If you get banned on Steam for cheating in one game, you get banned from playing any online game on a server that is VAC secured. So these MW2 bans actually caused customers to be banned from all their steam games, not just MW2.
Granted, not playing games online for one weekend isn't going to kill anyone.
Going by their rate of sales, I don't think their customers disagree with Apple's views all that much.
Apple's customers aren't even aware of Apple's views -- they just like to buy new, snazzy products.
The fact of the matter, as we have already established here on/., is that the average consumer is not concerned (or at least not aware) of the long-term reprocussions that can come about from blindly supporting large, powerful companies [or governments] and their policies. Consumers are caught up in the moment and always do what will serve them the best 5 days from now, not 5 years from now, and much less 15 years from now.
The Naga from Razer is far and away the better mouse if one wants heinous amounts of buttons on their mouse. This is simply because the Naga gives you the standard two main mouse buttons and then puts the 12 "function-buttons" on the side. Even If I want crazy amounts of buttons, I don't want to have to forgo the two standard, normal-sized, easy-to-use buttons when I'm not downing The Lich King.
There are a number of routes to become a pro gamer. What route you take depends mostly on the game you're playing and whether or not it is a team game.
If it is a team game, gathering a team of friends that you know wont up and quit on you and working your way up throught the various leagues is the best way to go (www.esportsea.com). If you are good, you eventually work your way to the higher invite-only leagues and if you do well enough in those, you will become sponsored. Some top Counter-Strike players in Europe are proported to have earnings topping $2,500 a month. Which isn't a lot -- but they are playing video games and get to keep all of their tournament winnings, and very often live together and have free housing.
In non-team games the best route is to practice your head off and either join a league as described above, or fly to South Korea and get your professional gaming license, though it isn't easy.
This is obviously very dumbed-down and simplified explanation and no persons route to "the pros" is the same, but I wanted to provide some insight into pro gaming for those who do not know about it.
I doubt the oil is left sitting on top, in a state where it can simply be "recovered" and immediately sold.
This wouldn't be a bad idea, but I doubt it's economically feasible for companies to skim oil off the gulf, treat/clean it, and then ship it to where it needs to go.
Apparently slashdot won't take the micro symbol in comments.
I don't know what is more fail: a board for nerds not allowing the micro symbol in comments or the fact that I didn't properly proofread by one sentence post.
Fine -- but the fact still stands that when the Chernobyl meltdown occurred they were improperly running tests and the cooling rods they were using at the time had significant design flaws.
We shouldn't be pushed away from a viable form of energy because of an incident where stupidity and poor engineering combined to form a freak-accident.
Companies filtering out ".xxx" extensions is a long way from requiring people IN THE PRIVACY OF THEIR OWN HOME AND USING THEIR OWN HARDWARE. Remember, we're in the US, not China.
And if you think ISP's are going to do this filtering, you're out of your mind. What are they going to do? Start requiring you to register your children with your ISP?
And I do believe that requiring porno sites to register under a certain extension would qualify as a violation of freedom of speech.
.gov is an extension for.... the GOVernment! .edu is an extension for.... EDUcational institutions
And it's not like schools are requried to use.edu -- they choose to do so because it helps them be identified.
So in the end, I think this would be a-okay, at least in the US. Your point about foreign countries blocking sites does raise interesting point, though.
Hollywood does think is that having computers do such things in a story usually (not always, but usually) makes it easier or faster to tell the story the way it is intended, rather than getting bogged down in the real life technicalities that are actually involved that would bore almost anybody.
Duh?
Everyone here knows that -- but that doesn't mean it's not hilarious.
I've had this same program find its way onto my machine at home, but I didn't have near the trouble removing it that you did. You should really do some research before you try to manually remove things, because someone else has had it before and it will save you a real headache to learn from someone else's experiences.
The problem is this particular piece of malware makes changes to your registry, like you mentioned. So, the first thing you have to do make a couple registry modifications. Then you'll have to find some type of dependable malware cleaner to remove all of the related files.
This all very simply outlined here. All I did was Google "XP Security fix."
Didn't seem so bad to me (MSBlast was SOOO much worse), but I can see where it would be a real pain for the inexperienced or naive user.
Sounds like a pain in my side.
Personally, I've been growing pretty tired of every single website and application (or "service's") being increasingly willing to push integration with other websites and 3rd parties.
I was angry when games and things started popping up on Facebook (that was why I left MySpace -- too much BS, not enough networking). I've been getting even angrier lately with the recent increase in the amount of spam messages sent and other maliscious activity.
And I expect that when Facebook expands as a "service" there is only going to be more over the top bullcrap (games, dumb applications, evenmore notifications, etc.) and it's only going to get easier for maliscious websites to use Facebook to send spam messages, install malware, and steal information from users.
I don't know about anybody else, but I'm ready to jump ship to a non-invasive, professional, networking website that supports things like pictures and events, but does so without all the fluff and the built-in messenger.
Facebook, you were so cool.... but now you just suck.
Slashdot Mirror
If you get banned on Steam for cheating in one game, you get banned from playing any online game on a server that is VAC secured. So these MW2 bans actually caused customers to be banned from all their steam games, not just MW2. Granted, not playing games online for one weekend isn't going to kill anyone.
Going by their rate of sales, I don't think their customers disagree with Apple's views all that much.
Apple's customers aren't even aware of Apple's views -- they just like to buy new, snazzy products.
The fact of the matter, as we have already established here on /., is that the average consumer is not concerned (or at least not aware) of the long-term reprocussions that can come about from blindly supporting large, powerful companies [or governments] and their policies. Consumers are caught up in the moment and always do what will serve them the best 5 days from now, not 5 years from now, and much less 15 years from now.
The Naga from Razer is far and away the better mouse if one wants heinous amounts of buttons on their mouse. This is simply because the Naga gives you the standard two main mouse buttons and then puts the 12 "function-buttons" on the side. Even If I want crazy amounts of buttons, I don't want to have to forgo the two standard, normal-sized, easy-to-use buttons when I'm not downing The Lich King.
If our representatives knew that their actions were being recorded the ethics of our representatives would go through the roof.
Or at least their ethics might come out of the basement...
There are a number of routes to become a pro gamer. What route you take depends mostly on the game you're playing and whether or not it is a team game.
If it is a team game, gathering a team of friends that you know wont up and quit on you and working your way up throught the various leagues is the best way to go (www.esportsea.com). If you are good, you eventually work your way to the higher invite-only leagues and if you do well enough in those, you will become sponsored. Some top Counter-Strike players in Europe are proported to have earnings topping $2,500 a month. Which isn't a lot -- but they are playing video games and get to keep all of their tournament winnings, and very often live together and have free housing.
In non-team games the best route is to practice your head off and either join a league as described above, or fly to South Korea and get your professional gaming license, though it isn't easy.
This is obviously very dumbed-down and simplified explanation and no persons route to "the pros" is the same, but I wanted to provide some insight into pro gaming for those who do not know about it.
I doubt the oil is left sitting on top, in a state where it can simply be "recovered" and immediately sold.
This wouldn't be a bad idea, but I doubt it's economically feasible for companies to skim oil off the gulf, treat/clean it, and then ship it to where it needs to go.
Apparently slashdot won't take the micro symbol in comments. I don't know what is more fail: a board for nerds not allowing the micro symbol in comments or the fact that I didn't properly proofread by one sentence post.
They obviously mean microns, but either don't know the abbreviation or accidently left out a .
I want Google TV streamed to my mobile device, not just the ability to use my mobile device to control Google on my TV.
We shouldn't be pushed away from a viable form of energy because of an incident where stupidity and poor engineering combined to form a freak-accident.
We may not understand the theory, but we'll sure love the applications!"
As long as they don't require Flash.
I think you're taking this a bit far.
.gov is an extension for.... the GOVernment!
.edu is an extension for.... EDUcational institutions
.edu -- they choose to do so because it helps them be identified.
Companies filtering out ".xxx" extensions is a long way from requiring people IN THE PRIVACY OF THEIR OWN HOME AND USING THEIR OWN HARDWARE. Remember, we're in the US, not China.
And if you think ISP's are going to do this filtering, you're out of your mind. What are they going to do? Start requiring you to register your children with your ISP?
And I do believe that requiring porno sites to register under a certain extension would qualify as a violation of freedom of speech.
And it's not like schools are requried to use
So in the end, I think this would be a-okay, at least in the US. Your point about foreign countries blocking sites does raise interesting point, though.
Hollywood does think is that having computers do such things in a story usually (not always, but usually) makes it easier or faster to tell the story the way it is intended, rather than getting bogged down in the real life technicalities that are actually involved that would bore almost anybody.
Duh?
Everyone here knows that -- but that doesn't mean it's not hilarious.
I've had this same program find its way onto my machine at home, but I didn't have near the trouble removing it that you did. You should really do some research before you try to manually remove things, because someone else has had it before and it will save you a real headache to learn from someone else's experiences.
The problem is this particular piece of malware makes changes to your registry, like you mentioned. So, the first thing you have to do make a couple registry modifications. Then you'll have to find some type of dependable malware cleaner to remove all of the related files. This all very simply outlined here. All I did was Google "XP Security fix." Didn't seem so bad to me (MSBlast was SOOO much worse), but I can see where it would be a real pain for the inexperienced or naive user.
And if you're online, there is no need to have a printed version. As much as I hate it, with DRM in place this move makes sense. I support.
Sounds like a pain in my side. Personally, I've been growing pretty tired of every single website and application (or "service's") being increasingly willing to push integration with other websites and 3rd parties. I was angry when games and things started popping up on Facebook (that was why I left MySpace -- too much BS, not enough networking). I've been getting even angrier lately with the recent increase in the amount of spam messages sent and other maliscious activity. And I expect that when Facebook expands as a "service" there is only going to be more over the top bullcrap (games, dumb applications, evenmore notifications, etc.) and it's only going to get easier for maliscious websites to use Facebook to send spam messages, install malware, and steal information from users. I don't know about anybody else, but I'm ready to jump ship to a non-invasive, professional, networking website that supports things like pictures and events, but does so without all the fluff and the built-in messenger. Facebook, you were so cool.... but now you just suck.