1) The providers are rather stupid about what they allow/wont allow. For instance with most providers that do the "Triple Play" if you get a business package you're no longer even allowed to get television. AT&T is known for this. The only reason I could get a 20 up/down with Verizon when I got it was because TV wasn't available in my area. If it would have been I wouldn't have been allowed to get that bandwidth. (Never mind the fact they lowered my bandwidth after a few months, never notified me and still charged me for 20)
2) When I had Time Warner years ago, they did NOT block my ports. What they did do was occasionally attempt to send mail through my SMTP server, they failed. (yes, I read my logs) I'm pretty sure if they would have succeeded I would have heard from them, since they never did, I never heard from them.
How hard is it to have script look for problems on a subnet? Time Warner did it. I personally believe they should cut off problem customers, and notify them as to why they are being cut off if they're problematic. Back when people would attack my servers with bots (usually infected Windows machines) I usually notified the ISPs, they usually didn't give a rats ass. ISP's are usually talking out their ass when they give justifications, I've proved it more than once.
The problem is, in most cases the companies DO NOT clearly dictate what ports you can use. If you talk to the people on the phone they generally don't have a concept of what a port is, and if you ask them if they block ports they will usually outright lie or say no to make a sale.
Verizon outright denies any port blocking yet they do it. So do several other ISP's. If you call their support about port blocking they generally blame the consumers computer and assume the person calling is a moron. Do your own research on this, there's many non-morons who will validate it.
The problem is, ISP's are already doing it based on protocol, and it's bad. If your internet service is provided by a cable company, they just may slow down video protocols as perceived competition on their own bandwidth, but allow voice ones through to take a stab at phone companies.
On the other hand, if you have a DSL through a phone provider, they just may slow down voice/audio protocols for the same reasons, but allow video ones through to take a stab at cable companies.
There was a LOT of competitions, back biting, and attempts at legislation between both of these types of companies a few years back, I remember TONS of commercials with each side trying to get the people on board. Both sides pretty much supported the concept of government intervention to keep the other out of their business while allowing their side to get into the others. I'm generally against most government intervention.
In most cases, a competitor will spring up when one type of industry is screwing the people at large that doesn't screw the people at large, at least at first. Unfortunately in communications industries those competitors are few and far between.
I would LOVE to start my own cable company that simply pushed analog and QAM TV without the need for converter boxes and was utterly lacking in all but absolutely require encryption. I think the public would love to use their own TV tuners again and be able to build their MythTV boxes/use their Tivos without having to clear it with some mystical gate keeper.
Most of the types who have traffic shaping explained to them - which is what usually happens when politicians are the ones pushing the cause - still don't understand the concept of port blocking.
When I pay for "Internet Access" I don't expect my service provider to be able to dictate what I can and can't do with my internet connection. This includes hosting my own mail, FTP, and HTTP servers! What business of it is theirs if I post an image on Fark and host it myself?
As long as you're not spamming and/or doing illegal things they need to back the hell off.
As far as I'm concerned, if I'm having select ports blocked I am NOT getting "Internet Access".
If your company uses asset tags make the machine number the asset number. At least you'll be able to find it network wise, and when it get re-imaged the machine name will be easy to figure out no matter how hosed the original drive.
Also, if the machine changes users, the asset number is still relevant.
My point was I don't have ANY version of MS Office installed, even though I have a legal copy of a version, the only one I can legally install since I don't have any version of Windows installed.
When I started rolling out Office 2007 at a company I used to work for I was asked, often, if the ribbon could be disabled. I went to the office support site (which is something Microsoft actually has right) and started watching training videos to see which ones I should suggest to users. The first thing the video said when addressing the ribbon was you were stuck with it, can't turn it off.
I personally prefer OpenOffice.org. I have a copy of Office 2008 for my Mac that I was given, I don't even have it installed now that I don't have that job anymore, I prefer using Neo Office on my Mac, and OpenOffice.org on my Linux machines.
That being said - the interface is fine, as long as it's optional, I'm all about customization and user preference.
Now, to get people to actually get their head out of the sand and acknowledge this fact. Any time one group of people gets power over another the potential for corruption exist, and will usually happen. Very few benevolent leaders actually exist.
I spoke to one of my British immigrant friends about the big brother attitude in England, saying I understand it's financially motivated in the U.S., but I couldn't see what motivated it there. He said a large portion of the population has absolutely no sense of personal responsibility and wants some one else (the government) to handle that for them. Of course this isn't everyone.
Let's look at history and see how British citizens who didn't agree with the crown acted and what came of it:
Scotland - William Wallace. They fought a good fight but ultimately failed. They made their point and over time, since people allowed the fight to die with him, it didn't matter.
Quakers, Puritans, other settlers. - Fled to the New World to escape the mainland oppression only to experience oppression by remote control. They eventually rebelled, established independence and we now have the United States. Some time later Canada decided to break free also - a little more peacefully and they still have the Queen on their money. I wouldn't.
It's time for the English citizens to have a civil war. They've already screwed up, they've let their government take their guns away, so it's going to be difficult, but I'm sure they can manage. If enough of the populace proves they're willing to go to war with rakes and shovels it may just get enough attention to prove to the government they're serious and the government may start listening. I'm sure it would only take a few government officials dieing during riots and stealth assassination missions before they agree to consider that 1984 wasn't meant as an instruction manual.
It's very important that the people declare war and actually send over a document declaring such, if they don't it's no better than gang terrorism.
As far as artwork and "cinematics" are concerned, I loved Viewtiful Joe, who would have thought a bad movie would have made an awesome video game? They pretty much pioneered the "2.5D" game. On top of that, I hated old fashioned side scrolling beat-em-ups - this is one of those to a whole new level that made it awesome. It's cheap, check it out, you can probably get it at GameStop for under $10.
I tried explaining the game to my cousin one time "It's made to look like a bad movie" he asked "which bad movie?"
I loved the basic design of the SNES control, and in turn I rather like the PlayStation expanded copy of it, but I had one beef with the SNES control. The L & R buttons had a bad habit of breaking, and I'm pretty sure they were designed for Japanese and childrens hands, not the hands of the 17 year old behemoths many of my friends and I were.
On a positive note, the best joystick made for affordable home use, especially for fighting games, was made for that system. The Fighter Stick SN - there was a Genesis version also. Unlike on the NES where I used my NES Advantage for ALL games, I only used the Fighter Stick SN for certain games, mostly fighting games, as I found the use of the shoulder buttons were actually best placed on the shoulders most of the time.
It's been mentioned above, in replies mostly, but one of the most overlooked things about the Wii is that it supports GameCube games, controls, and even memory cards!
There's no reason why they can't make Wii games that require a GameCube control, still being manufactured by 3rd parties and I have a feeling Nintendo still has the technology to make Wavebirds, maybe even versions that are Bluetooth or at minimum plug into the Wiimote. There's no reason they can't put a little Gamecube control pictogram on the front of a game package like they did with Zapper pictograms way back in the NES days.
I'm not rushing to pick up a Wii, I don't have any "modern" consoles unless you count portables and the PS2. Part of the reason I'm not rushing to a Wii is I really don't want to swing the fool control around. I've played it, I've liked some of the games, but even on my DS I tend to chose titles that don't overly require use of the touch screen. I like traditional input methods. While I was playing Mario Kart for the Wii I was actually longing for my Gamecube Control. I'm not saying the Wiimote/nunchuck don't have their place, I would love to play a lightsabre/sword game with that setup (if they ever actually make a really good one) but overall the Wii will remain the casual gamer system in my mind until they embrace tradition on a few titles. I don't think they'll lose their casual gamers if they make a few hardcore games to, especially if they're plainly marked as such. It may actually improve their market share a bit. As it stands I would rather have a PS3 than a Wii, and I'm a long time Nintendo fan.
This is the case. They stole the guns to, but I'm not going to go into too many details, I got the guns back (but not before they did a minor mod job on one) because they did't want those particular charges against them.
That's actually how I lost my music the second time/movies. Seriously, I'm trying to come up with something reasonable and secure short of a safety deposit box. I'm considering an iron box with lots of locks leftover from something oilfield/refinery related that I find around here.
I've lost my entire music collection due to theft twice, and my entire movie collection once. My current philosophy runs something along the lines of rip, compress (or not), put it on more than one HDD, take the originals, put them in a safe, put the safe in a bunker surrounded by monsters friendly only to you.
I never stopped! With a DVD I have "Digital Copy" on EVERY DVD without having to use the stupid number system and ask for permission, and it's legal. I don't have to rely on a content provider to stay in business, and I don't have some company somewhere with self interest telling me what devices I can and can't play back the content on. Well, I do, but I don't have to listen to them.
I do the same thing, I generally buy games based on price, it's incredibly rare I buy a game right after it comes out. Most of my games are bought new in the original shrink wrap, as you say for about $30. I also user half.com, ebay, and Amazon to buy classic games for classic systems.
The only valid reason I can find to buy a game new, unless it's one I just couldn't do without, was to get in early on the online game play when there's still lots of people playing it as newbs and not the level 1,000 PKers.
I'll switch to KDE 4.x when Debian stable has it.
on
KDE 4.2.4 Released
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Yes, I know I can use the backport, but forget it, last time I messed with KDE 4 (on Kubuntu) I found it was still lacking in a lot of really cool utilities KDE 3.x had and I'm just to lazy to recompile all the 3.x versions onto 4 myself. I guess I really have lost some drive as I've gotten older, I'll let someone else do it for me, and when they do I'll use it, and until the 3.5x is good enough.
BTW - kaudiocreator was near the top of that list, that was a stupid easy and useful program. Yes, I can do it other ways, and did for a while, but I kind of liked that one. Oddly, the change in interface was fine, I liked it, KDE4.x and I can get along fine, as soon as the utilities catch up.
I don't think it will be a stop gap in time, if they have to create a fake way of making the UMD market look untenable they will and it will eventually become digital only unless the 3000 and go become easily hackable. On the PS3 to do it part - insightful.
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1) The providers are rather stupid about what they allow/wont allow. For instance with most providers that do the "Triple Play" if you get a business package you're no longer even allowed to get television. AT&T is known for this. The only reason I could get a 20 up/down with Verizon when I got it was because TV wasn't available in my area. If it would have been I wouldn't have been allowed to get that bandwidth. (Never mind the fact they lowered my bandwidth after a few months, never notified me and still charged me for 20)
2) When I had Time Warner years ago, they did NOT block my ports. What they did do was occasionally attempt to send mail through my SMTP server, they failed. (yes, I read my logs) I'm pretty sure if they would have succeeded I would have heard from them, since they never did, I never heard from them.
How hard is it to have script look for problems on a subnet? Time Warner did it. I personally believe they should cut off problem customers, and notify them as to why they are being cut off if they're problematic. Back when people would attack my servers with bots (usually infected Windows machines) I usually notified the ISPs, they usually didn't give a rats ass. ISP's are usually talking out their ass when they give justifications, I've proved it more than once.
The problem is, in most cases the companies DO NOT clearly dictate what ports you can use. If you talk to the people on the phone they generally don't have a concept of what a port is, and if you ask them if they block ports they will usually outright lie or say no to make a sale.
Verizon outright denies any port blocking yet they do it. So do several other ISP's. If you call their support about port blocking they generally blame the consumers computer and assume the person calling is a moron. Do your own research on this, there's many non-morons who will validate it.
The problem is, ISP's are already doing it based on protocol, and it's bad. If your internet service is provided by a cable company, they just may slow down video protocols as perceived competition on their own bandwidth, but allow voice ones through to take a stab at phone companies.
On the other hand, if you have a DSL through a phone provider, they just may slow down voice/audio protocols for the same reasons, but allow video ones through to take a stab at cable companies.
There was a LOT of competitions, back biting, and attempts at legislation between both of these types of companies a few years back, I remember TONS of commercials with each side trying to get the people on board. Both sides pretty much supported the concept of government intervention to keep the other out of their business while allowing their side to get into the others. I'm generally against most government intervention.
In most cases, a competitor will spring up when one type of industry is screwing the people at large that doesn't screw the people at large, at least at first. Unfortunately in communications industries those competitors are few and far between.
I would LOVE to start my own cable company that simply pushed analog and QAM TV without the need for converter boxes and was utterly lacking in all but absolutely require encryption. I think the public would love to use their own TV tuners again and be able to build their MythTV boxes/use their Tivos without having to clear it with some mystical gate keeper.
Most of the types who have traffic shaping explained to them - which is what usually happens when politicians are the ones pushing the cause - still don't understand the concept of port blocking.
When I pay for "Internet Access" I don't expect my service provider to be able to dictate what I can and can't do with my internet connection. This includes hosting my own mail, FTP, and HTTP servers! What business of it is theirs if I post an image on Fark and host it myself?
As long as you're not spamming and/or doing illegal things they need to back the hell off.
As far as I'm concerned, if I'm having select ports blocked I am NOT getting "Internet Access".
If your company uses asset tags make the machine number the asset number. At least you'll be able to find it network wise, and when it get re-imaged the machine name will be easy to figure out no matter how hosed the original drive.
Also, if the machine changes users, the asset number is still relevant.
Seriously, from the surrounding ambient noise to the wearers ear?
My point was I don't have ANY version of MS Office installed, even though I have a legal copy of a version, the only one I can legally install since I don't have any version of Windows installed.
When I started rolling out Office 2007 at a company I used to work for I was asked, often, if the ribbon could be disabled. I went to the office support site (which is something Microsoft actually has right) and started watching training videos to see which ones I should suggest to users. The first thing the video said when addressing the ribbon was you were stuck with it, can't turn it off.
I personally prefer OpenOffice.org. I have a copy of Office 2008 for my Mac that I was given, I don't even have it installed now that I don't have that job anymore, I prefer using Neo Office on my Mac, and OpenOffice.org on my Linux machines.
That being said - the interface is fine, as long as it's optional, I'm all about customization and user preference.
Now, to get people to actually get their head out of the sand and acknowledge this fact. Any time one group of people gets power over another the potential for corruption exist, and will usually happen. Very few benevolent leaders actually exist.
Of all the replies, I find yours to be the most accurate.
Sad but true, and not limited to England.
I spoke to one of my British immigrant friends about the big brother attitude in England, saying I understand it's financially motivated in the U.S., but I couldn't see what motivated it there. He said a large portion of the population has absolutely no sense of personal responsibility and wants some one else (the government) to handle that for them. Of course this isn't everyone.
Let's look at history and see how British citizens who didn't agree with the crown acted and what came of it:
Scotland - William Wallace. They fought a good fight but ultimately failed. They made their point and over time, since people allowed the fight to die with him, it didn't matter.
Quakers, Puritans, other settlers. - Fled to the New World to escape the mainland oppression only to experience oppression by remote control. They eventually rebelled, established independence and we now have the United States. Some time later Canada decided to break free also - a little more peacefully and they still have the Queen on their money. I wouldn't.
It's time for the English citizens to have a civil war. They've already screwed up, they've let their government take their guns away, so it's going to be difficult, but I'm sure they can manage. If enough of the populace proves they're willing to go to war with rakes and shovels it may just get enough attention to prove to the government they're serious and the government may start listening. I'm sure it would only take a few government officials dieing during riots and stealth assassination missions before they agree to consider that 1984 wasn't meant as an instruction manual.
It's very important that the people declare war and actually send over a document declaring such, if they don't it's no better than gang terrorism.
The U.S. proved such a thing can work.
There were tons and tons of gags through the whole game, but who can forget The Great Mighty Poo the coolest video game boss ever?
As far as artwork and "cinematics" are concerned, I loved Viewtiful Joe, who would have thought a bad movie would have made an awesome video game? They pretty much pioneered the "2.5D" game. On top of that, I hated old fashioned side scrolling beat-em-ups - this is one of those to a whole new level that made it awesome. It's cheap, check it out, you can probably get it at GameStop for under $10.
I tried explaining the game to my cousin one time "It's made to look like a bad movie" he asked "which bad movie?"
I loved the basic design of the SNES control, and in turn I rather like the PlayStation expanded copy of it, but I had one beef with the SNES control. The L & R buttons had a bad habit of breaking, and I'm pretty sure they were designed for Japanese and childrens hands, not the hands of the 17 year old behemoths many of my friends and I were.
On a positive note, the best joystick made for affordable home use, especially for fighting games, was made for that system. The Fighter Stick SN - there was a Genesis version also. Unlike on the NES where I used my NES Advantage for ALL games, I only used the Fighter Stick SN for certain games, mostly fighting games, as I found the use of the shoulder buttons were actually best placed on the shoulders most of the time.
Yeah, I really want that one redone like this!
Maybe throw in some more Rock-A-Billy while you're at it, and make the cuss pack a check mark in the menu. Other than that, leave it alone!
Of course I was at a friends house that time....
I'll keep that in mind when I eventually get a Wii.
It's been mentioned above, in replies mostly, but one of the most overlooked things about the Wii is that it supports GameCube games, controls, and even memory cards!
There's no reason why they can't make Wii games that require a GameCube control, still being manufactured by 3rd parties and I have a feeling Nintendo still has the technology to make Wavebirds, maybe even versions that are Bluetooth or at minimum plug into the Wiimote. There's no reason they can't put a little Gamecube control pictogram on the front of a game package like they did with Zapper pictograms way back in the NES days.
I'm not rushing to pick up a Wii, I don't have any "modern" consoles unless you count portables and the PS2. Part of the reason I'm not rushing to a Wii is I really don't want to swing the fool control around. I've played it, I've liked some of the games, but even on my DS I tend to chose titles that don't overly require use of the touch screen. I like traditional input methods. While I was playing Mario Kart for the Wii I was actually longing for my Gamecube Control. I'm not saying the Wiimote/nunchuck don't have their place, I would love to play a lightsabre/sword game with that setup (if they ever actually make a really good one) but overall the Wii will remain the casual gamer system in my mind until they embrace tradition on a few titles. I don't think they'll lose their casual gamers if they make a few hardcore games to, especially if they're plainly marked as such. It may actually improve their market share a bit. As it stands I would rather have a PS3 than a Wii, and I'm a long time Nintendo fan.
^ Mod insightful.
This is the case. They stole the guns to, but I'm not going to go into too many details, I got the guns back (but not before they did a minor mod job on one) because they did't want those particular charges against them.
That's actually how I lost my music the second time/movies. Seriously, I'm trying to come up with something reasonable and secure short of a safety deposit box. I'm considering an iron box with lots of locks leftover from something oilfield/refinery related that I find around here.
I've lost my entire music collection due to theft twice, and my entire movie collection once. My current philosophy runs something along the lines of rip, compress (or not), put it on more than one HDD, take the originals, put them in a safe, put the safe in a bunker surrounded by monsters friendly only to you.
I never stopped! With a DVD I have "Digital Copy" on EVERY DVD without having to use the stupid number system and ask for permission, and it's legal. I don't have to rely on a content provider to stay in business, and I don't have some company somewhere with self interest telling me what devices I can and can't play back the content on. Well, I do, but I don't have to listen to them.
At least we know Duke Nukem Forever will have sufficient development time behind it. That's a certain buy on release game.
I do the same thing, I generally buy games based on price, it's incredibly rare I buy a game right after it comes out. Most of my games are bought new in the original shrink wrap, as you say for about $30. I also user half.com, ebay, and Amazon to buy classic games for classic systems.
The only valid reason I can find to buy a game new, unless it's one I just couldn't do without, was to get in early on the online game play when there's still lots of people playing it as newbs and not the level 1,000 PKers.
Yes, I know I can use the backport, but forget it, last time I messed with KDE 4 (on Kubuntu) I found it was still lacking in a lot of really cool utilities KDE 3.x had and I'm just to lazy to recompile all the 3.x versions onto 4 myself. I guess I really have lost some drive as I've gotten older, I'll let someone else do it for me, and when they do I'll use it, and until the 3.5x is good enough.
BTW - kaudiocreator was near the top of that list, that was a stupid easy and useful program. Yes, I can do it other ways, and did for a while, but I kind of liked that one. Oddly, the change in interface was fine, I liked it, KDE4.x and I can get along fine, as soon as the utilities catch up.
I don't think it will be a stop gap in time, if they have to create a fake way of making the UMD market look untenable they will and it will eventually become digital only unless the 3000 and go become easily hackable. On the PS3 to do it part - insightful.