Or, since I think it was pretty well argued that Google might become public at some point and time, should Yahoo just play a waiting game?
If Google does go public and has to report to shareholders who only care about this quarter (But it's good for the market! Yeahhhhhh, right.) the playing field might be leveled when it comes to the amount of cash each co can sink into R&D.
There will be people wanting to access it. And you can bet government will be one of them.
It was just a matter of time as soon as all these databases were compiled that the government sought to legitimately get access to them. (I personally think that they already have/have access to all of this data, they simply wish to make it legal now.)
What is the answer? I'm not sure, how can you stop people from collecting information about you? This is the Information Age we are living in right now. (Yes there are ways, but such as it is that type of behavior is going to be legislated away as "acting like a terrorist" soon I'm sure.) Maybe there is no current solution, maybe it's a phase that our society has to go though in order to realize that keeping track of everyone all the time is something that we really don't want in our lives...or maybe Orwell was right.
But this phrase in the artical just jumped out at me:
All of these techniques depend on users' having full control of the software running on their home machines.
Hrm, a hidden agenda push for DRM? They do go on to say later:
"All of the major developers were saying that they could do nothing to fight cheating because they couldn't control what went on in people's computers," he said. "The whole landscape of online gaming changed when we proved cheating could be fought effectively."
In refrence to a software package that they claim acts like a "virus scanner" in what I would assume basicly prevents people from using trainers. However, and again maybe it's just my paranoia chanting, I can just hear the DRM drumbs beating in the background.
...we've never had such fun with NWN. We tried it. Played into the second chapter.. and it was just so incredibly boring.
If you base what NWN is by playing just the OC then your missing the point of NWN. Try fireing up the toolset and seeing what it can do. Or failing that, download some of the modules that have been made with it.
While you can play the OC multiplayer, that is not what it is designed for. A well made MP module is far superior to the OC, and when you add a live DM (or several), then you reall begin to understand what NWN can be about.
Of course if you have allready made up your mind then don't bother. But suffice to say that many in the RPG community find that NWN allows much more than the orignal poster gives it credit for.
Sadly, children, especailly those in high school, are those that could be most affected by a war. As they are the first ones who would be called up in any form of a draft.
Even without a draft, it's a safe bet that all the military services are recruiting them heavily right now so the prospect of going off to war to get the money for collage is much greater than before.
Whereas to most adults, the outcome of this war more about being able to fill up that SUV for less than $50 a tank.
Would you claim that an Indian who speaks English as their native tongue is not "speaking it properly" because the dialect of English that they speak is not your dialect? You're likely to have difficulty understanding an English speaker who is a native speaker from London, for exactly the same reasons; are you also going to try to claim that the English don't speak English properly?
True that English is spoken thoughout the world and many speak it as their 1st language, but in reference to this thread I think we can all agree that we are refering to American English. If I call overseas and I get Indian English, so be it, but if I call an American helpdesk, I expect American English.
You paid for support in "English". If the person really has poor English then you've got a legitimate complaint. If it's just that you can't make the adjustment to a slightly different dialect from yours then that's your problem.
Again, not trying to bash anyone who has learned another language and is trying to get it right. I'm on my 3rd langauge and it's still tough. It's hard to explain what is heard in a format that is only written, but suffice to say that again, if someone speaks to me in a form of English that is so far away from American English then they might as well be speaking another language.
Chances are they were educated entirely in English--they just don't speak the dialect you're used to.
Speaking as someone who is world traveled, has worked telephone support, has a relative who is a speech pathologist, and is currently learning a foreign language I can say that there is a great deal of difference between knowing a language and speaking is properly.
You can get an example of this by going into any "ghetto" and listen to what my relative calls Ebonics. It's English all right, but if I called up for support that I was paying for and had to try and decipher that, I would demand a refund.
I'm not trying to discount those who have learned English and are trying to make the best for themselves and their families, but you can clearly hear the difference between someone who has been taught English but does not know how to pronounce things correctly and someone who does.
You can continue to refuse to make any real attempt to communicate with anyone who grew up outside your home town. Or you can take the minimal effort it requires to learn to understand English as it's spoken by literate, educated people from India, or New Zealand, or, for that matter, England. Your choice.
This is not about xenophobia or whatever your trying to make this sound like, this is when a person has paid for support in a language that they know. To make things more complicated we are dealing with many technical terms that make precise understanding all the more important. (Did you say rm -r? Are you sure?) You can wave the banner about how it's important to learn new things about even someone's own native language, but this is not about us learning, it's about getting information that you have paid for clearly and concisely.
Your WD HD is not a processor. IDE drives have an interface common to all motherboards. Is your AMD chip going to run on an Intel motherboard? No.
Will a IDE-ATA HD run in a AMD or Intel box? Yes.
Will a PCI card run in a AMD or Intel box? Yes.
Will a stick of RAM work in a AMD or Intel box? Yes. (Of course this is assuming it's not part of Intel's RAMBUS fiasco but that is another story of Intel's "Better Quality" funtime.)
Will a AGP card run in a AMD or Intel box? Yes.
The bottom line is that while yes, they do require different motherboards to work, how many of those actual chips on the motherboard are different? Are the resistors and capacitors different? Or maybe just the Northbridge, Southbridge, and a few other chips different? Maybe some other company has already done a bunch of R&D for you and has made a bunch of quality motherboards for both platforms.
Did you know that I'm running an Athlon XP 1900+ chip? No, I bet you didn't. I'm writing about business and profit, and you're busy jumping to conclusions about me. How about you shut up about me and stick to the topic, ass?
Well it's pretty obvious that your a Intel fanboy so I'm not going to try and get into the "better quality product" nonsence with you. (For the record, even though I buy AMD, I will run Intel or VIA or whatever if it works. AMD simply offers the best price/perforamce ratio IMO.)
But we arn't talking about a RISC vs x86 here. These are chips that pretty much run on the same spec hardware as everything else out there. I can pull my WD HD from my box here and take it down to the office and stick it in a Intel box w/o a problem.
And again, economics come into play again. Regardless how how you slice the fact that some costs will go up if you have multiple supplyers, in the long run you will be able to save money by not letting that manufactor dictate what you can buy. Last time I checked, plenty of people have accepted AMD as a viable CPU and I'm sure the same will be said for VIA's and the Dragon over time.
As we all hopefully know, when ever a market is monopolized the consumer loses out.
However, the same is true for any buissness who needs to buy supplys in order to make it's product.
If you only have one supplyer, then your pretty much locked into whatever they want to charge you. Having two is good, having three or more is even better.
While I have been buying AMD since my 486DX/66, I look forward to a day when we have even a greater selection (Thanks to VIA and the Dragon.) that will encurage true compitition and lower prices.
I submit that peoples right to act like assholes stops when my kids are around.
Not that I go out of my way to act like an asshole when kids are around, but I find that statment pretty offensive.
What you imply is that whatever your standards of "acting like an asshole" are not acceptable when your kids are present. And who exactly made you the moral judge of human behaviour?
There have been quite a few times in my life that I have seen people act, in what *I* consider, in a fashon that I would qualify them as assholes but does that qualify me to say that they can't? I don't think so. If I find their behaviour offensive, but they arn't doing anything directly to me, then I can always leave.
...and Castel is quick to claim that they created this stuff primarily for collection agencies to help them get through to deadbeats who use TeleZappers.
Ok, so let me get this straight. I'm Joe deadbeat, but I still pay for a phone. But, since I've been labled a "deadbeat" by EQUIFAX or some rabid collecation agency, it's OK for them to spoof my CallerID or bypass means that I have put in place to try to require callers to present a valid call?
This type of morality, it's OK to do X to Y beacuse they are Z, just sickens me. I personally think that anyone who subscribes to this kind of slipperly slope logic should get a punch in the mouth.
I'm sorry, maybe I just don't trust anyone anymore but it seems to be that all that will happen is that we, the public, will sign up for this 14 year plan. Allow the powers that be to strip what little "fair use" rights away from us. (The thought of tiny cameras inside your TV's to make sure you actually watching the commercials comes to mind. You damn thief!)
And then 14 years later the powers that be have a change of heart. Opps! We don't really want things to fall into the public domain, we are just going to keep everything copywrighted. Oh, and we aren't giving you back any of your fair use rights either.
Working on a desk that is only 24 inches deep and a monitor that is 17" deep, not including the space for the cords at the end, would leave me only about 10" (The afore mentioned cords need some room, so the monitor takes up actually about 14" obviously.)
My solution was to a) sit on a big ass unabridged dictionary so that it's at a comfortable viewing level and b) offset it from where my keyboard sits.
This allows me to have full space on my desk for my keyboard, and mousepad. I can also push my keyboard all the way back to the edge of my desk if I need room to write or crack open a box.
While if you are use to having your monitor directly in front of you, it might seem a bit different. But I've yet to have anyone say anything when they come over and use my rig. And when I'm at work, I don't notice the difference either having it the traditional way of it being directly in front of me.
I've read the flames about the NWN linux server and while I'll admit, it has it's faults, it's no where near as bad as some people make it out to be. I suspect that a lot of the issues have to do with unstable boxes rather than the actual server itself.
While this is an intresting analogy, I think that you have missed a step.
If someone is attacking your system from across the internet, it would seem to me that you have several steps within your Duty to Retreat before you have the right to use deadly force. You can block the IP, you can contact your ISP, you can contact their ISP, or even a few other things that don't involve the use of "Deadly Force" upon someone elses machine.
Your rights to swing your arms around recklessly ends at the tip of your fingers, and at the beginning of my nose.
This is the internet, your nose is most likely many many miles away from my fingertips. Digital or otherwise.
Slashdot Mirror
Or, since I think it was pretty well argued that Google might become public at some point and time, should Yahoo just play a waiting game?
If Google does go public and has to report to shareholders who only care about this quarter (But it's good for the market! Yeahhhhhh, right.) the playing field might be leveled when it comes to the amount of cash each co can sink into R&D.
There will be people wanting to access it. And you can bet government will be one of them.
It was just a matter of time as soon as all these databases were compiled that the government sought to legitimately get access to them. (I personally think that they already have/have access to all of this data, they simply wish to make it legal now.)
What is the answer? I'm not sure, how can you stop people from collecting information about you? This is the Information Age we are living in right now. (Yes there are ways, but such as it is that type of behavior is going to be legislated away as "acting like a terrorist" soon I'm sure.) Maybe there is no current solution, maybe it's a phase that our society has to go though in order to realize that keeping track of everyone all the time is something that we really don't want in our lives...or maybe Orwell was right.
But this phrase in the artical just jumped out at me:
All of these techniques depend on users' having full control of the software running on their home machines.
Hrm, a hidden agenda push for DRM? They do go on to say later:
"All of the major developers were saying that they could do nothing to fight cheating because they couldn't control what went on in people's computers," he said. "The whole landscape of online gaming changed when we proved cheating could be fought effectively."
In refrence to a software package that they claim acts like a "virus scanner" in what I would assume basicly prevents people from using trainers. However, and again maybe it's just my paranoia chanting, I can just hear the DRM drumbs beating in the background.
...we've never had such fun with NWN. We tried it. Played into the second chapter.. and it was just so incredibly boring.
If you base what NWN is by playing just the OC then your missing the point of NWN. Try fireing up the toolset and seeing what it can do. Or failing that, download some of the modules that have been made with it.
While you can play the OC multiplayer, that is not what it is designed for. A well made MP module is far superior to the OC, and when you add a live DM (or several), then you reall begin to understand what NWN can be about. Of course if you have allready made up your mind then don't bother. But suffice to say that many in the RPG community find that NWN allows much more than the orignal poster gives it credit for.
Local Sheriff: So, you thought you could enforce an outdated business model on the consumers eh?
RIAA: Yes! And we would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for those meddling kids!
Sadly, children, especailly those in high school, are those that could be most affected by a war. As they are the first ones who would be called up in any form of a draft.
Even without a draft, it's a safe bet that all the military services are recruiting them heavily right now so the prospect of going off to war to get the money for collage is much greater than before.
Whereas to most adults, the outcome of this war more about being able to fill up that SUV for less than $50 a tank.
Would you claim that an Indian who speaks English as their native tongue is not "speaking it properly" because the dialect of English that they speak is not your dialect? You're likely to have difficulty understanding an English speaker who is a native speaker from London, for exactly the same reasons; are you also going to try to claim that the English don't speak English properly?
True that English is spoken thoughout the world and many speak it as their 1st language, but in reference to this thread I think we can all agree that we are refering to American English. If I call overseas and I get Indian English, so be it, but if I call an American helpdesk, I expect American English.
You paid for support in "English". If the person really has poor English then you've got a legitimate complaint. If it's just that you can't make the adjustment to a slightly different dialect from yours then that's your problem.
Again, not trying to bash anyone who has learned another language and is trying to get it right. I'm on my 3rd langauge and it's still tough. It's hard to explain what is heard in a format that is only written, but suffice to say that again, if someone speaks to me in a form of English that is so far away from American English then they might as well be speaking another language.
Chances are they were educated entirely in English--they just don't speak the dialect you're used to.
Speaking as someone who is world traveled, has worked telephone support, has a relative who is a speech pathologist, and is currently learning a foreign language I can say that there is a great deal of difference between knowing a language and speaking is properly.
You can get an example of this by going into any "ghetto" and listen to what my relative calls Ebonics. It's English all right, but if I called up for support that I was paying for and had to try and decipher that, I would demand a refund.
I'm not trying to discount those who have learned English and are trying to make the best for themselves and their families, but you can clearly hear the difference between someone who has been taught English but does not know how to pronounce things correctly and someone who does.
You can continue to refuse to make any real attempt to communicate with anyone who grew up outside your home town. Or you can take the minimal effort it requires to learn to understand English as it's spoken by literate, educated people from India, or New Zealand, or, for that matter, England. Your choice.
This is not about xenophobia or whatever your trying to make this sound like, this is when a person has paid for support in a language that they know. To make things more complicated we are dealing with many technical terms that make precise understanding all the more important. (Did you say rm -r? Are you sure?) You can wave the banner about how it's important to learn new things about even someone's own native language, but this is not about us learning, it's about getting information that you have paid for clearly and concisely.
Your WD HD is not a processor. IDE drives have an interface common to all motherboards. Is your AMD chip going to run on an Intel motherboard? No.
Will a IDE-ATA HD run in a AMD or Intel box? Yes.
Will a PCI card run in a AMD or Intel box? Yes.
Will a stick of RAM work in a AMD or Intel box? Yes. (Of course this is assuming it's not part of Intel's RAMBUS fiasco but that is another story of Intel's "Better Quality" funtime.)
Will a AGP card run in a AMD or Intel box? Yes.
The bottom line is that while yes, they do require different motherboards to work, how many of those actual chips on the motherboard are different? Are the resistors and capacitors different? Or maybe just the Northbridge, Southbridge, and a few other chips different? Maybe some other company has already done a bunch of R&D for you and has made a bunch of quality motherboards for both platforms.
Did you know that I'm running an Athlon XP 1900+ chip? No, I bet you didn't. I'm writing about business and profit, and you're busy jumping to conclusions about me. How about you shut up about me and stick to the topic, ass?
Methinks the fanboy protests too much.
Well it's pretty obvious that your a Intel fanboy so I'm not going to try and get into the "better quality product" nonsence with you. (For the record, even though I buy AMD, I will run Intel or VIA or whatever if it works. AMD simply offers the best price/perforamce ratio IMO.)
But we arn't talking about a RISC vs x86 here. These are chips that pretty much run on the same spec hardware as everything else out there. I can pull my WD HD from my box here and take it down to the office and stick it in a Intel box w/o a problem.
And again, economics come into play again. Regardless how how you slice the fact that some costs will go up if you have multiple supplyers, in the long run you will be able to save money by not letting that manufactor dictate what you can buy. Last time I checked, plenty of people have accepted AMD as a viable CPU and I'm sure the same will be said for VIA's and the Dragon over time.
As we all hopefully know, when ever a market is monopolized the consumer loses out.
However, the same is true for any buissness who needs to buy supplys in order to make it's product.
If you only have one supplyer, then your pretty much locked into whatever they want to charge you. Having two is good, having three or more is even better.
While I have been buying AMD since my 486DX/66, I look forward to a day when we have even a greater selection (Thanks to VIA and the Dragon.) that will encurage true compitition and lower prices.
My current gateway is a AST 486SX/33 with 16 megs of RAM.
I was able to install RH 6.2 on it and wittle the RPMs I didn't need to get it down to under 200 megs.
While on many of my other servers I run 2.4.x, on this type of box I think 2.2.x suits my needs perfectly.
I submit that peoples right to act like assholes stops when my kids are around.
Not that I go out of my way to act like an asshole when kids are around, but I find that statment pretty offensive.
What you imply is that whatever your standards of "acting like an asshole" are not acceptable when your kids are present. And who exactly made you the moral judge of human behaviour?
There have been quite a few times in my life that I have seen people act, in what *I* consider, in a fashon that I would qualify them as assholes but does that qualify me to say that they can't? I don't think so. If I find their behaviour offensive, but they arn't doing anything directly to me, then I can always leave.
The Shell Provider your pimping has a real neat mail client.
Email Clients (ping,mutt,mail)
It is ok for you (X) to punch someone in the mouth (Y) because they subscribe to this type of morality (Z).
For the record, I never said it was OK, all I said was that, "I personally think." You can make your own moral conclusions as to if that is OK or not.
...and Castel is quick to claim that they created this stuff primarily for collection agencies to help them get through to deadbeats who use TeleZappers.
Ok, so let me get this straight. I'm Joe deadbeat, but I still pay for a phone. But, since I've been labled a "deadbeat" by EQUIFAX or some rabid collecation agency, it's OK for them to spoof my CallerID or bypass means that I have put in place to try to require callers to present a valid call?
This type of morality, it's OK to do X to Y beacuse they are Z, just sickens me. I personally think that anyone who subscribes to this kind of slipperly slope logic should get a punch in the mouth.
I'm sorry, maybe I just don't trust anyone anymore but it seems to be that all that will happen is that we, the public, will sign up for this 14 year plan. Allow the powers that be to strip what little "fair use" rights away from us. (The thought of tiny cameras inside your TV's to make sure you actually watching the commercials comes to mind. You damn thief!)
And then 14 years later the powers that be have a change of heart. Opps! We don't really want things to fall into the public domain, we are just going to keep everything copywrighted. Oh, and we aren't giving you back any of your fair use rights either.
Sorry no, fix it another way.
Working on a desk that is only 24 inches deep and a monitor that is 17" deep, not including the space for the cords at the end, would leave me only about 10" (The afore mentioned cords need some room, so the monitor takes up actually about 14" obviously.)
My solution was to a) sit on a big ass unabridged dictionary so that it's at a comfortable viewing level and b) offset it from where my keyboard sits.
This allows me to have full space on my desk for my keyboard, and mousepad. I can also push my keyboard all the way back to the edge of my desk if I need room to write or crack open a box.
While if you are use to having your monitor directly in front of you, it might seem a bit different. But I've yet to have anyone say anything when they come over and use my rig. And when I'm at work, I don't notice the difference either having it the traditional way of it being directly in front of me.
Whatever.
I've read the flames about the NWN linux server and while I'll admit, it has it's faults, it's no where near as bad as some people make it out to be. I suspect that a lot of the issues have to do with unstable boxes rather than the actual server itself.
28842 pts/2 06:23:10 nwserver
28843 pts/2 00:00:02 nwserver
28844 pts/2 00:00:00 nwserver
28845 pts/2 00:03:22 nwserver
28846 pts/2 00:00:00 nwserver
11:54am up 54 days, 18:44, 4 users, load average: 0.20, 0.17, 0.17
That server has been up for several days with multiple reloads. 140+ vaulted users. Custom mod with quite a few scripts.
And for the record, I'm a serious gamer.
While this is an intresting analogy, I think that you have missed a step. If someone is attacking your system from across the internet, it would seem to me that you have several steps within your Duty to Retreat before you have the right to use deadly force. You can block the IP, you can contact your ISP, you can contact their ISP, or even a few other things that don't involve the use of "Deadly Force" upon someone elses machine.
Your rights to swing your arms around recklessly ends at the tip of your fingers, and at the beginning of my nose.
This is the internet, your nose is most likely many many miles away from my fingertips. Digital or otherwise.
The best part was that kinda glass eyeball look he got after he did it.
And, sadly, he did not even run away, he just stood there with the paper falling down from under his cap. Doh!
How this got modded up to +4 "Funny" is almost as funny as it is sad.
AC's don't need drugs, they seem to be quite happy in their own delusion.
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