What do you do when friends or relatives come to your home to play video games with you? Or when other people who live with you want to play video games with you?
I hope you know you can run steam in offline mode, and still have full access to all your single-player content. In fact, when I recently had an interruption in service while I switched providers, all I really played was single-player games I had previously purchased via Steam.
Previously purchased, yes. But could you install a new retail game disc while you were between providers? Even the game consoles, with their anti-homebrew measures, don't restrict that.
Umm... I don't know about Steam games requiring a live internet connection to install them, but console games CERTAINLY DO NOT.
The only anti-homebrew measures I'm aware of are updated firmwares, which usually plug holes that homebrew users use. If a console game requires an updated firmware revision, its usually placed right on the disc with the game, no internet connection required to update.
In other words, do what Apple did with OS X and Classic.
Interesting idea (I had just gotten to that point also). If its true, then Windows 7 should be more of an evolution of Vista, than a break with it, but I'm afraid it seems like their getting ready for more "complete rewrites".
If Microsoft adds misfeatures to the security patches that makes XP less and less worthwhile to use, you might find yourself it a tough spot: use an insecure OS, or use an productivity-decreasing OS, or upgrade to Vista.
or upgrade to "something else."
In my case, after building my own systems for over 15 years, my next computer is probably going to be a Mac. I like the unix subsystem and command line. I like the pretty GUI layered over it, and I like the fact that it doesn't have the "driver issues" which MS keeps blaming all the problems of Windows on.
The last machine I build for myself was ~two years ago. It runs XP Pro (and is very happily chugging along). I had to go find a floppy disk or learn how to merge drivers onto my Window XP install disk because that was the only way to include SATA drivers. There should have been updates to XP before Vista, but MS positioned Vista as the "Next best thing". If they had spent more time updating XP, less people would have bought Vista, but then Vista took so long to get out the door.
The problem was that MS tried to bite off too much when they made Vista. They should have just started evolving the OS (similar to the way Apple does with OS X). Each upgrade is more of an incremental improvement. On the other hand there WAS a fair amount of problems that Apple had when they came out with OS X to begin with. Perhaps that is where MS is, Vista=OS X (better GUI, broken backward compatibility, etc.). Now if they keep the core and start incrementally improving the OS around it, they should have a more stable system that will keep getting better... on the other hand, I bet MS will just declare a new complete rewrite and sink more money than sense into it.
And all this time I thought that spam was going to cause the Internet to melt down. Maybe we need new terminology. Instead of "melt down", it should be "Global Internet Change".
True... "Change" would be better, since some of the Internet won't "Melt Down", it will "Freeze".
Now you're not playing fair, and there's nothing the other TCP guys can do about it because they're all trying to play fair still.
No, there isn't, and if it really DOES effect people, then more ISPs are going to try to switch to a pricing model (and tiered pricing), which is going to kill slow down a lot of P2P users.
Alternatively, the ISPs are going to start disconnecting people who don't play nicely. Okay, the courts say we can't filter their traffic based on application? Fine, cut their service.
Still, they could get around this by defining the "bittorrent chunk" size to be 1.5k (UDP payload size). Everything else would probably work fine.
They'd lose some space for the "necessary" header. At the very least they'd need to reserve enough bytes to toss in a block number, a length and a checksum of some sort.
They could probably compact things a bit by arbitrarily deciding:
1) we'll ask for "block X - Y from user Z" so that at any given time given the source IP tied to the file name, you have a limited # of outstanding blocks (so you don't need your block number space to be unique for the whole system.
2) instead of TCPs Send/Ack they could implement a "RETRANS" message that stated the blocks missing X time after the last block from a given host was received.
You're right, the lack of TCPs complexity might be better suited, since BitTorrent isn't really tied to a specific connection, but if it isn't done correctly, there are lots of places this could come back to bite you in the but (since some of the error correction and retransmission pieces DO need to be re-implemented).
1) Most CS degrees teach enough about programming for the students to do the assignments. The last time I went through the sequence was in C++: Course 1 taught "the basics" (everything from this is a loop, through this is an object). Course 2 tried to push the ideas of code reuse and let us start to play around more with building our own objects and systems. Course 3 focused on more complex algorithms.
2) Most teachers stress the idea of code reuse (where they can), but its up to the students to get the idea (the students are usually more interested in the grade).
I went back to finish my BA in CS after ~10 years working in the field. Most of the "programming" courses were easy in concept but still made you put in the hours to get the grade. One teacher built the class (in algorithm design), around an increasing complexity program, which inherently tried to shove code reusability down your throat. It was possible to keep rewriting everything from scratch for each assignment, but it was tough enough knowing you could reuse large sections of your code (depending on how modular you could make it).
Since I'd already had a fair amount of "real world" experience I spent more of my time the first assignment or two making sure my code was modular in ways I could use, and building a small library of "helper" routines for parsing apart text input (most of the assignments were input/process/output). Made the rest of the assignments easier so I could focus on later problems later, without having to reinvent the wheel every two weeks. It even gave me enough time to dig into the STL a bit for one assignment (the class used C++ which was my first exposure to it). Let me have time to do a couple of things other students said were "impossible".:)
Something to bare in mind, I will readily admit that very little of what I learned in college, could not have been learned by someone through other means (sitting down with a book and a "lesson plan" of their own). However a lot of people learn better when there is a focussed goal (finishing the class), and a fair number work better when they learn from a person rather than a book. I certainly hit a few cases when I was going through a class and hit a "D'oh!" moment, when I had thought of some project over the past 10 years that I had worked on, when, if I had known about THIS then (whatever "this" was), I would have done something different (and usually more efficient/productive).
1) They wish to claim that "scaled down" is included in their definition of a "Sister site" (absurd)
2) They believe the Safari browser in the iPhone is not showing the "real" site (uninformed)
3) They are trying to use Safari as a test case since Apple's best argument is that it "doesn't scale things". Even if they lose, they can't point to this lawsuit and use it as a basis to force other cell phone makers to pay up (since they can't claim apple's defense) (unlikely, but plausible. IANAL)
4) They are going after Apple because its the "hot" thing with lots of money to go after (likely)
Web based app = centralized distribution of thick client. Version always most recent, updates do not need to be pushed out to each desktop.
For some applications it makes a lot of sense. Some call centers for instance usually have a thick Java client that gets pushed out to users when the system starts. Then its just a matter of "quick" updates to the central system (until it crashes and has to be restarted, but thats a different issue).
Blizzard already has admitted to having a Linux Warcraft client internally that they haven't released.
Oooo I can see the $$$ signs now.
Team up with someone like ASUS to build a cheap box that meets the requirements for WoW. Use a Linux OS and include a Web Browser, Email Reader. Music Library Software, and maybe a DVD player (if you can) for fun. Then market it as a "Blizzard Box". For the family that needs another PC to play WoW on (but Tommy keeps hogging the computer to write his stupid book reports!)
You could even market a laptop, the "Snowflake" or something.:)
Give the box a white glossy finish, and throw in some upselling of optional WoW case graphics and background, maybe monthly "bonus packs" or wallpaper/movies/??? you can distribute via a backchannel RPM or something (depending on the base Linux Distro).
I took a quick skim through the PDF and saw that too. It's also interesting that they put running Folding@home (one of the hardest things you can push your PS3 to do) in with the "power saving/management" section. I'll need to take a more thorough look later.
They mentioned it there because the first Power Management features for the PS3 were included as part of F@H. You could set the console to shut off after it had finished the current "block" of calculations, or after the next X blocks.
Only in the last month or two did the PS3 introduce "Shut down after X time idle" option in the XMB configuration (along with "shutdown after you finish downloading this DLC").
They seem to have a whole bunch of papers on their website which might be easier to digest than an RFC, but the easiest way to find the RFC is to just google for "RFC DTN".
Not to mention that the "certification" only applies to a specific configuration.
The best way to do something like this is to essentially take a "frozen" fork from an existing distro, pair it down to bare essentials (and what does that mean?), and then start on the mother of all code reviews.
Even if you got a sample paired down distro organized, you'd now have to Document it, and then turn it over and pay for testing (two things that the OSS community is usually poorer at than their Commercial brethren).
No point in that. This thing (if it works) makes the generator work more efficiently over a wider range of excitation by varying resistance. Hydro generators run optimally at a single point and they can already control that with water flow. The only benefit this thing has is for sources where your input energy varies.
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Use a console?
Umm ... I don't know about Steam games requiring a live internet connection to install them, but console games CERTAINLY DO NOT.
The only anti-homebrew measures I'm aware of are updated firmwares, which usually plug holes that homebrew users use.
If a console game requires an updated firmware revision, its usually placed right on the disc with the game, no internet connection required to update.
Interesting idea (I had just gotten to that point also). If its true, then Windows 7 should be more of an evolution of Vista, than a break with it, but I'm afraid it seems like their getting ready for more "complete rewrites".
or upgrade to "something else."
In my case, after building my own systems for over 15 years, my next computer is probably going to be a Mac. I like the unix subsystem and command line. I like the pretty GUI layered over it, and I like the fact that it doesn't have the "driver issues" which MS keeps blaming all the problems of Windows on.
The last machine I build for myself was ~two years ago. It runs XP Pro (and is very happily chugging along). I had to go find a floppy disk or learn how to merge drivers onto my Window XP install disk because that was the only way to include SATA drivers. There should have been updates to XP before Vista, but MS positioned Vista as the "Next best thing". If they had spent more time updating XP, less people would have bought Vista, but then Vista took so long to get out the door.
The problem was that MS tried to bite off too much when they made Vista. They should have just started evolving the OS (similar to the way Apple does with OS X). Each upgrade is more of an incremental improvement. On the other hand there WAS a fair amount of problems that Apple had when they came out with OS X to begin with. Perhaps that is where MS is, Vista=OS X (better GUI, broken backward compatibility, etc.). Now if they keep the core and start incrementally improving the OS around it, they should have a more stable system that will keep getting better ... on the other hand, I bet MS will just declare a new complete rewrite and sink more money than sense into it.
True ... "Change" would be better, since some of the Internet won't "Melt Down", it will "Freeze".
No, there isn't, and if it really DOES effect people, then more ISPs are going to try to switch to a pricing model (and tiered pricing), which is going to kill slow down a lot of P2P users.
Alternatively, the ISPs are going to start disconnecting people who don't play nicely. Okay, the courts say we can't filter their traffic based on application? Fine, cut their service.
They'd lose some space for the "necessary" header. At the very least they'd need to reserve enough bytes to toss in a block number, a length and a checksum of some sort.
They could probably compact things a bit by arbitrarily deciding:
1) we'll ask for "block X - Y from user Z" so that at any given time given the source IP tied to the file name, you have a limited # of outstanding blocks (so you don't need your block number space to be unique for the whole system.
2) instead of TCPs Send/Ack they could implement a "RETRANS" message that stated the blocks missing X time after the last block from a given host was received.
You're right, the lack of TCPs complexity might be better suited, since BitTorrent isn't really tied to a specific connection, but if it isn't done correctly, there are lots of places this could come back to bite you in the but (since some of the error correction and retransmission pieces DO need to be re-implemented).
Some things to bare in mind:
1) Most CS degrees teach enough about programming for the students to do the assignments. The last time I went through the sequence was in C++: Course 1 taught "the basics" (everything from this is a loop, through this is an object). Course 2 tried to push the ideas of code reuse and let us start to play around more with building our own objects and systems. Course 3 focused on more complex algorithms.
2) Most teachers stress the idea of code reuse (where they can), but its up to the students to get the idea (the students are usually more interested in the grade).
I went back to finish my BA in CS after ~10 years working in the field. Most of the "programming" courses were easy in concept but still made you put in the hours to get the grade. One teacher built the class (in algorithm design), around an increasing complexity program, which inherently tried to shove code reusability down your throat. It was possible to keep rewriting everything from scratch for each assignment, but it was tough enough knowing you could reuse large sections of your code (depending on how modular you could make it).
Since I'd already had a fair amount of "real world" experience I spent more of my time the first assignment or two making sure my code was modular in ways I could use, and building a small library of "helper" routines for parsing apart text input (most of the assignments were input/process/output). Made the rest of the assignments easier so I could focus on later problems later, without having to reinvent the wheel every two weeks. It even gave me enough time to dig into the STL a bit for one assignment (the class used C++ which was my first exposure to it). Let me have time to do a couple of things other students said were "impossible". :)
Something to bare in mind, I will readily admit that very little of what I learned in college, could not have been learned by someone through other means (sitting down with a book and a "lesson plan" of their own). However a lot of people learn better when there is a focussed goal (finishing the class), and a fair number work better when they learn from a person rather than a book. I certainly hit a few cases when I was going through a class and hit a "D'oh!" moment, when I had thought of some project over the past 10 years that I had worked on, when, if I had known about THIS then (whatever "this" was), I would have done something different (and usually more efficient/productive).
No, but I hear a wall of Fire can be helpful.
This is irrelevant the ads aren't got traditional gamers.
Nintendo has shown a lot of game companies that the "casual gamer" market blows away the tradition "hardcore gamer" market.
Which do you think most of the TV ads are targeting?
Meant to say CAN.
New meme: Playing Duke Nukem Forever on my Apple MiniPro while REEDITING my slashdot comments :/
Four possibilities:
1) They wish to claim that "scaled down" is included in their definition of a "Sister site" (absurd)
2) They believe the Safari browser in the iPhone is not showing the "real" site (uninformed)
3) They are trying to use Safari as a test case since Apple's best argument is that it "doesn't scale things". Even if they lose, they can't point to this lawsuit and use it as a basis to force other cell phone makers to pay up (since they can't claim apple's defense) (unlikely, but plausible. IANAL)
4) They are going after Apple because its the "hot" thing with lots of money to go after (likely)
Anyone have any other ideas? :)
"And if you act now, and spend $20,000,000 you can send one mammoth to a child in need, and have one delivered to your doorstep."
Or you could clone a male, and then grab its DNA and double up the X chromosome to clone a female.
Think of it as "Garden of Eden 2.0"
Web based app = centralized distribution of thick client. Version always most recent, updates do not need to be pushed out to each desktop.
For some applications it makes a lot of sense. Some call centers for instance usually have a thick Java client that gets pushed out to users when the system starts. Then its just a matter of "quick" updates to the central system (until it crashes and has to be restarted, but thats a different issue).
Not to mention less virus ridden places.
(I'm so going to Heck)
Greetings Gentle-being. Come fix nitrogen, drink deeply and bask in the warm green sunlight.
Yeah ... its not like XBox360 Arcade users might want to communicate with friends, or play games on-line or something.
Oooo I can see the $$$ signs now.
Team up with someone like ASUS to build a cheap box that meets the requirements for WoW. Use a Linux OS and include a Web Browser, Email Reader. Music Library Software, and maybe a DVD player (if you can) for fun. Then market it as a "Blizzard Box". For the family that needs another PC to play WoW on (but Tommy keeps hogging the computer to write his stupid book reports!)
You could even market a laptop, the "Snowflake" or something. :)
Give the box a white glossy finish, and throw in some upselling of optional WoW case graphics and background, maybe monthly "bonus packs" or wallpaper/movies/??? you can distribute via a backchannel RPM or something (depending on the base Linux Distro).
Probably won't happen though. ... right?
They mentioned it there because the first Power Management features for the PS3 were included as part of F@H. You could set the console to shut off after it had finished the current "block" of calculations, or after the next X blocks.
Only in the last month or two did the PS3 introduce "Shut down after X time idle" option in the XMB configuration (along with "shutdown after you finish downloading this DLC").
So thats another added bonus of the protocol, right?
Well, according to the "Font of all (quick) wisdom", the "official" name for this is IntetPlaNet which is backed in part by the (wait for it) InterPlanetary Internet SIG (that's Special Interest Group to you youngins).
They seem to have a whole bunch of papers on their website which might be easier to digest than an RFC, but the easiest way to find the RFC is to just google for "RFC DTN".
Delay-Tolerant Networking Architecture
Sadly it just defines the DTN architecture and is much less enjoyable than rfc2549 (IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service).
Its good to know we can compare what the market looked like when the crash finally happens.
Not to mention that the "certification" only applies to a specific configuration.
The best way to do something like this is to essentially take a "frozen" fork from an existing distro, pair it down to bare essentials (and what does that mean?), and then start on the mother of all code reviews.
Even if you got a sample paired down distro organized, you'd now have to Document it, and then turn it over and pay for testing (two things that the OSS community is usually poorer at than their Commercial brethren).
Like tidal generators?