This is the most interesting thing I've seen so far today: "Docket Text: Return of service executed re: Subpoena served on Canopy Group c/o Ralph Yanno on 8/26/03" -- here.
Could this be IBM going for the neck of the hydra? That would be... wonderful.
If you read the presentation you'll see that they're both working toward using the GNU toolchain as much as possible (apart from the compiler that is), and also they're adding GNU C/C++ compatibility. See page 15.
Can it build a linux kernel today? No idea. Does it seem like it might one day? Yes.
(If I were a developer working on adding GNU compatibility to a compiler, would I use the linux kernel as a test? You bet)
Clearly any new P2P clients should use a homebrew and/or keyed hash, and be distributed with one of those "no reverse-engineering allowed"-click-throughs and DMCA threats. Add some token "copy prevention mechanism" into the program (encrypt parts of it). Make sure that there is no comfortable way to use a normal client for this kind of large scale "hash searching/cataloging" the RIAA would want to employ, such that they must rev-eng in order to get the data or build the code that they need.
If files identified using such an algorithm end up in court, we could probably force the RIAA into having to argue that such click-throughs carry no legal weight and that reverse-engineering such "protections" is legal -- which would be very good indeed.
Are we sure they're actually using MD5? The article doesn't even contain the string "md5" that I can see. It mentions hashes though, but there's something called Robust Hashing which can be used to identify, or at least, compare content in a "fuzzy" way.
And for streaming (which I don't like personally, but some people seem to do), it would be cool to have bittorrent'esque clients such that the seeding server could say: You can listen/watch this stream of you agree to dedicate X KB/s to at most Y other clients.
Sure, you'd have to save the stream or a window of it, and there might be problems with latency -- this would probably need deep ahead caching, but it's an interesting possibility.
[note for the future: This is obvious for any expert and many non-experts. It is not worthy of a blanket patent. ]
Because this paranoid "they're all against us" attitude is a typical cultist trait. Has to do with martydom and every cultists wet dream; to become one, just like their Jesus-figure. The next step he'll be saying that the Government is against him and his company, but that might come after defeat in court.
You and I wish. I've been following it for weeks, and it just refuse to drop. Too little volyme! None sane wants to touch this one, which makes it easy for insiders and others to manipulate it. See for instance all the tape-painting at the end of the day. Small lots someone is basically selling to himself just to push the stock up before closing, giving it a "nice" start-end value, not representative of the day as a whole.
I like it how the SCO lawyer is trying to plug the worst leaks:
Michael Heise, a partner with Boies, Schiller & Flexner who's representing SCO, downplayed concerns that the contested code may be covered by an open-source license. In an interview with CNET News.com at the SCO show, Heise said even if, hypothetically, some older Caldera code were open-source, it wouldn't make a difference to the case.
"Let's say you have a hundred files, and you put one of your hundred files under the GPL (GNU General Public License). That doesn't mean you've lost the rights to your other 99 files," Heise said. "So I don't think it's going to have an impact."
They haven't hidden any snippet of code. They obfuscated a comment in their own code using a greek font because they probably want to keep all of their codebase secret. I don't understand why they didn't just snip it out, it couldn't possibly be that they feel a moral obligation to "quote in full".
Again, the obfuscated part is their own "code". it certainly isn't in the linux kernel.
"Monday, CEO Darl McBride outlined the company's legal strategy and tried to convince SCO partners and customers that it is fighting the good fight.
``We're fighting for the right in the industry to be able to make a living selling software, McBride told the audience. The fight was for the
ability ``to send your children to college and ``to buy a second home, he added." -- story
The problem seems to be that developers take multi-platform code as an afterthought. "We'll write the windows version and then we'll put some junior dev on porting it".
Few seem to realize that developing multi-platform from day one is a) not harder, b) shows professionalism and c) is one of the greatest ways to accomplish good bug free code.
I know, "your", not "you're". Anyway. I forgot to mention that you don't have a party in this game, so it's really more like Diablo than say BG or IWD. You can get "companions" but they're as dumb as you could expect. They have their own quests, but until you do something to trigger that, they're mostly in follow-you-around-and-hit-back-if-attacked.
As you can guess, some effort must be spent keeping your companion alive when he/she blindly charges monsters with no tactics in mind.
okay, now I'm done. I will post positive points if requested:-)
I've described this game as 20% good copying off the Infinity Engine games, and 80% homebrew design -- most of it bad.
You can't give attack orders or change target while paused. Please note that you can go into the inventory and go through a complete makeover though.
The maps aren't annotated.
You can't annotate the maps.
The game's 800x600. You can up the resolution by editing a file, but the game craps out so it's useless. (I usually don't comment on resolution, but given the timespan since BG2 I would have thought they'd at least make the game _capable_ of higher resolutions, if officially unsupported.
Low resolution results in "zoomed in" effect, making ranged combat mostly useless.
Good news: Zombies move slowly, ranged combat works! Bad news: Pretty much everything else zips along, giving you one ranged shot until melee-time -- if you're lucky.
Multiplayer only through Gamespy. Must use undocumented command line params to connect directly (the game have no way for you to enter a IP or hostname to connect to) (ps: -connect, -host)
In multiplayer, all players must keep together for the simplest things, say like entering a house (this is worse than the IE games. And oh, you thought the "You must gather your party"-line of BG was bad? Check this game out...)
Completely over the top intrusive interface. Press F2 to remove it completely.
Can't navigate by clicking minimap
Can't navigate by clicking game field map, if too far away from char(!)
Choice after choice removed from the hands of the players by the designers. Example: Exported chars are stripped of their items. Wouldn't it be better to leave that up to the gamemaster to decide?
If you're typing the chat window, you can't move your char. Pray you're not attacked while typing...
Very few spell and items slots. 7 in total. Choose well. Shouldn't have been a problem to supply 3x7 rows using the alt and ctrl modifiers, but did they? Nope.
Can't chose in dialogue using keyboard. Instead of assigning chars/nums to responses, waste space on over-obvious symbols.
Said to use 3D-models for chars/monsters, but the anims are very sparse. Watch your char spread his/hers legs each time you stop.
No way to rest in game. You might find that you need to leave the game 10-20min _real time_ to let your mana regenerate.
During skillpoint distribution, there's no minus-key to remove a just assigned skillpoint, so you can't "try" you're way around the tree.
Overall, very unpolished gameplay. I could list many more items, all of which became apparent after a couple of hours with the demo. Let me give you another example: I used the racial trait "Skin of Thorns". Now, if I check the attributes tab in the game and hover "trait", the description will appear in a designated information box in the interface. However, the text for this trait is too large, so it overwrites part of the interface!
It's a decent game -- there are good stuff too -- but you gotta wonder what Reflexive was smoking with some of these design decisions, really.
Try the demo before you buy. The demo is unfortunately very very combat heavy and was developed against the wishes of the devs (the publisher requested it), but it's at least representative of the combat and interface of the final game. The questing and dialogue is very good for CRPG standards, but so far -- I've only played for a day --... no PS:T
Maybe they're using RIAA-math? They might mean that one file is typically 50 lines, so any file with say 2000 lines counts as "the equivalent of 40 files"
Slashdot Mirror
I'd love to see the arguments for the different platforms!
I think the argument for G5 came from here.
This is the most interesting thing I've seen so far today: "Docket Text: Return of service executed re: Subpoena served on Canopy Group c/o Ralph Yanno on 8/26/03" -- here.
Could this be IBM going for the neck of the hydra? That would be... wonderful.
And here's the FAQ that proves it, for you nay-sayers.
If you read the presentation you'll see that they're both working toward using the GNU toolchain as much as possible (apart from the compiler that is), and also they're adding GNU C/C++ compatibility. See page 15.
Can it build a linux kernel today? No idea. Does it seem like it might one day? Yes.
(If I were a developer working on adding GNU compatibility to a compiler, would I use the linux kernel as a test? You bet)
Clearly any new P2P clients should use a homebrew and/or keyed hash, and be distributed with one of those "no reverse-engineering allowed"-click-throughs and DMCA threats. Add some token "copy prevention mechanism" into the program (encrypt parts of it). Make sure that there is no comfortable way to use a normal client for this kind of large scale "hash searching/cataloging" the RIAA would want to employ, such that they must rev-eng in order to get the data or build the code that they need.
If files identified using such an algorithm end up in court, we could probably force the RIAA into having to argue that such click-throughs carry no legal weight and that reverse-engineering such "protections" is legal -- which would be very good indeed.
Not to mention, hilarious.
Are we sure they're actually using MD5? The article doesn't even contain the string "md5" that I can see. It mentions hashes though, but there's something called Robust Hashing which can be used to identify, or at least, compare content in a "fuzzy" way.
First off, I think he sounds moronic with those StarWars references, secondly, there's a relevant Halloween 9 out.
For what it's worth, I verified the patch archive and the signature was good.
And for streaming (which I don't like personally, but some people seem to do), it would be cool to have bittorrent'esque clients such that the seeding server could say: You can listen/watch this stream of you agree to dedicate X KB/s to at most Y other clients.
Sure, you'd have to save the stream or a window of it, and there might be problems with latency -- this would probably need deep ahead caching, but it's an interesting possibility.
[note for the future: This is obvious for any expert and many non-experts. It is not worthy of a blanket patent. ]
How about when this is over and "if" SCO is destroyed, we could print up tshirts and give them to prison inmates. Here's what I'm thinking:
[ photochop of McBrides face, in weddingdress ]
Be My Bride, McBride!
Because this paranoid "they're all against us" attitude is a typical cultist trait. Has to do with martydom and every cultists wet dream; to become one, just like their Jesus-figure. The next step he'll be saying that the Government is against him and his company, but that might come after defeat in court.
Being a psychopath probably doesn't help either.
$a2 = 162
It's the holy grail of remote administration!
You and I wish. I've been following it for weeks, and it just refuse to drop. Too little volyme! None sane wants to touch this one, which makes it easy for insiders and others to manipulate it. See for instance all the tape-painting at the end of the day. Small lots someone is basically selling to himself just to push the stock up before closing, giving it a "nice" start-end value, not representative of the day as a whole.
I like it how the SCO lawyer is trying to plug the worst leaks:
Hilarious. Such a brave little hero.
They haven't hidden any snippet of code. They obfuscated a comment in their own code using a greek font because they probably want to keep all of their codebase secret. I don't understand why they didn't just snip it out, it couldn't possibly be that they feel a moral obligation to "quote in full".
Again, the obfuscated part is their own "code". it certainly isn't in the linux kernel.
"Monday, CEO Darl McBride outlined the company's legal strategy and tried to convince SCO partners and customers that it is fighting the good fight.
``We're fighting for the right in the industry to be able to make a living selling software, McBride told the audience. The fight was for the ability ``to send your children to college and ``to buy a second home, he added." -- story
He's clearly delusional.
The problem seems to be that developers take multi-platform code as an afterthought. "We'll write the windows version and then we'll put some junior dev on porting it".
Few seem to realize that developing multi-platform from day one is a) not harder, b) shows professionalism and c) is one of the greatest ways to accomplish good bug free code.
I'm sure Carmack agrees. :-P
I know, "your", not "you're". Anyway. I forgot to mention that you don't have a party in this game, so it's really more like Diablo than say BG or IWD. You can get "companions" but they're as dumb as you could expect. They have their own quests, but until you do something to trigger that, they're mostly in follow-you-around-and-hit-back-if-attacked.
As you can guess, some effort must be spent keeping your companion alive when he/she blindly charges monsters with no tactics in mind.
okay, now I'm done. I will post positive points if requested :-)
I've described this game as 20% good copying off the Infinity Engine games, and 80% homebrew design -- most of it bad.
It's a decent game -- there are good stuff too -- but you gotta wonder what Reflexive was smoking with some of these design decisions, really.
Try the demo before you buy. The demo is unfortunately very very combat heavy and was developed against the wishes of the devs (the publisher requested it), but it's at least representative of the combat and interface of the final game. The questing and dialogue is very good for CRPG standards, but so far -- I've only played for a day -- ... no PS:T
Yes, surprise, people don't go strictly by the meteorological definitions in such matters as where the seasons start and end.
You know, FUD isn't okay just because it works in your "direction".
Yes, the note is misspelled, but it does say Autumn 2003, no? Well, in my part of the world, that's now.
Maybe they're using RIAA-math? They might mean that one file is typically 50 lines, so any file with say 2000 lines counts as "the equivalent of 40 files"
(for those who don't get it, see here)
Er.. you mean that it's acceptable for non-lying people to not get the money they deserve?
You understand that you can fail a poly even if you're telling the truth, right?
Antipolygraph.org