1) The average non-audiophile will never be able to tell the difference between a 128kbit stereo mp3 and a CD. Napster or Itunes might not be suitable to someone who has a $1000 speaker system, but for someone like me or Joe Sixpack, buying songs over a digital medium, where a) you don't have to leave your house and b) you don't have to wait more than about 10 seconds to start listening to the first track, is damn convenient.
2) No, downloadable movies are never going to replace DVDs in the same way that Napster will not replace CDs, but again, there is a market here. I have a netflix subscription, but I'd rather have a napster-like downloaded subscription where I can download movies and watch them over and over as long as I pay the monthly charge(I'd be willing to pay 30 or so for something like this). Yes, it'd only be marginally faster than netflix, but again, it's about the convenience.
Also, what you are forgetting about itunes and napster is the subscription services. For $10 per month, I can download and listen to as much music as I'd like, and I think that's a pretty good deal personally. I listen to a lot of music out of the mainstream, stuff that's more easily available on napster than in real stores in my area (celtic and world music, for example. Good luck finding that at Best Buy). Not only is it improbable I could find that anywhere else but Amazon, but given how much of how many different kinds of music I listen to, $10 a month is a steal.
AFAIK Windows XP has *always* had a firewall. It was just off by default and buried in the network settings until SP2, when they did the wise thing and turned it on and made it conspicuous.
At the very least, I know it was there in SP1, because I used it. Not the best solution, but nonetheless it did the trick without using rediculous amounts of rescources like ZoneAlarm did.
Still, grandparent is completely incorrect to compare Fedora Core to Windows XP SP2. Even so, I would be willing to bet if you lined up the number of bugs and exploits for the two systems, you'd find more bugs in the XP column.
Haven't been at my university, then. I have a laptop, so it doesn't matter, but the only option I would have otherwise is submit to using IE or bringing around FF on a USB key (which is what I'd do).
The compsci department at least used to have FF installed on their machines, but obviously someone thought that was bad policy and removed it. I'm sure that at least the linux boxes still have it, though...
Re:Parent is flamebait and trollish. Mod down.
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LokiTorrent Shut Down
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Perfectly sensible retarded shit.
When you buy a DVD, CD, software, or any other sort of media, you buy the rights for use by one person (or whatever the EULA grants you). If you make copies and give them out to your friends, you are now breaking your side of the agreement you commited to by buying the DVD in the first place.
Would it make sense if you bought a vacuum cleaner, and then walked out of the store with ten more for all your friends without paying for them? Hell no. You can go over to their houses with your ONE vacuum cleaner, though, and clean up their houses if you want. In the same sense, you may invite your friends over to your house to watch the new DVD you bought. Giving them copies is the same as stealing as many copies as you give out, in a moral and a legal sense.
On the other hand, the *AA (nice term btw networkBoy, I like) is certainly using strongarm tactics becuase they run a monopoly on every product they have. I can choose to buy a GE or a Hoover vacuum cleaner if I am not satisfied by the price of one or the other, but if I want to listen to Rush, I have to go to Atlantic, and pay their insanely high price. Nobody else has the rights to release Rush albums.
So, while patently illegal, I'm not sure if P2P filesharing of copyrighted material is so black-and-white when it comes to morals. Personally, I try to say on the legal side of things, and when it comes to music, at least, I have choices now that weren't there five years ago, such as Napster and iTunes (I subscribe to the former). I wonder when the movie industry is going to realise how much money is in making a Napster for movies? I'd happily pay 3-4x as much as my napster subscription if it'd allow me to watch my favourite movies and anime on demand.
That's odd... please, tell my A64 server to go crash a couple of times for me then. (It hasn't seen a reboot in about 3 months)
This isn't 1997, and AMD isn't the new kid on the block anymore. When it comes down to it, Intel and AMD perform about equally on the top end, with AMD coming out just in front, and there's no perceptable difference in "stability." The real difference between the two (excluding, for the moment, the "bonus" of future 64-bit computing, unless you're using unix) is price, and guess who wins that one?
On the topic of the Pentium-M, it is, in my opinion, the best showing anyone has right now for mobile computing, but it's no match for an A64 on the desktop. I'm looking to replace my laptop later this year, and I'll be going P-M.
Sure, it bothers you about buying the professional version during business hours, but it's only a popup before the program starts, and only between 8 and 5. However, this client has some of the best tools I've ever seen for connecting through firewalls and all sorts of other "fun" hurdles. It works with the out of the box config 99% of the time, and does so efficiently and cleanly.
In my opinion, gaim's interface is a bit too spartan compared to Trillian. I use both, actually - Trillian on the 'doze box, and gaim on my linux laptop. Functionality-wise they're about the same, but gaim just feels primitive.
Still, everyone has their preference, and as long as it works, isn't that the point?
I'll have to disagree with you here. I realize that every step you take is a risk of death, but everquest is built on a risk vs reward system. Without any risk(ie no corpse run, no lost experience upon death) you could just run into Temple Veeshan at level 30! I think the risk of death just makes the game more enjoyable - who hasn't had at least a bit of adrenaline pumping as you are fighting a mob and you're both down to a negligible amount of life? I remember way back when I was about level 12 and went with a full group down to befallen. We found a hidden trap in the floor and fell into a room full of so many goblins we were eventually(after a long long battle) overwhelmed. You know what? We went back! Fighting for your life(even a virtual one) certainly makes things more interesting in my opinion.
One thing though, I do wish people would stop asking me "SoW Plz" or "Breeze Plz." GOOD GOD, LEARN SOME ENGLISH!
Since when is reverse-engineering considered petty theft? You would think Sony would have Bleem! off the market by now, if that was the case.
But since it was encrypted, it's completely different. I see. Well, slap some poor-quality encryption somewhere on the next version of the PS and all Sony's problems are solved.
Time to move to russia, where we can all be free(yeah, I know it's already been said.)
Well, you're at least partially right. I'm an avid gamer myself, and I notice that other gamers have horrible grammar. However, I'd like to think I'm an exception to that rule - poor grammar is one of my pet peeves, and that makes reading many posts on Slashdot an irritating process. Still, you won't find me correcting others' grammar, because nobody ever listens to grammar rants, and it's rude besides.
You're also at least somewhat right about gamers being less social. For example, I know I'm antisocial. I simply don't deal with other people very well offline. While I can be clear and eloquent when posting a reply to someone on a message board, talking to the same person face-to-face leaves me stuttering and feeling more than a little stupid. Is this a product of gaming, or just a normal personality trait? I'd vote for number two, but who knows what I'd be like without the net?
However, saying that gamers think less critically is simply untrue. In fact, I think that many gamers have sharper minds - especially those who play war simulations, strategy games, RPGs, and the like.
While your points may be true ON AVERAGE - don't judge a book by its cover. I'm a hardcore gamer, but do you see me post things like "ur wrong, im more social from gaming?" Conversely, I'm just one person - and every gamer, just like everyone else, is different.
Northeast Ohio. I've tested this: I start up apache, tell it to listen on both ports 80 and 8080. 8080 works remotely, 80 does not. Makes me want to cry. I took all the time figuring out how to configure sendmail, etc.. and I can't do anything with it but mail myself on my machine.
Bah.. it could be worse. You could not be able to recieve mail directly AT ALL.
I use roadrunner, and they block all incoming ports below 1025, including 25, in an attempt to stop "bandwidth hogs." In other words, even though I might have a domain pipsey.example.org pointing to my ip that's set up to send mail direct to me, if I try to mail root@pipsey.example.org it dies on trying to connect to sendmail on my box.
Anyone have any suggestions on what to do about this one?? I think I'd have to switch ISPs to host my own mail server. In comparison, I'd rather have Verizon's restriction than Roadrunner's, wouldn't you?
Yeah, CT is quite a game. Seriously, if you MUST consider graphics when purchasing an RPG, Square always say its latest game "pushes the limit" of the system it's currently running on, and then they manage to prove otherwise with every sequel. If you want to see a game that REALLY "pushes the limit" of a system, Chrono Trigger is the thing. Remember the "Magus" theme? I know I do. How about those graphics? Very few SNES games I can think of match THAT quality. Also, I love how the battles take place right on the map, instead of doing some effect or other and going to a different screen. The only thing I could wish about CT is that it was longer.
Will Square fans ever see games as consistently amazing as they were in the 16 bit era? I doubt it. Still, I'll wait and see what FFX brings us (and FFXI, which sounds to me like a MMORPG?).
I played this game way back when too.. it stands out in my mind as one of the best rpgs I have ever played(the other two being Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Tactics). Thankfully, all of these games(including FFT I think) have been recently re-released. I'm in the middle of replaying it, and I haven't got as far as what you're talking about, but it's crystal-clear in my memory:
The guy you're talking about is Cyan, knight of Doma(didn't remember his name, gotta love the manual). You don't meet his family first.. that is from another bit of storyline. While you're busy sneaking through an Empire camp, the scene switches to the castle that the Empire is barricading. Troops are trying to break in, and the king wonders what's to be done. Cyan bursts in, says to let him take care of it, and singlehandedly bashes back the attack by killing the enemy captain. The enemy retreats, and you go back to your party. There they see the no. 1 bad guy, then chancellor to the Emporer, and a general.. the chancellor wants to poison them, but the general forbids it. The general is then called away on duty, so the chancellor goes ahead and poisons the water, killing most everyone in the castle(including Empire soldiers!) Cyan goes to see if his family is alive, but he is tragically too late. He goes beserk and charges into the enemy camp, where he meets your group, and they travel to said enchanted forest. From there you have it right.
I really wish the final fantasy series afterwards could live up to this game. FF7 was ok, but it doesn't match the sheer quality of this game. FF8 was a disappointment, and I haven't tried FF9 yet. Square, IMHO, only redeems itself on the PSX with Final Fantasy Tactics.
Slashdot Mirror
Could be worse, could be a Psychic Academy movie...
Let's do some reality checking here:
1) The average non-audiophile will never be able to tell the difference between a 128kbit stereo mp3 and a CD. Napster or Itunes might not be suitable to someone who has a $1000 speaker system, but for someone like me or Joe Sixpack, buying songs over a digital medium, where a) you don't have to leave your house and b) you don't have to wait more than about 10 seconds to start listening to the first track, is damn convenient.
2) No, downloadable movies are never going to replace DVDs in the same way that Napster will not replace CDs, but again, there is a market here. I have a netflix subscription, but I'd rather have a napster-like downloaded subscription where I can download movies and watch them over and over as long as I pay the monthly charge(I'd be willing to pay 30 or so for something like this). Yes, it'd only be marginally faster than netflix, but again, it's about the convenience.
Also, what you are forgetting about itunes and napster is the subscription services. For $10 per month, I can download and listen to as much music as I'd like, and I think that's a pretty good deal personally. I listen to a lot of music out of the mainstream, stuff that's more easily available on napster than in real stores in my area (celtic and world music, for example. Good luck finding that at Best Buy). Not only is it improbable I could find that anywhere else but Amazon, but given how much of how many different kinds of music I listen to, $10 a month is a steal.
AFAIK Windows XP has *always* had a firewall. It was just off by default and buried in the network settings until SP2, when they did the wise thing and turned it on and made it conspicuous.
At the very least, I know it was there in SP1, because I used it. Not the best solution, but nonetheless it did the trick without using rediculous amounts of rescources like ZoneAlarm did.
Still, grandparent is completely incorrect to compare Fedora Core to Windows XP SP2. Even so, I would be willing to bet if you lined up the number of bugs and exploits for the two systems, you'd find more bugs in the XP column.
Haven't been at my university, then. I have a laptop, so it doesn't matter, but the only option I would have otherwise is submit to using IE or bringing around FF on a USB key (which is what I'd do).
The compsci department at least used to have FF installed on their machines, but obviously someone thought that was bad policy and removed it. I'm sure that at least the linux boxes still have it, though...
Perfectly sensible retarded shit.
When you buy a DVD, CD, software, or any other sort of media, you buy the rights for use by one person (or whatever the EULA grants you). If you make copies and give them out to your friends, you are now breaking your side of the agreement you commited to by buying the DVD in the first place.
Would it make sense if you bought a vacuum cleaner, and then walked out of the store with ten more for all your friends without paying for them? Hell no. You can go over to their houses with your ONE vacuum cleaner, though, and clean up their houses if you want. In the same sense, you may invite your friends over to your house to watch the new DVD you bought. Giving them copies is the same as stealing as many copies as you give out, in a moral and a legal sense.
On the other hand, the *AA (nice term btw networkBoy, I like) is certainly using strongarm tactics becuase they run a monopoly on every product they have. I can choose to buy a GE or a Hoover vacuum cleaner if I am not satisfied by the price of one or the other, but if I want to listen to Rush, I have to go to Atlantic, and pay their insanely high price. Nobody else has the rights to release Rush albums.
So, while patently illegal, I'm not sure if P2P filesharing of copyrighted material is so black-and-white when it comes to morals. Personally, I try to say on the legal side of things, and when it comes to music, at least, I have choices now that weren't there five years ago, such as Napster and iTunes (I subscribe to the former). I wonder when the movie industry is going to realise how much money is in making a Napster for movies? I'd happily pay 3-4x as much as my napster subscription if it'd allow me to watch my favourite movies and anime on demand.
Sounds about right. If I buy a Prescott, I can lower my gas bill in the winter!
Athlons being hotter than Intel chips is nothing more than an urban legend. Upper-end Athlon64s and Prescotts BOTH put out a lot of heat.
That's odd... please, tell my A64 server to go crash a couple of times for me then. (It hasn't seen a reboot in about 3 months)
This isn't 1997, and AMD isn't the new kid on the block anymore. When it comes down to it, Intel and AMD perform about equally on the top end, with AMD coming out just in front, and there's no perceptable difference in "stability." The real difference between the two (excluding, for the moment, the "bonus" of future 64-bit computing, unless you're using unix) is price, and guess who wins that one?
On the topic of the Pentium-M, it is, in my opinion, the best showing anyone has right now for mobile computing, but it's no match for an A64 on the desktop. I'm looking to replace my laptop later this year, and I'll be going P-M.
http://www.smartftp.com/
Sure, it bothers you about buying the professional version during business hours, but it's only a popup before the program starts, and only between 8 and 5. However, this client has some of the best tools I've ever seen for connecting through firewalls and all sorts of other "fun" hurdles. It works with the out of the box config 99% of the time, and does so efficiently and cleanly.
In my opinion, gaim's interface is a bit too spartan compared to Trillian. I use both, actually - Trillian on the 'doze box, and gaim on my linux laptop. Functionality-wise they're about the same, but gaim just feels primitive.
Still, everyone has their preference, and as long as it works, isn't that the point?
I'll have to disagree with you here. I realize that every step you take is a risk of death, but everquest is built on a risk vs reward system. Without any risk(ie no corpse run, no lost experience upon death) you could just run into Temple Veeshan at level 30! I think the risk of death just makes the game more enjoyable - who hasn't had at least a bit of adrenaline pumping as you are fighting a mob and you're both down to a negligible amount of life? I remember way back when I was about level 12 and went with a full group down to befallen. We found a hidden trap in the floor and fell into a room full of so many goblins we were eventually(after a long long battle) overwhelmed. You know what? We went back! Fighting for your life(even a virtual one) certainly makes things more interesting in my opinion.
One thing though, I do wish people would stop asking me "SoW Plz" or "Breeze Plz." GOOD GOD, LEARN SOME ENGLISH!
Since when is reverse-engineering considered petty theft? You would think Sony would have Bleem! off the market by now, if that was the case.
But since it was encrypted, it's completely different. I see. Well, slap some poor-quality encryption somewhere on the next version of the PS and all Sony's problems are solved.
Time to move to russia, where we can all be free(yeah, I know it's already been said.)
Well, you're at least partially right. I'm an avid gamer myself, and I notice that other gamers have horrible grammar. However, I'd like to think I'm an exception to that rule - poor grammar is one of my pet peeves, and that makes reading many posts on Slashdot an irritating process. Still, you won't find me correcting others' grammar, because nobody ever listens to grammar rants, and it's rude besides.
You're also at least somewhat right about gamers being less social. For example, I know I'm antisocial. I simply don't deal with other people very well offline. While I can be clear and eloquent when posting a reply to someone on a message board, talking to the same person face-to-face leaves me stuttering and feeling more than a little stupid. Is this a product of gaming, or just a normal personality trait? I'd vote for number two, but who knows what I'd be like without the net?
However, saying that gamers think less critically is simply untrue. In fact, I think that many gamers have sharper minds - especially those who play war simulations, strategy games, RPGs, and the like.
While your points may be true ON AVERAGE - don't judge a book by its cover. I'm a hardcore gamer, but do you see me post things like "ur wrong, im more social from gaming?" Conversely, I'm just one person - and every gamer, just like everyone else, is different.
Northeast Ohio. I've tested this: I start up apache, tell it to listen on both ports 80 and 8080. 8080 works remotely, 80 does not. Makes me want to cry. I took all the time figuring out how to configure sendmail, etc.. and I can't do anything with it but mail myself on my machine.
Bah.. it could be worse. You could not be able to recieve mail directly AT ALL.
I use roadrunner, and they block all incoming ports below 1025, including 25, in an attempt to stop "bandwidth hogs." In other words, even though I might have a domain pipsey.example.org pointing to my ip that's set up to send mail direct to me, if I try to mail root@pipsey.example.org it dies on trying to connect to sendmail on my box.
Anyone have any suggestions on what to do about this one?? I think I'd have to switch ISPs to host my own mail server. In comparison, I'd rather have Verizon's restriction than Roadrunner's, wouldn't you?
You're forgetting Final Fantasy Tactics... TG Cid, he had the excalibur and all the special knight attacks(white&dark knight and some others)
Yeah, CT is quite a game. Seriously, if you MUST consider graphics when purchasing an RPG, Square always say its latest game "pushes the limit" of the system it's currently running on, and then they manage to prove otherwise with every sequel. If you want to see a game that REALLY "pushes the limit" of a system, Chrono Trigger is the thing. Remember the "Magus" theme? I know I do. How about those graphics? Very few SNES games I can think of match THAT quality. Also, I love how the battles take place right on the map, instead of doing some effect or other and going to a different screen. The only thing I could wish about CT is that it was longer.
Will Square fans ever see games as consistently amazing as they were in the 16 bit era? I doubt it. Still, I'll wait and see what FFX brings us (and FFXI, which sounds to me like a MMORPG?).
I played this game way back when too.. it stands out in my mind as one of the best rpgs I have ever played(the other two being Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy Tactics). Thankfully, all of these games(including FFT I think) have been recently re-released. I'm in the middle of replaying it, and I haven't got as far as what you're talking about, but it's crystal-clear in my memory:
The guy you're talking about is Cyan, knight of Doma(didn't remember his name, gotta love the manual). You don't meet his family first.. that is from another bit of storyline. While you're busy sneaking through an Empire camp, the scene switches to the castle that the Empire is barricading. Troops are trying to break in, and the king wonders what's to be done. Cyan bursts in, says to let him take care of it, and singlehandedly bashes back the attack by killing the enemy captain. The enemy retreats, and you go back to your party. There they see the no. 1 bad guy, then chancellor to the Emporer, and a general.. the chancellor wants to poison them, but the general forbids it. The general is then called away on duty, so the chancellor goes ahead and poisons the water, killing most everyone in the castle(including Empire soldiers!) Cyan goes to see if his family is alive, but he is tragically too late. He goes beserk and charges into the enemy camp, where he meets your group, and they travel to said enchanted forest. From there you have it right.
I really wish the final fantasy series afterwards could live up to this game. FF7 was ok, but it doesn't match the sheer quality of this game. FF8 was a disappointment, and I haven't tried FF9 yet. Square, IMHO, only redeems itself on the PSX with Final Fantasy Tactics.