But if you are REALLY good, say as sniper in TFC, you will almost always get blamed for cheating. If you are killing the other team constantly, you may be banned by the admin or voting system. In this case, you are discredited for just being good.
Buying this equipment for your computer is ALOT more expensive then the other software tools out there that are used to cheat, I wouldn't worry about the hardware part of it. Some newbie isn't going to buy something to help them when they can download and/or hack their models to play better.
It is a game. It is not reality. Get over it or get better. The people I know that cheat still suck. Plus, not everyone will go buy these things. Don't get mad at the company, they are just filling a niche of people dying to be good and be able to say "w00t! I killed you!" Or just change servers!
And I mod that last part (strangers cheat) a -1 Flamebait, just a little generalization there!
It is fairly easy to get a porn site up and running and make a little profit. You pay a nice looking girl $100 to do a photo shoot, plus a couple hundred for the photographer since they usually cost more than the girls.
The girl does a photo shoot for a few hours, you get your pictures, post a couple to newsgroups with the URL, get some teaser pictures on your website. Then put up some banners, offer more content for $5.95 a month and that's it! You can even host the pictures from geocities or somewhere although you would have to change them around since Yahoo doesn't like that sort of stuff. So you make a couple hundred a month in banner ads, mayby another couple hundred from subscribers. As long as bandwidth bills don't get yah, you can turn a profit. Then, rinse and repeat until you have more content. Just make sure you don't have so much content that subscribers can't pay for all your bandwidth.
Keep getting original content and maybe increase the price every couple months. You can make a profit of a couple thousand a month with little work which is enough to be able to relax and take long vacations! Wow, this is starting to sound like that crap spam email I get promising easy money.. My apologies!:)
This is actually an interesting solution to the Ask Slashdot: Financing Growing Websites? question from today. To finance a website that I created a while back, I used money from a cheap porn site I ran. I basically ran a site that posted the best pictures from the newsgroups.
So I got money for looking at pr0n all day and weeding out the bad ones. Now, the other site makes enough to support itself so I don't have to run the image gallery site. Although I still spend a couple hours a week "catching" up on content in case I ever need to reopen the first site...:P
I use X10 and MisterHouse, which is a great perl program that allows you to control all kinds of stuff! I have it play mp3s, answer my phone, turn on lights, etc. It seems to be the most comprehensive tool out there. And with text-to-speech, forget talking to friends, just chat with your computer all day. Sample some 2001 clips and you will be set!
In other news, it has been reported that a human being has been the first documented case of being slashdotted.
Jody Olson, staff member for Congressman Boucher, had his email listed on the popular site, Slashdot. Along with the email, the site was told they can change the world by emailing Jody and signing up to be an activist. Immediately, Jody received tens of thousands of emails, which are automatically printed for archival purposes.
Jody was subsequently buried under 3 tons of papers, making him the first know fatality from the Slashdot effect.
But seriously, I would hate to be in his shoes right now. In addition to lots of email addresses, I am sure he will get a couple of those goatce links...
I wonder how they hope to carry out this plan. Are they going to have usernames and passwords, screen by IP, OS, browser or what?
If it is by username and passwords then they also better make it so you can only be logged into one computer, because $30.00 shared between 30 of my friends is pretty cheap.
This is one of the biggest problems in the information age. When you don't actually make products that you can sell, it is hard to have your advertising be able to carry your business.
And I'm sure they would need my email address to start this process, so then they can track what stories I read while logged in and send me special email offers that they consider "helpful." Like my favorite on how I can add 4 inches to my... well you get it.
A lot of Napster users are people who don't have that much knowledge about computers, nor read computer related news. For instance, my Grandmother doesn't know much except she can find Big Band era songs when she clicks on some buttons. She doesn't want to download a translator just to find songs. She doesn't want to have a secret code that will allow her to get the latest Metallica song... Well, at least, not yet. I'm sure that if someone finds a way to mess with the name and makes it some sort of plugin, then the steali.. err.. swapping of songs will continue.
The bottom line is that this will only slow down song swapping, but now that people have seen what technology can do for their songlists, no one will ever go back to only buying CDs.
You wouldn't have a case though, since others have been using it prior to you. You have to be the first to do something, not just the first to patent something.... At least in most cases. Taking something that has already been used for a long period of time and patenting it won't fly with the Patent Overlords. Especially if it is you against big companies. Now, if it were the other way around, then maybe the companies would be able to screw you, which is unfortunate but very likely....
If everyone is REALLY serious about privacy, then STOP buying products from companies that will sell you out. Although, with mergers and all that sometimes you can't always know who will have your info in the end. But, you can at least try and buy from companies you trust.
I think a nice idea would be a anonymous way to buy stuff online. But the reason govt and businesses don't like anonymous people running around is because of the few that abuse that system. The swiss banking system is great, but when you have the Russian Mafia holding their money in it, then you need to change some regulations. The person on Ebay who gets ripped off isn't going to be happy with privacy and anonymous sellers.
Plus, by combining all the info available on the web from different companies you can have exact demographics and know the markets needs and wants.
I run a website that has a mailing list which I am sure someone would love to buy. Speaking of that, what Linux/Computer/Geek type site (Hmmm...let me THINK of a GEEK site) wouldn't love to get the mailing list from/.? They know the demographics of the site, they know we like to keep our bawls cool. I see dollars signs already!
The more electronic the world gets, the more personal information will be available to anyone with some cash. It's sad, I don't like it, but that's the way it is. Just remember though, the govt and businesses are there for YOU. If you don't like it, post your comment on the door of City Hall, not just here.
1 day! That's a lifetime longer than one of my former employees worked for a company out of San Jose.
An employee of mine that was working part time with me while finishing up his college degree was hired in August at a new company in San Jose, California, including signing bonus and all that stuff. He was going to be finished with his degree in December and was scheduled to start in January. Well this was last August, so you can guess what happened. He was laid off in early December, -27 days before he was going to start!!
He now works for a company involved in the Internet but actually making products, so it worked out in the end, but -27 days, now that's a story!:)
Also, he had very marketable skills so his only real question was does he have to give back his bonus? Last I heard, I think he got to keep it.
It seems everyone these days is going to Linux stuff like people were going to dot-coms a few years ago. I think too many companies are trying to capitalize on the increasing popularity of Linux to try and sell more products. Just because someone slaps Linux in a blender doesn't mean it will work better or that everyone will rush out to buy it.
Companies should analyze whether putting Linux in their products will actually be useful after the excitement is over. I think there are too many paper pushers out there that read an article on Linux and wet themselves, convinced that putting it in everything will be a great idea.
In other news, Mother Nature has hired a crack lawyer team to sue the major Biotechnology companies, claiming prior art in splicing DNA and creating new life forms. The lawyers claim that their client has used this method, which they call "Evolution" for more than 13 billion years.
Biotech firm, Slice and Dice Them had this to say, "We do not believe that this Mother company has any rights to our methods of gene manipulation and we don't have much time for these freeloaders that are trying to capitalize on our hard work."
When you think about it, ads on the net are less invasive visually than ads in print. Most magazines, especially those rags from Ziff Davis, with names like EWeek and Interactive Week come with 1/2 page of ads with 1/2 of text and the opposing page is one solid ad. Banners on the net are annoying, but we should be thankful they haven't gotten huge. Oh wait, what am I talking about, here's a huge one!!
On television and radio you have no choice but to watch ads, banners can be easily filtered or ignored.
A small 450x60 banner isn't that big of deal, as long as it doesn't spawn endless windows. We should be thankful that is all they are and try to keep them that size.
The sad thing about all this is that the reason that Universities, Governments, Countries, etc have to have laws that seem stupid to us is that sometime and somewhere, someone got hurt, got offended or died becuase of doing something stupid. The people that abuse the system are the ones that force "stupid" laws to be written. In California, 12 or so people were crammed into a small truck when it was hit by a much bigger truck. They died and now everyone is demanding more restrictive seatbelt laws. 12 people in a minitruck? There is a Darwin award waiting to happen.
Laws and policies have to be lowest common denominator to cover everyone. You may think it is infringing on your rights to be able to read email and search rooms, but when the guy with 20 tons of fertilizer is arrested next door, you will think again. When the girl next door is arrested because she sent email to her friends saying how they are going to kill you because you are (insert difference here), that's when laws and policies are good. I don't need a law against murder, rape or theft, but somewhere, someone does and I'll give up some of my rights for the security that laws/policies give me.
The fact is that you choose where you go to school, where you work and what your life is going to be. So don't spend your life complaining that your 1 out of countless schools is not letting you share your collection of Gummi Bear episodes.
Homer: To start, press any key. Hey! Where's the "Any" key? I see esq (esc), contarull (ctrl) and pigup (pgup), but where's the any key?
Bottom line: There will always be people like Homer. Some people just don't get it. The more complex the message we are trying to get across, the more complicated the communication methods need to be. To tell someone I'm hungry, thirsty or tired is easy, but to tell someone anything more complex or detailed would be much harder.
Slashdot Mirror
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And I mod that last part (strangers cheat) a -1 Flamebait, just a little generalization there!
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I thought that was crazy, there can't be that many people that have written a program that does this astounding feat!
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I wonder if I can "meta-mod" these babies. I think they have been modded up too much :P
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The girl does a photo shoot for a few hours, you get your pictures, post a couple to newsgroups with the URL, get some teaser pictures on your website. Then put up some banners, offer more content for $5.95 a month and that's it! You can even host the pictures from geocities or somewhere although you would have to change them around since Yahoo doesn't like that sort of stuff. So you make a couple hundred a month in banner ads, mayby another couple hundred from subscribers. As long as bandwidth bills don't get yah, you can turn a profit. Then, rinse and repeat until you have more content. Just make sure you don't have so much content that subscribers can't pay for all your bandwidth.
Keep getting original content and maybe increase the price every couple months. You can make a profit of a couple thousand a month with little work which is enough to be able to relax and take long vacations! Wow, this is starting to sound like that crap spam email I get promising easy money.. My apologies! :)
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So I got money for looking at pr0n all day and weeding out the bad ones. Now, the other site makes enough to support itself so I don't have to run the image gallery site. Although I still spend a couple hours a week "catching" up on content in case I ever need to reopen the first site... :P
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Now there is a conversation starter at the class reunions!
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Jody Olson, staff member for Congressman Boucher, had his email listed on the popular site, Slashdot. Along with the email, the site was told they can change the world by emailing Jody and signing up to be an activist. Immediately, Jody received tens of thousands of emails, which are automatically printed for archival purposes.
Jody was subsequently buried under 3 tons of papers, making him the first know fatality from the Slashdot effect.
But seriously, I would hate to be in his shoes right now. In addition to lots of email addresses, I am sure he will get a couple of those goatce links...
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If it is by username and passwords then they also better make it so you can only be logged into one computer, because $30.00 shared between 30 of my friends is pretty cheap.
This is one of the biggest problems in the information age. When you don't actually make products that you can sell, it is hard to have your advertising be able to carry your business.
And I'm sure they would need my email address to start this process, so then they can track what stories I read while logged in and send me special email offers that they consider "helpful." Like my favorite on how I can add 4 inches to my... well you get it.
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The bottom line is that this will only slow down song swapping, but now that people have seen what technology can do for their songlists, no one will ever go back to only buying CDs.
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I think a nice idea would be a anonymous way to buy stuff online. But the reason govt and businesses don't like anonymous people running around is because of the few that abuse that system. The swiss banking system is great, but when you have the Russian Mafia holding their money in it, then you need to change some regulations. The person on Ebay who gets ripped off isn't going to be happy with privacy and anonymous sellers.
Plus, by combining all the info available on the web from different companies you can have exact demographics and know the markets needs and wants. I run a website that has a mailing list which I am sure someone would love to buy. Speaking of that, what Linux/Computer/Geek type site (Hmmm...let me THINK of a GEEK site) wouldn't love to get the mailing list from /.? They know the demographics of the site, they know we like to keep our bawls cool. I see dollars signs already!
The more electronic the world gets, the more personal information will be available to anyone with some cash. It's sad, I don't like it, but that's the way it is. Just remember though, the govt and businesses are there for YOU. If you don't like it, post your comment on the door of City Hall, not just here.
=-=-=-=-=
An employee of mine that was working part time with me while finishing up his college degree was hired in August at a new company in San Jose, California, including signing bonus and all that stuff. He was going to be finished with his degree in December and was scheduled to start in January. Well this was last August, so you can guess what happened. He was laid off in early December, -27 days before he was going to start!!
He now works for a company involved in the Internet but actually making products, so it worked out in the end, but -27 days, now that's a story! :)
Also, he had very marketable skills so his only real question was does he have to give back his bonus? Last I heard, I think he got to keep it.
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Companies should analyze whether putting Linux in their products will actually be useful after the excitement is over. I think there are too many paper pushers out there that read an article on Linux and wet themselves, convinced that putting it in everything will be a great idea.
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Biotech firm, Slice and Dice Them had this to say, "We do not believe that this Mother company has any rights to our methods of gene manipulation and we don't have much time for these freeloaders that are trying to capitalize on our hard work."
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This bounty has little to do with the real legal world though. Only time will tell if the patent is revoked.
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On television and radio you have no choice but to watch ads, banners can be easily filtered or ignored.
A small 450x60 banner isn't that big of deal, as long as it doesn't spawn endless windows. We should be thankful that is all they are and try to keep them that size.
=-=-=-=-=
Laws and policies have to be lowest common denominator to cover everyone. You may think it is infringing on your rights to be able to read email and search rooms, but when the guy with 20 tons of fertilizer is arrested next door, you will think again. When the girl next door is arrested because she sent email to her friends saying how they are going to kill you because you are (insert difference here), that's when laws and policies are good. I don't need a law against murder, rape or theft, but somewhere, someone does and I'll give up some of my rights for the security that laws/policies give me.
The fact is that you choose where you go to school, where you work and what your life is going to be. So don't spend your life complaining that your 1 out of countless schools is not letting you share your collection of Gummi Bear episodes.
=-=-=-=-=
Bottom line: There will always be people like Homer. Some people just don't get it. The more complex the message we are trying to get across, the more complicated the communication methods need to be. To tell someone I'm hungry, thirsty or tired is easy, but to tell someone anything more complex or detailed would be much harder.
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