1) The answer is, unfortunately, yes. I noticed last night that when I cut the internet connection on my home network , I could no longer start HL2.
2) Obviously, but that is not news. There aren't all that many games today that are dunb enough not to compare game keys when you LAN. On the other hand, there is always a crack available after some time.
How you feel about it is irrelevant (although I agree with you, personally). Game makers have mostly included restrictions on this kind of thing. Very few games have specifically enabled, and even encouraged, multi-LAN play out of the box (Jagged Alliance : Deadly Games was a hallmark of its kind).
Now that is brilliant. Must be the secret to the impunity of the American government. After all, they Never Do Any Wrong (TM) - on US soil at least. When cameras are present. Or the journalist cannot be "kidnapped".
Remove subscriptions for reading and I may. Innovatec products are well made, easy to install and work very well. So "all" commercial home WC products are NOT shite. You might try to review one - I'm sure you'd change your mind.
I've got to agree. I went watercooling for two reasons : I fount that the HSF on the Thunderbird was the most annoying thing I had ever heard, and TomsHardware had just made a review of Innovatec's cooling system. Bought the components on the web, mounted them, and I've never heard a HSF since.
You are confusing game units with game interface. And actually, it is revolutionary. Name one single other RTS game where you could so easily add community creations. Name one single other RTS game where you could chain commands of any kind so easily that it actually became a hindrance if you didn't limit yourself (like making one construction bot create the entire perimiter defense - if it gets destroyed, your defense building is stopped cold). TA was and remains the greatest as far as interface and AI is concerned. It was the VERY FIRST title where moving troops did not prevent them from returning fire or firing on enemy troops (C&C was a brainless bloodbath in comparison). TA is still the only title where you can set as many patrol points as you like (and not just going from one point to another and turning back). Finally, TA was the first and remains one of few titles to allow any number of units to be in a group (not like the 12-unit limit which is standard for some companies) The beauty of the TA interface is that, with only six commands, you can do everything you need. Build, then guard, then patrol are three commands you can easily set in succession for a single or a group of units. You can set units to guard a boss unit, and add a patrol route after. When the boss blows up, all remaining guard units will automatically proceed to the first patrol point and take up the patrol route, using whatever stance you affect them (fire on sight, fire if targeted, hold fire). There is only one thing lacking in TA : formations. That puts the burden on the player to have faster units guard slower ones, and make the slower ones decide where to go. Only like that can the player reasonably expect the whole group to arrive at the same time. For its day, TA was king of the user interface, and no pretender has even come close to equalling it yet.
This gadget needs the Exploding Panel (c) technology to make it complete. Just think, somebody jostles you in the subway and POOF ! lights, sparks and burning wires. Great way to promote replacements too.
For years now we have been seeing economics be influenced by the smart words of snappy CEOs. Meanwhile, layoffs are a dime a dozen, outsourcing is rampant and millions of people have been robbed of their savings by white-collared thieves who purport to tell the world how things should work - their way. It is a fine paradox to see that a dictatorial country is going to do what brain-deficient democracies are not able to - reintroduce fair competition.
Well gee whiz. And I suppose we should thank them ? After all, it is already necessary to practically change PC every 18 months to keep the framerates fluid.
When WAP came out, I considered it comical. Trying to connect to a WAP-enabled website on a 2" screen. Wow. Apart from the time it took (remember some carriers did not charge for time connected but for data downloaded ?), I would consider it an eyesore to squint over such a screen. 2G, 2.5G, 3G and now 2.25G and 3.5G are all just speed variations on one sad little screen. And that does nothing to correct the scrolling by buttons issue. Not to mention the real fun it must be to enter one's login name and password.
I wish to state for the record : for surfing the Web, I want 1Mb/sec, a 21", 32-bit color screen, a 104 key keyboard, an Intellimouse Wireless Explorer and a 120Gb HDD to store what I download. I have that now, at home (okay, 128Kb/sec). If I am driving, I need to watch the road, not a puny little screen. If I am in a plane, I'll have a laptop (16" or better) with a touchpad, or a book. If I'm at work, I have my home setting almost exactly, and the Web access is faster.
There is no way I am going to use a phone for web surfing. Not now, not ever. A phone is for phoning someone I cannot talk to now, directly. Whatever I need on the web, it can wait for a proper terminal to get to.
when you don't know how to write your own language properly, it makes no difference that you trash it in cursive or in typing. What is cursive ? A form of communication. What is typing ? Another form of communication. One is "dying out" ? So what ? Nobody uses wooden logs or dot-dot-dash either, except for archologists and history freaks. Personally I care very little about the future of tiny, scrawny, unreadable handwriting. I care even less about what is to become of large, curly text and i's dotted with round circles. If the advent of typing can do away with such nuisances and replace them by clear and discernable signs of regular format, I say : great ! It is, however, extremely interesting to imagine a few parallels between history and now. In the China of old, a few thousand years ago, the immense majority of the population knew nothing about how to write at all. That was the sole province of learned scholars and administrative workers. Today, the immense majority of the population types away like mad, but still does not know how to write. That is the province of a scant few people who bother to proof-read and check their dictionary. The advent of the PC industry has introduced many unknown technologies, such as "planned obsolescence". The advent of the Internet will have had the incredible effect of transferring that technology to our entire society.
I won't add anything about patching, but I do wish to say that I am interested in one point : MS states that it will define a patch system for the OS and one for the apps. I will be very interested in finding out what MS defines as OS and what it defines as application in its new patch system. Oh, and of course, I look foreward to being very entertained by all the new patches coming out in the OS system to correct bugs implemented by patches for applications:-)
I don't give hoot for SCO, its lawsuits or its problems. Linux distros have been publicly available for years now, freely downloadable or bought in stores with doc included. For SCO to come along now and say there is infringement is no less than if some other idiot pops up to tell us he has a patent on the wheel and we owe him for ever tire on our car. Go SCO ! Continue to cover yourself in ridicule and drown once and for all. RAMBUS tried, but even backed by Intel they failed to own the SDRAM market. Now they have even lost Intel. I will happy to see SCO go the same way.
Bring on the wood, I feel like dishing out some justice, medieval-style !
. . to see that this VOD nonsense is being put back where it belongs - in the corner.
There is largely enough posts against VOD for various reasons, but I'd still like to add that, for me, VOD will only stand a chance when it answers the following conditions:
- always available (talking connection stability) - always perfect (talking streaming quality) - very cheap (like $0.05) - very large catalogue (like, everything)
Compare the situation to viewing a DVD : it is always there, there is no delay in viewing it. A DVD always plays perfectly, no skipping, no frame stutter, no bandwidth issues. It doesn't cost anything to view it, but of course one can only choose amongst what that person has bought. Yet, the available catalog is vast (count the number of different films available in the store) and the methods of access varied and abundant (supermarket, video store, even gas stations have some). There is another point I'd like to make : the digital media industry is the ONLY industry where the same product (one item) can be resold an infinite number of times without a production run renewing item availability. I want to see that reflected in the price of usage. I will not accept excuses about storage costs (going down monthly) inflating the price, nor do I wish to hear about bandwidth issues (just get more fiber). In short, it costs little to make (the film is supposed to have paid for itself in the theater), nothing to store, next to nothing to sell, and just a bit to distribute. Half a dollar is an acceptable price for a start, even though to view one must have at least a 512Kb/s Internet connection (and that is far from being the norm). Later, with a large catalog and many regular users, I'll expect that price to go down to below 20 cents. Even later, with a worldwide catalog and user base, I'll expect to be billed in micropayments. If it doesn't happen like that, it just means that the media industry have once again decided to fatten their wallets at my expense. In that case, I'll cut the costs and buy my DVDs. I'll pay the price once, and I'll have something I can pass on to my kids, without anyone billing me each time I so much as think about playing it.
Spammers taking time to wander around war riding ? Get real, they don't waste their time like that. They send out a billion spams on a high speed cable line then go golfing (or whatever).
And you are right, I did emigrate to France - although I was 12 at the time and my parents made the choice for me. But I do not regret it. There is far less chance here that I or anyone I know get their head blown off by a nut with a gun. I just wish that people would stop actually believing that the 2nd Amendment is protecting them. As far as I can see, it is killing more people than it protects. Argue as much as you like about education, twisted morals and weak parents. The truth is, if those who killed a dozen students in a Colorado school had had knives instead of guns, their trip would have been much less costly in human lives, no ? And that is not even the most recent happening. Wake up America ! Guns kill !
I have lived in the US. Twelve years. I now live in France since twenty-odd years.
I have read in this string of topics a lot of nonsense, quite a bit of ordinary patriotism and a few downright ridiculous remarks.
Is the US the best country to live in ? Well, if you're not packing your stuff on the back of donkey to go to Canada or Mexico, then it's not that bad.
But there is one thing that makes my hairs rise : somebody here said "you only have the security you can enforce".
WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO ENFORCE YOUR VIEW OF SECURITY ?
Have you been trained for that ? Have you been sworn to serve and protect ? Have you been educated in the proper use of lethal force ? No. You do not need all that to have the right to kill someone. Not in the US.
I do not expect to change anyone's point of view, but I have to say : as long as America is giving away the right to kill, children will die. As long as the 2nd amendment will not be revoked, innocents will die at the hands of maniacs "enforcing their security".
Stop the nonsense, give weapons to those who KNOW how AND when to handle them : the police and the army.
If no one else had guns, no one else would need them.
And no one can argue with that.
Slashdot Mirror
Right at the bottom :
System requirements
* --Required
* Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
* 1.2 Ghz processor
* 256 MB of RAM
* DirectX 7 compatible graphics card
* --Recommended
* Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
* 2.4 Ghz processor
* 512 MB of RAM
* DirectX 9 enabled graphics card
* Internet Access
1) The answer is, unfortunately, yes. I noticed last night that when I cut the internet connection on my home network , I could no longer start HL2.
2) Obviously, but that is not news. There aren't all that many games today that are dunb enough not to compare game keys when you LAN. On the other hand, there is always a crack available after some time.
How you feel about it is irrelevant (although I agree with you, personally). Game makers have mostly included restrictions on this kind of thing. Very few games have specifically enabled, and even encouraged, multi-LAN play out of the box (Jagged Alliance : Deadly Games was a hallmark of its kind).
Now that is brilliant. Must be the secret to the impunity of the American government.
After all, they Never Do Any Wrong (TM) - on US soil at least. When cameras are present. Or the journalist cannot be "kidnapped".
Amen to that
Remove subscriptions for reading and I may.
Innovatec products are well made, easy to install and work very well. So "all" commercial home WC products are NOT shite.
You might try to review one - I'm sure you'd change your mind.
I've got to agree. I went watercooling for two reasons : I fount that the HSF on the Thunderbird was the most annoying thing I had ever heard, and TomsHardware had just made a review of Innovatec's cooling system.
Bought the components on the web, mounted them, and I've never heard a HSF since.
You are confusing game units with game interface.
And actually, it is revolutionary. Name one single other RTS game where you could so easily add community creations.
Name one single other RTS game where you could chain commands of any kind so easily that it actually became a hindrance if you didn't limit yourself (like making one construction bot create the entire perimiter defense - if it gets destroyed, your defense building is stopped cold).
TA was and remains the greatest as far as interface and AI is concerned. It was the VERY FIRST title where moving troops did not prevent them from returning fire or firing on enemy troops (C&C was a brainless bloodbath in comparison).
TA is still the only title where you can set as many patrol points as you like (and not just going from one point to another and turning back).
Finally, TA was the first and remains one of few titles to allow any number of units to be in a group (not like the 12-unit limit which is standard for some companies)
The beauty of the TA interface is that, with only six commands, you can do everything you need. Build, then guard, then patrol are three commands you can easily set in succession for a single or a group of units. You can set units to guard a boss unit, and add a patrol route after. When the boss blows up, all remaining guard units will automatically proceed to the first patrol point and take up the patrol route, using whatever stance you affect them (fire on sight, fire if targeted, hold fire).
There is only one thing lacking in TA : formations. That puts the burden on the player to have faster units guard slower ones, and make the slower ones decide where to go. Only like that can the player reasonably expect the whole group to arrive at the same time.
For its day, TA was king of the user interface, and no pretender has even come close to equalling it yet.
This gadget needs the Exploding Panel (c) technology to make it complete.
Just think, somebody jostles you in the subway and POOF ! lights, sparks and burning wires.
Great way to promote replacements too.
For years now we have been seeing economics be influenced by the smart words of snappy CEOs. Meanwhile, layoffs are a dime a dozen, outsourcing is rampant and millions of people have been robbed of their savings by white-collared thieves who purport to tell the world how things should work - their way.
It is a fine paradox to see that a dictatorial country is going to do what brain-deficient democracies are not able to - reintroduce fair competition.
I moved out of the country.
Well gee whiz. And I suppose we should thank them ?
After all, it is already necessary to practically change PC every 18 months to keep the framerates fluid.
When WAP came out, I considered it comical. Trying to connect to a WAP-enabled website on a 2" screen. Wow. Apart from the time it took (remember some carriers did not charge for time connected but for data downloaded ?), I would consider it an eyesore to squint over such a screen.
2G, 2.5G, 3G and now 2.25G and 3.5G are all just speed variations on one sad little screen. And that does nothing to correct the scrolling by buttons issue. Not to mention the real fun it must be to enter one's login name and password.
I wish to state for the record : for surfing the Web, I want 1Mb/sec, a 21", 32-bit color screen, a 104 key keyboard, an Intellimouse Wireless Explorer and a 120Gb HDD to store what I download.
I have that now, at home (okay, 128Kb/sec). If I am driving, I need to watch the road, not a puny little screen. If I am in a plane, I'll have a laptop (16" or better) with a touchpad, or a book. If I'm at work, I have my home setting almost exactly, and the Web access is faster.
There is no way I am going to use a phone for web surfing. Not now, not ever. A phone is for phoning someone I cannot talk to now, directly. Whatever I need on the web, it can wait for a proper terminal to get to.
when you don't know how to write your own language properly, it makes no difference that you trash it in cursive or in typing.
What is cursive ? A form of communication. What is typing ? Another form of communication. One is "dying out" ? So what ? Nobody uses wooden logs or dot-dot-dash either, except for archologists and history freaks.
Personally I care very little about the future of tiny, scrawny, unreadable handwriting. I care even less about what is to become of large, curly text and i's dotted with round circles. If the advent of typing can do away with such nuisances and replace them by clear and discernable signs of regular format, I say : great !
It is, however, extremely interesting to imagine a few parallels between history and now. In the China of old, a few thousand years ago, the immense majority of the population knew nothing about how to write at all. That was the sole province of learned scholars and administrative workers.
Today, the immense majority of the population types away like mad, but still does not know how to write. That is the province of a scant few people who bother to proof-read and check their dictionary.
The advent of the PC industry has introduced many unknown technologies, such as "planned obsolescence". The advent of the Internet will have had the incredible effect of transferring that technology to our entire society.
Kewl !
I won't add anything about patching, but I do wish to say that I am interested in one point : MS states that it will define a patch system for the OS and one for the apps. :-)
I will be very interested in finding out what MS defines as OS and what it defines as application in its new patch system.
Oh, and of course, I look foreward to being very entertained by all the new patches coming out in the OS system to correct bugs implemented by patches for applications
I don't give hoot for SCO, its lawsuits or its problems.
Linux distros have been publicly available for years now, freely downloadable or bought in stores with doc included.
For SCO to come along now and say there is infringement is no less than if some other idiot pops up to tell us he has a patent on the wheel and we owe him for ever tire on our car.
Go SCO ! Continue to cover yourself in ridicule and drown once and for all.
RAMBUS tried, but even backed by Intel they failed to own the SDRAM market. Now they have even lost Intel.
I will happy to see SCO go the same way.
Bring on the wood, I feel like dishing out some justice, medieval-style !
. . to see that this VOD nonsense is being put back where it belongs - in the corner.
:
There is largely enough posts against VOD for various reasons, but I'd still like to add that, for me, VOD will only stand a chance when it answers the following conditions
- always available (talking connection stability)
- always perfect (talking streaming quality)
- very cheap (like $0.05)
- very large catalogue (like, everything)
Compare the situation to viewing a DVD : it is always there, there is no delay in viewing it. A DVD always plays perfectly, no skipping, no frame stutter, no bandwidth issues. It doesn't cost anything to view it, but of course one can only choose amongst what that person has bought. Yet, the available catalog is vast (count the number of different films available in the store) and the methods of access varied and abundant (supermarket, video store, even gas stations have some).
There is another point I'd like to make : the digital media industry is the ONLY industry where the same product (one item) can be resold an infinite number of times without a production run renewing item availability. I want to see that reflected in the price of usage.
I will not accept excuses about storage costs (going down monthly) inflating the price, nor do I wish to hear about bandwidth issues (just get more fiber).
In short, it costs little to make (the film is supposed to have paid for itself in the theater), nothing to store, next to nothing to sell, and just a bit to distribute.
Half a dollar is an acceptable price for a start, even though to view one must have at least a 512Kb/s Internet connection (and that is far from being the norm).
Later, with a large catalog and many regular users, I'll expect that price to go down to below 20 cents. Even later, with a worldwide catalog and user base, I'll expect to be billed in micropayments.
If it doesn't happen like that, it just means that the media industry have once again decided to fatten their wallets at my expense. In that case, I'll cut the costs and buy my DVDs. I'll pay the price once, and I'll have something I can pass on to my kids, without anyone billing me each time I so much as think about playing it.
Spammers taking time to wander around war riding ?
Get real, they don't waste their time like that. They send out a billion spams on a high speed cable line then go golfing (or whatever).
And you are right, I did emigrate to France - although I was 12 at the time and my parents made the choice for me.
But I do not regret it. There is far less chance here that I or anyone I know get their head blown off by a nut with a gun.
I just wish that people would stop actually believing that the 2nd Amendment is protecting them. As far as I can see, it is killing more people than it protects.
Argue as much as you like about education, twisted morals and weak parents. The truth is, if those who killed a dozen students in a Colorado school had had knives instead of guns, their trip would have been much less costly in human lives, no ? And that is not even the most recent happening.
Wake up America ! Guns kill !
I have lived in the US. Twelve years. I now live in France since twenty-odd years. I have read in this string of topics a lot of nonsense, quite a bit of ordinary patriotism and a few downright ridiculous remarks. Is the US the best country to live in ? Well, if you're not packing your stuff on the back of donkey to go to Canada or Mexico, then it's not that bad. But there is one thing that makes my hairs rise : somebody here said "you only have the security you can enforce". WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO ENFORCE YOUR VIEW OF SECURITY ? Have you been trained for that ? Have you been sworn to serve and protect ? Have you been educated in the proper use of lethal force ? No. You do not need all that to have the right to kill someone. Not in the US. I do not expect to change anyone's point of view, but I have to say : as long as America is giving away the right to kill, children will die. As long as the 2nd amendment will not be revoked, innocents will die at the hands of maniacs "enforcing their security". Stop the nonsense, give weapons to those who KNOW how AND when to handle them : the police and the army. If no one else had guns, no one else would need them. And no one can argue with that.