The systems were all four years old and had been used by high school students - no not just the computer class/AP calculus geeks, but everyone - the freaks, the jocks, etc. Graduating seniors had the option to take their iBooks with them. The fact that these models were no longer wanted by their prior owners should suggest that they were in far from new condition.
Admittedly, the G in MMORPG stands for game, but folks take their games pretty seriously. People drop huge amounts of cash on recreation of all kinds.
For example, $50 for some new toys is nothing compared to the money people can spend on golf. If you're an avid golfer, you could buy spend nearly $300 on a putter to shave a few strokes off you game while on the green. Want to get to the green in fewer strokes? How about a new driver for nearly $400? Sure you could practice a little more, but most golfers are lucky to get in one game a week unless they're retirees. So instead, you spend a little extra money to have a better experience in the game.
I work for a retailer 's website. Our busiest time in terms of both traffic and sales from Monday to Friday is 11am - 4pm Eastern time. In short, we do more business during consumers' lunch breaks than we do when consumers get home.
So while it may be detrimental to productivity, web access may also be awesome for the overall economy.
In the early 90's, if you wanted, you could get OS/2 to load a whole pile of transport protocols - which was pretty much necessary for the alphabet soup that ran client-server apps back then. In fact, Doom ran on IPX/SPX before it ran in TCP/IP.
Assuming that the cashers are outside of the jurisdiction (or even the nation) of Dmitri's law enforcement, the local police may not care about them. They'd need to have a way to turn over that information over to an agency who can take action. Even then, they may be reluctant to give a break to one of their criminals to apprehend criminals in another country.
Also, evidence gathered in Dmitri's arrest would have to be admissable in his collaborators' jurisdiction. If Dmitri's information was obtained through improper means (illegal search, improper interrogation), it couldn't be used. If Dmitri's actual testimony is used, he may have to be available for cross examination or at least deposition by the defense in a related case.
These could be overcome. However, it would take both high level and low leve law enforcement agencies working together. Countries would need to come up with channels for communications then officers at the local level would have to use those channels.
Of course, that's assuming that Dmitri even knows enough about this collaborators that they can be identified by him. I imagine these guys are well aware of the importance of protecting your privacy online.
One thing that the article points out is that phishing isn't just about gullibility. It suceeds because the players act as a distributed network. Because perpetrators are so unlike to get caught, it's hard to deter people from doing it.
Each part of the network is separate. They guy who gets the information on an account, versus the guy who breaks into it, versus the guy you receives the money. Knowing who is using the account doesn't help you catch the guy who sent the original phishing e-mail. The fact that the network is international makes coordination by law enforcement even harder.
Roles are interchangeable. From the article, it appears that phishers don't have to use the same cashers all of the time. You can't take out one piece of the network and cripple it. Phishers just move onto another casher.
Communication is largely anonymous. In old fashioned criminal networks, you had to be face to face at some point - to exchange money for narcotics, stolen property or bootleg liquor. In these new networks, no-one knows the actual person they're dealing with. If you do apprehend one member of the network, that member has very little information useful in arresting others.
True true. I have a friend who works at an internet retailer that does a decent job stopping fraud. However, they don't even bother to report issues with law enforcement. They keep records in case they're asked to cooperate with an investigation, but typically, no one comes looking for credit card thieves.
Similarly, I had a friend that worked at an ISP that did have a law enforcement agency ask for logs in investigating a crime. However, they asked for logs six months after the incident - long after they had been thrown out. The investigators were just starting to get to the case when they contacted the ISP.
Personally, I don't think it's a matter of laws. It's a matter of training law enforcement to handle computer crime and fraud and funding those agencies appropriately. Unfortunately, the public responds mostly to visible signs of law enforcement - squad cars and uniformed patrolmen. No one cares about a bunch of nerds with workstations until it's their credit card that's been compormised.
Most folks know someone either in their family or circle of friends who's had chemotherapy. Depending on the level of treatment, it can be grueling. The impressive quote from the story is this -
the nanoparticle-based therapy using folic acid and methotrexate was 10 times more effective at delaying tumor growth than the drug given alone. Nanoparticle treatment also proved to be far less toxic to mice in the study than the anticancer drug alone
Less toxic and 10 times more effective (possibly requiring fewer treatments). I wonder if that could make it a viable treatment alternative for inoperably cancers.
Lastly, some folks asked about what happens to all those dendrimers when they've done their job.
The results showed that the kidneys quickly filtered free nanoparticles from blood and eliminated them in urine. The researchers found no evidence that nanoparticles were able to leave the bloodstream and enter the brain.
Interestingly, "virtual" property seems to only be traded between someone in an economy with low wages to someone in an economy with high wages.
The value of the theft was about $850-900 USD. Guessing that you have to play for 40 hours to acquire the weapon, that makes the "wage" about $22 an hour (before taxes). For a buyer in a major American market (LA, New York Chicago) that could be easily be below his hourly earings; I imagine that Japan would be similar. For someone in China - even a major city like Shanghai - that is a significant sum of money. Average household income in Shanghai is less than $1,500 USD (11,718 Yuan in 2000). 40, 80 or even 160 hours of play for over a half year's income would be an incredible opportunity.
So the game item has no value. However, the difference in labor costs creates a value in the time spent to produce the item.
Even more important is the skill of estimating rather than calculation. If you need precise numbers, you're smarter to rely on a machine. However, if you fat finger your typing, how can you tell that you made a mistake? So some calculation skills are important. And to learn estimation, you have to have to know at least how to solve the equation.
FYI, this link has the math standard of learnings for Virginia. Fractions are pretty much the core of the 6th grade curriculum. It looks like students can use calculators on some parts of the test, but not others.
Personally, I'm just proud that a student at my old Alma Mater figured it out. Go Cougars!
Interestingly, most players up through now have been playing the Alliance side - Humans and Night Elves being the most popular with Dwarfs and Gnomes coming in later. On my server, the ratio is at least 3:1 Alliance versus Horde. This is going to be a problem on the WoW Battlegrounds. For every Horde player who wants to get on the battleground, there will be three Alliance players waiting to play. Since these areas are balanced (you only enter when both sides have equal numbers), Alliance players are going to find it harder to get into the battlegrounds - there just won't be enough horde players to fight against them.
I expect that you're going to see many players re-rolling Horde alts so they can PvP.
Walk into an Apple store. How many of their desktop computers even look like something that someone else currently makes? Sure the Power G5 is similar to other "gray boxes" out there. However, the iMac, eMac and mini are very unique. Folks have tried to copy those designs but none have done so sucessfully - ie, making a copy that sells well and is reasonable quality.
Frankly, Apple is already out of the standard case computer market. If someone started making budget priced tower case computers running OS X, they'd have no competition from Apple. The same would go for the home builder market. Third party builders would actually give consumers more choices in how to run OS X. Want a plain-vanilla "gray box"? Buy one from Vendor X or make it yourself. Want a slick looking system designed by Apple? Come to the Apple Store. Currently, Apple is limited to consumers who are willing to pay for the extra frills. Frankly, the fact that Apple isn't trying to compete with Dell on low price point systems shows good business sense - that market is very low profit.
...you find that it's more about customers' knowledge than about actual industry practices.
Targetted pricing is hard to do for any item that can be purchased at multiple retailers. Dell can do it since they're the only ones who sell Dell products (no way to comparison shop). Likewise, retailers with exclusive product lines (for example, clothes) can do this as well.
What's more interesting isn't the pricing ignorance but just general privacy ignorance. You'll need to go to the end of the study for the summary, but it has some really interesting numbers. For example -
When a website has a privacy policy, it means the site will not share my information with other websites or companies. Correct answer - False 75% wrong
The Federal Trade Commission will correct errors in credit reports if it is shown proof of the errors. Correct answer - False (You have to fix it yourself) 76% wrong
when asked "Can you give me the name of national Credit Reporting Agencies that can give you a copy of your credit report?" 66% of the respondents could not name any of them.
In short, consumers know little of what laws protect them and where they are vulnerable. With that level of ignorance, consumers are unlikely to press for better privacy regulation or report violators of the current laws.
"no running a bordello in a residential neighborhood" I think you need zoning for light commercial for a boredello - as well as a piano player with a garter on one arm.
Well, we've named all the planets in THIS system after greek mythological characters. What about the next system and the system after that?
Unfortunately, if space travel becomes common, I shudder to think of who'll be naming distant planets. Corporations would be bad enough (Planet Starbuck). However, I wonder if it will end up like streets in a suburban sub-division (which generally are just made up by the contractor). A friend of mine lives on a short street called Bobbiedell Lane. What if there was a Planet Bobbiedell?
An IsNot operator for objects could be a very big deal for any object oriented language. By patenting this one simple operator, MS is trying to get rid of competing BASIC variations, in particular versions of BASIC that implement some degree of object orientation and rapid GUI development.
If you scroll down through the article, you realize that competing lightweight RAD tools aren't just Microsoft's target. Microsoft is going after tools that are cross platform. The patent doesn't just mention RealBasic (which can create GUI apps for Windows, Max and Linux) but also Delphi as being "BASIC-like". Of course, Delphi can run on Linux using Kylix.
One of the biggest advantages that Windows has is the vast number of small-market and proprietary applications written for it, typically using RAD tools like VB and Delphi. If multiple tools exist to create GUI apps that run on multiple platforms, it threatens that one cornerstone of Windows's dominance. Users can run their proprietary database or custom desktop app on any platform, rather than being locked into windows.
All Microsoft has to do is convince a judge that the PASCAL-derived Delphi is "BASIC-like". And as the old lawyer's joke goes -
What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 70? You Honor.
While it may be difficult to track chips on the table, the techonology would be very useful in the cashier's office. For one thing, you could incorporate an RFID reader in your chip counter - that would prevent someone from cashing in counterfeit chips. Also, while it's alright for players to walk out of the casino with chips, it's not okay for employees to walk out of the cash office with chips. While they already have cameras galore in there, RFID would give them another way to make sure cashier office staff didn't walk out with a spare chip or two - unless their underwear from Wal-Mart sets off the scanner.
Wired, wireless, whatever, the transport medium does not really make a difference. It's 1's and 0's and whether they get from point A to point B via a wire or via EM it does not matter.
As long as the format is digital, you are correct. But typically the signal between between the amplifier and the speakers is analog. For analog, the quality of the connection matters.
In sound terms, you typically have four parts - 1. Source (in this case digital music files). 2. A Digital to Audio Converter. 3. Amplifier 4. Speakers
Wireless between points one and two (say a music server and a laptop playing the files) can be digital. However, at some point, you have to convert to analog.
In my option, a good setup for playback in each room would be an old laptop hooked up to an old stereo receiver/amp wired to a nice pair of bookshelf speakers - something with at least 5/12-6/12 low drivers. If you look around, you can probably find some nice used stereo amplifiers - pioneer, onkyo, yamaha. You can even buy decent new stereo amps for a small amount of money these days. I'd spring for new speakers in any event.
I think Blizzard got a double whammy of success - 600,000 new players in two months and players loving the game so much that they play every night.
One thing that Blizzard touted early was the ability to play it casually soloing - you can play once a week and easily gain levels doing quests. By following the flow of quests, you can often do two in an hour. However, that rapid pace of advancement makes the game fun in general. You get rewarded with new skills, new environments and new challenges constantly. So rather than having a large number of casual gamers, folks are on every night hooked on the next quest.
I was not a MMORPG player previously. I bought the game shortly after it came out. I quickly found myself sinking 4-5 nights a week into - sometimes only an hour at a time - but still several nights. Around Christmas, some friends were intrigued and they bought it as well. One of them is now on every night - and I do mean EVERY night - for several hours at a time. Another friend of mine spent most of the first weekend online after he bought it.
Because you can sit down and play for just an hour, I think many people do just that. However, that side quest adds on another half hour, then you have to go to the auction house, then you chat with someone who needs help with another quest, etc. In an odd way, I think the quick pacing actually encourages people to play more rather than plan out a few sessions.
"Now then, what do we know? One, that Professor Fassbinder and his daughter have been kidnapped. Two, that someone has kidnapped them. Three, that my hand is on fire. "
"You fool! You have broken my pointing stick! Now I have nothing to point with! "
No, that's not the point at all. The point is that it's very easy to set up a WAP that looks like someone else's WAP, so they log into it without realizing they're logging into someone else's network.
If it's a secure network, I imagine that it'd be a little harder. My system not only matches the network name but also the key to connect to my router. The name would be easy to spoof, but the key would be a little harder. If the key doesn't match, then I can't connect anyways.
On the other hand, I can't tell you how many times I've seen a network named "linksys" pop up on my list of networks at the neighborhood coffee house or at my job (no, ours isn't name Linksys).
Playing four or five days a week since Thanksgiving, I don't think I've had problems connecting more than three maybe four times on my regular server (Gilneas).
I don't know if this helps anyone, but I was having terrible lag when I first started the game, but noticed others were playing fine. It turned out that my five year old cable modem was the culprit. I bought a new one and haven't had lag or framerate issues since then.
The biggest issue is large concentrations of PCs in one areas. I've been in the starting area for the orcs while the orc city was under attack and been lagged. The auction house in the Alliance Territory is especially problematic; I find that I have to approach it, then inch up on it until all of the player characters render. The map there makes the problem worse - there is a big trench in front of the Auction House. I frequently see players leaping into the trench because they lagged and forgot to take their hands off of the movement keys.
I would like to see Blizzard fix their player character lag issues. Overall, I find the time spent in the game enjoyable.
Slashdot Mirror
As this article in the local paper points out -
g ename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&c id=1031784321130
http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pa
The systems were all four years old and had been used by high school students - no not just the computer class/AP calculus geeks, but everyone - the freaks, the jocks, etc. Graduating seniors had the option to take their iBooks with them. The fact that these models were no longer wanted by their prior owners should suggest that they were in far from new condition.
Admittedly, the G in MMORPG stands for game, but folks take their games pretty seriously. People drop huge amounts of cash on recreation of all kinds.
For example, $50 for some new toys is nothing compared to the money people can spend on golf. If you're an avid golfer, you could buy spend nearly $300 on a putter to shave a few strokes off you game while on the green. Want to get to the green in fewer strokes? How about a new driver for nearly $400? Sure you could practice a little more, but most golfers are lucky to get in one game a week unless they're retirees. So instead, you spend a little extra money to have a better experience in the game.
I work for a retailer 's website. Our busiest time in terms of both traffic and sales from Monday to Friday is 11am - 4pm Eastern time. In short, we do more business during consumers' lunch breaks than we do when consumers get home.
So while it may be detrimental to productivity, web access may also be awesome for the overall economy.
And yes, I am posting on my lunch break.
I think it'd be cool to have the Rock and Eomer turn a corner and suddenly be confronted by Gestapo.
Maybe they could access the area by typing the password "idclev31" into a computer on the base.
To an operating system with TCP/IP, DECNET, IPX and SNA support -
OS/2
In the early 90's, if you wanted, you could get OS/2 to load a whole pile of transport protocols - which was pretty much necessary for the alphabet soup that ran client-server apps back then. In fact, Doom ran on IPX/SPX before it ran in TCP/IP.
Actually, you can set up slide shows instead. Of course, you'll want to have the slide show set up in advance of any ... celebration.
t ingstarted_t10.html
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/tutorial/ip_get
I can think of a couple of problems.
Assuming that the cashers are outside of the jurisdiction (or even the nation) of Dmitri's law enforcement, the local police may not care about them. They'd need to have a way to turn over that information over to an agency who can take action. Even then, they may be reluctant to give a break to one of their criminals to apprehend criminals in another country.
Also, evidence gathered in Dmitri's arrest would have to be admissable in his collaborators' jurisdiction. If Dmitri's information was obtained through improper means (illegal search, improper interrogation), it couldn't be used. If Dmitri's actual testimony is used, he may have to be available for cross examination or at least deposition by the defense in a related case.
These could be overcome. However, it would take both high level and low leve law enforcement agencies working together. Countries would need to come up with channels for communications then officers at the local level would have to use those channels.
Of course, that's assuming that Dmitri even knows enough about this collaborators that they can be identified by him. I imagine these guys are well aware of the importance of protecting your privacy online.
True true. I have a friend who works at an internet retailer that does a decent job stopping fraud. However, they don't even bother to report issues with law enforcement. They keep records in case they're asked to cooperate with an investigation, but typically, no one comes looking for credit card thieves.
Similarly, I had a friend that worked at an ISP that did have a law enforcement agency ask for logs in investigating a crime. However, they asked for logs six months after the incident - long after they had been thrown out. The investigators were just starting to get to the case when they contacted the ISP.
Personally, I don't think it's a matter of laws. It's a matter of training law enforcement to handle computer crime and fraud and funding those agencies appropriately. Unfortunately, the public responds mostly to visible signs of law enforcement - squad cars and uniformed patrolmen. No one cares about a bunch of nerds with workstations until it's their credit card that's been compormised.
Lastly, some folks asked about what happens to all those dendrimers when they've done their job.
Interestingly, "virtual" property seems to only be traded between someone in an economy with low wages to someone in an economy with high wages.
The value of the theft was about $850-900 USD. Guessing that you have to play for 40 hours to acquire the weapon, that makes the "wage" about $22 an hour (before taxes). For a buyer in a major American market (LA, New York Chicago) that could be easily be below his hourly earings; I imagine that Japan would be similar. For someone in China - even a major city like Shanghai - that is a significant sum of money. Average household income in Shanghai is less than $1,500 USD (11,718 Yuan in 2000). 40, 80 or even 160 hours of play for over a half year's income would be an incredible opportunity.
So the game item has no value. However, the difference in labor costs creates a value in the time spent to produce the item.
Even more important is the skill of estimating rather than calculation. If you need precise numbers, you're smarter to rely on a machine. However, if you fat finger your typing, how can you tell that you made a mistake? So some calculation skills are important. And to learn estimation, you have to have to know at least how to solve the equation.
FYI, this link has the math standard of learnings for Virginia. Fractions are pretty much the core of the 6th grade curriculum. It looks like students can use calculators on some parts of the test, but not others.
Personally, I'm just proud that a student at my old Alma Mater figured it out. Go Cougars!
Interestingly, most players up through now have been playing the Alliance side - Humans and Night Elves being the most popular with Dwarfs and Gnomes coming in later. On my server, the ratio is at least 3:1 Alliance versus Horde. This is going to be a problem on the WoW Battlegrounds. For every Horde player who wants to get on the battleground, there will be three Alliance players waiting to play. Since these areas are balanced (you only enter when both sides have equal numbers), Alliance players are going to find it harder to get into the battlegrounds - there just won't be enough horde players to fight against them.
I expect that you're going to see many players re-rolling Horde alts so they can PvP.
Walk into an Apple store. How many of their desktop computers even look like something that someone else currently makes? Sure the Power G5 is similar to other "gray boxes" out there. However, the iMac, eMac and mini are very unique. Folks have tried to copy those designs but none have done so sucessfully - ie, making a copy that sells well and is reasonable quality.
Frankly, Apple is already out of the standard case computer market. If someone started making budget priced tower case computers running OS X, they'd have no competition from Apple. The same would go for the home builder market. Third party builders would actually give consumers more choices in how to run OS X. Want a plain-vanilla "gray box"? Buy one from Vendor X or make it yourself. Want a slick looking system designed by Apple? Come to the Apple Store. Currently, Apple is limited to consumers who are willing to pay for the extra frills. Frankly, the fact that Apple isn't trying to compete with Dell on low price point systems shows good business sense - that market is very low profit.
Targetted pricing is hard to do for any item that can be purchased at multiple retailers. Dell can do it since they're the only ones who sell Dell products (no way to comparison shop). Likewise, retailers with exclusive product lines (for example, clothes) can do this as well.
What's more interesting isn't the pricing ignorance but just general privacy ignorance. You'll need to go to the end of the study for the summary, but it has some really interesting numbers. For example -
share my information with other websites or companies. Correct answer - False 75% wrong
if it is shown proof of the errors. Correct answer - False (You have to fix it yourself) 76% wrong
national Credit Reporting Agencies that can give you a copy of your credit
report?" 66% of the respondents could not name any of them.
In short, consumers know little of what laws protect them and where they are vulnerable. With that level of ignorance, consumers are unlikely to press for better privacy regulation or report violators of the current laws.
Especially if he let me take a ride in the 10-man submarine attached to this baby.
"no running a bordello in a residential neighborhood"
I think you need zoning for light commercial for a boredello - as well as a piano player with a garter on one arm.
Well, we've named all the planets in THIS system after greek mythological characters. What about the next system and the system after that?
Unfortunately, if space travel becomes common, I shudder to think of who'll be naming distant planets. Corporations would be bad enough (Planet Starbuck). However, I wonder if it will end up like streets in a suburban sub-division (which generally are just made up by the contractor). A friend of mine lives on a short street called Bobbiedell Lane. What if there was a Planet Bobbiedell?
An IsNot operator for objects could be a very big deal for any object oriented language. By patenting this one simple operator, MS is trying to get rid of competing BASIC variations, in particular versions of BASIC that implement some degree of object orientation and rapid GUI development.
If you scroll down through the article, you realize that competing lightweight RAD tools aren't just Microsoft's target. Microsoft is going after tools that are cross platform. The patent doesn't just mention RealBasic (which can create GUI apps for Windows, Max and Linux) but also Delphi as being "BASIC-like". Of course, Delphi can run on Linux using Kylix.
One of the biggest advantages that Windows has is the vast number of small-market and proprietary applications written for it, typically using RAD tools like VB and Delphi. If multiple tools exist to create GUI apps that run on multiple platforms, it threatens that one cornerstone of Windows's dominance. Users can run their proprietary database or custom desktop app on any platform, rather than being locked into windows.
All Microsoft has to do is convince a judge that the PASCAL-derived Delphi is "BASIC-like". And as the old lawyer's joke goes -
What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 70?
You Honor.
While it may be difficult to track chips on the table, the techonology would be very useful in the cashier's office. For one thing, you could incorporate an RFID reader in your chip counter - that would prevent someone from cashing in counterfeit chips. Also, while it's alright for players to walk out of the casino with chips, it's not okay for employees to walk out of the cash office with chips. While they already have cameras galore in there, RFID would give them another way to make sure cashier office staff didn't walk out with a spare chip or two - unless their underwear from Wal-Mart sets off the scanner.
Wired, wireless, whatever, the transport medium does not really make a difference. It's 1's and 0's and whether they get from point A to point B via a wire or via EM it does not matter.
As long as the format is digital, you are correct. But typically the signal between between the amplifier and the speakers is analog. For analog, the quality of the connection matters.
In sound terms, you typically have four parts -
1. Source (in this case digital music files).
2. A Digital to Audio Converter.
3. Amplifier
4. Speakers
Wireless between points one and two (say a music server and a laptop playing the files) can be digital. However, at some point, you have to convert to analog.
In my option, a good setup for playback in each room would be an old laptop hooked up to an old stereo receiver/amp wired to a nice pair of bookshelf speakers - something with at least 5/12-6/12 low drivers. If you look around, you can probably find some nice used stereo amplifiers - pioneer, onkyo, yamaha. You can even buy decent new stereo amps for a small amount of money these days. I'd spring for new speakers in any event.
I think Blizzard got a double whammy of success - 600,000 new players in two months and players loving the game so much that they play every night.
One thing that Blizzard touted early was the ability to play it casually soloing - you can play once a week and easily gain levels doing quests. By following the flow of quests, you can often do two in an hour. However, that rapid pace of advancement makes the game fun in general. You get rewarded with new skills, new environments and new challenges constantly. So rather than having a large number of casual gamers, folks are on every night hooked on the next quest.
I was not a MMORPG player previously. I bought the game shortly after it came out. I quickly found myself sinking 4-5 nights a week into - sometimes only an hour at a time - but still several nights. Around Christmas, some friends were intrigued and they bought it as well. One of them is now on every night - and I do mean EVERY night - for several hours at a time. Another friend of mine spent most of the first weekend online after he bought it.
Because you can sit down and play for just an hour, I think many people do just that. However, that side quest adds on another half hour, then you have to go to the auction house, then you chat with someone who needs help with another quest, etc. In an odd way, I think the quick pacing actually encourages people to play more rather than plan out a few sessions.
No, that's not the point at all. The point is that it's very easy to set up a WAP that looks like someone else's WAP, so they log into it without realizing they're logging into someone else's network.
If it's a secure network, I imagine that it'd be a little harder. My system not only matches the network name but also the key to connect to my router. The name would be easy to spoof, but the key would be a little harder. If the key doesn't match, then I can't connect anyways.
On the other hand, I can't tell you how many times I've seen a network named "linksys" pop up on my list of networks at the neighborhood coffee house or at my job (no, ours isn't name Linksys).
Playing four or five days a week since Thanksgiving, I don't think I've had problems connecting more than three maybe four times on my regular server (Gilneas).
I don't know if this helps anyone, but I was having terrible lag when I first started the game, but noticed others were playing fine. It turned out that my five year old cable modem was the culprit. I bought a new one and haven't had lag or framerate issues since then.
The biggest issue is large concentrations of PCs in one areas. I've been in the starting area for the orcs while the orc city was under attack and been lagged. The auction house in the Alliance Territory is especially problematic; I find that I have to approach it, then inch up on it until all of the player characters render. The map there makes the problem worse - there is a big trench in front of the Auction House. I frequently see players leaping into the trench because they lagged and forgot to take their hands off of the movement keys.
I would like to see Blizzard fix their player character lag issues. Overall, I find the time spent in the game enjoyable.