The McAfee virus info page says that the source code is encrypted. Assuming the author used something sound like PGP, we'll probably never see the source code.
If it's encrypted, how did they find out it's source code? They must have already cracked it.
Considering most of China's traditional enemies are located within walking distance, and the distance from Beijing to New York is about 6500 miles, wtf do they need these long range nukes for???
Insurance. Let's say shit goes down and someone starts a nuclear war. In that case, THERE ARE NO INNOCENTS. Once nuclear war begins, anyone and everyone with a nuke now has carte blanche to use it. Forget glassing one country, the whole goddamn planet will be atomic green. The "stability" and "peace" we have in the world today is nothing more than nobody being willing to make the first move and being held responsible for triggering MAD. In the event of nuclear war you had damn well be ready, willing, and able to give as good as you get to anyone who has, has not, or might hit you.
The only solution is the complete and total disarmament of all nuclear weapons. Period. The sad part is that that will only happen once humanity has found a newer, shinier death machine.
According to the PDF linked to in a thread above (here, too), the majority of the banks being targetted aren't US banks. That would be why the US isn't getting involved-- but it COULD be used against US banks. If there was one time I would want law enforcement to make that particular long-jump to a conclusion, this would be it.
So, we've got two options: tear down Islam, or kill the militant Muslims. What's your choice?
How about fix this problem:
Ultimately, the problem is that Islam never had a reformation.
I agree with your post's spirit; that is, it's a religious issue and no amount of talking/bombing will change fanatics' minds. But the answer is not an eradication of Islam; rather, it should be a re-evaluation of Islam by its leaders.
It's really a testament to the solidity of its faith-system that Islam has lasted as long as it has without having to change; or it could be something within that faith-system that resists change and questioning of beliefs. Being ex-Catholic myself, I can't lay claim to being an expert on the Koran (or, for that matter, having read any of it).
So, a re-analysis of the Koran and a way to integrate it with today's society, while still retaining fundamental concepts such as peace and justice, is probably just what the religion needs to regain acceptance. The main problem with this is that while Islam may never have had a reformation, it's had plenty of schisms. To the best of my knowledge-- I certainly could be wrong, here, and I hope I am-- there is no centralized leadership or seat of learning for the Islam religion. Without a universally accepted (by Muslims, anyway) authority on "What the Koran Says", you are going to have a tough time convincing any Muslims that they're not supposed to blow up people who don't agree with them. (OK, maybe that's just my old catechism showing through-- Catholics have the Pope, and eventually he caught on to the whole "Thou shalt not kill means THOU SHALT NOT KILL" thing. It took a few Crusades, though...)
OK, and I realize that Judaism doesn't have a centralized leadership either-- there's no Jewish equivalent of the Pope. But, last I checked, the Jews also knew that there are ways to convince people of their religion besides blowing them up, and figured that out a long time ago. The fact that there was at one point a hierarchy to the Jewish religion-- the high priests et al-- allowed the faith to evolve and adapt to temporal changes while retaining the core philosophies of the faith.
The bottom line is that just as a monoculture can kill a species, so can having too much diversity. Islam is too splintered, too disparate in its parts to institute any widespread changes. Rather than a call to unify in the name of killing those different, I would hope that some Muslims might call their brothers and sisters together to turn the eye on themselves, and bring all of Islam together before it is too late.
This is, of course, all my opinion and conjecture based on my extremely limited experience with Islam. I mean no disrespect, please don't kill me. I'd actually love to hear a Muslim come and tell me what he or she thinks of my idea, whether I'm an idiot or not.
It presumes [...] a lot about North Korea (the idea that an individual or faction in the military could actually take power from the all-powerful Kim Family Regime).
Aaaaaah, now it makes sense. I was wondering why NK's government would be so uptight about it (aside from the totalitarianism thing, of course), until I read this. Thanks.
[Kim Jong-il continues to issue bold words of guidance to his film-makers. His words are reprinted on a gigantic placard outside the Revolutionary Museum of the Ministry of Culture on the outskirts of Pyongyang: "Make more cartoons."]
Perhaps he would prefer videogames that are cell-shaded?
More likely, he's trying to get a piece of the recent anime explosion. Though somehow, given his track record in direction and screenwriting (judging solely from this thread), I doubt many people would want to watch his films. Willingly, anyway. I know I don't.
Then spread the word. If the vulnerability checker gets a high enough profile then this will serve as a strong incentive for companies to switch from IIS because they will otherwise be flagged as potentially insecure.
This is a good idea in theory.
In practice, it will get used only by script kiddies who know nothing beyond "OMG MIRCOSOFT HAS N OPEN PROT LETZ HAX0R THEM ROFL LOL *press button*". It will last about six days before the FBI shuts it down on charges of aiding and abetting cyberterrorism. Think of it like someone standing on a street corner shouting "Hey! The combination to the safe at the back of Sears is 1-2-3-4-5! That's 1-2-3-4-5 for the safe at Sears, folks! They also leave the Port St. Entrance unlocked at night!".
It's a good thing they caught the oxygen problem before things got worse. Good job, guys.
This sort of thing demonstrates the need for advances in robotics. An remote-controlled machine could potentially do spacewalk jobs somewhat more easily and far more safely than sending out a human in what boils down to a ziploc bag tied to the station.
...But, as long as folks are brave enough to go Out There, I'll still be rooting for them.
IIS had problems, now it is ISS, I just hope that SSI are okay.
And as I just spoke with my SIS, and she says things are fine at home, that's one more combination accounted for. You folks might want to check with your respective SISes, should you have a SIS, that is.
If they retailed these CDs at $17, and even one person bought them at full price (which, as a former member of Columbia House, I have), they can say the value is $17 even if everybody else paid $8 or less. This is pretty fair...you don't want the courts forcing YOU to use some liquidation price...and I'm sure the judge in the case knew they were going to inflate the price of the merchandise, and inflated the price of the settlement accodingly.
(B.S. Alert: I am not an economist, but most of what I'm going to say will seem like common sense to me-- disagree if you wish.)
Inflation seems to be the key issue here. The price of $17 is predicated on the CD's perceived value in 1999. It's true that the retail value of a product is the highest going price, but you must account for readjustment of value of the product as time goes on; otherwise a rookie signed Babe Ruth card could be said to be worth nothing more than the nickel it cost with the piece of gum way back when. Of course, it could also be said to be worth zillions of dollars. It all depends on the buyer.
We have to take a look at the "buyer"'s perceived value of these CDs. In this case, it's the school system. The school system has no reasonable use for a CD full of explicit lyrics (especially if such a CD, in the hands of a student, could be confiscated as being in violation of the school's code of conduct). Thus, the Big Pun CDs are worth exactly $0 to the school, and the RIAA has basically thrown them away. The RIAA can claim that they have gotten rid of x amount of Big Pun CDs at $17 but that does not mean that the school has received x*$17 worth of value in goods. In a nutshell, the real problem here is that there is a disparity in the perception of the value of the goods being offered between the plaintiff and the defendant.
Of course, you COULD get totally dishonest here, too. Say I sue the RIAA and, by some miracle, win. I demand in settlement $170,000. The RIAA sends me 10,000 80's CDs. It just so happens that I am a big fan of the 80's; but I don't want the RIAA to think that they've given me stuff I actually want, and declare the value of the CDs to be only $85,000 (1/2). The courts in this case would have no choice but to force the RIAA to either pony up $85,000 or dump another "$85,000" worth of CDs on me, which I can then say are totally worthless; repeat ad infinitum.
The only solution is to force ALL legal settlements to be paid in cash only. Ideally this should be a federal mandate, to avoid some states from allowing losers to weasel out of it. "Class action in all 50 states? Well, Alabama doesn't have cash-settlement legislation. Send 200,000 Cam'ron albums to East Retard, AL." (note: IANAL, either, so I don't know how that would work for sure)
For example, if there are 2.2lbs in a kg. Then it's easy enough to use the quick multiply by 11 rule and then multiply by two (or reverse order). So for 52kg it's easy to say that 5 + 2 = 7 so 52*11 = 572 or 52 * 1.1 = 57.2 and 57.2 * 2 = 114.4. So 52kg = 114.4lbs.
It took me a second to figure that one out... I never knew that rule before. Thanks!
When I need precision, it's easy to remember the numbers I've seen on American Coca-Cola bottles my entire life.
Heh, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has trouble with liquid unit conversions. I usually have a drink with me; and sometimes I don't remember 8oz to a cup, but when I really need to know I usually just fall back on mL and do the conversion from there. I spent a good ten minutes in a grocery store one time trying to hammer through the equations in my head-- got some really weird looks from people who brushed past me to grab a 2 liter of Coke...
In other news, Miss Cleo has issued a prediction that the RIAA shouldn't initiate any romantic encounters just yet-- the Hanged Man card indicates that a large toothless man named Bubba is waiting for them in jail.
UT2003, which shipped in 2002, installed more than 2GB of data for the game, though at that time it was never all loaded into memory at once.
This makes sense. I was able to run UT2K3 without a problem, but after installing UT2K4 I've been playing less solely because the game is a bit jerkier, takes forever to load initially, and is less reliable (I get "hardware failures"). I have a suspicion that this is very much related to RAM usage. I'd love to see an accurate depiction of how detail settings affect RAM usage-- ie on such and such a detail level, you use X amount of RAM. How about a patch for the UI to optionally show this? I know it would be useful for about, oh, a thousand users tops, but knowing how much leeway I have in my detail settings would be a damn nifty thing to have.
Late 80s, maybe. In the winter of 1986 my grandmother decried the fact that "The Legend of Zelda" was being sold for $70. Of course, there were alternatives-- rather than Zelda, my dad brought home Popeye, Golf, and one other game which escapes me... I think in '89 we found a copy of plain old ordinary Pinball for $30.
Contrast that to '94, when Chrono Trigger commanded a $70 price tag. We have to bear in mind fabrication costs, as well-- it cost a lot more to produce the ROM chips for a 32M cart than it did for a 512K one, though at their respective times the prices came out about even.
Oh yeah, by the by, I managed to get a copy of Final Fantasy II from my cousin-- complete with box, instructions, and maps-- for $20, just a few years ago-- maybe in '01. Not really sure if it was 'cause I was family or because he just wanted to get rid of the game... but I don't care, it completed my collection. ^_^
The concentration of DA's work in such a short time made me a very strange person to be around for awhile... I can't think of any sort of parallel for the experience.
Well, depending on if you went to Berkeley or not, there are a few parallels which come to mind...
Five seasons were produced. Season One was released this past month on DVD (which would explain why it's on NetFlix). Not sure when the next season's going to be released, but I've been looking forward to QL for quite some time.
Here's a plan. Go to the pawn shop, buy the junkiest, most disgusting VCR you can find, and mail it to any senator listed on the bill. Bonus points if it is a) old, b) heavy, or c) not working. Enclose with it a note that says something to the effect of "Dear Senator: As a loyal and concerned citizen of the United States, I am hereby turning over equipment which could potentially be used in copyright infringement, pursuant to the INDUCE Act which you are supporting. I intend to continue turning confiscated equipment over to you until I receive word that the Act has been rescinded. Sincerely, a patriotic constituent."
Seattle does have a lot of precipitation days: 158 per year, but Buffalo has more (169) and Cleveland has 156.
"Precipitation" is not "rain". In Buffalo and Cleveland, 90 of those days of precipitation occur in winter. Recall that in winter, precipitation freezes, becoming snow.
Snow can be plowed, moved, ski'd/snowboarded/sledded upon, thrown, made into snow men/women/angels/anatomical reference dummies, and if you're really desperate, eaten (but stay away from yellow snow).
Rain falls. That's it. It's not nearly half as much fun as snow. So, I suppose you Seattle people have to make your own fun. Which explains the caffeine jones.
OK, having a little bit of knowledge about the Lunar games (hell, I created alt.games.lunar back in the day), I can say that there might be just a little bit more to the story.
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, released in 2000 for the Playstation, was one of Working Designs' masterpiece games. It also, unfortunately, was a VERY limited edition. This being 2004 I would not be surprised if the game was completely and totally out of stock, having been out of print for close to three years now; to the best of my knowledge Eternal Blue was not re-released as Silver Star Story was (ie without the extra goodies).
Obviously, you bought this as a used game. What I would suggest, as others have, is that you go to the place you bought it from (if they're still in business) and ask them politely to run it through a disc doctor or resurfacer, explaining that it took you this long to get through disc 1 (bring the other discs with you, too, just in case). If they won't do that, I would highly recommend buying the disc doctor yourself; THAT has a guarantee to work, so if it fails to fix disc 2 (which, incidentally, is when things start getting REALLY good in the game ^_^) it's the disc doctor company's responsibility to find you a (working) replacement. (disclaimer: I worked for Electronics Boutique 3 years ago but have not worked there in 18 months) Additionally, the disc doctor would be an insurance policy against this happening again.
Slashdot Mirror
The McAfee virus info page says that the source code is encrypted. Assuming the author used something sound like PGP, we'll probably never see the source code.
If it's encrypted, how did they find out it's source code? They must have already cracked it.
but might well be subject to proprietary licensing restrictions.
1. Write VBScript virus w/ proprietary license.
2. Infect the whole goddamn world with it.
3. Sue EVERYBODY.
4. SCO^H^H^H Profit!
Considering most of China's traditional enemies are located within walking distance, and the distance from Beijing to New York is about 6500 miles, wtf do they need these long range nukes for???
Insurance. Let's say shit goes down and someone starts a nuclear war. In that case, THERE ARE NO INNOCENTS. Once nuclear war begins, anyone and everyone with a nuke now has carte blanche to use it. Forget glassing one country, the whole goddamn planet will be atomic green. The "stability" and "peace" we have in the world today is nothing more than nobody being willing to make the first move and being held responsible for triggering MAD. In the event of nuclear war you had damn well be ready, willing, and able to give as good as you get to anyone who has, has not, or might hit you.
The only solution is the complete and total disarmament of all nuclear weapons. Period. The sad part is that that will only happen once humanity has found a newer, shinier death machine.
Do not underestimate the soporific power of indiscriminate maths!
I'd be more worried about the indiscriminate use of weapons of math destruction.
...and I suck at spelling
In Soviet Slashdot, spelling sucks at you!
tract0r!!1
Holy crap, that is one of the funniest things I've read all week. Thanks!
According to the PDF linked to in a thread above (here, too), the majority of the banks being targetted aren't US banks. That would be why the US isn't getting involved-- but it COULD be used against US banks. If there was one time I would want law enforcement to make that particular long-jump to a conclusion, this would be it.
So, we've got two options: tear down Islam, or kill the militant Muslims. What's your choice?
How about fix this problem:
Ultimately, the problem is that Islam never had a reformation.
I agree with your post's spirit; that is, it's a religious issue and no amount of talking/bombing will change fanatics' minds. But the answer is not an eradication of Islam; rather, it should be a re-evaluation of Islam by its leaders.
It's really a testament to the solidity of its faith-system that Islam has lasted as long as it has without having to change; or it could be something within that faith-system that resists change and questioning of beliefs. Being ex-Catholic myself, I can't lay claim to being an expert on the Koran (or, for that matter, having read any of it).
So, a re-analysis of the Koran and a way to integrate it with today's society, while still retaining fundamental concepts such as peace and justice, is probably just what the religion needs to regain acceptance. The main problem with this is that while Islam may never have had a reformation, it's had plenty of schisms. To the best of my knowledge-- I certainly could be wrong, here, and I hope I am-- there is no centralized leadership or seat of learning for the Islam religion. Without a universally accepted (by Muslims, anyway) authority on "What the Koran Says", you are going to have a tough time convincing any Muslims that they're not supposed to blow up people who don't agree with them. (OK, maybe that's just my old catechism showing through-- Catholics have the Pope, and eventually he caught on to the whole "Thou shalt not kill means THOU SHALT NOT KILL" thing. It took a few Crusades, though...)
OK, and I realize that Judaism doesn't have a centralized leadership either-- there's no Jewish equivalent of the Pope. But, last I checked, the Jews also knew that there are ways to convince people of their religion besides blowing them up, and figured that out a long time ago. The fact that there was at one point a hierarchy to the Jewish religion-- the high priests et al-- allowed the faith to evolve and adapt to temporal changes while retaining the core philosophies of the faith.
The bottom line is that just as a monoculture can kill a species, so can having too much diversity. Islam is too splintered, too disparate in its parts to institute any widespread changes. Rather than a call to unify in the name of killing those different, I would hope that some Muslims might call their brothers and sisters together to turn the eye on themselves, and bring all of Islam together before it is too late.
This is, of course, all my opinion and conjecture based on my extremely limited experience with Islam. I mean no disrespect, please don't kill me. I'd actually love to hear a Muslim come and tell me what he or she thinks of my idea, whether I'm an idiot or not.
You will have no way of knowing that the version of Windows you use will work the way you expect.
And this differs from Windows today... how?
It presumes [...] a lot about North Korea (the idea that an individual or faction in the military could actually take power from the all-powerful Kim Family Regime).
Aaaaaah, now it makes sense. I was wondering why NK's government would be so uptight about it (aside from the totalitarianism thing, of course), until I read this. Thanks.
[Kim Jong-il continues to issue bold words of guidance to his film-makers. His words are reprinted on a gigantic placard outside the Revolutionary Museum of the Ministry of Culture on the outskirts of Pyongyang: "Make more cartoons."]
Perhaps he would prefer videogames that are cell-shaded?
More likely, he's trying to get a piece of the recent anime explosion. Though somehow, given his track record in direction and screenwriting (judging solely from this thread), I doubt many people would want to watch his films. Willingly, anyway. I know I don't.
Then spread the word. If the vulnerability checker gets a high enough profile then this will serve as a strong incentive for companies to switch from IIS because they will otherwise be flagged as potentially insecure.
This is a good idea in theory.
In practice, it will get used only by script kiddies who know nothing beyond "OMG MIRCOSOFT HAS N OPEN PROT LETZ HAX0R THEM ROFL LOL *press button*". It will last about six days before the FBI shuts it down on charges of aiding and abetting cyberterrorism. Think of it like someone standing on a street corner shouting "Hey! The combination to the safe at the back of Sears is 1-2-3-4-5! That's 1-2-3-4-5 for the safe at Sears, folks! They also leave the Port St. Entrance unlocked at night!".
It's a good thing they caught the oxygen problem before things got worse. Good job, guys.
...But, as long as folks are brave enough to go Out There, I'll still be rooting for them.
This sort of thing demonstrates the need for advances in robotics. An remote-controlled machine could potentially do spacewalk jobs somewhat more easily and far more safely than sending out a human in what boils down to a ziploc bag tied to the station.
IIS had problems, now it is ISS, I just hope that SSI are okay.
And as I just spoke with my SIS, and she says things are fine at home, that's one more combination accounted for. You folks might want to check with your respective SISes, should you have a SIS, that is.
If they retailed these CDs at $17, and even one person bought them at full price (which, as a former member of Columbia House, I have), they can say the value is $17 even if everybody else paid $8 or less. This is pretty fair...you don't want the courts forcing YOU to use some liquidation price...and I'm sure the judge in the case knew they were going to inflate the price of the merchandise, and inflated the price of the settlement accodingly.
(B.S. Alert: I am not an economist, but most of what I'm going to say will seem like common sense to me-- disagree if you wish.)
Inflation seems to be the key issue here. The price of $17 is predicated on the CD's perceived value in 1999. It's true that the retail value of a product is the highest going price, but you must account for readjustment of value of the product as time goes on; otherwise a rookie signed Babe Ruth card could be said to be worth nothing more than the nickel it cost with the piece of gum way back when. Of course, it could also be said to be worth zillions of dollars. It all depends on the buyer.
We have to take a look at the "buyer"'s perceived value of these CDs. In this case, it's the school system. The school system has no reasonable use for a CD full of explicit lyrics (especially if such a CD, in the hands of a student, could be confiscated as being in violation of the school's code of conduct). Thus, the Big Pun CDs are worth exactly $0 to the school, and the RIAA has basically thrown them away. The RIAA can claim that they have gotten rid of x amount of Big Pun CDs at $17 but that does not mean that the school has received x*$17 worth of value in goods. In a nutshell, the real problem here is that there is a disparity in the perception of the value of the goods being offered between the plaintiff and the defendant.
Of course, you COULD get totally dishonest here, too. Say I sue the RIAA and, by some miracle, win. I demand in settlement $170,000. The RIAA sends me 10,000 80's CDs. It just so happens that I am a big fan of the 80's; but I don't want the RIAA to think that they've given me stuff I actually want, and declare the value of the CDs to be only $85,000 (1/2). The courts in this case would have no choice but to force the RIAA to either pony up $85,000 or dump another "$85,000" worth of CDs on me, which I can then say are totally worthless; repeat ad infinitum.
The only solution is to force ALL legal settlements to be paid in cash only. Ideally this should be a federal mandate, to avoid some states from allowing losers to weasel out of it. "Class action in all 50 states? Well, Alabama doesn't have cash-settlement legislation. Send 200,000 Cam'ron albums to East Retard, AL." (note: IANAL, either, so I don't know how that would work for sure)
For example, if there are 2.2lbs in a kg. Then it's easy enough to use the quick multiply by 11 rule and then multiply by two (or reverse order). So for 52kg it's easy to say that 5 + 2 = 7 so 52*11 = 572 or 52 * 1.1 = 57.2 and 57.2 * 2 = 114.4. So 52kg = 114.4lbs.
It took me a second to figure that one out... I never knew that rule before. Thanks!
When I need precision, it's easy to remember the numbers I've seen on American Coca-Cola bottles my entire life.
Heh, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has trouble with liquid unit conversions. I usually have a drink with me; and sometimes I don't remember 8oz to a cup, but when I really need to know I usually just fall back on mL and do the conversion from there. I spent a good ten minutes in a grocery store one time trying to hammer through the equations in my head-- got some really weird looks from people who brushed past me to grab a 2 liter of Coke...
We don't know who you are or anyhting about you, but we know you did something. Now pay us."
"...And don't marry the fat man, he only wants you for your money."
In other news, Miss Cleo has issued a prediction that the RIAA shouldn't initiate any romantic encounters just yet-- the Hanged Man card indicates that a large toothless man named Bubba is waiting for them in jail.
UT2003, which shipped in 2002, installed more than 2GB of data for the game, though at that time it was never all loaded into memory at once.
This makes sense. I was able to run UT2K3 without a problem, but after installing UT2K4 I've been playing less solely because the game is a bit jerkier, takes forever to load initially, and is less reliable (I get "hardware failures"). I have a suspicion that this is very much related to RAM usage. I'd love to see an accurate depiction of how detail settings affect RAM usage-- ie on such and such a detail level, you use X amount of RAM. How about a patch for the UI to optionally show this? I know it would be useful for about, oh, a thousand users tops, but knowing how much leeway I have in my detail settings would be a damn nifty thing to have.
Late 80s, maybe. In the winter of 1986 my grandmother decried the fact that "The Legend of Zelda" was being sold for $70. Of course, there were alternatives-- rather than Zelda, my dad brought home Popeye, Golf, and one other game which escapes me... I think in '89 we found a copy of plain old ordinary Pinball for $30.
Contrast that to '94, when Chrono Trigger commanded a $70 price tag. We have to bear in mind fabrication costs, as well-- it cost a lot more to produce the ROM chips for a 32M cart than it did for a 512K one, though at their respective times the prices came out about even.
Oh yeah, by the by, I managed to get a copy of Final Fantasy II from my cousin-- complete with box, instructions, and maps-- for $20, just a few years ago-- maybe in '01. Not really sure if it was 'cause I was family or because he just wanted to get rid of the game... but I don't care, it completed my collection. ^_^
The concentration of DA's work in such a short time made me a very strange person to be around for awhile... I can't think of any sort of parallel for the experience.
Well, depending on if you went to Berkeley or not, there are a few parallels which come to mind...
Five seasons were produced. Season One was released this past month on DVD (which would explain why it's on NetFlix). Not sure when the next season's going to be released, but I've been looking forward to QL for quite some time.
Here's a plan. Go to the pawn shop, buy the junkiest, most disgusting VCR you can find, and mail it to any senator listed on the bill. Bonus points if it is a) old, b) heavy, or c) not working. Enclose with it a note that says something to the effect of "Dear Senator: As a loyal and concerned citizen of the United States, I am hereby turning over equipment which could potentially be used in copyright infringement, pursuant to the INDUCE Act which you are supporting. I intend to continue turning confiscated equipment over to you until I receive word that the Act has been rescinded. Sincerely, a patriotic constituent."
Oh, good, I'm not the only one who didn't know that word. Hell, I can't even spell it. And I used to pride myself on my very large... vocabulary.
Seattle does have a lot of precipitation days: 158 per year, but Buffalo has more (169) and Cleveland has 156.
"Precipitation" is not "rain". In Buffalo and Cleveland, 90 of those days of precipitation occur in winter. Recall that in winter, precipitation freezes, becoming snow.
Snow can be plowed, moved, ski'd/snowboarded/sledded upon, thrown, made into snow men/women/angels/anatomical reference dummies, and if you're really desperate, eaten (but stay away from yellow snow).
Rain falls. That's it. It's not nearly half as much fun as snow. So, I suppose you Seattle people have to make your own fun. Which explains the caffeine jones.
OK, having a little bit of knowledge about the Lunar games (hell, I created alt.games.lunar back in the day), I can say that there might be just a little bit more to the story.
Lunar 2: Eternal Blue, released in 2000 for the Playstation, was one of Working Designs' masterpiece games. It also, unfortunately, was a VERY limited edition. This being 2004 I would not be surprised if the game was completely and totally out of stock, having been out of print for close to three years now; to the best of my knowledge Eternal Blue was not re-released as Silver Star Story was (ie without the extra goodies).
Obviously, you bought this as a used game. What I would suggest, as others have, is that you go to the place you bought it from (if they're still in business) and ask them politely to run it through a disc doctor or resurfacer, explaining that it took you this long to get through disc 1 (bring the other discs with you, too, just in case). If they won't do that, I would highly recommend buying the disc doctor yourself; THAT has a guarantee to work, so if it fails to fix disc 2 (which, incidentally, is when things start getting REALLY good in the game ^_^) it's the disc doctor company's responsibility to find you a (working) replacement. (disclaimer: I worked for Electronics Boutique 3 years ago but have not worked there in 18 months) Additionally, the disc doctor would be an insurance policy against this happening again.