I worked for a company as tech support for a leading company in internet-by-satellite (name withheld, etc). After that summer I would not work there again...
Its not that the customers were a problem. In most cases (emphasis on most), customers were very nice. My problem was with the guidelines the company we were tech support for gave us. We were told to LIE about the "Fair Access Policy"... this was the policy that automatically throttled people back from 400kbps to about 28.8 modem speed. Our tech support center answered the calls for Sales, Marketing, and Tech support: we even told customers to hang up and call back if they pressed the wrong button (even though we knew they would call back and get us again).
Finally I got tired of putting customers through as much as we did. Not to mention that you got a new agent each time you called, and EVERY agent wants to trouble shoot it "their" way... which involved making people who had been given authorization for an RMA on products subject to another 3-4 hour call as that tech support agent wanted to "do it their way."
Wanna know why tech support is as bad as it is? Sometimes its the agents not knowing the difference between a banana and a mouse, but most of the time it is the regulations and the guidelines that the companies impose on the tech support.
With the current state of the cheating community, I would figure that they would have to provide the machines. Think what would happen if they didnt!
For a prize this big, the operators would have to try their best to ensure that there was no cheating taking place. Since some of the gaming exploits are passive (can't be detected) it could give an unfair advantage to anyone who brought in their own box (and with it, their own exploits).
I would assume they would also have to ensure that no players brought disks/cd's/etc to the computers. Maybe make it so there is no internet access from the LAN gaming computers -- to ensure no other software could be loaded on.
Anyone think of other things that could help with that sort of thing?
From previous articles and personal tribulations, we know that big companies know that patents == money...
Imagine if you were a large enough company to make this dream come true. You would not touch it... why? Because Slashdot has just provided information that would invalidate any patent you attempt to get on this -- prior art and all that...
Now, while there may be some companies willing to make a device that they can not patent, I seriously doubt that these companies would have enough starter money to actually make this device...
I enjoy reading strange and interesting web sites -- I remember coming across a website a good while ago explaining how a person's house was broken into -- and their web cam grabbed pictures of the 2 robbers.
Try the Site that I saw this on (or if it is having trouble try bringing up the Google Cache)
There, a family had been robbed and decided to set up a web cam (with a motion detector) and caught 2 thieves the next time they tried to break into the house... the thieves didnt take the computer but they sure did like that cellphone they grabbed... sheesh... (but then I suppose walking down the street with a computer and monitor would look strange in SOME neighborhoods).
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Why not take the compressed file and move it to a base that is extraordinarily huge...
A 3 megabyte file in base10 is how much in base10000? And -- just include a space after every XXXXX XXXXX to seperate them... I figure a small enough algorithm could be coded in ASM to accomplish this and -- since runtime isnt an issue (just that it accomplish it): why wouldnt that work?
Disclaimer: I am sure that I have made some huge mistake here but I can't figure it out.. would love someone to point it out to me...
Slashdot Mirror
I worked for a company as tech support for a leading company in internet-by-satellite (name withheld, etc). After that summer I would not work there again...
Its not that the customers were a problem. In most cases (emphasis on most), customers were very nice. My problem was with the guidelines the company we were tech support for gave us. We were told to LIE about the "Fair Access Policy"... this was the policy that automatically throttled people back from 400kbps to about 28.8 modem speed. Our tech support center answered the calls for Sales, Marketing, and Tech support: we even told customers to hang up and call back if they pressed the wrong button (even though we knew they would call back and get us again).
Finally I got tired of putting customers through as much as we did. Not to mention that you got a new agent each time you called, and EVERY agent wants to trouble shoot it "their" way... which involved making people who had been given authorization for an RMA on products subject to another 3-4 hour call as that tech support agent wanted to "do it their way."
Wanna know why tech support is as bad as it is? Sometimes its the agents not knowing the difference between a banana and a mouse, but most of the time it is the regulations and the guidelines that the companies impose on the tech support.
With the current state of the cheating community, I would figure that they would have to provide the machines. Think what would happen if they didnt!
For a prize this big, the operators would have to try their best to ensure that there was no cheating taking place. Since some of the gaming exploits are passive (can't be detected) it could give an unfair advantage to anyone who brought in their own box (and with it, their own exploits).
I would assume they would also have to ensure that no players brought disks/cd's/etc to the computers. Maybe make it so there is no internet access from the LAN gaming computers -- to ensure no other software could be loaded on.
Anyone think of other things that could help with that sort of thing?
From previous articles and personal tribulations, we know that big companies know that patents == money...
Imagine if you were a large enough company to make this dream come true. You would not touch it... why? Because Slashdot has just provided information that would invalidate any patent you attempt to get on this -- prior art and all that...
Now, while there may be some companies willing to make a device that they can not patent, I seriously doubt that these companies would have enough starter money to actually make this device...
C'est Vrai?
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I enjoy reading strange and interesting web sites -- I remember coming across a website a good while ago explaining how a person's house was broken into -- and their web cam grabbed pictures of the 2 robbers.
Try the Site that I saw this on (or if it is having trouble try bringing up the Google Cache)
There, a family had been robbed and decided to set up a web cam (with a motion detector) and caught 2 thieves the next time they tried to break into the house... the thieves didnt take the computer but they sure did like that cellphone they grabbed... sheesh... (but then I suppose walking down the street with a computer and monitor would look strange in SOME neighborhoods).
-------------
Why not take the compressed file and move it to a base that is extraordinarily huge...
A 3 megabyte file in base10 is how much in base10000? And -- just include a space after every XXXXX XXXXX to seperate them... I figure a small enough algorithm could be coded in ASM to accomplish this and -- since runtime isnt an issue (just that it accomplish it): why wouldnt that work?
Disclaimer: I am sure that I have made some huge mistake here but I can't figure it out.. would love someone to point it out to me...