at the same time technology is moving fatser than ever too. My 295hp car just got 28 mpg on a 3 hour trip today, in 1978 that car would have gotten about 6-12mpg (since there were no 295 hp new cars in 1978, we'll have to estimate). One thing to keep in mind is that we DO have renewable sources of energy, and technology continues to lower the production costs of these while the non-renewable sources will continue to rise. At some point the two lines cross and we'll switch in a big way. The USA is real good at solving these problems.
Yes, your example of using a 295 hp vehicle even though 1978 automobiles got from point A to B just fine highlights one of the most serious problems with the "we'll solve the issues just fine, no worries!" thinking.
As long as Valve doesn't go out of business anyway.
Delivery of applications online is here to stay. Many businesses have come and gone ever since shareware arrived. Yet, I can still download the programs I have paid for.
There are many people already trading pirated Steam games so Valve going out of business isn't a big deal.
Hokey/hostile copy protection schemes such as Steam and Starforce aren't helping matters either. No sense ragging on Steam since it has been hashed out here before, and Starforce's hardware/software-hostility has a cult following of gamers who stay informed of titles NOT to buy.
How is Steam an Evil copy protection scheme?
It seems to be quite the opposite of what most companies are doing. I can play any Valve game I've bought since 1998 on any computer that can handle the software without digging for any discs or serial numbers for those games.
Well, I'm an MIT engineer, and although it turns out that I have degrees from Harvard, the reason I never mention them is that I hated Harvard. And one of the reasons I hated Harvard is that I was one of the few people in the history of the world who's had their PhD dissertation rejected in their last year
This has to be the most mind-boggling articles I've seen on Slashdot.
All drives can do this when you turn them quickly during highspeed disc reading. It is the same thing that happens when you try to turn a spinning wheel from a cycle.
Maybe they should use the drive technology that portable CD players and Laptops use.
Interestingly enough, I used to use a saved google query to look for interesting Axis webcams.
I hadn't used it in a while and had forgotten about it until now but now google responds to the query with this:
We're sorry...
... but we can't process your request right now. A computer virus or spyware application is sending us automated requests, and it appears that your computer or network has been infected.
We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your computer is free of viruses and other spurious software.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.
I'd like to see their excuse for limiting this query. All I am doing is looking to see what the watchers are watching.
Why they changed their distribution method, I don't know, unless it was somehow actually cheaper to use Valve as their US vendor rather than doing it the other way. Or maybe Valve is giving them promotional opportunities (i.e., advertising) that they couldn't get before.
They changed because they couldn't afford the money to get shelf space. This way, they can't lose money if the game doesn't sell.
With Steam, they save bucketloads of money and get a virtual box in the shelf-space on every of the millions of computers that have Steam installed. Every user sees that advertisement every time they go to pick a Steam game to play unless they've changed that option in the Steam settings. They can play the demo in just a few minutes on any computer that they want to since a Steam account can be used on as many computers that the person want to play those games on.
I run LAN servers and notice that very few people shut off the advertisements because the target audience is the correct one, the ads don't take any extra time to load, they can be disabled, and the ads aren't obnoxious. Instead, people are more likely to talk about the new games that show up in the advertisements or news.
The same company that worked on that game is in the process of finishing up QuakeWars: Enemy Territory. It will not be free but the trailer of in-game footage looks very impressive.
and maybe I'm just ignorant, but WHY DON'T THEY ENCRYPT ALL THAT INFORMATION WHEN IT LEAVES THE MAIN DATA WAREHOUSE? It seems to me that by encrypting its contents, you put some security around it should it be lost/stolen/etc. Can anyone explain why this isn't done?
If you encrypt a database backup and there is an error on the tape, the backup could easily be useless.
For this same reason, many Linux users still do not compress backups of their data. Even though there is media these days that is much more reliable than tape, one scratch on a burned DVD can easily make the DVD useless.
Well, even if so...why did they keep the numbers? I've run into things where people wanted my SSN....which I pretty much refuse to give to anyone not associated with ssn taxes....but, to get around it...I just give a deposit in lieu of SSN.
As far as loans, they keep the numbers because if a person defaults on the loan that's the only data they have that's unique to the person who defaulted. For example, if the debt gets sold cheaply to a debt collection agency, the collection agency needs that number to track the person if the person moves somewhere else. "John Jones of 123 Main St. Anytown, USA" isn't very useful if John Jones moves to another state.
Weeds developing herbacide resistance has been going on as long as evolution, and that's a long time. I'm so sick of these "omgtheskyisfalling" environmentalists, their headline-grabbing falsehoods are taking away from legitamite science. grrr.
I did not know that dinosaurs used pesticides.
But then again, there is a theory that Monsantosaurus Rex might have been involved with their extinction.
As a general rule, lawyers are never disbarred, no matter how egregious the offense. When they are, they are usually re-admitted to the state bar within a few years. The only way a lawyer serves jail time for suborning perjury in a civil case is if the case involves millions of dollars or the loss of human life, and even then it's as rare as hen's teeth.
When it does happen, it's pretty sweet justice.
Case in point, the two attorneys working with Al Sharpton on the Tawana Brawley hoax were soon disbarred.
That's what I had in mind but he wasn't anywhere close to actually having a functioning reactor although it was hyped up by the media to encourage people to think so.
Slashdot Mirror
at the same time technology is moving fatser than ever too. My 295hp car just got 28 mpg on a 3 hour trip today, in 1978 that car would have gotten about 6-12mpg (since there were no 295 hp new cars in 1978, we'll have to estimate). One thing to keep in mind is that we DO have renewable sources of energy, and technology continues to lower the production costs of these while the non-renewable sources will continue to rise. At some point the two lines cross and we'll switch in a big way. The USA is real good at solving these problems.
Yes, your example of using a 295 hp vehicle even though 1978 automobiles got from point A to B just fine highlights one of the most serious problems with the "we'll solve the issues just fine, no worries!" thinking.
You could always put them back in the mail box marker "Return to Sender" and make them pay for the postage again.
Not to bust your bubble, but bulk mail of that type is thrown away instead of actually being returned.
All .gov addresses should be banned from editing in Wikipedia.
No no no no no! While the idea sounds great, in action it's a very Bad Thing.
Once that's done and accepted practice, who else will be banned?
It's an extremely slippery slope.
I addressed that issue. Even people who don't pay for Steam games can play them if they choose to do so. They don't have to worry about registration.
But can you upgrade them to the registered version without having them try to phone home to a nonexistent server?
They can call all they want. Extremely few products absolutely require online access to register. Most often they are just checking for updates.
As long as Valve doesn't go out of business anyway.
Delivery of applications online is here to stay. Many businesses have come and gone ever since shareware arrived. Yet, I can still download the programs I have paid for.
There are many people already trading pirated Steam games so Valve going out of business isn't a big deal.
Hokey/hostile copy protection schemes such as Steam and Starforce aren't helping matters either. No sense ragging on Steam since it has been hashed out here before, and Starforce's hardware/software-hostility has a cult following of gamers who stay informed of titles NOT to buy.
How is Steam an Evil copy protection scheme?
It seems to be quite the opposite of what most companies are doing. I can play any Valve game I've bought since 1998 on any computer that can handle the software without digging for any discs or serial numbers for those games.
Who haxor3d slashdot article submissions today?
Well, I'm an MIT engineer, and although it turns out that I have degrees from Harvard, the reason I never mention them is that I hated Harvard. And one of the reasons I hated Harvard is that I was one of the few people in the history of the world who's had their PhD dissertation rejected in their last year
This has to be the most mind-boggling articles I've seen on Slashdot.
This link as well didn't help.
And what's worse, it's highly popular among the "alternative" OS / FOSS crowd... who're also the ones least likely to pay for anything.
Yes, and most of us like to eat babies too.
All drives can do this when you turn them quickly during highspeed disc reading. It is the same thing that happens when you try to turn a spinning wheel from a cycle.
Maybe they should use the drive technology that portable CD players and Laptops use.
What about posting a story about the majority of Xbox 360 users that don't have any problems, instead of the (vocal) small percentage who do?
GAMES: 360 Disc Scratching Not Serious Problem For People Who Don't Experience The XBOX 360 Scratching Discs
I think you'll find that it's a 3.5mm stero jack plug...
Around these parts it's a stereo phone jack plug.
Interestingly enough, I used to use a saved google query to look for interesting Axis webcams.
... but we can't process your request right now. A computer virus or spyware application is sending us automated requests, and it appears that your computer or network has been infected.
I hadn't used it in a while and had forgotten about it until now but now google responds to the query with this:
We're sorry...
We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your computer is free of viruses and other spurious software.
We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.
I'd like to see their excuse for limiting this query. All I am doing is looking to see what the watchers are watching.
Make some static fucking pages, and you could serve it from a 486.
Damn, I forgot to put Troll Snacks[TM] on my shopping list.
Why they changed their distribution method, I don't know, unless it was somehow actually cheaper to use Valve as their US vendor rather than doing it the other way. Or maybe Valve is giving them promotional opportunities (i.e., advertising) that they couldn't get before.
They changed because they couldn't afford the money to get shelf space. This way, they can't lose money if the game doesn't sell.
With Steam, they save bucketloads of money and get a virtual box in the shelf-space on every of the millions of computers that have Steam installed. Every user sees that advertisement every time they go to pick a Steam game to play unless they've changed that option in the Steam settings. They can play the demo in just a few minutes on any computer that they want to since a Steam account can be used on as many computers that the person want to play those games on.
I run LAN servers and notice that very few people shut off the advertisements because the target audience is the correct one, the ads don't take any extra time to load, they can be disabled, and the ads aren't obnoxious. Instead, people are more likely to talk about the new games that show up in the advertisements or news.
The same company that worked on that game is in the process of finishing up QuakeWars: Enemy Territory. It will not be free but the trailer of in-game footage looks very impressive.
and maybe I'm just ignorant, but WHY DON'T THEY ENCRYPT ALL THAT INFORMATION WHEN IT LEAVES THE MAIN DATA WAREHOUSE? It seems to me that by encrypting its contents, you put some security around it should it be lost/stolen/etc. Can anyone explain why this isn't done?
If you encrypt a database backup and there is an error on the tape, the backup could easily be useless.
For this same reason, many Linux users still do not compress backups of their data. Even though there is media these days that is much more reliable than tape, one scratch on a burned DVD can easily make the DVD useless.
Well, even if so...why did they keep the numbers? I've run into things where people wanted my SSN....which I pretty much refuse to give to anyone not associated with ssn taxes....but, to get around it...I just give a deposit in lieu of SSN.
As far as loans, they keep the numbers because if a person defaults on the loan that's the only data they have that's unique to the person who defaulted. For example, if the debt gets sold cheaply to a debt collection agency, the collection agency needs that number to track the person if the person moves somewhere else. "John Jones of 123 Main St. Anytown, USA" isn't very useful if John Jones moves to another state.
For the record, the Amish community knows about the electron but CHOOSES not to have much to do with it.
The Amish people can speak for themselves here at slashdot, thank you very much.
gee so those dvd recorders on the market mustn't really exist according to this attempted funny joke..... err yea
If you had have read the article, you would have avoided hearing that whooshing sound.
Weeds developing herbacide resistance has been going on as long as evolution, and that's a long time. I'm so sick of these "omgtheskyisfalling" environmentalists, their headline-grabbing falsehoods are taking away from legitamite science. grrr.
I did not know that dinosaurs used pesticides.
But then again, there is a theory that Monsantosaurus Rex might have been involved with their extinction.
In other news, Australians anticipate being allowed to record Television on DVDs by the year 2035.
As a general rule, lawyers are never disbarred, no matter how egregious the offense. When they are, they are usually re-admitted to the state bar within a few years. The only way a lawyer serves jail time for suborning perjury in a civil case is if the case involves millions of dollars or the loss of human life, and even then it's as rare as hen's teeth.
When it does happen, it's pretty sweet justice.
Case in point, the two attorneys working with Al Sharpton on the Tawana Brawley hoax were soon disbarred.
*Ahem*
That's what I had in mind but he wasn't anywhere close to actually having a functioning reactor although it was hyped up by the media to encourage people to think so.