I've bought from Googlegear (no relation to the search engine as far as I can tell). They've got pretty good prices and I haven't had a single problem with them yet. What originally attracted me there was free 2nd day fedex shipping on an item I wanted. I've bought memory from them since then (again, free 2nd day fedex shipping). They had my order mailed out the day I placed it with the dvd drive, and the day after with the memory. I'm definitely going to check there first the next time I need some hardware.
I've also bought from McGlen Microsystems. This one is iffy. Originally I was going to buy a cpu, motherboard, and memory for them (they do 24-hour burn-in tests for you), but then I found out they offered a bare-bones system (everything but an OS and a harddrive). When I went back the next time to actually place my order, they offered a complete system so I just purchased that. Got my computer, and right away I was missing the mouse they were supposed to have sent me. Yeah, it's just a $15 mouse, but it was the principle. I wrote them an email and then called the next day (after getting no reply). I sat on the phone for at least 2 hours on hold. They have some system where if you're on hold long enough, they simply disconnect you! I tried again the next day, same thing. I wrote them a second email at the end of the week, and a third at the end of the next week--no reply. Finally I received a message on my voicemail at work asking me to call back and ask for a specific person. I did so and the person who had answered the phone (it sounded like they were *really* busy) said this woman would call me back in an hour. Hours later, no call. What gets me about the message they left is that I specifically said I left work at 4pm EST, and they called after 5pm:P
That was the first problem. The second problem came when my computer started doing funny things and somehow the registry got corrupted (yes, a WinXP machine:( I've since formatted and made it a linux/XP machine for gaming purposes). As it turns out, the memory was bad. I tried contacting customer support (they had removed the number from their web page!! Luckily I had it written down) and wasn't able to talk with anyone. I wrote them 2 emails asking for support and only received a reply after 2 weeks had gone by (the guy suggested I had a boot sector virus and suggested formatting the hard-drive, though in the email I had mentioned already formatting the hard-drive several times), of course this email arrived after the problem was fixed. I had also written to their returns/refunds division saying my memory was bad and I wanted to take advantage of the 2-year warranty on the memory. For me to do so, it turns out, I would have to ship the entire system back to them. IOW, pay $50+ and wait a couple of weeks for it to get there and back. Or I could just pay $80 for new memory. I bought new memory... from Googlegear.
On the other hand, my friend bought a computer from them before all this happened and hasn't had a single problem with his yet.
So McGlen was alright, until I actually needed them to support their product, and that's when the real problems started.
Here is the article you were talking about, on Gamasutra. I'm not sure if it requires registration on that site, I registered at one point, I think to get access to the articles. It's an interesting read.
Regardless if the servers themselves are hack-proof, what happens when players take advantage of holes and exploit the game engine itself? This is a large part of cheating--exploiting flaws in the game. Not only this, but now that it's becoming more and more obvious that the xbox is not a rigid system and that people (those with the drive, at least) can exert some control over it, what happens when hacks are made and stored client-side? Controlling the servers and making sure noone accesses them without permission doesn't even really begin to solve the problems that haunt MMORPGs and other multi-player games.
This site has popups, unfortunately, but it's one of the best I've ever been to. Nearly non-stop laughs. Great stuff for all the people who grew up watching He-Man, Transformers, Thundercats, GI Joe, etc etc etc.
I don't really agree with your comparison. The problem is, if an officer gets a warrant to search my home then I know about it. I won't arrive home one day to find my place in a disarray and think it normal. There are ways (supposedly) to detect wiretaps. With monitoring email and internet traffic, it's completely transparent--there is nothing to tip you off to the fact that it's happening. This makes it even more alarming, because an officer can overstep his/her bounds (personal vendetta perhaps? zealous?) and there is a chance that *noone* would be the wiser.
Dunno if it is just me, but bebooks' host name fails to resolve... and Bibliofind is partnered with Amazon now it seems.
I've purchased a couple of used books before on Amazon (first Lone Wolf book, out of print) and it seems they point you directly to the seller. I don't know if they get a cut of the money, or how much it is. Thanks, though, for the snowballbooks link, my fiance/ is a lit major writing on G.W. Cable and all of his works are out of print it seems.
How does this relate to these two services? I was kind of shocked to read that it would be $.14 for an internet-only broadcast, and the first thing that I thought of was how the artists were getting that fraction of a cent for royalties on PressPlay and MusicNet. More of the same thing here?
I wouldn't really say that listening to a song on your computer is the same as listening to it on the radio. I forget the name of the software, but I used to use this one program that acted as a "middle man" audio driver. You specify this driver as your primary output device, which then forwards all the data to the regular driver. It included a program that would record any/all data that got sent to the device. I used to record hour-long sets from the Moonshine Over America tours, stuff you couldn't buy. Streamed at 100kbps gave pretty nice sound quality, all I had to do was let it go for an hour or so, save it afterwards, then I could burn it to a cd or compress it or anything I liked. Anything that goes on in your computer isn't really secure - you can record/observe any of it.
I think this also shows that even the 750 streamed songs aren't really just streaming. Let's see, with a 15-track album and that program, I can effectively obtain 50 albums worth of songs... permanently. This isn't a very effective method for preventing piracy.
Just a point I thought I'd make... I never really supported Napster, but I never really supported the record labels either, I knew that except for some very big names, the majority of artists were getting ripped off. Napster *was* good for previewing music, and someone who enjoys the music they're downloading should try to support the people who created it.
Yes, but for a minor to avoid that part of the contract, he'd have to back out of the entire thing. End result: regardless of how old you are, if you don't like them saying you can't sell your things then you don't have to play.
Personally, I used to play EQ and it's not always cool to see someone's character who is half your level be light-years ahead of you in power, all because he bought equipment. As far as characters go, I'd say that the majority of people who buy a character rather than make it themselves are shooting themselves in the foot. They'll get into some high level encounter or RvR battle and not have a clue what they're doing.
A suggestion is not enough, the person would have to do actual work - ideas cannot be copyrighted. The implementation of those ideas, however, can be.
So if your beta tester says, "Yeah there's a problem here," that's not enough. If s/he says, "There's a problem here, you might want to try this," still not enough. If s/he says, "Here's a problem, I wrote up some code to fix it for you," and you *use* the code, you've got a problem.
www.WinInformant.com came back up a little while ago, the text of the "article" is basically what was quoted for the topic subject. I tried to do a little digging to find out if the author or the company he works for is affiliated/owned by MS, but wasn't able to really turn up a lot.
However, I did find this little rant at one site talking about how the credibility of the author is pretty much nil.
Can anyone else turn up other info?
Slashdot Mirror
I've bought from Googlegear (no relation to the search engine as far as I can tell). They've got pretty good prices and I haven't had a single problem with them yet. What originally attracted me there was free 2nd day fedex shipping on an item I wanted. I've bought memory from them since then (again, free 2nd day fedex shipping). They had my order mailed out the day I placed it with the dvd drive, and the day after with the memory. I'm definitely going to check there first the next time I need some hardware.
:P
:( I've since formatted and made it a linux/XP machine for gaming purposes). As it turns out, the memory was bad. I tried contacting customer support (they had removed the number from their web page!! Luckily I had it written down) and wasn't able to talk with anyone. I wrote them 2 emails asking for support and only received a reply after 2 weeks had gone by (the guy suggested I had a boot sector virus and suggested formatting the hard-drive, though in the email I had mentioned already formatting the hard-drive several times), of course this email arrived after the problem was fixed. I had also written to their returns/refunds division saying my memory was bad and I wanted to take advantage of the 2-year warranty on the memory. For me to do so, it turns out, I would have to ship the entire system back to them. IOW, pay $50+ and wait a couple of weeks for it to get there and back. Or I could just pay $80 for new memory. I bought new memory... from Googlegear.
On the other hand, my friend bought a computer from them before all this happened and hasn't had a single problem with his yet.
I've also bought from McGlen Microsystems. This one is iffy. Originally I was going to buy a cpu, motherboard, and memory for them (they do 24-hour burn-in tests for you), but then I found out they offered a bare-bones system (everything but an OS and a harddrive). When I went back the next time to actually place my order, they offered a complete system so I just purchased that. Got my computer, and right away I was missing the mouse they were supposed to have sent me. Yeah, it's just a $15 mouse, but it was the principle. I wrote them an email and then called the next day (after getting no reply). I sat on the phone for at least 2 hours on hold. They have some system where if you're on hold long enough, they simply disconnect you! I tried again the next day, same thing. I wrote them a second email at the end of the week, and a third at the end of the next week--no reply. Finally I received a message on my voicemail at work asking me to call back and ask for a specific person. I did so and the person who had answered the phone (it sounded like they were *really* busy) said this woman would call me back in an hour. Hours later, no call. What gets me about the message they left is that I specifically said I left work at 4pm EST, and they called after 5pm
That was the first problem. The second problem came when my computer started doing funny things and somehow the registry got corrupted (yes, a WinXP machine
So McGlen was alright, until I actually needed them to support their product, and that's when the real problems started.
Here is the article you were talking about, on Gamasutra. I'm not sure if it requires registration on that site, I registered at one point, I think to get access to the articles. It's an interesting read.
Regardless if the servers themselves are hack-proof, what happens when players take advantage of holes and exploit the game engine itself? This is a large part of cheating--exploiting flaws in the game. Not only this, but now that it's becoming more and more obvious that the xbox is not a rigid system and that people (those with the drive, at least) can exert some control over it, what happens when hacks are made and stored client-side? Controlling the servers and making sure noone accesses them without permission doesn't even really begin to solve the problems that haunt MMORPGs and other multi-player games.
If MS could create a "modular" version of the desktop OS and the OEM's compiling it did all of the support
If you get your computer with an OEM version of a Windows OS, your OEM is your support, not MS. Correct me if I'm wrong.
This site has popups, unfortunately, but it's one of the best I've ever been to. Nearly non-stop laughs. Great stuff for all the people who grew up watching He-Man, Transformers, Thundercats, GI Joe, etc etc etc.
X-Entertainment
I don't really agree with your comparison. The problem is, if an officer gets a warrant to search my home then I know about it. I won't arrive home one day to find my place in a disarray and think it normal. There are ways (supposedly) to detect wiretaps. With monitoring email and internet traffic, it's completely transparent--there is nothing to tip you off to the fact that it's happening. This makes it even more alarming, because an officer can overstep his/her bounds (personal vendetta perhaps? zealous?) and there is a chance that *noone* would be the wiser.
Dunno if it is just me, but bebooks' host name fails to resolve... and Bibliofind is partnered with Amazon now it seems.
I've purchased a couple of used books before on Amazon (first Lone Wolf book, out of print) and it seems they point you directly to the seller. I don't know if they get a cut of the money, or how much it is. Thanks, though, for the snowballbooks link, my fiance/ is a lit major writing on G.W. Cable and all of his works are out of print it seems.
Anyhoo.
How does this relate to these two services? I was kind of shocked to read that it would be $.14 for an internet-only broadcast, and the first thing that I thought of was how the artists were getting that fraction of a cent for royalties on PressPlay and MusicNet. More of the same thing here?
Actually in the US we irradiate the cartons before we put milk in them...
I wouldn't really say that listening to a song on your computer is the same as listening to it on the radio. I forget the name of the software, but I used to use this one program that acted as a "middle man" audio driver. You specify this driver as your primary output device, which then forwards all the data to the regular driver. It included a program that would record any/all data that got sent to the device. I used to record hour-long sets from the Moonshine Over America tours, stuff you couldn't buy. Streamed at 100kbps gave pretty nice sound quality, all I had to do was let it go for an hour or so, save it afterwards, then I could burn it to a cd or compress it or anything I liked. Anything that goes on in your computer isn't really secure - you can record/observe any of it.
I think this also shows that even the 750 streamed songs aren't really just streaming. Let's see, with a 15-track album and that program, I can effectively obtain 50 albums worth of songs... permanently. This isn't a very effective method for preventing piracy.
Just a point I thought I'd make... I never really supported Napster, but I never really supported the record labels either, I knew that except for some very big names, the majority of artists were getting ripped off. Napster *was* good for previewing music, and someone who enjoys the music they're downloading should try to support the people who created it.
Yes, but for a minor to avoid that part of the contract, he'd have to back out of the entire thing. End result: regardless of how old you are, if you don't like them saying you can't sell your things then you don't have to play.
Personally, I used to play EQ and it's not always cool to see someone's character who is half your level be light-years ahead of you in power, all because he bought equipment. As far as characters go, I'd say that the majority of people who buy a character rather than make it themselves are shooting themselves in the foot. They'll get into some high level encounter or RvR battle and not have a clue what they're doing.
A suggestion is not enough, the person would have to do actual work - ideas cannot be copyrighted. The implementation of those ideas, however, can be. So if your beta tester says, "Yeah there's a problem here," that's not enough. If s/he says, "There's a problem here, you might want to try this," still not enough. If s/he says, "Here's a problem, I wrote up some code to fix it for you," and you *use* the code, you've got a problem.
www.WinInformant.com came back up a little while ago, the text of the "article" is basically what was quoted for the topic subject. I tried to do a little digging to find out if the author or the company he works for is affiliated/owned by MS, but wasn't able to really turn up a lot. However, I did find this little rant at one site talking about how the credibility of the author is pretty much nil. Can anyone else turn up other info?