Re:throwing up my hands
on
Is Vista a Trap?
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· Score: 4, Informative
Except that Linux has had practically universal network and soundcard support for years. Even if the network hardware only has Windows 2000 binary drivers, you could load them with the NDIS module...
It used to be that if you wanted all of your hardware to work, you ran Windows. Looks like the tables have turned.
Vista runs fine in VMWare with less resources allocated to it than that. It isn't snappy, but it runs. Memory and processor specs have nothing to do with the fact that the supported hardware list, that is, the number of devices with available drivers, is smaller on Vista than on XP. Hell, as far as I can tell it's smaller than on Linux. Between the devices that are no longer supported vor one DRM reason or another, and the fact that manufacturers aren't interested in providing drivers for older devices, but would rather sell you a whole new device instead, Vista hardware support is a joke.
This guy is talking about how his network and sound cards don't work. How does that have anything to do with his processor and memory? What does Microsoft think they're trying to pull with this? Are they really so convinced that they're untouchable that they think they can throw away one of the few things they had bragging rights over?
This is the kind of thing that happens with almost every company's press relations. If a publication doesn't honor a street date, or prints a rumor against the request of the company, they receive sub-par treatment when it comes to interviews and exclusives. Every company does this. The only reason this is a story is because this site has an anti-Sony bias.
CompUSA seems to be going through the same type of identity crisis that is common amongst retail stores that are soon to be out of business. What do they sell? Computers, and accessories? Software? Video games? Consumer electronics? Cell Phones? They do a dozen things and none of them stand out. There is nothing that people want to buy where they think "CompUSA" when they are deciding where to go to get it.
Since they've lost their focus, things that they used to do well have suffered. They used to have a wide variety of computer parts and accessories. Now it seems they've opted for the "thousand types of the same item" style over the "thousands of options". If you want a wireless router or a video card, sure, you've got a huge selection. Otherwise, sorry... Best to shop online. In the new areas they've pushed into, they are only making a token effort. Why would you go to CompUSA to look for video games? Sure, they sell Video Games, but they only have a few titles, and low stock levels, so chances are you're not going to find what you're looking for. Same goes for TVs, or Cell Phones.
They should pick something and do it well, or they should go out of business.
With physical keys the locksystem is compromise-evident (in the event of key loss) and physical keys are "hard" to copy from an image. [...] If you're the target of a determined and specific attack neither system will hold up, but with prox keys you're vulnerable to more casual attacks of opportunity.
Is that really true though? It doesn't seem to me that you'd need any more specialized equipment to copy a physical key from an image (especially if you can get your hands on a blank, which isn't hard) than it is to create a duplicate prox card. What would you need?
For the prox card:
Portable reader
Computer
Blank card/chip
Writer interface
For the key:
A camera that can see wavelengths that are transparent to clothing (for a key in a pocket) or just a camera with a good zoom lens (for a key sitting out)
cards and readers that are not vulnerable to this attack are only a little more expensive than vulnerable ones, so there's really no excuse any more for implementing vulnerable prox locks.
I agree with you completely on this, however this is a recent change. It was not too long ago when the more secure version could cost twice as much as these and the cards could cost four times as much. In a large installation this is a huge difference. There are a *lot* of older systems still out there.
Funcoland also existed in a much different landscape before it got bought. Back then there were a lot more functioning SNES, NES, Genesis, and N64 systems out there than there are now. The Dreamcast and N64 selection lasted quite a long time in most Gamestops before the lack of anyone buying them forced them to put that space to more profitable use. Not to mention the lack of re-release software collections, and it was far more difficult to access, and play reasonable, ROM images of those games.
What, then, is their excuse for not carrying used PS1 games anymore?
And where in the world did the article claim that MMOGs were bad? Not to mention one of the authors lists "Guild Wars" amongst his favorite games - hardly an anti-MMORPG fanatic.
1. Split your limited content onto multiple pages to increase ad impressions 2. Say stupid and inflammatory things you know people will disagree with, like: "The story isn't more important than the game" (Don't bother having a plot) or "The player must always know the objective" (Don't even think of making something that has elements of adventure gaming) 3. Include useless flamebait at the end of the article like proclaiming MMOGs as bad, or announcing that one game company is superior to others.
Yeah, that's the industry's position. You nailed their talking points.
The problem is that content creation isn't only incrementally harder today than it was for the pre-rendered scenes of yesterday. The pre-rendered scenes of today largely don't exist. All the talk about how much harder it is to make next-gen content is mostly a poor justification for increasing the cost of the games to $60.
You can count on one hand the number of games which have $20 million content budgets. When you hear about titles with tens of millions of dollars in budget, you've got to remember that three quarters of that went to brand licensing, voice talent with name recognition, and/or marketing. Some of the most popular "next-gen" titles of this generation so far have actually had *lower* production costs compared to big-budget titles of last generation with similar sales numbers.
Like I said, the benefit is convenience and flexibility. You can have more complex rules than with master and sub-master keys. You don't have as great an expense to change the locks when somebody loses their key, you can have time based rules, etc...
They're not about additional security over traditional keys. They're about convenience. If anybody gets a false sense of security from these devices, it's because they didn't do their homework. The fact of the matter is though, that even with the flaws that are obvious to people with security knowledge, these locks provide the level of security that is generally considered acceptable.
Another thing to consider, since you sound like you're knowledgeable about this type of thing... The security is only as strong as the weakest link. In many environments where this kind of system is installed and the building isn't occupied 24/7, the weakest link keeping intruders out is the 5/8" sheet of drywall attached to flimsy steel studs.
This article starts off talking about how it's hard to turn a profit writing games, and then uses a "solution" that a hardware vendor is using to sell their consoles as an example. What's going on here? Where's the story that goes with the headline?
Companies will get their costs in line. Either it will turn out that increased costs from games going HD will be a myth or become a myth as tools improve (most likely), or smart companies will know where to make tradeoffs to get their costs down. Many studios will fail and go out of business, which has been par for the course for ages. Ideally, they'd figure out that marketing and licensing costs are the bulk of the budget and take the money from there, but I'm not holding my breath.
It's not really anymore broken than a regular pin and tumbler key lock. Sure, with this you can copy somebody's key by walking by them, but I bet it would be pretty easy to get an image of a key in somebody's pocket too... Just an IR camera would probably do the trick.
At least with the RFID system, if you try to brute force the door it can disable access and call the cops after a certain number of failures. You can try keys off a ring, or pick at a physical lock all day as long as nobody happens to see you.
Sure, you could make this a lot more secure, but it's not any worse than regular locks. It's basically the same as regular locks but with easy revocation.
The real solution here would probably be to force companies doing this kind of work to allow other companies to share their trenches. If you want to bury a bunch of fiber, you've got to let your competitors pay their share of the digging bill and drop their wire in the trench at the same time if they want to.
You're so focused on CDMA locking you in that you haven't noticed you're just as locked in with GSM as long as you stay in the US. You're going to be locked in no matter which carrier you pick, so unless you travel outside the country frequently you shouldn't care all that much if it's a GSM phone or CDMA.
I agree that it would be nice to just buy some airtime and use whatever device you'd like, but since it doesn't work that way it's silly to make these distinctions.
Uhhh, how many times did you ever shop at a Funcoland or an Electronics Boutique? In my opinion EB has always been the absolute worst of all the specialty games retailers I've ever encountered.
Constantly since I was old enough to see over the counter. EB started to go downhill right before the GameStop buyout, which wasn't until 2005. Funcoland had a huge array of used products for every platform you could think of, and had the best trade-in policies *ever* (Can't say I ever bought anything new there though). EB is exactly the same as GameStop now, since EB *is* GameStop now.
Really, FORCING preorders? I've pre-ordered one game EVER (Zelda: WIndwaker for the Ocarina of TIme/Master quest for GameCube disc you got), and that was from EB. Every new game (which isn't many these days) that I bought day of release from GameStop I bought without a preorder. Every single one, including big name games such as Final Fantasy 12.
Congratulations. Do you work there, or know somebody who does? Or perhaps you only buy popular/mainstream titles. If so, then I'm not surprised. Maybe you have the best Gamestop manager ever in your local store, but it is not uncommon for GameStop stores to refuse to sell copies to people without pre-orders even if they have enough on release day. If it doesn't happen in your local store, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
I must have the most awesome 5 GameStops in the world then, because aside from marketing material on the side-panels of the stands, the only thing stopping me from finding what I want are the vats of awful Xbox games, PS2 games, and DVDs they're just begging me to take off their hands. I honestly don't know what you're talking about.
If you love it so much, why don't you marry it? Seriously, I've never heard somebody overlook blatant faults in something like this unless they were talking about a bad relationship they didn't realize they were in. I just plain don't believe that your local gamestops don't have piles of empty 360 and PS3 boxes flanking the entrance, and cardboard cutouts of characters from the latest Tom Clancy games and shelves that contain more empty copies of game cases with the "Coming Soon" sticker on the front than games that are actually for sale. Not to mention the fact that games are now put on the shelf haphazardly instead of in nice alphabetical order so you can find what you're looking for. Given that I've been in dozens of GameStops, and they're *all* like this, it just doesn't seem probable.
Straight up lie. They don't do this. They often have empty boxes, which they then fetch the game for out of the back, but that's just common sense.
I'm OK with the empty box thing. I'm now certain though, that you don't go to many GameStops. The one nearest me (Mall at Whitney Field, Leominster MA) certainly *does* do the obnoxious security case thing for PC games, and it makes it impossible to see what the box says. They don't all do it, but I'd guess about 10% of them do.
If it isn't guaranteed, why did you pre-order it if guarantee was what you wanted? Caveat emptor. See also my previous comment about not bothering to pre-order.
I don't bother anymore. I used to when it was EB. It was worth it. You were guaranteed the game/system and you usually got some bonus too. After the GameStop takeover I had two times where the item I pre-ordered wasn't available on release day because they gave them out to the people who pre-ordered them as they arrived, and ran out before I got there. And thank you for finally agreeing with me. If they don't have what I want I'm not going to shop there. Wasn't that my whole point? If all you buy are popular games, it never makes sense to pre-order. They always get enough of the popular games, as do Target and Wal-Mart and BestBuy. If you want a popular game it's not a problem. If you want some niche title, or a special edition though, there's a good chance it's going to be sold out unless you pre-ord
The justification for taxing CO2 emissions has nothing to do with personal preferences and everything to do with the abating the harms to other unconsenting victims (*if* the estimates are right, which is a rather imporant "if").
I'd be all for that if there was a guarantee that:
- The money collected from such a tax could only be used for that purpose (might happen) - The techniques chosen were picked because they were the most cost effective and not because of a campaign contribution, or a favor for local constituents. (will never happen)
Why charge a fee when selling the device (which does nothing on its own) instead of on the energy used to run it then?
And if you're going to use taxation to influence behavior, why not go all out? Do what CA is doing and ban the activity you disapprove of. After all, we should have civil liberties as long as everybody chooses to use them the way you do. Or just cap people's maximum debt level to 1.5x or 2x their annual income so they have to choose your lifestyle. Or just embed a chip in their head and control them remotely. After all, energy consumption is evil. It has to be, since we've effectively banned all of the practical, non-polluting generation technologies that currently exist unless we all go back to living in a mud hut and consume only soy products and anti-microbials.
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Except that Linux has had practically universal network and soundcard support for years. Even if the network hardware only has Windows 2000 binary drivers, you could load them with the NDIS module...
It used to be that if you wanted all of your hardware to work, you ran Windows. Looks like the tables have turned.
Vista runs fine in VMWare with less resources allocated to it than that. It isn't snappy, but it runs. Memory and processor specs have nothing to do with the fact that the supported hardware list, that is, the number of devices with available drivers, is smaller on Vista than on XP. Hell, as far as I can tell it's smaller than on Linux. Between the devices that are no longer supported vor one DRM reason or another, and the fact that manufacturers aren't interested in providing drivers for older devices, but would rather sell you a whole new device instead, Vista hardware support is a joke.
This guy is talking about how his network and sound cards don't work. How does that have anything to do with his processor and memory? What does Microsoft think they're trying to pull with this? Are they really so convinced that they're untouchable that they think they can throw away one of the few things they had bragging rights over?
Quite honestly, that's a big load of crap.
This is the kind of thing that happens with almost every company's press relations. If a publication doesn't honor a street date, or prints a rumor against the request of the company, they receive sub-par treatment when it comes to interviews and exclusives. Every company does this. The only reason this is a story is because this site has an anti-Sony bias.
That's pretty much my point though... It was the last place you looked.
These games don't need first class treatment. Give them a catalog on the counter and a drawer in the back room.
It doesn't matter how many PS1s are still functional, since PS2s and PS3s are fully capable of playing the games.
CompUSA seems to be going through the same type of identity crisis that is common amongst retail stores that are soon to be out of business. What do they sell? Computers, and accessories? Software? Video games? Consumer electronics? Cell Phones? They do a dozen things and none of them stand out. There is nothing that people want to buy where they think "CompUSA" when they are deciding where to go to get it.
Since they've lost their focus, things that they used to do well have suffered. They used to have a wide variety of computer parts and accessories. Now it seems they've opted for the "thousand types of the same item" style over the "thousands of options". If you want a wireless router or a video card, sure, you've got a huge selection. Otherwise, sorry... Best to shop online. In the new areas they've pushed into, they are only making a token effort. Why would you go to CompUSA to look for video games? Sure, they sell Video Games, but they only have a few titles, and low stock levels, so chances are you're not going to find what you're looking for. Same goes for TVs, or Cell Phones.
They should pick something and do it well, or they should go out of business.
You don't have to be a subscriber to see the Firehose.
I ran out of points ages ago, and I can still see it.
Is that really true though? It doesn't seem to me that you'd need any more specialized equipment to copy a physical key from an image (especially if you can get your hands on a blank, which isn't hard) than it is to create a duplicate prox card. What would you need?
For the prox card:
For the key:
It may be easier for you to understand the process of cloning a prox card, but that doesn't mean it's any easier than cloning a key. Incidentally, there was a high profile attack recently that involved cloning a key from a picture. The attacker made a key to a Diebold voting machine using a blank from the hardware store and a picture from the Diebold website.
cards and readers that are not vulnerable to this attack are only a little more expensive than vulnerable ones, so there's really no excuse any more for implementing vulnerable prox locks.
I agree with you completely on this, however this is a recent change. It was not too long ago when the more secure version could cost twice as much as these and the cards could cost four times as much. In a large installation this is a huge difference. There are a *lot* of older systems still out there.
Funcoland also existed in a much different landscape before it got bought. Back then there were a lot more functioning SNES, NES, Genesis, and N64 systems out there than there are now. The Dreamcast and N64 selection lasted quite a long time in most Gamestops before the lack of anyone buying them forced them to put that space to more profitable use. Not to mention the lack of re-release software collections, and it was far more difficult to access, and play reasonable, ROM images of those games.
What, then, is their excuse for not carrying used PS1 games anymore?
And where in the world did the article claim that MMOGs were bad? Not to mention one of the authors lists "Guild Wars" amongst his favorite games - hardly an anti-MMORPG fanatic.
Keep reading.... You were so close!
1. Split your limited content onto multiple pages to increase ad impressions
2. Say stupid and inflammatory things you know people will disagree with, like: "The story isn't more important than the game" (Don't bother having a plot) or "The player must always know the objective" (Don't even think of making something that has elements of adventure gaming)
3. Include useless flamebait at the end of the article like proclaiming MMOGs as bad, or announcing that one game company is superior to others.
Crap.
That should say:
"content creation is only incrementally harder today than it was for the pre-rendered scenes of yesterday."
Yeah, that's the industry's position. You nailed their talking points.
The problem is that content creation isn't only incrementally harder today than it was for the pre-rendered scenes of yesterday. The pre-rendered scenes of today largely don't exist. All the talk about how much harder it is to make next-gen content is mostly a poor justification for increasing the cost of the games to $60.
You can count on one hand the number of games which have $20 million content budgets. When you hear about titles with tens of millions of dollars in budget, you've got to remember that three quarters of that went to brand licensing, voice talent with name recognition, and/or marketing. Some of the most popular "next-gen" titles of this generation so far have actually had *lower* production costs compared to big-budget titles of last generation with similar sales numbers.
He said he was in New Jersey. I assumed that when the word "harsh" was used, we were going by local standards.
Yes, there are places on the planet where a harsh winter means 40 below. That's lovely for those places. Perhaps they deserve a medal.
Like I said, the benefit is convenience and flexibility. You can have more complex rules than with master and sub-master keys. You don't have as great an expense to change the locks when somebody loses their key, you can have time based rules, etc...
They're not about additional security over traditional keys. They're about convenience. If anybody gets a false sense of security from these devices, it's because they didn't do their homework. The fact of the matter is though, that even with the flaws that are obvious to people with security knowledge, these locks provide the level of security that is generally considered acceptable.
Another thing to consider, since you sound like you're knowledgeable about this type of thing... The security is only as strong as the weakest link. In many environments where this kind of system is installed and the building isn't occupied 24/7, the weakest link keeping intruders out is the 5/8" sheet of drywall attached to flimsy steel studs.
This article starts off talking about how it's hard to turn a profit writing games, and then uses a "solution" that a hardware vendor is using to sell their consoles as an example. What's going on here? Where's the story that goes with the headline?
Companies will get their costs in line. Either it will turn out that increased costs from games going HD will be a myth or become a myth as tools improve (most likely), or smart companies will know where to make tradeoffs to get their costs down. Many studios will fail and go out of business, which has been par for the course for ages. Ideally, they'd figure out that marketing and licensing costs are the bulk of the budget and take the money from there, but I'm not holding my breath.
It would be interesting to see if the two harsh winters we've had on the east coast since 2001 have changed anything.
How is that different than having only one provider and one fiber?
It's not really anymore broken than a regular pin and tumbler key lock. Sure, with this you can copy somebody's key by walking by them, but I bet it would be pretty easy to get an image of a key in somebody's pocket too... Just an IR camera would probably do the trick.
At least with the RFID system, if you try to brute force the door it can disable access and call the cops after a certain number of failures. You can try keys off a ring, or pick at a physical lock all day as long as nobody happens to see you.
Sure, you could make this a lot more secure, but it's not any worse than regular locks. It's basically the same as regular locks but with easy revocation.
The real solution here would probably be to force companies doing this kind of work to allow other companies to share their trenches. If you want to bury a bunch of fiber, you've got to let your competitors pay their share of the digging bill and drop their wire in the trench at the same time if they want to.
You're so focused on CDMA locking you in that you haven't noticed you're just as locked in with GSM as long as you stay in the US. You're going to be locked in no matter which carrier you pick, so unless you travel outside the country frequently you shouldn't care all that much if it's a GSM phone or CDMA.
I agree that it would be nice to just buy some airtime and use whatever device you'd like, but since it doesn't work that way it's silly to make these distinctions.
Oooh, looks like I struck a nerve.
Uhhh, how many times did you ever shop at a Funcoland or an Electronics Boutique? In my opinion EB has always been the absolute worst of all the specialty games retailers I've ever encountered.
Constantly since I was old enough to see over the counter. EB started to go downhill right before the GameStop buyout, which wasn't until 2005. Funcoland had a huge array of used products for every platform you could think of, and had the best trade-in policies *ever* (Can't say I ever bought anything new there though). EB is exactly the same as GameStop now, since EB *is* GameStop now.
Really, FORCING preorders? I've pre-ordered one game EVER (Zelda: WIndwaker for the Ocarina of TIme/Master quest for GameCube disc you got), and that was from EB. Every new game (which isn't many these days) that I bought day of release from GameStop I bought without a preorder. Every single one, including big name games such as Final Fantasy 12.
Congratulations. Do you work there, or know somebody who does? Or perhaps you only buy popular/mainstream titles. If so, then I'm not surprised. Maybe you have the best Gamestop manager ever in your local store, but it is not uncommon for GameStop stores to refuse to sell copies to people without pre-orders even if they have enough on release day. If it doesn't happen in your local store, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
I must have the most awesome 5 GameStops in the world then, because aside from marketing material on the side-panels of the stands, the only thing stopping me from finding what I want are the vats of awful Xbox games, PS2 games, and DVDs they're just begging me to take off their hands. I honestly don't know what you're talking about.
If you love it so much, why don't you marry it? Seriously, I've never heard somebody overlook blatant faults in something like this unless they were talking about a bad relationship they didn't realize they were in. I just plain don't believe that your local gamestops don't have piles of empty 360 and PS3 boxes flanking the entrance, and cardboard cutouts of characters from the latest Tom Clancy games and shelves that contain more empty copies of game cases with the "Coming Soon" sticker on the front than games that are actually for sale. Not to mention the fact that games are now put on the shelf haphazardly instead of in nice alphabetical order so you can find what you're looking for. Given that I've been in dozens of GameStops, and they're *all* like this, it just doesn't seem probable.
Straight up lie. They don't do this. They often have empty boxes, which they then fetch the game for out of the back, but that's just common sense.
I'm OK with the empty box thing. I'm now certain though, that you don't go to many GameStops. The one nearest me (Mall at Whitney Field, Leominster MA) certainly *does* do the obnoxious security case thing for PC games, and it makes it impossible to see what the box says. They don't all do it, but I'd guess about 10% of them do.
If it isn't guaranteed, why did you pre-order it if guarantee was what you wanted? Caveat emptor. See also my previous comment about not bothering to pre-order.
I don't bother anymore. I used to when it was EB. It was worth it. You were guaranteed the game/system and you usually got some bonus too. After the GameStop takeover I had two times where the item I pre-ordered wasn't available on release day because they gave them out to the people who pre-ordered them as they arrived, and ran out before I got there. And thank you for finally agreeing with me. If they don't have what I want I'm not going to shop there. Wasn't that my whole point? If all you buy are popular games, it never makes sense to pre-order. They always get enough of the popular games, as do Target and Wal-Mart and BestBuy. If you want a popular game it's not a problem. If you want some niche title, or a special edition though, there's a good chance it's going to be sold out unless you pre-ord
What a load of bull.
When we fix the coal problem, what will we be left with then?
I'd be all for that if there was a guarantee that:
- The money collected from such a tax could only be used for that purpose (might happen)
- The techniques chosen were picked because they were the most cost effective and not because of a campaign contribution, or a favor for local constituents. (will never happen)
Why charge a fee when selling the device (which does nothing on its own) instead of on the energy used to run it then?
And if you're going to use taxation to influence behavior, why not go all out? Do what CA is doing and ban the activity you disapprove of. After all, we should have civil liberties as long as everybody chooses to use them the way you do. Or just cap people's maximum debt level to 1.5x or 2x their annual income so they have to choose your lifestyle. Or just embed a chip in their head and control them remotely. After all, energy consumption is evil. It has to be, since we've effectively banned all of the practical, non-polluting generation technologies that currently exist unless we all go back to living in a mud hut and consume only soy products and anti-microbials.