Why not just link directly to the USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory website? http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/multimedia/index.php?newSearch=true&display=custom&volcano=1&resultsPerPage=20
Surprisingly, all of the positive feedback was from Honolulu law enforcement and prosecutor's departments. Everyone else that gave testimony said "this is STUPID."
I live in Hawaii and will be keeping an eye on this one.
...but not for regular residents. Been here since 2004. The free wifi hot spots are primarily concentrated in downtown, and a few other random spots. You can see the network map at http://p2.meraki.com/network/kokuawireless ; I wouldn't call this "municipal" wifi in the slightest, seeing as it doesn't really serve anyone except the businesses that have customers coming in or nearby.
In addition, our primary ISPs, Oceanic Time Warner and Hawaiian Telcom are only now offering speeds of 50 mbps down to residential customers, but only "up to" and only in limited service areas. Not exactly up to par with FIOS services available elsewhere.
I do this for a living, so here's a few more questions (I see some were asked by PCM2 already):
How many buildings are there on the property? How tall is each one? What is the layout (facing each other, central courtyard, one long line)? What is the construction material of the exterior of the buildings? The interior (between rooms)?
Is there a central telephone room that all the buildings link into? Have you run a line tone to make sure?
Check each room to see how many telephone pairs are going in. If there is more than one pair and the n+1 pairs are not in use, then you can throw in and mount a wireless modem in each room. There are vendors that make mounts that are tamper-resistant. The trick is to find out how much penetration the wifi signal from that modem is going to get between each room. Buy one modem, get access to a room, and to all the rooms adjacent (above, below, sides, and across the hall) to see what kind of coverage you can get. Download inSSIDER to help with this analysis.
From this testing you'll be able to determine what kind of signal you're getting in the adjacent rooms, and thereby determine what layout of modems you need.
Get a DSLAM on the property, and get your system up and running.
How you chose to manage the back end is up to you; we use RADIUS. However, since you're managing a single location, you could probably do it with an HP Procurve MSM 710 or even an MSM 313. This will track user logins and sessions independent of any wireless access point that you set up.
Having played the beta, I have to ask this: where were the promised changes during the HUGE amounts of feedback given that the game was going to suck? Reading the beta test boards, people were saying left and right that major game changes needed to be made, or else the game was going to flop.
Square-enix pretty much ignored the majority of the feedback. And now they're scrambling to fix things that, had they listened, could have been fixed well before the game went live.
I beg to differ. If you wait longer than a year, they won't restore your account. Believe me, I've tried.
I canceled in the fall of 2004. Recently, some of my friends got into the game, and I decided to see if I could dust off my character and have it reinstated. The phone support rep said that they couldn't do it, due to a one year policy.
There's been one event where they offered account recoveries called "The Return Home to Vana'diel" which was in May of 2006. During this time, they opened restorations to all players. They haven't shown any indications of repeating this event in the near future.
It makes me wonder how many customers they're loosing that might have returned to give the game another try.
Thing about this is that if you RTFP, it talks about how these are import versions modified for the US market. The smart that's being sold in January is actually made for the US market from the beginning.
The community college in my area has a technical training program that they offer on Linux (I'm taking a course there right now). It's great for getting a comprehensively taught course on the basics, and costs a ton less than any "training academy" or other specialized training service vendor.
They can supplement this with any online materials on a specific distro.
The suggestion to write to / write an article for the university newspaper is a good one.
Another good one is to get in touch with Alumni. If you can contact any of the technically minded ones, get them involved. Nothing hurts a university more than uproar from Alumni who are perspective donors.
Lots have suggested contacting a lawyer; you should also remember to contact HR at the company. They're the most likely to realize that someone higher up made a big mistake, and scatter to right the wrong before it becomes a problem of litigation for them.
That's pretty much what I ended up doing. I walked a few weeks ago to both an EB and a Gamestop, and asked if I could pre-order a Wii.
They said they were taking pre-orders starting the following Monday, and that you were required to bring in $50 worth of trade-ins to get your pre-order. The employee behind the counter specifically stated that they wouldn't be taking any cash or card--trade-ins only.
I promptly told the employees at both stores that I'd be taking my business elsewhere from that point forward.
The same thing happened to my housemate. He worked at the new Honolulu Best Buy when they opened, solid 40 hour work week, and was in computer sales. Then corporate realized they'd over-hired, and started slashing hours left and right, bringing him down to 32 and then 28 hours, and still calling him a "full time employee." Nevermind that state laws require at least 30 hours to be considered full time.
He turned in his one day notice about two months ago and is now happily employed elsewhere.
Considering that the game is actually finished and the only barrier is localization (barring other issues), it's possible. One might even postulate that they've been working on localization concurrently with the Japanese release.
Slashdot Mirror
http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/multimedia/index.php?newSearch=true&display=custom&volcano=1&resultsPerPage=20
I'm surprised the original post links to a news story from a Seattle newspaper instead of the actual USGS website.
Why not just link directly to the USGS Hawaii Volcano Observatory website? http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/multimedia/index.php?newSearch=true&display=custom&volcano=1&resultsPerPage=20
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/16610756/hawaii-tables-sweeping-internet-tracking-bill
Surprisingly, all of the positive feedback was from Honolulu law enforcement and prosecutor's departments. Everyone else that gave testimony said "this is STUPID."
I live in Hawaii and will be keeping an eye on this one.
...but not for regular residents. Been here since 2004. The free wifi hot spots are primarily concentrated in downtown, and a few other random spots. You can see the network map at http://p2.meraki.com/network/kokuawireless ; I wouldn't call this "municipal" wifi in the slightest, seeing as it doesn't really serve anyone except the businesses that have customers coming in or nearby.
In addition, our primary ISPs, Oceanic Time Warner and Hawaiian Telcom are only now offering speeds of 50 mbps down to residential customers, but only "up to" and only in limited service areas. Not exactly up to par with FIOS services available elsewhere.
I do this for a living, so here's a few more questions (I see some were asked by PCM2 already):
How many buildings are there on the property? How tall is each one? What is the layout (facing each other, central courtyard, one long line)? What is the construction material of the exterior of the buildings? The interior (between rooms)?
Is there a central telephone room that all the buildings link into? Have you run a line tone to make sure?
Check each room to see how many telephone pairs are going in. If there is more than one pair and the n+1 pairs are not in use, then you can throw in and mount a wireless modem in each room. There are vendors that make mounts that are tamper-resistant. The trick is to find out how much penetration the wifi signal from that modem is going to get between each room. Buy one modem, get access to a room, and to all the rooms adjacent (above, below, sides, and across the hall) to see what kind of coverage you can get. Download inSSIDER to help with this analysis.
From this testing you'll be able to determine what kind of signal you're getting in the adjacent rooms, and thereby determine what layout of modems you need.
Get a DSLAM on the property, and get your system up and running.
How you chose to manage the back end is up to you; we use RADIUS. However, since you're managing a single location, you could probably do it with an HP Procurve MSM 710 or even an MSM 313. This will track user logins and sessions independent of any wireless access point that you set up.
Don't get a facebook account. I don't have one and never intend to.
Having played the beta, I have to ask this: where were the promised changes during the HUGE amounts of feedback given that the game was going to suck? Reading the beta test boards, people were saying left and right that major game changes needed to be made, or else the game was going to flop.
Square-enix pretty much ignored the majority of the feedback. And now they're scrambling to fix things that, had they listened, could have been fixed well before the game went live.
Will it run nethack?
When we first got dial-up, I was given the choice between that and cable TV.
Dropped the TV and haven't looked back since.
This game would have been great if not for the completely non-interactive half hour cut scenes. I fell asleep during one of them.
All I want to do is purchase Episode 2. Is this my only option?
Hrm. I'll give it a test go later this evening then and see what happens.
Real Money Trading.
I beg to differ. If you wait longer than a year, they won't restore your account. Believe me, I've tried.
I canceled in the fall of 2004. Recently, some of my friends got into the game, and I decided to see if I could dust off my character and have it reinstated. The phone support rep said that they couldn't do it, due to a one year policy.
There's been one event where they offered account recoveries called "The Return Home to Vana'diel" which was in May of 2006. During this time, they opened restorations to all players. They haven't shown any indications of repeating this event in the near future.
It makes me wonder how many customers they're loosing that might have returned to give the game another try.
Man, I got all excited that they were releasing Metroid 3 for the Wii Virtual Console or something.
Then I realized it was Metroid Prime 3. Sadness.
Thing about this is that if you RTFP, it talks about how these are import versions modified for the US market. The smart that's being sold in January is actually made for the US market from the beginning.
The community college in my area has a technical training program that they offer on Linux (I'm taking a course there right now). It's great for getting a comprehensively taught course on the basics, and costs a ton less than any "training academy" or other specialized training service vendor.
They can supplement this with any online materials on a specific distro.
The suggestion to write to / write an article for the university newspaper is a good one.
Another good one is to get in touch with Alumni. If you can contact any of the technically minded ones, get them involved. Nothing hurts a university more than uproar from Alumni who are perspective donors.
Lots have suggested contacting a lawyer; you should also remember to contact HR at the company. They're the most likely to realize that someone higher up made a big mistake, and scatter to right the wrong before it becomes a problem of litigation for them.
At the Gamestop at Ala Moana in Honolulu, they're only accepting trade ins as payment toward a pre-order. No cash.
I'm going to be camping out at Best Buy instead.
That's pretty much what I ended up doing. I walked a few weeks ago to both an EB and a Gamestop, and asked if I could pre-order a Wii.
They said they were taking pre-orders starting the following Monday, and that you were required to bring in $50 worth of trade-ins to get your pre-order. The employee behind the counter specifically stated that they wouldn't be taking any cash or card--trade-ins only.
I promptly told the employees at both stores that I'd be taking my business elsewhere from that point forward.
FYI, I live in Hawaii as well.
The same thing happened to my housemate. He worked at the new Honolulu Best Buy when they opened, solid 40 hour work week, and was in computer sales. Then corporate realized they'd over-hired, and started slashing hours left and right, bringing him down to 32 and then 28 hours, and still calling him a "full time employee." Nevermind that state laws require at least 30 hours to be considered full time.
He turned in his one day notice about two months ago and is now happily employed elsewhere.
Likely to be priced in the $30-$50 range.
Considering that the game is actually finished and the only barrier is localization (barring other issues), it's possible. One might even postulate that they've been working on localization concurrently with the Japanese release.
Quirkiest RPG ever.