I may be old skool, but I tend to consider Diablo a dumbed down version of NetHack. Diablo has the nice tiles graphics and sound, but NetHack was more immersive. There is so much to learn about playing the game...examples
Open a tin of salmon to get rid of cursed rings
Eat a red dragon to become immune to fire attacks
GENOCIDE! Woot!
Dip your sword in a pool after inscribing Elbereth on it to gain a +5 magic sword
And there's millions of little things like that. That's one of the reasons it's called Hack - because it has been "hacked" together by hundred of programmers and is full of "Hacks".
All the time I played Diablo I found myself wishing it had the depth of hack with the graphics and sound of Diablo.
I had a computer in 1981 and I was neither rich or a college kid. I was 13 and bought the computer with money I had saved from washing cars for used car dealers. For the record it was an Ohio Scientific Instruments C1P - a 6502 based model with 4kb of RAM.
An actual game with a decent group of friends and a competent DM is worlds better than any computer based RPG has ever been. The action all takes place in your immagination so there are no lousy graphics to complain about and the soundtrack is better.
Each of the other people at the table contribute to the experience being totally unique each time. They inject humour, lust, betrayal, revenge, etc into the game. The world is not so fixed and rigid in the real life version either and you have more scope for cunning solutions to problems. Hell, NWN doesn't even let you onto the roofs of the buildings...what sort of a thief can break in through a window or the ceiling!
If you've never done it with a live party of players then you haven't roleplayed.
So maybe if we got a beowulf cluster of modded xboxes running a key cracking package we could eventually get access to that key and use it to sign shit;-) Those guys running the distributed app to break RSA encryption keys should move to the one that MS are using and then we actually get something useful out of the project when it completes;->
There aren't enough 13-year-old Linux geeks to make a difference, and hardly anyone else would buy an xbox to run Linux on it. I don't know why this bullshit is being regurgitated here.
So what, I'll still be running my XBox 1 console because it will still do exactly what I wanted it to do when I bought it. Just because a new console might be released next year is no reason not to develop code for the current gen.
This will come in time as people polish the installation routines. The software to do everything you need exists already (not sure about the recording tho), it just needs some convenient bundling. Try Xine/MPlayer for video, Grip for ripping, and any of a dozen packages for audio playback. Check out http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/newweb/info_screens. htm for a nice app that is progressing well.
All of the other console companies reserve the right to not allow distribution of games they don't think are appropriate. Remember when mortal combat had to change it's blood to sweat to appease the console company?
There's an easy way around this (caveat, I haven't tried it yet)...if you're using one of those USB based modems to connect to the net e.g. the Alcatel stingray, then that becomes PPP0 and the network card becomes ETH0. Bingo, two seperate network interfaces - you can now safely do NAT/Firewall/anthing. Just plug the ethernet connector into a hub/switch and the USB Alcaltel Modem into your ADSL connector. Smile, because this box is nice and small, looks good in your living room, makes very little noise, plays games, does Linux and can also web serve/etc.
Didn't Microsoft already prove in court that explorer is a part of the OS (inseperable, impossible to remove)? If explorer crashes then your OS has crashed;->
When musicians stop making the kind of commercial drivel that is targeted at teenagers and start making music with lasting appeal again then maybe people will stop ripping it. Honestly, the kind of music that is so common now is the sort that you can hear a few times and then don't want to hear anymore, because it is dead dull. Repetitve derivative nonesense. Filesharing gives people like me the chance to hear musicians (possibly like you, but possibly not) who have something interesting to say in their music. People who don't get airplay because they aren't likely to sell a million records. The cool thing about filesharing is that I can hear music that appeals to me, trial it for a few weeks and see if it's actually worth paying for permanently (album). People do this by listening to radio, but I can't stand the radio because of all the ads, the stupid brainfucked DJ's, and the constant repetition of the same playlists.
I've bought less music since MP3 came along, but it's better music and I am rewarding independant musicians who don't get a break on the commerical market. Without filesharing I would now be buying no music, since I have no exposure to new music. Filesharing isn't theft, nothing is lost when a file is copied, but you are giving the chance to many independant musicians to get their message out there. If you want to reward musicians go the their concerts!
What difference does it make whether it's a US city or an Iraqi city...it's just a game, not some combat trainer for future terrorists or nazi sympathisers. Hollywood has blown up New York city more times than I can count: see also
If their million bit key is so uncrackable, why do they then encrypt it again using so many more conventional sized keys. My suspicion is that this million bit key is simply an algorithmically (read non random at all) generated one time pad which is secured using stanard encryption...much like PGP does, using symetric encrpytion to secure your private key.
Brute force is always a last resort in breaking encryption. It is far better to understand the workings of the algorithm, then search for weaknesses (weak keys, etc). This company seems pretty coy about it's algorithm. Until they publish the algorithm the true cracking challenge hasn't even begun.
According to Bill "The Wise" Gates, 640KB of RAM is more than anyone could ever possibly need. I think I might install Windows XP on my old AT with 640 MB and see how well it runs;-)
Cutting through the marketing speak and deliberate evasiveness it looks like a large virtual key that is generated using some form of fractal mathematics...thus virtually "infinite in size". Then they use some form of vector mathematics to run across this virtual data stream (array) and presumably sample at given intervals. They throw a whole bunch more encryption of regular sorts on top of that presumably because their first level encryption is not really secure enough.
Slashdot Mirror
Open a tin of salmon to get rid of cursed rings
Eat a red dragon to become immune to fire attacks
GENOCIDE! Woot!
Dip your sword in a pool after inscribing Elbereth on it to gain a +5 magic sword
And there's millions of little things like that. That's one of the reasons it's called Hack - because it has been "hacked" together by hundred of programmers and is full of "Hacks".
All the time I played Diablo I found myself wishing it had the depth of hack with the graphics and sound of Diablo.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0609 607995/qid=1046189792/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/103-991000 4-0236611?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
I had a computer in 1981 and I was neither rich or a college kid. I was 13 and bought the computer with money I had saved from washing cars for used car dealers. For the record it was an Ohio Scientific Instruments C1P - a 6502 based model with 4kb of RAM.
Cool, does she also know anyone who can teach me those spells...I've played D&D for years and am dying to cast a fireball at the next office party.
Basic Rules
Expert Rules
Masters Rules
Advanced D&D
Advanced D&D Second Edition
Advanced D&D Third Edition
Each of the other people at the table contribute to the experience being totally unique each time. They inject humour, lust, betrayal, revenge, etc into the game. The world is not so fixed and rigid in the real life version either and you have more scope for cunning solutions to problems. Hell, NWN doesn't even let you onto the roofs of the buildings...what sort of a thief can break in through a window or the ceiling!
If you've never done it with a live party of players then you haven't roleplayed.
He's the hero of the oldest piece of literature written in the english language.
It's stretching my memory a bit, but I think that was the expert ruleset rather than the basic ruleset.
So maybe if we got a beowulf cluster of modded xboxes running a key cracking package we could eventually get access to that key and use it to sign shit ;-) Those guys running the distributed app to break RSA encryption keys should move to the one that MS are using and then we actually get something useful out of the project when it completes ;->
I just did...and I'm not 13 anymore either.
So what, I'll still be running my XBox 1 console because it will still do exactly what I wanted it to do when I bought it. Just because a new console might be released next year is no reason not to develop code for the current gen.
This will come in time as people polish the installation routines. The software to do everything you need exists already (not sure about the recording tho), it just needs some convenient bundling. Try Xine/MPlayer for video, Grip for ripping, and any of a dozen packages for audio playback. Check out http://www.xboxmediaplayer.de/newweb/info_screens. htm for a nice app that is progressing well.
All of the other console companies reserve the right to not allow distribution of games they don't think are appropriate. Remember when mortal combat had to change it's blood to sweat to appease the console company?
There's an easy way around this (caveat, I haven't tried it yet)...if you're using one of those USB based modems to connect to the net e.g. the Alcatel stingray, then that becomes PPP0 and the network card becomes ETH0. Bingo, two seperate network interfaces - you can now safely do NAT/Firewall/anthing. Just plug the ethernet connector into a hub/switch and the USB Alcaltel Modem into your ADSL connector. Smile, because this box is nice and small, looks good in your living room, makes very little noise, plays games, does Linux and can also web serve/etc.
The two are co-mingled with each other, as is the desktop.
Didn't Microsoft already prove in court that explorer is a part of the OS (inseperable, impossible to remove)? If explorer crashes then your OS has crashed ;->
I've bought less music since MP3 came along, but it's better music and I am rewarding independant musicians who don't get a break on the commerical market. Without filesharing I would now be buying no music, since I have no exposure to new music. Filesharing isn't theft, nothing is lost when a file is copied, but you are giving the chance to many independant musicians to get their message out there. If you want to reward musicians go the their concerts!
What about the nice little XBox I just bought on the weekend...it has that filthy MS logo all over it.
Just think of it as buying an expensive coaster for your can of Jolt to sit on ;0
Independance Day
Godzilla
etc
and you don't see anyone complaining about that.
And then again sometimes they do...Apache, PGP, Quake...
If their million bit key is so uncrackable, why do they then encrypt it again using so many more conventional sized keys. My suspicion is that this million bit key is simply an algorithmically (read non random at all) generated one time pad which is secured using stanard encryption...much like PGP does, using symetric encrpytion to secure your private key.
Brute force is always a last resort in breaking encryption. It is far better to understand the workings of the algorithm, then search for weaknesses (weak keys, etc). This company seems pretty coy about it's algorithm. Until they publish the algorithm the true cracking challenge hasn't even begun.
According to Bill "The Wise" Gates, 640KB of RAM is more than anyone could ever possibly need. I think I might install Windows XP on my old AT with 640 MB and see how well it runs ;-)
http://www.meganet.com/Technology/explain.htm