I've not used TiVo, however, I do own a Dish PVR - used to be their top of the line model - the 942.
Dual Dish Tuner, Off-Air TV Tuner, plus 2 outputs - seperate remotes for each output...
Here's the cool part.
I can record off both dish tuners, the off-air tuner, and watch 2 previously recorded shows on the other outputs.
So essentially 5 different things going on at once.
And yes - you can configure Dish to record all kinds of ways.
#1 All episodes of a given show. #2 All NEW episodes of a given show - ie - only record episodes released in the current year, do not record re-runs. #3 All shows with "xyz" in their name.
I haven't dug any further, yet I know there are more options.
I could almost agree with you on the farming items, except for the fact, that they'd have to pay someone to farm items that they could sell, in order to make enough coinage to pay fair-market-value for that epic item.
At that point, if someone is willing to pay someone else to play a game that they're already paying for, I'm not going to stop them.
It will, however, as you agreed, stop gold farming, and will make item trade a less than profitable experience.
All in all, it should reduce the amount of farming in general.
Where there's a person willing to spend their coin to save time and get in game gold / items, there's someone who's going to meet that demand.
As long as games have an economy where individuals can exchange items for in game coinage this will remain an issue.
2 possible ways to fix this that I can think of, however, they would have to be implemented together.
#1 Remove the ability to exchange in game coin directly between players. #2 Restrict pricing on items to within certain values - ie - allow the economy to set the price on the items, however, do not allow anything to sell for x% outside of that value. That way when someone tries to sell a piece of scrap material for 500 gold or 1,000,000 pp depending on your game server economy, it will be disallowed.
Now, a problem with these ideas that I can see first off, is that the players who live to be traders - ie buy low, sell high - will be out of business, literally. That's one segment of players that will probably leave the game.
Except for the fact that the sender and the receiver are *ALREADY* paying for their bandwidth.
Google pays some company to get access to the net. We the customers of our respective ISPs pay to get access to the net.
The collective ISPs pay (as part of their cost for doing business) the carriers as needed to allow their customers data to flow.
Now, Customer A's ISP want's to charge Customer B to allow customer B's data (which Customer A has requested) to get to Customer A unscathed. In other words... "It would be a shame if your data were to have an *accident* on it's way to our customer, capiche?" The term extortion comes to mind, although it may not be the most appropriate.
If you are really upset about the methods being used by litigious patent-pushers, stop using their products / services.
#1 - Caldera SCO - very easy to stop using - no products or services worth using IMNSHO. #2 - Amazon - a little tougher, but not terribly so. #3 - NetFlix - never used it, and now, never will.
You know, in an honest attempt to be serious, say what you mean - don't mean what you say.
Typos don't just happen. People LET them happen. They're lazy, careless and a simple *typo* as you say, could lead to dire consequences if the mistake is made in the wrong place.
Slow down, take the time to cross your Ts and dot your Is.
Major budget shortcomings in the FCC fiscal year 2006, leaves less than intelligent beaurocrats scratching their asse.... uhm heads wondering what to do to make it up....
Then they had an apostrophe (yes, they actually mistook apostrophe for epiphany as there was nothing in the budget to pay for one) - let's find something suggestive and fine the network for it. Hell - if we can ram this through, maybe we can fine for things like - oh I don't know - condom commercials for *suggestive lewd behavior* or something...
gauge: 1 a : a measurement (as of linear dimension) according to some standard or system: as (1) : the distance between the rails of a railroad (2) : the size of a shotgun barrel's inner diameter nominally expressed as the number of lead balls each just fitting that diameter required to make a pound (3) : the thickness of a thin material (as sheet metal or plastic film) (4) : the diameter of a slender object (as wire or a hypodermic needle) (5) : the fineness of a knitted fabric expressed by the number of loops per unit width b : DIMENSIONS, SIZE c : MEASURE 1 2 : an instrument for or a means of measuring or testing: as a : an instrument for measuring a dimension or for testing mechanical accuracy b : an instrument with a graduated scale or dial for measuring or indicating quantity 3 : relative position of a ship with reference to another ship and the wind 4 : a function introduced into a field equation to produce a convenient form of the equation but having no observable physical consequences
gouge: 1 : a chisel with a concavo-convex cross section 2 a : the act of gouging b : a groove or cavity scooped out 3 : an excessive or improper exaction
Failing that, demand re-instatement - let a lawyer handle it.
Pummle their weasle faced, pimple nosed tech with their inability to read.
ie - process list shows nothing - wow - must be using 3rd party software. keyboards are not 3rd party software - however, the G15 uses software to implement the Macros - especially since they can be programmed to use *timing* with them. That 3rd party software (the G15 macro software) is probably what caused the ban - even though Logitech claims that it's usable in WoW.
next possible recourse - Sue Logitech, force them to fight for you to get your account re-instated.
None of these are likely to work - but it's worth a shot.
Loading bytes from storage media - regardless of whether it's tape / floppy (tape flattened out and stretched) / zip / hard disk / optical disk - whatever - it's still the same thing - loading data from media.
Okay then, find me ONE solution to managing authentication that works on EVERY platform available...
Let me know how you're doing every month or so, and I'll expect to hear back from you sometime in the next millenia....
ie - Until there's a solution that can cover at least 95% of all the platforms deployed, it will just confuse the users to say that "We'll use passwords here, but over here, we'll use something else entirely different"....
Obviously, you've not had to work in a truly mixed OS/Hardware/Software environment....
Passwords may not be the easiest thing to remember, however, it's easier than *everyone* makes it out to be.
I've changed passwords on each of the 136 different UNIX systems that I've managed, different password for each server, changed monthly, and can remember every password I've used for the last 20 years. It's not that tough, and no - I don't write them down.
If I can do that, then the users can remember their one to three passwords they need daily, it's just plain laziness to say "It's too hard...".
- The only reason mentioned above to have strong passwords is to stop the spread of virii. If you've got good anti-virus measures in place, then there is no real need for strong passwords for standard users.
You mean aside from Federally mandated audit requirements?
oh, and a couple of users did try to do the 40 character ones - just to be smart. They forgot that backspaces weren't allowed (no mistakes) and that they had less than 60 seconds to complete the entire login / password process..... Heh - let's just say that they changed their passwords again....
LOL - Yes, I was - however, for a time, our corporate masters did specify 8 chars minimum, 40 max, 1 capital, 1 lower, 1 numeric, 1 symbol at a minimum - no repeating characters, nor usage of character in same position of previous 6 passwords - I kid you not.
Luckily, the person who made those specifications got locked out of their account enough times that they quit, because they couldn't remember their own passwords.
- Security: How much of that data gets into hard copy that end-users leave lying around their cubicles, or is displayed on screen when users get up and walk away from their desks without *locking* their systems. How many people *share* userids and passwords so that they can login as each other *just in case* they forget their own passwords, or someone else can do their work for them. Security is a two edged sword... To increase security - you the end user get the following. All traffic is encrypted. All fields that display sensitive information are invisible, unless you move the mouse pointer over it, and click (hold the click to see the info). All screen savers are locked on blank screen (no user customizable fancy dancy screen savers) - and set at 1 Minute, maximum - no user ability to change / reset this. All user systems have USB disabled, no cdrom drive, no floppy drive. All passwords must be a minimum of 8 characters long, have at least 2 numerics, 2 symbols, 2 capital letters and 2 lower case letters. Zero repeat characters, and no character can be used in the same position more than once in 16 months. Passwords must be reset every 28 days - no exceptions. All users must pass basic computer literacy / ability tests. You fail the test, you're fired. Internet access is restricted to Intranet and *approved* work related internet sites. Usage is monitored, and reviewed by supervisors monthly. Users must face the entrance to their work environment, with their monitors facing away from the entrance. Spot checks will be done to see if anyone has passwords written down, if they do - they're shit-canned. Anyone caught sharing / using someone else's password is fired - no questions asked. Supervisors caught logged in as one of their employees are also shit-canned. Supervisors have the ability to review their people's work, without logging in as the user. - Continual access - Users get as much access as the business areas are willing to provide. IE - Continuous access costs money. Get the IT areas the money, they will get you the access. Clustered servers with snap-shot capable databases / filesystems are not cheap. Nor are the test servers needed to allow for full regression testing of each patch / update for every system in the office. All of these things must be provided for to get you your *full time access*. - Work Ethic - Nothing *PISSES* me off more than lazy end users who say "can't you just?" or "quick question" - especially when I've already answered the question 15 times previously. Nothing is ever as *simple* as you think it is. With today's systems that are interconnected at levels previously not even dreamed of - taking that simple table offline so you can *refresh* the data, causes 13 other business areas to sit idle until that data is made available again. - Keeping you informed - While not every new technology is great, there are sooo many new technologies that *could* make your life easier, if only you could get over this *fear of change* you seem to have. Change is good - without it, we'd all be dead. -Honesty: I've never stretched the truth, nor have I overcharged. However, the reverse is also true - don't ask questions like - "Honestly now, isn't it *physically* possible to do x/y/z?" Even when it's physically possible to do something you want, doesn't mean it's the right / correct / intelligent thing to do. Since it's our job to be technical, and *know* these things, let us do our jobs - without butting in with your inane prattling. Remember - as a computer analyst, we are expected to be right 100% of the time, and aren't allowed to *experiment*. As a doctor, you are expected to be right 100% of the time - however, with computers if the *patient* dies - nothing but information is lost.
Slashdot Mirror
I've not used TiVo, however, I do own a Dish PVR - used to be their top of the line model - the 942.
Dual Dish Tuner, Off-Air TV Tuner, plus 2 outputs - seperate remotes for each output...
Here's the cool part.
I can record off both dish tuners, the off-air tuner, and watch 2 previously recorded shows on the other outputs.
So essentially 5 different things going on at once.
And yes - you can configure Dish to record all kinds of ways.
#1 All episodes of a given show.
#2 All NEW episodes of a given show - ie - only record episodes released in the current year, do not record re-runs.
#3 All shows with "xyz" in their name.
I haven't dug any further, yet I know there are more options.
I could almost agree with you on the farming items, except for the fact, that they'd have to pay someone to farm items that they could sell, in order to make enough coinage to pay fair-market-value for that epic item.
At that point, if someone is willing to pay someone else to play a game that they're already paying for, I'm not going to stop them.
It will, however, as you agreed, stop gold farming, and will make item trade a less than profitable experience.
All in all, it should reduce the amount of farming in general.
Where there's a person willing to spend their coin to save time and get in game gold / items, there's someone who's going to meet that demand.
As long as games have an economy where individuals can exchange items for in game coinage this will remain an issue.
2 possible ways to fix this that I can think of, however, they would have to be implemented together.
#1 Remove the ability to exchange in game coin directly between players.
#2 Restrict pricing on items to within certain values - ie - allow the economy to set the price on the items, however, do not allow anything to sell for x% outside of that value. That way when someone tries to sell a piece of scrap material for 500 gold or 1,000,000 pp depending on your game server economy, it will be disallowed.
Now, a problem with these ideas that I can see first off, is that the players who live to be traders - ie buy low, sell high - will be out of business, literally. That's one segment of players that will probably leave the game.
I don't even want to know what you and the TidyBowl(tm) Man were doing together....
Except for the fact that the sender and the receiver are *ALREADY* paying for their bandwidth.
Google pays some company to get access to the net.
We the customers of our respective ISPs pay to get access to the net.
The collective ISPs pay (as part of their cost for doing business) the carriers as needed to allow their customers data to flow.
Now, Customer A's ISP want's to charge Customer B to allow customer B's data (which Customer A has requested) to get to Customer A unscathed. In other words... "It would be a shame if your data were to have an *accident* on it's way to our customer, capiche?" The term extortion comes to mind, although it may not be the most appropriate.
That's because the "dir" *command* isn't really a command file - it's an embedded command (or function) of the cmd.exe or command.com
/s/b/p
go to the root directory of your windows installation.
do a
dir dir.*
and see for yourself.
If you are really upset about the methods being used by litigious patent-pushers, stop using their products / services.
#1 - Caldera SCO - very easy to stop using - no products or services worth using IMNSHO.
#2 - Amazon - a little tougher, but not terribly so.
#3 - NetFlix - never used it, and now, never will.
The question I have is this...
When will we see the t-shirt?
Imagine - using the font "Comic Sans" in blue of course
I am please to serve...
with a hand drawn characature of one Mr. Taylor on it.....
On the back it would read
No Fear
(of the media)
Find out when the city/county fair is to occur, and go there to sell them.... Or, just put them on someplace like ThinkGeek....
Yes, but do you really want evidence of your ignorance, or impatience living on through google cache forever?
You know, in an honest attempt to be serious, say what you mean - don't mean what you say.
Typos don't just happen. People LET them happen. They're lazy, careless and a simple *typo* as you say, could lead to dire consequences if the mistake is made in the wrong place.
Slow down, take the time to cross your Ts and dot your Is.
Redundant?
How about this then.... To the mods - Fuck You!
Having Karma to burn is fun indeed.
Indeed, it's almost as fun as easter egg hunting (the software / dvd type)
Major budget shortcomings in the FCC fiscal year 2006, leaves less than intelligent beaurocrats scratching their asse.... uhm heads wondering what to do to make it up....
Then they had an apostrophe (yes, they actually mistook apostrophe for epiphany as there was nothing in the budget to pay for one) - let's find something suggestive and fine the network for it. Hell - if we can ram this through, maybe we can fine for things like - oh I don't know - condom commercials for *suggestive lewd behavior* or something...
Why would you want to *measure* your eyes out?
gauge:
1 a : a measurement (as of linear dimension) according to some standard or system: as (1) : the distance between the rails of a railroad (2) : the size of a shotgun barrel's inner diameter nominally expressed as the number of lead balls each just fitting that diameter required to make a pound (3) : the thickness of a thin material (as sheet metal or plastic film) (4) : the diameter of a slender object (as wire or a hypodermic needle) (5) : the fineness of a knitted fabric expressed by the number of loops per unit width b : DIMENSIONS, SIZE c : MEASURE 1
2 : an instrument for or a means of measuring or testing: as a : an instrument for measuring a dimension or for testing mechanical accuracy b : an instrument with a graduated scale or dial for measuring or indicating quantity
3 : relative position of a ship with reference to another ship and the wind
4 : a function introduced into a field equation to produce a convenient form of the equation but having no observable physical consequences
gouge:
1 : a chisel with a concavo-convex cross section
2 a : the act of gouging b : a groove or cavity scooped out
3 : an excessive or improper exaction
I think you meant to *gouge* your eyes out...
Demand to see the *proof*..
Failing that, demand re-instatement - let a lawyer handle it.
Pummle their weasle faced, pimple nosed tech with their inability to read.
ie - process list shows nothing - wow - must be using 3rd party software.
keyboards are not 3rd party software - however, the G15 uses software to implement the Macros - especially since they can be programmed to use *timing* with them. That 3rd party software (the G15 macro software) is probably what caused the ban - even though Logitech claims that it's usable in WoW.
next possible recourse - Sue Logitech, force them to fight for you to get your account re-instated.
None of these are likely to work - but it's worth a shot.
No, I don't expect them to be able to program.
I do however, expect them to remember key components for their job.
#1 Rules
#2 Regulations
#3 Passwords
If they can't remember passwords, what else aren't they remembering?
Loading bytes from storage media - regardless of whether it's tape / floppy (tape flattened out and stretched) / zip / hard disk / optical disk - whatever - it's still the same thing - loading data from media.
Okay then, find me ONE solution to managing authentication that works on EVERY platform available...
Let me know how you're doing every month or so, and I'll expect to hear back from you sometime in the next millenia....
ie - Until there's a solution that can cover at least 95% of all the platforms deployed, it will just confuse the users to say that "We'll use passwords here, but over here, we'll use something else entirely different"....
Obviously, you've not had to work in a truly mixed OS/Hardware/Software environment....
Passwords may not be the easiest thing to remember, however, it's easier than *everyone* makes it out to be.
I've changed passwords on each of the 136 different UNIX systems that I've managed, different password for each server, changed monthly, and can remember every password I've used for the last 20 years. It's not that tough, and no - I don't write them down.
If I can do that, then the users can remember their one to three passwords they need daily, it's just plain laziness to say "It's too hard...".
- The only reason mentioned above to have strong passwords is to stop the spread of virii. If you've got good anti-virus measures in place, then there is no real need for strong passwords for standard users.
You mean aside from Federally mandated audit requirements?
It's an AS/400 security option - and as I said - this person was all about trying every option...
oh, and a couple of users did try to do the 40 character ones - just to be smart. They forgot that backspaces weren't allowed (no mistakes) and that they had less than 60 seconds to complete the entire login / password process..... Heh - let's just say that they changed their passwords again....
LOL - Yes, I was - however, for a time, our corporate masters did specify 8 chars minimum, 40 max, 1 capital, 1 lower, 1 numeric, 1 symbol at a minimum - no repeating characters, nor usage of character in same position of previous 6 passwords - I kid you not.
Luckily, the person who made those specifications got locked out of their account enough times that they quit, because they couldn't remember their own passwords.
Forgot to mention - 3 strikes, and you're locked out, requiring a new password to be set.
- Security: How much of that data gets into hard copy that end-users leave lying around their cubicles, or is displayed on screen when users get up and walk away from their desks without *locking* their systems. How many people *share* userids and passwords so that they can login as each other *just in case* they forget their own passwords, or someone else can do their work for them.
Security is a two edged sword... To increase security - you the end user get the following. All traffic is encrypted. All fields that display sensitive information are invisible, unless you move the mouse pointer over it, and click (hold the click to see the info). All screen savers are locked on blank screen (no user customizable fancy dancy screen savers) - and set at 1 Minute, maximum - no user ability to change / reset this. All user systems have USB disabled, no cdrom drive, no floppy drive. All passwords must be a minimum of 8 characters long, have at least 2 numerics, 2 symbols, 2 capital letters and 2 lower case letters. Zero repeat characters, and no character can be used in the same position more than once in 16 months. Passwords must be reset every 28 days - no exceptions. All users must pass basic computer literacy / ability tests. You fail the test, you're fired. Internet access is restricted to Intranet and *approved* work related internet sites. Usage is monitored, and reviewed by supervisors monthly. Users must face the entrance to their work environment, with their monitors facing away from the entrance. Spot checks will be done to see if anyone has passwords written down, if they do - they're shit-canned. Anyone caught sharing / using someone else's password is fired - no questions asked. Supervisors caught logged in as one of their employees are also shit-canned. Supervisors have the ability to review their people's work, without logging in as the user.
- Continual access - Users get as much access as the business areas are willing to provide. IE - Continuous access costs money. Get the IT areas the money, they will get you the access. Clustered servers with snap-shot capable databases / filesystems are not cheap. Nor are the test servers needed to allow for full regression testing of each patch / update for every system in the office. All of these things must be provided for to get you your *full time access*.
- Work Ethic - Nothing *PISSES* me off more than lazy end users who say "can't you just?" or
"quick question" - especially when I've already answered the question 15 times previously. Nothing is ever as *simple* as you think it is. With today's systems that are interconnected at levels previously not even dreamed of - taking that simple table offline so you can *refresh* the data, causes 13 other business areas to sit idle until that data is made available again.
- Keeping you informed - While not every new technology is great, there are sooo many new technologies that *could* make your life easier, if only you could get over this *fear of change* you seem to have. Change is good - without it, we'd all be dead.
-Honesty: I've never stretched the truth, nor have I overcharged. However, the reverse is also true - don't ask questions like - "Honestly now, isn't it *physically* possible to do x/y/z?" Even when it's physically possible to do something you want, doesn't mean it's the right / correct / intelligent thing to do. Since it's our job to be technical, and *know* these things, let us do our jobs - without butting in with your inane prattling.
Remember - as a computer analyst, we are expected to be right 100% of the time, and aren't allowed to *experiment*. As a doctor, you are expected to be right 100% of the time - however, with computers if the *patient* dies - nothing but information is lost.
No there's a difference.
A company isn't a *PERSON*...
That's the kicker - companies do not have the same basic freedoms / rights as individuals...