You hit it right on the nose. It seems they have incompetant system administrators or poor management who are not releasing the required funds (though given how little is required for such a system, even one offering full webmail and IMAP services, it seems the former in this case).
Universities have a tendancy to hire cheaply, by using students or recent graduates with zero outside experiance, and so you get this kind of mismanagement of IT infrastructure. Added to this is that in Europe many are almost entirely government funded, and government IT infastructure is rarely managed well (with cronic underfunding & projects always going to the lowest bidder).
You find brilliant academics in Universities, and Universities seem to think they can hire talented staff 'on the cheap' to run their internal systems, but the reality is the really capable students will either want to spend their time doing something more interesting, or go out and start making money - and in any case they will have little or no experience in managing infrastructure on an equivolent scale.
IMO, where possible they should be hiring people from ISP & Telco backgrounds as the key staff responsible for infrastructure development, or at least bring them in to consult on the initial infrastucture or during revamps.
Interesting. It would appear that the economies in online games are in a state of hyperinflation
I find it intersting too, but it's deeper than that, not all games have the same condition...
EQ and SWG have similar (not the same, SWG has more depth/complexity, but untilmately similar) economic models. MOST games do seem to suffer from the trading of in game credits off line, or of powergamers setting prices, making items more and more expensive, thus presenting a barrier to entry.
One shining example of a game that *doesn't* have this problem, and that has slow *deflation* (but kept up by a fixed level of the worth of raw materials and the time/effort/risk required to gather them) is EVE Online. It's got slow deflation at all times on the very expensive items, e.g. the cost of an uberbattleship was 100 Mil ISK last month, it's now 90 Mil ISK (and you can view trading results via the in built stock market, so it's great for having a stable market, though of course rip offs and bargins are still to be had). The difference isn't as noticeable with lower cost items (where the potential profit margin is smaller) but overall this is great news for players, as it means they can afford to spend more time blowing each other up and having fun with PvP, and not worrying about how much it will cost them.
Partly I think this is down to the unquie and superior skill system, where there is no limit to the skills you can learn (unlike other games such as SWG, which force you to be a fighter OR a crafter - you can't be good at both as the number of skill points are fininte, meaning crafters are rare and so can charge high prices). It's also down to how you learn skills - you pay for the appropriate skills (from another player, or from an institution like a space academy) and you devote time to racking up skills in that area, the training continues while you are off line.
Level I takes typically 20-60 min, while Level II skill in something might take around 2 hours or more and Level III a day or more and Levels IV and V days and weeks. You don't actually have to 'grind', just devote the time to learning it. From there you need to buy the blue print (single use, or unlimited reproductions), get the raw materials (easily enough done via mining or even more simply, on the open market) and rent some time in a station to begin some construction.
I know it may sound a bit complex, but honestly in reality it's all very simple and straight forward (thanks to a pretty clear interface), and the low barrier to entry keeps prices down.:)
They also introduce new technologies, such as new ships or the next generation of a given technology (so that items can be created that drain less power, use less ship CPU time, etc) which are rare and so the 'expensive new toys' for those with the cash to spend, while the older technology gets cheaper (but not cheaper than the raw materials).
It's the only game I've played with a wide and stable economy though, most MMOG do have hyper inflation, I put this down to bad gameplay design (though to be fair, while some of the problems are obvious, others are more subtle and harder to spot for non-economics majors, so it's understandable that as MMOG's are new there will be bad economic models initially). It may take a few iterations for developers (especially the likes of SOE) to start seriously thinking about them though.:(
and the damage model for combat is a points based system - so if you get the math right, you can consistently win (or conversely, get it wrong and lose).
To go off topic a little bit:
That's what always drives me nuts about the likes of EQ & SWG. Basically, it's up to who reads up the most online to work out the mathematically best combination of skills and then just grinds for a month or two till they have those attributes, and change their skill sets as appropraite whenever the developers nerf/buff something.
It runins the creativity and fun aspect for me. It's about as much fun as seeing who can optimise their MySQL database the most, or write the fastest XML parser. I DO think that sort of thing can be fun, just not what I want to do in a *game* most of the time (or I'd be playing Robocode or something;-). I have an open source project I can play with when I feel I want to do that. I love reading fan sites for advice and tips (beats working!;-), I just don't like having to read them as part of in depth research because the game system is unbalanced or unituative to the extent that if I don't read them I'm just wasting my time and effort doing the wrong thing.
I know it's hard to make a game that relies on a little more action (like say PlanetSide) due to lag, and the fact that the games engine would actually have to perform half well. I realise not every one wants an MMOG to play like version of Planet Side (think Unreal 2004 with vehicles, but larger scale - with hundreds of players and levels up to 8 kilometers square and persistant character growth), and I'm not sure I do, but a comprise is needed I think.
The best game I've seeen for this is City Of Heroes, it's still basically stats based underneath but thanks to a very fluid engine (decent netcode and fast rendering) it's able to rely more of knowing when to use a power and what power to use, as well as building up a character. The tedious specific details are hidden while not being oversimplified. There is still room for creativity because you can choose from a wide variety of skills to mix and match, or simply build a character that is uber at one specific type of thing.
Unfortunately the 'missing incredient' that shows if this approach can really work is PvP, which isn't coming till later (via an expansion pack, City of Villans). Given the system though, I imagine could create an uber PvP character, but you could equally create a character who would be perfect at counter acting that character.
EVE online combat is like that - you have such a wide variety of attibutes to choose from, a few things become standard (e.g. warp core stabilisers are virtualy a must, so you have a better chance at warpping out if you are in danger even if your opponent tries to scramble your warp) but much of it is entirely open to personal preference and so far more creative.
Having given up SWG a couple of months ago, I play PlanetSide, EVE and CoH (in that order) these days. I will likely get bored of CoH - dispite how well polished and solid underneath it is - I'm starting to feel the lack of depth (lagely due to no PvP or wider ongoing story arc, whcih I'm sure will be addressed as they say). PlanetSide and EVE both have great futures though, I think I'll be keeping them reguardless of what else I pick up.
Not yet, although I'm wondering how long it'll be until players start outsourcing their in-game quests to India.:-)
Actually, it's already happening.:-)
You can outsource the levelling of characters (and specificy to what level, or what skills) and even the hours it should be levelled between (e.g. when you are at work & not playing it yourself). I've seen this advertised for City Of Heroes (which ironically, isn't that hard to level in), I would guess it's around for games like EQ and SWG too.
You might get away with calling the man himself culturally a product of the 'Anglosphere'
I don't see how you could possibly entertain that idea. He was born, grew up and formally educated in Scotland. He didn't grow up in Canada or America, he didn't go through the US or Canadian education systems, nor was he influenced by US or Canadian culture while growing up. He'd already developed the system before he'd arrived in North America thanks to his cultral background and his studies at Edinburgh Unversity (founded in the 1500's I might add - thanks to significant investment and contribution by the people of Scotland).
You do much to belittle the contribution of the Scottish higher education system with your comments. Lending credit to America or Canada for such inventions is entirely unwarranted. Had it not been for his parents leaving for North America and him getting a grant thanks to his farthers encoragement once there, he would likely have stayed in London and there would be no debate about the subject.
Neither America, Canada, or Britain, nor Russia or Germany, nor any other country, has ever invented anything.
Inventions can be the product of a country or civilisation, which has been the case for thousands of years. Pointing out the contributions the Romans, the Greeks, the Mesopotanians, the Egyptians and the British have had over the years should make this more than obvious. DARPANET would be an excellent modern example of an American contribution (and so, the Internet, albeit sans the WWW).
Of course, Alexander Graham Bell was in fact born in, educated in and researched and developed the technology later used in the telephone in Scotland. IIRC, the purpose for the technology was to assist in speech therapy (for the deaf/hearing impared), which was his formal background.
He moved to the US and continued to develop and then market his invention as he saw a wider audience for it, but sought investment and he saw the US was the easiest place to obtain it, before he later retired to Canada.
I once tried explaining all to a zelot running a historical site with famous American inventions and inventors on it, who produdly proclamed AGB and his inventions American (along with other things invented thousands of miles away, including the automobile, television, lightbulb and the computer) but he was having none of it, he was convinced America was the inventor of all the technology in the modern world.
The anonymous coward's comments not withstanding (an apt name, since he seems to be too cowardly to protect his own rights, thus autolarting) I agree with your sentiments.
If he IS innocent of the crime he was convicted of, then he is complicit in assisting in another crime purpotrated by the state, which, if it's the case that the prosecution was in error, will then go on to accuse others in a similar fashion, thus ruining their lives - all because he was too lazy to stand up and defend himself.
That's assuming he was innocent though, which I do not believe (particularly seeing as he admitted his guilt to the court, and only now he is claming he innocent).
According to the article, there were images on an unmarked partition. It's possible they were from the previous owner of the PC (that he says he got on ebay) - by using date stamps and eximing the partition table shouldn't be too hard to determine when this was done and so work out if he's lying or apparently telling the truth.
After all, if the person who put that porn on there was half way smart and truly computer litterate, they would have used multiple layers of encryption (using say linux and a file system with multiple [but indeterminable] levels of encryption) to make the files untraceable, and he'd be able to put 'dummy' safe porn there (or MP3's, or something less controversial).
If anything good comes of this (other than this guys conviction) and the likes of the RIAA witchhunts, then it may be that the public will be encoraged to become more technologically litterate.
I agree entirely. For example, for the question about what was unusual about the 1908 Olympic 400m race in London I typed in '"400m" olympic london 1908' and clicked on the 2nd link down entitled "1908 LONDON OLYMPIC GAMES" and bingo, I knew the answer (I didn't bother looking at the first link as it was called "Scottish Olympic Hall of Fame" so I figured it wouldn't be worth looking at for the answer).
It's just a case of being able to use a search engine. It took them 1:45 seconds, where as it took me 15 seconds. If I were them, I'd keep quiet about that.
But the guy who just wants to creatively edit video for his own enjoyment, and isn't a geeky engineer, is screwed.
And this is where they cheap import devices from China and Tiwan (and at some point, likley Africa and/or the Middle East - future possible cheap high tech labour markets) come in.
Of course, this is not fool proof, as at some point they can be made illegal to import to the likes of the US and EU and ultimately there is the possibility there will be no developing world sweatshops to make them for us.
I think our generation is 'lucky' enough that world poverty will not be solved in the next 100 years. The distant future is less promising I think, but by then it seems likley we will have fantastic new technologies which will make it something of a non issue (and possibly either a 'new world order', or will all blow each other to hell;).
Of course modding is legal! It's legal in any EU country and in the US, that is *NOT* news.
A few organisations and companies are trying to advocate that it is not, just like they are trying to advocate that emulators are illegal (when, such as the case of Connectix PlayStation emultator vrs Sony, it's been ruled otherwise). They are looking after there own interests, and trying to convince you they are right and you have no rights as a consumer. They are not right, but if society moves to a culture where people start to believe what they are peddling, that is exactly the direction the courts will move in.
Modding has only ever been ruled against when the explicit purpose of a chip is to allow piracy. The fact that people even THINK that modding hardware YOU OWN for legitmate (non illegal) practicles is in any way shady just goes to show how weak minded these people are, and how effective the brain washing of these companies has been.
You can mod your XBOX in just the same way as you can mod your car, your desktop background or the shirt on your back. Sure it might void your warrenty (which is fair enough, for simple practicle reasons) and there are limits to prevent you modding it for illegal purposes (such as fixing a submachine gun behind the grill of your cars radiator), but where on earth did you get the idea that modifying your own possesions is illegal? Your building what will be your own self inflicted purgatory!
I'm trying not to sound like a whacked out sociopath here, but I expect better than this, assert your rights for crying out loud!
Sony tried to bully another company out of making an emulator, and lost in court so bought the emulator off them and shut it down. Nintendo tried to stop other companies making carts for it's console without permission, lossed in court so bought out the company (RARE). The same companies are guilty of worse crimes themselves and have been convicted in court.
Nintendo, for example, has been in court numerous times (in the US and abroad) for price fixing, and they have been convicted and fined for this, and they are still using their muscle in the market place to day, just recently forcing vendors to stop carrying 3rd party programmable gameboy carts, telling vendors it's illegal when it's very obviously not, but the vendors are too brainwashed and are telling people 'Nintendo wrote to us saying it was illegal so we don't get them in any more'.
Even if they did take it to court, it's not going to be an expensive claim to defend (at here least in the UK, with a Soliciter, I appreciate it's somewhat different [read: more costly] in the US) and you can recoupe the money you spend on the case (likely to be = 500 UKP) after the case. As a small vendor (as many of them are) you could even defend yourself point to prior examples (such as the Nintendo vrs Rare case, which was *exactly* the same thing, and Nintendo lossed in that instance). Even a relatively technophonic judge would understand when explained in simple terms (whereby you point to the examples of being able to buy and manufacture 3rd party cassette tapes and CD's for players by other companies). But no, vendors are poorly informed and easily frightend just like so many consumers, so I have to purchase them on line (more fool the high street stores).
Yeah, uh-huh. Small children and small adults, like, for example... many women.
I disagree completely, and think it was just consumers meeting with a design they were less familer with and so pronuncing instant rejection. People (IMO) were trying to hold it like it was a PS One or PS 2 controller, or a SNES or Genisis controller of old, and when they try to position their hands that way, they fail because it's not that sort of controller at all.
I genuninely have small hands too, but I know what a delight the design is having had a Dreamcast, who's controller was equally great - it's controller was what the X-Box's was modeled on. When I saw the X-Box controller I was very impressed because the true uncompomising quality and attention to the finer points of gaming, from the controller it was clear to me they really understood what makes a great gaming console, and hadn't compromised to preconceived western ideas about 'what a controller should look like'.
The joypads of both consoles were designed by gaming experts, with the specific purpose at being supreme for playing games. It's all in the way you hold it. Both the Dreamcast and X-Box are desgined to be far superior for long term usage. The trick is not to try and 'control' the controler, as you do with a smaller PS2 controller, but to 'operate it', and (now I start to sound crazy) become one with it, it's zen feeling to be at one with the more powful origional (and deliberate) design.
Trying to aggressively dominate it like a Dual Shock will only result in not being able to reach the buttons. Being kind to the controller and not being aggressive (something many find hard to do with an appliance) is they key to the zen that is the the X-Box (and Dreamcast) controllers. Most people just go on hearsay and immediately by the S controller without trying the origional, that is a shame, and I firmly believe it is their loss. This wasn't helped buy stores who's sales staff *told* people it had a bad controller, so they could sell them an S Type, the rotten weasles.
I made sure to relate all this to the sales clerk when he tried to foist two S Type controllers on me when I bought my X-Box ('Are you sure you want the larger one sir?'). The heathens!
The person that capitulated to the demands of the unwashed masses and foisted the lothesum and unhappy compromise that is the S controller should be tarred and feathered, the big spineless coward. I just knooow it was some slick jock in a suit too (the kind who's never played a video game in his life).
Not that I'm crazy or anything.
I may start a home for all these rejected, unwanted and unloved controllers. They will be recognised for their true greatness one day, you'll see! You'll all see! They will be rare collectors items and I will be rich, rich I tell you!
A CPU under 2 ghz will run all modern games without any trouble with a good gfx card.
I disagree and cite, PlanetSide, and even the less demanding BF:Vietnam, Halo or FarCry as evidence. Even at 800x600 with the detail cranked down these games will not run what I would consider 'well' on a 32-bit Intel or AMD CPU under 2.0 Ghz (having tried them on a 1.8 Ghz AMD with 1 GB DDR and a Radeon 9700 Pro 128 and a P3 2.4 Ghz with 2 GB DDR and Radeon 9800 Pro 256 - previous systems I have had).
If you have less than than an AMD 2500+ or less than a P4 2.0 Ghz PlanetSide will laugh at you and spit down your neck as it tries to draw 200+ people and vehicles on screen at once. Your FPS will die horribly (that's a LOT of client side physics and high quality pologon models to shift about). Even if you have an AMD 3200+ XP or P4 3.2 Ghz it will merely 'get on with it grudingly'.
If you try and play it with less than 256 Video Memory you can forget about using the full high res textures.
If you try and play it with less than 1.2 GB RAM it will swap (at annoying intervals).
Admittedly it's the single the most demanding FPS game in the world, but it's a year old.
So why are users that don't need to upgrade and aren't "tight"? Perhaps just pragmatic?
You say 'pragmatic', I say crap frame rate and they are being tightwads. I have watched people play games like PlanetSide as if it were a slideshow and gawped in amazement, when for the cost of a meal for two they could have some reasonably up-to-date (relased in the last 2 years) graphics card. I have found that people simply have no idea how games can and should look, they have low expectations (but are wowed when they see them running with 4xFSAA at 1600x1200 and almost all immediately feel the urge to upgrade once they have seen what they are missing out on).
The amount we are talking for reasonable equipment is peanuts. If a user doesn't consider at least 40 UKP throwaway money to spend on a CPU once every 12 months they should stick firmly away from PC gaming as they really can't aford it. PC gaming is an expensive business and always has been. I avoided PC gaming for several years (left it 1999 for a Dreamcast due the expense I couldn't afford, and only got back into it in 2003, as I know I'm seriously able to afford the equipment required). It's simply an expensive business, and people should just be aware of that, rather than pretending that there system runs fine, even though they haven't upgraded it in 4 years (or more typically 2, but it wasn't even near top of the line then).
The EC == EU (it's like Andy Kaufman eq Tony Clifton, or perhaps more like Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali, they are the same entity, just with a different name). Spain was NOT a founding member of the EC (or EU). and did not join until 1986. The only six founding members in 1957 were Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. Spain was a dictatorship until 1975.
I tend to get very annoyed when talking to Americans about history or politics, in my experience they always manage to show a quite staggeringly lack of understanding of any facet of world history or politics (unless it involves 'Bombing the Chinese Embassy!').
I have posted this, in clarification just in case someone should take you seriously.
I admit fully to being a Mac OS X using eyecandy addicted shallow SOB (though I'm obsessive about the game play too), I'm not a framerate or stats junkie, I play with vertical sync on (I'm not fussed about framerate, if it's over 70 FPS I can't see it, and if it's above 50 I won't mind, if it's below 30 I will likely get annoyed through the game away in disgust *glares at SWG*).
I don't actually mind playing with simplified (e.g. 2D graphics) at all, but I feel personally hoodwinked whey I buy a big industry game with bad 3D texture maps that don't line up or - for example - 'naff' engines like Halo PC that don't support FSAA (resulting in horrible jagged edges ew!). The engine in SWG, while looking great in still screen shots, is what put me off playing - even though it's an RPG - because it's so sub par in practice, compared to a professional commercial FPS engine (in SWG on full detail, the terrain deformed distractingly in front of me whenever I moved, player buildings visibly clipped in and out of view, all players, vehicles, NPC's and furniture was 'noclip'able).
Lineage's 2's use of the Unreal Engine was nice, but game mechanics aside, it's just not quite smooth enough for me to feel comfortable playing it for long periods of time, the jerkyness would just get on my nerves, reguardless of the game play (I'm slightly ashmed to admit).
I'm probably a grumpier and older man than you,
Probably, I am not really that old, and not what I would call *overly* gumpy, just sometimes, and mostly about things I am obsessive about.:)
(I think I am getting older and grumpier however, I'm fairly positive about the former at least.)
The broken economy that receives VAST European Union subsidies to this day, and the high unemployment rate would be good starters. Spain has come a very long way since the 25% unemployment rate it had less than only ten years ago, but it still has quite a way to go before it's on a par with the EU heavyweights of the UK, Germany and France.
Ah, yes, one example and you regard all our technicians as incompetent. Truly insightful.
Nope, you just asserted that incorrectly in a knee jerk reaction. But that's your problem.
No other European ISP or Telco (or North American one for that matter) has ignored, bounced mails and dodge the topic of spam so consistantly for such a length of time.
While there are quite a number of very valued open source contriuters in Spain, the fact is you'll find a lot more talanted staff working for much greater pay in cities in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, all of which have larger internet industries and pay higher wages.
There most definatly is quite a technological gap between the leading EU member states (UK, Germandy, France) and the others, this is particularly true with regard to the Internet industry. I do not feel responsible if you choose to take this personally, rather than as an objective point about the economic reality of the overall workforce.
I don't hold back when describing my own shortcomings, or those of the country I happend to be born in, and I don't intend to give ground to your jingoism because you feel irrationally attached to your 'motherland'.
And why is it that everyone's here says that the main source of spam is still the USA?
At a guess? Because the USA is bigger than and has vastly more internet users than Spain (reasonably straightforward to work out I would have thought).
Show me one US company that puts out as much spam as Telefonica.es and cares so little about it. Have you personally ever tried to deal with them (as an abuse contact at another ISP/Telco)? They ignore, bounce and reply with automated 'Mail box is full' messages when your try and contact abuse, postmaster and/or hostmaster (RIPE contact) address. If you *haven't* tried dealing with them (which I assume you haven't, or you'd be as elated as me at this news) I can inform you that I have, it's not amusing, merely endlessly frustrating.
Telephonica.es are not being blacklisted because Mean Mister System Administrator thinks they smell funny, they are being blacklisted because they are proven incompotent bunch of monkies - who's blatant and long standing ill behavior the like of of which has not been seen in any other European (Or North American) country, which is somewhat inflammatory, but alas true. My professional opinon is that, had they been an American, UK or German provider (all of which have more mature Internet industries, the US notably more so than the UK or Germany, the two industry leading lights in Europe) they would long since have been leaned on by transit providers and peers, unwilling to take the strain of the abuse Telephonica have responsible for over the years.
I'm a european and the occasional relayed-by-spain spam message doesn't even make the 95% that is relayed by US based machines.
I'm a European too, and I've been getting Spam from Telephonica for 6+ years. Just because you don't understand the reasons behind why this course of action has taken place, doesn't mean it's not warrented, and it certainly doesn't mean you should defend their behavior.
I receive virtually zero spam from US based source IP's and many from telephonica.es - given that the US has *VASTLY* more internet users than the smaller, less well connected Spain is quite damning on Telephonica's part.
Dispite your assertions the US does more than any other nation to prevent and clamp down on spam. Impefect as it is, no comparible level of anti-spam ligitation has been passed in any other nation (though a few sops have been thrown here and there).
Don't assume, measure, balance, and do something about your own country's companies. It could be your neighbour.
I'm from the UK, we do comparibly quite a good job here (dispite poor legislation, largely thanks to the watchful behavior of ISP's), and yes it is one of our neighbours that's reponsible for a very high volume of Spam, that 'neighbour' is Spain.
Telephonica is such a problem child that this is long over due. Many of us (who keep track of the source IP's of our spam) are frankly sick and tired of their **** and it's about time this happened.
You can automatically bash the US all you like (for all the good it will do you), but the problem here is a company in an EU member country pisses of thousands of people all over the world though it's lax and unprofessional business standards, because they are too incompotent to sort out a problem I can recall them having for at least the last 6 years (thanks largely to it's proximity to North Africa and the large number of Cyber Cafe's no doubt).
Go on and black list US IP's if you like, I'd find that amusing. That's actually likley to INCREASE your spam to genuine mail ratio.
Spain was one of the founding members of the EU you ignorant fuck.
LOL, never has the usage of 'ignorant fuck' been more apt in self description by an AC.
They joined the EU in 1986.
Spain and Portugal "less wealthy"? At least they are well educated. Any chance of you even guessing the right continent if asked to point to Spain on a map?
Oddly I'm FROM (and living) the same continent and not a backwards hick, so yes, I would manage to find it just fine, and to boot, I've been to Spain.
It was at the time of joining the EU (and still is, to a lesser extent) less wealthy than France, Germany, the UK or any Northern European nation. They were (and still are) receipients of big fat EU subsidies in what has been a largely sucessful an attempt to bring them up to a level to other EU member nations.
I felt very depressed when I saw the results of that survey.
I was very disappointed to see what a huge majority had CPU's under 2.0 Ghz. My last *three* CPU's have all be over 2.0 Ghz! A CPU I bought over a year ago [new, for 60 UKP at the time] was over 2.0 Ghz! These are really tight people we are talking about IMO (I know 'causual' gamers don't want to upgrade so often, that's why there are consoles).
I have a P4 3.2 Ghz, Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB, 2 GB DDR400 and 160 GB SATA RAID0 (dual 80 GB disks with 8 MB cache each). I have this largely for PlanetSide, which yes does use 256 MB texture memory and needs > 1 GB RAM to load the entire game without swapping and fully benifits from SATA + RAID given how many textures it needs to load, and it simply can't get enough CPU power (partly due to the quality - or otherwise- of the engine), but this is also greatly benificial in other games - SWG loved the avalible RAM so it could cache worlds without having to swap and FarCry is far better for the FSAA and high quality texture rendering too.
Some people argue (incredibly, as far as I'm concerned) 'FarCry plays okay on my 2500+ and Geforce 4 with 256 MB RAM' to which I would reply no, it doesn't it looks horrible playing it a 800x600 with low quality texture rending no FSAA and a jerky motion, and that it you should be playing *all* games with 4xFSAA in this day and age, and ideally at resolutions of 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 with resonable anisotropic filtering. It's not as if the difference is barely perceptible, it's HUGE, it's just that some people arn't willing to shell out new money and and try and cut it on 3 or 4 year old kit, which is not good enough and simply never has been for the latest games.
While developing content and graphic rich worlds is increasingly time consuming, if users at least hand decent and reasonably up to date systems (not +2 years out of date) developers would be a lot more free to experiment with relatively easy to impliment but high quality T&L bump mapping and particle effects, but I get the feeling the slow speed of upgrades (largely though the lack of any compelling new games such as Doom 3 or HL 2) is holding up progress in the overall level of detail and eyecandy developers can build in. I thought Unreal 2 did a superb job though, running at 1900x1200, at full detail, without batting an eyelid, so hats of to Epic for a spectacular engine.
Going OT from this particular thread (but staying with the main topic...). I actually avoided the PS2 completely as a console.
I have [had - gave away now, after the diappointing Mario Sunshine and a lack of subsequent unique titles] a GameCube (which I got largely for Rouge Squadron and the aforementioned Mario Sunshine) and still have an XBox, my last console before that was a Dreamcast. I simply thought the PS2 was piss poor when it was released and the much older Dreamcast was arguably superior. It was certainly a lot easier to develop for than the much more complex PS2, which lead to better games and shorter development cyles. Because of how disappointed I was when I saw the very mediocre hardware the PS2 had, I avoided it in disgust.
I think the only reason the PS2 has been so sucessful has been of the back of the orional PlayStation. The XBox is the best designed console ever IMO (Hard Disk, DVD, Ethernet, easy to develop for, and even something as simple as excellent Joypads, just like the Dreamcast, ignoring what some say about them for longer play sessions they are superb, even if 'small children' don't like them), and this is made all the more impressive as it's Microsoft's first console. Being Microsofts attempt to leverage dominance in the home, I had planned to avoid it, but it was just too perfect, it's just too bad it doesn't have the same level of developer support, I haven't bought a game for it in over a year, KOTOR being the only thing that struck me, and I'd rather play that on the PC being the type of game it was (and I was willing to wait a little while).
I quite agree Telefonica.es are an insuferable source of spam (much of the 419 spam I get is relayed through there, as you say). Telefonica is in fact the single largest source of all the spam in my mailbox and I have tried to get them to take notice for years. I welcome this action with open arms.
Telefonica.es administrators are simply utterly incompetant and have been for years - they don't care one hoot, maybe now their own sence of self preservation will take over (though it's sad that it has to go this far before there is any hope of them taking action).
There was a large degree of debate when they first joined the European Union that less wealthly nations such Spain and Portugal joining would upset the balance, so they were 'eased in' thanks to legislation allowing for a transition period. Now, they are economicaly fully integrated, but cultural issues still remain. I think their behavior in this reguard is glaring example of the level of sophistication and competance in a highly technical field not being up to par.
Spain, South America, Africa and the less developed parts of Asia are main sources of spam (at least, the spam I receive). While South America, Africa and Asia all have understandable economic reasons for being sources of such abuse, the Spanish ought to be able to keep order and it's a damning indictment of their abilites that they have been unable to for so many years. What's even more depressing is I predict that we see a new influx of spam from the Eastern European nations now joining the EU in the not-too-distant future.
Face it - they're going to sell more copies of "Dr. No" with Ursula Andress wearing the New & Improved High Resolution Digital Bikini than they are of Singin' in the Rain, starring Gene Kelly and the Incredibly Vivid High Resolution Raindrops
Wait, if they scan in Singin' in the Rain in some uber high resolution you'll be able to see the rain is really milk, ew no thanks!
I'm not trying to troll here, but I have a job, I earn resonsable money, a mesely 14.95 USD isn't going to bother me at all. Hell, I pay 70 UKP (125 USD) a month for my fat internet connection, 15 USD is chump change and I'm not earning way above everybody else here (I'm only 24, working for a Telcoms provider as a Service Developer earning average wages for that sort of role, which is a pretty middle of the road profession for a/. reader).
I see people on boards and free-trialers complaning about subscription feeds. I spend more that than that in Starbucks/Coffee Republic a day as are the other 15 people a head of me in the queue, so I know I'm not the only one who doesn't give a toss about the cost of MMOG's.
I'm sure most/. readers are in a technology related field and earning above the national average and I don't think they are worried about such small amounts of money. I have 3 MMOG subscriptions (4, when the beta of Linage II ends this month, assuming I am still entertained by it) and don't find them an issue. I can only assume those complaining are kids, or students, or pikeys.
The concept is fairly straight forward, the up front money pays for the development of the game, just as with any other title. The monthly fee covers some new content and the access to the large arrays of interlinked redundant servers on which you play the game. They don't come free.
Blinkin pikeys won't be happy till they get a free dog with each subscription.."I fucking hate pikeys"
See my other post for the explanation of Black Fridays. It has nothing to do with the number of diciples rather to do with the state of financial markets, though I'm sure the name was inspired by the use of the monkier Good Friday in the Christan calander but it does not have any overtly religious connection.
That doesn't stop bible bashers from trying to kid people on it does, but faith peddlers are not typically interested in matters of factual reality and are often keen to burble on about any old nonsense if they think they can use it as a platform to harp on about their particular chosen deity.
That's why it's good to throw rocks at them (to remind them of the sinners they are). I like to think of that as a public service.
Black Friday is used to refer to any Friday culminating in something overwhelmingly negative occurs, typically if it relates to a stockmarket crash and/or especially if it falls on the 13th of a month (due to the association in Western culture with the number 13 as being unlucky) but not exclusively either.
There have also been 'Black Mondays' in US and UK history (the last one I recally being in 1987, the earliest is in the 1800's, in the both the US and the UK). The term has also been used to denote national tragedies/disasters.
It is also used in the United States (though not other countries) by the retail industry to denote the Friday after Thanksgiving, but that usage is long preceeded and superceeded by the former. It's complete nonsense to associate 'Black Friday' in this manner, as it has the very opposite meaning to the origional usage of the term, meaning that the person who dreampt up this usage was attempting irony or was simply ignorant of the origional established meaning.
i) The GPL. ii) The difference between use and distribution.
There are allowments in law for levels of distribution (for quoting and sampling media, for example), but these are not licenses to be granted, they are allowed for in law, and they are rights that effect only the distribution of content, not personal use.
Many companies ship with extensive EULA's (which, with reference to another post of yours, the GLP is not, if you do not grasp that then you have not read or understood it), this is primarily true of software. These are not legally binding however, and many are in fact worthless, you cannot create a legally binding contact that 'sets aside' existing laws (in any western country, to the best of my knowledge).
Such ELUA's that attempt to are as meaningless as the 'No Refunds' sign in shop stores, if a product does not live up to reasonable expectations you are still entitled to a full refund, reguardless of 'Store Policy'. Likewise if software does not live up to reasonable expectations you are still legally entitled to a refund, even after breaking the 'hallowed seal' that claims that by breaking it you accept to abide by all the terms contained in the license (in the 80's vendors used to amusingly include the license on the inside of the envelope).
In fact, by practices such as including the license on the inside of the envelope, or including even a single illegal (and thus unenforceable) clause in some countries (and possibly in some states) this rendered the entire license unenforceable, meaning that companies where actually shooting themselves in the foot with such practices, by losing the right to legally enforce some otherwise legitimate restrictions.
Some companies have already attempted to restrict the 'right to use' and cases have been tested in court and have thus far all failed.
In the Sony vs. Connectix case, it was of note that what Connectix had done broke all Sony EULA's (using Sonys software in an act of reverse engineering is forbidden on all it's licenced games for the PlayStation platform). They still lost their case in the Supreme Court. The court ruling stated that Connectix had every right to distribute their Playstation emulator, reguardless of the 'EULA vilotations', which proved rather worthless, unable as they were, to prevent Sonys software from being used in a 'forbidden' manner.
Another example of a failer to enforce such restirctions would be the DeCSS case in Norway. Something the MPAA have not specifically tried in the US because they know it would likey fail, and they are fearful of repercussions that would have (in that it would damage there current stance on the issu, as well as help bolster negative public opinion, making it very hard for them to be listened to). This was a particularly relevent case, as although this ruling was in Norway and only applies there, it shows that citizens have the right to choose how they use something they have already purchased.
Very simply, you can't simply exempt yourself from common law, or create artifical restrictions the law does not permit. The only reason they are able to enforce any restrictions on how you distribute it is because of copyright law in Western countries that specificlly allows them to do so (created with the reasonable intention of proctecting the interests of copyright holders). The laws that allowed them to impose certain restrictions exist because of the the belief that without them, there would be less incentive for creators to come up with new content, which is likely the case (though some avocades of a more anarchic legal framework do disagree on it's level of success in this regard).
The concept that content creators have control about how you use an item (as distinct from how you distributed) is a mime spounted from those seeking to encorage this sort of thinking in an attempt to make it easier change copyright law so that it is does work in this fav
Slashdot Mirror
You hit it right on the nose. It seems they have incompetant system administrators or poor management who are not releasing the required funds (though given how little is required for such a system, even one offering full webmail and IMAP services, it seems the former in this case).
Universities have a tendancy to hire cheaply, by using students or recent graduates with zero outside experiance, and so you get this kind of mismanagement of IT infrastructure. Added to this is that in Europe many are almost entirely government funded, and government IT infastructure is rarely managed well (with cronic underfunding & projects always going to the lowest bidder).
You find brilliant academics in Universities, and Universities seem to think they can hire talented staff 'on the cheap' to run their internal systems, but the reality is the really capable students will either want to spend their time doing something more interesting, or go out and start making money - and in any case they will have little or no experience in managing infrastructure on an equivolent scale.
IMO, where possible they should be hiring people from ISP & Telco backgrounds as the key staff responsible for infrastructure development, or at least bring them in to consult on the initial infrastucture or during revamps.
Interesting. It would appear that the economies in online games are in a state of hyperinflation
:)
:(
I find it intersting too, but it's deeper than that, not all games have the same condition...
EQ and SWG have similar (not the same, SWG has more depth/complexity, but untilmately similar) economic models. MOST games do seem to suffer from the trading of in game credits off line, or of powergamers setting prices, making items more and more expensive, thus presenting a barrier to entry.
One shining example of a game that *doesn't* have this problem, and that has slow *deflation* (but kept up by a fixed level of the worth of raw materials and the time/effort/risk required to gather them) is EVE Online. It's got slow deflation at all times on the very expensive items, e.g. the cost of an uberbattleship was 100 Mil ISK last month, it's now 90 Mil ISK (and you can view trading results via the in built stock market, so it's great for having a stable market, though of course rip offs and bargins are still to be had). The difference isn't as noticeable with lower cost items (where the potential profit margin is smaller) but overall this is great news for players, as it means they can afford to spend more time blowing each other up and having fun with PvP, and not worrying about how much it will cost them.
Partly I think this is down to the unquie and superior skill system, where there is no limit to the skills you can learn (unlike other games such as SWG, which force you to be a fighter OR a crafter - you can't be good at both as the number of skill points are fininte, meaning crafters are rare and so can charge high prices). It's also down to how you learn skills - you pay for the appropriate skills (from another player, or from an institution like a space academy) and you devote time to racking up skills in that area, the training continues while you are off line.
Level I takes typically 20-60 min, while Level II skill in something might take around 2 hours or more and Level III a day or more and Levels IV and V days and weeks. You don't actually have to 'grind', just devote the time to learning it. From there you need to buy the blue print (single use, or unlimited reproductions), get the raw materials (easily enough done via mining or even more simply, on the open market) and rent some time in a station to begin some construction.
I know it may sound a bit complex, but honestly in reality it's all very simple and straight forward (thanks to a pretty clear interface), and the low barrier to entry keeps prices down.
They also introduce new technologies, such as new ships or the next generation of a given technology (so that items can be created that drain less power, use less ship CPU time, etc) which are rare and so the 'expensive new toys' for those with the cash to spend, while the older technology gets cheaper (but not cheaper than the raw materials).
It's the only game I've played with a wide and stable economy though, most MMOG do have hyper inflation, I put this down to bad gameplay design (though to be fair, while some of the problems are obvious, others are more subtle and harder to spot for non-economics majors, so it's understandable that as MMOG's are new there will be bad economic models initially). It may take a few iterations for developers (especially the likes of SOE) to start seriously thinking about them though.
I can identify with that completely...
;-). I have an open source project I can play with when I feel I want to do that. I love reading fan sites for advice and tips (beats working! ;-), I just don't like having to read them as part of in depth research because the game system is unbalanced or unituative to the extent that if I don't read them I'm just wasting my time and effort doing the wrong thing.
and the damage model for combat is a points based system - so if you get the math right, you can consistently win (or conversely, get it wrong and lose).
To go off topic a little bit:
That's what always drives me nuts about the likes of EQ & SWG. Basically, it's up to who reads up the most online to work out the mathematically best combination of skills and then just grinds for a month or two till they have those attributes, and change their skill sets as appropraite whenever the developers nerf/buff something.
It runins the creativity and fun aspect for me. It's about as much fun as seeing who can optimise their MySQL database the most, or write the fastest XML parser. I DO think that sort of thing can be fun, just not what I want to do in a *game* most of the time (or I'd be playing Robocode or something
I know it's hard to make a game that relies on a little more action (like say PlanetSide) due to lag, and the fact that the games engine would actually have to perform half well. I realise not every one wants an MMOG to play like version of Planet Side (think Unreal 2004 with vehicles, but larger scale - with hundreds of players and levels up to 8 kilometers square and persistant character growth), and I'm not sure I do, but a comprise is needed I think.
The best game I've seeen for this is City Of Heroes, it's still basically stats based underneath but thanks to a very fluid engine (decent netcode and fast rendering) it's able to rely more of knowing when to use a power and what power to use, as well as building up a character. The tedious specific details are hidden while not being oversimplified. There is still room for creativity because you can choose from a wide variety of skills to mix and match, or simply build a character that is uber at one specific type of thing.
Unfortunately the 'missing incredient' that shows if this approach can really work is PvP, which isn't coming till later (via an expansion pack, City of Villans). Given the system though, I imagine could create an uber PvP character, but you could equally create a character who would be perfect at counter acting that character.
EVE online combat is like that - you have such a wide variety of attibutes to choose from, a few things become standard (e.g. warp core stabilisers are virtualy a must, so you have a better chance at warpping out if you are in danger even if your opponent tries to scramble your warp) but much of it is entirely open to personal preference and so far more creative.
Having given up SWG a couple of months ago, I play PlanetSide, EVE and CoH (in that order) these days. I will likely get bored of CoH - dispite how well polished and solid underneath it is - I'm starting to feel the lack of depth (lagely due to no PvP or wider ongoing story arc, whcih I'm sure will be addressed as they say). PlanetSide and EVE both have great futures though, I think I'll be keeping them reguardless of what else I pick up.
Not yet, although I'm wondering how long it'll be until players start outsourcing their in-game quests to India. :-)
:-)
Actually, it's already happening.
You can outsource the levelling of characters (and specificy to what level, or what skills) and even the hours it should be levelled between (e.g. when you are at work & not playing it yourself). I've seen this advertised for City Of Heroes (which ironically, isn't that hard to level in), I would guess it's around for games like EQ and SWG too.
You might get away with calling the man himself culturally a product of the 'Anglosphere'
I don't see how you could possibly entertain that idea. He was born, grew up and formally educated in Scotland. He didn't grow up in Canada or America, he didn't go through the US or Canadian education systems, nor was he influenced by US or Canadian culture while growing up. He'd already developed the system before he'd arrived in North America thanks to his cultral background and his studies at Edinburgh Unversity (founded in the 1500's I might add - thanks to significant investment and contribution by the people of Scotland).
You do much to belittle the contribution of the Scottish higher education system with your comments. Lending credit to America or Canada for such inventions is entirely unwarranted. Had it not been for his parents leaving for North America and him getting a grant thanks to his farthers encoragement once there, he would likely have stayed in London and there would be no debate about the subject.
Neither America, Canada, or Britain, nor Russia or Germany, nor any other country, has ever invented anything.
Inventions can be the product of a country or civilisation, which has been the case for thousands of years. Pointing out the contributions the Romans, the Greeks, the Mesopotanians, the Egyptians and the British have had over the years should make this more than obvious. DARPANET would be an excellent modern example of an American contribution (and so, the Internet, albeit sans the WWW).
Of course, Alexander Graham Bell was in fact born in, educated in and researched and developed the technology later used in the telephone in Scotland. IIRC, the purpose for the technology was to assist in speech therapy (for the deaf/hearing impared), which was his formal background.
He moved to the US and continued to develop and then market his invention as he saw a wider audience for it, but sought investment and he saw the US was the easiest place to obtain it, before he later retired to Canada.
I once tried explaining all to a zelot running a historical site with famous American inventions and inventors on it, who produdly proclamed AGB and his inventions American (along with other things invented thousands of miles away, including the automobile, television, lightbulb and the computer) but he was having none of it, he was convinced America was the inventor of all the technology in the modern world.
Oddly, this attitude appears to irk some people.
The anonymous coward's comments not withstanding (an apt name, since he seems to be too cowardly to protect his own rights, thus autolarting) I agree with your sentiments.
If he IS innocent of the crime he was convicted of, then he is complicit in assisting in another crime purpotrated by the state, which, if it's the case that the prosecution was in error, will then go on to accuse others in a similar fashion, thus ruining their lives - all because he was too lazy to stand up and defend himself.
That's assuming he was innocent though, which I do not believe (particularly seeing as he admitted his guilt to the court, and only now he is claming he innocent).
According to the article, there were images on an unmarked partition. It's possible they were from the previous owner of the PC (that he says he got on ebay) - by using date stamps and eximing the partition table shouldn't be too hard to determine when this was done and so work out if he's lying or apparently telling the truth.
After all, if the person who put that porn on there was half way smart and truly computer litterate, they would have used multiple layers of encryption (using say linux and a file system with multiple [but indeterminable] levels of encryption) to make the files untraceable, and he'd be able to put 'dummy' safe porn there (or MP3's, or something less controversial).
If anything good comes of this (other than this guys conviction) and the likes of the RIAA witchhunts, then it may be that the public will be encoraged to become more technologically litterate.
I agree entirely. For example, for the question about what was unusual about the 1908 Olympic 400m race in London I typed in '"400m" olympic london 1908' and clicked on the 2nd link down entitled "1908 LONDON OLYMPIC GAMES" and bingo, I knew the answer (I didn't bother looking at the first link as it was called "Scottish Olympic Hall of Fame" so I figured it wouldn't be worth looking at for the answer).
It's just a case of being able to use a search engine. It took them 1:45 seconds, where as it took me 15 seconds. If I were them, I'd keep quiet about that.
But the guy who just wants to creatively edit video for his own enjoyment, and isn't a geeky engineer, is screwed.
And this is where they cheap import devices from China and Tiwan (and at some point, likley Africa and/or the Middle East - future possible cheap high tech labour markets) come in.
Of course, this is not fool proof, as at some point they can be made illegal to import to the likes of the US and EU and ultimately there is the possibility there will be no developing world sweatshops to make them for us.
I think our generation is 'lucky' enough that world poverty will not be solved in the next 100 years. The distant future is less promising I think, but by then it seems likley we will have fantastic new technologies which will make it something of a non issue (and possibly either a 'new world order', or will all blow each other to hell;).
Of course modding is legal! It's legal in any EU country and in the US, that is *NOT* news.
A few organisations and companies are trying to advocate that it is not, just like they are trying to advocate that emulators are illegal (when, such as the case of Connectix PlayStation emultator vrs Sony, it's been ruled otherwise). They are looking after there own interests, and trying to convince you they are right and you have no rights as a consumer. They are not right, but if society moves to a culture where people start to believe what they are peddling, that is exactly the direction the courts will move in.
Modding has only ever been ruled against when the explicit purpose of a chip is to allow piracy. The fact that people even THINK that modding hardware YOU OWN for legitmate (non illegal) practicles is in any way shady just goes to show how weak minded these people are, and how effective the brain washing of these companies has been.
You can mod your XBOX in just the same way as you can mod your car, your desktop background or the shirt on your back. Sure it might void your warrenty (which is fair enough, for simple practicle reasons) and there are limits to prevent you modding it for illegal purposes (such as fixing a submachine gun behind the grill of your cars radiator), but where on earth did you get the idea that modifying your own possesions is illegal? Your building what will be your own self inflicted purgatory!
I'm trying not to sound like a whacked out sociopath here, but I expect better than this, assert your rights for crying out loud!
Sony tried to bully another company out of making an emulator, and lost in court so bought the emulator off them and shut it down. Nintendo tried to stop other companies making carts for it's console without permission, lossed in court so bought out the company (RARE). The same companies are guilty of worse crimes themselves and have been convicted in court.
Nintendo, for example, has been in court numerous times (in the US and abroad) for price fixing, and they have been convicted and fined for this, and they are still using their muscle in the market place to day, just recently forcing vendors to stop carrying 3rd party programmable gameboy carts, telling vendors it's illegal when it's very obviously not, but the vendors are too brainwashed and are telling people 'Nintendo wrote to us saying it was illegal so we don't get them in any more'.
Even if they did take it to court, it's not going to be an expensive claim to defend (at here least in the UK, with a Soliciter, I appreciate it's somewhat different [read: more costly] in the US) and you can recoupe the money you spend on the case (likely to be = 500 UKP) after the case. As a small vendor (as many of them are) you could even defend yourself point to prior examples (such as the Nintendo vrs Rare case, which was *exactly* the same thing, and Nintendo lossed in that instance). Even a relatively technophonic judge would understand when explained in simple terms (whereby you point to the examples of being able to buy and manufacture 3rd party cassette tapes and CD's for players by other companies). But no, vendors are poorly informed and easily frightend just like so many consumers, so I have to purchase them on line (more fool the high street stores).
Caution: More grumpy gamer rantings!
Yeah, uh-huh. Small children and small adults, like, for example... many women.
I disagree completely, and think it was just consumers meeting with a design they were less familer with and so pronuncing instant rejection. People (IMO) were trying to hold it like it was a PS One or PS 2 controller, or a SNES or Genisis controller of old, and when they try to position their hands that way, they fail because it's not that sort of controller at all.
I genuninely have small hands too, but I know what a delight the design is having had a Dreamcast, who's controller was equally great - it's controller was what the X-Box's was modeled on. When I saw the X-Box controller I was very impressed because the true uncompomising quality and attention to the finer points of gaming, from the controller it was clear to me they really understood what makes a great gaming console, and hadn't compromised to preconceived western ideas about 'what a controller should look like'.
The joypads of both consoles were designed by gaming experts, with the specific purpose at being supreme for playing games. It's all in the way you hold it. Both the Dreamcast and X-Box are desgined to be far superior for long term usage. The trick is not to try and 'control' the controler, as you do with a smaller PS2 controller, but to 'operate it', and (now I start to sound crazy) become one with it, it's zen feeling to be at one with the more powful origional (and deliberate) design.
Trying to aggressively dominate it like a Dual Shock will only result in not being able to reach the buttons. Being kind to the controller and not being aggressive (something many find hard to do with an appliance) is they key to the zen that is the the X-Box (and Dreamcast) controllers. Most people just go on hearsay and immediately by the S controller without trying the origional, that is a shame, and I firmly believe it is their loss. This wasn't helped buy stores who's sales staff *told* people it had a bad controller, so they could sell them an S Type, the rotten weasles.
I made sure to relate all this to the sales clerk when he tried to foist two S Type controllers on me when I bought my X-Box ('Are you sure you want the larger one sir?'). The heathens!
The person that capitulated to the demands of the unwashed masses and foisted the lothesum and unhappy compromise that is the S controller should be tarred and feathered, the big spineless coward. I just knooow it was some slick jock in a suit too (the kind who's never played a video game in his life).
Not that I'm crazy or anything.
I may start a home for all these rejected, unwanted and unloved controllers. They will be recognised for their true greatness one day, you'll see! You'll all see! They will be rare collectors items and I will be rich, rich I tell you!
A CPU under 2 ghz will run all modern games without any trouble with a good gfx card.
I disagree and cite, PlanetSide, and even the less demanding BF:Vietnam, Halo or FarCry as evidence. Even at 800x600 with the detail cranked down these games will not run what I would consider 'well' on a 32-bit Intel or AMD CPU under 2.0 Ghz (having tried them on a 1.8 Ghz AMD with 1 GB DDR and a Radeon 9700 Pro 128 and a P3 2.4 Ghz with 2 GB DDR and Radeon 9800 Pro 256 - previous systems I have had).
If you have less than than an AMD 2500+ or less than a P4 2.0 Ghz PlanetSide will laugh at you and spit down your neck as it tries to draw 200+ people and vehicles on screen at once. Your FPS will die horribly (that's a LOT of client side physics and high quality pologon models to shift about). Even if you have an AMD 3200+ XP or P4 3.2 Ghz it will merely 'get on with it grudingly'.
If you try and play it with less than 256 Video Memory you can forget about using the full high res textures.
If you try and play it with less than 1.2 GB RAM it will swap (at annoying intervals).
Admittedly it's the single the most demanding FPS game in the world, but it's a year old.
So why are users that don't need to upgrade and aren't "tight"? Perhaps just pragmatic?
You say 'pragmatic', I say crap frame rate and they are being tightwads. I have watched people play games like PlanetSide as if it were a slideshow and gawped in amazement, when for the cost of a meal for two they could have some reasonably up-to-date (relased in the last 2 years) graphics card. I have found that people simply have no idea how games can and should look, they have low expectations (but are wowed when they see them running with 4xFSAA at 1600x1200 and almost all immediately feel the urge to upgrade once they have seen what they are missing out on).
The amount we are talking for reasonable equipment is peanuts. If a user doesn't consider at least 40 UKP throwaway money to spend on a CPU once every 12 months they should stick firmly away from PC gaming as they really can't aford it. PC gaming is an expensive business and always has been. I avoided PC gaming for several years (left it 1999 for a Dreamcast due the expense I couldn't afford, and only got back into it in 2003, as I know I'm seriously able to afford the equipment required). It's simply an expensive business, and people should just be aware of that, rather than pretending that there system runs fine, even though they haven't upgraded it in 4 years (or more typically 2, but it wasn't even near top of the line then).
Oh dear, here we go...
:
The EC == EU (it's like Andy Kaufman eq Tony Clifton, or perhaps more like Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali, they are the same entity, just with a different name). Spain was NOT a founding member of the EC (or EU). and did not join until 1986. The only six founding members in 1957 were Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany. Spain was a dictatorship until 1975.
I make not of the following web site (run by dear old Tony), for further information for the curious
http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1468.asp
I tend to get very annoyed when talking to Americans about history or politics, in my experience they always manage to show a quite staggeringly lack of understanding of any facet of world history or politics (unless it involves 'Bombing the Chinese Embassy!').
I have posted this, in clarification just in case someone should take you seriously.
You're a serious graphics fan!?
:)
I admit fully to being a Mac OS X using eyecandy addicted shallow SOB (though I'm obsessive about the game play too), I'm not a framerate or stats junkie, I play with vertical sync on (I'm not fussed about framerate, if it's over 70 FPS I can't see it, and if it's above 50 I won't mind, if it's below 30 I will likely get annoyed through the game away in disgust *glares at SWG*).
I don't actually mind playing with simplified (e.g. 2D graphics) at all, but I feel personally hoodwinked whey I buy a big industry game with bad 3D texture maps that don't line up or - for example - 'naff' engines like Halo PC that don't support FSAA (resulting in horrible jagged edges ew!). The engine in SWG, while looking great in still screen shots, is what put me off playing - even though it's an RPG - because it's so sub par in practice, compared to a professional commercial FPS engine (in SWG on full detail, the terrain deformed distractingly in front of me whenever I moved, player buildings visibly clipped in and out of view, all players, vehicles, NPC's and furniture was 'noclip'able).
Lineage's 2's use of the Unreal Engine was nice, but game mechanics aside, it's just not quite smooth enough for me to feel comfortable playing it for long periods of time, the jerkyness would just get on my nerves, reguardless of the game play (I'm slightly ashmed to admit).
I'm probably a grumpier and older man than you,
Probably, I am not really that old, and not what I would call *overly* gumpy, just sometimes, and mostly about things I am obsessive about.
(I think I am getting older and grumpier however, I'm fairly positive about the former at least.)
Namely? Please?
The broken economy that receives VAST European Union subsidies to this day, and the high unemployment rate would be good starters. Spain has come a very long way since the 25% unemployment rate it had less than only ten years ago, but it still has quite a way to go before it's on a par with the EU heavyweights of the UK, Germany and France.
Ah, yes, one example and you regard all our technicians as incompetent. Truly insightful.
Nope, you just asserted that incorrectly in a knee jerk reaction. But that's your problem.
No other European ISP or Telco (or North American one for that matter) has ignored, bounced mails and dodge the topic of spam so consistantly for such a length of time.
While there are quite a number of very valued open source contriuters in Spain, the fact is you'll find a lot more talanted staff working for much greater pay in cities in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, italy, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, all of which have larger internet industries and pay higher wages.
There most definatly is quite a technological gap between the leading EU member states (UK, Germandy, France) and the others, this is particularly true with regard to the Internet industry. I do not feel responsible if you choose to take this personally, rather than as an objective point about the economic reality of the overall workforce.
I don't hold back when describing my own shortcomings, or those of the country I happend to be born in, and I don't intend to give ground to your jingoism because you feel irrationally attached to your 'motherland'.
And why is it that everyone's here says that the main source of spam is still the USA?
At a guess? Because the USA is bigger than and has vastly more internet users than Spain (reasonably straightforward to work out I would have thought).
Show me one US company that puts out as much spam as Telefonica.es and cares so little about it. Have you personally ever tried to deal with them (as an abuse contact at another ISP/Telco)? They ignore, bounce and reply with automated 'Mail box is full' messages when your try and contact abuse, postmaster and/or hostmaster (RIPE contact) address. If you *haven't* tried dealing with them (which I assume you haven't, or you'd be as elated as me at this news) I can inform you that I have, it's not amusing, merely endlessly frustrating.
Telephonica.es are not being blacklisted because Mean Mister System Administrator thinks they smell funny, they are being blacklisted because they are proven incompotent bunch of monkies - who's blatant and long standing ill behavior the like of of which has not been seen in any other European (Or North American) country, which is somewhat inflammatory, but alas true. My professional opinon is that, had they been an American, UK or German provider (all of which have more mature Internet industries, the US notably more so than the UK or Germany, the two industry leading lights in Europe) they would long since have been leaned on by transit providers and peers, unwilling to take the strain of the abuse Telephonica have responsible for over the years.
I'm a european and the occasional relayed-by-spain spam message doesn't even make the 95% that is relayed by US based machines.
I'm a European too, and I've been getting Spam from Telephonica for 6+ years. Just because you don't understand the reasons behind why this course of action has taken place, doesn't mean it's not warrented, and it certainly doesn't mean you should defend their behavior.
I receive virtually zero spam from US based source IP's and many from telephonica.es - given that the US has *VASTLY* more internet users than the smaller, less well connected Spain is quite damning on Telephonica's part.
Dispite your assertions the US does more than any other nation to prevent and clamp down on spam. Impefect as it is, no comparible level of anti-spam ligitation has been passed in any other nation (though a few sops have been thrown here and there).
Don't assume, measure, balance, and do something about your own country's companies. It could be your neighbour.
I'm from the UK, we do comparibly quite a good job here (dispite poor legislation, largely thanks to the watchful behavior of ISP's), and yes it is one of our neighbours that's reponsible for a very high volume of Spam, that 'neighbour' is Spain.
Telephonica is such a problem child that this is long over due. Many of us (who keep track of the source IP's of our spam) are frankly sick and tired of their **** and it's about time this happened.
You can automatically bash the US all you like (for all the good it will do you), but the problem here is a company in an EU member country pisses of thousands of people all over the world though it's lax and unprofessional business standards, because they are too incompotent to sort out a problem I can recall them having for at least the last 6 years (thanks largely to it's proximity to North Africa and the large number of Cyber Cafe's no doubt).
Go on and black list US IP's if you like, I'd find that amusing. That's actually likley to INCREASE your spam to genuine mail ratio.
Spain was one of the founding members of the EU you ignorant fuck.
LOL, never has the usage of 'ignorant fuck' been more apt in self description by an AC.
They joined the EU in 1986.
Spain and Portugal "less wealthy"? At least they are well educated. Any chance of you even guessing the right continent if asked to point to Spain on a map?
Oddly I'm FROM (and living) the same continent and not a backwards hick, so yes, I would manage to find it just fine, and to boot, I've been to Spain.
It was at the time of joining the EU (and still is, to a lesser extent) less wealthy than France, Germany, the UK or any Northern European nation. They were (and still are) receipients of big fat EU subsidies in what has been a largely sucessful an attempt to bring them up to a level to other EU member nations.
Warning, grumpy old man sounding stuff ahead!
I felt very depressed when I saw the results of that survey.
I was very disappointed to see what a huge majority had CPU's under 2.0 Ghz. My last *three* CPU's have all be over 2.0 Ghz! A CPU I bought over a year ago [new, for 60 UKP at the time] was over 2.0 Ghz! These are really tight people we are talking about IMO (I know 'causual' gamers don't want to upgrade so often, that's why there are consoles).
I have a P4 3.2 Ghz, Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB, 2 GB DDR400 and 160 GB SATA RAID0 (dual 80 GB disks with 8 MB cache each). I have this largely for PlanetSide, which yes does use 256 MB texture memory and needs > 1 GB RAM to load the entire game without swapping and fully benifits from SATA + RAID given how many textures it needs to load, and it simply can't get enough CPU power (partly due to the quality - or otherwise- of the engine), but this is also greatly benificial in other games - SWG loved the avalible RAM so it could cache worlds without having to swap and FarCry is far better for the FSAA and high quality texture rendering too.
Some people argue (incredibly, as far as I'm concerned) 'FarCry plays okay on my 2500+ and Geforce 4 with 256 MB RAM' to which I would reply no, it doesn't it looks horrible playing it a 800x600 with low quality texture rending no FSAA and a jerky motion, and that it you should be playing *all* games with 4xFSAA in this day and age, and ideally at resolutions of 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 with resonable anisotropic filtering. It's not as if the difference is barely perceptible, it's HUGE, it's just that some people arn't willing to shell out new money and and try and cut it on 3 or 4 year old kit, which is not good enough and simply never has been for the latest games.
While developing content and graphic rich worlds is increasingly time consuming, if users at least hand decent and reasonably up to date systems (not +2 years out of date) developers would be a lot more free to experiment with relatively easy to impliment but high quality T&L bump mapping and particle effects, but I get the feeling the slow speed of upgrades (largely though the lack of any compelling new games such as Doom 3 or HL 2) is holding up progress in the overall level of detail and eyecandy developers can build in. I thought Unreal 2 did a superb job though, running at 1900x1200, at full detail, without batting an eyelid, so hats of to Epic for a spectacular engine.
Going OT from this particular thread (but staying with the main topic...). I actually avoided the PS2 completely as a console.
I have [had - gave away now, after the diappointing Mario Sunshine and a lack of subsequent unique titles] a GameCube (which I got largely for Rouge Squadron and the aforementioned Mario Sunshine) and still have an XBox, my last console before that was a Dreamcast. I simply thought the PS2 was piss poor when it was released and the much older Dreamcast was arguably superior. It was certainly a lot easier to develop for than the much more complex PS2, which lead to better games and shorter development cyles. Because of how disappointed I was when I saw the very mediocre hardware the PS2 had, I avoided it in disgust.
I think the only reason the PS2 has been so sucessful has been of the back of the orional PlayStation. The XBox is the best designed console ever IMO (Hard Disk, DVD, Ethernet, easy to develop for, and even something as simple as excellent Joypads, just like the Dreamcast, ignoring what some say about them for longer play sessions they are superb, even if 'small children' don't like them), and this is made all the more impressive as it's Microsoft's first console. Being Microsofts attempt to leverage dominance in the home, I had planned to avoid it, but it was just too perfect, it's just too bad it doesn't have the same level of developer support, I haven't bought a game for it in over a year, KOTOR being the only thing that struck me, and I'd rather play that on the PC being the type of game it was (and I was willing to wait a little while).
I quite agree Telefonica.es are an insuferable source of spam (much of the 419 spam I get is relayed through there, as you say). Telefonica is in fact the single largest source of all the spam in my mailbox and I have tried to get them to take notice for years. I welcome this action with open arms.
Telefonica.es administrators are simply utterly incompetant and have been for years - they don't care one hoot, maybe now their own sence of self preservation will take over (though it's sad that it has to go this far before there is any hope of them taking action).
There was a large degree of debate when they first joined the European Union that less wealthly nations such Spain and Portugal joining would upset the balance, so they were 'eased in' thanks to legislation allowing for a transition period. Now, they are economicaly fully integrated, but cultural issues still remain. I think their behavior in this reguard is glaring example of the level of sophistication and competance in a highly technical field not being up to par.
Spain, South America, Africa and the less developed parts of Asia are main sources of spam (at least, the spam I receive). While South America, Africa and Asia all have understandable economic reasons for being sources of such abuse, the Spanish ought to be able to keep order and it's a damning indictment of their abilites that they have been unable to for so many years. What's even more depressing is I predict that we see a new influx of spam from the Eastern European nations now joining the EU in the not-too-distant future.
Face it - they're going to sell more copies of "Dr. No" with Ursula Andress wearing the New & Improved High Resolution Digital Bikini than they are of Singin' in the Rain, starring Gene Kelly and the Incredibly Vivid High Resolution Raindrops
Wait, if they scan in Singin' in the Rain in some uber high resolution you'll be able to see the rain is really milk, ew no thanks!
I'm not trying to troll here, but I have a job, I earn resonsable money, a mesely 14.95 USD isn't going to bother me at all. Hell, I pay 70 UKP (125 USD) a month for my fat internet connection, 15 USD is chump change and I'm not earning way above everybody else here (I'm only 24, working for a Telcoms provider as a Service Developer earning average wages for that sort of role, which is a pretty middle of the road profession for a /. reader).
/. readers are in a technology related field and earning above the national average and I don't think they are worried about such small amounts of money. I have 3 MMOG subscriptions (4, when the beta of Linage II ends this month, assuming I am still entertained by it) and don't find them an issue. I can only assume those complaining are kids, or students, or pikeys.
I see people on boards and free-trialers complaning about subscription feeds. I spend more that than that in Starbucks/Coffee Republic a day as are the other 15 people a head of me in the queue, so I know I'm not the only one who doesn't give a toss about the cost of MMOG's.
I'm sure most
The concept is fairly straight forward, the up front money pays for the development of the game, just as with any other title. The monthly fee covers some new content and the access to the large arrays of interlinked redundant servers on which you play the game. They don't come free.
Blinkin pikeys won't be happy till they get a free dog with each subscription.. "I fucking hate pikeys"
See my other post for the explanation of Black Fridays. It has nothing to do with the number of diciples rather to do with the state of financial markets, though I'm sure the name was inspired by the use of the monkier Good Friday in the Christan calander but it does not have any overtly religious connection.
That doesn't stop bible bashers from trying to kid people on it does, but faith peddlers are not typically interested in matters of factual reality and are often keen to burble on about any old nonsense if they think they can use it as a platform to harp on about their particular chosen deity.
That's why it's good to throw rocks at them (to remind them of the sinners they are). I like to think of that as a public service.
Black Friday is used to refer to any Friday culminating in something overwhelmingly negative occurs, typically if it relates to a stockmarket crash and/or especially if it falls on the 13th of a month (due to the association in Western culture with the number 13 as being unlucky) but not exclusively either.
There have also been 'Black Mondays' in US and UK history (the last one I recally being in 1987, the earliest is in the 1800's, in the both the US and the UK). The term has also been used to denote national tragedies/disasters.
It is also used in the United States (though not other countries) by the retail industry to denote the Friday after Thanksgiving, but that usage is long preceeded and superceeded by the former. It's complete nonsense to associate 'Black Friday' in this manner, as it has the very opposite meaning to the origional usage of the term, meaning that the person who dreampt up this usage was attempting irony or was simply ignorant of the origional established meaning.
It seems you fail to understand:
i) The GPL.
ii) The difference between use and distribution.
There are allowments in law for levels of distribution (for quoting and sampling media, for example), but these are not licenses to be granted, they are allowed for in law, and they are rights that effect only the distribution of content, not personal use.
Many companies ship with extensive EULA's (which, with reference to another post of yours, the GLP is not, if you do not grasp that then you have not read or understood it), this is primarily true of software. These are not legally binding however, and many are in fact worthless, you cannot create a legally binding contact that 'sets aside' existing laws (in any western country, to the best of my knowledge).
Such ELUA's that attempt to are as meaningless as the 'No Refunds' sign in shop stores, if a product does not live up to reasonable expectations you are still entitled to a full refund, reguardless of 'Store Policy'. Likewise if software does not live up to reasonable expectations you are still legally entitled to a refund, even after breaking the 'hallowed seal' that claims that by breaking it you accept to abide by all the terms contained in the license (in the 80's vendors used to amusingly include the license on the inside of the envelope).
In fact, by practices such as including the license on the inside of the envelope, or including even a single illegal (and thus unenforceable) clause in some countries (and possibly in some states) this rendered the entire license unenforceable, meaning that companies where actually shooting themselves in the foot with such practices, by losing the right to legally enforce some otherwise legitimate restrictions.
Some companies have already attempted to restrict the 'right to use' and cases have been tested in court and have thus far all failed.
In the Sony vs. Connectix case, it was of note that what Connectix had done broke all Sony EULA's (using Sonys software in an act of reverse engineering is forbidden on all it's licenced games for the PlayStation platform). They still lost their case in the Supreme Court. The court ruling stated that Connectix had every right to distribute their Playstation emulator, reguardless of the 'EULA vilotations', which proved rather worthless, unable as they were, to prevent Sonys software from being used in a 'forbidden' manner.
Another example of a failer to enforce such restirctions would be the DeCSS case in Norway. Something the MPAA have not specifically tried in the US because they know it would likey fail, and they are fearful of repercussions that would have (in that it would damage there current stance on the issu, as well as help bolster negative public opinion, making it very hard for them to be listened to). This was a particularly relevent case, as although this ruling was in Norway and only applies there, it shows that citizens have the right to choose how they use something they have already purchased.
Very simply, you can't simply exempt yourself from common law, or create artifical restrictions the law does not permit. The only reason they are able to enforce any restrictions on how you distribute it is because of copyright law in Western countries that specificlly allows them to do so (created with the reasonable intention of proctecting the interests of copyright holders). The laws that allowed them to impose certain restrictions exist because of the the belief that without them, there would be less incentive for creators to come up with new content, which is likely the case (though some avocades of a more anarchic legal framework do disagree on it's level of success in this regard).
The concept that content creators have control about how you use an item (as distinct from how you distributed) is a mime spounted from those seeking to encorage this sort of thinking in an attempt to make it easier change copyright law so that it is does work in this fav
> In Societ Russia, women like YOU!
Or...
In Soviet Russia, women LIKE YOU!*
(* Only with more facial hair)