That's a common misconception with RAID. Redundant disks only protect you from hardware failure. You still need to make backups to recover from human failure. If Bob in accounting deletes your Quickbooks files, they're gone. I just had to restore a giant spreadsheet from tape a couple days ago, onto a RAID 5 system.
Without at least RAID 1 (mirrored drives) I never consider a hardware device a server. A PC running backend applications with no redundancy is a bad idea in a busy business.
The idea of rating games M for mature, and denying access to those under 17 is acceptable. But who provides the ratings? If it's not an independent, objective group, the rating will mean little. Game makers will not willingly give up a large chunk of their customer base for violent games: teenage boys.
Movie ratings provide parents a consistent measuring stick to enable them to make informed decisions for their kids. Parents can accompany their kids to R-rated movies if they wish. Likewise, parents can buy M-rated games for their kids, nomatter what laws are enacted.
The challenge will be in making the rating consistent and trustworthy enough for parents to depend on without having to research each title extensively before buying.
I am looking forward to a full-blown sequel, but the publisher seems here [gametab.com] more willing to issue a "Gold Edition" than to invest in a new full game.
They show was only Star Trek related because they named it Star Trek: DS9. If it didn't have that as part of the title (and a couple of throwaway characters from ST:TNG) it would basically be as much a part of Star Trek as Andromeda is(n't).
Except that it takes place in the Star Trek universe, complete with Star Fleet, navy ranks, big capital ships, phasers, photon torpedoes, transporters, tri-corders, warp speed, and tribbles.
About the only thing Andromeda has in common with any ST show is Gene Roddenberry's utopian vision of the future and belief that humanity can reach any goal through its own efforts, rather then waiting for god-like messiahs (e.g. Jedi, The One) to deliver them.
But consoles are the future for game clients. The simple, common, stable platform provided by a console is far preferable to a PC from a development and support standpoint.
I see the future of PCs in gaming to be content creation platforms and persistent servers, with consoles as the clients, aka Client/Server gaming.
I suspect any mods that disparage the image of the U.S. military would be frowned upon. And since most modders would object to going through an official approval process for their creative works, I'm not surprised if mod options don't get very far.
Analogy: If somebody you barely know started giving you a dollar a day for no reason whatsoever, then a couple years later stopped giving you the dollar, would you be pissed at the giver or be thankful for the generosity you did receive?
These companies act like they're owed something more based solely on the fact that they were getting it before. Merit-less entitlement. I bet the company owners aren't welfare fans, yet that seems to be what they're arguing for here.
I just heard on NPR this morning that many indie labels are trying to get off the RIAA's list (Many indies want to be file shared to get the word out). Apparently the RIAA claims to represent thousands of labels, many of whom have never joined the organization.
The theory goes that for them to be effective they must appear to represent the majority of labels. The reality is that they represent the major labels and their affiliates. The quicker the truth comes out the less power they will have.
Rather than say there is no innovation, I would say that PCs continue to excel in the genres you mention: RTS, FPS, simulations, as well as RPGs and strategy games.
I think what's happening is that consoles, with their inexpensive, stable platforms, are closing the gaps that made PCs better, such as Internet multi-player and performance.
I see the future of gaming as a client/server model with PCs as the servers and consoles as the clients. PCs will serve as content creation platforms, dedicated servers, websites about the games, etc. In other words, infrastructure or meta-platforms, if you will. Consoles will be as they are now, stand-alone boxes to play single-player or hot-seat games, or clients to link to dedicated servers (corporate of fan-run) online.
It's a good model that takes away the headaches of knowing the client hardware, but still allows the freedom and flexibility offered by the PC.
Spammers make a choice to hijack systems to cover their tracks, leech bandwidth to make others pay their costs, increase the burden on mail servers everywhere, and flood the Internet with needless traffic.
How is a new law going to suddenly convince them they're doing something wrong, morally or legally?
I think the article's author just got hung up on the word 'mature'. A game with an M rating reflects content you're more likely to see in an X-rated movie. Last time I checked X-rated movies weren't winning any Oscars for writing, directing, or acting.
So, yes, the article is correct. 'Mature' really should be 'Sophomoric'. But, since we all know what it really means, who cares?
Without specific code that target's ATMs, this is merely a generic nuisance that happened to hit what some consider a sensitive device.
Scary when you think what could happen, and frustrating when you think of the loss of trust in the security admins. But let's keep this in perspective. Nothing serious happened and it's a big step to get to where something serious will happen.
Hopefully those responsible have been sacked, and the new security llamas won't make the same mistakes.
Fortunarely for the tyrannists, military training in part equates to brainwashing.
Nice troll post. I'll answer it anyway.
Enlisted men swear an oath to "obey the orders of the POTUS and the orders of the officers appointed over" them. They are conditioned to do so. But they are also taught law of land warfare, rules of engagement, and to disobey unlawful orders.
Commissioned officers, on the other hand, do not swear to "obey" in their oaths. In fact they are instructed to disobey direct orders if they think they know a better way to complete their mission.
In the event of a civil war or resistence it's the leaders who will decide what their units will do. It's left to the soldiers to decide whether to follow their leaders, switch sides, or go home. I have faith in our citizen soldiers to do the right thing.
Your right to bear arms isn't a threat to the government. It is, however, a threat to your kids, spouse, friends, neighbors, postman, local law-enforcement...
I could not disagree more. It is indeed a deterrent for reasons already stated in this thread. It's not about who has the bigger weapons. It's about having a means to resist if, God forbid, it ever comes to that. 2 million servicemen (the entire U.S. military, including all services, active, reserve, and guard) cannot hold back the other 250 million of us, even armed with sticks, tanks not withstanding.
Also, the U.S. military is composed of educated volunteer citizens. In other words, us. If it comes to true tyranny by our own government, many soldiers will leave their posts and join the resistance.
But there's a large gap between mass resistence to government tyranny, and a few paranoid, disillusioned militia members. I hope we can always tell the difference.
Good point. But my analogy still works. If the data is valuable to people they can find it. In my case the people who value my photos can contact my family.
Just because the web medium is unreliable doesn't mean the data should be. A scientist worthy of his reputation should provide other means of contact/access along with his web-published data. Otherwise his conclusions are suspect to begin with.
Anonymity has a price and we're seeing it as sites with valid contributions, but lacking tangible links to real people, disappear forever.
It's one thing to invest your time doing something you enjoy and get something back. Arts and crafts shows thrive on this idea. But to farm items in a game strictly for monetary gain seems like a waste. I haven't seen any quantifiable data on this. What is the actual return on time investment?
Consider the days it takes to get a character to a decent level with decent enough equipment and keys to access the choice areas, and the camping time for the rare spawns. How could that possibly earn one a decent wage? I suppose it's better than working in an actual sweat shop if that's your only alternative. But I'd think people savvy enough to max EQ could find respectable employment elsewhere.
Slashdot Mirror
Good points. However:
With raid-1, you dont even have to make backups.
That's a common misconception with RAID. Redundant disks only protect you from hardware failure. You still need to make backups to recover from human failure. If Bob in accounting deletes your Quickbooks files, they're gone. I just had to restore a giant spreadsheet from tape a couple days ago, onto a RAID 5 system.
RAID won't save you from Bob.
Without at least RAID 1 (mirrored drives) I never consider a hardware device a server. A PC running backend applications with no redundancy is a bad idea in a busy business.
The idea of rating games M for mature, and denying access to those under 17 is acceptable. But who provides the ratings? If it's not an independent, objective group, the rating will mean little. Game makers will not willingly give up a large chunk of their customer base for violent games: teenage boys.
Movie ratings provide parents a consistent measuring stick to enable them to make informed decisions for their kids. Parents can accompany their kids to R-rated movies if they wish. Likewise, parents can buy M-rated games for their kids, nomatter what laws are enacted.
The challenge will be in making the rating consistent and trustworthy enough for parents to depend on without having to research each title extensively before buying.
I am looking forward to a full-blown sequel, but the publisher seems here [gametab.com] more willing to issue a "Gold Edition" than to invest in a new full game.
They've been working on their Secret PC RPG Project for over a year.
They show was only Star Trek related because they named it Star Trek: DS9. If it didn't have that as part of the title (and a couple of throwaway characters from ST:TNG) it would basically be as much a part of Star Trek as Andromeda is(n't).
Except that it takes place in the Star Trek universe, complete with Star Fleet, navy ranks, big capital ships, phasers, photon torpedoes, transporters, tri-corders, warp speed, and tribbles.
About the only thing Andromeda has in common with any ST show is Gene Roddenberry's utopian vision
of the future and belief that humanity can reach any goal through its own efforts, rather then waiting for god-like messiahs (e.g. Jedi, The One) to deliver them.
But consoles are the future for game clients. The simple, common, stable platform provided by a console is far preferable to a PC from a development and support standpoint.
I see the future of PCs in gaming to be content creation platforms and persistent servers, with consoles as the clients, aka Client/Server gaming.
Something like a multi-player version of KotOR? Bioware will come through for you, I'm sure. Have you tried NWN? HotU is in stores now.
I suspect any mods that disparage the image of the U.S. military would be frowned upon. And since most modders would object to going through an official approval process for their creative works, I'm not surprised if mod options don't get very far.
Exactly right.
Analogy: If somebody you barely know started giving you a dollar a day for no reason whatsoever, then a couple years later stopped giving you the dollar, would you be pissed at the giver or be thankful for the generosity you did receive?
These companies act like they're owed something more based solely on the fact that they were getting it before. Merit-less entitlement. I bet the company owners aren't welfare fans, yet that seems to be what they're arguing for here.
I just heard on NPR this morning that many indie labels are trying to get off the RIAA's list (Many indies want to be file shared to get the word out). Apparently the RIAA claims to represent thousands of labels, many of whom have never joined the organization.
The theory goes that for them to be effective they must appear to represent the majority of labels. The reality is that they represent the major labels and their affiliates. The quicker the truth comes out the less power they will have.
Rather than say there is no innovation, I would say that PCs continue to excel in the genres you mention: RTS, FPS, simulations, as well as RPGs and strategy games.
I think what's happening is that consoles, with their inexpensive, stable platforms, are closing the gaps that made PCs better, such as Internet multi-player and performance.
I see the future of gaming as a client/server model with PCs as the servers and consoles as the clients. PCs will serve as content creation platforms, dedicated servers, websites about the games, etc. In other words, infrastructure or meta-platforms, if you will. Consoles will be as they are now, stand-alone boxes to play single-player or hot-seat games, or clients to link to dedicated servers (corporate of fan-run) online.
It's a good model that takes away the headaches of knowing the client hardware, but still allows the freedom and flexibility offered by the PC.
Spammers make a choice to hijack systems to cover their tracks, leech bandwidth to make others pay their costs, increase the burden on mail servers everywhere, and flood the Internet with needless traffic.
How is a new law going to suddenly convince them they're doing something wrong, morally or legally?
Midnight Cowboy
:)
The exception that proves the rule.
And it's certainly possible for an M game to get that level of quality, depth, and maturity. But right now the rating itself appears to be the goal.
I think the article's author just got hung up on the word 'mature'. A game with an M rating reflects content you're more likely to see in an X-rated movie. Last time I checked X-rated movies weren't winning any Oscars for writing, directing, or acting.
So, yes, the article is correct. 'Mature' really should be 'Sophomoric'. But, since we all know what it really means, who cares?
There's no personal data stored in an ATM. It's just a dumb terminal.
And Nachi basically makes the machine unusable.
Without specific code that target's ATMs, this is merely a generic nuisance that happened to hit what some consider a sensitive device.
Scary when you think what could happen, and frustrating when you think of the loss of trust in the security admins. But let's keep this in perspective. Nothing serious happened and it's a big step to get to where something serious will happen.
Hopefully those responsible have been sacked, and the new security llamas won't make the same mistakes.
Fortunarely for the tyrannists, military training in part equates to brainwashing.
Nice troll post. I'll answer it anyway.
Enlisted men swear an oath to "obey the orders of the POTUS and the orders of the officers appointed over" them. They are conditioned to do so. But they are also taught law of land warfare, rules of engagement, and to disobey unlawful orders.
Commissioned officers, on the other hand, do not swear to "obey" in their oaths. In fact they are instructed to disobey direct orders if they think they know a better way to complete their mission.
In the event of a civil war or resistence it's the leaders who will decide what their units will do. It's left to the soldiers to decide whether to follow their leaders, switch sides, or go home. I have faith in our citizen soldiers to do the right thing.
Your right to bear arms isn't a threat to the government. It is, however, a threat to your kids, spouse, friends, neighbors, postman, local law-enforcement...
I could not disagree more. It is indeed a deterrent for reasons already stated in this thread. It's not about who has the bigger weapons. It's about having a means to resist if, God forbid, it ever comes to that. 2 million servicemen (the entire U.S. military, including all services, active, reserve, and guard) cannot hold back the other 250 million of us, even armed with sticks, tanks not withstanding.
Also, the U.S. military is composed of educated volunteer citizens. In other words, us. If it comes to true tyranny by our own government, many soldiers will leave their posts and join the resistance.
But there's a large gap between mass resistence to government tyranny, and a few paranoid, disillusioned militia members. I hope we can always tell the difference.
When the 1st Amendment no longer protects your voice.
And when the 4th Amendment no longer protects your privacy or your suff.
Thank God we have the 2nd Amendment to tell our elected representatives that enough is enough.
It's time to put "... from my cold, dead hands" back where it belongs.
ICANN = Unilateralist, pre-emptive "improvements" to the Internet, whether you like them or not.
ITU = Lots of diplomatic talk barely concealing greedy power grabbers, in the end accomplishing little.
On a side note: What does Switzerland do for Internet access?
Yes, I was thinking of FF II, which I played back in 92-93 on a friend's SNES.
Japanese and American game tastes are not that different. Consider:
Super Mario Brothers - 2
Mario Brothers - 3
The Legend of Zelda - 4
Final Fantasy III - 7
I've never owned a Nintendo yet have played all these. Definitely deserving of their placement in the top 10.
Ugh, meant GameSpy and Gamespot
Can't run it from my Windows 2000 Pro desktop. Also requires IE 5.5 or later.
Based on the site, I'd say it's good for casual (non-technical) gamers and parents looking for compatible games for their kids.
Can't see a serious gamer getting anything of value from it. Better to go to Gamespy or Gamespot.
Good point. But my analogy still works. If the data is valuable to people they can find it. In my case the people who value my photos can contact my family.
Just because the web medium is unreliable doesn't mean the data should be. A scientist worthy of his reputation should provide other means of contact/access along with his web-published data. Otherwise his conclusions are suspect to begin with.
Anonymity has a price and we're seeing it as sites with valid contributions, but lacking tangible links to real people, disappear forever.
It's one thing to invest your time doing something you enjoy and get something back. Arts and crafts shows thrive on this idea. But to farm items in a game strictly for monetary gain seems like a waste. I haven't seen any quantifiable data on this. What is the actual return on time investment?
Consider the days it takes to get a character to a decent level with decent enough equipment and keys to access the choice areas, and the camping time for the rare spawns. How could that possibly earn one a decent wage? I suppose it's better than working in an actual sweat shop if that's your only alternative. But I'd think people savvy enough to max EQ could find respectable employment elsewhere.