Shhhh! My parents think you need a high-end PC for studying computer science (hah!) and duly support me buying one, you're costing me real money here!;)
So what. There's a good chance people won't be listening to the Stones in 350 years - does that mean the Stones are inherently inferior to Bach? Not that I like Linkin Park or Mr. Generic Rapper.:)
I know I've seen it before, at least once. Not absolutely sure if it was on Slashdot or not, but it's likely. I'm too lazy to do a search, though. Would be the second repost for today... jeez.
Yep, I just browsed some US price lists, and my eyes nearly popped out. I'm still considering getting a Zaurus, but man, we're really getting ripped off here. Seems to be a common trend in the PDA market, though, another PDA I'm considering, the Toshiba e310 (cute thing), is also vastly more expensive in Europe than in the US.
That might be true for the version out right now, but the "special extended version" coming in November will contain 30 extra minutes of the actual movie that were removed to make the film more mass-compatible. I'm looking forward to seeing those. All the other extras, I couldn't care less.
Escape Velocity still ranks as the most addictive game I ever played. It's also by far the best version of Elite-style gameplay I've seen. Ambrosia Software is one of the things I missed the most when switching from Mac to PC.
In theory, there were essentialy no home desktops running Windows 2000. To a large degree this is probably true - the OEMs rarely delivered 2000, and so most people running it probably pirated it. Unlike its (basically equal) predecessory, Windows XP is aimed at the home market.
Yep, just read that, too. I guess he's got all the traffic he wanted now.:P
It's okay, though, that "psychedelic" game is actually rather sweet. Not groundbreaking at all, but a nice game to waste a few minutes on. Played it months ago.
If something is readable, then it is copyable. I can't see any way to really stop people from copying things.
Well, there are two things that need to be possible to copy stuff - reading you mentioned, but obviously you also need to be able to write the stuff you read. That's the approach many protections take, including the Amiga disk rattling protection someone else mentioned as well as the modern SafeDisk et al protections which are only possible to copy using certain writers, or - as always - using a crack. The latter, indeed, is practically always possible, as long as don't have to rely on other people (as is the case with multiplayer key protections).
The other good protections that I have seen dealt with having to enter in words from the pages of the instruction manual (which could be defeated by copying the whole manual...) but most people didn't go and copy a 100 page manual.
Err... that doesn't help at all. Cracking that kind of a protection (without any further means) isn't a problem even for an assembly novice, or even someone clueless with the help of a tutorial. The fact that this kind of protection is easy to defeat even for people without access to cracks, by simply copying a manual or writing down the relevant keywords doesn't exactly speak for it.
Perhaps they should try better (128 bit) encryption instead of weak ones, a la CSS. Who knows... perhaps it should just be open source...
Content encryption a la CSS used on DVDs isn't the same as the copy protection of games... maybe similar concepts apply, but I doubt it.
You've got to wonder, is this yet another load of Nvidia corporate hype (a la "HW TnL will revolutionise gaming"), or is this useful technology? I wouldn't trust any of the current articles on answering that, judging by the previous Nvidia hypes, it takes a few months till anyone really knows if this is good or bad.
I'll say that the A-bomb stopped more killings than it created.
Blanket statement. I doubt there is a way to decide either way, there is an enormous amount of historical what-ifs involved.
The other statements are questionable as well, the atomic bomb may well have influenced those historical happenings, but implicating that it's the main reason probably isn't valid (if you didn't implicate this, I apologise).
Well, there certainly is irony in faaaz saying an AC is not getting a joke while not seeing that that AC is quite obviously joking himself. That said, maybe faaaz is joking too, who knows.
If there had been a standard, neither of the cards you bought would have adhered to it. Just read a god-damned review before buying hardware next time, those pieces you got there are abominations from hell.
AFAIK (too lazy to lock for actual references) Carmack has said quite recently that DirectX is although feature-wise the same or even beyond OpenGL still harder and more cumbersome to work with. I doubt there is a significant performance difference between both engines, OpenGL is certainly not two times as fast. I'd argue that Direct3D gets commonly used because it's backed by Microsoft, which is probably a pretty compelling reason for any larger game developer.
Kinda guessing, though, it's not like I was some kind of insider.
Neat idea, though not really useful once you leave the area. Might as well get radio-transmitting headphones... (don't!)
Streaming music over the upcoming high quality mobile phone networks (3G/UMTS) is similar, but (basically) independent of location. Ah well, I'm sure it will be possible, but it'll cost heaps.
Well, 128 MB is enough for two hours of decent quality music (as pointed out before), so this is probably enough for the daily train commuter. Add another 128 or 256 MB of add-on storage, and you have 4 to 6 hours of music, which should be plenty for a day or so. Not really useful if you're travelling somewhere for days without having a computer available, but maybe that's just not what it was meant for.
Personally, I really dig the small MP3 players. HD players like the iPod sport an awesome storage capability, but when I'm on the move I'd prefer a weight of less than 100g and dimensions of a box of matches.
The idea is that you won't be able to choose anymore when they enforce strict DRM. Lure customers into using a propietary, incompatible format with features, advertisement, price, candy, whatever, and when everyone uses your software and the alternatives are insignificant, you're basically free to do whatever you want.
If everyone had started using WMA when MS introduced it, to a degree when getting even MP3s (not even mentioning OGGs) is nigh to impossible by legal or illegal means, MS could then enforce strict DRM and whatever they want. Or, for another example, when Microsoft dominated the desktop market, they could release whatever buggy software they wanted and people would still buy it, since there were no significant, compatible alternatives (or so people thought).
I don't necessarily believe that, but as I said, that's the idea.
Slashdot Mirror
Shhhh! My parents think you need a high-end PC for studying computer science (hah!) and duly support me buying one, you're costing me real money here! ;)
Okay, I give in, now it's a series. ;)
Series is quite strong a word for one single strip, but more power to you for pimping Mac Hall, it really does rule. :P
So what. There's a good chance people won't be listening to the Stones in 350 years - does that mean the Stones are inherently inferior to Bach? Not that I like Linkin Park or Mr. Generic Rapper. :)
Agree with both of your points, but, well, the way it is is preferable to no pop-up protection at all. I just enable them on demand.
I know I've seen it before, at least once. Not absolutely sure if it was on Slashdot or not, but it's likely. I'm too lazy to do a search, though. Would be the second repost for today ... jeez.
Yep, I just browsed some US price lists, and my eyes nearly popped out. I'm still considering getting a Zaurus, but man, we're really getting ripped off here. Seems to be a common trend in the PDA market, though, another PDA I'm considering, the Toshiba e310 (cute thing), is also vastly more expensive in Europe than in the US.
That might be true for the version out right now, but the "special extended version" coming in November will contain 30 extra minutes of the actual movie that were removed to make the film more mass-compatible. I'm looking forward to seeing those. All the other extras, I couldn't care less.
Escape Velocity still ranks as the most addictive game I ever played. It's also by far the best version of Elite-style gameplay I've seen. Ambrosia Software is one of the things I missed the most when switching from Mac to PC.
In theory, there were essentialy no home desktops running Windows 2000. To a large degree this is probably true - the OEMs rarely delivered 2000, and so most people running it probably pirated it. Unlike its (basically equal) predecessory, Windows XP is aimed at the home market.
Read the FAQ ...
Yep, just read that, too. I guess he's got all the traffic he wanted now. :P
It's okay, though, that "psychedelic" game is actually rather sweet. Not groundbreaking at all, but a nice game to waste a few minutes on. Played it months ago.
FUD.
That's right, Slashdot doesn't usually link to NewsMax. Slashdot also doesn't usually link to KKK fan sites.
The fact that this kind of protection is easy to defeat even for people without access to cracks, by simply copying a manual or writing down the relevant keywords doesn't exactly speak for it. Content encryption a la CSS used on DVDs isn't the same as the copy protection of games
You've got to wonder, is this yet another load of Nvidia corporate hype (a la "HW TnL will revolutionise gaming"), or is this useful technology? I wouldn't trust any of the current articles on answering that, judging by the previous Nvidia hypes, it takes a few months till anyone really knows if this is good or bad.
The other statements are questionable as well, the atomic bomb may well have influenced those historical happenings, but implicating that it's the main reason probably isn't valid (if you didn't implicate this, I apologise).
Well, there certainly is irony in faaaz saying an AC is not getting a joke while not seeing that that AC is quite obviously joking himself. That said, maybe faaaz is joking too, who knows.
Aye, if anything this is something to beat Id or Epic.
If there had been a standard, neither of the cards you bought would have adhered to it. Just read a god-damned review before buying hardware next time, those pieces you got there are abominations from hell.
AFAIK (too lazy to lock for actual references) Carmack has said quite recently that DirectX is although feature-wise the same or even beyond OpenGL still harder and more cumbersome to work with. I doubt there is a significant performance difference between both engines, OpenGL is certainly not two times as fast. I'd argue that Direct3D gets commonly used because it's backed by Microsoft, which is probably a pretty compelling reason for any larger game developer.
Kinda guessing, though, it's not like I was some kind of insider.
To quote from the news item a bit down: A full Linux port is planned, temas is doing most of the work on this
Neat idea, though not really useful once you leave the area. Might as well get radio-transmitting headphones ... (don't!)
Streaming music over the upcoming high quality mobile phone networks (3G/UMTS) is similar, but (basically) independent of location. Ah well, I'm sure it will be possible, but it'll cost heaps.
Well, 128 MB is enough for two hours of decent quality music (as pointed out before), so this is probably enough for the daily train commuter. Add another 128 or 256 MB of add-on storage, and you have 4 to 6 hours of music, which should be plenty for a day or so.
Not really useful if you're travelling somewhere for days without having a computer available, but maybe that's just not what it was meant for.
Personally, I really dig the small MP3 players. HD players like the iPod sport an awesome storage capability, but when I'm on the move I'd prefer a weight of less than 100g and dimensions of a box of matches.
The idea is that you won't be able to choose anymore when they enforce strict DRM. Lure customers into using a propietary, incompatible format with features, advertisement, price, candy, whatever, and when everyone uses your software and the alternatives are insignificant, you're basically free to do whatever you want.
If everyone had started using WMA when MS introduced it, to a degree when getting even MP3s (not even mentioning OGGs) is nigh to impossible by legal or illegal means, MS could then enforce strict DRM and whatever they want. Or, for another example, when Microsoft dominated the desktop market, they could release whatever buggy software they wanted and people would still buy it, since there were no significant, compatible alternatives (or so people thought).
I don't necessarily believe that, but as I said, that's the idea.