Nope. Chuck Manson got to it first. Though some ancillary patents are held by the estate of Jim Jones. There were even a couple filed afterwards by some guy named Khoresh in Waco Texas.
You can have your shit locked down 6 billion ways to Sunday. The minute you introduce the human element into it, you have a massive security hole that can be patched, but NEVER closed. You can train and train and train. Ennui sets in and their brains shut off after a while. You can have the most draconian policies regarding proper usage. People will still circumvent it, accidentally or deliberately. You can fire people. It just creates ill will and the damage is already done. And, if it happens to be the owner of the company doing the circumvention there's jack and shit you can do about it.
I'm sorry, but anyone who tells you that security is about "keeping the bad guys out" is SELLING YOU SOMETHING (see: "How much for my large and stinky pile of crap?"). Nothing more. Security is about putting enough roadblocks in place that attackers begin looking for easier targets so they can maximize their returns on time invested. If someone wants into your systems bad enough, THEY WILL GET IN. Period. The job of security is to make this interval as long as possible so they can maximize the chances of catching them before they get in or forcing them into something spectacular and HIGHLY traceable.
Welcome to the wonderful world of medical equipment billing.
Most of the time these devices are relatively inexpensive to build. Maybe 1-200 per if you figure in all the safety certifications. But a lot of these are going to people with insurance that pays for this sort of thing. So the suppliers are charging 'what the market will bear'.
Uhm. Are you living on the same planet the rest of us are? The sheer, seething mass of rampant stupidity is only slightly below the point where it implodes and collapses into a stupidity singularity. If we ARE actually alive in 1.5 million years, it'll prove two things.
1: There IS a God. 2: He's one warped motherfucker for keeping us around.
You can have your shit locked down 6 billion ways to Sunday. The minute you introduce the human element into it, you have a massive security hole that can be patched, but NEVER closed. You can train and train and train. Ennui sets in and their brains shut off after a while. You can have the most draconian policies regarding proper usage. People will still circumvent it, accidentally or deliberately. You can fire people. It just creates ill will and the damage is already done. And, if it happens to be the owner of the company doing the circumvention there's jack and shit you can do about it.
I'm sorry, but anyone who tells you that security is about "keeping the bad guys out" is SELLING YOU SOMETHING (see: "How much for my large and stinky pile of crap?"). Nothing more. Security is about putting enough roadblocks in place that attackers begin looking for easier targets so they can maximize their returns on time invested. If someone wants into your systems bad enough, THEY WILL GET IN. Period. The job of security is to make this interval as long as possible so they can maximize the chances of catching them before they get in or forcing them into something spectacular and HIGHLY traceable.
Whenever I watch people playing MMOs and have tried them myself, I've noticed that the graphical and story quality is far inferior to a game with a fixed beginning and ending.
Try looking at something like AION before you get too firmly entrenched in that.
Also, try to remember that these games are played online and only so much data can be passed before the overhead becomes ridiculous. Yes, if you're playing a nice, self-contained game, they can try harder to max out the limits of the system you're on.
Also, exactly how in-depth is the story quality of most of the shared/PVP/online portions of said games? Most are simply elaborate boxes that players are dropped into and expected to beat each other's brains out in.
It's the difference between episodic television and a film. A feature film has very high quality standard packed into every minute, because the entire story arc is contained within that time frame, and they can afford the best actors, director, vfx etc. for that hour and a half which will play to large captive audiences paying a one time fee to see it. Episodic television spans a much larger time frame, and the average episode is budgeted accordingly, with many sets and situations being re-used.
There's also MORE than one arc in many MMOs. So you don't always have to take the same exact path every time you play.
The top end of standalone games are extremely high quality and offer an excellence in storytelling that is unmatched in the MMO universe. They also keep your interest until the logical conclusion. With an MMO, you eventually lose interest and it just sort of fades away. A few MMOs have gone bankrupt and crafted actual 'endings' to their worlds, but that's as far as it goes. The whole point is to get people to keep paying that monthly fee, ad infinitum.
On the flip side. Standalone games, you play once and that's it. You've done everything. There's some limited replay value in there with unlockables and increased difficulty settings, but you've essentially played the whole game. MMOs tend to have enough content that you can't simply sit down for 6-12 hours straight and play it all through.
What's more, MMO's while they would like you to keep paying (your entertainment dollars would go SOMEWHERE, so why not them?), are constantly improving and adding content.
As I noted elsewhere, Everquest is on it's 16th expansion since it opened up in 1999.
City of Heroes is also on it's 16th regular expansion since 2004 and number 17 is only a few months out. All for free no less. What's more, it's second major paid expansion is due out around the same time with a major revision of the graphical engine.
What exactly is "new" about your 5-10 year-old stand-alone games? How much replay value is there in them now?
The top end of standalone games are extremely high quality and offer an excellence in storytelling that is unmatched in the MMO universe.
I disagree. More, I think you're confusing flashy graphical work with storytelling. With stand-alone games, you usually have supporting material and a lot more cut scenes to do exposition. In MMOs, you have to do more exposition in mission setups.
And yes, there are just some story lines that are dogs. But there are others that are by turns scary, funny, sad, glorious, and just about any other descriptor you could care to use.
Playing MMOs is the equivalent to watching television. It's just scratching an itch of compulsive behavior.
I disagree even more strenuously. TV is a passive behavior. Decent MMOs are ANYTHING but passive.
While MMOs have a higher dollar figure overall, I hope that highly produced downloaded content will always have a place.
There's enough room for everybody.
I realize that there are two very distinct camps, and that the MMO players tend to be the younger ones with a lot of spare time on their hands. In any given Blizzard Q&A threa
Okay, until the mutant that is WOW came along and hoovered up 3 million accounts (note, I said ACCOUNTS, not players since some players own multiple accounts, and most RMT (Gold Vendors) own literally hundreds), a "successful" MMO was one where the subscription base was over 80,000-100,000.
One of the reasons Microsoft initially tanked MUO (what became Champions Online) was because they couldn't be honestly promised WOW-type numbers. Thing is, NOBODY can do that. WOW is a massive anomaly in the MMO world.
Also, the money (in a lot of cases) is going where it belongs. Back into the games that generated it. To finance new systems, new content, etc.
And smart developers realize that, unlike console games, these games DON'T have to die after a year or two.
Look at Everquest (Evercrack, the original). It was released in 1999. THE GAME IS STILL BEING DEVELOPED! They released their 16th expansion in December of 2009.
What's more, these games develop communities. Lots of people with common interests.
Now, instead of being a football fanatic and tailgate partying, or going to a baseball game and hoping to catch a foul, or dropping several hundred dollars on miniatures that spend most of their time in a case, these people get on and bash monsters, bad guys, and sometimes even each other while playing. And carry it further into forums, fansites, etc.
I used to think like you did. I pooh-pooh'ed "Rent to PWN"
Then I actually TRIED one. And did a little math in regards to my entertainment expenses.
Two tickets is $15 (or more nowadays). And you sit for 90-180 minutes. Passive. Then you're done. If you want to do it again, you spend another $15.
With an MMO, $15 buys you roughly 43,000 minutes of entertainment (granted, you won't be able to USE all of that). Realistically, if you play an hour or two a night, and take one day off to go do something else, you'll up to 720 minutes of entertainment a week (3,340 minutes a month) (more if you decide to play for longer stretches). And while it's not *physically* interactive, it IS interactive, and can be quite engaging.
Yeah, everyone's heard about those who absolutely lose themselves in the game. Some even ignoring a bootie call when it's lying unclad on the bed not two feet from them. And yes, there ARE games out there that feel more like jobs than games. This is what trial periods are for. Find one you like and one that suits your entertainment needs enough to make you feel like shelling out a regular fee.
Also, there are FTP (Free To Play) MMOs out there, where just playing the game is free, though some advanced zones and character perks are cordoned off for paying players. Like D&D Online. You can play as much or as little as you want. And it won't cost you a penny if you don't want it to.
Slashdot Mirror
Nope.
Chuck Manson got to it first.
Though some ancillary patents are held by the estate of Jim Jones.
There were even a couple filed afterwards by some guy named Khoresh in Waco Texas.
You can have your shit locked down 6 billion ways to Sunday.
The minute you introduce the human element into it, you have a massive security hole that can be patched, but NEVER closed.
You can train and train and train. Ennui sets in and their brains shut off after a while.
You can have the most draconian policies regarding proper usage. People will still circumvent it, accidentally or deliberately.
You can fire people. It just creates ill will and the damage is already done.
And, if it happens to be the owner of the company doing the circumvention there's jack and shit you can do about it.
I'm sorry, but anyone who tells you that security is about "keeping the bad guys out" is SELLING YOU SOMETHING (see: "How much for my large and stinky pile of crap?"). Nothing more.
Security is about putting enough roadblocks in place that attackers begin looking for easier targets so they can maximize their returns on time invested.
If someone wants into your systems bad enough, THEY WILL GET IN. Period.
The job of security is to make this interval as long as possible so they can maximize the chances of catching them before they get in or forcing them into something spectacular and HIGHLY traceable.
Welcome to the wonderful world of medical equipment billing.
Most of the time these devices are relatively inexpensive to build. Maybe 1-200 per if you figure in all the safety certifications.
But a lot of these are going to people with insurance that pays for this sort of thing. So the suppliers are charging 'what the market will bear'.
Main screen turn on.
Uhm. Are you living on the same planet the rest of us are?
The sheer, seething mass of rampant stupidity is only slightly below the point where it implodes and collapses into a stupidity singularity.
If we ARE actually alive in 1.5 million years, it'll prove two things.
1: There IS a God.
2: He's one warped motherfucker for keeping us around.
You can have your shit locked down 6 billion ways to Sunday.
The minute you introduce the human element into it, you have a massive security hole that can be patched, but NEVER closed.
You can train and train and train. Ennui sets in and their brains shut off after a while.
You can have the most draconian policies regarding proper usage. People will still circumvent it, accidentally or deliberately.
You can fire people. It just creates ill will and the damage is already done.
And, if it happens to be the owner of the company doing the circumvention there's jack and shit you can do about it.
I'm sorry, but anyone who tells you that security is about "keeping the bad guys out" is SELLING YOU SOMETHING (see: "How much for my large and stinky pile of crap?"). Nothing more.
Security is about putting enough roadblocks in place that attackers begin looking for easier targets so they can maximize their returns on time invested.
If someone wants into your systems bad enough, THEY WILL GET IN. Period.
The job of security is to make this interval as long as possible so they can maximize the chances of catching them before they get in or forcing them into something spectacular and HIGHLY traceable.
Sorry, 5GB.
5 measly little gigs?
I fart hard and I'm over that cap.
Do not pass Go.
Do not collect $200,000 dollars.
Asshat.
Whenever I watch people playing MMOs and have tried them myself, I've noticed that the graphical and story quality is far inferior to a game with a fixed beginning and ending.
Try looking at something like AION before you get too firmly entrenched in that.
Also, try to remember that these games are played online and only so much data can be passed before the overhead becomes ridiculous. Yes, if you're playing a nice, self-contained game, they can try harder to max out the limits of the system you're on.
Also, exactly how in-depth is the story quality of most of the shared/PVP/online portions of said games? Most are simply elaborate boxes that players are dropped into and expected to beat each other's brains out in.
It's the difference between episodic television and a film. A feature film has very high quality standard packed into every minute, because the entire story arc is contained within that time frame, and they can afford the best actors, director, vfx etc. for that hour and a half which will play to large captive audiences paying a one time fee to see it. Episodic television spans a much larger time frame, and the average episode is budgeted accordingly, with many sets and situations being re-used.
There's also MORE than one arc in many MMOs. So you don't always have to take the same exact path every time you play.
The top end of standalone games are extremely high quality and offer an excellence in storytelling that is unmatched in the MMO universe. They also keep your interest until the logical conclusion. With an MMO, you eventually lose interest and it just sort of fades away. A few MMOs have gone bankrupt and crafted actual 'endings' to their worlds, but that's as far as it goes. The whole point is to get people to keep paying that monthly fee, ad infinitum.
On the flip side. Standalone games, you play once and that's it. You've done everything. There's some limited replay value in there with unlockables and increased difficulty settings, but you've essentially played the whole game. MMOs tend to have enough content that you can't simply sit down for 6-12 hours straight and play it all through.
What's more, MMO's while they would like you to keep paying (your entertainment dollars would go SOMEWHERE, so why not them?), are constantly improving and adding content.
As I noted elsewhere, Everquest is on it's 16th expansion since it opened up in 1999.
City of Heroes is also on it's 16th regular expansion since 2004 and number 17 is only a few months out. All for free no less. What's more, it's second major paid expansion is due out around the same time with a major revision of the graphical engine.
What exactly is "new" about your 5-10 year-old stand-alone games? How much replay value is there in them now?
The top end of standalone games are extremely high quality and offer an excellence in storytelling that is unmatched in the MMO universe.
I disagree. More, I think you're confusing flashy graphical work with storytelling. With stand-alone games, you usually have supporting material and a lot more cut scenes to do exposition. In MMOs, you have to do more exposition in mission setups.
And yes, there are just some story lines that are dogs. But there are others that are by turns scary, funny, sad, glorious, and just about any other descriptor you could care to use.
Playing MMOs is the equivalent to watching television. It's just scratching an itch of compulsive behavior.
I disagree even more strenuously. TV is a passive behavior. Decent MMOs are ANYTHING but passive.
While MMOs have a higher dollar figure overall, I hope that highly produced downloaded content will always have a place.
There's enough room for everybody.
I realize that there are two very distinct camps, and that the MMO players tend to be the younger ones with a lot of spare time on their hands. In any given Blizzard Q&A threa
Okay, until the mutant that is WOW came along and hoovered up 3 million accounts (note, I said ACCOUNTS, not players since some players own multiple accounts, and most RMT (Gold Vendors) own literally hundreds), a "successful" MMO was one where the subscription base was over 80,000-100,000.
One of the reasons Microsoft initially tanked MUO (what became Champions Online) was because they couldn't be honestly promised WOW-type numbers. Thing is, NOBODY can do that. WOW is a massive anomaly in the MMO world.
Also, the money (in a lot of cases) is going where it belongs. Back into the games that generated it. To finance new systems, new content, etc.
And smart developers realize that, unlike console games, these games DON'T have to die after a year or two.
Look at Everquest (Evercrack, the original). It was released in 1999. THE GAME IS STILL BEING DEVELOPED! They released their 16th expansion in December of 2009.
What's more, these games develop communities. Lots of people with common interests.
Now, instead of being a football fanatic and tailgate partying, or going to a baseball game and hoping to catch a foul, or dropping several hundred dollars on miniatures that spend most of their time in a case, these people get on and bash monsters, bad guys, and sometimes even each other while playing. And carry it further into forums, fansites, etc.
I used to think like you did. I pooh-pooh'ed "Rent to PWN"
Then I actually TRIED one. And did a little math in regards to my entertainment expenses.
Two tickets is $15 (or more nowadays). And you sit for 90-180 minutes. Passive. Then you're done. If you want to do it again, you spend another $15.
With an MMO, $15 buys you roughly 43,000 minutes of entertainment (granted, you won't be able to USE all of that).
Realistically, if you play an hour or two a night, and take one day off to go do something else, you'll up to 720 minutes of entertainment a week (3,340 minutes a month) (more if you decide to play for longer stretches).
And while it's not *physically* interactive, it IS interactive, and can be quite engaging.
Yeah, everyone's heard about those who absolutely lose themselves in the game. Some even ignoring a bootie call when it's lying unclad on the bed not two feet from them.
And yes, there ARE games out there that feel more like jobs than games. This is what trial periods are for.
Find one you like and one that suits your entertainment needs enough to make you feel like shelling out a regular fee.
Also, there are FTP (Free To Play) MMOs out there, where just playing the game is free, though some advanced zones and character perks are cordoned off for paying players. Like D&D Online. You can play as much or as little as you want. And it won't cost you a penny if you don't want it to.
iDon't ithink ilike ithis.
iReally idon't iwant ithis isort iof ifunctionality.
iOne icompromised iKey (ihehehe) icould igive ian iattacker iaccess ito ieverything.
iEpic iFail!
Seriously. I wanna know where you go for a job interview that tests you under pressure (excuse the pun) of a blowjob.
I'd apply in a heartbeat.
Several times.
A day!
Yep. Because operating systems shouldn't run programs at all. Ever.
I'm sure security in an OS would be much simpler if this were true.
The internet was originally called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network).
It was funded by a government agency, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
This has nothing to do with US control of DNS.
They went to the domains' REGISTRAR (GoDaddy) and got THEM to disable the domains.
Control of DNS could be in the hands of Bumblefuckistan and they still could have done this.
Because idiots are amazingly inventive, persistent, and breed at a rate so ferocious that rabbits are envious.
Come up with a "foolproof" way for securing a system and some imbecile will find a way around it.
Not to mention all the inconveniences such a lockdown method would inevitably entail.
First post!
An AV doesn't phone home unless you tell it to.
Moreover, you can see a copy of what it's sending.
If you're talking an MMO someplace in the neighborhood of 100K players, there's lots of them out there.
If you're talking a WOW-style anomaly with a few million RMT accounts and a few hundred thousand players, you're bound to be disappointed.
No thank you.
I don't cheat.
But I also don't want programs running arbitrary deep-level scans on my system and phoning home either.
ESPECIALLY since I can't see the data.
Not that I was expecting any better from them. Too much money involved. Still, doesn't stop me from being disappointed anyhow.
We're going to take tax payer money to create a body that creates "long term projections".
Okay, we've had assorted loonies out on the corner for centuries preaching the end of the world.
Now we want to nationalize them?
Don't we have BETTER things to be spending our money on?
This has been the differentiating factor of Macs vs PCs for pretty much ever.
Why is this news now?
Gomez Addams said it best.
GREED!