Anyone remember TradeWars 2002? I was an addict of that space colonization/exploration BBS door. The funny part is that there are many places on the net that it's still a hugely popular niche. Good luck surviving a game though, these games are dominated by some pretty hardcore players... most of them using the things that killed the game for me: the handful of frontend GUIs that scripted a lot of the empire building work.
This seems to be an ugly trend in "Modular America"... We change our employers much more often than our parents did; drive plastic vehicles that aren't quite a truck, yet not quite a car; and dare label stuff that comes out of a spray can "cheese".
When I come home, I want my home to have a solid, permanent feeling. If I wanted cheap and easy, I'd live in a double-wide tornado magnet.
Just my two cents... I do a lot of ecommerce related things for a living. Among them is managing online advertising for clients. Google AdWords typically gives me an average 4-5% click-through rate (CTR). On the more specific keywords, the rate can be around 20%. The industry average CTR for banner ads is less than 1%. Granted, banner ads aren't as targeted as search term specific phrases, but that's one heck of a discrepancy.
It's also worth noting that my AdWords programs even pull in slightly more traffic than comparable Overture campaigns (on average). Overture is the company that serves up those "sponsored links" on Yahoo, MSN, AskJeeves, Lycos, WebCrawler and AltaVista, among others. My experience are purely antidotal, but it seems that people respond better to targeted, relevant advertising (even if they know it's paid advertising) versus the heavy-handed or shady tactics used by most 'net marketers.
umm... Verisign owns Thawte; they just don't like advertise it.;-)
My two cents... I am a Thawte reseller and have had problems with their service on every single one. They take at least two weeks to get the cert issued (I had one that took a month) and are very unresponsive to emails.
The conspiracy nut in me thinks that this is intentional in order to drive people to Verisign, when they sell the same cert for twice as much.
FYI... These is an example of a SIT (special information tone). The frequencies for the disconnected tone are: 985.2Hz, 1370.6Hz and 1776.7Hz. Each tone's duration is 380 mS.
However... The RIAA would have us believe that they are not selling us a plastic disk; they are granting us a license to listen to the content of that disk.
It may seem like semantics, but take a look at the used software market. It hardly exists because that industry also licenses, not sells, it's products. Selling used software is an easy way to get sued. The RIAA seems to wantsto steal a page from that book.
It's kinda ironic that you violated the NY Time's copyright to cut and paste and article about copyright issues isn't it?
I don't like the required registration BS either, but you know what I do about it? I haven't registered and therefore don't read the Times (or their advertisers)... voting with my eyeballs.
I would be wise if people stop doing stupid stuff like this. I would be interesting (in a bad way) to have the Time's come after/. with the DCMA in it's fist.
Why does someone *always* have to mention litigation when/. runs stories like this? Any legal council would laugh at you if you told them that you wanted to sue Tivo for recording a show that you didn't specifically request.
If you don't like the way a company does business, don't do business with them. It's that simple -- that's how a Free Market works.
I set up a merchant account last month. I can accept Visa and MC. It was surprisingly easy to do, actually. I run a brand new Internet business based out of my apartment and have less than stellar credit. Yet, I was able to get approved by Wells-Fargo (the bank that Ebay uses to process their transactions). I use Quickbooks to do the actual processing, so I didn't need to buy anymore software/hardware.
The downside is that they stick you every way they can -- $0.20 per transaction, with a 2.2% (if I recall correctly) on top of that, PLUS a $20/mo fee.
The Phoenix is capable of making trans-Atlantic crossings at 16 knots yet can dive along the route and explore the continental margins of some of the most fascinating waters on earth.
:: punching calculator buttons::
hmmm... Gee, anyone want to take a nice leisurely, eleven and a half day cruise, scrapping along the bottom of the ocean, in a diesel powered tin can?
I manage a whole gambit of domains. I just list my email address as "domainreg@[my main domain].com" on all my whois records. It beats using my personal (or business) addresses. The only thing that ever comes to that address anyhow is renewal reminders from my registar and the rare bit of spam.
Now... snail mail.. that's a different story. I get (no exageration) two bulk mail cards every single day a telling me that I, too, can accept credit cards today!
And because it's been submitted several times: the ISS suffered a computer outage but all is well now.
Did anyone else read this as "After being linked to from Slashdot today, the computer systems aboard the International Space Station mysteriously failed."?
Publishers, historically, have frowned on character auction sales, saying it detracts from the spirit of the game. They're probably also not real happy about the practice since they don't see any return from the sales.
Is there any truth to this? How could they possibly complain about not making any money on transactions when these are the players that would sooner go without food for a few days, rather than not paying their UO/EC bill? And as far as it detracting from the game... it's just a reflection of capitalism. Some people are willing to pay for virtual goods with their time and others, with their money. I personally play RPGs for the fun of building up my character. The entertainment is in the journey, not the destination. But the people who buy powerful characters, don't (generally) detract from my game play. So, what's the problem?
Technically, the USPS is a corporation wholly owned by the US government, but not actually part of it. It's been this way since July 1, 1971 since the passage of the Postal Reorganization Act. Prior to then, the Postmaster General was a Presidential Cabinet level position (might come in handy if you ever make it onto the Millionaire show.)
Some other changes: - Operational authority vested in a Board of Governors and Postal Service executive management, rather than in Congress.
-Authority to issue public bonds to finance postal buildings and mechanization.
-Direct collective bargaining between representatives of management and the unions.
-A new rate-setting procedure, built around an independent Postal Rate Commission.
(If you're really interested, check out a bit of history on the USPS.)
"Geez! We've got more people interested in "write only memory" than "anthrax" today. WTF?"
Re:Paying for _community_ content?
on
Slashdot Updates
·
· Score: 1
Interesting idea, but realize that your suggestion wouldn't exactly sit well with potential advertisers. You're essentially developing something that *they paid for* into a punishment of sorts.
Secondly, they want to target the regulars, the people who are active in the Slashdot community. The people with zero karma are more likely to be occasional surfers passing by. On the other hand, the people who spent their lunch break here everyday, are much more likely to support/.
The RIAA seems insistent upon escalating this pointless arms race. I am honestly surprised at their complete lack of foresight. They sued Napster into obscurity and walked away with absolutely nothing to show for it -- except for lending to the explosion of PtP networks. Now they're training thier massive guns on an even more wily target and expect to accomplish something? WTF?
I'm all for musicians' rights, however I am also very much anti-arrogance and anti-stupidity. If you're a member of the RIAA, I implore you (the technically savvy musician) to speak out against this pointless game. The rest of us, well... I'll be seeing you on Freenet.
Checkmate, Hilary!
Re:New laws saying this is "life behind bars" offe
on
Brian West Update
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Actually, I beleive that it is you that is misinformed. In it's current drat, the ATA would most definately apply in this case:
From Title 18, Sec. 1030 of the US Code:
(2) the term ''protected computer'' means a computer -
(A) exclusively for the use of a financial institution or the
United States Government, or, in the case of a computer not
exclusively for such use, used by or for a financial
institution or the United States Government and the conduct
constituting the offense affects that use by or for the
financial institution or the Government; or
(B) which is used in interstate or foreign commerce or
communication;
...and from the draft of the ATA of 2001:
SEC. 106 INTERCEPTION OF COMPUTER TRESPASSER COMMUNICATIONS. (1) in section 2510-
(A) in subsection (17), by striking "and" at the end;
(B) in subsection (18), by replacing the period with a semi-colon; and
(C) by adding after subsection (18), two new subsections as follows:
"(19) `protected computer' has the meaning set forth in section 1030; and
"(20) `computer trespasser' means a person who accesses a protected computer without authorization and thus has no reasonable expectation of privacy in any communication transmitted to, through, or from the protected computer."; and
(2) in section 2511(2), by adding after paragraph (h) a new paragraph as follows:
"(i) It shall not be unlawful under this chapter for a person acting under color of law to intercept the wire or electronic communications of a computer trespasser, if-
"(A) the owner or operator of the protected computer authorizes the interception of the computer trespasser's communications on the protected computer;
"(B) the person acting under color of law is lawfully engaged in an investigation;
"(C) the person acting under color of law has reasonable grounds to believe that the contents of the computer trespasser's communications will be relevant to the investigation; and
"(D) such interception does not acquire communications other than those transmitted to or from the computer trespasser.".
The $50 fee was waived by both Mastercard and Visa a couple years ago. Speaking from experience, having your credit card number stolen is generally not much more than a minor inconvience to the end user -- provided that you notify your bank ASAP.
Slashdot Mirror
Anyone remember TradeWars 2002? I was an addict of that space colonization/exploration BBS door. The funny part is that there are many places on the net that it's still a hugely popular niche. Good luck surviving a game though, these games are dominated by some pretty hardcore players... most of them using the things that killed the game for me: the handful of frontend GUIs that scripted a lot of the empire building work.
This seems to be an ugly trend in "Modular America"... We change our employers much more often than our parents did; drive plastic vehicles that aren't quite a truck, yet not quite a car; and dare label stuff that comes out of a spray can "cheese".
When I come home, I want my home to have a solid, permanent feeling. If I wanted cheap and easy, I'd live in a double-wide tornado magnet.
Just my two cents... I do a lot of ecommerce related things for a living. Among them is managing online advertising for clients. Google AdWords typically gives me an average 4-5% click-through rate (CTR). On the more specific keywords, the rate can be around 20%. The industry average CTR for banner ads is less than 1%. Granted, banner ads aren't as targeted as search term specific phrases, but that's one heck of a discrepancy.
It's also worth noting that my AdWords programs even pull in slightly more traffic than comparable Overture campaigns (on average). Overture is the company that serves up those "sponsored links" on Yahoo, MSN, AskJeeves, Lycos, WebCrawler and AltaVista, among others. My experience are purely antidotal, but it seems that people respond better to targeted, relevant advertising (even if they know it's paid advertising) versus the heavy-handed or shady tactics used by most 'net marketers.
umm... Verisign owns Thawte; they just don't like advertise it.
My two cents... I am a Thawte reseller and have had problems with their service on every single one. They take at least two weeks to get the cert issued (I had one that took a month) and are very unresponsive to emails.
The conspiracy nut in me thinks that this is intentional in order to drive people to Verisign, when they sell the same cert for twice as much.
FYI...
These is an example of a SIT (special information tone). The frequencies for the disconnected tone are:
985.2Hz, 1370.6Hz and 1776.7Hz.
Each tone's duration is 380 mS.
However... The RIAA would have us believe that they are not selling us a plastic disk; they are granting us a license to listen to the content of that disk.
It may seem like semantics, but take a look at the used software market. It hardly exists because that industry also licenses, not sells, it's products. Selling used software is an easy way to get sued. The RIAA seems to wantsto steal a page from that book.
Ahh.. but you forget who owns Miramax. (hint: Sen. Hollings constituency).
They're one of the Bad Guys(TM) here.
It's kinda ironic that you violated the NY Time's copyright to cut and paste and article about copyright issues isn't it?
/. with the DCMA in it's fist.
I don't like the required registration BS either, but you know what I do about it? I haven't registered and therefore don't read the Times (or their advertisers)... voting with my eyeballs.
I would be wise if people stop doing stupid stuff like this. I would be interesting (in a bad way) to have the Time's come after
Why does someone *always* have to mention litigation when /. runs stories like this? Any legal council would laugh at you if you told them that you wanted to sue Tivo for recording a show that you didn't specifically request.
If you don't like the way a company does business, don't do business with them. It's that simple -- that's how a Free Market works.
Here's the article without the annoying popup or the god-awful DHTML ad flying across the screen.
Well, don't forget... we also have rats doing the controlling. (PDF Warning).
Woah... Reading the parent post, 93Q's stunt came to my mind immediately (since I'm from Toledo). 'Tis a small world.
I set up a merchant account last month. I can accept Visa and MC. It was surprisingly easy to do, actually. I run a brand new Internet business based out of my apartment and have less than stellar credit. Yet, I was able to get approved by Wells-Fargo (the bank that Ebay uses to process their transactions). I use Quickbooks to do the actual processing, so I didn't need to buy anymore software/hardware.
The downside is that they stick you every way they can -- $0.20 per transaction, with a 2.2% (if I recall correctly) on top of that, PLUS a $20/mo fee.
After the toliet bit, now this... I was starting to wonder wheter it was just a *very* slow news day.
(Check the date.)
I manage a whole gambit of domains. I just list my email address as "domainreg@[my main domain].com" on all my whois records. It beats using my personal (or business) addresses. The only thing that ever comes to that address anyhow is renewal reminders from my registar and the rare bit of spam.
Now... snail mail.. that's a different story. I get (no exageration) two bulk mail cards every single day a telling me that I, too, can accept credit cards today!
Did anyone else read this as "After being linked to from Slashdot today, the computer systems aboard the International Space Station mysteriously failed."?
What polls and were are you getting your "facts"? Don't make generalizations unless you have something concrete to stand on.
From the CNN.com article.
Is there any truth to this? How could they possibly complain about not making any money on transactions when these are the players that would sooner go without food for a few days, rather than not paying their UO/EC bill? And as far as it detracting from the game... it's just a reflection of capitalism. Some people are willing to pay for virtual goods with their time and others, with their money. I personally play RPGs for the fun of building up my character. The entertainment is in the journey, not the destination. But the people who buy powerful characters, don't (generally) detract from my game play. So, what's the problem?
Technically, the USPS is a corporation wholly owned by the US government, but not actually part of it.
It's been this way since July 1, 1971 since the passage of the Postal Reorganization Act. Prior to then, the Postmaster General was a Presidential Cabinet level position (might come in handy if you ever make it onto the Millionaire show.)
Some other changes:
- Operational authority vested in a Board of Governors and Postal Service executive management, rather than in Congress.
-Authority to issue public bonds to finance postal buildings and mechanization.
-Direct collective bargaining between representatives of management and the unions.
-A new rate-setting procedure, built around an independent Postal Rate Commission.
(If you're really interested, check out a bit of history on the USPS.)
(Overheard in the Google command center...)
"Geez! We've got more people interested in "write only memory" than "anthrax" today. WTF?"
Interesting idea, but realize that your suggestion wouldn't exactly sit well with potential advertisers. You're essentially developing something that *they paid for* into a punishment of sorts.
/.
Secondly, they want to target the regulars, the people who are active in the Slashdot community. The people with zero karma are more likely to be occasional surfers passing by. On the other hand, the people who spent their lunch break here everyday, are much more likely to support
The RIAA seems insistent upon escalating this pointless arms race. I am honestly surprised at their complete lack of foresight. They sued Napster into obscurity and walked away with absolutely nothing to show for it -- except for lending to the explosion of PtP networks. Now they're training thier massive guns on an even more wily target and expect to accomplish something? WTF?
I'm all for musicians' rights, however I am also very much anti-arrogance and anti-stupidity. If you're a member of the RIAA, I implore you (the technically savvy musician) to speak out against this pointless game. The rest of us, well... I'll be seeing you on Freenet.
Checkmate, Hilary!
Actually, I beleive that it is you that is misinformed. In it's current drat, the ATA would most definately apply in this case:
...and from the draft of the ATA of 2001:
From Title 18, Sec. 1030 of the US Code:
(2) the term ''protected computer'' means a computer -
(A) exclusively for the use of a financial institution or the United States Government, or, in the case of a computer not exclusively for such use, used by or for a financial institution or the United States Government and the conduct constituting the offense affects that use by or for the financial institution or the Government; or
(B) which is used in interstate or foreign commerce or communication;
SEC. 106 INTERCEPTION OF COMPUTER TRESPASSER COMMUNICATIONS.
(1) in section 2510-
(A) in subsection (17), by striking "and" at the end;
(B) in subsection (18), by replacing the period with a semi-colon; and
(C) by adding after subsection (18), two new subsections as follows:
"(19) `protected computer' has the meaning set forth in section 1030; and
"(20) `computer trespasser' means a person who accesses a protected computer without authorization and thus has no reasonable expectation of privacy in any communication transmitted to, through, or from the protected computer."; and
(2) in section 2511(2), by adding after paragraph (h) a new paragraph as follows:
"(i) It shall not be unlawful under this chapter for a person acting under color of law to intercept the wire or electronic communications of a computer trespasser, if-
"(A) the owner or operator of the protected computer authorizes the interception of the computer trespasser's communications on the protected computer;
"(B) the person acting under color of law is lawfully engaged in an investigation;
"(C) the person acting under color of law has reasonable grounds to believe that the contents of the computer trespasser's communications will be relevant to the investigation; and
"(D) such interception does not acquire communications other than those transmitted to or from the computer trespasser.".
The $50 fee was waived by both Mastercard and Visa a couple years ago. Speaking from experience, having your credit card number stolen is generally not much more than a minor inconvience to the end user -- provided that you notify your bank ASAP.