I've run Azureus on standard torrents just fine. The only thing I can think of is that by the time I get home and patch - it's night time on the East coast of the US (I live in Hawaii). So maybe most of the patchers have completed downloading it and are not seeding any longer. I know I'm not the only one, I play with a lot of Aussie and New Zealand players who frequently have the same problem. I can either suffer through the download with it taking 2 or more hours for a 50MB file, or download it off a direct link in 5 minutes. I've never had problems patching City of Heroes - although I realize the total number of players is less, so they can probably better manage the bandwidth.
I certainly hope that whoever implements BT for commercial use can make it work better than the World of Warcraft updater. I've had nothing but slow downloads (and yes I've forwarded the ports) and crashes using their client. I've given up using it and now just download patches via http from directly from WoW fansites. It's one thing when a free torrent link is slow or not working well, but totally different when a commercial service I pay for doesn't live up to expectations.
"Welcome to business in the United States of America."
And yes we should all complain, but I have no idea what good it will do. The government is so far in bed with the larger corporations that it severely impedes the ability of the government to regulate industry. Beyond passing laws to keep their aging business models and sources of income protected.
"I mean, why couldn't an ethical company have accomplished all of these things?"
Welcome to business in the United States of America. It's pointless to single out Microsoft for bad business practices. How about WalMart? How about Intel for that matter? What about the record labels and movie studios? Hell, even Apple directly violates a court decision from their lawsuit with Apple records - simply because they know the potential monetary windfall from making the iPod would be higher than any liability from a court case. So the ends might justify the means, but they still acted with no respect for a previous settlement. There comes a point when a company is generating so much money and influence that it's army of lawyers and lobbyists can either prevent or reduce the impact of just about any lawsuit. Not any, but certainly just about any. It seems to take a large scale scandal and fuck up like what happened at Enron.
Well, after the shoe incident they actually did start checking shoes for bombs at airport security. So let's just hope the next bomb isn't located in someone's underwear. Maybe they should stuff it in a bra. Mandatory bra removal and inspection for bombs could be entertaining. "She had much to large breasts for her body size and was clearly suspect."
I would suggest doing some reading on the world oil peak theories and then take a look at which countries have the largest reserves and have yet to hit their peak oil output. Iraq has some of the largest untapped reserves left. While we didn't invade to "steal" the oil outright - having a government in place that is friendly with the US will allow us to buy it. And no gajillions of tons are not flooding in right now, but don't think those reserves won't be tapped. Recall that after Katrina hit, Saudi Arabia noted it was at max capacity for oil production and could not produce more to offset the deficit in the US production. Now theories such as the world oil peak are not exact and debated constantly, but given that you are dealing with a finite resource and an increased demand, you are going to end up eventually with demand outstripping a diminishing supply. And before you think it's just all doomsaying, keep in mind that even Chevron has jumped on the lets look for alternative energy sources bandwagon. Why do I believe we didn't invade just because Saddam was a bad man? Well, there are plenty of countries in the world with corrupt leaders. Some of them (i.e. North Korea) actually probably do have weapons of mass destruction. And look at it historically. We certainly didn't invade Cambodia to stop Pol Pot's massacre of 3 million people. We haven't jumped up to overthrow the corrupt government in Myanmar. We don't just jump in and invade countries to be the "good guys". We invade countries when there is a domestic reason for it. This reason can also include the need for regional stability.
You mention car accidents, which are also something caused by human behavior. Would you then advocate reducing the speed limit to say 15mph to prevent serious accidents? Or instituting mandatory development of computer controlled cars? How about cameras to monitor to for any road rage and arresting people who swear and flip off other commuters? Surely that behavior leads to possible accidents.
Yeah I was being a bit tongue and cheek. I've never run MC as I am in a smaller guild and can't really commit the time. I think just as with MC though it's really about learning the instance and developing strategies to counter the bosses. We did get that first bitch down to about 5% life, which I think was solid for a first encounter. It's just a little depressing when you look up allakhazam.com and see people going "did it in a twelve man team". Of course our itemization is almost all blue gear, so I'm sure that makes some difference. And we did get our first wipe right inside the intance because someone wandered down the stairs and grabbed a patrol while we were hashing out the buffs and who was gonna handle what.
As long as game companies have reason to keep pushing trash titles instead of art titles, the trash will get the attention. You're saying 1 in 3 don't have violence. That means 2/3s do. While it isn't violence in itself that is bad, it is often as titillating as Lara Croft's overdone body.
Your argument could be applied directly to movies as well. Hell, even popular music recently has become so inundated with blatant sexual and violent themes. I guess kids today want that, when I grew up most popular music was about expressing emotions (i.e. love, sadness etc.) or just having a good time. I guess it's what sells and movie/music/game/tv developers are going to keep pumping out formulas that sell. I've gotten so tired of it that I deliberately avoid most of this crap. Even stupid TV dramas that focus on people fucking their friends and then getting fucked over by other friends. Sex and violence. Wheee. It's old. I actually think it's less of a problem for video games. One of the things that turned me off of GTA was because it was so much LIKE a modern gangster movie. I'd rather have the comic book violence of City of Heroes, or the whimsy of Katamari Damancy.
I went to Zul'Gurrab last weekend for the first time. Everyone one of us died about 10 times. No need for the plague! We wiped at the first boss! (Yes my server's guilds mostly suck)
Uh huh. Stevie boy is a good old guy with no ego. Just a normal guy you can respect. And Bill Gates he's the devil incarnate. Well, the billionaire philanthropist devil incarnate, who's donated 7 billion dollars to various causes as diverse as AIDs research and the United Negro College Foundation. Oh but that's just good press for Microsoft you say. So what? Running the largest charitable foundation in the world is an excellent way to get good press, and it benefits people all over the world. So Jobs gets a $1 salary. Wheee. And a Lear jet, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in reimbursements from Apple. I'm not trying to say Jobs is the evil one. Hell, both of them are business men, both have used nasty business tactics (if you think Jobs is a saint, read some of what Woz has said happened at Apple), both of them are rich and can afford a fancy house or personal jet plane. There is no reason to deify or demonize either of them. But buying into Apple's PR image of Jobs is just silly.
The way you hook up an actual C64 to this is via a null modem connection to a PC that acts as an Internet gateway. There software you install on the PC side to make the connection. Even when you are connecting through an emulator you need to configure a modem device and "dial". This wouldn't work with a C64 Ethernet card as far as I can tell.
Bands who care about their fans? They'll last forever. "
Hell, I just want the bands to care about their music and create something new and good. If they do that I'll care about paying for their music. It should be noted that it's not just money that makes a band go with a major label. It's promotion and exposure. It can be very hard for a small label to promote its bands, get shelf space, get radio play, MTV play etc.
Valve highlights user created mods for Half Life directly through Steam. You just click on "browse games" and "third-party games" and you get a list of mods. Offering the content is perfectly possible legally, they can waive responsibility via a EULA or just offer it as 3rd party content not directly supported by the company.
The motion sensing can act the same way mouse look does in first person PC games. The analog stick is used for forward/backward and strafing. Provided the controller motion sensing works well, this should be a much more intuitive manner of control than the dual analog sticks. Expensive to add support for? I doubt it. I would imagine that Nintendo will have api code to support exactly this sort of configuration. In fact this control scheme is exactly what the Metroid Prime demo the gaming sites tested used. To quote from the 1uo.com story:
"DEMO: METROID PRIME-TIME Nintendo saved the best for last. This was the first section of the GameCube game Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, retrofitted to be compatible with the Revolution controller and its analog add-on piece (the "Nunchaku" set-up mentioned earlier). As on the Cube the analog stick controls movement, but instead of holding down a button to look around, you simply point the other controller in the direction you want to aim. IMPRESSIONS: At first, I was standing up and swinging my hand all around to aim - and my arms got really tired really quick. But once I sat down and relaxed, resting my hands on my legs as I would with a normal controller, everything clicked. It wasn't perfect yet - the Revolution controller functionality had just been added recently and wasn't bug tested or polished, so every so often the view would "spaz out" for a couple seconds - but it was enough to get me excited. As odd as it may look holding the two separate controller pieces, one in each hand, looking around felt incredibly natural, even more than my preferred PC-style keyboard-and-mouse setup. I have to wonder about precision and speed in multiplayer games, but for a more deliberate single-player game like Metroid Prime - and the series is already confirmed for an appearance on the Revolution - this setup already has huge potential."
"For the N64 Nintendo came out with the analog control stick - which ushered in the age of true 3D gaming. Once again, everyone immediately copied their design. And once again, the analog control stick is still being used today."
Copied and improved on. Two analog sticks allows for much greater control as well as different control schemes (Battlezone style tank controls ala Katamari Damancy). Even Nintendo added a second analog stick in the Gamecube.
I kept using them through the C64 on to the Amiga platform! I learned to rebuild and repair them. Scavenging spare parts from Goodwill stores and garage sales. Sigh, I miss those controllers. One of the hardest problems I had with the NES, was that I had to use the left hand to control movement, whereas the Atari joystick was controlled with the right hand.
Yep - the video gives you no real idea of how the controller impacts the game. I hope it works well. I kind of think something like using the controller to conduct music would be pretty cool. It does open up the possibility for novel game ideas, rather than the hundreds of look-a-like titles we've been seeing recently.
A bit more rabid. They've been hit hard for two console generations, surrounded by "Nintendo is dying" chanters, accused of playing kiddie games. They valiantly hold on and seize any oppurtunity to lash back at the naysayers. They still think Mario is the pinnacle of cool.
Actually, the "failed" Gamecube is most popular console in my house. I own all three, but I like the sturdiness of Nintendos design, the quick loading games and the fact that there is a library of games which I can play with my nine year old son. The PS2 languishes and the Xbox is used mostly for well, emulating NES and SNES games. I'm not a rabid fanboy of any console system, but I do appreciate Nintendo's overall high level of quality in the products it makes.
Civilization 4 will use Python and XML for customization. The system is supposed to be extremely flexible and be good for total conversions. Could make for some neat mods. I'm hoping we'll see some kind of Master of Magic game come out of it.
Slashdot Mirror
I've run Azureus on standard torrents just fine. The only thing I can think of is that by the time I get home and patch - it's night time on the East coast of the US (I live in Hawaii). So maybe most of the patchers have completed downloading it and are not seeding any longer.
I know I'm not the only one, I play with a lot of Aussie and New Zealand players who frequently have the same problem. I can either suffer through the download with it taking 2 or more hours for a 50MB file, or download it off a direct link in 5 minutes.
I've never had problems patching City of Heroes - although I realize the total number of players is less, so they can probably better manage the bandwidth.
I certainly hope that whoever implements BT for commercial use can make it work better than the World of Warcraft updater. I've had nothing but slow downloads (and yes I've forwarded the ports) and crashes using their client. I've given up using it and now just download patches via http from directly from WoW fansites.
It's one thing when a free torrent link is slow or not working well, but totally different when a commercial service I pay for doesn't live up to expectations.
My point is summed up by:
"Welcome to business in the United States of America."
And yes we should all complain, but I have no idea what good it will do. The government is so far in bed with the larger corporations that it severely impedes the ability of the government to regulate industry. Beyond passing laws to keep their aging business models and sources of income protected.
"I mean, why couldn't an ethical company have accomplished all of these things?"
Welcome to business in the United States of America.
It's pointless to single out Microsoft for bad business practices. How about WalMart? How about Intel for that matter? What about the record labels and movie studios?
Hell, even Apple directly violates a court decision from their lawsuit with Apple records - simply because they know the potential monetary windfall from making the iPod would be higher than any liability from a court case. So the ends might justify the means, but they still acted with no respect for a previous settlement.
There comes a point when a company is generating so much money and influence that it's army of lawyers and lobbyists can either prevent or reduce the impact of just about any lawsuit. Not any, but certainly just about any. It seems to take a large scale scandal and fuck up like what happened at Enron.
"So anyone with shoes is suspect?"
Well, after the shoe incident they actually did start checking shoes for bombs at airport security.
So let's just hope the next bomb isn't located in someone's underwear.
Maybe they should stuff it in a bra. Mandatory bra removal and inspection for bombs could be entertaining. "She had much to large breasts for her body size and was clearly suspect."
I would suggest doing some reading on the world oil peak theories and then take a look at which countries have the largest reserves and have yet to hit their peak oil output. Iraq has some of the largest untapped reserves left. While we didn't invade to "steal" the oil outright - having a government in place that is friendly with the US will allow us to buy it. And no gajillions of tons are not flooding in right now, but don't think those reserves won't be tapped. Recall that after Katrina hit, Saudi Arabia noted it was at max capacity for oil production and could not produce more to offset the deficit in the US production.
Now theories such as the world oil peak are not exact and debated constantly, but given that you are dealing with a finite resource and an increased demand, you are going to end up eventually with demand outstripping a diminishing supply.
And before you think it's just all doomsaying, keep in mind that even Chevron has jumped on the lets look for alternative energy sources bandwagon.
Why do I believe we didn't invade just because Saddam was a bad man? Well, there are plenty of countries in the world with corrupt leaders. Some of them (i.e. North Korea) actually probably do have weapons of mass destruction. And look at it historically. We certainly didn't invade Cambodia to stop Pol Pot's massacre of 3 million people. We haven't jumped up to overthrow the corrupt government in Myanmar. We don't just jump in and invade countries to be the "good guys". We invade countries when there is a domestic reason for it. This reason can also include the need for regional stability.
You mention car accidents, which are also something caused by human behavior. Would you then advocate reducing the speed limit to say 15mph to prevent serious accidents? Or instituting mandatory development of computer controlled cars? How about cameras to monitor to for any road rage and arresting people who swear and flip off other commuters? Surely that behavior leads to possible accidents.
Yeah I was being a bit tongue and cheek. I've never run MC as I am in a smaller guild and can't really commit the time. I think just as with MC though it's really about learning the instance and developing strategies to counter the bosses. We did get that first bitch down to about 5% life, which I think was solid for a first encounter. It's just a little depressing when you look up allakhazam.com and see people going "did it in a twelve man team". Of course our itemization is almost all blue gear, so I'm sure that makes some difference.
And we did get our first wipe right inside the intance because someone wandered down the stairs and grabbed a patrol while we were hashing out the buffs and who was gonna handle what.
As long as game companies have reason to keep pushing trash titles instead of art titles, the trash will get the attention. You're saying 1 in 3 don't have violence. That means 2/3s do. While it isn't violence in itself that is bad, it is often as titillating as Lara Croft's overdone body.
Your argument could be applied directly to movies as well. Hell, even popular music recently has become so inundated with blatant sexual and violent themes. I guess kids today want that, when I grew up most popular music was about expressing emotions (i.e. love, sadness etc.) or just having a good time.
I guess it's what sells and movie/music/game/tv developers are going to keep pumping out formulas that sell. I've gotten so tired of it that I deliberately avoid most of this crap. Even stupid TV dramas that focus on people fucking their friends and then getting fucked over by other friends. Sex and violence. Wheee. It's old.
I actually think it's less of a problem for video games. One of the things that turned me off of GTA was because it was so much LIKE a modern gangster movie. I'd rather have the comic book violence of City of Heroes, or the whimsy of Katamari Damancy.
I went to Zul'Gurrab last weekend for the first time. Everyone one of us died about 10 times. No need for the plague! We wiped at the first boss!
(Yes my server's guilds mostly suck)
Uh huh. Stevie boy is a good old guy with no ego. Just a normal guy you can respect. And Bill Gates he's the devil incarnate. Well, the billionaire philanthropist devil incarnate, who's donated 7 billion dollars to various causes as diverse as AIDs research and the United Negro College Foundation.
Oh but that's just good press for Microsoft you say. So what? Running the largest charitable foundation in the world is an excellent way to get good press, and it benefits people all over the world.
So Jobs gets a $1 salary. Wheee. And a Lear jet, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in reimbursements from Apple.
I'm not trying to say Jobs is the evil one. Hell, both of them are business men, both have used nasty business tactics (if you think Jobs is a saint, read some of what Woz has said happened at Apple), both of them are rich and can afford a fancy house or personal jet plane. There is no reason to deify or demonize either of them. But buying into Apple's PR image of Jobs is just silly.
(Larry Ellison however, IS the devil incarnate)
The way you hook up an actual C64 to this is via a null modem connection to a PC that acts as an Internet gateway. There software you install on the PC side to make the connection. Even when you are connecting through an emulator you need to configure a modem device and "dial".
This wouldn't work with a C64 Ethernet card as far as I can tell.
Hell, "The Sims" is still the hottest thing out there, and that game doesn't even have a goal!
You mean it's not "find the most interesting ways to torture and kill your little annoying sims"?
vampire cowboys ninjas pirates
"Bands who care only about money won't last.
Bands who care about their fans? They'll last forever. "
Hell, I just want the bands to care about their music and create something new and good. If they do that I'll care about paying for their music.
It should be noted that it's not just money that makes a band go with a major label. It's promotion and exposure. It can be very hard for a small label to promote its bands, get shelf space, get radio play, MTV play etc.
Or you can just comapletly disable autorun. I prefer this method as it's "set it and forget it".
Valve highlights user created mods for Half Life directly through Steam. You just click on "browse games" and "third-party games" and you get a list of mods.
Offering the content is perfectly possible legally, they can waive responsibility via a EULA or just offer it as 3rd party content not directly supported by the company.
Well, real as in it does exist, but uh fake in that it is a parody site.
KILL THE MOUSE!!!
REMOVE ITS BALLS
Pretty funny site.
The motion sensing can act the same way mouse look does in first person PC games. The analog stick is used for forward/backward and strafing. Provided the controller motion sensing works well, this should be a much more intuitive manner of control than the dual analog sticks.
Expensive to add support for? I doubt it. I would imagine that Nintendo will have api code to support exactly this sort of configuration. In fact this control scheme is exactly what the Metroid Prime demo the gaming sites tested used. To quote from the 1uo.com story:
"DEMO: METROID PRIME-TIME
Nintendo saved the best for last. This was the first section of the GameCube game Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, retrofitted to be compatible with the Revolution controller and its analog add-on piece (the "Nunchaku" set-up mentioned earlier). As on the Cube the analog stick controls movement, but instead of holding down a button to look around, you simply point the other controller in the direction you want to aim.
IMPRESSIONS: At first, I was standing up and swinging my hand all around to aim - and my arms got really tired really quick. But once I sat down and relaxed, resting my hands on my legs as I would with a normal controller, everything clicked. It wasn't perfect yet - the Revolution controller functionality had just been added recently and wasn't bug tested or polished, so every so often the view would "spaz out" for a couple seconds - but it was enough to get me excited. As odd as it may look holding the two separate controller pieces, one in each hand, looking around felt incredibly natural, even more than my preferred PC-style keyboard-and-mouse setup. I have to wonder about precision and speed in multiplayer games, but for a more deliberate single-player game like Metroid Prime - and the series is already confirmed for an appearance on the Revolution - this setup already has huge potential."
"For the N64 Nintendo came out with the analog control stick - which ushered in the age of true 3D gaming. Once again, everyone immediately copied their design. And once again, the analog control stick is still being used today."
Copied and improved on. Two analog sticks allows for much greater control as well as different control schemes (Battlezone style tank controls ala Katamari Damancy).
Even Nintendo added a second analog stick in the Gamecube.
Also, for classic NES style gameplay, you can rotate the controller and hold it like an old NES controller using the d-pad for movement.
I kept using them through the C64 on to the Amiga platform!
I learned to rebuild and repair them. Scavenging spare parts from Goodwill stores and garage sales.
Sigh, I miss those controllers.
One of the hardest problems I had with the NES, was that I had to use the left hand to control movement, whereas the Atari joystick was controlled with the right hand.
Yep - the video gives you no real idea of how the controller impacts the game.
I hope it works well. I kind of think something like using the controller to conduct music would be pretty cool. It does open up the possibility for novel game ideas, rather than the hundreds of look-a-like titles we've been seeing recently.
A bit more rabid. They've been hit hard for two console generations, surrounded by "Nintendo is dying" chanters, accused of playing kiddie games. They valiantly hold on and seize any oppurtunity to lash back at the naysayers. They still think Mario is the pinnacle of cool.
Actually, the "failed" Gamecube is most popular console in my house. I own all three, but I like the sturdiness of Nintendos design, the quick loading games and the fact that there is a library of games which I can play with my nine year old son. The PS2 languishes and the Xbox is used mostly for well, emulating NES and SNES games. I'm not a rabid fanboy of any console system, but I do appreciate Nintendo's overall high level of quality in the products it makes.
Civilization 4 will use Python and XML for customization. The system is supposed to be extremely flexible and be good for total conversions.
Could make for some neat mods. I'm hoping we'll see some kind of Master of Magic game come out of it.