The program you mention was ShowEQ. Originally, it was a linux only program so it wasnt used by many. Eventually, someone ported it to Windows and its use increased vastly.
What really made things bad though was Macroquest II. Even though this required to be recompiled with every new patch, this is what made many of the exploits possible. Even SOE knew how rampant its use was but they would not go after people using MQ for its passive features (ie maps, targeting, healbot macros, etc) but people using it for the active exploiting (ie teleporting, attacking any mob in a zone from the zone line, etc).
How come the strongest attack is coming from The New Republic, a neo-conservative online magazine?
Point of order here. The New Republic is NOT a neo-con site. It is in fact quite liberal. You a probably confusing it with the Free Republic or even the National Review.
The entire *point* of the Japanese show has been lost on Iron Chef America. It was always intended as a cheesy drama with serious cooking. The idea was basically to combine haute cuisine with professional wrestling.
What american's like about the Japanese version is what was lost and found in the translation. Nothing can replace the voiceover of Dr Hattori for example.
One thing that has happened in the American version is more spotlight has been given on the Sous-chefs. This is actually an improvement over the original.
So WoW is fun because it doesn't punish you? Only rewards you?
Wheres the risk though? Without any risk, any percieved reward is just empty of any real value. All WoW did was take what was done in MMOs before it (primarly Everquest, which I played for 4+ years) and take away any real risks.
Eve is a game for players who want to take risks. People who want to put there assets on the line in a region of space where it is up to them to defend and control it. Its the same sandbox that allows scammers that also allows people to take risks and be rewarded with a sense of satisfaction not persent in WoW.
I stopped playing EQ because it became more of the same. Grind XP/AA points, farm the same raid mobs, DKP out the same loot. Never again will I go back to the grind games.
The other thing pointed out in Freakonomics is that in states where abortion was legalized sooner (in the late 60's in CA or New York iirc) that the corresponding crime drop happend sooner (ie the late 80's vs early 90's).
What this study is is just a researcher with a goal and mis-interpreting statistics to meet that goal. The goal in this case is that the removal of lead from gasoline which was done for enviromental reasons (albeit necessary) directly resulted in decreased crime now. So now that the study is out there, the enviromental-facists will use it as a tool, ie saying that more enviromental regulation now on something as natuallry occuraing as CO2 will result in less crime for the next generation.
My 6 year son is the same way. He has already completed Ep. 1,2,3 & 6. He also likes Empire Strikes Back the most of the original trilogy. Luckily, the only exposure he has had of Ep 1-3 is through the game. I won't let him watch the movies (why ruin a good thing).
The Soviet Union, in a mater of a decade, turned from a peasantry, feudal society using archaic technology to a civilized world power with some of the most advanced technologies in the world. Yes, the collapsed a number of decades later, and were replaced by a capitalist society, which in turn caused higher infant death rates, shorter life spans and lower standard of living, and not a single notable advancement, or discovery, but hey, who am I too argue with the benefits of capitalism.
Maybe should look to see what the Soviet Union did to advance. The advanced tech was either taken from the Nazis (rocketry) or the US (atomics). The expansion of the industrial base was done through the use of slave labor and the gulag system.
As to a single notable advancement, name something that was done by the soviets.
Would someone direct me to the post where Slashdot was becoming a sub-set of DemocraticUnderground.com? Well, at least Slashdot doesn't censor anyone who isnt a left-wingnut...yet.
The crucial difference here was that the script kiddie was not a law enforcement officer nor under any contract with same. He was an independent operator.
Now, if he'd collected the information at an officer's request, that would be a different matter. I'm not sure about Canadian law but for US law the evidence is still not permissable. Look back to the case of Claus Van Bulow in the early 80's. He was convicted of attempted murder for giving his wife a od of insulin. But the thing is, some of the evidence used against him had been collected by his wifes relatives illegally. They then turned that evidence over to the police. This was one reason why the verdict was overturned on appeal.
What the canadian case in question here has shown is vigilantism is now ok. You can now break the law to collect evidence on people as long as you ar not working with the police beforehand. If this stands, where do you draw the line?
Instances are a must - thats why I switche to WoW instead of EQ (well, after Mythic ruined Realm v. Realm on Camelot with the horrible Atlantic expansion grind).
Yet EQ has been doing instancing longer then WoW has been out. In fact, the problem with cockblocking key raid mobs hasn't been an issues since Planes Of Power. Every expansions since has used instancing in one form or another for progression.
No, the purpose was for the CynoNet. To get capitals from one place to another fast, you have a series of Alts created that are camped in specific systems for the sole purpose of creating Cynosure bubbles. These are the destination points for a cap ship to jump to.
It is common in alliances such as BoB to have a series alts and to have the high level directors to have access to all of them. In this case, the dev in question had to coordinate the cynoNet and there for was completly involved in this kind of accoutn sharing.
This is rather interesting as Taranto looks at the report used and how it is itself composed of shoddy science (social not climate though).
By JAMES TARANTO
They Call This Science? Rep. Henry Waxman's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform "took on the Bush administration's handling of climate change science" in a Tuesday hearing, the New York Times reports:
The fourth witness was Francesca Grifo, who directs the scientific integrity program of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private group that researches environmental, arms control and other issues.
Dr. Grifo's testimony drew largely from a report produced by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Government Accountability Project, a private group that defends whistle-blowers. The report, made public yesterday, is based on a Union of Concerned Scientists survey of federal climate scientists and interviews and document searches by the Government Accountability Project. It says it is common for scientists to be pressured to eliminate references to climate change, for their work to be changed to misrepresent their findings, and for climate-related materials to disappear from Web sites.
Almost 60 percent of the scientists who responded to the survey said they had personally experienced such an incident in the last five years, the report says, and those who said their work was most closely related to climate change experienced the most interference.
The survey is here (PDF), and a closer look at it ought to raise some doubts.
The relevant questions, 19-33, appear on pages 4-5. Questions 19-30 list 12 "types of activities affecting climate science" and ask the respondent if he has "perceived in others and/or personally experienced" them. (Question 31, a catch-all "other" category, can be ignored, since few bothered even responding to it.)
One problem is that of these 12 questions, only three--Nos. 20, 24 and 25--clearly indicate that the scientist responding agrees with the Union of Concerned Scientists on climate issues. A scientist who reports "self-induced pressure to change research or reporting in order to align findings with agency policy or to avoid controversy" (No. 23), for example, could feel such pressure to avoid raising doubts about global warming.
Note, too, the wording of that question: "self-induced pressure." The scientists who answered "yes" to this question are reporting on their own state of mind, not any objective facts that may bear on it. The same is true of questions 24 and 25, which refer to "fear of retaliation," and 27, which refers to "implicit expectation."
Many of these questions, too, simply reflect the realities of working in any bureaucracy, public or private. No. 19 asks if the scientists have perceived of experienced "changes/edits during review that change the meaning of scientific findings." Some have, but we have no basis on which to judge the merits of the disagreements between the scientists and their editors.
The biggest problem with the survey, though, is its basic methodology, explained on the first page of the PDF:
Following is the text of the survey UCS mailed to 1,630 federal climate scientists at seven federal agencies and departments, along with response data for the 279 scientists who completed and re- turned surveys.
That is, only about 17% of the scientists who received the survey actually filled it out and returned it. There is no reason to think this is a representative sample of the total population, and it seems reasonable to surmise that people who would go to the trouble of completing such a survey are more likely than those who wouldn't to perceive themselves as under political pressure--i.e., to agree with the UCS.
To put it much more simply, this was an unscientific survey. If this is how these guys do social science, how can we trust them with the hard stuff?
We don't do that to avoid the potential for two things: Mob Rule, in which people decide not to bother to go make their voice heard when it appears [to them] that it would be unheard anyway, or they jump on the bandwagon to go join the winning team, and to avoid premature calling of the vote leading to same. Interestingly, this last actually occurred during the 2000 election as one of Bush's relatives felt free to prematurely call the vote, which is credited with stopping a lot of democrats from bothering to vote. You mean that when the networks called Florida for Gore before the polls in the panhandle (and conservative are due to the military) had closed due to being in a different time zone? And that Bush relative (John Ellis) who prematurely called the vote did it after 2am the next day. Now how many democrats are still voting at 2am in the morning after election day?
I actually liked my Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad. It was a good shap and had everything I needed. Even today when I go play BF 1942/BF2 I use my Sidewinder joystick. Its old in that it uses the gameport connection natively but it came w/ a USB dongle and works fine for simple flying. Microsoft hardware pre-XBox was always pretty good.
"I am a Heinlein fan, and I think Number of the Beast is pretty bad. I heard from my father that Heinlein switched medications somewhere in the middle of this, which could account for its meandering nature and lack of resolution to any of the infinite silly plot threads it introduces."
Number of the Beast is bad because Heinlein intentionally wrote it that way. Read the following article and it really explains the entire book...
Everquest has been getting a new expansion every 6 months now since 2002. This includes 3 seperate level cap bumps of 5 lvls each time and the game still going. Additionally, the newer content looks as good as most mmorpgs out there right now.
Come to the SF Bay Area w/ a Bush sticker and they will not only ask you to remove it, they vandalize your car while removing it themselves. I've found that while both sides of the spectrum can be apprehensive of the other sides views, those on the far left will go much farther in espousing their views while trying to suppess others then those on the far right.
Recently CGW dropped their review ratings. Personally, I like them though. The reviews in the latest issue arn't even reviews but rehashing what some online reviewers said of a game.
Oh well. There is always the UK edition of PC Gamer and Computer Games Magazine (very underrated mag).
Add in CNN supressing stories that were negative about Saddam Hussain in pre war Iraq because to them, access was more important then the truth. Or CBS news....
Slashdot Mirror
The program you mention was ShowEQ. Originally, it was a linux only program so it wasnt used by many. Eventually, someone ported it to Windows and its use increased vastly.
What really made things bad though was Macroquest II. Even though this required to be recompiled with every new patch, this is what made many of the exploits possible. Even SOE knew how rampant its use was but they would not go after people using MQ for its passive features (ie maps, targeting, healbot macros, etc) but people using it for the active exploiting (ie teleporting, attacking any mob in a zone from the zone line, etc).
How come the strongest attack is coming from The New Republic, a neo-conservative online magazine?
Point of order here. The New Republic is NOT a neo-con site. It is in fact quite liberal. You a probably confusing it with the Free Republic or even the National Review.
The entire *point* of the Japanese show has been lost on Iron Chef America. It was always intended as a cheesy drama with serious cooking. The idea was basically to combine haute cuisine with professional wrestling.
What american's like about the Japanese version is what was lost and found in the translation. Nothing can replace the voiceover of Dr Hattori for example.
One thing that has happened in the American version is more spotlight has been given on the Sous-chefs. This is actually an improvement over the original.
So WoW is fun because it doesn't punish you? Only rewards you?
Wheres the risk though? Without any risk, any percieved reward is just empty of any real value. All WoW did was take what was done in MMOs before it (primarly Everquest, which I played for 4+ years) and take away any real risks.
Eve is a game for players who want to take risks. People who want to put there assets on the line in a region of space where it is up to them to defend and control it. Its the same sandbox that allows scammers that also allows people to take risks and be rewarded with a sense of satisfaction not persent in WoW.
I stopped playing EQ because it became more of the same. Grind XP/AA points, farm the same raid mobs, DKP out the same loot. Never again will I go back to the grind games.
Mining in EVE is boring so dont do it. There are many other ways to have fun and it doesnt require high skilled characters either.
The other thing pointed out in Freakonomics is that in states where abortion was legalized sooner (in the late 60's in CA or New York iirc) that the corresponding crime drop happend sooner (ie the late 80's vs early 90's).
What this study is is just a researcher with a goal and mis-interpreting statistics to meet that goal. The goal in this case is that the removal of lead from gasoline which was done for enviromental reasons (albeit necessary) directly resulted in decreased crime now. So now that the study is out there, the enviromental-facists will use it as a tool, ie saying that more enviromental regulation now on something as natuallry occuraing as CO2 will result in less crime for the next generation.
I seem to remember the evil executives computer in tron having a touch screen keyboard...
My 6 year son is the same way. He has already completed Ep. 1,2,3 & 6. He also likes Empire Strikes Back the most of the original trilogy. Luckily, the only exposure he has had of Ep 1-3 is through the game. I won't let him watch the movies (why ruin a good thing).
...only hackers will have hacking tools.
The Soviet Union, in a mater of a decade, turned from a peasantry, feudal society using archaic technology to a civilized world power with some of the most advanced technologies in the world. Yes, the collapsed a number of decades later, and were replaced by a capitalist society, which in turn caused higher infant death rates, shorter life spans and lower standard of living, and not a single notable advancement, or discovery, but hey, who am I too argue with the benefits of capitalism.
Maybe should look to see what the Soviet Union did to advance. The advanced tech was either taken from the Nazis (rocketry) or the US (atomics). The expansion of the industrial base was done through the use of slave labor and the gulag system.
As to a single notable advancement, name something that was done by the soviets.
Would someone direct me to the post where Slashdot was becoming a sub-set of DemocraticUnderground.com? Well, at least Slashdot doesn't censor anyone who isnt a left-wingnut...yet.
Yet EQ has been doing instancing longer then WoW has been out. In fact, the problem with cockblocking key raid mobs hasn't been an issues since Planes Of Power. Every expansions since has used instancing in one form or another for progression.
No, the purpose was for the CynoNet. To get capitals from one place to another fast, you have a series of Alts created that are camped in specific systems for the sole purpose of creating Cynosure bubbles. These are the destination points for a cap ship to jump to.
It is common in alliances such as BoB to have a series alts and to have the high level directors to have access to all of them. In this case, the dev in question had to coordinate the cynoNet and there for was completly involved in this kind of accoutn sharing.
They Call This Science?
Rep. Henry Waxman's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform "took on the Bush administration's handling of climate change science" in a Tuesday hearing, the New York Times reports:
The fourth witness was Francesca Grifo, who directs the scientific integrity program of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private group that researches environmental, arms control and other issues.
Dr. Grifo's testimony drew largely from a report produced by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Government Accountability Project, a private group that defends whistle-blowers. The report, made public yesterday, is based on a Union of Concerned Scientists survey of federal climate scientists and interviews and document searches by the Government Accountability Project. It says it is common for scientists to be pressured to eliminate references to climate change, for their work to be changed to misrepresent their findings, and for climate-related materials to disappear from Web sites.
Almost 60 percent of the scientists who responded to the survey said they had personally experienced such an incident in the last five years, the report says, and those who said their work was most closely related to climate change experienced the most interference.
The survey is here (PDF), and a closer look at it ought to raise some doubts.
The relevant questions, 19-33, appear on pages 4-5. Questions 19-30 list 12 "types of activities affecting climate science" and ask the respondent if he has "perceived in others and/or personally experienced" them. (Question 31, a catch-all "other" category, can be ignored, since few bothered even responding to it.)
One problem is that of these 12 questions, only three--Nos. 20, 24 and 25--clearly indicate that the scientist responding agrees with the Union of Concerned Scientists on climate issues. A scientist who reports "self-induced pressure to change research or reporting in order to align findings with agency policy or to avoid controversy" (No. 23), for example, could feel such pressure to avoid raising doubts about global warming.
Note, too, the wording of that question: "self-induced pressure." The scientists who answered "yes" to this question are reporting on their own state of mind, not any objective facts that may bear on it. The same is true of questions 24 and 25, which refer to "fear of retaliation," and 27, which refers to "implicit expectation."
Many of these questions, too, simply reflect the realities of working in any bureaucracy, public or private. No. 19 asks if the scientists have perceived of experienced "changes/edits during review that change the meaning of scientific findings." Some have, but we have no basis on which to judge the merits of the disagreements between the scientists and their editors.
The biggest problem with the survey, though, is its basic methodology, explained on the first page of the PDF:
Following is the text of the survey UCS mailed to 1,630 federal climate scientists at seven federal agencies and departments, along with response data for the 279 scientists who completed and re- turned surveys.
That is, only about 17% of the scientists who received the survey actually filled it out and returned it. There is no reason to think this is a representative sample of the total population, and it seems reasonable to surmise that people who would go to the trouble of completing such a survey are more likely than those who wouldn't to perceive themselves as under political pressure--i.e., to agree with the UCS.
To put it much more simply, this was an unscientific survey. If this is how these guys do social science, how can we trust them with the hard stuff?
Next time, get your facts straight.
I actually liked my Microsoft Sidewinder Gamepad. It was a good shap and had everything I needed. Even today when I go play BF 1942/BF2 I use my Sidewinder joystick. Its old in that it uses the gameport connection natively but it came w/ a USB dongle and works fine for simple flying. Microsoft hardware pre-XBox was always pretty good.
"I am a Heinlein fan, and I think Number of the Beast is pretty bad. I heard from my father that Heinlein switched medications somewhere in the middle of this, which could account for its meandering nature and lack of resolution to any of the infinite silly plot threads it introduces."
m l
Number of the Beast is bad because Heinlein intentionally wrote it that way. Read the following article and it really explains the entire book...
http://www.heinleinsociety.org/rah/numberbeast.ht
Wasnt the company that created the software Google bought for Google Earth originally funded by a CIA venture capital fund?
Everquest has been getting a new expansion every 6 months now since 2002. This includes 3 seperate level cap bumps of 5 lvls each time and the game still going. Additionally, the newer content looks as good as most mmorpgs out there right now.
Both sides need to step back.
Come to the SF Bay Area w/ a Bush sticker and they will not only ask you to remove it, they vandalize your car while removing it themselves. I've found that while both sides of the spectrum can be apprehensive of the other sides views, those on the far left will go much farther in espousing their views while trying to suppess others then those on the far right.
No, this means Dish Network DVRs are worthless.
Grats all for taking this site offline...
Recently CGW dropped their review ratings. Personally, I like them though. The reviews in the latest issue arn't even reviews but rehashing what some online reviewers said of a game.
Oh well. There is always the UK edition of PC Gamer and Computer Games Magazine (very underrated mag).
Or reuters doctoring a photo of Beirut to make it appear that the Isrealis did much more damage then was actually done???
, 00.html
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3286966
Add in CNN supressing stories that were negative about Saddam Hussain in pre war Iraq because to them, access was more important then the truth. Or CBS news....