Ummm..... I hate the deal with a passion.... But by my calculations, in 4 years,.com registrations at the wholesale level will run about $9.11USD. This is far from $100 registrations.
What I don't want to see is VeriSign getting a perpetual ownership of the.com.
I've never had any problems running either ATI or nVidia under Linux.
That being said, I much prefer ATI at the lower end of the spectrum. nVidia tends to lag really bad in my experience. I say this because I originally bought an nVidia MX 5400 for my main system and had hella local lag playing my games. I bought a cheap ATI 9600SE, which was a bit cheaper than the nVidia was, and it rocked the house. I threw the nVidia in my second system, which is almost exactly like my main system, but less disk space, and games lag just as bad as they did in my main system, making it pretty much just a bot machine.
Yes yes, I know my systems are behind the times just a tad, and they're not top of the line, but at least they run everything I want so far. I'm a poor boy and I'm not into the latest and greatest FPS' much, got most of that out back in the original DOOM and Quake days. Then again, sometimes I break out the old xbox and do a lil fraggin' from time to time.
Rewrite and reorganization of the kernel... Seperation of drivers into user mode, more like *nix. No more reboots for upgrading a hardware driver... Graphics processing in the UI is different and supposed to be more efficient, without all the crap compatibility patches prior to DX9.... Permissions are finer grained....
That's just a drop in the bucket. Some of the new things they're putting into Vista kind of caught my eye, and I might just have to try it out. I understand that manufacturers are writting Vista 32 and 64bit drivers concurrently, so we won't run into the lack of drivers that 64bit XP Pro did. That being said, it will probably be a while before I have a beast of a machine that'll run it at it's full potential. Of course, next year will be about time for me to upgrade my system to 64bits anyway....
(For the record, I'm not an M$ fanboi. I just think that I shouldn't judge something before I try it.)
There are very few software packages that come to mind that include all the features you're looking for. Take a look at some of the portal systems such as PostNuke. There are tons of modules out there, but also be cautious. Most OSS systems are still evolving, thus breaking backwards compatabilities. There is another option, and that's start with a blogging software and write or adapt the different parts you'll need. Either way, don't do a half-ass job at it (read quality control.
The biggest problem I've found with this kind of thing is getting people to take notice and care about a project. After all, you will need people who are willing to donate their time and resources to the project, right?
A lot of people aren't interested in the RP though, which is why some MMO companies have pure RP servers. The same for PvP.
Besides, to tell you the truth, it kinda creeps me out a little. I mean, who wouldn't be creeped out by a Dwarven warrior saying "It'll put some hair on yer chest?" Or some Pally walking up and saying "How art there fair lad?" when I'm a Night/Dark Elf.... *shutters*
(for those who don't play WoW, leave your char logged off for a few weeks and when you come back you get double experience up until your next level or so)
Blasphemy! What respectable WoW citizen would do such a thing?
The reason why they aren't being bid on is because the majority of them are either overpriced "buy it now" or have an overpriced reserve. No way in hell I'm spending $500-$600USD on a gaming system, when I could spend that much and upgrade my existing computer to uber proportions, and get more out of it than just playing a few games and maybe watch some DVDs. That's just fscked up...
As far as the over aboundance in Japan, so what? That's in Japan, not here in the States. We all know that Japan is a finicky console market anyway, and that M$ was nuts for trying to sell there. But hey, no sweat off my brow. I'll just stick with my trusty puter.:)
Power Rangers and Barney are made for two different age groups of kids. Power Rangers are for lik 9 to 13 year olds, where Barney is made for 1 to about 8 years old. Perhaps a better comparison is loony toons to Barney, as both are made for about the same age range.
Personally, I hate the new G.I. Joe, He-Man, and Transformer cartoons. I think they made them too soft from the original series'. In all three original series' there was always something to learn at the end of each episode, including lessons about death and dieing. Unfortunatly, the new series' are all way too PC to really deal with that sort of thing, IMHO.
On another note, kids need to be taught to think for themselves. How can children ever learn what they need to know if you control their every move? With that in mind, I do believe that throttling the exposure to violence at early ages may keep a child from becoming overly violent or abusive. I also believe that micro-managing a child could also cause psychological damage. Of course, each child is different and milage may vary.
Hell, over the course of history christians have killed and tortured at least as many people in the name of their religion as muslims have.
Actually more than you might think, dating back to the Christian Roman Empire under Ceasar Constantine. They slaughtered millions of people wouldn't convert, and that was just the begining. I won't even get into the Crusades, or Inquisition. Too much blood.... Why do you think the dark ages were the dark ages?
Religion, it seems, gives the fools an excuse to do foolish things. How annoying...
A safegard against this kind of behaviour is easy. Set it to where they have to be grouped with you for a period of say, 15 rl minutes, before they can give feedback. Since most raids take MUCH longer, it could be a deturrent. You can also set a threshold to 1 rating per day, per account. In other words, you may not leave more than 1 feedback for a particular account, on a particular account. On top of that, when someone is kicked from a raid/group/party/whatever, the leader may then be presented with the option of leaving feedback, and the leader and group be exempt from being rated buy the kicked member (e.g. if you are kicked, you may not leave feedback for the group experience. Of course, in order to be fair about it, you can't let the whole group gang up and rate the kicked player negativey, so the only rating that player gets is from the leader.
I think that would help keep the revenge rating to a minimum.
I'm glad I didn't start playing SWG. I beta'd the game right before it shipped. There was no way it was ready. It was laggy and buggy from the get-go, and definatly in need of polishing before going gold. I decided at that time I wasn't go to play it at that time. Sure, maybe I would have bought and played it later, if it started getting decent reviews, but it never did. I had a buddy at work, which had SWG as his first game, tried so hard to like this game, now he calls it "a piece of shit.
Then something happened that made me really glad I hadn't started playing SWG; NGE. It would have pissed me off to no end had I worked hard to get a Jedi, crafting up, and developed a character or two, then have it gone in one sweep. That'd smooth piss me off.
Reading all different MMO boards, I see soooooo many SWG refugees. When I play WoW, I'll often see people asking to be contacted by former SWG players. SOE screwed up pretty good by messing with their current customer base in the name of future profits. SOE should have made NGE a whole new game, imho. That way, they could have kept their current customer base, and then had the dumbed down version for those without an IQ.
ummm... I'm looking at a bunch of quotes that are 8 years old or older. The relationship between HIV and AIDS has been demonstrated in a minor amount of cases (see here.
Some people never show symptoms of HIV infection, some develop full blown AIDS and die shortly after. But, the few cases that do tie HIV and AIDS together have pretty much convinced many scientists that HIV and AIDS have some sort of real link.
Packaging costs money. Usually, the box is about 3/4 of the price of a game. Bandwidth costs money. We all know it's gotta cost them more than pocket change to run an MMOG, right?
While I'd agree I'd love a free client, open an account for a trial, and if I like it, I'd subscribe and deem them fit for my money. Unfortunatly, it just doesn't work that way. Joe Public wants a pretty little box, with a manual, and shiny a CD/DVD or two (or more. It's a little less than fair to expect a manufacturer to foot the bill for the packaging.
The monthly subscription is used to pay for R&D, server upkeep, bandwidth, adding new hardware, paying the support folks, and the list goes on. So theory, for that $15/month, you get more content, better stability, and someone in support who knows what the hell they are doing.
All in all, the justifications for charging for both the boxed software and subscription are there. Also, many of the companies that have a contract distributer can't, under contract, distribute their client in any other way. DAoC was prime example of that. Mythic didn't renew their contract, so now they can distribute it electronically.
Of course, you could always just go play Secondlife. They don't charge anything for the client or game play, but if you want to play with the more interesting features of the game, you'll have to pay a subscription plus a little extra. It's a unique business model to say the least.
In other news, a manager at a local business was brutally murdered yesterday by one of the software engineers working under him. The enraged developer showed no remorse, and his only comment was "VoIP sux0rz!" More at 11.
Ok, for the record, my IQ is ~130, or at least that's what I've been told.
When I was in the first grade, my mind never really was on the work at hand. I always wanted to be else where doing other things. My teacher, et al., came to the conclusion I was "lil-yellow-bus special," and proceded to put me in special ed.. I must say, it was the most stemulating classes I've ever had. While the "regular" kids were in learning something useless, I was working on learning Logo on the TRS-80, and learning some more advanced social skills I use to this day. I had problems relating to other kids my age.
As I grew, school was boring. My teachers would consistently put in "C" classes, which I would sleep through and get A's. If I showed much initiative, such as taking the Apple IIe BASIC program home and porting it to my Commodore 64, then turning in both copies, it was met with but little more than a pat on the head, and a laugh from the class. That's when I figured out it was useless trying to do more that what was expected.
In highschool, I had little interest in basic academia, and delved into the arts. Music, theater, public speaking, jewelry making, etc... Why? Because they challenged me, and they were free classes. The whole "C" class hell was boring, and I needed something to keep me from going nuts. I feel like I never really had the chance to do what I know I could have done. They placed me in a box, labeled me "special," and forgot about me.....
I always thought there would be more to life than being expected to be (less than?) mediocre. Maybe they've come a lot farther now than back in my day.... At least that's what I hope.
A study by like 10 bajillion genius Harvard researchers...
Don't you mean a Brazillion?
Re:Everything bad for you is good for you again
on
Drink Decaf and Die
·
· Score: 1
I know it's said fats are what makes food taste good, but personally, I find some of the light stuff to taste better than the regular. For example, now that I'm used to diet cola I doubt I'd go back. Lean ground beef is another example, I picked up a pack and was surprised to find it was the best ground beef I'd had. Fat free bologna tastes almost identical to me, and so does quite a few other such foods.
I'm sorry, but the lean meat usually comes out much drier than, say, 80/20. The key here is to balance things out, not to starve yourself from something it really does need. Carbs, calories, fats, protiens, and so forth, are needed by the human body to maintain a balance. Once you throw that balance off, you either become too skinny or too fat. Many people tend to swing one way or another, which I don't think either is very healthy.
I'd like to point out that Sony is basically a group. There's Sony/BMG, Sony/Arista, Sony/Columbia, Sony Games, Sony Electronics, and a slew of other "partner" companies (all owned and operated through Sony). So basically, your "one company" is a bunch of smaller companies. It's very likely that Sony's different subsidiaries conspired to "price fix", which would account for a ton of music worldwide.
LoTR has a "player" that came in it. Autorun would always try to install it, of course I use something else, so it never hit my system, but this kind of thing just sucks. If you have a DVD-ROM/Burner, then more than likely you already have a player. No need in shipping a "player" on any DVD.
Slashdot Mirror
Ummm..... I hate the deal with a passion.... But by my calculations, in 4 years, .com registrations at the wholesale level will run about $9.11USD. This is far from $100 registrations.
.com.
What I don't want to see is VeriSign getting a perpetual ownership of the
I've never had any problems running either ATI or nVidia under Linux.
That being said, I much prefer ATI at the lower end of the spectrum. nVidia tends to lag really bad in my experience. I say this because I originally bought an nVidia MX 5400 for my main system and had hella local lag playing my games. I bought a cheap ATI 9600SE, which was a bit cheaper than the nVidia was, and it rocked the house. I threw the nVidia in my second system, which is almost exactly like my main system, but less disk space, and games lag just as bad as they did in my main system, making it pretty much just a bot machine.
Yes yes, I know my systems are behind the times just a tad, and they're not top of the line, but at least they run everything I want so far. I'm a poor boy and I'm not into the latest and greatest FPS' much, got most of that out back in the original DOOM and Quake days. Then again, sometimes I break out the old xbox and do a lil fraggin' from time to time.
Rewrite and reorganization of the kernel... Seperation of drivers into user mode, more like *nix. No more reboots for upgrading a hardware driver... Graphics processing in the UI is different and supposed to be more efficient, without all the crap compatibility patches prior to DX9.... Permissions are finer grained....
That's just a drop in the bucket. Some of the new things they're putting into Vista kind of caught my eye, and I might just have to try it out. I understand that manufacturers are writting Vista 32 and 64bit drivers concurrently, so we won't run into the lack of drivers that 64bit XP Pro did. That being said, it will probably be a while before I have a beast of a machine that'll run it at it's full potential. Of course, next year will be about time for me to upgrade my system to 64bits anyway....
(For the record, I'm not an M$ fanboi. I just think that I shouldn't judge something before I try it.)
There are very few software packages that come to mind that include all the features you're looking for. Take a look at some of the portal systems such as PostNuke. There are tons of modules out there, but also be cautious. Most OSS systems are still evolving, thus breaking backwards compatabilities. There is another option, and that's start with a blogging software and write or adapt the different parts you'll need. Either way, don't do a half-ass job at it (read quality control.
The biggest problem I've found with this kind of thing is getting people to take notice and care about a project. After all, you will need people who are willing to donate their time and resources to the project, right?
ni hao
Possibly to learn, but given the thousands of ways to do things, it may turn into a nightmare to maintain. Gives me chills just thinking about it....
A lot of people aren't interested in the RP though, which is why some MMO companies have pure RP servers. The same for PvP.
Besides, to tell you the truth, it kinda creeps me out a little. I mean, who wouldn't be creeped out by a Dwarven warrior saying "It'll put some hair on yer chest?" Or some Pally walking up and saying "How art there fair lad?" when I'm a Night/Dark Elf.... *shutters*
Blasphemy! What respectable WoW citizen would do such a thing?
The reason why they aren't being bid on is because the majority of them are either overpriced "buy it now" or have an overpriced reserve. No way in hell I'm spending $500-$600USD on a gaming system, when I could spend that much and upgrade my existing computer to uber proportions, and get more out of it than just playing a few games and maybe watch some DVDs. That's just fscked up...
:)
As far as the over aboundance in Japan, so what? That's in Japan, not here in the States. We all know that Japan is a finicky console market anyway, and that M$ was nuts for trying to sell there. But hey, no sweat off my brow. I'll just stick with my trusty puter.
Power Rangers and Barney are made for two different age groups of kids. Power Rangers are for lik 9 to 13 year olds, where Barney is made for 1 to about 8 years old. Perhaps a better comparison is loony toons to Barney, as both are made for about the same age range.
Personally, I hate the new G.I. Joe, He-Man, and Transformer cartoons. I think they made them too soft from the original series'. In all three original series' there was always something to learn at the end of each episode, including lessons about death and dieing. Unfortunatly, the new series' are all way too PC to really deal with that sort of thing, IMHO.
On another note, kids need to be taught to think for themselves. How can children ever learn what they need to know if you control their every move? With that in mind, I do believe that throttling the exposure to violence at early ages may keep a child from becoming overly violent or abusive. I also believe that micro-managing a child could also cause psychological damage. Of course, each child is different and milage may vary.
Actually more than you might think, dating back to the Christian Roman Empire under Ceasar Constantine. They slaughtered millions of people wouldn't convert, and that was just the begining. I won't even get into the Crusades, or Inquisition. Too much blood.... Why do you think the dark ages were the dark ages?
Religion, it seems, gives the fools an excuse to do foolish things. How annoying...
A safegard against this kind of behaviour is easy. Set it to where they have to be grouped with you for a period of say, 15 rl minutes, before they can give feedback. Since most raids take MUCH longer, it could be a deturrent. You can also set a threshold to 1 rating per day, per account. In other words, you may not leave more than 1 feedback for a particular account, on a particular account. On top of that, when someone is kicked from a raid/group/party/whatever, the leader may then be presented with the option of leaving feedback, and the leader and group be exempt from being rated buy the kicked member (e.g. if you are kicked, you may not leave feedback for the group experience. Of course, in order to be fair about it, you can't let the whole group gang up and rate the kicked player negativey, so the only rating that player gets is from the leader.
I think that would help keep the revenge rating to a minimum.
I'm glad I didn't start playing SWG. I beta'd the game right before it shipped. There was no way it was ready. It was laggy and buggy from the get-go, and definatly in need of polishing before going gold. I decided at that time I wasn't go to play it at that time. Sure, maybe I would have bought and played it later, if it started getting decent reviews, but it never did. I had a buddy at work, which had SWG as his first game, tried so hard to like this game, now he calls it "a piece of shit.
Then something happened that made me really glad I hadn't started playing SWG; NGE. It would have pissed me off to no end had I worked hard to get a Jedi, crafting up, and developed a character or two, then have it gone in one sweep. That'd smooth piss me off.
Reading all different MMO boards, I see soooooo many SWG refugees. When I play WoW, I'll often see people asking to be contacted by former SWG players. SOE screwed up pretty good by messing with their current customer base in the name of future profits. SOE should have made NGE a whole new game, imho. That way, they could have kept their current customer base, and then had the dumbed down version for those without an IQ.
Heh, SOE screwed up pretty good indeed.
This is SOE, not Sony/BMG. There's a difference, although they are both tied to the umbrella Sony corporation.
ummm... I'm looking at a bunch of quotes that are 8 years old or older. The relationship between HIV and AIDS has been demonstrated in a minor amount of cases (see here.
Some people never show symptoms of HIV infection, some develop full blown AIDS and die shortly after. But, the few cases that do tie HIV and AIDS together have pretty much convinced many scientists that HIV and AIDS have some sort of real link.
Here's how I think about it....
Packaging costs money. Usually, the box is about 3/4 of the price of a game.
Bandwidth costs money. We all know it's gotta cost them more than pocket change to run an MMOG, right?
While I'd agree I'd love a free client, open an account for a trial, and if I like it, I'd subscribe and deem them fit for my money. Unfortunatly, it just doesn't work that way. Joe Public wants a pretty little box, with a manual, and shiny a CD/DVD or two (or more. It's a little less than fair to expect a manufacturer to foot the bill for the packaging.
The monthly subscription is used to pay for R&D, server upkeep, bandwidth, adding new hardware, paying the support folks, and the list goes on. So theory, for that $15/month, you get more content, better stability, and someone in support who knows what the hell they are doing.
All in all, the justifications for charging for both the boxed software and subscription are there. Also, many of the companies that have a contract distributer can't, under contract, distribute their client in any other way. DAoC was prime example of that. Mythic didn't renew their contract, so now they can distribute it electronically.
Of course, you could always just go play Secondlife. They don't charge anything for the client or game play, but if you want to play with the more interesting features of the game, you'll have to pay a subscription plus a little extra. It's a unique business model to say the least.
Well, I guess that's it for now...
Maybe daddy loved him too much....
Could be "I want VoIP before you go home today."
In other news, a manager at a local business was brutally murdered yesterday by one of the software engineers working under him. The enraged developer showed no remorse, and his only comment was "VoIP sux0rz!" More at 11.
Micro$oft has spread beyond treatment, and is terminal. Too bad we didn't have this kind of knowledge back when it was treatable.
Ok, for the record, my IQ is ~130, or at least that's what I've been told.
When I was in the first grade, my mind never really was on the work at hand. I always wanted to be else where doing other things. My teacher, et al., came to the conclusion I was "lil-yellow-bus special," and proceded to put me in special ed.. I must say, it was the most stemulating classes I've ever had. While the "regular" kids were in learning something useless, I was working on learning Logo on the TRS-80, and learning some more advanced social skills I use to this day. I had problems relating to other kids my age.
As I grew, school was boring. My teachers would consistently put in "C" classes, which I would sleep through and get A's. If I showed much initiative, such as taking the Apple IIe BASIC program home and porting it to my Commodore 64, then turning in both copies, it was met with but little more than a pat on the head, and a laugh from the class. That's when I figured out it was useless trying to do more that what was expected.
In highschool, I had little interest in basic academia, and delved into the arts. Music, theater, public speaking, jewelry making, etc... Why? Because they challenged me, and they were free classes. The whole "C" class hell was boring, and I needed something to keep me from going nuts. I feel like I never really had the chance to do what I know I could have done. They placed me in a box, labeled me "special," and forgot about me.....
I always thought there would be more to life than being expected to be (less than?) mediocre. Maybe they've come a lot farther now than back in my day.... At least that's what I hope.
I'd like to point out that Sony is basically a group. There's Sony/BMG, Sony/Arista, Sony/Columbia, Sony Games, Sony Electronics, and a slew of other "partner" companies (all owned and operated through Sony). So basically, your "one company" is a bunch of smaller companies. It's very likely that Sony's different subsidiaries conspired to "price fix", which would account for a ton of music worldwide.
Naw..... I'll just wait until I wake up, then jack-in and download it into my brain, thanks.
LoTR has a "player" that came in it. Autorun would always try to install it, of course I use something else, so it never hit my system, but this kind of thing just sucks. If you have a DVD-ROM/Burner, then more than likely you already have a player. No need in shipping a "player" on any DVD.