been screwed up that could compromise my certs.
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It's less a matter of benefits and more a matter of staying power. In 50 years, do you think people will still be listening to Britney Spears, or that her music will be use in movies/TV shows?
If her albums are still being sold new, they'll see, what, maybe a thousand sales a year? At that rate, the theoretical public good would be better served by putting them into the public domain and letting people remix them freely.
About 6 months ago, my credit card was falsely billed for around $500 from Tiger Direct. It was the third time that it had happened. I hadn't ordered anything that large from them, and my last order had been a few months ago, had been very small (RAM or something), and had been completed successfully.
TD is the only online retailer I've ever had this problem with. No one tries to use my credit card at Newegg. No one tries to use it at Amazon. All three times (over the course of about 4 years), it was used at TD.
My suspicion is that TD doesn't do as much card/address validation, and so it's a better target for identity thieves. It's pretty irritating, and frankly, it makes me wish I could blacklist businesses from my credit card.
From my own experience, I'd say that part of this trend (that is, the increase in casual gamers, not a decrease in hardcore gamers) is from the Nintendo Generation growing up, getting jobs, married, families, etc.
I used to be a hardcore gamer. Video games were my life. They filled most of my non-school hours. But nowadays, I just don't have the time. This is partially because I've chosen to use my time in other ways (spending time with the wife) and partially because I have more of my time taken up making a living (I work much more of my time than I devoted to schooling.) Casual gaming helps me get my gaming fix without requiring that I devote hours per day to it.
If anything, though, it's Flash games that have taken over for me, not the Wii. We do own a Wii, but it doesn't get nearly as much play as tower defense Flash games (or what I like to call, RTS-lite.)
I doubt very seriously that the M+ is going to be worth it. If many games even take advantage of it, most of them will also certainly be designed to function well enough without it (or else the developer is cutting out a large portion of their market.)
But that said, you have to wonder how long the Wii would have been delayed had they chosen to include these capabilities from the start. Even if it only added $20 to the system, it could have added months of development and testing. Timing on the release of the Wii was intentional, so this could have really changed their game.
Furthermore, Nintendo was taking a pretty big chance on the Wii. They knew that they were basically making Gamecube 1.5 (in terms of power) and that they'd be relying on the unique control mechanism to sell the unit. Getting it out early with a less precise sensor really made a lot of sense. If they'd waited 6 months to release it (or more likely a year to get a Christmastime release date), they'd be competing with 18-24 months of Xbox360 and 6-12 months of PS3 in the market, rather than competing with a fledgling PS3 which had very few games (and fewer still which were highly regarded.) Releasing the console late with better controls would have been a fairly large risk, and it could have backfired. I doubt very seriously that the backlash that they're suffering now will cost them anywhere near what they made by timing the release of the Wii as they did.
In short, there are plenty of legitimate reasons for releasing the M+ late that have nothing to do with wanting to squeeze a little extra money out of their customers. My hunch is that the Wii would have completely tanked had they delayed the release long enough to incorporate the gyroscope.
the resolution of the conflict with the Taurans is tantamount to magic, which I found disappointing.
Well, you know what Clarke said about sufficiently advanced technology....
I agree on the point that The Forever War was more satisfying than Starship Troopers, but I think it was mostly the characters and the realistic portrayal of faster-than-light travel. The ending didn't really bother me--I expected an outright deux ex machina ending once I got about halfway through--that, or the two cultures would destroy each other.
That post also included:
If the operating system was as safe as the crazy fanboys claim, it wouldnt have been able to install malware in the first place.
Which is disingenuous.
Furthermore, the activex part is true only if the user did, in fact, allow them. IE has had many, many vulnerabilities which allowed a malicious site to install ActiveX controls without user intervention (just like Safari has had remote execution flaws which allowed it to be compromised.)
I'm glad you mentioned that. Too many people have the wrong idea about the Kindle's ability to use un-DRM content.
That said, the vast majority of legal e-books are going to be locked with DRM. And that means that whatever reader you use must support that DRM. As far as I know, the Kindle only supports the DRM from Amazon (please correct me if I'm wrong here). That means that disabling your account locks you out of the vast majority of e-books that people are going to be buying the Kindle for in the first place.
Which, once again, means that the Kindle is a horrible choice. But then, with the DRM, everyone should know that. It's really a shame that the other content industries (books, movies) haven't copied the music industry in releasing non-DRM products. I've spent more on MP3s (including albums) since Amazon started distributing them free of DRM than I bought in the 10 years prior to that--primarily because of the convenience. Most were impulse buys that I never would have made offline or if I wasn't going to get the instant gratification of listening immediately.
Before that, I didn't buy DRM music. Now, with one single exception, I don't buy DRM movies/TV shows. Maybe one day they'll get it, though.
No.
DLC-like packs have been around for a long, long time. Before the Internet, though, the only way to get the packs was through normal distribution channels.
Take Ultima 7. Pretty popular game in its time. It had an expansion pack (The Forge of Virtue) which added an entirely new island to the game. They maintained the illusion of a story by saying that it rose out from the depths, oh, and here's a ship to go check it out (in case you don't have a ship yet.) And the island integrated well with the mythology of the series, so it wasn't even particularly out of place.
Ultima 7 Part 2: Serpent Isle took a similar tack. There were in-game teleporters to move throughout the world. If you installed the expansion, The Silver Seed, then a character in the game presents you with a recently found artifact which seems to relate to the teleporters. Go to a teleporter, use the artifact, and you're transported to the new content. It's not as seemless or elegant as the expansion for part 1, but it still works well, and I think it's a creative balance between putting a locked door somewhere (making you wonder how to get the key) and making a door appear from nowhere once you install the new content.
Of course they don't. Why don't you tell that to Spotify?
Interesting. I run an sshd on a non-standard port, and have yet to see this behavior.
I'll keep an eye out, though.
If you just want to keep the logs cleaner and avoid the bot attacks, you can just run your server on another port.
LVM should help with that, though. Separate /boot / and /home partitions, with / and /home resizeable.
I seem to recall upgrade versions of Windows being just fine to install fresh--though it would ask you to insert the previous version's disc to ensure that you possessed a copy.
We're looking for an internal, secure, FOSS (if possible) instant messaging / presence awareness client and server combo.
(emphasis mine)
The original request said that it shouldn't support outside protocols, not outside servers. Finding a pre-written IM protocol that doesn't support an outside server is simply not going to happen. What you'd really want is to be able to use policies or some other technological means to restrict people from connecting to anything but the company server. They're dealing with HIPPA already, so they should have a fairly strict firewall that would take care of this. If they don't, it seems like they should be looking at fixing their infrastructure before implementing IM.
That's good to hear. I was always a fan of the idea of the Drafthouse, but I was always so disappointed with the quality.
I'll give them (or that one, at least) another try now!
Every Drafthouse I've been in has had a crappy projector. Sure, it's got legroom and good food, but it loses out big-time on the quality of the film.
A number of websites don't accept plus addressing as valid e-mail addresses for signups. It's pretty irritating.
http://www.chemicalelements.com/elements/mg.html
Melted magnesium? Right.
Nice job on the script, then! We've been making use of it for a while to search for ms08-067 vulnerable computers on the network.
Looks to me like you just use the smb checker script. If you have the latest source from SVN, omething like this should work:
nmap -sS --script smb-check-vulns.nse -p 139,445 -v -d -P0 -oA outputfilename hostornetworktoscan
It should also take a lot less time and fewer resources for companies smaller than Google--or at least, with a smaller web presence.
That's the rub, though. Companies with a large web presence have more incentive to enable IPV6. Companies that aren't technologically-oriented will be easier to migrate, but will be less likely to do so soon. It parallels the emergence of the web, to some degree.
I'd like to know why, too. Drastic changes in performance may mean that faster ways to do a thing were discovered. It may also mean that codepaths are being skipped that are essential to things functioning correctly. Remember the Debian OpenSSL bug?
That's why I'd like to know why SSL signing is so much faster under the new kernel. Seeing a 2x improvement makes me wonder if something's been screwed up that could compromise my certs.
I don't believe in gravity. I believe in Intelligent Falling.