I work for an @Home provider and our clause says that you can't run any kind of server at all, including P2P.
I don't agree with disallowing servers, but only because I want to use them. The service is designed for residential home use. If you didn't read the agreement then in a court of law you don't have much say. It's unfortunate but just the way that it is. These companies need to keep the infrastructure stable, and having thousands of people running servers, big or small, tends to diminish network bandwidth.
My knowledge of networks is limited as I don't handle network operations. In my area, the service is stable, and fast. Some other areas it's crap. It seems to depend on the provider and how much the local area cares about stability. One area of AT&T, ComCast, Cox, or whomever might be great. Another just a county or two away might be terrible. I've seen this with all the providers. With the money these companies make, I don't really see how they couldn't have great stability and speed in all areas.
But I'm not privy to the real amount of profits these companies make, and hence I can't really judge them. Neither can anyone else who hasn't been behind the scenes.
One person in this discussion griped about how @Home providers tell customers if you want to run a business get @work, and then gripes about it not being available. I fail to see why this person doesn't band together with other folks who want these services from home and show that there is profit in having it available. It still comes down to what each company has in its Acceptable Use Policy. These companies run a business, and if you don't like what they do, then shouldn't you get another provider? What about Starband or any other service? It doesn't make any sense to me to accuse these companies of trying to limit what you do, when they are merely following the policy you signed to begin with.
Now if you were to grip that you're merely emailing to a server just like any other server, and that it shouldn't matter where you mail to....That I would agree with. The service should just work, end of discussion.
Recently, the Wall Street Journal wrote a report that highlighted a statement by Intermail, the company that provides the mail software that @Home uses. They said that they were amazed at how @Home had managed to stretch the software further than what they had planned for it. I had that confirmed by a corporate employee, who told me that Intermail had in fact said that. That to me is stupid. But then again, the people who run @Home used to work with AOL. What do you expect?
"I pay my goddamn taxes, I'll say or spell however the hell I like!"
As abrasive as it is, for those who find spelling and pronunciation in informal conversation a minor detail, it is a way of life. Besides, those who just want to chat find that those who tell them to spell correctly are ridiculous. It's an informal situation and many people are poor typists.
Whether or not some of these people should even have a computer is another story....
Actually the President of Nintendo was interviewed recently. He made the point that if the console systems have all the same games, that kids may end up going with brand identificatoin, and favoring a system to the point of creating a monopoly.
As the arcade scene is dying, I'd hate to see consoles follow. Not that it would happen, as video games are now a major source of entertainment for many Americans, and for many folks outside the US.
But he has a point. If the consoles don't have individual games that sell the system, then consoles could find one company dominating and ruining the market.
For example I bought my Dreamcast specifially for SoulCalibur and I'll probably get the GameCube just for Metroid Prime. Eventually I'll break down and get a PS2 when there's a better selection of good games. Right now I don't like but a few of the games on the PS2, and frankly with Rare and Retro doing 1st party development for Nintendo, I know there will be some good games for the Gamecube.
And to those who think that Nintendo is all about kids, just look at all of the adult games that have come out since the release of the N64, like Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat, Doom, Quake, GoldenEye, etc.
I'm a gamer at heart and I know that Nintendo will make a come back. And hey, if the games are fun, who cares if they are oriented at kids. Funfactor is way more important than gore or violence.
In the sense that I don't have the time or care to read their benchmarks and then learn "valuable" benchmarking, their site means nothing.
To the consumer, I can usually doubt most things that come from a manufacturer. I'd rather trust what comes from a independant 3rd party.
Besides, this is all besides the point. I'm not buying Apple because it's too damn expensive.
This information isn't very old sir or madam. The article compared the G4 to the Pentium 3. I haven't seen any architectural differences in the new PPC chip, so it would be a pretty safe guess that more speed would make only so much of a difference. If there are new instructions then my argument below still holds.
My only argument is that Mac's are overpriced, and that Apple as a company has long strived to make competition impossible. When Apple saw their profits go down after allowing clones, they took back exclusive rights. They are the IP holders of their architecture, and have every right. That just means that people who prefer to buy cheaper, yet nearly equal-power PC's will go elsewhere.
I even went so far as to give credence to the systems being comparable according to a major news source!
Just because you don't agree with something doesn't make it trolling. I'm merely espousing distaste for the managment of Apple. The facts here are true, and as someone else on this post already posted, Apple is never going to say that their architecture is slower than anything else, and hence, their website means nothing in reliable information.
I once saw a letter that a Macatista wrote to Popular Science (if memory serves). It was in response to the feature article on breaking the Giga-hurtz barrier.
Unsuprisingly, the Macatista wrote that meggy-hurtz don't matter, and besides, Mac's are 3 times more powerful than a Pentium 3 anyway! Pop.Sci. wrote back, saying breaking the Ghz IS a milestone thats important to note, and that tests have shown that yes, in some areas, Mac's are 3 times more powerful than a Pentium 3. However, these same tests show that in some areas, x86 platforms are 3 times more powerful than the Mac.
This argument has long bored me. The arcitechural differences between x86 and PPC have been vast until the last year or so. According to an article at Ars Technica, the Intel Pentium 3 chip is somewhat like the PPC, but the AMD Athlon is even more similar to the RISC found in the Mac. Even if that's the case, have you ever seen the price difference between the two platforms? Plus add in your options (and the price thereof) when buying a Mac. You take what Apple will give you. Apple's prices on memory are so laughable as to be a great stand-up routine.
Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the hardware, and the only problem I have with the OS as an intermidiate user is the file organisation system. I just think that Apple's managment sucks, and that I get more bang for my buck going out to a local computer store, in which I can support the mom&pop's of America. A one or two year parts, and three years labor warranty is good enough for me.
How can you not see that this is an intentional troll? Slashdot is meant to be a place of discussion, not pissing people off. Unless I missed some sarcasam here, and this is a joke? In that case, my apologies. Otherwise, yahoo has this voice over ip chat thing where everyone insults each other. It's pretty fun, and a great way to release frustration.
- Old Man Murray ROCKS. -
I recently saw an article on
Sega at IGN that shows why Sega failed to compete with
Sony and Nintendo. The article can be found here.
The last paragraph highlights a comment from the president of Sega, Hideki Sato. The statment shows that the fault with their failure was not in the hardware or games, but in the lack of marketing. I have also seen other articles at The Register that confirm stories of arguing at executive levels. This bickering led to the lack of marketing, and hence the demise. And this demise is much to my dismay, as I am a avid Sega fan. NEED SOULCALIBUR! Any way...
Sega has done similar things in the past, as seen when they failed to market the
Sega Nomad. The Nomad was essentially a portable Genesis, and it rocked. Information on it can be found here and here.
Sega has continually disappointed for years, making the same mistakes with several systems, including the Saturn, the
Nomad, and the Dreamcast.
I am at a loss for words at the mismanagement of this potentially groundbreaking company.
One thing I find interesting about this new console is the decision to use an 366 MHz Intel Celeron. I would assume that if Nokia wanted to really compete, they would use either a faster processor or at least the Pentium. I know that Linux would make excellent use of any CPU beyond a 486 (*grin*), but wouldn't the greater power be needed to compare to something like a 766Mhz Pentium 3? As Nokia has not released what kind of video processing/GPU/etc, we have little to compare to in the visual arena. Although looking good is not what determines how good a game is, it helps. So with what we currently know, I have some substantial doubts about this system.
LMAO
Not only are you intelligent, but you're pretty damn funny too.
Besides, driving cars, living on one's own, and voting have crap to do with wisdom. Sure they help, but I know so many kids who's life are riddled with struggle, etc. There are more kids than you might think who have to work, or do something else to keep their families from falling apart. How many times do you see a older sibling taking care of a younger one to make sure that they grow up to have some sort of values and sense of awareness? I've seen it many times, and I live in America's "Finest City".
Since my workplace offers a loan for PC's, I went in for the power workstation. If Linux ran my games, I'd be there in a heart beat. I might even buy a Mac to run PPC Linux on it. There are a lot of opportunities that Transgaming will take from the Linux community through their software.
The fact of the matter is that Linux needs support. Benchmarks show that to be true. Case in point, would be a comparison between the Win32 and Linux versions of Quake 3. The framerate on Win32 was about 10 to 20 FPS higher on Windoze. That would most likely be due to driver maturity.
If my recollection on the framerates is incorrect, please let me know. The last time I saw those benchmarks was about 6 months ago.
To add to this: I would think that if the Linux community wanted to truly gain steam, the real gearheads would make a more user-friendly version. I know that's bound to bring some flames. But having gone through an installation of Red Hat with a friend of mine, I can tell you that the majority of intermediate Windoze users wouldn't be able to finish without some help, or without spending some time to learn some terminology that they've never seen before.
If they will spend the time learning to install Windoze, I'm sure they'd like to learn Linux providing that the install has a more user-friendly mode. The steps that have been taken to make the install easier are steps in the right direction, but they are not enough.
This is a problem that Microsoft brings to itself and to the rest of the computing community by trying to prevent the user from understanding what the OS is trying to do. By "dumbing down" Windoze, people come to expect that "it should just work." We all know the difference, and we should strive for an OS that is not only stable and robust as is Linux, but one that can be used by both beginners and power-users.
A previous article on/. highlighted a convention in which the CS field was slammed for making computers that aren't user-friendly. The general consensus was that if PC's are to survive, that they need to be made in a streamlined fashion, and essentially dumbed-down for mainstream use. This included both the Macintosh and x86 sides of computing. As much as I hate to say it, even Windoze and Mac aren't easy for first time users. Being employed in technical support for a major ISP has proven that to me.
We don't need Internet Appliances. We don't need dumbed down machines. We need a stable OS that has a beginner, intermediate, and advanced versions of installation and use. Most software installs on Windoze (including the OS installation) utilize this kind of feature, why not the install? Even the GUI and command-line could be configured this way.
And if anyone already knows of an OS like this, then let me know.:)
Toad of the Yerk
"Illegitimati Non Carborundum" - Don't let the bastards grind you down.
This is not brand new news, it has been out for a few days from recollection. But it is a good reason to switch to cable......As long as the service is good in your area.:(
Really? Somehow this makes the dreamcast suck? Lest we forget Soulcalibur? It's too bad that Namco is going to forgo the DC and release SC2 on the PS2. Considering the PS2's conventional archetechure for graphics, overdraw might be a problem....I hope so, because it would give me another reason to laugh at Sony....
Sony: "....the PS2 will have 4 times the power of a Pentium III 700 mhz processor."
The doubtful press: "Ummmm....yeah. Why don't we believe that?"
Sony: "Ummmm...maybe because it really has the power of a PIII 600. Yeah."
Press: "And the software DVD decoder?"
Sony: "Oh yeah....Give us a sec to buy up all the available parts...And decrease the available units to 500,000."
Press and public: "Well, gee. That sucks."
Sony: "Well, we're still better than Sega."
Press: "What about the fact that almost all of your games suck?"
Sony: "Oh yeah. Well, most folks just go with brand name identification anyway."
Sega: "Gee, wish we saw the use behind marketing....Oh well."
Slashdot Mirror
I don't agree with disallowing servers, but only because I want to use them. The service is designed for residential home use. If you didn't read the agreement then in a court of law you don't have much say. It's unfortunate but just the way that it is. These companies need to keep the infrastructure stable, and having thousands of people running servers, big or small, tends to diminish network bandwidth.
My knowledge of networks is limited as I don't handle network operations. In my area, the service is stable, and fast. Some other areas it's crap. It seems to depend on the provider and how much the local area cares about stability. One area of AT&T, ComCast, Cox, or whomever might be great. Another just a county or two away might be terrible. I've seen this with all the providers. With the money these companies make, I don't really see how they couldn't have great stability and speed in all areas.
But I'm not privy to the real amount of profits these companies make, and hence I can't really judge them. Neither can anyone else who hasn't been behind the scenes.
One person in this discussion griped about how @Home providers tell customers if you want to run a business get @work, and then gripes about it not being available. I fail to see why this person doesn't band together with other folks who want these services from home and show that there is profit in having it available. It still comes down to what each company has in its Acceptable Use Policy. These companies run a business, and if you don't like what they do, then shouldn't you get another provider? What about Starband or any other service? It doesn't make any sense to me to accuse these companies of trying to limit what you do, when they are merely following the policy you signed to begin with.
Now if you were to grip that you're merely emailing to a server just like any other server, and that it shouldn't matter where you mail to....That I would agree with. The service should just work, end of discussion.
Recently, the Wall Street Journal wrote a report that highlighted a statement by Intermail, the company that provides the mail software that @Home uses. They said that they were amazed at how @Home had managed to stretch the software further than what they had planned for it. I had that confirmed by a corporate employee, who told me that Intermail had in fact said that. That to me is stupid. But then again, the people who run @Home used to work with AOL. What do you expect?
"I pay my goddamn taxes, I'll say or spell however the hell I like!"
As abrasive as it is, for those who find spelling and pronunciation in informal conversation a minor detail, it is a way of life. Besides, those who just want to chat find that those who tell them to spell correctly are ridiculous. It's an informal situation and many people are poor typists.
Whether or not some of these people should even have a computer is another story....
As the arcade scene is dying, I'd hate to see consoles follow. Not that it would happen, as video games are now a major source of entertainment for many Americans, and for many folks outside the US.
But he has a point. If the consoles don't have individual games that sell the system, then consoles could find one company dominating and ruining the market.
For example I bought my Dreamcast specifially for SoulCalibur and I'll probably get the GameCube just for Metroid Prime. Eventually I'll break down and get a PS2 when there's a better selection of good games. Right now I don't like but a few of the games on the PS2, and frankly with Rare and Retro doing 1st party development for Nintendo, I know there will be some good games for the Gamecube.
And to those who think that Nintendo is all about kids, just look at all of the adult games that have come out since the release of the N64, like Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat, Doom, Quake, GoldenEye, etc.
I'm a gamer at heart and I know that Nintendo will make a come back. And hey, if the games are fun, who cares if they are oriented at kids. Funfactor is way more important than gore or violence.
In the sense that I don't have the time or care to read their benchmarks and then learn "valuable" benchmarking, their site means nothing. To the consumer, I can usually doubt most things that come from a manufacturer. I'd rather trust what comes from a independant 3rd party. Besides, this is all besides the point. I'm not buying Apple because it's too damn expensive.
My only argument is that Mac's are overpriced, and that Apple as a company has long strived to make competition impossible. When Apple saw their profits go down after allowing clones, they took back exclusive rights. They are the IP holders of their architecture, and have every right. That just means that people who prefer to buy cheaper, yet nearly equal-power PC's will go elsewhere.
I even went so far as to give credence to the systems being comparable according to a major news source!
Just because you don't agree with something doesn't make it trolling. I'm merely espousing distaste for the managment of Apple. The facts here are true, and as someone else on this post already posted, Apple is never going to say that their architecture is slower than anything else, and hence, their website means nothing in reliable information.
Unsuprisingly, the Macatista wrote that meggy-hurtz don't matter, and besides, Mac's are 3 times more powerful than a Pentium 3 anyway! Pop.Sci. wrote back, saying breaking the Ghz IS a milestone thats important to note, and that tests have shown that yes, in some areas, Mac's are 3 times more powerful than a Pentium 3. However, these same tests show that in some areas, x86 platforms are 3 times more powerful than the Mac.
This argument has long bored me. The arcitechural differences between x86 and PPC have been vast until the last year or so. According to an article at Ars Technica, the Intel Pentium 3 chip is somewhat like the PPC, but the AMD Athlon is even more similar to the RISC found in the Mac. Even if that's the case, have you ever seen the price difference between the two platforms? Plus add in your options (and the price thereof) when buying a Mac. You take what Apple will give you. Apple's prices on memory are so laughable as to be a great stand-up routine.
Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the hardware, and the only problem I have with the OS as an intermidiate user is the file organisation system. I just think that Apple's managment sucks, and that I get more bang for my buck going out to a local computer store, in which I can support the mom&pop's of America. A one or two year parts, and three years labor warranty is good enough for me.
How can you not see that this is an intentional troll? Slashdot is meant to be a place of discussion, not pissing people off. Unless I missed some sarcasam here, and this is a joke? In that case, my apologies. Otherwise, yahoo has this voice over ip chat thing where everyone insults each other. It's pretty fun, and a great way to release frustration. - Old Man Murray ROCKS. -
It should be http://ps2.ign.com/news/33636.html
My apologies
The last paragraph highlights a comment from the president of Sega, Hideki Sato. The statment shows that the fault with their failure was not in the hardware or games, but in the lack of marketing. I have also seen other articles at The Register that confirm stories of arguing at executive levels. This bickering led to the lack of marketing, and hence the demise. And this demise is much to my dismay, as I am a avid Sega fan. NEED SOULCALIBUR! Any way...
Sega has done similar things in the past, as seen when they failed to market the Sega Nomad. The Nomad was essentially a portable Genesis, and it rocked. Information on it can be found here and here.
Sega has continually disappointed for years, making the same mistakes with several systems, including the Saturn, the Nomad, and the Dreamcast. I am at a loss for words at the mismanagement of this potentially groundbreaking company.
One thing I find interesting about this new console is the decision to use an 366 MHz Intel Celeron. I would assume that if Nokia wanted to really compete, they would use either a faster processor or at least the Pentium. I know that Linux would make excellent use of any CPU beyond a 486 (*grin*), but wouldn't the greater power be needed to compare to something like a 766Mhz Pentium 3? As Nokia has not released what kind of video processing/GPU/etc, we have little to compare to in the visual arena. Although looking good is not what determines how good a game is, it helps. So with what we currently know, I have some substantial doubts about this system.
The future remains uncertain....
And where's my hairstylist? I need a hair stylist!
And a dermatologist...You know these scales kinda get in the way!
LMAO Not only are you intelligent, but you're pretty damn funny too. Besides, driving cars, living on one's own, and voting have crap to do with wisdom. Sure they help, but I know so many kids who's life are riddled with struggle, etc. There are more kids than you might think who have to work, or do something else to keep their families from falling apart. How many times do you see a older sibling taking care of a younger one to make sure that they grow up to have some sort of values and sense of awareness? I've seen it many times, and I live in America's "Finest City".
The fact of the matter is that Linux needs support. Benchmarks show that to be true. Case in point, would be a comparison between the Win32 and Linux versions of Quake 3. The framerate on Win32 was about 10 to 20 FPS higher on Windoze. That would most likely be due to driver maturity.
If my recollection on the framerates is incorrect, please let me know. The last time I saw those benchmarks was about 6 months ago.
To add to this: I would think that if the Linux community wanted to truly gain steam, the real gearheads would make a more user-friendly version. I know that's bound to bring some flames. But having gone through an installation of Red Hat with a friend of mine, I can tell you that the majority of intermediate Windoze users wouldn't be able to finish without some help, or without spending some time to learn some terminology that they've never seen before. If they will spend the time learning to install Windoze, I'm sure they'd like to learn Linux providing that the install has a more user-friendly mode. The steps that have been taken to make the install easier are steps in the right direction, but they are not enough.
This is a problem that Microsoft brings to itself and to the rest of the computing community by trying to prevent the user from understanding what the OS is trying to do. By "dumbing down" Windoze, people come to expect that "it should just work." We all know the difference, and we should strive for an OS that is not only stable and robust as is Linux, but one that can be used by both beginners and power-users.
A previous article on /. highlighted a convention in which the CS field was slammed for making computers that aren't user-friendly. The general consensus was that if PC's are to survive, that they need to be made in a streamlined fashion, and essentially dumbed-down for mainstream use. This included both the Macintosh and x86 sides of computing. As much as I hate to say it, even Windoze and Mac aren't easy for first time users. Being employed in technical support for a major ISP has proven that to me.
We don't need Internet Appliances. We don't need dumbed down machines. We need a stable OS that has a beginner, intermediate, and advanced versions of installation and use. Most software installs on Windoze (including the OS installation) utilize this kind of feature, why not the install? Even the GUI and command-line could be configured this way.
And if anyone already knows of an OS like this, then let me know. :)
Toad of the Yerk
"Illegitimati Non Carborundum" - Don't let the bastards grind you down.
For great justice sake, switch to cable!
"Illegitimati Non Carborundum"
Sony: "....the PS2 will have 4 times the power of a Pentium III 700 mhz processor."
The doubtful press: "Ummmm....yeah. Why don't we believe that?"
Sony: "Ummmm...maybe because it really has the power of a PIII 600. Yeah."
Press: "And the software DVD decoder?"
Sony: "Oh yeah....Give us a sec to buy up all the available parts...And decrease the available units to 500,000."
Press and public: "Well, gee. That sucks."
Sony: "Well, we're still better than Sega."
Press: "What about the fact that almost all of your games suck?"
Sony: "Oh yeah. Well, most folks just go with brand name identification anyway."
Sega: "Gee, wish we saw the use behind marketing....Oh well."
Sega Fans: "Not again..."