In reference to number 3, a lot of games have been re-using DRM methods from other games. Once a game has been cracked once, cracking the same DRM in another game is trivial. Play time is what allows a mid-game break to slip through the cracks. What makes the mid-game break more effective is that it's often unique to the game and commingled with the game code, so it takes a lot more cracking work to break it. With Mass Effect, within hours the cracking groups knew there was a mid-game flaw, but it took them almost a week to actually crack it. Ironically enough, this still allowed to crack to get out before the European release of Mass Effect, rendering the DRM 100% ineffective for the EU market, but effective for the NA market, where it delayed a working cracked version for almost a week while the retail version was on the shelf.
I had to deal with steam support just recently. Yesterday, I was considering asking the question on what alternatives there are to Steam for purchasing & downloading retail games. This article answered my question.
On Steam, I joined up last week and tried to make a purchase on Saturday. My purchase was declined (I tried CC, Clickandbuy, and Paypal). I didn't get a reply until Tuesday, and they resolved the issue. The only hard part to Steam support is navigating their support system.
What really got me interested in Steam is that I saw the X-Com collection on their site, advertised as being XP compatible
holodecks are a mix of both. They use force fields and holograms to create optical illusions that look and feel real, but they can also use a replicator to create real matter, like food. If you ate food in a holodeck, you are eating real food. If you were to try and eat an optical illusion, the body would be unable to digest it. Optical illusions created by force fields are fake and can't leave the holodeck, but a replicated item can. Replication is also very energy intensive, so it's only used when needed (and it also closes a loophole when people leave the holodeck still wet)
The advantage to using credit over debit is that credit card companies will offer better protection against fraud. In a dispute, credit card companies know they have to get your money after the fact, so you simply withold payment until it's resolved. If you use a debit card, when there's a dispute, they already have your money and the onus is on you to get it back from them. I know someone who had debit card fraud, and he had to swear under oath in either the city hall or in a courthouse that he didn't make those charges before his bank would refund his money. It's a lot more lost time, and not all banks will be that easy either.
I bought a pre-installed Vista machine and replaced it with XP. Being a monopoly on the PC, sales are bound to go up for Vista simple because people are buying PCs, and Vista is coming with it. That their Vista sales are lower than PC sales, in addition to counting the sales, shows just how many PCs are shipping without Vista, the supposed default. When Microsoft has a 94% market, why are their Vista sales only accounting for half of the PCs?
If you want to see numbers on popularity, try and get the numbers on people buying boxed Vista, and compare it to people who bought boxed XP. I seem to remember boxed XP flying off the shelves for people wanting to upgrade, but who's buying boxed Vista? Microsoft won't release those numbers because it will show how much of a flop Vista has been, and its only because of their monopoly that it's getting sold at all. Vista is a huge example on the amount of damage Microsoft is inflicting on the industry by having a stranglehold on the OS that ships. They're forcing people to pay for an inferior product on purchasing a PC, then charging them for XP when they want to replace it
Anyone who knows more than 1 language can tell you that a literal word for word translation loses all meaning, and a translation that includes the meaning won't have the same exact words, and will change in nuances. The religious will argue that the Bible is accurate because it is the word of god, but those words are still limited to the fallible human language who simply don't have the words to accurately describe whatever God is trying to convey. Anyone who wants to try and quote the bible literally must either use the original latin version, or go home and forget about the literal. To see the truth, you have to look past the literal words. God isn't fallible, but human language is.
But everything's made in China! The loss of such a huge client as the US would be a blow to the world market, it wouldn't be a collapse worldwide. The Europe, the strength of the US economy is in the exports to the US, and you're not the only country importing Japanese cars. The biggest countries that would be hurt are Canada and Mexico, whose biggest exports are to the US. The US has banned the import of soft wood lumber and beef, and while it has seriously hurt those industries, they haven't collapsed and are selling elsewhere. With the stricts controls the US government has been imposing on imports and exports, the harder they control it, the less dependant the world becomes on selling to the US.
Think about it this way. What would happen to the US economy if Walmart folded up? It would be a huge blow to the US retail economy, but they aren't the only company around. The population stays the same, prices go up as suppliers sell through smaller shops, sales will go down, they'll tighten their belt, and the economy will adapt.
One of the traits of God is the ultimate power in the universe, and the creator. Where is that best seen but with the big bang, a place where science breaks down has been unable to delve to the very beginning. Last I heard, they were only able to trace it back to microsends after the big bang, and everything before that was before the LAWS of the universe were established. What better place could there be for the Creator?
As a programmer, I find an elegance in the simplicity of self-sustainability. Something that has to be constantly maintained and worked with shows a weaker creator than something that doesn't need to be maintained. Evolution is the most powerful thing ever created, the elegance in simplicity. It's easy to make something simply complicated, but hard to make something complicated simply.
It's been some 13 billion years since the universe was created. What is more powerful than a God that was able to create what we have now from a single act 13 billion years ago? The religious don't like that idea, because they like to believe that man was made in the image of God, and that we are special, but I don't believe that. One of the important features of religion is the higher power being responsible, so people have someone to "blame" when things don't go their way, to absolve themselves of fault and guilt ("God works in mysterious ways").
My beliefs are based on the strength of Mankind, and the self-preservation of life. I take responsibility for the things I do, and lay blame where truely lies.
I think overall, the cost of Windows in the purchase of a complete system is around $30. I'd rather spend the time looking for the best deal on the overall package. I bought a laptop yesterday, it was on sale for $100 off, and the system itself was also a really good deal. Had I tried to buy one of the OS-less machines, I probably would have paid more for the same hardware
I just bought a brand new laptop yesterday that came pre-loaded with Vista. The first thing I did was reformat the drive and install XP. Since I paid for that Vista Home Premium, and Microsoft continues to count it as a sale, I feel no guilt in having used a pir8 version of XP Pro.
I never saw anyone removing XP installs and replacing them with 98 or ME. This is a very bad sign in the opinion people have with Vista
a freshly weeded Windows Vista wouldn't have any better support for that hardware. Could you even get it running on that? Microsoft makes the fiscally responsible decision to drop support for older hardware and focus on the newer stuff. Linux makes the quality responsible decision to support as much as possible.
you're looking at a prediction that was made months in advance. How accurate are weather forecasts at predicting the weather on a specific day 6 months in the future?
Both mean "stop" depending on the context. For example, in English, the same word is used in "You should stop here." and "STOP!". In French, the two are treated differently
I seem to remember reading that in a deposition, when the defense lawyer objects, it is for a judge to decide if the objection is correct, unless the questioning lawyer chooses to withdraw or rephrase the question. In the SCO vs IBM depositions, the lawyers object to most questions, and the questions get answered anyway, with the validity of the objection to be determined at a later date
I stand corrected on that aspect, I didn't know about the difference between nuts and peanuts, but I really did see a warning for "may contain peanuts" and not "nut". I was cracking up on the word "may", as well as having to say "peanut" twice. Why not just come out and have the label say "Yes, this bag of peanuts does contain peanuts, don't make me tell you again"
While we're on the subject of "ulimited" being deceptive, let's also sue ISPs for offering "unlimited" internet access. I wanted to have 800 hours of interent access in January, but because of my ISP's "throttling", I was unable to exceed 744 hours of internet access, a far cry from the "unlimited" they advertised.
And how about downloading? My dial-up was throttled down to 28,8 which meant I couldn't download an unlimited amount of content, my so called unlimited account was throttled to force me to have a limit of less than 9 gigs of traffic per month. How is that unlimited?
It's because of stupid claims like this that you get those idiotic warning lables on products, like a bag of peanutes that says "Peanuts" still needs to have the label "Warning: May contain peanut products", or commercials that say "Professional driver in a closed course" when showing F1 racers, and the classic "Do not try this at home"
If they were to put a numeric limit, such as "3 DVDs per day, with a limit of 20 per month", you'd still have people accusing them of deceptive practice if they couldn't physically reach 20 per month because of time constraints. Must we have ads with more legalese words just so lawsuit phreaks don't run around pointing "Hey! That's not technically correct, it's deceptive advertising".
"Unlimited" means without limit, but if you give a time period of a "month", you have already limited it, therefor, it can never truely be unlimited. If you rented thousands of trucks and completely emptied out their warehouse, it still wouldn't be enough to qualify as "unlimited"
My dad has been using PCs since the 286, and knows how to assemble them, install windows, configure the internet, etc, but as far as file sharing knows, all he knows is what he's heard in the news. He wouldn't know the first thing about trying to get into that.
Just because someone know computers, doesn't mean they know internet, and the internet underground. Also, it doesn't mention if this man has a family, perhaps some of the computers belonged to them, or even what hardware those other machines are. We've got some old machines hanging around, ones so old they aren't worth trying to sell. They make great foot rests
You're talking about criminal court, where there has to be "beyond a reasonable doubt". This case is in civil court, which is just a "preponderance of the evidence". I think this one will go in favor of the defendant, the only evidence Paramount has is the IP address, which can easily be shown on unsecure wireless to be very unreliable for accuracy. They couldn't find any corroborating evidence on the computers. Paramount should have dropped it, bet you it's just lawyers wanting to get a paycheck for pursuing a case
Why imitate crimes from GTA? A better idea would be to imitate crimes from such violent sources such as CSI: Miami. They even give tips on how to avoid being caught by the police, that are more based on reality than "drive over police bribe icons".
They only have control where it can create confusion with Microsoft Windows. If it's not an OS, it won't create confusion. Microsoft didn't go after Lindows for directly infringing, but that Lindows was confusing with Microsoft Windows.
You can create a Database viewer called Database Windows and Microsoft would be fighting a losing battle trying to say it's confusing. Microsoft would have a stronger case going after X Window System than they would going after Windows Defender. X Window System is also a graphical GUI like Microsoft Windows, and Microsoft hasn't tried going after them, because they know they'd lose (and generate a ton of bad press).
Bottom line, Microsoft pulled a fast one on this guy, and his mistake was signing away the name, and he should have spoken to someone who wasn't just a student. He wasn't the first one Microsoft has gone after in this way, and he won't be the last. Also, Microsoft isn't the first company to use this tactic, and they won't be the last. Al Capone beat them to those tactics by over half a century;)
Apple would have a case because they have a trademark on "Apple" in its entirety in relation to computers. Microsoft doesn't have a trademark on "Windows", it has a trademark on "Microsoft Windows". The trademark requires both words be present. Microsoft would not have had a case. There are too many products with "Windows". The idea behind trademarks is you have to go after all of them, you can't pick and choose. There would be a huge defense for pointing out other software with "Windows" in the name that Microsoft didn't go after.
And to those that bring up Lindows, what let Microsoft go after Lindows (and almost lose) was both a commonality between the name, and the fact that Lindows is also an OS like Microsoft Windows. Windows Defender isn't an OS, so there wouldn't be the issue of confusion in similarity.
IBM isn't fighting this to protect Linux and Open Source. IBM is fighting this for IBM. IBM is known as a company that doesn't settle. They fight hard. They make it expensive. This is so IBM doesn't become a target for nuisance suits like SCO. On top of that, SCO sullied IBM's good name, and they need to win in court in order to clean it. If they settle, their name will always be tarnished. You'll have Darl shouting "See? We were right" while SCO stock goes through the roof.
SCO's first mistake was picking an opponent that doesn't like to settle. Their 2nd mistake was shouting about it in the press, making it so IBM couldn't settle without hurting themselves. For a corporation that thinks in terms of decades, a little money spent now saves a hundredfold down the line.
If you want a company known for settling, look at Microsoft. They are settling lawsuits left and right, and they just keep getting more. When there's blood spilled in the ocean, the sharks will come
IBM is the one being accused in court, and they have full access to the list. If you get sued personally by SCO, then you'll have the right to face your accuser and see the evidence. I'm sure we'll be seeing a reply by IBM soon going into detail about how wrong SCO is. Hopefully IBM will also try and get the list unsealed, so they can have the help of the entire community in this
and America has already started to censor the internet by veto'ing the.xxx domain. The whole point of this is that no 1 country should have the power of veto over the internet. THAT is what leads to censorship. France and Germany have every right to try and get UN resolution to forbid Nazi stuff from the internet. The great thing about a democracy, it'll never get passed unless they can also get most other countries to agree, an unlikely prospect. US has banned online gambling, and they're cracking down on online pornography. The internet can only truely be free if it is outside the control of a single government.
Slashdot Mirror
In reference to number 3, a lot of games have been re-using DRM methods from other games. Once a game has been cracked once, cracking the same DRM in another game is trivial. Play time is what allows a mid-game break to slip through the cracks. What makes the mid-game break more effective is that it's often unique to the game and commingled with the game code, so it takes a lot more cracking work to break it. With Mass Effect, within hours the cracking groups knew there was a mid-game flaw, but it took them almost a week to actually crack it. Ironically enough, this still allowed to crack to get out before the European release of Mass Effect, rendering the DRM 100% ineffective for the EU market, but effective for the NA market, where it delayed a working cracked version for almost a week while the retail version was on the shelf.
I had to deal with steam support just recently. Yesterday, I was considering asking the question on what alternatives there are to Steam for purchasing & downloading retail games. This article answered my question.
On Steam, I joined up last week and tried to make a purchase on Saturday. My purchase was declined (I tried CC, Clickandbuy, and Paypal). I didn't get a reply until Tuesday, and they resolved the issue. The only hard part to Steam support is navigating their support system.
What really got me interested in Steam is that I saw the X-Com collection on their site, advertised as being XP compatible
holodecks are a mix of both. They use force fields and holograms to create optical illusions that look and feel real, but they can also use a replicator to create real matter, like food. If you ate food in a holodeck, you are eating real food. If you were to try and eat an optical illusion, the body would be unable to digest it. Optical illusions created by force fields are fake and can't leave the holodeck, but a replicated item can. Replication is also very energy intensive, so it's only used when needed (and it also closes a loophole when people leave the holodeck still wet)
The advantage to using credit over debit is that credit card companies will offer better protection against fraud. In a dispute, credit card companies know they have to get your money after the fact, so you simply withold payment until it's resolved. If you use a debit card, when there's a dispute, they already have your money and the onus is on you to get it back from them. I know someone who had debit card fraud, and he had to swear under oath in either the city hall or in a courthouse that he didn't make those charges before his bank would refund his money. It's a lot more lost time, and not all banks will be that easy either.
I bought a pre-installed Vista machine and replaced it with XP. Being a monopoly on the PC, sales are bound to go up for Vista simple because people are buying PCs, and Vista is coming with it. That their Vista sales are lower than PC sales, in addition to counting the sales, shows just how many PCs are shipping without Vista, the supposed default. When Microsoft has a 94% market, why are their Vista sales only accounting for half of the PCs?
If you want to see numbers on popularity, try and get the numbers on people buying boxed Vista, and compare it to people who bought boxed XP. I seem to remember boxed XP flying off the shelves for people wanting to upgrade, but who's buying boxed Vista? Microsoft won't release those numbers because it will show how much of a flop Vista has been, and its only because of their monopoly that it's getting sold at all. Vista is a huge example on the amount of damage Microsoft is inflicting on the industry by having a stranglehold on the OS that ships. They're forcing people to pay for an inferior product on purchasing a PC, then charging them for XP when they want to replace it
Anyone who knows more than 1 language can tell you that a literal word for word translation loses all meaning, and a translation that includes the meaning won't have the same exact words, and will change in nuances. The religious will argue that the Bible is accurate because it is the word of god, but those words are still limited to the fallible human language who simply don't have the words to accurately describe whatever God is trying to convey. Anyone who wants to try and quote the bible literally must either use the original latin version, or go home and forget about the literal. To see the truth, you have to look past the literal words. God isn't fallible, but human language is.
But everything's made in China! The loss of such a huge client as the US would be a blow to the world market, it wouldn't be a collapse worldwide. The Europe, the strength of the US economy is in the exports to the US, and you're not the only country importing Japanese cars. The biggest countries that would be hurt are Canada and Mexico, whose biggest exports are to the US. The US has banned the import of soft wood lumber and beef, and while it has seriously hurt those industries, they haven't collapsed and are selling elsewhere. With the stricts controls the US government has been imposing on imports and exports, the harder they control it, the less dependant the world becomes on selling to the US.
Think about it this way. What would happen to the US economy if Walmart folded up? It would be a huge blow to the US retail economy, but they aren't the only company around. The population stays the same, prices go up as suppliers sell through smaller shops, sales will go down, they'll tighten their belt, and the economy will adapt.
I agree with you Yoozer.
One of the traits of God is the ultimate power in the universe, and the creator. Where is that best seen but with the big bang, a place where science breaks down has been unable to delve to the very beginning. Last I heard, they were only able to trace it back to microsends after the big bang, and everything before that was before the LAWS of the universe were established. What better place could there be for the Creator?
As a programmer, I find an elegance in the simplicity of self-sustainability. Something that has to be constantly maintained and worked with shows a weaker creator than something that doesn't need to be maintained. Evolution is the most powerful thing ever created, the elegance in simplicity. It's easy to make something simply complicated, but hard to make something complicated simply.
It's been some 13 billion years since the universe was created. What is more powerful than a God that was able to create what we have now from a single act 13 billion years ago? The religious don't like that idea, because they like to believe that man was made in the image of God, and that we are special, but I don't believe that. One of the important features of religion is the higher power being responsible, so people have someone to "blame" when things don't go their way, to absolve themselves of fault and guilt ("God works in mysterious ways").
My beliefs are based on the strength of Mankind, and the self-preservation of life. I take responsibility for the things I do, and lay blame where truely lies.
I think overall, the cost of Windows in the purchase of a complete system is around $30. I'd rather spend the time looking for the best deal on the overall package. I bought a laptop yesterday, it was on sale for $100 off, and the system itself was also a really good deal. Had I tried to buy one of the OS-less machines, I probably would have paid more for the same hardware
I just bought a brand new laptop yesterday that came pre-loaded with Vista. The first thing I did was reformat the drive and install XP. Since I paid for that Vista Home Premium, and Microsoft continues to count it as a sale, I feel no guilt in having used a pir8 version of XP Pro.
I never saw anyone removing XP installs and replacing them with 98 or ME. This is a very bad sign in the opinion people have with Vista
a freshly weeded Windows Vista wouldn't have any better support for that hardware. Could you even get it running on that? Microsoft makes the fiscally responsible decision to drop support for older hardware and focus on the newer stuff. Linux makes the quality responsible decision to support as much as possible.
you're looking at a prediction that was made months in advance. How accurate are weather forecasts at predicting the weather on a specific day 6 months in the future?
Both mean "stop" depending on the context. For example, in English, the same word is used in "You should stop here." and "STOP!". In French, the two are treated differently
I seem to remember reading that in a deposition, when the defense lawyer objects, it is for a judge to decide if the objection is correct, unless the questioning lawyer chooses to withdraw or rephrase the question. In the SCO vs IBM depositions, the lawyers object to most questions, and the questions get answered anyway, with the validity of the objection to be determined at a later date
I stand corrected on that aspect, I didn't know about the difference between nuts and peanuts, but I really did see a warning for "may contain peanuts" and not "nut". I was cracking up on the word "may", as well as having to say "peanut" twice. Why not just come out and have the label say "Yes, this bag of peanuts does contain peanuts, don't make me tell you again"
While we're on the subject of "ulimited" being deceptive, let's also sue ISPs for offering "unlimited" internet access. I wanted to have 800 hours of interent access in January, but because of my ISP's "throttling", I was unable to exceed 744 hours of internet access, a far cry from the "unlimited" they advertised.
And how about downloading? My dial-up was throttled down to 28,8 which meant I couldn't download an unlimited amount of content, my so called unlimited account was throttled to force me to have a limit of less than 9 gigs of traffic per month. How is that unlimited?
It's because of stupid claims like this that you get those idiotic warning lables on products, like a bag of peanutes that says "Peanuts" still needs to have the label "Warning: May contain peanut products", or commercials that say "Professional driver in a closed course" when showing F1 racers, and the classic "Do not try this at home"
If they were to put a numeric limit, such as "3 DVDs per day, with a limit of 20 per month", you'd still have people accusing them of deceptive practice if they couldn't physically reach 20 per month because of time constraints. Must we have ads with more legalese words just so lawsuit phreaks don't run around pointing "Hey! That's not technically correct, it's deceptive advertising".
"Unlimited" means without limit, but if you give a time period of a "month", you have already limited it, therefor, it can never truely be unlimited. If you rented thousands of trucks and completely emptied out their warehouse, it still wouldn't be enough to qualify as "unlimited"
My dad has been using PCs since the 286, and knows how to assemble them, install windows, configure the internet, etc, but as far as file sharing knows, all he knows is what he's heard in the news. He wouldn't know the first thing about trying to get into that.
Just because someone know computers, doesn't mean they know internet, and the internet underground. Also, it doesn't mention if this man has a family, perhaps some of the computers belonged to them, or even what hardware those other machines are. We've got some old machines hanging around, ones so old they aren't worth trying to sell. They make great foot rests
You're talking about criminal court, where there has to be "beyond a reasonable doubt". This case is in civil court, which is just a "preponderance of the evidence". I think this one will go in favor of the defendant, the only evidence Paramount has is the IP address, which can easily be shown on unsecure wireless to be very unreliable for accuracy. They couldn't find any corroborating evidence on the computers. Paramount should have dropped it, bet you it's just lawyers wanting to get a paycheck for pursuing a case
Why imitate crimes from GTA? A better idea would be to imitate crimes from such violent sources such as CSI: Miami. They even give tips on how to avoid being caught by the police, that are more based on reality than "drive over police bribe icons".
oh... my... god...
even the bloody bots are using IM speak!?!?
"matches 4 U", who wrote these bots, a 12 year old?
They only have control where it can create confusion with Microsoft Windows. If it's not an OS, it won't create confusion. Microsoft didn't go after Lindows for directly infringing, but that Lindows was confusing with Microsoft Windows.
;)
You can create a Database viewer called Database Windows and Microsoft would be fighting a losing battle trying to say it's confusing. Microsoft would have a stronger case going after X Window System than they would going after Windows Defender. X Window System is also a graphical GUI like Microsoft Windows, and Microsoft hasn't tried going after them, because they know they'd lose (and generate a ton of bad press).
Bottom line, Microsoft pulled a fast one on this guy, and his mistake was signing away the name, and he should have spoken to someone who wasn't just a student. He wasn't the first one Microsoft has gone after in this way, and he won't be the last. Also, Microsoft isn't the first company to use this tactic, and they won't be the last. Al Capone beat them to those tactics by over half a century
Apple would have a case because they have a trademark on "Apple" in its entirety in relation to computers. Microsoft doesn't have a trademark on "Windows", it has a trademark on "Microsoft Windows". The trademark requires both words be present. Microsoft would not have had a case. There are too many products with "Windows". The idea behind trademarks is you have to go after all of them, you can't pick and choose. There would be a huge defense for pointing out other software with "Windows" in the name that Microsoft didn't go after.
And to those that bring up Lindows, what let Microsoft go after Lindows (and almost lose) was both a commonality between the name, and the fact that Lindows is also an OS like Microsoft Windows. Windows Defender isn't an OS, so there wouldn't be the issue of confusion in similarity.
IBM isn't fighting this to protect Linux and Open Source. IBM is fighting this for IBM. IBM is known as a company that doesn't settle. They fight hard. They make it expensive. This is so IBM doesn't become a target for nuisance suits like SCO. On top of that, SCO sullied IBM's good name, and they need to win in court in order to clean it. If they settle, their name will always be tarnished. You'll have Darl shouting "See? We were right" while SCO stock goes through the roof.
SCO's first mistake was picking an opponent that doesn't like to settle. Their 2nd mistake was shouting about it in the press, making it so IBM couldn't settle without hurting themselves. For a corporation that thinks in terms of decades, a little money spent now saves a hundredfold down the line.
If you want a company known for settling, look at Microsoft. They are settling lawsuits left and right, and they just keep getting more. When there's blood spilled in the ocean, the sharks will come
IBM is the one being accused in court, and they have full access to the list. If you get sued personally by SCO, then you'll have the right to face your accuser and see the evidence. I'm sure we'll be seeing a reply by IBM soon going into detail about how wrong SCO is. Hopefully IBM will also try and get the list unsealed, so they can have the help of the entire community in this
and America has already started to censor the internet by veto'ing the .xxx domain. The whole point of this is that no 1 country should have the power of veto over the internet. THAT is what leads to censorship. France and Germany have every right to try and get UN resolution to forbid Nazi stuff from the internet. The great thing about a democracy, it'll never get passed unless they can also get most other countries to agree, an unlikely prospect. US has banned online gambling, and they're cracking down on online pornography. The internet can only truely be free if it is outside the control of a single government.