You seem to be settling for mediocrity. Not having a tyrant is great, but a non-working democratic progress because more than half of the population entitled to voting doesn't care either way isn't exactly the optimum either. (Or maybe you would rather say, it might not be what your founding fathers had in mind.) Or maybe you don't think very low participation in elections is a problem - I do think it is, but I'd rather not continue discussing it here since I already have a bad conscience for posting twice in this thread, even as AC.:)
I'm not saying that America is a terrible country at all, and I'm not saying Europe (where I am from, like you didn't already guess) is better or worse. In fact, I would say Europe is mostly the same - maybe less extreme in all regards, good and bad, or maybe simply 5 to 25 years behind America in many developments, including the bad ones.
Note also that I'm not the original poster, who wrote up that list, if that wasn't clear. I don't usually start wildly off-topic flamebaits on Slashdot.;)
That's what I am using it in. The program's home seems to be its SourceForge page for the moment, since the author's homepage is under reconstruction and has been for a while. For XP, you want this file. Just extract anywhere and use at your own leisure. Uses the registry to save its settings, file associations can be set up from within the preferences.
Glad to be of help, recommending software has to be every geeks favorite job.;)
I think I can agree or at least hope that system software is more stable and less buggy than non-system software, since system (dare I say kernel mode) software can do a lot more harm than normal (dare I say user mode) software. Note that, system software, I'm referring to software working closely with the system (drivers and such), not software shipping with the system! So WMP is not system software, just like MPC isn't. Or maybe WMP is, since it might tie into the system core in some ways, but that's not a good thing, since it can do a lot more harm that way. Such harms could include hard-locking a computer - although I haven't seen that happen in a while.
Anyway, both Media Player Classic and ffdshow strike me as rather stable software, both are released as open source (ie neither Free- nor Shareware). Certainly, both seem unlikely to do real harm to any system, especially since they are not typically used in critical situations - when watching a movie, a crash is annoying, but not exactly life-threatening. Even a small memory leak isn't a very serious issue, you close the program and it's gone - it's not like it's a server daemon running 24/7. Nevertheless, it has never happened to me with either software, the worst that happened is that some movies refused to display correctly due to major confusion inside Windows as to what codec to use for what. (MPC helped tremendously in that regard, incidently.) And that's where I see the main/only potential trouble with ffdshow - if idiots configure it, they can kind of screw up the Windows codec settings, or at least this idiot managed to do so.
Moving on, MPC is not a Media Player skin, although it's unsurprisingly often thought to be. It's interface looks a lot like the old media player/mplayer2.exe - that is, no nonsense, but that's where the resemblance ends. For one thing, it can play real media and quick time (full-screen!) contents, given the installed libraries. It can also be controlled using arbitrary set-up controls, infra-red, has great support for sub-titles, incredible control over codecs, great performance and a small footprint.
Terribly sorry for this overly long post. Glad you like my signature.
Because both ZoomPlayer and especially Media Player Classic (mentioned by a poster below) are far better players than WMP in mostly every respect. Of course, not everybody will require a better player. But it certainly won't hurt to install MPC - not that you really need to install it, it's just an executable, doesn't even need it's own directory.
I really don't think a system is generally "better" or more reliable the less software you install. Quite to the contrary, I'd say the less a system relies on Microsoft programs the more reliable it is.;) On a more serious note, I really do doubt "installing" MPC will do anything at all to the overall reliability. Some software can do pretty terrible things to the system - like Real Player, infamously - but MPC isn't one of them. And the days that every program was a danger to your stability are at least according to my experience thankfully gone.
Note that ffdshow, also mentioned below, is a more problematic piece of software. It's great, but unlike MPC, it's system software, and screwing with codecs without knowing what you're doing can lead to a really borked system.:)
NCR works here. I used to get redirected to google.de (still in English due to the Google preferences), but since using the http://www.google.com/ncr address, I'm not being redirected even in subsequent visits.
Using Opera 7.10 on WinXP with EN set as the preferred language.
Even if it did include GPL'd code - by the GPL terms they only have to release that code when the product is for sale. If they have included such code, I'd imagine it's LGPL - and they wouldn't have to release code they've used provided they didn't change it.
That's what I thought, initially, but the GPL states you need to be willing to provide the source code upon distribution of the derivated work. Distribution does not equal the game's release, actually, since they also distribute copies of the game before it's released to the general public. I'm not referring to the code leak (heh), but rather to things such as press betas. And of course, the GPL would permit the press to redistribute the code or the game as they see fit.
In any event, the point is moot since apparently Valve purchased non-GPL licenses for the source they incorporated. More power to them! Still a nice thought experiment.
Nah, not really. The serial code protection is server-side anyways. There's client side verification, sure, but that'll be cracked in some way or another within days if not hours after some group gets its hand on the game (binary, not source). They still haven't found a viable way around most server-sided cd-key protection schemes - apart from cracking the server, that is.
Note to the poster above: According to a poster on halflife2.net, the code does compile and does even create a HL2.EXE, though it crashes immediatly after being run. (And of course, there's no data files coming with the game.)
I'm pretty sure that's the case. That'd certainly explain the message I get when I try to access the defunct screenshots section linked on the site: "Could not execute query!"
It'd have been nice to send them a message of warning instead of posting the link to phpMyAdmin on Slashdot, BTW. Hope they didn't save anything more vital than screenshot information on that database...
What are you referring to? He cited a MEP - MEPs are elected by European citizens, as far as I know. The European Commission isn't directly elected, but then, it's the executive, not the legislatory part of the European government.
Project Orion, brought to you by the proverb "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
(For the uninitiated, if I recall correctly, Project Orion is the idea to use nuclear bombs to propel an object hid behind a shield into deep space. I'm not a rocket scientist, but I think it's quite insane.)
Incidently, Teller's life after he built his hammer can also be summarized under that proverb.
Meh. Buy better heatsinks. Modern HSFs aren't very difficult to install, most even do a pretty good job preventing the user from doing stupid things resulting in the untimely death of their hardware. My first AMD HSF, a Taisol 60x60 was a bitch, but the two 80mm HSFs were both very comfortable.
The average Slashdotter probably has those locks, the average bank certainly doesn't.
I could start arguing now whether what this "white-hat" did was analogue to what you describe in "hidden bank door" terms or if maybe the neighbouring building didn't need to be broken in but was a public toilet or something - but I won't. Maybe it's not a very good analogy - I wouldn't have brought it up if it wasn't in response to the original poster's even worse one.
Healthy, sick, somewhat healthy, happy, unhappy, everything between those extremes, nervous, imprisoned and so on ad infinitum. "State of existance" is not a very clearly defined term.
So if someone had broken into my house without permission, then told me about it afterwards, am I supposed to feel better about it?
That analogy doesn't have a lot of merit. You're a private person, he didn't break into private computers. If a bank has a door to their vault which they don't know of and which is never locked, then yeah, they should be grateful for being told about it. Obviously, there's no bank so stupid, but that just goes to show that banks have a lot more experience dealing with real-world break-ins - another reason why this guy should be acknowledged for his deeds, he's making people aware of problems which they are not experienced in dealing with.
Same thought here, I wondered why this was posted in the games section at first. Guess that producer feels about his customers just like I do about my CPU and case fans - you don't like them, but you need them; you want them to stop annoying you, but without them you're screwed.:)
It also forces you to re-encode an already encoded file, both times lossy. Which isn't a very good idea, since it causes bad artifacts. (Unless AAC has some means to get around this - I guess it's conceivable, but I doubt it.)
You're right, except for one thing: Blizzard did an extremely limited beta test for Diablo 2 which was only meant to test battle.net.
You are referring to the Public Battle.Net Stress Test. That was a public beta, sure enough, but it wasn't the only beta, of course. Rest assured, they beta-tested all other aspects of the game in-house. Now whether they tested it properly or as much as they should have is another matter, but I'm fairly certain they put as much effort and resources into it as other developers/publishers. Which is, of course, not saying much.
I guess you're not entirely wrong, I certainly haven't seen a better political simulation in the past few years - and that's really sad because while a great, fun game, as a political simulation Tropico is pathetic. Of course, it's meant to be tongue in cheek and not as a serious political sim, so I guess that's all right. Comparing it to SimCity is rather ridiculous, too - they are totally different games in mostly every way. Personally, I'd certainly argue that SimCity, all incarnations, is a more serious political simulation (if you insist on calling it that).
Yes, they have. Or at least the German Google has. However, the second result, among many others, links to a German page promoting Kazaa Lite. (Note that the first result contains a so-called "dialer" - every German Slashdotter likely has heard of them -, ie. is basically a fraud to steal your money.) The German Google also has the same link to the letter they received.
Slashdot Mirror
You seem to be settling for mediocrity. Not having a tyrant is great, but a non-working democratic progress because more than half of the population entitled to voting doesn't care either way isn't exactly the optimum either. (Or maybe you would rather say, it might not be what your founding fathers had in mind.) Or maybe you don't think very low participation in elections is a problem - I do think it is, but I'd rather not continue discussing it here since I already have a bad conscience for posting twice in this thread, even as AC. :)
;)
I'm not saying that America is a terrible country at all, and I'm not saying Europe (where I am from, like you didn't already guess) is better or worse. In fact, I would say Europe is mostly the same - maybe less extreme in all regards, good and bad, or maybe simply 5 to 25 years behind America in many developments, including the bad ones.
Note also that I'm not the original poster, who wrote up that list, if that wasn't clear. I don't usually start wildly off-topic flamebaits on Slashdot.
That's what I am using it in. The program's home seems to be its SourceForge page for the moment, since the author's homepage is under reconstruction and has been for a while. For XP, you want this file. Just extract anywhere and use at your own leisure. Uses the registry to save its settings, file associations can be set up from within the preferences.
;)
Glad to be of help, recommending software has to be every geeks favorite job.
I think I can agree or at least hope that system software is more stable and less buggy than non-system software, since system (dare I say kernel mode) software can do a lot more harm than normal (dare I say user mode) software. Note that, system software, I'm referring to software working closely with the system (drivers and such), not software shipping with the system! So WMP is not system software, just like MPC isn't. Or maybe WMP is, since it might tie into the system core in some ways, but that's not a good thing, since it can do a lot more harm that way. Such harms could include hard-locking a computer - although I haven't seen that happen in a while.
Anyway, both Media Player Classic and ffdshow strike me as rather stable software, both are released as open source (ie neither Free- nor Shareware). Certainly, both seem unlikely to do real harm to any system, especially since they are not typically used in critical situations - when watching a movie, a crash is annoying, but not exactly life-threatening. Even a small memory leak isn't a very serious issue, you close the program and it's gone - it's not like it's a server daemon running 24/7. Nevertheless, it has never happened to me with either software, the worst that happened is that some movies refused to display correctly due to major confusion inside Windows as to what codec to use for what. (MPC helped tremendously in that regard, incidently.) And that's where I see the main/only potential trouble with ffdshow - if idiots configure it, they can kind of screw up the Windows codec settings, or at least this idiot managed to do so.
Moving on, MPC is not a Media Player skin, although it's unsurprisingly often thought to be. It's interface looks a lot like the old media player/mplayer2.exe - that is, no nonsense, but that's where the resemblance ends. For one thing, it can play real media and quick time (full-screen!) contents, given the installed libraries. It can also be controlled using arbitrary set-up controls, infra-red, has great support for sub-titles, incredible control over codecs, great performance and a small footprint.
Terribly sorry for this overly long post. Glad you like my signature.
Because both ZoomPlayer and especially Media Player Classic (mentioned by a poster below) are far better players than WMP in mostly every respect. Of course, not everybody will require a better player. But it certainly won't hurt to install MPC - not that you really need to install it, it's just an executable, doesn't even need it's own directory.
;) On a more serious note, I really do doubt "installing" MPC will do anything at all to the overall reliability. Some software can do pretty terrible things to the system - like Real Player, infamously - but MPC isn't one of them. And the days that every program was a danger to your stability are at least according to my experience thankfully gone.
:)
I really don't think a system is generally "better" or more reliable the less software you install. Quite to the contrary, I'd say the less a system relies on Microsoft programs the more reliable it is.
Note that ffdshow, also mentioned below, is a more problematic piece of software. It's great, but unlike MPC, it's system software, and screwing with codecs without knowing what you're doing can lead to a really borked system.
NCR works here. I used to get redirected to google.de (still in English due to the Google preferences), but since using the http://www.google.com/ncr address, I'm not being redirected even in subsequent visits.
Using Opera 7.10 on WinXP with EN set as the preferred language.
Just FYI: It's just "Google", no exclamation mark. The! Company! With! The! Exclamation! Mark! Is! Yahoo!
Even if it did include GPL'd code - by the GPL terms they only have to release that code when the product is for sale. If they have included such code, I'd imagine it's LGPL - and they wouldn't have to release code they've used provided they didn't change it.
That's what I thought, initially, but the GPL states you need to be willing to provide the source code upon distribution of the derivated work. Distribution does not equal the game's release, actually, since they also distribute copies of the game before it's released to the general public. I'm not referring to the code leak (heh), but rather to things such as press betas. And of course, the GPL would permit the press to redistribute the code or the game as they see fit.
In any event, the point is moot since apparently Valve purchased non-GPL licenses for the source they incorporated. More power to them! Still a nice thought experiment.
Nah, not really. The serial code protection is server-side anyways. There's client side verification, sure, but that'll be cracked in some way or another within days if not hours after some group gets its hand on the game (binary, not source). They still haven't found a viable way around most server-sided cd-key protection schemes - apart from cracking the server, that is.
Note to the poster above: According to a poster on halflife2.net, the code does compile and does even create a HL2.EXE, though it crashes immediatly after being run. (And of course, there's no data files coming with the game.)
(unless you consider administrating and leading development on a large Open Source project every day to be volunteer work ;) )
Yes, I do. Why not? Covers all criteria for volunteer work.
I'm pretty sure that's the case. That'd certainly explain the message I get when I try to access the defunct screenshots section linked on the site: "Could not execute query!"
It'd have been nice to send them a message of warning instead of posting the link to phpMyAdmin on Slashdot, BTW. Hope they didn't save anything more vital than screenshot information on that database...
What are you referring to? He cited a MEP - MEPs are elected by European citizens, as far as I know. The European Commission isn't directly elected, but then, it's the executive, not the legislatory part of the European government.
Talk about over-reacting. Good riddance.
I'd rather stay on this planet, actually, although I can see how you want to get off off it - I would want to, too, after Orion's first attempt.
Project Orion, brought to you by the proverb "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail."
(For the uninitiated, if I recall correctly, Project Orion is the idea to use nuclear bombs to propel an object hid behind a shield into deep space. I'm not a rocket scientist, but I think it's quite insane.)
Incidently, Teller's life after he built his hammer can also be summarized under that proverb.
Meh. Buy better heatsinks. Modern HSFs aren't very difficult to install, most even do a pretty good job preventing the user from doing stupid things resulting in the untimely death of their hardware. My first AMD HSF, a Taisol 60x60 was a bitch, but the two 80mm HSFs were both very comfortable.
The average Slashdotter probably has those locks, the average bank certainly doesn't.
I could start arguing now whether what this "white-hat" did was analogue to what you describe in "hidden bank door" terms or if maybe the neighbouring building didn't need to be broken in but was a public toilet or something - but I won't. Maybe it's not a very good analogy - I wouldn't have brought it up if it wasn't in response to the original poster's even worse one.
Healthy, sick, somewhat healthy, happy, unhappy, everything between those extremes, nervous, imprisoned and so on ad infinitum. "State of existance" is not a very clearly defined term.
Same thought here, I wondered why this was posted in the games section at first. Guess that producer feels about his customers just like I do about my CPU and case fans - you don't like them, but you need them; you want them to stop annoying you, but without them you're screwed. :)
It also forces you to re-encode an already encoded file, both times lossy. Which isn't a very good idea, since it causes bad artifacts. (Unless AAC has some means to get around this - I guess it's conceivable, but I doubt it.)
Any prizes they win will go to the George Lucas foundation for eccentric movie directors. ;)
Why? MPC already is perfect, no need to mangle it with lesser code. ;)
I guess you're not entirely wrong, I certainly haven't seen a better political simulation in the past few years - and that's really sad because while a great, fun game, as a political simulation Tropico is pathetic. Of course, it's meant to be tongue in cheek and not as a serious political sim, so I guess that's all right. Comparing it to SimCity is rather ridiculous, too - they are totally different games in mostly every way. Personally, I'd certainly argue that SimCity, all incarnations, is a more serious political simulation (if you insist on calling it that).
Yes, they have. Or at least the German Google has. However, the second result, among many others, links to a German page promoting Kazaa Lite. (Note that the first result contains a so-called "dialer" - every German Slashdotter likely has heard of them -, ie. is basically a fraud to steal your money.) The German Google also has the same link to the letter they received.