I'm really disappointed with all of the "If you don't like it, go find your own social network!" apologist drivel. That's one step away from "Fuck you, if you don't like what America does, why don't you leave you damn liberal!". Hyper-capitalist worship of business has generated this culture where any sort of despicable behavior by a business, especially large corporation is beyond reproach. "You" peon consumer, can either choose not to buy it, or you can shut up. You don't have the right to criticize a business, so keep your head down, slave. I honestly didn't expect it to come to Slashdot.
That said, this is yet another decisions that absolutely proves Google+ is more of the same and that "Do No Evil" has gone out the fucking window. Everyone leaving Facebook for egregious privacy breeches are now going to find that Google is unlikely to be any better. Google doesn't want you to be anonymous - all its data mining is moot if it can't say "We have X number of 40+ men who have more than 5 sub-30 women in their circles, and thus you want to buy ad space from us GoldDiggerMatch.com! We have people who are likely to use yours services". Google+ had the potential to change the playing field, but if this is their policy they're going to cause more of the same bullshit and may very well be worse than even Facebook. If Google starts corroborating your Google Apps behavior, your Google searches, and your Google+ activity, as personally identifiable, we're going to have privacy violations that make Facebook look like pocket change. Health (and other types of) insurance companies already troll Facebook to find bits of information that allow them to jack up premiums, deny coverage, or say you don't need it. Hell, some sort of private disability insurance (AFLAC?) bought access to Facebook data and used the fact that one of their current members made a post about helping a friend move, to revoke his disability payments because "if he was doing that, he wasn't disabled anymore". The guy had to fight it in court and I'm unsure of the outcome. Imagine how much worse this could be if everything this guy ever Gmailed or searched was up for such scrutiny? Yes, I'm aware that the sky hasn't completely fallen yet, but seeing Google make the decisions they have over the past 3 years or so, it gives cause for alarm.
Requiring a real name, (ie a name that is a valid, confirmed GoogleCheckout address ) is absolutely barbaric and exposes people to asymmetrical risk. Sure, the John Smiths or Mohammad Alis of the world may have some obscurity to help, but if your name is Atiriyah Ellicott-Andravine and someone has both that name and your general location or zip-code, some googling and a $5 people-search site report may be enough to steal that person's identity if you really wanted. Its amazing what you can do with a name, address, zip, phone, email address, names of relatives and very little else. Regardless if your name is common or rare, nobody should have to bring meatspace identity online, and those places where it is necessary (ie. shipping addresses) should be heavily walled off to ensure that nobody is selling their customers and payment information to the highest bidder.
Privacy and anonymity are of the highest importance and social networking can easily provide the above. Yes, you have to deal with the fakes and the spammers but that is a small price to pay for anonymous and private information exchange. Google should but their considerable resources towards eliminating the spam accounts, rather than throw their hands up and tell people "Whoops, sorry! The company that sells special appliances and makes its entire livelihood on discerning good information from bad and showing it to users based on customizable parameters through advanced algorithms just can't seem to discern when one of its own accounts is spamming or otherwise being a bad member of the community in any financially viable way. So yeah, you all need to use your real names instead". Give me a fucking break. This is a
As a young hacker who's dabbled in gray hat pursuits and with a healthy respect for a mixed economy dominated by socialist principles, a strong democratic governmental system with a Trotsky-like Vanguard that separates power from currency, I can say with authority that very few "hackers" with these ideologies will favor China. Most realize that its basically a Stalinist dictatorship that needs to be appeased and so long as they get their pound of flesh, they have a regulation-less economy that exploits the working class and lacks any kind of regulatory body to stop predatory greed. We're not talking about Mao's "Everything is a great communal farm, guys!" here, and anyone who isn't stuck in the 30s can see that.
China's fervent party believers and power-brokers enable homespun cultivation of loyal hackers who truly believe that the Men of Han should control the earth and are better than everyone else. They don't need to convert left-leaning Westerners and those that do serve Chinese interests are likely doing it for money and would just as easily take money from East European mafias instead for the same kind of jobs.
You seem to be addressing local multiplay, not network so I'll stick with that.
First of all, I assume that a typical monitor today has probably grown to at least 20". If you only care about size, you can easily find a 24-27" monitor for under 300. However, there is absolutely nothing stopping a person from connecting any laptop (or desktop) to their television if they have a larger higher quality screen somewhere. And they do, frequently. Most people have learned to connect their laptop to a bigger display for business, even if they're not hardcore techies, and the process is completely simple these days, on Windows or Linux, provided you don't want to do anything "fancy". Cables like HDMI make it easy to basically turn any HDTV into a monitor.
The great thing about indie games is that they often make do with less processing power, so even those on a mid-range laptop could play the two games listed, so that was what I was noting when I said "equipped". You don't need a Metro2033-ready machine for a great local multiplayer experience. Now as far as HTPCs are concerned, I think there are many people that have something similar, but don't "call" it that. Sure, the amount of people with fully built gaming-level computers that also include a high end HDTV card are few, but that isn't necessary. Many people already want to view "computer" media outside of the computer - look at the WDTV box, BoxeeBox and others - it basically allows you to stream media from elsewhere on the network or the net to "non-computer" sources, like your HDTV. Most people don't need a "home theater" PC. They simply take one of their other PCs and temporarily assign it "home theater" use.
Now, I believe that if there was a sufficient shift that all current "console" games were available on PC, people would basically "create their own" consoles by building or buying some sort of PC to place near the big communal TV, which I see as a MUCH better solution for the user than paying a lot of money for a proprietary, locked down game consoles just so you can play the games you want. Right now, HTPC/LivingRoomPCs are pretty much exclusively for those who have certain needs displaying media, but if "living-room multiplayer" games were made for PCs, there would be a lot more people buying or building such PCs to enjoy said games. Right now, Xbox360 and PS3 often some halfassed HTPC functions AND are required for playing console games, so people use those instead because "hey, I've already got it around here and I need it for these games anyway". Take away that, and people may choose differently.
Slashdot is probably one of the few sites I'll find more than a handful of those that hold my views, but I consider "Social Media" today a worrisome development. When I was a young fellow dialing in on a 9600 baud modem, using BBSes and cavorting around on the nascent Net, privacy was one of the main appeals. I loved having a separate life, anonymous on the internet and this appreciation continues to this day. I'm RanceJustice here and a few other places, but I'm also a dozen different aliases and handles as it suits me. It seems completely counterproductive to merge meatspace in its entirety with the digital world, much less do so via a medium that basically treats me as the product selling anything it knows about me. However, I do try to keep aware of these things and look for benefits, lest I miss something useful and new - I have no intention to be the old man yelling that I don't need email because writing letters is good enough....
I haven't really found any benefits though, for the most part. I enjoy forums immensely and I generally consider any website that is based upon user-submitted or created content is typically some form of a forum. Reddit, Digg, Slashdot, Kuro5hin, Yelp, and others basically fall into this category, besides "the chans", and hobby-specific forums like World of Warcraft. Just like with "normal" blogging, I can see the value in microblogging services...for a very small amount of uses. Its a good way to broadcast information that others wish to see - if you're in the middle of Oslo today, its probably great to be able to send a tweet letting friends and family know you're safe and with pics or video of the carnage, location aware so that someone can get an ambulance to the right place. However, 90% of microblogging content seems to be useless, self-indulgent "Orange juice is yummy" "I am taking a shit", way to spew your thoughts onto the internet. Retweets and references become a game of tag and serve to make less content look like more, and there's the continual drive to acquire more followers. There isn't room to espouse deep concepts and explain them properly, so people tend to just put out what's on their mind. I have an Identi.ca (StatusNet is superior and open source compared to Twitter. I'm glad sites like Identi.ca exist) account, but is pretty much unused because I have a mental filter that says "If all my friends were in a room together, would it be important enough to say?" or "If I was standing in the crosswalk of a major city, would it be beneficial to shout it to strangers?", and the vast majority of the time the answer is no. Now, maybe this is just because I'm a private person overall and most of my friends don't live close enough to me that any location-dependent tweets would be worthwhile (ie. 50% off otoro box lunches at Japanese restaurant today only!), but I believe I have a filter where others do not that doesn't want to chatter inanely to the whole world in SMS-sized bites.
Finally we come to true "Social Media/Social Networks" like friendster, orkut, makeoutclub, MySpace, and the dreaded Facebook. While all the previous things, even Twitter, can be done via alias these seem to be set up to merge your entire real world life with the virtual and that is a bloody appalling prospect to me. Facebook seems the worst of all, but it has almost become a way of life in America where it is integrated into everything. Every "news" network and just about every form of entertainment has some link to it and it is becoming a disease. Take for instance the Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood game, where there is an item that you can only unlock in said game if you go on facebook, friend the developers/publishers and play their Facebook game. You're supposed to interact with everything, and of course, there's always something watching. Activision wants you to link your Battle.Net account to Facebook and you can set up World of Warcraft to announce on Facebook and Twitter whenever you achieve something in game - adding to their exposure of course. Many c
Well, if you look at some of the agreements necessary (especially in years past - look at the whole Official Nintendo Seal of Quality debacle), it has limited what developers can do, though not as much as it once did. Exclusives and timed exclusives still persist, sometimes in contract but I wasn't really referring to console manufacturers holding games hostage "by themselves", but rather the entire industry - development, publishing etc... is creating games in a way that isn't to the benefit of the user.
Take any Console exclusive, like aforementioned Metal Gear Solid 4. If one wants to enjoy that game, you have to purchase a PS3 and all necessary peripherals and use PSN for online play, abiding by the rules Sony sets down which as we've seen are pretty draconian. Now, MGS4 could easily run on the PC I'm typing this upon. Hell, Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess runs at 1920x1080 on this PC, using the Dolphin Emulator and hooking up my Wiimote w/bluetooth - I'm actually getting a better experience on PC! Yet, neither of those titles are available on the PC despite the better experience it would provide. Consoles require an additional equipment purchase of fixed prices just to run the game and add a level of proprietary lockdown because of it - Its not "your" console, its not "your" game, its not "your" online service, its "theirs", and either you conform to their rules, or you can't play. So you have to go through agreeing to pay lots of money for hardware and software that is tightly controlled in how it may be used, or you can't play these games. This is what I mean by "hostage".
We've come to a sad time in gaming where the industry seems to see the players as "the enemy", to be wrung as tightly as possible until every last cent drips from them, while giving them just enough to keep them coming back. Consoles are an extension of this now and a way to wrest control away from the user. They are no longer necessary technologically and we shouldn't have to put up with these draconian regulations just to have access to the games we want.
The number of people in category A has been demonstrated to be very, very small in every study to date (TorrentFreak links to many of them), while the number of B's is quite high. There are a multitude of studies that show that people who pirate heavily, have also invested lots more money in the medium they pirate than infrequent downloaders.
If I only have $100 monthly to spend on gaming, that's all I have to spend on gaming. Sure, I could pirate beyond that budget because its free, but if somehow magically became unavailable, I'd just have to go without. Most people work in this way if they have any financial wits. Moreover, I would think that frequent pirates who are technically able and very invested in gaming will be the discriminating when choosing what they do with the money they have budgeted for entertainment - I know I am. Many pirates reward developers who make fantastic games and make ethical and user-friendly choices like avoiding DRM. The Humble Bundle, for all the piracy thereof, made MILLIONS regardless! Devs and publishers need to stop looking at imaginary losses and look instead to increasing real gains. Make your game high quality, get rid of draconian DRM and price-gouging DLC, sell it for a reasonable price across as many platforms as you can, and people will buy - simple as that. That's how you get everyone, pirates and non-pirates alike, to use their budgeted entertainment fund for your game.
I bought the bundle on Steam, because I like to support indie games and 2 games for $2.50 was the right indie price. As it turns out, both are excellent titles in the vein of the old Dragon Warrior series and I look forward to further offerings. Steam offers great promotion whenever they run one of their sales or announce something new, and I'm very glad that they extend this courtesy to indie games selling for under $5 as they do big-name AAA titles.
Personally, I feel that we in its entirety, we no longer need game consoles - they're a relic of a day when affordable computing was generally of singular purpose. Today, consoles are more PC-like than ever, save for restrictive OSes and locked down tech to limit doing things to "The Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo" way. Its pretty much holding games hostage - "If you want to play Metal Gear Solid 4, you have to buy a PS3, abide by its rules, use PSN to go online for multiplay etc...". Every game from the indie set to the biggest corporate AAA kit is developed on PCs..so let them play on PCs as well. Many of us own PCs and it costs less to outfit them for gaming with more power and control available for the money. Peripherals and controllers can easily be sold separately and used on a PC - most already are and Microsoft's full support of the X360 controller under Windows shows this in action (Compare to Sony's refusal to put together a driver package for the Dual Shock 3, so you have to use 3rd party hacked drivers and give up an entire bluetooth dongle. Nobody is buying Dual Shock 3 to play PC games or emulators, for the most part, where people are using Logitech F710 and X360 types). I can't think of a single reason for consoles to still exist, save for greed and to a lesser extent "tradition". It angers me further to see the "consolization" of powerful multiuse hardware into locked down content delivery platforms (ie. iOS etc...)
Especially Indie developers who run on shoestring budgets, casting your lot with Steam, Humble Indie Bundles, Desura and other "friendly" digital distribution services is a good move. You'll have quite a bit more freedom than the console stores and have a better chance of your target audience equipped to play your game and willing to invest, especially with niche titles. There are things that I wish Steam would do better (ie. Linux Client.) but they do provide a great value in advertising, showing your game directly to people that buy other games whenever they log in. Consoles seem intent on extorting as much money as possible for everything and their taint has crossed to the PC world quite some time ago, such aswhen Oblivion's PC version had paid Horse Armor DLC on 360, they couldn't provide it for free on PC. Many console (and consolized-favoring) platform owners talk a good game about "develop for our platform and you'll have access to all these people who do X, Y, and Z and you'll be rich.", but those words are just wind. PC development give you choices and allows you to easily port, use or make any tools you desire and basically create as you wish without limits and with plenty of options.
Gamification is a very useful term for what we think of as "social network gaming"; not just an indicative that someone isn't enjoying the formula. "Gamification" is basically taking the elements that make someone play a game or engage in certain behavior and applying them to other applications - The yogurt shoppe near me punches a card every time I buy so much froyo, and provides a free item when the card is full. That's no different than an "Achievement" that unlocked a perk. The business thinks, "If we dangle this carrot, they'll come back". Now, I have about 4 full punch cards by now that I always forget to put into my wallet - I go for fantastic yogurt and the one hostess with the crush on me that provides me the *good* tea from the back - but the theory is still sound.
When these theories are applied back to games again, it is typically through the marketing lens of "can we create a super addictive game that makes us far more money than a good one"? Typically, what they choose time and time again is the "skinner box" theory - Press button, get reward. All these "social" network games take it one step forward though so its "You can't press your OWN button. You have to press someone else's button in the hopes that someone will press yours" - this is Farmville, Mafia Wars and other "social "games in an instant. Its not a game, its an obligation - We've all seen SouthPark's Facebook Episode and read about the people who break up relationships and friendships because Person B did not come online to tend to Person A's virtual farm fast enough, crops died etc... add in microtransactions and you're paying for someone who's harvesting your information and enticing you to convince every friend, family member and acquaintance into your virtual goatroap!
These are not good games. They're not fun. They are carefully designed with some extremely powerful aspects of gamification that, if they work on a majority of the populace, will make for more money then developing true virtual worlds where actual choice and selective rewards are present - with a strong enough dose of gamification, the illusion is indistinguishable.
Ahh, maybe I'm incorrect but I thought that vanity pets had "item levels" but no actual level requirement? If this isn't the case then I can see how they'd have to keep that kind of limitation there.
As far as the spam/goldseller invite - That's a new one. Honestly I didn't think it had a high enough ROI - you can send out 20 whispers at once with a good chatmod and see who talks back, but you only invite to one party at the time and there's not that many people who will accept party invites from strangers and stay there past the initial spam. Then again, perhaps something like a limit on party invites...only 1 per minute or somesuch for Trial accounts would get around this issue and make it even of lesser usefulness for goldselling.
As a longtime WoW Player - relatively casual mind you. I've never beaten an expansion's end-game raid content during that expansion (ie. I went to the Sunwell for a tour when I made 80) - though I disagree with their limitations, I can probably inform non-players on why they are so strict
0. Level 20 - Goes without saying, this is a nice chunk of the early game. If you want to go higher, you'll like the game enough to subscribe..hopefully 1. 10 Gold Limit. WoW has a copper/silver/gold scheme, and 10 Gold is a lot of money for a level 20..who's not a second or later alternate character being "fed" by a max-level character with thousands. This limit I actually agree with - it ensures that Chinese reps that sell gold for real money can't use these characters to make "free" delivery mules as the only people buying gold are buying it by the thousands or ten thousands. 2. Trade Skills Capped at 100 - This is sort of the "crafting" (Blacksmithing, Cooking, Fishing, Mining, etc...) equivalent of being capped at level 20. There was a time when certain blocks of trades were level-limited anyway so you couldn't have a crafting-only mule (ie. to make Artisan level items of 225+ skill you needed to be over level 45) 3. Unable to trade - This is probably again to keep Chinese from using these characters to sell expensive high-end items for real money. You would pay on their website, they log in on one of their low level characters and give you the item you bought. Personally, I think this is far too restrictive. Rather, I would like to see them include all these trade formats but only limited to "Item levels" (in game, mostly hidden ratings on items) viable to level 30 and below. That would enable your friend to give you a set of level 15 armor, without allowing you to hold Furor's Compendium of Dragonslaying or the Battered Hilt (two old items that were often sold for tons of gold as they started the quest for the user to pick up an excellent Epic weapon). 4. No public channels - Again, blame Chinese Real Money Transaction/Farmers/Hackers. They already spam public channels (such as the Trade channel that exists in all major game cities) but have actually been cracked down on quite a bit. This is far too draconian a restriction as the public channels are a great way to make friends, get answers, and generally open a new player to the MMO community. (And if you're on a PVP server, you get the bonus feature of being called a 'gay scrub faggot' whenever you speak too!) 5. No whispers outgoing - Yes, again with China. Since they started getting banned by players reporting their spam in public chat, they started whispering individual players they saw speak in chat at some point. If you get a whisper/tell from low level with an incomprehensible name, that seems like "do u remember me?" or "hi friend do you have time I have great deal for you", you're being offered paid services from this gray-market industry. The restrictions are not too bad here so if someone whispers to you, you can talk back. 6. No party invites - Not sure the idea behind this one. Partying is an integral experience and there's no reason after going through 10 levels or so that a new player wouldn't feel confident enough to start their own or run one of the low-level dungeons. I guess you can be invited to others - not sure how the gadget that auto-finds you dungeon groups factors into this - but I see no harm in having trial players offer parties to others. 7. No parties with those over 20 - Okay, this is to keep from being "powerleveled", (Someone with a much higher level kills everything for you to gain experience). To my knowledge this doesn't work any longer because the XP calculation is miniscule if there's a greater than 5 level disparity in members. I guess its to keep them from killing everything so you can finish quests unusually quick. No real problem here. 8. No VOIP - Most players use external VOIP so this isn't a big deal, but there's nothing its even really helpful to have VOIP for around level 20 anyway. I guess
I have a N900 that I really enjoy, but I admit I'm less than enthused at how the platform has stagnated. I was expecting a lot more development, but with Microsoft's intrusion and Nokia mismanagement, I can't say I'm surprised. The N900 is showing its age but a lot of tweaking can help, but even MeeGo 1.2 Dev edition doesn't have everything hardwarewise working! I'd like to update to a non-Android phone, but I'm afraid that we're at a dead end. The N950 is likely out of my hands - I'm not a developer in any meaningful sense, so I'd have to pick up the N9. Hardware wise I'm liking it, though I'd like to see a newer generation dual or quad core A9. Unfortunately, from the posts here that show that Harmattan isn't even MeeGo proper suggest that like its predecessor, the software is going to be a stagnant flop for all save those who want to use it exclusively as a mobile Linux CLI, instead of a modern smartphone. As much as I like what I can do with my N900, what I can't is annoying.
The best way I can see to give the platform some staying power is enabling it to run android apps through some sort of seemless virtualization, if they won't run native? I'd love to have a little android sandbox where I could install anything from the App Market and use Layar or Google Maps Android App when I want them, without being subject to tracking all the time and whatnot, or install the Battle.Net authenticator which I know will never come in a native fashion to Maemo/MeeGo, sadly. Building the phone with this in mind would give it the chops to stand up as a "modern" smart phone in addition to being a geek toy. Otherwise, I fear it will be another footnote of incompatibility.
T-Mobile now has a "hidden" set of plans called "EvenMore PLUS". They had them on the website for awhile, but they recently took them down as they want to rook more people into buying their 2-year contract "EvenMore" plans, which actually aren't that bad if you're the kind who wants a high end Android phone and a lot to use. EvenMore PLUS however, is ZERO contract with the expected catch being that you have to bring your own GSM phone or buy one full retail. I have unlimited "everything", but if I recall correctly you get get 1000 minutes/month (w/free nights and weekends) for like $30-40 monthly, or 500 min/month (w/free nights and weekends) for $20-30, assuming no text and web. I pay about $70USD/month for Unlimited talk, unlimited text, "unlimited" (truly unlimited, but if you download more than 5gb they throttle you. However, no data roaming or overage fees! I've downloaded more than 10gb before without being throttled so I assume it isn't automatic but instead they have to "notice" you) data on my Nokia N900. All these plans have zero contract, and there's a cool generally-unknown feature where you can buy a phone from T-Mo at retail price and pay it in installments without interest. So if you buy a $500 Android handset, you can opt to have it billed at an additional $20, 50, 100 et.c.. per month with no taxes and without them trying to convert you to contract plan, which actually costs MORE per month.
For GSM, I think it is the best way to go at least for now - if ATT takes over, god knows what will happen but they'll need to honor current agreements at least. It also gets you a lot of features not present on Net10/TracFone etc...like unlimited nights and weekends and of course SMS and data use is available if you decide you need it later.
THIS is the kind of stuff that these teams should be spending their time on. Loathe as they are to admit it, Anon is at their best when they're fighting an "actual evil". There is an element of the "We don't give a fuck! Look how cool we are!" groups that decide to hack some game developer's site for the lulz and release everyone's passwords, but its really not that lulzy - its causing real damage to real people who don't deserve it. The greatest lulz are had from exposing corruption - sticking it to people who didn't know ZeniMax had terribad security and were stupid enough to make such accounts? Not so great. Sticking it to Sony for their heavyhanded punishment of PSN users, law suits, and horrible response to anyone who wanted to use the console they paid for as they wished? Better. Unveiling that an FBI-employed individual who runs his own private infosec company is not only incapable of securing his own website, but is corrupt enough to use our tax money to offer LulzSec a contract to take out his private industry white hat competitors? This kind of stuff is the best.
These movements are truly the only light we have in the darkness - moneyed private interests and their government puppets have become complacent in their corruption and the average citizen has little power to stop the cycle. They have a near unlimited amount of money and power, but through hubris their lies become visible through the actions of Anonymous, WikiLeaks, LulzSec and the others that fight against censorship and other abuses of power. Look at websites like BoASucks - showing conclusively they knew they were handing out bad loans and looking to screw people financially. WikiLeaks data showed that my tax dollars went to funding boy-fucking parties for Afghan leaders and a private contract merc corp, a couple of chucklefucks laughed like they played Call of Duty while shooting a makeshift ambulance known to have children inside during the Iraq conflict, and that all the corruption of the 2 quagmire conflicts over the past 10 years were just as bad as we thought they'd be.
We need these groups to help inform the people and make them angry. Angry enough to look beyond the puppet show and realize that we're living in a corporate plutocracy and its only getting worse. These groups use the force multiplier of the Internet to strike at a vastly better funded and protected enemy; its one of the only options we have at the moment until Americans are willing to do what the Arab World is doing...which doesn't seem likely as long as the bread and circuses are cheap enough. However, the fight against the Scientology proved the power of groups like Anon to provide a "spark" to ignite when the powder keg is packed full enough, and information to fill it. Prior to Anon's campaign, most of America thought Scientology was just "some weird new age thing celebs do", but those who's families were torn apart by Fair Game tactics and lost loved ones were suffering alone against a seemingly invincible opponent with a horde of lawyers and crooked power-brokers on its payroll. Anon's activity is nearly singlehandedly responsible for bringing their offenses into the light. Though some will say "but they didn't totally destroy it, so its a loss", this isn't the case at all. Now, the average American will at least know its a "creepy cult" and instances such as certain states and countries (Texas and Germany come to mind, plus others) have revoked their tax-exempt status due to Anon's work. Recruitment is down and those who have been abused by Scientology Orgs are now more willing than ever to engage in legal battles. Its really a pretty amazing thing when you think about it, fostered by a bunch of typically 20's-30s upper-middle class males who decided to wear masks, protest, and get the word out. For some it was an issue of ethics, for others simply for the lulz, its effect is undeniable. I've even heard from some Arab Awakening youth who said that Anon was one of the inspirations for them to join the various movements, showing that young
I see a lot of prancing around the issue with "Oh, how can we make it fair for the delightful businesses that provide us this service", and that is not what we should be focusing on at all. Fuck em. Telcoms are no longer serving their purpose - they were given the keys to the kingdom to provide connectivity and they've had to be broken up, monopolized again, and basically done everything possible to line their pockets. They whine about cost of doing what they're paid to do while they receive subsidy after subsidy of taxpayer money "BAWWWW We want to take your tax money, roll out only where is profitable, and restrict your bandwidth because we'd much rather enjoy your money in other ways, instead of doing what you're paying us to do".
After seeing Hitler's awesome autobahn, the USA founded the Interstate program because certain members of our government knew that patchwork roads, with varying degrees of tolls and maintenance were holding our nation back. It enabled the rise to prominence of American manufacturing when you didn't have to worry about sending trucks full of heavy steel over some bumpy dirt road to get through Kansas. We deserve the same kind of information infrastructure and the only way that can happen is by taking it OUT of for-profit hands and making all the infrastructure in the nation owned by We The People.
Every single nation that has those high internet speeds so coveted by the rest of the developed world is doing this, in some form or another. This is also one of those times when a little "EVIL SOCIALISM BWA HA HA HA" actually increases competition and openness in the market. Imagine how many GSM-type providers we could have in this country if we forced ATT to share "their" towers, bought with our subsidy? How many customer-focused ISPs could there be if you didn't have to run your own fiber? Even politicians speak about our information infrastructure's importance, so lets start policies that ensure its dominance. We need to be rolling out "The best' service across the nation, as with Interstates, not just where it is deemed most profitable for greedy telcos. Cut out the bloody middleman who's bleeding both the gov't and individual subscribers dry to fill his own pockets! I don't want to have to rely on Google and Microsoft's "generosity" to fight for an uncapped, uncensored Internet and universal infrastructure - this is just prolonging the problem of corpocracy. We need a fundamental shift and universal change.
They will give you 30% off Elite status, a booster, or anything else you buy! I don't make any profit from you using these, save for if enough people do I get an in-game pet or something. Enjoy!
Here's a quick overview of the Steam announced titles.
Global Agenda: Free Agent - I've been playing this for quite some time, back since it was "boxed product" that was going to be a MMO. The devs then actually had the integrity to say "You know what, monthly subscriptions aren't right for this...so we're just not going to do them." That evolved into its current state where it is actually completely free, and you can pay a $20 ONE TIME fee to be upgraded to Elite Agent status on your account (anyone with a boxed copy of the game on their account is automatically Elite) which unlocks a number of things, including speedier XP and more loot. You can also pay for name changes or buy a "booster" which further gives you 2x XP and Loot, plus so many "free" tokens every day. Amazingly for a free game, to get the best in game gear you don't have to buy or pay for anything if you don't want to. Global Agenda plays well on Linux through the use of WINE, at least in my experience. Onto the gameplay itself, mix "Planetside" with "Guild Wars" and you get a MMOTPS/FPS that is actually really, really fun. There's a lot of content available, open world "questing" areas like any other MMO...but you have to use your FPS/TPS skills to take down that enemy you need for the quest. PvE content, PVP content, and Agency vs Agency combat in a meta-game for map control of various "Hexes" on a grid. If your agency (guild) say, owns a hex and have built a special building on it that provides resources, it can be attacked by another enemy agency - 15+ members of your team teleport to an in-game instance of that hex (with special building) and you fight against 15 of the attacking enemy etc... Crafting is more accessible than ever and there's a nice amount of customization. Out of all the "shooter MMOs", I think Global Agenda is one of the best. It may not have the scale of Planetside, but it has a nice "Guild Wars + Tribes" mix that's really unlike most of what's out there, polished to a nice shine. I buy boosters just to keep this business plan viable.
Champions Online: Free For All - Cryptic, the developers from the City of Heroes team, made this "sequel" if you will, to practice for their better known MMO, Star Trek Online. One thing Cryptic does better than most other MMO developers is to make you "feel" powerful. Blasting someone with a ice beam has a real "weight to it" and you feel "super" when you deploy your batman-style grappler to swing around the map. In Champions, Free "Silver" players have a wide variety of prefab archetypes that basically include a balanced set of powers along a fixed progression. If you want to mix and match core skills, you'll need the "Gold" subscription, which is like LOTRO/DDO in that it costs the standard MMO fee monthly. Gold also allows you free access to many of the "travel powers", which silver players can purchase individually if they wish. After selecting your character's powers, you can design a costume from what is likely THE most comprehensive costuming system in a MMO to date. If you want to be a hero with a tiny green head with pointy ears, a barrel chest, red hulk hands attached to robot arms, you can do that. Silver players have a lot of the content unlocked, but there will be some that need to be unlocked with a Cryptic Points (a RMT token). Those that don't want to spend anything can have a great experience and not "fall behind", provided they don't mind losing some access to certain costumes, travel powers and a couple of the Adventure Pack zones of the game. Unlike many, you can level to the cap easily in the zones available and without buying any XP-boosters. Its a good value for Silver players and has what you'd expect from a Super Hero MMO and many of the things you may not. Works in WINE on Linux, in my experience.
Spiral Knights - Anyone play "The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords Adventure"? Spiral Knights, made by the Puzzle Pirates developer three rings (Amazingly, one of the only devs with the balls to create guild owned pirate ships that p
The report itself basically alternated between paper-thin rhetoric and stuff that if anyone else said them, they'd be called out as a "9/11 Truther". Keep this in mind. The report actually says "The official explanation is incorrect or incomplete. There MUST be more going on behind the scenes that we'd like to investigate. We have stuff that just doesn't add up". Why wasn't there any continuance of investigation into the most devastating attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor? Well, because the 9/11 commission ran out of money. I don't remember the exact figures, but the 9/11 Commission was given something like 11 million dollars to do their work. By comparison, Ken Starr's inquisition over Bill Clinton's blowjob had like 800 Million at its disposal. Doesn't something seem off? The commission were trotted out, told they did a good job and disbanded when the most preliminary of reports was filed.
It very, very clear that there are elements behind the government, likely the corporate handlers behind the scenes, who make their entire living based on obfuscating the truth, providing misinformation, and bending the views and actions of others to their will. They have no interest in "information sharing and transparency", its poison to their backroom deals. However, many of them have grown confident knowing that nomatter what they do, much of the country is working too hard, too tired, too entertained, or too ignorant to ever pose a threat to them. Wikileaks confirmed what the "crazy liberal pinko commies" have been saying for years is right: these wars are farces predicated on greed. Yet, they continue. It doesn't matter who we vote in, because with a few exceptions (Kucinich comes to mind), everyone is controlled by the same corporate plutocracy; which uses its wiles to misdirect hatred and frustration onto "Government". Be it Tea Party, NeoCon, or Libertarian, every time they see someone shouting "Down with the Statists! Less government control!" They laugh - They've managed to fool people into thinking that government is by nature, evil - thus calling to give private moneyed interest even MORE power and less regulation. Its genius really. There are examples all over the world where "Government", even much stronger government, works well - France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark etc.. come to mind. Sure, nowhere is perfect but they look at us as barbarians for letting private industry and finance have such control over our nation.
I'll say it very plainly - American elected representatives do not work for "The People", they work for the people who elect them and pay them - corporations. Until we completely reform campaigning from the ground up to be financially neutral, there isn't going to be a change. Until we make it selfishly in the interest of those in public office to serve the public instead of moneyed special interest, there isn't going to be a change. I'm seriously thinking that we may very well need an "Arab Spring" style revolution, as its clear these guys aren't going to vote to change the status quo. We need a new nation with an absolute central government that serves the good of the people and cannot be tempted by the money of private interests, in fact putting a boot squarely on the neck of capitalism to ensure that it only exists in such a way that serves the good of the whole, regulating the fuck out of greed which will take a mile if you give an inch. Until people are ready however, all we can do is contribute and do our parts - if you're technically inclined, mirror leaked documents etc.... bring as much information into the open as possible. And wait....
I'm the proud owner of a N900, but I'm very frustrated in how MeeGo has stagnated, especially regarding Microsoft's attempt to nail it into its coffin. Maemo/MeeGo is by far the best mobile OS around that provides true power to the user and may actually, over time, have the same kind of exposure that Android did influential in growing "App" developer networks. Sadly, with few if any devices shipping its going to remain a playtoy.
I'd like to see MeeGo become basically installable on any device that Android can reside and more. If its going to have to take over the "old fashioned" dual boot way, so be it. When its features are useful enough to basically work as a phone, I'm going to put MeeGo (1.2? 1.3?) on my N900. However, it would be great if it could also load onto Nexus S, Nexus One, etc.. and a host of other higher end android offerings. On the tablet side, I just bought an Asus Transformer - let me load the tablet edition onto it? If there was a new top-tier phone released with MeeGo and the assurance it would be upgradable and not simply stuck and outdated, I'd buy. If this isn't happening anymore and MeeGo wants to be successful, make it compatible enough that those geeks who appreciate it will seek out and install it on their devices that shipped with other OSes.
Most of these streaming boxes are basically low-power variants of home theater PCs. Some even include hard disks, or allow storage to be connected via USB/eSATA. I have a WD TV Live Plus, which basically runs Linux under the hood (there are even some custom firmwares, especially for legacy WDTV products, which add all sorts of stuff from bittorrent to SSH and more, not unlike what DDWRT/Tomato and other custom SOHO router firmwares add), on a bedroom TV. It connects wirelessly to my network via a cheap N dongle (some models have wireless included), and I have it pull media primarily from my Arch Linux NAS box. It has tons of codec support and handles streaming 1080p MKVs with subtitles, provided the wireless is up to snuff. If I had a Netflix subscription, it can Watch Instantly. It has an assortment of other little options as well, like being able to view picture slide shows, and an assortment of options such as Facebook integration, YouTube viewing etc... It even has DTS and can output via HDMI 1.3 (newer versions, 1.4).
These boxes are relatively cheap, easy to use even for those who lack tech know-how, and provide a great deal of flexibility and freedom in how a user accesses their media. Granted, a full on HTPC will give you more features, power, and control but that's also more expensive to do right and requires a lot more configuration. I'm not so worried about them being a fad as much as I am watching corporate greed continue to castrate their abilities. For instance, look at the native media streaming features of the PS3 and Xbox360 - they can't play nearly the amount of formats without conversion my WDTV can, much less an actual PC, nor are there the same amount of options and ability to access from different protocols (ie. SAMBA, NFS etc..). Instead, they want you to purchase content from their private stores with the DRM and prices they choose. The very same happens for all but the highest end embedded streaming functions in HDTV - they're limited to certain parners (youtube, facebook, twitter...) and certain filetypes.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that users, for the most part, are either fine with the way media is going - DRM/DLC/Consolization of convergence devices into walled gardens etc.... thus streaming boxes and whanot may move into the same niche as HTPC builders. However, so long as some of them try to provide inexpensive, quality access to your media rather than simply pushing you towards buying something, they will have a place in the household of anyone with networked storage and multi-room media needs.
I'll put this in a way that Slashdot will get. Remember one of those horrible clients you had at some point? The guy who said "Create me a website" and picked apart your sleek design until it looked like something from Angelfire, complete with "In Construction" tape? The guy who wanted you to secure his network, but didn't want you to use passwords on the wireless, nor MAC filtering, nor pay for any key management services? The fellow who insisted that you spend all bloody day doing something outside your job description for clueless people managed by even more clueless management?
What if they could instantly review you negatively in an easy way? What if Gerald from Accounting decides you didn't get to his MS Excel error swift enough and proclaims for all the world to see "X is lazy, bad at his job, made me wait for HOURS for a simple task. Never hire him!". Should that really be fair and acceptable? But..you cry "Gerald is an idiot who didn't know all the circumstances involved and I wasn't even given a chance to defend myself... now I can't get a job!?".... Bingo.
Many IT, engineering, and science workers, even at the Professional level, don't have the same kind of "presence" in the community as physicians and lawyers. Most of them operate their own offices or groups, and the public is very, very interested in trying to figure out a "good" doctor from a bad one. Our old friend capitalism has extended from those "people search" pay services, to "doctor search" ones and created a huge marketing blitz like "Find out how many patients have filed a complaint...could YOUR doctor be bad?!" Remember that the most frivolous of malpractice lawsuits, with million dollar judgements are awarded generally by making the jury feel sorry for the patient, regardless if their troubles were the result of the doctor at all. Doctors are paying between $10,000 - 100,000 USD yearly in order to deal with this. When ill-informed patients can get million dollar judgments upheld through emotional pleas, it doesn't bode well for doctors trying to protect themselves from incorrect reviews. Professionals can most certainly be bad at their job and screw up, but when some philistine off the street walks in, demands the latest prescription they saw on the evening news, doesn't want to undertake proper therapy, is generally non-compliant etc... and then turns around and writes a scathing review of the physician, this shouldn't occur.
What's needed is a single, open-source solution regarding doctor information that protects physicians and patients. Perhaps one could be set up by the American College of X (Surgeons, Gynecologists etc) for their members, or by state organizations for all in state etc... Each physician would have a homepage not unlike that of a social network, where they could place information about their practice, directions, contact info, and any little blurbs they wish to share. Each physician would be given a hash that changes monthly to place on his business cards and give to patients to use as a password when visiting his page. Doing so allows the patient to bind his or her account to be able to comment on/to the physician in a private area. They would have to use their real name and use the doctor's private area password, to ensure they were really patients. In the private area there could be HIPPA-compliant encrypted channels for medical communication and questions, such as in-house email and instant messaging, should the doctor want to make themselves available online. Patients can also write reviews, with some rules in place. Positive reviews will show up on the doctor's homepage (docs can omit/hide them if they wish) and the patient can decide if they want their name to be public or not. Negative reviews are more comprehensive and will be restricted to the private area. Those who file a negative review must be willing to correspond with the physician again to help reach a resolution or understanding - sniping and leaving will lead to the comment being erased. The doct
I live in a small town a few miles outside the DC Metro area. With an hour's drive or so, I can be to one of the Metro lines. The ONLY option we have for "broadband" here is either 3MB DSL through Verizon, for around $40/month, or DOCSIS2-level Comcast Cable for about $55/month. For years I petitioned for FIOS in the hopes of seeing affordable 50MB connections in my town, but I found a document back from 2007 saying basically "Yeah, residents there are basically brainless country bumpkins that can barely use a rotary phone, so no way in fucking hell are we rolling fiber all the way out there. Lets uh...put it on our long term plan. We'll get it in by oh..2009 or so". Well, now its 2011 and I have the same 3MB DSL and DOCSIS2-level Comcast because business has decided its not worth the cost to give us any infrastructure. Of course, both these companies whined and complained until they got exclusivity agreements in my county, and installed FIOS and DOCSIS3 down where all the councilmen live. I've spoken to my town council and have been told they don't have the resources to go to war with Comcast and Verizon if they wanted to lay their own fiber.
I see a lot of posts around here that "Government is evil, it lets business do evil things because its evil. It also never does anything right", but this is exactly what private enterprise wants you to think. Look at how much in this nation is privatized, from overcrowded brutal prisons to the military-industrial complex, "Oh that kooky Gov't couldn't do anything without us!". Government doesn't work because the people who pay to elect representatives into said government do not WANT it to work. So, they box it up in red tape so that they can go back to their campaign financiers and say "Oh please Mr. Private Industry! Save us from this! Little ol government just can't get it right!", which has the alternate benefit of swaying the populace to believe government is by very nature incapable of doing anything right.
Moneyed private industry is in a WAR with government services. They don't want there to be options. They don't want to compete with anyone they can't buy out or bribe. They want absolute control and they've crippled our entire nation lusting after such avarice. This is why we can't even have a "public option" for healthcare, lest the peasants find out exactly how fucked they are by insurance companies. This is why cities are sued by telecoms when they just want to spend their tax dollars to put in infrastructure that isn't profitable for big business.
However, the most egregious of all recent examples is the Post Office. Talk to your Postmaster if s/he's over 40 sometime and you'll learn a lot. Did you know that the USPS is BY LAW forbidden to have its own fleet of planes for delivering mail? Every single one of those Express Mail/Priority Mail packages, is paying for a seat on FedEx aircraft! Really puts it in perspective when FedEx Overnight is more than twice the price of USPS Express sitting right next to it, doesn't it? In addition,the USPS is the only quasi-government agency that receives NO government money - they are expected to operate like a business and stay in the black, ever since they stopped being the Department of the Post Office. Despite this, they are still saddled with old regulations like a mandate to deliver mail everywhere, keeping post offices in bumfuck, LA open for the 3 people that go there, and it takes an act of Congress for these things to change. Why did this happen you ask? It was a carefully constructed plan of whining via the private couriers UPS and FedEx, who contributed big to campaigns a few years back crying that "Waaaaa we can't compete with the Department of the Post Office. Its so damn efficient and we don't want to change our business plans or offer anything new we just want money WAAA", thus spurring their purchased policy-critters into action. Soon the Post Office was mired in red tape and bullshit and the agency that basically existed since the beginning of the US that "just worked" even when
Over the past 3 years or so, nearly every nationwide Mobile provider in the USA has castrated their data service. "Unlimited" data used to be slower, EDGE or early 3G a couple years back, but despite the expense you didn't have to worry about overages. Now it seems only Sprint (perhaps?) has an "unlimited" plan. ATT and Verizon, switching over to these capped bandwidth isn't simply to save money or keep network congestion down, but rather its the same impetus that had the 80s and 90s phone companies charging 25/c a minute for long distance - to jack up fees on a monopolized industry under the guise of "paying what you use". While true "unlimited" plans were few and far between over the last decade, they usually simply transitioned to slowing your connection speed if you were using a ton more data than most at an inconvenient time. Now, you're paying per kilobyte for overages, on top of stupidly high costs of data plans. Look at how even the iPhone 1's original data plan compares to those today - it was a $20/month unlimited option with 200 included SMS! Now, you're looking at well over $80, plus SMS packages for the high-end "5gb of transfer" plan! .
The problem is simple greed and it infests our entire system. Corporate giants for years told users "buy our new DSL/Cable/Fiber/3G/4G service.. and download more, more more! Get your movies! Get your music! Play Games" (Even when there wasn't much legal digital distribution, mind you). Not only did they benefit from upping subscription fees and only selectively rolling out broadband to the highest ROI areas, they also petitioned (read as: bought) government subsidy for "infrastructure improvements", common carrier agreements and more. Now, they figured out that instead of actually using our double-dipped tax dollars and subscription fees to actually expand infrastructure and give people the connectivity they want, its simpler to simply say "Sorry, you just can't download more than X per month. Yeah" and pocket the rest. Prices go up, service comes down and the user is meant to lick the boots of telecoms that have fucked over this nation's information infrastructure. There is only one solution.
We need to take that money and control out of the hands of private companies, and invest it in We The People. Nationalize our entire information infrastructure. Prior to Eisenhower's Interstate, the physical roadway system was heading towards the same kind of mess as today's information highways - unpaved roads, shoddy maintenance, only serviceable where profitable, and tolls were levied constantly. Even the fucking ROMANS figured out that the first thing to do when expanding their empire was to nationalize the roadway system and kick all the bandits collecting tolls along travel pathways the hell out. Those bandits are just named ATT and Comcast today! Right now, the wire in the ground, despite the fact its is lain with my tax dollars, is the property of a private company, which squelches competition. There's not a piece of "Big 4" infrastructure that is not taxpayer funded in some way, so we need to simply nationalize what we already own! Then we can start rolling out true universal broadband initiatives and give our nation competitive speeds and coverage. There can be a role to play for private industry, able to lease access to the public hardware to create ISPs, with the stipulation that they must simply be a "dumb pipe" and maintain neutrality - however, private industry should never forget who their masters are - We The People through our Government - rather than the Government being a toy of private moneyed interests. Some form of this is how most European and Asian nations have ascended to gigabit broadband speeds while much of our nation is floundering with 256k and big spenders in the most cosmopolitan areas are paying $50+ monthly for 20mb.
Telecoms aren't going to stop clenching their grip until we break their fingers.
All those are good ideas. Allowing people to walk around and just play with various distros running on properly configured hardware and seeing it "just work", would go a long way towards adoption. Giving some real "geniuses" and Linux gurus a job to provide both in-person and over distance support (selling PenguinCare plans for home users that warranties any hardware purchased, plus allows access to gurus if they need help) would be a great job for the multitude of qualified sysadmins. In addition, it would be a place to go to talk shop with other users and have genteel face-to-face customer service - obviously hardcore "RTFM fuckface! Anyone can built their own kernel!" will not be welcome, but sadly sometimes those are the only people available with the skills to fix a problem or provide proper documentation online. Show users that there are plenty of friendly and *gasp* even female Linux admins there to help is a huge image boost.
I'd like to add one more important facet, something the Linux community has been missing for decades. "High End" Boutique hardware products. Go to something like OriginPC, Falcon Northwest, or Puget Systems, or even the now defunct but once-best-of-the-bunch Thunderbox. Now compare it to the average Linux desktop offering. There isn't anywhere near the range of power, aesthetics, and versatility. At best you're getting a handful of Nvidia 400-series GPUs offered on an 1155 or 1156 platform and that's about it, tossed in an Antec 900 or something. No defining that you want a SandForce SSD, or an Asus/EVGA/XFX graphics card. No fancy graphics mods or enhanced cooling etc. More over, the entire experience doesn't feel polished, which means people will be tighter with their wallets. Some builders are trying (System76 or ZaReason), but its not there yet.
Creating a boutique desktop experience, tailored to Linux user needs is relatively easy. Off the shelf products can be used, but part of the startup costs should be some unique aesthetics. Every "boutique" system builder that survives is sure to create some icongraphy and designs that help the products stand out. Alienware's original pre-HP offerings and yes, Apple's MacBook Pro have unique aesthetics. Even Falcon Northwest and other boutique builders are sure to make sure there's at least a little symbol of the design house somewhere. Both via a website and in person at the Linux Store, users should have the opportunity to create the product they need with as much flexibility as possible, both hardware and software involved. Multiple form factors and users bringing special parts from elsewhere should be available (ie. Someone wants a MythTV box and already has a capture card that is Linux compliant etc..). Allow users to select from a number of distributions and be willing to Dual Boot or install Windows in a VM, provided they bring their own legit key with the understanding that support is exclusively for the Linux OS, similar to how Mac's BootCamp doesn't cover Windows questions, save for those that affect Boot Camp itself. Factory overclock for an additional fee, install hardware monitoring tools and have an option to enable and configure all sorts of graphical shiny. Install codecs (when legal, provide instructions when not), offer WINE and CrossOver sales (the latter of which, an option for the customer to buy a license), have "packs" that install certain features for the user, most for free, and some for a nominal customization fee. For instance a "Media Pack" means the user will have VLC, Mplayer GUI variant or another, Miro, Amarok/Rhythmbox/Clementine/Banshee/SomethingElse depending on the DE they're using, for free. However, a full customization of MythTV could warrant a charge for time spent configuring and turning on the shiny. Broker an agreement with some Linux game devs, and sell titles included and the games installed per user wishes, offering both paid game content and free games like Wesnoth. A system fitting the user's exact desktop needs, with custom components, that is aesthetically ple
Ahh. I see. Well, I assume from looking at a cursory overview that pools have different rules and are supposed to payout based upon what you're contributing, so if you have a faster PC with a GPU miner, you're going to go farther than just getting a single threaded processor doing the work. It would be nice to see BitCoin Plus' policies. Do they have any fees? Does GPU mining even work? How big is the pool? Etc... I'm thinking about getting into this, but I want to make sure I can take full advantage of my hardware. Its nice to have the convenience of a web-based pool, but I don't see nearly the options I do with others.
I'm seeing a lot of conversation regarding the economics and tech of bitcoin itself, but what about Bitcoin Plus? That is to say, is it a better or worse proposition to join up with Bitcoin Plus, than it is to run any of the other Bitcoin miners? It appears that Bitcoin Plus actually is some sort of distributed computing project, in that you actually aren't signing up to mine bitcoins directly to your account as with other miners, but rather that you are agreeing to give your CPU power to the fellow that runs Bitcoin Plus for some sort of distributed operation, in return for (hopefully, if he's honest) Bitcoin rewards? Now, the FAQ page has something about 50 Bitcoins, and I'm not sure if that is an arbitrary number for example, or something having to do with payout etc... are you given BCs YOU find, or is it that every 50 Bitcoins found on the network lead to a payout of..X BC's to everyone involved?
Next, I'd also be interested to know in the type of miner this is. From what I've read, GPU mining is MUCH faster than CPU mining, but the basic miners are only CPU etc.. can this web-based miner really use GPU as well as the standalone options, if it uses it at all? I can't imagine so, unless it somehow interacts with CUDA or (Better) AMD Stream. If I remember correctly, the AMD 5000 and 6000 series high ends are the fastest bitcoin miners around, so I'd like to put my 6970 to use!
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I'm really disappointed with all of the "If you don't like it, go find your own social network!" apologist drivel. That's one step away from "Fuck you, if you don't like what America does, why don't you leave you damn liberal!". Hyper-capitalist worship of business has generated this culture where any sort of despicable behavior by a business, especially large corporation is beyond reproach. "You" peon consumer, can either choose not to buy it, or you can shut up. You don't have the right to criticize a business, so keep your head down, slave. I honestly didn't expect it to come to Slashdot.
That said, this is yet another decisions that absolutely proves Google+ is more of the same and that "Do No Evil" has gone out the fucking window. Everyone leaving Facebook for egregious privacy breeches are now going to find that Google is unlikely to be any better. Google doesn't want you to be anonymous - all its data mining is moot if it can't say "We have X number of 40+ men who have more than 5 sub-30 women in their circles, and thus you want to buy ad space from us GoldDiggerMatch.com! We have people who are likely to use yours services". Google+ had the potential to change the playing field, but if this is their policy they're going to cause more of the same bullshit and may very well be worse than even Facebook. If Google starts corroborating your Google Apps behavior, your Google searches, and your Google+ activity, as personally identifiable, we're going to have privacy violations that make Facebook look like pocket change. Health (and other types of) insurance companies already troll Facebook to find bits of information that allow them to jack up premiums, deny coverage, or say you don't need it. Hell, some sort of private disability insurance (AFLAC?) bought access to Facebook data and used the fact that one of their current members made a post about helping a friend move, to revoke his disability payments because "if he was doing that, he wasn't disabled anymore". The guy had to fight it in court and I'm unsure of the outcome. Imagine how much worse this could be if everything this guy ever Gmailed or searched was up for such scrutiny? Yes, I'm aware that the sky hasn't completely fallen yet, but seeing Google make the decisions they have over the past 3 years or so, it gives cause for alarm.
Requiring a real name, (ie a name that is a valid, confirmed GoogleCheckout address ) is absolutely barbaric and exposes people to asymmetrical risk. Sure, the John Smiths or Mohammad Alis of the world may have some obscurity to help, but if your name is Atiriyah Ellicott-Andravine and someone has both that name and your general location or zip-code, some googling and a $5 people-search site report may be enough to steal that person's identity if you really wanted. Its amazing what you can do with a name, address, zip, phone, email address, names of relatives and very little else. Regardless if your name is common or rare, nobody should have to bring meatspace identity online, and those places where it is necessary (ie. shipping addresses) should be heavily walled off to ensure that nobody is selling their customers and payment information to the highest bidder.
Privacy and anonymity are of the highest importance and social networking can easily provide the above. Yes, you have to deal with the fakes and the spammers but that is a small price to pay for anonymous and private information exchange. Google should but their considerable resources towards eliminating the spam accounts, rather than throw their hands up and tell people "Whoops, sorry! The company that sells special appliances and makes its entire livelihood on discerning good information from bad and showing it to users based on customizable parameters through advanced algorithms just can't seem to discern when one of its own accounts is spamming or otherwise being a bad member of the community in any financially viable way. So yeah, you all need to use your real names instead". Give me a fucking break. This is a
As a young hacker who's dabbled in gray hat pursuits and with a healthy respect for a mixed economy dominated by socialist principles, a strong democratic governmental system with a Trotsky-like Vanguard that separates power from currency, I can say with authority that very few "hackers" with these ideologies will favor China. Most realize that its basically a Stalinist dictatorship that needs to be appeased and so long as they get their pound of flesh, they have a regulation-less economy that exploits the working class and lacks any kind of regulatory body to stop predatory greed. We're not talking about Mao's "Everything is a great communal farm, guys!" here, and anyone who isn't stuck in the 30s can see that.
China's fervent party believers and power-brokers enable homespun cultivation of loyal hackers who truly believe that the Men of Han should control the earth and are better than everyone else. They don't need to convert left-leaning Westerners and those that do serve Chinese interests are likely doing it for money and would just as easily take money from East European mafias instead for the same kind of jobs.
You seem to be addressing local multiplay, not network so I'll stick with that.
First of all, I assume that a typical monitor today has probably grown to at least 20". If you only care about size, you can easily find a 24-27" monitor for under 300. However, there is absolutely nothing stopping a person from connecting any laptop (or desktop) to their television if they have a larger higher quality screen somewhere. And they do, frequently. Most people have learned to connect their laptop to a bigger display for business, even if they're not hardcore techies, and the process is completely simple these days, on Windows or Linux, provided you don't want to do anything "fancy". Cables like HDMI make it easy to basically turn any HDTV into a monitor.
The great thing about indie games is that they often make do with less processing power, so even those on a mid-range laptop could play the two games listed, so that was what I was noting when I said "equipped". You don't need a Metro2033-ready machine for a great local multiplayer experience. Now as far as HTPCs are concerned, I think there are many people that have something similar, but don't "call" it that. Sure, the amount of people with fully built gaming-level computers that also include a high end HDTV card are few, but that isn't necessary. Many people already want to view "computer" media outside of the computer - look at the WDTV box, BoxeeBox and others - it basically allows you to stream media from elsewhere on the network or the net to "non-computer" sources, like your HDTV. Most people don't need a "home theater" PC. They simply take one of their other PCs and temporarily assign it "home theater" use.
Now, I believe that if there was a sufficient shift that all current "console" games were available on PC, people would basically "create their own" consoles by building or buying some sort of PC to place near the big communal TV, which I see as a MUCH better solution for the user than paying a lot of money for a proprietary, locked down game consoles just so you can play the games you want. Right now, HTPC/LivingRoomPCs are pretty much exclusively for those who have certain needs displaying media, but if "living-room multiplayer" games were made for PCs, there would be a lot more people buying or building such PCs to enjoy said games. Right now, Xbox360 and PS3 often some halfassed HTPC functions AND are required for playing console games, so people use those instead because "hey, I've already got it around here and I need it for these games anyway". Take away that, and people may choose differently.
Slashdot is probably one of the few sites I'll find more than a handful of those that hold my views, but I consider "Social Media" today a worrisome development. When I was a young fellow dialing in on a 9600 baud modem, using BBSes and cavorting around on the nascent Net, privacy was one of the main appeals. I loved having a separate life, anonymous on the internet and this appreciation continues to this day. I'm RanceJustice here and a few other places, but I'm also a dozen different aliases and handles as it suits me. It seems completely counterproductive to merge meatspace in its entirety with the digital world, much less do so via a medium that basically treats me as the product selling anything it knows about me. However, I do try to keep aware of these things and look for benefits, lest I miss something useful and new - I have no intention to be the old man yelling that I don't need email because writing letters is good enough....
I haven't really found any benefits though, for the most part. I enjoy forums immensely and I generally consider any website that is based upon user-submitted or created content is typically some form of a forum. Reddit, Digg, Slashdot, Kuro5hin, Yelp, and others basically fall into this category, besides "the chans", and hobby-specific forums like World of Warcraft. Just like with "normal" blogging, I can see the value in microblogging services...for a very small amount of uses. Its a good way to broadcast information that others wish to see - if you're in the middle of Oslo today, its probably great to be able to send a tweet letting friends and family know you're safe and with pics or video of the carnage, location aware so that someone can get an ambulance to the right place. However, 90% of microblogging content seems to be useless, self-indulgent "Orange juice is yummy" "I am taking a shit", way to spew your thoughts onto the internet. Retweets and references become a game of tag and serve to make less content look like more, and there's the continual drive to acquire more followers. There isn't room to espouse deep concepts and explain them properly, so people tend to just put out what's on their mind. I have an Identi.ca (StatusNet is superior and open source compared to Twitter. I'm glad sites like Identi.ca exist) account, but is pretty much unused because I have a mental filter that says "If all my friends were in a room together, would it be important enough to say?" or "If I was standing in the crosswalk of a major city, would it be beneficial to shout it to strangers?", and the vast majority of the time the answer is no. Now, maybe this is just because I'm a private person overall and most of my friends don't live close enough to me that any location-dependent tweets would be worthwhile (ie. 50% off otoro box lunches at Japanese restaurant today only!), but I believe I have a filter where others do not that doesn't want to chatter inanely to the whole world in SMS-sized bites.
Finally we come to true "Social Media/Social Networks" like friendster, orkut, makeoutclub, MySpace, and the dreaded Facebook. While all the previous things, even Twitter, can be done via alias these seem to be set up to merge your entire real world life with the virtual and that is a bloody appalling prospect to me. Facebook seems the worst of all, but it has almost become a way of life in America where it is integrated into everything. Every "news" network and just about every form of entertainment has some link to it and it is becoming a disease. Take for instance the Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood game, where there is an item that you can only unlock in said game if you go on facebook, friend the developers/publishers and play their Facebook game. You're supposed to interact with everything, and of course, there's always something watching. Activision wants you to link your Battle.Net account to Facebook and you can set up World of Warcraft to announce on Facebook and Twitter whenever you achieve something in game - adding to their exposure of course. Many c
Well, if you look at some of the agreements necessary (especially in years past - look at the whole Official Nintendo Seal of Quality debacle), it has limited what developers can do, though not as much as it once did. Exclusives and timed exclusives still persist, sometimes in contract but I wasn't really referring to console manufacturers holding games hostage "by themselves", but rather the entire industry - development, publishing etc... is creating games in a way that isn't to the benefit of the user.
Take any Console exclusive, like aforementioned Metal Gear Solid 4. If one wants to enjoy that game, you have to purchase a PS3 and all necessary peripherals and use PSN for online play, abiding by the rules Sony sets down which as we've seen are pretty draconian. Now, MGS4 could easily run on the PC I'm typing this upon. Hell, Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess runs at 1920x1080 on this PC, using the Dolphin Emulator and hooking up my Wiimote w/bluetooth - I'm actually getting a better experience on PC! Yet, neither of those titles are available on the PC despite the better experience it would provide. Consoles require an additional equipment purchase of fixed prices just to run the game and add a level of proprietary lockdown because of it - Its not "your" console, its not "your" game, its not "your" online service, its "theirs", and either you conform to their rules, or you can't play. So you have to go through agreeing to pay lots of money for hardware and software that is tightly controlled in how it may be used, or you can't play these games. This is what I mean by "hostage".
We've come to a sad time in gaming where the industry seems to see the players as "the enemy", to be wrung as tightly as possible until every last cent drips from them, while giving them just enough to keep them coming back. Consoles are an extension of this now and a way to wrest control away from the user. They are no longer necessary technologically and we shouldn't have to put up with these draconian regulations just to have access to the games we want.
The number of people in category A has been demonstrated to be very, very small in every study to date (TorrentFreak links to many of them), while the number of B's is quite high. There are a multitude of studies that show that people who pirate heavily, have also invested lots more money in the medium they pirate than infrequent downloaders.
If I only have $100 monthly to spend on gaming, that's all I have to spend on gaming. Sure, I could pirate beyond that budget because its free, but if somehow magically became unavailable, I'd just have to go without. Most people work in this way if they have any financial wits. Moreover, I would think that frequent pirates who are technically able and very invested in gaming will be the discriminating when choosing what they do with the money they have budgeted for entertainment - I know I am. Many pirates reward developers who make fantastic games and make ethical and user-friendly choices like avoiding DRM. The Humble Bundle, for all the piracy thereof, made MILLIONS regardless! Devs and publishers need to stop looking at imaginary losses and look instead to increasing real gains. Make your game high quality, get rid of draconian DRM and price-gouging DLC, sell it for a reasonable price across as many platforms as you can, and people will buy - simple as that. That's how you get everyone, pirates and non-pirates alike, to use their budgeted entertainment fund for your game.
I bought the bundle on Steam, because I like to support indie games and 2 games for $2.50 was the right indie price. As it turns out, both are excellent titles in the vein of the old Dragon Warrior series and I look forward to further offerings. Steam offers great promotion whenever they run one of their sales or announce something new, and I'm very glad that they extend this courtesy to indie games selling for under $5 as they do big-name AAA titles.
Personally, I feel that we in its entirety, we no longer need game consoles - they're a relic of a day when affordable computing was generally of singular purpose. Today, consoles are more PC-like than ever, save for restrictive OSes and locked down tech to limit doing things to "The Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo" way. Its pretty much holding games hostage - "If you want to play Metal Gear Solid 4, you have to buy a PS3, abide by its rules, use PSN to go online for multiplay etc...". Every game from the indie set to the biggest corporate AAA kit is developed on PCs..so let them play on PCs as well. Many of us own PCs and it costs less to outfit them for gaming with more power and control available for the money. Peripherals and controllers can easily be sold separately and used on a PC - most already are and Microsoft's full support of the X360 controller under Windows shows this in action (Compare to Sony's refusal to put together a driver package for the Dual Shock 3, so you have to use 3rd party hacked drivers and give up an entire bluetooth dongle. Nobody is buying Dual Shock 3 to play PC games or emulators, for the most part, where people are using Logitech F710 and X360 types). I can't think of a single reason for consoles to still exist, save for greed and to a lesser extent "tradition". It angers me further to see the "consolization" of powerful multiuse hardware into locked down content delivery platforms (ie. iOS etc...)
Especially Indie developers who run on shoestring budgets, casting your lot with Steam, Humble Indie Bundles, Desura and other "friendly" digital distribution services is a good move. You'll have quite a bit more freedom than the console stores and have a better chance of your target audience equipped to play your game and willing to invest, especially with niche titles. There are things that I wish Steam would do better (ie. Linux Client.) but they do provide a great value in advertising, showing your game directly to people that buy other games whenever they log in. Consoles seem intent on extorting as much money as possible for everything and their taint has crossed to the PC world quite some time ago, such aswhen Oblivion's PC version had paid Horse Armor DLC on 360, they couldn't provide it for free on PC. Many console (and consolized-favoring) platform owners talk a good game about "develop for our platform and you'll have access to all these people who do X, Y, and Z and you'll be rich.", but those words are just wind. PC development give you choices and allows you to easily port, use or make any tools you desire and basically create as you wish without limits and with plenty of options.
Gamification is a very useful term for what we think of as "social network gaming"; not just an indicative that someone isn't enjoying the formula. "Gamification" is basically taking the elements that make someone play a game or engage in certain behavior and applying them to other applications - The yogurt shoppe near me punches a card every time I buy so much froyo, and provides a free item when the card is full. That's no different than an "Achievement" that unlocked a perk. The business thinks, "If we dangle this carrot, they'll come back". Now, I have about 4 full punch cards by now that I always forget to put into my wallet - I go for fantastic yogurt and the one hostess with the crush on me that provides me the *good* tea from the back - but the theory is still sound.
When these theories are applied back to games again, it is typically through the marketing lens of "can we create a super addictive game that makes us far more money than a good one"? Typically, what they choose time and time again is the "skinner box" theory - Press button, get reward. All these "social" network games take it one step forward though so its "You can't press your OWN button. You have to press someone else's button in the hopes that someone will press yours" - this is Farmville, Mafia Wars and other "social "games in an instant. Its not a game, its an obligation - We've all seen SouthPark's Facebook Episode and read about the people who break up relationships and friendships because Person B did not come online to tend to Person A's virtual farm fast enough, crops died etc... add in microtransactions and you're paying for someone who's harvesting your information and enticing you to convince every friend, family member and acquaintance into your virtual goatroap!
These are not good games. They're not fun. They are carefully designed with some extremely powerful aspects of gamification that, if they work on a majority of the populace, will make for more money then developing true virtual worlds where actual choice and selective rewards are present - with a strong enough dose of gamification, the illusion is indistinguishable.
Ahh, maybe I'm incorrect but I thought that vanity pets had "item levels" but no actual level requirement? If this isn't the case then I can see how they'd have to keep that kind of limitation there.
As far as the spam/goldseller invite - That's a new one. Honestly I didn't think it had a high enough ROI - you can send out 20 whispers at once with a good chatmod and see who talks back, but you only invite to one party at the time and there's not that many people who will accept party invites from strangers and stay there past the initial spam. Then again, perhaps something like a limit on party invites...only 1 per minute or somesuch for Trial accounts would get around this issue and make it even of lesser usefulness for goldselling.
As a longtime WoW Player - relatively casual mind you. I've never beaten an expansion's end-game raid content during that expansion (ie. I went to the Sunwell for a tour when I made 80) - though I disagree with their limitations, I can probably inform non-players on why they are so strict
0. Level 20 - Goes without saying, this is a nice chunk of the early game. If you want to go higher, you'll like the game enough to subscribe..hopefully
1. 10 Gold Limit. WoW has a copper/silver/gold scheme, and 10 Gold is a lot of money for a level 20..who's not a second or later alternate character being "fed" by a max-level character with thousands. This limit I actually agree with - it ensures that Chinese reps that sell gold for real money can't use these characters to make "free" delivery mules as the only people buying gold are buying it by the thousands or ten thousands.
2. Trade Skills Capped at 100 - This is sort of the "crafting" (Blacksmithing, Cooking, Fishing, Mining, etc...) equivalent of being capped at level 20. There was a time when certain blocks of trades were level-limited anyway so you couldn't have a crafting-only mule (ie. to make Artisan level items of 225+ skill you needed to be over level 45)
3. Unable to trade - This is probably again to keep Chinese from using these characters to sell expensive high-end items for real money. You would pay on their website, they log in on one of their low level characters and give you the item you bought. Personally, I think this is far too restrictive. Rather, I would like to see them include all these trade formats but only limited to "Item levels" (in game, mostly hidden ratings on items) viable to level 30 and below. That would enable your friend to give you a set of level 15 armor, without allowing you to hold Furor's Compendium of Dragonslaying or the Battered Hilt (two old items that were often sold for tons of gold as they started the quest for the user to pick up an excellent Epic weapon).
4. No public channels - Again, blame Chinese Real Money Transaction/Farmers/Hackers. They already spam public channels (such as the Trade channel that exists in all major game cities) but have actually been cracked down on quite a bit. This is far too draconian a restriction as the public channels are a great way to make friends, get answers, and generally open a new player to the MMO community. (And if you're on a PVP server, you get the bonus feature of being called a 'gay scrub faggot' whenever you speak too!)
5. No whispers outgoing - Yes, again with China. Since they started getting banned by players reporting their spam in public chat, they started whispering individual players they saw speak in chat at some point. If you get a whisper/tell from low level with an incomprehensible name, that seems like "do u remember me?" or "hi friend do you have time I have great deal for you", you're being offered paid services from this gray-market industry. The restrictions are not too bad here so if someone whispers to you, you can talk back.
6. No party invites - Not sure the idea behind this one. Partying is an integral experience and there's no reason after going through 10 levels or so that a new player wouldn't feel confident enough to start their own or run one of the low-level dungeons. I guess you can be invited to others - not sure how the gadget that auto-finds you dungeon groups factors into this - but I see no harm in having trial players offer parties to others.
7. No parties with those over 20 - Okay, this is to keep from being "powerleveled", (Someone with a much higher level kills everything for you to gain experience). To my knowledge this doesn't work any longer because the XP calculation is miniscule if there's a greater than 5 level disparity in members. I guess its to keep them from killing everything so you can finish quests unusually quick. No real problem here.
8. No VOIP - Most players use external VOIP so this isn't a big deal, but there's nothing its even really helpful to have VOIP for around level 20 anyway. I guess
I have a N900 that I really enjoy, but I admit I'm less than enthused at how the platform has stagnated. I was expecting a lot more development, but with Microsoft's intrusion and Nokia mismanagement, I can't say I'm surprised. The N900 is showing its age but a lot of tweaking can help, but even MeeGo 1.2 Dev edition doesn't have everything hardwarewise working! I'd like to update to a non-Android phone, but I'm afraid that we're at a dead end. The N950 is likely out of my hands - I'm not a developer in any meaningful sense, so I'd have to pick up the N9. Hardware wise I'm liking it, though I'd like to see a newer generation dual or quad core A9. Unfortunately, from the posts here that show that Harmattan isn't even MeeGo proper suggest that like its predecessor, the software is going to be a stagnant flop for all save those who want to use it exclusively as a mobile Linux CLI, instead of a modern smartphone. As much as I like what I can do with my N900, what I can't is annoying.
The best way I can see to give the platform some staying power is enabling it to run android apps through some sort of seemless virtualization, if they won't run native? I'd love to have a little android sandbox where I could install anything from the App Market and use Layar or Google Maps Android App when I want them, without being subject to tracking all the time and whatnot, or install the Battle.Net authenticator which I know will never come in a native fashion to Maemo/MeeGo, sadly. Building the phone with this in mind would give it the chops to stand up as a "modern" smart phone in addition to being a geek toy. Otherwise, I fear it will be another footnote of incompatibility.
T-Mobile now has a "hidden" set of plans called "EvenMore PLUS". They had them on the website for awhile, but they recently took them down as they want to rook more people into buying their 2-year contract "EvenMore" plans, which actually aren't that bad if you're the kind who wants a high end Android phone and a lot to use. EvenMore PLUS however, is ZERO contract with the expected catch being that you have to bring your own GSM phone or buy one full retail. I have unlimited "everything", but if I recall correctly you get get 1000 minutes/month (w/free nights and weekends) for like $30-40 monthly, or 500 min/month (w/free nights and weekends) for $20-30, assuming no text and web. I pay about $70USD/month for Unlimited talk, unlimited text, "unlimited" (truly unlimited, but if you download more than 5gb they throttle you. However, no data roaming or overage fees! I've downloaded more than 10gb before without being throttled so I assume it isn't automatic but instead they have to "notice" you) data on my Nokia N900. All these plans have zero contract, and there's a cool generally-unknown feature where you can buy a phone from T-Mo at retail price and pay it in installments without interest. So if you buy a $500 Android handset, you can opt to have it billed at an additional $20, 50, 100 et.c.. per month with no taxes and without them trying to convert you to contract plan, which actually costs MORE per month.
For GSM, I think it is the best way to go at least for now - if ATT takes over, god knows what will happen but they'll need to honor current agreements at least. It also gets you a lot of features not present on Net10/TracFone etc...like unlimited nights and weekends and of course SMS and data use is available if you decide you need it later.
THIS is the kind of stuff that these teams should be spending their time on. Loathe as they are to admit it, Anon is at their best when they're fighting an "actual evil". There is an element of the "We don't give a fuck! Look how cool we are!" groups that decide to hack some game developer's site for the lulz and release everyone's passwords, but its really not that lulzy - its causing real damage to real people who don't deserve it. The greatest lulz are had from exposing corruption - sticking it to people who didn't know ZeniMax had terribad security and were stupid enough to make such accounts? Not so great. Sticking it to Sony for their heavyhanded punishment of PSN users, law suits, and horrible response to anyone who wanted to use the console they paid for as they wished? Better. Unveiling that an FBI-employed individual who runs his own private infosec company is not only incapable of securing his own website, but is corrupt enough to use our tax money to offer LulzSec a contract to take out his private industry white hat competitors? This kind of stuff is the best.
These movements are truly the only light we have in the darkness - moneyed private interests and their government puppets have become complacent in their corruption and the average citizen has little power to stop the cycle. They have a near unlimited amount of money and power, but through hubris their lies become visible through the actions of Anonymous, WikiLeaks, LulzSec and the others that fight against censorship and other abuses of power. Look at websites like BoASucks - showing conclusively they knew they were handing out bad loans and looking to screw people financially. WikiLeaks data showed that my tax dollars went to funding boy-fucking parties for Afghan leaders and a private contract merc corp, a couple of chucklefucks laughed like they played Call of Duty while shooting a makeshift ambulance known to have children inside during the Iraq conflict, and that all the corruption of the 2 quagmire conflicts over the past 10 years were just as bad as we thought they'd be.
We need these groups to help inform the people and make them angry. Angry enough to look beyond the puppet show and realize that we're living in a corporate plutocracy and its only getting worse. These groups use the force multiplier of the Internet to strike at a vastly better funded and protected enemy; its one of the only options we have at the moment until Americans are willing to do what the Arab World is doing...which doesn't seem likely as long as the bread and circuses are cheap enough. However, the fight against the Scientology proved the power of groups like Anon to provide a "spark" to ignite when the powder keg is packed full enough, and information to fill it. Prior to Anon's campaign, most of America thought Scientology was just "some weird new age thing celebs do", but those who's families were torn apart by Fair Game tactics and lost loved ones were suffering alone against a seemingly invincible opponent with a horde of lawyers and crooked power-brokers on its payroll. Anon's activity is nearly singlehandedly responsible for bringing their offenses into the light. Though some will say "but they didn't totally destroy it, so its a loss", this isn't the case at all. Now, the average American will at least know its a "creepy cult" and instances such as certain states and countries (Texas and Germany come to mind, plus others) have revoked their tax-exempt status due to Anon's work. Recruitment is down and those who have been abused by Scientology Orgs are now more willing than ever to engage in legal battles. Its really a pretty amazing thing when you think about it, fostered by a bunch of typically 20's-30s upper-middle class males who decided to wear masks, protest, and get the word out. For some it was an issue of ethics, for others simply for the lulz, its effect is undeniable. I've even heard from some Arab Awakening youth who said that Anon was one of the inspirations for them to join the various movements, showing that young
I see a lot of prancing around the issue with "Oh, how can we make it fair for the delightful businesses that provide us this service", and that is not what we should be focusing on at all. Fuck em. Telcoms are no longer serving their purpose - they were given the keys to the kingdom to provide connectivity and they've had to be broken up, monopolized again, and basically done everything possible to line their pockets. They whine about cost of doing what they're paid to do while they receive subsidy after subsidy of taxpayer money "BAWWWW We want to take your tax money, roll out only where is profitable, and restrict your bandwidth because we'd much rather enjoy your money in other ways, instead of doing what you're paying us to do".
After seeing Hitler's awesome autobahn, the USA founded the Interstate program because certain members of our government knew that patchwork roads, with varying degrees of tolls and maintenance were holding our nation back. It enabled the rise to prominence of American manufacturing when you didn't have to worry about sending trucks full of heavy steel over some bumpy dirt road to get through Kansas. We deserve the same kind of information infrastructure and the only way that can happen is by taking it OUT of for-profit hands and making all the infrastructure in the nation owned by We The People.
Every single nation that has those high internet speeds so coveted by the rest of the developed world is doing this, in some form or another. This is also one of those times when a little "EVIL SOCIALISM BWA HA HA HA" actually increases competition and openness in the market. Imagine how many GSM-type providers we could have in this country if we forced ATT to share "their" towers, bought with our subsidy? How many customer-focused ISPs could there be if you didn't have to run your own fiber? Even politicians speak about our information infrastructure's importance, so lets start policies that ensure its dominance. We need to be rolling out "The best' service across the nation, as with Interstates, not just where it is deemed most profitable for greedy telcos. Cut out the bloody middleman who's bleeding both the gov't and individual subscribers dry to fill his own pockets! I don't want to have to rely on Google and Microsoft's "generosity" to fight for an uncapped, uncensored Internet and universal infrastructure - this is just prolonging the problem of corpocracy. We need a fundamental shift and universal change.
Hey, if you (or anyone else that likes Global Agenda) use one of the coupon codes below on the Global Agenda Store: http://www.globalagendagame.com/thegame_shop.html
They will give you 30% off Elite status, a booster, or anything else you buy! I don't make any profit from you using these, save for if enough people do I get an in-game pet or something. Enjoy!
GACOU214858315530
GACOU214858332330
GACOU214858352900
They can each be used once and I hope you enjoy the game!
Here's a quick overview of the Steam announced titles.
Global Agenda: Free Agent - I've been playing this for quite some time, back since it was "boxed product" that was going to be a MMO. The devs then actually had the integrity to say "You know what, monthly subscriptions aren't right for this...so we're just not going to do them." That evolved into its current state where it is actually completely free, and you can pay a $20 ONE TIME fee to be upgraded to Elite Agent status on your account (anyone with a boxed copy of the game on their account is automatically Elite) which unlocks a number of things, including speedier XP and more loot. You can also pay for name changes or buy a "booster" which further gives you 2x XP and Loot, plus so many "free" tokens every day. Amazingly for a free game, to get the best in game gear you don't have to buy or pay for anything if you don't want to. Global Agenda plays well on Linux through the use of WINE, at least in my experience. Onto the gameplay itself, mix "Planetside" with "Guild Wars" and you get a MMOTPS/FPS that is actually really, really fun. There's a lot of content available, open world "questing" areas like any other MMO...but you have to use your FPS/TPS skills to take down that enemy you need for the quest. PvE content, PVP content, and Agency vs Agency combat in a meta-game for map control of various "Hexes" on a grid. If your agency (guild) say, owns a hex and have built a special building on it that provides resources, it can be attacked by another enemy agency - 15+ members of your team teleport to an in-game instance of that hex (with special building) and you fight against 15 of the attacking enemy etc... Crafting is more accessible than ever and there's a nice amount of customization. Out of all the "shooter MMOs", I think Global Agenda is one of the best. It may not have the scale of Planetside, but it has a nice "Guild Wars + Tribes" mix that's really unlike most of what's out there, polished to a nice shine. I buy boosters just to keep this business plan viable.
Champions Online: Free For All - Cryptic, the developers from the City of Heroes team, made this "sequel" if you will, to practice for their better known MMO, Star Trek Online. One thing Cryptic does better than most other MMO developers is to make you "feel" powerful. Blasting someone with a ice beam has a real "weight to it" and you feel "super" when you deploy your batman-style grappler to swing around the map. In Champions, Free "Silver" players have a wide variety of prefab archetypes that basically include a balanced set of powers along a fixed progression. If you want to mix and match core skills, you'll need the "Gold" subscription, which is like LOTRO/DDO in that it costs the standard MMO fee monthly. Gold also allows you free access to many of the "travel powers", which silver players can purchase individually if they wish. After selecting your character's powers, you can design a costume from what is likely THE most comprehensive costuming system in a MMO to date. If you want to be a hero with a tiny green head with pointy ears, a barrel chest, red hulk hands attached to robot arms, you can do that. Silver players have a lot of the content unlocked, but there will be some that need to be unlocked with a Cryptic Points (a RMT token). Those that don't want to spend anything can have a great experience and not "fall behind", provided they don't mind losing some access to certain costumes, travel powers and a couple of the Adventure Pack zones of the game. Unlike many, you can level to the cap easily in the zones available and without buying any XP-boosters. Its a good value for Silver players and has what you'd expect from a Super Hero MMO and many of the things you may not. Works in WINE on Linux, in my experience.
Spiral Knights - Anyone play "The Legend of Zelda: The Four Swords Adventure"? Spiral Knights, made by the Puzzle Pirates developer three rings (Amazingly, one of the only devs with the balls to create guild owned pirate ships that p
The report itself basically alternated between paper-thin rhetoric and stuff that if anyone else said them, they'd be called out as a "9/11 Truther". Keep this in mind. The report actually says "The official explanation is incorrect or incomplete. There MUST be more going on behind the scenes that we'd like to investigate. We have stuff that just doesn't add up". Why wasn't there any continuance of investigation into the most devastating attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor? Well, because the 9/11 commission ran out of money. I don't remember the exact figures, but the 9/11 Commission was given something like 11 million dollars to do their work. By comparison, Ken Starr's inquisition over Bill Clinton's blowjob had like 800 Million at its disposal. Doesn't something seem off? The commission were trotted out, told they did a good job and disbanded when the most preliminary of reports was filed.
It very, very clear that there are elements behind the government, likely the corporate handlers behind the scenes, who make their entire living based on obfuscating the truth, providing misinformation, and bending the views and actions of others to their will. They have no interest in "information sharing and transparency", its poison to their backroom deals. However, many of them have grown confident knowing that nomatter what they do, much of the country is working too hard, too tired, too entertained, or too ignorant to ever pose a threat to them. Wikileaks confirmed what the "crazy liberal pinko commies" have been saying for years is right: these wars are farces predicated on greed. Yet, they continue. It doesn't matter who we vote in, because with a few exceptions (Kucinich comes to mind), everyone is controlled by the same corporate plutocracy; which uses its wiles to misdirect hatred and frustration onto "Government". Be it Tea Party, NeoCon, or Libertarian, every time they see someone shouting "Down with the Statists! Less government control!" They laugh - They've managed to fool people into thinking that government is by nature, evil - thus calling to give private moneyed interest even MORE power and less regulation. Its genius really. There are examples all over the world where "Government", even much stronger government, works well - France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark etc.. come to mind. Sure, nowhere is perfect but they look at us as barbarians for letting private industry and finance have such control over our nation.
I'll say it very plainly - American elected representatives do not work for "The People", they work for the people who elect them and pay them - corporations. Until we completely reform campaigning from the ground up to be financially neutral, there isn't going to be a change. Until we make it selfishly in the interest of those in public office to serve the public instead of moneyed special interest, there isn't going to be a change. I'm seriously thinking that we may very well need an "Arab Spring" style revolution, as its clear these guys aren't going to vote to change the status quo. We need a new nation with an absolute central government that serves the good of the people and cannot be tempted by the money of private interests, in fact putting a boot squarely on the neck of capitalism to ensure that it only exists in such a way that serves the good of the whole, regulating the fuck out of greed which will take a mile if you give an inch. Until people are ready however, all we can do is contribute and do our parts - if you're technically inclined, mirror leaked documents etc.... bring as much information into the open as possible. And wait....
I'm the proud owner of a N900, but I'm very frustrated in how MeeGo has stagnated, especially regarding Microsoft's attempt to nail it into its coffin. Maemo/MeeGo is by far the best mobile OS around that provides true power to the user and may actually, over time, have the same kind of exposure that Android did influential in growing "App" developer networks. Sadly, with few if any devices shipping its going to remain a playtoy.
I'd like to see MeeGo become basically installable on any device that Android can reside and more. If its going to have to take over the "old fashioned" dual boot way, so be it. When its features are useful enough to basically work as a phone, I'm going to put MeeGo (1.2? 1.3?) on my N900. However, it would be great if it could also load onto Nexus S, Nexus One, etc.. and a host of other higher end android offerings. On the tablet side, I just bought an Asus Transformer - let me load the tablet edition onto it? If there was a new top-tier phone released with MeeGo and the assurance it would be upgradable and not simply stuck and outdated, I'd buy. If this isn't happening anymore and MeeGo wants to be successful, make it compatible enough that those geeks who appreciate it will seek out and install it on their devices that shipped with other OSes.
Most of these streaming boxes are basically low-power variants of home theater PCs. Some even include hard disks, or allow storage to be connected via USB/eSATA. I have a WD TV Live Plus, which basically runs Linux under the hood (there are even some custom firmwares, especially for legacy WDTV products, which add all sorts of stuff from bittorrent to SSH and more, not unlike what DDWRT/Tomato and other custom SOHO router firmwares add), on a bedroom TV. It connects wirelessly to my network via a cheap N dongle (some models have wireless included), and I have it pull media primarily from my Arch Linux NAS box. It has tons of codec support and handles streaming 1080p MKVs with subtitles, provided the wireless is up to snuff. If I had a Netflix subscription, it can Watch Instantly. It has an assortment of other little options as well, like being able to view picture slide shows, and an assortment of options such as Facebook integration, YouTube viewing etc... It even has DTS and can output via HDMI 1.3 (newer versions, 1.4).
These boxes are relatively cheap, easy to use even for those who lack tech know-how, and provide a great deal of flexibility and freedom in how a user accesses their media. Granted, a full on HTPC will give you more features, power, and control but that's also more expensive to do right and requires a lot more configuration. I'm not so worried about them being a fad as much as I am watching corporate greed continue to castrate their abilities. For instance, look at the native media streaming features of the PS3 and Xbox360 - they can't play nearly the amount of formats without conversion my WDTV can, much less an actual PC, nor are there the same amount of options and ability to access from different protocols (ie. SAMBA, NFS etc..). Instead, they want you to purchase content from their private stores with the DRM and prices they choose. The very same happens for all but the highest end embedded streaming functions in HDTV - they're limited to certain parners (youtube, facebook, twitter...) and certain filetypes.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that users, for the most part, are either fine with the way media is going - DRM/DLC/Consolization of convergence devices into walled gardens etc.... thus streaming boxes and whanot may move into the same niche as HTPC builders. However, so long as some of them try to provide inexpensive, quality access to your media rather than simply pushing you towards buying something, they will have a place in the household of anyone with networked storage and multi-room media needs.
I'll put this in a way that Slashdot will get. Remember one of those horrible clients you had at some point? The guy who said "Create me a website" and picked apart your sleek design until it looked like something from Angelfire, complete with "In Construction" tape? The guy who wanted you to secure his network, but didn't want you to use passwords on the wireless, nor MAC filtering, nor pay for any key management services? The fellow who insisted that you spend all bloody day doing something outside your job description for clueless people managed by even more clueless management?
What if they could instantly review you negatively in an easy way? What if Gerald from Accounting decides you didn't get to his MS Excel error swift enough and proclaims for all the world to see "X is lazy, bad at his job, made me wait for HOURS for a simple task. Never hire him!". Should that really be fair and acceptable? But..you cry "Gerald is an idiot who didn't know all the circumstances involved and I wasn't even given a chance to defend myself... now I can't get a job!?" .... Bingo.
Many IT, engineering, and science workers, even at the Professional level, don't have the same kind of "presence" in the community as physicians and lawyers. Most of them operate their own offices or groups, and the public is very, very interested in trying to figure out a "good" doctor from a bad one. Our old friend capitalism has extended from those "people search" pay services, to "doctor search" ones and created a huge marketing blitz like "Find out how many patients have filed a complaint...could YOUR doctor be bad?!" Remember that the most frivolous of malpractice lawsuits, with million dollar judgements are awarded generally by making the jury feel sorry for the patient, regardless if their troubles were the result of the doctor at all. Doctors are paying between $10,000 - 100,000 USD yearly in order to deal with this. When ill-informed patients can get million dollar judgments upheld through emotional pleas, it doesn't bode well for doctors trying to protect themselves from incorrect reviews. Professionals can most certainly be bad at their job and screw up, but when some philistine off the street walks in, demands the latest prescription they saw on the evening news, doesn't want to undertake proper therapy, is generally non-compliant etc... and then turns around and writes a scathing review of the physician, this shouldn't occur.
What's needed is a single, open-source solution regarding doctor information that protects physicians and patients. Perhaps one could be set up by the American College of X (Surgeons, Gynecologists etc) for their members, or by state organizations for all in state etc... Each physician would have a homepage not unlike that of a social network, where they could place information about their practice, directions, contact info, and any little blurbs they wish to share. Each physician would be given a hash that changes monthly to place on his business cards and give to patients to use as a password when visiting his page. Doing so allows the patient to bind his or her account to be able to comment on/to the physician in a private area. They would have to use their real name and use the doctor's private area password, to ensure they were really patients. In the private area there could be HIPPA-compliant encrypted channels for medical communication and questions, such as in-house email and instant messaging, should the doctor want to make themselves available online. Patients can also write reviews, with some rules in place. Positive reviews will show up on the doctor's homepage (docs can omit/hide them if they wish) and the patient can decide if they want their name to be public or not. Negative reviews are more comprehensive and will be restricted to the private area. Those who file a negative review must be willing to correspond with the physician again to help reach a resolution or understanding - sniping and leaving will lead to the comment being erased. The doct
I live in a small town a few miles outside the DC Metro area. With an hour's drive or so, I can be to one of the Metro lines. The ONLY option we have for "broadband" here is either 3MB DSL through Verizon, for around $40/month, or DOCSIS2-level Comcast Cable for about $55/month. For years I petitioned for FIOS in the hopes of seeing affordable 50MB connections in my town, but I found a document back from 2007 saying basically "Yeah, residents there are basically brainless country bumpkins that can barely use a rotary phone, so no way in fucking hell are we rolling fiber all the way out there. Lets uh...put it on our long term plan. We'll get it in by oh..2009 or so". Well, now its 2011 and I have the same 3MB DSL and DOCSIS2-level Comcast because business has decided its not worth the cost to give us any infrastructure. Of course, both these companies whined and complained until they got exclusivity agreements in my county, and installed FIOS and DOCSIS3 down where all the councilmen live. I've spoken to my town council and have been told they don't have the resources to go to war with Comcast and Verizon if they wanted to lay their own fiber.
I see a lot of posts around here that "Government is evil, it lets business do evil things because its evil. It also never does anything right", but this is exactly what private enterprise wants you to think. Look at how much in this nation is privatized, from overcrowded brutal prisons to the military-industrial complex, "Oh that kooky Gov't couldn't do anything without us!". Government doesn't work because the people who pay to elect representatives into said government do not WANT it to work. So, they box it up in red tape so that they can go back to their campaign financiers and say "Oh please Mr. Private Industry! Save us from this! Little ol government just can't get it right!", which has the alternate benefit of swaying the populace to believe government is by very nature incapable of doing anything right.
Moneyed private industry is in a WAR with government services. They don't want there to be options. They don't want to compete with anyone they can't buy out or bribe. They want absolute control and they've crippled our entire nation lusting after such avarice. This is why we can't even have a "public option" for healthcare, lest the peasants find out exactly how fucked they are by insurance companies. This is why cities are sued by telecoms when they just want to spend their tax dollars to put in infrastructure that isn't profitable for big business.
However, the most egregious of all recent examples is the Post Office. Talk to your Postmaster if s/he's over 40 sometime and you'll learn a lot. Did you know that the USPS is BY LAW forbidden to have its own fleet of planes for delivering mail? Every single one of those Express Mail/Priority Mail packages, is paying for a seat on FedEx aircraft! Really puts it in perspective when FedEx Overnight is more than twice the price of USPS Express sitting right next to it, doesn't it? In addition,the USPS is the only quasi-government agency that receives NO government money - they are expected to operate like a business and stay in the black, ever since they stopped being the Department of the Post Office. Despite this, they are still saddled with old regulations like a mandate to deliver mail everywhere, keeping post offices in bumfuck, LA open for the 3 people that go there, and it takes an act of Congress for these things to change. Why did this happen you ask? It was a carefully constructed plan of whining via the private couriers UPS and FedEx, who contributed big to campaigns a few years back crying that "Waaaaa we can't compete with the Department of the Post Office. Its so damn efficient and we don't want to change our business plans or offer anything new we just want money WAAA", thus spurring their purchased policy-critters into action. Soon the Post Office was mired in red tape and bullshit and the agency that basically existed since the beginning of the US that "just worked" even when
Over the past 3 years or so, nearly every nationwide Mobile provider in the USA has castrated their data service. "Unlimited" data used to be slower, EDGE or early 3G a couple years back, but despite the expense you didn't have to worry about overages. Now it seems only Sprint (perhaps?) has an "unlimited" plan. ATT and Verizon, switching over to these capped bandwidth isn't simply to save money or keep network congestion down, but rather its the same impetus that had the 80s and 90s phone companies charging 25/c a minute for long distance - to jack up fees on a monopolized industry under the guise of "paying what you use". While true "unlimited" plans were few and far between over the last decade, they usually simply transitioned to slowing your connection speed if you were using a ton more data than most at an inconvenient time. Now, you're paying per kilobyte for overages, on top of stupidly high costs of data plans. Look at how even the iPhone 1's original data plan compares to those today - it was a $20/month unlimited option with 200 included SMS! Now, you're looking at well over $80, plus SMS packages for the high-end "5gb of transfer" plan! .
The problem is simple greed and it infests our entire system. Corporate giants for years told users "buy our new DSL/Cable/Fiber/3G/4G service.. and download more, more more! Get your movies! Get your music! Play Games" (Even when there wasn't much legal digital distribution, mind you). Not only did they benefit from upping subscription fees and only selectively rolling out broadband to the highest ROI areas, they also petitioned (read as: bought) government subsidy for "infrastructure improvements", common carrier agreements and more. Now, they figured out that instead of actually using our double-dipped tax dollars and subscription fees to actually expand infrastructure and give people the connectivity they want, its simpler to simply say "Sorry, you just can't download more than X per month. Yeah" and pocket the rest. Prices go up, service comes down and the user is meant to lick the boots of telecoms that have fucked over this nation's information infrastructure. There is only one solution.
We need to take that money and control out of the hands of private companies, and invest it in We The People. Nationalize our entire information infrastructure. Prior to Eisenhower's Interstate, the physical roadway system was heading towards the same kind of mess as today's information highways - unpaved roads, shoddy maintenance, only serviceable where profitable, and tolls were levied constantly. Even the fucking ROMANS figured out that the first thing to do when expanding their empire was to nationalize the roadway system and kick all the bandits collecting tolls along travel pathways the hell out. Those bandits are just named ATT and Comcast today! Right now, the wire in the ground, despite the fact its is lain with my tax dollars, is the property of a private company, which squelches competition. There's not a piece of "Big 4" infrastructure that is not taxpayer funded in some way, so we need to simply nationalize what we already own! Then we can start rolling out true universal broadband initiatives and give our nation competitive speeds and coverage. There can be a role to play for private industry, able to lease access to the public hardware to create ISPs, with the stipulation that they must simply be a "dumb pipe" and maintain neutrality - however, private industry should never forget who their masters are - We The People through our Government - rather than the Government being a toy of private moneyed interests. Some form of this is how most European and Asian nations have ascended to gigabit broadband speeds while much of our nation is floundering with 256k and big spenders in the most cosmopolitan areas are paying $50+ monthly for 20mb.
Telecoms aren't going to stop clenching their grip until we break their fingers.
All those are good ideas. Allowing people to walk around and just play with various distros running on properly configured hardware and seeing it "just work", would go a long way towards adoption. Giving some real "geniuses" and Linux gurus a job to provide both in-person and over distance support (selling PenguinCare plans for home users that warranties any hardware purchased, plus allows access to gurus if they need help) would be a great job for the multitude of qualified sysadmins. In addition, it would be a place to go to talk shop with other users and have genteel face-to-face customer service - obviously hardcore "RTFM fuckface! Anyone can built their own kernel!" will not be welcome, but sadly sometimes those are the only people available with the skills to fix a problem or provide proper documentation online. Show users that there are plenty of friendly and *gasp* even female Linux admins there to help is a huge image boost.
I'd like to add one more important facet, something the Linux community has been missing for decades. "High End" Boutique hardware products. Go to something like OriginPC, Falcon Northwest, or Puget Systems, or even the now defunct but once-best-of-the-bunch Thunderbox. Now compare it to the average Linux desktop offering. There isn't anywhere near the range of power, aesthetics, and versatility. At best you're getting a handful of Nvidia 400-series GPUs offered on an 1155 or 1156 platform and that's about it, tossed in an Antec 900 or something. No defining that you want a SandForce SSD, or an Asus/EVGA/XFX graphics card. No fancy graphics mods or enhanced cooling etc. More over, the entire experience doesn't feel polished, which means people will be tighter with their wallets. Some builders are trying (System76 or ZaReason), but its not there yet.
Creating a boutique desktop experience, tailored to Linux user needs is relatively easy. Off the shelf products can be used, but part of the startup costs should be some unique aesthetics. Every "boutique" system builder that survives is sure to create some icongraphy and designs that help the products stand out. Alienware's original pre-HP offerings and yes, Apple's MacBook Pro have unique aesthetics. Even Falcon Northwest and other boutique builders are sure to make sure there's at least a little symbol of the design house somewhere. Both via a website and in person at the Linux Store, users should have the opportunity to create the product they need with as much flexibility as possible, both hardware and software involved. Multiple form factors and users bringing special parts from elsewhere should be available (ie. Someone wants a MythTV box and already has a capture card that is Linux compliant etc..). Allow users to select from a number of distributions and be willing to Dual Boot or install Windows in a VM, provided they bring their own legit key with the understanding that support is exclusively for the Linux OS, similar to how Mac's BootCamp doesn't cover Windows questions, save for those that affect Boot Camp itself. Factory overclock for an additional fee, install hardware monitoring tools and have an option to enable and configure all sorts of graphical shiny. Install codecs (when legal, provide instructions when not), offer WINE and CrossOver sales (the latter of which, an option for the customer to buy a license), have "packs" that install certain features for the user, most for free, and some for a nominal customization fee. For instance a "Media Pack" means the user will have VLC, Mplayer GUI variant or another, Miro, Amarok/Rhythmbox/Clementine/Banshee/SomethingElse depending on the DE they're using, for free. However, a full customization of MythTV could warrant a charge for time spent configuring and turning on the shiny. Broker an agreement with some Linux game devs, and sell titles included and the games installed per user wishes, offering both paid game content and free games like Wesnoth. A system fitting the user's exact desktop needs, with custom components, that is aesthetically ple
Ahh. I see. Well, I assume from looking at a cursory overview that pools have different rules and are supposed to payout based upon what you're contributing, so if you have a faster PC with a GPU miner, you're going to go farther than just getting a single threaded processor doing the work. It would be nice to see BitCoin Plus' policies. Do they have any fees? Does GPU mining even work? How big is the pool? Etc... I'm thinking about getting into this, but I want to make sure I can take full advantage of my hardware. Its nice to have the convenience of a web-based pool, but I don't see nearly the options I do with others.
I'm seeing a lot of conversation regarding the economics and tech of bitcoin itself, but what about Bitcoin Plus? That is to say, is it a better or worse proposition to join up with Bitcoin Plus, than it is to run any of the other Bitcoin miners? It appears that Bitcoin Plus actually is some sort of distributed computing project, in that you actually aren't signing up to mine bitcoins directly to your account as with other miners, but rather that you are agreeing to give your CPU power to the fellow that runs Bitcoin Plus for some sort of distributed operation, in return for (hopefully, if he's honest) Bitcoin rewards? Now, the FAQ page has something about 50 Bitcoins, and I'm not sure if that is an arbitrary number for example, or something having to do with payout etc... are you given BCs YOU find, or is it that every 50 Bitcoins found on the network lead to a payout of..X BC's to everyone involved?
Next, I'd also be interested to know in the type of miner this is. From what I've read, GPU mining is MUCH faster than CPU mining, but the basic miners are only CPU etc.. can this web-based miner really use GPU as well as the standalone options, if it uses it at all? I can't imagine so, unless it somehow interacts with CUDA or (Better) AMD Stream. If I remember correctly, the AMD 5000 and 6000 series high ends are the fastest bitcoin miners around, so I'd like to put my 6970 to use!