I would much rather the devs at skype/microsoft take the time to fix the features that used to work, which has since the new "alpha" been broken like video calling, which was one of the MAIN features of skype and on of the few applications that allowed cross platform video calling.
This is much more desirable than sending messages via SMS.
Mod this flame bait, I don't care. Blizzard are greedy company only interested in making maximum profit. They don't care about the community or players. Why else would a company close down bnet which was helping them not harming them as they proclaim.
I sold over 20 people on warcraft/starcraft/diablo by using bnet for home network play. Then blizzard got a bug up their asses and sued.
I refuse to buy any blizzard product. Any Linux user that does might as well have sold their soul tot he devil for supporting a company that uses the DMCA to stop community development of tools to support their games.
South Africa is the only country to voluntarily give up its nuclear weapons.
Many other states, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Argentina, and Brazil, ABANDONED their nuclear programs before they developed a weapon capability. However, South Africa's abandonment of its twenty- to thirty-year-old nuclear weapons program remains unique.
South Africa's first device was completed in 1979. A decade of weapons development followed, leading to plans to mate nuclear warheads with ballistic missiles. In 1990, President F. W. de Klerk terminated the program and in 1991 South Africa signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The IAEA then conducted an unprecedented verification of nuclear rollback. Although the IAEA was traditionally concerned only with the accuracy of a nation's declaration, after the agency's failure to detect Iraq's nuclear program the IAEA shifted its focus also to verifying the completeness of a nation's declaration of nuclear activities and facilities.
My reply was not about possible bloodshed in the second world war. My post was in reply to parent stating:
"Hey, you're not supporting the troops. It's ok for the US to do it, because the US would never use a weapon of mass destruction like a nuke against a civilian population."
My post pointed out that the US HAS used a weapon of mass destruction against a civilian population. Not once, but twice !
Of course we don't need battlenet, but in paying the full price of the licence to use the software in it's full capacity, not being able to reliably connect to battle net means I'm not getting the full benefit of the product.
If I pay the full price as a consumer I should also have the full access to the capability of the software, in this case multiplayer.
Demanding that blizzard to setup a battlenet server in Africa for us plebs with limited bandwidth comes back as "It's not financially viable"
Yet they still reap the full benifit of us paying the full retail price for the licence.
As such I belief as a consumer that bought the licence at full price blizzard has a obligation to provide us with a full service. If they cannot or choose not then I should have the right to do what I can to use their software to it's full ability. In this case that means playing on Bnet rather then battle.net
This is see falls very much into the realm of my rights as a consumer of their product.
I completely agree they should have rights in controlling their creation, but if they share their creation to the masse consumer at a price, but cannot provide a full service to all consumers, then I as a consumer, has payed the full price for the licence, but does not have full access to their product because of their decisions have the right to use an alternative.
You're assumption that bnet was used only for pirate copies is wrong. There are countries around the world where we are not as connected to the internet as the rest of the first world. Connecting to battlenet is not an option.
The only way we can have multiplayer is to use bnet.
There are also still people that doesn't have internet access and use bnet to play multiplayer.
The real use of bnet is to replace battlenet functionality when connecting to battlenet is not an option.
Saying it's only use is piracy is the same as saying crowbars is only used for breaking open locks and should therefor be banned as well.
I've not played or bought new games in a while. I usually download the demos and play them.. and usually loose interrest when the demo ends.
There are some games that I still buy, mostly RPG style games with much more story line based gaming then action.
Part of my loss of interrest in working for gaming companies and doing QA (quility assurance) testing. After a while you no longer play the game.. you hunt for bugs, which kinda kills the playing experiance.
Just my take on loosing interrest. Maybe try games you always found boring? explore new horizons with games ?
There are tons of streaming audion servers and also some nice and small audio playing systems availible, and even if you're REALLY desperate some java streaming audio applets. It should be VERY easy to replace real audio with something open and free to safe money and not be locked into one vendor (which they are once again)
Saying that people have windows media player on the desktop so who needs anything else is pretty much how M$ killed netscape.
Switching to windows media format is not going to help in the long run, since there is nothing to stop M$ from charging server licences.
Personally a better option would have been to look at an open streaming server system, maybe shoutcast or freedom audio (server and java player all open)
Swithing to M$ (which from there comments they seem to not think hightly of either) just because realmedia is worse) will not solve their problem in the long term, only lock more people into M$ in the short term.
ADSL (512 down 128 up) in South Africa costs are $50 give or take a few at current exchange rates. Just having a 64k line from point a to b no internet costs is about $10 here (it's called diginet, not sure whats it's called elsewhere)
I'm sure that beats you're worst pricing hands down
This will be taken as flamebait, but I don't care.
Freedom right now in the USA is only limited to what can make them more money, not other countries that might limit/threaten their freedom.
By this I DO NOT mean in a direct assault on freedom itself, but by affecting the standards of living in the USA. The recent exposed plan in the 70/80's to invade oil rich countries to protect their oil needs is only one example. Need I mention DMCA and other laws to protect the corporate companies rather then the consumer.
Also note this is not a reflection of the mass population in USA, but the direction the goverment and corporate pressures on them are steering USA into.
Pretty soon the USA will turn into a class based system where only the rich and influential can effect the government and freedom of it's population goes out the window.
The scary part is most of it's citizens and for that matter the world will think the USA is still in a democracy, but it will be ruled by the rich and influential
Majority vote is only effective if the votes are informed and heard, not when they are recounted and recounted to fit somebody elses view of how the results should have been (yes I do believe that was a direct alteration to change the outcome of the election).
I respect RMS for his work and some of his views, but I think that his notion that only OSS is right contracdicts his beliefs. By saying everybody should shun non-FS he's limiting their freedom of choice is he not.
I have always seen FS/OSS as choice rather then a need. I introduce people to it and leave them to choose if they want to use it or not. I think the FS should promote Freedom of Choice when using software, and point out the advantages of choosing FS rather then promoting using only Free Software to promote freedom.
Slashdot Mirror
I would much rather the devs at skype/microsoft take the time to fix the features that used to work, which has since the new "alpha" been broken like video calling, which was one of the MAIN features of skype and on of the few applications that allowed cross platform video calling.
This is much more desirable than sending messages via SMS.
It's Crossover with focus on games. you can still install office etc if you want, there is just no support for it.
Maybe the problem is OS X and Apple not Crossover. I run HL2 and a number of other games with more than decent frame rates and everything looks fine.
Mod this flame bait, I don't care. Blizzard are greedy company only interested in making maximum profit. They don't care about the community or players.
Why else would a company close down bnet which was helping them not harming them as they proclaim.
I sold over 20 people on warcraft/starcraft/diablo by using bnet for home network play. Then blizzard got a bug up their asses and sued.
I refuse to buy any blizzard product. Any Linux user that does might as well have sold their soul tot he devil for supporting a company that
uses the DMCA to stop community development of tools to support their games.
I am a proud citizen of South Africa.
r ing/albright.htm
South Africa is the only country to voluntarily give up its nuclear weapons.
Many other states, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Argentina, and Brazil, ABANDONED their nuclear programs before they developed a weapon capability. However, South Africa's abandonment of its twenty- to thirty-year-old nuclear weapons program remains unique.
South Africa's first device was completed in 1979. A decade of weapons development followed, leading to plans to mate nuclear warheads with ballistic missiles. In 1990, President F. W. de Klerk terminated the program and in 1991 South Africa signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The IAEA then conducted an unprecedented verification of nuclear rollback. Although the IAEA was traditionally concerned only with the accuracy of a nation's declaration, after the agency's failure to detect Iraq's nuclear program the IAEA shifted its focus also to verifying the completeness of a nation's declaration of nuclear activities and facilities.
Source : http://web.mit.edu/ssp/seminars/wed_archives_01sp
And we're still considered a third world country.
My reply was not about possible bloodshed in the second world war.
My post was in reply to parent stating:
"Hey, you're not supporting the troops. It's ok for the US to do it, because the US would never use a weapon of mass destruction like a nuke against a civilian population."
My post pointed out that the US HAS used a weapon of mass destruction against a civilian population. Not once, but twice !
Tell that to the forefather of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Us oldies just watch now .. to much newbie noise ;P
Good point ...
.. my machine has been running since gentoo 1.2 .. it's going to change ..
The problem is I didn't know this in the beginning
once I get my new machine
I use gentoo with qt and gtk2 for apps I really need ... gaim ... k3b ... thats about it ..
.. I like shells ... everything else appart from mail (sylpheed tho I'm switching to mutt soon) and firefox is shell driven.
I run ratpoison
irssi (irc)
orpheus (mp3)
xterm (shell)
My point exactly.
I've gone beyond boycott.
I will never buy blizzrd products again. If this is how they treat their clients. I'd rather not support them.
Of course we don't need battlenet, but in paying the full price of the licence to use the software in it's full capacity, not being able to reliably connect to battle net means I'm not getting the full benefit of the product.
If I pay the full price as a consumer I should also have the full access to the capability of the software, in this case multiplayer.
Demanding that blizzard to setup a battlenet server in Africa for us plebs with limited bandwidth comes back as "It's not financially viable"
Yet they still reap the full benifit of us paying the full retail price for the licence.
As such I belief as a consumer that bought the licence at full price blizzard has a obligation to provide us with a full service. If they cannot or choose not then I should have the right to do what I can to use their software to it's full ability. In this case that means playing on Bnet rather then battle.net
This is see falls very much into the realm of my rights as a consumer of their product.
I completely agree they should have rights in controlling their creation, but if they share their creation to the masse consumer at a price, but cannot provide a full service to all consumers, then I as a consumer, has payed the full price for the licence, but does not have full access to their product because of their decisions have the right to use an alternative.
You're assumption that bnet was used only for pirate copies is wrong. There are countries around the world where we are not as connected to the internet as the rest of the first world. Connecting to battlenet is not an option.
The only way we can have multiplayer is to use bnet.
There are also still people that doesn't have internet access and use bnet to play multiplayer.
The real use of bnet is to replace battlenet functionality when connecting to battlenet is not an option.
Saying it's only use is piracy is the same as saying crowbars is only used for breaking open locks and should therefor be banned as well.
Ummm first comment is regarding life on mars ..
.. and it's not intelligent (stems and leaves), but plantlike :)
second comment is about intelligent life.
therefor he's seen pictures of life on mars
I've not played or bought new games in a while. .. and usually loose interrest when the demo ends.
.. you hunt for bugs, which kinda kills the playing experiance.
I usually download the demos and play them
There are some games that I still buy, mostly RPG style games with much more story line based gaming then action.
Part of my loss of interrest in working for gaming companies and doing QA (quility assurance) testing. After a while you no longer play the game
Just my take on loosing interrest. Maybe try games you always found boring? explore new horizons with games ?
bain
There are tons of streaming audion servers and also some nice and small audio playing systems availible, and even if you're REALLY desperate some java streaming audio applets. It should be VERY easy to replace real audio with something open and free to safe money and not be locked into one vendor (which they are once again)
Saying that people have windows media player on the desktop so who needs anything else is pretty much how M$ killed netscape.
Switching to windows media format is not going to help in the long run, since there is nothing to stop M$ from charging server licences.
Personally a better option would have been to look at an open streaming server system, maybe shoutcast or freedom audio (server and java player all open)
Swithing to M$ (which from there comments they seem to not think hightly of either) just because realmedia is worse) will not solve their problem in the long term, only lock more people into M$ in the short term.
Hahahah
... google knows everything !!
not so anonymous now are we
Great ... now I can have a dog whistle track on a CD and play it on repeat when I'm at work.
..
Give the dog a taste of what I go through at night when I want to sleep.
and nobody can hear it so they won't know whats going on with the dogs barking
HAHAHAHAHA -- evil laughter of a madman
I can see the hardcore gamer trying to figure out if fate is toying with their sanity.
We're all DOOMED !!!
ADSL (512 down 128 up) in South Africa costs are $50 give or take a few at current exchange rates. Just having a 64k line from point a to b no internet costs is about $10 here (it's called diginet, not sure whats it's called elsewhere)
I'm sure that beats you're worst pricing hands down
The same as free speach, people might not like what others have to say, but the right to say it what is importand.
I agree that non-free software does limit peoples freedom, but denying then the choice of your own free will is even more so.
The key is in education, teach them why it limits their freedom.
but I have a /dev/hdd, and I buy with Credit Card ;P
This will be taken as flamebait, but I don't care.
Freedom right now in the USA is only limited to what can make them more money, not other countries that might limit/threaten their freedom.
By this I DO NOT mean in a direct assault on freedom itself, but by affecting the standards of living in the USA. The recent exposed plan in the 70/80's to invade oil rich countries to protect their oil needs is only one example. Need I mention DMCA and other laws to protect the corporate companies rather then the consumer.
Also note this is not a reflection of the mass population in USA, but the direction the goverment and corporate pressures on them are steering USA into.
Pretty soon the USA will turn into a class based system where only the rich and influential can effect the government and freedom of it's population goes out the window.
The scary part is most of it's citizens and for that matter the world will think the USA is still in a democracy, but it will be ruled by the rich and influential
Majority vote is only effective if the votes are informed and heard, not when they are recounted and recounted to fit somebody elses view of how the results should have been (yes I do believe that was a direct alteration to change the outcome of the election).
I respect RMS for his work and some of his views, but I think that his notion that only OSS is right contracdicts his beliefs. By saying everybody should shun non-FS he's limiting their freedom of choice is he not.
I have always seen FS/OSS as choice rather then a need. I introduce people to it and leave them to choose if they want to use it or not. I think the FS should promote Freedom of Choice when using software, and point out the advantages of choosing FS rather then promoting using only Free Software to promote freedom.