It also suffers from the same flaw as other MMORPGs. Beginner areas quickly empty, and at the end you end up with all the people in high level zones (Or instances). This is however something that I have no idea how to fix. Maybe rather than having multiple realm servers, have fewer (or one) realm servers and a bigger world map?
It's all about the distance from the exchange and the quality of the line. Unfortunately for me that's "far" and "crap" respectively, with shiny competitive privatised BT showing very little interest in my requests to improve it, or even find out why it is the way it is.
WiFi comes along and gives us blazingly fast Internet connections
My internet connection over wired ethernet - 512Kbps
My internet connection over WiFi - 512Kbps
Wtf are they talking about?
BTW If you're chortling at my paltry ADSL speed -- which is the most I can get where I live -- do bear in mind that I live in remote, leafy... central London.
Unfortunately I did try Ubuntu not long ago and... it can't deal with my monitor, a Sony CRT from a few years back. It booted up in some shimmery flickery setting. The resolution I wanted wasn't in the list in the relevant GUI configuration panel. (I can't remember now if it was SUSE or Ubuntu, but in one or both it wasn't even obvious where (of about 3 places) to go to set the resolution.)
Of course from the old days I knew the answer was to go and hack the X configuration... but frankly I couldn't be arsed. Entering sync rates into a text file != desktop-ready.
I tried about 4 distributions (Ubuntu, SUSE, Redhat, and Knoppix) and each was deficient in one or more of sound, video and wi-fi... although between them all my hardware was supported.
Shame then that Linux on the desktop is still effectively a hardware support crapshoot.
Anyway, regardless, I doubt very much that any Windows user would switch to Linux unless someone sold it to them, and I've yet to see an end-user-directed advert for Linux in any medium.
As other posters have stated, games are probably the holy grail of windows virtualization. I would like nothing better to have an Intel-based PowerMac with a kick-ass graphics card that could give me all the benefits of owning a Mac, with the added bonus of being able to play my favourite games without rebooting.
Agreed. I wish they'd port the suspend-to-disk/hibernation stuff that some laptops have to desktops, so you could freeze your system, reboot for 10 hours of Game X, and then boot back to where you left off.
"Toshiba confirmed the security hole found by c't"
In what way does being able to do a screen grab constitute a threat to my computer's security, or anyone else's?
Here's to the day when we read:
"In response to the recently-discovered security flaw -- which could, if uncorrected, allow terrorists to molest your children -- the developers of WinDVD have ensured that only the encrypted data is displayed on-screen."
BPI: "Russians bad!" JUDGE: "Indeed." BPI: "Stop Russians!" JUDGE: "Wish I could mate. But... Russia != UK?" BPI: "Customers bad! Stop customers!" JUDGE: "Speak to the government if you want that legislation."
What you are saying is that it's right up there with Television
No, not really. I do think the social aspect is the main thing that keeps people on MMORPGs. To progress you have to group up, and so you meet people, some you like, some you don't, you join a guild, you log on to see who else is on, you go on naked Deadmines runs, you chat to people about real life, etc. I'd hardly call games passive entertainment, nor would I call someone who cooperates but doesn't lead "passive".
I don't know why some people are leaders and some followers. You talk about evolution and "wiring", but it could equally be environmental -- going to school, jobs etc are generally all about conforming and accepting authority, so maybe you just learn it on the way.
Most MMO's aren't really that great, and force long grinds and tedious gameplay with little reward for the time and money spent.
Apart from the social aspects of MMOs, I'd say one of the defining factors of their addictiveness is that they're basically easy. You can progress (i.e. gain material rewards) without really having to think much. Contrast this with the real world where reward is not proportional to time or effort.
The mechanism we've come up with in the Western world for making decisions on behalf of society in general is elected government. It's hard, for example, to see how a transcontiental highway system, or affordable housing, or a truly national postal service, or the adoption of unleaded petrol, or peace in Europe, or recycling, or space exploration, etc -- which were all goals we felt would benefit society at large at a particular time -- would be provided by the free market.
I'm a free market believer because I believe in ultimate freedom for the consumer. The only way that can happen is if the producers are given the chance to compete without favoritism, preferential grants or subsidies, or anti-market entry taxes, tariffs and regulations.
I'm not sure whether you're arguing for consumer freedom with an eye to individual benefit or the collective good, but you're assuming (amongst other things) that:
competition is a given; but without regulation, what will stop collusion and monopolistic practices? The size of your competitors is probably the largest barrier to entry into a market.
the actions of individual consumers will be to the greater good of society; without subsidies and punitive taxes, how can you direct markets towards longer-term social goals?
that dependence on global markets is a good thing; without tariffs you can't protect nascent domestic markets, or protect established domestic markets during the transition to a global market, and without regulation how do you prevent dumping?
The invisibile hand is invisible because it doesn't exist.
Isn't there SOMETHING the bandwidth could be used for besides information we can't use?
I've never understood why we don't go for higher frame rates. Watching a fast scene turn into a blur is annoying. It can be mitigated with short aperture (so that each frame is captured quickly, i.e. not blurry -- I seem to remember Blackhawk Down was like this, and Band of Brothers), but really, if you're updating video standards, why not up the frame rate?
So, the benefits are because the virtualisation host OS provides better use of the underlying hardware than the corresponding Linux port.
Does this suggest an approach to Linux development whereby the Linux kernel is clean and abstract, and hardware idiosyncracies are handled by a virtualisation layer?
As always, I speak from a position of total ignorance.
All lossess or (compressed if you want that) no drm. Admittedly the selections is small, but I'd rather have a thousand stores with lossess music and no drm than one store with a large selection.
If only slashdot's submission form also used a lossless encoder...
As always with infrastructure, it's basically absurd for it to be in private hands or, at best, it's not at all clear whether the advantages of what little competition there is oughtweigh the disadvantages of the profit motive.
So, either renationalise the telcos (which has its problems, but at least the government can't absolve itself of responsibility), or tell them pretty clearly what they can and can't do. Given that lobbyists pay for the legislation of their choice, the latter option might not be so great.
This is why you have to resist data collection, regardless of the immediate purpose or perceived benefits. Privacy policies and current legislation are of exactly zero relevance.
It's why I'm against ID cards in the UK, a scheme which involves a wholly unnecessary central database of biometric information. The current government may give assurances as to its scope and use, but once they have the data there's absolutely nothing to stop them or a future government from extending the scope and selling the data to the highest bidder. And that's beside the security implications of a central database.
At a museum event I once bumped into the CEO of the company behind the development of the Oyster card (a smart card for London transport, which as well as being a convenient rechargeable ticket, records against your name in the register your movements through the transport system (i.e. not solely for statistical purposes)). I asked him what data was being recorded and who had access to it; he laughed and asked me whether I'd like to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
Slashdot Mirror
This is simply the Osborne Effect in action.
That's pretty shocking. That 15% of any country would not believe in evolution I mean.
In a shocking development, all of the sites mentioned in the slashdot article are working just fine... except pornotube.com.
It also suffers from the same flaw as other MMORPGs. Beginner areas quickly empty, and at the end you end up with all the people in high level zones (Or instances). This is however something that I have no idea how to fix.
Maybe rather than having multiple realm servers, have fewer (or one) realm servers and a bigger world map?
It's all about the distance from the exchange and the quality of the line. Unfortunately for me that's "far" and "crap" respectively, with shiny competitive privatised BT showing very little interest in my requests to improve it, or even find out why it is the way it is.
WiFi comes along and gives us blazingly fast Internet connections
My internet connection over wired ethernet - 512Kbps
My internet connection over WiFi - 512Kbps
Wtf are they talking about?
BTW If you're chortling at my paltry ADSL speed -- which is the most I can get where I live -- do bear in mind that I live in remote, leafy... central London.
Is nVidia going to be the new SGI?
What I want is something small that I can plug a keyboard and monitor into for desktop use but also use on the move. Not a laptop - much smaller.
The closest I've seen is this thing:
http://www.dualcor.com/
But it looks like it's not aimed at the general market, and has a corresponding "business class" price tag.
Yay! :)
Unfortunately I did try Ubuntu not long ago and... it can't deal with my monitor, a Sony CRT from a few years back. It booted up in some shimmery flickery setting. The resolution I wanted wasn't in the list in the relevant GUI configuration panel. (I can't remember now if it was SUSE or Ubuntu, but in one or both it wasn't even obvious where (of about 3 places) to go to set the resolution.)
Of course from the old days I knew the answer was to go and hack the X configuration... but frankly I couldn't be arsed. Entering sync rates into a text file != desktop-ready.
I tried about 4 distributions (Ubuntu, SUSE, Redhat, and Knoppix) and each was deficient in one or more of sound, video and wi-fi... although between them all my hardware was supported.
Shame then that Linux on the desktop is still effectively a hardware support crapshoot.
Anyway, regardless, I doubt very much that any Windows user would switch to Linux unless someone sold it to them, and I've yet to see an end-user-directed advert for Linux in any medium.
As other posters have stated, games are probably the holy grail of windows virtualization. I would like nothing better to have an Intel-based PowerMac with a kick-ass graphics card that could give me all the benefits of owning a Mac, with the added bonus of being able to play my favourite games without rebooting.
Agreed. I wish they'd port the suspend-to-disk/hibernation stuff that some laptops have to desktops, so you could freeze your system, reboot for 10 hours of Game X, and then boot back to where you left off.
Amateur - I code turbulence!
"Toshiba confirmed the security hole found by c't"
In what way does being able to do a screen grab constitute a threat to my computer's security, or anyone else's?
Here's to the day when we read:
"In response to the recently-discovered security flaw -- which could, if uncorrected, allow terrorists to molest your children -- the developers of WinDVD have ensured that only the encrypted data is displayed on-screen."
Some possible outcomes:
1)
BPI: "Russians bad! Stop Russians!"
JUDGE: "Russia != UK, bugger off"
2)
BPI: "Russians bad!"
JUDGE: "Indeed."
BPI: "Stop Russians!"
JUDGE: "Wish I could mate. But... Russia != UK?"
BPI: "Customers bad! Stop customers!"
JUDGE: "Speak to the government if you want that legislation."
What you are saying is that it's right up there with Television
No, not really. I do think the social aspect is the main thing that keeps people on MMORPGs. To progress you have to group up, and so you meet people, some you like, some you don't, you join a guild, you log on to see who else is on, you go on naked Deadmines runs, you chat to people about real life, etc. I'd hardly call games passive entertainment, nor would I call someone who cooperates but doesn't lead "passive".
I don't know why some people are leaders and some followers. You talk about evolution and "wiring", but it could equally be environmental -- going to school, jobs etc are generally all about conforming and accepting authority, so maybe you just learn it on the way.
Most MMO's aren't really that great, and force long grinds and tedious gameplay with little reward for the time and money spent.
Apart from the social aspects of MMOs, I'd say one of the defining factors of their addictiveness is that they're basically easy. You can progress (i.e. gain material rewards) without really having to think much. Contrast this with the real world where reward is not proportional to time or effort.
"The service allows you^H^H^H them to track all your orders and shipping in one place"
Regards,
The nation's #1 tinfoil hat supplier!
The mechanism we've come up with in the Western world for making decisions on behalf of society in general is elected government. It's hard, for example, to see how a transcontiental highway system, or affordable housing, or a truly national postal service, or the adoption of unleaded petrol, or peace in Europe, or recycling, or space exploration, etc -- which were all goals we felt would benefit society at large at a particular time -- would be provided by the free market.
I'm not sure whether you're arguing for consumer freedom with an eye to individual benefit or the collective good, but you're assuming (amongst other things) that:
- competition is a given; but without regulation, what will stop collusion and monopolistic practices? The size of your competitors is probably the largest barrier to entry into a market.
- the actions of individual consumers will be to the greater good of society; without subsidies and punitive taxes, how can you direct markets towards longer-term social goals?
- that dependence on global markets is a good thing; without tariffs you can't protect nascent domestic markets, or protect established domestic markets during the transition to a global market, and without regulation how do you prevent dumping?
The invisibile hand is invisible because it doesn't exist.I've never understood why we don't go for higher frame rates. Watching a fast scene turn into a blur is annoying. It can be mitigated with short aperture (so that each frame is captured quickly, i.e. not blurry -- I seem to remember Blackhawk Down was like this, and Band of Brothers), but really, if you're updating video standards, why not up the frame rate?
So, the benefits are because the virtualisation host OS provides better use of the underlying hardware than the corresponding Linux port.
Does this suggest an approach to Linux development whereby the Linux kernel is clean and abstract, and hardware idiosyncracies are handled by a virtualisation layer?
As always, I speak from a position of total ignorance.
If only slashdot's submission form also used a lossless encoder...
As always with infrastructure, it's basically absurd for it to be in private hands or, at best, it's not at all clear whether the advantages of what little competition there is oughtweigh the disadvantages of the profit motive.
So, either renationalise the telcos (which has its problems, but at least the government can't absolve itself of responsibility), or tell them pretty clearly what they can and can't do. Given that lobbyists pay for the legislation of their choice, the latter option might not be so great.
I ain't drinkin from that river!
This is why you have to resist data collection, regardless of the immediate purpose or perceived benefits. Privacy policies and current legislation are of exactly zero relevance.
It's why I'm against ID cards in the UK, a scheme which involves a wholly unnecessary central database of biometric information. The current government may give assurances as to its scope and use, but once they have the data there's absolutely nothing to stop them or a future government from extending the scope and selling the data to the highest bidder. And that's beside the security implications of a central database.
At a museum event I once bumped into the CEO of the company behind the development of the Oyster card (a smart card for London transport, which as well as being a convenient rechargeable ticket, records against your name in the register your movements through the transport system (i.e. not solely for statistical purposes)). I asked him what data was being recorded and who had access to it; he laughed and asked me whether I'd like to sign a non-disclosure agreement.