The target of the raids was the "Warez" group, a loosely affiliated network of software-piracy gangs that duplicate and reproduce copyrighted software over the Internet. Of special interest today was a Warez unit known as "DrinkOrDie," probably the oldest and best known in the Warez network, officials said, adding that DrinkOrDie members take special pride in having cracked and pirated the Windows 95 operating system three days before its release to the public.
So is this a gang or a company? "Warez unit," is that sort of like the electronics department at an illegal Montgomery Wards? I find it interesting though that the people the went after are notorious for doing something five years ago, now that everyone's forgotten. Almost like a 1984 thought police state; holding evidence in hand and waiting to arrest you until convienient. I wonder how far up the chain these guys really were to get busted like this. Ever see Menace or Razor911 in the news?
Its reports like this that make it so clear that there IS an undergroud, but its the most wide open, here-we-are-lookit-us underground I've ever known. Perhaps this is part of the digital divide those politicians are talking about... Only instead of haves and have-nots, its knows and know-nots.
Having said that, of course its illegal in this country, which makes it a Very Dumb thing to do within this country. "Is it right or not?"is the question though. It seems clear cut until you think about just how far supply and demand are bent through artificial scarcity. Myself, I can't tell you whether this is theft or improving the human condition. That is a personal answer.
Just so you know, the solar cars all have batteries. Charge 'em up before ya race, and during the race you can put excess energy in the cells, in addition to the energy from braking.
The thing is, my understanding of it is that it does increase cost, because its a chemical treatment. And you could also think of it in oppertunity costs. Solar car has like 10 team members in all, not very many. With so few people you have to work on the more effective parts first.
My roommate is President of the Solar Car team at Kansas State University. His team recently finished 5th overall at the 2k1 American Solar Challenge. Since he's president I get to hear all about these things. Very few actual solar panel manufacturers enter, but rather sponsor universities. Sponsorship is why the University of Michigan, near the auto industry capital of the USA, is taking their car, and why we cant afford to ship ours over there.
As far as the actual electricity generation goes, I'd think its a bit beyond the capabilities of a group of freshman and sophmore (my roommate is a sophmore) undergrads to not only design a better grade solar array, but then manufacture it. Even if some kid did manage it, they couldn't afford the costs. I believe the cost of the current solar array is some 25k, which generates about 14 hp. That gets them up to about 75 mph max, but that eats of the batteries pretty fast.
Most solar cars don't use the latest and most efficient solar array. If I recall correctly, the latest car from KSU, CATalyst, uses 14 percent efficienct solar panels. The most efficient are gallium-cyanide (or something like that) that are extremely expensive (like 500k or so). Of course there are a few things that can be done besides simply upgrading the solar array. I've heard of shaping the solar cells in inverted pyramids at the near molecular level will increase absorbtion, but the return is expected to be on the order of.1~1 percent. In contrast, redesigning the body of the car gave us about 35 percent less drag. In addition, the concept of "regenerative braking," using the kinetic energy of the car to run the engine in reverse and charge the batteries, greatly increases overall effiency. Essentially, research into solar panel mechanisms requires extensive knowledge in both electrical engineering and mechanical engineering, which few people have, and of those who DO have that exp, few of them would put up with a university salary.
Yea, I can't spell efficiency, but who cares, I'm only a Computer Science major.
Time is like a river
on
XBox Released
·
· Score: 2, Informative
And history repeats, but usually not so quickly. Everywhere I read that Microsoft is new to the game, unexperience, etc. These make me laugh. Its clear that there's more animosity towards MS than the X-Box itself (though it may well deserve animosity on its own).
Ever heard of the MSX(or for the matter of experience, MS Flight Sim)? While MS wasn't really involved with the hardware production, neither can they be said to have been very involved with their latest exploit. The MSX was a PC version of Pinoccio, the console that wanted to be a PC. To a large extent it is. Soviets used it quite a bit in education. Microsoft's involvement was MS BASIC as an operating system. MS now denies that the MS in MSX means Microsoft, but the OS was originally called MicroSoft eXtended BASIC. Go figure.
Interestingly, there was more than crap edutainment games made for it. Ever hear of Metal Gear? Both MG 1 and 2 were made for the MSX. Looks way better than the NES version too. Crazyness, I tell you!
And when did this whole MSX thing happen? "back when [you were] 13, playing Zelda or Sonic!"
The best way I've experienced to do group projects is to let students choose their own groups, and let us do it on their own time. If you don't feel someone is putting forth enough effort into the project, you can simply take their name off the final product, leaving them stranded, since the proffessor hasn't a clue who is in what group. In addition, choosing your own group means that you knew what you were getting into when you accepted these people as co-workers.
It also seems to help to have two parts to the project-- the group collaboration part, and a part that everyone does by themselves beforehand in preparation. It makes it easy for the group to spot slackers and threaten ostracism.
At least, this method's worked well for me so far in combatting slackers.
While I agree that this is a HUGE issue for consumer's rights, I think another issue lies in this passage:
Sec. 102: Preservation of the Integrity of Security
An interactive computer service shall store and transmit
with integrity any security measure associated with certified security
techologies that is used in connection with copyrighted material or other protected content such service transmits or stores.
So in addition to burdening consumers, this will be a PAIN IN THE ASS for hardware manufacturers. This basically says that if your hardware fucks up , you're in deep lawsuit doodoo. Talk about a liability.
This gets even more interesting with power consumption algorithm analysis, since theres basically no way to counter it and I could see a court ruling that the device wasn't keeping the integrity of the security.
I worked for an AMC 30 in Kansas City(never again!) when Princess Mononoke went to theater, and we didn't show it, and we're like 20 min from home office. I guess its good for Home Office to have an example of how not to run a theater real close by.
It would be quite an insult to real journalists everywhere to call Katz a journalist. For starters, hes definately not an agnostic viewpoint. Secondly, almost every article of his centers around "I read this really cool book."
Of course, thats just my opinion and I'm sure Katz thinks otherwise.
The founding forefathers merely placed a prohibition on FEDERAL level religious endorsements. States are free to do as they like.
At least, thats the plan. Problem is that nowadays state run schools are largely dependant upon money from the Federal government, which is given to them if they meet certain requirements, some of them basically being consitutional limitations. My state runs an excellent education program, despite the flak recieved from the whole Creationism debacle.
Fear. Maybe MS spites them for it. Windows Liscencing is optional for MS. They aren't required to give it to anyone, but the vendors can't afford to live without MS...
it never made it into the cineplexes. None of the chains thought it would do well for them, especially people bringing their children in to see a nice cartoony movie and getting Mononoke instead. So in order to see it you'd have to go to some art type theater thats only open one day a week. And most people don't even know about it, let alone care enough to find their local film as art theater.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the term 'science' here, but most cirriculum's around here for education require extensive Child Psychology classes. Thats why our education degree is part of the psychology department. And of course, Child Psych also has prerequisites as well.
By many indepentant accounts, HALO ran like ass. And now its main selling point, TRIBES like multiplayer is gone, leaving many to wonder whether to spend their money on HALO for pc or upgrade their current computer and play TRIBES 2.
I guess Micheal Criton can't be considered an authority on pharmasudicals, but I remember in the book one of the characters mentions that nobody wants to spend time researching things like cancer cures or AIDS cures, precisely because the government will intervene on behalf of the public, limiting your profitablity.
I didnt know until today either, but @home sells services to your local cable company who is under contract to use them for x years. The problem is that the contracts they signed are good, but they're expiring/expired, and many competing companies are coming in to the scene now removing @home's near monopoly.
So in reality, people are springing for the local cable company, not @home. And the local cable company is looking elsewhere.
Halflife was based on the ORIGINAL Quake, according to the slight majority of those vocal on the net. However the truth is differant
Quick$ilver -Why is Valve sticking with the Quake1 engine rather than updating to the Quake2 engine? Would the Quake2 engine offer anything such as speed or the utalization of.dll's that is currently not in the HL engine?
Harry - No. We have the Quake source, we have the Q2 source, we pick and choose what we want. We have written several sub-systems ourselves, like the skeletal animation, 16-bit software renderer, the GL renderer, the AI engine, and more. Where our code is in relation to that source code, I don't know. I do know that we have many things going on in Half-Life that I haven't seen in other games, and they look really cool. They get me excited as a designer: the world is more dynamic now, not so static and clean.
Its really hard to comment on the science itself, since the author takes the data and conclusions at face value. Whats really more useful is the study's publication, if there even is one (remember, even the article mentions that the researcher is strapped for cash). So in a twist of irony, all those claiming the study is invalid are invalid themselves!
As my old Chemistry teacher once said, "When you get your science from a newspaper, don't expect to pass."
Last I checked, everyone says Half-Life runs BETTER in OpenGL. And from what I can tell, they're right. Sure HL is sort of three years old, but they just released another high selling extension Blue Shift, and CS shows no signs of slowing down. I guess you could compare Half Life to U-238 and q3a to something like TC-100.
Amazingly the digital movie format is 640x480. If you ever go to a digital movie, look at the edges and you can see the jaggys where the screen ends, if you're watching on a taurus screen.
God it must be nice to be John Carmack. All you gotta do is post and it automatically gets modded up. Not that the post wasn't informative or anything. I guess I'm just mad because I don't get karma for being a local celebrity.
I guess it just shows how much of a minority PC games are when a game thats sold 200k is considered top of the line, while crap thrown together with a PSX target platform will sell at least that much.
Slashdot Mirror
Its reports like this that make it so clear that there IS an undergroud, but its the most wide open, here-we-are-lookit-us underground I've ever known. Perhaps this is part of the digital divide those politicians are talking about... Only instead of haves and have-nots, its knows and know-nots.
Having said that, of course its illegal in this country, which makes it a Very Dumb thing to do within this country. "Is it right or not?"is the question though. It seems clear cut until you think about just how far supply and demand are bent through artificial scarcity. Myself, I can't tell you whether this is theft or improving the human condition. That is a personal answer.
Just so you know, the solar cars all have batteries. Charge 'em up before ya race, and during the race you can put excess energy in the cells, in addition to the energy from braking.
The thing is, my understanding of it is that it does increase cost, because its a chemical treatment. And you could also think of it in oppertunity costs. Solar car has like 10 team members in all, not very many. With so few people you have to work on the more effective parts first.
My roommate is President of the Solar Car team at Kansas State University. His team recently finished 5th overall at the 2k1 American Solar Challenge. Since he's president I get to hear all about these things. Very few actual solar panel manufacturers enter, but rather sponsor universities. Sponsorship is why the University of Michigan, near the auto industry capital of the USA, is taking their car, and why we cant afford to ship ours over there.
.1~1 percent. In contrast, redesigning the body of the car gave us about 35 percent less drag. In addition, the concept of "regenerative braking," using the kinetic energy of the car to run the engine in reverse and charge the batteries, greatly increases overall effiency. Essentially, research into solar panel mechanisms requires extensive knowledge in both electrical engineering and mechanical engineering, which few people have, and of those who DO have that exp, few of them would put up with a university salary.
As far as the actual electricity generation goes, I'd think its a bit beyond the capabilities of a group of freshman and sophmore (my roommate is a sophmore) undergrads to not only design a better grade solar array, but then manufacture it. Even if some kid did manage it, they couldn't afford the costs. I believe the cost of the current solar array is some 25k, which generates about 14 hp. That gets them up to about 75 mph max, but that eats of the batteries pretty fast.
Most solar cars don't use the latest and most efficient solar array. If I recall correctly, the latest car from KSU, CATalyst, uses 14 percent efficienct solar panels. The most efficient are gallium-cyanide (or something like that) that are extremely expensive (like 500k or so). Of course there are a few things that can be done besides simply upgrading the solar array. I've heard of shaping the solar cells in inverted pyramids at the near molecular level will increase absorbtion, but the return is expected to be on the order of
Yea, I can't spell efficiency, but who cares, I'm only a Computer Science major.
And history repeats, but usually not so quickly. Everywhere I read that Microsoft is new to the game, unexperience, etc. These make me laugh. Its clear that there's more animosity towards MS than the X-Box itself (though it may well deserve animosity on its own).
Ever heard of the MSX(or for the matter of experience, MS Flight Sim)? While MS wasn't really involved with the hardware production, neither can they be said to have been very involved with their latest exploit. The MSX was a PC version of Pinoccio, the console that wanted to be a PC. To a large extent it is. Soviets used it quite a bit in education. Microsoft's involvement was MS BASIC as an operating system. MS now denies that the MS in MSX means Microsoft, but the OS was originally called MicroSoft eXtended BASIC. Go figure.
Interestingly, there was more than crap edutainment games made for it. Ever hear of Metal Gear? Both MG 1 and 2 were made for the MSX. Looks way better than the NES version too. Crazyness, I tell you!
And when did this whole MSX thing happen? "back when [you were] 13, playing Zelda or Sonic!"
It also seems to help to have two parts to the project-- the group collaboration part, and a part that everyone does by themselves beforehand in preparation. It makes it easy for the group to spot slackers and threaten ostracism.
At least, this method's worked well for me so far in combatting slackers.
Sec. 102: Preservation of the Integrity of Security
An interactive computer service shall store and transmit
with integrity any security measure associated with certified security
techologies that is used in connection with copyrighted material or other protected content such service transmits or stores.
So in addition to burdening consumers, this will be a PAIN IN THE ASS for hardware manufacturers. This basically says that if your hardware fucks up , you're in deep lawsuit doodoo. Talk about a liability.
This gets even more interesting with power consumption algorithm analysis, since theres basically no way to counter it and I could see a court ruling that the device wasn't keeping the integrity of the security.
I worked for an AMC 30 in Kansas City(never again!) when Princess Mononoke went to theater, and we didn't show it, and we're like 20 min from home office. I guess its good for Home Office to have an example of how not to run a theater real close by.
Of course, thats just my opinion and I'm sure Katz thinks otherwise.
At least, thats the plan. Problem is that nowadays state run schools are largely dependant upon money from the Federal government, which is given to them if they meet certain requirements, some of them basically being consitutional limitations. My state runs an excellent education program, despite the flak recieved from the whole Creationism debacle.
Fear. Maybe MS spites them for it. Windows Liscencing is optional for MS. They aren't required to give it to anyone, but the vendors can't afford to live without MS...
it never made it into the cineplexes. None of the chains thought it would do well for them, especially people bringing their children in to see a nice cartoony movie and getting Mononoke instead. So in order to see it you'd have to go to some art type theater thats only open one day a week. And most people don't even know about it, let alone care enough to find their local film as art theater.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the term 'science' here, but most cirriculum's around here for education require extensive Child Psychology classes. Thats why our education degree is part of the psychology department. And of course, Child Psych also has prerequisites as well.
By many indepentant accounts, HALO ran like ass. And now its main selling point, TRIBES like multiplayer is gone, leaving many to wonder whether to spend their money on HALO for pc or upgrade their current computer and play TRIBES 2.
I guess Micheal Criton can't be considered an authority on pharmasudicals, but I remember in the book one of the characters mentions that nobody wants to spend time researching things like cancer cures or AIDS cures, precisely because the government will intervene on behalf of the public, limiting your profitablity.
Are you saying Planethalflife.com made up and interview with the actual Valve programmer?
So in reality, people are springing for the local cable company, not @home. And the local cable company is looking elsewhere.
So as you can see, wrote their own GL renderer.
Its really hard to comment on the science itself, since the author takes the data and conclusions at face value. Whats really more useful is the study's publication, if there even is one (remember, even the article mentions that the researcher is strapped for cash). So in a twist of irony, all those claiming the study is invalid are invalid themselves!
As my old Chemistry teacher once said, "When you get your science from a newspaper, don't expect to pass."
Last I checked, everyone says Half-Life runs BETTER in OpenGL. And from what I can tell, they're right. Sure HL is sort of three years old, but they just released another high selling extension Blue Shift, and CS shows no signs of slowing down. I guess you could compare Half Life to U-238 and q3a to something like TC-100.
Amazingly the digital movie format is 640x480. If you ever go to a digital movie, look at the edges and you can see the jaggys where the screen ends, if you're watching on a taurus screen.
God it must be nice to be John Carmack. All you gotta do is post and it automatically gets modded up. Not that the post wasn't informative or anything. I guess I'm just mad because I don't get karma for being a local celebrity.
And now we know the real reason why HalfLife is so popular. It seems that the middle of the gamer population runs at about 3 years behind in tech.
I guess it just shows how much of a minority PC games are when a game thats sold 200k is considered top of the line, while crap thrown together with a PSX target platform will sell at least that much.
Have you ever thought about [topic]?
Well [name], author of [book] has, and I'm going to paraphrase what he writes.
[name] cites a few examples, but I only need to steal one. [example] shows how America constantly discriminates against [topic].
While the book has its faults, I feel the author's intent is dead on.
Its like he can't write anything on his own. Just book reviews written to look like original content.