Something that you could track by a UID of some kind (probably assigned by the system, or maybe their SSN.)
I think another option in the MMORPG world would be to take advantage of the different servers and allow character portability across the servers. PVP could be disabled depending on your relative level, and the servers could represent different geographical areas that open up to people of a certain power level. So, say you have 100 levels total, ten servers. You start out with a new character on server 1, and the only people who can PVP you are people of level 10 or lower. You could even disable PVP completely for true newbies (you could base that on age of their account as opposed to character level.)
Um, you do realize that your second comment translates to "throw hardware at the problem?" While that's a fine answer if Unix is being chosen for other reasons, it's not a good answer from a performance standpoint. I'm not a DBA or an accountant, but I can figure out bang for the buck.
That's great, if you're using a server with "dual 2GHz Xeons with 2GB RAM and two 36GB SCSI drives on an Adaptec 2940UW (no RAID)." But most Fortune 100 companies are dealing with massive amounts of data (far in excess of 72GB) in even their smaller databases. When Chase bank, or General Motors, or any number of other major corporations, are talking about databases, their talking about needing massive hardware. The point made in the earlier post was that on the hardware these people require, Oracle or DB2 or MySQL or PostgreSQL will work a hell of a lot better than MsSQL.
So, if you're a small business that needs to keep track of several thousand clients, MsSQL may be the way to go. But if you think that Amex/Visa/Mastercard run those nifty spending analysis/theft detection applications with MS software, you aren't just not a DBA, you aren't thinking very hard.
Someone hasn't been checking the paper. If you're paying $1000 for a decent 2 bedroom, you must consider "decent" something that includes free massages and personal trainers. There are numerous houses (not apartments,) three bedrooms at that, available for under $1k. And most apartment complexes are knocking major money off the total cost of the lease. Add the fact that Austin is one of the coolest cities in the world, and there's plenty of reasons to live here.
Hey, looks like someone didn't read Neal Stephenson's article "Mother Earth, Motherboard" in Wired a few years ago. See, AT&T did not "accept" government regulation. They were a government sponsored monopoly, like most telephone companies in the world. Then, in the 1970's/1980's, the government prosecuted them as a monopoly and broke them into the baby bells. The reason that you don't see new cable being laid by startups is that it is expensive, and competing in a market that is already dominated by a few players does not look good on your VC application. Plus, there is a law that says that local monopolies have to provide competitors space on their networks at a comparable cost to their own maintenance.
To topple dictators you need guns. Recent evidence suggests that nowadays those guns pretty much have to be mounted on tanks and airplanes. Angry villagers with torches and pitchforks are no match for tanks and airplanes. They at least need shoulder launched missles.
Wow, disingenuous much? You know what got the British out of India? Mohandas Gandhi and several million followers refusing to obey the laws that the British had enacted. Africa? It was not the Zulu rebellion, it was the expense of maintaining African colonies in general, when compared to the profits made by buying raw materials from Africans and selling them finished product. Radio Free Europe could actually be credited with a great deal of toppling the Soviet Bloc or not, but I gurantee you that it was not guns. It was the Soviets realizing that despite the possible penalties, people wanted Levis and Springsteen records. You are oversimplifying an incredibly complex issue, and at the same time insulting some of the biggest heroes the dispossessed of this world could have. Federico Lorca, a Spanish poet was murdered by the Nationalists because he represented a threat to their power. Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet, was hunted by the Pinochet dictatorship for the same reason. Mao didn't kill people with guns, he killed those people who were smart enough to disagree with him. Same thing in Cambodia, Vietnam, Tibet, and many other places. The intelligentsia is targeted because it takes education and communication to rebel, not violence. Dictators do not fear people who are prone to violence, they hire them and make great use of them. Dictators fear those whose words may inflame the populace to action. Because as anyone can tell you, if you kill everyone in the country, there's no one left to govern. I suggest you read a little history before making inane statements like the one you just did.
That said, the internet won't end tyranny because in a situation of true tyranny, the people will have no access to the internet.
If you send the FBI a request, they are required (under the Freedom Of Information Act) to send you a copy of your file. Of course, if you don't have a file, they'll oblige you by creating one.
The one valid concern I can see is this, and it's a doozy if you are a record exec.
If the fair use clause is interpreted as a purchase of the rights to personal use of copyrighted material without concern for the physical form, it could allow a precedent in which the natural degradation of the storage media is grounds for forcing the producer to replace it. Eg, you buy a CD, after several years it develops holes in the recording layer. You go to the company that produced the CD, and they have to replace it, because they are technically breaking the implicit agreement that was made when you bought the CD, that you have the right to personal use of the recorded material. Imagine the record companies shelling out billions to replace CDs because of natural deterioration.
Yeah, I hang at one of the places listed on the Austin site, and I've seen both staff and regulars work on getting the wireless up and running, but never an AMD tech.
Actually, you raise a good point. The best computer games have yet to approach the open-ended possibilities of dice and paper games. We may still play games, but the repetitive nature of most computer RPGs lacks the originality and fundamental mystery of playing with friends around a table. As far as I can tell, even the better MMORPGs lack any real kind of unique story elements, something that more experienced dice and paper players have no problems with.
Well, that seems to be missing the issue, doesn't it? If I play a networked PC game, and I can communicate with the other players, I have the option of setting up a server that is invite only, and then only inviting players I trust not to cheat. However, with a service like Xbox Live, I have to pay Microsoft for the privelege of using the hardware I purchased from them on the high-speed connection I'm paying a monthly rate on. I think I'll take the risk of dealing with cheaters. After all, it's just a game.
You make some good points. I think one problem that has caused the current outsourcing mania in the IT field is the fact that the dot-com boom raised people's expectations of what jobs they could get with a minimal level of ability. That, compounded with the insanely high cost of living in the cities that many of these companies opened up shop in, caused an untenable situation. So, you have the "mature" IT companies looking at a situation where all the techies are in San Francisco, Seattle, New York, or maybe Austin. They look at the salaries that these people want, and the cost of operating in these cities, and the comparative cost of operating in a place like India, where many of the people are asking a fraction of the salary, and that with PhD's in comp sci. So they say, screw domestic facilities and outsource. Of course, the cost of outsourcing to a small town in Iowa or Nebraska would be a lot cheaper as well, but they're not thinking about that.
Despite the current situation, I find it interesting that Dell has stopped outsourcing tech support to India, having decided (I'm not sure what all the reasons are, but they decided nonetheless) to return tech support operations to the US.
I think one of the points being made in the article was that these kids are fed the exploits in order to remove any potential legal reprisal from the original discoverer, hence the mention of Al-Qaeda. Think about it this way: I'm a 30 year old sysadmin with a chip on my shoulder and I discover a nasty security hole in a piece of software that my employer, as well as hundreds or thousands of other companies, use. Am I going to use this myself, opening me up to all kinds of charges (which are much easier to back up because of my position, and which have much nastier names, such as "corporate sabotage,") or am I going to tell the gang of 1337 h4x0rz that I see every night on IRC, hoping that they will hit my company as well as all the others that use the software?
As I understand it, the Silmarillion and the other historical notes that Tolkien made were written as backstory for the LOTR trilogy. One of the reasons LOTR resonates so much with people is the fact that Tolkien put so much work into the creation of a world for this fantasy story to take place in. However, LOTR was the story that he wanted to tell, as a cautionary tale about the dangers of technology and the horrors of war. (He conceived the story in the trenches of WW I, exposed to all the horror of new technologies of warfare such as mustard gas and aerial bombardment.)
I think the "Most important man in comics" distinction is also fairly undeserved. No, Art Spiegelman and R. Crumb probably do not cringe about Stan Lee's position, after all, Marvel has been scrambling to play catch-up with DC Vertigo, because no one at Marvel was paying attention when their audience base got through puberty and started developing mature tastes. Now, Marvel is playing by rules that have been laid down by people like Brian Michael Bendis, Alan Moore, and yes, before them, Spiegelman and Crumb. Yes, Stan Lee has been an amazing influence, but comics marches on. As for the ongoing comparisons between Japanese and American comics, there are non-superhero comics out there. You just have to look for them. Check out Drawn and Quarterly for a good selection of non Marvel/DC, non superhero comics.
Many TV shows have been conceived of as single storylines, but lets pull back...
"Media?"
I know that most films that come out are conceived of as single stories. Lord of the Rings, the Star Wars films, and the recent films coming out from Marvel Films, are all stories that are conceived as three-film stories. Most comic books that are released these days are single storylines (check out Vertigo's lineup, where most of the artists sign contracts for x number of issues, eg Sandman, Transmetropolitan, the Invisibles, etc.) I think you are reacting to the TV (and more specifically, the broadcast/basic cable TV) medium.
hmm, how popular is Toonami compared to, say, Dexter's lab/Powerpuff Girls/other cartoon network original series? How popular is it compared to, say, South Park? How popular is it compared to Network animations (Simpsons, Futurama...uh...yeah.) The fact is, if anime were making that much money, you'd see it more in a broader medium. Sure, there's some chicken and egg stuff, but most of that is moot. The continuing popularity of Spike and Mike's points to animators that know animation isn't just for kids, as do south park, with its straight up adult humor, as well as the Cartoon Network original folks with their subtextual jokes that keep X'ers laughing just as much.
Or maybe "God created Angels, then Humans, and they are equal, and (thank you Garth Ennis for pointing this out) angels have every reason for resenting humanity." Actually, Preacher (by Garth Ennis) is a much better story than Evangelion, if you're into that whole 'messing with christians' genre.
you want controversy? rent "The Last Temptation of Christ," go see both productions of "Angels in America" and read more. Nothing new in Evangelion, it's all been done before.
if you don't know how to fix your car, take a class, don't go to a mechanic.
Don't have electricity? Get out the pliers and get to work! The power utility can't be bothered to keep that shit up themselves!
ISPs provide a product. If you pay for the product, you deserve to have it supported. Just like if your new car's wheels fall off, it's not your job to fix the problem, it's the manufacturers.
>>>As a county we can drop out dependance on OPEC and take the teeth from that tiger.
WOW! Your county does business direct with OPEC? that's amazing. Seriously, though, Enron (a fossil-fuel company) made a whole new set of business opportunities for themselves by metamorphing into a data company. Even if H makes energy cheap, the oil companies won't have to die, unless they refuse to change, and we've all heard that refrain. And for the middle east nation-states? Fuck 'em. No offense to middle-eastern slashdotters, but really it's the same story. Change or die. Most of them have coastline real-estate anyway, they can make big aquaculture stations near shore, maybe even switch the offsea rigs into floating H-factories.
Slashdot Mirror
Something that you could track by a UID of some kind (probably assigned by the system, or maybe their SSN.)
I think another option in the MMORPG world would be to take advantage of the different servers and allow character portability across the servers. PVP could be disabled depending on your relative level, and the servers could represent different geographical areas that open up to people of a certain power level. So, say you have 100 levels total, ten servers. You start out with a new character on server 1, and the only people who can PVP you are people of level 10 or lower. You could even disable PVP completely for true newbies (you could base that on age of their account as opposed to character level.)
Canon and Nokia team up with Creative to release a high-end camera/mp3 ringtone phone.
Hijinks ensue.
That's great, if you're using a server with "dual 2GHz Xeons with 2GB RAM and two 36GB SCSI drives on an Adaptec 2940UW (no RAID)." But most Fortune 100 companies are dealing with massive amounts of data (far in excess of 72GB) in even their smaller databases. When Chase bank, or General Motors, or any number of other major corporations, are talking about databases, their talking about needing massive hardware. The point made in the earlier post was that on the hardware these people require, Oracle or DB2 or MySQL or PostgreSQL will work a hell of a lot better than MsSQL.
So, if you're a small business that needs to keep track of several thousand clients, MsSQL may be the way to go. But if you think that Amex/Visa/Mastercard run those nifty spending analysis/theft detection applications with MS software, you aren't just not a DBA, you aren't thinking very hard.
And I hear that nori makes a great replacement for vinyl when making records.
Someone hasn't been checking the paper. If you're paying $1000 for a decent 2 bedroom, you must consider "decent" something that includes free massages and personal trainers. There are numerous houses (not apartments,) three bedrooms at that, available for under $1k. And most apartment complexes are knocking major money off the total cost of the lease. Add the fact that Austin is one of the coolest cities in the world, and there's plenty of reasons to live here.
Hey, looks like someone didn't read Neal Stephenson's article "Mother Earth, Motherboard" in Wired a few years ago. See, AT&T did not "accept" government regulation. They were a government sponsored monopoly, like most telephone companies in the world. Then, in the 1970's/1980's, the government prosecuted them as a monopoly and broke them into the baby bells. The reason that you don't see new cable being laid by startups is that it is expensive, and competing in a market that is already dominated by a few players does not look good on your VC application. Plus, there is a law that says that local monopolies have to provide competitors space on their networks at a comparable cost to their own maintenance.
Wow, disingenuous much? You know what got the British out of India? Mohandas Gandhi and several million followers refusing to obey the laws that the British had enacted. Africa? It was not the Zulu rebellion, it was the expense of maintaining African colonies in general, when compared to the profits made by buying raw materials from Africans and selling them finished product. Radio Free Europe could actually be credited with a great deal of toppling the Soviet Bloc or not, but I gurantee you that it was not guns. It was the Soviets realizing that despite the possible penalties, people wanted Levis and Springsteen records. You are oversimplifying an incredibly complex issue, and at the same time insulting some of the biggest heroes the dispossessed of this world could have. Federico Lorca, a Spanish poet was murdered by the Nationalists because he represented a threat to their power. Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet, was hunted by the Pinochet dictatorship for the same reason. Mao didn't kill people with guns, he killed those people who were smart enough to disagree with him. Same thing in Cambodia, Vietnam, Tibet, and many other places. The intelligentsia is targeted because it takes education and communication to rebel, not violence. Dictators do not fear people who are prone to violence, they hire them and make great use of them. Dictators fear those whose words may inflame the populace to action. Because as anyone can tell you, if you kill everyone in the country, there's no one left to govern. I suggest you read a little history before making inane statements like the one you just did.
That said, the internet won't end tyranny because in a situation of true tyranny, the people will have no access to the internet.
If you send the FBI a request, they are required (under the Freedom Of Information Act) to send you a copy of your file. Of course, if you don't have a file, they'll oblige you by creating one.
The one valid concern I can see is this, and it's a doozy if you are a record exec.
If the fair use clause is interpreted as a purchase of the rights to personal use of copyrighted material without concern for the physical form, it could allow a precedent in which the natural degradation of the storage media is grounds for forcing the producer to replace it. Eg, you buy a CD, after several years it develops holes in the recording layer. You go to the company that produced the CD, and they have to replace it, because they are technically breaking the implicit agreement that was made when you bought the CD, that you have the right to personal use of the recorded material. Imagine the record companies shelling out billions to replace CDs because of natural deterioration.
Yeah, I hang at one of the places listed on the Austin site, and I've seen both staff and regulars work on getting the wireless up and running, but never an AMD tech.
Actually, you raise a good point. The best computer games have yet to approach the open-ended possibilities of dice and paper games. We may still play games, but the repetitive nature of most computer RPGs lacks the originality and fundamental mystery of playing with friends around a table. As far as I can tell, even the better MMORPGs lack any real kind of unique story elements, something that more experienced dice and paper players have no problems with.
Well, that seems to be missing the issue, doesn't it? If I play a networked PC game, and I can communicate with the other players, I have the option of setting up a server that is invite only, and then only inviting players I trust not to cheat. However, with a service like Xbox Live, I have to pay Microsoft for the privelege of using the hardware I purchased from them on the high-speed connection I'm paying a monthly rate on. I think I'll take the risk of dealing with cheaters. After all, it's just a game.
You make some good points. I think one problem that has caused the current outsourcing mania in the IT field is the fact that the dot-com boom raised people's expectations of what jobs they could get with a minimal level of ability. That, compounded with the insanely high cost of living in the cities that many of these companies opened up shop in, caused an untenable situation. So, you have the "mature" IT companies looking at a situation where all the techies are in San Francisco, Seattle, New York, or maybe Austin. They look at the salaries that these people want, and the cost of operating in these cities, and the comparative cost of operating in a place like India, where many of the people are asking a fraction of the salary, and that with PhD's in comp sci. So they say, screw domestic facilities and outsource. Of course, the cost of outsourcing to a small town in Iowa or Nebraska would be a lot cheaper as well, but they're not thinking about that.
Despite the current situation, I find it interesting that Dell has stopped outsourcing tech support to India, having decided (I'm not sure what all the reasons are, but they decided nonetheless) to return tech support operations to the US.
I think one of the points being made in the article was that these kids are fed the exploits in order to remove any potential legal reprisal from the original discoverer, hence the mention of Al-Qaeda. Think about it this way: I'm a 30 year old sysadmin with a chip on my shoulder and I discover a nasty security hole in a piece of software that my employer, as well as hundreds or thousands of other companies, use. Am I going to use this myself, opening me up to all kinds of charges (which are much easier to back up because of my position, and which have much nastier names, such as "corporate sabotage,") or am I going to tell the gang of 1337 h4x0rz that I see every night on IRC, hoping that they will hit my company as well as all the others that use the software?
As I understand it, the Silmarillion and the other historical notes that Tolkien made were written as backstory for the LOTR trilogy. One of the reasons LOTR resonates so much with people is the fact that Tolkien put so much work into the creation of a world for this fantasy story to take place in. However, LOTR was the story that he wanted to tell, as a cautionary tale about the dangers of technology and the horrors of war. (He conceived the story in the trenches of WW I, exposed to all the horror of new technologies of warfare such as mustard gas and aerial bombardment.)
Amen.
I think the "Most important man in comics" distinction is also fairly undeserved. No, Art Spiegelman and R. Crumb probably do not cringe about Stan Lee's position, after all, Marvel has been scrambling to play catch-up with DC Vertigo, because no one at Marvel was paying attention when their audience base got through puberty and started developing mature tastes. Now, Marvel is playing by rules that have been laid down by people like Brian Michael Bendis, Alan Moore, and yes, before them, Spiegelman and Crumb.
Yes, Stan Lee has been an amazing influence, but comics marches on. As for the ongoing comparisons between Japanese and American comics, there are non-superhero comics out there. You just have to look for them. Check out Drawn and Quarterly for a good selection of non Marvel/DC, non superhero comics.
Many TV shows have been conceived of as single storylines, but lets pull back...
"Media?"
I know that most films that come out are conceived of as single stories. Lord of the Rings, the Star Wars films, and the recent films coming out from Marvel Films, are all stories that are conceived as three-film stories. Most comic books that are released these days are single storylines (check out Vertigo's lineup, where most of the artists sign contracts for x number of issues, eg Sandman, Transmetropolitan, the Invisibles, etc.) I think you are reacting to the TV (and more specifically, the broadcast/basic cable TV) medium.
hmm, how popular is Toonami compared to, say, Dexter's lab/Powerpuff Girls/other cartoon network original series? How popular is it compared to, say, South Park? How popular is it compared to Network animations (Simpsons, Futurama...uh...yeah.) The fact is, if anime were making that much money, you'd see it more in a broader medium. Sure, there's some chicken and egg stuff, but most of that is moot. The continuing popularity of Spike and Mike's points to animators that know animation isn't just for kids, as do south park, with its straight up adult humor, as well as the Cartoon Network original folks with their subtextual jokes that keep X'ers laughing just as much.
Or maybe "God created Angels, then Humans, and they are equal, and (thank you Garth Ennis for pointing this out) angels have every reason for resenting humanity." Actually, Preacher (by Garth Ennis) is a much better story than Evangelion, if you're into that whole 'messing with christians' genre.
you want controversy? rent "The Last Temptation of Christ," go see both productions of "Angels in America" and read more. Nothing new in Evangelion, it's all been done before.
Read Joseph Campbell for fuck's sake.
Oh christ, I've been condemned to the abused teens and anime fans poetry share. Please, won't anyone save me from this torture?
I just wish the original poster had clarified that this was Edgar Burroughs, not Bill Burroughs.
Lets see "Junky" optioned for a film.
if you don't know how to fix your car, take a class, don't go to a mechanic.
Don't have electricity? Get out the pliers and get to work! The power utility can't be bothered to keep that shit up themselves!
ISPs provide a product. If you pay for the product, you deserve to have it supported. Just like if your new car's wheels fall off, it's not your job to fix the problem, it's the manufacturers.
For Christ's sake, why isn't Don Knotts dead yet!?
>>>As a county we can drop out dependance on OPEC and take the teeth from that tiger.
WOW! Your county does business direct with OPEC? that's amazing. Seriously, though, Enron (a fossil-fuel company) made a whole new set of business opportunities for themselves by metamorphing into a data company. Even if H makes energy cheap, the oil companies won't have to die, unless they refuse to change, and we've all heard that refrain. And for the middle east nation-states? Fuck 'em. No offense to middle-eastern slashdotters, but really it's the same story. Change or die. Most of them have coastline real-estate anyway, they can make big aquaculture stations near shore, maybe even switch the offsea rigs into floating H-factories.