Ok, this question is coming from a total idiot, as I have little knowledge of physics: but what is the possibility of something like this "mushrooming" unintentionally? Kind of like the "grey goo" for nanotechnology, or "ice nine" from Cat's Cradle?
I understand these things are small, and are likewise controlled, but if you create something which may accidentally grow exponently bigger (if this is even possible)?...
Re:Is it the price of bandwidth?
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Adcritic Shuts Down
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· Score: 3, Interesting
I'm actually wondering *why* bandwidth seems to cost so much. You're really only moving very small bits of electricity down a wire -- you don't have the costs of housing huge servers and keeps OS's up and running to handle them (yes, I know there are costs in setting up a router, but really it's just a "setup-once, forget it" kind of thing, outside of occasional security maintenance).
I sometimes think bandwidth is the gasoline of high-tech: a relatively inexpensive resource, presumably finite, that companies can charge extra for when they feel it is "necessary". Hopefully, bandwidth will follow current trends and ride waves of up-and-down prices like gasoline.
Re:Self-inflicted piracy, or Why I would use Chips
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Sony vs Modchips
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· Score: 1
"permit charging different prices in different regions"
And the problem with this is?.... They have every right to charge whatever they want in whatever region they want. You have every right not to buy from them. Buying from them is a convenience, not a necessity.
Seems more like nerd complaining than an actual rights issue.
Re:Self-inflicted piracy, or Why I would use Chips
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Sony vs Modchips
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· Score: 1
Regarding [1], I have a VHS VCR I legally bought, some older BetaMax tapes that I legally bought, all my videos and peripherals are branded, yet I still cannot play BetaMax videos I legally buy on my player. What gives?
Too bad a major gaming company -- oh, I don't know, let's say Nintendo -- hasn't come up with a portable 32-bit system capable of easily handling SNES-style graphics and gameplay, along with ultra-small battery consumption.
As long as you leave the copy protection off, I'm satisfied with WMA. MP3 is my format of choice for cross-platform compatibility (I want to encode my music once to play on my PC, Mac and Linux boxen), but if MS can open up a little and let other platforms borrow the codec, I wouldn't mind using it.
If I remove the topic "Microsoft" from my Slashdot front page, will it also remove all the senseless trolling by Slashdot editors against Microsoft?
Re:Actually, I did find a very signifcant omission
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History of SquareSoft
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· Score: 2, Informative
That's one of those (surprisingly persistent) gaming urban legends that have been passed down from year to year. Kind of like a "Good Times" virus of gaming.
Fact is, Square was knee-deep in the black at the time, and was one of the few gaming companies with several million dollars in the bank. The name "Final Fantasy" was probably more of a bad translation than anything else.
Personally, I'd like to echo the statement that a lot of other people have been making around here: why ruin a house with wiring you will need to redo in 5-10 years? Why not just purchase an 802.11b access point now, graduate to bigger standards down the road, and save your walls. Yes, you will be behind the technological curve, but quite frankly, I haven't found many uses in which my home network would have benefitted from more than 11 Mbps (we're talking a network of four or five machines here, not 200 like at work).
I have all of machines networked wirelessly, with a WinXP/Linux machine serving as a gateway to my cable connection. Simple, no fuss, and no matter where you go inside (and outside) the house, you can always have a connection.
Ida know. I usually leave ad banners on. Same reason for leaving the settings in Windows on default: I work Help Desk sometimes and I want to see what the user sees. If they suddenly have 5 or 6 Flash windows ads open on them, I need to see that on my end ("I can't see Word!")
Uh, you *might* want to try a newer version of Windows (like XP) and you *might* want to try the Media Player in it to see what I mean (how it downloads track titles flawlessly).
But hey, I've got a copy of XMMS from 1998 that doesn't download track titles either, if we want to play this game.
If you think that's bad, you should try ripping your CDs to the XBox. WMA format is fine, but you have to type in each of the track names. On a virtual keyboard. With a game controller.
I love being able to listen to my music while playing Tony Hawk, but it's painful to get to that point. Can't wait until they get this thing online so it can download the names from the CDDB.
Any admin worth his salt wouldn't have allowed the "running" of attachments on the clients in the first place. That's more a client-side issue than anything else.
Also, blocking most attachments, if not all, at the mail server would've stopped the problem complem.
"May not play XBOX games after being hacked, but as you say(and sooooo many others as well), might make a good MAME/SNES/*insert fav old console here* arcade box. This means that someone must do it, now doesn't it?"
Why the fuck would I ruin my XBox to make it into a SNES emulator? I can either a) purchase a used SNES for change or b) get an emulator for my PC, which doesn't ruin it's potential after you use it.
Not only Wired, but CNet/ZDNet as well. The difference is that their ads are limited in time (a few seconds) and "fold" back into a banner quickly as not to be intrusive.
I agree, the Wired one is highly annoying. They will hopefully get the point when people start spending less than 2 seconds on their site.
I'm not entirely sure I see the point of this exercise. Bear with me. I can see upgrading the drive cables or trying to solder on extra memory for performance reasons (as some people have done), but flashing the BIOS of the XBox seems to be a pointless exercise. First, you need to have pretty strong hardware knowledge -- it's not something that's going to be "mod chipped" in the future. Secondly, and more important, apparently the BIOS is heavily encrypted and/or compressed, so (if Microsoft used its noodle) it will be extremely difficult to retrieve.
As opposed to hacking an XBox to use Linux (which I agree is a noble pursuit, if not flawed), why not find a cost-effective way to make a "LBox" out of cheap hardware. Put a penguin on the cover or something.
Me, personally, I bought my XBox for playing games and DVDs, like most people. I love fucking around with hardware myself, but this thing is a toy to be played with and enjoyed for me, not a job.
I agree. I'd rather not line George's ego coffers any more than they already are. Why should he get more support for the monostrosity of marketing that he is? Further, all of the "Auction of America" items have to be paid for by eBay Billpoint. This has already irked a majority of people who don't want to promote eBay's (more expensive) alternative to other payment methods.
Give to charity under your own name, with the amount you can afford. Don't be led in by this garbage.
Slashdot Mirror
In a Jon Stewart voice, "If... you happen... to use Linux".
About your sig: I thought ASCII art wasn't allowed.
I understand these things are small, and are likewise controlled, but if you create something which may accidentally grow exponently bigger (if this is even possible)?...
I sometimes think bandwidth is the gasoline of high-tech: a relatively inexpensive resource, presumably finite, that companies can charge extra for when they feel it is "necessary". Hopefully, bandwidth will follow current trends and ride waves of up-and-down prices like gasoline.
And the problem with this is?.... They have every right to charge whatever they want in whatever region they want. You have every right not to buy from them. Buying from them is a convenience, not a necessity.
Seems more like nerd complaining than an actual rights issue.
Regarding [1], I have a VHS VCR I legally bought, some older BetaMax tapes that I legally bought, all my videos and peripherals are branded, yet I still cannot play BetaMax videos I legally buy on my player. What gives?
In addition, the lens were set to 33 mm instead of 35. Damn BetaMax...
I'll pass. We could do with a few less argumentative idiots.
I can't believe people waste mod points on you.
Wait a minute...
As long as you leave the copy protection off, I'm satisfied with WMA. MP3 is my format of choice for cross-platform compatibility (I want to encode my music once to play on my PC, Mac and Linux boxen), but if MS can open up a little and let other platforms borrow the codec, I wouldn't mind using it.
If I remove the topic "Microsoft" from my Slashdot front page, will it also remove all the senseless trolling by Slashdot editors against Microsoft?
Fact is, Square was knee-deep in the black at the time, and was one of the few gaming companies with several million dollars in the bank. The name "Final Fantasy" was probably more of a bad translation than anything else.
I have all of machines networked wirelessly, with a WinXP/Linux machine serving as a gateway to my cable connection. Simple, no fuss, and no matter where you go inside (and outside) the house, you can always have a connection.
Ida know. I usually leave ad banners on. Same reason for leaving the settings in Windows on default: I work Help Desk sometimes and I want to see what the user sees. If they suddenly have 5 or 6 Flash windows ads open on them, I need to see that on my end ("I can't see Word!")
But hey, I've got a copy of XMMS from 1998 that doesn't download track titles either, if we want to play this game.
I love being able to listen to my music while playing Tony Hawk, but it's painful to get to that point. Can't wait until they get this thing online so it can download the names from the CDDB.
Also, blocking most attachments, if not all, at the mail server would've stopped the problem complem.
Lots of wonderful info. As a curiousity, can you at least tell us what school you go to?
I can just imagine VP's at Earthlink scratching their heads, "We started with 14.4 modems, now we have to worry about gyroscopic stablizers?"
Why the fuck would I ruin my XBox to make it into a SNES emulator? I can either a) purchase a used SNES for change or b) get an emulator for my PC, which doesn't ruin it's potential after you use it.
I agree, the Wired one is highly annoying. They will hopefully get the point when people start spending less than 2 seconds on their site.
As opposed to hacking an XBox to use Linux (which I agree is a noble pursuit, if not flawed), why not find a cost-effective way to make a "LBox" out of cheap hardware. Put a penguin on the cover or something.
Me, personally, I bought my XBox for playing games and DVDs, like most people. I love fucking around with hardware myself, but this thing is a toy to be played with and enjoyed for me, not a job.
Uh, some of us like to play the games.
Give to charity under your own name, with the amount you can afford. Don't be led in by this garbage.