...but it doesn't really go into the massive problems that people have been having with server stability, join queues (apparently queues on Blackrock are still quite long in peak times).
If I was a casual gamer I would have read that article and run out and bought a copy and then probably been frustrated to the bejebus if my server kept crashing, or whatnot.
Seriously only internet newbies, grandmas & grandpas installed the Kazza Media Desktop. All other installed Kazza Lite (No Adware!) or eDonkey.
Newsflash - the groups of people that you've named account for the vast majority of users on the Internet, explaining why Kazaa was (is?) the number 1 p2p network.
Later all eDonkey users switched to Overnet and later on to eMule and BitTorrent
I don't know anything about eMule/Overnet but I assume they're traditional p2p software, the same as BitTorrent - in that you can see what you're downloading and from whom. So your next comment about open source p2p apps being "more safe in use than a closed source application because clever people can read and understand the code" is only true if you're defining "safe" as "less likely to be infected with spyware/adware/affected by crashes/exploits".
Open source p2p applications that follow the "traditional" model of just connecting to peers and sharing requested files directly aren't "safe" if you mean in terms of avoiding prosecution - what you're sharing can still be tracked pretty easily.
Open source applicatons like MUTE or Freenet, on the other hand... Of course, they have their own issues.
I refuse to give my money to a company that gets away with the slave labor antics and rediculous headcutting that EA has graced us with.
I'd rather see people stop buying EA PC games because frankly, the overall quality of them just sucks. It took Battlefield 1942 around a years worth of patches before it hit what I would have called "release quality". Battlefield Vietnam, built on basically the same engine, was released on an EARLIER VERSION of the engine, missing many of the key features that BF1942 had - and these didn't get added in until subsequent patches several months later.
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault was practically unplayable for many people online - I think this was fixed in a recent patch, but this game was dead online from day one and shows no signs of resurfacing - a shame as MOH:AA was quite popular online and still has a fairly avid following.
Does anyone have any figures that detail how much spam come from zombie home user PCs? I thought the amount was significant, but the quote in this post seems to imply that the vast majority of it comes from less scrupulous service providers.
(aside: we host a few websites, one of which we discovered was running an exploitable version of PHPNuke - but not before a spammer did and pumped ~20,000 emails into our queue. I noticed it pretty quickly and deleted them and blocked this webmail software across all these sites lest it happen again - but it was an interesting demonstration to me that spammers look for any and every leverage they can get. I keep a much closer eye on our mail queue statistics now!)
That wasn't meant literally. Like, I'm not saying that someone actually walks up to you, and smacks your bitch ass, up.
The point is that acting like an anti-social, disruptive, obnoxious jackass in real life has consequences. Its why there aren't many streakers in football/cricket matches - sure, there's a few, but the ones that do it get dealt with so harshly and usually so quickly (ie, their "bitch ass" is "smacked up") that it makes doing it not worthwhile, unless you're a serial idiot.
Only moviegoers attending Elektra showings will get this first look at Fox's epic incarnation of Marvel's first family of comic superheroes."
Oh no! I hate it when I get denied easy access to watch advertising. I'll be queueing up to see this movie now!
I find it inexplicable that movie producers don't let their trailers out into the wild of the Internets. If you want to put movie trailers on your website, you have to go through this incredible rigmarole - in Australia you have to purchase a license from APRA (the Australian Performing Rights Associaton), and then obtain permission from the owner/distributor of the movie to make their trailers available (legally).
When you consider that these things are essentially glorified ads, then it is somewhat irksome.
As a long-jaded gamer and server admin, all I can say is hooray. Finally, an organisation with the resources to combat cheating kids. To draw an analogy, these guys are the script kiddies of the gaming world - most of them are just silly punks out to ruin the gaming experience for others and have no real idea of how many people they're affecting.
Sure, non-gamers say "but its just a game", but (to draw another analogy) imagine if every social sports game you played had streakers, people doped up on horse steroids, and people that just walked up to you and started screaming abuse. It would quickly become annoying.
Of course, in the real world, doing that sort of thing quickly has repercussions (ie, someone smacks your bitch ass up) but online, its a real pain in the ass (especially in a free game with no real mechanism to ban users - like Steam, but that's another kettle of fish) to stop these users from ruining the online experience of others.
Personally, the thought of Delta Force guys kicking in some random hackers door at 3am and throwing in a couple of flashbangs makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Hell, they could record it on video and put it on the America's Army website and people would PAY MONEY to see it.
Because people are conditioned to believing anything they seen on TV and read in the newspaper. Why should the Internet be any different?
Its obvious to anyone that takes five seconds to think about it, but most people Just Don't. We all have stories of people that we know that we thought were fairly clever having forwarded us some stupid email or link that we then have to explain why its fake, why its incorrect, why its not true, etc.
I reckon you could successfully make the point that Nigerian scams, virus-infected emails, adware, spyware, and all the like have actually been Good Things, because they've exposed a large chunk of the Internet-using community to the fact that you JUST CAN'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ OR HEAD ANYWHERE!
Its laughs a minute when playboy billionaire Sam Fisher, played by Roy Schneider, teams up with a wacky talking dog in a journey of self discovery as they traipse across the Sahara!
As an Australian, my working knowledge of the CIA must come from my own research (ie, reading Tom Clancy novels). These seem to indicate that the CIA is not legally allowed to operate within the borders of the US ('operate' I guess means carry out surveillance, assassinate, etc).
2) Time, WWII was two generations ago, the Kennedy murder was one.
What about things like Kuma\War, the tagline for which on the website is "Download and play accurate re-creations of real war news events weeks after they occur"?
Slashdot Mirror
Dude, come back when you've got some links from Fox News - all those other news services are amateurs!!
...but it doesn't really go into the massive problems that people have been having with server stability, join queues (apparently queues on Blackrock are still quite long in peak times).
If I was a casual gamer I would have read that article and run out and bought a copy and then probably been frustrated to the bejebus if my server kept crashing, or whatnot.
The rate of civilian deaths from oil is pretty low too... ...unless you live in Iraq, I guess.
I don't know anything about eMule/Overnet but I assume they're traditional p2p software, the same as BitTorrent - in that you can see what you're downloading and from whom. So your next comment about open source p2p apps being "more safe in use than a closed source application because clever people can read and understand the code" is only true if you're defining "safe" as "less likely to be infected with spyware/adware/affected by crashes/exploits".
Open source p2p applications that follow the "traditional" model of just connecting to peers and sharing requested files directly aren't "safe" if you mean in terms of avoiding prosecution - what you're sharing can still be tracked pretty easily.
Open source applicatons like MUTE or Freenet, on the other hand... Of course, they have their own issues.
Heh, now that you mention it - that's exactly how I'd define lust for humans.
Except for robots, its "0 means no".
... that can't play their game when Steam isn't working!
...no open source project has ever stopped being maintained and left adrift, ever.
I'd rather see people stop buying EA PC games because frankly, the overall quality of them just sucks. It took Battlefield 1942 around a years worth of patches before it hit what I would have called "release quality". Battlefield Vietnam, built on basically the same engine, was released on an EARLIER VERSION of the engine, missing many of the key features that BF1942 had - and these didn't get added in until subsequent patches several months later.
Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault was practically unplayable for many people online - I think this was fixed in a recent patch, but this game was dead online from day one and shows no signs of resurfacing - a shame as MOH:AA was quite popular online and still has a fairly avid following.
... UK downloads of major BitTorrent clients have increased by a factor of eleventy billion.
Does anyone have any figures that detail how much spam come from zombie home user PCs? I thought the amount was significant, but the quote in this post seems to imply that the vast majority of it comes from less scrupulous service providers.
(aside: we host a few websites, one of which we discovered was running an exploitable version of PHPNuke - but not before a spammer did and pumped ~20,000 emails into our queue. I noticed it pretty quickly and deleted them and blocked this webmail software across all these sites lest it happen again - but it was an interesting demonstration to me that spammers look for any and every leverage they can get. I keep a much closer eye on our mail queue statistics now!)
What is this "world" of which you speak ?! Sounds like it needs invadin'!
How do I use them on the actual news post?
... take out a portable DVD player and show him the first two movies; he obviously hasn't seen them and doesn't know what he's getting into.
That wasn't meant literally. Like, I'm not saying that someone actually walks up to you, and smacks your bitch ass, up.
The point is that acting like an anti-social, disruptive, obnoxious jackass in real life has consequences. Its why there aren't many streakers in football/cricket matches - sure, there's a few, but the ones that do it get dealt with so harshly and usually so quickly (ie, their "bitch ass" is "smacked up") that it makes doing it not worthwhile, unless you're a serial idiot.
I find it inexplicable that movie producers don't let their trailers out into the wild of the Internets. If you want to put movie trailers on your website, you have to go through this incredible rigmarole - in Australia you have to purchase a license from APRA (the Australian Performing Rights Associaton), and then obtain permission from the owner/distributor of the movie to make their trailers available (legally).
When you consider that these things are essentially glorified ads, then it is somewhat irksome.
... so I could stop buying their games
As a long-jaded gamer and server admin, all I can say is hooray. Finally, an organisation with the resources to combat cheating kids. To draw an analogy, these guys are the script kiddies of the gaming world - most of them are just silly punks out to ruin the gaming experience for others and have no real idea of how many people they're affecting.
Sure, non-gamers say "but its just a game", but (to draw another analogy) imagine if every social sports game you played had streakers, people doped up on horse steroids, and people that just walked up to you and started screaming abuse. It would quickly become annoying.
Of course, in the real world, doing that sort of thing quickly has repercussions (ie, someone smacks your bitch ass up) but online, its a real pain in the ass (especially in a free game with no real mechanism to ban users - like Steam, but that's another kettle of fish) to stop these users from ruining the online experience of others.
Personally, the thought of Delta Force guys kicking in some random hackers door at 3am and throwing in a couple of flashbangs makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Hell, they could record it on video and put it on the America's Army website and people would PAY MONEY to see it.
Because people are conditioned to believing anything they seen on TV and read in the newspaper. Why should the Internet be any different?
Its obvious to anyone that takes five seconds to think about it, but most people Just Don't. We all have stories of people that we know that we thought were fairly clever having forwarded us some stupid email or link that we then have to explain why its fake, why its incorrect, why its not true, etc.
I reckon you could successfully make the point that Nigerian scams, virus-infected emails, adware, spyware, and all the like have actually been Good Things, because they've exposed a large chunk of the Internet-using community to the fact that you JUST CAN'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ OR HEAD ANYWHERE!
You can't be late when your release date is "when its done".
Its laughs a minute when playboy billionaire Sam Fisher, played by Roy Schneider, teams up with a wacky talking dog in a journey of self discovery as they traipse across the Sahara!
Maybe they're starting to realise that gaming is becoming more about cashing in games developed quickly and shoddily under some big brand name.
... I'm sorry Dave, I cannot let you search for that.
As an Australian, my working knowledge of the CIA must come from my own research (ie, reading Tom Clancy novels). These seem to indicate that the CIA is not legally allowed to operate within the borders of the US ('operate' I guess means carry out surveillance, assassinate, etc).
Is that true?
What about things like Kuma\War, the tagline for which on the website is "Download and play accurate re-creations of real war news events weeks after they occur"?