I'm not a WoW player but I may a copy up in the future when I get bored with City of Heroes. It seems that most of the problems people are having are associated with high population servers. When you are setting up your account on WoW does it give you a breakdown of population levels on servers?
Just kidding. But I have bought a couple of games for my Pocket PC. Not Pac Man, but I did get a game pack which included Bookworm and an RPG called Arvale (pretty nice actually). These sites pretty frequently offer discounts or buy one get one free offers. I have never paid the full list for any PDA software.
Now, here's the start of the movie... I see snow! White snow! And in the snow, I see... a tree! And by this tree, gentlemen, I see... a dog! And gentlemen, this dog goes up to the tree, and he piddles on it.
OK - yes I would consider the grand parent's post as lame and one sided as yours.
Regarding obsolescence - your examples may illustrate bad design and bad security, but that doesn't have anything to do with obsolescence. Sure the mini isn't obsolete but the fact that it is based on older technology (i.e. G4 cpu, Radeon 9200) guarentess that for many uses it will pass into obsolescence quicker than for example a Powermac G5 (or arguably an discount x86 machine where at least memory and video can be easily upgraded). This is natural because as you have stated it is a discount computer.
Macs are not immune to obsolescence. In fact I am spending some $60,000 on G5 upgrades at work because of OS 9 is obsolete and consequently so are all of are older Macs which can't run OS X at a decent speed. Sure they would work fine for Granny's web browsing, but they are no longer supportable for our core publishing business.
Can you give any information on HOW the attack was conducted? Was it through a system vulnerability? Was there a patch available that wasn't applied? Did your partner have to run a malware executable to trigger the problem? Was it through a phishing email? I am interested in how this was done.
These are graphic designers. I'm not real worried about them running SSH as none of them even know what it is. I would HOPE SSH is off by default on OS X. But yes standard *NIX services stuff I have no problem with. I'm sure I'll nmap the boxes just to see what they look like in a scan and shutdown anything that makes me nervous.
Yeah I'm aware of the *NIX issues. We run FreeBSD and Linux on the server side. Snort and all that good stuff too. I'm more concerned about end user workstations. That's where we are more likely to have a crap password etc.
Can someone out there tell me what the reality of the situation is? Do you really need anti-virus for OS X? In the research I've done I can't seem to find any references to real (as in active in the wild) OS X viruses. We will be transitioning about 8 production Macs to OS X later this year, and I am wondering whether I need to concerned at this point. It doesn't seem like I do. I also understand the possibility of exploits in some of the open source code used in OS X. I assume you deal with this the same as on any other OSes and patch it when the fix comes out.
Maybe. But you would want to do a cost comparison with Xserve G5s. It depends on your total needs obviously, but I would be willing to bet the Mini might not end up being that great a cost savings in terms of computation. The Xserves are well priced and you can get the dual cpu cluster nodes starting at $3000. Not to mention RAM limitations on the mini and the fact that the more machines you have the more maintenance you are going to be doing. Your long term costs might be better with 2 Xserves rather than 12 minis.
Actually that completely depends on what you do with your computer doesn't it? You can't just make a blind declaration and expect it to apply to all users. If you are planning to buy a Mac Mini as your primary computer I would hope that speed isn't a deciding factor for you. Because you sure won't be getting top of the line speed. You probably won't want to be rendering broadcast quality computer animation on it for example. Unless you charge by the hour in which case all of your work will migrate to another company that doesn't charge ridiculous rates for rendering. You see the computer is a tool, and as such you need the right tool for the right job. Let's say for example if I wanted a computer to play Half Life 2? Would I be better off with a Mac mini or a Windows based PC? Or even an x86 computer running Cedega and Linux? And if I wanted to run Half Life 2 well, would speed be a deciding factor? Would I be better off with a Radeon 9200 or an Radeon X850? A Pentium 3 or an Athlon 64? I guess it's pointless to try for rational conversation rather than polarized flaming on Slashdot, in particular in a Apple post where rabid fanboi-ism has recently reached heights formally only occupied by Nvidia vs. ATI and Linux vs. World.
Re:How did they generate them?
on
Video Game Atlas
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The SID chip was a 3 voice electronic synthesizer. Emulators have never quite matched the sound, and you can even purchase a hardware PCI card (Hard SID) if you are so hardcore you need that you need the original sound. In fact, Denver band Mr. Pacman uses a Commodore 64 to get the true '80s sound they need. There are SID emulators as well as SID collections such as The High Voltage SID Collection. Remixes of old video game music is also all over the web. Check out remix.kwed.org for excellent remixes. The ones by Perhaps a Doobie and particularly amusing. Check out the Monty on the Run Hi-Score theme and the 1942 High-Score theme. Classic stuff.
Be thankful for training like this. Even a genetically altered super human can fall into patterns of two dimensional thinking if not exposed to LucasArts adventures. The next time you are deep in the Motari nebula facing off with Admiral Kirk you will look back on your Maniac Mansion training and know exactly what to do.
Do you have kids? More importantly were you ever a kid? My parents couldn't keep me from sneaking out of my bedroom when everyone was asleep to catch some boobies on Cinemax. My parents couldn't prevent me from listening to explicit songs on my walkman. My parents couldn't prevent any manner of material I was exposed to through my friends as well. There is a limit to the amount of policing a parent can do. Especially in the case of young adults and teenagers who have a need for privacy. Instilling good values in your kids and developing a sense of trust an openness is paramount. I don't advocate over legislation but retailers SHOULD be refusing to sell M rated games to minors just as much as a movie theater should refuse to sell tickets to an R rated movie to a minor. Is that such a big deal? I'm an adult and I want to be able to play entertainment targetted at me. Complete with bad words and hell defecation if it is plot appropriate (see "OZ" on HBO). I'm not going to load up GTA and teach my kid to get health from a prostitute and then kill her to recoup the cash however.
"Remove CD warning labels and kids will listen to fiddicent singing about shooting 2pack and fucking his mom."
I don't know about that - when I was kid and they introduced labeling it just made it easier to figure out what music would be good for pissing your parents off.
I spent $50 to purchase the computer game Ultima 3: Exodus in 1983. According to an inflation calculator that price in 2003 adjusted dollars would be $90.91. Admittedly it came with a really nice cloth map and 3 manuals (2 were spell guides) but that's still a lot of money.
Virtual Bouncer is an extremely evil adware application. It bills itself as a spyware removal program but it in fact brings popup advertising to your computer. It is also somewhat nasty to remove. Hopefully apps such as Spybot and Adaware are doing a better job with it now, but it did require some manual removal to fully strip it from your system.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not a WoW player but I may a copy up in the future when I get bored with City of Heroes.
It seems that most of the problems people are having are associated with high population servers. When you are setting up your account on WoW does it give you a breakdown of population levels on servers?
I personally would opt for the cool iPanemaPod which is as the parent described except all five songs are versions of "The Girl from Ipanema".
But the clones don't need to have sex in order to make more of themselves. It's horrifying really.
Wow. Addicted clones having sex are bringing about climate change?
I can't wait for this show!
Yeah you know like Evil Bert, doing the erk erk Pigeon?
Oooh! Oooh! I do! I do!
Just kidding. But I have bought a couple of games for my Pocket PC. Not Pac Man, but I did get a game pack which included Bookworm and an RPG called Arvale (pretty nice actually).
These sites pretty frequently offer discounts or buy one get one free offers. I have never paid the full list for any PDA software.
Now, here's the start of the movie ... I see snow! White snow! And in the snow, I see ... a tree! ... a dog!
And by this tree, gentlemen, I see
And gentlemen, this dog goes up to the tree, and he piddles on it.
with much thanks to Monty Pythong
OK - yes I would consider the grand parent's post as lame and one sided as yours.
Regarding obsolescence - your examples may illustrate bad design and bad security, but that doesn't have anything to do with obsolescence.
Sure the mini isn't obsolete but the fact that it is based on older technology (i.e. G4 cpu, Radeon 9200) guarentess that for many uses it will pass into obsolescence quicker than for example a Powermac G5 (or arguably an discount x86 machine where at least memory and video can be easily upgraded). This is natural because as you have stated it is a discount computer.
Macs are not immune to obsolescence. In fact I am spending some $60,000 on G5 upgrades at work because of OS 9 is obsolete and consequently so are all of are older Macs which can't run OS X at a decent speed. Sure they would work fine for Granny's web browsing, but they are no longer supportable for our core publishing business.
"Centrino" means "doesn't suck on laptops"
Actually Centrino is the name for using the Pentium M AND the Intel wireless chipset. And I kind of think the wireless chipset is a bit wonky.
Can you give any information on HOW the attack was conducted? Was it through a system vulnerability? Was there a patch available that wasn't applied?
Did your partner have to run a malware executable to trigger the problem? Was it through a phishing email?
I am interested in how this was done.
These are graphic designers. I'm not real worried about them running SSH as none of them even know what it is. I would HOPE SSH is off by default on OS X. But yes standard *NIX services stuff I have no problem with. I'm sure I'll nmap the boxes just to see what they look like in a scan and shutdown anything that makes me nervous.
Yeah I'm aware of the *NIX issues. We run FreeBSD and Linux on the server side. Snort and all that good stuff too.
I'm more concerned about end user workstations. That's where we are more likely to have a crap password etc.
Can someone out there tell me what the reality of the situation is? Do you really need anti-virus for OS X? In the research I've done I can't seem to find any references to real (as in active in the wild) OS X viruses.
We will be transitioning about 8 production Macs to OS X later this year, and I am wondering whether I need to concerned at this point. It doesn't seem like I do.
I also understand the possibility of exploits in some of the open source code used in OS X. I assume you deal with this the same as on any other OSes and patch it when the fix comes out.
Maybe. But you would want to do a cost comparison with Xserve G5s. It depends on your total needs obviously, but I would be willing to bet the Mini might not end up being that great a cost savings in terms of computation. The Xserves are well priced and you can get the dual cpu cluster nodes starting at $3000.
Not to mention RAM limitations on the mini and the fact that the more machines you have the more maintenance you are going to be doing. Your long term costs might be better with 2 Xserves rather than 12 minis.
"Speed is no longer a deciding factor"
Actually that completely depends on what you do with your computer doesn't it? You can't just make a blind declaration and expect it to apply to all users.
If you are planning to buy a Mac Mini as your primary computer I would hope that speed isn't a deciding factor for you. Because you sure won't be getting top of the line speed. You probably won't want to be rendering broadcast quality computer animation on it for example. Unless you charge by the hour in which case all of your work will migrate to another company that doesn't charge ridiculous rates for rendering.
You see the computer is a tool, and as such you need the right tool for the right job.
Let's say for example if I wanted a computer to play Half Life 2? Would I be better off with a Mac mini or a Windows based PC? Or even an x86 computer running Cedega and Linux?
And if I wanted to run Half Life 2 well, would speed be a deciding factor? Would I be better off with a Radeon 9200 or an Radeon X850? A Pentium 3 or an Athlon 64?
I guess it's pointless to try for rational conversation rather than polarized flaming on Slashdot, in particular in a Apple post where rabid fanboi-ism has recently reached heights formally only occupied by Nvidia vs. ATI and Linux vs. World.
The SID chip was a 3 voice electronic synthesizer. Emulators have never quite matched the sound, and you can even purchase a hardware PCI card (Hard SID) if you are so hardcore you need that you need the original sound. In fact, Denver band Mr. Pacman uses a Commodore 64 to get the true '80s sound they need.
There are SID emulators as well as SID collections such as The High Voltage SID Collection.
Remixes of old video game music is also all over the web. Check out remix.kwed.org for excellent remixes. The ones by Perhaps a Doobie and particularly amusing. Check out the Monty on the Run Hi-Score theme and the 1942 High-Score theme. Classic stuff.
True. But it's still being updated with new content. I had never seen the site before so it was interesting to me.
Be thankful for training like this. Even a genetically altered super human can fall into patterns of two dimensional thinking if not exposed to LucasArts adventures.
The next time you are deep in the Motari nebula facing off with Admiral Kirk you will look back on your Maniac Mansion training and know exactly what to do.
Do you have kids? More importantly were you ever a kid?
My parents couldn't keep me from sneaking out of my bedroom when everyone was asleep to catch some boobies on Cinemax. My parents couldn't prevent me from listening to explicit songs on my walkman. My parents couldn't prevent any manner of material I was exposed to through my friends as well.
There is a limit to the amount of policing a parent can do. Especially in the case of young adults and teenagers who have a need for privacy. Instilling good values in your kids and developing a sense of trust an openness is paramount.
I don't advocate over legislation but retailers SHOULD be refusing to sell M rated games to minors just as much as a movie theater should refuse to sell tickets to an R rated movie to a minor. Is that such a big deal?
I'm an adult and I want to be able to play entertainment targetted at me. Complete with bad words and hell defecation if it is plot appropriate (see "OZ" on HBO). I'm not going to load up GTA and teach my kid to get health from a prostitute and then kill her to recoup the cash however.
"Remove CD warning labels and kids will listen to fiddicent singing about shooting 2pack and fucking his mom."
I don't know about that - when I was kid and they introduced labeling it just made it easier to figure out what music would be good for pissing your parents off.
If you are running OS 8 or 9 and doing anything else (say web browsing) while you wait for the copy it makes perfect sense.
It's worse! I'll probably end up addicted to crack if they take away my video games!
Aw who cares? My computer already supports DVDA.
I spent $50 to purchase the computer game Ultima 3: Exodus in 1983. According to an inflation calculator that price in 2003 adjusted dollars would be $90.91.
Admittedly it came with a really nice cloth map and 3 manuals (2 were spell guides) but that's still a lot of money.
Virtual Bouncer is an extremely evil adware application. It bills itself as a spyware removal program but it in fact brings popup advertising to your computer. It is also somewhat nasty to remove. Hopefully apps such as Spybot and Adaware are doing a better job with it now, but it did require some manual removal to fully strip it from your system.