Yes, I guess that's what the developers thought. On a less friendly note, one could call it a cheap effort to participate in the MMORPG boom without providing all aspects of a real MMORPG. Other companies offer the real thing, admittedly with varying success. But it is possible.
To me, this is an choice which has vast potential. Implemented properly, the play style and story line and world of Hellgate could indeed prove to work well in a heavily instanced world..."safe houses" could be in the same vain as guild wars towns, while "action zones" could be instanced.
I think it would work better the other way round:
Shared "action zones" with a few instances for things like player housing or character development events. This way, players would have the MMO benefit of meeting lots of people but some individual experiences could be separated from the (not always good) influence of other players.
Really, do you think eliminating this one control will make your computer safe? Chances are there are coppies that will "respawn" later, a common malware trick, and that there are far nastier controls you don't know about. The malice is built in from Redmod before anyone else gets it.
It might be simple sloppyness, as in "someone forgot to think about security". In that case, it is quite likely that it is an isolated problem without a dozen of "backups". If you believe it is intentional, however, you'd best switch to another OS, because Microsoft could introduce new backdoors with each patch.
...it is difficult to port everything to another operating system overnight.
Don't try. You'll give yourself ulcers, users will hate you and the budget will go through the roof. Anyone who says it's easy is lying, but it can be done on a three year plan.
That requires that your management is capable and willing to think in three year terms. Or that you ARE the boss and can make the decision yourself. I'm currently working at a company that has a similar problem (and it's also about medical devices) and seems unable to think beyond the end of next year. Maybe I need to look for another job...
Red is when the site matches a blacklist of known phishing sites. (If you have the antiphishing turned on, it will check with MS each time you load a new page.) So if I have antiphishing turned on, Microsoft will get a pretty complete view of my surfing habits? One more reason to stay with SeaMonkey... as long as I'm still on Windows anyway (give me a WINE that works perfectly, and I'm gone).
I hope things like spawning monsters and their attributes are controlled by the server. So only the guy running the server can use that sort of cheat, and if he overdoes it, he will find his server empty.
No, I'm suggesting that Microsoft could say "no (additional, I'd keep DVD playback as it is) DRM will be integrated in our OS". Then the MPAA/RIAA could a) release new stuff only on standalone players or game consoles (PS3) which support the new format b) cave in because they don't want to lose customers who have only a PC. c) try a) and cave in later if the new, DRM'ed formats won't sell.
Personally, I suspect it would come to c). Excessively restrictive protection schemes have failed before, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX. And DVD is "good enough" for many people, so the number of enthusiasts who "absolutely need" HDTV and are willing to put up with more DRM might be limited.
Microsoft is powerful enough that they might be able to get away with refusing to implement DRM. What could the music and film industry do? Not release on PC-compatible media at all??
I think Microsoft might be able to win that one if they tried. Instead, they went the path of least resistance (or so they believe).
This may be a great development tool set, but you're going to be stuck with only supporting the PC and the XBOX 360. No linux, OSX, PS3, Wii, or any other kind of gaming platform. Maybe, but Sony at least will have to blame themselves just as much. By not supporting the PS3 graphics chip under Linux (actually some reports say it has been hidden from Linux), they made sure that the PS3 is not very attractive to indie game developers.
Hmm, right now I get http://www.fleetsolutions.co.uk/silicone%20wristba nd%20wrist%20bands.htm on rank 1 for "Silicone Bracelets" (except for the sponsored links at the very top). customSiliconeBracelets.com is on #33. Maybe Google has found out that a shitload of intra-site links does not always make a good site??
"Sub-licensed out" is a nice euphemism for the bankruptcy of Smiling Gator, the company that was developing Twilight War. Some Chinese company has acquired the work-in-progress and tries to complete it. But things seem to go a lot slower now.
Fallen Earth (http://fallenearth.com/) might be interesting too. And since they have already shown a playable demo in an interview, it might be ready a lot earlier than the interplay game;-)
...because the production of hydrogen depends on the availability of energy and water, both of which are increasingly rare and may become political issues, as much as oil and natural gas are today
So you need to put your hydrogen plants where you have both water nearby (ocean, desalinate?) and energy (sun?). California maybe? Sounds like a big enough market.
There were certain countries that had a waiting, highly-trained work force but they couldn't get the work because of high transaction costs. The internet drastically lowered the transaction costs but did not eliminate them. During the time when those costs were plummeting, we saw a massive influx of new developers into the market. So, the countries that had highly trained workforces sitting on the sidelines are all now pretty much in the game, So, I wouldn't expect to see another influx like that unless there's another radical change in the transaction costs.
The problem is that the remaining transaction costs are pretty hard -- mostly organization and physical.
In other words, the "damage" is pretty much done. Frankly, I think the world as a whole is better off due to outsourcing.
You may be right in claiming that the easily accessible highly trained workforces are already in the game. I think the last big unknown is China: They have lots of population and at least some high tech industry, so there may be a considerable untapped workforce left. On the other hand, English is not as ubiquitous there as in India, so the organizational part will be harder.
True, and there has been an industry (albeit small) that provides the hardware for some time. There is Frybrid from TFA, and in Germany we have Elsbett. Link to english website: http://www.elsbett.com/us/about-us/introduction.ht ml
Elsbett used to build complete motors, today they mostly sell conversion kits for diesel cars (the US homepage seems to be a bit outdated there).
I am hopeful that the judges will take action against these bullies. It would be nice to see, but the courts seem very patient with plaintiffs who bring frivolous lawsuits.
If you have followed SCO vs. IBM for instance, it seems (to me as a layman) that SCO and their lawyers have lied to the court more than once. Yet, all they have suffered so far are some court rulings in favor of IBM. Sanctions (beyond losing the lawsuit) against SCO and lawyers have not even been mentioned by the court.
Similar things have happened in the antitrust suit against Microsoft, where Microsoft was reportedly showing a faked video as evidence. No sanctions I know of.
I'd like to add that according to other sources, the PS3 runs Linux under a hypervisor that hides the graphics chip from Linux, so that limitation might be permanent (unless someone does serious, and in some jurisdictions illegal, hacking).
What remains is a computer with a very interesting CPU, but rather limited RAM and no 3D hardware acceleration. For most everyday use cases, a generic PC should do better.
It depends on your usage. Most desktops are idling 90% of the time, but you don't want to shut them down and reboot all the time. So power consumption when idling is meaningful too.
Now if you really need performance, I would recommend a Core 2 Duo too. If your usage is strictly limited to Office and web surfing, I'd recommend an AMD Sempron on Socket AM2. Cheap, low power usage (AFAIK lower than Celerons with similar performance) and more than sufficient for typing letters.
An example where AMD is still in the running: Personally, I (living in Germany) might look for a new computer come next spring or so. Some required features are
1)reasonable performance, but not necessarily a high end machine 2)ECC RAM for reliability 3)reasonable price (I'm willing to pay a bit more for quality parts, but not the premium on the latest and most powerful).
For 1) an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ or faster would do. That includes all models of the Core 2 Duo. Actually, the Core 2 Duo E6300 costs about the same as the X2 4200+ and is somewhat faster. Advantage Intel. 2) requires the mainboard to play along. On the AMD side, I found a suitable ASUS board for 84 euros a while ago. On the Intel side, only boards with the expensive 875 chipset seem to support ECC (and not all of them). Suitable ones seem to start around 200 Euros. This leads to 3) an advantage of about 120 euros for AMD, unless prices for ECC capable Intel boards come down in the next months.
So, do I pay 120 euros more for a tad more processing power? That is far from clear-cut.
I take it those 2.8GHz Xeons were based on the old Netburst Architecture (P4). AMD did better with the Opteron, but the new Xeon 5100 are Conroe-based. Conroe vs. Netburst = massive improvement;-)
I remember a test in the German C't magazine where complete computers were tested. Everything being equal except mainboard and CPU. The CPUs were AMD Athlon 64 vs. Intel Core2Duo
Under load, the Core2Duo machines used a bit less power. Idling, the AMDs were better. The overall differences were pretty small compared to the total power consumption, so I'd disregard them for a typical desktop that does NOT run 24/7.
And BTW, avoid the old Pentium 4/Pentium D. Those are really inferior.
I'm 39 and can hear it fine. Unlike my experiments with a sinewave generator, where I have difficulty hearing anything over 16 kHz. I'd guess the Teenbuzz as played by Winamp has maybe 12 kHz. That is quite audible even for older people...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I guess that's what the developers thought.
On a less friendly note, one could call it a cheap effort to participate in the MMORPG boom without providing all aspects of a real MMORPG. Other companies offer the real thing, admittedly with varying success. But it is possible.
I think it would work better the other way round:
Shared "action zones" with a few instances for things like player housing or character development events. This way, players would have the MMO benefit of meeting lots of people but some individual experiences could be separated from the (not always good) influence of other players.
It might be simple sloppyness, as in "someone forgot to think about security". In that case, it is quite likely that it is an isolated problem without a dozen of "backups". If you believe it is intentional, however, you'd best switch to another OS, because Microsoft could introduce new backdoors with each patch.
That requires that your management is capable and willing to think in three year terms. Or that you ARE the boss and can make the decision yourself.
I'm currently working at a company that has a similar problem (and it's also about medical devices) and seems unable to think beyond the end of next year. Maybe I need to look for another job...
Red is when the site matches a blacklist of known phishing sites. (If you have the antiphishing turned on, it will check with MS each time you load a new page.)
So if I have antiphishing turned on, Microsoft will get a pretty complete view of my surfing habits?
One more reason to stay with SeaMonkey... as long as I'm still on Windows anyway (give me a WINE that works perfectly, and I'm gone).
A serious response to your troll post:
I hope things like spawning monsters and their attributes are controlled by the server. So only the guy running the server can use that sort of cheat, and if he overdoes it, he will find his server empty.
No, I'm suggesting that Microsoft could say "no (additional, I'd keep DVD playback as it is) DRM will be integrated in our OS". Then the MPAA/RIAA could
a) release new stuff only on standalone players or game consoles (PS3) which support the new format
b) cave in because they don't want to lose customers who have only a PC.
c) try a) and cave in later if the new, DRM'ed formats won't sell.
Personally, I suspect it would come to c). Excessively restrictive protection schemes have failed before, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIVX. And DVD is "good enough" for many people, so the number of enthusiasts who "absolutely need" HDTV and are willing to put up with more DRM might be limited.
Microsoft is powerful enough that they might be able to get away with refusing to implement DRM. What could the music and film industry do? Not release on PC-compatible media at all??
I think Microsoft might be able to win that one if they tried. Instead, they went the path of least resistance (or so they believe).
This may be a great development tool set, but you're going to be stuck with only supporting the PC and the XBOX 360. No linux, OSX, PS3, Wii, or any other kind of gaming platform.
Maybe, but Sony at least will have to blame themselves just as much. By not supporting the PS3 graphics chip under Linux (actually some reports say it has been hidden from Linux), they made sure that the PS3 is not very attractive to indie game developers.
Maybe search results depend on country? I live in Germany and use http://www.google.co.uk/.
Because you can hardly convince me that customSiliconeBracelets.com is at the top of the list if I checked it myself and found it on position #33.
Hmm, right now I get http://www.fleetsolutions.co.uk/silicone%20wristba nd%20wrist%20bands.htm on rank 1 for "Silicone Bracelets" (except for the sponsored links at the very top). customSiliconeBracelets.com is on #33.
Maybe Google has found out that a shitload of intra-site links does not always make a good site??
"Sub-licensed out" is a nice euphemism for the bankruptcy of Smiling Gator, the company that was developing Twilight War. Some Chinese company has acquired the work-in-progress and tries to complete it. But things seem to go a lot slower now.
Anarchy Online combat is boring. Target, click attack and wait. Why not aiming like in a shooter?
Fallen Earth (http://fallenearth.com/) might be interesting too. And since they have already shown a playable demo in an interview, it might be ready a lot earlier than the interplay game ;-)
So you need to put your hydrogen plants where you have both water nearby (ocean, desalinate?) and energy (sun?). California maybe? Sounds like a big enough market.
You may be right in claiming that the easily accessible highly trained workforces are already in the game. I think the last big unknown is China:
They have lots of population and at least some high tech industry, so there may be a considerable untapped workforce left. On the other hand, English is not as ubiquitous there as in India, so the organizational part will be harder.
True, and there has been an industry (albeit small) that provides the hardware for some time. There is Frybrid from TFA, and in Germany we have Elsbett.t ml
Link to english website: http://www.elsbett.com/us/about-us/introduction.h
Elsbett used to build complete motors, today they mostly sell conversion kits for diesel cars (the US homepage seems to be a bit outdated there).
I am hopeful that the judges will take action against these bullies.
It would be nice to see, but the courts seem very patient with plaintiffs who bring frivolous lawsuits.
If you have followed SCO vs. IBM for instance, it seems (to me as a layman) that SCO and their lawyers have lied to the court more than once. Yet, all they have suffered so far are some court rulings in favor of IBM. Sanctions (beyond losing the lawsuit) against SCO and lawyers have not even been mentioned by the court.
Similar things have happened in the antitrust suit against Microsoft, where Microsoft was reportedly showing a faked video as evidence. No sanctions I know of.
According to other sources, the power consumption of the PS3 is somewhere between 180 and 205 watts.1 113/123458/
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/2006
That is probably worse than your space-heater Athlon XP.
I'd like to add that according to other sources, the PS3 runs Linux under a hypervisor that hides the graphics chip from Linux, so that limitation might be permanent (unless someone does serious, and in some jurisdictions illegal, hacking).
What remains is a computer with a very interesting CPU, but rather limited RAM and no 3D hardware acceleration. For most everyday use cases, a generic PC should do better.
It depends on your usage. Most desktops are idling 90% of the time, but you don't want to shut them down and reboot all the time. So power consumption when idling is meaningful too.
Now if you really need performance, I would recommend a Core 2 Duo too.
If your usage is strictly limited to Office and web surfing, I'd recommend an AMD Sempron on Socket AM2. Cheap, low power usage (AFAIK lower than Celerons with similar performance) and more than sufficient for typing letters.
An example where AMD is still in the running:
Personally, I (living in Germany) might look for a new computer come next spring or so. Some required features are
1)reasonable performance, but not necessarily a high end machine
2)ECC RAM for reliability
3)reasonable price (I'm willing to pay a bit more for quality parts, but not the premium on the latest and most powerful).
For 1) an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ or faster would do. That includes all models of the Core 2 Duo. Actually, the Core 2 Duo E6300 costs about the same as the X2 4200+ and is somewhat faster. Advantage Intel.
2) requires the mainboard to play along. On the AMD side, I found a suitable ASUS board for 84 euros a while ago. On the Intel side, only boards with the expensive 875 chipset seem to support ECC (and not all of them). Suitable ones seem to start around 200 Euros. This leads to
3) an advantage of about 120 euros for AMD, unless prices for ECC capable Intel boards come down in the next months.
So, do I pay 120 euros more for a tad more processing power? That is far from clear-cut.
I take it those 2.8GHz Xeons were based on the old Netburst Architecture (P4). ;-)
AMD did better with the Opteron, but the new Xeon 5100 are Conroe-based.
Conroe vs. Netburst = massive improvement
Correction: the AMDs were Athlon 64 X2, it was a test of dual core vs. dual core.
I remember a test in the German C't magazine where complete computers were tested. Everything being equal except mainboard and CPU. The CPUs were AMD Athlon 64 vs. Intel Core2Duo
Under load, the Core2Duo machines used a bit less power. Idling, the AMDs were better. The overall differences were pretty small compared to the total power consumption, so I'd disregard them for a typical desktop that does NOT run 24/7.
And BTW, avoid the old Pentium 4/Pentium D. Those are really inferior.
I'm 39 and can hear it fine. Unlike my experiments with a sinewave generator, where I have difficulty hearing anything over 16 kHz.
I'd guess the Teenbuzz as played by Winamp has maybe 12 kHz. That is quite audible even for older people...