Cheaters and cheat protection will (as I think Carmack said) evolve until subtle cheaters are indistinguishable from the better players
The obvious answer, in my opinion, is that eventually the current "join a server, meet your opponents online" way of gaming will be seen as a poor alternative to playing with a group of (trusted) friends, which I consider more enjoyable anyhow.
I also suppose it won't hurt serious tournaments much - just either use a one-off client with modifications that eliminate current cheats and give no time to hack it, or bring in the player to use a designated box
And for our next trick - programming your TV to watch your favourite programs when you're not even there!
Ratings for geek programs through the closest TV equivalent of ballot-stuffing likely to be possible >;-)
Or for a scarier picture: You come back home from a two-month holiday to discover your Sony AIBO has been watching dogfood commercials the entire time, and your TiVo box now shows nothing but Lassie reruns...
If you ever give them real info (such as paying by check, ATM card or credit card) in the same transaction as you use your club card, you've just de-anonymized every club-card purchase you've ever made, and every one you ever make in the future. Doesn't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?
So why not just use the dodgy-details card when you have cash, and leave it in your pocket when you have to pay with a card/cheque?
Personally I don't bother with reward cards at all, for two reasons: 1. The privacy implications rub me up the wrong way, even if I could avoid them myself
2. If I started on that road, I'd end up with twenty of the fscking things and would require a second wallet
> but the big companies out there need to know that Red Hat != Linux.
You're missing a large point from the corporate point of view, and that's that IBM and such aren't going to waste their effort making things "probably more or less compatible with most distributions, really". If you want them to support "Linux" as opposed to just "$distribution Linux", we're going to need more from the LSB or other standards body.
When IBM can go and chat to the LSB and be told "You need to do this, this and this to make your system 100% Linux-compatible, which means that it will definitely work on all these LSB-compliant distributions", _then_ you'll see the Distribution-independence that you're looking for.
A backlash against RedHat for this sort of thing would be somewhat misdirected.
>On the other hand, a lecture on 'Linux in the enterprise' might be nice, >or even one covering 'Linux in embedded and RT microcontrollers'
That reminds me of one other wish-item: Lectures/speeches that concentrate on where we'll be in $num years time, possible future applications for $technology, etc. Let's face it, a glimpse of the future is always kinda motivating; why else would we watch "Tomorrow's World", read Sci-Fi and so on?
2. A chance to put names to faces. That means anything that'll encourage people to meet & talk to others - a good (see point 1;) bar is always a good start.
3. Decent representation. A booth staffed by people who can't answer your questions is really no good.
4. A good atmosphere. A bit more of a community feel than your average "Industry" conference. Although those who are used to wearing a tie may be less bothered by that, of course.
From the article, it's clear that the planet hasn't actually been seen, just inferred from examinination of the "light-curve" of a star seen better through the gravitational lens affect.
Fun stuff.
I was dissapointed, though, that the article missed any mention of just how far away this new planet is, and perhaps how far it would take to reach it using conventional space travel. Or better still, how likely it is to be Earth-like in ways that might make it colonisable if we were ever able to reach it...
Then again, perhaps I should knock off reading sci-fi for a few days:)
Looking at the PalmInfocenter site, the first thing that struck me was the poll in the top right:
My next PDA will be a... o HandSpring o Palm VII o Palm V o Color Palm o M$ WinCE (ed: their use of "$")
I'm a little surprised there wasn't a "Rob sux" option down the bottom:)
Anyhow, I guess it's not an official site, but it's exceptionally well done nonetheless. There's even a "palmtop edition" that's formatted to work on the 'lil suckers. Most cute.
I don't see any mention in the article that they have infant/embryo DNA samples to clone from, however. I was under the impression that one of the lessons learnt from Dolly the Sheep and similar is that if you clone from adult DNA, you have problems caused by the fact the DNA is already "aged", and is no long the information required to create an individual from the normal starting point (ie, shortly after fertilization).
But I do wish that the media would stop pushing the idea that a clone might be created with an intact set of memories, a complete person! That sort of information simply isn't stored in DNA.
"The RS/6000 B50 and a companion Intel chip-based Netfinity server are compact and designed for managing tasks like Web hosting, messaging, Internet security, directory services and electronic commerce. It runs on IBM's UNIX system, called AIX, or a low-cost, open source alternative that is popular with Web site managers, the Linux operating system.
``We expect these to be a favorite among those who demand Linux as their server operating system,'' said Kai Staats, chief executive of Terra Soft Solutions, an IBM partner."
It's nice to see that no-one is skimping on dropping the Linux name into this sort of press release - and they haven't even messed up the context!
Okay, this looks like quite a toy. Quite apart from being black and shiny, it seems to be designed as an all-round-entertainment box... DVD video, CD audio, PSX games as well as the new ones.
I can only suppose it's the idea that "this is all you need" that's prompting the price - surely DVD is established enough by now that you don't pay too much of a premium to be able to read it?
Quite amused by some of the specs, though... 32Mb RAM for the latest-and-greatest? What are these things going to be doing when they catch up with PC specs?
You're assuming the guy writing the article set up the network of the company he was working on in the first place.
Also, there are reasons for not using DHCP (easy accounting and added security, for a start) unless you need to, just as there are obvious reasons for using it.
Some people wonder why Sysadmins are known for being so cranky, why the whole "Bastard Operator from Hell" culture came about. They see intolerance for ignorance, and put it down to elitism.
But that's not the whole story. When someone fscks up - like giving out the wrong IP addresses, in Morrigan's case - it can cause a lot of headaches. So you blow up at them. I'm known in my Company for exploding over the phone at Telco staff when they give me stupid answers to simple questions: not just because I look down on them, but because their incompetence causes more unneccessary work for me.
And you consider it preferable for Lucas to wave his hands in the air and jump on the PC bandwagon?
If Jar-Jar had sounded French, would it still have racist undertones? What about Spanish? English? American?
Would you have been offended if Jar-Jar had sounded very vaguely like you?
What should Jar-Jar have sounded like, so as to not even risk offending anyone? A fscking automaton? Are we now to advise film-makers to make stupid/idiotic characters sound like _no-one_ at all?
... and Linux came out marginally on top. Conditions were a good bit more real-world, and the article is pretty well-written. Read it in English at http://www.heise.de/ct/english//99/13/ 186-1/
he next problem is what to do with all the serial cables? I hav no idea! Maybe there are some type of hub...
Check around for IOLan terminal servers - up to 16 RS232 ports can be controlled from one, and they have an ethernet port - combined with a serial/ethernet accessible power switch of some kind (there are a few types available), that's perfect for sorting out network-dead servers from the comfort of my bedroom:-)
Personally, next time a link to an anti-[Linux|Open Source|Redhat] is posted on/., I'm going to be tempted to fire up my mailreader and write them a polite apology for the mails that are undoubtedly above and below mine in their mailbox.
"Don't mind the morons and the script kiddies - 14-year olds are a pain in the bum whether or not they can even spell Linux..."
He's reasonable enough about the way he presents his argument, but it reads as if he's compiled a list of whinges and rolled them out. He's completely missed the flipside of the argument: Open Source (and all that goes with it), stability, and the fact that for some tasks it's a more suitable alternative than NT.
The "available experts" is a good point, though... do we have any numbers indicating the number of Linux-capable admins on the market?
Worth every penny, it's at least as good as the Original Civ was way back when... but don't expect it to zip along on a low-specced box any more than it would if it were a Windoze game running under '9[58]. Still perfectly playable on my lil home P266/64Mb, but it's slow enough to be annoying. I'll try it later without Gnome running.
As an aside, it's bloody annoying that you can't use your old save games with the patched version... but I guess that's life.
Slashdot Mirror
Cheaters and cheat protection will (as I think Carmack said) evolve until subtle cheaters are indistinguishable from the better players
The obvious answer, in my opinion, is that eventually the current "join a server, meet your opponents online" way of gaming will be seen as a poor alternative to playing with a group of (trusted) friends, which I consider more enjoyable anyhow.
I also suppose it won't hurt serious tournaments much - just either use a one-off client with modifications that eliminate current cheats and give no time to hack it, or bring in the player to use a designated box
I think you misparsed: "all the frequencies between 71 and 275 that radio astronomers currently use" != "all the frequencies between 71 and 275".
And it's fairly clear the moderators didn't bother to look any more closely... *sigh*
And for our next trick - programming your TV to watch your favourite programs when you're not even there!
Ratings for geek programs through the closest TV equivalent of ballot-stuffing likely to be possible >;-)
Or for a scarier picture: You come back home from a two-month holiday to discover your Sony AIBO has been watching dogfood commercials the entire time, and your TiVo box now shows nothing but Lassie reruns...
If you ever give them real info (such as paying by check, ATM card or credit card) in the same transaction as you use your club card, you've just
de-anonymized every club-card purchase you've ever made, and every one you ever make in the future. Doesn't that just make you feel all warm
and fuzzy inside?
So why not just use the dodgy-details card when you have cash, and leave it in your pocket when you have to pay with a card/cheque?
Personally I don't bother with reward cards at all, for two reasons:
1. The privacy implications rub me up the wrong way, even if I could avoid them myself
2. If I started on that road, I'd end up with twenty of the fscking things and would require a second wallet
We'll all be quoting the phrase
"All pocket tools evolve until they can send email".
With the inevitable corrolary:
"... except WinCE palmtops"
> but the big companies out there need to know that Red Hat != Linux.
You're missing a large point from the corporate point of view, and that's that IBM and such aren't
going to waste their effort making things "probably more or less compatible with most distributions,
really". If you want them to support "Linux" as opposed to just "$distribution Linux", we're going
to need more from the LSB or other standards body.
When IBM can go and chat to the LSB and be told "You need to do this, this and this to make your
system 100% Linux-compatible, which means that it will definitely work on all these LSB-compliant
distributions", _then_ you'll see the Distribution-independence that you're looking for.
A backlash against RedHat for this sort of thing would be somewhat misdirected.
>On the other hand, a lecture on 'Linux in the enterprise' might be nice,
>or even one covering 'Linux in embedded and RT microcontrollers'
That reminds me of one other wish-item: Lectures/speeches that concentrate on where we'll be in $num years time,
possible future applications for $technology, etc. Let's face it, a glimpse of the future is always kinda motivating;
why else would we watch "Tomorrow's World", read Sci-Fi and so on?
1. Free stuff. Let's face it, don't we all?
;) bar
2. A chance to put names to faces. That means
anything that'll encourage people to meet &
talk to others - a good (see point 1
is always a good start.
3. Decent representation. A booth staffed by
people who can't answer your questions is
really no good.
4. A good atmosphere. A bit more of a community
feel than your average "Industry" conference.
Although those who are used to wearing a tie
may be less bothered by that, of course.
From the article, it's clear that the planet hasn't actually been seen, just inferred from
:)
examinination of the "light-curve" of a star seen better through the gravitational lens affect.
Fun stuff.
I was dissapointed, though, that the article missed any mention of just how far away this new
planet is, and perhaps how far it would take to reach it using conventional space travel. Or
better still, how likely it is to be Earth-like in ways that might make it colonisable if we were
ever able to reach it...
Then again, perhaps I should knock off reading sci-fi for a few days
It's not the real URL, but if the cap fits...
:)
Looking at the PalmInfocenter site, the first thing that struck me was the poll in the top right:
My next PDA will be a...
o HandSpring
o Palm VII
o Palm V
o Color Palm
o M$ WinCE (ed: their use of "$")
I'm a little surprised there wasn't a "Rob sux" option down the bottom
Anyhow, I guess it's not an official site, but it's exceptionally well done nonetheless. There's even a "palmtop edition" that's formatted to work on the 'lil suckers. Most cute.
How does it feel to be slashdotted?
Is there magic smoke coming out of the server yet?
:)
I don't see any mention in the article that they have infant/embryo DNA samples to clone from, however. I was under the impression that one of the lessons learnt from Dolly the Sheep and similar is that if you clone from adult DNA, you have problems caused by the fact the DNA is already "aged", and is no long the information required to create an individual from the normal starting point (ie, shortly after fertilization).
But I do wish that the media would stop pushing the idea that a clone might be created with an intact set of memories, a complete person! That sort of information simply isn't stored in DNA.
From the article:
"The RS/6000 B50 and a companion Intel chip-based Netfinity server are compact and designed for managing tasks like Web hosting, messaging, Internet security, directory services and electronic commerce. It runs on IBM's UNIX system, called AIX, or a low-cost, open source alternative that is popular with Web site managers, the Linux operating system.
``We expect these to be a favorite among those who demand Linux as their server operating system,'' said Kai Staats, chief executive of Terra Soft Solutions, an IBM partner."
It's nice to see that no-one is skimping on dropping the Linux name into this sort of press release - and they haven't even messed up the context!
Okay, this looks like quite a toy. Quite apart from being black and shiny, it seems to be designed as an all-round-entertainment box... DVD video, CD audio, PSX games as well as the new ones.
I can only suppose it's the idea that "this is all you need" that's prompting the price - surely DVD is established enough by now that you don't pay too much of a premium to be able to read it?
Quite amused by some of the specs, though... 32Mb RAM for the latest-and-greatest? What are these things going to be doing when they catch up with PC specs?
You're assuming the guy writing the article set up the network of the company he was working on in the first place.
Also, there are reasons for not using DHCP (easy accounting and added security, for a start) unless you need to, just as there are obvious reasons for using it.
Some people wonder why Sysadmins are known for being so cranky, why the whole "Bastard Operator from Hell" culture came about. They see intolerance for ignorance, and put it down to elitism.
But that's not the whole story. When someone fscks up - like giving out the wrong IP addresses, in Morrigan's case - it can cause a lot of headaches. So you blow up at them. I'm known in my Company for exploding over the phone at Telco staff when they give me stupid answers to simple questions: not just because I look down on them, but because their incompetence causes more unneccessary work for me.
Is it any wonder BOfHs are what they are?
And you consider it preferable for Lucas to wave his hands in the air and jump on the PC bandwagon?
If Jar-Jar had sounded French, would it still have racist undertones? What about Spanish? English? American?
Would you have been offended if Jar-Jar had sounded very vaguely like you?
What should Jar-Jar have sounded like, so as to not even risk offending anyone? A fscking automaton? Are we now to advise film-makers to make stupid/idiotic characters sound like _no-one_ at all?
Come on, people. Get a grip!
... and Linux came out marginally on top. Conditions were a good bit more real-world, and the article is pretty well-written. Read it in English at http://www.heise.de/ct/english//99/13/ 186-1/
(Info found at http://www.lwn.net/daily/)
he next problem is what to do with all the serial cables? I hav no idea! Maybe there are some type of hub...
:-)
Check around for IOLan terminal servers - up to 16 RS232 ports can be controlled from one, and they have an ethernet port - combined with a serial/ethernet accessible power switch of some kind (there are a few types available), that's perfect for sorting out network-dead servers from the comfort of my bedroom
Personally, next time a link to an anti-[Linux|Open Source|Redhat] is posted on /., I'm going to be tempted to fire up my mailreader and write them a polite apology for the mails that are undoubtedly above and below mine in their mailbox.
"Don't mind the morons and the script kiddies - 14-year olds are a pain in the bum whether or not they can even spell Linux..."
Not on all the mirrors yet, the us and uk mirrors are still on 2.2.9. Found it on nl, though... odd that ;)
Not required. I came from Solaris to Linux without a hiccup. A competent Un*x admin is all that is required.
Nod, hence "Linux-capable" rather than "Linux-qualified" or summat.
He's reasonable enough about the way he presents his argument, but it reads as if he's compiled a list of whinges and rolled them out. He's completely missed the flipside of the argument: Open Source (and all that goes with it), stability, and the fact that for some tasks it's a more suitable alternative than NT.
The "available experts" is a good point, though... do we have any numbers indicating the number of Linux-capable admins on the market?
I won't post the README here, 'cos it's bloody long, but I'll put the HTML version up: It's at
http://www.twisted.org.uk/civpatch-readme.html
Worth every penny, it's at least as good as the Original Civ was way back when... but don't expect it to zip along on a low-specced box any more than it would if it were a Windoze game running under '9[58]. Still perfectly playable on my lil home P266/64Mb, but it's slow enough to be annoying. I'll try it later without Gnome running.
As an aside, it's bloody annoying that you can't use your old save games with the patched version... but I guess that's life.