It is the base of your spine. Check out any picture of a skeleton's back for illustrative purposes. It looks like a vestigial tail to me. And yes, this is offtopic as all hell.
Please see my comments for a link to a statement from Gabe Newell himself saying that Half Life 2 would be available steam free, for the discerning gamer who cares what goes on his or her hard drive.
Well, you can't blame me for being unaware that steam removes the cd check, being as I refuse to install their spyware/adware/pushmarketing/whatever...
I've posted this higher up, but in case you missed it, Valve never removed the cd-key authentication from Half Life one and in fact added the requirement that Steam be installed through an update.
Actually, valve behaves in the opposite fashion, they have added extra authentication to Half-Life one by requiring steam to be installed in order to play or update it.
Since they are holding a product I've already paid for hostage and requiring me to install a push content client called Steam in order to use it.
Valve themselves have said that Steam would not be required to play Half-Life 1 or 2 online, however, once they realized that no one would voluntarily install Steam, they made it a requirement to play the games online (Valve does not run any of the servers, which are operated by fans of the games.)
I encourage you to join me in boycotting Valve products, although I expect most people are so anxious to enjoy the (admittedly well crafted, if it's anything like the first) game, they would sell their grandmothers into slavery.
Show me the ports of any Sonic Foundry products (now owned my Sony) to OS X. Show me a decent drum machine. In fact, show me a non-apple produced audio editing application without a more current windows version.
My holy trinity: Vegas for recording, Sound Forge for editing, and (insert sequencer here) for arrangement. Two out of three don't exist on Mac.
You are correct, it doesn't give me the right to run a battle.net server, since I already have the right to run whatever kind of server I like on my hardware, using my bandwidth. If you don't like it, don't ping it.
I just went shopping for a computer at BestBuy with my dad last night. He selected one (going against my advice that he avoid intel and buy amd), and sent the clerk to get the box. The clerk returns with the shopping cart, containing the computer, a UPS, and a copy of Norton Antivirus. Here is the actual conversation that followed:
Clerk: I just added these for you. Dad: Why? Clerk: This is a UPS. It will protect you against power surges and lightning. And this will protect you against all those viruses. Dad: I already have a surge protector. Clerk: Surge protectors are useless against power surges. [A moment of silence, no doubt induced by the store's mind-numbing window dressing] Me: Just the computer will be fine. Clerk: Okay, but if lightning hits it tonight and you bring it back to us tomorrow, we won't take it. Dad: That's fine. I'll buy another one.
We proceed to checkout, where we are told that not purchasing a service plan puts our souls in danger of perdition, etc. My father has agreed to let me build his next computer.
how about, if someone has something worth saying, they'll pay to say it? self financed websites were all the rage before the net started being pitched as a moneymaking proposition.
Long answer: Your privacy is an illusion, and everything worth knowing about you can be discovered, using a continuum of methods from bribery to torture. At this time, the most effective methods on this continuum are available to relatively few people, creating a class of people with the privilege of obtaining obscure information, such as how often and if you purchase razor blades. The solution, suggested by myself and many others, is to make all information as readily available to the public as possible, the idea being that the best decisions are informed decisions.
However, most human societies are built with the assumption of at least some privacy. The removal of this will make everything go crazy for a while (for a hypothetical "ultimate disclosure" scenario, read The Light of Other Days, by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter), due to unpleasant secrets being forced into the public arena and the populace being unable to stab others in the back, but on the whole, I think it's a positive change, as long as its universal.
Your question might be rephrased as, "Is there a way to find out everything about everyone else without them finding out anything about me?" The answer is no.
Here's the link. Valve is basically pulling a 180 in order to get everyone to use Steam, since presumably most gamers (who like to have control over their computers) would opt for the Steam-free version.
I seem to remember them saying that there would be an option for the teeming millions of us who hate Steam and all that it stands for, way back in the day.
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It is the base of your spine. Check out any picture of a skeleton's back for illustrative purposes. It looks like a vestigial tail to me. And yes, this is offtopic as all hell.
that's quite a trick, since the early genesis controllers had no select button.
The solution is obvious: download your bacon double cheeseburger off bittorrent, and leave the seed up a few days. It's civil disobedience!
Please see my comments for a link to a statement from Gabe Newell himself saying that Half Life 2 would be available steam free, for the discerning gamer who cares what goes on his or her hard drive.
Well, you can't blame me for being unaware that steam removes the cd check, being as I refuse to install their spyware/adware/pushmarketing/whatever...
On the other hand, if you're angry that Valve is essentially selling crippleware that phones home, the best thing you can do is play some other game.
I've posted this higher up, but in case you missed it, Valve never removed the cd-key authentication from Half Life one and in fact added the requirement that Steam be installed through an update.
Actually, valve behaves in the opposite fashion, they have added extra authentication to Half-Life one by requiring steam to be installed in order to play or update it.
I was referring to half life one. It is no longer playable online without steam. This was an unnecessary change, since steam adds nothing to the game.
Since they are holding a product I've already paid for hostage and requiring me to install a push content client called Steam in order to use it.
Valve themselves have said that Steam would not be required to play Half-Life 1 or 2 online, however, once they realized that no one would voluntarily install Steam, they made it a requirement to play the games online (Valve does not run any of the servers, which are operated by fans of the games.)
I encourage you to join me in boycotting Valve products, although I expect most people are so anxious to enjoy the (admittedly well crafted, if it's anything like the first) game, they would sell their grandmothers into slavery.
It's not my intention to spam this article with Sonic Foundry Products, but CD Architect is the best audio cd authoring program I've used.
Show me the ports of any Sonic Foundry products (now owned my Sony) to OS X. Show me a decent drum machine. In fact, show me a non-apple produced audio editing application without a more current windows version.
My holy trinity: Vegas for recording, Sound Forge for editing, and (insert sequencer here) for arrangement. Two out of three don't exist on Mac.
Yes, and the reverse is also true.
That's why politics makes no sense.
You are correct, it doesn't give me the right to run a battle.net server, since I already have the right to run whatever kind of server I like on my hardware, using my bandwidth. If you don't like it, don't ping it.
He already does :)
Such as The Adventures of Soli-taire.
I just went shopping for a computer at BestBuy with my dad last night. He selected one (going against my advice that he avoid intel and buy amd), and sent the clerk to get the box. The clerk returns with the shopping cart, containing the computer, a UPS, and a copy of Norton Antivirus. Here is the actual conversation that followed:
Clerk: I just added these for you.
Dad: Why?
Clerk: This is a UPS. It will protect you against power surges and lightning. And this will protect you against all those viruses.
Dad: I already have a surge protector.
Clerk: Surge protectors are useless against power surges.
[A moment of silence, no doubt induced by the store's mind-numbing window dressing]
Me: Just the computer will be fine.
Clerk: Okay, but if lightning hits it tonight and you bring it back to us tomorrow, we won't take it.
Dad: That's fine. I'll buy another one.
We proceed to checkout, where we are told that not purchasing a service plan puts our souls in danger of perdition, etc. My father has agreed to let me build his next computer.
Reminds me of Bonzai Buddy, which means it's probably a horrible idea.
how about, if someone has something worth saying, they'll pay to say it? self financed websites were all the rage before the net started being pitched as a moneymaking proposition.
In my day, communism was the new anarchy. And we liked it that way!
How about "Click here to see your politician du jour doing the double backed beast"?
Short answer: No.
Long answer: Your privacy is an illusion, and everything worth knowing about you can be discovered, using a continuum of methods from bribery to torture. At this time, the most effective methods on this continuum are available to relatively few people, creating a class of people with the privilege of obtaining obscure information, such as how often and if you purchase razor blades. The solution, suggested by myself and many others, is to make all information as readily available to the public as possible, the idea being that the best decisions are informed decisions.
However, most human societies are built with the assumption of at least some privacy. The removal of this will make everything go crazy for a while (for a hypothetical "ultimate disclosure" scenario, read The Light of Other Days, by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter), due to unpleasant secrets being forced into the public arena and the populace being unable to stab others in the back, but on the whole, I think it's a positive change, as long as its universal.
Your question might be rephrased as, "Is there a way to find out everything about everyone else without them finding out anything about me?" The answer is no.
Here's the link. Valve is basically pulling a 180 in order to get everyone to use Steam, since presumably most gamers (who like to have control over their computers) would opt for the Steam-free version.
I seem to remember them saying that there would be an option for the teeming millions of us who hate Steam and all that it stands for, way back in the day.
Witness the popularity of Steam.