- The web-user; email, web, and IM (99% of reviews fall into this category)
Here's a Coles Notes version of my experience... I switched my wife's laptop from Vista to Ubuntu 8.10 recently.
- She loves the many little games that come with it and that are easily installed. - She loves Evolution. - She loves Mozilla (she loved it before Linux though). - She loves the fact that the laptop boots up very quickly.
- She likes the fact that MS Office 2007 works well enough under Wine. - She likes that Ubuntu didn't ask for her permission to do stuff to the system anywhere near as much as Vista does by default.
- She hated the virtual desktops, specifically the fact that she couldn't figure out why it would switch to desktop 2 "all by itself" (turns out she leaves her finger on the mousewheel, and when scrolling in Mozilla near the edge of the screen, she would accidentally flip to desktop 2). - She hated the fact that "Youtube doesn't work" (easily remedied by installing Gnash, SWFDec, or the non-free Adobe Flash plugin). - She didn't like that it took a fair bit of finagling to get DVDs and various video files (mpg, etc) to work.
The last three points are easily remedied by someone who knows what they're doing, but it even took me a few minutes to realize what was causing the desktop flipping. As for Flash, well you'd have to basically do the same thing under Windows anyway so it's no different. While there's a very nice article in Ubuntu's support section about DVDs and videos, I still can't get.mpg videos to work in the default video player (Totem?) and have to use Gnome Mplayer for those specifically.
Getting Office 2007 working wasn't difficult, but there's no way she could have done it on her own. She doesn't know what Wine is, nor would she have known to add the official Wine repository to get the latest version (or even how to do this). Definitely not as easy as Windows where you put in the CD and hit Install.
She mostly uses her laptop to browse the web, use email, watch videos... that's about it. Ubuntu, once some tweaking is done, suits her just fine.
Don't make it a personal vendetta. Junk like that only kills your chances later on in the career path.
My wife is just entering the legal profession as a Legal Assistant with aspirations of moving towards Paralegal. She is also finding out that, at least in our city, the legal world is quite small and very much in touch with each other. Sending off an angry email like this, while cathartic to begin with, could be a very easy way to shoot yourself in the foot because word will get around, and it will get around quickly.
Thanks for the mod link. Unfortunately I'm playing on the XBox360 so nothing but official mods for me.:) I just can't afford to keep up with the upgrade cycle for my computer (reason why). I just use my computer for browsing, email, some coding when I get in the mood, and NWN2 with a buddy of mine.
Some mods I drool over, but even some of the most popular Morrowind mods (which I played on PC) I couldn't get into because they just didn't seem "right" or look "right" to me. Again, matter of taste.
But again, thanks for the link. I checked it out anyway despite not being able to use it.:)
Point taken. I actually feel more that way about Oblivion than I did about Morrowind, but only because I found much of Vvardenfall to be a bit too "alien" for my standard high fantasy tastes. Whereas Cyrodiil fits my minds eye image of, I suppose, the world I'd want to immerse myself in. However that's just a matter of taste.
To Bethesda's credit, one thing I just thought about but initially forgot to include that I consider if not somewhat revolutionary then definitely unique and innovative is the implemenation of V.A.T.S. in Fallout 3. I really enjoy how they blended the strategy and roleplay of the original Fallout games with the FPS style. I know many people think Fallout 3 is a terrible game compared to Fallout 1 and 2, but I personally disagree and am having a great time with it, and really love how V.A.T.S. is used.
Morrowind got a pass on its flaws (which were numerous, though less critical IMO than those in Oblivion) because it was giving us something new.
And even there you're wrong, as many fans of TES say that even Morrowind is a pale comparison to Daggerfall (which had its fair share of bugs as well). Personally I've loved every TES game that I've played since Arena (never played Redguard or Battlespire) and am enjoying Oblivion very much, despite what many others say.
Face it, when you break it down video games are just like movies. Everything's been done before and there's almost nothing original coming out.
My step-son told me I *had* to play Halo 2 because it was the greatest thing ever. I just looked at him and said something along the lines of "I played it 10 years ago, when Quake was released" (which of course, if you want to be pedantic, is just a derivative of Doom).
I can easily say "it gets colder here" where "here" is Winnipeg, MB. This winter we've had a fairly consistent streak of -30 C weather, sometimes colder, with a windchill dropping it to -50 C at times.
However, it's also a dry cold, while in Vancouver I believe at one point it got to below -10 C but because of the proximity of the ocean, it sure eats into your joints and no amount of layers can keep the cold out. While we in Winnipeg are used to and prepared for -30 to -40 C weather in the winter, Vancouver wouldn't be prepared for anything below about -5 to -10 C and they are certainly not prepared for anything more than a couple of centimeters (maybe an inch) of snow. My parents were in Vancouver late December '08 and they are from Winnipeg. They couldn't believe how cold it felt while they were there, and they are used to -30.
300 years ago, if you're not expecting even a bit of variation in temparature it can wreak complete havoc on the population.
rigs from big vendors like dell or hp have some kind of points which do not allow regular cheap upgrades
That right there is the rub. I made the mistake of buying two Dell Dimension E520's for my wife and I a few years ago, and they served us very well for what we used them for (World of Warcraft at the time). What I failed to take into consideration is the Dell proprietary parts, particularly the power supply connection.
In order to bump up the video, I would need to get new power supplies since the current ones are only 305 watt, which would cost on an order of $100 each (I've looked around, Dell p/s aren't cheap). Then there's the video which would be around $200-250 each for decent ATI HD 4850's. However, the CPU is only a Pentium D 915 dual core so since that's on the lower end that should be dealt with as well which would require motherboard too. Then there's the RAM, of which we only have 2GB in 512 sticks so all of it would need to be replaced with two 2GB sticks. Add in the Vista 64 OS on top of it all.
So basically, it's just easier and probably not much more expensive to replace the computers entirely (with a bonus of free 3 year parts/labour warranty from the company in Toronto I was looking at for buying Vista) and regift the computers to our sons.
Of course, last night the decision was made NOT to do any of this and we went out and bought a nice new 32" LCD TV and XBox 360 Pro holiday bundle for $1000 after tax/service plan. My wife and I both think we made the right decision, although it will be a little difficult moving away from the MMO genre (it's really the only type of game I've played "seriously" since EverQuest 1 came out).
For the past couple of months, my wife and I have been thinking of upgrading our PC's (actually buying all new ones because ours aren't easily upgraded and would probably cost close to buying a new rig anyway to do so) for gaming purposes. We play Warhammer: AoR and while it's playable on our older computers, when larger scale battles happen it can become a bit of a slideshow even on low settings.
We also have an XBox 360 and a 42" LCD TV in the basement rec room. We are honestly considering scrapping the notion of upgrading our computers (buy new ones) which would cost on the order of $2500 Canadian for two good gaming rigs and just picking up a cheaper 32" LCD TV (1080i) for $399 and another XBox 360 (Elite package) for $399. My wife also seems to enjoy Fable 2 a fair amount more than WAR at the moment.
$800 and we'd wind up with two "gaming stations" that do multiplayer games (we love and have Rock Band 1 and 2 plus various other games), and allow us to not have to schedule our Fable 2 and Oblivion/Fallout 3 time around each other once the kids are in bed.:) We'd also still have two respectable family computers. Seems to me that with HDTV prices dropping considerably and the quality of games out for the consoles on top of the other multimedia benefits coming from XBox Live, PC gaming may be in for a further decline (the PC section at my local EBGames is not even half a shelf now).
Serj Tankian (System of a Down) did something similar when he wrote an essay regarding the 9/11 attacks. While his essay in no way condoned or praised the attacks, it was forcibly removed from the website by the record company (and then put back up elsewhere, sorry I don't have a link). All it did was show an understanding of why outside nations, particularly fundamentalist Islam nations, would hate the U.S. so much as to resort to these attacks.
It's unfortunate that "terrorism" has whipped people up in such a frenzy that the simple act of trying to understand so-called terrorists is seen as sympathizing.
Think of how big the first windows distro was and how big Vista is
Sigh, I remember my first upgraded computer, an old 286AT (or was it ST, can't remember) with a 10MB hard drive. If I wanted to play any games (ie. Leisure Suit Larry or Space Quest), I had to delete Windows 3.0 to make enough room on the drive to install the game first. How far we've come...
I have a Diamond Rio PMP300 sitting right here on my desk. 32MB of digital music goodness, I could fit about half of the Lateralus album by Tool on it, encoded at 192kbps. I paid nearly $250 for it (Canadian) because I couldn't justify spending even more on the 64MB model.:) I remember being slightly miffed at the claim that it could hold "such and such" number of songs, but that was only if they were encoded at 64kbps, which sounded terrible.
Now I have an 4GB iPod Nano 3g that fits all my currently ripped music at a minimum of 256kbps plus a few funny videos that I've collected with room to spare (about 400MB). It cost about $150 Canadian. How times have changed.
To keep on topic, I didn't game TOO much as a kid with the dice and manuals, but when I did it was always enjoyable (I especially enjoyed poring over the Monster Manuals over and over). Plus, as the father of RPG's, he's obviously affected me insofar as the video games I most enjoy now (and in the past) are FRPGs which are obviously in one way or another taken from his work.
Agreed. I had been putting off getting an MP3 player for myself for the longest time, because really I couldn't justify spending the money on one. However, that didn't keep me from wandering into Best Buy or wherever and just looking at what was available. All sorts of MP3 players were on display and I would play with them and check out the interface. None of them were intuitive in the least, and the menus just didn't seem to do what I expected them to.
Fast forward to my last birthday where some relatives all went in together and got me a 3g iPod Nano. Prior to this, I had never used an iPod, even in passing. When I tried using it, I "just got it". The UI is so incredibly easy and intuitive, I really couldn't believe it. I could care less about the aesthetic design of the iPod, but the UI is what makes it for me.
She had her first child when she was 16, almost 17, and I had my first child when I was 18. Now, we're responsible people who stayed in school (she at least tried to finish University), I have a career, she's starting her career, and things are looking up. It was tough at first (we didn't meet until her oldest was 8), but we each did our best and are doing our best now. We're not the useless "mouth breathers" talked of in other threads.
The way we look at it is this way; it was tough at first, and still kind of is, but it's getting easier. And if we raise our children right and instill responsibility in them which we hope we are doing, then by the time our youngest is 18 and ready for University, we'll be 43 and 42 respectively. Not too bad given that we'll still be young enough to enjoy our life while our children are (hopefully:) independant.
EQ2 has the Goblin Gamblin' Game, run by a little goblin.
You can read the rules if you like, but it's quite simple. You pay 5 or 10 silver to play, and get 7 numbers. Depending on how many of your numbers match the numbers that are rolled, you either win nothing (zero or one matches), break even (two matches), or make money (three or more matches). If you match all 7, you win a huge lump sum based upon how much money other people have pumped into the system. It's very similar to real life lotteries.
Of course, you're technically just gambling for in-game currency, but there are ways to sell that for real life currency (see IGE and companies like them who sell gold/plat in EQ/EQ2/WoW/etc).
So you're basically saying that if you were married, and found out that your wife was having an online affair through MSN, IRC, or whatever, you'd be ok with it? Even if they have never met in real life, but were exchanging steamy fantasies and situations as if it were actually happening?
If so then you are more open minded than myself, and if you ask anyone I am friends/acquainted with they would say I'm quite open minded.
This is cheap chemistry people can do in their homes, or stuff people can grow in their yards, barring law enforcement. Not a big tax opportunity.
The alcohol industry? The tobacco industry? Plenty of tax opportunities there (especially tobacco here in Canada where about 3/4 of the price of a pack is tax). People can (legally or not) make their own liquor, and I assume people could probably grow their own tobacco, and yet there is still loads of money the government is making by taxing purchases made in the Liquor Commissions here in Manitoba or taxing packs of smokes.
If government does legalize and tax certain drugs, it doesn't mean mini-meth labs or pot farms will spring up all over the place. Most people will just buy what they want the legal way and pay the tax.
Slashdot Mirror
- The web-user; email, web, and IM (99% of reviews fall into this category)
Here's a Coles Notes version of my experience... I switched my wife's laptop from Vista to Ubuntu 8.10 recently.
- She loves the many little games that come with it and that are easily installed.
- She loves Evolution.
- She loves Mozilla (she loved it before Linux though).
- She loves the fact that the laptop boots up very quickly.
- She likes the fact that MS Office 2007 works well enough under Wine.
- She likes that Ubuntu didn't ask for her permission to do stuff to the system anywhere near as much as Vista does by default.
- She hated the virtual desktops, specifically the fact that she couldn't figure out why it would switch to desktop 2 "all by itself" (turns out she leaves her finger on the mousewheel, and when scrolling in Mozilla near the edge of the screen, she would accidentally flip to desktop 2).
- She hated the fact that "Youtube doesn't work" (easily remedied by installing Gnash, SWFDec, or the non-free Adobe Flash plugin).
- She didn't like that it took a fair bit of finagling to get DVDs and various video files (mpg, etc) to work.
The last three points are easily remedied by someone who knows what they're doing, but it even took me a few minutes to realize what was causing the desktop flipping. As for Flash, well you'd have to basically do the same thing under Windows anyway so it's no different. While there's a very nice article in Ubuntu's support section about DVDs and videos, I still can't get .mpg videos to work in the default video player (Totem?) and have to use Gnome Mplayer for those specifically.
Getting Office 2007 working wasn't difficult, but there's no way she could have done it on her own. She doesn't know what Wine is, nor would she have known to add the official Wine repository to get the latest version (or even how to do this). Definitely not as easy as Windows where you put in the CD and hit Install.
She mostly uses her laptop to browse the web, use email, watch videos... that's about it. Ubuntu, once some tweaking is done, suits her just fine.
~jaraxle
Don't make it a personal vendetta. Junk like that only kills your chances later on in the career path.
My wife is just entering the legal profession as a Legal Assistant with aspirations of moving towards Paralegal. She is also finding out that, at least in our city, the legal world is quite small and very much in touch with each other. Sending off an angry email like this, while cathartic to begin with, could be a very easy way to shoot yourself in the foot because word will get around, and it will get around quickly.
~jaraxle
Thanks for the mod link. Unfortunately I'm playing on the XBox360 so nothing but official mods for me. :) I just can't afford to keep up with the upgrade cycle for my computer (reason why). I just use my computer for browsing, email, some coding when I get in the mood, and NWN2 with a buddy of mine.
Some mods I drool over, but even some of the most popular Morrowind mods (which I played on PC) I couldn't get into because they just didn't seem "right" or look "right" to me. Again, matter of taste.
But again, thanks for the link. I checked it out anyway despite not being able to use it. :)
~jaraxle
Point taken. I actually feel more that way about Oblivion than I did about Morrowind, but only because I found much of Vvardenfall to be a bit too "alien" for my standard high fantasy tastes. Whereas Cyrodiil fits my minds eye image of, I suppose, the world I'd want to immerse myself in. However that's just a matter of taste.
To Bethesda's credit, one thing I just thought about but initially forgot to include that I consider if not somewhat revolutionary then definitely unique and innovative is the implemenation of V.A.T.S. in Fallout 3. I really enjoy how they blended the strategy and roleplay of the original Fallout games with the FPS style. I know many people think Fallout 3 is a terrible game compared to Fallout 1 and 2, but I personally disagree and am having a great time with it, and really love how V.A.T.S. is used.
~jaraxle
Morrowind got a pass on its flaws (which were numerous, though less critical IMO than those in Oblivion) because it was giving us something new.
And even there you're wrong, as many fans of TES say that even Morrowind is a pale comparison to Daggerfall (which had its fair share of bugs as well). Personally I've loved every TES game that I've played since Arena (never played Redguard or Battlespire) and am enjoying Oblivion very much, despite what many others say.
Face it, when you break it down video games are just like movies. Everything's been done before and there's almost nothing original coming out.
My step-son told me I *had* to play Halo 2 because it was the greatest thing ever. I just looked at him and said something along the lines of "I played it 10 years ago, when Quake was released" (which of course, if you want to be pedantic, is just a derivative of Doom).
~jaraxle
Or at least better screen shots.
Is there a legal way of saying "screenshot or it didn't happen"?
~jaraxle
I'd be worried for the judges. Any low scores and Ballmer might fucking kill them, never mind the chairs.
~jaraxle
Exactly.
I can easily say "it gets colder here" where "here" is Winnipeg, MB. This winter we've had a fairly consistent streak of -30 C weather, sometimes colder, with a windchill dropping it to -50 C at times.
However, it's also a dry cold, while in Vancouver I believe at one point it got to below -10 C but because of the proximity of the ocean, it sure eats into your joints and no amount of layers can keep the cold out. While we in Winnipeg are used to and prepared for -30 to -40 C weather in the winter, Vancouver wouldn't be prepared for anything below about -5 to -10 C and they are certainly not prepared for anything more than a couple of centimeters (maybe an inch) of snow. My parents were in Vancouver late December '08 and they are from Winnipeg. They couldn't believe how cold it felt while they were there, and they are used to -30.
300 years ago, if you're not expecting even a bit of variation in temparature it can wreak complete havoc on the population.
~jaraxle
rigs from big vendors like dell or hp have some kind of points which do not allow regular cheap upgrades
That right there is the rub. I made the mistake of buying two Dell Dimension E520's for my wife and I a few years ago, and they served us very well for what we used them for (World of Warcraft at the time). What I failed to take into consideration is the Dell proprietary parts, particularly the power supply connection.
In order to bump up the video, I would need to get new power supplies since the current ones are only 305 watt, which would cost on an order of $100 each (I've looked around, Dell p/s aren't cheap). Then there's the video which would be around $200-250 each for decent ATI HD 4850's. However, the CPU is only a Pentium D 915 dual core so since that's on the lower end that should be dealt with as well which would require motherboard too. Then there's the RAM, of which we only have 2GB in 512 sticks so all of it would need to be replaced with two 2GB sticks. Add in the Vista 64 OS on top of it all.
So basically, it's just easier and probably not much more expensive to replace the computers entirely (with a bonus of free 3 year parts/labour warranty from the company in Toronto I was looking at for buying Vista) and regift the computers to our sons.
Of course, last night the decision was made NOT to do any of this and we went out and bought a nice new 32" LCD TV and XBox 360 Pro holiday bundle for $1000 after tax/service plan. My wife and I both think we made the right decision, although it will be a little difficult moving away from the MMO genre (it's really the only type of game I've played "seriously" since EverQuest 1 came out).
~jaraxle
For the past couple of months, my wife and I have been thinking of upgrading our PC's (actually buying all new ones because ours aren't easily upgraded and would probably cost close to buying a new rig anyway to do so) for gaming purposes. We play Warhammer: AoR and while it's playable on our older computers, when larger scale battles happen it can become a bit of a slideshow even on low settings.
We also have an XBox 360 and a 42" LCD TV in the basement rec room. We are honestly considering scrapping the notion of upgrading our computers (buy new ones) which would cost on the order of $2500 Canadian for two good gaming rigs and just picking up a cheaper 32" LCD TV (1080i) for $399 and another XBox 360 (Elite package) for $399. My wife also seems to enjoy Fable 2 a fair amount more than WAR at the moment.
$800 and we'd wind up with two "gaming stations" that do multiplayer games (we love and have Rock Band 1 and 2 plus various other games), and allow us to not have to schedule our Fable 2 and Oblivion/Fallout 3 time around each other once the kids are in bed. :) We'd also still have two respectable family computers. Seems to me that with HDTV prices dropping considerably and the quality of games out for the consoles on top of the other multimedia benefits coming from XBox Live, PC gaming may be in for a further decline (the PC section at my local EBGames is not even half a shelf now).
~jaraxle
Serj Tankian (System of a Down) did something similar when he wrote an essay regarding the 9/11 attacks. While his essay in no way condoned or praised the attacks, it was forcibly removed from the website by the record company (and then put back up elsewhere, sorry I don't have a link). All it did was show an understanding of why outside nations, particularly fundamentalist Islam nations, would hate the U.S. so much as to resort to these attacks.
It's unfortunate that "terrorism" has whipped people up in such a frenzy that the simple act of trying to understand so-called terrorists is seen as sympathizing.
~jaraxle
/looks at /. id
I'm only 30 you insensitive clod!
~jaraxle
Think of how big the first windows distro was and how big Vista is
Sigh, I remember my first upgraded computer, an old 286AT (or was it ST, can't remember) with a 10MB hard drive. If I wanted to play any games (ie. Leisure Suit Larry or Space Quest), I had to delete Windows 3.0 to make enough room on the drive to install the game first. How far we've come...
~jaraxle
I have a Diamond Rio PMP300 sitting right here on my desk. 32MB of digital music goodness, I could fit about half of the Lateralus album by Tool on it, encoded at 192kbps. I paid nearly $250 for it (Canadian) because I couldn't justify spending even more on the 64MB model. :) I remember being slightly miffed at the claim that it could hold "such and such" number of songs, but that was only if they were encoded at 64kbps, which sounded terrible.
Now I have an 4GB iPod Nano 3g that fits all my currently ripped music at a minimum of 256kbps plus a few funny videos that I've collected with room to spare (about 400MB). It cost about $150 Canadian. How times have changed.
~jaraxle
Your /. username is very appropriate, apparently.
To keep on topic, I didn't game TOO much as a kid with the dice and manuals, but when I did it was always enjoyable (I especially enjoyed poring over the Monster Manuals over and over). Plus, as the father of RPG's, he's obviously affected me insofar as the video games I most enjoy now (and in the past) are FRPGs which are obviously in one way or another taken from his work.
~jaraxle
Agreed. I had been putting off getting an MP3 player for myself for the longest time, because really I couldn't justify spending the money on one. However, that didn't keep me from wandering into Best Buy or wherever and just looking at what was available. All sorts of MP3 players were on display and I would play with them and check out the interface. None of them were intuitive in the least, and the menus just didn't seem to do what I expected them to.
Fast forward to my last birthday where some relatives all went in together and got me a 3g iPod Nano. Prior to this, I had never used an iPod, even in passing. When I tried using it, I "just got it". The UI is so incredibly easy and intuitive, I really couldn't believe it. I could care less about the aesthetic design of the iPod, but the UI is what makes it for me.
~jaraxle
she was essentially terrorized and intimidated.
:)
Would this make the RIAA a terrorist organization? For once, the War on Terror (tm) may be a Good Thing (tm).
~jaraxle
I agree... haven't had a Guinness in ages, or been to the King's Head in ages for that matter!
~jaraxle
My wife and I talk about this a fair amount.
:) independant.
She had her first child when she was 16, almost 17, and I had my first child when I was 18. Now, we're responsible people who stayed in school (she at least tried to finish University), I have a career, she's starting her career, and things are looking up. It was tough at first (we didn't meet until her oldest was 8), but we each did our best and are doing our best now. We're not the useless "mouth breathers" talked of in other threads.
The way we look at it is this way; it was tough at first, and still kind of is, but it's getting easier. And if we raise our children right and instill responsibility in them which we hope we are doing, then by the time our youngest is 18 and ready for University, we'll be 43 and 42 respectively. Not too bad given that we'll still be young enough to enjoy our life while our children are (hopefully
~jaraxle
Hey, come on now. St. Vital is now the teen preggo "capital" of Winnipeg, not Trashcona.
Although despite the fact that I live there now, I hate it and honestly would prefer St. Vital (or almost anywhere else but the Maples/North End).
~jaraxle
EQ2 has the Goblin Gamblin' Game, run by a little goblin.
You can read the rules if you like, but it's quite simple. You pay 5 or 10 silver to play, and get 7 numbers. Depending on how many of your numbers match the numbers that are rolled, you either win nothing (zero or one matches), break even (two matches), or make money (three or more matches). If you match all 7, you win a huge lump sum based upon how much money other people have pumped into the system. It's very similar to real life lotteries.
Of course, you're technically just gambling for in-game currency, but there are ways to sell that for real life currency (see IGE and companies like them who sell gold/plat in EQ/EQ2/WoW/etc).
~jaraxle
So you're basically saying that if you were married, and found out that your wife was having an online affair through MSN, IRC, or whatever, you'd be ok with it? Even if they have never met in real life, but were exchanging steamy fantasies and situations as if it were actually happening?
If so then you are more open minded than myself, and if you ask anyone I am friends/acquainted with they would say I'm quite open minded.
~jaraxle
This is cheap chemistry people can do in their homes, or stuff people can grow in their yards, barring law enforcement. Not a big tax opportunity.
The alcohol industry? The tobacco industry? Plenty of tax opportunities there (especially tobacco here in Canada where about 3/4 of the price of a pack is tax). People can (legally or not) make their own liquor, and I assume people could probably grow their own tobacco, and yet there is still loads of money the government is making by taxing purchases made in the Liquor Commissions here in Manitoba or taxing packs of smokes.
If government does legalize and tax certain drugs, it doesn't mean mini-meth labs or pot farms will spring up all over the place. Most people will just buy what they want the legal way and pay the tax.
~jaraxle
And how is this any different from a real girlfriend?
~jaraxle
Federal (non-US) police agency.