Just was wondering - to play The Sims and some of the other games you can get with WineX (from transgaming), what do I need on my boxen?
I ask cause they're servers, and I'm pretty sure I didn't buy top-end graphics or sound cards, so my question could be phrased as:
1. what is the low end setup I'll need supported by Mandrake Linux 8.1 with WineX - minimal sound and video cards for reasonable playing of The Sims and probably WarCraft I/II and StarCraft.
2. what is the top end setup currently supported by Mandrake Linux 8.1 with WineX - basically what cards could I buy that it will support well? And for that, is there something I should get so that I can run Black and White while I'm buying.
I'd like to spend less than $200 total if possible.
I just bought a set-top box to play DVDs, CDs, CD-R/Ws, CD-Rs, and MP3s.
Unfortunately, some CDs sold as music may not play on my home sound system using this device, as I understand the implications of watermarking.
Is this a true statement? The watermarking which you researched - is it equivalent to someone selling me a defective game disk? And does it distort any of the frequencies my dog and goldfish enjoy, so that we will not all enjoy the desert trance music in the same way?
My problem with this optimized version of Sims is that its a bastardization...
Well, it's all well and good that you have such high ideals, but all I can say is that this allows me to finally ditch my last Windows box.
And I'm not the only person who only had Windows so I could play games.
By having the "Linux" version, it will be recorded as such, not as a "Windows" version. And the gaming industry will work on making sure they can tap our market, not just the Windows/Mac market they usually shoot for.
Eventually one hopes people will develop for Linux entirely, but it's a good compromise for me.
Since they've been suing everyone and anyone who dared question their cult and all...
They were suing over trademark, copyright, and trade secrets laws. They still can.
But this does means you can post an opinion about scientology, just not inside information one gained (lost) by being involved in their cult.
So you can't reveal the inner workings of their measurement devices, nor can you reveal the exact works of L.Ron Hubbard that they use for each level, but you could say something like "those who achieve the Third Level of Darkness are a bunch of toads". But you couldn't explain why this is so, as that would violate the trade secret, to which you are explicitly bound.
Please note I have no personal knowledge of their inner workings, I'm trying to explain how this would work. I would be very surprised if their third level involved darkness or toads, although it would be quite amusing if it did.
I wonder how this will affect stock trading message boards.
I think that it might impact suing for slander. But it most likely will not impact regulatory agencies such as the SEC from fining such individuals, as this is a regulated activity.
Criminal court (slander) is not the same as civil court, nor is it the same as regulatory agencies.
Basically, it seems to me that this is a great example of a court backing what is actual practice, as opposed to some twisted view of reality that only a lawyer could agree with.
When I post something, I always assume others will treat it as an opinion. Sometimes they don't, which astounds me.
Now, if you could show that I had posted an opinion in many places, at many times, in a campaign obviously intended to slander (trolls beware!), then you should probably be able to sue me for slander.
But, for most practical purposes, this is obviously the correct interpretation of the matter.
Should I create a website and post my opinions on it as fixed pages, stating them as facts - e.g. "Fact - Bill Gates is the Antichrist!" - then you might be able to sue me.
But if I post a comment on/. or yahoo in reaction to an article, the assumption would be that it is opinion.
Anyone know when someone will get Black and White working for Linux?
Very glad to hear the Mandrake bundle is a pre-configure. That means I may have to do some work in the future, and thus learn stuff, but it will work from first install so I can play The Sims.
This is the way to do Linux games, if you ask me. And it was the reason for me deciding to finally ditch my last Win box.
I just bought a player with DVD, CD, CD-R/W, CD-R, and MP3 built in myself. I'm sure this means I'll probably not be able to use the "anti-pirate" CDs, but I'm looking forward to returning those for a cash refund (or else I phone Visa and have them deny the charges).
Cost was about $99 in a Post-Thanksgiving sale at the Bon Marche. Can't remember the manufacturer - think it was Korean.
My impression is you need to ask what kind of player you mean. Do you mean a hand-portable? For that, if you have an iMac, try the iPod. Do you mean a home player? These are commodities now - just get a DVD/CD/MP3 player - cheap enough. Do you mean a car player? Think these price around $150 now.
It's all part of the marketing cycle - best time to buy new tech is three years after introduction - price curve flattens around then. And that's the point that we're at now.
In looking at the story, one gains the amazing insight that Intel is quite worried about consumer reluctance to buy faster chips, as the faster MHz chip matters little beyond a certain point.
One also can extrapolate they are quite worried about Transmeta competition for lower-power chips.
So to me this really is a reflection of a PR piece in their attempt to stop going down the blind alley of chip speed, and try to figure out a way to fight Transmeta, without giving up the shop to AMD (cheaper materials aspect).
[caveat - I own both TMTA and AMD]
-
Re:So? It's the games that make a console great
on
XBox Netplay Already
·
· Score: 1
Exactly. It is the games that sell the console.
I popped into EBX this Saturday after catching Harry Potter at the Cinerama, and they were saying it's still not doing well.
MSFT can keep it up for years, admittedly, but initial reactions amongst gamers who live and breathe this stuff says that they're not panting for the xBox enough.
As a side example, my son's half-brother demo'd both the xBox and the GameCube (he's 16) and said that the xBox games weren't that interesting. He's target market - and he's not wowwed. Ran into some problems in playing the xBox too - the expectation of a console is that it works once, works always. If it fails that criteria, it's toast.
Still like Munch's Oddyssey - wonder how long till they get a version for GameCube?
Exactly. I get a lot of chinese, taiwanese, and korean spam on one of my web sites, since it's keyworded "pacific".
Since I don't use the appropriate character sets, I have no idea if it's actually real email. I just trash it all.
I even get the virii in largest quantities from such sites.
So perhaps a lot of Chinese hackers would like to submit patches but are having diffuculty communicating with our processes. Many times obstacles are a combination of barriers on both sides - and we might need to work on making it easier for them to submit things, and listen to their suggestions for how they might change things to work for them.
Actually, industry stats on business wires show that PS2 is doing pretty well, and that Nintendo is not able to keep up with the demand (had to add an additional 200,000 units to an already increased allotment for next ship batch for US). xBox, even with reduced shipments, is developing a backlog due to low demand.
Me, I just preordered my Mandrake 8.1 with The Sims bundle anyway - should scream on my dual CPU boxen.
-
Unfortunately, it's already doomed
on
XBox Netplay Already
·
· Score: 1, Flamebait
I was just reading Business Wire, and apparently Nintendo will sell out it's initial 700,000 unit shipment this weekend, has added an additional 200,000 units to the next shipment, and MSFT still has backlog after shipping only 300,000 units (originally scheduled for 600,000).
If you're hoping to get these as hack machines (a pretty good deal, actually), you better hurry, cause it's likely the xBox will be dead by springtime. The game industry only rewards the #1 and #2 spots, and xBox is radipdly becoming in danger from holding on to #3.
If you really want to oppose this at the level where it matters, then encrypt. Dont write your senator, dont address the fine folks in Brussels. Encrypt.
Remember, encryption makes the internet a cozy bedside chat. Use it with your lovers, and use it with your friends.
Well, it also depends upon the country's specific implementation of the treaty. We here in the US will have to worry that the data nazis will succeed in removing our constitutional rights to have privacy, whereas most European and Canadian implementations will probably have strong privacy rights.
Note that encryption is only useful if you encrypt all your message and chat traffic. If you only encrypt the sensitive ones, it's easier to break. And it makes it obvious that those are the messages that one wants to break in the first place.
But if all your message traffic is encrypted, you can't tell which messages are important, so you have to brute force all of them.
- good thing I have my peril sensitive sunglasses -
Seriously, there seem to be quite a lot of techies who do socialize together, going as an entire group to events like Burning Man and Rave-like events, many involving fire, alcohol, and other substances.
I have a number of friends who I really only meet when we get ready for an event, are going to the event, are at the event (usually 3 to 10 days), are on the way back from the event, or having a pre or post party connected with the event.
Some appear to work together. There's a couple guys at work who do this too.
There are quite a few groups where I work, as follows:
1. many women tend to become friends thru work (and daycare/school), and go on lunch and shopping trips together.
2. a number of us have interest/affinity groupings - some of us speak French, some are into motorcycles, some do trucks, some ski, some do social outings (one of the guys and I here will go and cruise for girls at music events and personals outings; and there are others who do this too), some do fire performances together, some do arts outings.
3. some of us live in the same neighborhoods so we get together anyway, since we share bus rides or carpool sometimes.
It really depends on the individual.
I noticed when I worked in places with more young people there was a lot of going out for drinks and music events - we do that here too, but not as much.
The last army unit I was in before I got out we had a siprnet datacenter. Usuall stuff like locked doors and needing to be identified on camera before entry. But the people who worked in there used to give the entry code to their wives who would come in with classified info on the monitors. Then they went to a code and entry card. So the wives would ring the doorbell first and then be let in while there was classified info on the monitors.
Exactly my point. Another way we would find to show that a room lacked physical security was the coffee break trick. We would be talking with someone next to the door when they went to coffee break. That person would then say they were heading there too, distracting them, while we defeated the door closure. Then we head off so they think there's no prob, go around the corner, and then head back and we're in the room.
Because they were "just going for coffee" they were still active. So we had defeated security.
Hence, it's not physical security that provides hack access, it's social engineering that defeats the network security.
Once you're in and trusted, you can build out the rest of the access, whether by dongle or other device or password captures and opening up other methods.
So, basically, it won't be unhackable. This is not to say we shouldn't be encouraging the Bush administration from building a Secure Linux setup with IPv6 and IPvSec. If nothing else, this would be better than the current situation.
a) Eliminate Government Data Access to All But the Highest Officials (which still poses the same problem, in theory) or
b) Eliminate the network altogether.
We already went down this path with the CIA and NSA. Turning to more hardware meant that we were less adapatable, and missed more things.
While people will always be the weak link of any network, and inside access the way to defeat security, this does not mean that it is unwise to trust people.
Instead, we should make security transparent and easy to use, and learn from our mistakes.
This is the lesson of open source - the security actually increases as the number of eyes peering at the code increases. Dependence on the technology ignores the fact that someone has to see the data at the beginning and end of the process.
You don't even need backhoes. Just find the telco loc where the Net colocates and drive a truck into it, just as you would a plane, loaded with amfol and deisel fuel.
Simple, direct, and too darned effective.
Concentration of resources and access is the downfall of any system. Diversification allows one to reroute around damage.
I'd still be more worried about human security failings than physical, to be frank.
Building a private network isn't a big deal. I think the government could build an encrypted WAN without much effort. I think the biggest challenge to security is going to be on the physical front... meaning that every piece of network equipment must be in a secure location. This includes every router and bridge in every network shack along the WAN lines. Wouldn't want any 1337 hax0r5 to come along with a patch cable and bring down the government network. Since guarding every inch of wire is impossible, point to point connections must be made with fiber line so it can't be tapped like copper.
None of this even begins to consider the physical local machine security... government workers shouldn't be alowed to bring any media from home, no incoming modem lines, etc.
I used to be Acting Security Officer a few years back for one of the MilHQs. The major problem with security is almost always personnel, secondary is physical security.'
And in fact, most of the breaches at DOD/DND were because someone brought stuff home or just plain forgot to keep it secure.
You are only as strong as your weakest link. This doesn't mean you shouldn't go to something useful, like using IPvSec over IPv6 with encryption enabled, and insisting on Bastille Linux or BSD implementations or Secure Unix as a bare minimum.
We used to limit the boxes, so that the points of access were kept to a minimum. But when security gets in the way of people doing their jobs, they will actively work to defeat the security, and then you might as well have no security at all.
None of the major backbones are willing to provide IPv6 connections.
I think you may have hit on something here. Why not demand a separate and secure Internet 2 with Bastille Linux and IPv6 with full security enabled and mandated. And have the gateways deny non-capable access.
It would be useful in terms of jobs, forcing the Net to switch, and addressing all the problems, while being infinitely more secure than the current Net.
Remember, private enterprise needs the government to force it to take the big leaps forward.
Speaking of spammers, I have gotten more junk mail this past month, trying to trick me into changing registrars for a couple of domains that expire in November and December. I have gotten 4 different letters from Register.com, as well as about a half dozen emails from Register.com or their affiliates. I had always thought they were a big company and above sending spam, but I guessed wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
Just was wondering - to play The Sims and some of the other games you can get with WineX (from transgaming), what do I need on my boxen?
I ask cause they're servers, and I'm pretty sure I didn't buy top-end graphics or sound cards, so my question could be phrased as:
1. what is the low end setup I'll need supported by Mandrake Linux 8.1 with WineX - minimal sound and video cards for reasonable playing of The Sims and probably WarCraft I/II and StarCraft.
2. what is the top end setup currently supported by Mandrake Linux 8.1 with WineX - basically what cards could I buy that it will support well? And for that, is there something I should get so that I can run Black and White while I'm buying.
I'd like to spend less than $200 total if possible.
Thanks!
-
I just bought a set-top box to play DVDs, CDs, CD-R/Ws, CD-Rs, and MP3s.
Unfortunately, some CDs sold as music may not play on my home sound system using this device, as I understand the implications of watermarking.
Is this a true statement? The watermarking which you researched - is it equivalent to someone selling me a defective game disk? And does it distort any of the frequencies my dog and goldfish enjoy, so that we will not all enjoy the desert trance music in the same way?
-
My problem with this optimized version of Sims is that its a bastardization...
Well, it's all well and good that you have such high ideals, but all I can say is that this allows me to finally ditch my last Windows box.
And I'm not the only person who only had Windows so I could play games.
By having the "Linux" version, it will be recorded as such, not as a "Windows" version. And the gaming industry will work on making sure they can tap our market, not just the Windows/Mac market they usually shoot for.
Eventually one hopes people will develop for Linux entirely, but it's a good compromise for me.
-
Since they've been suing everyone and anyone who dared question their cult and all...
They were suing over trademark, copyright, and trade secrets laws. They still can.
But this does means you can post an opinion about scientology, just not inside information one gained (lost) by being involved in their cult.
So you can't reveal the inner workings of their measurement devices, nor can you reveal the exact works of L.Ron Hubbard that they use for each level, but you could say something like "those who achieve the Third Level of Darkness are a bunch of toads". But you couldn't explain why this is so, as that would violate the trade secret, to which you are explicitly bound.
Please note I have no personal knowledge of their inner workings, I'm trying to explain how this would work. I would be very surprised if their third level involved darkness or toads, although it would be quite amusing if it did.
Maybe it involves making bad films?
-
I wonder how this will affect stock trading message boards.
I think that it might impact suing for slander. But it most likely will not impact regulatory agencies such as the SEC from fining such individuals, as this is a regulated activity.
Criminal court (slander) is not the same as civil court, nor is it the same as regulatory agencies.
-
now, on the other hand, a post about natalie portmann by the same poster, many times, in many threads, should be liable to be sued as slander.
however, as she is a public figure and all, the bar to prove such slander would be quite high.
-
the only trolls should be those under bridges
-
First, obviously, this is IMHO.
/. or yahoo in reaction to an article, the assumption would be that it is opinion.
Basically, it seems to me that this is a great example of a court backing what is actual practice, as opposed to some twisted view of reality that only a lawyer could agree with.
When I post something, I always assume others will treat it as an opinion. Sometimes they don't, which astounds me.
Now, if you could show that I had posted an opinion in many places, at many times, in a campaign obviously intended to slander (trolls beware!), then you should probably be able to sue me for slander.
But, for most practical purposes, this is obviously the correct interpretation of the matter.
Should I create a website and post my opinions on it as fixed pages, stating them as facts - e.g. "Fact - Bill Gates is the Antichrist!" - then you might be able to sue me.
But if I post a comment on
-
Cool!
Anyone know when someone will get Black and White working for Linux?
Very glad to hear the Mandrake bundle is a pre-configure. That means I may have to do some work in the future, and thus learn stuff, but it will work from first install so I can play The Sims.
This is the way to do Linux games, if you ask me. And it was the reason for me deciding to finally ditch my last Win box.
-
I was wondering exactly how this differs from the $89 bundle of Mandrake Linux with The Sims? Does anyone have any info on this?
I just bought a player with DVD, CD, CD-R/W, CD-R, and MP3 built in myself. I'm sure this means I'll probably not be able to use the "anti-pirate" CDs, but I'm looking forward to returning those for a cash refund (or else I phone Visa and have them deny the charges).
Cost was about $99 in a Post-Thanksgiving sale at the Bon Marche. Can't remember the manufacturer - think it was Korean.
My impression is you need to ask what kind of player you mean. Do you mean a hand-portable? For that, if you have an iMac, try the iPod. Do you mean a home player? These are commodities now - just get a DVD/CD/MP3 player - cheap enough. Do you mean a car player? Think these price around $150 now.
It's all part of the marketing cycle - best time to buy new tech is three years after introduction - price curve flattens around then. And that's the point that we're at now.
-
In looking at the story, one gains the amazing insight that Intel is quite worried about consumer reluctance to buy faster chips, as the faster MHz chip matters little beyond a certain point.
One also can extrapolate they are quite worried about Transmeta competition for lower-power chips.
So to me this really is a reflection of a PR piece in their attempt to stop going down the blind alley of chip speed, and try to figure out a way to fight Transmeta, without giving up the shop to AMD (cheaper materials aspect).
[caveat - I own both TMTA and AMD]
-
Exactly. It is the games that sell the console.
I popped into EBX this Saturday after catching Harry Potter at the Cinerama, and they were saying it's still not doing well.
MSFT can keep it up for years, admittedly, but initial reactions amongst gamers who live and breathe this stuff says that they're not panting for the xBox enough.
As a side example, my son's half-brother demo'd both the xBox and the GameCube (he's 16) and said that the xBox games weren't that interesting. He's target market - and he's not wowwed. Ran into some problems in playing the xBox too - the expectation of a console is that it works once, works always. If it fails that criteria, it's toast.
Still like Munch's Oddyssey - wonder how long till they get a version for GameCube?
-
Exactly. I get a lot of chinese, taiwanese, and korean spam on one of my web sites, since it's keyworded "pacific".
Since I don't use the appropriate character sets, I have no idea if it's actually real email. I just trash it all.
I even get the virii in largest quantities from such sites.
So perhaps a lot of Chinese hackers would like to submit patches but are having diffuculty communicating with our processes. Many times obstacles are a combination of barriers on both sides - and we might need to work on making it easier for them to submit things, and listen to their suggestions for how they might change things to work for them.
-
Actually, industry stats on business wires show that PS2 is doing pretty well, and that Nintendo is not able to keep up with the demand (had to add an additional 200,000 units to an already increased allotment for next ship batch for US). xBox, even with reduced shipments, is developing a backlog due to low demand.
Me, I just preordered my Mandrake 8.1 with The Sims bundle anyway - should scream on my dual CPU boxen.
-
I was just reading Business Wire, and apparently Nintendo will sell out it's initial 700,000 unit shipment this weekend, has added an additional 200,000 units to the next shipment, and MSFT still has backlog after shipping only 300,000 units (originally scheduled for 600,000).
If you're hoping to get these as hack machines (a pretty good deal, actually), you better hurry, cause it's likely the xBox will be dead by springtime. The game industry only rewards the #1 and #2 spots, and xBox is radipdly becoming in danger from holding on to #3.
[caveat - I own both MSFT and NTDOY stock]
-
If you really want to oppose this at the level where it matters, then encrypt. Dont write your senator, dont address the fine folks in Brussels. Encrypt.
Remember, encryption makes the internet a cozy bedside chat. Use it with your lovers, and use it with your friends.
Well, it also depends upon the country's specific implementation of the treaty. We here in the US will have to worry that the data nazis will succeed in removing our constitutional rights to have privacy, whereas most European and Canadian implementations will probably have strong privacy rights.
Note that encryption is only useful if you encrypt all your message and chat traffic. If you only encrypt the sensitive ones, it's easier to break. And it makes it obvious that those are the messages that one wants to break in the first place.
But if all your message traffic is encrypted, you can't tell which messages are important, so you have to brute force all of them.
- good thing I have my peril sensitive sunglasses -
Seriously, there seem to be quite a lot of techies who do socialize together, going as an entire group to events like Burning Man and Rave-like events, many involving fire, alcohol, and other substances.
I have a number of friends who I really only meet when we get ready for an event, are going to the event, are at the event (usually 3 to 10 days), are on the way back from the event, or having a pre or post party connected with the event.
Some appear to work together. There's a couple guys at work who do this too.
-
There are quite a few groups where I work, as follows:
1. many women tend to become friends thru work (and daycare/school), and go on lunch and shopping trips together.
2. a number of us have interest/affinity groupings - some of us speak French, some are into motorcycles, some do trucks, some ski, some do social outings (one of the guys and I here will go and cruise for girls at music events and personals outings; and there are others who do this too), some do fire performances together, some do arts outings.
3. some of us live in the same neighborhoods so we get together anyway, since we share bus rides or carpool sometimes.
It really depends on the individual.
I noticed when I worked in places with more young people there was a lot of going out for drinks and music events - we do that here too, but not as much.
-
The last army unit I was in before I got out we had a siprnet datacenter. Usuall stuff like locked doors and needing to be identified on camera before entry. But the people who worked in there used to give the entry code to their wives who would come in with classified info on the monitors. Then they went to a code and entry card. So the wives would ring the doorbell first and then be let in while there was classified info on the monitors.
Exactly my point. Another way we would find to show that a room lacked physical security was the coffee break trick. We would be talking with someone next to the door when they went to coffee break. That person would then say they were heading there too, distracting them, while we defeated the door closure. Then we head off so they think there's no prob, go around the corner, and then head back and we're in the room.
Because they were "just going for coffee" they were still active. So we had defeated security.
Hence, it's not physical security that provides hack access, it's social engineering that defeats the network security.
Once you're in and trusted, you can build out the rest of the access, whether by dongle or other device or password captures and opening up other methods.
So, basically, it won't be unhackable. This is not to say we shouldn't be encouraging the Bush administration from building a Secure Linux setup with IPv6 and IPvSec. If nothing else, this would be better than the current situation.
-
The only concievable way to do this is to either:
a) Eliminate Government Data Access to All But the Highest Officials (which still poses the same problem, in theory) or
b) Eliminate the network altogether.
We already went down this path with the CIA and NSA. Turning to more hardware meant that we were less adapatable, and missed more things.
While people will always be the weak link of any network, and inside access the way to defeat security, this does not mean that it is unwise to trust people.
Instead, we should make security transparent and easy to use, and learn from our mistakes.
This is the lesson of open source - the security actually increases as the number of eyes peering at the code increases. Dependence on the technology ignores the fact that someone has to see the data at the beginning and end of the process.
-
You don't even need backhoes. Just find the telco loc where the Net colocates and drive a truck into it, just as you would a plane, loaded with amfol and deisel fuel.
Simple, direct, and too darned effective.
Concentration of resources and access is the downfall of any system. Diversification allows one to reroute around damage.
I'd still be more worried about human security failings than physical, to be frank.
-
Building a private network isn't a big deal. I think the government could build an encrypted WAN without much effort. I think the biggest challenge to security is going to be on the physical front... meaning that every piece of network equipment must be in a secure location. This includes every router and bridge in every network shack along the WAN lines. Wouldn't want any 1337 hax0r5 to come along with a patch cable and bring down the government network. Since guarding every inch of wire is impossible, point to point connections must be made with fiber line so it can't be tapped like copper.
None of this even begins to consider the physical local machine security... government workers shouldn't be alowed to bring any media from home, no incoming modem lines, etc.
I used to be Acting Security Officer a few years back for one of the MilHQs. The major problem with security is almost always personnel, secondary is physical security.'
And in fact, most of the breaches at DOD/DND were because someone brought stuff home or just plain forgot to keep it secure.
You are only as strong as your weakest link. This doesn't mean you shouldn't go to something useful, like using IPvSec over IPv6 with encryption enabled, and insisting on Bastille Linux or BSD implementations or Secure Unix as a bare minimum.
We used to limit the boxes, so that the points of access were kept to a minimum. But when security gets in the way of people doing their jobs, they will actively work to defeat the security, and then you might as well have no security at all.
-
None of the major backbones are willing to provide IPv6 connections.
I think you may have hit on something here. Why not demand a separate and secure Internet 2 with Bastille Linux and IPv6 with full security enabled and mandated. And have the gateways deny non-capable access.
It would be useful in terms of jobs, forcing the Net to switch, and addressing all the problems, while being infinitely more secure than the current Net.
Remember, private enterprise needs the government to force it to take the big leaps forward.
Speaking of spammers, I have gotten more junk mail this past month, trying to trick me into changing registrars for a couple of domains that expire in November and December. I have gotten 4 different letters from Register.com, as well as about a half dozen emails from Register.com or their affiliates. I had always thought they were a big company and above sending spam, but I guessed wrong.
I've had the same thing happen to me as well.
-
If one of these bills were disputed in court, the guy would lose. You can't charge people for sending you e-mail without some sort of prior contract.
Sorry, this is totally legitimate under Washington State law, which was upheld by the Supreme Court after numerous appeals.
So you can charge them for sending you spam if your state law allows it.
I am not sure of other states, but believe California and at least one other state have similar legislation.
-