I imagine the most important thing in a Reindeer Farm would be the reindeer, followed by reindeer food. http://www.deerfarmer.com/ appears to have reindeer farming information, but IANARF so I have no idea how accurate the information is.
Um, something on-topic. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a render farm essentially a cluster of machines for distributed rendering? If so, then why would the video card for each node matter? Hell, the original article asks for advice on "a rendering machine", not a render farm. I don't know anything about computer animation/art, but I imagine that you could pick a rendering package and design a machine above the recommended requirements.
You might also want a fast CPU for LAN gaming, but the majority of SFFs support the faster CPUs. The only things a full tower might provide over a SFF is ricing ability (how many neon lights, stickers and other case mods you can brag about), cooling ability (big case = lots of fans/bigger fans), and more drive bays (so you can show off your SATA RAID with the 300 gigs of juarez, Linkin Park MP3s and pr0n). Of those three categories, ricing ability and drive space would be relevant in a LAN party situation. Ricing ability adds jack to the actual gaming experience aside from random "OOOO, sparkly" comments. As for drive space, no one really needs that much music/pr0n/juarez for simple fragging/rts games.
What's wrong with asking for donations? Let the generous people donate to offset the hosting costs. The owner may not get any donations, but is it really that much of a problem to see a small paypal link? Besides, contributions would keep the site alive until you visit in "a few months."
Point taken. I've never played EQ, so I didn't know the Sleeper's stats or anything. Still, my original post should have read "insta-death to everyone within theoretical attack range." That way, everyone that could attack it would die instantly if they got/stayed within attack range. Insta-death to a single target just begs for an attrition attack, much like the one mentioned here.
Really, if Sony wanted an unkillable monster they should have done more to prevent it. Invulnerability would be the best choice, since giving people any chance means they'll take it. Failing that, a obscene hp regeneration rate coupled with pornographic hp and insta-death to anyone within theoretical attack range might work. Given the ingenuity people display when trying to circumvent the rules, however, I suspect that anything less than complete invulnerability would be overcome eventually.
Of course, the above ideas are based on the assumption that the game rules are followed. Exploits and other rule-breaking techniques throw everything out the window.
Well, that sort of task would depend on its rate of attack. If it has a 1-hit kill but only attacks every 15 seconds, you could just overwhelm it with sheer numbers, especially if the game allows resurrection during combat.
Fairy water helped you avoid low level (relative to your level,I believe) monsters, but anything else was fair game for a random encounter.
On a side note, the last time I played Dragon Warrior I realized that the leveling system is static, e.g. You get X hp/mp at level A, Y hp/mp + Hurt at level B, etc. Funny how you never notice that sort of thing as a kid.
For a Disgaea specific solution, look at the effects in play by pressing the triangle button. Figure out which triangle on the board corresponds to which effect, then play the game accordingly. Yeah it's kludgy, but it's probably the best workaround for this particular game.
Part of the reason for legalese is that certain words used in particular combinations have legal effect, whereas other do not. One example involves conveyances where people say "I give my iPod to A and his heirs." The words "and his heirs" have the legal effect of a fee simple conveyance, which essentially means that A is given the iPod without being subject to any outside obligations or interests. The average person would interpret "and his heirs" to somehow involve A's heirs in the conveyance, which is almost completely wrong. A's heirs have no claim on the watch unless A dies intestate or A somehow gives his heirs a claim.
You're right, binding contracts can be made in plain english. However, it's the number of times that people have gone to court and won over the phrase "I'll give you X if you do Y" is rather scary, given how simple the phrase is. Even that simple phrase can get rather messy once various legal theories are involved. Using plain english in a legal agreement is just asking for trouble because, as you noted above, even plain english can be made to be ambiguous. If you asked me whether I'd want my multi-million dollar IP protected by a (somewhat)bulletproof legalese agreement or a variant of "You can't use this product badly or rip my IP off by reverse-engineering it", I'd probably go with the legalese.
You could hear my screaming all the way down the hall when I beat Soul Reaver and watched the ending. I still have a lot of rage pent up inside from that sadistic excuse for an ending.
Yes, and there are a number of companies out there who want to sell you their penis-enlarging product. In fact, they keep sending me emails saying that my (nonexistent) relationship with my (nonexistent) wife and/or special person will be deepened and/or enriched if I use their product to enhance my (apparently so small it's nonexistent) penis.
This is a very inelegant approach, but I suppose you could block EVERY logon server at the router. There has to be a finite number of logon servers out there, so all you'd have to do is sit down for X amount of time with a MSN client and monitor outgoing traffic from your IP. Block each logon server as it comes up, wait for the client to reconnect, block that server, rinse, repeat.
Also, you could try looking for the location that the MSN client fetches the server list from and block that IP. If the list is stored locally, it'd be even easier to find and block those servers.
Of course, the above approach assumes that the router can handle blocking X amount of IPs. I wouldn't put it past MS to have hundreds or thousands of servers out there.
I never touched the second game, but the first freaked me out. I'll never forget running through that damn fog and hearing my radio slowly become louder and full of static. It wasn't a sudden OH LOOK TEH MONSTAR AM SUDENLY ON TEH SCREEN~ kind of freaky. You knew what was out in the fog: bird or dog things, usually. The bursts of static followed by silence were just unnerving. The dark underworld-type place was freaky as well, especially the school. Maybe I'm easily satisfied, but if the third game has fog and a staticy radio I'm definitely buying it:D
Disclaimer: I am a n00b second-year law student. I'm also summarizing on a specific issue.
As I understand it, jurisdiction is possible in federal court under 28 USC section 1332 (a)(2). This is one of the subsets of diversity jurisdiction called alienage jurisdiction. 28 USC section 1332 (a)(2) allows a lawsuit to be filed in federal court if it involves both a $75,000+ and a suit by a US state citizen against a foreign national. That's why you see all the $75,000 figures in the suit. If the spammer's lawyer can't prove they meet the $75,000+ amount in controversy, there is no diversity jurisdiction and the case gets dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
I'm not sure whether the judgment would be enforceable against Spamhaus, should they somehow manage to lose the case. I vaguely remember my civil procedure teacher saying that UK courts were generally willing to enforce US judgments, so long as they appeared legit. I'm not sure about that, though.
Motivation and mandatory public education, then, are the relevant factors I was overlooking. My original post was done from a higher education perspective, where a sizable segment of people actually want to receive the education they pay for. Also, I've been out of the high school education system for 6 years now, and even then I went to a private school. I've never really had exposure to the apathy and other problems that I hear about.
I guess I tend to overestimate people. I keep doing things like that.
I'm currently a first year law student. The way our college works, the majority (90%) of classes have no written homework at all. None. No projects, no term papers, no "What is the capitol of Alabama?" BS. The only classes that assign written homework are the skills classes (Legal Research, Legal Writing, etc.).
On the other hand, every class has reading assignments. We're called on in class and are supposed to be able to engage in an intelligent discussion with the professor, who knows all and has no problem with belittling unprepared students. Thus, preparation here is mandatory if you don't want to look like an idiot in class. This teaching method is called the Socratic method, and it's been used in law schools for a long time. Perhaps this method would be useful in high schools, though I'm probably overlooking some relevant factors in making this suggestion.
Disclaimer: I make no claim as to the quality of my fiction writing. Personally, I think it sucks.
I was (and successfully completed) an English major with a creative writing emphasis at a 4-year university in Nebraska. One of the required classes for my senior year involved the submission of a portfolio. This portfolio was to be comprised of the best of my undergraduate work in the creative program, "best" being whatever materials I chose to submit, and the portfolio would be assessed, handed back for revision and resubmitted for a final grade.
I have a tendency to use sci-fi/fantasy themes in my writing because those are the genres I read. For my portfolio, I submitted a short story and a poem. Both contained urban fantasy elements, the story being more blatant in their use than the poem. I handed the portfolio in expecting, as the poster in the parent thread did, to be snubbed because of my subject matter. My professor's assessment was, interestingly enough, a validation and rebuttal of my original expectations.
I was told that my subject matter was unworthy of my talents as a writer. My professor stated that the fantasy genre was shopworn, and that my talents would be better spent examining more "real world" topics. However, my portfolio required very little revision and I received an A for the class.
I hope my story helps to illustrate the idea that mainstream "literary" people snub fantasy and sci fi because those genres are stereotypically filled with cliches and "bad" writing. I think that this stereotype is at least partially true. There is a good deal of garbage out there, though I won't mention any specifics since "garbage" is a very subjective term. However, the same literary people who believe in the stereotypes are almost always capable of recognizing "good" writing from their perspective, regardless of what genre they happen to categorize the material as.
Call it The Basket. Then you can refer to the machines as Eggs.
You could also call it the Don't Panic room, or the Champagne Room, or the One True Server Room, or the Fruity Pebbles room, or the Room Without A Window, or the Mush Room, or the Big Blue Room (or, alternatively, the Little White/Gray/Whatever Room).
You asked for unique though. Most unique thing I can think of is to cat/dev/urandom or whatever that command is, then tack the output on the door. If you wanted to be really creative, you could put up a little LED sign that outputs/dev/urandom. That way your server room will always have a unique name. Everyone will just refer to it as the server room no matter what name you pick, so why not give them a good reason to use the generic term?
Slashdot Mirror
I imagine the most important thing in a Reindeer Farm would be the reindeer, followed by reindeer food. http://www.deerfarmer.com/ appears to have reindeer farming information, but IANARF so I have no idea how accurate the information is.
Um, something on-topic. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a render farm essentially a cluster of machines for distributed rendering? If so, then why would the video card for each node matter? Hell, the original article asks for advice on "a rendering machine", not a render farm. I don't know anything about computer animation/art, but I imagine that you could pick a rendering package and design a machine above the recommended requirements.
You might also want a fast CPU for LAN gaming, but the majority of SFFs support the faster CPUs. The only things a full tower might provide over a SFF is ricing ability (how many neon lights, stickers and other case mods you can brag about), cooling ability (big case = lots of fans/bigger fans), and more drive bays (so you can show off your SATA RAID with the 300 gigs of juarez, Linkin Park MP3s and pr0n). Of those three categories, ricing ability and drive space would be relevant in a LAN party situation. Ricing ability adds jack to the actual gaming experience aside from random "OOOO, sparkly" comments. As for drive space, no one really needs that much music/pr0n/juarez for simple fragging/rts games.
What's wrong with asking for donations? Let the generous people donate to offset the hosting costs. The owner may not get any donations, but is it really that much of a problem to see a small paypal link? Besides, contributions would keep the site alive until you visit in "a few months."
Point taken. I've never played EQ, so I didn't know the Sleeper's stats or anything. Still, my original post should have read "insta-death to everyone within theoretical attack range." That way, everyone that could attack it would die instantly if they got/stayed within attack range. Insta-death to a single target just begs for an attrition attack, much like the one mentioned here.
Really, if Sony wanted an unkillable monster they should have done more to prevent it. Invulnerability would be the best choice, since giving people any chance means they'll take it. Failing that, a obscene hp regeneration rate coupled with pornographic hp and insta-death to anyone within theoretical attack range might work. Given the ingenuity people display when trying to circumvent the rules, however, I suspect that anything less than complete invulnerability would be overcome eventually.
Of course, the above ideas are based on the assumption that the game rules are followed. Exploits and other rule-breaking techniques throw everything out the window.
Well, that sort of task would depend on its rate of attack. If it has a 1-hit kill but only attacks every 15 seconds, you could just overwhelm it with sheer numbers, especially if the game allows resurrection during combat.
Fairy water helped you avoid low level (relative to your level,I believe) monsters, but anything else was fair game for a random encounter.
On a side note, the last time I played Dragon Warrior I realized that the leveling system is static, e.g. You get X hp/mp at level A, Y hp/mp + Hurt at level B, etc. Funny how you never notice that sort of thing as a kid.
For a Disgaea specific solution, look at the effects in play by pressing the triangle button. Figure out which triangle on the board corresponds to which effect, then play the game accordingly. Yeah it's kludgy, but it's probably the best workaround for this particular game.
Disclaimer: I am n00b second-year law student.
Part of the reason for legalese is that certain words used in particular combinations have legal effect, whereas other do not. One example involves conveyances where people say "I give my iPod to A and his heirs." The words "and his heirs" have the legal effect of a fee simple conveyance, which essentially means that A is given the iPod without being subject to any outside obligations or interests. The average person would interpret "and his heirs" to somehow involve A's heirs in the conveyance, which is almost completely wrong. A's heirs have no claim on the watch unless A dies intestate or A somehow gives his heirs a claim.
You're right, binding contracts can be made in plain english. However, it's the number of times that people have gone to court and won over the phrase "I'll give you X if you do Y" is rather scary, given how simple the phrase is. Even that simple phrase can get rather messy once various legal theories are involved. Using plain english in a legal agreement is just asking for trouble because, as you noted above, even plain english can be made to be ambiguous. If you asked me whether I'd want my multi-million dollar IP protected by a (somewhat)bulletproof legalese agreement or a variant of "You can't use this product badly or rip my IP off by reverse-engineering it", I'd probably go with the legalese.
FFX is definitely on the list. I saw the Greatest Hits version for $19.99 at Best Buy in Omaha, Nebraska.
You could hear my screaming all the way down the hall when I beat Soul Reaver and watched the ending. I still have a lot of rage pent up inside from that sadistic excuse for an ending.
Yes, and there are a number of companies out there who want to sell you their penis-enlarging product. In fact, they keep sending me emails saying that my (nonexistent) relationship with my (nonexistent) wife and/or special person will be deepened and/or enriched if I use their product to enhance my (apparently so small it's nonexistent) penis.
This is a very inelegant approach, but I suppose you could block EVERY logon server at the router. There has to be a finite number of logon servers out there, so all you'd have to do is sit down for X amount of time with a MSN client and monitor outgoing traffic from your IP. Block each logon server as it comes up, wait for the client to reconnect, block that server, rinse, repeat.
Also, you could try looking for the location that the MSN client fetches the server list from and block that IP. If the list is stored locally, it'd be even easier to find and block those servers.
Of course, the above approach assumes that the router can handle blocking X amount of IPs. I wouldn't put it past MS to have hundreds or thousands of servers out there.
I never touched the second game, but the first freaked me out. I'll never forget running through that damn fog and hearing my radio slowly become louder and full of static. It wasn't a sudden OH LOOK TEH MONSTAR AM SUDENLY ON TEH SCREEN~ kind of freaky. You knew what was out in the fog: bird or dog things, usually. The bursts of static followed by silence were just unnerving. The dark underworld-type place was freaky as well, especially the school. Maybe I'm easily satisfied, but if the third game has fog and a staticy radio I'm definitely buying it :D
Disclaimer: I am a n00b second-year law student. I'm also summarizing on a specific issue.
As I understand it, jurisdiction is possible in federal court under 28 USC section 1332 (a)(2). This is one of the subsets of diversity jurisdiction called alienage jurisdiction. 28 USC section 1332 (a)(2) allows a lawsuit to be filed in federal court if it involves both a $75,000+ and a suit by a US state citizen against a foreign national. That's why you see all the $75,000 figures in the suit. If the spammer's lawyer can't prove they meet the $75,000+ amount in controversy, there is no diversity jurisdiction and the case gets dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
I'm not sure whether the judgment would be enforceable against Spamhaus, should they somehow manage to lose the case. I vaguely remember my civil procedure teacher saying that UK courts were generally willing to enforce US judgments, so long as they appeared legit. I'm not sure about that, though.
Point taken.
Motivation and mandatory public education, then, are the relevant factors I was overlooking. My original post was done from a higher education perspective, where a sizable segment of people actually want to receive the education they pay for. Also, I've been out of the high school education system for 6 years now, and even then I went to a private school. I've never really had exposure to the apathy and other problems that I hear about.
I guess I tend to overestimate people. I keep doing things like that.
I'm currently a first year law student. The way our college works, the majority (90%) of classes have no written homework at all. None. No projects, no term papers, no "What is the capitol of Alabama?" BS. The only classes that assign written homework are the skills classes (Legal Research, Legal Writing, etc.).
On the other hand, every class has reading assignments. We're called on in class and are supposed to be able to engage in an intelligent discussion with the professor, who knows all and has no problem with belittling unprepared students. Thus, preparation here is mandatory if you don't want to look like an idiot in class. This teaching method is called the Socratic method, and it's been used in law schools for a long time. Perhaps this method would be useful in high schools, though I'm probably overlooking some relevant factors in making this suggestion.
I believe he did assess the piece. I took his comment to mean he thought the genre was overdone, but that my writing and the story were satisfactory.
Disclaimer: I make no claim as to the quality of my fiction writing. Personally, I think it sucks.
I was (and successfully completed) an English major with a creative writing emphasis at a 4-year university in Nebraska. One of the required classes for my senior year involved the submission of a portfolio. This portfolio was to be comprised of the best of my undergraduate work in the creative program, "best" being whatever materials I chose to submit, and the portfolio would be assessed, handed back for revision and resubmitted for a final grade.
I have a tendency to use sci-fi/fantasy themes in my writing because those are the genres I read. For my portfolio, I submitted a short story and a poem. Both contained urban fantasy elements, the story being more blatant in their use than the poem. I handed the portfolio in expecting, as the poster in the parent thread did, to be snubbed because of my subject matter. My professor's assessment was, interestingly enough, a validation and rebuttal of my original expectations.
I was told that my subject matter was unworthy of my talents as a writer. My professor stated that the fantasy genre was shopworn, and that my talents would be better spent examining more "real world" topics. However, my portfolio required very little revision and I received an A for the class.
I hope my story helps to illustrate the idea that mainstream "literary" people snub fantasy and sci fi because those genres are stereotypically filled with cliches and "bad" writing. I think that this stereotype is at least partially true. There is a good deal of garbage out there, though I won't mention any specifics since "garbage" is a very subjective term. However, the same literary people who believe in the stereotypes are almost always capable of recognizing "good" writing from their perspective, regardless of what genre they happen to categorize the material as.
Call it The Basket. Then you can refer to the machines as Eggs.
/dev/urandom or whatever that command is, then tack the output on the door. If you wanted to be really creative, you could put up a little LED sign that outputs /dev/urandom. That way your server room will always have a unique name. Everyone will just refer to it as the server room no matter what name you pick, so why not give them a good reason to use the generic term?
You could also call it the Don't Panic room, or the Champagne Room, or the One True Server Room, or the Fruity Pebbles room, or the Room Without A Window, or the Mush Room, or the Big Blue Room (or, alternatively, the Little White/Gray/Whatever Room).
You asked for unique though. Most unique thing I can think of is to cat